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I have to share with you that I am profoundly disappointed with where the world finds itself. I have been around for six decades and I must say I expected better. The rise of Donald Trump has pulled me into a deep concern for world affairs. This turn toward out and out greed and aggrandisement by the ‘so-called’ leader of the free world upsets me more than I can say. However, it is his complete disrespect for factuality and an adherence to the truth that riles me the most. If you cannot trust your leaders, then we are fucked, to put it plainly. When truth is the victim, faith in any future is lost.
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I could have also used the terms selfish, greedy, disinterested and trapped in the past. Look around you at the current crop of right wing governments in the United States and Israel as illustrations of this. The MAGA supporters are, on the whole, focused on what they can get from a Trump administration and turning the clock back to a less integrated multiracial America. You do not get the sense that these folk are interested in what is good for all Americans, no matter their skin colour, gender or sexual preference. This is why right wing voters tend to be more stupid.
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If you were asked who sits atop the business/economic pyramid, who would you nominate? If you answered shareholders you would be correct. These investors are the owners of companies and businesses. CEOs and boards do everything in their power to increase the value of their companies. Often enriching themselves in the process, of course, via stock buybacks and such like. Consumers and company employees sit well down on the hierarchical ladder of importance these days. Keeping prices high and wages low are part and parcel of increasing the value of company stock. This economic greed is destroying our lives, as it is completely out of balance.
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Day 3 of having no power due to a storm. No service: Profitability is the new power. Yes, this post is written under the duress of being cut off from electricity in my home and work. We live in a time, where being connected to the grid is more essential than ever before. Everything now runs on electricity. My gripe is that despite this clear and present reality, we are still dependent upon outdated and fragile infrastructure. 50 years ago, as I was growing up, I heard about the plans to put the power lines underground. Indeed, this has been achieved in many new suburbs. I do wonder why in this wonderful new world of privatised utilities how so many more established suburbs and towns have not been transformed in this subterranean fashion. Storms wreak havoc to power lines on poles.
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.
Now, they are calling Zohran Mamdani a communist! This heavily right wing controlled nation has no conception of what that actually even means. America is such a brain washed society. In the land where money talks louder than the cries of millions of people suffering; they elected a convicted felon to be their President. More than 7 million Americans marched in towns and cities across the country in the No King’s rallies. These were peaceful protests against the Trump regime and its inhuman behaviours and blatant corruption. Donald Trump sent out a social media post showing him defecating on the millions of peaceful protesters below him and his warplane. That is the class of the man America chose as its leader.
I suspect that many of the people that voted for Trump would struggle to spell oligarchy let alone grasp its meaning. Hey, those Big Tech bros are cool guys and wouldn’t it be great to be like them. This sentiment may well capture the popular mood among many younger Americans. President Joe Biden’s outgoing speech to the nation was highlighted by warnings about oligarchy. It seems, warnings about oligarchy fall on deaf ears at the moment. Explaining about the importance of having a separation between government and big business should be fairly nondescript. The general American ignorance about how government works is pretty disturbing.
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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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Peter Dutton is that boy who keeps crying ‘wolf!’ The alarmist leader of the opposition has been busy warning about Russian planes possibly landing in Indonesia. Penny Wong, the Foreign Minister, tells us that ‘Temu Trump’ just made up stuff purporting to come from the Indonesian President. The ex-cop from Queensland wants Aussie citizens to be worried and alarmed, so that he can beat his chest. Apparently, a teenager from his home state went on the Internet to look up how to blow Pete up, according to the Queensland Police. Not sure if this has been independently verified or old mates in the force are helping spread the alarmist message? Peter Dutton is an alarming politician.
If I were to issue a Sydney Swans report card at round 6 it would be probably say – must do better. I would mention that after 5 rounds of AFL season 2025 the red and white team are barely in the conversation. Musing on why this is I would question whether if John Longmire had not hung up his head coaching hat would the team be in the same position? 10th on the ladder and out of the top 8. Remembering that for much of 2024 the Swans were the best team in the competition and minor premiers. But belted in the grand final for the second time in 3 years in a black swan event.
Corporate media in Australia, once again, does the bidding of the fossil fuel sector in spreading misinformation and distortions about electric vehicles (EV). Spotlight on Channel 7 nickel EV lies reveals hit job on battery production in China. Mainstream media televises program chock full of errors and false claims. There is so much BS out there in Australia about EVs and mud sticks in the minds of many. Standards of accuracy and truth in the media are degrading in the current era, with conservatives thinking that they can get away with anything in the age of Trump.
When a footy team chooses to wear a white strip for a match alarm bells ring inside me. You know, running up the white flag and all that. And that is how it played out at Adelaide Oval. Bloodless Swans outplayed by Magpies in Gather Round. The stylish outfits were part of a marketing exercise for raising awareness about giving blood. All very worthy but AFL is about winning games of footy and players dressed as metrosexual models does not bode well for results in my book. We used to call AFL umpires white maggots back in the day and guess what colour outfits they used to wear?
I could not resist drawing parallels between the resurrection of the dire wolf and the return of Donald Trump to power. Both things are equally foolish and dangerous. Thanks to Trump’s tariff policy we are in dire trouble globally. The dire wolf in the White House is hell bent on damaging the world economically in record time. The decision to genetically recreate a dire wolf from grey wolves seems to be symbolically on par with Trump’s global tariff policy – ‘all show and no go.’ Together, these are testament to the shallowness of America’s desperate desire to hang onto the appearance of hegemonic power amid its rapid decline.
Since his inauguration, Trump has wiped off $11 trillion from the market. Under Joe Biden the economy was growing and improving the whole time. All those liars on Fox News and in the right wing media echo chamber have brought this lunatic to bear upon America and the world. These people need to be held responsible for the misinformation and blatant lies broadcast to the listening population. That $11 trillion crash will strip away the value of retirement nest eggs and shareholder portfolios. This insane tariff policy will drive the world into recession, as it did in the 1930’s Great Depression.
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.
Donald Trump has raised taxes on Americans hugely. Trump tariffs biggest tax hike US has seen. 25% tariffs on imported cars. 25% on Canadian and Mexican goods. 20% on Chinese goods. And more to come. These tariffs mean higher prices paid by ordinary Americans. Thus, tariffs are taxes paid by Americans. So much for the GOP being supposedly a political party committed to lower taxes. Get ready for the return of high inflation and prices rising across the board. Joe Biden and the Democrats spent 4 years getting the economy back under control after the ravishes of the global pandemic only to see the Trump wrecking ball stuff it all up again.
Australia is full of progressive laws that just don’t get enforced. I call us the land of toothless tigers and unlike the Tasmanian tiger these are not rare or extinct. Indeed, they are prolific. Black market tobacco grey in Australia because it is so readily available. Tobacconists stock black market tobacco openly in defiance of the laws of the land. Why is this so? Is it a bit like the long held laisse faire attitude of male police officers toward domestic violence in this country? Smokers don’t like paying so much for their ciggies and most cops in Australia are blokes. They just don’t see the problem.
The US is the laughing stock of the international world. In a new low, the fools appointed by Trump and the GOP to his cabinet are messaging war plans on unsecured apps and accidentally including the editor of The Atlantic magazine in their group chat. Incompetent does not do justice to this it is totally stupid. Meanwhile, this flow of information, which would in normal times be top secret and highly classified is likely being spied upon by foreign intelligence services like Russia and China. Indeed, one of the members of the group chat was in Moscow at the time. America the unreliable ally continues to be a major embarrassment.
