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Keep your bearings and know the fight we are in

— Author: Heidi Li Feldman — Thursday 27th February 2025

[Note: As readership of Heidi Says has grown, it has been brought to my attention that some background on me might be useful. I’ve expanded the “About” page accordingly.]

The scale and pace of Republican Fascist activities escalates daily. Bizarre, sadistic, dangerous measures spew from Trump, his overlord Musk, and the puppets in his Cabinet. It makes it difficult to focus. Yet we cannot effectively oppose this utterly rogue federal executive branch if we succumb to disorientation. My advice, based on what works for me: don’t chase every new bit of breaking news. Find the issue or area that most concerns or interests you and follow that closely. Find a couple of commentators or publications you trust and read them regularly.

Do not forget that we are in a long, hard slog. It will take decades to reverse this country’s slide into corrupt fascism. It can only be done through the accretion of small efforts, none of which may seem efficacious in the moment. Do what you can when you can. Go to a meeting of a local progressive organization. Write a letter to the editor. Make phone calls to your members of Congress. Participate in economic boycotts of companies selling out to Trump. Speak truth in public. There are millions of Americans who want to change the country for the better. No one of us is going to make it happen and even all of us trying will not make it happen quickly.

The Bottom-Up Revolution Is...Making a Big Impact With Tiny Homes

— Organisation: Strong Towns — Thursday 27th February 2025

Global Trends in U.S. Inflation Dynamics

— Organisation: Federal Reserve Bank of New York — Publication: Liberty Street Economics — Thursday 27th February 2025

Ozge Akinci, Martin Almuzara, Silvia Miranda-Agrippino, Ramya Nallamotu, Argia Sbordone, Greg Simitian, and William Zeng

Seeds Over a Wall: The Pyramid of Harm

— Author: Patricia Roberts-Miller — Thursday 27th February 2025

flowers in front of a wall

My grandmother had a “joke” (really more of a parable) about a guy who sees a pie cooling in the window, and steals it. Unfortunately, he leaves a perfect handprint on the sill, so he sneaks into the house in order to wash off his handprint. But then it’s obvious that the sill has been washed, since it’s so much cleaner than the wall. So he washes that wall.

A Quiet Revolution: How Accessory Dwelling Units Can Transform Communities

— Organisation: Strong Towns — Thursday 27th February 2025

Bennelong MP Jerome Laxale addresses housing ahead of federal election

— Organisation: Everybody's Home — Thursday 27th February 2025

Bennelong MP Jerome Laxale has vowed to fight for renters at an Everybody’s Home town hall designed to spotlight Australia’s deepening housing crisis ahead of the federal election.

On Tuesday, Everybody’s Home kicked off its series of online forums with incumbent MPs from key electorates, beginning with Mr Laxale.

Mr Laxale said: “There has been a huge shift in housing perception … It’s because of groups like [Everybody’s Home], and advocates … who are fighting for renters, like I do.

“It’s not always politicians who need to change their minds, the community also needs to change their mind. Politicians have a role to play but as important a role is to get a community-led campaign to advocate for more change, that comes down to persistence and passion.”

Mr Laxale also warned against proposals for first homebuyers to pay for a deposit through their super.

“People under the age of 40 don’t have $50,000 in their super to raid. It will mean the country and the individual will be worse off by withdrawing from their super,” Mr Laxale said.

“Super is for retirement, it’s not a piggy-bank on the side…we know from world experience across the ditch that it doesn’t help with housing affordability and will leave individuals worse off in the long run.”

Mr Laxale said Labor’s main housing priority is to build more homes.

“It’s been a rocky road to get housing policies through parliament … but our focus is the delivery of homes and we will do what we can,” he said.

Ken Henry: Keynote Address

— Organisation: Per Capita — Friday 21st February 2025

Recorded on the 20th of February as part of Per Capita’s Community Tax Summit, Dr Ken Henry AC gave the opening keynote address in the Solidarity Hall at Victorian Trades Hall, Melbourne.

Currently, Chair of the Nature Finance Council, the Australian Climate and Biodiversity Foundation and Wildlife Recovery Australia, and a non-executive director of Accounting for Nature Ltd and the Digital Finance CRC, Dr Henry served as the Secretary to the Treasury from 2001 to 2011. He chaired the Howard Government’s tax review taskforce in 1997-98, the Rudd Government’s tax review published in 2010, and the Gillard Government’s White Paper on Australia in the Asian Century (2011 and 2012).

The Community Tax Summit bought together Australian NFPs, Think Tanks, Advocacy Groups and more to kick off a “big conversation” about Australia’s tax and transfer system.

There our panels of experts and those with lived experience demonstrated that there is an genuine appetite for tax and transfer reform, which is both needed and wanted in the next term of Parliament.

The post Ken Henry: Keynote Address appeared first on Per Capita.

Housing – The Great Australian Divide

— Organisation: Per Capita — Thursday 20th February 2025

Recorded on the 20th of February as part of Per Capita’s Community Tax Summit, Economist’s Saul Eslake, Alan Kohler, Anglicare Australia’s Maiy Azize, and Prosper Australia’s Tim Helm discuss the current housing crisis in relation to the tax and transfer system. Recorded at Solidarity Hall at Victorian Trades Hall, Melbourne.

The Community Tax Summit bought together Australian NFPs, Think Tanks, Advocacy Groups and more to kick off a “big conversation” about Australia’s tax and transfer system.

There our panels of experts and those with lived experience demonstrated that there is an genuine appetite for tax and transfer reform, which is both needed and wanted in the next term of Parliament.

The post Housing – The Great Australian Divide appeared first on Per Capita.

Miranda Stewart: Keynote Address

— Organisation: Per Capita — Thursday 20th February 2025

Professor Miranda Stewart’s keynote address on Australia’s tax and transfer system and directions for reform. Recorded on the 20th of February as part of Per Capita’s Community Tax Summit, Solidarity Hall at Victorian Trades Hall, Melbourne.

Miranda Stewart is a Professor specialising in taxation law and policy at the Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne and an Honorary Professor at the Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University. In 2024, Miranda was a visiting fellow at the Australian Treasury. Her most recent book is Tax and Government in the 21st Century (Cambridge University Press).

The Community Tax Summit bought together Australian NFPs, Think Tanks, Advocacy Groups and more to kick off a “big conversation” about Australia’s tax and transfer system. There our panels of experts and those with lived experience demonstrated that there is an genuine appetite for tax and transfer reform, which is both needed and wanted in the next term of Parliament.

The post Miranda Stewart: Keynote Address appeared first on Per Capita.

Inequality of Wealth, Income and Opportunity

— Organisation: Per Capita — Thursday 20th February 2025

Recorded on the 20th of February as part of Per Capita’s Community Tax Summit, Per Capita’s Emma Dawson, ACOSS CEO Cassandra Goldie, Professor Roger Wilkins and Professor Sharon Bessell lead a discussion on Inequality of Wealth Income and Opportunity in the Solidarity Hall at Victorian Trades Hall, Melbourne.

The Community Tax Summit bought together Australian NFPs, Think Tanks, Advocacy Groups and more to kick off a “big conversation” about Australia’s tax and transfer system.

There our panels of experts and those with lived experience demonstrated that there is an genuine appetite for tax and transfer reform, which is both needed and wanted in the next term of Parliament.

The post Inequality of Wealth, Income and Opportunity appeared first on Per Capita.

Social Infrastructure, Care and Services

— Organisation: Per Capita — Thursday 20th February 2025

Recorded on the 20th of February as part of Per Capita’s Community Tax Summit, Dr Angela Jackson, CPSU National Secretary Melissa Donnelly, Professor Fran Baum AO speak on the importance of social infrastructure, care, and service industries and how they have been overlooked and neglected for too long. Recorded at Solidarity Hall at Victorian Trades Hall, Melbourne.

The Community Tax Summit bought together Australian NFPs, Think Tanks, Advocacy Groups and more to kick off a “big conversation” about Australia’s tax and transfer system.

There our panels of experts and those with lived experience demonstrated that there is an genuine appetite for tax and transfer reform, which is both needed and wanted in the next term of Parliament.

The post Social Infrastructure, Care and Services appeared first on Per Capita.

The World After Gaza (w/ Pankaj Mishra) | The Chris Hedges Report

— Author: Chris Hedges — Thursday 27th February 2025

This interview is also available on podcast platforms and Rumble.

The Holocaust is the quintessential example of human evil for people in the West. In the rest of the world, especially in the Global South, the atrocity of the Holocaust — genocide — has had a closer proximity both in time and place. Colonialism in Africa, destructive wars in Asia and most recently, genocide in the Middle East, have shaped the lives of billions of people.

On this episode of The Chris Hedges Report, essayist and novelist Pankaj Mishra joins host Chris Hedges to discuss his latest book, “The World After Gaza.” Mishra argues that the shifting power dynamics in the world means the Global South’s narrative on atrocity can no longer be ignored and the genocide in Gaza is the current crux of the issue.

The American Mind Podcast: The Roundtable Episode #256

— Organisation: The Claremont Institute — Thursday 27th February 2025

The American Mind’s ‘Editorial Roundtable’ podcast is a weekly conversation with Ryan Williams, Spencer Klavan, and Mike Sabo devoted to uncovering the ideas and principles that drive American political life. Stream here or download from your favorite podcast host.

Press Pass Fail | The Roundtable Ep. 256

DOGE days: Trump’s war on the civil service

— Organisation: The Australia Institute — Thursday 27th February 2025

On this episode of Follow the Money, Dr Emma Shortis and Ebony Bennett discuss Trump’s efforts to “rinse” Ukraine for its resources, the administration’s moves to dismantle significant portions of the Federal Government, and how the Australian Government can use its significant bargaining power to push back against the American President.

This discussion was recorded on Tuesday 25 February 2025 and things may have changed since recording.

Subscribe to After America now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your favourite podcasts.

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

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

Host: Ebony Bennett, Deputy Director the Australia Institute // @ebonybennett

Show notes:

Australia’s surplus obsession (and why it needs to end)

— Organisation: The Australia Institute — Thursday 27th February 2025

On this episode of Dollars & Sense, Greg and Hayden discuss the latest monthly inflation data, the proposed improvements to Medicare, and Australia’s misguided obsession with federal budget surpluses.

This discussion was recorded on Thursday 27 February 2025 and things may have changed since recording.

Subscribe to Between the Lines, The Australia Institute’s fortnightly newsletter.

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

Host: Greg Jericho, Chief Economist, the Australia Institute and Centre for Future Work // @grogsgamut

Host: Hayden Starr, Digital Media Manager, the Australia Institute // @haydenstarr

Show notes:

Your Questions Answered: We're Already in the Aftermath

— Author: Sarah Kendzior — Wednesday 26th February 2025

Thank you, subscribers, for all your thoughtful questions! I answered most of them and tried to address the main points of the questions I didn’t list. I apologize that I ran out of space before I could get to them all!

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

A Scam Built Atop an Accounting Gimmick Wrapped in Bullshit: Why Visiting Fort Knox Is Not About Selling Gold but is About Buying Bitcoin

— Author: Nathan Tankus — Publication: Notes on the Crisis — Wednesday 26th February 2025

A Scam Built Atop an Accounting Gimmick Wrapped in Bullshit: Why Visiting Fort Knox Is Not About Selling Gold but is About Buying Bitcoin

Notes on the Crises pivoted on February 1st into around the clock coverage of the Trump-Musk Treasury Payments Crisis of 2025. Today is Day Twenty Seven

How a Popular Development Practice Backfires on Homeowners

— Organisation: Strong Towns — Wednesday 26th February 2025

President Trump Was Right to Fire C.Q. Brown

— Organisation: The Claremont Institute — Wednesday 26th February 2025

In removing General Charles Q. Brown, Jr. as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, President Trump made a necessary and long-overdue correction to a military leadership corps that has lost its way. For too long, the Pentagon has been governed by leaders more concerned with bureaucratic politics and ideological conformity than with the timeless requirements of combat: discipline, cohesion, and lethality.

America’s military is not merely a collection of well-equipped components—it is an institution forged by a distinct moral and martial tradition. Its strength has always come from a warrior ethos that prizes courage, merit, and excellence. Yet over the last two decades, that ethos has been eroded by a leadership class that increasingly serves the managerial regime rather than the nation it was sworn to protect.

In many ways, General Brown exemplified this decline.

His removal is not just about replacing one man—it is about reclaiming the military from an ideological project that has subordinated warfighting to the dictates of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Uniformed military officers have been active agents in this ideological capture, so it is only fitting to ensure accountability for this class of leaders.

Five Things Equality Activists Can Learn from the German Election

— Organisation: The Equality Trust — Wednesday 26th February 2025

“When Germany sneezes, Europe catches a cold” We’re in the grip of a worldwide inequality crisis and growth in support for the far right. The two are inextricably linked and share common features – which means there’s a lot we should learn from this week’s elections in Germany. The election saw a historic rise in […]

The post Five Things Equality Activists Can Learn from the German Election appeared first on Equality Trust.

The Cincinnatus Series: Family Policy

— Organisation: The Claremont Institute — Wednesday 26th February 2025

The American Mind’s ‘Editorial Roundtable’ podcast is a weekly conversation with Ryan Williams, Spencer Klavan, and Mike Sabo devoted to uncovering the ideas and principles that drive American political life. Stream here or download from your favorite podcast host.

Family Policy | Cincinnatus Series Ep. 4

Denizens of the Deep State

— Organisation: The Claremont Institute — Wednesday 26th February 2025

It’s long past time to rein in the field of public administration, which supplies the bureaucrats who populate the administrative state. About 12,000 U.S. students a year graduate in the field, mainly at the master’s level through the Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree. About half of all MPA graduates end up in government, mostly at the state (25%) and local (15%) levels, but some (about 10%) at the federal level. This means that about 1,200 public administration graduates enter the federal bureaucracy every year, presumably in leadership and management-track roles.

Christi Grimm, a former inspector general in the Department of Health and Human Services, is one such MPA holder who did damage from the federal bureaucracy. Grimm issued a panicked report on COVID in its early days that President Trump viewed as an attempt to undermine his handling of the crisis (she has since sued for reinstatement after being fired shortly after Trump’s second inauguration). Another is Karen Chen, a senior analyst on environmental issues in the Government Accountability Office, who previously worked for Michael Bloomberg’s net-zero initiative for local governments that sought to counter policies of the first Trump Administration.

Australians must be protected from diseased salmon

— Organisation: The Australia Institute — Wednesday 26th February 2025

Salmon are dying in the pens of commercial farms and their rotting remains have been washing up along Tasmania’s beaches for the past week.

The foreign-owned salmon industry must come clean about the scale of this disaster and ensure Australians that not a single diseased fish is processed for sale.

The industry must ensure diseased fish do not end up on Australian supermarket shelves or dinner plates.

“Hundreds of thousands of salmon are continuing to die,” said Eloise Carr, Director of The Australia Institute Tasmania.

“The regulation of this industry is completely inadequate, so we don’t know much. But it looks like the dead fish are being extracted too slowly from pens that are still full of other fish. You can see the carcasses rotting and falling apart.

“Tasmanians are rightfully starting to ask what is being done to protect the health of consumers in all this?

“The salmon industry claims it gets more scrutiny than on-land agriculture. When there is a breakout of avian flu on land, the entire chicken flock is euthanised. In salmon pens, it appears the dead and live salmon are in the same pen. The dead ones are taken to the tip. What happens to the live ones?

“The Environment Protection Authority has not provided an update about this disease for a week now. Australians deserve better. Is this bacteria transferable or harmful to humans?”

Why Productivity Matters

— Organisation: Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) — Wednesday 26th February 2025

Speech by Michael Plumb, Head of Economic Analysis Department, Australian Business Economists Annual Forecasting Conference.

A transit solution that's just...sitting right there

— Publication: CityNerd — Wednesday 26th February 2025

U.S. Imports from China Have Fallen by Less Than U.S. Data Indicate

— Organisation: Federal Reserve Bank of New York — Publication: Liberty Street Economics — Wednesday 26th February 2025

Hunter L. Clark

Photo: Workers assembly of notebook computer at a factory in Hefei city,Anhui Province,China.

With new tariffs on China back in the headlines, this post seeks to offer some perspective on how much China’s exports have really been affected by multiple rounds of U.S. tariffs and export restrictions over the past seven years. The key takeaway is that U.S. imports from China have decreased by much less than has been reported in official U.S. statistics. As a result, the recent tariff increase on China could have a larger impact on the U.S. economy than is suggested by official U.S. data on the China import share, especially if favorable tariff treatment for direct-to-consumer imports is ended.

Cutting the public service saves nothing

— Organisation: The Australia Institute — Wednesday 26th February 2025

But new research by The Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work has found that sacking public servants actually costs the country money and makes providing services less efficient.

The new briefing paper – Restoring Public Sector Capability Through Investment In Public Service Employees – debunks several of the myths promoted in the political debate around the size of Australia’s public service. One such myth is that Australia’s public service is “bloated” or “inefficient”.

The research found that, despite claims to the contrary, most of the public service jobs created since 2022 were not based in Canberra.

It also found:

Rebekah Kik Is Using the Power of Local Government To Lift Barriers

— Organisation: Strong Towns — Wednesday 26th February 2025

Tackling Meaningful Tax Reform, with Thomas Walker and Emma Dawson

— Organisation: Per Capita — Wednesday 19th February 2025

At Per Capita’s February John Cain Lunch, Think Forward’s Thomas Walker spoke about the “Tax Wealth Not Work” campaign, and Per Capita’s Emma Dawson spoke about the upcoming Community Tax Summit. Watch the recording below.

All our lives, we’ve been told that hard work leads to economic security and a good life. For many younger Australians, particularly those without family wealth, this now feels like a lie.

Younger workers face higher tax rates than millionaires, property investors, or wealthy retirees because our tax system rewards the wrong things – accumulation, speculation and rent-seeking.

Instead of being able to set up their lives, young people are loaded up with increased education and housing debt, or stuck paying unaffordable rents to grow the wealth of others, all while real wages decline.

There is broad agreement among economists, social security experts, business leaders and the community sector that Australia’s tax and transfer system needs structural reform: to lift productivity, realise the benefits of a net zero economy, fund the essential social services and infrastructure upon which we all rely, and reduce inequality within and between generations

Yet we are told repeatedly that the restructure needed is “too politically difficult” to be attempted. We cannot continue this way. Our children and grandchildren deserve better.

Current ScholarshipClimate Alignment For Banks: The Stories That Numbers Tell

— Organisation: Just Money — Tuesday 25th February 2025

Nadav Orian Peer

Housing in Plain Sight: City Helps Homeowners Turn Empty Spaces Into Homes

— Organisation: Strong Towns — Tuesday 25th February 2025

Bottom-Up Shorts: How to Build Momentum as a Local Advocate

— Organisation: Strong Towns — Tuesday 25th February 2025

Reforming the National Security State

— Organisation: The Claremont Institute — Tuesday 25th February 2025

To prevent national security failures and mitigate them when they occur, the U.S. has built a national security state unlike anything humanity has ever seen. The U.S. government has a network of security intelligence and operations agencies that spans the world, working through a web of domestic and foreign governmental, nonprofit, and corporate institutions.

We outsiders think this network runs through the CIA. Yet as we are learning, thanks to Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), that is only partly true. In 2023, while the Intelligence Community, including the CIA, was appropriated $71.7 billion dollars, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), an “independent” but supposedly State Department-guided agency, received about $40 billion. While USAID has the word “International” in its name, it has spent a lot of money not only spreading atheism in Nepal but also on woke dogma and censorship at home.

Leaving Everyone Behind: The Green Transition amid Violent War

— Publication: Progress in Political Economy — Monday 3rd March 2025

The renewable energy transition is one of the most urgent questions facing national governments, international governance, and political economy scholarship and practice today. As extreme weather and climate events have continued to increase exponentially, temperatures rise to new records, and Antarctic glacial loss accelerates, this question is becoming even more urgent, just as global political will wanes. There has been some progress towards the transition to renewable energy in the last decade, but these efforts are still far too slow in general, and even when measured against the conservative pledges of the Climate Conference COP28.

Woodside’s North West Shelf gas export project: a disaster on five fronts

— Organisation: The Australia Institute — Tuesday 25th February 2025

Plummeting royalties: Last year NWS royalties made up just 1.3% of WA’s budget revenue. However, the gas fields subject to royalties are depleting and being replaced by non-royalty paying fields. By 2027-28, WA Treasury expects NWS royalties to drop by almost two-thirds, making up just 0.6% of WA government revenue, around one-sixth the amount paid WA motorists in vehicle registration fees. Research.
Threat to WA domestic gas reserves: Woodside’s offshore gas fields are depleting rapidly, and it has not identified sufficient gas to fill its enormous export capacity, equivalent to more than double WA’s entire domestic gas use. Woodside is proposing it become a third-party tolling export facility for the next 46 years, able to buy gas from the domestic gas market. This is unprecedented in Australia. All previous LNG projects have included gas fields sufficient (at least in theory) to feed their exports. Research.
NWS export of domestic gas has already tripled WA’s wholesale Gas and electricity prices: The WA government’s approval of exports of the state’s onshore domestic gas reserves from Waitsia in 2020 has exposed Western Australians to high global prices, leading to a tripling of wholesale prices in WA’s domestic gas and electricity markets.

MAGA, the German Far Right, and the Transnational Assault on Democracy

— Author: Thomas Zimmer — Tuesday 25th February 2025

Aussie voters want affordable homes over investor tax breaks, polling shows

— Organisation: Everybody's Home — Tuesday 25th February 2025

New polling in key federal electorates reveals voters strongly prefer spending on affordable homes over investor tax breaks like negative gearing, by a ratio of 2.5 to 1.

Commissioned by Everybody’s Home, uComms polled more than 2,500 voters across Bennelong (NSW), Brisbane (Qld), Cowan (WA) and Kooyong (Vic), in February, highlighting a strong disconnect between voter priorities and political solutions to the housing crisis.

The poll shows:

The housing crisis is turning into an inequality crisis

— Organisation: The Australia Institute — Tuesday 25th February 2025

Wealth inequality in Australia has dramatically worsened over the past 20 years, mainly being driven by investment properties (excluding the family home).

The richest 10% have seen their property assets grow by an average of $2.2 million per household over the last two decades.

Wealth is being taxed more generously than income, with $100 billion of tax concessions going to the three biggest assets: other property, superannuation, and the family home.

Key points:

‘Other’ property is the most concentrated with half of their increase over the last 20 years going to the richest 10%. This was worth $900,000 per household.
The poorest half of Australian households got just 7% of the benefit ($24,000 over 20 years).
Superannuation was the second fastest growing of the three major assets, with 37% of the last 20 years growth going to the richest 10%. The bottom half received 15%.
Huge tax concessions worth $100 billion per year are going to the three major assets. These concessions reduce taxes on wealth and add to wealth inequality.
Investment properties benefit from negative gearing and the CGT discount, with 73% of their benefit going to the top 10% of income earners.
Cracking down on these tax concessions would reduce wealth inequality.

Research from The Australia Institute shows closing tax loopholes on wealth will make housing more affordable and reduce wealth inequality.

Conflict: Training and Planning Tools

— Organisation: The Commons Social Change Library — Tuesday 25th February 2025

Introduction

Training resources about conflict for changemakers including workshop exercises, activities and templates to explore in a group setting.

This is a live list. If you have a resource to add please let us know.

Training and Planning Resources

Exercises and Activities

Analysis / Understanding Conflict

Understanding Conflict, NEON, see pg 40
This tool will help you understand what conflict looks like now in your organisation and what you would like it to look like. This tool is adapted from this guide from the Centre for Community Organizations – adapted from Dismantling Racism Works, and can be done individually or in collaboration with other members of your team.
Time: 1-2 hours as a self-reflection exercise or as a group.

America Needs a New Housing Bargain. Here’s Why.

— Organisation: Strong Towns — Monday 24th February 2025

Republicans, Immigration, Brent Taylor and the Devil

— Author: Betsy Phillips — Monday 24th February 2025

The Republican state senator said 'heaven has an immigration policy.' So I called up hell to ask a few questions.

Thrown under the bus: Ukraine abandoned by the Trump administration

— Organisation: The Australia Institute — Monday 24th February 2025

On this episode of After America, Dr Gorana Grgić joins Dr Emma Shortis to discuss Trump’s plans for Ukraine, the MAGA movement’s support for Europe’s resurgent far-right parties, and the new Cabinet’s approach to ‘prioritising’ China.

This discussion was recorded on Thursday 20 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: Gorana Grgić, Senior Researcher, Center for Security Studies, ETH Zürich // goranagrgic.com

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

Show notes:

Bridges across regions: the effects of Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific cooperation on European security architectures by Gorana Grgić, International Politics (January 2025)

Blizzard of lawsuits

— Author: Heidi Li Feldman — Monday 24th February 2025

Even for lawyers, keeping up with all the litigation filed against the Trump Executive Branch is hard. For nonlawyers, I imagine it is harder, especially because many of the suits make similar claims, seeking similar relief: injunctions – specific commands - to halt the conduct complained about. With the caveat that even ultimately successful suits may not produce compliance, I'm going to explain why individuals, unions, consumer advocacy associations, and the states are filing so many similar suits. The short answer is that those opposing Trump's turnover of the executive branch to Musk and the resultant mass firings, threats to data privacy and security, funding halts, and so forth are trying to bring the legal questions at stake to a head and soon.

What political economy approach for the 21st century?

— Publication: Progress in Political Economy — Monday 24th February 2025

In my latest open access article Confronting Multiple Global Crises: a political economy approach for the 21^stcentury, published in the journal Globalizations, I discuss the essential features of a political economy approach, which facilitates the conceptualisation of the internal relations between the current, multiple global crises including a crisis of global capitalism, a crisis of global labour relations, a crisis of global gender relations, a crisis of global race relations and a crisis of global ecology.

Massachusetts Just Made Housing Easier. Is Your City Next?

— Organisation: Strong Towns — Monday 24th February 2025

Just Answering Questions

— Author: Sarah Kendzior — Monday 24th February 2025

NOTE: As of 8:00 CST, I have over 100 responses, so I have to shut the questions down! Thank you for your thoughtful submissions. It is great to see so many folks engaged. I will read them all and answer as many as I can later this week. Stay tuned!

NOTE 2/26: The answers are up!

***

Hello readers! It is time for our monthly Q & A. This will be the last written Q & A I do for a while, because I’m getting ready for the release of my new book, The Last American Road Trip, on April 1.

The book is available for preorder at any major or independent bookstore in print, eBook, and audiobook. Autographed copies are available here! You can read rave reviews at Kirkus and Publishers Weekly.

Announcement“Financing Philadelphia’s Future” – Tom Sgouros on the role of pension funds in providing affordable housing

— Organisation: Just Money — Monday 24th February 2025

February 25, 4:30 to 5:00 pm Live Streamed through Zoom

More “Announcement
“Financing Philadelphia’s Future” – Tom Sgouros on the role of pension funds in providing affordable housing”

Anti-Harassment Training for the Swamp

— Organisation: The Claremont Institute — Monday 24th February 2025

The Right has a rare opportunity to turn the tables on the administrative state—and also prepare the way for the great re-learning that America needs.

If you’re an American who works for a living, chances are good that between state and federal laws, insurance carrier requirements, and woke corporate Human Resources (HR) departments, you’ve had to endure “anti-harassment” trainings. These are delivered either in live group settings or via online modules that combine videos with quizzes, with only certain responses deemed acceptable. Some of the content has amounted to forced indoctrination in leftism to a captive audience—which was, of course, the point.

I work for the Claremont Institute, which leaders on the Right have called “America’s most consequential think tank”—and which even frequent critics such as the New York Times have had to admit is “a nerve center of the American Right.” Yet even on this island of sanity, we have had to devote multiple hundreds of staff hours to watching training videos that explain what is and is not acceptable to say and do in California’s woke legal environment.

It would be much more appropriate to stop the ideological chicanery and instead require employees in federal agencies to be trained on how to not harass American citizens.

Traffic Deaths Are Down, But Not for the Reasons We’re Being Told

— Organisation: Strong Towns — Monday 24th February 2025

Fake fight over nuclear a distraction from real climate issues

— Organisation: The Australia Institute — Monday 24th February 2025

The Climate Change Authority report concludes that additional emissions under the coalition plan would see Australia miss its 2030 emissions target and delay the overall transition to clean energy.

“The Climate Change Authority’s slap-down of the Coalition’s nuclear proposal is welcome, but it is yet another distraction from the big climate issues,” said Rod Campbell, Research Director at The Australia Institute.

“We’re talking about nuclear yet again, not about Australia’s uninsurable regions, massive fossil fuel subsidies and dodgy offset schemes.

“It suits both major parties to have a fake fight about nuclear and avoid these real problems in Australia’s climate policy, on which Labor and Liberals largely agree.

“It would be more useful if the CCA focused on Australia’s subsidised fossil fuel expansion and rising domestic emissions.

“Nuclear is a distraction that avoids scrutiny of Australia’s real climate problems.

The post Fake fight over nuclear a distraction from real climate issues appeared first on The Australia Institute.