Another Message Board Post comments on any topic. Civil discussion and no coarse language please. Side discussions and idees fixes to the sandpits, please. I’ve moved my irregular email news from Mailchimp to Substack. You can read it here. You can also follow me on Mastodon here I’m also trying out Substack as a blogging […]
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The rise of the far right has unfolded in plain sight. But many people didn’t want to see it. During the Obama years I took a lot of grief for writing about Newt Gingrich and his leadership in the radicalization of the Republican Party. The criticism came from progressives. They thought I was focusing too much on the GOP when I should have been criticizing the Democrats. (I did criticize the Democrats plenty BTW.) But it greatly irritated quite a few people that I followed the developments on the right so closely because they just didn’t take it that seriously. That I kept going back to Newt was considered to be some kind of dodge. If you go back and read this blog over the past 20 years you will see that I got a whole lot of things wrong. Tons. But I was right about this. Here’s Robert Draper on Newt and the GOP NutHouse: Newt Gingrich was disdainful. After watching days of House Republicans failing to elect a speaker, Mr. Gingrich, the most famous of all recent G.O.P. House speakers, vented about the hard-right holdouts, among them Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida. “There’s no deal you can make with Gaetz,” Mr.
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When I was a kid, there was one superhero movie every 5 years and it was bad and we all felt ashamed and THAT'S THE WAY WE LIKED IT.
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In November 2022, I brought a Freedom of Information (FOI) request for the Australian Government to disclose the basis of its non-acceptance of the reports that apartheid exists in Israel. Last week, DFAT rejected the request on the risible basis that to process it would “unreasonably divert the department’s resources.” I refer to my earlier Continue reading »
From China’s socialist path to Latin America’s left turn and Asean’s neutral stance, more countries are quietly but firmly spurning the Western world order. Instead, they seek to favour national interests, a more democratic form of international politics and mutual respect. The global significance of 2022 has been grossly underestimated. Its importance to world history Continue reading »
“There is a battle in the US between so called hardliners, so called neocons or neoconservatives, and those who want cooperative relations with China.” Jeffrey Sachs, director at the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, shares his views with CGTN anchor Wang Guan in an extract reproduced below: “There is a battle in the Continue reading »
Many have argued that our civilisation may collapse before the end of this century. In contrast Aboriginal people have survived in this country for at least 50,000 years. In the latter half of 2023, Australians will be required to vote on ‘an indigenous voice to parliament’. It’s intended this will provide indigenous Australians a direct Continue reading »
A recent New York Times commentary by conservative columnist Bret Stephens asks this question: “Are We Sleepwalking Through a ‘Decisive Decade’?” To which he answers resoundingly, in so many words, yes. “We” is all of us: American society as a whole — but, more precisely, the policy officials and military leaders who purport to guide Continue reading »
“As long as Germany declares the Jews to be an inferior race, poisoning and persecuting them, decent, self-respecting Jews cannot deal with Germany in any way, buy or sell or maintain any manner of commerce with Germany or travel on German Boats.” With this clarion call born of principle and necessity, a respected Rabbi and leader of Continue reading »
Wall Street’s takeover of the American rental market really took off during Obama’s foreclosure regime as the firms snapped up properties (including from many small landlords) at bargain prices. The pace has continued to accelerat…
There’s constant media talk of a housing shortage to explain the US homelessness crisis, but according to the lawsuit against RealPage, one of its tactics is also keeping units off the market in order to drive up prices.…
By tightening its grip on the American rental market, Wall Street has helped cement the idea of a home as a commodity, spurred the assetization of housing, and embedded these assets in the international financial system. And an growing number of smaller landlords have learned to function like the big dogs on Wall Street.…
Speculative landlords are incentivized to evict tenants by the promise of higher rents, higher sale prices for vacated buildings, or the possibility of just leaving them vacant as the lawsuits against RealPage shows....
Enraged Crocodile Destroys Lawnmower to Get Back at Noisy Zookeeper (Thanks to Matt Filar and pharmaross)
This is quite possibly true, but also I think the man is tired.
Is the US condemned to "doing stupid shit" (Obama) because of its Western liberalism coupled with vast power enabling interventionist policy? And is there an economic motive behind this, notably from MICIMATT aka Military-Industrial-Congressional-Intelligence-Media-Academia-Think-Tank complex (Ray McGovern) that President Eisenhower warned about but also from all those who stand to gain from the continuance and expansion of the US-controlled "rules-based international order." And is liberal interventionism the next round of crusades (as G. W. Bush let slip).
While he does not mention it, a fundamental question is this is the role that role that economic liberalism in the form of the current stage of "capitalism" plays. Are social and political liberalism just secondary factors that are used to promote economic liberalism in a world controlled by Global North and West. Many in the Global South and East thinks so. The present moment in the historical dialectic can be viewed from this perspective as chiefly about power, especially as applied to control of global wealth and natural resources.
Every Sunday evening I blog about the geek-friendly radio shows the BBC are putting out in the forthcoming week! All of the following can be either listened to live or downloaded afterwards on the BBC Sounds app, no matter where you are in the world. Here we go! Monday 9th January 6.30am/11.30am/4.30pm/1.30am (10th): The War ... Read More
[The] method to the madness is the fact that we do need austerity to enforce a certain organisation of society which is a classist organisation based on wage labor and …
The post It is not the NHS that is failing us, it is the government appeared first on The Gower Initiative for Modern Money Studies.
It’s another Torchwood ghost story for Christmas, with a trilogy of spooky tales that are slightly less than the sum of their parts As none other than Queen Victoria herself remarks during The Empire Man, Christmas is a time for gathering around close together and sharing ghost stories. Torchwood has developed its own yuletide tradition […]
The post REVIEW: Torchwood: The Empire Man – A Portmanteau of Terrors appeared first on Blogtor Who.
The new Republican Congress has an agenda: revenge. Because it is who they are, they are going after the president’s son. Richard Painter, the law professor and former White House ethic lawyer tweets, “News flash: Hunter Biden is not president, does not work for the U.S. government, and does not appear to have any influence on the U.S. government.” No matter. The GOP’s idea of doing the people’s work is to distract attention from their own moral turpitude and to exact retribution for Democrats’ efforts to hold Trump accountable for malfeasance in office. They mean to get under Uncle Joe Biden’s skin by attacking his son (The Guardian, emphasis mine): “The right wing is licking its chops at the chance to go after him,” said Joshua Kendall, author of First Dads: Parenting and Politics from George Washington to Barack Obama. “The level of venom is going to be over the top and really, really dirty. The Republicans’ rhetoric might get so heated that it detracts from some of the actual behaviour.” Republicans have been waiting a long time for this moment.
Professor indicates Loch Ness monster might have actually been whale's penis (Thanks to pharmaross)
Just read the story. (Thanks to pharmaross)
Viral Video: Man Tries To Eat Noodles In Extreme Cold, This Is What Happens (Thanks to Ralph)
A Lufkin man and woman were arrested Thursday night at La Quinta Inn after the duo was found naked in a room with PCP and methamphetamine while the man screamed unintelligibly as he attempted to perform what appeared to be...
The Rig is a British dystopian Science Fiction ecothriller that feels like a Doctor Who story if The Doctor didn't show up (unfortunately).
A friend keeps encouraging me to write this book (a book titled "Hassle"), and if anybody is willing to pay me an absurd advance I will. I have thought about this a lot over the years, and the simple example is that you can't easily get a human on customer service anymore. Anything from the IRS to your cable company. Minor problems which eat up absurd amounts of your time.
But it's so many things. Once upon a time Ward Cleaver pulled out the checkbook once per month and paid the bills, and now it's just endless ongoing... Hassle!
But it's so many things. Once upon a time Ward Cleaver pulled out the checkbook once per month and paid the bills, and now it's just endless ongoing... Hassle!
While Washington’s political circus got the headlines, The Lever paid attention to the real story: the Biden admin quietly taking action, and what more it can do.