One morning in February 2021, I was woken by a WeChat call from my brother in China. Mum had died the previous night, he told me. I wasn’t shocked to hear about Mum’s death – she had been very ill for a couple of years. In fact, for months before she died, our weekly WeChat Continue reading »
Reading
Ukraine and Georgia’s NATO aspirations not only touch a raw nerve in Russia, they engender serious concerns about the consequences for stability in the region. Not only does Russia perceive encirclement, and efforts to undermine Russia’s influence in the region, but it also fears unpredictable and uncontrolled consequences which would seriously affect Russian security interests. Continue reading »
Increasing interest rates hasn’t quite done the job; now we are told we need to increase unemployment to curtail inflation! Roll on the lunacy of conventional central banking and treasury inflation policy. Can some lessons never be learned? In 1989, I was a junior member of the Hawke Government Caucus Economic Policy Committee. We regularly Continue reading »
The Voice “Yes” campaign is actually supported by parliamentarians from all main parties; Unemployment kills Australians; The Fadden by-election – no winners, but a strange electorate. Read on for the Weekly Roundup of links to articles, reports, podcasts and other media on current political and economic issues in public policy. Economics The Reserve Bank – Continue reading »
The Mandarin and Crikey’s ‘revolving door’ list: The PwC tax leak scandal has renewed focus on the close links between politicians, public servants and consultancy firms. Sometimes that relationship takes the form of a “revolving door” when former consultants are hired as public servants or elected to political office — or when former politicians and Continue reading »
It’s hard to know whether to cry or laugh reading the highlights of the hour-long conversation Joe Biden had with the New York Times’ Thomas Friedman on Tuesday, after meeting President Isaac Herzog. One can cry over the impotence and uselessness of the strongest superpower in the world when it comes to its protégé, Israel. Continue reading »
The upcoming Spanish elections indicate the unthinkable – the resurrection of Franco’s influence within a new government. But perhaps it could be the last of his death throes. When I was five years old and lived in Argentina, my capacity for political analysis was even more limited than today. But that little boy from Buenos Continue reading »
With apologies to Aqua.
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She would collect name tags and uniforms like a poacher collects tusks. She was many things. She was a ballerina and a lawyer and a flight attendant and a pilot. When we first met, she was a model by trade. It was an occupation viewed by many as unskilled, but I found beauty in its simplicity. Her profession did not define her.
“Hiya, Barbie,” I said.
“Hi, Ken,” she replied.
There is a hollow empty fear a man can have when he sees an old friend. A fear of not knowing the conversation’s direction. A fear of being rudderless. I was singular in my focus for the night. One last glam adventure before I re-enlisted.
“You wanna go for a ride?”
The blonde was once the life of the party. She was out of practice. She lived in a Malibu Dream House but was a prisoner of her own device.
“Sure, Ken.”
Kristian Andersen had a major grant proposal on Anthony Fauci’s desk while writing a paper exonerating an NIH-funded lab in Wuhan, documents show.
The post Key Scientist in Covid Origin Controversy Misled Congress on Status of $8.9 Million NIH Grant appeared first on The Intercept.
Ryan Grim and Beth Miller of Jewish Voice for Peace Action discuss the House resolution declaring unconditional support for Israel’s government.
The post Congress Melts Down Over Israel Again appeared first on The Intercept.
The studio’s recent film valorized the “you eat, we eat” principle that Hollywood conglomerates are now opposing.
Lowkey catches up with legal expert and human rights defender Stella Assange to talk about her battle to free her husband Julian, the world's most famous political prisoner.
The post The True Cost of Julian Assange’s Persecution: An Exclusive Interview with Stella Assange appeared first on MintPress News.
If you cannot decide whether to go to South America or British East Africa because you are getting bored with Paris, drink a full glass of whiskey.
Drink one shot of absinthe if you are waiting to be seated at a restaurant.
Drink two bottles of wine with dinner if you are entertaining a French prostitute.
If you run into someone you know, but they’re only worth about five minutes of your time, have a fine a l’eau with them.
The second you run into someone you know that you see every day, drink brandy and soda continually until one of you has to leave.
If a Greek count gives you one dozen bottles of champagne, send him out to buy more. Drink two before going to the club.
If you are waiting at the bar for your lover and they are five minutes late, have a Jack Rose.
Speed Round: Drink of Choice
Nationwide and locally We’ve covered before how Democrats must get better at selling “the brownie,” and at painting “the beautiful tomorrow,” rather than just reciting economic data and touting policies. Even accomplishing the latter is a problem since the media, especially conservative-owned media, does not want to cover that boring stuff. But this week’s viral Joe Biden’s ad is ” a master class in digital communications,” Dan Pfeiffer believes. On top of leaving an entire omelet on Marjorie Taylor Greene’s face. Better than that, it delivers what a good digital ad should: virality and a solid message. That’s something Hillary Clinton did not accomplish with this viral tweet: Virality, engagement, even fun, but no message. Pfeiffer writes: Informing the voters about his economic achievements is one of President Biden’s most important strategic objectives; and one of his biggest challenges. The press doesn’t want to cover the past. Stories about the economy do not drive web traffic.
A decade of austerity, followed by a pandemic and a cost of living crisis, has brought millions of British families to the brink of destitution. According to the Resolution Foundation, 20 percent of people in the UK are not confident about their finances over the next several months, with the figure rising to 32 percent […]
It already seems an age since visiting Cornwall. Next week I will be putting Re and H on a plane going back to Broken Hill. I will be following them a week later.
Since leaving Cornwall Re and I have been documenting our travels on Facebook and Instagram. I have …
Is Hollywood out of ragtag bands of world-savers? We have seen a spate of unusual weather across the country lately, you may have noticed. The video from Rocky Mount, NC on Wednesday looked like a scene from Twister. Nothing to see here. Again. North Carolina sees fewer tornadoes than the Midwest. Still, about 31 hit the state in an average year, according to the National Weather Service. Hurricanes and tropical storms generate many of those along the coastal plain. Neither spawned the EF3 that hit Rocky Mount and a Pfizer plant on Wednesday: An important Pfizer pharmaceutical plant in North Carolina was severely damaged on Wednesday after a powerful tornado ripped through the area, threatening production lines that normally provide huge amounts of medicine to U.S. hospitals. Meanwhile, torrential rain flooded parts of Kentucky and communities from California to South Florida endured scorching heat that at times reached record-high temperatures. Pfizer confirmed the large manufacturing complex was damaged by a twister that touched down shortly after midday near Rocky Mount, but said in an email that it had no reports of serious injuries.
The hills west of the Anduin were tall and white. On its east side there were low shrubs and thin grass and no trees and rocks and stones and dirt near the road which led north and south alongside Mordor. Here they set camp with a small fire and pot simmering skinned conies for a poor stew. The Hobbit and the creature with him sat on a flat stone in the small shade of a drooping, dry shrub. The heat caused the Hobbit to grip at his sweated shirt and the golden burden that lay just under the thinned nap. The other Hobbit, larger in size for Little Folk, would return in an hour, then they would press on to the south to Doom.
“It’s hot,” said the Hobbit.
“Will the fats one comesss back soon, Master?” the creature asked.
“Yes, he scouts ahead. South.”
“We’s close.”
The creature’s gaze followed the Hobbit’s hand and watched him fondle the front of his shirt. The Hobbit caught the creature’s eye and its stare darted back to the view to the west, as though not a thing was out of place.
“The hillsss look like white oliphaunts, precious. Gollum! Gollum!” the creature choked.
“I have never seen one,” the Hobbit said.
- by Psyche Film
- by Steve Minton
What did we all learn from last night's by-elections? Not a single thing, argues Mic Wright