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What isn’t ending?  What isn’t on the verge of extinction?  It’s a short list of exemptions these days, and we, us human beings, aren’t on it. Neither are bees, bipartisanship, butterflies, coastlines, childhood, civility, coral reefs, democracy, elephants, empire, facts, families, frogs, gender, glaciers, God, higher education, humanities, love, male supremacy, manatees, manhood, men, morality, […]

The post The Politics & Letters Podcast – a (joyous) discussion on my TECHNOFEUDALISM appeared first on Yanis Varoufakis.

What it means to be an American has always had many definitions and not all of them good. But selling out to an autocratic foreign power in order to keep power at home is a new one. We haven’t actually done that one before. But it’s the natural consequence of the radicalization of the GOP over many years which has culminated in the elevation of a psychopathic conman to lead the party. And here we are.

AT City of Coffs Harbour’s 8 February meeting, Councillors endorsed a draft Laneways Policy and an associated amendment to the Coffs Harbour Development Control Plan. Both are now on public exhibition for feedback. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your business. Message us. Phone us – (02) 4981 8882. Email...

The post Have your say on a laneways framework for Coffs Harbour appeared first on News Of The Area.

New findings could influence anesthesia dosing for women.

The post Why Women Wake Up More During Surgery appeared first on Nautilus.

FIVE young talented musicians from Coffs Harbour were amongst a group of nineteen recent year 12 graduates selected to perform in Bravissimo, a showcase event for the region’s top HSC Music performers. The sellout matinee concert was held on Wednesday 14 February at the Glasshouse Port Macquarie. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s...

The post Young Coffs Harbour musicians perform at Bravissimo concert appeared first on News Of The Area.

The idea that we are entering an era of techno-feudalism that will be worse than capitalism is chilling and controversial. We asked former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis to elucidate this idea, explain how we got here, and map out some alternatives. The controversial concept of techno-feudalism suggests we have transitioned from capitalism to something even […]

The post Jacobin Magazine’s David Moscrop reviews my TECHNOFEUDALISM appeared first on Yanis Varoufakis.

When I admit to my fandom as we sit down for a zoom interview, he immediately tells me off. (This is exactly what I wanted.) “I don’t want fans in life, you know,” he says. “Ever since I entered politics, I acquired two things that I never wanted to have: enemies and fans.” You see, […]

The post FORTUNE Magazine’s Nick Lichtenberg reviews my TECHNOFEUDALISM appeared first on Yanis Varoufakis.

It is one thing to U-turn on a modest green transition programme. It is another to do so using mendacious Tory economic paradigms. Rarely has a lacklustre policy been abandoned for a reason so bad that it threatens to inflict long-term damage on a society. Independently of whether the £28bn green investment programme was the […]

The post Why is Labour still using the self-defeating, discredited ‘maxed out credit card’ analogy? The GUARDIAN appeared first on Yanis Varoufakis.

It’s right in front of them and they don’t want to acknowledge it Last night it was reported that the House GOP’s confidential informant, who has been charged with lying to the FBI about Hunter Biden and Burisma (I wrote about that here), was actually working as a Russian agent. It should be the final nail in the Biden impeachment coffin but they seem determined to keep humiliating themselves with this thing (anything for their Dear Leader) so it doesn’t appear they’re ready to roll it up. This piece by Josh Marshall says it all. (It’s from his newsletter which you should subscribe to, it’s really great.) A Bigger Story Than You Can Possibly Imagine I know that’s a big headline that promises a lot. But I think it’s true. David has a good rundown of the events in the Morning Memo. But I want to do my best to set them out on a larger canvas that goes back to the “Hunter Biden laptop” and really all the way back to 2015, a continuing Russian information operation that has been ongoing for almost a decade. Let’s review recent events.

AI humor in theory and practice.

The post ChatGPT Is Funnier Than You appeared first on Nautilus.

It ain’t the 60’s, folks JV Last at the Bulwark takes a look today at the way the Republicans now see institutions since they realized that they have lost the educated, financially successful American cohorts. Their first order of business was to create alternative institutions which they’ve done successfully with the media which has made it very easy to control politicians by propagandizing their constituents. A case in point: As a result of losing the popular culture, they now believe that they can only control it by using the power of the state, thus authoritarianism. -Republicans can no longer create popular majorities, but they can take control of the apparatus of government. -The institutions of civil society have historically been a mediating layer between citizens and government. But Republicans have also lost the argument with educated and financially successful voters, leading to their loss of support within many American institutions. -In response, Republicans have decided that the existing institutions of civil society are illegitimate and that all power should be centrally located with the state.

The Liberal party’s deputy leader (yep, really), Sussan Ley, has defended the parties leader Peter Dutton from accusations of lying, declaring that Peter can’t be a liar as his pants are not on fire. ”The press and Mr Albanese like... Read More ›

Long before 9/11, Zionist groups like the Anti-Defamation League lobbied for counterterror legislation that singled out Palestinians, a new report reveals.

The post How the ADL’s Anti-Palestinian Advocacy Helped Shape U.S. Terror Laws appeared first on The Intercept.

In my recently published book, Capitalism in Contemporary Iran: Capital accumulation, State Formation, and Geopolitics, by Manchester University Press in the Progress in Political Economy (PPE) Series, I offer an alternative narrative to state formation in Iran grounded in a historical materialist perspective. Drawing on the social ontology of the philosophy of internal relations, the book argues for the importance of tracing the changes in the patterns of capital accumulation and the resulting shifts in class and state formation in Iran within the development of the wider capitalist world market during the neoliberal era to overcome the pervasive methodological nationalism and exceptionalising frameworks.

The post Capitalism in contemporary Iran: Capital accumulation, state formation and geopolitics appeared first on Progress in Political Economy (PPE).

And he’s no Abraham Lincoln either News came last week of the death of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny last week. He had survived an attempted assassination by poison in 2020 but eventually returned to Russia, where he was immediately detained and sentenced first to two and a half years, then nine years and ultimately 19 years in prison on charges of “extremism.” In December he was sent to a distant prison in the Russian Arctic. And now he is gone. Navalny was the most famous political dissident in the world, probably since Nelson Mandela. Those who care about such things held out hope that he would survive incarceration, as Mandela did, and prevail one day in a new Russia. In this era of rising authoritarianism, the death of this man — and his bravery in embodying a dream of freedom and liberty, now for the moment crushed — adds more fuel to fears of the creeping fascism now gaining traction around the world.

“The Beatles are getting the big-screen biopic treatment in a Fab Four of movies that will give each band member their own film.” — The Boston Globe

Following the success of Phase One, we’re beyond excited to announce Phase Two’s new slate expanding on the BCU’s characters, legacy, and stories for the next generation.

Maxwell and the Mallet of Destruction (2029)
Fed up with small-town problems, medical student Maxwell finds a mystical silver hammer whose power he must learn to wield to bang bang life upon the head.

Walrusland (2030)
When a psychedelic trip leaves John trapped as a walrus incapable of communicating, he must win Aqualand’s talent contest and confront his inability to connect to reclaim his voice.

“We are rapidly approaching a critical juncture where the call to halt the Machinery of Violence will lose its significance.” The United States’ decision to Veto a UN Security Council ceasefire resolution in Gaza implies an endorsement of the brutal violence and collective punishment inflicted upon Palestinians, said Amar Bendjama, Algeria’s permanent representative to the Continue reading »

John Menadue, Editor-in-Chief of Pearls and Irritations interviews former Australian Senator Margaret Reynolds on the role of the United Nations, Australian foreign policy and the tragedy unfolding in Gaza. Click below to listen: Continue reading »

As the Palestinian death toll from Israel’s attack on Gaza approaches 30,000, including the death of 12,300 children and 8,400 women, a group of Israeli female soldiers posed for a photo on a position on the Gaza Strip border in Southern Israel, February 19, 2024. Continue reading »

Community opposition to the AUKUS project finds expression in a Sydney suburb. Back in March 2023, a public meeting was held in the Town Hall of the Sydney suburb of Marrickville, under the title “Can War be Avoided or Will Our Peace be Shattered?”. That meeting took place just a few days after the AUKUS Continue reading »