Even worse than we expected In case you missed the fireworks, here’s Dana Milbank on the “weaponization” committee: One thing is clear after Thursday’s first hearing of the new “Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government”: The weaponization panel’s weapon of choice will be the blunderbuss. I don’t want to be conspiratorial about it, but House Republicans somehow turned Room 2141 of the Rayburn House Office Building, the Judiciary Committee hearing room, into the main ballroom of a QAnon convention. The witnesses — including world-class conspiracy purveyors Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Ivermectin) and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (I-Ukraine bioweapons labs) — might as well have been auditioning to guest-host “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” It is possible that, by random chance, one of the witnesses may have said something that is factually true, but any pellet of accuracy was lost amid all the errant slugs that ricocheted crazily out of their muzzles. They revisited the “Russian collusion hoax” perpetrated by the “fake dossier,” Fusion GPS, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.
Reading
One of the issues with seditious conspiracy charges against Trump is the matter of intent. Did he know that he had lost the election and went ahead with his plot anyway? Of course he did. And here is some external proof we haven’t seen before: Former president Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign commissioned an outside research firm in a bid to prove electoral fraud claims but never released the findings because the firm disputed many of his theories and could not offer any proof that he was the rightful winner of the election, according to four people familiar with the matter. The campaign paid researchers from Berkeley Research Group, the people said, to study 2020 election results in six states, looking for fraud and irregularities to highlight in public and in the courts. Among the areas examined werevoter machine malfunctions, instances of dead people voting and any evidence that could help Trump show he won, the people said. None of the findings were presented to the public or in court. About a dozen people at the firmworked on the report, including econometricians, who use statistics to model and predict outcomes, the people said.
The fight for justice for survivors of sexual abuse continues after George Pell's passing, writes Andrew Collins. read now... The fight for justice for survivors of sexual abuse continues after George Pell's passing, writes Andrew Collins. read now...THE Coffs Coast Science and Engineering Challenge (SEC) will take place in Woolgoolga on Tuesday 4 April 2023 and the organisers are seeking at least 30 volunteers to assist with a range of duties on the day. “The Woolgoolga Organising Committee is pleased to present the award-winning Science and Engineering Challenge in partnership with the...
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COFFS Harbour’s Tanya Johnson, the chair and co-founder of local charity Pink Silks Trust, has received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to the community through charitable organisations in the Australia Day Awards 2023. Pink Silks Trust (PST) was set up in 2006 after Tanya’s breast cancer diagnosis. Advertise with News...
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SALLY Townley has announced that she will contest the 2023 State Election as an Independent candidate for the seat of Coffs Harbour. She officially launched the campaign on Wednesday 8 February at the North Coast Regional Botanic Garden. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your business. Message us. Phone us...
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WHEN Sawtell Catholic Care’s ‘The Link’ community gardens were named as the best in Australia at the Australian Institute of Horticulture’s (AIH) Awards Ceremony, held in Melbourne late last year, the local residents and Coffs Harbour community missed out on the experience of being there in person. So, the presentation is coming to Toormina with...
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A DISTINGUISHED group of ecologists, botanists and environmentalists, with potentially a combined 600 years of professional experience in the realms of the environment, has sent a letter to Regional Roads Minister Sam Farraway MLC and Environment Minister James Griffin regarding the proposed destruction of a 0.5 ha remnant of rare subtropical lowland rainforest that sits...
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Or sanctimonious right wing NY Times op-ed writers either This, from Eric Levitz in NY Magazine, is right on about Ron DeSantis: Ron DeSantis is the popular governor of a racially diverse state with a substantial Democratic population. He is also a reactionary. In the New York Times, Pamela Paul argues that liberals have a lot to learn from these two facts. The columnist implores her fellow Democrats to avoid writing DeSantis off as “another unelectable right-wing lunatic unfit for national office.” Rather than dismissing the Florida governor and his supporters as “racist, homophobic, transphobic, and xenophobic,” Paul advises liberals to reflect on his political strengths. She explains that, unlike Donald Trump, DeSantis was a star student at an Ivy League school. It’s therefore likely that he “knows what he’s doing” when he scandalizes progressives. He is a savvy political actor, if his approval rating is any guide. Democrats should therefore seek to learn from his example. It isn’t clear precisely what Paul believes we should learn.
GREENS Upper House member Cate Faehrmann was in Coffs Harbour last Monday to kick off the Greens campaign for the seat in the upcoming State election. She announced Tim Nott as the Greens candidate for Coffs Harbour, and also discussed koalas, pokies and John Barilaro. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it...
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FABULOUS FAKES, the first exhibition of 2023 at the Coffs Harbour Showground Gallery featuring the Coffs Harbour Creative Arts Group (CHCAG) members, opened on Sunday 5 February. Members and visitors enjoyed light refreshments and contemplated the variety of works and skills applied in the Fabulous Fakes artworks on display. Advertise with News of The Area...
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RECOGNISED with a Member of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the Australia Day Awards, Coffs Harbour resident Elizabeth (Beth) Rogers’ exemplary work has been in service to refugee support services, specifically as a volunteer supporting Burundian refugee families, since 2006. Beth will travel to Sydney later in the year to receive her award at...
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Weekend reading on monetarism and its woes. Lots of data.
Do Interest Rate Hikes Worsen Inflation?
Tim Di Muzio is an Associate Professor in International Relations and Political Economy at the University of Wollongong, Australia.
Economics from the Top Down
Do High Interest Rates Reduce Inflation? A Test of Monetary Faith
Blair Fix
Economics from the Top Down
Do High Interest Rates Reduce Inflation? A Test of Monetary Faith
Blair Fix
I’m a boomer and the Gen Zs are grandchild age so I suppose it’s natural that I relate to them. That whole “skip a generation” thing is often true. Certainly, when it comes to politics it seems to me that the Democratic new guard is much savvier than both their immediate predecessors and the old guard my age. They see the opposition for what it is in a way that many liberals my age took forever to recognize (and that’s assuming they ever have.) I’m not sure why I could see the truth when so many couldn’t but I’m super relieved to see the younger generation in electoral politics is moving beyond some of the more parochial types of infighting that has so often characterized the Democratic party to form a popular front against the fascist tide on the right. Maybe we’ll get through this after all. Note that I’m speaking specifically of elected politicians. The campus wars are something else and I would guess it’s at least partially attributable to the fact that these young people are not exposed to the right while the elected politicians are.
The blood bath that was 2022 in occupied Palestine claimed the lives of more than 230 Palestinians. The Israeli Occupation Forces and the heavily armed illegal Jewish settlers in the West Bank have continued their feral killing spree into 2023 unabated. In the first month of this year, Israel murdered 36 Palestinians. Ten of those Continue reading »
All countries are failing to look after their environments and their people. Long haul flights will continue to generate most CO2. The world’s youth are not happy. Biophysical boundaries and social thresholds This piece requires familiarity with two concepts: planetary boundaries and doughnut economics. The first posits that there are nine environmental factors that must Continue reading »
Hindsight is a wonderful thing and it particularly applies to the Whitlam government’s ‘loans affair’. The events leading up to the dismissal of the Whitlam government in 1975 were complex, fascinating and ultimately tragic, especially for Australian society. I will not reprise the key facts here as they are readily available, especially if one reads Continue reading »
The school year has started with the usual flurry of excitement about new policies and reforms, but flaws in the structure of Australia’s school system still aren’t on any agenda. Students and teachers are now back at school, accompanied by the usual ‘start of school’ media onslaught. It seems worse this year. Phone bans for Continue reading »
Pedro Castillo, the Peruvian president, overthrown in a coup 7th December 2022, and then sentenced to 18 months imprisonment, clearly represented a threat to some significant forces. Following the overthrow, mass protests have spread across Peru, to which the government have responded violently, with 60 deaths in the past weeks. As per usual with Latin Continue reading »
An important feature of the new globalisation is China’s Global Development Initiative and a renewed, non-exploitative focus on the Global South. The other is the growth of the digital economy and non-dollar-denominated digital currencies that enable cross-border trade. The idea that globalisation has ended is growing in popularity with some economic analysts. Parallel to this Continue reading »
Happy Super Bowl weekend! Let’s kick it off with some Smirnoff! It’s a sure bet you and your friends will be watching the game this weekend. Why don’t you all get together for a spirited Smirnoff warm-up before the game? Team up delicious food, good friends, and great Smirnoff drinks with the best seats inContinue reading The Smirnoff Football Brunch & Bloody Mary (1970)
Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle are backing a bill that endorses Maryam Rajavi, an Iranian opposition figure who leads the Mojahedin-e Khalq.
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