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Created
Thu, 17/08/2023 - 14:30
Today's Payments System Board meeting discussed the annual Assessment of the ASX clearing and settlement facilities against the Financial Stability Standards, the oversight of international financial market infrastructures, prominent payment systems, competition in the debit card market, improving the security of debit card transactions in the online environment, and international and domestic work on central bank digital currency.
Created
Thu, 17/08/2023 - 09:30
True the Vote finally gets cornered Texas vote suppression and bullshit artist organization True the Vote is in trouble down in Georgia. These guys have been around for quite a while (I wrote about them for years — here’s one from 2012) but they went mainstream when Trump and his “rigged” mantra came along. They teamed up with the convicted felon and propagandist Dinesh D’Souza for the movie “2,000 Mules” which Trump claims proves his 2020 fraud accusations. Anyway, it appears they messed with the wrong people. JV Last at the Bulwark has the story: There’s another 2020 election case percolating in Fulton County: The Georgia State Election Board is suing True the Vote—the group whose “data” makes up the lion’s share of Dinesh D’Souza’s 2000 Mules nonsense. It’s a pretty wild example of FAFO. The short version: True the Vote is a Texas-based group, which filed a complaint with Georgia’s State Election Board alleging fraud in the 2020 presidential campaign.
Created
Thu, 17/08/2023 - 08:00
I don’t think so The NY Times: Early in the scrum of the 2016 presidential campaign, the political strategist Rick Wilson bumped into an old boss and strongly advised him not to cast his lot with Donald J. Trump. No good would come of it. “Even if he wins, he’s going to destroy you,” Mr. Wilson remembered telling Rudolph W. Giuliani. “This guy’s going to humiliate you.” Mr. Wilson recalled being dismissed as a provincial Floridian unable to understand the bond between two New Yorkers — outer-borough strivers who walked the Manhattan streets with proprietary airs and were now within grasp of once-unimaginable power. “He’s going to take care of me,” Mr. Wilson said Mr. Giuliani would tell those around him. A cabinet post, probably. Maybe secretary of state. Never happened. Instead, Mr. Giuliani became Mr. Trump’s secretary of aggression and blind allegiance: his attack dog, legal adviser, unindicted co-conspirator — and now, co-defendant in a criminal conspiracy case.
Created
Thu, 17/08/2023 - 06:30
I just don’t know what to say to this utter bullshit the right spews. Trump spent his entire term in “executive time” doing nothing but tweeting, watching TV, flying around on government aircraft to his golf resorts for pay to play sessions on the links. The idea that he was out there working hard for the people is simply ludicrous. That officials like Byron Donalds spread this ludicrous propaganda is perhaps the most disturbing thing about it. Does he believe it? Maybe. There are plenty of true believers. But it’s almost worse if he doesn’t. How cynical can you get?
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Thu, 17/08/2023 - 05:00
We haven’t heard much from His Anti-Wokeness for a bit so I thought I share a little schadenfreude from Ed Kilgore to make your day: Ron DeSantis remains the most formidable rival to Donald Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. But it’s been a long, long time since he’s gotten any particularly good news in the polls. A new Emerson College survey shows him dropping into single digits and third place in New Hampshire, behind Chris Christie. In the RealClearPolitics averages of national GOP polls, he’s dropped from 30.1 percent at the end of March to 14.8 percent now. He looks relatively strong in Iowa, where it appears he is making a desperate all-or-nothing stand, but mostly just by comparison. Trump only leads him by 27 points in the first-in-the-nation caucus state, though sparse Iowa polling may disguise a less positive environment for DeSantis. Polling aside, recent news emanating from the DeSantis campaign has been generally quite bad.
Created
Thu, 17/08/2023 - 04:58
Australia’s leader Anthony Albanese is responsible for much more than window dressing at the ALP National Conference. As our elected leader he is required to speak for the nation about how Australia will meet its international obligations to peace and security in our region. In order to re-assert an Australian independent middle power foreign policy Continue reading »
Created
Thu, 17/08/2023 - 04:57
At this moment in the economic cycle the Chinese economy is stalling whilst the US is experiencing a buoyant phase. However, there is another angle to their strategic rivalry that is more important than ephemeral shifts. Viewed through a longer lens both China and the US have economic aces up their sleeve. Both possess a Continue reading »