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Created
Fri, 15/11/2024 - 06:01
DOGE Will Wind Up Costing the Government More Money

Elon Musk will be in charge of the effort by Trump to cut government waste.

Problem is, most government workers actually do something necessary. The last time a government seriously slashed government workers, under Clinton, all that happened is that contractors were hired to do the work: and contractors cost more.

Besides, if you’re going to actually go after waste, you need to hit the Department of Defense and allow things like Medicare negotiating drug prices.

Government is a profit center for private business, as Musk, whose businesses (especially SpaceX) run on subsidies and government contracts well knows.

A few genuine “savings” may be made by slashing enforcement of things like environmental laws, but they will be paid for in different ways.

Created
Fri, 15/11/2024 - 05:55

“President-elect Donald Trump is building his team, naming Cabinet members and key advisers after having been elected to a second presidential term.” — NPR

- - -

Listen. There’s a reason I wanted to meet with you. It wasn’t just so we could order a couple of rounds, play some blackjack, and catch up on old times. I’ve got a favor to ask. A big one. I wanna do one last job, and I’m putting together a team. The worst fucking team of all time. Are you in?

The details. Sure. First, I need a partner-in-crime. A real leader. I wanna hit the three biggest casinos on the strip, so I need a crew as nuts as I am—and that means I need you. Completely unqualified. No experience. A total fucking idiot. There’s nobody else who can’t do this as much as you can’t.

Created
Fri, 15/11/2024 - 05:30
Josh Marshall has an insightful piece up today called “Reckonings of Contempt” in which he discusses how so many people, including many liberals, hold the Democrats. He looks at some of the many pieces that are offering up criticism of the Harris campaign and the Democrats’ failure in general starting off with a piece by Eric Levitz at Vox which, as I have done here as have many others, looks at the global anti-incumbency mood as well as the more ominous implication of rightward move among the working class of all races and ethnicities. Pretty standard stuff and I think probably correct. However: Then there’s this piece in Axios. It probably won’t surprise you that I wasn’t terribly impressed with it. It starts … Democrats are a lost party.
Created
Fri, 15/11/2024 - 04:57
Australia is continuing to expand its relationships with Israel’s defence sector, defying the UN’s International Court of Justice. Republished from DECLASSIFIED AUSTRALIA, November 05, 2024 Australia is yet to give effect to urgings of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to suspend all military trade with Israel until a review is completed of the exports. Continue reading »
Created
Fri, 15/11/2024 - 04:55
Is our dependence on mining a sign of economic weakness? Is Australia suffering from the “resource curse”? This idea is a strong theme in Ken Henry’s address to the Royal Society of New South Wales: Inequality in Australia. The mining industry is “the basis of our strong economy”. That’s hardly a contentious assertion: many would see Continue reading »
Created
Fri, 15/11/2024 - 04:53
It was supposed to be the Tour Triumphant, showing that Indonesia – the globe’s fourth-most populous nation – has a cosmopolitan new boss who can stride the world stage with panache. But cashiered former general Prabowo Subianto has tripped badly. Indonesia’s eighth President has flunked his first test at high-stakes bargaining in China, while in Continue reading »
Created
Fri, 15/11/2024 - 04:52
The outcome in the recent US presidential election may yet push Taiwan in directions at variance with those advocated in a new article published in the America journal Foreign Affairs, which argues that: “China’s Gray-Zone Offensive Against Taiwan is Backfiring”. David Sacks provides an up-to-date review of the highly significant relationship between the US and Continue reading »
Created
Fri, 15/11/2024 - 04:51
It didn’t take long after Donald Trump and the Republicans swept the polls in the US elections for the Australian fossil fuel industry and its political enablers to do what they like to do best: Celebrate a victory at the expense of the rest of the world. Members of the federal Coalition – in sync Continue reading »
Created
Fri, 15/11/2024 - 04:50
In this exclusive interview with Alexey Pavlovsky, the Ambassador of the Russian Federation to Australia since 2019, he shares his insights on the complex dynamics between Russia, Ukraine, and the West, as well as his reflections on Australia’s stance in the ongoing conflict. You have been Ambassador to Australia since 2019. What interested you about Continue reading »
Created
Fri, 15/11/2024 - 04:12
O’Reilly Media asked me to collect expressions of interest for a print version of the ActivityPub book I wrote. I’ve added a form to the ActivityPub book page at https://evanp.me/activitypub-book/#print that you can use to let me know that you’re interested. Even if you’ve told me before in person, over email, or on the Fediverse … Continue reading Print Version of ActivityPub Book
Created
Fri, 15/11/2024 - 03:28

The year 2010 was a good one for Michel Houellebecq. As food riots broke out across North Africa and spread into southern Europe in November, his novel The Map and the Territory won the Prix Goncourt, the most prestigious of all French literary prizes. In the following months, his satire of the contemporary art world […]

Created
Fri, 15/11/2024 - 03:27

Britain is a sick society. The riots that raged across the UK over August have provided ample evidence for this observation. But far-right violence is simply the most extreme manifestation of a deeper underlying trend: the rise of mistrust, insecurity, and despair. According to the National Centre for Social Research, trust and confidence in the […]

Created
Fri, 15/11/2024 - 03:27

The scene on the terrace bar of the House of Commons was enough to chill the blood of any watching democrat. Here was Nigel Farage’s threatened ‘bridgehead into Parliament’, the Reform UK leader and his four-strong band of newly elected MPs quaffing pints and joshing, as comfortably at home as though they belonged in the […]