Posts by Rob Stowell
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Hard News: On benefit fraud, in reply to Tom Semmens,
Yeah. Places of casual humiliation and institutionalised cruelty. A long time since I’ve been personally on a benefit, but I’ve been close enough to get the vibe. Still possible to meet someone decent working there. But social welfare is the last thing they seem designed to foster.
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Hard News: On benefit fraud, in reply to weka,
Some UBI models balance this out by having a higher tax rate for people on higher incomes i.e. they don’t literally get the extra $ in their bank account.
To finance anything like a functional livable ubi, a lot of people would need to pay a heap more tax. Some would get it all back, and more; some would get some back, but the wealthier folks would have to take a hit. If it's not a wealth re-distribution system, it's not working (or workable.)
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I've been arguing with some 9/11 truthers on facebook (one of whom is an old mate, haven't seen for years, but good to catch up.). It's interesting, perplexing, and a bit demoralising. They also will criticise snopes, and more-or-less reject both argument and evidence. There's a community around this; rejecting the msm and government or 'mainstream' explanations is a given. Challenging these beliefs puts one outside the community. Nevermind the article posted that started this was pretty obviously fake. Dipping into these websites, you suddenly realise there are multitudes. And they are mostly selling, amid a range of batshit items and some fairly real news, a (vaguely - it's usually a bit muted) a pro russia/putin, anti israel, pro assad, and pro trump slant on everything. There's a bit of pilger here, a dose of asange there. It's not ideological. it seems designed just as much to confuse and undermine; to cast doubt and aspersions, as to push a line. But after a while you start to feel the bullshit climbing up past your ankles, your waist, towards your neck and you think - gotta get outa here!
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Hard News: Our own fake news, in reply to Geoff Lealand,
* the last time ever I will teach this course.
End of an era! Sad but maybe liberating too?
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Hard News: Our own fake news, in reply to andin,
Sorry - yeah, but it's a key connection I think. Not that Pilger is an anti-semite (I'm sure he's not) just that his strident anti-zionism attracts some bad company, and leads some people into much darker water.
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I did a bit of studying while I was supposed to be looking for work. It paid off - been paying tax more-or-less ever since. But I hate that back then, the system seemed relatively benign, while now WINZ feels like weaponised war on the poor.
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Hard News: Friday Music: Non-conforming…, in reply to TracyMac,
It's not where you find the top 40 - or even top 4000, necessarily (in fact not really a streaming service :)) but bandcamp offers steaming of anything you buy, as well as everything else good they do.
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A badly recorded moment from up the back:
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Hope hope hope there’s some sort of release of more Direen material from the tour. The chch show was special – I’m sure they all were. Each combo had its own flavour (and there were at least 3 sets of musicians.) Just the extended version of ‘dirty and disgusting’ was a joy.
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... or at least has a go at those who might dare to opine he has enabled drug taking. the other bs in those editorials he seems not so bothered with.