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They aren’t even waiting until their Dear Leader is inaugurated: Acres of orange fields sat unpicked in Kern County this week as word of Border Patrol raids circulated through Messenger chats and images of federal agents detaining laborers spread on local Facebook groups. The Border Patrol conducted unannounced raids throughout Bakersfield on Tuesday, descending on businesses where day laborers and field workers gather. Agents in unmarked SUVs rounded up people in vans outside a Home Depot and gas station that serves a breakfast popular with field workers. This appears to be the first large-scale Border Patrol raid in California since the election of Donald Trump, coming just a day after Congress certified the election on January 6, in the final days of Joe Biden’s presidency. The panic and confusion, for both immigrants and local businesses that rely on their labor, foreshadow what awaits communities across California if Trump follows through on his promise to conduct mass deportations. “It was profiling, it was purely field workers,” said Sara Fuentes, store manager of the local gas station.
The prison occupies a powerful place in the American imagination. In film and television it...
An area larger Manhattan has burned down. In the middle of fucking winter.
I’ve been watching the reaction, and there’s a lot of screeching about DEI and bad fire management and so on and it’s true that California’s fire management isn’t good.
Whatever.
California’s had shit water management forever, and decades of shitty fire management. What’s changing is the climate.
California was paradise because it had a mediterranean climate. That climate is shifting north. California is moving towards a new climate. Like most such changes it’s a fits and starts thing: some years its the old normal, others it’s the new normal. The old vegetation, suited for the old climate, will go, often in fire, sometimes replaced more gently.
Michael Tomasky wrote an excellent piece today about the unaccountable president, laying out the process by which he gets away with everything. No one expects anything of him and no matter what he says, the right wing media, the Congress and his allies in the judiciary will back him up. As an example he suggests that even if Trump were to be found to have given nuclear secrets to North Korea he would either claim it was fake news and the entire wingnuts apparatus would launch into gear calling it another hoax or he would admit it, saying it was a perfect move of a very stable genius and they’d all back his decision as necessary for national security despite its madness. That is not an exaggeration. I believe there is nothing that can make them abandon their support at this point. He writes: Trump will be a completely unaccountable president, then, for this very simple reason: The only three power systems capable of holding him to account—the right-wing media, Republicans in Congress, and the Supreme Court—have no interest in doing so.
The urban inferno is a warning about America’s future — if we do not combat the climate crisis and adapt to its threats.
The author on losing his home to wildfire, finding strength in solitude, and his new book Aflame
The post Pico Iyer’s Wide-Awake Silence appeared first on Nautilus.
Apparently: Putin is very eager to meet Trump face to face, the Kremlin is making no prerequisite demands for the meeting to take place. There has presumably been a lot of back channel diplomacy before this official meeting. The Russian side aims to exclude Ukraine from the process completely and present itself to Trump as the side willing to compromise, while blaming Kyiv (and Biden’s administration) for the continuation of the war. Sounds totally believable. I wonder if Trump will let anyone take notes. Two buds hands in glove.
It seems like Western countries cannot draw lessons from their shameful past. Just as they appeased the Nazi and apartheid regimes, they are repeating their mistake by appeasing the Zionist regime in occupied Palestine while it’s waging a war of genocide against the Palestinian people. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has sent Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus to Continue reading »
The Eagles classic “Hotel California” could be considered an allegory for membership in the imperial system of the United States. At least to this point, that appears to be the mindset prevalent in Australia’s political, defence and security class, regardless of the harm that membership causes. It is time to check out. The end of Continue reading »
In Asian media this week: Biden insults close ally in protecting US interests. Plus: Indonesia becomes full member of BRICS; Myanmar resistance gaining wider control; Survival now Pentagon’s Pacific strategy; Yoon hiding behind barricade of buses and barbed wire; Jakarta launches free meals program. Joe Biden’s dying-days decision to reject Nippon Steel’s A$22 billion bid Continue reading »
Mark Dreyfus, the Australian Attorney-General, is travelling to Israel to pay fealty to an indicted war criminal, Benjamin Netanyahu. Dreyfus, a member of the current Australian Labor government has not criticised the ongoing genocide. Netanyahu wants the Albanese Government to ban protests in Australia against the Palestinian genocide, which Dutton would attempt, but Labor cannot Continue reading »
As the Trump presidency looms across America and the world, Australia faces major foreign and security policy challenges on three fronts: (i) How would a Dutton government respond? (ii) How would a renewed Albanese government respond? (iii) How would a minority Labor government respond? As blusterer-in-chief, Donald Trump is notorious for setting off policy hares Continue reading »
Just before last Christmas, the National Security Archive based at George Washington University, published an illuminating cable on US-Russian relations. Authored by political analyst E. Wayne Merry in March 1994 from Moscow’s US Embassy, it was sharply prescient – so much so that it had to be sent by the Dissent Channel to limit its Continue reading »
The presence of the Israel-Premier Tech cycling team in the forthcoming Tour Down Under is illegal under international law. The Australian Friends of Palestine Association is calling on government and private entities to prohibit the unlawful participation of the Israeli team in the event. I am writing as a member of the Executive Committee of Continue reading »
The most comprehensive study of Australian social cohesion — The Scanlon Foundation Research Institute Social Cohesion Mapping 2024 Report — has highlighted strains in Australia society which are not yet dire, but are disturbing. The Report is an annual survey which gauges Australians attitudes, perceptions and behaviours across 1000 indicators of social cohesion, multiculturalism, wellbeing Continue reading »
The Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix has already cost Victorians in excess of one billion dollars and will have cost us an estimated $3 billion by the time the contract ends in 2037. The Australian Grand Prix Corporation, a Victorian Government agency, is taking me to the Victorian Civil Administrative Tribunal at taxpayers’ expense to Continue reading »
An exemplary Christian and an exceptional American, President Jimmy Carter, who passed on last month, embodied the moral conscience of the world. His enduring legacy will continue to inspire generations to come. Though his presidency lasted only one term, Carter achieved notable foreign policy milestones, including the historic normalisation of diplomatic relations between the United Continue reading »
A job listing for the Super Bowl LIX halftime show offers $12 per hour — part of a long pattern of host-city residents getting the short shrift.
The post Everyone’s Making Millions But the Super Bowl Haltime Show Wants to Hire New Orleans Locals for $12 an Hour appeared first on The Intercept.