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Turn in your hymnals to….. Inflation is down. In fact, it is down to four percent from its four-decade high of 9.1 percent last June, writes John Cassidy in The New Yorker. But that seems not to have penetrated public consciousness. President Biden is getting little credit for the improvement, pushed out of the headlines by the Trump indictment. Perhaps also, Cassidy suggests, because there are lags between numerical improvements and people’s perceptions. Biden’s approval ratings have not recovered like the economic indicators. Egg prices have plummeted since avian flu sent them skyrocketing in 2022. But prices are still more than 80 percent higher than in January 2021. “The price of gasoline is another example. At about $3.70 a gallon, the average price across the country has fallen considerably since last year’s peak of $5.10 a gallon,” Cassidy reports. “But the price is still well above its January, 2021, level, which was about $2.50 a gallon.” Other consumer prices remain higher. Consumers still feel pinched: Figures like these leave the White House in a bind. Even though inflation, job growth, and G.D.P.

The team’s NBA championship victory offers important lessons about solidarity and teamwork.

QAnon seemed mostly harmless too QAnon appeared to be just a loose network of conspiracy crackpots until a bare-chested guy wearing horns and face paint stood on U.S. Senate’s dais on Jan. 6. Fred Clarkson, a senior research analyst at Political Research Associates, has worked to draw attention to another loose network of believers with political designs on the country: The New Apostolic Reformation (NAR). This network of nondenominational churches aligned with Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA has aspirations for replacing our “demon-infested bastions of ungodly government,” he Clarkson writes.   Clarkson provides an overview at Salon: The NAR seeks to consolidate those Christians it recognizes as “the Church” in what it believes to be the End Times. Although many NAR leaders have been closely aligned with Donald Trump, they insist that they aim for a utopian biblical kingdom where only God’s laws are enforced. Most therefore hold to a vision of Christian dominion over what they call the “seven mountains“: religion, family, education, government, media, entertainment and business.

I dessa tider — när ljudrummet dränks i den kommersiella radions pubertalflams — har man nästan gett upp. Men det finns ljus i mörkret. I programmet Text och musik med Eric Schüldt — som sänds på söndagsförmiddagarna i P2 mellan klockan 11 och 12 — kan man lyssna på seriös musik och en programledare som […]

Guyana is poised to become Exxon’s top global oil producer. Where the company ends and the government begins is increasingly unclear.

The post How Exxon Captured a Country Without Firing a Shot appeared first on The Intercept.

New York’sTribeca Film Festival wraps up this weekend. However, you can catch up- the festival is offering select titles via the “Tribeca at Home” online portal from June 19th through July 2nd . I have a few more reviews to share with you, so let’s dive in… Cinnamon ** (USA) – Coffy? Meet Cinnamon. Written, directed and executive produced by Bryian Keith Montgomery Jr., this crime thriller marks the first offering under the banner of Village Roadshow Pictures’ Black Noir Cinema, which according to Variety, “…aims to adapt and redefine the Blaxploitation genre and translate its spirit of empowerment to a new generation of Black audiences.” With all due respect, isn’t that an avenue that filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino (e.g. Jackie Brown, Django Unchained) and the Hughes Brothers (e.g. Dead Presidents) have already been traversing for a couple of decades? I’m just asking questions. Hailey Kilgore plays a young woman who works at a gas station and aspires to make it big in the music biz.

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

“It just felt icky” Some local Iowa news. Lol: Never Back Down PAC, the political action committee supporting Florida governor Ron DeSantis, has caused a stir in early voting state Iowa — but maybe not in the way they had hoped. The PAC is being accused of disrespecting the Black Hawk County Republicans by sending too many activists to the group’s participation in a local parade last weekend. The Black Hawk County Republican chair, Craig Lohmann, sent an email invitation to the campaigns of the GOP primary candidates to walk with them in the annual My Waterloo Days parade. In the email, Lohmann says that campaigns may send “a few” representatives “with shirts with names and some handouts.” He cautioned the campaigns and associated PACs to avoid giving the impression that the Black Hawk County GOP was endorsing any candidate. […] According to April Melton, a Black Hawk County GOP central committee member, the group was taken aback when the Never Back Down PAC showed up with twenty-two activists carrying triple-stacked signs and a large “DeSantis 2024” flag.

The Supreme Court said his innocence didn’t matter. Jones was released thanks to a plea deal between his lawyers and Arizona.

The post After 29 Years on Death Row, Barry Jones Was Dumped at a Bus Station. But He Was Finally Free. appeared first on The Intercept.

It’s not just about CRT Jonathan Chait points out that DeSantis’ rhetoric and policies go way beyond opposition to educational theories. He’s happy to indulge the lowest common denominator: Last week, Florida governor Ron DeSantis promised to rename Fort Liberty after Confederate general Braxton Bragg, a slave owner who fought against the United States whose name previously adorned the base. On Thursday, DeSantis vetoed spending for a Black History Month celebration in Orlando and cut $200,000 for a festival celebrating Florida’s Black Music Legacy. Last year, DeSantis vetoed a $1 million appropriation for Valencia College to create a film about the 1920 Ocoee Election Day massacre, in which a white mob murdered dozens of Black Floridians. There does seem to be a pattern here. DeSantis likes to feature these issues. The message he prefers to emphasize is his fight with the radical left over critical race theory and other abstruse left-wing academic concepts. “We believe in teaching kids facts and how to think, but we don’t believe they should have an agenda imposed on them,” he said earlier this year.

We do not want there to be war over Taiwan. If such were threatened, we could never be involved. Dear Secretary Blinken, Right now you are visiting the People’s Republic of China. As an Australian who has been engaged with the PRC officially and unofficially for over fifty years, I welcome this news. I also Continue reading »

Scientists establish annual dashboard of indicators of climate change to guide policymakers. Bushfires fatal for humans and invertebrates. Commercial sponsors sought for November’s COP meeting in Dubai. Indicators of Global Climate Change (IGCC) The six rounds of compendious scientific reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have been invaluable sources of information over Continue reading »

The Ukraine conflict, and the nuclear threats uttered by Vladimir Putin have made the risk of nuclear war as high as it has ever been. The current position of the Doomsday Clock hands at 90 seconds to ‘midnight’ is the closest ever. Nuclear Winter, together with tech-ending EMP, is one of a number of civilisation- Continue reading »

Since Australia has mortgaged its future to this nation it is worth debating the matter. The preambles to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution as statement of ideals are inspiring but the reality is far from these ideals. It is true that the Americans fought a civil war partly based on abolition of slavery Continue reading »

The Voice is beyond politics. It’s about reconciliation between two profoundly different cultures and approaches to life. Politics is important. Democracy wouldn’t exist without it. Engaging politically is how we manage a diverse and pluralist society with relative peace and respect. But there are moments in history when we have to go beyond politics. The Continue reading »

Cricket has always had a difficult relationship with ethics and integrity. This is notwithstanding two things: the game’s pride in the saying “It’s not cricket” to describe anything unfair, and the inclusion in the game’s Laws of a Preamble called “The Spirit of Cricket” to guide player behaviour. Cricket’s Ashes are upon us, and England’s Continue reading »

The United States and its Asian partners want to maintain a balance of power in the Indo-Pacific, ostensibly to prevent China from becoming a “regional hegemon” there. They worry that Beijing will gradually persuade its neighbours to distance themselves from the United States, accept Chinese primacy, and defer to Beijing’s wishes on key foreign policy Continue reading »

Not that they will thank him for it but … Last week Mayor Secretary Pete announced something the Biden administration is doing in Alabama to push their radical, woke, socialist agenda: Here’s the Shelby County Reporter: Man, when will these guys stop pushing their liberal elite values on Real America? This road project is in Shelby County, Alabama, which went for Trump in 2020 by +41. (Not a typo.) I mention this because what we have here is a clear case of the Biden administration centering the real-world concerns of rural voters who did not support him and taking action to make their daily lives better. I do not expect the voters of Shelby County to give Biden credit for this work. But the rest of us should give him credit for trying. Credit for reaching out to the 46.8 percent of the country that didn’t vote for him. Credit for treating them as citizens and neighbors who deserve the government’s help—not as enemies to be punished. For instance, the Biden administration is doling out $11 billion in grants to help rural electric co-ops modernize and compete with for-profit companies in places like Tennessee.

No, it’s not about the cat…. Late yesterday afternoon, Donald Trump published an item to his social media platform, declaring that he’s been “totally exonerated” in the classified documents scandal that led to his federal indictment. Of course, the former president has long struggled with the meaning of the word “exonerated,” so the missive wasn’t too surprising. But as part of the same all-caps message — which included Trump suggesting the authorities should give him back the documents he stole from the White House — the Republican said he should now be in the clear thanks to “the Clinton Socks case.” He made the same point during his weird speech on Tuesday night in New Jersey: When Trump references this in writing, as he often does, he invariably capitalizes “Socks.” This, of course, has led to questions about whether he’s confused about the grammatical rules — the former president tends to capitalize random words he finds important — or whether he thinks the story relates to the former Clinton family cat.