Reading

This is my third piece this week on how the world is changing and why. The first handled the geopolitical, the second the military tech at this moment and how that is making empire difficult.

This one is about the future.

There’s going to be a period of war which is all about autonomous robots. Drones, missiles, robodogs with guns, tiny swarms, etc…

Humans are a stupid and inefficient way to apply force: most of the human body is not designed for combat: we are slow, clumsy and easily damaged and destroyed compared to what we can build.

Intercept D.C. Bureau Chief Ryan Grim and politics reporters Ken Klippenstein and Prem Thakker discussed the Iowa caucuses results and the year ahead in GOP politics.

The post Watch: Trump’s Iowa Landslide and What’s Next for the GOP in 2024 appeared first on The Intercept.

The Missing In Action (MIA) Opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has been found hiding in Woolworths Nerang, dressed as a cash register, in some sort of attempt to camouflage himself in order to sneak behind enemy lines. ”I’ve been doing a... Read More ›

There is so much talk about the Trump economy being the best the world has ever seen and it’s mainly because Trump just keeps saying it over and over again. It was good but it wasn’t great and on many metrics Biden’s is better. But, of course, we’ve been hearing nothing but gloom and doom about the economy for the past three years so people aren’t hearing that. Here’s some reality from Krugman: Now that Donald Trump is the Republican nominee — I know, it’s not official, but let’s get real — we can expect to hear a lot about how great the economy was on his watch. Which is strange, because he was the first president since Herbert Hoover to leave office with fewer jobs than when he came in. What’s happening here is that Trump has been given a mulligan for 2020. And to be fair, the huge job losses that took place that year were caused by Covid-19, not Trump’s policies. What’s really odd, however, is that this mulligan appears to be highly selective.

Only an exceptional president could resist the endless war-profiteering of this mammoth war machine; alas, Biden doesn’t even try. When it comes to foreign policy, the president of the United States has two essential roles. The first is to rein in the military-industrial complex, or MIC, which is always pushing for war. The second is Continue reading »

As the International Court of Justice received submissions from South Africa and Israel on the 11th and 12th of January on the claims by South Africa of an intention to commit genocide by Israel in Gaza, some 20 Gazan children would have lost a limb, forever maimed and severely disabled. Over 1,000 Gazan children have Continue reading »

America’s seamless support for Israel’s pitiless onslaught on Gaza has both astounded and angered the world. War crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide have accumulated as the destruction and death have continued. The hypocrisy of the West as a whole is publicly on display on a daily basis. The Western media has performed as poorly Continue reading »

Will voters view Joe Biden’s advanced age as negatively as they do Trump’s greed and dishonesty?

The post Don’t Normalize Donald Trump appeared first on The Intercept.

Imagine this headline: “Brits bomb Belfast to obliterate IRA – 24,000 dead, 50,000 injured, all hospitals flattened – children limbless and starving”. You have to engage your imagination to comprehend the unbridgeable gulf that exists between Israel as an entity committing alleged war crimes, and other, more civilised, nations – even those with their warts. Continue reading »

In their aggressive, unrelenting attempts to protect the government of Israel, groups such as the Australian Jewish Association, the Australia / Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry and the Zionist Federation of Australia have all contributed to a groundswell of anger in Australia over Israel’s shocking treatment of the Palestinians Continue reading »

Missing cabinet documents relating to the 2003 Iraq war are unlikely to reveal the impulses that drove John Howard to a disastrous foreign policy decision. Sometime around mid-2003, a colleague of then-secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Ashton Calvert, asked after the cabinet submission authorising Australia’s commitment of military forces to Iraq. Continue reading »

People in the poorest areas of Australia are dying 2.5 times more often from the disease than those in the richest areas. Perhaps this is the long-awaited ‘new normal’ of life with COVID, with more working from home, more COVID complacency, and more long-COVID. But some things haven’t changed. When it comes to some communities Continue reading »

Is this a constitutional crisis? On Friday 12 Jan 2024, a USA official spokesman announced that Australia was to provide a support role for the UK and USA troops who were about to attack Yemen. No announcement had been made to this effect by the Australian Government. The Australian people had to wait for the Continue reading »

“So much for Australia’s engagement with Asia,” wrote former Foreign Minister Alexander Downer this month, punctuating a claim that the media gives “close to 20 times the coverage to the US presidential elections as Indonesia’s.” Kicking journos is an easy sport but needs two teams to engage – and in Jakarta our captain isn’t on Continue reading »

Around 25 years ago, wise commentators said China may, in due course, be able to produce acceptable basic, manufactured white-goods but making motor cars that would sell globally was not conceivable. Far too many complex inputs went into making a modern family sedan compared to a refrigerator. As for landing a rover on the Moon Continue reading »

Dear Young Masters, Mistresses, and Distinguished Guests,

Over countless generations, it has been our honor to wait upon the lords and ladies of Saltburn as they set the standard for elegance, refinement, and homosocial outdoor nudity. However, the mess you have been creating of late has become intolerable.

Do you ever wonder why the turnover of a footman is notoriously high? Or why the preparations for last season’s Blacklight Gala took over a month? Or why we passive-aggressively served you runny eggs as a hint that you, too, might not enjoy having to mop up a mess of unfertilized goo before 9 a.m. on a Sunday?

We can hold our tongues no longer. We need to discuss the stains.

The intimate stains.

Conservatively, we are spending almost as much time on our hands and knees as you are. Do you have any notion of the volume of ejaculate we’ve scrubbed from your great-great-great-grandmother’s chaise longue? It’s concerning. Scrubbing endangers the brocade.

The first irrelevant primary is over. More to come, unfortunately. 14% of Republicans came out to caucus last night. It was one of the lowest turnouts in history. Sure, it was cold, but this was low even taking that into account. Enthusiasm? Yeah, sure. Also: I’m looking forward to when this little superfluous pageant is over. Lol:

It's the latest in a series of constitutional changes by ministers - including enforcing photo ID for in-person voters and hiking the spending limits for parties.