TPP Talks Falter. Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme safe for now.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-01/trans-pacific-partnership-delegates-fail-to-reach-final-deal/6665204

The Adam Goodes Controversy - what's really going on?

Adam Goodes Controversy – What's really going on here?

I have a confession to make. I don't like Australian Rules Football. The first 9 year of my life were spent in Punchbowl in Sydney where Rugby League was king and the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs were Gods. The Mortimer brothers were my sporting hero's growing up.

In time my family moved to the St George area but I didn't lose my love of the blue and whites. My first sporting memory is of the 1979 grand final where St George beat Canterbury. I was 4 years old and devastated.

An Indigenous Football Player

Now I'm no stranger to booing players, in my Rugby League following days I used to boo Anthony Mundine. Anthony Mundine is an indigenous man who I felt at the time had an ego that had to be heard to be believed. I used to joke that Anthony Mundine couldn't make the game today because he was detained by a full length mirror.

In my more lucid moments if pushed I would have told you that Anthony Mundine was an excellent player and to break him psychologically on the field would give my team a match winning edge. I would also have told you that in no way was my booing of Mundine racist. I would have believed it when i told you that too, but 20 years later i can now understand that what I resented was an unaustralian (as i saw it) way of relating to fans, players and sponsors in professional sport. I disliked him because he didn't act like a product of my culture where humility is valued in its Sportsmen.

Men like Mark Taylor, Peter Sterling and even Sir Donald Bradman were grounded in this more humble culture. When Mundine came along saying I'm the greatest play-maker in the world, I found him offensive.

She Called him What?

The current controversy surrounding Adam Goodes is driving the media into a frenzy. I think we need to take a step back and get some context.

In 2013 during the Australian Football League's (AFL) Indigenous round, Adam Goodes (playing for the Sydney Swans) was called an ape by a 13 year old female supporter of Carlton. Goodes told officials what had happened and pointed the fan out. She was subsequently ejected from the arena. This news report from the seven network shows the incident.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOSTe_CeOvw

The perpetrator of the abuse was indeed a 13 year old girl. Goodes gave a thoughtful and heartfelt press conference the next day. He said he did not blame her, but that society needed to be educated.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZkquBdLm0E

The Collingwood fan did call him after the press conference as he announced on twitter

"Just received a phone call from a young girl apologizing for her actions. Lets support her please#racismitstopswithme #IndigenousRound "

• Adam Goodes (@adamroy37) May 25, 2013

So what should Goodes have done? Should he indeed have called out the racist taunt or ignored it? Many Australians feel he should have ignored the girl because she was so young. He even admitted that she could not have understood how the taunt would be understood by him.

To that I say BULLSHIT! Should minorities all over Australia be subject to racism because people don't know any better? Of course not. It doesn't matter if you are 13 or 93, racism is wrong and should be called out.

To ignore the girl would be to accept the status quo. To call her out would be to cause considerable trouble for her on that night, but remember she did call him an ape. That is a clearly racist statement.

The problem for Goodes though is that he tripped one of the unconscious nerves in white Australia's subconscious. That of the black man dominating the white woman. To make it worse she was 13, not even a woman. That's how it started.

So from then on Goodes was booed whenever he touched the ball. He was called a sook, because he couldn't take being called names.

This year during the AFL's indigenous round (the jerseys, the ball, etc were all themed Aboriginal) Goodes was receiving boos from the Carlton supporters. So after he kicked an aboriginal themed ball through an aboriginal themed goal wearing an aboriginal themed jersey he did an aboriginal themed wardance as celebration. Here's the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5-ZVXE-LGw

EVERYONE LOSES THEIR MIND!!!!

What ever happened to sport as entertainment! That was awesomely entertaining and in the best tradition of crowd/player interaction. Frankly I wouldn't have been surprised if Goodes had walked up to the TV camera at the end of the match and yelled "ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED!!!!"

Now Goodes isn't the first sportsman or woman to have a go at the crowd after scoring a goal, but of course as the 1^st aboriginal player to do so, Goodes tripped another unconscious nerve. The angry black man.

Australia tends to be a tolerant and accepting society, minority figures are embraced and loved. People like Christine Anu, Ernie Dingo, Ahn Doe, to name just a few. However that minority figure must not question the status quo. Minorities should be grateful for the country we provide for them.

Of course that the riches we enjoy were indeed hard won, they were hard won from another people. Those people are still here, and when they (the aboriginal people) remind us of that fact, and that they have a powerful, distinct, ancient culture white Australia loses the plot.

So Adam Goodes is an (unconsciously scary) sook. He needs to calm down and stop bullying the Carlton supporters and that poor white girl.

Bullshit.

White Australia has 228 years of keeping the black man down. white Australia systematically dispossessed and then ethnically cleansed black Australia. white Australia attempted genocide. Frankly Aboriginal Australia has been more forgiving than we would be under the same circumstances.

Herein lies the problem for white Australia. Many in this country find it difficult to come to terms with the genocide perpetrated by our ancestors on Mr Goodes ancestors. It's a difficult journey.

It's a journey that I 20 years ago on the sidelines at Kogarah Oval booing Anthony Mundine had not yet embarked on. It's why one half of white australia looks at the other half and says "stop being so goddam racist" while the other half who haven't made the journey yet look back in horror and say: "I'm not racist, the big scary black man threatened me". They don't understand their own triggers.

One final thing, if you are hit by Adam Goodes imaginary spear, lie still until the imaginary paramedics come to your aid and take you to imaginary hospital.

YA BUNCH OF SOOKS!

A.Russell

The TPP Friend or Foe?

Who really runs Australia?

Australia is a representative Democracy. Clearly we the people run Australia. We elect the politicians who run the show on our behalf and we maintain the power to hire and fire the politicians. They have the power, informed by our popular consent to make laws in our interest for the benefit of all Australians. That's our sovereign right as an independent nation.

National Sovereignty

Australia is a sovereign nation wich invests the Australian Parliament with the power to make our own laws and control our own destiny. Frankly if we Australians arn't looking out for Australia, then who is?

JJ Harrison

Trans Pacific Partnership

Currently the Australian Government is in negotiation with US, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam – and there are proposals to extend it further. One disturbing aspect of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) is that no-one who has seen the document is able to talk about it. You must sign a Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA) to view the document. That NDA restricts you from talking about the deal until 4 years AFTER the treaty is concluded! Luckily Wikileaks obtained and published a 30,000 page draft which contained some facinating but ultimatly disturbing information.

Trans National Corporate Sovereignty

One of the most disturbing aspects of the TPP is the clause which establishes an Investor State Dispute Settlement protocol. These are independent United Nations or World Bank sanctioned courts where government regulations, rules, actions and court decisions can be challenged by corporations who feel that their interests are being infringed by local law.

Why now?

Actually it was we Australians who upset the corporate apple cart when the last labor govt instituted plain packaging for tobacco products. The tobacco companies who had invested billions in branding were brought low by a measly mid range power who regulated their market by deleting branding from their product and replaced it with ghastly images of cancerous tumours and dead babies. Smoking rates in Australia plummeted. Something had to be done to be certain this never happened again. The video below is a great summary of what happened.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UsHHOCH4q8

Not Just Tobacco

All kinds of industries are standing on the sidelines watching the Australian tobacco experiment with great interest. It isn't just tobacco at stake. At stake is whether a nation state has the right to regulate it's market by restricting intellectual property rights.

The leaked document extends patents on pharmaceuticals beyond 20 years which is a humanitarian issue because developing countries will have to pay more for their pharmaceuticals. For everyday Australians well being, it is difficult to imagine the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme surviving scrutiny from the TPP's international courts. Patents will also be allowed on plants and animals.

Expert Opinion

Concern about the TPP is widespread. So much so that on Nov 13 2014 a group of 80 Legal professors of good standing in the USA wrote to President Obama with the following request:

"We, the undersigned intellectual property law academics and scholars, write to

ask you to support immediately changing the secretive TPP negotiation process in law and in practice, and follow instead the example set by the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled, as explained below."

Basically what they asked for is the intellectual property rights portion of the TPP not to be adopted and for the status quo to continue.

What other areas are affected?

1. Wages:
   The Free Trade deals Australia have signed to this point have had an unwanted side effect. Australia has begun to participate in a wages "Race to the bottom". This is a race where even the winner loses. It will become much worse under the TPP.
2. Sovereignty:
   Australian Sovereignty will be emasculated giving Multinationals the right to challenge Australian Law
3. The Environment:
   Australian Environmental Laws can be challenged if seen as a harmful to global trade.
4. Agricultural Quarantine Laws:
   The Australian agricultural sector relys on a strong quarantine law. These will undoubtedly be challenged.
5. Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme:
   A scheme which lowers prices is obviously against the interests of Multinationals. It will go.
6. Media:
   Fair use clauses will be diluted or challenged under the TPP. Remember Net Neutrality and how it was saved by Google, Wikipedia et.al. Kiss Net Neutrality goodbye. They failed in the US Congress, so this is how they will get what they want.
   
   
   What to do?
   
   
   A Free Trade Deal can be a good thing, but it needs to be done on our terms, not the multinationals. This is one where your local Parliamentarian needs to know you value our sovereignty, our PBS and clean air and water. Tell them if they vote for the TPP in this form, it will go badly for us and by extension them. They need to hear that we are not asleep. Only then will they scrutinise what others have wrought. 

Australia, The Anzac Myth and the Thought Police

The above quotation is often attributed to Voltaire, but probably comes from 1993. It's author appears to be Kevin Strom. So it's a myth that Voltaire wrote that quote. Myth Busted. To have a myth about Voltaire busted is one thing, but what if someone were to bust a myth you held dear to you. Like The Anzac Myth?

The Anzac's have been sanctified in Australia. Every Anzac day we remember their sacrifice on the beaches of Anzac Cove. Their bravery and honour is revered as a role model for young men and women all over the country. The values of mateship, irreverence, distrust of authority, audacity, fair play and classlessness have become synonymous with Australian culture.

Much of this is even true! But many legends are just that. The story of Simpson and his Donkey are an amalgam of a few different men.

I was taught in school that the incompetent English sent the Anzac's to the wrong beach to land. It's a lie.

Peter Weir's film Gallipolli taught me that we were treasonously abandoned by the English at Suvla Bay. It's a lie.

Much of the popular understanding of Gallipolli was created by Charles Bean, the army's official war correspondent. Bean, like all journalists and historians had an agenda. Bean saw the story of glorious defeat in Gallipolli. The story of powerful, natural soldiers brought down by a dastardly (British) command staff who failed to see the potential and the brilliance of the soldiers at their command. 

The truth was a little more run of the mill. The Gallipolli offensive was a mess. The Anzac's performed as an inexperienced force often does at the start of a campaign. Everything and everyone was untried and untested. Some things and people performed well, others failed. It is only through the crucible of combat that systems and men are tested and honed. Green armies inevitable struggle in their first engagements.

Why would Bean report differently? Remember that Charles Bean was embedded with the army in a similar way that the press were embedded in the US army for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Except that Bean wasn't employed by the press, he was army through and through. His agenda at the time was to paint the army as desirable place to serve as possible to increase recruitment numbers at home. He succeeded greatly and the Anzac Myth was born. It holds to this day.But there are certain things we weren't told. Which brings us to Scott McIntyre. 

Last Anzac Day Scott McIntyre, a football (the round-ball version) journalist with SBS criticised the Anzac Myth in public by tweeting some very distressing ideas that run counter to Bean's agenda.

Tweet 1

"The cultification of an imperialist invasion of a foreign nation that Australia had no quarrel with is against all ideals of modern society."

Tweet number one puts the rest of the tweets into the context Mr McIntryre intended. While I can't speak for him, McIntyre seems to have been disturbed at the jingoistic interpretation of a war of Imperial acquisition he called a cultification.

The factual assertion of McIntyre's tweet here is accurate. Britain targeted the Ottoman

Turks in a bid to open a warm water port for Russia. Success may have postponed the Russian Revolution, but the added side effect was that Turkey would be too weak to hold it's territories which would become Iraq, Syria, Palestine and Jordon. Many of today's problems can be directly traced to the 1919 treaty of Versailles, which gave much of the the middle east to Britain and France and was the result of the collapse of the Ottoman Turkish Empire. That's what they died for. The British Empire. To expand it's border. Unfortunately those troops great grandchildren had to go back to the region to fight ISIS in 2015. Had the landings in Gallipolli never taken place, the nation of Iraq may have never existed. This might be an offensive fact, but it's only offensive if we value myth over reality.

The Middle East before the Anzacs Came

The Middle East after WWI

 

Tweet 2

"Wonder if the poorly-read, largely white, nationalist drinkers and gamblers pause today to consider the horror that all mankind suffered."

Tweet number two is offensive if you are poorly read, white nationalists who fall for the

myth of Anzac and the glorification of soldierly values. Very few people would self identify with this group, therefore, I cant see how this tweet is offensive. However I have corresponded with literate, intelligent people who felt this tweet was offensive. People who pause to consider the suffering and horror of war. So lets talk about Nationalism. Patriotism is a fine virtue in moderation. Pride in ones identity is clearly beneficial, however patriotism/nationalism is often subverted into a hatred of outsiders. I well remember the nationalistic fervour that preceded the Cronulla riots. Malignant radio shock jocks stirred up anti-Lebanese sentiment among the type of nationalistic drinkers and gamblers Scott McIntyre referred to.

Tweet 3

"Remembering the summary execution, widespread rape and theft committed by these ‘brave’ Anzac's in Egypt, Palestine and Japan."

This is painful to confront. However it is necessary for an adult nation. Australians certainly summarily executed enemy soldiers in both world wars.

Take this excerpt from the Diary of Eddie Stanton who was posted to Goodenough Island in PNG:

“Japanese are still being shot all over the place, The necessity for capturing them has ceased to worry anyone. From now on, Nippo survivors are just so much machine-gun practice. Too many of our soldiers are tied up guarding them.”

This is the reality of war. To believe it isn't is naive. As for rape, I offer the following testimony from Australian officer and translator in Hiroshima:

"I stood beside a bed in hospital. On it lay a girl, unconscious, her long, black hair in wild tumult on the pillow. A doctor and two nurses were working to revive her. An hour before she had been raped by 20 soldiers. We found her where they had left her, on a piece of waste land. The hospital was in Hiroshima. The girl was Japanese. The soldiers were Australians.

The moaning and wailing had ceased and she was quiet now. The tortured tension on her face had slipped away, and the soft brown skin was smooth and unwrinkled, stained with tears like the face of a child that has cried herself to sleep."

Of course Australians at war have raped, stolen and summarily executed the enemy. All army's do. So lets remember the victims of war, not just the the soldiers but the civilians, the children, the women and the families of those left behind.

Anyone contesting the thieving claim McIntyre makes need only look to the battle of Wazzir in 1915. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Wazzir

Coming from the explicitly white Australia to Cairo was quite the culture shock and the "Master Race" was quite keen to maintain dominance over the "Niggers" as Victor Ault wrote:

"we thrash the black fellows with whips … Every nigger who is impudent to a soldier gets a hiding … I can’t say how many I’ve belted and knocked out.”

in Palestine Anzac's massacred the village of Surafend. No-one knows the death toll, (but near 100) and both Australia and New Zealand were forced to make (pathetically meagre) reparations to Britain (who ran Palestine at that time).

Tweet 4

"Not forgetting that the largest single-day terrorist attacks in history were committed by this nation & their allies in Hiroshima & Nagasaki"

To regard the Nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki as war crimes may not be a sentiment that you agree with, but it is undeniably a mainstream sentiment. To air that sentiment on Anzac day suggests a link. It's there. War is horrific. If we are to remember war, please remember it all, the waste of young life, the killing of innocents, the misery of the survivors and those who linger too long.

Tweet 5

"Innocent children, on the way to school, murdered. Their shadows seared into the concrete of Hiroshima.”

The image is the one he uploaded. It speaks for itself.

Back to  Pretend Voltaire

Scott McIntyre discovered at the  cost of his job that you are not allowed to criticise the Anzac's. Why is that? Clearly the Anzac's do not rule over us. So who does?

The truth is that we are the ones who police the Anzac myth, not pretend Voltaire's

imaginary rulers. We police it, because it is a comfortable, lazy way of viewing the world. It neatly explains our high living standard because we deserve it.

It leads us to persecute those who hold differing opinions than the status quo. Free speech is dying in this country and it isn't the craven politicians killing it. it's us We have become the "Thought Police". In a democracy we are the rulers who decide who can be criticised and who cannot.

Sacrifice of Angels

My fervent hope is that as a society we can maturely discuss our foundation myths, because Bean wasn't wrong. Far too many young men were killed needlessly. Bean went on to found the Australian War Memorial. To commemorate and remember the sacrifices our troops made. McIntyre would like us to remember the horror of war. The indiscriminate killing of innocents and soldiers alike. For me those two goals are not mutually exclusive. Soldiers go through the type hell in war I cannot fathom. But war of course doesn't stop at soldiers. The mother losing her son/daughter on a distant front, the loss of a child in the rubble of your home, the trauma of rape that women bear when a rampaging army conquers new territory, The horror of a child waking to find their parents are dead, or the second sun flaring brightly in the sky, reducing children to a shadow on a wall.

So next Anzac day spare a thought for our brave soldiers sent by politicians to enforce the national will. But also spare a thought for the victims of solders, the ones who suffer to survive, and the ones who weren't so lucky.

Last Week Tonight interviews Edward Snowden

Anyone even remotely interested in your own freedom needs to see this.

John Oliver's Edward Snowden Interview

Sleepwalking into Facism?

Sleepwalking into Fascism (George Brandis and the Panopticon)

Morals reformed—health preserved—industry invigorated—instruction diffused—public burthens lightened—Economy seated, as it were, upon a rock—the gordian knot of the poor-law not cut, but untied—all by a simple idea in Architecture!

—Jeremy Bentham

In 1791 architect Willey Reveley drew up plans for a revolutionary type of Prison. The prison was designed by British Philosopher Jeremy Bentham. It was conceived as cheaper, more efficient and morally superior to the prisons of the day. What he had in mind was this.

The Central Guard Tower ensures that all prisoners can be seen, but tinted windows mean that a prisoner cant tell when he/she is being watched and so will tend to behave as if they are being watched, even if the guard tower is empty.

It's genius really, the inmates enslave themselves to a "being watched" mindset, even if the Guard Tower is empty.

Technological Panopticon

George Orwell famously took the idea of the Panopticon and applied it society wide, envisioning it as a means of control over the population. A television that watches you back was comfortably far away in 1948, the year that 1984 was written, but now in the modern world, it's your cyber activity that big brother wants to watch.

What's really going on?

Metadata is the record of who you call, who you message and what websites you visit. I am certain the George Brandis really isn't driving this push for Metadata. Why do I say that? Check this 2014 interview on Sky News. It's clear he can't articulate what metadata is with regard to web surfing

It's likely that Brandis is recieving advice from the security agencies that we need to do this. However the threat remains highly overblown.

In an article by Bernard Keane published by crikey.com 

http://www.crikey.com.au/2014/09/04/the-real-threat-of-terrorism-to-australians-by-the-numbers/

Bernard Keane points out that 113 Australians were killed by terrorism in the years 2003 – 12.

In the same time more people were killed by tractors than at the hands of terrorists. So why have we not declared a "War on Tractors"?

In truth the security agencies will always ask for more powers. Its in their nature and positive that someone will ask "wouldn't it be easier if we could do x". Another problem is mission creep. Agencies always tell us that x laws will only be used to go after terrorists. 2 Years later its being used to go after drug crimes. Then the next category. Then the next. It is up to a moral and democratic government to dispassionately weigh the sometimes obvious need for more power with the need for us to remain a free society.

This is a responsibility that this government is failing us on and the consequences down the road could be very dire indeed.

Sleepwalking into Fascism/Stalinism

I am not saying that George Brandis and Tony Abbott are fascist. However with the power that intelligence organisations now have ostensibly to combat terrorism, have you ever hesitated to make a particular google search? I know I have. How would it look to have my private thoughts and questions displayed for the world to see? Maybe its an interest in Mein Kampf. Maybe you have a peculiar interest in criminology. Or what about a spiritual interest? What if you are interested in Islam?

Any or all of these searches could cause the eye of big brother to fall on you, so many of us prefer to remain in ignorance. That's the power of the Panopticon. It is us who police our own behaviour because we can never know if we are being watched or not. 

Big Brother Sees All

What is certain is that if you become known to the powers that be as a subversive, the eye of Big Brother will fall upon you and you can bet all of your intimate details will be made public. This is already happening.

Julian Assange tweaked the nose of the powerful once too often and found his dating profile made public. 

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/cocky-assange-seeks-spirited-erotic-noncomformist-20101215-18xgm.html

Syrian Leader Bashar Al-Assad had his music tastes laid bare when he came into conflict with the USA with the embarrassing (and amusing) revelation that he enjoys the music of Right Said Fred. Remember that song "I'm too Sexy". Bashar does. He bought it on Itunes.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/mar/14/assad-itunes-emails-chris-brown

This is how the leaders of the future will be bought and sold. Co-operate with us or that affair you are having will be made public. Girls remember those nudes you sent to your boyfriend? They'll have them too. And if you make trouble for us, the world will see them too. 

What Can we Do?

We need to explain to our politicians that this state of affairs wont do. Explain to them the ramifications of these decisions, not just today, but for their children's future. I'll bet that most of our politicians have no idea what we are trading away today in fear of terrorism could bite back tomorrow by taking our freedom.

 

Putin and Ukraine - Why are we having this war?

Who is Vladimir Putin and why is he Causing trouble in the Ukraine?

Former KGB Operative

Its true, Vladimir Putin is an ex KGB operative. Not only that, he says he always wanted to join the KGB from a young age. He himself has even said, that there is no such thing as a former KGB operative. But there's more to that story.

KGB in the 80's?

We have a malformed view of the KGB in the west. We remember a powerful, all knowing group of spies who we were told was capable if infiltrating our most secret areas. The truth was less impressive. Most of the KGB's success in the West came from “Walk ins” people who came to them,not the other way around. By Putin's time in the 80's the KGB had become a vast bureaucracy, where hundreds of thousands of operatives wrote thousands of reports that were never read by anyone.

This was so dangerous that it almost brought about a Nuclear Exchange in 1983. KGB analysts (falling completely for Ronald Reagan's Bad Cop routine) judged that he was a man capable of launching a first strike Nuclear War. The KGB were tasked with uncovering the evidence of when this strike would take place.

Agents dutifully reported back routine military activity and their analysis that the west did not intend to launch. The military activity was noted, but the crucial analysis was not. The KGB were quite shocked when Nuclear Missiles didn't fall from the heavens.

Vladimir Putin - Underachieving KGB Man

Into this mess we place Vladimir Putin. Putin was stationed in Dresden in East Germany. Dresden was a backwater as far as the KGB were concerned. Putin focussed on the local University students, hoping that they might have friends in East Berlin, hoping that those friends might have contacts in the west. Being 3 steps removed might have some advantages but the greatest work he seems to have done there at Dresden was to buy an unclassified US Army Manual for $700. Hardly future Head of State material.

Putin in KGB Uniform

Boris Yeltsin Anoints a Successor

On the 9^th of August 1999 Boris Yeltsin fired his Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin, appointed Vladimir Putin in his place and expressed the hope that Putin would succeed him as President. Putin seemingly had come from nowhere. It seems likely that Yeltsin's advisors believed Putin was incompetent and uncharismatic. In short he was controllable. This now seems to have been extremely short sighted.

 

Yeltsin, Putin and the Patriach

Putin Surprises Everyone

Russia in the 1990's was a free for all. The Privatisation of the State Economy resulted in the creation of some of the worlds richest men. This was seen by many Russians as pure theft. Putin took a hard line with these Oligarchs. His imprisoning of Russia's richest man Michail Khodorkovsky sent a message to all the Oligarchs that they did not want to make an enemy of Mr Putin. Putin's treatment of the elite was wildly popular in a Russia reeling from so much change so fast.

Next he launched a popular war on Chechnya. The Russian people began to feel safe under Mr Putin.

Dismantling Democracy

There is an unspoken deal between Governments and their people. As long as the peoples lives are improving, the government can has a black cheque to do whatever it wants. The Deal fails when the Government stops fulfilling it's side of the bargain. After the roller coaster ride of the 1990's, the Russian people were happy to have the good times back. They stood by and watched as Putin uprooted the disorienting Yeltsin system to implement something more stable which just happened to put all that power under Putin's control.

It's the Economy Stupid

The 2000's brought with it rising oil and energy prices. A lesser known fact is that Russia actually exports more oil than any other nation on Earth. One side effect of the massive growth of China coupled with the war in Iraq is that Russia experienced a resources boom. What was a weak and divided nation became strong again, unified under the rule of Mr Putin.

Global Downturn

Of course it couldn't last. As the price of oil fell the Russian people began to demand fair elections. In Late 2011 protesters began to take to the streets demanding an annulment of the 2011 election and indictment of the leader of the Central Election Commission. Putin's reaction was to suppress this movement and to crack down hard. 

Don't Panic

It's hard to uncover what is happening inside the Russian Government under Putin, but one thing seems clear, Putin was afraid.

It shouldn't be surprising that the one thing that terrifies a dictator more than anything else is an angry crowd, yet most commentators were shocked at the level of fear inside the Kremlin which was caused by only 30,000 or so protesters on the street. 

We Need an Enemy

A way was found to deflect the frustration of the populace. It is the same solution that dictators the world over use time and time again. He claimed that Russia was being attacked by enemies without and harboured enemies within who consorted with those enemies.

There's going to be a Pussy Riot!

The protesters themes of greater openness in government, rights for women and the LGBT community didn't go unnoticed. Here was the enemy within and without that Putin needed. Within Russia anyone advocating for the Feminist/LGBT agenda was branded an enemy of the natural order of things.

The Enemy without is of course the West. We who have submitted to the gay agenda, we have turned our backs on the natural order of things and want to bring our brand of HOMOFASCISM to Russia. The West that must be resisted at all cost to save civilisation as we know it. (I know it sounds ridiculous but most propaganda does outside of its original context).

The Protest Band Pussy Riot

Which Brings us to Ukraine

Ukraine is a nation which can be likened to a tidal island. When the power of Russia is strong, Ukraine is inundated and disappears for decades. Then when the tide goes out Ukraine is uncovered as an independent nation. Russia's tide is rising again, however this time Russia has a rival. 

Ukraine looks West

The European Union exerts a powerful influence upon Eastern Europe. Many people see the high standards of living enjoyed in western nations and ask “why can't we have that?” For politicians in nations such as Ukraine, European integration is popular. It wins votes.

But before economic Integration comes military integration in the form of NATO membership. In 2008 Ukraine began the long Application process.

The Homofascists are Encircling Us!

Many Russians feel that Ukraine is Russian and belongs to Russia. The have a shared history and many shared experiences. Therefore it came as a great shock and trauma for the Russian nation that Ukraine might re-orient itself westward. In accordance with the propaganda the only explanation is that the Homofascists have infiltrated Ukrainian society and corrupted it. 

A Real Man Stands Up To Be Counted

Flying in the face of this “corrosive” influence is President Putin who annexed Crimea (majority good ethnic Russian citizens) to save them from the Homofascists. This act was in violation of International Law.

Definitely not Gay?

Why Are We Having this War Again?

In short we're having this war because Vladimir Putin is terrified of mass protests. He needs to assert to the Russian people that he a strong leader and can save the nation from threats within and without. The conflation of the two threats into the gay agenda means he can funnel foreign policy and domestic persecution into the one narrative of saving civilization from itself.

Where do we go from here?

The west has clearly signalled that it wont go to war over the Ukraine although the Australian Prime Minister has promised to physically assault Mr Putin the next time the two leaders meet.

Putin has placed himself in a position where it looks that he is unlikely to back down. So far the Russian people are not paying any price for his invasion of Ukrainian territory. He has kept his moves measured and incremental. The West has placed sanctions on members of the Russian regime, but its difficult to see anything changing.

Putin on the other hand has every reason to ratchet up the pressure on Ukraine and the West. At home he is seen as a hero standing up for natural values fighting off the Homofascist western oppressors. He does have a difficult balancing act however. The catalyst for all this was declining living standards. If the Russian people see the war in Ukraine has bringing down living standards in their nation, they may return to the streets and nothing horrifies a dictator more than that.