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When the ALP Government led by Anthony Albanese came to power in 2022 it was confronted by the AUKUS minefield laid by its predecessor, the LNC Government led by Scott Morrison. It did, however, have options, one of which was to reject outright the Babylonian extravagance and complexity of arrangements consequent to a process marked Continue reading »

Despite some brilliant analyses of the AUKUS agreement from credible and informed commentators, it is hard for critics to get a hearing, much less influence policy. It will not have escaped the notice of regular readers of these pages that some of the smartest people in Australia have serious concerns about the AUKUS alliance and Continue reading »

There is something but not much to celebrate over the safeguard compromise. It may well ensure we reduce our emissions by 43%. But the Labor government’s continued permissive attitude to new fossil fuel projects is in blatant disregard of the IPCC’s pathway to a 1.5C limit on global warming. Just how conflicted is Labor? Until Continue reading »

It seems Liberal voters are figuring out that their party has been hijacked. Labor voters are slower off the mark, but Labor also bears little resemblance to its past. Political terminology lags even more, which obscures radical shifts in our political mainstream. Robert Menzies was reported by Senator Ron Boswell to have said in 1970: Continue reading »

The Pentagon Papers whistleblower, who has a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, is urging a ceasefire in Ukraine. “This is not a species to be trusted with nuclear weapons,” he tells Marjorie Cohn. The legendary Daniel Ellsberg has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. In a March 1 email to friends, Dan wrote, “I’m sorry to report to you that Continue reading »

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🌡️ We are at 289 donors. 289 donors / goal of 375 = 77.07%.

Canada’s Scotiabank holds the largest foreign share of Elbit Systems, whose wares have been connected to rights abuses.

The post Pro-Israel Fund Manager Invested $500M in Israeli Arms Firm. Now Activist Investors Want Answers. appeared first on The Intercept.

QOTD: Andrew Weissman on Trump going after the prosecutor and judge’s families: “You do not have this behavior from a mob boss. There is a rule in organized crime. You do not do this with respect to prosecutors. You don’t do this with respect to the judge. You certainly don’t go after their families. It’s bad business to do that.” Trump’s more like a street thug. The mafia has too many rules for him.

Showed up for the tour and was met by Moses. He had a bull, three sheep, and eight pigeons that he said we’d be ritually sacrificing en route. He spent a long time showing me and my wife his sharp “sacrificing knife.” I was up for it, but my wife was repulsed. We had to rebook with another guide. Would have been nice if we were given some advance notice about the planned animal slaughter.

Don’t be put off by Moses’s advanced age and long white beard, he’s still spry. As for his smell, you quickly get used to it.

The highlight of the tour was his riffs. I recorded these gems on my phone:

The Lever Team explores the big progressive win.

Big Finish released a trailer for their 60th anniversary event, with Tom Baker returning for Doctor Who - Once and Future Ep. 1: Past Lives.

Alex Saurez, author of “The Diplomat," a book about the US kidnapping of Venezuelan Diplomat Alex Saab, joins Lee Camp to discuss the exreajudicial kidnapping, the court case that followed, and much more.

The post Alex Saab: The Venezuelan Diplomat Kidnapped by the United States with Alex Saurez appeared first on MintPress News.

Charlie Sykes (subs. only) wonders if the Republican Party is heading toward extinction: The key to survival of any species is its ability to adapt. That’s as true of politics as it is of biology. Political parties must learn when to fight or flee, or risk being mauled by some rough beast, whose hour has come round at last. So students of history will fascinated by the torpor of the GOP circa 2023. Republicans were, after all, warned. Again and again. On Trump and abortion, but also on guns, moral Grundyism, and their addiction to the crazy. Yet despite all the red blinking lights— and they are flashing everywhere — the GOP simply smacks its lips and says, ‘This is fine.” More, please. The latest flare comes from my home state, Wisconsin. As Bill Lueders writes in today’s Bulwark, the race for Supreme Court here was the most expensive judicial race in American history. But, ultimately, the election was decided not by money, but by issues, especially abortion. And it was a landslide in a crucial swing state. The Wall Street Journal editorial board is reaching for the panic button.

EXCLUSIVE: "Conspiracy of silence" among NHS Trusts means most NHS employers recorded not a SINGLE Covid death among their workers during the first two waves

. Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound masterpiece. And that 1960s choreography! I just love it.

Reactionaries are playing for keeps in the provinces Under the guise of “election integrity,” Republican secretaries of state held a two-day conference in Washington in February to discuss efforts to restrict voter access to the ballot box. The watchdog group Documented shared documents from the Heritage Foundation-sponsored event with the Guardian. “A list of attendees namechecks the chief election officials of Indiana, Florida, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia,” write Ed Pilkington and Jamie Corey: The keynote speech was given by Ken Blackwell, former secretary of state in Ohio. He was an early adopter of Trump’s lie about rigged elections, championing the idea in the 2016 presidential race which Trump won. Blackwell now chairs the Center for Election Integrity at the America First Policy Institute, a rightwing thinktank led by former Trump officials. The center has been touting election-related model legislation. Heritage was careful to organize the conference amid tight secrecy.

by Cole Thompson

Artificial Intelligence, or AI, is attracting great attention as working AI systems become accessible to the public. The AI claim is that it can digest the mass of knowledge that humanity has made public, then perform cognitive tasks with that knowledge or answer questions with speed and accuracy. This has many implications, some potentially worrisome. But when AI works well, it can serve up some interesting “truths.”

While AI does not generate authoritative or definitive information—you wouldn’t bet your savings on its output—my sense is that its findings often deserve a hearing.

The post Even AI Understands Limits to Growth appeared first on Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy.

Col. Larry Wilkerson describes how the media barely covered the damage wrought by the U.S.-led “coalition of the willing” in Iraq

[The following is excerpted from David Barsamian’s recent interview with Noam Chomsky at AlternativeRadio.org.] David Barsamian: On March 20th, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued its latest report. The new IPCC assessment from senior scientists warned that there’s little time to lose in tackling the climate crisis. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, “The rate of temperature rise in the last half-century is the highest in 2,000 years. Concentrations of carbon dioxide are at their highest in at least 2 million years. The climate time bomb is ticking.” At COP 27 he said, “We are on a highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator. It is the defining issue of our age. It is the... Read more

Source: Savage Capitalism appeared first on TomDispatch.com.