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Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – March 02, 2025

By Tony Wikrent

Musk’s Purges Suddenly Take a Horrific Turn—and Wreck an Ugly MAGA Lie — We can now be depressingly confident that their mass cuts are killing people.

Greg Sargent, March 1, 2025 [The New Republic]

It has a dry, bureaucratic name, but Ready to Use Therapeutic Food has functioned for over a decade as a lifeline for countless starving children around the globe. Manufactured in the United States and distributed by the U.S. Agency for International Development, it’s a paste made of peanuts, milk, and vitamins that alleviates a form of acute malnutrition known as “severe wasting.”

Check out the new official Season 2 trailer for Ncuti Gatwa, Millie Gibson, and Varada Sethu-starring Doctor Who, returning on April 12th.

The last right-wing American president before Trump galvanized a resurgent Latin American left. Where will the region go now?

The post Latin America’s New Right Ushers in Pan-American Trumpism appeared first on The Intercept.

For no apparent reason The pro-war crimes Sec. Def. is apparently preparing for war on the Southern border: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered about 3,000 active-duty troops to the southern U.S. border, including soldiers from a motorized brigade equipped with 20-ton armored Stryker combat vehicles, defense officials familiar with the effort said. The defense secretary approved the orders Friday, said two officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal Defense Department planning. The soldiers are primarily from the 4th Infantry Division’s 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team at Fort Carson, Colorado, and will be joined by soldiers specializing in engineering, intelligence and public affairs, the officials said. The Pentagon announced the deployment in a statement Saturday afternoon after the news was first reported by The Washington Post. Hegseth has ordered the deployment of the Stryker unit and a helicopter battalion to “reinforce and expand current border security operations to seal the border and protect the territorial integrity of the United States,” the statement said.

Musk has his eyes on Social Security Trump says that he won’t touch benefits. But he’s all for Elon eliminating waste. fraud and abuse in the program, all of which is defined by Elon. Here’s what he thinks of the program: The billionaire argued Friday on “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast that the United States government is “one big pyramid scheme” before blasting Social Security as “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.” When asked to clarify, Musk said, “Well, people pay into Social Security and the money goes out of Social Security immediately, but the obligation for Social Security is your entire retirement career.

Speak up, speak out. Loudly. Kevin Kruse offers perhaps the best summary of the Trump-Vance ambush of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office last week: It’s nice how they’ve replicated the middle school dynamic of the insecure bully and his sniveling sidekick picking on someone surrounded by a circle of scared little boys who also try to talk shit so the bully doesn’t come after them. Or as the right calls it, “masculinity.” And on Brian Glenn, the Real America’s Voice reporter(?) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-Ga.) boyfriend, Kruse adds: And I mean that literally — he’s [Zelensky] there pleading for funds to save lives and this sniggling manchild mocks his fucking outfit “It’s time to say it plainly. America’s leadership has switched sides in the war,” as the Kyiv Independent opinion page sees it. But, “The American people have not, and they should speak up.” Please do. The Kyiv Independent: Let this sink in. The president of a battered Ukraine, an ally of the U.S., became the first world leader in history to be kicked out of the White House.

Musk taps into his private government piggybank while Trump tries to privatize federal agencies, and more news from The Lever this week.

Musk is a dangerous phony White House tech veteran, Waldo Jaquith, posted a Bluesky thread about what Elon Musk’s DOGE saboteurs did on Friday to a federal technology group where Jaquith once worked. We know by now (and as you read on Saturday) that Musk’s “waste, fraud, and abuse” pitch for the cameras and is as phony as Trump University. Musk possesses “scant interest in constitutional law” and considers oversight of his operations the “dictatorship of the bureaucracy.” His goal is not to improve government or even to shrink it (the Goldilocks question) but to hobble it. So under the pretext of cutting “waste,” he is in fact destroying the government’s ability prevent his becoming … emperor, or something more like Eldon Tyrell or Peter Weyland. Musk would enjoy the comparison. Pay attention: 18F, the federal government’s technology shop, was demolished by Musk’s team shortly after midnight. It was a cost-recoverable org, charging agencies for their expertise, using a consulting model. Its cost to government was negligible, its benefits huge. My team there once saved DoD $500 billion.

After 30 years, a long-planned milestone has arrived

I’ve not been out taking pictures, so here’s another cormorant from the sequence I shot a few days ago.

THE annual Coffs Coast Science and Engineering Challenge (SEC) for school students will take place on Tuesday 8 April at the Wiigulga Sports Complex and Multipurpose Centre. The event attracts around 240 Year 10 students from state and private schools across the Coffs Coast, including Coffs Harbour, Dorrigo, Woolgoolga, Bellingen and Grafton. Advertise with News...

The post Volunteers asked to step up for science and engineering challenge appeared first on News Of The Area.

OZFISH Coffs Coast Chapter is rallying locals to join a Clean Up Australia Day event at Bonville Creek boat ramp in Sawtell. The clean-up is on Sunday 2 March and will kick-off at 9am for two hours. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your business. Message us. Phone us –...

The post OzFish tackles rubbish at Bonville Creek boat ramp appeared first on News Of The Area.

COFFS Harbour yachtsman Eric Marsh, 71, crossed the start line in the McIntyre Mini Globe Race (MGR) on Sunday 23 February, setting out from Falmouth Harbour, Antigua. The start gun was fired by a member of the National Sailing Academy, which is the official host of the MGR. Advertise with News of The Area today....

The post Coffs Harbour sailor sets off on round the world yacht race appeared first on News Of The Area.

LOCAL residents with a tale to tell can save their story for future generations through a special opportunity as part of this year’s Seniors Festival. City of Coffs Harbour is driving a jam-packed program of events for a celebration which is themed ‘Your time to shine’. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth...

The post Explaining Coffs Harbour’s pictures from the past appeared first on News Of The Area.

As the British state harasses and arrests a growing number of activists and dissident journalists, including the author of this piece, UN rapporteurs delivered a forceful letter of protest to London condemning its abuse of counter-terror legislation. In December 2024, a quartet of UN rapporteurs focused on “peaceful assembly and of association” and the “right to privacy” delivered a strongly-worded letter to the British government. Expressing grave concerns about the potential “misapplication of counter-terrorism laws” to arrest, detain, interrogate and […]

The post UN demands answers from UK on terror law abuse first appeared on The Grayzone.

The post UN demands answers from UK on terror law abuse appeared first on The Grayzone.

The questioning of The Grayzone’s editor-in-chief at Dulles International Airport appears to signal a disturbing escalation in the attack on antiwar journalism. As I approached the customs line at Dulles International Airport early on the morning of February 24, a man called out to me, “Mr. Blumenthal?” He identified himself as an officer with Customs and Border Protection, and led me into a cavernous secondary screening room, where he treated me to a strange and disconcerting questioning session. I had […]

The post Max Blumenthal: Why was I questioned by the Feds? first appeared on The Grayzone.

The post Max Blumenthal: Why was I questioned by the Feds? appeared first on The Grayzone.

I felt it apropos on this Oscar Eve to honor Hollywood’s annual declaration of its deep and abiding love for itself with my picks for the top 10 movies about…the movies. Action! Cinema Paradiso– Writer-director Giuseppe Tornatore’s 1988 love letter to the cinema may be too sappy for some, but for those of us who (to quote Pauline Kael) “lost it at the movies” it’s chicken soup for the soul. A film director (Jacques Perrin) returns to his home town in Sicily for a funeral, triggering flashbacks from his youth. He reassesses the relationships with two key people in his life: his first love, and the person who instilled his life-long love of the movies. Beautifully acted and directed; keep the Kleenex handy. Day for Night– French film scholar and director Francois Truffaut was, first and foremost, a movie fan. And while one could argue that many of his own movies are rife with homage to the filmmakers who inspired him, this 1973 entry is his most heartfelt declaration of love for the medium (as well as his most-imitated work). Truffaut casts himself as (wait for it) a director in the midst of a production called Meet Pamela.

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

Disney+ had some good news to share regarding how well Doctor Who is doing when it confirmed April 12th as the show's return date.

The post Bubbled appeared first on The Perry Bible Fellowship.

CYCLISTS are seeking to open the discussion on the long-term project of achieving safe cycle lanes across the Coffs Coast, starting with councils and Transport for NSW regularly clearing leafy cycle paths and roadsides. The cycling community is growing rapidly across the Coffs Coast. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for...

The post Coffs Coast cyclists press to open discussions on safe cycle lanes appeared first on News Of The Area.

THREE forest campaigners have been convicted of a traffic obstruction offence relating to an incident at Billys Creek on the Dorrigo Plateau in early 2024. Meredith Stanton, David Mcrae and Jane St Vincent Welch faced Coffs Harbour Local Court on Monday, 17 February, to fight on-the-spot fines of $200 received while protesting on private land...

The post Clouds Creek forest campaigners to appeal criminal convictions appeared first on News Of The Area.

CAMP Quality Family Fun Day at Big Banana Fun Park last Sunday was hugely successful judging by the smiles, amount of laughter and tired kids at the end of the day, said the organisers. The experience gives families facing cancer the opportunity to have a much-needed break from the trauma of cancer, bringing laughter and...

The post Big Banana hosts special fun day for Camp Quality families appeared first on News Of The Area.