Post comments on any topic. Civil discussion and no coarse language please. Side discussions and idees fixes to the sandpits, please.
I’m now using Substack as a blogging platform, and for my monthly email newsletter. For the moment, I’ll post both at this blog and on Substack. You can also follow me on Mastodon here.
John Quiggin 
Conservatives are talking about Jacinta Price as if she might be their Trumpy option of last resort if they ever got desperate enough . The Australian newspaper is elevating her big time ,like the comming of the Messiah . The Australian’s cartoon said she can’t be racist because her skin is not entirely white ( itself a kind of racist position ) – she is just an authentic truth teller who knows the situation ” on the ground ” ( where real aboriginal people sit ) . She would angrily wage the culture wars as a distraction and give the Capitalist class what they want economically . Like Trump , Johnson and other buffoons, they think she is dumb enough to keep under control but playing with that fire is a dangerous game .
Prof Eliot Jacobson posted a tweet late Sep 17, including a graph of global mean surface temperatures in 2023 compared to the 1850-1900 IPCC baseline, the 1991-2020 global mean and the Paris limit global mean of +1.5 °C (relative to 1850-1900 baseline).
I’d suggest it’s only a matter of perhaps a few years when (not if) the Earth System stays completely above the daily +1.5 °C global mean surface temperature threshold.
May be of use JQ.
“ActivityPub
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https://wordpress.org/plugins/activitypub/
sunshine, you say, correctly imo, as shown below: “Conservatives are talking about Jacinta Price as if she might be their Trumpy option of last resort if they ever got desperate enough . The Australian newspaper is elevating her big time ,like the comming of the Messiah . ”
Jacinta’s Mum Bess has a long history of support and involvement with extreme conservative lobby groups ;
“It was one of a number of groups, including the H. R. Nicholls Society, Samuel Griffith Society and Lavoisier Group, promoted by Australian business leader and political activist Ray Evans. The president was Gary Johns.
“The Society was wound up in 2011[5] but its work was partly continued by a “Bennelong papers” section of the Quadrant magazine website.[6]
Wikipedia / Bennelong Society
Just replace capitalist with conservative.
I wonder where Jacinta Price, Mudine, Gary Johns would fall if submitting to Moral Foundations Theory (MFT).
It would reveal their own theory of mind is conservative, NOT progressive nor aboriginal.
*
– Political polarization study:
“Moral foundations elicit shared and dissociable cortical activation modulated by political ideology” by René Weber et al. Nature Human Behavior
“Monism, pluralism, Moral Foundations Theory (MFT), liberals, conservatives.
Progressives; “primarily protect the rights and freedoms of individuals.”.
“Conservatives, in contrast, place greater emphasis on the loyalty/betrayal, authority/subversion, and sanctity/degradation categories, which generally operate at the group level.”
“For millennia, fables and fairy tales, nursery rhymes, novels, and even ‘the daily news’ all weave a tapestry of what counts as good and acceptable or as bad and inacceptable,” Weber said.”
From;
“Decoding Morality: How Our Brains Differentiate Right from Wrong”
September 7, 2023
…
“Moral monists claim that morality is unified by a common characteristic and that all moral issues involve concerns about harm. Pluralists, in contrast, argue that moral judgments are more diverse in nature.
…
“In many ways, I think our findings clarify that monism and pluralism are not necessarily mutually exclusive approaches,” said first author Frederic Hopp,…”
…
“Analogously, moral reasoning activates certain regions of the brain, “yet, the activation patterns in those same regions are highly distinct for different classes of moral behaviors, suggesting that they are not unified.”
“Far from merely an esoteric exercise, MFT provides a robust framework for understanding group identity and political polarization.
“Mounting evidence from survey and behavioral experiments suggests that liberals (progressives) are more sensitive to the categories of care/harm and fairness/cheating, which primarily protect the rights and freedoms of individuals.
“Conservatives, in contrast, place greater emphasis on the loyalty/betrayal, authority/subversion, and sanctity/degradation categories, which generally operate at the group level.
“Indeed, our results provide evidence at the neurological level that liberals and conservatives have complex differential neural responses when judging moral foundations,” Weber explained.
“That means individuals at different points along the political spectrum likely emphasize completely different values when evaluating a particular issue.”
…
https://neurosciencenews.com/morality-mft-psychology-23894/
*
The Centre for Independent Studies. The Bennelong Society. Connor Court. Leads us to:
Bess Nungarrayi Price AM
…
“Political advocacy
“Price has strongly criticised the high levels of violence in Central Australian Indigenous communities, and supported the Northern Territory Intervention instigated by the Howard government.[14][15] In December 2009 she delivered the Bennelong Society’s inaugural Peter Howson lecture, also on the topic of Indigenous violence,[16] and received the Bennelong Medal.[17][18] She spoke at the Centre for Independent Studies, Sydney, on 23 March 2011[19] and appeared on ABC television show Q&A on 11 April 2011.[20] On Q&A, Price said that she supported the Intervention.[21]…
“In May 2012 and again in August 2012 she criticised Amnesty International for its opposition to the Intervention.[24] Price accused the organisation of ignoring the suffering of women in Central Australia:[25]
…
‘She spoke in Sydney on 29 January 2013, at the launch of Stephanie Jarrett’s book, Liberating Aboriginal People from Violence.[27]
[Published by Connor Court ]
“She again called for an end to violence after the stabbing death of her sister Rosalie in April 2014.[28]
wikipedia / Bess_Price
Ross Guarnaut (with opportunity costs) says:
“”But in the meantime, “it would pay for a lot of tax reform”… and quoted saying “”And Australians have been “in denial” about increasing oligopoly in the economy.”
See where we were by JQ & Bill McKibbben in 2008 at end.
From;
“Australia would be raising $70 billion a year from the carbon price if it wasn’t dismantled, Ross Garnaut says
Posted Sat 16 Sep 2023
“And Australians have been “in denial” about increasing oligopoly in the economy.
…
“Earlier this month, he made another set of warnings when he delivered the keynote speech at the 2023 Henry George Commemorative Dinner in Melbourne.
“Here’s a summary of what he said.
“The trading scheme existed in Australiabetween 2012 and 2014, but it was ended by Tony Abbott’s Coalition government in mid-2014 before it was about to merge with the European ETS.
“His calculation was based on today’s European carbon price and exchange rate, and this year’s expected Australian carbon volumes.
“”That’s not a tiny bit of money,” Professor Garnaut said.
“We could pay for the nuclear submarines with five or six years of the carbon price. One year would pay for more than two years of Medicare.
“We could cut every personal tax rate by 30 per cent from the highest to the lowest.
“Some members of the Australian Parliament support raising the GST rate to pay for cuts in income tax rates. Re-introducing the European-linked carbon price would give all of the presumed benefits of a higher GST and efficiently reduce carbon emissions as a bonus,” he said.
“He said we wouldn’t raise $70 billion a year from a carbon price forever, because the Albanese government wanted Australia to have net zero emissions by 2050, so the carbon price revenue would phase out over a generation.
“But in the meantime, “it would pay for a lot of tax reform”.
..
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-17/ross-garnaut-70-billion-from-carbon-price-economic-rent/102850464
Centi-billionaires & Future Fund managers take note!
And in 2008…
These 2 OP’s seem settled, quaint, optimistic – and expunged by politics.
“Carbon taxes vs emissions trading”
JULY 7, 2008
JOHN QUIGGIN
“Update Warwick McKibbin has kindly responded to my invitation, and kicked off the discussion with an alternative view”
johnquiggin dot com
/2008/07/07/carbon-taxes-vs-emissions-trading/
“Australia and the Garnaut Approach to Climate Change: Right Direction, Wrong Policy”
Warwick J. McKibbin
July 7, 2008
“This opinion piece was originally published in the Australian Financial Review under the title “Right direction, wrong policy.”
brookings dot edu
/articles/australia-and-the-garnaut-approach-to-climate-change-right-direction-wrong-policy/
Yesterday morning, on the way to work, I read a Facebook comment by a noted bass guitarist claiming that the Voice is a Zionist conspiracy. I came home in the evening to read a Facebook comment by a noted lead guitarist that the Voice is a communist conspiracy. Yesterday, Angry Anderson also put in his spoke about Voice being a communist conspiracy. All we need now is a drummer alleging that Voice is a plot by the Freemasons and a keyboardist who has discovered a link between Voice and the lizard people. But what would their band be called?
Angry Agenderson and the Neoliberals?
Actually, I think the neoliberals are split. Some of them want the Voice and some are against it. Maybe Albanese is a genius and he has wedged them?
Naaaaaah! It’s simply a huge mess on all sides. There is only one way to solve social problems. Allocate lots of money and spend it immediately and directly to allocate resources to poor and disadvantaged people. Repeal the legislation which favors rich and well-off people (tax cuts, negative gearing, franking credits etc. etc.) and legislate social wage measures, adequate minimum wages, and/or a job guarantee and/or a UBI.
So long as the government merely talks, promotes sport and tourism and other such rubbish while the nation is collapsing and legislates parsimonious social measures only, then it simply is not serious about preparing the nation for the future. If and when it ceases all the spin and diversions and makes large direct allocations immediately and redirects funds from the rich to the poor, then it is serious.
Our current major parties are bought and suborned by the capitalist class. Until we completely destroy them at the ballot box nothing will change: except for our climate of course which is rapidly changing and about to destroy us. At the government initiative(s) level we are totally unprepared for every challenge we are facing or soon to face.
Art Berman tweeted today (Sep 20) including an informative graph:
Is US oil dominance about to begin receding?
Oil prices jumped over 1% on Tuesday to 10-month highs, as weak U.S. shale output compounded supply concerns from extended production cuts by Saudi Arabia. Is oil headed for US$100 per barrel?
Will Australian fuel prices continue rising?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-19/petrol-remains-expensive-how-much-it-will-cost-you/102854682
The Illuminati?
Paul Norton – excellent question.
Band names for angry lizard people belivers in communist and zionist ‘Voices’.
Riffing on J-D…
The Gloominati?
– Psychic Retreat (^1.)
– BiCT
(^1.) Belief in Reptilian Conspiracy Theories
“Object Relations Dynamics and the Formation of BiCT.
“Klein believed that early anxiety involves ‘a fear of annihilation (death) and takes the form of a fear of persecution … experienced as a fear of an uncontrollable, overpowering object’” (^1.)
– Hippolytus and Atalanta (Haa!)
“… These projections and the overall division of humanity into two polarized groups of powerful and weak, bad and good, malign and benign, appear to be products of paranoid-schizoid mechanisms, which Kleinians later conceptualized as a paranoid defence against depressive anxiety” (Hinshelwood, 1989).” (^1.)
– Asine Anger
– Early Trauma Projections
– uMoT the Hoople (^Hoople.)
(unresolved memories of trauma)
– Après-Coup
– After Wards
– Nachträglichkeit
(^Afterwardsness)
– Retroactive Attribution
– Laid.
(Loud Angry Ignorant Dropkicks)
– Intrusive Voices
– SOFROTIRVOGA
“Can/should we Suspend Our Fundamental Rejection Of The Inarguably Repugnant Views Of Gary Anderson?” one fan wrote on the Hard-Ons’ Facebook page.” ABC
– STABETR
“I’d prefer people I respect Stop Turning A Blind Eye To Racism,” wrote another.”
From abc dot net “/doublej/music-reads/features/hard-ons-rose-tattoo-angry-anderson-ray-ahn/10714398”
*
^1.
“The Role of Early Trauma in the Formation of Belief in Reptilian Conspiracy Theories: A Psychoanalytic Perspective”
Agnieszka M. Dixon
First published: 25 July 2023
“Belief in Reptilian Conspiracy Theories (BiCT). The concept of après-coup is introduced to explain how newer responses to familiar psychic experiences may shape beliefs in conspiracies.
…
“Additionally, the paper proposes that belief in conspiracy theories can function as a psychic retreat.
“Two clinical cases are presented to illustrate these ideas while maintaining anonymity.”
…
“DISCUSSION
“Could BiCT Be Considered a Form of Psychic Retreat?
… “The psychic retreat allows individuals to function in external reality and protects them from mental collapse. I argue that the formation of BiCT in the cases of Hippolytus and Atalanta serves as a psychic retreat. In times of uncertainty and confusion, we tend to find the simplest explanation, the one that already exists in the mind in the form of a blueprint. In their minds, the villains are projected onto the most powerful figures in external reality, and from that moment on, they know how to act: hide or endure like Hippolytus or rebel against the tyrant in a partisan way like Atalanta. They seek out allies, believing they know the ‘true’ meaning of the pandemic.”
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/bjp.12856
^Hooole
Hoople
“A useless or self-serving organization. A wasteful business run by incompetents. A public sector organization with no useful purpose other than to generate paperwork, internal reports and provide incomes for its executives. A quango.
This quango is a real Hoople
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Hoople
^ Afterwardsness
In the psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud, afterwardsness is a “mode of belated understanding or retroactive attribution of sexual or traumatic meaning to earlier events… [from the German word] Nachträglichkeit, translated as deferred action, retroaction, après-coup, afterwardsness”.[1] As summarized by another scholar, ‘In one sense, Freud’s theory of deferred action can be simply stated: memory is reprinted, so to speak, in accordance with later experience’.[2]
Wikipedia – Afterwardsness
No CBA weightings in NSW and no review until 2028!
James W gave us the heads up re Cost–Benefit Analysis (CBA) Circular A-4. One, if not the, most important recent posts and topic. Great to see JQ pick it up; “Utilitarianism comes to benefit-cost analysis” MAY 20, 2023.
Extremely disappointed to find on a NSW Government ‘portal’ I’ve never heard of “The Administrative Requirements Portal”, completely rule out the use CBA weightings:
“This Guide does not recommend the use of distributional weights. That is, increasing or decreasing the value of costs or benefits depending on what group they accrue to. Distributional weights involve a high degree of discretion over equity judgements that are better placed in the hands of decision-makers.”
The above paragraph implies;
– only equity owners are able to make decisions.
And EXTREME bothsider-ism and denial:
“There is an equal probability of high or low climate change impacts in the future.”.
Low climate change impacts!
And all referenced to BAU.
And no one gets a say. Especially since “equity judgements that are better placed in the hands of decision-makers.”
Regulatory (by rentiers) capture.
*
“TPG23-08 NSW Government Guide to Cost-Benefit Analysis
…
“CBA measures the costs and benefits attributable to an initiative relative to a business-as-usual situation without the proposed initiative. The business-as-usual situation is known as the base case
Date Issued Feb 27, 2023
Review Date Feb 27, 2028
https://arp.nsw.gov.au/tpg23-08-nsw-government-guide-to-cost-benefit-analysis/
NSW Treasury
“TPG23-08 NSW Government Guide to Cost-Benefit Analysis”
February 2023
…
“Box A4.4: Example of decision tree analysis for real options in a water supply infrastructure initiative
…
“There is an equal probability of high or low climate change impacts in the future.”
…
“Source [For this Box-“Example of decision tree analysis for real options in a water supply infrastructure initiative”]:
“Adapted from UK Treasury’s, The Green Book Central Government Guidance on Appraisal and Evaluation, Version 3 (2022).”
…
“Appendix 5: Social welfare and distributional analysis
…
“A5.2 Distributional analysis
…
“Five main steps in a distributional analysis
…
[Steps 1 thru 5. After these steos this ]
“This Guide does not recommend the use of distributional weights. That is, increasing or decreasing the value of costs or benefits depending on what group they accrue to. Distributional weights involve a high degree of discretion over equity judgements that are better placed in the hands of decision-makers.”
…
Click to access tpg23-08_nsw-government-guide-to-cost-benefit-analysis_202304.pdf
KT2,
Freudianism and psychoanalysis are pseudo-science.
https://www.skeptic.org.uk/2021/07/psychoanalysis-science-or-pseudoscience-examining-the-status-of-freudian-theory/
https://www.skeptic.org.uk/2021/07/psychoanalysis-science-or-pseudoscience-examining-the-status-of-freudian-theory/
“Was Freud right about anything? – Live Science – Benjamin Plackett
“Spoiler: not really.
”
Explanations for serious psychological issues are increasingly being found in:
(a) neuroscience (how the brain and nervous system work); and/or
(b) genetics (genetic disorders leading to brain disorders etc.); and/or
(c) physical injury and privation; and/or in
(d) stress induced “wetware” and other brain changes.
In other words all the bases are physical. We can’t find any other answers from science as science can only deal with the physical. Any other explanations, religious, psychic or spiritual, are purely speculative and usually soundly debunked once we get more bits of the physical science.
Neurobiological and Systemic Effects of Chronic Stress – Bruce S. McEwen
“Abstract
The brain is the central organ of stress and adaptation to stress because it perceives and determines what is threatening, as well as the behavioral and physiological responses to the stressor, which promote adaptation (“allostasis”) but also contribute to pathophysiology (“allostatic load/overload”) when overused and dysregulated. The adult as well as developing brain possesses a remarkable ability to show structural and functional plasticity in response to stressful and other experiences, including neuronal replacement, dendritic remodeling and synapse turnover. Stress can cause an imbalance of neural circuitry subserving cognition, decision making, anxiety and mood that can increase or decrease expression of those behaviors and behavioral states. This imbalance, in turn, affects systemic physiology via neuroendocrine, autonomic, immune and metabolic mediators. In the short term, these changes may be adaptive; but, if the threat passes and the behavioral state persists along with the changes in neural circuitry, such maladaptation requires intervention with a combination of pharmacological and behavioral therapies. There are important sex differences in how the brain responds to stressors. Moreover, adverse early life experience, interacting with alleles of certain genes, produces lasting effects on brain and body via epigenetic mechanisms. While prevention is key, the plasticity of the brain gives hope for therapies that utilize brain–body interactions. Policies of government and the private sector are important to promote health and increase “healthspan.””
Submit.
“The Inquiry into Price Gouging and Unfair Pricing Practices
…
“In particular, it will consider:
…
“The Inquiry will hold hearings across Australia.
“Everyone affected by price gouging is asked to make a submission about their story and what they see happening.
“Submissions will be also invited from academics, not-for-profit organisations, and think-tanks.
‘The Inquiry’s report will be received by the ACTU and made available to policy makers, support providers, and the Australian public.
…
https://pricegouginginquiry.actu.org.au/make-a-submission/
“OECD report shows corporate profits contributed far more to inflation in Australia than wages
June 8, 2023
…
“This new OECD research is fully consistent with our earlier research on profit-price inflation, in terms of both its methodology and its conclusions,” saidDr Jim Stanford.
“Companies in Australia and many other industrial countries have taken advantage of the disruptions, shortages, and desperation of the pandemic to push up profit margins far beyond normal levels. In Australia, corporate profits reached their highest share of GDP ever in 2022, and that has been the leading cause of the current cost-of-living crisis
[OECD report link]
https://australiainstitute.org.au/post/oecd-report-shows-corporate-profits-contributed-far-more-to-inflation-in-australia-than-wages/
KT2,
As you essentially point out, the sanctity of money is far more important to this federal government and all their friends and frenemies in politics and business than are the sanctities of human life, limb, happiness and health. Sound money (so-called) is far more important to them than the soundness of human life, of all other life on earth and even of the general environment.
They are boasting about the budget surplus and nuclear subs while people sleep under bridges, in parks and in cars, while children and teenagers are neglected and people young and old struggle to find rent or pay mortgages. This inflation is not caused by wage breakouts. It is caused by monopoly, duopoly and ologopolistic power. It is caused by privatization, rent seeking and outright profiteering. It is profit-push inflation, also known as greed inflation (plus some supply shocks).
The evidence is clear and you link to plenty of it. Our entire political class in the major parties and their apparatus is packed wall to wall with stone-cold liars betraying the people. Big business is full of the same kind of people. They all need to be relieved of all power, democratically and by proper rule of equitable law. Until if and when we can do that, there is simply no hope for most people.
Prof Eliot Jacobson tweeted on Sep 23: