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Created
Wed, 18/10/2023 - 04:53
I am glad the article of Professor Trevor Parmenter “Rights are necessary but insufficient for the achievement of the full inclusion of people with disabilities” (P&I Sep 22, 2023) has been published. I am writing to say so, but as I send this off, I realize that I am involved in the very inter-dependent reciprocity Continue reading »
Created
Wed, 18/10/2023 - 04:52

Bridge International Academies was in the midst of a key financing round when allegations of child sex abuse emerged. They fought back hard.

The post Whistleblower: The World Bank Helped Cover Up Child Sex Abuse at a Chain of For-Profit Schools It Funded appeared first on The Intercept.

Created
Wed, 18/10/2023 - 04:51
As the former managing director and editor in chief of The Age newspaper (and founder of the Australian Press Council), this is a hard piece to write. In my view the mainstream media – journalists and commentators – have failed this country during the debate on the Voice. I have needed time to consider this Continue reading »
Created
Wed, 18/10/2023 - 04:01
. Making appropriate extrapolations from (ideal, natural or quasi) experiments to different settings, populations or target systems, is not easy. “It works there” is no evidence for “it will work here.” The causal background assumptions made have to be justified, and without licenses to export, the value of ‘rigorous’ and ‘precise’ methods used when analyzing […]
Created
Wed, 18/10/2023 - 04:00

As I sit here in every midwestern diner eating my chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes while drinking a non-woke beer, I have to shoo away the New York Times and Washington Post reporters hanging on my every word. The media elites recognize the real power of the American electorate is centered here in this crude high school art class version of a Norman Rockwell painting. Of course, with a 2020 rematch coming for November 2024, my opinion has never been more valuable.

That said, I’m having trouble deciding between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.

I am not a single-issue voter. In past elections, I have voted for Democrats and Republicans. I just really need to consider who has the right values and intellect to be commander in chief again. Donald or Joe.

Created
Wed, 18/10/2023 - 03:30
They’re not sending their best to the MAGA rallies During a New Hampshire event, Klepper stumped some of the supporters sporting the ex-president’s mugshot t-shirt that read “Never surrender.” “Never surrender to the tyranny,” said a blond young man, pronouncing the word tie-ranny. “What is Trump doing here on this shirt?” asked Klepper. “This is his mugshot,” the man said. “Gotcha. So that was taken when he surrendered to authorities to have his picture taken?” Klepper asked. There was an awkward silence as the man considered the word “Surrender.” “Huh?” is all the man could muster. This is the MAGA cult and while I’m sure there are many who aren’t quite this thick, Donald Trump is equally absurd dozens of times a day and they are willing to make him president of the United States.
Created
Wed, 18/10/2023 - 01:30
Broadcast radicalization You’ll recall the hissy fit conservatives threw at the FBI’s suggestion post-Jan. 6 that domestic terrorism by “white supremacists, militias and other extremists” was a growing threat in this country. Some years earlier, the Department of Justice was focused on foreign terrorists’ efforts at “online radicalization.” As in “Online Radicalization to Violent Extremism” (2014): Using a combination of traditional websites, mainstream social media platforms, YouTube, and other online services, extremists broadcast their views, provoke negative sentiment toward enemies, incite people to violence, glorify martyrs, create virtual communities with like-minded individuals, provide religious or legal justifications for violent actions, and communicate individually with new recruits to groom them for violent activities I’m wondering today (again) when the DOJ will turn its attention to the threat of broadcast radicalization.
Created
Wed, 18/10/2023 - 00:33

One of modern history’s major empires is falling apart right now, right before our eyes. Yet precious few in the media have reported on this extraordinary event, much less offered any analysis of its implications for the fast-changing shape of global power. Over the past 60 years, France has used every possible diplomatic device, overt and covert, fair and foul, to incorporate some 14 African nations into a neocolonial imperium called “Françafrique” — a vast region covering a quarter of Africa and stretching for nearly 3,000 miles from Senegal on the Atlantic coast to Chad in the continent’s center. While the rest of that continent frequently suffered from wars, coups, and chronic instability, Françafrique long enjoyed comparative peace. By dispatching... Read more

Created
Wed, 18/10/2023 - 00:00
“an absurd and dangerous choice” The Washington Post is posting live updates of Jacketless Jim Jordan’s quest to be Speaker of the House and second in line for the presidency. Really. The House begins business today at noon, “two weeks to the day since former House speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) was ousted.” “The next speaker should not be someone we already know is willing to manufacture  disputes and support groundless claims to overturn an election to install the president he wants,” Jill Lawrrence writes at The Bulwark. She offers a detailed list of why the Ohio congressman is “an absurd and dangerous choice for that reason and too many others to count.” Among them is former House Speaker John Boehner’s assessment of his fellow Ohioan: “Jordan was a terrorist as a legislator going back to his days in the Ohio House and Senate. . . . A terrorist. A legislative terrorist.” Not to mention being an election denier and Trump co-conspirator, Jeffrey K. Tulis and William Kristol remind Bulwark readers. Jordan has Donald Trump’s endorsement.