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 »
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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.
The Doctor needed a companion because the heart of Doctor Who is about the romance between them, which became more overt in the new show.
Something is brewing within our professional classes. Senior doctors are balloting over low pay, barristers have been on strike over legal aid fees and now the union representing the senior civil service has announced its first national pay ballot plans in its history. Strikes in the senior civil service are rare—only two were officially called […]
Democrats and Republicans have previously joined hands to support the invasion of Iraq, huge corporate tax cuts, and more.
The post The Debt Limit Bill: Yet Another Triumph for Bipartisanship appeared first on The Intercept.
Meerkat pups! (Should be Meerkat cubs, no? Kittens? ) For the first time in 16 years, the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (NZCBI) in Washington, D.C., is celebrating the birth of three meerkats. Keepers in the Small Mammal House reported for duty the morning of May 10 and observed that 5-year-old Sadie had given birth overnight. NZCBI had received a recommendation from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Species Survival Plan (SSP) to breed Sadie and the pups’ 6-year-old father Frankie. These pups are the first offspring for Sadie; Frankie sired offspring previously at his former zoo. Meerkats live in groups called mobs that can include as many as 30 individuals, although the average mob size is around 10 to 15 individuals. Visitors can view NZCBI’s meerkat mob—which also includes Sadie’s sister, Stella—at the Small Mammal House. In the wild, meerkat pups typically remain in an underground burrow for about three weeks.
Dems’ debt-deal celebration tells us exactly what they think is a victory — and for whom they want to deliver such wins.
Through weak policy efforts and debt ceiling capitulations, Biden has helped derail his student loan relief plan — and time is running out to salvage it.
Nice of him to stipulate that we shouldn’t be “cruel to those who don’t fit the norm.” But I hate to tell him — being cruel to anyone who didn’t perfectly fit was the norm until recently when humans finally decided that allowing people to celebrate their communities and identities should be the new norm. That’s called modern civilization and these throwbacks can’t stand to see it. Any of you who are older than 40 or so (and probably a few who are younger as well) are very well aware of the the “norm” among kids and adults alike to discriminate, isolate, degrade, insult and batter LGBTQ people. Among some, it still is. These people who are threatening store clerks at Target over Pride merch are not so subtly signalling that they plan to bring back that “norm.” Don’t kid yourself, they aren’t just trying to “protect” trans kids. Going after Pride proves that. They want all LGBTQ people back in the closet with the door nailed shut. They always have. And there are a whole lot of Republicans who have gay relatives. Quite a few are gay themselves.