Reading

Created
Thu, 25/04/2024 - 04:58
At the levels of public ritual and private observance, the ANZAC narrative is much about processing loss and assuaging grief. But let us recall here its nature as an imperial romance, and what that might mean for our place in the multi-polarity of the current world order? With its genesis in imperial war, the Anzac Continue reading »
Created
Thu, 25/04/2024 - 04:56
Perhaps it is my imagination, but in the days immediately preceding Anzac Day 2024, there seems to be less media exhortation to observance than has been usual in recent years. I think that we can take it as given that those who march and attend at dawn will participate again this year with undiminished spirit Continue reading »
Created
Thu, 25/04/2024 - 04:56
Anzac Day. We mark it respectfully. True respect demands that we also not forget the essential question about the first ‘Anzac Day’ – 25 April 1915. Why were Australian soldiers at Anzac Cove in the first place? In fact, Gallipoli provides a stunning lesson in the disasters that can follow from unwavering loyalty to a Continue reading »
Created
Thu, 25/04/2024 - 04:52
The director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, a lobby group for big tech and foreign agencies, claims that China’s alleged targeting of the agency “should be of concern to all Australians”. In an op-ed written for the Canberra Times, Justin Bassi said the “revelation” of a foreign government taking aim at an Australian institution “should be Continue reading »
Created
Thu, 25/04/2024 - 04:51
The 100 000 or so dead men and women in Australia’s overseas wars are symbolised by red poppies, on the Roll of Honour at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, in shrines around the nation, on the more than 5000 war memorials in our towns and suburbs, in war cemeteries overseas, and worn on Anzac Continue reading »
Created
Thu, 25/04/2024 - 03:30
Think about this: In his first questions of the day, Associate Justice Neil M. Gorsuch asked Turner to parse exactly how close a patient needs to be to death under Idaho’s law. He asked whether the law would permit an abortion in the case of a molar or ectopic pregnancy — both of which are nonviable and can be life-threatening — but deny one in a case where a patient would probably die at some point, but not imminently. “It doesn’t matter whether it happens tomorrow or next week or a month from now?” Gorsuch asked. “There is no imminence requirement,” Turner said. “This whole notion of delayed care is just not consistent with the Idaho Supreme Court’s reading of the statute and what the statute says.” This is what these monsters are discussing in the Supreme Court today. They are actually turning over in their minds when it’s acceptable to let women die for their grotesque ideology. This whole argument is just horrifying. From what we have learned, it appears that the Supreme Court majority believes that states have the right to completely deny health care to pregnant women, even if it means they will die.
Created
Thu, 25/04/2024 - 03:00

Writing is an often solitary process, but it rarely happens alone. This brief email, which I hemmed and hawed over for seven weeks before finally dashing it off and sending it in a thoroughly uncharacteristic burst of un-self-conscious productivity, could not have happened without the support of countless others. While it might be only my name in the sender field, I would be remiss not to acknowledge and thank the many people who helped make it all possible.

I, of course, must begin with the inspiration for this work: the acquaintance who emailed me seven weeks ago, asking a relatively straightforward question that was nevertheless open-ended enough to make it seem like answering it would be unpleasant and difficult, prompting me to do my best not to think about it, until answering it actually did become unpleasant and difficult because first I would have to apologize for putting it off so long. You challenged me in the best way, and I hope you find this email worthy of your readership, even if it is probably arriving six weeks to six weeks and six days later than you expected to receive it.

Created
Thu, 25/04/2024 - 02:24

By attacking the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Netanyahu sought to escape the inevitable reality of a bitter military failure and to restore Israel’s illusion of power. As is often the case, he managed to do the exact opposite.

The post Shockwaves to Shattered Defenses: The Myth of Israeli Supremacy Crumbles appeared first on MintPress News.

Created
Thu, 25/04/2024 - 02:00
Joe Biden’s the big winner — on policy anyway While most of the country was riveted by recaps of Donald Trump’s sordid hush money trial on Tuesday, something amazing was happening in Washington: the US Senate debated and then passed the national security package that’s been consuming the capitol for the last six months. With a lopsided vote of 79-18 the bills with aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan among some other things will finally be behind us. Notably, there is no increased funding for the border because Donald Trump ordered the Republicans to reject it so that he can keep demagoguing the issue during the campaign. It’s a big win for President Joe Biden and the Democrats. The GOP infighting has escalated in the wake of the House’s months long tantrum led by the far right extremists who seemed to truly believe that they could hold their breath until they turned blue and they would eventually get everything they wanted. Leading MAGA rebel Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., left town without calling for Speaker Mike Johnson to vacate the chair, demanding instead that he resign, which isn’t going to happen.
Created
Thu, 25/04/2024 - 00:30
Let me count the ways Good heavens, this garbled mess from RNC co-chair Lara Trump. “We now have the ability at the RNC not just to have poll watchers… but people who can physically handle the ballots… So there was a moratorium for about 40 years on the RNC actually training people to work in these polling locations and the tabulation centers where the mail-in ballots come in. And last year, the judge who implemented that passed away, so that was lifted.” “Poll observers are NEVER permitted to touch ballots,” tweets exasperated Democratic election protection attorney Marc Elias. “She is suggesting the RNC will infiltrate election offices.” Observers physically handling ballots is BS, as Elias points out. But she’s just getting started on the wrongness. First, some terminology. Poll watchers or observers are citizens pre-approved to be present inside a polling location as observers during voting. At most (at least in my state), they may bring to the attention of the chief judge any observed infractions or misapplication of voting rules, and that’s all. They are to sit quietly.