TNR’s Michael Tomasky with the word: I’m going to tell you something that I’m pretty sure you don’t know—and that you probably won’t even believe. Ready? Real wages are now growing in the United States at a pace faster than the spike in the cost of living since the pandemic. More than that: For the first time in decades, wage growth is consistently stronger in the middle and at the bottom than at the top. See, I told you that you wouldn’t believe it. But it’s right there in a recent study by David Autor, Arindrajit Dube, and Annie McGrew, three well-known economists. Dube just wrote up the results at Project Syndicate, emphasizing: “Importantly, the real wages of the middle quintile are not only higher today than they were before the pandemic, but slightly higher than we would expect based on 2015-19 trends.
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Here’s another excellent insight about Trump’s seemingly inexplicable appeal by Samuel Earle in the NY Times: In recent months, Donald Trump has been trying out a new routine. At rallies and town halls across the country, he compares himself to Al Capone. “He was seriously tough, right?” Mr. Trump told a rally in Iowa in October, in an early rendition of the act. But “he was only indicted one time; I’ve been indicted four times.” (Capone was, in fact, indicted at least six times.) The implication is not just that Mr. Trump is being unfairly persecuted but also that he is four times as tough as Capone. “If you looked at him in the wrong way,” Mr. Trump explained, “he blew your brains out.” Mr. Trump’s eagerness to invoke Capone reflects an important shift in the image he wants to project to the world. In 2016, Mr. Trump played the reality TV star and businessman who would shake up politics, shock and entertain. In 2020, Mr. Trump was the strongman, desperately trying to hold on to power by whatever means possible. In 2024, Mr.
Another federal government program to fight foreign disinformation falls flat.
The post Government-Made Comic Books Try to Fight Election Disinformation appeared first on The Intercept.
Cochav Elkayam-Levy, the Israeli lawyer at the center of the campaign accusing Hamas of systematic sexual violence on October 7, now stands accused by Israeli media of scamming donors and spreading misinformation. The allegations appeared just days after Elkayam-Levy received the prestigious Israel Prize. As the founder of the so-called Civil Commission on October 7th Crimes by Hamas against Women and Children, Israel lawyer Cochav Elkayam Levy has been a go-to source for Western media organizations pushing the narrative that […]
The post Israeli propagandist behind Hamas ‘mass rape’ narrative exposed as grifter, fraud first appeared on The Grayzone.
The post Israeli propagandist behind Hamas ‘mass rape’ narrative exposed as grifter, fraud appeared first on The Grayzone.
Two of Trump’s worst nightmares are happening right now, he’s broke and people are laughing at him. It’s glorious! I told people I enjoyed 24 hours of knowing Donald’s squirming. In this clip you can see how Eric Trump is personally experiencing his Dad’s humiliation at the hands of bankers and bond companies.Eric Trump Sunday interview on Fox News, host Maria Bartiromo “When I came to them saying, ‘Hey, can I get a 1/2 billion dollar bond?’ Maria they were laughing!” -Eric Trump to Maria Bartiromo on Fox 3-24-2024 It’s interesting that Eric was doing the calling, and they laughed in his face. Why not Daddy? Because they know Donald always get revenge against people who laugh at him and don’t do what he wants. On Monday we learned Trump got the bond amount reduced to $175 million and a Double Secret Special Extension that kicks the can down the road 10 days.
A Sydney man staring idly at the pricey wares on offer in an Eastern Suburbs artisanal bakery is currently wishing that he was wealthy enough to afford to eat like a subsistence farmer from the Renaissance. “You must have had... Read More ›
I have this friend. A mountain of unexpected medical debt buried his family at the start of last year. At the same time, the closing of his business stuck him with six figures of personal debt. Liquidating a retirement account and maxing out credit cards bought him short-term breathing room. Mostly, though, it added interest […]
The post The Valley of Hidden Sorrows appeared first on Zeldman on Web and Interaction Design.
On March 22, Wyoming became the 24th state to pass legislation restricting gender affirming care...
Rubio, desperate for the VP nod, attempts a full Pence It wasn’t pretty: Can Trump forgive him for this? Marco Rubio, the Florida senator who once suggested the size of Donald Trump’s hands indicated smaller-than-average reproductive anatomy when he and the future president both ran for president eight years ago, has indicated a willingness to serve as Mr Trump’s vice president should the 45th president succeed in becoming the 47th after the November presidential election. During one March 2016 primary debate, Mr Rubio responded to Mr Trump calling him “little Marco” by suggesting that Mr Trump’s genitals were undersized by remarking on the size of the New Yorker’s hands. “And you know what they say about guys with small hands,” said Mr Rubio, who was then a sitting senator while Mr Trump was merely a real estate developer turned reality television host. The future president defended his manhood shortly thereafter, falsely claiming that no one had ever commented on his hand size before even though the now-defunct Spy magazine had routinely referred to him as a “short-fingered vulgarian”.
Why it's time for new ways of naming life.
The post The End of Species appeared first on Nautilus.
In my new book Animals and Capital, I follow through the implications of Marx’s value theory for thinking about capitalist animal agriculture. One important argument of the book is that animal labour power can be understood from the perspective of value, and this provides a fresh way to look at the factory farm.
The post What is the Factory Farm? Notes from Animals and Capital appeared first on Progress in Political Economy (PPE).
Jonathan Chait with an elegant analysis of what Trump’s doing with his valoriztion of the insurrectionists: “Joe Biden’s team has elevated the ‘threat to democracy’ posed by Trump and his movement to a place of prominence in its appeals to voters,” complained National Review’s Noah Rothman, who has written elsewhere that Trump is no more a threat to democracy than Biden. “Making the cause of the January 6 rioters into a central feature of Trump’s campaign plays directly into Biden’s hands.” This is the extent of the Republican concern: Trump is alienating swing voters who might be receptive to messages about high grocery prices but respond nervously to blood-soaked vows to redeem his martyrs and purify the fatherland. But there is a perfectly cogent reason why Trump continues to press his most extreme demands, even at the cost of repulsing potential voters. He is no longer willing to accept the alliance of convenience with reluctant partners that held traditional Republicans like Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, and Reince Priebus by his side during his first term.
Faced with war across Europe, nineteenth century poet William Wordsworth asked, ‘What a fair world were ours for verse to paint, if Power could live at ease with self-restraint?’ He was following sixteenth century John Donne’s recognition of human interdependence, ‘No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the Continue reading »
For China these days it doesn’t get much easier to pursue it geostrategic objectives. With the US distracted on two fronts in Europe and the Middle East, and Russia mired in its intractable invasion of Ukraine, among the great powers, China is largely free to advance its interests on an increasingly global scale. Sabre rattling Continue reading »
Countless numbers of Gazans are facing or dying from famine, while Israel continues to make extreme statements and settler violence against Palestinians continues. There is outrage in the Australian community about Israel’s actions. It is time for Australia to act on its severe concerns. The AJDS calls for the Australian Government to ban the importation Continue reading »