@alexproe@mastodon.uno
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alexproe

@alexproe@mastodon.uno

Resident in #Italy for years - am behind @newsfromitaly on X/Twitter and on Mastodon. Toot in English about #democracy, society and more. And I write short scifi stories, some of which appear on Thoughts from Italy on #Medium. Am interested in #politics and #geopolitics plus #technology and a few other things as well. I teach English, hold the odd webinar and do translations from time to time.

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GottaLaff, to random
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Via @aaron.rupar:

Who says Republicans can’t pass meaningful legislation

Liz Elkind:

Scoop: A group of House Republicans are pushing to have Washington Dulles, DC’s main international airport, renamed — after Donald

The bill’s being led by House GOP chief deputy whip Guy Reschenthaler & is co-sponsored by 6 other lawmakers

alexproe,
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@GottaLaff @aaron.rupar How much are these people paid?!

GottaLaff, to random
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🏆 Oh suh-NAP! (He should have said, “Mr. President…SIR, with tears in his eyes…” for bonus mockage)

Via Kyle Griffin:

President , speaking at a Texas fundraiser: "Just the other day, this defeated looking man came up to me and said: 'Mr. President I need your help. I'm in crushing debt. I'm completely wiped out.' I had to say, 'Donald, I can't help you'."

alexproe,
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@GottaLaff Oh that comment with generate a lot of ketchup throwing from ole stinky! Go Joe!

GottaLaff, to random
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🎻💸
" is facing 2 major fundraising problems: a shortage of big $ interest & a drop in small-dollar donor support.

The decline in small-dollar contributors could be a significant obstacle, as Trump seeks to cobble together a 2024 war chest.

Small-dollar donors are critical to Trump’s ability to raise enough money to fund his presidential campaign"

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/18/trump-campaign-cash-crunch-small-dollar-donor-fatigue-major-donor-nerves.html

alexproe,
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@GottaLaff Could it be that has finally managed to his contributors?!

ChrisMayLA6, to homebrewing
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Another day, another story to economic disruption from Brexit... this time its the importation of wine.

Possible remarks:

'I didn't see making wine more expensive, on a big red bus'...

Once again Project Fear = prescient prediction

'We can all now enjoy more British wine'!

At last the wine-drinking Brexiters are feeling our pain...

Who cares, I drink beer....

Who cares, we've taken back control.

take your pick... one, some, all!

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/mar/17/complex-post-brexit-tax-rules-means-price-rises-for-wine-drinkers-in-britain

alexproe,
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@ChrisMayLA6 A friend from the UK added this to a WhatsApp message. Seems the message might be getting through, finally!

alexproe, to america
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This is not something the 's want you to read! - > 's Founding Fathers' Is Not What You Think It Is
https://allthatsinteresting.com/founding-fathers-religion

ChrisMayLA6, to Economics
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us avatar

Q. how much economic advantage does UK get by speaking english.

Other countries gain economic developmental advantage from the range of people with english proficiency.

So turning that around: does the UK's 'natural' speaking of English mask or reduce (some) economic deficiencies that would otherwise be problems?.

Thought experiment: if the UK did no speak the globe's second language what would be the implication for its economic development?


https://www.cambridgeenglish.org/Images/539681-perspectives-english-for-development.pdf

alexproe,
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@christineburns @ChrisMayLA6 @Wen Indeed. Had French or Spanish become the dominant language in the US and all of North America, English might not have achieved the prominence it has today. I do wonder why English became dominant in the US and Canada - even if Canada does have French speakers and Spanish is a kind of unofficial second US language.

alexproe,
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@christineburns @ChrisMayLA6 @Wen By North American I assume you mean English. If anything, US English is a dialect of the language which originated in England, not the other way round!

alexproe,
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@christineburns @ChrisMayLA6 @Wen Well, it is down to Britain's influence though neither intentionally nor directly. And the fact that the US ended up with English as is main language did give English with its British origin a boost. But IMHO it's really just down to Britain's colonial ambitions which just happened to be rather successful.

alexproe,
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@econads @christineburns @ChrisMayLA6 @Wen That's a good point. English has become a lingua franca for many nations - colonial connections including membership of the commonwealth and possibly interaction with other commonwealth nations and, of course, the US have helped English continue to dominate but it has managed to persist and has been widely promoted as THE language to learn too. But I think English may be a relatively easy language to learn, hence it's "popularity".

alexproe,
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@econads @christineburns @ChrisMayLA6 @Wen And others do think English is quite an easy language to learn for various quite plausible reasons - there's a list here: https://www.shortform.com/blog/english-as-lingua-franca/ - From a Bill Bryson book.

alexproe,
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@Wen @econads @christineburns @ChrisMayLA6 One comment on English is that it's relatively easy, compared to other languages, to learn to a basic level. In some respects, English is an evolved language - it's based on lots of other languages and has, arguably, excluded their worst bits to form a more flexible, easier to learn, language. Colonialism is part of it but it's not the whole story.

alexproe,
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@Wen @Loukas @christineburns @ChrisMayLA6 That English became the lingua franca for the US undoubtedly helped the UK but the US could have gone for French or Spanish...which is also supposedly quite easy to learn...and is still a very widely spoken language today.

alexproe,
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@Loukas @Wen @christineburns @ChrisMayLA6 That being the case, the chances of French, or Spanish, being adopted were greatly reduced. What is curious is how the Anglophones ended up with all the power even though what is now the US could have ended up being like India!

alexproe,
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@Loukas @Wen @christineburns @ChrisMayLA6 And that's probably down to, in part, Britons being the first settlers. Kind of makes sense. (Correction: Britons were amongst the first settlers)

alexproe,
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@Loukas @Wen @christineburns @ChrisMayLA6 True. The old survival of the fittest - fittest in the sense of more highly skilled. Luck played a part too.

alexproe,
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@TonyJWells @econads @Wen @christineburns @ChrisMayLA6 Could be said that English is a bastard language! 😉

alexproe,
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@TonyJWells @christineburns @econads @ChrisMayLA6 @Wen Indeed, it'd leave us speechless! Maybe we could pay a licence fee? Or pay a monthly sub for the right to use tainted English?! We need a Real English, er, drive! Want to use "campaign" but we nicked that one from the French!

alexproe,
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@Wen @TonyJWells @christineburns @econads @ChrisMayLA6 And we could charge others for borrowing our words too! If we can actually find any that are pure English, that is!

alexproe,
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@christineburns @econads @Wen @afewbugs @sallyjeffery @ChrisMayLA6 Wasn't, comes from French.

alexproe,
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@LaChasseuse @TonyJWells @christineburns @econads @ChrisMayLA6 @Wen I see you'll never be a proponent of pure, original, untainted English - the stuff of our ancestors that we must cherish and nourish 😉

alexproe,
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@econads @HereToChewGum @christineburns @ChrisMayLA6 @Wen English pronunciation can be nasty for us locals! I used to live near a place called Finchale Abbey. Until I was told, I didn't know the pronunciation of Finchale was fingkle! I suspect this is because one word in English may mix sounds from various languages.

GottaLaff, to random
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Oy. Per Rupar, is referring to wage growth as "wage inflation" like it's a bad thing.

alexproe,
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@GottaLaff Thing is, with more money, people spend more and companies sell more and make bigger profits. It's a no brainer really. But has no brains and caters to those with no brains too.

alexproe,
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@GottaLaff I would but hitting one's head against a brick wall repeatedly, hurts 😉

alexproe,
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@GottaLaff lot - lot of tears.

GottaLaff, to random
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I'm scrolling through @atrupar's and Acyn's video clips of 's vile spew at CPAC, now in its 2nd hour..

Sorry to be redundant, but if Biden said even ONE thing in any of those clips, it would be over for him.

Yet Trump has duped The News & all too many voters into accepting him "as is."

I don't. At all. And I am not laughing at him. He's lethal. He's toxic. He's malignant.

And the GOP Fascist Party is right there with him.

We MUST do everything we can to end this nightmare.

alexproe,
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@GottaLaff @atrupar Don't they realise that Trump and the other speakers come across as insane maniacs? Or is that precisely the impression they want to give? These are very weird and people, as well as being well funded and exceptionally well coordinated too. Quite frightening.

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