The Brown Note: Recent Episodes
Julian Brown
Thoughts from the abyss on politics, current affairs, culture, news and other ephemera from The Brown Note radio show presented by Julian Brown, recorded unscripted, unedited and live. Full show with music at https://www.mixcloud.com/julian-brown/
YouTube version - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSju31TDdZd7KZWwbwOwg4A
Recent comments claiming domestic violence was a two-way street, by Australia's lord and savior, One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, drew condemnation but unless the word "trans" is involved, Pauline has always been anti-women.
It was billed as an investigation on antisemitism, but antisemitism has barely been mentioned, instead the Roal Commission has focused near solely on attacking opponents of genocide and supporters of Palestine. It has also shone a terrifying light on the wish list of the Israel lobby that has done them far more damage than good.
The sovereignty of The Falkland Islands has blown up again recently but Argentina's claim for the overseas British territory fails at the first hurdle - when are they giving Argentina back?
Poor, poor NIgel Farage thought he had it all covered in his attempts to avoid corruption scrutiny, and then the biggest own goal in UK political history. Two massive reasons why he will lose to the public's galvanised hero.
Because he's the hero Clacton deserves, but not the one it needs right now. So we'll hunt him. Because he can take it. Because he's not our hero. He's a silent guardian, a watchful protector. A massive bin.
I love calling election results a long way out and have a strong track record of getting it right, this one though is a very risky pick, as all prevailing wisdom says Labor will lose in November. They've been in power too long, have lost an iconic leader and the press have trashed them for years. Here's why I'm still picking them for an unlikely win.
After a lifetime of falling upwards and hanging out with CEO's, Karl is now reborn as a working class hero who tells it like it is, or something.
FIFA has tried for years to ruin football by monetising every last thing they can, but material changes to Football are unacceptable. The much derided "hydration" TV advert breaks split the two half game into four quarters. Now we are getting into important games - this will have an unprecedented impact on play.
He isn't knee-jerk, doesn't chase the 24hr news cycle, isn't afraid of his own shadow, always plays the long game, has superb timing and lets the world catch up to him. I have faith he is waiting to destroy AUKUS at the right moment.
The world's least cool and most cringe inducing man, Elon Musk, is brilliant at selling shares in companies that struggle to make profits. Even compared to Tesla, SpaceX is a doozy worthy of a monorail salesman. Never made a profit, loses billions, never going to make a profit, but worth a trillion dollars. For some reason.
With Belfast the third Reform UK riots in recent years and Australia's corporate news media desperate for it to happen in Australia, a look at a story as old as time. How the wealthy elite deflect attention from them screwing every one else over, by co-opting and astro-turfing grass roots rage and aiming it at brown people.
FIFA have been destroying football from within for years and have reached a half-time show style apex with this insanely, punitively expensive World Cup. Meanwhile the attention seeking narcissist in chief, Trump will seek to plaster himself all over every inch of it and the most multicultural sports fans on earth can deal with even getting into the country.
Ignore every opinion poll not three months out from an election and you will instantly know more about politics or who will win the next election. Opinion pollsters are businesses that cannot say the poll is the same for three years straight, no one would buy it, they have to provide intrigue every day and suit clickable narratives, like a right wing populist is surging in the polls etc. Same for news media who are additionally more likely to pay for polls that suit their agenda, and mid term polls are only ever against the incumbent government anyway. IGNORE THEM.
Australian PM Anthony Albanese continues to amaze me with his political intelligence. He and his treasurer have managed to take on the holy sacrament of actual fair economic reform, that has destroyed and terrified Labor for so many years and won. The timing - with zero effective opposition, is perfection. Finally John Howard's way of life destroying era of tax breaks to help those who already had, seeing the birthright of owning your own home vanish for half the country, are finally, bravely being addressed.
A 68 year old man in Sydney has been charge with wearing a swastika t-shirt, in front of the Royal Commission into Antisemitism. In the past this would have been a Neo-Nazi, but this seems to have (unconfirmed but more likely) been a Palestinian supporter. Given the supporters of Israel are going to great extremes to re-define this once sacrosanct word to mean any criticism of Israeli policies, military action, Zionism and even Benjamin Netanyahu - have they now destroyed the word and made it a badge of honour?
After the atrocious but expected Labour performance in the recent council elections, laid bare even the Labour voter's disdain for this feckless, spineless, judgementaly challenged faux Tory Blairite Zionist, he is toast. But as he and his gang expelled all true Labour people from the party, he's left us with no one not like him to replace him.
Brexit architect Nigel Farage's merry band of posh Tory working class hero grifters have won a stunning victory in the UK's local council elections. What actually happened and what it all means.
Queen Pauline wins and its a real threat to Labor how they keep taking votes from the Liberal party. For some reason. A big weekend for the populist right, what with Reform UK's massive success in the local elections there, but the two scenarios are very different.
It never ceases to amaze me how entire events will destroy themselves willingly for the Israel lobby. Even with five member nations boycotting the competition, they still wont budge on Israel's participation, and it's all anyone will talk about - alongside the industrial scale cheating that could likely see them win it this time.
Well there are many reasons, but one deal breaker, which for many left or progressive voters is a Rubicon they will no longer cross.
The current catastrophic Iran war is certainly for Israel, and for the last thirty years America's wars massively focused on the Middle East but were they all fought for Israel? Well, no, but there is an astonishing uptick in turning that into a yes.
Everyone's favorite onward Christian MAGA, West Australian MP Andrew Hastie, was all set to be the most blindly Trumpy - and religious - Liberal party leader yet, but since Angus Taylor took that role, he has behaved bizarrely against type. Standing up for a hate speech bill that cost him the populist right, strongly opposing the war in Iran and even telling conservatives to leave Neo-liberalism behind. Is he now based?!
After decades of peddling influence from the shadows, the events post the October 7th massacre have thrust the Israel lobby into the spotlight. And while they still wield enormous - and illegal - power over Western governments and news media, they have lost the third and most important component forever - the public.
Despite the best efforts of our media and the world's bot farms, Pauline Hanson and One Nation have so far failed to win a single seat in South Australia, whilst Labor posted an all time record victory. However they try to spin it, they touted this as One Nation becoming the opposition party and they couldn't even beat four seats. In the famous word of Colonel Kilgore - BOTS DON'T VOTE
Though Australia hasn't joined the illegal Israeli/American war with Iran, they are getting perilously close, whilst paying lip service to the aggressors talking points. Joining this maniacal yet-another Middle-Eastern war is a red line for most Labor voters - do so and I will never vote for you again.
A round up of everything at this stage in this wildly misreported and misrepresented, 100% illegal war of aggression from Israel and their client state, the USA. How things are going much worse than reported and how that will open the door for the use of nuclear weapons from Israel.
Now that the Australian Liberal Party has got rid of its woman problem, by ousting Sussan Ley (see this channel a year ago for that prediction...) they are free to keep churning through their mighty talent-puddle of leaders. Now we are down to 4th tier Angus Taylor, who for some reason resembles a naive baby foal. Albo will be in hysterics. #WellDoneAngus
How do you brand yourselves as maverick outsiders to the two party system, when all your MP's are ex-Conservative party members?
The world destabilizing push for war with Iran - which looks very likely - is at the behest of the worst faith Israeli and American actors, and has sucked a lot of well meaning people in.
Much like its ompletely authentic counterpart, Reform UK, Pauline Hanson's current polling success is an overseas bot driven, foreign funded sham. That doesn't mean the publicity wont get her minions votes, but her bigger problem is #BotsDontVote
About four years ago on my YouTube channel, I got my one and only take-down (out of about 500 videos). I posted that the then convicted Ghislaine Maxwell was not the story. I wondered how I could get a 90 day strike for cyber-bullying and harassment. 1. How do you cyber-bully and harass a dead person and, 2. Who was complaining on his behalf?! So lets see how we go this time. The most important questions in the Epstein story are; who was Epstein working for? What did he do for them? Who was blackmailed? What were they blackmailed with and what did they do as a result of that blackmail?
What is going on with Australia hosting the president of a country committing genocide? Is Albanese playing 4d chess again? It will certainly be the lightning rod to re-igniting pro-Palestinian protests.
Australia's Labor prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has broken with the tumultuous turnover of the Aussie politics. Finally we have an intelligent, calm, measured and thoughtful leader, always playing the long game and never prone to knee jerk response. He spent a month copping flak from all sides over the Bondi Massacre yet came out of it stronger than ever, with his opponents in flames. We are lucky to have probably the most competent leader in the Western world.
Australia's eternal grifter, Pauline Hanson, is enjoying another press pushed stint in the sun. Despite the UK/USA style attempt to promote this political parasite, MAGA is the most toxic political brand in the country.
MAGA don't have a single sacrosanct belief they haven't flipped on, not even the hallowed second amendment. They are the embodiment of Orwell's words, The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command. The Gas-lighters of the world.
You know MAGA are a cult because they have reversed position on almost everything they once held sacrosanct. It's been a wild story arc to get to child trafficking, foreign wars for oil, federal rights over state, free speech attacks - all apparently okay now. But when did these free thinkers become such bootlickers?
We all thought Trump would stop short of global conflict to distract from the Epstein files, we were wrong. A few truths about the twenty-five year push from the USA to overthrow the DEMOCRATICALLY elected government of the world's largest proven oil reserves - Venezuela.
For once in my life I'm genuinely proud of the person who runs the country, he's measured, thoughtful and seemingly possesses good judgement. But is he actually even more intelligent than I gave him credit for? The common media consensus is the push for a post Bond-massacre royal commission has been a disaster for him. But has it?
After weeks of a foreign nation completely owning our commercial news media and half our nation's politicians, screaming for a hugely pro Israel push for a royal commission into the Bondi Massacre,. it's time to ask who runs Australia.
My list of the best and worst people of 2025 - including Sydney Sweeney, Anthony Albanese, Eurovision, Virginia Giuffre and more!
I cannot believe I was dumb enough to miss off my number one hero of 2025 - Ahmed Al Ahmed - happily this legend needs no introduction.
In one of the most egregious acts in a history of them, the Australian news media has united to use the national tragedy of the massacre of Jews at Bondi Beach last week, solely to attack the Palestinian rights movement. Antisemitism here is only defined as opposition to Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip and the elephant in the room - the world's biggest driver OF antisemitism and international war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu, never gets mentioned.
Few believe that Jeffrey Epstein's best friend of two decades, Donald Trump, broke up with him over Epstein's behavior towards young girls. Most Know it was over a Palm Beach property deal. Fewer know the juiciest part of this whole story - the accusations of Trump laundering money for Putin connected Russian Oligarchs.
Six months back I posted how Sussan Ley was only ever an interim manager for Australia's Liberal party, and would be rolled (likely over climate change) for yet another even more populist right wing goon squad. The only thing that's changed is the dim-witted Angus Taylor has been replaced by Andrew Hastie, a genuine christian MAGA. They STILL have no desire to win back the center. They will never ever learn.
I can't think of more successful activism in the last thirty-years than gay rights, which came from the notion understanding a group of people opposed to you today, could be allies tomorrow. Trans rights has been dominated by modern punitive activism, that has put many offside. Is the constant linking of the two dragging gay rights down?
Aussie Labor PM, Anthony Albanese, recently visited the UK and was greeted as a hero by UK Labour. The reason is, everything Albo gets right, the UK PM Keir Starmer gets hopelessly wrong. Their different approaches to protecting youth online being case in point.
Hundreds of thousands march in the biggest UK far right protest in years, led by an increasingly mainstreamed once outsider, Tommy Robinson. The UK's media bend over backwards to give unlimited press to the biggest con artist in UK political history, Nigel Farage and his Reform UK movement. Keir Starmer's unending failures are letting them both in.
The murder of Charlie Kirk - by an apparent (at this stage) lefty - has become a lightning rod media and cultural event. I'm not going through who Charlie was or what he said or represented, instead I'm looking at how did political and media discussion get so toxic, the hypocrisy and gaslighting surrounding Kirk's death and what Trump is likely to do with it.
I've said recently how NSW state premier, Chris Minns, reminds me a lot of the UK's Keir Starmer, as both seem more concerned with appealing to the right than their own voters, but weakening Australian guns laws at a time when there are more guns in the country than before the Port Arthur massacre is insanity. Especially when faced with sovereign citizens shooting up police.
Well that was al a bit of a damp squib. The turn out for Australia's very own Reform UK anti-immigrant march (brown immigrant I should add) didn't exactly set the country on fire, despite what that embarrasing fool Elon Musk thinks. If you look at my last video, I even called the fifteen-thousand in Sydney accurately, but that was massive compared to elsewhere and a fraction of the recent pro-Palestinian march. It's unlikely to generate much of anything and the event has been self owned by actual Neo-nazis, in fact as I type this Nazi leader Thomas Sewell, has just been arrested. with the image of the day being men in black shirts, attacking indigenous Australians, at an anti-immigrant march... oh irony.
It would be the most dangerous game of 4d chess ever played, but given where we are now with the conflict between Israel and Palestine, was the Oct 7th massacre and its aftermath a deliberate plan? Granted nothing has been more quickly destructive for Palestinians, but the impact on the international standing of Palestinian rights and nationhood has never been stronger, or Israel's standing weaker. Did they look at their position, losing piece after piece, in slow attrition, and just go all in?
On the 31st of August is a march for all Australians, not the lefties though, or the feminists, or the woke, or the "brown ones", or the vaccinated or climate change activists or opponents to genocide. In fact it doesn't really seem to be for many Australians at all. Masking it's number one concern, race, with housing and cost of living concerns, it feels very much a reaction to the enormous success of the recent March for Palestine in Sydney, but mainly an AstroTurfing attempt at establishing a Reform UK like movement here. Sorry guys, we already rejected you.
Even for Scott Morrison - the worst human being to have ever led Australia - with a litany of terrible acts, the AUKUS defence pact is likely his most awful legacy. Wedding us as handmaidens to the USA for decades to come, at exactly the worst possible time, with only the UK for company, for $368 Billion and no one has any idea what that actually entails. With Trump likely to move the goal posts every month, Anthony Albanese, you have the political capital and strength to cancel the worst deal in Australian history.
UK prime minister and Labour leader, Keir Starmer's recent pledge to recognise the Palestinian state, shows everything that's wrong with his terrible leadership. He's the kind of insufferable centrist-at-all-costs that both sides hate equally. His kicking the ball down the road approach means he gets none of the kudos and all of the blame, plus his confused loading of criteria that must be met, gives Netanyahu endless get out clauses. Totally on brand for Starmer.
NSW state leader and Labor party leader, Chris Minns, suffered another self inflicted blow over the weekend. He managed to make himself enemy number one, over the hugely successful Sydney Harbor Bridge march for Palestinian human rights. He's embodying that nadir of the UK's Labour party, Keir Starmer. Always trying to appease people on the right, who will never vote for him, against the wishes of his own constituents and showing terrible judgement. Did anyone tell him the populist right wing media are irrelevant now? Why is he kissing their backside? He is on borrowed time.
Over the next few years, it's likely the Australian commercial free-to-air television networks will fall, leaving us at the mercy of the global streaming giants. It's why public broadcasting - which Australia does brilliantly - has never been more essential.
Two years ago on this page (see below), I begged true UK Labour leader in exile, Jeremy Corbyn, to start a new political party, as the Keir Starmer/Tony Blair soft Tory version of Labour was poisoned beyond hope. He's only gone and done it.
https://youtu.be/uISEdbubQq8
Whilst the whole world is focusing on >he who must not be named< and >the list< there's actually far more going on with MAGA's all-time record displeasure with Donald. Including Trump breaking a number of OTHER cardinal MAGA sins.
Trump and MAGA rode into town proclaiming to be free speech absolutists. What they really meant was they wanted to be mean about blacks, gays and trans people with impunity. Of course right-wing totalitarians are never pro free speech, but the universal attack on free speech is unprecedented.
I think today we are actually up to real life concentration camps being proposed. A round up of the recent wholesome activity from Israel and why the Trump focusing on removing Netanyahu's corruption charges, could herald that America wont help with Iran and to give him a way out.
Part of my infrequent series, "How to make lots of friends". A few years ago, when the whole J.K. Vs Trans thing kicked off, I posted a couple of "Why I stand With J.K....." pieces, based on my perception of feminism, as well as an analogous piece, "Are Biological Women Being Erased?". Since then the whole thing has descended into a tit-for-tat sh$t show. How I feel about the situation now.
UNBELIEVABLE! I start this overview of Israel's illegal war with Iran (and the truths behind it) by saying, the people involved are so unstable, it will be out of date before I even get it online. They couldn't even wait 40 minutes. I was still on air and the president of peace, Donald Idiot Warmonger Trump bombed Iran. Welcome to World War 3/Iraq 2.0 plus. With new improved WMD's! Source, Netanyahu "Trust me bro".
Even with their country in a slow motion civil war, free-falling into fascism, the establishment dems care more about fighting the progressives in their own party than Donald Trump. They are so blindly obsessed with a status quo that doesn't even exist anymore, they will politely be crumb-maidens for the apocalypse.
Despite era-defining levels of bloodshed and horror, and no end in sight, the war in Gaza is already a failure. By either its stated aims or the real aims, none of what Israel wants is realistically even possible or going to happen.
The awfulness of UK leader Keir Starmer was known by actual Labour voters before he won the lowest turn out election since 1928, inheriting a pitiful victory his right wing supporters will always cheer. Somehow, in power he is even worse. This Tory-lite, conservative friendly, charisma free, spineless suit is even aiming for an electorate that doesn't exist anymore. Normally I'm against removing an elected leader, not in this case.
Lets face it, the whole world knew that when two narcissistic sociopaths with God complexes got together in a love in, it would end in six months. In fact I was posting on this channel six months ago that very fact. The only two questions are why did this happen and who will win? My thoughts on both.
Have you noticed whenever an attractive woman takes the stand in a trial, a huge section of society are immediately prepared to side against her. No matter what monster they are up against or what happened to her, they instinctively seek out every reason they can to make her the devil woman. See Brittany Higgins, Amanda Knox, Joanne Lees, Lindy Chamberlain...
The Australian Liberal Party's famous problem with women, is now a problem with it's own women. Populist Sussan Ley, now rebranded as a moderate, is elected new leader with near half the party voting against her, she is a seat warmer under immediate threat from the Murdoch press, who have anointed another contender, the treacherous Trump lovin Jacinta Price.
The continued participation of Israel is the cancer killing Eurovision - but the wild manipulation of the phone vote, giving Israel fake popularity, nearly made Eurovision pay for its genocide-washing this time. Next time it will. Unless of course you believe several European nations voted for Israel ahead of their own contestant... in which case I've a mono-rail I can sell you.
There's a real void in young men's lives, unfortunately filled by bad faith actors, as shown by the landmark TV event, Adolescence. The manosphere - an umbrella term for those bad faith actors, is not positive for men at all - all it does is teach young men to both hate women, but crucially, to hate themselves.
It's a long way out, but given the positives on the Labor side and the negatives for their opposition, over the next three years, I can see no possible way back for the Liberals at the next election, it will likely be even worse. Congratulations to Labor!
A walk through the shocking Labor victory I predicted on this channel a year ago... how it all happened, what it all means and where now for the Liberal's
Australia has a massive problem with racism, specifically towards Indigenous Australians - we even had a vote about it! Now we've defeated Australia Day, ANZAC Day is next in the firing line.
And I love it! Five years back I was calling for Albo's removal, not because he wasn't a good man who would make a good prime minister, but because he was a terrible campaigner who would never get there. He has grown remarkably into the role and is running rings round Dutton this campaign. The worst the press can throw at him is he's boring. Well, I like my governments boring, after years of calamity and chasing the front page. I think he will end up one of Australia's greatest PM's
It's certainly the worst Australian election campaign by an opposition party in the 30 years ive lived in this country. There was never a prospect of the Liberal party being elected, but no one predicted how bad this campaign would be. Constant missteps, zero policies, wildly unpopular MAGA worship, a leader who seems like he barely speaks to his own troops and the impression they all woke up on the day of the exam having never studied the subject.
The landmark British TV series shines a light on the online forces shaping young minds and turning young boys into misogynists, but it stops short of offering any solutions to an apparently unsolvable problem. Here I try to do just that.
The review
https://thebrownnote.podbean.com/e/adolescence-review/
With the combined impacts of the totalitarian chaos inside America, the tariffs and Trumps continual abuse of longstanding allies, for the first time in maybe seventy years, countries are starting to cut the apron strings from the United States. Both economically and militarily - the World is waking up to a World without America.
One positive about Trump, if not for America, then certainly for the rest of the western world, is it has seen a massive swing towards left-leaning parties and away from right. Canada has seen a 27 point lead for the right disappear to 2 in under 3 months. No one in other countries wants to elect anyone remotely like him.
I posted a similar piece last year, when Elon Musk threw his weight and his wealth into the ring for Donald Trump. I was very wrong, as Trump won, and for a brief shining moment, it looked as though this obnoxious try hard really was king of the world. Ironically, Trump winning will end up costing Musk twice as much.
There's a big mistake people are making in calling Elon Musk president and claiming Trump is his B$tch. Trump, the most disloyal human bieng perhaps ever born, is simply and ruthlessly using Musk, not only for his money, but to "flood the zone". He will sit back, fleece him dry, let him help dominate the news cycle, then cast him adrift without a thought - just as he has done his whole life. Trump is king here, Musk is just his court jester.
If he benefited from insider trading, yes. The Australian want-to-be prime minister bought shares in the big four banks, in 2009, at the height of the global financial crisis, after not buying any in the preceding three years. He promptly sold the shares under two weeks later after the Labor government announced a massive bank bail out, sending the shares rocketing in value. He's alleged to have been briefed on the impending bailout before it happened. We need to know.
So how IS that multi-decade 400 billion dollar Australian defense pact with America looking today? I must admit, I thought World War 3 was inevitable, I just didn't think America would be on the other side. What will Trump demand over this? Australian mineral resources? Nuclear missile bases in Darwin? Perhaps even scarier is Five Eyes, the hugely secretive intelligence alliance between America, the UK, Aus, NZ and Canada - sharing our most top secret intelligence and assets with an ally of Putin.
There are a couple of themes being promoted by the infernal trio about Europe when it comes to military spending (not enough!) and immigration (to many brown people!). What this ignores is the elephant in the room. Europe didn't invade Afghanistan, Europe didn't invade Iraq, or overthrow the government of Libya, or try to topple Iran and Syria. Europe would not need to spend so much on its militaries or receive so many immigrants from these areas if it wasn't for American wars in the first place.
And at the end of it all, the whole world is in shock that Trump did exactly what was 100% certain he would do all along, side with Putin. But this war, with no possible victory for Ukraine and unending suffering and destruction for the Ukrainian people, never needed to happen and had no good outcome for Ukraine anyway. A look at the decades long road to war - just so the West could attack Russia, and vast sums of money could be made - and how none of it needed to happen but we in the West made damn sure it did.
The much earned and very late entrance into the interest rate cut cycle is a joyous reward for Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese and the Labor party - lets hope it manages to cut through with the public, above the relentless wall to wall pro-Liberal noise of the Australian news media. To listen to them it's the worst government ever, by every metric, we have a near world leading economy. Why would we risk Dutton?
One thing this wildfire of a second Trump administration has proven, if someone can come in with such power to instantly destroy or change everything they want, above the law or political machinery in place, the system was broken to start with. In places like the UK, the rest of Europe and Australia, it isn't even legally possible to do half the things the Trump administration are doing. To quote Kanye West - No one man should have all that power.
Given Trump and Netanyahu are now saying the quiet part out loud - we are going to remove the Palestinians from Gaza, a look at the enormous elephant in the room when it comes to global reporting on the future of a Palestinian state. As I covered a long while back, Israel cannot simply take the West Bank and Gaza strip and assimilate them into a future Israel - they HAVE to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians from those regions first. No one ever says it but this is why.
Why is no one in the media asking? Google how much is Peter Dutton worth. Now I'm not saying he is worth that but if the Prime Minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese buys a home for $4.3 million, a sum he could legitimately afford - it's front page news. So why is there one rule for Labor and another for the Liberal party and their leader? Even if its not true, why no transparency? Why are some people off limits? It's the politics of envy unless its Albo buying a house and suddenly every detail is published
No doubt you have heard about this massive multi-million dollar Ukrainian fraud the Bidens have been accused of and the endless legal assaults on Joe Biden's ex-junkie son, Hunter? Well have you heard as much about the fact the guy who accused them - for $600k, paid to him by associates of Trump, and who was connected with Russian intelligence, was sentenced days ago to six years in jail after confessing to making the whole thing up. Probably not. Alexander Smirnov - look him up.
My channel was started, 4 years ago, on my anger and disgust at the Australian news media's slavish worship of one side of politics - The Liberal Party - and their relentless attacks on the other - The Labor Party. Nothing has changed. The Labor government of Anthony Albanese has been mature, measured, and achieved multiple policy goals - noted in this piece - after the disastrous calamity of the Scott Morrison years. Yet if you listen to worst offender The Sydney Morning Herald or the Murdoch press or TV Channels 7,9 & 10 - you would believe the worst government in history was currently in power. This is why Australia always ends up booting out well performing Labor governments and putting up with endlessly awful Liberal ones. Lets hope - once again - the Australian people see straight through it.
Ed Sheeran is the latest in a long line of well meaning folk, to put the boot into Band Aid's song, Do They Know it's Christmas? For its condescending lyrics. Prompting its co-writer Bob Geldof to fire back at "an abstract wealthy-world argument". The lyrics, near written on a beer mat over a couple of days, were never meant to be examined as a treatise on Africa for the next forty years. They were written on the fly to inspire or guilt trip the British record buying public of 1984, to provide immediate aid to starving people. It led to Live Aid pumping hundred of millions of aid into one of the worst famines of the century. This is why we can't have nice things.
After being everyone's favorite, decrepit uncle in the face of fascism, Joe Biden has had a horrific final two years in public office. He is shaping as public enemy number one in returning Trump to power - for two main reasons, his deeply unpopular wars - especially Gaza with progressive democrats, and his handling of his own succession. The party too are equally to blame for ignoring the progressives within and the threat from without.
Anyone thinking this time would be like the last time, is living in delusional alley. Nothing screams that louder than the insane picks for the highest offices in the land.
*since this was broadcast live, the cheery, lovable Matt Gaetz has "quit".
According to the World's media, politicians and even the King of Denmark for some reason, Amsterdam descended into a pogrom like wave of anti-Jewish violence, after a soccer game between an Israeli club and Dutch Titans Ajax. The media narrative was set. It's just they missed out a few facts, like how the whole thing started with Maccabi fans - know for racism and violence back in Israel - tearing down and burning a Palestinian flag, attacking an Arab looking taxi driver and walking through the streets chanting anti-Arab slogans. Even footage the world media claimed was Jewish locals being attacked by racists, was in fact Maccabi fans attacking locals.
It's been eight years since I got an election wrong, and the irony of the last time being Trump winning in 2016 is not lost on me. One thing I didn't get wrong is that Democrat voter apathy would decide this election and by a mile it did. With Trump's vote near unchanged from his massive 2020 defeat, over 10 million Biden voters failed to turn up for Harris. 13 takeaways from this epoch defining election.
The parallels between Donald Trump in the 2024 US presidential election and Adolf Hitler in the Germany 1933 election are overwhelming. From the treatment of vote counters, to the judiciary, to opposition politicians to the media to the weaponization of race. This time though it's with the benefit of hindsight. The outcome could shape the Western world for a generation, lead to civil war and the end of empire. High stakes indeed.
After being promised a landslide victory in Queensland, once again, the Liberal vote fell way short of both the polls and the media predictions. Aussie PM Anthony Albanese would've been smiling broadly at the result. If this were repeated at next years federal election, Albo will walk it. Sadly for the people of Queensland, with a lackluster win, the right-wing, onward Christian soldiers in the Liberals and fringe parties, will be out for their pound of silver.
In a modern world crushed by anxiety, election cycles are unbearable. But that's because the news media and polling companies need to sell a lie - that things are really close and changing every day. But they aren't, they just wouldn't have anything to sell if they didn't say that. I've got elections right for eight years now, and here's my stress free way to do so - with the benefit of you still winning if you lose.
The news media and polls in Australia, will tell you opposition leader, Peter Dutton, is leading a resurgent right wing Liberal party on the road to victory. The public and the elections do not. Two overnight results in show if anything he's going backwards with the electorate.
Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese has honorably launched the fight against the appalling, economy trashing welfare cheque for the wealthy, negative gearing. Predictably the Australian news media, particularly the usual suspect the Sydney Morning Herald, has come out swinging in defense of all their delicious money. What will you do this time Australia? Wake the hell up or let yourselves be conned, again, into voting to carrying on kicking yourselves in the face to benefit the rich?
Even after a year of genocidal mass murder in Gaza, the West has shown it can fall even lower morally, as Netanyahu's war mongering government expands its attacks to terrorism and bombing of a sovereign nation it is not at war with. Amazingly, the West's silence is even louder than for the deaths of Palestinians.
Trump has almost solely specialised on inflammatory rhetoric for 8 years, leading to incidents like Charlottesville and the attempted insurrection on Jan 6, but we've all been waiting for when this explosive atmosphere would result in political assassinations. Well, now there have been two back to back attempts, and both on Trump. Like Fox News before him, has he created a monster now beyond his control?
Part of my infrequent series, "How to make friends":, including such vote winners as, "It's Time to Forgive Kevin Spacey" and, "Why I stand With JK Rowling".
The recent Venezuelan elections - as always a fight between socialists who want to keep their oil and Western back right wing candidates that want to sell it - was the closest in years. With the electoral council claiming victory for the incumbent leftist NicolƔs Maduro, but that they cant release a breakdown of the votes, due to a cyber attack, the West has predictably - and with no credible evidence - claimed victory for the right wing opposition. A look a the current situation and how the country with the largest remaining oil reserves on earth is treated by the West for not letting foreign multi-nationals rape and pillage it.
In olden times the filthy rich were content with opening museums and remaining politely quiet. This last decade has seen the rise of the new sociopath-narcissist billionaire class, obsessed with attention and fame. Whilst they were simply trying to out do each other, that was one thing, now they are coming for political influence. No one embodies this more than desperado of cringe, Elon Me-Too Musk, who is seeking to influence politics, always for right-wing populism, despite having no more political intelligence than the lowest rent blog. His recent battle with the Brazillian courts has shown the time has come to hold these obscenely wealthy, attention seeking goons to account. Gina Rinehart too.
Opposition leader and devout right-wing populist, Peter Dutton, had his own Gazan children overboard moment, harking back to those honorable days of his lord and savior - no not Gina Rinhart - John Howard, when conservatives realised they could weaponise the race for political gain. Heroic independent Teal, Zali Steggall, magnificently shirt-fronted him in parliament, with accusation of being a little bit racist. Always believe someone, when they show you who they are...
Elon Me-Too Musk maybe the most desperate-for-attention man on planet Earth, next to Piers Morgan and Donald Trump ironically. An attention seeking ambulance chaser who tries to wed himself to any trending topic. When Donald Trump destroyed Biden in the debate, Elon's leg started twitching. When Trump got shot Elon went all in, on both a personal and a professional level, wedding his future inextricably to the then winning Donald. Two weeks later, Donald has lost.
As at 13-Aug-24 I'm calling the US election for Kamala Harris, and by virtue of that, the end of the Trump era. The greatest reversal of political fortune in modern history. I have an 8 year track record of calling elections correctly, including in 2 months out for Joe Biden last time (see below). Here are a hundred reasons why Trump has already lost and can't do anything about it.
https://youtu.be/HK-UFbbbS-8
A look at one of the dominant sports stories of the year and in particular the often pathetic and hypocritical response to it, from a wildly polarised public.
my piece from a few years back on trans women in sports
https://youtu.be/ADjMB9pYoi4
Taking our country back from immigrants is nothing new to the UK. There was the National Front protests in the 1970s, the Nazi sympathizers in the 1930's. The difference this time, is the internet. After the tragic murder of two children in Southport, was incorrectly linked to a Muslim immigrant, 30% of the internet traffic promoting the initial protests was from the UK, 40% was from the USA. We now have a highly combustible mix of motivated and organised extremists online, gullible Gammons and common garden racists, sovereign citizens and anti-vaxxers, and bad faith actors in the media and politics. Whilst it won't ultimately amount to much, it feels like America dipping its toe in the water for an attempt at impending civil war. And you can bet its coming Australia's way.
Oh well, I was, as I predicted at the start, a few hours late in getting this online but my thoughts anyway. THANK GOD Kamala dodged the biggest bullet she will face, choosing Josh Shapiro - who was favorite - as VP. She really hasn't put a foot wrong and I was terrified picking a pro-Netanyahu VP would fracture a newly healed Democrat party. Now, with such a well balanced ticket of Kamala/Walz really throwing into focus the freak-show that is Trump/Vance, I'm about to call this election done.
A belated hero's welcome to the most important and iconic journalist of the century, WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange. Finally free, after more than a decade of being de-facto tortured at the hands of the State, in order to destroy the threat of a good example.
It's either the luckiest or most genius move in political history, but replacing Joe Biden is a masterstroke on every level. It kills the relentless momentum Trump built up from the debate debacle and being shot, it focuses the biggest weapon the Republicans has against the Democrats, Biden's age, right back on their own candidate, and it re-energizes the Democrat vote. Trust me, Trump wishes he'd lost that debate. The question now is, having used up all their nine lives, will the Democrats make the right choice?
The Achilles heel of both the UK and Australian Labor parties is their slavish obsequence at the top, to the Israel lobby. No one should ever be excluded from Labor for upholding Labor values, let alone opposing genocide. Anthony Albanese has failed spectacularly to read the room here - telling the Muslim voters of Western Sydney to ignore whats happening in Gaza because he's giving them free TAFE. FFSK
For the next twenty years, the media will tell us about the glorious victory of Keir Starmer. They will say only a Tony Blair, pro-Tory Labour party will ever get elected in the UK and we must forget all about those horrible (actually Labour) Jeremy Corbyn socialists. This is the truth, even after the most calamitous four years in UK political history, from Boris "Party-gate" Johnson getting the boot, to Liz Truss's glorious six week reign of terror to Rish The Wonder-dog Sunak, and a country wild with rage at the incumbent government, Keir Starmers Labour inspired the lowest voter turn out since 1928 - the first year everyone could vote. The incoming prime minister lost 17.4% in his OWN SEAT. NO ONE loves Keir Starmer's Labour.
The only thing I am surprised is it took this long for things to explode, with Trump and his supporters playing with fire for eight years. But honestly (in the first shooting of its kind the right aren't calling a false flag!) they've been exploding for years. The likes of the mainstream media and the Democrats will wring their hands at how such a terrible thing could happen, blind to the fact it hasn't been business as usual politeness for years now. Are they really this oblivious as they sleep walk towards fascism, insurrection and civil war? What the shooting means, the likely aftermath and the years of poisoned rhetoric and political discourse from Fox News and the toxic right that led to it.
**BREAKING - The Shooter Matthew Crooks was a registered REPUBLICAN, you couldn't make this up, the tolerant Right strikes again... I guess NOW it's a false flag operation.... lol
I previously stated that Australian opposition leader Peter "potato" Dutton had already lost the next election, over a year out. This was for a number of reasons - a major one being his re-igniting of the climate change wars with his take it or leave it mandate for nuclear power, but why did he commit such a brazen act of political suicide? And this in an era where opposition leaders try to stand for as little as possible as close as possible to their opponent, standing for something massive and putting all the attention on yourself is borderline insanity - surely mummy Gina Rinehart isn't THAT powerful?
I've posted at length about my love for the Jeremy Corbyn side of the UK Labour party and my hatred of the Tony Blair side, most egregiously embodied by current Labour leader and Thatcherite Tory Keir Starmer. With Labour pretty much guaranteed an election victory, I posted I hoped they'd lose, just so the media wouldn't spend the next 20 Years claiming only a Blairite could win for Labour. What if Labour were to win and Starmer were to lose his own seat? It would be the greatest political victory in my lifetime.
In the most terrifying US election year perhaps ever, Bidens per-occupation with warmongering was dangerously splitting the Democrat vote. Now with an improving economic picture, Biden is ahead of Trump in recent polling, by Fox News no less, for the first time in eight months. Ironically, the best thing to have happened to his chances in a year, is the conviction of his own son.
Congratulations on Anthony Albanese and Labor on winning a second term. I don't normally call elections a year and a half out but this one is done. Only people with either A) an agenda or B) no understanding of politics, are trying to sell you Potato Dutton as electable because of midterm polls. Let me walk you through why these mean nothing and why the clueless Dutton has already lost.
*post made the night before Dutton actually released his nuclear power plans, possible the biggest own goal in opposition history #auspol
There are two all time hall of fame hypocrisies being told by the Republican Party over Hunter Biden. One is they're crying and screaming that any trial their God Donald Trump faces is a politically motivated travesty of justice, whilst relentlessly pursuing Joe Biden's son (and failing to land any corruption charge on him). The second is the party of gun ownership under any circumstances, seeking to prosecute Hunter for buying a gun...
There are two massive lies being told by Western governments and Israeli prime minister, and war criminal, Benjamin Netanyahu. One is that he is destroying Hamas, when every observer says they are growing in strength with every Israeli bomb and are stronger now than when the most recent round of this conflict started. The other is that Netanyahu wants to destroy Hamas at all - he desperately needs and relies on them.
As hysterically funny as it is laughing at the fury of Australia's biggest ever trust fund nepo baby, over a portrait of her that brilliantly captures her inner ugliness, why am I the only one who thinks the artist, Vincent Namatjira, is deliberately referencing Goya's horror masterpiece, Saturn Devouring his Son, a painting about a powerful entity who defeated his own father and then his own children...
Whilst Western leaders enable genocide, the United Nations and the ICC are standing up for justice, with the latter now issuing an arrest warrant for war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu. This has led to two of the most insane comments in American history:
President Biden, "It's clear Israel wants to do all it can to ensure civilian protection," and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, "[The] ICC has no jurisdiction over this matter." - pretty sure it does mate:
The ICC is the first and only permanent international court with jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for the international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression.
It wasn't supposed to be like this, but in this unbearably dangerous year for Western democracy, President Biden has spent huge focus and political capital on two hugely damaging wars, everyone sees as hypocritical and in the middle of a cost of living crisis, deeply unpopular. The right are focused like a laser behind Trump whilst Biden squanders votes with pre Iraq war global policeman antics no-one buys anymore. The last time there were student protest this big against an American backed war, Nixon got elected. This version of Nixon will be much worse.
Apparently the Australian news media has decided we are in a middle of a housing, rental unaffordability and cost of living crisis, as they do whenever a Labor government is in power. It's now 18 times the average wage in Sydney to buy the average home. Except it was 15 times the average wage in back in 2015, NINE years ago and we were in a recession in 2019 BEFORE COVID. I was posting about this then, and haven't stopped, nice of the Aussie media to finally join the party...
The recent statement, a woman would rather encounter a bear than a man, alone in the woods, sure has fired off an almighty sh$tstorm. But why are so many men so fragile and so easily triggered? I can't ever remember a woman feeling the need to say, not all women.
The Guardian newspaper is running a wholly honorable series on how we treat the the now, one quarter of Australian children who enroll in school, with some form of disability, commonly Autism or ADHD, not to mention a colossal amount of food allergies. The one question they and are no one is asking, what the hell caused one quarter of Australian school children, enrolling in schools to have some form of disability? If a quarter of kids showed up one year with cancer, we sure as hell would ask why, not solely focus on how to treat it.
The biggest student protests since the occupy wall street movement or even the Vietnam war, have been greeted with a predictable, time honored response from the American government, faculty and police. Infantilizing the protesters, claiming they're misguided, going about it the wrong way, beholden to malignant outside forces and even racist. Once again American student protests are on the right side of history and this is not going away. Biden beware.
Linda Reynolds, the former Liberal government defense minister, just got told by a judge, a young female staffer under her care, Brittany Higgins, was raped by her senior advisor, Bruce Lehrmann, in her own office. Most of us in her position would feel intense guilt and responsibility for such an event occurring under their watch - any CEO would resign in tears. Not Linda. Linda is forcing Brittany to court for a third time, despite the previous two times result in serious mental health concerns for already deeply traumatized Brittany. Linda Reynolds have you no shame?
In reflection on my piece last week, celebrating Brittany Higgins victory in court, raped in her bosses office by another member of staff, and put through hell for years. Even though that piece got a paltry number of views, it got nearly the same number of comments, not one in support of a woman a judge just agreed was raped, none in criticism of Bruce Lehrmann, the man a judge just said raped her. Given this coincided with the mass murder aimed at women in Bondi Junction and another young woman's death at the hands of ex-partner, does Australia have a massive problem with women?
It gives me so much pleasure to finally be able to call Bruce Lehrmann a rapist, just as a judge did in court. And how wonderful would it have been, for Brittany Higgins to finally hear those words, in the only judgement handed down on the matter, after so many years of trauma an abuse. A look at the defamation trial and its aftermath, the biggest own goal in the history of own goals for rapist Bruce Lehrmann. I'm so happy to have been on the right side of history (after dozens of posts on the matter and likely political coverup, over the last few years) but were you? So many in Australian politics, media and the public, naturally sided against a raped young woman and with her rapist, and still do today. What does that say about us? Brittany Higgins - you are a legend.
A few years back, on a trip through Mexico, I found one of my favorite places on earth - MazatlƔn. Though well known in Mexico, I've never met a single other person who has even heard of it. The recent eclipse saw MazatlƔn in the news as the first place in the America's to see it. So a shout out celebration to one of the greatest and most unsung beach side cities in the world, forget Cabos, its garbage compared to the epic majesty of MazatlƔn.
Trans actor Hunter Schafer - most famous for the TV show Euphoria - has come out and stated she no longer wants to play trans roles and that's all she gets offered. It feels like a watershed moment that hasn't quite hit yet. A look at the numerous elements around what roles, what actors are allowed to play, including the impact of only allowing trans actors to play trans roles - which I went through a couple of years back on another post - combined with the hypocrisy of celebrating the recasting of other roles, based on gender, race or sexuality, but only if it's the right way round.
Even though it was remarkably obvious to the entire world, who carried out the recent Moscow concert hall terror attack, Russian state media has continued to push the lie that Ukraine were responsible- and there's an obvious reason why.
John Howard did what Margaret Thatcher did in the UK - reshaped the country for worse forever, the awful impact of his terrible economic and cultural legacy shapes us to this day.
Posted in response to Greg Jericho's excellent article on the evil of this man - https://www.theguardian.com/business/grogonomics/2024/mar/26/blaming-john-howard-is-easy-but-his-government-helped-shape-the-world-we-live-in-now-and-for-future-generations
Ex Australian state leader, Dan Andrews, is a hero of mine, no-one has stuck their middle finger up to the Murdoch press and the populist right quite like Dan. They never landed a blow on him through years of abuse, he just laughed in their faces. Unfortunately he shares the Achilles heel of UK and Australian Labor parties, by being an beholden to the Israel lobby. Him going to a back slapping business trip to Israel in the middle of the Gaza war and what many are calling genocide, is an utter, unconscionable disgrace.
Having posted many times about seeking peace and not just piling arms into this conflict, I again find myself on the same side as the Pope (?!) but this time Ukraine has a terrifying window of opportunity, with an American election only half a year away, and the prospect of a Putin loving puppet in the White House, the strength of their hand is shrinking rapidly.
Even FIFA don't seem quite as hypocritical as The Eurovision Song Contest - the most preachy of all major events when it comes to exclusivity for all, tolerance and promoting rights. They took a "principled" stand and immediately banned Russia from competing, to uphold "ideals of democracy" but maintain they are non-political (I guess upholding democracy isnt political?!) and wont ban Israel, because it's different. I guess the Palestinians have enough democracy? No-one is buying this, but Eurovision has deservedly set itself up for the biggest global protest against Israels mass-murder in Gaza yet. And Eurovision, stop waving that rainbow flag in my face whilst you enable genocide.
The Australian women's soccer captain, Sam Kerr, has been arrested and charged, in London, for allegedly racially abusing a white police officer. Mindblowingly, ex-mens player, and now major pundit, the universally respected Craig Forster, who has spent years publicly speaking out about racism, didn't even understand the difference between racism towards black people and white people. Here is my no doubt soon to be universally praised answer to the question - can you be racist towards white people?
Last week I posted that the Australian opposition leader, Peter "Potato" Dutton, was the most unelectable in twenty years, this week he lost an election. A small election with a swing towards him, but a fragment of what he needs, and now he's turning to nuclear power as a pivot. The lack of understanding the man has, let alone his lack of charisma is a rolled gold election win for Labor. I have already banked the money two years out, it's over - my biggest long term call ever.
Sorry populist right, but the leader of the Australian opposition Liberal party, is the least electable since Mark Latham, twenty years ago. But keep doing what you're doing :)
In one of my irregular, "how to make friends", pieces - a new hill to die on, a defence of of the poster-boy for colonialism, The British Museum.
The recent death in custody of Russian political dissident, Alexei Navalny (which I don't actually think benefits Putin) has been met with a wave of Western condemnation and new sanctions against Russia, apparently the only nation committing these crimes international sanctions warrant... However the West's treatment of their own political dissidents and whistleblowers has been identical to what Putin is accused of, minus death in custody for Assange, so far...
Ignoring the dozens of personal and financial crimes Trump stands accused of, why is someone with charges hanging over their head, relating to trying overthrow democracy and the potentially treasonous handling of state secret, whilst lobbying for immunity from any crime, allowed to actually stand for President of that democracy? When many of these trials will be resolved after the next election, when he could already be in a position to absolve himself. Doesn't public interest and common sense say he shouldn't be allowed to run?
If you are a protected male in politics like Barnaby Joyce, being filmed, lying sh$t faced in the gutter, babbling profanities, is either funny blokeish behavior to be forgiven or a need for sympathy. For a woman, being drunk comes loaded with innuendo regarding their morals, their credibility, their behavior and their deserving their treatment. And this was hardly Barnaby's first rodeo - but nothing will ever happen to an anointed prince-ling of the Australian media and politics boys club.
For most of us, the cost of living crisis has been raging for years, for the right wing media, it began the day Anthony Albanese was elected leader. Despite the Reserve Bank of Australia announcing six interest rate rises before Labor were even elected, despite the Liberal government near tripling the deficit and going into a per capita recesion by 2019, BEFORE COVID. But then right wing media only cares about the economy when Labor are in power...
The latest US regime change, in a country of 240 million people, that's the world's only nuclear armed Muslim nation, has happened in full view with barely a whimper from Western media.
The worst human being to have ever led Australia has finally quit politics. A man synonymous with lying, bullying, incompetence, smugness, and a total lack of accountability (or ability) - a look back at a vile dark stain on Australia.
Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said what we all knew, he never supported the two-state solution anyway. What Western media isn't even engaging in is what this means. Not the absolving of the West Bank and Gaza Strip into the state of Israel, but what Israel would do with a Palestinian population that numerically matching its own Jewish one.
After a grim year of rising interest rates, a cost of living crisis and The Voice referendum debacle, Albo has come out of the gates of 2024 firing, with a genius move. Not canning the wildly unpopular stage 3 tax cuts, even better, making them for all and not just the rich. Lets play this out Dutton. And Waleed Aly must be the biggest flog not to have a show on Sky at night.
Sure to be a popular piece... Something just doesn't sit right with me about poor women being paid to use their bodies as baby incubators of the rich.
Pitchfork music magazine has apparently been executed, the century's most important music bible being folded into GQ magazine by its evil corporate overlord Conde Nast. As a devout consumer of Pitchfork since the turn of the century, I've been predicting this for the last five years - the post Fetch the Bolt Cutters years, but really the five years that editor in chief Puja Patel has been in charge, and until I hear otherwise, misguidedly shaped the direction of Pitchfork into oblivion. Conde Nast bought Pitchfork over a decade ago and it survived, it's the direction the publication took under Patel that killed it. Sidelining music that was it's core audience to promote music for people that never even read Pitchfork. A sad day.
With only 15% of Israelis wanting Prime Minister Netanyahu in charge after the current war, him having so few friends, either internationally or at home, and his saying the quiet part part out loud - there was never to be a Palestinian state, is a wider conflicting his goal now? He has only ever craved saving his political career, is solely beholden to an ultra-extremist right wing in Israel and probably thinks World War 3 will suit him quite nicely thank you.
In a banner year for big, great and terrible movies, my best and worst films of 2023.
Emperor's New Clothes award going to, Killers of the Flower Moon, sadly.
*Repost from the Brown Note Movie Review channel
My yearly list of the best albums, in a pretty decent but not great year in music, in a particularly poor era for music journalism. Movies to follow.
Emperors New Clothes award for most inexplicably, universally praised album of the year - Caroline Polachek - Desire, I Want to Turn Into You
*Originally posted on the other channel - The Brown Note Movie Review
Full show with music - https://www.mixcloud.com/julian-brown/top-25-albums-of-2023/
I can't read English Premier League side, Everton, being docked ten points for one count of financial irregularities as anything other than a shot across the bows of global soccer titans, Manchester City, currently accused of one hundred and fifteen counts. Though the right thing to do, with the global money men from FIFA to Saudi Arabia, looking to break apart football for their own interests, what will the impact of major punishment on the world's most important club be?
Why is it that every now and then a right wing populist scores a stunning election victory and their opposites on the left - like Bernie Sanders or Jeremy Corbyn - never do? It's simple - far from being revolutionaries, tearing the system down, the right wing populist, from Argentina to the Netherlands, represents the global elite economic interests, just much more colorfully. You will see them coming after immigrants and the welfare state but never tax breaks for the rich - funny that.
With nearly everyone a loser in this Western-backed horror show, one person has come out an undoubted winner - Vladimir Putin. After a year of unrelenting demonisation, sanctions and international pariah status (at least to the West) due to his war in Ukraine, suddenly the whole paradigm has flipped. It's now impossible for Western nations to both support Ukraine and Israel at the same time, without the unbearable hypocrisy of those contradictory positions being the main story for the rest of the world, whilst letting all air out of Western support for the war in Ukraine. He's also one of the only major leaders to be friends with both sides of the latest conflict. Christmas just got a lot rosier for Vlad.
Despite the USA having gone through the most tumultuous period of their modern existence, with an actual attempted overthrow of government and half the country openly flirting with fascism, the Democrats still have only one play in their book - rely on Trump and use Biden. Like last time. They should've lined up a batch of potential new leaders, instead they've no one and have spent the last two years chasing both a new cold war and a resurgence of the disastrous Middle Eastern conflicts that defined the first decade of this century. Disgraceful stuff.
Western governments, by their relentless, one-eyed and punitive take on the latest conflict in Gaza, are doing more to fuel a new outburst of global antisemitism than anything else - by refusing to ascribe any of this conflict to a Netanyahu government deemed an extremist global pariah a year ago, they are helping place that burden on the Jewish diaspora globally. And by denying the population of Gaza humanity, helping fuel Islamophobia.
The ex-Liberal Party staffer, Bruce Lehrmann, recently involved in one of Australia's highest ever profile rape cases - the infamous Brittany Higgins rape trial, which collapsed due to jury misconduct, before a retrial was cancelled due to Brittany Higgins perilous mental health, has now been named as a person facing two new rape charges. Which on the face of it, I would have expected to generate a bit more media coverage than it has.
An overview of the latest, crushingly repetitive episode in genocidal apartheid - now, post Ukraine, with even more helpings of Western hypocrisy.
Now that Australia's attempt to be nice to indigenous people was roundly defeated, a look at the reasons it failed and the behavior and culpability of all involved. Particularly the media - who were happy to complain daily about how the public never understood what the voice was, yet never offered to help explain it to them, despite widely supporting it and being the main conduit for that very public understanding it. Also how the architect of this failure - Labor leader Anthony Albanese - got away with it. The redundant populist right press screamed for his resignation and the whole country went, yeah, nah. Also the damage Liberal leader Peter Dutton has done to himself by owning the NO vote.
The Australian Labor party - in the midst of a cost of living crisis - should let others take control of the Voice referendum, lest it be a referendum on them.
Okay a deliberately inflammatory title. A truer statement would be, why do we always lump cyclists into one group, when there are two main groups. The first are the people getting from A-to-B, minding their own business, casually riding, wearing normal clothes - doing great things for their health and the environment, god bless them. The other group are the Lycra commandos, that go out in packs of twenty, dominated public roads in a way no other user is permitted to do and are some of the most aggressive road users. Why do we put up with Lycra commandos?
The cost of living crisis is hammering every nation that bought into the neoliberal economic nightmare - but it's mainly a cost of housing crisis, with the impact of house prices and rent killing our ability to weather any economic storm, as we eviscerated the idea of a meritocracy in favor of an inheritocracy. From the viewpoint of Sydney, rent and mortgages - on the one home you actually live in - are the number one driver of economic hardship, as we struggle valiantly to pay off other peoples investment properties. It's a sin we should not stand for and one that negatively impacts almost every aspect of both life and the economy.
I've got a pretty good strike rate for getting things right on this channel, whether its election or the political climate, but boy did I get the Taliban wrong - and who knew! When the Americans pulled out of Afghanistan, I said there was no way the Taliban would go back to their old ways and treatment of women, as they sought international legitimacy and personal enrichment. Well, I totally f*ed that up.
The week after Spain's women won the FIFA World Cup has been dominated by an unwanted kiss, placed without asking, on winning player Jenni Hermoso, by the president of the Spanish football federation, Luis Rubiales. Despite the entire planet asking him to go, he's refusing, putting himself ahead of everyone involved, including the World Cup winning side. But he's just the latest in a long line of men, who seem to cling to positions of power no matter what the scandal or how bad their performance, whilst women in the same position are usually sacked in a day. From Scott Morrison to Boris Johnson to former FIFA president Sepp Blatter, a look at some other men who feel entitled to stay on, no matter what.
Although it's unthinkable to send a former president to jail, given the crimes Trump is accused of, it will be very difficult NOT to give him jail time, and no one wants that more than the cowardly cuckold Republican party. For the Democrats, Trump in jail is a potential nightmare. Also - 6'3'' and 96Kg - HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHA
In lieu of the recent TikTok meltdown over a user asking a prospective employer, during a job interview, what the employer would do for their time blindness, as though being perpetually late was an illness others need to accommodate, not everything wrong with you is a condition others need to manage. To quote Christian Slater from the iconic movie Heathers - Everyone's life's got static. But instead of that being an opportunity to improve yourself - we live in an era where others must accommodate your faults,
And not just Saudi money, with mega-rich folk - particularly from the Middle East - buying up Premiership clubs, they will want pay back. Now the wildly over-promoted garbage Saudi league is not only on TV in Australia for some reason (>cough< money) and spammed every other post online, but actually trying to get into the European Champions League (I guess Saudi clubs will be abiding by Europe's financial fair play rules then, eh guys? lol) and Inter Miami are trying the same stunt with Latin America. With Ronaldo, Messi and Neymar the new Kardashians for the worst fans in the game, the celebrity chasers who support no club, only the player. Make no bones about it, the end game here is the destruction of all real football fans hold dear and the creation of a super league where the mega money clubs of Saudi and America and Russia all play against Manchester United and Real Madrid every week, and even worse is in store for the World Cup. Vomit.
I've been vocal about why I oppose the referendum on an Aboriginal voice to the Australian parliament in several posts - mainly how badly the campaign was being run and how dangerous it was.
Here then are ten ways that could improve the currently perilous chance of winning the vote.
The idea, that in a wealthy, advanced democracy, the child of a nurse deserves worse healthcare than the rich person's child that nurse is treating, because they earn more money, in a job that is probably half as valuable to society as a nurse is, should be called out for being the morally disgusting abomination it is. That any child deserves worse healthcare or education at all, because they're parents are teachers and nurses and not investment bankers, should be called out as one of the worst moral repugnancies we allow without question.
With the FIFA Women's World Cup entering its final stages, lets acknowledge the impact new male and female fans are having on the game. We aren't talking about how toxicaly awful this new male football fan is, the one that breaks the holy sacrament of soccer - support a team, for better or worse, forever - and who chases a players like Ronaldo, Neymar or Messi from club to club. They are the worst thing to have ever happened to football since big money got involved. Countering that is the new female fan, who will play at grass-roots level and follow their local club with a 100 supporters their whole lives. Truly the purest football fans to have emerged, the antidote to these vapid celebrity chasers and the savior of the beautiful game.
The global laughter at the USA Women's Football team's failure at the FIFA World Cup, rings a little hollow when they are reigning double world champions, and literally the most successful female team in the history of the sport. But the glee at star player Megan Rapinoe is something else entirely and shows how characteristics we lionize in men are still crucified in women.
What it says on the tin. Stop infecting the beautiful game with garbage stat obsessed American sporting terminology
FIFA #WomensWorldCup
Just when Australia is in dire need of a Labor Government, we get one and it half pretends to be the Liberal party and half focuses on terribly damaging side projects. We voted for Labor, give us Labor.
Or more specifically, is the entirety of this conflict related to the coming impact of climate change? Where our future will be dominated by two super-powers, the BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China) and the West, not for conflict between the two per se, but so the strongest survive better in the coming climate change/food production apocalypse, and everyone else has a very bleak future indeed. From the militarization of the West to Ukraine giving up sovereignty of one of the most arable countries on Earth, a look at how this may all play out - including a link below to how much this is already costing Ukraine in ownership of its own farmland and monetary policy.
https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/war-theft-takeover-ukraine-agricultural-land
With the FIFA Women's World Cup underway, the issue of fair pay in women's sport has come up again - but it's a fallacy. This is entertainment money, it has no correlation with the genuine, real battle for fair or equal pay in other occupations and is a distraction or at the very least muddies the waters.
The only reason Elon isn't the epicenter of cringe in this universe, is his fanboys - the Musk Maidens - are even sadder. Now attention vampire Elon, who was FORCED to buy Twitter, and forced to pay double - after a flex went badly wrong - has forgotten he only paid $44 Billion for a brand, one he is now ditching entirely. Like paying billions for Coca Cola and renaming it "W" and selling it in an orange can. Bugatti Genius.
The third episode of my intermittent series on how we've left it far too late to do anything about global warming finally reaches a positive note. NO IT DOESN'T WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!
Australian political leadership has been a farce since Labor stupidly decided to ditch prime minister Kevin Rudd after a couple of years, since then two years became the norm until you were sacked. Rudd was ditched for Gillard, Gillard for Rudd a couple of years later, then Abbott for Turnbull a couple of years later, Turnbull for Morrison a couple of years later - stop this madness. With the vote for the voice teetering on a precipice, there will no doubt be a push to remove Albanese if the vote loses - DON'T.
The Australian Medicare Levy is an obscenity, a straight up tax-payer gift to the private health care industry and it needs to go. There's no reason or benefit to it, other than propping up the private health care industry - to all of our detriment. Good old Aussie ex-prime minister, Neo-liberal titan, John Howard (a perfect mix of Reagan, Nixon and Thatcher) came up with this con job bribe, to force people to buy private health insurance twenty years ago and why are we still putting up with it? (Note: I refer to it live as the medicare surcharge but it is both the medicare levy and the medicare levy surcharge that I am referring too)
Ever sat at home and wondered - am I a massive racist? Well now it's the fun game for all the family - Are You A Racist? As we walk through three major signifiers that you might indeed be a racist - two other major signifiers, do signifiers 1-3 make you angry? And do you constantly try to redefine what racism is? Are not included in this game.
While I think the referendum into adding a constitutional "Voice" to the Australian constitution, recognizing and empowering indigenous Australians, is undoubtedly a great thing, these are the reasons I think the current path should be cancelled - primarily the a patchwork of lies from the right will turn the vote toxic, incompetent planning and campaigning from the left has singularly failed to define what The Voice even is, in the eyes of most Australians, and to lose such a vote would be an unmittagated disaster.
There's no doubt the Australian Liberal Party's cruelest ideological attack on the poor - Scott Morrison's vicious Robodebt scheme - was wildly illegal, incompetent and corrupt, costing billions of tax pay dollars and resulting in arguably two-thousand suicides, but it was also gleefully supported and enabled by Australia's awful right wing media.
Did Putin not learn anything from America's famed Second Amendment - as much as it has been usurped in recent times - originally intended to protect governments from standing armies in their midst. So what was a savvy operator like Putin doing with a fifty-thousand strong private army called Wagner Group, who would inevitably one day turn. Also Ukrainian leader Zelensky cerebrates sending the widely banned, humanitarian disaster that are cluster bombs into his own country.
Though the figurehead of an attempted insurrection, and de-facto leader of America's full blown fascist republicans being in possession of state secrets is terrifying - I suspect it maybe ultimately down to arrogance and stupidity - hallmarks of Trump's entire life. The crimes committed by his predecessors Bush Jr, Clinton and Obama are, on impact, far worse but completely unpunished, and never will be - because they were working for the right people.
The Australian mainstream news media is run by a right wing old boys club, and never has that been more apparent than the disgraceful recent run of attack stories towards alleged rape victim survivor, Brittany Higgins. It may well be the foulest stench to have ever emerged from this motley crew of enablers. It seems they hold grudges and want payback for Ms Higgins and instead of doing their job, investigating the real story, who in the Liberal government knew what and when in the likelihood of a high level cover-up, they went after the alleged victim and the Labor party... Well it didn't turn out well, blowing up in their faces, as yet again, another male Liberal party politician became embroiled in an abuse of women scandal. It isn't just the Liberal party of Australia who have a problem with women - it's the right wing news media.
The Western world has, particularly in places like Sydney and London, destroyed a large part of our way of life, through the worship of property developers and owners above all others, to such an extent it has removed a large reason to even work. The larger part of the population no longer has any disposable income either, killing many other businesses, as we handover ever larger portions of our pay to fund other peoples mortgages, handing our life's wages to other peoples children. Nothing will change until we treat them like the enemy and make them suffer like we have.
As funny as Fox News being fined $780 million for lying and gurning man-baby Tucker Carlson being sacked out of the blue, it just continues a truism Rupert Murdoch has shown his entire life - there isn't anyone, no matter how important or seemingly close to him, he won't screw over, abandon or throw under a bus, in a heartbeat and never look back - even if he is married to them. For Tucker, no matter the bluster of his fan base, this is the beginning of the end - he will never have the prominence or reach Fox News gave him again. For Fox News, other than being more careful, it's impossible this will all lead to any change in direction, as they are completely trapped by a paradigm and audience they created.
After another school shooting puts America on course to outstrip it's average of 600 mass shootings per year, a teen knocks at the wrong house, by accident, to pick up his brothers from a play date and is shot and killed by a scared old white man, whilst a young woman pulls into the wrong drive, by accident, and is shot and killed by a scared old white man. A look at how easy access to guns is only one part of a problem, that includes a media that has instilled fear into the populace and a populace too ready to pull the trigger.
On the back of the recent, historic, diplomatic meetings between Syria, Iran and Saudi Arabia - brokered by China - the influence of the BRIC nations continues to grow bolder, with Lula - the president of Brazil - weighing in on American militarism in Ukraine.
After the extremist Republican party made it common to reject one of the cornerstones of US democracy - the result of democratic elections, they've upped their game again. Now they seek to overturn another sacrosanct right - to a trail by a jury of your peers - a cornerstone of US justice, at the behest of Fox News no less. America is sleepwalking into fascism and the Republican party is already there.
I always said, the up-coming Australian referendum on indigenous Australian rights, called "The Voice" was a very dangerous game, but maybe Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese really is a political operator of super-natural abilities and foresight. Opposition leader Peter Dutton hasn't just walked into a trap by opposing the voice, he's built a 10 meter diving board above the trap and swan-dived into it.
The populist right in Australia keep losing elections because they are too right wing and keep screaming at themselves they lost because they are too left wing. The whole country is scratching their heads to this phenomenal anomaly, but there is a very good reason the populist right wont change and wont acknowledge they need to - they literally can't.
Given the Western world's media and politicians are asleep at the wheel here, as our empire falls, an episode as each shoe drops. After China upended decades of sacrosanct Middle Eastern affairs by brokering peace between the mortal enemies of Iran and Saudi Arabia, now the next shoe. Brazil and China agreeing to ditch the US dollar in trade between the two countries. This is huge, as the hegemony of the US dollar being the world's base currency, likely led to the wars in Iraq and Libya and is a huge driver of American foreign policy. The war in Ukraine has ironically, by the insanely punitive nature of Western sanctions and asset taking, shown the rest of the world (most of it) that your money isn't safe in $USD and if you step out of line, the West will take it. It could end up the most expensive war the US has ever fought.
Despite the Ex-Labour leader doing precisely nothing but being excluded from his own party, what's next for Jeremy Corbyn is a wild maelstrom of press about him attacking Labour by being forced to stand as an independent, as the establishment wind up to once again take him down at all costs, be prepared for one of the most hypocritical accusations in UK political history.
As ludicrously offensive as that sounds, is Netanyahu and his historically right wing government, so far gone, it will be impossible for Israels backers in the West to maintain their position and with hundreds of thousands of left leaning Israelis protesting in the streets, the potential for cross-over between the concerns of Israelis over Netanyahu's Neo-fascit government and those of the Palestinian cause could well become more aligned.
Whilst America screams to whole world about the sanctity of Ukranian sovereignty and freedom from foreign military war - they wage military war from American military bases in Syria. This hypocrisy is clear to the whole non-Western world and confirms to type. Why is the American military in Syria? Were they invited? No, are they at war? No, did they go their to overthrow the Syrian government? Yes. None of this is ANY different to what Russia is accused of in Ukraine.
One voice was noticeably absent from the anti-trans activist and grifter, Posey Parker's whirlwind trip to Australia, feminists. Actual cis woman feminists talking from a feminist perspective and recently, they nearly always are last to be heard from on their own issue. And feminism is their issue, it belongs to cis women before anyone else, just like trans issues, politics, stories, identity and self definition belongs to trans people first, so does feminism to cis-women. We are in a dangerous position of not hearing from the world's largest oppressed and marginalized group, letting bad faith actors speak for them and making the debate so violently toxic, we shove people in the room with actual Nazis who have no business being there.
The UK Labour party have proved that they're poisoned beyond cure, a Neo-liberal version of Labour ethics and economics that prevents them ever offering real change. There is still enormous love and support for a genuinely good man that the UK was robbed of, by a unified establishment onslaught, leaving unfinished business. There's nothing you can do inside the current Labour part, so start Labour anew.
I posted "Where is China" on Ukraine a while back, it seems they may have been there all along. After brokering a situation the USA seemed far more comfortable with being war like between Saudi Arabia and Ukraine, they are back with another non-militaristic peace deal between Ukraine and Russia. The World has changed and the West hasn't noticed. How about we ask Ukrainian's how they feel about this?
The war in Iraq - now twenty-years old -Ā was not a mistake or an error - it was a deliberate lie, a corrupt act of biblical proportions that dominated the first decade of this century. Why is the real reason we went still so opaque - barely ever mentioned? We know they had no weapons of mass destruction, because a decade of UN weapons inspectors told us so. We already knew Saddam was a chemical weapons using dictator for decades. But when he threatened the US dollar hegemony in oil sales - he was deposed and dead within three years.
I was about to post that the USA, the EU, NATO and the military industrial complex had won, that they'd got everything they could possibly have dreamed of out of the Russian war in Ukraine - only at the expense of Ukraine - as a new and highly lucrative iron-curtain descends on Europe. Then I saw the China peace deal between Saudi Arabia and Iran, the fact that the BRIC nations - Brazil, Russia, India & China - are arguably already the largest economic block on earth and wondered if 4D chess is being played here.
In the midst of yet another financial meltdown and banking crisis in the US, why is the talk only of who will bail them out and never of re-introducing the banking and financial regulations, destroyed by Ronald Regan and Bill Clinton (and again by Trump)? The ones specifically designed to stop these greedy bastards from setting fire to their own houses and protected America from major financial crisis for forty-years and who's removal led to the global financial crisis.
Just as the dust was settling on ex prime minister, Scott Morrison's idiotic attack on China, current PM Anthony Albanese has agreed to that fools submarine deal! Well I guess we now know why the Sydney Morning Herald ran all those war with China pieces last week... Ignoring the eye-bleeding $350 billion cost of getting submarines we will never use in twenty years time, it weds us to American military might for the next three decades, specifically aimed at China, when that looks like a very bad bet. Prepare for the argument to be made that Australia should house nuclear weapons in a year or two.
The West has dominated the world politically, militarily and economically for a very long time - the Anglo-sphere for centuries, from Great Britain to the USA. The predictions as to when this would fall have been rife this century, with the economic rise of China - maybe we just passed that tipping point. The biggest story (virtually ignored by Western media) has been China brokering a peace deal between mortal enemies Saudi Arabia and Iran - without a shot being fired. Meanwhile America is doubling down on its big fist military version of influence by creating a reverse iron-curtain in Europe. The difference is stark. With neoliberal economics destroying the consumer base of the West , we don't even have that left - the age of the West is over, the time of the BRIC has come.
The biggest news story in the world is barely being mentioned. For decades, American support of Saudi Arabia and opposition to Iran, has been a defining characteristic in Western global politics, including endless wars. Now America's Middle Eastern princeling, Saudi Arabia, just brokered peace with their mortal (and at this juncture, tellingly Russia friendly) enemy, Iran - through China, without American involvement. This is a global paradigm shift of incredible magnitude.
The reason I started this channel was how appalled I was at the Australian news media, who gave one side of politics a near universal free ride, no matter how bad it got, not exactly good for the country or what they're there for. I posted then, a few years back, about how it was the worst mainstream news media in the developed world. Now, in the wake of their complete lack of interest in the biggest political scandal of the modern era, Robodebt, to spruiking war with China, a follow-up is due.
The weirdest (and potentially most dangerous) upshot of football presenter Gary Lineker, being suspended by the BBC, for daring to offend the UK's Tory government, is the focus on ex UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, and the relentless, universal attempt by the UK's media - especially the BBC - to destroy him. His humanity, honesty and morality have also been shown in stark contrast to that of current UK Labour and that of their weather-vane leader Keir Starmer. For the first time everin my whole life, I want Labour to lose the next election against an all time worst UK government. Life will of course be worse, but it's better go through that pain, than reward this all time worst Labour and be stuck with hearing about the only kind of Labour that can win elections for the next two decades, never getting any real change.
The perception of public broadcasters like the BBC being anything but mouthpieces for right wing governments, was laid bare by football commentator and ex-England superstar, Gary Lineker, tweeting that maybe the Tory government's policies towards refugees was just a little bit Nazi-esque. I would've thought he had upheld BBC values by doing so, and wasn't aware a broadcaster that went through World War 2, would require impartiality against fascistic language. But the levels of hypocrisy that have been thrown into light is fascinatingly dangerous for the Tory-BBC love affair.
As the self-appointed spokesthem for activism, a look at how modern activism is crushingly focusing on trivial and not big ticket items, wildly trashing anyone that disagrees even one per-cent with what they say and ignores the negative impact they are having on wider causes. Activism is the court of public opinion and we are turning off droves and then crucifying them when they criticize us - this is helping no-one.
Ever since our venerable >cough< ex prime minister, Scott Morrision's most noxious brain fart, about sending weapons inspectors into China (costing us our largest trading partner) chief political editor, Peter Hartcher and his once great newspaper, the Sydney Morning Herald, have been fighting a proxy war with China. Now after backing off for a while and relationships thawing, they are back with this in a raft of recent attack articles:
"Our independent defence panel asks if we should consider national service or even hosting nuclear weapons."
To fight China. Fox News worthy stuff.
Defined as: the transfer of a business, industry, or service from public to private ownership and control, how would that ever be a good thing?! The main purpose of all right-wing, economically Neo-liberal government, is to transfer as much public wealth into their private sector buddies hands as possible. The current New South Wale government has sold off more than $90 Billion in public assets. Let ask the questions - who benefited? By how much? Is it being run better? How much did it cost? - the tax payer builds it and pays for it and the right-wing sell it to their mates for a song and then rent it back to us. STOP PRIVATIZATION. NSW Labor are right to make this an election centerpiece.
Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese just sent an unexpected flare up on superannuation. After bagging him for abandoning the Labor party must-do list of rich people tax breaks, negative-gearing and franking credits, is he playing 4D chess with all of us?
Mere seconds after Aussie prime minister, Anthony Albanese even mentioned removing some tax breaks millionaires gained in recent times, the Australian mainstream media, from radio to tv to print, proved as always who it really works for - the top 1% of Australians (who they hilariously call middle Australia). But there power has never been weaker. This is a massive opportunity.
Whilst the West arms Ukraine with billions in weapons and universally sanctions a much larger and more powerful attacker stealing their lands, the West also gives billions in arms to Israel, whilst Israel attacks a much smaller and weaker opponent and steals their lands, and turns a blind eye to anything they do the Palestinians.
I guess some people are worth more than others.
No doubt sniffing future profits, and fearful of the online mob spoiling that party, the estates and publishers of Dahl's and Fleming's works are releasing new versions of their books, changing words. Never change an artists work. For a start it's missing a great opportunity to learn and teach - how and why history has changed, how to deal with being offended - it's also deleting a snap shot of the past. But worst of all is the precedent it sets, what's next, and who decides? A painting too explicit? A film too upsetting? Just change it. What about re-releasing NWA albums with sexist language removed? Never do this.
Move over COVID, conspiracy town has a new sheriff - and it's an a doozy. If you've spent your life (like I have) in horrendously developed major cities, the idea of having everything you need 15 minutes from your home, would seem like the sanest and most wanted and most human development plan ever, apparently its basically Stalin.
Never trust any phrases less in politics than "Tough on Crime" or a "A war on crime", it's just right-wing populist short hand for "We aren't going to address any of the reasons for crime, just lock more people up, even harder, which has never in the history of humanity worked". With El Salvador now going down this route with the America's largest ever prison camp - with a massive emphasis on just how sadistically they will treat the prisoners - the residents of San Salvador's worst gang neighborhoods now have the enviable life of, not being able to escape joining a gang and then being put into an even worse prison for the rest of their horrible lives after.
The 1.6 BILLION dollar Dominion Voting Systems defamation case against Fox News has revealed something we all knew was happening - Fox News doesn't even believe the crap it spouts. Whilst it's most toxic mainstays like #TuckerCarlson and #SeanHannity were spruiking mass voter fraud to a violently wound up audience who would end up trying to overthrow the government, they were mocking those same claims in private. This isn't freedom of speech - this should be treason.
Well done to the world for their response to COVID - it needs saying - where for once right wing populism was ignored for a global belief in science (if only we could've done the same for climate change). Now the cookers, conspiracy theorists, anti-vaxxers and charlatan politicians are claiming they were right about everything, when all they've done is spout a load of rubbish 3 years ago, dropped 90% of it and still claimed to be right about everything cos they waited 3 years. Mistakes will always be made on unprecedented global events - but we were never wrong in listening to who we did.
I'm no fan of either Anthony Albanese's wildly dangerous The Voice referendum on Indigenous recognition or voting on my fellow citizens rights, but it's happening and to lose the vote by a fraction because of something you've done Lidia, will be so damaging to indigenous Australians, the prime minister and maybe even Australia itself.
With US President, Joe Biden, on the ground in Ukraine, any pretense this anything other than a war between the USA, the EU and Russia is laughable - not when the USA pumped more arms into the country in three months than the entire annual defense budget of Russia. And with China now hovering around helping Russia, a year in and this conflict is more globally dangerous than ever, with Ukrainians still its biggest victims.
Despite initially holding out, either honorably or because of fuel price terror, Germany has got back with the program and is sending tanks to the Russian war in Ukraine - make no bones about it, each German tank equates to Ukrainian civilian deaths.
With Australians again being asked to again vote on OTHER Australians rights, if prime minister Anthony Albanese can't explain The Voice to the public in one sentence, he's giving a hugely dangerous and damaging free kick to the populist right.
Even a homeless person isn't as desperate for the next dollar as the super rich. With one of the greatest players of all time, Christiano Ronaldo, prepared to trash his legacy, right at the end, by becoming a performing clown in Saudi Arabia and probably the most prominent music act of the century, BeyonceĢ, happy to do the same - for basically the same people who got a very bad meal in The Menu - in Dubai, the integrity of the mega-wealthy has never been so cheaply for sale. Nor has their holistic commitment to human rights been more transparently exposed surface level noise.
From Andrew Tait to Donald Trump, from Kanye West to Elon Musk, from Marjorie Taylor Greene to Katie Hopkins, Cardinal George Pell, Kari Lake, Pauline Hanson, Avi Yemini and Alex Jones - the modern day superheroes of the right are ALL really awful people, why? I think I know why.
A titan of Australian Catholicism, who was the third highest ranking Catholic on earth, leaves a legacy forever associated with the child sex abuse scandals that plagued his church. He is being lionised by those of the hard right as a hero, as they celebrate his eventual, controversial acquittal from his own child sex abuse conviction, whilst they completely ignore a royal commission into child sex abuse finding he knew of, helped cover up and even facilitated the abuse of children over decades. This is not a man to celebrate at his time of passing.
Is Australia's most infamous workplace incident over, or is it about to go supernova and finally ensure Brittany's employer at the time, the actual government, is finally held to account. Despite maintaining a scarcely believable and completely ludicrous position, that no senior person in the previous Liberal government, either knew about the allegations of rape against a staff member in their own offices or covered it up to win an election, the Liberals have so far got away scot-free. Now, a new compensation case from Higgins brings two pivotal parts of this equation, ex-senators, Linda Reynolds and Michaelia Cash into play. No longer having the protection - including financial - of being in office, will they finally throw our beloved ex-prime minister, Scott Morrision, under a bus, by proclaiming they were only obeying orders? Please Brittany, do not settle this out of court.
Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, is the Time magazine person of the year - rightly so as they base it on the person who overall has had the most impact on the year. It's also bloody funny as I know damn well the tweeting ego, Elon Musk, would've thought it should be him. But in one of my infrequent series of pieces that will make no friends - has he been GOOD for Ukraine or the Ukrainian people? In my opinion, no.
A double whammy of hypocrisy actually. As the biggest protests in decades greet the latest round of lock-downs in China, the Western world, (particularly my people on the left) who have spent the last few years attacking lock-down protestors, now regard them as freedom fighting heroes. And whilst mass public street protests have been common place in the West in recent years, particularly in America, all the way up to an actual attempt to overthrow the government, if they happen in Iran, Russia or China, it's time for regime change.
After a two year wait to get to trial, followed by a mistrial due to the actions of a Juror, the most controversial case and political story in modern Australian history would seem to be at an end - with Brittany in hospital for mental health reasons, the prosecutor has decided not proceed with another trial, saying her life is in danger and more important. Devastating stuff and now no one who in all likelihood helped cover this low point in Australian politics up, to win an election and then lied about it for two years, will ever beheld accountable, including ex-prime minister Scott Morrison. Our system in dealing with sexual assault cases is broken, with re-traumatising alleged victims seemingly built into the process, always for the benefit of the accused - in this case to an unbearable degree. The worst part of this country will always treat her as a villain but I and the best half of this country stand with Brittany Higgins for her unimaginable strength of character, integrity and bravery.
FIFA should be custodians of the world's biggest sport's most popular showcase, instead they've descended into such corrupt disrepute they need to be replaced. We all know the awarding the cup to Qatar was mired in bribery, lying and officials enriching themselves, but how could it not be when every other modern World Cup stinks to high heaven too. An overview of the whole debacle and why Qatar would even want to spend a hundred billion dollars plus to host it in the first place.
The Australian state of Victoria just held a long heralded election, which, if you listened to ANY Australian news - from TV to radio to print media - was a terrifyingly close referendum on the most hated man in the country, Premier Dan Andrews and his COVID dictatorship. It was NEVER close, not for one second, yet wall to wall media and polling said it was on a knife edge throughout. Dan walked it with almost the same vote he got four years ago, despite the two years of the most toxic and one sided media attack campaign in Australian political history. The shining light is that this country completely ignored the media and in particular the Murdoch press - who now wield the influence of a wet lettuce leaf. #IStandWithDan
The UK's latest Tory meltdown is again both hysterically funny and maddeningly awful, especially when you think it was a personal choice to choose Brexit and Boris Johnson, rather than Jeremy Corbyn and have the best UK leader with the best policies of my lifetime. He is certainly looking good now. But not only did the right destroy him but so did the "Left" leaning Guardian Newspaper, who spent multiple years trying to take him down, despite knowing that was supporting current dog bucket.
Three major factors have contributed to the downfall of Australia's global city. One - John Howard's economic policies destroyed the standard of living and the housing market to the extent even an average job, once able to BUY a three-bed home, will now struggle to rent a one bed flat. Two - the infiltration of puritanical right wing (often religious) people in politics and the police have turned the place into a rule infested and globally mocked killjoy. Three - the biggest selling point was the environment, the endless blue skies, warmth, beaches and ocean... climate change has killed that dead, as we head into our third washed out summer IN A ROW, we must acknowledge we now have wet and dry seasons as the tropics move ever further south. What is the point in Sydney any more?
God I would love and Australia where the news media held right wing politicians even ten percent as accountable as the left, who are hounded out of office for any transgression immediately, or where even men in office fell on their swords half as much as women. Make no bones about it, they were gunning for Greens party Senator, Lidia Thorpe from day one - because she is independent, loud, brown, unapologetic and a woman. Meanwhile the behavior accepted from the right of politics is astonishing.
A delightfully happy follow up to the previous piece a couple of months back, about how we are way past being able to stop the severe impacts of climate change - which are well under way - and that the most extreme forecasting barely covers how bad the next decade will be. Just checking in to see if things have gotten better. Oh dear.
The UK has decided to out do even Australia and go for a fourth division right wing stupid leader - and Liz Truss must be stopped, she's already in the space of weeks proving to be a hugely dangerous and brainless ideologue (even up against her predecessors) capable of anything. Her economic plan was pure comic book evil, where a Tory says the quiet part very loudly. Actually preaching trickle down economic neoliberalism 30 years after Margaret Thatcher destroyed the UK is quite something, but doing it during a massive economic crisis is insanity. Also how I was wrong - it's not Australia but the UK that has the worst and most damaging news media in the world. And how the inevitable win of Labour at the next election will be promoted as a victory of 'moderate' Tony Blair like Labour - and repudiation of Jeremy Corbyn's actual Labour - for decades to come, even though Labour leader Kier starmer was being annihilated until crisis after crisis made the Conservatives un-electable - exactly like in Australia.
With the Russian call up of hundreds of thousands of troops and the likely annexation of the Russia leaning enclaves in Ukraine, it's likely Putin's objectives have shifted. An overview of the entire sh$t show framed around the latest developments and a brilliant piece by Scott Ritter (below) that you wont hear anything of in most Western media coverage. Plus the stifling of dissent and how Western 'support' of the war in Ukraine is now leading to the election of right wing governments in the West. And is the Ukrainian government acting in the best interests of the Ukrainian people? Once again, as a left wing socialist I'm not pro totalitarian dictators like Putin, but dissent, ya know....
https://consortiumnews.com/2022/09/22/scott-ritter-reaping-the-whirlwind/
Having deprived me being able to vote to remove franking credits, negative gearing and tax cuts for the rich (all essential Labor policies the new Australian prime minister abandoned for zero votes...) I had one solid, rolled gold policy to vote on - a federal ICAC, with teeth and retrospective powers, to tear down arguably the western world's most corrupt governance. This promise has now been punted down the road, due to the Queen's death and Albanese has so far a history of avoiding strong or controversial policies. You had better not let us down even 1%, the federal ICAC is your legacy.
Is Meghan Markle the most hated woman alive? No, she's the most bullied woman alive. Ironically mega-stans like Piers Morgan, himself trapped inside a desire to ride on her coat tails and having the world's biggest chip on his shoulder, are doing more to make the public like her than anyone else. And people like Piers are doing more to prove her point about racism, sexism and bullying by an entitled media cabal, that can't stand anyone daring to survive their abuse, than anyone else. Her heinous crime is being a strong, independent, unapologetic black woman above her station.
An overview of the passing of the most famous person on earth, Queen Elizabeth II - as the media haven't been covering it enough. But also a look at the reaction of the public, the distortion of this reaction by the press, the British empire and the behavior of empires throughout history. Plus the future of the world's most well spoke Kardashian clan and its new lead character, King Charles III, in an era obsessed with celebrity.
*Without internet I referred to the Queen being 22 when she took the throne, obviously she was 26
Two months ago the Democrats were in a world of pain. With supporting endless war in Ukraine killing their economy and nothing to stand for or unite them without Trump, they were heading for defeat in the midterm elections, handing massive power to an increasingly fascist wing of the American right. Now everything is different, the Supreme Court's massive overreach on abortion and the specter of what they will do next, has combined with the raid on Mar a Lago putting Trump back front and centre, and has turned the MAGA hoards and brand Trump toxic with voters. Biden has picked now, exactly the right time, to go after them by name.
After starting a you tube channel out of disgust at the mainstream Australian news media, I posted "Australia Has The Worst News Media In The Western World", the bias, their lack of interest in holding one side of politics to account over absolutely anything, no matter how egregious, whilst hammering the left over a spilled tea cup, the cronyism of the white male conservative boys club, the lack of diversity in ownership and the devastating and distortive impact that was having on the country. Well two years later and despite the left winning government, the situation is still the same, happily, the public are rejecting it. With major scandals like the Governor General's secret charity and the attempted takeover of the Victorian Liberal party by Pentacostals, being ignored by our mainstream media, we are beholden to our magnificent independent journalists - like Ronni Salt, friendlyjordies, Michael Pascoe,Michael West etc - to once again, Keep The Bastards Honest.
the orginal https://youtu.be/CaGfMsoGwAE
Like a mob boss who, not realising his living room was bugged, just gave up the whole gang, John Barilaro's recklessness has shone a light on the whole Liberal party gravy train. We need a royal commision into every aspect of it. Every ex-politician who wound up on half a million dollars a year as an ambassador to somewhere, the ex-staff that fell on their swords for people like Scott Morrision, where did they wash up, how were they rewarded for their loyalty? Every trade envoy - what specifically are they doing for our country, whats the cost benifit analysis of their $600k plus salaries versus the money they bring in? What of the staff that facilitate this whole corrupt scam? Lets find out everything and dismantle the whole system.
The election of a person of the character, capabilities and honesty of Scott Morrison, to the highest office in Australia, lays bear the great shame Australia's news media and his pliant colleagues bear in ever letting this happen. As his previous employer at Tourism Australia has now publicly stated, he was always like this and everyone knew. Yet from his hugely controversial appointment to politics against an opponent that roundly beat him, to his re-invention as daggy dad and man of the people over a decade later - he has always been supported by our press and tolerated by colleagues that routinely bad mouthed him behind the scenes. Never again must someone so low be so enabled by the system.
The media circus around around the apparent misogynist king, Andrew Tate, is getting an awful lot wrong and this does us no service at all. Like the fact that Andrew Tate creates 13 year old misogynists - no he doesn't, they already ARE 13 year old misogynists, that's why they love him. We need to much better in understanding a systemic problem, than simply playing whack-a-mole with anyone we don't like. There's always another mole.
America has mishandled Trump from day one but it's getting worse. The endless stream of accusations and inquiries and trials, that take years to complete, foster in his fan base the idea that he is relentlessly persecuted and guilty of nothing. Lock him up. It's the only way. If Julian Assange can be de-facto locked up for ten years (in a foreign country no less) for releasing an entirely truthful video of war crimes, because he is a threat to the state - how the hell is someone that just tried to overthrow democracy and caused a riot in the seat of power, not one hundred times more of a threat to America? The USA is sleepwalking into totalitarianism against an enemy that block votes the exact same way 100% of the time that they can't rely on outnumbering them again.
Good old Scott Morrison, no longer being in power is no impediment to his calamities still dominating the county. Perhaps the ex-Aussie PM grew jealous at John Barilaro stealing his thunder! Now the utterly bizarre spectacle of him appointing himself to multiple roles in secret. If only someone had warned us about his character or competence before he was elected...
*Note - at the start I misread the April/May appointments as being this year, not last year as they were (live radio I'm afraid - and please don't expect me to know what year it is)
A few days before a radicalized extremist charged the stage and stabbed fatwa'd author, Salman Rushdie - another radicalized extremist, present at the Jan 6 riots, attacked an FBI office and was killed, in defence of Donald Trump. They both had something in common, both the Islamic extremist and the right wing Trump supporter were born and bred Americans, both radicalized on home turf. A look at how the USA fostered extremism abroad for decades by often supporting hard-line Islamic extremists over more moderate options, and how the wildly aggressive tenor of America's right wing news media and politicians has brought this extremism home to roost.
No, absolutely not. I have a lot of problems with modern activism and its focus on small things but the rally only have an actor play a role to which they are assigned is simply upside down, wrong head and self destructive. Equality is not only a trans, gay, disabled or ethnic minority being able to play those roles, its trans, gay, disabled or ethnic minority actors having equal opportunity to play any role.
After decades of America "politely" ignoring Taiwan, because they were doing massive business with China, Prominent Democrat Nancy Pelosi chose now to visit Taiwan. Now, in middle of the Russian war in Ukraine and all the global impacts that's having, she chooses to stick her finger in China's eye. It's a moment so pointless and reckless, it recalls Aussie PM Scott Morrison's equally clunk headed attack on China two years ago. China don't fall for it, just ignore her, there doesn't seem to be any plan here at all. And also China, given I'm a white Westerner and I'm sure you are desperate to hear my opinion - why you are wrong on Taiwan and what you should be doing.
Five weeks ago I posted about how ex-NSW political leader, John Barilaro, had just taken down the Dominic Perrottet led NSW state government, in the time since we've witnessed the unfurling of a seemingly endless web of corruption and self reward from the most bare-faced grifters ever to grace Australian politics. This saga has already accounted for the deputy leader of the state but the focus must be on ALL politically appointed positions - Barilaro, with one of the most brazen uses of the victim card in modern history, has already had to field questions about his own girlfriend being forwarded for another role to his own ex-member of staff, who for some reason is on SIX HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS A YEAR. Have you heard these people speak? Competence and intelligence do not radiate from them, so how are they all worth so much money? I've said before, the Liberal party is the only place you are guaranteed a pay rise on losing your job. Every trade appointment, department head and ambassadorship appointed by this disgusting gravy train needs investigation - Barilaro is just the start.
It's time we admitted the ball we keep punting down the road, long since went off a cliff. We have left it too late, acted too little and it's already happening worse than we predicted. Decades of a cabal of the fossil fuel industry, shonky scientists for hire and the right wing media combining to attack action on climate change - which may go down as the worst crime by impact in human history, these people should be in jail - real science always erred on the side of caution to appease them. Turns out the cautious modelling was way off and what's already happening is much closer to the extreme end and getting worse quicker than even those models predicted. Those 30 year off predictions that may happen if we don't take action are definitely going to happen in the next few years whatever we now do. We must still act but have already changed the world beyond recognition - to quote the poet bard Sufjan Stevens - we're all gonna die.
I've always ignored the ridiculous attempts by the Western media to paint Putin as some comic book villain, it serves no purpose and is in fact dangerous to misrepresent one of the cleverest and savviest political animals of the modern era. You don't stay in charge of Russia this long by being an idiot. So I've been perplexed, why then did he get the invasion of Ukraine so wrong? Why did he not time a likely two month conflict closer to the US midterms to sow chaos in their economy and likely return a more favorable Republican house? Did he really underestimate the volume of international condemnation, crippling sanctions, pariah status and Western backing for Ukraine? Even the further bolstering of NATO and the EU - the thing that led to the war in the first place. Now several months in and Putin is looking far more stable, the Western worlds economies are in unsustainable free-fall as a result of the war, Putin has a much stronger hand and most telling of all, is opening up Ukrainian grain shipments to the third world, containing as much as possible the fallout of the war to the West. I thought the West's decision to start a proxy war with Russia by fueling the conflict in Ukraine was insanity - now I'm starting to wonder if it was Putin who started a proxy war with the West by invading in the first place, and knew exactly where we would be now. We willfully underestimate this man at our peril.
We all knew the billionaire CBD property owners were never going to give up that easy and now everyone is trying to pretend working from home was only ever a temporary symptom of COVID, not the complete and irreversable paradigm shift it is. Almost every argument against remote work can be countered by a far better one for it, so lets fight. We also have an unexpected enemy in the midst - the war between the introvert and extrovert. VIVA WORKING FROM HOME FOREVER!
Now that UK PM Boris Johnson has been vanquished, the last of Rupert Murdoch's trifecta of terror, the worst leaders in the Anglo-sphere's history, a look back at how they were never messianic profits of doom, but a reflection of a populist right wing voter base that has got ever more aggressive, unified, insane and destructive and isn't going anywhere. And why any false equivalence that the Left are just as bad is garbage. These people who look like us and live among us are our biggest war and our only hope is to continually outnumber them.
Even in the face of actual fascism, the USA's Democrats are doing nothing. Even with the highest number of progressives in government ever, the Democrats are doing do nothing. Even with the greatest threat to democracy of the modern era, the Democrats are content to whittle around the edges and offer the same politics as usual that got Trump elected in the first place. Whilst the Trump era extremist Republican party are all on the same page and fighting for the same thing, the Democrats aren't fighting and don't even have a page. They united for one brief spark around ending Trump and now that's gone, they believe the awfulness of their opposition is reason enough for people to vote for them, even when the unelected Republicans are still passing major policies via the Supreme Court. This is how fascism wins. WAKE TF UP!
And where are progressives? As this disaster rolls on, with the West only intent on fanning the flames and doubling down on the reasons that led to the conflict in the first place, where are all those progressive voices that normally oppose wars? Especially with a record number in the US government - still everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet. And now is the time for China to step up and call for peace - they are uniquely suited to do so, given a very different relationship with Russia, unencumbered by the Cold War ideologues. China also cannot have a failed, damaged Russia on its border, with the security of many Islamic majority nations close to China thrown into chaos.
Once only pandering to the rich and paying lip service to ideological battles to generate votes, since the early 2000's the Republican party of the USA has morphed into a Tea Party/Fox News fueled ideological war machine, which Trump is only a symptom of. With a declining proportion of conservative white males to actually make them win elections, they've sought ever more dramatic and disgusting ways to usurp democracy. The latest is to simply ignore election defeats and use the hopelessly compromised Supreme Court to pass legislation for them. Perhaps even worse than the repeal of Roe V. Wade is yesterday's less focused on decision to support an ex football coache's after match prayer sessions. This isn't attacking some vague amendment but one of the founding cornerstones of the constitution itself - the separation of church and state. They will stop and nothing, which is currently what the Democrats are doing to stop them.
Even for the unrelenting gravy train of corruption that is Australian conservative politics, John Barilaro has set a new gold standard. Creating a $500k a year job whilst a politician, then promptly quitting and having his ex-staff member appoint him to the role. COOL AND NORMAL. His ex boss had even appointed someone else to the role already, who has since been paid compensation. In a country thoroughly sick of the corruption and nest feathering of the Liberal and National parties, it will take down the New South Wales state government in the coming election. Cheers!
Even two months back when I posted on Roe V. Wade, I never thought the crazy SOB's would actually do it, but they have, likely losing the midterm elections with it. We should be impeaching at least three supreme court judges for lying to congress and the American people, when they specifically stated they would not do this and the supreme court itself has been destroyed as just another political tool, where a minority of extremists gets to usurp the democratic will of the majority. I have a feeling this will be the most Pyrrhic political victory in American history.
Incoming populist hard right Liberal opposition leader, Peter Dutton, does one thing no one on the left of politics can do - unite voters from the left and right, we both want him to be leader. After scraping through with pretend moderates for the last two elections, the Liberal party is responding to the rout of the populist hard right, both in media and politics, by going even further populist hard right. It's beautiful.
On the very day Australia's toxic political news media were allegedly booted out of a Albanese press event BY THE JAPANESE, a look at how it was not only the right wing populism of the Scott Morrison government that was rejected but the press too. WA Premier Mark McGowan's comment on Peter Dutton went national but most of what he said was a brutal take down of one of the developed world's most insidious, one sided and vicious mainstream medias, whose behavior throughout this election was shocking. Also a look why how the right wing circus of the Murdoch press can do nothing but claim the Liberals need to move even further to the right.
Ten years of agony over, the lying onerous gaslighting calamity balloon defeated. But Anthony Albanese's small target strategy did not win this and dont let the right wing media claim his tactics did. The rejection by the Aussie public of both the Murdoch media's right wing populism and the anti-vax, anti-lockdown UAP and One Nation. Women won this and how sweet it is to have a nice and decent human being in charge, rather than a narcissistic sociopath in it for themselves. But don't feel sad for Scott Morrison - the Liberal party is the only job you get the sack from and are guaranteed a pay rise...
Embittered Brit takes aim at the farcical voting hypocrisy of the Eurovision Song "Contest", where the judges vote is simply ignored to give it to whoever you fancy. On a more serious note, the utter hypocrisy of Eurovision claiming to be all about standing up for oppressed peoples.
Although I said this war would be over in a few months, it seems the nefarious forces are determined it will drag on as long as possible as any voice for peace is ignored entirely (Turkey). This is getting incredibly dangerous. With the primary reason for the conflict being more NATO bases closer to Russia, Sweden and Finland pledging to join NATO is about as incendiary as you could get - and no one is threatening Sweden or Finland. Where are the voices of reason and sanity - sue for peace.
The worst thing to happen to Australia in the last ten years is the same sex marriage vote. Why? The under 25's came out to vote in record numbers and then thinking their job was done, stayed home for the federal election, giving us a Liberal government. If young people voted in the same numbers as they did for the same sex marriage vote, we would never have another Liberal government again. So do you want over 60's giving you another misogynistic, inept, corrupt, anti-climate change Murdoch appointed bunch of offensive incompetent goons running the country? You are the ones suffering worst with this economy and not being able to afford to live. You can stop this - if you are under 25, get out and vote and encourage everyone you know to kick this calamity to Jupiter.
With America's most dangerous extremist organization - the Republican Party - managing to likely destroy or change the Supreme Court in their efforts to overturn their bell-weather issue of abortion - an overview of the whole damn thing.
Nuance king and U2 lead singer Bono says Ukraine are fighting for all of us - no they aren't! Neither mine nor Bono's house are being blown up, why are no Western voices across the media, politics or the public screaming SUE FOR PEACE. I am, when the only possible victory would result in your entire country being reduced to rubble, when you are fighting mainly for two things you don't even have, membership of both NATO and the EU, so would lose nothing, when the West hasn't even offered you these things in the last nine years as the only benefit to being their friend, when the occupation of your country isn't even on the cards. Why is it so controversial to say sue for peace?
After weeks of being spammed by adverts from Clive Palmer's United Australia Party, screaming don't trust the Liberals or Labor, claiming they are putting them BOTH last - they have announced they are preferencing the Liberal party. WHAT A SURPRISE! Who saw that coming? The lying liar from lyington shire yet again proves his only job is to hoover up votes for the Liberal party and defeat Labor. A vote for UAP - again - is a vote for the Liberal's. Also how the medias gotcha - and impact - is happily failing this election.
The West seems intent on supporting Ukraine in one way only, encouraging them to fight as long and hard as possible - despite only a devastating Pyrrhic victory possible, that sees Ukraine reduced to rubble. We are not good friends. Why are we not encouraging them to sue for peace? If a Russian victory that leaves sovereignty intact is inevitable - realistically - or a "victory" that destroys the country is the only other option - making a deal is the only sane option. Unfortunately the West would rather this conflict continues, just to damage Russia as much as possible, no matter the impact on Ukraine. And are the Ukrainian government - lionized relentlessly by the West - even acting on their peoples best interests, or the Wests? Why is even saying this treason?
That's it, I'm calling it for Labor and in a near landslide too I think. There's a perfect storm for the Liberals, those early attacks on Albo were neutered by both Anthony Albanese getting COVID and Scomo being a far more reliable calamity balloon. Plus every one knows exactly who Morrison is this time, not the invented Scott Cam Daggy Dad he took as a clean skin to the last election. Our house of cards economy is collapsing at exactly the right time, the Solomon Islands debacle.... The list goes on and half his reliable cheerleaders in the media have abandoned him. Turn him over, he's done - unlike his chicken.
Partygate continues to dominate - but who cares? It's one of the least awful, corrupt or incompetent things the Tories have done in the past decade.
Make no bones about it, ever since blundering Scott Morrison called for weapons inspectors to be sent into China, to find the origins of COVID, to please Team Trump, China have been waiting for this election and payback. The Solomon Islands security deal was pitch perfect and 100% aimed at this election - what else have they got up their sleeves and could they act as a balance to our one eyed news media?
Why COVID was the best thing to happen to Albo's campaign and keeping Scomo front and centre is essential for a Labor victory. The smokescreen of the Katherine Deves dog whistle and other stories. And once again - if you haven't made up your mind after the last three years, please sit this one out for the good of the country.
No political lie is repeated more often than the right of politics are good at the economy and the left are good at spending - for forty years the exact opposite has been true. The Reserve Bank of Australia should be above this, but it seems their only job is to ensure the ponzi scheme that is the Australian housing market stays artificially afloat whilst the Liberals are in power. They've now locked in four interest rate rises just in time for a Labor government, and the establishment across business, the media and politics will suddenly remember a deficit they forgot about for the last nine years - ensuring every Labor social policy is "too expensive".
A look at Australia's dismal news media, why we should thank prime minister Scott Morrison for being who he is, how Anthony Albanese's small target strategy has offered nothing to help Labor win and how he is reliant on the Liberals continuing to screw up - and they will. And if you have sat through the last three years of incompetence, responsibilty shirking, gaslighting and bullying and the vilest, most shallow leader country has ever had and can be swayed in the next six weeks, what is the point of you? Do as I am - turn the media off til election day, most work for the Liberal party anyway.
The strangest decision of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, to my mind, is timing - why didn't Putin delay until he could massively impact the US midterm elections in favor of the Republicans instead of now when he will probably be helping Biden. Also, for years, supporters of the state Israel have claimed the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement is wrong and doesn't work - yet with Ukraine those same people very much think it does and why it wont work in Ukraine now.
Poor Australian prime minister Scott Morrison has been trying to call an election since January 2021, when he was last ahead in the polls and the Brittany Higgins scandal engulfed him, he has never had enough clear water to call it since. His latest attempt was to get his lackey's in the media to hammer Labor and Anthony Albanese over bullying and going AWOL and didn't that turn out well! Now his original pre-selection battle of 2007 and his disgusting treatment of his opponent, Michael Towke, has come roaring back into focus - but what isn't being mentioned by the media is that the Murdoch press played a pivotal role in destroying Towke and paid him out for defamation.
Friends don't set you on course for a war they knew would one day come, just so they can sell more arms. The West have used Ukraine as a patsy - and believe me, they are very happy with the outcome.
There's no more important time for the media to tell the full truth than during war time. And for no conflict this century has that been less the case than for the western media's reporting of the conflict in Ukraine.
Scientist using the Hubble telescope have discovered the universe's new epicenter of hypocrisy - Australia's relentlessly male right wing political and media sphere suddenly caring about the bullying of women. Just so long as its done by women. Their own systemic epidemic bullying of women? Not so much. Not content with the disgrace of using the tragic death of Kimberley to score political points these same folk out themselves as the rampant life-long misogynists they are by de-legitimizing three of the most experienced and capable women in politics and reducing them to mean teenage girls from a movie. At the heart of this super-massive black hole of hypocrisy is Scott Morrison himself, despite being literally named by Kitching for bullying, never touching misogynists in his own party no matter what they're accused of and being world famous for going awol when the going gets tough, he has the gall to call out Labor leader Anthony Albanese for the same.
Not an article but a genuine question. A few weeks ago I posted a video on Jeffrey Epstein, about how the real story here was not Ghislaine Maxwell but Epstein's self stated, decades long relationship with the American and Israeli intelligence and weapons communities. It was frankly a dry and analytical piece, made of well established biographical information from Wikipedia, the courts and news reports, nothing was inflammatory or abusive. It was removed by YouTube weeks later and a review of the removal that took less time than to watch the video upheld this decision.
My question(s) with particular emphasis on 2.
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How did any part of my video meet the criteria of "we think it violates our harassment, threats and cyberbullying policy" and what part did?
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How is it possible to "harass, threaten or cyberbully" a dead person? This is literally impossible to do.
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YouTube doesn't watch hardly any of the millions of uploaded videos, so WHO is out there complaining on behalf of Jeffrey Epstein?!
YouTube I would genuinely like to know how I broke this criteria but got no further response, or any if anyone who saw said video could point me in the direction of what happened here. I'm at a total loss.
Another of my trade mark popular opinions. Yes I - a card carrying lefty socialist - really did say that. The levels of hypocrisy and precedent setting in this conflict is insane.
The biggest villain in this whole unholy mess is not Russia but the military industrial complex, one of the great cancers on our world and who benefit more the worse their behavior gets, to all of our detriment, deliberately stymieing peace and stability for war and chaos as a permanent business model.
- As I post this it looks like Ukraine are pledging not to join NATO, so its possible the war is very nearly over. The military industrial complex will be very happy with this outcome, as they now have their global bad guy back in place and will use this conflict to sell tons more weapons to all the ex-Soviet countries that are already in NATO
If there is one silver lining to the conflict in Ukraine - it has shown us World War 3 is next to impossible. Our global economies are now so intertwined, the west can't even meaningfully sanction China or Russia without hurting itself, let alone send troops in. Whether this is a good thing for Taiwan is another matter...
I've never seen a conflict portrayed so lock step by the Western media as the war in Ukraine - even the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan drew a wider range of opinions and more critical views. The unbearable hypocrisy of our media in the way it's treating Russia here ignores two massive elephants in the room - recent illegal American invasions and Israel. The latter also pointing to an enormous amount racism involved as we bend over backwards to help oppressed war torn folks, just not brown ones.
Every time there is conflict, the overwhelming push from the media and politicians is that we live inside it and now is not the right time to ask questions on how we got here. Wrong, it is always the right time to question why a war happened, that's if you want to frame it correctly or stop it happening again. A look at how we got here through the lens of journalist Chris Hedges.
To those who support the recent protests from Canberra to Canada - be wary of who is standing next to you, just because everyone else is giving you stick, it doesn't mean those claiming to be with you are on your side and don't believe everyone who you think is against you isn't on your side either. Protesting the government and mainstream media has always been there, done by many you now call sheep and alternative news media may not be what you think it is.
Some of those excellent real alternative news sources:
https://zcomm.org/znet/
https://www.alternet.org/
https://www.commondreams.org/
https://www.truthdig.com/
https://truthout.org/
https://www.democracynow.org/
With and Australian election looming and with nothing else to campaign on, the incumbent Liberal party have decided to double down on Prime Minister Scott Morrison's disastrous battle with China. No one fights an election on jingoism and patriotism unless they've nothing else left. Now the Liberal's want you to be terrified on of the big bad scary Chinese man at the door, even though they put him there and are trying to paint the Labor party as a Chinese patsy. All of this is wildly hypocritical but also incredibly short sighted and dangerous and it's Australia being made the patsy.
The trial and conviction of Ghislaine Maxwell is a side show, a distraction and slight of hand to avoid scrutiny of a far bigger story. Given Epstein's self professed connection with the US intelligence community and military since the early 80's, his ties with the Israeli intelligence community and military, the mystery of where he obtained his wealth, the fact the DA of South Florida claims he was warned off prosecuting Epstein in 2008 because Epstein belonged to the intelligence community and was above his pay grade and the fact that his close friend and Ghislaine's father, Robert Maxwell (who also died a mysterious death as the net closed in) was regarded as a high ranking Israeli intelligence operative, there's questions to answer. What governments employed or sanctioned Epstein and Maxwell trafficking children to blackmail powerful people, where is that evidence, who were those people and what did they do as a result of this blackmail?
Another of my world beating popular opinions, why some of our most sophisticated methods of communication - irony and satire - are under great threat from a relentlessly literal cancel culture, that cannot process either. And why comedy - at the vanguard of exploring permissible human expression, in valid ways utilizing shock humor, irony and satire - needs to be defended most of all.
Next up why I stand with Kurt Zouma (and if you believed that, that would be ironic)
After the bush fire crisis, the misogyny scandals and now text-gate, the seemingly indestructible Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison is entering his third annus horribilis in a row. But hilarious as his senior colleagues calling him a liar, hypocrite and complete psycho are, the one question on the entire country's lips - yet not being asked by any of our fine journalists - is, what about Brittany Higgins was Scott Morrison lying about?
Renters are the new share-croppers - working their whole lives with nothing to show and giving any wealth they generate to a richer person to pass on to their children. The baseline birthright of any average wage owner was to own your own home, now in Sydney you can't even afford to rent a one bedroom flat. By every metric the economy tanks but house prices and rent keep going up. None of this makes sense. The impact is devastating. It's ruined our lives.
In one of the years great misreported stories, the world was aghast at demonic New Zealand's treatment of this stranded pregnant journalist. The truth is NZ was her third choice country after she had to leave Qatar and Belgium said no (neither receiving any condemnation at all), and then engineered a PR storm that has enabled her to bypass a scheme to enter New Zealand she did not qualify for, and leap frog thousands of stranded Kiwis.
With Neil Young being probably my favorite recording artist of all time and a famously curmudgeonly one, I've found his battle with Joe Rogan and Spotify hilarious and very in character. A look at why he has reason to be touchy about vaccines and illness.
It's the same situation for both the UK and Australia's left wing Labo(u)r parties - after an unforgivable, interminable, in-explainable run of election victories by right wing parties, riven with endless incompetence and corruption, they are both finally in a position to likely win elections.
Why this makes me really sad.
What used to be an Australia day icon has lost more than its date, with the childrens band The Wiggles winning what used to be a great round up of alternative music. The only problem is, that was the most alternative track in the list.
Australia's great celebration of national pride and unity is with us once again... to bring us together in our mutual hatred of each other
A not particularly serious piece about how the new sexualities have replaced Vegans as the people that just can't stop telling you who they are.
Echoing my "Why I Stand With J.K. Rowling" piece from a year and a half ago, in light of three recent events. The Scottish court's refusal to prosecute a trans activist for doxxing J.K., the mooted though unlikely version of Harry Potter, casting a trans woman in a biological woman's role and the disgraceful treatment of Rowling by the ingrate cast of the movies during the mawkish 20th anniversary celebrations. Why I still support her fight for biological women, in a world where they still come last - even to activists - in ownership of their story, their rights, their politics, their treatment and their self definition.
The China Winter Olympics is on us and Australia (in economic and diplomatic war with China) is having a schizophrenic breakdown. Celebrating the event with their trademark over the top bombast, whilst pretending they don't know where it is. The TV network spamming adverts about the event, even have the words "Beijing" in tiny letters you can barely see. It's embarrassing. We are going to a party where the host hates us. And our government are claiming a political boycott. It's not a boycott if you still send your athletes and promote the event. Whilst our prime minister will as always play both sides of the fence, wanting credit for standing up for human rights AND every gold we win.
With the prospect of conflict in Ukraine flaring up again - a look at one of the Western world's most inaccurate media narratives of the last decade. That democracy loving freedom fighters overthrew Russian tyranny. What actually happened was an a Western backed coup, ousting a democratically elected leader, because he wouldn't accept trading Ukrainian sovereignty and autonomy, to accept European Union loans, in order to turn them into a giant NATO base on Russia's doorstep.
Working our my usual radio show end of year best-of lists, I was struck by how weak 2021 was - across albums, movies and tracks, the lamest of the century, why?
There is no doubt the previously hardcore fringe elements of the far right have piggybacked off the back off COVID related protests, mingling closer than the 1930's with the mainstream, but the public's ability to accept them has its roots in century old right-wing, American Evangelical Christian opposition to science and Murdoch press populist propaganda.
New Zealand's pre-emptive ban on smoking is a bridge too far - an overreach into lives beyond what government should be responsible for, at a time of record low smoking levels, that will only create a new generation of young people enticed into smoking being rebellious.
With a judge straight out of Mississippi burning, whose only job it seemed was to get a young and hopelessly misguided Trump supporter off his charges of killing two BLM protesters - a look at how the game of self defense in America is rigged to ensure a white man with a gun can do whatever he likes.
With an opposition, burnt by offering too much substance and policy at the last election, losing to a blunderbuss with none, we now face an election where neither side of politics will offer anything at all, and simply try to be seen as least bad in the 24 hour news cycle. We Deserve it.
The Australian state of New South Wales, finally began a debate, long blocked by right wing religious conservatives, to pass euthanasia/voluntary assisted dying laws. Ironically, it was through our most pious leader yet, Dominic Perrottet - who completely opposes it, perhaps noting that this is the most bi-partisan issue of the age. More than 70% of left wing, right wing and religious voters all support these laws, which just passed the lower house and will pass the senate. My thoughts.
Sean Kelly's important new book, The Game: a Portrait of Scott Morrison covers several of the main slants of this channel. Not only the invented fabrication that is Australia's prime minister but how our media has failed us by letting him getting away with it, and even promoting him uncritically, and also what it says about us as a nation that WE let him get away with it.
After satellite photo's of China's new ballistic missile systems and deadly new hyper-sonic super-weapon went global - a cursory look at what's actually happening here.
The normally flawless issues based TV show Insight, crashed badly with its recent program on narcissism, managing to perpetuate the most common myths whilst failing to explore the most damaging traits - for instance gaslighting wasn't even mentioned. Through my own personal exposure with this very misunderstood and dangerous mental illness, I try to set the record straight.
Contrary to the wailing and gnashing of Australia's Gladys worshiping media - the disgraced ex leader of the state of NSW could end up the best reason ever for a national Independent Commission Against Corruption.
All of Australia's worst ever prime minister, Scott Morrison's titanic failings are on full display at the climate summit in Glasgow - from his historic opposition to action on climate change to his ham fisted attempts to rule the 24 hr news cycle to his appalling lack of judgement or foresight in playing nicely with others. The trip is now dominated by his all out war with French President Macron - arguably now the most powerful person in the world's largest economic block, because making enemies with China just wasn't enough. And guess what? this latest round of bumbling calamity was yet another self inflicted disaster...
Arguably the world's apex stand up comedian, Dave Chappelle's latest Netflix stand up, The Closer, is the most controversial of the modern age. Why I think it's also the most important. The most fearless, deliberate and confrontational work of his career, less concerned with being funny than staring down the zeitgeist, taking a blow torch to the sound bite universe and running a freight train through cancel culture. Astonishingly, in an era of gun-shy corporations, Netflix knew full well what they were getting into and did it anyway.
I am now in possibly the smallest group of people in the country, I have had both vaccinations yet am unvaccinated, have a medical exemption and with the rest of Sydney now free, have another month of lockdown to look forward to. How my genius level intellect got me to this place. Also the farcical Australian Freedom Day copies the UK in name only and why I think more lockdowns are on the horizon for NSW.
Not content with randomly destroying our relationship with our biggest trading partner and the world's second most powerful nation, China, just to look good for team Trump, Australian Prime Minister and all round crazy dude, Scott Morrison has decided to throw Australia under a bus with France and potentially Europe too! Just to look good in the news for a week, he behaved like all bad boyfriends and broke up with the French via text, only he is the leader of a country. And as with all this announcement kings announcements, the fine print reveals we will likely now get nothing at all for it. Genius.
Please spare some space in your heart to pray for the saintly Gladys Berejiklian, queen of our hearts, cut down so brutally from her rightful throne as leader of New South Wales by those pesky corruption scandals. Vale oh golden saviour.
No we're not! COVID is giving our media, politicians and public some false sense that we are one country united - far from it. We are two countries that hate each other and where one side lives to stick it to the other, every way they can.
With the streets of the UK now resembling an episode of The Waking Dead, as the zombiefied masses literally fight over petrol, shelves are bare, fast food joints have no food and a million workers are missing, if only there was some kind of warning that this would happen...
What should China do with a problem like Evergrande, their very own personal Global Financial Crisis collapsing property giant? They should do the opposite of what the West did and send a message to the World.
Now surpassing One Nation as Australia's most awful band of political charlatans, the UAP, despite ironically sending me an unsolicited text message in 2019, to tell me they would ban the practice, are in 2021 - sending the country unsolicited text messages. And from one of the country's most esteemed purveyors of self promotion and conspiracy theories - Craig Kelly. A look at how stupid someone would have to be, to believe this billionaire mining magnet friend of Scott Morrison is their anti-government Che Guevara.
It's been near 20 years since the most watched event in global history kick-started the century but could America's forever war finally be over? Since World War 2 the USA has either been in a cold war with Russia or troops on the ground in South East Asia or the Middle East, now all of that's gone and the stars are aligned. Biden seems strong enough to wear the abuse of pulling out of the last two decades devastating conflicts, there's no one left to fight and all the battles left are economic. With the most progressive side to an American government in history, no wars and a reshaped global order, Biden has a chance to be the best president since FDR.
The New South Wales state premier has taken several leaves out of the king of empty PR and spin - Prime Minister Scott Morrison's book and is dealing with her COVID failures by relentless gaslighting of the public. Daily announcements about new freedoms that have already been announced, constantly telling us things we've know for months as though they are brand new, making out it's public hesitancy and not the Liberal party supply chain failures that are stopping people getting vaccinated. Refusing to give us the accurate facts, figures and projections she has access to and continually tossing us crumbs to put a positive spin on our COVID woes. And having some of the world's worst and most pro-government news media, they are all to happy to help.
My position on the issue of abortion in the wake of the real world Handmaids Tale unfolding in Texas.
When I arrived in Sydney in 2004, the Sydney Morning Herald was everything a newspaper should be - especially in a country with the third highest concentration of print media in the world - next to China and Egypt, which are STATE OWNED. Well not anymore - the 2021 version, owned by Channel 9, with ex-Liberal party treasurer Peter Costello as its Chairman, is a bigger Liberal party propaganda machine than the Murdoch press itself. This morning alone I ran into three blue sky puff pieces, about the joys of swimming in Balmain, outdoor weddings and kayaking, designed to put a positive happy spin of the appalling mismanagement of COVID in NSW by Liberal state premier Gladys Berejiklian. For shame.
In the UK and Australia they have. I've earned more money than my low paid dad my whole life, he has always owned his own house - once the birth right of any working class person - I'm not even close to affording a small flat. He turned his $40,000 investment into property years ago into a million dollars today, in the last 15 years alone I've turned half a million dollars in rent into nothing.
COVID has overwhelmingly affected the first world worst, developing nations least, by almost every metric. Total cases, cases per capita and deaths per capita, why? Why is the same true for food allergies, sperm counts and obesity? I have my theory - we are killing ourselves with chemicals.
*I meant to make a distinction with South-East Asian countries that are still first world but fit the same paradigm of the developing nations.
America's new Saigon. A round up of current events, how we got here, who's to blame and what will happen. Why the Taliban will probably be a different proposition this time around, how the global politics are very different now and how the major background players - China and Russia - will likely great the Taliban.
Though it has always been a failure of biblical proportions, the war on drugs is actually over - it ended with a whimper and no one even noticed. With nearly 100 billion packages sent globally each year, encrypted messaging services and crypto currency, the game changed completely for the first time since prohibition.
In some of the years most heartening, warm and fuzzy news, the cess pit that is Murdoch's Sky News at night has been kicked off of YouTube, for a week, for repeatedly lying about COVID. This is a big deal, they get up to 50 times the views on YouTube than their pitiful TV channel gets. With YouTube's 3 strikes rule - two more strikes in the next 90 days and they are gone. Permanently. Lets make it happen.
Anthony Albanese your Labor party are a disgrace. You've been the weakest, stand for nothing opposition leader imaginable but have somehow reversed into a winning position through the mind-blowing incompetence, scandal and corruption of prime minister Scott Morrison. Along the way ditching all of the most important policies Labor should stand for - on franking credits, negative gearing and now tax breaks for the rich. Your Labor will not only do nothing to help the most unequal Australia in history, you will carry on hammering them with toxic Liberal policies. If you wont stand for anything at all just to get elected, what is the point of you? And what is the difference between you and Scott Morrison? Being a good guy is pretty useless when you act like a terrible one.
Prevailing wisdom is that COVID is a boon for the anti-vax movement like no other, I disagree - they've never faced a real time, global test on what they believe like it.
Most protests aren't sanctioned by the government, police force, media or even the majority of the public, so I'd be a hypocrite to deny the crowds in Sydney the right to protest the COVID lockdown this last weekend - even if this is a unique situation when it comes to large gatherings. There are some seriously bad faith actors amongst a very disparate group though.
The latest vanguard in the civil rights movement seems to be pronouns and new sexualities - it shouldn't be, it's not the same thing and it's taking up space.
Opposition leader Anthony Albanese has fallen down the stairs backwards into an election winning position and is now in a race with Prime Minister Scott Morrison to see who can reverse the slowest to victory.
The obnoxious right wing firebrand has been booted out of Australia for breaching COVID rules and that was the plan all along. She never intended appearing on Celebrity Big Brother at all. She wanted exactly what she got - to manufacture her own exit then cry about her freedom of speech being silenced. Heads must roll at Channel 7 for ever thinking this was a good idea and being duped by this low rent chancer.
If the modern age has been defined by Islamic extremism, no country is more culpable than the USA, who have been the driving force in fomenting radical Islam for more than seventy years, usually to attack Russia. Nowhere is that more bitterly on display than in Afghanistan - where America began funding violent Islamic groups in the early seventies, and doing so wholesale under Operation Cyclone through the 1980's. Funding, arming, training and validating the Mujaheddin, who counted Osama Bin Laden in their ranks and would go on to become the Taliban and sending the once modernist west-looking Islamic nation back to a broken medieval caliphate. After two decades supporting them, America spent two decades fighting them, at a cost of trillions of dollars, to zero effect, leaving behind yet another dangerously failed state, where with America's longest war coming to an end - the Taliban took 50 of the 400 Afghanistan districts in the last two months alone.
Being allowed to get away with murder by both the Australian media and half the public - the coalition government has increasingly resembled the last days of the Roman empire, with corruption that would make Caligula blush. The latest 'sports rorts' dwarfing scheme being the $660 million car park rorts, more evidence the Scott Morrison government spent billions in tax payers money to get re-elected in 2019.
Through the sheer luck of being a remote country, with a small popualtion, well spread out - Australia rode the first year of COVID at the top of the world. Now the terrible leadership of the Morrison government is coming home to roost. With terrible vaccination rates, access to vaccines, vaccine roll outs and quarantine facilities - Australia is heading to the bottom, with crippling lock downs and border closures far past most developed countries, the worst is yet to come.
Proof once again Australian politics is about as far from being a meritocracy as feudal England, the bonking beetroot Barnaby Joyce is once again the deputy prime minister of Australia. This after previously being sacked for being caught cheating on his wife and the mother of his four daughters with a young female staffer he got pregnant and being accused of sexual harassment. Kind of ironic for a coalition government who refuse a quota for women because they believe in the best person for the job but wonderful for the rest of us. Barnaby is a rolled gold egoist who cares about nothing but himself and his delusions of grandeur. Prime Minister Scott Morrison now has a live hand grenade he cannot sack, who represents two of his governement's weakest points - climate change and its problem with women.
Making the case that the band that came from the UK's dreariest town yet turned into the most glamorous act on earth were not only the best singles act of the 80s, who released the most dramatic singles but also the best 'boy-band' since The Beatles and the last great boy-band before it all went to hell.
Narcissism is an oft underestimated and potentially dangerous mental illness, how that combined with a massive amount of the worst people supporting you is a lethal combination.
After the tennis ace's revelation of depression, subsequent withdrawal from the French Open and apparent Martyrdom, why the press and the public are massive hypocrites, who arbitrarily ascribe love or hate to famous people and excuse or hammer their every move based on that alone. Lets not pretend we've changed.
Having the developed world's most incompetent government lead by it's most inept leader was always going to end in disaster sooner or later, now Australia's responsibility shirking Prime Minister, Scott Morrison's fumbled Vaccine roll out disaster will have massive ramifications for the year to come. Hey, he doesn't hold a dose mate.
The latest episode of Christian Porter versus the World is the best yet, in a terrible few months for the ex-Australian Attorney General and one time anointed Liberal Party princling. Once touted as leader of the country, then outed by an iconic ABC expose into Liberal Party sexism and abuse of women - things got much worse from there with the accusation of the rape of a sixteen in 1988 and her recent suicide. Porter, supposedly the highest legal mind in the country, then decided to sue the ABC for defamation - how badly this just blew up in his face is a self own for the ages.
In another no doubt popular opinion - it's time to let the disgraced and cancelled Kevin Spacey back into the world (and why James Franco and Louis C.K. should never have been cancelled in the firstĀ place).
In light of the FriendlyJordies YouTube attack on the NSW Liberal leader and state premier, Gladys Berejiklian, a look at her unfathomable and disgraceful hero worship by Australia's slavish news media, despite being up to her neck in corruption. An affair/corruption scandal that would've instantly destroyed the career of any Labor politician hasn't left a mark on her spotless reputation. This apparently sacred cow is less a powerful, independent woman, more a personality free extra from The Handmaids Tale, with a woeful choice in friends.
The final in a four part series on the current Israel Palestine conflict. America has been Israel's never ending ally no matter what happens. A look at how toxic that relationship now is for proposed human rights champion Joe Biden, how the relationship is finally changing and why the biggest champions of the state of Israel are not American Jews but evangelical Christians.
Part 3 in a four part series on the current Israel Palestine conflict. It is frequently mentioned that Israel is the only democracy in the middle east, the dog whistle being that they are much more like the West than either Arabs or Muslims - yet their version of democracy is actually far closer to to Saudi Arabian theocracy than they would be comfortable with.
The second of four pieces on the current Israel Palestine conflict - this looking at the oft touted right of Israel to defend itself no matter what.
The first of four pieces on the latest conflagration between Israel and Palestine, why the current conflict exploded. Basically the onerous Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepared to let Palestinians and Israelis die in order to stop himself going to jail over corruption charge - a flat out war crime that should see him in the Hague.
After a relatively quiet few years, the Israel/Palestine conflict has flared to catastrophic levels. A look at two major recent events, the Israeli high court weighing whether to forcibly eject Palestinian residents from their homes in Jerusalem and simply give them to Israeli settlers, leading to the current riots and pitched battles and the recent Human Rights Watch condemnation of Israeli apartheid, which was studiously ignored by Western news media.
A situation the has gotten much worse in the twelve ours since this was broadcast.
A lament for the two countries I've spent most of my life in and in whom life has got continually worse, yet whose populations keep electing those responsible like they are trapped in some nightmarish Stockholm syndrome. Meanwhile our fellow English speaking Western nations, NZ, Canada and the USA leave us for dust and progressive futures. Oh, the humanity.
Ahead of SBS's landmark TV documentary investigation into Australia's epidemic of domestic violence against women called, See What You Made Me Do, an overview of one of the shames of the nation. From the vile scourge of Men's Rights Activism to a new wave of online-fueled sexism, it seems it's not just our right wing politicians but an awful lot of men who have a massive problem with women.
A rant and look at the new season of Australian Masterchef and how desserts are coming to dominate and ruin the program.
With nothing going for them in their obsessive chase of the 24 hour news cycle and public opinion, Scott Morrison's Liberal Party go for their time honored tactic of courting jingoism and xenophobia. Once again showing reckless disregard for Australia in the face of their own personal vanity, they've gone after an imaginary war with China and an already massive failure of a covid repatriation scandal with India. Don't underestimate their stupidity or trademark appalling judgement.
Even in a run of the worst political scandals in modern Australian history, Labor leader Anthony Albanese is STILL missing in action, still unable to cut through and Scott Morrison is impossibly still likely to win again. Labor need both a new leader and a female leader - one that can show the worst of Morrison. Kristina Keneally has it all, she is Australia's answer to Jacinda Ardern - she has that same natural empathy devoid of the political insincerity or baggage that dogs most politicians. Kristina, please find a way to leave the senate and lead federal Labor - the country needs you and I guarantee you will win.
We got a window into the secretive Pentacostal world of Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison at a gold coast convention. It's a far more extreme world than most Australian's would be comfortable with, if they knew. And with it's belief in the prosperity gospel, dominion theory and the seven mountains mandate - an obscene inversion of Christianity, seeking money, power and dominion over the world as a god given right.
With apologies to all those essential workers who just can't, why for me and millions of office workers, working from home is life changing and beyond wonderful.
Well, what a difference a day makes! In the 12 hours since this was broadcast it looks like the whole thing has predictably imploded. Why everyone was wrong about the European Super League killing football and why the whole idea was a fallacy. Plus the likely future plans of a global super league, the ruinous owners of the Premier League and how it was just as much about debt as greed.
I have a very complex opinion on my Royal Family, for a lefty a surprisingly positive one. In the modern era we care more about sentences than actions. Philip is denoted a racist over his famed gaffs and far less remembered for fighting actual fascists for every year of World Ward 2. A look at his treatment and that of Harry and Meghan.
Australia recently made a joint statement criticising China for human rights abuses over their indigenous Uighur population. We are the last developed nation on earth with a right to do so, given our world's-worst records on our own indigenous population. From life expectancy to incarceration we currently hold a number of dire global records and have a hugely problematic relationship with human rights, race and refugees.
Australia's Prime Minister was a completely different person ten years ago to the daggy dad/talk radio friendly/sports tv carnival barker we see today. His persona is a pure invention, designed to appeal to a voting demographic. Who is the real Scott Morrison? What is this fabricated, fraudulent, empty shell of a man at our country's center?
What a great job being a Liberal politician is, behavior that would get anyone in any office or shop job in the country sacked, is continually forgiven. As the Liberals try the latest move to stop the wildfire of misogyny engulfing the party, by moving staff or sending them for empathy training on how to not hate women quite so publicly, how can they fix a cultural and systemic problem with women they still deny exists?
To be fair raped Liberal staffer, Brittany Higgins, has had a good run. I didn't think the rabid right would let her get away with being a hero for so long, but like the first comedian to joke about a touchy subject, now sacked blow-hard DJ Jeremy Cordeaux has broken that dam. Expect more attacks to follow. His comments however are Olympic sized stupid, yeah Jeremy, I think a drunk woman could reasonably expect not to be raped inside the security laden house of government, where you work, in a ministers office, by a senior member of staff YOU IDIOT.
Four weeks ago I posted that the Brittany Higgins rape scandal would finally be the thing to bring down Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison - a month on that noose has tightened. As the audit trail of lies moves ever closer to this serial denier of responsibility, the day draws long for this vile human being and his woeful, incompetent, lying leadership.
With rape, misogyny and sexism scandals engulfing Scott Morrison's Liberal government, stop this disgraceful push to pretend this is a bi-partisan problem, because it happens once to the Labor Party for every hundred times it happens to the Liberals. This lets the Liberals off the hook and ensures they never change. It is not across politics, it's not everyone, it's not Labor and it demeans the women harmed to say it is. Sexism, misogyny, entitlement, anti-feminism and female abuse are a systemic and cultural parts of the Liberal Party.
In one of the ABC flagships best ever shows, Four Corners forensically details the time line of the rape of Liberal Party staffer, Brittany Higgins, in the offices of government, by a senior Liberal Party advisor and the subsequent cover up. I go through piece by piece as it shows how awful it all was in furious detail and the impossibility that Prime Minister Scott Morrison didn't know.
Link to the actual show (Don't Ask, Don't Tell) - https://iview.abc.net.au/show/four-corners/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwo-aCBhC-ARIsAAkNQivSo6gSb7bCeS7z0IshM2EkncxyyqyjufLTk2YKZ6zu1oiFVJsLiiYaAkTDEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds
An exhaustive look at that loaded question and everything it could mean - ending with a yes or no answer.
Yet again the Australian news media is presenting the farcical collapse of the media bargaining code as actually being in place (it isn't - even the government said they'd wait and see) and that it is responsible for Murdoch signing million dollar deals with Facebook (it isn't - these deals relate to the new Facebook News content, are happening globally and have NOTHING to do with the media bargaining code). STOP LYING.
Why do we pretend this industry schmooz fest is the Oscars for music, when no award is ever based on how good the music is, solely sales and how much the industry backs it. Truly a worthless award - like giving out Oscars based on box office or how much an actor is paid.
A title way more controversial than the content - instead a deeper look at the issue and how it relates to sport in general, how much more complicated that is than on the surface and how it's a discussion we can have without losing our minds.
On International Women's Day (don't worry girls, they'll be coming for that next) a look at the way the worlds largest oppressed and marginalised group are the only ones to not have ownership of their own issue, story, politics, self-definition and identity and how that process is systemic.
Facebook just won a world's first battle with a sovereign government and trounced the ridiculous Australian Media Bargaining Code, making the Scott Morrison government look very silly indeed. Not that you would know that reading the mainstream Aussie media as they are the ones who asked for it in the first place, nor the government who claim to have won.
Christian Porter, the Attorney General of Australia who just destroyed the Family Court - designed to protect women against men like him, is the Liberal cabinet member about to name himself as the man accused of rape. The second Liberal government rape allegation in a week. The Liberal Party has a problem with women - we know this. It's almost as though having a man in government outed by the ABC as a lifelong misogynist with highly dubious behavior around female staff could lead to this. Who could possibly have guessed? Not see-no-evil Scott Morrison, whose Caliguan-debauched government are 1 hour past midnight on the doomsday clock yet still in power.
The Australian government's attempts to Murdoch and Channel 9's bidding, with their gob-smacking Media Bargaining Bill comes to a shocking head as Facebook literally block all news sites from Australia. What the Aussie media wont tell you about how contentious the bill was or why it was terrible legislation in the first place and why I stand with Facebook. Which by the way, has become a lovely blissful paradise without the news!
Why I think the devastating rape of a Liberal Party staffer, brushed under the carpet, resulting in the scott-free rapist attacking more women, will finally be the scandal to take down Australia's prime minister. Despite the compliant Australian media allowing Scott Morrison and the Liberal Party he leads, to get away with endless scandals that would've shocked Caligula - if this one reaches Mr Plausible Deniability, he's toast. A look at the appalling ingrained misogyny and entitlement of the party with a problem with women.
Actor Carey Mulligan (and the whole world) owe film critic Dennis Harvey a massive apology for the disgraceful act of destroying his career and reputation, to try and position themselves in this year's Oscar race. Her completely inferred response to a year old review, was nothing but the usual stories actor's, publicists and studios pump out between Christmas and February, just to put themselves in the minds of academy voters - only more cynical and vile. Harvey never said a word about either Margot or Carey being hot or not, cos a 60 year old gay guy doesn't think like that.
Facing the certainty of defeat to the god-awful Scott Morrison, subjecting Australia to years more of a declining economy and utter despair, a tactically hopeless Anthony Albanese must now step aside so the pig headed, incompetent sexist bully can face his worst nightmare, an articulate, even tempered, intelligent, strong, well spoken woman - Tanya Plibersek. Scotty would flounder from day one, and it will turn his forgone, show-boating, slavish-Aussie-media backed, parade into a nightmare. Now is the time Tanya.
One of the happiest and most joyful moments in modern history has been watching the parasitic vampire cancers of Wall Street losing at their own rigged game, the hypocrisy over it a hall of famer. Ironically, the hedge fund vermin that have cashed out the public casino every time they could, failed to hedge against their own bets. Hopefully a new paradigm of terror for these scum to deal with.
There's lots of talk about the economic battle between China and the West but due to the combined forces of economic Neo-liberalism and globalisation, destroying Western economies for the last few decades and bolstering China, it's a battle the West has already lost and cannot come back from.
Australia's first evangelical Christian prime minister may not act like a moral Christian but he has own unique set of values that he keeps well hidden. Such as the Hillsong/Evangelical Seven Mountains Mandate, that dictates members of his church should seek positions of power in things like politics or media to promote an agenda their equally troubling Dominion Theory says gives them rightful ruler-ship of the earth.
Ditch bad leaders not good policy. Australian Labor leader Anthony Albanese has been a meek disaster, spooked by right wing media into adopting a policy of standing quietly and politely as close to Prime Minister Scott Morrison as possible and speaking when spoken too. His abandoning of Labors excellent, necessary policy to shut down the wealthy retiree free money rort that is franking credits out of fear is the last straw for me.
In any normal country, the relentless scandals and corruption that have continually beset the federal and state governments of Scott Morrison and Gladys Berejiklian, would've resulted in destruction. Not in Australia, where both end the year on highs with both the public and the press. Something is wrong with this picture.
Right wing populism has done many terrible things these last five years but when Trump and Scomo and Boris are long gone, Brexit will remain. A Brexit lament.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison enjoys ridiculously unearned popularity but a foundation built solely on popularity is no foundation at all and he maybe be on much thinner ice than people credit. Labor should take note of the various storms swirling beneath his feet and strike.
Bit of cross pollination here with the radio show (show with music https://www.mixcloud.com/julian-brown/the-brown-note-top-25-albums-of-2020/)
My top 25 albums of 2020 in a very flat year all round. Best and worst films of the year next week.
How Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has blundered his whole country's economy into a war with two fighting behemoths, without realising their economies are dependent on each other and where we have nothing to fight with at all and no possibility of success, where our best friend in the fight simply picks up the slack we lose and we are the only ones possibly hurt.
Australian idiot bull in a china-shop prime minister, Scott Morrison, threw Australia under a bus six months ago, by wildly and stupidly attacking China to benefit Team Trump. Now his actions are coming home to roost, he's doubled down by falling for an obvious Chinese trap - the war crimes photo scandal. But then he was terrified of getting the blame for the first mistake and Mr walking photo-op, couldn't pass by a potential patriotic flag waver to distract everyone. But don't worry Scott, with our media, you are yet again unlikely to be blamed for something entirely your fault.
Every time Labor lose an election, they run terrified from the right wing version of events. That they lost for being left wing, that unions, socialism and identity politics killed them. This is garbage, hundreds of millions of dollars in corrupt vote buying and a Labor scare campaign by Clive Palmer did far more damage, yet here we are again. A Labor leader standing as quietly, politely and closely to the left of a right-wing prime minister as possible, almost invisibly. Anthony Albanese is a great guy but a travesty as a leader, ditch him now and find someone like Daniel Andrews, with fire in their belly who will stand up and fight the right without fear.
Our uniquely compliant, backside kissing, endlessly validating media gives the Liberal governments at state and federal level the most easy ride imaginable. A year of never ending scandals and corruption has not dented their love in the slightest, and across the board from television to print media, our liberal governments are held accountable by precisely no-one in the media.
Supporters of Jeremy Corbyn are portrayed as irrational zealots, hell bent on destroying the Labour Party, yet the cult of personality really destroying Labour is that of Tony Blair, whose wildly misrepresented legacy as Labour's savior is completely untrue and whose acolytes are in delusion and denial.
Recently Kyle Rittenhouse, charged with murdering two people and shooting a third with an illegally owned assault rifle is now out on a $2 million bail, raised by the public, half of whom regard him as a hero and he may well not spend one more day in prison. The rapper Bobby Shmurda will finish all seven years of his sentence for illegally owning a gun, yet not being the direct perpetrator of any other crime and was treated by the legal system in America at the age of 20 as a mafia boss. One is white, one is black.
With a bitterly fractured world, divided along the political right and left, recent wins against populism have come with some imploring us to reach out to the right and heal. I say no, these are not good people, they want to fight and are the enemy.
Another winner in 2020 bingo. Why I don't think the celebrity chef and now Qanon-lite grifter is an ACTUAL white supremacist, in light of his recent and utterly bizarre posting of an anti-Trump meme with Nazi connotations and subsequent cross-media cancellation, he may just be incredibly stupid.
Australian Attorney General, Christian Porter, was outed on a recent 4Corners TV expose on Liberal party misogyny and bad behavior towards women. Ring wing news media of course came in to bat for him as claiming rumors of his boozing and affairs weren't in the public. With this top legal entity in the country currently involved in a Men's Rights attack on the Family Court that's perceived to be too friendly to woman - I say his accused lifetime of misogyny is very much in the public interest.
His election defeat was beautiful but now we enter a dangerous phase we only joked about and that now seems real. Donald really is trying to take over American democracy in a coup and why this is going to lose the republicans their last crown jewel - the senate.
The ABC's 4Corners expose into the systemic sexist, entitled behavior of Liberal National Party government officials shows they really believe themselves to be the ruling elite, above such petty concerns as faithfulness to their wives, respect to their staff or honesty to their electorates.
The best UK political leader of my lifetime, the UK's Bernie Sanders - Jeremy Corbyn, is once again being railroaded by accusations of racism, despite campaigning against racism for decades in a way almost no UK politician has. SHAMEFUL
It's been a horror five years, bouncing from catastrophe to disaster. From Trump to Brexit to Boris to Scomo. The nightmare of populism might be ending though, with great election results in New Zealand, Queensland and the US knocking at the door.
I can't think of another oppressed or marginalised group who have ownership of their own issue, identity or story so routinely talked over or dismissed as Women. The Harry Potter author, JK Rowling's personal notion of feminism has clashed with Trans rights. Why I stand with her.
The ex-Aussie Prime Minister takes aim at one of the most pernicious influences on the Western World's political discourse and media landscape - the Murdoch Press. "Some Say" a vile cancerous parasite on the Anglo-Sphere. Find his petition for a Royal Commission into them here:
https://www.aph.gov.au/petition_list?id=EN1938
Australia's neoliberal acolyte government seeks to cut unemployment benefit and increase tax breaks during a recession, for a perfect storm of economic ideological lunacy.
A look at the terrifying issues raised by The Social Dilemma documentary, about the colossal, unprecedented and dangerous impact of social media on society.
Why Trump and his supporters line of attack on Biden is a colossal mistake and will never get traction.
How Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison will try and blame his government's six year economic disaster on coronavirus and the Labor party, why it's a lie and he shouldn't be allowed to get away with it.
A look at the new, world's first News Media Bargaining Code - attempt by the Australian government to start World War 3 with Google and Facebook, entities I suspect may out-gun them, at the behest of people like Rupert Murdoch.