The story you are about to read is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent. No, scratch that. Nobody named in this story is innocent. And the veracity of the story is … questionable. So questionable that fifty-one former top intelligence officials might very well say that it “has all the […]

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Disney execs confirmed their intent to repudiate the studio's formula when they opted to remake Snow White with actors rather than animations. Keep the dwarves? That would be regressive. Cast a white Snow White? How dare you! Those presiding over the House of Mouse came not to praise Walt Disney's wholesome and lucrative shtick but to bury it

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Ascertaining community wishes via secret balloting is the way of democracies, but that is not the mechanism the Calma-Langton blueprint for the Voice envisions. Their two models involve unelected regional potentates selecting who goes to Canberra, or they would meet behind closed doors to select them, with no community voting involved. Tellingly, they opted for the latter

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There are few reasons to think well of Extinction Rebellion's road-blocking ratbags, but there is definitely one: When they tried to foil access to the Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert, Paiute tribal police ploughed straight through their barricade. More than a case study in dispersing public nuisances, the incident spotlights the gulf between genuine indigenous self-governance and the Voice version

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Independents were reluctant to admit support for Trump in 2020, so how much more reticent must they be now that the Establishment and its operatives in the judicial system have taken the unprecedented step of ordering an ex-president to pose for a jailhouse mugshot? Bookies are quoting 3-1 against a Trump victory. For my money that's an attractive proposition

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The violence in France serves as a lesson in what happens when a secular country closes its eyes to the challenge posed by a radicalised Islamist minority. India, too, has long been alert to the challenge, and in the past has met it by appeasing the Muslim religious establishment. That kept the peace, albeit at a heavy human price, but now the long-standing indulgence that lets Muslims live according to Sharia's law and strictures is poised to change. Expect fireworks

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If current trends continue and Australians increasingly proclaim their indigeneity to census takers and the like, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population will overtake that of the nation as a whole within 80 years—at which point, everyone will be indigenous (and then some). That’s true even after accounting for Labor’s post-election decision to boost immigration. Big Australia will not be multicultural. It will be indigenous.

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Sometimes it takes an outsider to tell you the truth you already know about yourself, but just can’t admit. As a foreigner, a friend, and a Philistine, I’m here to tell Australians that the indigenous Voice on which you will soon vote is a dud. It is an anti-democratic mechanism for authoritarian governance that will set a precedent for other forms of liberal authoritarianism to follow

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