- by Sherri Irvin
Reading
There are a lot of legal cases against Trump pending right now and you would think that a billionaire front runner for the Republican nomination would have the very best legal talent that money can buy. But, as we know, he is the worst client in the world because he doesn’t pay and won’t shut his pie hole so his legal bench is D-list at best. Here’s a rundown: [Y]ou would think a client facing that amount of legal peril would have a top-notch team of lawyers in place to defend him. But when you have a client like Trump, normal expectations don’t apply. Just recently attorney Tim Parlatore announced — very publicly, via voluntarily testifying for the Mar-a-Lago documents investigation — that he was resigning from the Trump legal team, allegedly because of his inability to provide the right kind of counsel to Trump due to obstacles created by fellow Trump lawyer Boris Epshteyn. Parlatore claims that Epshteyn was keeping him and other lawyers from being able to speak to Trump and that Epshteyn was not being honest with their client.
Your phone knows everything about you. What about your other stuff?
An odyssey through South African apartheid.
Republicans are wringing their hands about Teflon Don Oh heck. Maybe failing to push for the 2nd impeachment which would have barred him from office was a mistake. Oops. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ technology-challenged but donor-rich entry into the GOP presidential primary cemented his place in the early primary as the chief alternative to Trump. But it will hardly clear the field. And with a growing cast of characters still waiting in the wings to announce their own campaigns, warning signs of a 2016 replay are once again flashing in the GOP. According to interviews with nearly a dozen GOP strategists, former candidates and party insiders, the intraparty dynamics now at play — and Trump’s own alchemical grip on the base — suggest a primary where a constellation of Republicans once again risk splitting the non-Trump vote in early nominating states.
Today, I am Perth giving a keynote presentation to the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) 2023 Congress. My talk is titled – Why fiscal fictions lead to inferior health policy outcomes. Given the travel time to the other side of the world (the continent at least) – us East Coasters get…
A large majority of Americans want stricter gun laws. They are tired of seeing their kids mowed down on a weekly basis: A majority of Americans in a new poll released on Friday said they would support stricter gun control laws. Sixty-four percent said they were in favor of stricter laws, while 36 percent said they were opposed, the CNN-SSRS poll found. A slightly smaller portion — 54 percent — said that such gun control laws would reduce gun-related deaths in the country, and 58 percent said they believe the government is able take effective action to prevent mass shootings. Some 59 percent in the survey said they were in favor of banning semi-automatic rifles, while 94 percent said they would support taking measures to prevent convicted felons and those with mental health issues from owning guns. Eight in 10 also said people under the age of 21 should be barred from purchasing any type of gun, the poll found.
Australian energy providers have called on the Albanese Government to loosen the laws around selling human body parts, as a way for their customers to combat rising energy prices. ”Times are tough, things are hard, Nanna’s cold so why can’t... Read More ›
Trump Jr is actually more juvenile than his father. He’s also an idiot: On his online show “Triggered With Don Jr.” earlier this week, Trump’s son had a slip of the tongue during an extensive takedown of DeSantis, who he also referred to as a “failure to launch” with “the policies of a DC swamp rat” and a “nasal and effeminate voice.” “Trump has the charisma of a mortician, and the energy that makes Jeb Bush look an Olympian,” Trump Jr. said in the gaffe.
The following is a paper by retired Australian Army Major General Michael G Smith AO, first published in The New Daily on May 26, 2023. This paper addresses the most significant issue facing the Australian people since the Second World War, namely our future national security, our independence, our sovereignty, our prosperity and, ultimately, our Continue reading »
We now have a Defence Strategic Review. But where is the National Risk Assessment, the National Security Strategy, and the Plan? A failure to resource the DSR changes adequately could mean that our deployable military operational capability will in reality be less at the end of this decade than it is today. On the 24th Continue reading »
With the passing of the 75th remembrance of the Nakba this May, Palestine and its Occupation can often be forgotten from one May to another. May will come around next year, the Palestinian flag will be waved, Palestinian supporters will rightfully demonstrate in capital cities around the world while the US and UK recommence their Continue reading »
Predatory capitalism has become visible across the world as neo-liberalism becomes fully transnational. Consultancies working to authoritarian rules have consumed big business by making executives richer. They may be set to engulf governments and even entire societies. In the 1920s and 1930s fascist Germany and Italy were the darlings of business across the democratic world. Continue reading »
At his valedictory event, former APS Commissioner, Peter Woolcott, suggested that the Government and APS leadership were now pursuing ‘Thodey on steroids’. Some have endorsed that view referring to the partnership between Glyn David and Gordon de Brouwer as the ‘dream team’, now further consolidated by de Brouwer’s appointment as the new APS Commissioner. So Continue reading »
On 30 January 2023, the Albanese Government released its new national cultural policy, REVIVE: a five-year plan to revive the arts in Australia. There was widespread pleasure that after a decade of neglect of cultural matters, attention was being given again to this important aspect of Australian life. There was, however, some dismay at the Continue reading »
Let’s see how Europeans respond when they are told their peace dividend is henceforth to be spent on the machinery of war — when it’s “howitzers instead of hospitals” now, as a New York Times article puts it. Maybe you recall all the post–Cold War talk of a “peace dividend” and maybe you don’t: It depends on Continue reading »
A photo Beijing released on March 6th of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s foreign minister Wang Yi delivered a seismic shock in Washington. There he was, standing between Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran’s National Security Council, and Saudi National Security Adviser Musaad bin Mohammed al-Aiban. They were awkwardly shaking hands on an agreement to reestablish Continue reading »
Here’s an interesting view on some dynamics underlying the debt ceiling negotiations I’ve never seen before from Talking Points Memo. I can’t vouch for whether all these details are correct, but if they are it makes you wonder why nobody has been discussing it. Anyway, just throwing it out there as food for thought: You were wondering how Biden was able to get such a good deal; in the end all this drama just amounted to getting the budget-negotiation process started early, with the GOP’s main takeaway being something (spending freeze) that their control of the House already guaranteed them via the tool of passing continuing resolutions.
Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – May 28, 2023
by Tony Wikrent
War
Benjamin Schwarz, Christopher Layne [Harpers, June 2023 issue, via Naked Capitalism 5-22-2023]
Both the global role that Washington has assigned itself generally, and America’s specific policies toward NATO and Russia, have led inexorably to war—as many foreign policy critics, ourselves among them, have long warned that they would….
A debt ceiling fight ending with a whimper not a bang It’s not over yet, because Kevin McCarthy still has to round up enough votes to get past the Hastert Rule (GOP can’t bring a bill to floor with a majority of Democratic votes) and he might still face a motion to vacate the chair when all is said and done (which is his problem, not ours) it appears that creaky old Joe got the best deal we could have expected, most importantly an agreement to extend the debt limit until after the next election. Donald Trump hasn’t said a word yet. Whether he whips against voting for it is unknown. But you can bet he is not happy about it. Here’s Dave Dayen at the American Prospect with the view from the progressives: With one potentially major exception, the relative harm and help was kept to a minimum in the final agreement. It will only be a little bit easier to commit wage theft, or to sell defective or poisoned products. It’ll only be a little harder to get rental assistance or tuition support. Only a few people will be freer to pollute the environment; only a few will find it more difficult to get food. The Internal Revenue Service will only be a little worse.
I wrote and deleted a long post about an argument I had with my Dad. Instead I’ll summarise with a tidied up extract from an email I sent to MJD.
I did not even last 48 hours …