Reading

Created
Wed, 22/02/2023 - 05:30
(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.
Created
Wed, 22/02/2023 - 05:29
Just released.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China
The Global Security Initiative Concept Paper
2023-02-21 11:12

See also

English Transcript

President of Russia
February 21, 2023, 13:50 Moscow

Related

The Vineyard of the Saker
Vineyard of the Saker White Paper: the China-Russia Double Helix
Larchmonter 445
Created
Wed, 22/02/2023 - 05:01

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.

Created
Wed, 22/02/2023 - 04:53
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 »
Created
Wed, 22/02/2023 - 04:51
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 »
Created
Wed, 22/02/2023 - 04:50
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 »
Created
Wed, 22/02/2023 - 04:30
Finally, someone asks this question, and it should be asked of every throwback GOPer who uses it. This WaPo article describes the right’s use of the word and how its being deployed as a pejorative, noting that it come directly from Black culture which is not a coincidence. But what is it they are so upset about? Many Republicans, however, define wokeism in starkly different terms and with varying levels of fluency — including when they are asked about the term. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) described wokeism as “cultural Marxism” in a brief hallway interview last week, naming-checking both “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling — who has been criticized for her anti-transgender comments — and a former Levi’s executive, Jennifer Sey, who decried “woke capitalism” as recent victims of the phenomenon. Wokeism, Cruz said, “is the left seizing institutions of transmission of ideas and that includes education — K-12 and universities. It includes journalism. It includes entertainment — Hollywood, movies, TV, sports, music, video games.
Created
Wed, 22/02/2023 - 02:54
Content warning, canceling, de-platforming, denying access: The fate of Sy Hersh’s Democracy Now! interview on YouTube is the latest indication of how much rougher press suppression is in this new media era....

The take-away from the article is that society in so-called liberal democracies are as controlled as in so-called authoritarian "regimes." Society in  (read capitalist) countries is as controlled by the ruling elite that either belong to the ownership class (haute bourgeosie) or are beholden to it. 

While Patrick Lawrence doesn't go into how this is accomplished, others have. Control is secured both through ownership of the "commanding heights" of the economy and the fact that the state has been captured through campaign finance, since campaigns are now so expensive that politicians have become dependent on large contributions and the implicit quid pro quo. 

Created
Wed, 22/02/2023 - 02:30
Yet another reminder Regular readers know that when conservatives talk about freedom and choice; when they complain about government waste, fraud, and abuse; when they raise the alarm about federal deficits; and when they talk about replacing the New Deal with a “better deal”; they are acting as Wall Street shills. They don’t care about the amount of government spending, only about into whose pockets that spending goes. Nor do they care about improving not-for-profit government services they think should not exist if, even just in theory, they might be provided by the private sector at a markup. Like public education. Not exploiting government spending for private profit is a crime against capitalism. We’ve seen in the last few day how commerical interest corrupts the delivery of accurate news. Adam Serwer wrote of Fox in The Atlantic (emphasis mine): “The Dominion filing drives home a few points. One is that there is a Fox News propaganda feedback loop: The network inflames right-wing conspiracism, but it also bows to it out of partisan commitment and commercial incentive.“ Fox has always been a propaganda operation.
Created
Wed, 22/02/2023 - 01:53
Bridget Phillipson is a perfect fit for Keir Starmer’s front bench Shadow Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has provided yet another confirmation of the political and moral vacuum Keir Starmer’s ‘Labour’ represents. Phillipson told the BBC that ‘structural change’ should not be a priority for a Labour government: In other words, Labour has no interest in […]
Created
Wed, 22/02/2023 - 01:21

Can there be any question that we’re in a mad — and loud — new age of McCarthyism? Thank you, Kevin! And don’t forget the wildly over-the-top members of the so-called Freedom Caucus and their Republican associates, including that charmer, lyin’ George Santos, Jewish-space-laser-and-white-balloon-carrying Marjorie Taylor Greene, and — once again running for president — the man who never lost, Donald Trump-em-all.  I’d like to say it couldn’t get crazier. Still, despite watching Greene shout “Liar!” and other Republicans yell “Bullshit!” during President Biden’s State of the Union Address, I suspect it could get much worse (and more dangerous) in Washington in the months to come. And believe me, that’s leaving Hunter Biden’s penis aside. When it comes to this era’s... Read more