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The latest tranche of the Epstein Files released has revealed how far the tentacles of right wing wealth and power reach across the world. Bill Shorten, the favourite whipping boy of the Australian Right, along with being falsely accused of past union corruption had Clive Palmer spending big on attack ads during the last week of the 2019 federal election. Steve Bannon, Donald Trump’s former campaign director, is claiming to Jeffrey Epstein that he advised Clive Palmer on this matter. Those on the Right are, as we know, terrible liars, and Epstein and Bannon are both headline acts in this regard. Taking credit for stuff is what these guys do. Whatever the factuality of this matter it reveals the network of wealth and power across the globe.
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If you are disgusted and horrified at Trump and the revelations of the Epstein files. Do your bit: Cancel your Big Tech subscriptions. Bill Gates and Trump are ball’s deep in the sordid world of the late Jeffrey Epstein. Rich men treat the world with disdain and think they can wipe their muck off on us. What can we do about this? What action can we take to send a clear message that this is not good enough behaviour? Ditch your Microsoft subscriptions. Hit them where it will ultimately hurt. Stop spending your money with Big Tech.
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This statement has been the overwhelming meta narrative running through human political history forever. I studied ancient history for many years and this was true in ancient Greek and Roman civilisations too. The aristocracy has always seen itself as the only thing that really mattered. Only the wealthy matter is top of the bill in Trump’s America right now. The evidence for this is manifest in multiple places. Trump’s big beautiful bill cut taxes for billionaires and slashed spending on the poor. The Trump cabinet is populated by more billionaires than ever seen before. Big Tech oligarchs lined up to kiss the ring of President Donald Trump at his inauguration. Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, inserted himself into the Trump administration via DOGE to garner attention on this stage. The messaging is clear – only the wealthy really matter.
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The Trump regime is attacking boats from Venezuela, blowing them up in international waters. Why this focus on a South American nation? Venezuela has the world’s largest oil reserves. The US has a great tradition of going after countries with lots of oil and administrations that don’t bend over backwards for them. Donald Trump is a firm believer in fossil fuels. His administration has already reversed much of the good work that was done under Joe Biden, when it came to renewables and the transition away from climate damaging fossil fuels. Trump is the ultimate head in the sand guy, when it comes to global warming.
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.
There are those that blog and those that don’t. I would posit that there are many more non-bloggers out there than the dedicated and diligent keyboard artists. Here are 5 top reasons to blog. Writing is for many an undiscovered joy and a challenging chore, when they are forced to record their thoughts on screen in print. Many owners of websites outsource all the boring bits to poorly paid writers, who are, often, located in the third world. Now, of course AI can do all that too. Communication via the written word is, somehow, seen as arcane and not worth the effort. Which means that we have a lot of bad writing and poorly constructed sentences adorning the pages of the world wide web. However, despite this, blogging is the new medium for the essay.
Former PM Malcolm Turnbull sunk any realistic hopes of AUKUS providing submarines before 2045 at his recent Press Club speech. Here was someone who knew what he was talking about, giving us the lowdown on the $368 billion deal with the Americans and Brits. Malcolm Turnbull explains AUKUS: Why no subs will come from it? It is written into the deal itself that if the US cannot make enough nuclear submarines of the designated class for their own requirements then no subs will be forthcoming for Australia. The Americans have not been meeting these requirements for many years now and there are no signs that this will change anytime soon. In fact, with projected retirements of older submarines in the US fleet things will be much worse in this regard. We will not get second hand Virginia class submarines from the US within the scheduled time frame.
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It is amazing how often fate treats hubristic behaviour in lives of the rich and famous. It is, as if, a certain point is reached or crossed by the individual and this releases the hounds of hell upon them. Isaac Heeney, the No#1 rated player in the AFL for much of the season and the poster boy for toothpaste smiles has come a cropper in the shady wee hours of Melbourne with a lap dancer. Isaac Heeney: The boy next door is no more. No, the nice lad we once knew has morphed into a dirtbag hero. Strippers or exotic dancers crying sexual assault rings in the ears of the greater public. Victoria police are investigating an alleged sex crime and Heeney is at the centre of it.
Crime Footy Fresh Media News Police Sport It is amazing how often fate treats hubristic behaviour in lives of the rich and famous. It is, as if, a certain point is reached or crossed by the individual and this releases the hounds of hell upon them. Isaac Heeney, the No#1 rated player in the AFL for much of the season and the poster boy for toothpaste smiles has come a cropper in the shady wee hours of Melbourne with a lap dancer. Isaac Heeney: The boy next door is no more. No, the nice lad we once knew has morphed into a dirtbag hero. Strippers or exotic dancers crying sexual assault rings in the ears of the greater public. Victoria police are investigating an alleged sex crime and Heeney is at the centre of it.
Crime Footy Fresh Media News Police Sport
It is amazing how often fate treats hubristic behaviour in lives of the rich and famous. It is, as if, a certain point is reached or crossed by the individual and this releases the hounds of hell upon them. Isaac Heeney, the No#1 rated player in the AFL for much of the season and the poster boy for toothpaste smiles has come a cropper in the shady wee hours of Melbourne with a lap dancer. Isaac Heeney: The boy next door is no more. No, the nice lad we once knew has morphed into a dirtbag hero. Strippers or exotic dancers crying sexual assault rings in the ears of the greater public. Victoria police are investigating an alleged sex crime and Heeney is at the centre of it.
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I am putting my hand up to confess that I am a longtime supporter of the Sydney Swans. What did Confucious say? ‘May you live during interesting times’ or words to that effect, perhaps. Regular readers may be aware of the many posts I have written about the fortunes of the red and white AFL side this year. In an ironic twist, I have been bemoaning the lack of on-field mongrel in this normally squeaky clean team. Hells bells, I did not wish to shake down the thunder from the sky. What I wanted was some more fight and desperation out on the footy field. What we have all got, it appears, is some God awful, alleged sexual assault.
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I hate to harp on a topic but… The Sydney Swans missing mongrel factor for finals remains a major concern. There I was chatting with a Brisbane Lion’s supporter whilst playing golf and this person was complimenting the Swans on a good season so far. I had to qualify the praise with a reality check because the Swans have struggled to beat top 4 teams this season. The Lions had monstered Sydney very recently in a contest at the Gabba. Things are getting real now, as the AFL finals are mere weeks away. Winning contest and applying physical pressure for 4 quarters are crucial elements if you want to win football finals.
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The Sydney Swans have taken on the old Muhammad Ali rope-a-dope strategy, it seems. Absorb the opposition’s punishment for most of the match and then come out all guns blazing at the death knock. In this edition, Bloods sacrifice to beat Saints. Unfortunately for Will Edwards and James Rowbottom it was their blood and bone sacrifices on the altar of victory. A terrible injury for the rookie defender Will Edwards has finished his brilliant season prematurely. Rowbottom will likely be back for the finals. The Swans needed this win to hold onto second spot on the AFL ladder and it did not come cheaply.
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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.
The ABC has reported that the Macquarie Group through its Next Payment’s ATMs is profiting from the black market tobacco trade in Australia. This multibillion dollar trade downunder is fuelling gang war slayings and making the nation a much more unsafe place. Macquarie bank raking in black market tobacco profits. Yet another loophole exists for criminals to launder their ill gotten gains in Australia – through private ATM machines. You get the strongest sense that authorities are not serious about stopping such things when they continue to allow flagrant violations by banks.
Those Americans detained by ICE are being housed in private prisons and have already proved to be a half a billion dollar motza for one such corporation running them. America is home of the financialized and privatized everything, where transparency is an outdated concept. No, it is all about profits and returns on investments for companies and their shareholders. The Trump administration is feeding its backers with the promised billions. The disgusting American business of incarceration. ICE is going after mums and school kids too. ICE is not limiting itself to targeting gang members and illegal aliens. No, that is way too restrictive on the numbers to fill these private prisons.
