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Perfectly fine. Nothing weird happening here in the United States. Move along: A retired U.S. Army officer who clashed with senior officials in Donald Trump’s first White House looked into acquiring Italian citizenship in the run-up to this month’s election but wasn’t eligible and instead packeda “go bag” with cash and a list of emergency numbers in case he needs to flee… And a former U.S. official who signed a notorious October 2020 letter suggesting that emails purportedly taken from a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden could be Russian disinformation is seeking a passport from a European country, uncertain about whether the getaway will prove necessary but concluding, “You don’t want to have to scramble.” All spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid undermining their own preparations. The planning, they acknowledge, responds to a hypothetical worst case in which a second Trump presidency ushers in systematic suppression of free speech and criminalization of dissent.
Thanks to Republican deregulatory frenzy and Democratic gambles, many key consumer-protection initiatives could soon be wiped away.
A violent, white supremacist regime is coming, but there is room to organize — and capture the backlash when it fails.
The post How to Fortify Against the Trump Agenda While There’s Still Time appeared first on The Intercept.
David Sirota, Rep. Ro Khanna, and Thomas Frank discuss the 2024 election and the future of the Democratic Party.
Elon Musk will be in charge of the effort by Trump to cut government waste.
Problem is, most government workers actually do something necessary. The last time a government seriously slashed government workers, under Clinton, all that happened is that contractors were hired to do the work: and contractors cost more.
Besides, if you’re going to actually go after waste, you need to hit the Department of Defense and allow things like Medicare negotiating drug prices.
Government is a profit center for private business, as Musk, whose businesses (especially SpaceX) run on subsidies and government contracts well knows.
A few genuine “savings” may be made by slashing enforcement of things like environmental laws, but they will be paid for in different ways.
“President-elect Donald Trump is building his team, naming Cabinet members and key advisers after having been elected to a second presidential term.” — NPR
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Listen. There’s a reason I wanted to meet with you. It wasn’t just so we could order a couple of rounds, play some blackjack, and catch up on old times. I’ve got a favor to ask. A big one. I wanna do one last job, and I’m putting together a team. The worst fucking team of all time. Are you in?
The details. Sure. First, I need a partner-in-crime. A real leader. I wanna hit the three biggest casinos on the strip, so I need a crew as nuts as I am—and that means I need you. Completely unqualified. No experience. A total fucking idiot. There’s nobody else who can’t do this as much as you can’t.
Josh Marshall has an insightful piece up today called “Reckonings of Contempt” in which he discusses how so many people, including many liberals, hold the Democrats. He looks at some of the many pieces that are offering up criticism of the Harris campaign and the Democrats’ failure in general starting off with a piece by Eric Levitz at Vox which, as I have done here as have many others, looks at the global anti-incumbency mood as well as the more ominous implication of rightward move among the working class of all races and ethnicities. Pretty standard stuff and I think probably correct. However: Then there’s this piece in Axios. It probably won’t surprise you that I wasn’t terribly impressed with it. It starts … Democrats are a lost party.
True or False: No one is above the law. How many times have we heard, “no one is above the law”. Well…it’s a lie. We have seen clear evidence over the past year that Netanyahu is above the law. We hear, “He thinks he is above the law”. So far, it’s true. He is above Continue reading »
Australia is continuing to expand its relationships with Israel’s defence sector, defying the UN’s International Court of Justice. Republished from DECLASSIFIED AUSTRALIA, November 05, 2024 Australia is yet to give effect to urgings of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to suspend all military trade with Israel until a review is completed of the exports. Continue reading »
Sometimes a single event can throw global problems into sharp relief. The recent flood in Spain is one such phenomenon. If past experience is anything to go by, however, the implications of this catastrophic ‘weather event’ are likely to be studiously ignored by those in a position to do something about them. Even by the Continue reading »
Is our dependence on mining a sign of economic weakness? Is Australia suffering from the “resource curse”? This idea is a strong theme in Ken Henry’s address to the Royal Society of New South Wales: Inequality in Australia. The mining industry is “the basis of our strong economy”. That’s hardly a contentious assertion: many would see Continue reading »
How would it be to walk into a general practice with a toothache and be triaged to see the oral health therapist, who assesses and then develops an oral health care plan? They are then qualified to provide dental treatment but may also involve a GP or dentist across the corridor for further assessment. It Continue reading »
It was supposed to be the Tour Triumphant, showing that Indonesia – the globe’s fourth-most populous nation – has a cosmopolitan new boss who can stride the world stage with panache. But cashiered former general Prabowo Subianto has tripped badly. Indonesia’s eighth President has flunked his first test at high-stakes bargaining in China, while in Continue reading »
The outcome in the recent US presidential election may yet push Taiwan in directions at variance with those advocated in a new article published in the America journal Foreign Affairs, which argues that: “China’s Gray-Zone Offensive Against Taiwan is Backfiring”. David Sacks provides an up-to-date review of the highly significant relationship between the US and Continue reading »
It didn’t take long after Donald Trump and the Republicans swept the polls in the US elections for the Australian fossil fuel industry and its political enablers to do what they like to do best: Celebrate a victory at the expense of the rest of the world. Members of the federal Coalition – in sync Continue reading »
In this exclusive interview with Alexey Pavlovsky, the Ambassador of the Russian Federation to Australia since 2019, he shares his insights on the complex dynamics between Russia, Ukraine, and the West, as well as his reflections on Australia’s stance in the ongoing conflict. You have been Ambassador to Australia since 2019. What interested you about Continue reading »
O’Reilly Media asked me to collect expressions of interest for a print version of the ActivityPub book I wrote. I’ve added a form to the ActivityPub book page at https://evanp.me/activitypub-book/#print that you can use to let me know that you’re interested. Even if you’ve told me before in person, over email, or on the Fediverse … Continue reading Print Version of ActivityPub Book
And Russia gets Tulsi!
The year 2010 was a good one for Michel Houellebecq. As food riots broke out across North Africa and spread into southern Europe in November, his novel The Map and the Territory won the Prix Goncourt, the most prestigious of all French literary prizes. In the following months, his satire of the contemporary art world […]