This piece in Forbes takes a look at Trump’s signature building Trump Tower. Let’s just say that like everything else about Trump it’s more BS than reality: The offices of the New York attorney general and the Manhattan district attorney have both focused on Trump Tower as part of their probes into Donald Trump’s efforts to mislead lenders about the value of his assets. The attorney general filed a $250 million civil suit in September, accusing Trump, his business and his underlings of fraud. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg inherited a related criminal probe when he took office last year, but he hesitated to file charges, and two top prosecutors resigned. Bragg’s office says it is still investigating. Perhaps the district attorney is hoping to turn up additional information. Forbes has some. Since the early 1980s, long before our efforts had anything to do with a quarter-billion-dollar lawsuit or potential criminal charges, we have been scrutinizing various aspects of Trump’s properties.
Reading
Short read. Nothing Mike has not gone into already.
The Lens
More on the Interest-Income Channel
Stephanie Kelton | Professor of Public Policy and Economics at Stony Brook University, formerly Democrats' chief economist on the staff of the U.S. Senate Budget Committee, and an economic adviser to the 2016 presidential campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders
The Lens
More on the Interest-Income Channel
Stephanie Kelton | Professor of Public Policy and Economics at Stony Brook University, formerly Democrats' chief economist on the staff of the U.S. Senate Budget Committee, and an economic adviser to the 2016 presidential campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders
Last weekend, I wrote about Warren Mosler’s argument that the Fed’s rate hikes could be undermining its effort to bring down inflation. While Mosler is a leading proponent of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT), the notion that “monetary tightening” (conventionally defined as central banks raising interest rates) might cause inflation to run hotter isn’t unique to MMT.
The latest prison figures show state and federal government departments are still failing First Australians. read now...It’s hard to believe that these right wingers are whining incessantly about free speech and cancel culture but this is just fine:: IN EARLY 2018, the American national security apparatus was fixated on reports that North Korea was building nuclear weapons that could reach the U.S. or that Russia was plotting chemical weapons assassinations in Europe. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump was busy targeting his idea of an enemy of the state: late night host Jimmy Kimmel. The then-president, according to two former Trump administration officials, was so upset by Kimmel’s comedic jabs that he directed his White House staff to call up one of Disney’s top executives in Washington, D.C., to complain and demand action. (ABC, on which Jimmy Kimmel Live! has long aired, is owned by Disney.) In at least two separate phone calls that occurred around the time Trump was finishing his first year in office, the White House conveyed the severity of his fury with Kimmel to Disney, the ex-officials tell Rolling Stone.
Another Message Board Post comments on any topic. Civil discussion and no coarse language please. Side discussions and idees fixes to the sandpits, please. I’ve moved my irregular email news from Mailchimp to Substack. You can read it here. You can also follow me on Mastodon here I’m also trying out Substack as a blogging […]
A close reading and media critique of Lever News' East Palestine coverage.
A lot of Doctor Who fans would love to see Carole Ann Ford return as Susan, with Ford adding that she "would adore to be in it now."
In October 2022, about eight months after the war in Ukraine started, the University of Cambridge in the UK harmonized surveys conducted in 137 countries about their attitudes towards the West and towards Russia and China.
The findings in the study, while not free of a margin of error, are robust enough to take seriously.
These are:Sentiments of this nature have caused some ire, surprise, and even anger in the West. It is difficult for them to believe that two-thirds of the world’s population is not siding with the West.
- For the 6.3 billion people who live outside of the West, 66 percent feel positively towards Russia and 70 percent feel positively towards China, and,
- Among the 66 percent who feel positively about Russia the breakdown is 75 percent in South Asia, 68 percent in Francophone Africa, and 62 percent in Southeast Asia.
- Public opinion of Russia remains positive in Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, India, Pakistan, and Vietnam.
This is a useful analysis from a conservative Russian point of view of the unfolding of the present situation globally and the alternative scenarios for the Ukrainian conflict.
english.almayadeen.net
From special operation to full-scale war
Alexander Dugin
english.almayadeen.net
From special operation to full-scale war
Alexander Dugin
He won’t accept the results of the GOP primary unless he wins either. And everyone knows that’s going to be a shitshow.
Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – February 26, 2023
by Tony Wikrent
War
How The U.S. (And UK) Sabotaged Peace In Ukraine
[Moon of Alabama, via Naked Capitalism 2-23-2023]
Corruption watch. (h/t Naked Capitalism)
Glenn GreenwaldNew SBF Indictment Exposes How Washington Really Works. Plus, Investigative Reporter Lee Fang In-Studio!
Eschaton
Everything Is Corrupt
Atrios
Dud. The weapon failed to explode and to the degree it did detonate, it was a direct hit on US allies in Europe.
AntiWar
White House Believed ‘Economic Nuclear Weapon’ Would End Russian War in Ukraine
AntiWar
White House Believed ‘Economic Nuclear Weapon’ Would End Russian War in Ukraine
Kyle Anzalone
AP classes were cool Ron DeSantis was an AP student back in the glory days when it was all white males, before the you know what’s history and beyotch studies were taught in school. When America was great: When Florida Governor Ron DeSantis floated the possibility of eliminating Advanced Placement classes from his state’s curriculum, he conveniently left out an important fact. DeSantis was once the “AP US History student of the year,” according to his high school yearbook, pages of which were obtained by The Daily Beast. Before turning on AP classes in his latest culture war skirmish, the governor not only benefited from the rigorous courses as a high schooler at Dunedin High School, he also praised the Sunshine State’s top three placement for students in AP courses in February 2020, calling the program “a gateway to achieving success in college, career and ultimately in life.” Now DeSantis is trying to sell a populist pitch that APs aren’t worth the trouble, despite benefiting from the highly sought-after curriculum on his way to an Ivy League education.
China called for an immediate cease-fire in Ukraine so that negotiations can begin for peace and rebuilding. It called for respect for sovereign borders – which seemed like advice to Russia to withdraw. But it also called for respect given to security concerns – which seems like acknowledgement that the west should fulfil earlier promises Continue reading »
The trajectory of mainstream economics can be understood in terms of how the discipline historically responded to moments of crises by attempting to “theoretically fix” the understandings related to five core “questions” of capitalist political economy – namely land, trade, labour, state, and legal-institutional framework. This involved legitimising improvements in land that led to the dispossession and the destruction of the commons, justifying free trade based on comparative advantage as opposed to mercantilist state intervention, reducing labour to a factor of production that was supposedly rewarded based on its marginal productivity and hence not being exploited, legitimising state intervention to stabilise capitalism and developing a legal-institutional framework to protect markets from popular democratic pressures. These “theoretical fixes” served to ideologically legitimise, preserve, and perpetuate the core content of capitalist social relations even as it corresponded with the modification of the surface-level appearances of capitalism.
Brian Toohey (Pearls and Irritations, 14 February 2023) makes a number of criticisms of the recent four-part series on national security by Michael Keating and myself that was published in Pearls and Irritations earlier this month. He contends that we have made “assertions that should not go unchallenged”, particularly in regard to our support for Continue reading »
The AUKUS deal for nuclear submarines by 2050 indicates that government has little grasp of the likely chaotic state of the world after current trajectories on climate and environmental change have played out for the next 27 years. In turn this engenders insecurity over their knowledge and ability to deliver appropriate policies on these threats. Continue reading »
Election night TV coverages blur into one big indigestible mass as the years go by. Yet every now and again a few stand out. For progressives it was the sinking feeling as Scott Morrison won in 2019 and the clear early indication from Penny Wong’s body language. For Victorians it was probably the sight of Continue reading »
According to Newsweek, a toxic chemical cloud has reached a radius of 100-miles around East Palestine, the scene of a devastating train crash and chemical burn-off. If true, the people of Cleveland, the State capital 90-miles away, are now at risk of exposure. At the same time, Cleveland residents are reeling from another explosion at Continue reading »
The discussion on TikTok and Hikvision infiltration in Australian government departments has centred inarticulately and dogmatically on the country of origin. But there are other more realistic and probable security threats lurking in plain sight. The possibility of the Chinese government accessing Australia’s sensitive and national security information has been in the headlines again in Continue reading »
The Saudi-led coalition and its allies on the ground have been accused of systematically targeting Yemen’s cultural heritage through indiscriminate strikes and looting campaigns. First published by The Cradle News Desk February 20, 2023 The head of Yemen’s General Authority for Antiquities, Manuscripts, and Museums, Dr. Obbad bin Ali Al-Hayyal, visited several historical and archeological sites Continue reading »
Even the responses not (yet) hidden by Unite GS are overwhelmingly negative – but those she has hidden are even more damning Unite general secretary Sharon Graham has long been criticised for being too ready to cosy up to anti-worker Labour party leader Keir Starmer – chummily referred to as ‘Keir’ – particularly since she […]
Motion condemns Starmer party’s attack on democracy Members of a Labour front-bencher’s local party passed a motion last week condemning the regime’s shameless rigging of party democracy and demanding to be allowed to select their candidates without interference. Hornsey and Wood Green members voted strongly for the following emergency motion: Selection of Candidates HWG CLP […]