I agree with Josh Marshall on this. The brouhaha over Ezra Klein’s article agitating for Biden to drop out at this late date has been overwhelming and it’s not helpful. The idea of choosing a new candidate at the conventions is downright fanciful. Not gonna happen. I like Ezra. We are friendly acquaintances and he’s done a ton of good work so I’m not inclined to slag him. But he’s wrong about this and Josh Marshall has the best essay explaining why: A number of you have written in to ask about Ezra Klein’s audio essay “Democrats Have a Better Option Than Biden: It’s requires them to embrace an old-fashioned approach to winning a campaign.” Is it a good argument? Does it change the equation? What do I make of it? Just for the purposes of cutting to the chase: my answers are “not really,” “no” and “not much.” But Klein is a smart, articulate guy and sitting at the top of the Times op-ed page he has vast influence. So I wanted to break the argument down into its moving parts.
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The MVC team explores the idea of rural deindustrialization in the 2006 Disney-Pixar animated film Cars.
Australian Opposition leader (for now), Donald Dutton, has told confidantes that the secret to winning the next election is his new found mantra. That it is not a lie, if Sky News or the ABC believes it. ”Dutt’s has been... Read More ›
With Roe v. Wade dismantled, far-right courts are coming for all aspects of reproductive health care.
The post Alabama Court Rules Frozen Embryos Made by IVF Are “Children” appeared first on The Intercept.
As those of you who read my blog regularly know, I have long been critical of the rather self-righteous decision of the networks not to show Donald Trump in all his unhinged glory out of a misplaced sense that it somehow “costs” them to do it. No. It has resulted in way too many people forgetting just what a total nutcase he is. I know they don’t want to think about it but it’s a reality and they need to see it. This has obviously concerned the Biden campaign which has found through their own polling that people have forgotten what they hated about him and over time have come to see him as rather benign. After all, the Republicans are all still with him,how bad could he be? But they are wrong. He’s worse than he was before and they need to see that. So, that’s why the campaign has decided to highlight the crazy stuff and push it out there hard. It’s the only way to counter this insufferable obsession with Biden’s age and it’s entirely relevant. You choose: the decent, accomplished old guy or the crazy, corrupt old guy. That’s what’s on the menu.
“Paramount Global lays off about 800 employees, a day after announcing record Super Bowl ratings.” — CNBC
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Thank you for jumping on this last-minute Zoom meeting. As you’re all well aware, this has been a great year for us. Profits are at an all-time high. Our stock price is at an all-time high. Growth projections for the coming year are through the roof. You all have done an amazing job ushering in a new era of success for this company. So amazing, in fact, that we have no choice but to let you all go.
Amid end time destruction, we must liberate Gaza, march to the security wall, and Occupy Israel. If the world’s Free Palestine protesters are to be taken seriously, intervention to save lives must replace US, UK, Australian and other western nations’ inaction and collusion with Israeli slaughter. Don’t just protest: Liberate Gaza, march to the security Continue reading »
There are recurrent calls for tax reform, but it is typically too difficult to achieve a consensus. However, the necessary action to reduce carbon emissions by introducing a tax on carbon emissions could result in most people being better off and thus achieve broad support. To coin a phrase: just like galahs in a pet Continue reading »
The latest update by the ANU’s Institute for Climate Energy and Disaster Solutions has issued another frank, distressing prognosis. Professor Howden – a vice chair of the IPCC and director of the ANU Institute – warns that the annual Conference of Parties (COP) is not going to deliver global temperatures under 1.5C. That is to Continue reading »
Alex Bristow’s recent piece on China (“Don’t sidestep the China problem in public debate on defence”, Australian Financial Review, 14 February) demonstrates the extent to which the Australian Strategic Policy Institute has become a cheerleader for the US military-industrial complex. In a piece published by the Australian Financial Review on 14 February and reproduced on Continue reading »
The Labor government has a blind spot when it comes to fixing the unique challenges of housing in regional Australia. The $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund—the government’s signature housing policy—has completely ignored the specific problems in regional, rural and remote Australia and failed to guarantee dedicated funding. Regional Australians, who feel they will never Continue reading »
Preparing government responses to reports from Parliamentary inquiries often involves finding a plausible excuse to reject a perfectly sensible suggestion. The Department of Health and Aged Care failed this task in its response to the House of Representatives Long COVID inquiry. The inquiry began in September 2022 and received almost 600 submissions. It held four Continue reading »
While it is highly likely net migration is now past its peak and declining, the data to this stage suggests it may only be falling gradually. Permanent and long-term movements are the earliest approximation of net migration that the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) publishes. The data for December shows net permanent and long-term movements Continue reading »
The invasion of Gaza, described by Pope Francis as ‘terrorism’, is causing strained relationships between Israel and the Vatican. One of the longest-term supporters of the Palestinians is the Holy See, the Vatican. Although the number of Christians in Palestine is small – 2.5% of the population of the West Bank (50,000), about 1,100 in Continue reading »
We are homo dramatis, the species that tells stories. Today more and more of us are rejecting America and Israel’s stories and are searching for a better script. That is a good thing because History is calling us to be actors, not spectators, in the drama playing out in Gaza. There is a revealing moment Continue reading »
From the man who runs 538 since Nate Silver left:
In 2021, standing in front of various pieces of machinery at an aircraft factory in Bristol, Labour leader Keir Starmer rolled up his sleeves and laid out his pitch to the country. Its headline feature: a politics which ‘treads lightly’ on our lives. Before his death in 2011, political scientist Peter Mair identified a democratic […]
When I was appointed editor of Tribune in 1992, not on the basis of my experience but principally because I was not the candidate supported by Peter Mandelson, I received three telephone calls inviting me over for tea and a chat. The first was from Tony Benn. I went to knock on his door at […]