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Camp Oven enthusiasts flock to Nymboida festival

https://www.newsofthearea.com.au/camp-oven-enthusiasts-flock-to-nymboida-festiv…
Created
Mon, 19/06/2023 - 14:35

DID you know there are thousands of camp oven enthusiasts in Australia? In fact, there are 350,000 members on one Facebook group alone – just sharing recipes. 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 Fancy kangaroo meatballs...

The post Camp Oven enthusiasts flock to Nymboida festival appeared first on News Of The Area.

Coffs Harbour’s Billie-Jo Porter launches debut country music album

https://www.newsofthearea.com.au/coffs-harbours-billie-jo-porter-launches-debut…
Created
Mon, 19/06/2023 - 11:49

RISING country music star Billie-Jo Porter admits she’s taken the long way round to releasing her self-titled first album. “But boy has it been worth the wait,” she said. 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 The...

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Calls for City of Coffs Harbour to take action on Woolgoolga’s Whale Trail project

https://www.newsofthearea.com.au/calls-for-city-of-coffs-harbour-to-take-action…
Created
Mon, 19/06/2023 - 11:43

KEVIN Hogan, the Federal Member for Page, announced $1.1 million in funding four years ago to build an iconic Whale Trail project for Woolgoolga. The project was to include pedestrian access, viewing platforms, car parking, seating and picnic shelters, landscaping and revegetation, and a fitness node. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth...

The post Calls for City of Coffs Harbour to take action on Woolgoolga’s Whale Trail project appeared first on News Of The Area.

QOTD: Ya think?

https://digbysblog.net/2023/06/18/qotd-ya-think/
Created
Mon, 19/06/2023 - 10:00
Imagine reading this 10 years ago in the Washington Post: “A conviction and a decisive defeat at the ballot box might force Trump from the political scene and cause the Republican Party to move in a different direction, although in an era of close elections, the prospect of 2024 producing a blowout in either direction remains doubtful — and even that would not necessarily cleanse the system.” “A conviction and a decisive defeat at the ballot box might” force Trump out of politics? And maybe it would cause the Republican party to sober up? If that doesn’t do it, what would? Violence, I guess. Great.

I am Zaphod Beeblebrox

https://www.profstevekeen.com/2023/06/18/i-am-zaphod-beeblebrox/
Created
Mon, 19/06/2023 - 08:32
If those words mean absolutely nothing to you, please buy The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy now. If your local bookshop is too many planetary systems away, you can buy it from local outlet of the one of the great publishing corporations of Ursa Minor at https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Hitchhikers-Guide-Galaxy-Boxset/dp/1529044197/ or https://www.amazon.com/Hitchhikers-Guide-Galaxy-Douglas-Adams-ebook/dp/B000XUBC2C/. Read at least the first volume … Continue reading "I am Zaphod Beeblebrox"

Stealing nuclear documents used to be a very big no-no

https://digbysblog.net/2023/06/18/stealing-nuclear-documents-used-to-be-a-very-…
Created
Mon, 19/06/2023 - 08:30
Trump did it so it’s ok now Reuters reports that even if Trump was allowed to declassify documents in his mind, which is, of course, ridiculous, he couldn’t have declassifed the nuclear document they found among his hoard: Even when he was president, Donald Trump lacked the legal authority to declassify a U.S. nuclear weapons-related document that he is charged with illegally possessing, security experts said, contrary to the former U.S. president’s claim. The secret document, listed as No. 19 in the indictment charging Trump with endangering national security, can under the Atomic Energy Act only be declassified through a process that by the statute involves the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense. For that reason, the experts said, the nuclear document is unique among the 31 in the indictment because the declassification of the others is governed by executive order. “The claim that he (Trump) could have declassified it is not relevant in the case of the nuclear weapons information because it was not classified by executive order but by law,” said Steven Aftergood, a government secrecy expert with the Federation of American Scientists.

Bobby we hardly know ye

https://digbysblog.net/2023/06/18/bobby-we-hardly-know-ye/
Created
Mon, 19/06/2023 - 07:00
“A Tulsi Gabbard drag king act” For those of you who wisely don’t follow twitter, the ere was a brouhaha over the weekend over RFK Jr’s appearance on the Joe Rogan podcast in which he blathered about his anti-vax nonsense with Rogan the idiot dupe believing every word. Elon Musk joined in on twitter affirming RFK and somehow Rogan called out Dr Peter Hotez (a world renowned virologist and expert on vaccines) for refusing to “debate” him on his show on the subject. Let’s just say,m the stupid was very, very strong. Here’s one thread that explains RFK’s idiocy from someone who actually understands the science. You may not want to go that deep into the weeds but if you do, it’s interesting. Mehdi Hasan says it best: It would be easy to ignore all this but the anti-vax faction in America got a lot of people killed and they want to keep doing it. Meanwhile, RFK Jr is being promoted all over the right for equally nefarious reasons. As Tim Miller says here, it’s basically become a ratfucking operation:

To honour Daniel Ellsberg, we must reject a US war over Taiwan

https://johnmenadue.com/to-honour-daniel-ellsberg-we-must-reject-a-us-war-over-…
Created
Mon, 19/06/2023 - 04:58
Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers fame, died on June 16. Asked about his decision to dispute the Nixon White House claims about US progress in the Vietnam war, Ellsberg said he had one regret. ‘I waited too long to release those papers. The bombs were already falling.’ From his death bed he stressed the value Continue reading »

The Western fantasy of a Taiwanese proxy war against China

https://johnmenadue.com/the-western-fantasy-of-a-taiwanese-proxy-war-against-ch…
Created
Mon, 19/06/2023 - 04:57
The Western hope that Taiwan could serve as a catalyst for an attack of China seems likely to remain the fantasy it always was. I first knew Taiwan in the sixties – dirt poor and brutally oppressive. A well-known lawyer, Duan-Mu Kai, I came to know spent his time rescuing from execution people falsely accused Continue reading »

Is PWC Australia a criminal organisation?

https://johnmenadue.com/is-pwc-australia-a-criminal-organisation/
Created
Mon, 19/06/2023 - 04:55
Secrecy and the need to ensure natural justice for Peter Collins & other PWC Australia staff who received or used confidential information, prevents disclosure of the specific offences being investigated by the Australian Federal Police (AFP). But there will be no shortage of possible offences to investigate. They range from a breach of tax secrecy Continue reading »

Coles and Woolworths: The deadly duopoly

https://johnmenadue.com/coles-and-woolworths-the-deadly-duopoly/
Created
Mon, 19/06/2023 - 04:53
Bob Katter is not known for his searching socio-economic analysis, but when he rails in Parliament that it is an indictment of Australia’s banana republic economy that Coles and Woolworths have long toppled manufacturing companies as the largest private sector employers in Australia, it is hard to argue with his logic. Australia has the veneer Continue reading »

Asian economic heft keeps Russia’s economy afloat

https://johnmenadue.com/asian-economic-heft-keeps-russias-economy-afloat/
Created
Mon, 19/06/2023 - 04:51
Thirty-seven countries have imposed economic sanctions on Russia since its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The breadth of this campaign has few precedents in recent history. The sanctions covering finance, energy, technology, travel, shipping, avionics and commodities are aimed at one of the 10 largest world economies. Yet the economic pressure on Moscow is Continue reading »

The mainstream media’s unwillingness to challenge U.S. militarisation

https://johnmenadue.com/the-mainstream-medias-unwillingness-to-challenge-u-s-mi…
Created
Mon, 19/06/2023 - 04:49
The Washington Post finally conceded in an editorial recently that the United States must “spend smarter” when it comes to defence. Instead of looking for ways to cut defence spending, however, the Post simply wants to spend differently. It favours more spending on conventional and nuclear-armed submarines, despite the huge U.S. advantage in both power Continue reading »

They’ve come together at last

https://digbysblog.net/2023/06/18/theyve-come-together-at-last/
Created
Mon, 19/06/2023 - 04:00
I’m so old I remember when that book caused the religious right to have a hysterical meltdown. Good times. Salon’s Kathryn Joyce takes a look at this emerging coalition of conservative American Muslims and far right Christians protesting gay rights. She notes that one of the hotspots of this activism is oddly in Southern California where there has been a number of large protests. “In covering the far-right in LA and Southern California,” tweeted local photographer and journalist Joey Scott, “[i]t is always the same people who have been fixtures since even before 2020.” Others noted that many of the concerned “conservative parents” cited in media reports didn’t seem to “even know which school district they are protesting.”  “From Los Angeles to Glendale, it is clear that organized white-supremacist, fascist forces such as the Proud Boys, the Patriot Front and potentially others are specifically targeting LGBTQ+ students, families and educators,” wrote the labor union United Teachers Los Angeles in a statement.

How does it feel?

https://digbysblog.net/2023/06/18/how-does-it-feel-2/
Created
Mon, 19/06/2023 - 00:30
Turn in your hymnals to….. Inflation is down. In fact, it is down to four percent from its four-decade high of 9.1 percent last June, writes John Cassidy in The New Yorker. But that seems not to have penetrated public consciousness. President Biden is getting little credit for the improvement, pushed out of the headlines by the Trump indictment. Perhaps also, Cassidy suggests, because there are lags between numerical improvements and people’s perceptions. Biden’s approval ratings have not recovered like the economic indicators. Egg prices have plummeted since avian flu sent them skyrocketing in 2022. But prices are still more than 80 percent higher than in January 2021. “The price of gasoline is another example. At about $3.70 a gallon, the average price across the country has fallen considerably since last year’s peak of $5.10 a gallon,” Cassidy reports. “But the price is still well above its January, 2021, level, which was about $2.50 a gallon.” Other consumer prices remain higher. Consumers still feel pinched: Figures like these leave the White House in a bind. Even though inflation, job growth, and G.D.P.