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While much media focus is on Donald Trump's indictment, there are still many social, economic and environmental problems sending the USA on a downward spiral. read now...

The demise of Silicon Valley Bank last month triggered plenty of angst among solar energy developers. Before it collapsed, SBV claimed it had “financed or helped finance 62 percent of community solar projects in America,” according to Washington Post business reporter Evan Halper. At first, it wasn’t clear who might fill that gap. MAGA politicians took great delight in the disruption of what they tediously referred to as the “woke” economy. Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) typically tweeted this non sequitur: “So these SVB guys spend all their time funding woke garbage — ‘climate change solutions’ — rather than actual banking.” Meanwhile, Stephen Miller, the vampirish mastermind of Donald Trump’s 2017 Muslim travel ban, asked all too rhetorically how much time... Read more

Source: Tinpot Legislators appeared first on TomDispatch.com.

Judge and prosecution also insist that politics be excluded from case despite obvious political dimension Well-known Jewish left-winger Tony Greenstein is one of six peace protesters on trial in Wolverhampton Crown Court for possessing ‘articles with intent to destroy or damage’ the property of notorious Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems. After the trial proper finally […]

The GOP view of mass shootings:

Professor Steve Keen, Distinguished Research Fellow, Institute for Strategy, Resilience and Security, University College London. One of the great ironies of economics is that, while the public regards economists as experts on money, the issue of how money is created is still not settled within economics. In 2014, the Bank of England published a landmark … Continue reading "The schizophrenic understanding of money in economics"

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Doctor Who Showrunner Russell T. Davies REALLY likes what they're seeing of Ncuti Gatwa's Doctor; new Series 14 cast members were confirmed.

I’m losing my mind with all the handwringing from the Trumpers over the horrors of indicting their Dear Leader. Puh-leeze. A persistent idea undergirds reactions by Donald Trump and the GOP to Trump’s indictment. Sometimes it’s explicitly stated, and sometimes it’s more implicit: Indicting a former president and a candidate in the next election is beyond the pale. It’s even election “interference” or the stuff of banana republics. Trump ceded the moral high ground on this idea long ago. He has advocated for the prosecutions of each of the last four Democratic presidential nominees — every single one since 2004. In two cases, he did it during the campaign, even suggesting they should be ineligible to run. And that’s to say nothing of the many other political opponents he has suggested should be prosecuted. He even, in some cases, actually agitated for that outcome when he held sway over the Justice Department. The “lock her up” chant leveled at Hillary Clinton is the most well-known entry in this long succession.

Some opponents of the voice are motivated by concern that it undermines the human universalism which is at the heart of liberalism and the heart of Australian democracy. This argument deserves respectful consideration but is not a reason to oppose the voice. Australian democracy has to deal with Australian reality. Historically the belief in equality Continue reading »

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 […]

By some strange reasoning NATO, the US and the pundits seem to think the current war between Russia – Ukraine is a precursor to hostilities they expect to see between Taiwan and China. It is an unlikely scenario. Travel between Taiwan and China is frequent. Official Taiwan figures for people permitted to work in China Continue reading »

This front-page story in The Australian on the blow out in net migration has created a frenzy of finger pointing, most of it ill-informed. It is true net migration is currently running at levels Australia has never before experienced – we are in uncharted waters as net migration for the 12 months to end March Continue reading »

Rupert Murdoch has a wicked problem. Many of the politicians who bent, or even grovelled, when his News media outlets blew on them are no longer scared. On the other hand News – particularly Fox – is showing signs that it is scared of its own audiences. The first sign of Australian politicians losing their Continue reading »

The United States’ issue with TikTok is uncannily reflective of its ongoing problem with China. It grew too fast for their comfort, is too economically and technologically successful and so deeply enmeshed in their lives that they felt the impulse to disengage. It evokes the same suspicion that engaging with something Chinese in origin must Continue reading »

After a long, Covid-enforced break, Dr Sigmund Freud (SF) has resumed his interviews with world leaders. He met recently with Prime Minister Albanese (AA). SF:       Are you disappointed with the sharp criticism of the nuclear-powered submarine deal you’ve signed up to under the…how you say it…ORCAS deal? AA: (laughs gently, spells) A-UK-US. A for Australia, Continue reading »

China’s calls for calm stand in stark contrast to US provocations. “No war really comes unexpectedly; the drums are beating long before a single shot is fired,” said Margaret Case Harriman, the American author, and history bears her out. In the run-up, for example, to the Great War in 1914, belligerence was in the air. Continue reading »

Global survey unveils drivers of happiness, finds life satisfaction roaring in Latin America but dropping in many Western countries; while people strive for social connections, many are pessimistic about the future of relationships and one in five say they have no one to turn to for support. On average, nearly three in four (73%) adults across Continue reading »

Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – April 2, 2023

by Tony Wikrent

 

Global population could fall to six billion with ‘unprecedented investment’ in tackling poverty, researchers say

[Sky News, via Naked Capitalism 3-30-2023]

The Club of Rome’s Earth4All model.

Following Steven Donziger’s appeal to the appointing of three special prosecutors to his controversial contempt of court case, every justice, with the exception of Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, refused to give Donziger a hearing for his appeal and let the conviction stand, raising concerns about constitutional rights. Here is the dissent by Justices […]

The post The Unexpected Pro-Civil Liberty Dissent By Two Supreme Court Trump Appointees appeared first on scheerpost.com.

I don’t know if this will mean that we have stepped back from the abyss, but it’s at least a tiny positive sign: For the better part of a decade, Donald J. Trump and his allies at Fox News have beguiled some Americans and enraged others as they spun up an alternative world where elections turned on fraud, one political party oppressed another, and one man stood against his detractors to carry his version of truth to an adoring electorate. Then this week, on two consecutive days, the former president and the highest-rated cable news channel were delivered a dose of reality by the American legal system. On Thursday, Mr. Trump became the first former president in history to be indicted on criminal charges, after a Manhattan grand jury’s examination of hush money paid to a pornographic film actress in the final days of the 2016 election. The next day, a judge in Delaware Superior Court concluded that Fox hosts and guests had repeatedly made false claims about voting machines and their supposed role in a fictitious plot to steal the 2020 election, and that Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against the network should go to trial.

By Vijay Prashad / Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research On 20 March 2023, China’s President Xi Jinping and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin spent over four hours in private conversation. According to official statements after the meeting, the two leaders talked about the increasing economic and strategic partnership between China and Russia – including building the Power of […]

The post China’s Historical Destiny Is to Stand With the Third World appeared first on scheerpost.com.

Thirty named journalists at three major papers are covering “bombshell” revelations about Russian cyberattacks in a manner worth examining.

The post Craig Murray: The So Far Non-Existent Vulkan Leaks appeared first on scheerpost.com.

Asa Hutchinson has tried mightily to turn himself into moderate and in today’s GOP, I suppose he is one. In reality he’s a hardcore old-school conservative. Nonetheless, I suppose somebody had to take this tack in the GOP primary and it looks like he’s the guy: Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson made his 2024 White House bid official on Sunday in an exclusive sit-down interview with ABC “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl. Ahead of his presidential announcement, Hutchinson, a Republican, spent several days in the first-in-the nation caucus state of Iowa, stirring speculation that he intended to enter into what he acknowledged is a tense national political landscape. “I have made a decision, and my decision is I’m going to run for president of the United States,” Hutchinson told Karl. “While the formal announcement will be later in April, in Bentonville [Arkansas], I want to make it clear to you, Jonathan, I am going to be running. And the reason is, I’ve traveled the country for six months, I hear people talk about the leadership of our country.

By Dean Baker / Beat the Press (CEPR) There is a standard tale of politics where conservatives want to leave things to the market, whereas the left want a big role for government. The right likes to tell this story because it advantages them politically, since most people tend to have a positive view of […]

The post The Silicon Valley Bank Bailout: The Purpose of Government Is to Make the Rich Richer appeared first on scheerpost.com.

Every Sunday, I blog about the geek-friendly radio shows the BBC are putting out in the forthcoming week! All of the following can be either listened to live or downloaded afterwards for free on the BBC Sounds app, no matter where you are in the world. Please note: I don’t include later episodes of most drama […]