If you keep lowering your standards to “win” against the other side, eventually you’ll just be on the other side

And the Tories looked back along the beach and asked why sometimes there were only one set of prints, and the Labor Party replied, "That was when I carried you."

The ALP might as well merge with the Minerals Council of Australia

Am I getting older or is it a recession indicator?

I've been near just one US 1000 pound bomb explosion in my lifetime. We were about half a kilometre away. The noise, and pure gut-moving energy of the thing are deeply etched. I can't begin to imagine what it must be like to have Israel rain US bombs on you, day after day, for weeks, months, years.

Hello nerds. I have an iPod Classic 6th Gen that I’ve heard you can mod to upgrade with a larger SSD and even a Bluetooth transmitter. I do not have the time or skills to do this but would pay a fair price to have it done. Recommendations? Pitfalls? Advice?

Honestly, this is the simple truth underpinning politics across the world. The fossil fuel industry is funding the rise of fascism to prevent democratic action to stop climate change heated.world/p/charlie-ki...

Important reporting. Police regularly deploy violence against peaceful left-wing demonstrations while facilitating right wing violence. There is never any accountability and they do it with the continued support of both Labor and Liberal govts www.deepcutnews.com/p/police-fai...

remarkably bleak stuff

Ausgrid slashes safety inspectors after report finds cheaper to pay permanent disability injury compensation

Freelance illustration gigs drying up. Ad agencies using Midjourney instead of hiring human artists. Costume design turned over to AI wholesale. Good work vanishing. These are the stories of working visual artists, who describe losing jobs, wages, and hope as their clients and bosses embrace AI.

For more info ⤵️ australiainstitute.org.au/post/north-w...

Shoutouts to Annabel Crabb and Kitchen Cabinet

I am begging journalists to stop writing puff pieces like this while Labor gives the fossil fuel industry everything they want

Labor really didn't want to release this, and you can see why. It makes an absolute mockery of their rhetoric while they approve new coal and gas projects. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

The fkg hypocrisy is galling. They extend Woodside by 50 years, open more mines and today they sombrely declare ‘we have to be honest with the Australian ppl’. Mfg, your govt has ensured our demise with your support for the mining industry 😡😡😡

Honestly feel like I am going insane watching our governments rush to embrace "AI" technology. Shoving it into everywhere just because some US tech company told them they should. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

"Our political class have enabled one of the greatest wealth transfers of all-time by allowing these tech fascists to consolidate resources and power in order to allow them to create a “new economy” built on our suffering." jaredyatessexton.substack.com/p/the-threat...

What does that even mean?

Lowering the flags on 9/11 at the Guantanamo Bay McDonald's for Charlie Kirk is the most dril tweet thing that's ever happened

Ah, News Corp running a story about NEOM to dog whistle about 15 minute city conspiracy theories and promote the idea that reducing car use and cutting emissions is somehow tied to slavery. Cool and normal.

I wrote about what I think is a genuinely revealing document of elite depravity and impunity. It is shocking and sickening. But it's also a crucial moment. We're about to see what happens when conspiracy theorists actually get what they asked for but it turns out not to be what they want.

"ethics watchdog warns of lobbying "risks""

So many unanswered questions posed in this excellent piece on the Meanjin closure. eg. -Why the sudden irreversible decision? -Why didn't they try to save it (community, donor drives etc)? -Why the secrecy? -Why use the financial viability argument now? As if the v wealthy UniMelb can't afford it.

When at UniSA, MUP chair Warren Bebbington earned over $1 mil. These dudes don’t really go backwards in salary do they? And UniMelb Vice Chancellor is on $1.5 mil. But $200k for a literary magazine, that received funding, is too much? Sure sure. Nothing to do with what was being published.

I've seen ABC refer to the Nazi rallies as "anti mass immigration rallies" over and over, exactly what Nazis want labelled as, legitimising them. In contrast, not once have I heard the Palestine rallies called anti-genocide or anti-colonial. I wonder what that's about 🙄

I don't get how people don't realize that a technology that replaces junior and entry level positions in a field destroys that field. There's no skipping steps. You have to be a junior before you can be a senior, and if you don't have senior people, you don't have a field.

Australia's Future Fund has $122,983,179 invested in Elbit Systems, Lockheed Martin and Palantir Technologies. If it's wrong to commit a genocide, it's wrong to profit from a genocide. These companies are, to put it mildly, evil. And taxpayer money is feeding them www.deepcutnews.com/p/exclusive-...

The speed and scale of investment in “AI” is mind boggling. After being told for decades that a rapid transition to clean energy is “expensive” and “unrealistic”, watching this play out is like living in a fever dream

NEW: Australia's Future Fund increased its holdings in Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems by 469% in 2024, deepening Australia's financial ties with companies profiting from the Gaza genocide. www.deepcutnews.com/p/exclusive-...

This piece is so good that I feel weird and kind of gross for both discovering it four days after the fact and sharing it after midnight. But anyway this is an exceptionally affecting piece of writing and @roycerk2.bsky.social is a very good journalist. But you all already knew that. Didn't you?

Western leaders have appeased Donald Trump since he returned to power, only to be hit with new demands after every concession. On Tuesday, Trump declared economic war on countries that regulate its tech companies. It’s time for the world to break from the US and aggressively target Silicon Valley.

I considered writing a long carefully constructed argument laying out the harms and limitations of AI, but instead I wrote about being a hater. Only humans can be haters.

I hope to see more signatories from staff, workers, board members, volunteers and supporters of the ENGOs I've backed and donated thousands of dollars to over many years

Former West Coast player Mitch Brown becomes first openly bisexual man in AFL history

It's wild that governments & public institutions continue to welcome American tech companies into our lives. Big tech has been trampling on human rights, destroying whole sectors of knowledge and culture, and delivering products that make us miserable and drive us apart. We can't just accept this.

They just keep finding new ways to disappoint you

"Why are we rushing headlong into a future that threatens our agency, our livelihoods and our planet?" There are vast costs that come with the rapid rise of AI technologies, writes @amyremeikis.bsky.social. "Why wouldn’t you want that to be regulated? Or at least, have a say over its boundaries?"

You cannot make it up, we are debating Labor's first housing bill this Parliament. To build public housing for US troops under AUKUS. More below 👇

I've been in and around the environment movement for a while. Much has already been said about the failures of our biggest institutions in this moment. But I am proud to add my name to this letter alongside some excellent comrades docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

🫠 www.ethicaljobs.com.au/members/ACTU...

we used to build household shrines to Going On The Computer and it's no coincidence that as we abandoned these we started straying further from god's light

Guess where former defence ministers are? 👀 The revolving door is a real obstacle to good governance and it should be SHUT.

A French livestreamer died while broadcasting being subjected to "abuse-for-entertainment" content. EU & French authorities are investigation. The platform? Australian-owned livestreaming website Kick which has notoriously lax rules & is backed by crypto gambling company Stake.

“When the Productivity Commission rolls the all-terrain tracks of its extraction machinery into town it is a fairly safe bet that it does so with all the grace of an economist invited to give the eulogy for an industry he has long wished dead.” rick-morton.ghost.io/crumbs-at-th...

🫠

Hello. I wrote a nice long essay about AI and this very strange moment where we're constantly told we're living in the dawn of a strange new future but the only thing that's actually clear is that everyone feels pretty unmoored and uncertain. I hope you'll read it

if you watch the tech industry long enough you learn the promised benefits never materialize but the unforeseen harms continue to be perpetuated long after the companies move on to the next big thing yet governments are too worried about scaring away investment to do anything