Today’s Payments System Board meeting discussed the Bank’s targeted self-assessment of Australia's real-time gross settlement system against the relevant international standards, the pricing of New Payments Platform services, competition in the debit card market, improving the security of debit card transactions in the online environment and the results of the Bank's 2022 Consumer Payments Survey.
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Regular readers will know that I have spent quite a lot of time reading the literature in social psychology trying to understand how groups of scholars become crippled with the patterned behaviour that Irving Janis identified as Groupthink in his ground breaking study published in 1972. I feel that my own profession is dominated by…
Actually it was a joke… That’s what happened. It glitched and went silent and people lost connections and they left and then they started a new “space” and only a few people stuck around so hardly anyone heard this catastrophe of an announcement speech. You couldn’t make up a better metaphor. Oh, and a wiseacre took a shot too: When they got it back up, this was an example of the discussion: The cover of The Daily Mail: Meanwhile, the front runner had this to say: Hookay… It must be prescription drugs. Josh Marshall has the full take: Okay, here’s my take. Obviously the tech snafu at the beginning is going to be the irresistible headline. A major fail. The announcement he read was a mess. Once they actually got down to talking, DeSantis is fairly good at talking about the issues that matter to him. But the issue is what matters to him. This is a way way WAY online minded campaign. And really lives within the keyboard warrior world of the right. What are the issues a winning GOP presidential campaign is going to run on?
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I’ve been wondering this for ages. Is he cooperating? He doesn’t seem to be a presence at Mar-a-lago. Is Trump unhappy with him? CNN takes a look at what he’s been up to: In January, as Kevin McCarthy fought to win the House speakership through 15 rounds of grinding votes and late-night sessions at the Capitol, a few blocks away a group of right-wing holdouts huddled with a familiar but surprising source – former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. A founding member of the hardline House Freedom Caucus, Meadows spent years in the House agitating against GOP leadership, trying to move his party increasingly to the right. Now, Meadows was counseling a new batch of Republican rebels, advising them on specific demands to make and gaming out how McCarthy would react to their maneuvering, according to multiple GOP lawmakers who were part of the planning sessions. The group was so taken by Meadows, at one point they considered nominating him for speaker. Meadows ultimately rejected the suggestion, telling lawmakers he preferred to operate behind the scenes. “We talked to him about being speaker.
Why evolving a taste for getting tipsy could prove adaptive.
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Waiting for DeSaster JV Last with some important history of recent primaries: 1. Comebacks I want to take a walk through history to illustrate the fact that presidential primary comebacks happen. And then to explain why I think a DeSantis comeback is not the most likely outcome. Let’s start with a level-set. Here’s where the race stands today: Yes, it’s early. There’s a lot of campaign left. There are known-unknowns lurking in the offices of various prosecutors. These are national polls. There are actuarial tables. But still: Not great for DeSantis. -Trump is over 50 percent. -DeSantis already got his first look. -And his support is waning. Here’s the thing: Usually when a candidate in a divided field is over the 50 percent mark, is growing, and has a 37-point lead, they win. 2004 Democrats Around this time in 2003, Joe Lieberman(!) led the Democratic field. He faded and Howard Dean eventually emerged as the clear frontrunner, with support in the 30s in a large field. We all know what happened: John Kerry surged in Iowa, parlayed that into a win in New Hampshire, and then ran the table. The dynamics of the 2004 race were quite different from 2024.
In general, I think the left focuses too much on national politics, when a lot of the action is happening at the state level. So I want to discuss politics in Michigan, my home state since 1987. Ann Arbor is even more blue than Detroit, but overall Michigan is basically a 50-50 state. Trump won […]
The answer cannot simply come in the form of another list of dos-and-don’ts.
The Black in Drupal Roundtable at DrupalCon Pittsburgh will serve as a forum to exchange ideas and information relevant to the experiences of being black in Drupal. Through this affinity space, we hope to create an environment for open dialogue that can support opportunities for community building and shared experiences. We will discuss topics that help foster a culture of collaboration by providing opportunities to share resources for advancing professional, social, and cultural growth.
The Black in Drupal Needs Assessment is scheduled for 7 June 2023 at 12:30 in Room 326. During this meeting, we will fellowship over lunch and conduct the needs assessment so that we can hear directly from those who identify as Black. This includes anyone who identifies as a member of the African diaspora, from any country, multi/bi-racial and/or multinational.
Simply the best
The future of he world economy is in the hands of fools You’d think dealing with people this stupid would mean that the Democrats have the upper hand. But bargaining with neophytes and nihilists isn’t as easy as you might think. They don’t understand the ramifications of what they are doing: Kevin McCarthy is finally a leading player in a huge Washington drama with his gavel on the line. But as his team sits down with President Joe Biden’s, McCarthy is confronting a handicap that even his allies acknowledge is real: Four years in the minority have left him, and the entire GOP conference, with little practice at monumental bipartisan negotiations like the current debt fight. Before John Boehner became speaker, he worked across the aisle on a landmark education overhaul. Paul Ryan took over the House after helming a massive budget deal that even Democrats called a blueprint for future talks. McCarthy brings a far different profile to the table. As minority leader, he was largely sidelined during the type of high-stakes talks with Democrats that he’s now helming.
America feels above any need to explain its calamitous geostrategic actions. Of course, it has no obligation to. But its character is revealed as being comfortable with threat fabrication, on a grand scale. It is practised at making war on false premise. And appears energised by it, not repentant. Deception, including of allies, is integral Continue reading »
For those familiar with the ongoing prosecution of Julian Assange by the United States, a brutal carnivalesque endeavour that continues to blight that legal system, there is not much to be said. Assange is a political prisoner who must be freed. But the task remains for those like Stella Assange to convince politicians and journalists Continue reading »
To surmount the debt crisis, America needs to stop feeding the Military-Industrial Complex, the most powerful lobby in Washington. In the year 2000, the U.S. government debt was $3.5 trillion, equal to 35% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). By 2022, the debt was $24 trillion, equal to 95% of GDP. The U.S. debt is Continue reading »
American society is going through a phase of polarisation unlike anything seen before, and so far, unparalleled in any other Western democracy. It has given rise to intense feuds among politicians, and makes governing difficult for the White House, most recently aggravated by yet another debt crisis. But why is this happening? The rift is Continue reading »
A new Bill to silence climate protest has provoked a broad chorus of alarm in South Australia. Despite opposition, it seems likely the Bill will pass and South Australia will join the ranks of governments determined to suppress opposition to the fossil fuel industry. The 2023 Australian Petroleum Producers and Explorers Association National Conference took Continue reading »