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Sun, 24/12/2023 - 10:00
(He’s not a horse…) I wrote about this the other day but it’s nice that the NY Times is putting this information into wider circulation. I hope they don’t just leave it at that. It’s evidence of Trump’s naturally fascistic personality and more people should know about it. It informs all his recent Nazi rhetoric: In 2020, President Donald J. Trump gave a campaign speech in Minnesota railing against refugees and criticizing protests for racial justice. Toward the end, he wrapped up with standard lines from his stump speech and praise for the state’s pioneer lineage. Then, Mr. Trump stopped to address his crowd of Minnesota supporters with an aside seeming to invoke a theory of genetic superiority. “You have good genes, you know that, right? You have good genes. A lot of it is about the genes, isn’t it, don’t you believe?” Mr. Trump told the audience. “The racehorse theory, you think we’re so different? You have good genes in Minnesota.” Mr.
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Sun, 24/12/2023 - 08:30
How much longer are we going to have to put up with these infantile temper tantrums? They’re children: Three Republican lawmakers from battleground states are trying to kick President Biden off their states’ ballots to “showcase the absurdity” of the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision to ban former President Donald Trump from the state’s ballot. The Colorado Supreme Court ruled this week that former President Donald Trump engaged in “insurrection” and is ineligible to appear on the state ballot.  “The absurdity of radical Democrat judges removing Donald Trump from the ballot in Colorado will be a stain on the American political system for decades,” state Reps. Aaron Bernstine of Pennsylvania, Charlice Byrd of Georgia and Cory McGarr of Arizona said in a press release.
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Sun, 24/12/2023 - 07:00
Laura Ingraham has a new theory. She thinks “the left” is torturing Dear leader with all this nasty “accountability” in order to get his followers so darned mad that they start to riot, giving “us” the excuse to declare martial law and crack down on them. I’m serious: “Given what we are seeing in the courts, at the DOJ, and even in state AG offices, and given Democrats’ ‘Trump is Hitler’ rhetoric—is it not logical, at least to consider, maybe even to assume, that some on the left are hoping to spark some type of civil unrest here?” Ingraham said. “Which would be followed, of course, by a mass crackdown on civil liberties, or the declaration of maybe a nationwide emergency? This isn’t a novel idea, of course. It’s exactly what Trump wanted to do during the George Floyd protests and what they planned to do if their fake elector scheme worked and the supporters of people who actually won the election took to the streets.
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Sun, 24/12/2023 - 05:30
Donald Trump told Hugh Hewitt that he would observe the peaceful transfer of power next time. Just as he did before. “Of course,” Trump responded to Hewitt when asked if he would hand over power peacefully if reelected. “And I did that this time. And I’ll tell you what. The election was rigged, and we have plenty of evidence of it. But I did it anyway.” Uhm, no he didn’t. Just look at that video above. I happened upon a piece in Just Security from February 2021 about the fascist parallels with Trump’s coup and the fascist themes in that film they showed at the ellipse to gin up the crowd. It seems newly …. relevant: Fascist thought Chapter 2 of Mein Kampf, Hitler’s first and most famous book, is entitled “Years of Study and Suffering in Vienna.” In it, he documents what he describes as his gradual realization that behind the various institutions of power were the Jews.
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Sun, 24/12/2023 - 04:59
Is there any light in the Christian message in the face of the horrors in the Ukraine and Gaza? Apart from wishing peace on Earth does Christian belief actually change anything? Well, along with Nick Cave, I don’t believe in an interventionist God. At least not a God sitting above our lives pulling the strings Continue reading »
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Sun, 24/12/2023 - 04:58
Out of our hearts can come thoughts that are pure and beautiful or “evil intentions, murder…” What we think and let influence our thinking shapes our words and actions, for good or ill. How important therefore are the choices we make! The choice to nurture love with words and actions that bring healing as compared Continue reading »
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Sun, 24/12/2023 - 04:57
…our list is a genuine plea for you to bring us a greatly improved integrity-related system that addresses all the shortcomings in the current arrangements. Dear Santa, I am writing this wish list on behalf of the vast majority of Victorians. Please don’t think we are being greedy as that is not our intention. Rather, Continue reading »
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Sun, 24/12/2023 - 04:56
Despite what we have we seen and learnt during 2023, the COP meeting failed again to take strong action on fossil fuels. Is nature for nature or only for humans?   COP out on phase out again The demand from climate activists at the recent COP28 meeting in Dubai was for a ‘Fast, Fair, Full, Continue reading »
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Sun, 24/12/2023 - 04:55
Mark J. Valencia, an internationally renowned maritime policy analyst focused on Asia, passed away on 6 December 2023 in Hawaii, surrounded by his family. A regular author for Pearls and Irritations, Mark was an Adjunct Senior Scholar at the National Institute for South China Sea Studies, Haikou, China; and a Non-Resident Fellow at the Huayang Continue reading »
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Sun, 24/12/2023 - 04:52
A Meditation for Those who are Grieving Loss during this Christmas Season, 2023 To write about grief at any time is difficult. To write about grief, as we migrate into the Christmas season, even more so. The character of Christmas as a season of enchantment, makes grief an ill fit. The character of Christmas as Continue reading »
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Sun, 24/12/2023 - 04:51
It’s time for governments around the world to condemn the injustice of Israeli apartheid and its brutal occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, to put sanctions on Israel as they did for apartheid South Africa. Israel’s friends amongst Western governments, including Australia, must stop being complicit in Israel’s moral self-destruction. The US veto of Continue reading »
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Sun, 24/12/2023 - 04:50
All sides of Australian politics have sustained pressure on the United States to drop the charges against Julian Assange. While the Cheng Lei experience might provide an instructive lesson on how to negotiate with what is a political charge, this may have to wait until after the 2024 election. 2023 was the year when the Continue reading »
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Sun, 24/12/2023 - 04:00
People love to denigrate Joe Biden as being senile and incoherent. Here’s Joe Rogan doing just that. Only he makes a little mistake: Yes, it was Donald Trump who said it. And he is is far more incoherent and weird than Biden has ever been. Here’s my favorite: But really … tell me that this man is all there: I wish I understood why he is given a pass while Biden is harassed for his rather normal verbal stumbles. Maybe it’s the make-up and hairspray obscuring how old Trump really is. Happy Hollandaise!
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Sun, 24/12/2023 - 02:03
Well, you know that, thanks to Maria’s lovely post earlier this week. I’ll post a long, maybe self-indulgent, remembrance in a week or two (I’ve been overwhelmed by things this week, including the kind of staggering outpouring of affection ad memories on social media, in my inbox (Among the many messages came a lovely email […]