The Brown Note

Javier Milei, Geert Wilders And The Fallacy Of Right Wing Populists

Why is it that every now and then a right wing populist scores a stunning election victory and their opposites on the left - like Bernie Sanders or Jeremy Corbyn - never do? It's simple - far from being revolutionaries, tearing the system down, the right wing populist, from Argentina to the Netherlands, represents the global elite economic interests, just much more colorfully. You will see them coming after immigrants and the welfare state but never tax breaks for the rich - funny that.

Israel V Palestine: Merry Christmas Mr Putin

With nearly everyone a loser in this Western-backed horror show, one person has come out an undoubted winner - Vladimir Putin. After a year of unrelenting demonisation, sanctions and international pariah status (at least to the West) due to his war in Ukraine, suddenly the whole paradigm has flipped. It's now impossible for Western nations to both support Ukraine and Israel at the same time, without the unbearable hypocrisy of those contradictory positions being the main story for the rest of the world, whilst letting all air out of Western support for the war in Ukraine. He's also one of the only major leaders to be friends with both sides of the latest conflict. Christmas just got a lot rosier for Vlad.

The Disgrace Of Biden And The Democrats

Despite the USA having gone through the most tumultuous period of their modern existence, with an actual attempted overthrow of government and half the country openly flirting with fascism, the Democrats still have only one play in their book - rely on Trump and use Biden. Like last time. They should've lined up a batch of potential new leaders, instead they've no one and have spent the last two years chasing both a new cold war and a resurgence of the disastrous Middle Eastern conflicts that defined the first decade of this century. Disgraceful stuff.

Israel Vs Palestine, Antisemitism And Islamophobia

Western governments, by their relentless, one-eyed and punitive take on the latest conflict in Gaza, are doing more to fuel a new outburst of global antisemitism than anything else - by refusing to ascribe any of this conflict to a Netanyahu government deemed an extremist global pariah a year ago, they are helping place that burden on the Jewish diaspora globally. And by denying the population of Gaza humanity, helping fuel Islamophobia.

Bruce Lehrmann Charged With Rape Again

The ex-Liberal Party staffer, Bruce Lehrmann, recently involved in one of Australia's highest ever profile rape cases - the infamous Brittany Higgins rape trial, which collapsed due to jury misconduct, before a retrial was cancelled due to Brittany Higgins perilous mental health, has now been named as a person facing two new rape charges. Which on the face of it, I would have expected to generate a bit more media coverage than it has.

Israel Vs Palestine - Groundhog Armageddon

An overview of the latest, crushingly repetitive episode in genocidal apartheid - now, post Ukraine, with even more helpings of Western hypocrisy.

The Voice Referendum: The Aftermath

Now that Australia's attempt to be nice to indigenous people was roundly defeated, a look at the reasons it failed and the behavior and culpability of all involved. Particularly the media - who were happy to complain daily about how the public never understood what the voice was, yet never offered to help explain it to them, despite widely supporting it and being the main conduit for that very public understanding it. Also how the architect of this failure - Labor leader Anthony Albanese - got away with it. The redundant populist right press screamed for his resignation and the whole country went, yeah, nah. Also the damage Liberal leader Peter Dutton has done to himself by owning the NO vote.

Labor Needs To Get Away From The Voice Referendum

The Australian Labor party - in the midst of a cost of living crisis - should let others take control of the Voice referendum, lest it be a referendum on them.

Why Do We Put Up With Cyclists?

Okay a deliberately inflammatory title. A truer statement would be, why do we always lump cyclists into one group, when there are two main groups. The first are the people getting from A-to-B, minding their own business, casually riding, wearing normal clothes - doing great things for their health and the environment, god bless them. The other group are the Lycra commandos, that go out in packs of twenty, dominated public roads in a way no other user is permitted to do and are some of the most aggressive road users. Why do we put up with Lycra commandos?

The Cost Of Living Crisis - The Inheritocracy And The New Lords And Serfs

The cost of living crisis is hammering every nation that bought into the neoliberal economic nightmare - but it's mainly a cost of housing crisis, with the impact of house prices and rent killing our ability to weather any economic storm, as we eviscerated the idea of a meritocracy in favor of an inheritocracy. From the viewpoint of Sydney, rent and mortgages - on the one home you actually live in - are the number one driver of economic hardship, as we struggle valiantly to pay off other peoples investment properties. It's a sin we should not stand for and one that negatively impacts almost every aspect of both life and the economy.