Israeli children sing, “We will annihilate everyone” in Gaza. The song was played on Israel’s national broadcaster Kan. This fact was exposed by the Electronic Intifada – Ali Abunimah – on 19 November. It pretty well says it all. So, what can you do about it? Well, one thing you might do is support BDS. Continue reading »
Reading
When people consider the many threats facing our planet today, too often the threat of nuclear weapons is overlooked. Yet it is perhaps the most acute of them all, because the existential danger is ever-present for as long as the weapons exist. Anyone concerned about the climate crisis, about environmental degradation and biodiversity loss, needs Continue reading »
Neoliberalist theory and practice went so horribly wrong because governments that put their faith in markets forgot one word – competition. From the early-1980s, much of the Western world began turning to neoliberalism – a faith in free markets and smaller government. The collapse of the Soviet Union by the end of that decade confirmed Continue reading »
Proposals for Gaza by the EU’s foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell reflect long-standing European concerns, and show an aspiration to become more involved in a cooperative solution to the Israel/Palestine conflict. Can these European concerns and aspirations have some tangible bearing on Palestinian political prospects? Five weeks after Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel, European Continue reading »
Rawdon Dalrymple was a senior diplomat and career officer in the Australian foreign service, from 1957-1994. The iterations of his departments morphed from: External Affairs, Foreign Affairs to Foreign Affairs and Trade. He had a distinguished record of high achievement and he was posted overseas to many capitals, initially including: Bonn, London, Manila and Jakarta. Continue reading »
I wake up and I check The radio News I dread I hear the authoritative voice The Newsreader then Israeli government Spokesman Terrorists, the terrorists Hiding under the Hospitals Under the Kindergartens Under the Schools The colonial narrative Always Baying for more dead No electricity, no water No food, no shelter What will happen Hapless Continue reading »
The transition to electric vehicles (EVs) promises massive dislocation. Conventional cars have twice as many parts as electric vehicles, translating into far fewer assembly hours. Striking for wages and security against Detroit’s ‘Big Three’ car manufacturers, the United Auto Workers trade union claims that the transition endangers 35,000 jobs among its 150,000 members. Meanwhile, upstart Continue reading »
Remember when Donald Trump held a press conference to announce that? He made the announcement in response to an attack on Dallas Police in 2016: And you remember how tough he wanted to be on protesters, right? Well…
What a concept The passing of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman named to the U.S. Supreme Court, has received a flood of remembrances. But one in particular emphasizes what differentiates her from justices who came later. She was a politician first, “rising to become the majority leader of the Arizona state Senate” (Politico, Peter S. Canellos): In its history, the court has been divided almost evenly between justices whose primary experience was in electoral politics, law practice or academics, with many of the academic-minded justices having spent significant time as judges on federal courts. But over the years the profile of a judicial nominee shifted strongly in favor of scholarly judges. Today, potential Supreme Court justices tend to establish their judicial ambitions at a very early age, often in their 20s, attain lower-court appointments in their 30s or early 40s and thereby position themselves for appointment to the high court before they reach middle age.
Plus, California farmworkers leverage new labor bill, New York will seal criminal convictions, regulators aim to crack down on overdraft fees, and workers strike on Cyber Monday.
Free at last! George Santos is Rep. Santos no more. In a bipartisan vote that handily exceeded the two-thirds requirement, the U.S. House voted to expel the mutiply indicted Santos on Friday morning. Not to worry, George Washington Anthony Elizabeth Taylor Devolder Kitara Julius Caesar Santos will land on his feet, even if he has (for now) denied he is in talks with “Dancing With the Stars.” He’ll have no trouble staying busy. Facing 23 felony charges (he has pleaded not guilty) Santos has a full schedule planning for his trial in September next year: The schemes laid out by prosecutors are wide ranging. Prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York say he falsified campaign reports with fake donations and fictional personal loans to artificially bolster his standing. They say he stole from donors, using their credit cards without authorization and through a Florida company called Redstone Strategies. And they have charged him with collecting more than $20,000 in unemployment payments when he was, in fact, employed. Prosecutors say that Mr. Santos used the money on personal expenses, including designer goods and credit card payments.
With only hours to go until the next Doctor Who 60th Anniversary episode, the BBC released a new set of "Wild Blue Yonder" preview images.
In today's BCTV Daily Dispatch: The Rookie, Bill Maher, Rick and Morty, George Santos, The Boys, Doctor Who, HOTD, Chappelle/Boebert & more!
As Israel resumes its bombing of Gaza, the risk of a wider regional war grows. Mouin Rabbani analyzes the military and propaganda battles between Hamas and Israel.
The post Two Months That Shook the World: The First Phase of the Gaza War appeared first on The Intercept.
Great souls die and our reality, bound to them, takes leave of us. Our souls, dependent upon their nurture, now shrink, wizened … And when great souls die, after a period peace blooms, slowly and always irregularly. Spaces fill with a kind of soothing electric vibration. Our senses, restored, never to be the same, whisper […]
Polar bear babies! Mierlo, November 30, 2023 – A healthy polar bear has been born in Dierenrijk. The delivery took place peacefully in the Frimas polar bear maternity. Mother and the newborn are doing well. Head animal caretaker Stephan Rijnen: “In early November, we noticed that the mother was retreating to the maternity room. From this, we could deduce that the mating we observed in March was likely successful! A polar bear gestation lasts about eight months, so we had to wait a bit. Tuesday morning, we reviewed the camera footage and discovered good news! A young polar bear the size of a guinea pig was lying with mother Frimas.” The maternity room is a separate enclosure connected to the indoor enclosure of the polar bears in Dierenrijk. This space is built so that pregnant polar bears can withdraw for childbirth. When designing the maternity room, the natural behavior of female polar bears in the wild was also taken into account. Rijnen: “In the wild, the expectant mother goes into winter hibernation, in the snow den she has dug herself. First, the mother eats to fullness so that she is strong enough to survive the winter.
Some rules to help journalists avoid the mistakes of 2016 in 2024: – Ban repeat liars from live interviews – Never put a lie in the headline – Use a truth sandwich when reporting on lies – Don’t take the bait (stop rewarding drama with visibility) – Abandon the social media algorithm (don’t let Xitter […]
The signs of American collapse are everywhere. The Russians are out-producing not just the US, but the West in missiles, tanks and drones. The Chinese have a larger navy than the US and can build three ships in the time it takes the US to build one, and yes, their domestic arms industry is larger and more productive than America’s. They and the Russians are also ahead technologically in missiles, and arguably drones. (America has more expensive larger ones, but Ukraine shows what works is swarms of smaller ones.)
What’s really damning is the Western inability to ramp up production for the Ukrainian war. The Russians vastly increased production, the West hasn’t and can’t. De-industrialization is real.
When leaders ignore threats, they should pay a price That August 6th memo to George W. Bush with a big warning that “Al Qaeda determined to strike inside the United States” which he and others in his administration ignored, may be the moment that permanently destroyed Bush’s reputation, (There were a lot of them, of course. Mission Accomplished” was also one of the worst.) It looks like Benjamin Netanyahu’s government was similarly warned and did nothing about it, which they wouldn’t, since they believed Hamas was contained and that the real issue was giving the extremist Israeli wingnuts on the West Bank everything they wanted. Oy vey. The NY Times reported today: Israeli officials obtained Hamas’s battle plan for the Oct. 7 terrorist attack more than a year before it happened, documents, emails and interviews show. But Israeli military and intelligence officials dismissed the plan as aspirational, considering it too difficult for Hamas to carry out.