Sunday, November 29, 2020
Thursday, November 26, 2020
Vale Football legend Diego Maradona
Wednesday, November 25, 2020
Blue Mountains Air Watch program
A community campaign is being escalated to get the state government to restore the 
after government inquiries on last year's bushfires heard about the effects on communities that lacked air monitoring data.
Blue Mountains Council passed an urgency motion at last month's meeting seeking for the restoration of the Blue Mountains Air Watch Project.
The mayor will again write to the Minister for the Environment Matt Kean urging for his intervention.
Council is also hoping neighbouring bush-fire affected councils such as the Hawkesbury, Lithgow and Wollondilly as well as the Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils will campaign for the return of the monitoring.
The Blue Mountains Lithgow Air Watch project was always planned as a 12 month operation and ended in May this year. It only came about after concerted community campaigning.
A NSW EPA spokesperson said earlier this year the aim was to provide a better picture of air quality in the region across all seasons. It found air quality was generally very good and complied with standards for both particulate and gaseous air pollutants.
PREVIOUSLY:
Cr Don McGregor told the council meeting that the NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into the health impacts of the recent bushfires noted the evidence of health experts, more than 400 deaths occurred, and more than 4000 people were admitted to hospital due to bushfire smoke from the 2019/2020 east coast bushfires.
He said a need for real time information on local air quality was illustrated by the 50,000 hits on the EPA Air Watch website during the height of the fires when a significant decline was recorded in air quality.
Blue Mountains Unions and Community group spokesman Peter Lammiman said they would be campaigning in the lead-up to the 2023 state election to get the air monitors back so they can continue giving real time air quality data whether from the effects of fires or impacts from the Great Western Highway and freight trains.
Peter Neilson, 2020
‘Reality is the motif, and the poet must not adapt his experience to that of the philosopher.’
– Wallace Stevens, 20th century American poet
‘Working on my large paintings in my studio, ‘alone’, I am an “artist” and I am a “public.” I paint. I assess. I wait, for a “frisson of ecstasy “ (Aragon), which creates some new (intuitive?) idea, something that I have never thought. I paint it on the canvas. I assess again, and wait again, for another “event” (Lazzarato). When I “sense” it, I act on that possible “percept” (Bergson) and position it on the canvas. I wait again for another “interval between received and performed movements.” (Bergson); and so it goes . . . As I work, my painting comes to me as something wholly new; that is, the painting becomes something I was not expecting; something that literally has made a life of its own and, once made has no other purpose than to be in the world as “a work” and “the work” of art. (After reading Adorno’s essay Vers une musique informelle this statement, as Adorno himself would say, must be modified. He writes, ‘Whatever manifests itself as immediate, ultimate, as the fundamental given, will turn out, according to the insights of dialectical logic, to be already mediated or postulated.’ However, Adorno continues, ‘Of undoubted significance . . . is Hegel’s insight that although all immediacy is mediated and dependent on its opposite, the concept of an unmediated thing – that is, something which has become or has been set free – is not wholly engulfed by mediation.’)’ –
‘I am the angel of reality seen for a moment standing in the door’
– Wallace Stevens from Angel Surrounded by Paysans (1949)
Publicity for Engels in Eastbourne, reproduced courtesy of designer Nic Watts
Saturday, November 21, 2020
Barbados Removes Lord Nelson Statue
Nearly 200 charities are urging Boris Johnson to keep his commitment to the world's poorest and not cut international aid in the middle of a global pandemic.
Household names including Save the Children,
Greenpeace UK, UNICEF and Friends of the Earth have written to the prime minster to warn that a planned aid cut "could seriously jeopardise the UK’s long term global COVID-19 response".
The government is reportedly considering plans to drop a longstanding commitment to contribute 0.7 per cent of gross national income (GNI) to aid, downgrading it to just 0.5 per cent to save money.
But the charities say that the Covid-19 pandemic looks set to push 115 million people back into extreme poverty around the world and that the aid is needed more than ever.
The prime minister is being urged to think of the UK's international standing, with Britain in the global spotlight next year when it hosts the G7 and COP 26 summits.
"Next year the UK has an opportunity to lead the international response as the Prime Minister hosts the G7 and COP 26 climate summit.
"Abandoning the 0.7 per cent aid commitment would surrender that opportunity and diminish the UK’s standing. It would deeply damage manifesto commitments to help end preventable child deaths and get every girl an education.
Huffington Post
Like everything else Trump has done as president, his entire scheme to steal the election is not meant to succeed in reality — reality, in this case, being judged by actual courts and judges. It is, rather, intended to succeed on television or social media by making his supporters believe that Trump lost due to fraud and not think of him as a loser.
So far, it is working. The majority of Republicans state a belief that the election was rigged against Trump. (It wasn’t.) And nearly every Republican Party politician has either backed Trump’s false allegations of mass voter fraud or refused to accept that Biden won and is now president-elect.
The reason why is because of the nature of the Republican Party, which is actually just a hollowed-out shell filled by the ever-mutating conservative movement.
The conservative movement, born out of the 1964 Barry Goldwater presidential campaign and brought to power by Ronald Reagan in 1980, is openly antagonistic to Republican Party regulars and opposes any evidence of cooperation or appeasement with the enemy: Democrats.
To appease the movement, Republican politicians must pay strict attention to the far-right fringe of their party in order to stave off the looming threat of primary challenges. Once Trump conquered the party in 2016, Republicans seeking to avoid right-wing primary challenges had to adapt to his neo-personalist style of rule. This meant supplementing support for extremist right-wing policies and rhetoric with obsequious fealty to Trump and his family members. (With the only exception being when Trump suggests using the government to distribute wealth in an equitable manner.)
In 2020, this means echoing Trump’s false claims of fraud as he tries to steal the election ― or at the very least not rejecting them as the dangerous absurdity they are. Republicans now face a litmus test of endorsing a belief that the 2020 election was unfair, a position that undermines the necessary peaceful transfer of power that American democracy would not exist without.
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: ACOSS Media
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 2020 at 2:34 pm
Subject: MEDIA RELEASE: Retirement Incomes Review highlights growing divide
Retirement Review
highlights growing divide
The Retirement Incomes Review, released today, finds that the annual cost to taxpayers of superannuation tax concessions is an eye-watering $41.5 billion. In response to the Review, the Australian Council of Social Service said people on the highest incomes disproportionately benefited from these generous superannuation tax concessions, while older people on pensions who rent their homes are struggling to keep a roof overhead.
ACOSS CEO Dr Cassandra Goldie said: “We must fix the mounting inequality in our retirement incomes system, which sees people on high incomes benefit greatly from generous superannuation tax concessions, at a cost of tens of billions per year to the federal budget.”
Lift the incomes of retired people in greatest need
“At the same time, the report shows people over 65 who do not own their own home are really struggling to keep a roof over their head, with 48% living in poverty. Also, a growing number of older people are stuck on the poverty-inducing Jobseeker payment, with 42% of people on JobSeeker over 45 years of age.
“We urgently need to increase the Rent Assistance payment received by people on income support, and to lift Jobseeker Payment permanently to a decent level. In addition, we must invest in social housing to boost dwelling numbers across the country. These are without doubt the most effective way to lift the living standards of older people in greatest hardship,” said Dr Goldie.
Remove glaring inequities in super tax breaks
The flat 15% tax on employer superannuation contributions means that a cleaner earning $20,000 (who normally does not pay tax on earnings) receives no taxation support for compulsory employer contributions, yet a fund manager on $200,000 receives a tax break of 32 cents per dollar contributed.
This inequity is a major cause of the superannuation ‘’gap’’ on retirement between men and women. Pre-retirement super balances for women average just two-thirds of those for men (In 2017/18, average superannuation savings for a woman aged 60-to-64 were $279,167 compared with $344,718 for a man of the same age).
“Thirty years after the Super Guarantee was introduced, these inequities must finally be removed, by taxing all contributions up to a modest annual cap at people’s marginal tax rate minus a rebate,” said Dr Goldie.
Properly fund aged care by removing excessive post-retirement tax breaks
“At a time when aged care is grossly under-funded, and the cost of fixing this is about to rise rapidly, it makes no sense to continue to exempt super fund earnings (interest, dividends and capital gains paid to super funds) from income tax. This exemption should have been removed years ago when super benefits paid to members were made tax free.
“To properly fund aged care and health services for an ageing population, ACOSS is calling for superannuation fund earnings after retirement to be taxed at the same rate as in the ‘’accumulation’’ phase (15%), minus a tax credit for people on the lowest incomes. This would raise $5 billion a year in the short term and much more in later years,” said Dr Goldie.
Increase the Super Guarantee to 10% as legislated, but reconsider any further increases
“We support the increase to the Super Guarantee from 9.5% to 10% of wages in July 2021 as collective pay agreements may already include this increase and on its own is likely to have minimal impact.
“For increases beyond 10%, we need to see the evidence on whether it’s worthwhile for people with low and modest incomes to save more for retirement, given much of the increased contributions are likely to come out of future pay rises.
“In the absence of fundamental reform of the tax concessions as we propose, increases to compulsory super contributions beyond 10% would be of doubtful benefit to people with low incomes who face greater financial pressure during working life, and are more likely to achieve close to income replacement in retirement at a 10% contribution level,” Dr Goldie said.
Copyright ACOSS 2020. All rights reserved.
Thursday, November 19, 2020
THE GATE OF MEMORY. Raised by Coloured Folk.
THE GATE OF MEMORY.
Raised by Coloured Folk.
The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954) Sat 17 Aug 1935 Page 11
(BY A. E. F.)
About 20 miles west of Quirindi, on the
road that runs through Spring Ridge and
on to Binnaway and Dubbo, is the little town-
ship of Caroona, It is a typical country
town, with its church and store and school,
but to many folk it reminds them that there
is an aboriginal mission station named Wal-
hallow.
The manager and his wife are to be con-
gratulated on the neat and tidy appearance
of the whple of the station, and on the work
they are doing for the physical, moral, and
religious welfare of these dark people. The
little school entered In the gardens competi-
tion organised by the schools of the north, and
in their section they attained second place,
whilst the residence garden took pride of
place for the section.
There are about 160 of these coloured folk
on the station, most of them half-castes. In
the little school, where the manager is also
the teacher, there are about 60 children at-
tending regularly. It is at the gateway to
the school that we find the "Gate of Memory,"
This, the first of its kind in Australia, was
unveiled early this year. On the tablet
inserted in the wall is the following:
This tablet was erected
in honour of those men
resident on this station,
who served abroad with
the A.I.F. during the
Great War, 1914-1918.
This Gate of Memory was built by the
aboriginals on the station, and on Anzac Day
a special service was held.
Japan set a daily record with more than 2,000 new COVID-19 cases
Japan set a daily record with more than 2,000 new COVID-19 cases — including a new high of 493 in the capital — on Wednesday, following reports Tokyo was expected to raise its virus alert to the highest level Thursday amid an ongoing surge of infections.
Prior to Wednesday, record nationwide tallies had been reported for three consecutive days through Saturday, with the figure hitting 1,737 on that day. While the final figure for Wednesday was yet to be confirmed, local media tallies showed the figure had risen above the 2,000 threshold.
But much of the focus has been on the capital and the surge in cases there. While raising the virus alert level, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government may also call on businesses to close early, according to local media reports.
Much like the “Tokyo Alert” activated by Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike in June, the capital’s four-point alert system is largely symbolic. The alert level, which is changed based on input from experts, is meant to warn residents to exercise further caution but can also signal the announcement of additional virus countermeasures.
Koike is expected to make the announcement during a meeting on Thursday.
The fourth level indicates that “infections are spreading” — a step up from the third level, which means Tokyo believes “infections appear to be spreading.” Tokyo lowered its alert status to the second-highest level on Sept. 10, but new cases in the capital over the past several weeks have apparently forced officials to raise it once again.
Koike has so far made no mention to the media or public that the city will be put into lockdown — in this case a “soft lockdown,” as Japan’s virus laws don’t permit compulsory or punitive measures — or that residents will be asked to avoid nonessential travel within or outside city limits.
The last and only time Koike issued voluntary business closure requests was in April, when the central government declared a state of emergency in seven prefectures, including Tokyo, extending it 10 days later to the rest of the country. The state of emergency was lifted in late May.
President Barack Obama s “A Promised Land” sold nearly 890,000 copies
Former President Barack Obama s “A Promised Land” sold nearly 890,000 copies in the U.S. and Canada in its first 24 hours, putting it on track to be the best selling presidential memoir in modern history.
The first-day sales, a record for Penguin Random House, includes pre-orders, e-books and audio.
“We are thrilled with the first day sales,” said David Drake, publisher of the Penguin Random House imprint Crown. “They reflect the widespread excitement that readers have for President Obama's highly anticipated and extraordinarily written book.”
The only book by a former White House resident to come close to the early pace of “A Promised Land” is the memoir by Obama's wife, Michelle Obama, whose “Becoming” sold 725,000 copies in North America its first day and has topped 10 million worldwide since its release in 2018. “Becoming" is still so in demand that Crown, which publishes both Obamas and reportedly paid around $60 million for their books, has yet to release a paperback.
Wednesday, November 18, 2020
The Equality and Human Rights Commission
The Equality and Human Rights Commission said in October it had found evidence of failure adequately to train people investigating alleged anti-Semitism, political interference in the processing of complaints, and harassment of individuals.
Corbyn, 71, reacted to the report by saying the scale of Labour’s anti-Semitism problem had been overstated by the media and his political opponents, and that his attempts to deal with the issue had been blocked by “obstructive party bureaucracy”.
Current leader Keir Starmer has been trying to make a clean break from the hard-left Corbyn era as he seeks to turn around Labour’s fortunes after four successive general election defeats since 2010.
Tuesday, November 17, 2020
Mr Perrottet has opted to embark upon one of the biggest tax reforms in decades in an area that is fundamental to the national psyche — real estate.
Key amongst those challenges are to drive unemployment lower, return the state to growth, repair the budget over the longer term and, ultimately, reduce net debt to a more manageable level of 7 per cent gross state product from the projected peak of 14.7 per cent in 2023-2024.
None of those objectives would be easy in ordinary times. And these are anything but ordinary.
It seems an odd time then for the NSW Treasurer to stump up an idea that, initially at least, could wreak havoc with his budget, unsettle the electorate and irritate his Canberra colleagues.
The Netflix of property tax
Despite the incredible challenges on two major fronts — health and economy — Mr Perrottet has opted to embark upon one of the biggest tax reforms in decades in an area that is fundamental to the national psyche — real estate.
Property and tax can be a volatile combination. Just ask Bill Shorten.
While yet to be finalised, Mr Perrottet has put in motion a plan to overhaul the way Australians have been taxed on property since Federation.
He is proposing to gradually replace stamp duty with a land tax.
Instead of paying a one-off upfront payment on the purchase of a property, buyers instead would pay an annual tax based on the value of their land.
It is an idea that has been brewing for decades and one many economists have been pushing — particularly in recent years as home prices have soared — as a more efficient system of taxation.
As housing prices in major metropolitan areas like Sydney have surged, with seven figure sums now normal, stamp duty has skyrocketed.
Ordinary dwellings now command the kind of stamp duty payments once reserved for the uber-rich.
It is a tax that distorts real estate decisions, particularly for the elderly, who remain in large, underutilised properties rather than face the prospect of paying out a hefty fee to downsize.
For the young, adding tens of thousands of dollars to already exorbitant prices, explains why home ownership for under-35s has plummeted.
"Stamp duty is a tax from a bygone era," Mr Perrottet said.
"This will be like the Netflix of property tax."
Implementing it won't be easy.
It will require every other state to follow suit and hefty compensation from the Federal Government during the next few years. Politically, that's a tough sell.
In a good year, NSW earns around $9 billion from stamp duty.
Mr Perrottet's plan involves giving that away in favour of an annual, but much smaller, revenue stream which will be good for state finances down the track. But the initial period will see state revenue nosedive.
The trade-off is that, according to Mr Perrottet, the more efficient tax system will inject $11 billion into the economy over the next four years.
The Federal Government has long urged the states to come up with productivity enhancing economic reforms. But it may baulk at the idea of bearing the cost of implementing it.
Mark Drakeford has appealed to Joe Biden’s links with Wales in a plea for Wales and the United States to work together.
The First Minister Mark Drakeford has appealed to Joe Biden’s links with Wales in a plea for Wales and the United States to work together.
Joe Biden was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, a town which saw an influx of Welsh immigrants in the 19th century to work in the coal and steel industries.
Mark Drakeford said that he was writing to offer his warm congratulations on Joe Biden’s victory in the US Presidential election, and that they had a common goal on Covid-19 and climate change.
The letter did not mention Brexit, despite Joe Biden sharing the Welsh Government’s reservations about the UK Government’s plan.
“The people of Wales and the United States have deep historical ties which date back to the founding of the country,” Mark Drakeford said in his letter.
“As I’m sure you are aware, Americans of Welsh descent played an important role in the development of the coal and steel-producing parts of America, not least in your home town of Scranton, Pennsylvania.
“Today the bonds between our two nations are deeper than ever – in business, in education and in the cultural sphere.
“There are important areas where we can achieve even more by working together.
“The Welsh Government is determined to address the issue of climate change, which can only be achieved through international collaboration. We firmly believe that the challenges of racial equality demand action from us in Wales. And, of course, the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic requires a co-ordinated global response.
I welcome your commitment to re-engage with international organisations and play a leading role on this and many other critical issues.
“You have come to office at a time of unprecedented challenge and change. On behalf of the people of Wales, I wish you every success and look forward to the opportunity to strengthen the relationship and ties between our two countries.”
SBS Michelle Obama Rips into Donald Trump
This week, I’ve been reflecting a lot on where I was four years ago. Hilary Clinton had just been dealt a tough loss by a far closer margin than the one we’ve seen this year. I was hurt and disappointed—but the votes had been counted and Donald Trump had won. The American people had spoken. And one of the great responsibilities of the presidency is to listen when they do. So my husband and I instructed our staffs to do what George and Laura Bush had done for us: run a respectful, seamless transition of power—one of the hallmarks of American democracy. We invited the folks from the president-elect’s team into our offices and prepared detailed memos for them, offering what we’d learned over the past eight years.
I have to be honest and say that none of this was easy for me. Donald Trump had spread racist lies about my husband that had put my family in danger. That wasn’t something I was ready to forgive. But I knew that, for the sake of our country, I had to find the strength and maturity to put my anger aside. So I welcomed Melania Trump into the White House and talked with her about my experience, answering every question she had—from the heightened scrutiny that comes with being First Lady to what it’s like to raise kids in the White House.
I knew in my heart it was the right thing to do—because our democracy is so much bigger than anybody’s ego. Our love of country requires us to respect the results of an election even when we don’t like them or wish it had gone differently—the presidency doesn’t belong to any one individual or any one party. To pretend that it does, to play along with these groundless conspiracy theories—whether for personal or political gain—is to put our country’s health and security in danger. This isn’t a game. So I want to urge all Americans, especially our nation’s leaders, regardless of party, to honor the electoral process and do your part to encourage a smooth transition of power, just as sitting presidents have done throughout our history.
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp on Friday signed a hate crimes bill
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp on Friday signed a hate crimes bill that provides for extra penalties for crimes motivated by race, colour, gender or sexual orientation, a move in part motivated by the high-profile killing of a Black jogger this year.
The legislation comes at a time when the slayings of African Americans at the hands of police and white men have spurred weeks of demonstrations across Georgia and the nation, with calls for racial justice.
Monday, November 16, 2020
ETU THE TIME FOR ACTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE WAS YESTERDAY
THE TIME FOR ACTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE WAS YESTERDAY. THE TIME FOR A JUST TRANSITION IS NOW
Nicholas McCallum Posted on December 06, 2018
It's time to stop lying to coal-power workers and filling communities with unrealistic hope.
It's time for a just transition.
Australia has wasted the past decade by failing to take action on climate change and it’s cost us a lot more than higher energy bills.
Inaction is slowing Australia down on renewable energy projects and it’s hamstrung local manufacturing that should be constructing the solar panels and wind turbines that will power local communities through the decades ahead.
Inaction has cost valuable time and preparation in our inevitable transition away from fossil fuels and coal-fired power.
That’s why the Electrical Trades Union is backing Labor and the creation of a national Just Transition Authority that brings together government, industry and unions so we can set Australia up to be a renewable energy super power. Because, let’s be serious, with the right policies in place Australia will do that easily.
The Federal Liberal Government’s policy neglect has cost our coal-town communities more than anyone else.
They’ve been fed lies by politicians who say the 19th Century energy technology that currently sustains their
livelihoods will continue to power Australia through the 21st Century.
Trump the Genius, Trump the Incompetent, Trump the Bogeyman A character study of the 45th president. Eliot A. Cohen
It may seem counterintuitive to say so, but Donald Trump is a complicated figure. To be sure, the basic word cloud is clear—narcissistic, deceitful, vindictive, and so on—but there are multiple sides to the personality that has sucked so many people into a vortex of adoration or loathing. Now that his term in office is coming to an end with a combination of farce, folly, and menace, it is worth assessing him as cold-bloodedly as we may.
He is, to begin with, a genius. A very narrow kind of genius, admittedly, but a genius nonetheless. One element of his brilliance is a gift for echoing the anger and resentments of overlooked Americans. One can only be awed by the way in which a germaphobe born into wealth, who in his private life repeatedly fleeced working- and middle-class people and seems to have despised the devout who prayed enthusiastically for him, was able to represent himself so successfully as their avatar and champion.
It’s not just that Trump learned how to use television cameras to his advantage while doing The Apprentice. He also learned (or maybe intuited) the diction, grimaces, japes, chippy belligerence, and malicious wit that millions of Americans have yearned to display on a public stage but could not. He flipped the middle finger at cultural elites, overly sensitive liberals, woke activists, patronizing professors, and condescending atheists, and people loved it, wishing only that they could do the same. He knew how to dabble in race-baiting without quite ever going full George Wallace. He had the great skill of propounding absurd or evil things and adding “It’s what I’ve heard” or “People are saying,” so that there was always enough room for The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page to sigh wearily rather than face up to what his words meant.
Trump also has, as authoritarians often do, a feral sense for weakness. Hence his usually spot-on dismissive nicknames for his opponents in 2016. More important, he could sense the weaknesses in his audience. In 1932, a novel appeared in German with the title Little Man, What Now? The novel (and its author, Hans Fallada) was by no means pro-Hitler, but it captured the milieu that made many ripe for seduction by a variety of extremist parties, including the Nazis. That is why Trump’s real slogan was not “Make America great again,” a phrase devoid of content, but rather the lasting words of his inaugural address: “American carnage.” He detected, and none better, fear of a collapse—of order, of morals, of traditional hierarchy, of the economy—and played to it.
And, finally, he was smart enough to give people what they wanted: a flourishing economy fed by deregulation and massive stimulus, a promise of controlling immigration, and a foreign policy that retreated from war and slapped around deadbeat, free-riding allies. What was not to like?
But these strokes of genius could work only in an environment where his party of choice (he was never really a Republican) would cave to him completely. Stuart Stevens, in It Was All A Lie, reflects on the ways in which the GOP began sliding down a rathole of race-baiting and antidemocratic behavior long ago—and how he, as a political operative, went along with it. Other thoughtful Republicans (or former Republicans) are mulling over their own complicity in a party that was compromising its values for power. But equally, or more so, there has not been a full reckoning on the left.
Particularly given the impending release of what is sure to be a gracefully written and elegiac memoir by Barack Obama, one could easily elide the mistakes made not only by that administration but by the elites who were so enthusiastic about it. Those mistakes gave Trump his opening—in particular, the lack of empathy, let alone sympathy, for Americans who were whipsawed by changing social norms, who felt their faith to be under attack, or who believed their livelihood endangered by the flight of manufacturing to China. A clash of cultures gave Trump his chance, and it is not clear that the culture warriors on one side have processed adequately why they lost so soundly in 2016, and only barely eked out a victory in 2020.
So yes, Trump is a genius. He is also a bozo. If he had the intelligence, cunning, and courage of Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s authoritarian ruler, American democracy would have trembled on the edge. He never figured out how government worked, so he never figured out how to really go after his enemies—for example, he did not understand that having a security clearance creates a vulnerability to financial exhaustion by lawyers’ fees for someone you wish to bludgeon with prosecution.
More deeply, because of his unwavering pugnacity, Trump is simply incapable of adopting a pose of generosity. It would have cost him nothing to ooze a bit of sympathy for those suffering from the coronavirus, or a hurricane, or police brutality. He might have talked, as Joe Biden has already done with sincerity, about being a president for all Americans, even those who opposed him. But these are all beyond his emotional range, which is spectacularly narrow. He can do hostility, victimhood, and swagger, and that’s about it. And that was simply too little to be able to sustain a reelection campaign.
Trump is, finally, a bogeyman—a fearful devil of our nightmares who will vanish before too long. He will step down and, despite the fears of many, likely recede into the background. He will no longer have the platform of the White House, and all the opportunities that it gave him to dominate the news cycle. He will be faced with a host of lawsuits, including some that have nothing to with his politics and everything to do with his grifting. He reportedly has hundreds of millions of dollars coming due on loans, while no foreign government hoping for favor with the Biden White House will continue to pour money into his overpriced hotels. He seems likely to declare war on Fox, the network that served as his presidential mouthpiece. Republican politicians who have groveled to him in recent years while privately loathing and despising him will be frantic to prevent him from taking the nomination they seek in 2024. They will do their best to undercut not only Trump, but also his equally militant and even more clueless sons. Lastly, he is old and getting older, and we have reason to think that he may not wear particularly well.
Trump will undoubtedly bleat from the sidelines, but the country will move on. What it cannot move on from, however, are the underlying syndromes that gave him his extraordinary success. The cultural condescension and economic hard-heartedness that mobilized his followers, the obliviousness to issues of character that enabled traditional conservatives and devout believers to throw in their lot with a despicable man, the hostility toward facts and evidence that led to an insane opposition to mask wearing during a pandemic, and the belief in winning at all costs including the undermining of democratic norms—these remain with us. And we still do not have more than a superficial understanding of them, of whence they came, how they flourished, and what we can do to remedy them.
The sorry tale of Trump, then, is almost behind us. The difficult tasks of understanding, reflection, and reconstruction are before us, and will last far longer than his appalling strut across the stage of American history.
Sunday, November 15, 2020
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Environmental groups are appealing a decision made last month by Illinois regulators to allow the expansion of the Dakota Access oil pipeline (DAPL), according to documents filed with the state on Friday.
The Illinois Commerce Commission last month voted to approve an application to roughly double the capacity of Energy Transfer LP's ET.N 557,000 barrel-per-day crude oil pipeline after legal pushback by environmental groups delayed the vote by about a year.
Save Our Illinois Land and Sierra Club, which have led the fight to block the project, filed an application for a rehearing with the ICC, the first step before appealing to state district court.
Raymond Williams and PLAN X
Raymond Williams (1921–1988) is often cited as one of the founders of the interdisciplinary field of education and research known as cultural studies (CS). To be more specific, he formulated an influential methodology that he named “cultural materialism,” which has an affinity with CS but is a distinctive perspective in its own right. Williams’s most celebrated book, Culture and Society 1780–1950 (1958), traced British Romanticism’s critical response to the Industrial Revolution and successive debates on social and cultural change. At the time of publication, Williams declared “culture” to be “ordinary,” thereby challenging the cultural elitism of literary study and opening up questions concerning mass-popular culture. However, Williams distanced himself from the populist study of communications and culture that became fashionable in the 1980s. His transition from literary criticism and history to sociological commentary and speculation on future prospects was signaled further by his 1961 sequel to Culture and Society, The Long Revolution.
Williams challenged the behaviorism of American-originated communication studies and drew upon European critical theories in his own work. His academic specialism was dramatic form, which he studied historically and related to theatrical and audiovisual trends in modern drama. His perspective of cultural materialism broke entirely with idealist approaches to the arts and communications media. However, he was firmly opposed to technologically determinist explanations of the emergence of new media and the dynamics of social change, On technical innovation, he emphasized the role of intentionality, the materiality of discourse, and the social conditions of cultural production and circulation. His key concepts include selective tradition, structure of feeling, and mobile privatization. Williams later coined the term “Plan X” to refer to the rise of military recklessness and unregulated “free-market” political economy and communications during the late 20th century. His final non-fiction book (he also wrote novels), Towards 2000 (1985), has been updated to take account of developments in culture, society, and the environment over the past 30 years.
Saturday, November 14, 2020
This article by Christopher John Stephens first appeared on the website popmatters
Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, and Myth, Truth, and Anger Posted on November 9, 2020 by Tony Attwood
This article by Christopher John Stephens first appeared on the website popmatters.
How we begin to understand the way Dylan, Guthrie, and the senseless Christmas Eve death of 73 men, women, and children at an Italian Hall in Calumet, Michigan are connected will probably depend on what we want to believe. The disaster, memorialized 28 years later by folk legend Woody Guthrie in the song “1913 Massacre”, followed the topical ballad tradition of both passively reporting on a news event and definitively taking sides. Which side are you on? The whole wide world is watching.
Such lines are mantras in a topical folk ballad. We bear witness in order to be those who remain standing to tell the story, 28 years later or a century after the fact. Guthrie’s song, recorded and released in 1941 for Mose Asch’s Folkways label, was a cornerstone in the enormous burst of activity from the singer. He would spend the ’40s building his legacy. By the end of the decade, facing diagnoses as varied as alcoholism, schizophrenia, and eventually (by 1952) the degenerative Huntington’s disease, Guthrie would fade from the spotlight and live the rest of his life in a series of psychiatric hospitals.
It’s within the context of what is commonly known — the rise and fall of Guthrie as a rambling tramp folk singer who brought “This Land Is Your Land” into the public consciousness and ushered in the folk revival of the late ’50s and early ’60s — that Daniel Wolff’s remarkable story unfolds. From its start, Grown-Up Anger: The Connected Mysteries of Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, and the Calumet Massacre of 1913 is about searching for direction, about starting to understand where to start. Wolff lays it out with his first five words: “I was thirteen and angry.”
Friday, November 13, 2020
Germany and Climate. Change
Germany's first major national climate law has entered into force on 18 December 2019,
three months after the coalition of chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative CDU/CSU
alliance and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) agreed to introduce it as part of an extensive climate package to reach
2030 climate targets. The package forms the bedrock of the country's long-term climate policy. This factsheet provides details of Germany's framework Climate Action Law.
In their 2018 coalition treaty, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative CDU/CSU alliance
and the Social Democrats (SPD) promised to introduce “a law that guarantees compliance with the climate targets for 2030”.
The government decided that this would not be a single law. Instead, it is working out a comprehensive climate package.
After overnight coalition negotiations, the parties presented a 23-page-document with the key elements of this package on 20 September and is now working out the details.
The government decided the package would consist of:
(A) a major framework “Climate Action Law” and
(B) a policy programme of measures, called “Climate Action Programme 2030”.
The document from 20 September contains information on both, and the term
“climate action law” often refers to the whole package. This factsheet looks at (A),
the Climate Action Law in the narrower sense.
The (B) Programme 2030 contains climate action measures for all sectors – such as the
coal exit, renewables expansion and support for e-mobility – and cross-sector policies
such as a pricing system for carbon emissions in transport and buildings. Implementing the programme entails a myriad of changes to existing climate and energy-related laws and regulations.
The cabinet adopted both in a meeting on 9 October.
The federal parliament (Bundestag) decided the law with minor changes on 15 November. The Bundesrat, the council of state governments, greenlit the law on 29 November, clearing the last hurdle.
The climate law entered into force on 18 December 2019.
Ireland and Climate
What are the effects of climate change on Ireland?
The effects of climate change can be clearly seen, the most evident effect can be seen in the increased temperature. Temperatures have risen by 0.7oC between 1890-2008 and most significantly by 0.4oC between 1980-2008.
These increased temperatures have had knock on effects on Ireland's natural environment, it has changed the growing season affecting farming and has increased the number of animals suited to warmer temperatures. An increase in the frequency and impact of storms has also been recorded in the last few decades.
If the rate of global warming continues to increases and the climate continues to change there could be severe adverse effects on Ireland. As an island nation we are particularly vulnerable to increasing sea levels with coastal regions facing issues of flooding.
South Korea and Climate
By Isabelle Gerretsen
President Moon Jae-in has announced South Korea will commit to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, turning an election promise into a policy pledge.
“Together with the international community, we will actively respond to climate change and aim for carbon neutrality by 2050,” he said in a speech to parliament on Wednesday — reaffirming plans for a Green New Deal that voters overwhelmingly backed in April.
“By replacing coal power generation with renewable energy, we will create new markets and industries and create jobs,” he said.
Moon’s announcement came two days after Japan committed to the 2050 net zero target and said it would rethink its reliance on coal. Last month, China stunned the world when it pledged to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.
“The recent announcements from Japan and China have definitely put pressure on Korea to announce a target year for carbon neutrality,” Joojin Kim, managing director of South Korean campaign group Solutions For Our Climate, told Climate Home News.
Analysis: Who will build the world’s last coal plant?
In July, Moon presented plans for a $37 billion Green New Deal aimed at boosting green infrastructure, clean energy and electric vehicles by 2025. On Wednesday, he announced a further $7 billion spending on carbon-cutting measures.
“We are replacing old buildings and public rental housing with eco-friendly facilities and investing 2.4 trillion [korean won] in the green transition for urban spaces and daily infrastructure,” Moon said.
As part of its Green New Deal, South Korea aims to have 1.13 million electric and 200,000 hydrogen vehicles on the roads by 2025.
Moon’s announcement coincided with a visit from Cop26 president-designate and UK business and energy minister Alok Sharma. Sharma said in a tweet President Moon’s announcement followed a “very productive 72 hours of meetings with govt ministers, parliamentarians, businesses & international organisations”.
As figurehead for the Cop26 UN climate summit in Glasgow, UK next November, Sharma is seeking to mobilise higher climate ambition from other governments.
Viet Nam And Climate
HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam has completed an updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) with plans to reduce total greenhouse gas emissions 9 per cent by 2030 in an attempt to respond to climate change.
Tăng Thế Cường, director of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment’s Department of Climate Change, said Việt Nam had completed the updated NDC despite complications caused by the COVID-19 pandemic after five years of efforts to implement its international commitments in response to climate change.
Under the updated version, the country has decided to reduce its total greenhouse gas emissions by 9 per cent by 2030, and continue to reduce them up to 27 per cent if it receives international support through bilateral and multilateral co-operation, and the Paris Agreement mechanisms on climate change.
The new version has been submitted to the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Cường said the Paris Agreement on climate change was adopted at the 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP21).
This is the first global legal framework binding the responsibilities of all Parties in climate change mitigation and adaptation in the context of sustainable development.
All participating Parties, therefore, were required to contribute to mitigation, adaptation, finance, technology transfer and capacity building to implement the NDC as a way of responding to global climate change, he said.
Việt Nam's first NDC was submitted in September 2015. At that time, Việt Nam’s NDC, like those of other countries, was categorised as an Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC).
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has since co-ordinated with relevant ministries, sectors and agencies to review and update the NDC in the context of national development.
Cường said compared to the original NDC, the contribution to mitigation in the updated NDC had significantly increased in terms of both emissions reduction volume and reduction percentage with Việt Nam’s domestic resources.
Emissions reductions have increased by 21.2 million tCO2eq (from 62.7 million tCO2eq to 83.9 million tCO2eq), equal to an increase of emission reduction of 1 per cent (from 8 per cent to 9 per cent).
The contributions of greenhouse gas emissions reduction with additional international assistance will increase from 25 per cent to 27 per cent and greenhouse gas emissions reductions will increase by 52.6 million tCO2eq (from 198.2 million tCO2eq to 250.8 million tCO2eq).
Given the socio-economic situation of a developing country significantly affected by climate change, the updated NDC shows the country's highest efforts to contribute to global climate change response.
The country's efforts are also reflected by the fact the Government considers responding to climate change vital. It is the responsibility of the entire country to simultaneously conduct climate change adaptation and mitigation actions, and use natural resources efficiently and sustainably.
In reply to Việt Nam’s efforts and completion of the updated NDC, the UNFCCC Secretariat and the NDC Partner Organisation recently sent letters to the Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, appreciating Việt Nam's efforts to respond to climate change.
New Scientist
AS THE coronavirus pandemic swept across the US, it brought with it an unprecedented economic crisis. As firms shut down and people stayed home, the country’s unemployment rate shot up from 4.4 per cent in March to 14.7 per cent in April, adding fuel to a political fire already raging in a tumultuous election year.
That much is well known. But the stories of many of those who lost their livelihoods and sought help exposed a slower-burn technological crisis. Outdated computer systems simply fell over as they attempted to deal with the flood of people applying for welfare benefits – and hardly anyone around knew how to fix things.
It is far from an isolated problem. Tangled webs of computer code built up over decades, often written in programming languages now rarely taught or understood, underpin IT systems across the world, in government departments, banks, airlines, hospitals and more. Coronavirus taught us a lot about how the systems we had assumed would assist and protect us can fail in a crisis. As the fallout continues, it is becoming ever clearer that we need to revisit the computer code that underpins many aspects of our societies before disaster strikes.
Thursday, November 12, 2020
The New McCarthyism
Blacklisting anyone perceived as supportive of President Donald Trump has
become a shockingly mainstream idea for liberals, who are proving day after
day that they embrace the very authoritarian beliefs they claim to be against.
It may be difficult to believe, but McCarthyism seems to be making a comeback.
The late Wisconsin senator’s public hearings in the ‘50s where he investigated
individuals for any and all connections to communism (which ultimately led to many
losing their livelihoods) represent a dark time for the US, but Democrats appear
to be taking notes on this unfortunate chapter in history for future use.
The warm embrace of a likely Biden presidency has not softened the left’s
hatred for Trump supporters in any way, but rather only emboldened them to
promote more and more extreme ideas.
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