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You know, paying your taxes is pretty important for the country. It may not be popular but tax revenue challenges are vital to the future of this nation. ATO $2 billion scam failure lets down Australia. The ABC’s 4 Corners has exposed huge holes in the ATO automated system to the tune of billions of dollars. Local scammers and criminals have plundered the tax office to an extraordinary scale over recent years. The disappointing nature of this is not only the embarrassing hit to the nation’s coffers but the fact that ATO retrenchments directly contributed to the appalling loss and theft of funds.
Crime Economics Fresh
In Gaza, Israel is actively starving Palestinians to death. This follows bombing the shit out of the place and killing in excess of 50, 000 human beings. Meanwhile, in Australia the politicians are worrying about antisemitism and a few criminal acts of property destruction. Whilst in America, it is all about a sex scandal involving the exploitation of underage girls by Jeffrey Epstein, who has been dead for 6 years. This is the world we live in. Protesting acts of genocide is being made illegal by the efforts of those working the system to the advantage of their influential friends.
Crime Defence Democracy Fresh Politics
Americans have a funny idea about democracy if their behaviour around voting is any indication. If you look at the current situation and at the history of voting in the United States there is a greater push to keep people from voting than any encouragement for them to do so. More eligible American adults didn’t vote in the last presidential election than voted for either main party by about 20 million voters. The prevention of voting in the US. American men in power prevented women getting the vote unilaterally in the US for around a century. Of course, racist America stopped black women from voting until the civil rights movement in the middle of the 20C. New Zealand gave women the vote in 1893. Russia in 1917.
Democracy Economics Fresh Politics
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 As someone who has just been replaced by an automated program this is real, let me tell you.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.
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.
There is a direct line through history from raiders and enslavers to right wing politics today. The fundamental belief underpinning all of these positions is that it is OK to enrich yourself at the expense of others. Further to that, the primary focus is always on your own desires and bugger the greater community around you. The Vikings are most famous as raiders, who came to other places to slaughter and pillage. They would enslave their most saleable surviving victims to enrich themselves, even more. This attitude to life and getting ahead still exists in a tempered form for right wing folk. The belief that it is a dog eat dog world and that only the strong will thrive flourishes in far right politics today.
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.
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The shocked AFL pundits cried out, nobody picked this!!! The Sydney Swans demolition of the mighty Brisbane Lions in the Qualifying Final at the SCG. A talent depleted Sydney outfit outplayed the premiers for 4 quarters on a Saturday afternoon in the Harbour City. In actual fact, someone did pick this massive upset. No lesser person than the great Buddy Franklin picked this result and publicised it via his YouTube video with Shane Crawford. Buddy, I am reminded, is a great student of the game, according to John Longmire; and he proved it on this occasion.
Culture Footy Fresh News Sport The shocked AFL pundits cried out, nobody picked this!!! The Sydney Swans demolition of the mighty Brisbane Lions in the Qualifying Final at the SCG. A talent depleted Sydney outfit outplayed the premiers for 4 quarters on a Saturday afternoon in the Harbour City. In actual fact, someone did pick this massive upset. No lesser person than the great Buddy Franklin picked this result and publicised it via his YouTube video with Shane Crawford. Buddy, I am reminded, is a great student of the game, according to John Longmire; and he proved it on this occasion.
Culture Footy Fresh News Sport
The shocked AFL pundits cried out, nobody picked this!!! The Sydney Swans demolition of the mighty Brisbane Lions in the Qualifying Final at the SCG. A talent depleted Sydney outfit outplayed the premiers for 4 quarters on a Saturday afternoon in the Harbour City. In actual fact, someone did pick this massive upset. No lesser person than the great Buddy Franklin picked this result and publicised it via his YouTube video with Shane Crawford. Buddy, I am reminded, is a great student of the game, according to John Longmire; and he proved it on this occasion.
Culture Footy Fresh News Sport
Much of the news you view downunder is controlled by News Corp, which is owned by a right wing American billionaire. Facebook and Instagram are owned by another right wing billionaire, Mark Zuckerberg. X, formerly Twitter, is owned by yet another American billionaire, Elon Musk. American billionaires control your news feed. Can you perceive a bit of a pattern here, folks? The news you get either by legacy media or social media platforms comes via Trump supporting oligarchs. AI is likewise owned by a bunch of American billionaires, who have kissed the ring of President Trump. Your news and information comes via a filter, a right wing filter, which puts a decided slant on things.
Democracy Fresh Government Media News Politics Power
Did anybody notice that all 4 AFL clubs playing off in the Wildcard round were Melbourne based? In this expanded VFL parading itself as a national competition something had to be done about the lack of success for the glut of Melbournian AFL clubs. Enter the Melbournian mediocrity wildcard weekend, where a midtable result gets rewarded in season 2026. Something like 180, 000 footy fans attended these matches at the MCG. Big clubs like Collingwood and Carlton played off for a final’s spot against perennial also-rans the Western Bulldogs and Melbourne. If you build it they will come, to quote a line from an old sport’s movie.
Footy Fresh News Sport
I have to admit that I shed a few tears following the Sydney Swans win over North Melbourne in the ultimate home and way round of the AFL season. Watching Captain Callum Mills’ emotional response was powerful after the week from hell. Yes, all these other longtime Swans players have been tarred with the same filthy brush as the miscreants facing a police investigation into alleged sex crime charges. Most pundits and myself expected the Swans to lose to the Kangaroos on the back of those missing stars and the upheaval to the team. It was not to be, as the club showed it was made of sterner stuff. The Swans still standing prevail to the ovation of the SCG crowd.
Crime Culture Footy Fresh Sport
Have a think back to when you were in a situation when words really mattered. I mean when your words were like life and death to your set of circumstances. The consequences were dire and what you said or communicated by email or text was […]
