A nice little write up on some Aussie political history

Malcolm Fraser’s vision for a new political party was crafted a decade ago, right before his death — with some unlikely help from a Labor figure who disdained his role in the Dismissal.

Even before Fraser’s apparent post-political transition leftwards, the antipathy from the left would turn out to be partly misplaced. An impeccable cold warrior who held the army and defence portfolios while Australia was in Vietnam, a political hardman who brought the nation to the brink of constitutional crisis in 1975 and who won three elections in a row for the Coalition, Fraser was also ardently anti-apartheid — he developed that at Oxford, where he arrived in 1949 — pro-multiculturalism and pro-refugee while prime minister.

Fraser’s project was also driven by a sense that the current Labor and Liberal parties were no longer “fit for purpose”, dominated, Richards says, by “careerists who are compromised in being able to take forward key issues … Labor is locked into the union model, and the Liberals have become more like Labor in their attitude to crossing the floor. The structures of the major parties really are outdated.”

to be enforced by way of biometric scanning and ID tokens

Do we really want to do a biometric scan to access websites in New Zealand?

A couple of weeks ago I spat the dummy with windows and shifted to Linux. I think I am now ready to drink the coolaid.

What I have available currently is an ISP router and a decade-old gaming PC with a failing hdd that used to host games. I also have some budget to spare so that I can set things up nicely or in a way that I can add on it in the future.

Here are my goals are in order:

1. Proper onsite and maybe offsite backups - my migration to Linux illustrated gaps and I expect in the future I will run VMs that should be backed up
2. Home security cameras (Which I don't own yet)
3. Replacing something like onedrive. I expect this will be NextCloud
4. Yarr. Sonarr/radarr/jellyfin
5. Hosting game servers
6. Block adverts and maintaining privacy
7. Improve the latency of my steam link to my TV via chromecast
8. Hosting webscraping and analysis of data off some local websites
9. Maybe set up some some smart home automation things
10. I'd like to get solar power and monitor how the whole setup is doing.
11. Self host my bit warden
12. I dunno, backup Wikipedia or something. Give me ideas

So where would you recommend I start off with hardware? Simply replace the old pc hdd or look to having a NAS? A better router to handle VLAN? Go all in with Ubiquiti products which I have heard mixed things about? About the only thing I know is that a UPS would be a waste for an aspiring enthusiast like myself.

Any advice or pointing me at wikis or other resources would be greatly appreciated.

The collapse of the American empire would benefit almost every other country. I am starting to feel that since I live in America I should want to accelerate the collapse (or make sure one happens if things start to go back to business as usual). Can someone tell me why this is a bad idea so that I don't make a mistake here.

There is a growing body of First Nations titles being published every year. The massive success of authors such as Wright and Lucashenko – Wright alone has won two Miles Franklin awards and two Stella prizes – signals a long-overdue recognition of First Nations literary excellence.

Given this, here are ten First Nations books from the past 25 years (in no particular order) I would nominate for the books of the century.

Anyone read any of these? I've shamefully not read any.

The ABC’s Top 100 books poll lacks diversity. Here are my 10 First Nations ‘books of the 21st century’

There is a growing body of First Nations titles being published every year. The massive success of authors such as Wright and Lucashenko – Wright alone has won two Miles Franklin awards and two Stella prizes – signals a long-overdue recognition of First Nations literary excellence.

Given this, here are ten First Nations books from the past 25 years (in no particular order) I would nominate for the books of the century.

Anyone read any of these? I've shamefully not read any.

I don't like it, it's another exercise in taking a functional website and 'modernising' it by making it look like a mobile app (i.e. the make it look attractive to kindergarten kids school of design).

For my own use cases it's made it more annoying to get to the 7 day Canberra forecast, made the local radar harder to see, and I'm not noticing a link to the written ACT region forecast which I will want to look at in winter.

“I’m not yours anymore — now I’m with Senya. He took me to the local Soviet to listen to Lenin’s speech.” - translation

When Snowy 2.0 is in the news, it’s usually about money. The cost of the huge project has gone well beyond the initial A$6 billion estimate and will now cost more than $12 billion.

But cost overruns don’t affect the real value of this pumped hydro project. When it comes online – likely in 2028 – Snowy 2.0 will bring something fundamentally new to the Australian electricity system: energy storage at a scale far beyond anything else.

I was wondering if there’s a site or database that shows how common different hobbies are in each country—like reading books, playing board games, listening to music, cooking, etc.

Does such a ranking or survey exist?

Former Labor Prime Minister and Labor Prime Minister destroyer Julia Gillard has thrown her hat back into the political scene by releasing a glowing endorsement of US President Donald Trump.

The tribute comes just seconds after Gillard was sent the video of Trump telling Kevin Rudd that he “doesn’t like him.”

“It turns out I am much more aligned with President Trump than I thought I was,” Gillard said, “sure we have our differences on climate change, treatment of women, equality, democracy, yada yada… But when it comes to humiliating Kevin Rudd in front of the entire nation we are both on the same page.” [...]

Satirically-themed context: https://www.betootaadvocate.com/headlines/trump-now-on-borrowed-time-after-making-an-enemy-out-of-the-most-vindictive-and-cunning-operator-in-global-politics/

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/37847733

How do you make a great desktop into a fantastic desktop? Easy — chip away at the rough bits, polish the good stuff, and add awesomeness. After 29 years of development, KDE’s got the foundation nailed down. Plasma 6.5 is all about fine-tuning, fresh features, and a making everything smooth and sleek for everyone.

Ready to see what’s new? Let’s dive into Plasma 6.5!

Highlights:

• Automatic Theme Transitions: Configure when your theme will transition from light to dark and back.
• Caret Text Navigation: Zoom now swoops in to where you type
• KRunner Fuzzy Search: Even if you type it wrong, KRunner will find it!

Plans to hold a summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Budapest have been put on hold as Ukraine and its European allies rallied in pushing for a ceasefire without territorial concessions from Kyiv.

The White House said there were now “no plans” for the US president to meet his Russian counterpart “in the immediate future” as a round of diplomacy at the end of last week failed to yield any significant progress towards ending the war.

The comment followed a Monday phone call between Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, and Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, at which Lavrov said his country’s negotiating position remained unchanged.

Lavrov said: “I want to officially confirm: Russia has not changed its position compared to the understandings that were reached during the Alaska summit.” He had told Rubio this the day before, he added.

Last night Trump told reporters that he did not want a “wasted meeting” with Putin, adding: “I don’t want to have a waste of time, so I’ll see what happens.”

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/5213926

Archived link

...

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius and Norway's Tore Sandvik are accompanied by the chief executive officer of TKMS as Canada weighs joining a German-Norwegian submarine partnership. It would involve the procurement of the shipbuilder’s U212CD submarines, six of which Germany is expected to receive by 2037.

TKMS was just spun off from parent company Thyssenkrupp AG and held its initial public offering in Frankfurt on Monday, where CEO Oliver Burkhard told attendees he’s traveling to Ottawa with Pistorius to discuss the potential submarine order.

...

Canada is becoming increasingly important for Germany as a transatlantic ally, as the US pulls back from traditional partnerships with Europe. Canada, in turn, wants its industry to benefit from a booming European market.

Germany, Norway and Canada entered into a maritime security partnership in 2024, with Denmark also joining this year. The countries want to jointly protect critical underwater infrastructure and strengthen their anti-submarine warfare capabilities.

Canada also forged a security partnership with the European Union in June, which moves the country closer to being able to access the EU’s SAFE defense procurement financing mechanism if it partners with at least one EU member state.

...

SponsorBlock, Timestamps, and Generated Summary below:

SponsorBlock Timestamp:

1. 28:09.600 - 28:16.401 Endcards/Credits

Generated Summary:

"A March About Nothing!" - On-the-Ground at No Kings Harlem Rally

This video provides an on-the-ground report of the "No Kings" rally in Harlem, examining its purpose, organization, and reception. The reporter investigates the march's messaging, the motivations of its participants, and the concerns surrounding its alignment with specific political agendas.

Key Points:

• The "No Kings" march is described as a Democrat-oriented protest group organizing anti-Trump rallies.
• The march's messaging does not include opposition to US-Israeli wars.
• The march is supported by neocons and corporate GOP lobbyists, raising questions about its true agenda.
• The march had no clear demands or agenda, resembling the Women's March in its lack of specific goals.
• Flyers with pre-approved chants were distributed, and participants were discouraged from chanting about issues like "Free Palestine."
• The reporter observed that the march lacked diversity, with a low percentage of Black participants despite being held in Harlem.
• Participants expressed varying motivations for attending, including concerns about Trump's respect for the Constitution.
• Some attendees felt the march did not address the immediate needs of Black voters.
• The march's organizers appeared hesitant to engage with questions about policy demands or the exclusion of the "Free Palestine" chant.
• Concerns were raised about the march being an astroturf event meant to steer people towards a pro-war, corporate agenda.
• The exclusion of the "Free Palestine" chant was attributed to the idea that defending Israel is seen as defending Jewish people, despite the Israeli government's actions.
• The speaker also touches on Joe Biden's political history and past comments.
• The Harlem march was a smaller offshoot of a larger event in Times Square, with numerous similar marches occurring across the country.
• The speaker suggests that these marches are well-attended, possibly more so than the Women's March.

About Channel:

the post-civilization left

Due Dissidence is a multimedia one-stop shop for left politics and gallows humor in written, audio, and video form.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/44478706

Archived

Two prominent Conservative MPs who claim to have been spied on by two men working for China have urged Sir Keir Starmer to block Beijing’s plans for a “mega” embassy in London and “protect” the UK’s national security.

Alicia Kearns and Tom Tugendhat called on the prime minister to put China in the enhanced tier of the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme and impose sanctions on Chinese officials behind the alleged espionage in parliament.

Starmer has come under significant pressure to explain why the Crown Prosecution Service last month abandoned espionage charges against Christopher Cash, a parliamentary researcher and director of the China Research Group, which campaigned for a tougher line on Beijing, and Christopher Berry, who worked as a researcher in China.

Both men have denied any wrongdoing and were formally acquitted. The CPS this month said the case collapsed after the UK government refused to provide evidence that China was a threat to national security.

Starmer has said he is frustrated that the case collapsed and denied that his government sought to undermine it, although critics have suggested his government wanted to prioritise trade with China and to avoid upsetting Beijing.

In their letter on Sunday, Kearns and Tugendhat told Starmer: “Failing to prosecute two men charged with spying for China demonstrates worrying levels of complacency.”

“You’ve repeatedly stated your disappointment that this prosecution did not proceed. You now have the opportunity to do what’s necessary to protect this country,” they added.

The call from Kearns and Tugendhat, shadow national security minister and a former security minister respectively, comes at a challenging time for UK-China relations, with London wary of being labelled as soft on Beijing while seeking greater inward investment to boost the economy.

[...]

Ministers last week delayed their response to China’s application to construct a new embassy on the edge of the City of London, which would be the largest such building in Europe.

[...]

China later warned of “consequences” for the UK for again delaying the decision on the embassy’s planning application, which had been expected this week but will now not come until December 10.

[...]

The prime minister is struggling to counter a perception his government has been soft on China, even as it stresses that national security is its top priority.

This year ministers kept China out of the enhanced tier of the FIRs scheme, adding only Russia and Iran to a register that is designed to track “covert foreign influence” in the UK. China is at present in the lower, second tier.

[...]

Kearns and Tugendhat told Starmer that given the UK security services had “identified the Chinese officials responsible for targeting us . . . you must draw a clear red line and sanction them”.

“We know that you care about our national security. We ask that you back up your words with action.”

[...]

And then I read about someone’s smart bed that got stuck in an upright position on heat mode because of the outage. Makes me feel like all that time sourcing devices that run locally was worth it.

Are we just digital preppers?

Edit: I get it, you aren't preppers, I'm sorry I said that.

From reading your comments I have gathered that you simply want to be ready (not prepared!) for when a free service becomes paid or they shut something down that you use or you simply don't like the idea of the gubbermint or the corporations being able to look though your data.

Many of you seem aware that your concerns are considered far fetched or like non issues by the average person.

well you are preppers, I'm sorry you had to find out this way.

cross-posted from: https://piefed.social/post/1371451