Reading

Created
Thu, 26/01/2023 - 06:00
Pompeo has done some very lowdown things in his ignominious career, but this takes the cake. The WaPo editorial board: Mr. Khashoggi was suffocated and dismembered with a bone saw inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, 2018. The 15 killers included seven members of the elite personal protective detail of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS, who, according to the U.S. intelligence community, “approved an operation” to “capture or kill” Khashoggi. His body has never been found. Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist and Post contributing columnist since 2017, was killed in Istanbul at the consulate of Saudi Arabia in 2018. According to a U.S. intelligence assessment, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved an operation to capture or kill him.
Created
Thu, 26/01/2023 - 05:12
Published by the Council on Foreign Relations NGO, Foreign Affairs provides space for officials within the US military industrial complex to communicate with one another on matters they believe to be of the utmost significance. Therefore, it is important to pay attention when the magazine makes major pronouncements on any issue.

It recently published an appraisal of US sanctions – the conclusion being that they are increasingly ineffective, have prompted Beijing and Moscow to create alternative global financial structures to insulate themselves and others from punitive actions, and that Washington and its acolytes will no longer be able to force countries to do their bidding, let alone destroy dissenting states, through such measures in the very near future.
RT — Question More (Russian state-sponsored media)
Created
Thu, 26/01/2023 - 05:00
After spending the Trump administration cutting taxes for the wealthy and massively raising military spending, congressional Republicans are back to caterwauling about deficits. This was as predictable as the sun coming up in the morning. When Republicans are in power they give away the store and then when the Democrats are called in to clean up their mess, Republicans immediately rant and rave about government spending and the debt. This has been going on for decades and it would have been short-sighted to expect anything different from them this time. Naturally, they’re putting the safety net programs on the chopping block. The Washington Post reports: In recent days, a group of GOP lawmakers has called for the creation of special panels that might recommend changes to Social Security and Medicare, which face genuine solvency issues that could result in benefit cuts within the next decade. Others in the party have resurfaced more detailed plans to cut costs, including by raising the Social Security retirement age to 70, targeting younger Americans who have yet to obtain federal benefits.
Created
Thu, 26/01/2023 - 05:00

Do you enjoy writing? Do you like the idea of taking the thing you love doing the most in the world and turning it into work? So that your access to food and shelter hinges on your ability to turn a creative outlet into a commercial product? Smart move. It sounds like you’d like to become a professional writer.

The good news is there are many ways to make it as a professional writer.

You could become a novelist. All you have to do is get an MFA from a top program. Then win a prestigious national writing prize. Then leverage that to earn a coveted artist-in-residence. Then use that time to pen a dazzling manuscript that lands you a book deal. Then publish your debut novel to largely positive reviews. Then follow it up with another widely acclaimed novel. Do that, and you’ll be a third of the way there.

Created
Thu, 26/01/2023 - 04:57
To assist the healing of our history, it is essential that Australia Day be some other day than 26 January. Late last year multi faith leaders in Victoria held a dinner which focused on how we can better support the Uluru Statement from the Heart and the Yoorrook Justice Commission. The clear consensus unifying us Continue reading »
Created
Thu, 26/01/2023 - 04:56
Conservatives rail against references to “invasion day”. Ultimately, however, these are the despairing sighs of an old, dying Australia which no longer exists and isn’t coming back. Change is often threatening for conservatives and instinctively they resist it. In Australia, opposition to change has taken many forms, including an ambivalent attitude towards multiculturalism and criticism Continue reading »
Created
Thu, 26/01/2023 - 04:55
We are now at the most dangerous moment in history. We face multiple existential crises that are not under control, but growing more acute, while failures of leadership become more damning. We have no time to lose. Yesterday, in Washington DC, the international scientific and policy experts of the Science and Security Board of the Continue reading »
Created
Thu, 26/01/2023 - 04:54
When one group of people takes the land of another by military force, ‘invasion’ is the most accurate term. We would hardly speak of Germany ‘settling’ France in 1940. When Lieutenant James Cook sailed for the South Pacific to observe the transit of Venus for the Royal Society, he received further instructions marked ‘secret’ from Continue reading »
Created
Thu, 26/01/2023 - 04:30

Here is a clip from one of our live songwriting sessions on our Twitch channel. We just turn on the camera and try out ideas and see where they take us.

This is a clip from one of those sessions we posted to our YouTube Channel.

Play that lazy beat - Slippery friction (Live Stream Clip)

We continue to work on a song idea for a film soundtrack.

Building a song from a random idea

This song is actually an idea that we came up with during another live stream songwriting session.

We decided to use this as the main theme for the film soundtrack that we've been working on.

Created
Thu, 26/01/2023 - 02:30
Remember when dandruff was the kiss of death? Robin DiAngelo’s 2018 “White Fragility” has plenty of critics. Here and here, for example. John McWhorter writes that her diversity training approach is not only misguided but “deeply condescending to all proud Black people.” But while academics debate sociological theory, aren’t ad men selling millions in products designed around the notion that men’s sense of self is deeply fragile? Seeing another of those ubiquitous Nugenix Total T ads brings home just how deep (strong? powerful? vigorous? potent?) the insecurity market is. Weapons makers sell guns based on it. Nazis sell white supremacy based on it. Mass shooters base their manifestos on it. Fox News built its business model around it. Without “great replacement theory,” drag queens, and sexy M&Ms to get mens’ fee-fees in a knot, what has Tucker Carlson to talk about? In more innocent, mid-century times, it was fears about bad breath, BO, and dandruff that sold mouthwash, deoderant, and shampoo to men worried about not getting laid.