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The Duty Of The Good Is To Be Powerful

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Created
Tue, 20/06/2023 - 17:56
The Duty Of The Good Is To Be Powerful

There is no more important line in all of the humanities and the social sciences than this one from the Melian dialogue:

the strong do as they wish, while the weak suffer as they must

We have a system which requires those who wish to be powerful to perform evil acts. It is difficult to become powerful without having been vetted, without having “made ones bones.” To be sure, if you want power in a corporation or as a politician or in an organization like the World Bank or IMF, your killing and your torture of people is sanitized and done at arm’s length, but that doesn’t make it any less real.

You must prove you can make the “tough” decisions, which apparently means hurting other people while paying yourself very very well.

So tough.

Dags för socialdemokratin släppa sin sparpolitik

https://larspsyll.wordpress.com/2023/06/20/dags-for-socialdemokratin-slappa-sin…
Created
Tue, 20/06/2023 - 16:42
Hela den här våren har jag väntat på att Magdalena Andersson ska gå från att göra en ”Hillary Clinton” till att göra en ”Joe Biden”. Från att fastna i identitetspolitik, vara kompetent och motståndare till SD – och förlora. Till att kombinera en svidande kritik av hotet mot demokratin med en ekonomisk investeringspolitik som Joe Biden gjort […]

2023 New laws to phase out gas cooking

https://australianfoodtimeline.com.au/phase-out-gas-cooking/
Created
Tue, 20/06/2023 - 11:48

This food timeline started as a way to explore the revolution in Australian food that has occurred during the baby-boomers’ lifetime, but has since expanded to include more about the previous decades (and century) as well. Also included are overseas events and trends that had an impact here. The entries are brief, but there are lots of links if you want more information.

Everything old is new again

https://digbysblog.net/2023/06/19/everything-old-is-new-again-2/
Created
Tue, 20/06/2023 - 09:30
They always have a supposedly reasonable rationale but the truth is they assume that the people receiving these people will be horrified because of course they are just as racist as they are. But they’re horrified because of the cruelty inflicted on those who are being used a pawns in their ugly game. This is sick, ugly stuff. But they can’t seem to help themselves, apparently convinced that most of the country thinks these stunts are hilarious and/or justified. It’s not. This Reuters poll from last fall found: Following a highly-publicized drive by Republican governors to bus or fly thousands of migrants to Democratic areas in recent months, 53% of Republican respondents in the poll said they supported the practice. Twenty-nine percent opposed it. Sixteen percent of Democrats supported the practice and 55% were opposed. Overall, 29% of Americans supported the practice and 40% opposed. Forty-five percent of respondents in the Reuters/Ipsos poll – including 63% of Democrats and 31% of Republicans – said state leaders transporting migrants were committing illegal migrant trafficking.

Another cabinet member declares Trump unfit

https://digbysblog.net/2023/06/19/another-cabinet-member-declares-trump-unfit/
Created
Tue, 20/06/2023 - 06:30
Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper said he’s a national security risk I know, I know. Duh, right? But still, it helps to have more Republicans saying this even if the rank and file are all lining up to take more kool-aid: Esper, who served in Trump’s Cabinet, said: “People have described him as a hoarder when it comes to these type of documents. But clearly, it was unauthorized, illegal and dangerous.” […] “Imagine if a foreign agent, another country were to discover documents that outline America’s vulnerabilities or the weaknesses of the United States military,” he said. “Think about how that could be exploited, how that could be used against us in a conflict, how an enemy could develop countermeasures, things like that. Or in the case of the most significant piece that was raised in the allegation about U.S. plans to attack Iran, think about how that affects our readiness, our ability to prosecute an attack.” Tapper asked Esper if he thought that Trump, if elected president in 2024, could ever be trusted with the nation’s secrets again.

Losing to religion

https://digbysblog.net/2023/06/19/losing-to-religion/
Created
Tue, 20/06/2023 - 05:00
From law professor Xiao Wang in the LA Times: Looking for a federal law to be declared unconstitutional? Religion may well be your best bet — and that’s true regardless of how “real” your religious beliefs are. That’s part of the thinking behind one case the Supreme Court heard this session and will resolve soon. In 303 Creative vs. Elenis, the court is considering the constitutionality of a Colorado statute prohibiting most businesses from discriminating against LGBTQ+ customers. Lori Smith, a Christian webpage designer, had wanted to expand into the wedding website business — but only for opposite-sex couples, a plan that would have violated the Colorado law at issue. Her lawyers made the case on free speech grounds, but given Smith’s religious beliefs, “religious freedom” represents an undeniable backdrop to the suit. The 303 Creative case is no outlier. Religion-based claims have proliferated in recent years, and plaintiffs have often won because courts have almost invariably found their religious beliefs to be sincerely held.

Vale Dennis Argall

https://johnmenadue.com/vale-dennis-argall/
Created
Tue, 20/06/2023 - 04:58
After enduring chronic illness for many decades, Dennis passed away peacefully at 11:10pm (AEST) on Tuesday the 13th of June. Dennis was born in 1943 and was an example of “some people DID know better back then”. He was curious, funny, fiercely intelligent, committed to social justice, and fairly often the world had to catch Continue reading »

Before Ellsberg died, he revealed detailed US plans to nuke China

https://johnmenadue.com/before-ellsberg-died-he-revealed-detailed-us-plans-to-n…
Created
Tue, 20/06/2023 - 04:57
The final revelation of whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, who died on Friday at the age of 92, was to reveal details of top secret US plans to launch a nuclear invasion of China. Millions would have died in the bombing, planned for 1958, which was set to start with Hiroshima-sized atomic bombs on the Chinese mainland Continue reading »

A profound failure to understand and accept strategic threats

https://johnmenadue.com/a-profound-failure-to-understand-and-accept-strategic-t…
Created
Tue, 20/06/2023 - 04:56
The Defence Strategic Review reflects a profound failure of the Australian leadership to understand and accept the breadth and complexity of the range of strategic threats confronting Australia, the region, and the world. How can a realistic defence policy be determined without first understanding the risks it is supposed to address? On 24thApril 2023 the Continue reading »

A problem bigger than rich schools and funding

https://johnmenadue.com/a-problem-bigger-than-rich-schools-and-funding/
Created
Tue, 20/06/2023 - 04:53
It’s easy to gain the impression that there are just two school sectors in Australia: elite private schools and public schools, the former being exclusive and over-funded, the latter inclusive and cash-strapped. True to a point, but in dwelling on this dichotomy we are missing bigger policy issues that cry out for resolution. The contrasts Continue reading »

Hawks only become doves in election season 

https://johnmenadue.com/hawks-only-become-doves-in-election-season-pic/
Created
Tue, 20/06/2023 - 04:50
Any plan to try and end the Ukraine war needs to be welcomed if sincere, well-considered, unencumbered, and authored by a respected source. None of those criteria applies to the peace proposal from Prabowo Subianto at the 20th Asia Security Summit this month. The Singapore speech was outside his portfolio. It was delivered without clearance from Continue reading »

Happy Juneteenth

https://digbysblog.net/2023/06/19/happy-juneteenth/
Created
Tue, 20/06/2023 - 03:30
America’s second independence day I thought this was a nice thought for this holiday: There are little joys to be found in overheard conversations, like this recent gem on an Acela train. A couple of young professional dude-bros sat behind me and were discussing why they couldn’t reschedule something for the 19th of June. “Because it’s Juneteenth — we get it off this year,” one said. And after a beat or two too long, the other replied, “Oh yeah. What’s it for anyways? Like, I know for Black people but …” The first gave a pitying chuckle and returned with, “It’s when America freed the slaves” — followed by an incredulous, “C’mon man.” I mean, well, yes. Juneteenth commemorates the day when — more than two months after Robert E. Lee’s surrender to Ulysses S. Grant and more than two years after Abraham Lincoln’s Proclamation — a Union army finally reached South Texas with news of emancipation. But I was far less interested in historical accuracy than I was in the fact that these two guys were having a casual Juneteenth civics conversation.