Senior political office is a hazardous place where job security can be fortuitous. A few jump before things sour although the temptations to hang on are strong and the ends for those who do are often fraught with bitterness, anger and recrimination. This stew may be more risky now for Prime Ministers as politics has Continue reading »
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With the active support of Prince Charles, now King Charles, John Kerr planned the dismissal of Gough Whitlam in 1975. In early spring 1975 in the New Guinea highlands, the Governor General, Sir John Kerr sidled up to Prince Charles and suggested a quiet chat. Their topic? The possible dismissal of the Prime Minister. Prince Continue reading »
Despite claims to the contrary, Australia is not a well governed country. At all levels of politics, in businesses large and small, and in the wider society, governance systems right across the country have been hollowed-out. The term governance refers to how institutions that have varying degrees of power over us actually exercise that power. Continue reading »
Pope Francis has called upon Church authorities to cooperate with civil authorities in relation to child sexual abuse by Church personnel. When it comes to the Vatican cooperating, it is a different story. Continue reading »
Since the dawn of neoliberal policy time, at the start of the 1980s, the idea that the population must suffer short-term pain for the sake of longer-term gain has been frequently stated by government and senior public servants. It has been put again and again and still yet again, in recent times, by Reserve Bank Continue reading »
International Student activists succeeded in passing anti-transport discrimination motions at Transport Minister Jo Haylen’s Summer Hill Branch. Continue reading »
In 2024 the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Nihon Hidankyo, the grassroots collective of Hibakusha and Hibakusha Nisei (first and second generation surviving the atomic bombs). Since forming in 1956, they have urged governments globally to free the earth from weapons of mass destruction, while lobbying for trees, fish, cats, birds and all of Continue reading »
A new biography of Mitch McConnell drawing on his diaries and oral histories has some interesting tidbits: The comments about Trump quoted in the book came in the weeks before the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Trump was then actively trying to overturn his loss to Democrat Joe Biden. McConnell feared this would hurt Republicans in two Georgia runoffs and cost them the Senate majority. Democrats won both races. Publicly, McConnell had congratulated Biden after the Electoral College certified the presidential vote and the senator warned his fellow Republicans not to challenge the results. But he did not say much else. Privately, he said in his oral history that “it’s not just the Democrats who are counting the days” until Trump left office, and that Trump’s behavior “only underscores the good judgment of the American people.
Not that you asked, but I’m in the uniquely devastating position of being unable to have kids the “usual way” (sex). My doctor gives my husband and me a less than 10 percent chance of things “working out naturally” (also, sex). (He loves air quotes.)
I’m done crying over it. You know what I’m going to do now? IVF. That’s right: in-vitro fertilization, which you oppose for some reason. Still, that won’t stop me.
I can’t wait to trample your freedom with my own personal decisions. There’s going to be so much trampling up in here, and by “here,” I mean my uterus. But also up in your rights, somehow, in a way I’m not totally clear about.
We’ll start with some tests. I will be in stirrups up to the knees as a dye is injected into my hoo-ha. It will hurt like a mother. Did I choose infertility? No. But trying to have a kid in this incredibly difficult and painful way? Damn straight.
Detta överskottsmål, som kanske låter sunt och försiktigt och utgörande en del av vårt lutherska kulturarv och därmed en del av vår ”svenska identitet”, är enligt min mening både feltänkt och djupt förankrad i den 90-tals ideologi som få säger sig bekänna sig till idag, ”nyliberalismen”. Den är ett verktyg för att begränsa och hålla […]
People all over the world are losing everyything they have from hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding and fires. This is what Trump has to say about all that: Fact check, he did not have the cleanest air and water on record, not that it’s relevant to this conversation. He will make everything worse. He’s a moron who has no clue what he’s talking about. But you knew that.
BBC's Doctor Who released a Gallifreyan Translator - and we've already found one word that doesn't seem to work in The Doctor's language.
A historian who exposed the New England Journal of Medicine's silence on Nazi atrocities confronted the journal’s treatment of Gaza during a Harvard symposium.
The post She Exposed a Prestigious Medical Journal’s Silence on the Holocaust. Now She’s Asking About Gaza. appeared first on The Intercept.
Dr. Soma Baroud's life was dedicated to healing the wounded in Gaza. Her tragic death in an Israeli airstrike on October 9 is a reminder of the relentless violence faced by Palestinians, even those who save lives. This is the story of a sister, a healer, and a martyr
The post “Text Me You Haven’t Died” – My Sister was the 166th Doctor to Be Murdered in Gaza appeared first on MintPress News.
Keep Jimmy and Dave from Trump’s firing squad You know it. I know it. Mike Johnson and Jim Jordan know it. Donald Trump knows it all the way down to the toenails he can’t trim. Elect Kamala Harris or else Jimmy Kimmel and Dave Bautista will be among the first up against the wall in a Trump dictatorship.
The Department of Defense wants technology so it can fabricate online personas that are indistinguishable from real people.
The post The Pentagon Wants to Use AI to Create Deepfake Internet Users appeared first on The Intercept.
It was William Shakespeare who, in Troilus and Cressida, wrote, “One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.” And yet, in the polarized news cycle since Hurricane Helene ravaged the southeastern United States and the hurricanes have kept coming, we’ve heard a tale not of shared humanity, but of ruin, discord, and political polarization. Hundreds are dead from that storm — the deadliest to hit the mainland U.S. since Hurricane Katrina in 2005 — hundreds more are missing, and hundreds of thousands of residences are still without power or clean water. And in addition to the staggering human loss and physical damage, a hurricane of misinformation and division has continued to pummel the region. There’s Elon Musk’s politicized deployment... Read more
An experienced fixer for journalists covering Haiti, Jean often unexpectedly finds himself on the subject side of stories. After his son was kidnapped and his house taken, Jean decided to move his family out of Port-au-Prince to the Dominican Republic. In the new book, The Four Deportations of Jean Marseille, Jean tells us the story of this struggle to relocate, another change of country in his search for a better life.
Fox interview goes all gotcha, all the time You saw it. I saw it. We all saw it. Vice President Kamala Harris did an interview Wednesday with Fox chief political anchor Bret Baier and, as The New York Times framed it, got a debate instead. Ahead of a third presidential election with Donald Trump — now a convicted felon indicted for inciting an insurrection — as their candidate, MAGA Republicans routinely dodge answering, 1) Did Donald Trump lose in 2020? and 2) Will he/you accept the results? For voters not wanting a replay of Jan. 6, those are pertinent election issues. No, no, no, those are “gotcha” questions, Republicans object, as Speaker Mike Johnson did. (Will no reporter demand they explain what they expect to “get” if they answer?) Inside Fox’s Earth 2 bubble, Baier was all “gotcha” all the time. Baier asked Harris questions to which he really did not want her answers. He was not interested in revealing for his viewers her vision for America’s future. He was litigating the past. Baier interrupted. He talked over. He badgered. He baited. He oh-so-obviously tried to make Harris say Trump voters are stupid.