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Read or Condemn Yourself to Death by Ignorance

For those courageous souls brave enough to look and see what is,

who are unwilling to blindly accept

the lies and rules of tyrannical authority.


Wednesday 8th May 2019


G’day,

Hope this finds you fit and well!

Here is a sampling of what crossed my digital desk over the last week.

Break The Cycle

No Safe Fracking

Rules to Teach Your Children

Confused about how preferences work? Here’s how they’ll count at this federal election

Glastonbury Music Festival Facing Backlash After 5G Network Announcement

Live Your Life As An Exclamation

George Carlin On College

Bank Sarcasm

No Need To Get The Dog Involved

Irish SMS

Imagine If You Will

US Interventions

The Illusion Of Free Choice

Are They Insane?

Disaster looming in housing and banks—what’s Canberra going to do about it?

Life Skills

I hope you get something from it!

Cheers!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Break The Cycle
 
Break The Cycle
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
No Safe Fracking
 
No Safe Fracking
 
 
 

This is but one reason why we need to oust the LNP, Labor and Greens!

 
 
 
 
Rules to Teach Your Children
 
 
 
 

Rules to Teach Your Children

RULES TO TEACH YOUR SON

1. Never shake a man’s hand sitting down.
2. Don’t enter a pool by the stairs.
3. The man at the BBQ Grill is the closest thing to a king.
4. In a negotiation, never make the first offer.
5. Request the late check-out.
6. When entrusted with a secret, keep it.
7. Hold your heroes to a higher standard.
8. Return a borrowed car with a full tank of gas.
9. Play with passion or don’t play at all.
10. When shaking hands, grip firmly and look them in the eye.
11. Don’t let a wishbone grow where a backbone should be.
12. If you need music on the beach, you’re missing the point.
13. Carry two handkerchiefs. The one in your back pocket is for you. The one in your breast pocket is for her.
14. You marry the girl, you marry her family.
15. Be like a duck. Remain calm on the surface and paddle like crazy underneath.
16. Experience the serenity of traveling alone.
17. Never be afraid to ask out the best looking girl in the room.
18. Never turn down a breath mint.
19. A sport coat is worth 1000 words.
20. Try writing your own eulogy. Never stop revising.
21. Thank a veteran. Then make it up to him/her.
22. Eat lunch with the new kid.
23. After writing an angry email, read it carefully. Then delete it.
24. Ask your mom to play. She won’t let you win.
25. Manners maketh the man.
26. Give credit. Take the blame.
27. Stand up to Bullies. Protect those bullied.
28. Write down your dreams.
29. Take time to snuggle your pets, they love you so much and are always happy to see you.
30. Be confident and humble at the same time.
31. If ever in doubt, remember whose son you are and REFUSE to just be ordinary!
32. In all things lead by example not explanation.

Edit: No I didn’t make these up... simply sharing what I was told years ago.

YES THESE RULES SHOULD BE TAUGHT TO YOUR DAUGHTERS AS WELL

 
 
 
 
Confused about how preferences work? Here’s how they’ll count at this federal election
 
Preferences
 
 
 

What are preferences and why do they matter?

 
Button
 
 
 
Glastonbury Music Festival Facing Backlash After 5G Network Announcement
 
Festival
 
 
 

An English music festival’s decision to install 5G network towers is drawing furious criticism from scientists and music fans alike. Last Wednesday, the Glastonbury Festival announced that it will test out a 5G mobile network at this year’s event. This will become the first time that 5G networks have been used at any festival. The announcement comes just months before the U.K. will deploy 5G throughout its country.

 
Button
 
 
 
Live Your Life As An Exclamation
 
Live Your Life As An Exclamation
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
No Need To Get The Dog Involved
 
No Need To Get The Dog Involved
 
 
 

Boy is this ever true at my place!

 
 
 
 
George Carlin On College
 
George Carlin On College
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
Bank Sarcasm
 
Bank Sarcasm
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
Irish SMS
 
Irish SMS
 
 
 

Faith and begorrah! What will they come up with next!

 
 
 
 
Imagine If You Will
 
Imagine If You Will
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
US Interventions
 
US Interventions
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
The Illusion Of Free Choice
 
The Illusion Of Free Choice
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
Are They Insane?
 
 
 
 

I read a meme on Facebook that said the only thing between us and extinction is a six inch layer of topsoil, sunlight and rain.

Then I read the US are planning on block the sun’s rays and the Australian government is allowing coal companies to destroy our farming land for the coal underneath it.

And I wonder, “Are they insane?”

I read about the deformed babies being born in Iraq after exposure to depleted uranium munitions.

Then I hear of the Australian government letting the US Navy bombard our coast with depleted uranium munitions during war games.

And I wonder, “Are they insane?”

I see a video of a mother turning on her kitchen tap, holding a lighter to it and the gas in the water catching alight from the water polluted by gas fracking.

Then I read of the Australian Labor Party promising to spend AU$1.5 BILLION dollars to build a pipeline to transport fracked gas from the Northern Territory.

And I wonder, “Are they insane?”

I hear of generous welfare amounts being given to migrants who have (and in some cases will never) contribute to this country.

Then I hear from a mate in his 70s how difficult it is for social workers to find accommodation for people like him and how the social worker tells him she cries sometimes at the injustice of the system grossly favouring migrants rather than people who have worked and paid their taxes for 40+ years.

And I wonder, “Are they insane?”

I hear of our farmers, desperate for water.

Then I hear of Adani polluting with their operations, being given approval despite not satisfying ecological requirements, illegally drilling prior to approval and the danger their coal mine presents to the Great Barrier Reef, the billions of litres of water that will be used by them without payment, depriving our farmers of much needed water.

And I wonder, “Are they insane?”

I read about the Vietnamese civilians born with deformities and the US troops with health issues after exposure to Agent Orange and the same company that made it being successfully sued for their glyphosate containing weedkiller, Roundup, causing cancer and the WHO calling glyphosate a probably carcinogen.

Then I read the US EPA preparing to allow it to continue to be sold AND IT STILL BEING ALLOWED TO BE SOLD HERE IN OZ.

And I wonder, “Are they insane?”

I hear the Liberal Party claiming their great management of the economy.

Then I hear the coutry is in more debt than we have ever been and we have more than 30% of people over 65 living on or below the poverty line.

And I wonder, “Are they insane?”

I see a whistleblower video of organ harvesting from live patients, apparently state sanctioned in China. So you can appreciate their respect for the value of human life is a tad less than you and I might want it to be. I read of the food reserve buffer in the world shrinking which makes us more vulnerable to crop failures.

Then I hear we have sold a huge quantity of a farmland and infrastructure to Chinese interests with government approval. And I wonder, “What would happen if there was a crop failure in China? What if a significant portion of our local crop was just shipped offshore without us getting any?”

And I wonder, “Are they insane?”

I hear of African migrants forming gangs and terrorising honest, law abiding citizens in their own homes and on the streets and still allowed to stay here. I here of other migrants brought before the courts on sexual assault charges and not even serving jail terms because it was due to cultural differences.

And I wonder, “Are they insane?”

We have an election coming up in a couple of weeks. Please think about these points (and probably others you have in mind) before doing the same old, same old and voting Greens, Labor, Liberal or Nationals. They are the architects of the above insanities.

And Clive Palmer wants to give one of the great polluters of the world the go ahead to mine coal and potentially destroy the Great Barrrier Reef. We can do better than that Clive!

Here are some alternatives to check out:

IMOParty and Health Australia are both solidly pro vaccine choice and anti-compulsory vaccination.

CEC are dead against the criminal bankers and thier parliamentary coconspiritors stealing your bank deposits with bail in legislation.

Liberal Democrats are for more personal freedoms than the majors.

Here’s one person’s take on it:

Click the Read More button to view the video:

 
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Disaster looming in housing and banks—what’s Canberra going to do about it?
 
 
 
 

Australia faces an unmitigated disaster in the housing market and, consequently, the banks. Every indicator in the housing market is suddenly very bad. What we are witnessing is shaping to be a bigger property crash than the 1890s depression. And like the 1890s land crash, when most Australian banks failed, the banks today are in deep trouble, from their massive exposure to mortgage lending and derivatives on that lending.

With a federal election under way, why isn’t this an election issue? The political establishment is deliberately ignoring it, assuming that the Reserve Bank will magically solve the problem through various forms of money-printing that will be futile but will, as outspoken economist John Adams charges, “rape the dollar”. But be under no illusion: this coming crisis is also the reason the government and Labor rushed through “bail-in” laws in February 2018, which give bank regulator APRA the power, in coordination with the RBA and the Bank for International Settlements in Switzerland, to prop up the banks that will soon start to fail by confiscating the deposits of their customers.

Housing catastrophe

The only reference to this looming disaster in the election campaign is in relation to Labor’s negative gearing policy, which the Liberals claim will crash the housing market. No, it won’t be the cause of a market crash, because that is already happening—right now!

As of April 2019, CoreLogic’s figures show average price falls from the peak of the market in capital cities are 9.7 per cent. The two biggest markets, Sydney and Melbourne, are down 14.5 per cent and 10.9 per cent respectively. Melbourne’s fall started later than Sydney’s but is going faster—in fact, Melbourne prices are falling the fastest in its history.

CoreLogic, the media and property spruikers have jumped on figures that show the falls are slowing down: the national market was down 0.5 per cent in April compared with 0.7 per cent in March, 0.9 per cent in February and 1.2 per cent per month before that. Headlines proclaim the market is “through the worst”. More likely, however, the figures are being distorted by the rise in unreported sales results. Experienced property analyst Louis Christopher of SQM Research tweeted on 4 May: “Don’t be fooled by the artificially high clearance rates, today. Very high unreported rates meant the real auction clearance rate was considerably lower. I think right now, dwelling prices in Sydney and Melbourne are still falling. There remains much uncertainty out there.”

From all other indicators there is no sign of anything that can halt the plunge:

In April, credit growth into housing dropped to the lowest rate on record—just 4 per cent. Because the housing market is already a bubble, this figure needs to be much higher to push up prices, but following the royal commission banks have tightened their lending standards. For instance, according to CBA’s online “how much can I borrow?” calculator, for an income of $80,000 the bank will now lend around $350,000, compared with $460,000 in November 2017. Prices will only grow if the banks are willing to lend higher and higher amounts, not lower. For that reason, APRA is being lobbied to lower the benchmark interest rate at which loan affordability must be calculated from 7.25 per cent to 6 per cent, but that doesn’t mean that cautious banks will suddenly be willing to lend more.

Defaults on greenfield development lots in Melbourne soared to 27 per cent in the March quarter, up from 2 per cent a year ago, and 12 per cent before Christmas; Sydney is almost as bad at 26 per cent. These are investors running away from their deposits, rather than paying the balance on lots that are plunging in value. Ground Zero for the looming crisis in new developments could be the far northern Melbourne suburb of Donnybrook, which has the highest mortgage stress in Victoria and where sales in 2019 have fallen off a cliff—multiple greenfield developments are being laid out along Donnybrook Road that someone has to pay for. Click here to watch John Adams and Martin North’s newest video post: Heaven Help the Poor Souls of Donnybrook!

Dwelling approvals in March 2019 fell by 27.3 per cent from March 2018, and 15.5 per cent from February 2019.

Mortgage stress and mortgage delinquencies are on the rise, despite low interest rates and, supposedly, low unemployment and inflation. ANZ admitted last week to an inexplicable jump in 30-day and 90-day arrears on repayments, with the biggest 90-day increase in Western Australia. Establishment economist Christopher Joye proclaimed in his 25 March great debate with John Adams that “mortgage repayments as a share of income are actually quite low” and that record mortgage “debt serviceability, at this point in time, is perfectly fine”. But a few weeks later Joye revealed on the professional social media platform LinkedIn that his analysis for his clients was that risks on residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) are “rapidly rising” and that mortgages have “the highest arrears rates since the GFC”. Meanwhile, over a million households are in mortgage stress, which means they are struggling to meet monthly repayments that are way over 30 per cent of their income.

The number of households in negative equity, meaning that they owe more on their mortgage than their home is now worth, is also soaring. This doesn’t just leave households underwater, but it has a knock-on reverse “wealth effect”, as much consumer spending of recent decades came from homeowners borrowing against the equity in their homes, which they can no longer do. Contrary to the statistics, real inflation as seen in the rising cost of living is not low, and neither is real unemployment when underemployment is taken into account, so the drop-off in consumer spending is going to be devastating to the already fragile economy.

Australia’s major banks have concentrated around 65 per cent of their lending in mortgages, far higher than any other banks in the world. On top of that, they have made trillions of dollars of derivatives bets on those mortgages, which three of the Big Four are trying to hide. They are in near danger of a massive crash, but the only preparation that authorities have made is the bail-in laws they snuck through Parliament in February 2018 so APRA can seize deposits in an emergency to try to prop the banks up.

The government should be tackling this crisis head on, drawing on the lessons of the 2008 crash in places such as Ireland and the United States. If the authorities in those countries could have acted before the crash to avert a disaster, what would they have done?

First, accept the necessity for a major government intervention into the banks, which the government will have to bail out anyway.

Impose a firewall between the banks and the real economy with a Glass-Steagall separation of normal commercial banking from the speculative investment banking where the banks hold their dangerous derivatives—that way the investment banking side can collapse without impacting the real economy.

Scrap any plans for bail-in, and place the banks under government administration to fully protect depositors and the daily business of banking while they are thoroughly cleaned out and reorganised.

Direct the Auditor-General to audit the banks in depth, to ascertain the true size of the bad mortgages and other bad debts, and the nature of the derivatives contracts that will need to be unwound and cancelled.

Enact a moratorium on foreclosures and repossessions of family homes to avert a social catastrophe until house prices stabilise and mortgage debts can be written down to reflect the new, much lower prices.

Start planning and executing changes to the general economy to move beyond its present concentration in housing bubble-related construction and financial services, beginning with a nation-building infrastructure construction program, financed by a national bank, which can revive and revitalise regional industries and towns and draw population growth away from the overcrowded capital cities.

These are policy solutions the Citizens Electoral Council is fighting for, in this election campaign and beyond. Either ignore the crisis at your own peril, or join the CEC today in fighting for these solutions.

What you can do

With the election under way, contact all of the candidates in your electorate to ask:

What are you doing about the housing and banking crash?

Will you oppose and repeal bail-in?

Will you support the CEC’s Banking System Reform (Separation of Banks) Bill 2019, which is currently before the Senate, to break up the banks? Click the Read More button:

 
Button
 
 
 
Life Skills
 
 Life Skills
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Until next time,
dream big dreams,
plan out how to achieve them,
be continually executing your plans,
enlist people to your causes,
travel and/or read widely, preferably both,
all the while observing what you observe
rather than thinking what you are told to think,
think well of your fellow man,
take time to help your fellow man,
he sorely needs it and it will help you too,
eat food that is good for your body,
exercise your body,
take time to destress,
and do the important things
that make a difference -
they are rarely the urgent ones!

Tom

 
 

Most of the content herein has been copied from someone else. Especially the images. My goodness some people are talented at creating aesthetics! The small bits that are of my creation are Copyright 2014-2019 © by Tom Grimshaw - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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