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A REFINED draft masterplan for the Coffs Harbour Jetty Foreshore Redevelopment, which takes in the latest community feedback, has been released. Member for Coffs Harbour Gurmesh Singh was joined by The Observatory Apartments manager Lydia Crossingham and Project Steering Advisory Committee member Cath Fowler at the Jetty Foreshores on Wednesday 21 December to share their...

The post Focus on green spaces in revised Jetty Foreshores plan appeared first on News Of The Area.

THE failings of the Biodiversity Offsets Scheme (BOS) set out by NSW Department of Planning and Environment have been exposed during the fight to stop Transport for NSW (TfNSW) destroying the Scrub in West Coffs, or Grandpa’s Scrub, as some have named it, during construction of the Coffs Bypass beginning in 2023. This last remaining...

The post Biodiversity Offsets failings exposed during fight to save Coffs rainforest appeared first on News Of The Area.

~ Today's Water Cooler ~

Here’s a fun look at some delicious MAGA on MAGA combat: Sean Hannity, once the most important mouthpiece for Donald Trump, seems to be increasingly on the MAGAworld outs. And a new revelation that Hannity doesn’t buy the Big Lie isn’t helping. In a just-released deposition surrounding Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit, the Fox News star said he’d never believed—not “for one second”—baseless election fraud claims stemming from the 2020 election. That stance, directly at odds with many of his primetime segments and the beliefs of many of his closest allies, has put Hannity in an awkward position. Among the MAGA all-stars currently upset with Hannity are MyPillow maven Mike Lindell, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, far-right radio host Stew Peters, and even reportedly Trump himself. […] “Sean Hannity is disgusting,” Lindell told The Daily Beast.

‘It wasn’t up for very long’ sums up union’s response to branches complaining about anti-Irish and anti-Scot post on social media Unite knocked back the complaints of a number of the union’s branches about a racist post by a close ally of general secretary Sharon Graham earlier this year – despite agreeing that the comment […]

But the Durham probe goes on… It was just another expensive pacifier for the big baby. Steve Benen reports: For those who might benefit from a refresher — you’d be forgiven for thinking, “John Durham’s name sounds familiar, but I can’t remember why I’m supposed to care about him” — let’s revisit our earlier coverage and explain how we arrived at this point. The original investigation into Donald Trump’s Russia scandal, led by then-special counsel Robert Mueller, led to a series of striking findings: The former president’s political operation in 2016 sought, embraced, capitalized on, and lied about Russian assistance — and then took steps to obstruct the investigation into the foreign interference. The Trump White House wasn’t pleased with the conclusions, but the Justice Department’s inspector general conducted a lengthy probe of the Mueller investigation, and not surprisingly, the IG’s office found nothing improper. This, of course, only outraged Trump further, so then-Attorney General Bill Barr tapped a federal prosecutor — U.S.

I would progressively wind back and eliminate the $14b pa taxpayer subsidy for Private Health Insurance and use that very large sum to fund the inclusion of dental care within Medicare and increase the funding to the states for expanded specialist services in outpatient clinics at public hospitals. A repost from May 18, 2022 The Continue reading »

In 2015, education services earned an export income for Australia of over $16 b. p.a. Those export services were expected to increase to $31 b. p.a. by 2020 from about 600,000 overseas students. Education was our fourth largest export behind iron ore, coal and natural gas. It is our major services export, ahead of tourism. Continue reading »

Capitalism and “liberal democracy” are failing and destroying our world. In this, the first of a three-part series, we explore the failure of this system and the case for change. Failure of US Western Liberal Democracies Wars are continuous and the risk of nuclear escalation is increasing. Governments seem incapable of grappling with the climate Continue reading »

New Study Confirms Women Are Less Sexually Attracted to Their Husbands When They Don't Help Out Around the House (Thanks to pharmaross)

Have You Ever Experienced Dead Butt Syndrome? (Thanks to pharmaross)

Ukraine’s intelligence service asked a respected Danish journalist to prove she was not a pro-Russia propagandist by making pro-Ukraine propaganda.

The post Danish Reporter Says Ukrainian Intelligence Tried to Coerce Her Into Working as a Propagandist appeared first on The Intercept.

I can (barely) remember when if your flights got cancelled they'd rebook you on another airline, or bus the whole planeload to a hotel for the night. The point with the latter isn't just *the cost* - though of course it's that - it's that they took care of it for you. Just another layer of worry for everyone all the time now.

I'm old but it wasn't *that long ago*. A better world is possible!

I have to admit that Michelle Huneven’s new novel was almost too delicious for me,...

I don't even really want to pick on Paul here, but the DOT does have lots of unused authority and some people complaining know that! I don't expect Elaine Chao to do anything good, but I do expect her Dem successor to go into office learning what good he can do!

It's so weird that people who don't like Pete Buttigieg have suddenly decided that secretary of transportation is a position with limitless power, such that even the president's authority pales in comparison. I mean...really? Quick, name three prior secretaries of transportation.

Our 6th most-read article of the 2022.

Originally published July 29, 2022.

Thank you for calling the perimenopause hotline. Our phone lines are flooded with an unexpected gush of calls right now, but we assure you that our specialists are working hard to absorb this heavy flow and someone should be with you in a hot flash.

While you wait, please enjoy this informative recording of some of our most frequently asked questions.

Q: What exactly is perimenopause?
Although women the world over experience perimenopause, the resources available to help them understand this completely natural period of transition are spotty at best. But there’s no reason for the process to be shrouded in euphemisms and superstitions.

West Coast time finally catching up with me.

Retraction Watch reports: “A Russian philosophy journal has retracted a paper about lesbian fashion magazines, citing a newly passed law that bans ‘propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations and (or) preferences.'” The journal is Logos (not to be confused with Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought & Culture or with Logos, the undergraduate philosophy journal at Cornell University), the author is Reina Lewis, a professor of Cultural Studies at the London College of Fashion at University of the Arts London, and the paper is, “Looking Good: The Lesbian Gaze and Fashion Imagery.” The paper is still online, but, Retraction Watch reports: an entry on the Russian database eLIBRARY indicates it was retracted for being “in violation of standards.” The notice continued: “The retraction was issued by the decision of the editorial board due to the presence of signs that fall under the scope of Law No.

Click here to go see the bonus panel!

Hovertext:
I think the play makes a lot more sense if you imagine the ghost dad was making demands of lots of the characters in order to have the whole thing culminate in a pile of bodies.

Today's News:

Well looky here what came in the mail.

Today, I make available a video session that I recorded in Japan while I was working there in the latter part of this year. It sets out a range of interesting topics that form, in part, the research program that my colleagues and I at Kyoto University have mapped out to work on in the coming year. I hope that by the end of 2023 we will have advanced this program and perhaps will be able to stage some sort of event (Covid permitting) in Japan later next year to spread the knowledge....

Bill Mitchell – billy blog
Japan and the World Economy through the lens of MMT – video presentation
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

Here are my most popular posts of 2022. Thanks for reading!

The post Top 5 Posts of 2022 appeared first on Economics from the Top Down.

Piston-powered drones fly ahead of cruise missiles It took a lot of chutzpah for Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to issue an ultimatum to Ukraine late Monday: “The point is simple: fulfil [Russian demands] for your own good. Otherwise, the issue will be decided by the Russian army.” That’s rich, especially considering The Washington Post’s lead story this morning, headlined, Inside the Ukrainian counteroffensive that shocked Putin and reshaped the war. It is not that Russia does not still maintain the capacity to inflict damage on Ukraine, the way stinging insects raise painful welts. But Lavrov’s boast about the Russian army appears to be just that. The Kremlin’s troops are badly depleted. Conscripts are fleeing the country. So much so that a Kazakh chocolate company created a pointed ad about it. When Moscow diverted troops south to defend the Russian-held regional capital of Kherson, Ukraine advanced toward and retook Kharkiv: In early September, Ukrainian forces would steamroll across hundreds of square miles, routing the Russians and surprising themselves.

In my library, there are n philosophy books and six economics books. If yours truly can choose two books of each type in 150 ways, how many philosophy books are there in my library?