Musk’s new “commission” looks like a go He plans to cut taxes and regulations to make life easier for his vastly wealthy friends to raze the government to the ground: Donald Trump plans to outline a suite of economic proposals in a speech here Thursday, including introducing a government efficiency commission recommended by Elon Musk, taking an even more aggressive swipe at regulations than during his first White House term and pledging to rescind certain unspent funds appropriated during the Biden administration. The commission would conduct “a complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government” and make “recommendations for drastic reform,” the Republican former president plans to say in an appearance before the Economic Club of New York. The goal would be to identify ways to eliminate fraud and improper payments, according to portions of the speech viewed by The Wall Street Journal. An “audit” and “performance review” by the guy who just destroyed twitter for his personal entertainment. Whatever.
Reading
Sean Grayson had a history of credibility issues. It didn’t stop him from being hired at police departments in Central Illinois.
The post Cop Who Shot Sonya Massey Lied to Make a Drug Arrest. It Didn’t Hurt His Career. appeared first on The Intercept.
They’re banning what’s already banned As closely as I monitor these things, this one slipped by me (Center for Media and Democracy): Eight states will vote to amend their state constitutions in November to ban noncitizens from voting in elections. If these amendments pass in Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Wisconsin, it will bring the total number of states with constitutions specifying only citizens are allowed to vote to 20. The little known dark money group Americans for Citizens Voting (ACV) is backing and tracking the effort. Since 2018, voters in six states have added the amendment to their state constitutions. ACV has its eyes locked on another 11 states in 2025: Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia, according to its website. ACV has enlisted the help of the pay-to-play American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) to move a model state constitution amendment in these states and others to ban noncitizens from voting in elections.
During World War II, American leaders proudly proclaimed this country the “arsenal of democracy,” supplying weapons and related materiel to allies like Great Britain and the Soviet Union. To cite just one example, I recall reading about Soviet armored units equipped with U.S. Sherman tanks, though the Soviets had an even better tank of their own in the T-34 and its many variants. However, recent news that the United States is providing yet more massive arms deliveries to Israel (worth $20 billion) for 2026 and thereafter caught me off guard. Israel quite plainly is engaged in the near-total destruction of Gaza and the massacre of Palestinians there. So, tell me, how over all these years did the self-styled arsenal of democracy become... Read more
By Swamp Yankee
(Ian–this is another elevated comment. I thought (and think) it’s an excellent one, informed by life experience. In general the quality of comments lately has impressed me.)
As Israeli forces target refugee camps and civilian infrastructure, fears grow that this military campaign is setting the stage for the de jure annexation of the West Bank.
The post Operation Summer Camps: Israel’s Largest West Bank Assault in Two Decades Sparks Fears of Annexation appeared first on MintPress News.
Zoë Hitzig’s newest, called Not Us Now, is a collection of poems written against—into the teeth of—the particular kind of algorithmic society many of us are now ensnared in. A society in which our moves are tracked and goaded by corporate systems for guiding behavior and feeling. Which makes for a culture of trending and buzzing, immediacy, and profitable smoothness. Hitzig offers a vision for another, freer, wildly alive, and compelling use for the power of numbers. Which is to say, she uses the language of our society against it, to unmake and remake it in the imagination. Here, for instance, is the lyric power of “Greedy Algorithm”:
Is this or is this not
what you tasked me with.
To play our every hand.
To replace each arrival with
the nearest destination.
To keep you in what may
still be called breath.
Cliffs, ropes, pills, wings …
it’s not like you specified
any real alternatives.
The failure of imagination is not the algorithm’s fault but, as always, dear Brutus, in the imaginations that imagined it. So the poem finishes:
Precious few, but not no principled conservatives Only a fool would predict a new Donald Trump scandal will finally collapse his support. The Trump shock troops who cover their lawns and trucks and boats and bodies in loud professions of their MAGA faith are too far gone. Trump has spent his life flouting the law using his daddy’s money, his own notoriety, and a bevy of attorneys to keep himself out of the hoosegow. It’s the habit of a lifetime of crime. Laws that apply to ordinary people are but annoying flies Trump swats away. He believes his shit doesn’t stink (contrary to reports) despite attracting swarms of prosecutorial flies. If anything does end Trump, it won’t be a bullet or another criminal indictment or an investigation into his illegally accepting $10 million in 2016 from an account tied to the Egyptian General Intelligence Service. It might be a personal insult to ordinary Americans. Like the families of fallen soldiers he’s already described as losers and suckers. Only this time, he did not issue the insult on foreign soil but at Arlington National Cemetery.
Even in a technological age, Albert Borgmann believed we can still have what is real.
Dear Whoever Is Trying to Hack into My Instagram Account,
Hey, man. Just got that little automatic email you generated trying to hack into my Instagram account. Dude, no. You do not want to go in there. Seriously. This is for your own good.
I may not know you, but I’m confident you do not have the mental or emotional stamina to survive the torment and torture that is my Instagram account. Stop trying to guess my password and SAVE YOURSELF.
. Im Frühjahr 1984 besuchte yours truly einen guten Freund in Frankfurt und nutzte die Gelegenheit, einigen Vorlesungen von Habermas beizuwohnen. Beeindruckend und unvergesslich!
Foreign Secretary David Lammy’s recent announcement that the UK is suspending some arms export licenses to Israel was remarkable. For the first time, the government has acknowledged that weapons supplied by Britain might be used to violate the laws of war. More than saving Palestinian lives, however, the Foreign Secretary’s primary concern may be with placating campaigners […]
'It may be that Israel was able to believe that pressure on the ICC was working and that its eight years of impunity from international law since 2014 would continue'
'The new Government should prioritise reforms to lobbying rules by introducing a comprehensive lobbying register to increase transparency over those seeking access and potential influence in Westminster'
Multi-millionaire hedge fund chief, who is set to buy ‘Tory Bible’ the Spectator, also funds organisation set up by controversial shock-jock psychologist Jordan Peterson
Despite U.S. talk of peace and stability, and two decades of war, the people of Yemen are still suffering.
The post The U.S. Has Been at War in Yemen for 20 Years, but Houthis Can Still Choke the Red Sea appeared first on The Intercept.
MintPress uncovers the troubling role of US and Canadian donors in backing Israeli soldiers accused of raping and torturing Palestinian detainees, spotlighting the international reach of financial support for human rights violations.
The post Exposed: The US and Canadian Funding Behind Israeli Soldiers Accused of Rape appeared first on MintPress News.
- by Aeon Video
- by Jacob Crouse
- by Nina Emery
No doubt exists that an entirely different subject has taken over control when it comes to education in scientific methodology in almost the entire field, namely statistics … The value of the statistical regulatory system should of course not be questioned, but it should not be forgotten that other forms of reflection are also cultivated […]
Aydan Dogan, Melih Firat and Aditya Soenarjo How does the use of imported inputs in production affect inflation dynamics in the UK? Over the past few decades, with the rise of global value chains (GVCs), production processes have become increasingly interlinked across countries and sectors. This interconnection means that firms’ pricing decisions are now more … Continue reading Global value chains and inflation: how imported inputs shape UK prices
For those advising an attempt to take over the Republican Party. I think candidly that that is even less likely than taking over the Democratic Party.