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Don’t look to the elites to step up. They’re all running for cover. This article in the NY Times surveys the cowardly retreat overtaking American elites both public and private. More than six weeks into the second Trump administration, there is a chill spreading over political debate in Washington and beyond. People on both sides of the aisle who would normally be part of the public dialogue about the big issues of the day say they are intimidated by the prospect of online attacks from Mr. Trump and Elon Musk, concerned about harm to their companies and frightened for the safety of their families. Politicians fear banishment by a party remade in Mr. Trump’s image and the prospect of primary opponents financed by Mr. Musk, the president’s all-powerful partner and the world’s richest man.
Center-right French senator Claude Malhuret gave a speech last week that was heard around the world. He’s an epidemiologist and former leader of Doctors Without Borders. This one’s for the history books. Europe is at a crucial juncture of its history. The American shield is slipping away, Ukraine risks being abandoned, and Russia is being strengthened. Washington has become the court of Nero: an incendiary emperor, submissive courtiers, and a buffoon on ketamine tasked with purging the civil service. This is a tragedy for the free world, but it’s first and foremost a tragedy for the United States. [President Donald] Trump’s message is that being his ally serves no purpose, because he will not defend you, he will impose more tariffs on you than on his enemies, and he will threaten to seize your territories, while supporting the dictators who invade you. The king of the deal is showing that the art of the deal is lying prostrate. He thinks he will intimidate China by capitulating to Russian President Vladimir Putin, but China’s President Xi Jinping, faced with such wreckage, is undoubtedly accelerating his plans to invade Taiwan.
Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – March 09, 2025
By Tony Wikrent
Men DOGEbags at Work
Understanding Trump’s War on Research Funding & The Future
[Pandemic Accountability Project, via Naked Capitalism 03-05-2025]
Trump and his minions believe they have a mandate to completely dismantle the American economy. I guess it’s because the “vibes” over egg prices were so bad? Really? Axios reports: President Trump believes it’s worth risking pain to achieve his medium-term goal of rewiring the U.S. economy. He is attempting a form of economic shock therapy, while accepting there could be collateral damage. That willingness to shrug off risks of inflation or recession is now rattling financial markets and confidence — and has itself emerged as the biggest near-term economic risk. The administration has embraced that the economic disruption it envisions could be painful. Not painful for them of course. Trump’s cabinet is full of billionaires. Axios says this means that there will be no Washington cavalry coming to save us. I kind of doubt anyone believes that anyway. Trump is seeking to rapidly undo a global economic order that has been decades in the making. Americans enjoyed the fruits of cheap goods made around the world, at the cost of a diminished domestic manufacturing base.
A new report has torpedoed Peter Dutton’s claim that the Coalition’s nuclear power plan for Australia would be 44% cheaper than Labor’s plan for renewables, finding instead that it would inflate average consumer electricity bills by up to 41% between now and 2030. The report, commissioned by the Clean Energy Council, models the outcomes on Continue reading »
Trump 2.0 might as well use bombs and arson If citizens feel whipsawed by the contradictions and backpedaling by Trump 2.0 policy malfeasance, it is hardly surprising. It’s not just the obvious intention to privatize government services things ought to be public (and not-for-profit), it’s the threat those privatizing efforts pose to “Americans’ health, safety, and economic security,” writes Heather Cox Richardson. Social Security is a perennial target for the right, and is once again. Trump 2.0 will sabotage it, collapse it, then argue that Republican dysfunction by design is reason to kill it: In another blockbuster story that dropped yesterday, the Social Security Administration announced it will begin to withhold 100% of a person’s Social Security benefits if they are overpaid, even if the overpayment is not their fault. Under President Joe Biden the agency had changed the policy to recover overpayments at 10% of monthly benefits or $10, whichever was greater.
Wall Street corrupts an affordable housing program, hopeful parents lose embryos, dangers lurk in your pantry, and more from The Lever this week.
Trump welcomes Putin, abandons liberal democracy Donald Trump’s Oval Office ambush of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (with a strong assist from J.D. Vance) was embarrassing and shocking in perhaps equal proportions. The convicted felon now occupying the White House got there with the approval of not even half of American voters (and only 64 percent of them) and with a little help from a “friend” of his and an enemy of democracy: Russian president Vladimir Putin. Trump immediately set about surrendering U.S. leadership in the post-WWII order. He has in fact already dismantled it. As obsessed as Mr. America First is with winning, the real winner of the 2024 presidential elections was Putin, writes Franklin Foer in The Atlantic. The Oval Office shouting match was a fist-pump moment for Putin signifying his “ultimate victory,” the moment when “the United States, became his most powerful ally.” Except Foer’s conclusion is only true if one accepts (as the felon-who-would-be-king does) that Trump is the state. The other half of U.S. voters would strenuously disagree.
In Brandon Cronenberg’s Infinity Pool (2023), author James Foster (Alexander Skarsgård) is holidaying with his partner Em (Cleopatra Coleman) on the island of Li Tolqa, when he hits and kills a local man while driving back to his resort at night. The next day he is arrested by the authorities and told that the penalty... Continue Reading →
For those of us who would like to see a revival of the ‘techno-critical’ tradition in public debate (the tradition of Marshall McLuhan, Jacques Ellul, Neil Postman and Langdon Winner, inter many alia), it is a cause of some irritation that the hegemonic view of technology remains the ‘instrumental’ one.
Using lessons learned defending abortion, some providers are digging in to serve their trans patients despite legal attacks.
The post How to Keep Providing Gender-Affirming Care Despite Anti-Trans Attacks appeared first on The Intercept.
What does concern me about my discipline, however, is that its current core — by which I mainly mean the so-called dynamic stochastic general equilibrium approach — has become so mesmerized with its own internal logic that it has begun to confuse the precision it has achieved about its own world with the precision that […]
“He wants to reduce the value of the dollar… in order to make American exports more competitive and imports into the United States more expensive. At the same time he wants to maintain the hegemony of the dollar.” Yanis Varoufakis explains the secret behind Trump’s tariff strategy, and his new obsession with cryptocurrency. This interview […]
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Heard about the restaurant on the Moon? Great food…no atmosphere. Yeah, I know. You rolled out of your crib in hysterics the first time you heard that one. But let’s face it – “atmosphere” is essential; not just for breathing, but for setting a mood. I’ve curated a noir mixtape that is all about atmosphere; 20 songs evoking dark alleys, rain-slicked streets, low-rent rooms, beautiful losers, and broken dreams. In other words, this ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco. Besides …everyone knows tough guys don’t dance. BARRY ADAMSON: The Man With the Golden Arm – Prolific, genre-hopping UK musician-composer-producer Barry Adamson’s brilliant 1988 arrangement of the theme from Otto Preminger’s eponymous 1955 noir is a tad down-tempo compared to the film version (written by Elmer Bernstein and originally performed by Richard Maltby & His Orchestra), but nonetheless compelling. STAN RIDGWAY: Drive, She Said – Harry Chapin’s “Taxi” meets Edgar G. Ulmer’s Detour in this cinematic cabby’s tale from the former Wall of Voodoo lead singer.
Mediaite reports on the latest GOP 2028 tea: When President Donald Trump sat down for an interview with Fox News last month, anchor Bret Baier asked what should have been a softball question: “Do you view Vice President JD Vance as your successor, the Republican nominee in 2028?” Trump’s response was glaring. “No, but he’s very capable,” the president said matter-of-factly. “I mean, I don’t think that it, you know, I think you have a lot of very capable people. So far, I think he’s doing a fantastic job. It’s too early, we’re just starting.” Well! That’s quite a denial. However, according to Mediaite, people around Trump weren’t surprised because he’s really grooming his number one son, Don Jr to run. Yes, you read that right. Three high-level sources told Mediaite that Donald Trump Jr., the eldest son and an omnipresent MAGA evangelist across the internet, is seriously considering a run for president in 2028.
A PROPOSAL for an 80-dwelling apartment complex at 69-73 Ocean Pd, Coffs Harbour has been declared a State Significant Development (SSD), potentially fast-tracking its delivery. It is proposed that all existing structures on the site, including the Ocean Park Motel and Holiday Apartments, would be demolished to make way for two seven storey residential flat...
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RITCHIES IGA + Liquor Boambee has taken out the Innovation Award at the 2025 NSW and ACT IGA Awards of Excellence, on the back of a recent overhaul of the store. The awards were held on Friday 28 February 2025, hosted by journalist Deborah Knight. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it...
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