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If You Go For The King #2: Romania

https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/niyBMplQItDsEtOwbtGfzGBvg9t5Ng9W
Created
Fri, 21/02/2025 - 02:28
If You Go For The King #2: Romania

So, the supreme court of Romania cancelled the previous Presidential election, ostensibly because of Russian interference.

The guy who won last time, however, will probably win the next elections in May. He recently stated:

Non-Linear

https://www.monbiot.com/2025/02/20/non-linear/
Created
Fri, 21/02/2025 - 02:11
Trump’s assaults on governance could trigger systemic collapse. Here’s how it might happen, and how we can prepare. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian  18th February 2025 Though we might find it hard to imagine, we cannot now rule it out: the possibility of systemic collapse in the United States. The degradation of federal […]

The War on Terror Turns Inward

https://tomdispatch.com/the-war-on-terror-turns-inward/
Created
Fri, 21/02/2025 - 01:32

President Donald Trump has made no secret of his disdain for immigrants, particularly the non-white variety from south of our border. His statements that immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of our country,” coupled with Fox News reports on Hispanic-appearing migrants who commit crimes, leave little doubt about what he and his allies think of (non-white) immigrants and their contributions to this country. So it didn’t surprise me that he recently began to follow through on his own and his Department of Homeland Security (DHS) leadership’s earlier intentions (as far back as 2018) to detain immigrants — including unaccompanied children — at military posts. Earlier this month, the first deportation flight carried a few men from the American mainland to our... Read more

Trump Is A Russian Puppet

https://digbysblog.net/2025/02/20/trump-is-a-russian-puppet/
Created
Fri, 21/02/2025 - 01:00
“What can I do today?” The news out of Washington, D.C. and Europe is so insane that let’s start with someone who’s not cowed by the Musk-Trump coup: New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. “Every day our job is to wake up and say what can I do today?” “There is no act too small.” You might want to watch that several more times. Meanwhile, Republicans in control(?) of Congress are running scared, too concerned for their political survival to dedicate any of their waking hours to saving their republic (or their European allies) from the Russian puppet sitting in the Oval Office. “Senate and House Republicans know Trump will orchestrate the running of a primary challenger backed by Elon Musk’s unlimited resources if a member defies him.,” Gabriel Sherman writes at Vanity Fair.

Our Son Lionel’s Back at School

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/our-son-lionels-back-at-school
Created
Fri, 21/02/2025 - 00:00

Dear Miss Julie,

As you’re about to discover, we’re sending Lionel back to preschool today after his two-week-long illness-related absence. Although we had a wonderful time hanging out with our boy twenty-four hours a day, taking him to multiple doctors’ appointments, neglecting urgent deadlines, and waking up intermittently at night to pin him down while injecting syringes of ibuprofen into his mouth, he’s finally well enough to return to school, according to a telemedicine appointment with a Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Holistic Healing Center receptionist temp. A few small notes:

Models of uncertainty

https://larspsyll.wordpress.com/2025/02/20/models-of-uncertainty/
Created
Thu, 20/02/2025 - 21:27
Post Keynesian authors have offered various classifications of uncertainty … A common distinction is that of epistemological versus ontological uncertainty, with the former depending on the limitations of human reasoning and the latter on the actual nature of social systems … Models of ontological uncertainty tend to hinge on the existence of information that is […]

GIV us some credit: estimating the macroeconomic effects of credit supply shocks

https://bankunderground.co.uk/2025/02/20/giv-us-some-credit-estimating-the-macr…
Created
Thu, 20/02/2025 - 20:00
Sam Christie and Aniruddha Rajan Sudden contractions in credit supply can trigger and amplify recessions – a reality made painfully clear by the 2008 global financial crisis (GFC). However, quantifying these real economic effects is challenging. In this post, we demonstrate a novel way to do so using Granular Instrumental Variables (GIV), focusing on the … Continue reading GIV us some credit: estimating the macroeconomic effects of credit supply shocks →

Independents join forces at Coffs Harbour’s ‘Politics in the Pub’

https://www.newsofthearea.com.au/independents-join-forces-at-coffs-harbours-pol…
Created
Thu, 20/02/2025 - 18:54

AN ENGAGED crowd of nearly 300 packed the Coast Hotel at Coffs Harbour last Friday night for “Politics in the Pub” featuring the first Independent Senator for the ACT David Pocock, and two-time Federal candidate for Cowper, Caz Heise. Despite the sweltering conditions and standing-room-only crowd, the audience remained enthusiastic, directing a wide range of...

The post Independents join forces at Coffs Harbour’s ‘Politics in the Pub’ appeared first on News Of The Area.

‘Poppy John’ celebrates his 86th birthday cycling with friends

https://www.newsofthearea.com.au/poppy-john-celebrates-his-86th-birthday-cyclin…
Created
Thu, 20/02/2025 - 18:52

AN 86-year-old cyclist has celebrated his birthday aboard his bike, in a pedalling party of friends. Dressed in high-viz lycra, the Dorrigo, Urunga, Bellingen Bicycle User Group’s (DUBBUG) very own “Poppy John” enjoyed a birthday ride that included a stop off for morning tea where his wife Pam joined in. Advertise with News of The...

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Webinars to explain Coffs Harbour Bypass progress

https://www.newsofthearea.com.au/webinars-to-explain-coffs-harbour-bypass-progr…
Created
Thu, 20/02/2025 - 17:41

PROGRESS on the Coffs Harbour bypass will be explained in a series of webinars next month. Webinars will provide an update on construction progress of bridges, tunnels and earthworks, and participants will have the opportunity to ask questions at the end of each presentation. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for...

The post Webinars to explain Coffs Harbour Bypass progress appeared first on News Of The Area.

Australia – January labour market update – rising employment and participation sees underutilisation rise modestly

https://billmitchell.org/blog/?p=62374
Created
Thu, 20/02/2025 - 12:32
Today (February 20, 2025), the Australian Bureau of Statistics released the latest – Labour Force, Australia – for January 2025. Employment growth was relatively strong and concentrated on full-time employment, which is a good sign. It was, however, unable to keep pace with the underlying population growth and the rising participation rate and as a…

Relax, Everyone—Clarence Thomas Has Got Us

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/relax-everyone-clarence-thomas-has-got-us
Created
Thu, 20/02/2025 - 11:30

“In the first case to reach the Supreme Court arising from the blitz of actions taken in the early weeks of the new administration, lawyers for President Trump asked the justices on Sunday to let him fire a government lawyer who leads a watchdog agency.” — New York Times

- - -

Look, I get it. You’re stressed. Trump’s executive orders are coming in fast and furious. Birthright citizenship? On the chopping block. Federal agencies? Slashed to bits. A ketamine-addled billionaire demolishing social security? Yeah, not great.

Things are pretty stressful right now, but don’t freak out. Our democracy was built for this.

Remember what you learned in civics class about checks and balances? The three equal branches of government? The separation of powers? The restraints on executive overreach?

Who Cares About Alzheimer’s?

https://digbysblog.net/2025/02/19/who-cares-about-alzheimers/
Created
Thu, 20/02/2025 - 11:30
You’d think Trump would because of his family history. But no. Greg Sargent writes today about the latest atrocity at the NIH: [O]ne downsizing just started attracting notice among insiders at the National Institutes of Health, because it seems particularly inexplicable: According to people familiar with the situation, approximately one-tenth of the workers have now been let go at the NIH’s Center for Alzheimer’s and Related Dementias, or CARD, including its incoming director, a highly regarded scientist credited with important innovations in the field. What makes this particularly jarring is that it could set back efforts to treat and develop cures for these awful afflictions, as these insiders and other experts fear. But it’s also that the potential for this center to do good—and the importance of the broader cause of battling Alzheimer’s—have both been championed by Republicans.