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Do the dulcet tones of the human voice do it for you? Are you a lover of aural pleasure? The spoken word read well, whilst you drive to work? Listening for both intellectual and sensual gratification? Learning stuff and getting where you are going at the same time? All of these things are possible via audiobooks. For the very first time, sounds of fanfare ladies and gentlemen, my books are available as audiobooks. And they sound pretty darn good, if I do say so myself. Now, you can take the banality out of traffic jams by listening to what I have to say on the really important topics.
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Many Australians are becoming aware that gas companies in Australia pay bugger all tax. This situation is pretty incredulous. Santos has not paid any corporate tax for 10 years, whilst it has generated revenue in excess of $50 billion. In addition, the PRRT does not raise much revenue from LPG in Australia because of the way it is structured.
Economics Fresh Government Politics Power
Americans used to tell the world that they were the best of us. Now, with Donald Trump at the helm, Americans: they are clearly the worst of us. Denying food stamp welfare to the disabled and American children is the latest low point in a chaotic and cruel Trump administration performance. SNAP is going unfunded by the Republicans, as they continue their social Darwinism campaign to eradicate the poor and vulnerable within the United States of America. You can only take greed and not paying your taxes so far without taking the food out of the mouths of the needy.
Culture Democracy Economics Fresh Politics Power
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.
I am, by choice, petless in my life. That is, without a furry companion to share my domicile. For four weeks, however, this changed, when I was invited to house sit on holiday in WA. Thus, the title of this post – Doggie Dementia: My month of pet poop and piss in Perth. It was a family arrangement with a sibling, she and partner were off to Bali, whilst I would hold down the fort. Water a few sheltered pot plants, turn on the irrigation system, take out the trash, something about feeding worms, and look after Misty – the Shih tzu Maltese Terrier Cross.
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?
I saw a reference to a published survey of Australians’ attitudes toward the United States in light of Donald Trump’s presidency. It was commissioned by the United States Studies Centre, which I imagine has some skin in the game. In my own opinion, I think that Australians do not grasp how bad America has become under the Trump regime. Trump was a bit of a joke for Aussies, over the last decade, but the penny just maybe starting to drop.
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Contact sports in the guise of AFL or rugby are coming under increasing scrutiny in regard to head knocks to players. The truth is that modern human beings are not designed to crash and bash into each other at speed. We have, obviously, evolved away from the need to do so in the natural world. Survival does not call for such behaviour these days and that has long been the case. It is, rather, recreational pursuits in the form of team contact sports which have become the unhealthy danger in recent years. The professionalism and commercialism within these sports have motivated players to become bigger, stronger and faster in pursuit of material rewards. The resultant clashes between these modern day gladiators are fuelling an increasing amount of brain injury diseases showing up in past and present players. Is it a situation where caveman sports have no place in a healthy life?
Culture Footy Fresh Health News Sport Contact sports in the guise of AFL or rugby are coming under increasing scrutiny in regard to head knocks to players. The truth is that modern human beings are not designed to crash and bash into each other at speed. We have, obviously, evolved away from the need to do so in the natural world. Survival does not call for such behaviour these days and that has long been the case. It is, rather, recreational pursuits in the form of team contact sports which have become the unhealthy danger in recent years. The professionalism and commercialism within these sports have motivated players to become bigger, stronger and faster in pursuit of material rewards. The resultant clashes between these modern day gladiators are fuelling an increasing amount of brain injury diseases showing up in past and present players. Is it a situation where caveman sports have no place in a healthy life?
Culture Footy Fresh Health News Sport
Contact sports in the guise of AFL or rugby are coming under increasing scrutiny in regard to head knocks to players. The truth is that modern human beings are not designed to crash and bash into each other at speed. We have, obviously, evolved away from the need to do so in the natural world. Survival does not call for such behaviour these days and that has long been the case. It is, rather, recreational pursuits in the form of team contact sports which have become the unhealthy danger in recent years. The professionalism and commercialism within these sports have motivated players to become bigger, stronger and faster in pursuit of material rewards. The resultant clashes between these modern day gladiators are fuelling an increasing amount of brain injury diseases showing up in past and present players. Is it a situation where caveman sports have no place in a healthy life?
Culture Footy Fresh Health News Sport
The Sydney Swans flop off the bye at the Gabba under fierce Lion’s pressure. Personally, I hate the bye and always have as a Swan’s fan. Too many times the team fails to fire after a week off. The Swans looked soft on this Thursday night featured contest with last year’s premiers. Brody Grundy gifted Brisbane goal scoring opportunities out of the centre 4 times on the night. These free kicks for crossing the line at the ball up are huge penalties to pay for this indiscretion, especially when advantage is taken and opposing players steal out the front of the centre square toward their goal.
Footy Fresh
You know a lot of the apparent support for One Nation comes from older white Australians. Pauline Hanson and her campaign machine promote the idea that things were better back in the day. This right wing idealisation of the past, of there being some sort of golden age, is nothing new. Fascists in Hitler’s era promoted the concept of the pure German who lived during a bucolic time of yesteryear. Romanticising the past appeals to older folk especially. Contrasting it with the present and focusing on negative stuff like urban crime and demonising special interest groups plays well with this audience. Hitler and the Nazis attacked the immorality of the Weimar Republic, which won them electoral support from conservate Germans. Pauline Hanson attacks Muslims, refugees and immigrants, as all things bad for Australia. The idealisation of the past is a never land, in that it never really existed the way they say it did.
Crime Culture Democracy Fresh News Politics Power
Whilst watching a documentary about Nazism and fascism in America back in the 1930s, my ears were pricked by the repeated expressions ‘ make America great’ and ‘one nation’! The modern day use of these terms as names and tag lines are by no means accidental. The white supremacist beliefs and racism, which lie at the base of MAGA and One Nation, in the US and Australia respectively, are the foundation of these movements and political parties. If you have read DH Lawrence’s book Kangaroo or seen the movie based upon it, you will know that Australia was not immune from the rise of fascism post WW1.
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We measure ourselves against our peers. Australia is a wealthy nation raising little tax revenue, which is revealed by OECD economic research. It is important to state we are not talking about income tax exclusively here but all revenue raising taxation. Considering Australia is in the top 10 wealthiest countries globally it is surprising that we trail our peers like Canada and New Zealand in raising tax revenue annually. Taxes pay for our public services like Medicare, education, our military, and law and order to name a few important of these essential services.
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.
