Posts by ckent@urbanists.social
(DIR) Post #ATkVvNj5RMfMoUm6S0 by ckent@urbanists.social
2023-03-18T09:39:01Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@wall0159 @johnquiggin The point I should lead with there is that the cheque won’t be written for some time anyway. Exiting AUKUS in the 2020s won’t be as hard as it looks.If you marry someone who’s been twice divorced, well you know what they say.
(DIR) Post #ATkVvQlg8BWQFP0iPI by ckent@urbanists.social
2023-03-18T09:43:42Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@wall0159 @johnquiggin On a century-long scale, I think I’m slightly more comfortable with AUKUS, and here’s why:Australia is either going to be the mercantilist nation Keating imagines, or it’s not. This is the old Hawke vs Keating vision, and they were always both correct like a Schrödinger’s Cat.But if Australia can’t or won’t stand up and grab its own destiny, then AUKUS is fine. Not “good”, just fine as a consolation prize.
(DIR) Post #ATkVvTFWuAaXwYzaDI by ckent@urbanists.social
2023-03-18T09:59:41Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@wall0159 @johnquiggin I have an analogy: Because it’s the lazy expensive option, where you outsource the risk and end up with someone else’s mistakes …It’s like choosing AGL for your power or Telstra for your internet. Harvey Norman for your appliances. Big not mid-sized.It’s all fine most of the time, even most of the problems “meet expectations”. But there are more satisfying options. Serious money to be saved. In extreme crisis, you risk finding no sympathy assuming Big = Safe
(DIR) Post #AVGqRmts2rDSTu5OE4 by ckent@urbanists.social
2023-05-03T07:20:53Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@lowqualityfacts I'm just old enough — growing up in the early 1980s, in a country less wealthy than the USA — to have a childhood where painted eggs had to compete with chocolate eggs. The nice ones were too expensive to have all the time. Ugh.
(DIR) Post #AVSpUsTA1jowZ71NCq by ckent@urbanists.social
2023-05-09T02:06:47Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@lowqualityfacts I wish to report a high quality fact
(DIR) Post #AVbGCZrVCrMyEhsEV6 by ckent@urbanists.social
2023-05-13T03:43:41Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@grammargirl I was nearly taken aback by this the other day. In complete good faith. I had to pause for a second and realise this, so I didn’t decline out of politeness and not logic (or fear, as it would possibly be in another scenario).
(DIR) Post #AYH3nBb3W67PUWDy64 by ckent@urbanists.social
2023-08-01T03:26:44Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@tomjennings @timrichards @benjancewicz @stufromoz yeah I thought this was common knowledge 🤷♂️ and I was very late to the joke / meme
(DIR) Post #Aqi93HaNKJ5UcfNxnU by ckent@urbanists.social
2025-02-02T14:40:39Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird And an associated reminder that the number of countries of birth of parents is INFINITEJust as an example, both my parents were born in countries that don’t exist anymore if you go by their common names; but if you want formal state names, in one case you’d have to look up things like the Weimar Republic. And that’s an easy one to add to the drop-down list. I haven’t even gone into generations who have died yet, because it grows exponentially after that.Endless validation …
(DIR) Post #AtZ9OjLf5XPvZBiXaK by ckent@urbanists.social
2025-04-28T05:56:01Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
Had a bad experience at pre-poll #auspolTurned up with the wrong How-To-Vote card. Turns out it was from 2022 😬 good news is you can pull out your phone (no cameras!)Bad news is they had no 2025 HTV, and some of the 2022 choices were goneSo my tips are:Upper House1. Grab the major party HTVs and see if your favourite party is in their Top 62. Reverse or rearrange those 6 as you likeLower House1. Nobody likes filling in the bottom half, just do it, it won't matter
(DIR) Post #AtZ9OlxfND0PfdVv6G by ckent@urbanists.social
2025-04-28T22:32:04Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@StryderNotavi So the good news / bad news is that this is all about making your Senate vote work — as in: • making it not expire • not giving votes to friendly-sounding parties you would actually hate • not missing out on parties you like but never heard ofThose dangers aren't really there when voting for your local (federal) member — filling in all the boxes means you express your preference between at least two famous optionsFor tiny local unknown candidates, not a big problem#auspol
(DIR) Post #AtZ9Or12a5fxLY8BYO by ckent@urbanists.social
2025-04-28T06:08:19Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
But if it helps —using other HTVs as a partial guide?• That major party knows the mysterious & deceptively-named choices better than you or another small party• You can think of your final preference number as a "protest" against them• You can't go too wrong with anyone that has your House of Reps choice #2But for the Senate #auspol, you will want TWO serious contenders in your minimum 6 (you can put more!) because in the fight over the last seat, one of those 2 might be fighting a 3rd.
(DIR) Post #AtZ9OzCg8hjqjxdanw by ckent@urbanists.social
2025-04-28T06:16:08Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
Total sidenote, just for #auspol nerds, here's the #spreadsheet fun I've had …I nerdswiped myself because of my old faithful tactic being unavailable — I'll reveal it even if not valuable to most people — I used to take the Family First HTV and say thank you, because they were very useful — and then turn their HTV upside down. A handy alignment of 180° interests, in the 2010s for me. But they don't run everywhere anymore.But once you go past the 2PP candidates, it doesn't matter of course
(DIR) Post #AtZ9P6zVBZx4tPXBNQ by ckent@urbanists.social
2025-04-28T06:24:23Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
This does NOT help with the Senate ballot and it DOES matter what you put in there, though:You could easily put in your favourite 6 parties and none might count. Your ballot might expire before any 1-on-1 battle occurs over a seat.You're not limited to 6, so it matters —If you're voting for minor parties, you really need to worry about what happens when the big parties fight over the last seat. You still need to help PREVENT your least-favourite party winning that.So … how did they do?
(DIR) Post #AtZ9PF43AYLLvpivZo by ckent@urbanists.social
2025-04-28T06:32:33Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
Well …Palmer and the pot smokers both failed at this — these ballots can easily expire in a fight between Labor vs L/NPSocialist Alliance … didn't make the same mistake 👍 they went to 7, interestingly#auspol
(DIR) Post #AtZ9PMfssHlZXCTk1I by ckent@urbanists.social
2025-04-28T06:38:01Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
I don't like this — these parties published a HTV with "it's fine, decide for yourself" vibes — because you can end up wasting your vote as I explained.If you DIY select all minor parties, up to and including The Greens, you might not have a say in a fight between two parties where you probably hate one more.- Socialist Equality- Sustainable Australia- Jacqui Lambie NetworkPauline Hanson's One Nation only listed the group letters, not their full names.#auspol
(DIR) Post #AtZ9PUhx0UAmRvVVLs by ckent@urbanists.social
2025-04-28T06:41:57Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
Sustainable and Jacqui Lambie both got named in others' HTV cards, so they're either ungrateful or (probably) need to stay neutral. Jacqui got some quite opposing support, in fact.Socialist Equality, IIRC + AFAIK, are the slightly nerdier one versus Socialist Alliance, so it was a bit disappointing that they did this.Or maybe not: Nerds clearly love choosing for themselves How To Vote amirite #auspol ?Speaking of the nerds:
(DIR) Post #AtZ9PdBfTshIkPTLma by ckent@urbanists.social
2025-04-28T07:03:03Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@FusionPartyAus must be the only party who honestly tell you why you wouldn't vote for them — and who you should vote for insteadProps for thatIf you can get any other party to talk to you like that, they're not all badIt's even better than their claim to fame, which is every authorised poster gets to say "Authorised by K. Hunt", wowBut for the reasons above, publishing no Senate HTV is a poor choice.#auspol
(DIR) Post #B1fFxOwAtxdKylhvxw by ckent@urbanists.social
2025-12-27T04:19:16Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@vpz @mastodonmigration @GottaLaff Can you restate your concerns in terms of specific hosts (servers) please? A safe space and community on Mastodon relies on different servers having different user ban policies, and even more than that, different banned server policies that they network to.
(DIR) Post #B1fFxXNlVGSNAeg556 by ckent@urbanists.social
2025-12-27T04:20:37Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@vpz @mastodonmigration @GottaLaff For example, the rule of thumb I used in 2022 was to see if the Blocked Servers list banned racists and anti-trans hosts
(DIR) Post #B1vn3puZvkuHONzoMS by ckent@urbanists.social
2026-01-04T05:13:02Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@wjmaggos @vpz @mastodonmigration @GottaLaff this isn’t the sort downside that is unsustainable — “as safe as browsing the web” is an improvement I would’ve expected a pushback along the lines of popularity, adoption and addiction. For that there’s already progress in the general drop in social media use, and an opportunity around people asking for a detox.