Month: October 2024

What Is Freedom?

by SpeakTruth

6 October 2024 2 hrs

Freedom is a word with a lot of baggage in America. Think about free speech! The land of the free. The free market. Kris Kristofferson, who died this week, famously sang – “freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.” Americans are inundated with this term and have been since the inception of their country. What is freedom? According to the Oxford Dictionary:

1. The power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants. “we do have some freedom of choice” Similar: right to entitlement to privilege prerogative due

2. the state of not being imprisoned or enslaved. “the shark thrashed its way to freedom”

featured history identity latest post morality politics religion

by SpeakTruth

6 October 2024 2 hrs

What Is Freedom?

1. The power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants. “we do have some freedom of choice” Similar: right to entitlement to privilege prerogative due

2. the state of not being imprisoned or enslaved. “the shark thrashed its way to freedom”

featured history identity latest post morality politics religion

close up of british shorthair cat relaxing indoors

by SpeakTruth

30 September 2024 6 dys

Another Lazy Thinking Way Of Operating

There is no left or right, not really, not in political terms. There are many shades of thought and philosophies existing and interacting around the place at any one time in history. Grouping everything into a binary is just another lazy thinking way of operating. It is similar to focusing on one individual at the expense of acknowledging teams and organisations being responsible for actions, achievements and perceived failures. This all comes down to how we like to tell stories and the kind of stories we most like consuming. We, as human beings, shift the emphasis within episodic events to make them more coherent and linked to a central theme or character. We strip out the stuff we judge as tangential and beef up what we want to shine through.

democracy economics featured Government history identity latest post politics

by SpeakTruth

20 September 2024 2 weeks

Greed Gave Us The GFC & We Have Been Paying Ever Since

The Global Financial Crisis (GFC) grew out of the wage suppressing impacts of neoliberalism and its response to the lack of domestic economic demand and growth this engendered within Western economies in the late Eighties and Nineties. Manufacturing jobs were moved offshore to cheaper labour […]

Episode 12: The Politics of Grievance - Robert Sudha Hamilton's Podcast

America is the great democratic experiment. Although, this is getting on for some 250 years now. This nation is in the grip of the politics of grievance. Partisan politics in America is more about hating the other side than particularly loving the side you are voting for. Americans have been encouraged to focus their attention upon their grievances via decades of negative campaigning and attack ads. Demonizing ‘the other’ is the favoured political pastime in the 21C. Identity politics and social values are the main game these days. Economic issues are now seen through this ideological filter.Murdoch, Fox & Stirring Grievance In AmericaRupert Murdoch and his Fox News are merchants of toxic polarization. This network is spewing out lies and fake news 24/7. Every presentation is top heavy in anti-woke content and a right wing bias. Regular viewers are sucked into a spin cycle of libertarian anti-government GOP grievance stoking. Old white men upset at their changing worlds, where heaven forbid minorities are now getting a say. OMG the sky is going to fall in. In this partisan realm complaints about there being too many coloured faces on TV and LGBTQIA folk making too much noise are legion. Uppity women talking about sexual harassment and such like make their viewer’s blood boil – which is the whole idea for Fox. Getting their audience riled up keeps eyeballs on them and advertising rates going up for their revenue.Popularizing Poisonous Issues For Political GainThe politics of grievance is all about popularizing these causes for the benefit of candidates and the party. The party promoting these grievances doesn’t need positive policies. They just bang on about how the other side is to blame for the problem.

Girl killed, woman missing after suburban house fire 6 October 2024
An eight-year-old girl dies and a woman is missing, feared dead, after a large fire at a unit complex east of Brisbane.
Gemma Ferguson and Molly Slattery
'We've bled together': Trump returns to site of Pennsylvania assassination attempt 6 October 2024
Donald Trump returns to Pennsylvania, where he was nearly assassinated in July, holding a rally with heightened security and guest Elon Musk.
Immigration has provided 'marginal economic benefit', says the assistant minister. A lot rides on what happens next 6 October 2024
Assistant Minister for Immigration Matt Thistlethwaite has offered a scathing assessment of Australia's approach to immigration. A lot rides on the government's efforts to re-establish bipartisanship, writes Gareth Hutchens.
Gareth Hutchens
Graeme reluctantly hangs up his high-vis as nickel smelter marks 'end of an era' 6 October 2024
Through mining booms and busts, the Kalgoorlie Nickel Smelter in Western Australia has operated continuously since 1973. But workers are now being stood down as BHP prepares to place its Nickel West division on care and maintenance.
Jarrod Lucas
World War II veteran receives missing service medals nearly 80 years later 5 October 2024
Glenn Dobie served Australia during World War II, but his friends and family later discovered he never received the recognition he was entitled to.
Sam Bradbrook
'No men allowed' ladies lounge to close as artist declares Mona artwork has 'run its course' 5 October 2024
The female artist behind the "women only" lounge at the centre of a discrimination complaint from a man who was refused entry says the space at Hobart's Mona will close.
Jessica Moran
Joyful festival celebrates Australia's fastest-growing migrant community 5 October 2024
As more Nepalese people settle in Australia, Dashain festival celebrations are expanding to offer them a taste of home and a chance to share their culture.
Rosemary Bolger
A statewide granny flat building code could make for faster approvals and cheaper construction 5 October 2024
Building a secondary dwelling in Queensland requires approval from one of the state's 77 different council areas, but a new building code is proposing to change that for the better.
Mark Rigby
From NRL discard to integral cog, this Panthers playmaker has been to Hull and back again 5 October 2024
Just 18 months ago Brad Schneider packed up his life and headed to England as his NRL dream looked all but over. Now the playmaker is hoping to be a part of history with the all-conquering Panthers.
'Tough old cat' resuscitated by firefighter after blaze destroys family home in NSW 5 October 2024
A family who lost everything in a house fire aren't surprised their pet cat pulled through, after being given lifesaving treatment by a volunteer firefighter who works as a veterinary nurse.
Claire Simmonds
'It doesn't have to be split equally': Who pays when building or repairing a shared fence? 5 October 2024
While generally it is up to neighbours to split the cost of the build, repair, or replacement of a shared fence, it's not always as simple as splitting it down the middle.
Kellie Scott
Two people killed in buggy rollover in Victoria's east 5 October 2024
An adult and a child are dead after a buggy carrying four people rolled at a private property at Tubbut, in Victoria's east.
Meet the 11 candidates vying to become Melbourne's next lord mayor 5 October 2024
The race to become Melbourne's next lord mayor has begun. These are the candidates and what they stand for.
Mietta Adams and Ruth Brook
'Crime of the century' survivor breaks silence 52 years after Faraday school kidnapping 5 October 2024
On a quiet October day in 1972, Victoria Police faced the unthinkable when six students and a teacher were kidnapped from a country school. Now one of the survivors is sharing her story.
Andrew Murdoch
The 'Pyramids of Burnie' are a local icon, but some people think they should be shifted 5 October 2024
The woodchip pile has been in place for decades, and the idea of shifting it may have never crossed the mind of locals.
Sandy Powell
Five Israeli strikes hit south Beirut, four of them 'very violent', Lebanese media says 5 October 2024
Five Israeli strikes hit south Beirut and its outskirts on Saturday evening with four of them "very violent", according to official Lebanese media.
After losing 10 people to suicide, Sofia's joining the front lines of Australia's mental health battle 5 October 2024
The 28-year-old is training to become a paramedic in the hope she can "make a difference" to anyone suffering the way her loved ones did.
Monty Jacka
Cost of living, healthcare, crime: What's on the minds of marginal voters? 5 October 2024
Queensland Labor needs to convince regional voters it deserves a fourth term in government, but it has a tough battle on its hands from the LNP.
Rachel Stewart
'Like a blowtorch': From above, the frost impact on vineyards is obvious 5 October 2024
As crop growers across the country's south-east come to grips with the fallout from last month's unseasonally freezing overnight temperatures, there are calls for the event to be treated as a natural disaster in order to trigger urgent government assistance.
Bethanie Alderson and Eliza Berlage
Poultry abandoned at 'chook and rooster corners' on Tassie roadsides amid cost-of-living crunch 5 October 2024
The dumping of poultry on roadsides in Tasmania is such an issue some hotspots are known as "chook" or "rooster corners". It's prompted amnesty and rehoming days where hundreds of birds are surrendered and adopted into new homes.
Lucie Cutting