(1-6)
Some serious Political theatre went down today.

How many people worked out what was portrayed right in-front of them?

Watch how this plays out.
https://t.co/KkrXreeNof

(2-6) MP Catherine Cummings booed off stage.
Good luck getting any Dr’s on board.
(3-6) And the show continues to launch the Reignite Democracy Political Party.
(4-6) What a setup. Love the glove prop just ready to go.
(5-6) And here it is. We are coming for all the marginal seats.

How much is Jim Penman still involved behind the scenes?
(6-6) Penman seems to be a common thread. Even Lachie Kavanagh owns a Jim’s Mowing.
What is not so apparent is RDA’s links with the conservative wing of the Liberal party...

https://t.co/TsqnFSV7RF
Who is behind Reignite? “Sack Dan” was not Smit’s first foray into campaigning against Andrews. May 2020 she and “freelance journalist”, Stephanie Bastiaan, worked on videos for Victoria Forward. Bastiaan is married to the former Vic Liberal party operative Marcus Bastiaan.
Bastiaan was employed in federal MP Michael Sukkar’s office as an electorate officer. Smit has been interviewed on Goodsauce News, a Christian media site established by David Pellow. A digital marketing strategist and conservative Christian, who worked campaigns for the Liberals. https://t.co/Lq7eQcigOZ
Completely staged. Cummins said she was just in the area dropping her son off at the cricket. Righto.. How many times have you worked with Monica?

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I just finished Eric Adler's The Battle of the Classics, and wanted to say something about Joel Christiansen's review linked below. I am not sure what motivates the review (I speculate a bit below), but it gives a very misleading impression of the book. 1/x


The meat of the criticism is that the history Adler gives is insufficiently critical. Adler describes a few figures who had a great influence on how the modern US university was formed. It's certainly critical: it focuses on the social Darwinism of these figures. 2/x

Other insinuations and suggestions in the review seem wildly off the mark, distorted, or inappropriate-- for example, that the book is clickbaity (it is scholarly) or conservative (hardly) or connected to the events at the Capitol (give me a break). 3/x

The core question: in what sense is classics inherently racist? Classics is old. On Adler's account, it begins in ancient Rome and is revived in the Renaissance. Slavery (Christiansen's primary concern) is also very old. Let's say classics is an education for slaveowners. 4/x

It's worth remembering that literacy itself is elite throughout most of this history. Literacy is, then, also the education of slaveowners. We can honor oral and musical traditions without denying that literacy is, generally, good. 5/x