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Cheap-labour conservatives

Several years ago, US blogger Conceptual Guerilla coined a three-word slogan that explains right wing ideology very succinctly – “cheap-labour conservatives”.

He agrees with Karl Marx that the fortunes of the corporate/capitalist elite depend on keeping the workers “over a barrel”.

Marx saw the conflict between those that own the means of production and those who sell their labour as crucial to the maintenance of capitalism. Its function is to create an obedient, docile, uncritical workforce who will work to support the upper-class’s lifestyle and the economy.

Keeping wages low, or debt pressure high, means workers will be less likely to complain or make demands. As workers struggle to provide their families with all the temptations that a capitalist society offers, they become far less likely to risk their employment, and less able to improve their situation.

At bottom, conservatives believe in a social hierarchy of “haves” and “have nots” that Conceptual Guerilla calls “corporate feudalism”. They have taken this corrosive social vision and dressed it up with a “respectable” sounding ideology which all boils down to the cheap labour they depend on to make their fortunes.

The larger the labour supply, the cheaper it is. The more desperately you need a job, the cheaper you’ll work, and the more power those “corporate lords” have over you.

Cheap-labour conservatives don’t like social spending or our “safety net”. Why? Because when you’re unemployed and desperate, corporations can pay you whatever they feel like – which is inevitably as little as possible. You see, they want you “over a barrel” and in a position to “work cheap or starve”.

Cheap-labour conservatives don’t like the minimum wage, or other improvements in wages and working conditions. Why? These reforms undo all of their efforts to keep you “over a barrel”.

Cheap-labour conservatives like “free trade” agreements. Why? Because there is a huge supply of desperately poor people in the third world who are “over a barrel” and will work cheap.

Cheap-labour conservatives oppose a woman’s right to choose. Why? Unwanted children are an economic burden that put poor women “over a barrel”, forcing them to work cheap.

Cheap-labour conservatives don’t like unions. Why? Because when labour “sticks together”, wages go up. That’s why workers unionize. A united workforce with a representative voice is harder to keep “over a barrel”.

Cheap-labour conservatives constantly bray about “morality”, “virtue”, “respect for authority”, “hard work” and other “values”. Why? So they can blame your being “over a barrel” on your own “immorality”, lack of “values” and “poor choices”.

Cheap-labour conservatives encourage racism, misogyny, homophobia and other forms of bigotry. Why? Bigotry among wage earners distracts them, and keeps them from recognizing their common interests as wage earners.

Cheap-labour conservatives have hated compulsory superannuation and Medicare since their inception.

Many cheap-labour conservatives are hostile to public education. They think it should be privatized. School vouchers are just a backdoor method to widen the gap.

Cheap-labour conservatives hate progressive income tax.

“Free Trade” and globalization are intended to create a world-wide “corporate playground” where national governments serve the interests of corporations – which means “cheap labour”.

The ugly truth is that cheap-labour conservatives just don’t like working people. They don’t like “bottom up” prosperity, and the reason for it is very simple. “Corporate lords” have a harder time kicking them around. Once you understand this about the cheap-labour conservatives, the real motivation for their policies makes perfect sense. Remember, cheap-labour conservatives believe in social hierarchy and privilege, so the only prosperity they want is limited to them. They want to see absolutely nothing that benefits those who work for an hourly wage.

The strategy is clear. The more ignorant and destitute people there are – desperate for any job they can get – the cheaper the cheap-labour conservatives can get them to work.

Included within the slogan “less government” is the whole conservative set of assumptions about the nature of the “free market” and government’s role in that market.. In fact, the whole “public sector/private sector” distinction is an invention of the cheap-labour conservatives.

They say that the “private sector” exists outside and independently of the “public sector”. The public sector, according to cheap-labour ideology, can only “interfere” with the “private sector”, and that such “interference” is “inefficient” and “unprincipled”.

Using this ideology, the cheap-labour ideologue paints himself as a defender of “freedom” against “big government tyranny”. In fact, the whole idea that the “private sector” is independent of the public sector is totally bogus. In fact, “the market” is created by public laws, public institutions and public infrastructure.

But the cheap-labour conservative isn’t really interested in “freedom”. What he wants is the “privatized tyranny” of industrial serfdom, the main characteristic of which is – you guessed it – “cheap labour”.

Cheap-labour conservatives are BIG supporters of the most oppressive and heavy-handed actions the government takes.

Cheap-labour conservatives support the “get tough” and “lock ’em up” approach to virtually every social problem in the spectrum. In fact, it’s the only approach they support. They say our justice system is “too lenient”.

Cheap-labour conservatives want all the military force we can stand to pay for and never saw a weapons system they didn’t like.

Cheap-labour conservatives support intervention in sovereign nations.

Cheap-labour conservatives support “domestic surveillance” against “subversives” – where “subversive” means “everybody but them”.

Cheap-labour believers in “freedom” think it’s the government’s business to decide who can marry.

Cheap-labour conservatives support our offshore detention centres. They also support locking people up incommunicado with “secret evidence” and deportation with no judicial review. Then they say that progressives are “Stalinists”.

These so-called defenders of freedom share a common list of things they oppose.

“Social spending” otherwise known as “redistribution”. While they don’t mind tax dollars being used for killing people, using their taxes to feed people is “stealing”.

Minimum wage laws.

Every piece of legislation ever proposed to improve working conditions.

Unions, who “extort” employers by collectively bargaining.

Environmental regulations.

Federal support and federal standards for public education.

Public broadcasting.

Marriage equality.

These cheap-labour conservatives have no problem at all opening the public purse for corporate interests. it’s “social spending” on people who actually need assistance that they just “can’t tolerate”. And now you know why. Destitute people work cheaper, while a harsh police state keeps them suitably terrorized.

Edit: Thank you to backyard bob for providing the link to the original article by Conceptual Guerilla.

 

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69 comments

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  1. Bighead1883

    What an excellent article comrade Kaye Lee and impressed by your understanding of the proletariat and the picture painted.
    Your descriptive is especially succinct in it`s denuding of the common trait of apathy in the masses to unite and organise.
    http://www.photoonica.com/media-temp/ZHAa4Nr-0.jpg

  2. Kaye Lee

  3. gangey1959

    You’ve hit that nail on the head too Kaye Lee.
    When we the down-trodden re-institute rule 303, the “Cheap-labour Conservatives” are going to die wondering what went wrong with their glorious plan.
    May they rot in purgatory.

  4. diannaart

    Kaye Lee

    That’s what power does to people – to those who have it all, they fear losing power.

    To those who simply want to live, they fear the actions of those who hold power.

    Fear and power, power and fear; still rules our primate brains.

  5. Steve Laing

    Well said Kaye. Hit the button on the head. And stupid people support them because their ego tells them that they too, are superior, even when they are getting it large from behind. It’s why they don’t want to invest in education for the masses either. Keep ’em stupid!

  6. philgorman2014

    Global Corpocracy is the name of their game. Both Australia’s major parties are complicit in establishing the new feudalism with an ignorant, apathetic population enslaved by debt.

  7. Denisio Fabuloso

    While we still have so many of the working class falling for the bullshit and still voting for the very same people who screw them blind – don’t expect much to change. We have for most part and unsophisticated, naive and fundamentally dumb electorate… with very short memories. Great South Extra Pathetica… dumber by the decade.

  8. Matters Not

    This ‘analysis; is valid for the present and the past but it is getting much more complicated now and certainly in the future. Marx recognised that neither the ‘base’ (the forces and relations of production) nor the ‘superstructure’ (all other aspects of society) was static. As the ‘base’ changes so does the ‘superstructure’ including world views, ideas, values, beliefs (culture), norms and expectations, identities that people inhabit, social institutions (education, religion, media, family, among others), the political structure, and the state (the political apparatus that governs society).

    The rapidly accelerating changes in technology continues to deskill ‘labour’ and even eliminate it from the production process. The implication for the ‘base’ (the forces and relations of production) are profound. Already we see ‘economic’ recoveries without falls in the unemployment rates. Indeed they seem to be on the rise, particularly the ‘under employment’ blight. Take 3D printing as an example of how technology is impacting. Already in China, the home of cheap labour, this 3D revolution is well and truly on the march, as it is in the ‘developed’ economies. Less and less people will be needed to make ‘things’.

    The implications for the ‘superstructure’ are also overpowering. The MSM and its influence is in flight, religious affiliation is in decline, as are ‘unions’ and so on. Our world views, our values are changing, and not necessarily for the better. Even the meanings we give to ‘government’, ‘education’, ‘marriage’ and ‘work’ will undergo further rapid change.

    ‘Wealth’ will be even more concentrated in the hands of the few. Inequality will be more evident.

    Interesting, but worrying, times ahead.

  9. Blinky Ewok

    Great article. I agree with everything you have written. Keep up the good work.

  10. Deanna Jones

    Love this, Kaye! I have shared it on Facebook and will re-share when the election is called.

    It’s also one of the reasons that women were denied the right to education for so long and why many women still are.

  11. mars08

    Youse creatins still don get et, duz ya? Its them bloody boat people wot are stuffin it up fer the real straayns…

  12. bossa

    Brilliant, but terrifying that people don’t know this stuff. The LNP vote skyrocketed when Turnbull got to be PM, even though the policies are the same. Stupidity and ignorance are tantamount to insanity in this situation.

  13. Matters Not

    Purists may have noticed that I wrote:

    Less and less people will be needed

    rather than ‘fewer and fewer people’. It was deliberate because ‘fewer’ is used when it ‘counts’ and these days people don’t ‘count’.

    Just explaining.

  14. Ricardo29

    Once again in awe of your ability to distil such significant ideas into readable prose. I too will share this on Facebook even though my readership is “the converted”. It might filter through to some who could benefit. Thanks again KL.

  15. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    Thanks Matters Not, for the explanation.

    I’m not sure which would be better anyway in my preferred socio-economically cohesive community that sees what benefits one demographic, benefits another and another like a well-oiled wheel.

    I cannot comprehend why the ‘cheap labour conservatives’ can’t see that their ignorant, short-sighted, frightened, insular view of life will destroy them because survival for us means breaking out of the bonds that would suffocate us.

  16. i have a nugget of pure green

    agree.

  17. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    Ricardo29,

    we keep the good fight going, Comrade, by reading, speaking and sharing on and from this site.

    Not only the converted, read these articles and our comments and the more we share with other social media, the better.

  18. Kaye Lee

    I must stress that this is just an edited (and slightly altered) version of the article by Conceptual Guerilla. I received a transcript via facebook after the last article I wrote but it didn’t contain a link. Backyard Bob has provided the link to the original. Thanks.

    It was written over ten years ago about the US but is eerily applicable to us here today….right down to the new Education Minister, Simon Birmingham, keenly advocating “school vouchers”. Warning Will Robinson, Tea Party approaching.

  19. PC

    Once again excellent work, Kaye Lee.

  20. kerri

    And this is precisely why the truly stupid look up to your Donald Trump’s and your Malcolm Turnbull’s. Not because they are to be admired, but because they are richer than the truly stupid people. The Walmart Effect anyone? The Royal Family of Britain? These are not self made people in the fair sense of the words they are self made on the backs of cheap labour! Gina Rinehart’s $2 a day workers? Or how about the aboriginal stockmen Twiggy grew up with “like they were brothers” you know the ones Twiggy talks about who were treated like equals? Except none of them are equal enough to come forward and back up Twiggy’s claims?
    For the life of me I will never comprehend this worship of wealth as some mysterious (get a better job) talent that the masses are incapable of? The solution to the enormous wealth gap lies in Education which is why Education must be free for all. Primary, Secondary and 1 tertiary qualification for every kid who qualifies by their grades! Gough Whitlam had the right idea as does Angele Merkel. What if the cure for cancer is locked inside the mind of a child in a poor home? Coal will not get it out and the descendants of wealthy idiots won’t either!

  21. kerri

    Addendum
    “That’s what power does to people – to those who have it all, they fear losing power.”
    At this comment I must protest!
    I do know some very wealthy people who do their best for their workers.
    A friend who was one of the first manufacturer’s to have an on site creche.
    He also ordered work vehicles with airbags as soon as they came in.
    Believed his workers were too valuable to lose to maternity leave and/or road trauma.
    Look at the Gates?
    Australia has more than it’s fair share of nasty, greedy, wealthy, superior minded millionairres that’s true but there are many you will never hear about who are sharing whilst they grow their wealth.
    And YES! The Education Voucher system is utterly abhorrent! Why do we need to make vouchers? If you are endeavouring to be fair then schools recieve funding according to enrolment patterns and education is free for all. Private Schools can do their own math as can their customers!

  22. bobrafto

    Listen here Jammy girl, you’re wasting your time here. I want to see you as our PM with Victoria as your deputy and wouldn’t Oz be a much better place.

    I can just see you on the telly having a fireside chat in your jammies.

    Anyway, I’ll keep on dreaming.

  23. Kaye Lee

    The world is full of people with great ideas. It is not a waste of time to pass them on because, until we can inform others, the solutions cannot be enacted. I am a teacher, a communicator, but I am not the creator of these ideas. At the moment, the world looks one way, but increasingly we are hearing the calls for sanity. We must not let the corporate propaganda drown them out. In Australia, we have the freedom and the obligation, the responsibility, to stand up and speak out (unless you work for Save the Children). I will take whatever venue I can to do so.

  24. Kaye Lee

    And could I say, the AIMN is a great place for a middle-aged woman in jammies to enjoy stimulating conversation with people from whom I learn a great deal.

  25. Richard Kopf

    Kaye, this is a good article and describes the motivation of the wealthy in keeping the rest of us in a form of servitude.But I have read it elsewhere, before.

  26. Matters Not

    am not the creator of these ideas

    Can only agree. Our ‘ideas’ are always rooted in a social/cultural/historical location. I don’t think I’ve had any idea in my life that was devoid of my ‘location’. Indeed, to suggest that the great ‘thinkers’ weren’t influenced by the ‘other’, broadly defined, is just a nonsense.

    Won’t go into who influenced whom, how and why. I’ll leave that to the reader.

    At best, we provide a different and sometimes insightful ‘synthesis’, and Kaye Lee does that very well. And often.

  27. Kaye Lee

    Richard,

    As I have tried to point out (see comment at 8:51pm), the majority of this is from an article by Conceptual Guerilla. It is an old article that people on facebook are trying to keep alive for good reason.

    I have added a few things, edited it a bit, and made it a bit more applicable to current-day Australia. CG’s thoughts are very worth sharing. There is a link to the original article provided in the comments thanks to one of our readers.

  28. PhllB

    It has been known since the mists of time, the establishment will never have any problem finding half the working class to beat up on the other half. Kaye’s burst is nothing new. Well put none the less.

  29. bobrafto

    Ms Jammy

    It is the culmination of all your articles that I read which prompted me to think that you’re PM material and I also have a huge respect for Victoria although I did have a little good humoured dig at her understandable frustration in her last post.

  30. harvey monte

    It is a very interesting article. I am not sure whether many of the Tories would necessarily articulate their political creed in this way partly because i doubt whether they are fully aware of the real socio-political effects of the policies they support. Eg there were several MP’s unhappy about the child credit cuts. In support of your main thesis, however, it is interesting that until about 30 years’ ago the distribution of wealth had remained fairly constant since Tudor times. The gap between rich and poor began to open radically following Thatcher’s emasculation of the Unions which Blair did nothing.about and the gap opened even more. One contradiction in Marx’s teaching was that he feared education of the workers leading to social mobility. which in turn would mean diluting the working class and strengthening the bourgeoisie who were anti-revolutionary.

  31. Matters Not

    One contradiction in Marx’s teaching was that he feared education of the workers leading to social mobility. which in turn would mean diluting the working class and strengthening the bourgeoisie who were anti-revolutionary.

    Perhaps you have a ‘link’ for that claim? Please.

    ‘Shakes head’ re understanding of Marx and what he ‘theorised’.

  32. paul walter

    Sorry, must be the Black Dog, I actually avoided it and after just reading I am sitting here a bit broken hearted..why does it hurt?

  33. corvus boreus

    paul walter,
    Why the hurt? Old question.
    Catullus (Roman poet circa 50 bce) wrote “Odi et amo. quare id faciam, fortasse requiris? Nnescio, sed fieri sentio et excrucior”. It means ‘I hate and I love. Why do I, you ask? I don’t know, but it’s happening and it hurts’.
    “The nature of existence is suffering, the cause of suffering is desire” are the first two ‘noble truths’ espoused in of Siddhartha Gautama’s Buddhist teachings (circa 6th C bce).
    Apparently, life just hurts.

    The black dog bites me too, often and hard.
    A psych-doc called it a combination of congenital and situational/observational factors.
    He recommended that I consume less liquid depressants and try to seek and cherish moments of real joy (they can and do exist).
    I think that suggestion, along with ‘find a creative outlet’, ‘articulate your emotions’ and ‘get your prostrate checked’, constitutes sound practical advice for most men.

    (Sorry for the off topic)

  34. Kaye Lee

    You make me laugh cb. Laughter is good medicine 🙂

  35. diannaart

    @kerri

    That’s what power does to people – to those who have it all, they fear losing power.
    At this comment I must protest!
    I do know some very wealthy people who do their best for their workers.

    You do understand what a generalisation is?

    I know wealthy people who do good (not necessarily all employers either) – there just aren’t nearly enough altruists.

    Also, why did you not protest “To those who simply want to live, they fear the actions of those who hold power.”

    Opposite side of same coin.

  36. kizhmet

    Thought-provoking reading Kaye Lee – eliciting bone-deep anxiety not just that you are right, but that it is happening. Now. Australia’s love affair with all that is American will see us travel the same path, our education and healthcare systems down the drain, increasing wealth disparity. Will Australia wake up and smell the odour of greed and lust for power permeating our government and MSM?

    As an educator I advocate universally free education – it has the potential to be the great equaliser. I will never understand why taxpayer dollars subsidise private schools and at a higher rate than public schools. It is inherently wrong. School vouchers … what next?! The sooner LNP and their odious “more for the rich, less for everyone else” policies and ideology are consigned to dustbin of history, the better.

    I learn much here – thank you everyone for your invaluable articles and contributions. Keep up the good fight!

  37. jimhaz

    Not heard the term before, but it is spot on. It would apply to the majority of vocal conservatives. The less vocal cheap-labour providers who are conservatives are just shallow thinkers – which is why they are often both right wingers and religious (though I think religion causes the shallow thinking as it causes their auto-obedience to power to become habitual).

    One of the many reasons I want immigration rates to halve is for this very factor. Immigrants more often than not are happy to be serfs as it is so much better economically than their home countries. I work in a high immigrant office and they are all Yes people who don’t question the loose or errant decisions of our managerial lordies. All I can say is that it is no wonder gov agencies are becoming more and more hopeless at improvement.

  38. paul walter

    Yes Kaye Lee. CB offered up an adult’s reply and I appreciate the thoughtful response.

  39. philgorman2014

    A first class free and secular system of public education is the key to a more intelligent, better informed, creative, prosperous and equitable society. Whitlam acted on Kemlani Report to re-start the process of establishing such a system. Subsequent governments have bowed to the interests whose dominance is threatened by such “egregious egalitarianism”. Damn them; blackguards and traitors all!

  40. philgorman2014

    Fallible Giants

    It behoves us to remember that today’s progressive movements stand, or sit, on the shoulders of giants.

    We should, however, avoid falling into the hero worshipping fallacy that all giants a right about everything. Marx, for instance, could be regarded as a brilliant diagnostician but a dodgy prescriber. 20th Century Communism proved to be as prone to corruption and tyranny as any other capitalist or totalitarian system. One thing he was probably right about was that the triumph of Capitalism, red in tooth and claw, will precede its downfall. Then what?

  41. Bighead1883

    Well said Phil and a perplexing question.
    One marxist theory is only ramping up war will sustain capitalism because the dysfunction in being able to see infrastructure spending as to re-building being the same-
    Capitalism requires growth and the above is a logical way of achieving that,but the neo-con austerity mind is a child`s one that must break things.
    The other is as there a now a number of Socialist countries and Socialist leaders in Western Nations the movement will grow exponentially especially as US Fiscal hegemony is attacked by BRICS and now Iran is set to join making it BRIICS

    There`s plenty to go on with especially now that Russia has proven categorically that the Syrian conflict is a manufactured false flag by the US and it`s Allies with finally the Ron Paul Institute being the latest in spilling the beans on IS

    http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2015/october/09/the-mystery-of-isis-toyota-army-solved

  42. Kaye Lee

    Bighead,

    That link you provided asks a good question about where IS are getting the Toyota trucks but, since it originated from Russia, I would need a lot more proof to believe the false flag theory. Blindly accepting Russian propaganda is as fraught with danger as accepting US propaganda.

  43. Heterodox (@mmt_rod)

    Cheap Labour Conservatism AKA Neoliberalism AKA Neoconservatism is the new feudalism, privatisation and massive mortgage debt to ensure we will be forever paying rents to our Corporate Feudal Lords, Banks and 1%

  44. Bighead1883

    Kaye the link I posted is not Russian or Middle Eastern it from US Republican Ron Paul Institute,check out the Home Page etc for veracity.
    http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2015/october/09/the-mystery-of-isis-toyota-army-solved

    Now here`s another very High Level whistleblower the former head of the DIA, Michael T. Flynn

    Former US Intelligence Chief Admits Obama Took “Willful Decision” to Support ISIS rise

    First appeared: http://journal-neo.org/2015/08/13/former-us-intelligence-chief-admits-obama-took-willful-decision-to-support-isis-rise/

    Then finally Kaye if you wish to read an article from the Syrian Free Press network it`s here

    Photo Proof ~ Identifying the “FSA” ~ [WARNING: Disturbing Images]

  45. Kaye Lee

    Bighead,

    Your link from ron paul ends “Reprinted with permission from New Eastern Outlook. ”

    New Eastern Outlook is the online publication of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences which is Russia’s leading research institution for the study of the countries and cultures of Asia and North Africa. The institute is located in Moscow.

  46. Pingback: Cheap-labour conservatives – » The Australian Independent Media Network | olddogthoughts

  47. Bighead1883

    And this then makes the article not credible to you.
    Would the Ron Paul institute only use it to attack Obama and Clinton over Benghhazi?

    Does Michael Flynn also not make sense because his whistleblowing come via NEO,where would he tell his story then/,CNN.
    I`m not fussed whether you believe it or not because the US/Israel have been outed in their False Flag operations in Iraq/Syria

    You have not made any point clear to me other than a source which you seem to doubt,do you have an explanation why the Ron Paul Institute would print that article,other than outing Obama and Clinton.

    Do you have any doubts that Benghazi was the US main staging point for supplying arms to IS/
    Do you have any doubt that those earlier arms were ones supplied to Libyan rebels [who deposed gaddafi for regime change]
    I don`t and nor do any who have studied the recent history

    Like many I too wondered at the Toyota`s,fleets of them,brazenly driving through the Iraqi desert and into Syria
    Soon enough some of these Toyota`s were fitted with anti aircraft guns and machine guns,I even remember some pics with rocket launcher Toyotas

    But I digress because when Hussein invaded Kuwait the world MSM went nuts and the first Iraq war began,bomb cam,rocket cam and I was waiting for bullet cam.
    The fleets of fleeing Iraq military vehicles and their hard stolen Rolls Royces and Bentleys were seen strewn all over the roadside,wiped out destroyed in no time by air bombardment and canon fire

    Us tanks rolled through the desert taking out the enemy easily and within a short time not only Kuwait but Iraq itself was taken

    But a ragtag force in hundreds of newly minted Toyota`s could not be taken,is it because Hiluxes are unbreakable?
    BYe Kaye,keep up doing what you do as I feel you have made short of the truth by your dismissal because of source,believe whatever you will,I know I do,after my own research.

    The above article Defeat The Right In 3 Minutes is a goody.

  48. Kaye Lee

    Bighead,

    Your overreaction does you little service and misrepresents what I said. I said the article asked a good question. I said I would require further proof. I dismissed nothing. You seemed to have missed that the article originated in Russia. I make no comment on the credibility of the specific source. It may be very credible, I do not know, but I always feel that anything coming out of Russia is subject to a degree of censorship.

    The article shows that the US and the UK have provided a small number of Toyotas to the Free Syrian Army who no longer really exist. This does not account for the numbers of vehicles we see. It asks how so many vehicles could have been imported. Good question. It does not state definitively who is currently providing this fleet of vehicles. That is something I too would like to know. I would also like to know who is buying oil from IS. Some suggest Turkey. Can’t the pipelines be shut down?

    I am also aware that self-serving actions by Western powers have had a destabilising effect. I don’t think military people are the best to judge the consequences of their actions.

  49. Bighead1883

    I`m sorry Kaye you see my explanation as overreaction,I see it as an explanation for posting what i did and why I did.

    A more recent report in an Australian newspaper said that more than 800 of the trucks had been reported missing in Sydney between 2014 and 2015, and quoted terror experts speculating that they may have been exported to ISIS territory.

    http://abcnews.go.com/International/us-officials-isis-toyota-trucks/story?id=34266539

    Saudi Arabia is accused of supplying arms and vehicles as well and they`re coming through Turkey,who incidentally are attacking Kurds as i write and have done so under the guise of fighting IS.

    Those brave women fighters we all saw quite some time back who were ready to defend Kobane against ISIL were eventually blown to pieces by Turkish aerial bombardment
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/11697764/Isil-reenters-key-Syria-border-town-of-Kobane-live.html
    and here
    https://www.opendemocracy.net/arab-awakening/kamran-matin/why-is-turkey-bombing-kurds

    Your last question is a beauty kaye [can`t the pipelines be shut down?]
    This opens the financing for this CIA/Mossad/MI6 op as heroin helps finance Afghanistan,oil helps finance [and confiscated gold] helps finance ISIL ops.

    It`s common knowledge that IS fighters are paid $150 per day $US and this cash is dropped by air aid along with munitions by even us,Australia,as we have “accidentally”dropped cargo meant for those fighting IS to actually IS fighters,it`s happening all the time and the cat`s out the bag.

    Meanwhile the West`s Bankster enforced Austerity programs have massive unemployed whom they hope will soon enough join in the warring efforts-geeze the money is just printed out of thin air-counted and charged with interest to the American taxpayer

    The US claims to have lost $2.3 trillion dollars before 9/11 and it`s this lost money also funding their regimeè changes [Iran/Contra}[Columbia/Ortega/Cocaine} etc

  50. Geoff Andrews

    kizhmet (@10.44am yesterday)

    “Australia’s love affair with all that is American ….” ?

    The cheap-labour conservatives are the ones with the love affair – it is a glittering prize, an object of envy, tactics to be aped.
    They accept without question the ridiculous proposition that all men were created equal, allowing them to demonize the poor, the intellectually and physically disabled, the leaning losers; while lauding themselves for being clever enough to be born into a rich family or with some other inherent advantage.
    They appear to be ignorant of the concept of the Normal Distribution or worse still, if they are aware of it, are able to dismiss those on the left of the curve.

  51. Bighead1883

    A dubious distinction: Hilux utes stolen from Sydney ‘are the preferred armoured vehicles’ for ISIS fighters in the Middle East
    Terror experts fear stolen Toyota Hiluxes are being shipped to war zones
    Nearly all the cars targeted from Sydney have been Toyota Hilux utes
    bout 834 Hilux models were reported missing between 2014 and 2015

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3201073/Stolen-Toyota-Hilux-prestige-utes-Sydney-shipped-Middle-East-used-armoured-vehicles-Islamic-State.html

  52. Kaye Lee

    Bighead,

    Ummmm….stolen Utes from Sydney shipped to Syria? I find that very hard to believe. Aside from the fact that there would be records of the shipping, don’t you think they would notice they were left-hand drive?

  53. Bighead1883

    You`ll also notice kaye in the US-ABC video that the ISIS driven Toyotas are left hand driven,so their story of over 800 being from Australia doesn`t add up
    Also there are far more than 43 Toyotas in those videos which are right hand drive-do the 43 supplied by the US State Dept doesn`t stack up either.

    Keep your eye out for right hand drive Hiluxes as only two can be made out from what I`ve seen

  54. Kaye Lee

    Toyota’s own figures show sales of Hilux and Land Cruisers tripling from 6,000 sold in Iraq in 2011 to 18,000 sold in 2013. Don’t you think that a far more likely source? Why would you bother shipping a stolen car from Sydney when you can buy one there?

  55. mars08

    A Hilux is an armoured vehicle? Well that should make insurance much, much cheaper!

  56. Bighead1883

    Bugga,I seem to have wasted my time showing you these things as you already know everything
    As we say in the bush-don`t call me and I`ll not call you

  57. Kaye Lee

    I don’t purport to have first hand knowledge of anything. I have many questions. How could you export 800 stolen cars from Australia without there being some record?

  58. Kaye Lee

    Bighead,

    Have you looked at that photolink? Firstly you can’t actually see the drivers but the lead car is clearly right hand drive because there is a guy hanging out the left hand window.

    The videos also all show right hand drive vehicles from what I can see.

  59. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    To me, the photolink shows they look like left hand drive vehicles thus those ones would not be stolen from Australia.

  60. Kaye Lee

    ummmm….am I confused? I thought our vehicles were called left hand drive and the ones in the photos called right hand drive (after the side of the road on which you drive rather than the side the steering wheel is on). Regardless, they are not what we drive.

  61. Kaye Lee

    It seems to me that the enormous spike in sales of these vehicles in Iraq is the most obvious answer. (And I think it is me that’s muddled about what we call cars. Ours are right-hand drive so I have been saying the wrong thing)

  62. diannaart

    Iraq could supply 800+ vehicles without batting an eyelid.

    Iraq has a population of 32 million people and the fourth largest oil reserves in the world. Because of its high potential, the country is expected to exhibit rapid economic growth in the future to grow into a large market equivalent to that of Saudi Arabia, where nearly 300,000 Toyota cars are sold every year. In light of this potential, Sumitomo Corporation will place greater emphasis on car sales as well as the after-sales service business in Iraq than ever before, aiming to sell 100,000 cars a year in the future.

    http://www.sumitomocorp.co.jp/english/business/article/id=210

  63. Bighead1883

    The steering wheel determines which drive the vehicle is called
    Left hand drive is an American etc car with the steering wheel on the left hand side of the VEHICLE so as the driver is at the middle of the road facing oncoming traffic whilst driving on the right side of the road
    Australia UK etc are opposite to what I wrote
    Other than that Google your information because it seems you either dis believe all I type or are having me on
    I hope in all reality that you are not a driver on our roads

  64. Kaye Lee

    Excuse my mistake. And I have been a driver on our roads for over 40 years.

    I find your responses perplexing. You have ignored every question I have asked and every point I have brought up and seem miffed with me for not just accepting what you are telling me. To tell the truth, I am not actually sure what you are telling me anymore, partly due to my confusion about what we call cars.

    Are you suggesting that the cars stolen in Australia are being shipped to IS in containers through Turkey?

  65. Gerard

    cheap labour conservatism sound similar to fascism

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