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Families will be at each other’s throats this Thanksgiving. The political divide feels wider than ever, and both sides are digging their heels in. It’s a foregone conclusion that there will be heated arguments. But there’s no need for your bird to get drenched in spittle just because your dad starts claiming ectopic pregnancy is “no big whoop.”

You need a Turkey Poncho.

We know, you’ve heard it before: “A polyester cloak that you slide over your Thanksgiving turkey so it doesn’t get spat on during screaming matches? Not interested.”

Sounds like someone is headed for drool-covered poultry.

Admit it, you’re already worried about seating arrangements. Your uncle just got laid off from the Chrysler factory, and all his hats have American flags on them. Your younger sister recently learned the word “nonbinary” and uses it in every sentence. Your grandpa is openly hostile to women who wear pants. This will not go well.

If Australia is to have any influence at all in resolving the horrendous carnage now taking place in the Middle East it needs to demonstrate that it acts independently of American pressure. The politicians who lament the fraying of our ties with Israel seem totally unconcerned about the impact of our position on countries far Continue reading »

When recently sacked by Netanyahu, Gallant, in an emotional speech said: “Israel has fallen into moral darkness”. This is what Zionism has internally inflicted on Judaism – moral decay. The security threat suffered by good Jewish people globally is what Zionism has inflicted externally. Despite Gallant prosecuting Israel’s war in a savage manner as minister Continue reading »

Australia has willingly become the “epicentre of the projection of US power in the Indo-Pacific”. It does not make Australia safer. It makes Australia the epicentre for any retaliation to that projection of power. The government justifies this vulnerable position on the basis of our “shared values and democracy” and our shared commitment to uphold Continue reading »

My mother survived the WW2 Nazi Auschwitz extermination camp, and she always asked why was the world silent? Why did they look away from the genocide of the Jews and do nothing? Today we know the answer as our government and media look away and do nothing for the Palestinians. The following is the text Continue reading »

Over the past decade, Australia has endured its worst stagnation in living standards since the Great Depression of the 1930s, and has lost its way in terms of economic policies that can restore prosperity, says Ross Garnaut in conversation with Michael Lester. Professor Ross Garnaut AC, Australia’s pre-eminent economic policy adviser and analyst over many Continue reading »

I’d like to think that ABC News’ revamped online iteration is like an ancient Aunty’s death rattle. Surely, its demise must follow. To aim its first screen (front page?) at the broadcaster’s mostly intelligent consumers is an insult. It’s appallingly inept. The new look was introduced several weeks ago, and despite complaints that must have Continue reading »

Viktor Orbán’s obsequious letter to Benjamin Netanyahu offering him sanctuary from the International Criminal Court (ICC) in Hungary is not a surprise. It is another red flag in the Islamophobic world of the transnational Right. The mass and prolonged slaughter of Palestinian Muslims (and Christians) cannot be seen as a crime committed against other humans Continue reading »

Even as more than 40 lives were lost last week in the latest resurgence of sectarian violence on Pakistan’s northwestern flank bordering Afghanistan, the nation’s media remained focused primarily on a nationwide “do or die” protest focused on the capital, Islamabad, and organised by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI). The apparent aim is to liberate PTI Continue reading »

Pam Bondi is right out of Central Casting Many Americans were sorely disappointed this week when Special Prosecutor Jack Smith decided to drag up and withdraw the January 6th indictment and the appeal of the classified documents case dismissal against Donald Trump. Smith said in his filings that the government stood by the charges but because of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel’s rule that a sitting president cannot be prosecuted, he had no choice but to drop the charges.The judges in the cases acceded to his requests and dismissed them both without prejudice although the idea that anyone will bring these cases in 2029 when Trump is 82 years old is fanciful. It’s over. He got away with it once again. It’s not that we didn’t know it was coming one way or the other. In fact, from the moment the Supreme Court issued their shocking opinion about presidential immunity, the writing was on the wall that Trump would face no accountability even if he didn’t win the election. It went without saying that if he won, he would order the cases dismissed and that would be that.

Times are hard for a hell of a lot of people and I’m very grateful to everyone who’s given this year.

We have raised approximately $9,350 out of a goal of $13,000.

Along the way we’ve unlocked six book reviews.

1. “India Is Broken”
2. “The Invention of Capitalism”
3. “One Disease, One Cure” by Whip Randolph
4. “The Sociology of Philisophies”
5. “MITI and the Japanese Mircale”
6. “Wealth and Democracy” by Kevin Phillips.

At $10,000 I’ll write an article on one of the fundamental processes which keeps societies together and breaks them up.

I’m going to add another book review at $11,000 and $12,000. If we reach $11,000 I’ll review “A Paradise Built In Hell”, which is about how during and after catastrophes people pull together, help each other and made the community wonderful.

With Trump returning to the White House, only mass commutations will stop another federal execution spree.

The post Biden Has “Pardoned” Eight Turkeys. Will He Spare the Lives of 40 Human Beings? appeared first on The Intercept.

Insular definitions of the national past overlook the very things we should take pride in

. In modern times legal currencies are totally based on fiat. Currencies no longer have intrinsic value (such as gold and silver). What gives them value is basically the simple fact that you have to pay your taxes with them. That also enables governments to run a kind of monopoly business where they never can […]

Palestinians from Gaza feel relief for the people of Lebanon. We are also heartbroken that we are still being slaughtered.

The post There’s a Ceasefire in Lebanon, but Israel Keeps Gaslighting Palestinians About Ending the Assault on Gaza appeared first on The Intercept.

Will the press play ball? Trumpflation is coming. Better buy your knee pads before Donald Trump’s tariffs kick in after Jan. 20. He’ll expect us all to kowtow, dontcha know. Greg Sargent’s Daily Blast features Margaret Sullivan, former public editor for The New York Times, regarding Trump’s recent demand that the paper apologize for unspecified bad coverage. “He actually thinks [the Times] should grovel and show submission to him now that he won,” says Sargent. Bad coverage being any story that doesn’t fluff his stuff: Sargent: I want to read a key part of Trump’s rant about the times. He said, I don’t believe I’ve had a legitimately good story in The New York Times for years, and yet I won in record fashion, the most consequential presidential election in decades. Where is the apology? Now, it wasn’t in record fashion, but either way, Margaret, this neatly captures how Trump understands the media. He actually thinks it should grovel and show submission to him now that he won. I don’t think he accepts on the most basic level that the press’s role is to challenge power.

"America’s enemies will only watch with glee, as America self-destructs from within", says former UK diplomat Alexandra Hall Hall

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