Breaking: the EU has formally terminated its WTO case against China over the coercion of Lithuania This blockbuster case came after Lithuania opened a controversially named Taiwanese Representative Office in Vilnius

Former US military lawyers speak out: "The Former JAGs Working Group unanimously considers both the giving and the execution of these orders, if true, to constitute war crimes, murder, or both." Statement on Media Reports of Pentagon “No Quarter” Orders in Caribbean Boat Strikes 1/2

Finally people are digging into this mystery. Why is it that this imaginary alliance, which exists only as a projection of the US foreign policy establishment’s insecurities, still hasn’t intervened militarily to stop US aggression against Venezuela? www.wsj.com/world/americ...

Pete Hegseth is a war criminal and should be fired immediately.

If you want to know why Pete Hegseth is confident he'll face no consequences for blatant war crimes, just look at the list of people who attended Dick Cheney's funeral.

Textbook war crime/extrajudicial killing "Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck. The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack ... ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions." Report by @alexhorton.bsky.social @ellenwapo.bsky.social o.bsky.social

I think @rushdoshi.bsky.social is absolutely right that the Trump–Xi meeting is a turning point. But he’s wrong that “none of this had to happen”. It would have happened just as surely under Harris. The only question is what’s next. Move to open conflict or finally seek a modus vivendi? 1/

An important contrast from @polgreen.bsky.social, calling into question basic assumptions driving the US foreign policy establishment. But instead of self-reflection, we’ve mostly seen denial, defensiveness, and compensatory fantasies of geopolitical bloc formation. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/o...

One of the themes of our new police state is the sheer lack of professionalism. They can't do the basics, and when challenged, double down. A dysfunctional organizational culture deeply suspicious of the society they are tasked with controlling. bsky.app/profile/radl...

The grind & grift: (Starbucks) paid our CEO $98 million for the first four months of his employment with this company. They spent $81 million for a four-day manager's retreat in Vegas (in) June. It would cost less ... to finalize a multi-year union contract ... less than a single day's profit."

The sadism of reactionary politics is not the opposite of impersonal market exchange but its logical outcome

Great essay from @timhirschelburns.bsky.social: constant invocations of the Third World show that MAGA’s aim of race and class hierarchy is as much a global as a domestic project. Any genuine alternative to Trump politics needs to confront this head-on. timhirschelburns.substack.com/p/why-maga-c...

In this paper, @jayatighosh.bsky.social talks about the dismantlement of the current system of aid, and how global public investment can fit in that picture. GPI can preserve its best qualities while taking global cooperation into the 21st century. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Trump Administration is to propose a massive cut in federal transit funding as part of 2026 transport legislation. This proposal would decimate the nation's transit systems, while not actually solving the revenue problem federal transportation funding faces. Evidence @urbaninstitute.bsky.social ⏬

"But he knew nothing about it," Trump says. False: The CIA (under Trump) concluded that Mohammed bin Salman ordered the operation that killed Jamal Khashoggi. Trump has long resisted that fact. But it's a fact. www.washingtonpost.com/world/nation...

To put it another way, *capital* is perfectly capable of organizing decarbonization. The problem is *capital-owners*, who are political actors and not just the embodiments of the accumulation process. Elon Musk is symptomatic here.

“Summers have gotten so much worse in the past five years that Ms. Aahir said she ends up losing a week’s worth of work [recycling trash] each month because of dehydration and vomiting. Her already unstable income—she makes ₹200 (just over $2) on a good day—dries up.” www.nytimes.com/2025/11/16/w...

This is the population of Sweden, Denmark, and Norway combined

Four months ago, Bondi's DOJ declared that Epstein files warranted no further investigation. But it took Bondi four hours to open an investigation anyway once Trump demanded--and only into Democrats @ericalgj.bsky.social @glennthrush.bsky.social @alanfeuer.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/11/14/u...

BREAKING: The Trump administration is officially withdrawing a Biden-era plan to require airlines to pay passengers cash compensation when flight disruptions are caused by the airlines.

The Republican president is a pedophile who has doubled my healthcare costs and let scores of violent criminals out of jail. But a Democratic mayor-elect wants to make busses free in a city I don't live in. I have never felt more politically homeless.

You know how ChatGPT 5 is meant to fix stupid mistakes in maths? Not so much. Even when asked about stupid mistakes in maths.

Something absolutely perfect about Larry Summers riffing about the scourge of woke cancel culture being unfair to predatory men in a friendly email to his pal JEFFREY EPSTEIN.

Blinken asked if Israel was conducting ethnic cleansing Biden + advisors discussed if American officials were liable for war crimes New details on the late 2024 deliberations that could have helped Gaza—and how Biden dodged accountability, kicking the can to Trump: www.huffpost.com/entry/biden-...

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed 4 years ago. In new research @urbaninstitute.bsky.social we study its effects. US transport spending increased by 30%, but: —Funding for non-highway projects flatlined —Construction cost increases resulted in no actual increase in infrastructure

“I’ve been hearing that standards will be eliminated or severely cut back. Bari has told people that she wants to get rid of standards and is shocked that they have so much power. She also asked openly, ‘What’s the point of standards?’” one CBS source said. www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

NEW from me: CO2 emissions in China have now been flat or falling for 18 months, the first time that energy demand growth at or above historical averages doesn't drive emissions up, thanks to the clean energy boom. 🧵👇

The ICE budget is higher than all but about 15 militaries worldwide, and we’re seeing what kind of country that gives us. www.stephensemler.com/p/ice-budget...

Stunning investigation by Reuters reveals income from ads for scams and banned goods on Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp may have amounted to 10% of Meta global revenue in 2024, with 15 billion (!) scam ads being shown to users daily - based on company's own figures. www.reuters.com/investigatio...

AI could end scarcity, end humanity - or boost trend growth by 0.2 percentage points

Very excited that on November 14 at 2PM EST, I will moderate a webinar on N. American integration featuring Susan Helper, former Chief Economist at Commerce, Arturo Sarukhan, former MX ambassador to US, & Flavio Volpe, head of CA auto parts manuf. assoc. Join Us!! quincyinst.org/events/the-u...

Just so we are clear: ICE went into a day care center—a private business—without a judicial warrant, and unlawfully kidnapped a worker in front of parents and children.

A lot of discourse hasn't caught up with how the strong/somewhat breakdown is even more brutal. His core base of strong support is already falling below a quarter of voters! Even what approval he has is increasingly soft and halfhearted. Whereas disapprovers are much firmer in really hating the man.

“.. in a group Signal chat, .. he wrote in part: ‘I fired 5 rounds and she had 7 holes. Put that in your book boys.’” @reuters.com #Chicago www.reuters.com/world/us/bor...

Some have suggested Zohran's success is rooted *only* in cost of living. But he also ran hard against Trump's authoritarianism/ICE raids. He ran the most explicitly pro-immigrant, pro-cosmopolitan campaign in memory. Let's say it: He ran an anti-fascist campaign. 5/ newrepublic.com/article/2027...

basically every 2024 truism is dead. Trump did not build a lasting multiracial coalition or turn young men into committed Republicans. You don’t need to cave on trans rights to win. The pundits have nothing left to tell you.

ah, perhaps instead of pumping millions into endless factional infighting Dem donors could invest in making local Dem organizations genuine civic spaces that can reach people during and between elections

New Dig ep w/ Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando Haddad on Brazilian political economy and where Brazil fits into world capitalist system structured by relationships of domination/unequal exchange. How the left must navigate contradictions of governance. www.thedigradio.com/podcast/braz...

The assumption appears to be that ordinary voters will be cowed, obsequious, and unwilling to challenge autocracy, just like the billionaires, business leaders, media executives, and other leading institutions of civil society, which have decided that fighting back is “not worth the hassle.”

If this is what they are facing in Edison Park the fascists are absolutely doomed

A wave of violence grips the Chicagoland area www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/31/c...

Border Patrol grabbed workers from the front yard of a home in Edison Park this afternoon then took them behind an office building in Niles and passed them off to a prisoner van. Woman came out to MF them and said "you're in the most conservative neighborhood in the city and nobody wants you here."

There are basic issues of democratic legitimacy when armed and masked men are defying the wishes of neighborhoods and cities of America.

A positive interview overall from Bessent, who says the US and China have reached an “equilibrium”. But below he’s misrepresenting things. China put the gun on the table in Dec, after Biden ignored Xi’s warning at the G20. The Trump team’s overconfidence forced China to go further. 1/2

This is an easy hit but the framing doesn’t hold up. Under Biden, China warned with growing urgency it was preparing to fight back against US economic warfare. A Harris admin would have faced the same choice: accept a ceasefire or escalate to open conflict. Does Murphy want open conflict?

I'm sorry this is so fucking funny. The transitions from the cool guy montage set to "Many Men," to sounding like Milhouse while you narrate buying energy drinks in a corner store, to the slo-mo 'wearing of a tactical helmet in a parking lot.' We live in a Dictatorship of Dwight Schrutes

The US built a system of weaponized interdependence to coerce the whole world. China is now building its own. The US is reducing the damage it does to China through its system. China will do the same. It’s not one side standing down but reciprocity that comes from credible threats on both sides.

NEW: President Trump says he has instructed the DOD to begin testing nuclear weapons “on an equal basis” with Russia and China. It’s unclear what this means since Russia and China are not currently conducting nuclear tests and the DOD does not conduct testing for the US (it’s the DOE that does).

Already one major breakthrough from the Trump–Xi meeting: We now have stock photos from THIS DECADE to illustrate our op-eds on US–China relations!

Truly seems we're on the verge of a huge shock to the car industry over the Nexperia crisis - will keep track of things in this rolling thread EU's car-making body said today assembly lines in Europe "might only be days away" from grinding to a halt