‘Where do you think my grandmother spent the Second World War?’ Adam Broomberg, a prominent Jewish artist and Berlin-based photographer, asked this of the police after they grabbed him by the neck, threw him to the ground, beat him on the back then led him away in handcuffs. It was Saturday 20 May, and […]
Reading
Malbork Castle, from which the Teutonic knights dominated a swathe of central Europe in the middle ages, is a vast and impressive fortress. It also has some rather stunning interiors.
I’m just watching SG-1 defeat the human and alien villains on PlutoTV today while playing games on my phone. I don’t want to think or write or move. Yet here I am. Writing. My thought last night was what I said on the Nicole Sandler show while talking about our mutual friend, the late great Joel Silberman. He taught progressive politicians to tell stories that illuminated their message. There is good news in the world. US job numbers are great. The Economy was not destroyed by GOP, THIS TIME. YET…. As Mrs. Spocko said, the relief that we feel when the GOP didn’t destroy the American and WORLD economy, doesn’t match the worry & anxiety that we have been feeling for weeks. Celebrating the win is important. But also infuriating when we shouldn’t have been here. I get Biden talking about “My friends across the aisle” since his plan worked. The MSM LOVES that bipartisan stuff. But I really want those assholes on the right who brought us here to be stopped. I’d like them to be punished, but that’s not Biden. So let’s look at how to punish them in their role in the insurrection.
WTH went on down in Mar-a-Lago? I’ve been getting confused about all the latest ins and outs of the Mar-a-lago case with the boxes going in and out and who took what when. So I asked on twitter and people kindly pointed me to this speculation based upon various reports: THREAD: SPECULATION: This is what I think happened with the documents at Mar-a-Lago based on bits and pieces assembled from public reporting. THIS IS SPECULATION. 1/ May 11, 2022: The Office of Donald J. Trump is subpoenaed for all documents with classified markings. Trump asks his lawyer, Evan Corcoran, if there’s a way to defy the subpoena. Corcoran tells him there’s not and memorialized that conversation in detailed notes. 2/ Trump contacts his valet Walt nauta and tells him to move documents boxes from the storage area to his residence, and then Donald goes through the boxes and removes the classified documents he wants to keep. 3/ Trump then tells Corcoran to search the storage room.
Yikes TPM’s Hunter Walker with a chilling tale that does not strike me as far fetched. There have been a number of attacks on power stations already: The first chapter of the black-and-white PDF magazine begins with an ominous warning. Over four dense pages, the anonymous writers paint a picture of “an anti-tech revolution, beginning with the annihilation of the U.S. energy grid.” “The horrific effects of a nationwide blackout cannot be understated. Hospitals would fail. … Financial collapse,” the magazine reads, continuing to detail traffic chaos, dwindling supplies of clean water and spreading disease before concluding that a successful attack targeting key points on the electrical grid would lead to “the collapse of the system … chaos, agony, and death” The magazine was obtained by TPM in a chat group on the encrypted app Telegram dedicated to “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski.
June is Supreme Court month, when Clarence Thomas gets to hand down one edict after another. As an antidote, my publisher is offering The Enigma of Clarence Thomas on sale! You can get the Kindle version for the low price of $2.99. Buy it now!
It’s a big state. But they are a minority here, thankfully. But they can cause a lot of trouble in some of these small rural towns, just s they do in Texas: An ugly scene played out at the Temecula Valley School Board meeting as they voted 3-2 to reject an elementary school social studies book that contained information about pioneering California gay rights figure Harvey Milk. The board’s president made a baseless accusation that Milk was a pedophile before voting to ban the book. “My question is, why even mention a pedophile?” said Board President Dr. Joseph Komrosky. Temecula’s emotionally charged meeting resembles many others from here in Southern California and across the country as communities demand school boards to limit discussions of race and sexual orientation. The battle over books has been an ongoing conflict in Republican-controlled states. California Gov. Gavin Newsom interjected himself into the fray last summer in a series of commercials that aired in Florida. Now, he’s taking that message directly to educators in the state through a letter directed to superintendents and school administrators.
Fossil fuel companies burnish their image with environmental sponsorships. Lakes and reservoirs drying up around the globe. China dominates the production of solar panels. Environmental charities taking the fossil fuel dollar 350 Australia, the local branch of the organisation started by Bill McKibbin, and the Climate Council have launched a Fossil Fuel Free Pledge which Continue reading »
We are at an existential turning point in the human story and, with it, the habitability of our planetary home. So-called Artificial Intelligence (AI), for all its creative ingenuity, is an imminent threat to humanity, already wedded to misappropriated power and wealth, and values to suit. In recent days, respected thinkers like Yuval Noah Harari, Continue reading »
AUKUS relies on the dubious proposition that nuclear propulsion will in 20 years or so be a viable option. A dubious proposition in twenty years, as it hardly is value for money now. A number of defects should be obvious even to Peter Hartcher as he predicts imminent conflict. One of the wise decisions made Continue reading »
“You be the bigger person, and you walk away.” AFL Legend and Co-Founder of the GO Foundation, Adam Goodes Gets Real with former Manchester United player and England Football Captain, Rio Ferdinand covering family, leadership, racism, culture and identity, and his love for sport. Former Manchester United player and England Football Captain, Rio Ferdinand sits Continue reading »
At the post-budget Press Club lunch, Treasurer Chalmers made a telling comment about the meaning of social security and, by extension, the role of government. Responding to Shadow Treasurer Taylor’s concerns that the broader community would be funding the government’s social security measures, Chalmers happily pointed out the bleeding obvious, namely that the idea that Continue reading »
The PwC scandal reveals appalling behaviour by an individual consultant and his company that provided consulting services to the federal government. PwC reportedly used its insider knowledge to advise multinational firms on how to continue to avoid tax when the legislation it advised on came into operation. Confidentiality agreements were broken and the central objective of the Continue reading »
From nighttime detentions without a court order, to blindfolding and beatings: the silence of Israeli mental health therapists in the face of severe harm to Palestinian children is particularly alarming. Among the hundreds of thousands of Israelis who have been taking part in the ongoing massive protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul, the Continue reading »
Biden signed the debt ceiling bill today. Huzzah. Since there shouldn’t even be a debt ceiling it’s always a little bizarre to celebrate. But there was no default and Biden managed to let them extract as small a pound of flesh as we probably could have hope for. He spoke from the Oval Office last night and patted himself on the back for his success in making bipartisan deals. It is rather surprising that he managed to get a few GOP senators on board for the infrastructure bill, CHIP act and gun safety. And apparently, the MAGA caucus is saving its energy for the more important Hunter Biden laptop investigation and layed out of this one. None of this actually indicates that the right wing has sobered up and found sanity. It’s obvious that it hasn’t. Neither does it indicate that Biden has a magic touch for bipartisan legislation. All of this is Democratic Party driven and is largely successful because the left, understanding the threat of right wing power, is being a team player. But it is good for Biden’s presidential campaign.
It’s not going to work Well, it WAS a good place for them to live. It’s downright deadly for trans people right now. But the attacks on Pride show exactly what these people are up to. The share of people worldwide who say their area is a good place for gay or lesbian people to live doubled from 25% to 50% over 10 years, Axios’ Alice Feng writes from a Gallup poll. Zoom in: The countries with the highest percentage were Norway (92%), Sweden (91%) and the Netherlands (90%). The U.S. ranks 15th with 80%. Countries with the largest increases since 2012 were Nepal (+63 percentage points), India (+42) and Bangladesh (+35). There is no putting this genie back in the bottle.
Looks like Russell T. Davies and Steven Moffat have some pretty bold casting ideas for Doctor Who stars Sacha Dhawan and Michelle Gomez.
Wonder why? Magadonian sounds more like a plump dinosaur than a macho Star Wars character, if that’s what Trump was going for. Pretty chunky. Probably has a “very, very large brain.” And very, very large on the other end.
Use to discuss topics unrelated to recent posts.
Also, a wealth tax yields crazy high returns, an abandoned oil tanker in Yemen will finally be rescued, a New York pizzeria gets a union, noncompetes take a hit, and more.
The virulent grow more virulent Throw “government closest to the people serves the people best” on the ashheap of history. Old-school conservatives may once have spouted that line, but MAGA authoritarians treat local democracy as quaint. Like the Geneva Convention that way. The New York Times Editorial Board comments on the trend among Republican-led state legislatures to put their thumbs on local democracies that buck the MAGA-red tide. For example, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott will sign within day a bill stripping Texas cities of their power to govern themselves: The bill, recently approved by the Texas House and Senate, would nullify any city ordinance or regulation that conflicts with existing state policy in those crucial areas, and would give private citizens or businesses the right to sue and seek damages if they believe there is a discrepancy between city and state. That means no city could prohibit discrimination against L.G.B.T.Q. employees, as several Texas cities have done. No city could adopt new rules to limit predatory payday-lending practices. No city could restrict overgrown lots, or unsafe festivals, or inadequate waste storage.