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Amanda Carpenter on DeSantis’ craven Fox and Friends pandering on Ukraine. I guess he knows he doesn’t have to show any leadership or sophistication when it comes to foreign policy in order to win the GOP nomination. It’s going to be a long campaign: Gross things can happen when you convince yourself that, no matter what, you must position yourself in complete opposition to your political opponents. Just look at what Ron DeSantis is doing. Before pursuing elected office, DeSantis was a Yale undergrad-turned-Harvard legal scholar, a history teacher, and a military officer. So, one would think his first reaction to President Biden’s surprise visit to war-torn Kyiv to show solidarity with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky would be, at a bare minimum, to show some respect for the Ukrainian resistance and maybe hold off on the self-serving commentary for a few hours. That is not the choice DeSantis made. Instead, the Florida governor, who aspires to be president himself, decided to position himself in front of the cameras of Fox & Friends to . . . wait for it . . . blame Biden for Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.

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Eric Anderson wrote an excellent post on how late-stage capitalism engenders mental illness. I thought I’d follow it up with a simple post on capitalism.

As the name implies, capitalism is the accumulation of capital. This doesn’t mean money, primarily, that’s not what the early theorists meant by capital: they meant the means of production: land, workers, resources and capital goods: machinery in particular.

Capital is the ability to make and grow items. Because of economy of scale, if you concentrate capital it is easy to increase how much you make: Adam Smith’s famous pin factory.

Highlights: What’s wrong with that? The speech was very strong and very dramatic. Good work, Joe. He gave a speech a year ago when everyone assumed that Russia would roll over Ukraine in a matter of weeks if not days, NATO could fall apart and everyone was far less optimistic. Today, he was able to say that NATO is actually stronger and the Ukrainians are fighting like hell to save themselves.

Last year I wrote a blog about gender equity and its significance in local government. It was a popular publication that generated significant interest, eliciting engaging discussions with community planners and gender equity officers...

Australia's NBN company has reported an increase in revenue for the end of 2022, despite years of problems caused by the Coalition Government. read now...

Pokies den operators Clubs NSW has warned both sides contesting the NSW election to be careful on any planned reforms of the industry as it will only hurt Nanna. ”We all know and love our Nanna,” said a Clubs NSW... Read More ›

Records show an all-out push to delay and repeal train safety regulations.

The post Years Before East Palestine Disaster, Congressional Allies of the Rail Industry Intervened to Block Safety Regulations appeared first on The Intercept.

Killing them would be a choice Paul Krugman sets the record straight: It’s exhausting having to set the record straight on this stuff over and over again. But they won’t stop trying to kill them so we have to defend them with the facts.

Amidst the tragedy of the devastating earthquake in Syria and Türkiye, the heroism of those who save lives and offer support amid unimaginable odds serves as a reminder of the abundant humanity so often overlooked in the region.

The post Amid Rubble and Tears, a Glimmer of Hope: The Real Heroes in Syria and Türkiye appeared first on MintPress News.

~ Today's Water Cooler ~

(You don’t need to see what she’s talking about,. It’s bullshit, of course.) For the record, I’m not entirely against it. But the Blue States will not be paying alimony or child support to the Red States. No trade and interstate travel either. Not for you. You’re on your own. I’m not going to pick this apart. I’m sure she thinks she’s being clever and satirical but she’s just a housewife who was reading QAnon posts on facebook three years ago and decided to run for congress. That she turns out to be the perfect avatar of the GOP base says everything about them, not her.

The Global Security Initiative Concept Paper
2023-02-21 11:12
The Vineyard of the Saker
Vineyard of the Saker White Paper: the China-Russia Double Helix
Larchmonter 445

When I bought a house last year, it came with many new responsibilities. Suddenly, I was the one who had to change the furnace filters, call the exterminator, and repeatedly suggest to my neighbor that her big tree might be dead. But the biggest change of all was “escrow,” a word that I definitely understand and did not just hear for the first time when my officemate Patty said it in passing.

Escrow definitely has something to do with houses and money, so you start by getting a mortgage. To get a mortgage, well, you probably know all about that, but a very important person is the notary. The notary is sort of like an attorney, but with the letters in “attorney” mixed up and some deleted. Notaries are identity experts—they can tell exactly who you are by looking at you and then at your driver’s license. Notaries have a special stamp they bought from Zazzle. You have to pay them in cash. That’s what I know about notaries, and with that knowledge, you can advance past that part of the home-buying process, and you’re one step closer to having escrow.

This is war protest month, with more to follow. Will efforts against the Iraq war, that failed twenty years ago this week, succeed in heading off the next one? On Sunday 19 February thousands protested at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC against US militarism, proxy warfare, and the threat of nuclear conflict. The ANSWER Continue reading »

The Grand Illusions of the leaders of Western Democracies are crashing to defeat in Ukraine. La Grande Illusion was the 1937 Renoir film that showed the tragic mistakes of the aristocrats of the European empires in World War I. In turn, it referred to a 1910 British tract, The Great Illusion that claimed war was Continue reading »

Every time we Palestinians, despite all the compromises we offer, try to gain a modicum of justice we find not only is it denied to us, but that we are the ones to blame for this lack of progress for a peaceful co-existence with our occupiers. In May of this year, I will reach the Continue reading »

Among the world’s many pressing needs, the most urgent of all is a plan for human survival. And Australia should be the country to lead its creation. At present no country or international body has one. What we currently have is a chaotic road to avoidable disaster, driven by ten vast, interconnected threats which are Continue reading »

Everyone who has suffered abuse as a child deserves the opportunity to live free of its detrimental effects. Abuse affects the brain just as it affects the body. And just as bodies can heal, so can brains. Developmental trauma happening to children and youth while they are still growing, causes structural changes in the brain Continue reading »

P&I recently published an article by Dmitry Trenin ‘2023 will be make-or-break year for Russia’. It raised the question: Amidst the war in Ukraine, where can readers turn for independent sources of analysis on Russia and Ukraine, in English or available in translation? In my view, the best place to look for serious-minded Russians not Continue reading »

Australians could wake up one morning to the news that we are at war with China. Confronting as that would be, perhaps more confronting is something many people do not realise: such a decision would not require any consultation in parliament. The decision to go to war would not require a public discussion. It would Continue reading »