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Instead of thinking through and independently acting in Australia’s best interests, Prime Minister Albanese has followed in the footsteps of his discredited predecessors and outsourced defence and foreign policy to the US. A repost from January 15, 2023 The Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, is a provincial man with a strong social conscience. He understands issues Continue reading »

April 5, in Jerusalem, Israeli police using stun grenades and firing rubber coated steel bullets invade the Al Aqsa Mosque. Hundreds of worshippers are arrested. Fourteen Palestinians are wounded by bullets, beatings and tear gas inhalation. While the world looks on, how do we explain, how might this latest example of violence as policy be Continue reading »

French President Emmanuel Macron has urged Europe to reduce its dependence on the United States and avoid getting caught up in confrontation between the US and China. Experts said Macron’s recent three-day trip to China had contributed to bilateral relations and hopes of a peaceful settlement of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. In an interview with reporters Continue reading »

She and her accomplices built a political party based upon bigotry and hate. They approve of torture and celebrate death. They addicted their followers to conspiracy theories and rank tribalism. Old people like me watched it happen over time and it was just slow enough that we didn’t see the full scope of how ignorant and nihilistic their movement had become until Trump came along. Young people see them for what they are — and they are appalled. They and their friends don’t want to live in a country where people like this are in charge. They have large numbers and they are engaged and active. As for the issues of abortion, guns and climate change, young people know hypocrites when they see them and they won’t be fooled by insincere outreach efforts. And they will be insincere because Republicans have trained their own voters over many years to believe that abortion is murder, unfettered gun rights are inalienable and climate change is a hoax. Nobody will be able to thread that needle. All that’s on top of the fact that they are racist, homophobic and transphobic, misogynist monsters. And then there’s this: Good luck Kellyanne…

~ Today's Water Cooler ~

John Amato at Crooks and Liars: Bill Barr, Trump’s former Attorney General, told ABC’s This Week that Trump’s legal trouble may help him in the Republican primary; however, it all but assures he would lose in the 2024 general election. “What do you think the likelihood is at the end of the day that we are actually going to see Donald Trump convicted and sentenced to prison?” Host Jonathan Karl asked. Barr at first made the case that the indictments are part of a conspiracy to help Trump by those in power wanting the cockwombler to be the nominee in 2024. “I also think though, as far as the general election is concerned, it will gravely weaken Trump. He is already, I think, a weak candidate that would lose,” Barr said. ” But I think this sort of assures it.” Barr seems perturbed by this. Why should that be? He knew what he was dealing with when he covered for Trump’s massive obstruction of justice while he was president. (Also, everything else.) . But then Trump lost and was no longer of use to him.

This is a good book. It has a cover and many pages. This book is endorsed by parents and is church-friendly. It is clean and full of Grace, as in it was approved by a Florida state media consultant named Grace.

It is designed to offend no one. It does not mention war, sex, drugs, politics, depression, alcohol, drugs, violence, scantily dressed women (any mentions of women, really), selfless fish, California, hungry caterpillars, or drugs, except for the addictive power of prayer.

There is absolutely no pronoun ideology in this book. This is a sample sentence.

Adam White is going to the park because the father of Adam White is there. Adam White and the father of Adam White are biologically men.

Big words? Not in here. This book operates on the understanding that education is hard, and teachers can be led astray by YouTube or egregious left-wing media like C-SPAN.

This book does not mention homosexuality or anything that could be construed as “queer.” There are no rainbows. The only color allowed is a neutral gray.

We live in an unequal society where inequality is increasing in many areas, especially regarding income and wealth. The differences in living conditions for different groups, in terms of class, ethnicity, and gender, are unacceptably large. In the world of education, family background still has a significant impact on pupils’ performance, and it becomes even […]

The FDA has the power to ignore the mifepristone ruling, legal experts say. But only the courts can cure its dangerous implications.

The post Texas Judge Cosplaying as Medical Expert Has Consequences Beyond the Abortion Pill appeared first on The Intercept.

The weapons are similar too Teens and college students across the country protested the war in Vietnam not just because of disagreements over U.S. foreign policy. Their lives were on the line. Or their brothers’ or their friends’ or their husbands’. Hundreds of students, parents and teachers protested against gun violence inside the Tennessee state House on April 6 for the same reason. Lives are on the line. Theirs and friends’ and their kids’. We watched Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear in a Monday press conference hold back tears after friends were shot and one killed in a mass shooting at a bank in Louisville. How long will these daily shootings go on unchecked before each of us is personally affected the same way, if not shot ourselves? Hope for our democracy and for an end to the daily slaughter may lie with the young. This is their Vietnam. Ironically, the weapon of choice in many of these shootings is a variant of those the Pentagon sent in bulk to Southeast Asia 60 years ago.

Using the same land for the production of both agriculture and solar energy is a win-win for the climate and farmers.

First, journalists lapped up Russian culpability. Then, interest wilted. Now they peddle a preposterous James Bond-style story. Anything to ignore the US’s role.

The post Why the Media Don’t Want to Know the Truth About the Nord Stream Blasts  appeared first on MintPress News.

Republicans are fighting a cold civil war “The doomsday prepper of the past has become a mainstay of rightwing culture,” Jeff Sharlet (The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War) said recently of scattered rural militiamen. Elected Republicans in control of state legislatures don’t need AR-15s to fight their cold civil war. They are manipulating democracy to undo democracy in full view of state capitol and national press. The Republican majority voted to expel three Democrats from the Tennessee state House last week for what they insisted were breaches of decorum in loudly calling for action against gun violence. They kept the white woman, Rep. Gloria Johnson (barely), and expelled two young Black men. The Nashville Metropolitan Council voted 36-0 Monday to reinstate Justin Jones to the position Republicans revoked last week. Justin Pearson of Memphis is expected to be reinstated when the Shelby County Board of Commissioners meets on Wednesday. Pardon the cliche, but if you haven’t noticed that MAGA Republicans have declared war on representative democracy, you haven’t been paying attention.

“It is time,” President Biden announced in April 2021, “to end the forever war” that started with the invasion of Afghanistan soon after the tragic terror attacks on this country on September 11, 2001. Indeed, that August, amid chaos and disaster, the president did finally pull the last remaining U.S. forces out of that country. A year and a half later, it’s worth reflecting on where the United States stands when it comes to both that forever war against terrorism and war generally. As it happens, the war on terror is anything but ended, even if it’s been overshadowed by the war in Ukraine and simmering conflicts around the globe, all too often involving the United States. In fact, it now... Read more

Source: Will It Never Stop? appeared first on TomDispatch.com.

FIFA recently punished Indonesia for boycotting Israel, a country that consistently shoots soccer players in the knees so that they are unable to play in international sporting events

The post By Refusing To Host Israel, Indonesia Shows Us How to Defeat Apartheid appeared first on MintPress News.

Two of Craig Mackinlay's staffers have had close ties to the Global Warming Policy Forum (now Net Zero Watch) and its wholly-owned charitable wing report Josiah Mortimer and Max Colbert

Between 10-12 April 1981, the streets of Brixton were ablaze as its largely African and Caribbean population engaged in street warfare with the Metropolitan Police. In the hours leading up to the outbreak of violence, whispers of yet another young black man dead in police custody were all it took to light the touchpaper. Faced […]

“… Besides Zero Mostel, aspirants to the screen role included Rod Steiger, Danny Kaye and—in a scenario that can be contemplated only with difficulty—Frank Sinatra.” — Excerpt from the New York Times obituary for Topol, iconic for his role as “Tevye” in Fiddler on the Roof.

Dear Artie:

It’s been too long, how the hell are ya, pal? Or perhaps we’ve never met. (Honestly, I don’t remember. I meet a lot of people; I’m Frank Sinatra.)

Listen: I gotta play this Tevye cat.

I know, I know: Why does the most famous Italian American on Earth wanna play a poor Jewish milkman? First off, Italians, Jews? Tomato, to-matzo. Love the Jews. Dig their whole bag. Got lots of Jewish friends too, like my agent and my lawyer and my other lawyer just for dame stuff. Plus, Sammy Davis Jr. Also, I hear your director, Norman Jewison, is a Protestant, which is kinda like meeting a guy named Johnny Catholic who turns out to be a Buddhist (but who cares is my point—we’re all just people!).

The claims of Dmitry Medvedev denying the existence of Ukraine remove all doubt about the Kremlin's genocidal thinking. But what of its totalitarian methods?