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Tanks for Ukraine won’t bring peace negotiations and an end to the war closer

https://johnmenadue.com/tanks-for-ukraine-wont-bring-peace-negotiations-and-an-…
Created
Sat, 28/01/2023 - 04:57
Supply of main battle tanks will commit the NATO allies and partners to the war in a way that makes their involvement irreversible and could be effectively the first major step toward a war with Russia. The tactical advantages provided by main battle tanks (MBTs) are readily apparent to anyone that has been inside a Continue reading »

Economic growth and our environmental future

https://johnmenadue.com/economic-growth-and-our-environmental-future/
Created
Sat, 28/01/2023 - 04:55
A spate of articles have argued protection of the environment is incompatible with population and economic growth. But they do not address how to stop this growth and its public acceptability, nor how more determined efforts to protect the environment can succeed. Over the last few weeks Pearls and Irritations has posted several articles asserting Continue reading »

Australia Day: a long perspective from 65,000 BCE

https://johnmenadue.com/australia-day-65000-bce-1788-ce-and-2023-a-long-perspec…
Created
Sat, 28/01/2023 - 04:54
‘Australian history does not read like history but like the most beautiful lies.’ – Mark Twain, 1897 65,000 BCE Homo sapiens first arrived in Australia about 65,000 years before ‘the common era’, or BCE.  We cannot pin down a specific day for their arrival. We don’t use the abbreviations AD or BC of the Christian Continue reading »

Mariupol: the battle-scarred city

https://johnmenadue.com/mariupol-in-photos-how-the-battle-scarred-city-has-chan…
Created
Sat, 28/01/2023 - 04:50
How has the battle-scarred Ukrainian city of Mariupol changed after eight months under Russian control? These images were taken by photojournalist Arseniy Kotov half a year apart, in summer and in winter, and show efforts to restore the Azov sea pearl It’s now over eight months since Mariupol – the second largest city of the Continue reading »

Independent councillor reacts to Labour right-winger’s complaint re use of ‘dodgy’

https://skwawkbox.org/2023/01/27/independent-councillor-reacts-to-labour-right-…
Created
Sat, 28/01/2023 - 04:48
Unrepentant councillor who quit Labour over party’s plan for cruel cuts in Liverpool responds to complaint after he called for transparency over whitewashed council company that took large amounts of unreceipted cash and doled out support for councillors’ friends and family Liverpool Community Independent Councillor Alfie Hincks, who was one of several to leave the […]

The Narrator of “Jessie’s Girl” Offers an Apology after Completing His Master’s in Women’s and Gender Studies

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the-narrator-of-jessies-girl-offers-an-apol…
Created
Sat, 28/01/2023 - 04:30

I want to begin by owning my white male privilege and apologizing to the American public, in particular to the woman who formerly dated my friend Jessie. I’m sorry that I still don’t know your name. I struggled with how to address you and decided on “Woman Who Formerly Dated My Friend Jessie” because it highlights your identity as a woman rather than your previous romantic partnership with my friend Jessie. I now understand that you are a woman (or transman, or nonbinary human) in your own right, not simply a possession of Jessie’s. That said, if you’re not currently in a monogamous romantic partnership and would like to meet for drinks, I would totally be down for that.

The merger of the anti-tax Tea Partiers with the MAGA culture warriors is complete

https://digbysblog.net/2023/01/27/the-merger-of-the-anti-tax-tea-partiers-with-…
Created
Sat, 28/01/2023 - 04:02
This is the new GOP establishment House Speaker Kevin McCarthy made good on his promise this week to exact revenge on Democrats for denying committee assignments to far-right extremists Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Paul Gosar, R-Az. He booted two California congressmen, Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell, from the Select Committee on Intelligence. AS Speaker, McCarthy has the power to make this move unilaterally. But he is also proposing to kick Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar off the Foreign Relations Committee, which will require a vote of the full House. The cycle of revenge has officially begun. It should be noted that the removal of Greene and Gosar, both of whom have addressed white nationalist gatherings and publicly advocated for the deaths of Democratic officials, was decided by a bipartisan vote by the full House. But that was an earlier, more innocent time. A golden era when death threats against Democratic colleagues were considered bad form by at least a handful of Republicans. It was all the way back in 2021, a lifetime ago.

Facebook’s Jordana Cutler Appointed Head of Controversial Israeli Ministry, Sparking Censorship Fears

https://www.mintpressnews.com/facebook-jordana-cutler-israel-ministry-sparking-…
Created
Sat, 28/01/2023 - 03:49

Facebook's Jordana Cutler has been named director general of Israel's controversial Ministry of Strategic Affairs, drawing concern from experts over to her personal biography and Facebook's history of censoring Palestinian content.

The post Facebook’s Jordana Cutler Appointed Head of Controversial Israeli Ministry, Sparking Censorship Fears appeared first on MintPress News.

All in

https://digbysblog.net/2023/01/27/all-in/
Created
Sat, 28/01/2023 - 02:30
Take a deep breath Anand Giridharadas suggests (not in so many words) that if we want to defeat nascent fascism the left needs to get over itself: We need to build a movement like we never have before: attractive, fun, substantive, visionary, tomorrow-oriented, rooted in people’s lives, open-armed, fiery, merciful. A movement that understands the emotion and psychology and anxiety that are at the heart of politics. The right gets this; the left largely doesn’t. We need a new movement that does. A movement that isn’t tedious and hairsplitting and gatekeeping and purist and more interested in petty internal beefing than outward expansion. We need a small-e evangelical movement more interested in finding converts than heretics. If you’ve read “The Persuaders,” the roots of this post are obvious. The left needs to focus more on building critical mass than on criticism. A movement with a tribal language and that finds a dark cloud in every silver lining isn’t inviting. A real movement doesn’t erect barriers to entry. A movement that has a sense of humor.

BIG FINISH: The Paternoster Gang return in October 2023

https://www.blogtorwho.com/big-finish-the-paternoster-gang-return-in-october-20…
Created
Sat, 28/01/2023 - 02:00

Everybody’s favourite Victorian crime-fighting misfits return in a brand-new audio series of the Doctor Who spin-off, The Paternoster Gang, at Big Finish Productions. The Paternoster Gang, Silurian detective Madame Vastra (Neve McIntosh), her human wife, Jenny (Catrin Stewart) and Sontaran butler, Strax (Dan Starkey) are back in 12 interlinked full-cast audio adventures. First introduced in Steven Moffat’s 2011 TV episode, A […]

The post BIG FINISH: The Paternoster Gang return in October 2023 appeared first on Blogtor Who.

Israel’s Racism Exposed in Ongoing Imprisonment of Ethiopian-Born Soldier Avera Mengistu

https://www.mintpressnews.com/avera-mengistu-captured-black-soldiers-highlights…
Created
Sat, 28/01/2023 - 01:35

Israel's discriminatory behavior towards black people, including the lack of concern for captured Ethiopian-Israeli soldier Avera Mengistu, is rooted in the country's institutionalized racism towards African asylum seekers and Ethiopian Jews,

The post Israel’s Racism Exposed in Ongoing Imprisonment of Ethiopian-Born Soldier Avera Mengistu appeared first on MintPress News.

Biden: It’s all “about capitalism working for people”

https://digbysblog.net/2023/01/27/biden-is-all-about-capitalism-working-for-peo…
Created
Sat, 28/01/2023 - 01:00
A “new mindset is apparent” President Joe Biden exceeds expectations. (He’s exceeded mine.) But in several non-flashy ways people may not have noticed. David Dayen notices that Uncle Joe is taking on corporate concentration and bringing the busting back to trust busting (American Prospect): On July 9, 2021, President Joe Biden signed one of the most sweeping changes to domestic policy since FDR. It was not legislation: His signature climate and health law would take another year to gestate. This was a request that the government get into the business of fostering competition in the U.S. economy again. Flanked by Cabinet officials and agency heads, Biden condemned Robert Bork’s pro-corporate legal revolution in the 1980s, which destroyed antitrust, leading to concentrated markets, raised prices, suppressed wages, stifled innovation, weakened growth, and robbing citizens of the liberty to pursue their talents. Competition policy, Biden said, “is how we ensure that our economy isn’t about people working for capitalism; it’s about capitalism working for people.” Joe had me with that line. He gets it.

How Risk-Averse is Academic Philosophy?

https://dailynous.com/2023/01/27/how-risk-averse-is-academic-philosophy/
Created
Sat, 28/01/2023 - 00:55
“Philosophical inquiry thrives when it is conducted in a spirit that risks overreaching a bit,” yet “the current incentive structure of academic philosophy in the United States favors cautious and modest research agendas for early career philosophers.” The journal Axiomathes is becoming Global Philosophy, and in a forthcoming editorial about the change, John Symons (Kansas) discusses a variety of obstacles to global philosophy. “Deglobalization” and the resurgence of nationalism is one kind obstacle, he says, but so is hyperspecialization and the pressure to conform to narrow disciplinary standards. Here’s the passage from which the above quotes were excerpted: In the decades prior to the financial crisis of 2008, when Anglo-American philosophy departments were relatively financially healthy, a narrowly defined research niche in a fashionable topic could provide easy rewards in the early career of a young philosopher. With cleverness (or a good advisor in graduate school) one’s work could be crafted to satisfy the preferences of a manageably small number of specialists. Their approval was a necessary condition for professional advancement.