Reading

Created
Thu, 17/10/2024 - 10:50
The onslaught of Israeli horror continues on Northern Gaza. Learn about the victim in the images shared across the world, Shaban al-Dalu, a 19-year-old university student. Israel has dropped the equivalent of six atomic bombs on Gaza, three times smaller than Hiroshima. We see horror in the aftermath as women and children are found in Continue reading »
Created
Thu, 17/10/2024 - 10:30
Sure. The House races are as close as the presidential race. Scott Perry is one of the worst MAGA congressmen in the country. And he’s in trouble: Perry, a former chair of the far-right House Freedom Caucus who was first elected in 2012, had reportedly done plenty to aid former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The FBI seized Perry’s cellphone in 2022, which led to the revelation of text messages showing his extensive attempts to install an attorney general who would help keep Trump in office. Perry’s preferred candidate was Jeffrey Clark, a now-indicted Department of Justice official whose main qualification was spreading claims of election fraud. I started by noting that Perry was the one who’d introduced Trump and Clark. He cut me off. “An introduction?” he said, incredulously. “Is that illegal now?” Perry accused me of repeating “a narrative that has been promoted by the left” that the mainstream media have refused to verify.
Created
Thu, 17/10/2024 - 09:00
I have often mused about the belief that the American Constitution is the best of all possible worlds, as least as it was taught when I was in school many moons ago.The Bill of Rights (with one notable exception) is great, laying out the ideals the country was founded on even if we’ve rarely fully lived up to them. The structure of our system, however, isn’t all that great. I’m not sure federalism was such a fabulous idea although I certainly understand why it happened. But there’s a reason no democracy in the world has adopted our system and that most of them have instead a parliamentary system which, frankly, just works better. The Senate was a mistake and the electoral college has turned out to be the train wreck quite a few of the founders predicted it would be. Other countries that once used such a system have gotten rid of it. We should too: The United States is the only democracy in the world where a presidential candidate can get the most popular votes and still lose the election. Thanks to the Electoral College, that has happened five times in the country’s history.
Created
Thu, 17/10/2024 - 04:58
The US decision to send troops to Israel has upended the focus of attention for all those, globally, who have attempted to stop both the ongoing genocide in Gaza, and the determination of the current Israeli government to create Eretz Israel: a territory incorporating – at minimum – all Palestinian land now occupied by Israel, Continue reading »
Created
Thu, 17/10/2024 - 04:57
Grassroots anti-AUKUS campaign, Labor Against War, has called on the federal Labor government to reveal the secret political undertakings it has said it has made to the US government as a condition for the continued pursuit of nuclear-powered submarines. Labor Against War national convenor Marcus Strom said: “ALP members are horrified that the Albanese government has made Continue reading »
Created
Thu, 17/10/2024 - 04:56
President José Ramos-Horta had a whirlwind visit to Sydney and Canberra on October 8-9, speaking to over 1,000 people at the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall and to the National Press Club in Canberra, as well as ABC Radio National Breakfast. The Greater Sunrise petroleum project was one of many issues the President addressed. The Continue reading »
Created
Thu, 17/10/2024 - 04:55
The ACT’s prison is run by a clique, with detainee bashings covered up, staff bullied into silence and the library better labelled “a supermarket” where any drug desired was freely available. This is the picture that is being inked in by former detainees and staff who have shown the courage to come forward after recent Continue reading »
Created
Thu, 17/10/2024 - 04:54
Last week the government launched a media campaign to “build awareness, trust, and use” of the system of aged care star ratings. The launch came a week after the Commonwealth Ombudsman told the Senate inquiry into the Aged Care Bill that “I am concerned that the current star ratings system is not sufficiently meaningful to Continue reading »
Created
Thu, 17/10/2024 - 04:52
Dr Geoff Raby AO, Australian Ambassador to China 2007-2011, Chairman, Geoff Raby & Associates, will Address the National Press Club of Australia on “Great Game On: China’s ascendency in Eurasia and the West’s Chussia Anxiety”. China has incrementally, but deliberately, built its influence and dominance over Central Asia and beyond that to Eurasia more broadly. Continue reading »
Created
Thu, 17/10/2024 - 04:51
South Korean novelist Han Kang has won the Nobel Prize for Literature, beating short-listed literary heavyweights like Thomas Pynchon, Haruki Murakami, Salman Rushdie, Gerald Murnane, and the all-odds-favourite, Chinese author Can Xue. Han Kang was as shocked as anyone else after receiving the call notifying her that she had won. When asked what she would Continue reading »
Created
Thu, 17/10/2024 - 04:41

Join us THURSDAY, October 17 at 1pm ET / 10am PT, for our regularly scheduled call to chat about all things Drupal and nonprofits. (Convert to your local time zone.)

We don't have anything specific on the agenda this month, so we'll have plenty of time to discuss anything that's on our minds at the intersection of Drupal and nonprofits.  Got something specific you want to talk about? Feel free to share ahead of time in our collaborative Google doc: https://nten.org/drupal/notes!

All nonprofit Drupal devs and users, regardless of experience level, are always welcome on this call.

This free call is sponsored by NTEN.org and open to everyone.