It is dispiriting that the Public Service Act Amendment Bill now before the Parliament says so little about ‘merit’. Nothing about secretary appointments and terminations and only a minor grammatical change to clarify that ministers are not able to direct agency heads about individuals’ employment. Yet we have: the Robodebt Royal Commission highlighting ‘the lengths Continue reading »
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Australia’s Pacific neighbours deserve much better from our foreign minister. Australia is becoming a de facto nuclear armed state. Australia has allowed US nuclear propelled—and quite likely nuclear armed—submarines free access to Australian naval bases, US Air Force nuclear weapons capable B-52 bombers have access to at least two RAAF air bases, and more than Continue reading »
The astonishingly expensive tie-up between Australia and the US military deal is NOT about defence of the country, nor is it about bringing stability to Asia. The opposite is true, and Asians know it. Australians stand to lose a great deal, not just in terms of money, but in the great relationships that they have Continue reading »
AUSMIN 2023 has further surrendered sovereignty and tightened the US military grip on Australia. The integration of the ADF with the US military, insertion of US intelligence staff in our defence intelligence organisation and the increased military presence of the US including command facilities in Australia has locked us into any war plans of the Continue reading »
Views of China – and its soft power – are more positive in middle-income countries. Views of China are broadly negative across 24 countries in a new Pew Research Center survey: A median of 67% adults express unfavourable views of the country, while 28% have a favourable opinion. Negative views extend to evaluations of China’s Continue reading »
The Florida governor’s team is compiling a list of people who are more likable than he is, a roster that runs into the hundreds of thousands.
US-driven fast-track negotiations to develop secure strategic critical minerals supply chains from Australia risk jeopardising our mining industry links with China, and locking down our own industrial development based on our critical minerals. First, necessary context. The Global South is enthusiastically engaging with multipolarity, through BRICS, SCO, Belt and Road, new reserve currency systems etc. Continue reading »
Based on its review of “the changes in the Chinese barley market” that it started in April this year, the Commerce Ministry on Saturday lifted the anti-dumping and countervailing duties it levied on imported Australian barley from May 2020. The Australian side immediately expressed its welcome to the move, including that by Australian Prime Minister Continue reading »
Targeted for years, Afghan prosecutors were left behind when the Taliban returned to power. Twenty-nine have been killed since then.
The post As the Taliban Hunts Prosecutors, Afghan and U.S. Lawyers Team Up to Bring Their Colleagues to Safety appeared first on The Intercept.
TNR: The last Congress, the 117th, which sat from January 2021 through January 2023, was controlled by Democrats on both sides of the Capitol. These lawmakers worked in concert with a new Democratic president, so naturally, we witnessed an unusual amount of legislative activity. Wanna guess how much? The 117th Congress passed, and Joe Biden signed, 362 laws. The 118th Congress—the current one; the one that opened with the clown show where Kevin McCarthy needed 15 ballots to be elected speaker by his own party—has not been quite the hive of productivity that its predecessor was. So far, seven months into its term, it has passed, and the president has signed, 12 bills. They’re on track, if they can possibly keep up this scorching pace for the next 17 months, to pass maybe 44, even 45 or 46 bills! They are not in the business of legislating. They have no agenda. They are in the business of helping Donald Trump enact revenge. After all, that busy Democratic congress also managed to impeach him twice. That will not stand…
Let’s hear it for Wilco! I’m going to let the band get back to it in a minute, but first, I need to make an important safety announcement: Please be careful with what you put in your bodies at this festival. We’re getting reports there are some bad IPAs going around.
I’m not trying to scare anyone, but the beer might be bitter, watery, and with virtually no notes of caramel or citrus. Trust me, people, if you try that stuff you’re gonna freak out.
I get it. We’re all here to cut loose, enjoy our favorite late ’90s / early 2000s band, and yeah—get crazy with a top-rated IPA from the craft brewery truck. But our crew is telling me some of the stuff circulating out there is bad news, man.
I’m not here to narc. But if someone passes you a cup and claims it’s a Goose Island or a Lagunitas, use your best judgment. Sure, it might be a tasty, hoppy, clean pour with an excellent flavor profile. But it could be unremarkable, cloudy, even under-carbonated. I accidentally drank some last year, and I’ve never fully recovered.
Can tiny forests deliver on big environmental problems?
The post Pocket Forests Are Coming to Town appeared first on Nautilus.
Yes it is… Fox News anchor Julie Banderas on Monday curiously defended Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election by insisting that “hatching schemes to stay in office” while “claiming you won an election you know you lost” are not crimes. While serving as guest anchor on Monday’s broadcast of The Faulkner Focus, Banderas interviewed former deputy assistant attorney general Tom Dupree about Trump’s attempt to move the Jan. 6 trial to West Virginia and force the judge to recuse herself. After Dupree said Trump’s legal team faced an “uphill battle” on both fronts, Banderas then raged about how it was “impossible” for the thrice-indicted ex-president to be “impartially” tried in that case. She also noted that Trump is expected to soon be indicted for a fourth time, this time in Georgia over his election meddling efforts in that state. “Politics written all over it,” she exclaimed. “Attorneys are supposed to represent the law, not politics, OK? Judges, same! Judges are the only ones able to recuse themselves, OK?
It’s because the climate crisis is now visible to everyone that governments are giving the fossil fuel industry everything it demands. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 1st August 2023 To understand this moment, we have to recognise that there is an existential struggle on both sides. While environmental scientists and activists fight for […]
A prominent women's rights activist complained about a "defender" of an alleged abuser sitting on the board of a whistleblowing charity. The reply she got blew her away.
The sooner he’s consigned to the dustbin, the better Not a fan of Joe Scarborough, but he’s right about this. History, if it isn’t written by MAGAstan scholars, will come to revile Donald Trump and his authoritarian movement.
The philosophical divide doesn’t neatly correspond with our political divide. There are egoists on all sides, just as there are altruists.
In his message to the troops prior to the July 4th weekend, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin offered high praise indeed. “We have the greatest fighting force in human history,” he tweeted, connecting that claim to the U.S. having patriots of all colors, creeds, and backgrounds “who bravely volunteer to defend our country and our values.” As a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel from a working-class background who volunteered to serve more than four decades ago, who am I to argue with Austin? Shouldn’t I just bask in the glow of his praise for today’s troops, reflecting on my own honorable service near the end of what now must be thought of as the First Cold War? Yet I confess... Read more
A republic for Republicans “High-minded claims that we are not a democracy surreptitiously fuse republic with minority rule rather than popular government,” wrote George Thomas in 2020. The Wohlford Professor of American Political Institutions at Claremont McKenna College was discussing how “we’re a republic, not a democracy” has morphed from campus conservative pedantry to a Republican ruling philosophy. “Enabling sustained minority rule at the national level is not a feature of our constitutional design, but a perversion of it,” Thomas argued. “Routine minority rule is neither desirable nor sustainable, and makes it difficult to characterize the country as either a democracy or a republic.” When it comes to perverting constitutional design, Republicans in this century have demonstrated a serious knack for it. Consider Ohio’s special election today drafted to change how Ohio has amended its constitution for over a century. It’s not just sustained minority rule at the national level that should concern Americans.