Why human attempts to mechanize logic keep breaking down.
The post The Perpetual Quest for a Truth Machine appeared first on Nautilus.
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Following my posts below, I thought I’d post Timothy Snyder’s recent post on this: Mainstream media have treated President Biden with prejudice and arrogance. Quite a few Democrats, reacting to this, treat any mention of President Biden’s fitness as disloyalty. This is mistaken, if understandable. One source of the negative energy is Trump’s fascism. Focusing on it will not answer the question of what Democrats do, but will help us to understand the context in which the discussion is taking place. By fascism I just have in mind (1) the cult of personality of a Leader: (2) the party that becomes a single party; (3) the threat and use of violence; and (4) the big lie that must be accepted and used to reshape reality: in this case, that Trump can never lose an election. Much more could be said (as I have done elsewhere), but it is the official big lie and the threats of violence that are dangerous to those whose job is to report truth. Trump is on the record as regarding reporters as enemies of the people. What should I make — a journalist might ask — of Trump’s talk of arresting journalists?
My new book Dependency and Crisis in Brazil and Argentina analyses three decades of development discourses in both countries, mapping the political impasse generated by the impoverished political economy debate between neoliberals and neodevelopmentalists.
The post Dependency and Crisis in Brazil and Argentina appeared first on Progress in Political Economy (PPE).
Judd Legum has put together a definitive primer on Trump’s connections to Project 2025. These are his people and this is his plan, don’t allow him to pretend otherwise. If the press lets him get away with that it will be the worst dereliction of duty in the US media’s history. On July 5, Trump posted on Truth Social that he knows “nothing about Project 2025,” has “no idea who is behind it,” and has “nothing to do with them.” This is false. The co-editors of Project 2025, Paul Dans and Steven Groves, both held high-ranking positions in the Trump administration. Under Trump, Dans served as Chief of Staff at the Office of Personnel Management, the agency responsible for staffing the federal government, and was a senior advisor at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Groves served Trump in the White House as Deputy Press Secretary and Assistant Special Counsel. Project 2025’s two associate directors, Spencer Chretien and Troup Hemenway, are also tightly connected with Trump. Chretien was Special Assistant to President Donald J.
The world’s geopolitical system is not delivering what we want or need. Sustainable development is our declared goal, meaning economic prosperity, social justice, environmental sustainability, and peace. Yet our reality is continued poverty amidst plenty, widening inequalities, deepening environmental crises, and war. To get back on track, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has wisely called Continue reading »
From air strikes to field executions, Fault Lines investigates the killings of civilians by the Israeli military in Gaza and the role of the United States in the war. As Israel’s bombing campaign continues in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis deepens to catastrophic levels, the Biden administration has not wavered in its support for Israel. Continue reading »
When I asked Jocelyn Chey about her experience at the lunch in Parliament House in honour of Chinese Premier Li Qiang, she said, “I thought the best part of the lunch was Dutton’s speech through gritted teeth about how everyone wants relations with China to improve.” Also, speaking to 2GB, Dutton said, “I’m pro-China and Continue reading »
With former secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Varghese undertaking a review of taxpayer dollars spent on strategic policy work, Australia’s China hawks have argued a Canberra-based thinktank, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), cannot be touched. After an employee of the Chinese embassy included funding an “anti-China thinktank” in a Continue reading »
The strategic and tactical geniuses inside the prime minister’s office and the man they serve may take time to appreciate how comprehensively they have mismanaged popular discontent about Labor’s passive support for Israel during the war against the Palestinians of the past eight months. Instead, they are deluding themselves about being politically outplayed by a Continue reading »
The housing crisis will not be solved for those who are suffering the most by the mish mash of half hearted, small steps, and policy responses currently favoured by governments. They lack the courage to commit to direct government intervention on a sufficient scale in the failed housing market in the form of publicly funded, Continue reading »
Yesterday’s French elections’ results are everything except what predictions had forecast. Only days ago, Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party was tipped to win. But this weekend it became the clear loser of these French National Assembly elections. The far right National Rally is coming third, behind Macron’s centrist Ensemble coalition in second. And in first place, somewhat against Continue reading »
The comment by the sitting U.S. president in Friday’s interview has been ignored by the mainstream, but its megalomania is at the heart of why Joe Biden is defying his party and remaining in the race, writes Joe Lauria. About midway through what was billed as the most consequential interview of Joe Biden’s political career, Continue reading »
I realize that we are all concerned about Biden’s recent inability to communicate clearly and what appears to be his frailty which is accelerating. I am concerned too. But I hope that regardless of whether he stays in or there’s a big fight, that we can all keep at least some perspective on the fact that his opponent is even worse. Yes, his character flaws are immense and his agenda is toxic. But with all this talk about communication and cognitive problems I think it’s important to recall that Trump is also falling apart which makes him a much greater risk in a second term than Biden, even on his worst days. It certainly makes him a bigger risk than the VP or, really, any Democrat no matter how debilitated they might be. This is not a comedy act. It’s a man whose mental faculties are much chaotic and disturbed than Joe Biden’s Eugene Robinson wrote this a month ago, before the debate but it holds just as true today: We in the media have failed by becoming inured to Trump’s verbal incontinence — not just the rapid-fire lies and revenge-seeking threats, but also the frightening glimpses into a mind that is, evidently, unwell.
I stare at Linoleum Snopes across the net, hating him. “It don’t bounce proper,” I say. “It don’t hardly bounce at all.”
He studies the service line at his feet, furious. The sun is hot.
It don’t bounce proper. It just.
“Eight-three-one,” he says. “You best back up some.”
I don’t budge. I look back at Varse, my partner, daring him to boss me. He don’t.
Lin swings hard, like he’s beating a carpet, like he’s angry but can’t say nothing. The ball gets bigger coming at me. I stick the paddle up thoughtless and the ball skips back across the net and catches Rayleen Butters in her pink soft gut, just below the knot she’s tied in her blouse to show off her tummy.
“You gotta let it bounce,” Lin says, his voice urgent, fierce. “The two-bounce rule.”
“It don’t bounce,” I say. “I seen cow-flop with more bounce.”
Rayleen hunches over like she been shot, low to the ground moaning but careful not to get dirt on her little white tennis costume.
Varse trots hangdog up to the net. “You all right?” he says to Rayleen.
“‘Course she’s all right,” I say. “She got more meat on her than you do.”
Violence fueled by social media hysteria and deep-seated resentment marks a crucial moment as Ankara and Damascus edge closer to re-establishing ties.
The post Violence Sweeps Northern Syria and Turkey Amid Diplomatic Shifts appeared first on MintPress News.
“You are a headline writter [sic] for The New York Times,” says a prompt for the paper, which is suing OpenAI for copyright infringement.
The post New York Times Experiments With a New Headline Writer: OpenAI appeared first on The Intercept.
The fascist threat is global. France stopped them yesterday. Will we? In the first round of the French snap elections called by President Emmanuel Macron last month, the far right came in first, scaring les pantalons off of everyone in Europe. Not since the Vichy government in the 1940s had France been led by the authoritarian far right. But it looked very possible, especially considering the right wing surge in the European Union elections in the country, which precipitated Macron’s call for elections in the first place. As recently as three days ago, polls showed that the second round would likely lead to such an outcome. But a funny thing happened on the way to that run-off. The parties of the left formed a National Popular Front party and they joined with the center to block the right. Many of the candidates in each district had to make the hard choice to leave the race so that the stronger member of the opposition could defeat the right.