close up shot of australian dollar

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Coles has some 8, 000 suppliers providing the supermarket lines they sell to their customers. Woolworths is in a similar situation re-numbers of suppliers. Supermarkets making super profits in Australia are hitting the news for all the wrong reasons. The nation is in the midst of a 2 year cost of living crisis with high inflation having stripped the savings from the working poor. A Four Corner’s expose shown on the ABC has shone a stark light on the state of play in our supermarket sector. Coles and Woolworths have some 65% of the grocery market share – this is a powerful duopoly, which puts all the advantages in their corner. Farmers supplying the duopoly are being squeezed into submission economically, as are many other suppliers of their grocery lines.Continue Reading

Vladimir Putin

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Dutton is back on the border issue blaming a weak PM for a boat load of refugees on our northern border. Is Peter Dutton trying to be Australia’s Putin?  Making out that he is the strongman of the Oceana region; keeping us safe from a few desperate people in search of a better life. Immediately, he is finger pointing at the bad guys – the people smugglers. This is the ‘out’ for locking up these vulnerable human beings in offshore detention. Australians are punishing the bad guys and not just the refugees – although it is them who pay the price of their liberty for who knows how long.Continue Reading

Tucker Carlson

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Vladimir Putin has been actively engaged in manipulating the USA through the dark arts of digital disinformation for at least a decade. Russia manipulating American democracy via social media and having bought Trump some time back is going swimmingly. A brief look at the state of the Republican Party and the Trump candidacy for President can confirm that. America has been split down the middle with progressives on one side and the MAGA led conservatives on the other. The cosy coalition between MAGA and Putin’s Russia would strike cold warriors from the 1950’s as completely bizarre. Americans backing the military aspirations of an eastern demagogue and his police state is what we appear to be seeing. WTF?Continue Reading

assorted color wall paint house photo

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Of course, negative gearing needs to have limits imposed upon it, as does the capital gains tax offset. It has only been political expediency, which has maintained these inequitable economic policies for so long in Australia. Yes, there will be howls of protest coming from those benefitting directly and indirectly from these policies. The real estate sector will be up in arms and crying that the sky will fall down upon us all if these changes are made. The aspirational voter (those who see property investment as their pathway to riches) will be dead set against any changes to either negative gearing or the capital gains tax offset.Continue Reading

group of women holding banners supporting donald trump during the election

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Rich people in the United States tell poor people, especially poor black people, that their poverty is their own fault. The American ethos celebrates the self-made man. The great American delusion is that every individual has the opportunity to make something of themselves. To achieve greatness by pulling themselves up by their bootstraps. That this analogy represents something physically impossible and that it was originally coined as a joke is, perhaps, more telling about America than anything else. Especially as the white folk have rigged the game in their favour a long time back. The real America is a moral maelstrom.Continue Reading

feminist placard with a cat face and a slogan

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The truth is that governing is a mixture of boring details and long hours – it essentially involves a lot of deal making. The truth is too boring. To engage the voting public in the political system those charged with the task make up a bunch of contentious stories. They craft a narrative where a group of people are to blame for many of the frustrations that the dominant cohort experience in their lives. Exaggeration is the order of the day when it comes to pinning the tail on the donkey or scapegoat. Emotive issues are called upon to rile up sections of the electorate. Gay people or the more collectively referred LGBTQIA are often in the crosshairs of the conservative minded parties. Gender identity and sexual preference are Rubicon’s not to be crossed in the minds of many. Therefore, these folk get the blame morally and, also, economically because diversity costs money according to the straight and narrow batting for the social conservatives. This all appeals to the very un-Christian like hardline Christian groups who maintain an exclusive door policy as to who gets into their idea of heaven.Continue Reading

Big Ears Had To Bow Out From Noddy: The Woke Conspiracy.

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‘If you don’t know, vote No!’ This tag line from the recent Voice referendum captures succinctly the political stratagem of the conservative right. Turning ignorance and indifference into celebrated public virtues in a bid to capture the vote of the dominant white cohort. The sustained attack on all things ‘woke’ is part and parcel of this 21C campaign. Identifying examples of woke in workplaces and public life have been vote winners for socially conservative candidates and parties. I remember it began with things like the apparent banning of racially offensive terminology from children’s books. Niggers and gollywogs were the first to get the chop. White folk were upset about the removal and amendments of characters and aspects from much loved stories from their childhoods. Big Ears had to bow out from Noddy: The woke conspiracy. Roald Dahl stories were full of inappropriate and politically incorrect characters and terminology. There was this air of ‘how dare they!’ The majority white view was – can’t these people take a joke. Of course, this is the problem in a nutshell, because unless you are in the shoes of those being racially slurred you have no idea what it feels like.Continue Reading

orange and white plastic toy

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A new study has revealed the fact that many Trump Evangelicals are not really Christians in the sense of church going folk. Their evangelical badge is more a cultural identity as white Christian nationalists than a true faith based calling. It is a very American transition that their Evangelical identity is more of a brand thing in the 21C. Many of these folk do not regularly attend church and their understanding of the gospels in the bible seems scant. How else could they match Trump with Jesus if not by blind ignorance about what is written in the gospels. Similarly how could they justify their guns and threatening behaviours if they were truly Christians?Continue Reading

white blue and gray concrete building

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There are housing crises happening all over the world. Rents have sky rocketed and property prices are unaffordable for many citizens. Market forces are not meeting the needs of the people. Some operators within the industry are telling us that it is all about a shortage of housing stock. However, houses and property are so expensive now it is no easy thing to just build more houses. Quite simply, the current set up is not working. Providing shelter is a basic prerequisite for governments in their role of looking out for their citizens. The economic settings are making some people wealthy via property ownership and another section of the community poor because of their omission in this regard.Continue Reading

#UNGA President Donald J. Trump

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America is the great democratic experiment. Although, this is getting on for some 250 years now. This nation is in the grip of the politics of grievance. Partisan politics in America is more about hating the other side than particularly loving the side you are voting for. Americans have been encouraged to focus their attention upon their grievances via decades of negative campaigning and attack ads. Demonizing ‘the other’ is the favoured political pastime in the 21C. Identity politics and social values are the main game these days. Economic issues are now seen through this ideological filter.Continue Reading