America’s space policy reveals its hegemonic obsession and the future quandaries for Australian policy. Even America’s approach to exploration and colonisation of the Moon is only comprehensible in terms of terrestrial geopolitics. It now expects the world to bow to its power in outer space. Both China and America have ambitious plans for colonisation, resource Continue reading »
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“It’s quite clear from recent policies that the US aims to curb China’s economic development and encircle the country with military bases in unfriendly (from China’s viewpoint) countries. Such demonisation only reinforces repressive trends in China and benefits security-obsessed hardliners in China’s political system. That’s why “de-demonisation” can help those in China who favour a Continue reading »
Edward Said’s “Orientalism” encapsulates the essence of why the West resists the rise of China as a major economic and military power. Even though “Orientalism” was first published in 1978, just as China was opening up its economy to the rest of the world and well before it acquired its present economic prowess, it provided insightful Continue reading »
There were four major changes for health care in the 2023-24 budget: prioritising primary care, funding to strengthen Medicare, cheaper access to common medicines, and new funding to keep the digital health system going. Many of these changes were foreshadowed in recent weeks. The big news on budget night was a tripling of the bulk-billing incentive, a Continue reading »
With the NSW election behind us the media is mulling over what Labor has in store for the premier state. The Sydney Morning Herald recently unpacked the agenda of education minister Prue Car. There is much to cheer about, but will she deal with deep-seated problems? The cheers are well deserved. After a promising start, Continue reading »
In December, The New York Times ran a headline reminding the world that publishing is not a crime. The paper urged President Biden to move to have the charges against Julian Assange dropped. The response was silence. US President Joe Biden recently addressed the annual White House Correspondents’ dinner. His speech was full of jokes Continue reading »
On Monday of this week, Variety reported that Fox News is experiencing a burst of new advertising sales in the 8 o’clock hour formerly held by the recently fired celebrity Tucker Carlson. He had had the dubious distinction of having cable news’ top ratings for his time period but scaring away most respectable companies from buying time on his show. So it’s possible that despite the ratings slump the time slot has been experiencing since his departure, the network won’t actually suffer any more losses than they already did in their epic $787 million settlement with Dominion voting machines. They may also be saving a few dollars if it turns out that Tucker Carlson’s latest move results in his breaching the reported non-compete clause in his contract worth $25 million. Carlson posted a twitter video on Tuesday announcing that he’s going to resume his show on twitter as a way of striking a blow for free speech against all the rest of the lying media.
The BBC released new Doctor Who images spotlighting Ncuti Gatwa, Millie Gibson & Jonathan Groff dressing to impress (& avoiding the Duchess).
“Oh, for crying out loud.”
For fuck’s sake. Is this a fucking joke?
“Get outta town.”
Are you fucking kidding me?
“Ya gotta help me out here.”
Come the fuck on.
“Well how ’bout that!”
That’s fucking great! Holy shit!
“Boy, I hear ya.”
Shut the fuck up.
“Excuse me?”
The fuck did you just say?
“Dang it.”
Fuck.
“Doggone it.”
Fuck!
“Well, shoot.”
FFFFFuuuuuuuuuucccccckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk!
As thousands of people took part in central London’s coronation festivities, Lula da Silva was nearby. After attending the King’s coronation, the president of Brazil was invited to 10 Downing Street, where he met with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Foreign Minister James Cleverley. In stark contrast to Jair Bolsonaro’s presidency, Lula has begun his […]
The Supreme Court spared Glossip’s life — for now. But his fight is far from over.
The post The “Power, Pride, and Politics” Behind the Drive to Execute Richard Glossip appeared first on The Intercept.
Better woke than the alternative Donald Trump’s believers, Sarah Longwell finds, are as committed as ever to their man-boy-love-god despite standing indictments and indictments yet to come: “As far as a mug shot goes, he’s going to market the hell out of that,” said Chris, a two-time Trump voter from Illinois, imagining a future arrest. “Every one of us is going to buy one of those shirts.” Most hands went up when I asked who would buy one. Republicans “are in a trap of their own making,” Longwell writes in The Atlantic: They thought that by covering for Trump they were tapping into his power, but they were actually giving away their own—mortgaging themselves and their reputations to Trump’s lies and depravities. By defending him then, they have made it impossible to credibly accuse him of anything now. This problem is compounded by the deep relationship that Trump has cultivated with Republican voters. He’s been a constant presence in their lives for eight years—or, for Apprentice fans, much longer. They defended him on Facebook and argued about him over Thanksgiving dinners.
“We’re looking at a pivotal Game Five against the Golden State Warriors,” Santos, who claimed to play small forward for the Los Angeles Lakers, said.
Sewage pollution by the water companies is just one of the deadly attacks on our rivers. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 3rd May 2023 I can’t help feeling a small surge of gratitude every time an environmental issue breaks the surface. That the state of England’s rivers seems at last to have become […]
Nature reveals itself when you are helpless.
Labour says its migration plans would not require repeal of the law – which has been condemned by the Archbishop of Canterbury as immoral, reports Adam Bienkov
Tlaib’s resolution commemorates 75 years since Palestinians were violently expelled from their homes.
The post Rep. Rashida Tlaib Asks Congress to Condemn “Israel’s Ongoing Nakba” Against Palestine appeared first on The Intercept.
Biden’s numbers bad for Biden, but Trump’s indictments are not for Trump? CNN broke news Tuesday night that federal prosecutors have filed criminal charges against New York Rep. George Santos (R). Coverage for now is informed speculation at best. The charges won’t be unsealed until later today when Santos is expected to appear in court in the eastern district of New York. “When someone has committed as much apparent fraud as Santos has,” Marcy Wheeler notes, “there’s no telling what the real story behind all that fraud is.” So we wait. Also in New York, a civil trial jury found Donald J. Trump guilty on Tuesday of sexually abusing and defaming E. Jean Carroll. The six men and three women voted unanimously. Also in New York, Trump still faces state charges of 34 counts of Falsifying Business Records in the First Degree. Special Counsel Jack Smith and Fulton County, Georgia prosecutor Fani Willis have yet to file federal and state charges against Trump for as much apparent criminality as Trump has committed. So we wait. As Trump continues to run for president again in 2024, we wait.
Brad Leithauser has been publishing poems and novels, much of it brilliant work, for forty years. When he was a young man he imagined writing a book about the structure of poetry. It has recently appeared—has been haunting his imagination for decades, and now at last is available between two covers. Rhyme’s Rooms: The Architecture of Poetry is a lifetime’s worth of education on the craft, a handbook, a book of essays, yes, but each one geared—in the manner, say, of John Hollander—to particular elements. There are chapters on “Stanzas,” “Enjambment,” “Rhyme and Rhyme Decay,” “Iambic Tetrameter,” even a chapter on the boon afforded English-language poets by English’s odd spellings, and another on “Rim Rhyme” (“where consonants are held steady while internal vowels are shifted around,” like “light” and “late”). Though the title phrase means “rhyme” as a kind of synonym for poetry in general, this poet does argue for the power of rhyming—the relationship between two words—as being, still, central and generative to the art form’s vitality.