Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – December 22, 2024
By Tony Wikrent
Strategic Political Economy
Joe Biden, December 16, 2024 [The American Prospect]
Reading
The Washington Post sounds an alarm about the erosion of press freedom. They outline all the cases that are pending and the collapse of the ABC case, all of which sounds pretty bad when you see it all together. They seem to be serious. It is hardly unusual for a president to clash with the press. Richard M. Nixon kept journalists on his enemies list, while his vice president, Spiro Agnew, dubbed them “nattering nabobs of negativism.” Bill Clinton griped about coverage of his White House sex scandal, and Barack Obama’s administration brought a record number of prosecutions against journalists’ sources for leaking government information. But legal experts say Trump has taken attacks on the press to an entirely new level, softening the ground for an erosion of robust press freedom. “The Fake News Media should pay a big price for what they have done to our once great Country,” Trump posted on Truth Social in September in an attack on NBC News. Experts in polarization said that Trump’s posture toward the press has eroded trust in the Fourth Estate. From the Oval Office, he can do even more.
The Labor Party is a long way from done but at the moment it is mired in mediocrity. We need a Labor Party agenda in which the big issues are confronted, writes Bill Kelty. A repost from Oct, 05, 2024 It is a sad day for me in some ways. I remember coming back from Continue reading »
One of the fondest memories we carry is of how when we were young, the world was infused with magic, especially at Christmas. We would wake on Christmas Day surrounded by the gifts Santa Claus had mysteriously placed there. As we grew the magic died, yet so drawn are we to it, we wish we Continue reading »
When Prime Minister Netanyahu expressed his disdain for international law and his contempt for the leadership of the United Nations, he implicitly recalled an ancient tradition of the origins of Israel. He asserted that Modern Israel was not formed in 1948 by the United Nations, but by the Israeli war against the Arabs, in the Continue reading »
Australia is often celebrated as a wealthy nation, with a prosperity that is purportedly shared across its population. However, such assertions crumble under scrutiny. According to the 2021 census, 122,494 Australians were denied the basic right of shelter due to their inability to afford housing. This stark reality reveals the vast and growing chasm between Continue reading »
Michael Lester in conversation with Professor Ian Chubb AC—policy adviser at the Australian Academy of Science (AAS), former Chief Scientist of Australia, and former Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor of several universities—now appointed to lead a once-in-a-generation review of Australia’s faltering research and development funding and efforts. The recently announced national science and research priorities are Continue reading »
Again, the question arises: could Francis retire? If he were to do so, it would make papal resignations normal. Pope Francis turns 88 on Dec. 17. Depending on how one keeps score, that will make him something like the fifth or sixth oldest man ever to occupy the Chair of Peter. According to legend, Pope Continue reading »
What has gone wrong for the Cultural revolution of the 60s-70s? Is it Trump and the MAGA movement as Robert Manne posits, or is it identity politics out of control, as Nicholas Gruen argues — the extremity of political correctness, me-tooism, cancel culture, social tribalism and wokeism — weaponising discourse and driving us apart. There Continue reading »
On November 5, Donald J. Trump was widely reported to have won a big U.S. presidential election victory. A key factor was his success in attracting more of American minority voters than usual: Latinos and Blacks. Indeed, this made a difference. However, little was said about another minority—Asian Americans. They, of course, are a much Continue reading »
Beyond the appalling consequences of the Gaza war Netanyahu’s full scale attack on the credibility and legitimacy of the UN and its institutions is in danger of inflicting lasting damage by instilling a Western moral exceptionalism. That attack has intensified following the ICC’s arrest warrant for Netanyahu – an attack which is drawing a concerning Continue reading »
Someone got an earful from someone last night… I’m guessing someone told him about the fees and he got all excited and happy that he has something new to complain about. But he obviously subbed out this tweet to a donor or adviser because it’s far too coherent. I think what the important Heather said was correct: In the old days I would have said Steve Bannon but I’m not sure who it is today. One thing we can be sure of is that Trump isn’t reading anything. Unless it’s the Classic Comics version of the McKinley era. It sure seems as though Trump is on an expansionist tear these days. Personally I expect that the pending Mexico invasion is the most likely but who knows? Maybe someone should tell him to colonize Alaska. He almost certainly doesn’t know it’s already a state. Update — Of course. It’s revenge:
Andreas Cervenka har i sin senaste bok försökt beskriva den svenska bostadsbubblan och vad som ytterst skapat den. Några av de orsaker han lyfter fram är: ♦ Riksbankens långvariga låg-räntepolitik som gjort det billigare för hushåll att låna pengar och därigenom också drivit upp efterfråga och pris på bostäder. ♦ De snabbt ökande bostadspriserna har […]
And vampire squids Some friends and stilletto-sharp thinkers lately are busy discussing the meaning and implications of Cory Doctorow’s “enshittification.” ICYMI, Macquarie Dictionary declared it the word of the year, defined as: “The gradual deterioration of a service or product brought about by a reduction in the quality of service provided, especially of an online platform, and as a consequence of profit-seeking.” As Doctorow explained a couple of years back: Here is how platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die. I call this enshittification, and it is a seemingly inevitable consequence arising from the combination of the ease of changing how a platform allocates value, combined with the nature of a “two sided market,” where a platform sits between buyers and sellers, holding each hostage to the other, raking off an ever-larger share of the value that passes between them. Dave Roberts (a.k.a. Dr.
Whether you’ve been bad or good IYKYK: The South lost the Civil War but won Reconstruction, neutered the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments across the South, and maintained a rigid system of Jim Crow oppression for the next 100 years. IYKYK: Each July 4th, we celebrate America’s war to overthrow rule by hereditary royalty and landed gentry and to create on these shores democratic self-rule … plus a little slavery to appease the South’s economic royalty. Like the Civil War, the American Revolution now seems to have failed. Is there any doubt? Former bartender, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, doesn’t think so. Her Instagram followers asked about American oligarchy, and one oligarch in particular from the South (Africa). AOC: “Oh, I don’t think we’re witnessing the START of an oligarchy.
Doctor Who Christmas Specials feature companions who show up only once, but there's a deeper meaning under all that beyond the big names.
Indiana wanted to kill Joseph Corcoran under the cover of darkness, but one journalist slipped in to witness.
The post Indiana’s Midnight Executions Are a Relic of Another Age appeared first on The Intercept.
Happy Solstice! I thought I’d whip up a wintry mix of (literally) cool tunes to celebrate the shortest day of the year (buck up, little camper…we’ll start gaining daylight tomorrow). So for a much-needed mental health break…turn off the news, fix yourself a nice cup of hot chocolate (or kick it up a notch), dim all the lights, cozy up in front of the fireplace (real or virtual), don your favorite noise-cancelling headphones and (if I may quote from a Styx song) let the melody just drift your cares away.
My current playlist is this diorama of Lulu the Piggy channeling Tupac Shakur in a toy vending machine in the basement of New World Mall in Flushing Chinatown.
Since it’s Saturday, I thought I would take a few minutes to talk about my pal Dennis Hartley who’s been holding down Saturday nights here at Hullabaloo for the last 18 years. I’ve actually known Dennis since I was a teenager and we were growing up in Fairbanks Alaska. We (mis)spent some of our 20s in San Francisco whiling away hours and hours in the fantastic repertory movie theaters that were numerous in all the big cities in those days. (This was before you could pretty much find every film ever made just by asking Mr Google.) In those days they had film addict types curating the bookings, which changed every day, and you could see classic film programs, foreign films and offbeat independents on huge screens in big, old movie palaces any day of the week. We devoured them. It was an incredible education in the art of film. Dennis went on to pursue a career in comedy and radio in Seattle and I ended up in LA working in the movie business but we’ve stayed in touch and Dennis has remained a film hound on a level I couldn’t keep up with. His personal collection is probably bigger than most film schools at this point.