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“You’re not going to be in danger any longer. You will no longer have anxiety from all of the problems our country has today. You will be protected, and I will be your protector. Women will be happy, healthy, confident, and free.”
— Donald Trump addressing women at a rally in Pennsylvania.

It’s hard to be a lady these days. There are so many things to be afraid of, like not having a husband, or getting scratched by my cats, or walking in the woods and seeing a bear. I know that all my fears will disappear once Donald Trump is president again. Because what says “female safety” more than the guy who was found liable for sexually assaulting E. Jean Carroll in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room?

Labour Party conference has voted for the government’s cut to the winter fuel allowance to be reversed, in a strong rebuke of the Starmer leadership. The motion, submitted by Unite the Union and the Communication Workers Union (CWU), also called for taxes on the wealthy and for the party to abandon its ‘fiscal rules’ limiting […]

JD Vance and Project 2025 are all over his latest “I am your protector” rhetoric As a politician, Donald Trump has always exhibited a very creepy form of paternalism. He often says things like “No one has done as much for the Black community as I did” or “I’ve been better for Jews than anyone in history.” It’s as if he’s bestowing on the people a special gift from the king and they should be grateful to him personally. Of course his boasts are always lies so they tend to fall on deaf ears, but it reveals how he sees himself as president. Although he’s long exhibited this rhetorical tic, in recent days he’s really outdone himself. Sounding much more like a cult leader than a politician in a modern democracy, the passages in his speeches about women are downright disturbing. It started with a weird Truth Social post on September 20th: The womenfolk are depressed but Big Daddy Trump is going to fix all that and they’ll be so happy they won’t even think about abortion. “THEY WILL FINALLY BE HEALTHY, HOPEFUL, SAFE AND SECURE.

Bleeding Cool was the first to tell you that the Fifteenth Doctor Who and Ruby Sunday would be going up against the Cybermen.

The bodies meant to protect us from floods are unaccountable, self-serving and feudal in character. No wonder they keep failing. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 18th September 2024 Labour’s first stage of government resembles a vast forensic excavation. As it works through the Conservatives’ midden of horrors, it discovers an ever greater legacy […]

Ali Jadidzadeh and I recently undertook some statistical analysis on behalf of Infrastructure Canada (Canada’s lead federal government agency on homelessness). Here’s a ‘top 10’ overview of our analysis: https://nickfalvo.ca/economic-and-social-factors-associated-with-the-use-of-homeless-shelters/

How far he’s come from humble beginnings I lived for a stretch in Sen. Lindsey Graham’s one-stoplight hometown in South Carolina. He tended bar in the restaurant/bar/pool hall/liquor store his parents owned. A neighbor was converting an old church into a home and building a second floor out over the sanctuary (above). Checking Google Maps, there’s nothing left now of the decrepit “ghost house” we lived in but the foundation. They’ve moved the police department and post office out of “downtown.” Built some apartments for university kids. Not a lot else has changed. But Lindsey Graham sure has. From The ReidOut blog: Appearing on Fox News, Sen. Lindsey Graham tried his hardest to separate Donald Trump from the controversy surrounding North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson. The South Carolina Republican is predictably standing by his man Trump, but the irony in his excuses is too obvious to ignore.

Attorney General Andrew Bailey scuttled a deal that would have spared Williams’s life, and the courts and governor failed to intervene to stop the execution.

The post Missouri Kills Marcellus Williams Over Objections From Prosecutor and Victim’s Family appeared first on The Intercept.

As blogs go this one has been around for a long time. It started a political/economic/financial blog back in 2009, but over the years I’ve written less and less about finance and politics and turned to topics I consider more important. As the amount of “red meat” has gone down, the readership hasn’t, and I’m grateful.

When I hear from readers, they usually give one of two reasons for liking the blog:

Andy Burnham turns up the heat on Keir Starmer over political reform

In this episode of MintCast, Ben Norton dives into the global shift away from the dollar, the petrodollar’s collapse, and America’s unwavering support for Israel.

The post BRICS, the Dollar, and the End of US Empire, with Ben Norton appeared first on MintPress News.

Every country needs triangulation in order to achieve self-understanding and prudent decision-making.

“This is the feeling we want to hold onto” Didn’t know Anthony Ramos before. I do now. “Why would we not want to hold onto this feeling?” Enjoy.

At a UN General Assembly, there was enormous sympathy for the Palestinians and strong criticism of Israel’s treatment of them. Wednesday marked the third day of a wave of new strikes on Lebanon

. All science entails human judgement, and using statistical models doesn’t relieve us of that necessity. Working with misspecified models, the scientific value of significance testing is actually zero —  even though you’re making valid statistical inferences! Statistical models and concomitant significance tests are no substitutes for doing real science. In its standard form, a […]

While the Reform leader portrays himself as a champion of England’s white working class, his personal actions align far more with the interests of the ultra-wealthy and global elites

It’s actually funny to me and not something that makes me mad that your office returned my business license application with the cartoonishly large word DENIED stamped right across the first page (in red ink) and several needlessly specific and not hurtful comments about why I am not allowed to open a meat store named and “creepily modeled after” (your words) Taylor Swift (the very famous musician).

It’s really too bad (for you, not for me; I am laughing a lot) that your office is unable to appreciate the artistry and commercial appeal of the Taylor Swift likeness I have carved into a side of beef (marbling makes this difficult) and promotional photos from the Eras Tour that I have screen-printed onto a country ham (they do this with cakes all the time; it is not weird simply because it is a country ham). People keep suggesting that it bothers me (it does not) that I so far have been unable to secure a small business loan (job creator) for my proposed meat concern, when that very dumb and wrong idea could not be further from the truth (I have unfortunately already purchased all of the meat and it is in the trunk of my car).

Electoral Commission's £280k bid to boost electoral roll offers a hint of Labour's reform plans

Thousands of Labour activists travelled to Liverpool this week, their numbers swelled by the excitement of Labour being in government. This army of those who, at the very least, want to improve society somewhat — the councillors, campaigners, trade unionists and the like — were joined by another battalion group: a legion of corporate lobbyists. […]