More tiny excitements

Jun. 18th, 2025 09:31 pm
azurelunatic: Vivid pink Alaskan wild rose. (Default)
[personal profile] azurelunatic
* Shelves are fairly well stuffed. The other brackets have arrived, so we can go get more boards and tiny hardware at our convenience.
* There is now Shelf in the living room. Things are going in it.
* Household tidying progresses.
* Today I filled boxes for 13 weeks of my morning and evening pills. It feels like it took less time than usual, but I think that's a trick of the light. I think I usually start later in the day, and keep going until it's dark. It took about four and a half hours; I try to allocate at least 5.
* This means that I've got pills packed until sometime in September. Go, me?
* Juneteenth is tomorrow!
* Turns out that being a director at a certain kind of non-technical organization means that you spend evenings face-down in the user interface level of a misbehaving database. I am chockablock with sympathy.
* Yellface is adorable, and likes to spend the part of the day when I'm awake but still in bed sitting on my legs.
* Had games and pizza with friends last week; they've got a young-ish teeneager placed with them right now. She wasn't up for games but she did appear to fill her water bottle. Luna-cat is very curious about new people and apparently charged her, which was off-putting. I faded early.
* I got some new bras; I'll have to add pockets but the test wear was promising!
* Nobody told me about the dragons in The Priory of the Orange Tree, everyone just mentioned the lesbians.
* There's a new serial at [personal profile] the_comfortable_courtesan!!!

Is the US getting directly involved?

Jun. 18th, 2025 09:22 pm
nairiporter: (Default)
[personal profile] nairiporter posting in [community profile] talkpolitics
The US is visibly ramping up its military presence in the Middle East, sending more fighter jets and warships to the region. The big question is: is this just pressure tactics, or is Trump actually preparing for a military strike against Iran?

So far, Trump has remained unusually silent, which suggests something serious might be in the works. His administration, normally loud about its plans, is now keeping things under wraps. There's speculation that Trump may be leaning toward military action, especially after a recent national security meeting at the White House.

It's clear the pressure on Iran is increasing. US and Israeli air capabilities are reportedly stronger than ever, with added refueling capacity allowing extended operations over Iranian airspace.

Opinions in the US are divided. Some, like Democratic congressman Seth Moulton, warn against getting into another Middle East conflict and argue that diplomacy is the better path, especially to keep Iran's nuclear ambitions in check. Others, like Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, are calling for a decisive end to Iran's nuclear program, even if that means military force.

From a military standpoint, destroying Iran's underground nuclear sites would require more than just airstrikes, likely special ground forces. And any attack risks retaliation against the 40,000 US troops already in the region.

Within Trump's own camp, there's tension. Isolationists argue against war, saying it would go against Trump's campaign promise to keep the US out of foreign entanglements.
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[personal profile] tcpip
The third part of the conference proceedings involved two nights in the nearby city of Wuxi, which I had visited only several days prior on holiday. Staying at the rather impressive Juna Hubin Hotel, a morning was spent at an industrial park, specifically for electric scooters and bikes of various makes and models, which are widespread throughout the major cities. I was particularly impressed by one which had the capacity for self-driving! I can imagine a future where we'll simply zip around in a self-driving easychair with a coffee and book whilst our vehicle takes us to our destination. After that was a visit to a precision textiles company, which, whilst being the manufacturing centre for some major name brands, didn't quite interest me at the same level. In the afternoon, we finished our conference with a very enjoyable visit to Wuxi's Huishan Old Town and gardens.

With a car deciding to merge into our bus the previous day (our bus was scratched, the car lost three panels), it made narrative sense that, following a return to Nanjing, that the airline company cancelled my flight from to Guangzhou, and then couldn't find my initial booking when arranging a replacement. When I was finally booked on a late-night plane, we found ourselves stuck on the tarmac due to inclement weather. Never mind, everything sorted itself out and I finally made it in their air with a three-hour layover at Guangzhou airport in the middle of the night, before taking the nine-hour flight back to Melbourne town.

I took this window of opportunity to finish the final written requirements for the second course in my doctoral studies (I still find doctoral coursework strange at best). This was a major project on a public debate in New Zealand between two opposing views in climate science, with my former professor and IPCC lead author, James Renwick, debating a soil scientist and AGW "sceptic", Doug Edmeades. Whilst trying to be as charitable as possible, Edmeades engages in extremely sloppy cherry-picking of data and shows a profound lack of understanding of even the basics of climate physics. It is so bad that I am tempted to suggest that he is engaging in malice rather than ignorance, as it seems perplexing that one could complete a scientific doctorate whilst being at odds with scientific methodology. I think I will be writing to him to find out why.
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[personal profile] tcpip
The second part of my visit to Nanjing was now more formally part of the Jiangsu People-to-People Conference. Whilst other conference attendees made their way to the truly impressive Nanjing City Wall and Zhonghua Gate I went to Zhongshan Mountain Park instead, as I visited the Wall the night before on my back to the hotel from the Confucian temple and academy area of Fuzi Miao. The evening visit was helped by meeting two young mechanical engineering students from Yunnan province, extra-memorable as we almost managed to get ourselves stuck on the wall's confines as we travelled so far engaging in excellent conversation on China, Australia, and scholarship.

The practical upshot was that I had a morning spare, and the visit to the Zhongshan Mountain Park was glorious in its beauty. There are several notable attractions at the Park, all of which are deserving a visit, but I had a particular priority to pay homage and go to the Mausoleum of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen, "father of modern China", first president of the Republic. Sun Yat-Sen was a practical revolutionary and a highly nuanced political, economic, and national theorist whose views, drawing on liberalism, socialism, and anarchism, have certainly been extremely influential on my own. The grounds of the Mausoleum, buried according to his wishes, provides an astounding view of Nanjing.

After our hosts provided a banquet lunch (which would be followed by a banquet dinner, and then another banquet dinner the following day), I rejoined the international guests for a visit to the Grand Baoen Museum Buddhist Temple. The museum part included a good number of relics and in situ archaeological digs, along with some delightful modern artworks. The reconstructed pagoda temple is an attraction in its own right, but it is difficult to capture the original porcelain beauty that captured the imagination of so many visitors; alas, it was destroyed in the Taiping Revolution.

The following day was a more formal part of the conference. Moderated by the vice-governor of Jiangsu Province, Fang Wei, an excellent opening speech was given by the governor, Xu Kunlin, and was followed by a variety of former politicians and ambassadors from around the world, because that's the sort of people I sometimes run with. There were over 40 countries represented by some 145 attendees, with 17 international speakers, including yours truly. I spoke about the history of the Australia-China Friendship Society, our work in building cultural ties and understanding, and the formal relationship that the state of Victoria has with Jiangsu Province. It was particularly notable that some speakers made a point of China's commitment to "green technology"; despite being the world's biggest manufacturer, and producer of greenhouse gases, China already has falling GHG emissions, along with massive implementation of renewable technologies, forestration, and electric vehicles. We could certainly learn from them.
luzribeiro: (Default)
[personal profile] luzribeiro posting in [community profile] talkpolitics
When your country has more coup attempts than working stoplights.

Road sign at country's entrance reads:

Welcome to our failed state!
We have:
✅ No functioning government
✅ 3 currencies (none accepted)
✅ Elections every week (winner always unclear)
✅ Free Wi-Fi because the surveillance drones need it

Can you think of examples matching this description?

A Note to the 45/47 Supporters

Jun. 12th, 2025 07:10 pm
cahwyguy: (Default)
[personal profile] cahwyguy

userpic=trumpFIrst and foremost, we disagree on political positions. That’s true for every administration. You disagree with the positions and policies when Democrats are in charge, and I disagree with the positions and policies when Republicans are in charge. The party out of power has disagreed with the party in power going back to before this nation was a nation. So let’s set that disagreement aside, for now.

I do hope we can agree with one thing: The Constitution should be the supreme law of the land. We got rid of kings and monarchs when we established this nation, and no matter how much we love a particular politician, we don’t want that politician to be an all powerful king (or dictator). We want the Constitution to be supreme, and we agree that we must follow that Constitution, messy as it is. That also means we have to deal with things we don’t like. You may not like freedom of speech or religion, and I may not like the right to own guns, but they are in the Constitution, so we somehow make it work.

Thus, with respect to an administration implementing their policies — whether or not we agree with those policies — that implementation must be constitutional. It must be in accordance with the words of the Constitution. It must follow the laws established by Congress, for the Executive Branch does not create laws — it ensures that congressionally-created laws are faithfully executed. If it doesn’t like a law, it works with Congress to change the law. Oh, and regulations? Those need to be the executive branch filling in the details regarding a law that Congress has passed. They should not be, essentially, new law.

We have three parts of government to explicitly prevent Kings. Congress makes the laws. The Executive ensures those laws are executed (and takes care of foreign policy, subject to congressional approval). The Judiciary determines whether actions taken by Congress or the Executive are Constitutional and in accordance with the laws passed by Congress (if those were Constitutional).

Alas, this is where we are running into a problem with the 45/47 administration. They are ignoring the constitution, which requires due process for anyone in the country (not just citizens). They are trying to suppress freedom of speech, and trying to impose particular religious views on everyone. They are thumbing their nose at judicial decisions. They are trying to govern by Executive Order. Out of a hatred for particular groups, they are declaring things as foreign invasions that are not invasions; and they are using the media they control to create a false narrative of fear. These are problems.

There is no problem with removing undocumented immigrants. HOWEVER, they must be accorded due process. They must be given the chance to show they are truly undocumented, for America is a nation of its word: If we have given legal permission for someone to be here, we should honor that. Right now, the administration’s ICE enforcement is deporting people without due process, and in doing so, they are expatriating US citizens and legal residents — hard-working Americans, not criminals — with the undocumented. They are not giving them the right to challenge their deportation, or to challenge their imprisonment. That, my friends, is unconstitutional.

The administration is also, intentionally, treating these people with hate and violence. They are grabbed, with no time to inform their family, no way to communicate. Small children are taken to holding prisons, and not given any support or help to navigate the system. Treating people with respect has been a hallmark of America. Are we abandoning those ideals to behave like a tin-pot dictatorship?

The administration is violating law by sending the military to our cities, creating violence where there was only peaceful protest. They aren’t asking the state governments. They are just ordering troops. This, also, is unconstitutional. States control their national guard unless there is a demonstrable invasion.

They are also creating a culture of fear, and disrespecting Congress. They are handcuffing and throwing to the ground members of the US Senate, simply for asking questions (which is their congressional duty). They are disregarding elected leaders of the community, with members of the Executive Branch saying “We are staying here to liberate the city from the socialist and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor placed on this country and what they have tried to insert into this city.”. No, folks, it was the people that elected this leadership, and government MUST be responsive to the people. This is not a dictatorship; it is a representative democracy whose authority is the Constitution.

So, to the 45/47 supporters out there: While I strongly disagree with your leadership’s policies, as the elected leaders, they do have the authority to work to implement them (just as the other side should have the ability to peacefully protest them). HOWEVER, that implementation MUST be Constitutional. It must come from Congress, and it must accord due process, follow the laws and funding enacted by Congress, and must be humane. It must respect leaders elected by the people.

The mention of funding was there for a reason. Constitutionally, it is the Congress that has the power of the purse. They are the ones that allocate funds, and the Executive Branch is charged with executing the funding priorities established by Congress. This administration is ignoring that. They are ignoring congressional mandates on how funds are to be spent. In doing so, they are destroying American’s leadership position in science, health, and research. Administrations can change directions — that’s their prerogative. However, they must do it in accordance with the Constitution: They must convince Congress to rescind funding and change the laws regarding how those funds are spent. The Executive Branch cannot govern by fiat and executive order, acting as if it was led by a King or Dictator.

America is a constitutional republic with three EQUAL branches. We’ve been lazy, and have allowed the executive branch to grab too much power. That’s bad when the party you don’t like is in power, and, truthfully, it is bad when the party you like is in power. We’ve also allowed the two-party system to usurp the voice of the people: Our leaders in Congress should be more responsive to what their constituents are saying than what party leadership is saying. Party leadership’s goal is to stay in power, not to do what is right for the nation.

We need Congress to represent the people, and to work together for what their constituents want. Right now, we have members of Congress that are scared to listen to their constituents. They pledge allegiance to what the President says and what the Party says, for that’s what keeps them in power. They don’t listen or care about the impact of those positions on the people they represent. That’s wrong — whichever party is doing it.

In summary, I hope we can all agree that recent administrations have drifted away from Constitutional norms. Congress must listen to and represent the people, and work in their interest (and not be rubber-stamps for a political party or specific leader). The Executive Branch must not make laws by fiat, but must faithfully execute the laws Congress establishes, within the Constitutional boundaries. The Judiciary must be respected and non-partisan, interpreting the law and ensuring it is followed.

===> Click Here To Comment <==This entry was originally posted on Observations Along the Road as A Note to the 45/47 Supporters by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link to the left. You can sign in with your LJ, DW, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. Note: Subsequent changes made to the post on the blog are not propagated by the SNAP Crossposter; please visit the original post to see the latest version. P.S.: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

Shelf status

Jun. 11th, 2025 08:32 pm
azurelunatic: Vivid pink Alaskan wild rose. (Default)
[personal profile] azurelunatic
Three shelves (10' length, more or less) have been assembled, put up on the north wall, and filled to great effect. This emptied 1 entire Billy (with slight double stacking). We therefore need bookends.

The empty Billy is now in the living room, with the top few shelves embookinated and various plastic craft-adjacent boxes on the lower shelves. This is making a significant dent in the chaos by my desk.

The shorter bookshelf is currently at the end of the hall, for lack of a better place to put it. I expect that if it stays there long, I will start racking up another set of incredible bruises, and I still don't know where the one on my right arm CAME from. (I remember that I walked into some corner on my sleepy and unstable way to bed and then went "well, THAT'll leave a mark!" but do I remember what that something WAS? No more than I remembered what things I'd rammed into when I was taking Drama in high school, and my legs were forever dotted with black and blue marks.)

Today after work, Belovedest has put up all the standards (upright rails) on the south wall, embracketed them with however many brackets we currently have, and has started to assemble board pieces into full length shelves.

Coincidentally, today I also got a notification from the hardware store that they are shipping the backordered brackets.

There is one free-loving* free-standing bookshelf remaining in the room, where it is cheerfully getting in the way. I suggested a different method of assembly which neither requires turning the boards lengthwise nor doing the assembly behind the Billy, which suggestion was well-received.

Eventually there will be enough Shelf in the media room that some of the things taking up floor space will be able to go on them.

Today I roused in the morning long enough to feel bleugh, then woke up in the afternoon feeling competent to Lounge. Still craving bacon at intervals.


* My high school freshman Biology class had a crucial typo in a sentence about free-living organisms. We reacted about how you'd expect.

California burning

Jun. 11th, 2025 10:39 pm
nairiporter: (Default)
[personal profile] nairiporter posting in [community profile] talkpolitics
Since June 6 federal immigration raids in LA, including at day-labour sites and warehouse areas, have ignited widespread backlash. California immediately bristled at the sudden surge of federal enforcement in sanctuary jurisdictions.

Trump's escalatory move: in response to growing demonstrations, he authorised the deployment of around 2K National Guard troops and 700 Marines into LA, marking the first such federal override of a governor's objection in 6 decades. His administration defended it as necessary to "liberate" Los Angeles and protect federal agents and infrastructure.

The state pushback followed soon. Governor Gavin Newsom decried these actions as a power grab, filing suit and accusing Trump of "authoritarian overreach" that threatens civil liberties nationwide.

Read more... )

Nanjing: Memorial, Museum, and Temple

Jun. 11th, 2025 12:38 am
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[personal profile] tcpip
I have again taken the silver bird to China, this time to Nanjing in an official capacity, namely, for the Jiangsu People-to-People Conference and 70th Anniversary Commemoration of the JSPAFFC (Jiangsu Provincial People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries). Nanjing, all from my limited experience, is quite a different city from others I have visited in China. Famous for its scholarship, universities, and students, the tree-lined streets have a more gentle (but still vibrant) pace than other cities, and in many ways, it reminds me of inner-city Melbourne. Arriving a day earlier than other conference attendees at the slightly famous Jingling Hotel, I decided to visit the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall, because I'm such a cherry bundle of joy, right? This event, which has haunted me for many decades since I first learned about the event, refers to the brutal Japanese fascist invasion in 1937 of what was then China's capital city. After the city fell, the invaders brutally killed more than 300,000 people (roughly a third of the population of the city at the time) in the next forty days in what has not-euphemistically been called "The Rape of Nanjing". If you can imagine the worst possible atrocities that humans are capable of carrying out, turn it up even higher on the dial, then maybe then you have the Nanjing Massacre.

The Memorial Hall is a vast complex dedicated to preserving the memory of these events and is perfectly organised, starting from the social and political environment prior to the invasion, the collapse of the seriously out-gunned defending Chinese army against the invasion, the occupation itself, the few foreigners who tried to protect civilians and record events, the international court cases following the war, and, interestingly, concluding exhibits on the importance of the memorial and the desire of peace with forgiveness. With written, photographic, and video records from the events, interviews of survivors, and even a hall of a mass grave unearthed in situ, the hundreds of other attendees made their way through with great quietude - I noticed four others of European background present at the time. If you ever find yourself in Nanjing, put aside a few hours at least to visit this "must-see" memorial and give homage to the victims.

It was a curious juxtaposition from horror to beauty that immediately afterwards I would visit the nearby Cloud Brocade Museum, dedicated to the silk weaving and Yun brocade style. It had some very charming pieces, and quite a good story to tell about the development of the craft, along with many quite superb examples and contemporary pieces for sale. Despite the size of the building, the entire museum can be easily completed within an hour, and I get the sense that the exhibition is still in development. Continuing a more aesthetic bent, that evening I ventured to the Confucian temple area of Fuzi Miao. This is pretty much what it says on the tin: a bustling area of vendors, restaurants, and, of course, temples, all beautiful in architecture, historical in content, and located alongside a river and surrounded by parkland. Of course, as is befitting such a place, it is a very popular haunt for numerous young women engaging in historical cosplay.

The Shelves

Jun. 7th, 2025 09:20 pm
azurelunatic: Operation 'This will most likely end badly' is a go. (end badly)
[personal profile] azurelunatic
I got the standards and brackets for that shelf system, and we are currently at Home Depot, after buying what I sincerely hope is the right configuration of board feet for eight shelves. It's secured to the roof and we're using surface streets.

It's too close to bedtime to start on repair plating the 8 foot boards to the 2 foot boards, probably.

Friday offtopic. Your top 3 M and F

Jun. 6th, 2025 03:37 pm
kiaa: (evilcat)
[personal profile] kiaa posting in [community profile] talkpolitics
Quick question for everyone - who do you think are the top 3 most attractive women and 3 most attractive men in the world right now? Just curious what the consensus is.

Personally, I'd go with:

Women – Ana de Armas, Margot Robbie, Zendaya
Men – Henry Cavill, Timothée Chalamet, Chris Hemsworth

What about you?
pauamma: Cartooney crab wearing hot pink and acid green facemask holding drink with straw (Default)
[personal profile] pauamma posting in [community profile] free_speech
It's that time of the fortnight again. If you have a link related to free speech but no time or energy to write an entry around it, or if you want or need to remain anonymous, this is the entry to do it for the next 2 weeks. Or, if a comment sparks a thought, feel free to jump in and reply or join the conversation.
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[personal profile] mahnmut posting in [community profile] talkpolitics
The Trump–Musk alliance was always a ticking time bomb. Two giant egos colliding in a shared vanity project called DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency). Supposedly designed to slash bureaucracy and save taxpayer money, it quickly turned into a wrecking ball aimed at vital institutions.

Elon Musk, installed as a special government official in early 2025, took the reins with typical bravado. And, as was later revealed, a ketamine habit. Under his leadership, DOGE gutted federal agencies, from air traffic control (leading to a record number of crashes) to USAID, whose budget was slashed by over 80%. That single cut triggered a humanitarian disaster. According to research from Boston University, it caused an estimated 300,000 deaths globally, including over 200,000 children due to halted programs fighting HIV, malaria, and malnutrition.

While Trump's base cheered the claimed "$175 billion in savings", experts pointed out the cuts barely dented the deficit and did massive harm to vulnerable communities. Behind the scenes, even Trump reportedly asked, “Was it all bullshit?

DOGE wasn't just reckless, it was deeply incompetent. Its staff didn't even understand Social Security software, wrongly flagging 19th century birthdates as fraud. It would be funny if the consequences weren't so tragic.

Eventually, the Trump-Musk bromance imploded. Musk quit, started attacking Trump's fiscal policies, and called his budget a "disgusting abomination”. No surprise. It was never a partnership of shared values, just mutual benefit. Once the benefits ran dry, the egos clashed and it fell apart.

But the damage was done )
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[personal profile] tcpip
I find myself in Melbourne for a mere several days between concluding my recent holiday to China and returning to said country for a conference, and intresting enough, a new city for me to visit (Nanjing) albeit one relatively close to the several just visited (Beijing, Suzhou, Wuxi, Hangzhou, and Shanghai). The purpose of this upcoming visit is an international conference for the 70th anniversary of Jiangsu (Province) Friendship Associations and I'll be there in an official capacity and, so I've been told, I'm expected to give a brief speech on behalf of the small Australian delegation. Between work demands, and a furious effort to get in some substantial progress on my Euclid University doctoral studies, I've even managed to get a hint of a social life with a couple of enjoyable dinners with friends and a couple of gaming sessions (along with moving of the substantial RPG Review Cooperative library to my premises).

I'm also going to take this opportunity to express my valedictions to the recent passing of activist and author Tracy Sorensen. We knew each other quite well in the mid to late 1980s in Western Australia when we were both involved in the youth wing of what would be the Democratic Socialist Party. Fellow-comrade at the time, Neville Spencer has written a very good summary of Tracy's life for "Green Left Weekly" and, the day before she died, a rather heartfelt account of meeting her partner was published in "The Guardian". Although Tracy and I had not really been in contact for literally decades, I do have very fond memories of her excellent humour, steadfast commitment to justice and environmentalism, and her excellent organisational ability. The universe has been a bit unjust in taking her early, yet with her whimsical sense, she even managed to write about her illness from her organ's point-of-view. So fare well, old comrade and friend. It truly was a honour to know you.

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