GUERILLAS IN THE MISSED

The war on terrorism is really over. What we have now is a war on brigands and thugs, pirates and paedophiles who lay claim to affiliation with Al Queda and ISIL in the same way that Sunni’s are affiliated with Shiite.
The war in Afghanistan is not a war against terrorism unless you believe that terrorism is akin to gang warfare. Each group is as corrupt as each other, not even the Afghan government can lay claim to be honest and without corruption. Our troops are fighting, and dying, to protect one group of hoods and thugs against an opposing gang of crooks. Drug Lords rule and we aid and abet them.

The equivalent in Australia would be Malcolm Turnbull sending in the Police against the Bandido’s whilst employing Hells Angels for Diplomatic Security. Even the Afghan Police shoot us. We went into Iraq (which is still in a state of quasi civil war) and Afghanistan at the behest of the United States. Even they believe now that they really f@$^* it all up but can’t get out of it to save face. The Astonisher will predict now that after western forces leave within 1-2 years the Taliban will be back in power, stronger and more well armed, thanks to Iran and Syria, and will again begin to threaten the safety and security of other countries.

The Astonisher will also predict that Pakistan will be close allies to the Taliban led Afghan Government just to spite India and that leaves us with the potential of Radical Islam sending whole countries to Paradise with a big Nuclear Bang. If you think North Korea is crazy wait till you see what the Taliban gets up to once in power.

How many billions have we spent fighting for these c*^%# when we could have put it into our health system, how many trillions will America spend on armaments and explosive drones while millions of their own citizens live in abject poverty.

The war on terror was a political construct, revenge for 9/11 used as an excuse to enforce America’s power over that part of the world. The biggest Army in the world cannot and will never win Afghanistan or any other war it sticks its nose into while the citizens of the country they invade don’t want them there. The war on terror has done more for the military-industrial complex of America, Russia and England, France, and maybe even China for all we know.

It’s Australia’s iron ore and uranium that is helping them to construct weapons of terror, that when in the hands of the terrorists (which is about as easy for them as going to the local Market) will be turned against us.

The war on terrorism is over. Now it is the Western World just profiting from our own naivity and gullibility that is keeping it going. Two words sum it all up ‘who benefits?’

YOU CAN’T GET TO THE CENTRE FROM THE LEFT

The Green Party without Bob Brown have belatedly made the decision to move towards being a more traditional political animal. There is a real desire in  some quarters of the party to soften the general stance taken by the vegan lobby ‘that anything with eyes should not be eaten or anything stolen from anything with eyes or anything made from anything stolen from anything with eyes’.  In other words you cannot eat anything that belonged to something else. If that were the case all vegans, hopefully, would starve to death. Have they forgotten that God made everything so to eat anything is stealing from God? Lets not get into the area of talking to plants in this story.
Anyway there are a few sensible greens that don’t do un-natural things with knotholes in trees who believe that to be a political force they must act like politicians and not like radical loonies. They should move away from the specific of whether trees should wear jumpers in winter or whether animal rights should be enshrined in our Constitution.
The Greens should move away from wanting a democratic election of animals for parliament or even the United Nations for that matter. Note that humans cannot, should not nor believe they know what animals want, that’s up to P.E.T.A and  the ‘whisperers’ who believe they are somewhere in between animal, vegetable and mineral. I believe we should challenge the idea that P.E.T.A knows what a prawn is thinking.
We believe the Greens should have a serious and meaningful connection to and dialogue with farmers and growers about what both sides believe is best for the country, not just listen to the screaming ‘Greenies’ whose only claim to fame is that they grow tomato’s on the balcony of their home unit in Lygon Street.
Growers are unlikely to do anything that would compromise the integrity of the land on which their livlihood depends as farmers are highly unlikely to abuse the animals they breed and feed and care for either for their fleece or their meat or their companionship. It would be in the best interest of the Greens ‘who oppose corporate greed’ just as vehemently as most people who work the land to use this as a common starting point. It is not farmers or growers but beancounters and ccorporate leaders that are raping the country, blame the banks not the bush. If you think there is a problem prying kiddy fiddlers away from children just try seperating management from their pay bonus.
The Greens should move towards more general policies like mining taxes to restore the earth after mining and sustainable agriculture to ease the demand on the need for more water and not just insist we lock it all up in the ground to lay fallow for at least the next two centuries.
The Greens have in the last few years managed very effectively to be the tail that wags the dog. Not even the Independents, ‘the Cracked Centre’, can make a dint in their popularity. Now we might add the disenchanted Liberals and Labor electorate to swing their vote to the Greens as they move to the centre-left of politics where traditionally the Labor Party used to hold the vote.
But the Greens will never be government unless they can capture that middle ground where the majority of sensible Australians are to be found. Where common sense and not a Nanny State becomes the law where, like Germany, the individual has ultimate responsibility for their own lives and the State, except for providing essential services that the electors ask for should just stuff off and leave us alone.

GREENS MIGHT BE VESUVIANS FOR ALL I CARE BUT IF AUSTRALIA BECOMES A BETTER PLACE BECAUSE OF THEM THEN THEY HAVE MY VOTE.

FIRE SALES DON’T FOLLOW BUSHFIRES

The economists tell us there is an under-lying deficit in our economy because we need investment from abroad to expand our economy. This would be totally un-necessary if Australia invested in Australia. The potential superannuation funds that can be invested plus the huge income from the Carbon Tax probably increases Australia's worth by billions, even trillions. Why are we sending this money out of the country. The Future Fund and all, other Government Investment in addition to a large proportion of the countries savings should be forced to remain in Australia not float off to world Stock Exchanges. We all know that in the long run Land and Bricks are the safest investments, not foreign currencies.

We whinge and whine when China buys our inheritance but we don't seem to hear anything about what Australia is buying overseas. Buy Australian or invest Australian is a joke when it comes to Big Business. Governments exist to pander to Big Business on the spurious argument that they create employment, growth and riches.
We complain about foreign investment but do we ask ourselves why they are investing in Australia? Primarily it is due to Australia’s stability economically, socially and politically. Investors know, that dissimilar to many countries we are unlikely to nationalise anything, confiscate anything or change our constitution on a whim. Foreign investors want certainty and Australia provides that. We have virtually no government debt, unlike Greece and Italy, we have little private debt relative to our average incomes, unlike Ireland and Britain, and unlike America we are not constantly increasing our national debit at an unsustainable rate with their aversion to raise taxes or cutting expenditure and a need for continuous warfare.

Regardless of the political climate foreign investors want certainty and a future and Australia has that in spades. Overseas investors through private equity and superannuation funds want a long-term blue-chip investments. They see us as a potential food bowl for Asia, they see what we can do for a growing China and a wealthier Asia, countries who are no longer living on rice or subsistence farming. The Asian Tiger as we keep referring to it, is not. It is an Asian Elephant ready to consume huge amounts of our agricultural produce.

Australia on the other hand seems to have more of an interest in Shares and Bonds and playing the Stock Exchanges of the world. Maybe this stems from our need to gamble. We risk everything on overseas markets, the world financial crisis proved that, our investors got stung by people playing with our money through roulette wheels of junk deals, don't let me out when it comes to fake money, cyber-cash, Bitcoin etc. If you can't hold it then don't hold it. We don’t seem to be satisfied with pokies gobbling up our money so we are silly enough to let stock markets gobble it up too.

Our CEO’s, like those in other developed western nations are more intent on a quick buck, a healthy bottom line, an undeserved bonus even when losing investors money for them. Asia on the other hand, particularly China, wants long-term investments that may only grow half as much but will earn twice as much over many years. True that it is still only 10% of our arable land, we still have a lot left, but as the world recovers, as Asia grows they will want more and more of it. Asia wants certainty, they want stability and good prospects for growth. They see it in Australia. I don’t think we have to fear the Yellow Peril invading us, ever. We will need to wake up soon to the Yellow Peril taking us over economically.

As Bob Katter put it ‘why do we need foreign companies to fuck us when we can do it so well ourselves’.

FOR EVIL TO FLOURISH IT TAKES GOOD MEN TO DO NOTHING

In a sense this is why the bureaucracy get away with so much. If there were to be a Royal Commission into every government entity we would have a revolution on our hands within months.
Winston Churchill once said that 'never has so much been done by so few' and, in a different context he was right.

Governments can never be seen to make mistakes, they fear retribution from the people. How many times have we been told that it is better not to know, that keeping secrets is important to the security of the nation.

Well they are wrong. As children we are constantly told not to lie, what the consequences of lying could be, that lying is a sin, and so on and so on.

How can we be such hypocrites when lying becomes the norm, where Teachers lie to our children by feeding them all the rubbish our governments want them to learn. They bullshit about democracy and the rule of law yet democracy in this country means what is good for the rich and the rule of law changes depending on who you are.

A person robs a service station of $3000 he could spend years in prison, an executive can steel $3 million and all that happens is he loses his job.

A footballer might bite another player and can't play the game for a few weeks, if you or I did that to someone we would be up on serious assault charges. What is the difference with biffo on the sporting field and biffo between two business moguls.

Where the crowd stands and either cheers or jeers while the businessmen suffer extraordinary media exposure and are condemned for their behavior.

What I am trying to say here is that despite the fact we are all supposedly equal in the eyes of the law, it is the very lawmakers who abuse the law and get away with it with impunity.
Golden Plains Shire is no different. It suffers from the same bureaucratic inequality, where to challenge them means they close ranks and will tell blatant lies even to other government authorities to make themselves look faultless.

In my case I believe it borders on corruption.
I have tried by several different means to find justice, I believe their is direct collusion between council, it;s employees and its contractors to feather their own nests at the expense of we ratepayers.
Every excuse to adopt a new regulation means the possibility of extra staffing. In government circles the more staff you have the bigger your salary package. So we possibly have several executives in council receiving 6 figure salaries for doing virtually nothing.

The bigger the salary the more sway you have, the more power you have to direct others to break the laws that don't suit.

Where an old boy network still tells our elected officials what to do and our elected officials go along with all this corruption because they don't want to make waves.

Our dilemma is that we are too comfortable with the ways things are and do not want to see what is possible, we don't want to rock the boat, stir the shit up from the bottom of the barrel or throw a spanner in the works. We are happy to work and play blinkered by our desire to just enjoy a happy life.
To come back to where I started and perhaps say it in another way.

FOR CORRUPTION TO EXIST IT TAKES COUNCILLORS TO LOOK THE OTHER WAY

COMMONWEALTH BANK IMPRESSED BY HACKERS’ ABILITY TO RUIN PEOPLE’S FINANCES MORE EFFICIENTLY THAN FINANCE SECTOR CAN



In the wake of several massive data breaches that exposed the sensitive personal information of 143 million customers, executives from Atlanta credit agency Equifax said Friday that they were impressed by the hackers’ ability to ruin people’s finances much more efficiently than their company can. “We’re truly amazed by the effectiveness and sheer speed with which the hackers wrecked so many Americans’ financial prospects—it usually takes us years to devastate someone with a bad credit score,” said awestruck Equifax CEO Richard Smith, noting that Equifax’s traditional process of slowly chipping away at a customer’s credit rating due to late payments on credit cards with arbitrarily raised interest rates or an inability to pay off subprime loans made them “practically a dinosaur” in comparison to cybercriminals who could wipe out someone’s financial standing in mere minutes. “It’s taken us a long time to get to the point where we can ensure that someone won’t ever get approved for a loan, can’t apply for a mortgage, or might not even qualify for basic car insurance, so it’s honestly humbling to see these hackers do it in just a few keystrokes. But we’re going to learn from this and use it to motivate us to sabotage people’s finances much more efficiently in the future.” At press time, Equifax announced it had laid off 80 percent of its workforce in favor of one Latvian hacker who could destroy millions of customers’ credit ratings overnight. 

Executives of Australia’s Commonwealth Bank, themselves embroiled in a series of hacks, money-laundering and customer-based stealing activities, recently sent three of its top executives on an all expenses trip to Atlanta via Hawaii, Los Angeles, Houston, Las Vegas, Chicago, Washington D.C (see also Madame Lash) and New York (see also Trump Tower).

Equifax which has no relationship to Equinox were unable to hack into their own system to demonstrate how hard it was for anyone else to get past their firewalls.

Expect more from the Commonwealth Bank in the ways that your money can be made to fall into a black hole. 

JUST A MINUTE

THE ONLY THING WE HAVE TO FEAR IS ………….

Once upon a time our children could walk to school on their own from as young as 8 or 9 years of age. My sister and I walked to school together from the age of seven and never feared anything except stepping on a crack or anyone bar the old lady on a patio in her rocking chair who yelled at us every time we passed. Only when we were older did we understand about the combination of Stroke and Alzheimers, or the real ‘Crack’.
It is apparent that no longer do parents dare let their kids walk to Primary School. Oh! Lordy lordy it’s all about ‘Stranger Danger’.
It is we adults who will tell them not to talk to strangers and then shove them onto the lap of some old bearded guy in a red suit. Now that’s what you call a mixed message. We, as a society, have taught them to fear everyone and everything from red-headed people to peanuts.
All of the information available to us would suggest that ‘Strangers’ are the last thing we should fear. Statistically children are just as safe today as they were a century ago. Even though the relatives of Fagin still exist we need not fear them. These days they are in charge of our Juvenile Institutions and no longer steal hankerchiefs.
No. The real fears we should have for our children today are the adults who responsibility is to protect them.
At home or at school, at a friends house or even at Sunday School children are more likely to be assaulted than travelling between these different places.
As a person who for many years worked in the same environs as kids who not only walked the streets but lived on the streets and traded themselves on the streets I feel I am well versed in saying that except in a few exceptional cases some children who have chosen to leave home are sometimes many times more safe on the street than in the care of any so-called responsible adult.
Children on the streets have in the main been abused at home, or at school, or in the hands of carers, under the control of government agencies or even under lock and key.
It is an ignored fact that a vast majority of people in jail today have at some stage in their life been cared for by the professionals of the State.
Every time someone says that children are not safe on the streets of our villages, towns or cities I am staggered by how naïve they are. Naïvity might be a bit harsh, maybe it’s the fact that we couldn’t give a stuff about it and just believe whatever diatribe the shock-jocks want to feed us. We should teach our kids to fear politicians and commercial television before we fear strangers.
We should really fear the tendency for society to fix everything with medication or allow our children to ever be ‘helped’ by a ‘professional’.
Many Teachers are professionals but do we really respect them as we used to? Fifty years ago we were complaining about the poor standards in schools and the quality of their education – have you read the papers lately?
Teachers have one of the strongest Unions in the country and they know it. Our education system has been hijacked by the Teachers for the Teachers and I don’t think we realize it. Why would Teachers fear being ‘tested’.
There are many Doctors who profess to be professionals but rely more on the pitch of medication salesmen than on their own moral values. I don’t know the exact data but I believe that up to a quarter of children in Primary School are on some form of medication anywhere between Ritalin and  and Remeron. The only stool softener I used as a kid was a cushion.
Some people even fear the Police. The law can be harsh, unkind and uncaring. The law is blind so they say. So is commonsense I say.
Worry about the fears imposed by society before you worry about the fears posed by people.

FAMILY COUNSELLOR IMPRESSED

As he looked around the room and saw about thirty odd adolescents playing, arguing and fighting the Family Counsellor told us that we seem to have some really well-balanced young people using our youth centre. Here we were standing in the middle of a melle in an Inner-Sydney Youth Centre, where the Police often asked to take the kids away on a camp somewhere so that for at least one week-end there would be a pause in the Redfern crime rate.

We honestly though that this North Shore professional Counsellor was well and truly off his rocker, these kids, our kids, ‘normal and well balanced?’

We looked at the kid that stole cars and then posted a notice that if he found it them would happily accept a reward of $50, then at a girl whose mouth when she was in a good mood was just foul-mouthed but if she was in a bad mood would tell a dozen things that your brother or sister could do with a broomstick besides sweep the floor.

The girl who was pregnant with her fourth child at seventeen because as she put it herself “its the only thing I’m fucking good at”

These ‘things’ we worked with were being described as well-balanced?

We let the matter drop until the centre was closed for the night and then asked for a clear explanation for such an astonishing statement. We knew the guy had extraordinary success rates with troubled young people still with their families, as were most of ours, so we were keen to learn how he arrived at such a position.

Once must mention at this stage that this occurred prior to Smartphones, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter and all that other technical shit but the situation has changed little for the child even now. The situation might have changed but the facts remain the same. Unless kids face conflict directly in the eye, face-to-face nothing will improve for them.

“Up on the North Shore” he said, “ we have middle to upper class families, living in detached houses, with all the toys a kid would need to amuse themselves and supportive parents. So we have a situation where a child feeling threatened can just go tell Mum and Dad to do something about the bullying or simply retreat to their backyard until the storm blows over and then return to the street and rejoin their previously estranged friends. All is well until conflict arises again and the process starts again.

Here in Redfern and Waterloo you have young people who live in high-rise government housing, a high adolescent crime rate, all of the main phobia's, the majority coming from poor and socially isolated single parents who don’t have a backyard, or even a front yard for that matter, to where a kid can retreat for safety.

The result is that when conflict arises the child has no fallback position, they either face up to the challenge diplomatically or get a fistful of fives to the face.

So, your kids have to learn tact, diplomacy, co-operation and teamwork the hard way. When confronted with a problem they can either talk their way out of it or fight their way out its up to each individual. Rich kids don’t face this same problem and so conflict is something they never learn to handle. What results is an eruption of violence when faced with conflict.

Oddly enough its conflict with helicopter parents and other children, even in the kindergarten sandpit that allows them to develop into balanced young people able to handle the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune”

He was of course, in my opinion quite right. It is for this reason that I believe today's young people who don’t communicate directly with each other, who can friend and unfriend each other electronically, the toys in the backyard, that has created the perceived increases in violence among young people. It’s always been there, disrespectful teenagers, wild parties and pub brawls (been there, done that) right back to the middle-ages. However, until now children growing up have not had to come face-on with conflict as often in the past and so, when confronted in the street do not have the skills to negotiate their way out of trouble and violence arises from frustration.

I'm going to go out on a limb here by suggesting that maybe 'some' bullying is a good thing it is part of out development as humans.