One day, Albo will always have agreed that it was a genocide.
Australian. Left wing nerd, native plants, landscape design, urbanism, urban fantasy reader, Celtic music, folk festivals, violins, free range children, atheist. No gofundmes, fund political lobbying instead. Free Palestine. Fuck Murdoch.
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One day, Albo will always have agreed that it was a genocide.
He really is doing his damndest to ensure that there is barely a sliver of daylight between the ALP and the Trump administration, isn't he. #pissweakalbo [$] www.theage.com.au/politics/fed...
Consultation is not a pseudo-democratic process similar to voting. Consultation is an information gathering exercise that processes a lot of poor quality data. If 100% of respondents support a poor or unachievable position that position can and should be ignored by suitably experienced professionals
This is the one Labor Day graph that tells you the actual problem in America. The problem is not that America lacks abundance. The problem is that a handful of oligarchs are hoarding America’s abundance. www.levernews.com/the-labor-da...
You're describing my childhood here.
So, kind of like today then.
A new policy costing by the Parliamentary Budget Office showed that Victoria could save $50 million annually over the next 10 years if it also phased out greyhound racing. satpa.pe/9P9zsuG
They're Lying About Venezuela While Moving War Machinery Into Place As if we didn’t have enough ugliness in the world right now, Trump has deployed warships near Venezuela’s coast, prompting Caracas to ready drone and naval patrols for conflict. www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/theyre-lyi...
You spelled ENDANGERING wrong, @nytimes.com. “Pushing the boundaries” is a *positive* frame implying unconventional innovations. There are no innovations here. Just medieval anti-science populist attacks on some of best methods of truth seeking we have.
This is effectively as of right in Victoria now, outside of heritage overlays, but even before then we'd seen a decimation of canopy planting and massive increases in urban heat Island and associated amenity and health effects. RIP most borrowed green space within 40km of the CBD.
The reason you can identify all the low density housing from the air is all of the planted backyards and boundary setbacks. You will not see this in any new development area, with lots commonly under 300 sq.m. All that's going to happen there is more multi townhouse developments and fewer trees.
The problem there is insufficient room for soft landscaping. Regardless, people don't cross gardens where you tell them to, most don't even look down. Protection measures are often essential if you want to maintain any garden at all. Most plants won't survive being stepped on for long.
What stops these outcomes from happening nowadays is that every half a meter wider the road reserve is is fewer sq.m of lots to sell. Insane land prices means that developers must squeeze every last sq.m out of development sites. Few developers are willing to contribute more than minimum road widths
Multistory development allows greater building setbacks while maintaining high population densities, but developers hate it outside the inner city. What's mostly working there is the generous median, which is literally impossible without generous road reserve widths, say 26m instead of a standard 16
Your images are misleading. In the left all vegetation is planted on the boundaries of or inside the private lots. This is literally impossible with built form all the way to the title boundary. The right is just an agapanthus and a struggling, inappropriately located old cypress hedge.
If you want to see more soft landscaping you need wider road reserves, not narrower. Modern buildings take up almost the entire lot, leaving no room for canopy trees or screening strips. Narrower just means higher lot densities, fewer trees, more impermeable surfaces, and higher developer profits.
8m is the bare minimum given the frequency of double garages and the size of moden vehicles. Historically laneways had to manage largely just waste services, now they are the primary vehicle and pedestrian access. 8m laneways are virtually unlandscapable due to vehicle movements, bin storage, etc.
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I've been listening to Labor say "ignore what we say in opposition, watch what we do in government" for more than two decades now. "Labor is better for refugees, we just act like arseholes to get elected." Right? Right... #pissweakalbo [$] www.theage.com.au/politics/fed...
If he loves America, destroying America is a weird way of showing that.
The left should get a major newspaper column.
"Israel has long since trashed its reputation as ‘plucky little Israel’ ... Now, it is widely held that Israel is not merely a realpolitik state, but that its conduct is both cold and sadistic, ... Not merely Israel, but Judaism itself is being trashed, hollowed out." – Guy Rundle #FuckIsrael
hear me out: for maximum safety, make every single person a cop
21 Questions About The Claim That Iran Orchestrated Antisemitic Attacks In Australia 6. Please explain how orchestrating antisemitic attacks in Australia would advance Iranian interests more than the interests of some other state, say, just for example, Israel? www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/21-questio...
This has always been the GOP's strategy: 1) Cut taxes for the wealthy & corporations by claiming they'll pay for themselves. 2) Explode deficits 3) Use the debt as an excuse to demand cuts to vital programs that help millions. 4) Repeat.
Full resignation letter from Demetre C. Daskalakis, a CDC leader, does not hold back. "The recent shooting at CDC is not why I am resigning. My grandfather, who I am named after, stood up to fascist forces in Greece and lost his life doing so. I am resigning to make him and his legacy proud."
Also, bad candidates, corporate capture, gerontocracy, chasing non-existent right wing swing voters, supporting genocide. The list goes on, and on, and on.
The people "bitching and moaning" about bad policies did not lose Democrats the election. Bad policies lost Democrats the election.
It's been incredible to watch bad descision after bad descision by the government feeding into this sort of commentary. Just insane. Starmer could simply have explained that the country needs immigration to prosper and run the numbers. But he chose the "easy" route and now it's facism or bust.
The plan is to put them all in concentration camps, then let them out on day release for pennies a day to do exactly the same work they have been doing while the government creams off a service fee.
It gets worse. The Deloitte report suspected of using AI contains a fake quote and erroneous citations to one of the leading cases on Robodebt. www.afr.com//companies/p...
Agreed.
Red lines. My @smh cartoon.
The fact that almost nobody is taking about these kinds of issues right now is a concern. Sure, opposition to Trump is the primary goal, however I fear that the lack of serious discussion is because the Left wants its turn. That kind of thinking is a recipe for mutually assured destruction.
Jeanine Pirro seems to have pissed off this judge "We don't just charge people criminally and then say, 'Oops, my bad,'" [Judge Faruqui] said. "I'm at a loss how the U.S. Attorney's Office thought this was an appropriate charge in any court, let alone the federal court." www.npr.org/2025/08/26/g...
So is gerrymandering, as we see in Texas. The electoral college is implicitly proportional by design, it was acts of state legislatures that destroyed that original intent by awarding all electors to only one of the candidates A version of proportionality works right now in both Maine and Nebraska
Meaning, what exactly? We are discussing options for reform of the US electoral system in this thread. Nobody claimed that it would be easy. There are plenty of opportunities to be cynical about the future of US democracy in 99.9% of the other threads on BlueSky, however thanks for your opinion.
India is a right wing Hindu Nationalist state with a predominantly pro-government media. India is actively eliminating minority protections and mass deporting Muslims. The country is functionally indistinguishable from the Christian Nationalist authoritarian project in the US, but further along.
The biggest problem with the electoral college is that it is the original gerrymander as states introduced winner takes all in the early 1800s as a partisan power-play. Keeping it is statically irrelevant if electors are proportional, it keeps wonks happy, and is a more achievable minimalist change
A message that is currently that woke went too far. Which is implicitly saying that Republicans are right.
Trump: "I won because Latino voters shifted to support me!" Trump, six months later: "If you're Latino I will have armed paramilitaries harass you relentlessly, and gloat how they're going to purge your foreign culture and inferior genes from this country" Democrats: "I see no opportunity here"
Aside from the blatant duplicity of their claim, it’s still a fucking war crime, one of thousands
Start with ranked choice compulsory voting ($100 nominal fine), genuinely independent redistricting commissions run by statisticians, a proportionately representative electoral college, and a constitutional amendment to repeal Citizens United (and corporate personhood more generally).
Yes. The US was an early experiment in popular democracy, based on an elected monarch. There have been massive advancements since that time, most of which have improved upon the original model. Almost no Western democracy empowers the executive branch as much, even excluding current abuses.
The key to Trump’s authoritarian encroachments is pretext. He pairs some shockingly dictatorial move with an incredibly thin pretext everyone knows is false - fighting crime, concerned about fraud - and every public figure talking about the situation feels the need to debate the pretext.
Pure copium. Literally everything is going exactly to plan.
Westminster systems are explicitly designed to neuter the power of their own monarch. The US system was designed to neuter the power of another country's monarch.
The legislature needs to be supreme, and should hire and fire individual managers to serve as department heads. Secretaries of departments should be salaried civil servants. The presidency is an abomination, transparently royalist bullshit that is an embarrassment to free people.
They like it that way. He's easily manipulated, the results are quicker, and there are almost no checks and balances.
When they said that, they were never talking about you and me.
Dr. Tarek Loubani, who is in Gaza right now, was invited to give a talk to emergency workers about the attacks on health care facilities in Gaza. But he was instructed - get this - not to say who was doing the attacking. Take a look at how this hero of a human responded: vimeo.com/1112115018/c...
The top story of the moment is the one story that our most influential newsrooms won’t touch: That the United State has become an authoritarian state. presswatchers.org/2025/08/we-h...
Those Who Condemn Hamas Lack Empathy And Humility They look at the actions of October 7 from the prism of a comfortable western suburbanite on the other side of the world and say, “I would never conduct such an attack; I am much too virtuous and compassionate.” www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/those-who-...
Journalists everywhere need to stand in solidarity on this killing spree and resulting news blackout. See below in this thread for some actions and stay tuned here https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-hits-gaza-hospital-killing-least-20-people-including-five-journalists-2025-08-25/
HAPPENING NOW: At 2:00 p.m. ET, Judge Paula Xinis is set to hold a telephone conference regarding Kilmar Abrego Garcia's newly-filed lawsuit challenging his removal to Uganda. Abrego was detained by ICE earlier today. I plan to live-post the hearing for @lawfaremedia.org. Follow along ⬇️🧵
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The precise moment when and where in recent weeks America crossed that invisible line from democracy into authoritarianism can and will be debated by future historians, but it’s clear that the line itself has been crossed. www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/america-ti...
We kind of know though. Sure, it's saving them a few pennies, however the article fails to canvass the much more likely possibility that the ALP actually supports it and earlier posturing was just cheap political point scoring from opposition.
Their eyes are wide open.
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This is how broken our lobbying laws are. Every resources minister since 2001 went on to work for fossil fuel companies & 8 ex-ministers & senior advisers now lobby for gambling💰 It's time for complete reform of lobbying rules + independent watchdog. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08...
They should have a best genocide denial category at the Walkley's this year
People whose success has been based on entitlement, luck and exploitation were always going to argue for more power to the "deserving" rich at the expense of the "undeserving" poor. The fact that the ALP considered it a good mix of interests tells you all you need to know about their priorities.
We kind of know though. Sure, it's saving them a few pennies, however the article fails to canvass the much more likely possibility that the ALP actually supports it and earlier posturing was just cheap political point scoring from opposition.
"Fuckface", however, is not racist or gendered, and nor does it carry much in the way of historical baggage.
It's a classic conservative trickle down fantasy. One day we're all going to be richer, but now is never the time, always later.
That's kind of how sanctions work, yes. Feeding people engaging in genocide means that you yourself are enabling genocide. Israel understands the logic here, after all, they're currently systematically starving 2 million people to death.
Tens of billions of dollars in US subsidies and massive resource theft from the Palestinian territories surely can't have anything to do with that.
Never Forget The Lies They Told About Gaza. Never Forgive Them. Never forget all the monsters who tried to gaslight you and convince you that you are crazy and hateful for saying these things are happening. Never, ever forgive them. www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/never-forg...
Only Liars And Manipulators Say Gaza Isn't Starving When a nation keeps having to publish denials that it is intentionally starving civilians, you can safely assume it’s because that nation is intentionally starving civilians. www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/only-liars...
nobody's afraid of the subway. they're afraid of having to witness poverty and having to share a physical space with people of color/queer people/teenagers etc. they don't like being uncomfortable and the thing that makes them most uncomfortable is *us*
Watch #SundayShot 9am Sunday for latest in #Auspol, international politics++ Shits all over #Insiders! Support (subscribe, live-watch, watch later…) free. independent media or you’ll be left with solely mainstream, biased drivel. Watch & be rad, gnarly & ace 👊🗞️💚
Here’s what appears to be a little girl shackled at the wrists and ankles boarding an ICE flight on Avelo Airlines yesterday. Seattle (Boeing Field) to Mesa, AZ, an ICE detention hub. Not one of those men helped her up the stairs. Courtesy @lalabote.bsky.social
Republicans: Democrats love to eat turds and kiss the teacher! Consultants, to elected Democrats: you really need to stop eating turds and kissing the teacher, it doesn’t poll well.
This was always the problem with the US's pursuit of Julian Assange. Every report had to emphasise that he was a bit of a dick. Whether someone is a nice person should be literally irrelevant to opposing them being victimised for political reasons.
It means that you're stressed and miss Razzle. It's a normal response and one of the reasons that we dream in the first place. I'm sending supportive thoughts in your direction.
"The question is not “how does Australia get its relationship with Israel back on track”, it’s why, as a country that is supposed to stand for international law and humanity, would we want to?" www.thenewdaily.com.au/news/politic...
End AUKUS, just think of all we could do with $375 billion apart from subsidising the US military? Investing in human security in climate action, public education, housing and international partnerships.
It's mostly just classic bothsidism.
I think we all know the answer to this is, effectively, nobody All the experienced public servants have been dismissed, and Trump's utterances have no more staying power than a stale fart Yet somehow nearly every commentator carries on analyzing this stuff as if there's some great strategy at play
Obviously the US was concerned about "reds under the bed", but there's nothing in that article other than a foreign affairs briefing note. A "smoking gun" would need to detail more than just the fact that the US wanted regime change, it would need need to document how they actually did it.
And we report on how the US is “disgusted” at our government’s proposed recognition of Palestine. I think we no longer need to give a …canard what the US thinks.
Gosh, turns out the things repeatedly cited for "RFK Jr makes some good points" were all bullshit, he's not doing squat about pesticides nor ultraprocessed foods, nor will he make fresh food more accessible and affordable. Huge surprise from a sociopathic con artist in a GOP admin, I know.
Bendigo Writers Fest confirms that 59% of speakers withdrew. What an own goal. I hope those responsible for trying to silence writers are feeling good about themselves. Wrecked an important cultural institution.
“That there are already 50,000 dead in Gaza is necessary and required for future generations,” recently departed IDF intelligence director says in leaked recordings. “For every person who was killed on October 7, fifty Palestinians must die…They need a Nakba every now and then to feel the price.”
"I have never been less open to people with different opinions than I am with Gaza. I am simply correct, and if you disagree with me you are wrong and I hate you."
A strongly worded letter never fails.
Don't under estimate Labor's ability to shoot themselves in the foot. 2 years remains a genuine possibility.
He'll just call it a big enormous win. FOX will repeat and reinforce the claim and the rest of the media will bothsides the "win" so that disengaged voters think it's just a partisan political dispute and ignore it.
Stop Giving Israeli Officials A Media Platform To Spout Lies Stop platforming Israeli government officials and professional genocide apologists. Stop asking them what they think. Stop presenting their lies and manipulations as news stories. www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/stop-givin...
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Here's me. "Two states of bullshit"
Inequality is at the root of all our problems. Let's invest in our public services.
It's extremely difficult to parody something that is already a parody of itself.
Israel is an inherently racist, genocidal exercise.
The LNP's support of Israel is a support for genocide.
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In February these Journalists celebrated the Ceasefire and the return of civilians to Northern Gaza. Israel has killed every single one of the Journalistsin this video.