Reading

Here’s yet another disturbing story about the malign influence of Leonard Leo, Federalist Society founder and architect of the conservative Supreme Court we are now stuck with for a generation or more: Groups aligned with the conservative legal movement and its financial architect, Leonard Leo, are working to promote a publicly funded Christian school in Oklahoma, hoping to create a test case to change the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the First Amendment’s separation of church and state. At issue is the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma’s push to create the St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, which would be the nation’s first religious school entirely funded by taxpayers. The school received preliminary approval from the state’s charter school board in June. If it survives legal challenges, it would open the door for state legislatures across the country to direct taxpayer funding to the creation of Christian or other sectarian schools. Brett Farley, executive director of the Catholic Conference of Oklahoma, acknowledges that public funding of St. Isidore is at odds with over 150 years of Supreme Court decisions.

Increasingly, organs of the state are used to harass critics of the government. Six months ago India was accused of involvement in the murder of a leader of the Khalistan movement in Canada and what followed was predictable: expulsion of diplomats from both countries, stalled trade talks and temporary stopping of visa services. But in Continue reading »

That the Albanese government could further compromise Australia’s sovereignty, international integrity and national interests seemed inconceivable. Yet, intelligence, a vital government function inextricably connected with independence and protecting national interest, is being penetrated and colonised by the Americans. At the Australia-United States Ministerial Consultations (AUSMIN) 2023 the establishment of “a Combined Intelligence Centre – Australia” (CIC-A) Continue reading »

Former U.S. Ambassador Charles Freeman questions the true intentions of Israel’s renewed bombing of Gaza. Charles “Chas” W. Freeman Jr. is an American retired diplomat and writer. He served in the United States Foreign Service, the State and Defence Departments in many different capacities over the course of thirty years. Most notably, he worked as the Continue reading »

More than 9,000 children have been injured in the Gaza Strip, leaving them grappling with the loss of an arm or a leg. In the Gaza Strip, the life of any child could turn into a nightmare in the blink of an eye. Families try to keep their children safe, but this becomes harder and Continue reading »

Continue reading »

Five out of six major Australian media outlets have substantially imbalanced reporting when it comes to covering the Gaza conflict, new research claims. Dr Susan Carland of Monash University, examined Instagram posts made by ABC News, The Australian, The Daily Telegraph, 9News, news.com.au and The Daily Aus between October 7 and November 7 this year, and found most neglected the Palestinian side of Continue reading »

Up is down, black is white, in is out, and wrong is right The Bizarros at Fox News stand reality on its head every day and make money for the Murdoch family doing it. The Fox audience tunes in to lap up bald-faced lies. Here their talking heads claim that Donald Trump turned aound the “miserable” Obama economy (that crashed under George W. Bush). Joe Biden’s looks the same to them, dontcha know? MSNBC contributor Brian Tyler Cohen (No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen) was having none of this Foxsense. He responds on the hellsite: Every good economic trend that happened under Trump started under Obama. Trump then wrecked it with his disastrous COVID response, and Biden fixed it. Cohen backs that up with some Washington Post graphics from September 5, 2020 (the thick of the pandemic): Now let’s get some current data for the Biden administration. I can’t find a chart-for-chart comparison, but…. The current unemployment rate is 3.7%. The unemployment rate under Trump before the pandemic was 3.5%. The S&P 500 closed on Friday at 4,769.83. It peaked at 4,766.18 at the end of 2021. Job creation is another point of departure between Trump and Biden.

Pwnallthethings lampoons 14th Amendment punditry I’m ripping this off wholesale for the reading enjoyment of those not on Blue Sky. First replace Trump with Obama and the 14th Amendment with the 22nd, says Pwnallthethings: Now do it everywhere: If you know, you know: Naturally The Wall Street Journal gets in on the act: One Connor Lynch comments: These rewrites really capture the solipsistic pedantry of the highly implausible counter arguments that keep popping up in editorial pages.

Doctor Who Christmas Specials are magical and joyful - but here's why New Year's Day has been pretty terrible for the Doctor.

Our 12th most-read article of 2023.

Originally published February 16, 2023.

You’ve been on the lookout for a cardigan in a color that’s less edgy than “fawn” or “heather oatmeal.”

You recently traded your favorite slingbacks for a pair of Dansko clogs recommended by your podiatrist.

You have a podiatrist.

Invisibility seemed like a really cool superpower when you were a child; now, it’s your reality.

Neighborhood cats have been following you home.

You have two pairs of eyeglasses: a regular pair and a “fun” pair.

In the grocery store, a trio of women in cashmere twinsets murmurs, “Her wizening is nigh,” when you pass them in the probiotics aisle.

Your favorite necklace is made from large vintage buttons, beaded flowers, and repurposed copper pipes. It really pops with a cowl-neck sweater.

In today's BCTV Daily Dispatch: James Gunn/Green Lantern, What If...?, Doctor Who, Echo, Jeremy Renner, Rick and Morty/Pop-Tarts, and more!

Long holidays are nice. But sometimes, amid all the relaxation, you can feel your brain getting a bit mushy. What do you do then? Personally, I usually solve crosswords, chess problems, and the occasional mathematical puzzle to keep the grey brain cells active over Christmas and New Year…

. Hansson de Wolfe United — poesi och musik i vacker förening.

I think the most viral animal videos this year came from Mo Mountain Mutts which is a dog sitting and training outfit in Alaska that picks up the “students” in its puppy bus every day. It’s just the cutest series ever: You’ve just gotta love it.

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

This is sheerest stupidity:

Nothing will change about Iran’s policy, or to how well it is carried out. Not a thing.

Here’s the former Great Whitebread Hope still flailing around trying to prove that he’s just as much of an authoritarian monster as Donald Trump: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said in a Thursday interview that, if elected president, he would fire special counsel Jack Smith, who brought two indictments against former President Trump, on “day one” of his hypothetical term in office. DeSantis made the case for why he was the best candidate to win the GOP nomination in 2024 in a Fox News interview with Jason Chaffetz. After referencing Trump’s legal battles in the upcoming year, DeSantis said he would be able to keep focused on holding people accountable, including Smith.   “I think that a guy like me as the nominee will be able to keep the focus on Biden, keep the focus on the Democrats’ failures,” DeSantis said, “but then, more importantly, after you win the election, start holding these people accountable, who have weaponized the legal system to go after their political enemies.” “And that starts with day one, firing somebody like Jack Smith.

Catherine Rampell has done a good service by laying out for her colleagues what they need to do to fulfill their responsibilities in 2024. Here are the two I think are most important: Spend less time reporting on who’s likely to win an election and more on what they’d do if elected. The point of winning elections is, ostensibly, to govern. Yet a voter could spend hours watching or reading presidential election coverage and come away with only a vague understanding of what any of the contenders would do as president. Too often journalists ask candidates questions like “Why are you so far down in the polls in Iowa?” rather than “What would your position on [food stamps/tariffs/banking] mean for Iowans?” Jay Rosen, a New York University journalism professor, has pithily boiled down our mission as “Not the odds, but the stakes.” These days, Rosen’s refrain is usually quoted in the context of the stakes for democracy (specifically, under another Trump administration), but it’s a good principle for any substantive matter that affects the lives of everyday Americans.