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Lula’s Foreign Policy? Encouraging a Multipolar World

https://cepr.net/lulas-foreign-policy-encouraging-a-multipolar-world/
Created
Wed, 04/01/2023 - 06:21

The Guardian Diario.ES See article on original site En español For months, a sitting president with authoritarian sympathies sowed doubt in his country’s democracy. When he lost the election by a narrow margin, his supporters led a violent march on the capital in denial of the final result. But the institutions of democracy proved robust […]

The post Lula’s Foreign Policy? Encouraging a Multipolar World appeared first on Center for Economic and Policy Research.

Say Another Go Ain’t So, Joe

https://rall.com/2023/01/03/say-another-go-aint-so-joe
Created
Wed, 04/01/2023 - 05:39

            Well, Mr. and Mrs. Biden, the holidays are over. You know, the holidays during which you were going to decide whether or not to run for reelection. So, what did you decide?             This being a democracy, we hope that you came down on the side of the 70% of voters who don’t want...

The post Say Another Go Ain’t So, Joe first appeared on Ted Rall's Rallblog.

McCarthy goes down on the first ballot

https://digbysblog.net/2023/01/03/mccarthy-goes-down-on-the-first-ballot/
Created
Wed, 04/01/2023 - 05:30
Historic weakness At this moment, we don’t have any idea what will happen. He could pull it out or we could end up with several ballots and someone else. By the time you read this we may know. But whatever happens we are going to be dealing with a House majority in chaos and historically weak. Lol. Ron Brownstein analyzed the ramifications of this: No matter how they resolve Tuesday’s vote choosing the next speaker of the House, Republicans appear poised to double down on the hard-edged politics that most swing state voters rejected in last November’s midterm election. Stubborn conservative resistance to House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy has put the party at risk of precipitating the first speakership election that extends to more than a single ballot since 1923 – and only the second since the Civil War. But even if McCarthy ultimately prevails, the show of strength from the GOP’s conservative vanguard has ensured it enormous leverage in shaping the party’s legislative and investigative agenda.

BBC admits grossly-misleading edits in infamous Panorama programme

https://skwawkbox.org/2023/01/03/bbc-admits-grossly-misleading-edits-in-infamou…
Created
Wed, 04/01/2023 - 05:28
Deleted paragraphs drastically change impression created by notorious 2019 programme ‘Is Labour antisemitic?’ An admission by the BBC that it radically edited an interview in its notorious 2019 Panorama programme that presented Labour as antisemitic has been discovered tucked away in a corner of the broadcaster’s website. ‘Is Labour antisemitic’ was broadcast just months before […]

Once defence minister’s spending fiction and the big sell-out

https://johnmenadue.com/once-defence-ministers-spending-fiction-and-the-big-sel…
Created
Wed, 04/01/2023 - 04:57
America’s confected strategy to contain China for its own ends has to be separated from Australia’s self-reliant defence, with clarity. The Strategic Defence Review must staunch the bleeding. It’s too easy to mislead Australians on their security. Kim Beazley, a former ALP Defence Minister, was at home when addressing the Ramsay Centre in Sydney last Continue reading »

Labor’s environmental denialism? Should we limit population and economic growth?

https://johnmenadue.com/labors-environmental-denialism-should-we-limit-populati…
Created
Wed, 04/01/2023 - 04:56
The call for a steady state global and national economy and even degrowth is a distraction unhelpful to the environmental cause. The challenge is to inspire and sustain ingenious strategies to decouple economic growth from environmental harm. The sorts of programs championed by Environment Minister Plibersek are heading in the right direction. Stephen Williams praises Continue reading »

The Liberals’ review of Chinese-Australian voters betrays more blind spots

https://johnmenadue.com/the-liberals-review-of-chinese-australian-voters-betray…
Created
Wed, 04/01/2023 - 04:55
The Liberal Party’s problem with Chinese-Australian voters became apparent after its loss in the May 2022 federal election. Post-election number-crunching reveals that in 15 seats with large concentrations of Chinese-Australian voters, the swing against the Liberals was 6.6 percent, in contrast to 3.7 percent in other seats. And for those who were still not convinced Continue reading »

Restoring the ‘tattered relationship’: What do Chinese Australians think?

https://johnmenadue.com/what-do-chinese-australians-think-about-improved-ties-w…
Created
Wed, 04/01/2023 - 04:54
Restoring the “tattered relationship” between Australia and China will take a long time. But “there is a much-increased optimism among the Chinese community” in Australia after the visit to China by Foreign Minister Penny Wong. The recent policy and diplomatic turnaround between Australia and the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) provided a welcome boost to Continue reading »

‘Antisemitism’, mendacity & zionist propaganda in Australia

https://johnmenadue.com/antisemitism-mendacity-zionist-propaganda-in-australia/
Created
Wed, 04/01/2023 - 04:53
Propaganda is a dark and devious art. It exploits ignorance to peddle dogma. It violates truth, logic and right reason. It is the negation of philosophy and science. It confines understanding in a straight-jacket of faux dictionary definitions. Like a woke lexicon, it is precious, politically correct and distorts language. For as Orwell well knew, Continue reading »

‘Amazing!’ Lula applauded for naming Amazon defenders as Brazilian ministers

https://johnmenadue.com/amazing-lula-applauded-for-naming-amazon-defenders-as-b…
Created
Wed, 04/01/2023 - 04:51
“Lula’s win was a win for the Amazon,” one global human rights leader said of his environment and Indigenous ministers. Environmentalists and rights advocates around the world are celebrating Brazilian President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s selection of Marina Silva and Sônia Guajajara to serve as the nation’s environment and Indigenous ministers, respectively. Lula, who Continue reading »

We’ve reached peak Zelensky. Now what?

https://johnmenadue.com/weve-reached-peak-zelensky-now-what/
Created
Wed, 04/01/2023 - 04:51
After the farcical, almost psychotic over-promotion, Robert Freeman says the only place for the Ukrainian president to go from here is down. And, that is surely coming. Soon. When the president of the poorest, most corrupt nation in Europe is feted with multiple standing ovations by the combined Houses of Congress, and his name invoked in the same Continue reading »

Philosophy News of 2022

https://dailynous.com/2023/01/03/philosophy-news-2022/
Created
Wed, 04/01/2023 - 04:32
A brief look back… The biggest philosophical news item of 2022, by far, as indicated by Daily Nous statistics, was the discovery of five crates of long-forgotten transcriptions of Hegel lectures in the archives of the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising. A bit lower on the list, though still in the top 50, was the placing online of a large selection of Quine’s correspondence. But lest you think it is just the past that philosophers get excited about, one of the other big topics in 2022 concerned large language models like GPT-3 and their use by students and researchers, as well as other developments in AI.  “Philosophers On GPT-3,” published two and a half years ago, continued to see a lot of traffic, and was joined by other posts published this year: “Talking Philosophy with ChatGPT“, “Conversation Starter: Teaching Philosophy in an Age of Large Language Models“, “If You Can’t Beat Them, Join Them: GPT-3 Edition“, “Two Cultures of Philosophy: AI Edition“, “We’re Not Ready for the AI on the Horizon, But People Are Trying,” and “Philosophy, AI, and Society Listserv“.

Crazy Tuesday on Capitol Hill

https://digbysblog.net/2023/01/03/crazy-tuesday-on-capitol-hill/
Created
Wed, 04/01/2023 - 04:29
As I write this we are awaiting the Speaker vote which is looking to be an all-day dumpster fire. Couldn’t happen to a nicer party. Meanwhile, the Democrats are all together, everyone committed to voting against mcCarthy, no game playing at all. Unbelievable. We really are in Bizarroworld. There are some great moments among the crazy, though. Here’s one: Awesome.

British-run spy tech powers Ukraine proxy war, putting civilians at risk

https://thegrayzone.com/2023/01/03/british-spy-tech-ukraine-war/
Created
Wed, 04/01/2023 - 04:16

Leaked files reveal the Anomaly 6 spy firm is providing intelligence to the British military through a cut-out involved in the Kerch Bridge bombing and other acts of dangerous sabotage in the Ukraine conflict. On December 6th, The Grayzone revealed how British military and intelligence agencies were deploying technology created by shadowy private intelligence firm Anomaly 6 to illegally spy on citizens across the globe. The company’s technology effectively transforms every individual on Earth into a potential target for surveillance […]

The post British-run spy tech powers Ukraine proxy war, putting civilians at risk appeared first on The Grayzone.

The Great Inflation Debate: Supply Shocks and Wealth Effects in a Multipolar World Economy

/index.php/perspectives/blog/the-great-inflation-debate-supply-shocks-and-wealt…
Created
Wed, 04/01/2023 - 03:21

Setting the record straight and identifying less destructive pathways forward than round after round of interest rate increases.

Economic history is full of episodes in which inflation triggered both intense social conflicts and heated debates among economists and policymakers over its causes. The present worldwide upsurge in prices is no exception: from the moment governments and central banks first contemplated how to protect their citizens from COVID, inflation hawks and doves divided over whether the measures would touch off an inflationary price spiral.