THE DELUSION OF DEMOCRACY - PART 1
Many people wondered what it would take to get that
idiot Trump off the front pages in Australia. The Russian trolls, bots and
other freelance half-wits lamented long and hard about the “fake news” that
presented facts they didn’t like, and insisted the ABC be dismantled or forced
to publish and support the same “alternative facts” as the extreme right (actual
fake) news media like Fox and Friends, Bolt and every other fool desperate to
inflict their dystopian ideologies on better people.
The answer came in the latest chapter of the train
wreck titled “LNP, Neo-Liberalism, Plutocratic Fascism, Alternative Reality and
You”. In that section, “What Barnaby Did”, those same RWNJs whined about the
ABC publishing “fake news” about Barnaby, dedicating their every spare moment
to silencing any criticism of Neo-liberal ideologies, too often sowing
confusion across their ranting mob as US trolls accused “lefties”, “Commies”,
“Socialists” and “leftards” (people who care about the welfare of others rather
than being focussed on self-centred, narcissistic ideologies) of being “liberal
scum”.
Meanwhile, in the real world where ‘alternative facts’
have been classified as bullshit ever since human society began, nobody really
expected the depths to which Barnaby had helped lead the LNP. Well, rather, we
expected him to be a complete tool, just not on such a monumental scale. We had
seen his foolish intervention when Jonny Depp and his then wife had illegally
brought their two dogs into Australia and violated customs laws. It demonstrated ineptitude on a world stage.
Not only did he threaten to have the dogs put down,
but offended people who brought Hollywood and jobs to our shores. Whether it
had any impact on the following marital problems between Depp and his wife is a
moot point, but around the same time, Barnaby played a key role in the
relationship break down between Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull. That led to a
leadership change as Malcolm usurped the role of Prime Minister. Few cheered.
It was one self-centred narcissist replacing another.
Then there was the dual citizenship fiasco. Many a
non-LNP politician was caught-out having violated section 44c or whatever, and badgered
into stepping down by the LNP members until the matter was sorted. It made great
ammunition to mock opposition representatives… until it was revealed that the
LNP was just as guilty of the same breaches. Our Barnaby was one of the highest
ranking offenders but, unlike opposition representatives, he refused to step
down until forced to do so by Court Order.
The LNP maintained power by a single seat, and if
Barnaby had done the honourable thing they would have lost their majority.
Fortunately, as Barnaby and the LNP demonstrated in the multi-million dollar Marriage
Equality debate Australia didn’t need to have, they are well schooled in
hypocrisy. That issue revealed serious flaws in Christian attitudes toward the
teachings of, well, Christ, and many of the LNP, including Barnaby, insisted on
forcing their own religious ideologies on everybody in the country… despite the
New Testament (their Holy Book) explicitly instructing them not to do so.
But since the LNP and so many ranking members of the
many different denominations of that cult (and the denominations themselves
also violate the instructions in the New Testament) have spent decades and
generations ignoring the rules for being Christians (and instead behaving as
vindictive, self-righteous pricks), they launched, enabled, and were complicit
in vile attacks and despicable behaviour they then proceeded to project onto
those who supported Marriage Equality. And then lost the postal vote.
Despite claiming it would be the ‘Yes’ supporters who
would refuse to accept the result and continue to behave badly after the vote,
it was the ‘No’ faction that misbehaved in that manner. They the LNP tried to
pass laws to undermine what had been accomplished, to allow ‘Christians’ to
continue persecuting people who were not Christians, claiming without the laws
to allow them to ignore the teachings of Christ - and continue to behave as
puritanical arseholes – they were the victims of discrimination. They were the
victims. Consider that while considering Barnaby’s responses to being caught
and called out for having an extra-marital affair and breaching laws to
financially advantage himself.
Barnaby reclaimed the seat of New England in the By
Election despite making no real effort to campaign. The rusted-on supporters
who voted LNP regardless of the facts about their incompetence, corruption,
Human Rights violations and strong ties to Big Business. Many of those
sycophants railed against Plutocratic Fascism even as they voted it into office
and bitterly complained that it was, in fact, the ALP and Greens who were the
cause of these injustices. Then Barnaby’s secret was out.
Few of his supporter even batted an eye when it was
revealed that Barnaby had been having an affair with one of his staff. A woman
twenty years his junior. An extra-marital affair. That led to her falling
pregnant. That led to him abandoning his wife and four daughters. An affair
that staff in the LNP knew about and kept quiet. Making sure Barnaby’s wife
never found out, even lying to her face. Turnbull himself had to intervene to
move the mistress out of the office. And then it got worse.
A heated confrontation between Barnaby’s wife and mistress
when his wife found out. Not one but two jobs literally created to move the
mistress into the offices of senior LNP politicians. Not advertised. No other
applicants. Higher pay. And Barnaby and mistress shacked up, rent free, in one
of the palatial estates of a million- or billion- aire LNP donner, who just so
happens to be seeking LNP assistance for one or more projects set to make him
even wealthier. Barnaby claims it isn’t a palace. He considers it modest. But
clearly he has never lived in the kind of shitty hovels too many Australians
are forced to occupy if they don’t want to live on the street.
Despite his role as leader of the National Party and
Deputy PM, who was supposed to stand-in as PM when Turnbull was out of the
country, Barnaby insisted all of these things were a private matter. He was not
so concerned for the lives and privacy of LGBT people during the Marriage
Equality debate as he and his mates passed judgement. Despite being the elected
member of a Conservative Party and a Catholic claiming to support Traditional
Marriage, this colossal douchebag insisted what he did while in that
office-role was not something in which the public needed to know or had any
right to comment on.
The only thing more astonishing than Barnaby’s
hypocrisy was his and the LNP’s arrogance. At first they tried to defend his
actions. Then, when questioned about whether it was time for Barnaby to
step-down and be replaced as leader of the Federal National Party, someone
claimed Barnaby was “the best asset the LNP has to offer”. What does that say
about the quality of the rest of them? If you were buying a car, a house, or
shares, and the agent responded to your concerns about a Barnaby feature with “it’s
the best asset” the commodity had to offer, would you still invest in it?
Someone at least admitted it was “one of the worst
mistakes” Barnaby had ever made. It was, you’d have to concede, right up there
with a great number of his blunders, but there were so many from which to
choose. In a world of politics, there does appear to be a place for those who
consistently screw-up and half-arse the whole business. But where else can
someone like Barnaby get away with the things he does? If his flaw was drug
addiction instead of adultery, breaching laws, and generally behaving like a
knob, would we be enabling him like that?
Like Wayne Swan said in regards to the whole ‘partner’
issue and the LNP claiming it does not apply, “tell that to any Centrelink
recipient who is having this argument about co-habitation.” For those of you
have never experienced this, it’s pretty simple: if you live with a
non-relative of the opposite sex, you are assumed to be having sex and must
prove otherwise or be subject to partner-income rules. What does that mean,
exactly? Well, it’s pretty draconian and farcical.
What it means is you both get a reduced Welfare
‘benefit’ because, supposedly, it’s cheaper for two people to live as a couple
rather than individuals. Yeah, you’d have to be a special kind of fuckwit to think like
that, let alone believe it. It gets better. If your ‘partner’ works, your
Welfare ‘benefit’ is reduced and the cut off use to be about $24K. You can
imagine how quickly flatmates on Welfare found themselves on the street, and
how many actual relationships end over financial stress. Oddly enough, it never
applied to same-sex couples. Nor, it seems, to politicians on the tax-payer
funded gravy-train.
When the issue began to head for the magical day ten, but
showed no signs of going away, some of the LNP even began to use intimidating
verbal and body language to silence the media. But the media and public were
not cowed. Neither were they impressed. While hundreds of thousands of
Australians are suffering under the oppressive regime of the LNP, Barnaby and
his mistress were misappropriating hundreds of thousands of tax-payer dollars
in wages and entitlements.
Over 725,000 Australians are officially registered as
unemployed. They are desperate for jobs and forced to undertake compulsory
volunteer work in order to qualify for welfare. While the government boasts of
creating 1,000 jobs a day, more than this are lost every day and even the
population increases by more than that, and over 500,000 immigrants, and
foreign students and workers are added to the population each year.
Welfare is just $37 a day in exchange for as much as
50 hours of compulsory ‘volunteer’ work a fortnight. The pension is marginally
better at $58 a day. The official poverty rate is anything less than $50 a day.
But the LNP blames those on welfare for their predicament. Politicians receive
a base salary of $535 a day plus entitlements. This increases for Seniority and
their roles. Barnaby is paid around $400,000 a year, while his mistress
receives around $190,000.
Who has the power to create jobs? The unemployed with
not enough money to cover basic costs in a world where utilities and the cost
of living has skyrocketed, or politicians? The compulsory volunteer (an
oxy-moron if ever there was) work the unemployed must complete to collect
welfare is the equivalent of around $10 an hour, just over half minimum wage.
And they have to use what little they have to pay for transport to and from
that while struggling to pay for rent and utilities. There’s not much left for
food and incidentals. People on Welfare rarely, if ever, get free rent.
Why would anyone employ someone when they can get a
‘volunteer’ for half the price – and the taxpayer pays their wage?! The LNP
labour camp provides people who do not get Super, sick or holiday leave,
workplace health and safety, or Union rep. They can be bullied into all manner
of humiliating and dangerous situations without fear of legal action because
they cannot access let alone afford legal rep, and if they don’t do as they are
told their welfare is cut off.
This puts extreme pressures on people and impacts on relationships,
marriages and families. Mental health problems become a huge issue, especially
in regional areas where there are few public services where people can get the
help they need. Too often, women and children, sometimes even men, will be
subjected to violence and abuse as a direct result, and with nowhere to turn
for help, they either suffer and die, assimilate the behaviour and become
abusers themselves to repeat the cycle of abuse, or are afflicted by a lifetime
of psychological and financial problems.
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