The wall I am talking about here is known as the separation wall, which the Zionist occupiers of our land began building in 2002. Two years later, on 30 July 2004, The International Court of Justice issued a “first advisory opinion”, finding that the construction of a separation wall inside the occupied Palestinian territories had to Continue reading »
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Voted many times by UK and US magazines as the most important public intellectual in the world, Noam Chomsky, scientist, linguist, human rights activist, suffered a stroke at age 95 and can no longer speak. Yet as 2025 begins, Chomsky at 96 gifts the world his examples of inquiry and dissent. These qualities he might Continue reading »
On June 21 1994 Indonesia’s information ministry withdrew the press permits of the weekly magazine Tempo, the weekly political tabloid Detik, and Editor, a new news weekly. Their critical reporting upset President Soeharto, particularly Tempo revealing conflict between cabinet ministers in the government purchasing naval vessels from the former East Germany. Journalists, rights activists, academics, Continue reading »
If only for Australia’s own security concerns, the strict application of ABC Editorial Policies in regard to Syria is vitally important. For the ABC to display bias for radical Islamist groups cannot bode well for us. It contravenes Australian beliefs and values meant to unite us. [This text below is a complaint sent to the Continue reading »
There is a belief widely held across the Western world: Chinese students are schooled through rote, passive learning – and an educational system like this can only produce docile workers who lack innovation or creativity. We argue this is far from true. A repost from November 05, 2024 In fact, the Chinese education system is Continue reading »
How long will Elon Musk last in the Trump orbit? Currently he seems to be ubiquitous but that presents a problem for Donald Trump and his massive ego. Musk has been a major presence in the Trump campaign – financially, through social media and also through encouraging tech bro endorsements. He has been promised big Continue reading »
Announced by the incoming Labor government, the University Accord process and review is being touted as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reimagine the role and funding of Australia’s 40-plus universities. With 1.5 million students enrolled, including 500,000 international students, and generating $35 billion in revenue, universities have been struggling in the wake of COVID-19. Andrew Norton, Continue reading »
Anyone who is not aware of the Israeli attempt to sink the aptly named USS Liberty in 1967 — and even those who are well acquainted with this brutal and deadly attack — should find it very worthwhile to watch the remarkable interview of a Liberty survivor at the link transmitted below, which, encouragingly, has Continue reading »
Just so we’re all clear, it is a fully established fact that the IDF is directly, deliberately killing civilians in Gaza. There was a time in the early days of the genocide when this could be disputed, but that is no longer true. The facts are in and the case is closed. It’s happening. Israeli Continue reading »
Whiny baby actually induced someone to ask if Biden would rescind the order: And then … what the hell? Is he on drugs?
On serving honorably With deep irony, Phil Klay, a novelist and a Marine Corps and Iraq war veteran, describes Donald Trump as “the least hypocritical president of my adult life.” The flag-hugging con man holds nothing sacred, defends no American values or principles. Asked about the nation’s military policy in Iraq, Trump’s response was “take the oil.” Twice. “A dumb answer, but a clear one,” Klay observes. “What a thing to ask soldiers to fight for.” But it was “bracing cynicism” that was “almost refreshing.” Even if it repudiates Americans’ belief, despite our failings, that when the country goes to war it must conduct itself and fight honorably. Trump famously considers those who serve honorably “suckers.” Klay recalls his Marine training (gift link): When I started Marine training, our instructors constantly harangued us candidates about the core military virtues and told story after story of past heroes who had lived them.
California looks to the renewable future, while New York probes the polluted past.
What will you see? Perhaps you noticed? C-Span operator swept their cameras about the U.S. House chamber on Friday during the vote to reelect Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) as Speaker. A huddle of white Republican men gathered here. A diverse cluster of Democractic women gathered for a selfie there. The cameras opened up the proceding, untethered from their normally fixed gaze. This is typical during a State of the Union Address but not House business as usual. Heather Cox Richardson took note in her Letters from an American substack: Today a new Congress, the 119th, came into session. As Annie Karni of the New York Times noted, Americans had a rare view into the floor action of the House because the party in control sets the rules for what parts of the House floor viewers can see. Without a speaker, there is no party in charge to set the rules, so the C-SPAN cameras recording the day could move as their operators wished. They did. Limiting what the public can can see of the House chamber will return soon enough. Limiting what you can see is already happening elsewhere. Over at The Washington Post, editors were deciding what their subscribers would see.
Doctor Who writer Steven Moffat on the recurring theme of people's consciousness and bodies being copied after death, and if they're the same.
MMTists often like to position themselves as the only ones to properly understand the ‘operational realities’ of modern monetary systems. Ironically, many of the claims made by MMTists on this topic are misleading at best. One common rhetorical tactic that I’ve noticed they employ, which often catches their critics out, is to use the term […]
On 9 February 1967, hours after the US Air Force had levelled the Port of Haiphong and several Vietnamese airfields, NBC aired a Star Trek episode featuring a concept that clashed mercilessly with what had just happened in Vietnam: the Prime Directive – a general ban on its Starship captains from using superior technology (military […]
The post Star Trek: A humanist communist manifesto for our times – UNHERD appeared first on Yanis Varoufakis.
A new internet star is born: Tupi the baby capybara! I co-sign this:
Jeffrey Alexander, a prominent sociologist and social theorist: Inside the culture and structure of modernity, good and evil are tensely intertwined. We should not be naïve about the evils of modernity. Modernity’s contradictions cannot be resolved in some magisterial new synthesis. It is a dangerous delusion to think modernity can eliminate evil; new kinds of […]
To all of you internet addicts like me, I hereby gift you with this marvelous piece by Chris Hayes in the NY Times. He talks about The Attention Economy”, which is the subject of his new book. An excerpt: In the wake of Donald Trump’s second electoral victory, a viral tweet from October 2016 once again started circulating: “i feel bad for our country. But this is tremendous content.” That probably seemed funnier before child separation and Covid. (Indeed, in 2020 Darren Rovell, who wrote it, posted, “Four years later. There is nothing tremendous about this content. I’m just sad.”) But for many millions of Americans, perhaps including the crucial slice of swing voters who moved their votes to the Republican nominee in 2024, Mr. Trump is the consummate content machine. Love him or hate him, he sure does keep things interesting. I’ve even wondered if, at some level, this was the special trick he used to eke out his narrow victory: Did Americans elect him again because they were just kind of bored with the status quo? I have no doubt about it!