In the wake of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s 6-hour coup, Western pundits have opined that this was an affirmation of South Korean democracy’s robustness and resilience, its institutional maturity and strength. This is like saying after a survivor fights off an assault, that this demonstrates a mature state of legal order. Hardly. It Continue reading »
politics
American interference, at the behest of Netanyahu’s far-right Israel, has left the Middle East in ruins, with over a million dead and open wars raging in Libya, Sudan, Somalia, Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine, and with Iran on the brink of a nuclear arsenal. In the famous lines of Tacitus, Roman historian, “To ravage, to slaughter, Continue reading »
In a new report, the Justice Department’s inspector general found that the agency violated its own rules to snoop on reporters.
The post This Is How Trump’s Department of Justice Spied on Journalists appeared first on The Intercept.
A little-noticed provision in the annual defense bill would bar the Pentagon from citing the Gaza Health Ministry as an authoritative source.
The post Congress Keeps Trying to Hide the True Gaza Death Toll appeared first on The Intercept.
Peter Dutton’s shadow minister for home and foreign affairs, Barnaby Joyce, has pledged his allegiance to his leader by swearing that from now on he will only wear Australian flag patterned silk boxers. ”I am a man that usually doesn’t... Read More ›
This is the second-part of my climate-not-all-bad-news series, beginning with the state of the U.S. Here I turn to China, a paradoxical story of both immense challenges and great hope. Growth as the world has never seen It is the nation that holds the world’s climate future in its hands. It is the nation whose 2014 commitment Continue reading »
Our current editor Dr. Aran Martin is leaving us at the end of January. He has given excellent service to Pearls and Irritations. We are seeking a new editor and share the role description below. Pearls and Irritations is an Australian journal for the exchange of ideas from a progressive, liberal perspective, with an emphasis Continue reading »
The national report on Australia’s COVID response is long, at 877 pages (depending upon the format), with 4,647 footnotes. But long is not synonymous with comprehensive, and there are significant gaps in the report’s analysis and conclusions. Some of these problems are not of the panel’s making, I suspect, but others, related both to methodology Continue reading »
In my condemnation of the attack on the synagogue in Melbourne, I said, “This is not acceptable by any means. Unlike the Zionists who kept silent and never condemned Israel’s destruction of 819 mosques and 3 churches in just over a year in Gaza, many of which are historic, Palestinians do not condone attacks against Continue reading »
My heart is breaking over Syria, and it was already broken over Gaza. I watch the television reports of the ‘joy’ in Damascus and wonder what alternative planet the mainstream media inhabits. The head-chopping salafists of yesterday are today’s ‘rebels’ against a brutal dictator and the ‘liberators’ of the long suffering Syrian people. I watch Continue reading »