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START your fundraising now for The Amazing Scavenger Hunt Scramble in support of Coffs Harbour Youth Community Radio 104.1 CHYFM. “We are launching The Amazing Scavenger Hunt Scramble now for those interested in being part of this event, with plenty of time to get their team together and start fundraising,” 104.1 CHYFM Station Manager Angie...

The post The Amazing Scavenger Hunt Scramble launched by 104.1 CHYFM appeared first on News Of The Area.

DARWIN-BASED artist Alana Hunt has been announced as the winner of the STILL: National Still Life Award 2023. Announced at the exhibition’s opening event on Saturday 7 October at Coffs’ Yarrila Arts and Museum (YAM), Alana Hunt’s winning work ‘… and fled swiftly (i and ii) 2022’ is a photographic digital print awarded the prize...

The post Darwin artist Alana Hunt wins STILL National Still Life Award 2023 appeared first on News Of The Area.

“INCREDIBLY rewarding” is how legendary local surfboard maker Mitchell Rae describes being inducted into the International Surfboard Builders’ Hall of Fame. “I am truly honoured,” Mitchell told News Of The Area. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your business. Message us. Phone us – (02) 4981 8882. Email us –...

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A MORNING tea was held recently to celebrate Pauline Cahill, a treasured member of QUOTA Pacific Coast who passed away in March 2023. QUOTA hosted the tea at Shearwater Lodge with members of the Board attending to share memories. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your business. Message us. Phone...

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THE Men’s Health Education Rural Van (MHERV) is back on the Coffs Coast providing free basic health screening. It will be in Sawtell in First Avenue on Friday 13 October and at Bunnings Coffs Harbour on Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 October from 9:30am until 3:30pm. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth...

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IT’S MACRO Muster time and the organising environmental charity, OzGREEN, is inviting residents to participate. The citizen science event in Bellingen takes place on Friday 20 October from 4:00pm until 6:30pm, followed by a free community dinner. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your business. Message us. Phone us –...

The post Join the Macro Muster – a citizen science adventure connecting the community appeared first on News Of The Area.

HUNGRY people in Coffs Harbour filled their tummies on October’s Labour Day public holiday, a day traditionally uncatered to the hungry. Feeding those who do not have access to food kitchens on public holidays is a new venture for Coffs Harbour Lions Club whose members are keen to stave off starvation for the vulnerable around...

The post Coffs Lions Club fires up the BBQ to feed the hungry on the public holiday appeared first on News Of The Area.

There have been several interrelated strands in research and practice associated with the dominance of neoliberalism over the last decades. The problem has been that these approaches have been as much enthusiastically promoted by social democratic or progressive forces as they have conservatives. Indeed, conservative political forces have gone down the ‘Trumpian’ far right sink…

More than 100 former J Street staffers and campus activists blasted the group’s push for a hawkish Israel resolution that ignores Palestinians.

The post J Street Alumni Condemn “Pro-Peace” Group for Opposing Gaza Ceasefire appeared first on The Intercept.

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

It’s the electoral college, stupid This piece by an expert on the electoral college made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. The US political system is just nuts enough right now for this to happen: Most of the concern over the independent presidential campaigns of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Cornel West and the No Labels party has focused on the risk that they could draw votes away from President Biden and throw the 2024 election to Donald Trump. That’s understandable, given what happened in 2000 and 2016. But there is another reason to fear these candidacies, and it’s right there in the Constitution: a contingent election decided by the House of Representatives, arguably the worst part of the Electoral College system. Ask people who don’t like the Electoral College — that’s roughly two-thirds of Americans — and they will point to its occasional habit of awarding the presidency to the candidate who comes in second in the popular vote. This fundamental violation of majority rule has happened five times — in 1824, 1876, 1888, 2000 and 2016.

They have no mechanism for fixing it as long as MAGA reigns Even if they finally manage to pick a speaker, they will find it impossible to govern. The inmates are running the asylum. Matt Ford at TNR: For three years in the thirteenth century, there was no pope. The cardinals who gathered in the small Italian town of Viterbo after Clement IV’s death in 1268 could not agree on a successor. A group of French cardinals hoped to elect one of their own to lead the church, while the others feared France’s influence in the Italian peninsula. A deadlock ensued, until the people of Viterbo locked the cardinals into a church, cut their rations, and removed its roof. Maybe someone should do that to the House of Representatives. The lower house of Congress is no closer to electing a new speaker since a renegade GOP faction ousted Kevin McCarthy earlier this month. If anything, it’s strayed even further away from that goal. Earlier this week, the House Republican caucus internally elected Majority Leader Steve Scalise as the party’s nominee for speaker. Then, unsurprisingly, everything fell apart.

A war with China may not be inevitable, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks observed recently, but it’s a genuine possibility and so this country must be prepared to fight and win. But victory in such a conflict will not, she suggested, come easily. China enjoys an advantage in certain measures of military power, including the number of ships, guns, and missiles it can deploy. While America’s equivalents may be more advanced and capable, they also cost far more to produce and so can only be procured in smaller numbers. To overcome such a dilemma in any future conflict, Hicks suggested, our costly crewed weapons systems must be accompanied by hordes of uncrewed autonomous ships, planes, and tanks. To ensure... Read more

Source: Swarms vs. Swarms appeared first on TomDispatch.com.

Sounds pretty good to me.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton, buoyed by the boost in polls he has received after spending weeks trashing the Voice, has told colleagues that he will look to win the next election with his signature policy, a return of the white... Read More ›

but…. Alexandra Petri’s latest:  The word “But” has been stunned to find itself appearing in an increasing number of sentences that begin “The killing of children is never acceptable … ” After finding itself in yet another Instagram comment, preceded by the phrases “I am devastated to read about the loss of life” and “I deplore the killing of civilians, especially children,” the word “But” described itself as “horrified” to be included. Although it did not specify what sentiment came after it — possibilities included the phrases “should have had different parents,” and a reference to making omelets and breaking eggs — “But” took to social media to beseech other posters to avoid making this mistake.

Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – October 15, 2023

by Tony Wikrent

 

Strategic Political Economy

US science agencies on track to hit 25-year funding low 

[Nature, via Naked Capitalism 10-11-2023]

The Smart Corporate Tax Idea That Might Have Prevented the UAW Strike

Jessica Church, October 9, 2023 [washingtonmonthly]

Geoff Pryor on Benjamin Netanyahu’s strategy towards Palestinians in Gaza Continue reading »

October 14, 2023 will be remembered by many as the day reconciliation died. The defeat of the referendum may not have surprised many of us, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. After all, we have become accustomed to disappointment. Nonetheless, it is a devastating and demoralising blow. We must take stock of this political disaster Continue reading »

I don’t think it’s too controversial or anti-American to suggest that our long-term strategic partner has been having a few issues lately. We may have grown used to people in the US shooting each other in large numbers, taking too many drugs, and generally over-indulging in self-destructive and planet destroying ways, but we still expected Continue reading »

In the 1970s a study was undertaken into aspects of management in the Department of Defence. When an honest, conscientious and mildly critical report was provided to the Department’s Secretary, Sir Arthur Tange, he scrawled “CRANSTON” on its front page and gave the relevant file a stiff security classification. “CRANSTON” was the name of a Continue reading »

Certainly, Dutton has demonstrated that disinformation, division and some outright lies can confuse and motivate large sections of the community. There is the whiff of a Pyrrhic victory in the Dutton and No wins on Saturday. Certainly, Dutton has demonstrated that disinformation, division and some outright lies can confuse and motivate large sections of the Continue reading »