Reading

Created
Wed, 13/11/2024 - 10:00
I don’t think people realize that exit polls are just polls. They’re good, as polls go, because they ask a lot of people what they think and what they voted for on the day of the election. But it takes several months for the numbers crunchers to adjust and analyse the data alongside the actual results and it is often substantially different than what we thought on the morning after the election. Anyway, Ryan Cooper at the American Prospect suggests that we put our hair shirts in the closet for the time being and deal with the fact that half of the American public has no idea what they’re in for: Now that Donald Trump has won, again, a furious debate on the left side of the political spectrum has erupted, as Democratic Party factions jostle for position by casting blame on everyone but themselves. For my part, while I can’t help but have some suspicions, it will be six months before we have detailed data on where demographics actually landed, and at time of writing California is not even done counting. Any serious conclusions are premature at this point.
Created
Wed, 13/11/2024 - 06:05
I ett baksäte sitter Riksbankens tidigare chef Stefan Ingves och scrollar mellan diagram på sin mobilplatta. Men han pratar inte, som man skulle kunna tro, om siffror och samband. Om vilka vetenskapliga beräkningar som ligger bakom Sveriges inflationsmål på två procent. I stället pratar han om att allt egentligen handlar om att hitta en berättelse, […]
Created
Wed, 13/11/2024 - 05:00

The goal of any author isn’t to write the next great American novel or take home a Pulitzer Prize—it’s for Nicole Kidman to turn their book into a hit limited series. The literary industry lives or dies at the hands of actresses who, in the hopes of actually playing a three-dimensional character, option novels to create their own projects. While the marketing departments at publishing houses work tirelessly to get their books in front of actresses with book clubs and production companies, this effort should begin long before the printing presses are even running. If you’re serious about being a successful author, you should be pandering directly to Nicole Kidman from the second you first put pen to paper. Here are some tips to ensure success:

Created
Wed, 13/11/2024 - 04:59
With impudence, Israel and its lobby always accuse us Palestinians of what they do against us. They play the role of the victim, making the criminal a victim and the victim a criminal even as they commit one of the most heinous war crimes and genocide against humanity, with unprecedented hatred and sadistic brutality. Turning tens Continue reading »
Created
Wed, 13/11/2024 - 04:57
“Australia’s colonial history is full of [such] genocidal punitive massacres. But somehow the Australian government couldn’t see the similarity when they declared their full support for Israel’s right to defend itself.” Lebanese-Australian anthropologist, Ghassan Hage, wrote these words in November 2023, at the start of Israel’s genocidal assault on Palestinians in Gaza. For more than Continue reading »
Created
Wed, 13/11/2024 - 04:55
Relatively few people alive would have experienced the rise of fascism in the early C20 but most people understand the crucial role that manipulation of information played in the ascent to power in what were democratic’ countries. Mussolini evolved from a journalist/publishing background; Goebbels and ‘the big lie’ trope are a frequently quoted feature of Continue reading »
Created
Wed, 13/11/2024 - 04:55
“I don’t see a pandemic finishing us off, and climate change itself would (to quote Keating) ‘do us slowly’. The one sure path to extinction is nuclear war.” – Professor Peter Doherty AC, Nobel Laureate, communication to the author, 9 Sep 2024. Two days after Donald Trump’s election last week, the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Continue reading »
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Wed, 13/11/2024 - 04:53
The Albanese Government’s obsessive enthusiasm for matching Coalition and News Corp demands with policy responses was on show twice last week. On both occasions it was enshrined in legislation, the first on immigration detention and the other on laws to restrict social media access. Last Thursday the High Court ruled that the electronic devices and Continue reading »
Created
Wed, 13/11/2024 - 04:51
The US election guru James Carville is credited with putting Bill Clinton in the White House with the slogan “It’s the Economy, Stupid” on his election strategy white board every day of the US Presidential campaign in 1992. The New Zealand Election Study indicates the economy was also front of mind for voters in the Continue reading »