The US House of Representatives has passed a bill aimed at combating anti-Semitism in American universities amid continuing student protests against Israel’s military operation in Gaza.

The Antisemitism Awareness Act was approved by 320 votes to 91 on Wednesday, with 21 Republicans and 70 Democrats being among those opposing the legislation.

The bill would require the US Department of Education to adopt a broad definition of anti-Semitism used by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), which describes the phenomenon as “certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews.”

WE LIVE IN AN ACCIDENTAL UNIVERSE, AS CHRIS LINTOTT, THE COSMOLOGIST, WOULD SAY — BORN FROM IT WITH AN ACCIDENTAL EVOLUTIONARY INTELLIGENCE THAT SEARCHES FOR OUR ACCIDENTAL HUMAN PURPOSE, WOULD ADD GUS LEONISKY.

OUR SEARCH FOR PURPOSE IS LIMITED BY INFORMATION WE ACCEPT OR REJECT IN ORDER TO BE OR BELIEVE.

MODIFYING AND DEVELOPING OUR BEHAVIOUR VIA INFORMATION IS OUR LOT FROM THE DAY WE’RE BORN. WE NEED AS MUCH INFORMATION AS MILK TO SURVIVE, EVEN WHEN WE’RE OLD ENOUGH TO BE LET LOOSE ON THE WORLD AND BE STUPID. 

WE ARE NEVER FREE TO BE. A LOT OF THE CHOSEN INFORMATIVE TOPICS AND WHAT OUR REACTIONS TO THESE ARE CRAFTED BY VARIOUS SOURCES FROM SCIENTISTS TO CLEVER MERCHANTS OF SNAKE OIL, INCLUDING HOLLYWOOD. 

US politicians ‘living in Wonderland’ – Moscow
Washington insists the Ukraine conflict must be settled based on the UN Charter, but backs Kiev’s ‘peace formula,’ the Foreign Ministry says

US calls for Russia to hold talks on ending the Ukraine conflict seem detached from reality and ignore Moscow’s previous attempts to reach a settlement, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said.

You realize, don’t you, that what’s going on in our country is the collapse not just of an empire, or an economy, but a comprehensive paradigm of human progress. The hallmark of post-war life in Western Civ was supposed to be a return to sanity after the mid-twentieth century fugue of mass psychotic violence.

BY JAMES HOWARD KUNSTLER

The wish for just and rational order was not entirely pretense. But that was then. Now that we are going medieval on ourselves, the not-so-ironic result will be our literally going medieval, sinking back into a pre-modern existence of darkness, superstition, and penury, grubbing for a mere subsistence in the shadow of scuffling hobgoblins, our achievements lost and forgotten.

Relations between the US and EU in recent years, remarkably after the start of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine, have been truly negative for Europeans. It seems increasingly clear that Washington does not see EU states as its true allies, but as vassal countries and subservient proxies, using them to serve its interests unilaterally.

BY Lucas Leiroz — member of the BRICS Journalists Association, researcher at the Center for Geostrategic Studies, military expert.

Israel’s crimes against humanity, war crimes and its acts of genocide against the Palestinian people are, without a doubt, the most horrific acts committed by a ‘democracy’ since the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War. Yet despite this fact the Australian government refuses to warn or investigate whether any Australian citizens or companies are involved directly or indirectly, in the commission of these atrocities.

A ban on TikTok is now almost inevitable in the US as President Joe Biden signs legislation banning the app unless the Chinese-based parent company ByteDance sells the app to an approved buyer. 

Mr Biden's signing sets a January 19 deadline for a sale  — one day before his term is set to expire — but he could extend the deadline by three months if he determines ByteDance is making progress.

Here's the latest: 

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday went after China for its trade relationship with Russia, saying Beijing must reduce its trade with Moscow to have good relations with the West.

Western officials often accuse China of supporting Russia’s military, but there’s no evidence of Beijing shipping weapons. Instead, they point to China’s export of semiconductors and raw materials.

By Dave DeCamp / Antiwar.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmz4nzcsx-4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcdallrJDYc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGVK2HTN4xA

One of the European and American myths is that fascism was defeated during the Second World War by liberal democracies, and in particular by the United States. While the record suggests that far from being eradicated at the end of World War II, fascism was in fact repurposed, or rather redeployed, to fulfill its primary historical function: to destroy atheistic communism and its threat to THE mission — capitalist civilizer. The various national security agencies ensured that fascism, far from being defeated during the Second World War, was successfully internationalized.

BY Robert GIL

WASHINGTON — The war in Gaza spurred large protests outside a glitzy roast with President Joe Biden, journalists, politicians and celebrities Saturday but went all but unmentioned by participants inside, with Biden instead using the annual White House correspondents' dinner to make both jokes and grim warnings about Republican rival Donald Trump's fight to reclaim the U.S. presidency.

An evening normally devoted to presidents, journalists and comedians taking outrageous pokes at political scandals and each other often seemed this year to illustrate the difficulty of putting aside the coming presidential election and the troubles in the Middle East and elsewhere.

Biden opened his roast with a direct but joking focus on Trump, calling him "sleepy Don," in reference to a nickname Trump had given the president previously.

GUS: Putin is smarter than the average american president....

John Subba: I have read stories on Putin's life.

He may have never been tested on any of the standardized test, but I project his IQ to lie somewhere around 145 - 160 range.

Some of his astoundingly praiseworthy activities that indicates high intelligence are:

The Ukraine conflict has become a great boon for American Big Five defense contractors, sending their stocks up and boosting their profits.

Before adopting the latest $61 billion package, the US Congress had passed four Ukraine spending bills totaling $113 since the beginning of the conflict in February 2022.

The lion's share of the entire spending initiative, or $61.8 billion (54.7%), went to the US Department of Defense which granted its major contractors lucrative new contracts.