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AS Christmas Day nears and 2025 beckons, I’m reminded of just how swiftly time marches on. It feels like only yesterday when I was elected in 2019. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your business. Message us. Phone us – (02) 4981 8882. Email us – media@newsofthearea.com.au Yet here we...

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THE North East Forest Alliance (NEFA) is continuing its call for an immediate end to the logging of public native forests in response to the Forestry Corporation NSW (FCNSW) posting a loss of $29 million on its hardwood logging operations last year – almost double their loss of the previous year. NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh,...

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MID North Coast architecture practice King and Campbell has won a commendation for a Coffs Harbour project at the Australian Institute of Architects 2025 NSW Regional Architecture Awards. The Commendation for Public Architecture was awarded for their work on the Coffs Harbour Jetty Foreshore Community Building. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth...

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THE just-released City of Coffs Harbour 2023-24 Annual Report shows that the previous Council’s performance was better than many on social media or in election materials would have people believe. Former Mayor Paul Amos told NOTA, “What a great turnaround”. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your business. Message us....

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THE Coffs Harbour Christmas Carols will bring festive cheer to life when nine stellar acts take the stage at Brelsford Park on Saturday, 21 December. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your business. Message us. Phone us – (02) 4981 8882. Email us – media@newsofthearea.com.au Kicking off the evening at...

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Dive into these very interesting and enlightening readings and recorded talks on various topics in Economic Sociology and Political Economy: — “Pick a different theory of liberalism, and you get a different view of its past”. The language of liberal politics is confused, argues Helena Rosenblatt in this essay adapted from her excellent book The […]

The dead and buried past regularly finds itself betrayed by even the most unassuming Judas. In the case of Forestville Video at #14 The Centre, the footfalls in the crypt belong to oversized clown shoes.

Dear Sarah,

What—and I cannot stress this enough—dafuq?

That could be the whole letter, as it really captures the essence of the white-hot, slightly horny rage I feel every time I watch you cockblock yourself with that fucking Nokia, but I honestly feel bad for you, so I’ll spell it out.

YOU SHOULD TURN OFF YOUR PHONE AND FUCK KARL.

Oh my god, girl, how is this even a choice you are weighing??? Here is what we know about your mentally ill brother: He is in some kind of safe, secure facility with professionals to take care of him (and, apparently, give him unlimited phone time). Here is what we know about Karl: He is BURNING LAVA HOT, and his crotch is currently pressed—gently, consensually—against your leg.

Doctor Who: Joy to the World saw Steven Moffat blend clever, timey-wimey laughs with heartfelt tears for a truly perfect Christmas special.

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

I’m a HUGE fan of A Closer Look on the Seth Meyers show. It’s written by Sal Gentile and the supervising producer is Emily Erotas. They have a limited series podcast called A Closer Look Back, talking about what they learned during Trump first term & what they can do to prepare for Trump 2.0. It’s insightful & funny and I highly recommend it. I was on the Nicole Sandler Show on 12-2-2024 singing the praises of Sal and A Closer Look. I mentioned my idea on the show, here it is cued up. Listening to their podcast and Rachel Maddow’s recent show on preparing for Trump’s next term got me thinking. Who has a media and social media strategy to mess with Trump this time around? And, because nothing seems to hurt Trump, who is focusing on busting his nominees & minions? I ask because I don’t see the Dems doing it. I wondered what I can do. Who can I help that I think is doing good work to counter the RW narrative? I looked at what was breaking thru the RW narrative IN MULTIPLE SPACES. One was comedy.

Here’s the poll: A majority of Americans oppose Donald Trump’s plans to use the U.S. military to deport millions of undocumented immigrants, to instruct the U.S. Justice Department to investigate his political rivals and to pardon rioters charged with breaking into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, according to a nationwide Washington Post-University of Maryland poll. Even larger majorities of Americans oppose Trump’s plans to jail reporters for writing stories he doesn’t like and having police use force against anti-Trump protests. The survey of 1,251 Americans was conducted weeks after Trump’s victory and sought to examine public sentiment about positions espoused by the president-elect that challenge democratic principles and strain constitutional norms, as well as views on the legitimacy of American elections after Trump’s win. Trump has claimed a broad mandate for his proposals and has selected cabinet secretaries and other executive branch officials who have expressed eagerness to carry them out.

In our last five-minute scroll for the year, Peter Slezak speaks up at a Gaza rally, while Canadian politician Pierre Poilievre speaks up for Israel bombing Iran. Human Rights Watch has found that Israel has inflicted conditions of life in Gaza calculated to destroy the Palestinian population in Gaza and we give the last word Continue reading »

Once more, many thanks for your contributions to the Happy Hollandaise fundraiser so far. I am so grateful for all who come here every day to read our work and for those of you who support it. Merci beaucoup! When we say these are turbulent times, the only comfort is that the US isn’t the only place it’s happening. While it’s true that few countries have a freak show like the Musk administration, all the leading democracies are under strain. The danger, of course, is that with the whole world under such strain, it’s possible that things could go sideways very quickly. The Wall St Journal reported this over the weekend: One lesson from an unprecedented year of elections around the world is that voters in industrialized countries are particularly unhappy, ready to boot unpopular leaders out of office and making it more difficult for politicians in power to enact bold programs of change. Rarely have the rich world’s political leaders been so widely disliked. No leader of an industrialized country other than tiny Switzerland has a positive rating, according to a survey of some 25 democracies by pollster Morning Consult.

Since the election, there’s been a bipartisan effort in Congress to push legislation that could...

One way that inequality precipitates debt bubbles begins with “relative deprivation.” This concept concerns the discontent people feel when they compare their socio-economic status, measured by income, wealth, consumption, or other indicators of perceived economic welfare, with that of their richer counterparts. Economists have suggested several ways that this discontent may translate into indebtedness. One […]

Ok sure. I’m not sure that an immigrant can be in the line of succession but I’ve never heard otherwise. But why would Musk want such a thing? He can run the country just by pulling Trump’s strings and shitposting on his personal social media platform. Why would he want to do all that dirty work? Just give it Marjorie Taylor Green or some other MAGA cultist and have them do his bidding. I must admit that I’m a little bit surprised that it’s gone so far off the rails already. It’s not even Christmas! This morning Trump is saying that he wants to eliminate the debt ceiling altogether, which is actually a great idea. If that were to happen the Democrats would have to help because his Republican zealots will never vote for it. The big question right now is whether they will do it. I’m torn. It would be great if we could eliminate the debt ceiling. Democrats have been for that ever since the Republicans decided to use it as a weapon to threaten government shutdowns which they did even when Trump was president. (The Democrats never do that.) But should they help the Republicans get over this hump right now?