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Earlier this year the Adelaide-based Australian Friends of Palestine Association planned and delivered a campaign to protest WOMADelaide, Adelaide’s premier music festival. The board of this festival had defended and lauded Zionist supporter, Ziggy Marley, and promoted political activism from a Ukrainian group. Meanwhile a Palestinian group, 47 Soul, was disinvited from this event. Our Continue reading »

I’ll confess that I got a little teary last night at the ovations for Biden. It was nice to see him get a little love from the party. His accomplishments have gone largely unappreciated by the public and his decision to withdraw from the race had to be incredibly difficult. He deserves all the appreciation we can give him for all of it. David Leonhardt had an interesting piece today about Biden’s legacy. And he defined him perfectly as a man who travelled his whole career in the mainstream of the party, whether more right or left as the party felt the times required. But Biden has not simply gone with the Democratic flow. Over his more than 50 years in politics, he has periodically shown strong opinions about how his party should change — and helped it do so. Biden has always understood the class resentments that many Americans feel. (If you haven’t read Robert Draper’s profile of Biden for The Times Magazine, I recommend it, including the section in which Biden analyzes George W. Bush.) Biden’s political career began in 1972, when he defeated an incumbent Republican senator in Delaware even as Richard Nixon won a landslide.

Dear Parental Group LLC,

Thank you so much for responding to my most recent proposal request for “Fun Stuff I Can Do.” Unfortunately, I won’t be moving forward with the course of action your organization provided. Please be assured that I closely reviewed the package you submitted, and I decided to reject your “Attend Kindergarten” project proposal after careful consideration of all the selection criteria, the use of a Nerf dart board, and pure gut instinct.

For your edification, the criterion proposal review and selection included the following:

1. Familiarity with Proposed Project
2. Screen Time Opportunity Cost
3. Level of Imagined Fun
4. My Mood at the Time of Review.

But what do I know? Judy Woodruff reports that as the administration is trying hard to get a cease fire and hostage release in Gaza, Donald Trump is on the phone exhorting his buddy Netanyahu not to do it. How can this be ok? More importantly how have we come to the point where it’s just a passing comment instead of front page news? I realize that the Logan Act is pretty much a joke. And there are certainly previous examples of Republicans doing this for political gain during an election (I’m looking at you Nixon and Reagan.) But it’s still not right, especially now what with Trump being a convicted criminal and a fascist and all. The media should never treat this as normal but they especially shouldn’t be doing it now.

You may be wondering where Tom Sullivan is today. Well, as he has vaguely mentioned, much more humbly than he should have, he’s in Chicago as a delegate to the DNC this week. That’s him above with rising star Anderson Clayton the chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party. Tom recognized Clayton as a singular talent some time ago and worked to help elect her to the post. North Carolina may very well be in play this election. At the very least Clarton and Sullivan are going to make Trump fight for it. I couldn’t feel more privileged than to have Tom writing here every day for all these years. He’s out there getting done.

Not everything, that’s for sure. Here's Raphael Warnock's full speech. This is an important address for MAGA to hear because he went hard after Donald Trump for rejecting Christianity. It's a message that Fox didn't air for even a second live. pic.twitter.com/i9Q9b4RMTl — Matthew Sheffield (@mattsheffield) August 20, 2024 Matthew Sheffield watched Fox News’ coverage of the DNC last night and found that they censored the Black politicians except for Kamala Harris’ brief remarks. Seriously. They did not show the speeches by Karen Bass, Laphonza Butler, James Clyburn, Jasmine Crockett, or Raphael Warnock. They also didn’t show the speech by Sean Fein, which says everything: Another very powerful speech which Fox did not air for even one second was by UAW president Shawn Fein. This was a really important address because Fein meticulously showed how Donald Trump pretends to support working people but never actually does so. Here it is in full. pic.twitter.com/6XhZEbvfV7 — Matthew Sheffield (@mattsheffield) August 20, 2024 The crowd erupted into “Trump’s a scab” chants repeatedly. I can only imagine how much that irritated him.

COFFS Coast Wildlife Sanctuary manager Tiga Cross has been named Outstanding Young Tourism Business Leader at the North Coast Tourism Awards. “[This win] not only highlights the direction we’re heading in but also solidifies our reputation as a leading force in wildlife conservation and eco-tourism on the North Coast and beyond,” Tiga told News Of...

The post Wildlife conservationist Tiga Cross wins gold for business leadership appeared first on News Of The Area.

Saving the country from Donald Trump is the most important job the Democratic Party has ever had. Without that nothing else will matter. They (we) came through in 2018 to take the House and end the trifecta. In 2020 we kicked him out of the White House. In 2022 we stopped the Red Wave. The Party hung together throughout all the chaos and attempted destruction. I couldn’t be more surprised. And now it is more united than I’ve ever seen it to put an end to his reign in the GOP once and for all. The Democrats shouldn’t have to do it. The Republicans have abdicated their responsibility to purge him themselves. But that’s how it is, and it means that the GOP itself is infected and will have to be dealt with over time. But job one is to stop Trump. What’s shocking is that it’s so hard to do because so many of our fellow Americans worship the man.

COFFS Harbour Daybreak Rotary Club has launched Rymarine 2024, a program offering a unique four-day marine experience for young people in and around Coffs Harbour. “The participants, usually fifteen to sixteen years of age, are given an opportunity to learn more about marine science at the National Marine Science Centre in Coffs, one of the...

The post Marine experience kindles career dreams appeared first on News Of The Area.

One thing our government doesn’t like doing is challenging the greed of health insurance companies. I can speak with some authority about holes in the ever-fraying safety net of our healthcare system, including Tricare, the military health insurance plan used by most troops, veterans, and their families, other employer-sponsored health insurance, state-sponsored care like Medicare and Medicaid, and individually purchased plans. After all, I’m the spouse of a veteran who uses military healthcare and a clinical social worker. I serve military families that rely on a variety of health insurance plans to pay for their care and believe me, it’s only getting harder. To take one example: at least in my state, Maryland, Tricare, if it pays at all, compensates... Read more

Source: America the Unwell appeared first on TomDispatch.com.

“To promote open inquiry and free, market-based technological progress, you need an open society, not one founded on the enemy principle. The understandable desire to escape criticism, misunderstanding, and the frustrations of ordinary politics does not entail the radical remaking of the global geoeconomic order to confound the New York Times and its allies. The cult of […]

While the violence that erupted in July and early August cooled off, social divisions have since become more pronounced and for some, it has become an opportunity to be exploited

Date: August 15, 2008
Name: Gila Pfeffer (nee Reinitz)
Age: 34
Height: 5′3″ (OK, 5′2″)
Weight: RUDE

Who referred you to see us today? My ob-gyn referred me to this practice specifically, but if you’re asking whose idea it was to have a prophylactic double mastectomy, that’s all me. I’ve been wanting to do this since I first heard about it.

Have you had a psych eval? Yes, I’m fully on board with my choice and frankly would need more of a psych eval if I was prevented from having this surgery. If you think my anxiety levels can’t get any higher, oh yes, the hell they can.

Are you aware of the emotional and psychological impacts of this type of procedure? Yes, I expect to come out the other side of this feeling emotionally whole and validated and psychologically strong, maybe too strong, as though I am invincible. Are you aware of the implications of my not having this procedure?

Any fool can reduce debt in the short-term by selling their house, paying off the mortgage and renting a place. Whether you should do that depends upon whether the cost of renting is cheaper than that of borrowing, all things considered. That’s a tricky calculation. But it’s one that households wouldn’t make if they were […]