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“Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader in the Senate, has reportedly been criticized by some of the party’s state governors for not resisting Donald Trump’s agenda and cabinet nominees strongly enough.” – The Guardian

FROM THE DESK OF CHUCK SCHUMER

Desperate times call for incremental measures.

As radical conservatives gut our institutions left and right, America needs an opposition leader with strength and resilience. Until we find that person, I will lead the charge. And I vow to fight for democracy every weekday of my life.

To the millions of enraged citizens who need a voice—I will be your soft whisper.

To the civil servants fighting back against unlawful purges—I’ll be with you every other step of the way.

To the conservatives who might underestimate me—you have no idea what I’m capable of fitting into a slideshow about the value of norms.

I would guess that we’re all in pretty much the same boat with that question right now. I don’t have any answers except to say that this is a serious crisis and it’s hard to see a way out. It’s overwhelming mostly because the entire Republican Party has signed on and they hold all the institutional power. (We’re about to find out if they at completely willing to castrate the judiciary as thoroughly as they castrated themselves.) Josh Marshall addresses a couple of the big questions in his piece today. The first that’s commonly asked is whether or not this strategy of holding up the budget and/or the debt ceiling really makes any sense in light of the fact that the Republicans and the White House are all liars and we can almost bet on them reneging on any deal that’s made and not even attempt to make it look legitimate. Might makes right, right? Marshall says the key is for Democrats to remember that it’s Trump who needs a deal not them.

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

The post Doctor Who: Chronicles – 1970 appeared first on Doctor Who Magazine.

Even with Jordan and Egypt refusing to take in expelled Palestinians, Trump is charging on with his real estate development plan.

The post Trump Is Bullying Jordan and Egypt to Help in Ethnic Cleansing of Gaza. It Isn’t Working. appeared first on The Intercept.

Seventy-nine countries sign a letter supporting the International Criminal Court, but not Australia. Biden has laid the plan for what Trump will do next in Gaza. Paul Keating reminds us that life in Australia is comparably better than in the US. The Albanese Government is on track to meet 2030 goals for the renewable energy Continue reading »

As Lars Syll wrote here last month, too much of the profession “has since long given up on the real world” and is happy to investigate the “thought-up worlds” of unrealistic economic models. Too much attention is focused on how the parts of the model fit together, rather than on how well the models fit  […]

America’s co-President, Donald Trump, was irate after being told that he could not have a tee time at the newly renamed Gulf of America. Aides tried to tell the co-President that the Gulf wasn’t actually a golf course but co-President... Read More ›

CoreCivic CEO Damon Hininger could barely contain his excitement about the Laken Riley Act and Trump’s anti-immigration executive orders.

The post Private Prison CEO on Trump Deportation Surge: “One of the Most Exciting Periods in My Career” appeared first on The Intercept.

As usual, AOC says it plainly and clearly. But the party does appear to be coalescing into something of a plan even if the leadership is using language more suited to 2015 than 2025: Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) in a letter to colleagues Monday warned of the possibility of a “Trump shutdown” and reminded fellow senators that Democrats have the power to make or break any bill to fund the government past March 14. Democrats in the Senate and House are looking more seriously at the looming funding deadline as an important point of leverage to slow or stop President Trump’s and Elon Musk’s freezing of federal payments, lockout of federal workers and plans to slash government spending by trillions of dollars. Schumer wrote that Democrats want to avoid a shutdown and argued that if Congress fails to reach a government funding deal by the March 14 deadline, the fault would lie with Trump. “Legislation in the Senate requires 60 votes and Senate Democrats will use our votes to help steady the ship for the American people in these turbulent times.

I never thought I’d follow a dieting fad. I always prided myself on being the type of laid-back person who worked as much as I wanted, whenever I wanted. But recently, I noticed I was working nearly nonstop. When I wasn’t literally working, I was thinking about work. As I’ve gotten older, my body just can’t absorb that much work anymore.

Then, a friend of mine—I swear, a perfectly normal person who would never do anything dangerous or unhealthy, who would never starve her employer of work—told me about intermittent working.

The basic idea is that you pick a certain time segment of the day, such as 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and work only during those hours.

I know, I know. When you first hear about intermittent working, it sounds impossible.

At first, it was really hard. I craved work every hour of the day and night. But within a week, I was already experiencing the benefits of intermittent working. My bloodshot eyes faded from red to dark pink, and my back hunch started to unfurl. I found myself forming new thoughts—ideas and concerns that had nothing to do with performing wage labor.

Australian citizens and residents who originally came to this country seeking asylum, as they are clearly entitled to do under international law, have been in the news recently, through no fault of their own and not in a good way. Sections of the media and some politicians have attacked them for doing what all citizens Continue reading »

State and federal oppositions will draw encouragement from the byelection result. But neither has shown voters a coherent and credible budget and economic strategy. Voters in the by-elections held in the Victorian state seats of Werribee (previously held by former Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas) and Prahran (previously held by the Greens) appear to have sent Continue reading »

Dear Mr Williams, In June 2024, on assuming the chair of the ABC, you expressed a desire to see the organisation develop a clearer sense of purpose aligned with its charter and, having gained clarity about its purpose, it should seek to understand how that purpose can be embodied in its offerings. ‘A starting point Continue reading »

“Take wisdom from the mouths of mad men” is an old Arabic proverb. It sprang to mind a couple of days ago, when I heard the narcissist leader of the “civilised” world, President Donald Trump, openly calling for the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. Trump clearly said that Gaza is a “hell”; Gaza is totally destroyed, Continue reading »

Rasha was 10 years old when she wrote her will. In simple words, she asked that her belongings be given to those in need if she didn’t survive. A child, too young to dream of death, yet old enough to know it was coming. She was killed soon after. Her words remain, a haunting testament Continue reading »

Last week, the Medical Association for Prevention of War (MAPW) wrote to Foreign Minister Wong expressing shock and outrage that Australia had not openly protested US President Trump’s 4 February statement of intent to erase Gaza. Despite the plan being illegal and inhumane in the extreme, threatening to grossly destabilise further a whole region, and Continue reading »

Health outcomes are about more than access to healthcare services: they are highly dependent on the social and economic determinants of health. Despite lip service to the importance of these factors and preventive health actions, the Australian healthcare system is relentlessly focused on treating sick people, with subsequent economic and social costs incurred by governments, Continue reading »

This year, more than 400 million people are in search of new homes, of food, water and family security. The first ripples of the human tsunami to come are lapping at the world’s shores, with a population larger than Europe’s or North America’s already on the road. The greatest population displacement in world history is Continue reading »

The president is taking a sledgehammer to the last few remaining vestiges of checks and balances.

JV Last answers a question I’ve wondered about recently. A year ago my neighborhood was inundated with Teslas. California is the biggest US market for EVs and they were everywhere on the westside of LA. It was downright weird. Suddenly, there aren’t so many. There are other EVs but not so many Teslas. Apparently, Tesla’s popularity is in the toilet all over the world. Why? Elon Musk has alienated the very market that was in love with his cars: Elon Musk has made himself very popular with men who drive gas-powered pickup trucks and have no intention of ever buying an EV. Meanwhile, he has made himself toxic to the kinds of people most likely to buy EVs in the coming years. Let’s start with the trade pub Inside EVs, reporting on post-election Tesla sales: Some numbers: This isn’t rocket science: In late 2024 Elon Musk inserted himself into global politics. He was gleefully antagonistic. He played footsie with Nazis. He made it known that he positively hates the woke, educated, “elites.” I have no idea what it will take to seriously put a dent in his fortune.

It’s come to this Google tried to sanewash its map changes: In a statement posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, Google said it would be complying with the name change as part of a long-standing practice of adhering to official government names. The move follows President Donald Trump’s executive order to rename the body of water and the federal Board on Geographic Names formally changing it Monday. “We have a longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources,” Google said. But Google made deletions to its Calendar application as well. Among others, Black History Month is gone: “Some years ago, the Calendar team started manually adding a broader set of cultural moments in a wide number of countries around the world,” the spokesperson said in an email. “We got feedback that some other events and countries were missing — and maintaining hundreds of moments manually and consistently globally wasn’t scalable or sustainable,” the spokesperson added.