If there’s one bright spot in the very dark weekend just passed it’s that we didn’t have to hear much from Donald Trump and his henchmen. He was very unhappy about that and whined on his Truth Social platform that nobody was giving him the credit he deserved: Mostly he’s just been yelling at the clouds while his people have been keeping a low profile. It’s been years since we’ve had such a respite and it almost makes the hell of this Biden debate debacle bearable. Almost. It’s been a very rough few days and from the looks of it it’s not going to let up any time soon. We’re still awaiting the poll results to see if voters have decided to vote for Trump in light of Biden’s miserable debate performance last Thursday. We’ve seen some numbers that show more people think he shouldn’t run for president again than said that last month but the number was always pretty high. (A majority say the same thing about Trump although fewer than say it about Biden.) But we haven’t yet seen the effects of the debate on voter preferences.
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Pathetic: The “Biden is a basket case but also Joseph Stalin” line is more unsustainable than ever. But I guess they’re still rolling with it. Also, the transition was anything but smooth. Even aside from the obvious — the coup attempt and insurrection —they wouldn’t hold meetings for the new team to prepare, Trump refused the normal courtesy of meeting the Biden’s at the White house and he churlishly refused to attend the inauguration, It was a shitshow from beginning to end. The relatively muted response from Republicans in the wake of the debate is curious and very unlike them. Dancing on graves is their favorite pastime. Maybe they’re thrown off by the Democrats’ hysterics and don’t yet know how to respond? I suppose it’s possible they’re following the old “when your opponent is destroying himself, let him” but that would be unusual too. Piling on is their second favorite pastime. Weird. We got some Dear Leader tweets from Steven Miller early on but he’s just been doing his standard grotesque immigrant bashing the last day or so. Trump put out this whine yesterday: Poor Trumpie.
. When your belly’s empty and the hunger’s so real And you’re too proud to beg and too dumb to steal You search the city for your only friend No one would you see You ask yourself, who’s watched for me A solitary voice to speak out and set me free I had to say […]
The high court greenlit corruption and kneecapped the government, while Biden blundered on stage, and other news from The Lever this week.
SCOTUS and Chevron The James Fallows tweet Digby cited about SCOTUS overturning the 40-year-old Chevron doctrine was an eye-opener. The SCOTUS decision hands highly technical decisions about regulations to courts. Fallows was so succinct and instructive that I’m reposting him here: A salesperson asked me on Tuesday what I did before retirement. I told him I reviewed the material stresses and reaction forces in high-temperature, high-pressure piping systems, pressure vessels, and rotating equipment for compliance with ASME codes (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) using finite element analysis. Which is why my cocktail party answer more often was, “I design factories.” In a more ironic mood, I’d reply, “Clients pay a lot of money to ignore what I tell them.” Do my job poorly and expensive equipment gets damaged and millions of dollars in production are lost. Do the job badly and people might die. Regulation decisions SCOTUS just put in the hands of judges are often conservative. Especially those regarding safety, like OSHA regulations. They are conservative for a reason, as Fallows points out.
In today's BCTV Daily Dispatch: The Boys, Stranger Things 5, Blu-rays, Mayor of Kingstown, Superman & Lois, Kaiju No. 8, Doctor Who & more!
Sometimes you have to go looking for photos, but this is what greeted me when I got up to make the coffee the other morning.
I’ve got a new piece up at The New Yorker on a new biography of Friedrich Hayek. I got a chance to range widely. From Hayek’s dalliance with the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet— In November, 1977, on a still-sticky evening along Louisiana’s Gulf Coast, the Austrian economist and philosopher Friedrich Hayek boarded a flight bound for Chile and settled into his seat in first class. He was headed to the Valparaíso Business School, where he was scheduled to receive an honorary degree. Upon arrival in Santiago, the Nobel laureate was greeted at the airport by the dean of the business school, Carlos Cáceres. They drove toward the Pacific Coast, stopping for a bite to eat in the city of Casablanca, […]
Since it’s now officially summer, I thought it would be a good excuse to curate a list of my top 10 seasonal favorites; movies that I think capture the essence of these “lazy, hazy, crazy” days…infused with the sights, the sounds, the smells, of summer. So, here you go…as per usual, in alphabetical order: Jazz on a Summer’s Day– Bert Stern’s groundbreaking documentary about the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival is not so much a “concert film” as it is a fascinating and colorful time capsule of late 50s American life. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of gorgeously filmed numbers spotlighting the artistry of Thelonius Monk, Anita O’Day, Dinah Washington, Louis Armstrong, etc. and the performances are outstanding. The effect is like “being there” in 1958 Newport on a languid summer’s day. If you’ve ever attended an outdoor music festival, you know half the fun is people-watching, and Stern obliges.
SINCE becoming the Member for Coffs Harbour in 2019, Gurmesh Singh has added Shadow Minister for Emergency Services, Shadow Minister for Tourism and Shadow Minister for the North Coast to his responsibilities. Following a Nationals party meeting last Thursday, he has now landed the second-top job in his party. Advertise with News of The Area...
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THE Lions Club of Dorrigo has donated $5,000 to the Dorrigo Multi-Purpose Service after raising the funds through an unusual project. The generous gift was made possible through a unique and innovative fundraising project that appealed to the local farming community. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your business. Message...
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THE Defib Hero Community Program in Coffs Harbour installed its first Automated External Defibrillator (AED) on Tuesday morning at the Bailey Centre. Further defibrillators were due to be installed throughout the week at Sawtell Commons, Park Beach Homebase and Coffs Harbour Yacht Club. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your...
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COFFS Harbour Bridge Club has donated $1,000 each to five local charities as part of its annual gift giving commitment. Each year the club committee selects local charities they believe would each benefit from a donation. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your business. Message us. Phone us – (02)...
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THE Friends of the Botanic Garden and the Australian Plants Society will offer over 350 second hand books for sale in a fundraiser on Saturday 6 July. The fundraiser will take place in the Display Room in the garden entrance building from 10am to 3pm, with book prices starting at $1. Advertise with News of...
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THE team at Big W Park Beach Plaza is enthusiastically embracing the company’s latest ‘Heart Token’ fundraiser. Launched across NSW/ACT the fundraiser benefits the Sydney Children’s Hospital Foundation. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your business. Message us. Phone us – (02) 4981 8882. Email us – media@newsofthearea.com.au Partnering with...
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Aileen Cannon will be deciding whether your 747 is safe to fly The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that district court judges are more qualified to decide complex matters of science and technology than government experts. Here’s the result: Just think of all the health and safety rules we count on to keep us safe. Then think about all the unqualified MAGA weirdos Trump put on the courts and the bitter, angry Supreme Court majority that really seems to believe that it’s every man for himself.
Catherine Rampel tweeted this out and I think I think it’s fascinating: The kind of polling we need more of: @YouGov asked respondents about major policies proposed by Biden and Trump…without specifying which candidate proposed them.Turns out, in a blind test, Biden’s agenda is way more popular. today.yougov.com/politics/artic… 27 of 28 Biden proposals are supported by more people than oppose them. 24 get outright majority support. Most popular: criminal/mental health background checks for all gun purchases (82% approve). Least popular (the only one underwater, 30%): 10-yr military support for Ukraine Trump’s agenda doesn’t fare so well.9 of 28 proposals are above water (more support than oppose). Just 6 get majority supportEven most most popular (phase out Chinese imports of essential goods) gets meager 59%. Least pop (prez controls independent regulatory agencies): 19% People who plan to vote for each candidate are more likely to support most of their preferred candidate’s policies. And most supporters oppose many of the policies proposed by the opposing candidate. There are some policies that supporters find common ground on, however.
Following up on my post below I thought I’d post this excerpt from Dan Pfeiffer’s newletter. His analysis is similar to mine. He too thinks that a brokered convention is way too risky and that the “Biden endorses Harris with the full support of the Democratic establishment” scenario is the only alternative to the wounded Biden soldiering on. He writes: There are two possible scenarios. The first is that Biden steps aside and endorses Vice President Kamala Harris as the nominee, and the party coalesces around her. She would have to pick a Vice Presidential nominee and be ratified as the nominee by the delegates at the convention. That vote would be pro forma and drama-free. The race against Trump would start immediately. She would possibly get an opportunity to debate Trump at the scheduled debate in September. The other scenario is the circus sideshow of a brokered convention which would be very risky. Pfeiffer then discusses what Biden can do to right the ship if he decides to stay in: Boy, that last one is a real gut check. I disagree that Trump will duck more debates. I think he’ll be thrilled to do them every week.
The US election is being watched with trepidation in South Korea. Should President Joe Biden be re-elected, Seoul would likely see continuity in the relationship and a continued strong US-South Korea bilateral alliance. But a victory for Donald Trump is fraught with peril. He could throw the alliance into turmoil, try to make South Korea Continue reading »
Bottled water is not good for the environment or your health. If you eat meat, eating less is good for both. Governments are unreliable protectors of forests and human rights (but you knew that already). Bottled water, an unnecessary luxury The global market for bottled water has expanded enormously in recent decades – 73% in Continue reading »
The Black Sea country of Georgia was recently convulsed by protests over the passage of legislation requiring disclosure of foreign funding of NGOs. The controversy is a big deal in Tbilisi. However, the issue doesn’t matter much in America. At least, it shouldn’t. But that ignores the endless ambitions of those who rule Washington, D.C. Continue reading »