The High Court decision in the ASF17 case removed the apparent driver for the government’s sledgehammer immigration removal legislation. There is little evidence that the legislation would work as intended. A sledgehammer is not much use for a problem which is more akin to undoing a couple of tight screws. The government should drop the Continue reading »
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Today the International Criminal Court has been officially called to investigate Ursula von der Leyen for complicity. Reasonable grounds exist to believe that the unconditional support of the president of the European Commission to Israel – military, economic, diplomatic and political – has enabled war crimes and the ongoing genocide in Gaza. The Hague (The Continue reading »
Words and phrases used to define, classify, and order our world, combine to tell a good story. That story, told often enough, seems normal. But that story can hide, ignore, and distort, reinforcing unhelpful beliefs and stereotypes. This is what’s happening with stories about skills and occupations. Every week multiple reports are published by governments, Continue reading »
The Guardian obituary of John Pilger last year did not mention his views on the war in Ukraine. John Pilger, the renowned Australian journalist who passed away in 2023 at age 84, was a vocal critic of Western foreign policy and media propaganda. As early as 2014, Pilger presciently warned about the dangers of the Continue reading »
China keeps building infrastructure in other countries that is needed by those other countries. Surely this is sinister. But all is not lost. As Joe Biden wonders if cannibals may have eaten his uncle Ambrose during World War II, Washington discovers remarkable new instruments in its geopolitical tool kit. American local and geopolitical behaviour today Continue reading »
Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – May 26 2024
by Tony Wikrent
Strategic Political Economy
[Democracy Journal. Spring 2024, No. 72]
He’s the main reason masking turned into a political issue. He didn’t want to mess up his make-up and people died. He just has to lie…
So you think polling skepticism is a fool’s errand? Maybe. But it does pay to remember our most recent election in 2022. Here’s the opening of the NY Times recap of what happened (gift link): Senator Patty Murray, a Democrat, had consistently won re-election by healthy margins in her three decades representing Washington State. This year seemed no different: By midsummer, polls showed her cruising to victory over a Republican newcomer, Tiffany Smiley, by as much as 20 percentage points. So when a survey in late September by the Republican-leaning Trafalgar Group showed Ms. Murray clinging to a lead of just two points, it seemed like an aberration. But in October, two more Republican-leaning polls put Ms. Murray barely ahead, and a third said the race was a dead heat. As the red and blue trend lines of the closely watched RealClearPolitics average for the contest drew closer together, news organizations reported that Ms. Murray was suddenly in a fight for her political survival. Warning lights flashed in Democratic war rooms. If Ms. Murray was in trouble, no Democrat was safe. Ms.
Ken Burns suspends “long-standing attempt at neutrality” This clip is a week old, but it’s flying around the internet this weekend. Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns addressed graduates at Brandeis University and warned about the threat to America’s “fragile, 249-year-old experiment.” On our “existential crossroads”: Burns cites Lincoln’s Lyceum speech (Springfield, Illinois, January 27, 1838) on “the perpetuation of our political institutions.” Lincoln was 28: At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide. Lincoln continued: I hope I am over wary; but if I am not, there is, even now, something of ill-omen, amongst us. I mean the increasing disregard for law which pervades the country; Burns’s point was that while history never repeats, it sometimes rhymes. And the rhymes are unmistakeable now. The speech in its entirety is here and worth your time.
In Doctor Who, we're never told why the old woman in "73 Yards" is terrifying, but we have a theory involving the mystery of Cosmic Horror.
Military contractors are scamming the government and shooting down accountability efforts, and other news from The Lever this week.
Is this what the “pro-life” movement wanted?
The post Sterilization, Murders, Suicides: Bans Haven’t Slowed Abortions, and They’re Costing Lives appeared first on The Intercept.
Taking pandering to new lows First, big props to Dave Weigel (now with Semafor) for covering the messiest. most tedious parts of political conventions for years. How he can stand to live-blog Democratic platform committee meetings is beyond me. This weekend, Dave is covering the Libertarian Party’s national convention in Washington, D.C. Weigel reports: Donald Trump promised members of the Libertarian Party that he would “put a libertarian in my cabinet” and commute the life sentence of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, a top demand of a political movement that intends to run its own candidate against him. “On day one, we will commute the sentence,” Trump said, offering to free the creator of what was once the internet’s most infamous drug clearinghouse. “We will bring him home.” His speeches more typically include a pledge to execute drug dealers, citing China as a model. As anyone might have guessed from the motion made from the floor on Friday that “Donald Trump to go f*ck himself” that drew applause, Trump’s reception was not his warmest.
South Africa heads to the polls on 29 May amid predictions that the African National Congress could lose its majority for the first time
In today's BCTV Daily Dispatch: TMNT, Smiling Friends, Doctor Who, Lanterns, The Boys, X-Men '97, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, and much more!
‘So we are taught social justice and all that in the classrooms, but we’re supposed to put them away in the real world?’ The UCLA student who recently asked this question was, moments later, attacked by pro-war mobs who had just been allowed by the police to enter the university campus. Their experience is one […]
Intro In the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic—one that begat many a mommy thinkpiece, many a motherhood memoir, almost all of which decried and…
Use to discuss topics unrelated to recent posts.
Sam: If I take one more step, I’ll be the farthest away from home I’ve ever been. Frodo: Come on, Sam. Remember what Bilbo used to say: “It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door.” — from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Well… things have certainly “opened up” again: A record was broken ahead of the Memorial Day weekend for the number of airline travelers screened at U.S. airports, the Transportation Security Administration said Saturday. More than 2.9 million travelers were screened at U.S. airports on Friday, surpassing a previous record set last year on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, according to the transportation security agency. “Officers have set a new record for most travelers screened in a single day!” the TSA tweeted. “We recommend arriving early.” The third busiest day on record was set on Thursday when just under 2.9 million travelers were screened at U.S. airports. In Atlanta, the world’s busiest airport had its busiest day ever.
Heading into this weekend's new episode, Doctor Who Showrunner Russell T. Davies confirmed that filming on Season 2 has wrapped.