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Reposted by Nigel Bell 🍉

David @daverino.bsky.social · 3h

"the 3 underlying trends — the consolidation of media into a handful of outlets, the increasing control of the media by the ultra-rich, & the growing primacy of shareholder interests — have made it far easier for Trump & his lackeys to do their dirty work"
robertreich.substack.com/p/why-has-th...

Why has the media become so vulnerable to Trump, and what can we do about it?

Even after Disney's reversal on Jimmy Kimmel, the vulnerability remains — unless we change the rules.

robertreich.substack.com

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Nigel Bell 🍉 @nigel63.bsky.social · 1h

Given the current presidency, it's easy to blame Trump for this turgid parochial stupidity from NPR... but,

the President who did his best to castrate both the NPR & PBS was William Jefferson 'Bill' Clinton who I believe was a Democrat.

America's duopoly has been a toxic farce for A LONG time.

Gregg Levine @greggjlevine.bsky.social · 2h

And yet just five hours after this story was published, NPR ran a puff piece about a uranium reprocessing scheme Thiel is backing. smdh

Gregg Levine @greggjlevine.bsky.social · 9h

That @npr.org runs a piece describing Third Way as a “left of center” “think tank” is enough to tar the entire editorial enterprise, but to then have that 3rd Way flak regurgitate pro-uranium enrichment claptrap from the nuclear industry right after the story fluffs some Thiel-funded contractor is 🤮

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Nigel Bell 🍉 @nigel63.bsky.social · 1h

Given the current presidency, it's easy to blame Trump for this turgid parochial stupidity from NPR... but,

the President who did his best to castrate both the NPR & PBS was William Jefferson 'Bill' Clinton who I believe was a Democrat.

America's duopoly has been a toxic farce for A LONG time.

Nigel Bell 🍉 @nigel63.bsky.social · 2h

The gods couldn't bring up that timeline, yes? no? 🤔

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Reposted by Nigel Bell 🍉

paulpro @mariopro.bsky.social · 4h

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Reposted by Nigel Bell 🍉

Maranoa Girl @maranoagirl.bsky.social · 2h

In The Time of Madness.
Interview with Richard Lloyd Parry & the election of Japan's first female prime minister. www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard...

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Nigel Bell 🍉 @nigel63.bsky.social · 2h

Sadly, this particular clusterfudge goes back to the 1700s, and the generational winners keep reinforcing the status quo that keeps them and their descendents, and only them and their descendents, winning.

Karmadog's Krappy Kartoons and Bawdy Doodles @the-white-rose.bsky.social · 3h

Ultimately, I think it comes down to this. This is the lesson we must learn.

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Reposted by Nigel Bell 🍉

Ben @cinemashoebox.bsky.social · 20h

Israel highlighting how many 100s of aid trucks they will now allow into Gaza is a tacit admission that they were using aid as a weapon of war, by the way. seems weird not to talk about this

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Reposted by Nigel Bell 🍉

Greg Jericho @grogsgamut.bsky.social · 2d

The latest Dollars & Sense pod is up, talking housing and corporate tax.
australiainstitute.org.au/post/housing...

Housing affordability to get worse as big corporates do annual tax magic

Renting a place to live is getting more expensive and house price rises are tipped to accelerate.

australiainstitute.org.au

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Nigel Bell 🍉 @nigel63.bsky.social · 2h

(OhGodWhatTheF*ckNow?)

Wake me up when we get to the 'breathing causes autism' phase, yeah?

😑

Brent Terhune @brentterhune.bsky.social · 9h

Circumcision Causes Autism?

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Nigel Bell 🍉 @nigel63.bsky.social · 2h

A wander through 'my' library this afternoon.

Brisbane is already *Brisbane* (ie. bloody hot) in mid-Spring, so Summer's going to be awful, I suspect.

That said, it's all lovely, lovely aircon. in the here 'n now.

So, this is a very brief photo essay: The Library, Staying in Looking Out.

😊

The early childhood area where activities can take place.

A little beyond those windows (facing East) is the main road, and while vibration is unavoidable, the soundproofing is pretty good.

The early childhood area where some Islander fellow with drums *Rocks Out*, bro. He is beloved by his young fans!

Facing North, this window looks to a small tree'd park.

The Study Area in the Northwest corner has 2 (it had 3 - grumble'grumble) 'upsie-downsie' tables - my back lurrrvs these tables.

At this point, the library backs on to the Scrubby Creek wetlands. Apart from simply being an idyll of a backdrop (esp. with the aircon. on), every so often some bird- or bat- life will show itself - that, or a gentle helical dance of butterflies.

Looking out the western window, to the Southwest, to the walk/run/ride path down beside the Scrubby Creek wetlands.

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Reposted by Nigel Bell 🍉

PK 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🇵🇸 @paul.kidd.id.au · 6h

Gosh gee whiz who would’ve guessed www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

NSW police wrongly categorise ‘significant’ number of incidents as antisemitic

Anti-Palestinian graffiti and verbal abuse of pro-Palestine protestors incorrectly recorded as antisemitism in figures government cited to defend restrictions on protests

www.theguardian.com

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Nigel Bell 🍉 @nigel63.bsky.social · 5h

And also with you.

(blimey, that was a reflexive throwback to my upbringing!) 😄

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Reposted by Nigel Bell 🍉

rusty54.bsky.social @rusty54.bsky.social · 5h

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Reposted by Nigel Bell 🍉

Dr Ingrid M @ingridm.bsky.social · 8h

apparently billionaire-built digital slop machine output is being posted to billionaire-built digital platforms in an effort to create and spread misinformation as widely and harmfully as possible ikr.

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...

AI-generated misinformation about 4yo Gus prompts tech and legal concerns

The thought of a missing boy lost in the outback is indescribably harrowing — but what's almost as disturbing is the realisation that some on social media have seized on the disappearance of four-year...

www.abc.net.au

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Nigel Bell 🍉 @nigel63.bsky.social · 5h

🎶
Now that ain't workin', that's the way you do it
Lemme tell ya, these bears ain't dumb
Maybe choose a pickly pear an' get a prickle
Maybe choose a pawpaw that's yum

Sung to the tune of Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing"
[Apol.s to Knopfler, Sumner, & a nod to Gilkyson]

youtu.be/WvDhOS-d-WQ

I literally laughed out loud when I played this video. Oh Amy. Such a cute bear.

YouTube video by Orphaned Wildlife Center

youtu.be

Nigel Bell 🍉 @nigel63.bsky.social · 7h

Okay, (grumble'grumble), you've won this round!

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Nigel Bell 🍉 @nigel63.bsky.social · 8h

Indeed, given he's missed this year's Nobel Peace Prize
... (which went to a woman!) 😦

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Nigel Bell 🍉 @nigel63.bsky.social · 8h

Kev', daughter's significant other, a little way off from a small specimen... only 20+ feet/6+ metres.
😄

A snorkeling swimmer (Kev) a little way off from a small Whale Shark specimen. The shark is approx. 20+ feet/6+ metres long.

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Nigel Bell 🍉 @nigel63.bsky.social · 9h

Why no, as a person with both a humanist worldview & a political memory, I'm not a fan.

Why do you ask? 🤔

A screenshot of a post by Zachary Foster commenting on an embedded screenshot of Foster responding to Barack Obama's post regarding iZrael & the Palestinians 'equal' responsibility to "achieve a lasting peace".

Foster's final comment:
This @BarackObama tweet will be taught in genocide studies courses as a case study of what dehumanization looks like.

In the embedded email:
Barack Obama wrote:
After two years of unimaginable loss and suffering for Israeli families and the people of Gaza, we should all be encouraged and relieved that an end to the conflict is within sight; that those hostages still being held will be reunited with their families; and that vital aid can start reaching those inside Gaza whose lives have been shattered. More than that, though, it now falls on Israelis and Palestinians, with the support of the U.S. and the entire world community, to begin the hard task of rebuilding Gaza – and to commit to a process that, by recognizing the common humanity and basic rights of both peoples, can achieve a lasting peace.

Foster responded:
1. Israelis have families, but Palestinians apparently don't.
2. Israelis are named as Israelis, but Palestinians are just "people".
3. It's apparently a conflict, not an occupation, siege or genocide.
4. Israeli soldiers enforcing a murderous siege on Gaza are apparently hostages, not prisoners of war.
5. Bothsiding the perpetrators and victims of a genocide.
You are toxic, Mr Obama, one of the greatest disappointment of our generation.

Graphic:
Text above a cut-off head of Barack Obama sitting off the bottom of the image.

Text:
Obama in a practical sense - a policy sense - was merely a black Ronald Reagan. And as inconsistent and 'war-ry' as his predecessor (GB Jr) was, it was Obama who launched drones as a weapon of terror abroad and, at home, went hard on whistleblowers, regardless of merit.

How good was he at home?
1. ask the progressive African American organisations that were told to shut up & not make waves,
2. he enabled the Tea-partyists (pre-Trumpists) to speak & spread their utter BS unchallenged, &
3. in the wake of the GFC, actively did nothing to hold the Fed to account nor to reform it.

A good speaker, this apparently makes up for a lack of decency & scruples.

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Nigel Bell 🍉 @nigel63.bsky.social · 10h

Right at this moment, there is A LOT of apologising to Qatar by Trump, a man who famously never apologises, because the US (& the UK) enabled iZrael to recently bomb the Qatari airforce base in an attempt to kill an Hamas negotiations team - there at Trump's behest.

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Reposted by Nigel Bell 🍉

enrich12 @enrich12.bsky.social · 21h

🤷 It is what it is. Call them out.

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Reposted by Nigel Bell 🍉

Working Class History @workingclasshistory.com · 19h

#OtD 10 Oct 1922 Puerto Rican strike leader and women's rights advocate Luisa Capetillo died of TB aged 43. She had taken part in many strikes, including the highly successful sugarcane strike of 1916 which won 13% pay increases stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8244...

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Reposted by Nigel Bell 🍉

Joanne Harris @joannechocolat.bsky.social · 2d

And making theft illegal would “kill” the thieving industry. Good. Make theft illegal again.

The Verge @theverge.com · May 26

Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry

Paul McCartne, Elton John and others signed an open letter.

buff.ly

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Reposted by Nigel Bell 🍉

Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 20h

Roger Pielke Jr spent years moaning about being "cancelled", and now he's just spending his days at a fossil-funded think tank directly attacking climate scientists, and he has a fascist dictatorship to help him out now too

So seriously gross

www.eenews.net/articles/cli...

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Climatewire
Climate critics try to discredit IPCC author for linking disasters to global warming
By Lesley Clark, Sara Schonhardt, Chelsea Harvey | 10/09/2025 06:22 AM EDT

Roger Pielke Jr. and oil industry supporters are attacking climate scientist Friederike Otto, whose work has been used in lawsuits against polluters.

Friederike Otto.
Fossil fuel industry allies have launched a campaign against the inclusion of scientist Friederike Otto in the next United Nations climate review. They say her work to attribute extreme weather to human-caused global warming is bolstering climate lawsuits against oil companies. The First/Facebook | The First/Facebook

Critics of mainstream climate science and allies of the fossil fuel industry are taking aim at a prominent expert who’s helping coordinate the next United Nations review of global climate research, arguing that her work aims to bolster multibillion-dollar lawsuits against oil and gas companies.

In an August New York Post op-ed, Roger Pielke Jr., a political scientist at the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute, raised concerns about the appointment of Friederike Otto as a coordinating lead author for the seventh assessment report of the influential Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The criticism is aimed at extreme weather attribution, a popular field of research that studies whether and to what degree human-caused global warming has made an extreme weather event, such as a heat wave or heavy rain, more severe or likely to occur. Otto co-founded World Weather Attribution, which develops analyses showing climate’s role in extreme weather events.

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Attribution science has been cited in congressional hearings and included in legislation to highlight the links between extreme weather event…

UN Abandons Science and Hires Climate Change Zealots Who Damn the Facts
By Roger Pielke Jr.

New York Post

August 22, 2025

Life would be impossible without experts — doctors help us when we get sick, mechanics fix our cars when they break down, farmers produce our food, to name just a few.

But we live in a time when too many of these roles have become politicized.

President Trump recently fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics after the agency released a jobs report he did not like. Similarly, soon after his election, President Joe Biden fired the climate scientist leading the US National Climate Assessment and replaced her with a communications professional.

Not surprisingly, public confidence in medical and scientific institutions has dropped overall and become more partisan as politicians increasingly select experts to advise them based on their politics rather than their willingness to call things as they see them.

The ongoing politicization of scientific institutions is not limited to politicians or to the United States.

Now we’re seeing it in the organization tasked with periodically assessing climate science under the United Nations, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which distills the thousands and thousands of research papers on climate change to help inform decision-makers on the nature of the problem and possibilities for response.

The IPCC is so important for clarifying what we know and don’t know about climate that I have testified before Congress that if it didn’t exist, we would have to invent it.

Last week, the IPCC announced its list of authors for its seventh assessment report, which is just getting underway and will take several years to produce.

One of its most important chapters is on extreme weather events — how they may have changed over time, and understanding the reasons for any identified changes.

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