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As I previously indicated I am returning to Europe and the UK in a few weeks for the first time since the Covid pandemic began. I will provide further details in due course, but for now, here is a link to the first event I will be speaking at in London on Friday, January 26,…

Cloying sentimentality, saccharine pablum, ridiculous camp and embarrassing kitsch—in the contemporary moment the word “angel”...

Episode 9 in our new Manga series – The Smith Family and their Adventures with Money – is now available. We are approaching the climax for Season 1. Have a bit of fun with it and circulate it to those who you think will benefit … The Smith Family are a middle-class family living in…

The Anti Vaxxers are no longer on the fringe I guess this figures. We can only hope that he doesn’t manage to get on the ballots in the swing states or if he does that he’ll only appeal to the right wing anti-vaxxers: Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Tuesday unveiled his new campaign communications director: Del Bigtree, one of the country’s leading anti-vaxxers. Bigtree, who serves as the executive director of the Informed Consent Action Network—one of the nation’s largest anti-vaccine organizations—announced his new role in a letter that blasted presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden for their roles in distributing the COVID-19 vaccine. “In January 2020, we witnessed what the dark forces of medical tyranny are capable of when they launched the greatest psychological operation the world has ever experienced,” Bigtree wrote. “we watched in sick astonishment as both President Trump and President Biden put the fate of our nation into Dr. Anthony Fauci’s hands.” This is so outrageous.

I mentioned that parasite biology was one of my interests. It didn’t used to be. When the children were smaller, we had bedtime rituals. The two oldest shared a room, so they would both get something at bedtime. Perhaps it would be a chapter from a book (Charlotte’s Web was a big hit, as was […]

Such profiles in courage. There hasn’t even been one primary and they’re already crawling on their bellies to lick Donald Trump’s boots. It’s sickening. Scalise is predictable. He’s the guy who said he was running as “David Duke without the baggage.” Of course he’s with Trump. Hard core Christian theocrat Mike Johnson is backing Trump despite the fact that Trump is a Jeffrey Epstein pal recently found liable for sexual assault (among dozens of other “ungodly” behaviors.) He’s quite the moral man of faith. I listened to the Bulwark podcast last night while cooking dinner and Tim Miller reminded me about Emmer. This happened just 10 weeks ago: Just hours after Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) won the Republican Conference’s nomination to be House speaker on Tuesday, former President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to deride the congressman as “totally out-of-touch with Republican Voters” and a “Globalist RINO.” He then got on the phone with members to express his aversion for Emmer and his bid for speaker.

The Jerusalem bureau has long reviewed all CNN stories relating to Israel and Palestine. Now, it’s helping shape the network’s coverage of the war.

The post CNN Runs Gaza Coverage Past Jerusalem Team Operating Under Shadow of IDF Censor appeared first on The Intercept.

Only 13% say Joe Biden is. And yet: Meanwhile, here’s the very pious Donald Trump: From the outset of his brief political career, Trump has viewed right-wing evangelical leaders as a kind of special-interest group to be schmoozed, conned, or bought off, former aides told me. Though he faced Republican primary opponents in 2016 with deeper religious roots—Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee—Trump was confident that his wealth and celebrity would attract high-profile Christian surrogates to vouch for him. “His view was ‘I’ve been talking to these people for years; I’ve let them stay at my hotels—they’re gonna endorse me. I played the game,’” said a former campaign adviser to Trump, who, like others quoted in this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations. It helped that Trump seemed to feel a kinship with prosperity preachers—often evincing a game-recognizes-game appreciation for their hustle.

Our 3rd most-read article of 2023.

Originally published April 18, 2023.

Grease: You attended high school in the days before overattentive school boards.

Fiddler on the Roof: You still feel a little guilty for not displaying a menorah in your home, even though you are Presbyterian. You also catch yourself expressing strong, yet unearned, opinions about bagels.

Bye Bye Birdie: You occasionally long for the moral simplicity of the 1950s, a decade that you missed by two generations and in which you would not have had any rights.

Chicago: Fishnet stockings still make your stomach clench.

We have a major problem with the damage that Rupert Murdoch has done to newspapers in Australia, and any self-respecting government should take steps to correct that as soon as possible. I met Rupert when I was working for Gough Whitlam in Canberra. I got to know the people in the Canberra press gallery well. Continue reading »

In the International Court of Justice in The Hague, South Africa has filed suit against Israel for committing genocide in Gaza in violation of the 1948 Genocide Convention. Charges of genocide by South Africa include documentation of Israel’s killing of thousands of women and children, destruction of homes, denial to a population of water, food, Continue reading »

In August of 2023, Yousef Maher Dawas, a young Palestinian author, wrote a story of hope and resilience, titled “Kidney Transplant and Rebirth: A Palestinian Love Story”. On the 14th of October, Yousef was killed by an Israeli missile strike, along with several members of his family. Remember his words. He was not a number. Continue reading »

Last week, Israel’s Channel 12 released previously unseen footage of an Israeli tank firing at a civilian home in the settlement, just a few miles east of Gaza. The new evidence shows that the Israeli commander on the scene, Brigadier General Barak Hiram, lied to a top Israeli journalist about what happened in the kibbutz that day, after Continue reading »

We are facing the end of the world as we know it, but it doesn’t have to be the end of the world. Our task is to bring people together in a spirit of mutual aid, and to cultivate the Living Democracy that is the only alternative now to authoritarianism, says a new book, “Living Continue reading »

Gareth Evans ,former Foreign Minister and the former  ASIO head, Alan Wrigley, are likely not the only ones to be dubious about the value of much of the material collected by our security agencies. But most ministers are easily seduced. The imperatives of modern commerce have bizarrely distorted the commemoration of the birth of Jesus Continue reading »

Surveys have shown a sharp drop in support for both of Britain’s big parties among Muslims over their refusal to criticise Israel for its war. London, United Kingdom — Visiting Tel Aviv in mid-October, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak stood next to his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu, who had launched a devastating war on Gaza Continue reading »

Following the release of the 2022-23 Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) report on private health insurers, I wrote in mid-November that the financial health of the sector was so robust there was no case for the Minister to approve a premium increase. I also argued that given high and increasing levels of reserves, now was Continue reading »

In recent years a growing number of Australians have lost confidence in their system of governance, but few journalists and political theory academics have suggested alternatives. If Australia is to improve its governance system and its democracy, it should look to European alternatives. The Australian system of governance is usually described as “Westminster”. This includes Continue reading »

The broadcaster’s response to my editing of international news stories amounted to a show trial, reflecting a malaise within mainstream media. In this tumultuous time of war and global conflict the ability of journalists to do their jobs effectively within mainstream media has never been more limited. We live in a time of state surveillance Continue reading »