Pathetic News Day
The world needs to know the vital information that the balls in some game weren’t fully inflated.
George Zimmerman was involved in another shooting in central Florida, but wasn’t seriously injured. Other than being classified as a road rage incident, no one really knows what happened.
As winter arrives in Australia the latest budget was revealed and people aren’t really sure how much is smoke and how much is mirrors, but no one actually believes it’s real. “Deloitte Access Economics report likened the 2015-16 deficit figure to the work of horror writer Stephen King and Norwegian artist Edvard Munch” – that would be a scary graphic novel. [Aside: Why can’t US think tanks write reports like that?]
8 comments
About George: His “incident” rate is increasing and I believe it is guilt driven. He’s learning that hard lesson: the courts can find you not guilty but you can’t find yourself innocent. Even if you find a way to rationalize what you did, will others?
He no longer lives in the area but the other individual does and the two of them had a run in about a year ago. The other guy didn’t press charges in the original incident to avoid being involved in the media circus that George draws, and probably regrets the decision.
Zimmerman is paranoid and armed, so he will cause trouble wherever he is.
“… but no one actually believes it’s real”
You got that right! You know us so well m8! 😉 😀
It’s a fairly worthless budget, and I think their revenue estimates are the result of LSD fantasy!
My old employer did get an extra $50 million to their annual budget (peanuts). But they should definitely drop the first ‘S’ from ASIS and just call them AIS (it conflicts with ‘Australian Institute of Sport, but I see that as a bonus!) At the risk of being repetitive… So glad I’m out of it!
SECURITY
— $1.2 billion new funding to counter terrorism
— $450 million boost to intelligence capabilities
— $296 million extra for spy agencies including $50 million for overseas spies in ASIS
— $131 million to capture metadata
— $22 million to counter extremist propaganda
I did get a laugh out of the last three! Especially that last one! So, they are spending $22m to counter themselves? 😉 LOL
But here is where the budget is being killed!
DEFENCE
— Defence budget up by $2.7 billion to $31.8 billion a year
— Extra $750 million for overseas operations in 2015/16 taking total spending on operations since 1999 to $16.6 billion.
— $382 million for Iraq mission
And this gem:
— Defence public servant numbers to drop by 2000 over two years
No need for civilians in the Military! Expensively trained military personnel can do their jobs! No worries!
Seriously… WTF?! The Lib’s are insane.
A quick summary:
The 2015 Federal Budget: Your five-minute guide
However, there is an interesting editorial here:
This budget won’t fix Australia’s limping economy. It shouldn’t try
At least this Abbott Gov finally kept a promise! Wonders never cease to amaze…
They promised a “dull and routine budget”:
A ‘dull and routine’ budget that relies on group denial
Oh well *shrug*
I do hope y’all are doing well and that things are somewhat back to normal (whatever that is!) 😉 😀
I think ‘as-is’ is a great meaningless name for an intel group. 😉
I’m trying to figure out why they want to spend so much on ‘counter-terrorism’ when the ‘terrorism’ they have experienced is well within the capabilities of the police.
I just can’t see what they hope to gain with the mass capture of metadata, and governments really suck when it comes to countering propaganda, because they generate propaganda of their own, the target audience already ignores the government forms.
As for cutting the civilians working for the Defense agencies – they need to demonstrate they are reducing the size of government, and cutting jobs is the quick and easy way of making that point. It is stupid and expensive, but it shows they are ‘reducing the size of government’, so it doesn’t have to make sense.
This is a budget that is designed for an election – no one heavily impacted and goodies for all kinds of people. Now all they have to do it get it passed.
It isn’t that I know Australia, I know ‘conservative’ political parties and their games. They all use the same instruction manual.
Sorry for late reply… Things have been somewhat hectic. Still no Internet, but that’s because I decided to wait for my first quarterly electricity/gas bills to see what I can actually afford. Just got my gas bill which is about $35/mth, which was less than I expected (used for hot-water service & gas cook-top/oven). Hope the electric bill is also, but electricity is a lot more expensive than gas. I won’t get that for another couple weeks, so we’ll see. *shrug*
I find it amazing that — as you correctly stated (no surprise) — all ‘conservative’ political parties are pretty much the same (batshit crazy & no concept of reality). Yet, it seems much of the population are unaware and think their neo-con’s are *better* and *different*, despite any and all proof to the contrary! Which just goes to show that most voters are as insane as the politicians they elect.
I’ve learned over the decades that most people are out of touch with reality, unless it’s on TV! (Which is amazing in itself, given that so-called “Reality TV” is bogus and they are all wannabe actors (most wouldn’t get a minor bit-part acting job in a movie or TV series). Even most of those Host Talk shows are scripted! I don’t watch TV. Haven’t for years. If I like a movie or series, I get the DVD (or online) sans all the crappy ad’s! I get all my news online too.
I don’t know why some people have a ‘life’. They obviously have no clue what to do with it! They don’t Live! They just exist in a kind of predictable monotone. And I don’t mean people who are doing it hard that would love to have a life. Hard to have a life when you are struggling just to eke out an existence.
The sad reality is that people join a ‘tribe’ and just accept whatever the ‘tribal leaders’ say without question. While this is easier than actually thinking, it normally only benefits the leaders. People don’t seem to actually make an effort to figure out what benefits them personally and act accordingly.
Based on what little TV I have seen it would appear that actual intelligence is inversely proportional to inherited wealth. I don’t understand why anything thinks that the ‘problems’ of people with more money than sense deserve space on the broadcast media.
If they what a real survival series, cover minimum wage workers, not people in some exotic location that is filled with everything necessary to survive.
What you say is sadly true. I’ve never been very *tribal* (except during my Mil/Int career, but that was a necessity). I don’t follow *leaders* at all, I make them accountable and responsible! I’m a PITA, and proud! 😀
There is definitely an election looming (and we all suspect Abbott will call an early election since his popularity jumped over the stupid budget. But Labor have finally got their game together and have made something of a preemptive strike while the Lib’s were wallowing in their (unmerited) budget praise! LOL
I am on Labor’s mailist and just read this one:
Sounds good to me. But I have no illusions. 😉 🙂
We’ll see.
Thought you might find this interesting. 🙂 One of the petitions I am currently on and following avidly was by a 14 YO young lady with a lot of guts! I’ll just post the latest, I think you will get the gist of what she is trying to achieve. She already has about 95,000 signed supporters (impressive), so many people are on board. 😀
This was her previous eMail:
You can tell from the punctuation and general style she’s a teen. 😉
It’s really nice to see that some young people can be active on an important issue, and even pro-active.
Labour in the UK did a lousy job of presenting a vision that separated themselves from the Tories. They are still stuck in the Clinton/Blair ‘centrist’ mode that almost no one who isn’t on a TV talk show likes. You have to work for and represent your base, not some mythical ‘independent voter’.
Looks like Labor in Australia have figured out the best path to take to demonstrate their difference from the Liberals/Coalition.
Rachel gives you reason to hope that the country will survive. If the young won’t stand up, they will never get their issues taken seriously, much less addressed.