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when words matter most
ACHTUNG
when words matter most
Dominic Perrottet, the Nazi premier of NSW, is under attack from Clubs NSW over reforms to pokie gambling in his state. The introduction of a cashless card is seen as the death knell for all the illegal money laundering going on via pokie machines. This is at the root of the whole “I dressed up as a Nazi for my 21st Birthday” shaming of the Premier. It is a dirty underhanded campaign to remove Perrottet from office and so kill off the reforms to pokie gambling in NSW. The millions and billions of dollars surrounding pokie machines in clubs and pubs in NSW is manna from ill gotten sources for a bevy of businesses, pollies, and hangers-on. Organised crime is heavily invested in this reform not going ahead. Premier Perrottet under attack over pokie reforms in NSW.
Older Stuff
In Queensland, yet another Indigenous Australian man is shot dead by police. 6 police officers could not restrain an angry young man with a knife without shooting him dead. The training around guns is so bad that we should follow the British example and only have specialist units armed with deadly force. Australian police: Take their guns away to save lives. Police should not be called out to domestic violence situations, as they too often make things much worse. Police officers in states around Australia fail to talk offenders down and disarm them. Their presence actually escalates the problems and results in the unnecessary use of deadly force.
Fresh
Thirty years ago the average person didn’t worry about their digital footprint. They didn’t have a social media profile or a website in most cases. Individuals were footloose and fancy free without the ever present digital shadow hanging over them. Digging into your digital footprint can reveal how our cultural concerns are changing. Young people previously had lives which didn’t demand constant documenting via technological devices. Human beings had identities outside of the pixels and bytes forming shapes and images on screens. None of these things are possible today unless you are willing to swim against the current in 2023 and beyond. Kids are constantly checking their phones for updates re-their on-screen lives. Many cannot commit to things like watching a movie without reference to the small screen in their palm. Concentration levels have been diffused into a multiplicity of intermittent calls upon their flickering attention spans.
Culture Fresh
The Queensland police declare Trains’ domestic Christian terrorists following an investigation into their murderous shooting in Wieambilla. Stacey Train and Nathaniel Train were school principals until recently and their conversion to mass murderers could not have happened overnight. This highlights the dangers of religious belief and how extremism is only an unknown distance away. If you believe in invisible supernatural entities then the sky is the limit when it comes to making up your own rules on planet earth. The thing about religion is that ultimately its adherents do not recognise governments over their gods.
Only in America, the land of unchecked greed and guns, do you half expect these sort of things. Rapacious health fund CEO gunned down in New York city. The assassin had marked his bullets with the words ‘deny’, ‘defend’ and ‘depose’. These are the insurer’s mantra when refusing payouts to policy holders. Brian Thompson was the CEO of United Healthcare a company on target to make $450 billion revenue this financial year. This is America where healthcare is first and foremost about profitability for investors and executives. I suspect that this way of doing business has made the company plenty of enemies.
Culture Economics Fresh Only in America, the land of unchecked greed and guns, do you half expect these sort of things. Rapacious health fund CEO gunned down in New York city. The assassin had marked his bullets with the words ‘deny’, ‘defend’ and ‘depose’. These are the insurer’s mantra when refusing payouts to policy holders. Brian Thompson was the CEO of United Healthcare a company on target to make $450 billion revenue this financial year. This is America where healthcare is first and foremost about profitability for investors and executives. I suspect that this way of doing business has made the company plenty of enemies.
Culture Economics Fresh
I just watched Civil War, the 2024 movie, by Alex Garland. I had been holding off on viewing it because I didn’t know if it would be another Hollywood gun fest. Initially, my thoughts were – yeah, dumb Americans and their stupid obsession with whizz bang weapons. I mean, the country contains some 600 million guns, apparently. I called this article, Civil War in America: The sequel because they are looking down the barrel of a second instalment of this potentially bloody conflict. 600 thousand Americans died during the first Civil War in 1861-65. The automatic weapons are much more impressive now, so, the butcher’s bill could be way more this time round.
Individuals who have made a shit load of money are not necessarily wise by nature. There is, however, an all too ready willingness to believe in their superiority by the sheep-like members of our communities. Billionaire influence: Rich men and their sheep. Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Peter Thiel, Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Bloomberg, Charles Koch and the list could go on are some of the most influential billionaires of the 21C. The majority of us are content to shuffle along in life and follow the leader. ‘Working for the man’ means for many trading their integrity for a meagre amount of financial security. Crumbs from the trickledown effect of decades of neoliberalism. Once you have passed on your autonomy to another it is no stretch to follow their lead wherever they take you. This makes very wealthy people much more influential than their poorer counterparts.
Australia is moving toward a renewable energy future – it is happening and is underway. Yes, there are challenges ahead in this major transformation, which has been inspired by the world’s need to respond to global warming. No serious energy expert or scientist has suggested […]
The culture wars pits extreme reactionary conservatives against progressives. The war on woke is an example of this, where ordinary folk are encouraged to see efforts in favour of redressing the situation, where those among us traditionally excluded from a seat at the big table, as unnecessary. White supremacists are, of course, big fans of this and in some instances driving this ‘anti-woke’ narrative. Diversity inclusiveness is being pilloried as somehow unfair to the dominant white male cohort within our communities – this is ridiculous. The figures do not back this up in any way. The culture wars and demonising woke play to the politics of grievance.
The recent decision by the Queensland state government not to build another sporting stadium for the Olympics is a sign of maturity. Brisbane and Australia are in the midst of an acute housing crisis, with too few houses and apartments available for demand. It would be a gross display of economic irresponsibility to build a massively expensive stadium when there are not enough affordable accommodation options available for the people of Brisbane. The builders and the investment should be engaged and spent on social housing rather than infrastructure for sport. Enough with the elitist sporting indulgence when a city, a state, and a nation is not taking care of its ordinary citizens. Not building another stadium is a win for Queenslanders.
Let me share with you a little about my recent viewing experiences. I decided to trim my expenses in response to the cost of living crisis eating up my modest savings. I axed the streaming services previously subscribed to one by one. Then, after nearly 20 years of pay TV – I gave that the flick also. Suddenly, I was reduced to watching the footy on free to air. Channel 7 trumpets this FREE experience to the viewer but stuffs so many ads into a game my head started spinning. I entered the fake world of commercial free to air TV.
The failure of Donald J Trump to post a bond for the $466 million fraud fine judgement against him has confirmed what many have suspected for some time. Trump is a fake billionaire. He does not have access to this kind of money because his properties are already mortgaged to the hilt. The more concerning matter is the fact that the pretty useless American rules of standing for the highest office in the land have no provision for candidates in massive debt. How stupid is this! Apparently, you can become President of the United States owing huge amounts of money to all and sundry. You can owe hundreds of millions to foreign powers – no problem. The American system is a joke!
They say the pen is mightier than the sword, well, they used to anyway. In this case, Sampson was brought down by the ABC’s Four Corners. The Cranbrook Headmaster was undone by the revelations exposed by the national broadcaster’s flagship current affair program. Protecting paedophiles and a teacher bragging about looking up student’s dresses at a former school were, in the end, too much for the board of trustees. They had toughed out the many complaints by female teachers about their treatment by male staff and students at the exclusive private boy’s school in Sydney’s eastern suburbs. Principal of privileged private school falls on sword in resignation at bad form exposed over decades.
It is hard not to reduce the salient difference between those on the Right to those on the Left, as an overt concern with selfishness vs inclusiveness. Republicans in America always back tax cuts for the rich and big business. The LNP Coalition in Australia follow a similar predilection, when it comes to things, as exemplified by the Stage 3 tax cuts. Those on the Right are fed a diet of the individual’s right to private wealth over most other considerations. They see that capitalism is about such things, and are highly suspicious of the welfare state. Their ideological stance is that everyone must make their own way in life with no handouts. However, they have no problem with receiving a leg up from their family if they come from a wealthy background. A level playing field is not high on their list of priorities.
Over 40, 000 AFL fans packed the SCG for the Sydney Swans vs Melbourne Demons opening round of the 2024 season. What were the main takeaways from this novel opening match. AFL ruckman Brodie Grundy was made for the Bloods and played with real heart and soul to get them over the line. He nullified Max Gawn as the game went on and put in a massive last quarter to turn the tide the Swans way. Grundy had 22 disposals, 15 contested, 9 clearances, 6 tackles, 4 marks and 31 hit outs. Sydney defeated Melbourne 12.14 to 9.10. The Demons had outscored the Swans in the third term to threaten their chances of victory.
