I always admired the Ryde Civic Centre every time I'd drive past it. I thought it deserved heritage protection, a beautiful building highly expressive and evocative of the time it was built.
It was demolished in 2021, and a series of expensive planning fuckups costing millions of dollars has resulted in it being a hole in the ground. They've decided to spend 14 million dollars to turn it into a "temporary " park. It'd be OK if it was a permanent park, but you just know there's more shit to come.
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DALLAS, Texas — Before a Dallas Stars hockey game at the American Airlines Center last week, fans were met by an ordinary, eager-looking guy wearing a TCU ballcap and a shirt that read 'Literally Anybody Else 2024' by the steps of PNC Plaza.
His mission? Impossible. But the sentiment driving it all? Wholly relatable, sympathetic, and engaging to many voters who don't want to see former President Trump or now President Biden win the race for the White House come November.
That guy's name in the TCU ballcap is first name: Literally. Middle name: Anybody. Last name: Else.
Just gonna post this here because we don't have a Canada RW thread;
The scene that has generated the most controversy involves a pair of fighter jets in the sky.
“They’re doing a training mission in the sky, getting ready to defend our home and native land,” Poilievre says in the video.
A spokesperson for Canada’s defence minister said the two planes were Russian Su-17 and Su-27 jets.
“Shockingly, Mr Poilievre’s dream for Canada includes Russian fighter jets flying over our glorious Prairies on a ‘training mission’,” Daniel Minden said in a statement on Monday.
It almost sounds like sabotage, you know some video editor decided he hated the conservatives so he decided to fill it with this sort of thing and hope they don't notice and let it free for everyone to see.
I read this book on the weekend, it's really good. As the title suggests, the author identifies a group of people that inhabit some weird halfway world between populism and fascism, and designates them 'wannabe fascists.' Modi, Erdogen, Bolsenaro and Oban are in this group, and most certainly Trump. What holds them back is that they still run, at least partially free elections and use them as justification for their dictates. Their rhetoric generally exceeds their actions and none of them claim to be a dictator. The case of Modi is a good highlight, he (his party) lost control of the parliament in the most recent election and yet he hasn't abolished democracy, so he'd be a wannabe fascist. Trump is running on a wannabe fascist set of policies and rhetoric but he has slipped into the full blown fascist domain with his remark that this would be the last election. (The thesis is more complex than this but that's a surface level summary).
My feeling is that Trump will go full fascist dictator if he wins because...why not. And unlike other wannabe fascists Trump has this weird religious dimension supporting him that makes him some kind of divine historically destined savior, otherworldly. He has absolutely all the makings of a dictator and he's a fascist - racist, misogynist, militaristic - and he loathes democracy.
Joseph Stiglitz here tapping into the spirit of the times. There's just a couple of problems, what do you replace neoliberalism with and how do you sell it to a constituency that can't tell the difference between fact and fiction?
Duopoly political systems aren't about 'left' or 'right' anymore but about change or more of the same, in my view. Change is winning because neoliberalism (more of the same) is impoverishing people. Trump won on a change platform. His hardcore maga fanatics didn't win the election, it was the nearly 50 million people living in poverty, or the 50 million above that line (the old working middle classes) who see it approaching. It turns out that anything is better than more of the same, even a deranged wannabe fascist.
The old right adjacent parties have a massive advantage. They have a ready to hand change prescript, authoritarianism and all its contingent bigotries. But what do the left adjacent parties have? Social democracy is the obvious label that is lying on the floor, they could pick that up and give it a 21st century polish, but is it saleable in the age of Murdoch and Rogan and social media? Probably not.
Get ready for Prime Minister Dutton.
Re: One-Post Politics
Posted: Sat Nov 30, 2024 8:07 am
by stylofone
pipbarber wrote: ↑Sat Nov 30, 2024 7:45 amThere's just a couple of problems, what do you replace neoliberalism with and how do you sell it to a constituency that can't tell the difference between fact and fiction?
Stiglitz says replace it with a new version of the policies of FDR and LBJ... off the top of my head, that would be massive public works to fund depression recovery and war, extremely high tax rates for the rich to pay for it all, civil rights legislation. Biden already did the Inflation Reduction Act, but I suspect in today's terms it's a minnow compared to FDR's New Deal policies. And the Democrats lost to maniac Trump anyway.
I really wouldn't have a clue. I think my platform would be to immediately shut down fossil fuels and get everyone ready for the austerity which would result... power outages, $20/l petrol, international travel unaffordable, massive increase in the cost of steel and concrete, job and revenue losses from vanished Australian exports. We'd have to have a sort of WW2 fighting spirit of community solidarity to deal with it, and a redesign of local communities to handle it. A simple life, back to basics, everyone supporting each other. Surely it's an election winner, I'm off to the AEC to register my party.
Stiglitz says replace it with a new version of the policies of FDR and LBJ... off the top of my head, that would be massive public works to fund depression recovery and war, extremely high tax rates for the rich to pay for it all, civil rights legislation. Biden already did the Inflation Reduction Act, but I suspect in today's terms it's a minnow compared to FDR's New Deal policies. And the Democrats lost to maniac Trump anyway.
I really wouldn't have a clue. I think my platform would be to immediately shut down fossil fuels and get everyone ready for the austerity which would result... power outages, $20/l petrol, international travel unaffordable, massive increase in the cost of steel and concrete, job and revenue losses from vanished Australian exports. We'd have to have a sort of WW2 fighting spirit of community solidarity to deal with it, and a redesign of local communities to handle it. A simple life, back to basics, everyone supporting each other. Surely it's an election winner, I'm off to the AEC to register my party.
We can't rehash FDR for the reason of climate change, it'd just be a bad idea, and any hint of government expansion is unlikely to win votes because....well, Rupert and the interwebs (which would make a good band name, btw).
As for your platform, i'd vote for you. You just need to add a livable UBI and i can't see a single problem with it.
