They no longer have any need or desire to be statesmen And, as with everything else, it’s a long, slow evolution that’s been accelerated at warp speed by the presence of Donald Trump in American politics: There are 26 Republican governors. Three of them showed up here this week at the annual summer meeting of the National Governors Association. And of those three, one left after the first night, and another had little choice but to attend — his chairship of the group began at the conclusion of this year’s gathering. Striding the Hard Rock Cafe casino stage like a megachurch pastor, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox used his maiden speech as NGA chair to implore his fellow governors to make the organization a model of robust yet civil debate. “If we’re ever going to find our better angels again, it has to start with us setting the example of how to disagree better,” Cox said. But it’s hard to do much disagreeing, or have a conversation at all, when nobody is listening: Fewer than a half-dozen governors were still in attendance for his remarks Friday, the session’s closing day, and they were all Democrats.
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Low rating news and opinion channel Sky News Australia have declared off the back of the Fadden by-election that Opposition leader Peter Dutton will win the next 15 Federal elections and go on to be Australia’s most glorious leader. ”Albo... Read More ›
Preparation time: 12 min.Cooking time: about 20 min. Good quality roast beef hash in a can can be of great help when time is short and a hearty main dish is wanted. This meal, cooked in a skillet, saves energy and time, and is suitable for breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner. For 4 servings you […]
In April, when Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old Massachusetts Air National Guardsman with a top-secret clearance, was arrested for posting a trove of classified documents about the Russia-Ukraine war online, the question most often asked was: How did such a young, inexperienced, low-level technician have access to such sensitive material? What I wanted to know was: How did he ever get accepted into the Air Force in the first place? Teixeira seems to have leaked that secret information for online bragging rights rather than ideological reasons, so his transgression probably wouldn’t have fallen under the military’s newly reinforced regulations on extremist activities. After he was indicted, however, perturbing details about his behavior emerged, including his online searches for violent extremist events,... Read more
. Spending a beautiful weekend on our island in the Karlskrona archipelago. Pure energy for the soul. You just keep me hanging on, Jeanette.
Asa Hutchinson is lustily booed before the Turning Point crowd He’s a hard right establishment Republican. And it’s just not good enough. Why? During the event, Carlson asked the former governor about his veto of the first-in-the-nation gender-affirming care ban for minors. Hutchinson said at the time of his veto that he believes the law went too far and was an example of government overreach. On Friday, the former governor said that he believes only two genders exist and he would not personally support a member of his family changing genders, but he does not think the government should be involved in the decision. “There should not be any confusion on your gender. But if there is confusion, then parents ought to be the ones that guide the children,” he said.
“Of all of these four objectives that I call sustainable development. 1. Material Sufficiency; 2. Social Justice; 3. Environmental sustainability; and 4. Peace; we’re off track on all of them” – Prof. Jeffrey Sachs. “Nothing about the international economy guarantees the end of poverty or social justice. There’s nothing in the global economic system that Continue reading »
As one of the pipers for the Australian War Memorial, I get a unique view of the crowds around the Pool of Reflection during the daily ritual that is the Last Post Ceremony. Invariably, the faces are solemn and reflective. Not infrequently there are tears. On the way out, I move with the crowd. The Continue reading »
In terms of the long-term survival of our species, the ritualisation of war the First Peoples of Australia achieved should be celebrated as a great advancement in human relationship. Rather than just celebrating the longevity and attachment to land of aboriginal people, we need to recognise that all their various cultures achieved one of the Continue reading »
At the heart of setting the age of the qualifying child for Parenting Payment (PP) is the question: when should a sole parent cease to be treated as a person whose primary responsibility is to care for children and more like a person seeking paid work? Sole parents are, due to the absence of a Continue reading »
’You cannot serve God and mammon’. Make your choice. I have been proud to be a management consultant for over forty years. I worked for PwC for five years before establishing my own consultancy twenty-five years ago. However, given the taint of PwC’s recent behaviour, consulting as a profession has been damaged for at least Continue reading »
The Federal Government has been urged to ignore advice from Private Healthcare Australia (PHA) suggesting that private health insurance funds have an important role in increasing access to dental services. Rather, it is the underfunded and overworked public dental services that have expertise in delivering services to vulnerable people, says health policy analyst Charles Maskell-Knight. Continue reading »
The North Atlantic military alliance has no business in the continent and it should just stop going on about the so-called China threat. As Nato and its boss, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, keep banging on about “the China threat”, you really have to wonder what the real game plan is. A joint communique by Nato’s Continue reading »
Wait. The Insurrection Act? Where did that come from? Trump did amend that post later to say Espionage Act, but it appears that the Insurrection Act is on his mind. You have to wonder if maybe he’s gotten a target letter from the Special Council. There is good reason for him to worry about that. Jennifer Rubin looked at a new prospective prosecution memo which sees Donald Trump potentially facing some very serious charges based upon the public evidence. One of them is the likelihood of being charged under the Insurrection Act: Building on a prior prosecution memo, a group of seven former prosecutors and defense attorneys — lawyers with decades of collective constitutional and criminal law experience — published at Just Security a voluminous updated memo giving their best estimate (and advice to Smith) as to what to expect. The authors at Just Security consolidated the seven-part conspiracy the House select committee set out into three essential prongs. They explained the first prong: “Trump knew he lost the election but did not want to give up power, so he worked with his lawyers on a wide variety of schemes to change the outcome.
Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – July 16, 2023
by Tony Wikrent
Global power shift
Has the West lost control of oil?
[Unherd, via Naked Capitalism 7-10-2023]
Florida Republicans think so. That’s how batshit insane they are. And Ron DeSantis has empowered them: The Brevard County Republican Executive voted by a supermajority this week to call upon Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to ban sale and distribution of Covid “and all related vaccines” in the state, Florida Today reported. The nonbinding resolution also demanded that “Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody seize all remaining doses in the state for safety testing, ‘on behalf of the preservation of the human race,’ the resolution states,” the report said. The resolution is part of a trend among GOP county officials in the state, and “closely mirrors” a measure advanced in February in Lee County. Last month a similar resolution was passed in Tampa Bay Hillsborough County, bringing the total to more than half a dozen counties, the outlet reported.
Michigan Republicans go lower I’ve never forgotten the first time I encountered an essay by the late, great Molly Ivins. She described happenins inside the “Austin Funhouse,” a.k.a, the Texas state capitol where, pre-Viagra, overstimulated legislators often went to “fist city.” In Michigan they hit lower, says Michigan Democrats’ state Senate Majority Whip Mallory McMorrow.
Companies know the control they have over workers’ lives. This week, they accidentally admitted it.
Companies know the control they have over workers’ lives. This week, they accidentally admitted it.
Growing turnout where there’s room to grow It’s happened before. The final, low-prestige panels of the Netroots Nation conference — late Saturday afternoon when people are already leaving — turn out to be the most interesting. “You cannot win without the youth vote” featured observations from Voters of Tomorrow panelists: Ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, many national news sources suggested that the youth would not turn out. In reality, the election saw the second-highest youth turnout in the last 30 years. Gen Z voted overwhelmingly for pro-democracy candidates. Without the youth vote, the “red wave” may have become a reality. The Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade was the animating issue in 2022, as well as in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race in 2023. While the youth vote has been increasing, 2022 was the first when over half of Gen Z could vote, the panel agreed. They predict even higher turnout in 2024. Florida Rep. Maxwell Frost, 26, told a ballroom crowd earlier that Democrats must work to make Gen Z’s future a hopeful one of abundance, not retrenchment, if they want their engagement.
A rodent infestation, a leaking washing machine, chipping knives, warm fridges and unstable deep fryers—these are just some of the health and safety issues staff at Glasgow’s the 13th Note have been dealing with in the past six months alone. ‘At the minute, it seems like every time you put down one issue, another two […]
In today's BCTV Daily Dispatch: Babylon 5, The Venture Bros., Justified, Ms. Marvel, Good Omens 2, Doctor Who, SAG-AFTRA/SDCC, and more!