Free speech – limits on individual rights

Another nonsensical and damaging eruption from the bubbling cauldron of American academia produced the outrageous claim from three US college presidents that wishing genocide on a people might be acceptable depending on context. Sigh. What do these people use for thinking? From unformed, over-heated late teen brains it might be understandable if not supportable but … Read more

Argentina – desperation brings unlikely winner

Javier Milei, the right-wing libertarian oddball, Trump and Bosonaro admirer, has won a clear victory in the Argentina elections which some political analysts say is a reflection of the electorate’s desperation for change rather than support of his far-right ideology. He has promised to cut back the Argentinian state to its bare minimum and introduce … Read more

Hillary & Bill Clinton – domestic and global fears

Hillary Clinton dropped into Swansea University in Wales along with husband Bill en route to Iceland to promote her co-written novel State of Terror. Bill talks of heartbreak over Israel-Palestine given his years of trying to broker a peace. Hillary has been warning of Trumps’s Hitlerian tendencies and pointing out that Hitler was first elected … Read more

Pro-Gaza peace march calm, the fringes less so

300,000 people marched through central London calling for a Gaza ceasefire in a peaceful demonstration apart from what the Met police called “extreme violence from right-wing protesters” who set out to confront the pro-Palestinian marchers. Nine officers were injured and 126 people arrested, the vast majority of them counter-protesters. Serious offences relating to anti-semitic hate … Read more

Mike Johnson – disappointment looming ++ not a USA favourite

Mike Johnson has been voted in as Speaker which represents a victory for the ideologically right-wing, Trump-aligned faction of the Republican Party and a loss for its moderates. Adam Schiff described him as “one of the very determined ideologues”.  He was a key figure in efforts to legally contest the results of the 2020 presidential … Read more

USA 9/11 – a lesson for Israel on retaliation ++ Gaza under UN admin?

In the midst of the despair about there ever being a solution to the century-long Israel-Palestinian hostility, there are two sage media voices talking sense.   William Hague in The Times says that sticking to the view that peace is inconceivable, as both sides do, will lead Hamas and its allies, ‘to draw the Israelis … Read more

Jim Jordan – an outlier aiming for centre stage

Jim Jordan’s far-right supporters are putting on an intimidation campaign to twist the arms of reluctant Republican congresspersons before the vote for him to become Speaker on Tuesday. If he wins they will have elected a speaker who opposes Ukraine funding and wanted then-Vice President Mike Pence to reject Joe Biden electoral votes. In addition … Read more