Another really important story on ABC News today, from @matthewdoran1.bsky.social and @chantellealkhouri.bsky.social — the testimonies from Australian doctors in Gaza is horrifying. “We have legs hanging on by only skin or a tendon, brain matter out, the guts are out, all in one patient.”

What happened to the separation of Kirk and State?

ChatGPT prompt: create the most embarrassing image imaginable of a world leader having a selfie with Donald Trump. Make both of them grin like cats passing razorblades.

Hastie is the next-in-line, post-Howard, cut-out, wannbe empty suit with nothing original or worthwhile to offer. He'll be carried aloft by the rightwing media and presented as THE GOLDEN ONE for as long as they can maintain the illusion. The party death he is worried about ⬇️ has already happened.

Mitch has been waiting for this moment www.youtube.com/shorts/tqOkW...

The complete jellybacked complicity by elites around the world in appeasing Trump's fascism is really something to be behold. It will never not be shocking, even if completely unsurprising.

Frog: You know, if you put an American in cold water and gradually turn up the heat, they won't notice till it's too late. Another frog: Wouldnt they jump out? Frog: Apparently not.

This thread strikes me as the modern equivalent of the leaflet drops the Brits used to do over Germany, assuring German soldiers that they if they surrendered and presented the leaflet they would be treated humanely. A rational appeal aimed at demoralisation. Jfo.

Oh, that's ok then.

Incredible this is not cause for instant dismissal. Even more incredible is that it is likely to be cause for promotion, somewhere within the Trump Administration. Yet another marker in the collapse of the United States and the entrenching of the MAGA malignancy.

Killing people is wrong. Duh. open.substack.com/pub/tdunlop/...

Links to Trump still ok apnews.com/article/uk-m...

"The only way to achieve the assimilation Howard wants is by imposing the authoritarian control Donald Trump is currently imposing on America. In other words, ‘one nation’ is always and everywhere a police state, and it's not unity that's achieved but dominance." tdunlop.substack.com/p/john-howar...

I said love, I said pet, I said Dahl

Today is the 193rd anniversary of the death of Tasmanian surveyor and architect Henry Hellyer. In this article in today’s NW Tasmanian Advocate I look at his various legacies, including being one of Tasmania’s first high-profile victims of homophobic bullying. More in the comments.

Meet the Revolutionaries and Ratbags who shaped the world as we know it! Was hugely fun to co-host this new history podcast with Francis Leach looking at some of history's great rebels and revolutionaries, and to discuss what this history means for us today

Good piece but makes me feel like this is a distinction without a difference. www.thenewdaily.com.au/news/politic...

How can you not give this guy the Nobel Peace Prize?

The shuttering of Meanjin is a further reminder of how hard it is to find spaces for left-of-centre voices. Getting such stuff published was never easy & even in the era of new media there are enormous barriers. Solidarity is needed to stand against the endless attempts to muzzle progressive writing

How is it not a dereliction of duty? Even under the most generous reading of her role? I mean, come on. Nazis! On the streets! Actual self-identifying Nazis. Nazis!

Comprehensive account of what is happening to funding of the broader arts sector in NSW. The closing of Meanjin by Melb Uni is just the tip of a much bigger defunding-the-arts iceberg. Really worth clicking on to see the scale of the onslaught. open.substack.com/pub/ianmilli...

So a retired Australian politician shaking the hand of China's president is dancing with the devil, but a sitting Australian politician shaking the hand of a US president (a convicted felon, rapist, fomenter of armed insurrection, avowed friend of dictators) is honouring our great ally?

Wut!!!

"If ever there was a time to cling to our functional separation of church and state it is now, and we should be loudly proclaiming its benefits, not letting politicians hold little parties in parliament for their Christian mates." tdunlop.substack.com/publish/post...

Tommorrow when the war began....

Great, at a time of heightened tension between religions, a leading politician decides to play favourites. Separation of church & state PROTECTS religious freedom, for ALL people of faith & this nonsense undermines that freedom. Stunts like this--WITHIN parliament!--are unconscionable. Disgraceful.

"No slope is slipperier than the one on which extremists skirt the law because the powers that be are either too sympathetic or too frightened to do anything. The attack on Camp Sovereignty is a case of aggravated assault with racism as a contributing factor." tdunlop.substack.com/p/streets-of...

Continuing her win-friends-and-influence people tour

If so, it will be a Reichstag-fire event. What’s next is worse.

The Oz is shameless

Wonder who won the office sweep at New Corp for writing the most begrudging article/news clip about the PM expelling the Iranian Ambassador?

Who’s going to tell the Envoy? www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

About as perfect a summary of the collapse of US democracy as you can get.

Waves in Australian

Why we can't have nice things, but they can have all the nice things they want.

theshovel.com.au/2025/08/21/a... #auspol :)

Has nothing to do with impartiality, obviously. Just control.

Love today's Inklings, @fionakatauskas.bsky.social inklings.ghost.io/some-peop/?r...

Journalism school used to teach 'dog bites man' is not news. 'Man bites dog' is. So, here we are. 'The law will be followed' is apparently now news.

The second volume of 'Dhoombak Goobgoowana', the Indigenous history of the University of Melbourne, subtitled 'Voice', now available entirely open access @mupublishing.bsky.social At: www.mup.com.au/books/dhoomb... @austhistassoc.bsky.social @humanitiesau.bsky.social

“That’s the question we were focused on: how can we support an Australian AI industry?” And so far, our best answer is to rob writers and other creatives. It's worked overseas and it can work here! (What a disgusting speech.) ia.acs.org.au/article/2025...

As many have said from the beginning of this culture war

Yes, why would the technology needed to enforce a LAW about age compliance need to be accurate? Near enough for jazz.

Neolaborism

Abundantly agree

“We are permitted to speak but only under cross-examination.”

Highly recommend this piece by @nickfeik.bsky.social "Hamas is no longer a major strategic threat to Israel. But for Netanyahu, who believes the real threat to Israel is the possibility of a Palestinian state, Hamas is the perfect foil." nickfeik.substack.com/p/the-inconv...

"Voters—with an incrementalism Albanese should admire—have been sending a compounding message to the political class for decades; that they are in the mood for something different. Something better. That message should be music to a Labor politician’s ear." tdunlop.substack.com/p/politics-o...

he Edward Said National Conservatory of Music has been Gaza’s main music school since it opened a branch there 13 years ago. Before the war, it trained hundreds of students in classical and popular music, sending top talents abroad to perform with the Palestine Youth Orchestra.

Starting a list of our cultural institutions that have self-harmed in order to appease Zionists. Please add at your leisure. - ABC - Creative Australia - Melbourne Symphony Orchestra - Sydney Theatre Co - National Gallery of Vic - State Library of Vic - State Library of Qld - Bendigo Writers Fest