Layers

In case you missed it, The Onion has purchased far-right conspiracy website InfoWars previously owned by Alex Jones who is having to liquidate assets after a court ordered him to pay $1.4 billion to the families of victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting. In these dark days, it's exactly the sort of news I needed. On the Media have an interview with The Onion's CEO.

I have previous written to the Special Minister for State, Don Farrell about the lack of progress on donation laws. Well, it seems he's finally done something, and guess what, it will massively favour the two major parties in Australia. The move includes "raising public funding to $5 a vote, a $20,000 cap on individual donations and an $800,000 cap on spending per electorate."

Independents only run for one seat and generally need significantly more money to be successful because they don't benefit from the brand recognition that the major parties can build up by campaigning in multiple electorates. It is generally a move in the right direction though and fucks Clive Palmer in the process so it's not all bad.

I recently came across this list of 'European Alternatives', to popular (largely US-owned) PaaS and SaaS which I liked simply because my Digial Veganism makes me want to use alternatives to these. If only it didn't limit itself to the EU!

In a callback to this:

This is quite funny:

Finally, a group of writers have gifted every federal Senator and Member of the House with 5 books on the topic of Palestine and Israel. I love this initiative simply because I'm deeply frustrated at the lack of nuance surrounding much of the discussion. Educating politicians on the topic is a step in the right direction. It also has the backing of the Jewish Council of Australia and the Australian Palestine Advocacy Network - two excellent organisations.

To be clear though, there's no nuance around genocide. The mass slaughter of innocent civilians is an ongoing war crime and needs to stop immediately.

The recommended books are:

• Balcony over Jerusalem by John Lyons
• A Very Short History of the Israel-Palestine Conflict by Ilan Pappé
• The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi
• Palestine A-Z by Kate Thompson; and
• The Sunbird by Sara Haddad