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~ Today's Water Cooler: How to respond to Eric Adam's ludicrous idea that New Yorkers should unmask when entering stores. ~
Tucker: "To this day, there is dispute over how Chansley got into the Capitol building." False. You can literally see QAnon Shaman entering in footage he aired moments earlier. He wasn't snuck in some back door, he came in moments after the door was kicked in. Tucker is lying. Here is Jacob Chansley entering the Capitol less than 40 seconds after the breach. There is no dispute. https://ia902307.us.archive.org/10/items/Cwxj9RMtddritN4Ds/Cwxj9RMtddritN4Ds.mpeg4 Also the “someone” who opened the door, as Tucker Carlson referred to him, is an anti-abortion extremism who purported to respect the sanctity of life until he (allegedly) plotted to kill a FBI agent following his Jan. 6 arrest. #Parasnooper “Kelley and Carter discussed collecting information and plans to kill the individual law enforcement personnel on the list that included an attack on the FBI’s Knoxville, Tennessee Field Office.” https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/two-tennessee-men-arrested-planning-attacks-law-enforcement-personnel-and-fbi-s-knoxville You can also see QAnon Shaman here at the front of rioters breaching the police line, near Brent Bozell III’s adult son Brent Bozell IV.
The history of the North of England is a history of astonishing visions, great attempts to realise true progress, and painful deferrals of these dreams, so argues Alex Niven, who constructs this argument incisively, elegantly and movingly in The North Will Rise Again: Searching for the Future in Northern Heartlands (Bloomsbury). Niven’s intervention is a […]
By Erica Techo -- UGA Today
Study shows that as newsrooms shrink, so does the trust of some former sources
The whistleblowers who once trusted journalism are losing faith in the institution.
Did you catch the press release from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) denouncing the slander against...
The new ‘Illegal Migration Bill’ is using the same dishonest tactics used to take Britain out of the EU to secure the Conservatives a fifth election victory, writes Adam Bienkov
I.
You enter a tavern. The crackling hearth warms your bones after trudging for weeks through the wet and windy mountains of Avanste. The place is a little run-down, but it was either here or the village Applebees, and you’re not in the mood for a Captain Bahama Mama.
“Two meads,” you call out to the elf polishing glassware.
He pulls out a couple of bottles and pops the tops. You take a sip while pushing the other bottle back toward the elf. You’re in search of the lost Amulet of Lucien, and befriending a barkeep never hurts the quest.
He accepts your gift, taking a gulp, but offers no information.
The elf gives your total—fifteen gold.
Your heart rate quickens. You should have seen this coming. What have you walked into?
Choose:
Tip (Go to section II)
Don’t Tip (Go to section III)
- - -
II.
You proudly toss down your total, including a hefty tip.
Today’s Sydney Morning Herald and The Age front page stories on Australia’s supposed war risk with China represents the most egregious and provocative news presentation of any newspaper I have witnessed in over fifty years of active public life. It is way worse than the illustrated sampans shown to be coming from China in the Continue reading »
Hysteria over a supposed immediate China threat is being peddled by the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age in the first of a series of three reports titled Red Alert. Not since Menzies’s days, have we seen anything like the papers’ dramatic image of an air force fleet emerging from a supersized China to dominate Continue reading »
In the name of all the good and honourable politicians who have gone before them in crafting a relationship with our giant and, yes, challenging neighbour and partner, I ask Anthony Albanese and Penny Wong to call out this rubbish, repudiate it, and forcefully assert that it is wrong. The shrieking warmongering of the SMH Continue reading »
The comparison between Australia’s response to China’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims with India’s treatment of Kashmiris highlights that a commitment to human rights is not the driving force in determining Labor’s position on foreign affairs matters. Last September when Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was in Bali for the G20 Summit he tweeted “So wonderful to see Continue reading »
Failure to appropriately value the work women do perpetuates their subordinate status. As International Women’s Day approaches l’ve been thinking about housework – that mundane but essential stuff mostly done by women. Not long ago keeping a house clean required a woman’s body to power the scrubbing brush, the broom, the mop. I remember it Continue reading »
Can we really believe that the power structurers of human societies in 2023 are setting policies and programs that are doing the best for our future? Last year, Australia’s list of serious issues and experiences were acute and costly: major environmental disaster problems, the continuing pandemics, international tensions affecting trade and possible wars, and tense Continue reading »
The unilateral coercive sanctions Australia and its allies impose on Syria make us complicit in a war on the people of Syria, and arguably complicit in policide, if not genocide. To lift the cruel sanctions, we must come to the realisation that Syrians are human, like us. In 1998, the United Nation’s humanitarian coordinator in Continue reading »
In the latest instance of the Australian media’s deluge of propaganda geared toward manufacturing consent for war with China, Nine Entertainment-owned newspapers The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age have brought together a panel of “experts” to assess how well-prepared Australia is for a hot war with its primary trading partner. The question of if Continue reading »
I saw a comment about the drop in the U.S. Federal debt-to-GDP ratio, which reminded me that I wanted to discuss it once the data started to settle down. As can be seen in the above chart, the public debt-to-GDP ratio went from 135% in 2020Q2 to 120% in 2022Q3 (latest figure on FRED). A drop of (roughly) 15% in the ratio without some kind of “austerity” policies might seem surprising — but it is only surprising if you look at debt dynamics the wrong way. That wrong way is relying on “real” variables — real GDP growth, real interest rates — as well as thinking too much about long-term “steady state” or “equilibrium” values.Bond Economics
The reliance on “real analysis” (ha ha) leads to silly things like charts of the U.S. debt/GDP ratio marching in a straight line towards 200%. (Yes, CBO, I am not laughing with you.) This framing also leads to neoclassical economists going on about the question: is r greater or less than g?...
Debt/GDP Ratio: Beware "Real Analysis"
Brian Romanchuk
On 28 February 2023, the Danielle Smith government tabled Alberta’s 2023-2024 budget. Projecting a $2.4 billion surplus for the coming fiscal year, the budget announced some spending increases; but many are effectively cuts when one accounts for both inflation and population growth. Here are 10 things to know: In sum. When one accounts for both inflation and population growth, this [...]
Ouch Jezebel: As a follower of Florida Gov. and likely presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis’ (R) varying moral crimes against queer kids, marginalized people, and even books that dare to mention LGBTQ+ issues, I feel obligated to direct your attention now to the irony of him continually wearing high heels. You see, American presidents tend to be tall. We rarely elect presidents under six feet tall, actually—a fact pointed out by Burlington County Times, which coldly quipped that “manlets” (ostensibly men under six feet) “need not apply” to the office. This is deeply intertwined with the fact that America has never elected a woman president: Voters still seem to be hanging onto this idea that a president has to appear manly and strong, though masculinity and physical strength literally have nothing to do with the job description. Enter DeSantis, whom varying sources approximate to be in the height range of 5’8” to 5’10”.
Conspiracies about voter fraud put our country in danger Navigator is out this morning with new polling: Nine in ten Americans are concerned about the spread of misinformation. 90 percent of Americans say they are worried about misinformation, framed as “false or inaccurate information, especially that which is deliberately intended to deceive those who read or hear it.” This includes overwhelming majorities across party lines: Democrats are most concerned about misinformation (95 percent), but more than four in five Republicans (86 percent) and independents (82 percent) say the same. Cold War babies called this propaganda. But Americans associated propaganda with the Ruskies, with communists. Nowadays, more anodyne terms apply lest we paint Real Americans™ with the same brush. They might take offense. Respondents report encountering misinformation most often on social media and from Fox.
How a word like "equality" has become a bit of a minefield.