Reading

All the Urgent Messages I Have Received from Photobucket

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/all-the-urgent-messages-i-have-received-fro…
Created
Thu, 16/11/2023 - 05:00

A Notice About Your Account
Greetings from Photobucket. We’re reaching out to let you know that your free account is scheduled to be deleted as Photobucket is moving to a paid subscription platform. If you’d like to keep your photos, please log in and upgrade to any one of our subscription tiers. We look forward to storing your memories!

- - -

RE: A Notice About Your Account
Hi there from Photobucket. We noticed you haven’t upgraded your membership yet, so wanted to circle back and say we get it—life gets in the way. But you’ll want to make sure to upgrade as soon as possible or else risk losing your photos. Might I recommend the Premium plan for $8 a month? For that, you get one terabyte of storage, plus sharing. I know, crazy deal. Store you soon! :-P

Ending Jewish Israel’s domination a “re-humanising act”: UN Special Rapporteur

https://johnmenadue.com/ending-jewish-israels-domination-a-re-humanising-act-un…
Created
Thu, 16/11/2023 - 04:57
Invoking a “shared humanity”, UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese called for a rehumanisation discourse in the Israel/Palestine conflict, in which ending Jewish Israel’s domination would be a re-humanising act for Jewish Israelis as well. On Saturday last, UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Israel and the Occupied Territories, and Italian lawyer, Francesca Albanese delivered Continue reading »

David McBride’s defence argues duty to nation supersedes military law

https://johnmenadue.com/mcbride-trial-defence-argues-duty-to-nation-supersedes-…
Created
Thu, 16/11/2023 - 04:56
Whistleblower David McBride’s lawyers argued on Day One of his trial that a soldier’s duty is not just to follow his superior’s orders, but to serve the entire nation. Joe Lauria reports. The trial of Australian whistleblower David McBride opened on Monday, with the prosecution and the defence sketching out their cases before Justice David Continue reading »

Biden forgets that the C in APEC stands for cooperation

https://johnmenadue.com/biden-forgets-that-the-c-in-apec-stands-for-cooperation/
Created
Thu, 16/11/2023 - 04:55
There are 21 countries attending APEC and over 1,200 organisations from within those countries. Only one of the 21 countries, which happens to be the host, has a recent history of promoting de-coupling, or de-risking which is diametrically opposed to what APEC stands for; they seem to forget that the C means cooperation. For the Continue reading »

“Unconscionable”: Albanese government’s massive fossil fuel developments mock mitigation efforts

https://johnmenadue.com/unconscionable-albanese-governments-massive-fossil-fuel…
Created
Thu, 16/11/2023 - 04:54
Anguish, despair and fear for the future will ravage your brain when you read the latest edition of the UN Production (emissions) Gap Report. Your distress will further increase when you read that Australia will increase the Gap with the development of the Middle Arm Sustainable Development Precinct, when to stand any chance of addressing Continue reading »

Cruel and mendacious: It’s not the Voice that “failed”

https://johnmenadue.com/cruel-and-mendacious-campaign-its-not-the-voice-that-fa…
Created
Thu, 16/11/2023 - 04:53
No one who cares about basic human rights, or a sense of honour and of honouring, should be remotely intimidated by the sickening “success” of Dutton’s typically self-serving, cruel and mendacious campaign. The Voice did not fail. Australians failed the Voice. It’s exactly a month since the much-anticipated referendum was held to recognise First Nations Continue reading »

We need a deeper understanding of Chinese politics

https://johnmenadue.com/we-need-a-deeper-understanding-of-chinese-politics/
Created
Thu, 16/11/2023 - 04:50
We need a better understanding of the complexities of Chinese politics – treating it like a ‘Black Box’ will leave us poorly equipped for a world where China is the other superpower, writes Louise Edwards. Australians generally understand how US politics works. They often know the distinctions between blue and red states and even the Continue reading »

The Nakba 2.0: Issa Amro’s Insider Account of Israeli Torture in Hebron

https://www.mintpressnews.com/nakba-2-0-issa-amro-insider-account-israel-tortur…
Created
Thu, 16/11/2023 - 04:43

World-renowned activist Issa Amro was dragged away by 15 armed Israelis, blindfolded, gagged, and cuffed so tightly he now needs an operation on his hands. Now, Amro joins MintPress to recount the horrifying realities faced by Palestinians at the hands of their Israeli occupiers.

The post The Nakba 2.0: Issa Amro’s Insider Account of Israeli Torture in Hebron appeared first on MintPress News.

MAGAs Gone Wild!

https://digbysblog.net/2023/11/15/magas-gone-wild/
Created
Thu, 16/11/2023 - 04:00
The Republican Party has viciously turned on itself You know how it is when toddlers get tired. They get cranky. They cry and they pout and sometimes they even try to hold their breath until they turn blue if they don’t get their way. When this happens you know it’s time to give them a bottle and put them to bed. When they get older there can be the problem of how to handle an unruly teenager, defiant and hostile, challenging every rule and boundary and refusing to acknowledge any authority. Sometimes it’s enough to take away the car keys and ground them for a while but in other cases, intense therapy or even military school, as in the case of young Donald Trump, is seen as the only way to get through to them. But what do you do when elected officials suddenly start behaving like screaming toddlers and teenage bullies in the halls of congress? Is there any authority that can step in and quiet the tantrums? And when this increasingly anti-social behavior is happening in the shadow of a party leader and presidential candidate who exalts violence and cruelty, can we really just chalk it up to frustration and fatigue?

Bad faith economics

https://larspsyll.wordpress.com/2023/11/15/bad-faith-economics/
Created
Thu, 16/11/2023 - 03:48
Itzhak Gilboa, Andrew Postlewaite, Larry Samuelson and David Schmeidler (2022) describe a practice that … is not uncommon among theorists: “[O]ne may suggest a model with a descriptive interpretation in mind, but, when facing an aggressive audience, one might take a step back and rather than promoting the model as an explanation of a real-life […]

Like Obamacare that way

https://digbysblog.net/2023/11/15/like-obamacare-that-way/
Created
Thu, 16/11/2023 - 02:30
Benefits from Biden’s infrastructure bill sinking in Voters’ choice next year is not just between preserving our experiment in government of, by, and for the people or creeping fascism. It’s also a choice of whether to improve Americans’ lives today and for our children’s future or to squander more energy and treasure on playground brawls, revenge, and punching down. Is returning to middle school any mature adult’s idea of “great”? Navigator this morning finds what Americans prefer: More: By a 43-point margin, Americans continue to support the Bipartisan Infrastructure legislation that President Biden signed into law two years ago today. When asked about a new infrastructure plan that would “improve roads and bridges, expand power infrastructure, increase passenger and rail access, and improve water infrastructure,” 65 percent of Americans support this legislation with only 22 percent opposed.

Short Conversations with Poets: Alice Oswald

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/alice-oswald
Created
Thu, 16/11/2023 - 01:00

What is it about Alice Oswald’s poetry that is so immensely compelling? It could be the tautness, the hard brightness, of the language, the sense that every word in every line is earned, desperately necessary, a matter of urgency. It could be the fact that the poems are consistently so beautiful, so flinty and beautiful. They have the flexibility and the rangy toughness of plant life—and more often than not, Oswald seems inclined to work in book-length poems or sequences, letting an entire environment take root, out of which voices and lyrics flourish and emerge, both unexpected and inevitable. Though she loves the natural world, and loves to work in it—as a professional gardener—and write about it, Oswald is not a Romantic poet, at least not in the Wordsworthian sense. She doesn’t want to let her own voice smother the world in a cataract of discourse. Wants, rather, to let her syntax let her listen, to be a tool of a listening that is not only a getting out of the way, but also a record of boggling diversity of possibility in the created world. This means that poetry in her hands is intelligent but not intellectual, sometimes slow-burning but never slack.

“This is not a party that is trying to govern.”

https://digbysblog.net/2023/11/15/this-is-not-a-party-that-is-trying-to-govern/
Created
Thu, 16/11/2023 - 01:00
Not even pretending Speaker Mike Johnson did it. He passed a stopgap spending measure through the House meant to prevent a government shutdown on Friday. With Democrats’ help. With all but two House Democrats. With more Democrats than Republicans. Now as it heads to the Senate, we await the MAGA fallout in the House. The Washington Post and CNN will give you the bill’s details. MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow reacted to Johnson’s accomplishment and its potential blowback on “The Late Show.” “I’m sure Mr. Johnson is very … smart,” she began ironically, because “the previous guy was driven out with torches and pitchforks.” “We all know how this ends. This is not a party that is trying to govern.” The two parties are doing two very different things. So now we are going to keep the government open. It is because the Democrats came to the rescue and said that we should. But this is the Republican Party still not even wanting to keep the government going because they don’t believe that governance is what we need in this country.

Silicon Valley’s worldview is not just an ideology; it’s a personality disorder.

https://crookedtimber.org/2023/11/15/silicon-valleys-worldview-is-not-just-an-i…
Created
Thu, 16/11/2023 - 00:35
1. Ideology Silicon Valley’s ideology is this: Libertarianism for me. Feudalism for thee. In more detail: • Surveillance, manipulation and coercion; at first, just for profit, later by necessity, and ultimately for the hell of it • Disruption and capture, not competition; monopoly or at least duopoly in each industry it envelops. • Oligarchy to […]