Methusala

Nomadpete quotes statistics showing that every 4th death from domestic violence is a male. I don't know where this comes from but I don't doubt it. I only wonder whether suicide deaths are included. It is known that suicide is the largest cause of death among males aged between 19 - 34 yrs. These are people who see no other way to escape their situation. Many of these young men are victims of what I refer to as "toxic femininity". Where the more commonly accepted "toxic masculinity" is marked (predominately) by physical aggression, the feminine form is dominated by psychological assault. Males style themselves by the image reflected in their peer group. Males gather at pubs, clubs and at work and seek the approval of their peers. But they also need to see themselves as successful parents and caring providers for their partners. There is normally a dichotomy between the 2 roles. This can be exploited by a certain type of female eventually isolating the male and making him extremely vulnerable to malicious manipulation. I have witnessed just such behavior many times. This type of behaviour is denied routinely by feminists who will state that they are unaware of the exisrtence of "toxic femininity". Recently, to her credit, SMH journalist Clementine Freud, in a review of the tv show "Married at 1st Sight" declared that she now acnowledged the existence of "toxic femininity". A small but significant breakthrough.

True that Clinton produced a small surplus partly because of large tax increases on the wealthy but also an equal if not more powerful influence was the booming economy and huge gains in the stock markets, the so-called dot-com bubble. However he never succeeded in wiping out govt debt which has boomed especially under Republican presidents. ( I stated "the Clinton Democrats" which includes madam and her demonstrated ability to control the modern DNC.) However, my point is that the prospect of the US population ever finding a unifying, common aim is disappearing rapidly as the Reps and Dems strive to drive wedges between their support base. This is politics played to the bitter end. We see the result in some African countries or regimes such as Romania under Nicolae Ceaușescu or Germany under the Nazis. Not in modern times in a prosperous Western nation. FH has summarised well the poor state of the American people in latter years. I have heard it said that the rise in common wealth of the middle class in Western nations from WW2 to the mid 70's had to do with rapid industrialisation and the competition between capitalist and Eastern socialist economies. Once Soviet style communism was defeated the middle class began to fall backwards. The rich became rapidly richer as the rest fell backwards.

I post a link to a video tweeted by Donald Trump showing the Democrats' dismissive reaction to his SOTU address last week. It is set to REM's song,"Everybody Hurts". I think that Trump was able to carry off successfully the mission that Tony Abbott hadn't the ability to do. That is to permanently divide the electorate and allow disintegration of the bonds of nationhood. We are witnessing the complete disintegration of America as a united people. A nation divided has no chance of survival. I believe that the Clinton Democrats are responsible for this "deplorable" state of affairs.

When a rotten system (such as wrapping up rotten fish {CDO's}) in plastic so the purchaser is ignorant of the quality, then getting your mate (S&P's or Moodies') to swear that the goods are perfect, will always bite most purchasers. Scavengers who can see that 10% of the fish is sound can make a profit buying at 5%. This is called opportunity cost. The system as a whole has still forsaken 80% of their capital to a swindle. You can't dress this up as anything but "white collar" crime. Anyway, as you say, back to Brexit. It has been my contention throughout that the Brexit thing was a scheme brewed by perhaps Textor Crosby as a way to bamboozle the voters into sticking with the conservatives to keep the socialists on the outer. NEVER MIND the cost to the nation downstream. You may recognise the same MO in our current mob of ministers and backbenchers. They will lie to voters about the effects of restricting tax benefits to the financing of only new dwellings to protect their backers. Also to protect the scandal of giving "tax refunds" to people not paying any tax. You have admitted that the GB population joined the EU on very favorable terms. Was any effort made to warn voters that they could lose this "most favored nation" status? No, of course not! As I said,"For Britain it is a bad time to be in the EU but possibly worse to be outside."

I don't think that all of the ills likely to be suffered by GB in the near or medium future are down to Brexit. EU are in a lot of trouble and this is related to the malaise generally at the heart of the global economy. The crash of '07-0'8 was not a "normal, cyclical" fluctuation. It was caused by the un-restrained ability of capital to dictate the tradability of junk (also known as CDO's {collateralised debt obligations}). These are low performing loans such as mortgages with little real ability to be repaid. S&P and other ratings agencies lied about the worth of these and they were sold to governments, both local and national as well as to anyone else in the investment markets. This caused the bankrupting of many local governments in Oz making amalgamations politically possible. But that is a digression. The fact that, post 2008, governments lacked either the will or the political power to change the way banks operate meansz that we are destined for much more of the same type of financial disruption (read recession or more likely, deep depressions) until a reckoning occurs and finances become more realistic. Note that the Russian federation and China and possibly others including india are moving towards a gold backed currency. Even heard talk of a central, gold backed, crypto currency for international oil trading. This is essentially what Russia and China are using, gold backed Yuan, to trade oil and manufactures between themselves. The USA finds itself becoming irrelevant in financial trades so brings out the big stick ie: Bolton's statement this week that the US will take Venezuala's oil. Trump is also pushing the military brink by abrogating the INF treaty and threatening Space Wars again. To get back to old Britain, it is a bad time to be rocking the boat. Europe's economy is hardly sustainable at all and they will use any action to improve their position in trade against Britain. For Britain it is a bad time to be in the EU but possibly worse to be outside.

As well as the obvious cheap quality consumer trash that we buy from China they also produce much of the high quality componentary that enables airliners, cars, trucks and heavy industrial machinery to function. As much as people will wish that a global climate catastrophe is not happening...it is. Australian coal and gas fuels much of the CO2.

Extra! Extra!... Airbus threatens to leave Britain and commence manufacture of wings elsewhere in Europe. Further catastrophic news from GB following the "Pig-in-a-poke" codswallop sold to unaware Pommy voters. Alright for some but generally "BAD, BAD NEWS" as we picture The Donald shaking his head in mock sympathy with his "deplorables". If you happened to be a billiomaire and could ship your enterprise to a more tax-less country, why not. Millions of Brittons will just have to suck it up and learn to live without access to the EU. https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/airbus-threatens-to-leave-britain-as-brexit-uncertainty-starts-to-bite-20180622-p4zn8i.html

G'day Jerry, Yes I agree with you re Miele. I can see the rationale behind the dB restriction on Dyson. Have you heard their Air Blades in public washrooms - it's a sin!

Another extremely hypocritical gambit from a Brexit booster, Dyson to move company HQ to Singapore https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jan/22/dyson-to-move-company-hq-to-singapore Never trust anyone from the 1%ers' club. More evidence that the British Conservative Party are as treacherous, hidebound and as little interested in the common good as are our current crop of Lieberals. That is to say that I believe that the Brexit notion was a "pig in a poke", sold to largely uninformed voters on the strength of an emotional appeal. Once the omelet is cooked it is impossible to reserrect the egg. Ask Humpty Dumpty.

Did you expect Blinis and Borscht washed down with Vodka?

The very same shadowy mob are using modern psy-ops strategies to destroy him as they did JFK. In that operation they thrust LBJ in. This time they would like to get HC up (note: Both DemocRATS).

It is unfortunate that the Trump character lends itself so well to parody. As poorly as the Republicans reflect the common man's image of a fair and well functioning society, the Democrats, at least since the tragedy of Bill Clinton's bizarre stretch, have lead us into the current disaster. Clinton sealed the fate of the post war aspiration towards equality most spectacularly in his overturning of the Glass-Steagall Act which maintained a separation between retail and commercial or merchant banking. Of all the deregulatory measures visited on the economy, this was the one that lead most directly to the 2007 Crash. In effect it handed the keys to the money printing presses to the banksters. Hilary Clinton and for that matter Barack Obama have done nothing to redress the effects of this most abject failure to restrain unbridled capital. The DNC is known to have actively white-anted Bernie Sander's electoral popularity in favor of the dreadful Hilary, war hawk and bankers' booster extraordinaire. So, I am on Phil Perry's side , when he for whatever reason claims, "Don't get me wrong here, But I LIKE Donald Trump." If he wants to restore dialogue with Russian president Putin, remove US troops from the Middle East or concentrate on domestic policies rather than military intervention globally, I like this too.

The "Left" hardly exist in Australia. The cowardly reaction by the ALP to the coup that eviscerated Gough Whitlam's govt was to select Hawke as leader just prior to the "Drover's Dog' election in 1982. Hawke and Keating put in place a strategy that was to emasculate the union movement and hand control of the economy to Hawkie's mates, eg. Sir Peter Ables, head of Ansett Airlines, the Commonwealth Bank, (sell it to the Mum's and Dad's, haw haw haw!). He and Paul Keating, who effectively emasculated the unions by denying them the avenue of secondary boycotts (Section 27a of the Trade Practices act I think) were the greatest Liberal PM's Australia ever had. The effect of the mass media's PR war against Bill Shorten is laying the groundwork for another nobbled progressive govt. Watch as the media destroyer finds excuses to bleed off any public goodwill for the soon to be Shorten govt. Left wing? No chance. Don

A small correction, if I may. It seems that my statement, that Brittons were sold a pup, may have seemed to be in relation to their joining the EU. I didn't mean that but rather the decision to "Brexit".

A prime condition for poverty is when the country is a net importer of food. Don't know whether this applies to GB.

Merry Xmas to all and to Jerry in particular for his comprehensive and well reasoned explanation of the current dilemna facing our British friends. Also to Spacesailor for his posts. I am not English and have never been to Old Blighties' shores. I have no qualifications as an economist being self enlightened only through my reading. I am distrustful of politicians, something that observation of their activities over my long years has strengthened. so, in justification of my views expressed in post #61, I will say; 1. Murdoch has not acted alone in corrupting the media whose function in an informed democracy is to properly inform the people. The Western media are acting more like a crooked cartel in echoing ideas for which there is no actual proof offered,eg. the ridiculous story that Russia was able to deflect the intentions of the mass of US voters to its will. I believe that Murdoch has been perhaps the ring leader in this corruption. 2. You cannot effectively,"Unscramble the eggs". Once Britain had become part of the EU it is simplistic in the extreme to think that this decision can be walked back to year zero and take an alternate path. Too much has changed and re-organisation will be very painful. This is where the attraction of a simple idea became popular. The detail was not thought about by the common voters and the media, with their great resources and responsibility to inform, failed absolutely. 3. It was my assumption that some positive sentiment towards Brittons could have been in play, to allow some rather privileged entry terms. Whether this was true or not, I still feel that they had a rather soft ride, especially being allowed to keep their currency. In re-negotiating their trading terms, the masters of the EU are determined not to repeat this post Brexit. I am indebted to Jerry for his detailed analysis of the situation. I still believe that the voters have "bought a pup" and that GB will suffer from this decision. They are not by any means alone in this quandary and I recommend to readers Yanis Varoufakis' treatise on Greece's troubles, " And the Weak Suffer What They Must", for a deeper understanding of what monetary union (or membership of The EU) means. Regards Don

Prices are shown in pence per litre. Copy & pasted from the site linked to in Octave's post #65. Regds Don

The UK had a dream run when they decided to join the EU. London City was a world center for the finance biz (along with New York's Wall St). There was also probably some residual good will felt towards the pommies for their shared experience following WW2 and the cold war. They were given membership on unique terms, being able to retain the Sterling currency and sharing industrial developments such as Airbus. However, the neocons, no doubt assisted by our own DIrty Digger, wished to keep the socialists away from the power levers. They therefor cooked up the idea that an appeal to nacent British nationalism (not to mention elitism remaining from the time of Empire) might help in electoral matters. Voila! Let's give the nasty EU the shove and go back to being 100% Brits. It worked because readers of Murdoch press don't pay attention to the details, none of which were ever spelled out. Now they are stuck with an half baked (almost) no idea and are wandering around, dumbstruck and calling, "Where the fug'arewe?". A nice lesson to those who don't believe politics is about paying attention to THE DETAILS.

Well Bruce... I don't know so much. We used to pride ourselves in being a helpful neighbor but with our attempts to burgle the emerging Timor nation, deportation of NZ'ers who had lived entire lives in Oz, conspiring to extend an arms length policy of racism and yes, torture to Pacific islands added to the 4th world standards of indigenous Australians, I'm not so sure. Why are we prepared to overlook a Centrelink which is punitive to the point of Scrooge while a $500,000,000 expansion to the WAR Memorial is waved through gladly (what was that about ANZACS?). My wife had a work colleague from S. Africa. She and her husband bought their family here 10 years ago to live. They both worked in community service positions. They, being non-citizens paid private school fees to educate their children (being not entitled to state education). They where model citizens 'till the wife developed health issues. Against the will of their employers, their friends and the community they lived in they were summarily deported back to S. Africa. I've lived here for 67 years and don't really understand what's become of the "Fair Go".

Russia is rich in energy resources. Russia has the largest known natural gas reserves of any state on earth, along with the second largest coal reserves, and the eighth largest oil reserves and its 2018 population is estimated at 143.96 million. It's currently the 9th most populous country on earth, despite being the largest by area. I think that to blythely quote statistics from a graph giving thae measure of national economies according to GDP is fairly disingenuous. Russia is currently the US's 1st, 2nd or 3rd most hated nation. (China or Iran are the other contenders.) It is suffering the effects of extreme economic sanctions applied by the US. Much of the world's trade is transacted in $US. Under these sanctions much of Russia's foreign reserves are not available. Russia manages to feed and sustain its population adequately. It has global leadership in many fields of advanced technology. It holds huge reserves of physical gold and silver. It is also developing its exports of energy rapidly. To compare it to Australia is quite fallacious and a trap which I would not accept. I think that it is dangerous to allow western propaganda to distort one's perception of the strategic balance of power between the US's influence and the East. During the period of Gorbachev and Yeltsin, great damage was done to the state of Russia's economy. Vladimir Putin has managed to redraw Russia's nationalistic strength and spirit as popular and charismatic leaders can. It is probable that, if the catastrophe of world war can be avoided, Russia will emerge as a significant power again.

Referring back to a question that I asked on this forum,"Who runs the presses' dumbing down agenda for the masses?" Given that journalists are mostly tertiary educated and, one hopes, selected for the job because of their excellent analytical skills, why didn't they do their job and warn their readers that the brexit idea was a purely political vote grab? Problem with representative democracy is there is no formal qualification required of voters before they cast their ballot. A friend of mine recently confessed to knowing nothing about politics but insisted that she had every right to a (totally fact free) opinion! If democracy is the best of a thoroughly bad lot then it still misses the mark by a couple of hundred metres.

Any defence of "Western Values " needs to explain our record in Middle East, S/E asia, South and Central America. At this very moment the West is prosecuting a very bloody genocide in Yemen, Budhists in Burma another on Rohingyans and this country hectoring war escapees in Nauru. Humans behave like this and any attempt to sheet this home to one "despised" group or another is self serving Cant.

Back to the main game for a mo... I think the Chinese should come up with a "town car"formula incorporating lightweight bicycle and motor bike tech to build a 3 passenger electric town car, possibly a 3 wheeler. Instead of the 2 gas guzzlers we now have we could have a distance carriage and 1for the groceries. This should sell for around the 10k mark.

There was a lot at stake for the Russians in this. Evidence was presented to the Dutch inquiry stating the quoted engine and nozzle serial numbers. These were not figments of a journalist's imagination.

Serial numbers of missile that downed MH17 tells it was produced in 1986, owned by Ukraine - Russia For anyone who's interested, the above link is a further blow to the conclusion reached by the Dutch investigation of MH17. I don't believe that it was an unbiased, honest attempt to unravel the mystery. Too much supposition, too narrow in selecting evidence.