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Created
Sun, 02/03/2025 - 14:48

The questioning of The Grayzone’s editor-in-chief at Dulles International Airport appears to signal a disturbing escalation in the attack on antiwar journalism. As I approached the customs line at Dulles International Airport early on the morning of February 24, a man called out to me, “Mr. Blumenthal?” He identified himself as an officer with Customs and Border Protection, and led me into a cavernous secondary screening room, where he treated me to a strange and disconcerting questioning session. I had […]

The post Max Blumenthal: Why was I questioned by the Feds? first appeared on The Grayzone.

The post Max Blumenthal: Why was I questioned by the Feds? appeared first on The Grayzone.

Created
Sun, 02/03/2025 - 12:00
I felt it apropos on this Oscar Eve to honor Hollywood’s annual declaration of its deep and abiding love for itself with my picks for the top 10 movies about…the movies. Action! Cinema Paradiso– Writer-director Giuseppe Tornatore’s 1988 love letter to the cinema may be too sappy for some, but for those of us who (to quote Pauline Kael) “lost it at the movies” it’s chicken soup for the soul. A film director (Jacques Perrin) returns to his home town in Sicily for a funeral, triggering flashbacks from his youth. He reassesses the relationships with two key people in his life: his first love, and the person who instilled his life-long love of the movies. Beautifully acted and directed; keep the Kleenex handy. Day for Night– French film scholar and director Francois Truffaut was, first and foremost, a movie fan. And while one could argue that many of his own movies are rife with homage to the filmmakers who inspired him, this 1973 entry is his most heartfelt declaration of love for the medium (as well as his most-imitated work). Truffaut casts himself as (wait for it) a director in the midst of a production called Meet Pamela.
Created
Sun, 02/03/2025 - 06:49

CYCLISTS are seeking to open the discussion on the long-term project of achieving safe cycle lanes across the Coffs Coast, starting with councils and Transport for NSW regularly clearing leafy cycle paths and roadsides. The cycling community is growing rapidly across the Coffs Coast. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for...

The post Coffs Coast cyclists press to open discussions on safe cycle lanes appeared first on News Of The Area.

Created
Sun, 02/03/2025 - 06:46

THREE forest campaigners have been convicted of a traffic obstruction offence relating to an incident at Billys Creek on the Dorrigo Plateau in early 2024. Meredith Stanton, David Mcrae and Jane St Vincent Welch faced Coffs Harbour Local Court on Monday, 17 February, to fight on-the-spot fines of $200 received while protesting on private land...

The post Clouds Creek forest campaigners to appeal criminal convictions appeared first on News Of The Area.

Created
Sun, 02/03/2025 - 06:43

CAMP Quality Family Fun Day at Big Banana Fun Park last Sunday was hugely successful judging by the smiles, amount of laughter and tired kids at the end of the day, said the organisers. The experience gives families facing cancer the opportunity to have a much-needed break from the trauma of cancer, bringing laughter and...

The post Big Banana hosts special fun day for Camp Quality families appeared first on News Of The Area.

Created
Sun, 02/03/2025 - 04:59
Politicians, media commentators and academics routinely assert that Australia is a middle power. They assume that while their country is not a great power, it has a loftier status than smaller states around the globe, enabling it to “speak louder than the latter and to exert some influence on the former”, as John Campbell once Continue reading »
Created
Sun, 02/03/2025 - 04:54
Governments want you to feel powerless, but the tools for change are in our hands. Australia’s economy is failing to decarbonise. Burning trees to produce electricity is phoney environmentalism. You’re never too small to make a difference I attended The Australia Institute’s third Climate Integrity Summit a couple of weeks ago. These summits are not Continue reading »
Created
Sun, 02/03/2025 - 04:52
In 2023 Kathleen Folbigg was pardoned and released after 20 years of wrongful imprisonment; soon after, her convictions were quashed by the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal. There remain two further actions before this sorry saga can be declared closed: (a) the awarding of proper compensation and (b) a full inquiry, best done by a Continue reading »
Created
Sun, 02/03/2025 - 02:30
And inevitable A Bulwark column by Will Selber (“retired spook”) takes on the Trump administration’s frenzied effort to purge the military of the miniscule number of transgender persons in the services. A casual observer might think it the greatest problem facing the Pentagon. As a commander, Selber had to deal with a lot of personnel issues from vaccine refusal to sexual assault charges. But his training provided little guidance for how to counsel an airman who wanted to transition. Still, his primary responsibility was to ensure his unit “was in tip-top shape at all times.” I asked, “You sure you want to do this?” The answer was yes. I must admit, I had some reservations. For old men like me, transgenderism is a foreign concept. So I read up on it. However, what really convinced me to approve the airman’s request was the airman. Imagine how much courage it took to come into a commander’s office and request such a procedure. That’s courage. And we need more of that in the military. If these team members were otherwise met standards for service, so what if they identify as transgender?
Created
Sun, 02/03/2025 - 01:00
“The United States has changed teams” Russian dissident Gary Kasparov spoke at the Principles First conference in Washington last weekend, writes Michael Tomasky. Kasparov “uttered a very simple line that chilled the thousand or so people in the room: ‘The United States has changed teams.’ ” The hell it has. I resent being told the United States of America switched sides because the White House is in the grip of a band of lawless sociopaths. Donald Trump’s country-wreckers have changed teams, certainly. Most of the Republican upper echelons has. Many MAGA foot soldiers have as well. How many have aligned with Vladimir Putin’s “might makes right” geopolitics simply because Trump has is unclear. How many would snap out of it after he’s gone is even less clear. The lean toward Russia on the Christian right comes from the ludicrous proposition that there people live under biblical law because the nation is heavily white and Putin is hostile to LGBT people. One conservative Christian couple from Canada moved to Russia to be free from “LGBT ideology” and quickly found themselves free from being free.
Created
Sat, 01/03/2025 - 19:55

Donald Trump has upended the narrative on the Ukraine War. But what does it mean for the future of Europe? Plus a lot more on NATO, China, the US dollar, technofeudalism and our duty to stop the Palestinian genocide while fighting antisemitism. 0:00 – Intro to Yanis Varoufakis 2:26 – Did Ukraine Lose the War? […]

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