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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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Trump’s US forces bombed Venezuela and snatched its President. Trump illegally invades a sovereign nation. No declaration of war. No congressional approval. This was one corrupt regime attacking another corrupt regime. This was about oil. Donald Trump is a convicted felon, he is a mob boss running a super power. Trump lives in the past, this old white man, almost an octogenarian, thinks he can turn back the clock. The United States treating Central and South American nations with disdain is something that many thought belonged in the 20C. Latin America has been bedevilled by American corporate greed for centuries. You have heard the term ‘banana republics’, well, this is where it was coined.
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Project 2025 and Project Esther are right wing authoritarian blueprints for the disempowerment of progressive influence in the United States of America. Antisemitism has been weaponised by the Far Right as a witch hunt. This is a global campaign supported by the Trump regime and […]
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AI is coming for your job. As someone who has just been replaced by an automated program this is real, let me tell you. In light of this it is pertinent to remember that Australia punishes the unemployed economically. It is bipartisan policy of Australian governments to provide below the poverty line welfare payments to the unemployed. This has been going on for decades and is one of the reasons why we have a substantial number of older Australians living in poverty. These folk cannot afford to visit the dentist to get treatment because it is too expensive and dental is not included in Medicare. This in one of the wealthiest nations on earth.
Do you find reading stuff to be a bit of a drag? Are you always on the look out for an easy hack? The bad news is that if you don’t exercise your brain function you will pay for it later on. Use it or lose it! Technology may seem great and so convenient, but it is dumbing us down and charging us for the service at the same time. Reading utilises different parts of the brain than watching videos. Processing the meaning of words and sentences makes you smarter and not the machine. Ruminating on important stuff via reading essays will make you wiser. Here are 5 good reasons why reading will save your brain.
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.
Leadership on the national stage is no easy thing. In a largely two party political system it is not a dualist situation like that between good and evil. More is the pity, in the opinion of some. No, rather there are similarities and mutual understandings in Australia between the Labor and Liberal Parties. Timid or terrible: Australia’s choice is the description given to the current selection of leadership candidates on display. The former is, oh so careful, not to create a political rod for his own back by any moves too willing to be offensive to anyone. The latter refers to the opposition candidate’s proclivity for alarmist rhetoric about everything under the sun. He is quick to condemn those falling outside of the propertied white male category.
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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.
Culture Democracy Fresh Government Life Politics Power Religion 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.
Culture Democracy Fresh Government Life Politics Power Religion
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.
Culture Democracy Fresh Government Life Politics Power Religion
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.
Culture Democracy Economics Fresh Government Politics Power
How the ‘Gig economy’ feeds on its workers to profit its corporate masters and their shareholders? Technology has facilitated more services and cheaper rates for consumers. Delivery drivers and riders provide their own assets, like vehicle and smart phone, to make those deliveries possible. These, often, expensive assets depreciate through use and the gig worker must bear the cost and not the parent platform. The risks are all with the worker and not the platforms. Indeed, Uber has a pathway where drivers, often, end up paying for the shopping with their own money, which is to be reimbursed days later. If the worker was being paid extra for these financially onerous uses of their assets it might be OK, but they are not.
In Australia, on the political front, we have very little in the way of progressive or Leftist policy options. It is rather the choice of how far Right. Traditionally centrist positions have been favoured by most voters, usually Centre Right. The LNP Coalition has, over recent years, moved further Right in thrall to populist demagogues like Donald Trump. Neoliberalism via privatization has seen many previously publicly owned assets move into private hands. The energy utilities are an illustrative example of this, where numerous private companies operate within this sector, either generating, wholesaling or retailing energy. Despite promises to the contrary prices for energy have not come down. Those greater efficiencies have not materialised.
Here are 5 reasons why Donald Trump is wrecking the global economy. The US has ruled the roost economically since WW2 and detrimental things that happen there negatively impact upon the world economy too. More than a million jobs have been lost in the US since Trump took over at the beginning of 2025. The labour market has been hit hard from tariffs and DOGE cuts shedding jobs. Things are in the doldrums in America and stagflation may well be on the horizon. Messing with the economy, as the Trump regime has, is having multiple effects.
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.
Politicians on the Right have no long term solutions for anything. Short termism infects everything they do and say. Their intentions are all about getting elected via the politics of grievance. Once in power they achieve little and go about milking the system for their own benefit. Donald Trump is a clear example of this, campaigning on high prices and the cost of living under Joe Biden. The US economy is now in far worse shape since he returned to the White House. More than a million jobs have been lost and stagflation is on the horizon for Americans. Trump now has the lowest approval rate in the polls in US history. If you ask many of his voters if they are happy with his handling of the economy their answer would be in the negative.
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.
Do you find reading stuff to be a bit of a drag? Are you always on the look out for an easy hack? The bad news is that if you don’t exercise your brain function you will pay for it later on. Use it or lose it! Technology may seem great and so convenient, but it is dumbing us down and charging us for the service at the same time. Reading utilises different parts of the brain than watching videos. Processing the meaning of words and sentences makes you smarter and not the machine. Ruminating on important stuff via reading essays will make you wiser. Here are 5 good reasons why reading will save your brain.
The release of a trove Epstein emails has revealed Jeffrey Epstein agony aunt to billionaires and other elites. Prominent Americans sought both financial and dating advice from Jeffrey Epstein. Money and sex, it is like these two hot topics use the same hole or parts of the brain. Larry Summers, the economist and former President of Harvard University, is featured in these email conservations with Epstein, even after Epstein’s conviction for sex trafficking. It seems that the billionaire financier and sex trafficker had a reputation as an expert in both these areas of life.
I saw a headline from The Australian, a News Corp publication, which is an American multinational corporation, asking the question whether the ABC should be worried in light of Donald Trump’s threat to sue the BBC for a billion dollars. This is, of course, all about intimidation. Trump’s BBC billion dollar libel: Will the ABC be next? Trump sues people and organisations to shut them up, as do many powerful people. Intimidating the media is a favourite of the Trump regime, as it seeks to distort and divert attention away from factuality. The Murdoch family, the owners of News Corp, which operates Fox News and Sky News Australia have been a conduit for and supporter of Donald Trump. You could say that they plough the same right wing furrow.
The ABC and its legacy media pack leader, News Corp, are unable to adjust to the new political landscape downunder. The Liberal Party has become an irrelevance to modern metropolitan Australians. However, the mainstream media are stuck in a 2 party adversarial model in their coverage of federal politics nationally. Thus, we have disproportionate amounts of attention being paid to a political movement that the bulk of the population have moved past. Aussie news stuck in adversarial 2 party politics model. The LNP Coalition was trounced at the last federal election because Australians were sick of far right toxic masculinity masquerading as democratically elected representation. The Tony Abbott/Sky News Australia led hard Right faction of the Libs were completely out of step with a younger and more dynamic Australia.
