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The kava drink, traditional in Pacific Island communities, has become a global sensation, leading to some concern about exploitation and appropriation.

More than two weeks of resistance on the streets of Kanaky-New Caledonia has rocked the government of French President Emmanuel Macron.

The post Kanak resistance rocks colonial government but Albanese stands by France first appeared on Solidarity Online.

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

I wrote the other day about Trump’s weird “freeze” during his speech to the NRA, when he just stood there for 30 seconds making faces while the music rose. He claimed that he always did this and I contradicted it saying I’ve never seen it happen. Well, a reader pointed out that I have seen it happen, it’s just that usually there is cheering and applauding for that 30 seconds. A DKos member wrote this: He builds up to the line “greatest nation in the history of the world.” The music starts. He stands for about 30 seconds, looking around, as the crowds cheer wildly and chant his name. Then he proceeds with the “We are a nation in decline” line. ANGRY MARMOT [Dkos commenter]: See for instance the laboriously dramatic musical pause-for-effect from 1:26:57 to 1:27:23 here (Waco, March 25, 2023) and from 1:09:42 to 1:10:31 here (Greensboro, March 2, 2024), always before the “we are a nation in decline” line.

A Sydney couple have acquired nearly a quarter of a million lifetime enemies as they blithely pushed their eighteen month old around Vivid in a stroller. “God forbid we should have thought this through a tad and maybe gotten a... Read More ›

Brian Beutler has some advice in his excellent newsletter OffMessage today for the Biden campaign that doesn’t include throwing up their hands and saying “Oh my God we’re so bad that we’re giving up and will open up the convention to anyone who wants to try for it!” This might actually be useful: At the outset we should stipulate that if Donald Trump were in office today—presiding over full employment at a time when Americans enjoyed more purchasing power than ever before, and inflation was hovering steadily around three percent—he and Republican officeholders across the country would claim credit for building the greatest economy in history. In fact, if Trump defeats Joe Biden in November, they’ll all sing from that hymnal by early 2025. The news media will scratch its head and finally notice, Gosh, this is a strong economy!

It was late winter when my sabbatical began, and it’s late spring as it comes to an end. Next week I return to my post after three months’ paid leave, courtesy of Automattic’s sabbatical benefit. Three months. A season. With full pay, and zero work responsibilities. In a job full of rewards, this is perhaps the greatest […]

The post The gift of a three-month sabbatical appeared first on Jeffrey Zeldman Presents.

Long-term evolution may be more predictable than we assumed.

The post A Crystal Ball for Evolution appeared first on Nautilus.

When Inspector Pilgrim popped up in Flash there were comparisons to be made to John Constantine and Doctor Who. But what about River Song?

The head of Israel’s probe into the Rafah bombing helped create the cutting-edge drone technology disproportionately killing civilians across Gaza – and the IDF is lying about it

Paul Krugman calls out commentators who blame everything on inflation as suffering from “inflation brain.” Let me give you two recent examples of inflation brain in action. This month, a preliminary release by the widely followed University of Michigan survey of consumers reported a significant fall in consumer sentiment. Consumers gave a number of reasons for reduced optimism, but every news article I saw about it attributed their pessimism to a jump in expected inflation, both over the next year and over the next five years. Then the final version of the May report was released, and the initially reported jump in inflation expectations more or less disappeared. Consumer sentiment was still significantly down, but the survey’s news release attributed this decline largely to concerns about labor markets and interest rates, not inflation fears. Another example: Target, Walmart and other big retail chains have recently announced a number of price cuts, both temporary and permanent. They are presumably doing this because they are seeing worrisome softness in demand.

In a calculated and vicious attack Israel bombed an area in Rafah, Gaza designated as a “safe zone’ by the Israeli military, incinerating women and children and leaving flimsy plastic tents burning in a horrifying conflagration. This inferno was fuelled by the plastic and blanket tents, the only shelter available. The attack took place in Continue reading »

Although rarely acknowledged, China is the world’s biggest economy, and it will most probably continue to grow faster than the US, its main competitor. A core American belief is that America is exceptional. A belief that is underpinned by the presumption that the US is the most powerful country in the world, both economically and Continue reading »

The Magistrate hearing the United States application to extradite Australian citizen and father of six, Daniel Duggan, was floored. Duggan’s lawyer Bret Walker SC had walked into the courtroom late and in a short statement informed him there would be “no submission” further to a document in Duggan’s own words, as there were “no legal Continue reading »

In repeating blatant Zionist propaganda to justify her support for Israel, Nova Peris erroneously and harmfully conflates Jewish identity with support for the Zionist project in Palestine, which in effect depicts all Jews as complicit in Israel’s criminality. Her abject apologism also betrays all indigenous peoples’ struggles against colonial oppression. In an interview on Sky Continue reading »