Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – October 27 2024
by Tony Wikrent
Strategic Political Economy
The Right Believes It Has the Supreme Court Votes to Overturn Labor Law
[In These Times, via Naked Capitalism Water Cooler 10-22-2024]
Reading
When justifying vast increases in defence expenditure, subsidies for so-called critical industries, foreign aid as an increasingly important element in the securitisation of foreign policy, governments and conservative think tanks never tire of telling the public that they live in the most dangerous of times. It is arguable that the times are any more dangerous Continue reading »
The second New South Wales Drug Summit will be held in regional centres for two days in October and the final two days will be in Sydney on the 4th and 5th December to be co-chaired by Carmel Tebbutt and John Brogden – a balance of politics. Do summits achieve worthwhile outcomes? The first Drug Continue reading »
What further evidence do apes with apps, the inhabitants of planet Earth, need to have before the liveable climate, the lungs of the Earth, overheat and the mere failure of a computer chip or a brain neuron triggers the sixth mass extinction of species in the history of planet Earth? At the death of détente Continue reading »
In ‘Powder keg in the Pacific’ Alfred McCoy is wrong from the very first sentence. He confounds cause and effect, revises history, reverses belligerent and defender, and hard-packs his article through and through with US state department mendacity. China is militarising defensively because the US is encircling it in serious preparation for war, a war Continue reading »
Investigative journalist Antony Loewenstein questions the narratives he was taught growing up in the Jewish Diaspora as he traces the origins of Israel’s military-industrial complex, examining how Israel became one of the world’s leading arms and tech exporters. When a military force essentially creates a nation, can they ever be truly separated? Guests: Mariam Dawwas, Continue reading »
Recently, the matter of retirement villages has come to the fore in the media, led by investigative journalist Adele Ferguson on ABC 7.30 Report. Ferguson’s report and case studies raised the question of “what protections should be put in place to protect the residents from the avarice of owners and operators of retirement villages?” Since Continue reading »
Michael Hirsh, a columnist for Foreign Policy has just published an instructive review of Bob Woodward’s forceful new book “War”. Curiously, the Hirsh book review rounds out to its Biden-elevating, JFK-comparison without referring to Mearsheimer’s directly relevant seminal article. Continue reading »
Intel has found itself under scrutiny yet again, with Chinese officials and cybersecurity experts calling for a thorough review of the company’s products sold in China. According to a report released by the China Cyber Association, Intel’s products have been repeatedly flagged for serious security vulnerabilities, poor reliability and even hidden backdoors that pose a Continue reading »
To break the deadlock in Japan-North Korea relations, Japan’s new Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, has proposed liaison offices in the capitals of both countries to resolve the poisonous abductees issue – the fate of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea in the seventies and eighties. But Japan’s rightwing, using powerful abductee family organisations, seems determined Continue reading »
“I’m telling you that Donald Trump has said and I agree with them that we should use the US military to go after American people who riot.” The whole Tapper interview with Vance is difficult to watch but in the end it’s utterly satisfying. Vance is a fast talker but it comes through clearly just what a horror he really is. Tapper doesn’t let him go. Trump is 78 and could keel over at any time. Vance is 39 yers old. He could easily end up in the oval office. He is the future of the Republican Party.
Biomedical, psychological, and social sciences are “soft” insofar as they focus on phenomena whose regularities are amorphous and situational (in contrast to the universal, exact laws which dominate physical sciences). In doing so, they must confront another major source of research uncertainty: Living organisms are characterized by natural variation and complex feedback within and across […]
Spending a lovely weekend on our island in the Karlskrona archipelago my loved one took this beautiful picture of an autumn rainbow. Pure magic!
Including his masculinity MSNBC’s Katie Phang asked Liz Plank (“For the Love of Men: A Vision for Mindful Masculinity”) to explain where Donald Trump and his angry male base gets masculinity wrong. They don’t know their own place in a changing culture and an eroding patriarchy, she finds. “Can we talk about masculinity, right? Trump is putting on a performance of masculinity. Because he’s not actually masculine. This is a guy who spends more time with his make-up artists than with his own advisors,” Plank explains. “But even setting aside that he probably wears more make-up than Kamala Harris, masculine men aren’t afraid of women. They’re not afraid to debate women. Masculine men don’t have meltdowns on stage because a woman that they didn’t like asked them a question that they didn’t like. Masculine men aren’t manipulated by people who give them compliments.” Like Trump’s bogus reputation as a business genius, his hyper-masculinity is another scam, a false front. He’s failing the men he claims to be leading. It’s a performance.
Who writes her speeches? “I lay awake at night wondering, ‘What in the world is going on?’” asked Michelle Obama early in her Saturday rally speech in Kalamazoo, Michigan. She’s not alone. The woman I spoke with on Friday said the same while choking back tears. But, holy hell, who writes Obama’s speeches? There is a lot of her in them, obviously. Her convention speech in August pulled few punches. This speech last night, her first since the DNC, featured bare knuckles. “Searing and passionate,” the AP called it. “A scathing indictment of Donald Trump,” said CNN. “Y’all know I hate politics,” Obama began, referencing the stakes in the presidential election. “But I hate to see folks taken advantage of even more.” She took on the threats to America, and especially to American women.
For his supporters, Donald Trump’s misogynist attacks against Kamala Harris turn his own history as a predator into an asset.
The post The Protection Racket appeared first on The New York Review of Books.
The press often pretends that billionaires don't influence the newsrooms they own — but it's now undeniable.
Lowkey’s return to hip-hop is here – and it’s sparking both cheers and fears. This deeply political album isn’t just music; it’s a manifesto for resistance.
The post The Album Israel Tried to Kill: Lowkey’s Soundtrack to the Struggle Out Now appeared first on MintPress News.
. Fish in the seaYou know how I feelRiver running freeYou know how I feelBlossom on a treeYou know how I feel Stars when you shineYou know how I feelScent of the pineYou know how I feelOh, freedom is mineAnd I know how I feel
(With apologies to Rod Serling for my frightfully tacky paraphrasing) Good evening, and welcome to a private showing of 25 films. Each is a collector’s item in its own way—not because of any special artistic quality, but because each captures on a celluloid canvas, streaming in time and space, a frozen moment of a nightmare. And …Happy Halloween! Beauty and the Beast (1946)– Out of myriad movie adaptations of Mme. Leprince de Beaumont’s fairy tale, Jean Cocteau’s 1946 version remains the most soulful and poetic. This probably had something to do with the fact that it was made by a director who literally had the soul of a poet (Cocteau’s day job, in case you didn’t know). The film is a triumph of production design, with inventive visuals (photographed by Henri Alekan). Jean Marais is affecting as The Beast, paralyzed by unrequited passion for beautiful Belle (Josette Day). This version is a surreal fairy tale not necessarily made with the kids in mind (especially with all the psycho-sexual subtexts).
