Reading

I don’t know exactly what this guy is grooming kids for but it’s obviously not something we would normally associate with religious right family values. And yet: Some people might say that’s just a tad homoerotic. Not that there’s anything wrong with that… In case you were wondering, Turning Point USA is adamantly opposed to LGBTQ rights: Turning Point UK too:

~ Today's Water Coole

Very simply, we have to shake out cobwebs and think for ourselves. While it sounds simple, it is actually hard when trying to separate from a dominant ally and the “illusory truth effect” which envelopes us daily. In recent years there have been hundreds of contributions here from writers urging that we withdraw from the Continue reading »

The uniformly negative reaction of the national press gallery to former PM Paul Keating’s views on Australia’s security raises questions not just of its intellectual adequacy but of whether the media has been captured by and is knowingly serving the United States at Australia’s expense. How might one distinguish commentary which knowingly favours US objectives Continue reading »

The AUKUS nuclear submarine deal presents New Zealand with a difficult dilemma. On one hand old allies are forming a military alliance to confront an emergent China, ramping up their AUKUS relationship and their rhetoric magnifying China’s threat. On the other hand is New Zealand’s long standing carefully nurtured relationship with its major trading partner. Continue reading »

Labor talks the talk, but doesn’t walk the walk. Last week’s ‘‘final warning’’ from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – and the Albanese government’s refusal to be moved by it – should be a gamechanger in our assessment of Labor’s willingness to do what must be done. The IPCC’s message – driven home by Continue reading »

Australian legal and political history is littered with examples of petty and vicious prosecutions, notably against those considered dangerous tittle tattles who give the game away and seek to shine some light on the unpalatable practices of those in power. Such a person is Richard Boyle, a name to keep company with any number of Continue reading »

Mar 28, 2023 ROBERT SKIDELSKY Inflation and growth rates are increasingly determined by global events over which national policymakers have no control. Instead of clinging to the illusion that they can control the uncontrollable, governments should use fiscal policy to protect their most vulnerable citizens from disruptive external shocks. LONDON – In 1969, the British … Continue reading Can Governments Still Steer the Economy?

The Labor victory in NSW this weekend has put the Liberal Party on notice. While many local issues were in play, the increasing radicalisation of the party at federal and state levels is making it unelectable. The usual drongos’ voices cry, “Liberals must go further right to win,” but Australia’s superior electoral system will make Continue reading »

With the cancellation of the much hated “Mask mandate” on March 1, Hong Kong is now onto the final strait of its recovery from both the 2019/2020 western supported insurrection and the subsequent pandemic. And as I have previously predicted in Pearls and Irritations the hysterical western narrative, be it from governments or from western Continue reading »

A U.S. official admitted his call for Mexico to apprehend the pastor was “literally creative writing” and “without any basis.”

The post Pastor Wins Civil Rights Suit Against Trump Administration Border Surveillance appeared first on The Intercept.

(Again?) I’m unclear about the unique national security risk Washington believes Tik Tok to be. The questioning from members of congress last week showed they are clueless about social media so I’m not convinced. (Emptywheel has some thoughts on that question.) Be that as it may, I am very sure of the political risk that banning tik-tok will bring to the Democratic Party and I don’t know if these people are savvy enough to realize it. This article spells it out: For Chris Mowrey, a TikTok creator who posts popular videos focused on politics, the app represents more than just a platform: It provides a sense of community for his generation, connecting like-minded users and motivating them to take action. TikTok had a “massive influence on young people getting out to vote” in the 2022 midterm elections, Mowrey argued to me in an interview, particularly for those Democratic-leaning voters who may have felt isolated in a red state or area.

David Brooks

Though you live in Connecticut, you consider yourself a great admirer and friend of those who live in the Heartland, because every summer you eat at least one ear of corn. You claim to love listening to baseball on the radio, but you haven’t done so in years.

Paul Krugman

You call anyone with a PhD “professor.” After a recent trip to Italy, you decided to keep a few euros in your wallet as a reminder of the global economy’s complicated majesty. When your spouse asks you to organize your books, you laugh and take it as a compliment, but it’s started causing pretty serious turmoil.

Maureen Dowd

Instead of your usual white wine, you’ve recently started ordering champagne during work lunches, and honestly, everybody’s pretty okay with it. Against all odds, you like knitting now.

This kind of thing is nothing new for the forced childbirth crowd. But it’s even more reprehensible in the wake of Dobbs as desperate women from other states are having to travel long distances to obtain an abortion: Florida regulators over the last year punished more than a dozen abortion providers for violating a nearly decade-old law that requires pregnant patients wait 24 hours before getting the procedure. Florida legislators approved the law in 2015, but it remained in limbo after the American Civil Liberties Union challenged it. After a judge upheld the law in April, Florida’s abortion regulator, the Agency for Health Care Administration, almost immediately began issuing fines. Abortion-rights advocates say providers were given little chance to prepare for the law, which requires patients to wait 24 hours between clinic visits. In some instances, clinics were not in compliance with the “24 hour” law because of paperwork issues or computer problems. Florida has become a hub for abortions since the fall of Roe v.

"The bailout really did protect billionaires from taking a modest haircut."

US policy takes a hit in the Middle East.

The politics of loud and obnoxious Jamelle Bouie turns a phrase that distills the loud-and-belligerant’s approach to politics: the heckler’s veto. From Clear Skies to Healthy Forests and beyond, American conservatives have displayed a knack for couching objectionable legislation in unobjectionable terms. When Democrats were 19th-century America’s conservative party, they framed their defense of slavery as “states’ rights” — “pro-slavery” being too gauche even for Southern slave owners. MAGA Republicans’ 21st-century enthusiasm is for “parents’ rights,” a catchall for “pro-book-banning,” “pro-censorship,” and “pro-discrimination.” Particularly in Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’s Florida-based, freedom-frosted fascism incubator. Envious GOP governors in Texas and Virginia nip at his heels. Bouie explains: The reality of the “parents’ rights” movement is that it is meant to empower a conservative and reactionary minority of parents to dictate education and curriculums to the rest of the community.

Per person, the ECHR dealt with fewer human rights challenges concerning the UK than anywhere else in 2022, Josiah Mortimer reports

After being blacklisted as "anti-Semitic," Roger Waters has embarked upon a legal battle against German authorities over his support for BDS, criticism of the Israeli government and support for the Palestinian people.

The post Roger Waters V. the Machine: Inside the Pink Floyd Frontman’s Battle For Free Speech in Germany appeared first on MintPress News.

In a recent essay titled “What Economists (Including Me) Got Wrong About Globalization,” adapted from a forthcoming book on inequality, Krugman writes that he and other mainstream economists “missed a crucial part of the story” in failing to realize that globalization would lead to “hyperglobalization” and huge economic and social upheaval, particularly of the industrial […]

Almost four years ago, I became a Labour councillor in Leicester, serving my home ward of Stoneygate. My experiences have evidenced how unwelcoming and closed off the party is for young people, people of colour, and women—certainly if you dare to speak your mind. This was reaffirmed to me last week when the party barred […]

On a day of shame for the Labour party, a few stood firm – while some unions betrayed the movement. In last night’s PLP meeting, only Barry Gardiner spoke up for Corbyn at Labour’s parliamentary meeting As Skwawkbox reported earlier, the Starmerite – and Stalinist – drones on Labour’s national executive (NEC) have voted to […]

If this geopolitical shift continues, the world will, once again, find itself divided into camps. While it is too early to determine, with any degree of certainty, the winners and losers of this new configuration, it is almost certain that a US-western-dominated world is no longer possible. 

The post Xi’s ‘Chilling’ Remarks: What the New Multipolar World Means for the Middle East and Africa appeared first on MintPress News.

Came across this tweet about the Philadelphia water spillage the other day:

Some wars acquire names that stick. The Lancaster and York clans fought the War of the Roses from 1455-1485 to claim the British throne. The Hundred Years’ War pitted England against France from 1337-1453. In the Thirty Years’ War, 1618-1648, many European countries clashed, while Britain and France waged the Seven Years’ War, 1756-63, across significant parts of the globe. World War I (1914-1918) gained the lofty moniker, “The Great War,” even though World II (1939-1945) would prove far greater in death, destruction, and its grim global reach.   Of the catchier conflict names, my own favorite — though the Pig War of 1859 between the U.S. and Great Britain in Canada runs a close second — is the War... Read more

Source: The War of Surprises in Ukraine appeared first on TomDispatch.com.