Gerrymandering is still on their menu. And it’s not going to go down well. Ian Millhiser on the latest voting rights case before the Court: The Supreme Court’s Republican-appointed majority spent Wednesday morning seemingly hunting for a reason to uphold a South Carolina congressional map that everyone agrees was gerrymandered to benefit the Republican Party. The case is Alexander v. South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP. Under the Supreme Court’s precedents, federal courts are not allowed to hear lawsuits challenging partisan gerrymanders — that is, maps drawn to benefit one political party or the other. But federal courts may hear challenges to racial gerrymanders — maps drawn to minimize the political power of voters of a particular race. A lower court struck down the South Carolina map because it determined that while the state’s GOP-controlled legislature’s goal was to shore up Republican control over the state’s First Congressional District, the legislature did so by excluding Black voters from this district.
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“More bitterness. More hatred. More problems come down the road.” In July 2023, I spoke in Parliament after the Israeli Defence Force conducted their largest military operation on the West Bank since 2002. Their target was Jenin refugee camp, home to more than 14,000 people, living in less than half a square kilometre in size. […]
The BBC released a video previewing the new Doctor Who theme from Murray Gold and Segun Akinola, performed by the BBC Orchestra.
Political Economy Seminar
Together We’ll Break These Chains of Love? The Community Ideal and the Multi-Criterial Economy
Presenter: Aaron Benanav, Syracuse University
Respondent: Dr Mike Beggs
Date: Tuesday, 24 October 2023
Time: 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm (AEDT)
Seminar via Zoom for University of Sydney staff, students and affiliates. For further information please contact John Clegg (j.clegg@sydney.edu.au) or Claire Parfitt (claire.parfitt@sydney.edu.au).
I’m really happy to see the ActivityPub plugin enabled for all free and paid WordPress.com accounts. I’ve been using the plugin on this blog for about a week, thanks to Matthias Pfefferle at WordPress, and I have some thoughts about it so far. The first thing is that it’s definitely more like having a fediverse … Continue reading ActivityPub on WordPress.com
He also expressed “deep regret” for checking into the Bellagio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas last weekend under the name Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Thank goodness Biden refused him the privilege of getting classified information in the post-presidency Trump ties the attack on Israel to the 2020 election which he describes as rigged pic.twitter.com/BSX0SC8N8c — Acyn (@Acyn) October 12, 2023 Reminder that Trump is beefing with Netanyahu because he recognized Biden’s victory. If BN embraced the big lie Trump would defend him. Policy has 0 to do with it. https://t.co/x6AYYHSUB8 — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 12, 2023 Once again, he shows his casual disregard about classified information. He doesn’t seem to know if he’s sharing it or, more importantly, care. And he thinks that a good time to air his personal grievances with Netanyahu is when Israel is at war and the entire Middle East is on tender hooks. Bill Sher has the back story: On Wednesday Donald Trump held a rally in West Palm Beach, Florida.
While mainstream media and our own and other Western government’s cup runneth over in support of Israel, a deeper story of occupation, ethnic cleansing and apartheid underpins the decades-long suffering of the people of Palestine from successive Israeli governments that have been supported and funded by the US Government. While the bloodshed and loss of Continue reading »
“Where is the outrage we saw when Israeli children were killed?” asked a co-founder of IfNotNow. Israel’s retaliatory airstrikes across the Gaza Strip after Hamas’ weekend attack have killed at least 1,100 people in the besieged enclave, including 326 children, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said Wednesday. Gaza-based Hamas launched a major surprise attack against Israel on Continue reading »
These days, Melbournians celebrate the contribution of the Kulin clans to the life of the city. But even as Elders welcome us to the MCG, and clan members, young and old, bring vibrancy to the city’s cultural, intellectual and spiritual life, commentators on the Voice referendum report that many voters have little knowledge of the Continue reading »
Looking on as the Republican Majority Leader is pushed out the window. We thought that only the USSR got rid of its leaders in a purge like this! Continue reading »
The recently concluded summit of the five member states of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) agreed to expand membership to include from next January Saudi Arabia, Iran, Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the UAE. Western media and commentators’ responses have been a farrago of sneering at the unlikely hodgepodge of countries that Continue reading »
‘Prophets nurture and evoke a new way of thinking. They give us images and words which subvert our system and tell us that we haven’t seen the whole picture yet. Prophets are not just concerned about social change for the sake of social change. They are concerned above all with transformation and freedom of the Continue reading »
Engaging China: How Australia can lead the way again (Sydney University Press 2023) reviews most aspects of the Australia-China relations and proposes useful ways to develop them for the national benefit. Jointly edited by Jamie Reilly and Jingdong Yuan, it includes contributions from thirteen scholars, journalists and former diplomats, a foreword by former Foreign Minister Continue reading »
Terrible violence and massive loss of life in this latest Palestine/Israel conflict is tragic and regrettable, but commentary from western politicians and their media backers is also tragic. The US rush to generate sympathy for Israel, and with scant regard for the traumatised citizens of Gaza, repeats years of thoughtless commentary that depicts the more Continue reading »
Behind all this lies Israeli arrogance; the idea that we can do whatever we like, that we’ll never pay the price and be punished for it. We’ll carry on undisturbed. We’ll arrest, kill, harass, dispossess and protect the settlers busy with their pogroms. We’ll visit Joseph’s Tomb, Othniel’s Tomb and Joshua’s Altar in the Palestinian Continue reading »
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| Part of a museum exhibit in Rwanda about the country's genocide [A] |
Det som är fel med mainstream nationalekonomi är inte att den använder modeller i sig, utan att den använder dåliga modeller. De är dåliga eftersom de inte bygger broar till de verkliga system där vi lever. Förhoppningsvis kommer det ensidiga, nästan religiösa, insisterandet på matematisk deduktiv modellering som den enda vetenskapliga aktiviteten värd att förfölja […]
…is the Trump Cult I think this has been true for years actually but it fully formed once the smoke cleared after January 6th and Trump remained standing as the Dear Leader. It’s been solidifying its power ever since. Nate Cohn in the NY Times: In the final account, the rise and fall of Kevin McCarthy might read like the familiar tale of a Republican congressional leader toppled by a small but uncompromising right-wing faction. But even if the story ultimately ends like any other Republican congressional drama in Washington over the last decade, something different and important has already happened: The right wing didn’t just bring down a House speaker — its members also made a credible bid at claiming the gavel for themselves. A founder of the House Freedom Caucus, Jim Jordan, won 99 votes in the House Republican conference vote Wednesday, good for about 45 percent of congressional Republicans.
Ladies and gentlemen, prepare yourselves. For horror. For excitement. For a spine-tingling journey straight through the heart of hell, where all it takes is one mistake, one misstep, or one unhinged motorist barreling toward the Taco Bell drive-thru to send me hurtling into the abyss, never to be seen again!
Prepare yourselves for my next death-defying stunt, where I will walk across… THIS CROSSWALK.
Someone help up that man who just fainted.
I want all present here today to witness the extraordinary agility and superhuman composure it takes to walk the crosswalk with your body and sanity intact.
A grave task indeed, my adoring fans. For this crosswalk is not a well-maintained footpath in the suburbs. No. This is a crumbling concrete gangway surrounded by fiery metal death convoys, where my survival hinges entirely on some lights and a small yellow sign partially hidden by a tree branch.
I did not expect so many of you to be vomiting already. Get a hold of yourselves. You are about to witness a grand spectacle!