‘Live in the midst of difficulties as if they did not exist’ is a laudable I Ching goal for a keep-calm-and-carry-on tranquillity but hardly helpful as government strategy in the face of mounting problems. Empty supermarket shelves, the result of a mixed Brexit and pingdemic effect, are alarming shoppers and likely to worsen towards Christmas. … Read more
A Texas ban on abortions after six weeks has gone ahead despite Chief Justice Roberts of SCOTUS calling the enforcement scheme as “not only unusual, but unprecedented” and said it deserved more exacting judicial scrutiny. He was over-ruled by five of his conservative colleagues. Over recent years other such attempts at state level have been … Read more
The trial of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes will start this week in California. She is charged with six counts of fraud relating to her now-defunct medical startup. The company, founded in 2003, claimed it would revolutionize the medical testing space with a new blood diagnostic technology. Theranos had reached a valuation of $10bn before it … Read more
“What you see is what you get” applies to some, but Shakespeare wasn’t wrong in his estimation that “ all that glisters is not gold — gilded tombs do worms enfold.” The gulf between the public image and the private reality is always most marked with political or celebrity figures, who sell a seductive slice … Read more
The ranting, rancid, far right-wing Katie Hopkins has been booted out by yet another media outlet. She has been dumped as a cast member of Australia’s Big Brother VIP after describing Covid-19 lockdowns as “the greatest hoax in human history” and joking about breaching quarantine rules. Last year she had her Twitter account with 1.1m … Read more
Marjorie Taylor Greene is not only addicted to offensive, over-heated rhetoric but also to a warped Trumpian cum Nazi tactic of turning herself and her ilk into victims. She recently was forced to apologize for suggesting that mask mandates were similar to the Holocaust; and promptly went on to compare medical personnel offering vaccinations to … Read more
Haitian president Jovenel Moise has been shot dead in an attack in his home which left his wife wounded. His time in office since 2017 has seen him face accusations of corruption and money laundering ($3 million) and there have been violent anti-government protests recently, including a previous attempt to kill him. His election … Read more
The Dictator’s Muse is a new novel about Leni Riefenstahl, the film director known variously as the greatest female film director of the 20th century and a Nazi propagandist. Her two 1930s films “Triumph of the Will” about the 1934 Nuremberg Rally and Olympia were highly effective in giving artistic expression to the “Hitler myth”, … Read more
Mitch McConnell, the GOP Senate Minority Leader, has stirred up outrage with his comment that if there is a Republican-controlled senate after the 2022 midterms, he would refuse to consider a Biden nominee for the Supreme Court. Such behaviour is regarded as an anti-democratic power grab and “constitutional hardball” — behaviour that isn’t technically forbidden … Read more
Sarah Palin has popped her head above the parapet to announce she may run against Lisa Murkowksi, the Republican senator for Alaska since 2002, a Trump critic who voted for his impeachment. Others have said they’ll throw their hats into the ring as well. Palin has faded from view after a flurry of several … Read more