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Amazing stuff, really.

Now, the three-mile-long barrier is essentially orphaned, functionally useless — because of a federally constructed border barrier a short distance behind it — and, according to an engineering report commissioned by the Justice Department, at risk of falling over in a major flood and floating away.

And because of its location and construction along the water’s edge, federal officials worry that the fence could end up redirecting the Rio Grande in such a way that the land it sits on would end up as part of Mexico.

While a few good news stories have emerged regarding asylum seekers in Australia, many are still suffering while our government turns a blind eye. read now...

Jetlag forced a nap on me (I almost never nap, it's disorienting!). I see the clown show is still going.

As I write this McCarthy is still losing. And the numbers haven’t moved. He has 20 hardcore insurrectionists voting against him and one nutball voting present for her own reasons. There is little sign that this is going to end well for McCarthy but he just keeps going. This is happening: If the Dems do this (which I doubt) they’d better extract some serious concession, particularly on things like the debt ceiling. Unfortunately, the Republicans are all liars so how do you ensure that they keep their word? I just don’t know … I think Alexandra Petri’s take is the best: Wow, this is embarrassing! No, not the once-in-a-century mess around electing a speaker of the House! Not the fact that, on Tuesday, after three ballots, none of which succeeded in putting Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in charge, the House had to adjourn speakerlessly. Not the fact that, again, failing to elect a speaker on the first vote has not happened since 1923!

Jo and the Lone Cyberman are joining the host of Power of the Doctor stars at next month’s Gallifrey One The big day is a little over a month away, and Gallifrey One is continuing to add guests to its epic line up for this year’s convention. Katy Manning played Jo Grant alongside Jon Pertwee’s […]

The post Gallifrey One Adds Katy Manning, Patrick O’Kane and More appeared first on Blogtor Who.

Since Benedict XVI’s death on December 31, 2022, a flurry of reflections have emerged about...

~ Today's Water Cooler ~

‘Humanity is dedicated to its own destruction’ – Noam Chomsky Noam Chomsky Interviewed by The Brussels Times January 5, 2023. The Brussels Times. On 20 January 2022, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists set their infamous Doomsday Clock at 100 seconds to midnight for the third year running. Their accompanying report — entitled ‘At Doom’s Doorstep’ […]

You think he doesn’t mean it? As president, Donald Trump weighed bombing drug labs in Mexico after one of his leading public health officials came into the Oval Office, wearing a dress uniform, and said such facilities should be handled by putting “lead to target” to stop the flow of illicit substances across the border into the United States. “He raised it several times, eventually asking a stunned Defense Secretary Mark Esper whether the United States could indeed bomb the labs,” according to a new book by New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman. White House officials said the official, Assistant Secretary for Health Brett Giroir, an admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, often wore his dress uniform for meetings with Trump, which led him to falsely think Giroir was a member of the military. Sadly, I wouldn’t be all that surprised if Ron DeSantis and others agree with this one, at least in the campaign.

When bears are cooped up
While flu season is raging
Mama must find a way
To keep from premature aging

The fall started out okay for the Bear family.

Papa was back at work making custom-made furniture, and the cubs were back at school full-time. Even though Mama still did all the housework, she also found time to post on her successful blog, I Guess I’ll Just Do This All Myself.

“It’s so nice to have things back to normal,” she had thought.

But then the seasons started changing. Sister came down with a mysterious cold she just couldn’t shake. Brother had a hacking cough and a low-grade fever. As soon as one cub started to get better, the other one caught a new, different bug.

“Whew,” sighed Mama, “all these cubs stuck at home feels familiar somehow—OWW, MY BACK!” she yelped, frozen in a stoop as she picked up one of the hundred used tissues from the floor.

“Help?” she cried feebly, but Mama knew in her heart there was no one who would save her.

B-21s for Australia? Not on the basis of defending against a Chinese base in Australia’s nearer region. Defence policy often proceeds under a number of heroic and muddled assumptions. Most likely, the Defence Strategic Review (DSR) will also. These must be tested. Defence policymakers often make assumptions about potential adversaries that are convenient for their Continue reading »

When watching or listening to experts on international affairs—especially those speaking on China or Russia and the war in Ukraine — there’s one question you should keep asking yourself. How do they know? Take for example, an interview run on the ABC’s World Today on 28 December 2022. Rowan Callick, Industry fellow at Griffith University’s Continue reading »

“This is quite shocking,” declared South Australia’s Attorney-General and Aboriginal Affairs Minister, Kyam Maher. “These caves are some of the earliest evidence of Aboriginal occupation of that part of the country.” That evidence was subtracted this month by acts of vandalism inflicted on artwork in Koonalda Cave on the Nullarbor Plain, claimed to be the world’s largest Continue reading »

I wish to write here in a frank and open way about the way the progression of Friedreich’s Ataxia (FA) has severely impacted the proceedings of everyday life, I am now 60 years old and the progression is well advanced. I am writing from the standpoint of what those in my profession of sociology would Continue reading »

The Global Times released the second part of the annual survey that covered participants from 33 countries on 28 December, which showed that most participants from Western countries are unsatisfied with the current development of their countries while those from China and many non-Western countries or emerging economies are more satisfied and optimistic about their future, Continue reading »

In legal circles, outsiders who hold forth on legal issues without understanding the law or knowing the facts are held in particular contempt. They are known as “barrack-room lawyers”, a term that originally derived from military slang. According to the Collins Dictionary, a barrack-room lawyer is “a person who freely offers opinions, especially in legal Continue reading »

Western analysts spent years warning that western actions would provoke a war in Ukraine, westerners spent four years being propagandised into hating Russia, then Russia invades and now western imperialists say the war is advancing US interests. But remember: it was an “unprovoked invasion”. The official narrative is that western aggressions played no role in Continue reading »

I like to eat, but still think it's weird we have to do it so often.

Jennifer Frey and Christopher Frey, both currently associate professors of philosophy at the University of South Carolina, will be moving to the University of Tulsa. Jennifer Frey is known for her work in moral philosophy, particularly moral psychology and virtue. In addition to her academic work, she also has written for various popular media and is the creator and host of the philosophy, theology, and literature podcast, Sacred and Profane Love. At the University of Tulsa, she will be the inaugural dean of the university’s new Honors College, which will have a general education curriculum that is focused on philosophical texts and questions. Regarding the Honors College, she says: By studying classical texts of the liberal arts tradition within a community of learners who seek truth as a common end, TU Honors College students will confront the most profound and enduring questions of human existence, as explored by some of the most influential thinkers in our inherited intellectual tradition.

There are a few take-aways from this topic on how to respond....

Bond Economics
Yield Curve Control Sustainability
Brian Romanchuk

This country is currently in the midst of the biggest wave of strikes since the 1980s, with a resurgent labour movement leading the struggle against a system that demands working-class people get pushed ever deeper into poverty. But now, with new laws announced by Rishi Sunak set to be introduced to Parliament in the coming […]

Richard Spence -- The Dissenter -- January 5, 2023 Ministers and security officials in Australia, Sweden, and the United Kingdom have coordinated with the United States to develop new espionage laws.