words matter
Americans have a funny idea about democracy if their behaviour around voting is any indication. If you look at the current situation and at the history of voting in the United States there is a greater push to keep people from voting than any encouragement for them to do so. More eligible American adults didn’t vote in the last presidential election than voted for either main party by about 20 million voters. The prevention of voting in the US. American men in power prevented women getting the vote unilaterally in the US for around a century. Of course, racist America stopped black women from voting until the civil rights movement in the middle of the 20C. New Zealand gave women the vote in 1893. Russia in 1917.
Democracy Economics Fresh Politics
Since the 1980s the way big companies in the United States do business has poisoned the well for the rest of us. The sick American corporate culture ruthlessly focusses on shareholder returns in return for enriching the executive to obscene levels. Stock options and company stock buybacks have become key ingredients in the billionaire factory churning out the super wealthy. This manipulation of the fabric of how companies do business has come at the expense of other stake holders like employees, consumers and the nations where these corporations do business. Downsizing, outsourcing, and profit shifting are all means by which companies have increased profits, reduced costs and avoided paying their fair share of tax. At the same time, these actions have reduced community engagement and care in return for outlandish levels of wealth for a few at the expense of the many.
Crime Culture Democracy Economics Fresh Politics
In the land of billionaires and oligarchs did the wealthy really need another tax cut? You know at the beginning of the 1960s the top tax rate in the US was up there around 90%. It is now all the way down to 37%. Think about that for a few moments, a reduction close to 60%. That is a heck of a lot. Americans have been rewarding themselves at the top for 60 years with huge reductions in tax. Now, under Trump they are coming after social security and Medicaid for the poor and sick. You know where this is going to end, Social Darwinism and killing off the weak and the needy.
Crime Democracy Economics Fresh Politics Americans have a funny idea about democracy if their behaviour around voting is any indication. If you look at the current situation and at the history of voting in the United States there is a greater push to keep people from voting than any encouragement for them to do so. More eligible American adults didn’t vote in the last presidential election than voted for either main party by about 20 million voters. The prevention of voting in the US. American men in power prevented women getting the vote unilaterally in the US for around a century. Of course, racist America stopped black women from voting until the civil rights movement in the middle of the 20C. New Zealand gave women the vote in 1893. Russia in 1917.
Americans have a funny idea about democracy if their behaviour around voting is any indication. If you look at the current situation and at the history of voting in the United States there is a greater push to keep people from voting than any encouragement for them to do so. More eligible American adults didn’t vote in the last presidential election than voted for either main party by about 20 million voters. The prevention of voting in the US. American men in power prevented women getting the vote unilaterally in the US for around a century. Of course, racist America stopped black women from voting until the civil rights movement in the middle of the 20C. New Zealand gave women the vote in 1893. Russia in 1917.
Democracy Economics Fresh Politics Americans have a funny idea about democracy if their behaviour around voting is any indication. If you look at the current situation and at the history of voting in the United States there is a greater push to keep people from voting than any encouragement for them to do so. More eligible American adults didn’t vote in the last presidential election than voted for either main party by about 20 million voters. The prevention of voting in the US. American men in power prevented women getting the vote unilaterally in the US for around a century. Of course, racist America stopped black women from voting until the civil rights movement in the middle of the 20C. New Zealand gave women the vote in 1893. Russia in 1917.
Democracy Economics Fresh Politics
Americans have a funny idea about democracy if their behaviour around voting is any indication. If you look at the current situation and at the history of voting in the United States there is a greater push to keep people from voting than any encouragement for them to do so. More eligible American adults didn’t vote in the last presidential election than voted for either main party by about 20 million voters. The prevention of voting in the US. American men in power prevented women getting the vote unilaterally in the US for around a century. Of course, racist America stopped black women from voting until the civil rights movement in the middle of the 20C. New Zealand gave women the vote in 1893. Russia in 1917.
Democracy Economics Fresh Politics
Since the 1980s the way big companies in the United States do business has poisoned the well for the rest of us. The sick American corporate culture ruthlessly focusses on shareholder returns in return for enriching the executive to obscene levels. Stock options and company stock buybacks have become key ingredients in the billionaire factory churning out the super wealthy. This manipulation of the fabric of how companies do business has come at the expense of other stake holders like employees, consumers and the nations where these corporations do business. Downsizing, outsourcing, and profit shifting are all means by which companies have increased profits, reduced costs and avoided paying their fair share of tax. At the same time, these actions have reduced community engagement and care in return for outlandish levels of wealth for a few at the expense of the many.
Crime Culture Democracy Economics Fresh Politics
The AFL has created a game that human bodies cannot actually cope with. How do we know this? Take a look at the number of soft tissue and knee injuries on the playing lists of AFL clubs. AFL a game unfit for human bodies. The evolution of the game has AFL players running at top speed, suddenly stopping, turning, twisting and being tackled. No bloody wonder that human joints and muscles cannot cope with the stress being applied to them under this kind of duress week in and week out. The physical conditioning experts employed by the clubs would know this but their well paid jobs encourage them to stay silent on this issue.
Footy Health Sport
In the land of billionaires and oligarchs did the wealthy really need another tax cut? You know at the beginning of the 1960s the top tax rate in the US was up there around 90%. It is now all the way down to 37%. Think about that for a few moments, a reduction close to 60%. That is a heck of a lot. Americans have been rewarding themselves at the top for 60 years with huge reductions in tax. Now, under Trump they are coming after social security and Medicaid for the poor and sick. You know where this is going to end, Social Darwinism and killing off the weak and the needy.
Crime Democracy Economics Fresh Politics
Donald Trump is a bully. The bully America elected as President. A whole lot of fearful Americans want Trump to play the strongman. The Republican party has demonised scapegoats so that Trump can bully them. Illegal immigrants, who are most often desperate vulnerable people, have been painted as violent criminals. This political pantomime with ICE agents rounding up dark skinned women, children and men will cost lives. Ethnic cleansing is the pursuit of fascist regimes. The richest country in the world is savagely stripping away social services for poor people. Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, is attacking the poorest people in America and globally. He is denigrating them and the civil servants who work with them. Demonising prior to purging.
The recent popularity of right wing media in Australia and the United States has seen the emergence of new platforms and networks. Unfortunately, these are not being staffed and fronted by actual journalists in the main. Op/eds have become the product of choice in the media over the last couple of decades. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp publications and shows have led the way in this populist approach to current affairs and the news. Sky News Australia and Fox News are chock full of former right wing political hacks and staffers. Objectivity has become an arcane idea laughed about at editorial and production meetings in search of eyeballs and ratings. Therefore, you cannot trust the right wing media.
American’s voted in Donald Trump as their president for the second time. What did someone famous once say about ‘once can be forgiven as a mistake but twice is no excuse’, or words to that effect anyway. Yes, Trump only won by 1.4 points but considering he was a convicted felon and well known conman it was a travesty. Americans have only themselves to blame on this score. Therefore, Trump’s America is the enemy. The enemy of those who believe in law and order. The enemy of those who value democracy. The enemy of those who oppose white supremacists, sexual offenders, and blowhard bullies.
Paul Keating tells us that Australia is on its way to becoming the unofficial 51st state of America. The former PM is not being complimentary in his assessment of our current defence policies when saying this. No, Keating is issuing a warning about our docile behaviour in this space. The truth is that Australia does follow the Unites States in many ways when it comes to economic and political trends. Especially, the conservative side of politics are constantly looking to take our country down well-trodden American roads. Financialization and zombie neoliberalism is where the US finds itself with private equity investment firms gobbling up all areas of life and business in America.
The leaders of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) are calling for unemployment to rise. Yes, the RBA want more Aussies out of work so they can slay the dragon they call inflation. You may not have been aware that for the last 50 years the economists at the RBA have adjudged full employment as an unemployment rate of 4.5%. That equates to around 500, 000 ordinary Australians being out of work. These are the sacrificial bodies and souls, apparently, necessary for the economy to work without high inflation. I have an alternative suggestion. Australians: Is it time to eat the rich?
The Liberal Party under the leadership of Peter Dutton has moved further right into irrelevance in Australia. This is the party that has played politics over climate change for the last 15 years and bogged Australia into the slow lane on this existential crisis facing humanity. Now, the Liberal Party plays politics with Aboriginal Voice and reconciliation. It is a dreadful shame that our nation cannot move forward on something so important united on the political front. The Coalition parties, Nationals and Liberals, were never going to get on board this momentous recognition of our Indigenous brothers and sisters, as they represent the hard right racist minority within Australia.
The opioid crisis in America is a terrible indictment on American doctors. The fact that OxyContin was widely prescribed as a safe cure for pain despite being an opioid is testament to the stupidity and gullibility of American doctors. The training and experience of medical practitioners should have indemnified them with a healthy scepticism for claims made by the pharmaceutical companies in this instance. Opioids have been known to be highly addictive for many decades and there have been no exceptions to this over the period.
The Coalition had run a narrative about Australian dole bludgers and welfare cheats for decades. It was part of the right wing playbook of creating villains for the electorate to focus their frustrations and hate upon. The enemy is all those Aussies gaming the system and not doing their fair share. Robodebt was their policy initiative to clean up Dodge, as welfare cops on the beat clawing back billions for the budget. Robodebt abuse was built on Coalition lies to Australians. Scott Morrison was in such a hurry that he didn’t want to waste time on dotting the I’s and crossing the t’s when it came to the legality of the scheme. Kathryn Campbell, the public servant responsible in Human Services, would make the bullets for Sheriff Morrison to fire at the legion of welfare cheats downunder. A lot of paper shuffling went on between senior bureaucrats in the social security and human services departments. Pleasing the boss was paramount bin the minds of these highly paid functionaries.
Thirty years ago the average person didn’t worry about their digital footprint. They didn’t have a social media profile or a website in most cases. Individuals were footloose and fancy free without the ever present digital shadow hanging over them. Digging into your digital footprint can reveal how our cultural concerns are changing. Young people previously had lives which didn’t demand constant documenting via technological devices. Human beings had identities outside of the pixels and bytes forming shapes and images on screens. None of these things are possible today unless you are willing to swim against the current in 2023 and beyond. Kids are constantly checking their phones for updates re-their on-screen lives. Many cannot commit to things like watching a movie without reference to the small screen in their palm. Concentration levels have been diffused into a multiplicity of intermittent calls upon their flickering attention spans.
The murder of Carol Clay and Russel Hill in the Wonnangatta Valley are gun deaths. Greg Lynn is accused of the murders and will stand trail in the Victorian Supreme Court. Gun deaths in Australia: The murder of two campers in Victoria is worrying for a number of reasons. There are 2.6 million registered firearms in Australia. If licenced gun owners are travelling with their guns it makes for dangerous travelling. Disputes over camping sites may turn into life threatening situations, as, it seems, was the case in this instance.
Rupert Murdoch has been a scourge across this nation and around the globe. Publishing right wing broadsheets and tabloids to peddle influence in western Anglo democracies. Fox News has been his nadir in terms of journalistic standards and any pretence of objectivity in reporting the news. You would have to say that he has made his many fortunes out of giving stupid people what they think they want. The neoliberal shonky manipulation of the ordinary man and woman in the street. Appealing to their prejudices and their short shrift for anything beyond their ken. The anti-woke campaign is writ loud across the right wing playbook to rile up a response from the largely apathetic majority. News Corp publications and networks jump on this bandwagon day and night.
The Trump years were desperately unfunny despite the stupidity of the man and what often came out of his mouth as President of the United States. The laughable state of American politics is reaching new highs of absurdity with the most recent discovery of classified documents in Biden’s possession, from his time as Vice President during the Obama years. Firstly, Trump was under investigation by the DOJ for filching boxes of top secret classified documents when he left the White House. Who knew that Presidents weren’t allowed to souvenir such stuff upon their departure? Some folks steal stuff from their hotel rooms and slip it into their luggage prior to checking out.
Is Dominic Perrottet a Nazi? Even asking this question a few weeks ago would have seemed absurd of the NSW Premier, but who knew. I mean who in their right mind would dress up as a Nazi for their 21st birthday? The rites of passage for a callow youth? A serious young man like the Premier should have known better, indeed, would have known better. Is the obvious truth staring us in the face? Is the best place to hide in plain sight? I have written about the rising tide of fascism around the globe.
Trump has spawned the fantasist George Santos elected to congress in the US. Congressman elect George Santos of the New York district has lied about who is on his official CV. Santos claimed to have worked for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup and this is a lie. George Santos put down on his resume that he received a degree from Baruch College and this is a bald faced untruth too. He put down stuff about running an animal rescue charity of which there is no record. Santos claimed to be Ukrainian and Jewish – both of which are further fabrications.
More information is being revealed about the dreadful police shooting in Wieambilla. It seems a case of Queensland police less than honest in their communication with the community re-Nathaniel Train. The ABC has reported that the younger Train brother was reported to QLD police for illegally crossing the state border from NSW and suspicious activity during the Covid lockdowns in 2021. A local resident witnessed Nathaniel Train dumping stuff into the river from his vehicle after attempting to cross the river during flooding. He reported this illegal crossing to police in QLD. These were loaded weapons, as they were found by locals later. Police were informed and collected the weapons.
The recent police shootings in Queensland has turned the spotlight on the role of religion in terrorism and acts of violence. The Train brothers at the centre of this mass murder were brought up by an evangelical father. The Trains made a YouTube video around the time of the police shootings telling the world that they had killed the demons and devils who had invaded their property (this video has been taken down by the police). This was a reference to the 2 young police officers who were murdered by the trio of armed Queenslanders. Thankfully, 2 more young police officers were able to survive this act of domestic terrorism.
I ask this in light of the police shootings in Queensland coverage. Are there any real journalists left in Australia to ask the important questions? Or, has Murdoch gutted the profession so completely we are left with tabloid news screaming, “Love triangle!” in their click […]
We live in a materialistic age and under the auspices of the capitalist system. Billionaires and oligarchs: Our relationship to them must be examined. Billionaires have been seen as the apotheosis of our economic societies. The general public in western democracies have looked upon these very wealthy people as winners and something to aspire to. In America, individuals like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have been held up as examples of real success. At the same time, America and Australia have become much less equitable nations in terms of the distribution of wealth amongst their populations. There are more billionaires but the percentage of shared wealth has become far more skewed in favour of rich elites.
Here in Australia and in America the energy companies are taking us all for a very expensive ride. Why do we unquestioningly accept being fleeced by big business? Gas and oil prices have gone through the roof and then some over the last 12 months. Yes, we have heard the excuses about the war in Ukraine but come on these companies are making record profits in the trillions and hundreds of billions of dollars. Inflation is at 7.2% in Australia, as of November 2022, and the Reserve Bank tips it to reach 8% by the end of the year. The cost of living for essential items like energy and food have gone up substantially. The RBA is rising interest rates to dampen demand within the economy.
It is sometimes difficult to know what to do to get your website working effectively for your business. Finding the right words for your website can be challenging. What to say and how to say it are perennial questions for small business owners and operators. Going down the path of organic SEO can open up a whole lot of questioning worms. Although ultimately it will save you a lot of money and deliver better results in terms of attracting business via your digital presence. It will also focus you on the key words and search terms your potential customers are using.
Creating SEO enhanced content for your website is like anything else in life, there are no instant answers. You can pay others to do it for you. There is no shame in employing experts to establish a body of work on and around your digital presence. However, do not think you can pay peanuts for this utilising ESL writers via low budget SEO companies. You get what you pay for in this life! Remember this truism, as we go further forward into this article. Ultimately, becoming a better creator of SEO enhanced content yourself will best serve your interests.
Americans have a funny idea about democracy if their behaviour around voting is any indication. If you look at the current situation and at the history of voting in the United States there is a greater push to keep people from voting than any encouragement for them to do so. More eligible American adults didn’t vote in the last presidential election than voted for either main party by about 20 million voters. The prevention of voting in the US. American men in power prevented women getting the vote unilaterally in the US for around a century. Of course, racist America stopped black women from voting until the civil rights movement in the middle of the 20C. New Zealand gave women the vote in 1893. Russia in 1917.
Since the 1980s the way big companies in the United States do business has poisoned the well for the rest of us. The sick American corporate culture ruthlessly focusses on shareholder returns in return for enriching the executive to obscene levels. Stock options and company stock buybacks have become key ingredients in the billionaire factory churning out the super wealthy. This manipulation of the fabric of how companies do business has come at the expense of other stake holders like employees, consumers and the nations where these corporations do business. Downsizing, outsourcing, and profit shifting are all means by which companies have increased profits, reduced costs and avoided paying their fair share of tax. At the same time, these actions have reduced community engagement and care in return for outlandish levels of wealth for a few at the expense of the many.
The AFL has created a game that human bodies cannot actually cope with. How do we know this? Take a look at the number of soft tissue and knee injuries on the playing lists of AFL clubs. AFL a game unfit for human bodies. The evolution of the game has AFL players running at top speed, suddenly stopping, turning, twisting and being tackled. No bloody wonder that human joints and muscles cannot cope with the stress being applied to them under this kind of duress week in and week out. The physical conditioning experts employed by the clubs would know this but their well paid jobs encourage them to stay silent on this issue.
In the land of billionaires and oligarchs did the wealthy really need another tax cut? You know at the beginning of the 1960s the top tax rate in the US was up there around 90%. It is now all the way down to 37%. Think about that for a few moments, a reduction close to 60%. That is a heck of a lot. Americans have been rewarding themselves at the top for 60 years with huge reductions in tax. Now, under Trump they are coming after social security and Medicaid for the poor and sick. You know where this is going to end, Social Darwinism and killing off the weak and the needy.
Something close to two thirds of surveyed Americans disapprove of the big bill that passed the senate. This bill takes from the poor and gives to the super rich by slashing Medicaid to fund tax cuts for billionaires. The US Republican lawmakers lack courage in the face of mob boss Trump and his MAGA machine. There is no place for individuals to stand up against stuff on behalf of their constituents in US politics anymore – the game has been rigged. Trump has corrupted the democratic process to deliver him the votes and the American people are the losers.
Canada is applying a digital service’s tax on US companies doing this kind of business in that country. This will raise billions, as they are making it retroactive. Australia needs to copy Canada’s digital service tax to get these companies to pay their fair share of tax downunder. This Canadian initiative will apply to Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta and the usual suspects in the digital space. The reason that this is required is that these giant companies avoid paying tax by shifting profits to low tax nations like Ireland, the Cayman and Virgin Islands etc. plus, claiming expenses in higher tax places like Australia and Canada. It is a well known corporate rort exploiting loopholes in the tax systems of nations with legions of tax accountants employed by them.
Australians were never consulted over AUKUS it was orchestrated by former PM Scott Morrison without going to the people. This $368 billion bad deal for nuclear submarines with the US and Brits makes Australia dependent upon these nations for many decades to come. In a new world order where unreliable allies like Trump’s America prevail it is not a smart move to tie yourself down to another country. Anthony Albanese don’t suck up to Trump over AUKUS, the majority of Aussies do not support you on this. America has shown itself to be way outside of what we in Australia consider to be the acceptable standards of democratic behaviour and human rights.
It was a great effort, albeit ultimately unsuccessful, by Sydney against the Western Bulldogs at the SCG on Friday night. Accuracy costs Swans in epic duel with Dogs. The lack of it to be more precise cost the Sydney Swans the match. When a key forward cannot kick straight from right in front of goals, like Hayden McLean, to give your side a chance in the final minutes it is a crushing blow. He was not alone, however, as once again Sydney players blew easy opportunities for goals again and again throughout the game.
Hey folks, lowering the company tax rate is not going to stimulate investment and increased productivity. For a starter, companies are going to spend money on AI, which is going to mean less jobs and more unemployment. Yes, that can look good on productivity figures because less workers producing more stuff is what that graph is all about. It is not going to be so great for the retrenched workers, however, and don’t give me that crap about them getting re-employed elsewhere. This takes time and the data tells us that these workers never recover the level of income they were previously on. They will just be collateral economic damage on the way to a more productive economy. Who cares about actual people when there is an economic data graph at stake?
The current shift to authoritarianism in the United States is not about folk with too little, but is being driven by those with too much wealth and power. The thing is that amassing wealth does not make you more amenable to sharing it, rather it has the opposite effect in many. People get very protective about their assets and wish ever greater control over things. A growing number of billionaires are driven by the desire to exert ever more influence and power over masses of people in America. It is disgusting really what we are witnessing in the US at the moment.
