The question of minimum wage has been very much a topic of discussion in alternative media of late, and I have written a few posts about the struggle. I am leading off today’s consideration of the issue with a well-considered letter from a Star reader, followed by a Real News
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The Disaffected Lib: Australia’s Senate Drops Climate Change Wrench into General Election
The contenders to form Australia’s next national government have night & day differences on climate change. The incumbent, Labor’s Kevin Rudd, trails his rival, Tony Abbott’s Liberal Coalition, 48 to 52. Abbott is a strong climate change denier. Now into the mix comes a bipartisan report from the Australian Senate,
Continue readingezra winton: Old and new political satire
These two short political satires (above) are from different eras (1986 and 2013, respectively) and tackling totally different issues (colonization/racism and sexuality/homophobia, respectively), but watching the newer of the two, Love Is All You Need totally reminded me of BabaKieuria, a classic that has been long-forgotten in the canons of
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: WikiLeaks: Suspected Snowden Plane Grounded & Embassy Bugged
Assange blasted Obama today for lying about his government’s interest in capturing Edward Snowden, the celebrated whistle-blower who exposed Obama’s administration as spying on all Americans (and the rest of the world). The plane of the Bolivian president was denied flight into previously friendly countries and diverted to Austria for
Continue readingArt Threat: Controversial Coke advert causes stir in Australia
Without a doubt, Coca-Cola is one of the worst companies on the planet. From its murderous human rights violations stamping out unions in Latin America (especially at Colombian bottling plants) to its marketing to youngsters to its environmental record (especially concerning water), it is hands down a terrible corporation getting
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: America’s Enemy-Industrial Complex
You can own all the locomotives and all the rolling stock in the world but they’re useless without tracks. The same logic holds true for the world’s largest, most fearsome military. What good is it without an ample supply of enemies? Just as General Motors needs people to buy Chevys,
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Why Australia Fears the United States
Since coming into existence in 1776, the United States has enjoyed just 21 “war free” years. The last four of those were under president Jimmy Carter who didn’t see much point in blowing other people, their kids and all their stuff into smithereens just to make a point. No wonder
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: WikiLeaks: Special Project K is for Kissinger
https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/321097232516542464 #WikiLeaks put an extraordinary amount of work into #PlusD. wikileaks.org/plusd/about/ Keep them strong! shop.wikileaks.org/donate— M Cetera 「エム」 (@m_cetera) April 08, 2013 Soon, as media and bloggers sift through the new leaks, there will be revelations to help clarify history and better understand how the United States ended up where
Continue readingThings Are Good: Australia Can Make Easy Transition to Renewable Energy
Presently, 10% of Australia’s electricity is produced from a renewable resource, and that number can grow easily with minor adjustments to federal policy. By cutting back subsidies for the oil and gas sector (yes, most developed nations actually provide subsidies to that insanely profitable sector) and upping the cost of
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Former Aussie PM’s unintended message to Canadian progressives: coalitions work!
Former Australian PM John Howard at the Manning Centre’s Ottawa gabfest Sunday. Below: Tom Flanagan pictured on a button worn by many at Preston Manning’s “big-tent” conservative revival meeting, “Calgary School” professor Rainer Knopff seen in passing sporting his Flanagan button. OTTAWA Was former Australian PM John Howard sending Canadian
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Australia’s "Angry Summer"
It might have a lot to do with pre-emptive politics but Australian government climate scientists have issued a report directly linking their nation’s summer of extreme weather events to climate change. The report, aptly titled “The Angry Summer”, ties both extreme heat and extreme floods Australians have endured to the
Continue readingEclectic Lip: Steven Chu’s “Time to Fix the Wiring” at four years
Former US Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s recent resignation — his farewell letter is here — is no doubt celebrated in the fuel cell quarters as passionately (or more so) than it is mourned in the rest of cleantech. Early in his term, Chu infamously argued (infamously, at least, to fuel
Continue readingAutonomy For All: Solid Monckton Journalism
Viscount Monckton is on another one of his highly lucrative climate denial evangelism tours of Australia. I caught this great piece from a Tasmanian newspaper called “The Mercury”, Monckton’s Hot Air: At a public lecture in Hobart this week, he said there had been no global warming for at least
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Aboriginal leader: “We’ve to acknowledge that Australia has a Black history”
by Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive, Feb. 4, 2013: “We’ve to acknowledge that Australia has a Black history”, an Aboriginal leader said last week as he “reflected on pain, and hope, of Australia Day”. Steve Widders is asking indigenous people in Australia not to forget a painful colonial past dominated by oppression,
Continue reading350 or bust: The Happiness Game
“The essence of the philosophy of Gross National Happiness is the peace and happiness of our people and the security and sovereignity of our nation” The Centre For Bhutan Studies, http://www.grossnationalhappiness.com There’s not much good news for a climate activist these days, other than the awakening of indigenous people around
Continue readingWalking Turcot Yards: 52C And The Colour Purple In Australia
It’s real, it’s happening, and it’s coming soon to an Arctic melt near you! Australia adds new colour to temperature maps as heat soars Forecast temperatures are so extreme that the Bureau of Meteorology has had to add a new colour to its scale. It is a sign of things
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Australian Political Hypocrisy Mirrors Ours
Australian politics is like Canada looking into a mirror. Here’s the current Prime Minister describing the deception of an earlier government she opposed. “For far too long public debate in Australia has failed to nourish or inspire us. For far too long it has been limited to the day-to-day monitoring
Continue readingThings Are Good: Australia Starts Two-Year Super Trawler Ban
Commercial fishing is one of the most damaging things one can do to gather a food source. Trawlers are so inefficient they perform the equivalent task of cutting down an entire forest to get a couple cows. With this hugely negative impact that trawling can have on undersea life in mind Australia has decided to […]
Continue readingCanadian ProgressiveCanadian Progressive: Australia’s Female PM Assails “Misogynist’ Opposition Leader & Sexism
A political master-stroke of epic proportions. That’s my take on Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s take-down of opposition leader Tony Abbott in this 15-minute speech on sexism in Parliament. OK, let’s put aside the fact that Gillard’s passionate and personal take-down followed Abbott’s attack on the embattled Speaker of the house,
Continue readingSlap Upside The Head: Australian Parliament Votes Down Equal Marriage Rights
I’ve always thought that Canada and Australia are similar in a lot of ways. It’s kind of like a parallel Canada with a warmer climate, more poisonous animals, and a superior electoral system. And now, like Canada once did, it’s going through some setbacks in its transition on the path
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