Saying Goodbye to Sovereignty

Mungo MacCallum

Always a good read is Mungo.

'"If anybody in this country doesn't minimise their tax they want their head read. As a government I can tell you that you're not spending it so well that we should be paying extra."'

I of course remember this episode as I am sure many people do. A good starting point. At the time I thought it was roughly fair enough and a good point. However, I only remember the first part, and tax minimization is what you pay accountants and lawyers to do for you isn't it? 

The sarcastic ridicule which follows is truly a thing of beauty. But that just keeps you entertained.

What is so eloquently described here is a phenomenon noted by thought scoffers and future gazers for some time now. Essentially national sovereignty no longer exists. The legal frameworks and commercial process apparatuses set up by the lawyers and accountants, under the guiding principles of the neoliberal ideology, have created a world economy where every national government is at the mercy of the market. Sovereignty has become a meaningless concept and everybody seems to be happy with this state of affairs.

Thomas Pickety documents the long rise of Capital. He notes that the balance sheet for the world economy is permanently skewed because of the multiplicity of tax havens where wealth is secreted. He concludes, among other things, that much would be improved if transparency were imposed on the financial system. Then there would be nowhere to hide.

We await the world government.

Not Yet Bill

Chris Berg

Because this guy is a right-wing ideologue. A highly intelligent and persuasive right-wing ideologue but a right-wing ideologue none-the-less. I've read his book on the history of free speech so I know all about him. Believe me, the point he sits on the political spectrum, makes that on which you sit look like a Gingin hippy festival.

It will therefore be to his interest that you reveal yourself early enough in the electoral cycle for his buddies to capitalise on the fact.

My apologies to Chris Berg but you have to call a spade a spade.

Demonstrably False Assumptions

Raja Janakar

Minimum wages need to be maintained at a minimum subsistence level and this level of income should not be taxed at all for anyone.

This country has been governed by conservative governments for too many years. These governments have seen fit to tax the poor to feed the rich and rely on what they term the "trickle-down-effect" to redistribute these through the rest of society. What a load of nonsense.

Based on demonstrably false assumptions, here is the evidence for this effect.

The only just and equitable policy is that stated above.

Leadership

Terry Barnes

"Above all, Lincoln believed in something greater than himself, and acted on his principles."

"With malice towards none, with charity for all"

Leaders have the ability to see what is right and to force or manipulate events to progress in that direction.

Can anyone see this characteristic in any of our "leaders"?

Or in any of the "leaders" of the political parties we are forced to vote for.

Shirt-front Policies

Trisha Jha

Look at this. Another thought-bubble-non-policy produced by a shirt-front PM at the head of an idiotic government.

All this for maybe 3% of babies. Lots of budget savings there.

Never Ever Again

John Baron

You have give it to them. The GOP is nothing if not resilient. After two consecutive defeats by the forces of the left, the far right-wing elements in American society continue to find expression. Putting a baby face on your candidate and dressing him up in verbiage about the changing of the generations increases your appeal to the youth vote, butt they are still far right ideologues with a far right view of the world and if they ever get elected again they will do irreparable damage to life as we know it.

Now that the hyperbole is gone. John is being a good journalist, writing a balanced piece, marketable but not really saying much. He implies that there is a ghost of a chance of the republicans winning. An objective observer would have to think that the tea-party-policies of the far right could never attract sufficient votes of a rational-cognitive electorate. But let's not be surprised ever again. The electorate in the US is a tiny proportion of the voting public, because the mere act of voting is not compulsory, so almost anything could still happen.

We in Australia are, right now, as the US did in the dubya years, experiencing the consequences of electoral complacency, and the assumption that the electorate (as distinct from the voting public) will act in a rational manner. The cringe quality of Friar Tuck is so reminiscent of that arroused by George dubya himself, that I have to take anti-cringe medication every time I watch the news. If we don't cringe we are tempted to succumb to fits of hysterical laughter, and/or outright ridicule.

Yet these are our elected leaders.

oh no

Went to my first ALP Branch meeting last night.

Pretty cool.

Lots of heavy duty ALP faithful, lifetime members, union dudes etc.

And they are all around my age.

Mark Mcgowan, leader of the state opposition, MLA for Rockingham, and the next Premier of Western Australia, attended and spoke to us. We are in a seriously bad situation with the state economy and budget. I haven't been paying attention so I didn't realise how bad. The loss of our triple A credit rating, which I did hear about and commented on, pointed to a bad situation, but I hadn't realised it was a full blown crisis..

He said Barney was gifted with a $3 billion budget deficit  on taking office and has so mismanaged everything since then that it has now blown out to $30 billion. Yes that is a tenfold fuckup in the space of six and a half years. These were years of prosperity. The price of iron ore was high. Large royalties were paid.

WHERE IS ALL THAT MONEY!!!???

I am angry. Aren't you?????