The kind of professor that gives decent scholars a bad name.

> Constitutional law professor defends legality of Trump tariffs by citing 1930 law Ronald Reagan blamed for worsening Great Depression https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/pro-trump-think-tank-defends-tariffs-by-dusting-off-1930-law-blasted-by-reagan-for-worsening-great-depression/

#GOP #PartyOfStupid #ThinkTanks #academia #HigherEd #PendejoInChief #TacoTrump 🌮 #GOP #PartyOfStupid

A global review on SDG 15 highlights Brazil and China’s research leadership, stressing evidence-based policies in forest conservation, rural resilience, and climate-smart agriculture to achieve sustainable land use goals.

#SDG15 #LifeOnLand #PolicyLeadership #EvidenceBasedPolicy #SustainableDevelopment #ClimateAction #GlobalCooperation #ThinkTanks #GovernanceMatters

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01516-y

I tend to discuss these thoughts in the context of #academic #aristocracy.

Why should the „real“ academic scientist be treated differently from any artist?

IMHO the only way of neutral treatment of people‘s research - artistic, scientific, or autistic - is a basic income.

Particularly the discussion about #Citizenscience or #paraacademics has to be shifted to the social impact of economic job constructions.

Put into the light of presidential fake productions the scientific progress in AI implementations puts the world on track to absolute #idiocracy. Idio not ideo.

Due to outsource thinking to academic institutions I‘d rather say “no thanks to #thinktanks.”

#Jadaliyya Long Form pod ep 7 | Think Tanks and Manufacturing Consent

Wednesday June 4 @ 2pm ET

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAjcOkCR0kA

Guest Mandy Turner recently published a report on leading Western #thinkTanks and their promotion of a pro-#Israel perspective. She discusses her work with Bassam Haddad and Mouin Rabbani

v. her report, "Hegemony factories or independent thinkers?":

https://www.securityincontext.com/posts/hegemony-factories-or-independent-thinkers

#Palestine #Gaza #geopolitics #MiddleEast #MiddleEastPolicy #oPt @palestine @israel @geopolitics

“You can be reasonably sure that there are a bunch of bright twenty-somethings in Tufton Street—the HQ of shadowy well-funded #right-wing #thinktanks - watching every move in #Maga-land and plotting exactly how they could transplant it.” open.substack.com/pub/alanrusb... #UK #ItCouldHappenThere

A British Trump tribute act co...

Anti-protest law modified

High Court loosens restrictions on demonstrations

May 2025

No government likes protests. They demonstrate, all too visibly, that the public – or a part of them at least – is not happy with them or the status quo. Depending on the degree of despotism, demonstrations are controlled or in the worst of countries, banned altogether. China has an extremely restrictive policy backed up by a massive and all pervasive surveillance system making protests all but impossible. Gulf states are also highly restrictive.

Demonstrations are often how change happens. Britain has many examples throughout its history of protest bringing change. Wat Tyler and the plight of the poor (serfs); the Poll Tax riots in 1381 and 1970; the Prayer Book rebellion; the Iraq War protest and of course the Suffragettes. There are many more examples. They do not necessarily bring about immediate change. They do show to politicians and others the depth of feeling that people have about their cause.

The last Conservative government was no different to others in disliking protests. What upset them the most were the climate protests. Just Stop Oil and other groups such as Extinction Rebellion, engaged in a series of eye-catching protests which shone a light on the government’s failure (in their eyes) to do enough to stop fossil fuel extraction.

Suella Braverman, then the Home Secretary resented these protests and introduced the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act in 2022 in an attempt to seriously curtail them. Controversially they introduced a change in the threshold wording from ‘serious disruption’ to ‘more than minor’. This was done by using a statutory instrument not after proper debate in the House of Commons. This had the effect of almost banning all protests.

Successful challenge

Liberty and other groups successfully challenged this in the courts and the new Labour government decided to appeal. This seems to demonstrate that the dislike of protest is not a party political matter: governments just do not like challenge. Last week (May 2) the Appeal Court ruled that ‘serious’ is not ‘more than minor’ and said that the anti-protest laws were introduced unlawfully. The regulations gave police almost unlimited powers to prevent protests taking place. Many were arrested using these powers.

The protests which so upset the previous government concerned fossil fuels. The fossil fuel industry is extremely powerful and well-funded. Several of the various think tanks based in and around 55 Tufton Street are thought to be funded by them. These include: The Tax Payers Alliance; Civitas; Adam Smith Institute; Global Warming Policy Foundation; Centre for Policy Studies and the Institute of Economic Affairs. Their funding is opaque but is thought to be mainly from fossil fuel companies such as the Koch corporation in the USA among others. They have frequent access to the media being interviewed on various BBC and commercial stations without ever being asked ‘who funds you?’ Their opinions often appear in newspaper columns. They employ large numbers of lobbyists and enjoy close contact with ministers and civil servants. They claim to be influential in forming policies to suit their interests. It was admitted by Rishi Sunak when he was prime minister that the Policy Exchange – another of these think tanks funded by Exxon Mobil – had drafted the anti-protest legislation.

Protest is crucial to enable the ordinary person to make their voice heard. As with the arms industry we highlighted in a previous post, governments are dominated by commercial concerns, the need for growth and the enormous power and influence of companies and their army of lobbyists. Around £2bn per annum is spent by firms on this activity. It is welcome news that the Appeal Court has ruled against the government and its ‘draconian’ anti-protest legislation.

#AppealCourt #Braverman #fossilFuel #protest #thinkTanks

Day 33 🗳️🟢🥷💰🏭

“A #Liberal-aligned #ThinkTank running last-minute #AntiGreens #advertisements targeting young voters received more than $600,000 from the #coal industry during last year’s #Queensland election, disclosures show.

On Monday evening, the #AustralianInstituteForProgress released a “Can you afford the Greens?” video advertisement pushing claims, based on its own commissioned research, that the Greens’ housing policies would lead to increased #rents.

Emails to supporters from the #AIP executive director, former Queensland Liberal vice-president #GrahamYoung, seeking #donations to push anti-Greens advertisements show the #campaign is specifically aimed at helping elect #LiberalNational party #candidates #TrevorEvans and #MaggieForrest in the seats of #Brisbane and #Ryan.”

This is why I use the term #LNPCrimeGang.

#AusPol / #Liberal / #Nationals / #LNP / #ThinkTanks / #democracy / #MaxChandlerMather / #ClimateEmergency / #HousingEmergency <https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/may/02/australian-institute-for-progress-anti-greens-election-ads-coal-australia-donations-ntwnfb>

Meanwhile in the #BadEconomy

> Unprecedented rise in global military expenditure as European and Middle East spending surges https://www.sipri.org/media/press-release/2025/unprecedented-rise-global-military-expenditure-european-and-middle-east-spending-surges

I guess if you invest and/or own stock in #warfare companies you may be doing well about now. #Priorities, man.

#ThinkTanks #business

@CaringKinderSociety
Good article here too:

https://newrepublic.com/article/175488/atlas-shadowy-global-network-right-wing-think-tanks

#Facism #ThinkTanks #HeritageFoundation #55TuftonSt #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange

The #RBA get advice from this RWNJs crowd, the Centre for Independent Studies (CIS).

“CIS has been and remains a strongly Right-leaning think tank. “The Centre for Independent Studies promotes free choice and individual liberty”. It “believes true liberty and prosperity can only be achieved with a small state that defends free speech and national sovereignty”. It believes that “the excessive increases in public spending most governments in the developed world chose to make in response to the COVID crisis … (are) an alternative form of socialism”. It is concerned about China’s increasing “global footprint”. (All quotes from “ CIS About”,)

A current major activity at CIS is the questioning of Australia’s renewable energy plans and strong support for a future role for nuclear energy in Australia.” (Source:

Read this exelent piece and tell me the RBA cares about Australians wage earners, go on, convince me why don’t you [to on one in particular}. /end_rant

https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/04/the-rba-should-not-be-giving-support-to-the-centre-for-independent-studies/

#Finance #MacroEconomics #Neoliberalism #ThinkTanks #ShitTanks

Because, #priorities man. The annual "Tax Day Receipt" is one of those #ThinkTanks reports more Americans should consider #reading

Meanwhile, "Cry havoc! and let slip the dogs of war!"

> NEW: In 2024, the average American’s income taxes funded $3,707 for weapons and war – or the price of 628 dozen eggs https://ips-dc.org/release-2025-tax-day-receipt/

#ThisIsAmerica #BadEconomy #warfare #business #taxes USGovernment #PartyOfStupid #RepublicanLite

UK needs to relax AI laws or risk transatlantic ties, thinktank warns https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/apr/02/uk-ai-copyright-laws-transatlantic-tony-blair-thinktank #Artificialintelligence(AI) #Technology #Thinktanks #Computing #TonyBlair #UKnews

Blast
Observatoires douteux, centres de recherche improbables : quand l’extrême droite se fabrique des cautions scientifiques
https://mcinformactions.net/observatoires-douteux-centres-de-recherche-improbables-quand-l-extreme-droite
#extremedroite #thinktanks #medias #illégalité

#Medien. #Presse und #Privatsender mit wirtschaftlichen Interessen, Verbindungen zu radikalen amerikanischen #Thinktanks. Und ein #ÖRR, der lieber die Linke als linksradikal abtut, rechte Gewalt aber verharmlost.

Think tanks #Network power? ... #Elite lobbying? ... #Democratic? #AtlasNetwork & #AtlanticBridge are not official partners; they share economically liberal, transatlantic ideologies. #ThinkTanks, political actors operate in both networks, silent alliance, influence, elite ties.🖖

Zeitgeist - ein vergifteter Wind. Geister, die ich rief: #ThinkTanks im Schatten, die ihre Intelligenz missbrauchen, um Massen zu manipulieren. Wenn #Präsidenten die Wahrheit beugen, wird die Gesellschaft krank. Die #Lüge, ein starkes Gift. Bewusst verabreicht, als wäre sie Medizin. Verwerflich.🖖

ThinkTanks #Netzwerkmacht? … #Elitenlobbyismus? … #Demokratieferne? … #AtlasNetwork & #AtlantikBrücke keine offiziellen Partner, sie teilen wirtschaftsliberale, transatlantische Ideologien. #ThinkTanks, politische Akteure wirken in beiden Netzwerken, stille Allianz, Einfluss, Elitenbindung.🖖

What do you find when you peel back the curtains behind Jordan Peterson & the ”heterodox” movement:

Fossil fuel hedge funds, Russian oligarch money.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4F01LvrIS2wWKdg4SaVmUC
#jordanpeterson #heterodoxy #fossilfuels #thinktanks

In the UK, there's a shortage of meds,
Brexit fears are messing with heads,
Reports show the worst,
Shortages have burst,
Hope solutions arise to curb dreads.

#GuardianLimerick #Health #NHS #Brexit #Drugs #Thinktanks #Politics

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/mar/22/brexit-key-factor-worst-uk-drug-shortages-in-four-years