HUMAN EVOLUTION
FULL STEAM AHEAD FOR AUKUS
AUKUS is not just a bloody awkward acronym but possibly the worst deal ever made in this country’s history, though some of our gas deals would come close.
The first Virginia-class submarine was launched in the US in 2003with a 30-year life expectancy. This means that even if we get one in the 2030s, it will be obsolete by then. We will also be obliged to dispose of its nuclear reactor, which will be radioactive for centuries.
For 3 of these, we will be paying $368,000,000,000 for weapons that have never been tested in battle, so we don't really know how vulnerable they are. They are supposed to be undetectable in deep water. We live on a continent surrounded by the shallow Waters of the continental shelf, so they will be vulnerable in home waters.
As well as paying about $122 billion for each of these clunkers ( twice the cost of finishing the inland rail project), we will be paying another $25 billion to build a port at the Stirling Naval base near Perth. The Department of Defence is building hundreds of houses to accommodate the. 1200 US and UK support workers to be stationed there. Working visas will be granted to spouses, and a quarantine station will be built for their dogs. "US service personnel very much like their pets,” Vice Admiral Mead said. All this at a time when we are facing a housing crisis and rising unemployment.
The U.S. submarines will be carrying nuclear weapons (they refuse to comment on that) into the heart of a major city, making it a first strike target, and turning Australia into the front line in any ill-conceived war with China, which has absolutely no reason to invade us, except for us being a U.S. lapdog.
The AUKUS deal is also the worst thing we could do for our relationships with our immediate Asian neighbours, reinforcing the perception that, as John Howard boasted, we are the United States' Deputy Sheriff. This is despite the United States throwing all the allies it has had in the last 80 years under the bus when things get difficult for them. Ask the South Vietnamese, the Kurds in the Iraq war and the Afghans in that American war, and now, it seems, the Taiwanese.
I haven't heard a single politician from our major gullible, gutless parties, actually say that we should abandon this ridiculous agreement now, before we give the Americans too many more billions of dollars.
THE FREE MARKETEER PANDEMIC
13/5/26
At the moment, the world seems concerned about a potential pandemic in Africa, while ignoring one that has been insidiously spreading throughout Western governments for over 60 years, overwhelming their democratic immune systems. This pandemic is called Free-Market capitalism. This disease had been hovering in the background for some time and became more virulent in 1935, when the board game "Monopoly" was introduced. The winner of this game is the one who forces all other players into bankruptcy.
The disease rapidly spread worldwide after the publication of a book in 1962 titled “Capitalism and Freedom”. It was written by Milton Friedman, a professor of economics at the University of Chicago.
Its primary symptoms lead to cutting taxes on companies and the wealthy, cutting government spending on social welfare, privatising all public utilities, and reducing regulations on monopolies and the environment.
Friedman claimed that if you give money to the hungry, they will rush out and buy food, thereby pushing up inflation and destroying the economy. This system also needs millions of people to be unemployed, so the lucky ones with jobs can't push for higher wages. His most breathtaking demand was for society to be free to be unequal.
These viruses were enthusiastically spread by wealthy industrialists, and why wouldn't they? After all, they had funded the professor’s opinions with grants to his department.
Foremost among these billionaires were the Koch brothers, who have established The Atlas Network, a global network of over 500right-wing think tanks and advocacy groups to spread the disease. They systematically manage right-wing political discourse and action all over the world.
They create and distribute slogans centred on economic freedom, deregulation, and opposition to climate policies, such as "Offshore wind farms kill whales”, "Reckless renewables”, “Dump net zero”, “Wealth envy”, and one used very effectively during the Voice campaign in Australia, "If you don't know, vote no.” You can hear these slogans come out of the mouths of Conservative politicians all over the world.
The Atlas Network counters the widespread dissatisfaction with the current inequality of capitalism by creating populist anti-immigration parties. These parties stir underlying racism in the gullible to point the finger of blame at anyone who doesn't look like them. These uninformed voters are increasingly electing autocrats who will never do anything to alleviate the sufferings of the disadvantaged.
These centres are named after the favourite bedtime reading of most billionaires: Ayn Rand's 1957 novel, “Atlas Shrugged,” which depicts the takeover of the US economy by major industrialists. It has become the Bible of free market capitalism.
This rampant disease, the name softened to “Neo-liberalism", was also embraced by US President Ronald Reagan and England's Margaret Thatcher, who explained that “we no longer have a society but an economy.”
The disease was promoted by media barons, who were keen to scrap the anti-monopolist laws, and US banks, which imposed financial blackmail on any countries veering towards socialism.
This disease has created 3,428 billionaires worldwide. With the United States leading at 989, followed by China (including Hong Kong) with 610 and India with 229. This threatens the well-being and existence of the other 8.3 billion people on Earth, but world governments don't seem to care.
The reason is that these billionaires are buying up all the resources, buildings, and governments of every prosperous country around the world. So that most politicians are enslaved to what I will, in the future, call The AI Master Race.
You might think that this secretive cabal is led by a famous egotistical buffoon, but you would be wrong. The Supreme Leader of this master race is the only man in the world who earns $90 million per day, surrounded by his cohort of billionaires: social media tycoons, TV stations, arms manufacturers, and fossil-fuel samurai. They will continue to control their present puppet until he goes too far, and then replace him with the next in line they previously purchased. Any public protests against this misnamed neo-liberal system are ruthlessly suppressed by police forces provided with arms by members of this cabal.
Researchers around the world are experimenting with a vaccination of sunlight, which may eventually lead to a cure. After all, it works on other bloodsuckers.
Albert Einstein was a staunch critic of free-market capitalism, which he famously described as the "economic anarchy of capitalist society" and the "real source of evil”. He got very little wrong.
Perhaps the Supreme Leader believes he can get all his billionaire buddies to Mars before global warming makes Earth uninhabitable, but looking at photos of Mars, I think it has already suffered the scourge of free-market capitalism.
PERSIAN GULF BLOCKADES
6/5/26
I understand that most people can't see beyond the dial of the petrol bowser, pumping away their money, and cursing the US and Iran for the war.
But if we take an Artemis view of our world, we might find an opportunity in this crisis.
Almost everything exported from the Persian Gulf damages our planet’s health. The burning of diesel, petrol and liquid petroleum gas pollutes our skies. Plastics break down into microplastics, which have been found in all our waterways and marine life, and even in the brains of some young children. Fossil fuel fertilisers also pollute our waterways with no protection against overuse and run-off.
Although not the only producer of these polluting products, the closing of the Straits of Hummus has prevened 20% of them from reaching the rest of the world, which is causing some positive reactions. Well, in some countries, but not in Australia.
Here, right-wing politicians are repeating Trump's mantra of “drill baby, drill," and the building of new refineries, which will cost taxpayers only $800 million in subsidies to any investor undertaking these projects. If they can find anyone willing to top up the other billions and wait 10 years before seeing a profit, or a drop of fuel, well, good luck with that.
In the meantime, our PM is rushing around the world trying to find another day’s fix into our transport bloodstreams to alleviate our 1,500,000 barrels a day addiction.
A few brave companies are putting their heads above the parapet to suggest that the answer might lie in biofuels, as other countries explore the possibilities. The production of biofuels uses almost anything by a degradable, including much of the waste that goes into expensive landfill sites. Biofuels also emit fewer emissions than fossil fuels.
One of the world’s largest fossil-fuel fertiliser companies has admitted that it might be time to switch to organic fertiliser. Cuba managed to feed its people for years, using organic fertiliser after yet another US blockade.
The current crisis also exposes the dependence of every country on globalised trade, which uses nearly 9000 oil tankers and another 7000 container ships belching diesel fumes above our oceans and adding to the product miles of most things we over-consume.
Is it time to take a more far-reaching view of the world? Let me, and our politicians, know what you think.
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