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“The Supreme Court hears Trump’s claim to ‘absolute immunity.’ The justices are considering whether the former president must face trial on charges that he tried to subvert the 2020 election.” — New York Times, 4/25/24

Hwaet! It has been over three years since Grendel smashed into our Capitol, rampaged through our Great Hall, and killed our heroes who bravely stood against him. At the time, Beowulf proposed to slay Grendel forthwith, but our wiser angels of paralysis prevailed. We have spent these three years asking witnesses what happened here in front of our very eyes, while Grendel has stalked the country groaning at high volume, mounting a plan to return to the Capitol and demolish our institutions for good.

“There is no failsafe system of government, meaning, we have a judicial system that has layers and layers of protection for the accused in the hopes that the innocent will go free. We fail. Routinely. But we succeed more often than not. In the vast majority of cases, the innocent do go free. But we still fail. We’ve executed innocent people. Having said that, Alito went through a step by step of all the mechanisms that could potentially fail. In the end, if it fails completely, it’s because we’ve destroyed our democracy on our own. The argument today was depressing. It seems clear that the cult of Unitary Executive is very intrigued by the idea of granting full immunity to a president. That cult is a majority of the court. He seriously said that. This was a terrifying Supreme Court argument. It’s clear that the majority actually favors Trump’s argument that a president must have immunity. Whether they are willing to go that far remains to be seen but it’s almost certain now that the J6 trial will likely not likely see the light of day before the election. We are in big trouble, people. Big. Trouble.

ABUSE or aggression towards its workers is being tackled by Bellingen Shire Council with a campaign around respect. Nearly 200 council employees live, work and engage in and around Bellingen. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your business. Message us. Phone us – (02) 4981 8882. Email us – media@newsofthearea.com.au...

The post Bellingen Shire Council workers face rise in aggression and abuse appeared first on News Of The Area.

This conversation was posted on January 17th 2020,It remains one of the best discussions I’ve come across on this subject: After a harrowing discussion about humanity’s undeniable march towards a dystopian future, world-renowned thinker Noam Chomsky and Truthdig Editor in Chief Robert Scheer move on to other pressing topics related to current events. Beginning with the issue that inspired the two-part interview, Scheer explains that an episode of his podcast “Scheer Intelligence” which featured Susie Linfield discussing her book “The Lions’ Den: Zionism and the Left from Hannah Arendt to Noam Chomsky” led to an ongoing exchange with Chomsky.

A measure passed by the House seeks to block Americans from traveling to Iran on U.S. passports.

The post House Responds to Israeli-Iranian Missile Exchange by Taking Rights Away From Americans appeared first on The Intercept.

by Daniel Wortel-London

What U.S. federal agency is responsible for identifying and reducing the environmental and social costs of economic growth? None, really. The government has plenty of agencies and programs devoted to conservation, natural capital accounting, “green” industrial policy, and just transitions. But none address the elephant in the room: economic growth. Growth is what causes a nation’s ecological footprint to exceed its biocapacity.

On this day in 1974, an officers’ coup overthrew the Portuguese dictatorship in what was termed the Carnation Revolution. Most banks and industries were nationalised, massive agrarian reform began, and the country disengaged from its African colonies. To mark the fiftieth anniversary of Portugal’s revolution, we republish a 1974 article by the journalist and activist […]

Are armbands coming? Two things, both from The Atlantic. If you are one of those people who cannot look at Stephen Miller without seeing him in a black uniform with a red armband, consider, he’ll have company if things ever come to that. Adam Serwer on Wednesday pointedly called out wannabe goose-steppers in the U.S. Senate, Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Josh Hawley of Missouri, both Republicans, of course. “Tom Cotton has never seen a left-wing protest he didn’t want crushed at gunpoint,” Serwer begins: On Monday, the Arkansas senator demanded that President Joe Biden send in the National Guard to clear out the student protests at Columbia University against the Israel-Hamas war, which he described as “the nascent pogroms at Columbia.” Last week, Cotton posted on X,  “I encourage people who get stuck behind the pro-Hamas mobs blocking traffic: take matters into your own hands. It’s time to put an end to this nonsense.” He later deleted the post and reworded it so that it did not sound quite so explicitly like a demand for aspiring vigilantes to lynch protesters.

“To this day I feel humiliation for what was done to me… The time I spent in Abu Ghraib — it ended my life. I’m only half a human now.” That’s what Abu Ghraib survivor Talib al-Majli had to say about the 16 months he spent at that notorious prison in Iraq after being captured and detained by American troops on October 31, 2003. In the wake of his release, al-Majli has continued to suffer a myriad of difficulties, including an inability to hold a job thanks to physical and mental-health deficits and a family life that remains in shambles. He was never even charged with a crime — not exactly surprising, given the Red Cross’s estimate that 70% to 90% of... Read more

Source: Carceral Imperialism appeared first on TomDispatch.com.

So, the CBC is the the national broadcaster in Canada, similar to the BBC in Europe. They’re pretty stodgy, they run good radio programs and they are wary of the government, as you’d expect.

They just wrote a really good article in problems in the housing market.

The two graphs that really matter are:

But here’s what I find interesting. Quotes like this:

A 2023 Column Contest grand-prize winner, Laurence Pevsner’s Sorry Not Sorry investigates why we’re sick of everyone apologizing all the time—and how the collapse of the public apology leaves little room for forgiveness and grace in our politics and culture.

This summer, Mike Tyson will fight Jake Paul, a YouTuber more than three decades his junior. During those bonus thirty years Tyson has done much more than box. In an apt imitation of his fighting style, Tyson has been quick to pivot from movie star to podcast host to THC entrepreneur. Yes, you read that right: if you go to your local cannabis store you will likely find Mike’s Bites, a bag of weed gummies that look, purposefully and distinctly, like misshapen ears.

When I heard about Mike’s Bites and the ears, I found them both funny and unsettling. Funny because it was self-referential and unsettling because the self it was referencing was when Tyson got so uncontrollably violent he was almost sent back to prison.

Still more charges for Trump confederates Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes (D) is still investigating the 2020 fake electors scheme “to keep Unindicted Coconspirator 1 in office.” But as of Wednesday, she’s charged 18 people associated with the plot with felony counts of conspiracy, fraud and forgery. The indictment caps off a year-long investigation into the fraudulent slate of Donald Trump electors sent to Congress after Joe Biden won Arizona by 10,457 votes. Similar schemes played out in Michigan, Georgia and Nevada. Redacted in the indictment are seven names of individuals living outside Arizona. The Washington Post, however, identifies them as some of Trump’s closest allies and advisers: Those indicted include former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, attorneys Rudy Giuliani, Jenna Ellis, John Eastman and Christina Bobb, top campaign adviser Boris Epshteyn and former campaign aide Mike Roman. They are accused of allegedly aiding an unsuccessful strategy to award the state’s electoral votes to Trump instead of Biden after the 2020 election.

Hey there, Kinzleigh. Take a seat by my desk, crisscross applesauce. As you may know, this year’s Take Your Child to Work Day coincides with our annual performance review period. We felt it would be right for all employees to be reviewed, no matter how long they’ve been with us or how many teeth they have lost.

Unfortunately, Kinzleigh, after speaking to your manager, a.k.a. “Daddy,” we will need to put you on a PIP, or performance improvement plan.

To begin with, you haven’t joined any of your Sexual Harassment or Diversity in the Workplace live Zoom trainings, even though we forced everyone back into the office five days a week three years ago. We were disappointed, Kinzleigh, as one of the main reasons we recruited you so hard for Take Your Child to Work Day was your ability to bring a lively attitude to Zoom calls, particularly with your past Zoom Call Interrupter role experience from when your dad worked from home.

In today's BCTV Daily Dispatch: Firefly/Nathan Fillion, X-Men '97, Umbrella Academy/Elliot Page, Doctor Who, TikTok, Superman & Lois & more!

LIBE committee raises concerns about Data Protection and Digital Information Bill to UK government and European Commission. The Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE Committee) has written to the Chair of the European Committee in the House of Lords to warn that “UK divergence from EU data standards, [is] putting the validity […]

In a recent case at the Court of Appeal, political activists belonging to the Just Stop Oil campaign lost their last line of legal defence. In March 2024, the Court ruled that the defendants’ ‘political or philosophical beliefs’ were too remote to count as a ‘lawful excuse’ for damaging property. Whereas many activists had previously succeeded […]

The Government went to bat for Conservative media titans to quickly block the Telegraph takeover bid - yet more pressing reforms often take years to progress