Jez

I've decided to start tweeting. Going to try to post something every day following the mantra of 'strong opinions, weakly held'. A mix of sport, pop culture, ClimateTech and Web3 or whatever interests me on the day

@MarkDiStef @gearside “The government should have funded the abc more to enable more punting on unproven kids IP” is such an absurdly revionist take

Well done to @gearside for putting the ABC’s Bluey blunder back on the agenda last week. The ABC now says it’s cost them at least $300m in lost revenue. I reckon it’s a lot more.

Up 20% since this tweet. @OldTakesExposed

@HuwTindall @rugby_podcast It’s not valetini and it’s not mcreight. And he’s got a lot of work to do to get ahead of hooper so…

@rugby_podcast Who is he kicking out of the backrow?

I think Charlie Cale will be a very big name by the end of RWC 2027.

@Luck_7773 It’s Clarke

Only hardcore fans can recognise this batsman.

All these things can be true at the same time. The Bondi shooting was perpetrated by two Islamist terrorists. The Bondi shooting targeted Jewish people at a Hanukkah celebration. The actual shooting was over in 6 minutes, with police shooting back within 4 minutes at the latest. All video evidence so far indicates that all NSW Police officers acted bravely given the circumstances. Antisemitism has been on the rise in Australia since Islamist Hamas terrorists and other Islamist terrorists, including "civilians", launched the October 7 attacks, murdering, kidnapping, and wounding almost 5,000 people, primarily Jewish people. It is very important to remember that history did not begin on 7 October 2023. It was perfectly legitimate for Israel to respond to the October 7 attack. Hamas should be eliminated and should not be part of Gaza's future. The scale and extent of that response is open to criticism. Mistakes were made. Criticising Israel and its actions is not antisemitism. Criticising Zionism is not antisemitism. Zionism is a political movement, not a religion. Criticising Benjamin Netanyahu is most definitely not antisemitism. He is most likely corrupt, and the way he has run Israel for a large part of the last 30 years has been to the detriment of all Jewish people, all Israelis, and everyone else on the planet. Australia's gun laws are good and have been a tremendous success but should be strengthened where there are weaknesses. On the whole, immigration to Australia is not the problem. Australia can handle an annual net immigration rate of 0.9%. Australia is a successful multicultural society, but we can do better, and new immigrants must make every effort to integrate into Australian society. The Muslim community must make every effort to rid itself of extremists. Islamic terrorism is a cancer that must be weeded out. The Australian Government should do more to combat antisemitism. The simple fact is that the Albanese Government has looked at the numbers and decided they didn't want to push harder against antisemitism, particularly in the Muslim community. However, it's highly unlikely that even if all the proposals in the flawed Segal Report were implemented, the tragedy that happened in Bondi would have been prevented. The Segal Report is flawed but does make some good suggestions, because it is based on a problematic definition of antisemitism. May the memory of all those murdered be a blessing and may all those injured make a swift recovery. Anyway, that is all for now.

@puppyeh1 We don’t know that though. There’s every chance this was sponsored by some foreign entity (like the firebombings of the daycare centres by Iran). Either way. We shouldn’t be arguing about this. There’s blood on the grass like 5km from our houses. It’s fucking horrible.

@Jeremy_Atkin Minns called it a terrorist attack targeting the Jewish community at the exact same time. Why exactly are we arguing about this? Albanese is weak as piss and has directly contributed to the environment that has enabled these murders.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. A joke of a PM and a joke of a man.

@puppyeh1 “No mercy” is an insane thing to type in this situation. Leaving that aside, and I get this is deeply traumatic but surely you understand he can’t just go off half-cocked. He has to follow whatever advice he’s receiving.

@Jeremy_Atkin Given his track record on this issue - no mercy. Chanukkah party at Bondi was the only, and obvious, target.

Evergreen tweet

@IFM_Economist How much does fiscal policy impact this (if at all)? Aus has been running a basically balanced budget for the last 4-5 years whereas the US has been running huge deficits?

Interestingly Australia matched the US in real per capita growth from 1985 to 2000 when the dot com bust and GFC 2009 held the US back and mining investment boom pushed Australia forward. Until we faltered in the post-pandemic period. Indeed it is evident that since 2010 Australia has become overly-reliant on population growth for economic expansion. The end of the first mining boom put Australia on a path we have not been able to change. And monetary policy alone certainly won't be able to alter it.

@clairlemon You make some good points but ignore the reality that the costs of decarbonisation are going to be paid eventually. Delaying action just makes it our kids’ problem. And calling nuclear, reforestation and carbon capture “practical solutions” is magical thinking…

Aiming for “net zero” locally while shipping iron ore to China is like trying to sweep smoke to one side of a room. If we want to get real on the climate we need more focus on carbon capture, reforestation, nuclear & less focus on unrealistic slogans.

@john_macgowan @MarkDiStef @mattjcan Does anyone actually think this? (Serious question)

@MarkDiStef @mattjcan What about the forbidden Fourth Position: It's happening and we should make it happen faster?

Well, do you?

@markpinc @theallinpod This is such a bullshit confirmation bias take. He literally says the words “that’s not the only reason” that people switched to Trump. He literally says the border was poorly handled.

It’s amazing to hear pete frame it that the only reason a Dem would have switched to Trump was their own short term financial interests. There’s no ownership for the failings of the Dems. Is he forgetting that Biden and Kamala failed on protecting our border? That they proposed crazy ideas like price caps on groceries to combat inflation? That they both proposed taxes on unrealized gains which would have severely hurt the startup ecosystem just to gain $50b (a rounding error)? And my biggest issue was Biden/Harris failure to stand with Israel and show leadership in getting to peace as Trump has clearly done.

Pete Buttigieg joins Jason and Chamath for an All-In Interview! 🚨 -- The costly role of identity politics -- Solving wealth disparity in America (Federal wealth tax?) -- Biden-era mistakes and lessons -- AI: job loss, self-driving -- Plans for 2028 (0:00) Chamath and Jason welcome Pete Buttigieg (1:31) Why the Democrats lost tech (6:40) Taxes: Federal wealth tax, wealth disparity, billionaires, the role of government in the free market (23:17) Government efficiency: Democratic DOGE, breaking ranks on debt, his plan to control spending (33:01) Culture Wars: The costly role of democratic identity politics, navigating a primary with moderate views, the two Democratic Parties (40:07) Immigration: Trump shutting the border, Biden’s failure (47:38) Working in the Biden Admin: good and bad, gatekeepers, cognitive decline, anointing Kamala Harris vs running a short primary (52:17) Thoughts on moving NASA under the Dept of Transportation (54:07) AI: self-driving, automation, and job loss (1:01:19) Running in 2028, Mamdani in NYC

Jimmy Kimmel did not say Charlie Kirk’s murderer was MAGA. What he said was that many MAGA commentators and Trump specifically were more interested in pointing fingers than in genuinely mourning. Insensitive? Sure. A hateful viscous lie? No

@puppyeh1 To be clear I'm not sure it's possible to make definitive statements either way. Other than "Extremism and violence are bad and moderates need to unite to condemn extremism which ever direction it's coming from"

@Jeremy_Atkin Good point - had not considered impact of recent election and change in party in power…maybe it is much more even handed than I thought

Extending this thought: the only way to counter extremist heinous beliefs is to enact consequences for sharing them publicly. This is what society used to do before moral relativism infected our culture. If people say heinous unacceptable shit, they should have to deal with the consequences.

@puppyeh1 This is only half the story. Having looked at the data - it's pretty clearly skewed by recency bias. Looking at the data over a period of time makes this clear. For example - here is a chart from March last year.

Sorry missed this. It’s not a both sides problem tho. Check the latest yougov poll. Acceptability of political violent on the left is double that on the right. Same for celebrating the death of a political figure you dislike. The left is much worse than the right, in the data. We can discuss why, if you like. But saying “both sides are equally bad” is part of the problem. It’s not true.

@puppyeh1 Huge swathes of the right do the same. It’s all bad.

There’s celebrating the murder and then creating the permission structure that allows violence like this to happen. Huge swathes of the left - MSNBC, Ilhan Omar, Mehdi Hasan, Hasan Piker, etc etc - are guilty of the latter. (“He had it coming, he was spreading hate”). I’m not saying you “cancel” these people but let’s stop pretending they’re worth listening to

@puppyeh1 I dunno. Who is the most prominent person that has celebrated or condoned Kirk’s murder? I feel like it’s just the algorithms and the rage machine promoting fringe lunatics. There has always been extremists. Social media just means we all see them now.

I really don’t think it’s that slippery. At least, vast majority of the time it’s not that slippery and for the stuff it is - eg Gaza - there’s clearly going to be back and forth such that you can’t actually get “cancelled” for being on the wrong side. Problem here is stuff that most all sane individuals would never condone is just being taken in stride, with zero social consequences for those fanning the flames. People just put there head down and hope it goes past them. And here we are.

@puppyeh1 Agree to disagree. IMO once you start endorsing any sort of “cancelling” on the basis of speech then you’re on a very slippery slope. For example, many people would say what is going on in Gaza is “obviously reprehensible”. And a lot of others disagree.

@Jeremy_Atkin No. There’s an absolute moral line about some things (that are obviously reprehensible). Then there’s grey area on a bunch of other stuff where you use common sense to sort it out - like we used to do with no problem up until say a generation ago. Really not that hard

@BMcSport @BlackKW70 Yep. I think we can at least agree this one was close. The last pass for the try though. 🙈

@Jeremy_Atkin @BlackKW70 Sure. And confirmation the eyes will see what they want to see..

Goodness, gracious. Think the game dodged a massive issue with ARG winning that. Absolute garbage that last AUS try was allowed to stand. Clearly forward. Metres forward. Ridiculous. #AUSvARG #TheRugbyChampionship