March 25th, 20
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Mon, 25/03/2024 - 12:15
Regular readers will know I have been assessing the evolving data concerning the longer-run impacts of Covid on the labour force. As time passes and infections continue, our immediate awareness of the severity of the pandemic has dulled, largely because governments no longer publish regular data on infection rates, hospitalisations and deaths. So the day-to-day,…
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Mon, 25/03/2024 - 11:15
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Mon, 25/03/2024 - 11:00
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Mon, 25/03/2024 - 11:00
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Mon, 25/03/2024 - 11:00
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Mon, 25/03/2024 - 09:00
ACCORDING TO THOSE who’ve spoken to him lately, former President Donald Trump doesn’t seem to think he’s actually going to win his defamation lawsuit against ABC News and its star host George Stephanopoulos — but that’s not the point. Over the weekend, Stephanopoulos asserted that Trump had been “found liable for rape and defaming” the victim, writer E. Jean Carroll, by judges and two juries. As a factual matter, a jury found Trump defamed and sexually abused Carroll — and he was ordered to pay $83 million for defaming her again. Trump’s lawsuit claims Stephanopoulos’ comments were “false, intentional, malicious and designed to cause harm.” Behind closed doors, the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee has told confidants and lawyers that a primary purpose of the suit is to make an example of Stephanopoulos, two people with direct knowledge of the matter tell Rolling Stone.
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Mon, 25/03/2024 - 08:28
I’ve been describing this world of ours, such as it is, for almost 23 years at TomDispatch. I’ve written my way through three-and-a-half presidencies — god save us, it could be four in November! I’ve viewed from a grave (and I mean that word!) distance America’s endlessly disastrous wars of this century. I’ve watched the latest military budget hit almost $900 billion, undoubtedly on its way toward a cool trillion in the years to come, while years ago the whole “national security” budget (though “insecurity” would be a better word) soared to well over the trillion-dollar mark. I’ve lived my whole life in an imperial power. Once, in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, it... Read more
Source: A Slow-Motion World War III? appeared first on TomDispatch.com.
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Mon, 25/03/2024 - 07:38
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Mon, 25/03/2024 - 07:30
That’s making the rounds all over right wing social media. I’m not kidding. With the news that ISIS is taking responsibility for the terrorist attack in Moscow (and the US intelligence agencies have confirmed it) the right is experiencing some serious confusion. This is because Trump has said repeatedly that he defeated ISIS and recently has been saying that he did it in four weeks. The truth is that the US did manage to kill al-Baghdadi and ISIS was forced to give up territory in Iraq and Syria but Trump didn’t really have much to do with that. ISIS is still operating in Afghanistan and Pakistan ad has been active against Russia for a while. Nonetheless, Trump’s lie is his one big claim to war leader fame and he’s milked it enough that his cult followers believed that he’s defeated them with his bare hands of something. They’re bewildered and creaked out so this is what they’ve come up with to soothe their damaged their psyches.
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Mon, 25/03/2024 - 06:28
The opposition’s shadow minister for home affairs, Barnaby Joyce, has demanded that the Government launch a Royal Commission into why Channel 7 shouted alleged rapist, Bruce Lehrmann a rub n’ tug and not him. ”What sort of World do we... Read More ›
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Mon, 25/03/2024 - 06:00
Brynn Tannehill, author of , “American Fascism: How the GOP is Subverting Democracy” wrote this twitter thread which I think is a nice succinct recitation of what awaits in a second Trump term: Someone sent me this yesterday: The basic premise is that the guardrails of US democracy are so strong that Trump couldn’t turn the US into a dictatorship even if he had 2 more terms. This is hopelessly naïve. Let’s break it down. First, a history lesson. The Weimar Republic lasted precisely 51 days between moustache-guy being named Chancellor and the Enabling Acts. Masha Gessen warned in 2016 in “Rules for Surviving Autocracy” “Your institutions will not save you.” “The system is too strong” is silly. The Philippine constitution was a near exact copy of the US constitution after WWII. Dictator Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in 1972 using many of the same rationales used by MAGA (leftist plots, need for an autocrat) The article blows off several crucial elements in the danger. First (and already discussed briefly) is the vulnerability of the system to subversion.
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Mon, 25/03/2024 - 04:58
Now is the time for talks that will bring us closer to peace and away from a deadly and destructive war with no end in sight. There has been a complete collapse of diplomacy between the US and Russia, and a near-total collapse between the US and China. Europe, which has made itself far too Continue reading »
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