ABrockwell @aebrockwell@social.cleverlibre.org

"In fairness, we should be forcing Mike Pence to carry his campaign to term."

Mrs. Betty Bowers

I'm not big on middle eastern politics but I do think it's important to register my disapproval of the genocide being perpetrated by the Israeli govt. That's not to excuse or support Hamas in any way, but their heinous terrorist acts don't justify the indiscriminate slaughter of thousands of innocent Palestinians, many of then children. The refusal of many western politicians to condemn this is shameful.

Drew this one just before an insurrectionist was elected Speaker of the House

#uspol #cartoon #politics #fascism #democracy #authoritarianism

“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”

– George Orwell, 1984

A reminder as we wake up to the news of another mass shooting: One party’s members walk around Congress with AR-15 pins on their lapels. They aren’t there to help solve the gun violence crisis. They are there to help enable it.

The Associated Press -- like essentially every other major journalism outlet -- has totally normalized extremism.

Calling the new house speaker a "staunch conservative" -- a pathetically weak euphemism for far-right extremist -- is only the latest example of Big Journalism's collapse into willful helplessness.

It's journalistic cowardice in the face of a movement that aims to bring down democracy, and by extension journalism.

Vegemite is 100 years old today! What a little Aussie icon.
---
We've been loving and adoring Vegemite for 100 years - ABC News

#Vegemite #Australia https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-25/vegemite-celebrates-100-anniversary/103014788

"The FBI released new data last week showing that violent crime is down in America, but that hate crimes are up. This is completely at odds with right-wing narratives about the United States, which portrays surging violence in lawless 'Democrat-run' cities. Instead, the data show a different picture: violence is down, except against the very social groups that are targeted by right-wing tropes and the MAGA movement."

~ Brian Klaas

#violence #crime #HateCrimes

https://www.forkingpaths.co/p/the-politics-of-the-pariah

The fact that two former Trump attorneys have now confirmed — via guilty pleas — that Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election included criminal acts should be a much bigger story.

Arresting the person who is trying to save our planet for protesting against the people who knowingly are destroying it seems ludicrous, but that's the idiotic world we live in. I'm a non apologetic supporter of #gretathunberg she is doing what more of us should be doing. #climatechange #climatecrisis https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-67136772

We're told repeatedly that it's just the price of one coffee a month.

But the combined cost of every single tool, service, app and game demanding a cup of coffee a month becomes the equivalent of paying for enough caffeine to poison even the strongest constitution.

https://www.theindex.media/p/the-subscription-economy-sucks

#ClimateChange #ExtinctionRebellion

I love this phrase from @garymarcus@sigmoid.social

“Blind fealty to the statistics of arbitrary data is not AGI. It’s a hack. And not one that we should want.”

Rejecting the voice shows #Australia is still in denial, its history of forgetting a festering wrong - https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/commentisfree/2023/oct/14/rejecting-the-voice-shows-australia-is-still-in-denial-its-history-of-forgetting-a-festering-wrong "The referendum became by proxy a vote on Indigenous peoples’ right to exist in our own land. Imagine – just try – how that feels today"

I've voted YES!
This referendum is about straightforward ideas and practical solutions:
Recognising and respecting 65,000 years of Indigenous culture for the first time in Australia’s 122-year-old constitution.
Listening to a diverse group of Indigenous Australians about the policies and challenges that affect them
Protecting the Voice from politics and bureaucrats by putting it in the constitution, giving it the security it needs to provide meaningful and honest advice.
#yes23 3#Australia #recognition #Recognise @yes23au

Republicans calling a special legislative session to prevent *private businesses* from implementing Covid restrictions tells us an awful lot about where the party is right now.

Apparently government is supposed to be so big and intrusive that it can force a deadly, anti-freedom, anti-scientific ideology on everyone.

#Texas #Covid #GOPExtremism

https://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/texas/texas-special-session-2023/285-33f86a48-9740-4f55-a6ab-552179836467

There Are No Rules

States and quasi-states are using extreme, uninhibited violence against civilian populations.

By Anne Applebaum

Extract

The russian invasion of #Ukraine and Hamas’s attack on #Israeli civilians are both blatant rejections of that rules-based world order, and they herald something new. Both aggressors have deployed a sophisticated, militarized, modern form of terrorism, and they do not feel apologetic or embarrassed about this at all

Read more here🔗 https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2023/10/israel-war-hamas-terrorism-ukraine-russia/675590/

I know there is a lot going on, but Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed for far less than what Trump has done.

Just thought I should remind everyone of that.

Congressional Republicans: "We refuse to work with Democrats and we certainly will not honor any deals we make with them, but we are pissed at them for refusing to bail us out when the crazy people we've been harboring for years turned on us."