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Get tour super-handy spider fang cutting shears out. Or run.
I know. A special, fancy bag.
Latest Fact-checks on Mike Huckabee
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/list/?speaker=mike-huckabee
Yes. What is a womanizer playboy without the young and figurative. He wears them like a wallet.
His ego needs them. Don't know why he departed with Huckabee. Could it have been politics...
Gov Mike Huckabee reveals the REAL Donald Trump
If you did i missed it. You've used a word which always comes to mind on hearing Maher .. obnoxious. Good to know.
The Specter of Nationalism
'Att: B402 - Understanding Today’s Populism as Ethnic Nationalism
"Far-Right Extremism Is a Global Problem
'What’s New About the New Authoritarianism?"
I've always felt an inherent distaste toward nationalism.
Feels good to be understanding a little more of the why.
Identity politics has always influenced elections. In 2024, it will
pose a serious threat to liberalism—and to democracy itself.
January 3, 2024, 12:20 AM
View Comments (2)
By Pratap Bhanu Mehta, a visiting professor for distinguished teaching at Princeton University.
Nash Weerasekera illustration for Foreign Policy
The world is embarking on a critical year for the future of democracy. Elections in India, Indonesia, South Africa, and the United States—to name just a few prominent countries headed to the polls in 2024—would normally be routine affairs. But many of these democracies are at an inflection point. Can the strengthening tides of polarization, institutional degradation, and authoritarianism be reversed? Or will democracy reach a breaking point?
This article appears in the Winter 2024 print issue of FP. Read more from the issue.
https://foreignpolicy.com/the-magazine/?tpcc=winter24print_tp
Every democracy has its own particular set of characteristics. In each country holding elections this year, voters will judge incumbent governments on familiar issues such as inflation, employment, personal security, and a sense of confidence about their future prospects. But the foreboding that accompanies the world’s elections in 2024 stems from one singular fact: The uneasy accommodation between nationalism and democracy is coming under severe stress.
The crisis in democracy is in part a crisis in nationalism, which today seems to revolve around four issues: how nations define membership; how they popularize a version of historical memory; how they locate a sovereign identity; and how they contend with the forces of globalization. In each of these, nationalism and liberalism are often in tension. Democracies tend to navigate this tension rather than resolve it. Yet, around the world, nationalism is slowly strangling liberalism—a trend that could accelerate in a damaging way this year. As more citizens cast their ballots in 2024 than in any other year in the history of the world, they will be voting not only for a particular leader or party but for the very future of their civil liberties.
====================
Let’s first discuss how societies set parameters for membership. If a political community is sovereign, it has a right to make decisions on whom to exclude from or include in membership. Liberal democracies have historically opted for a variety of criteria for membership. Some have privileged ethnic and cultural factors, while others have picked civic criteria that merely demand allegiance to a common set of constitutional values.
In practice, a range of considerations have guided the immigration policies of liberal democracies, including the economic advantages of immigration, historical ties to particular groups of people, and humanitarian considerations. Most liberal societies have dealt with the membership question not on a principled basis but through various arrangements, some more open than others.
The question of membership is increasing in political salience. The causes may vary. In the United States, a surge of migrants at the southern border has politically foregrounded the issue, forcing even the Biden administration to reverse some of its promised liberal policies. To be sure, immigration has always been an important political issue in the United States. But since the political arrival of Donald Trump, it has acquired a new edge. Trump’s so-called Muslim ban—even though it was eventually repealed—raised the specter of new forms of overt or covert discrimination forming the basis of a possible future U.S. immigration regime.
Europe’s refugee crisis—induced by global conflicts and economic and climate distress—is inflecting the politics of every country. Sweden has grown deep concerns about its model of integrating immigrants, ushering in a right-wing government in 2022. In the United Kingdom, Brexit hinged in part on concerns over immigration. And in India, the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi will implement the 2019 Citizenship Amendment Act, which excludes Muslim refugees from certain neighboring countries from a pathway to seeking citizenship. For New Delhi, membership concerns are driven by the need to prioritize a large ethnic majority. Similarly, the status of migrants in South Africa is being increasingly contested.
The increasing salience of membership is worrying for the future of liberalism. Since liberal values have historically been compatible with a variety of immigration and membership regimes, a liberal membership regime may not be a necessary condition for creating a liberal society. One could argue that not having a well-controlled membership policy is more likely to undermine liberalism by upsetting the social cohesion on which liberalism relies. But it is a remarkable fact that many of the world’s political leaders who endorse closed or discriminatory membership regimes, from Hungary’s Viktor Orban to the Netherlands’s Geert Wilders, also happen to oppose liberal values. That makes it harder to create a distinction between being anti-immigration and anti-liberal.
Memory is a kind of eternal truth about one’s collective identity,
to keep and carry forward.
The second dimension of nationalism is the contest over historical memory. All nations need something of a usable past—a story that binds its peoples together—that can be the basis of a collective identity and self-esteem. The distinction between history and memory can be overdrawn, but it is important. As the French historian Pierre Nora put it, memory looks for facts, especially ones that suit the veneration of the main object of recollection. Memory has an affective quality: It is supposed to move you and constitute your identity. It draws the boundaries of communities. History is more detached; the facts will always complicate both identity and community.
History is not a morality tale as much as it is a very difficult form of hard-won knowledge, always aware of its selectivity.
Memory is easiest to hold on to as a morality tale. It is not just about the past. Memory is a kind of eternal truth about one’s collective identity, to keep and carry forward.
Memories are increasingly being emphasized in the political arena. In India, to take the most obvious case, historical memory is central to the consolidation of Hindu nationalism. In January, Modi will open a temple to the god Ram in Ayodhya, built on the site where Hindu nationalists demolished a mosque in 1992. It is an important religious symbol. But it is also central to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s narrative that the most salient historical memory for Indians should not be colonial rule by the British but a thousand-year history of subjugation by Islam. Modi declared Aug. 5, the day the foundation stone of the temple was laid in 2020, as being as important a national milestone as Aug. 15, the day of India’s independence from the British in 1947.
In South Africa, questions of memory may seem less pronounced. But the compromise of the Nelson Mandela years, which some now see as sacrificing economic justice for the cause of social solidarity, is increasingly being interrogated. Faced with continuing inequality, economic worries, and declining social mobility, many South Africans are questioning the legacy of Mandela and whether he did enough to empower Black people in the country. This reflects some disillusionment with the ruling African National Congress. But this reconsideration could also potentially redefine the memory in terms of which modern South Africa has understood itself.
Álvaro Bernis illustration for Foreign Policy
In the United States, the contest over how to tell the national story goes back to the Founding Fathers. But debates around this are more politically visible than ever, with politicians from Trump to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis basing their candidacies in part on what it means to be American and how to “make America great again.” Florida, for example, created dubious standards for the teaching of Black history, seeking to regulate what students learn about race and slavery. This is not just a contest over the politics of pedagogy; behind it is a larger, anxious political debate about how the United States remembers its past—and therefore how it will build its future.
The third dimension in the surge of nationalism is the contest over popular sovereignty, or the will of the people. There has always been a close connection between popular sovereignty and nationalism, as the former required the formation of the concept of a people with a distinct identity and special solidarity toward one another. During the French Revolution, inspired by the ideas of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the popular sovereign was supposed to have a singular will. But if the will of the people is unitary, what explains differences? Furthermore, if there are differences among people, as there naturally are, then how is one to ascertain the will of the people? One way out of this puzzle is to see who can effectively perform the will of the able—and in doing so represent the other side as betraying that will, rather than as merely carrying an alternative interpretation of it. In order for such a performance to take place, one has to castigate anyone who represents an alternative viewpoint as an enemy of the people. In that sense, rhetorical invocations of “the people”—understood as a unitary entity—always run the risk of being anti-pluralist. Even when democracies around the world have embraced a pluralist and representative conception of democracy, there is a residual trace of unity that gets transposed to the nation. The nation is not a nation, or cannot acquire a will, unless it is united.
As a political style, national populism thrives not so much by finding enemies of the people
but enemies of the nation.
People rally around a unitary will by benchmarking their national identity: We are Indian by virtue of X or American by virtue of Y. Sometimes, this kind of benchmarking of identity can be quite productive; it is a reminder to citizens of what gives their particular community a distinct identity. Yet one of nationalism’s features is that it struggles to make room for its own contestation. The opposition is delegitimized or stigmatized not because it has a different point of view on policy matters but because its views are represented as anti-national. It is not an accident that the rhetoric of national populists is often directed against forces that are seen to challenge their version of the national identity or their benchmarking of nationalism. As national identities become more contested, there are increasing chances that unity can be achieved only by being imposed.
As a political style, national populism thrives not so much by finding enemies of the people but enemies of the nation, who are often measured by certain taboos. Almost all modern populists—from Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Modi, Orban, and Trump—draw the distinction between people and elites not in terms of class but in terms of who authentically represents the nation. Who gets benchmarked as the true nationalist? The cultural contempt for the elite gets its strength not just from the fact that they are elites but that they can be represented as elites who are no longer part of the nation, as it were. This kind of rhetoric increasingly sees difference as seditious rather than merely a disagreement. In India, for example, national security charges are deployed against students who question the government’s stance on Kashmir. This is seen not just as a contestation—or possibly a misguided view—but an anti-national act than needs to be criminalized.
The fourth dimension of the crisis of nationalism relates to globalization. Even in the era of hyperglobalization, national interest never faded away. Countries embraced globalization or greater integration into the world economy because they thought it served their interests. But a critical question in this year’s elections in all democracies is a reconsideration of the terms on which they engage the international system.
Globalization created winners but also losers. The loss of manufacturing jobs in the United States or premature de-industrialization in India was bound to prompt a reconsideration of globalization—and all of this was happening even before the COVID-19 pandemic, which accentuated a fear of dependency on global supply chains.
Countries are increasingly convinced that the assertion of political control over the economy—their ability to create a legitimate social contract—requires rethinking the terms of globalization. The trend is to feel more skeptical about globalization and to seek out greater self-sufficiency for national security or economic reasons. “America First” and “India First” are to a certain extent understandable, particularly in a context where China has emerged as an authoritarian competitor.
But the current moment seems like a much larger pivot in the politics of nationalism. Globalization, while seeking to advance national interests, also mitigated nationalism. It presented the global order as something other than a zero-sum game in which all countries could mutually benefit by greater integration. It was not suspicious of cosmopolitan solidarity. Increasingly, democracies are abandoning this assumption, with profound consequences for the world. Less globalization and more protectionism will inevitably translate to more nationalism—a trend that will also hurt global trade, especially for smaller countries that need the rising tide of open borders and commerce.
====================
Each of the four features of nationalism described here—membership, memory, sovereign identity, and openness to the world—has shadowed democracy since its inception. All democracies are also facing their own profound economic challenges: inequality and wage stagnation in the United States, the crisis of employment in India, and corruption in South Africa. There is no necessary binary between economic issues and the politics of nationalism. Successful nationalist politicians such as Modi see their economic success as a means of consolidating their nationalist visions. And in times of stress, nationalism is the language through which grievance can be articulated. It is the means by which politicians give a sense of belonging and participation to the people.
Nationalism is the most potent form of identity politics. It views individuals and the rights they have through the prism of the compulsory identity to which nationalism confines them. Nationalism and liberalism have long been competing forces. It is easier to navigate the tension between them if the stakes around nationalism are lowered, not raised. Yet it is increasingly likely that in many elections in 2024, the nature of the national identities of these countries will be at stake along the four dimensions listed above. These contests could invigorate democracy. But if the recent past is any guide, the salience of nationalism in politics is more likely to pose a threat to liberal values.
Advancing forms of nationalism that do not allow their own meaning to be contested
or that seek to preserve the privilege of particular groups generally produces
a more divisive and polarized society.
Advancing forms of nationalism that do not allow their own meaning to be contested or that seek to preserve the privilege of particular groups generally produces a more divisive and polarized society. India, Israel, France, and the United States each face a version of this challenge. Issues of memory and membership are the least amenable to being resolved by simple policy deliberation. The truths they trade on are not about facts that could be a basis for a common ground. It is notorious, for example, that we often choose our histories because of our identity rather than the other way around.
Perhaps most importantly, assaults on liberal freedoms are often justified in the name of nationalism. For example, freedom of expression is most likely to discover its limits if it is seen to target a deeply cherished national myth. Every emerging populist or authoritarian leader who is willing to abridge civil liberties or pay short shrift to institutional integrity wears the mantle of nationalism. It allows such leaders to crack down on dissent by using the canard “anti-national.” In many ways, this year’s elections may well decide whether democracy can successfully negotiate the dilemmas of nationalism—or whether it will be degraded or crushed.
George L. Mosse, the great 20th-century historian of fascism, described this challenge in his inaugural lecture at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1979: “If we do not succeed in giving nationalism a human face, a future historian might write about our civilization what Edward Gibbon wrote about the fall of the Roman Empire: that at its height moderation prevailed and citizens had respect for each other’s beliefs, but that it fell through intolerant zeal and military despotism.”
This article appears in the Winter 2024 print issue of FP. Read more from the issue.
Pratap Bhanu Mehta is the Laurance S. Rockefeller visiting professor for distinguished teaching
at Princeton University and a senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/01/03/nationalism-elections-2024-democracy-liberalism/
It sucks that democracy is facing huge challenges from these nationalistic autocrats as we are getting old.
Would rather not go out when it's so bad. It's an incentive to stick around longer until things are looking better. haha
That's right.
Only that a B402, (i think) and 12yearplan, put up a couple of Maher's awhile ago, and i watched some of one ..
More on what turns me off Bill Maher. First, again: "" 12yearplan, Maher says, "This is protesting for a terrorist group." What of those protesting against the over-reactive brutality of Israel. How many of the protestors are right wingers. How many of the protesters in their hearts are protesting for a terrorist group. Not fucking many, i'd guess."
Later, in explaining his comment that the left has changed also, he says, 'There are things which have to do with, you know, gender, and race and free speech, and just ideas about, you know you can be healthy at any weight And gender is always a social construct. And maybe we should give communism another try. And maybe we should get rid of capitalism. And maybe get rid of Border Patrol, and let's tear down the statues of Lincoln. And get rid of the police. No, it's not that i have gotten old it's that your ideas are stupid.'
I ask you -- how many of those which Maher puts forward as his beefs against the left are in any way the policy of the mainstream left.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=174544704
I can only see it that Maher is expanding his horizons to attract more viewers. He is using and abusing woke just as the comedian B402 just posted is.
"Widely considered a White liberal thought leader, Bill Maher frequently weaponizes the term “woke” to discount, ridicule or otherwise belittle an issue or idea related to race on his HBO show Real Time with Bill Maher.
P - That is probably true, though I rarely listen to Maher. But Is he really "so sick and tired of speaking about woke culture"? If so, why? MOST people in the real world--Earth 1--don't talk about it at all."
Exactly. Guys like Maher and others, Jordan Peterson is another one, enable the
conserves who have made it a thing by bitching about it. Or by laughing about it.
It's just that i've grown close to the two old bags of mine.
Don't think i've ever seen one out of a cage ..
Some key differences in appearance between the two is the black house spider is quite hairy,
whereas the funnel-web spider has an eerie glossiness, and their fangs are quite distinct.
https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/blogs/creatura-blog/2021/07/the-common-black-house-spider-a-case-of-mistaken-identity/
Eerie. You're right.
LOLs --- Australia records historic 21-run loss to Afghanistan as T20 World Cup hopes hang in the balance
By Luke Pentony and AAP
Posted 5h ago , updated 8m ago
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-23/t20-world-cup-australia-afghanistan-super-eight-live-blog/104011080
Go Afghanistan!
LOL They are green, lean, squashable and stuck to me. It's all in the ease of the squeeze. Soft to the touch.
Hey hey a war crime every day -- Israel told Palestinians in Rafah
to flee to a 'humanitarian area'. This is what life is like inside
Related:
Yours is a good idea, is just that now i'm wedded to a couple of old fabric bags. Knocked a better one back when it was offered a couple of weeks ago. My two old ones are green. And comfortable. They squish up, which is handy too.
LOL One day perhaps in 10 years i might catch up a bit more on more tech advances. I was given a flat screen by a student who went back to Thailand, and i haven't even bothered to learn if it is a smart one or not. The only buttons on the remote i use are the off/on, the volume and the free tv channel changer. Shrug, it's all i want so it's all i do. The article was a good depth dive.
Is good that not having to go out so much has helped you lose weight. Good stuff.
LOL Fair thought. Just another bag though. I'll try the gamble first.
B402, Well, your conservatives have nurtured the idea of 'woke' as in a woke part of culture war. Your conservatives have stripped it of it's original very decent, well meaning and very cool meaning to blacks, that is the idea of being awake to the dangers around them.
Those who carry on about woke now simply ignore the real meaning of it, which sucks big time. They laugh about it. What's to laugh about. They label everything as woke which in fact isn't anything to do with woke, under it's original usage.
Too many liberals are sucked in defending things when the only conservative line is "it's woke." As the article i posted said, if it's too hard for conservatives to talk about and learn from then it's woke.
Just what we have posted here, way back.
There is so much false belief (delusion) in something that is not what it looks like
(illusion) in them that many of them must be teetering on an institutional cusp.
Earth 2 could be .. ‘The dog caught the car’: Nicolle Wallace on SCOTUS being out of step with regular Americans
B402, Why would the guy of your video talk as if all of a so-called generation are at all the same. Why would he even imply that all millennials and all boomers are similar. What's his big deal claim in that he is proud to be Gen X. That treatment is as sour to me as any daily newspaper horoscope input, or any book on star signs is. Can't imagine why you would even post it.
The Land of No Men: Inside Kenya's Women-Only Village
Ok, we have women refugee shelters, it's a shame on us they are necessary, but they are.
Perhaps if men don't grow up one day we will have an all women refugee town.
1:10 -- Who's hung up on woke, conix. You and the dick comedian who is 'so sick and tired of speaking about woke culture' that he's debating about it. 1:10 was more than enough to spend on someone who sees talking about the conservative creation 'woke culture' is funny, in spite of the fact that your conservative's abuse of the word is not funny at all. See again:
Exhibit A Bill Maher: Why White People Should Stop Using The Term ‘Woke’…Immediately
[...]
Woke is problematic for two primary reasons. First, it’s an offensive cultural appropriation. As is disturbingly often the case, White people (or any racial group outside the term’s origin) will sometimes begin using a term that originated in a community of color often as a term of pride, endearment, or self-empowerment years or decades later while either willfully or inadvertently distorting the original meaning of the term. While any significant analysis of what cultural appropriation .. https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-cultural-appropriation-5070458 .. is and why it’s problematic is beyond the scope of this article, suffice it to say that hearing White people randomly label individuals and organizations “woke” is very often an unsettling, if not infuriating experience.
[...]
Second, the term’s use often prevents the deep, honest, sometimes uncomfortable conversation that arguably is our only pathway to real reconciliation. Let’s face it – engaging in sensitive, nuanced conversations around race is challenging enough without the irresponsible insertion of the term “woke” providing an ideological off ramp that shuts down any real listening, learning or self-reflection on issues that really require all three for authentic progress.
[Insert: conix, As you know woke is aware. 'Nice opinion piece from a "woke" professor justifying what he wants
to teach." When will you finally be aware we see through your tedious misrepresentation of woke.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=171943290
... and ...
If Dems Fought an All-Out Culture War, They’d Win
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=169596447
P - In Defense of ‘Woke’
"A history of “wokeness”"
Donald Trump and his supporters want the rest of us to stay asleep.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=170204395
... and ...
conix, Free Speech for Me but Not for Thee
[...]A speech code doesn’t have to be illegal to be problematic. Private universities have broad authority to regulate speech (the First Amendment protects citizens only from government censorship, not from private regulation). But speech codes are antithetical to the mission of American education, a mission that the Supreme Court has described as preparing students “for active and effective participation in the pluralistic, often contentious society in which they will soon be adult members.”
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=168714505
... and ...
conix, No, because the overuse abuse of the notion of "woke" in the article as used as an attack on the Democrats is misleading misinformation. Even disinformation, for one. Also because your source is muchly funded by the Koch Foundation. And because the integrity of your source is questionable .. https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/spiked-magazine/ .. at best.
[...]And because the the woke and the cancel cultures was actually initiated by conservatives. See
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=168197064]
“Throwing terms like ‘woke’ around as a way to dismiss the very real and consequential concerns of an entire group of people is just another way of saying, ‘I don’t want to be inconvenienced by your pain,’” insists equity consultant and C-suite advisor, Tara Jaye Frank. In fact, when White people weaponize the term “woke” during a discussion, it doesn’t just disrespectfully discount that specific person or issue but also sends a not-so-subtle message to their peers that if something feels extreme to you, you have license to just discount it. This type of signaling is counterproductive if not dangerous. After all, White people prioritizing their feelings over racial justice progress is arguably what has held us in a purgatory of racial inequity for centuries.
Widely considered a White liberal thought leader, Bill Maher frequently weaponizes the term “woke” to discount, ridicule or otherwise belittle an issue or idea related to race on his HBO show Real Time with Bill Maher.
More - https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=174544943
Understood, however -- Common Australian Spiders – How Dangerous Are They?
[...]
Redback Spiders
This is possibly the most famous Australian spider, it can be found in most Australian houses, and it’s one of the two that can kill – Redback bites can be fatal to humans. They’re generally about the size of a 10c coin and shiny black with a brilliant red stripe on the back. Redbacks have become far more common with white settlement, as the dark corners of our buildings are perfect for them. Redbacks tend to stay in the same spot most of their adult lives.
They’re reluctant biters but will do so if threatened. Unfortunately, their tendency to hide in wheely bin handles and (notoriously) under toilet seats means this happens reasonably often when humans unknowingly invade their space. Their bites are slow spreading, but inflamed and painful, often with many other significant side effects – such as sweating and muscle spasms. Bites don’t always require hospitalisation, but it’s definitely worth getting medical advice if someone’s been bitten.
Only the female redback is dangerous. The male redback is around a quarter the size, isn’t dangerous to humans, and generally gets eaten by the female after (or sometimes during) mating.
Black House Spiders
[...]
Funnel Web Spider
This is possibly the most dangerous spider in Australia, both due to its highly deadly venom and also its tendency to go on the offensive when threatened – not to mention having fangs large enough to bite through shoe leather. Funnelweb bites are painful, and their venom is potent and fast-acting. It can often cause unusual effects, such as drooling, goosebumps, tears, muscular spasms, and elevated pulse and disorientation. Call 000 immediately for a Funnelweb bite – don’t muck around!
Fortunately, the development of Funnelweb antivenom has meant there have been no actual Funnelweb deaths since 1981.
Funnelwebs are large, stocky, furry black spiders that can be as big as your palm. They live mainly on the east coast of Australia but have been occasionally found in other states. They’re named for the distinctive funnel shape of their webs. Females generally stay inside their webs, while males tend to wander in warmer months, looking for females to mate with – which is generally when they encounter humans.
Trapdoor Spider
Trapdoor spiders are large furry black spiders similar in appearance to a Funnelweb. They’re named for the way they often build their tube-shaped burrows with a “hatch” at the entrance, allowing them to ambush prey. Despite looking like one of our planet’s deadliest spiders, Trapdoor spiders are actually relatively harmless – their bites generally only cause local pain and swelling. But unless the spider has been verified as a Trapdoor spider by an expert, you should treat the bite like it’s a Funnelweb bite – call 000 as soon as possible.
Mouse Spiders
Mouse spiders are another big black spider, similar to a Funnelweb but with a shinier carapace and a more bulbous head and jaw.
[...]
a few basic facts straight about Australian spiders.
* Only Two Australian Spiders Can Kill Humans – It’s true. In the last two centuries, only two Australian spiders have ever killed people with a bite – the famous Redback spider, and the Sydney Funnelweb. And we now have antivenoms for both types of bite.
* Almost No One Dies From Spider Bites – As weird as this may sound, it’s pretty well documented. In the last forty years (since the development of a Funnelweb antivenom), there has only been one death from a spider bite in Australia.
* Most Are Poisonous, Few Are Dangerous – Almost every Australian spider has some type of venom, but very few of them are particularly harmful to humans. Also, most spiders are very reluctant biters, doing so only as a last resort (such as when a human jams their fingers into their hiding spot). Even the aggressive spiders that chase humans only do so when they feel threatened.
* Spiders Are Less Dangerous Than Bees – This might seem bizarre, but the numbers are hard to argue with. In 2017-2018, 12 people died to bee and wasp stings, versus no deaths for spiders. While it’s true that some spiders have far more toxic venom, the fact that bee stings are a very common trigger for anaphylaxis gives them the clear lead here.
https://www.firstaidpro.com.au/blog/common-australian-spiders/
I've frozen some of my steamed spinach in the past, that worked well. And some time ago bought some frozen peas. I think the only way i could do it now is buy them and hope to get to the pub before they thaw. Then, after a 7 min ride, into the pub fridge for an hour or two, then a 7 min walk home. Could try to synchronize buying with buses, but too much of a hassle and they don't run on time always anyway, so will gamble - what else is new - on getting to a bus on time. lol
I don't see it, but can imagine towels on greens and, no not yet but one day, giant hovercrafts on every hole sucking up moisture.
Yep, Trump loves an audience. Not having one would disadvantage him. That said, a favorite pastime
of the bum, as we all know, is setting himself up for failure so no surprise to see him doing just that.
"Trump slams Jake Tapper, complains about upcoming CNN presidential debate"
Meanwhile, his campaign is rewriting dictionaries anew. Forget alternate facts, that's old. Now it's the fact they say,
in Trump's America, doom, gloom, bullshit, hate, fearmongering and constant negativity is actually known as hope:
Trump Spokesperson's 1-Word Description Of His Message Has Critics Very, Very Confused
Lee Moran
Updated Fri, 21 June 2024 at 9:56 pm GMT+10·1-min read
Critics questioned Donald Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt’s choice of word to describe the
former president’s campaigning style during an interview with Fox News’ Jesse Watters on Thursday.
Leavitt, while talking about CNN’s upcoming first presidential debate between President Joe Biden and presumptive
GOP presidential nominee Trump on June 27, suggested her boss’s message was one of hope.
Trump is “going to bring his optimism that he’s been bringing to the campaign trail over the last several months,” she claimed.
[...]
Doom, gloom, pessimism, negativity.
— Jeffrey Ⓥ (@LiftForever67) June 21, 2024
Whining, bitching, complaining.
Anger, fear, hate.
The Donald Trump platform 2024.
That's a beauty, a revisit, for sure. For now, on reading the names in
"When the media titans Brian Roberts, John Malone and Barry Diller cast off in early February on Mr. Diller’s
156-foot, two-masted yacht, named Arriva, the waters off the coast of Jupiter, Fla., were placid.
The same could not be said for their sprawling entertainment businesses. "
i thought of Julie, Buggsy and Phyllis, for what that's worth. Then to
"Rarely do these executives speak so candidly, on the record, about the challenge in front of them. And the meetings on the yacht aside, rarely do executives in that stratosphere get together to discuss strategy. Not only are many of them fierce rivals — Mr. Roberts famously drove up the cost of Disney’s 2019 acquisition of 21st Century Fox’s entertainment assets by bidding against Disney’s chief executive, Bob Iger — but meetings among direct competitors might attract unwelcome attention from antitrust regulators."
LOL Yep, gotta do our serious stuff outside of the view of those nasty regulators. We
love our subscribers, but not the regulators who are supposed to work for them. So to
"Bob Chapek, Disney’s chief executive until 2022, also agreed that 200 million was the number that meant “you’re big enough to compete.”
P - Netflix has reached that, and then some, with about 270 million paying subscribers. Moreover, those subscribers pay an industry-leading average of more than $11 per month.
P - Netflix is highly profitable, with operating margins of 28 percent. In the first quarter of 2024, Netflix reported revenue of $9.4 billion, and $2.3 billion in net income. No one else comes close."
And in the interests of transparency, yes, as is known here i do subscribe to Netflix. Only the one, still read
more .. And i don't churn. Like shopping for clothes, insurance or energy supplier doesn't grab me either.
When sport arrived my thought was 'was wondering when it would come
up', even though i really hadn't been wondering it. Anyway, didn't know
"Play Ball
Adding to the cost pressure, the executives said, is the soaring cost of sports programming. Even in the bygone era of traditional television, the broad appeal of sports was obvious. The big networks paid billions for must-see events like the Super Bowl and the N.B.A. Finals and much of what was left over went to Disney and Hearst-owned ESPN, one of the most lucrative cable franchises ever created.
P - But that was before streaming and the arrival of the deep-pocketed tech giants. Amazon now offers football games from the National Football League, NASCAR races, the W.N.B.A. with its newly minted star Caitlin Clark, the National Hockey League in Canada and Champions League soccer in Germany, Italy and Britain.
P - Apple TV+ also features Major League Baseball, as well as Major League Soccer."
the others were into it as much. Don't see Netflix in there, but that's cool
as would cost more. To my last cuz this elevator game isn't easy
"Mr. Hopkins of Amazon said “procedurals and other tried and true formats do well for us, but we also need big swings that have customers saying ‘Wow, I can’t believe that just happened’ and will have people telling their friends.”
P - “We want rabid fans,” he said.
P - Bryan Lourd, chief executive and co-chairman of the powerful Creative Artists Agency, said media executives needed to put aside financial engineering and remember that creativity — and entertaining customers — was the only way to win in the long run.
P - “The task at hand is to keep the customer at the front of your brain,” Mr. Lourd said. “When people stop doing that is when things start to go wrong.”
P - And Yet, Continued Optimism"
Well i ain't rabid so, lol, you can keep Amazon. On optimism is a good place to end.
Cheers.
New Zealand is colder -- https://www.worlddata.info/climate-comparison.php?r1=australia&r2=new-zealand
and Christchurch has shakers .. Former Christchurch resident warns of new exodus after earthquake
2016 - https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=126521595 .
Iran Tempers Rejectionism to Muslim Consensus on Palestine
"Israeli Politician Quotes Hitler to Argue for Resettlement of Gaza
"Is Israel a “settler-colonial” state? The debate, explained.
"American Leaders Should Stop Debasing Themselves on Israel"
Related:
B402, You have to be kidding. brooklyn13 has not...
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Tom Friedman has an interesting (for him) op ed in the NY Times today. He notes that,
basically, Hamas wants a cease fire and Israel's withdrawal from Gaza
and a hostage / prisoner swap, all of which is well known.
[...] Never read anywhere, ever, that Hamas' sponsor, Iran, wants a two state solution.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=174616291
Iran is shifting from a policy of calling for Israel's destruction
to embracing a consensus in favor of a two-state solution.
By Javad Heiran-Nia
Middle East & North Africa
January 5, 2024
All links
Iran has long been known for its strategy of “strategic depth” — supporting the formation of proxy groups in Arab countries, seeking to export its ideology of political Islam, and rejecting the legitimacy of Israel. However, the Gaza war has pushed Iran toward acknowledging a regional consensus that opposes the expansion of the fighting and affirms a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict in order not to damage its soft strategic depth.
The shift is occurring even as Israel steps up attacks on Iranian officials .. https://www.stimson.org/2024/assassination-of-quds-force-general-stirs-right-wing-anger-in-iran/ .. and others affiliated with Iran and even though Iranian officials believe that the international system is transitioning from Western domination to growing power for the East.
[Insert: Call it an inevitable re-balancing. While the shift is muchly fair, unfortunately the ideal
of democracy is suffering somewhat. Though too male-dominated autocracy is refreshingly
easing in some minor ways in some countries as Saudi Arabia.]
In the aftermath of the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and the subsequent Israeli retaliation, Iran has portrayed the conflict as a war, not between an Iranian proxy and Israel but as a conflict between Muslims and the U.S., Israel’s main backer. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei asserted in a speech on Dec. 2, 2023, that Palestinians had discredited the U.S. and the West and exposed their double standards on the issue of human rights. At the same time, however, Tehran voted .. https://irna.ir/xjNR9H .. in favor of a resolution of at the United Nations General Assembly – albeit with a reservation .. https://irna.ir/xjNR9H — that declared that a two-state solution is the only way to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Iran followed .. http://fna.ir/3febv0 .. the same position at a subsequent joint meeting of the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Saudi Arabia.
The Iranian position has been that Israel is illegitimate and that a future state should be determined through a referendum of Palestine’s pre-1948 inhabitants and their descendants. However, Iran has been trying not to be isolated in the Islamic world and recognizes that other countries such as Saudi Arabia and Turkey are likely to play a bigger role in diplomacy and reconstruction following the Gaza war. In addition, there are divisions .. https://amwaj.media/article/hamas-israel-war-highlights-divergent-views-among-iranian-clerics .. among Iranian Shi’ite clerics about Palestine, with some members of the Qom Seminary supporting a two-state solution. Former reformist president Mohammad Khatami, himself a senior cleric, has said that Iran would accept a Palestinian state alongside Israel if the elected Hamas government chose this path. Notably, Khatami ..https://amwaj.media/article/hamas-israel-war-highlights-divergent-views-among-iranian-clerics .. mentioned Hamas, not the Palestinian National Authority that nominally governs the West Bank, and that the U.S. has boosted as a substitute for Hamas in Gaza.
Tehran also sees the Gaza war as an opportunity to strengthen ties with the Global South. Ayatollah Khamenei .. https://www.leader.ir/fa/content/26819 .. raised the war in a meeting with the president of Cuba Miguel Diaz-Canel on December 4, 2023, asserting that their positions on Palestine reflected shared “revolutionary” values and a rebuff to American and Western bullying.
While expressing rhetorical support for Hamas, however, Iran has not sought a widening of the war and appears eager to avoid a direct confrontation with the U.S.
Amir Ali Hajizadeh .. file:///Users/barbara/Downloads/khabaronline.ir/xkCbp , commander of the Aerospace Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said recently that even after the U.S. assassination of Quds Force commander Gen. Qasem Soleimani in 2020, Iran did not retaliate in a way that would have led to a direct war with America because it would have cost Iran a lot.
Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel .. file:///Users/barbara/Downloads/khabaronline.ir/xkDDj , a veteran conservative politician, added that post-Oct. 7, a U.S.-Iran conflict would be contrary to Iranian interests.
In tempering its rejectionism toward a two-state solution, Iran is also acknowledging that this is the position of its key allies, China and Russia. Ali Larijani .. https://www.tabnak.ir/0052Ao , a former speaker of the parliament, remarked recently that China and Russia also have ties with Israel that they do not want to jeopardize.
Moscow supports the formation of a Palestinian state within the framework of the Arab peace plan .. https://www.kas.de/c/document_library/get_file?uuid=a5dab26d-a2fe-dc66-8910-a13730828279&groupId=268421 .. proposed by Saudi Arabia in 2002. This framework offers Arab recognition of Israel in return for the creation of a Palestinian state on the territory Israel occupied in the 1967 war.
At a meeting in Morocco on Dec. 20, 2023 of foreign ministers of the 6th session of the Russia-Arab Cooperation Forum .. https://mid.ru/print/?id=1922267&lang=en , Moscow sought to accommodate the preferences of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and the U.S. for a Palestinian state governed by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) – the body which represents Palestinians in international organizations. The ministers issued a statement that affirmed that the PLO “is the legitimate and sole representative of the Palestinian people.” They added that “…the Palestinian factions and forces [should] unite under its umbrella, and everyone should bear their responsibilities in light of a national partnership led by the Palestine Liberation Organization.” This issue has implications for Hamas and the Islamic Jihad group, which are supported by Iran.
Hossein Shariatmadari .. https://kayhan.ir/fa/news/279738/%D8%A2%D9%82%D8%A7%DB%8C-%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%88%D8%B1%D9%88%D9%81-%D8%AE%D8%B7%D8%A7%DB%8C-%D8%B4%D9%85%D8%A7-%D8%A8%D9%88%DB%8C-%D8%AE%DB%8C%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%AA-%D9%85%DB%8C%E2%80%8C%D8%AF%D9%87%D8%AF-%DB%8C%D8%A7%D8%AF%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%B4%D8%AA-%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%B2 , the editor-in-chief of the hardline Kayhan newspaper who is close to Ayatollah Khamenei, criticized the statement and reiterated the Islamic Republic’s goal of eliminating Israel from the world map. However, these views were not considered in any of the recent meetings held by Arab and Islamic countries .. https://nournews.ir/n/155057 , including the joint meeting of the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Riyadh.
Influential countries in the Arab League blocked serious proposals to put pressure on Israel to stop its aggression against Gaza, such as calling on Arab countries that have diplomatic relations with Israel to break those ties. One reason for merging the meetings of the Arab League and the OIC was the lack of consensus .. http://www.irdiplomacy.ir/fa/news/2022973 .. to take major steps against Israel.
Iran held its own conference on Palestine, on Dec. 23, 2023, to put forward more radical views. Deputy foreign minister (and chief nuclear negotiator) Ali Bagheri Kani .. file:///Users/barbara/Downloads/mehrnews.com/x33NgX .. said on the sidelines of the conference that America was not interested in justice but only in imposing its order on the world. However, even if global power shifts toward the East, Russia and China are looking out for their own interests and they do not necessarily coincide with those of Iran.
Accordingly, the Gaza war has revealed weaknesses in Iran’s “soft power”, especially over a future resolution to the most important issue facing the region: the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Javad Heiran-Nia directs the Persian Gulf Studies Group at the Center for Scientific Research and Middle East Strategic Studies in Iran. His book, Iran and the Security Order in the Persian Gulf, is being published by Routledge. Follow him on Twitter: @J_Heirannia.
https://www.stimson.org/2024/iran-tempers-rejectionism-to-muslim-consensus-on-palestine/
Actually the frozen vegies are something i should do more, would cut some hassle of trips for fresh,
and i recall reading long time ago in some cases, because they are packaged quickly, the quality
is better. I will. And, sorry yeah, the beans and lentils i have a few cans of too.
As you suggest so much better than it could be, and so much better in so many ways than millions
of people are. "Always do things until you cannot." Exactly. Thanks very much for all, zab. Best.
I tried it again and it took longer for me too. Maybe it's the extra traffic from you guys so far away. Yep, am
very lucky to have ended up in such a moderate place. Meaning moderate in more ways than quite a few.
Exactly .. "Well... The product is beyond awful. But probably Ettore Boiardi turned out better food back
in the '20s. He did well, and was a good person, but pasta should NEVER BE PUT IN A CAN. "
Little if any canned food is as good as easily made at home. Canned tomatoes, Creamed corn are basically the
only cans i buy regularly now. Memory is some soups like mushroom to mix with milk and water were ok too.
Probably right.
Ouch. Electricity cost as you're looking at would kill me. Fridge is most of mine as am able to get away without air conditioning with minimal suffering compared to what you and the others are living through. Lucky here, averages being much lower than that ..
https://weatherandclimate.com/australia/new-south-wales/marrickville .
Lucky you, maybe. Still in, or out of hospital?
LOL From the look of the can i guessed it wasn't much chop. Still the story stands as a top migrant
success then selfless story. It wasn't the food itself but the humanitarian act that interested me.
If you didn't pick it it's close. An offshoot or bits and pieces. Anyway it seems similar. It was on in the background as i was posting here and the selfless act of Boiardi selling his company to save the jobs of his employees caught my ear: https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-series/the-food-that-built-the-world . Maybe it's an offshoot or something. Kraft and Little Debbie i remember wot mentions too.
While watching it then the cretin Trump and his scapegoating of migrants came to mind.
A food story of a great migrant - Chef Boyardee is an American brand of canned pasta products sold internationally by Conagra Brands. The company was founded by Italian immigrant Ettore Boiardi in Milton, Pennsylvania, U.S., in 1928.[1][2]
History
The Chef Boyardee factory in Milton, Pennsylvania, as seen from across the West Branch Susquehanna River at Central Oak Heights
After leaving his position as head chef at the Plaza Hotel in New York City, Ettore Boiardi opened a restaurant called Il Giardino d'Italia ("The Garden of Italy") in 1924[3] at East 9th Street and Woodland Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio.[4] The idea for Chef Boiardi came about when restaurant customers began asking Boiardi for his spaghetti sauce, which he began to distribute in milk bottles.[3] Four years later, in 1928, Boiardi opened a factory and moved production to Milton, Pennsylvania, where he could grow his own tomatoes and mushrooms.[2] He decided to anglicize the name of his product to "Boy-Ar-Dee" to help Americans pronounce his name correctly.[3] The first product to be sold was a "ready-to-heat spaghetti kit" in 1928. The kit included uncooked pasta, tomato sauce, and a container of pre-grated cheese.[5]
Two Chef Boyardee Mini Bites canned pasta
products
The U.S. military commissioned the company during World War II for the production of army rations, requiring the factory to run 24 hours a day.[2] At its peak, the company employed approximately 5,000 workers and produced 250,000 cans per day. After the war ended, Boiardi had to choose between selling the company or laying off everyone he had hired. He sold the company to American Home Foods in 1946 for nearly $6 million, and remained as a spokesman and consultant for the brand until 1978.[6] American Home Foods turned its food division into International Home Foods in 1996. Four years later, International Home Foods was purchased by ConAgra Foods, which continues to produce Chef Boyardee canned pastas bearing Boiardi's likeness.[7]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chef_Boyardee
Sold his company for a song to save the jobs of his 5000 employees. Hope it's still good. You guys just cannot elect the rapist Trump again ..
Rapist-Worshipping Death Cult Demands Religious Supremacy
Friday, June 21st, 2024
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