Trump is running on an explicitly transactional platform planning to enact draconian tariffs on virtually everything because he thinks he can strong arm other countries into doing his bidding — which would crash the world economy and provoke hostility among friends and foes alike. I don’t think that’s what most of the country means when they say we should engage with the world. Here’s what German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said about Biden over the weekend: “I think that Joe Biden is someone who is very clear, who knows exactly what he is doing and who is one of the most experienced politicians in the world, especially when it comes to international politics. In a difficult situation like this, where a war is taking place right here in Europe, after Russia invaded Ukraine, where many, many other conflicts are raging around the world, this is an asset, a good thing, and therefore I can only say that this is a man who knows exactly what he is doing.” Or we can have an ignorant, malevolent, pathological liar in charge. That’s the choice.
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A majority of Australians want a ceasefire in Gaza, but the Australian Parliament seems more preoccupied with political brinkmanship than recognition of this tragedy. The first parliamentary debate occurred immediately after the Hamas attack on Israel when this atrocity was immediately condemned recognising the human impact of this act of terrorism. Yet for the last Continue reading »
The manipulation of truth and the acceptance of self-fabricated narratives can have devastating consequences, akin to the fate of Narcissus in Greek mythology, who, entranced by his own reflection, was consumed by self-love to the point of destruction. Similarly, the propagation and strategic use of misinformation as a political tool has serious consequences. In February Continue reading »
Australian citizen Yang Hengjun’s death sentence for espionage in China has complicated the improvement of China–Australia relations. The case highlights concerns about China’s legal system, particularly regarding national security cases where the judiciary lacks transparency and independence. Despite international condemnation, China continues to issue numerous death sentences. The case also underscores the growing mistrust and Continue reading »
Historically ignorant strategists urge people to their deaths to sustain the illusion of American primacy. But the problem of dealing with a belligerent, crumbling, supremacist USA is the true geopolitical challenge of the age. Michael Pezzulo’s warcry, “The challenge of Communist China”, is a dangerous pose to straddle world history and a sign the USA’s Continue reading »
A predisposition to secrecy still handicaps integrity in Australian government. The many who feel that the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) made a very serious error of judgment in deciding not to pursue a reference from the Robodebt Royal Commission will feel somewhat relieved that the NACC Inspector, Gail Furness, SC, will be holding an inquiry Continue reading »
The terms of privatisation included an anti-competitive restriction on the development of a commercial-scale container terminal at Newcastle, primarily to boost the sale price of Port Botany. Everyone in Australia, and indeed beyond, has a stake in the successful transformation of Newcastle and the coal rich Hunter region of NSW. Why? Because in case you Continue reading »
Nahdlatul Ulama (NU)(revival of the scholars) is Indonesia and the world’s largest Islamic organisation claiming almost 100 million members. If it digs coal it could become mega-rich. How dirty work marries with sending souls to paradise only Allah knows. President Joko ’Jokowi’ Widodo has four months left in office, enough time to sow division before Continue reading »
Israel has been poisoned by the psychosis of permanent war. It has been morally bankrupted by the sanctification of victimhood, which it uses to justify an occupation that is even more savage than that of apartheid South Africa. Its ‘democracy’ — which was always exclusively for Jews — has been hijacked by extremists who are Continue reading »
The dead children don’t affect me like they used to. The images. The videos. They still disturb and horrify, but not like they did in the beginning. Not anywhere close. And, honestly, I hate it. I hate that that part of me has been stolen. As much as I hated having my heart kicked around Continue reading »
This Thursday, BBC iPlayer and BBC Four viewers will get a chance to see "Pyramids of Mars" spotlighted on Doctor Who: Tales of the TARDIS.
There are Democrats out there who say the Biden campaign shouldn’t run ads like this. They say nothing matters but voters’ perceptions of the economy. I don’t think that’s true. (It certainly isn’t true of the MAGA people who are all about cult worship and culture wars.) And I don’t think it’s a good idea to push disinformation even if it’s in service of assuaging people’s concerns. The truth is the best way to go. And the truth is that some people are economically insecure. Millions of them. And Biden has done as much as any president in my lifetime to address that. Nonetheless, it perennially exists in our country and you can’t sugar coat it. Some people need help. At the same time, the economy really is in a comparatively good place with lots of jobs, inflation coming down sharply and roaring markets which should be celebrated, not downplayed. Democrats do themselves no favors by being the Debbie Downer party while Trump is out there selling himself as having the greatest economy the world has ever seen.
Fossil fuel companies and trade groups are using essential pipeline safety legislation to further criminalize pipeline protests.
China used trade protection and cheap wages & grabbed industry from the leading industrial power exactly the same as the US did with Britain.
Ah, childhood! I remember it fondly and often. Getting grass stains on my knees, eating fruit roll-ups, and most importantly, not being burdened by constantly reminiscing about my childhood.
Life was so simple then. No responsibilities, no cares, no memories of fifteen to twenty-five years earlier to warp into the romantic if misguided belief that things used to be better than they are now. I miss it so: the absence of anything to miss!
So much about the world has changed. Namely, enough time has elapsed for me to become aware that the world has changed—and is, indeed, always changing. Things just aren’t the way they used to be, because nothing can move through time and remain exactly the same. Also, “the way things used to be” involved me not perpetually thinking about whether things are the way they used to be or not.
Over the weekend Donald Trump committed one of the worst verbal “glitches” of the campaign so far. After delivering his standard line about how Joe Biden should be forced to take a cognitive test and rambling on about how he had “aced” his, Trump then said: “Doc Ronny Johnson, does everyone know Doc Ronny Johnson from Texas? He was the White House doctor and he said that I was the healthiest, he feels, president in history so I liked him very much.” Trump was very close with this former admiral (busted down to captain for his inappropriate behavior, drinking and drug use) doctor, now congressman. I wrote about their relationship some years back: Brig. Gen. Dr. Richard Tubb, said in a letter that the doctor had been attached like “Velcro” to Trump since Inauguration Day. Tubb explained that [the] office is “one of only a very few in the White House Residence proper,” located directly across the hall from the president’s private elevator.
UAVs continually kill civilians, but the U.S. military wants to expand its arsenal with an army of new, mass-produced kamikaze AI drones.
The post Cheap and Lethal: The Pentagon’s Plan for the Next Drone War appeared first on The Intercept.
Ashes, ashes “Motivated ignorance,” writes Peter Wehner in The Atlantic, refers to willfully blinding oneself to facts. It’s choosing not to know. In many cases, for many people, knowing the truth is simply too costly, too psychologically painful, too threatening to their core identity. Nescience is therefore incentivized; people actively decide to remain in a state of ignorance. If they are presented with strong arguments against a position they hold, or compelling evidence that disproves the narrative they embrace, they will reject them. Doing so fends off the psychological distress of the realization that they’ve been lying to themselves and to others. This is why, as cognitive scientist George Lakoff suggests, the truth (facts) will not set them free. Or as his former student, Anat Shenker-Osorio, quips, truth for some people is more an “I’ll see it when I believe it” proposition and not the other way around. Motivated cognition, she told Lawrence O’Donnell, “is a helluva drug.” Motivated ignorance is a widespread phenomenon; most people, to one degree or another, employ it.
Ahmed AbdulKareem uncovers how American airstrikes, guided by Israeli intelligence operations and Yemeni informants, are amplifying civilian casualties in Yemen and shedding light on a covert military strategy with global implications.
The post Inside Force 400: Spies and Sabotage in America’s Covert War on Yemen appeared first on MintPress News.