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Australia is suffering a housing appropriateness and affordability crisis. In this article we use the 2023 National Liveability Survey to explain how Australians selected ‘affordable decent housing’ as the single biggest inhibitor – and opportunity...

Michael Tomasky asks the question. And it’s chilling: It’s not just unprecedented that we now have an ex-president with a mug shot. It’s insanely, amazingly, staggeringly, chillingly unprecedented. It makes me think about the past—about how we got to this insane, amazing, staggering, chilling point. And it makes me think about the future—about what grim precedent Trump will drag us into next. We got here because Donald Trump, now also known as Prisoner P01135809, has never had any regard for laws of any kind. We’ve known this for decades. When I was a young reporter in New York, and Trump was not yet a wannabe dictator, and the working-class men of the heartland registered him in their minds (if at all) as a swanky Manhattan rich guy who had nothing to do with their lives, Trump’s habits and attitudes were well known in New York. Sometimes, people went at him, but no one ever got him. And often, the people with the power to do so didn’t even go at him. Robert Morgenthau, the Manhattan district attorney for most of the years Trump was operating in New York, left his office in 2009 with a sterling reputation.

What is going on down there? This is truly stunning. They rounded up all the Black kids in the school for an assembly. You won’t believe what it was for: A Florida elementary school has prompted outrage for singling out its Black students to attend a special assembly identifying them, as a group, as a “problem” because of standardized test performances. Black fourth- and fifth-grade students at Bunnell elementary school in Flagler county, central Florida, were pulled from class last Friday and mandated to attend the presentation on improving test scores, the Washington Post reported. Students were chosen to attend the presentation based on race, Jason Wheeler, the communications coordinator for Flagler school district, confirmed to the Guardian. The nine- and 10-year-old students were shown a powerpoint entitled “AA presentation”, referring to African American, according to a copy of the presentation shared with the Guardian. A slide labeled “The Problem” claimed that “AA”, referring to Black students, have underperformed on standardized tests for the past three years.

Having hired Mark Latham our culinary columnist, then fired him that afternoon, The (un)Australian has found his replacement in Latham’s just published cookbook co-author and friend, radio broadcaster Alan Jones. Even though I am a very busy man and a very important person, I know the... Read More ›

What is the future likely to bring?  A reasonable stance might be to try to look at the human species from the outside.  So imagine that you’re an extraterrestrial observer who is trying to figure out what’s happening here or, for that matter, imagine you’re an historian 100 years from now — assuming there are any historians 100 years from now, which is not obvious — and you’re looking back at what’s happening today.  You’d see something quite remarkable. For the first time in the history of the human species, we have clearly developed the capacity to destroy ourselves.  That’s been true since 1945.  It’s now being finally recognized that there are more long-term processes like environmental destruction leading in... Read more

Source: Humanity Imperiled appeared first on TomDispatch.com.

You knew they would: The former president has raised $7.1 million since he was booked at an Atlanta jail Thursday evening, according to figures provided first to POLITICO by his campaign. On Friday alone, Trump raised $4.18 million, making it the single-highest 24-hour period of his campaign to date, according to a person familiar with the totals. The campaign’s fundraising has been powered by merchandise it has been selling through his online store. After Trump was taken into custody, the campaign began selling shirts, posters, bumper stickers and beverage coolers bearing Trump’s scowling mugshot. The items bear the tagline “NEVER SURRENDER!” and range in price from $12 to $34. The mug shot literally documents his surrender. Trumpers’ brains would rattle in a thimble.

Even though it looks like my Mum is about to cheekily poke her tongue out at the photographer it reminds me of Ivan Bilibin’s beautiful illustration which I used on this post and currently on my 404 error page.

Thinking …

Alabama is on the hunt for the best killing ritual Horrifying: Alabama is seeking to become the first state to execute a prisoner by making him breathe pure nitrogen. The Alabama attorney general’s office on Friday asked the state Supreme Court to set an execution date for death row inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58. The court filing indicated Alabama plans to put him to death by nitrogen hypoxia, an execution method that is authorized in three states but has never been used. [Oklahoma and Mississippi have also authorized nitrogen hypoxia.] Nitrogen hypoxia is caused by forcing the inmate to breathe only nitrogen, depriving them of oxygen and causing them to die. Nitrogen makes up 78% of the air inhaled by humans and is harmless when inhaled with oxygen. While proponents of the new method have theorized it would be painless, opponents have likened it to human experimentation. […] Alabama has been working for several years to develop the nitrogen hypoxia execution method, but has disclosed little about its plans. The attorney general’s court filing did not describe the details of the how the execution would be carried out.

China looms large in the Australian psyche. On a practical level, what happens in China largely determines the success of global action to deal with climate change, the profitability of our rural economy and the financing of our universities. Our national leaders are concerned about rising tensions in our region and the interplay of US-China Continue reading »

Instead of simply aligning their interests with the US, it is critical for US allies such as Australia to find a new balance in the great power rivalry between Washington and Beijing, and to develop their own strategic approach toward China. Among other things, this will require an understanding of how policy is formulated behind Continue reading »

Post 9/11 the US embarked on a series of wars to ‘make the world safe’ and more importantly settle old and new scores. The consequences – death and devastation – across much of the globe. It may not equal the impact of the 20th century’s two world wars, but they make Europe’s 17th century 30 Years Continue reading »

The unplumbed depths of Peter Dutton cynical politics should be a matter of deep concern to genuine political conservatives across Australia. Whoever those people are (at present they appear to be in hiding), it’s time they distanced themselves from what the Liberal Party is becoming under Dutton’s leadership. What should a genuinely conservative political party Continue reading »

The truth is that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people successfully governed themselves for over 60,000 years and Australia need only get out of the way so they can continue. Promoting self-determination is an ongoing process of choice usually reserved for Government, but this year the Voice referendum means Australians will be asked to promote Continue reading »

The US government secretly told TikTok that it would not be banned in the country – if it allowed American agents access to the records of TikTok users, Forbes reported. TikTok has a billion users worldwide, with 150 million in the United States. Earlier, US politicians accused the company of being a Chinese “Trojan horse” Continue reading »

Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – August 27, 2023

by Tony Wikrent

War

Economic Warfare Is Cruel and Useless 

Daniel Larison [via Naked Capitalism 8-22-2023]

Yesterday there was another horrific hate crime perpetrated down in Florida when a racist walked into a Dollar Store and gunned down 3 people because they were Black: “This shooting was racially motivated and he hated Black people,” Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said at a news conference early Saturday evening. Waters said the shooter, who he described as a White man in his 20s, shot and killed himself after the attack. The suspect left behind what the sheriff described as three manifestos outlining his “disgusting ideology of hate” and his motive in the attack. All three victims, two men and one woman, were Black. Waters said the shooter lived in Clay County, Florida, south of Jacksonville, with his parents. Jacksonville is located in northeast Florida, about 35 miles south of the Georgia border. Waters said the shooter told his father by text to “check his computer.” The father found documents described by Waters as manifestos and called authorities. But Waters said by the time authorities were alerted about the manifestos, the gunman had already started the attack in the Dollar General.

The bad news is, first, that there is no reason in general to suppose that an ATE [Average Treatment Effect] observed in one population will hold in others. That is what the slogan widespread now in education and elsewhere registers: “Context matters”.  The issue in this paper is not though about when we can expect […]

Here’s the latest from the man tens of millions of Americans worship like a god. I just thought you ought to know even if you don’t want to. In case you were wondering, Trump always cheats at golf. Here’s an excerpt of one of many, many stories about it: Jack O’Donnell worked with Donald Trump for four years as vice president of Trump Plaza Casino in Atlantic City. O’Donnell’s dad was one of the founders of Sawgrass, the iconic Pete Dye golf course near Jacksonville, Fla. “My dad always told us to respect the game,” O’Donnell says. “That’s the one part of the game that tells me what kind of person you are. You play the ball where it lies.” So when O’Donnell’s office colleague, the late Mark Eddis, came back after his first round with Trump, O’Donnell couldn’t resist asking. “So, does he improve his lie?” Eddis looked at him and threw his head back in laughter. “Every shot but the tee shot.” Trump doesn’t just cheat at golf. He cheats like a three-card Monte dealer. He throws it, boots it, and moves it. He lies about his lies.

"If it is safe, dump it in Tokyo! If it is safe, test it in Paris! If it is safe, store it in Washington! But keep our Pacific nuclear free!"

Is it too much to ask? Heather Cox Richardson posts, “Reading a paper today and it gave me a crazy idea: how about interviewing some Democratic voters for a change? Maybe that’s just too out there to be on the table, though….” Other than mocking lefties for eating avocado toast, the press doesn’t view them as newsworthy subjects of inquiry unless they occupy Nancy Pelosi’s office, that is, when they show up where political reporters normally do their jobs. There are few political reporting safaris to where Democrat-leaning voters hang out in cities large and small unless they are on college campuses or represent the lunatic fringe. But angry right-wingers at school board meetings? That bleeds. Even when it doesn’t. Are there no coffee shops? No book stores? Marianne Williamson visited one in little Aiken, SC recently (in a county that went 61-38 for Trump in 2020). Local papers reported the press release. Nothing on the rarities who showed up with opinions.

Trump couldn’t pass a job interview MSNBC’s Chris Hayes (IIRC) last week observed that Republicans are seriously considering nominating for president a man facing four federal and state indictments on 91 felony counts who, the last time he held office, tried to end the republic as we know it and sent a mob to sack the U.S. Capitol. Ben Rhodes, former Obama deputy national security advisor, commented Thursday night on “the steady radicalization of the Republican Party and the trivialization of politics.” Regarding Donald Trump’s interview last week with fired Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Rhodes wrote that “the GOP frontrunner talked at length on this platform about vicious mosquitos, conspiracy theories, and general nonsense. A man who said those things in a job interview for just about any other position in the world wouldn’t get hired.” Trump is also, you may have heard, 6′-3″ and 215 pounds of rippling muscle. BTW, Trump this week declared himself the winner of another golf tournament (at a club he owns) in which he totally did not cheat.

Today's BCTV Daily Dispatch: RIP Arleen Sorkin/Harley Quinn & Bob Barker, AHS & Margot Robbie, Adult Swim, Doctor Who, James Gunn, and more!

Visiting press are forced to turn a blind eye as the military pretends the prison doesn’t exist.

The post Censorship Has Never Been Worse at Guantánamo Bay appeared first on The Intercept.

Electric companies are hurting customers and hastening the climate emergency — but that’s just business for investor-owned utilities.