BBBruce @Didaho@qoto.org

A little bit of Australian cabinet political history from 2002 with regard to failure to act on climate by the conservative Howard Government.

2002 Cabinet Documents: Climate change impacts ackniowledged by Foreign Minister Downer and Environment Minister Kemp as Australia refuses to sign Kyoto Protocol.
#Auspol #climate #NationalArchives #Australia #KyotoProtocol #HighSpeedRail #ClimateEmergency
https://takvera.blogspot.com/2023/01/2002-cabinet-documents-climate-change.html

Only a starved-for-an-angle Australian media could turn a sensible decision to test Chinese visitors for COVID - a policy in line with other developed nations - into another predictable culture war. As Walter Cronkite said: “Australia: too many journalists, not enough news.”

@StarkRG

To be sure, Kelly's beeen a strong backer of inaction on #Covid in Australia. He's the worst CMO since Brendan Murphy, who wasn't even an epidemiologist and, yes, was worse.

State public health officers have been better, but are now effectively muzzled. #auspol

“In #Finland, the number of homeless people has fallen sharply. Those affected receive a small apartment and counselling with no preconditions. 4 out of 5 people affected make their way back into a stable life. And all this is CHEAPER than accepting homelessness.”

Make sure everyone understands this — It’s costing us far too much to NOT provide housing and supports to those who are homeless.

https://scoop.me/housing-first-finland-homelessness/

#homelessness #cities #housing #HousingFirst

Let’s start the year by reflecting on the colossal waste of resources in Bitcoin mining:

During 2022 Bitcoin consumed 161 TWh of electricity in total, exceeding a country such as Sweden.

Related CO2 emissions were ~90 Mt; again negating the entire global net savings from EVs.

Growing the World Population Will Not Lead to More Innovation (Musk wrong again) https://erikexamines.substack.com/p/growing-the-world-population-will?publication_id=1005669&post_id=94237329&triggerShare=true&isFreemail=true

@timbray the bitcoin price is in a period of semi-stability. we think the balancing forces are:

* if it goes too low, the big boys risk liquidation
* if it goes too high, the bagholders might try to cash out

so a big explosion happens and ... that sets the price level until the next one

so for price action, someone needs to be seriously out of the money and have to sell

LULA!!!! ‘This nightmare is over’: Lula vows to pull Brazil out of Bolsonaro’s era of ‘devastation’ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/01/brazil-lula-presidency-new-era?CMP=share_btn_tw

A Moral Rating Agency report shows that there are plenty of well-known corporations still in #Russia. Some have not moved out at all, while others have decided to quit some activities but not others.

Now, the good stuff:

There is a Web3 is Going Just Great leaderboard, which lists the largest hacks, scams, and frauds by dollar amount.

You can also filter it by date range if you're curious about a specific period.

https://web3isgoinggreat.com/charts/top

Michael West opinion piece on the role of NewsCorp in Brexit & its influence on Australian politics

“the corporate media – in the face of rising social & independent media – has become ..ever more ready to propound the lies & misinformation. The billions in funding promised for the NHS has not materialised, the benefits from tax cuts have not materialised, and the Brits now face austerity measures.”

#media #auspol #NewsCorp
https://michaelwest.com.au/brexit-britains-political-tragedy-poses-a-dire-warning-for-australia/

Many have noticed how #TAFE in Australia has been fucked up by consecutive neoliberal BS ideologies that include privatisation. So now we see a Vocational Education & Training sector eviscerated & dodgy private colleges offering point & click BS courses.

I worked in #TAFE for over 25 years in various capacities. I left in 2010 because I was getting embittered by teacher colleagues who couldn't see what was happening & didn't do anything to stop it.

Anyway, here's something I wrote about the whole thing on my blog. Please boost if you find it interesting.

https://dodona777.com/2009/11/07/the-corporatisation-and-destruction-of-tafe-history-rhymes/

#TAFE #VocationalEducationTraining #Privatisation #Neoliberalism

Must love romantic dinners, long walks on the beach, and crippling insecurities.

New Year’s resolution: We stop saying history will judge them. We judge them now. With judges.

👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼

If this year taught us anything, it's that:

1) Workers keep America going, not billionaires.
2) Corporate profits don't trickle down to workers.
3) Poverty is a policy choice.
4) Health care is a human right.
5) Strikes work.

I hope we act on these lessons in the new year.

Let Albo's first moves for 2023 be to extract Australia from Morrison's dead weight nuke sub deal and the Oz tongue from the US posterior. https://www.smh.com.au/national/scott-morrison-s-booby-trap-buying-us-nuclear-submarines-is-a-huge-mistake-20221214-p5c6af.html #AUKUSDORKUS #auspol

This is the the reason he does shit like amplify RU mouthpieces claiming that the U.S. will devolve into a Civil War: when there aren't enough content creators generating engaging content, he literally steps in to juice the numbers. It's so fcuking transparent that it's laughable.

Well, it would be laughable if he weren't cheerleading WWIII in the process, but that's who he is: an opportunistic narcissitic asshole who doesn't give a flying fuck what happens to the world so long as he's on top