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Does Gaza ceasefire vote signal a shift in foreign policy?

https://johnmenadue.com/does-gaza-ceasefire-vote-signal-a-shift-in-foreign-poli…
Created
Wed, 20/12/2023 - 04:56
Since coming to office in 2022, the Albanese Governments foreign policy has been dominated by its enthusiastic embrace of the AUKUS agreement with old allies, the United States and the United Kingdom. However these nations are totally out of step with global opinion about gross breaches of international law by the Netanyahu regime and neither Continue reading »

Hope betrayed, arrays herself in bombs

https://johnmenadue.com/hope-betrayed-arrays-herself-in-bombs/
Created
Wed, 20/12/2023 - 04:55
While the speechless unite, in a silent accord. Australia’s Geopolitical Present and Future: Bethlehem through Poetry and Literature. An incomplete – very incomplete – snapshot of the current season of Advent: Internally the US is divided and its global leadership is crumbling; the Middle East, and Ukraine play insolent, obscene court jesters to kings, nobles, Continue reading »

Closing Loopholes Bill confronts the new realities of self-employment

https://johnmenadue.com/closing-loopholes-bill-confronts-the-new-realities-of-s…
Created
Wed, 20/12/2023 - 04:54
Self-employment has changed in recent years. It’s been both shrinking and becoming more precarious. Proportionately, there are fewer business owners and there’s more gig work. The reality is getting further away from what many have imagined. An idea that’s been going around for a long time held that freelancing is part of some entrepreneurial boom Continue reading »

Freedom of information laws: grand in theory, dismal in practice

https://johnmenadue.com/freedom-of-information-laws-grand-in-theory-dismal-in-p…
Created
Wed, 20/12/2023 - 04:52
Accountability only works if information about government is readily available. And who doesn’t believe in accountability, at least in theory? While opposition political parties are ardent about freedom of information laws, for governments they’re a pain in the neck. More than with most other aspects of government, where you sit is where you are most Continue reading »

Usman Khawaja for humanity, Australian MPs for Israel

https://johnmenadue.com/usman-khawaja-for-humanity-australian-mps-for-israel/
Created
Wed, 20/12/2023 - 04:51
In contrast to cricketer Usman Khawaja’s principled stand for human rights, the Liberal’s Simon Birmingham and Labor’s Josh Burns broadcast their judgements that the time is not right for a ceasefire. Commentary from these Australian MPs in response to slaughter in Gaza, both of whom are in Israel to show support for that country, shows Continue reading »

Framing

https://digbysblog.net/2023/12/19/framing/
Created
Wed, 20/12/2023 - 04:30
When we complain about the media, this is why What’s wrong with this picture? In most situations, comparing a political opponent to Adolf Hitler might seem like an extraordinary step. For Joe Biden’s campaign, it has become part of the routine of running against Donald Trump. When the former president said that undocumented immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country” during a New Hampshire rally on Saturday, a Biden campaign aide charged with monitoring Trump immediately circulated the comments to staffers, according to senior officials. Within hours, the campaign released a statement attacking Trump for having “channeled his role models as he parroted Adolf Hitler, praised Kim Jong Un, and quoted Vladimir Putin while running for president on a promise to rule as a dictator and threaten American democracy.” In fairness, the article goes on to explain, correctly, that Trump is evoking Hitler in his speeches. The Biden campaign even sent the article around.

Here to Stay, Here to Fight: The Bengali Squatters Movement

https://tribunemag.co.uk/2023/12/here-to-stay-the-bengali-squatters-movement/
Created
Wed, 20/12/2023 - 04:27

Faced with institutional racism in council housing and the existential threat of the National Front, hundreds of Bengali migrant families decided to squat, taking over entire streets and estates in 1970s London. Through oral history interviews and archival research, Dr Shabna Begum explores this little-known episode of East End history. She sits down with Tribune […]

Battleground NC

https://digbysblog.net/2023/12/19/battleground-nc/
Created
Wed, 20/12/2023 - 02:30
The coming war may not be civil A “yankee” in a meeting yesterday said she’d moved to North Carolina from New England because she felt her political activism would make more of a difference here. She may be right. This really is going to be a battleground in 2024. This Morning Digest edition from Daily Kos makes that case: NC Supreme Court: Candidate filing closed this past Friday for the March 5 primaries in North Carolina, a perennial swing state that will host closely watched races up and down the ballot. Not to be overlooked, though, is a crucial contest for an eight-year term on the state Supreme Court. Gov. Roy Cooper appointed Allison Riggs in September after Mike Morgan, a fellow Democrat, resigned ahead of launching a bid for governor. Had Morgan instead sought and won another term on the court, he would have faced mandatory retirement at the age of 72, in 2027, less than halfway through a second term. The new justice, whose appointment at 42 made her the youngest woman ever to serve on the court, won’t face that same problem, but she doesn’t have a clear path to the general election.

Piers Morgan’s Statement on the Prince Harry Phone Hacking Case – Annotated

https://bylinetimes.com/2023/12/19/piers-morgans-statement-on-the-prince-harry-…
Created
Wed, 20/12/2023 - 01:26
Dr Evan Harris, former Director of Hacked Off and now a legal analyst to the successful claimants against Mirror Group Newspapers over phone hacking and other unlawful information gathering, deconstructs former Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan’s statement on the damning judgement against the firm last week.

How Big Oil is Taking Us for a Fossil-Fuelized Ride

https://tomdispatch.com/how-big-oil-is-taking-us-for-a-fossil-fuelized-ride/
Created
Wed, 20/12/2023 - 01:24

A recent opinion poll rocked the world of the Big Oil lobbyists in their proverbial thousand-dollar suits and alligator shoes. The Pew Research Center found that 37% of Americans now feel that fighting the climate crisis should be the number one priority of President Joe Biden and Congress, and another 34% put it among their highest priorities, even if they didn’t rank it first. Companies like ExxonMobil and countries like Saudi Arabia have tried since the 1990s to gaslight the public into thinking climate change was either a total fantasy or that the burning of coal, natural gas, and petroleum wasn’t causing it. Having lost that battle, the fossil-fuel lobbyists have now fallen back on Plan B. They want to convince you... Read more

Fascist Dictator Greatest Hits Mix Tape

https://digbysblog.net/2023/12/19/fascist-dictator-greatest-hits-mix-tape/
Created
Wed, 20/12/2023 - 01:00
The U.S. is not immune Rachel Maddow Monday night opened her show by asking why Donald Trump keeps echoing Hitler and Mussolini in his speeches. With the mainstream media finally calling him out for talking like a fascist, he is, as Republicans do, doubling down on it. His speeches, Maddow said, have become a “fascist dictator greatest hits mix tape.” So why does he do it even after being called out? Because “this stuff works.” It gets applause. His audience eats it up. Because his adversaries hate it. And because the terminally insecure Trump will do anything, anything, to draw attention and adulation. Maddow suggests stopping it is not rocket science. One thing to do is to refuse to participate in any politics that relies on treating opponents as monsters, a menace to be elimininated. Stand up for any targeted group. Support the legal and political systems that protect us all. Refuse to give in to the notion that we are “different kinds of humans, that we need an “iron fist more than democracy.” It’s not enough to call it out. Over at Threads *, George Takei re-posted a comment I think all of us are our asking ourselves about now.

The Virgin Mary’s Baby Registry

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the-virgin-marys-baby-registry
Created
Wed, 20/12/2023 - 00:00

It’s been months now since Archangel Gabriel announced I would conceive and bear the Son of God through virgin birth. If you’re receiving this epistle, it means you’ve asked if we have a registry. Well, how about this for some “good news”? It’s finally up.

Most of the items can be picked up locally at Herod’s, but those of you coming from the East might have to traverse further afar (sorry). As you’ll see, we’re going for a barnyard-chic aesthetic for the nursery, which we think will create a really fun, bucolic vibe.

But more importantly, know that there is absolutely no pressure to get us anything. Truly, your love is all He needs, and we’d be ecstatic if you could just swing by once He’s born to behold Him, adore Him, or even just fall on your knees and quake at the sight of Him.

Translation: We can’t wait for you to meet our baby!