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It’s Wednesday and I am bound for London later today. We will see how that turns out having not travelled there since the beginning of the pandemic. I will take plenty of precautions to avoid Covid. But it will be good to catch up with friends in between several engagements, including my teaching responsibilities at…
German normies took to the streets last weekend. And for good reason. Their right wing is planning mass deportation of immigrants. So is Donald Trump: Over the weekend, it seemed a nation’s conscience had stirred into action. In cities across Germany, anti-fascist demonstrators took to the streets, protesting against the country’s far-right Alternative for Germany party, or AfD. The spark to the demonstrations came in the form of an investigate report published earlier this month that revealed how AfD members had participated in a November meeting with far-right extremists where they discussed plans to conduct mass deportations should they come to power. That’s not the wholly fictive scenario it once used to be. The surging AfD is polling at 22 percent — a level of support greater than what each of the three centrist and center-left parties in the country’s ruling coalition currently command.
Is Steve Garvey California’s Herschel Walker? There was a Senate debate last night in California. It didn’t go well for the aging baseball player whom the Republicans believe will electrify the voters here. The 75 year old Garvey first played with the Dodgers in 1969, moved over to the Padres in the 80s and retired from there in 1987. How many people even remember who he is? Steve Garvey was less a heavy hitter on Monday night’s Senate debate stage and more often a punchline. Garvey, a Republican and former Dodgers star, rocketed to the top three in the polls to replace the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein soon after entering the race in October. But his first public debate was a rough showing. Over the course of the 90-minute debate at the University of Southern California, Garvey struggled to provide details of his policy ideas, was repeatedly laughed at by people in the audience and saw himself ganged up on by his Democratic rivals: Democratic Reps. Katie Porter, Barbara Lee and Adam Schiff.
It’s not the first time Davis’s congressional office has been questioned about improper use of official funds for election races.
The post In Six-Way Primary, Rep. Danny Davis Uses Congressional Funds to Election Ad Blitz, Complaint Says appeared first on The Intercept.
It’s a good one It may just be that a meaningful faction of Republicans have permanently soured on Trump: Donald Trump has a problem no matter what happens in New Hampshire on Tuesday night: There’s a whole swath of the Republican electorate and a good chunk of independents who appear firmly committed to not voting for him in November if he becomes the nominee. It’s an issue that became starkly apparent in polling ahead of the Iowa caucuses, when an NBC News/Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll of voters in that state found that fully 43 percent of Nikki Haley supporters said they would back President Joe Biden over Trump. And it’s a dynamic that has been on vivid display as the campaign shifted this week to New Hampshire. “I can’t vote for Trump. He’s a crook. He’s too corrupt,” said Scott Simeone, 64, an independent voter from Amherst, who backed Trump in 2016 and 2020. “I voted for him, and I didn’t realize he’s as corrupt as he is.” Primary elections can create intra-party divisions that, in the moment, seem impossible to heal.
Lawyers for Kenneth Smith have warned that the method could cause him to suffer a stroke, choke to death on vomit, or be left in a vegetative state.
The post Alabama Plans to Carry Out the First Execution Using Nitrogen Gas. A Lot Could Go Wrong. appeared first on The Intercept.
The music of the cosmos is stranger than you think.
The post What Can We Hear in Space? appeared first on Nautilus.
With news of his impending retirement those in charge of the Parliament house stationery cupboard have been warned to make sure that former Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, doesn’t clear it out. ”Mixed emotions, I will admit, in announcing that... Read More ›
It’s coming from inside the house (and the Senate) That’s a US Senator passing on Fox News lies on twitter. It happens every day on every issue. In fairness, Blackburn may not know any better. She’s very dim. Maybe you have already seen this, but I hadn’t until yesterday. It’s Taylor Swift telling her father that she’s going to speak out against Blackburn. Did I mention that Blackburn is dim?
Remember me? I’m that gift card some clueless Secret Santa gave you months ago, maybe years. You used me once, then forgot all about me. Oh, you might stumble on me now and then when you’re so bored you decide to clean out your wallet, and then you look at me and think, “Huh, I wonder what’s left on this?”
Forget it. You’ll never know. You won’t be anywhere near a Starbucks or a Walgreens at the time. You’re not going to stop what you’re doing to go fill up at Texaco. You’ll make a mental note, that’s it. You might say to yourself, “I should check the balance on a website. Is that even a thing?” You have no clue. But you won’t find out, for even if it is a thing, you know you’d be forced to register, and then you’d be bombarded by emails begging you to “Celebrate the Season of Pumpkin Spice” or “Save 20 percent on Jorts.”
No, you’ll just stare at me, ponder my mysteries, then back into the wallet I’ll go—not even a front flap, but tucked into some hidden sub-flap with the loyalty cards and the gym membership.
Australia has just taken another step, as part of the AUKUS agreement with the US and the UK, that is leading us towards an event that should be unthinkable – involvement in a major war against China. On Tuesday 16 January, Acting Defence Minister Pat Conroy announced a $37 million contract with Lockheed Martin Australia Continue reading »
Australian Citizenship should be revived as a positive unifying element in a cohesive multicultural society. The Australia Day citizenship ceremony controversy is just a sideshow. The real issue is the completely unacceptable waiting times for processing Australian citizenship applications. The Abbott/Turnbull/Morrison government trashed the good work of previous Coalition and Labor governments by pursuing regressive Continue reading »
One reason why the Republic referendum failed and why the result of another one is uncertain was confusion over just what the issues are. Like the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War, our lot spent so much time fighting among themselves they had no time left to face their opponents. We need to identify the Continue reading »
In the indictment brought against Israel by South Africa in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh KC asserted it was, ‘the first genocide in history where its victims are broadcasting their own destruction in real time in the desperate, so far vain hope that the world might do something.’ Not only that Continue reading »
Ukraine is now being urged to make 2024 a year of consolidation of abilities before launching a new offensive in 2025. But the reality is that Ukraine will NOT force Russia out of its territory, and its time to draw some lessons in regard to the West’s aggressive policies toward China. Put simply, the West Continue reading »
As Australia Day looms it’s not surprising that Peter Dutton has yet again found another culture war to prosecute – this time against Woolworths’ decision not to stock Australia Day themed goods. The approach worked with the Voice campaign but if this is going to be his main tactic in the year or so to Continue reading »
The US military paid $300 million to divert an Australian undersea communication cable to Oman through Diego-Garcia, writes Phil Miller, as facilities at a UK GCHQ surveillance station in the Middle Eastern country have been upgraded ahead of a potentially devastating new war with Iran over Israel. A base for British spies near Iran has Continue reading »