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Australia has just completed major reviews of two of its largest public expenditures – the NDIS and Employment Services. Each program manifests problems predicted by two lesser-known economic theories: the Jevons Paradox in the case of the NDIS and Goodhart’s Law in the case of employment services. Neither were mentioned in either review. Today I Continue reading »

Climate experts have issued a grim warning for Australians this summer, predicting that 2023 will be the hottest year on record. While the Australian government has recognised the threat of climate change and has committed billions of dollars in disaster relief and the energy transition, the challenges and opportunities they present are unlikely to be Continue reading »

In all our lives we get to a point where we have to draw lines in the sand. Sometimes those lines are in the relationships we forge, and sometimes they are in the movements we occupy. Many criminalised people struggle with drawing those lines. For many of us, our boundaries and lines haven’t been respected Continue reading »

The outcome of US-led conflicts in Ukraine and West Asia will have a profound impact on the developing world order. Washington has already lost the former, and its major adversaries are vested in making sure it loses the latter too. Republished from The Cradle, 2 January 2024 Geopolitical analysts broadly agree that the war in Continue reading »

But there are moments when you realize it is setting:

The people of the mountain have checkmated the people of the sea. As commenter VietnamVet wrote:

THE COFFS Coast Ocean Swims have been scheduled to take place on Sunday 7 April at the Jetty in Coffs Harbour. “In setting the date there were a number of things to consider,” Race Director Kerry Bayliss from Sawtell Surf Lifesaving Club told News Of The Area. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s...

The post Date set for Coffs Coast Ocean Swims appeared first on News Of The Area.

THE Coffs Harbour Branch of the Australian Native Bee Association (ANBA) has installed a native beehive at the Coffs Coast Wildlife Sanctuary (CCWS) as part of its Host a Hive program. This is the second hive installed by the Branch, the first being located in the North Coast Regional Botanic Garden in Coffs Harbour. Advertise...

The post Bee educated at Coffs Wildlife Sanctuary appeared first on News Of The Area.

THE private garden of the Coffs and Woolgoolga Garden Clubs’ Vice President Sheena Peden and partner David is the setting for the group’s Friendship Day on Thursday 25 January. The garden, at 208 Heritage Drive, Moonee Beach, welcomes visitors from 10am to 12noon. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your...

The post Coffs and Woolgoolga Garden Club Friendship Day invites you in appeared first on News Of The Area.

A YOUNG man from the Hunter region has tragically died after his vehicle hit a tree in Woolgoolga. At about 5.50pm last Friday, 5 January emergency services responded to reports a vehicle had crashed into a tree along Lakes Road, Woolgoolga. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your business. Message...

The post Investigations continue after fatal crash at Woolgoolga claims young life appeared first on News Of The Area.

Sanity? Will it last? Following up on Tom’s post below about the Haley-Biden voters, check this out from Greg Sargent who is now at the New Republic: Last month, Trump said of the hundreds of people charged or convicted in relation to January 6, “I don’t call them prisoners. I call them hostages.” Then on Meet the Press last Sunday, Stefanik brashly echoed his language: “I have concerns about the treatment of January 6 hostages.” The way vulnerable Republicans ran from this is telling. “They’re criminal defendants, not hostages,” said Representative Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania.

Your polls will blow Don’s mind Donald Trump will take this personally. NBC News: DES MOINES, Iowa — Most likely Republican Iowa caucusgoers say they’ll vote for former President Donald Trump in the general election if he’s the GOP nominee, regardless of the candidate they’re supporting on caucus night. That is, except supporters of former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, with nearly half of them — 43% — saying they’d vote for Democratic President Joe Biden over Trump. These new findings from the latest NBC News/Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll of Iowa further illustrate the degree to which Haley is bringing in support from independents, Democrats and Republicans who have been uneasy with Trump’s takeover of the GOP. Fully half of her Iowa caucus supporters are independents or crossover Democrats, according to the survey results. Overall, Haley took 20% for second place in the survey, compared to 48% for Trump. The poll also shows three-quarters of caucusgoers believing Trump can defeat Biden despite the former president’s legal challenges.

I’ve been taking photography seriously for 17 years now. And every year I assemble a 6 x 6 “poster” of my best photos from each year. So that makes 612 photos on those poster. Here’s one of the very first, from January 2007, and taken with a 1 megapixel Fuji point-and-shoot.

This week, The Lever led national coverage of the Boeing debacle and more.

“The only thing we’re not doing is shooting people” “The only thing we’re not doing is shooting people who come across the border, because of course the Biden Administration would charge us with murder,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott told Dana Loesch last week. But Texas will let them drown. We’ll come back to that. “The cruelty is the point,” Texas resident Adam Serwer famously wrote. Cruelty is also the policy. Don’t say you weren’t warned or missed the signals. There is already ash settling on your windowsills. First, this reminder: “The leading GOP presidential contender is using an admitted hit man and lifelong criminal as a character reference. Take a second to reflect on that.” — Luis Moreno, former U.S. Ambassador, retired Foreign Service Officer. In case you missed it on Saturday, Donald Trump jumped the loan shark. Trump is not flying solo either (CBS): A woman and two children drowned in the Rio Grande on Friday while trying to enter the U.S.

Netanyahu may continue digging, but history has already been written: the spirit of the Palestinian people has won over Israel’s death machine.

The post 100 Days of War: Palestinian Resistance Will Be Netanyahu’s Downfall appeared first on MintPress News.

Gov. Mike Parson dissolved a panel that was reinvestigating Williams’s case before it could report its findings.

The post Crime Scene DNA Didn’t Match Marcellus Williams. Missouri May Fast-Track His Execution Anyway. appeared first on The Intercept.

I came into this world on April 4, 1956. 12 years later, to the day, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. left it. My intention is not to attach any particular significance to that kismet, apart from the fact that I have since felt somewhat ambiguous about “celebrating” my birthdays (I could push the weird cosmic coincidence factor further by adding Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated 2 months later on June 5th, 1968 – my parents’ wedding anniversary…cue the Twilight Zone theme). But this holiday weekend is about celebrating Dr. King’s birthday; so I have curated 10 songs to honor his legacy: “Abraham, Martin, & John” – Late 50s-early 60s teen idol Dion DiMucci reinvented himself as a socially-conscious folk singer in 1968 with this heartfelt performance of Dick Holler’s beautifully written tribute to JFK, RFK, and MLK. Seems they all die young… “Blues for Martin Luther King” – In 1968, music was our social media. The great Otis Spann gives us the news and preaches the blues. Feel his pain, for it is ours as well. “400 Years” – The struggle began long before Dr.

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

That ad above was from 2020 and the same group is doing ads like this again on a larger scale for 2024. This is a great idea, in my opinion. Everyone says that the only way most people can be persuaded is if the message comes from people with whom they identify or trust. Yes, a lot of them will say this is AI or fake news but the ones who haven’t completely gone down the wingnut rabbit hole might feel the truth in it and respond: Democrats began the search last summer, fanning out through the northern swing states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania to find the nurses, electricians, farmers and floor installers who could best testify to the danger of Donald Trump returning to power. The previously unreported project by the outside group American Bridge 21st Century developed 732 leads, conducted 472 interviews and then filmed about 50 voters who will anchor a $140 million ad campaign starting this spring, aimed at reminding women and working-class voters why they voted against Trump in 2020, according to the group’s leaders.

Ashley just had a baby: She’s sitting on the couch in a relative’s apartment in Clarksdale, Miss., wearing camo-print leggings and fiddling with the plastic hospital bracelets still on her wrists. It’s August and pushing 90 degrees, which means the brown patterned curtains are drawn, the air conditioner is on high, and the room feels like a hiding place. Peanut, the baby boy she delivered two days earlier, is asleep in a car seat at her feet, dressed in a little blue outfit. Ashley is surrounded by family, but nobody is smiling. One relative silently eats lunch in the kitchen, her two siblings stare glumly at their phones, and her mother, Regina, watches from across the room. Ashley was discharged from the hospital only hours ago, but there are no baby presents or toys in the room, no visible diapers or ointments or bottles. Almost nobody knows that Peanut exists, because almost nobody knew that Ashley was pregnant. She is 13 years old. Soon she’ll start seventh grade. It’s a nightmare: In the fall of 2022, Ashley was raped by a stranger in the yard outside her home, her mother says.

That’s a fellow from The God Liars. Lol. “Our little snowflake”