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DiEM25-MERA25 has launched a petition for the removal of Mrs Ursula von der Leyen from the Presidency of the European Commission. Below is the text of Yanis Varoufakis’ video message to Ms. von der Leyen. To sign the petition please click here. Mrs von der Leyen, the moment you landed in Tel Aviv, not as […]

The post Sign here DiEM25’s petition: Time for Europe’s greatest liability, Mrs Ursula von der Leyen, to go! appeared first on Yanis Varoufakis.

A very thought-provoking piece from Zack Beauchamp at Vox about the next steps for the Israel war. It’s complicated and well worth reading in its entirety, going into all the global, military and political implications, but this is a taste of the kind of thinking that’s gone into it and I think it’s impressive: The moral case for counterterrorism Bradley Strawser, a former US Air Force captain, has an unusual job: he is a moral philosopher working for the US Navy. His title is professor of philosophy in the defense analysis department at the Naval Postgraduate School; his actual job description is teaching America’s special operators how to fight wars as ethically as possible. When I asked Strawser how he would approach the current conflict between Israel and Hamas, he said that it was essential to hold two ideas in one’s head at the same time. First, that Israel had not only a right but a moral obligation to respond to Hamas’ vicious attack on its civilian population. This may not seem obvious, as a ceasefire would certainly lead to some immediate reduction in civilian suffering.

According to his lawyer, Trump has nothing to worry about: Prosecutors claimed the former lawyer wrote legal memos on behalf of the Trump campaign creating a false legal backing for the fake elector scheme. As part of the plea, the former lawyer agreed to testify in future cases if called upon. That would include the trial of former President Trump, scheduled for early next year. Grubman said Chesebro’s guilty plea doesn’t implicate any other defendants, and that Trump should “not be worried.” “He did not implicate anyone else. He implicated himself in that particular charge,” he said. “He is required to testify truthfully if he is called by the state, and Mr. Chesebro is a man of his word.” “At the same time I will say, if he is called by a defendant he will testify and testify truthfully,” Grubman added. This isn’t going to go over well, however: “First of all, Mr. Chesebro never believed in ‘the Big Lie,’” attorney Scott Grubman said Saturday in an interview on MSNBC. “If you ask Mr.

Looks like Yasmin Finney's Rose has been doing some serious planning for some time in the latest Doctor Who teaser image from #WhoSpy.

Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – October 22, 2023

by Tony Wikrent

 

Strategic Political Economy

Deb Chachra’s ‘How Infrastructure Works’ 

Cory Doctorow [Pluralistic, via Naked Capitalism Water Cooler 10-18-2023]

After China entered the period of “reform and openness” in the 1980s, Western liberalism, embracing a form of ‘apocalyptic modernity’, adhered to the fantasy that China “would become like us.” What it meant in fact was that China “would become like us but be subservient to us”. If China was not going to “become like Continue reading »

Facts about the Israel/Palestine conflict have always been hard to come by. Some Israeli leaders are now telling more lies than many of their citizens, and former friends of Israel, can swallow. Yet Western governments still do. Inexact figures of dead, injured, and held hostage leave no doubt that in October, Israel intended its revenge Continue reading »

In a recent Q and A, the opposition’s shadow minister for Climate Change and Energy Ted O’Brien’s improbable aim was to convince Australia that small nuclear reactors (SMRs) could replace our coal fired power plants and lead us to carbon neutrality. If you examine the economics of SMRs the proposition has to be classified as Continue reading »

The past few months, as Australia debated the Voice proposal, have been incredibly challenging for First Peoples. Now we must find ways to move forward together. The work of the Yoorrook Justice Commission is more important than ever. Yoorrook is investigating the impact colonisation has had and continues to have on First Peoples in Victoria. Continue reading »

Post-Referendum attention has turned to the need for Truth-telling about our history. As Chair of the Council of the Australian War Memorial, Kim Beazley has a unique opportunity to grasp Truth-telling about the Australian Frontier Wars as a central theme for the Memorial in future. Michelle Grattan of The Conversation had a long podcast interview this week with Kim Continue reading »

Australia began its National Carers Week (15-21 October), poignantly, the very day after the nation voted ‘No’ to a way forward to giving Voice to their communities, which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples had asked for in the Uluṟu Statement from the Heart. This result continues a sad record of voters preferring paternalism and Continue reading »

President Joe Biden last June showed his ignorance and arrogance to the world, when he called President Xi Jinping a dictator. Apparently he does not realise the weight of his remark. As the leader of the world’s most powerful country, President Biden should understand that the responsibility of a leader must be to serve the Continue reading »

The meeting of the Group of 77 developing countries (G77) plus China, held last month, 15-16 September in Havana, Cuba, passed with little note from our mainstream media, despite being attended by more than 100 countries, with thirty-one heads of state and 12 vice presidents present. That such should pass largely unnoticed by them however, Continue reading »

  McCarthy: This is embarrassing for the Republican Party. It’s embarrassing for the nation pic.twitter.com/Mv8fc4PvoR — Acyn (@Acyn) October 22, 2023 EJ Dionne: The chaotic Republican-led House of Representatives has a rather poor sense of timing. The United States is in the midst of two international emergencies and faces the threat of a government shutdown next month. President Biden’s prime-time speech on Thursday pressing for aid to Ukraine and Israel underscored the exorbitant costs of the GOP meltdown. But the embarrassing exercise could prove to be a blessing because it’s exposing a crisis in our politics that must be confronted. The endless battle for the speakership is already encouraging new thinking and might yet lead to institutional arrangements to allow bipartisan majorities to work their will. The House impasse was precipitated by both radicalization and division within the Republican Party. Narrow majorities in the House have enabled right-wing radicals to disable the governing system.

Maybe they mean to repeat history When was America great the first time? Someone go ask Donald Trump. Maybe Jordan Klepper should query Trump rally attendees what “great again” means again. I’m guessing they really mean 1859. “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana, The Life of Reason, 1905. From the series Great Ideas of Western Man. Historian Seth Cotlar (Rightlandia) will be in Seattle on Tuesday interviewing Rachel Maddow about her new book Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism. Those who listened to her latest podcast, Ultra, know the basics. She traces the America fascist movement of the 1930s and 40s in more detail.

From an in-depth look at the Gaza crisis to a $64 billion banking scam, here’s a roundup of our reporting from the past week.

Threatening the nation that protects them Sometimes in grazing the net, a theme appears in otherwise disconnected bits of internet flotsam. The current of electrons this morning delivered several random entries pointing toward the cultural degradation of the very people in this country who decry cultural degradation the loudest. This is the real American carnage, to borrow a phrase. The meme at the top is one example. The man who entered American carnage into the lexicon spoke of “Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities, rusted out factories, scattered like tombstones across the across the landscape of our nation, an education system flush with cash, but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of all knowledge.” His most ardent followers are working at this very moment to decimate public education, to proscribe what children can learn, and to ensure children remain in poverty. Violent crime is rampant, he suggested, and does to this day. People believe him. In fact, violent crime is down. Yes, property crimes are up, but along with hate crimes targeting Blacks, Latinos, and LGBTQ+ Americans. Antisemitic crimes are up as well.

In your BCTV Daily Dispatch: TWD: Daryl Dixon, Agatha: Darkhold Diaries, SAG-AFTRA, Bosch, Stranger Things, Gen V, Loki, Doctor Who & more!

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Back in February of 2017, my dear mother passed away, at the age of 86. While she had been weathering a plethora of health issues for a number of years, the straw that ultimately claimed her (pancreatic cancer) was diagnosed mere weeks before she died. In fact, her turn for the worse was so sudden that my flight to Ohio turned into a grim race; near as I could figure, my plane was on final approach to Canton-Akron Airport when she slipped away (I arrived at her bedside an hour after she had died). And yes, that was hard. Since I obviously wasn’t present during (what turned out to be) her final days, I asked my brother if she had any “final words”. At first, he chuckled a little through the tears, recounting that several days prior, she had turned to him at one point and said “I wish I had some wisdom to impart. But I don’t.” I laughed (Jewish fatalism-it’s a cultural thing). Then, he remembered something. The hospice room where my mother spent her last week had a picture window facing west, with a view of a field, a pond, a small stand of trees, and an occasional deer spotting.

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Source - Patreon