Reading
Imagine what Trump would say. No don’t.
What is the future likely to bring? A reasonable stance might be to try to look at the human species from the outside. So imagine that you’re an extraterrestrial observer who is trying to figure out what’s happening here or, for that matter, imagine you’re an historian 100 years from now — assuming there are any historians 100 years from now, which is not obvious — and you’re looking back at what’s happening today. You’d see something quite remarkable. For the first time in the history of the human species, we have clearly developed the capacity to destroy ourselves. That’s been true since 1945. It’s now being finally recognized that there are more long-term processes like environmental destruction leading in the same... Read more
Source: Humanity Imperiled appeared first on TomDispatch.com.
It’s hard to know whether the low point of Trump’s two speeches over the weekend was saying that Biden is “jacked up” on cocaine or this: Former President Donald Trump suggested in two speeches Saturday that migrants coming to the U.S. should have their own fighting league, remarking that they’re “nasty, mean” and “tough people” who could beat the country’s top fighters. Speaking first to a crowd of conservative Christians at a Faith & Freedom Coalition gathering in Washington, D.C., Trump said he shared the idea with Dana White, president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. “I said, ‘Dana I have an idea. Why don’t you set up a migrant league of fighters and have your regular league fighters,” Trump said, “and then you have the champion of your league — these are the greatest fighters in the world — fight the champion of the migrants.’” The suggestion drew laughter and applause from the crowd, a response that continued as he spoke more about the concept.
The level of triggered from one woman calling them losers, is unhinged #TrumpCult #Philadelphia pic.twitter.com/ivRk7VftwP — Anarchy princess (@SatireAP) June 23, 2024 That’s all it takes to make the cult completely lose it’s collective mind. Maybe Biden should try that at the debate when Trump gets “tough and nasty” as he says he going to do: Donald Trump might be eschewing formal preparations for Thursday’s debate — but that doesn’t mean he isn’t thinking about it. In fact, the former president couldn’t stop talking about his upcoming bout against Joe Biden as he rallied in the president’s adopted home turf of Philadelphia on Saturday night. Over the course of nearly 90 minutes, Trump interspersed talk of his economic plans and complaints about his criminal conviction in New York with musings about the potentially consequential political clash. He mocked Biden for holing up behind closed doors at Camp David to prepare for the debate, suggesting the president would turn to illicit substances to boost his performance.
Peter Dutton is a charlatan – an inveterate climate change denialist. A denialist now seeking to camouflage his long held denialism in an industrial fantasy – resort to the most dangerous and expensive energy source on the face of the earth – nuclear power. In advocating this, Dutton continues his party’s manic denialism, first articulated Continue reading »
Sino-Australian ties show signs of great resilience, stability as leaders take positive approach. There is a prominent view in the Australian commentariat that bilateral ties between Australia and China are fragile. Or put more dimly, the differences in political systems and strategic preferences between Canberra and Beijing mean that “stabilisation” is simply “not possible”. According Continue reading »
Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – June 23 2024
by Tony Wikrent
;
Strategic Political Economy
Is the 4th Amendment Dead in Cyberspace?
Tracy Mitrano [Inside Higher Ed, via Thomas Neuburger, God’s Spies, June 21, 2024]
I know it’s terribly uncool to say that the economy is good and suggest that all the doom and gloom might be caused by something other than the material reality of most Americans. (I sure get a lot of blow back when I suggest such a thing. ) But really, everyone needs to get a grip. We’ve continued to have really good economic news in recent weeks. Inflation was ZERO in May. Prices did not rise and the price of many goods fell. The May jobs report was 50% higher than expected. The World Bank upped it global growth forecast because of the strength of the American economy. The Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow tracker has q2 GDP coming in at a very robust 3% Wage growth remains very strong. The stock market keeps breaking records. New data found that crime and murder rates have plummeted, and flows to the border are way down from where they were last year…… I know that housing remains a concern but the building boom should mitigate that in due time as well as an overdue drop in interest rates. But other than that, the economy is hugely improved and polling suggests that people are starting to become aware of that..
ZEIT: Wie stark die soziale Herkunft den Schulerfolg in Deutschland prägt, ist seit dem PisaSchock 2001 bekannt. Wieso bekommt man das Problem einfach nicht in den Griff? Maaz: Meine tiefe Überzeugung ist: Wenn wir mit Bildungsmaßnahmen erst anfangen, wenn die Kinder in die Schule kommen, werden wir nicht erfolgreich sein. Selbst das StartchancenProgramm, bei dem […]
This cheered me up to no end: Arizona delegates to the Republican National Convention gathered this month in a Phoenix suburb, showing up to get to know each other and learn about their duties. Part of the presentation included a secret plan to throw the party’s nomination of Donald Trump for president into chaos. The instructions did not come from “Never Trumpers” hoping to stop the party from nominating a felon when delegates gather in Milwaukee next month. They instead came from avowed “America First” believers hatching a challenge from the far right — a plot to release the delegates from their pledge to support Trump, according to people present and briefed on the meeting, slides from the presentation and private messages obtained by The Washington Post. The delegates said the gambit would require support from several other state delegations, and it wasn’t clear whether those allies had been lined up. One idea, discussed as attendees ate finger foods, was for co-conspirators to signal their allegiance to one another by wearing matching black jackets.
Hate never really goes away I passed one of these back in the 1970s. Also, Trump’s pal targets civilians in Ukraine. Post by @aljazeeraenglish View on Threads Associated Press: KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — At least three people were killed in a Russian bombing attack on Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv, on Saturday afternoon, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. Another 38 people were wounded in the attack, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said. Four aerial bombs were launched against the city, damaging residential buildings, shops and public transport stops, said Kharkiv regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov. He said that four of the wounded were in serious condition. “This Russian terror with guided aerial bombs must and can be stopped. Bold decisions from our partners are needed so that we can destroy Russian terrorists and Russian combat aircraft where they are,” Zelenskyy wrote on the messaging app Telegram. And more: A fresh attack on Kharkiv killed at least one person and wounded 10 on Sunday, according to local officials.
Russell T. Davies had more teases for Nicola Coughlan-starring, Steven Moffat-written, and Alex Pillai-directed Doctor Who Christmas Special.
From the AI apocalypse to the risks of mega trains, here’s all the news from The Lever this week.
Unhinged and unbound I spent an evening once with students in the hallway of a Vienna dorm listening to American rock and drinking bootleg schnapps crafted by somone’s grandfather. The English idiom “bootleg” took some explaining. It led to a long, alcohol-fueled exchange of English and German idioms. One German idiom for insane that stayed with me was, “Er hat nicht alle Tassen im Shrank.” (He doesn’t have all his cups in the cupboard.) Watching clips from a couple of Donald Trump appearances last night brought that back in a big way. Perhaps you’ve heard that under Joe Biden our airports are failing and in chaos? People are erecting tent camps because of flight delays, Trump claims. Trump heard something about “people camping out at the airport” because of a delay, put 2 and 2 together and got 5. It’s so crazy, noted Josh Marshall, that the Biden-Harris rapid response account simply reposted the rant without comment. Trump seems bothered by all the musings about his mental state after his rambling about electric boats and sharks. Rather than pretend he never said it, as he often does, he doubled down and made it worse.
In today's BCTV Daily Dispatch: Superman/Brandon Routh, Chinatown, Doctor Who, Taylor Swift/London, William Shatner/Ryan Reynolds, and more!
The 2024 Tribeca Film Festival wrapped last weekend, but I still have a few reviews in the can (as they say). Hopefully, some of these will be coming soon to a theater (or streaming platform) near you. Let’s dive in… Alien Weaponry: Kua Tupo Te Ara (New Zealand) *** – Kent Belcher’s documentary opens with home movie footage of two boys around age (7? 8?) jamming out on drums and guitar. The guitarist/vocalist appears to be improvising his (mostly indecipherable) lyrics, but his committed, full-throat delivery suggests he could grow up to be the next Tom Araya. Brothers Henry (drums) and Lewis (guitar/lead vocals) de Jong did in fact grow up to be luminaries in thrash-metal circles. The Waipu, New Zealand-born siblings formed the band Alien Weaponry in 2010 (with the full encouragement of their parents, who also assumed managerial duties). What made the band unique (aside from the fact that they were all of 9 and 10 at the time) was the integration of Māori culture and language into their music. Belcher documents the band over a several year period, tagging along on road tours and an important gig at a major thrash metal festival.
CNN airs montage of Trump VP contenders saying they “never liked” Trump, they “wouldn’t do business with him,” calling him a “con artist,” and more pic.twitter.com/PtTSlXKHzW — Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) June 22, 2024 In 2016, Vance also mused that Trump might be America’s Hitler. There are dozens of comments like this from Vance. The ads write themselves. I’m not sure he’ll be able to forgive Rubio for this. Look how angry he is here. He’s not going to choose him: I’m sticking with Burgum. He looks out of central casting and he’s a billionaire which makes MAGA even more “populist” in GOP bizarroworld. I don’t know if he’s said anything more damning than the clip in that first video. If not, then I think he’s in. He’s shown a real Pencian flair for adoring sycophancy.
Did you see that one coming? Crowley: Senator Joe McCarthy was right… The same deep state going after Donald Trump, the same deep state that removed Richard Nixon… that deep state smeared and attacked Joe McCarthy for speaking the truth.. pic.twitter.com/2Z1FQYpqdC — Acyn (@Acyn) June 21, 2024 Crowley didn’t used to act this nuts but as someone who worked for Nixon after he left the White House I suppose this makes some sense. This will be part of the historical rewrite under the MAGA regime if they gain power. Everything you know will be revised.