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Doctor Who originally planned to turn companion Ace into a Time Lord in the 1980s before the show was canceled. So what exactly happened?
When the riots stopped conversation moved to the Online Safety Act with suggestions changes would be made 'if necessary'. Prime Minister Keir Starmer also pledged to 'look more broadly' at social media
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Over 600 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since Hamas' deadly attack - but residents fear a worse wave of violence lies ahead as tensions between Israel and Hezbollah and Iran intensify
- by Aeon Video
- by Michael Gilson
- by Patricia Martin
Disabled people may have been cheering the end of Tory rule – but their trust has not been won by Labour, writes Penny Pepper
There is some commentary emerging that is finally starting to question the reliance on monetary policy (setting interest rates) as the primary macroeconomic policy tool with fiscal policy forced into a passive role. In Australia, this debate has intensified in the last week following the hubris from the new Reserve Bank governor, who thinks her…
Iran may be about to launch a proper missile strike on Israel for the first time ever – in retaliation for the attack on Tehran last month which killed Ismail Haniyeh. Israeli intelligence says an attack is likely to come within days. The Jerusalem Post on 11 August quoted Ahmad Bakhshayesh Ardestani, a member of Continue reading »
Allow me to venture a prediction. If AI dynamic pricing is adopted by corporations, especially grocery store chains, it will cause just-in-time supply-chain chaos and profits to be unpredictable by two or three standard deviations outside the bell curve. All of which will then result in stock and bond market carnage worse than 2008. Moreover, this kind of short-sighted innovation, just the kind Silicon Valley adores, is untested and untrustworthy and will cause a societal meltdown that will make the results of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans look like Sunday school, possibly ending in a near-famine if adopted. Finally, it’s the kind of intellectual irresponsibility that will increase already Burj Khalifa heights of stupidity out into the cosmos, ultimately ushering in chaos and revolution.
Don’t believe me, bring it on then!
I’ve noticed an interesting if subtle choice of words in Walz’s commentary. He frequently invokes the phrase “the democracy.” This is noticeable for two reasons. First, since the rise of Trump, liberals and progressives of all stripes have resorted to the phrase “our democracy.” I’ve never liked it. It’s cringey and sanctimonious. It has the air of a fetish, as if democracy were a possession, like a precious ring or family heirloom. Democracy is not a possession; it’s a prospect and a process, a condition to be fought for, perpetually. Second, during the early half of the nineteenth century, democracy was frequently called “the democracy.” As if it were a threatening animal, which it was. It was initially the term […]
Celebrities actually do help I have to admit that this surprised me. Not that I don’t think celebrities should be able to support whomever and whatever they choose.They’re citizens too. But I’ve never been sure that it makes any difference. Apparently, it does, which means the left has a huge advantage. The right has far less support among artists, athletes and celebrities in general. Former president and Republican nominee Donald Trump brought out Hulk Hogan and Kid Rock to the RNC last month, while Megan Thee Stallion, George Clooney and Jennifer Aniston are among the star-powered artists who have voiced support for Vice President Kamala Harris in her White House bid. But do election efforts by celebrities move the needle? Or is it all just hype? A new study by Harvard University’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, shared first by CNN, found that celebrities do play an influential role in promoting civic participation.
There’s stupid and then there felony stupid: Georgia Republicans are having a bad case of déjà vu. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has once again taken to attacking Georgia’s Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, leaving GOP leaders and strategists fearing that the public and ugly intraparty feud could hurt Trump’s chances in this battleground state. Trump’s loss here in 2020 left the state’s Republican Party deeply fractured, with Trump blaming Kemp and other statewide GOP officials for refusing to overturn President Biden’s narrow victory in the state. Republican officials have blamed the feuding for repeated losses in Senate races. “I thought any kind of bad blood had blown over, and I don’t know why President Trump would want to reopen that wound and attack a very popular governor,” said state Sen. Larry Walker III , a member of the Georgia Senate GOP’s leadership. Trump, at an Atlanta rally recently at Georgia State University, called Kemp “a bad guy.” “He’s a disloyal guy and he’s a very average governor.
When it comes to our nation’s military affairs, ignorance is not bliss. What’s remarkable then, given the permanent state of war in which we find ourselves, is how many Americans seem content not to know. Citizens of courage will surely choose the path of challenge. There are many reasons for this state of affairs. Our civilian leaders encourage us to be deferential toward our latest commander/savior, whether Tommy Franks in 2003, David Petraeus in 2007, or Stanley McChrystal in 2010. Our media employs retired officers, most of them multi-starred generals, in a search for expertise that ends in an unconditional surrender to military agendas. A cloud of secrecy and “black budgets” combine to obscure military matters, ranging from global strategy to... Read more
I’m not one to quote Maureen Dowd but when she’s right, she’s right: From the first time I went on an exploratory political trip with Trump in 1999, he has measured his worth in numbers. His is not an examined life but a quantified life. When I asked him why he thought he could run for president, he cited his ratings on “Larry King Live.” He was at his most animated reeling off his ratings, like Faye Dunaway in “Network,” orgasmically reciting how well her shows were doing. He pronounced himself better than other candidates because of numbers: the number of men who desired his then-girlfriend, Melania Knauss; the number of zoning changes he had maneuvered to get; the number of stories he stacked on his building near the U.N.; the number of times he was mentioned in a Palm Beach newspaper. By his mode of valuation, if his numbers aren’t better than his rivals’, he’s worthless. That’s why Trump is always obsessing on his crowd numbers and accusing the press of lowballing head counts. And that’s why he couldn’t admit he lost the election.
The training videos The Heritage Foundation published their 900 page plan to create a fascist state some time ago. But one of the primary purpose of the project and the Heritage Foundation itself is to train operatives to carry out their plans. This time, in order to hit the ground running, they are already drawing up lists of people to fill all the jobs left open after their planned purge of the Executive Branch and have a full transition and first 100 days battle plan which they have assiduously avoided making public. And they have been “training” people for months, including some of the people at the center of Trump’s inner circle. Pro-Publica got a hold of some of the training videos: ProPublica and Documented obtained more than 14 hours of never-before-published videos from Project 2025’s Presidential Administration Academy, which are intended to train the next conservative administration’s political appointees “to be ready on day one.” Project 2025, the controversial playbook and policy agenda created by the Heritage Foundation and its allies for a future conservative presidential administration, has lost its director.
Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – August 11 2024
by Tony Wikrent
Strategic Political Economy
In 2023 the world’s forests stopped acting as a carbon sink
[REDD Monitor, via Naked Capitalism 08-10-2024]