Reading
The notion of the Anthropocene was first proposed twenty-four years ago by the atmospheric chemist Paul Crutzen. It denotes a geological epoch defined by human activity, and remains an unofficial designation, with the International Commission on Stratigraphy—whose processes appear to be geologically slow—yet to approve it for technical use. Nevertheless, in that quarter of a... Continue Reading →
Six years ago, at the time of the first Trump administration’s Muslim ban and its initial round of vicious anti-immigrant policies, I visited a refugee camp on the Greek island of Samos to see how Europe was handling its own immigrants and refugees. Within a day, I met two Syrians, Eyad Awwadawnan and Hasan Majnan, who had fled Bashar al-Assad’s brutal dictatorship only to end up in a filthy, overcrowded camp in a country that didn’t want them with a future they could not foresee. That was June 2018 and I’ve kept in touch with them both ever since. So, when Assad’s regime fell on December 8, 2024, ending two generations of perhaps the most murderous dictatorship in the modern... Read more
Source: “The Lion Has Fallen!” appeared first on TomDispatch.com.
This is an excerpt of a piece by legal expert Sam Bagenstos laying out a few of the illegal acts committed by Trump and Musk in the past two weeks.
Opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has told colleagues that he has been doing the hard yards when it comes to Coalition policy, and will soon be announcing that he plans to convert the controversial, American designed Project 25, to the metric... Read More ›
Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – February 02, 2025
By Tony Wikrent
Strategic Political Economy
David Dayen, January 27, 2025 [The American Prospect]
Israeli media has extensively discussed the implications of the recent prisoner exchange, emphasising the significant gains achieved by the Palestinian Resistance Movement, Hamas. Among the key figures expected to be released in the second phase of the deal are Marwan Barghouti, a senior Fatah leader (pictured above), and Ahmed Saadat, Secretary-General of the Popular Front Continue reading »
At 7,688,287 square kilometres Australia is the sixth largest country in the world. It is the oldest continent, also home to the oldest continuing civilisation, the history of Aboriginal people reaching back some 75,000 years. Why then, has such a large nation, with such long existence and a civilisation, become so small in its thinking? Continue reading »
Mark Dreyfus wrote an article in, The Guardian (29 January 2025) entitled, ‘ For my great-grandparents, for all Jews, for all humanity, I say never again ‘. Here is my response. I write to make people, who are not Jewish, aware that the Jewish community is not only not monolithic, but that many dissent from Continue reading »
What do Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and John Howard have in common with the Piltdown Man? They all managed to sell a hoax that lasted for decades, before it was exposed as completely false. But wait, their hoax is still central to transglobal neoliberal capitalism’s stranglehold on us all, whereas Charles Dawson’s 1912 forged ‘missing Continue reading »
Cambridge Union I don’t believe the US has any right or any ability to put in place a democracy in any other country. Nor do I believe, by the way, that American democracy functions as a real democracy anymore on the life and death issues… This is not democracy. This is a game. And it’s Continue reading »
What does the acquisition of iconic Melbourne independent Text Publishing by US-based multinational Penguin Random House tell us about the health or otherwise of the Australian book publishing industry? In itself, and without the details of the agreed financial terms having been made public, not a great deal. Text has been for most of its Continue reading »
It seems that with every utterance from certain members of the political landscape, the humanity bar is lowered. The latest from ABC News to catch the attention of anyone with a modicum of common sense is a speech at a Church by the Deputy Leader of a would-be Australian government, Sussan Ley. To use one Continue reading »
“We must never forget, this must never happen again.” Since the WW2 Holocaust, it is said genocide should ‘Never Happen Again’. But it is happening, again. Every genocide is different, yet the deliberate act of ethnic cleansing is devastating, every time. After the Red Army liberated Auschwitz Concentration Camp in January 1945, several thousand children’s Continue reading »
In the short period since his election, President Trump has started to tear down the edifice of western rules-based law and international order. Ironically this is the international political and economic system of which the USA has been its main beneficiary, definer and enforcer, and over which it has engaged in conflicts and wars around Continue reading »
Mao Zedong once said: “A single spark can start a prairie fire!” Some think the same may be said now about Taiwan starting a conflict with China that the U.S. and Russia will join leading to a catastrophic global war. The reasons? There are two wars in progress in the world now. Why not a Continue reading »
By controlling what I listen to, and the order in which I listen, I’m slowly designing an infinite collage of my evolving musical tastes.
The post My weekend project appeared first on Jeffrey Zeldman Presents.
One of my Sunday routines is usually to post a photo here. Sometimes that’s easy, since I’ve taken something in the past few days, and sometimes that involves trawling through my archive to select something, sometimes from years ago. One problem with that is that there are just so many photos, and it is hard […]
Dangerous drugs, government chaos, overcrowded skies, and more big scoops from The Lever this week.
The vandals took the handles For an ironic laugh as Musk-Trump lackeys burn the Constitution, steal government data (yours included), and take an axe to everything they can’t burn, check out the Musk burble above about restoring “power to the PEOPLE.” If you believe that, Donald Trump has some crypto coin to sell you. Heather Coxe Richardson writes: Throughout now-president Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign, it was clear that his support was coming from three very different factions whose only shared ideology was a determination to destroy the federal government. Now we are watching them do it. The group that serves President Donald Trump is gutting the government both to get revenge against those who tried to hold him accountable before the law and to make sure he and his cronies will never again have to worry about legality. Those three allied groups are Trump’s fanatical loyalists, “the MAGA crew that embraces Project 2025,” and finally techbros led by Elon Musk.
Elizabeth Sladen made Sarah Jane Smith the quintessential Doctor Who companion and her appearances reflected the series' evolution.
Last week, I finished reading an advance copy of Cory Doctorow’s Picks and Shovels. No spoilers about plot specifics, but the novel has a lot to say about two things. First, how Silicon Valley used to be a place where exit was possible and a good thing. If you didn’t like your boss, you went out […]
Nine governments just signed the new Hague Group’s Declaration. Hailing from Africa, Asia and Latin America, they represent the collective voice of the Global South but also a majority of the peoples of the Global North whose governments have been so shamelessly complicit in our generation’s ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people. We salute these […]
The post Justice for Palestinians will also emancipate Israelis and Europeans – My remarks at the Hague Group’s inaugural meeting reception appeared first on Yanis Varoufakis.