Reading

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Wed, 03/05/2023 - 05:30
They’re coming for no-fault divorce I saw this news making the rounds on twitter a few days ago and was astonished at the response. There seems to be quite a few pissed off men about this. I had no idea it was on the menu but it stands to reason that it would be. Ban abortion and birth control and end no-fault divorce. Family values, macho style: STEVEN CROWDER, THE right-wing podcaster, is getting a divorce. “No, this was not my choice,” Crowder told his online audience last week. “My then-wife decided that she didn’t want to be married anymore — and in the state of Texas, that is completely permitted.”  Crowder’s emphasis on “the state of Texas” makes it sound like the Lone Star State is an outlier, but all 50 states and the District of Columbia have no-fault divorce laws on the books — laws that allow either party to walk away from an unhappy marriage without having to prove abuse, infidelity, or other misconduct in court.  It was a hard-fought journey to get there.
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Wed, 03/05/2023 - 04:57
In the Sydney Morning Herald of 2 May, Matthew Knott, foreign affairs and national security writer, has written an alarmist piece on the inability of the Australian defence force to respond to alarming but plausible scenarios such as China establishing a military base in a nearby Pacific nation. Were I reading this on the train going Continue reading »
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Wed, 03/05/2023 - 04:56
The nation is bracing for austere budgets. Grim foreshadowing has prepared us for a challenging federal budget. The Victorian Premier has warned of “very difficult measures” in his state’s budget, and NSW has delayed its budget while the new cabinet grapples with “tough choices”. Budget expectation management is a perennial rite of autumn. But with Continue reading »
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Wed, 03/05/2023 - 04:55

Days before a failed drone assassination targeting Putin, Ukrainian banking baron Volodymyr Yatsenko offered a $500,000 bounty to any weapons maker able to land a drone in Red Square during Moscow’s upcoming Victory Day parade.  On April 23, a Ukrainian drone laden with 30 Canadian-made C4 explosive blocks crashed near Rudnevo Industrial Park in Moscow. Ukraine-based operators deployed the 37 LB arsenal in a failed bid to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was scheduled to visit Rudnevo that day.  […]

The post Ukrainian banker offers cash for drone terror in Russia appeared first on The Grayzone.

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Wed, 03/05/2023 - 04:55
There is a growing divide between voters, who according to the polls are increasingly favourable to the Albanese Labor Government, and media commentators, who are increasingly expressing disillusionment with that government. Next week’s budget may bring their sentiments closer together, though probably not. The Government is now well beyond its honeymoon period. Almost a year Continue reading »
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Wed, 03/05/2023 - 04:54
One of the many appalling consequences of establishing the Department of Home Affairs (DHA), and transfer of immigration compliance functions to Australian Border Force (ABF), was an extraordinary cut back in immigration compliance activity. While many will celebrate the reduction in immigration compliance activity, this fails to recognise the purpose of immigration compliance is to Continue reading »
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Wed, 03/05/2023 - 04:52
It may not be widely appreciated that door knocking religious proselytisers can be kept at bay by insisting they partake in discussions on public administration in exchange for whatever divine light is being diffused. It’s not that religion and public administration don’t mix; it’s that public administration is so tedious for all but those triple Continue reading »
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Wed, 03/05/2023 - 04:51
It seems the automatic go to for the ABC on matters military is Major-General Mick Ryan. His opinion is usually presented as unbiased fact. Is that the case? Mick Ryan, retired from active service, graduated Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, the U.S. Marine Corps University Command and Staff College and School of Continue reading »
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Wed, 03/05/2023 - 03:30
The NY Times reports: The only clue to the gambit was in the title of the otherwise obscure hodgepodge of a bill: “The Breaking the Gridlock Act.” But the 45-page legislation, introduced without fanfare in January by a little-known Democrat, Representative Mark DeSaulnier of California, is part of a confidential, previously unreported, strategy Democrats have been plotting for months to quietly smooth the way for action by Congress to avert a devastating federal default if debt ceiling talks remain deadlocked. With the possibility of a default now projected as soon as June 1, Democrats on Tuesday began taking steps to deploy the secret weapon they have been holding in reserve. They started the process of trying to force a debt-limit increase bill to the floor through a so-called discharge petition that could bypass Republican leaders who have refused to raise the ceiling unless President Biden agrees to spending cuts and policy changes.
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Wed, 03/05/2023 - 03:00

6:00 a.m. I awake in the dark, heart pounding. My raven black hair is damp with sweat. I was having the Visions again. I hoped for relief the night before the Big Teen Fighting Test, but it’s never that easy for a poor, bullied girl at Magic Private School. Luckily, I live upstairs from a café where the owner’s son is in love with me, so I get my usual cheese sandwich and try to calm my racing thoughts. Café Boy watches me while I eat it. His gentle face is especially ordinary today.

8:00 a.m. I head to school to meet up with my best friend, Givenchy Von Crystal. The Von Crystal’s are the most powerful family in the realm, but Givenchy is really nice, even though her whole family wants her dead. I don’t get why. She’s the only person who’s nice to me here (if I didn’t already mention it, I get mistreated by all the rich kids because I’m poor but powerful and have hypnotic ice-blue eyes). Givenchy’s biggest flaw is she isn’t very good at returning stuff when she borrows it. Also, I think she’s gay, but it’s not narratively clear.

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Wed, 03/05/2023 - 02:30
All Disney had to do was read Ron’s book to make their case: When the Walt Disney Co. went looking for evidence to feature in its new lawsuit against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, its lawyers found much of what they needed in DeSantis’s own recently published memoir. Buried in Disney’s complaint against DeSantis is something surprising. Numerous quotes taken from “The Courage to be Free” appear to support the company’s central allegation: that the Republican governor improperly wielded state power to punish Disney’s speech criticizing his policies, violating the First Amendment. Memoirs by presidential aspirants often lay out a blueprint for their coming candidacies. DeSantis’s does, too. It boasts extensively about his war on Disney to advertise how he would marshal the powers of the presidency against so-called woke elites. Disney’s lawsuit cites exactly these passages.
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Wed, 03/05/2023 - 01:42

Issue 48 of the Nautilus print edition combines some of the best content from our January and February 2023 online issues. It includes contributions from science writer Amanda Gefter,  astrophysicist Paul M. Sutter,  physician Rahul Parikh, author Philip Ball, and more. This issue also features a new illustration by Deena So’Oteh.

The post Print Edition 48 appeared first on Nautilus.

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Wed, 03/05/2023 - 00:55
Available Now: http://audible.com/stevemartin. This new audiobook incorporates a year's worth of conversations between Steve Martin and his friend and New Yorker writer, Adam Gopnik. In the audiobook, Steve talks (more candidly than ever) about magic, comedy, art collecting, writing, and music. Plus, it includes an original banjo score.
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Wed, 03/05/2023 - 00:30
Should we blow up pipelines? By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 28th April 2023 There’s a fundamental principle that should apply to every conflict. Don’t urge others to do what you are not prepared to do yourself. How many wars would be fought if the presidents or prime ministers who declared them were obliged […]
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Wed, 03/05/2023 - 00:30
“It’s a teaching and learning job” Candidates and officials could be using powers they don’t know they have for doing good, Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) argues. The American Prospect profiles the candidate for U.S. Senate from California: The tough-as-nails single-mom image caters to the legions of suburban parents in the Golden State. But what actually differentiates Porter from her main opponents in the California Senate race—progressive antiwar hero Rep. Barbara Lee and Trump impeachment manager Rep. Adam Schiff—is that she’s been able throughout her career to make progress without carrying institutional authority. Porter acknowledged that she, Lee, and Schiff would likely take the same votes, at least on the major issues. But there’s more to politics than that. “I just want to fix some shit,” Porter writes in her book.