Anne Summers

Thank you for this empathetic and informed evaluation of this work @jessradio I hope we can continue to work together to develop and further refine the assumptions and delve into the data needed to explore them. Next (I hope): DFV and employment.

Why doesn’t Australia have political podcasts as good as this in a fast moving situation like the present? open.spotify.com/episode/3Ve1W3…

The history books quietly bypassed is that Barack Obama, during the most pressure-saturated nights of his presidency, would retreat alone to the Treaty Room on the second floor of the White House residence — not to strategize, not to take calls, but to handwrite personal letters to ten ordinary American citizens every single night, a practice he maintained with almost monastic devotion across all eight years, selecting the letters himself from the 40,000 that arrived daily at the White House, and his longtime correspondence director Fiona Reese confirmed that Obama would often weep privately while reading certain letters, folding them carefully before writing responses so personally detailed and emotionally present that recipients frequently described the experience of receiving them as the most significant moment of their lives, with one Ohio steelworker writing back to say that Obama's letter had physically stopped him from making a decision that would have permanently altered his family's future. What makes this practice almost unbearably moving is the detail that surfaced later — Obama never used a computer for these letters, always a black felt-tip pen, always legal yellow paper first as a draft, always rewritten onto White House stationery by hand a second time, because he believed, as he told historian Doris Kearns Goodwin in a rare private conversation later recounted in her 2018 work, that the physical act of pressing pen to paper forced a quality of attention that typing simply could not replicate, a philosophy rooted in his years as a constitutional law professor at the University of Chicago from 1992 to 2004 where he developed the conviction that democracy only functions when its leaders remain genuinely, uncomfortably close to the specific gravity of individual human suffering rather than processing it from behind the insulating distance of institutions and screens."

BREAKING: Pope Leo XIV humiliates fake Catholic J.D. Vance after he flew all the way to Rome to invite him to America’s 250th anniversary by bluntly rejecting the offer. The public embarrassments never end with this oaf... Instead of traveling to the States, Leo will spend July 4th on the Italian island of Lampedusa, a major entry point for migrants entering into Europe from Africa. Rather than engage in Trump's jingoistic celebration of American military might, the pope is calling attention to the very same class of people that this White House spends much of its time demonizing. The rebuke of the invite is noteworthy because Vance personally invited the pope to the 250th celebration during his visit to Rome last year. This marks yet another instance of Leo snubbing the Trump administration, following soon after he rejected an invitation to join Trump's corrupt "Board of Peace." Vance likes to make a big show of being a Catholic convert, but everything he does is profoundly out of step with Catholic morality. He's a key member of a regime that's brutalizing migrants on a daily basis and Pope Leo has made defending migrants a cornerstone of his papacy. Trump has vowed that this July 4th will be "the most spectacular birthday party the world has ever seen" but judging by the deeply embarrassing failure that was his big military parade, our expectations are low. Pope Leo ain't missing much! Please ❤️ and share if you're a fan of Pope Leo!

Why no women?

Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s family has created a GoFundMe to help offset mounting legal costs as they push forward in their fight for justice. Help spread the word or donate at the link here: gofund.me/f25d8be19

Australia just got its first standalone plan to end domestic and family violence against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women & children. It was built with First Nations experts & victim-survivors. It harnesses their knowledge and stands on the shoulders of their advocacy.

U.S. House Representative Thomas Massie: “Last night I received a flash drive containing the complete list of files belonging to Jeffrey Epstein. Everything is there: every billionaire, every campaign donor, every single person. Now let me explain why you haven’t heard anything about this in the media. Because they’re all in there. They will do everything to prevent these documents from being made public. Epstein was far more than just a pedophile; he was an intelligence asset. He was part of a blackmail operation used to control billionaires, politicians, and world leaders. If this list ever sees the light of day, the system as we know it will collapse. The public has the right to know the truth, and I am not afraid to share it.” It looks like a political earthquake may be coming.

She tried to warn everyone in 2001. The men she named were powerful. What followed ruined her life.💔⚠️ Karen Mulder was one of the most famous models in the world. She worked with Versace, Dior, and Chanel, became an original Victoria’s Secret Angel, and was one of the highest paid models of her time. She was everywhere, admired, successful, and trusted inside the fashion industry. In October 2001, Mulder appeared on a French talk show and spoke about serious wrongdoing in the modeling world, including assault, abuse, and exploitation. She directly named senior figures. The interview never aired. Reports later claimed the footage was destroyed before the public could see it. Within hours, she disappeared from public view and was taken to a psychiatric hospital in Paris, where she stayed for months. Her mental health was questioned. Her credibility was torn apart. Her career collapsed. For years, she was portrayed as unstable and unreliable. The men she accused kept working. Years later, one of them, Jean-Luc Brunel, was exposed as a close associate of Jeffrey Epstein. Court records and testimony linked him to an international exploitation network connected to modeling agencies. Many women later accused him. He was arrested in France in 2020 and died in custody in 2022 while awaiting trial. Another executive Mulder named, Gérald Marie, was later accused by at least fifteen women of assault and abuse. A BBC investigation had previously raised serious concerns about his behavior, yet he remained influential in fashion for years. Karen Mulder was not protected. She was silenced. Two decades later, the men she warned about were being investigated, exposed, or dying in jail cells. The truth did not change her fate, but it changed how her words should be remembered. She was not crazy. She was early.

Last week, the Taliban shut down a privately run children's orphanage and transferred the children to "state-run facilities" (no idea what this means) This follows the closure of the last remaining women's shelter just a month ago. The most vulnerable are disappearing.

This photo captures the moment that ICE became murderous, unlawful killers who answers to no one but Donald Trump. Don't let the importance of this image fade from your conscience! A line was drawn that cannot be erased. Silence is acceptance. I will not be silent! Will you? 🤔

This New York Times story is not paywalled, and it shows a second-by-second breakdown of what happened. Please scroll through it. This is not what America, or anywhere, should be nytimes.com/interactive/20…

In the 60's, the murders and savage beatings of civil rights workers and protesters changed public opinion and the course of history. Will these grim days in Minneapolis and images of the brutal slayings of Renee Good & Alex Pretti have the same effect?

Congress is not powerless. Democrats must unify around an actual agenda. 1. Vote no on DHS funding bill. 2. Repeal the multi-year $75 billion funding for ICE. 3. End qualified immunity for ICE agents. 4. Investigate and prosecute every single ICE agent who broke the law. 5. Impeach Noem and Bondi. 6. End the Kavanaugh stops with racial profiling and end the militarization of ICE. 7. Codify a use of force standard so courts can enforce the law against rogue ICE agents. 8. Tear down and replace ICE with an agency that has oversight. Trump is engaged in the SYSTEMATIC destruction of the rule of law. Only if Congress fights with every legal tool at our disposal including lawsuits in the courts, like we are doing with the Epstein files, can we stop this madness. We owe that to nurse Pretti and the hundreds of thousands on the streets risking their lives to stand up for our freedoms.

Can we please get governments to focus on the domestic terrorism that is occurring every day all over the country. Just shocking the daily toll of domestic violence barely registers on the political radar when the toll far exceeds that of Bondi which saw a massive mobilisation.

OMFG ANOTHER WOMAN MURDERED TODAY 👇👇

By far the clearest of the videos and by far the most jarring.

The question that is never answered.

This is Jo Dyer @instanterudite at her most brilliant best. Jo is a former Adelaide Writers' Week director, and this article beautifully sums up her fury at the needless destruction of one of Australia's most world famous arts events. @shot_au theshot.net.au/uncategorized/…

@hammerofleft It is not. Not even close.

Good morning Aussies Can anyone confirm if the woman in this photo is Virginia Bell? If it is, the RC will be a farce.