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Coffs council sets opening date for Yarrila Place

https://www.newsofthearea.com.au/coffs-council-sets-opening-date-for-yarrila-pl…
Created
Tue, 08/08/2023 - 14:35

THE question on everybody’s lips has been answered. Residents and visitors alike are invited by the City of Coffs Harbour to attend the official opening of Yarrila Place, the new building housing a state-of-the-art museum, art gallery, library and the council’s offices, on Saturday 16 September 2023. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s...

The post Coffs council sets opening date for Yarrila Place appeared first on News Of The Area.

Walking Together workshop for young people

https://www.newsofthearea.com.au/walking-together-workshop-for-young-people
Created
Tue, 08/08/2023 - 14:33

THE old saying about walking a mile in someone’s shoes before you can truly understand them is what encouraged Jacqui Parker and Nicole Laupepa to start the ‘Walking Together Project’. It is aimed at giving young people from all cultural backgrounds the tools they need to walk with First Nations Australians in unity. Advertise with...

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Alex Floyd honored with memorial planting at Marion Grove Retirement Village

https://www.newsofthearea.com.au/alex-floyd-honored-with-memorial-planting-at-m…
Created
Tue, 08/08/2023 - 14:31

COMMEMORATING the life of botanical legend, the late Alex Floyd, a group of his friends and long-time fellow residents at Marian Grove Retirement Village in Toormina, gathered in the property’s lovely gardens to plant two trees marked with a plaque. As part of National Tree Day, on Sunday 30 July, members of Coffs Harbour Regional...

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Wins galore for Coffs Coast at North Coast Tourism Awards

https://www.newsofthearea.com.au/wins-galore-for-coffs-coast-at-north-coast-tou…
Created
Tue, 08/08/2023 - 14:28

COFFS Coast tourism offers and business owners were voted tops across numerous categories at the North Coast Tourism Awards. The gold, silver and bronze award winners were announced on Thursday 27 July at Plantation House, part of Tropical Fruit World, in the Tweed. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your...

The post Wins galore for Coffs Coast at North Coast Tourism Awards appeared first on News Of The Area.

Marking a war’s end in Coffs Harbour

https://www.newsofthearea.com.au/marking-a-wars-end-in-coffs-harbour
Created
Tue, 08/08/2023 - 13:55

A CEREMONY marking the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War will be broadcast nationally on August 18. On January 11, 1973, the Governor General Sir Paul Hasluck signed the documents that ended Australia’s participation in the Vietnam War. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your business. Message...

The post Marking a war’s end in Coffs Harbour appeared first on News Of The Area.

Back in Broken Hill

https://tregeagle.com/back-in-broken-hill.html
Created
Tue, 08/08/2023 - 11:41

I got back into Broken Hill on Saturday night and slept like the dead. That journey home absolutely kills. Yesterday I just loved being home. Having a shower in my own shower, eating with Re & H on the couch, watching some telly and going to bed. In my own freaking …

The stars are God’s eyes: Adieu,William Friedkin

https://digbysblog.net/2023/08/07/the-stars-are-gods-eyes-adieuwilliam-friedkin/
Created
Tue, 08/08/2023 - 10:00
*sigh* One by one, the giants continue to fall: William Friedkin, the Oscar-winning director behind The French Connection and The Exorcist who was one of the most admired directors to emerge from a wave of brilliant filmmakers who made their mark in the 1970s, died Monday. He was 87. Friedkin died in Los Angeles, his wife, former producer and studio head Sherry Lansing, said. His pictures, which also included 1977’s Sorcerer, 1985’s To Live and Die in L.A. and 2006’s Bug, were marked by an exceptional visual eye, a willingness to take what might have been a genre subject and treat it with high seriousness and a sense of how sound could add a subterranean layer of dread, mystery and dissonance to his stories — a haunted and haunting quality that lifted his visceral works into another realm, conveying a preternatural sense of “fear and paranoia, both old friends of mine,” as he said in his 2013 memoir, The Friedkin Connection. Fear and paranoia. I’m not a religious person, but I distinctly remember jumping out of my seat and shouting “JESUS CHRIST!” about a dozen times the first time I saw The Exorcist.

Some confusing polling

https://digbysblog.net/2023/08/07/some-confusing-polling/
Created
Tue, 08/08/2023 - 09:30
I don’t know quite what to make of all this but I’ll just throw it out there for you to mull over: Apparently, quite a few people think the indictments are simultaneously trying to stop Trump while also upholding the rule of law and defending democracy. I’m pretty sure that prosecutors trying to stop the Trump campaign would not be in keeping with either of those two things. I guess some people are confused. People may decide they don’t want an indicted criminal suspect for president but nobody is trying to stop him from running or stop anyone from voting for him. Are they suggesting that he shouldn’t be prosecuted because he is running for president even if there is evidence against him? This distinction between MAGA Republicans and Non-MAGA Republicans is not particularly useful at this point. If you are willing to vote for Trump then I fail to see the difference. Yep. 68% think Biden is illegitimate based upon nothing but bullshit from Donald Trump and his henchmen. That’s the ballgame. More Democrats than Independents or Republicans are concerned about both. That certainly says something, I’m not sure what.

America first?

https://digbysblog.net/2023/08/07/america-first-3/
Created
Tue, 08/08/2023 - 08:00
The US is going to hell is a lovely sentiment from someone who wants to be president. Kicking a sports team that represents America, especially a women’s sports team, when it’s down is especially thoughtful. You can certainly understand why 38% of Americans are just gaga over this man.

The fascist mainstream

https://digbysblog.net/2023/08/07/the-fascist-mainstream/
Created
Tue, 08/08/2023 - 06:30
Huffington Post published this last week. I can’t say it shocks me — or that I believe it’s the only example of this phenomenon: A prominent conservative writer, lionized by Silicon Valley billionaires and a U.S. senator, used a pen name for years to write for white supremacist publications and was a formative voice during the rise of the racist “alt-right,” according to a new HuffPost investigation. Richard Hanania, a visiting scholar at the University of Texas, used the pen name “Richard Hoste” in the early 2010s to write articles where he identified himself as a “race realist.” He expressed support for eugenics and the forced sterilization of “low IQ” people, who he argued were most often Black. He opposed “miscegenation” and “race-mixing.” And once, while arguing that Black people cannot govern themselves, he cited the neo-Nazi author of “The Turner Diaries,” the infamous novel that celebrates a future race war.

Discussion: Martijn Konings and Jamie Martin on ‘The Meddlers’

https://www.ppesydney.net/discussion-martijn-konings-and-jamie-martin-on-the-me…
Created
Tue, 08/08/2023 - 06:00

In June 2023 Political Economy at the University of Sydney hosted a discussion on Jamie Martin's new book, The Meddlers: Sovereignty, Empire and the Birth of Global Economic Governance (Harvard University Press). Jamie gave a presentation on the book, and Martijn Konings was the discussant. Today we are publishing a recording of the event, along with an edited transcript of Martijn's contribution and Jamie's response.

The post Discussion: Martijn Konings and Jamie Martin on ‘The Meddlers’ appeared first on Progress in Political Economy (PPE).

John Eastman admits they were trying to overthrow the government

https://digbysblog.net/2023/08/07/john-eastman-admits-they-were-trying-to-overt…
Created
Tue, 08/08/2023 - 05:00
For real Unindicted co-conspirator John Eastman gave an interview last week in which he discussed all the reason why the country is going to hell (transgender youth and ergonomic chairs are at the top of the list) and explained how that gave Trump the right to ignore the constitution. It’s worth reading in full to get a good sense of just how batshit this guy really is. Josh Marshall had some useful thoughts on this: There’s a lot of atmospherics in this interview, a lot of bookshelf-lined tweedy gentility mixed with complaints about OSHA regulations and Drag Queen story hours. But the central bit comes just over half way through the interview when Eastman gets into the core justification and purpose for trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election and overthrow the constitutional order itself. He invokes the Declaration of Independence and says quite clearly that yes, we were trying to overthrow the government and argues that they were justified because of the sheer existential threat America was under because of the election of Joe Biden.

Vale sovereignty “Combines Intelligence Centre – Australia”

https://johnmenadue.com/vale-sovereignty-combines-intelligence-centre-australia/
Created
Tue, 08/08/2023 - 04:59
In his recent comprehensive P&I article ( “Abandoned sovereignty: Australia’s intelligence function colonised by US”) Mike Scrafton has raised serious concerns about Defence Minister Marles’ announcement at the recent AUSMIN talks of the creation of “Combined Intelligence Centre – Australia” within our Defence Intelligence Organisation (DIO) by 2024. Details of how this extraordinary joint Australian-US Continue reading »

There is no legal impediment to Australia’s recognition of Palestine

https://johnmenadue.com/there-is-no-legal-impediment-to-australias-recognition-…
Created
Tue, 08/08/2023 - 04:56
At the Australian Labor Party’s upcoming national conference in Brisbane, recognition of a Palestinian state — pursuant to Labor’s 2021 national platform that supports the recognition of Israel and Palestine as part of a two-state solution — is on the agenda. Senior Labor party figures, including former Foreign Ministers Bob Carr and Gareth Evans, have already come out in Continue reading »

White Australia’s moral backwardness

https://johnmenadue.com/white-australias-moral-backwardness/
Created
Tue, 08/08/2023 - 04:56
White Australians like to think of themselves as an egalitarian and frank people, despising pretentiousness, while basking in a reputation for larrikinism and mateship. But this is all a front, papering over a culture that is deeply racist, excessively masculinist, and incorrigibly populist. Indeed, from its very beginnings, white Australia has been a morally backward Continue reading »