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Created
Wed, 07/08/2024 - 08:30
Once you know my age my musical tastes as a teenager are very easy to guess. Obviously Dylan, Mitchell, the Kinks and the Beatles – equally obviously not the Stones or the Who. Richard Thompson, Sandy Denny, Fairport, Steeleye Span, Roy Harper, The Watersons, Carthy, etc, etc and more than any of them, Kevin Coyne. […]
Created
Wed, 07/08/2024 - 08:05
Why Are the British Race Riots Happening?

We’ll start with the proximate:

As mobs attempt to burn down hotels housing asylum seekers, don’t forget Nigel Farage led a campaign to publicise these hotels. He recorded himself turning up at a series of them in 2020 and asked his followers to identify more hotels, saying some residents “might be ISIS”.

Then let’s move backwards:

First there’s been a lot of anti-Muslim propaganda thru the years, including entire TV and movie eras where the most common villains.

Second is a sustained right wing campaign complaining about demographic replacement and stating that immigrants are more likely be criminals than natives.

Created
Wed, 07/08/2024 - 06:30
This piece in Axios suggests that the Harris campaign sees some opportunities beyond the big upper midwest as their route to victory. Whether that’s real or just a feint, it’s probably a good sign that they’re able to spend money and deploy resources even if it’s just to force the Republicans to do the same: Georgia, Arizona and North Carolina — which had looked to be trending toward former President Trump — are suddenly crackling battlegrounds online, on the airwaves and on the ground. Pennsylvania is still the most important state where both campaigns are going all-in. But the Harris campaign is fielding an army of enthused volunteers and piles of cash as it eyes a broader field of play.In the past two weeks, the Harris campaign has added 370,000 new volunteers — including 15,500 in Georgia, 21,000 in Arizona, and 10,500 in North Carolina — three states with diverse or changing electorate. In Georgia, 100,000 votes are up for grabs, former Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan (R) told Axios in an interview. “Kamala Harris puts all of those votes back in play,” Duncan said.
Created
Wed, 07/08/2024 - 05:00
The more people see that decrepit Liberace clone the Republicans are running for president up against Kamala Harris, the worse he looks: A Morning Consult poll published Monday revealed that voters are suddenly viewing Trump as the decrepit candidate after Biden dropped his campaign. Americans are apparently far more likely to describe Vice President Kamala Harris as healthy, mentally fit, and a strong leader than the 78-year-old Republican presidential nominee. According to the poll, 71 percent of respondents agreed that Harris was “in good health,” while 52 percent said the same about Trump—6 percent fewer than believed the same about Trump when Biden was the presumptive Democratic nominee. The number of respondents who thought that Trump was “mentally fit” for the job also dropped. Roughly 64 percent of respondents believed that Harris was mentally fit, while just 48 percent believed the same about Trump—a 5 percent drop from before Biden withdrew. Meanwhile, the number of respondents who believed that Trump is too old for the job rose.
Created
Wed, 07/08/2024 - 04:58
On 29 July, 2024, Dr José Ramos-Horta, President of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste met in Beijing with Chinese People’s Republic President Xi Jinping to upgrade the relationship between the two countries to “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership”. On the one hand Ramos Horta punctured Canberra fears of a Timor-Leste – China Security Agreement, but on the Continue reading »
Created
Wed, 07/08/2024 - 04:56
On 6 Aug, 1945, approximately 200,000 people in the hitherto untouched town of Hiroshima perished in the worlds first use of a nuclear weapon in anger. On 9th Aug, a somewhat smaller number in Nagasaki likewise perished. Only the authority of secretary of state Stimson, who had visited the city of Kyoto, famous for its Continue reading »
Created
Wed, 07/08/2024 - 04:55
Patricia Karvelas’s article reflecting on the Labor government’s ‘timid’, ‘pragmatic’, ‘realistic’ change of course in pursuit of bipartisanship on Indigenous affairs made for uber-depressing reading (ABC News, online, ‘Timidity reigns as Anthony Albanese backs away from Makarrata at Garma Festival’, 5th August). It confirmed that the institutional racism prosecuted by the No campaign, is alive Continue reading »
Created
Wed, 07/08/2024 - 04:54
Two news items last week completely reversed the economic outlooks in Australia and America. In Australia, the trimmed mean inflation rate for June was 3.8%, which was below the 4.0% expected. This convinced economist that the RBA won’t increase its cash rate in August but instead will reduce it later this year if inflation keeps Continue reading »
Created
Wed, 07/08/2024 - 04:53
Much has been made by the International Education Industry of a 2023-24 Treasury estimate that 84 percent of overseas students go home. Apart from the accuracy of this estimate over ten years after the Knight Review recommendations were implemented, the Industry argues that because a large percentage of students go home, there is no need Continue reading »
Created
Wed, 07/08/2024 - 04:52
In response to riots, attacks on police, and destruction of property in numerous British cities, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer says ‘I utterly condemn the right wing thuggery we have witnessed this week-end.’ To hold perpetrators of violence accountable, he promises the full weight of the law: arrests, convictions and sentencing. A more immediate task, Continue reading »
Created
Wed, 07/08/2024 - 04:50
People often object to criticisms of Israel’s ongoing mass atrocity in Gaza by saying, “Well what SHOULD Israel have done in response to October 7 then?” They say it like the question should confound you, as though it’s some kind of thought-terminating unanswerable Zen koan or something. But it isn’t. The question is very answerable, Continue reading »