129 comments

1. Jennifer Meyer-SmithMay 18, 2017 at 10:15 am

   I like your rant even if I’m annoyed with the non-existent gender inclusivity (except at the end) and I’m not prepared to give up on the human race yet.

2. JohnMay 18, 2017 at 10:52 am

   Why is Murdoch still alive? Because Satan wants nothing to do with him.

3. helvityniMay 18, 2017 at 11:02 am

   …I certainly do not like what’s happening in Australia today; we are materialistic and lack compassion. I wasn’t always like this; the last two governments have divided this country; the road to recovery will be long and difficult.

4. SueMay 18, 2017 at 11:13 am

   Christian, lots true there, but what matters?
   Only the individual can find freedom.

   “It all stems from the system of greed we call capitalism”
   Turn the focus of the lens inwards it seems that what we call capitalism, or any –ism really, has its origin in an inner world attitude. Any and all –isms are latent in all people, inclusive of this writer. Greed looks a lot like desire, but desire with a failed or missing power of discrimination.
   On a good-hair day greed is desire, but desire for something that benefits the greater good.

   On the topic of reality TV, brain rot and loss of critical thinking:
   And on the 8th day, the MSM rested and gave mankind a diet of canned laughter and twitter.
   And the people were blissful in their ignorance.

5. helvityniMay 18, 2017 at 11:17 am

   “Why is Murdoch still alive? Because Satan wants nothing to do with him.”

   John , I think it’s because Satan needs Murdoch as his helper. Of course Satan knows that his helper is aging, therefore he is fostering some new ones, somewhat younger Devils…no need to name them here… 🙂

6. darrel nayMay 18, 2017 at 11:27 am

   Millions of people move to the west every year to enjoy our relative freedom of expression and freedom of association – these people are voting with their feet. We must be doing something right.

   Cheers

7. darrel nayMay 18, 2017 at 11:28 am

   The West is the Best

8. Miriam EnglishMay 18, 2017 at 11:41 am

   Granted, there are many repellent aspects of humanity, but we are getting better (though more slowly than I’d like) and most people value fairness and honesty. Yes, some are duped by the lies and distortions from Murdoch but propaganda has always affected people. In days past most people looked forward to fighting in wars as a grand adventure, and they believed that people with a different skin color were inferior, it was accepted that women weren’t capable of complex thought, and children were owned to be used and discarded as a resource.

   Things have changed. People are now aware of the injustices, where before they couldn’t even see them. Yes, we are outraged by those injustices, but that’s a good thing. It is much better than greater evil passing almost completely unnoticed.

   It’s easy to be dragged down by the feeling that it is all going to hell, but even though there are many bad things, the world is actually improving. That doesn’t mean we should surrender to passively ride the change though, because the change requires us to keep pushing. We must take heart from the fact that it is working.

   It wasn’t long ago that we could never hope to influence the actions of obscenely wealthy banks, but now we do. Only one bank remains to stand with Adani: CommBank. All the others have been pushed to abandon that insane Carmichael mine. We did that! All around the world we are having a positive effect on the rampages of out-of-control giant corporations who think humans are their playthings. We’ve stopped a corporation killing protesters in South America, we got protesters and gay people and journalists released from prison in dozens of countries around the world. An unstoppable renewable energy wave has begun that will end fossil fuels in a decade. The movement to efficiency is winding back the obscene waste in developed countries. This will let us all live longer and more healthily while simultaneously making more food and other resources available to the rest of the world. There are projects to make all the world’s knowledge available to everybody for free (Project Gutenberg, Archive.org, Wikipedia, Wikibooks, CrashCourse, etc). The maker revolution is bringing manufacturing to the masses, subverting the grip big corporations have had on production. Computers are getting cheaper, smaller, more powerful, and use less electricity to do more. There are many, many changes for the better happening. And yes, many more need to occur, but we can do this. We are doing it.

   In my garden I feed a lot of birds. Many are parrots. Parrots are extremely intelligent animals, and if we somehow exterminate ourselves I think they are prime candidates for the next intelligent species to rule this planet. I see in them squabbles and displays of rude greed that no modern human would exhibit. Once upon a time we humans would have acted the same way, but we have grown. We are much smarter and more moral than previous generations. And this trend will continue.

   Don’t lose hope. That’s to succumb to the ploy of the extremist right-wing. They try to make you feel fear, anger, and hopelessness. They want you to think there’s no way you can help and by doing this they disempower you. By giving up they win. By continuing to fix things we — all humanity — win. Keep trying to change things for the better. It is frustrating, but it works. We are slowly winning.

9. Klaus PetratMay 18, 2017 at 11:48 am

   Quite trivial comment darral nay. People come here full of hopes. Hopes which they have taken from Hollywood Movies etc. With some exceptions, ask them a couple of years later how they feel here, how they feel to fork out hundreds of dollars for unnecessary Visa extensions, X-Rays, rent, water, electricity.

   They get disillusioned. I agree 100% with this author, that the general Australian public has no energy to stand up, to flock to the roads in tens of thousands.

   We don’t have a Bernie Sanders. Australians do love their Foxtel and reality shows more than the daily struggle to survive.

   This is a sad country and it’s going to get worse. Give the corporate sector another 65 Billion, they sure need it.

   At the same time, control the population and make them piss in little jars before claiming benefits.

   This place is rapidly going to shit, if no action is taken.

10. Miriam EnglishMay 18, 2017 at 11:49 am

    It’s not just the West that is improving. The rate of violent crime as been dropping everywhere for hundreds of years. Some places improve in some ways faster than others, but we’re all improving… even with Trump and Fox setbacks. We could easily go backwards, but because people constantly push for improvements we will continue to improve. Those who selfishly want everybody else to lose, are themselves losing, even though they might sometimes have small wins. We must never stop struggling. We are winning… all around the world. It is slow, and often painful, but we are winning.

11. Klaus PetratMay 18, 2017 at 12:16 pm

    Miriam, you may find some 50 years ago, after the war, people were worn out from wars and were much more in tune with each other. Why was this so?

    It’s called equality.

    As long as equality is a one way street, and it has been in most western societies, we are going backwards. The rich get richer and the…. You get the drift.

    This trend needs to be fought. The fact that governments serve themselves and an elite in society is a cancer which drives us backward. This needs to be fought. Once upon a time, democratic governments served the people. That’s where we need to go back to.

    Of course, in the course of hundreds of years, they may only be small setbacks. But all people had that thought, when the corrupt and criminal elite of Rome fell. That was a necessary but gigantic step backward.

    Nothing I can say fits into a couple of paragraphs. But we are a fast consuming, short attention span news society. All downhill at this point, unless Australia wakes up.

12. MaeveMay 18, 2017 at 12:49 pm

    “Hating on” what is this? Western culture is doomed because we are all willingly prostrating ourselves before the High God of American culture.

    “The average citizen with a shoe sized IQ” insulting everyone else as a means to big note yourself is a right turn off to the average citizen. Seems to me that those most vocal about protecting minorities from being ‘offended’ are all to happy to go around being offensive to the average person.

    Use more facts and less insulting and emotive language and more people will listen and more people can more easily be persuaded. Facts can be presented and argued for or against but emotions are empty and the average citizen,regardless of his IQ, knows that.

13. helvityniMay 18, 2017 at 12:50 pm

    Indeed Klaus, have the poor unemployed pissing in little jars…some progress , and have them paying back monies that were never given to them…paying for centrelink’s errors.

    Darryl nay, asylum seekers to Oz have not had any of the freedoms you list in your post, we have paid Trump to take some, see how that spans out. Happy endings, I don’t think so…

14. tet02May 18, 2017 at 1:18 pm

    Christian has hit the nail on the head, as has Miriam, both sides of the debate have merit. Unfortunately our bought and paid for underachieving politicians don’t have the backbone to tackle the fundamental issue. Overpopulation is an unstoppable force and it’s about to hit an immoveable object, namely the planets finite resources. So buckle up folks the roads gonna get rough from here on in.

15. Miriam EnglishMay 18, 2017 at 1:44 pm

    Klaus, so-called democratic governments have very rarely ever served the people and have almost always served the wealthy few. For the first time in history large numbers of people see this. That is not a backward step. The biggest difference now is that we are able to force change. And we are doing it.

    Many of the wealthiest are utter assholes and abuse their power… as they have always done, but a big change that’s happening now is that increasing numbers of wealthy people are rallying to the cause of democracy and helping the poorest people. Elon Musk, Bill Gates, George Soros, Warren Buffett, and many more are helping people. For this they are despised by the right-wing media by betraying their elitist class.

    Things are changing. The fact that we can see the problems is part of the reason why things are getting better. But this isn’t a reason to be comfortable and stop fighting for change; it is all the more reason for us to fight stronger — because we are winning. For the first time in forever there is light at the end of the tunnel.

16. Miriam EnglishMay 18, 2017 at 1:57 pm

    tet02, population will cease to grow in the next couple of decades. The rate of growth has slowed since the 1960s. It is already negative in many countries, and that number of countries increases every year.

    Yes, our politicians are hopeless wastrels, but that has almost always been the case. We are the ones who need to make the change. That was always so. We must be the change we want to see. And in ever increasing numbers we are doing exactly that. Murdoch’s papers are all losing money. I think Fox is failing. Talkback radio is definitely dying. At the same time the current generation is the most literate and smartest in history. They read more and write more than any generation ever has. They have a level of social sophistication that makes us, at their age, look primitive.

    At the current rate of investment in renewable energy, fossil fuels will be essentially bankrupt in about a decade.

    We have left it dangerously late, but change is happening. With the maker movement, trending efficiency, and information for all, I think we will make it.

    My biggest fear is how much damage we’ll do to the biosphere before we manage to fix things. We need the changes to happen faster, for that reason, if nothing else.

17. burniebobthe_b_May 18, 2017 at 3:01 pm

    Miriam EnglishMay 18, 2017 at 11:49 am
    “The rate of violent crime as been dropping everywhere for hundreds of years. Some places improve in some ways faster than others, but we’re all improving”

    I would be interested how you came to that conclusion

    FBI released its annual compilation of crimes reported to its Uniform Crime Reporting

    (UCR) Program by law enforcement agencies from around the nation. Crime in the United

    States, 2015 reveals a 3.9 percent increase in the estimated number of violent crimes and

    a 2.6 percent decrease in the estimated number of property crimes last year when compared

    to 2014 data.

    According to the report, there were an estimated 1,197,704 violent crimes committed

    around the nation. While that was an increase from 2014 figures, the 2015 violent crime

    total was 0.7 percent lower than the 2011 level and 16.5 percent below the 2006 level.

    Among some of the other statistics contained in Crime in the United States, 2015:

    The estimated number of murders in the nation was 15,696.
    During the year, there were an estimated 90,185 rapes. (This figure currently

    reflects UCR’s legacy definition.
    There were an estimated 327,374 robberies nationwide, which accounted for an

    estimated $390 million in losses (average dollar value of stolen property per reported

    robbery was $1,190).
    Firearms were used in 71.5 percent of the nation’s murders, 40.8 percent of

    robberies, and 24.2 percent of aggravated assaults.
    Property crimes resulted in losses estimated at $14.3 billion. The total value of

    reported stolen property (i.e., currency, jewelry, motor vehicles, electronics, firearms)

    was $12,420,364,454.

    The National Human Trafficking Hotline found that 7,500 cases of human trafficking were

    reported in 2016 — up from 5,526 in the previous year, based on the group’s data.

    While DoD’s employee awareness on trafficking has increased, so has the practice: The

    activity has been cited as the globe’s fastest-growing crime. And while the U.S.

    Department of State identified 44,758 victims around the world in 2013, the International

    Labor Organization estimated in 2012 that the total number is much higher, at 20.9

    million.
    {The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD)}
    Feb. 5 2017 (UPI) — In 2016, Human trafficking in the United States rose 35.7 percent

    from the previous year, according to data from the National Human Trafficking Hotline.

    Delhi was declared the most dangerous city for women in India as it witnessed a 350 per cent rise in rapes over 2012, according to National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).

    According to United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) data, on seven counts of serious crimes — which include murder, rape, sexual violence, assault, kidnapping, burglary and theft — Sweden (with 6,456 crimes per 1 lakh population), Denmark (6,041) and the Netherlands (5,523) have high rates of crimes

18. Matters NotMay 18, 2017 at 3:28 pm

    burniebobthe_b_ if you go to the link below and scroll down to Pages 11 and 12 you can see some homicide trends 2004 to 2014 for 16 countries in the America – 14 in Asia – and 33 European. Breaks the trends down at both the national level and in the major cities.

    https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/statistics/crime/ccpj/V1601819_EN_2016.pdf

19. burniebobthe_b_May 18, 2017 at 3:39 pm

    Matters NotMay 18, 2017 at 3:28 pm Thanks for the link

20. Andreas BimbaMay 18, 2017 at 5:03 pm

    As I look at the supermarket car park with most new cars being imported SUV’s and their miserable occupants who are no doubt stressed, short of time and spare cash who are becoming more isolated and selfish – the number of Liberal voters may be increasing the worse things get?

    Dr James Hansen estimated the world must cut CO2 emissions by about 6% p.a. if we are to have a CHANCE of avoiding catastrophic climate change?

    Yep, we’re rooted.

21. guestMay 18, 2017 at 5:52 pm

    “The West is the Best” says Darrel Nay.

    And why does he say that? Because refugees are fleeing to the West. They are fleeing from…what?

    They are fleeing from the greed, interference and pillaging by the west which has ruined their own homelands.

    Since c.1500 the West has pillaged and exploited the rest of the world for its resources and cheap labour. Theft and slavery now expanded into “globalisation”. Genocide against “first peoples” colonised.

    Two World Wars began in Europe in the last century. Millions died or were displaced.

    Interference by the West in the Middle East, with Jerusalem at the centre, designated a “holy place”, sacred to Christianity in competition with Islam. The whole place in chaos with no end in sight.

    South East Asia smashed to bits to deter an ideology which questioned the tenets of capitalism. Huge costs incurred, the war lost.

    And the fear remains, China ringed with war heads in fear that China, exploited for its industry and high on trade lists, will suddenly threaten the West economically and militarily.

    Great fears that places like Iran and North Korea harbour military rockets, which they play about with from time to time. Meanwhile, the USA, the biggest military state in the world, fires rockets out of California to the Marshall Islands mid-Pacific with impunity. Israel has nuclear weapons.

    The Industrial Revolution began in Europe, creating goods and machines through the burning of coal, creating problems for which the perpetrators will not be required to pay. And it continues today. Carbon dioxide levels passing 400 ppm, global warming demonstrably increasing, glaciers melting, seas warming…

    Drought destroying the environment and food sources… forests flattened into monocultures… Water insecurity… Seas reduced to fishless plastic soup…

    Why not flee to the West? That is where all the wealth is sequestered. Where all the vested interests reside in their steel and concrete towers.

    Sleep well, dreamers. It was ever thus, wasn’t it?

22. Jennifer Meyer-SmithMay 18, 2017 at 6:15 pm

    Call me a dreamer, then.

    I’d rather Miriam’s explanation about how we can attempt to help ourselves and the planet instead of throwing in the towel.

23. Ill fares the landMay 18, 2017 at 6:15 pm

    I have no doubt we are on a path to self-destruction. You might think we are “smarter”, but I think we have to demarcate IQ (average IQ’s are generally rising it seems); but our behaviours are more and more stupid. We are drawn into a vortex of mindless and selfish consumerism by devious marketers who manage to convince us that we can indeed feel we are better off than our neighbours. We can have a bigger car, a bigger house accommodating fewer people; ever larger TV screens, more elaborate and expensive holidays, more solar panels on our roofs than our neighbours. Everything is dumbed down to a 24/7 competition and the resources of the Earth are being decimated to accommodate our neurotic wants – all of which inexorably transfer ever more wealth to the owners of capital.

    The owners of the world’s capital actually want us to compete and are clever at getting us to do just that – because then we see our fellow man as a rival or a threat and that imbues us with a personal selfishness that means we no longer think about the consequences of our actions. An example is electricity. We hear outrage on a daily basis about the rise in power prices and how it is up to governments to help us – but we NEVER hear anything about how wasteful we have become with electricity – back to our bigger fridges, TV’s, a computer in every room, the pool filter, air-conditioning and heating our inefficient homes (with no eaves – they are now out of fashion, as you can’t squeeze houses close together if you give them eaves [and it costs more to build a house with eaves]). Another is the maddening SUV – wasting fuel, a threat to other road users, making backing out of parks ever more dangerous (I never seem to be able to avoid having to back out of a park where I can’t see what traffic is coming). They serve no meaningful purpose in an urban environment and are invariably about personal aggrandisement (or to allow the driver to bully other motorists), but we all aspire to owning one – governments could make huge revenue by taxing them as “trucks” not cars, but that would cost votes.

    I am not saying capitalism has to go, but the primary raisons d’etre for capital are encouraging personal selfishness and the exploitation of cheap resources. For the corpulent Rinehart, it is minerals from the ground for which she pays a pittance (although I am sure she thinks she pays more than the “stuff” is worth). For those who need labour, it is about finding a workforce that is large and “flexible”, and when unions and rules demand workers have rights and be paid properly, wealth goes to another country where there are as few rules as possible to protect workers. It is about pillaging the environment in one place and then, when restrictions are put in place or enforced, moving to another country where there are no rules or even if there are, where government officials can be bought off.

    Pessimistic I might be, but I see little to be optimistic about. Increasingly, stupid electorates elect ever more stupid and corrupt politicians, leaving people to think that there only hope is to flee into the arms of the Hanson’s of the world – god help us all as the simpletons like her and Trump; the devious like May (watch as Brexit evolves and the rich and powerful are freed of the shackles of EU protections for workers and the environment – weak as they might be) and those who have sold their integrity like Turnbull gain more power and influence. Even a guy like Xenophon has, I think, become corrupted by his increasing influence in the Senate.

    Then there is the media – rarely giving us quality journalism, rarely reporting facts. The confected outrage at Bill Shorten’s wife wearing a piece of jewellery that was obviously a cheap costume piece is but one recent example. Today it is film of Jennifer Lawrence pole dancing in a nightclub – this is drivel masquerading as news, but that is what we lap up and that is what we get delivered.

24. helvityniMay 18, 2017 at 6:28 pm

    Ill fares the land, brilliant; my top post of the week, and the week is not even over yet … 🙂

    I also agree with sentiments of guest and Andreas Bimba…

25. Jennifer Meyer-SmithMay 18, 2017 at 6:34 pm

    So what do we do?

26. Michael TaylorMay 18, 2017 at 6:47 pm

    Ill fares the land, would it be fine with you if we use your comment as an article by you in our ‘Your Say’ section?

27. Michael TaylorMay 18, 2017 at 6:49 pm

    Ill fares the land, brilliant; my top post of the week

    Damn. I’ve been pipped at the post. I was leading by a country mile, too.

28. RonaldRMay 18, 2017 at 7:22 pm

    What a load of Green / Eugenics Bullshit people are just too lazy to learn the truth if it sounds right to their corrupted belief system its right.
    The Green Movement was built on “If the lie is big enough everyone will believe it “The Green Movement was created as a Trojan Horse for another movement. The People behind the movement are powerful and rich and even have control over the City of London Banks and the Mass Media. Powerful enough to have UK universities accept the Bullshit papers on Eco Systems, Climate Change and Global Warming. The real scientist was silenced for trying to expose.
    Pollution can be greatly cut by switching to efficient energy production buy the Green Movement has run a scare campaign on this. The never talk about new technology only old 50 to 60 years old. The only solution is Clean, safe, efficient, modern Nuclear Power.
    The World economy can easily be fixed by all countries adopting two pieces of Legislation -Glass –Steagall Bank Separation this will muzzle City of London and Wall Street and end the Empire -The British Empire for good; it is still here it is a financial empire. Then the 2nd piece of legislation is to build National Banks of Public Credit and adopt the American System closing down that system of usury created by the Venetian Bankers -It is known as the British Monetary System. Glass-Steagall worldwide will wipe out 4 Quadrillion of debt mostly derivatives that are bank bullshit.
    The American System was closed down by a British Empire asset Andrew Jackson and since then a lot of people have been killed to stop the American System coming back.
    Franklin Roosevelt mapped out what we have to do when he pulled the USA out of the great recession and made it an Industrial giant. We are lucky he did as that’s what stopped Hitler & Japan winning the war. You also need to learn what FDR had planned internationally after the war. But unfortunately and lucky for the British Empire he died and so did his biggest supporter John Curtin.
    The Kennedy Brothers were getting ready to reintroduce FDR policy and bring back the American System. But that did not happen they were not around long enough.
    There has always been Climate Change it is part of living in a solar System and Galaxy. It’s not caused by Man and Carbon that is bullshit. The only way man could cause Climate Change is by an all-out Nuclear War.
    There has not been any infrastructure built for real climate change, Renewables just make us more vulnerable to climate change.
    Real Scientist had warned Kennedy about Climate Change and he had the plans drawn up for North American water & Power alliance. But it was not started due to the loss of JFK. So instead it was all the way to Vietnam with LBJ. And this war stopped large water projects on the Mekong River.
    In Australia there was just the Snowy Mountain Scheme and all the other great water projects designed by great Australian engineers were canned by small mined politicians with foreign masters. It can be fixed or you can all just be sheeple.

29. FreethinkerMay 18, 2017 at 7:28 pm

    What a good posts, realistic and not negative.
    More than one will thing: “there he goes again bitter Freethinker” but they know that it is the truth.
    Jennifer Mayer-Smith asking”what we do so?
    Well I think (and it is not directed to you Jennifer but to your question) that we can start at home, doing our bit to correct the global climate change by become minimalists, reduce our consumption.
    Second, spread the word, try to educate the young generations, our children and grandchildren.
    I come to the conclusion that it is of no use to complain about our politicians because they do not care less, so keep doing that is a waste of energy.
    Forget about the personalities and concentrate in attacking the policies, the bad laws and the injustice.
    That will educate some of the readers here and in another sites.

30. helvityniMay 18, 2017 at 7:28 pm

    Sorry Michael but I don’t know what ‘pipped’ means; I googled for a Finnish translation, it said ‘pipped’; all I learnt that pipped means pipped in any language…bloody hell… 🙂

31. Michael TaylorMay 18, 2017 at 7:31 pm

    helvityni, it means that you were beaten at the last minute after leading all the way.

32. Michael TaylorMay 18, 2017 at 7:35 pm

    What a load of … Bullshit

    That’s the first thing that comes to mind everytime I bother to read one of your comments. ‘Bother’ being the operative word, as usually I don’t. Bother, that is.

33. Jennifer Meyer-SmithMay 18, 2017 at 7:36 pm

    Helvi,

    Michael was acknowledging you as the winner in the race to pay tribute to Ill fares’ comment. Congratulations! I can’t remember anybody being nice to me like that for a while! 🙂

    ………………………………………………………….

    Freethinker,

    of course you’re right but I was not just thinking about individual responsibilities of voting sensibly and recycling. I was probing for collective mobilisation to counter-attack the insidious betrayal of politicians and domination by corporate neolibs and fascists. I cannot stand the underlying resignation that those bastards have won or will if they haven’t already. Never say die!

34. Miriam EnglishMay 18, 2017 at 7:36 pm

    Jennifer, “So what do we do?” That is exactly the right question to ask! Spot on.

    Ill fares the land, I notice all through your comment you say “we” and “us”, but you’re really sneering at “them”. In fact people are changing, and gradually for the better. Sure, there are setbacks. It isn’t all smooth sailing, but on the whole it is improving. We here in Australia especially should get a sharp slap about the ears if we feel tempted to whine about our lives. Those of us who live below the poverty level here (as I do) live in the lap of luxury compared to most people on this planet. Those who have a reasonable income are part of the 0.1 percent wealthiest people on Earth… but that never stopped anybody whining about them being worse off than others.

    Yes, politicians are largely lying scoundrels, but that’s always been the case. Yes newspapers are full of bullshit. Again, that’s always been the case. Yes, both those things are worse than they were some decades ago, but that’s part of the normal fluctuations. It will get better again (if we don’t give up). Yes, corporations rape and pillage. What’s new about that? Have you noticed that some have been developing social consciences lately? Have you noticed that we’ve been successful in using that to alter the course of many big things? An example: we’ve convinced many financial institutions to de-fund fossil fuel projects.

    It’s easy to give up. It isn’t so easy to see the way forward, even though it is there staring us in the face.
    .

    There are two wolves and they’re always fighting.
    One is darkness and despair. The other is light and hope.
    Which wolf wins?
    Whichever one you feed.
    — Casey in Brad Bird’s movie “Tomorrowland”

35. Miriam EnglishMay 18, 2017 at 7:45 pm

    RonaldR, make sure that tinfoil hat is on tight.
    You really need to learn about the real world instead of wasting so much time on crazy conspiracy sites. You’ve lost all perspective on reality and have hemmed yourself into a strange delusion. Wake up, hon.

36. FreethinkerMay 18, 2017 at 7:48 pm

    Jennifer, by my pass (OS) experience the only effective mobilization by the masses it is when hurt the “back pocket” of those that exploit others or put the government in a risk of catastrophic crisis.
    For doing that the people need financial freedom which they lost due to their vicious circle of consumerism.
    No one is going to put their house or credit reputation on the line, they wait for another to do it.
    We have a clear example on what it is happens in the public hospitals where the medical staff works inhuman hours risking their life and the life of the sick and nothing it is happen.
    The rate of suicide and mental health among Doctors it is incredible and nothing it is happen.
    The medical staff including doctors, nurses and paramedics have the power in their hands to remove ministers and entire governments in a week and nothing happens.

37. Jennifer Meyer-SmithMay 18, 2017 at 7:54 pm

    I respect your past experience and your wisdom, Freethinker, but I also need you to see where the motivations and mobilisations can be made and leveraged.

38. JohnoMay 18, 2017 at 8:14 pm

    One positive outcome from our stupidity is the plastic islands forming in the oceans. Soon they will be the size of small countries, ripe for mining, real estate and maybe even clubbing of mammals (for sport) that happen along. So keep on producing that garbage, it’s a win win.

39. guestMay 18, 2017 at 9:29 pm

    @RonaldR and anyone else interested in Climate Change,

    following are excerpts from an article at cecaust.com. site for the Citizens Electoral Council (which has interesting origins in Qld) and revered by RonaldR. The article is called “Global Warming Fraud…”etc. It quotes from the Daily Telegraph, Sept. 11, 2013 (note the date).

    ” global warming narrative (a lie pushed by…the Queen of England and like-minded rulers of the Anglo=Dutch imperial system for the purposes of a genocidal population reduction policy, nothing more.”

    They said what?

    “…a 60% increase in the amount of ocean area covered with ice.”

    Er, when was that exactly?

    “…leaked IPCC report …warns that the planet is heading into a new cooling period that will last until the middle of this century.”

    Has anyone seen this report?

    “…Major climate research centres are now accepting the fact there has been no rise in temperatures since 1997.”

    Which ‘major research centres?’ And since 2013, have there been rises? Yes. Prof. Tony Eggleton tells us (2013) that in the past 60 years the world has warmed at the rate of 1 degree C; “that is, 20 times faster than any previous sustained rate of temperature change.’ (p. 133)

    The article cites Prof. Judith Curry -” claims long-term cycles in ocean temperatures the world into a cooling trend.”

    Proof? Is it true?

    Russia’s Pulkon Observatory, says the Telegraph, “foreasts an up-coming ‘mini’ ice age indicating a weakening of the present solar cycle…possibility of few or no sunspots during the next cycle.”

    They can predict sunspots? And so…?

    “…environment beyond our sun… Changes in the cosmic radiation flux and the interstella magnetic field are known to influence the Earth’s climate, while other questions about the the region of the solar-galactic interaction remain mysterious.”

    Mysterious? And no wonder!

    “…man must prepare for the reality of changing conditions on Earth, in the Solar System, and in the galaxy to higher levels of energy flux…thermo-nuclear fusion, and beyond to matter-antimatter reactions…”

    Can’t wait for “matter-antimatter” reactions to keep the lights on.

    This is the anti-science peddled by the deniers blinded by delusional conspiracy hypotheses. Welcome to the world of fantasy.

40. Miriam EnglishMay 18, 2017 at 10:26 pm

    Thanks, guest. Golly! They’re crazier than I thought. I wonder how it happens that people become so completely divorced from reality.

    It’s nothing new, of course. People have believed in all kinds of wacky gods and spirits and spells and ghosts all through history and without a smidgen of evidence.

    It is weird, when people have more information than ever before they still elect to believe crazy crap. I’ve often wondered why. Perhaps it is the allure of the Chosen One fantasies. There have always been stories where a commoner finds that he or she is actually of royal blood and rises to become the ruler, or that they are a commoner who finds the key to unlocking the secrets of the universe. These are repeated over and over again in fairytales and Hollywood movies. It seems to hold a fatal attraction for some people. They think they are one of a special few who know the secret of a dark evil plot, or that some special power holds them in its confidence.

    We humans are remarkable creatures and are capable of so much, but there are some deeply broken aspects of our psychology. [sigh]

41. wamMay 18, 2017 at 11:33 pm

    slogans ring true, are easy to understand and learnable without any effort
    de-sloganising is difficult to explain, requires an effort to understand and is complicated.

    when the rabbott was raving about labor debt disaster 2010/13 gillard could have laughed at his ignorance and revealed the pommie debt is 4 times worse, the japanese debt is 8 times worse she could have used the rabbott’s new house costs which was close to 10 times worse but she let him free hoping we would understand

    why do wars start? ask ho chi minh, FLN, god and his religions?
    I’m alright, jack or as long as there is some group worse off than me is a sizable majority who voting patterns are fueled by those with permanent jobs that are becoming riskier.

42. jimMay 19, 2017 at 4:50 am

    Just imagine if Russia or China invaded 55 countries most of them democracies well the “peace keepers” the USA have done just that. And still on they go invading other countries and we say WOW GEE look at that.

43. jimMay 19, 2017 at 5:09 am

    More “fake news” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DzwesXaOR4

44. HarquebusMay 19, 2017 at 7:15 am

    Economic growth is poisoning our world while population growth chokes it.
    For the natural world, upon which we depend for our survival, the collapse of our modern industrial civilization can’t come soon enough.
    Get ready.
    Cheers.

45. Miriam EnglishMay 19, 2017 at 7:58 am

    jim, that kind of thing is why the mainstream media is dying… or rather suiciding. However it is a double-edged problem. It’s good that the mainstream media are getting killed off by their own misdeeds being exposed, but at the same time it makes people more resistant to seeing real tragedies and encourages conspiracy craziness. I’d bet that most of those faked news items are actually created by half-wits who, pressed by the need to come up with a ratings boost, stage crap or purposely mislabel stuff. Never attribute to malevolence that which can be explained by stupidity.

    Harquebus, we all know you gleefully welcome the collapse of civilisation, but most of us are actually glad to be able to:
    – use the internet
    – venture outdoors without risking attack
    – not see a small scratch as potentially life-threatening
    – visit family tens or hundreds of kilometers away
    – access thousands of books for free
    – refer anytime for free to the greatest encyclopedia that has ever existed
    – specialise in some area of knowledge without having to understand how to repair every aspect of our homes and equipment.

    We had something of a drought here recently and I put out extra food for the wild birds to tide them over until the next rains. Humans can actually help the wildlife. Many people do. People now see trees and shrubs as beautiful. Look at the difference between modern towns and those same towns from a century ago. See how desolate they were? We are changing.

    And as you well know, population is not simply growing ever greater; it is slowing and has stopped and reversed in many parts of the world. It really pisses me off that you continue to perpetrate that deception upon readers.

46. HarquebusMay 19, 2017 at 8:09 am

    Miriam English
    Convincing people of the absurdity of economic and population growth is easy. Convincing them of the urgency to negate them is not. You are one who can not see the precipice but, it is there and it is close.
    I repeat; we can have all the things that you desire if, there was far fewer of us.
    Cheers.

47. Andreas BimbaMay 19, 2017 at 8:14 am

    There is hope when the truly evil leave us and may Rupert soon join his friend.

    https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/may/18/roger-ailes-death-fox-news-lawsuits

48. Jennifer Meyer-SmithMay 19, 2017 at 8:28 am

    Good that they got Ailes before his death; not like Jimmy Savile (Savage) who never faced public condemnation.

49. PhilMay 19, 2017 at 9:35 am

    Of all the comments thus far, Miriam steals the show for her tenacious grip on positivism and her refusal to draw from the well of negativity.

50. Jennifer Meyer-SmithMay 19, 2017 at 9:41 am

    Hear, hear Phil.

51. ....May 19, 2017 at 10:22 am

    Is there a couple of new (seems US) trolls on this site?

    Someone should let them know their empire is crumbling.

52. Michael TaylorMay 19, 2017 at 11:04 am

    That’s probably what they’re afraid of.

53. guestMay 19, 2017 at 11:52 am

    Phil,

    being positive is all well and good, but if it means business-as-usual, then it can be the same as burying your head in the sand. It can also be a propaganda technique to obscure the truth.

    Spin is a strategy we all learn even at a young age. We learn how to use it to avoid punishment, for example. Politicians use it.

    Spin can be used as a weapon. Tony Abbott was highly praised for the way he destroyed Labor’s carbon “tax”. Peta Credlin now admits the Coalition’s opposition was a confected campaign and the “tax” was not really a tax.

    Bill Shorten’s reply to the Budget has been described as merely a negative speech and did not offer any policy of his own – which was both spin and false news. Bill ripped the Budget apart and offered Labor policies. So they criticised him for his delivery – an ad hominem, negative attack and hypocritical, given the praise given to Abbott.

    Take the Adani Carmichael mine. No end of negativity has been expressed about the futility and false news about that enterprise. Yet the Qld Labor government and the Federal government seem intent on allowing it to go ahead. Talk of the need for a “cheap, reliable energy source to rescue 300m Indians from poverty” and the employment of “thousands” of Oz workers.

    Now, is that spin, positivity, propaganda, ignorance or stupidity? Of course it is all in the eye of the beholder.

    So when I gave a list of historical facts about the West, it was with a negative spin because I see so many of the problems of the rest of the world arising from actions by the West. Others will see positive aspects. But when I see people dying of hunger and the West is spending trillions of dollars on weapons and families and markets throwing out food…I become angry and negative.

    When I see people caught up in false science, even anti-science mumbo-jumbo, in order to befuddle the science of Climate Change, often for reasons of vested interests, I become angry.

    It would be too easy to see the world through rose-tinted glasses, or a business-as-usual mind-set, but those pathways seem to me to be leading us nowhere. And I see that there are some on this thread who agree.

54. Jennifer Meyer-SmithMay 19, 2017 at 2:32 pm

    Nobody is disputing the negative elements you refer to, guest.

    But it is important to offer solutions and to point to efforts being made to combat the negatives; otherwise, people become depressed and overcome by inertia, if they believe there is no point to trying to fight.

55. guestMay 19, 2017 at 4:21 pm

    Sorry, Jennifer. I cannot do anything about historical events. But I can debunk what I see as muddled or narrow thinking. No doubt I demonstrate my own prejudices in doing so.

    As for being positive, I have supported Bill Shorten on this site against what I thought was unfair criticism at times.

    I try to inform myself and to learn from others, but I am opposed to thinking of the Murdoch kind which hides behind a paywall and is impervious to criticism, vitriolic in retaliation.

    As for solutions, I react to what I see as something I can comment on without merely repeating what others have said on the thread – I often draw attention to other sites for illustration. But my political knowledge is limited. I voted Liberal for 30 years without knowing why, even when I was a member of a union. Then John Howard made me realise that the Coalition way was not my way, especially in his treatment of refugees. I have walked in protest.

    Now the bete noir is the Coalition attitude to Climate Change – and I have no regard for almost the whole of the Coalition.

    What to do? Keep on scribbling? Smile more? Wait patiently for the next opportunity to vote?

    So, while I agree in principle with Naomi Klein that “During extraordinary historical moments…Activists were, quite simply, everyone”, even she cannot adequately explain how we all can rebuild, reinvent the idea of the collective, the communal, the civil and the civic.

56. paul walterMay 19, 2017 at 4:40 pm

    The poem by Oliver Goldsmith.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Deserted_Village

    Enclosuring was the eighteenth centuries version of privatisation and represented the original “loss of the commons”; resources held in common for a community, swiped by the rich, sometimes for no better reason than the turning over of good agricultural land for grouse moors for the Lord and his hunting buddies.

57. Christian MarxMay 19, 2017 at 5:41 pm

    Thanks for all the interest in my article. Another huge problem is the corruption of Facebook.
    Utilizing Facebook was one of the key reasons March IN March was able to reach massive amounts
    of people in the lead up to the 2014 March. Unfortunately, they are now actively trying to limit any
    left wing information, particularly any rallies or Industrial action. I run a Facebook page of 12,000
    and I can no longer get Facebook to share my articles en mass. It is high time we as citizens
    began moving away from Facebook`s and started creating blogs, twitter and web pages in a bid to bypass the limiting nature of Facebook. Some of you may be interested in the blog i co started with the help of Michael Taylor. It is called The Global Revolution. https://theglobalrevolution.org/

58. FreethinkerMay 19, 2017 at 5:54 pm

    Thank you for the article and the link Christian.
    I bookmarked the site and I will have a look it soon.
    Love the name of it.

59. Miriam EnglishMay 19, 2017 at 10:06 pm

    It is difficult to see the problems and the solutions. It is very easy to be pessimistic. There is even a perverse pleasure to it, and it has become fashionably “cool” to be nihilistic.

    Sadly, most people either concentrate only upon the problems in a grim love of the negative, or immerse themselves in the moment and ignore the problems. Neither destructive pessimism nor closing our eyes to the problems achieves anything.

    The only way forward that helps at all is to acknowledge the problems AND the solutions.

    It is imperative that we see the problems; that we don’t gloss over them to see only the good things. But to see only the bad things is useless. Just as ignoring the problems means they will never be fixed, overwhelming people with pessimism also ensures they’ll never be fixed. Both mindsets — bleak pessimism, and pointed ignorance of the problems — end the same way.

    Seeing the solutions to the massive difficulties the world faces is not simple optimism. It is the only way forward. People can live in ignorance, or stew in despondency, but they just add to the world’s problems.

    It has always puzzled me that people find it so hard to see the solutions when we are surrounded by them… and with more solutions arriving every day, thanks to rapidly accelerating advances in science and technology. It worries me that so many here, in one of the richest countries in the world, in luxury that royalty couldn’t aspire to a mere century ago, are so attracted to bemoaning all about us.

    It is important to note the problems, but it’s even more important to spend time on the solutions — and when solutions are presented we should seize them, instead of dismissing them as naïveté or as seeing things through rose colored glasses.

    Are you upset that there are people starving in the world, with population at 7.5 billion and set to reach 11 billion before it starts to decline? You should be. So do something about it.
    – Don’t eat out at restaurants (they waste most of the food they buy).
    – Reduce the amount of food you eat — it saves you money, makes you more healthy, and reduction in demand in the First World makes more available for the developing world.
    – Send money to one or more of the charities that genuinely help. Moral philosopher Peter Singer has created an organisation to help you work out what charities actually deliver the best outcomes: https://www.thelifeyoucansave.org/
    – Raising the standard of living of the world’s poorest, especially women and girls, is well known to reduce population growth. We need to accelerate this effort because it is really starting to pay off in a big way.

    Yes, there are plenty of problems, but there are also plenty of solutions too. Don’t ignore them.

60. HarquebusMay 20, 2017 at 7:39 am

    Miriam English
    “The only way forward that helps at all is to acknowledge the problems AND the solutions.”

    The problem with your solutions is, you don’t see the problem, you see only the effects.

    “So, why did people lose interest in overpopulation just while it kept becoming a bigger problem? Something similar took place with other concepts such as the limits to growth and peak oil: people are losing interest just now that these problems are becoming gigantic and probably unsolvable.”
    http://cassandralegacy.blogspot.com.au/2017/03/overpopulation-life-and-death-of-meme.html

    “While apocalyptic beliefs about the end of the world have, historically, been the subject of religious speculation, they are increasingly common among some of the leading scientists today. This is a worrisome fact, given that science is based not on faith and private revelation, but on observation and empirical evidence.”
    “Furthermore, studies suggest that civilization will have to produce more food in the next 50 years than in all of human history, which stretches back some 200,000 years into the Pleistocene epoch.”
    http://www.salon.com/2017/04/30/its-the-end-of-the-world-and-we-know-it-scientists-in-many-disciplines-see-apocalypse-soon/

    “Industrial civilization is a one-hit wonder for which there are no solutions that scale up to the mountain of problems it has created.”
    “A time is coming when what we do to Earth is completely overshadowed by what Earth does to us.”

    The Trumpocene: Darkness Gathers

    Cheers.

61. HarquebusMay 20, 2017 at 9:48 am

    Improvements to email filters has necessitated me posting my links on a web page rather than as a list included in my emails. For those interested, here is my most recent list. Call it a doom and gloom report if you like but, it does contain a lot of material that you will not see on nor hear from nor read in MSM. Also, it does not contain everything that I have read.

    http://builder.ezywebs.com.au/harquebus/harquebus/

    Cheers.

62. Denise DrysdaleMay 20, 2017 at 10:10 am

    Your a very wise man Harquebus .

63. helvityniMay 20, 2017 at 10:42 am

    Harquebus and Miriam you make a good pair: one is a pessimist and the other – an optimist. 🙂

64. Kaye LeeMay 20, 2017 at 11:05 am

    “The road that is built in hope is more pleasant to the traveler than the road built in despair, even though they both lead to the same destination.”

65. Miriam EnglishMay 20, 2017 at 12:36 pm

    helvityni, there are 2 kinds of optimists: those who see only good things, ignoring the problems, and those who are more realistic and see both the problems and the solutions, but think we have a shot at fixing things.

    Blind optimists make things worse, though they don’t prevent the solutions being found.

    Now is exactly the wrong time for people to be pessimists because they make people despair and give up trying, rather like how despotic regimes maintain their power by suffocating hope. Unfortunately, it is easier than ever before to see the problems — not just because they are growing, but because our knowledge is widening to let us see more of them.

    Everything depends upon optimists who can help us find a way out of our current problems. Thankfully there are a large number of those who are helping us out of our current sticky mess.

66. Miriam EnglishMay 20, 2017 at 12:53 pm

    Harquebus has deceived himself into thinking he wants to alert the world to the problems in order to save it, but in fact he doesn’t want the world to be saved. It’s easy to see in his language (“…the collapse of our modern industrial civilization can’t come soon enough”) and the way he denies all solutions (oh, except for impossible, pretend ones, like ceasing population growth immediately). Sensible solutions mess with his cherished doom. Impossible “solutions” let doom come unimpeded, with the added advantage that he can blame everybody for ignoring him.

    His is a view that bleeds hope out of anybody who can bear to consume it. It’s ironic that his self-deception is so similar to the apocalyptic delusions of religious people, given how he despises religion.

67. HarquebusMay 20, 2017 at 1:34 pm

    “they make people despair and give up trying”
    Or they can face reality and start doing what is required. I’ll let the pages that I produced do my talking for me.
    Cheers.

68. Miriam EnglishMay 20, 2017 at 2:55 pm

    Most people only start doing what’s required when they can see there is something they can do.

    When people convince them there’s no way out and they’re f*cked… they give up.

    That’s why I keep emphasising that solutions are so important. Yes, we need to know the problems (though over-inflating them is dangerous), but we don’t get anywhere without solutions.

    If you keep burying people in pessimism they won’t do anything. I’ve known far too many people who have given up because it all seemed too overwhelming. Many of those who give up actually worsen the problems because they think, “Well everything’s screwed anyway. I might as well enjoy myself consuming and partying.”

    I’ve turned some pessimists around by showing them they can fix things — that there really are solutions. Others perversely enjoy the desolation. It gives them license not to try.

    Try the book “Abundance”, by Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler. It is a book of solutions to many of the problems facing us.
    http://www.abundancethebook.com/

69. Michael TaylorMay 20, 2017 at 3:01 pm

    Miriam, I was always taught – whether it be at work, the army, playing football, weeding the garden, or whatever – to never give up. But for some people things always seem too hard. For some people it’s not worth the effort. They are defeatists.

70. Jennifer Meyer-SmithMay 20, 2017 at 3:04 pm

    Sadly, this article has brought out too many people prepared to take the defeatists’ line.

71. FreethinkerMay 20, 2017 at 3:37 pm

    What about if we look it at different angle, no pessimistic or optimistic but just acceptin what the majority of people want?
    If we look that on that angle ( I assume that you all respect the wishing of the majority) then we can understand Harquebus point of view or see from where he is coming from. People want more, consume more.
    Now, if we also respect the human rights and believe that all the habitats in the world have the right to live at the same standard of living that we have here, we also can understand a bit more Harquebus point of view.
    Just image for a moment that all the people in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and South America are going to live their life in the same manner that we live here, in the same manner that fellow AIMN bloggers live, consume, etc.
    We can see what happens in China by just only a small percentage of the population not longer ride a pushbike but drive a car.
    Just think about it and you all will see that it is not an issue of being pessimistic, optimistic or defeatists.
    IMHO the questions are:
    Are we all ( or the majority) prepared to change our way of living?
    Are we going to allow or accept that the majority of the world population have the same right to enjoy our standard of living?
    If the above answers are yes, have we enough time to educate “the ones that have all” to have less to reverse the present situation?
    How many of the fellow bloggers are prepared to give up the car or perhaps use it less and not upgrade it for a new model?
    How many of the fellow bloggers are prepared to minimize their material goods that have at home and also live in a small house or apartment?
    If we ask the same question to the Australian population, which percentage will say “I will do that”?
    So far we only asked that question once with the “sacrifices imposed” with the Carbon Tax and people have spoken.

    I am not pessimistic or optimistic I considering myself realistic and accepting that humans have good and bad characteristics and among the bad are greed, selfishness which are two of the main factors that have brought the health of the planet to this mess.
    I do my bit, I am minimalist and try to do the much of I can.

72. Matters NotMay 20, 2017 at 3:45 pm

    Or they can face reality

    Yes it’s all about ‘reality’. The problem with ‘reality’ is that it can be (and is) constructed in so many different ways. Indeed there’s almost an infinite number. No matter how much you read, no matter how many ‘prepper’ websites one visits there never will be ‘one’ reality. There won’t be any absolute ‘truth’. To believe otherwise is just not scientific.

    Most Russians, for example, believe that the devil incarnate is the United States. For them the ‘evidence’ is clear – and there’s a mountain of that. Such is their ‘construction of reality’. That’s their inarguable ‘truth’ On the other hand, most in the US see that Russia is the ‘ruler of hell’. That’s the way they construct ‘reality’. Of that they are certain.

    Leaving aside Nations and turning to religion. One doesn’t have to remind anyone that Muslims construct a different ‘reality’ to the Christian one Or indeed the ‘realities’ as constructed by the Buddhists, the Jews, the Hindus and the … and the … almost ad infinitum.

    One could go on but the notion that there is only one, true, inarguable ‘reality’ is just laughable. As are those who advance that nonsense.

73. Miriam EnglishMay 20, 2017 at 5:21 pm

    Michael, yes. They are merely normal.

    Jennifer, yes. That’s sadly often the case when it is considered “cool” to be pessimistic.

    Freethinker, you’re making the mistake of thinking pessimistically. Remember during the oil crisis of the 1980s? Everybody went out and got rid of their large “gas-guzzler” cars and got small, high-efficiency vehicles. Energy and other resources consumption went way down, but because everybody became interested in efficiency production increased. People started building mud-brick homes, underground homes, using double-glazed windows, passive heating and cooling. Then OPEC made cheap oil available again and things went back the other way again. We can change, and we do when we can see solutions.

    The mainstream media ignore it, but we are in the middle of an energy revolution, with solar and wind power being adopted at an astonishing rate. Energy consumption has plummetted. Watch what happens when inexpensive electric cars are introduced, either late this year or next year. Within a decade fossil fuels will be all but dead. This is happening right now. Most of us can’t see it because we’re watching the wrong information streams. The developing countries don’t want to be just like us. They are already leapfrogging us to do things a better way, with less fossil fuels, less resources.

    Matters Not, you are confusing belief with reality.
    Of course people believe all kinds of absurd things that diverge widely from reality. People have always done that. But people are starting to drop those misleading filters from their eyes. More people than ever before in all the history of humanity are deserting all the world’s religions. The number of rabid patriots is dropping. The number of people who have no firm convictions and are open to evidence is increasing. The most recent rash of “fake news” is shaking some of the most unquestioned beliefs. Many now wonder if we have become the enemy. Unquestioned belief is dying. That’s leaving us with the ability to accept reality — evidence-based medicine, evidence-based social policy, and so on — without imposing what we wish it was onto it. We’re getting there… slowly… some faster than others, but we are getting there.

74. Matters NotMay 20, 2017 at 5:30 pm

    you are confusing belief with reality.

    Nope! One of the first primers in the Sociology of Knowledge is The Social Construction of Reality by PL Berger, T Luckmann, D Zifonun. .

    Here is a list you may wish to consult, and correct these many academics as well.

    Yours is but one construct!

    http://scholar.google.com.au/scholar?q=the+social+construction+of+reality&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiC1bvW-P3TAhXGmZQKHc2ZBlUQgQMIIDAA

75. Jennifer Meyer-SmithMay 20, 2017 at 5:40 pm

    When can I get one of those “inexpensive” solar cars and how much will it cost me? I need to know coz my dear, old, reliable ute is about to die.

76. FreethinkerMay 20, 2017 at 5:46 pm

    Miriam English, I think that I have not expressed myself well or you did not read my questions and the issue of human right when all the people in the world can enjoy the same standard of living.
    I have not made any point pessimistic, I just asked questions regarding some issues that it is all.
    Regarding trends and what it has been done, we have to read both sides.
    I just have look the coolaustralia.org fact sheet https://www.coolaustralia.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Pollution-fact-sheet.pdf

    The good news about pollution here is Australia is the closure of coal power generators.

77. FreethinkerMay 20, 2017 at 5:53 pm

    Jennifer before look into them do some research about the disposal of the batteries.
    I still keeping my old sedan until I am ready to go to a electric mobility vehicle with small battery.
    Electric mobility vehicles are one step over the electric bikes and now have an excellent range so in a 2 o 3 years the range will improve.
    So far are more than enough for urban transport for those that do not live more than 20 km from the work place.
    I thinking in something like this:

    Microlino – modernised all-electric Isetta micro-car

78. Jennifer Meyer-SmithMay 20, 2017 at 6:33 pm

    Ok Freethinker.

79. Miriam EnglishMay 20, 2017 at 6:46 pm

    Jennifer, Elon Musk, in his most recent interview at TED
    
    I should have rechecked the video before posting. In it he said new, inexpensive models are coming out soon. I’m pretty sure he said later this year or next year. I’m re-watching it while typing this, but it’s about 40 minutes long. I’ll add a comment if I’m wrong and misremembered it. The video is well worth watching anyway.

80. Miriam EnglishMay 20, 2017 at 7:31 pm

    Jennifer, Tesla Model 3 beginning large scale manufacture this year. Expected on sale here in Australia later this year.
    https://www.tesla.com/en_AU/model3
    USD$35,000 doesn’t strike me as inexpensive, but I live below the poverty line. It is more affordable then the previous Teslas. Elon has previously said he wants to keep bringing out lower cost vehicles as time goes on. You have to remember also that they will be much cheaper to drive than petroleum vehicles, so will pay for themselves in a short time. They have no expensive motor, gearbox, cooling system, air system, or sparkplugs to maintain.

    Other companies may bring out lower cost electric vehicles to capture the less wealthy segment of the market. Elon Musk is sharing all his patents free of charge to all his competitors in order to bring on the era of electric vehicles as quickly as possible.

81. Miriam EnglishMay 20, 2017 at 7:42 pm

    Matters Not, they say “The Social Construction of Reality”, but they’re not so stupid as to have a Deepak Chopra-like belief that your mind can alter the fabric of reality. What they’re really talking about is the social construction of beliefs that mask perception of reality. And that’s what you mean too. You’re throwing a cute red-herring in by mixing up definitions. I don’t think you’re actually a Deepak Chopra fan.

82. Jennifer Meyer-SmithMay 20, 2017 at 7:52 pm

    Thanks Miriam.

    USD$35k is not affordable for grassroots Aussies.

    Solar-powered cars are essential to outer regional society but not possible if too expensive for ordinary people.

    Time for sensible leadership that understands the elements of commercial success.

    Everybody wants clean energy to win so make it happen.

83. FreethinkerMay 20, 2017 at 8:01 pm

    This is a good article about batteries recycling.
    The future of automotive lithium-ion battery recycling: Charting a sustainable course
    http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214993714000037

    I agree with Jennifer, USD $ 35000 is not affordable. IMO have to be half of that.

84. Matters NotMay 20, 2017 at 9:01 pm

    Miriam English, with all due respects, but at times your level of arrogance is quite worrying. And very annoying. Indeed it resembles the ‘religion’ of Miriam English. No doubts. Never maybes. No ifs. And certainly no buts. Only ‘certainty’. And ‘certainty has its problems.

    https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/certainty/

    Miriam you need to read more widely, because there are many ‘constructions of reality’ that go far beyond what you assume to be ‘truth’. I know that might sound patronising. But really it’s just a return serve.

85. Miriam EnglishMay 20, 2017 at 9:21 pm

    We’re getting there. Changes used to take centuries. Now they happen in just months or years.

    Freethinker, thanks for the link to the article.

86. Miriam EnglishMay 20, 2017 at 10:12 pm

    Matters Not, seriously? You call me arrogant? You play silly wordgames and get pissed when they don’t stand up to scrutiny?

    You know the difference between belief and reality (at least I hope you do). Yeah, you’ll say something ridiculous like “Nobody can know true reality.” But that just plays stupid Zeno’s paradox games of the mind. Just as you can use deception to make it look like Achilles can never pass the tortoise, you can do the same to make it look like we can never know anything about reality. However we all know that’s not true. That’s the great success of science and engineering and the great failure of religion and superstition. Science and engineering hinge on approaching ever more closely to, and defining the limits of, reality. Superstition flutters around uselessly never getting anywhere.

    You think I should read more widely? Maybe you can get back to me on that when your reading covers a couple dozen computing languages, digital electronics, quantum mechanics, astronomy, cell biology (particularly energy exchange), neurophysiology, neural net computing, various theories and philosophies of consciousness branching out into determinism and free will (or lack thereof), physiological psychology, and a lot more, but that’s enough for a beginning.

    “there are many ‘constructions of reality’ that go far beyond what you assume to be ‘truth'” WTF? Oooh, spooky. You gotta be kidding me. How very X-Files. 😀 Oh well, at least I had a good laugh.

    Philosophy. There are some great philosophers (e.g. Peter Singer), but also a very great number of exceedingly stupid ones too. Far too often philosophy is just pompous fakery. A perfect example of this is John Searle’s idiotic Chinese Room argument. How he ever convinced his fellow philosophising fools that he had anything of substance to say there appalls me. This is what far too much of philosophy is. Some beautiful seeds among a heck of a lot of worthless chaff.

87. Matters NotMay 20, 2017 at 10:39 pm

    Yes Miriam you are outrageously arrogant! And the evidence is above. It abounds..

    And yet you are so defensive. ’tis a worry. And it should be for you as well. A closed mind and all that.

88. Matters NotMay 20, 2017 at 10:52 pm

    Miriam re this boast of:

    reading covers a couple dozen computing languages, digital electronics, quantum mechanics, astronomy, cell biology (particularly energy exchange), neurophysiology, neural net computing, various theories and philosophies of consciousness branching out into determinism and free will (or lack thereof), physiological psychology, and a lot more

    You would come to realise you don’t know it all. But apparently not. Again, it’s a worry.

    Or should I simply bow down and ‘believe’? (BTW, I too had a good laugh.)

89. Michael TaylorMay 20, 2017 at 10:54 pm

    Miriam arrogant? I hardly think so.

90. Matters NotMay 20, 2017 at 11:05 pm

    Miriam arrogant? I hardly think so.

    MT, are you suggesting there’s ‘doubt’? That there can be different ‘constructions’ of the above?

    If so – then I rest my case.

91. Miriam EnglishMay 20, 2017 at 11:22 pm

    Matters Not, calling names instead of attempting to shore up the wordgames? Impressive. 😀

92. Matters NotMay 20, 2017 at 11:35 pm

    Miriam English re

    calling names

    Perhaps you have a link to that assertion? Or are you just playing ‘word games’?

    Not impressed! Not that I want to challenge your ‘construction of reality’. Which of course is beyond challenge. LOL.

93. Michael TaylorMay 20, 2017 at 11:35 pm

    OK, I’ll rephrase my comment so that all doubt is removed.

    Miriam arrogant? No.

94. Matters NotMay 20, 2017 at 11:45 pm

    Miriam arrogant? No … that all doubt is removed.

    MT, is that the ‘truth’? Or simply your ‘construction’ of same?

    Good to know that now all doubt is removed.. I suspect that Miriam will be pleased.

    But as always I have my doubts.

95. Jennifer Meyer-SmithMay 21, 2017 at 12:09 am

    Like I said earlier, I’d prefer Miriam’s vision of the future than those of other commenters on this site.

    If there’s no hope, there’s nothing.

96. JohnoMay 21, 2017 at 8:53 am

    Miriam
    I did look at the electric flying car video. Quite incredible.

97. Miriam EnglishMay 21, 2017 at 9:24 am

    Johno, yes, it is, isn’t it. 🙂

    I’d love to have one, though I’ll bet they will find stronger acceptance if married to blimp technology. People tend to think in all-or-none, black-and-white terms, but the buoyancy balloon doesn’t need to be big enough to lift it entirely. It just needs to counterbalance much of the weight. That would greatly increase safety and efficiency, and extend range.

    And something I’ve never read about anywhere else, but which appears in a number of my SF stories, is a buoyancy balloon that is made of stiff material with some degree of vacuum inside. A vacuum is lighter than any gas, and with new, ultra-stiff, ultra-lightweight materials it would not need to carry bottles of helium or hydrogen or flammable fuel (hot air balloons), yet could “inflate” on command.

98. HarquebusMay 21, 2017 at 9:28 am

    This is has been an interesting conversation.
    As for giving up, those that do will die. It’s as simple as that. Myself, I am getting ready now for what will be a very nasty transition. That is not giving up, it is getting ready for the fight for our lives.

    “Reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled.” — Richard Feynman

    “Now more than ever, Gaea wants for us to cut the bullshit and speak out as if our lives depend on it. Because they do.” — Deb Ozarko

    For those who missed it, here again is my most recent list of saved links along with excerpts to give you the gist. Miriam English refuses to read them and is one reason why most of her arguments carry little weight with me.

    http://builder.ezywebs.com.au/harquebus/harquebus/

    Cheers.

99. HarquebusMay 23, 2017 at 7:24 am

    “The idea that economic growth can continue forever on a finite planet is the unifying faith of industrial civilization. That it is nonsensical in the extreme, a deluded fantasy, doesn’t appear to bother us.”
    “Things end unhappily: “The most probable result … will be a rather sudden and uncontrollable decline in both population and industrial capacity.””
    “And so, as we blunder along with business-as-usual, awaiting the techno-messiah promised by the cornucopians with their free markets and their profit-inspired geniuses, an alternate future awaits us.”
    “No wonder it was the mainstream economists who mounted the strongest attacks on Limits, those whose paychecks depend on elite capitalist institutions, who construct for the public the ideology that rationalizes endless growth, who assure that we will never need to share our piece of the pie if we just keep on growing the pie.”
    “Only the tyrannical state, with its monopoly on violence, its enormous bureaucracies, its tentacles reaching into every facet of life, will have the power to save us from the stupidity that we called the freedom to grow forever.”
    https://psmag.com/magazine/fallacy-of-endless-growth

100. Miriam EnglishMay 23, 2017 at 9:03 am

     Harquebus, blah blah blah, doom doom doom. God! You are so lost in the past, Harquebus. The world is changing, but you’re still locked into the Club of Rome pessimism. It didn’t happen, because, uh, something to do with techno-messiahs and cornucopians… though they wouldn’t call themselves that — just people wanting a better future and working hard to bring it instead of surrendering to doom.

     Everybody knows it’s a finite planet. That’s why there are moves to explore other worlds. In any case the realm of knowledge is unbounded. But really, most people don’t care a lot about forever. They just want to maintain a safe planet up until the time the sun turns into a red giant and swallows it up some billions of years hence.

     Only the tyrannical state can save us? 😀 Hahahah! What insane dipshittery is this? It is changing already because people want it; not governments. People are using less electricity, not more; people are having less kids, not more; people are moving to sustainable energy instead of polluting fossil fuels; people are moving to smaller homes instead of McMansions; people want smaller electric cars instead of polluting urban assault vehicles; people are forcing corporations to stop devastating forests; people are banning giant factory trawlers; people are forcing the creation of large reserves where life is protected. All this despite governments’ and corporations’ push to consume all.

     Things are changing in a decentralised, people-powered way.

     You want tyranny and oppression???? Seriously? How sick is that!! Oh yeah, that’ll fix everything… not! Let me remind you that the Soviet Union got away with far worse pollution and destruction to the environment than the democracies (whatever their many flaws) could ever manage.

     Do you honestly not see the damage you do by promoting this kind of absurd, defeatist pap?

101. HarquebusMay 24, 2017 at 11:02 am

     Miriam English
     That statement, which is not mine, infers that we already live under a tyrannical state which, is doing nothing to extract us from our predicament. In case you didn’t notice, the quote states to save us from the stupidity of growth and in that context, might be correct. The powers that be, governments and corporation etc. are at present, the only powers capable of abandoning the growth insanity and the main stream media, in my opinion, the only institution capable of forcing them to do it. Both have and are continuing to fail in their social obligations.

     I personally believe that national governments will fracture from which much smaller self governing communities will evolve. I hope to survive long enough to see if this pans out.

     You call me defeatist which, I disagree strongly. I am getting ready as best I can to survive the inevitable upheaval and that to my mind is not giving up, it is preparing for battle. Waiting for a social revolution or some yet to be discovered techno solution is just an excuse to do nothing.

     People are using less because it is costing more. Diminishing returns meets population growth.

     Cheers.

102. The AIM NetworkMay 24, 2017 at 11:41 am

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103. TomMay 26, 2017 at 10:25 pm

     Australians be aware Satan and negative or secret organisations control the world and our minds It’s all about owning gods creation everything that is good will be evil for the love of money and power through TV or the internet Water and all meats =$ and you will be forced to eat meats that are 3d printed or made in test tubes that cause cancers because it feeds medical industries and lazy ness already the law industries are sending teenagers to prison for crimes they commit to save there homes from getting stolen by banks,banking in australia has become impossible because it’s fixed to steal from you , modern day slavery.Energy industry is a discrace hundreds of ways to make power ask your self what runs the space station ? It’s not nuclear but a power the size of a grain of rice which can run a home for a year and not destroy the planet (fusion)Military the most wasteful of all resources and polluting all aspects of live air water ,land instead of fighting for good which means cleaning its own mess they create through the storms and fires they created for the insurance industries The three powers of goverment aka the triangle,federal,state and local should have there members tried for treason for killing the family unit and letting muti nations corp-rats steal australia for the name of Evil ps I’m a 2 generation australian of Greek heratage who has been seen our house prices go from 50,000 to 2 million in 20 years it only benafites the thiefs in control and makes parents involed in there bribery’s a
     I have tried to seek answers but got no were it’s just history repeating ottermon empire all over again which means death to the masses
     Zionism =masons =UN and serves only evil Rember No Good in evil Love and only Love will concure
     TIME Is SHORT proff Donald Trump = Satan

104. Jennifer Meyer-SmithMay 26, 2017 at 10:58 pm

     Thanks Tom for your spiel and for giving me the will to want to go to bed now so I don’t have to suffer thinking over your crazy post.

105. TomMay 27, 2017 at 12:02 am

     Thanks for reply hope you sleep well. crazy in an insane world
     Only time will tell

106. Mark NeedhamMay 27, 2017 at 12:10 am

     “* Why do social safety nets collapse? Answer: Big business refuse to pay tax and continue to bribe governments to destroy their own social services.”

     Of course they do.

     Change the farqen laws.

     Change the Taxation Laws, so the bastards Pay.

     they don’y refuse, we refuse to ensure that they do pay their way.

     for christs sake wake up,
     Mark Needham

107. Mark NeedhamMay 27, 2017 at 12:13 am

     In Australia at least the Federal Reserve is government owned. We cannot run out of money!

     our money can become worthless,!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

     Mark Needham

108. Mark NeedhamMay 27, 2017 at 12:20 am

     Miriam.
     “helping the poorest people. Elon Musk, Bill Gates, George Soros, Warren Buffett, and many more are helping people. For this they are despised by the right-wing media by betraying their elitist class.”

     When Twiggy donates, apparently he is an Arsehole.
     Just wondering,
     Mark Neeedham

109. Mark NeedhamMay 27, 2017 at 12:25 am

     “when unions and rules demand workers have rights and be paid properly, wealth goes to another country where there are as few rules as possible to protect workers. It is about pillaging the environment in one place”

     And of course the unions have never pillaged the PROFIT, that is MINING.
     Mark Needham

110. Mark NeedhamMay 27, 2017 at 12:31 am

     Miriam.
     “– Don’t eat out at restaurants (they waste most of the food they buy).”
     Flippant,
     Mark Needham

111. Mark NeedhamMay 27, 2017 at 12:38 am

     “”JohnoMay 21, 2017 at 8:53 am
     Miriam
     I did look at the electric flying car video. Quite incredible.””

     You really do not have a credible idea at all.
     Again, unbelievable,
     Mark Needham

     Y’know, I have been watching and playing here for a while now.

     This is actually a “Reality Site”
     A place where you can see what some are actual

     this is bullshit, a “Flying Electric Car”
     Miasma, carries germs, not water….!!!!!

112. Miriam EnglishMay 27, 2017 at 4:39 am

     Mark Needham, “When Twiggy donates, apparently he is an Arsehole.”

     Yeah, that amazes me. Would people prefer that he didn’t donate? I’d like him not to big-note himself and actually pay tax, but for people to whine when he finally does something good kinda sucks. It’s like all the people who whined about Hillary Clinton getting the Saudis to make contributions to the Clinton Foundation. That foundation does a tremendous amount of good and the Clintons don’t receive any money from it. The Saudis are deeply repellent, oppressing their own people while they swim in truly obscene amounts of money. Hillary should be praised for getting them to put some of that money to good use.

     You’re welcome to think my suggestion about not eating at restaurants is flippant, but considering the veritable mountain of food they waste I think it is sensible. If we want to reduce waste then we should curtail actions that ensure waste.

     That flying electric car exists. I’m not sure why you’re having this strange overreaction. Personally, even though I think it is very cool, I don’t think there’s a big future in flying cars. They waste too much energy in staying aloft. Driving on the ground (or under it, in tunnels) will always be a much more efficient way to move. But if there’s need to move quickly from random point to point (for example in an ambulance) then such a flying car could be extremely valuable. We currently use helicopters for such things, but they have a lot of drawbacks.

113. JohnoMay 27, 2017 at 7:12 am

     ABC going to the dogs ?? I started watching the war on waste show and hats off to an excellent show. Western civilisation is doomed if it can’t sort out a basic problem like how to stop this massive one way item. From oil to landfill. The unfortunate reality is that much of this waste is ending up in the waterways and oceans causing terrible carnage to the marine wildlife. Many poorer countries can’t afford the luxury of a truck driving by once a week taking away garbage or the room and infrastructure for massive landfill sites, so where does there garbage go ???
     Do the abc war on waste survey and see how you stack up.

114. TomMay 27, 2017 at 1:33 pm

     History repeating nothing changes look back 100 years Still the same just in colour so what caused the great depresion in usa ? Companies could not sell there products due to inflation warehouses full of stuff nobody could afford so of to war we go . Great inventions were created but suppressed by evil organisation eg tesla , mr ford who owned hemp farms and figured out could build eg stronger than steel and run cars on hemp oil but desired to sell his soul to the Muslim faiths eg the first to recognise usa as independent nation after England’s inflated tax grab so on Look it easy people that speak with sprits are domed only a matter of time before good becomes evil no supprise that priest and politicians not only in australia are pediphiles and child sacrifice pre teen eg worship Baal aka zion ,coran, and many others who think there the chosen ones as for philanthropy eg Forrest and the Clinton foundations and many more who don’t pay taxs that claim they want to end slavery but are the problem buying land from aboriginal elders who keep that money for themselves and there families while there youth are forced in slavery running there farms or companies Australians would be horrified when they find out trillions of tax dollars in the past 10 years have gone to clintons in setting up pediphiles islands around the world for the ellite and evil minons
     Zionism ,Islam ,black popes or the black noblities of Europe and many more are One

     The fight for souls is on (can’t take money or possessions with you when dead) change is but a dream the 1% won’t give up that easy slavery has been around for thousands if years to serve evil why work the land when I take from others ????

115. Miriam EnglishMay 27, 2017 at 5:25 pm

     Tom, that is one of the most bat-shit crazy comments I’ve seen in a long time.
     Whatever you’re smoking, I’d seriously advise you to stop. It’s destroying what’s left of your brain.

116. TomMay 27, 2017 at 8:29 pm

     Miriam do your homework catch on some reading got nothing to gain
     Truth will set us free

117. Matters NotMay 27, 2017 at 9:05 pm

     Tom re:

     Truth will set us free

     These things that set us free . No doubt, you will be familiar with – Arbeit macht frei. Perhaps a poor choice of words?

118. TomMay 27, 2017 at 11:05 pm

     Matters not !!!! Got a few brain cells left slavery is slavery is slavery yes you are right (work will set you free) if you Are working for the good of humanity production and manufacturing for people and not for profit . Australia is the only country were you pay to go to work .pay corupt unions ,pay super and other theives not forgetting 45% tax ok
     Work yourself get srewed by people get 10 -50 quotes for work and not pay you (your lawyer againt mine)
     And then pay 45%tax every quarter great (panama papers)Hah thats the answer or one of those (commonwealth tax havens like our own priminster and all the do gooders out here)
     Albert maht frei (Work till you drop dead ) great advice !!!!!!!!!!!!!As for
     Hitler just wanted to conrol banking and people Get rid in breads which were deseased and start the master race the hole of europe went through those gates not just Jews (more lies)had blessings from pope and usa ps australia inc
     Slavery is for the few to exploit the masses the young are the victims
     The machine keeps turning with our souls as fuel
     Capitalists are killing the earth Goverments who come and go
     Miltary industry poisoning the seas and land just to make a bullet or bomb

     Work will set you free
     or work till you drop dead
     Albert macht frei ?????????
     Be a true philanthropist and give your wealth to the poor and the young there the ones you need to be Guided by the old not feed of them

     Hitler????????????????

119. TomMay 27, 2017 at 11:15 pm

     Ps Just sayin !!!!!!

120. Miriam EnglishMay 28, 2017 at 3:45 am

     Tom, you suggest I do some reading and that the truth will set me free — normally both very good suggestions, except that you should be careful with what you read. Avoid reading poisonous propaganda that is divorced from reality. It looks like you include a lot of conspiracy theorists in your reading, along with some white supremacists and antisemites. Such reading will lead you far astray from the truth and will certainly not set you free; it will severely damage your mind and enslave you to delusion.

     You say some things that are quite disconnected with reality, for example that Jews insist they’re the only ones who were targeted by the Nazis. That’s frankly untrue. There’s never been any argument that Gypsies, dark-skinned people, and the handicapped were being killed off too, though when about 6 million Jews are systematically exterminated they have the right to feel specially targeted.

     And you make other statements that, I’m sorry, I can’t make out the meaning of at all — perhaps 80% of what you’ve written. I’ve tried several times to read it and I still have no idea what you’re saying. I don’t say this to be insulting, but as a genuine response. If you want to reach people then you must first ensure they can read what you say. The purpose of communicating should be to communicate… unless you want to use it to merely vent.

121. TomMay 28, 2017 at 11:26 am

     Miss English 6 million thought it was 4 million ? Reading wrong books!!!!
     Believe in Christ ? Then you believe in Noah ? WE are all jews!!!!!!!Christ was sent to save jews from themselves most evil , practice of pagon gods ,steal,kill,pedophylia Money magic ,insurance and Slavery are all Hebrew in origin
     History states were there’s money you find a jew ( will sell you the rope to hang yourself)
     Expelled from ever country to spread islam true satanist
     Destory economy’s through inflation
     to spread migration
     German,Iranian ,Egyptian ect all went to country’s like usa ,Australia South America and many more
     To rape and pillage
     All organisations banks -un – blue bloods (royals) are jews

     Miss English why do Jews and masons change there names?
     Miss English have you ever done a hard days work?
     Miss English to you make money in your sleep?
     Miss English did you create is web page for profit ?

     While at home today ask your self murder rates or mothers killing there childern ,teenagers killing themselves and homeless people on the streets in winter are just animals?

     Albert Macht Fret ???? Work to you drop dead ???
     Support goverments that inforce slavery and tyrany for bankers lasy ness and greed ..Don’t wory china will save us or maybe India or russia? Sell australians out for $
     Might be brain dead ? But got the hart !!!!!!

122. Michael TaylorMay 28, 2017 at 11:31 am

     Tom, could you please summarise that in one or two short readable sentences? Preferably one.

123. TomMay 28, 2017 at 12:14 pm

     Ok I’ll try , we’re all robots programmed by evil animals
     Constitution for the people by the people must be (enforced ) Dog Latin and trickery by lawyers and political elite need to tried for treason
     End if story
     Hope that helps

     Ps (not a racist even when I sound anti sametic ) searching for truth in a forest of lies)

124. TomMay 28, 2017 at 2:39 pm

     Mr Taylor and others !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Trump prophecy with
     Peter Klinc must see (explains everything I’m trying say +more )

125. Miriam EnglishMay 28, 2017 at 3:11 pm

     Tom, I’ve never met a racist who actually thinks they are racist. They all think they have good reasons for their racism, but on careful examination they never do. Humans are just humans. There is no appreciable difference between us all.

     I decided to check my memory (I have a big problem with numbers). It turns out that I was right that 6 million is the generally accepted estimate of how many Jews were murdered by the Nazis, however careful studies of all the documentation available now makes it look like that was a serious underestimate. There may have been as many as 12 million murdered by the Nazis.

     Yes, you’re definitely reading the wrong books.

     No, I don’t believe in a god, or that Jesus existed, or the Noah story. Humanity had spread all over the Earth by the time the Jews formed a group, so no, we’re not all Jews. Christianity however, is definitely a Jewish religion. Jesus, if he existed (which I doubt) would have been a Jewish teacher.

     Pagan gods, stealing, killing, pedophilia, money, magic, insurance, and slavery — none of those are Hebrew in origin. They had been around for a long time before the Hebrews. You have serious racist issues.

     Modern Jews tend to be connected with various occupations: tailoring, entertainment, money managing. The reason for this is that antisemitism in many countries for a long time meant Jews were not allowed to own land. And there are very few things you can do to make your way in the world without owning land. They survived by excelling at those things. I rather admire them. They did a good job of making lemons into lemonade, so to speak.

     Then your comments degenerate into what appears to be hysterical racist ramblings against Jews. I can’t really work out what you mean though.

     Why do Jews and Masons change their names? If I had to guess why some (certainly not all) do, I’d say it is because of people like yourself who go on feverish anti-Jewish hate rants and the history of racists ganging up against them to discriminate against and even murder them. Sounds like a pretty sensible reason to me.

     I have certainly done lots of hard work. I still do. Every day. Including weekends.

     I don’t make money in my sleep. I have great difficulty making any money at all. I tend to give my things away. The 6 books, 26 short stories, 4 plays, many pieces of artwork, and some of my computer programs are available for free on my website http://miriam-english.org

     I’ve made many websites for many people. Every time it is for free, though I don’t protest if people give me donations.

     The final part of your comment I have no idea of your meaning.

     Now I have a question for you: In light of the fact that you have demonstrated that you really know nothing about Jews, why do you hate them so much?

126. Miriam EnglishMay 28, 2017 at 3:42 pm

     Damn! As I said, my ability to remember numbers is terrible. The new study doesn’t lift the estimate of Jews killed by the Nazis to 12 million. It lifts it to between 15 and 20 million.

127. Jennifer Meyer-SmithMay 28, 2017 at 5:09 pm

     Those numbers are obscene, Miriam, aren’t they!

     ……………………………………………………………………..

     Tom, have you seen ‘The Zookeeper’s Wife’? You should. It might remind you to be compassionate and kind to your neighbour whether they are Jew, Caucasian, Muslim, First Nations, Asian, Black etc.

     The film is based on the Nazi’s genocide of Jews but it represents universal humanity.

128. TomMay 28, 2017 at 6:19 pm

     Miss English thanks for reply
     We I’m not a Racist but putting the focus on Hebrews and not all races is a crime world wars killed over 50 million people many atrocities around world eg African ,Arminians etc but no sympathy for them
     Don’t hate them done a lot of work for them but when at a Rabbi house out of the books he had 1 book stood out (good in evil)
     For years tried to figure why a preacher of good would read or own such a book (No good in evil)Evil is Evil
     Peter Klinc can some it up for you posted before but must watch this on you tube secrets of 2017 the Trump prophecy with Peter Klinc and only then you will realise how far the rabbit hole goes 1/2hour we’ll spent
     But I suppose it’s all propaganda!!!!!!!!!!

     Yes not all Jews are bad but the one in power are

129. Miriam EnglishMay 29, 2017 at 8:01 am

     Tom, you’re clearly racist. It’s obvious to everyone except you. You speak of a particular group in the most vile terms and accuse them of basically being the root of all evil. That’s one of the worst kinds of racism. What do you think the term “racism” means?

     Racism is one of the worst, most evil things in the world, yet you eagerly embrace it. Do you wonder what that says about you?

     Why would I waste half an hour on the rantings of a deluded racist like Peter Klinc? I suggest you stop letting him poison your brain too.

     Your willingness to assume the owner of a book titled “Good in Evil” is a bad person shows just how disturbingly racist you are. You don’t consider that it could have been about tolerance and how a silver lining can be found in every dark cloud. I take great pride in the fact that I can see something good in almost everything. (For example, the pain when I’m injured protects the injured part from further damage.)