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MODERATOR: Welcome to our final presidential debate. Per the rules agreed upon by both candidates, President Trump is allowed to have Cyril, his African grey parrot, on his shoulder throughout the debate, but he may not receive advice or answers from him. Vice President Harris is allowed to have binoculars around her neck due to fall warbler migration. We will cut you off if you go beyond your allotted time or if Cyril starts shrieking. Let us begin…

THE ECONOMY

MODERATOR: Despite robust economic indicators, Americans are paying more for essential items at the grocery store and the pump. How will you address this?

TRUMP: I drove to Kearney, Nebraska, to see the sandhill crane migration, and gas was a hundred dollars a gallon, maybe more. Americans are having to choose between everyday necessities and the most spectacular bird migration in North America. It’s not right.

How much longer are the world’s leaders going to stand by and watch children being shredded to bits, doctors and nurses killed, arrested, detained and tortured, hospitals destroyed and schools bombed, the environment destroyed, humanitarian aid denied and a genocide committed in Gaza? Do we have to remind our leaders again and again that this Continue reading »

Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong has finally acknowledged that Israel is in gross breach of international law, and must not ignore the United Nations, as it continues its ruthless military attacks on the people of Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon. In a statement this week rejecting the decision of the Israeli Parliament to ban Continue reading »

A sustainable peace settlement in Gaza needs to meet the legitimate demands of the key parties, but given their inability to negotiate such an agreement themselves it will need to be proposed and implemented by the US and the major Arab nations under UN auspices. Yesterday,  Part 1 of this article discussed the history of Continue reading »

If the upcoming drug summit is anything like its predecessor in 1999 then some invited people will present research results and facts which most policy makers ignore now. It will suggest ways in which laws might be altered beneficially. It might suggest changes to make our approach to drug use more humane and more effective Continue reading »

So Bridget McKenzie thinks Lidia Thorpe’s protest against King Charles raises some “quite tricky constitutional questions”. Yes it does, but not the ones she thinks. When Australians go to the polls for each federal election it is not a top of mind consideration for most that anyone we elect will be prohibited from taking up Continue reading »

The era of the superpower is over. The new missile and drone technologies have made naval dominance impossible and ended the ability to devastate relatively advanced nations without them being able to shoot back. There is no power in the world that has the capabilities and might of the old USSR and the USA from 1945 to 2010 or so.

We have three great powers: China, the US and Russia.

There are regional powers: Brazil and Iran and the EU and Turkey and Japan and even India, which punches way below its population numbers.

But even a backwards, bombed to hell country like Yemen can defy America’s hold on the seas.

It took less than a week for the reality to be exposed. Even Deputy PM Richard Marles must now acknowledge that the nation next door he praises for its moderation and democracy is now a military dictatorship and a serious threat. Proof absolute was presented on Friday, five days after his inauguration, when new Indonesian Continue reading »

Decisions taken at last week’s BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia, will have a significant impact on the Global South and on the Western world, as the movement towards “de-Westernisation” gathers momentum. The conclusion of the 16th BRICS summit held in Kazan from October 22-24 resulted in important decisions. It should be noted that BRICS (Brazil, Continue reading »

This is a pretty good endorsement aimed at wavering Republicans: Apparently, Schwarzenneger is one of the most admired Republicans in the country (go figure) so maybe this will help? I dunno but I’ll take it.

Maintaining the £3bn tax break for motorists has been a long-term campaign of The Sun newspaper

Speculations that Italian Americans’ problematic hero, Christopher Columbus, might have actually been Jewish were all...

In front of an enormous crowd of 75,000 people last night, Vice President Kamala Harris gave what was billed as her “closing argument” on the Ellipse, site of Donald Trump’s infamous insurrection incitement speech on January 6th. There were no insult comedians or crude radio talk show hosts or ancient wrestling stars ripping off their shirts. It was just her, standing before that massive crowd laying out the stakes in the election and offering her vision for the future. Much of her speech was familiar to those of us who have followed the campaign closely. Her indictment of Donald Trump was crisp and direct and her list of policy objectives was meticulous and thorough. But she was also obviously making a pitch to any swing voters who are still on the fence. She said: I will always listen to you even if you don’t vote for me, I will always tell you the truth, even if it is difficult to hear. I will work every day to build consensus and reach compromise to get things done. She went on to promise to listen to people who disagree with her and, unlike Trump who considers them an enemy, she will offer them a seat at her table.

A ballot initiative to enshrine reproductive rights in the state constitution has a groundswell of support. Its success hinges on turnout.

The post Missouri Could Become the First State to Overturn a Total Abortion Ban appeared first on The Intercept.

Our Ubu is the Savage God who embodies the worst of us.

The Seoul neighborhood of Bogwang-dong sits on a steep hill rising over the Han River. In Korean, neighborhoods built on hazardous slopes are called dal-dongnae,…

It’s ghosts, goblins and yahoos season Like Lewis Carroll’s oysters, election conspiracy theories are coming “thick and fast,” and “more, and more, and more.” A voter engagement group yet unnamed by Pennsylvania law enforcement submitted batches of voter registration applications suspected of being fraudulent both in York and Lancaster counties. Or about 60 percent of those examined in Lancaster. “It is not uncommon, especially in presidential election years, for paid workers of such groups to turn in fabricated applications,” explains Katie Bernard of The Philadelphia Inquirer. It won’t matter who is paying the group. Donald Trump will use the episode to declare the election invalid when he loses Pennsylvania next week. Bernard deconstructs Trump’s claims about what elections officials discovered: Lancaster County was not “caught with 2600 Fake Ballots and Forms, all written by the same person,” as former President Donald Trump claimed on Truth Social Monday night.

Our friends at 270 Reasons are gathering a polyphonic orchestra of brilliant writers, teachers, doctors, filmmakers, artists, and citizens of all kinds to weigh in about their plans to vote this November. These opinion essays run the gamut from advocacy for basic human rights to acutely personal mini-manifestoes. Read the rest over at 270 Reasons.

Because Her Policies, Character, and Leadership Ethos
Align with My Core Values as a Veteran

In 2008, I was stationed at what was then known as Fort Hood, Texas, and I watched on TV as Barack Obama was elected president. It was a profound moment for me personally, as I realized that if “a skinny kid with a funny name” could be elected president of this country, then there was hope after all for me, and for my son, who was months old at the time. I deployed to Iraq less than a year later.

“I should have used Saran wrap, but I’m not above eating the stale remains of the pickleball player’s soul.”

I yawn out a plume of black flies, then slither out of bed and over to the Keurig machine. In my haze, I accidentally puncture the last pod with a gnarled claw, causing coffee grounds to explode all over the floor. Beelzebub’s breasts! Guess I’m going out for coffee.

I’ve been famished since I woke up, so en route, I swoop down to bum a quick breakfast off a man wearing a THIS IS WHAT A FEMINIST LOOKS LIKE T-shirt. I sink my talons into his chest and extract the glistering, lumpen essence beneath, then cram it into my maw.

For those of you wondering what a feminist tastes like, he’s a pleasantly complex blend of saccharine and bitter notes. His aftertaste whispers, “I’ve never cheated on my girlfriend, but only because I haven’t had the chance.”

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