A masterpiece of exonerative passive. A chemical has a problem with a body of water and it's the fault of - large areas of land? And then a war got involved? This takes Murc's law - conservatives and Republicans don't have agency - too far.

Information wants to be free! That’s why the printing press ushered in peace and tranquility in Europe

You, an idiot: pivot to Australian Switzerland because dependence on a Pacific hegemon means complicity in whatever ludicrous imperial policy they come up with Me, a wise man: Australian Switzerland but for cool trains

what is air defense doing

Liam Hogan Thought in international relations

That is soft cheese 🟨 #Matildas #ShootFarken

WHEELER our glorious leader #Matildas #ShootFarken

Rocket from the boot #Matildas #ShootFarken

Are you not entertained? #Matildas #ShootFarken

‘There was an element of Gnosticism to it’, says the frisson-of-transgression rightist mugged by the reality that transgression often hides a failure of ethics. Also there are plenty of perfectly healthy conspiracy theories that don’t involve hateful views or acts. Blue Mountains Panther real

I’m just a guy begging people to understand that left politics is spreadsheets representing actual material realities

Ukraine, which continues to be under attack from a four-year long Russian invasion, is sending resources to help defend US interests in the Middle East, after the US started a new conflict there. The US has responded by giving money to Russia.

black gold chain

If oil is a wholly commodified and fungible food why can’t it just move itself around the globe frictionlessly, like capital

Underground intercontinental evacuated MAGLEV tubes, you’re hearing it more and more

Credit event, fam?

✋ your wild scheme to avoid the Straits of Hormuz by trucking oil across the Empty Quarter 👉 the Bradfield Scheme to turn Australian rivers inland and release an irrigated land of eternal plenty

If you don’t knuckle down and study, children, your lazy habits will become your character, you will enter adulthood with only vices to your name, and be forced into the NSW Upper House

he also did crimes, became an MLC, then went insane, which is the reverse of the typical route

An Australian chant about the colour of coins to a tune by Stephen Foster? That has to be heroically racist, right? This time, and just to throw everyone off, no

We fired the Coogee Bay Hotel chef. Why not order some ice cream?

Australia Post has done some great work with critters over the journey

For raw historical irony, the Chinese sending gunboats to the Gulf and Red Sea to maintain free trade and political influence over the emirates, this would be 😙👌

The greatest act of putting cute animals on money was, and remains, the Australian 5¢ coin

The troubles

Cultural heritage

On two axes, of ‘corrupt/clean’ and ‘believes in nothing/something’, the US President is of course in the corrupt, belieflesss corner. But it’s remarkable that his government, which *is* ideologically motivated, can’t cope with actors in the ‘Corrupt, Ideological’ quadrant. That’s Russia!

Demining the Strait of Hormuz: A Working Dog Production

Like many Australians I’ve got all my superannuation riding on ‘credit event’. To win? Oh, ahaha, my goodness. Oh, no. No.

✋ source divination through dreams, still implying a definite revelation, begs the question 👉 ‘it is written somewhere in Hegel that,’ challenges the reader to go and look

Since the German Army has been stopped at the Marne, it’s obvious cooler heads will prevail in Berlin and Paris and London to work out an end to the war and a return to the June 1914 status quo

I have introduced another person today to Rich’s Rule

Today was the day Donald Trump finally showed himself to be a Wests Tigers fan

Back with another one of those hump-plumping beats

Campaigns to open navigation through a narrow strait are simple and easy to win

Wrote up some thoughts on the current war with Iran. You can't have a strategy if you don't even have a policy. open.substack.com/pub/bafriedm...

And the wind, whispers / Credit event

This is how I access bluesky

There are stages to any joke: the context, the setup, the punchline, the callback, and this, the mark of the true comedian: the prestige

It is as though America were not a reliable treaty partner nor ally, a lesson for Australia

My class was scheduled to read Thomas Schelling this month in our course on Nuclear Weapons and World Politics. It turned out to be a current affairs course. Here's part 1 of my series on reading Schelling in this crisis. open.substack.com/pub/musgrave...

Line go UP

I do not know that this could possibly be improved.

CREDIT EVENT

Things look grim in the markets right now, but at least the U.S. economy wasn’t already being propped up by a massive speculative AI bubble that is highly sensitive to rising energy costs.

OH: ‘credit event’

I tell you what it’d be a bad time to have one’s superannuation deeply dependent on global finance right now hey

Surely the US alliance can no longer be viewed as credible security for Australia. The only challenge is getting out. The US will punish us - and not just under Trump.

Let’s see if the Wests Tigers can ride this 2005 era vibe into the finals