I was looking at this picture of people (mostly tourists, it appears) fleeing massive fires in Rhodes, feeling despair about the future of the world

when I was struck by an even more despairing thought.
Almost certainly, a lot of the people in the picture are climate denialists. And even more certainly, they will mostly remain so despite this experience.

– but this dream has failed before. My latest in The Conversation over the fold

Crooked Timber, the group blog of which I’m a member turns 20 today. Here’s a post I’ve written to mark the occasion.

Not quite 20 years ago, I got an invitation to spend a week as a visiting blogger at an exciting new group blog called Crooked Timber. In the manner of the most catastrophic house guests, I managed to turn that into permanent residence.

Hard to describe how depressed I am feeling about Australian politics right now.

The Voice Referendum was always going to be a longshot because referendums usually fail. But Albanese’s refusal to put forward a model, and the promotion of someone as abrasive as Noel Pearson as a leading advocate risk a defeat so bad that the fallback of option of a legislated Voice is unlikely.

In economic terms, Australians will be worse off by the next election than when Labor was elected – lower real wages, higher unemployment, higher interest rates, a more regressive tax system.

The fact things would have been even worse under the LNP doesn’t cheer me up

And just to make the picture complete, the Greens are overplaying their hand on housing. Should let #HAFF thro