Whereas once upon a time Australia was regarded as a country of goodwill, tolerance and decency, it is now reputed, worldwide, to be the country with the most inhumane treatment towards refugees. When I moved to the U.S. in 1981 I carried the Australian flag with an immature and ignorant pride, totally oblivious to the Continue reading »
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The human dynamic of subcultures was one of Anne Coombs’ preoccupations. She turned it into a skill that guided her activism and philanthropy. Both GetUp! and Rural Australians for Refugees, two of the causes for which she will be best remembered, relied for their success on mobilising people with shared values and beliefs. These movements Continue reading »
Graeme Johanson’s Searching for Elsewhere (Ginninderra Press, 2023) provides a compelling answer. His memoire, a gripping story from beginning to end, deals with the dangerous manipulation of young lives brought up in an extremely controlling sect with bizarre rules, destroyed families and strict separation from the World. The way out is painful. Graeme’s powerful story Continue reading »
For decades, the Indian state has suppressed the democratic rights of Kashmiris. Narendra Modi’s hard-right government is taking this pattern of repression to new extremes, with the complicity of Indian intellectuals who seek to toxify the cause of Kashmir. First published in JACOBIN July 16, 2023 India-controlled Kashmir is one of the most heavily militarised zones Continue reading »
The United States left Afghanistan in a state of dangerous and monumental disorder in 2021. Soon after, it made matters still worse by confiscating the meagre foreign exchange reserves of one of the world’s most deprived countries — shamelessly claiming that it was advancing certain human rights while doing so. Therefore, it took the US Continue reading »
It’s going to get worse: A Nebraska teenager who used abortion pills to terminate her pregnancy was sentenced on Thursday to 90 days in jail after she pleaded guilty earlier this year to illegally concealing human remains. The teenager, Celeste Burgess, 19, and her mother, Jessica Burgess, 42, were charged last year after the police obtained their private Facebook messages, which showed them discussing plans to end the pregnancy and “burn the evidence.” Prosecutors said the mother had ordered abortion pills online and had given them to her daughter in April 2022, when Celeste Burgess was 17 and in the beginning of the third trimester of her pregnancy. The two then buried the fetal remains themselves, the police said. Jessica Burgess pleaded guilty in July to violating Nebraska’s abortion law, furnishing false information to a law enforcement officer and removing or concealing human skeletal remains. She faces up to five years in prison at her sentencing on Sept. 22, according to Joseph Smith, the top prosecutor in Madison County, Neb. The police investigation into the Burgesses began before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022.
Or is it the stupid contrarianism? Tim Miller has put his finger on it. That’s all there is to modern “conservatism” (and, frankly, a certain segment of leftism too.) Basically, the future of American politics is just a bunch of snotty little adolescent bitches saying whatever it takes to get a rise out of their enemies. Gosh I wonder if people with a more … serious agenda might take advantage of this moment?
It’s the GOP way If you hadn’t heard, cruelty is the point. Government deriving its “just powers from the consent of the governed” is no longer operative for the GOP. Democracy is no barrier to America’s authoritarian right getting its way. Aside from insurrection, it does not get more blatant than this (NBC News): Alabama Republicans on Friday defied a U.S. Supreme Court order by passing a new congressional map that includes only one majority-Black district. The GOP-controlled Legislature had called a special session to redraw an earlier map after the Supreme Court reaffirmed a federal court order to include two districts where Black voters make up voting-age majorities, “or something quite close to it.” But on Friday, state Republicans approved a new map with just one majority-Black seat and a second district that is approximately 40% Black. […] Republican Gov. Kay Ivey signed the redistricting map into law Friday night. A federal court will hold a hearing on the map Aug. 14. Oh, the GOP is not done yet: The Justice Department has notified Texas that it plans to file a lawsuit over Gov.
The Italian Edition of The New Economics: A Manifesto (Keen 2021) will be published in November by Meltemi, and I will attend the BookCity book fair in Milan to launch the book on November 18th. I owe a great intellectual debt to many great Italian economists, from Pierro Sraffa (Sraffa 1960, 1926) and Pierangelo Garegnani … Continue reading "Preface to the Italian Edition of The New Economics: A Manifesto"
Siendo en su corazón una subdisciplina dentro de las matemáticas puras, los teóricos de juegos no están demasiado preocupados por si la teoría de los juegos representa fenómenos del mundo real. Bien. Pero como la mayoría de los científicos sociales tienen una opinión diferente, los teóricos de juegos también deben aceptar que, para la mayoría […]
Also, stock-trading lawmakers are put on notice, the EPA cracks on lead, incarcerated students regain tuition aid, and some nepo babies lose priority status.
Biden quietly reverses decades of antitrust policy A schoolteacher friend from the Boston area once dismisssed the “Taxachusetts” smear. She liked the services Massachusetts provided for her and her child. She did not mind paying for them. Imagine that. Franklin Foer examines the fetish — for fetish it is — behind making efficiency the highest good in setting business policy and practice. There is more to life than low, low prices. Not that federal policy since the Reagan era recognizes that. Or the Chicago school of economics. The Joe Biden administration has been quietly resetting federal policy on mergers, on antitrust and economic concentration. Since the Reagan administration stopped enforcing antitrust laws, Foer explains, “the American economy has grown dangerously concentrated, dominated by a shrinking number of airlines, banks, tech companies, and pharmaceutical firms (to name just a few examples). Corporate titans have amassed outsize influence over the political process, smothered start-ups, and often treated consumers with shocking indifference.” Readers don’t need this explained to them. They’ve lived it.
How should one approach reading? It’s probably a common pondering that everyone has had at some point about our attitude towards literature and reading. I myself find reason to contemplate this when my beloved — who tirelessly devours new books at a rapid pace — once again tries to persuade me to put back August […]
‘I know that many people are worried, but Spain is much greater [than Vox]’, insisted the country’s left-wing deputy prime minister Yolanda Díaz at the end of the final debate before Sunday’s general election. She came away from Thursday’s contest as the unanimous winner, forcefully confronting Vox’s far-right leader Santiago Abascal on workers’ rights and […]
Sexual abuse victims without the resources to fight off lawsuits may feel forced to recant their accusations — or never speak out in the first place.
The post Years After #MeToo, Defamation Cases Increasingly Target Victims Who Can’t Afford to Speak Out appeared first on The Intercept.
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The White House cat thinks she owns the place From NY Magazine: When discussing life in the White House during another town hall in July 2021, [Biden] remarked, “It is very hard to get comfortable.” While you might think the addition of a cat would make the White House feel more like a home, it seems that hasn’t solved the problem. In January 2023 the president revealed that his new cat Willow is adding to his discomfort. “Willow may walk in here any time now. She has no limits,” Biden said. “You think I’m kidding, I’m not. Especially in the middle of the night when she climbs up and lays on top of my head.” Of course she has no limits. She’s a cat.
One plaintiff vomited while recounting her ordeal. The case marks the first time patients denied abortions have sued a state since Roe was overturned.
The post Testifying Against Texas, Women Denied Abortions Relive the Pregnancies That Almost Killed Them appeared first on The Intercept.
This exoplanet’s sun should have obliterated its atmosphere. It's still going strong.
The post The Shiniest Planet Has Clouds of Metal and Glass appeared first on Nautilus.
Remember this? Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ campaign is planning a reboot, top campaign officials said, with a significant shift on messaging, events and media strategy. Expect fewer big speeches and more handshaking in diners and churches. There will be more of a national focus than constant Florida references. That was just a couple of days ago. Today: He an’t help himself. He’s still chasing the culture war fanatics. It isn’t a strategy. It’s him.
The US House held a “hearing” yesterday featuring “Democrat” RFK Jr. It was, as you might expect, a total shitshow. Some highlights. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said he compared COVID policies to the Holocaust. He got very indignant, denying it: He is a wack job. And so are his biggest fans — MAGA Republicans: