Reading

Gaza, Haiti, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Russia, Syria, Ukraine, and Venezuela: President-elect Donald Trump will face no shortage of foreign-policy challenges when he assumes office in January. None, however, comes close to China in scope, scale, or complexity. No other country has the capacity to resist his predictable antagonism with the same degree of strength and tenacity, and none arouses more hostility and outrage among MAGA Republicans. In short, China is guaranteed to put President Trump in a difficult bind the second time around: he can either choose to cut deals with Beijing and risk being branded an appeaser by the China hawks in his party, or he can punish and further encircle Beijing, risking a potentially violent clash and possibly... Read more

Source: Trump Confronts a Rising China appeared first on TomDispatch.com.

They obey the call How many times have “Twilight Zone” references popped into your head lately? These times are as surreal as they are threatening. Except there’s no Rod Serling to offer a pithy observation on the human condition or to offer a moral coda to each day’s news. For those among the uninfected, there is only a collective shaking of heads, a silent prayer, at the behavior of MAGA millions, titans of industry, and newsies genuflecting before the Great Orange Oz. Witnessing this “Great Capitulation,” Michelle Goldberg writes: Different people have different reasons for falling in line. Some may simply lack the stomach for a fight or feel, not unreasonably, that it’s futile. Our tech overlords, however liberal they once appeared, seem to welcome the new order. Many hated wokeness, resented the demands of newly uppity employees and chafed at attempts by Joe Biden’s administration to regulate crypto and A.I., two industries with the potential to cause deep and lasting social harm.

Contrary to what many economists will claim, we’re going to move into a resource constrained era. This is a combination of climate change, environmental collapse and civilization decline.

Simply put, per capita, there’s going to be less stuff. As Gibson line runs, the future will be unevenly distributed. This will hit some places harder and sooner. Germany and Europe are in decline already. China is actually increasing production and availability of most products. The US is in decline, but actively cannibalizing its allies, especially Europe, but also Taiwan, so the stuff shortage will be slower and there may be short to medium term increase.

They are also seeking to overturn workplace protections from sexual harassment, calling them an attack on "free speech"

We listen and we don’t judge.

LADY MACBETH: I hate it when you introduce me as your “Dearest partner of greatness.” What’s wrong with “wife”?

We listen and we don’t judge.

MACBETH: I know I said, “Bring forth men-children only,” but I’ve always dreamed of being a Girl Dad.

We listen and we don’t judge.

LADY MACBETH: If you invite overnight guests to stay with us again without checking with me first, I will kill you them.

We listen and we don’t judge.

MACBETH: I don’t know what the poor cat does in the adage, okay? Every time you bring it up, I just nod.

We listen and we don’t judge.

LADY MACBETH: Sometimes, when you’re about to confess to murder, I pretend to faint so everyone pays attention to me instead.

We listen and we don’t judge.

Metamorphic rocks are our emissaries from the deep, travelling to alien realms and revealing the restless nature of Earth

- by Marcia Bjornerud

Read at Aeon

Our culture is routinely diagnosed with an excessive fear of mortality. A calm look at the evidence tells a different story

- by Ingemar Patrick Linden

Read at Psyche

In the last decade, constant headlines have made reference to the ‘Bank of Mum and Dad’. This phrase is now synonymous with the fact that millennials and younger generations depend on their parents for financial support when buying their first home. These conversations tend to come in two flavours. The first tastes of avocado toast […]

Failure to block the insurance giant’s market consolidation, including by a judge with a potential conflict of interest, has led to worse care, higher prices, and a mounting human toll.

As the diplomatic row over the embargo escalates, the U.S. sent Israel millions of pounds of ammunition through Spanish territory.

The post U.S. Defied Spanish Embargo on Arms Bound for Israel by Making Enforcement More Difficult appeared first on The Intercept.

“We don’t feel safe here. It’s not just Trump, it’s the fact half our country voted for him"

The big news outlets used to say settlements would encourage more lawsuits. Trump is already targeting smaller newspapers.

The post The Real Danger of ABC News Settling Its Lawsuit With Donald Trump appeared first on The Intercept.

Europe and the US must wake up to the threat posed by Georgia's repressive Russian-aligned regime, writes the UK's former ambassador to the country

Today, I consider the Greek situation, the decision by the UK Chancellor to further deregulate the financial services sector and then to calm everyone down or not, some music. The Financial Times published an article (December 12, 2024) – The astonishing success of Eurozone bailouts – which basically redefines the meaning of English words like…

Trump only cares about his agenda of deportation, revenge, tariffs and personal profits. He’s fine with Elon doing whatever as long as it doesn’t interfere with his own agenda. The Daily Beast reported in his last term that when pressed about the rising deficit, he would say: “Yeah, but I won’t be here,” the president bluntly said, according to a source who was in the room when Trump made this comment during discussions on the debt. The episode illustrates the extent of the president’s ambivalence toward tackling an issue that has previously animated the Republican Party from the days of Ronald Reagan to the presidency of Barack Obama. But for those who have worked with Trump, it was par for the course. Several people close to the president, both within and outside his administration, confirmed that the national debt has never bothered him in a truly meaningful way, despite his public lip service. “I never once heard him talk about the debt,” one former senior White House official attested. He never talked about it when he ran for reelection both times either.

The true meaning of legal protection for nature.

The post This Ocean Wave Has Rights   appeared first on Nautilus.

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

The AP reports: A former FBI informant pleaded guilty on Monday to lying about a phony bribery scheme involving President Joe Biden and his son Hunter that became central to the Republican impeachment inquiry in Congress. […] Smirnov will get credit for the time he has served since his February arrest on charges that he told his FBI handler that executives from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma had paid President Biden and Hunter Biden $5 million each around 2015. Smirnov had been an informant for more than a decade when he made the explosive allegations about the Bidens in June 2020, after “expressing bias” about Joe Biden as a presidential candidate, prosecutors said. […] No evidence has emerged that Joe Biden acted corruptly or accepted bribes as president or in his previous office as vice president. While Smirnov’s identity wasn’t publicly known before the indictment, his claims played a major part in the Republican effort in Congress to investigate the president and his family, and helped spark a House impeachment inquiry into Biden.