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In his newsletter today, Paul Krugman discusses his early days working in the Reagan administration as a wonky, liberal whiz-kid during a time when the administration was strangling inflation with painfully high unemployment: Anyway, Marty and I had a working dinner on my arrival night, and he had one big question to ask: “Is the world economy about to collapse?” There were two main reasons for his concern. One was that Mexico had just announced it was unable to keep paying its debts, marking the beginning of the Latin American debt crisis. The other was that the Federal Reserve’s efforts to fight inflation had sent the U.S. economy into a tailspin, with the nation experiencing its worst recession since the 1930s, not to be rivaled until the financial crisis of 2008. But as it turned out, the world economy didn’t collapse. The debt crisis produced a “lost decade” in Latin America, with widespread economic suffering, but it didn’t spread into a global contagion.
In 12 minutes, a landslide, tsunami, and flood devastated a valley in Canada.
The post The Ecological Catastrophe You’ve Never Heard Of appeared first on Nautilus.
Lol. Brent Bozell’s far right Media Research Center is calling for the smelling salts because Never Trumper Charlie Sykes laughed at Kevin McCarthy. Here’s Sykes (from his newsletter, subscription only): On yesterday’s podcast with Will Saletan, I read this piece aloud, but I’m not sure I can do justice to how much I love this bit of pearl-clutching from the snowflakes at the Media Research Center, so I’ve provided some footnotes. Here’s how it starts: Believe it or not… it gets better. We now get to the Main Event. The author then felt he had to define the term for his MRC’s readers: Right-wing doilies were rumpled and tea spilled. Standards, must be upheld. Decency and decorum. Exactly what we always expect from the right-wing media eco-system I like Sykes and I appreciate that he’s seen the error of his ways and has come over to the light. But I can’t help but remember stuff like this from guys like Sykes.
A NSW region of six cities has joined together to accelerate economic growth and lead the way for smart city development in Australia. read now...Australian Parliament has announced they plan to conduct a nation-wide plebiscite to determine whether tennis player Nick Kyrgios is still considered a tool. It comes in the wake of the long-time bad boy of Australian Tennis having seemingly turned his... Read More ›
Here’s what they have in mind: Republicans granted its panel a sweeping mandate that included investigations into pandemic-related school closures, gain-of-function research, vaccine mandates and the trillions of dollars in coronavirus aid Congress approved. The panel doesn’t yet have a Republican leader but expects to hold its first hearing next month. Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) is set to chair the broader oversight panel under which the covid subcommittee’s work will fall.
The next morning I stayed in the Aparthotel writing, while Niels went out to the airport, to pick up the BMW 4×4 he had hired. Our destination was Halle an der Saale, near Leipzig. It was, I think, our first – and overdue – foray into the former East Germany. Hotel rooms in Halle were […]
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Noam Chomsky on Biden, progressives, and how we achieve real change Noam Chomsky in Conversation with Anand Giridharadas Summer 2020. The.Ink. ANAND Talk to me about how you have lived this pandemic moment, which has obviously been such a difficult moment for everybody personally, but also a political crisis and, potentially, a moment of opening […]
Preparation time: 5-6 minutesCooking time: 3 minutesTo serve: 4 You will need3 oz. Crab meat4 tablespoons peanut oil1 small spring onion, shredded1 oz. Bamboo shoots, shredded5 eggs; salt½ teaspoon monosodium glutamate6 tablespoons chicken stock; pinch sugar1 teaspoon soy sauce; 2 teaspoons tomato ketchup1 teaspoon cornflourLettuce; radish, tomato; cucumber Remove any soft bones from crab meat […]
~ Today's Water Cooler ~
Emptywheel on the Biden documents case: As CBS first broke the story yesterday, on November 2, some Biden associates discovered around ten classified documents (including some classified TS/SCI) in files from his former offices at Penn Biden. The documents were returned the next day, NARA made a referral to the FBI, and Merrick Garland asked one of two remaining Trump US Attorney appointees to investigate the matter. The report has generated a lot of insanely bad reporting, including this article from the NYT — with four reporters bylined and two more contributing — that doesn’t even mention a key detail from a recent Alan Feuer scoop (which I wrote about here): that Beryl Howell might yet hold Trump or his lawyers in contempt for failing to return all the classified documents in his possession. Peter Baker and his colleagues didn’t mention that recent NYT scoop, but it did see fit to quote the former President without fact check. Nor did they note that Biden is not complaining that this is under investigation, whereas Trump has never shut up about it.
Councils could have to choose between hiring extra staff to implement the change or informing voters that their vote is at risk, Byline Times has learned
My love of the Bisquick Impossible Pie has been documented on this here blog. And the BLT is in my top 5 sandwiches, so I was thrilled to come across this ad: What a genius idea to combine the two! Damn thing got rather browned since I used a toaster oven (I refuse toContinue reading Bacon Lettuce & Tomato Impossible Pie (1984)
In September, the writer Chris Power tweeted about finding a copy of James Kelman’s A Chancer in an Oxfam bookshop, expressing astonishment that it is out of print and ‘unbelievable to me that a writer of his talent and importance should be so neglected.’ It is indeed incredible that such a critically acclaimed author, and […]
We’ve raised approximately $8,400, when including the $2,300 from the emergency fundraiser earlier in 2022. That puts us past $6,500 and a summary article on the world’s position and prospects, and $1,600 from the $11,000 final goal and threshold for an article on reasons for hope. I’ll end the fundraiser sometime next week, whether we’ve achieved the goal or not.
Generally speaking, money simply tells me, like everyone, that what I do is valued and I should do more of it. As always, if you are in a position where money is short for essentials like food, housing or medical care, please don’t donate or subscribe.
But if you have some extra and you value my writing…
Life’s been pretty tough for me lately. Not tough in the sense of any devastating financial hardship, or dire medical diagnosis, or profound loss, but tough in, like, that vague ennui where you’re slumped on your couch on a Tuesday evening in your perfectly nice apartment and think, I’m bored. Thankfully, after a whirlwind seventy-two hours of travel, I found a solution to all my problems: packing up my entire life and moving to a city I’ve projected all my false hopes on.
Back home, I’m burdened with such annoyances as doing taxes, loading the dishwasher, or eating leftovers. But in this city where I spent three carefree days, I didn’t have to do any of those things even once. No, life’s much different here, in this new city with a similar population size and voter demographic.
When interviewed on Great Game on Russia’s state-run Channel One (8 Dec. 2022), Russia’s Foreign Minister, Secretary Lavrov, was given ample opportunity to set out Russia’s views on its role in the Ukraine and on the differences his country has with its many adversaries. The interview is long and Lavrov is aided by presenters who Continue reading »
The destruction of the Brazilian congress by supporters of the former, and now self-exiled, President Jair Bolsonaro is yet another example of the power and real consequences of misinformation and deceit peddled on the internet. Viewing events from the afar, it’s easy to be bewildered by the fact that someone like Bolsonaro was elected in Continue reading »
An important debate is developing in Pearls and Irritations on the need to reduce consumption. In his article “Labor’s Environmental Denialism”, Stephen Williams acknowledged several positive steps being taken by the Labor government to help protect the environment, and then argued that Labor was failing to address the fundamental drivers of environmental disaster, which he Continue reading »