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How the Israel lobby moved to quash rising dissent in Congress against Israel’s apartheid regime.

The post A Big-Money Operation Purged Critics of Israel From the Democratic Party appeared first on The Intercept.

Pat Mills and Dave Gibbons posted their thoughts on the Beep the Meep-starring Doctor Who 60th Anniversary episode "The Star Beast."

If Trump manages to carry out his plans in a second term, it will be catastrophic A professor of public policy sounds the alarm about Trump’s 2024 agenda: I study government bureaucracies. This is not normally a key political issue. Right now, it is, and everyone should be paying attention. Donald Trump, the former president and current candidate, puts it in apocalyptic terms: “Either the deep state destroys America or we destroy the deep state.” This is not an empty threat. He has a real and plausible plan to utterly transform American government. It will undermine the quality of that government and it will threaten our democracy. A second Trump administration would be very different from the first. Mr. Trump’s blueprint for amassing power has been developed by a constellation of conservative organizations that surround him, led by the Heritage Foundation and its Project 2025. This plan would elevate personal fealty to Mr. Trump as the central value in government employment, processes and institutions. It has three major parts. The first is to put Trump loyalists into appointment positions. Mr.

Pearl asserts, while some RCM (Rubin Causal Models) theorists deny, that so-called “non-manipulable” variables can be causes (Pearl 2019; Holland 1986, 2008). Race and gender, which arguably cannot be experimentally manipulated, are key examples of such variables … My response is that although advocates of the frameworks adopt conflicting positions regarding certain variables, these positions […]

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Confronted by the horrors occurring in the Ukraine, Ethiopia, Sudan, Myanmar and now the Middle East, it’s hard to contemplate that an even more imposing global tragedy is already here – climate breakdown. Numerous reports indicate that we’re careering inexorably toward climate catastrophe, with the lives of billions of people and umpteen non-human species at Continue reading »

The failure of the latest round of government-funded research grants to include any topics related to China weakens Australia’s capacity to understand and manage relations with the region’s biggest power, writes Louise Edwards. The latest Australian Research Council Discovery Grants were released in October to very little fanfare. The federal government didn’t veto any grants; Continue reading »

Mark Dreyfus is one of those who gives every appearance of being intimidated by the national security state. It is one of the tragedies of the life of Mark Dreyfus, KC, twice Attorney-General with scores of legal initiatives attached to his name that he is not acknowledged, even on his own side of politics, as Continue reading »

While there is much hysteria from Peter Dutton and the Murdoch press associated with the 12 asylum seekers who recently arrived by boat (it’s a catastrophe apparently), there was less excitement about a new post-pandemic monthly record for primary asylum applications set in October at 2,322. That is now approaching the monthly record of over Continue reading »

Giving all adults the chance to get vaccinated should be easy. Vaccines slash the risk of severe illness. They are very safe for people who are recommended to get them. Best of all, compared to other ways to improve our health, vaccination is quick, cheap, and easy. It doesn’t require costly equipment, or a medical Continue reading »

Giora Eiland is one of the “thinking officers” in the Israeli Defence Forces. He has an idea – epidemics in Gaza are good for Israel. “After all, severe epidemics in the southern Strip will bring victory closer and reduce fatalities among IDF soldiers.”  One only has to wait for the daughters of Hamas’ leaders to Continue reading »

If somehow all those ‘rules-based’ systems work overwhelmingly to the benefit of the US and its Western allies, the rest of the world may wonder why they should follow them. The latest meeting between presidents Xi Jinping and Joe Biden was covered all over the world. And yet, the Western media have been strangely silent Continue reading »

It seems like only yesterday that the entire Republican Party was calling for the smelling salts over the shocking decision by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer that Senators not be required to wear suits and ties on the floor of the Senate. The keening and wailing from the members of both houses over the loss of decorum could be heard from coast to coast. How could the Republic survive such a blow to the dignity of the US Congress? Republicans were so outraged they sent a letter to the Majority Leader registering their “supreme disappointment and resolute disapproval” of the decision. The outcry was so overwhelming that the chamber ended up voting to restore the old dress code so the senate would once again be a place of honor and tradition. How quaint it all seems in light of what commonly happens these days in those sacred halls, mostly at the hands of the Republicans themselves. Just a week or so ago we had a US Senator from Oklahoma challenging a witness at a congressional hearing to a fist fight, right there on the senate floor. We have Supreme Court nominees blatantly lying under oath about their intentions and beliefs and suffering no repercussions.

The author on writing her new book "Curious Species: How Animals Made Natural History."

The post My 3 Greatest Revelations appeared first on Nautilus.

Why use many streetlights when one will do?