The Government’s abandonment of Australian sovereignty to the US through AUKUS and the Force Posture Agreement (FPA) enmeshes Australia in US war plans and endangers the peace in our region on which our national prosperity relies. It is up to the ALP rank and file members attending the National Conference, 17-19 August, to stand up Continue reading »
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Given the lack of consensus in existing empirical analyzes and the difficulties of making causal inferences from macro-level panel data analyzes, it remains an open empirical question how cutting taxes on the rich affects economic outcomes. We believe the question is best answered by looking at the effects of major tax cuts packages, as the […]
In a broad sense ‘Australian multiculturalism’ describes the cultural and ethnic diversity of Australia. Over a half of Australians were born overseas or have at least one parent born overseas. I contend that Australian multiculturalism is our greatest achievement, but it has always been fraught with tension. The challenge of immigration and multiculturalism has been Continue reading »
For some years, John Menadue’s Pearls and Irritations has been Australia’s best public policy forum – informative and stimulating. Now there is an extra reason to read it: it offers alternative views. If ‘mainstream’ means commonly or widely accepted, the term mainstream media is a misnomer; Australia now has a right-fork media, presenting narrow, predictable Continue reading »
Recently we have heard the alleged victim in the Bruce Lehrmann case discuss how she felt herself, in effect, defiled again by her treatment by the justice system. Nothing Walter Sofronoff has written in his inquiry into the case could cheer her. Nor would it engender any confidence in future better treatment for any other Continue reading »
Public service reform is back as are the old tropes of merit based appointments, frank and fearless advice, and better preparation and training for APS leaders. These legacy markers of public service excellence need a thorough rethink if tomorrow’s challenges are to be met. No counterfactual exercise exists to validated a merit selection process, and according merit Continue reading »
Australia’s minister for foreign affairs, Penny Wong, has announced Australia will return to use of the term “occupied Palestinian territories”. The Australian government will use this phrase to describe the territories in the West Bank and Gaza that Israel occupied in 1967. Australian officials have generally avoided the use of “occupied” and “occupation” in relation to Palestine since 2014. This move Continue reading »
Peace groups campaigning against a US war on China might be paid foreign agents, the New York Times alleged. But the allegation triggered a backlash from readers shocked at what some people are calling a neo-McCarthyist stance. In a separate story, a senior HSBC executive has been forced to apologise after he said that the Continue reading »
The main contest between the US and China will play out in the economic arena. At the end of the day, the winner will be seen to be the country with a bigger economy. Editor’s Note: In his book, The Asian 21st Century, Kishore Mahbubani (Mahbubani), a former diplomat who served as Singapore’s permanent representative to Continue reading »
In a comment on a Doctor Who Instagram post, showrunner Russell T. Davies shared what his dream TARDIS control room would look like.
Why is RFK Jr bothering? I honestly can’t understand what he’s getting out of this: Democratic presidential hopeful and known anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Sunday that he would support a national ban on abortion after the first three months of pregnancy if elected, only to walk back the stance hours later alleging he “misunderstood” repeated questions from NBC News on the topic. “Mr. Kennedy misunderstood a question posed to him by an NBC reporter in a crowded, noisy exhibit hall at the Iowa State Fair,” a spokesperson said, clarifying the candidate’s stance on abortion as “always” being the woman’s right to choose. Kennedy “does not support legislation banning abortion,” the spokesman added. But Sunday morning, Kennedy was much more specific, telling NBC: “I believe a decision to abort a child should be up to the women during the first three months of life.” Pressed on whether that meant signing a federal ban at 15 or 21 weeks, he said yes.
Q: Do I have to make room for people when the bus starts getting crowded?
A: Not if you don’t want to. Even if the bus driver shouts, “Please move all the way to the back,” several times in a row over the loudspeaker, it’s really just a suggestion. Feel free to ignore them for as long as you want. After all, they can’t stop the bus forever.
Q: I know this is a stoplight and not an actual bus stop, but can I get off anyway?
A: Sure. Just remember to keep aggressively pushing the back door while looking bewildered so the driver knows you need to get off right now. And if the door doesn’t open immediately, yell as loud as you can, and eventually, you’ll get what you want.
Q: Can I stand in front of the exit, even though plenty of seats are available?
A: If that’s where you’re most comfortable, make yourself at home. Remember to put your headphones on and blast your music while scrolling on your phone so no one can interrupt you as they attempt to get off. This is your space now.
Big Finish's trailer for the David Tennant & Michelle Gomez-starring Doctor Who – Once and Future: The Martian Invasion of Planetoid 50.
Very rarely do I review a book and find that the best way to convey its significance is to quote, verbatim, its first four paragraphs: In 2020, during the darkest hours of the global coronavirus pandemic, the US government spent $3 trillion to help rescue the country’s – and, to some extent, the world’s – … Continue reading "The Paradox of Debt, by the Tycho Brahe of Credit"
In my first post (here) on Mary Harrington’s (2023) Feminism Against Progress, I focused on her views on the family and suggested that not unlike Yoram Hazony (in his (2022) book, Conservatism: A Rediscovery), she rejects the patriarchic ‘nuclear family’ embraced by American, Christian-ethno-nationalists. Instead they both defend what they call the ‘traditional family,’ which in Harrington’s argument […]
It looks like Sidney Powell is the preferred fall guy Make room under that bus: JACK SMITH’S LATEST indictment of Donald Trump isn’t yet two weeks old, but the alleged “co-conspirators” it identifies are already beginning to turn on each other — and some of them aren’t even being subtle about it. A number of the ex-president’s chief lieutenants and alleged co-conspirators in the plot to overturn the election, such as conservative attorney John Eastman, have insisted the effort was perfectly legal and based on sound evidence. Others, however, have recently sought to distance themselves from the efforts of others, implicitly heaping the blame for any potential criminal conduct onto fellow participants in Trump’s attempted coup. “It is the ‘please don’t put me in jail, put that other guy in jail’ strategy that was sure to come up at some point or another,” says one attorney working in Trump’s legal orbit.
Donald Trump lashed out at the “Biden Justice Department,” saying, “Hunter has done nothing to earn an indictment.”
This town throws pennies at people. They hurt.
We’ve had mostly floating exchange rates for fifty years. You’d think by now people would report using the correct currency
How will Judge Tanya Chutkan respond? Ten days and a second stern warning later, the toddler threw his spoon again early this morning (Politico): Donald Trump slammed the judge presiding over his newest criminal case early Monday, testing her three-day-old warning that he refrain from “inflammatory” attacks against those involved in his case. In a Truth Social post just before 1 a.m., Trump assailed U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan as “highly partisan” and “very biased and unfair,” citing as evidence a statement she made during the sentencing of a woman who participated in the mob that breached the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. “She obviously wants me behind bars,” Trump wrote. What followed is in all caps, of course. He’s daring her to do it. The deranged teetotaler is so drunk on himself, he thinks he’s bulletproof. Trump was alluding to Chutkan’s remark during the October 2022 sentencing of Christine Priola of Ohio. Chutkan admonished Priola, before sentencing her to 15 months in jail, about the Jan. 6 mob’s threat to the peaceful transfer of power. “I see the videotapes.
In his history of experimental social science — Randomistas: How radical researchers are changing our world — Andrew Leigh gives an introduction to the RCT (randomized controlled trial) method for conducting experiments in medicine, psychology, development economics, and policy evaluation. Although it mentions there are critiques that can be waged against it, the author does […]