Discussion Random Discussion

[Yawkey way]

My family had intergeneration wealth and wasted it, now I'm firmly on the left. Says it all really. If I need a meal ticket I'm jumping off the campaigners with the cash, they like to keep it.

Yes don't I know it my own experience and family research show mine were never hard up for a crust.

Family history is a laugh sometimes the research can be hard other times you get a rails run and your back four or five hundred years or more inside an hour.

One or two prominent people and its done for you. My great grandfather on my dad's side was born in 1828 yet I knew my great grandad on my mother's side, I kid you not.

 

[gringo2011]

British did a good job in Fiji. Not perfect but they demonstrated a real desire to learn from past mistakes with other colonies and implement a more caring policy. On the whole we are grateful for their contribution to our nation.

It's hard to now what life would have been like without colonisation. Not to want to sound like a white w***er who thinks everything precolonial was more noble even if it was harder, but like in most colonies, Australia included, all the English seem to have given us is pedantic bureaucracy, neurosis and unreliable cars. At least they didn't lump you with the down beat personality. Fiji's climate must make you happy, even Frank Bainimarama looked like the most chill military take over in history. (Sorry if that sounds like the most idiotic comment you have read having not lived through it myself).

 

[gringo2011]

Yes don't I know it my own experience and family research show mine were never hard up for a crust.

Family history is a laugh sometimes the research can be hard other times you get a rails run and your back four or five hundred years or more inside an hour.

One or two prominent people and its done for you. My great grandfather on my dad's side was born in 1828 yet I knew my great grandad on my mother's side, I kid you not.

Yeah, we peaked in the middle ages and was just a long slow race to the bottom.

 

[MUFKilda]

Just one note. Please don't confuse the Greens where you are with the Greens in Australia. ( or any other political party for that matter ). They have a similar name.
Maybe they both like to wear the glasses with the plain glass lenses i don't know, but they are NOT the same.

I don't know anything about the Green Party in Australia. I was responding to Yawkey Way saying he stopped reading when I said the American Greens could become a progressive force in the States, as the Democratic Party is now largely another party of Wall Street. The US Greens do have a number of similarities with the UK Greens, which may sound unbelievable, given how far to the right the US system is now. The US party is probably not as far to the left as our Greens are, but it's much more progress than the Democrats. Whether it's possible for another party to break through the two party system over there I don't know. I thought Jill Stein was an excellent candidate in 2016.

 

[VDS66]

We have a family friend who was until recently at KPMG as a senior partner. He was talking to me about how insane the politicians failing to tax and legislate gas policy in Australia. It looks like corruption. It's cheaper for us to buy Australian gas retail in Japan that was extracted in Australia, than it is to buy it wholesale in Australia. They refuse to legislate still and say it's up to the companies to set the price and that competition will send prices down.

The reason why comes down to who pulls the strings via donations... Fossil fuel industry?

 

[VDS66]

The rot set in when governments privatised public and essential services as they drank the globalisation kool aide.

Discuss...

 

[Yawkey way]

British did a good job in Fiji. Not perfect but they demonstrated a real desire to learn from past mistakes with other colonies and implement a more caring policy. On the whole we are grateful for their contribution to our nation.

I've seen shows where the locals love the British and the royal family so I'm not surprised at all.

When I was a young bloke at primary school the queen came out and it was huge.

They aren't as popular now of course but a lot has changed in both the relationship and our population.

Not to mention how historical events are now viewed in a different light.

 

[CursingFijian]

It's hard to now what life would have been like without colonisation. Not to want to sound like a white w***er who thinks everything precolonial was more noble even if it was harder, but like in most colonies, Australia included, all the English seem to have given us is pedantic bureaucracy, neurosis and unreliable cars. At least they didn't lump you with the down beat personality. Fiji's climate must make you happy, even Frank Bainimarama looked like the most chill military take over in history. (Sorry if that sounds like the most idiotic comment you have read having not lived through it myself).

The Kingdom of Tonga [emoji1246] was never colonised. So it provides an interesting contrast. They’ve still adopted many Westernised constructs through dealings with private enterprises.

The climate is why we all pine to get into Australia. 99% humidity? No thank you.

 

[VDS66]

Exactly they are our elected representatives.

No... We electect them because we have to. We are given a choice between a shit sandwich and turd pie.

We elect them on the notion that they will represent us, but all they do is feather their nest by legislating to appease the lobbyists who support them.

Turnball destroyed the NBN to appease Murdoch and Foxtel.

The other bloke who had to resign due to citizenship, thanked the mining industry for the opportunity to represent them.

The list goes on.

We won't even mention the greatest upholder of morality in modern times... The Beetrooter himself.

So the mug punter turns to idiots lie Trump and Hanson... Who then help legislate tax cuts that screw the poor.

The wheels on the bus go round and round...

 

[MUFKilda]

The rot set in when governments privatised public and essential services as they drank the globalisation kool aide.

Discuss...

We went down the same road under Thatcher of course, with the promises of lower prices etc which turned out to be false. We've had forty years of neo-liberalism now, and life is more insecure and more difficult for the majority, due to things like stripping of trade union rights.

 

[MUFKilda]

No... We electect them because we have to. We are given a choice between a shit sandwich and turd pie.

We elect them on the notion that they will represent us, but all they do is feather their nest by legislating to appease the lobbyists who support them.

Turnball destroyed the NBN to appease Murdoch and Foxtel.

The other bloke who had to resign due to citizenship, thanked the mining industry for the opportunity to represent them.

The list goes on.

We won't even mention the greatest upholder of morality in modern times... The Beetrooter himself.

So the mug punter turns to idiots lie Trump and Hanson... Who then help legislate tax cuts that screw the poor.

The wheels on the bus go round and round...

The 'manufactured consent' Chomsky, for example, has spoken about for so long. Many of the parties now serve the same interests, such as the Democrats and Republicans, with only slight differences, and are funded by the same people. The electorate get to put a cross on a ballot paper every four years for one of these, and that's your 'democracy'.

 

[gringo2011]

The rot set in when governments privatised public and essential services as they drank the globalisation kool aide.

Discuss...

I had mates from England living out here who were engineers, they had an article sent by a mate about a Tory politician who was claiming he'd only wash once a week because they sold the water reservoirs in England and had given them a contract to say no one could build a competing reservoir that might meet demand. It was funny as ****.

They were complaining about England in the '90s where they were losing engineering jobs where they would award contracts that would be outsourced multiple times until some students with no experience would build things, they wouldn't meet minimum standard and would need to be rebuilt. Lost all their public health and education quality as well. We saw that system and thought it looked good so copied. Crazy stuff.

 

[VDS66]

We went down the same road under Thatcher of course, with the promises of lower prices etc which turned out to be false. We've had forty years of neo-liberalism now, and life is more insecure and more difficult for the majority, due to things like stripping of trade union rights.

Denomisation of unions has also been rife down here. The current mob launched a Royal Commissions into union corruption in order to disgrace a former labour PM and current opposition leader. It came up Donuts.

The irony is the idiot workers who are anti-union don't realise that their 4 weeks annual leave, paid sick leave, 40 hour week, paid maternal leave, workplace safety etc are all because of unions... Not generous business owners.

 

[gringo2011]

Denomisation of unions has also been rife down here. The current mob launched a Royal Commissions into union corruption in order to disgrace a former labour PM and current opposition leader. It came up Donuts.

The irony is the idiot workers who are anti-union don't realise that their 4 weeks annual leave, paid sick leave, 40 hour week, paid maternal leave, workplace safety etc are all because of unions... Not generous business owners.

Funny how they don't do royal commissions into politicians. They fight federal ICAC every time it's mentioned. Even can't agree to not take foreign "donations" even when there are questions over national security involved. Most politicians are like parasites that are so busy gorging they don't realise they are killing he organism they are all sucking off.

 

[VDS66]

Funny how they don't do royal commissions into politicians. They fight federal ICAC every time it's mentioned. Even can't agree to not take foreign "donations" even when there are questions over national security involved. Most politicians are like parasites that are so busy gorging they don't realise they are killing he organism they are all sucking off.

That's why I said that democracy is a myth.

Privatisation is a disaster.

The banking royal commission shows why.

I understand the concept of private sector delivering efficiencies, when you compare it to the old USSR system of communism.

But the underlying problem with capitalism - and I once again refer to the banks as an example - is that private organisations are accountable to the shareholders, and increasing share holder value.

So when you have a system that encourages profit growth via obscene bonuses to directors and management, you essentially have a corrupt system.

And when you place public essential services in their hands, how can you expect them to put society before profit?

 

[Yawkey way]

The rot set in when governments privatised public and essential services as they drank the globalisation kool aide.

Discuss...

An absolute unmitigated disaster.

They did something else which was a little less obvious but more insidious.

The concept of the government having a community service obligation to provide a range of services cost free.

Services like meat inspection, health inspectors a whole range of things.

They quietly ditched the concept started charging on a fee for service basis and set things up to be hived off to private enterprise.

 

[Mowman]

Funny how they don't do royal commissions into politicians. They fight federal ICAC every time it's mentioned. Even can't agree to not take foreign "donations" even when there are questions over national security involved. Most politicians are like parasites that are so busy gorging they don't realise they are killing he organism they are all sucking off.

Most politicians are parasites

 

[gringo2011]

An absolute unmitigated disaster.

They did something else which was a little less obvious but more insidious.

The concept of the government having a community service obligation to provide a range of services cost free.

Services like meat inspection, health inspectors a whole range of things.

They quietly ditched the concept started charging on a fee for service basis and set things up to be hived off to private enterprise.

Yep, my in-laws have been having house built. They have been paying progress payments and the build was a year and a half behind schedule. They got shitty and asked someone to come and take over the project management because the builder was so slow. They find that they have ****ed up nearly everything that they have done but been paying to have it "inspected" the standards are so low the floor got put in before windows and has to be pulled up from water damage, didn't do drainage and water runs over the slab etc. nearly needs pulling down and starting again.

Apparently they deregulated property inspection and you can literally pay to have a guy sign paperwork without seeing the job. You take it to VCAT and they basically mediate and tell you to get a new builder and you get a little bit back that the builder hasn't already spent. There are no standards when industry self regulates unfortunately.

 

[Yawkey way]

Yep, my in-laws have been having house built. They have been paying progress payments and the build was a year and a half behind schedule. They got shitty and asked someone to come and take over the project management because the builder was so slow. They find that they have ****** up nearly everything that they have done but been paying to have it "inspected" the standards are so low the floor got put in before windows and has to be pulled up from water damage, didn't do drainage and water runs over the slab etc. nearly needs pulling down and starting again.

Apparently they deregulated property inspection and you can literally pay to have a guy sign paperwork without seeing the job. You take it to VCAT and they basically mediate and tell you to get a new builder and you get a little bit back that the builder hasn't already spent. There are no standards when industry self regulates unfortunately.

It's an absolute disgrace.

 

[Yawkey way]

Yeah, we peaked in the middle ages and was just a long slow race to the bottom.

My campaigners were doing fine until they were on the wrong side of a revolution.

They had a new lease on life after leaving with William Penn and then played a prominent role in another revolution.

The family name is one of 56 names on an important declaration, a cousin not in my direct line. For me a long line of politicians, doctors, land speculators, farmers and one or two true frontiersmen.

I think the new world was populated by the adventurous and younger sons. Then each generation the younger sons went west or south again and so on.

 

[gringo2011]

My campaigners were doing fine until they were on the wrong side of a revolution.

They had a new lease on life after leaving with William Penn and then played a prominent role in another revolution.

The family name is one of 56 names on an important declaration, a cousin not in my direct line. For me a long line of politicians, doctors, land speculators, farmers and one or two true frontiersmen.

I think the new world was populated by the adventurous and younger sons. Then each generation the younger sons went west or south again and so on.

Do you have a bit of Quaker blood? We had some folks head to the states. Ours were aristocracy so the ones that went there were the weird ones that they wanted hidden....George Bush is somehow i the same family line as me. Some others were somehow invoiced in Salem witch hunts. My dad has always bragged about having been related to Jane Seymour who was married to Henry the 8th, we couldn't find any evidence of it other than every kid for hundreds of years has carried Seymour as one of their middle names. Poor ****ers.

We looked his family history up and they made all their money when the Germans and British were fighting at some point and they manufactured musical instrument and had a monopoly. His family was literally the world's largest manufacturers of Jew's harps at one point...like that hillbilly mouth harp thing....too funny. He had a few titled people. My mum's side had the aristocratic history though, it was pretty interesting to look up.

 

[Joffaboy]

By the way, if any Australians have been wondering what Brexit is all about, this guy will give you the general idea of the debate. Straight from the pages of the Daily Mail etc. These are our equivalent of your Pauline Hanson crackpot.

Just listened to this bloke for an hour.

Erudite, and wholly sensible.

Seems like Britain has committed suicide with Brexit and the punter is clueless about it.

Will be interesting to see Britian with outside eyes in a couple of months

On [device_name] using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Impatient Saint]

Just come on to say good bye - as I am deleting my account. I am spending far too much time on here and dealing with some forumites and the way they communicate is doing my head in. Honestly if they spoke in public like they type, there wouldnt be too many getting about with teeth.

 

[MUFKilda]

Just come on to say good bye - as I am deleting my account. I am spending far too much time on here and dealing with some forumites and the way they communicate is doing my head in. Honestly if they spoke in public like they type, there wouldnt be too many getting about with teeth.

I'm sorry to hear that, Impatient. It would be a shame to see you go. Have you reported the posts that have bothered you? You shouldn't have to feel the need to delete your account.

 

[CHBench]

Just saw this kid on sunrise, can the club get the lad in and treat him for being a good human?