Reading

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Fri, 19/04/2024 - 06:30
They make mistakes The NY Times reports: Israel was mere moments away from an airstrike on April 1 that killed several senior Iranian commanders at Iran’s embassy complex in Syria when it told the United States what was about to happen. Israel’s closest ally had just been caught off guard. Aides quickly alerted Jake Sullivan, President Biden’s national security adviser; Jon Finer, the deputy national security adviser; Brett McGurk, Mr. Biden’s Middle East coordinator; and others, who saw that the strike could have serious consequences, a U.S. official said. Publicly, U.S. officials voiced support for Israel, but privately, they expressed anger that it would take such aggressive action against Iran without consulting Washington. The Israelis had badly miscalculated, thinking that Iran would not react strongly, according to multiple American officials who were involved in high-level discussions after the attack, a view shared by a senior Israeli official. On Saturday, Iran launched a retaliatory barrage of more than 300 drones and missiles at Israel, an unexpectedly large-scale response, if one that did minimal damage.
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Fri, 19/04/2024 - 05:39

I attended my first DrupalCon in 2010 in San Francisco, and since then have attended six more in the US and two in Europe.  Many elements stay the same, and are a welcome and treasured part of the DrupalCon experience: The DriesNote, the group picture, the keynotes, the BOFs, the sessions and trainings and parties and hallway conversation, on and on.  While you can look forward to more of those this year, here are a few additional features that have been added this year to Drupalcon Portland 2024:

Created
Fri, 19/04/2024 - 05:00
Trump’s Juror intimidation tactics are already bearing fruit Did the Trump team signal to Watters to target that juror? Did they even need to? The DA brought this up as yet another example of Trump defying the gag order. We’ll see if he will suffer any consequences for that.
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Fri, 19/04/2024 - 04:59
Government media funding supports the failing mainstream media (MSM) and right-wing advocacy groups like the Institute of Public Affairs. The News Media Bargaining Code gifts $1b over four years from Google and Facebook mainly to Nine Network, Seven West Media, Guardian, and News Corp. The last two are foreign owned. The right-wing advocacy body, Institute Continue reading »
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Fri, 19/04/2024 - 04:58
This week, the U.S. and U.K. have the chance to correct decades of their blatant geopolitical errors in the Israel-Palestine conflict by welcoming Palestine as the 194th United Nations member state. More than any other countries, the U.S. and U.K. have wrecked the Middle East through their non-stop meddling and imperial arrogance. This week they Continue reading »
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Fri, 19/04/2024 - 04:56
When she introduced the first NDIS legislation to the House of Representatives in 2012 Prime Minister Julia Gillard said it was to replace “A system that metes out support rationed by arbitrary budget allocations, not real human needs”. It was a radical break with other forms of welfare assistance because it put the human rights Continue reading »
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Fri, 19/04/2024 - 04:55
This is the first of three articles discussing how the benefits of technological progress are shared, and thus determine the distribution of income and influence our economic and social structures. This first article focuses on how these benefits have been shared historically. Throughout history the growth in living standards has come from increasing productivity and Continue reading »
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Fri, 19/04/2024 - 04:54
Manifest Destiny, now more commonly called American Exceptionalism is a traditional and widespread view in the US. American views of its relationship with the world vary from isolationism to leadership, but the underlying base is always that the US is something special. While some may be more subtle than others, how many Americans could accept Continue reading »
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Fri, 19/04/2024 - 04:51
The Australian government is obscuring weapons exports to Israel despite International Court’s ruling to oppose ‘plausible genocide’. It is the standard government talking point: “Australia is not sending weapons to Israel and has not done so for the past five years.” However it’s a line that doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. Declassified Australia can reveal that Continue reading »
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Fri, 19/04/2024 - 04:50
Australia will essentially become America’s military launch-pad into Asia. However, Ben Abbatangelo writes, little has been said or written about the drastic and disproportionate impacts it will have on First Nations communities in Australia. The ramifications of the military alliance between Australia, the United Kingdom and United States (AUKUS) will weigh heavily on First Nations Continue reading »
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Fri, 19/04/2024 - 03:30
She’s not funny Philip Bump on Marge’s latest stunt: After Republicans won the House majority in 2022, Greene emerged as an unlikely ally of Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). With the change in leadership, she went from pariah to establishment loyalist, someone who might at times serve as a bridge between the Republican conference’s fringe right and its leadership. She was now someone to be taken seriously. So when a British journalist approached Greene at an event last month and brought up the subject of conspiracy theories, Greene bristled. “Tell us about Jewish space lasers,” Emily Maitlis asked. “Why don’t you go talk about Jewish space lasers,” Greene angrily replied. She then suggested Maitlis do something else that can be left to your imagination. [“Go fuck youself”] Yet, less than a month later, Greene offered an amendment Wednesday to legislation centered on foreign aid. “By the funds made available by this Act,” the proposed amendment reads, “such sums as necessary shall be used for the development of space laser technology on the southwest border.” Ha ha!