Vance K

Albo is the ultimate status quo prime minister. Tinker enough so his supporters have things to point to, but never do anything to address root causes or take a meaningful stand on anything.

Car brain is a far-reaching paradigm problem. It creates the sprawl problems it claims to be the solution too.

It skews the Overton window so a $20B toll road tunnel is an expected part of discourse, 500m of critical bikeway is contentious, and genuine mass transit is a lunatic fringe idea.

a man in a military uniform is standing in front of a group of people and says `` right to jail '' . ALT: a man in a military uniform is standing in front of a group of people and says `` right to jail '' .

“Notice of rent increase”

Picture of central Pontevedra, Spain from the air

“It's not my duty as Mayor to make sure you have a parking spot. For me it's the same as if you bought a cow, or a refrigerator, and then asked me where you're going to put them.” — Mayor of Pontevedra, Spain (re-elected 6 times)

“Darling Fascist Bullyboy: Give me some more money, you bastard.”

More fitting now than ever.

One problem that Americans have to get past is that this *is* who they are.

It’s not an aberration - this is what the US society is.

All that time kidding yourself about being the greatest nation on earth you have been murdering your own citizens and those in other countries.

It’s not just Trump. With a 90% approval rate amongst Republicans, they clearly like his style of governance.

I won’t be trusting the US as a nation until the GOP has been in political exile for at least a decade. There are too many Americans who like this version of the USA.

Logan’s run but for wealth instead of age. Gina’s Run, if you will. If a person reaches $1B wealth it gets seized and redistributed. Then they either get terminated or run away to a sanctuary for permanent exile.

The best we can do here is raising our diplomatic status from deeply concerned to troubled.

The only remedy is collective action. Strength in solidarity. Trust in other people to stand with you and not try to secure themselves a tiny advantage at the expense of the group.

From a naive outsider perspective, this fails due to the biggest weakness of US society: toxic individualism.

We have:
- safety standards for batteries. - laws to distinguish safe e-bikes from electric motorcycles that are inherently more dangerous.
- licensing to limit who can operate vehicles.

We do worry about these things and update laws when we learn more. What’s their point?

Really puts things in perspective. A person on 500k a year is closer to a person on 50k than they are to the billionaires. The “rich” mostly aren’t people whose main source of income is a salary.

As a Pacific nation reliant on maritime force and with increasing hostilities in the region, I think Australia NEEDS Hawaii for strategic reasons.

So a poorly regulated militia necessary for the subjugation of a free state?

Can you please tell this to Brisbane?

We pretend to be an international city and future Olympics host but we have no genuine plans for mass transit. Barely considering additional bendy metro bus routes, let alone investment in real transit.

I hope the US can course correct in a hurry. If not, I hope there is a way for a peaceful divorce from the union for the states that don’t want to be complicit with political extortion and persecution, abduction of foreign leaders, threats to annex allied territory, and murder of your own citizens.

Yep. Even now we need dedicated bus lanes and bikeways. By 2032 we will need some actual busway expansion and rail network upgrades. Beyond that Brisbane will need real mass transit (not cosplay bendy buses). But the current Overton window has pragmatic transport solutions out in the fringes.

Can confirm. I’m Australian and have used our very secure and robust postal voting system in a few elections. The Australian Electoral Commission is something we should be hugely proud of. A massively underrated protector of our democracy.

Your federal gov is killing its citizens, abducting foreign heads-of-state, and threatening to annex allied territory. How far does this go before individual states start asking if remaining in the union is still in their best interests?

Yours sincerely,
a concerned and increasingly tenuous ally.

Tommy and Jon react to new footage taken by the ICE agent who shot and killed Renee Good.

The Trump devotees still cheering it on.

“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”
George Orwell, 1984

No longer hypothetical or hyperbolic. Now very literal and readily apparent.

YouTube video by The Beeb Orc argues with Saruman

Somewhere deep in the Trump bureaucracy a middle manager tries a reality check…

youtube.com/shorts/V1zCI...

Tree by tree, this new suburb is dodging baking heat in summer Thousands of young trees dot the streets and front gardens of this outer Melbourne suburb as part of a neighbourhood-wide push to create more shade and curb the urban heat island effect.

Classic “Step 2: Doing the wrong thing better” from the 5 Steps to making better cities @brenttoderian.bsky.social.

A sprawling suburb of single family homes, black roofs, and expansive carparks, 60km from Melbournes commercial heart… but they are planting trees.

www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01...

This is really important. For New York City. For EVERY city.

Marco Rubio is reportedly saying Maduro will stand trial in US courts.

Which means it’s now the US administration’s position that US courts can hold foreign presidents, but not the US president, accountable for crimes.

Three months with this entirely predictable inflationary outcome:

“If you have a look at anything priced under around a million dollars, the 5 per cent deposit scheme is really accelerating growth at that price point”

I’m shocked. Shocked! Well… not that shocked.

www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01...

Even if you had been out purely to enjoy the glorious summer evening weather, that is a perfectly good reason. We never ask drivers to justify why they are using the road. “Share the road” doesn’t work when this is the behaviour of people in cars, we desperately need infrastructure.

This is an interesting, insightful, and deeply depressing interview to listen to from Brisbane, Australia.

Our ambition is so small on all the right things, and we are hopelessly addicted to the wrong things.

So frustrating. At a time when public and active transport funding should be increased and our ambition should be growing in the lead up to 2032, all we see is cuts.