While unification with Taiwan and building a strong economy are the twin pillars of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, it’s dangerous to assume, as Washington does, that a faltering economy makes Beijing more aggressive towards the island. This is the final in a two-column series. It’s hardly worth mentioning that China and the United Continue reading »
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Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – July 9, 2023
by Tony Wikrent
Climate and environmental crises
World Registers Hottest Day Ever Recorded on July 3
[Reuters, via Naked Capitalism 7-5-2023]
6 southern Colorado counties, facing drought and thirsty neighbors, move to block water exports
[Colorado Sun, via Naked Capitalism 7-4-2023]
Dan Pfeiffer with the bad news: Why Threads Won’t Solve the News Crisis Like more than 70 million other refugees from Twitter, I downloaded Threads — Meta’s new Twitter clone — and immediately started “threading.” This wasn’t an easy decision. I generally believe that through a toxic combination of avarice and incompetence, Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook have done tremendous damage to the world. My most recent book was subtitled “How Fox, Facebook, and the MAGA Media are Destroying America.” So, it’s safe to say that I am not exactly a Zuck stan. But despite my trepidation, I started using Threads. Compared to other erstwhile Twitter replacements — Mastodon, Bluesky, Post, etc. — Threads was a huge success. It was easy to set up and even though I joined only a few hours after it launched, many people and media outlets were already posting on the app. The utility of a Twitter-like product is dependent on two interconnected questions — one, will enough interesting people share interesting content; and two, is the audience large and engaging enough to make sharing feel worth it?
By Carlos García Hernández Originally published in Spanish on 1/7/23. Definition of a State: a territory with fixed borders under a central authority with the capacity to …
The post A practical exercise for the reconstruction of the Left appeared first on The Gower Initiative for Modern Money Studies.
We will not allow you to exploit the innocence of our children to advance your agenda. When you come after our kids, we fight back. We are no longer silent. We are united. We are Mamas for DeSantis. …and we will elect @RonDeSantis President of the United States. Join our… pic.twitter.com/jo6HUATaVa — Casey DeSantis (@CaseyDeSantis) July 6, 2023 I’ll just leave that here.
While still open to writing for Doctor Who again one day, Neil Gaiman made his feelings clear on if he would ever want to be the showrunner.
What’s wrong with the world wide web today? I am. (To adapt a Chesterton line of uncertain authenticity.) Don’t get me wrong. It’s great! – it’s hopeful! – we are gathered here today to celebrate 20 years of Crooked Timber; meanwhile Twitter seems to be splintering. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy, we […]
We’re not as right as we think we are Loss of the ability to laugh at oneself is the first warning sign of fundamentalism. It’s a personal maxim that has served well. Not unrelated is a shtick that comes in handy now and again. Jab your finger in the air toward someone as if punctuating an argument, and declare confidently, “Oh yeah? Well, I’m not as smart as I think I am.” Let’s back up. Heather Cox Richardson in her “Letters from an American” installment for July 9 observes that on this date in 1868, Americans ratified the Fourteenth Amendment. It eradicated the infamous Dred Scott decision by a Supreme Court then controlled by states’ rights advocates and “southerners and Democrats … adamantly opposed to federal power.” The drafters meant to ensure that southern states who recently fought a war to preserve slavery could not reimpose it under color of law in their legislatures. They did anyway for the next 100 years under Jim Crow until the post-World War II Supreme Court flexed the equal protection and due process clauses to dismantle it.
Everyone pulled together to get Hawley to correct a false “quote” from Patrick Henry on the U.S. and Christianity. It didn’t work.
The post This Week, America Failed to Get Josh Hawley to Feel Shame appeared first on The Intercept.
Nothing to see here Without comment. Plowable hail.
Ah, Summertime …when the livin’ is easy and the movin’- pitcher Pickens are Slim: Now, I have no personal beef against crowd-pleasing spectacles featuring transformers, superheroes, archeologists, little mermaids, teenage krakens, or grown-up conspiracy theorists who battle fantasy villains in alternate universes; but if you are in the mood for something more off the beaten path that, you know …isn’t primarily targeting 15 year-old males-summer movie season can be exasperating. If you are of like mind, no worries. I’ve been covering film festivals for Hullabaloo since 2006. So if you’d rather pass on Indy Jones and satisfy your “indie” Jones instead, I’ve combed the archives and curated a “Best of the Festivals Festival” that you can program from the comfort of your living room (since its acronym is BOFF, I thought it best not to use that as a header). These 15 fine selections are all available via various platforms. Add popcorn and enjoy!
. Woooooooooooooh! What a performance!!!
Speaking of fascism: Former President Trump said Friday for the first time publicly during the 2024 presidential campaign that he would bring back a travel ban “even bigger than before,” alluding to his administration’s restrictions on travelers from heavily Muslim countries. The first two bans faced steep challenges in court, but the third version of the ban was upheld by the Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision in 2018. That ban barred nearly all travelers from five mainly Muslim countries, in addition to North Korea and Venezuela. President Biden signed an executive order reversing the ban his first week in office. Under the Trump administration, we imposed extreme vetting and put on a powerful travel ban to keep radical Islamic terrorists and jihadists out of our country,” Trump told his audience. “Well, how did that work out? We had no problem, right? They knew they couldn’t come here if they had that moniker. They couldn’t come here.” “When I return to office, the travel ban is coming back even bigger than before and much stronger than before. We don’t want people blowing up our shopping centers.
Apparently, he wants to bring fascism faster: “By refusing to speak to the needs of the poor and working people, the Democratic Party helps to facilitate and enable the Trumps and the DeSantises and others. So, you end up with neo-fascism being in some ways dependent on neoliberalism and vice versa. That cycle, going around and around, means that we’re going to end up with fascism sooner or later. Every Democratic administration will just be a caretaker and a postponement for fascism to come. I am profoundly anti-fascist, and therefore I am trying to get at the roots of fascism.” Right, yeah. That makes sense. Sure it does. Meanwhile he’s running as the Green Party candidate and will probably be on the ballot in the swing states. And he could easily siphon off enough votes to put Donald Trump back in the white house. That’s how we’ll get at the roots of fascism? I hope the Democrats take this threat seriously. Quite a few people think that protest votes are their way of sticking it to the powers that be. But the people who will be hurt won’t be those in power.
Catherine Armstrong [1], The University of York, 2023 Introduction The Universal Basic Income (UBI) guarantees every adult an income. The Job Guarantee (JG) provides employment to everyone willing and …
The post Should we favour a Job Guarantee over a Universal Basic Income as a means of achieving a more socially just society? appeared first on The Gower Initiative for Modern Money Studies.
It isn’t really news that Donald Trump tried to “weaponize” the federal government against his political enemies. After all, he did it right out in the open many, many times. Here’s just one example from October of 2020, before the election: Donald Trump mounted an overnight Twitter blitz demanding to jail his political enemies and call out allies he says are failing to arrest his rivals swiftly enough. Trump twice amplified supporters’ criticisms of Attorney General William Barr, including one featuring a meme calling on him to “arrest somebody!” He wondered aloud why his rivals, like President Barack Obama, Democratic nominee Joe Biden and former Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton hadn’t been imprisoned for launching a “coup” against his administration. “Where are all of the arrests?” Trump said, after several dozen tweets on the subject over the past 24 hours. “Can you imagine if the roles were reversed? Long term sentences would have started two years ago. Shameful!” How about this?
Torres Strait Islanders and the people of Vanuatu pursue legal action to force inept governments to stop climate change. The Great Barrier Reef is at severe risk of disappearing as a result of climate change, which is also causing Earth to wobble on its axis. Torres Strait Islanders v Australian Government In June the ‘Australian Continue reading »
The Wagner coup equation doesn’t compute. It just doesn’t add up. Herbert Wulf gave us a concise summary of the surreal 24 hours that gripped the world. But there are missing pieces of the puzzle that we haven’t been given. And now we learn that the Wagner boss is back in St Petersburg, Russia. In his classic The Art of Continue reading »
When it comes to propaganda the Chinese could learn a thing or two from the Western media. A dictionary definition of propaganda states that it is “information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote a political cause or point of view.” In the West, our mainstream media warns us of the dangers Continue reading »
Cardinal George decided I was a potato. Yes, me and all the other talented committed women of the catholic church. My hope is that George Pell’s death spells the end of the misogyny, clericalism and conservatism within the Church and the fallen potatoes finally get a chance to lead a community with wisdom and kindness. Continue reading »