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As Europe was ravaged by austerity policies in the past decade, numerous left-wing insurgencies emerged to challenge for government: Syriza in Greece, Podemos in Spain, La France Insoumise and, from 2015 to 2019, the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn. Each came from outside the traditional centre-left and learned, to some degree, from the others. They […]

Every liberal democracy recognises, to some degree, that workers have a right to strike. That right is protected in law, sometimes in the constitution itself. Strikes are also one of the most common forms of disruptive collective protest. After a long decline in the number of strike days, many countries in the West have seen […]

Over the last decade, economic debate in Britain has been dominated by one subject: austerity. The size of a government’s budget deficit and total public debt have always been hot topics among economists, but since the financial crisis these metrics have acquired greater popular significance. Mentions of the word ‘austerity’ in books and articles, for […]

The consequences of austerity in Britain are now so apparent that even many of its erstwhile cheerleaders are, at last, sheepishly facing up to them. The last thirteen years of underfunding and neglect have left the NHS, in particular, in a state of near collapse. Accident and emergency departments are overwhelmed, and many patients find […]

May yet have reason to wet his pants It’s tough being a propagandist. Even on the nation’s premiere propaganda network. BBC soft-pedals it for less-engaged readers across the pond: Senate Republicans and Capitol police have criticised Fox News after one of its hosts aired previously unseen clips of the riot two years ago at Congress, and played down the violent disorder. Host Tucker Carlson showed the video on Monday night, arguing it “does not show an insurrection or a riot in progress”, but rather “mostly peaceful chaos”. A top congressional Republican gave Mr Carlson exclusive access to the video. That would be Republicans’ spineless Speaker of the House, Rep. Kevin McCarthy. Carlson showed Capitol surveillance clips from areas where no violence was taking place. Elsewhere in the complex, rioters fought hand-to-hand with police, broke through windows, and ransacked offices as they and world saw through other surveillance footage and cell phone video shot by the insurrectionists themselves. Carlson described Trump fans in the halls as peaceful sightseers. Bullshit, said North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis (R).

How effectively do workers perserve their position relative to automation?

Yesterday (March 7, 2023) two big things happened. The first is that I got a lovely bunch of sunflower blooms for my birthday present. Which was ace. The second, the RBA Board wheeled out the governor to announce the 10th consecutive interest rate rise even though inflation has been falling for several months. The RBA has now become preposterous and the Government should definitely terminate the tenure of the Governor in September when his term is up for renewal. In the meantime, it should clean the RBA Board out, or introduce legislation that says each member including the governor gets the real disposable loss that they are imposing on the worker deducted in percentage terms from their own salaries. A further deduction would be made (quantum to be determined) for each percentage point the unemployment rate rises. That might give them pause for thought. The music segment will definitely lift your spirits after reading through the following gloom..…

William Mitchell — Modern Monetary Theory
RBA is engineering one of the largest cuts to real disposable income per capita in our history

 The Digital Age, knowledge revolution, and data harvesting are embraced by the Chinese leadership as national policy. This is an huge step in getting numbers on a whole system in real time.

New ‘Digital China’ vision a response to US tech curbs as authorities outline a ‘whole nation’ approach to going digital 

Asia Times
China’s grand plan for a world-beating digital future

The Fed's policy on inflation: "Facing higher prices? How about a side of lower incomes to go with that?!"

‘Tories are not very good at chasing out asylum seekers, we’ll be better at it’ sums up hideous message – and not a peep about safe and legal routes so asylum seekers don’t have to risk lives in boats Keir Starmer’s Labour has been rightly slammed today for responding to the Tories’ racist scapegoating of […]

Fox and the diary of a madwoman The newest document dump from the $1.6 billion Dominion Voting Systems defamation lawsuit against Fox is news the network’s viewers won’t see. A flood of incriminating texts and emails between Fox staffers reveals how much the network caved to pressure to feed viewers what they wanted to hear rather than the truth. The internal texts also reveal how much network top executives knew the 2020 election fraud narrative Donald Trump and network anchors promoted was bullshit. This text in particular will have a hard time finding its way to Tucker Carlson’s fans (Washington Post): “We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights,” prime-time host Tucker Carlson texted a colleague on Jan. 4, 2021. “I truly can’t wait.” Carlson, who had shared private meetings with the president and defended him on-air, added in a text: “I hate him passionately. … What he’s good at is destroying things. He’s the undisputed world champion of that. He could easily destroy us if we play it wrong.” Fox’s founder knew it too.

Three climate activists in two separate trials have been sent to jail by Judge Silas Reid using the entirely arbitrary powers of Contempt of Court, because they insisted on telling the jury that their protests had been motivated by the climate crisis and fuel poverty. Juries are an essential safeguard from injustice by the state. […]

The post Fascist Judges appeared first on Craig Murray.

Open Rights Group has responded to the publication of a new draft of the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill. The revised Bill fails to address the privacy concerns raised by civil society, and in fact expands the ways that businesses and government bodies can process, use and re-use our data. Policy manager Abigail Burke […]

Film-maker Paul Conroy visits the villages close to the front line of Bakhmut to see how ordinary Ukrainians are coping with constant shelling

The Government may do just enough to rile up the Conservative Party’s voter base by engineering yet another pointless row with European bodies, writes former diplomat Alexandra Hall Hall

“I’m Fine”

Of course, I’m not fine.
I am sick of asking you.
Load the dishwasher.

“You Look Tired Today”

Okay, it’s my turn.
You look tired today, David.
How does it feel now?

“I Can’t Find It”

Did you look for it?
Did you really look for it?
Did you even try?

“I Think You’re Overreacting”

Seriously, Brad?
You are underreacting.
Maybe you suck ass.

“Don’t You Want to Have Kids Someday?”

And wreck my body,
my finances, and my life?
No thank you, Susan.

“She’s Crazy”

Oh, I understand.
So, you’re the problem. Not her.
I’d get that checked out.

 

Mr Haney debriefs Powell yesterday to identify the GOP dream scenario for 2024:

“To get inflation down to 2.2%, based on history, unemployment would have to go to 10.6%."

Both Sen Kennedy & Jerome Powell could be right.

pic.twitter.com/yWIjQVTxHZ

— Patrick Bet-David (@patrickbetdavid) March 8, 2023

Dementia Brandon telling Fed to “stay the course!”, while Pocahontas not so sure:

WATCH🚨: Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell: “We are taking the only measures we have to bring inflation down.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA): “And putting 2 million people out of work is just part of the cost, and they just have to bear it?” pic.twitter.com/ctJ1Nyv9eM

. The economic implications of gender discrimination are most serious. To deny women is to deprive a country of labor​ and talent, but — even worse — to undermine the drive to achievement of boys and men. One cannot rear young people in such wise that half of them think themselves superior by biology, without […]

In today's BCTV Daily Dispatch: Doctor Who, Barry, James Gunn/Dave Bautista, Wednesday, Daredevil/Punisher, Ahsoka, The Flash, SNL, and more!

On Bonfire Night 2020, the University of Manchester undertook extreme measures against Covid-19 at students’ first-year halls complex in Fallowfield. The university erected £11,000 worth of metal fencing to divide Fallowfield’s halls and block its exits, increased security presence and implemented strict ID checks for students leaving and arriving at their accommodation.  Students who were […]

While Russia's winter offensive crawls onward at a tremendous cost in blood and armaments, Paul Niland assesses the strategic position as a Ukrainian counter-offensive looms