WattsWrites

Looking forward to heading to QLD tonight, meeting with people pissed off at the current state of our world and who want to do something about it. I’d encourage you to come along :)

$200 million more taxpayer $ revealed to have gone to big tech without transparency.

Govt is handing huge contracts to foreign tech giants like AWS, IBM & Microsoft without proper disclosure.

We need procurement reform.

www.canberratimes.com.au/story/8988716

What's with that weird genocidal ethnostate that keeps mass-murdering civilians and expanding its borders into all its neighbouring states and if you talk about it you lose your job (or, in the US, end up disappeared into a concentration camp)?

Free Palestine. Melbourne

I have 100% had this thought :(

A major cause of rising house prices has been increased demand from investors.

Our research shows restricting negative gearing to newly built housing and scrapping the capital gains tax discount would reduce speculation and allow more first home buyers to get into their own home.

The US is in the grip of a full McCarthyist frenzy against anyone who "is or has ever been tempted to indicate sympathy for the Palestinian people", and Australia is not very far behind.

The ongoing assault on free speech in Australian arts is only worsening. This is obscene.

Brown poster, black typeface ways to stop buying on Amazon

And yet in Australia, parts of the F-35 jet being used to systematically kill thousands of Palestinians continue to get made, and workers around the world continue to provide labour to the West’s genocidal death machine. People wring their hands and ask “what can we do?” History is full of answers.

YOUR FOES WOULD SEE YOU SLEEPLESS: RESIST AND REST.

Really interesting article, this part stuck out particularly well to me:

One reason this government can so easily frame protesters as terrorists is that others—including some at universities—have already laid the groundwork. When we treat students engaged in constitutionally protected speech like criminals, we make it easier for authoritarian governments to do the same.

‘Icarus of the deep’: how a dying anglerfish became a social media sensation An unprecedented sighting of a “black seadevil” fish in surface waters triggered a global outpouring of empathy for the deep sea.

"The reaction shows our views of the deep sea – long ignored or seen as a realm of monsters – may at last be changing" said OI member 𝗗𝗿 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗮 𝗔𝗿𝗮𝘀𝘂 from the Minderoo-UWA Deep-Sea Research Centre.

theconversation.com/icarus-of-th...

🇬🇱 "Anti-Trump" protest today in Greenland!

BREAKING | Protesters in Los Angeles shut down traffic, joining the nationwide movement demanding the release of detained Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil.

To again state the bleeding obvious (which seems to be my job atm), there's very noticeably an added layer of 'arghhh can I say this??' to writing about the world than there used to be. It's super not chill and I don't appreciate it.

Your rights are being eroded so Israel can commit genocide without criticism  - The Shot Across the Western world, criticising Israel's genocide in Palestine is being stamped down. News laws and a culture of fear make it hard.

Here's me. 'Your rights are being eroded so Israel can commit genocide without criticism'

And I deleted my earlier comments because I realised I misremembered. The legislation was to force platforms to pay for access to news content (and adhere to other broadcast rules around local programming). I can’t remember where the defo law came in, but it was a thing too. Annoying as hell.

Lol. FB has also argued it court that it has no business activities in Australia. (It lost that one.)

The power these companies have has been shocking for a long time.

Your amazing ‘form a party’ suggestion makes me think you’re not actually interested in learning things, so no thanks.

Electoral Reform Bill analysis Late last year, the Albanese Government introduced the Electoral Reform Bill, with plans to pass it into law less than two weeks after it became public.

Here’s a few reasons independents might be disadvantaged by this legislation, none of which are on transparency grounds: australiainstitute.org.au/report/elect...

They voted against legislation deliberately designed to entrench the existing major party advantage. Understandably so.

Saffioti doubles down on ripping up parkland for a racetrack despite a 16% swing away from Labor in Vic Park. Says the swing is because of the mayor’s representation of the community instead of the racetrack being a terrible idea. Greens get 22% in the seat.

The lesson for the Liberals is apparently they are too left-wing? ‘You can’t out left the Labor Party’. Hilarious. #wavotes

Also funny as hell: pronunciation of #wavotes seats on the national broadcaster.

It’d funny as hell if Baz didn’t get in.

Bucketload of nonsense on Labor’s commitment to the environment from Matt Keogh.