Lead With Inflation

State Of The Place

This time I've drawn everything from TND - The New Daily. 

Inflation In Oz

The news is meh or less - inflation is rampant according to this article and in this, they like ALL media are too scared to say it - this "inflation" is nothing more than corporate greed, opportunism, and total disregard for the wellbeing of their customers. We will never have anything approaching wealth justice and equality until we burn every one of their management/executive edifices to the ground, strip out the ideas of free market, capitalism, and predation, and replace that core with a newer one.

Ask anyone (if any are still alive) about the Great Depression. Ask anyone about the last Recession. They'll tell you one of two tales, either the situation was dire due to Depression/Recession, or they just say "we had to tighten our belts but we got through it." The former will have been the ones that were also relentlessly bombarded with the situation by a sensationalist media, the latter more likely to be the type to turn to the sports and social pages or even *gasp!* not even take in the news at all. 

Media orgs aren't immune from this need to strip out their rotten cores and replace them with a new management. They too dance to the tune of money, money, über alles. They need sensationalism over journalism, because clickbait works online and in the media, and actual news is deemed too dry. Their best interests are served when they support the edifice that the money flows from.

The Opposition In Oz

Nothing shows that capitalistic system in action like this article from TND. The LNP Coalition (and frankly I'm surprised they are still 'coalescing' after their utter debacle at the last election) has nil, zero, zip, zilch, nada interest in the wellbeing of ANY member of the populace that isn't shoving money up the Honorable Members' various orifices. 

There was a time (and not that long back) when such government styles attracted bricks, molotov cocktails, and protests in the streets that ran for weeks and were attended by a percentage of the populace to be reckoned with. And a mere two centuries back, people who were exploited by their landlords / bosses would often settle those matters with a small and personal crowd, and real clubs and pitchforks . . . 

I'm not advocating for such base violence, but certainly I am an enthusiastic proponent of making our feelings known through emailing politicians, signing petitions both physical and online, and even going to see your local Member and speaking with them about whatever situation you feel needs redress. Many local Members actually will hear you out and, if they see enough public support for your point of view, adopt it. 

Write to your local politician/CEO/owner/landlord/councillor if something seems unfair to you, and get your friends to also contact those people and support your view. This is one of few recourses left to us other than unimaginable ones, and if the government moves to shut down these last bastions of free speech as the previous government has shut down peaceful protest then they'll be regarded in the world as a totalitarian regime - and indeed, they will have become one and made themselves a target - and leave us no other peaceful options.

With That, The Governments In The World

"COVID is over!" - "Uh - no, COVID has peaked!" - "Oh look! - MonkeyPox Virus! Lucky it isn't serious!" 

What's your favourite piece of epidemiological epistemological ineptitude? Truth is, that if EVERY Government in the world realised it, there's one easy way to actually make all these diseases go away - another lockdown, for a few weeks.

The reason the lockdowns didn't work last few times is that not EVERYONE was locked down - banks kept on charging interest and expecting to accrue interest and collect loan repayments, landlords were not told to halt rents, companies weren't told to make essential goods, resources, services, and utilities available free for the duration of the lockdown - so these were asymetrically applied lockdowns. And that's just not on when there's a worldwide pandemic that threatens everyone, and is still killing hundreds of thousands of people. 

But it does show you how weak and gutless governments are in the face of their economically superior bosses... 

What's Wrong With Contemporary Governments

I'll point to this as a prime example, although we've had quite the same experiences here in Australia and I'm sure in every other country. In regard to this article, I'll pull bits of one longish quote:

“. . . if you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth . . . ? When your family, your company, and all the people in your orbit have become the targets . . .  you have no choice.”

Pssst. I have one bit of advice for him - if you and your family and company and people you associate with are all innocent, then there is nothing that can incriminate you or any of them. That's what being honest is like. 

At Least People Are Good

Twenty years ago some people set out to prove that - hmmm... Actually, I no longer have any idea, do you? - but that they'd kill people for it. The violence that we abhor, writ large. Another reason to end a system that produces such huge wealth disparities. Anyhow, the Bali bombings themselves are now etched into our memories, even if Jemaah Islamiyah's purpose is inconceivable to me and no doubt quite a few of you.

But it did bring out the hero in many. And now that event is going to be made into a mini series, and I hope the series sufficiently shows that. I'm looking forward to people seeing it and realising that all that violence ended up achieving nothing, but that the hero people in the aftermath achieved greatness. I refuse to acknowledge the utter dregs of our species that perpetrated this, I'm glad I can't think of any of their names and even happier that I actually even had to look up the name of their organisation, so utterly has it sunk into obscurity. 

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