We couldn't ask for two more appropriate figureheads to symbolise the terminal phase Empire - a decrepit, corrupt insider and a loud-mouthed, self-absorbed con-artist, both belligerent and incoherent - says it all, really. I just wish people would remember that although the figurehead points in the direction the ship is heading, it is not at the helm.
As for Australia, a vassal has little say over its foreign policy but it does occasionally have one very important decision to make - when to switch empires. We've managed it successfully once already, and that time has come again.
What Australia needs is for our government to grow a spine, stand up to Rupert and the vested interests he represents, and act towards our long term benefit. This is, of course, not going to happen. Luckily, Australians have preferential voting, making it easier for us to expand the cross bench. With a series of minority governments, a sufficiently engaged public might get a word in edgewise and make the course correction required.
Palestine may be crucial here, since it creates an impetus for political engagement outside of culture war distraction.
Your optimism about electoral possibilities in Australia is ill-founded I’m afraid. The preference system actually counts against change and one of the two reactionary parties, the labor faction, gets the votes of disaffected progressives and even radicals if they choose to waste their time .
If genuinely disruptive independents win enough seats to make minority govt necessary, the labor and lnp factions will simply unite to defeat any non-cosmetic changes.
This is how western ‘democracies’ work. It’s built into the rules. The labor party, since the late seventies, has been the main obstacle to any kind of rational foreign alliance or socialist/pluralist economic change. The US blob carefully selected bob hawke, and the swamp creatures from private schools that inhabit labor offices are of exactly the same class and ideological culture that forms the ‘other’ major party.
Effective electoral opposition could only occur if there were a mass party that was in opposition to what is essentially a lib/lnp coalition. While preferential voting exists, this will never happen. It is designed this way.
I must apologise for not communicating clearly enough - you seem to have misinterpreted my statements. To clarify:
First, I was not discussing possible improvements to democracy, merely a change of our vassal orientation. To be more explicit, Australia the state should leave AUKUS and join BRICS. That would still leave it's people completely subjected to the power structure, but at least that structure would not be on the losing side in the current global tussle between oligarchs.
Second, I'm not sure what part of "sufficiently engaged public might get a word in edgewise" connotes optimism, but I assure you, I have no belief that the electoral processes will improve anything for the majority - as you say, they're designed not to. Parliaments everywhere are, in general, a con. They draw the average sociable human into bad faith negotiations with sociopaths, who run a rigged game. Both major parties agree on 99% of policy, and generally only argue about things which won't slow the concentration of power.
Democracy only exists for those brief periods in history when the mob is in the street and the ruling class are afraid their heads might end up in baskets. Then the "left" side of the narrow Overton window will be allowed to throw the mob a few bones to calm them down. Then it's back to frog boiling as usual. The last time the mob got its dander up was the sixties. Gough was Rupert's pick for 72, remember, and his job was to restore "class harmony", that is, get the mob to sit back down. He'd already proven his bona fides to the establishment by severing the unions from direct control of Labor. When he told the ruling class it would take more bones to get the job done, they couped his arse.
I fundamentally disagree with your take on preferential voting. It increases the possibility of new parties entering the game, because it reduces the plausibility of the old "a vote for a third party is a vote for the other side" schtick like we're seeing in the US right now. With first-past-the-post, a party can get a majority of seats with less than 35% of the vote.
Of course the newcomers will be co-opted or neutralised in some way, resulting in little meaningful change. But it's the process of the people getting politically engaged, then being blatantly frustrated that gets them outraged and out in the streets.
I guess the thing that bothers me most, though, about your take is that you appear to believe the system is going to keep chugging along more or less as usual - while it seems to me the System of the World is about to up-end itself.
Not only are we in for more substantial geopolitical changes than those following WW2, we are, I believe, living through the end of the Age of Nation States.
If it wasn't so horribly true and very, very depressing it's almost tragicomic and somehow, Joel, you encapsulate this.
The devils in the swampy halls of power
the Canberra bipartisan blob
At times I think the leaders don't really matter, it's the corporate power behind them that determines what happens. The leaders are the symbols. So it looks like it's the more extreme right-wing corporate powers and lobbyists that are in ascendance. Because they have more money? Because they have found some so-called leaders, popularist leaders, who appeal to a manipulated and fearful population?
And Australia? How many years since Keating tried to get us to think about being part of the Asian region? We did for a tiny bit, but then we all know what happened. And current Labor has simply taken up from those Howard years.
Sorry Joel, was this piece co-written by Fox or a Russian bot?
You do know that Biden didn't just wander off on his own but turned to talk to the parachutist that has been cropped out of this picture. Apart from Fox and other far right media outlets who doctor Biden's clips or comments (he does stutter and has all of his life), others who have interviewed him do not mention these cognitive issues and if you are being truthful with yourself try listening to five minutes of the convicted felon Trump and tell me that he is not in serious cognitive decline. It is also disingenuous to say that Biden's first half of his term was defined by his lack of management of the Covid pandemic. Are you unaware of how Trump handled it and at the start of his administration how planning for pandemics (pre Covid) was stopped? Reading articles from someone like Robert Reich really shows how dangerous things could be if Trump did manage to get reelected. https://robertreich.substack.com/p/seriously-how-dumb-is-trump
In regards to Ukraine, peace can come quickly by Russia withdrawing back behind their own borders and not having a ceasefire to let them catch their breath for a couple of years and then having another go. As Estonia's Prime Minister recently said the Russia (Soviet Union) use a three point negotiating tactic. Ask for something outrageous, negotiate in bad faith and don't move an inch and then accept half or a third of what you asked for and which you do not deserve or are entitled to because the west will try and appease you.
Also in case you hadn't noticed while the American economy had gone backwards under Trump (partially due to Covid) it is now powering on, kickstarted with infrastructure and investment across the board initiated by Biden and mainly voted against by the GOP.
I totally agree with you about Gaza and more pressure should be put on Israel to stop their genocide and much more focus should be put on our place in the world. Although some focus is again coming back onto our backyard, mainly due to China stepping in and causing a bit of angst to both sides of politics here.
We couldn't ask for two more appropriate figureheads to symbolise the terminal phase Empire - a decrepit, corrupt insider and a loud-mouthed, self-absorbed con-artist, both belligerent and incoherent - says it all, really. I just wish people would remember that although the figurehead points in the direction the ship is heading, it is not at the helm.
As for Australia, a vassal has little say over its foreign policy but it does occasionally have one very important decision to make - when to switch empires. We've managed it successfully once already, and that time has come again.
What Australia needs is for our government to grow a spine, stand up to Rupert and the vested interests he represents, and act towards our long term benefit. This is, of course, not going to happen. Luckily, Australians have preferential voting, making it easier for us to expand the cross bench. With a series of minority governments, a sufficiently engaged public might get a word in edgewise and make the course correction required.
Palestine may be crucial here, since it creates an impetus for political engagement outside of culture war distraction.
Your optimism about electoral possibilities in Australia is ill-founded I’m afraid. The preference system actually counts against change and one of the two reactionary parties, the labor faction, gets the votes of disaffected progressives and even radicals if they choose to waste their time .
If genuinely disruptive independents win enough seats to make minority govt necessary, the labor and lnp factions will simply unite to defeat any non-cosmetic changes.
This is how western ‘democracies’ work. It’s built into the rules. The labor party, since the late seventies, has been the main obstacle to any kind of rational foreign alliance or socialist/pluralist economic change. The US blob carefully selected bob hawke, and the swamp creatures from private schools that inhabit labor offices are of exactly the same class and ideological culture that forms the ‘other’ major party.
Effective electoral opposition could only occur if there were a mass party that was in opposition to what is essentially a lib/lnp coalition. While preferential voting exists, this will never happen. It is designed this way.
I must apologise for not communicating clearly enough - you seem to have misinterpreted my statements. To clarify:
First, I was not discussing possible improvements to democracy, merely a change of our vassal orientation. To be more explicit, Australia the state should leave AUKUS and join BRICS. That would still leave it's people completely subjected to the power structure, but at least that structure would not be on the losing side in the current global tussle between oligarchs.
Second, I'm not sure what part of "sufficiently engaged public might get a word in edgewise" connotes optimism, but I assure you, I have no belief that the electoral processes will improve anything for the majority - as you say, they're designed not to. Parliaments everywhere are, in general, a con. They draw the average sociable human into bad faith negotiations with sociopaths, who run a rigged game. Both major parties agree on 99% of policy, and generally only argue about things which won't slow the concentration of power.
Democracy only exists for those brief periods in history when the mob is in the street and the ruling class are afraid their heads might end up in baskets. Then the "left" side of the narrow Overton window will be allowed to throw the mob a few bones to calm them down. Then it's back to frog boiling as usual. The last time the mob got its dander up was the sixties. Gough was Rupert's pick for 72, remember, and his job was to restore "class harmony", that is, get the mob to sit back down. He'd already proven his bona fides to the establishment by severing the unions from direct control of Labor. When he told the ruling class it would take more bones to get the job done, they couped his arse.
I fundamentally disagree with your take on preferential voting. It increases the possibility of new parties entering the game, because it reduces the plausibility of the old "a vote for a third party is a vote for the other side" schtick like we're seeing in the US right now. With first-past-the-post, a party can get a majority of seats with less than 35% of the vote.
Of course the newcomers will be co-opted or neutralised in some way, resulting in little meaningful change. But it's the process of the people getting politically engaged, then being blatantly frustrated that gets them outraged and out in the streets.
I guess the thing that bothers me most, though, about your take is that you appear to believe the system is going to keep chugging along more or less as usual - while it seems to me the System of the World is about to up-end itself.
Not only are we in for more substantial geopolitical changes than those following WW2, we are, I believe, living through the end of the Age of Nation States.
If it wasn't so horribly true and very, very depressing it's almost tragicomic and somehow, Joel, you encapsulate this.
The devils in the swampy halls of power
the Canberra bipartisan blob
At times I think the leaders don't really matter, it's the corporate power behind them that determines what happens. The leaders are the symbols. So it looks like it's the more extreme right-wing corporate powers and lobbyists that are in ascendance. Because they have more money? Because they have found some so-called leaders, popularist leaders, who appeal to a manipulated and fearful population?
And Australia? How many years since Keating tried to get us to think about being part of the Asian region? We did for a tiny bit, but then we all know what happened. And current Labor has simply taken up from those Howard years.
Sorry Joel, was this piece co-written by Fox or a Russian bot?
You do know that Biden didn't just wander off on his own but turned to talk to the parachutist that has been cropped out of this picture. Apart from Fox and other far right media outlets who doctor Biden's clips or comments (he does stutter and has all of his life), others who have interviewed him do not mention these cognitive issues and if you are being truthful with yourself try listening to five minutes of the convicted felon Trump and tell me that he is not in serious cognitive decline. It is also disingenuous to say that Biden's first half of his term was defined by his lack of management of the Covid pandemic. Are you unaware of how Trump handled it and at the start of his administration how planning for pandemics (pre Covid) was stopped? Reading articles from someone like Robert Reich really shows how dangerous things could be if Trump did manage to get reelected. https://robertreich.substack.com/p/seriously-how-dumb-is-trump
In regards to Ukraine, peace can come quickly by Russia withdrawing back behind their own borders and not having a ceasefire to let them catch their breath for a couple of years and then having another go. As Estonia's Prime Minister recently said the Russia (Soviet Union) use a three point negotiating tactic. Ask for something outrageous, negotiate in bad faith and don't move an inch and then accept half or a third of what you asked for and which you do not deserve or are entitled to because the west will try and appease you.
Also in case you hadn't noticed while the American economy had gone backwards under Trump (partially due to Covid) it is now powering on, kickstarted with infrastructure and investment across the board initiated by Biden and mainly voted against by the GOP.
I totally agree with you about Gaza and more pressure should be put on Israel to stop their genocide and much more focus should be put on our place in the world. Although some focus is again coming back onto our backyard, mainly due to China stepping in and causing a bit of angst to both sides of politics here.
Chilling on a cold winter morning.
So true that Australia has hitched its waggon to the wrong horse.
The Aisia Pacific is our place & were we should focus as a part of the region not some colonial outpost for the benefit of Atlantic European masters.
Albanese talks of Australian values.
What are they?
Like the rules based world order whose are they, what do they represent?
RULES
The rulers make the rules,
the ruled follow them.
BASED
Around 700 - 1000 military bases,
depending on how you count them.
INTERNATIONAL
Only global hegemony will do,
there is no outside of the empire.
ORDER
Obey orders, or else
we take the whole planet down with us.