words matter
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Here is a thought for you. If everyone in America, who voted for Donald Trump, was suddenly infused with a medieval oriental concern for honour they would kill themselves. Because the stain left on American civilization by this generation of voters will never go away. It is so bad and reaching such levels of disgusting behaviour that nothing will ever get that stain out. To regain face, as they say in that eastern way, taking your own life is the only viable option left open. Nothing short of this will redeem the honour of these folk or the country. I love that Japanese/Chinese intensity around this stuff!
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In the United States, you have an actual crook who is president, a convicted felon, Donald Trump. This travesty of a human being is inventing bogus charges to indict those who have challenged his behaviour in the past. The dichotomies of now, sees a real crook using the US DOJ to pursue individuals who were doing their job in prosecuting or investigating a career liar and con man – Donald Trump. The truth is probably the most serious collateral damage in this whole sordid situation. Once the power elite lose all contact with the bedrock of factuality the entire nation is in major trouble. Arrogant bad liars taking the stand at senate hearings will come back and bite us all in the end.
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Google search and its AI Overview is killing off the last of the legacy media news organisations. Technology has taken the news from print to the internet and now we can watch the death of the news thanks to AI. If you are one of the increasing number of viewers who simply read what the AI Overview or bot tells them in answer to your query the days of news feeds is over. You are now solely in the hands of an automated AI source for your information. Gee, I hope you can put your unstinting trust in that thing!
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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 My gripe is that despite this clear and present reality, we are still dependent upon outdated and fragile infrastructure. 50 years ago, as I was growing up, I heard about the plans to put the power lines underground.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 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.
The last refuge of the incompetent is violence, to paraphrase a line attributed to Isaac Asimov. This truism is particularly apt for Donald J Trump and his regime in the United States. Busy stuffing up the world’s greatest economy, Trump and his cronies are now turning to violence to compensate. Venezuela is their first port of call, amid BS about attacking drug dealers, they are going after this nation’s oil. Venezuela has the world’s largest reserves of thick crude oil. The bully in the White House is picking on a weaker opponent, as bullies always do. You do not see Mister Trump taking on Vladimir Putin and Russia. This is despite the fact that Putin’s Russia is clearly the biggest villain in international terms. No, Trump and his kind pick on the weak, like undocumented immigrants in America.
The foundation of organised religion is hierarchical authoritarianism. It is a patriarchal construct with an imagined divine father figure at the top. Just below this comes the actual top guy in the particular church. Pope, Patriarch, or Archbishop, as there are different names for this office depending upon the brand of Christianity. In the Evangelical or Baptist churches the local pastor or minister is the head guy for each local church in this more decentralised setup. There may be less hierarchy in these instances but the authority remains with some man ministering to the flock and interpreting the ‘so-called’ word of God. Christians are supporters of authoritarianism.
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I thought that it could be useful, in light of the apparent rise in the populist politics of grievance, to ask, so, what does it mean to be Australian? Anti-immigration is the flag waving vanguard theme of One Nation and the remnants of the Liberal party. Blame it on the immigrant appears number one on the political grievance charts downunder. Therefore, it provokes the question – what does it mean to be Australian? If it is not out-and-out racism, as those on the Right deny it to be, who, then, qualifies to be considered an acceptable Australian?
Culture Democracy Fresh Government Politics Power I thought that it could be useful, in light of the apparent rise in the populist politics of grievance, to ask, so, what does it mean to be Australian? Anti-immigration is the flag waving vanguard theme of One Nation and the remnants of the Liberal party. Blame it on the immigrant appears number one on the political grievance charts downunder. Therefore, it provokes the question – what does it mean to be Australian? If it is not out-and-out racism, as those on the Right deny it to be, who, then, qualifies to be considered an acceptable Australian?
Culture Democracy Fresh Government Politics Power
I thought that it could be useful, in light of the apparent rise in the populist politics of grievance, to ask, so, what does it mean to be Australian? Anti-immigration is the flag waving vanguard theme of One Nation and the remnants of the Liberal party. Blame it on the immigrant appears number one on the political grievance charts downunder. Therefore, it provokes the question – what does it mean to be Australian? If it is not out-and-out racism, as those on the Right deny it to be, who, then, qualifies to be considered an acceptable Australian?
Culture Democracy Fresh Government Politics Power
We have seen a spate of one-size-fits-all welfare payments and subsidies. You know, instead of governments helping the most needy they make stuff free for all. This is done for political purposes in attracting votes at elections. All this does is increase wealth inequality. Well off property owners should not be receiving government assistance in maintaining their lifestyles. This brings us to the Alan Kohler call for free childcare downunder. While I support the general idea, I question why wealthy Australians should qualify for these types of assistance. How about a carve out for those over a certain income and capital asset threshold? We need to reverse the widening wealth divide after decades of American style neoliberalism funnelling riches to a select few in Australia.
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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.
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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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There have been a number of disturbing incidents recently, which highlight the demise of our national broadcaster’s once fearless presence. The ABC has lost its independent voice. These include ABC presenters parroting editorial positions from the Murdoch press. In several of these cases the facts at the heart of the matter were not only borrowed but wrong. In what universe do we want the ABC quoting the editorial right wing bias of The Australian when questioning interviewees. Michael Rowland was guilty of this when putting questions to the PM Anthony Albanese about health funds.
Peter Dutton and the Coalition have been whipping up fear among Australians. Racist Coalition weaponizing immigration by accusing the government of releasing dangerous detainees into the community. It was in actual fact the High Court of Australia that ordered these men who had served their sentences must be released. The frenzy over their release into the community has culminated with Victoria Police wrongly arresting one of the released detainees for sex crimes. Mistaken identity or just white folk paranoia pointing the finger at any Arab looking character? Dog whistling Dutton does not care what damage he causes to people’s lives. Politics is everything to the very rich landlord Dutton and his party of shrill acolytes.
SCOTUS has virtually guaranteed that Donald Trump will not be tried prior to the Presidential election of 2024. US Supreme Court slow walks Trump immunity claim appeal and stay from prosecution. By deciding to take the case it has undermined the unanimous denial of trump’s claims by the federal court of appeals. The stacking of SCOTUS with conservative GOP aligned justices by Trump is obviously paying benefits. The legal rule of law was really the last hope for America in holding Donald Trump accountable for attempts to subvert the Constitution in 2020. The US is now an international disgrace and no longer can be considered a leading democratic nation.
Those demon drugs are plaguing another AFL club it seems. Recreational drugs are the bane of professional sporting organisations, as highly paid players with too much time on their hands fall prey to addictive pursuits. Druggy Demons in AFL spotlight, with one player already suspended and a dark cloud over other high profile Melbourne FC players.
Looking back on recent federal governments in Australia is very revealing. Counting up the cost of Coalition governments to ordinary citizens is somewhat shocking. Peter Dutton and the Coalition government awarded a $400 million contract to a company registered at a beach shack on Kangaroo Island – Paladin. This shady entity had no previous experience running offshore detention centres and the Richardson enquiry revealed a dodgy provenance. Further companies engaged by the Coalition to run these refugee lockups on islands have been exposed to have links to drug dealers and arms running. Much of this happened on Peter Dutton’s watch as Home Affairs minister. Dutton talks tough to the media on border security but his track record is another matter altogether. Dirty deeds done really bloody expensively by shady organisations – would be a fair assessment.
It seemingly began with groups of Christians claiming that they were under attack from a progressive liberal America. They wanted the right to discriminate against individuals on the basis of their sexual preference. All these human rights coming into law, often at the behest of the United Nations and their treaties, were, apparently, threatening the basis of fundamental religious instruction in schools and churches. Now, we are seeing the Christian march to power in America. They have their immoral leader Donald J Trump promising them a new land with authoritarian laws amended to fit their way of life.
The Australian economic landscape has seen a succession of Australian corporations declaring record profits. The big insurers were the latest, joining the banks, the supermarket duopoly, the airlines, and a host of miners and fossil fuel companies in achieving record profits. Is it fair for Australian corporations to make record profits during a cost of living crisis? Many ordinary citizens are struggling to afford to put food on the table and meet their rent or mortgage payments. High inflation in the local economy has been the given reason but analysis by pundits has revealed that many companies have been price gouging on the back of a lack of competition in the market. This means these companies can set the price and consumers are bereft of power in the equation.
Donald Trump has just been fined $354 million for fraudulently lying about his assets and business worth when getting loans from commercial banks. Despite a history of very dodgy behaviour Trump ascended to the highest office in the land. Yes, he is an officer of the United States of America. Trump was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, thanks to property developer dad Fred Trump. He is not a self-made man or the second coming of anything worth waiting for. It seems in America the only law with any real teeth is that of money and civil suits.
Nick McKenzie and The Age have revealed more corrupt and incompetent government behaviour from Morrison’s Coalition. Home Affairs during the Coalition’s recent time in office were paying massive amounts of money to companies running the offshore detention facilities in places like Manus Island. It has now been revealed that these corporations and their directors were involved in bribery of foreign governments and drug and arms running. Peter Dutton was the Home Affairs Minister for much of this time. The amounts of money involved in these contracts were in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Billions being spent on what were really political beat ups and that money was going to highly questionable people and their companies.
Australia is famous for the generous deals it cuts the fossil fuel industry. The lack of taxation derived from miners and gas companies making huge profits extracting and selling our resources is becoming infamous globally. I think it is time to investigate politicians dealing with the fossil fuel industry. Have any of our investigative journalists really dug deep into the financial affairs of the state and federal ministers involved in cutting these generous deals. Is it incompetence or something more sinister? Why would sane members of parliament responsible for Australia’s resources fail to capitalise on their worth for their constituents? Is this a dirty business at its core?
