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Fri, 10/03/2023 - 09:00
Hookay…. Will his homophobic constituents buy this? Probably. They all voted for Trump didn’t they? Shamelessness is their superpower. This is yet another data point among millions, that many these anti-LGBTQ zealots have secret lives that they are hiding. In the larger sense it’s incredibly sad that so many people can’t find the courage to live their lives honestly, even in this more tolerant world. But the fact that they actually use their power to degrade and discriminate against the people who are doing that is unforgiveable.
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Fri, 10/03/2023 - 07:38
Labour right-winger’s hypocrisy laid bare – there are always receipts Earlier today, Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper sided with the Tories against football pundit Gary Lineker – and against desperate refugees – condemning Lineker for comparing the Tories’ inflammatory race-hate language about asylum-seeker boats to the fascist rhetoric of the 1930s, saying ‘I just don’t […]
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Fri, 10/03/2023 - 07:31
The White House is requesting $886.4 billion in discretionary funding for national security in fiscal 2024, with $842 billion from that pot bound for Department of Defense coffers — a 3.2 percent increase over the FY23 enacted level.

The administration unveiled its budgetary roadmap today just hours before President Joe Biden was scheduled to touchdown in Philadelphia, Pa., to discuss plans to cut the deficit and fund the federal government next year.…
Breaking Defense

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Fri, 10/03/2023 - 07:30
For now This is a very interesting finding in a new USA Today/Ipsos poll about Americans’ view of “woke”, the epithet being hurled by Ron Desantis with virtually every breath he takes: Republican presidential hopefuls are vowing to wage a war on “woke,” but a new USA TODAY/Ipsos Poll finds a majority of Americans are inclined to see the word as a positive attribute, not a negative one. Fifty-six percent of those surveyed say the term means “to be informed, educated on, and aware of social injustices.” That includes not only three-fourths of Democrats but also more than a third of Republicans. Overall, 39% say instead that the word reflects what has become the GOP political definition, “to be overly politically correct and police others’ words.” That’s the view of 56% of Republicans.
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Fri, 10/03/2023 - 05:46
I’ve been wanting to shout this from the rooftops, and now I can. I’ve just signed a contract for my next book, which is called King Capital, with Random House, where I’ll be working with Molly Turpin, who edited one of my favorite books of the last decade. After floundering around for a few years, with one false start after another, I’m thrilled to be writing this book and working with Molly. I feel more than lucky that Sarah Chalfant (The Wylie Agency), who did so much for this shidduch, is my agent. Now to write the book. In the meantime here’s a brief article on the sale, which was reported in yesterday’s Publishers Marketplace.
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Fri, 10/03/2023 - 05:35

The contrasting ideologies at play in this tech sector mirror the conflicting ideologies in economics

Elon Musk’s recent takeover of Twitter paralleled, in some sense, the 2016 earthquake when Donald Trump unexpectedly took over the Oval Office. In both cases, a populist billionaire put an existing entity with millions of members under radically new management. Unsurprisingly, whereas alarmed Americans had signaled a desire to escape to Canada in 2016, alarmed tweeters in the fall of 2022 signaled their trepidation by announcing their intention to move as well. But the most commonly threatened exit was to a structure of which few had ever heard: Mastodon.

Mastodon is but one of many new social media sites, alongside Post, Steemit, Planetary, or the Dorsey-funded Nostr, that are drawing attention in the face of Musk’s inscrutable decision-making with respect to the banning of journalists, the firing of personnel, and algorithmic changes. Many of these new sites focus specifically on shifting away from the centralized architecture of today’s tech behemoths like Twitter and Facebook.

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Fri, 10/03/2023 - 04:59
The Sydney Morning Herald’s prominent series of provocations, urging Australia into a war with China, concluded its third instalment today. At Item 20 of its presentation, apart from its advocacy of the reintroduction of compulsory national service, it wantonly urges that Australia should further consider ‘basing US long-range missiles armed with nuclear weapons on Australian Continue reading »
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Fri, 10/03/2023 - 04:58
Where does Albanese stand when it comes to the latest attempts by The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald to manufacture a new wave of anti-China hysteria in Australia? Is he amenable to the beating of the drums of war? Or does he have the intelligence to resist this dangerous nonsense? The omens are not Continue reading »
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Fri, 10/03/2023 - 04:57
As the American Empire is attempting to open up another war front with China and dragging us into it, the Doomsday clock is now 10 seconds to midnight. Can we resist? The war in Ukraine is not going well for Zelensky. US involvement continues by pouring billions of dollars and armaments into Ukraine and encouraging Continue reading »
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Fri, 10/03/2023 - 04:56
This editorial in the Sydney Morning Herald suggests an independent body should determine which occupations are in shortage for employer sponsored visas rather than using labour market testing. That would be a mistake. It is entirely appropriate labour market testing should be abolished. It has always been a charade. It was why my former colleagues Continue reading »
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Fri, 10/03/2023 - 04:53
There are echoes of Kevin Rudd’s 2009 essay in Jim Chalmers recent tome. Themes of social justice, equity and fairness still resonate. But this time around, Labor needs to think beyond the lofty ideas to confront what it all means for Australia’s schools. Both essays followed crises that exposed and exacerbated inequalities on a domestic Continue reading »
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Fri, 10/03/2023 - 04:52
Australia supports, indeed resources, Ukrainian armed resistance to Russia’s invasion and its attempt to forcibly exert its sovereignty over Ukrainian soil. Very few Australians appear to find fault with this position. For what reason is Israel’s provocative and continuing colonisation of Palestine not seen in the same light? Human convenience is served through words that Continue reading »
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Fri, 10/03/2023 - 04:51
In 2015 a BBC documentary on You Tube showed us the remarkable scene of a Ukrainian military unit trying to enter the outskirts of Slovyansk in the Donbas. Old men, young boys, large women came out to stop them. Some climbed on the tanks and other armoured vehicles. Some seized the soldiers’ weapons and disabled Continue reading »
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Fri, 10/03/2023 - 04:50
The latest New York Times report on the Nord Stream pipeline bombing is something else. According to NYT’s anonymous US government sources, the pipelines were blown up by a “pro-Ukrainian group” who had no known connections to any military or intelligence agency, but somehow had all the information, skills, diving equipment and military explosives necessary to Continue reading »