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Why hypersonic weapons change everything — Alex Krainer

http://mikenormaneconomics.blogspot.com/2023/03/why-hypersonic-weapons-change.h…
Created
Fri, 24/03/2023 - 01:24
The war game just changed big time, actually for the first time since the dominance of sea power and then air power. This transition makes a great deal of very expensive military equipment obsolete. Moreover, the West is following in this domain, and not leading.

This article does not mention another emergent military domain, space. Spending on missiles, missile defense, and space capabilities will shape the bulk of military spending, inclduing research and production, going forward.

This will not obviate the need for boots on the ground and here a transition is underway to autonomous machines on the ground, in the air, and beneath of surface of the seas.

All of the this presages a shift in military spending and potentially increases inorder to catch up and dominate. While the primary players will be the US, Russia, China, and India, this trend will spill over into the entire international arms market.

Alex Krainer's TrendCompass

Energy Transition Advocates Get A Reality Check — Iriva Slav

http://mikenormaneconomics.blogspot.com/2023/03/energy-transition-advocates-get…
Created
Fri, 24/03/2023 - 01:14
Yves here. I’m preserving the original OilPrice headline since it invokes one of the themes of a new pro-fossil-fuels messaging campaign, that migrating to cleaner energy sources is contrary to energy security. It’s not hard to see that message hitting home with a lot of voters, particularly ones that live in suburbs or other area with poor public transportation, or in parts of the world where there’s not enough sun for rooftop solar to be anything more than a secondary power source.

One reason the oil, specifically Shell messaging will strike home at least in Europe is the respite from super high energy prices came largely from government subsidies. Those will be reduced or even gone next winter. Bearing the full higher energy cost will make many consumers want relief, climate change impact be damned. Of course, the obvious expedient of rolling back sanctions on Russia is off the table.

Macron’s Authoritarian Turn

https://tribunemag.co.uk/2023/03/macrons-authoritarian-turn/
Created
Fri, 24/03/2023 - 01:09

The pension reforms currently provoking general strikes, mass protests and widespread public anger in France were first pledged by Emmanual Macron in his 2017 presidential election campaign. Trade unions and opposition parties began to organise against the reforms before the Covid-19 pandemic forced the government to postpone its plans. Then, on January 6th of this […]

William Mitchell — Latest Productivity Commission report – relies on and exploits our ignorance – to undermine our well-being

http://mikenormaneconomics.blogspot.com/2023/03/william-mitchell-latest-product…
Created
Fri, 24/03/2023 - 01:03
I had a sense of déjà vu this week when I read the latest release from Australia’s Productivity Commission – Advancing Prosperity – which was released on March 17, 2023 and is a five-yearly exercise conducted by the Commission on behalf of the Australian government. Frankly, if the government was looking to cut spending while advancing material well-being in the community, they could simply tell the Commission to cease doing this work and instruct the staff involved to get real jobs and do something that matters. We just get a regurgitation of GIGO, that well-practiced art of pretending to have something authoritative to say while one is grabbing money out of the till at a rate of knots to advance self-interest! The problem is that the ordinary citizen is ill-equipped to understand any of the technical hoopla that attempts to shroud these types of Report in ‘credibility’, and so is at a disadvantage when trying to determine whether they should support it through the ballot box. Neoliberalism relies on and exploits our ignorance....
William Mitchell — Modern Monetary Theory

The Banking Crisis, Housing Insecurity and Preparing for the Coming Economic Collapse With James Fauntleroy

https://www.mintpressnews.com/banking-crisis-housing-economic-collapse-james-fa…
Created
Fri, 24/03/2023 - 00:48

Discover the precarious state of the banking system and the need for regulatory reform in this incisive interview with James Fauntleroy, a regular contributor to the Revolutionary Blackout Network, as he discusses the potential for a catastrophic economic crisis.

The post The Banking Crisis, Housing Insecurity and Preparing for the Coming Economic Collapse With James Fauntleroy appeared first on MintPress News.

Prophecies, Then and Now

https://tomdispatch.com/prophesies-then-and-now/
Created
Fri, 24/03/2023 - 00:18

Indulge me for a moment. This is how “The Prophecy” in my 1962 high school yearbook began. It was written by some of my classmates in the year we graduated from Friends Seminary in New York City.   As I wander, I finally run into one of my classmates, now “a skinny old man with bushy white hair, wearing a loose deer skin.” And yes, whatever happened (that “great invasion”) while I was underground in — as anyone of that period would have known — a private nuclear-fallout shelter, is unclear. Still, in the world I find on emerging, all my former classmates, whom I meet one after another in joking fashion, now live in caves. In other words, it had obviously... Read more

Source: Prophecies, Then and Now appeared first on TomDispatch.com.

Mr. Economy wants YOU!

https://digbysblog.net/2023/03/23/mr-economy-wants-you/
Created
Fri, 24/03/2023 - 00:00
Especially if you’re underage and undocumented The graphic above popped up on Twitter last light and then Helaine Olen did this morning in writing about kids working in meatpacking (Washington Post): “A self-supporting and self-respecting democracy can plead no justification for the existence of child labor,” wrote Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1937, as he sent the legislation known as the Fair Labor Standards Act to Congress. With the bill, which also established a national minimum wage, lawmakers condemned the ghastly practice of children toiling on factory floors to the past. But American child labor is making a comeback. Underage children are operating fryers in restaurant kitchens and assembling parts at auto plants. Last month, when the New York Times published a blockbuster expose on how some of the nation’s mostprominent companies depend on subcontractors who illegally employ migrant children, it brought attention to an ongoing horror. The Economic Policy Institute recently crunched Labor Department data and discovered an almost 300 percent increase in child labor violations since 2015.

‘Mexico Is Not a US Colony!’: AMLO Condemns Invasion Threats, Celebrates Nationalization of Oil and Lithium

https://scheerpost.com/2023/03/23/mexico-is-not-a-us-colony-amlo-condemns-invas…
Created
Thu, 23/03/2023 - 23:59

Mexico’s leftist President AMLO condemned “hypocritical” Republicans who want the US military to invade, declaring “Mexico is an independent and free country, not a US colony or protectorate!” In a massive rally, López Obrador also celebrated the expropriation of oil and lithium, condemning exploitative foreign corporations.

The post ‘Mexico Is Not a US Colony!’: AMLO Condemns Invasion Threats, Celebrates Nationalization of Oil and Lithium appeared first on scheerpost.com.

For Sale: Fast Car

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/for-sale-fast-car
Created
Thu, 23/03/2023 - 23:00

With apologies to the great Tracy Chapman.

- - -

This car is your ticket to anywhere. Just cruising in it feels like you’re entertaining yourself. It speeds so fast it feels like you’re drunk. Which, let’s be honest, is not recommended. I don’t want to feel like I’m drunk or buzzed while I’m driving; I want to feel safe and secure and, hopefully, get good gas mileage. I’m thinking maybe a Hyundai Kona or a Mazda CX-30.

Those cars might not be fast or powerful, but they offer a bit more stability. I had a job at a convenience store. Then once I was on track for a managerial position, they replaced half the staff with automated screens they purchased from a recently closed Wawa. Still, I managed to save a little bit of money and pay all my bills. But then all my bills steadily rose while my wage stayed the same. My electric bill got out of hand. Switching to high-speed internet costs an arm and a leg—and don’t get me started on the installation fees.

Peeps-Flavored Pepsi

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/peeps-flavored-pepsi
Created
Thu, 23/03/2023 - 22:59

Moms have had their share of parenting fails, mostly tied to holidays. What parent hasn’t looked under couch cushions for Tooth Fairy money or made a mess on behalf of an Elf on the Shelf? This year it’s time to file a complaint with the Childhood Mythical Character Department. Apparently, the Easter Bunny has co-created Peeps Pepsi without any thought to parent supply-chain issues by giving all the Peeps to Pepsi. There are usually sixteen different flavors and colors of Peeps, but now it looks like Easter 2020—with nary a Peep in sight.