Characters from the best selling children’s book “The Super Competitive Parent Who Has To Be Best At Everything” are once again the most popular choice of costume for Book Week. “We’re expecting to see heaps of students turning up dressed... Read More ›
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Donating clothes is a common practice for many. When people no longer have use for their clothes, when they no longer fit, or when they simply no longer like them, donating seems like a much better option than throwing them out. We think that by donating our clothes, we are contributing to both an environmental, and a social good. However, this seemingly altruistic practice may in fact be doing more harm than we realise.
Most donated clothes are never resold locally and are instead exported to other countries, with countries in the Global North being the largest exporters, and countries in the Global South being the largest importers. While some garments are then resold within the importing country, an estimated 40% of second hand clothing imports are declared to be unsuitable for reuse or resale, subsequently ending up in landfill, and worsening already struggling waste management systems. This begs the question of whether this practice is best described as ‘dumping’ rather than ‘donating’.
Yes there is such a thing Probably my favorite part of the election season is stuff like this. Here’s one for Trump from 2016:
Western Australia Senator Linda Reynolds is already embroiled in a bruising defamation fight against her former staffer Brittany Higgins. Now, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is reportedly considering suing independent MP Zali Steggall after she told him to “stop being racist”. It has become impossible to miss the fact that our political class – including some who invoke freedom of speech while Continue reading »
The headline in the Weekend Australian said it all: NT Bases Key to American War Plans. Republican Congressman Michael McCaul, the Chair of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, told The Australian, after a ten day visit to Australia that our geography offered key advantages to the US “as it sought to deter Chinese Continue reading »
As Israel’s genocidal war against Gaza continues unabated, the Israeli economy is facing a catastrophe. The physical destruction in Israel from the war has been minimal, but one thing has been destroyed: its future. It is unheard of when the headlines of Israel’s mainstream newspapers and the slogans of the BDS movement are almost identical. Continue reading »
Pillar 2 is a thing that AUKUS created: it appears at different times and with different meanings and possibilities and yet is not entirely, or even at all, predictable because the initial conditions and predicate logic on which it depends are themselves illusions or fabrications of the collective mind of those who constructed it in Continue reading »
“Everything begins with a dream” – Rumi This dream stays with me as we observe more days this week in which the decisions of various leaderships, who seem never to meet each other, kill other people and their children; destroying homes and communities. Through the UN Secretary General there is to be a UN Summit Continue reading »
ABC chair Kim Williams reckons the Corporation should focus more on hard news than lifestyle fillers. While purging the pap, he might also look at how some stories get told, particularly to international audiences. This is a competitive market, with the US, Brits, French, Russians, Chinese, Qatar, South Korea, the Japanese and others telecasting in Continue reading »
A number of new studies highlight an embarrassing fact: Australia is playing a not insubstantial and growing role in slowing the reduction of global carbon emissions. By diligently increasing the development of unwanted new gas and coal fields we are only adding to Trump’s exhortation ‘drill baby drill’ with ‘drill mate drill’. Reversing these policies Continue reading »
Earlier this year the Adelaide-based Australian Friends of Palestine Association planned and delivered a campaign to protest WOMADelaide, Adelaide’s premier music festival. The board of this festival had defended and lauded Zionist supporter, Ziggy Marley, and promoted political activism from a Ukrainian group. Meanwhile a Palestinian group, 47 Soul, was disinvited from this event. Our Continue reading »
I’ll confess that I got a little teary last night at the ovations for Biden. It was nice to see him get a little love from the party. His accomplishments have gone largely unappreciated by the public and his decision to withdraw from the race had to be incredibly difficult. He deserves all the appreciation we can give him for all of it. David Leonhardt had an interesting piece today about Biden’s legacy. And he defined him perfectly as a man who travelled his whole career in the mainstream of the party, whether more right or left as the party felt the times required. But Biden has not simply gone with the Democratic flow. Over his more than 50 years in politics, he has periodically shown strong opinions about how his party should change — and helped it do so. Biden has always understood the class resentments that many Americans feel. (If you haven’t read Robert Draper’s profile of Biden for The Times Magazine, I recommend it, including the section in which Biden analyzes George W. Bush.) Biden’s political career began in 1972, when he defeated an incumbent Republican senator in Delaware even as Richard Nixon won a landslide.
But what do I know? Judy Woodruff reports that as the administration is trying hard to get a cease fire and hostage release in Gaza, Donald Trump is on the phone exhorting his buddy Netanyahu not to do it. How can this be ok? More importantly how have we come to the point where it’s just a passing comment instead of front page news? I realize that the Logan Act is pretty much a joke. And there are certainly previous examples of Republicans doing this for political gain during an election (I’m looking at you Nixon and Reagan.) But it’s still not right, especially now what with Trump being a convicted criminal and a fascist and all. The media should never treat this as normal but they especially shouldn’t be doing it now.
Dear Parental Group LLC,
Thank you so much for responding to my most recent proposal request for “Fun Stuff I Can Do.” Unfortunately, I won’t be moving forward with the course of action your organization provided. Please be assured that I closely reviewed the package you submitted, and I decided to reject your “Attend Kindergarten” project proposal after careful consideration of all the selection criteria, the use of a Nerf dart board, and pure gut instinct.
For your edification, the criterion proposal review and selection included the following:
1. Familiarity with Proposed Project
2. Screen Time Opportunity Cost
3. Level of Imagined Fun
4. My Mood at the Time of Review.
You may be wondering where Tom Sullivan is today. Well, as he has vaguely mentioned, much more humbly than he should have, he’s in Chicago as a delegate to the DNC this week. That’s him above with rising star Anderson Clayton the chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party. Tom recognized Clayton as a singular talent some time ago and worked to help elect her to the post. North Carolina may very well be in play this election. At the very least Clarton and Sullivan are going to make Trump fight for it. I couldn’t feel more privileged than to have Tom writing here every day for all these years. He’s out there getting done.
Not everything, that’s for sure. Here's Raphael Warnock's full speech. This is an important address for MAGA to hear because he went hard after Donald Trump for rejecting Christianity. It's a message that Fox didn't air for even a second live. pic.twitter.com/i9Q9b4RMTl — Matthew Sheffield (@mattsheffield) August 20, 2024 Matthew Sheffield watched Fox News’ coverage of the DNC last night and found that they censored the Black politicians except for Kamala Harris’ brief remarks. Seriously. They did not show the speeches by Karen Bass, Laphonza Butler, James Clyburn, Jasmine Crockett, or Raphael Warnock. They also didn’t show the speech by Sean Fein, which says everything: Another very powerful speech which Fox did not air for even one second was by UAW president Shawn Fein. This was a really important address because Fein meticulously showed how Donald Trump pretends to support working people but never actually does so. Here it is in full. pic.twitter.com/6XhZEbvfV7 — Matthew Sheffield (@mattsheffield) August 20, 2024 The crowd erupted into “Trump’s a scab” chants repeatedly. I can only imagine how much that irritated him.