@rwba@aus.social
@rwba@aus.social avatar

rwba

@rwba@aus.social

Retired secondary school teacher. #Aikido student. Lover of Australian #wildlife. Born 310ppm CO₂. Life science student. Had a gutful of hyperpartisanship threatening democracy and meaningful climate action. Canadian expat Living on #Bundjalung country. Linux and FOSS user since the 1990s.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

auscandoc, to random
@auscandoc@med-mastodon.com avatar

Calgary hosting town hall on https://calgary.citynews.ca/2024/05/14/calgary-ucp-vaccine-misinformation-town-hall/

“The claims made by these and the other four individuals set to speak have all been disproven and deemed false by medical professionals.

“many of the individuals that are participating in this event, that have been invited to speak have been discredited, have lost their license, and I know for them, they may hold it up as a badge of honour, but the reality is their perspective does not accord with what the science says,”

rwba,
@rwba@aus.social avatar

@Snowshadow @auscandoc I think they always were.

rwba, to auspol
@rwba@aus.social avatar

Sydney council reverses ban on same-sex parenting books after fiery meeting

Good.

"Hate is not a family value." Hmmm… I like that. Neither is bigotry.

Also note that the Maritime Union of Australia came out and supported rescinding the book ban. And thanks go to them. Perhaps a reminder for everyone to join a union.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/may/15/hate-is-not-a-family-value-protesters-clash-as-sydney-council-considers-rescinding-same-sex-parenting-book-ban

rwba, to Palestine
@rwba@aus.social avatar

'From the river to the sea': Labor senator breaks ranks to accuse Israel of 'genocide'

She's right. How many deaths? How many atrocities? How many mass graves? How many dead children will it take?

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/from-the-river-to-the-sea-labor-senator-breaks-ranks-to-accuse-israel-of-genocide/sutrftl2c

TheConversationUS, to news
@TheConversationUS@newsie.social avatar

In 1942, Japanese Americans were rounded up and sent to internment camps because of hyped up fears of ‘disloyalty’.
In 1944, thousands of young Japanese American men were drafted out of those camps and sent to fight for democracy.
Despite this, they fought gallantly, earning more than 14,000 medals.
Then veterans faced more prejudice when they returned home
https://theconversation.com/japanese-american-soldiers-in-world-war-ii-fought-the-axis-abroad-and-racial-prejudice-at-home-158512
@histodons

rwba,
@rwba@aus.social avatar

@TheConversationUS @histodons This was a not uncommon story the world over. Same in Canada and Australia.

dgar, to random
@dgar@aus.social avatar

Thanks to everyone who explained “plethora” to me.

It means a lot.

rwba,
@rwba@aus.social avatar

@dgar 🤦‍♂️ 😂

simon_brooke, to random
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot avatar

"Knowing how Israel operates, my assessment is that Israeli forces intentionally killed workers so that donors would pull out and civilians in Gaza could continue to be starved quietly" -- Francesca Albanese, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/04/03/goac-a03.html

rwba,
@rwba@aus.social avatar

@simon_brooke You may be right. Seems to me that letting IDF know your whereabouts makes it easier for them to target you.

An act of bastardry.

rwba, to auspol
@rwba@aus.social avatar

So, what's the point of a Labor government?

“What we’re doing with this piece of legislation, this important piece of legislation,” Giles says, “is to fill a very significant loophole, a loophole that a small cohort of people who have no basis upon which to remain in Australia, who are refusing to cooperate with efforts to effect their removal.”

"There are words missing in these sentences. The greater holes are decency and compassion. Labor weakened reforms on climate change this week and gave up on the rights of queer children. It refined its punishment of people seeking asylum. Whatever point there is to being in power, it surely is impossible to see now. There is just an orthodontic smile and the slumped form of various ministers who might once have had a spine."

https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/comment/editorial/2024/03/30/spineless-indecency

rwba, to environment
@rwba@aus.social avatar

Interesting blurb from Paul Bonjiorno in

Imagine demanding the release of the draft so they can have an open — after the COALition's conduct of "debate". Now that went well, didn't it. 🤣 Buckley's and None, I'd say. And a good thing, too. If allowed that to happen he'd have to have rocks in his head.

And now the other bit:

"The next set play for Labor to hold off the Liberals and the independent surge at bay will be the May budget.

"Chalmers is flagging more energy bill relief – that should help."

But no thoughts about the or ?

https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/news/politics/australian-politics/2024/03/26/paul-bongiorno-minor-parties-independents

rwba, to random
@rwba@aus.social avatar

Got an email from 350.org. They said: Right now, the Australian Government is reforming our national environment laws and they want to know what you think. Make a submission today, calling on them to include climate change in these reforms.

Please have a go. The IPA, the Minerals Council and the Murdoch pollution cheer squad don't want to have governments needing to consider climate impacts of fossil fuel projects. You can make a submission here

https://fossilfuelwatch.good.do/fixourclimatelaws/

AbandonedAmerica, to random
@AbandonedAmerica@mastodon.social avatar

The Jester Rollercoaster at an abandoned Six Flags amusement park

Check out the photo gallery: https://www.abandonedamerica.us/six-flags-new-orleans

rwba,
@rwba@aus.social avatar

@AbandonedAmerica Ghosts of American ambition and corporate lack of due diligence, foresight and planning. Best left to the alligators I think.

One of the memories I have of a trip to California and return to Toronto around 1970 is of cars abandoned by the side of the highway, left to rust. It was a good trip. Educated me about how many Americans view the world they live in. That world view is not limited to Americans, btw, and we're finding out now the limits to human responsibility, coming to bite us on the bum.

rwba, to nuclear
@rwba@aus.social avatar

So. talking up suits both and ! Win win! And the end result is we get to export more carbon for the world to burn.

https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/opinion/2024/03/19/nuclear-power-coalition-richard-denniss

feather1952, to auspol
@feather1952@aus.social avatar

Interesting, I don’t have TIkTok but I do sometimes watch the videos in news reports or whatever - does this mean have this stuff on my iPad!

TikTok should be banned in Australia, not just sold

https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/opinion/2024/03/18/kohler-tiktok-ban-australia

rwba,
@rwba@aus.social avatar

@feather1952 @luciedigitalni Alan Kohler is worth listening to. To get rid of TikTok's pixels altogether you may have to do a factory defaults reset on your phone and rebuild it from scratch. Manually. And to be sure, I'm not certain that would actually do the job.

Oh, and geopolitical influencing is a good enough reason for me.

rwba, to auspol
@rwba@aus.social avatar

Big, heavy, fossil burners more expensive? Great. That's the way it should be. That's the entire point in fact. Get this done, Australia. It's about f#@*ing time you got out of bed with Russia.

https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/news/politics/australian-politics/2024/03/12/vehicle-efficiency-standard

pvonhellermannn, to Massachusetts
@pvonhellermannn@mastodon.green avatar

“In a drastic attempt to protect their beachfront homes, residents in Salisbury, Massachusetts, invested $500,000 in a sand dune to defend against encroaching tides. After being completed last week, the barrier made from 14,000 tons of sand lasted just 72 hours before it was completely washed away”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/dollar500k-dune-designed-to-protect-massachusetts-homes-last-just-3-days

rwba,
@rwba@aus.social avatar

@juandesant @stevenbodzin @pvonhellermannn @espanabizarra you can't stop stupid people making stupid decisions.

GottaLaff, to random
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

Via Scott MacFarlane:

Per House Speaker Mike Johnson office, new spending deal to fund government thru September cuts the FBI. By 6%

rwba,
@rwba@aus.social avatar

@GottaLaff Hmm... is there anything they don't want the FBI to investigate by any chance?

rwba, to random
@rwba@aus.social avatar

America: moving toward Jesusland. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesusland_map

And the Handmaid's tale: Welcome to the new fascist state. This is very scary stuff.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/02/christian-nationalism-alabama-ivf-ruling-politics

rwba, to auspol
@rwba@aus.social avatar

"When a little boat reached Western Australia last week, Dutton saw the thrill of opportunity. These refugees pose no threat to Australia. Despite Dutton’s rhetoric, the country will never be invaded by fishing boats. The men wandering around Beagle Bay are an expression only of need and desperation. For him, they are a gift.

"The country has a choice now. It can finally grow up and cast off its terror of asylum seekers. Or it can sit and watch a second-rate showman try the same old trick, clapping and feigning surprise as the card they expected comes out of the deck."

Well… What do ya reckon?

https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/comment/editorial/2024/02/24/the-sorcerers-apprentice

rwba, to auspol
@rwba@aus.social avatar

Yet another hangover from 10 years of an LNP IPA government? These fracking companies are using information like the tax rebates they get to enhance their prospects of investment.

"At least three gas or fracking companies have accessed more than $40 million in grants: Empire Energy, Blue Energy and Galilee Energy.

"Empire Energy received $28.8 million in grants across three years, while Blue Energy and Galilee Energy received $7 million and $4.95 million respectively according to their announcements."

It is likely that these tax concessions may be illegal or invalid under the relevant legislation.

https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/life/science/environment/2024/02/20/rd-tax-scheme

skaly, to Israel
@skaly@mastodon.social avatar

Today I'm going to the south for the red south blossom. It happens every year in February but this time it happens on the same ground where the Nova party goers were running and shot down by Hamas. I wonder how it's going to feel to see the Jewish blood of our brothers and sisters turned into red flowers.

rwba,
@rwba@aus.social avatar

@skaly Touching, @skaly. Moving. Overwhelming sadness and grief come to mind.

But it's worth noting that there probably aren't enough red flowers in the world to commemorate the blood of all the children and their mothers, all the innocent civilians who have been blown up in hospitals and schools, homes, hostels, ambulances and other "safe" places in Gaza during this horror show of a conflict.

So please open your heart, your compassion to include all who have been injured and killed in this conflict. I hope it must end soon. There is far, far too much hate in this world.

rwba, to auspol
@rwba@aus.social avatar

Martin Parkinson: “We’ve had policies proposed and then abandoned, we’ve had science acknowledged and then ignored, and we’ve created a situation where more and more assets and more and more Australian lives, are at risk from climate change than ever needed to be.

“To me this is the single most irresponsible act that I’ve ever seen by governments.”

Elected 3 times in a row by the Australian voter. Good going, eh. — Shakes head. Sighs. Walks off.

.

https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/finance/2024/02/15/alan-kohler-politicians-climate-policy

rwba, to climate
@rwba@aus.social avatar

Hmmm… Third cyclone in as many months. Overlapping disasters. More flooding and wind damage. Possible health impacts.

Is Australia working on making parts of this continent uninhabitable? How about closing a few coal mines. Stop exporting coal. Pour more money into clean (non CO₂ — or CH₄ — emitting) technologies. How about a carbon tax. That works. Oh, wait…

https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/news/2024/02/14/flood-hit-regions-rain-cyclone-watch

rwba, to climate
@rwba@aus.social avatar

Here's a thing, folks. We now have a need for new category of Hurricane/Cyclone/Typhoon. Cat 6 is needed because winds are becoming so powerful due to global heating warming ocean and atmosphere temperatures.Sustained wind speed of 192 mph (307 km/h).

"Michael Wehner, a scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the US, said that “192mph is probably faster than most Ferraris, it’s hard to even imagine”. He has proposed the new category 6 alongside another researcher, James Kossin of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Being caught in that sort of hurricane would be bad. Very bad.”

Bad, indeed. Maybe we need a new category of badness to describe the shitstorm we have imposed upon this tiny blue rock floating in the hostile environment of hard vacuum and radiation that we call space

,
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/05/hurricanes-becoming-so-strong-that-new-category-needed-study-says?utm_term=65c4c36ee6e8402845c74a04c877bbc0&utm_campaign=DownToEarth&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&CMP=greenlight_email

rwba, to random
@rwba@aus.social avatar

So. The AIG thinks the lowest (legally) paid workers should have the tax relief amount they are going to get in the next financial year docked from their pay.

Nice.

This is capitalism in action. So we should all rejoice the bastards have found a new way to nationalise their profit takings and punish the poor.

keeps us all poor.

https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/finance/finance-news/2024/01/29/minimum-wage-tax-cut

rwba, to random
@rwba@aus.social avatar

Discuss.

rwba, to random
@rwba@aus.social avatar

Scott Morrison’s Most Inspirational Quotes
"There is something uniquely powerful about the spoken word. A great speech can rise above the everyday to convey hope, inspire change or bring optimism for a better future. In times of hardship, a well-crafted address can lift the spirits of a nation.

"History is filled with examples of exceptional leaders; only some were exceptional orators. Scott Morrison, without question, deserves to join their ranks. Here we examine his greatest quotes so far."

https://theshovel.com.au/2024/01/24/scott-morrisons-most-inspirational-quotes/

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