SCOTUS and Chevron The James Fallows tweet Digby cited about SCOTUS overturning the 40-year-old Chevron doctrine was an eye-opener. The SCOTUS decision hands highly technical decisions about regulations to courts. Fallows was so succinct and instructive that I’m reposting him here: A salesperson asked me on Tuesday what I did before retirement. I told him I reviewed the material stresses and reaction forces in high-temperature, high-pressure piping systems, pressure vessels, and rotating equipment for compliance with ASME codes (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) using finite element analysis. Which is why my cocktail party answer more often was, “I design factories.” In a more ironic mood, I’d reply, “Clients pay a lot of money to ignore what I tell them.” Do my job poorly and expensive equipment gets damaged and millions of dollars in production are lost. Do the job badly and people might die. Regulation decisions SCOTUS just put in the hands of judges are often conservative. Especially those regarding safety, like OSHA regulations. They are conservative for a reason, as Fallows points out.
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In today's BCTV Daily Dispatch: The Boys, Stranger Things 5, Blu-rays, Mayor of Kingstown, Superman & Lois, Kaiju No. 8, Doctor Who & more!
Sometimes you have to go looking for photos, but this is what greeted me when I got up to make the coffee the other morning.
I’ve got a new piece up at The New Yorker on a new biography of Friedrich Hayek. I got a chance to range widely. From Hayek’s dalliance with the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet— In November, 1977, on a still-sticky evening along Louisiana’s Gulf Coast, the Austrian economist and philosopher Friedrich Hayek boarded a flight bound for Chile and settled into his seat in first class. He was headed to the Valparaíso Business School, where he was scheduled to receive an honorary degree. Upon arrival in Santiago, the Nobel laureate was greeted at the airport by the dean of the business school, Carlos Cáceres. They drove toward the Pacific Coast, stopping for a bite to eat in the city of Casablanca, […]
Since it’s now officially summer, I thought it would be a good excuse to curate a list of my top 10 seasonal favorites; movies that I think capture the essence of these “lazy, hazy, crazy” days…infused with the sights, the sounds, the smells, of summer. So, here you go…as per usual, in alphabetical order: Jazz on a Summer’s Day– Bert Stern’s groundbreaking documentary about the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival is not so much a “concert film” as it is a fascinating and colorful time capsule of late 50s American life. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of gorgeously filmed numbers spotlighting the artistry of Thelonius Monk, Anita O’Day, Dinah Washington, Louis Armstrong, etc. and the performances are outstanding. The effect is like “being there” in 1958 Newport on a languid summer’s day. If you’ve ever attended an outdoor music festival, you know half the fun is people-watching, and Stern obliges.
SINCE becoming the Member for Coffs Harbour in 2019, Gurmesh Singh has added Shadow Minister for Emergency Services, Shadow Minister for Tourism and Shadow Minister for the North Coast to his responsibilities. Following a Nationals party meeting last Thursday, he has now landed the second-top job in his party. Advertise with News of The Area...
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THE Lions Club of Dorrigo has donated $5,000 to the Dorrigo Multi-Purpose Service after raising the funds through an unusual project. The generous gift was made possible through a unique and innovative fundraising project that appealed to the local farming community. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your business. Message...
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THE Defib Hero Community Program in Coffs Harbour installed its first Automated External Defibrillator (AED) on Tuesday morning at the Bailey Centre. Further defibrillators were due to be installed throughout the week at Sawtell Commons, Park Beach Homebase and Coffs Harbour Yacht Club. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your...
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COFFS Harbour Bridge Club has donated $1,000 each to five local charities as part of its annual gift giving commitment. Each year the club committee selects local charities they believe would each benefit from a donation. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your business. Message us. Phone us – (02)...
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THE Friends of the Botanic Garden and the Australian Plants Society will offer over 350 second hand books for sale in a fundraiser on Saturday 6 July. The fundraiser will take place in the Display Room in the garden entrance building from 10am to 3pm, with book prices starting at $1. Advertise with News of...
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THE team at Big W Park Beach Plaza is enthusiastically embracing the company’s latest ‘Heart Token’ fundraiser. Launched across NSW/ACT the fundraiser benefits the Sydney Children’s Hospital Foundation. 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 Partnering with...
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Aileen Cannon will be deciding whether your 747 is safe to fly The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that district court judges are more qualified to decide complex matters of science and technology than government experts. Here’s the result: Just think of all the health and safety rules we count on to keep us safe. Then think about all the unqualified MAGA weirdos Trump put on the courts and the bitter, angry Supreme Court majority that really seems to believe that it’s every man for himself.
Catherine Rampel tweeted this out and I think I think it’s fascinating: The kind of polling we need more of: @YouGov asked respondents about major policies proposed by Biden and Trump…without specifying which candidate proposed them.Turns out, in a blind test, Biden’s agenda is way more popular. today.yougov.com/politics/artic… 27 of 28 Biden proposals are supported by more people than oppose them. 24 get outright majority support. Most popular: criminal/mental health background checks for all gun purchases (82% approve). Least popular (the only one underwater, 30%): 10-yr military support for Ukraine Trump’s agenda doesn’t fare so well.9 of 28 proposals are above water (more support than oppose). Just 6 get majority supportEven most most popular (phase out Chinese imports of essential goods) gets meager 59%. Least pop (prez controls independent regulatory agencies): 19% People who plan to vote for each candidate are more likely to support most of their preferred candidate’s policies. And most supporters oppose many of the policies proposed by the opposing candidate. There are some policies that supporters find common ground on, however.
Following up on my post below I thought I’d post this excerpt from Dan Pfeiffer’s newletter. His analysis is similar to mine. He too thinks that a brokered convention is way too risky and that the “Biden endorses Harris with the full support of the Democratic establishment” scenario is the only alternative to the wounded Biden soldiering on. He writes: There are two possible scenarios. The first is that Biden steps aside and endorses Vice President Kamala Harris as the nominee, and the party coalesces around her. She would have to pick a Vice Presidential nominee and be ratified as the nominee by the delegates at the convention. That vote would be pro forma and drama-free. The race against Trump would start immediately. She would possibly get an opportunity to debate Trump at the scheduled debate in September. The other scenario is the circus sideshow of a brokered convention which would be very risky. Pfeiffer then discusses what Biden can do to right the ship if he decides to stay in: Boy, that last one is a real gut check. I disagree that Trump will duck more debates. I think he’ll be thrilled to do them every week.
The US election is being watched with trepidation in South Korea. Should President Joe Biden be re-elected, Seoul would likely see continuity in the relationship and a continued strong US-South Korea bilateral alliance. But a victory for Donald Trump is fraught with peril. He could throw the alliance into turmoil, try to make South Korea Continue reading »
Bottled water is not good for the environment or your health. If you eat meat, eating less is good for both. Governments are unreliable protectors of forests and human rights (but you knew that already). Bottled water, an unnecessary luxury The global market for bottled water has expanded enormously in recent decades – 73% in Continue reading »
The Black Sea country of Georgia was recently convulsed by protests over the passage of legislation requiring disclosure of foreign funding of NGOs. The controversy is a big deal in Tbilisi. However, the issue doesn’t matter much in America. At least, it shouldn’t. But that ignores the endless ambitions of those who rule Washington, D.C. Continue reading »
“Why did GOUGH GO OFF like that?” the satirical OZ magazine asked in June 1966 after the Rt Rev. Hugh Rowland Gough had resigned as Anglican Archbishop of Sydney and Primate of Australia. The official statement had mentioned ill health. Readers of the Sydney press discerned that more was afoot than Gough’s need for a good lie-down. Continue reading »
Ever since the Leader of the Opposition’s statements on nuclear reactors, along with many, my heart has ached. It’s not personal. It’s just that the climate is changing so quickly and we must cooperate better. As it happens, in the days after I met again a friend and fine theologian, Graeme Garratt. He and his Continue reading »
YouGov’s latest Public Data poll has revealed that younger Australians think Australia should be more socialist, however older Australians are more inclined to be neutral, neither favouring a more capitalist nor more socialist direction. In this survey Australians were asked if they think Australia should be more socialist or capitalist on an eleven-point scale, 0-10. Continue reading »
We take nature and biodiversity for granted. Nonhuman life is like a backdrop — we don’t pay much attention to it. This is a mistake. Nature provides all our needs and wants. It provides resources, services, and economic, mental, and physical benefits vital for human survival. Protecting the natural world is an investment in our Continue reading »
Is it Party ID uber alles? It’s the most important thing, that’s for sure. We are living in a tribal era and the two tribes really don’t like each other. So maybe it doesn’t really matter who is on the ticket. It certainly doesn’t matter to me, not at this point. I will vote for the Democrat against Trump, no matter who it is because Trump and his MAGA movement are fascist and they must be stopped. As anyone who’s read me over the years knows, I don’t “love” politicians. I may like one or the other more or have a feeling about their symbolic value but as much as I might feel for them as human beings, as politicians I see them as instruments to achieve political goals. My number one goal right now is to beat Trump. And while I see Biden as having been a very good president, way beyond my expectations, I’m fine with him dropping out for someone else if that’s the best way to beat Trump. I’m also fine with keeping him on the ticket if the party ID factor remains the most important criteria because replacement carries its own risks.