Postcards from Magic Pudding Land

Melodramatic? Perhaps but it seems like it. It's another inferno outside. 11am and its 36 degrees. Meanwhile the south coast id on fire, quite literally. I was born in Canberra. Retreats to the coast at any time of the year were mostly memorable for the time spent in majestic coastal forests stretching from Sydney south. They are the remnants of a forested land that existed in far greater area when the white people invaded. By the end of today, most of it will be burnt. The last significant stands of temperate coastal coastal forest not sub-divided by human settlement, now just smoking ruins. The ecosystems. The watersheds. The effect of local climate. The surrounding towns. Part of me has died. A sanctuary destroyed. It seems completely unavoidable; these are very dark times. Apocalyptic. Terrifying. Global warming cometh. The scale of these fires is significant on a global scale. Last I saw, it represents half of Oz's annual carbon budget. It is bound to be mo...

What does the AFR's take on Scott Morrison's aka #smoko #wherethehellareyou holiday tell us? Well more than anything it reveals that even after all the protests about a free and independent press over the Smethurst/ABC raids, most of the professional media are still quite happy to take their writing instructions from the very people they are supposed to be holding to account. It reveals how much of a club politics and the reporting of it has become. There can be absolutely no doubt all the key players were given the heads up about #smoko's leave and we can safely assume this included Albo. And just quietly they all nodded and said sure, mum's the word. Some of them even defended the holiday saying the poor bloke deserves a break. Try telling that to some hospitality workers over the next few weeks or the people putting their lives at risk fighting the fires while organising their own charity. If you think that is troubling, imagine what else we are not being told. ...

I used to have an ALP corflute sign hiding in my cupboard featuring a young smiling Kevin Rudd, the Kevin 07 that delivered a thumping majority to the ALP and ending little Johnny's reign. I mention that because it was the last time I voted for the ALP after 30 odd years and today as I sit here in the smoky shade of 2019, it seems vaguely relevant to the political shitfuckery we are witnessing. Just to recap, the ALP was returned to government with an 18 seat majority having secured a swing of over 5% in the popular vote. Realistically it should have meant an centre left government for at least 3 terms but instead the ALP barely scraped back into office 3 years later, just getting a minority government over the line. And since then we have endured more right wing bastardry from Abbott, Turnbull and now Morrison. Now that the dust has settled on the debacle of May 2019 I am struck by a recurring theme both here and abroad. It might be a Murdoch inspired talking point but even th...

In recent months the western world has seen the ongoing right wing populist experiment go into overdrive, Boris the mop head blustering his way towards Brexit, Trump openly inviting impeachment while simultaneously abandoning allies afar and trying to host a meeting of world leaders in his own resort. But here in sunny Oz, the fascist kleptocrats are pedalling hard to catch up with the big boys. Make no mistake, the Morrison government will attempt to destroy much of the social welfare state that is left after 25 years of neoliberalism, either by outsourcing government functions or privatising key components. In the meantime they will do nothing to arrest the ongoing carbon crisis or deal with any of the negative consequences of a capitalist system unfettered from government regulation, such things as static wages, job insecurity, rising inequality, homelessness, suicides...the list is seemingly never ending. Does this amount to a form of oppression by the wealthy elites and their ...

A rather disheartening week for those who vote ALP as the reality of a new right wing parliament takes over. Yes the ALP is powerless in the matters currently before parliament, or just passed this week. It simply does not have the numbers, that is the consequence of losing the election. We, the Australian people are now condemned to endure another three years, and possibly more of the smirking Scott "Scomo" Morrison. That's our lot, obviously we get the government we deserve. Twitter is on fire right now with outrage over the ALP and what they should be doing. Stalwart ALP supporters are lining up to offer the ALP some free advice while equally dyed in the wool ALP fans are struggling to understand the extent of the animosity towards the ALP. The neofascistslibs will be chuckling in church over how they not only won but also manage to utterly divide their opposition. The argument about the "optics" is important in the sense of what sort of message the ALP...

Michelle Dorrell from UK Labour Voices says in a video 'The truth is a "free press"owned my the mega-rich isn't a free press, it's a propaganda tool used with one purpose in mind, to keep the status quo' In a nutshell. They piss on us and tell us it's raining. pic.twitter.com/pvPujCcjdl

The words of QED is my second attempt at blogging. I might revive the old blog but for now you are just going to have accept my word for it. It was there, I put a lot of time into it but ultimately I lost motivation to keep writing. Is blogging the poor cousin to journalism? In a literal sense, journalism comes from the idea of writing a journal, ie the act of writing a journal, and according to Wikipedia "a journal , from the Old French "journal" (meaning "daily"), can refer to several things.. in its original meaning, it refers to a daily record of activities" So if one writes daily does that constitute journalism? Perhaps but obviously so-called journalism entails more that the act of committing a few words daily to print. A key component is obviously the "record of activities" and what that entails. Hence the so-called "beats" of certain journalists, politics, economics, crime, social and so on. This isn't a how to on jo...