words matter
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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?
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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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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.
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.
I see reports that the alleged Bondi Beach gunmen were on ASIO’s radar. Well, further investigative reports tell us that they travelled to the Philippines in November and attended militia training there in the south. This would involve firearms training and learning strategies for shooting people, I would suggest. It seems that our security agencies are not all that we might hope, if the evidence is anything to go by. This in conjunction with gun laws that allowed an individual to have licenses for 6 firearms. What do you need to have this many guns for? It is time to stop treating gun owners with kid gloves and get real about the dangers these deadly weapons pose to the greater community.
We live in interesting times, as the old Confucian adage goes. I write this in light of the inspiring speech delivered by Canadian PM Mark Carney at Davos. The Mark Carney middle power speech. His leadership at this time, provokes comparison with that of our own PM Anthony Albanese. Labor has come to power federally downunder on the back of being a small target, as political strategy. This continues to infect this government and its leadership, I find. The elephant in the room is, of course, President Donald J Trump. I wonder for how much longer will Albanese duck and weave in the face of this wrecking ball of the old international order?
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In contravention of the AFL media’s obsession with star players, the art of coaching demands so much more than a roster of stars. Indeed, the mysteries of coaching AFL are on display for all to see throughout the season. Why is one team so good and another side so bad? The talking heads would like to make it all about the talent of the players in each squad but that is decidedly not the exclusive reason for success. In truth, the athletes playing AFL at this level are all very good, which is why they ended up on a playing list at an AFL club. Most of these young men have been playing footy for much of their short lives. They are remarkably talented with ball skills and have honed their physical endurance in readiness for the big leap to AFL standard.
Culture Fresh Media News Sport In contravention of the AFL media’s obsession with star players, the art of coaching demands so much more than a roster of stars. Indeed, the mysteries of coaching AFL are on display for all to see throughout the season. Why is one team so good and another side so bad? The talking heads would like to make it all about the talent of the players in each squad but that is decidedly not the exclusive reason for success. In truth, the athletes playing AFL at this level are all very good, which is why they ended up on a playing list at an AFL club. Most of these young men have been playing footy for much of their short lives. They are remarkably talented with ball skills and have honed their physical endurance in readiness for the big leap to AFL standard.
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In contravention of the AFL media’s obsession with star players, the art of coaching demands so much more than a roster of stars. Indeed, the mysteries of coaching AFL are on display for all to see throughout the season. Why is one team so good and another side so bad? The talking heads would like to make it all about the talent of the players in each squad but that is decidedly not the exclusive reason for success. In truth, the athletes playing AFL at this level are all very good, which is why they ended up on a playing list at an AFL club. Most of these young men have been playing footy for much of their short lives. They are remarkably talented with ball skills and have honed their physical endurance in readiness for the big leap to AFL standard.
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Here is an interesting fact. Support for One Nation is highest in areas where there are relatively few migrants living. Regional areas and outer suburban electorates, where the vast majority of populations are white bread. Why then do they go on about the issue of high levels of immigration in Australia? It is not actual lived experience. Could it be because they watch Sky News Australia and listen to reactionary shock jocks on the radio? Blaming immigrants, refugees and foreigners, more generally, is a right wing populist saw. Combine this with a general underlying racism inherited down through generations and you probably get what is really going on here. Pauline Hanson has been banging on about her white supremacist views for decades and now has Gina Rinehart to bankroll her hate speech infected perspective downunder.
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PM Anthony Albanese was never going to stand up to the gas industry downunder. Weak leaders follow the power elite. They are content to see inequity and inequality flourish in this time of zombie neoliberalism. Nero fiddled whilst Rome burned or so the story goes. Governments do little these days but talk and let the markets run the show to the detriment of the working poor. We have a severe housing crisis and it is not getting any better. What is the government doing about it? Talking about it, but talk is cheap. They are not actually getting their hands dirty and getting into the game by building houses themselves. No, they are ineffectually encouraging private interests to do something about the housing crisis. The figures do not stack up in terms of meeting the challenge of new housing stock being built at the required rate.
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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?
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Does anybody else find it ironic that a would-be-dictator is bragging about killing a dictator of another country? I am talking about President Trump, who tells Americans there should be no separation between church and state, and the theocratic leader of Iran, the late Ayatollah Khomeini. Donald Trump previously claimed to be worthy of the Nobel peace prize, as the war stopper par excellence. Hey, he has obviously moved on from this deeply held moral standpoint. Boredom is Trump’s greatest threat, it seems. Donald Trump is, without doubt, the biggest liar that the American presidency has ever seen. Therefore, his claims are as credible as the boy who cried wolf.
You know, a long time ago, I removed liars from my life. I made a conscious decision not to have people who dissemble around me. I suppose, I thought, that things can be fairly challenging without the added complications of not knowing if that person was spinning me a tale. Talking shit! Making stuff up to suit their own purposes. Since that self-imposed rule came into my life, things may not be as exciting as they once were but they are a hell of a lot simpler. This is probably why I have no time for Donald Trump at all. Once I worked out that the man is a compulsive liar and has zero respect for the truth, I will not waste my time listening to his crap. I do feel sorry for those Americans who have to endure such a waste of space pretending to be someone worthy of being their leader.
Yet another, executive order from the President has been found to be unconstitutional and illegal. Lawless Trump regime tariffs struck down by Supreme Court. The economic wastage committed by this administration is enormous, as it fails to govern appropriately. No man is an island, not even, Donald Trump. Only Congress can enact these tariffs according to the SCOTUS ruling. No President can apply tariffs in this manner, as the US Constitution tells us that this is only a job for Congress. President Trump is spitting chips and saying nasty things about the supreme court justices that ruled against his tariffs.
Much of everything is about power. Who wants it? Who has it? What are they doing with it? It’s all about power. Most things you read about or view in the news are really all about power. The global blast zone about the Epstein Files is, it has been revealed, largely to do with the elite and their appetites. Yes, sex is on the menu but merely as an appetiser. Money, sex and power stink up these documents. The unfortunate truth is that the Epstein class rules us all. The game is rigged, as the power elite conspire to win big at our expense. Jeffrey Epstein was a paedophile and sex trafficker.
The federal Liberal Party returned to their spots, as the beast that reckons females have their place beneath a man. For many years, the Libs argued that it was purely based on merit why they had so few women in positions of power. Pull the other one boys. This sons of Anglo-settler political party sees power as the natural home of men born to rule. Going to the right private school and ascending gracefully via a network of old boys is the Liberal Party way. Sure, the odd woman, who can act like a bloke, is neither here nor there; but leadership is reserved for the right kind of man.
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.
If you are disgusted and horrified at Trump and the revelations of the Epstein files. Do your bit: Cancel your Big Tech subscriptions. Bill Gates and Trump are ball’s deep in the sordid world of the late Jeffrey Epstein. Rich men treat the world with disdain and think they can wipe their muck off on us. What can we do about this? What action can we take to send a clear message that this is not good enough behaviour? Ditch your Microsoft subscriptions. Hit them where it will ultimately hurt. Stop spending your money with Big Tech.
This statement has been the overwhelming meta narrative running through human political history forever. I studied ancient history for many years and this was true in ancient Greek and Roman civilisations too. The aristocracy has always seen itself as the only thing that really mattered. Only the wealthy matter is top of the bill in Trump’s America right now. The evidence for this is manifest in multiple places. Trump’s big beautiful bill cut taxes for billionaires and slashed spending on the poor. The Trump cabinet is populated by more billionaires than ever seen before. Big Tech oligarchs lined up to kiss the ring of President Donald Trump at his inauguration. Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, inserted himself into the Trump administration via DOGE to garner attention on this stage.  The messaging is clear – only the wealthy really matter.
A guy throws a bomb into a crowd of thousands of people. Luckily it does not go off, but if it had, it would have killed and maimed possibly hundreds of people. His lawyer successfully argues to have the bomb thrower’s name suppressed on the grounds of protecting his safety. WTF? What kind of country do we live in? Our justice system protects the anonymity of a wilful bomb thrower who wanted to hurt and kill Aboriginal people and managed to disperse a peaceful protest. White Australia worries about the safety of a bomb throwing terrorist. This is what is wrong with our justice system. Protecting perpetrators at the expense of our right to have these scumbags named and shamed. This happened in Perth on Invasion/Australia Day. There has been very little media coverage of this bomb throwing event in the right wing media, which dominates the Australian media landscape. Strange that, perhaps if it wasn’t at a brown skinned gathering it would have been given more attention by the Murdoch press.
Let’s get one thing clear, it is those on the far right who invariably turn to violence on the back of their intolerance. In Perth, we see an individual throwing a homemade bomb into the midst of the peaceful Invasion Day march. Thankfully, this device did not go off or we would be having a very different discussion right now. On the Gold Coast a young March for Australia organiser gets into a fight and deliberately lies about the ethnic identity of his opponents. He promotes this disinformation to his online audience, fraudulently claiming that his fisticuff fight was with Middle Eastern Australians. QLD police declare this information to be false and misleading. You cannot trust what comes out of the mouth of racists.
