This is the first of three articles discussing how the benefits of technological progress are shared, and thus determine the distribution of income and influence our economic and social structures. This first article focuses on how these benefits have been shared historically. Throughout history the growth in living standards has come from increasing productivity and Continue reading »
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Manifest Destiny, now more commonly called American Exceptionalism is a traditional and widespread view in the US. American views of its relationship with the world vary from isolationism to leadership, but the underlying base is always that the US is something special. While some may be more subtle than others, how many Americans could accept Continue reading »
The United States Government’s assurance that Julian Assange would have all the protections of a US citizen in a US court is obviously a fantasy. That Mr Assange will have the ‘ability to raise and seek to rely upon at trial the rights and protections given under the First Amendment of the Constitution of the Continue reading »
International politics is frequently conducted in a way that bears little or no resemblance to how it is reported in corporate and state media, nor as it is understood in academic circles. There is a public narrative for general consumption and opinion management. And then there is a more realistic account of how politics is Continue reading »
The Australian government is obscuring weapons exports to Israel despite International Court’s ruling to oppose ‘plausible genocide’. It is the standard government talking point: “Australia is not sending weapons to Israel and has not done so for the past five years.” However it’s a line that doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. Declassified Australia can reveal that Continue reading »
Australia will essentially become America’s military launch-pad into Asia. However, Ben Abbatangelo writes, little has been said or written about the drastic and disproportionate impacts it will have on First Nations communities in Australia. The ramifications of the military alliance between Australia, the United Kingdom and United States (AUKUS) will weigh heavily on First Nations Continue reading »
These same Arab nations are now pivotal in stopping Israel from further escalating the war after Iran’s missile and drone attack.
The post The Secret U.S. Alliance That Defended Israel From Iran Attack appeared first on The Intercept.
Brideshead Revisited — television’s greatest literary adaptation, bar none. Eleven episodes and actors like Jeremy Irons, John Gielgud, and Laurence Olivier. Absolutely fabulous.
She’s not funny Philip Bump on Marge’s latest stunt: After Republicans won the House majority in 2022, Greene emerged as an unlikely ally of Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). With the change in leadership, she went from pariah to establishment loyalist, someone who might at times serve as a bridge between the Republican conference’s fringe right and its leadership. She was now someone to be taken seriously. So when a British journalist approached Greene at an event last month and brought up the subject of conspiracy theories, Greene bristled. “Tell us about Jewish space lasers,” Emily Maitlis asked. “Why don’t you go talk about Jewish space lasers,” Greene angrily replied. She then suggested Maitlis do something else that can be left to your imagination. [“Go fuck youself”] Yet, less than a month later, Greene offered an amendment Wednesday to legislation centered on foreign aid. “By the funds made available by this Act,” the proposed amendment reads, “such sums as necessary shall be used for the development of space laser technology on the southwest border.” Ha ha!
Hi, sweetie. Remember how you told me that your childhood crush was Laura Ingalls Wilder? And that you think America is in the toilet? Well, you’re about to have all your home-churned-butter dreams come true, because I’ve decided to become a tradwife.
Like the other pretty, milk-fed traditional wives on Instagram and TikTok, I want to return to the glory days of the 1960s. Or the 1940s? I’m not entirely sure, but whatever time it was when women served their husbands homemade Pop-Tarts and America was a better place for white men with weak chins, I want to return to it. That’s why I’ve quit my six-figure job: to take better care of you and all of your needs. I’m going from breadwinner to breadmaker.
Of course, quitting my job means losing our health insurance, but now I’ll have more time to cure us with my tinctures and homemade vaccines. Who needs a PPO when you have mason jars and an eye dropper? The next time Tyler gets an ear infection, I’ll just make a poultice out of my law degree certificate and pray it away.
What a turnaround in just a couple of days. I’m following this very closely and I think I’ve finally lost the thread. Josh Marshall feels the same way: I don’t pretend to even understand the moving parts of how this is supposed to work. But almost out of the blue Speaker Mike Johnson has decided to go all-in on an aide package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. As this started to come into view over the last two or three days I had a number of TPM Readers write in to say, why is this happening? What’s the catch? Or why is walking the plank like this. What is he sacrificing his Speakership for? And I don’t have a really good answer. Let’s start by noting the one thing that is at least a catalyst if not the trigger: the thwarted Iranian missile attacks on Israel. That clearly changed the game for many House Republicans. Passing some Israel aid became a necessity for a number of Republicans. I assume that Johnson concluded that without assistance from at least some Democrats that too wouldn’t be possible and that he had no choice but to move ahead with Ukraine aid too.
There are two forces in history.
The first is weight. Or mass. Or trajectory. The unstoppable force. The US overtaking Britain as the premier industrial power. The two continental powers, Russia and the US, dividing Europe between them, an ancient pattern. Then the US outlasting the USSR because the US’s alliance had more people and resources and better geography.
The rise of China. The inexorable march of global warming and ecological collapse. The financialization and hollowing of a hegemonic power which always follows the decision to do free trade seriously
The second is human decision making at crisis points. Think the Cuban Missile Crisis. There were powerful men in the US who wanted to strike Cuba or Russian ships. If they had done so, there would almost certainly have been a nuclear exchange.
A Bylines Times commissioned poll has revealed that people might finally be prepared to pay for better medical care in the UK as frustrations with the service grow
Republicans deserve everything that’s coming to them Democrats have plenty of experience with snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. The Israeli war on Hamas in Gaza is not helping President Biden. There are panicked missives in my in-box this morning about how him signing the TikTok bill if it passes will further erode his support among younger voters. Plus, as Dan Pfeiffer acknowledges, the Donald Trump campaign is much better run than it was in 2016 and 2020. That said, Pfeiffer believes Biden has advantages the increasingly addled Trump wishes he had. For starters, incumbent advantage and non-stop offense: While Trump-the Degenerate degenerates like nobody’s never seen, Biden is flush with cash, “boasts 300 paid staffers across nine states and 100 offices in parts of the country.” (His first staffer moves into our offices by the end of the month.) And Trump? Nothing to see here in N.C. Yes, the country’s mood is a wild card. But if all politics is local (is that still true?), then the sideshow candidates Republicans are fielding in North Carolina may persuade voters to vote and vote D even if they are put off by national politics.
by Gary Gardner
In my frustration over humanity’s sluggish response to the urgent issues of our time, I find a bit of hope in an idea championed by the philosopher John Rawls. He had a simple and appealing suggestion for shifting people’s preferences in the direction of the common good.
Rawls proposed that anyone deliberating about public matters–legislators, officials, citizens, and others–start from behind a “veil of ignorance,” that hides from them their place in society.
The post Sortition for a Steady State Economy? appeared first on Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy.
Haiti has descended into chaos. It’s had no president or parliament — and no elections either –for eight long years. Its unelected prime minister Ariel Henry resigned recently when gang violence at the airport in Port-au-Prince made it impossible for him to return to the country after a trip to Guyana. Haiti is the poorest country in the region, its riches leached out by colonial overlords, American occupying forces, corporate predators, and home-grown autocrats. As if that weren’t enough, it’s also suffered an almost biblical succession of plagues in recent years. A coup deposed its first democratically elected leader, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, not once but twice — in 1991 and again in 2004. An earthquake in 2010 killed hundreds of thousands,... Read more
Parties appearing before the Supreme Court can fund the groups that file briefs supporting their arguments — and almost never have to disclose it.
The post The Gaping Hole in Supreme Court Rules for Tracking Links Between Litigants and Influence Groups appeared first on The Intercept.