Blogotariat

… and I am paying for it today. Feels like I smashed out an epic weightlifting session and ran a half marathon. Backwards.

I always get this reaction to whatever Covid vaccine I have, except for the original AstraZeneca, so I planned a quiet one today. I’m going to read Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend and slow-cook some lamb shoulder on the Big Green Egg. By tomorrow I should be back to normal.

Cartel King should be sacked. The Australian Government will not activate the Australian Domestic Gas Security Mechanism (ADGSM) for the April to June 2025 quarter. The Minister for Resources’ decision was informed by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) December 2024 interim gas inquiry report and additional information on the Western Australian gas market.

The post Cartel King locks in winter gas shock appeared first on MacroBusiness.

The Year of the Snake begins on 29 January. Over the next couple of weeks, fortune tellers will flood the press with their views, each with as much weight and reliability as the mottos in fortune cookies.

Lunar New Year predictions for Xi and Trump    By Jocelyn Chey

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What do Panama, Canada and Greenland have in common? Could Donald Trump be getting the US back to brass tacks, to a core strategy of dominating the Western Hemisphere? Possibly, and he may be blowing away the fraudulent rhetoric about rules-based international order, territorial integrity, international law and the crusade to expand democracies. 

Peter Dutton emerged from his summer break on Sunday to launch the Coalition’s unofficial election campaign.

In a 38-minute pre-prepared speech to MPs and party loyalists at a campaign-style rally in Melbourne, the federal opposition leader framed the upcoming contest as a “sliding doors moment” for Australia.

A video of the Assistant Chief of Los Angeles Fire Department has emerged in which she talks about the importance of having firefighters who look like the people they’re rescuing and says that if she can’t carry a man out of a fire, it’s the man’s fault. Plus, conservative CNN contributor Scott Jennings absolutely eats up a debate on DEI. Let’s watch and react. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HmSS5Ubvxg

Sturmbannführer Helmut Kämpfe1  was a typographer by training and owned a printing business prior to entering the German Army in 1934, where he rose to the rank of lieutenant. After his service in the Army was over, he joined the Waffen-SS as an Untersturmführer on November 11, 1939, the anniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch. On January 30, 1940 he was promoted to Obersturmführer and in 1942 he was promoted to Hauptsturmführer (captain). He saw service on the Russian Front and was the commanding officer of the 3rd Battalion, 4th SS-Panzergrenadier Der Führer Regiment of the Das Reich Division.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and Spanish journalist Ignacio Ramonet, during the latter’s meeting with the President at the Miraflores Palace in Caracas. 

Ignacio Ramonet: Mr. President, first of all, allow me to wish you a Happy New Year.

The President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro: Thank you.

In December 2022, the Democratic-led House of Representatives voted to allow Puerto Ricans to decide the political future of the territory, the first time the chamber has committed to backing a binding process that could pave the way for Puerto Rico to become the nation’s 51st state or an independent country.

Puerto Rican Independence is Long OverdueBy Jeremy Kuzmarov

DXY is going to challenge the 2022 high. EUR is headed to parity. AUD took out its 2022 low, is taking out its GFC low, and the COVID low is the next target. Oil took off on tightened Russian sanctions. Even more upside for DXY. Dirt popped on more Chinese yawnulus. Miners less so. Xi’s

The post Australian dollar 50s dead ahead appeared first on MacroBusiness.

It seems like Western countries cannot draw lessons from their shameful past. Just as they appeased the Nazi and apartheid regimes, they are repeating their mistake by appeasing the Zionist regime in occupied Palestine while it’s waging a war of genocide against the Palestinian people.

Blinded by political donations: Appeasing a rogue state and its extremist lobby    By Ali Kazak

“It never happened. Nothing ever happened. Even while it was happening it wasn’t happening. It didn’t matter. It was of no interest. The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them.