Great post

Yes I thought same thing - incorporeal interdimension evil beings.

Why do you say it’s bullshit? Do you mean in the context of the US patterns of litigiousness etc . Do you disagree with their account of what’s happened in California or do you think it’s not applicable to planning and environment regulation in Australia?

Time to visit Australia - that’s just about our lowest minimum wage; but we have many higher minima in specific industries.

Le Guin was the most extraordinary writer and wrote years ahead of her time. I also love the Daoist themes that often emerge in her work.

I spent a lot of time in China and South Asia last year. I feel that we need to navigate the regional relationships quite carefully. Morrison manifestly failed to do that. Labor has done much better although AUKUS should obviously be dumped. I don’t see the Greens policy grasping this enough.

It means that in an environment where international institutions are being actively undermined by the major military powers, a policy which rests on the effectiveness of those institutions is unlikely to be achieved. That was my impression from reading their policy.

But also on substantially repairing Australia’s reputation in the region at a time when this is more important than ever. The climate/environmental criticisms are well founded but unfortunately imo the Greens foreign policy is not feasible under current conditions. A rethink needed.

It’s very disconcerting looking at US from the other side of the world. We’re having a very “normal” election; looks atm like centre left party will win. Institutions operating normally. Yet we can’t at all hide from what’s happening over there; we will be caught between the US and China.

I can’t see how US addresses the deteriorating economic and social position of working class people without revitalising options for workers to act collectively

A key difference between the US and the other countries is the bargaining structure which disincentivises US unions from considering broader economic and social consequences (see OECD reports on benefits of “coordinated decentralisation”)

This was a cogent and enjoyable conversation; thanks to all. You left the “union” question hanging. Many progressive Americans seem disdainful of unions. But in many of the most economically and socially advanced countries, they have a major presence (Scandinavia, Canada and here in Australia).

What’s your view Josh of the proposed ban? It sounds good as announced but do you have a sense of the what limitations there may be (other than the application threshold)

This is an excellent episode - thanks very much (writing from Australia where I woke up to find that the Trump administration is considering targeting our pharmaceutical benefits scheme and media laws. I suppose it’s because we’re a little too like Canada.

Welcome to Australia and especially Melbourne! It seems our government and opposition believe if we keep our heads down it’ll be business as usual - but I suspect that’s far from true. The collapse of a rules based international order is disastrous for a country like ours.

I fear that Putin will now believe he can use tactical nuclear weapons against European nations with impunity since there will be no US retaliation (unless UK and France are a sufficient deterrent?).

I wonder if they are coordinating comms with the Russians in the lead-up to the German election this Sunday

I wasn’t going to do a world survey, but you will find considerably more than that.., The distinction between authoritarian regimes and centre right democracies is a meaningful one (eg Churchill vs Hitler; the former did bad things but not like the latter). Particularly true for the EU

Some major countries have centre right governments eg Japan and probably soon Germany. As the German situation suggests, it’ll be important to keep centre right parties from aligning with the far right, as much as possible.