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Created
Fri, 15/03/2024 - 04:51
One thing is certain about espionage agencies. They are not averse to creating alarm in order to give the impression they are protecting us from threats by ideological fanatics internally or by hostile foreign powers. There is always a kind of self-fulfilling prophesy about their pronouncements and the most recent panic about an unidentified former Continue reading »
Created
Fri, 15/03/2024 - 04:30
It’s just MAGA now These interviews with former Republican operatives and pundits in Politico about why the Never Trump movement in the GOP primaries failed says it all: The Never Trump movement is a big tent, to be sure. For years, Republicans held on to the belief that Trumpism could be beaten in a battle of ideas. The ideological keystone the movement held at its core was the idea of fighting — in truly small-c conservative fashion — to return the party to its pre-Trump dogma of internationalism abroad and a rising-tide-lifts-all-boats economic policy at home. Haley’s campaign was its last flagship, if imperfect, vessel. Here, in their own words, influential Never Trump strategists and former GOP operatives answer what went wrong and grapple with where their faction lands in 2024 — and beyond. Tim Miller, host of The Bulwark Podcast and former adviser to Our Principles PAC Haley’s exit was kind of the end. It’s been in hospice for a while. It’s the official end of the Bush, neocon, compassionate conservative-Republican Party, and there’s no going back to it.
Created
Fri, 15/03/2024 - 01:30
It’s that time again Considering I just filed my taxes for free using an IRS-approved vendor (and I’m not in one of the pilot states AOC mentions), if you have not yet filed, Turbo Tax refugee, check this out. Post by @democrascene View on Threads Of course, free filing is a crime against capitalism and must be stopped. So by all means, pay an exorbitant amount to file your taxes. ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● For The Win, 5th Edition is ready for download. Request a copy of my free countywide GOTV planning guide at ForTheWin.us.
Created
Fri, 15/03/2024 - 00:49
by Brian Czech

If you recognize the damages done by a bloating economy, you’ll be alarmed by the global GDP meter, which hit the existentially menacing threshold of $100 trillion in 2022. If that doesn’t give you a dose of distress, try the global debt clock. Then, for a dizzying dose indeed, check the casino-like combination of debt and GDP maintained by “US Debt Clock.”

Almost all readers,

The post Debt, Deficits, and Warranted Money appeared first on Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy.

Created
Fri, 15/03/2024 - 00:30

Recently my partner and I had brunch with some old comrades, folks I first met in the 1996 fight to stop the state of California from outlawing affirmative action. Sadly, we lost that one and, almost three decades later, we continue to lose affirmative action programs thanks to a Supreme Court rearranged or, more accurately, deranged by one Donald J. Trump. It was pure joy to hang out with them and remember that political struggle during which, as my partner and I like to say, we taught a generation of young people to ask, “Can you kick in a dollar to help with the campaign?” For a couple of old white lesbians who, in the words of a beloved Catherine... Read more

Source: Trump Showed Us Who He Is the First Time Around appeared first on TomDispatch.com.

Created
Fri, 15/03/2024 - 00:00
Another time for choosing Indulge me. I still struggle to get campaigns here to rethink their strategy and to cast a wider net for “low-propensity” voters Democrats here cannot win statewide races without. Without getting into the weeds, a short thread by Anat Shenker-Osorio gets at what I was already recommending. It’s related to how Jay Rosen a full year ago recommended the press approach this election: Not the odds, but the stakes. For individual voters, the stakes are also high, but democracy may seem an abstraction. Shenker-Osorio’s observations are based on preliminary findings, but what seems to move voters is reframing how Democrats pitch their message: from vote for us to vote for you. “We must shift folks from seeing election as contest between 2 (or more) people to seeing it as fork in road between 2 different futures.” It is old hat to ask people if they are better off now than they were four years ago. But they might disagree that they are, no matter how much data you throw at them. It’s almost reflex on the left to try to browbeat people into submission with our supposed superior command of the facts.