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In fact, no evidence of even a single rape.

I noted, repeatedly, that I doubted these rape claims and was correct, as usual.

Now if you believed them you need to think very carefully about why. Every war always includes reports of fake atrocities and this is especially true at the start of the war, in order to gin up support. My “favorite” is that when Iraq invaded Kuwait, we were told that Iraqi soldiers were bayoneting babies in incubators.

Never happened.

Note that the primary purveyor of the mass rape claims was the New York Times, who also were the primary purveyors of fake nuclear weapon scares in the lead-up to the Iraq War.

One of the most important tasks of social sciences is to explain the events, processes, and structures that take place and act in society. Explanations are important within science since the choice between different theories hinges in large part on their explanatory powers. The most reasonable explanation for one theory’s having greater explanatory power than […]

. In loving memory of Bengt Nilsson — a friend non plus ultra. A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you

On 14th February 2024, I had the great privilege of a live discussion with Aaron Bastani in front of a marvellous audience at EartH in Hackney, North-East London. We talked about, of course, Israel-Palestine, but also about China and, in particular, the New Cold War being waged for control of what I call cloud capital. […]

The post Our Present Moment in History: a wide-ranging discussion with Aaron Bastani in a packed EarthH Theatre – 14th FEB 2024 appeared first on Yanis Varoufakis.

Pine martens, a species of mammal related to weasels and badgers, were once common throughout Britain. But sadly, due to habitat loss in recent centuries, their numbers were greatly reduced — bordering on the brink of extinction. Thanks to conservation efforts, pine martens have begun to make a comeback, but sightings of these shy animals remain rare. “Unfortunately, pine martens are notoriously difficult to spot,” Charlie Mellor of the Woodland Trust wrote. “They are so elusive that they are often studied via footprints, droppings and bits of lost fur rather than by direct sightings.” Recently, however, footage has emerged hinting at a lesser-discussed aspect of pine marten behavior — that they know how to have a good time. Les Humphrey lives in Scotland, near the northern tip of Great Britain. There, he has a motion-sensing camera pointed out toward his garden to monitor for pine martens passing through.

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

by Gary Gardner

One of the most difficult adjustments industrial-country citizens will make in the steady state economy is accepting limits on our activities. Steady state economies will not be the Wild West, beyond the frontier where anything goes. We will learn to live within limits, a difficult reality for peoples accustomed to an open-ended understanding of freedom. In a “full world” where we bump up against the limits of our planet’s resources,

The post Befriending Boundaries appeared first on Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy.

Following up on the post below about Hispanic Christian Nationalists, here Philip Bump takes a deep dive into the PRRI poll on Christian Nationalism’s relationship to Trump. Last year, PRRI asked a wide swath of Americans to evaluate several statements oriented around the idea of instituting Christian nationalism. Some were explicit: “The U.S. government should declare America a Christian nation,” for example. Others were more esoteric: “Being Christian is an important part of being truly American.” From the responses, PRRI categorized respondents into one of four groups. Two were supportive of Christian nationalism, including the most supportive of the statements (adherents) and those who were generally supportive (sympathizers). The other two groups were hostile to the ideas, from those who mostly disagreed (skeptics) to those who rejected all the ideas (rejecters). Using this scale, PRRI estimated the percentage of each state’s population that was supportive of Christian nationalism — that is, that were adherents or supporters.

I’d imagine like most of you, I have been very puzzled by the number of Latino voters who are supporters of Donald Trump considering his obvious racist hostility toward them. He is actually proposing to round them up and deport them in massive numbers which would seem like it should be a deal breaker. I think this explains it: Hispanic Protestants are among the biggest supporters of Christian nationalism despite the belief system’s anti-immigrant and anti-diversity stances, according to a new survey. Around two-thirds of Americans surveyed said they reject or are skeptical about Christian nationalism, but its prominence in the GOP is helping shape its educational, health care and immigration policies. -New data from the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute’s American Values Atlas released Wednesday showed 55% of Hispanic Protestants, most of whom identify as evangelical, hold Christian nationalist beliefs. -About 66% of white evangelicals hold such views  — the biggest share of any group surveyed. -Among Latino Catholics, 72% said they rejected or were skeptical of Christian nationalism.

The president has prioritized military spending over helping American families cover the rising costs of child care.

The post Biden Is Bankrolling Israel’s War Amid Growing Financial Hardship at Home appeared first on The Intercept.

His brilliant method of pollination is now used by all vanilla growers.

The post The Boy Who Was King of Vanilla appeared first on Nautilus.

This takes courage. There are many cameras there and most observers believe the police are making note. The Navalny family couldn’t come, of course. They would have been immediately arrested.

A classified diplomatic cable obtained by The Grayzone reveals the role of a veteran CIA officer in violently overthrowing Haiti’s popular President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004.  A spectacular jailbreak in Gonaïves, Haiti in August 2002 saw a bulldozer smash through the local prison walls, allowing armed supporters of Amiot “Cubain” Métayer, a gang leader jailed weeks earlier for harassing Haitian political figures, to overrun the facility. Métayer escaped, as did 158 other prisoners. Among them were perpetrators of the April […]

The post Secret cable: CIA orchestrated Haiti’s 2004 coup first appeared on The Grayzone.

The post Secret cable: CIA orchestrated Haiti’s 2004 coup appeared first on The Grayzone.

It had been a long day. The hot-shit new supervisor, who looked about sixteen and probably hadn’t even started shaving yet, had written me up twice. I’d crumpled both slips in front of him, thrown them in the trash.

On the way home, the 48-Arrakeen worm died at the base of the hill, and we all had to hop off into the sand. The thing was already starting to stink as I began the trudge uphill, bone-tired and thirsty.

Then a bit of luck: the neon sign at the Rack was lit. Soon I was at the bar with a decent spice-drunk going. It was an hour before last call, and the regulars and spicers were in fine form.

I heard a woman’s voice behind me: “Look who it is. The famous writer.”

I ignored her, focused on my drink.

“What are you drinking?” she asked.

“Spice and water,” I said.

“Two spice and waters,” she said to the bartender.

I turned and looked at her. I’d seen her around, a former Gesserit turned spicer. Her eyes were permanently blue and her front teeth were chipped from fighting, but otherwise she wasn’t much worse for wear.

The Australian government remains silent, continues to call Israel “our friend”, and rewards Israel’s war machine in a new contract with the Israeli arms firm Elbit. The Federal Government sends more troops to the Middle East while starving Palestinians in northern Gaza are massacred as they desperately seek food for their families, babies in Gaza Continue reading »

The Albanese government is about to free the Reserve Bank of Australia from a rarely used constraint allowing a Treasurer to override a decision of the central bank, such as a policy to push interest-rates so high they cause a severe recession. The Treasury has no such freedom. Nor should it. It can’t slash taxes Continue reading »

The mass media got itself into a flap this week (28, 29 Feb & 1 March) over ASIO Director, Mike Burgess’ claim that a former Australian politician “sold out their country, party and former colleagues” after being recruited by spies of a foreign regime. “Name the traitor,” former Treasurer and former Ambassador to the US, Continue reading »