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Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Glenn Grothman want to recognize the contribution of Air America, the CIA airline that supported secret wars in Laos and Cambodia.

The post Pensions for the “Deep State”: Republicans Push Benefits for Air America, the CIA’s Secret Vietnam-Era Airline appeared first on The Intercept.

Ibn Tufayl’s story of a man mourning the gazelle who raised him helped me appreciate the interconnection of all things

- by Veronica Menaldi

Read at Psyche

Traditionalist and modernist architecture are both mass-produced, industrial and international. Is there an alternative?

- by Owen Hatherley

Read at Aeon

After a multimillion-dollar lobbying blitz, Wall Street firms got themselves exempted from anti-money-laundering requirements being imposed on small businesses.

One of the last places my dad asked to visit before he died last year was Aberavon beach. With the industrial landscape of the Tata steelworks in full view, he breathed in the sea air, watched my kids play, and reminisced about his time as a steelworker. There was no question for him: Wales had […]

I keep hearing from friends who live in Britain that I will be shocked when I get there on Thursday of this week after a nearly four year absence. One friend, who has just returned said that the deterioration in the public infrastructure is now fairly evident. Despite my absence, I have been keeping a…

Mike Johnson is on thin ice The crazies are restless: Speaker Mike Johnson is beset with political challenges: At least two conservative lawmakers have begun threatening his job. The former acting speaker trashed Johnson’s performance this week. A border-policy showdown with the Senate and White House draws nearer every day. And then there’s the problem of the 2024 campaign. A growing number of House Republicans are increasingly frustrated with Johnson’s leadership and whispering about whether he can hang on to his role after 2024 — if he even makes it that far. Despite serving barely three months as speaker, the Louisianan is already facing an immediate threat from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who is openly disparaging him and suggesting she may try to boot him from the speakership. “I don’t think he’s safe right now,” Greene said, adding: “The only reason he’s speaker is because our conference is so desperate.” Few Republicans are prepared to join Greene, at least at this point.

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

This is the media’s fault for indulging these spoiled brats’ tantrums about being “insulted” by the coastal elites. Nobody is more insulting than they are — and they’ve been that way for years. This isn’t a Trump thing. It’s a “Real America” thing.

Count on one thing: Donald Trump, who seems to gain Republican support with every new indictment, is not going away. He’s managed to capitalize on his 2020 election loss, using his failed insurrection, a stream of violent threats and verbal attacks against political opponents and journalists, and the disinformation machine of Fox News and similar outlets to peddle his stories of white American victimhood (above all, of course, his own victimhood). Meanwhile, his supporters are all too happy to carry out violent attacks in his name. Regardless of whether Trump wins the 2024 election, the “Orange Jesus,” as one Republican congressman reportedly called him, is here to stay. He’s also provided some of America’s favorite headlines and jokes, even for... Read more

Source: Trump 2.0 appeared first on TomDispatch.com.

The Opposition’s perpetually outraged leader, Peter Dutton, has demanded a nation wide boycott of stationery supplier Officeworks after discovering that they did not stock Mr Potato Head branded pencil cases. ”This is an outrageous attack on ordinary, everyday working Australians,”... Read More ›

He’s out. Thank God. Yes, he is the most worthless politician in America: It seems only minutes ago that the whole political world was agog at his tremendous political talent. Well… The lesson? Never assume that the next GOP Great Whitebread Hope is as fantastic as the press corps thinks he is. The other lesson? If you’re going to run as the biggest asshole in politics you’d better have a lot of money and celebrity that makes people think you must be really great anyway. Ron is just an asshole. I am so happy to see the end of him. It’s been a real horror covering his disgusting campaign. Let’s hope we never see him on the national stage again. This massive flame-out argues for him joining Scott Walker and Tim Pawlenty in the Loser Hall of Fame. What does it all mean? We’ll unwind all that in the next few days. But Greg Sargent is right that it spells the end of the big post-pandemic “woke” war. That battle in the culture war is coming to an end, but never fear, the war isn’t over.

Daniel Uhlfelder went through the FEC reports and found all money paid to law firms by Donald Trump’s Super PAC in the first 6 months of last year. FEC records show that between January 1, 2023, and June 30, 2023, Donald Trump’s Super PAC, SAVE AMERICA, made payments to the following law firms in these amounts:BALLARD SPAHR LLP – $109,174.55 BEDELL, DITTMAR, DEVAULT, PILLANS & COXE, P.A. – $351,040.77 BINNALL LAW GROUP – $1,031,788.33 BLANCHE LAW – $353,090.03 BRAND WOODWARD LAW – 201,948.00 BRITO PLLC – $68,194.50 CADWALADER, WICKERSHAM, & TAFT LLP – $344,950.21 CONTINENTAL PLLC – $1,929,207.90 DHILLON LAW GROUP INC. – $734,730.8 EARTH & WATER LAW, LLC – $347,820 HABBA MADAIO & ASSOCIATES LLP – $1,503,915.14 IFRAH LAW PLLC – $720,009.28 FINDLING LAW FIRM – $541,456.25 KELLOGG, HANSEN, TODD, FIGEL & FREDERICK PLLC – $1,042,479 CHRIS KISE & ASSOCIATES, P.A. – $2,148,536.58 JOHN F. LAURO, P.A.

Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – January 21, 2024

by Tony Wikrent

 

Global power shift

China Is the World’s Sole Manufacturing Superpower

Richard Baldwin [VoxEU, via Naked Capitalism 01-17-2024]

Trump is not an improvement in any way I hear a lot on my social media these days about how Trump is better than Biden on the Gaza war. That’s utter nonsense. It’s true that Trump isn’t particularly fond of Netanyahu (neither is Biden, actually) but that does not mean that he would ever be an ally of the Palestinians or the Palestinian allies. Donald Trump promised on Monday that if elected president again he will bar immigrants who support Hamas from entering the U.S. and send officers to pro-Hamas protests to arrest and deport immigrants who publicly support the Palestinian militant group. Trump, president from 2017-2021, said that if elected to a second White House term he will ban entry to the U.S. of anybody who does not believe in Israel’s right to exist, and revoke the visas of foreign students who are “antisemitic.” He also vowed to step up travel bans from “terror-plagued countries.” He did not explain how he would enforce his demands, including the one requiring immigrants to support Israel’s right to exist under what he called “strong ideological screening.” … Promising to drastically tighten U.S.

In the increasingly geopolitically charged waters of international trade and investment, Chinese technology enterprises are navigating a particularly turbulent current in Australia. The growing scepticism and regulatory scrutiny they face reflect a techno-geopolitical uncertainty, with Australia caught between its economic interdependence with China and strategic alignment with the United States. China’s pivot from a major Continue reading »

Slovakia is the poor relation created when the former Czechoslovakia divided in 1993 into the Czech and Slovak Republics. The Czech Republic has hewn closely to EU and NATO policies over Ukraine. But despite NATO membership the Slovak Republic has decided to halt military aid to Ukraine. And its prime minister, Robert Fico, has now Continue reading »

Labor’s Defence and Foreign policies are increasingly pushing away party ‘true believers’ writes Wayne Ryan, Life Member of the ACT Labor Party branch. Dear Fellow Labor Party Members, “ALP Branch Member Disappointment at Labor Defence Policies”, Letter to ACT Politicians Katy Gallagher, Andrew Leigh and Alicia Payne I am becoming increasingly depressed at the Labor Continue reading »

We live in an age where there has never been greater access to information, nor greater doubt about its accuracy. An information explosion risks blowing apart the foundational workings of our democracy. Where we source our information from, who we listen to, who we trust, has changed. You just have to look at your social Continue reading »

In a recent speech, the Federal Treasurer hastily bundled together three things that he felt superannuation funds ought to invest in: renewable energy, defence and housing. It was a classic ‘sandwich’ communication: bracket the unpleasant item between two that sound good. I agree that super funds investing in renewable energy makes good investment sense and Continue reading »

What has become very apparent in public policy over the past twenty years is the extent to which the “short-term” is given precedence over the “long-term”. Both major political parties live to win the next election, and the mainstream media joins in rapturously because it treats politics as a binary competition that is most sensationally Continue reading »