#the infrastructure is the same throughout the country

[forzafinally]

I feel numb. The nirbhaya case happened 12 years back and nothing has changed since then. There's not a single mention of the RG Kar case in the newspapers. The doctors of that college were carrying out a peaceful protest last night. They were attacked by a mob who destroyed the evidence at the crime scene and vandalised the hospital premises. She was a resident doctor on duty who was raped and murdered. The Dean of the college gave an initial statement saying "what was she doing there in the first place?" She was sleeping in the seminar room because government hospitals don't have adequate infrastructure to provide on-call rooms for their residents. Do you know what the initial statement given to her family was? That she was psychotic and has committed suicide. It was only half a day later that the authorities admitted it was gang rape. And we are expected to remain silent regarding this?

[niteshade925]

Saw these tags in a reblog of my Chinese museum posts, and thought I have to make a response just so everyone is clear on how archaeological studies are carried out in China:

^Well, the Shaanxi Archaeology Museum is a Chinese museum displaying artifacts found in China, it's not the British Museum lol.

But anyway just so everyone knows, modern Chinese archaeology has a rule, which is that unless it's absolutely necessary, an ancient tomb/mausoleum should not be disturbed. This means that many of these artifacts in the museums are found in a few main ways:

Tombs that absolutely had to be excavated because there were clear signs of grave robbing present, for example when tunnels left by grave robbers were found near a known tomb. This is called "excavating to rescue" (抢救性发掘), it's done by teams of archaeologists, the artifacts found will then be studied and eventually find a home in museums in China. In comparison, actual grave robbers would steal artifacts and sell them for money; many stolen artifacts would end up in auctions, mostly outside of mainland China. This is why there is no "general positive sense" in the phrase "grave robbing with grant money" when it comes to archaeology in China. Modern Chinese archaeology and grave robbing are simply not comparable in any way whatsoever.

Tombs that absolutely had to be excavated because new infrastructure will be built in that location. Such exacavations are also included in excavating to rescue. Examples include tombs in Xi'an city that had to be excavated because a metro was being built. Since Chinese people and Chinese culture are native to China, there are no ethical problems whatsoever, this simply a question of what matters more, the welfare of living Chinese people or the abstract afterlives of ancient Chinese people. Obviously, the welfare of living Chinese people is a more important matter. As for the argument of "but this goes against traditional culture", first, a culture is only alive if the people of that culture is alive and doing well, otherwise that culture is as good as dead; second, a major part of traditional Chinese culture IS focused on the welfare of descendants (ex: the belief that the spirits of ancestors will protect their descendants), so I'm sure our ancestors would be proud to see us doing well.

Tombs that were excavated because archaeologists were absolutely sure that artifacts discovered within would make major contributions to the study of Chinese history. This is pretty much the only exception to the rule of "excavating to rescue", and it is very rarely allowed. An example is the Xia-Shang-Zhou Chronology Project (夏商周断代工程), where the main focus is to gain a clearer picture of the timeline of ancient Chinese history, when dynasties began/ended, when major events may have happened, etc.

Artifacts that were found when arresting grave robbers. These are called "recovered artifacts" (追回文物).

Artifacts that returned to China from foreign countries, these are called "returned artifacts" (回归文物). A big portion of these artifacts ended up in foreign countries precisely because of grave robbers, and another big portion were and are still lost for the same reason as why the British Museum has so many artifacts from around the world.

Artifacts that were discovered scattered throughout China. There are three facts to consider here: 1) China has a long history and as a result, there are vast amounts of existing artifacts; 2) tombs are material things and thus are subject to the elements; 3) not everyone is an archaeologist. Combine these, and you have situations were valuable artifacts were found in places like the chicken coop of a farmer (this is how the eagle-shaped pottery ding was found).

Donations. Some artifacts were family heirlooms that were donated to museums.

[shotofstress]

Coming back after being almost a week without electricity, phone, and internet connection. Huge storms with lightning and rain, and winds. We have never have winds like that here and the roof of so many houses were ripped off, stuff flying, etc. All this bc global warming, and the deforestation and mining in our lands. At this rate, in 5 years we will have tornadoes, a thing we have never ever have here. Nor our lands, infrastructures, states, and culture are prepared for this. Areas of the country are devastated, ppl have died, many are without electricity nor Internet connection so they are isolated. The houses are flooding with water, and the ones that not, are leaking from the ceiling. Too many neighbours and compatriots don't have roofs and the streets are full of fallen trees and pieces of roof material, no electricity, no signal, food rotting, but suffering at the same time for the cold of this terrible winter, and trying to do something, patching even when its gonna go to hell when the storm comes again this next days. More than 33,200 people affected and 41,500 isolated due to 5 days of rain and windstorms. In just a couple of days there were 170,000 homes left without power due to wind and rainstorms and even more as time went by.

If u want to help me to fix the roof, walls, to buy food and being warm this winter please check my Ko-fi. If u can't donate, please reblog bc thats the only way to make this being seen by ppl thus receiving help. I'm really not being able to keep living like this, i can no longer cope, so please share.

Here are in my PayPal or MACH . I took the kofi link bc they were charging me a fee.

Please, educate about global warming and the effects on Global South, specially for working class, chronically ill, autistic, disable, and long covid survivor ppl like myself.

Edit: I added links and pics

Edit: the weather is getting better, but I still need to fix were I live/sleep bc the walls are broken and one of the walls is not a wall, but like 1cm wide stuff and all was bad build so even the door is twisted and dont work correctly, there is black mold, the paint is falling, the lamp has fallen, everything is broken and ugly, etc. I still need to buy food and everything so please, please, share or donate if you could. I don't want to survive like this and here, no one mask even when they were the ones giving me covid bc of it and they have making me also catch flue the other day bc they cogh over everything and don't care if they kill me, they are abusive and really violent people and are working to put me and everyone in danger. I dont even want to be in my country bc we will have a dictatorship soon, but I have nowhere else to go nor money to migrate (i need like $10.537 dollars or € 9.760,95 euros to pay all the documents, the bank money I have to show to prove I am a human being deserver of rights, the tickets, rent money and stuff to migrate).

I currently have $100 dollars donated (coz i spent 40 in food and meds this past month)

I know i will die here, but at least help me to survive in a less dehumanising way.

Edit: tumblr has blocked me from recive or send messages from the chat and comment of posts, so if you are trying to reach throughout there I can't see it, sorry, I'm cut from any communication (cant even see past messages from chat or asks), except send asks. I'm waiting that tumblr do something, but still hasn't even answered the help file I sent to them.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Daniel Villareal at LGBTQ Nation:

Anyone with eyes in their head can see that the American government and media both have a clear pro-Israel and anti-Palestinian bias. Neither one officially recognizes Palestine as a state, and any criticisms against the Israeli government or in favor of Palestinian civilians are automatically labeled (at best) as ignorant, misinformed, and over-idealistic or as hateful, antisemitic, and pro-terrorist. The goal of these denunciations seems to have only one aim: to silence any criticism of Israel. I’m sick of it… and I’m not alone.

In numerous conversations, when I have argued that perhaps the Israeli government is becoming increasingly right-wing, I have been told that Israel is a queer oasis in the bigoted Middle East and that all of Israel’s neighboring countries are rabidly anti-LGBTQ+ and will gladly kill their own queer citizens. When I mention that Israel’s military-enforced policies of forced displacement and segregation against Palestinian citizens could violate their dignity and human rights, I’m reminded of the Holocaust — as if I somehow forgot — and am told that Hamas wants to exterminate Israel and all Jews and that all of Israel’s neighboring countries have threatened to wipe Israel off the map as well. If I mention any recent news report about Israeli forces killing Palestinian journalists or civilians, I’m informed that I do not know my history and that Palestine’s government has repeatedly allowed terrorists from its region to infiltrate Israel and commit atrocities against innocent Israelis. [...]

When any politician or activist publicly criticizes Israel in the media, they’re denounced, and we’re told that we must defend Israel at all costs to protect stability and U.S. interests in the Middle East and to offer a shining beacon of Western democracy to the people living in the otherwise barbaric region. These talking points are reinforced by American media, which commonly depict Israel as a bustling modern nation and depict all other Middle Eastern countries as war-torn deserts consisting of mostly huts, murderers, and goats. These things have all been pretty uniform throughout my entire life: Israel can do no wrong. To imply otherwise is to show your own stupidity or align with Nazis and terrorists. End of conversation. As if numerous progressive Jews and international human rights organizations, like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, haven’t asked the same questions or reached the conclusion that Israel is hardly above reproach. The other not-so-subtle implication is that anyone who wants to criticize Israel openly should either be Jewish themselves or at least have university degrees in Israeli history, Middle Eastern studies, and international political science.

[...] The October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians and recent reports that an estimated 35,000 Palestinians have died in Gaza since Israel’s military destroyed Palestinian homes, schools, hospitals, and vital infrastructure. I’ve been thinking about it as more and more voters vote “uncommitted” in the Democratic primaries, signaling to President Joe Biden that America’s mostly unconditional support of Israel could cost him the election. I’ve been thinking about it as bipartisan politicians urge mayors, police, and the National Guard to violently disband pro-Palestinian student encampments on university campuses rather than engage in good-faith discussions about the institutions’ investments in businesses that benefit from Israel’s conflict.

As a journalist, I would normally turn to trust U.S. news sources to learn more about what’s happening on the ground in Gaza. But journalists and aid workers are being killed there, media outlets that criticize Israel run the risk of driving advertisers away, and pro-Palestinian journalists sometimes get hate mail and death threats. As a result, I hear even less in the news about Palestine than I do about Africa. I want to be clear: I denounce all terrorist actions and the murder of civilians, regardless of nationality. I support Israel and Palestine’s right to exist and the right of all people to peacefully practice their religion without any threats of violent persecution. I acknowledge that antisemitism is real, that hateful attacks on Jewish people and neo-Nazi activity have increased over recent years, and that some of Israel’s critics are bigoted. I also know that some white Christian nationalists and Republicans who support Israel don’t actually approve of anyone who doesn’t embrace Jesus Christ as their personal lord and savior. Rather, they support Israel because of Biblical prophecies that say its existence will bring about Jesus’s return and the end of the world.

Daniel Villarreal wrote in LGBTQ Nation on how America needs to speak up on the abuses the Israel Apartheid government have heaped on Palestinians and the effects of silencing criticism of Israel has had adverse effects on discourse.

[girlactionfigure]

🟠 Monday - ISRAEL REALTIME - Connecting to Israel in Realtime

🌡 HIGH (but not extreme) TEMPERATURES over the next 4 days.  Take extra care with outdoor activities.

▪️HUMANITARIAN SHIELDS.. IDF spokesperson:  Due to numerous acts of terrorism and mortar fire at the State of Israel from the eastern part of the (Gaza - Khan Yunis) humanitarian space, staying in the space has become dangerous. Therefore, at this time the space will be adjusted. The adjustment is in relation to accurate intelligence information according to which  Hamas has located terrorist infrastructure in an area defined as a humanitarian space.

The IDF is going to act strongly against the terrorist organizations, and therefore calls on the remaining population in the eastern neighborhoods of Khan Yunis to temporarily evacuate to the adapted humanitarian space in Mawasi.

▪️A BIT OF HYSTERIA OVERNIGHT.. after an X threat from the Houthis, a flock of large storks were video’d up high in the center, went around social media as a drone swarm from the Houthis.  Several “Air Force on high alert” and “Haifa and Tel Aviv on maximum Home Front alert” messages also went around.  As well a series of reports of power outages across parts of Israel.  ALL FAKE NEWS.

.. These are intentional propaganda ops against Israel.  As we learned over last weeks spy scandal, Iran is paying some Israelis to post such things.

▪️PM LEAVES FOR US.. I am traveling while Israel is fighting on 7 fronts and there is political instability in Washington, telling Congress that regardless of who will be elected, Israel is the country that is the most important ally of the US in the Middle East.

.. CNN: it is not certain that the Netanyahu-Biden meeting will take place as planned.  AP: Yes he will.

▪️YEMEN COMPLAINS TO THE UN.. The Minister of Foreign Affairs in Yemen sent a letter of protest to the Sec. of the UN Security Council and called for Israel to be condemned for its aggression. (( .. in responding to Houthi aggression.  The nerve of those Jews defending themselves! ))

▪️MINOR EARTHQUAKE.. A magnitude 3.7 earthquake was felt in the Dead Sea region.  Felt in Jerusalem.

▪️SENIOR IDF OFFICIALS - DON’T WITHDRAW.. Senior army officials admit if Israel doesn’t maintain an armed presence in the Netzer corridor dividing Gaza, this will endanger Sderot again in the near future.  (Maariv)

▪️TURKEY THREATENS GREECE?  Erdogan says will establish a military naval base in east (Turkish) Cyprus, accuses Greece of intending the same in west Cyprus.

▪️DECREASE IN LEAKS?  Ch. 14’s Berdogo: Since National Unity left the war coalition, the leaks from the cabinet significantly decreased.

▪️POLITICS & MONEY.. Keren HaYesod, an NGO and charity which “does not contribute to political activity”, transferred donation money to Brothers in Arms, one of the lead protest organizations trying to bring down the coalition.  Hmm.

▪️AGAINST THE THREAT OF SOLDIERS BEING PROSECUTED FOR KILLING TERRORISTS.. the organization 'Mothers of the Warriors' is establishing an initial legal counseling system for the warriors.

♦️YEMEN WEAPONS WAREHOUSE EXPLODES?  An official in Al Hashd Al Shaabi reveals that the weapons warehouse that exploded last week was the target of an aerial attack.

♦️COUNTER-TERROR OP - Khorsa.. overnight, near Hebron.

♦️GAZA AIR STRIKES.. IDF: Air Force attacked about 35 terrorist targets throughout Gaza, including a rocket launcher in the Khan Yunis area that was aimed at the country's territory, military buildings, terrorists and other terrorist infrastructure.

♦️US CENTCOM - RED SEA.. US forces destroyed four Houthi suicide boats in the Red Sea in the last day.

⭕ 3 rounds of ROCKETS at the Golan from HEZBOLLAH this morning - nothing overnight.

[thecatholicbozo]

Plea for Aid to Western North Carolina

"But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, 25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together." 1 Corinthians 12:25-26

Please give whatever support you can to the relief efforts from Hurricane Helene. Western North Carolina depends on the Body of Christ right now

Many of you may not be aware that this is a region that struggles tremendously with poverty even in the best of times. Many of my neighbors & fellow parishioners rely on welfare, government assistance, & charity programs. Many others live paycheck-to-paycheck. These people do not have savings, retirement accounts, or emergency funds that they can draw from. They need help. Western North Carolina needs the Body of Christ right now

I don't know the latest death toll - yesterday in Buncombe County (Asheville) it was 30, other counties have been slow to report the deaths until they can find family members to inform first. Houses have been swept away on the water. Bridges have collapsed & roads are washed out - some of these are the only entrance & exit to people who are now stranded without food, water, and medicine. Businesses have been leveled, and some of the ones still standing have been looted. Many people are still without water & power, including some of my coworkers. Many folks will now be jobless due to businesses being destroyed. Western North Carolina needs the Body of Christ to send help.

Please send whatever aid you can through reputable organizations like the Red Cross. Lives are at stake & the wellbeing of the survivors depends on you, my brothers & sisters in Christ.

It's inspiring to hear the entire continent mobilizing to save my neighbors in danger. But once everyone has been saved, there will be a lot of rebuilding to do before things feel back to normal. I was able to get out of my driveway for the first time since Friday, and it just felt surreal. I don't really know how else to describe it.

Please share this sentiment & charity opportunities as much as you can. And if you have friends & loved ones in the area, please reach out to them. They may not have cell or internet reception yet, but I can guarantee they will greatly appreciate it. Western North Carolina needs the Body of Christ - for relief, for prayers, & for comfort.

I'm grateful to God for keeping my friends & family safe throughout all this. I'm grateful for all of the prayers & support y'all have sent already. I'm grateful for all of the emergency crews & responders from across the country who have been working 24/7 to restore infrastructure & help people in peril.

I'm especially grateful to the iHeartRadio crew who has been broadcasting updates from local callers & government officials every day - from safety alerts to resources available to just giving people a voice & for giving us a voice to keep us company. It was a very lonely weekend - I did not know when power was going to be back, and kept my phone off to save battery basically from Friday evening until this morning. The only time I turned it on was to update my parents that I was okay, and then I turned it back off. The only other contact I had with the outside world was through the iHeartRadio broadcast, and honestly it makes me break down in tears thinking about how much their show helped me to not feel alone & to feel hopeful. They're good people.

I'm sorry if this is the billionth post like this y'all have seen this week, but I just needed to dump this out there. It's been a scary weekend, and all things considered I haven't really been in any serious danger. I can't imagine what the folks in the mountain are going through right now. But they need you, the Body of Christ.

"Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world." James 1:27

[suratan-zir]

This is a post of gratitude. Maybe tumblr isn't the most appropriate place for this, maybe it sounds silly and needlessly pretentious coming from a little nobody that I am. Regardless, I have long felt the need to write about it. News about the Leopard tanks from Poland might be a good enough occasion to finally say it.

Dzięki, ačiū, thank you, people of Poland, Lithuania, UK, US and every country that has consistently supported Ukraine since the beginning of the invasion.

Maybe we, Ukrainians, don't say it enough, but we know that we owe our lives not only to our defenders, but to all of you, citizens of countries that didn't abandoned us in these dark times.

Every day on the battlefield my country loses its best men. People who were teachers, doctors, architects and actors, parents, sons and daughters are sacrificing their lives in the name of our survival, our future. Hopefully, with the support of your countries, their sacrifices won't be in vain. Thank you for giving us a chance for the future. Thank you for not leaving us alone in this.

War puts everything into perspective like probably nothing else and it teaches you how to be truly grateful. Only earlier today I wanted to complain that due to the destruction of our infrastructure and emergency power outages, in my apartment it is so cold that I can't even hold the phone in my hands for long - my fingers are freezing. But then I quickly remembered that our fighters in Bakhmut and Soledar are losing their fingers due to the frostbite. I am alive and have a roof over my head thanks to these heroes.

What does this have to do with the topic of this post? Well, the same way I often want to complain about the injustice in this world, I want to write something angry about how russia is not punished enough for the crimes it commits. But then I stop myself, because had the world did not help us throughout these 10 months, had the world just let it slide like it did in 2014, I would likely be homeless, imprisoned or dead, along with millions other Ukrainians. Ukraine could no longer exist by now. Because this is a war of extinction, cultural as much as physical.

Which is why I want to say thank you. Not only for the weapons provided by your countries, but for giving us hope, especially in hard times like these, when the enemy on the eastern front is literally bombarding our troops with cannon fodder in unlimited quantities, turning cities into ruins and meat grinders.

Thank you for helping us to overcome this senseless evil. This post may be cringy and poorly written, but my gratitude is sincere.

[mariacallous]

The FBI, working closely with an international team including the Czech and Baltic intelligence services, has helped link a series of international cyberattacks to a shadowy unit associated with the Russian secret service, the GRU.

According to a joint cybersecurity advisory report issued on Friday, the cyberattacks were undertaken by a group tied to Unit 29155 of the GRU.

Previously, the same unit has been blamed for an explosion at an ammunition site in 2014 in Vrbětice, deep in the Czech Republic’s southeast, as well as “attempted coups, sabotage and influence operations, and assassination attempts throughout Europe.”

However, in 2020, Unit 29155 expanded its portfolio “to include offensive cyber operations.”

Among other objectives, this offshoot group was used to collect information for espionage, cause reputational harm by stealing and leaking sensitive information, and destroying data.

“Unit 29155 cyber actors [are assessed] to be junior active-duty GRU officers under the direction of experienced Unit 29155 leadership,” said the report.

“These individuals appear to be gaining cyber experience and enhancing their technical skills through conducting cyber operations and intrusions,” it continued. Additionally, the report assessed that non-GRU officers had also been recruited, including known cybercriminals.

The unit is believed to be responsible for unleashing WhisperGate, a multi-stage wiper that has been deployed against the Ukrainian government, non-profit and tech organizations since January 2022. In addition to launching WhisperGate against Ukraine, the group has also targeted NATO states as well as countries in Latin America and Central Asia with its activity, including website defacements, infrastructure scanning, data exfiltration, and data leak operations. “Since early 2022, the primary focus of the cyber actors appears to be targeting and disrupting efforts to provide aid to Ukraine,” the report revealed. Furthermore, over 14,000 cases of domain scanning had also been recorded, with these impacting 26 NATO members and several other EU nations. “Whether through offensive operations or scanning activity, Unit 29155 cyber actors are known to target critical infrastructure and key resource sectors, including government services, financial services, transportation systems, energy, and healthcare sectors of NATO members, the EU, Central American, and Asian countries,” said the report. Led by the FBI, the investigative operation also involved teams from Britain, Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Estonia, Latvia, and the Czech Republic. Together, their joint findings have enabled the Cybersecurity Advisory to develop tactics, techniques, and procedures to thwart further actions by Unit 29155.

[artemisbarnowl]

What is life like in Melbourne? I’m looking into moving there from the UK and would love some insights and whatever else from people who live and work there 💕

I've only visited the UK briefly as a tourist so I'm not sure how to compare them in a way that's going to give you useful info. But I'll give you info at least. Please sit comfortably and we'll begin.

Melbourne has 5 million people in it, but is also quite a large sprawling urban area, so it doesn't feel really packed and busy. It sits on a bay, so it doesn't get freezing but does have the '4 seasons in one day' jokes which are true. I never really got in the habit of checking the weather in the morn before I left for work until I moved away from melb where the forecast was such that I could dress appropriately without surprise.

When I talk about what I love about Melbourne I mean inner suburbs and CBD (which is a beautiful grid and shining example of urban planning for the now that is weighed down by no plans for the future). Public transport connectivity is decent (comparable to London imo) but wait times, delays, and travel times on trams and buses might be relatively crap depending on your experience. It's no Moscow metro (my beloved), but you can probably get to where you're going somehow. Also e scooters have popped off. Further out there's no trams and there's more big gaps between train stations (the train lines are arranged like spokes of a wheel around a central city circle. There will be another city loop slightly overlapping the current one in service next year). This is what I despairingly call The Suburbs. Where you probably need a car to get around and it's like at least 20 mins drive to Anywhere for dinner, groceries or fun activities. Mostly Melbourne is not overly hilly so bikes are an option but infrastructure such as bike lanes is really hit or miss depending on area. Especially good in the inner north. Melb inner suburbs are very walkable and I love love love that. I lived in the inner north and could walk into the CBD to do whatever.

In terms of culture things I think Melbourne is the most international of Aus's capitals in that it has a lot of different people but also that there's a lot open late. Sydney probably can and will make the same claim. But that's it. The rest of Aus is a country town. Major shops will probably close 5.30 or six mon to wed but there's plenty of stuff that's open later. You can always find a bar* or 8. There's plenty of different cuisines in gourmet or fast food dining. There's a cafe in the CBD that's open 24 hours where I can sit outside and have a pot of green tea WHENEVER I WANT. Bookstores open til 10pm. There are lots of events throughout the year and lots of cultural institutions to visit on a whim for free! Some are paid also obvi but I find it difficult to be bored when I can go to the museum to see taxidermy or the NGV for art for free whenever. I am a zoo member which means I get to hang out in a beautiful park/garden which creatures for free whenever I want. Again as you go out further this becomes less true. Fringe cities at the ends of train lines are likely to have what you need to live but less fun activities less often. Not nothing though!

Melbournians really do love wearing black. Especially in winter. They also love strategic Grey. I thought people were exaggerating until I left. A head to toe black outfit is uncommon enough to be remarkable where I live now. Even in a regular boring office where people wear very muted colours I'm the only one who does it. There is no functional difference between the a mourning outfit and one of a Melbournian. it's common wear sneakers with a lot of seemingly formal or corporate outfits, but not thongs with jeans. That's some weird Sydney nonsense.

Being around the bay there's plenty of places to swim in summer! Most of the bay is bordered by beach, most famous and reachable from the city is St Kilda beach. Which is excellent and beyond reproach if you're not Australian and 'fine' if you are. Traveling down towards Mornington Peninsula they get better. 5km makes a difference to the grain of the sand. Some are more fine, can get more coarse and shelly as well. Never stony. Only a little bit of seaweed here and there.

There are parks in the heart of the city (nothing huge like Hyde though) and little wildlife corridors or reserves in most suburbs but it's not an especially Nature city. It's only one hour by train and bus or by car to the Dandenongs (a low mountain range, not to be confused with hugely underated immigrant suburb of Dandenong in melb) though which have cool temperate rainforest national park, lots of gardens (huuuuuge rhododendron garden up there), little b&bs, english style cafes (miss Marples in Olinda is the most famous) and lots of walking and biking. I say one hour but Melbourne as an area reaches right to the base of the range, which is why you can get a bus from the shops. There are national parks that are native woodland or grasslands closer to the heart of the city but these are less special to me because that's the standard nature I see every day of my life. There's a pink lake in south melb which is fun. But I love tree ferns and fresh damp dirt and the tallest flowering trees in the world!!

If you have more specific Q's feel free to ask. I am a city gal at heart but did live rurally originally and frequently do short stays (2 weeks to a month) in rural or remote areas so I am used to comparing amenities and connectivity.

*Melbourne has regular bars but also is very big on rooftop bars. Sydney has some, but other cities hear rooftop bar and think 'bar inside but with views or on top floor of building. Probably formal'. Melbourne roof top bars are on the roof. In the open air (maybe some shade sail) and it's very much a casual thing. Jugs of beer or sangria, chips, feels like a good barbeque rather than a refined cocktail bar. Those are often in basements.

[jopriyu]

"Building the Future: How 15-Minute Cities Can Transform India’s Urban Landscape"

India is fast emerging as a new land of opportunity, with many suggesting that the 21st century will witness a shift in the global order, placing India at the forefront. The government’s focus on infrastructure is a testament to this, as seen in the capital investment outlay of ₹11,11,111 crore in the 2024-25 budget—an impressive 11.1% increase from the previous year, making up 3.4% of the GDP. This substantial boost reflects the nation’s commitment to building a stronger, more resilient future.

However, it’s hard to ignore the strain on our cities, which feel like they are bursting at the seams, inching closer to an infrastructural tipping point. Many of these cities, built during colonial times, lack the fundamental urban planning or modern mapping needed for today’s demands. While there is no magical solution to these deeply rooted issues, and India—being a land of unique needs and adaptations—will never find a one-size-fits-all answer, it is a country that embraces innovation and customizes it to its own needs. But I digress.

The purpose of this piece is not to assign blame but to highlight potential solutions. One solution that shines through is the concept of 15-minute cities. A 15-minute city is designed so that all essential services—schools, healthcare, parks, financial institutions—are no more than a 15-minute commute by road.

Imagine a world where your daily commute takes no longer than 15 minutes. It’s a vision that not only promises work-life balance but also offers a much-needed environmental reprieve, with reduced fuel consumption and fewer emissions. The benefits of such a model are numerous:

Reduced Traffic Congestion: With less reliance on cars, traffic eases, resulting in shorter commute times, improved well-being, and a healthier work-life balance.

Cleaner Environment: Fewer cars on the road mean lower air pollution, contributing significantly to combating climate change.

Health and Social Bonds: Walking and cycling are encouraged, boosting physical health and strengthening social ties within the community.

Thriving Local Businesses: As people stay closer to home, local businesses flourish with increased foot traffic, creating a vibrant neighborhood atmosphere. Economic activity spreads evenly across the city, breathing new life into shops and services beyond central hubs.

Easier Access to Services: Essential services like schools, healthcare, and groceries become easily accessible, fostering inclusivity and easing the strain on public transportation.

Fostering Inclusion: This model ensures that no matter where someone lives, they have access to the same opportunities, creating a more inclusive and equitable city.

Resilience in Crises: A decentralized structure, with services spread throughout, helps cities adapt more effectively to challenges like pandemics or natural disasters.

GIS (Geographic Information Systems) plays a pivotal role in bringing the 15-minute city concept to life. By mapping out urban areas and analyzing spatial data, GIS helps planners identify where essential services are lacking and where improvements can be made. It enables efficient zoning, optimal placement of resources, and real-time monitoring of traffic patterns or environmental impacts. In a country like India, where cities are complex and densely populated, GIS offers a smart, data-driven approach to designing walkable neighborhoods, ensuring that every community has access to the amenities they need.

Admittedly, there are challenges. Implementing this in densely populated areas can be complex, potentially leading to gentrification and rising property values, which could displace lower-income residents. Additionally, some might resist the shift from car-dependent lifestyles. There is also the concern of limited job diversity within such a localized area. Yet, with the rise of remote work, job opportunities are increasingly flexible and accessible, allowing this issue to be overcome.

In India, where close-knit families and social networks often span across neighborhoods, this connectivity remains intact even as local living is prioritized. By creating more livable, walkable spaces, the 15-minute city model champions sustainability and inclusivity while addressing the ever-evolving demands of urban life.

In conclusion, while no solution is without its challenges, the 15-minute city offers a pathway toward more balanced, resilient, and harmonious urban living. As India continues to rise, this model could be a blueprint for a future where well-being, community, and sustainability take center stage in our cities.

[happymetalgirl]

Chat Pile - God's Country

Chat Pile was the surprise breakout act for many fans of heavy, noisy, or otherwise extreme music last year, myself included. And for good reason, even though the preceding EPs the band released are sonically in line with it, God's Country hit like a totally different out-of-control pick-up truck through the living room wall of an Oklahoman house in the middle of the day (if you know you know; if you don't know, don't worry about it). The band members are from the desolate middle-American saucepan state, and the hidden horrors of the deep red rural hellscape of their home environment certainly seeps through on the sarcastically-titled God's Country, juxtaposed frighteningly with the album cover. Benign on first glance, the beige background features the image of a bunch of powerlines and energy infrastructure, with a massive detention center behind. Such a typical sight in the more remote parts of the U.S., but once the identity of the buildings of the image become clear, the album cover's statement on America's carceral system is impossible to miss.

It's hard in this day and age with modern metal production to really stand out from the crowd on heaviness alone, but like I said, Chat Pile hit with an unexpected and truly unique kind of noise/sludge metal heaviness. Aggressively rumbly distorted bass lines mixed as high as (if not higher than) the down-tuned guitars, booming and thundering drums, and swampy clean guitar tones are all well-arranged in chaotic and thrilling dynamic from front to back. But the real show-stealer on God's Country is vocalist Raygun Busch. The vocal prowess Busch displays across the album is not exactly the traditional sort (impeccable control of a variety of techniques across a wide vocal range). Rather, what makes Busch's performance compelling is how visceral and uncontrolled it comes across. It's still a talent that he's wielding and it only sounds uncontrolled, at least partly. The range his performance spans on the album goes from droning and unsettling spoken word, to dissociative and inebriated moaning, to the full-on manic breakdowns of full-throated wailing, shouting, and shrieking that really chill you to the bone.

The band do quite a fine job merging the theatrical horrors of B-movie cinema with the untold real-life horror stories of modern America: ("God's country"), using the excesses of the former to reel you in and press your face up to the latter. The first song on the album, "Slaughterhouse", explodes out of the gate with a concussing, industrial-grade barrage of bass-y distorted sludge that almost certainly leaves all heads ringing throughout the venue in a live setting. The lyrics leave a healthy amount of room for interpretation, but the most likely interpretation given the title is the detailing of the industrial-sized horrors of factory farming, specifically the trauma inflicted upon the workers: being watched by all the animals, trying not to look into their eyes, the head-ringing loudness throughout the labyrinthian and unescapable facility, and all the dreadful, traumatizing screaming. It's a fucking chilling track, deserving of it's pulverizing instrumentation.

The album's second track, "Why?", is arguably the standout cut on the album; unlike the first track there's really no room for interpretation. It's the most direct the band gets on any song on the album. Raygun Busch starts with an inquisitively perplexed delivery of the simple question, "why do people have live outside?", and escalates the same unanswered question to a crazed, furious, repetitive interrogation of America's inhumane treatment of the homeless. It's a simple, yet bloodcurdlingly convicting confrontation of the broader systems that brutalize the impoverished to protect the wealthy and the illusion of American utopia.

And the album does not let up from there, even on the more relatively subdued (less screaming) songs. The more instrumentally understated "Pamela" details in poetic brilliance the recurrent bargaining mechanism to cope with the torture of lingering grief and the suicidal (possibly also homicidal) resignation of a parent (probably a mother) losing a child to a drowning accident. "Wicked Puppet Dance" makes an effective use of lyrical brevity over dizzyingly pounding instrumentation to vividly portray the hallucinatory and psychosis-inducing trappings of meth addiction. The grim, unsettling subject matter and imagery of the songs and the deranged delivery of the lyrics evoke equal comparisons to heady experimentalists Xiu Xiu and to critical pariahs like self-titled-era Korn.

The always-topical "Anywhere" spotlights the endemic fear of the ever-looming possibility of being caught the fire of the American-signature brand of mass gun violence literally... anywhere, while the merciless "Tropical Beaches, Inc." focuses on the slower way America likes to kills you, through the ceaseless grind of enslavement to capitalism.

The odd name of the album's closing track, "grimace_smoking_weed.jpg", only serves to disarm you for possibly the most terrifying moment on the album. On the 9-minute closer Raygun Busch frantically and incoherently describes desperately trying to resist being compelled to commit suicide by a haunting/recurring hallucination of the furry purple McDonald's mascot under the effects of a bad heroin trip. The lyrics are so all over the place and so chaotic, the voice of the speaker shifts to and from Busch himself and the demonic hallucination of Grimace in his head. The closing track here is definitely Busch's most harrowing performance, and it's his vivid, soul-chilling panic that really gives this song the edge. The obvious parallel to Korn here is to Jonathan Davis' similarly disturbing and traumatizing performance at the end of the self-titled album on "Daddy". Whereas Davis opened up his old wounds in a very questionably unhealthy manner and channeled his trauma through his most tortured vocal performance to make a monumentally terrifying piece of art that highlights the lasting torment of trauma from childhood abuse, Raygun Busch unleashes his full vocal madness to give sight to the invisible haunting thralls of the looming specter of suicidal tendencies and the nightmarish trappings of drug addiction. Both incredible, petrifying, nightmarish, and eternally memorable performances that deserve the utmost respect.

God's Country is one of those albums where at the end of it you kind of just have to sit for a while and decompress from it. It's a very mentally/emotionally draining album, especially at its finale, but despite that, it's also a cathartically pounding and validating album. There's a lot of cognitive dissonance that all of us have to live with or at least perform, living in the United States (and the rest of the western world). God's country is the richest country in the world, the most advanced, and supposedly the most capable, the best place in the world to live, heaven on Earth. And yet, there's so much hell. So much fucked up shit, so much suffering, so much that doesn't seem right. And you know that sense that something's wrong is so widely pervasive because it's the feeling that propagandists for the powerful try to redirect toward scapegoats like immigrants, people of color, queer people, etc. Anyone but the wealthy whose insatiable and senseless greed is fed through our labor. The way Chat Pile cut straight through all the noise and confusion to get at the real issues that make horror such a latent everyday pollutant all across the country that we're all inoculated to is strangely affirming and energizing. It pushes your face up to glass to look at the grotesque inner workings of the mundane everyday things you pass by on the way to your job, take for granted as normal, and think nothing of. The suffering that drives the engines that churn out the illusion of American prosperity, and that lock the vast majority of us in subclinical misery. It shows you what really makes God's country such a living hell.

I love this fucking album; it is grueling to sit through, but it's rewarding and honestly not a hard listen at all. The impeccably heavy instrumentals sort of tap into that constantly heightened sense of urgency as though the band is communicating that, yes, they're seeing and feeling what you're seeing and feeling. And honestly, for such a critically-acclaimed album, it plays surprisingly down in the muck and the mud with the people. It's poetic, but it's not inaccessible or unnecessarily cryptic. It's brilliant, but it's not snobbish. Chat Pile meddle shamelessly with the emotional rawness of grunge and unrestrained heavy fervor and fury of nu metal, and it's just subtle enough that the reviewers who ordinarily turn their noses up to such low-brow shit probably didn't notice they had enjoyed a nu metal album until it was too late. That's right, Chat Pile are nu metal, process that on your own.

9/10, best debut of 2022 and one of the best albums of the year in any category.

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Adam Kredo

Israel has destroyed scores of Hezbollah missiles, drones, and rocket launchers across Lebanon over the past several days, orchestrating an unprecedented series of pinpoint airstrikes and intelligence-driven operations that have quickly degraded swaths of the terror group's arsenal—and eliminated at least three of the group's senior commanders.FreeBeacon

Israel's air force is pummeling Hezbollah's arms depots and targeting its senior leadership, marking the "most extensive" strikes "ever carried out in its history," according to the country's military leaders and regional news outlets.

Hezbollah, long known as Iran's preeminent regional terror proxy, is being defanged by the Jewish state's armed forces in the process. It has lost almost half of its medium and long-range missiles in a series of Israeli raids designed to annihilate "surveillance equipment, command rooms, and other infrastructure" used by Hezbollah to rain terror on Israel's northern border.

On Wednesday, Israel continued its offensive, showing no signs of backing down from a fight that it largely avoided for months as it turned its attention to Hamas in the wake of the Oct. 7 terror spree. Around 60 key targets belonging to Hezbollah's "intelligence division" were struck across Lebanon, with Israeli military leaders promising to destroy "all of their rocket capabilities" and bases.

All told, Israel has logged close to 3,000 flight hours, using more than 250 warplanes to drop an estimated 2,000 munitions across 200 separate locations in Lebanon, the Israel Defense Forces confirmed to the Washington Free Beacon. The strikes have destroyed around 400 medium-range rocket launchers, 70 weapons storage depots, and around 80 drones and cruise missiles. They've also killed at least three senior commanders—rocket and missile division head Ibrahim Qubaisi, military operations head Ibrahim Aqil, and training unit head Ahmed Wahbi—along with other top fighters.

The coordinated attacks, Israel says, are "changing the operational situation in the north, changing the reality," for Hezbollah as the terror group goes on defense after nearly a year of nonstop terror strikes on Israeli towns throughout the country. The ongoing aerial assault is being viewed as a regional game changer, proving to Hezbollah that it is not as untouchable as its leaders once believed.

Still, experts who spoke to the Free Beacon emphasized that Israel has a long way to go in its bid to defeat the terror group.

Hezbollah has missiles "dispersed and buried" across Lebanon, said David Schenker, the State Department's former assistant secretary for Near Eastern Affairs.

"They still have capabilities, and I think that they always manage to surprise," he said. "There's no knockout blow here."

At the same time, there's "still a long way Israel can go up the escalation ladder," Richard Goldberg, a former White House National Security Council member, told the Free Beacon. The Jewish state, for example, is reportedly readying a full-blown ground invasion into Lebanon after a Hezbollah missile attack targeted Tel Aviv for the first time in the conflict on Wednesday.  Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, the Israeli military's chief of staff, reportedly told forces stationed along the northern border "to prepare the terrain" for a possible ground incursion.

For Goldberg, Israel's actions leading up to the potential invasion have helped provide a strategic advantage.

"Israel is finally committed to climbing the escalation ladder until its primary objective is achieved: the return of 60,000 civilians to their homes," Goldberg said. "Israel has disrupted communications, eliminated key leadership assets, degraded command and control, and is now working through every target in the bank to degrade Hezbollah's strategic capabilities."

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has told The Independent that Republicans’ chaotic efforts to elect a Speaker for the new Congress are serving to highlight how grounded and reasonable she and other members of the so-called Squad of progressive Democrats have been.

Throughout much of her time in Congress, the self-described democratic socialist has heard herself and other progressives described as “unreasonable.” Former-representative Stephanie Murphy even called the coterie of Democrats “the never enough caucus” during negotiations about the bipartisan infrastructure bill and passing Build Back Better.

But against the background of repeated failed attempts by the Republicans to elect Kevin McCarthy as Speaker in the face of hard-right GOP opposition, AOC pointed out that many of the debates she was involved in with fellow Democrats were about actual policy. By comparison, House Republicans are mostly united on their goals, while they differ on the tactics and the rules governing the House of Representatives.

The current crisis has already forced the House to go three days without having a Speaker.

Speaking just off the House floor on Thursday evening, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez told The Independent that despite all the criticisms of her and her colleagues, the current GOP deadlock shows just how reasonable she and progressives are.

“I mean I think it just highlights how how extraordinarily bad faith those accusations of progressive unreasonableness are, even when they come from our side of the aisle,” she said.

“I think, whether you're Democrat, Republican or independent, what this whole episode really indicates and shows us is, again, just how bad faith and substantive some substance-less the argument and accusation is that progressives are, are just as bad as, as these insurrectionists Republicans.”

That doesn’t mean that progressives don’t fight when they think it is necessary, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said.

“When we make demands and pull the line on something, it is based on policy on substance, and something that frankly, usually every time has a path of possibility,” she said. “We offer a Plan B and we look at the reality and push us Yes, push as hard as we can. But we also have an understanding of what is best for the country.”

But beyond the theatrics and comedic aspect, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said that she worried about the fact the impasse could make it harder to govern.

“The more days that this goes on the more this truly starts to have a corrosive impact on our country,” she said. “Right now, members of Congress because we were not sworn in, we do not have we do not have access to our security clearances, or liaising capacities with that with agencies like the IRS or [United States Citizenship and Immigration Services]. We cannot conduct constituent casework to the same extent that we would otherwise and as a result, the longer this goes on, the more real impact there is and the more people are going to suffer.”

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez entered Congress in 2019 after she defeated House Democratic Caucus Chairman Joe Crowley in a primary. But this term will be the first time that she will be serving in the minority, which means her role will be much different.

Still, she said that in some ways, she and other members of the Squad – which includes Representatives Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Jamaal Bowman of New York and Cori Bush of Missouri – will be able to “flex” their messaging and have more time and latitude to go on offense against Republicans.

“When you're in the majority, you're you're focused on spending a lot of your time on governance and we understand that the windows that we are in the majority are very precious time,” she said.

Despite the fact that Ms. Ocasio-Cortez occasionally clashed with former speaker Nancy Pelosi, she still voted for her nomination and worked with her. Conversely, she has butted heads with fellow New Yorker Hakeem Jeffries, who has been more outspoken in his criticism of left-wing Democrats at times.

But Ms. Ocasio-Cortez has joined every member of the Democratic caucus in voting for Mr. Jeffries’s nomination as Speaker.

“I think, right now, all of our central focus is making sure that we stay united as a caucus and identify what the bigger issue is right now, which is ensuring that we stave off a lot of the the negative and corrosive impacts of Republican legislation,” she said.

[antidrumpfs]

Opinion-Joe Biden: We must keep marching toward Dr. King’s dream

From the Joe Biden Washington Post opinion piece August 27, 2023

Sixty years ago, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and hundreds of thousands of fellow Americans marched on Washington for jobs and freedom. In describing his dream for us all, Dr. King spoke of redeeming the “promissory note to which every American was to fall heir” derived from the very idea of America — we are all created equal and deserve to be treated equally throughout our lives. While we’ve never fully lived up to that promise as a nation, we have never fully walked away from it, either. Each day of the Biden-Harris administration, we continue the march forward.

That includes a fundamental break with trickle-down economics that promised prosperity but failed America, especially Black Americans, over the past several decades. Trickle-down economics holds that taxes should be cut for the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations, that public investments in priorities such as education, infrastructure and health care should be shrunk, and good jobs shipped overseas. It has exacerbated inequality and systemic barriers that make it harder for Black Americans to start a business, own a home, send their children to school and retire with dignity.

Vice President Harris and I came into office determined to change the economic direction of the country and grow the economy from the middle out and bottom up, not the top down. Our plan — Bidenomics — is working. Because of the major laws and executive orders I’ve signed — from the American Rescue Plan, the bipartisan infrastructure law, the Chips and Science Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, my executive orders on racial equity and more — we’re advancing equity in everything we do making unprecedented investments in all of America, including for Black Americans.

Black unemployment fell to a historic low this spring and remains near that level.More Black small businesses are starting up than we’ve seen in over 25 years. More Black families have health insurance. We cut Black child poverty in half in my first year in office. We aredelivering clean water and high-speed internet to homes across America. We’re taking on Big Pharma to reduce prescription drug costs, such as making the cost of insulin for seniors $35 a month. We’re taking the most significant action on climate ever, which is reducing pollution and creating jobs for Black Americans in the clean energy future.

This administration will continue to prioritize increasing access to government contracting and lending. We awarded a record $69.9 billion in federal contracts to small, disadvantaged businesses in fiscal 2022. We’re taking on housing discrimination and increasing Black homeownership. To date, we’ve invested more than $7 billion in historically Black colleges and universities to prepare students for high-growth industries. We’ve approved more than $116 billion in student loan debt cancellation for 3.4 million Americans so that borrowers receive the relief they deserve. And a new student debt repayment plan is helping Black students and families cut in half their total lifetime payments per dollar borrowed. We’re doing all of this by making sure the biggest corporations begin to pay their fair share, keeping my commitment that Americans earning less than $400,000 a year not pay a single penny more in federal taxes.

And to help guide these policies, I made it a priority to appoint Black leaders to my Cabinet, my staff, in the judiciary and to key positions in agencies such as the Federal Reserve to ensure policymakers represent the experiences of all Americans in the economy.

But we know government can’t do it alone. Private-sector leaders have rightly acted to ensure their companies are more reflective of America, often in response to their employees, their customers and their own consciences. Right now, the same guardians of trickle-down economics who attack our administration’s economic policies are also attacking the private sector and the views of the American people. A recent poll from the nonpartisan Black Economic Alliance Foundation shows overwhelming bipartisan support for promoting diversity as central to a company being more innovative and more profitable, and central to fulfilling the promise of our country for all Americans. Despite the attacks, we all must keep pushing to create a workforce that reflects America.

For generations, Black Americans haven’t always been fully included in our democracy or our economy, but by pure courage and heart, they have never given up pursuing the American Dream. We saw in Jacksonville, Fla., yet another community wounded by an act of gun violence, reportedly fueled by hate-filled animus. We must refuse to live in a country where Black families going to the store or Black students going to school live in fear of being gunned down because of the color of their skin. On this day of remembrance, let us keep showing that racial equity isn’t just an aspiration. Let us reject the cramped view that America is a zero-sum game that holds that for one to succeed, another must fail. Let us remember America is big enough for everyone to do well and reach their God-given potential.

That’s how we redeem the promissory note of our nation.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

John Nichols at The Nation:

Donald Trump has made no secret of his determination to govern as a “dictator” if he regains the presidency, and that’s got his critics warning that his reelection would spell the end of democracy. But Trump and his allies are too smart to go full Kim Jong Un. Rather, the former president’s enthusiasm for the authoritarian regimes of Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Turkey’s Tayyip Erdoğan, and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán suggests the models he would build on: managing elections to benefit himself and his Republican allies; gutting public broadcasting and constraining press freedom; and undermining civil society. Trump, who famously demanded that the results of Georgia’s 2020 presidential voting be “recalculated” to give him a win, wants the trappings of democracy without the reality of electoral consequences. That’s what propaganda experts Edward Herman and Frank Brodhead once described as “demonstration elections,” in which, instead of actual contests, wins are assured for the authoritarians who control the machinery of democracy. The outline for such a scenario emerges from a thorough reading of Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership, which specifically proposes a Trump-friendly recalculation of the systems that sustain American democracy. The strategy for establishing an American version of Orbán’s “illiberal democracy” is not spelled out in any particular chapter of Mandate. Rather, it is woven throughout the whole of the document, with key elements appearing in the chapters on reworking the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and the Federal Election Commission (FEC). In the section on the DHS, for instance, there’s a plan to eliminate the ability of the agency that monitors election security to prevent the spread of disinformation about voting and vote counting.

How serious a threat to democracy would that pose? Think back to November 2020, when Trump was developing his Big Lie about the election he’d just lost. Trump’s false assertion that the election had been characterized by “massive improprieties and fraud” was tripped up by Chris Krebs, who served as director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) in the DHS. The Republican appointee and his team had established a 24/7 “war room” to work with officials across the country to monitor threats to the security and integrity of the election. The operation was so meticulous that Krebs could boldly announce after the voting was finished: “America, we have confidence in the security of your vote, you should, too.” At the same time, his coordinating team declared, “The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history.” This infuriated Trump, who immediately fired the nation’s top election security official.

In Mandate’s chapter on the DHS, Ken Cuccinelli writes, “Of the utmost urgency is immediately ending CISA’s counter-mis/disinformation efforts. The federal government cannot be the arbiter of truth.” Cuccinelli previously complained that CISA “is a DHS component that the Left has weaponized to censor speech and affect elections.” As for the team that worked so successfully with Krebs to secure the 2020 election, the Project 2025 document declares that “the entirety of the CISA Cybersecurity Advisory Committee should be dismissed on Day One.” The potential impact? “It’s a way of emasculating the agency—that is, it prevents it from doing its job,” says Herb Lin, a cyber-policy and security scholar at Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation.

This is just one way that Project 2025’s cabal of “experts” is scheming to thwart honest discourse about elections and democracy. A chapter on public broadcasting proposes to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting as part of a larger plan to upend NPR, PBS, and “other public broadcasters that benefit from CPB funding, including the even-further-to-the Left Pacifica Radio and American Public Media.” More destabilizing than the total funding cut that Project 2025 entertains is a parallel plan to end the status of NPR and Pacifica radio stations as “noncommercial education stations.” That could deny them their current channel numbers at the low end of the radio spectrum (88 to 92 FM)—a move that would open prime territory on the dial for the sort of religious programming that already claims roughly 42 percent of the airwaves that the FCC reserves for noncommercial broadcasting. And don’t imagine that the FCC would be in a position to write new rules that guard against the surrender of those airwaves to the Trump-aligned religious right.

[...]

While project 2025 seeks to rewire the FCC to favor Trump’s allies, it also wants to lock in dysfunction at the Federal Election Commission, the agency that is supposed to govern campaign spending and fundraising. Established 50 years ago, the FEC has six members—three Republicans and three Democrats—who are charged with overseeing the integrity of federal election campaigns. In recent years, however, this even partisan divide has robbed the FEC of its ability to act because, as a group of former FEC employees working with the Campaign Legal Center explained, “three Commissioners of the same party, acting in concert, can leave the agency in a state of deadlock.” As the spending by outside groups on elections “has exponentially increased, foreign nationals and governments have willfully manipulated our elections, and coordination between super PACs and candidates has become commonplace,” the former employees noted. Yet “the FEC [has] deadlocked on enforcement matters more often than not, frequently refusing to even investigate alleged violations despite overwhelming publicly available information supporting them.”

John Nichols wrote in The Nation about how Project 2025’s radical right-wing wishlist of items contains plans to wreck and subvert what is left of America’s democracy.

See Also:

The Nation: June 2024 Issue

[girlactionfigure]

An Excess of Democracy

The State of Israel is more endangered today than at any time since 1948, including 1973. She is tied down in Gaza while her enemies wait their turn in Lebanon, Syria, the PA, Yemen, Iraq, and Iran – which may already have nuclear weapons. An unprecedented campaign of antisemitic incitement is destroying popular support for her throughout the world, and government after government is punishing her by recognizing the “State of Palestine” on her territory. The more genocidal her enemies, the more she is falsely accused of genocide. Her decision to position herself as a satellite of the US has borne bitter fruit, as that country’s policies are increasingly decided by elements that want to see Israel disappear; at the same time, the enemies of the US treat her as an outpost of US power that must be eliminated.

Israel’s political, intelligence, and military elites have shown themselves incompetent. They failed to foresee, prevent, or even effectively react to the invasion of 7 October. They have turned the military successes of the war into what appears to be a surrender to all of Hamas’ demands.

Over the years they have projected an image of Israel as a punching bag rather than the proud and powerful nation that she is. Despite our nuclear-armed military, they have allowed Iran to encircle us with terrorist proxies and even to establish a deterrent force in Lebanon that we fear to challenge. They have allowed Iran itself to obtain nuclear weapons.

On 13 April 2024, Iran launched an attack against Israel that included hundreds of drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles, the largest such attack in military history. All but a few were intercepted by Israel with some help from the US and others; the cost of this defensive operation to Israel was estimated at more than $1 billion. Had the attack succeeded, there would have been great damage to military and infrastructure targets, as well as loss of life. Israel retaliated a few days later by destroying some radar installations in Iran. The weakness of Israel’s response was a result of US pressure and the deterrent effect of Iran’s Hezbollah proxy.

At home, our leaders have allowed the PA to systematically gobble up parts of Area C in Judea/Samaria that are supposed to be under full Israeli control by international treaty. They have allowed, and then legitimized, illegal Bedouin settlement in the Negev. They have allowed the flourishing of Arab crime syndicates in the Negev and Galilee, and in the Arab towns and mixed Arab-Jewish cities.

Tens of thousands of Israeli citizens have fled from their homes: in the south from fear of resurgent Hamas terrorism, and in the north from daily bombardment by Hezbollah with rockets and anti-tank weapons, which have laid waste to cities and towns in the area. As I write this, large fires started by Hezbollah rockets are burning in northern cities.

Our governments are ineffectual, paralyzed by arguments over issues like the judicial reform and the Haredi draft, beset by powerful lobbies and popular groups that are manipulated by political actors. The two largest minority populations, Israeli Arabs and Haredim, maintain autonomous “states” within our state, where the laws and informal understandings that govern the rest of the population don’t necessarily apply.

Many Israeli Arabs, with the notable exception of the Druze and a small number of Bedouins, do not accept the principle that Israel is a Jewish state, do not serve in the military, and in many cases avoid taxation and other responsibilities. Haredim refuse to serve in the military and maintain an educational system in which “secular” subjects like mathematics and modern Hebrew language are not taught.

Because of the war, reserve soldiers are now to serve 90 days a year, which is destructive to family life, jobs, and especially independent businesses. At the same time, tens of thousands of yeshiva students have been exempted from the draft. Attempts to change this have been met by demonstrations which block major roads, and threats by Haredi politicians to bring down the government. Israeli governments have been trying to find a successful compromise to enable the sharing of the security burden for decades without success.

***

What can be done? What must be done to preserve the Jewish state, prevent another Jewish dispersion, and restore Israel’s role as the protector of the Jewish communities of the diaspora? As always, there are short-term and long-term answers. Today our most critical concern must be the war in Gaza. As long as Hamas continues to be in control of the strip, we effectively lose a large chunk of our country that will remain uninhabitable, and the IDF will be tied down and unable to respond to other threats. Even more importantly, if Israel is defeated by the terror tactics of Hamas – and make no mistake, an agreement along the lines of the one announced last week by the US president will be understood by the entire world as a crushing defeat – our enemies on all fronts will bring us more 7 Octobers.

Hamas’ victory strategy depends on two major Israeli weaknesses: the public concern for the hostages (and the manipulation of that concern by political actors that oppose the government), and Israel’s susceptibility to American pressure.

The cruelty of Hamas and the situation of the hostages is tearing at the hearts of all Israelis. But barring a miracle, there is no solution that will bring them home at a price the nation can afford. We must say to their families: we cannot trade the Jewish state for your people. We must do everything that we can to save them, but we cannot surrender to our murderous enemy in order to do so. It’s delusional to think that we can accept a 6-week ceasefire (not to mention the other concessions demanded), given the pressure from America and the other fronts of the war, and then return to finish off Hamas. It will not happen.

The US administration has done and is continuing to do everything it can short of military intervention on the side of Hamas to prevent Israel from achieving a decisive victory. Israeli leaders must understand that we cannot win if we obey the directives from Washington. They must tell the Americans whatever they need to hear, but order the IDF to finish the job, to remove Hamas from power and destroy its military capability.

***

It is painful to write this, but I fear that our present government may be incapable of taking the actions required for the state to survive. Worse, the political structure of our state may be ill-adapted to survival in today’s Middle East.

I would sum up the problem by saying that Israel suffers from an excess of democracy. There are many things that are wonderful about a truly democratic state: in theory, it can behave justly toward individuals with diverse interests and needs. It is a way to align the policies of a country with the “general will” of the populace, in the words of Rousseau. Unfortunately there are some specific situations where democracy is sub-optimal.

One of them is a state of war. In wartime, decisions must be made that will favor victory but which will cause popular suffering, or suffering of influential groups. Such decisions often cannot be made democratically.1 An example is the question of whether Israel should accept a deal that will free some hostages, but also release many imprisoned terrorists and place restrictions on her conduct of the war.

Another problematic case is that of large permanent minorities who utilize democratic institutions like elections to pursue “identity politics” rather than issue-oriented ones. In Israel, in addition to the ethnic and religious divisions, we find entrenched ideological and personality-oriented subgroups. In 2019-21 they combined with our complicated electoral system to produce four parliamentary elections in a period of two years. The tension between the elected Knesset and the independent bureaucracy, which represents Israel’s former ruling elite, guarantees gridlock on important issues. In addition, the almost decade-long attempt to take down PM Netanyahu utilizing the judicial system, and supported by most of the media and the academic establishment, has been a distraction and strain on both sides.

Israel is both almost permanently at war, and blessed with large ethnic/religious minorities. Thus her aspiration to be a democratic state works against the possibility that she will have an effective government. And the challenges to being a tiny Jewish state in the Middle East absolutely require leadership that functions optimally.

Given the power relationships in our political society, it is unlikely that there is a smooth path – for example, a constitutional convention – to a new form of government. But the responsibility of the state to her citizens, and to the Jewish people as a whole, demands that she make this transition in any case, regardless of the disruption of normal life that it is likely to entail. ______________________________________

1But didn’t the democracies defeat the Nazis in WWII? Actually, both Roosevelt and Churchill acted as virtual dictators. And Stalin…