The Financialization Of Essentials
During a cost of living crisis, which many in the world are now experiencing, it is easier to get in touch with the essentials necessary for living. Food, shelter, and energy are the essential ingredients for survival in our modern worlds. The financialization of essentials by capitalism is proving to be at cross purposes for those trying to survive in a cost of living crisis. What do I mean by this? The march toward a consumer society has meant that all these basic requirements of life are things you have to buy. Few of us go out and dig up or hunt for our food these days. Putting a roof over our head is an expensive purchase in the 21C. Plus, all of our devices and vehicles run on forms of energy which we have to buy. Neoliberalism promised to make things easier and cheaper for all in this regard but has manifestly failed to do so. We were told that if governments got out of the way and let private enterprise do what it’s best at we would all be much better off. Thirty years of this, ‘the market knows best’ ethos, has placed at least a third of working Australians in dire straits when it comes to affording the basics of life. Neoliberal economic policies have failed us in every essential market.
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Anti-Science Trend Happening Within Conservative Movements
In the US, we are seeing the continuing power grab by extreme Christian Republicans in the recent IVF ruling by the Supreme Court of Alabama. This forms part of an anti-science trend happening within conservative movements, which first came to prominence during the Covid pandemic in America. People clinging to their beliefs in a Bronze Age God rather than following 21C scientific public health protocols. The GOP mined this protest against such things as vaccinations and mask wearing as grist for their politics of grievance. The US Supreme Courts discounting of Roe vs Wade has opened the door for more extreme demands by state based Republicans on the issue of women’s rights vs that of unborn foetuses.
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Supermarkets Making Super Profits In Australia
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.
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We White Folk
We white folk live in a cocoon of well-off whiteness. We wander our white streets in search for bargain based happiness. Our mainly white suburbs buzz with the sound of expensive cars making their way to and fro from homes to high streets. Shopping centres are palaces of well-appointed materialism, where we frequent for retail therapy. Lives are lived with the sole purpose of endowering ourselves and offspring with wealth and comfort. It is not a bad lot for the most part, indeed, we share the good life in pursuit of reasonable amounts of pleasure. Only 1 in 6 Aussies interact with an Indigenous Australian. What does that say about Australia? Some of us white folk are doing it tough right now, but doing it tough when you are Aboriginal is another league all together. Cost of living crisis – many First Nations folk can tell you what that is really like over generations.
The World Can No Longer Afford Stupid People
Life on planet Earth emerged single celled some 4 billion years ago. Organic molecules formed under a blanket of hydrogen. RNA arose prior to the later evolution of DNA and the proteins necessary for catalysing life. The latest theory posits that an ancient cataclysm may have jump-started life on earth, perhaps a giant meteor struck the earth. This collision has delivered the precious metals, which are sown within the earth’s veneer, according to geologists. Water would have formed on the planet’s surface within some 50 million years of the fateful collision. Water to host the genesis of organic chemical reactions capable of the creation of RNA. Since that kicking off point, life on Gaia has come a long way and now boasts nearly 8 billion Homo sapiens. Although the COVID-19 coronavirus global pandemic is doing its best to trim that figure. The history of this planet is thick with brutal manifestations of violent stupidity in the form of armed conflicts and holocausts. It is clear, however, that in the face of this novel viral menace the world can no longer afford stupid people.
The Albanese Prime Ministership So Far
Anthony Albanese was an unlikely choice for Australia to elect as PM. During his campaign in 2022 gaffes were front and centre. The press pack descended upon these like hungry wolves in search of blood. If Scott Morrison had not been outed as such a compulsive liar and his Coalition government not soiled in Robodebt and Brittany Higgins’ merde, well, you know the story. Albo waltzed into office on a fresh bouquet of wattle bringing with him the hopes of Aussie progressives. Nearly 10 years of LNP incompetence and corruption had left us short of breath for an optimistic future. The Albanese Prime Ministership so far, however, is losing its shine, it seems.
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Democratic Elections Stand Against Tyranny
How can you have a candidate running for office in an election who continually claims that the electoral system has been defrauded? Surely, all candidates must respect the electoral process publicly? If a candidate is undermining the democratic basis of the electoral system it must make him or her unfit to stand. Democratic elections stand against tyranny. America is deficient in its laws governing the character and behaviour of those taking part in presidential elections. Trump has been allowed to go about falsely claiming that he won the 2020 election but was cheated out of office. Numerous enquiries have found no evidence for this. These include investigations paid for by his own legal team. There was no defrauding of the election – it is the big lie!
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Americans Looking For Someone To Blame
Listening to some talking heads in the US there seems to be a collective downer across this once great nation. The diminishing American hegemony has quite a few gnashing their teeth and crying ‘poor me’. Of course, the Trump cult has this populist blowhard claiming he can arrest the slide by closing the borders and deporting people. Donald the compulsive liar is hoping to pout his way back into the White House. Americans looking for someone to blame for their less than stellar place in the world is putting their nation on a civil war footing.
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The Golden Rule Of Present Giving At Xmas
Yes, it is that time of the year again, Season’s Greetings! Do you know the golden rule of present giving at Xmas? It is an undeniable truth that showering your love and generosity upon others can make you feel mighty good. The power of giving is often sold short in our economically obsessed world view. Economists don’t like ‘giving’ as a concept, it must be said, they find it simply uneconomical. It does not fit in with their strict interpretation of how markets and the world works. Neoliberalism would choke into its empty trickle down effect vessel if too much giving went on in the economy.
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Time To End The Two Party System?
Right now, is it time to end the two party system? The ideological polarisation between sides is so great now that the country is stuck most of the time in the middle of a fight. Party members and their supporting voters don’t believe anything that comes out of the mouth of those on the opposing side. Partisans take their news from those media organisations subjectively on their side. Truth has been sidelined by manipulative forces hellbent on muddying the waters wherever possible. The nation is in a mess and is bedevilled by party politics to such an extent that it is mired in lies and fake news.
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Trump’s America
Any sane person watching on has concern enough to be worried about Trump’s America. The very fact that this guy is still the leading GOP candidate for the 2024 presidential election is a judgement on the American people. Despots and dictators don’t rise to power without the help of the people. Everybody knows that Donald J Trump is a liar and a cheat. I mean, the guy is compulsive in both these character failings. More concerning is that he has broken the law on numerous occasions and has managed to avoid prosecution or conviction. No one voting for Trump is truly unaware of who is and how he goes about business.
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The Australian Media Landscape
The Australian media landscape is a predominantly conservative one. The ABC stands out as a beacon of social inclusiveness and a leader in this regard. The national broadcaster was the first to feature Indigenous presenters on their roster and to break through the colour barrier. Similarly, the inclusion of presenters with a disability has paved the way for more Australians to see these members of our community in a new light. The commercial networks are never leaders in this space, rather they revel in the comfort zone by featuring attractive exemplars from the dominant white cohort.
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A Letter To Australia
Dear Australia, I don’t want to be negative but fear you are in the grip of vested interests. A letter to Australia to warn you about stuff. Ever since the days of the squattocracy some hard white men have been having their way with your resources. Never minding about the Indigenous blood they carelessly spilt upon your red earth. These determined settlers disregarded British instruction about allowing Aboriginal people to access their waterways and hunting grounds, preferring to slaughter them expediently instead. The British overlords were piss weak in this regard, it must be said.
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The Ghostwriter
Formless, genderless, and yet, a teller of stories. A narrator to the nation but anonymous. The Ghostwriter rides the apostrophes and semicolons like a grammarian hustler. Tipping her, or his hat, to the invisible mores of our cultural inclinations. A wordsmith without peer on the frontiers of our literary appreciation. Now you see him and now you don’t. Can you hear the inflection of the author? Do you perceive the true voice of your hero? Do you know the difference between an allusion and a lie? Wherefore art thou Romeo? Who is stirring your pot on the stove in this reading hour?
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Plucking Easy Money From The Young Via Cool Tech
If you are young you are likely in too much of a hurry to read this and if you are older – can you remember what it was like to be young? Fast times and cashless highs: Technology’s ode to debt makes for thrilling reading. The young are in love with technology and this is a cashless highway to debt for the unwary. I picture a raceway, like Daytona, and lots of youthful racing car drivers revving their engines in anticipation of going around the bend. Young men and women risking life and limb to achieve victory over the slow lane. If you survey the top items on Santa’s gift list this year they will likely be the latest smart phone or high tech device, as they have been for the last decade or more. Humanity is in rapture with the fruits of technology, as we have always been.
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