words matter
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The Liberal Party of Australia is in a civil war between its moderate side, which seeks to regain relevance within a modern Australia, and the far right faction still in the grip of toxic masculinity. Peter Dutton fell at the last federal election, as leader, rejected by the Australian electorate on all fronts. He had run a campaign and his tenure as opposition leader aggressively, in the mode of former short term PM Tony Abbott. Abbott was still pulling the Liberal Party strings, along with his former chief of staff now over at Sky News Australia. Their conservative brand was Trumpist, via its extreme nature, which was always attacking and polarizing. Liberal Party in civil war for control, who will lead them going forward? Currently, Sussan Ley holds the mantle atop the Liberal Party of Australia.
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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.
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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 As someone who has just been replaced by an automated program this is real, let me tell you.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.
Here are 5 things to know about black teeth. Japanese women used to blacken their teeth and shave off their eyebrows post marriage, prior to the mid nineteenth century. Ohagaru was practiced up until the Meiji era. It is interesting to view this custom through the lens of our current 21C obsession with very white teeth. Some see this as further evidence of the control and denigration of the human rights of Japanese women in their traditional society, whilst others disagree with this conclusion. Early western anthropologists described ohagaru as an abhorrent custom, which disfigured women. The custom was, also, practiced in parts of China by minority groups.
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.
Supposedly we live in an age defined economically, where the dollar worth of everything matters most. Why then are our politicians and their strategists forever focusing attention upon cultural stuff? The war on woke, the attacks on LGBTQI folk, and the endless anti-elite ethos. Every politician and political party wants to stand with the ordinary voter, apparently. Finger pointing at those categorised as elite reinvokes the old class warfare it seems. We the people vs those individuals too superior to represent our interests. These are all manipulations and part and parcel of the politics of grievance.
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Psychologically those individuals who back strongman leaders often feel that they need the protection of bullies. Trump voters in America, the MAGA faithful fall into this category. Why do people back the loudest voice in the room? White supremacists and racists are, when you boil it down, fearful of those they perceive as different from themselves. They want the faces on their streets to comfortably resemble their own. Far right political parties like One Nation use social media to emphasise examples of crimes being committed by Australians with dark skin, as if these folk are the only ones doing such things. This misleading propaganda rallies their supporters around key elements of their anti-immigration platform.
Crime Culture Democracy Economics Fresh Government Media News Politics Power Psychologically those individuals who back strongman leaders often feel that they need the protection of bullies. Trump voters in America, the MAGA faithful fall into this category. Why do people back the loudest voice in the room? White supremacists and racists are, when you boil it down, fearful of those they perceive as different from themselves. They want the faces on their streets to comfortably resemble their own. Far right political parties like One Nation use social media to emphasise examples of crimes being committed by Australians with dark skin, as if these folk are the only ones doing such things. This misleading propaganda rallies their supporters around key elements of their anti-immigration platform.
Crime Culture Democracy Economics Fresh Government Media News Politics Power
Psychologically those individuals who back strongman leaders often feel that they need the protection of bullies. Trump voters in America, the MAGA faithful fall into this category. Why do people back the loudest voice in the room? White supremacists and racists are, when you boil it down, fearful of those they perceive as different from themselves. They want the faces on their streets to comfortably resemble their own. Far right political parties like One Nation use social media to emphasise examples of crimes being committed by Australians with dark skin, as if these folk are the only ones doing such things. This misleading propaganda rallies their supporters around key elements of their anti-immigration platform.
Crime Culture Democracy Economics Fresh Government Media News Politics Power
OK, the Trump regime is now live streaming public executions by firing squad. It started with UFC staged fights on the White House lawn and has descended into further barbarism. Did you know that if you criticise ICE on social media and live in the United States, you can expect a visit from DHS to your home? This is fascism up and running in America. ICE continues to shoot and murder American citizens in cold blood around the country. This huge paramilitary force of heavily armed, masked henchmen is spreading fear wherever they go. I wonder for how much longer is the Australian government going to turn a blind eye to the abominable behaviour of its ally? When will Australia say to Trump’s America enough is enough? Will Australia stand up to Trump?
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We are watching a once great democracy falter and begin its fall. Nobody has faith in the American government under President Donald Trump. The re-election of Trump was a very bad sign. The power is in the hands of the Big Tech billionaires and oligarchs. The market is in a blind fever over AI to the tune of trillions of dollars. Greed will destroy America. Here is a statistic for you, half of Nvidia’s employees are worth $25 million or more. The gold rush fever is upon those invested in the AI sector. Trump is recommending self-regulation for this runaway train of an industry. Humanity is crammed up at the back of these carriages and the edge of the cliff is nie.
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A little bird told me, a cygnet perhaps, that the numbskull driving force behind the Sydney Swans Pullman 5 was none other than James Jordan. I wanted to know whose bright idea was it to engage strippers at a prominent Melbourne hotel in season, just a week prior to the AFL Finals. Especially, as your footy team was 2nd on the ladder and in with a real chance to win the 2026 premiership. Remember that the Swans defeated Brisbane by almost 10 goals in the Qualifying Final and that Brisbane went on to claim yet another flag this year. Sydney Swan James Jordon Pullman 5 instigator!
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The Murdoch’s News Corp is at it again in Australian politics, making news rather than reporting on it. Sky News Australia, that blatantly one eyed right wing tabloid TV channel, is hard at it beating up BS into inflammatory stories. Calling out the fear mongers. Liberal party cronies and ex-staffers bleat non-stop anti-Albanese malarkey. The Australian newspaper in concert with Newspoll declares major popularity slump for the ALP federal government. This strategy of polling to start anti-government waves of public sentiment has been a long standing one for News Corp. They can then run multiple stories across their platforms with headlines about midterm slumps. The rest of the corporate media picks up these stories and runs with them, including the now chastened ABC.
We are not joking about something like suicide or the depression that can follow from poor financial decisions and outcomes. It can be a very dark time for those who have cooked their goose with financial controllers around the place. A bad credit rating is not a death sentence: It just feels that way in the game of life. The free enterprise system, where we can buy and sell things like goods and our services, is sometimes like a very serious board game – where the stakes are high and not Monopoly™ money. Losing one’s reputation around money and assets can be a difficult proposition to win back. It is more than the discomfort of not being able to afford the things you want. In a highly materialistic nation like Australia your credit rating and wealth are akin to your mobility within the various stratas of society. Door can close in your face and it takes great resolve to soldier on and get through these hard times.
China has achieved an economic miracle by being one of the few developing countries to shift its status up and into a world superpower. A billion people have together created a modern economy in record time. Only a handful of nations have made the jump to developed economy from developing status in recent times and they are Singapore, Taiwan, and Korea. According to Professor Richard Werner none of the developing nations primarily being helped by the IMF or the World Bank have made this transition. Why is that? Why has the West and the US in particular been so unsuccessful in their efforts to facilitate such economic progress, despite their wealth? In his estimation, as an international economist, it is because the help these financial entities offer is largely exploitative. Bankers just want to make money, it is in their DNA, and they come from investment banks and their associates are still tied to these banks and corporations. Miners and engineering firms are in it for their own profitability above all other considerations when operating in third world places. There are, also, disagreements around economic policy, as there always are in economics.
The media’s obsession with polls in the political spectrum is damaging to our civil society. I think a keen illustration of this was the recent Voice to Parliament for Indigenous Australian’s referendum. The constant polling around this drove the political debate to a large degree. Australians watched as support for the Voice dropped over the weeks and months according to the polls. What had been reported prior to the constant polling as having broad public support was eroded with each update to the polls. What I saw happening was uncertain Australians finding certainty in going with the flow of public opinion. It became alright to say No via perceived safety in numbers, according to the polls. Polling and manipulation by media is damaging to civil society.
How can we have a situation where Australian banks are making record profits in the billions and we are getting scammed for billions at the same time? These scams utilise our bank accounts and banks to transfer their ill-gotten gains.
You know, one of the most fundamental failures of the neoliberal order over the last few decades has been its decimation of wage growth in Western economies. Not paying high enough wages to the world’s biggest consumers has hamstrung productivity in America. The US economy has been stuck in third gear for 20 plus years or more. All those smart cookies who thought it was a brilliant idea to move manufacturing offshore to developing countries, where they could pay workers peanuts, didn’t factor in the whole picture. Yes, production was much cheaper, but the impact on wages in America meant that consumers couldn’t afford to buy as much stuff.
The few serious offenders who have been released by the High Court of Australia from indefinite detention have already served their sentences. Xenophobic Peter Dutton fear mongering once again and raising anxiety levels among Australians. The Leader of the Opposition is both an embarrassment to the nation and a danger to the social fabric. The political point scoring by Dutton is at the expense of the judicial fairness of Australia. Why should these people have to serve further punishment if they have already served the time for their crime. Dutton is a disgrace and should be censured by the parliament for inciting ill feeling toward vulnerable human beings under the care of Australia.
It’s the old story, Leader of the Opposition banging war drums at home and criticising the PM for going out and doing things in the world. When he should be at home mud wrestling with Dutton. Hamas initiated war with Israel and that is Albo’s fault. According to Dutton, Albo should be touring Israel, just like Scomo, instead of wasting his time repairing the China relationship – our major trading partner and the economic elephant in the room. The Libs want to bang the war drums with China and blame the red menace for everything under the bed. Dutton sees himself as a mini Trump, voicing loud opinions on everything.
American Congressmen and women regularly trade on the stock market during their terms in office. This is despite the fact they may have crucial information about corporations and companies which affects their stock price. The American political set up is a bad joke in terms of any separation between civics and commerciality. The committees that these members of Congress sit upon directly impact upon the fortunes of American companies. The fact that members of Congress or their families can happily trade on the stock market during their terms of office is outrageous. No wonder they have to carry them out in wooden coffins and they hardly ever leave office until they reach the ripe old age of Methuselah. Talk about being on a good wicket.
A phalanx of politicians announced the completion of the Robodebt Royal Commission and that the federal government would be accepting all its 50 something findings. This disgusting policy initiative by the previous Coalition government went after 500, 000 Australians accusing them of fraudulently taking social […]
