There are very sound strategic reasons to continuously build and maintain heavily automated missile frigates and Air Independent Propulsion conventional submarines in Australia, as an alternative to spending $150B-$200B on unmaintainable AUKUS Nuclear Submarines. “I do not say, my Lords, the French will not come, I only say they will not come by sea” John Continue reading »
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The Order of Australia system is a bunyip aristocracy that reflects the hierarchies of British society in which the high and mighty get the cream and others are left with the skimmed milk. Just before the country slipped into its raucous celebrations for Australia Day last month, Mr David Hardaker served up in Crikey a Continue reading »
Pearls and Irritations is essential reading for anyone interested in public policy analysis. In some fields it is not the only source of opinion and commentary, but its writers are more often come to the subject with deeper experience, including from years in the bureaucracy, academia, and the public square, and with a more firm Continue reading »
It would be a grave mistake for Beijing to respond in kind in the face of incessant provocations and escalations by America and its allies. Western countries, especially those in the Anglo-American sphere love to drum up exaggerated claims about China’s economic coercion and geopolitical threat. But compared to the often genocidal or starvation-level sanctions Continue reading »
But you don’t blow anyone’s mind JV Last at the Triad (subsc. only —) says that Nikki Haley would be “fine” as president and I’m not going to argue because I don’t think she would be fine at all. She’s a creature of the Republican party and it is a toxic, neo-fascist institution that taints anyone who seeks to represent it. Sorry, that’s just how it is. And Last makes that case for me when he discusses why Haley has no chance in hell: I think the jury is still out on DeSantis. He’s just a name to a lot of Republicans. In fact, there are a good number who can’t tell the difference between him and George Santos.
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Steve Scalise: “The president, for a few weeks now, has been falsely saying that there are people that want to get rid of Social Security and Medicare. And it’s been inaccurate for a long time — and you saw last night when he tried to pin it on us,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told NBC News one day after Biden’s speech to Congress. “I just hope he stops going around the country telling that falsehood because there’s no truth to it. “We want to strengthen Social Security by ending a lot of those government checks to people staying at home rather than going to work,” Scalise said, endorsing work requirements for benefits. Right. All those disabled cancer patients and old people need to get a job, amirite???
About 28 years and 8 months ago I was terrified of the future. Looking back I had every right to be. Time telescopes in like the scene in a movie when the shit hits the fan. In life however the dénoûment never really arrives, or at least it hasn’t …
Israel is engaging in a strategy to "Judaize" East Jerusalem, the Galilee and the Naqab to make the areas more attractive to Jewish residents, with the hope of forcing Palestinians out.
The post Israeli Far Right Ramping Up Violence Against Palestinian Prisoners, Human Rights Defenders appeared first on MintPress News.
High on pentane Seems I remember a “60 Minutes”(?) story sometime in the wake of Se[tember 11 on the vulnerability of U.S. chemical plants to terrorist attacks. Critics branded Bush Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff’s proposed security upgrades “toothless.” “There are a lot of ways to skin a cat, and we’re going to let chemical operators figure out the right way, as long as the cat gets skinned,” Chertoff said. So. Whatever happened with that? Meantime, hazardous chemicals transported by rail seem to be having a bad 2023 so far (Newsweek): On February 3, a tanker train derailed in the Ohio town of East Palestine, near the state border with Pennsylvania. The crash led to multiple explosions and chemical leaks, prompting the governors of both states to issue evacuation notices for the town and its surrounding areas. Controlled burns of the vinyl chloride from the train’s tanks were initiated, with residents warned that the air could be flooded with dangerous gases like phosgene and hydrogen chloride. The fiery crash was one of more than a dozen train derailments reported in the U.S. this year, only 1 1/2 months in.
An update on the debate on the role of slavery in Britain's growth during the Industial Revolution.
Last Friday’s public hearing featured impassioned pleas from trans kids, who stand to lose access to lifesaving care in Florida.
The post DeSantis-Stacked Medical Boards Ramp Up Bans on Care for Trans Youth appeared first on The Intercept.
GOP wants to “fix” Social Security Republicans are still fuming at President Biden’s calling them out in his State of the Union Address for wanting to unravel Social Security and Medicare. They insist he stop spreading lies about what they clearly want to do. Social Security privatization is another “zombie idea” that should have died long ago, yet continues shambling along, New York Times economist Paul Krugman told Ari Berman Monday on his MSNBC show, “The Beat.” Yet there is former Vice President Mike Pence resurrecting an idea floated in 2005 by then-President George Bush (and soundly defeated in the court of public opinion). Bush meant to turn a portion of people’s Social Security over to Wall Street (and more of it later). “You have to be really naive not to know that what [President Joe] Biden said is true,” Krugman said. “Rick Scott, former chair of the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee was foolish enough to actually put it on paper that we’re [the GOP] going to sunset Social Security and Medicare within five years.
It’s early in the new Congress, but lawmakers are already hotly debating spending and debt levels. As they do so, they risk losing track of an important issue hiding in plain sight: massive Pentagon waste. At least in theory, combating such excess could offer members of both parties common ground as they start the new budget cycle. But there are many obstacles to pursuing such a commonsense agenda. Pentagon waste is a longstanding issue in desperate need of meaningful action. Last November, the Department of Defense once again failed to pass even a basic audit, as it had several times before. In fact, independent auditors weren’t even able to assess the Pentagon’s full financial picture because they couldn’t gather all... Read more
When men kill women, there still seems to be a desire to pin the blame on her, writes Sian Norris
On 8 February, the long awaited report – the Independent Review of Prevent – conducted by the commissioner for public appointments William Shawcross, was published after much scepticism, delay and controversy, even from within the cabinet. Prior to its publication, Open Rights Group joined a range of civil society groups in boycotting the review and contributed to an alternative – […]
As a child, I saw love everywhere, and it became my calling to play matchmaker to my toy bin.
Barbie paired up with my brother’s Luke Skywalker doll (which he insisted was an “action figure”). This romance persisted despite my being schooled on how a Jedi renounces personal attachments, and could I please just put his kimono back on?
A Happy Meal Gonzo wearing an ascot while driving a boat for some reason, and an elephant Beanie Baby that I’m hopeful is worth upward of one hundred dollars on eBay. Gonzo’s gusto seemed a good balance to Peanut’s lethargy. Also, the nose thing?
Donatello and Battle Damage He-Man bonded over their love of oversized weaponry, exaggerated musculature, and pizza. I enjoyed watching He-Man’s battle-ravaged heart heal, not through the Power of Greyskull, but through the power of love in a half-shell.
So, there are different measures of creativity. One of them is divergent thinking, the ability to come up with lots of different ideas. George Land created a famous test for NASA, then applied it to children. Test-takers were given a problem and then had to come up with many different ways to tackle it.
Land’s dead now but before he died he gave a Ted talk. Generally loathe them, but this one is interesting.
Cropping tools like those in Google Docs allow viewers to see the full, original images.
The post Whistleblowers Take Note: Don’t Trust Cropping Tools appeared first on The Intercept.
