Reading
Michael Tomasky wrote an excellent piece today about the unaccountable president, laying out the process by which he gets away with everything. No one expects anything of him and no matter what he says, the right wing media, the Congress and his allies in the judiciary will back him up. As an example he suggests that even if Trump were to be found to have given nuclear secrets to North Korea he would either claim it was fake news and the entire wingnuts apparatus would launch into gear calling it another hoax or he would admit it, saying it was a perfect move of a very stable genius and they’d all back his decision as necessary for national security despite its madness. That is not an exaggeration. I believe there is nothing that can make them abandon their support at this point. He writes: Trump will be a completely unaccountable president, then, for this very simple reason: The only three power systems capable of holding him to account—the right-wing media, Republicans in Congress, and the Supreme Court—have no interest in doing so.
The urban inferno is a warning about America’s future — if we do not combat the climate crisis and adapt to its threats.
The author on losing his home to wildfire, finding strength in solitude, and his new book Aflame
The post Pico Iyer’s Wide-Awake Silence appeared first on Nautilus.
Apparently: Putin is very eager to meet Trump face to face, the Kremlin is making no prerequisite demands for the meeting to take place. There has presumably been a lot of back channel diplomacy before this official meeting. The Russian side aims to exclude Ukraine from the process completely and present itself to Trump as the side willing to compromise, while blaming Kyiv (and Biden’s administration) for the continuation of the war. Sounds totally believable. I wonder if Trump will let anyone take notes. Two buds hands in glove.
It seems like Western countries cannot draw lessons from their shameful past. Just as they appeased the Nazi and apartheid regimes, they are repeating their mistake by appeasing the Zionist regime in occupied Palestine while it’s waging a war of genocide against the Palestinian people. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has sent Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus to Continue reading »
The Eagles classic “Hotel California” could be considered an allegory for membership in the imperial system of the United States. At least to this point, that appears to be the mindset prevalent in Australia’s political, defence and security class, regardless of the harm that membership causes. It is time to check out. The end of Continue reading »
In Asian media this week: Biden insults close ally in protecting US interests. Plus: Indonesia becomes full member of BRICS; Myanmar resistance gaining wider control; Survival now Pentagon’s Pacific strategy; Yoon hiding behind barricade of buses and barbed wire; Jakarta launches free meals program. Joe Biden’s dying-days decision to reject Nippon Steel’s A$22 billion bid Continue reading »
Mark Dreyfus, the Australian Attorney-General, is travelling to Israel to pay fealty to an indicted war criminal, Benjamin Netanyahu. Dreyfus, a member of the current Australian Labor government has not criticised the ongoing genocide. Netanyahu wants the Albanese Government to ban protests in Australia against the Palestinian genocide, which Dutton would attempt, but Labor cannot Continue reading »
As the Trump presidency looms across America and the world, Australia faces major foreign and security policy challenges on three fronts: (i) How would a Dutton government respond? (ii) How would a renewed Albanese government respond? (iii) How would a minority Labor government respond? As blusterer-in-chief, Donald Trump is notorious for setting off policy hares Continue reading »
Just before last Christmas, the National Security Archive based at George Washington University, published an illuminating cable on US-Russian relations. Authored by political analyst E. Wayne Merry in March 1994 from Moscow’s US Embassy, it was sharply prescient – so much so that it had to be sent by the Dissent Channel to limit its Continue reading »
The presence of the Israel-Premier Tech cycling team in the forthcoming Tour Down Under is illegal under international law. The Australian Friends of Palestine Association is calling on government and private entities to prohibit the unlawful participation of the Israeli team in the event. I am writing as a member of the Executive Committee of Continue reading »
The most comprehensive study of Australian social cohesion — The Scanlon Foundation Research Institute Social Cohesion Mapping 2024 Report — has highlighted strains in Australia society which are not yet dire, but are disturbing. The Report is an annual survey which gauges Australians attitudes, perceptions and behaviours across 1000 indicators of social cohesion, multiculturalism, wellbeing Continue reading »
The Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix has already cost Victorians in excess of one billion dollars and will have cost us an estimated $3 billion by the time the contract ends in 2037. The Australian Grand Prix Corporation, a Victorian Government agency, is taking me to the Victorian Civil Administrative Tribunal at taxpayers’ expense to Continue reading »
An exemplary Christian and an exceptional American, President Jimmy Carter, who passed on last month, embodied the moral conscience of the world. His enduring legacy will continue to inspire generations to come. Though his presidency lasted only one term, Carter achieved notable foreign policy milestones, including the historic normalisation of diplomatic relations between the United Continue reading »
A job listing for the Super Bowl LIX halftime show offers $12 per hour — part of a long pattern of host-city residents getting the short shrift.
The post Everyone’s Making Millions But the Super Bowl Haltime Show Wants to Hire New Orleans Locals for $12 an Hour appeared first on The Intercept.
A meaningless sentence empowering him further It’s done: The historic New York criminal case against Donald Trump — the first of its kind against a former president — closed with a whimper Friday morning, with the president-elect facing no consequences for faking business documents to cover up a sexual affair from American voters in 2016. “Never before has this court been presented with such a unique and remarkable set of circumstances,” Justice Juan Merchan said from the bench. “This has been a truly extraordinary case.” However, the judge pointed out that the soft landing to such a weighty case was directly due to Trump’s impending return to office — and he reminded Trump that the legal protections sparing him what could have been a more serious sentence, which could have included years in jail, belonged not to a man but to the person who temporarily sits at the White House’s Resolute Desk. “Ordinary citizens do not receive those legal protections,” Merchan said as he delivered his sentence.
. I veckans avsnitt av Starta pressarna försöker Daniel Suhonen och Max Jerneck att — tillsammans med Peo Hansen och yours truly — reda ut vad MMT (Modern Monetär Teori) är för något och varför så många nationalekonomer ännu idag fortfarande håller fast vid teorier och modelller om pengar som verkligheten sedan länge sprungit förbi. […]