I’ve been writing and saying on various radio shows and podcasts over the past few months that even in his weakened state, at this point in the cycle (granted way too early to make any serious predictions) Trump is still the most likely nominee for the GOP nomination. There are reasons for this that have little to do with his popularity (which is still pretty strong in the base.) It’s a structural problem for the GOP which they refuse to deal with. This piece in the Daily Beast spells it out well: If you’re one of the millions of Americans who want desperately for the country to move on from Donald Trump and his toxic brand of politics, I’ve got some bad news—he’s the odds-on favorite to be the 2024 Republican nominee for president. I don’t make the rules here (and I’m not happy about it either), but the numbers don’t lie. In the latest poll from the polling firm Morning Consult, Trump is winning 49 percent of the GOP field, which gives him a 19 percentage point lead over his nearest rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
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Chris Hedges speaks with film producer and brother of Julian Assange, Gabriel Shipton, on his new film about his family’s journey to get Julian free.
The post The Chris Hedges Report: Will Julian Assange Ever Be Free? appeared first on scheerpost.com.
~ Today's Water Cooler ~
Sven Nyholm, currently associate professor of philosophy at Utrecht University, will be joining the Faculty of Philosophy at LMU Munich, where he will be Professor of Ethics of Artificial Intelligence. Professor Nyholm works in applied ethics (especially the ethics of technology), ethical theory, and the history of ethics. You can learn more about his work here and here. He takes up his new position at LMU Munich this summer. (via Christian List)
The best thing Biden ever did was to refuse to give Trump the customary ex-president security clearance: He said creating a new health care plan would be “so easy” too….
Gold ruble in the works? Longish. Many details. Speculative so far.
Sergei Glazyev has apparently shifted from a commodity basket toward international settlement in gold with the value of gold being anchored to a barrel of oil.
Goldmoney
Russia’s intentions are clarifying
Alasdair Macleod
Goldmoney
Russia’s intentions are clarifying
Alasdair Macleod
Supply of main battle tanks will commit the NATO allies and partners to the war in a way that makes their involvement irreversible and could be effectively the first major step toward a war with Russia. The tactical advantages provided by main battle tanks (MBTs) are readily apparent to anyone that has been inside a Continue reading »
Western powers appear to have no viable strategy to bring the Ukraine war to an end. The best they can do is keep Ukraine on life support. But, as Sun Tzu put it, tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat. Imagine if Ukraine had capitulated three days after the Russian invasion commenced in February Continue reading »
A spate of articles have argued protection of the environment is incompatible with population and economic growth. But they do not address how to stop this growth and its public acceptability, nor how more determined efforts to protect the environment can succeed. Over the last few weeks Pearls and Irritations has posted several articles asserting Continue reading »
‘Australian history does not read like history but like the most beautiful lies.’ – Mark Twain, 1897 65,000 BCE Homo sapiens first arrived in Australia about 65,000 years before ‘the common era’, or BCE. We cannot pin down a specific day for their arrival. We don’t use the abbreviations AD or BC of the Christian Continue reading »
The Voice – up against Dutton and the Greens on a unity ticket; surely there is no case for Stage 3 tax cuts; and the Liberals’ election post-mortem. Read on for the weekly roundup of links to articles, reports, podcasts and other media on current political and economic issues in public policy. Many say that Continue reading »
How has the battle-scarred Ukrainian city of Mariupol changed after eight months under Russian control? These images were taken by photojournalist Arseniy Kotov half a year apart, in summer and in winter, and show efforts to restore the Azov sea pearl It’s now over eight months since Mariupol – the second largest city of the Continue reading »
Unrepentant councillor who quit Labour over party’s plan for cruel cuts in Liverpool responds to complaint after he called for transparency over whitewashed council company that took large amounts of unreceipted cash and doled out support for councillors’ friends and family Liverpool Community Independent Councillor Alfie Hincks, who was one of several to leave the […]
I want to begin by owning my white male privilege and apologizing to the American public, in particular to the woman who formerly dated my friend Jessie. I’m sorry that I still don’t know your name. I struggled with how to address you and decided on “Woman Who Formerly Dated My Friend Jessie” because it highlights your identity as a woman rather than your previous romantic partnership with my friend Jessie. I now understand that you are a woman (or transman, or nonbinary human) in your own right, not simply a possession of Jessie’s. That said, if you’re not currently in a monogamous romantic partnership and would like to meet for drinks, I would totally be down for that.
Pressure works: After The Lever’s reporting, Pete Buttigieg has started doing his job. But we must keep the pressure on.
This is the new GOP establishment House Speaker Kevin McCarthy made good on his promise this week to exact revenge on Democrats for denying committee assignments to far-right extremists Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Paul Gosar, R-Az. He booted two California congressmen, Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell, from the Select Committee on Intelligence. AS Speaker, McCarthy has the power to make this move unilaterally. But he is also proposing to kick Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar off the Foreign Relations Committee, which will require a vote of the full House. The cycle of revenge has officially begun. It should be noted that the removal of Greene and Gosar, both of whom have addressed white nationalist gatherings and publicly advocated for the deaths of Democratic officials, was decided by a bipartisan vote by the full House. But that was an earlier, more innocent time. A golden era when death threats against Democratic colleagues were considered bad form by at least a handful of Republicans. It was all the way back in 2021, a lifetime ago.
Facebook's Jordana Cutler has been named director general of Israel's controversial Ministry of Strategic Affairs, drawing concern from experts over to her personal biography and Facebook's history of censoring Palestinian content.
The post Facebook’s Jordana Cutler Appointed Head of Controversial Israeli Ministry, Sparking Censorship Fears appeared first on MintPress News.
Take a deep breath Anand Giridharadas suggests (not in so many words) that if we want to defeat nascent fascism the left needs to get over itself: We need to build a movement like we never have before: attractive, fun, substantive, visionary, tomorrow-oriented, rooted in people’s lives, open-armed, fiery, merciful. A movement that understands the emotion and psychology and anxiety that are at the heart of politics. The right gets this; the left largely doesn’t. We need a new movement that does. A movement that isn’t tedious and hairsplitting and gatekeeping and purist and more interested in petty internal beefing than outward expansion. We need a small-e evangelical movement more interested in finding converts than heretics. If you’ve read “The Persuaders,” the roots of this post are obvious. The left needs to focus more on building critical mass than on criticism. A movement with a tribal language and that finds a dark cloud in every silver lining isn’t inviting. A real movement doesn’t erect barriers to entry. A movement that has a sense of humor.
The Public Order Act – launched to clamp down on groups like Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil – could be used against trade unionists too
Everybody’s favourite Victorian crime-fighting misfits return in a brand-new audio series of the Doctor Who spin-off, The Paternoster Gang, at Big Finish Productions. The Paternoster Gang, Silurian detective Madame Vastra (Neve McIntosh), her human wife, Jenny (Catrin Stewart) and Sontaran butler, Strax (Dan Starkey) are back in 12 interlinked full-cast audio adventures. First introduced in Steven Moffat’s 2011 TV episode, A […]
The post BIG FINISH: The Paternoster Gang return in October 2023 appeared first on Blogtor Who.