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In a recent submission to the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet’s (PM&C’s) public service reform team, Paddy Gourley, Helen Williams and I support stronger action to improve the capability of the APS and its standing as an institution, but do not support adding ‘stewardship’ to the APS Values. Stewardship is a responsibility of ministers Continue reading »

In three weeks or so, a little after the second Labor budget, the Albanese government will mark its first year in office. It is not just journalistic laziness which marks it as a convenient moment for some report cards, and reviews of how the government is travelling. In straight political terms, of course, it is Continue reading »

The 190 page Parkinson Immigration Review provides a very good blueprint for the future, considering the limitations placed on it by its terms of reference and timeline. The government has circulated a “Migration Strategy” document for consultation picking up broad concepts in the review’s recommendations. There is much more work to be done to decide Continue reading »

The US has been increasingly treating Taiwan like a sovereign nation with whom diplomatic relationships and alliances can be formed, in violation of its longstanding One-China policy that has kept the peace for decades. And I just think it’s worth noting that the western media who’ve lately been condoning these moves became outraged at Donald Continue reading »

Cooking time: 35 mins.Preparation time: 20 mins.Main cooking utensils: pie pan, skilletOven temperature: 425-450°F, then 350-375°F.Oven position: above center For 4-6 people you need:1½ cups all-purpose flourpinch salt½-1 teaspoon dry mustard6 tablespoons butter½ cup dry grated Cheddar cheese2 tablespoons water1 shallot or onion2 tablespoons butter3 eggs⅔ cup shelled prawns⅔ cup coffee creamsalt and black pepper1-2 […]

“Incredibly bad luck, bad place” Yes, sitting in the bullpen at a baseball game is a very bad place. You could get shot at any time. You really should be more careful. An 18-year-old baseball player is recovering after being struck by a bullet during a game Saturday afternoon at George Dobson Field at Spring Lake Park. The Texas A&M University-Texarkana player was hit once in the chest as he sat in the left field bullpen during an Eagles game, said Shawn Vaughn, Texarkana Texas Police Department spokesman. The incident happened about 6 p.m. The player was taken to a local hospital for emergency surgery. Vaughn said it does not appear anyone was the target of the shooting. The stray bullet seems to have been fired from a neighborhood near the ballfield. “Incredibly bad luck, bad place,” Vaughn said. Around the time of the shooting, police were alerted to shots being fired from cars traveling through a nearby neighborhood, Vaughn said. The shooting happened about the fifth inning of the Eagles’ game against the University of Houston-Victoria. “The announcer said, ‘Shots fired!

I just wanted to wish you all a happy international workers day and leave you this 1901 tango as a gift. In honour of all the workers everywhere who fought and fight for our right to a dignified existence and our right to be lazy! I translate the recited introduction and the lyrics: “Tango also […]

With a heavy heart, I must announce something profoundly personal and painfully private to my 900,000 followers.

Over the past few weeks, many of you have been asking: “Where is John?” “Why isn’t John in any of your pics anymore?” and “Where did you get that gorgeous floral crop top?”

Well, John and I are getting a divorce. And the top is from Bougie Barn. (Use promo code DIVORCE to get 30 percent off your next purchase.) #BougieBarnPartner.

Our decision to split was not made lightly. John and I spent hours wondering how this would affect our beautiful children and my future content. We asked ourselves tough and critical questions to ensure ending our relationship felt right, like: “How will we co-parent?” and “Should our divorce reveal be a YouTube video, a TikTok, or a hurried Notes app screenshot?”

I know what you’re thinking: “You guys seemed so happy.” Well, that’s because I Facetune smiles on John’s face.

Democrats have learned they cannot appease terrorist Republicans If you think that old dogs can’t learn new tricks you need to take a look at Joe Biden. Back in 2011, during the first serious Republican debt ceiling hostage crisis and the protracted negotiations that followed, Biden undercut Senate Majority leader Harry Reid and wrecked a deal he had made for a terrible one. There was a lot of hand-wringing at the time over Biden’s tendency to give away the store so when the Republicans pulled their hostage maneuver again in 2013, Reid stipulated that Biden needed to stay out of the negotiations — and the White House agreed. The Obama administration, including Biden, had learned their lesson: Negotiating with the extremist GOP on the debt ceiling is a very bad idea. They refused and the Republicans capitulated, sparing the country and the world economy another jolt. The days of dreaming about a “Grand Bargain” were blessedly over. You may have noticed that we never had one of these fights during the Trump years when the deficit was growing at a very fast pace.

Today, war by media is a key task of so-called mainstream journalism, reminiscent of that described by a Nuremberg prosecutor in 1945: 'Before each major aggression[...] they initiated a press campaign calculated to[...] prepare the people psychologically[...]"

The post John Pilger: From Yellow Journalism to China Bashing, the Media’s Enduring Role in Promoting War appeared first on MintPress News.

How they saved the holes in Swiss cheese

Although preparations are in the primordial stage, the two right-wing icons said that the realm would exist outside the normal bounds of time and space.

The more they warn, the less we’ll listen Technology has a momentum all its own. It has a tendency to take us places before we consider whether they are places we need to or ought to go, I wrote here in 2014. Following up on Danielle Allen’s warnings about artificial general intelligence, A.I. pioneer Dr. Geoffrey Hinton gets space in the New York Times to express his concerns: Dr. Hinton said he has quit his job at Google, where he has worked for more than decade and became one of the most respected voices in the field, so he can freely speak out about the risks of A.I. A part of him, he said, now regrets his life’s work. Hinton, “the Godfather of A.I.,” worries what his creation may do when loosed “into the wild,” as the Times’ Cade Metz puts it.

Mainstream economists do not believe that “countries that borrow in their own currency should not worry about government deficits because they can always create money to finance their debt.” Looking at the result from a survey, not a single economist agreed with that statement. If these economists had been right, we would see lots of […]

STEM includes the natural sciences, math, engineering, and technology-related fields. It’s all the rage, and at the same time universities are shutting down or reducing humanities and social science faculties and offerings.

In one sense this is a simple result of market forces: university is ludicrously expensive, especially in the US (but tuition has risen massively in many other countries) and the “degree premium” has declined. Once just having a bachelor’s degree was enough to get you a good job, now it’s enough to let you apply, competing against a ludicrous number of other candidates, for a wage that often won’t allow you to afford a house or children.

But STEM jobs are in demand, although this may be changing. The current downturn has seen a large numbers of coders laid off and Chat-AIs threaten a lot of programming jobs, though I suspect less than it seems, so far.

Systemically corrupt capitalism – part 2 Evan Jones This article by Dr Evan Jones follows on from the first part under the same title, which…

The post Systemically corrupt capitalism – part 2 first appeared on Economic Reform Australia.

The war industry, a state within a state, disembowels the nation, stumbles from one military fiasco to the next, strips us of civil liberties and pushes us toward suicidal wars with Russia and China.

The post Chris Hedges: The Enemy From Within appeared first on MintPress News.

If you're a fan of Catherine Tate's Donna Noble, you're not going to like a three-word tease from Doctor Who showrunner Russell T. Davies.

It’s been on the GOP’s chopping block for decades E.J. Dionne notes this morning, as I did, how President Joe Biden’s 2024 launch video leads with the word “Freedom.” Biden deployed it six times in all. He means to reclaim that brand from the faux patriots. “Joe Biden has made defending our basic freedoms the cause of his presidency,” the ad declares. Before continuing, Dionne asks readers to hold their skepticism until he’s fleshed out what that means. Franklin D. Roosevelt made “four freedoms” the centerpiece of one his most important speeches: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, freedom from fear. Since then, Democrats have ceded freedom to conservatives, preferring in Dionne’s telling, “to talk about justice, equality, democracy, fairness or community.” “The chance to live a life of your choosing, in keeping with your values: that is freedom in its richest sense,” Pete Buttigieg declared during his 2020 run for the presidency.

Systemically corrupt capitalism – part 2 Evan Jones   This article by Dr Evan Jones follows on from the first part under the same title,…

The post Systemically corrupt capitalism – part 2 first appeared on Economic Reform Australia.