words matter
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You may have noticed the confluence of public rallies purporting to be about anti-immigration in Britain and Australia. These are organised by white supremacist groups and are attacking Labor governments in both nations. The right wing anti-immigration con job conveniently misses the fact that both countries have had 10 years of conservative governments prior to the rise of Labour. Blaming Anthony Albanese or Keir Starmer is a bit rich when it is decade’s old policies driving the bus on immigration. White skinned people wrapping themselves in the national flag makes for paper thin patriotism in my book. The empire and colonial times are over folks, the world has moved on, thankfully.
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Up until this moment, Australia has been pretty laid back about Sovereign Citizens and their ridiculous carry on about their rights. Unlike many other countries, where if you went around saying, ‘your laws do not apply to me,’ you would be arrested and locked up. Now, however, one of these so-called ‘freedom fighters’ has killed 2 cops in cold blood and wounded another. On this basis, the party is over folks! No more cutting these people slack. It is time to declare them domestic terrorists and to proscribe them on this basis. There is no place for individuals in this nation going around claiming that they are immune from our laws. You are either with us or against us!
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I am sure that the fact that a right wing war criminal, who happens to be the PM of Israel, is unhappy with him is making Anthony Albanese, the Australian PM, shake in his bones. Benjamin Netanyahu, the man who has unleashed a genocidal war machine upon the people of Gaza, desperately wants other European-settler nations to back him in his mass murderous treatment of Palestinians. The old ‘white is always right’ approach to stealing the land of those who were there before the settlers comes to the fore. Netanyahu loved Peter Dutton and sponsored him on a junket tour of Israel prior to Peter’s cataclysmic defeat in the last federal election downunder. Dutton and his Rupert Murdoch News Corp mates ran on a pro-Israel ticket despite the killing of more than 17, 000 Palestinian children and the murder of aid workers and journalists in Gaza by the IDF.
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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.
Let’s take a peek inside the Aussie racist bubble. This is where those wrapping themselves in the national flag and marching against immigration reside. The thinking goes that if we keep out all those brown skinned people, we will not see horrendous events like the Bondi Beach mass shooting. White folk from, predominantly, Anglo stock do not commit such vile acts, according to their script. Shutting the big bad world out will protect us from the atrocities. Yes, some of our business elite sell weapons to war torn countries and our superannuation funds invest for profit in such stuff the world over, but that is beside the point. Yes, our soldiers have fought in wars in Afghanistan and the Middle East but that is not our concern, either.
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.
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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?
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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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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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Since the global pandemic we have seen a trend toward a concern for individual freedoms. This is no surprise after the lockdowns, vaccine mandates, and heavier government controls. However, these social health policies were necessary and will be again if and when another virus emerges. I am reminded of times of war when governments are forced to curtail public freedoms and demand much more from their citizens. Do not fall for those promising some sovereign citizen nirvana because such things do not exist in reality. The world is not all about you or me, we are all a part of communities, whether we like it or not. Populations are rising and this by its very nature means more rules to govern the many.
Down in Tassie things are different to the rest of Australia. The upside down world in Tasmania has the Liberal state government supporting a Yes vote in the Voice referendum, whilst local Aboriginal groups want a No vote. The polls are predicting a rare win for Yes in the Apple Isle, whereas the mainland story is predicted to be all about No. Why is this so? Tasmania is infamous for massacring most of its Indigenous population back in the day. Perhaps this has something to do with the apparently anomalous situation happening there in relation to First Nations recognition in the Australian Constitution and an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
Injustice makes me angry! What about you? Do you get stirred up by it or do you simply shrug your shoulders fatalistically? This sense of the unfairness of injustice has waxed and waned over the various stages of my life. Keenly felt in my youth, somewhat disenfranchised during my working life, and returning with a vengeance now. We live in an age of disinformation and deflection by design. In the era of social media, gossip is given more credence because it is written down for public record. The digital world defines and details every piece of crap that comes out of human beings.
Education is, as we all know, a vital component in our lives. They do not call them our formative years for nothing. Yet, there are many things, those in charge of teaching, do not include in our learnings. The state or a particular religious organisation are most usually involved in defining the taught curriculum. Somehow, I find, there is always important shit they didn’t teach me at school. Stuff that they left out for reasons unbeknown to me but of which I am now willing to speculate upon. I have extended my research beyond just my own school days to include the experiences of others from different eras.
Michael Pezzullo, according to 60 Minutes, has been revealed as a Machiavellian character operating inside the halls of power in Canberra. Pezzullo pissing in political pockets in search of influence is operating well outside the remit of a member of the public service. The expose by Nine Fairfax investigative reporters shows him to be a right wing power broker rather than an apolitical appointment. The Home Affairs Secretary in his clandestine relationship with Liberal Party insider Scott Briggs has crossed the line repeatedly and consistently over many years. The trove of once encrypted messages now revealed should ring the death knell for his career.
As an interstate viewer watching and listening to the heavy Victorian bias in AFL final’s commentary this year it felt like the VFL. The Melbournian centric focus expressed by the many ex-player commentators was in top gear throughout the finals. These blokes were jumping on the Carlton bandwagon and were fully paid up members of the Magpie army. It is only to be expected when their bread and butter comes from this huge market in terms of paying gigs and such like, I suppose. It does make one wonder, however, whether this truly is a national competition or just the VFL with a few add-ons.
Banks make lots of money because they have utilised digitisation to streamline their operations. Which in plain speak means they have sacked all their workers and machines do all the work. That automation, however, makes their services vulnerable to scammers who get hold of the pass codes. Do banks love scammers? There are no human gatekeepers to stop the flow of money from one account to another. The banks make their money from countless small fees charged on transactions and accounts. They make their money just as easily from the scammer’s account as they do from yours or mine.
The numbers don’t lie but rather tell the real story of an already divided country. These conservative white politicians going around warning of the divisive potentialities of the Voice to Parliament are full of the proverbial. The fact that only 1 in 6 Aussies interact with an Indigenous Australian means that most of us don’t really know an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. We live largely separate lives and only hear about them in the news. We have no idea what it is like to walk in their shoes. Therefore, the calls to vote No are misguided because the status quo is not alright for the majority of First Nations Australians.
Australians are really dumb if you go by their behaviour over the last 20 years. They have bought the whole anti-union narrative spruiked by conservative politicians like John Howard, Tony Abbott, Scott Morrison and their ilk. These guys demonised and attempted to criminalise unionists and their ALP mates. The whole anti-Bill Shorten campaign painted Bill as some union crook – for which there was no real evidence. Despite this voters bought it hook, line and sinker. Now, we are where we find ourselves with record low wage growth over decades. Unions stripped of power by laws. Labour hire companies ripping off workers. Workers with bugger all rights. Big companies lording it over little workers with no bargaining power.
Once again poor kicking for goal cost the Swans in their ultimate match of 2023. A tremendous effort by the Bloods, especially in the second half, but they left themselves with too much work to do. Inaccurate kicking for goals is not just down to bad luck – it is a lot to do with not coping with the pressure of the moment. Too many senior Swan’s players did not take their chances when it mattered most in big games. This was a common theme throughout season 2023, unfortunately. Sydney Swan’s takeaways and future requirements from this edition and for 2024.
