We can see George Soros's Open Society Foundations at work here as the "Red Flag" pretends that it can fight for Aboriginal land rights whilst opening the borders of Australia - the very act that destroyed aboriginal land rights. With continuing mass immigration these land rights become ever more unobtainable, not just for aborigines but for others born here.
Here's the sequence as it is published on page 27 of redflag.org.au Newspaper of Socialist Alternative, (issue 78, Aug 2016) "What we stand for":
"WE RECOGNISE : Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the first people of Australia. We acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded and condemn the crimes of genocide and dispossession committed by European colonists and the Australian state. We support the struggle for land rights, soversignty and economic and social justice for Indigenous people."
WE OPPOSE: all immigration controls and support open borders. We fight to free all refugees from detention and for the right of asylum seekers to reach Australia. We oppose racism towards migrants. In particular we reject racism towards Muslims, whose right to religious and political freedom is routinely attacked on spurious grounds of "fighting terrorism."
There is also an article on page 22 contorting what is happening in Syria to somehow make the US/NATO backed 'rebels' seem like the good guys against the 'evil Assad government', which happens to be providing the only safe places in the country. With such incoherence, these incompetent would-be socialists are going to wake up soon in a nightmare of their own making, whilst capitalist Soros cleans up, along with the other vultures.
Comments
More shameless trawling from GetUp
This guy, Paul Oosting, of GetUp, Level 14, 338 Pitt Street, Sydney NSW 2000, keeps sending me surveys trying to get me to give GetUp information about my politics whilst broadcasting their own narrow interests. So transparently inspired by George Soros, the mega-corrupt billionaire. Why would anyone trust GetUp? But thousands of credulous Australians do and contribute their time and energy to these vampires: New Parliament 2016: what do we want to achieve?
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- Climate justice
- Economic fairness
- A fairer democracy
- Human rights
- Making corporations pay their fair share
- Achieving marriage equality
- Action to stop climate change
- More investment in health and hospitals
- More investment in renewable energy
- Stopping the forced closure of indigenous communities
- Protecting the Great Barrier Reef
- Fight back against racism
- Stopping risky trade deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
- More compassionate refugee policies
- Cleaning up political donations
- Making corporations pay their fair share
- Achieving marriage equality
- Action to stop climate change
- More investment in health and hospitals
- More investment in renewable energy
- Stopping the forced closure of indigenous communities
- Protecting the Great Barrier Reef
- Fight back against racism
- Stopping risky trade deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
- More compassionate refugee policies
- Cleaning up political donations
- Pokies reform
- Reducing youth unemployment
- Protecting the social safety net
- Voluntary euthanasia
- Stopping BP from drilling for oil in the Great Australian Bight
- Helping communities go 100% renewable
- Making mining companies pay to clean up old mines
- Volunteering in my local area
- Participating in campaigns online, by emailing my MP, signing petitions
- Contributing funds to help make these campaigns happen
- Starting and running my own campaign on issues I'm passionate about
- Taking up volunteer training opportunities with GetUp to develop my skills and capacity
- Yes
- No thanks
Soros Caught Funding Fake Islamophobia On Twitter
Censorship of Muslim and migrant critical speech online has become a major issue in European countries like Germany and the UK. In Germany dozens of people have had their homes raided by police for anti-migrant comments and in the UK Muslim critical comments have led to arrests and fines. London’s first Muslim mayor Sadiq Khan has alsovowed to create an “Online Hate Crime Hub” to monitor so-called hate crimes.
Breitbart.com reports at http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/08/20/islamophobia-twitter-report-funded-soros/:
Leaked documents from the Open Society Foundation (OSF) show that George Soros’ organization funded Demos to be able to conduct research over social media platforms like Twitter.
According to the document, “List of European Elections 2014 Projects,” Demos received 129,484 dollars from Open Society Initiative for Europe (OSIFE), the European arm of the international foundation. The description of the money claims the funds are to be used to create software to scour data on Twitter. It reads, “Demos will produce tools and techniques, like open source software, that could be used to analyze real time Twitter data, in order to allow campaigners to increase turnout of target groups. These tools will be made available online free of charge.”
Chief Executive Claudia Wood claims that the method developed by Demos could identify “hateful, derogatory, and anti-Islamic” tweets in real time, exactly the features described by the leaked Soros document. The leak also specifies that Demos received the grant from OSIFE in order that they share the software with other groups across Europe. “Demos will also train advocates and civil society groups interested in civic and political participation through a series of two-day face-to-face workshops in France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, and the UK,” the document reads.
The Demos study was criticised by National Secular Society communications officer Benjamin Jones who remarked that the methodology of the study was unsound and claiming a link between violent passages in the Koran and racism,”creates a false moral equivalence between racism and criticising a set of ideas.”
While there is no mention of Islamophobia in the Demos grant, there are several other grants listed that specifically tackle criticism of Islam. In the Netherlands OSIFE directly funded groups that claimed to be tackling Islamophobia including Spior and umbrella organization for Islamic groups in Rotterdam.
OSIFE gave the group 24,970 dollars over a period of five months in 2012 to “realize a preliminary research into the nature and principal features of islamophobia in the Netherlands, preceding the development and executing of a (periodical) monitor on islamophobia,” showing that the foundation was, at the time, keen on developing a means to monitor Islam-critical speech online. Spior received a further 100,000 dollars in 2013 to, “promote participation in the political process amongst underrepresented groups, particularly migrants, women and Muslims.”
Censorship of Muslim and migrant critical speech online has become a major issue in European countries like Germany and the UK. In Germany dozens of people have had their homes raided by police for anti-migrant comments and in the UK Muslim critical comments have led to arrests and fines. London’s first Muslim mayor Sadiq Khan has alsovowed to create an “Online Hate Crime Hub” to monitor so-called hate crimes.
Still Jeffing us....
As a side note to the above comes the information that low paid workers on 457 and similar visas are at the forefront of workplace injuries and fatalities. Safe Work Australia has extrapolated data from a survey to show that 91% of employers using non-English speaking migrant labour did not provide translation of safety instructions.
The survey also revealed that 680,000 temporary visa holders with work rights in Australia in 2014, 640,000 permanent migrants and 75,000 refugees arrived in the past 5 years. The research identified that these non-English speaking migrants were more susceptible to workplace injuries and fatalities than English speaking workers.
It is feared that the problem may be worse than the initial figures indicate as not all State Government agencies retain these statistics, for example, Safe Work NSW does whereas Work Safe Victoria doesn't.
High accident rates amoung migrant workers
An explosion in the number of foreign-born workers in Australia has led to workplace safety concerns, according to confidential government research. Fairfax Media expose rising concerns from the federal government's top job safety officials about an "almost certain" increase in injuries and fatalities among poorly paid migrant workers. Safe Work Australia concludes that visa-holders, refugees and permanent migrants are largely hired in low-end jobs such as farm labour or meat processing, and are suffering deadly workplace injuries at higher rates than other employees.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/workplace-relations/sharp-rise-in-migrant...
With more and more "urban development" and high population growth, we are seeing more extreme constructions, higher towers and contortions of retro-fitting our cities to cope with infrastructure. At the same time, our Treasurer Scott Morrison is lamenting the number of non-tax-payers in our system.
"A generation has grown up not ever having known a recession, of seeing unemployment rates at more than 10 per cent, with one million Australians out of work or mortgage rates at 18 per cent or where inflation is actually a problem, rather than an aspiration." There are also reports about the struggles of skilled migrants are facing, trying to find work!
Surely it doesn't take too much cognitive powers to join the dots between cheap imported labour, massive immigration levels, the housing boom, and high unemployment?
After 25 years of "economic growth" we are faced with the danger of becoming a "banana republic"? Governments need to manage our demographics, our work force and focus on productivity and innovation, instead of the generic "growth" and the GDP they keep touting.
NSW: Save Blenheim Park - No Highrise
There is a petition at https://www.change.org/p/cityofryde-ryde-nsw-gov-au-save-blenheim-park-no-highrise?recruiter=589003133&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=share_email_responsive
Save Blenheim Park - No Highrise
31
Supporters
16 STOREY HIGH RISE IN BLENHEIM PARK PROPOSED
The developer of the three low density residential properties in Blenheim Park has successfully persuaded the Department of Planning to consider their proposal to rezone the 3 houses to allow a 16 storey development on the site. This will be considered by the Joint Regional Planning Panel (JRPP) as a pre gateway determination on 31st August 2016.
This recommendation by Departmental bureaucrats is despite Council rejecting the proposal and unanimously endorsing the acquisition of the properties and returning them to Blenheim Park. The Department of Planning has stated that it will not be considering Councils unanimous proposal for parkland until after the 16 storey tower proposal has been considered!
Clr Craig Chung, Chris Turner and Brad Powe, along with Minister Dominello, have had a productive meeting with Minister Stokes to express the community concern at such a proposal.
Remember! This fight will only be won if we unite to push back the push for massive towers right in the middle of Blenheim Park. Resist the urging by some people for name calling and partisan politics. This is about a united community issue and defeating overdevelopment on our doorstep.
Let’s remember, when a developer buys low density residential home sites (Zoned R2) on the hope that they can rezone the land to high density for home units – it is a purely speculative proposal. It is a risk. It is a commercial decision. There is nothing underhanded about the community saying “Thanks but no thanks”. Allowing a mix of housing in the appropriate locations is one thing, but North Ryde has done its bit with the development of Lachlans Line and the North Ryde Station precinct.
*The proposed high rise development doesn’t fit in with the low rise residential development nearby
*It is a massive overdevelopment of the site overlooking the beautiful Blenheim park
*Traffic and parking in the area is already diabolical
*The intersections of Blenheim/Pittwater/Epping/Delhi Roads are all at failure and cannot cope with a high rise development on this site
*Infrastructure in the North Ryde area needs significant improvement before we can consider any more high rise development
*Victor Dominello MP has recently saved Tennis World from high rise redevelopment and now we have to fight the battle all over again with another site adjacent to Blenheim Park.
As a comparison, it is useful to compare this proposal with other developments that are either underway or about to commence:
Allengrove is 1.5:1 maximum 5 storeys
Whiteside is 0.99:1 with a maximum of 5 storeys
Ryde gardens is 4.3:1 with a maximum of 99 metres
THIS DEVELOPMENT IS PROPOSED TO HAVE AN FSR OF 4.3:1
16 STOREYS
120 APARTMENTS
GetUp giving user data to the Greens?
Greens building their own database. “The Greens may say they support privacy laws being extended to cover political parties,” writes one Crikey reader, “but this hasn’t stopped them pursuing the development of their own voter database to parallel those of the major parties.” They reckon the Greens are exchanging data with lobby group GetUp! — and that some in the party are pursuing the matter. “At the most recent NSW Greens state council meeting national office staff and Lee Rhiannon’s advisers intervened to block debate on a motion to national conference to rule out the development of a voter database and prohibit the exchanging of contact data with other organisations.” https://www.crikey.com.au/2011/09/19/the-greens-and-getup/
ACT Greens candidate Simon Sheikh and GetUp
GetUp! says a subsidiary that listed Greens’ ACT Senate candidate Simon Sheikh as a director was never operational and the recently corrected listing was an oversight, with the reference to the company owning a live website also a mistake.
Getup! national director Sam McLean said Mr Sheikh's name had been removed on Friday as a director and secretary of the Community Campaigning subsidiary, and the terms of service of the CommunityRun website had also been altered to reflect it has also always been owned by the parent company.
Greens candidate ... Simon Sheikh says it is an oversight there are still apparent links to GetUp! Photo: Jeffrey Chan
According to the website, the campaigns that use the platform - covering issues include heritage homes, children in detention and voluntary euthanasia - are "not run nor endorsed by GetUp in any way".
Coalition Senate leader Eric Abetz has stood by his call for Mr Sheikh to stand down or be sacked as a Greens' candidate in connection with the link with the lobby group and other oversights.
Mr Sheikh has not disputed that he was still listed on Friday morning as a director and secretary of its subsidiary, registered in February last year, but said it was a matter for GetUp! to resolve.
GetUp! national director Sam McLean told Fairfax Media the organisation had fixed the listing, and stood by his statements the subsidiary had never traded or been funded by GetUp! after being alerted to the website, which is directly accessible from the GetUp! homepage.
Read more at http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2013/never-operational-getup-sheikhlinked-subsidiary-has-active-website-20130801-2r30g.html
More faux Greens funded by Soros inc Friends of the Earth
This paragraph is labeled 'Environmental extremism', but it is about funding anti-environment, anti-local habitat, open borders stuff. For instance, consisder the term 'climate equity'; it's just another way of opening borders with the false aim of redistributing wealth: "Former Obama green jobs czar Van Jones and his leftist environmental ideas have been funded by Soros’ money at these groups: the Ella Baker Center, Green For All, the Center for American Progress, and the Apollo Alliance, which was instrumental in getting $110 billion in green initiatives included in Obama’s stimulus package. Soros also funds the Climate Policy Initiative to address global warming and gave Friends of the Earth money to “integrate a climate equity perspective in the presidential transition.” http://humanevents.com/2011/04/02/top-10-reasons-george-soros-is-dangerous/"
"Sustainable" is meaningless and oxymoron
" I left the party when Ms Hanson Young arrived, and joined Sustainable Australia but it did really badly in the election." Surely most Australians would want a sustainable Australia, with a sustainable population size? The big growth we are experiencing is surely a threat to our environment, our stability and our prosperity? Unfortunately, the Sustainable Australia party is too quiet about the P word- POPULATION! Surely it is the "everything" issue, so why not be up-front about Population? Why not address directly the main source of our massive population growth - IMMIGRATION? Nothing is achieved by being PC, and trying to avoid the big ticket issues like "racism" and "xenophobia"? They are just falling into the Green's agenda by their silence. The party should be called the "Reduce Immigration" Party, and the media will surely give them more attention? They will trap them with questions, aimed to expose them as "racist", but publicity is good publicity, and "sustainable" is a bland, oxymoron that's easily dismissed these days - overused and meaningless!
'Borders are the worst invention" ?
The EU's most powerful official, Jean-Claude Juncker, called on Europe to show “solidarity” with refugees and described borders as the “worst invention” ever produced by politicians. “We have to fight against nationalism,” said Juncker, who is the president of the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch. “We have the duty not to follow populists but to block the avenue of populists.” The subtle message of the EU is to force open borders, and allow the flow of people from Third World countries to flow to the "rich" countries of the West. No doubt, this is their version of social-justice, of equalizing the world's overpopulation and imbalanced distribution of what's seen as global wealth! The EU and the UN are bent on destroying sovereignties and nations, and creating the One World ideal to benefit powerful elites.
He added: “Borders are the worst invention ever made by politicians… In the concentration of globalisation and European problems, we must not lose our way.”
http://www.businessinsider.com.au/jean-claude-juncker-borders-european-u...
Borders were not "invented" by politicians. They have always existed, in history, and are part of nationhood, civilization and human organisation. Nations keep together human cultures, heritage and natural resources, to support peace and unity. They hold together the linguistic groups, genealogical and territorial inheritance of communities.
It's being exposed that in eight of the 10 EU member states surveyed, more than half of people feared that the continued influx of refugees would increase the likelihood of terrorism in their country. At least one of the perpetrators behind the attacks in Paris in November made into the EU by posing as a refugee and using fake documentation.
A "soup" of humans would destroy the planet, the environment and any form of world peace! Nobody owns open territories and nobody would hold any responsibility for quality control, and laws/politics would descent into conflict and crime, and terror would consume once peaceful and democratic societies.
Greens will help make Australia a desert in our lifetime
Thank you for this article. It is about the most important Australian issue of our time really and is at the root of all the environmental destruction going on. Australia will be a desert with buildings in our lifetime. I'm not surprised about the Greens. I left the party when Ms Hanson Young arrived, and joined Sustainable Australia but it did really badly in the election. Typical that the Greens bring up xenophobia. They are watermelons, and I've been told that by an insider years ago.
Not the response I would have expected from Tamara
Not the response I would have expected from Tamara. Enlightening. The reference to the Crucible was interesting - my first thought on hearing of someone being accused of racism for opposing uncontrolled non-humanitarian immigration was that it smacked of the old witch-hunts. I assumed that Tamara had supported Geoff’s comments because she struck me as idealistic but practical and humane when I spoke with her. I guess I should have reserved my judgement.
Article seems misplaced
Matthew,
I'm not sure where this essay fits in this site which is 'A website for reform in democracy, environment, population, land use planning and energy policy'. Are you able to adapt your article to this?
respectfully,
Sheila N
Muammar my Brother
Thanks for the article Sheila. I read Francis A. Boyle's book some 12 months ago and it rammed home to me the sheer belligerence and stupidity of the US, the UK, NATO and our own Federal Government. Most Australians are, as you infer, totally unaware of the facts behind the news and are bewildered when they are reminded that what they see, hear and read is, in fact, not true.
I continually challenge Fairfax Media on some of the articles they print although rarely do they re-print any of what I write. I recently rebutted a piece by Paul McGeough "We have to consider the idea that Donald Trump is more stupid than he let's on..." with a blunt "Only those who are incredibly stupid would consider Donald Trump to be stupid!"
This is what passes for journalism in todays mainstream media. While dear Donald may have more than the odd idiosyncrasy or two and whether you like the man or not, I don't believe him to be stupid. Whereas, The Age, is irresponsible for printing such an article, but then of course they are firmly wedged in the Clinton camp as we well know.
Therein lays the problem. The mainstream media are all pumping for Hilary Clinton to make it to the White House ignoring the fact that WW3, or the equivalent thereof, may be on her agenda. Those of us who are enlightened to Hilary's belligerence know only too well what she is capable of with unfinished business in Syria, The Ukraine and maybe Iran to come.
Libya: Time to stop backing US wars
On Mon, Aug 15, 2016 at 1:14 AM, Ken Stone wrote:
Hamilton Spectator
August 13, 2016, page A12
Time for Canada to stop backing U.S. wars
RE: Canadian foreign policy
The Spec has a short memory. In 2011, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) bombed Libya mercilessly for seven months. The United Nations Security Council had authorized a no-fly zone over Libya, which NATO abused into a regime change operation. Libya, which had the highest standard of living in Africa, was utterly devastated and turned into a failed state. Hundreds of thousands were killed, maimed, and turned into refugees. Hillary Clinton gloated over the assassination of Colonel Gadaffi, quipping, "We came, we saw, he died!"
Canadian planes and ships took part in this illegal military intervention, despite warnings by senior staff that overthrowing Gadaffi would open the door for terrorists into Libya. Later, some officers joked privately that Canadian jets were "al-Qaida's airforce."
Now, the USA is bombing Libya again. We don't believe it's to stop ISIS. After all, the USA is responsible for creating ISIS by creating power vacuums in Iraq, Syria, and Libya. It also admitted that its weapons and fighters it has trained have ended up with ISIS.
We also don't accept the legality of the militia fighting for power in Libya, from which the USA supposedly derives authorization to bomb the country: it's not up to the USA to overthrow governments it doesn't like and replace them with compliant regimes. It's time that the U.S. removed its dirty hands from the whole Middle East. And it's overtime for Canada to quit NATO so as not to be dragged into every war of the U.S. Empire.
Ken Stone, Hamilton Coalition To Stop The War
Not all that call themselves "green" are actually green!
The environmental agenda of the Greens seems to have slipped under the radar and I wonder if this was the original intention of the Party, started under Bob Brown, or has it just been warped by the loony and extreme "Left"? They are becoming totally impotent and handcuffed to their own illogical agendas. It's more about human worship, or "rights", without limits than anything do to with sustainability. World with no borders, unlimited human powers, the unanimous acceptance of any ideology or cultures, and the contradictory support of Islam - a severe Right wing totalitarian cult! The latter contradictorily leaves few right for women, and total rejection of sexual diversity.
They are increasingly exposing themselves to be inept, gagged by oxymorons and holding obscure Left objectives when challenged. They would like one generic world, devoid of sexes, culture, religion, and national identity. Any question of population growth- imposed by Capitalists - and family planning - exposes their real intent.
Corporate funding of World Social Forum (WSF)
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Some of us are here in Montreal. Not only does this explain the extent of corporate funding in the Social Forum, it states how the last one, in 2013, came up with a statement about the "Syrian revolution." (Though, in fairness, some gullible people could have maintained such a thing in 2013, but only people with real problems connecting to reality can assert that today.)
Get Up: a new kind of wolf in sheep's clothing?
Some of you may have received begging letters like the one below from GetUp. It invites you to go and declare your concerns to them, but, when you get there, GetUp only dictates a range of concerns which leave you with no possibility of mentioning population or immigration, wildlife or civil rights or anything outside the mainstream global paradigm, with the possible exception of climate change - although I would maintain that this is within the global paradigm; just contested. I met one of the Get up people in a satellite town of Melbourne when I went there to give a talk to an environmental organisation. This person admitted to me that Get Up is not interested in that subject and that they basically hire 'organisers' to shape politics in various regions, with the general effect of getting more people to vote for the ALP.
The personal information and networking capability that GetUp derives from people telling them what they think about selected subjects is incredibly valuable for GetUp, but they give nothing back for it; presumably they also sell the information on and we who fall for their ploys, are more easily manipulated.
Some years ago Tom Gosling, of SPA, had this to say about Getup:
"GetUp is the 21st century secular equivalent of the American radio and TV evangelists.
Its formula is:
1) Identify hot button issues
2) Take the populist line you know will attract donations
3) Dress it all up using all the powerful tricks of the new media
4) Appoint some kid with an ethnic name and hardly a clue to decoy the media for you
5) Make joining free, but ensure you have messages that will resonate with guilt and attract donations
6) Stand back and watch the gullible well-meaning suckers jump on the bandwagon
7) Cream off donations in the form of consultancy fees
It is an interesting new kind of wolf in sheep's clothing. Not a political party, with a manifesto and elected representatives, but a quick shape-changing parasite that has evolved to make a bit of spending money for a handful of clever opportunists who know how to exploit the new communication technology.
Oh that such wickedness should be!"
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WSF infiltration: Corporate funding of social activism
Wow, that's a very serious stuff and deserving much more research and investigation.
http://massalijn.nl/new/the-ngo-ization-of-resistance/"....Real political resistance offers no such
short cuts. The NGO-ization of politics threatens to turn resistance
into a well-mannered, reasonable, salaried, 9-to-5 job. With a few perks
thrown in. Real resistance has real consequences. And no salary."
http://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/capitalism-a-ghost-story/280234Capitalism: A Ghost Story
Rockefeller to Mandela, Vedanta to Anna Hazare.... How long can the cardinals of corporate gospel buy up our protests?
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/10/20/the-useful-altruists-how-ngos-serve-capitalism-and-imperialism/".....NGOs, like missionaries, are used to penetrate an area to prepare
favorable conditions for agribusiness for export, sweatshops, resource
mines, and tourist playgrounds. While these days military action is
usually characterized (at least to the home population) as a humanitarian intervention,
the ostensibly humanitarian character of NGOs seems to justify itself.
But it is essential to apply the same critical eye to NGO interventions
that we do to military interventions.."
Chorus of groups calling out for immigration cut to New Zealand
Soaring house prices in Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, are prompting growing calls for cuts in immigration, which is running at record levels. It is not only politicians and commentators that are talking about cutting the number of immigrants -- even the central bank has joined the chorus, alongside one of the country's largest commercial banks. Please read that last sentence - people are actually TALKING about cutting immigration because house prices are surging. Not only is there "talk" about it, but politicians, commentators and even the banks have joined the chorus! A far cry from Australia, where there is NEVER any "talk" about cutting immigration, or even relating it to unaffordable housing!
A Newshub Reid Research poll released on Tuesday showed that 60% of the 1,000 people surveyed agreed that the government should let fewer immigrants into New Zealand. If there's any "anti-immigration" suggestions in Australia, it's linked with "racism", or "xenophobia" - almost as bad as being a paedophile or social pariah!
Reports of Auckland families living in cars and garages as rents soar could pose a threat to the center-right National Party's hopes of winning a fourth consecutive election next year. Why is it so hard to broach the subject of population growth in Australia? We've become totally constrained by PC - political correctness and the power of the extreme Left.
The central bank, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, this month called on the government to consider cutting the level of immigration as part of the solution to the Auckland housing crisis. Here, banks and corporations are behind the push to keep up immigration rates and keep inflating the housing bubble - despite homelessness and mortgage stress.
What now passes as our "economy" is merely political manipulation, selling out the welfare of the public, and pure greed. We have strong Multiculturalism in Australia, which is now a euphemism for enjoying our "diversity" from high immigration - so it's really their spending power, on housing, that's really wanted - not their culture!
http://asia.nikkei.com/Markets/Property/New-Zealand-home-prices-prompt-calls-for-immigration-cut
Can't see how census can even be a snapshot
On census night 1996 I spent the night in a tiny hotel in William Creek on the Oodnadatta track. A local person was given responsibility for collecting people's responses. She had been all around the local countryside making sure every lone camper had been included. This attention to detail which I saw first hand as all our responses at the hotel that night were gathered up gave me confidence that the census would be a pretty accurate "snapshot" of who was in Australia and where that night.
Last night respondents were encouraged to enter data online and the site crashed. People will have to enter it later but when? Will visitors to Australia who were present last night but will be in Amsterdam next week fill it in? I don't think so. It will not be a snapshot, but rather, a blur, surely?
The dark side of commuter cycling
Cycling to work gains admiring praise for those who commute in this way. The cycling commuter isn't burning fossil fuels, isn't taking up all that much room on the road.He or she is magnanimously leaving more space on public transport for others. What could be more noble than cycling, particularly to work?
Well, firstly, cycling is just not practical except for the reasonably fit and who live reasonably close to their place of work. For the rest of us, forget it. Cycling seems all very "carbon neutral" (although I don't think a bicycle can be be produced without burning fossil fuels) but when the rights of others to quietly stroll through a peaceful area have to give way to a morning and evening peleton [1] and pre-settlement or otherwise significant trees need to be felled for the purpose , the activity does not seem benign at all but an ongoing threat to scarce natural fragments in a fast growing city. Rushall Reserve is by no means the first or the last such place to be destroyed or seriously compromised in the name of cycling.
[1] Ed. I had to look this up: "The peloton is the main group or pack of riders in a road bicycle race. Riders in a group save energy by riding close (drafting or slipstreaming)"
The red herring of Donald Trump's alleged draft-dodging
This was posted as a comment to the article US Hypocrisy Over 'Draft Dodger' Trump (5/8/2016) by Finian Cunningham on Sputnik News :
The claim that Donald Trump (in addition to Bill Clinton and George W. Bush) dodged the draft during the Vietnam War is yet another red herring in the campaign to save war criminal Hillary Clinton's bid to gain control of the White House.
Donald Trump may well have used his privilege and wealth to avoid killing and being killed by the Vietnamese, as did so many other wealthy Americans back then.
Whether Donald Trump dodged the draft out of self-interest, or for more altruistic reasons, is beside the point in 2016.
Given the murders of:
President Kennedy (JFK) and a number of assassination insiders who since blew the whistle;
JFK's bother Bobby Kennedy;
Martin Luther King;
John Lennon; and
... a whole lot of others, Donald Trump's nomination for President of the United States in defiance of the Republican and Democratic Party establishments is an act of courage and should be recognised as such.
Trump vs Clinton: has the alternative newsmedia lost the plot?
Given America's undemocratic first-past-the-post voting system, a high vote for small party candidates will at best turn the Presidential election into a lottery. At worst, it will give Hillary Clinton victory over Donald Trump.
This obvious fact is lost on those, including PressTV and Global Research, who advocate a vote for Jill Stein, whom they claim is better than both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
In the 24:18 minute PressTV video debate of 5 August 2016, supposedly about electoral fraud in the United States, no mention is made of the undemocratic first-past-the-post system.
Given the small vote for minor parties in all previous presidential elections, the chance of Jill Stein winning the election is practically nil.
Given Hillary Clinton's record including her role in starting wars that have cost hundreds of thousands of lives in Iraq, Libya, the former Yugoslavia republics, Syria and elsewhere and given that Hillary Clinton was filmed in 2012 actually laughing at the prospect of America launching a war against Iran (see below for YouTube video uploaded in Oct 2012), almost any other candidate for President would be preferable to Hillary Clinton.
However, Republican candidate Donald Trump is not just any other candidate. For all his apparently macho and hawkish bluster against Iran and terrorism in general, Donald Trump has rightly denounced Hillary Clinton as the founder of ISIS, has supported Russia's actions against ISIS terrorists in Syria. He has also challenged historical orthodoxies of the ruling elites, for example on the murder of JFK.
Donald Trump has also taken the politically incorrect stance of opposing high immigration across the Mexican border into the United States. He opposes high immigration in order to protect native American workers from having their wages driven down. For this he has been denounced as racist and xenophobic by the otherwise informative and insightful news services such as PressTV and Global Research.
For the alternative newsmedia to advocate a vote for minor candidates such as Jill Stein, and not for Donald Trump, could make victory by proven warmonger Hillary Clinton on 8 November more likely.
Appendix: Hillary Clinton laughs at the prospect of war with Iran
Where's our real Economy, and Plans for the future?
All these "developments" are a clear indication of a vacant abyss of what should be called "an Economy"! Resorting to housing and bulking up population is an admission that what should and used to be called our "economy" has now unwound, and the last resort is to use housing and humans as economic units. It's guaranteed, like food, that people will need places to live - roofs over their heads. It's a basic human requirement and a right. This is the lowest level of human needs being catered for, more like Third World level of what passes as an Economy! As a developed economy, we should be higher up on the scale of what constitutes income generation - things such as productivity, jobs, knowledge-investment, innovation and cutting-edge inventions. However, we are pulling the dredges by relying on stamp duties and more and more people - filling up this giant housing Ponzi scheme, destroying suburbs, amenities and living standards. Time there was a plan for our country, and a discussing of where we are heading. To recognise the homeless would mean politicians would have to acknowledge the shallowness of our "economy", but no, the growth machine continues with different Planning Schemes that all really promote the same thing- damage control and not real or profession Planning!
Terrible news from Box Hill - Overdevelopment likely elsewhere
This was sent by Mary Drost of Planning Backlash and contains material from BRAG and Dave Davis in Parliament.
STOP PRESS - HOW COULD WHITEHORSE COUNCIL DO THIS. - you are already short of open space and here they are allowing another huge development in the centre of Box Hill, and taking away your open car park - that council deserves to be replaced. Well there is a council election coming soon - get ready and only vote for those who agree to abide by the Residents Bill of Rights. Watch out this does not give your council ideas about how to get all that cash.
1. . We are all in for overdevelopment - whether it is Brunswick or Boroondara or Brighton or Boronia. this recent decree by the PLanning Minister spells it out. The established suburbs have to cope with it. sounds like Melbourne 2030 all over again. The opposition Shadow Planning spokesperson David Davis has had a lot to say in Parliament and I certainly will when I meet the Minister next month.
You see, like the hated and failed Melbourne 2030, packing more into established suburbs they think they dont have to put in more infrastructure - you know full well they dont have the money to put in more, so all just crowd in and put up with it. Did you see the article in the Sunday Herald Sun - sorry I cant get the link - It is headed NEVER ENDING PEAK and there is another that says CLOGGED FROM ALL DIRECTIONS. Wait until another 100,000 next year. Things will get worse and worse.
How about writing to the Minister and tell him this is not good enough
Mary
this below was sent out by BRAG.
David Davis has raised the issue of changing mandatory heights to discretionary heights in Boroondara’s commercial corridors and along some main roads in Parliament and we send his statement criticizing Planning Minister Richard Wynne for your information.
We are very concerned at Wynne’s determination to push intensive development into Melbourne’s established suburbs. This sort of planning is a very lazy way of responding to population growth.
He is obviously more concerned about developer’s interests than residents best interests. We have to ask just who is this government serving for it is not us residents is it?
Cheers
Jack Roach
BRAG
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22 March 2016 |
COUNCIL |
Adjournment |
DAVID DAVIS |
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Mr DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) — My matter for the adjournment tonight concerns C255, a planning scheme amendment proposed by the Minister for Planning, and it is for his attention that I raise this matter. This planning scheme amendment is a very concerning one. I ask the minister to reconsider this particular planning scheme amendment, which seeks to increase density and, particularly in a commercial corridor, introduce discretionary height limits, removing the previous arrangements under the planning scheme system that saw mandatory heights along these corridors.
This is part of a push by the current government to increase development in many of the established suburbs. In Mentone the four-storey height limit that was put on by Matthew Guy was removed by this planning minister, and he opened up the planning limit to a discretionary limit, which means effectively that buildings of any height could occur there. My concern is that this approach is also being adopted in Boroondara.
We have seen with Plan Melbourne, its so-called 'refresh' and the government's direction here that new planning applications in the central city have largely stalled. We have also seen the Fishermans Bend development stalled again by this government. The government has also taken the decision to slow development on the edge of the city, and it is intending to put all the intensive development that comes from almost 100 000 people in aggregate — more each year — coming into metropolitan Melbourne and the rest of Victoria into the established suburbs of Melbourne.
The minister has obviously defined this out. He has been very clear that he is going to put more people into the established suburbs. He has no democratic right to do this. He has no consent from those communities. He is seeking to overwhelm those communities with additional capacity and additional high-density, high-intensity and in this case high-rise development. This is not appreciated by the community. This is matched by the steps he is taking on the residential zone review, where it is pretty clear he is going to roll over many of the neighbourhood residential zones that have provided a significant level of protection.
This particular development in the City of Boroondara, counterpoised with the other activities that the minister has introduced around the state, will see enormous pressure for development — and high-rise, high-intensity development — in these areas. I ask him to step back, to review this direction and to consider what the community wants.
Dirty old shipping industry
Hi John,
Thanks for the compliment.
There are plenty of hair raising stories about the dirty old, faceless, shameless shipping industry. How about the one where in 1991 a ship discharged ballast that had been taken on in Bangladesh into a bay in Peru, where a shellfish industry had thrived. Soon after 1 million people fell ill (Peru population of 20 million at the time) and 10,000 people died of cholera. The strain of cholera had never before been seen in Peru and was traced to the port in Bangladesh where the ballast had been taken on. It has caused so many incidents around the world, and yet the shipping industry just keeps on sailing past- without a care in the world, and never held properly to account.
I’m adding another article soon about the cruise industry, and no I won’t be going on a cruise!
Cheers
Jenny W
Shipping and why it stinks.......
Thanks Jenny for a well researched article. Shipping is the ugly duck that makes the other ugly ducks look pretty. Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) comes literally from the bottom of the barrel ie when crude oil has been refined and petrol, kerosene, naphtha (distillate, diesel) has been removed, HFO is what is left over and is used in shipping because of its abundant availability and cheapness.
In addition to pumping carbon dioxide, sulphur dixode and nitrous oxide into the heavens, ships also emit many heavy metals. SOx, PM10s (Particulate Matter) and Heavy Metals are considered to be the most dangerous pollutants on the planet. Furthermore, these pollutants are more intensive around coastlines and ports. Anybody for a cruise??
Thanks for historical perspective
Regarding workers' conditions, it is amazing how easily people accept changes for the worse. A friend's son has landed a job with a prestigious finance company, having recently graduated with a law / commerce degree. Apparently this is the fulfilment of a dream in this field of endeavour. He has been treated to dinners and weekends away with the company in preparation for commencement of work for real. It all sounds good except that apparently he has to work both day and night! There will be no leaving at 5.00pm. Parents are happy for him and he is excited about his future but what can be so important in an accounting company that it requires staff to work maybe 14 hours per day? What happened to the 8 hour day? Why are we not trying to regain this as an acceptable norm?
Disgusting idea of dingo meat for Asian market
Just when you thought nothing could get WORSE for our maligned Australian dingo, it has. With the "festivals" of eating dog meat in China, this academic came up with the evil and hare-brained idea of cashing in on our Dingoes for meat!
Ben Allen is running a session at a conference held by University of Queensland, to discuss exporting dingo meat to Asia. Please sign the petition below, and if you can, please send it to friends or organisations who you think would find the eating of an Australian native icon – basically eating of a dog – abhorrent. We hope to get thousands of signatures, which we will then take to the University Vice Chancellor and try to have the session pulled from the conference. To sign will only take a minute.
Australian export of Dingo meat for Asian markets?
Ben Allen is Vice-Chancellor's Research Fellow Institute for Agriculture and Environment (Research). The air in his stuffy office must have affected his brain. Where's the ethics of this? We expect Universities to centre of learning, and be leaders in innovation and ethics. He's obviously perverse to think of this obscene idea. The public will never accept any form of "dog meat" industry.
'Green' 'Left' demonises Hanson: an attempt to smother debate?
Green Left Weekly, the weekly newspaper of the purported "Socialist Alliance" has, together with the rest of the supposed 'left-liberal' intelligentsia, continued the decades long demonisation of Pauline Hanson and anyone else opposed to high immigration.
In A movement led by First Nations militants can defeat Hanson , Peter Boyle wrote on 20 July:
"Pauline Hanson came across a racist and incoherent cartoon character on the ABC's Q&A program on July 18, 2016
"... in the richest, whitest countries, people are looking for easy solutions and looking to blame people. It's easy for the Pauline Hanson's of the world to blame the newest migrants to this country, whether they are Asians or Muslims.
The full discussion, none of which is cited by Peter Boyle, can be found in the transcript of the Q&A episode of 18 July is published here.
Claimed opposition to racism, whether by Angela Merkel in Germany, Donald Trump's opponents in the United States' presidential elections or by Australia's ruling elites, is a smokescreen for the elites' plans to use massive uncontrolled immigration to destroy democracy and the living standards of those countries' native inhabitants.
Peter Boyle only briefly mentions, and dismisses, Pauline Hanson's stance against the buyout of Australia's wealth by foreign corporations:
"... notice how she ... takes a sideswipe at nameless 'multinationals' and 'foreigners' of all kinds.
The "Socialist Alliance" of Australia has been in existence since the Vietnam Moratorium campaign of the early 1970's. Back then it was known as the "Socialist Workers Party". It claimed to be working to transform capitalist Australia into a socialist society, based on the model of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Russia.
However, since then Australia has, paradoxically, moved further and further away from socialism:
- Gough Whitlam's Labor government forced to hold a mid-term election in 1974 and then overthrown in the 1975 coup;
- Australia's national mineral wealth sold to overseas corporations by the Fraser government;
- The implementation of laws against Trade Union rights starting with Malcolm Fraser's sections 45D and 45E of the Trades Practices Act;
- The corruption of The Australian Labor movement by the CIA since 1975 as described by 'the Falcon', Christopher Boyce, on the 18 February 2014 episode of SBS Dateline;
- Federal 'Labor' Treasurer Paul Keating's commencement of the implementation of economic neo-liberalism in 1983;
- Massive reduction of white collar employment, on-the-job training and career structure in the public service and private sector;
- The privatisation of Australia's tertiary introduction, and rising indebtedness of university graduates, beginning with the introduction of the so-called Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS) by the Hawke Labor government in 1986;
- Further destruction of Trade Union rights under John Howard;
- etc., etc.
These days, one has to search hard in Green Left to find mention of socialism, particularly in regard to Australia. Some token reference to socialism in reference to some far off lands such as Venezuela is to be found, but little is to be found about bringing about bringing socialism to Australia.
Little of any worth is to be found in Green Left Weekly of the other massive geopolitical struggles of recent years in which tens of thousand to hundreds of thousands have died - Libya, Syria, Palestine, Ukraine, Iraq and Yemen and Ukraine. To the extent that anything is written about these conflicts in Green Left much of it mirrors the mainstream media narrative.
The Green Left article about Pauline Hanson, referred to above, has unfortunately been re-published on 20 July 2016 by Asia Pacific Research, a web news service. Asia-Pacific Research seems to be a regional version of the otherwise informative Global Research.
Its the job of politicians to give us what we want
Its the job of politicians to give us what we want. If we don't want to have to compete with the entire world for jobs, or have to continously "grow" the population, or go through demographic transformations for some ideal, its the job of those WE PAY to work out how to provide what we want.
If we aren't having children, because we don't want big families, its the role of the government to adapt. If we don't want open borders, its the role of the government to comply.
Yet people seem reticent to simply demand they do what we want. They feel it necessary to justify, to answer accusations or "sell" their wishes, as if somehow our wishes could be ignored if the wished if a few vested individuals don't coincide.
That's the issue with Hanson and other "populists". Thats why "populist" is used as a pejorative. Heaven forbid people get to thinking that their job is to conform to our wishes!
Going to bat for bats
Menkit,
Thank you for this much needed comprehensive article and the great illustrations. I particularly like the last one of the sleeping bat.
Roo culls based on elaborate hoax with end to densify Canberra
So, Ecoengine, if what you are saying is that the rationales for the kangaroo culls are an elaborate hoax to get rid of the kangaroos so that more humans can be invited to come and live in endless developments where once we had grasslands, kangaroos, sun-moths and earless dragons, then I agree. It seems that there is almost no truth at all to what the public are told about kangaroo culls, by politicians or so-called roo management scientists from the area.
We have become a very cruel country, although, when I grew up, there seemed to be trends towards conserving and respecting our native animals and reigning in our own population.
Belconnen Developments - but silence from conservationists
Despite the massive "cull" of kangaroos, 2008, there's new housing "developments" planned for Belconnen. Sections of the site are listed for its natural heritage as habitat for the endangered Golden Sun Moth. The site also contains the only known location of the threatened Ginninderra Peppercress, a small perennial herb.
Back in 2013, the ACT government has announced that the first release of 124 single residential blocks will take place before the end of the year and will be sold through an auction process.
The first stage of the suburb will also include the release of a further 12 multi-unit sites bringing the total to 560 dwellings. The adjoining Defence land was the site of the 2008 kangaroo culls, which gained international attention. There *could* also be more residential development on this 143-hectare site in future - prophesied back then!
The West Belconnen / Parkwood development will include three new suburbs in the north west of Canberra adjacent to Holt and Macgregor and a new settlement in the Yass Valley immediately adjacent to the border. The vision for the development is to "create a community that provides diverse, affordable and inclusive places to live, work and play". There will be a range of housing options for individuals and families at "affordable prices". Up to 11,500 new homes will accommodate about 30,000 people, the project will help meet existing and future demand for housing for the next 30-40 years.
The CSIRO are selling the land. CSIRO general manager for business and infrastructure Mark Wallis stressed the organisation was not looking to sell the site. "We are looking for a joint-venture development partner and one that's aligned with our aspirations for the site, which is to ensure we deliver the benchmark in urban sustainable design and also to tackle the problem of affordable housing," he said.
A site, known as Section 200, will have up to 745 dwellings and has been likened to Canberra’s NewActon precinct.
Back in 2008, ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope has released a report from the Environment Commissioner which recommended culling kangaroos by lethal injection. The report by Maxine Cooper recommended urgent action to ensure no further damage is done to the grassland ecosystem at the Belconnen Naval Transmission Station.
It was to protect endangered species. The threat to biodiversity in Canberra's native reserves is a key justification for the night-time exercise, with rapid deterioration blamed on extensive overgrazing by the growing kangaroo population.
Peter Dowling, National Heritage Officer with the National Trust explains they’ve lobbied the government several times, all the way up to the Prime Minister for the site of the former aerial farm to be left for grasslands ecology studies. “The BNTS site is prime residential land and some of it has been given over to future residents there,” he said.
The conservation extremist are deafening in their silence when housing growth threatens native grasslands and native species.
http://www.nowuc.com.au/2012/05/from-protecting-australia-to-protecting-a-moth/
Canberra kangaroo cull in 2015 unlawful, activist exonerated
[Candobetter.net Ed: Note also that an activist's conviction for disrupting the cull has been quashed!]
Canberra kangaroo cull in 2015 was unlawful, judge says
By Georgia Hitch
Canberra kangaroo cull in 2015
was unlawful, judge says
Updated
The kangaroo
cull in Canberra last year was unlawful, an ACT Supreme Court Justice
says.
Earlier this year
Chris Klootwijk, 71, was found guilty in the ACT Magistrates Court of
disrupting a kangaroo cull in Wanniassa last July after he blew a
whistle and yelled while officials were shooting.
He pleaded not guilty
and during his hearing it was revealed the licence for the cull had been
invalid.
On Thursday, Justice
Michael Elkaim overturned the conviction saying if the licence was not valid,
"it must follow that the cull itself was not lawful".
Justice Elkaim said Mr
Klootwijk could not be unlawfully hindering the cull if the cull itself was
unlawful.
"As his learned counsel
pointed out, he was there to be a pest," Justice Elkaim said about Mr Kloowijk's
actions.
Justice Elkaim said the
licence was issued to ACT Parks and Conservation service, of which the territory
official conducting the cull was a member.
Justice Elkaim told the
court that as the official was supervising the cull "if the cull was unlawful I
say it could not be unlawfully hindered".
"I think [the official]
was there to ensure that the cull was properly conducted so that his role was
necessarily dependent on the validity of the licence," he
said.
"I am of the view,
therefore, that having found that the licence was not valid, her honour [Chief
Magistrate Lorraine Walker] fell into error in finding that the invalidity of
the licence did not effect the validity of the cull.
"It follows that the
conviction must be set aside."
Justice Elkaim's
response was met with applause from a supporter in the public
gallery.
Justice Elkaim did
agree, however, with a number of Chief Magistrate Walker's findings including
that Mr Kloowijk knew the shooters were public officials.
"Where for example, the
public official was acting at night it might not be possible to know who that
person was and what that person was doing," he said.
"It could not be the
law that a prosecution would fail simply because the offender did not know
precisely who the public official was."
In last year's cull
1,689 adult kangaroos and 701
joeys were killed by specialist shooting
contractors.
The Government is
seeking legal advice but is confident the outcome will not affect this year's
cull.
Not "discrimination" but common sense
Filtering out potential migrants for those who would be best for keeping our communities safe is not "discrimination"! It's common sense, and part of national security. We know the Islamic terror being raged in Europe, and we know that those who adhere strongly to the Theocracy of Islam find it hard to accept democracy, and liberal Western values. Islam is not just a religion, and if it were merely about worship, it wouldn't be a problem. The religion is a front for the social, legal, political, and military agendas of Islam. Of course, not all Muslims are a threat, and many are only nominal. But, there are dangerous elements that would be foolish to ignore- at our peril!
It's easy to dismiss Hanson as ignorant, and "racist", but she has the support of many voters! She's touched a nerve of what many people feel, and how long can police keep terror threats in Australia at bay?
There's a place for tolerance, but tolerance must be met with tolerance, not hardline fanatics who will use our humanitarian and political-correctness to pry open our borders for their own ends!
As for "racism" (Islam is not a race), healthy levels are part of patriotism and bring cohesion to our nation! We should endorse positive racism as part of our solidarity as a nation.
Hanson isn't the only inarticulate one
I do find Hansons argumentative style weak and lacking, but I would like to chime and point out there is a difference between and eloquent, "posh" or well worded argument, and an effective one. It is rare to see an effective argument.
One example of an effective argument was Bill Shorten saying that tax payers were making it so it was easier for someone to buy their tenth home, than for someone to buy their first. He made a few effective, damaging arguments like this, and we never heard them again. I'm not sure whether he knew they were effective ones or not. The election could have been quite different if he kept hammering that spike home, but alas, very few politicians make effective or damaging arguments. They fumble their way around, fail to make damaging points, fail to hit the core of the problem, leaving many people wondering why they can't state the obvious point that is begging to be made. They don't see it.
So Hanson isn't that different. She doesn't see the arguments she could be making. Usually when arguments revolve around whether one is a racist or not, or someone defending their non-racism, no good point will be made.
Hanson has never really quite been able to get to the core of the issue. She has been able to echo Australians concerns, but her justifications seem just like that, justifications.
The one point that no one has made, is the government has a RESPONSIBILITY to protect us. We pay them to protect us, and if immigration policy is going to increase the risk of violence against us, then the state is failing its responsibility to us. Arguments that we should not have discriminatory policy, and that limiting immigration in this sense is wrong, is essentially a justification for the state knowingly engaging in policy which increases risk against us. The state therefore has to answer as to how it can justify this risk, and what the risk/benefit analysis is which allows them to come to this conclusion.
George Soros Manufactured EU Refugee Crisis
Originally posted on July 10, 2016 by Sean Adl-Tabatabai in News, World
George Soros funded and orchestrated the refugee crisis in Europe, opening the gates to allow refugees and terrorists into the continent.
Soros’s agenda has always been about destroying national sovereignty and national borders.
Zerohedge.com reports:
The refugee crisis is not a naturally occurring phenomenon. It coincided with OSF donating money to the US-based Migration Policy Institute and the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants, both Soros-sponsored organizations. Both groups advocate the resettlement of third-world Muslims into Europe.
In 2015, a Sky News reporter found “Migrant Handbooks” on the Greek island of Lesbos. It was later revealed that the handbooks, which are written in Arabic, had been given to refugees before crossing the Mediterranean by a group called “Welcome to the EU.”
Welcome to the EU is funded by—you guessed it—the Open Society Foundations.
Soros has not only backed groups that advocate the resettlement of third-world migrants into Europe, he in fact is the architect of the “Merkel Plan.”
The Merkel Plan was created by the European Stability Initiative whose chairman Gerald Knaus is a senior fellow at none other than the Open Society Foundations.
The plan proposes that Germany should grant asylum to 500,000 Syrian refugees. It also states that Germany, along with other European nations, should agree to help Turkey, a country that’s 98% Muslim, gain visa-free travel within the EU starting in 2016.
Political Discourse
The refugee crisis has raised huge concern in European countries like Hungary.
In response to 7,000 migrants entering Hungarian territory per day in 2015, the Hungarian government reestablished border control in order to keep the hordes of refugees from entering the country.
Of course this did not go down well with Soros and his close allies, the Clintons.
Bill Clinton has since come out and accused both Poland and Hungary of thinking “democracy is too much trouble” and wanting to have a “Putin-like authoritarian dictatorship.”
Read more here.
Hanson's surprise re Dastyari Muslim on Q & A
You do realise that Hanson was joking about not knowing Sam was a muslim?
Hanson Q & A panel very condescending on Sam Bastiari thing
The most important point that is coming through is that society has been rendered inarticulate through the prevailing discourse which is so practiced and appraised but the " intelligentsia”. No wonder many of us feel we are eternally at the Mad Hatters tea party.
I thought the panel was very condescending to PH on Q & A especially when she expressed surprise that the Iranian guy was a Muslim- I think someone even said something like "and he doesn’t have 2 heads” .
Hanson and Waters on Q & A nearly raised an important point
I was also brought up not to not to highlight someone’s religion or to make bigoted remarks about any religious group and to avoid generalisations about any group. My mother was an ardent multiculturalist and her father had also suffered as a catholic and had joined a secret catholic society. Both my parents, however, were atheists and my father held religion in contempt. I grew up to develop a more tolerant attitude towards religion, which I see as a tribal flag that morphes into state religions when tribes are thrown together and rearranged. If they cannot come to some equitable accommodation about land-tenure and citizens' rights, then you get repression.
However, I can see that the educated tolerance in multiculturalism has been exploited by elites who have invested in war and land-theft and want open-borders and mass immigration instead of secure citizens' rights. These elites finance racist wars in countries in the Middle East and on the European fringes on the pretext of liberating multi-sectarian groups in populations disorganised by chronically changing borders (due to foreign rearranging of tribes and land) and mass immigration (due to constant wars and colonisations) who are very intolerant of each other. When these wars ruin economies, produce lawlessness and cause refugee flight and economic flight, the globalists refuse to cease financing wars. Instead, in the name of multiculturalism, they insist that the people in their own countries open their borders to mass immigration and submit to the same demographically disorganising process that has been accomplished by war and colonisation in the sending countries.
Hanson seems to be among very few forces in Australia that is standing up for citizens' rights and national sovereignty. I think she has a number of contradictory attitudes about welfarism that go with her Liberal, rural, and small business background. Whilst I don't hold these attitudes, I think they are defensible to a point. We need to deal with the pros and cons better than the current lib-lab sloganeering way.
It was also significant that Q and A focused on Hanson's distrust of Islam rather than on her zero net immigration policies or any of the other ones. The effect was to polemicize any attempt to stand up for non-Islamic Australia against changes to women's rights, secularism and peace inside this country.
I think that Hanson's criticisms of Aboriginal welfare, Asian takeover of land etc en mass, and Islam all have some bases in fact and deserve serious consideration. To demonise them is to demonise the baby along with the bathwater. A functioning political discourse should be able to talk about the baby and the bathwater, but our political discourse still attempts to drive wedges between anyone who would talk babies or bathwater and the 'rest'. To call Hanson a racist - as Larissa Waters did, gratuitously, right from the get-go - makes it very hard for anyone who does not know much about the surrounding issues (war, overpopulation) to investigate both sides.
Australians should not be afraid to investigate both sides.
With regard to racism and aboriginal economies, I find Libs, Labs, Greens and socialist alliance types totally racist because they all think it is quite okay to replace Aboriginal Australia with 'modern progress' and mass immigration from other cultures. They behave as if it is quite okay to destroy hunter gathering cultures and turn their members into industrial state citizens. This is the same mentality that excuses the destruction of viable tribal ways in the Middle East since the 19th century. This is the same mentality that drives Africans off their land in order to put it to more 'modern' uses.
I thought it ironic, when Larissa Waters said something that questioned our support for wars against Islamic countries, and Hanson responded in agreement, that Jones immediately changed the subject. In fact, there is nothing more important than stopping these wars that are displacing millions of people (of all faiths) and if Hanson and Waters could have explored commonality there, then the whole program would have risen far above most political debates in this country.
Hanson's conduct on Q & A - reply to Sheila Newman
On conduct guidelines: I was brought up not to highlight someone’s religion or to make bigoted remarks about any religious group and to avoid generalisations about any group. I must admit though that my father was a bit of a snob about European peasants but did not labour the point . (My mother would never have used such an expression.)
(My father would’ve experienced discrimination as a Catholic- they were rather excluded from the business world and the Masonic Lodges - this made him dislike institutions like the Masons - so he became unaffiliated, except for his involvement in conservation.)
I do think that some on the panel (or was it the audience? ) made a valid point that Ms Hanson used to home in on Asians, then it was some other group and now it is the Muslims -
I think you interpret her very well - and that is a brilliant point that she represents the masses who are ALSO inarticulate in the face of what is being done to us. Extending it over my breakfast cereal- it is a bit like when you are a child and certain rules or condition might be placed on you which you do not understand and you just cry and put on a tantrum.
Senator Hanson on Q & A - a response to Despairing Commuter
Hi Despairing Commuter.
We are interested in all the new senators and their possibility of affecting ingrained bipartisan policies that ignore public wishes. Hanson's policies are relevant to the population and democracy concerns of this site, especially her zero net migration policy. Since we are also concerned (to day the least) about our country's role in supporting intervention to destroy Syria (and previously Libya etc) we are hoping that she might make some links between the destruction of landscape and economy through the wars we support and the flood of refugees to various countries.
With regard to her performance on Q and A, just for science, what were examples of where Pauline went against the conduct guidelines you were brought up with?
Also, where you saw Waters as being embarassed, I saw her as being manipulative. Don't forget, she's a lawyer and a seasoned politician. I don't think she was ever embarassed - nor any of the others - except, possibly, Xenophon, who didn't attack Hanson and gave me the impression that he didn't think too much of the personalising of focus against her.
I thought that Larissa attacked Hanson right at the beginning. I found Larissa surpisingly snide and cliche mongering, which surprised me, since I would have expected her to be a little more sophisticated. In fact, most on the panel, except for Hanson began with cliche mongering. Hanson is inarticulate - to a point - but she does get across what she wants to say most of the time - and in the face of intense hostility. I think we have to bear in mind that she is usually under heavy attack and that causes people to jump whole phrases etc.
But she made some very good points - for example, when Sam Dastyari personalised a question (not my conduct guidelines) about would he have been welcome aged 7 - she ultimately said that, at that time, Muslim immigrants were unlikely to be vehicles of terrorism but the situation has now changed. That is a fact that requires rational discussion, not playful argumentativeness.
I feel that one should also recognise that half the program was devoted to using Hanson as a target.
I also felt that, with Hanson's lesser articulatedness, she was representing so many people who find it very difficult to express what they want when in the presence of people with 'polish'.
If you consider that we have governments and media constantly carrying on about how dangerous Islamic terrorism is and how present, then Hanson (and now Lambie) so far are the only ones to call the bluff and say, "Well, heck, if that is so, why aren't we stopping muslim immigration for security reasons?"
I would myself, tend to say, "Why are we encouraging destabilising mass immigration of any peoples when it weakens our democracy and cohesion by sheer numbers?" I mean, in a settled, stable society, a few immigrants with problems would be relatively easy to manage. However, a society where no-one knows their neighbours, where they commute from dormitory suburbs or hop from flat to flat, lacks the ability to monitor its own problems.
Pauline Hanson on Q & A on July 18
[Editor: Apologies for not having published this earlier, but our site has had problems.]
I see that this site has some sympathy for Pauline Hanson, so I would like to discuss her performance. She made me feel very uncomfortable on Q & A yesterday [July 18]. Larissa Waters looked as though she was going to burst with embarrassment. I don’t think PH gets across her concerns very articulately and she sounds ignorant. I though Nick Xenaphon came across in a mature way when he talked of how he would work with 1 nation in the senate.
I’m afraid ph goes against the conduct guidelines i was brought up with- and the other members of the panel were obviously brought up as i was. Things have changed but I don’t see that she is helpful and she is incoherent to me.
Full house at save Victoria Market meeting & good questions
Full house at Vic Market mass meeting. Thanks to Luke and Victorian Trades Hall Council for the support!
Demands are about respect: certainty for stallholders, businesses and traders, preserving the open air, working heritage of the market and stallholder & community reps on the Queen Vic Market Board. Stay tuned for updates.
Friends of Queen Victoria Market
Friends of Queen Victoria Market
According to traders:
‘The CEO indicated that people will be moved over a period of years into temporary catchment areas, as renewal occurs. He stated that QVM will pick up all associated costs involved in such displacement.
Mr McCullough said “everyone will continue to trade.”
A trader’s questions to the market CEO
1. Food court (Victoria street and Queen street)
Is it staying ?
If not, relocated to where ?? (H and I shed ?)
When, where and how ??
What guarantees are you giving that all food shops have a future during and after redevelopment.
Explain your contingency for a compensation package?
2. Meat and fish area: Talk of remodelling .
How, when and where?
What guarantees are you giving that all butchers and fish shops have a future during and after redevelopment..
Explain your contingency for a compensation package?
3. H and I sheds.
Why move something that works?
Will be redeveloped as what?
Where will H and I shed be moved to during and after redevelopment ?
When , and how?
What guarantees are you giving that all fruit stalls and other food categories operating in H and I shed have a future during and after redevelopment?
Explain your contingency for a compensation package ?
4. Deli section
What exactly do you propose, when you state only light refurbishment?
What guarantees are you giving that all the deli traders and specifically the food takeaway shops have a future during and after redevelopment?
Explain your contingency for a compensation package ?
5. A ,B C D sheds.
Are you proposing redeveloping ABCD and Munro site at the same time ?
How long do you estimate redevelopment of each site ?.
Where are the 164 plus stallholders in A and B shed relocated to?
Where will the 226 stalls plus street traders in D and C shed be relocated to?
What size configuration?
Underground parking
A,B,C,and D shed total area 13,904 sq. meters.
Area required for 1 x car bay plus drive area = 30 sq meters, that equates to 465 car bays per floor level. = approx.. 930 car bays for two floors minus storage area, coolrooms docking bays etc .
6. L and M sheds.
L shed and M shed allocated to fruit stalls ?
Approx 130 stalls and 14 containers moved to where?
When, where and how?
What size configuration?.
What guarantees are you giving that all stallholder and container traders have a future during and after redevelopment?
Explain your contingency for a compensation package ?
Where will Market Espresso coffee shop be reallocated too?
7. G. No plans or details.
8. E, F, J, K , rear of K and rear of J
No details at all for 500 odd stalls .
What guarantees about their continued trading during and after redevelopment.
9. Franklin street box storage, cleaning contractors, cool rooms areas.
No mention or discussion about when, how or where
Queens new market area (proposed area from Franklin and Queen street to toilets - More details are required.
10. Munro site
How many car bays?
Explain your contingency for a compensation package to affected businesses that will be affected by the redevelopment?
Stallholders demand answers.
Actual plans and detail be would appreciated
PM's open-border policy - letter from The Age
PM's open-border policy
Changes quietly made to student visa arrangements will allow almost unfettered access to primary schools and established houses by all overseas applicants and their families. This will place even more pressure on social infrastructure, which is already bursting at the seams.
As of this month, foreign students aged as young as six are now able to apply for student visas. Previously, students from China and some other countries had to be much older to apply. Mr Turnbull announced the changes while in China in April.
Cash-strapped schools will be tempted to promote themselves to overseas full-fee paying students, which could displace local families who have already contributed through their taxes to state education. Chinese nationals are already the largest recipients of student visas, accounting for 24 per cent of the 143,886 granted in the six months to December. Holders of student visas and their guardians are temporary residents, meaning they can purchase new and established homes. These changes are not in the national interest as they will almost certainly see local families locked out of education and housing. This issue has not been publicised, so most people remain oblivious to this irresponsible policy change. I, and I'm sure many others, want answers from our politicians. Specifically, "what was the motivation for the change?"; "which electorates asked for it?" and "Given that resources are already at breaking point without this open border policy, how do you plan to resolve these issues?".
David Bone, Glen Iris
Erdogan says US supported the attempted coup
Erdogan has said that the Military Coup leaders were "taking orders from Pennsylvania" -
This means that this was a US backed Coup to remove Erdogan's Govt as now Erdogan was withdrawing from the US-Saudi plans to target President Assad and partition Syria. Hope now that Erdogan will get his head right and stop playing the US-Saudi-Qatari-Israeli games & ally with Syria, Russia and China.
~~~~
Erdogan is a horror and this attempted Coup has surely weakened him. Erdogan's own cynical and murderous policies of supporting the ISIS-Qaeda, being the foil for the US-Saudi-Israeli-Qatari gameplan for Syria - created great divisions within Turkey - and has led Turkey to this crisis.
There will be a lot of political churning now and Erdogan too will go for all his crimes in Syria.
~~~
Turkey: The CNN-BBC-Al Jazeera - are all in a sense of denial. They are discussing the reasons for the Coup, the weakening of Erdogan, the anger against him, the divisions within Turkish society - BUT -refuse to even mention the Syrian factor!! In fact this is what has led to the divisions and the weakening of Turkey & Erdogan.
~~~
Turkey: The secular-Republican party, the CHP has also opposed the Coup!
Clearly now, this is a US-Gulen backed Coup!
Erdogan has been targeted by his Islamist allies namely the Saudis and Qatar for his backtracking on Syria. Hope now that Erdogan and his Islamist supporters trying to destroy Syria have learnt their lesson.
~~~~~
Turkey - As per Russia TV, both Erdogan's supporters and his political opponents have united to oppose the military coup.
This is in many ways is good news for Turkey.
Can see that both CNN, BBC & Al Jazeera are not very happy with the way that the badly planned Coup has gone.
Turkish Army officers' reasons for attempt to oust Erdogan
The most recent news from Turkey suggests that the attempt to oust the corrupt and autocratic Turkish President Recip Tayyip Erdogan may have unfortunately failed, although fighting continues.
The statement in the image below was published on the Syrian Free Press as Turkish Army Statement (16/7/16):
(Text of statement from the above image)
The Turkish military says it has fully seized control of the country and the rule of law must remain a priority.
"The power in the country has been seized in its entirety," said a military statement read on NTV televison, without giving further details.
The statement went on to say that the military aims to "reinstall the constitutional order, democracy and freedoms," and "to ensure that the rule of law once again reigns in the country, for the law and order to be reinstated."
"All international agreements and commitments will remain. We pledge that good relation with all world countries will continue," the military statement added.
It further vowed to try all those who "have betrayed the country" in "fair courts."
Topic of population delibrately "too hard" to discuss
"Population is a notoriously difficult subject to discuss in public forums, partly due to the complexity of the subject and partly due to the political and emotional nature of the issues. " The topic is difficult because of the layers and layers of PC being imposed on us. There are associations with horror- "racism" - as if we are still a White Australia and we can't stop people entering our country because it's inevitably based on skin colour, or keeping our privileged lifestyles and resources for ourselves in an increasingly over-crowded and impoverished planet. The reason it's "too hard" to discuss population is because the mainstream media is supported by capitalist owners and advertizers, who benefit from high immigration. The short-term economic flows from amassing people is too lucrative for political parties to address, without being bombarded by "hate" and vilification. Our economic and social health, according to Peter Dutton, depend on immigration. It's like an addiction that our economist have become addicted too, and they are now in denial of the costs of unfettered growth.
Undeserved Hanson jailing-stigma sticks for some
I have noticed with some people that they perceive Hanson as guilty because she actually went to gaol. The fact that she was exonerated seems secondary to them. A parallel here is the case of Lindy Chamberlain. People I have spoken to seem to have hardly registered that she was also exonerated after spending a few years in gaol. They are surprised when I tell them she was innocent and wrongly convicted.
Hate Hanson
Isn't it great. Isn't it grand.
After years of getting our "Hate Abbot" caffeine shot every morning from Age Letters.
Now we can look forward to a new superior blend of "Hate Hanson" every morning.
(No need to explain).
David ZPG
More should be done to address the causes of refugees
There's no voices about actually addressing the causes of the high numbers of refugees, and displaced people. There are now over 60 million people who are classed as refugees, on a planet facing massive over-population and conflicts. There's no world war, and numbers have exceeded those after WW2. Illegal wars must end, and over-population will cause more conflicts over limited resources and declining living standards. The UN should be addressing civil wars, and doing more to address the causes of displacement - not just spread the flow into Europe and the West! The UN and world leaders should be cooperating with President Assad and actually supporting the people to stay in their own homes, in their own cultures and nation, instead of spreading terror, conflict, crime of the overflow to Europe.
States do nothing but accept growth as inevitable
The States are quietly compliant on our population growth, despite the fact that it's where the rubber hits the road of high growth. Sydney's towers are set to have higher limits, and trains are overcrowded in Melbourne, but where are the politicians questioning the massive over-growth being experienced in major cities? Other Federal polices are highly debatable, but when it comes to immigration levels, it's silently accepted as *inevitable* and outside discussion? It's pure collusion, and short-term cash flow benefits above long term social, economic and environmental impacts. Political parties only concern themselves over short-term issues, due to their limited terms in office. Governments never consider the long term, and if they do, it's only The Economy - as if the people, communities, families are their futures are all a sub-set of The Economy! Relying on a flow of new consumers is lazy economics, and avoids the challenges of productivity, sustainability, innovation, and the moral custodial responsibilities towards future generations - who will inherit the impacts of poor governance today!
Horse hurt by tram
By the way, despairing commuter has sent a message to say that the horse is OK. It banged its head on a window in the tram and has superficial cuts -probably shocked as well. When one thinks that horses used to pull trams in Melbourne streets. Now they pull tourist carts and have to contend with electric trams. Horses probably outnumbered property speculators for a while in the early days. It is all very horse before cart these days in so many ways.
Faine & Symons - Is that the best the ABC can do for Melbourne?
As I surfaced this morning I heard this snippet from Jon Faine to Red Symons “well we’re not densely populated like Europe but I’m thinking of the future, the FUTURE - you know that time that you won’t see.” Don’t ask me what this referred to but it is clear, he just thinks we keep growing at least until we are as densely populated as Europe. Why they assume this would happen is beyond me. What model are they using?
I then heard something that really upset me- JF said in a totally unemotional way “oh a horse and a tram had an argument (or words to this effect) yesterday and the horse came off second best."
Red Symons after discussion about horses in the middle of the city mixed with cars and tramsn- "oh well, one thing's for sure , they can’t feed the grey hounds to the horses." (referring no doubt to the expected "wastage" of thousands of healthy greyhounds following the ceasing of greyhound racing in NSW.)
To their credit they did then say that the horses should be in a better place then in the middle of the city.
It’s a pity these 2 are the best 774 can a manage in the mornings.
A statement of the obvious
I will state the obvious in case anyone missed it that this wholesale tree removal is directly a result of population growth. More people using trains and roads means more delay for more people at level crossings. Solution - infrastructure "improvements" which cannot be achieved without loss of things we love , like trees and open space or peace and quiet. It may not be that this particular project is being done in the best "tree-sparing" manner and that would not surprise me but it is clear to me that we cannot have ever increasing population and commensurate infrastructure upgrading without loss of amenity in some way. I would love to know if anyone actually has a solution apart from the one I favour which is to slow population growth right down with a cut in our ridiculously high immigration levels.
The crucial importance of amateur journalism
Thanks for this Olaf. Shows how unavoidable corruption is with commercial journalism. It is the amateur journalists here - the comment-writers - who make the important contributions. Years ago even the Age carried long contributions in the form of letters to the editor. And at the beginning of commercial journalism, writers were drawn from among all kinds of educated amateurs and professionals in their own field; there was no special education for journalists. Also, papers depended on local circulation, not advertising, thus had to be responsive to their readers.
So-called 'independent sites' - you know the ones - that are promoted by the Wheeler Center in company with the Grattan Inst etc., or the mainstream press themselves and carry the same range of property advertising etc and only report on the same subjects as the mainstream - are not independent.
In fact, that is why candobetter.net exists - to promote amateur journalism - i.e. writing that is not modified by commercial expectations. What other sites exist like candobetter.net?
Guardian puts Assad IV down but trumped by avalanche of letters
In a shallow article by Angela Meade, entitled, " Journalism or propaganda? SBS under scrutiny over its waltz with Bashar" the touted independent Guardian tries to put down SBS's recent foray into checking the facts with the designated 'enemy'. One guesses the author was only trawling for reactions and she got them. I don't think that letters to the ed are copyright since they are unpaid, so, please enjoy as copied and pasted below from teh article at https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/jul/07/journalism-or-propaganda-sbs-under-scrutiny-over-its-waltz-with-bashar-weekly-beast?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other#comments:
blarneybanana
4h ago
0 1
The west needs to make up its mind. After five years of openly supporting various oppositions, he still heads a coherent government and military.
As galling as it is, we must negotiate with him, and be realistic.
Even israel is sitting on the fence with this one (even occasionally helping him out by eliminating various threats)
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ligaff
6h ago
0 1
I'm sorry.
SBS played an interview with the leader of another sovereign country, involved in a proxy war with Saudi Arabian Wahabbi jihadist, these terrorists being aided, supplied and facilitated also by Bahrain, Qatar, the US and Turkey, who himself has a fair slice of popular support within his country, as exemplified by the majority non-Alawite Muslims who make up the Syrian governments armed forces, and SBS are in trouble for this piece of actual journalism and for not supporting and proliferating the propaganda paradigm of those countries set on regime change and the privatization of state resources in Syria.
Do we have to wait another fifteen years for a Chilcott Report on the Syrian War?
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bonniejoan
13h ago
0 1
We know the media is biased and our recent vote choices have reflected that. One in four opted to vote against the big two. Yes, we know the minority parties are whackos. But, so are the big two - lies, misinformation, deliberate psychobabble nonsense. Please, Lord, give me a statesman to vote for. Please! Someone with a decades' long vision for my country. Someone who will tell me that the welfare burden is unsustainable. Someone to tell me that my kids will get a job, a mortgage, a family. Lord, then give me grandchildren! As for Assad, just another strongman - supported by the tribal intricacies of his culture, alien to mine. And, Lord, give me an unbiased ABC where once one channel gave us much more than it does nowadays. I used to tell my students, "Watch, and listen to, the ABC. You will get an education". To all those students - mia culpa!
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blarneybanana bonniejoan
4h ago
0 1
The last statesman we had was Malcolm Fraser. he ignored the pollsters and shock jocks and simply got on with the job of Whitlam's reforms, and never bothered to claim any of it.
He also managed to keep a lid on the lying rodent, or to quote the wonderful John CLarke (as Fred Dagg), speaking of LR's definition of an honest man: 'a man who is dishonest, but is quite open about it.'
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artfuldodger84
13h ago
0 1
Waltz with Bashar. Well played
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ChristinemSmith
13h ago
3 4
I was really impressed with the interview with Assad. Never heard/seen him interviewed before, and given the unwaveringly negative portrayal of him, I have wondered if government/media representation is another hatchet job like the reporting and 'information' prior the Iraq war. The journalist asked some tough questions, watching at home we commented he was pretty brave! Overall, it was good to have an interview with someone we hear and see a lot ABOUT, but rarely FROM the horse's mouth. To me, this was actually news, and proper journalism, not just reading a press release or chatting about - oh sorry 'analysing' - poll numbers! Good on SBS.
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John Dow
14h ago
5 6
It seems that more and more we are a becoming a country where it is seen as OK to shut down or dismiss viewpoints that don't fit the mould. In the vein of disparaging completely that luckless Muslim fellow on the populist ABC panel show Q and Approved answers.
I watched the Assad interview and I saw a man who believed what he said and had reasons for saying what he said. I keep an open mind about the truth of his statements but I don't believe that the western media and politicians are any more honest than he is, they just believe different sides of the story.
SBS was right to broadcast this interview and those who seek to have such alternative views aired need to take a good long hard look at the current state of our own 'news' that is fed to us. Classic example is happening today. The Aussie media is spending hours and hours on the deaths of a total of 7 unfortunate motorists and policemen in America after devoting all of two minutes each to the hundreds killed in sectarian violence in Bangladesh and Iraq. I rest my case.
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Darook523
17h ago
4 5
Interesting how mainstream media interviews that are edited, sometimes actually changing the thrust of what was actually said, is professional journalism, and yet an unedited interview is propaganda? And therein lies the problem with our mainstream media.
As to Assad, Syria is none of our business, and by all accounts life there for the average person is now dramatically worse since the US undertook their usual regime change war. And yet lapdog Australia, as usual, supports them all the way despite the horrendous death toll, widespread rapes and taking of sex slaves. Another win for regime change.
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Audrie Scott
17h ago
3 4
This was an excellent interview and I highly applaud SBS for screening it. Both sides of every story should be told, and usually we just get our middle eastern news filtered through "President Obama has said".
That's where the propaganda is.
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sorrentina
20h ago
5 6
I watched the entire Assad interview and it was not propaganda- it was good journalism. Assad was asked hard questions- how he answered them is up for the viewer to judge. Obviously he tried to use the interview for his own propaganda purposes- but you have to remove the subjects desires from the journalists role. Otherwise any interview with a politician could be deemed 'propaganda'.
It is important that a person like Assad have an opportunity to engage in dialogue- regardless of what you think of him. Failing this- all we would get would be largely Western viewpoints (arguably much of which is propaganda) on the Syrian crisis.
Perhaps people should have listened to Gadaffi when he warned that he was fighting against Al Qaeda? Sure he was an awful murdering dictator: bit look at Libya today... Perhaps we should have listened to the Saddam when he said their was no current WMD programs in Iraq? Now Assad is telling us that the Syrian army is fighting against fundamentalist wahabi Jihadists: ISIS, Al Qaida, Al Nusra, et al- are we to assume that because Assad is a very bad man- and despite much clear evidence that supports his claim- that there is no truth in what he says?
Shall we, eyes wide shut- continue to support the arming of the Anti-Assad opposition groups? Shall we ignore the documented role of Turkey, several Gulf States, and leading Western nations in fermenting the God-Awful Syrian war by deliberately arming and enabling fundamentalist terrorists? Journalism means airing the views of all parties to a given issue: regardless of peoples opinions about particular individuals.
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gondwanaboy sorrentina
16h ago
3 4
Shall we, eyes wide shut- continue to support the arming of the Anti-Assad opposition groups? Shall we ignore the documented role of Turkey, several Gulf States, and leading Western nations in fermenting the God-Awful Syrian war by deliberately arming and enabling fundamentalist terrorists? Journalism means airing the views of all parties to a given issue: regardless of peoples opinions about particular individuals.
That's been the problem with the msm for quite some time. It's totally biased and unbalanced in its presentation of events. It's turned into the spokesperson for the government or 'propaganda machine' for vested interests and their agendas.
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ChristinemSmith sorrentina
13h ago
1 2
A very thoughtful and intelligent comment, thank you. It was good to have the chance to see Assad speak in person - wish there was more of this type of journalism. I think you are right that Assad is a bad man, but does that make his claims untrue? We don't know nearly enough and the people who are supposed to be telling us are quarreling because someone did their 'duty' to the public instead of following the 'approved narrative' line!
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Fairgoforall
22h ago
8 9
Why should SBS be under scrutiny for propaganda when we have just seen 9 weeks of ultra-propaganda thrown at us by the media - across the board - in favor of the LNP.
As far as hypocrites go, the media takes the cake!
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ekkaman Fairgoforall
19h ago
2 3
It Is the old look over that way shit.
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DaptoDog
1d ago
10 11
So the SBS Newsroom have a problem with letting the audience make up their own minds about the Bashar interview? Why? It's the right of every interviewee to place conditions on their interview. If SBS felt that the conditions on the Bashar interview were unacceptable, they shouldn't have let it go to air at all.
Were they concerned that reporting on Syria wasn't being filtered through their favoured analysts and 'spokespeople', ie it wasn't echoing the predominant line taken by western governments and media. Or was it because he came across as more factual and coherent than these same spokespeople (especially the idiots from the US Department of State who would rather suffocate themselves than agree that the Assad regime is preferable to ISIS).
SBS did the right thing in running the interview as they did.
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glengyle DaptoDog
1d ago
6 7
Totally agree.
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sorrentina DaptoDog
20h ago
5 6
furthermore the condition that an entire interview be aired- with no editing- is actually a very reasonable and fair condition. Assad didn't require a veto over parts of the interview- or a right to demand parts be left out (as the US military routinely does with 'embedded' 'journalists'). I would like to see more of such interviews- the fact that any interview can be selectively edited before broadcast is a real problem and many people have been burned badly.
Bring on the Kim Jong-un interview SBS I look forward to seeing how that deranged evil little dictator thinks. Doesn't mean I endorse him.
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Doors2distant
1d ago
11 12
If only the Murdoch Media was as balanced and varied.
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Mygasheater Doors2distant
23h ago
7 8
The Murdoch Media is balanced. It has a chip on each shoulder.
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mharrop
1d ago
4 5
"Hanson’s spokesman, James Ashby,"
Is that the Ashby of "Ashbygate"???
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TonyDun mharrop
1d ago
3 4
yep
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EvilCommieDictator mharrop
24h ago
4 5
Yup, and as always, the media somehow have nothing to say on that matter.
Gift horses feet in mouths I guess
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Truthsandlies
1d ago
9 10
Quote by Naom Chomsky, Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state.
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randomguydeaustralie
1d ago
11 12
I scoured this poorly written piece in a vain attempt to discover who has has placed SBS under scrutiny. All I could glean was that some unspecified SBS staff were of the opinion that too many restrictions were placed on the interview. That just sounds like tea room gossip to me. On further reading it emerged that the entire interview is to be broadcast in full. I would suggest that many public officials, and indeed members of the Royal family, place restrictions on interviewers. Either you agree to them or you don't get the interview. Tough questions were permitted, but not rudeness or interruption, which seems entirely reasonable to me. This is a non story
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Graeme Taylor randomguydeaustralie
1d ago
7 8
what it does show however, is the total bias in reporting regarding this latest attempt at regime change. Overthrowing popular leaders, and using Wahhabi fundamentalists to do so, worked a treat in Libya, continues to destroy Iraq, and this latest attempt in Syria has gone on largely with a one sided coverage of the baddie baddie leaders that have to go.
It was all made public in 2002, when Iraq, Libya, Syria, Iran, North Korea and Cuba were targeted under the moniker of "axis of evil".
Naughty SBS for not sticking to the script.
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randomguydeaustralie Graeme Taylor
24h ago
7 8
All excellent points. I saw footage the other night of an English guy whose son died in the 'war on terror' being interviewed in the aftermath of the Chilcott report. He said that he has reluctantly come around to the point of view that his son died for nothing. How heartbreaking
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CaptainHaymaker
1d ago
1 2
Pauline Hanson's facebook page is entitled "Please explain"? At least she appears to have some sense of humour.
(please tell me that she is being self-referential, and not just angry, in using the reference)
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AndyAjna
1d ago
This comment was removed by a moderator because it didn't abide by our community standards. Replies may also be deleted. For more detail see our FAQs.
paulwalter
1d ago
2 3
Gee, I wish could comment on reading it, but not now or I'd say some thing I'd regret later.
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Ertimus
1d ago
21 22
ABC Lateline had a war criminal on their show last night , are they under scrutiny too???
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neillwa
1d ago
4 5
Its journalism when you speak to both sides of the conflict.
Propaganda when you just take one side. Ask the Guardian about this and their one sided reporting of their "moderate" Islamist friends.
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Petunia Winegum neillwa
23h ago
6 7
"Ask the Guardian about this and their one sided reporting of their "moderate" Islamist friends."
What is wrong with their reporting, not enough blind hatred and small-minded bigotry for your liking?
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neillwa Petunia Winegum
15h ago
2 3
What is wrong with their reporting? I guess you don't follow the news. When has the guardian interviewed people fighting for the Syrian government? None at All. And how many articles from 'moderate' rebels? Dozens.
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Jeff1000
2d ago
10 11
Um...surely agreeing to air the entire interview, without editing any questions or answers or splicing in pauses or anything, is the best way to PREVENT propaganda?
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Fairgoforall Jeff1000
22h ago
2 3
opposed to say ...... Turnbull!
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yoghurt2
2d ago
10 11
Journalism or propaganda? SBS under scrutiny over its waltz with Bashar
Well, I'd say that second sentence is positively crawling with propaganda. Here's how:
"under scrutiny" = implies SBS is at fault
"waltz with Bashar" = implies supping with the Devil
Then again, the US have already notched up hits on Mubarak, Saddam Hussein and Gadhafi, and the trifecta is never as good as the quadrafecta which they would have got with their "surgical strike" on Damascus that the Pentagon was panting for, had it not emerged that the US was planning to substitute Assad with Islamic State.
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yoghurt2
2d ago
4 5
Still doubling down the chips on the 'Free Syrian Army' huh, Guardian?
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slorter
2d ago
16 17
Mainstream media peddle a great deal of propaganda on Syria when it suits them! The US has undermined and overthrown democratic governments in Iran (1953), Guatemala (1954), Brazil (1964), Congo (1965), Chile (1973), Turkey (1980), Nicaragua (1981-90), Haiti (2004), and the occupied Palestinian territories (2007), and it is trying to do the same in Venezuela. Why? Because the democratic choice of the people did not result in a compliant government, subservient to the West and multinational corporations. It’s also hard to imagine that Saudi Arabia, the Gulf monarchies, Israel and Turkey care about democracy and human rights.
If we add in the US interventions in Iraq, Libya, Yemen and Syria the costs mount to more trillions of dollars and more thousands of American lives, to say nothing of the more than one million deaths among the local populations. In all these cases, we left behind crippled and failed states, with al-Qaeda and its successors (Daesh, AKA ISIS, AKA the takfiri movement) filling the vacuum. It's a pity the mainstream don't investigate considerably more!
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JamesRHarding slorter
1d ago
17 18
You left out Australia in 1975.
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LaundriNProphets
2d ago
11 12
When does journalism become propaganda?
oh Guardian Australia, biting my tongue so hard right now
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Carstendog LaundriNProphets
2d ago
1 2
You are right, the Guardian so reflects the ALP/greens agenda, it is not funny
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pDcult Carstendog
2d ago
10 11
Thank you guardian for keeping us infirmed.
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LaundriNProphets Carstendog
2d ago
3 4
haha Carsten.
Which electorate are you posting from this day?
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Carstendog pDcult
24h ago
0 1
You should stop reading the Guardian if it is keeping you infirmed
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Petunia Winegum Carstendog
23h ago
2 3
"the Guardian so reflects the ALP/greens agenda, it is not funny"
Yeah, why can't they be more objective and impartial like Limited News are?
Engineering population without calling it population policy
Not much time to comment, but, just picking up on one point: high fertility in places like Africa highlight other ways for states to influence population growth upward without actually calling this population policy.
Notably, governments can have economic policies that push people out of villages and tribes where endogamy and exogamy traditions together with cooperative breeding keep fertility to within environmental comfort. They then create a situation where seeking unskilled work in cities without effective child labour laws is the only legal means of survival. In the cities the rules of endogamy and exogamy break down and nuclear families replace cooperative breeding. This socio-economic policy then encourages people to survive by having lots of children who can be sent to work in child labour niches, which include mines, factories etc.
(You then get overt population policies wanting to limit fertility, but they don't even consider what is 'rewarding' the high fertility.)
Great website
Great post here!
Editor: We have just had three posts similar to this from similar emails. They do not appear to be pushing a website or selling something, so we are going to publish one of the - this one. However, we generally expect more constructive input.
A bottom up approach is exactly what this is.
Thats the exact difference. Putting a 'bottom up' approach instead of a 'top down' solution.
Population is taboo, whether you want to increase it, keep it level or reduce it. Any plan to shape population is met with skepticism. For good reason! After all, isn't genocide just another population policy? I'm always shocked with how close our current population ideologies are to those we demonise which resulted in displacement, genocide and ethnic cleansing. I'm even more shocked at how few people see the similarities!
I can understand why any top-down policy on population is met with scepticism and fear. That is true whether the policy is well intentioned or not. Perhaps with no policy, but a call for the ruling elite to respect OUR wishes, a less controversial argument could be made.
The difficult part is simplifying it for mass consumption.
Better to let the people respond to population, than growthists.
The central point of the article isn't necessarily to solve population problems, but to offer another frame of reference which could be used to take power away from the growth lobby. That is, a potentially stronger argumentative position.
One of the weaknesses in people calling for a sustainable or zero-growth population policy, is that it still leaves the decision in the hands of the state and the ruling elite. If we are to argue for a sustainable population policy, we are also inadvertently arguing that this is a decision for the state to make. As the state and the ruling elite have a vested interest in growth, the argument then comes down to who has the better economic argument. Us or them. People see the merits in our argument, but we are judging two different policies.
I am proposing arguing the difference between having a policy or not. I think it more prudent to argue NOT to have a policy.
In short, I think it is a losing proposition because we are arguing that it is a decision for a government to make, we are just arguing that the parameters to judge success by should be considered differently. This is an argument that we would find it difficult to win, because we are accepting the premise that population should be managed according to criteria in the first place.
This idea totally wipes out the idea that government should have any role AT ALL in the manner. It isn't a matter of what numbers, but whether they have the right, at all to intervent. I argue that since children are (mostly) a matter of choice, the state is not only overriding our choice, but acting against our choice, to the point of degrading the nation. Consider EU leaders who want to import millions to fill in for the children Europeans chose not to have. You chose not to have that many children, the state chooses to replace you. Criminal.
Given that the birthrate in the West is just at, or just below replacement, and that it would be lower if not for immigration, I think we can get away with this argument. We can trust people to make the right fertility choices, because for the last few decades, that is exactly what they have been doing. I wouldn't recommend this strategy for countries with have high birthrates. I wouldn't recommend that Niger, with its birthrate of over 6.5 adopt this idea, but I think we can.
I will follow this up with another article soon which goes into a little more detail about the argumentative implications.
Note, that I'm not arguing against education to people, to put forward knowledge of what the effects of population growth/stasis/reduction would be. Absolutely this is right. I'm arguing for a mentality where people reclaim the right to plan and shape the next generation, and not have this done by bureaucrats and big business.
I must compliment Dennis and
I must compliment Dennis and quark for their efforts in elucidating their thoughts on population and immigration. One thread that appealed to me was that of accepted social norms in any given society. Living in a small community as I do, it is most noticeable when you mingle with people from a larger populace eg Melbourne, what is accepted in one community may not be in the other and vice versa.
This is most evident in the population debate with governments and big business influencing the outcomes whether it be immigration or natural replacement. As Dennis rightly points out this is a top down approach (coming straight from the neoliberal text book) and benefits those who promote the concept. By allowing society to dictate what is the norm, a bottom up ideology, allows the community to reach its optimal level of population thus benefitting society.
Having said that, I've found that population to be the one of most taboo subjects within society as the amount of social engineering by governments, big business and especially the mainstream media. Nobody wants to talk about it as we well know! Similar the the federal election the dialogue was highjacked and the real topics discarded into the too hard basket.
Schumacher on Science and morals
The Economist E.F Schumacher had the following to say in relation to science and moral questions (selected excerpts):
"The maps produced by modern materialist scientism leave all the questions that really matter unanswered. More than that, they do not even show the way to a possible answer: they deny the validity of the questions."
"“The present danger does not really lie in the loss of universality on the part of the scientist, but rather in his pretence and claim of totality ...”
"“[People] long for guidance on how to live as responsible human-beings and are told that they are machines, like computers, without free will and therefore without responsibility”
But I particularly like the questions that arise around the following two issues:
"“ [... ] scientists never tire of telling us that the fruits of their labours are ‘neutral’: whether they enrich humanity or destroy it depends on how they are used. And who is to decide how they are used? There is nothing in the training of scientists and engineers to enable them to take such decisions, or else, what becomes of the neutrality of science?”
“Science and engineering produce ‘know-how’; but ‘know-how is nothing by itself; it
is a means without an end, a mere potentiality, an unfinished sentence. “Know-how’ is no more a culture than a piano is music.”
Source:
Schumacher, EF 1977, A Guide for the Perplexed, Abacus.
How do people perceive and respond to population pressure?
I think the point is well made , that (given reasonable inputs and no major societal upset ) the people choose their own population level and that it is not government’s business to impose a different level. How people actually choose the size of their population may be a little more related to accumulated individual circumstances, however, affected by the population growth rate.
By this I mean that people are more likely to choose the number of children in their family according to the number they feel they can afford to raise. This will encompass the interrelated factors of , time, energy, money, resources such as geographically close family for additional support as well as the all- important perception of the future- whether the economy and general wealth of their society are getting better or worse. See Virginia Abernethy http://www.virginiaabernethy.com/publishdetail.php?publishid=18 or Sheila Newman's book about the importance of local biofeedback and settled communities http://www.lulu.com/shop/sheila-newman/demography-territory-law-rules-of-animal-human-populations/paperback/product-21735874.html.
This seems more likely than individual families evaluating their positions on the basis of perceptions of broad population growth/ and levels. One could say though that the perception of population growth in a region is a sort of short hand for what is actually impacting on the individual couple/family.
Further to the mention of the people determining immigration rate through a “democratic process” , an additional negative to this is that ( in my experience) few people seem to have much idea of population and immigration numbers. They are, however definitely aware of the effects that (government engineered) very high population growth have on their own quality of life e.g. overcrowded schools, raods, trains, unaffordable housing and unwanted subdivisions. Even if it were considered reasonable to give people a few population choices, these would need to be accompanied by what the results would be e.g if we have an immigration intake of 200,000 in any one year this will mean 2 extra apartment tower blocks and 20,000 extra cars in your immediate area. This would be the only honest way to give people a choice. They must understand the concrete effects. The abstract needs to be illustrated in graphic detail! How popular would high population growth be then?
As invaders kill in Syria, immigrant doctors save German lives
As the Syrian Girl has noted on Twitter, Syrian doctors, who have fled their homeland and immigrated to Germany, are now saving the lives of Germans whilst other Syrians are being killed or dying of wounds in the defence of their homeland against terrorist invaders. For more about this see Syrian Doctors Are Saving German Lives – and That’s a Problem (7/3/16) | Foreign Policy.
In a related story, Doctors from Germany save lives in Syria and risk their own (25/5/16) by Naomi Conrad | Deutsche Welle :
Doctors from Germany are secretly caring for wounded rebels in bombed-out cellars - and putting their own lives at risk.
Naomi Conrad then describes how a Syrian doctor, who calls himself Omar, who also treated wounded terrorists in Syria is now working in Germany. The article claims that on "one cold night a few months ago, he sneaked across the Turkish-Syrian border into Syria – following a call on Facebook by people in a small village in Northern Syria's mountains, who were desperately looking for an experienced surgeon".
However, the rest of the article repeats the lying Western mainstream media narrative about Syria. The fact that Syria is facing an invasion of tens of thousands terrorists, financed and armed by the dictatorships of Saudi Arabia and Qatar is also ignored.
How, such a 'regime', so corrupt and hated by the people of Syria, has been able to hold on to power for more than five years now has not explained by Naomi Conrad.
Ringo Starr praises Brexit vote
From Beatles' Ringo Starr praises Brexit vote (4/7/16) | stuff.co.nz:
Former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr has praised Britain's decision to leave the European Union, saying he hopes the United Kingdom can move forward alone.
Starr, who lives in Los Angeles, said that he was in favour of the European Union when it first started.
...
Turnbull, Shorten could never withstand this level of scrutiny
This comment has also been posted to the Free Syrian Press page that the above interview has been republished from.
It is striking just how a leader, who our political 'leaders' and mainstream media would have us believe is a murderous and corrupt tyrant, has allowed himself to be scrutinised to such a degree by the newsmedia including 60 Minutes and SBS, which are openly hostile to him.
If Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop or Opposition Leader Bill Shorten were to ever to a level of scrutiny similar to what President al-Assad faced in that interview, they would not do nearly as well. If their policies toward Syria were scrutinised to this degree they would be torn to shreds.
As we know from the Presidential election of 3 June 2014, President Bashar al-Assad is far more popular with Syrians than the leaders of either of the two major parties, which just contested the Federal election, with Australians.
At least now, because so may people voted for parties other than the two major parties, in the recent Australian Federal election, there is hope some of the newer members of the Australian Parliament will challenge the lying mainstream media narrative about Syria from the floor of the Australian Parliament.
Scientists have to earn a living, too
Bias is always for the other person, or so people would have you believe.
Science definitely has to conform to the political and ideological power of the day. Like anything else, there is a supply/demand equation, and science which supports the status quo, which supports the prevailing world view is in greater demand than that which challenges it. Furthermore, there is likely an unbuilt bias, as all humans have, which leads to conformity.
We aren't by nature rational and objective, and it seems that there is more and more evidence that at a fundamental level, our brains lie to us. It is reasonable to expect people are biased towards science which supports their social standing, their status and their image. Many people consider science progressive because in doing so they indicate their identification with a dominant social group. This is a social group which holds that particular political stances are the inevitable future of humankind, and therefore are "progressive" (gay marriage, pluralistic societies, growth). For someone who doesn't have any stake, social or financial, they have the option to take a contrary position, but those relying on grants, on being published, etc, don't.
"Science" and political correctness
I think you are correct. A sociological pressures here is that 'science' itself, at the academic level, is made to conform to political values as well as commercial values. There are a few categories in science association though. There is science and technology, which is taken as 'progressive' by some 'progressives' who would not necessarily endorse other social causes, such as those espoused by the Greens. Instead they might vote Liberal, believing in a 'business-like' approach to government and technology. Actually I began to think of more breakdowns, but got bogged down in explaining them so have given up for the mean time.
I was going to say something to the effect that Malthus had a big influence on zoologists, biologists, geographers, until his influence began to wain some time after maybe 1975, due in part to the politics of expansion that followed after Whitlam's dismissal. But the children of those people educated in science, geography, zoology, geology, physics, before 1975, inherited their deeply held values. I personally fit into this class, although my own father, a geophysicist who influenced me about population when I was a child, has 'gone over to the other side'. Much later I looked deeply at population theory and realised that Malthus himself had found out that people controlled their populations in some European and aboriginal cultures, in contrast to the British and some others - but he did not know how, although he did know it had something to do with marriage permissions.
This made me do a literature search of all the population theories I could get hold of, which were far more numerous than the early Malthus one and the demographic transition one that most of us are taught are the only ones. I then synthesised my own theory about the interaction between endogamy and exogamy traditions and laws and physical territory in other species and in humans in The Urge to Disperse, Candobetter press, 2012.
Do you have any other ideas about such categories? It need not be population but some other attribute of 'science' or non-science.
A lot of people into "Science" are Politically Correct
This doesn't surprise me. There is a political niche of progressives, who equate "Science" and "reason" with Secular Humanism, which they believe means support for immigration, gay marriage, progressive causes, etc. They believe that science and rationality leads to these political stances.
There is nothing about science which would lead one to say one political ideology is more moral over another. One can use science to determine how to measure them, but even then, whether you measure something as 'good' or 'bad', is outside of science.
In short, they are using "science" to push a subjective moral stance, which just happens to coincide with those seen as progressive. What a coincidence...
Fire could NOT have caused collapse - WTC engineers & architects
This was posted to a discussion on JohnQuiggin.com
As I have already said above, I did not seek this debate. This debate was started by you, Ikonoclast, when you labeled Paul Craig Roberts a "nutty, conspiracy theorist" for his views on 9/11 on June 27th, 2016 at 21:18 when I was attempting to put my nonorthodox views on the "Brexit" discussion.
Real debate on the 9/11 collapses ended years ago. Those who argue that fire for the first time ever brought down three steel framed concrete buildings in the one day on 11 September 2001 and attempt to smear non-believers as "conspiracy theorists" are like those who tried and condemned Galileo Galelei for stating that the earth was not at the centre of the universe in 1633.
Ikonoclast pasted from debunking911.com, thereby, supposedly, not 'wasting' any of his own time:
... In all the history of high-rise fires, not one has ever been hit with a plane traveling 500 miles an hour ...
...
As shown in the video, embedded below, a large number of people including a number who helped build the World Trade Centre, disagree (emphasis is my own):
High-rise architect David Barnum, upon hearing that a plane had run into one of the twin towers, at the start of the video embedded below, "Well, that's OK. It's designed to withstand a 707". Leslie Robertson, the WTC engineer had stated, "I designed it for a 707 to smash into it" (my emphasis).
William Binner, a 25-year architect, who witnessed the impact said, "It did not seem possible that these towers, designed to withstand the impact of a 707 could possibly collapse in such a short order of time from the time that they were hit."
According to Daniel Szamboti, Mechanical Engineer, "These buildings are built to handle several times the load above them. The perimeter columns could handle 5 times the load above them and the core columns could handle 3 times the load above them."
John Skilling, the WTC Chief Engineer stated that "the building would survive a jet fuel fire."
Others interviewed on this video include David Childs, the architect who designed the new Freedom Tower and WTC 7 on the site of the old World Trade Center, high-rise architect Leslie Young, fire safety expert Edward Munyak, physicist and engineer Robert Podolsky.
Could you tell us, Ikonoclast, upon whose expertise the claims made in the material you pasted above, are based? Can you name them as I have named only a few of those who agree with my views above?
Beware of Lib-Lab front parties posing as alternatives
Sounds like a front for one of the majors.
Science Party belies their credibility
The policy of the so-called "Science Party' is: Migration to enrich the Australian community, economy and the lives of migrants. Surely a party devoted to rational thinking and science would consider evidence, the environment, and sustainability.
We've been 'enriched' enough by massive immigration! This anthropocentric policy is not based on science or evidence.
Criminal ABC failure to tell public what is driving growth
The failure of the ABC, which is our taxpayer funded public broadcaster, to mention WHY our population is growing (i.e. massive immigration numbers, invited here, not refugees) is the stuff of a dictatorship. It is an undeniable conspiracy against the people of Australia and mirrors that conducted by the commercial mass media which has invested in housing and commodities inflation produced by population growth. It is a total failure of journalism ethics that ABC reporters fail to tell us up front why this is happening and fail to represent our great dissatisfaction and despair at the consequences.
John Quiggin paradigm
It makes you wonder what theory he espouses as a basis for publication outside the sandbox. How does he make his decisions as to what is worthy of questioning and what is paranoid? My impression is that he really won't go beyond the mainstream media paradigm - so his contributors must accept our support of intervention in the Middle East and the US Government's explanation for all recent and current events - even though you have multiple countries fighting these US doctrines politically or militarily. I mean, does Quiggin even accept the well established history of CIA intervention in South America? Or does he suppose that South Americans and Middle Easterners are intrinsically incompetent?
I don't often go to his blog these days, but does he question anything more than is cursorily questioned by the mainstream media? And, if he did, would he keep his university position?
Censorship on Australian blog site
The response to the above from Professor John Quiggin was:
Conspiracy theory discussion to the sandpits, please.Every so often John Quiggin sets up a 'sandpit' in which discussion about topics, not deemed by him to be worthy of more prominent parts of his website, may be permitted. The most recent 'sandpit' is dated 28 June 2016. It appears to have been set up in response to my posts and the responses of others. The 'sandpit' prior to that is dated 9 May 2016. As well as supposed 'conspiracy theories', material which can only possibly be discussed in the 'sandpit' most likely includes all the current geopolitical conflicts – Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Yemen, Ukraine, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Palestine and Israel. Nowhere on the the front page of JohnQuiggin is there any mention of these conflicts. Presumably, if he was administering a blog, or its technological equivalent, in the 1930's discussion about the following topics (also listed above) would also be confined to the 'sandpit', if not banned outright: The Italian invasion of Ethiopia, the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931, the Spanish Civil War, the Japanese invasion of China in 1937, Menzies' export of Australian pig iron to Japan, the 1938 sellout of Czechoslovakia, the Hitler/Stalin pact of September 1939, Hitler's invasion of Poland, etc., etc. One minor exception is the constrained and biased discussion against allegend Brexit 'tribalism' to which the above comment was posted.
Evidence uncovered in 2000: European Union was a CIA initiative
The post below is part of a discussion about Brexit on JohnQuiggin.com:
Ernestine wrote on June 27th, 2016 at 09:16:
"[Paul Craig Roberts] asserts the EU has been set up by the CIA and is controlled by the USA. ...
This is what Paul Craig Roberts said (times from start of the above video included):
(8:37) The EU is a CIA initiative. This was discovered about the year 2000 by by [Joshua Paul, a researcher at Georgetown University in Washington]. He was mucking around in the United States' national archives and found some recently released documents. There was CIA documents that established that the EU was a CIA initiative and it was done so that Washington could more easily control Europe.
(9:09) It's too difficult for Washington to control all these separate governments. This one would play off against that one. This one would have to have this special thing, this special concession and so on, like the EU gave Britain to get hooked into the EU. And so the CIA decided: "Look, if there's an EU there's only one government to deal with and it is much easier for us to control."
(9:34) So, this was discovered in the year 2000. It was reported in the British newspapers at the time. Ambrose Evans-Pritchard at the Telegraph reported this. I cited it and I think I gave the URL - the reference to it 1 and a recent column 2 on my site. You can use Google. You can find it. You can find the report from
the [Georgetown University] professor who reported on the documents he found. All this is publicly available the documents are available. They're in the National Archive. So this is not a conspiracy theory. This is simply the facts reported even in the British newspapers.
Footnotes
1. ↑ Euro-federalists financed by US spy chiefs (19/9/2000) by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard | The Telegraph.
2. ↑ Somnolent Europe, Russia, and China (5/5/16) by Paul Craig Roberts | PaulCraigRoberts.org.
How to get out from Google monitoring
Thanks Dennis. I have definitely noticed how Google monitors my mail and sends ads trying to sell me things the minute I key in any object. And of course I go to lots of political sites of all complexions. However this 'message' went way beyond the bounds. Of course I can use other search engines, but most people do not. And they will be manipulated by this heinous kind of messaging.
ABC documents overpopulation chaos but NO mention of immigration
We cannot go on with a public broadcaster who fails to inform the public that our populations numbers are out of control in Australia BECAUSE OF PLANNED INVITED ECONOMIC IMMIGRATION AND THE ABILITY TO SWAP OVER FROM TEMPORARY VISAS TO PERMANENT ONSHORE!
At http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2016/s4490283.htm a vivid picture is painted of the absolute dystopia that high immigration is creating in Australia especially along the eastern seaboard.
1. Housing UNaffordability
2. traffic , infrastructure deficit , increasingly overcrowded public transport and never ending peak hour traffic, the trillions of $$$ that go into infrastructure for (BUT not mentioned) ever increasing demand.)
Immigration was not mentioned but it was a very vivid worrying picture with no relief in sight. It was shocking to wake up to.
Then, to cap it all of there was a terrible segment on the audiological industry, the fact that anyone can sell heralding aids. Illustrating the problems of this unregulated industry was a personal story of a proudly congenitally hearing-impaired 40 year old hairdresser with her oww business who had to let her only staff member go because of the debts she was incurring for hearing aid purchases. They should be government supplied for someone like this!!!!!!
Congrats
After 5 days of comment on the Brits getting out I haven't seen much in the way of congratulations. Some have agreed, some have agreed enthusiastically, but not much in the way of pats on the back, no well dones and no 'well that's a breath of fresh air'. To put it into the parlance of the late great Richie Benaud "Gutsy declaration that one by the British". Personally, I liken it following a truck up the Newell Hwy. and on the back of the truck emblazoned above the tail lights there is passing side and suicide, the Brits wisely have chosen the former.
Whether the neoliberals will routed at Lords is another matter as this only the first innings in a series of Tests where, for a change, the dog has wagged its tail instead of the reverse as has been the case for much of the past 40 years! Well done!!
Burn in Hell, Globalisation!
A good analysis from alt-Left blogger, Robert Linsday
**
That’s the message of Brexit.
Death to globalization, neoliberalism, corporate rule, horrific free trade agreements, races to the bottom, Triangulation, neoconservatism, invade the world/invite the world, trickle-down economics, austerity, financial conservatism, privatization, vouchers, wild inequality and the whole ball of dung.
Death to it all!
Burn in Hell, Globalisation!
Also affects Shopping Centres
Another casualty is shopping centres. Many stores are finding it difficult to stay afloat, as Westfield et al charge exorbitant, ever increasing rents.
High real estate prices are really only a boon to banks and landowners, and that it is. It is a mentality from the middle ages where everyone (including royalty) were sick and diseased, and the economy revolved around rent seeking and fuedalism. The modern economy provides a higher quality of life, because it moved towards rewarding those who produce and create, instead of those who merely own.
We are moving back to a situation where wealth is based only on ownership of assets and not production and innovation. This may be part of the reason why global economies are stagnating despite all efforts to try and prop it up.
Google ads are based on history
Google selects ads partly based on private history, and I'm sure, partly based on their "preference".
However, this doesn't mean the browser is compromised. The browser doesn't select the ad.
For those interested, there are other search engines which respect your privacy more.
One is "Duck Duck Go"
http://duckduckgo.com
For alternative browsers, there is Midori, Opera and Vivaldi. Linux users also have Konqeuror.
There is also Yandex Browser, which is a Russian version of Google Chrome.
Browsers now spreading intimidatory political messages
On Google and Mozilla I encountered a message designed to frighten people from exercising their right to seek political information. It happened to me when I went to the French National Front home page. We think it is placed there the way ads target users. I don't usually use Chrome because of its privacy invasion, but I did use it recently due to problems with flashplayer on Mozilla. I suspect that it is Chrome that has infected my browsing with these ads. Now, as a journalist and researcher, I can justify visiting any site that provides journalism on public events, but a lot of Australians and people from other countries are frightened by this kind of intimidation, which is a function of elite wedge politics.
Wedge politics try to frighten people from personally investigating outside a narrow political spectrum. In Australia, for instance, the ALP use wedge politics so that ALP sympathisers are reluctant to go to Liberal events or sites; Libs discourage their members from going to ALP sources; both the 'majors' and the Greens carry implicit threats to any of their members looking at any but their own policies. Ex PM Tony Abbott was so worried that Pauline Hanson might win a seat that he got her sent to prison - on charges later reversed. Other nasty guns are the Socialist Alliance and spinoffs like "AntiFa' which attend rallies about national sovereignty, or immigration or Halal or population numbers, as professionally managed intimidators.
The ad I encountered against the National Front was probably financed by big money and could have been a post Brexit initiative from the US or the EU. It made me wait for 30 seconds before going to the National Front site, with the following highly questionable and one-sided message. The message makes no mention of the Western elites' role in financing war and economic disintegration that produces refugees, against the wishes of citizens in the east and the west. The message suggests that people have no right to prioritise citizenship and border control. Brexit was, of course, a reaction to this kind of elite propaganda and top-down messaging. We must not be afraid to examine all arguments. It is our duty to defy being herded along the lines that the elite prefer. It is our duty to check out the designated enemy. It is the duty of the press to interview all sides.
"Your attention please,
You are going to visit the website of a french political party which will try to make you believe that country borders and citizenship must define your priorities when talking about humanity or compassion.
The rejection of the other, the mix between secularism and patriotism and racism, discrimination of refugee populations in France and hatred of foreigners or their traditions, are the real tools and values of the members of this party.
Redirection to the official web site in 23 seconds, please wait."
By the way, Marine Le Pen's speech about Brexit was very good. She is a gifted speaker and makes many intelligent points as usual - more than the power elites do.
Dis-economies of scale
" A business-owner must pay for two premises: the one he or she sleeps in and the one they do business at. Furthermore, they must pay their staff high enough wages for their staff to be able to afford Melbourne's high rentals and house prices. Australia has some of the highest land prices in the world and that goes a long way to explain why small and medium business enterprises so frequently fail. " Also, surely when plans and schemes become over-sized, they collapse due to dis-economies of scale! Medicine is now more technological, advance and there are more treatments and diagnostics available. That means treating patients is more complex now, with a bigger range of medicine. Along with massive population growth, our budgets are under heavy stress. Health care is being treated as an optional extra, or something that is available depending on how much money you are willing to spend on it.
Brexit from Obama-Merkel control of EU
One of the reasons for the BREXIT is the increasing Obama-Merkel coordination that directly controls the EU, with the utter neglect of the other EU nations in the decision making process...
The US, the EU and the Spectre of Brexit (25/6/16) by Alexander Mercouris
Britain’s will undercut America's ally in Europe
The Kremlin has spent years trying to create fissures within the NATO alliance and the European Union, but with little success. Now Britain’s vote to leave the EU fulfills Putin’s wish for a more divided Europe. “Without Britain, there won’t be anybody in the EU to defend sanctions against us so zealously,” Sergey Sobyanin, wrote the mayor of Moscow. London pulled its combat troops out of Afghanistan in 2014, and the British Parliament rejected possible U.S.-led military strikes against the Syrian regime in August 2013.
European Union members account for about 27% of NATO military spending. After the U.K. leaves, that will drop to 20%, NATO Secretary-General Mr. Stoltenberg said. Britain, nuclear armed and wielding veto powers in the UN Security Council, has a major say in EU foreign and defence policy. The European Union, of course, is the target of legitimate criticism for its callous disregard for refugees displaced by NATO's wars, as well as the EU's brutal austerity policies.
and a side effect
A side effect of city doctors in Australia needing to supplement their incomes from patients by putting them on health care plans health assessments etc. must be that their minds are focussing on paying the rent rather than on how they can apply themselves to their patients' medical problems. There is a not so subtle difference between the 2 ways of operating.
So it is a BREXIT!!
52% Vote for a Brexit against the 48% who wanted to stay on.
Europe is collapsing due its own crimes in Afghanistan, Libya and Syria, as the wars that they wage, the Refugees that they create across the Middle-East, West Asia and Africa, finally head to Europe in desperation from the countries ruined by the US-EU-Nato imperialists.
Even as the EU will collapse and with it the Western Bloc, the new world powers are rising from the East, the Bloc of Russia, China, India and the member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation & the BRICS. The future is here in the East, in the region, and the Indian Ruling Elite had better understand that, instead of running after the US, Israel and the Western European nations.
Now Putin's vision of an Eur-Asian Union will emerge & will lead to the defeat of the Atlantic Integrationists led by the Medvedists in Moscow.
Even as the EU will grow weaker, many of the countries of from Eastern Europe will start gravitating towards Russia, such as Hungary, Rumania, Serbia, Macedonia and others, who are being treated as second-rate nations within the EU by Germany and France.
The Russian-Chinese, One Belt One Road, all the way from China, via Russia to Portugal, covering and linking the land mass of East Asia to the far reaches of Western Europe, will ensure the economic and thus the political reality of the EurAsian Union & the realisation of Putin's vision.
AJP population policy - vague
Our national birth rate has been below replacement levels for decades.
They will educate about the impacts of exponential population growth, and encourage a stable population size. This is heart-warming and reassuring, but it's hardly a policy that can be targeted, implemented, quantified or evaluated quantitatively. As for "expanding needs based family re-unions", this could just be pyramid immigration rates How long can families be re-united? It would be a chain-reaction and could actually means higher rates of mass immigration!
Good, that urban sprawl must cease. This is one of the most pressing threats now to wildlife habitat, native vegetation clearing and threatening process to more species extinctions. There's no option of "green" growth! It's an oxymoron in a post growth era. Nobody can disguise plain, old, inappropriate "growth" when Australia is already groaning from frenzied population growth. It happens in a vacuum of ideas, and innovation.
The idea of "living harmoniously" with wildlife and nature is aspirational, lofty, and idealistic, again one that can't be evaluated, without any any implementation plans. However, AJP is a political party NOT for humans, but for animals, and as such are unlikely to ever form government!
Propping up the housing growth scheme using local schools
From July 1, students aged six and above would be able to apply for student visas regardless of their country of citizenship – and their guardians can also apply for Guardian visas (subclass 580)…
With our economy under pressure, and the loss of the mining boom, government are under massive pressure to keep up our GDP ratings and demand for housing. This latest visa scheme is much like using "anchor babies" to gain residency into a country - just drop a baby and the baby is a "citizen". Not only are universities starved of funding, and thus rely on international students, now primary schools are to become visa factories.
“The price of properties in good school zones will continue to accelerate,” the report says. “We could also see prime inner city properties start to become acquisition targets. Many of these period homes have been ‘off limits’ to the foreign purchaser. This may no longer be the case”…
“It opens up everything, not just to brand new or off-the-plan properties,” said Secret Agent founder Paul Osborne. “It’s going to change the composition a little bit of the types of properties that are required.”
The housing growth Ponzi scheme will be boosted more, and inflate housing prices more if they are near "good" schools. Already our schools are overloaded.
Animal Justice Party on population
The AJP has a lot of members who understand that Australia's overpopulation drives wildlife habitat destruction. They have a very short population policy (See below) that is much better than the Greens' pro-immigration policy. However point 3 of the policy expressed below does talk about expanding the migration program, although it does say, 'in conjunction with our the success of other policies in limiting human impact on the natural world. I don't think they were thinking too clearly here; I mean it is massive human populations that drive industrialised farming as well. I mean, why do they think they need to increase our already massive immigration program. My guess is that the person who wrote this policy is not even aware of the numbers. It's a pity. Nonetheless, I think I will vote for the AJP.
"Population
The AJP believes that our policies will enable Australia to reduce it’s impact on wildlife and the rest of the natural environment while maintaining a compassionate approach to both migrants and refugees while keeping the home-grown component of our population growth at or below zero.
Key Objectives
To keep the national birth rate at or below replacement levels.
To educate on the negative impacts of exponential population growth, and the positive outcomes of a stable population.
To expand needs based and family re-union immigration in conjunction with the success of our other policies in limiting human impact on the natural world.
To ensure that any population increase happens within existing urban boundaries; urban sprawl must cease.
To invest in research into urban planning that will improve sense of community and quality of life whilst also living harmoniously with wildlife and nature."
Australian Progressives want more fluoridation!
Thanks again for this article.
More fluoride! How could anyone make that a big policy. They want dental care to be part of public health, which isn't bad, but they are into infrastructure and pushing fluoride like mad.
Water fluoridation to be rolled out to remaining water supplies:
Subsidised fluoride tablets/treatment for remote areas (including education materials).
Beware - Rise Up Australia Party wants a big population
Thanks for this opportunity to check all the candidates. Here's one to avoid: "A: Rise Up Australia Party believes in a big Australia. The growing ageing population will require to be funded in their retirement, and this can only be done by increasing the size of the population. However, before we increase the size of the population we need to create jobs and look after the number of people that we already have.
Our stated policy is as follows:
(2) To establish full employment and fair wages as central tenets of just social and economic policies; this includes genuine decentralisation that encourages private sector jobs (tourism, eco-tourism, abattoirs, timber mills etc.) in rural and regional Australia through small business incentives and supportive transport, telecommunications and tariff policies, and that reduces costs of congestion in major cities;
(7) To develop prudent tariff policies to support or re-establish all sorts of manufacturing industries (that ‘value-add’ and provide high technology jobs) with a range of national system economic policies, such as those advocated by Deputy Prime Minister John McEwen; prudent tariffs could be used, for example, to provide a truly ‘level playing field’ by recognizing that Australian industries (and farms) incur costs in complying with the OHS, industrial relations and environmental laws of Australia, but that some overseas competitors do not incur such costs;
(8) To develop and implement a coherent energy policy that acts in the best interests of Australia and of conserving resources and of encouraging energy efficiency; this includes Australia becoming self-sufficient in crude oil, being a net exporter of all forms of energy, having secure and cheap supplies of electricity, transport fuels and piped gas to provide competitive advantage to Australian industries and farms; specifically we reject “import parity pricing” that imposes ideologically-arbitrary and unnecessary costs on Australian consumers, industries and farms; we affirm that explorers for oil, gas and minerals must be rewarded with adequate returns (well above the long-term bond rate) on their assets and for their risks;
(11) To eliminate counter-productive welfare payments in favour of encouraging savings and self-reliance and support for children, while maintaining an adequate social security system “to target assistance to those most in need, ensure greater adequacy of incomes, encourage and assist clients to enter or return to the work force or to provide for their own income security, and develop support for families, particularly those on low incomes” (Hansard, 20 Feb 1991);"
The European Union and European economies
If I had time I would be looking at how investing in the US financial system, notably the subprime morass, brought financial instability to the countries in the European Union. When I did a long study, finishing in 2002, comparing Australian and French systems, Australia's foreign debt was huge in comparison with France's. The European system does not go in for housing speculation and so they had to invest outside their system to get into that sort of debt. And, of course, the influence of America has become more and more obvious in pushing for industrial deregulation and changes to inheritance and other major systemic differences which have managed to preserve less monetary divide between citizens and a greater kind of democracy in Europe than in the United States.
If Britain got out of the EU it might make things better for the other countries. Britain's system is too different. One of the reasons that immigrants and refugees make a beeline for the UK is that the economy is deregulated and they get houses and jobs. In France only legal immigrants and citizens are guaranteed housing, employment or employment benefits. I'm not sure what is happening in Germany with regard to rights of citizenship and rights of unregulated immigrants, but it sure isn't working.
Brexit and more...
Interesting times indeed. I'm definitely with Michael and Mark on this one, overpopulation is cruelling the world from within and any suggestion of trying address the problem is treated with utter disdain. The 2 Ms highlight that it's not only Australia that is blighted by the overpopulation bug but most European countries in particular Britain and today's Brexit vote.
Given that the European Union was constructed on neoliberal values, is it my humble opinion that they should leave before the house of cards comes crashing down upon them. The harsh treatment and misery that has been meted out to Greece and other southern European countries did/does not need to occur. These countries are facing years of depression without any signs that their economies will ever recover.
Such treatment will continue until something is done to force the EU's hand. A Brexit may just do that. Steve Keen, as always, puts it so much better than I could or can.
Go to: http://www.debtdeflation.com/blogs/2016/06/23/the-divisive-vote-over-bre...
Also another titbit from Steve: http://www.debtdeflation.com/blogs/2016/06/18/there-has-to-be-a-better-way/
Cheers
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