Reading

French authorities are detaining demonstrators without filing charges as public anger persists over President Emmanuel Macron’s unpopular hike in the retirement age.

The post French Police Are Sweeping Up Protesters and Bystanders in Crackdown on Dissent appeared first on The Intercept.

The activists face 20 years in prison for handing out flyers that identified a cop they said was linked to the killing of a protester in the Atlanta forest.

The post Activists Face Felonies for Distributing Flyers on “Cop City” Protester Killing appeared first on The Intercept.

The Community Views team are thrilled to launch the ‘Living in Parramatta’ Views report and access to the views.id online reporting platform.  The report provides a comprehensive summary of how Parramatta residents’ view their...

On 15 May 2023, Palestinians mark seventy-five years of the Nakba or ‘catastrophe’. The day will commemorate the events in 1948 that saw over 750,000 Palestinians driven into exile and over 500 Palestinian towns and villages erased from the map. But it will also recognise the reality of the ongoing Nakba — the process of dispossession, […]

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

While he’s running for president It appears that they also tried to recreate the fiction that Scotland is thrilled to have Trump visiting. He said “It’s good to be home” when he arrived which is a very weird thing to say when you’re running for president of the United States. But whatever. The fact that he’s still doing business abroad and has no plans to divest if he were to win another term gets no coverage in the media. It’s just a given that he’ll run his business from the White House as he did before. This is just sad: He’s going to Ireland next. I think he’s expecting a big welcome like Biden received when he was there a couple of weeks ago. Not gonna happen. This pathetic little display is about the best he can hope for.

The Roberts court appears willing to ignore its purported judicial principles in order to end Biden’s student debt relief plan.

Forgetting and misremembering are the building blocks of creativity and imagination.

The post Faulty Memory Is a Feature, Not a Bug appeared first on Nautilus.

I don’t know how many of you remember the resignation of NY Times reporter Donald MacNeil during the height of the COVID pandemic and if you don’t, the details are all right here. Without taking a position on the merits of the pressure he was under, I do think it was unfortunate that he had to leave at the time he did because he was a great science reporter in the middle of a once in a century pandemic. We lost something valuable. His newsletter today shows just what we lost. He takes on the NY Times’ truly shitty treatment of Dr. Anthony Fauci at the hands of Benjamim Wallace-Wells the other day. This is just the opening. I urge you to read the whole thing: I love science-fiction series like “The Man in the High Castle” because they force us to question our ingrained assumption that history was always ordained to turn out as it did. It was set in 1950’s America after the Allies lost World War II. Germany had beaten us to The Bomb, vaporized Washington and stormed ashore at Virginia Beach. Berlin and Tokyo had divided the U.S. between them. Most Americans were cowed but prospering under the new regime.

Sky News’ highest rating presenter with a whole 16 viewers, Peta Credlin, has declared that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s honeymoon is over after Albo was not booked to DJ the MET gala. ”Finally people are beginning to see through the... Read More ›

They’re coming for no-fault divorce I saw this news making the rounds on twitter a few days ago and was astonished at the response. There seems to be quite a few pissed off men about this. I had no idea it was on the menu but it stands to reason that it would be. Ban abortion and birth control and end no-fault divorce. Family values, macho style: STEVEN CROWDER, THE right-wing podcaster, is getting a divorce. “No, this was not my choice,” Crowder told his online audience last week. “My then-wife decided that she didn’t want to be married anymore — and in the state of Texas, that is completely permitted.”  Crowder’s emphasis on “the state of Texas” makes it sound like the Lone Star State is an outlier, but all 50 states and the District of Columbia have no-fault divorce laws on the books — laws that allow either party to walk away from an unhappy marriage without having to prove abuse, infidelity, or other misconduct in court.  It was a hard-fought journey to get there.

Silences filled with a consensus of propaganda contaminate almost everything we read, see and hear. War by media is now a key task of so-called mainstream journalism. In 1935, the Congress of American Writers was held in New York City, followed by another two years later. They called on “the hundreds of poets, novelists, dramatists, critics, Continue reading »

The computer games provide clues that could help potential whistleblowers leak intel without getting caught.

The post The Pentagon Uses Video Games to Teach “Security Excellence.” You Can Play Them Too. appeared first on The Intercept.

John Menadue’s article in Pearls and Irritation about Australia being goaded into war with China is a must read for those Australians who desire to live in harmony and leave a legacy for our descendants to live in this lucky country of ours, in peace and prosperity with our neighbours in the Asia Pacific region. Continue reading »

In the Sydney Morning Herald of 2 May, Matthew Knott, foreign affairs and national security writer, has written an alarmist piece on the inability of the Australian defence force to respond to alarming but plausible scenarios such as China establishing a military base in a nearby Pacific nation. Were I reading this on the train going Continue reading »

The nation is bracing for austere budgets. Grim foreshadowing has prepared us for a challenging federal budget. The Victorian Premier has warned of “very difficult measures” in his state’s budget, and NSW has delayed its budget while the new cabinet grapples with “tough choices”. Budget expectation management is a perennial rite of autumn. But with Continue reading »

Days before a failed drone assassination targeting Putin, Ukrainian banking baron Volodymyr Yatsenko offered a $500,000 bounty to any weapons maker able to land a drone in Red Square during Moscow’s upcoming Victory Day parade.  On April 23, a Ukrainian drone laden with 30 Canadian-made C4 explosive blocks crashed near Rudnevo Industrial Park in Moscow. Ukraine-based operators deployed the 37 LB arsenal in a failed bid to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was scheduled to visit Rudnevo that day.  […]

The post Ukrainian banker offers cash for drone terror in Russia appeared first on The Grayzone.

There is a growing divide between voters, who according to the polls are increasingly favourable to the Albanese Labor Government, and media commentators, who are increasingly expressing disillusionment with that government. Next week’s budget may bring their sentiments closer together, though probably not. The Government is now well beyond its honeymoon period. Almost a year Continue reading »

One of the many appalling consequences of establishing the Department of Home Affairs (DHA), and transfer of immigration compliance functions to Australian Border Force (ABF), was an extraordinary cut back in immigration compliance activity. While many will celebrate the reduction in immigration compliance activity, this fails to recognise the purpose of immigration compliance is to Continue reading »

It may not be widely appreciated that door knocking religious proselytisers can be kept at bay by insisting they partake in discussions on public administration in exchange for whatever divine light is being diffused. It’s not that religion and public administration don’t mix; it’s that public administration is so tedious for all but those triple Continue reading »

It seems the automatic go to for the ABC on matters military is Major-General Mick Ryan. His opinion is usually presented as unbiased fact. Is that the case? Mick Ryan, retired from active service, graduated Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, the U.S. Marine Corps University Command and Staff College and School of Continue reading »