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The Living in Australia 2023 – Liveability Survey launch webinar (watch it HERE) highlighted findings from a large and nationally representative survey exploring Australians’ values, experiences, views on local area liveability and future needs....

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

Not really There’s a lot of handwringing and gnashing of teeth over that headline today. Oh my God! The Democrats are blowing it … again!!!! But it seems to me that the headline is totally missing the point. We already knew that the GOP had higher turnout. This new study by Pew just reinforces the early data so I don’t think anyone should be surprised by it. Mid-terms always have higher turnout by the out party! Isn’t that the moldiest political trope in the world? In most midterm years, the party that is not in the White House fares well. And while Republicans enjoyed a turnout advantage in 2022, they nevertheless fell short of expectations and did not match Democrats’ turnout advantage in 2018, the first midterm election after Mr. Trump took office. Still, midterm voters historically skew older and whiter than voters in presidential years, a phenomenon that tends to benefit Republicans. The 2018 midterms were, in many ways, the exception to that rule, with increased turnout across age groups, but especially among young people. The 2022 electorate was more in line with historical trends.

Source - Patreon

Maybe you’re tired of hearing about DeSantis’ epic failure but I just can’t get enough of the schadenfreude. Just inject it straight into my veins: It was often said that when Bill Clinton walked into a room, each person thought he noticed them in particular. Clinton was the ultimate retail politician: he liked people and they knew it. When Ron DeSantis shows up, even those who want to support him feel that he harbours a special dislike for them. Being a black hole in terms of charisma is not automatically fatal to a candidate’s prospects. When your target is the diabolically charismatic Donald Trump, however, you are working at a big disadvantage. The story of how DeSantis went from being the favourite, or near-favourite, Republican nominee for the 2024 presidential race to America’s most rapidly falling meteor in years, tells us a lot about the mindset of US conservatism. The Florida governor’s campaign began with every advantage. He had huge sums of money, name recognition, powerful backers and the sense that he was the only Republican capable of replacing Trump. Yet he has singularly failed to perform.

How did they allow a threadbare tale from a totally discredited news source to swamp the airwaves and the news pages, asks Brian Cathcart

An expedition to find rare hydrothermal vents at the bottom of the Mid-Atlantic uncovers new worlds—and some daredevil shrimp.

The post The Secret Life of Deep Sea Vents appeared first on Nautilus.

New documents show a scientist calling a lab leak “highly likely” — after drafting a paper claiming the opposite.

The post House Republicans Accidentally Released a Trove of Damning Covid Documents appeared first on The Intercept.

Welcome to Wiener Wednesday! DiS1972 reader Dana is a good friend of the blog and submitted this recipe (with a boatload of other hot dog gems) for my consideration. I picked this recipe because of the adorable illustrations and the whimsical name, Snow Caps (although it was tough to pass on something called 20th CenturyContinue reading WIENER WEDNESDAY! Cutco Cookbook: Snow Caps (1956) →

We are destined to repeat our mistakes over and over again When it comes to media criticism and China analysis there is no one I trust more than James Fallows. Over the course of many decades he has proven himself to be fair and knowledgeable about many things but these two issues are his wheelhouse. This piece On “Breaking the News” about the reporting on the Wuhan Lab theory is a must read. (I urge you to subscribe to his newsletter. It’s always good.) This post is a followup on the highly-publicized report last fall from ProPublica and Vanity Fair about Covid’s origins. (Henceforth PP and VF.) It’s prompted by another PP item five days ago, revisiting and revising their approach to this enormously consequential topic. I realize that what follows could be confusing. I’m going to be talking about three government reports, and three journalistic stories. Here’s a guide, with names I’ll try to use consistently (and will place in bold). The three reports are: The House Report, which came out in August, 2021.

Indigenous conservation practices in Mexico are helping endangered frogs to recover.

The post Rescuing the Frogs appeared first on Nautilus.

Oakland District Attorney Pamela Price is the target of a recall campaign, joining a slew of reformist prosecutors in California and elsewhere.

The post Campaign to Recall Oakland Reform District Attorney Gets Rolling appeared first on The Intercept.

Anti-abortion zealots can’t wait to make Americans’ lives more miserable Iowa FTW: The legislation was passed during a rare one-day special session called by Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) for the “sole purpose” of enacting new restrictions on abortion. Reynolds celebrated the bill’s passage in a statement late Tuesday and said she will sign it on Friday. “Justice for the unborn should not be delayed,” she said. Iowa’s House and Senate passed the legislation alongmostly partisan lines late Tuesday after hours of hearings and sometimes heated protests. It is expected to face legal challenges. Abortion is currently legal in Iowa up to 22 weeks of pregnancy.

When will Australians realise, as Paul Keating has been unerringly consistent in arguing, that they are part of the cosmopolitanism and complexity of Asia, and not a Western imagined community presided over by a fast declining America? During the maligned years of the Morrison-Turnbull-Abbott governments, Australia’s international reputation fell on a number of significant measures Continue reading »

Journalism is tough at a time when many topics could be seen through a political lens. Hong Kong provides an interesting case, although it is not the only place where journalism is having to navigate shifting geopolitics and social developments that divide countries and communities. Pearls and Irritations, created by Australians in Australia, is a Continue reading »

The Robodebt scandal reflects badly on the Australian Public Service generally, and not just on those immediately responsible. The main focus of the Report by the Royal Commission into Robodebt and subsequent publicity and comment has been on the illegality of the scheme. But as has been observed by some Liberals, the illegality could readily Continue reading »

Defeat for the Voice referendum will reverberate internationally. Surviving suspicions about our racist past will be refreshed. It will come at the same time as our renewed embrace of our ‘forever friends’ in Britain and the United States and our growing enthusiasm for closer ties with NATO. Race is constantly referred to by both sides Continue reading »

In 2005 we commenced a campaign for a Human Rights Act for Australia. In 2009 as part of our campaign a Bill was drafted to ‘respect, protect and promote Human Rights for Australia’.  This model Bill formed the core of our group’s submission to the National Human Rights Consultation, chaired by Frank Brennan SJ OA.  Continue reading »

Governments around the world are promoting and subsidising carbon capture and storage (CCUS) to facilitate an increase in fossil gas mining. This will dash any hope of controlling world emissions at a time when there are deep concerns for climate change becoming uncontrollable. Yet the Australian government and the fossil gas industry are driving huge Continue reading »

The Australian Defence Department’s new Frigates project is a jobs merry-go-round for former military officers, bureaucrats, and weapons makers. Integrity concerns with Australia’s $46 billion procurement from BAE Systems of nine warships were examined in Part One of Declassified Australia’s special ‘Sinking Billions’. The Defence contract management process was revealed to be flawed and suffering what the Australian Continue reading »

Geo-politics is played on a world chessboard often by sad oldies in sober suits. To keep membership exclusive the polymath gamers use polysyllables and foreign tongues. Clearly not the place for a perky American doll. Yet Barbie has made it to the top without studying at the Sorbonne. She’s getting into the space of Xi Continue reading »