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The Fight To Free Julian Assange, with Kevin Gosztola

https://www.mintpressnews.com/fight-free-julian-assange-wikileaks-kevin-gosztol…
Created
Thu, 25/05/2023 - 00:58

Uncover the truth behind Julian Assange's detainment and the US government's escalating attacks on WikiLeaks in this eye-opening interview with Kevin Gosztola, shedding light on the invaluable information exposed by WikiLeaks and the potential collapse of a secretive system.

The post The Fight To Free Julian Assange, with Kevin Gosztola appeared first on MintPress News.

Banned in Miami-Dade

https://digbysblog.net/2023/05/24/banned-in-miami-dade/
Created
Thu, 25/05/2023 - 00:30
My, aren’t they delicate flowers? Book banners gonna ban books (NBC News): Amanda Gorman, the nation’s first National Youth Poet Laureate, spoke out Tuesday against what she described as a book ban after access to the poem she recited at President Joe Biden’s inauguration was limited at a Florida school. Miami-Dade County Public Schools moved “The Hill We Climb” to the middle school section of the library after a parent filed a formal objection to the work, according to documents obtained by the Florida Freedom to Read Project and shared with media. The Miami Herald first reported the story. “Unnecessary #bookbans like these are on the rise, and we must fight back,” Gorman said in a post on Facebook that accompanied a one-page statement in which she said her book had been banned from an elementary school. “I’m gutted,” Gorman reacted in a tweet.

Universalism vs tribalism

https://larspsyll.wordpress.com/2023/05/24/universalism-vs-tribalism/
Created
Wed, 24/05/2023 - 23:17
It’s now an article of faith that universalism, like other Enlightenment ideas, is a sham that was invented to disguise Eurocentric views that supported colonialism. When I first heard such claims some fifteen years ago, I thought they were so flimsy they’d soon disappear. For the claims are not simply ungrounded: they turn Enlightenment upside […]

Laboratories of autocracy: hot and bubbling

https://digbysblog.net/2023/05/24/laboratories-of-autocracy-hot-and-bubbling/
Created
Wed, 24/05/2023 - 23:00
“If we saw this in another country …” Maybe you’ve noticed. The U-S-A chanters bedecked in red, white and blue? The “we’re a republic, not a democracy” crowd? Those Real Americans™ with pocket Constitutions who, like the hypocrites Jesus warned about, make a public show of their political piety? They’re not really into the whole “consent of the governed” thing in the Declaration of Independence. You’re hardly shocked. Neither is David Pepper, the former Ohio Democratic Party chair. Right now in Ohio, Republicans firmly in control of the mechanisms of state governance are racing to hold a special election in August to pass a constitutional amendment that heads off a citizen-led ballot initiative in November. With it they hope to use a low-turnout August election to raise the threshold for passing a constitutional amendment in Ohio from 50% to 60%. The 50% threshold has been in place for 100 years, say critics. The citizen initiative would place an abortion rights guarantee in the state constitution. Revanchists cannot have that, so they want to raise the bar for passage ahead of November.

The Joys of Jell-O Gelatin: Orange Coconut Cake (1981)

https://dinnerisserved1972.com/2023/05/24/the-joys-of-jell-o-gelatin-orange-coc…
Created
Wed, 24/05/2023 - 22:51
Earlier this month I received an invitation for a dinner party hosted by my friends Tom and Kathleen. When I asked what to bring, they said dessert. Since they were participants in my Easter Brunch featuring Smirnoff Jell-O Eggs, I decided to carry on the Jell-O theme and bake a Orange Coconut Cake from TheContinue reading The Joys of Jell-O Gelatin: Orange Coconut Cake (1981)

The Police Don’t Care About Ending Institutional Racism

https://tribunemag.co.uk/2023/05/the-police-dont-care-about-ending-institutiona…
Created
Wed, 24/05/2023 - 21:54

From the policing of the anti-monarchy protests earlier this month, to the damning revelations in the recent Casey Review into the racism and sexism in the Metropolitan Police, it’s clear that the interests of the rich and powerful are protected at the expense of our rights and freedoms. Today is the first anniversary of the […]

Kissinger turns 100

https://thomasfazi.net/2023/05/24/kissinger-turns-100/
Created
Wed, 24/05/2023 - 20:23
On May 27, Henry Kissinger will celebrate his one-hundredth birthday. His centenary couldn’t come at a more symbolic time: Kissinger’s century was the American century, and they’re both coming to a close. Kissinger is probably America’s most controversial and polarising statesman — reviled as a war criminal by his critics, hailed as a master in …

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The Long Shadow of Section 28

https://tribunemag.co.uk/2023/05/the-long-shadow-of-section-28-2/
Created
Wed, 24/05/2023 - 19:02

Today marks 35 years since the enactment of a piece of legislation that has since become synonymous with the aggressively anti-LGBT+ policy platform of Margaret Thatcher. Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988, banning ‘the promotion of homosexuality’ by councils, was ushered in at the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. It helped to assert […]