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Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – April 16, 2023

by Tony Wikrent

Climate and environmental crises

How an Early Oil Industry Study Became Key in Climate Lawsuits

[Yale Environment 360, via The Big Picture 4-9-2023]

For decades, 1960s research for the American Petroleum Institute warning of the risks of burning fossil fuels had been forgotten. But two papers discovered in libraries are now playing a key role in lawsuits aimed at holding oil companies accountable for climate change.

They never miss a trick Sarah Posner wrote this piece about Jordan’s latest attack on the FBI for something truly stupid: Conservative media outlets, fueled by distortions from Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, are promoting a false story that the FBI has an anti-Catholic bias and is targeting traditionalist Catholics for criminal investigation. At the center of this new smear campaign is a single internal intelligence memo, dated Jan. 23 and written by the bureau’s Richmond, Virginia, field office, assessing far-right extremist threats stemming from “Radical-Traditionalist Catholic” ideology. When a right-wing site published the document a few weeks later, the FBI headquarters promptly denounced and shelved the memo. But Jordan and his foot soldiers nonetheless have been using it as a battering ram to discredit law enforcement — just as multiple criminal investigations against former President Donald Trump are heating up.

Justices are going about their work moving the country far to the right, as Clarence Thomas’ ethics scandal unfolds.

Ten years ago Edward Snowden was helped to escape by Wikileaks and to publish his revelations by The Intercept, Guardian, New York Times and others. In 2023 Jack Texeira is tracked down by UK secret service front Bellingcat in conjunction with the New York Times and in parallel with the Washington Post, not to help […]

The post Snowden and Texeira: Ten Years of Disaster appeared first on Craig Murray.

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 […]

How many of the “woke” make bomb threats? Ben Collins of NBC News last night posted to the Bird site a photo of himself “downloading” the Woke Mind Virus (by drinking Bud Light). Collins was satirizing the right’s latest paroxysm of outrage over capitalism platforming anyone other than big, white swinging dicks. The right-wing fever swamp’s hair-afire fury over rainbows on beer cans and a video featuring a transgender influencer is beyong parody. But it’s not beyond felony (Patch): LOS ANGELES, CA — The Anheuser-Busch Budweiser factory in Van Nuys was targeted with a bomb threat Thursday, prompting a sweep of the sprawling campus, the Los Angeles Police Department confirmed. An Anheuser-Busch employee confirmed to Patch that several Budweiser facilities across the nation were targeted with bomb threats as the company faces massive backlash for an advertising partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. […] The partnership with Mulvaney triggered intense rightwing backlash and informal boycotts of the brand, leading to a nearly $5 billion drop in the Anheuser-Busch stock value Wednesday, Fox News reported.

"Implementation of the safeguard mechanism bodes well for Australian #climate policy and may also pave the way for carbon pricing beyond the industry sector."

Denialism is an American tradition America’s original sin cannot be waved way or wished away. But if there is one way in which the country is as exceptional as it believes, it is in its ability to avoid dealing with harsh realities. The Silents seemed particularly good at this, but they perhaps learned it from their parents and their parents’ parents. The United Daughters of the Confederacy devoted decades and dollars, along with erecting Confederate monuments, to rewriting the history of the Civil War so Southerners might avoid confronting their treason and defeat in defense of slavery. So was born the myth of The Lost Cause. Even now, the history of Donald J. Trump’s 2020 election loss and the violent insurrection he inspired is being Lost Caused by his seditious supporters. Election denialism grows out of that long tradtion and generational reflex. Theodore R. Johnson considers our aversion to confronting the legacy of race in this country and why he writes frequently about it nonetheless.

In Sweden, the standard of living measured by per capita income has increased by a factor of over 50 since the mid-1800s. Overall, people in the Western world today are more than twenty times richer than they were a century and a half ago. Its population has a life expectancy that is almost twice as […]

Federal contract materials outline plans to geofence 67 different public high schools throughout the state and to target phones with recruitment ads.

The post Georgia National Guard Will Use Phone Location Tracking to Recruit High School Children appeared first on The Intercept.

By Caitlin Johnstone / Substack Seven progressive Democrats from the House of Representatives have signed a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland calling for the Biden administration to drop the charges against Julian Assange and cease seeking his extradition. It’s a good letter as far as these things go. It lists the major press freedom advocacy groups […]

The post Caitlin Johnstone: US Moral Authority Is Dead And Buried appeared first on scheerpost.com.

New public health research on women’s prisons exposes medical neglect, sexual violence and inhumane living conditions.

The post New Report Reveals Systemic Medical Neglect and Violence in CA Women’s Prisons appeared first on scheerpost.com.

On his first day in the country, the president also visited Huawei and had meetings with executives from other companies.

The post Lula Criticizes the Hegemony of the Dollar During Visit to China appeared first on scheerpost.com.

The majority of us support debt relief, but lobbyist-backed lawsuits are holding back Americans from achieving a better life.

The post Student Debt Forgiveness Is a Win-Win For Our Country appeared first on scheerpost.com.

Research suggests that well over 1 million people with disabilities are not getting the assistance they need, and even those who receive benefits are likely not getting enough.

Glenn Greenwald details the real story of Julian Assange and why the government attacks certain journalists and not others.

The post Glenn Greenwald: The Real Story of Julian Assange appeared first on scheerpost.com.

The narrative that Warsaw will become the new power center of NATO in Europe and should take western Ukraine and/or fight Russia picks up steam. 

Endless steps in what was, until 1492, the Jewish quarter of Girona and where there is now a wonderful museum dedicated to the city’s long Jewish history.

The Coast reminds us of a dark episode in Australia's past, writes Fi Peel.  read now...

by Oleksandr Svitych* We are living in the times of the populist nationalist challenge to the liberal order. This challenge comes in many forms, including reactionary and progressive ones – from Marine Le Pen’s Front National in France to Jobbik in Hungary, to Manuel López Obrador’s MORENA in Mexico and Pauline Hanson’s One Nation in […]

Over the last decade, economic debate in Britain has been dominated by one subject: austerity. The size of a government’s budget deficit and total public debt have always been hot topics among economists, but since the financial crisis these metrics have acquired greater popular significance. Mentions of the word ‘austerity’ in books and articles, for […]