Author: nick
The U.S. inflation rate increased sharply in March, according to the latest report by the Bureau for Labor Statistics. The energy shock from the Iran war pushed consumer prices to their highest level in nearly two years, with the Consumer Price Index rising 3.3 percent from a year earlier, up from 2.4 percent in February, in line with economists’ projections. Energy prices surged 10.9 percent from the previous month, led by a 21.2 percent jump in gasoline, the biggest monthly increase since federal tracking began in 1967. Brent crude climbed from $73 a barrel before the conflict to $95.88 on…
Swalwell Bombshell Upends His Bid for California Governor Source link
Image by Hasan Almasi. The knives are out—and this time, they are not aimed at Tehran, but at Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu. Even the ever morally flexible Chris Christie moved quickly. The former New Jersey governor and longtime Republican insider, speaking on CNN, did not merely criticize Trump; he used the moment to indict establishment Republicans for enabling him in the first place. What was once quiet discomfort has now hardened into open political distancing. CNN, for its part, framed the outcome through a language of selective humanitarian concern—invoking the plight of the Iranian people as victims of their…
Photograph Source: US Air Force – Public Domain The energy analyst known as Doomberg recently remarked on the Decouple podcast that ‘all wars are energy wars.’ From the decisive role energy access plays in combat itself (think oil in World War II), to its infrastructure being an inviting target, and its spillover effects for the global economy, it is hard to argue with that sentiment. Since the U.S. and Israel began this war with Iran, there has been the Israeli attack on Iran’s piece of the South Pars natural gas field, Iran’s drone attack at the Ras Laffan Industrial City…
Image by Logan Voss. “Why do you think you can stop a $1.2billion University of Michigan and Los Alamos project?” was the first Instagram message we received at the launch of the Stop the Data Center campaign in Ypsilanti, Michigan. For us, the question was not “why?” but “how?” Our campaign is built against an exceptional and horrifying facility right in our backyards. We have had some huge wins in recent months through the connections within our community and through connections with other site fights and AI resistance efforts nationally and internationally. Site fights cannot win solely by the power…
NA Earlier today, a three-judge panel of the US Court of International Trade (CIT) heard oral arguments in two cases challenging Donald Trump’s massive new Section 122 tariffs – one filed by the Liberty Justice Center (LJC) on behalf of two small businesses harmed by the tariffs, and another filed by 24 state governments. After Trump’s previous International Emergency Economic Powers Act tariffs were invalidated by the Supreme Court, in a case I helped litigate, along with LJC, Trump tried to use Section 122 of the 1974 Trade Act to impose sweeping 10% tariffs on almost all imports (administration officials…
‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ and ‘A Clockwork Orange’ may be the two most prophetic films ever made about the interactions between human nature and our technologically mediated social reality. Which prophecy is coming true? Source link
On March 2, I posted about a court opinion related to a lawsuit brought by lawyer Sonya Shaykhoun. Shaykhoun had sent out a Tweet that proved controversial; sued news outlets for (among other things) copyright infringement based on their including the Tweet in their stories about the controversy; and lost on fair use grounds. She has now filed a Third Amended Complaint in that case (Shaykhoun v. Al Jazeera Media Network (S.D.N.Y.)), and the post makes a cameo appearance. There’s a lot more in the 34-page Complaint, but I thought I’d pass along some excerpts: Plaintiff expands this [Third Amended…
Tariffs on Chinese goods are not effective if those goods can still enter the United States under another label. If a product made in China can be rerouted through a third country, lightly transformed, stamped "Made in Malaysia," and sent into the U.S. market, then even the highest tariffs will not have the intended effect. Source link
Now we all know how the medieval peasants felt when they had to get up to till the fields, after the Viking hordes failed to show up to pillage their town. ‘Not unique to war’: Millions of Americans suffer from moral injury. What’s causing it? Ozempic kills your desire to eat—but can they also stop you from wanting to do anything at all? Entire human populations vanished 3,000 years ago. Scientists figured out where they went. Finding water on the Moon for astronauts to drink and make fuel. Video: What a plant’s decision-making reveals about intelligence. Video: Peter Thiel freaks…