From the news on: politics

Some recent news articles on, or about/connected to, political matters (note: I may continue to add links for a few days, possibly up to a week, after these are published): 

• “The Three Fundamental Human Freedoms That Modern Society Lacks. Reflecting upon Graeber & Wengrow’s book Dawn of Everything”   https://devonprice.medium.com/the-three-fundamental-human-freedoms-that-modern-society-lacks-bda98e1a2855   (“The three freedoms that most of our ancestors enjoyed, but which most modern humans lack are:   1. The freedom to leave;   2. The freedom to disobey an order;   3. The freedom to create new ways of relating to one another.”)  
  

• “Term Limit Evasions and Coups in Africa: Two Sides of the Same Coin”   https://africacenter.org/spotlight/term-limit-evasions-coups-africa-same-coin/  
  

• “Mike Johnson helped Trump on January 6 - now he’s a threat to democracy”   https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/25/mike-johnson-trump-january-6-democracy-threat-election-denier   

• “Government Wins Another Fragile Victory For Key Felony Charge in Jan. 6 Cases”   https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/government-wins-another-fragile-victory-for-key-felony-charge-in-jan.-6-cases   “Appeals judges’ acceptance of the government's positions have been 100-percent correlated with the political party of the judge’s appointer”  
  

• “Clarence Thomas loan report spurs new ethics criticism of US Supreme Court”   https://www.reuters.com/world/us/clarence-thomas-loan-report-spurs-new-ethics-criticism-us-supreme-court-2023-10-26/   

• the religious extremist who has just become speaker of the US House of Representatives - https://marytrump.substack.com/p/the-quiet-one?r=1onbpq  

• an assessment of international law relating to “Intentional Damage to Submarine Cable Systems by States”   https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/intentional-damage-to-submarine-cable-systems-by-states   

• thoughts on “Preventing War in the Taiwan Strait”   https://www.crisisgroup.org/asia/north-east-asia/taiwan-strait-china/333-preventing-war-taiwan-strait  
  

• “Projected results show rightwing SVP making gains in Swiss federal elections”   https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/22/exit-polls-show-rightwing-svp-making-gains-in-swiss-federal-elections   “The rightwing populist Swiss People’s party (SVP) was set to further strengthen its position as the largest political force in parliament, an early projection suggested, as voters appeared to back the party’s hardline stance against mass migration and what it called “woke madness”.”   

 

• “The influencer proxy wars have arrived”   https://joanwestenberg.medium.com/the-influencer-proxy-wars-have-arrived-0141319bf9b3   

• the coming battle over digital deceit   https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/news/politics/2023/10/23/misinformation-bill-voice-divide   

• “‘Horse race’ coverage of elections: What to avoid and how to get it right”   https://journalistsresource.org/politics-and-government/horse-race-coverage-elections-improve/   and   “The consequences of horse race reporting: What the research says”   https://journalistsresource.org/politics-and-government/horse-race-reporting-election/   

  

• “Australia’s taxes ‘inadequate’ for ‘adequate services’, former secretary of finance warns”   https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/oct/27/australias-current-taxes-inadequate-for-adequate-services-former-secretary-of-finance-warns  
  

• “Here’s what happens to workers when coal-fired power plants close. It isn’t good”   https://theconversation.com/heres-what-happens-to-workers-when-coal-fired-power-plants-close-it-isnt-good-215434   

• “Paul Bongiorno: Can America give Australia the assurances it craves?”   https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/opinion/2023/10/24/united-states-australia-paul-bongiorno   
  

• “Centrelink jobseeker payments suspended more than 450,000 times in three months”   https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/oct/24/centrelink-jobseeker-payments-suspended-more-than-450000-times-in-three-months   “Data from Services Australia shows the majority of payment suspensions are related to mutual obligations, the controversial requirements imposed on jobseekers. The obligations have been labelled as “punitive” and counterproductive by some privatised employment services running the system.”  

 

In my home state: 

• “Inquiry into the operation of the Freedom of Information Act 1982”   https://new.parliament.vic.gov.au/foi   
  

• “Making the ‘people’s building’ accessible”   https://new.parliament.vic.gov.au/news/society/scope-accreditation   
  

From my links for activism post to aid any activism  you may decide to do on any/all of these:

• on MISGOVERNANCE, MAL-/MIS-/NON-FEASANCE, MISCONDUCT, CORRUPTION (noting international  agreements and monitoring)
  
  
• on INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS (noting the UN Charter [particularly Chapters VI and VII] and numerous  international  treaties): 
• noting particularly Chapters VI and VII of the UN Charter, the 1928 Pact of Paris used in post-WW2 trials, the "laws" of war and IHL and Article 20 of the ICCPR on WAR / CONFLICT:  
  
  
• on DEMOCRACY, SOVEREIGNTY / SELF-DETERMINATION, AND GOVERNANCE (noting Article 25 of the ICCPR and monitoring  projects):
  
  
• on HUMAN RIGHTS (noting the various rights and treaties summarised here, IHL, Article 5 of the Rome Statute founding the ICC):
  
• noting Article 19 of the ICCPR on FREEDOM of POLITICAL EXPRESSION
  
  
• noting ICERD and DRIP on RACISM

 

 Assumptions / basis 

In writing this, I have assumed / started from the following: 

• this blog states quite clearly that it is about political and human rights matters, including lived experience of problems, and thus I will assume readers are reasonable people who have noted the content warning in the post header;

Possible flaws 

Where I can, I will try to highlight possible flaws / issues you should consider:

• there may be flawed logical arguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan  Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking”; 
  
• I could be wrong - so keep your thinking caps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.
  

 

If they are of any use of interest, the activism information links from my former news posts are available in this post. 

 

If you appreciated this post, please consider promoting it - there are some links below.

Remember: we need to be more human being rather than human doing, and all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk.