In my last post on this blog, which was written almost two months ago, I stated that while I hadn’t posted anything for about a month, I was ‘getting back into it’1. That was overly optimistic.
I was reading some arguments by Bettina Arndt recently about women dominating the legal profession, especially in the Family Law sphere, so I thought I would the check the facts. This is my modus operandi. Read polar views on an issue (I also consult OurWatch and White Ribbon on issues like this) but then check the facts to see who deceive and lie (which these days go under the Orwellian names of “mis” and “dis” information).
Prosper Australia today released new research examining Australia’s resource royalties. Australian states could capture an additional $14.5 billion in revenue each year by moving to a more flexible royalty model with variable rates that adjust to market conditions.
Trump’s win is a return to the default state of centralised, hierarchical societies – like ours. That’s the problem.
By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 7th November 2024
If scientific fraud represents five per cent of scientific papers, we might well expect to have a great deal of philosophic fraud as well. But how can we detect philosophy’s fraudsters? Here’s a first attempt.
As the US presidential election count continues, it becomes increasingly likely that Donald Trump will win. It appears that the majority of Americans believe that Trump is more trustworthy than Kamala Harris on economic issues, and they say that the economy is their principal concern.
The irony in this belief is that it is the opposite of the real situation, at least if we assume that Trump will carry out the promises that he has made.
The possibility of one or more Very Fast Train (VFT) lines for Australia has been debated for more than 40 years, most often being treated as a complete joke. However, perhaps that’s about to change.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has long been a supporter of VFT transport for Australia, and his government is now putting its money where its mouth is. As this article in The Conversation notes:
There’s a strong gerontocratic tinge to US politics of late — the youngest of Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, Elizabeth Warren and Mitch McConnel is Chuck at 73.
Many a theory has been propounded to explain this phenomenon, but a simple one shall be put to the test in a couple of days: Trump is the last of the political candidates borne of the media monoculture and so Trump will win the election comfortably.
What is the Media Monoculture and What Does is Have to Do with a Gerontocracy?
Elon Musk threatens to do to democracy what he did to Twitter.
By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian, 2nd November 2024
As I argued in a recent article, the election of Donald Trump as President would be disastrous for climate change compared with the current Democrat administration of President Biden. The situation is quite different in Australia. The election of a Coalition government federally next year, even under Peter Dutton, would not be all that much worse than the situation under the current Labor administration of Anthony Albanese.
Cameron Murray’s The Great Housing Hijack is self-recommending. You certainly don’t need a review of any sort to tell you to go read it if you have any interest in the peculiar case of the housing market. Nevertheless, here I supply my own review of sorts and extrapolate on what I consider a couple of Murray’s core points.
The Great Housing Hijack in Miniature
As you can see we’ve adopted a new WordPress theme. Many thanks to our web guru Tony Sarhanis. What do you think? I really like it, although I have one reservation.You can’t scroll down the main posts column until the cursor gets to the bottom of the comments column. I suspect that’s a deliberate feature rather than a bug, because it forces the eye to look at the comments first.
This is what you are voting for if you vote for Donald Trump.
By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 29th October 2024
Dear US voters,
in the spirit in which I would beg a dear friend not to get a facial tattoo, I’m writing to ask you not to vote for Donald Trump. While the decision to do so would make a statement, signalling your justifiable anger about the pain you have suffered, it is likely to disfigure you, damage your life chances and prove irreversible.