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Thomas is believed to be the first spouse of a Supreme Court Justice also to be a major corporation.

Or will it  fiddle around the edges like the Rudd/Gillard Governments? After seven years of struggle against the AMA and others ,Gough Whitlam and Bill Hayden launched Medibank/Medicare in 1975. Bob Hawke and Neal Blewett then put Medicare back in place after Fraser tried to destroy it. Despite a lot of good intentions and bold Continue reading »

Bipartisan secrecy and Defence’s poor record with Indigenous groups at Woomera are red flags for consultations over an AUKUS nuclear waste dump. Human rights experts say government must establish an Indigenous veto right. Part one of a two-part series The federal government had no public mandate for any of the AUKUS decisions: no mandate to Continue reading »

It is about being subjects rather than citizens. It is about ancient oaths of loyalty and fealty. It is about pomp and ceremony paid for by the state. The coronation of King Charles III is a further step towards an Australian Republic. That may seem counter-intuitive because a coronation is an unrivalled opportunity for any Continue reading »

In Asian Media this week: South Korea nuclear guarantee ‘better than NATO’. Plus: Thaksin party just hangs on to poll lead; Asia tops world growth, with China the driver; Indian court’s progressive sex-gender rulings; Russia sees AUKUS as NATO-style alliance; Asian war ‘far worse than Ukraine’; woman arrested over Thailand serial killings As the 70th Continue reading »

Calling for a Menzies to rescue the Liberal Party from Dutton; The Reserve Bank: was it economic malice, enslavement to a simple formula, or a misreading of inflation?; and, National Cabinet: is it the best way to handle federal matters?  Read on for the Weekly Roundup of links to articles, reports, podcasts and other media Continue reading »

What would Australians, and much of the world, say if the Albanese Government arrested Peter Dutton and locked him up? Well, that’s exactly the sort of political event which has just happened in what is supposedly one of our closest allies and the country called the world’s biggest democracy – India. Last month Rahul Gandhi, Continue reading »

Ukraine war and new cold war against China have accelerated the re-emergence of the old non-aligned movement of developing nations. Yanis Varoufakis was late to the game. In a keynote speech given in Cuba early this year, the former Greek socialist finance minister called on the Global South to build a new non-aligned movement in Continue reading »

For some reason he seems to think this is a great campaign message I know there is a constituency for this blood-thirsty rhetoric but he doesn’t do it with the cartoon-like, WWE glee that Trump does so I suspect even some of Trump’s people may find it just plain icky to hear him say it. Trump has the ability to make violence sound fun even to people who normally might have a tiny bit of conscience. They think it’s schtick. This guy sounds as serious as a heart attack. I don’t think that plays nearly as well.

“The Writers Guild of America is seeking to restrict the use of artificial intelligence in writing film and television scripts. Hollywood studios, battling to make streaming services profitable and dealing with shrinking ad revenues, have rejected that idea.” – Reuters

Four Bathrooms and a Urinal

Dirk runs up to Daphne, a human woman who wears sexiness like a coat made of teen models.

DIRK: Here are flowers. They are not a secret anymore.

Dirk is tall.

DAPHNE (giggles three times): Not like my other secret flowers.

Daphne winks. Her mascara is spidery.

DAPHNE: Why are you here, Dirk? Is it the bathroom problem again?

DIRK: No, I have a toilet this week, thank you.

Dirk puts one foot on a chair like a sports guy giving a speech about winning.

Erin Kissane wrote a great essay on the differences between Mastodon and Bluesky (two very different decentralized social networks/Twitter alternatives). Read it! I too joined Bluesky a few days ago (no – I don’t have any invites), and I’ve some of the same impressions as she did, but not being a real tech person, I […]

Not bloody likely. But it’s probably all we’ve got. The Court has gone rogues and the entire GOP supports it. It seems as though the press is dropping a new Clarence Thomas corruption scandal every day. Yesterday we got two. First, Pro-Publica published yet another story about Thomas’ wealthy benefactor Harlan Crow passing on a lavish gift to his pal which Thomas once again failed to report. This time, it was private school tuition for the grand-nephew Thomas and his wife Ginni have said they raised like he was their own son since he was 6 years old. By evening, we found out that Federalist Society guru Leonard Leo instructed longtime GOP operative Kellyanne Conway back in 2012 to have her polling firm bill his nonprofit group “another $25,000” but give the money to Ginni Thomas — adding, with “no mention of Ginni, of course.” What the hell is going on here? It’s bad enough that Ginni Thomas is a hardcore far-right Republican activist who even participated in the coup attempt of 2020 and spouted QAnon conspiracy theories.

Jonathan Groff (Glee, Mindhunter) will be joining Ncuti Gatwa & Millie Gibson, appearing in Doctor Who Series 14 in a guest-starring role.

Baroness Jenny Jones explores how reform of the monarchy could work better for our democracy

As the three-year anniversary of George Floyd's death nears, David Miller investigates the campaign to silence critics of Israel's role in training American police on the violent tactics of suppression meted out on Black Americans.

The post George Floyd’s Murder Reminds Us: Israel’s Knee Sits on the Neck of Black America appeared first on MintPress News.

Socialism means plenty for all. We do not preach a gospel of want and scarcity, but of abundance. Our desire is not to make poor those who to-day are rich, in order to put the poor in the place where the rich now are. Our desire is not to pull down the present rulers to […]

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by Gary Gardner

The looks I get are familiar at this point: the blank stare screaming What do you mean, a no-growth economy? The frown of doubt that silently demands, Are you crazy? This is how skepticism about degrowth and steady-state economics manifests in my own life.

The work of a steady-state proponent is not for the faint of heart, to be sure. Steady state economies are sorely needed today but are far from being widely understood,

The post Selling the Steady State Economy appeared first on Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy.

Introducing an electoral system of proportional representation should take priority over conversations about the future nature of Britain's head of state, writes AC Grayling

RW Eeyores will downplay this They’re ba-ack. Jobs, that is. I know, the Market is not the average American’s lived experience. But damned if Republicans don’t treat it that way when it’s going their way. Except under a Democratic president. Investor’s Business Daily: Dow Jones Surges 450 Points On Strong Jobs Report. AAPL Stock Jumps On Earnings. Barron’s: The Jobs Data Were Hotter Than Expected. Why the Stock Market Is Celebrating. Washington Post: In March 2021, more than 4 million workers were “missing” from the job market as a result of early retirements, a lack of child care, covid illness and death, and slowdowns in immigration. More than 75 percent of that shortfall has been filled, according to a Washington Post analysis, as new and returning workers help boost labor-force participation back to pre-pandemic levels. The share of adults who have a job or are looking for one is back to where it was in March 2020. Watch for the negative spin from the right’s Eeyores. And from “labor participation truthers,” cautions Carolina Forward. “They won’t care” is right.

King Charles' Coronation is a missed opportunity to move monarchy into the modern era, writes former diplomat Alexandra Hall Hall

Leaked documents reviewed by MintPress reveal how The British Home Office has been clandestinely spying on refugees' smartphones under the guise of "combatting human trafficking."

The post Project INVICTUS: Inside the UK’s Human Rights Busting Campaign to Spy on Refugees appeared first on MintPress News.