Quillette Podcast, episode 274
Source: Quillette
“David Frum on Donald Trump’s Betrayal of Ukraine.” (03/02/25)
https://quillette.com/2025/03/01/podcast-274-david-frum-on-donald-trumps-betrayal-of-ukraine/
Source: Quillette
“David Frum on Donald Trump’s Betrayal of Ukraine.” (03/02/25)
https://quillette.com/2025/03/01/podcast-274-david-frum-on-donald-trumps-betrayal-of-ukraine/
Source: exile in happy valley
by Nicky Reid
“You would have to be ethically anesthetized not to detest such an obviously loathsome beast but the only thing more horrifying than this pathological trainwreck’s still buoyant popularity is the fact that he actually isn’t all that unusual among his fellow elites who seem to only begrudgingly tolerate his existence when they aren’t using their dying news empires to openly declare him to be the reincarnation of Gilles de Rais. We all seem to forget that Donald is in fact one of them, the gilded class of American aristocracy that floats effortlessly back and forth through the revolving doors of big business and big government. This is largely because both Trump and his ilk of swampland predators have quite a bit invested in the notion of him being exceptional. But he’s not.” (03/02/25)
https://exileinhappyvalley.blogspot.com/2025/03/the-un-banality-of-maga-trump-is-not.html
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Israel has blocked the entry of all humanitarian aid into Gaza as it demands Hamas agree to a US plan for a ceasefire extension. The first phase of the ceasefire expired on Saturday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Hamas had so far refused to accept a temporary extension under a proposal by Donald Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff. … The Palestinian group wants phase two of the deal to go ahead as originally negotiated, with the release of [Israeli] hostages and Palestinian [hostages] and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. It previously said it would not agree to any extension of phase one without guarantees from US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators that phase two would eventually take place.” (03/02/25)
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“Yes, sexual abuse of children is a horrific crime. Yes, those who engage in it are criminals. But can imaginary characters be ‘minors?’ And are fictional depictions of those characters being victimized really ‘crimes?’ Over the years, politicians and law enforcement agencies have increasingly exploited such claims to groom the public into moral panic at the expense of REAL children suffering REAL sexual abuse in REAL life. It’s a pretty simple con. Most people rightly find the sexual molestation of children horrifying. They want it stopped. They want the perpetrators brought to justice. But investigating and proving real crimes is hard work.” (03/01/25)
Source: The Fifth Column
“Fifth Extra: John Bolton on Trump 2.0.” (03/01/25)
https://www.wethefifth.com/p/493-fifth-extra-john-bolton-on-trump
Source: Reuters
“U.S. President Donald Trump on social media announced the names of five digital assets he expects to include in a new U.S. strategic reserve of cryptocurrencies on Sunday, spiking the market value of each. Trump said in a post on Truth Social that his January executive order on digital assets would create a stockpile of currencies including bitcoin, ether, XRP, solana and cardano. The names had not previously been announced. More than an hour later, Trump added: ‘And, obviously, BTC and ETH, as other valuable Cryptocurrencies, will be at the heart of the Reserve.’ Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market value, was up more than 11% at $94,164 Sunday afternoon. Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency, was up about 13% at $2,516.” (03/02/25)
Source: Center for a Stateless Society
by Kevin Carson
“It’s not the practice of hiring foreign workers itself that undermines the bargaining power of labor. It’s the utter dependence of the foreign workers, under the H-1B program, on maintaining the favor of their employer in order to stay in the country. … Bernie [Sanders] is right, so far as it goes; it amounts in practice to a form of indentured servitude. The problem is his framing and his understanding of the structural causality. It’s indentured servitude because of foreign workers’ dependence on the employer. Their dependence on the employer results, not from their being allowed to enter the United States, not because immigration is so easy, but because legal immigration is so hard that it requires an employer’s sponsorship.” (02/28/25)
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“France on Monday said a plan for a one-month truce between Russia and Ukraine would test Moscow’s commitment to ending the war it began with its 2022 invasion. A day after European leaders rallied around Ukraine at a summit in London after the White House spat between Donald Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot also warned that the Ukraine ‘front line keeps getting closer to us.’ French President Emmanuel Macron said after the London talks that France and Britain were proposing a one-month truce in Ukraine ‘in the air, at sea and on energy infrastructure’ although not, initially at least, covering ground fighting.” (03/03/25)
Source: The Intercept
by Nick Turse
“Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency began its cost-cutting efforts by dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development, which spends about $22 billion per year, about 0.3 percent of overall federal spending. DOGE has since targeted agencies focused on children’s education, protecting the natural world, and food safety. But after more than a month running roughshod through government, DOGE has made strikingly few cuts at the Pentagon, whose bloated budget tips the scales at around $850 billion — accounting for about 13 percent of federal spending. … Potential cuts aren’t hard to find: The Intercept easily sketched a road map amounting to more than $75 billion in annual savings for Musk and DOGE — and as much as $2 trillion over the next decade.” (02/28/25)
https://theintercept.com/2025/02/28/musk-doge-pentagon-military-spending-f35/
Source: NBC News
“Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered U.S. Cyber Command to halt offensive cyber operations and information operations against Russia, a U.S. official familiar with the matter said. Hegseth gave the order to the head of the command, Air Force Gen. Tim Haugh, in late February, the official said. It is unclear clear how long the order will last. A senior U.S. defense official declined to comment on the decision ‘due to operational security concerns.'” (03/02/25)