Here’s the poll: A majority of Americans oppose Donald Trump’s plans to use the U.S. military to deport millions of undocumented immigrants, to instruct the U.S. Justice Department to investigate his political rivals and to pardon rioters charged with breaking into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, according to a nationwide Washington Post-University of Maryland poll. Even larger majorities of Americans oppose Trump’s plans to jail reporters for writing stories he doesn’t like and having police use force against anti-Trump protests. The survey of 1,251 Americans was conducted weeks after Trump’s victory and sought to examine public sentiment about positions espoused by the president-elect that challenge democratic principles and strain constitutional norms, as well as views on the legitimacy of American elections after Trump’s win. Trump has claimed a broad mandate for his proposals and has selected cabinet secretaries and other executive branch officials who have expressed eagerness to carry them out.
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In our last five-minute scroll for the year, Peter Slezak speaks up at a Gaza rally, while Canadian politician Pierre Poilievre speaks up for Israel bombing Iran. Human Rights Watch has found that Israel has inflicted conditions of life in Gaza calculated to destroy the Palestinian population in Gaza and we give the last word Continue reading »
Once more, many thanks for your contributions to the Happy Hollandaise fundraiser so far. I am so grateful for all who come here every day to read our work and for those of you who support it. Merci beaucoup! When we say these are turbulent times, the only comfort is that the US isn’t the only place it’s happening. While it’s true that few countries have a freak show like the Musk administration, all the leading democracies are under strain. The danger, of course, is that with the whole world under such strain, it’s possible that things could go sideways very quickly. The Wall St Journal reported this over the weekend: One lesson from an unprecedented year of elections around the world is that voters in industrialized countries are particularly unhappy, ready to boot unpopular leaders out of office and making it more difficult for politicians in power to enact bold programs of change. Rarely have the rich world’s political leaders been so widely disliked. No leader of an industrialized country other than tiny Switzerland has a positive rating, according to a survey of some 25 democracies by pollster Morning Consult.
Since the election, there’s been a bipartisan effort in Congress to push legislation that could...
One way that inequality precipitates debt bubbles begins with “relative deprivation.” This concept concerns the discontent people feel when they compare their socio-economic status, measured by income, wealth, consumption, or other indicators of perceived economic welfare, with that of their richer counterparts. Economists have suggested several ways that this discontent may translate into indebtedness. One […]
(A production office. PRODUCER 1 sits at a desk. Enter PRODUCER 2.)
PRODUCER 1: Take a seat. You said you have something Christmassy for me?
PRODUCER 2: Strap in, buddy. This one’s gonna be a doozy.
PRODUCER 1: Ha! Can’t wait.
PRODUCER 2: Okay, so: Curtain up. It’s Christmas Eve. A young girl named Clara is opening gifts. One happens to be from her favorite uncle, a kind of creepy mask-wearing guy named Drosselmeyer.
PRODUCER 1: Don’t love this…
PRODUCER 2: Hear me out: It’s a nutcracker.
(Pause.)
PRODUCER 1: A what?
PRODUCER 2: It’s a thing, you know, I don’t know. It cracks chestnuts.
PRODUCER 1: So Clara loves chestnuts?
PRODUCER 2: She’s never eaten them.
PRODUCER 1: So she hates the Nutcracker?
Ok sure. I’m not sure that an immigrant can be in the line of succession but I’ve never heard otherwise. But why would Musk want such a thing? He can run the country just by pulling Trump’s strings and shitposting on his personal social media platform. Why would he want to do all that dirty work? Just give it Marjorie Taylor Green or some other MAGA cultist and have them do his bidding. I must admit that I’m a little bit surprised that it’s gone so far off the rails already. It’s not even Christmas! This morning Trump is saying that he wants to eliminate the debt ceiling altogether, which is actually a great idea. If that were to happen the Democrats would have to help because his Republican zealots will never vote for it. The big question right now is whether they will do it. I’m torn. It would be great if we could eliminate the debt ceiling. Democrats have been for that ever since the Republicans decided to use it as a weapon to threaten government shutdowns which they did even when Trump was president. (The Democrats never do that.) But should they help the Republicans get over this hump right now?
We are now 14 months into Israel’s live-streamed genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. Why have you failed so dismally to report Israel’s blatant, murderous campaign of annihilation with any depth or rigour? Why haven’t you brought moral clarity, journalistic integrity, and humanity to your reporting? Is it fear of losing advertisers and readers; fear of Continue reading »
Aspects of Hugh Marks’s record as chief executive of the Nine Entertainment Company raise questions about his suitability for the position of managing director of the ABC, to which he has just been appointed. Those aspects concern political independence, internal culture and news leadership, all issues of pressing concern at the ABC. On political independence, Continue reading »
The increasing global demand for rare earth elements (REE) is driven by clean energy technologies. The electric vehicle in particular, is a strong driving force. The un-ceded sovereign lands of hundreds of First Nations – now colonised and called Australia – hold at least four per cent of the world’s rare earth element reserves. Australia Continue reading »
States don’t tend to kill each other’s generals, not least because it invites reciprocal action. The bombing in Moscow this week, killing General Igor Kirillov, was a successful attack by Ukraine and its allies. The ongoing use of long-range missiles by the West to hit targets inside Russia is, I suggest, surprisingly similar. both are Continue reading »
In the wake of the deliberately lit fire in a synagogue in Melbourne on Friday 6th of December much has happened. It’s been categorised as a terrorist act, the Commonwealth government has established an anti-Semitism task force, claims of anti-Semitism have increased and, at press conferences, senior lawmakers and enforcers have called for restraint. Those Continue reading »
When I met Andrew Leigh before his ‘Meet the Authors’ discussion of this new edition of his book, I had to ask him, ‘how on earth do you do this?’. Lyn Hatfield Dodds who moderated the discussion opened with the same question. Andrew Leigh is not only an extraordinary politician but an extraordinary person. Another Continue reading »
As Francis Hodgson Burnett said more than a century ago “at first people refuse to believe that strange new thing can be done, then they begin to hope it can be done, then they see it can be done – then it is done and all the world wonders why it was not done centuries Continue reading »
Observe the formula carefully. On the public broadcaster SBS, Jillian Segal, still fresh in her role as antisemitism envoy, made a suggestion in the wake of the December 6 attack on the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne. Australian “cities should not be utilised” for protests held in solidarity with Palestinians affected by the ongoing Hamas-Israel Continue reading »
Australian politicians’ inability to understand the complexity of the Indian diaspora is, in part, fostering division among these migrants, the Guardian Australia claims in analysis published on Sunday (December 8). Writers Ben Doherty and Mostafa Rachwani say the diaspora is deeply divided – which should not surprise any educated person given that India’s Prime Minister Continue reading »
I knew when my most recent book was assigned an end-of-October publication date that I would spend much of my book tour processing the election and its aftermath. As the title suggests, Faux Feminism: Why We Fall for White Feminism and How We Can Stop is partly a meditation on the future of feminism. The book […]
The law must be changed to tackle the impact of easily available sexually violent imagery, says Criminal Barrister Gareth Roberts
The U.S. political system is owned by corporations despised by the American people. Luigi Mangione is the result.
The post Health Insurance Execs Should Live in Fear of Prison, Not Murder appeared first on The Intercept.
After a long day on the golf course and a big dinner with his other new best billionaire pal Jeff Bezos, Little Donny was very happy indeed. Everybody loves him. All the fancy ladies in their glittery gowns want to take their picture with him and all the important men want to bow down to kiss his tiny ring. Meanwhile, his bestest friend, the richest man in the world, told all the bad people to shut down the government so America can be great again. And they did! He is the luckiest boy ever. The End