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Created
Fri, 28/02/2025 - 05:01
Understanding the Core Goal Of Western Governments & Western Decline

I was talking with a friend the other day and he said the problem with democracies is that policy can swing 180 degrees with each election.

And in some ways that’s true: Trump’s switch on Ukraine is a good example.

But it’s not true when it comes to the core goals of western government since 1979 or so.

The ur-rule of neoliberalism is that the rich must always get richer.

Trump’s budget cuts 600 million from Medicaid and other health care in order to give tax cuts to the rich.

Trudeau’s big change from previous Prime Ministers was to massively increase immigration. The effect was to depress wages and increase rent and real-estate prices.

Created
Fri, 28/02/2025 - 04:59
I read the definition of antisemitism adopted by Australian universities and my first thought was “we need a list”, not of what is considered antisemitic, but of what is not considered antisemetic. Now it would be helpful to have a prescriptive list of what one can say about Israel without being smeared as an antisemite. Continue reading »
Created
Fri, 28/02/2025 - 04:54
You can tell a lot about a person by the way they boil an egg for breakfast. I’ve made a study of it. The conservatives wait till the water’s boiling before they put the egg in and hit the three-minute timer. I’m at the other end of the spectrum. My egg goes into the saucepan’s Continue reading »
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Fri, 28/02/2025 - 04:52
Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has released an EPBC Act ‘Impact Assessment Report’ (IAR) to address the environmental impacts of constructing nuclear submarines at Osborne, Port Adelaide. A deluge of documents — the 200-page IAR with 750 pages of appendices — have been released for “public consultation” running till 17 March. However, the IAR fails to Continue reading »
Created
Fri, 28/02/2025 - 02:30
Coming soon to an election near you All Jefferson Griffin wants to do is this: he just wants to find 735 votes, which is one more than he needs because he won the state. Got it? The N.C. Supreme Court is playing a John Roberts hand in overturning the last unsettled election from 2024. The contest is for a seat on their own court. Incumbent Justice Allison Riggs (D) won reelection by 734 votes after multiple recounts. But since Republicans had an overturn strategy in their back pocket for use in case Donald Trump narrowly lost North Carolina, they deployed it instead to ask courts to overturn state Appeals Court Judge Jefferson Griffin’s (R) loss to Riggs. Citing the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) and the state constitution, they are challenging the validity of 65,000 early or absentee ballots already counted. The bulk of Griffin’s challenges are based on alleged incomplete voter registrations of voters, some of whom (like most of you) have voted for decades. This obscure race may seem unimportant to where you live.
Created
Fri, 28/02/2025 - 01:21

Donald Trump’s power has thrived on the economics, politics, and culture of war. The runaway militarism of the last quarter-century was a crucial factor in making President Trump possible, even if it goes virtually unmentioned in mainstream media and political discourse. That silence is particularly notable among Democratic leaders, who have routinely joined in bipartisan messaging to boost the warfare state that fueled the rise of Trumpism. Trump first ran for president nearly a decade and a half after the “Global War on Terror” began in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. The crusade’s allure had worn off. The national mood was markedly different than in the era when President George W. Bush insisted that “our responsibility” was to “rid... Read more

Created
Fri, 28/02/2025 - 01:00
Your mission, should you choose to accept it Tomorrow. “If they don’t listen we make the next blackout longer” made me snicker. * * * * * Have you fought the coup today?Choose DemocracyIndivisible: A Guide to Democracy on the Brink
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Thu, 27/02/2025 - 23:40

“Jeff Bezos, the owner of the Washington Post, announced a major shift to the newspaper’s opinion section on Wednesday, saying it would now advocate ‘personal liberties and free markets’ and not publish opposing viewpoints on those topics.” — New York Times

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For nearly 150 years, the Washington Post has been a pillar of the American media landscape. As one of the nation’s papers of record, it has always stayed true to its values. That’s why, a few years after I bought it, I, Jeff Bezos, proudly chose our slogan, “Democracy Dies in Darkness.”

Created
Thu, 27/02/2025 - 23:06
By defending the UK’s draconian anti-protest laws, Labour is laying the ground for an authoritarian government. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 22nd February 2025 If the Trump project implodes, it might take with it the far-right European parties to which it is umbilically connected. Like all such parties, Reform UK poses as patriotic […]
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Thu, 27/02/2025 - 22:00

‘I suppose it’s better the devil you know,’ says Michael,* a food production worker from Spalding, Lincolnshire. He has worked for the food manufacturing company Bakkavor, which provides fresh food products to supermarkets like Tesco, M&S, Sainsbury’s, and Waitrose, for around two and a half decades. ‘We used to get double time or time and […]

Created
Thu, 27/02/2025 - 20:00
Carlos Cañón Salazar, John Thanassoulis and Misa Tanaka Several global financial centres, including London, Hong Kong and Singapore, are overseen by financial regulators with an objective on competitiveness and growth. In a recent staff working paper, we develop a theoretical model to show that some competitive deregulation can arise when several regulators are focused on … Continue reading Global financial centre and its regulators: what’s the strategy when everyone wants to be the top dog?
Created
Thu, 27/02/2025 - 13:00
In the meantime, Democratic members of Congress also hold town halls and meetings. Here is @RepPaulTonko from New York. His constituents aren't happy, as they want him to do more to stop the destruction of government.#DemsUnited #DemVoice1 pic.twitter.com/aPKF0V9Of4 — Izzy Ⓜ️Ⓜ️ 🇺🇸🦅 (@1zzyzyx1) February 22, 2025 I feel pretty confident that it’s going to come to that, unfortunately. It’s hard to imagine how it can go any other way.