Matt Yglesias writes: Sophisticates knno that the Trump Crime Wave has been reversed, but the 2024 data (so far, it’s early yet) is actually better than that and suggests we’re on pace for the lowest murder rate year since *2014* fully reversing the post-Ferguson rise in lethal violence. And yet a majority of Americans are convinced that we are in the midst of an unprecedented crime wave. Why? Because Donald Trump and the Republicans are pathological liars and the mainstream media is apparently incapable of effectively countering their lies. We know this because large numbers of non-MAGA voters who don’t watch Fox believe this. Some of it is the hangover from the pandemic crime spike and it takes a while for people to absorb changes. But they would be aware of it if the media would be more assertive in challenging the lies. Instead, much of the time they frame it as a matter of opinion.
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The Holocaust was racist genocide of an unprecedented scale of industrial organisation. The ensuing term Never Again applies to all humankind and resonates with Jewish conceptions of justice. This moral value is now in jeopardy, impacting on Australians of conscience. Changed the national conversation. Now a range of pundits have positioned themselves as experts by Continue reading »
Since Prime Minister Anthony Albanese took office in 2022, Australia has returned to a more rational path of seeking pragmatic cooperation with China. Despite starting from a low base, the relationship between China and Australia has improved significantly, said Mark Beeson (Beeson), an adjunct professor at the Australia-China Relations Institute, University of Technology Sydney, in an Continue reading »
After meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken last April, New Zealand’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Winston Peters, said that the two countries had pledged “to work ever more closely together in support of shared values and interests.” In recent moves exemplifying this support, New Zealand has deployed a targeting team to a United States-led Continue reading »
As the Ukrainian war appears to be nearing its conclusion, the question is what a peace could look like. 1.The Worsening Situation. The window to a compromise peace with Russia is fast closing. Western hardliners are urging Ukraine to expend its remaining military resources in the vain hope of stopping and reversing Russia’s most recent advances, Continue reading »
The Communist Party of China has said the upcoming Third Plenary Session of its current 20th Central Committee will focus on “deepening comprehensive reform to advance Chinese modernisation.” Based on past practice and some recent public reports, Beijing is drafting its agenda now, but details are hard to come by. To piece together potential changes, Continue reading »
What is it about the Australian Jewish community, Australian Jewish ‘faith’ schools and Israel? Israel is another country, with its own raison d’être, decidedly blood-soaked. The young Israel had been created out of settler colonialism and terrorism in a country with a majority indigenous non-Jewish population. Australian Jewish families are Australian with a long history. Continue reading »
Why is opposition leader Peter Dutton campaigning on nuclear energy for Australia at this time? Michael Lester discuss with Professor Ian Lowe, Griffith University, with decades of experience in the nuclear industry and in academia, author of the benchmark book ‘long half life: the nuclear industry in Australia (Monash University Publishing). Lester and Lowe talk Continue reading »
Noel Turnbull correctly writes that media coverage of the federal opposition’s nuclear power proposal is superficial. There is a very wide range of as yet unanswered issues. First, who will build and operate the proposed nuclear power stations. Many years ago, when the Commonwealth proposed establishment of a nuclear power station, it settled on Jervis Continue reading »
The Australian Republic Movement has been silent on the need for major constitution renewal. The reason for that no doubt is that it is considered to be too difficult given the many failed constitutional amendments. This article proceeds from the position that the many failures could well be a major cause to block the Republic Continue reading »
In answer to Chas Freeman’s devastating question: “Does Israel deserve to exist?” 9 JUNE—Chas Freeman’s question has haunted me since he first articulated it three months ago in a conversation with Aaron Maté and Katie Halper on Useful Idiots podcast: Does Israel have a right to exist [is] a rather strange question because it does Continue reading »
Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – June 16 2024
by Tony Wikrent
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Strategic Political Economy
‘The whole supply chain is subsidised’: inside the EU’s blockbuster Chinese EV probe
[South China Morning Post, via Naked Capitalism 06-13-2024]
…the tariff percentages the EU would slap on electric vehicle imports from China landed with a bang.
Along with preview images for Doctor Who Season 1 finale "Empire of Death," Susan Twist offers some insights into her mysterious characters.
The only thing Trump gets in return is destruction of America’s alliances a nuclear arms race and possibly Europe. Win-win for both parties I guess: Former U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday blasted the scale of U.S. support for Ukraine and said that if he is reelected in November he would immediately “have that settled.” At a campaign rally in Detroit, Trump criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, calling him “the greatest salesman of all time” for Kyiv’s push to secure U.S. support in its effort to defend Ukraine against Russian aggression more than three years after Moscow’s all-out invasion. “He just left four days ago with $60 billion, and he gets home, and he announces that he needs another $60 billion. It never ends,” Trump said. “I will have that settled prior to taking the White House as president-elect,” said Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee in the U.S. election. Trump said again the other day that he would also have secured the release of Evan Gerskovich as president-elect.
“imagine if Biden did it” That wasn’t all. He did his weird schtick about shower heads too: At least he doesn’t have a stiff gait because that would be a deal breaker.
The kitchen table is on fire Lewis Rothschild : People want leadership, Mr. President, and in the absence of genuine leadership, they’ll listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone. Donald Trump steps up to the microphone a lot. But to Americans too busy to listen, too overworked to devote their precious free time to political news, they hear only the loudest voices and feel how the world feels. To them. They’ll be asked this fall to hire leaders. From the president on down to the local school board. What they want in their leaders are people who will fight for them. It’s not just what you say. Words are cheap. It’s what you do. And voters need to see you doing it. Anat Shenker-Osorio had a long essay in Rolling Stone yesterday, not so much about messaging (her specialty) but about voter attitudes she sees in her focus groups: If my colleagues and I took a shot everytime someone in these groups decried the Democrats as doing nothing on the fascism front, we’d have cirrhosis. As one disaffected Democratic white woman from Arizona said in April, “I don’t think any of them care really.
Startups are losing track of your money and more from The Lever this week.
Move over, Guy Fawkes Post by @lobotany_ View on Threads ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● For The Win, 5th Edition is ready for download. Request a copy of my free countywide GOTV planning guide at ForTheWin.us.
Doctor Who fans are STILL craving a UNIT spinoff series - but has UNIT ever REALLY saved the day or are they always the show's "redshirts"?
In today's BCTV Daily Dispatch: Doctor Who, TWD: Daryl Dixon - The Book of Carol, Charles Barkley, Kate Middleton, The X-Files, and more!
A few years ago, Howard Jacobson and I were joined by Xiaolu Guo for an online panel discussion at the Willesden Jewish Cemetary. We were there to speak on the subject of ‘Death, The City and a Sense of Place’. I remember we all agreed to meet questions about the ‘writing process’ with refusal. How […]
Use to discuss topics unrelated to recent posts.
New York City’s 2024 Tribeca Film Festival is running through June 16th. The festival (co-founded by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, and Craig Hatkoff in 2001) features a variety of media platforms, including film, TV, music, audio storytelling, games, and XR. I’m doing virtual coverage; as much as I’d love to be skipping down the streets of my birth city (well…technically Queens), physical mobility issues have made travel too uncomfortable. At any rate, I’ll be sharing reviews over the next couple weeks. The good news is that you can virtually attend as well-the festival is offering select titles via the “Tribeca at Home” online portal. Check out the website for more info. Let’s dive in! Brats (U.S.) *** – Linndrums, teen angst, and synths…oh my! If you are of a certain age, you may recall a distinctive sub-genre of of films that propagated in the early-to-mid 80s.