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Impact Storytelling: The Ecosystem, the Evidence and Possible Futures

— Organisation: The Commons Social Change Library — Monday 17th February 2025

Introduction

Impact Storytelling: the Ecosystem, the Evidence and Possible Futures” is a ‘go-to’ report for storytellers, artivists, students, scholars and impact practitioners interested in impact storytelling (often referred to as “storytelling for social change”).

This large study from University of the Arts London’s UAL AKO Storytelling Institute has been designed to help answer questions such as:

What is ‘impact storytelling’?
What evidence is there that impact storytelling works?
What is the history and current landscape of impact storytelling, in the UK and internationally?

It maps the structure of the impact storytelling ecosystem, identifies its key players, listens to current live debates and questions how to better collaborate in an emerging space that is still fairly siloed. By bringing to the foreground some of the ecosystem’s gaps and blind spots, it hopes to open a space for reflection and debate. The intention is to serve as a base towards cross-industry collaboration and cross-disciplinary consolidation.

Statement on Monetary Policy

— Organisation: Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) — Tuesday 18th February 2025

Aotearoa Scholarly Communication Community of Practice (ASCCOP)

— Organisation: Open Access Australasia — Tuesday 18th February 2025

They’re Turning the Friggin’ Kennedy Center Straight

— Organisation: The Claremont Institute — Monday 17th February 2025

Theatre is gay.

Don’t get me wrong—I love theatre. I’ve acted in college and community productions, worked backstage, directed high school plays, and attended a few dozen shows at various D.C. venues.

But it’s very gay.

It’s also—like much of the arts—resolutely Left. Playbills invariably frame the shows’ plots in progressive political terms, directors gleefully queer and gender-bend characters, and every theatre in town continued enforcing mask mandates long after they became a joke everywhere else.

So imagine my shock when D.C.’s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, previously wreathed year-round in rainbow light, began instead to throw pure white illumination onto the dark waters of the Potomac. Theatre will remain at least somewhat gay, but get more based (a week ago, Trump announced Ric Grenell as the Kennedy Center’s interim executive director).

That wasn’t the end, though. Just hours later, President Donald Trump posted to Truth Social that the Kennedy Center’s days of hosting drag shows were over. “I have decided to immediately terminate multiple individuals from the Board of Trustees, including the Chairman, who do not share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture,” he wrote.

Globalizations: The Shape of Things to Come

— Publication: Progress in Political Economy — Monday 17th February 2025

My new book, Globalizations: The Shape of Things to Come published in February 2025, explores the driving forces behind global history and politics. It is structured around three main themes: war and peace, focusing on the case of Ukraine and the OSCE; political economy and the drivers of historical change; and political theory, including justice, democracy, and global agency and institutions. The book stresses future orientation, emphasising how past and present developments influence possible futures and the role of learning in shaping those futures. A central theme throughout is reflexivity – the idea that human actions and interpretations shape history in open systems characterised by uncertainty. By engaging with historical and theoretical perspectives on recent world history the book aims to provide insights into the shape of things to come, not only in terms of acknowledging the uncertainties of historical processes – which nonetheless can to a certain degree be anticipated – but also of advocating for transformative possibilities.

Thoughts on Metro's Plan to Move Historical to the Planning Department

— Author: Betsy Phillips — Monday 17th February 2025

Following an independent report on the Historic Zoning and Historical commissions, legislation has been filed to merge them under Planning

Tactics Used by Fossil Fuel Companies to Suppress Critique and Obstruct Climate Action

— Organisation: The Commons Social Change Library — Monday 17th February 2025

Introduction

Climate activists have often engaged a wide range of tactics in their efforts to bring down fossil fuel emissions and halt climate change. But what about the tactics used by fossil fuel companies to obstruct climate action and suppress critique?

If activists are to stand up against these powerful forces, understanding their strategies and tactics is important.

Drawing on the work of Lacy-Nichols and colleagues (2022), this article explores key methods used by fossil fuel companies to obstruct and suppress critique.

Strategic Areas

Grouping these methods under eight core strategic areas, the article offers insights to any activist trying to fight back against fossil fuel hegemony.

The fossil fuel obstruction playbook (based on the corporate playbook developed by: Lacy-Nichols et al. 2022):

Lessons in Success from Nuclear Campaigns

— Organisation: The Commons Social Change Library — Monday 17th February 2025

Introduction

Part history lesson, part preparation for today’s fight. There is a powerful history of anti nuclear movements across this continent.

This quote was from a panel discussion at a conference called FWD+Organise 2024 in Naarm | Melbourne. The session was presented by:

Kirsten Blair, Australian Nuclear Free Alliance
Sanne Deswart, Friends of the Earth

Participants heard from these two frontline anti-nuclear campaigners who shared lessons from their community building, creative tactics, organising and mobilising work from decades past. They explored what those experiences can teach us for the fight ahead. This article based on their session focuses on the campaign that stopped the Jabiluka Uranium Mine in the Northern Territory, Australia, and shares resources for future anti-nuclear campaigns.

Campaign Case Study: Stopping Jabiluka Uranium Mine

The Mirarr Traditional Owners led an extraordinary mass movement to stop the Jabiluka uranium mine – and won!

The Craftsman

— Author: Sarah Kendzior — Monday 17th February 2025

I was going to make a noose, but instead I made a basket.

The basket coils like a snake in wait, white string binding plain brown rope. It is small but taut. When I rest it on its side, it looks like an eye. I put it on my bedside so it can watch over me as I sleep.

The basket is too small to hold anything but nightmares. But I know it’s working, because I used up all the rope for my noose.

* * *

I wanted to stab someone 8000 times. Instead, I cross-stitched an ancient design.

The design is a Mediterranean dream not my own. A four-square grid of dark blue and light blue: the cross, the star, the carnation, and the scroll, made of tiny x’s.

Thames Water’s Collapse is a Warning to us all

— Organisation: The Equality Trust — Monday 17th February 2025

Here is a list of all the countries in the world that fully privatised their water and sewerage systems: Now, here is a list of the countries with massive bill hikes, water companies teetering on the edge of collapse, and sewage dumping crises: Nobody else did this! It’s worth remembering our unique experiment in giving […]

The post Thames Water’s Collapse is a Warning to us all appeared first on Equality Trust.

LGBTQ, Inc.

— Organisation: The Claremont Institute — Monday 17th February 2025

American life today is characterized in no small part by nearly ceaseless exposure to LGBTQ propaganda. Everywhere you turn, you’re confronted with “the message,” be it in grade schools, on college campuses, while watching television or movies, or at work. There are no “safe spaces” sheltered from the deluge—not even FEMA’s hurricane recovery efforts have been spared.

How did such a small “community” capture America’s institutions? The answer is complex, but a new database by The Project to Expose Corporate Activism (PECA) shines a light on a significant part of the story.

PECA’s database shows that corporations have become the vanguard of the LGBTQ movement, donating vast sums of money to prop up an equally vast network of activists. The database does not merely rehash well-known examples like Anheuser-Busch’s support for transgender TikTok influencers but rather furnishes evidence of 1,588 companies’ support for more than 2,300 LGBTQ causes. These causes on the whole are quite radical. They range from Camp Brave Trails—a queer summer camp that has children’s drag shows and a “clothing closet for exploring gender expression”—to NGOs like Immigration Equality that facilitate the illegal migration of transgender and HIV+ “asylum seekers.”

Remembering Donald Shoup: A Legacy of Curiosity, Credibility and Kindness

— Organisation: Strong Towns — Monday 17th February 2025

Nuclear Truth Project Protocols

— Organisation: The Commons Social Change Library — Monday 17th February 2025

Introduction

The Nuclear Truth Project (NTP) works towards the total elimination of nuclear weapons and associated nuclear harms. This includes redress and assistance for those who have been harmed, the remediation for the widespread health and ecological damage from past and present nuclear activities, and preventing future nuclear harms.

The NTP began in 2021 working with a small group of affected community members and organisational leaders from a diverse range of international groups, to discuss challenges when working within, alongside or for communities and individuals impacted by nuclear harms.

The NTP identified a need to establish Protocols to ensure any consultations and asks of affected communities were being practiced in good faith and with a ‘do no harm’ approach to engagement.

Goals

Educate

Document and demonstrate to people the genocidal nature of nuclear weapons and the harms that nuclear weapons and associated nuclear activities have caused and continue to cause;

Advocate

Build agency to empower people, including those who have suffered disproportionately and those who face nuclear annihilation;

With friends like these

— Organisation: The Australia Institute — Monday 17th February 2025

On this episode of After America, Senator David Shoebridge, the Australian Greens Spokesperson for Defence and Veterans Affairs, joins Dr Emma Shortis to discuss cultural cringe, the Australian Government’s response to Trump’s tariffs and why the AUKUS submarine deal makes Australia less safe.

This discussion was recorded on Tuesday 11 February 2025 and things may have changed since recording.

Order What’s the Big Idea? 32 Big Ideas for a Better Australia now, via the Australia Institute website.

Guest: David Shoebridge, Senator for New South Wales and the Australian Greens Spokesperson for Defence and Veterans Affairs // @davidshoebridge

Host: Emma Shortis, Director, International & Security Affairs, the Australia Institute // @EmmaShortis

Show notes:

Standing up to Trump with Malcolm Turnbull, After America (November 2024)

It shouldn’t be this difficult to condemn plans to commit a crime against humanity

— Organisation: The Australia Institute — Saturday 15th February 2025

Trump’s administration is hostile to checks and balances and the rule of law. He has already pardoned the January 6 insurrectionists and signed various executive orders that are unconstitutional.

Trump’s plan to ethnically cleanse Gaza is horrifying. Making the announcement while standing beside Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for whom the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, is nauseating. It’s in direct violation of international law. Many world leaders condemned Trump’s remarks publicly, including UK Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer, but Prime Minister Anthony Albanese repeatedly avoided the opportunity to reject Trump’s plan, saying he would not be giving a “daily commentary” on remarks by the US President.

On one hand, that’s a sensible strategy. Albanese is trying to make sure Australia is exempt from Trump’s tariffs and avoiding stepping on any landmines in the lead-up to our federal election. And Donald Trump is nothing if not a firehose of chaos. He makes announcements and then backtracks, sometimes within the same sentence. There is no way leaders can respond to every last policy brain fart from him or his administration.

Something fishy about PM’s reported pledge to salmon industry

— Organisation: The Australia Institute — Saturday 15th February 2025

No such letter has been sent to others in the local and broader community, ensuring the safety of the endangered Maugean skate, the health of the harbour, the tourism industry or recreational fishing.

If legislation, reportedly proposed by the PM, does not take in to account a long-awaited review of the damage being wreaked upon Macquarie Harbour, it could undermine Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek’s commitment to no extinctions under her watch.

One third of the harbour is World Heritage listed and the only home of the endangered Maugean skate, recognised for its world heritage values, which date back to the dinosaur era.

Scientific evidence shows salmon farming operations in the harbour are “almost certain” to be “catastrophic” for the skate.

“Special legislation for foreign-owned companies that is likely to condemn the Maugean skate to extinction should not be rushed through in the dying days of this government,” said Eloise Carr, Director of The Australia Institute Tasmania.

“If the reports are true, the Prime Minister is willing to introduce special new laws that will protect companies which employ only a handful of Australians and send the profits overseas.

“Introducing special legislation to protect the salmon industry would be highly unorthodox. It raises concerns that science could be ignored and due process undermined.

The Miners

— Author: Sarah Kendzior — Saturday 8th February 2025

There were coyote tracks at the Missouri mine. They weren’t supposed to be there. No one understood how such a distant predator got in or how to keep it out. But that’s true about a lot of places in America these days.

We were wandering the ruins of Federal Mill Number Three, the largest lead mine in the US until its closure in 1972. For centuries, most lead came from Missouri. Ammunition for every war, toxic paint for every child’s classroom, noxious petrol for every parent’s car.

Lead spread from the heartland, made in America, and when we were poisoned, we were poisoned together.

The Confluence

— Author: Sarah Kendzior — Wednesday 29th January 2025

I woke up to a note I had no memory of writing. I scrawled it in the dead of night, a time I used to dread but now embrace, because the nightmare-makers sleep then too.

It is January 2025. The future has caught up with my prognostications and I’ve started rationing reality: as Shirley Jackson noted, too much of it makes you insane. But I’ve written the story of American autocracy so many damn times that I can’t watch it play out at the speed of life. My mind works like a rigged redactor, drawing black lines over the sins of day.

Your Questions Answered: Trump Term Two

— Author: Sarah Kendzior — Friday 17th January 2025

Welcome to the answers section of the Q & A! Subscribers, you beat your own record yet again — I had to shut down comments a mere five hours after posting the call for questions since there were so many. I believe I answered them all.

If you’d like to submit a question, become a paying subscriber. You can do that here:

Just Answering Questions: The Second Coming

— Author: Sarah Kendzior — Tuesday 14th January 2025

NOTE AT 5:30 PM CST: I HAVE TO CLOSE QUESTIONS NOW! Thank you to everyone who sent one! I now have a LOT and need to stop new ones from coming so that it is manageable to answer the ones that I have. These are really great, thoughtful questions and I want to do them justice.

If you missed the chance to ask a question, come back next time! I’ll put out an alert beforehand so subscribers will know when the Q&A is coming. I feel bad cutting it off after seven hours, but it had to be done. The new article with answers will be up in the next couple days. Thanks again!

NOTE on 1/17: The answers are up!

* * *

Are you turning and turning in the widening gyre, waiting for that rough beast slouching toward Washington DC to be reborn? Me too! That means it’s time for my subscriber Q & A, “Just Answering Questions!”

For those new to this feature, here’s how it works:

1) To ask a question, join as a paying subscriber, and post your question in the comments section below.

Fantasy on Fire

— Author: Sarah Kendzior — Friday 10th January 2025

For two days, my sister and I had a secret shame.

“Are you concerned about the Walsh house and Dylan’s bungalow in the fire like I am or am I just weird?” she texted on Wednesday.

“If Casa Walsh burns,” I replied, “it will be my Notre Dame.”

I’ve never been to Pacific Palisades. But I feel like I have. Many Americans do, because we’ve been watching Pacific Palisades all our lives. We watched it in Carrie and Teen Wolf and Freaky Friday. It was the setting of Saved by the Bell and the rival town in Sweet Valley High.

Trapped Echo

— Author: Sarah Kendzior — Friday 3rd January 2025

The Center of the Universe is in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It is a brick circle on cracked concrete near a run-down train depot on a downtown bridge.

Next to the Center of the Universe is a giant pole. The pole seems blank and black until you get close and see it is covered in motifs of falling airplanes. Behind the pole is the Bank of Oklahoma headquarters, a building designed by the architects who designed the World Trade Center. They made it a small-scale replica of Tower One.

The mini-WTC Bank of Oklahoma Tower was built in 1976. The falling plane sculpture, “Artificial Cloud,” was built by Apache artist Bob Haozous in 1991.

Hey, isn’t it a little weird that ten years later your mind starts asking, but the invisible hand of capitalism covers your mouth before your words get too truthy. Save it for another time: there are more concrete mysteries to explore.

No one knows when the Center of the Universe was activated — or how it works.

The Best of the Worst Year

— Author: Sarah Kendzior — Wednesday 18th December 2024

First of all — thank you.

In a year marked by rising authoritarianism, unheeded warnings of corruption and complicity, virtual public spheres destroyed by oligarchs, and AI decimating creative fields, it has been a rare pleasure to write this newsletter. My original words, my original research, my original photography. My original political exposés that spur my original death threats.

That last part I could do without. My comfort is that it’s been ten years of living this way and I’m still here.

I keep on writing in the meantime, in the Mean Time, because I have been documenting Trump and the decline of America for thirty-five years and I am not surrendering my speech. As I wrote in September, “I’ve written two books about the nexus of government and organized crime. As a result, I live under a double bill of apprehension: They’ll catch me too early, and you’ll catch on too late.”

It’s not the easiest life — but is there such thing as an easy American life?

Elvis and the Edge of Reality

— Author: Sarah Kendzior — Monday 9th December 2024

My parents saw Elvis Presley live in 1976, one year before he died, and somehow didn’t tell me until last week. They had near front-row seats and my mom could see Elvis up close, stuffed into a white suit, gasping his way through the hits. He was sick and sweaty and slurring, suffering on the stage.

It was clear he wasn’t well. But they never thought that in a year he’d be gone. He was Elvis and they were Boomers. Elvis had always been there, and it seemed he always would be, even as he deteriorated. Whether you loved him or loved to mock him, Elvis was the star around which American pop culture orbited.

You never thought he’d just die on the toilet.

This is what it feels like to watch America in 2024. A fading star, a bittersweet song, every day feeling like a farewell tour. You are the audience but you are also Elvis: tired of performing for the benefit of people who hurt you, trying to remind yourself that the music still matters. The government is Colonel Parker, Elvis’s vicious manager, exploiting every fear.

You are never safe in America, even when you’ve made it — even when you are an “it” upon whom things are made. That’s the worst part, Elvis knew: to become a brand and lose being a person.

Intermission

— Author: Sarah Kendzior — Sunday 1st December 2024

It’s been a long, lonely year with so many people lying. I keep waiting for nightmares, but my dreams have all gone blank.

I’ve been here before. William Gibson described it in 2003:

“We have no future,” he wrote in his novel Pattern Recognition. “Not in the sense that our grandparents had a future, or thought they did…For us, of course, things can change so abruptly, so violently, so profoundly, that futures like our grandparents' have insufficient 'now' to stand on. We have no future because our present is too volatile...We have only risk management.”

Just Answering (Many) Questions!

— Author: Sarah Kendzior — Monday 18th November 2024

Congratulations, subscribers, you beat your own record — I had to shut down comments 18 hours after posting the call for questions, because there were so many! Once again, I tried to be true to my word and answer all of them. The result is this long but thorough discussion of the topics on your mind.

If you’d like to submit a question in the future, become a paying subscriber. You can do that here:

The Q & A is free for all to read. Let’s kick it off with a question on oligarchs from a fellow named Turkey Burger!

Turkey Burger: Looking back, I do not know precisely what happened between Putin and the oligarchs, other than that the oligarchs either fled, fell in line, or lost their fortunes and freedoms and lives. Do you think that is what is happening between Trump and Elon and Bezos? Is Trump is following Putin's playbook?

Just Answering Questions: Bonus Edition!

— Author: Sarah Kendzior — Saturday 16th November 2024

UPDATE: It is 7 am on Sunday and I’ve received a LOT of questions, so I am disabling comments! I’ll post a new article with my answers sometime in the next couple days. I’ll also reopen the comments here later since a lot of you were having interesting conversations and I don’t want that to stop. I am hoping I will get to every single question — I will do my best! Thank you for your support and stay tuned!

UPDATE: The answers are up!

* * *

Hello subscribers! As promised, I’m doing a weekend Q & A. I usually don’t do them this often, but I know folks have a lot on their minds.

I’m also spending every day next week recording the audio version of my new book THE LAST AMERICAN ROAD TRIP (preorder it here!) so I’ll be busy with that. My writing schedule should return to normal when it’s done.

Thank you for understanding! I figured I’d add an extra Q & A to tide everyone over.

For those new to this feature, here’s how it works:

The End of Days Inn

— Author: Sarah Kendzior — Friday 15th November 2024

I am in northern Ohio, looking down at the End of Days Inn.

The parking lot cracks like an outstretched palm no fortune teller needs to read because its future is too obvious. The cracks spread to the dead mall next door, a vacant behemoth with CLOSED and THANK YOU written on an old marquee. I wonder about the person who placed those letters there one by one. That final demarcation, the words you write when you cannot say goodbye.

At the condemned Days Inn, the “D” was removed from all signs. As if folks needed a clue that the old days are gone, as if weeds winding to empty windows weren’t enough.

“AY’S INN”, my children read, laughing.

“This is what America looked like when you were one year old, after the economy collapsed,” I said to my daughter, born in 2007.

“And this is what America looked like when you were one year old, when they said we'd recovered," I said to my son, born in 2011. "But they were lying."

Ten Articles Explaining the 2024 Election

— Author: Sarah Kendzior — Wednesday 6th November 2024

When I wake up to thousands of people telling me I was right, I know that things have gone wrong.

I started this newsletter in October 2023. Since then, I’ve written about fifty articles on institutional complicity and the likelihood of Trump becoming president again. These are the ten articles most helpful in explaining this situation.

My books HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT and THEY KNEW are also helpful in grasping vital background about the US government and organized crime. I would get those two books now, before it is impossible to do so. I wish I were exaggerating about that, much as I wish I had been exaggerating about the accurate predictions and claims I made in the articles below.

The top ten articles to explain Election Night 2024:

1. “Behold, a Pale Horse Race”

2. “Servants of the Mafia State”

3. “Last Chance, USA”

4. “Birds of a Feather”

5. “The Aftermath People”

6. “Cheap Signals”

Election Day, 1990

— Author: Sarah Kendzior — Tuesday 5th November 2024

I never had Election Days like I did when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?

It is November 6, 1990, and I’ve let myself into my next-door neighbor’s house. I know they’re awake. My best friend’s stepfather had left bluefish on our front steps, wrapped in foil. He liked to go ice fishing before dawn. I was a fellow early riser, and I listened for the drop, wanting to get the fish before the cats did.

My best friend lived next door. She was one year older than me, almost to the day, and our names rhymed. We considered this to be fate.

Just Answering Questions: The Flamethrower!

— Author: Sarah Kendzior — Wednesday 30th October 2024

Welcome to another edition of “Just Answering Questions”! This is a new feature in which paying subscribers send in questions and I answer them. You sent a LOT of questions, to the point that I had to shut down the call for questions after 24 hours! I believe I answered them all; if you submitted one, search for your name. They were fantastic questions, so I recommend reading the whole article below.

If you’d like to submit a question in the future, become a paying subscriber. You can do that here:

The Q & A is free for all to read! With no further ado, here we go…

Am Reed: What do you think Trump was referring to when he said at Madison Square Garden: “I think with our little secret we are gonna do really well with the House. Our little secret is having a big impact, he and I have a little secret, we will tell you what it is when the race is over.” States not certifying the vote counts and kicking the election to the house? Does it concern you at all? Or is it a narcissistic fantasy?

Just Answering Questions: The Q & A Returns!

— Author: Sarah Kendzior — Monday 28th October 2024

UPDATE OCT 29 2:00 CST: Wow, that was fast! Thank you for all the terrific questions — I’ve got a LOT and I am going to attempt to answer all of them, because I don’t like breaking my word. But I’ve got to close down the questions section now before my Q & A starts looking like Ulysses.

If you didn’t get to ask a question this time round, I plan to do another Q & A next month, so come back then! (Make sure you’re a paying subscriber.)

My answers will be published in a separate article before the election. Thanks again!

* * *

Hello subscribers! It’s time for our monthly Q & A, “Just Answering Questions!”

I did a Q & A in September, and it was so popular I had to shut it down three days later because I got so many questions! I’m planning to run the Q & A the same way this time round, so get your questions in while you can.

Totem and Taboo

— Author: Sarah Kendzior — Tuesday 22nd October 2024

The oldest store on Route 66 in Missouri closed last month. I don’t remember the last time I visited. But I will always remember that it was the last time.

The Totem Pole Trading Post opened in 1933 and moved down the Mother Road until landing in the small city of Rolla. I was in Rolla to see a geology museum rumored to have minerals shaped like a Missouri breakfast — bacon and biscuits — but it was closed. I went to the Trading Post because it had always been there, and would always be there, and found that it was there no more.

The door was unlocked but the lights were off.

“It's a tough time for the truth.”

— Author: Sarah Kendzior — Friday 18th October 2024

This is a transcript of an October 8 interview I did with journalist Brendan Toller of WPKN. I encourage you to listen to it here! Since the interview aired, I got requests for a transcript. The interview covers many of the articles in my newsletter as well as other topics. It’s a useful conversation for these times so I’m printing it here. My thanks to Brendan and WPKN for giving me permission. The text was lightly edited for clarity.

Brendan Toller: Welcome, Sarah. I'm going to quote one of your latest newsletters on Substack [“Hanging by a Thread”]:

“People ask how I'm doing. I laugh at the chasm of the question. How is anyone doing? Climate catastrophes, genocide, the election from hell.” Your thoughts?

Sarah Kendzior: I'm trying to remember during which hurricane I wrote that, what with another one bearing down. This is a very difficult time. I could have listed a dozen other catastrophes. There’s a surreal aspect in that we're expected to go on with our lives and our jobs and raising our families and doing mundane tasks while catastrophes happen around us.

The Eternal Election Season

— Author: Sarah Kendzior — Thursday 10th October 2024

“Jesus Is Coming,” the sign said. “Hopefully Before the Election.”

The sign was under two stained glass windows in an old brick church in central Missouri. I was driving back from visiting a spring said to possess magical healing powers, so I was in a believing kind of mood.

Believing in a miracle: Election Season will end.

We have been in Election Season for a decade. The season has no predictable pattern other than its steady series of disasters. It is like climate change, with each catastrophe first denied and then weaponized. We know the roots of the crises, but no one is held accountable. We know how to mitigate the damage, but the powerful insist it is ordinary people’s fault.

“You should have voted the hurricane out,” they scold. “It’s your job to evacuate before fascism arrives!”

Maybe I got that backwards. It’s hard to keep messaging straight in Election Season, when authority holds no sincerity and time loses all meaning.

The Tax Shift

— Organisation: Prosper Australia — Sunday 16th February 2025

Over the past century and a half, politics and economics have evolved significantly in how we manage society. Yet, the core principle remains: every person born on this earth has a right to a share of its bounty.

The post The Tax Shift first appeared on Prosper Australia.

The Mafia State - Read by Eunice Wong

— Author: Chris Hedges — Sunday 16th February 2025

This article is read by Eunice Wong, a Juilliard-trained actor, featured on Audible's list of Best Women Narrators. Her work is on the annual Best Audiobooks lists of the New York Times, Audible, AudioFile, & Library Journal. www.eunicewong.actor

Australia’s big tax project

— Organisation: Prosper Australia — Sunday 16th February 2025

The relationship between older, younger, and future Australians and our tax and spending priorities is based on an implicit generational bargain. Working age taxpayers support older and younger Australians and can expect the next generation to support them in the same way, and economic and social development will enable each successive generation to enjoy rising living standards. At the very least, we should not leave the next generation worse off.

The post Australia’s big tax project first appeared on Prosper Australia.

Buying better income taxes with better land taxes

— Organisation: Prosper Australia — Sunday 16th February 2025

What could $27 billion fund if Commonwealth-state transfers were adjusted to bring revenue and expenses for each level of government closer to balance?

The post Buying better income taxes with better land taxes first appeared on Prosper Australia.

Climate crisis escalates cost-of-living pressures

— Organisation: The Australia Institute — Sunday 16th February 2025

The report identifies three key areas where the climate crisis is directly driving up costs for Australians: insurance, food, and energy.

These sectors combined have accounted for over a fifth of the consumer price inflation experienced in Australia since 2022.

Key findings:

Insurance premiums have soared due to an increase in natural disasters, with some households now spending over seven weeks of gross income just to cover home insurance
Food prices have risen by 20% since 2020, with climate-related disruptions wiping out harvests and making it harder for some regions to grow food
Energy costs remain high due to a reliance on fossil fuels, underinvestment in renewables, and fossil fuel exports forcing Australians to compete with the global market for Australia’s resources
The impacts of the climate crisis are disproportionately affecting lower-income and regional households, who are already feeling the financial strain more severely

The report underscores the need for urgent climate action to protect Australian households from these escalating costs. Addressing the root causes of climate change is essential to lowering future risks and alleviating the economic strain that millions of Australians are facing.

“Insurance costs keep on rising and, while competition across big business sectors is needed, the thing that is driving insurance costs is climate change,” said Richard Dennis, Executive Director at The Australia Institute.

Rushed, secretive and dismissive – the dirty deal which degrades our democracy

— Organisation: The Australia Institute — Wednesday 12th February 2025

The Australia Institute’s detailed analysis of the bill identifies several loopholes the major parties could exploit; unfair treatment of new entrants and independent candidates; and the danger that tens of millions of dollars of new taxpayer funding are spent on misleading advertising.

Labor’s compromises with the Coalition have made a bad bill even worse:

My Aunt Frieda Tankus- Co-founding Vice President of Disabled In Action (DIA)

— Author: Nathan Tankus — Publication: Notes on the Crisis — Saturday 15th February 2025

My Aunt Frieda Tankus- Co-founding Vice President of Disabled In Action (DIA)

This is an “Off Topic” piece of Notes on the Crises. Off topic pieces will always be colored blue. Readers are encouraged to ignore them if they are only interested in my day-to-day analysis and reporting. Check my “on topic” pieces for information about the anonymous sources I’m collecting, and ways you can support the newsletter’s coverage of the Trump-Musk crisis. As always: if you want to back my work, take out a paid subscription, or pester your institution to do so. Thanks!

The Mafia State

— Author: Chris Hedges — Saturday 15th February 2025

Why online safety policies and digital advocacy are essential for women’s political participation

— Publication: Advancing Learning and Innovation on Gender Norms (ALIGN) — Monday 10th February 2025

Why online safety policies and digital advocacy are essential for women’s political participation ESubden Mon, 02/10/2025 - 15:26 10 February 2025 Blog Annelies Coessens ALIGN Global 1118, 131, 1403

Six headlines from 2024: a seismic year for gender norms

— Publication: Advancing Learning and Innovation on Gender Norms (ALIGN) — Thursday 19th December 2024

Six headlines from 2024: a seismic year for gender norms ESubden Thu, 12/19/2024 - 16:40 19 December 2024 Blog Prerna Dhote, Rachel Marcus, Ján Michalko, Aatif Somji ALIGN Global 64, 68, 879, 1474, 1118, 558, 131, 1544

How can education systems help prevent gender-based violence?

— Publication: Advancing Learning and Innovation on Gender Norms (ALIGN) — Thursday 5th December 2024

How can education systems help prevent gender-based violence? ESubden Thu, 12/05/2024 - 12:07 5 December 2024 Blog Rachel Marcus ALIGN Global 64, 131

The power of feminist artivism to change gender norms

— Publication: Advancing Learning and Innovation on Gender Norms (ALIGN) — Thursday 28th November 2024

The power of feminist artivism to change gender norms ESubden Thu, 11/28/2024 - 17:27 28 November 2024 Report Diana Jiménez Thomas Rodriguez ALIGN View report Global 1544

Teacher education and training on gender, masculinities and non-sexist education in Chile

— Publication: Advancing Learning and Innovation on Gender Norms (ALIGN) — Wednesday 20th November 2024

Teacher education and training on gender, masculinities and non-sexist education in Chile ESubden Wed, 11/20/2024 - 13:26 20 November 2024 Report Francisco Vidal Velis, Marina Carrasco Soto, Geraldine Gutiérrez Ortega, Emily Dobbs Díaz, Claudia Dides Castillo, Rosa Montecinos Molina, Fabián Castro Valle

Social media and masculinity norms among adolescents: insights from Mexico

— Publication: Advancing Learning and Innovation on Gender Norms (ALIGN) — Tuesday 19th November 2024

Social media and masculinity norms among adolescents: insights from Mexico ESubden Tue, 11/19/2024 - 12:18 19 November 2024 Report Patricia Cala, Paola Flores, Diana Koester ALIGN, Mexfam Summary report (Eng)

Nurturing gender-equitable masculinities: lessons for transforming norms through education systems

— Publication: Advancing Learning and Innovation on Gender Norms (ALIGN) — Wednesday 13th November 2024

Nurturing gender-equitable masculinities: lessons for transforming norms through education systems ESubden Wed, 11/13/2024 - 10:54 13 November 2024 Report Rachel Marcus, Sophia D’Angelo, Ján Michalko ALIGN View report View summary