Training AI to read novels might help.
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Pampered hernia patient Netanyahu is ultimately responsible for the destruction of more of the planet’s hospitals than anyone since the bombing of Hamburg during the Second World War. Normally, one would feel at least some, if not in fact quite a lot, of sympathy, for a gentleman of a certain age who has to go Continue reading »
On Easter Saturday, a friend and I drove down to Mullumbimby to hear Afghan war crimes whistleblower David McBride speaking at the Mullumbimby RSL. The previous Monday, I had watched the Four Corners program about David McBride, called Rules of Engagement. My friend hadn’t seen it, so we listened to it on the iPhone as Continue reading »
There is now a policy dispute about the roles of nuclear and renewable energy in future Australian low emission energy systems. The experience of China over more than a decade provides compelling evidence on how this debate will be resolved. In December 2011 China’s National Energy Administration announced that China would make nuclear energy the Continue reading »
Boris Johnson did it, Donald Trump specialises in it, Peter Dutton is trying it. All these conservatives whose economic policies serve the special interests of the highest income earners have based, or are trying to base, their political strategy on winning the votes of working class voters, particularly working class men, and even more specifically, Continue reading »
There is no government or agency or combination of them capable of conceiving and driving the kind and scale of change Australian schooling now requires. The ‘national approach’ installed by the Rudd and Gillard governments fifteen years ago has not worked and cannot. Its sponsor, the Commonwealth, should move or be moved to the margins or Continue reading »
What a flat white coffee reveals about our economy, $27 billion on the table for state governments, nothing about the Bruce Lehrmann defamation case, and Labor is slipping in the polls. Read on for the weekly roundup of links to articles, podcasts, reports and other media on current economic and political issues. Economics Australia’s position Continue reading »
As European leaders continue to import a version of U.S. militarism, rearmament will cost the Continent its postwar social contract. It is many years now since the French, bless them, revolted as Disneyland Paris arose near the previously uninvaded village of Marne-la–Vallée–Chessy. Soon enough came the Disney Hôtel New York, the Disney Hôtel Santa Fe, Continue reading »
One aspect of the recent revelations about the IDF’s Lavender AI system that’s not getting enough consideration is the fact that it is completely devastating to the narrative that Israel has been killing so many civilians because Hamas uses “human shields”. If you missed this story, a major report from +972 revealed that Israel has Continue reading »
He’s selling out the country for personal gain … again Brian Beutler points out in his fantastic newsletter today (subscribe here) that Trump’s extracurricular foreign policy activity is almost certainly in service of his election in November and suggests that the Democrats take this seriously: President Biden may have reached his wits end, however belatedly, with Benjamin Netanyahu. A readout of their most recent conversation suggests that, in the wake of the World Central Kitchen killings, and the subsequent flight-to-safety of humanitarian workers, U.S. aid will be conditioned going forward on a rapidly implemented ceasefire (of uncertain length) in order to meliorate the catastrophe on the ground.
Hey man, welcome to our brewery. I’m gonna be your draft list today. The first thing you should know about me is this: I’m approachable. I believe beer is for everyone. If that means I’m a draft list without a single beer that tastes like beer, then hell yeah, brother—that’s what it’s all about.
You seem like the type of guy who’s lookin’ to sip on a couple of easy-drinking light brews with the fellas. I bet you even wanna be able to stand up and walk in a straight line when you head out of here. Counter pitch: maybe you don’t?
Listen, I pride myself on my impressive and diverse range of beers, but every single one has an ABV of 7.5 percent or higher. No matter what beer you choose, you better buckle up, my man, because you’re about to black out before the sun sets.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has twisted himself into a pretzel trying to please his fractious caucus and he’s starting to show the strain. Unfortunately, the people of Ukraine are currently paying the price as he struggles with what appears to be a cage match with Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene who is making it clear that she intends to blow up the House of Representatives in an election year if she doesn’t get her way. The state of play remains what it’s been for weeks now. The Senate passed a tortuously negotiated bipartisan bill that included funding for Ukraine and the border months ago which the House rejected upon orders from Donald Trump who openly admitted that his motives were purely to benefit his campaign. Since then Johnson has been running around in circles insisting one day that he won’t bring any Ukraine funding bill to the floor and the next suggesting that he has an agreement on Ukraine that would include a provision that would seize frozen Russian assets and categorize the Ukrainian aid as a loan, an idea floated by Donald Trump and S. Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham.
Jessica Buxbaum explores the complex web of connections between celebrities, media companies, and pro-Israel organizations, as the battle for public opinion rages on.
The post Israel’s Celebrity Charm Offensive: The Truth Behind the Glamorous Trips appeared first on MintPress News.
Professor Ross Anderson, who died on March 28, was a great friend and ally to Open Rights Group. He said in jest that we’d set it up “because FIPR wasn’t radical enough”, which if you knew Ross, was the kind of sharp but well-meaning remark you could expect from him. He knew which side you […]
Rebecca Solnit speaks with Anand Giridharadas It’s a feature of our minds that we remember the coincidences, the little serendipities, and quickly forget events in life that, but for a second here or there, might have radically altered our lives, Brian Klaas writes in “Fluke.” We also too easily forget what’s accomplished and obsess over what’s not. “One thing I have taken to saying a lot is that amnesia leads to despair and it also leads to powerlessness,” Rebecca Solnit tells Anand Giridharadas. “People don’t trace the trajectory of change.” I find that a feature of some on the left, the humorless glass-half-empty set I sometimes refer to as left-wing fundamentalists. At The Ink, Solnit traces some of the many accomplishments progressive organizers have won over the last decade or so on human rights and on climate. But they are quickly forgotten as we tackle issues yet unresolved. “I think that a lot of American hopelessness, despair, cynicism, and defeatism is so tied to the inability to trace the arc of change,” Solnit says.
Green Party Presidential candidate Dr.Jill Stein joins Mint Press director and host of the MintCast podcast Mnar Adley to talk about Dr. Stein's position on Gaza, the two-party system, US militarism, climate change and her campaign objectives
The post Presidential Candidate Jill Stein On Gaza, The Two-Party System and US Militarism appeared first on MintPress News.
Only a minority of Brits back the plan pushed by right-wing Conservative MPs to quit the international court
Inhumanity is policy on Day 1 Donald Trump and his MAGA followers find community in “rejoicing in the anguish of those they see as unlike them,” Adam Serwer wrote in 2018. If Republicans reoccupy the White House in 2025, they plan to make a formal project of it. The Biden-Harris campaign wants to be sure you don’t miss that. We are all horrified by Israeli policy in Gaza, and by President Joe Biden’s tardiness in issuing a “tense” ultimatum to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “protect Palestinian civilians and foreign aid workers” (Reuters): “There was always going to be a point at which the Biden administration felt that the domestic and international cost of supporting Israel’s campaign in Gaza outweighed the benefit of what Israel was able to achieve on the ground,” said Mike Singh, a former National Security Council official on the Middle East. “What is remarkable is not that this is happening but that it took so long.” “Israel is better than the way this war is being waged. It is better than blocking food and medicine to civilians.
Though her family sometimes received food stamps and occasionally had their utilities cut off, Marcie Alvis Walker’s parents led her to believe that they were an average middle-class Black family. They encouraged her to pursue her dreams and told her that if she worked hard enough, she’d achieve them. The small catch was that Walker’s dream was an elusive one for any cash-strapped and undereducated Black woman: being a New York Times–bestselling author. Now, as a published non-bestselling author, she wishes she’d had a backup plan.