These technologies are removing accountability from warfare and making it harder to hold individuals or governments responsible for extrajudicial killings
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'The argument against labour rights is politically flawed, because it ignores the impact of having a large number of workers in insecure and bad jobs'
There’s not much I can do about it, but I still spend a lot of time thinking about what I, and others outside the US, should do if that country ceases to be a democracy. But, it doesn’t seem as if lots of other people are thinking this way. One possibility is that people just […]
There is a pattern. Start with an aim which usually involves advancing the interests of some powerful lobby group. It is known that if the citizens realise that there is special pleading going on they will not be supportive. The solution – create some metaphorical language that will help convince us that the aim is…
Francesca Albanese warns the entire population of Gaza at risk of genocide, while the Israeli army herd Palestinian men in Jabalia and a child trapped in rubble waits for help. Courage to continue to help the injured from Dr. Hussam Abu Safiyah, Director of Kamal Adwan Hospital whose son died in the attack and horror Continue reading »
Images of homes that collapsed under mudslides or falling trees, waterlogged farms, and debris-filled roads drove home (yes, home!) to me recently the impact of Hurricane Helene on rural areas in the southeastern United States. That hurricane and the no-less-devastating Hurricane Milton that followed it only exacerbated already existing underlying problems for rural America. Those would include federal insurance programs that prioritize rising sea levels over flooding from heavy rainfall, deepening poverty, and unequal access to private home insurance — issues, in other words, faced by poor inland farming communities. And for millions of rural Americans impacted by Helene, don’t forget limited access to healthcare services, widespread electricity outages, and of course, difficulty getting to the ballot box. Case in... Read more
The Federal Greens Housing Spokesperson and a man who takes his time to walk past a mirror, Max Chandler-Mather, has held a press conference to talk of how flattered he is to learn that last weekend’s Queensland election was allegedly... Read More ›
For all the shit we’ve given the NYTimes in this election season, they have really pulled out all the stops to make up for it the last couple of days. This was yesterday’s front page. Here are a couple of the inside pages in the same issue. There are more. A huge section was devoted to this subject. I have included a gift link to this online multimedia indictment of Trump. It’s amazing. And here is their endorsement of Kamala Harris which, unlike the Washington Post and the LA Times, they seem to think is something a major national paper has a responsibility to do: It is hard to imagine a candidate more unworthy to serve as president of the United States than Donald Trump. He has proved himself morally unfit for an office that asks its occupant to put the good of the nation above self-interest. He has proved himself temperamentally unfit for a role that requires the very qualities — wisdom, honesty, empathy, courage, restraint, humility, discipline — that he most lacks.
To all our progressive and American Muslim friends who are thinking of leaving the presidential slot blank on the ballot, I urge you to read this. It’s the best argument I’ve seen about how to smartly leverage all of our concerns over Gaza and Israel: Arizona Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, and Progressive Democrats and Community Leaders Statement on Presidential Election As Democrats and leaders in the Palestinian, Arab, Muslim and Progressive communities in Arizona, we the undersigned make the following statement, published on 10/24/2024: This past year has been very difficult for all of us. With over 42,000 Palestinians killed by Israel using American-supplied weapons and no end in sight despite all our struggle for a ceasefire, we approach the presidential election heartbroken and outraged. We know that many in our communities are resistant to vote for Kamala Harris because of the Biden administration’s complicity in the genocide. We understand this sentiment. Many of us have felt that way ourselves, even until very recently. Some of us have lost many family members in Gaza and Lebanon.
Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – October 27 2024
by Tony Wikrent
Strategic Political Economy
The Right Believes It Has the Supreme Court Votes to Overturn Labor Law
[In These Times, via Naked Capitalism Water Cooler 10-22-2024]
When justifying vast increases in defence expenditure, subsidies for so-called critical industries, foreign aid as an increasingly important element in the securitisation of foreign policy, governments and conservative think tanks never tire of telling the public that they live in the most dangerous of times. It is arguable that the times are any more dangerous Continue reading »
The second New South Wales Drug Summit will be held in regional centres for two days in October and the final two days will be in Sydney on the 4th and 5th December to be co-chaired by Carmel Tebbutt and John Brogden – a balance of politics. Do summits achieve worthwhile outcomes? The first Drug Continue reading »
What further evidence do apes with apps, the inhabitants of planet Earth, need to have before the liveable climate, the lungs of the Earth, overheat and the mere failure of a computer chip or a brain neuron triggers the sixth mass extinction of species in the history of planet Earth? At the death of détente Continue reading »
In ‘Powder keg in the Pacific’ Alfred McCoy is wrong from the very first sentence. He confounds cause and effect, revises history, reverses belligerent and defender, and hard-packs his article through and through with US state department mendacity. China is militarising defensively because the US is encircling it in serious preparation for war, a war Continue reading »
Investigative journalist Antony Loewenstein questions the narratives he was taught growing up in the Jewish Diaspora as he traces the origins of Israel’s military-industrial complex, examining how Israel became one of the world’s leading arms and tech exporters. When a military force essentially creates a nation, can they ever be truly separated? Guests: Mariam Dawwas, Continue reading »
Recently, the matter of retirement villages has come to the fore in the media, led by investigative journalist Adele Ferguson on ABC 7.30 Report. Ferguson’s report and case studies raised the question of “what protections should be put in place to protect the residents from the avarice of owners and operators of retirement villages?” Since Continue reading »
Michael Hirsh, a columnist for Foreign Policy has just published an instructive review of Bob Woodward’s forceful new book “War”. Curiously, the Hirsh book review rounds out to its Biden-elevating, JFK-comparison without referring to Mearsheimer’s directly relevant seminal article. Continue reading »
Intel has found itself under scrutiny yet again, with Chinese officials and cybersecurity experts calling for a thorough review of the company’s products sold in China. According to a report released by the China Cyber Association, Intel’s products have been repeatedly flagged for serious security vulnerabilities, poor reliability and even hidden backdoors that pose a Continue reading »