And he’s no Abraham Lincoln either News came last week of the death of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny last week. He had survived an attempted assassination by poison in 2020 but eventually returned to Russia, where he was immediately detained and sentenced first to two and a half years, then nine years and ultimately 19 years in prison on charges of “extremism.” In December he was sent to a distant prison in the Russian Arctic. And now he is gone. Navalny was the most famous political dissident in the world, probably since Nelson Mandela. Those who care about such things held out hope that he would survive incarceration, as Mandela did, and prevail one day in a new Russia. In this era of rising authoritarianism, the death of this man — and his bravery in embodying a dream of freedom and liberty, now for the moment crushed — adds more fuel to fears of the creeping fascism now gaining traction around the world.
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“The Beatles are getting the big-screen biopic treatment in a Fab Four of movies that will give each band member their own film.” — The Boston Globe
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Following the success of Phase One, we’re beyond excited to announce Phase Two’s new slate expanding on the BCU’s characters, legacy, and stories for the next generation.
Maxwell and the Mallet of Destruction (2029)
Fed up with small-town problems, medical student Maxwell finds a mystical silver hammer whose power he must learn to wield to bang bang life upon the head.
Walrusland (2030)
When a psychedelic trip leaves John trapped as a walrus incapable of communicating, he must win Aqualand’s talent contest and confront his inability to connect to reclaim his voice.
“We are rapidly approaching a critical juncture where the call to halt the Machinery of Violence will lose its significance.” The United States’ decision to Veto a UN Security Council ceasefire resolution in Gaza implies an endorsement of the brutal violence and collective punishment inflicted upon Palestinians, said Amar Bendjama, Algeria’s permanent representative to the Continue reading »
John Menadue, Editor-in-Chief of Pearls and Irritations interviews former Australian Senator Margaret Reynolds on the role of the United Nations, Australian foreign policy and the tragedy unfolding in Gaza. Click below to listen: Continue reading »
As the Palestinian death toll from Israel’s attack on Gaza approaches 30,000, including the death of 12,300 children and 8,400 women, a group of Israeli female soldiers posed for a photo on a position on the Gaza Strip border in Southern Israel, February 19, 2024. Continue reading »
Community opposition to the AUKUS project finds expression in a Sydney suburb. Back in March 2023, a public meeting was held in the Town Hall of the Sydney suburb of Marrickville, under the title “Can War be Avoided or Will Our Peace be Shattered?”. That meeting took place just a few days after the AUKUS Continue reading »
The arrival last week of a boat carrying 24 potential asylum seekers, and possibly another one carrying 13, sent Peter Dutton into his standard boat arrivals scare mode. The usual suspects at the Murdoch press went into a frenzy of panic with Chris Kenny calling it a ‘national dilemma’. Dutton has again warned of an Continue reading »
We’re sleepwalking toward social catastrophe. Perhaps we’re there already – terra solitarius. Almost anywhere you care to look – research findings, news reports, general social chatter – all signs point in the same direction: a society free-falling into mass disconnection, loneliness and isolation. The word epidemic is often used to describe this situation. It’s a Continue reading »
The coalition that took power in New Zealand late in 2023, after a campaign centred on attacking the country’s founding Waitangi Treaty, has been exposed as hosting considerable Atlas Network infiltration. One of the key researchers into the Atlas Network, Lee Fang, observed that it has “reshaped political power in country after country.” In America, Continue reading »
“The big Australian newspapers we looked at have failed to cover the Gaza conflict fairly. … We think their coverage has been shameful” – Paul Barry, ABC Media Watch. Three weeks ago, Al Jazeera told us about a Palestinian family fleeing the fighting in Gaza City. And broadcast this recording of 15-year-old Layan Hamadeh calling Continue reading »
In 2007 I visited Palestine with my late husband Hal Wootten AC, QC, the founding Dean of the Law School at the University of New South Wales and well-known for his pursuit of justice. Hal was determined to understand the conflict from both Palestinian and Israeli perspectives, and he collected a substantial library on middle-east Continue reading »
Free Palestine. Free Assange. Free the world. Here is a Mixed media piece I did while nervously awaiting the resolution of the latest Assange hearing: Text: If Gaza taught me anything, it’s taught me what war crimes really look like. War crimes are cruel power abuses where soldiers with bombs and guns prey on babies Continue reading »
There are some issues I have always assumed Trump would have more than enough money to finance his campaign. There’s a lot of cash floating around and the MAGA cult loves to give him money. Still, this doesn’t seem like good news: As Donald Trump’s legal troubles consume more and more of his time, they’re also consuming more of his donors’ money—and there’s a huge hole in the bucket. On Tuesday, Trump’s “Save America” leadership political action committee reported raising just $8,508 from donors in the entire month of January, while spending about $3.9 million, according to a new filing with the Federal Election Commission. Nearly $3 million of that overall spending total was used for one purpose: to pay lawyers. At the same time, the Trump campaign itself reported a net loss of more than $2.6 million for the month of January. It raised about $8.8 million while spending around $11.5 million, according to a separate filing made public on Tuesday.
Christians executed other Christians in colonial Salem If you missed Tuesday’s reporting by Politico’s Alexander Ward and Heidi Przybla on plans to enact a Christian nationalist agenda in a second Trump term, do have a look. Spearheading the effort is Russell Vought, Trump’s former director of the Office of Management and Budget, now “president of The Center for Renewing America think tank, a leading group in a conservative consortium preparing for a second Trump term.” If you thought overturning Roe would turn the U.S. into the Republic of Gilead, that assessment was perhaps not alarming enough: One document drafted by CRA staff and fellows includes a list of top priorities for CRA in a second Trump term. “Christian nationalism” is one of the bullet points. Others include invoking the Insurrection Act on Day One to quash protests and refusing to spend authorized congressional funds on unwanted projects, a practice banned by lawmakers in the Nixon era. CRA’s work fits into a broader effort by conservative, MAGA-leaning organizations to influence a future Trump White House.
Kit Klarenberg uncovers the shadowy connections between legal activist Alan Dershowitz, Jeffrey Epstein, and a network of intelligence-connected blackmail intrigue.
The post From Courtroom to Conspiracy: Alan Dershowitz’s Ties to Epstein’s Blackmail Network appeared first on MintPress News.
Roman Catholicism is in precarious shape when blessings are controversial. Just before Christmas, and on...
After being awarded six large PPE contracts the Conservative donor was last year elevated to the prestigious UK Board of Trade by Kemi Badenoch
Ever since an infantile fascist billionaire (hereafter, the IFB) decided to turn Twitter over to the racially hostile anti-science set, folks who previously used that network daily to discuss and amplify topics they cared about have either given up on the very premise of a shared digital commons, continued to post to Twitter while holding […]
The post In search of a digital town square appeared first on Zeldman on Web and Interaction Design.