President Macron of France is right to warn NATO away from any expansion into Asia, reminding all and sundry of NATO’s Atlantic design and focus. NATO’s continued existence after and at the end of the Cold War has already denied peaceful unity to the broader Europe, the promise of which the end of the Cold Continue reading »
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India has an economy that is growing faster than China’s – six per cent versus four per cent – and it has a population that is expanding while that of its Asian neighbour is shrinking. Put these two facts together, and the implication is that India will surpass China in any race to become the Continue reading »
The U.S. public has been conned, once again, into pouring billions into another endless war. The playbook the pimps of war use to lure us into one military fiasco after another, including Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and now Ukraine, does not change. Freedom and democracy are threatened. Evil must be vanquished. Human rights must Continue reading »
It is as certain as any future event can be that the British Labour Party will win the next UK election, which is likely to be held in the latter part of 2024. It is technically possible that the election could be delayed until January 2025 but it is hard to imagine the government choosing Continue reading »
Why the new ALP government’s new Child Care funds should restore its social benefits and stop funding the failing profit/market model. It has been 50 plus years since the McMahon Liberal government included preschool funding, the first since WW2. In 1972 the new Whitlam ALP Government promised the funding of Children’s services programs to meet Continue reading »
This week, a new report revealed First Nations people, as well as people of African or Middle Eastern appearance, were disproportionately targeted by police in issuing COVID-19 fines. Despite the Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton acknowledging structural racism when appearing before the Yoorrook Justice Commission in Victoria, Victoria Police have denied racial profiling in response Continue reading »
While unification with Taiwan and building a strong economy are the twin pillars of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, it’s dangerous to assume, as Washington does, that a faltering economy makes Beijing more aggressive towards the island. This is the final in a two-column series. It’s hardly worth mentioning that China and the United Continue reading »
Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – July 9, 2023
by Tony Wikrent
Climate and environmental crises
World Registers Hottest Day Ever Recorded on July 3
[Reuters, via Naked Capitalism 7-5-2023]
6 southern Colorado counties, facing drought and thirsty neighbors, move to block water exports
[Colorado Sun, via Naked Capitalism 7-4-2023]
Dan Pfeiffer with the bad news: Why Threads Won’t Solve the News Crisis Like more than 70 million other refugees from Twitter, I downloaded Threads — Meta’s new Twitter clone — and immediately started “threading.” This wasn’t an easy decision. I generally believe that through a toxic combination of avarice and incompetence, Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook have done tremendous damage to the world. My most recent book was subtitled “How Fox, Facebook, and the MAGA Media are Destroying America.” So, it’s safe to say that I am not exactly a Zuck stan. But despite my trepidation, I started using Threads. Compared to other erstwhile Twitter replacements — Mastodon, Bluesky, Post, etc. — Threads was a huge success. It was easy to set up and even though I joined only a few hours after it launched, many people and media outlets were already posting on the app. The utility of a Twitter-like product is dependent on two interconnected questions — one, will enough interesting people share interesting content; and two, is the audience large and engaging enough to make sharing feel worth it?
By Carlos García Hernández Originally published in Spanish on 1/7/23. Definition of a State: a territory with fixed borders under a central authority with the capacity to …
The post A practical exercise for the reconstruction of the Left appeared first on The Gower Initiative for Modern Money Studies.
We will not allow you to exploit the innocence of our children to advance your agenda. When you come after our kids, we fight back. We are no longer silent. We are united. We are Mamas for DeSantis. …and we will elect @RonDeSantis President of the United States. Join our… pic.twitter.com/jo6HUATaVa — Casey DeSantis (@CaseyDeSantis) July 6, 2023 I’ll just leave that here.
While still open to writing for Doctor Who again one day, Neil Gaiman made his feelings clear on if he would ever want to be the showrunner.
What’s wrong with the world wide web today? I am. (To adapt a Chesterton line of uncertain authenticity.) Don’t get me wrong. It’s great! – it’s hopeful! – we are gathered here today to celebrate 20 years of Crooked Timber; meanwhile Twitter seems to be splintering. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy, we […]
We’re not as right as we think we are Loss of the ability to laugh at oneself is the first warning sign of fundamentalism. It’s a personal maxim that has served well. Not unrelated is a shtick that comes in handy now and again. Jab your finger in the air toward someone as if punctuating an argument, and declare confidently, “Oh yeah? Well, I’m not as smart as I think I am.” Let’s back up. Heather Cox Richardson in her “Letters from an American” installment for July 9 observes that on this date in 1868, Americans ratified the Fourteenth Amendment. It eradicated the infamous Dred Scott decision by a Supreme Court then controlled by states’ rights advocates and “southerners and Democrats … adamantly opposed to federal power.” The drafters meant to ensure that southern states who recently fought a war to preserve slavery could not reimpose it under color of law in their legislatures. They did anyway for the next 100 years under Jim Crow until the post-World War II Supreme Court flexed the equal protection and due process clauses to dismantle it.
Everyone pulled together to get Hawley to correct a false “quote” from Patrick Henry on the U.S. and Christianity. It didn’t work.
The post This Week, America Failed to Get Josh Hawley to Feel Shame appeared first on The Intercept.
Nothing to see here Without comment. Plowable hail.
Ah, Summertime …when the livin’ is easy and the movin’- pitcher Pickens are Slim: Now, I have no personal beef against crowd-pleasing spectacles featuring transformers, superheroes, archeologists, little mermaids, teenage krakens, or grown-up conspiracy theorists who battle fantasy villains in alternate universes; but if you are in the mood for something more off the beaten path that, you know …isn’t primarily targeting 15 year-old males-summer movie season can be exasperating. If you are of like mind, no worries. I’ve been covering film festivals for Hullabaloo since 2006. So if you’d rather pass on Indy Jones and satisfy your “indie” Jones instead, I’ve combed the archives and curated a “Best of the Festivals Festival” that you can program from the comfort of your living room (since its acronym is BOFF, I thought it best not to use that as a header). These 15 fine selections are all available via various platforms. Add popcorn and enjoy!
. Woooooooooooooh! What a performance!!!
Speaking of fascism: Former President Trump said Friday for the first time publicly during the 2024 presidential campaign that he would bring back a travel ban “even bigger than before,” alluding to his administration’s restrictions on travelers from heavily Muslim countries. The first two bans faced steep challenges in court, but the third version of the ban was upheld by the Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision in 2018. That ban barred nearly all travelers from five mainly Muslim countries, in addition to North Korea and Venezuela. President Biden signed an executive order reversing the ban his first week in office. Under the Trump administration, we imposed extreme vetting and put on a powerful travel ban to keep radical Islamic terrorists and jihadists out of our country,” Trump told his audience. “Well, how did that work out? We had no problem, right? They knew they couldn’t come here if they had that moniker. They couldn’t come here.” “When I return to office, the travel ban is coming back even bigger than before and much stronger than before. We don’t want people blowing up our shopping centers.
Apparently, he wants to bring fascism faster: “By refusing to speak to the needs of the poor and working people, the Democratic Party helps to facilitate and enable the Trumps and the DeSantises and others. So, you end up with neo-fascism being in some ways dependent on neoliberalism and vice versa. That cycle, going around and around, means that we’re going to end up with fascism sooner or later. Every Democratic administration will just be a caretaker and a postponement for fascism to come. I am profoundly anti-fascist, and therefore I am trying to get at the roots of fascism.” Right, yeah. That makes sense. Sure it does. Meanwhile he’s running as the Green Party candidate and will probably be on the ballot in the swing states. And he could easily siphon off enough votes to put Donald Trump back in the white house. That’s how we’ll get at the roots of fascism? I hope the Democrats take this threat seriously. Quite a few people think that protest votes are their way of sticking it to the powers that be. But the people who will be hurt won’t be those in power.