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Getting sick of all this right-wing jargon.

The Stream: Aljazeera.com It’s been over four years since Julian Assange was forcibly removed from the Ecuadorian embassy and placed in a high security prison in the UK, where he is battling extradition to the United States. The Wikileaks co-founder is wanted on 17 charges of espionage and one charge of computer misuse for publishing documents that exposed US war crimes in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the US military prison at Guantánamo.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics released the latest – Australian National Accounts: National Income, Expenditure and Product, March 2023 – today (March 1, 2023), which shows that the Australian economy grew by just 0.2 per cent in the March-quarter 2023 and by 2.3 per cent over the 12 months. If we extend the March result…

It’s heartbreaking. But you shouldn’t have to personally experience it to have some empathy for what these kids are going through. Treating children — any children — like pariahs and threatening them and their parents and doctors with jail is reprehensible. And maybe this fellow should reassess his assumptions about “the woke” in general.

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

Apparently, he been busy testifying. The New York Times reported this afternoon that he’s has appeared before Jack Smith’s Grand Jury: For months, people in Mr. Trump’s orbit have been puzzled by and wary about the low profile kept by Mr. Meadows in the investigations. As reports surfaced of one witness after another going into the grand jury or to be interviewed by federal investigators, Mr. Meadows has kept largely out of sight, and some of Mr. Trump’s advisers believe he could be a significant witness in the inquiries. Mr. Trump himself has at times asked aides questions about how Mr. Meadows is doing, according to a person familiar with the remarks. Asked about the grand jury testimony, a lawyer for Mr. Meadows, George Terwilliger, said, “Without commenting on whether or not Mr. Meadows has testified before the grand jury or in any other proceeding, Mr. Meadows has maintained a commitment to tell the truth where he has a legal obligation to do so.” Mr. Meadows was a polarizing figure at the White House among some of Mr.

Experts say the Florida governor and his super PAC are pushing boundaries and betting that election regulators are asleep on the job.

It’s very moving to go to the Normandy beaches and recall what happened there. We’re rapidly losing our collective memory of all that in America but it’s still very vivid in Europe.

The fight could influence whether Georgia stays blue in 2024’s Senate and presidential races.

The post No One Believes in Cop City. So Why Did Atlanta’s City Council Fund It? appeared first on The Intercept.

As long as I’ve been blogging, I’ve made notes of articles I wanted to write about at some point, and then, mostly, I haven’t written about them, generally because they don’t support a full article.

When I was the managing editor at the Agonist I’d put up a quick takes post fairly often, and use those links. The difference from Tony’s excellent roundups, is that every link gets some commentary.

I’m going to start doing “Quick Takes” here, and if people like them I’ll continue.

 

Current US policies toward China are outrageous: Noam Chomsky Noam Chomsky Interviewed by Global Times June 6, 2023. Global Times. Editor’s Note: At 94 years old, Noam Chomsky (Chomsky) is as vocal as ever. As a renowned American linguist and public intellectual, he constantly appears on the media talking about US foreign policy with his strong […]

You can’t make this stuff up. A good piece from Mark Sumner at DKos on some of the weirdness coming out of the Ukraine war these days: On Tuesday, Wagner Group CEO Yevgeny Prigozhin sat down for an interview with pro-Russian military blogger Konstantin Dolgov. Over the course of the discussion, the mercenary leader continued his barbed criticism of Russia’s military leadership, disparaged the sad state of the Russian army, and even seemed to suggest that a general revolt against the government of Vladimir Putin was right around the corner. In the wake of that widely viewed interview, Dolgov was fired from his position at a Russian propaganda network, but Prigozhin … goes on. In what may be one of the most inexplicable chapters of Russia’s labyrinthine political system, Prigozhin still hasn’t had a stairwell accident, an unfortunate illness, or a visit to an open window despite months of increasingly blatant disdain for everyone and everything involved with Putin’s personal war on Ukraine.

Recently, the Biden administration released the U.S. National Strategy to Combat Antisemitism, an unprecedented report...

In fact, it should be ready in two weeks Ah memories: “My first day in office, I am going to ask Congress to put a bill on my desk getting rid of this disastrous law and replacing it with reforms that expand choice, freedom, affordability,” said Trump on Oct. 25, 2016 a day after he St. Augustine speech, in Sanford, Florida. “You’re going to have such great health care at a tiny fraction of the cost. And it’s going to be so easy.” Fast forward to 2020: Trump began teasing his own replacement plan during his first presidential bid, five years ago. Back then, he pledged to swap out the Affordable Care Act for “something terrific,” details TBD. Over subsequent months and years, Trump boasted about the benefits of his plan. It would be cheaper yet somehow also more generous than Obamacare. It would be “so easy,” even though “nobody knew health care could be so complicated.” It would “take care of everybody,” even as it took literal care away from many.

He didn’t have much luck doing that with Trump, however, and was soon out of the race. Yesterday he announced that he was going to give it another shot although it’s highly unlikely he will get past the starting gate. But it would be nice if he could get his message out to at least a few people who have never heard any of it before. Some highlights of his announcement: I don’t know if he has any credibility with Republicans but he might have some with GOP leaning Independents. And maybe his words will somehow make it into the fever swamp, you never know. Trump, by the way, responded in kind:

Every word of Anthony Albanese’s address to the Shangri-La dialogue on 2 June was chosen with care. It was a balancing act, with the Prime Minister poised between peace and war, defence and diplomacy, the US and China, in a high-wire performance his Coalition predecessors wouldn’t have attempted. Has Australia’s approach to Asia changed? Does Continue reading »

Prime Minister Albanese spoke moderately and positively at the Shangri-la Dialogue in Singapore last weekend, although his address didn’t really live up to its prior publicity. However the main impression from the exchanges at the Dialogue was of the differences between the US and China. Amazingly, the American Secretary of Defence didn’t seem to realise Continue reading »