They’re all in on abandoning Ukraine and NATO A global far right get together: Allies of Hungary’s far-right prime minister Viktor Orbán will hold a closed-door meeting with Republicans in Washington to push for an end to US military support for Ukraine, the Guardian has learned. Members of the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs and staff from the Hungarian embassy in Washington will on Monday begin a two-day event hosted by the conservative Heritage Foundation thinktank. The first day includes panel speeches about the Ukraine war as well as topics such as Transatlantic Culture Wars. It is expected to feature guests including Magor Ernyei, the international director of the Centre for Fundamental Rights, the institute that organized CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) Hungary. Kelley Currie, a former ambassador under then president Donald Trump, said she was invited “but declined”. According to a Republican source, some of the attendees, including Republican members of Congress, have been invited to join closed-door talks the next day.
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Last Friday (December 8 , 2023), the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released their latest labour market data – Employment Situation Summary – November 2023 – which showed payroll employment rising by 199,000 which is a good sign. The unemployment rate also fell as employment growth outstripped the growth in the labour force –…
Thoughts and prayers, America. That’s all you get.
None of that matters. They have order from Dear Leader and they do what he wants: House Republicans are preparing to formalize their impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden with a House vote this week, as their investigation reaches a critical juncture while right-wing pressure grows. Up until this point, House Republicans have not had enough votes to legitimize their ongoing inquiry with a full chamber vote. The probe has struggled to uncover wrongdoing by the president which is why it hasn’t garnered the unified support of the full GOP conference. Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy unilaterally launched the inquiry in September, even though he had previously criticized Democrats for taking the same step in 2019 when they launched the first impeachment probe of then-President Donald Trump without taking a vote at the beginning.
Back in the day, there used to be a lot more arguments across blogs. Perhaps we’ll see more of it happening again as Twitter continues its collapse into a dwarf star composed of degenerate matter. To get things started, this seems to me to be a quite wrongheaded claim by Tyler Cowen. In a […]
The Fifteenth Doctor's sonic screwdriver reveal video also previews the Doctor Who Christmas Special. Plus, new preview images & more.
As the bloodbath in Gaza moves towards 18,000 casualties, 70% of whom are women and children, as a humanitarian catastrophe affecting a whole people persists, the rich and powerful US vetoes a U.N. Resolution calling for a ceasefire. The rich and powerful UK ducks for cover and abstains. The governments of both nations apparently believe Continue reading »
By going beyond the good and evil binary, the Australian media could play a more constructive role in fostering enduring stability between Australia and China, delineating a path that maintains Australia’s safety and integrity. China, undeniably a significant actor on the global stage, is a nation with which Australia not only can but should seek Continue reading »
Henry Kissinger’s role in expediting the Sino-US normalization and recognition process represented one of the greatest feats in modern diplomatic history. The Australian’s conflicted 2-3 December 2023 obituary of Henry Kissinger came under the banner-head, “Flawed Giant of Realpolitik”. Although we are never to see his like again, many in the Western media have left Continue reading »
Privileged people trying to save the world shouldn’t be dismissed as bourgeois virtue signalling. There are worse things to signal and it could make a difference. Even for the optimists amongst us, the problems of the world can seem overwhelming and beyond our control to change. The understandable temptation, especially for those of us fortunate Continue reading »
The recent plan of Newington College to become co-educational has initiated an uproarious reaction from their old-boys as well as influential Head Masters of such schools. This ridiculous reaction is simply a response to girls being admitted into the exclusive masculine territory that once was Newington. Their opposition to the inclusion of girls is not Continue reading »
Last month, Chris Bowen, the Climate Change Minister, delivered the second Annual Climate Change Statement to the federal parliament. The Minister’s address was in part detailed – especially when it came to the government’s many policy achievements – but less so when it came to the question of climate heating and national security. Bowen lauded Continue reading »
‘Off off the record’ with the man who secretly taped our telephone calls. I left the New York Times in 1979, after many good stories and some not so good times, to write a book, The Price of Power, about Henry Kissinger and his years as a manipulating and dissembling national security adviser and secretary Continue reading »
There is, I think, the hint of a better future after the latest heartbreaking revelation to emerge from the Middle East that the Israeli government knew a year ago about Hamas’ plans for the horrific murders on October 7. It knew. It did nothing. Why is that knowledge good news? It means Israelis must be Continue reading »
Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – December 10, 2023
by Tony Wikrent
War in Ukraine
Gilbert Doctorow [via Naked Capitalism 12-04-2023] Excellent.
Even pre-schoolers understand this In one of the Atlantic articles about “If Trump Wins” Mark Liebovich goes where everyone else is afraid to go. He talks about the Trump voter. Of course, he does it after explaining that you can’t really point any of this out because it upsets the MAGAs and we can’t have that. But he does explode this high minded myth that “we’re better than that,” meaning Americans write large, which clearly only applies to some of us. Anyway: After the shock of Trump’s victory in 2016, the denial and rationalizations kicked in fast. Just ride out the embarrassment for a few years, many thought, and then America would revert to something in the ballpark of sanity. But one of the overlooked portents of 2020 (many Democrats were too relieved to notice) was that the election was still extremely close. Trump received 74 million votes, nearly 47 percent of the electorate. That’s a huge amount of support, especially after such an ordeal of a presidency—the “very fine people on both sides,” the “perfect” phone call, the bleach, the daily OMG and WTF of it all.
November 2024 is a referendum Call it a referendum. Call it a ballot measure. Whatever. The race at the top of every voter’s ballot next year will not be a race for president. Not pumped enough to show up and vote in a race between (highly likely) two old white men? How do you feel about a choice between authoritarianism and democracy? That’s what’s really the first contest on your ballot. Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré (Ret.) is counting on Gen Z, first-time voters to help save the country he served for decades: In 2024, 41 million members of Gen Z will be eligible to vote. For the youngest 8 million of this group, Election Day in 2024 will be the first in which they are old enough to cast a ballot, according to recent findings by the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University. This new generation of voters will be the most diverse our nation has ever seen. And already, these same young people have been politically engaged.
The upcoming Doctor Who Christmas Special will bring us more of Russell T. Davies' uncompromising writing and an apparent move into Fantasy.
From profit mongers eyeing an immigrant surveillance boom to corporate media ignoring Trump’s climate death cult, here’s a roundup of our reporting from the past week.
A document obtained by The Intercept shows India was targeting Sikh separatists with a “sophisticated crackdown scheme” in the West.
The post Secret Indian Memo Ordered “Concrete Measures” Against Hardeep Singh Nijjar Two Months Before His Assassination in Canada appeared first on The Intercept.
Life’s a beach, ladies Some guy seems not to have noticed that Taylor Swift’s hottest concert ticket of the year made her Time‘s Person of the Year. Or that Barbie was the hottest movie ticket of the year. Barbie ends with joke about women’s health care. It figures some clueless guy‘s name is Ken. Alexandra Petri noticed (Washington Post, gifted): “Judge Guerra Gamble is not medically qualified to make this determination and it should not be relied upon. A TRO is no substitute for medical judgment.” — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, writing to doctors who have received a court order allowing an abortion to end a nonviable pregnancy There is no substitute for medical judgment, except the judgment of me, Ken Paxton. Am I a doctor? No. I’m something better than a doctor: a Ken. My accessories include: no medical expertise and a boundless reservoir of cruelty. And one time, I saw a horse. I have also been told that my handwriting is bad and that I am not patient. This all screams “doctor” to me. Move over Karen. Ken is here.
WORLD AIDS Day on Friday 1 December saw the enduringly iconic Big Banana in Coffs Harbour lit up red. Observed annually on the first day of summer in Australia, the worldwide movement run by UNAIDS is a focus for sharing information about the AIDS/HIV plight. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it...
The post Rainbow Coffs Harbour LGBTIQA+ group supports World Aids Day appeared first on News Of The Area.
In today's BCTV Daily Dispatch: Doctor Who, Peacemaker & Shazam 2, Saturday Night Live, DCU/Maxwell Lord, The Wheel of Time, and more!