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British royal, the former Duke of York, Prince Andrew has now become the most prominent Epstein enemy of the people. Why is this so? Prince Andrew firms as No 1 Epstein target. Andrew appears to be a complex character. On the one hand, he seems none too bright and has not managed to amass any sizable fortune. If he had a few billion, he could avoid the public scrutiny, like plenty of other powerful men on the Epstein list who have managed to do so. Andrew is fastidious about the arrangement of his large teddy bear collection on his bed, according to confirmed reports from royal staff. WTF?
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There is a narrative making the rounds that goes something like this. Donald Trump was re-elected on the back of an anti-woke backlash by working class voters. The truth about anti-wokeness is a more nuanced story. Society has been moving toward a more multiracial and diverse status quo. It has not been without its issues, especially for historically entitled white folk. Learning to be tolerant of others, not obviously like you, is not immediately attractive to some. We were, however, making inroads in the right direction. Then, some smart cookie in the right wing camp thought, why not make an advantage out of what was once considered a negative trait.
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You know all those gambling ads; we are subjected to on our screens in Australia? Yes, those sports betting ads that are shown again and again. They are a reminder of how f****** stupid Australians are. This is because their very existence is testament to the incredulousness of us. Aussies are the biggest losers in gambling losses per capita. Billions of dollars are lost every year. The inane stupidity of the humour presented in sports betting ads tells the world how dumb we are. If we find these piss weak skits funny there must be something lacking upstairs in the intelligence stakes. Humour is cunningly inserted into the premise to relax your purse strings. You are being taken for the soft touch you so obviously are.
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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.
Here are 5 things to know about black teeth. Japanese women used to blacken their teeth and shave off their eyebrows post marriage, prior to the mid nineteenth century. Ohagaru was practiced up until the Meiji era. It is interesting to view this custom through the lens of our current 21C obsession with very white teeth. Some see this as further evidence of the control and denigration of the human rights of Japanese women in their traditional society, whilst others disagree with this conclusion. Early western anthropologists described ohagaru as an abhorrent custom, which disfigured women. The custom was, also, practiced in parts of China by minority groups.
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.
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.
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Trump starts war with Iran in concert with Israel and vandalises the world economy. This irresponsible fool then passes the buck to America’s former allies, demanding they re-open the Strait of Hormuz. Nobody wants to follow the US into this mess of their own making. This is what you get when you elect a convicted felon and multiple bankrupt to the presidency. The stupidity of America is on full display. The greed and selfishness of Americans is up on the world stage for all to see. Listening to a lying, loud mouthed idiot is taking the United States and the world to the brink of collapse and destruction.
Democracy Fresh Government News Politics Power Trump starts war with Iran in concert with Israel and vandalises the world economy. This irresponsible fool then passes the buck to America’s former allies, demanding they re-open the Strait of Hormuz. Nobody wants to follow the US into this mess of their own making. This is what you get when you elect a convicted felon and multiple bankrupt to the presidency. The stupidity of America is on full display. The greed and selfishness of Americans is up on the world stage for all to see. Listening to a lying, loud mouthed idiot is taking the United States and the world to the brink of collapse and destruction.
Democracy Fresh Government News Politics Power
Trump starts war with Iran in concert with Israel and vandalises the world economy. This irresponsible fool then passes the buck to America’s former allies, demanding they re-open the Strait of Hormuz. Nobody wants to follow the US into this mess of their own making. This is what you get when you elect a convicted felon and multiple bankrupt to the presidency. The stupidity of America is on full display. The greed and selfishness of Americans is up on the world stage for all to see. Listening to a lying, loud mouthed idiot is taking the United States and the world to the brink of collapse and destruction.
Democracy Fresh Government News Politics Power
We need an Inquiry into why LPG gas deals have been so financially bad for the nation as a whole. Why do the gas companies pay so little tax and royalties on the huge amounts of gas they export for enormous profits? When elected representatives are deaf to their constituents, you know something is wrong with our democracy. Polling has indicated that 75% of Australians support a 25% export tax on LPG gas. Yet, this federal Labor government has knocked back proposed legislation to make this happen.
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Do you want to know the fundamental difference between Left and Right political parties? The Left is committed to bringing everyone along for the ride, whilst the Right is about winner takes all. Have a look at the United States, where right wing politics has prevailed for much of its history. President Trump’s rendition of the Republican party is probably the most extreme far right version we have seen in a good while. What are the major themes running through Trump 2.0? White supremacy is pretty hard to ignore with ICE agents running amok, detaining and murdering Americans based on the colour of their skin. Right wing thugs are not the sharpest tools in the shed and plenty of US citizens have been wrongly targeted in these storm trooper type raids upon unarmed Americans.
Defence Democracy Economics Fresh News Politics Power Workers
It is costing more than a billion dollars a day for the US to be raining missiles on Iran with its Israeli war mongering partner. Americans are spending an extra $200 million a day on increased petrol prices at the pump, thanks to President Trump’s war on Iran. Rich people doing war in the Middle East, whilst the rest of us struggle with affordability issues. Billionaires are likely cashing in on an oil price going through the roof. In reality, Donald Trump is an economic vandal with no care for the hundreds of millions of people doing it tough because of his illegal wars and tariffs.
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Big congratulations to the Swans for their victory over the Giants at the SCG. It did not look like happening for much of the afternoon, as GWS were on top for three quarters. The Sydney Swans Qualifying Final win report card must pay the ultimate […]
I am sitting there in my armchair trawling through movie possibilities on streaming services. There are a lot of films featuring guns, just in case you have been living in a cave for the last 25 years and may have missed this. Mostly dumb American movies featuring actors brandishing weapons like they are magical talismans. The biggest guns attracting more attention from an adolescent audience that seemingly never grows up. Lots of guys watch flicks with actors playing with toy guns pretending to be baddies and tough hombres. Imagine if they banned guns from the movies – a lot of stupid stuff would never see the light of day.
Productivity in Australia has been on a downward trend for decades. The latest moribund GDP figures for this quarter are not anything particularly new. Yes, interest rates are hurting the economy, as they are supposed to be according to monetary policy in the Reserve Bank’s inflation beating crusade. The greater diminishing productivity trend is, however, an indication of a much deeper problem facing our economy. Successive governments have overseen the concentration of ownership in nearly all of our business sectors. Duopolies have replaced any real competition in our markets and this damages productivity. Capitalism works optimally when there is competition between businesses operating within sectors of the market. These corporate giants have circumvented this by gobbling up their competition via take overs and mergers. The ACCC and ASIC have been asleep at the wheel in preventing the overconcentration of corporate power in Australia.
Heaven help us and let it burn. If the sector is so moribund that it has come to this, I do not think that governments should prop it up. Australians do not want to be assailed morning and night with ads from largely overseas owned corporate bookmakers. What kind of country are we living in? Aussies lose $25 billion a year gambling! That is a lot of money, to state the obvious. Do we have too much money and are we too dumb to care? If free to air TV is dependent upon gambling ad revenue? Surely, something is wrong with the business and, perhaps, it has reached its use by date.
The culture wars can be divided down the gender divide in Australia. It is white men versus the world of women. Kerry Stokes sits atop his pile and directs his media shock troops to beat up on the hopes of his female employees. Four Corners exposed the facts that Channel 7 champions misogyny and misery. Then, they buy their silence with NDAs. Who else is famous for NDAs? Oh yeah, the convicted celebrity rapist Harvey Weinstein. Perhaps, Harvey is a hero of the upper management at Seven West Media. I mean, let’s look at the evidence.
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.
I have been reading a historical expose of the Black Death and the many plague events recorded in Europe through the millennia. Invariably in almost all of these crises in cities throughout the many Christian kingdoms and principalities, making up what we now know of […]
I just watched Civil War, the 2024 movie, by Alex Garland. I had been holding off on viewing it because I didn’t know if it would be another Hollywood gun fest. Initially, my thoughts were – yeah, dumb Americans and their stupid obsession with whizz bang weapons. I mean, the country contains some 600 million guns, apparently. I called this article, Civil War in America: The sequel because they are looking down the barrel of a second instalment of this potentially bloody conflict. 600 thousand Americans died during the first Civil War in 1861-65. The automatic weapons are much more impressive now, so, the butcher’s bill could be way more this time round.
Individuals who have made a shit load of money are not necessarily wise by nature. There is, however, an all too ready willingness to believe in their superiority by the sheep-like members of our communities. Billionaire influence: Rich men and their sheep. Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Peter Thiel, Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Bloomberg, Charles Koch and the list could go on are some of the most influential billionaires of the 21C. The majority of us are content to shuffle along in life and follow the leader. ‘Working for the man’ means for many trading their integrity for a meagre amount of financial security. Crumbs from the trickledown effect of decades of neoliberalism. Once you have passed on your autonomy to another it is no stretch to follow their lead wherever they take you. This makes very wealthy people much more influential than their poorer counterparts.
Australia is moving toward a renewable energy future – it is happening and is underway. Yes, there are challenges ahead in this major transformation, which has been inspired by the world’s need to respond to global warming. No serious energy expert or scientist has suggested […]
