The – Japanese National Institute of Population and Social Security Research – is the go-to place for understanding demographic trends in Japan. The latest revisions to the population estimates (as at 2023) show that the current population of 125.5 million will shrink to 96 odd million by 2060 and then 87 million a decade later.…
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On the same day lobbyists for NSO met with Rep. Pete Sessions, a lawyer from the lobbying firm gave $1,000 to “Pete Sessions for Congress.”
The post Pegasus Spyware Maker Said to Flout Federal Court as It Lobbies to Get Off U.S. Blacklist appeared first on The Intercept.
Events in Jabalia over the weekend have still not shocked the world into action; men, women and children rounded up shared with the world in footage taken by IDF soldiers. We are awakened to the knowledge Australia’s US bases are take off points for US planes heading to the Middle East and witness the protest Continue reading »
Yeah, we love Pennsylvania. That’s our very special hello to Latrobe. Oh, I love Latrobe. You know why? The home of Arnold Palmer. This is the home of my friend Arnold Palmer. And he loved Latrobe. You know, he turned out to be one of the greatest golfers in the world. He started off very, very poor. He had no money, just had a lot of talent and a lot of muscle. He was a strong guy.
[Roughly ten minutes of “weaving” about Arnold Palmer’s youth, Arnold Palmer’s father, golf, “stiff shafted golf clubs,” the candidate’s golf courses, building villas, and the entertainment agency IGM.]
He was an incredible man, he was an incredible champion, and he came from Latrobe. And so when I said a couple of days, and I said, “Where are we going to be today?”
They said, “Sir, we’re going to be in Latrobe."
I said, “Do you know what that means?”
“No, sir, what does that mean?”
Politico took a look at what the Trump[ers are plotting in the event he loses the election. It’s a long shot, but it’s theoretically possible: “No one knows exactly what Trump’s attack on the electoral system will be in 2024,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), a member of the Jan. 6 select committee. “What will he do this time?” The answer, according to lawmakers, congressional investigators, party operatives, election officials and constitutional law experts, goes something like this: — He will deepen distrust in the election results by making unsupported or hyperbolic claims of widespread voter fraud and mounting longshot lawsuits challenging enough ballots to flip the outcome in key states. — He will lean on friendly county and state officials to resist certifying election results — a futile errand that would nevertheless fuel a campaign to put pressure on elected Republican legislators in statehouses and Congress. — He will call on allies in GOP-controlled swing-state legislatures to appoint “alternate” presidential electors.
As one commenter noted, “Never thought I’d live in a world where I would be hyped for the Austrian army dropping a new video.”
He’s the man of the hour (and you can choose your hour), win, lose, or draw. I mean, who can deny it? Certainly not the crowd at his debate with Kamala Harris that, as he reminded us recently, absolutely “went crazy” over what he had to say. (And it couldn’t matter less that the event had no live audience whatsoever.) In a sense, he isn’t wrong. After all, it’s still all too possible that, in a couple of weeks, he could once again be elected — yes! — president of the United States. Indeed, it’s as yet unclear whether American voters will decline The Donald, but what is increasingly clear — there can’t be a doubt on the subject —... Read more
Source: The Empire Is Going Down appeared first on TomDispatch.com.
King Charles has spent the weekend in Sydney laying low trying to avoid former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, the man who demoted the King’s Dad from a Prince to a Knight. ”The King was keen to get out and about... Read More ›
She turns 60 today. She’s just the right age for the first woman president. She’s had enough time to gather the experience any woman would be required to have (unlike a man who vcan get away with none, apparently) and yet she’s young and vigorous enough to get the job done. This was nice: I don’t know if everyone knows that Kamala Harris has a rabid fan base that’s been with her ever since the 2020 primaries. It’s called the KHive and they are true believers of the kind only Obama and Trump can boast. This was their birthday present to her.
Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – October 20 2024
by Tony Wikrent
Strategic Political Economy
MASTER PLAN, Ep 10: The Master Planners’ Heist Of The Century
[The Lever, October 15, 2024]
By 2010, the master planners had firmly gained the upper hand. Their victory in Citizens United allowed corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence elections, giving business interests unprecedented power in politics. But the master planners’ onslaught wasn’t quite over. In this episode, we show how they embarked on a bold heist to crack the vault protecting democracy itself. It’s the heist story of the century, in three acts.
The political and military leader of Hamas is dead. Some cheer. Some weep. History will judge the living and the dead. I wish Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar had appeared before an international tribunal of judges for their role in October 7th, rather than being murdered by the Israelis. All who committed crimes in the Continue reading »
“Do you agree that Israel has the right to defend itself?” This question, so often and repeatedly put by journalists, is irritatingly banal. Invariably, it’s pitched as a kind of provocation, as if to infer that the person being quizzed has never considered the matter, or worse, is a closet antisemitic. The seemingly obvious answer Continue reading »
The Los Angeles Review of Books (LARB) has just published “The Most Moral Army”- an excoriating review of Israel’s continuous reliance on deceitful medical imagery to disinfect its horrific abuse of power in Gaza. Continue reading »
While most of us are fixated on why the King needs to travel to this country with his own supply of fresh blood or how many pomps his ceremonies will need, there are more serious issues raised by the visit to Australia of Charles Mountbatten Windsor, who by birthright holds central powers in Australia’s constitution. Continue reading »
“Sow an act, and you reap a habit. Sow a habit, and you reap a character. Sow a character, and you reap a destiny” (Charles Reade, 1814-84) ‘Culture eats Strategy for Breakfast’ is an aphorism often wrongly attributed to management guru Peter Drucker. It was more likely first coined by Apple founder Steve Jobs, or Continue reading »
It’s ranking season again, and universities are once more fixated on their positions in global league tables. These rankings, such as those from Times Higher Education and QS World University Rankings, often shape decisions for students and funders alike. While an institution’s rise in the rankings can be celebrated as a success, a drop can Continue reading »
There is no doubt that the war in Gaza has placed Australia’s multiculturalism and social cohesion under strain. Continue reading »
“… the Americans in, the Russians out and the Germans down”, as Lord Ismay, NATO’s first Secretary General, is said to have put it.
The end of WWII was an uneasy time for East-West relations. Grateful as they were for Stalin’s help, the U.S. and its allies remained wary, as Churchill's 1946 “iron Continue reading »
While the world looks on with trepidation at regional wars in Israel and Ukraine, a far more dangerous global crisis is quietly building at the other end of Eurasia, along an island chain that has served as the front line for America’s national defence for endless decades. Just as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has revitalised Continue reading »
A free preview of Anthony Barnett's new monthly column exclusive to the Byline Times print edition