The legal beagles Mark Joseph Stern and Dahlia Lithwick at Slate fielded a question from a reader asking if Trump could really run for a third term as he often hints at doing? Bannon made some news the other day proclaiming that he was going to. Lithwick points out that the clear meaning of the 22nd Amendment says no. It says: “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. It seems pretty clear to me. Of course if everything goes completely sideways, he stages a successful coup and the constitution is no longer relevant, who knows what he could do? Stern addresses one scenario the reader had posed: Tracey does point out one potential loophole in her letter: I think it’s clear that Don Jr. could run for president in 2028, with Donald Trump as his vice presidential candidate. And if they win, at 12:01 p.m. on Jan. 20, 2029, Don Jr. can resign and Donald Trump will become the president.
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Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – December 29, 2024
By Tony Wikrent
Strategic Political Economy
A Newly Declassified Memo Sheds Light on America’s Post-Cold War Mistakes
[Slate, via Naked Capitalism 12-27-2024]
He’s global: The tech entrepreneur and close adviser to Donald Trump Elon Musk has taken a stunning new public step in his support for the far-right German political party Alternative for Germany (AfD), publishing a supportive guest opinion piece for the country’s Welt am Sonntag newspaper that has prompted the commentary editor to resign in protest. The commentary piece in German was launched online on Saturday ahead of being published on Sunday in the flagship paper of the Axel Springer media group, which also owns the US politics news site Politico. Musk uses populist and personal language to try to deny AfD’s extremist bent and the piece expands on his post on the social media platform X that he owns, on which he last week claimed that “only the AfD can save Germany”. Translated, Musk’s piece said: “The portrayal of the AfD as rightwing extremist is clearly false, considering that Alice Weidel, the party’s leader, has a same-sex partner from Sri Lanka! Does that sound like Hitler to you?
Sergei Cristo, the whistleblower behind the new podcast series Sergei and the Westminster Spy Ring, warns about the real threats from abroad
. 2.Macro Musings Blog 7.Naked Capitalism 16.The Undercover Economist 20.Lars Pålsson Syll Lars Pålsson Syll’s blog illustrates his critique of the conventional economics paradigm together with other heterodox economic views. Engaged with the issues of economic methodology, monetary theory and the shortcomings of neoclassical economics, Syll seeks to overturn orthodoxy and calls for more profound […]
Sununu: [Musk is] so rich he’s so removed from the potential financial influence Donald Trump sold himself as so rich that he couldn’t be bought. He would spend $600 million of his own money to win the presidency. “I mean, part of the beauty of me is that I’m very rich,” he told ABC in 2011. And in the fullness of time, the man sold NFTs of himself and Trump sneakers and Trump Bibles and Trump scents. New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) reassures CNN’s Dana Bash that Elon Musk is incorruptible like that. He’s got both hands in the Trump 2.0 administration, sure. But he’s not “doing it for the money.” He’s not into making money for the money but for the betterment of all mankind. Musk loves mankind from which “he’s so removed.” It’s people he can’t stand. How dare we ask him to pay more in taxes to benefit them? Three years ago, Paul Krugman wrote (gift link): Elon Musk doesn’t think visionaries like him should pay taxes the way little people do. After all, why hand over his money to dull bureaucrats?
. A picture is worth a thousand words, but music paints a thousand pictures in your mind … Like so much of Arvo Pärt’s music, this masterpiece gives a sense of connecting with a world beyond the world. Breathtakingly beautiful and emotionally overwhelming, it manages to convey the profound serene beauty and mystery of our […]
Random notes Before we issue a sure-to-be-ignored word of caution to MAGA, let’s set the scene. I get that, with the reelection of King D, MAGA types just might be feeling their oats about taking back America from, you know, THOSE PEOPLE. The Daily Show‘s Ronny Chieng discourses on patriotism and education. He was born in Malaysia (like you’d care), but how would you know? View this post on Instagram A post shared by Karen Cahn (@karencahn) Let’s got to Politico: A Colorado man is facing possible bias-motivated charges for allegedly attacking a television news reporter after demanding to know whether he was a citizen, saying “This is Trump’s America now,” according to court documents. Patrick Thomas Egan, 39, was arrested Dec. 18 in Grand Junction, Colorado, after police say he followed KKCO/KJCT reporter Ja’Ronn Alex’s vehicle for around 40 miles (64 kilometers) from the Delta area. Alex told police that he believed he had been followed and attacked because he is Pacific Islander. Forty miles.
Accountability journalism delivers results.
In honor of the 50th anniversary of his debut as the Fourth Doctor on Doctor Who, we look at how Tom Baker became the show's "ambassador."
Doctor Who tragedy made the top of Bleeding Cool traffic yesterday for Boxing Day. Welcome to Lying In The Gutters.
Stop stalling: why bold public investment, not austerity, is the key to economic recovery
My blog is on holidays until Monday, January 6, 2025. While my blog is having a break I am catching up on various projects which I want to advance to finality in 2025. Our macroeconomics textbook will come out with a second edition in early 2026 and we are working on that now. I am…
All is quiet, on New Year’s Day. Except for this mixtape (you may adjust your volume per hangover conditions New Year’s morning). Cheers! “This Will Be Our Year” – The Zombies – Starting on a positive note. Lovely Beatle-esque number from the Odyssey and Oracle album. You don’t have to worryAll your worried days are goneThis will be our yearTook a long time to come At least…we can always hope, right? “Time” – David Bowie – A song as timeless as Bowie himself. Time, he’s waiting in the wings/He speaks of senseless things… “1999″ – Prince – Sadly, it’s a perennial question: “Mommy…why does everybody have a bomb?” “1921” – The Who – Got a feeling ’21 is gonna be a good year. OK, back to the drawing board …let’s make ’25 a better one. “Time” – Oscar Brown, Jr. – A wise and soulful gem…tick, tock. “New Year’s Day” – U2 – I know… “Edgy pick, Captain Obvious!” But it’s still a great song.
This is from Robert O’Brien, Trump’s former National Security adviser: There’s a little mutual defense alliance in Europe called NATO. Denmark was one of the founding members in 1949. In the modern world that’s how we are supposed to defend ourselves against threats. We aren’t supposed to just seize territory for our own purposes. But it sounds like those are now quaint ideas and we are now in the business of territorial expansion again, to hell with our allies. Is that what people voted for? I don’t remember it coming up during the presidential campaign and I was paying pretty close attention. By the way, I’m sure you’ll recall that Trump always says that we should have just taken the oil in the middle east. Well: MineralsGreenland has large reserves of minerals such as copper, gold, lead, molybdenum, rare-earth elements, titanium, zinc, iron ore, coal, and graphite. Oil and gasThe Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland estimates that Greenland’s west coast contains about 18 billion barrels of oil. The U.S.
(Unless you’re an immigrant) The Wall St Journal went to Seymour, Indiana (the “small town” John Mellencamp is from) where they can’t wait to get rid of all the immigrants they believe are polluting their lives: [R]esidents have complained for years that a flood of unauthorized migrants under the Biden administration strained schools, hospitals and housing. Now, with President-elect Donald Trump promising to conduct mass deportations and shut down illegal border crossings, the pro-crackdown forces are feeling emboldened. They are organizing opposition to illegal immigration online and in local government meetings and pushing for new legislation and action at the state level. “Trump brought hope,” said Dana Clark, 66, who also spoke at the city council meeting. “Day one is going to see the biggest deportation ever.” Incorporated in the 1860s, Seymour sits at the intersection of two major railroads. Jobs are plentiful at large manufacturers such as auto-parts suppliers and agricultural businesses, including the country’s second-largest egg producer.
JV Last made an excellent observation about this Musk vs MAGA flap. This is from his Bluesky account. These guys are super into H1B precisely because they’re also into corporate tax cuts. They want to offload the expense of creating an educated workforce and just conjure labor out of thin air. This worldview makes sense if “efficiency” is your highest goal. You can outsource expenditures for human infrastructure to other countries and then import that fully formed human capital. It’s also a worldview in which the government’s primary function is to support corporations and all policies are downstream from that goal. Anyway, it’s absolutely impossible to reconcile “forgotten man” MAGA with the Elon/Vivek corporate ubermensch MAGA. The only thing that united them was that they hate trans people and NYT columnists. That works if you’re in the outside. But once you have power you have to make choices on how to apply it. And the zero-sum game pits the two factions against one another. Corporate MAGA is betting that the rubes won’t really know what’s going on. That’s probably right.
What a ride that was.
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SPECIAL Disability Trusts (SDT) were the subject of a workshop held in early December at the Coffs Harbour Village. Marking International Day of People with Disability (IDPwD), the session was arranged by Joanne Magill from PhysAbility NSW, an NDIS support provider. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your business. Message...
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UNDETERRED by superstitions around the date, Coffs Harbour Birder group spent the morning at the North Coast Botanic Garden seeking to see avian activity on Friday, 13 December. The local “birdos” always hold their end-of-year final bird outing and morning tea at the Garden and there were several very special sightings. Advertise with News of...
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SING Australia’s Coffs Harbour group wrapped up its year on a high note, celebrating with a festive, fun-filled evening on 9 December. “Our final night of singing was full of holiday cheer, with carols and some members’ choice songs,” said Isabella, co-leader with Bev, Lexie, and Ros. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s...
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