Democrats had better do this or we are well and truly screwed: Democrats are rebuilding their strength in the “blue wall” states that former President Trump won in 2016, raising the party’s hopes in a region that will prove critical to races up and down the ballot next year. The party is riding high after key victories in states like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin over the past six months, signaling a newfound momentum after Trump’s win called into question the party’s standing in the rust belt. But Democrats say they’re not taking the states for granted and still have more work to do as President Biden looks to clinch a second term and several senators in those states face reelection. “It’s clear that the path to the White House, the path to retaining a Senate majority cuts through the Midwest,” said Kaitlin Fahey, a Democratic consultant who led the successful bid to host next year’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago and former chief of staff to Sen.
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Buckingham palace has put out an edict that during the weekend’s coronation ceremony as well as pledging allegiance to the King, the youth of the commonwealth will be asked to say, ”I consent” in honour of Prince Andrew. ”Bit of... Read More ›
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the third member of the Squad to make the endorsement, jumped into the race days after well-funded attack ads against Gym began to air.
The post Exclusive: AOC Endorses Progressive Helen Gym in Philadelphia Mayoral Race appeared first on The Intercept.
[The following passages are excerpted from Eduardo Galeano’s book Children of the Days: A Calendar of Human History, just out in paperback (Nation Books).] The Shoe(January 15) In 1919 Rosa Luxemburg, the revolutionary, was murdered in Berlin. Her killers bludgeoned her with rifle blows and tossed her into the waters of a canal. Along the way, she lost a shoe. Some hand picked it up, that shoe dropped in the mud. Rosa longed for a world where justice would not be sacrificed in the name of freedom, nor freedom sacrificed in the name of justice. Every day, some hand picks up that banner. Dropped in the mud, like the shoe. The Celebration That Was Not(February 17) The peons on the... Read more
Source: A World of Violence appeared first on TomDispatch.com.
This from Michelle Goldberg is just chilling. DeSantis and his minions are monsters of a different kind. He cannot be president. He just can’t: When I first met Matthew Lepinski, the faculty chair of New College of Florida, he was willing to give the right-wingers sent to remake his embattled progressive public school a chance. This was in January, a few weeks after Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida appointed six activist conservatives, including the culture war strategist Chris Rufo, to New College’s board of trustees. Rufo, the ideological entrepreneur who made critical race theory a Republican boogeyman, was open about his ambition to turn the quirky, L.G.B.T.Q.-friendly liberal arts school into a public version of Hillsdale, a conservative Christian college in Michigan with close ties to both DeSantis and Donald Trump. He hoped the transformation would be proof of concept for his dream: a conservative takeover of higher education across the country.
They all got jail sentences. (Dean only did a few months in detention since he was testifying.) The former Attorney General of the United States did 19 months. Will we see that kind of accountability with Trump and his minions for attempting a coup/ (And all the rest…) I honestly don’t know. I wish I was more optimistic about it.
Star Trek: Picard's Terry Matalas is honored by Doctor Who's Russell T. Davies' finale praise (and showed himself to be a Torchwood fan).
Nearly two years ago relief was expressed that the USA had emerged under President Biden to offer world leadership on climate change. Sadly this leadership has been a disappointment and today both the US and other high emitters such as Australia are not on track to meet the challenge. Current oil, gas and carbon capture Continue reading »
Tianxia, ‘under Heaven’, is a concept deriving from ancient China, but undergoing numerous interpretations over the ages. It refers to an idealised territorial/moral world order, equal but harmonious. Tianxia should be associated with Tianming, “the mandate of Heaven”. A democratic notion, this asserts that once a ruler loses the mandate, he also loses legitimacy and Continue reading »
There are a number of salient points arising from the Defence Strategic Review which have not been exposed to clear light – which might explain why the government has taken the approach it has. There are two scenarios behind the DSR: war over Taiwan with the US, or war with Indonesia by ourselves. The easiest Continue reading »
Without the open-air scrutiny of a public inquiry into NSW transport, Labor is vulnerable to the misinformation and deceit that infects every part of NSW transport policy. This is the second part of an article on the setting-up of little, piecemeal reviews of transport matters that surprised the new NSW Government. The first dealt with Continue reading »
A very comprehensive review of drug policy in NSW completed in 2020 was largely ignored for two and a half years. The Commissioner of the Inquiry understandably believes further consideration is redundant. The newly elected NSW government intends to keep a commitment made before the election to conduct a Drug Summit. They are right to Continue reading »
The push to recognise the Frontier Wars at the Australian War Memorial, the teaching of this history in many high schools, and growing commemoration of Frontier War incidents is seeing parallels being drawn between the heroism of First Nations’ warriors and that of the ANZACs. A proud warrior tradition Australia is experiencing a quantum shift Continue reading »
The bearded pig — the native wild boar that has dominated the jungles of the huge island of Borneo for thousands of years — may be close to extinction. First the Penan – the people known to the outside world as the Borneo jungle nomads – started to come across dead wild boar in the Continue reading »
Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – April 30, 2023
by Tony Wikrent
Strategic Political Economy
America Fails the Civilization Test
[The Atlantic, via The Big Picture 4-23-2023]
The true test of a civilization may be the answer to a basic question: Can it keep its children alive?
TWO years up-and-running, the Ulong Health Hub is now on the brink of another major milestone, to build a second consultation room. The driving force behind this next momentous step, the proprietor of Ulong General Store and Café in the Valley and Chair of the Ulong Community Hall, Carol Cleary, hosted a celebration for the...
The post Ulong Health Hub share plans to add second consultation room appeared first on News Of The Area.
Here’s a good analysis of the DeSantis flop (so far) from Harry Enten: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has spent the past few months running to the right ahead of his expected entry into the 2024 Republican presidential primary campaign. From signing into law a six-week abortion ban to fighting with Disney, the governor has focused on satisfying his party’s conservative base. So far at least, those efforts have not paid off in Republican primary polling, with DeSantis falling further behind the current front-runner, former President Donald Trump. Things have gotten so bad for DeSantis that a recent Fox News poll shows him at 21% – comparable with the 19% that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has pushed debunked conspiracy theories about vaccine safety, is receiving on the Democratic side. DeSantis was at 28% in Fox’s February poll, 15 points behind Trump. The Florida governor’s support has dropped in the two Fox polls published since, and he now trails the former president by 32 points. Early polling problems The Fox poll is not alone in showing DeSantis floundering.
CHRYSALIS Steiner School Class 10 students Abbi and Lara, ably supported by Lara’s mother Andi, hosted a successful fundraiser with a market stall at the monthly Bellingen Markets on Saturday 15 April. Class 10 students from Thora Valley’s Chrysalis Steiner School rallied to help the girls put on another fundraiser for their Arnhem Land educational...
The post Chrysalis Steiner students’ chai and cake fundraiser appeared first on News Of The Area.
THE combined Rotary Clubs of Coffs City and Daybreak have run their annual Charity Golf Day at the Coffs Harbour Golf Club. “The well supported afternoon was a huge success for both clubs with Mike Blewitt Ford as naming right sponsor helping so much with our cause, and presenting the prizes,” Coffs City Rotary Club...
The post Coffs Rotary Gold Day a big hit appeared first on News Of The Area.
This is what we’ve come to in the era of Donald Trump. It’s not just that his criminal behavior is overlooked by his idiotic followers. It’s a plus: During E. Jean Carroll’s first day on the witness stand, her lawyer asked what had brought her to a federal courtroom in Manhattan. “I am here because Donald Trump raped me and when I wrote about it, he said it didn’t happen,” Ms. Carroll replied. “He lied and shattered my reputation, and I am here to try to get my life back.” A day later, Mr. Trump, who has denied the attack and called Ms. Carroll a liar, campaigned in New Hampshire, joking to a crowd about his changing nicknames for Hillary Clinton and President Biden. He did not mention Ms. Carroll’s testimony, or the civil trial going on 250 miles away. But he remarked cheerfully on a poll released that day, which showed him far and away leading the 2024 Republican primary field. Since Mr.
You’re not surprised Pointy-headed intellectuals in their ivory towers oppose Uhmurica! These librul college professors oppose mandating even one course in U.S. history for graduating from the UNC system, alleges Fox’s Pete Hegseth. Never mind that a high school course in United States history is a prerequisite for admission to the system’s colleges. “They think learning about America is, and this is their words, ‘indoctrination’, ” Hegseth tells viewers his network indoctrinates 24-7-365. I’m having trouble even finding indoctrination among “their words.” You’re not surprised, I know. And even less surprised that Fox does not find room for a link to the actual letter in its four-paragraph story. The actual letter is here: We, the undersigned UNC-Chapel Hill faculty, are alarmed by the interference and overreach of the North Carolina legislature, the UNC System Board of Governors, and the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees whose actions violate the principles of academic freedom and shared governance that undergird higher education in N.C. and the U.S.
Every Sunday, I blog about the geek-friendly radio shows the BBC are putting out in the forthcoming week! All of the following can be either listened to live or downloaded afterwards for free on the BBC Sounds app, no matter where you are in the world. Please note: I don’t include later episodes of most drama […]
The title of today’s May Day rally – ‘workers of the world unite’ – paraphrases the most important thinker of the workers’ movement, Karl Marx, and his call to arms, ‘the proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Workers of the world unite!’ That call for unity in […]
The Indutrial Revolution and globalization were child’s play Danielle Allen was still at Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study in 2008 when she raised red flags about anonymous viral emails attacking then-presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama. “I started thinking, ‘How does one stop it?’ ” Allen told the Washington Post: Allen set her sights on dissecting the modern version of a whisper campaign, even though experts told her it would be impossible to trace the chain e-mail to its origin. Along the way, even as her hunt grew cold, she gained valuable insight into the way political information circulates, mutates and sometimes devastates in the digital age. Now at Harvard, Allen is still warning about digital mayhem. Only now, her concern extends to “generative artificial intelligence, a tool that will help bad actors further accelerate the spread of misinformation.” She’s signed onto an open letter with technologists, academics, and others calling for a six-month pause in “the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4.” Email spam was bad enough.
In accepting this year’s Izzy Award, The Lever’s Andrew Perez highlights the importance of reader-supported adversarial journalism.