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The post To Increase the Supply of Workers, Our Economy <span class="dewidow">Needs Childcare</span> appeared first on Roosevelt Institute.

"We need to shock people into understanding what’s at stake here"

Media release number 2023-06: The Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre and the Reserve Bank are announcing the use case proposals, along with their providers, which have been invited to participate in the live pilot, which will take place over the coming months.

Say it ain’t so The Washington Post reports that FBI agents argued with prosecutors over the Mar-a-Lago search saying that there was no need for a warrant after the president assured the DOJ that all the classified documents had been found back in June. Yeah, how did that turn out? Prosecutors argued that new evidence suggested Trump was knowingly concealing secret documents at his Palm Beach, Fla., home and urged the FBI to conduct a surprise raid at the property. But two senior FBI officials who would be in charge of leading the search resisted the plan as too combative and proposed instead to seek Trump’s permission to search his property, according to the four people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a sensitive investigation. Prosecutors ultimately prevailed in that dispute, one of several previously unreported clashes in a tense tug of war between two arms of the Justice Department over how aggressively to pursue a criminal investigation of a former president. The FBI conducted an unprecedented raid on Aug.

One of the funnier developments in the ongoing drama around the “He Gets Us” campaign...

“It’s literally the most boring piece of shit I’ve ever read"

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA — The Arab, Muslim and many of the “Non-Aligned” member countries were once staunch supporters of the Palestinian cause. However, in the world that exists today, this is no longer the case. One after the other, the Arab states are falling into the trap of normalizing relations with Israel. Many African nations […]

The post By Recognizing Israel, Muslim Countries Are Betraying the Palestinian Cause appeared first on MintPress News.

Some prominent women have appeared on U.S. money going back to the late 1800s, while women’s history in the Treasury Department extends to 1795 and includes recent historic leadership roles.

It’s a nice idea but really, why bother David Wallace Wells in the NY Times asks us to imagine what would have happened with the dialog around the origins of the pandemic if we could just all get along. It’s true that on a different planet we could imagine such a thing. Unfortunately we live on a planet where the right wing is batshit insane so reasonable dialog is impossible. Steve M makes the point well: But we can’t “imagine that none of this was presented … in partisan or nationalistic terms.” We can’t “imagine that Donald Trump had not been president and that nobody used the term ‘bioweapon'” — or, more memorably, the phrase “China virus,” a name Trump first endorsed on March 11, 2020, when COVID was barely a presence in much of the United States, and then used repeatedly in speeches and on Twitter. Right-wingers poisoned our COVID discourse from the start, the way they poison our discourse on so many other issues.

A fight has broken out at the ABC’s Ultimo headquarters after the popular Bananas in Pajamas duo had a disagreement over the upcoming strike, with sources saying B2 called B1 a scab. ”It was really awkward and quite heated, one... Read More ›

~ Today's Water Cooler ~

Say it ain’t so! It looks like the hard right ideologue is making some big bucks for destroying America. nice work if you can get it. Heidi Pyzbla in Politico has an article entitled Dark money and special deals: How Leonard Leo and his friends benefited from his judicial activism: The Federalist Society co-chairman’s lifestyle took a lavish turn after he became Donald Trump’s adviser on judicial nominations. It should be shocking but really, at this point, it’s not. They’re all a bunch of crooks. These people aren’t getting rich from writing books or giving speeches or even sinecures on corporate boards. They’re getting rich because they have corrupted government in favor of the wealthy and their special causes: A network of political non-profits formed by judicial activist Leonard Leo moved at least $43 million to a new firm he is leading, raising questions about how his conservative legal movement is funded.

The Biden administration is appearing to endorse Israel's escalations against Iran — a move that would necessitate U.S. involvement in a new Middle East conflict no one wants.

The post Hawkish Israel Is Pulling U.S. Into War With Iran appeared first on The Intercept.

“The Supreme Court’s conservative majority seemed deeply skeptical on Tuesday of the legality of the Biden administration’s plan to wipe out more than $400 billion in student debt, heightening the prospect that the justices would thwart efforts to forgive the loans of tens of millions of borrowers.” — New York Times

Mr. Chief Justice and may it please the court,

As I stand before you today, I need to make one thing absolutely clear: I’m a realist. I call things as I see them. And I just have to ask—how can we afford to bail out student loan borrowers when we can barely afford to bail out Citigroup, Bank of America, AIG, Bear Stearns, the entire airline industry, General Motors, Chrysler, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, Savings & Loan, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, and then the entire airline industry for a second time? I just don’t see how we can swing it.

After a catastrophic year of war, there is talk of a negotiated peace in Ukraine. But those suggesting that it should be explored are often instantly slapped down. Familiar rhetoric is deployed. A negotiated peace is supposedly impossible – or dishonourable. For instance, the Australian retired Major General Mick Ryan told Saturday Extra (RN 17 Continue reading »

Following yet another Israeli Settler killing spree and the “annexation of the West Bank”, Israel is now a “formal, full-fledged apartheid regime”, writes leading Isreali newspaper Ha’aretz. Sunday’s attack on the Palestinian town of Huwarra was the most violent of such settler attacks in decades. Located near Nablus in the Occupied Palestinian Territory of the Continue reading »

Soon after the Albanese government was elected, new Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil startlingly declared Australia’s migration system was “in a state of disrepair.” More recently she continued her criticism saying: “Australia’s migration system is broken. It is unstrategic. It is complex, expensive, and slow. It is not delivering for business, for migrants, or for our Continue reading »

Federal member for Franklin, Labor’s Julie Collins, is the Minister for Housing and Homelessness. Her current plans to fix the housing crisis look like putting a Band-aid on a broken leg. And breaking the other leg for good measure. Call me old-fashioned, but you can’t fix problems unless you identify the causes – both immediate Continue reading »

I sit in Hanoi, Vietnam, a friend’s 10th floor unit, from which the lights of the city gyrate before me. My mind wanders, ponders many things, my formative years having been enmeshed with the events of this country. Amid this booming, bustling city, the capital of a country whose economy is growing at a phenomenal Continue reading »

As China leaves its zero-covid policy behind and reopens to the world, its policy focus has shifted to driving economic growth and re-engagement with key economies. In Australia’s case, the resumption of Ministerial dialogues, and increased diplomatic and departmental engagement, are combining to create a more positive foundation for constructive commercial activity. While the consequences Continue reading »

Surveys reveal concerns that Aukus won’t make Australia safer, while fears grow of ‘secretive policymaking and little government accountability’. Some observers have also questioned the high cost of Aukus to taxpayers, suggesting there are other, less expensive ways to ‘deter China’. Is Australia becoming “more dependent” on the United States following the signing of the Continue reading »

Ett företag inom svensk skola har bland annat använt skolpeng för att köpa en våffelstuga i Åre, visar SVT Nyheters granskning. I skolkoncernen Watma har 20 miljoner kronor i koncernbidrag gått från utbildningsverksamhet till moderbolaget under de senaste tre åren. Av summan har 2,8 miljoner därefter gått vidare till dotterbolaget Nordic Leisure, pengar som sedermera […]