My time in Japan this year has come to an end (sob). It is back home for me and I will have to wait until next year before I return. At any rate, today I have no time to write a post so you will have to be content listening to the music I have…
Reading
The Israeli-Palestinian Question could not be more complex, urgent and emotionally charged. Those of us who take a position on it have a duty to a full disclosure of the thoughts, assumptions and beliefs that motivate our commentary. To this effect, I collected a number of questions I am frequently asked by friends and critics […]
The post Questions I am frequently asked on Israel-Palestine appeared first on Yanis Varoufakis.
I don’t know if you’ve heard about Elon Musk’s raging antisemitism but it’s causing Xitter to lose massive numbers of advertisers and even more people are leaving the platform because of it. Here’s the basic outline of what happened: The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society “likes to bring invaders in that kill our people … Screw your optics, I’m going in.” Those were the last words posted online by Robert Bowers before he massacred worshippers at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue in 2018. It was the single deadliest anti-Semitic attack in American history. In previous postings, Bowers explained the grievances that led him to commit mass murder. He shared meme after meme asserting that Jews were conspiring to flood the country with brown people in order to oppose and displace the white race. “Open you Eyes!” declared one. “It’s the filthy EVIL jews Bringing the Filthy EVIL Muslims into the Country!” On Wednesday night, the world’s wealthiest man affirmed this same conspiracy theory on X, formerly Twitter, the social-media site he owns.
The English Cricket team have spent the weekend celebrating their cricket world cup ‘moral’ victory, with celebrations including a ticket tape parade where at least 3 people turned up. ”What a great tournament it was for English cricket,” said England’s... Read More ›
Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – November 19, 2023
by Tony Wikrent
Global power shift
The Hinge of History: Palestine and the New World Order
Patrick Lawrence [Scheerpost, via Naked Capitalism 11-15-2023]
Kevin Drum wrote a post that reminded me that I need to avoid social media right now like the plague — and should probably ignore stories about social media too. His very wise post about a story I posted yesterday is much more reasoned than mine was. Here’s the latest trend story from the New York Times. It’s about—God help us—”TikTok economics”: This is the most tiresome thing ever. When are newspapers going to learn the obvious: social media doesn’t represent anything in the real world? I mean, how likely are you to post a TikTok about how your life is fine and everything is pretty good? Not very. That’s just the nature of H. sapiens, who love to performatively gripe and complain a lot more than we like to performatively say that things are OK. The way to account for this bias is to actually ask people how they feel. Then you’ll get equal responses from everyone.
‘Balance’ between supporters of Israel and of the Palestinians is what most police and State governments in Australia say they seek. So does the ABC. But what’s happening in Gaza isn’t balanced: it is asymmetric warfare. Genocide is never balanced. Reporting on Gaza isn’t balanced either. Israel’s disinformation industry went quickly into overdrive after 7 Continue reading »
Three museums in Hong Kong help us understand the complexity of Hong Kong’s past and future and highlight the importance of Asia literacy in Australia. On a recent visit to Hong Kong, I was able to see the new M+ Museum of Visual Culture, open at last in the West Kowloon Cultural District even as Continue reading »
For decades the Australian War Memorial Council denied the need for the full recognition of Australia’s first and longest wars – the Frontier Wars – despite the overwhelming evidence of actions which today would be regarded not only as crimes but also in many cases war crimes. Now the Defending Country Memorial Project has launched Continue reading »
Last week we reposted an article about anti semitism by Bob Carr that was first posted by Pearls and Irritations on June 6, 2022. We highlighted that the article was a re-post. Some readers however did not notice that it was a re-post. The re-post was poorly timed. It was a mistake on my part. Continue reading »
Australian national and state governments are very good at holding inquiries and releasing reports aimed at tackling wicked problems. Top of today’s long list is Domestic and Family Violence (DFV), where all governments combined to produce another National Plan last year: “On 17 October 2022, the Australian, state and territory governments released the National Plan to End Violence Continue reading »
For the last three decades the Reserve Bank of Australia has focused on just one economic goal – a rate of inflation between 2 and 3 per cent. It is a goal they have pursued relentlessly since 1993, regardless of how effective or fair it is. Last Tuesday they increased the cash rate yet again. Continue reading »
In twelve months time Americans will go to the polls to elect the next President. Is the world prepared for the outcome? It is almost impossible to imagine a second election victory for such a manifestly unsuitable candidate for President of the United States as Donald trump. I still think, on the balance of probabilities Continue reading »
There is a truism that I often cite when discussing the various analytical approaches to assessing the wide variety of geopolitical problems facing the world today—you can’t solve a problem unless you first properly define it. The gist of the argument is quite simple—any solution which has nothing to do with the problem involved is, Continue reading »
Just thought you should know. And plan accordingly.
The work is never finished I am reminded. Full quotation: It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. Michael Beschloss will be along presently. The anniversary brings to mind something related to Gettysburg that I wrote for Dirty Hippies in 2011, “The Future They Feared”: We were sitting in a Waffle House in Staunton, Virginia discussing the state of the nation over breakfast. I had just read an Ed Kilgore column in Salon about the nationwide Republican war on voting rights, and the conservative debate over whether voting is even a right or not. As I am standing in line to pay my tab, a African-American man in his forties slides into an occupied booth next to the register and sits opposite an older white man.
.Macroeconomic models may be an informative tool for research. But if practitioners of ‘New Keynesian’ macroeconomics do not investigate and make an effort to provide a justification for the credibility of the assumptions on which they erect their building, it will not fulfil its tasks. There is a gap between its aspirations and its accomplishments, […]
“Parkinson’s disease sucks” It’s heartening to see people who still believe in public service as a vocation. A neighbor spent his career in international development. My state representative served first in the Peace Corps. I recently met a couple who retired here after careers as Foreign Service officers. Donald Trump calls Washington, D.C. a swamp and people eat it up in part because guys like George Santos and Bob Menendez give public service a bad name. (Even though there’s some “both sides” to that, political corruption and faithlessness does seem to have a right-wing bias.) Yet some people still believe. They’re not the ones who become notorious in the press. CBS this morning profiles Virginia congresswoman Jennifer Wexton (D). Wexton comes from a family of public servants. She’s afflicted with a rare disease, yet forgoes some speech and physical therapy to keep serving her consituents: Progressive Supra-nuclear Palsy, as Wexton said, has no cure. At this time, there is no treatment that will slow its progression, and it tends not to respond to medication, according to the National Institutes of Health.
From a pro-Israel lobbying group crushing Democratic dissent to an insurance giant derailing mental health care reforms, here’s a roundup of our reporting from the past week.
. Statistical reasoning certainly seems paradoxical to most people. Take for example Simpson’s paradox. From a theoretical perspective, it importantly shows that causality can never be reduced to a question of statistics or probabilities unless you are — miraculously — able to keep constant all other factors that influence the probability of the outcome studied. […]
In today's BCTV Daily Dispatch: SNL, My Adventures with Superman, Bill Maher, Star Trek: Lower Decks, The Powerpuff Girls, Doctor Who & more!
Linda Trush sued the city alleging that she was wrongfully terminated and retaliated against after reporting sexual harassment by a co-worker.
The post Last Republican on Philly City Council Fired Staffer Who Reported Sexual Harassment, Says Lawsuit appeared first on The Intercept.
The Grayzone’s Max Blumenthal joins Chris Hedges to discuss his investigation into Israel’s indiscriminate use of heavy weapons against Israeli citizens on October 7, and the shock-and-awe campaign of misinformation it subsequently employed to create political space for its brutal assault on Gaza. This was originally published by The Real News Network. Editor’s note: Since the publication of this interview, an Israeli police investigation has confirmed that Israeli Apache helicopters killed numerous Israeli citizens at and around the Nova electronic […]
The post VIDEO: What really happened on October 7? first appeared on The Grayzone.
The post VIDEO: What really happened on October 7? appeared first on The Grayzone.