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3 Important Reasons Why Reading Can Save Your Brain Health

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In: economics, featured, health, media, mind, power, Reading, social media, truth, Writing

A lot of us are using machines to do stuff for us, these days. We have been encouraged to think that hacks are smart strategies in life. The truth is rather different, when it comes to neglecting your own brain in favour of technology. Use it or lose it! Our brain functions do not improve with neglect. Reading and writing are the two things that set us apart from all other animals on planet earth. Language is our innate superpower and if we outsource the processing of it to machines and AI, we will be the mentally poorer for it. Here are 3 important reasons why reading can save your brain health.Continue Reading

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Americanisation

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In: corruption, crime, democracy, economics, featured, Government, health, history, identity, latest post, media, mind, movies, oral fetish, politics, power, social media, sport

You know, I see quite a few of these YouTube videos where Americans compare stuff to what happens in Australia. It is not these that peak my interest, but rather that the global Americanisation is so ubiquitous. Everything about modern life is largely the same in the western world. Have a think about the computer age and where that originated. The internet and social media are American inventions. Smart phones are a big part of this and they too are a US innovation. Beyond this, to more prosaic trends and think about working out, bigger muscles and tattoos. These too, are American cultural shifts, which occurred over the last couple of decades.Continue Reading

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Truth Social & Donald Trump

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In: corruption, crime, democracy, economics, featured, Government, identity, latest post, media, politics, power, social media

Authoritarians and their regimes like to spell shit out for their subjects. Some of you older folk may remember that the USSR had a news organisation/newspaper called Pravda. This was the official platform of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Pravda meant truth and many of us in the west used to roll our eyes at what passed for truth and facts over there. Now, we have Truth Social and Donald Trump in America. The parallels are pretty frightening in this post-truth world. The thing is that people are getting dumber and that naming something like this is enough for the unquestioning among us. Irony is a rare commodity in the United States in the 21C, perhaps more so than these rare earths the Donald goes on about so often.Continue Reading

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Renewable Energy Is Cheaper

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In: democracy, economics, featured, Government, latest post, media, politics, power

The right wing political parties are in denial of an indisputable fact that renewable energy is cheaper. The transformation of what powers our homes, businesses and lives is well underway. These old culture warriors in the pay of the declining fossil fuel industry are still dancing to an outdated tune, whilst the Australian electorate in the cities have moved on. Legacy media downunder is controlled by an American corporation, News Corp, and they have a vested interest in spruiking negative stuff about the transition to their dwindling viewers. The ABC has ‘no gumption’ and follows the news lead of its commercial rivals, far too often.Continue Reading

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The American Minimum Hourly Rate Disgrace

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In: crime, democracy, economics, featured, Government, history, latest post, morality, politics, power, truth

The US federal minimum hourly rate of $7.25 has not changed since 2009. That is 16 years; and have a think about how much stuff has gone up in that period. In Australia, the equivalent wage rate is $24.95. Even, with the dollar exchange rate factored in it is more than double. What kind of ‘so-called’ democracy gets away with exploitative shit like this? This is why many American families need food stamps (SNAP) and other forms of welfare because they allow greedy f****** employers to take advantage of vulnerable people. It is such a f***** up country that they look up to a king sized grifter like Donald Trump. The American minimum hourly rate disgrace.Continue Reading

The Americanisation Of Australia

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In: corruption, democracy, economics, featured, Government, latest post, politics, power

I read in an ABC news report about a doctor earning $600, 000 a year. University vice chancellors on $1.5 million per year. Dentists earning half a million, whilst many older Australians cannot afford to go to the dentist because of the high cost involved. This is the Australia we now live in. A country, in which 20 of the last 25 years have had LNP Coalition federal governments. Inequity and inequality are riding higher than ever before downunder. This has Americanised us via the concentration of corporate ownership via mergers and takeovers creating duopolies and oligopolies in nearly every sector. This failure of the ACCC and ASIC, under the government’s watch, has stripped away consumer buying power and worker’s rights. The competition watchdog has been asleep at the wheel or paid off by nefarious means and the revolving door. This is the Americanisation of Australia.Continue Reading

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Trump Always Picks On Soft Targets

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In: corruption, crime, democracy, economics, featured, latest post, media, politics, power

Have you noticed that Donald Trump always picks on soft targets. Trump has sent in a huge naval aircraft carrier to threaten Venezuela with, after illegally blowing up Venezuelan speedboats in international waters. Yes, he claims they are drug smugglers but no evidence has been provided to prove it. Trump is trash talking Canada and applying onerous tariffs in defiance of a free trade agreement he signed with them. Canadians are notoriously known as nice people throughout the world. The Trump regime’s ICE agents are heavily armed. These masked bullies are beating up on immigrants and Americans with brown skin.Continue Reading

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Why Are We Getting Poorer?

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In: corruption, democracy, economics, featured, Government, latest post, politics, power

Why is everything so expensive now? What price life? Why are we getting poorer? First and foremost, the entire economy is set up to greatly favour owners over all other parts. Investors are owners, of course, and the company executives operate on their behalf. Shareholders are king and everyone else runs a poor second. Thus, profitability is always the prime consideration and profits have to constantly increase to satisfy the shareholders. Plus, executives manipulate the stock price through buybacks to enrich themselves wildly. This is where we get all the billionaires from. Elon Musk is a prominent illustration of this, the richest man in the world.Continue Reading

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Massively Overvalued Tech Stocks

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In: economics, featured, latest post, power

You know, the only thing keeping the US economy going is its big bet on AI. The massively overvalued tech stocks, the 7 tech company stocks at the top of the Nasdaq, are the only thing flying the flag right now. Doubts, however, are more than creeping in, they are marching in, in the minds of many experts. The crazy Trump tariffs are viewed by every sane economist as unsustainable and downright dangerous. Now, circular financing tricks exhibited by Nvidia and OpenAI are giving rise to bad memories from the late 1990s. Bursting bubbles are on the tip of every tongue in the investor milieu. Warren Buffet has cashed up to the tune of $300 billion in prep for some really bad times.Continue Reading

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Australians Are Disgusted By Trump’s America

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In: democracy, economics, featured, Government, latest post, politics, power

I recently visited my relatives on the west coast after many years’ absence. We are all getting on in years and I would not describe my family as political in any real sense of that word. I was shocked at the level of vitriol expressed in regard to what is happening in the United States. My take on this is that ordinary Australians are disgusted by Trump’s America. The dysfunctional nature of Washington DC and wanton cruelty happening in the US, under Donald Trump, has Aussies upset. It is hard to get your head around the extremism of the actions taken by the Trump regime.Continue Reading