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Continuing from Interaction Ritual

Rituals can fail. The Christmas party where everyone is awkward and not enjoying themselves. The sermon and hymns that are just so plain boring so that you can hardly wait to leave. The concert where no one is dancing. (x-Collins)

Putting on a successful ritual is a skill. Being good at it takes practice in moving the participants’ attention where it should be, in encouraging emotional focus and in physical entrainment. The surroundings should be suitable, the central symbol should be framed, costumes may be needed, and on and on.

The Opposition’s shadow minister for home and foreign affairs, Barnaby Joyce, has demanded the Government issue a National apology to victims of the previous Government’s bonk ban. ”A lot of lives were ruined due to the ill-thought through bonk ban,”... Read More ›

A blaze in a West London block of flats last week reveals how the leasehold system is still putting lives at risk, writes Labour MP Barry Gardiner

Trump will be very busy exacting revenge on his enemies so he won’t even know what’s going on elsewhere in his administration. Also he’s learned that he can just lie and say up is down and black is white and tens of millions of people will believe him so he can do whatever he wants without ever having to be accountable for the horrors he inflicts. You can bet this will happen if he wins. It’s been one of the fundamental goals of the Republican Party for decades and they will shove the sharpie in his hand and he will sign it: LAST YEAR, FOR the first time ever, a majority of Americans eligible for Medicare were on privatized Medicare Advantage plans. If Republicans win the presidential race this year, the push to fully privatize Medicare, the government health insurance program for seniors and people with disabilities, will only intensify.  Conservative operatives have already sketched out what the GOP’s policy agenda would look like in the early days of a new Donald Trump presidency. As Rolling Stone has detailed, the proposed Project 2025 agenda is radically right-wing.

Förhållandet mellan ränta och BNP:s tillväxttakt är central för hur man ska se på den offentliga förmögenhets- och skuldutvecklingen. En positiv ränte-tillväxtdifferens innebär att det finns en intertemporal målkonflikt: ett lägre primärt finansiellt sparande (högre offentliga utgifter i förhållande till offentliga intäkter) idag måste betalas med högre primärt sparande (lägre offentliga utgifter iförhållande till offentliga […]

The National Security Council walked back White House spokesperson John Kirby’s statement last week that Iraq had advance notice of the strikes.

The post White House Falsely Declared It Warned Iraq of Impending Airstrikes appeared first on The Intercept.

A significant number of GPs are leaving permanent positions for locum roles or leaving clinical careers altogether, according to a new research by EveryDoctor

“Taylor Swift announces surprise album ‘Tortured Poets Department’ at the Grammys.” — CNN

1. “Adjunct Capacity”

2. “5-5 Courseload”

3. “The Obamacare Website Is Down Again”

4. “Workshop Poems About Dogs”

5. “Office Hours (B+ to A-)”

6. “Avoiding Students at Trader Joe’s”

7. “Encouraging Rejection (The Paris Review)”

8. “The Committee Has Reviewed Your Application, and Unfortunately…”

9. “William Carlos Williams Was a Doctor”

10. “Selling My Plasma”

11. “Rate My Professor / No Chili Pepper”

12. “Alas (Did You Read the Syllabus?)”

13. “Should I Go Back for a PhD?”

Lowitja O’Donoghue was a great Indigenous woman. A very great one. She led the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission with great power and ambition. Upon my beginning to give effect to the High Court decision in Mabo, early in 1992, she, at her own initiative, assembled the leadership of her nations’ Land Councils to Continue reading »

The call issued by Bob Carr and Gareth Evans for a ‘comprehensive détente between the US and China is timely and constructive. But as with all things to do with peace and war, the issues are complex and the way forward strewn with difficulties. China-US tensions are indeed a matter of deep concern. They can Continue reading »

“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” George Orwell, 1984. On the opening day of the bombing last week, I had to work hard to find out what the Iraqi government thought of the wave of attacks on Iraq by the USA. Think about that: a country undergoes Continue reading »

The Labor and Liberal parties’ blind pro-Israel policy will haunt them in the next federal election. Australian Labor and Liberal-National Coalition leaders brag about Western values of democracy, liberty, equality, and human rights. Yet, when it comes to Israel, without shame and respect of the public, they abandon their principles and values and find excuses Continue reading »

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I very much doubt that Anthony Albanese will be losing much sleep from opposition claims that he is a liar, or not to be trusted on anything after his volte face on tax cuts focused at higher income earners. That’s even if you regard as a lie an election promise which is subsequently not followed Continue reading »

It’s our own Groundhog Day experience: when it comes to school funding, we end up doing the same thing over. Jason Clare’s promise to fund all public schools towards their entitlement might bear fruit, but what if nothing else changes? The background always matters in the never-ending school funding saga. The 2012 Gonski Review established Continue reading »

In 2017, I was privileged to deliver the Lowitja Oration at her invitation marking the 50th anniversary of the 1967 referendum. I thanked Lowitja for her national leadership, for her trust, for her hopeful example, and for her friendship. Through the prism of Lowitja’s early political involvements, I recalled the years of hard labour put Continue reading »

Julian Assange will soon find out whether he will be granted a final appeal in the UK in his fight against extradition to the US. He may soon be on a plane to the US where he will face the full wrath of US vengeance and cruelty. The all-rights-reserved-to-revoke ‘assurances’ provided by the US fail Continue reading »

The title of this article is not a joke, nor is it clickbait. I have solid reasons with which to argue that it would be logical and fitting that the next Nobel Peace Prize should be given to the Israel Defence Force, better known as the IDF. My argument is based on precedents, and the Continue reading »

The House is only getting started As usual these days, the GOP congress is a burbling cauldron of chaos and dysfunction with wild hearings, inexplicable strategy and internal strife. They are all fighting among themselves trying to curry favor with their party’s leader, Donald Trump, and jockeying for power. And it’s an election year, which even in placid times turns politicians into preening posers desperate for money and attention. It is a combustible situation. The budget is still not settled although they managed to extend the deadlines for a short while as they try to hammer out deals on taxes, national security and the border. And they have a lot of work to do on all the investigations they are currently pursuing, which to this point are utter embarrassments. The big show was supposed to be the impeachment of Joe Biden, promised to Donald Trump as payback for the two impeachments he endured. That one’s not looking good at the moment. The House oversight committee chairman. James Comer, who is running the Hunter Biden investigation keeps punching holes in his own narrative every time he interviews another witness.

Jessica Buxbaum investigates how "Facts for Peace," founded by Pro-Israel real-estate billionaire Barry Sternlicht, is trying to turn public opinion back in Israel's favor by spending exorbitant amounts of money targeting American social media users.

The post Facts For Peace: The Billionaire-Backed Campaign Attacking the Palestinian Cause appeared first on MintPress News.