[Today’s piece is adapted from the introduction to Norman Solomon’s book War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine (The New Press, 2023).] The day after the U.S. government began routinely bombing faraway places, the lead editorial in the New York Times expressed some gratification. Nearly four weeks had passed since 9/11, the newspaper noted, and America had finally stepped up its “counterattack against terrorism” by launching airstrikes on al-Qaeda training camps and Taliban military targets in Afghanistan. “It was a moment we have expected ever since September 11,” the editorial said. “The American people, despite their grief and anger, have been patient as they waited for action. Now that it has begun, they will... Read more
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by Brian Czech
The only way to arrive at a safe, sustainable, steady state economy is with substantial behavioral and political reform. Those two categories of reform correspond roughly with the demand side and supply side of the economy, respectively. In the simplest of terms, people must conscientiously demand less—wealthy people in particular—and policymakers must help ensure that the supply of goods and services is not in a state of overshoot.
My focus here is on the supply side.
The post Defining “Economic Development” in Statutory Law: Content and Strategy appeared first on Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy.
More bluster than balls Jeff Sharlet (“The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War“) posts in response to a Mike Huckabee monologue, “This is slow civil war: the rhetorical preparation, the simmer of hate, the little violences between individuals that won’t register to wonks as ‘political.’” Huckabee, likening the Biden administration to a third-world dictatorship (via The Wrap): “Do you know how political opponents to those in power are dealt with in third-world dictatorships, banana republics and communist regimes?” Huckabee asked during his monologue of Saturday night’s episode. “The people in power use their police agencies to arrest their opponents for made-up crimes in an attempt to discredit them, bankrupt them, imprison them, exile them or all of the above.” Bullets, not ballots “Joe Biden is using exactly those tactics to make sure that Donald Trump is not his opponent in 2024,” Huckabee went on before firing off the sort of “or you’re not going to have a country anymore” rhetoric Trump used to inspire a mob to attack police and sack the U.S. Capitol.
David Tennant returns to one of his earliest leading roles in the Big Finish audio sequel The Adventures of Luther Arkwright: Heart of Empire.
Listening to the waiter tell you about the specials even though you picked out your entire meal online on the way to the restaurant.
Opening a gift you already own.
Opening a gift that you don’t want to own.
Hearing gossip “for the first time” that you actually already knew about.
Telling your friend that you like their new boyfriend.
Saying, “Right here is perfect,” to your Uber driver even though your destination was five houses back.
Assuring a telemarketer that you’re perfectly happy with your current cable package.
Pretending to be successfully hypnotized so as not to embarrass the hypnotist who picked you as a volunteer from the audience.
Performing in a middle school production of Seussical.
Saying you really liked that middle school production of Seussical.
Any answer to the question “How are you?”
Sitting still when the wedding officiant asks whether anybody objects.
Feigning taking out your credit card to pay for dinner.
Telling a customer that you’ll “check in the back” for the product they’re looking for, even though you know it’s not there.
Art by Matt Smith
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So now Loki’s stahtin’ tah feel a bit down n’ all since Odin keeps givin’ him shit fah r’all his vahrious fuck-ups. N’ I mean, it’s not like he doesn’t desehrve it on some level since he keeps doin’ shit like givin’ bihrth tah wolves that ahr eventually gonnah eat Odin alive. But you know how Odin is, he isn’t the most laid back guy ’round. I mean, sometimes it’s like he’s got a fuckin’ spee’ah shoved up his ass instead’ah pokin’ outtah his goddamned abdomen like it outtah be.1 So anyway, Loki decides he needs tah blow off some fuckin’ steam n’ so he decides he’s gonnah throw a wild fuckin’ block pahty!
422,000 households across the UK are estimated to be affected by the two-child allowance limit - but not Members of Parliament
Founded by World Bank apparatchiks in 1993, Transparency International has relentlessly exposed public sector corruption in the Global South while leaving government-enabled criminality in rich nations unexamined.
The post Transparency International’s Covert Agenda: A Pawn in Western Intelligence’s Game appeared first on MintPress News.
Decades of war and the memory of genocide add to the threat of starvation in the blockaded Armenian enclave
On this week’s Lever Time, Richard Reeves explores the tensions within the modern male identity.
The former European Research Group chairman was a prominent Brexiteer but has now turned his attention to anti-Net Zero campaigning.
"It's 2023, and it's simply unconscionable that the highest awards in Australian journalism are sponsored by fossil fuels, with no specific climate reporting award."
History repeats itself, the first time as hope, the second time as dread. In a preface to the 2002 reissue of her classic work on the fear of bodily pollution, first published in 1966, the anthropologist Mary Douglas wrote: When I was writing Purity and Danger I had no idea that soon the fear of […]
The post Paradise Lost appeared first on The New York Review of Books.
Statistical models using yield spreads can provide estimated odds of a future contraction. How do the odds change when using real vs. nominal interest rates?
‘You see all these kitchen sink dramas with beautiful kitchens; nothing out of place, no dirty pans,’ said the woman shown sat on screen in a small and untidy kitchen, ‘well, people’s kitchens aren’t like that.’ In spring 1974, BBC One broadcast The Family. In the new documentary series, the Wilkins family from Reading — […]
Ivan Yotzov, Philip Bunn, Nicholas Bloom, Paul Mizen and Gregory Thwaites Inflation in 2023 remains elevated across many advanced economies. Existing studies have considered the contribution of profits to persistently high inflation in the US, euro area and UK. To add to this debate, we recently asked firms in the Decision Maker Panel about their … Continue reading Profit margins and firm price growth: evidence from the Decision Maker Panel
Just laid my hands on the first copy of TECHNOFEUDALISM – What killed capitalism. Good feeling. There is no substitute for physicality. Below, I copy the Preface and Table of Contents to offer you a whiff of the argument and style. I believe it will be in UK bookshops at the end of the month. […]
The post Technofeudalism has just arrived… Read the Preface here appeared first on Yanis Varoufakis.
Despite the rabble on the Right of politics that marches around driven by conspiracies about government chips in the water supply or Covid vaccines and all the rest of the rot that lot carry on with, the reality is that the well-funded Right that is entrenched in the deepest echelons of capital are extremely well…
Welcome to Solidarity’s monthly round-up of working class struggle.
The post Labor learns a lesson as teachers have a spring in their step first appeared on Solidarity Online.
He really thinks this speaks well of him. Sadly, most of his followers probably think so too.
The widespread admiration for the Matildas has been a blow against sexism but it has also fuelled nationalism.
The post Matildas’ success caught up in a wave of nationalism first appeared on Solidarity Online.
