Last week, as I was losing my voice, I had a really fascinating conversation with Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times, moderated by Katrina vanden Heuvel of The Nation, about the state of American democracy. You can watch it here. It was a wide-ranging discussion: we talked about whether fascism is a good model for understanding the contemporary American right, the helps and hindrances of the Constitution, the virtues and vices of returning to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries for insights into current events, and more. Bouie is one of those rare political writers who really knows his history; it’s almost never that I read one of his Times columns without learning something I didn’t know about the American […]
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First Things describes itself as “America’s most influential journal of religion and public life.” You might...
The primary social forces disrupting American society today are modern versions of two false religions.
~ Today's Water Cooler ~
The Liberal party is broken. Riven by ideological differences, petty personal feuds and bitter factional disputes, the party which once dominated the Australian political landscape so completely, is today uncertain of what it stands for and incapable of working it out. After suffering yet another electoral rout on the weekend, which saw the sole mainland Continue reading »
A controversy threatens to blow the alliance’s nuclear submarine deal out of the water, writes Maddison Connaughton in a new article for Foreign Policy. In the wake of Paul Keating’s dramatic foray into the debate over the Aukus defence pact, much of the breathless media coverage zeroed in on his personal criticisms of Prime Minister Continue reading »
At first sight, the Chinese President’s twelve proposals to achieve peace between Russia and Ukraine appear plausible. Claims about common interests are supported by references to parties working together for peace and security, abiding by international humanitarian law, sustaining an existing world economic system and insisting that nuclear weapons not be used. These sound like Continue reading »
The fact that the IPCC incorporates in its core business risks of failure to the Earth system and to human civilisation that we would not accept in our own lives raises fundamental questions about the efficacy of the whole IPCC project. If low risks of failure are taken as a starting point, “net zero 2050” Continue reading »
The media here thought the terrorism over past decades in Australia fell from the deep blue sky and had no relationship to the help John Howard gave to George Bush in the illegal and immoral invasion of Iraq. Twenty years after that invasion, the Australian media continue to fail us badly over its coverage of Continue reading »
The biggest threat facing the USA is not the collapse of democracy. Even though a twice impeached former president talks of death and destruction if he is arrested, while New York’s Attorney General seeks his indictment. Wokeism isn’t the biggest threat, although, due to death threats to staff, the Florida Education Department is cancelling the Continue reading »
Early this month, the Daily Mail published a story online implying three Chinese men taking photos at the Avalon Airshow in Melbourne were spies. After complaints and an open letter condemning the paper for racially profiling the Chinese communities and throwing around baseless accusations, the story disappeared from the Mail’s site without explanation. Then, The Sydney Morning Continue reading »
In the face of the shocking anti-trans and neo-Nazi rally last Saturday in Melbourne, it’s a time for solidarity – visible solidarity with those we love and all who walk with them. Show your support by joining me at 5.30pm Friday, March 31st at the State Library, Melbourne. Let’s reclaim the streets together. Dear friends, Continue reading »
It’s looking dicey for the latest Great Whitebread Hope Nobody has ever absorbed the right-wing politics of grievance as eagerly as Donald Trump. In anticipation of his possible run for president in 2016, one of Trump’s smartest moves was to deploy aide Sam Nunberg to listen to talk radio for him and give him a rundown on all the talking points floating around in the right-wing fever swamp. He was a CNN guy but he knew that whatever Fox News and Rush Limbaugh were talking about was what the base of the Republican Party was interested in and that’s where he would aim his candidacy. As it happened, Trump found that he and they were very much on the same wavelength. He didn’t even attempt to please the political establishment or cater to their needs. Trump runs almost entirely on instinct. He’s bragged openly that he doesn’t need to learn anymore because he already knows everything he needs to know. In business, he refused to look at marketing data and analyses because he trusted his personal vibes over a bunch of pointy headed numbers crunchers. He hired people because they genuflected to him, not because they had any expertise.
Doctor Who 60th-anniversary directors Chanya Button, Tom Kingsley & Rachel Talalay had some thoughts to share about the new TARDIS look.
“Twitter users will need a ‘verified account’ to get recommended on the platform’s For You page starting on April 15th, according to a Monday evening tweet from CEO Elon Musk. Given that Twitter has promised to start dismantling the ‘legacy’ verified system at the beginning of April, that appears to mean that you’ll have to be a company, government entity, or Twitter Blue subscriber if you want to pop into the feeds of people who don’t follow you.” — The Verge
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Uruk-hai,
Starting April 15, the White Hand of Saruman will only be given out to Uruk-hai who have a paid subscription to SaruBlue. You do not know pain, you do not know fear, and you will taste man-flesh, all for just $8 a month.
I realize this is a change from our previous model, in which White Hands were given out to all my perfected, fighting Uruk-hai, but this subscription-based model is the only realistic way to ensure true, authentic Uruk-hai are within our midst.
The post Doctor Who Magazine 589 appeared first on Doctor Who Magazine.
Fox is NOT a journalistic entity, it’s a political operation.A person working for a PAC wouldn’t get congressional press credentials, but Fox does.It’s time to revoke the congressional press credentials for anybody from #Fox. I’m happy Marcy started the conversation. I want to move it forward. I think that de-credentialing should be one result following the resolution of the Dominion case in favor of Dominion. Why Bother To Revoke Fox’s Credentials? Press credentials have VALUE to Fox. It allows them, as a political operation, to masquerade as a news organization. I’m making the case that Fox is like the RNC or a Political Action Committee and not a journalistic entity, therefore they are not entitled to the benefits and protections we offer journalistic entities in America. Having Congressional Press credentials is a sign of legitimacy. Not having them wouldn’t mean they couldn’t still do stories about congress, but NOT having them, and the REASON they don’t have them sends a message to everyone. I’m already hearing all the defeatist responses from the left about trying to do this.
Hannah Farber discusses her book and explains how the insurance business and the United States discovered that they were good for one another.
Earlier this week, I was at a meeting to discuss the question whether my university should cut its ties with the fossil industry, or else impose additional conditions on working with partners from fossil industries. There was quite some agreement that the university should think hard about spelling out and endorsing a moral framework, and […]
“Any attempt to raise said hand would result in excruciating, unbearable pain,” the note from the Fox News host’s orthopedist said.
Donald Trump is not being targeted for the misdemeanors and serious felonies he appears to have committed but for discrediting and undermining the entrenched power of the ruling duopoly.
The post Chris Hedges: The Donald Trump Problem appeared first on MintPress News.
“any reasonable method to promote peace” “The first militia church I went to I thought was a fluke,” Jeff Sharlet (The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War) told MSNBC’s Chris Hayes Tuesday evening. “And then I started to realize that churches were arming up with the expectation of civil war.” “The doomsday prepper of the past has become a mainstay of rightwing culture,” Sharlet found in his research travels. Sharlet writes about Ashli Babbitt, shot and killed by Capitol security as she tried to climb through broken glass into the Speaker’s Lobby on Jan. 6. I did not know law enforcement had found a weapon on her body inside the ambulance. Babbitt’s knife appears on the cover of Sharlet’s new book. It’s one of those details that the MAGA right does not want or need to know. It detracts from the near-virginal image MAGA Republicans have built up around her since the insurrection. “They were aging Ashli back” within days, Sharlet says, making her “smaller, younger, as if whiter.” A young white girl.