Notices by John Quiggin (johnquiggin@aus.social)

Time to admit it. Trump's dictatorship is a fait accompli. Senate Repubs will endorse extremist nominees (or dodge the shame with a recess appointment). Appointees will stack Justice Department, FBI, military with Trumpist thugs. Press will be bought out, or cowed into submission (mostly done). #repost
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Protests will be met with massive force, Insurrection Act etc. Dissidents will be harassed and jailed. Elections will be rigged, or inconvenient results disregarded. Third term will be pushed through, one way or another. #repost
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@pluralistic 50 Years ago, I remember a MAD Magazine piece in which the computer prediction of an election had gone wrong. The final scene showed teams of high school volunteers correcting errors in the ballots so the outcome would line uo with the prediction. Plus ca change ...

Some guy called Sulzberger in WaPo wailing that Trump is going to establish a dictatorship and muzzle the press.

But I get my political news from NYTimes and the reports there say Trump is fine, just prone to a bit of vulgarity and exaggeration, same as Harris and Walz. Who to believe?

OK, just one poll, but the possibility of a landslide win is starting to appear. A month or so ago, Trump seemed set fora
big win https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4846433-harris-leading-trump-by-7-points-poll/

Urge the Australian Government to Immediately Halt Funding and Arms Sales to Israel https://chng.it/QdqkVxX9 via @ChangeAUS

@inthehands @jenniferplusplus

Agree with the main point "non-trivial" is doing a fair bit of work here. For simple tasks, ChatGPT does a great job of turning conceptual sketches into code. That's already increasing programmer productivity and making basic coding accessible to non-programmers

@jenniferplusplus @inthehands That may be, as I'm not an expert. But lots of developers seem to feel the same way

https://github.blog/2022-09-07-research-quantifying-github-copilots-impact-on-developer-productivity-and-happiness/

Mastodon FTW! https://techstory.in/bbc-gives-up-on-instagram-threads-opts-for-mastodon/

If you want evidence that #Albanese will never change, check out his response to a Dorothy Dixer asking whether "ea parliament dominated by progressive political forces provided structural opportunity in the event the government pursued additional legislative measure" on renewables.

Rather than saying "Yes, we will work with the Parliament" #Albo went straight on attack against the Greens, for forcing him to strengthen his pathetic Housing Fund. He's a hopeless case. #auspol

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/sep/28/anthony-albanese-to-accelerate-transition-to-low-emissions-after-voice-referendum?trk=public_post_comment-text

And on it goes. Apparently our turn not until summer of 24-25, just in time for elections #
https://www.castanet.net/news/Kelowna/442416/Interior-Health-evacuates-seven-more-Central-Okanagan-senior-care-facilities #pyrocene #FireEpoch

This summer or next, the fires we saw in 2019 will be back, devastating us they are now doing to Greece and Canada. And among the many who are helping to cause them, I'd put Tanya Plibersek at the top of my list. She could take a stand, but prefers to keep her job.

By contrast, with people like Albo/Scomo it's pointless to expect anything better. They have no ideals to betray.