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Created
Sat, 08/04/2023 - 10:30
Sand kittens! Three sand cat kittens were born on Monday, February 6th, 2023 early in the morning at Binghamton, NY’s Ross Park Zoo. Kaya (mom) and Amal (dad) are a recommended breeding pair as per the sand cat Species Survival Plan. Kaya has been doing a great job taking care of the offspring!  Here are some sand cats in their native habitat: It doesn’t look like a highly skilled killer, but that’s exactly what it is; the sand cat, which is the only felid found primarily in true desert. The sand cat (Felis margarita harrisoni) has a wide but apparently disjunct distribution through the deserts of northern Africa and southwest and central Asia. These gorgeous creatures are highly elusive and people rarely get to see them in the wild. If you’d like to meet them, though, go out in the desert when the temperature is between 11 and 28 °C — that’s an ideal range for the sand cat. These felines also prefer a very dry, arid habitat with little vegetation, as well as flat or rolling terrains. If it gets too hot outside, the sand cat will retreat to burrows.
Created
Sat, 08/04/2023 - 07:30
Clarence Thomas told a documentarian that he and Ginni are jes folks who like to vacation in an RV and hang around in Walmart parking lots. Lol: Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Stern have thoughts about this: ProPublica’s scrupulously reported new piece on Justice Clarence Thomas’ decadeslong luxury travel on the dime of a single GOP megadonor will probably not shock you at all. Sure, the dollar amounts spent are astronomical, and of course the justice failed to report any of it, and of course the megadonor insists that he and Thomas are dear old friends, so of course the superyacht and the flights on the Bombardier Global 5000 jet and the resorts are all perfectly benign. So while the details are shocking, the pattern here is hardly a new one. This is a longstanding ethics loophole that has been exploited by parties with political interests in cases before the court to curry favor in exchange for astonishing junkets and perks. It is allowed to happen.
Created
Sat, 08/04/2023 - 05:00
It isn’t the first time the right has denied elected representatives their seat. When they have the power they have no compunction about doing it. And it looks like we’re going to see more of it. Jeff Greenfield writes:  In the fevered nationalism of World War I, Congress refused to seat Socialist Victor Berger after he won a seat in 1918. He ran again in 1919 and won again, and Congress again refused to seat him. At the same time, the New York State Assembly expelled all five Socialists on general grounds of “disloyalty.” The mood of the time was captured by the Assembly speaker, who thundered: “We are building by our action today a granite bulwark against all traitors within the boundaries of our republic. Our flag of the republic is whipping the breeze in defiance of enemies from without.” A few decades later, a similar attempt to ban an elected legislator was rebuffed. Julian Bond, a key civil rights leader, had been elected to the Georgia House; but in 1966, the legislature voted by an overwhelming margin not to seat him on the grounds that he had opposed the war in Vietnam and expressed sympathy for draft resisters.
Created
Sat, 08/04/2023 - 04:57
It is all but finalised. Australia has handcuffed itself, essentially in perpetuity, to the United States. As a result, Australia’s future is inextricably intertwined with the future of the United States. One of the first steps in any military planning activity is to conduct an ‘own troops’ analysis, to identify the strengths and weaknesses of Continue reading »
Created
Sat, 08/04/2023 - 04:56
The Trump Administration created and marketed the “CHINA THREAT” to the world. We, in the West fell for it hook, line and sinker. In truth, “we” represent only 15% of the world’s population, those of us in the White World of US, UK, EU, and Australia. The other 85% which includes China, India, Southeast Asia, Continue reading »
Created
Sat, 08/04/2023 - 04:54
In Asian Media this week: Japan crucial to deterring invasion. Plus: China says war would be defensive; Rahul Gandhi connects Modi and Adani; Next to Putin, Xi stands tall; Indonesia woos Tesla for EV plan; Asians reject hectoring Western politicians. The thinking about a Chinese invasion at high levels in Taiwan’s military is more subtle Continue reading »
Created
Sat, 08/04/2023 - 04:50
The United States demands that the world bow down to its leadership. A failure to do so is met with the full force of the international military-industrial complex controlled by the US. Imagine the uproar if China or Russia—or any other country for that matter—said it aimed to exercise military control over land, sea, air, Continue reading »