A Palestinian man describes the horror of his Israeli captivity while the BBC questions the president of Israel about the torture and abuse in their prisons. Jeffrey Sachs explains why the US went to war with Iraq in 2003. ABC Insiders uncovers Trump’s plan for Gaza while the King of Jordan says they will never Continue reading »
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This is a follow-up to my previous post on the end of US democracy and its implications. I argued that there is no choice but to dispense with the idea of the US as the central actor in a democratic and stable world system [1]Here I will discuss how what’s left of the democratic world […]
I think we can see where this is leading: “let them enforce it” Ever since Justice it was understood that the ultimate interpreter of the executive’s “legitimate power” under the Constitution (specifically Article II) was the Supreme Court. I think we’re about to see that concept contested, which has kept our system more or less stable short of civil war, in a way we’ve never seen. It could be the whole ballgame. By the way, Elon responded to that tweet: The gall.
Around a decade ago when I was fairly new to my academic job, I made an uncharacteristically politic decision to attend the annual Politics Dinner, which each year featured a lecture from an Australian politician. That year it was my (then) least favourite politician. Christopher Pyne was then the government minister responsible for higher education […]
Last April, in a move generating scant media attention, the Air Force announced that it had chosen two little-known drone manufacturers — Anduril Industries of Costa Mesa, California, and General Atomics of San Diego — to build prototype versions of its proposed Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA), a future unmanned plane intended to accompany piloted aircraft on high-risk combat missions. The lack of coverage was surprising, given that the Air Force expects to acquire at least 1,000 CCAs over the coming decade at around $30 million each, making this one of the Pentagon’s costliest new projects. But consider that the least of what the media failed to note. In winning the CCA contract, Anduril and General Atomics beat out three of... Read more
Say it ain’t so… Somebody made a killing on Trump’s memecoin scam, somebody who obviously knew it was coming. Gosh I wonder who it might be? The curious trade came a little past 9 p.m. on Jan. 17 — a $1,096,109 bet less than two minutes after the soon-to-be president of the United States posted on his social media account that his family had issued a cryptocurrency called $Trump. In those first minutes, a crypto wallet with a unique identification code beginning 6QSc2Cx secured a giant load of these new tokens — 5,971,750 of them — at the opening sale price of just 18 cents each, starting a surge in the $Trump price that would soon reach $75 per token. This early trader, whose identity is not known, walked away with a two-day profit of as much as $109 million, according to an analysis performed for The New York Times. But the fast profits for early traders, whose names are unknown but some of whom appear to be based in China, came at the expense of a far larger number of slower investors who have cumulatively suffered more than $2 billion in losses after the price of the token crashed.
Australian Opposition leader, Donald Dutton, has reacted angrily to calls to release more polices, screaming at journalists that he will do so as soon as his mentor Donald Trump does. ”The Australian people need to know that I will do... Read More ›
Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – February 09, 2025
By Tony Wikrent
Strategic Political Economy
Franklin D. Roosevelt, State of the Union Message to Congress, January 11, 1944
[TW: In this speech, FDR proposed an economic bill of rights]
…a noisy minority maintains an uproar of demands for special favors for special groups. There are pests who swarm through the lobbies of the Congress and the cocktail bars of Washington, representing these special groups as opposed to the basic interests of the Nation as a whole. They have come to look upon the war primarily as a chance to make profits for themselves at the expense of their neighbors- profits in money or in terms of political or social preferment….
He’s a barrel of laughs He’s a real comedian: Prince Harry can breathe freely in Montecito, because President Donald Trump has ruled out deporting the self-exiled British royal. Harry’s immigration status is the subject of litigation in Washington DC, with the Heritage Foundation alleging that he may have concealed past illegal drug use that should have disqualified him from obtaining a US visa. But the president told The New York Post Friday that he isn’t interested in throwing Harry out of the country. “I don’t want to do that,” he said. “I’ll leave him alone. He’s got enough problems with his wife. She’s terrible.” If there was ever a reason for Harry to mend fences with his family this is it. I know Ted Cruz’s ilk are fine with the president of the United States crudely insuring their wives but there’s not reason for Harry to put up with it. This is the schoolboy bully part of Trump that the right just loves which says everything about them. Look at the way they celebrated: I didn’t realize they were thinking of deporting Harry over his past drug use.
The catastrophic conflict between Israel and the Palestinians (the present “ceasefire” notwithstanding) has done nothing to relieve the centuries-old contradictions that exist between and within our three monotheistic religions: Judaism, Islam and Christianity. Mysteriously, God’s role in these ongoing horrors is seldom seriously discussed by our political leaders, the media or even religious leaders. In Continue reading »
Senior MintPress journalist Alan MacLeod joins MintCast to discuss how his investigations into Israeli spies working in American newsrooms led to a smear campaign from The Jerusalem Post.
The post Jerusalem Post Attacks MintPress for Investigating Israel’s Media Influence appeared first on MintPress News.
Just as awful as they ever were Bill Cohen at Puck surveyed some of the Masters of the Universe about Trump’s first moves and they are fine with it. Who are these jerks? One Wall Street executive, who almost went to work for Trump this time around, artfully told me that the president was simply using the Oval Office and the media as his bully pulpit, itself a form of performance art. “Bullies love to see people cower in fear,” he said. “Why be a bully if you can’t do that? So how much of this is just, ‘Justin Trudeau, I’m gonna fuck with him,’ or ‘Mexico didn’t really do shit to stop immigration, time for them to shit their pants a little bit.
. Dynamic programming is a cornerstone of optimal control theory. By recursively breaking down complex problems into smaller, more manageable subproblems, it serves as a powerful tool in economics. Economic analysis often involves decisions with long-term consequences, and dynamic programming helps model how different agents make optimal choices when each decision depends on the current […]
Pizzagate for Trump 2.0 Why Elon Musk’s 20-something vandals aren’t tagging federal buildings the way male dogs mark trees is a mystery. A major goal of the DOGE effort is to publicly demonstrate who’s in charge. Donald Trump still thinks he is. “It’s good to be the king,” said Mel Brooks as the king of France in History of the World, Part 1. Donald Trump thinks so too. He pretended to be a successful business tycoon on TV. Now he’s pretending to be king. As powerful as Trump’s job is, he’s still just the president. The question is for how long? Trump has conferred on oligarch Elon Musk authorities the presidency does not have. Plus, Trump has been too busy playing king to have figured out he’s empowered Musk to usurp the presidency while he’s out ransacking Washington, D.C. It is clear that the Muskovites are bludgeoning anything and everything they perceive as left of center. It is also clear that they have little idea how government actually works and no regard for rule-following. They approach their federal targets with the kind of conspiracy mindset that spawned Pizzagate.
A tech bro treasure hunt, a dictator-funded AI moonshot, and much more from The Lever this week.
A counter-movement is forming A physician friend just yesterday asked me where her donations would have the most impact for stopping Musk-Trump. She was thinking of a couple of nationally known nonprofits. I didn’t have an answer but said I would try to get her one. There are likely many more of you who would send cash to fight the Muskovites if you knew best where to send it. Here are two lists of pending court cases against the Musk-Trump self-coup: Litigation Tracker: Legal Challenges to Trump Administration Actions (Just Security)Lawsuits Related to Trump Admin Executive Orders (Court Watch) But the two long lists of court cases linked above are a diverse mix of governments not set up for directed donations and private groups that may be. The name-brand nonprofits my friend mentioned are not among them. There are too many NGOs, and it’s hard to know where to focus fire. Marcy Wheeler (emptywheel) spotlighted several groups involved in just one of the lawsuits launched against against the Muskovites, but also key players like Democracy Forward fighting behind the scenes: Self care is going to be important to keep from burning out.
Doctor Who has a unique way of renewing itself that other shows don't have, making each Doctor's intro feel like a pilot for a new show.
A critique of De Grauwe and Ji’s analysis of the UK reserve system, highlighting aspects of the UK’s fiscal framework they have overlooked
THE Pines Canasta group are the delighted recipients of playing card holders handmade by members of the Woolgoolga Men’s Shed. Problem solver and star Canasta player Hannele Perho, resident at The Pines in Woolgoolga, knew she had to find a solution to holding multiple cards in her hands while playing Canasta. Advertise with News of...
The post Woolgoolga Men’s Shed crafts card holders for canasta players appeared first on News Of The Area.