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Calculated Risk
Fed's Flow of Funds: Household Net Worth Increased $2.9 Trillion in Q4
Bill McBride

The White House is requesting $886.4 billion in discretionary funding for national security in fiscal 2024, with $842 billion from that pot bound for Department of Defense coffers — a 3.2 percent increase over the FY23 enacted level.

The administration unveiled its budgetary roadmap today just hours before President Joe Biden was scheduled to touchdown in Philadelphia, Pa., to discuss plans to cut the deficit and fund the federal government next year.…

For now This is a very interesting finding in a new USA Today/Ipsos poll about Americans’ view of “woke”, the epithet being hurled by Ron Desantis with virtually every breath he takes: Republican presidential hopefuls are vowing to wage a war on “woke,” but a new USA TODAY/Ipsos Poll finds a majority of Americans are inclined to see the word as a positive attribute, not a negative one. Fifty-six percent of those surveyed say the term means “to be informed, educated on, and aware of social injustices.” That includes not only three-fourths of Democrats but also more than a third of Republicans. Overall, 39% say instead that the word reflects what has become the GOP political definition, “to be overly politically correct and police others’ words.” That’s the view of 56% of Republicans.

~ Today's Water Cooler ~

The Lever’s new video reveals how our coverage shifted the national dialogue around rail safety.

I’ve been wanting to shout this from the rooftops, and now I can. I’ve just signed a contract for my next book, which is called King Capital, with Random House, where I’ll be working with Molly Turpin, who edited one of my favorite books of the last decade. After floundering around for a few years, with one false start after another, I’m thrilled to be writing this book and working with Molly. I feel more than lucky that Sarah Chalfant (The Wylie Agency), who did so much for this shidduch, is my agent. Now to write the book. In the meantime here’s a brief article on the sale, which was reported in yesterday’s Publishers Marketplace.

The contrasting ideologies at play in this tech sector mirror the conflicting ideologies in economics

Elon Musk’s recent takeover of Twitter paralleled, in some sense, the 2016 earthquake when Donald Trump unexpectedly took over the Oval Office. In both cases, a populist billionaire put an existing entity with millions of members under radically new management. Unsurprisingly, whereas alarmed Americans had signaled a desire to escape to Canada in 2016, alarmed tweeters in the fall of 2022 signaled their trepidation by announcing their intention to move as well. But the most commonly threatened exit was to a structure of which few had ever heard: Mastodon.

Mastodon is but one of many new social media sites, alongside Post, Steemit, Planetary, or the Dorsey-funded Nostr, that are drawing attention in the face of Musk’s inscrutable decision-making with respect to the banning of journalists, the firing of personnel, and algorithmic changes. Many of these new sites focus specifically on shifting away from the centralized architecture of today’s tech behemoths like Twitter and Facebook.

In other words, it’s the Trumpers who have Trump Derangement Syndrome.

The Sydney Morning Herald’s prominent series of provocations, urging Australia into a war with China, concluded its third instalment today. At Item 20 of its presentation, apart from its advocacy of the reintroduction of compulsory national service, it wantonly urges that Australia should further consider ‘basing US long-range missiles armed with nuclear weapons on Australian Continue reading »

Where does Albanese stand when it comes to the latest attempts by The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald to manufacture a new wave of anti-China hysteria in Australia? Is he amenable to the beating of the drums of war? Or does he have the intelligence to resist this dangerous nonsense? The omens are not Continue reading »

As the American Empire is attempting to open up another war front with China and dragging us into it, the Doomsday clock is now 10 seconds to midnight. Can we resist? The war in Ukraine is not going well for Zelensky. US involvement continues by pouring billions of dollars and armaments into Ukraine and encouraging Continue reading »

This editorial in the Sydney Morning Herald suggests an independent body should determine which occupations are in shortage for employer sponsored visas rather than using labour market testing. That would be a mistake. It is entirely appropriate labour market testing should be abolished. It has always been a charade. It was why my former colleagues Continue reading »

There are echoes of Kevin Rudd’s 2009 essay in Jim Chalmers recent tome. Themes of social justice, equity and fairness still resonate. But this time around, Labor needs to think beyond the lofty ideas to confront what it all means for Australia’s schools. Both essays followed crises that exposed and exacerbated inequalities on a domestic Continue reading »

Australia supports, indeed resources, Ukrainian armed resistance to Russia’s invasion and its attempt to forcibly exert its sovereignty over Ukrainian soil. Very few Australians appear to find fault with this position. For what reason is Israel’s provocative and continuing colonisation of Palestine not seen in the same light? Human convenience is served through words that Continue reading »

In 2015 a BBC documentary on You Tube showed us the remarkable scene of a Ukrainian military unit trying to enter the outskirts of Slovyansk in the Donbas. Old men, young boys, large women came out to stop them. Some climbed on the tanks and other armoured vehicles. Some seized the soldiers’ weapons and disabled Continue reading »

In testimony to the House Judiciary Committee about the Twitter Files, a few words about why state-funded "anti-disinformation" and free speech can't coexist.

The post Matt Taibbi: My Statement to Congress appeared first on scheerpost.com.

The latest New York Times report on the Nord Stream pipeline bombing is something else. According to NYT’s anonymous US government sources, the pipelines were blown up by a “pro-Ukrainian group” who had no known connections to any military or intelligence agency, but somehow had all the information, skills, diving equipment and military explosives necessary to Continue reading »

If the GOP establishment is desperate to stop Trump, I have wondered why they haven’t changed the winner-take-all delegate rules in various states which gives Trump a built in advantage in a big field with his hardcore base of about 30% of the party. Well, it looks like they might be doing that: The piece to which she refers said this: Ahead of 2020, the Trump campaign successfully played the role of the party establishment. From their perch at the White House, his aides shaped state parties’ rules to make it harder for challengers to accumulate delegates. The goal — which they achieved — was to strangle any primary challenges before they could develop. Heading into 2024, the Trump team’s outlook is very different. With memories of the 2016 efforts to stop Mr. Trump’s victory in mind, they have been canvassing state parties to hunt for opportunities to shape convention and delegate rules to Mr. Trump’s advantage. Though people involved in the effort said no lobbying for rule changes had yet occurred, the Trump team has begun calling officials of state parties and has dispatched staff members to attend some party gatherings.

Juan Cole on how Washington lost Its moral compass in Iraq.

The post The American War from Hell, 20 Years Later appeared first on scheerpost.com.

Shadow Home Secretary sides with Tory horror occupying Home Office and condemns comparisons with 1930s race-hate – but this is not a blunder or an anomaly, rather an exposure of what the Labour right is Examples of Labour’s moral and political bankruptcy are coming thick and fast. Yesterday, Keir Starmer amplified the Tories’ racist narrative […]

Opponents thought legalization would lead to more teens using marijuana. Ten years since the first states legalized, the reverse has happened.

The post In the Era of Legal Marijuana, Less Teen Use appeared first on scheerpost.com.