The facts are clear. Big Australia economics is mostly nonsense.
Reading
Parliament House has completely unchanged its security levels
Just think about that for a moment. First of all, he’s talking about the thing he says nobody should talk about. Then he says he brought in professors to tell him what we have known since the dawn of the nuclear age, but fails to tell them that he was really looking for permission to launch a first strike if he wanted to. (That’s surely the reason why they all wove a lurid story of Armageddon.) Then this rambling moron says Biden has lost his mind and lies about what he said about Ukraine by putting his own words in Biden’s mouth. This is a reminder you probably don’t really need but I put it here because we just saw the House GOP majority, including the new speaker, ostentatiously lick his boots over the weekend giving him credit for finally securing McCarthy’s win. He’s not done yet.
Howie Klein sent this out to Blue America members today: Missouri Senator Josh Hawley was complicit in the sacking of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. He should have been removed then. Next year he’ll have to face Missouri voters and explain himself. Today he got the opponent best equipped to hold him to account and to represent the interests of Missourians in the Senate—Lucas Kunce. In his announcement this morning, Kunce, a 13-year Marine veteran, said “When things get tough, Missourians deserve someone who will stand up for them, not run for the nearest exit. Our politicians have betrayed Missouri. They’ve forgotten that their job is not only to defend our democracy, but also to fight for the people in it. Josh Hawley is 0 for 2. The frontline in the fight for democracy is right here in Missouri. Communities across our state have been stripped for parts by power-hungry politicians who have no idea what it’s like to live a single day as an average Missourian. Unlike Hawley, I’m no stranger to real life. When times were tough for my family growing up in Jeff City and we were on the edge, our community came together and supported us.
Well, happy 2023 to all my readers. We are back for another year – the 19th in this blog’s existence. All the observers have been waiting for a sign that the US interest rate hikes are slowing the US economy…
Fascist attack on Brazilian Congress, and its financiers, will be punished says new left president Lula da Silva New left-wing Brazilian president Lula da Silva has ordered the National Guard into the country’s capital to quell riots and attacks by fascist supporters of defeated former president Jair Bolsonaro. da Silva, who was only sworn in […]
Biden’s consigliere:
Larry Summers reclining on a tropical island and instructing the proles that "there's going to need to be increases in unemployment to contain inflation" ☠️pic.twitter.com/t1ONYePsUZ
— David Adler (@davidrkadler) January 6, 2023
Nice guy!
"It's always been January 10th. Let's not mess with tradition"
Historian Joanne B. Freeman discusses previous battles over the speakership and it’s always fascinating to see how much of our current fights are rooted in our past. She concludes with this: It’s tempting to laugh at the strut and fret that took place in the House, much of it seemingly signifying nothing. But it was not just theatrics, and it was not a joke. It was a symptom of a dysfunctional party that is questionably anchored in a democratic politics, and a glaringly obvious sign of things to come. Given Mike Rogers’s near-lunge at Matt Gaetz on Friday night, it’s also an eerie echo of things past. The House has elected a speaker, but that won’t put an end to the internecine Republican battles. They will continue, entangling Congress and stymieing national politics in the process. Politics is a team sport that requires captains, congressional politics, even more so. Today’s congressional Republicans are not a team; they have no captain and they have displayed their failings for all the world to see.
Let me start with a confession: I no longer read all the way through newspaper stories about the war in Ukraine. After years of writing about war and torture, I’ve reached my limit. These days, I just can’t pore through the details of the ongoing nightmare there. It’s shameful, but I don’t want to know the names of the dead or examine images caught by brave photographers of half-exploded buildings, exposing details — a shoe, a chair, a doll, some half-destroyed possessions — of lives lost, while I remain safe and warm in San Francisco. Increasingly, I find that I just can’t bear it. And so I scan the headlines and the opening paragraphs, picking up just enough to grasp... Read more
Based on my Sunday cartoon above, you might think my little essaylette
today might be about labels. I’m not sure yet, but it might be. To find out
if I have anything meaningful to say on the subject, I’m going to start
typing and see where it leads us…
Despite giving hope for better management of the COVID pandemic, the Albanese Government has only continued the L-NP's reckless approach. read now...Opposition Leader the Dark Lord Peter Dutton remains undecided on what position his party will take on the proposed Indigenous Voice to Parliament. The Dark Lord has used the Parliamentary break to reflect on his past – like the time... Read More ›
Union over the line on numbers voting – and result expected to be in favour of industrial action Teachers are set to go on strike for decent pay after enough members returned ballots to meet the ‘50% plus one’ turnout threshold required under the government’s anti-union laws, according to reports Skwawkbox has received. The percentage […]
Bolsonaro followers are ransacking the presidential palace, the congress and the Supreme Court today. He is ensconced at Mar-a-lago with Trump right now: Who says America isn’t still an inspiration to the world? This WaPo article from November is pertinent: Brazilian congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, the president’s son, has visited Florida since the Oct. 30 vote, meeting Trump at Mar-a-Lago and strategizing with other political allies by phone. He spoke with former Trump strategist Stephen K. Bannon, who was in Arizona assisting the campaign of GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, about the power of the pro-Bolsonaro protests and potential challenges to the Brazilian election results, Bannon said. He lunched in South Florida with former Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller, now CEO of the social media company Gettr, and discussed online censorship and free speech, Miller said. Neither Trump nor Eduardo Bolsonaro responded to requests for comment. Those conversations have mirrored debates unfolding in Brasília, where Bolsonaro’s supporters are discussingnext steps for his populist conservative movement.
LFG!!!! … hopefully the US defaults this time…
Biden people throwing down:
WHITE HOUSE SAYS CONGRESS WILL HAVE TO RAISE U.S. DEBT LIMIT, WITHOUT CONDITIONS
— *Walter Bloomberg (@DeItaone) January 8, 2023
Trump saying to use the ceiling to exact concessions from Democrats:
Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – January 8, 2023
by Tony Wikrent
Strategic Political Economy
Why Petulant Oligarchs Rule Our World
Paul Krugman [New York Times, via The Big Picture 1-3-2023]
…the lesson I took from my moment of pettiness was that privilege corrupts, that it very easily breeds a sense of entitlement. And surely, to paraphrase Lord Acton, enormous privilege corrupts enormously, in part because the very privileged are normally surrounded by people who would never dare tell them that they’re behaving badly.
“This would be unprecedented. This is not a “government shutdown” over budgetary disagreements. This is an intentional meltdown of the global financial system” If you are unfamiliar with Republican GOP debt ceiling hostage taking, take a few minutes to watch this video with Norm Ornstein on the subject. AEI Election Watch from Dave Troy on Vimeo. I don’t think we need to wonder whether or not if they will do it. Yes, the Democrats would all vote to raise the debt ceiling and would only need to pick off 5 Republicans to make it happen. However, these new rules changes mean the crazies are in charge of what comes to the floor. It’s going to be a nightmare.