Here’s a fun look at some delicious MAGA on MAGA combat: Sean Hannity, once the most important mouthpiece for Donald Trump, seems to be increasingly on the MAGAworld outs. And a new revelation that Hannity doesn’t buy the Big Lie isn’t helping. In a just-released deposition surrounding Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit, the Fox News star said he’d never believed—not “for one second”—baseless election fraud claims stemming from the 2020 election. That stance, directly at odds with many of his primetime segments and the beliefs of many of his closest allies, has put Hannity in an awkward position. Among the MAGA all-stars currently upset with Hannity are MyPillow maven Mike Lindell, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, far-right radio host Stew Peters, and even reportedly Trump himself. […] “Sean Hannity is disgusting,” Lindell told The Daily Beast.
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Thanks to the efforts of Environmental Justice Australia (EJA) and the Environment Council of Central Queensland (EcoCeQ,), Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek reopened the environmental assessment process for 16 coal mines and two gas projects that had previously been approved. To take part, it was necessary to submit new information not available at the time of […]
And did environmentalists kill the last one? There has been a lot of talk lately about a revival of nuclear power, partly in response to the need to replace the energy previously supplied by Russia, and partly as a longer-term response to climate change. To the extent that this means avoiding premature closure of operational […]
My latest piece from Independent Australia, on my Substack
The Washington Post has a long piece about a Virginia family whose current (substantial but not huge) wealth derives from their slaveholding forebears and who may now be greatly enriched by the discovery of uranium under their land. There’s an interesting discussion of the arguments for and against reparations Buried in the middle of the […]
That’s the headline for my latest piece in Inside Story, a review of Brad DeLong’s Slouching Towards Utopia and Sebastian Edwards The Chile Project . Some extracts The Chile Project, of which Edwards was a generally sympathetic observer, ranks with Thatcher’s Britain as the paradigmatic case of what I’ve called “hard neoliberalism,” which combines authoritarianism […]
A decade ago, when the issue of Republican anti-science bias was raised, a common response was to point to attitudes to vaccination, where, it was claimed, Democrats were the anti-science party. I observed at the time that this claim wasn’t justified by the available evidence. A little later, I noted the likelihood of the Republicans […]
There is no excuse for this The only reason they could be this inept is if they are looking for reasons to deny disability benefits to people who need them. (And yes, I’m sure there are people who have abused the system, but that doesn’t make this ok.) He had made it through four years of denials and appeals, and Robert Heard was finally before a Social Security judge who would decide whether he qualified for disability benefits. Two debilitating strokes had left the 47-year-old electrician with halting speech, an enlarged heart and violent tremors. There was just one final step: A vocational expert hired by the Social Security Administration had to tell the judge if there was any work Heard could still do despite his condition. Heard was stunned as the expert canvassedhis computer and announced his findings: He could find work as a nut sorter, a dowel inspector or an egg processor —jobs that virtually no longer exist in the United States. “Whatever it is that does those things, machines do it now,” said Heard, who lives on food stamps and a small stipend from his parents in a subsidized apartment in Tullahoma, Tenn.
COVID is still here. How to figure out what makes sense. I know that most people are just done with COVID and are living their lives, accepting that they may get it the way they accept getting colds and flu. But those who are older or have underlying illnesses or live with people who fit those categories need to be a little bit more analytical about this because COVID is still super contagious and the threat of serious illness and the residual effects of it loom large. I would feel terrible if I thought I gave it to someone. When there is a surge, I mask up in public spaces. Since I live in Southern California I have the good fortune to be able to go to restaurants and bars and stay mostly outside or in well ventilated places. (And I will never get on an airplane unmasked again — I always caught something before and now I am well when I travel. Yippie!) Anyway, here is UC San Francisco’s Dr. Bob Wachter’s latest tweet thread about how to mitigate your risk which I have often found very informative: Covid (@UCSF) Chronicles, Day 1013 As we enter Covid Year 3, it’s clear we’ll be in our current predicament for the foreseeable future.
But their quarry may not be dead It looks like the GOP race for the presidential nomination is on. Trump is probably fine with a bigger crowd since it may work for him in the long run. With winner-take-all primaries, if he does end up politically crippled by all his baggage, he could slip under the wire with his solid 30% of the GOP base. (He didn’t start winning majorities until the very end of the process in 2016.) The Washington Post reports: Potential contenders are well into laying groundwork for campaigns, as more than a dozen have signaled interest or have declined to rule out a run amid speculation. Yet it’s unclear how many will actually take the plunge. A crowded field could play to Trump’s advantage, as it did in 2016 when the rest of the party did not unite around a single alternative as Trump won key early contests with a plurality of the vote. “We figured by the first quarter next year, we need to be hard at it if we’re going to do it,” said Pompeo in a recent Fox News interview. Pompeo’s political action committee did not respond to a request for comment. Nikki Haley, the U.N.