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Tomorrow is a public holiday, and then on Tuesday, NSW goes the way of any Republican-led US state.
Our state Premier resigned on Friday over a matter of corruption. She was not a particularly good leader, but at least she was canny enough to trim her sails to the wind when it came to a public health crisis, even if she was stupid and uncaring enough to allow her boyfriend to railroad her into 'favours' territory without shooting him down.
To replace her we're likely getting a white Christian almost-forty-something male, who admires Donald Trump, and wanted to let COVID-19 "rip" through the state when the Delta outbreak first began.
Funtimes!
The best thing we can hope for is that he fucks things up so badly that the conservatives will be out of NSW government for the next decade. And while that sounds okay-ish on a broad, high-up level, when it comes down to it, it's going to be people's deaths, people's livelihoods lost, people's futures dumped, and the typical short-sighted conservative view of "it worked in the past, we should just continue on like nothing will change in the future except things will get bigger, faster, better, more".
Not that Labor is all that much better, TBH, the corruption issues at the state level in NSW are prevalent across the power structure, and at least the two major parties are enmeshed in a dozen deals, none of which look pretty when a light is shone on them.
Frankly, the only person from that party that I would stand as Premier is my local MP, who may be conservative, but who's openly spoken out about climate change in the face of the rest of his party refusing to make any kind of a statement, and is pushing for a transition to other energy sources. I mean, it's not much, but if I had to pick one of them, he's the best in a bad lot.
Plus, he's my local MP, so at the least he would listen to what I said. Constituency, etc.
But no, we're screwed, and about to screw all of the east cost. WA will probably manage to hold out because they're far far away, but the NSW conservatives (and the feds) will take greaaaaat pleasure in fucking over Queensland and Victoria (both of which are held by Labor/the centrists).
--
Otherwise, here, have a bunch of links:
October 1st, Heather Cox Richardson talks about the USA a year ago
The Cross And The Machine: a story about the loss of faith and finding it again, about coming back to beginnings.
the illusion of choice in our food: Pantsuit Politics did an episode about how the supply chain is screwed, and I haven't yet listened to it and I need to. This is particularly relevant in Australia, because we are truly at the arse end of the world and everything takes ages to get here. (Hey, I've been waiting 20 years for friends to come visit me...)
Against Kids' Sports: the commodification of what should be leisure and fun. Symptom of a broader sickness in western society, but amplified in the US.
How 9/11 led to Trump.
Our state Premier resigned on Friday over a matter of corruption. She was not a particularly good leader, but at least she was canny enough to trim her sails to the wind when it came to a public health crisis, even if she was stupid and uncaring enough to allow her boyfriend to railroad her into 'favours' territory without shooting him down.
To replace her we're likely getting a white Christian almost-forty-something male, who admires Donald Trump, and wanted to let COVID-19 "rip" through the state when the Delta outbreak first began.
Funtimes!
The best thing we can hope for is that he fucks things up so badly that the conservatives will be out of NSW government for the next decade. And while that sounds okay-ish on a broad, high-up level, when it comes down to it, it's going to be people's deaths, people's livelihoods lost, people's futures dumped, and the typical short-sighted conservative view of "it worked in the past, we should just continue on like nothing will change in the future except things will get bigger, faster, better, more".
Not that Labor is all that much better, TBH, the corruption issues at the state level in NSW are prevalent across the power structure, and at least the two major parties are enmeshed in a dozen deals, none of which look pretty when a light is shone on them.
Frankly, the only person from that party that I would stand as Premier is my local MP, who may be conservative, but who's openly spoken out about climate change in the face of the rest of his party refusing to make any kind of a statement, and is pushing for a transition to other energy sources. I mean, it's not much, but if I had to pick one of them, he's the best in a bad lot.
Plus, he's my local MP, so at the least he would listen to what I said. Constituency, etc.
But no, we're screwed, and about to screw all of the east cost. WA will probably manage to hold out because they're far far away, but the NSW conservatives (and the feds) will take greaaaaat pleasure in fucking over Queensland and Victoria (both of which are held by Labor/the centrists).
--
Otherwise, here, have a bunch of links:
October 1st, Heather Cox Richardson talks about the USA a year ago
The Cross And The Machine: a story about the loss of faith and finding it again, about coming back to beginnings.
the illusion of choice in our food: Pantsuit Politics did an episode about how the supply chain is screwed, and I haven't yet listened to it and I need to. This is particularly relevant in Australia, because we are truly at the arse end of the world and everything takes ages to get here. (Hey, I've been waiting 20 years for friends to come visit me...)
Against Kids' Sports: the commodification of what should be leisure and fun. Symptom of a broader sickness in western society, but amplified in the US.
How 9/11 led to Trump.
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I was glad to see Gladys go, because I was hoping / expecting she was going to be replaced by someone who was BETTER about COVID... :(
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But, no. Gladys didn't do a particularly standup job, but considering the lines being touted by the rest of the NSW Liberals, and particularly the powerbroking right wing, she was - if not able to do much more than wring her hands and toss a bucket of water here and there - then at least not hosing the state down with petrol.
Lesser evils, and all that.
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Yes, yes, different times, different motivators, different power structures, different communication lines. But even if the opportunity wasn't spread evenly across the board, there were possibilities for people who previously didn't have them.
Somehow the previous generations got from the Divine Right Of Kings to a (admittedly very thin) veneer of Egalitarianism. I have to believe that we can get from Oligarchy-dressed-in-Egalitarian clothes to actual Egalitarianism. Preferably before we burn the world down or expire from plague.
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