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So, it’s my birthday on Monday, which means I’m going to do a birthday inventory, as I do every year at this time. I try to do a comprehensive evaluation of where I am in life, what’s going well and what’s not. This year, Maj and I are travelling to Crete for a week-long trip, … Continue reading Birthday Inventory 2024 →

It’s time for this message: I listened to the Pod Save America interview with David Plouffe who’s working on the Harris campaign and he says they have found in their qualitative research that this message resonates. I don’t know if that’s meaningful, but I hope it is because it would mean that the batshit crazy cult worship is confined to a minority and the Democrats may win. Think about it. Here’s you have Trump acting like a lunatic on the stump and Republicans like Cheney and Pence along with most of his cabinet saying he’s unfit. If most people don’t find that disturbing we’re in bigger trouble than I realized. I’m reminded of Obama’s righteous indignation at his speech last week. “When did this become ok?”

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

Our five-minute scroll on X witnessed Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan telling CNN media agencies will reckon with their role in the genocide in Gaza, while the Israeli Minister for Social Equality declares she is proud of the ruins in Gaza. Doctor’s in Gaza release x-rays of bullets in children’s skulls. The French parliament erupts over a Continue reading »

Opposition leader and Australia’s next Prime Minister according to Sky News, Peter Dutton, has celebrated the news that he has risen in the polls by indulging in his favourite hobby of strangling puppies. ”As a politician you work hard and... Read More ›

I love autumn. I love the colors. The falling leaves. Pumpkins. Hay rides. Halloween. Football. Chilly evenings. Hot cider. With all this in mind, I picked up a half gallon of apple cider. And today it ended up being 80 degrees and sunny. I have the A/C blasting. No hot cider for me. Instead, aContinue reading Smirnoff Adam’s Apple, 1972 →

Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – October 13 2024

by Tony Wikrent

Strategic Political Economy

America Is Lying to Itself About the Cost of Disasters 

Zoë Schlanger, October 5, 2024 [The Atlantic]

It is not surprising that so many of us believed that after the Voice Referendum 2023 Indigenous people would be recognised in the Australian Constitution and their voices valued. The Uluru Statement from the Heart was so much more than a request to be heard. It was a generous gift from First Nations offering all Continue reading »

There was a time when Netanyahu’s tactics would go unquestioned. That time helps explain those who continue to give Israel unqualified and unquestioning support and ties in with the “hard man” image Peter Dutton wants to own, writes Michael Pascoe. Cullin-la-Ringo, near Springsure in central Queensland, is the site of Australia’s biggest single massacre of colonists in Continue reading »

“I find it offensive that this country that committed genocide against us is now allowing our country to be used as a base to advocate genocide against Palestinian people.” This was the last thing that Krautungalung elder Uncle Robbie Thorpe (uncle of Senator Lidia Thorpe) said to the supporters waiting with him outside the Melbourne Continue reading »

The significance of US strategic bomber deployments:Defence Minister Richard Marles played down revelations in late 2022 that up to six US B-52 strategic bombers are to be forward-deployed to Tindal Air Force Base, telling reporters at the time that ‘everyone needs to take a deep breath here.’ Marles implied that there was nothing new about Continue reading »

In the forthcoming October 26 state elections, my prediction is that Labor in Queensland will get hammered. As it happens, Labor in Queensland is the name of a political history that I co-authored with Sigrid Thorntons’s brother, Harold Thornton. In the recent Northern Territory election there was a 23 pre cent swing against the ALP. Continue reading »

President Bush declared the War on Terror in 2001. Dr Alison Broinowski AM, Australians for War Power Reforms (AWPR), former diplomat and Author, argues that America and its Western Allies including Australia have been involved in multiple ‘never ending’ foreign wars with no declaration in sight of victory. US President George W. Bush declared the Continue reading »

On January 13 this year, Taiwan, amid high hopes in the ruling party, held its quadrennial presidential/vice presidential/legislative election. It was expected to be a very consequential election. Taiwan’s future was said to be at stake. Post-election, the foreign media and Taiwan’s press alike proclaimed that the liberal, pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won the Continue reading »

As a transsexual woman driven by a deep curiosity about the flow of events, the past few years have been especially challenging. Nonetheless, I rose to the task, guided by the principle that truth must be defended. During this time, I have written 30 essays that meet high editorial standards, along with at least as Continue reading »

To appreciate the true magnitude of its disgrace, imagine the response if murdered Gazan journalist Hassan Hamad were an Uygur or a Tibetan. Earth, receive an honoured guest … In the nightmare of the dark / All the dogs of Europe bark, And the living nations wait, Each sequestered in its hate; Intellectual disgrace / Continue reading »

H/T to JV Last for flagging Alsobrooks’s excellent critique of the mealy mouthed Larry Hogan’s refusal to vote for Kamala Harris: I think the decision not to vote in a presidential election, for a senator, is a disqualifier. This job requires votes. Tough votes. That you have to make a decision. And for a person who says he can see a bipartisan way forward, but was unable to do the most bipartisan thing ever, in an election where he said he despises their nominee, but cannot bring himself to even vote for Vice President Harris, and in fact will have forfeited the chance to vote in three different elections rather than stand up and do the right thing, choose a tough vote, and vote for a Democrat? He voted for deceased individuals and said he will do so again in this election. And I think it is instructive of the way he would operate as a senator. It’s a disqualifier for anyone who knows Trump is unfit but refuses to vote for Harris. It’s especially disqualifying for a Senator who is basing his entire campaign on his willingness and ability to be bipartisan.

Kids today probably don’t know about punched cards, but when I was at school we all had to play around with them a bit as we learnt about state-of-the-art computing …. But the technology derives from weaving, and from the Jacquard loom of 1804.