This is an incredible story from Ireland that readers may not know about, that Ireland, of all places, is set to ban the sale of petrol ands diesel cars by 2030:
  https://www.technocracy.news/ireland-set-to-ban-sale-of-petrol-and-diesel-cars-by-2030/
  https://www.rte.ie/news/2019/1229/1103466-electric-car/

“The Government is drafting new laws that would ban new petrol and diesel car registrations by 2030, as part of a strategy to protect the environment. The aim is to ensure that one third of vehicles on the roads are electric in ten years' time. The Sunday Independent reported that Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment Richard Bruton is planning to publish the law early in the new year. The new measures will be included in the Climate Action Amendment Bill 2019. It is understood that the bill will be developed further in conjunction with other departments. The Government's Climate Action Plan aims to reduce emissions and be carbon neutral by 2050. Transport emissions accounted for over 20% of Ireland's emissions in 2018. The Government is planning to have 936,000 electric vehicles on the roads by 2030, including battery operated and hybrid vehicles. It has promised to double the amount of home chargers installed and further roll-out the nationwide network of on street charging points.”

     The sheer beauty of law suits and litigation has always made my pulse rate increase, and put a smile on my face, however cloudy the day, because in suing, things get decided, and there is certainty in an uncertain, nay, chaotic world. Politics goes around in a circle, but law is constrained by economic necessity and the unending desire to allow the smooth flow of commerce through the alimentary canal and bowels of society. Let’s consider the coming battle between women born with vaginas and other female parts, including genetics, versus transgendered people, as an example of the music of law in action:
  https://apnews.com/8fd300537131153cc44e0cf2ade3244b

“The families of three female high school runners filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday seeking to block transgender athletes in Connecticut from participating in girl’s sports. Selina Soule, a senior at Glastonbury High School, Chelsea Mitchell, a senior at Canton High School and Alanna Smith, a sophomore at Danbury High School are represented by the conservative nonprofit organization Alliance Defending Freedom. They argue that allowing athletes with male anatomy to compete has deprived them of track titles and scholarship opportunities. “Mentally and physically, we know the outcome before the race even starts,” said Smith, who is the daughter of former Major League pitcher Lee Smith. “That biological unfairness doesn’t go away because of what someone believes about gender identity. All girls deserve the chance to compete on a level playing field.” The lawsuit was filed against the Connecticut Association of Schools-Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference and the boards of education in Bloomfield, Cromwell, Glastonbury, Canton and Danbury. “Forcing girls to be spectators in their own sports is completely at odds with Title IX, a federal law designed to create equal opportunities for women in education and athletics,” attorney Christiana Holcomb said. “Connecticut’s policy violates that law and reverses nearly 50 years of advances for women.”

     I think it was Bobby Hawke who wanted Australia to be the nuclear waste dump of the world. Well, I guess the gear has to go somewhere and Australians are ants on the world stage, so what does it matter if we get irradiated? One past proposal had it that there would be a waste dump in South Australia, left uncovered until enough dough was saved up to properly cover it. By that time all the glowing goodies would have blown over to multicult New South Walers, radiationally enriching it with diverse radiation. Anyway, onto today’s main presentation:
  https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/kimba-welcomes-nuclear-dump-announcement/news-story/53531d82101ae5dd558c6a564de8b938?type=curated&position=1&overallPos=1&utm_source=AdelaideNow&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=editorial

“It is an expanse of paddocks as far as the eye can see but this stretch of brown dirt represents a new hope for a tiny Eyre Peninsula town. The Napandee farming property, on Kimba’s northwestern outskirts, is earmarked as the location for Australia’s newest nuclear waste site, 465km from Adelaide. Yesterday’s contentious announcement, made after nearly five years of consultation, reviews, protests and angst, has also sparked a new wave of optimism for the Eyre Peninsula town of just 629 people. Against the backdrop of declining population growth, farming challenges and a severe drought, supporters say the Federal Government’s decision gives the town a real chance to succeed and stave off extinction. However, several hundred opponents protested on Sunday and vowed the fight would continue. Locals in favour of the radioactive storage facility hope it will generate a multimillion-dollar economic boon, together with a much-needed cash injection into health services, education and infrastructure. Grandfather Jeff Baldock, 62, who operates a 7500 ha cereal and sheep farm with his three children, told the Sunday Mail the facility would help secure the area’s future. “Imagine the money that will flow through the wider Eyre Peninsula community,” he said. “It will be hundreds of millions of dollars. It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a supply of jobs bringing more money that we can use to create other industries. “This is good for the future of Kimba. We are absolutely thrilled for the community. It provides another industry in town that doesn’t rely on farming, which is huge.” His sons, father of four Andrew, 37, and father of two Mark, 35, said the risks were minimal compared with the rewards. “If small towns don’t think outside the box and diversify their economy, they will continue to decline,” said Andrew, a former carpenter who returned to the family farm from Adelaide, where he met his wife Dale, 33. “We are doing this so our kids and their kids and then their kids can have a future. “I can’t think of another industry that will be guaranteed for 100 years. “The future now looks bright for Kimba in the long term. And we just want a sustainable future for our community.”

     This is a little story from America, the land of the free - HA! – which illustrates the lack of freedom of speech on campuses. Thus, a pretty right-wing girl, who champions gun rights, gets attacked by crazed left-wingers, while she is trying to give a talk. Examine this closely, because the same could happen here in Australia, only we don’t have gun rights, freedom of speech, or anything else much, in a moth-eaten country:
  https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/02/18/kent-state-gun-girl-kaitlin-bennett-confronted-by-protest-mob-at-ohio-university/

“Kent State “gun girl” Kaitlin Bennett was confronted by a mob of protesters during her visit to Ohio University on Monday. According to the university, “She drew a large crowd of people, many with opposing viewpoints, who also chose to exercise their first amendment rights.” According to a report by USA Today, conservative activist Kaitlin Bennett was mobbed by a group of students during a visit this week to Ohio Univerity. Bennett is perhaps best known for posing with a gun for graduation photos in 2018. Since then, Bennett has traveled to campuses around the country to discuss hot-button issues with progressive college students. Bennett posted a video of her encounter with the Ohio University mob to her Twitter account on Monday. In the video, hundreds of students circle around Bennett as she tries to make her way through campus in a car driven by a black student. At one point, the video shows a member of the mob splashing the vehicle’s occupants with liquid. At one point during her visit, Bennett announced that she would encourage President Trump to strip federal funding from universities that don’t protect students from outrage mobs. “This is what happens when a Trump supporter goes to a college campus,” Bennett said during the video. “I think @realDonaldTrump should strip funding from universities like this that harbor terrorists.”

     Welcome to the new Cold War, with China now taking the place of the USSR:
  https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/chinas-growth-marks-the-start-of-a-second-cold-war/news-story/3305a336c6d988db3a7ba2fb61790b41

“It’s the world’s second largest economy in nominal GDP and, with 1.4 billion people, the most populous nation. It boasts the world’s largest military force with 2.2 million active personnel and another 510,000 in reserve. It has financially colonised much of the South Pacific, central Asia and Africa. Now it is buying influence in Europe, with heavy investments in Greece, including ownership of the port of Piraeus. China is home to the world’s most extensive expressways and high-speed railways. There are 298 airlines and 235 airports. According to Credit Suisse, for the first time there are more rich people in China than in the US. Of the world’s wealthiest 10 per cent, 100 million are Chinese, 99 million are American. China is also home to 12 of the 100 largest companies in the world. Yet the UN still recognises China as a “developing” country. At the World Trade Organisation, it enjoys the same “special and differential treatment” as Zimbabwe and Haiti. Naturally, Beijing sees no reason to give up this self-declared status, claiming the preferential treatment it enjoys is a “fundamental right”. Commerce ministry spokesman Gao Feng recently -described China as the “largest developing country in the world”. That it certainly is. The WTO does not define a developed or developing country. Nor does it provide benchmarks or guidance. This is left entirely to the discretion of -individual members.

     One of the remarkable results of the saga regarding amending the property rights section of the Constitution is the relative silence coming from corporate top-brass at South Africa’s financial institutions. Banks and other financial institutions are – in the vast majority of cases – the way South Africans finance expensive property such as houses, agricultural land, vehicles, factories, and many other assets. Many have tried to frame the proposed constitutional amendment in terms of some kind of focus on agricultural land, but really when one understands this change in policy in light of the National Democratic Revolution of the governing African National Congress (ANC), it is clear that this is very much about property in general. The ANC’s policies have been progressively more and more about state control. Poor black South Africans living in RDP houses do not own the title deeds to the land on which they live. Failing state-owned enterprises are kept afloat by getting pumped full of taxpayers’ rands. In just over ten years, Eskom’s debt securities and borrowings have increased by over 1000%. Now Fikile Mbalula has announced the government is looking to establish another state-owned enterprise (SOE), this time a shipping carrier – largely for the purposes of transformation. Given the unmitigated failure to make a profit at so many other SOEs, this might seem insane, but it’s not insane if the purpose was never to make a profit in the first place. Fundamentally, the ANC believes in state intervention in the economy to drive social engineering – the dead loss is of no concern. I remember hearing Malusi Gigaba express these sentiments in a speech he gave at my alma mater Rhodes University last year. It was not that SAA was unsuccessful, we were just viewing “success” according to the imperialist Washington Consensus.

     When translating this view of “success” into the realm of property ownership, the implications of potential government expropriation of property should be making alarm bells go off  for financial institutions which grant loans against property as collateral. Should a person’s property be expropriated with compensation, is that person still liable to pay off their bond? It would be a bizarre situation in which people might default on their debt while having little to be repossessed by the bank. Nedbank CEO Mike Brown himself has stated that EWC could cause “a classical banking crisis.” So why then have CEOs of financial institutions not been more vocal in their opposition to the constitutional amendment which is proposed? Surely these intelligent CEOs and board members of banks must be aware of the serious consequences which expropriation of property without compensation will have on their clients? Unfortunately this fits in with a general trend of business cosying up to government in the hope that they might get a seat at the negotiating table. The agricultural community has perhaps already seen this, with Dan Kriek initially getting a seat at Cyril Ramaphosa’s 2018 Advisory Panel on Land Reform but later distancing himself from that panel’s recommendations for EWC. Kriek has since resigned (the official statement said it was “due to health and stress-related reasons”), and now farmers are facing terrible drought on one hand and government threatening to steal their property on the other. It is certainly understandable that big business in South Africa would want to have a good relationship with government. Government spending makes up a large proportion of GDP and the ANC is constantly finding new ways of involving itself in the economy, either through more failing SOEs or harsh regulatory environments – especially in the case of mining and infrastructure development, the latter of which consists of many government tenders. Perhaps big businesses in South Africa believe that by cosying up to the bureaucrats in Pretoria and “playing along” in the legislative process they may avoid being in the firing line. Take a look at this interview with Mike Brown from Nedbank, and how he gingerly mentions his opposition to EWC while still sounding supportive of “the process.”

     Todd Bensmamn published a backgrounder monograph, What Terrorist Migration Over European Borders Can Teach About American Border Security in November 2019. The key findings are relevant not only to the United States, but for all countries in the West, struggling to survive the black magic of migration. The key points are summarised:
  https://cis.org/Report/Terrorist-Migration-Over-European-Borders
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmdQEDJfAWo&feature=emb_title

“At least 104 Islamist extremists entered the European Union’s (EU) external borders using long-haul irregular migration methods between 2014-2018, establishing proof-of-concept for a previously theoretical terrorism travel tactic over borders. • Of the 104 migrant terrorists identified for the 2014-2018 period, 28 successfully completed attacks that claimed the lives of 170 victims and wounded 878. An additional 37 were arrested or killed plotting attacks, and 39 others were arrested for illegal involvement with foreign terrorist organizations. • A majority of the 104 terrorists applied for international protections such as asylum and were able to remain in European nations for an average of 11 months before attacks or arrests for plots, demonstrating that asylum processes accommodated plot incubation. • While total numbers of migrant-terrorists were a fraction of overall irregular migration, their activities demonstrate that small numbers present outsized threats to the United States should only a few strike here. In Europe, a relative few upended longstanding political power balances, prompted a major military campaign, forced massive public expenditures on new security policies, prompted the UK vote to exit the European Union, and disrupted the free movement of people within the Schengen zone. • American security and counter-terrorism intelligence measures likely have prevented some migrant-terrorists from conducting attacks and may partly explain the absence of attacks to date from over the U.S. southern border. However, an elevated threat of terrorist infiltration via the border persists due to neglect and exploitable flaws in the American measures.”

     The view of evangelist Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham, after having his planned tour of the UK objected to on “hate” grounds by LGBTQ+, is that The Lobby is intolerant of traditional Christianity:
  https://www.breitbart.com/faith/2020/02/17/franklin-graham-lgbtq-activists-intolerant-of-traditional-christianity/

“Prominent evangelical pastor Franklin Graham said Sunday that LGBTQ activists are trying to ban “the truth of the Gospel” from British society by having him barred from preaching in the UK. In parallel posts on Facebook and Twitter, Rev. Graham lamented efforts “by LGBTQ activists” to have his eight-city evangelistic tour across the UK cancelled. Opposition to the Gospel shouldn’t really surprise us. Jesus warned that it would come,” Graham wrote. “As you may know, my eight-city evangelistic tour across the UK has been met with resistance by LGBTQ activists who inaccurately claim that I am homophobic, Islamophobic, and say that I speak hate.” “Anyone who knows me or has heard me speak knows that this really isn’t true — but, I DO preach the TRUTH of the Gospel. Could it be, rather, that these folks are truthophobic or free-speech-ophobic?” Graham asks. Like many Christians, Rev. Graham has not hesitated to voice his disagreement with the 2015 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to impose same-sex marriage on the nation in Obergefell v. Hodges. Appealing to biblical morality, Graham has continued to assert that marriage is the union of one man and one woman, which was the predominant belief of humanity for all of history. In his dissent from Obergefell, Justice Samuel Alito presciently wrote that the decision would be used to hurt Americans who may not share a contemporary view of marriage as a malleable, fluid arrangement between an unspecified number of unspecified persons. “It will be used to vilify Americans who are unwilling to assent to the new orthodoxy,” he wrote. In his Facebook post Sunday, Rev. Graham cites Australian Martyn Iles who asks if society “has become so ‘tolerant’ that it is now intolerant of mainstream Christianity.” “This is really a fight for truth, and the Gospel is what is really being ‘banned’ from these venues,” Graham writes. “It really boils down to the fact that they disagree with the message.” Speaking the truth of Christianity to people, even when the message is unwelcome, is “love speech,” Graham asserts, the opposite of hate speech.”

     Biden in his bid to get the Democrats presidential nomination is getting desperate as Bloomberg blows over him … it is truly amazing what billions can do. Thus, the man who has problems keeping his hands still
  https://www.vox.com/2019/6/13/18663399/joe-biden-10-year-old-hyde-women

is now defaming ordinary Americans with a vengeance. Why, illegals are more American than any one. Well, are they going to vote for him, or will they just go for the Bloomberg/Hillary Clinton team of orcs?

     Where would I be in my coverage of the coronavirus pandemic without the site Zerohedge.com, giving me the juiciest most paranoid news fir to print? Why, I would simply go through dozens of other sites, wasting much of my day.  
  https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/how-china-censoring-coronavirus-critics-us
  https://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/who-and-google-work-together-to-censor-coronavirus-information_02032020

     How about predictions that the coronavirus could infect up to 5 billion people. What! Not the entire human race?
  https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/shocking-admission-who-advisor-says-coronavirus-may-infect-over-5-billion-people

     For readers’ reference, three interesting articles on the subject of organising resistance in the face of adversity, and adversity is all around those who would challenge and fight against globalism and its discontents. There is no actual plan given, but rather, thoughts to get the ball rolling, because organisation must begin somewhere, and given the tyranny of the establishment, starting at the grassroots is always the safest, since all large organisations quickly get infiltrated and destroyed from within, for the enemy has the resources to do this all day long.

     I do not agree with all of the sentiments below, but it is still a good starting point:
  https://www.theoccidentalobserver.net/2020/02/14/organizing-in-the-face-of-adversity-lessons-from-history-part-one-the-pre-civil-war-theory-of-states-rights/

     There has been an on-going debate about the possible cancer effects of cell/mobile phone use. However, this article gives a different spin to the debate, that there is apparently a danger message in the actual phone itself, or at least American phones. I have no idea whether this is applicable to phones that one can get in Australia, but for what it is worth:
  https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/02/18/hazards-in-your-cellphone.aspx?cid_source=dnl&cid_medium=email&cid_content=art3ReadMore&cid=20200218Z1&et_cid=DM460376&et_rid=813006445

“In 2017, Wendy Mesley with Canada's CBC News conducted an investigation into a little-known fact about cellphones. Inside the manual is a warning, one that could drastically change the use of cellphones as you know it — if only it were taken seriously. In short, the warning states to keep the phone a certain distance away from your body — usually 5 to 15 millimeters (mm), or two-tenths to six-tenths of an inch — to limit exposure to radiofrequency (RF) exposure to under the federal safety limit. In the video Mesley asks random cellphone users to try to find the warning hidden in their phone, and none are successful. She pulls it up on her iPhone, reading: "To reduce exposure to RF energy, use a hands-free option, such as speakerphone … Carry iPhone at least 5 millimeters away from your body to ensure exposure levels remain at or below the as tested levels." If you carry your phone in your pocket or your bra, or hold it against your ear when you talk, you're violating this warning with unknown health consequences.

     There have been an increasing number of migrant crimes where the victim is urinated upon. Why? Well, it is the thing that victims of racism do, because the criminals, sorry, oppressed people, feel hopelessness, said the Swedish Interior minister:
  https://voiceofeurope.com/2020/02/swedish-interior-minister-says-migrant-robbers-pee-on-their-victims-because-they-feel-hopelessness/

“Young migrants who carry out sadistic and degrading robberies against Swedes do so because they feel hopeless and like they do not belong in society, according to Sweden’s Social Democratic Minister of the Interior Mikael Damberg. In a recent high profile case, an 18-year-old was robbed by two younger assailants who, among other things, peed on him and forced him to open his mouth while doing so. In an interview with SVT, Mikael Damberg was asked to explain why youth robberies are increasing. “I don’t think I should have an explanation. I will wait for criminologists and others to tell me what it is due to. But it is obvious that there is a total lack of moral perception here, where these young men can commit almost any disgusting action against other young people. It is something that is lacking in the parenting role, but also that society does not intervene early enough”, said Damberg. The interviewer then asked Damberg why crime is increasing in the “vulnerable areas”. “It must be about both lack of parenting and norms, morals and values that are crossed in these gangs, and that is very serious. The second thing is that some of the young people feel hopeless, that they don’t do well in school and that they feel that there is no place for them in society”, the Interior Minister concluded.    

Ten years ago Australia had five car manufacturers, Ford, GMH, Toyota, Nissan and Mitsubishi.

Now we have none. All gone  overseas and the reason given? Costs were to high. Funny in that the cars we are  now importing (Malaysia etc) are no cheaper.

I remember back in  1968 living in Brisbane, when the 3 major cities back then were Sydney,  Melbourne & Adelaide and Adelaide was the  Industrial City.

Adelaide - South  Australia, was where you went to work in the Iron Ore Industry, or where you  could get a job making railway tracks for B.H.P.?

You could  get a job building ships, submarines, cars, washing machines, fridges, TV’s,  Hills hoists, Victa Lawn Mowers or make tyres at Bridgestone tyres. 

Lightburn Washing Machine Company even made a car called a  Zeta. It was not much of  a car, but at least it was Australian and we built it. I worked at Stanvac  where we made our own Petrol, Diesel, Kerosene and Oil. We had Oil Rigs in  Bass Strait, North West Shelf and the Timor Sea. We even had  Australian owned Service Stations like (H.C. Sleigh) Golden Fleece and many of  us young wanna-be mechanics back then worked as a driveway attendant. (Just like  Stanley)

     If the system finds you a problem, if you are not shot in the back of the head outright, or have an accident that looks like suicide, then you will be a prisoner of the system and tortured slowly to death, like poor Julian Assange. The aim is to send a message to other potential whistle-blowers, to not blow their whistle.
  https://www.rt.com/news/481096-doctors-worry-assange-condition/

“Over 100 doctors are urging the UK government to stop the "psychological torture" of Julian Assange, and send him to a hospital. It's their fourth such letter since the journalist appeared in court. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange may die in a UK prison, having "effectively been tortured to death," claim Doctors for Assange, a group of 117 doctors from 18 countries, in a recent letter published in The Lancet, a leading medical journal. The letter says that Assange requires urgent medical care, and has been exposed to “prolonged psychological torture”. The group once again asks for him to be moved to a university teaching hospital for medical assessment and treatment. WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson on the other hand has claimed that Assange’s health is improving and he is no longer being held in solitary confinement. Hrafnsson spoke to journalists ahead of next week’s court hearing on the US extradition request. Assange’s health has been worrying his supporters for a while now. Nils Melzer, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, visited Assange in prison in May 2019, and reported that the journalist showed “all the symptoms typical of prolonged exposure to psychological torture”.

     President Trump has done nothing to fulfil his election promises, and as far as immigration goes, has done exactly the opposite, inflaming the pro-immigration forces to turn up the heat. But, at least we know where we stand. But, he has been useful as a speaker, saying things that others cannot say in this world of unending censorship, especially about Europe. While we have heard much about knife attacks in London, France too, has a knife attack problem, with an average of 120 attacks a day:
  https://gellerreport.com/2020/02/france-sees-average-of-120-knife-attacks-per-day.html/
  https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/02/18/france-sees-average-120-knife-attacks-per-day/

“As violent crime continues to surge across France, it is estimated that as many as 120 knife attacks occur on average per day across the country. The figures, which come from the National Observatory of Delinquency and Criminal Responses (ONDRP), claim that between 2015 and 2017 there were around 44,000 victims of knife crime each year, or an average of 120 per day. On average, 118,000 people in France say they were victims of some sort of violent crime involving an attacker who they were not living with such as assaults in public areas, schools, nightclubs, and other venues, Le Figaro reports. Knives are the most common weapons reported in violent crime cases, followed by 34 per cent who say they were attacked with a blunt object or rock, and around nine per cent who were attacked with a firearm. In cases of fatal violence, the trend remains largely the same, with edged weapons seen in 34 per cent of cases, followed by firearms at 28 per cent. … According to a senior Paris police official, stabbings were a common occurrence at makeshift migrant camps in the north of the city. “There were many fights in the migrant camps, between Afghans, Eritreans and Somalis in particular, which ended with stabbings, in the north of Paris. The dismantling of these fixing points has been beneficial,” the official said. The makeshift migrant camps had become so dangerous in recent years that the aid group Solidarité Migrants Wilson shut down their operations due to the threat posed to their workers in 2018.”

     This is interesting, from Michael Smith News, quoting a Work Bank report that found that 7.5 percent of aid goes into foreign bank accounts:
  http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/493201582052636710/Elite-Capture-of-Foreign-Aid-Evidence-from-Offshore-Bank-Accounts
  https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/02/we-ask-dfat-for-comment-on-world-bank-finding-that-75-of-aid-goes-into-secret-private-accounts.html

Elite Capture of Foreign Aid Evidence from Offshore Bank Accounts Jørgen Juel Andersen Niels Johannesen Bob Rijkers  Policy Research Working Paper 9150
“Do elites capture foreign aid? This paper documents that aid disbursements to highly aid-dependent countries coincide with sharp increases in bank deposits in offshore financial centers known for bank secrecy and private wealth management, but not in other financial centers. The estimates are not confounded by contemporaneous shocks such as civil conflicts, natural disasters, and financial crises, and are robust to instrumenting with predetermined aid commitments. The implied leakage rate is around 7.5 percent at the sample mean and tends to increase with the ratio of aid to GDP. The findings are consistent with aid capture in the most aid-dependent countries. … We document that aid disbursements to the most aid-dependent countries coincide with significant increases in deposits held in offshore financial centers known for bank secrecy and private wealth management. Aid capture by ruling politicians, bureaucrats and their cronies is consistent with the totality of observed patterns: it can explain why aid does not trigger flows to non-havens, why the capital outflows occur precisely in the same quarter as the aid inflows and why the estimated effects are larger for more corrupt countries. Other explanations are possible but we find them harder to reconcile with all the patterns in the data. We cannot exclude that firms benefiting from aid-sponsored spending receive payments in quarters with aid disbursements and deposit the funds with foreign banks; however, this mechanism cannot explain why the money only flows to havens. It seems even less likely that the results reflect profit shifting by multinational firms, the effect of aid on income through aggregate demand and portfolio adjustments by commercial and central banks. Our estimates suggest a leakage rate of around 7.5% for the average highly aid-dependent country.”

     Dr Bob Birrell predicts a flood of elderly migrants to Australia. Good grief, what next!
  https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2019/05/labor-visa-earthquake-to-trigger-elderly-migrant-tsunami/

“An alarmist headline? Not really. This judgement follows from an analysis of Labor’s proposed temporary visa for parents of existing migrants, entitled, a ‘Fairer Long stay parent visa for Australia’s migrant and multicultural communities’. The proposal was announced on 22 April, 2019. Labor’s proposal is for an uncapped, low cost, temporary parent visa open to all migrant families who are citizens or are permanent residents. It will cost $2,500 for five years regardless of sponsors’ income or capacity to provide for their parents. All four parents in each household can be sponsored. The children eligible to sponsor their parents include all those who are permanent residents or citizens of Australia. The visa will be renewable thus enabling parents to stay in Australia for ten years without having to leave. This means it is a de facto permanent entry visa since, as sponsors will know, it is highly unlikely that parents who have lived here for a decade will be required to return home. Labor’s ‘temporary’ parent visa is an unprecedented offer. No other western country provides any similar parent visa. The trend across Western Europe is to tighten already stringent rules on parents’  access to obtain permanent residence status. The US, though it allows adult migrant children to sponsor their parents, has many hurdles, including that the sponsor must be a citizen and must meet financial capacity guidelines. Even Canada, the most overtly welcoming migration country in the west, has an annual cap of 17,000 on parent visas and, as with the US, sponsors must prove that they can meet stringent financial capacity criteria. As we will see, Labor’s parent proposal dismantles all the careful rules successive Australian governments have, over thirty years, put in place to control parent migration. The door is now wide open for parent sponsorship. This is an especially attractive prospect of Australia’s more recently arrived Asian and Middle-Eastern communities. And here it should be noted that Australia’s Asian-born population (at just over 10 per cent) is higher than any other western country.

     The US Democrats have been pushed to show their true colour, commo red, by President Trump, perhaps the only useful thing this president has done for America, although he has done much more for foreign powers. In particular, the Democrats are now, to a man, woman and transgendered person, determined to take away guns from the ordinary people, while setting up a totalitarian police state, to keep the peasants in line, as if they need to:
  https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/gun-seizures-could-lead-to-civil-war/

““Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15,” declared “Beto” O’Rourke at a Democratic party presidential candidate debate in September. Compelling Americans to surrender their so-called assault weapons is “the newest purity test” for Democratic presidential candidates, according to the Washington Post. O’Rourke and other Democratic presidential candidates, including Cory Booker, Kristin Gillibrand, and Bill de Blasio (now withdrawn from the race, as are Gillibrand and O’Rourke) have all endorsed mandatory buy-backs of assault weapons. Though such proposals are momentarily politically profitable, they could start a cascade of public-policy dominoes that ends in civil war. When Australia and New Zealand mandated buy-backs of assault weapons, most gun owners ignored the decrees despite politicians repeatedly ratcheting up their threats. Similar noncompliance to laws requiring surrender or registration of assault weapons has occurred in California, New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, and elsewhere. Congress passed an assault-weapons ban in 1994 that lasted for a decade. The original assault-weapons ban protected Americans from being shot with rifles that included features such as grenade launchers, bayonet lugs, or other detailing whose primary impact was to fuel the phobias of gun haters. Shortly after the 1994 ban was passed, a Washington Post editorial admitted, “Assault weapons play a part in only a small percentage of crime. The provision is mainly symbolic; its virtue will be if it turns out to be, as hoped, a stepping stone to broader gun control.” Post columnist Charles Krauthammer, in an article headlined, “Disarm the Citizenry. But Not Yet,” explained the “real logic of the ban”: “Its only real justification is not to reduce crime but to desensitize the public to the regulation of weapons in preparation for their ultimate confiscation.” Krauthammer, who was revered by much of the nation’s mainstream media, trumpeted his support for “real steps” on gun control including “the banning of handguns.”

     Who is promoting the push to a cashless society and why? Whose interests are served by this? Certainly not those of the little people, like me, who get to struggle to pay bills, through putting the odd shrapnel of cash into containers to try and meet specific bills on time:
  https://www.alt-market.com/index.php/articles/4013-the-rush-to-a-cashless-society-only-serves-globalist-interests

“In 2017 I published an article called 'The Globalist One World Currency Will Look A Lot Like Bitcoin'. In it, I warned that the trendy marketing of cryptocurrencies to the general public by the mainstream media was extremely suspicious and contrary to the notion that the establishment was “terrified” of Bitcoin or blockchain tech putting them out of business. I also warned of the deep involvement of international banks like Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan in the progress of blockchain infrastructure and more specifically Goldman Sachs and the IMF's love affair with digital monetary systems. Goldman Sachs even referred to the blockchain as “the new technology of trust...” Clearly, the banking elites are not worried about this technology. In fact, they have been investing in it heavily. But why?  I have long held that current popular cryptocurrencies are nothing more than a beta test for a global digital currency system controlled by the elites. This is not to say that many people are familiar with using Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. In fact, only a tiny percentage of the population ever comes into contact with or trades crypto. What I am saying is, the terminology, the idea of cryptocurrencies, is now widespread. Thanks to a vast amount of media attention, Bitcoin is a household brand even though most people have never owned a bitcoin (or a portion of a bitcoin). Whale investors have hyperinflated the price of Bitcoin and certain other coins to levels beyond all reason as demand by the investment world and average people for the mechanism is minimal at best. These price explosions, though brief, have spurred public curiosity. And, in the minds of many if something is considered valuable, no matter how ethereal or arbitrary the measure, there must be a reason...right? Therefore, in the minds of bitcoin cheerleaders high market prices prove by default that Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are necessary and desirable and anyone who is critical or skeptical is merely “upset” that they “missed out on the opportunity”.