old WO

The unhinged pursuit of profit is destroying us

Neoliberalism has insinuated itself into every corner of contemporary life and society. In the midst of the global financial crisis, journalist Matt Taibbi gave us the eternal metaphor of Goldman Sachs as “a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money”. No social, cultural, family or personal relationship problem or opportunity is free from the relentless search for monetisation. Entire societies have caught this virus, which leaves little independent space for love, generosity and care without someone searching for an angle. We literally have financial devices to clean Grandma out of her house and home.

 twins

"Globe and Mail is running a story for all the paranoid conspiracy theorists among us: "Eleven microbiologists mysteriously dead over the span of just five months.... Throw in a few Russian defectors, a few nervy U.S. biotech companies, a deranged assassin or two, a bit of Elvis, a couple of Satanists, a subtle hint of espionage, a big whack of imagination, and the plot is complete, if a bit reminiscent of James Bond.”… 

the wrong way

The true rate of suicide among serving defence members and veterans is likely to be higher than current surveys indicate, a royal commission has been told on its first day of public hearings.

In an opening address to the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide, senior counsel assisting Kevin O’Connor SC said veteran’s organisations had long disputed the official suicide statistics reported by the Department of Defence and Veterans’ Affairs.

“Their concern was that the official number was low and not reflective of what they were seeing on the ground,” Mr O’Connor said on Monday.

“This appears very much to be the case.”

 pimps

"According to US lawyer Geoff Shepard (...), documents found at the National Archives in Washington show that Watergate was not a Nixon plot to spy on the Democratic Party, but a plot orchestrated by the Democrats against him.”

Yesterday, in a obvious “set-up”, our Prime Minister, Scott Morrison  "the purveyor of ‘freedom', dressed in a grey flannel suit reminding us of marketing execs from the 1990s and of the daggy-dad of the year 2007” was playing football or soccer or whatever with a group of young girls — and taking selfies with them. Had I been a parent I would have confiscated ScoMo's smartphone...

gamble...

The money laundry: Pubs and clubs the next frontier for crime

Over five years, a single young woman put $38 million in dirty money through the pokies. But she wasn’t doing this in the glitz of a casino, she was visiting your neighbourhood club.

By Nick McKenzie and Joel Tozer

In August last year, amid a cacophony of flashing, whirring poker machines in a NSW club, a 33-year-old Sydney woman got to work. Gambling was not the Vietnamese-born woman’s primary business, nor was it her hobby. Rather, she was in the business of cleaning dirty money. Millions and millions of dollars of it.

popgun

China’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson has lashed the “extremely absurd and irresponsible” remarks made by Peter Dutton as Senator Penny Wong declared the Defence Minister “does Australians no favours by amplifying Beijing's fatalism”.

Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian said Mr Dutton was “driven by selfish political gains” as he was asked to comment on the Minister’s latest remarks about China’s acting ambassador to Australia Wang Xining during a press conference on Monday.

Mr Wang had slammed Australia’s plan to acquire nuclear-powered submarines under the AUKUS deal in an interview with The Guardian – with Mr Dutton describing his comments as “silly” and “funny”.

"We don't see it from any other ambassador here in Australia," Mr Dutton told Channel 9.

macy's

President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden phoned in to NBC’s Al Roker during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on Thursday to deliver a holiday message to Americans. “My message is after two years, you’re back, America’s back,”Biden said. “There’s nothing we’re unable to overcome.”

omicron

Countries around the world are racing to introduce travel bans and restrictions on southern African countries in an effort to contain the new Omicron variant of Covid-19.

The moves come after the variant was officially named by health officials.

skulled

The 2021 Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded last month to three economists for their work on what are called natural experiments: the real-world equivalent of a laboratory experiment.

Economist Andrew Charlton reflected on the great value of such natural experiments when he spoke at the National Press Club in Canberra last week.

He reflected on what we had learnt about economics as the COVID-19 pandemic became a once-in-a-lifetime natural experiment "that taught us a lot about economics in Australia, and particularly about poverty in Australia".

"We did things in the pandemic that we would never ordinarily do," he said. "And the consequences of those decisions enabled us to learn things that we would never ordinarily learn."

belief

The truth is becoming increasingly unimportant in our politics and Parliament — and this bodes ill for civilised society and the survival of democracy. 

An increasing number of journalists enabled by their media ownership are focusing on Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s penchant to lie. However, lying has been a long-time bedfellow of politics, although in the past political lies were predominantly about the opposition. This modern phenomena finds politicians lying about their own behaviour. His efforts to manipulate his own history and image have brought into full view Morrison’s natural reflex to lie his way through whatever crisis he faces. Why does he continue this practice despite such exposure?

 hair

This website is called yourdemocracy — YOUR-DEMOCRACY… I hope that is is not beyond the folks who thus read this website to see that de-mo-cra-cy is in trouble, once more… It always was, despite the flux of hope that props its head from time to time, despair at personal and social construct seems to be the order of the day. 

Democracy is quite a new system of government in its present format. Barely 100 years young in most countries and it’s not even a born child in others. In the USA, democracy has suffered from racism, sexism, corruption and highway robbery at the highest of echelons of the system since its inception. People who expose the corruption of the system get shot: the Kennedys, Martin Luther King to name the most famous of the victims...

deaths

Across America in a few hours' time, turkeys will be going into ovens, millions will be hurrying from regional airports to get to see loved ones, roads will likely be jammed. 

no secret

Stephen K. Bannon, the former Trump White House adviser, has filed an opposition to the U.S. district court’s standard protective order for discovery, which prohibits either side from releasing documents or evidence publicly.

Bannon, 67, pleaded not guilty last week to contempt-of-Congress charges, and his legal team previously argued that the case would be more complicated by agreeing to the prosecution’s protective order for discovery. 

cloud

Plans for a sunny summer full of hot days lazing on the beach are far less likely now that a La Nina weather pattern has taken hold over the Pacific Ocean, bringing a stream of wet easterly trade winds to Australia’s eastern seaboard.

The Bureau of Meteorology declared on November 23 that a La Nina event was in full swing, with climate scientists saying it would bring cooler temperatures, more rainy days and higher risks of extreme weather.

liar

The overwhelming impression the Morrison government has projected this week has been one of chaos, with revolts coming from the right and the left.

And that’s accurate. But, within the shambles, there has actually been one encouraging sign. We’re seeing a new generation of Liberal moderates belatedly raise their voices.

When several moderates spoke out in the Coalition party room, airing their reservations about the Religious Discrimination Bill, or aspects of it, it was the most significant indication so far they aren’t willing to be quiescent any longer.

They may be partly driven by the looming election, but whatever the motive, it was an important moment.