Hands of Time

If you are on social media you are being poisoned by America. The digital reality of this sewer is polluting your mental health. If you are checking your feeds all the time, like an addict in need of a fix, this is not a healthy state to be in. The social media reality is all about catastrophising everything. Attention seeking headlines designed to enrage or disgust. The morass of screen fodder screams loudly for your attention. It wears heavily upon your soul. Doom scrolling becomes a real thing. If most stuff you view is invariably at the extreme edges of opinion, then you become strung out on highs and lows. Nothing reaches you, if its mild or in the middle. Your consciousness is always on high alert. This takes you into the depressive zone, as an escape from the unceasing noise.

American Values Exported Via Social Media

Take an unwavering look at America via the media. It is shrill and deeply distorted by its polarised nature. Social media is an American invention. It is a virus shared with the world for profit by unscrupulous men. Billionaires hell bent on breaking the back of a once liberal minded world. Screwing every last dollar from your pocket in the form of subscriptions for everything. The shiny surfaces of technology have sucked you in like a trusting native from times gone by. Big Tech digital imperialism is demeaning your humanity in return for its superfast but narrow lane of convenience. The AI messaging tells you that machines do it better.  That their digital artificial intelligence is smarter than you. That is why you are being cast on the scrapheap, whilst AI takes your job. AI is another American invention.

The Digital Degradation Of America & The World

Digital gurus like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, were once held up as brilliant pioneers creating a better world. Now, the jury is out on this in a post truth world. Counterfeit humans fill our screens enjoining us to invest in their schemes. Scamming is predominantly a digital thing, these days. Banks are no longer safe places for our money because of the digital revolution. There are gaping holes in every digital surface, big enough to extract a fortune from. You know, most folk still have no conception of how the internet works, but they use it every day. That level of ignorance makes us vulnerable, obviously. Have you ever really asked yourself what are the costs of this digital convenience? Human beings are fast disappearing from our services. Why is this so? So that big companies like Google and Meta can make more money, as their payrolls shrink to microscopic in relation to their revenue. Shareholders rule the world, while consumers and employees get shafted.

Governments have failed us, as competition from markets disappeared during the Big Tech takeover of everything. Disgraceful politicians bought by billionaires to do their bidding.

AI Will Tell You What To Do!

If you are on social media you are being poisoned by America. If you spend your days and nights staring at screens, say goodbye to common sense. People of a certain age have bemoaned the fact that young people cannot add up without the assistance of machines. Well, get ready for the next instalment, human beings incapable of writing without AI to do it for them. I think of that Time Machine movie of the HG Wells story, where the pretty but vacuous Eloi inhabit the surface. They could be our selfie taking generation enraptured by their own reflection on the digital mirror of social media. Of course, their dark fate is to be the food of the subterranean Morlocks. Are the Morlocks to be Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Zuckerberg and co? Silicon Valley turned bad about a decade and a half ago, when it was taken over by the money men of America. Good ideas and tech turned into cash cows for investors. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Losing The Ability To Write & Think For Yourself

Writing has long been hailed by historians, as the greatest cultural achievement of humanity. I wonder if losing that ability will be as equally celebrated. All of this AI digital revolution is being driven by bean counters and the profit motive of investors. This is the real engine driving our economies. There are no governments or councils of clever people looking out for us on this score. Neoliberalism has foisted upon us generations of weak leaders working for big business. There are smart individuals warning us about the likely perils of AI and where we find ourselves, but few courageous governments listening to them. They and the Big Tech companies are all too scared of missing out on the profits. GDP will be greater if they sack half the workforce, initially anyway. Then, what are the plans for the millions of unemployed? Who is going to buy stuff if they have lost their careers and income? Economists have not really thought this through to the end, they hope that things will sort themselves out. Generations of people unable to write, add up, or think cogently about things, because machines have been doing it for them. How vulnerable does that make humanity?

Mother Of All Warnings Upon This Generation

I meet lots of young people addicted to high caffeine soft drinks. A can of Mother or Red Bull is always close at hand. These jittery folk talk fast and race through their interactions with digital interfaces. Brought up in a world overflowing with endless data, I am sure the caffeine seems to help them cope, in the short term anyway. Their shiny eyes beam with youthful energy topped up by chemical enhancement. Social media is never far from their lives, as devices beep constantly to alert them to that fact.

Their encounter with a global pandemic, which mainly killed really old people, but impacted their own lives at a crucial developmental stage cannot be underestimated. Doom scrolling seems to be their destiny and one wonders what price this life will eventually entail.

In A-M-E-R-I-C-A

If you are on social media you are being poisoned by America. America is a land where greed knows no bounds. They told us that greed was good, remember! Old white men rule the roost, everywhere you look in the United States. The Madness of King Lear could have been written there. No one ever taps these old guys on the shoulder, it seems. Worshipping the individual is the name of the game. Facilitating the unchecked ambitions of madmen is the role of apprentices hoping one day to reach the top themselves.

Richest man in the world. Fattest man in the world. Greatest liar in the world. Most ruthless SOB in the world. These epitomes are oh so American.

The Cost Of Digital Convenience

“The truth is that businesses use technology to hide behind it. Have you ever tried to contact Kayo after its tech fails you? Nobody is employed there to answer the phone or respond to emails, apparently. If you have ever worked for Uber you will know that its support for drivers is effectively zero. These companies hide behind their digital technology and treat customers and workers with disdain if the narrow lane of digital convenience fails. Big Tech is a con really. Elon Musk is the richest man in the world and most of his companies have never actually made any money. Big Tech gets on the government teat and sucks up tax payers’ billions like a vacuum cleaner. The digital sector is a scam and AI will be their biggest con yet.”

- (https://www.housetherapy.com.au/the-narrow-lane-of-digital-convenience/)

Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of The Stoic Golfer; The AI Heresy; What Price Life?; America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump; and other titles. NOW AVAILABLE AT APPLE BOOKS & GOOGLE PLAY BOOKS. Google Play Books AUDIOBOOK

©HouseTherapy

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Land property has become majorly expensive in Australia. The housing shortage crisis has impacted upon prices and land values across the board. Until very recently, property investment in Australia was a rolled gold investment and this has contributed to the sustained growth in prices over many years. The great Australian dream has been narrated around owning your own home and for many this has seemed unaffordable on the basis of the high prices for land and housing. Alan Kohler has shown us that home ownership now demands up to x13 years of average annual incomes in places like Sydney. The danger of land ownership is not only economic, however.

“In December last year the average dwelling in Australia cost 16.4 times that of household income per capita. That increase in the ratio is the equivalent of an extra $167,000 in the price of a dwelling – or roughly an extra$33,000 on a 20% deposit.”

- (https://australiainstitute.org.au/post/housing-affordability-is-so-bad-that-2020-now-looks-good/) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=di6UxsrzpXM

The Psyches Of Property Owners

Something happens to the psyches of land owners in my experience, especially those who purchase their hobby farm in semi-rural suburbs around our cities. The financial impost necessary to achieve this may well contribute to the change in attitudes of these property owners. I have visited quite a largish number of these properties in northern suburbs around Brisbane in my role as a government inspector. I was surprised at the plethora of land owners exhibiting resistance to the community program I was involved in. It struck me that many of these property owners had let this fact of land ownership go to their head. Tinpot kings of their castles came to mind at their gated and fenced attitudes to their private territory. In extreme cases, we have seen ‘so-called’ Sovereign Citizens shoot dead visiting police officers to their property. The danger of land ownership can turn very nasty.

“The alleged killing of two police officers who attempted to serve a warrant on a self-proclaimed “sovereign citizen” in Australia shows how a movement that originated in the United States has taken root in the country and now carries the threat of violence, experts say.”

- (https://edition.cnn.com/2025/08/29/australia/australian-sovereign-citizens-manhunt-intl-hnk)

Tinpot Land Lords Dangerous & Armed

This happened in Queensland, Tasmania and Victoria, where police were shot and killed whilst going about their duties. The number of guns on rural properties are invariably greater than those founds in inner-city suburbs. We live at a time polluted by social media, which is fundamentally an American invention. Americans dominate far right politics and culture. America is a gun culture. America is a culture of complaint and festers with the politics of grievance. The blame game is their favourite pastime. One Nation downunder is copying the MAGA strategy, which crowned Donald Trump into the presidency twice. Australia follows American trends and is usually a decade or so behind what happens over there. What we have happening is a population consuming social media, without scrutinising its sources adequately. Aussies use social media without comprehending how the digital realm actually works. This makes them vulnerable to manipulation by right wing billionaires like Elon Musk and Gina Rinehart. If you don’t understand how something functions you cannot look under the hood for answers.

“When the far-right activist Tommy Robinson emerged from a London courtroom this week after a judge cleared him of a terrorism charge, he gave thanks to the man he said had bankrolled his defense.

“Elon Musk, I’m forever grateful. If you didn’t step in and fund my legal fight I’d probably be in jail,” Robinson said. “Thank you, Elon.” “

- (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/nov/08/elon-musk-global-far-right) Land Owners Infatuated With Themselves

It seems to me that those infatuated with their own status as land owners lose perspective over community issues. Of course, not all property owners fall into this category. I was surprised, however, at the siege like mentality I encountered during my visits to many properties in the northern suburbs of Brisbane. Often, the more land possessed by these individuals the more they seemed to see themselves as kings of grass castles. Somehow many of these property owners lose touch with what is the common good in favour of their own concerns. Right wing politics feeds this by highlighting the rights of NIMBYs over things like solar and wind farms and higher density living requirements. This denial of the social issues and challenges facing Australians in the 21C is a cause for public concern. We can see the extreme version of this happening under Trumpism in the United States. The denial of the science of global warming, as if by merely burying your head in the sand this existential crisis will just go away. “Don’t spoil my view with wind turbines or solar panels!” “Don’t damage my property value with your clean energy saving technology.”

This is the selfish individual fucking over the community for their own profit. The danger of land ownership puts their possession above the common good for the rest of the community.

The History Of Land Ownership

Settlers have a history of taking what is not theirs and making it their own by whatever means possible. This is occurring in Palestine, as we speak, in the illegal West Bank settlements by Israeli settlers. The history of the New World in Australia and North America saw European settlers move in and forcibly take the land of the Indigenous peoples there before them. Settlers in Australia murdered by poisoning and gun violence Aboriginal people all around the continent to establish their homes and property. This is a part of the history of land ownership in Australia. It is, perhaps, useful to keep this provenance in mind when considering the property rights over land and our attitudes toward them.

Crazy Queensland Land Owners

People can get a little crazy when they think they are defending their property rights and land. A red haze can descend upon their thinking, when confronted by a government employee wishing to inspect their property. Of course, a few of them are involved in illegal activities on their properties and wish to go on concealing this fact. It might by an illegal business doing things with cars and vehicles. Or cooking up something for the lucrative drug trade. There are, however, too many land owners who just don’t want you on their property, no matter your job or community program. It reminds me of what I have read about feudal times, as these property owners invariably have multiple guard dogs. Amid the loud barking and gnashing of teeth of hounds one is forced to negotiate with these tinpot lords of their land to gain entry. It is not conducive to rational thinking, this medieval security arrangement salivating and growling in your face at the gate. I think about the rest of us who live quietly in apartments and small town houses in cities, as the contrast is substantial. No wonder there is an urban/rural divide around the world, especially when it comes to politics. I am not sure if these land owners live in the same Australia as the rest of us. ‘No man is an island.’ This might be something to remember for those guarding their gates night and day on their tinpot properties. Fear of invasion seems to rank high on their list of anxieties. The Chinese and government inspectors fall into this category.

I have been to houses surrounded by high steel fences and gates. Plus, aggressive dogs guarding it and no way to reach the front door. I wonder about the psychological state of those living inside. The danger of land ownership can be what it does to you ‘upstairs.’

The New Digital Imperialism

“Have you been getting the message that machines do it better? That AI is smarter than you? Have you been replaced at work by some sort of artificial intelligence program? Digital imperialism: The new colonialism is here. Now, you get to experience what plenty of Indigenous peoples have had to deal with over the journey. The clear and present inference that you are not good enough and too dumb to matter. Your culture thrown on the scrapheap of progress and advancement. This time, however, it is humanity per se copping it in the neck via a form of Social Darwinism. Only a small group of investors matter, those who are shareholders in the Big Tech companies overlording the rest of us.”

- (https://www.midasword.com.au/digital-imperialism-the-new-colonialism/)

Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of The Stoic Golfer; The AI Heresy; What Price Life?; America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump; and other titles. NOW AVAILABLE AT APPLE BOOKS & GOOGLE PLAY BOOKS. Google Play Books AUDIOBOOK

©MidasWord

It is an interesting fact of history that our desire for sweet non-essentials has long been associated with the mistreatment of vulnerable human beings. Chocolate: The sweet taste of child exploitation. The ABC’s Four Corners has very recently shown that much of the world’s cocoa is sourced unethically and, indeed, involves the exploitation of poor Africans. Those fair trade and green frog logos are not worth the paper they are printed on, it seems. The big companies making our chocolate bars are not looking after those farming the necessary cocoa beans. In the past, our sugar and spices were grown and cut by slave labour, which resulted in the deaths of millions of African and Indigenous people. It seems that not a lot has really changed when it comes to the essential element that goes into making chocolate.

Sweet Sugar & The Lash Of Slavery

I find it somewhat fascinating that trade in non-essentials has made many European nations wealthy. The roots of that trade often involved slavery all through the Caribbean, where the sugar plantations were located. Did you know that the entire Indigenous population of the Caribbean was wiped out via slavery and disease from the European incursion there? Those remaining today are the descendants of the imported African slaves, in the main. Working people to death, like badly treated animals, was the order of the day, back then. The British valued their sugar plantations on the Caribbean far greater than those North American colonies, which would go on to become the United States. Perhaps, a bad call, when viewed in hindsight, but not at the time. Sugar was a luxury and the trade was economically very profitable.

Spicy Treats Served Up On The Back Of Injustice

Spices from Asia, sugar from the Caribbean, and tobacco from Virginia – all non-essentials that Europeans were prepared to pay plenty for and did not really care who died in the process of getting them for them. Rum, of course, is made from molasses, a sugar cane product. Pirates and other naval folk are famous for their love of rum.

Rum, sodomy and the lash are a triumvirate of squalidness enjoyed by convict Australia at its inception.

The echoes of this can still be found in the popularity of Bundy downunder. The other two ingredients I will leave to your own imagination and sensual experience. Human beings do not need any of these products for survival, they are non-essentials, but we pay gold and silver for them, just the same.

Chocolate & Child Labour

Chocolate: The sweet taste of child exploitation. How do you feel about poor African kids forced to miss school and work for a pittance on cocoa farms? Will it interfere with your enjoyment of rich chocolate or not? The bitter irony of luxury goods coming on the back of poverty, pain and suffering has been with us for a very long time. Slaves being whipped and worked to death for our sugar are facts of history. In Australia we had the black birding slave trade for our own sugar plantations in North Queensland. The odious President Donald Trump’s regime has imposed economic sanctions on Australian imports into America on the basis of slavery and exploitation in the food chains of production. Talk about a lying, cheating, misanthropic SOB being right. It is enough to make you choke on your next Cadbury chocolate block.  

Sugar Will Rot Your Teeth

There is a theme running through all of these things despite the long timeline. Rich people fucking over the poor. The wealthy wanting their non-essential luxuries, even if those at the bottom have to die and live miserable lives to make that possible.  People at the top, like the odious Trump. Meanwhile, many just get through the day to be able to self-medicate themselves every night with booze. The sweet taste of bourbon or rum with plenty of cola. The world turns and day becomes night and vice versa. Chocolate bars in bright wrappers fill the shelves of supermarket aisles. Sugar and cocoa confectionary. Some beans were grown with the tears of Africans. How sweet must it be to deny the unpalatable truth of exploitation of child labour and poverty? Perhaps, the natural justice is that these sweets will rot your teeth in the end. Too much sugar in chockies and soft drinks. Too much sugar in RTDs. Rotting your teeth, as we speak. Chocolate: The sweet taste of child exploitation.

America Voted For Trump

“In a perfect world I doubt whether most Australians would choose the United States of America as an ally. We are in this position thanks to the vagaries of history and an adherence to a pragmatic reality. America is a military superpower currently led by an unhinged vainglorious fool. The real problem being that a majority of voting age Americans put Donald Trump back in power, after a hiatus with an octogenarian alternative. It is timely to remember the botched job Trump did leading his nation through Covid, where nie on a million Americans died from the virus. The Republican majority in the US senate is currently blaming Anthony Fauci MD for this pandemic in a belated hearing designed for this very purpose. Talk about whipping a dead horse.”

- (https://www.housetherapy.com.au/americans-put-donald-trump-back-in-power/)

Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of The Stoic Golfer; The AI Heresy; What Price Life?; America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump; and other titles. NOW AVAILABLE AT APPLE BOOKS & GOOGLE PLAY BOOKS. Google Play Books AUDIOBOOK

©HouseTherapy

The Sydney Swans have taken on the old Muhammad Ali rope-a-dope strategy, it seems. Absorb the opposition’s punishment for most of the match and then come out all guns blazing at the death knock. In this edition, Bloods sacrifice to beat Saints. Unfortunately for Will Edwards and James Rowbottom it was their blood and bone sacrifices on the altar of victory. A terrible injury for the rookie defender Will Edwards has finished his brilliant season prematurely. Rowbottom will likely be back for the finals. The Swans needed this win to hold onto second spot on the AFL ladder and it did not come cheaply.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79uG2kJ-YD8

Key Swans Suffer Serious Injuries Against St Kilda Saints

Indeed, for most of the game it looked like the St Kilda Saints would win this contest. For much of the first 3 quarters the Saints had more winners all over the ground. Watching the match, as a Sydney supporter was none too pleasurable up until the final 10 minutes of the game. It was like the red and white side needed to see a serious game stopping injury to one of their own to wakeup to what was actually required. Bloods sacrifice to beat Saints. Apparently, it was Dean Cox’s birthday and it did not appear to be any sort of gift he would want coming from the playing group for much of the contest. St Kilda were good and their play cleaner and harder than the Swans. I do not want to make light of the terrible injury to Will Edwards, but somehow it galvanised the playing group and motivated them to lift all over the ground. I hope that he heals quickly and can return to play in 2027. We need him for the successful future of this club.

Saints Huge But Lose In The End To Sydney At Marvel

The 2 million dollar man was weaving his magic for the Saints, especially in the first half. Nas was too quick for JJ and too skilful for our good. A beautiful exponent of AFL to watch if you were not barracking for the opposing team. Hall and Wilson were other talented Saints damaging our chances constantly. However, Chad Warner was lighting up Marvel himself and doing super stuff for the visitors. Errol Gulden, whilst not quite back to his very best, is running into form. Big Brodie Grundy is a tireless force for the Swans. Jai Serong played a great game and this new addition to the red and white is a ripper. Logan McDonald kicked 4 goals and played his most impressive full 4 quarter game for Sydney. Isaac Heeney was held for large parts of the contest but still provided Rolls Royce moments and non-stop grunt.

Sydney Lose Key Players Going Forward

Jack Silvani held Charlie Curnow for most of the match but dislocated his shoulder in the final quarter. Charlie kicked 3 goals. It was a fierce contest and the fight, seemed to go out of St Kilda in the last 10 minutes. The Swans piled on 7 goals to 1 in that last term. The rope-a-dope strategy cost 2 key Swans players. James Rowbottom is the tackling king at Sydney and the side will miss him. Be great if he could teach some teammates how to effectively tackle. The placid McLean needs a rocket up him. Riley Bice requires intensive contest and tackling lessons. Too many Swans sprint at oppo players and are easily evaded or pushed away. Please focus on this aspect of the game if you want to win finals.

Playing rope-a-dope with Geelong or Hawthorn will not end well for Sydney in the finals.

The Sydney Swans Defence Must Improve

The Sydney Swans can score quickly when allowed to surge down the field toward their goals. Games of AFL are won and lost out of the centre. The Swans midfield are brilliant, when they are on, but they have periods when they are not. The Swan’s defence is patchy and leaks. Will Edwards was doing a sterling job as a big key defender in his rookie year. Tom McCartin is our top defender in the air and patrolling the D50. Nick Blakey is the tearaway attacking halfback par excellence. Bice is the wannabe Blakey. Callum Mills is the Captain and a solid defensive soldier. Dane Rampey is the veteran with great one on one experience. Lewis Melican will come back in to replace Edwards. Together they are okay without being stellar. Mark McViegh is the defensive coach for the Sydney Swans. This unit will have to lift if the Swans are to be successful in the 2026 finals.

In comparison, Adelaide and Hawthorn are far better defensive units. We lost to these sides in part because of that superiority.

No More Passengers In The Swans Team Please

I have bad memories of the 2022 and 2024 GFs. Of my team being outplayed all over the field. Of Swans losing contest after contest and being largely uncompetitive. It takes a team to defeat a team. A few star players cannot do it, especially in finals. I do not want to see passengers pulling on the red and white guernsey. Players who can’t or won’t tackle or apply pressure to the opposition. Players who are content to always be second to the contest. I saw that on GF day in 2022 and 2024. I have seen that too regularly this season. Root them out now and replace them with blokes prepared to gut run and win contests all day. Bloods sacrifice to beat Saints. That is what is required for those 120 minutes every game. Take the heart and application of a Rowbottom and inject it into every player. The power and spirit of a Heeney. The fierce talent of the Chad. The fleet footed endurance and skill of Errol. Sydney is loaded with brilliance like Blakey and Campbell. All of these guys need to believe in themselves and play for each other. Bloods unite and shake down the thunder from the sky. Play hard and never give up.

Faux AFL Not Really National Competition

“Watching Fox Footy you cannot escape the fact that it is Melbourne-centric in its coverage. Virtually all its footy experts are based in Melbourne and they pander to the big local clubs like Collingwood, Carlton and Richmond. The AFL is really an expanded VFL and, indeed, that is how it came about. If you barrack for an interstate team, you will feel the neglect when you watch your side on Fox Footy. Channel 7 probably does a better job of having some tokenistic input via local boundary riders when covering home games for the interstate teams.”

- (https://wordsforweb.com.au/the-afl-is-really-an-expanded-vfl/)

Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of The Stoic Golfer; The AI Heresy; What Price Life?; America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump; and other titles. NOW AVAILABLE AT APPLE BOOKS & GOOGLE PLAY BOOKS. Google Play Books AUDIOBOOK

©WordsForWeb

Talking heads in the AFL media like to tell us that all the players are in it to win a premiership. This may have been so back in the day, when these commentators were playing themselves, but it aint so black and white these days. Big money is on offer for lots of AFL players and this is now the number one driver in the game. Two million dollars a season is a juicy carrot for those at the very top and many will park their premiership aspirations in favour of taking the dough firstly. I point to all those Gold Coast Sun’s players who left to pursue their careers at other clubs despite winning a final last year and having a 3 time premiership coach, Damien Hardwick at the helm. The allure of more money and a Melbourne based AFL club gazumped the premiership motivation. Big money and sport: It isn’t all it’s cracked up to be!

The Big Money Driving AFL

The commercialisation of AFL is in overdrive, as sports betting papers every surface in the game. Take a look at the fortunes of premiership coaching gurus Alastair Clarkson and Damien Hardwick. These super coaches are on big ticket multi-million dollar contracts and how are their new clubs faring? Not too bloody good! The market tells us that these AFL coaches are rated at the very top of the tree on the back of their repeated conquests of the Everest of AFL coaching – multiple premierships. Rewarded with big money contracts to take perennial underachievers to the promised land things are not looking too good right now. You have to ask yourself is the hunger still in the belly of these blokes or has the good life dampened their desire to go through what it takes to reach the heights demanded by club presidents and supporters at North Melbourne and Gold Coast? The market overcompensating sportspeople is no guarantee of success. I mean, look at LIV Golf and Cameron Smith – the rich rewards have snuffed out his motivation by the look of things. Indeed, few to none LIV golfers have improved or even held their own since taking the big money.

Sport Is Not Really About The Big Money

Markets reward achievements with generous renumeration but sport is not really about money. Sport, at its core, is about glory and overcoming adversity. In the case of team sports, it is also very much about the camaraderie and that necessary teamwork, which makes tough victories possible. A champion team will always beat a team of champions. The media and the market emphasise individual achievements. The AFL media bangs on about the stars of the game. The commercialisation of sport wants poster boys and girls to hang their product endorsements upon. Colgate, Uber Eats, insurance companies and the rest of them want star player associations to sway your consumer choices. Little kids love their sporting heroes and in many ways the tribal AFL or NRL fan indulges their childlike responses to the game. Business exploits that love of the game.

Boorish Fox Footy Commentators

If you watch an AFL match on Fox Footy, the expert commentators never shut the fuck up. Maybe, they are like lawyers and are paid by the word. Mansplaining is big in the world of AFL punditry. Hands up who else is sick of being loudly lectured to during a game, when you just want to watch the bloody footy? AFL commentators back in the day of Dennis Cometti did not boorishly bang on about their pet theories, rather they called the game with style and humour. Shut the fuck up! Too much money in the sport has poisoned this part of the game as well. I could name names but you all know who they are. Raising the volume of your voice is not what this caper is really about. It is not a question of going hard, but rather a skilled operator boasts a light touch based on intelligence. We miss Dennis Cometti! Big money and sport: It isn’t all it’s cracked up to be!

Lean & Mean Produces Results

AFL players athletically work bloody hard to get where they are, there is no doubt about that. Yes, they deserve to be well renumerated for their efforts. Have you noticed how often AFL players, right after signing contract extensions, play poorly? Lean and mean is better for performances than secure and comfortable. It is the same for coaches. Example? Fremantle Docker’s coach Justin Longmuir is on an annual rolling contract, no extra fat on that deal. The American style overtaking of sports by big money and sports betting gambling behemoths is another thing entirely. The sacrifice everything mentality for a premiership is fast becoming a myth, overtaken by million dollar contracts. Big money and sport: It isn’t all it’s cracked up to be! Dumb AFL shows on TV bang on about player contracts, as much or more than they do about covering actual games. Greed is not good for the game. Too much money is no good for performance, as it equates with hibernation in the wild. You want hungry players and coaches, not those rolling in clover.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdsEoGQMEtk $Millions Spent To Languish In Abject Mediocrity

If you look at the 18 clubs in the AFL competition, how many of them are performing to supporter expectation? Just a handful, if that, the vast majority are an absolute disgrace by any measurement. Has big money made the competition better? No. The whole thing is a gravy train for the elites with their snouts in the trough. It is a bunch of fat cats stuffing themselves with the hard earned of the fans. Overpaid players and coaches. Billion dollar broadcast deals. Sponsorship money and corporatised facilities. Sports betting ruling the roost over the entire business. If things are so bloody good, why are most teams performing below expectation for years. Members keep paying their yearly membership subscriptions in the hope that things will improve. You have clubs down the bottom of the ladder paying their players and coaches/staff some $27 million. Millions to languish in abject mediocrity.

“THE AFL has today confirmed the AFL and AFLW Soft Cap Policy for the three-year period covering 2025-2027.”

- (https://www.afl.com.au/news/1222813/2025-27-football-department-soft-cap) Biggest Loser? Look In The Mirror.

We are the biggest losers, the passionate fans who bleed for our losing clubs. Whilst those running the show live the good life at our expense. Big money and sport: It isn’t all it’s cracked up to be!

Indigenous AFL Players

“You may or may not have noticed a dearth of Indigenous footy players running around in the current crop of AFL players. Indeed, you may be aware of the absence of star players like Bobby Hill from Collingwood and Tyson Stengle from the Cats. Then, there is the long running Jamarra Ugle-Hagan saga, which stretched from the Western Bulldogs to the Gold Coast Suns. What do these three things have in common? They all involve Aboriginal AFL players who were or are on lucrative long term contracts with their clubs not playing or training as required. The Aboriginal footballer problem in the AFL.”

- (https://www.golfdom.com.au/the-aboriginal-footballer-problem-in-the-afl/)

Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of The Stoic Golfer; The AI Heresy; What Price Life?; America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump; and other titles. NOW AVAILABLE AT APPLE BOOKS & GOOGLE PLAY BOOKS. Google Play Books AUDIOBOOK

In a perfect world I doubt whether most Australians would choose the United States of America as an ally. We are in this position thanks to the vagaries of history and an adherence to a pragmatic reality. America is a military superpower currently led by an unhinged vainglorious fool. The real problem being that a majority of voting age Americans put Donald Trump back in power, after a hiatus with an octogenarian alternative. It is timely to remember the botched job Trump did leading his nation through Covid, where nie on a million Americans died from the virus. The Republican majority in the US senate is currently blaming Anthony Fauci MD for this pandemic in a belated hearing designed for this very purpose. Talk about whipping a dead horse.

Why Did 76 Million Americans Vote For Trump?

Of course, in truth the buck stops with the leader of the nation – President Trump. Strangely, Trump very often heaps praise upon himself and takes credit for things he did not in fact do, but never admits failure or defeat of any kind. Is this the archetypal American psyche? Is this why 76 million Americans voted for Donald Trump despite him being a convicted felon, sex offender and compulsive liar? Americans are used to being lied to. It is probably why in the so-called ‘land of the free’ they feel the need to be armed with so many guns.

I mean, what are you going to do with your gun? Shoot someone or a whole bunch of someone’s? This will be met with a far greater force and they will shoot you dead. Welcome to America.

The American Influence Upon Australia

Returning to Australia and its troublesome ally. Many Australians are largely unaware of the ever present American influence upon their lives. When something is everywhere, you cannot see the forest for the trees. The majority of our capital cities’ newspapers are owned by an American corporation, News Corp. Rupert Murdoch is an American citizen and the founder of Fox News. Sky News Australia is a local copy of that far right biased media platform pretending to cover the news. The Murdoch news model left the pretence of objectivity behind decades ago. Opinion rather than balanced editorial has been the driving force powering News Corp platforms for years. The tabloid newspapers are all Murdoch owned downunder. Right wing pro-American and Israel bias is the News Corp party line.

News Corp sets the agenda for the media in Australia, as it is the most outspoken and virulent among a generally Right leaning bunch. Seven West Media and Nine Fairfax follow suit, as does the disappointingly gutless ABC.

American Celebrity Culture & Communications

In the much more influential entertainment sector America rules the airwaves via Hollywood, social media and celebrity culture more generally. The US has always been bigger, richer and brasher. America invented Public Relations, which more lately is called Communications. In other places it is referred to as propaganda. Edward Bernays was responsible for starting wars in Central America and encouraging women to smoke all in the name of manipulating public opinion for profit. Right wing America spruiks the libertarian ideal that everything is for sale and that there is some weird purity in that fact. The consequence of this is the extreme divide between rich and poor in that country. Billionaires and oligarchs dominate the political system and the culture. Plus, justice is only available for those that can pay for it. Australia through its business sector and its dominant right wing political parties, the LNP, have Americanised Australia. Most of our CEOs have MBAs from US institutions. That we live in an economy dominated by duopolies and oligopolies is no accident of fate – we copy what happens in the US. Our university sector has been corporatised by stealth, with many of our Vice Chancellors earning massive 6 figure salaries. Even those running third rate universities downunder earn more than their equivalents at Oxford or Cambridge in the UK. Former PM Tony Abbott attempted to privatise our universities, as in the US. Although this failed, the LNP federal government achieved by stealth the corporatisation of the sector to cash in on the lucrative overseas student market.

Universities are run by bean counters and spend billions on consultancy reviews each year.

“Australia's universities are paying external consultants and contractors an estimated $1.8 billion a year without disclosing which firms they are hiring and what the money is being spent on.”

- (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03-30/university-consultants-fees-uts-kpmg-four-corners/106499192) Australia Being Dudded By US Companies

The Australian economy does its best to become like the American economy. Multinational companies avoid paying their fair share of tax via profit shifting to tax havens elsewhere. Companies like Alphabet (Google) and Meta (Facebook) have stripped billions of dollars of revenue from our advertising sector and minimise their corporate tax liability by this accountancy trick of transferring profits via IP charges to associated firms in Ireland and other places like the Virgin Islands. This is the American way and is practiced by companies like Uber, Pepsi, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, News Corp and the rest of them operating in Australia. We are missing out on tens of billions every year because of this. The gas extraction companies do this, also, Shell, Santos and the others reduce their profits in Australia to pay substantially less corporate tax. This puts a greater onus on ordinary Australians’ personal income tax and higher taxes on things like alcohol, tobacco and gambling to provide the necessary revenue to fund services.

Aping American Style At The Bottom

We see a proliferation of American style pickup trucks or giant Utes on our roads. These symbols of masculinity, the muscle cars of their generation pretend to be working vehicles but plenty are merely recreational. Work vehicles get a tax discount and this is why we have seen this masquerade of the recreational disguised as work vehicle. The makers of Jim Bean boast that one of their American bourbon products is sold every 10 seconds in Australia. Tradies downunder embrace redneck culture in their search for an identity. The manosphere is driven by Americans and their desire for unfettered freedoms, whether they fuck over women for fun or merely ape the Tate brothers as hero worship.

The recent rise in the polls of One Nation, a fringe political party controlled by the right wing billionaire Gina Rinehart, is a further example of the working class being sucked in by the politics of grievance. Australia is always a decade or so behind the US and this could be the Aussie version of MAGA. Americans put Donald Trump back in power.

ICE Murdering Americans

Blaming shit on immigrants and refugees is a popularised far right campaign strategy globally. Elon Musk is a technocracy Nazi. What this does is galvanise the discontent felt by populations and it deflects the blame from the billionaire Epstein class, who have actually financially screwed us. Not too smart white working class voters just want someone to demonise and lash out at, as they are too gutless to take on the big end of town. Punching down is a favourite Aussie sport. The culture wars have replaced economic management, as the leading campaign strategy for those on the Right. Why? Because they are backed by the oligarchs who are exploiting our economies for their own blatant gain. Trump is all about tax breaks for the billionaires and slashing social services for the poor. Americans put Donald Trump back in power. Pauline Hanson the leader of One Nation is a big fan of Donald Trump and his policies. ICE in America have murdered Americans and created concentration camps to detain thousands of illegal immigrants. It is important to remember that legally overstaying your visa is a misdemeanour. People are being shot dead at traffic stops by ICE agents for such misdemeanours. American citizens have been murdered by ICE. Is this the ally Australia wants? Do we believe in the rule of law? The Trump regime does not. Support for One Nation and its white supremacy motivated policies will take Australia down this racially slippery slope. If you empower extremists you end up with murderous consequences.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNkwXWC_Ql8 Big Wheels, Shiny Grill & Manosphere Fantasies

“Have you seen those ads for big Utes on the telly? You know the ones where these pretty massive vehicles are encountering rugged terrain? Complete with mega sized grills, tyres and tough looking blokes at the wheel. Talk about pumping up the tyres of would-be-buyers. Pissing in the pockets of wannabe big men. Living a lie in the manosphere. Soundtrack thumping in the background and plenty of filmed stunts. I wonder if some guys are masturbating to this stuff on screen. I think back to the days of the real hard men of yesteryear, they wouldn’t be glorifying their lives like this, cause they lived them and they didn’t need to. This fantasy adventure crap is akin to dangerous wild beasts locked up in zoo cages. The closest any of these guys are gonna get to anything real.”

https://www.housetherapy.com.au/living-a-lie-in-the-manosphere/)

Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of The Stoic Golfer; The AI Heresy; What Price Life?; America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump; and other titles. NOW AVAILABLE AT APPLE BOOKS & GOOGLE PLAY BOOKS. Google Play Books AUDIOBOOK

©HouseTherapy

Have you been getting the message that machines do it better? That AI is smarter than you? Have you been replaced at work by some sort of artificial intelligence program? Digital imperialism: The new colonialism is here. Now, you get to experience what plenty of Indigenous peoples have had to deal with over the journey. The clear and present inference that you are not good enough and too dumb to matter. Your culture thrown on the scrapheap of progress and advancement. This time, however, it is humanity per se copping it in the neck via a form of Social Darwinism. Only a small group of investors matter, those who are shareholders in the Big Tech companies overlording the rest of us.

AI & The Digital Imperialism Replacement Policy Of Business

We are witnessing this digital takeover and being told it will make the world a better place. Hundreds of millions of jobs will be lost to AI and there are no plans in place to compensate anyone. Still, we are being sold that this digital imperialism is a good thing. AI will be great for productivity, according to the economists, because it will reduce labour costs. Yes, your labour returns will be lost to you. What will you do instead to feed yourself and your family? Who will buy the goods and services when most folk have lost their careers? Will humanity sit idly by as its livelihood goes down the toilet? Will you be applauding the fact that Elon Musk is a trillionaire, when you are cleaning toilets for a living, if you are lucky to get a job at all?

Digital Imperialists Serving The Interests Of Big Tech

Technology has taken over the world, as we know it. Companies are competing as to who will take the spoils. AI expenditure is in the trillions. Data centres are being built around the globe to drive the AI boom. Meanwhile, humanity is in the gloom of doomerism, as billions of people try and work out what the fuck they are going to do? Governments focus on the spin put out by the Big Tech lobbyists. We hear that AI has worked out how to talk to whales! Wow, how fantastic. Could somebody super smart tell me how I am going to live a productive and meaningful life in an economy ruled by digital imperialism? Am I expected to operate in the shadows, cleaning up after the robots and their digital masters?

Is this the life we all signed up for?

The Future Of Humanity Is Not Rosy

Digital imperialism: The new colonialism. If you are not an investor in the Big Tech show you will become a second class citizen, if a citizen anymore at all. A serf, perhaps to technofeudal lords like Musk and Zuckerberg. The divide between super rich and poor continues to widen like the expanse in outer space. Profit seeking corporations rule the roost, everywhere you look. There is no overarching human intelligence guiding things. No, only AI devised by oligarchs to serve their greed. LLM word prompt programs have no real intelligence or sentience. It is all paper thin processing of words like a parrot understands the sounds of human voice to be mimicked. Impressive tricks designed to bowl over purchasing officers in companies.

Our futures are being decided by the segmented profit motives of companies in the AI arms race. The stock market darlings of the Nasdaq.

“The wealthiest 10% of American households own roughly 90% (specifically over 93%) of the U.S. stock market, according to data from the Federal Reserve. “

- (markets.businessinsider.com) Who Bleeds? Not AI

Digital imperialism tells us that AI is smarter than you and me. That it will do a better job, more cheaply, than human labour and intelligence. This empty shell, they call artificial intelligence will lead the way. Who is our economy really about? Is it designed for a few investors or should it represent all of us fairly? Right now, it is the former not the latter. AI is already deciding who should get hired or fired at many places around the globe. AI is making crucial life and death decisions in wars. In battles involving Gaza, Lebanon and the United States in Iran. Who bleeds? AI doesn’t bleed. When you think of the Trump regime, it does not fill you full of confidence regarding leadership on this issue or any other. Trump attracts the worst of us. A conman at the helm of a superpower bereft of ideas about the sanctity of human life. A transactional real estate sales guy in way over his aged head. The future does not look rosy for humanity.

“These tools include the Gospel, an AI which automatically reviews surveillance data looking for buildings, equipment and people thought to belong to the enemy, and upon finding them, recommends bombing targets to a human analyst who may then decide whether to pass it along to the field. Another is Lavender…”

- (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI-assisted_targeting_in_the_Gaza_Strip) Are Billionaires A Good Thing?

“The rise of the billionaire class presents our societies with new challenging questions. Is it OK for private individuals to accumulate billions? Everyday people may think to themselves, I want to be able to accrue as much wealth as I can through my life, unhindered by governments. Unfortunately, the unfettered accumulation of vast wealth goes beyond simplistic equations like this. For instance, once a certain level of wealth is reached the growth of that wealth becomes exponential. Rich people make lots of money on the back of their ability to purchase assets that appreciate. Property, especially, residential property in places like Australia has been on a boom cycle of appreciation over the last 30 years. It has become the single greatest divider between rich and poor in this country.”

- (https://www.midasword.com.au/is-it-ok-for-private-individuals-to-accumulate-billions/)

Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of The Stoic Golfer; The AI Heresy; What Price Life?; America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump; and other titles. NOW AVAILABLE AT APPLE BOOKS & GOOGLE PLAY BOOKS. Google Play Books AUDIOBOOK

©MidasWord

Watching Fox Footy you cannot escape the fact that it is Melbourne-centric in its coverage. Virtually all its footy experts are based in Melbourne and they pander to the big local clubs like Collingwood, Carlton and Richmond. The AFL is really an expanded VFL and, indeed, that is how it came about. If you barrack for an interstate team, you will feel the neglect when you watch your side on Fox Footy. Channel 7 probably does a better job of having some tokenistic input via local boundary riders when covering home games for the interstate teams.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_bias_in_the_Australian_Football_League

Expansion Clubs In AFL Struggle Against The Allure Of Melbourne

Right now, we are seeing another forensic examination of the failings of the expansion club, Gold Coast Suns. That it is, somehow the fault of this interstate based club that players like Ben King and Bailey Humphrey want to go home. The elephant in the room is the never ending rapacious attitude of the Melbourne based AFL clubs wanting to poach their talent. Temptations are placed before Gold Coast players like the opportunity to regularly play at the MCG, the home of football, in front of 80, 000 adoring fans. The inference being that you have not really played AFL unless you have played for a big Melbourne club. This hangs over the interstate clubs like the sword of Damocles. Is it any wonder that it is hard to keep top talent at an expansion club starved of success and the trappings of the big Melbourne AFL clubs?  Victim blaming is popular among men, just ask their wives and girlfriends.

The Fox Footy AFL media blame the Gold Coast Suns for their inability to succeed on an uneven playing field.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lw0OIw-NV-Q AFL Is Big Business In Melbourne

Local radio stations in Melbourne thrive on AFL content. The AFL media is intensely Melbourne based. It is a fact that the AFL is really an expanded VFL. Thus, interstate clubs must struggle against the allure of Melbourne, when trying to keep their players. Now, we live in an age where million dollar AFL players are run of the mill, much like million dollar homes in our suburban streets. Speaking truth to power is a rare commodity in the AFL. The AFL controls the media around it, ensuring friendly coverage in the main. Money and power speak volumes for most involved in the feeder and associated sectors. We have the ridiculous situation of clubs like Essendon, Richmond and West Coast failing to put up AFL sides capable of competing with the rest of the competition. Talk about rewarding mediocrity. This in a billion dollar industry. This is mismanagement on a grand scale.

Melbourne-Centric Footy Competition Rewards Mediocrity

Still, we all have to put up with this crap because the AFL is really an expanded VFL competition. Suburban loyalties must be indulged for forever and a day. A decade and a half of North Melbourne being easy beats week in and week out. Percentage boosters for the final’s bound teams competing. West Coast descending to the same level over the last 7 years. Richmond cannot win games and nor can Essendon. Why is this mismanagement of playing lists allowed without there being consequences?

This Melbourne-centric faux national competition rewards mediocrity.

“It’s a brave man who bites the hand that feeds him. Adelaide Football Club chairman John Olsen and his Port Adelaide counterpart David Koch are sharpening their teeth to attack the Melbourne-based “totally Victorian-centric AFL”.

Their populist mission – that brings back the era of South Australians wanting to “Kick a Vic”  “

- (https://www.indailysa.com.au/news/archive/2021/05/14/afl-victorian-bias-true-or-false) The Commercialisation of AFL Reaches New Depths

AFL is a cash cow for the elites who play the game. Commentator David King endlessly banging on about the stars of the game. Of course, this pandering doesn’t hurt his own pay cheque, I am sure. Sponsorships and advertising in this age of corporate bookmaking on sports betting are big business. Fox Footy reminds me of the John Laws radio show of yesteryear, with its product sponsors mentioned in every second breath on every show. The claim of no ads during televised matches is wearing thin, as they flash up banner ads on the screen during the game. These bastards will do anything for a buck, it seems.

Caveman Sports Not Ideal For A Healthy Noggin

“Contact sports, in the guise of AFL or rugby, are coming under increasing scrutiny in regard to head knocks to players. The truth is that modern human beings are not designed to crash and bash into each other at speed. We have, obviously, evolved away from the need to do so in the natural world. Survival does not call for such behaviour these days and that has long been the case. It is, rather, recreational pursuits in the form of team contact sports which have become the unhealthy danger in recent years. The professionalism and commercialism within these sports have motivated players to become bigger, stronger and faster in pursuit of material rewards. The resultant clashes between these modern day gladiators are fuelling an increasing amount of brain injury diseases showing up in past and present players. Is it a situation where caveman sports have no place in a healthy life? “

- (https://wordsforweb.com.au/caveman-sports-have-no-place-in-a-healthy-life/)

Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of The Stoic Golfer; The AI Heresy; What Price Life?; America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump; and other titles. NOW AVAILABLE AT APPLE BOOKS & GOOGLE PLAY BOOKS. Google Play Books AUDIOBOOK

©WordsForWeb

You may or may not have noticed a dearth of Indigenous footy players running around in the current crop of AFL players. Indeed, you may be aware of the absence of star players like Bobby Hill from Collingwood and Tyson Stengle from the Cats. Then, there is the long running Jamarra Ugle-Hagan saga, which stretched from the Western Bulldogs to the Gold Coast Suns. What do these three things have in common? They all involve Aboriginal AFL players who were or are on lucrative long term contracts with their clubs not playing or training as required. The Aboriginal footballer problem in the AFL.

“Hill is contracted until the end of 2030 after signing a lucrative four-year extension early last year, but the Magpies are currently negotiating an exit with the small forward's manager, Anthony McConville, from Mac's Sports Promotions. The 26-year-old hasn't played a senior game since round 21 last year due to personal issues and has barely trained with the program at all this year.”

- (https://www.afl.com.au/news/1566148/we-love-this-guy-for-the-rest-of-our-lives-emotional-collingwood-magpies-coach-craig-mcrae-prepares-for-bobby-hill-to-leave-pies)

Indigenous Players In The AFL:  A Complex Issue

Now, it is easy to condemn such behaviour out of hand as not measuring up to the necessary standards. However, there are always two sides to every story and in the case of Indigenous footy players they live in a different world to most non-Indigenous folk. You may well only appreciate these fellas for their sublime silky skills out on the AFL oval but they have other parts to their lives, which many sports mad Aussies are ignorant of. As much as One Nation, would wish it so, we are not all the same. Whether you know anything about Aboriginal culture, or not, it exists. Big extended family groups, lots of poverty and related social issues affecting individuals within that clan structure. You get one fella, suddenly earning really big bucks and that puts a complexity into those interfamilial relationships.

Young Black Fellas In The AFL

Add in the fact that these are essentially young blokes and young guys often make stupid mistakes in how they go about things, no matter the colour of their skin. Lots of money, lots of family ties, lots of status within the group and a lack of understanding from footy clubs used to dealing with mainly Anglo-Aussies. You get the picture. AFL clubs are on a steep learning curve when it comes Indigenous players. We have witnessed the Hawthorn/Rioli and other Aboriginal past players have a very public falling out over their perceived treatment by coaches and the club. Alistair Clarkson and Chris Fagan both have expressed their hurt at being blamed for this apparent mistreatment. You can imagine that in the past, Anglo-Aussies used to dealing with others of their own kind may have omitted to provide the extra respect warranted by Aboriginal people.  Once again this highlights that we are not all the same and the shallow assimilative attitude of Pauline Hanson and her One Nation. The truth is that for many years Australians were brought up to see Aboriginal people as lazy and good for nothing. This has changed somewhat in recent times but people of Fagan’s vintage were schooled as such. I know because I am of that age. Victim blaming is all too common in the manosphere.

We Are A Patchwork Of Cultures Downunder

The Aboriginal footballer problem in the AFL. The world is not how you want it to be or reckon it should be. You cannot just put aside generations of neglect and indifference toward Aboriginal people and say we are all the same, One Nation is full of racist oversights. In the real world it does not work like this. The AFL is the biggest football code in Australia and a billion dollar business. Aussies of all types thrill to the fabulous feats performed on our footy fields. Aboriginal players are some of the best exponents of the game. The fact that they also come with a different bag of cultural issues has to be properly engaged with. It is not one size fits all. The problems which have emerged in the forms of Bobby Hill, Jamarra Ugle Hagan and Tyson Stengle and their absences from the game have to be understood and learnt from. It is not a case of the big wheels of the AFL just rolling over and crushing pesky non-conformists. If we want to see the best play this game, we must provide deeper care for these players who have different requirements from those white skinned kids from generations of middle class families. Australians, more generally, do not want to confront what has been done to generations of Indigenous folk and its ramifications. No, they would rather watch the footy instead.

Goodes Was Booed Out Of The Game By The Mob

I clearly remember Adam Goodes being booed by AFL fans at games. There is a carve out for sporting stars with the wrong coloured skin. They are given that special status by the mob and can be celebrated for their sublime skills on the footy field. There are caveats to that position of exultation, however, do not get political being the most important. Goodes was made Australian of the Year by the government of the day. That he would use this to call out racism was beyond the pale for the mob. Adam Goodes was booed out of the game that he loved by the unrelenting mob of white AFL fans. The AFL Commission did nothing to support Adam Goodes at the time.

“Adam Goodes has said the booing saga that overshadowed the final years of his AFL career turned the football field into a place he hated.” - https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-01/adam-goodes-reveals-mental-toll-of-booing-saga/11375004

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZGNBhy3m1Y Far Right Racists Are Bullies

The Aboriginal footballer problem in the AFL. You can sugar coat things with the best of intentions but racism beats in the breasts of too many sports loving Aussies. The apparent rise of One Nation, which clearly has a far right, white supremacist agenda is proof positive of this. White people want someone to blame and scapegoats are often those with dark coloured skin. Stupid people like to punch down, as well, rather than take on the big end of town. Picking on refugees, immigrants and Aboriginal folk is seen as easier than cashed up corporations and the power elite running the show. The blame game is close to the heart of many.

We Are Not All The Same!

“At the golf course, I all too frequently meet the monoculture rendition of what it means to be Australian. The One Nation version of it, now gaining in renewed popularity, according to some in the polls. On the tee, older blokes share a joke at the expense of anyone or anything appearing to be too different in their view. A strange name for instance or someone from outside the defined norms of their little world. It can be like returning to the school yard, where the mob picked on the outliers. In this society, you can be from somewhere else but you must assimilate by acting like a true blue Aussie. A bit like the smarter kids at school who had to act dumb to fit in with the cooler ones.”

- (https://www.golfdom.com.au/the-monoculture-rendition-of-what-it-means-to-be-australian/)

Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of The Stoic Golfer; The AI Heresy; What Price Life?; America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump; and other titles. NOW AVAILABLE AT APPLE BOOKS & GOOGLE PLAY BOOKS. Google Play Books AUDIOBOOK

Rupert Murdoch upon being questioned about Fox News and its blatant political bias defended it via these words. “It is not red or blue, it is green.” Green as in greenbacks, the American currency. Murdoch, the owner of Fox News, was telling us that the primary role of his network was to make money by exploiting the market for right wing news. The fact that Rupert Murdoch himself is a rabid supporter of right wing politics is neither here nor there, according to the billionaire businessman. I leave it to you the reader to weigh up the truthfulness of said statements. That news networks, like Fox, have left the anchoring principle of ‘objectivity’ far behind in their pursuit of viewers and advertising revenue is the real shame here. What is the point of having news platforms at all if they only tell one side of the story? It is not journalism but PR. The media and its role in our lives has been diminished by purveyors of it like Rupert Murdoch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdhvZ1yQ_nE

Legacy Media Downunder & Its Tax Avoidance

Rupert Murdoch and his News Corp own nearly all of Australia’s main newspapers, apart from Nine Fairfax’s couple of broadsheets. In addition, Murdoch has Sky News Australia, which is a local copy of Fox News in style and right wing content. News Corp is an American company and has not paid corporate tax for more than a decade in Australia. It shares this tax avoiding reality with many American multinationals operating in Australia, as they shift profits to tax havens via clever accounting tricks – which are legally permissible. This tax minimisation by multinational corporations impacts upon the Australian government’s tax revenue. In a strange twist of irony, the right wing locals who consume News Corp’s media frequently bemoan Australia’s high taxes on alcohol, tobacco and gambling. These folk also bag the ABC, despite its actual objectivity in reporting the news, decrying it as the mouthpiece of minorities like the LGBTQI community, women, greenies and groups supporting refugees. The anti-woke stance on the Right means that these things are beyond the pale for the manosphere.

The irony is that if these large multinationals actually paid the tens of billions of dollars rightfully owed as corporate profits every year the high taxation on booze, fags and bets would not be so necessary to the nation’s bottom line.

What The Media Should Be Doing?

Pauline Hanson, the One Nation leader, has banned the ABC from covering her events. This Trumpian style cancelling of actual investigative journalism is all part of the right wing playbook to avoid answering uncomfortable questions. The fourth estate should be speaking truth to power. This is the real role of the media in a functioning democratic state. Many One Nation types are unaware of what the media is there for, as it is not to tell the story they wish to tell with all the bad bits whitewashed out. How else are we the public to find out about the white collar criminals and sex offenders in their ranks? Pauline is not going to tell us. Recently, someone wealthy paid for millions of dollars’ worth of online content flooding the feeds of social media platforms promoting Pauline Hanson. Much of it was fake news. This has seen a rise in One Nation’s vote and polling around Australia. Most Aussies are none too smart about how the internet works. Few question the sources of their news online, taking stuff at face value. Thus, it makes it easy for those with deep pockets to generate groundswells based on social media promotional campaigns. Most people are getting their news via the apps on their phones. They use these things but don’t rightly understand how they work. This makes them vulnerable to scammers of all persuasions. Money is not the only thing being scammed downunder. The art of persuasion has never gone away, it just morphs into new mediums.  

The New Media Lacks Transparency

The media and its role in our lives continues to change, as we progress through the 21C. The decentralisation of media influence via social media, blogging and other online manifestations has been hailed as democratising. However, in truth, powerful elites still pull the strings via oligarchic wealth. Elon Musk bought Twitter, which became X. Billionaires fund online campaigns and bot factories, now with AI abilities. Populations around the globe consume digital content without the nous to dig into the provenance of videos, posts and blogs. Accepting stuff at face value is the inclination of the disengaged and the gullible. In Hanson’s case, like Trump before her in America, the politics of grievance are easy to exploit via digital content claiming empathy and shared rage at emotive issues. The culture wars and its anti-woke strategy functions effectively by exaggerating instances of outrage fodder. Stuff like teenage gender trans cases, despite involving a handful of individuals out of a population of 28 million, these provoke emotive outrage in many right wing folk.  DEI policies have long enraged white citizens who see them as unfairly limiting their own opportunities despite the obvious bias within the dominant white skinned cohort.

Anything that favours minorities at the perceived expense of the dominant cohort has been weaponised by right wing political parties.

DV Is A 2 Way Street According To Pauline

Pauline Hanson has recently shared with Australians her view that domestic violence is a two way street. In a nation, where a woman is murdered by her partner or former partner every week this has been called out as victim blaming by some working in this controversial sector. It can be inferred from this latest Hanson sharing that many of her supporters are men. Indeed, men who see themselves as being unfairly blamed for the violence perpetrated upon women.

There are votes to be banked in supporting the manosphere downunder. The more pressing question is, do we want real solutions for the scourge that is domestic violence in Australia or are we happy to have politicians mining the territory for votes? More grievance politics for One Nation.

Right Wing Partisan Media

The media and its role in our lives continues to provide plenty of grist for the mill. The Australia media landscape has a predominately right wing bent with Murdoch’s News Corp and the Kerry Stokes Seven West Media consistently championing the manosphere and its concerns. Channel 7 defended Ben Roberts-Smith and Bruce Lehrmann, despite their apparent guilt in both legal situations. It smelt strongly of backing the bloke against all comers no matter the cost. Again, objectivity in the media went missing in favour of partisanship.

The Roots Of The Far Right

“There is a direct line through history from raiders and enslavers to right wing politics today. The fundamental belief underpinning all of these positions is that it is OK to enrich yourself at the expense of others. Further to that, the primary focus is always on your own desires and bugger the greater community around you. The Vikings are most famous as raiders, who came to other places to slaughter and pillage. They would enslave their most saleable surviving victims to enrich themselves, even more. This attitude to life and getting ahead still exists in a tempered form for right wing folk. The belief that it is a dog eat dog world and that only the strong will thrive flourishes in far right politics today.”

- (https://wordsforweb.com.au/from-raiders-enslavers-to-right-wing-politics-today/)

Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of The Stoic Golfer; The AI Heresy; What Price Life?; America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump; and other titles. NOW AVAILABLE AT APPLE BOOKS & GOOGLE PLAY BOOKS. Google Play Books AUDIOBOOK

©WordsForWeb

There is a direct line through history from raiders and enslavers to right wing politics today. The fundamental belief underpinning all of these positions is that it is OK to enrich yourself at the expense of others. Further to that, the primary focus is always on your own desires and bugger the greater community around you. The Vikings are most famous as raiders, who came to other places to slaughter and pillage. They would enslave their most saleable surviving victims to enrich themselves, even more. This attitude to life and getting ahead still exists in a tempered form for right wing folk. The belief that it is a dog eat dog world and that only the strong will thrive flourishes in far right politics today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yBBO-XR6WI

Right Wing Politics in Trumpland

They combine this with a white supremacist view that only the pure race deserves to live in their country. We see this in Trumpland, where brown skinned Americans are being shot and killed under the guise of expelling them from the country. This in 2026, where we once thought civilisation prevailed under the rule of law. Violent thugs dressed up as masked stormtroopers are hunting down people in the streets and turning their guns upon them. Meanwhile, weak leaders in foreign nations like Australia turn a blind eye to state sponsored murder happening in their ally’s city streets. The US military has, also, illegally invaded Venezuela and been bombing Iran mercilessly for 5 months now. The bullying superpower knows no restraint.

Right Wing Sons & Daughters Of Settlers

Another invading force in history has been colonial settlers. If you asked Indigenous peoples around the world, who they fear the most, settlers would be high on their list. Australia and the Americas saw an invasion force of Europeans stealing homes and killing those who lived upon that land before them. These settlers told themselves they had God on their side and that the native people were less deserving than themselves of such a bountiful homeland. A century and more of years may have dimmed the memories of the victors, when it comes to the bloodshed and human suffering. However, the same thing goes on in Palestine today, as Israeli settlers and forces expand their apartheid state to take even more land from the original inhabitants. An extreme right wing government leads Israel and the blood price mounts every day. 70, 000 Palestinians died in Gaza from IDF bullets and bombs.

Billionaires & Right Wing Zionists

Advocates of Israel have established themselves in positions of influence in the UK, Australia and Trumpland. Zionist lawyers and billionaires both threaten and purchase favours to ensure smooth sailing for their narratives promoting the righteousness of Israel.

It has become a crime to criticise Israel in Australia and Britain, as they have cleverly conflated antisemitism with any criticism of the state of Israel.

This is a right wing political strategy, supported by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp via its many media platforms. Billionaires control the global media; and war mongering nations like Israel and Trumpland censor the news from their battlefields. Tens of thousands of Palestinian children have been killed by Israeli bombs but in white skinned states these hardly rate as human beings worthy of being counted. Right wing folk are more interested in the fortunes of their sporting teams.

Where Aristocrats Got Their Wealth From

The wealth of many aristocrats came originally from piracy and raiding. Walter Raleigh was a state sponsored pirate. Taking what you want by force. Later generations would cover up the true nature of the exploits of their ancestors. Many of these celebrated men were slavers. Christopher Columbus and the many Portuguese and Spanish colonial explorers and conquerors funded their expeditions via slavery. That these names were then written into histories and have garnered respect is more hypocrisy. Such is the world we have lived in for centuries. Right wing politicians like Trump and Hanson would have this hypocrisy perpetuated. Trump is a liar, cheat and convicted felon, but the hero of some right wing folk. These people have little interest in the truth, as they want to make up their own version of events. Their enriching end justifies the means.

The Roots Of Right Wing Politics

There is a direct line through history from raiders and enslavers to right wing politics today. The fundamental belief underpinning all of these positions is that it is OK to enrich yourself at the expense of others. Right wing folk reckon that their desires are more important than anybody elses. They have been encouraged by Republicans to see themselves as an enclave of more deserving types of Americans. They have been told that it is OK to revel in their prejudices against other different folk. That these ‘others’ are less deserving than themselves. Thus, we get hate speech flourishing online on the right wing platforms.

Rich people know that if you demonise a weaker target like refugees or immigrants it distracts from their own avarice and greed. The culture wars are all about that deflection.

Political strategists know that if you can get people to react emotively, rather than think things through, it is easier to manipulate them. Ultimately the game is all about power. It is based on a zero sum game, however, and as the circle of PLUs shrink, they will eventually come for you. 1984. The Nazis. Right wing fascists fall upon each other in the end. If you have no respect for the greater good, for diversity, then, everyone gets cannibalised in the end. Totalitarian states do not lend themselves to happy endings.

Pauline Hanson Supports Violent Far Right Thug

“All those Aussies voting One Nation and who claim they are not racists, your leader Pauline Hanson meets with far right thug, Tommy Robinson. White Australia policy aspirations are in the air, it seems. Blame all your woes upon the immigrant. The cost of living crisis has you looking around for convenient scapegoats. It is the same old story for a nation of dumb and craven folk. 30 years ago most of us knew that people like Pauline Hanson were fringe at best and nasty/dangerous at worst. That a third of some parts of Australia would vote for this racist and xenophobic political party is a sign of the times.”

- (https://wordsforweb.com.au/pauline-hanson-meets-with-far-right-thug/) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlGHsio1I38

Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of The Stoic Golfer; The AI Heresy; What Price Life?; America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump; and other titles. NOW AVAILABLE AT APPLE BOOKS & GOOGLE PLAY BOOKS. Google Play Books AUDIOBOOK

©WordsForWeb

Concerning video footage has confirmed what I suspected. Sydney Swans players are hugging and embracing each other prior to running out on the field. Now, I am all for public displays of affection at the appropriate times. Getting all lovey dovey just before  an AFL match is not that time. It sends the wrong message to the players themselves. This is not some love fest, this is a battle of wills and a physical contest of the top order. This is not the time for soft stuff. This is the wrong time for such touchy feely stuff. Hey Sydney, stop hugging and start contesting like you mean it.

No More Hugs Before A Game Swannies

Recent results are evidence of this. The Swans are not hard enough for long enough. They lack the mongrel spirit to get the job done against the most contested sides in the AFL. It is time to piss off this misguided cuddling and find some inner toughness. Embraces are for after the battle and not before. Simon Goodwin take your love boat ideas and put them away for another time. These blokes are bonded anyway, without such ancient Greek displays between warriors. Look each other in the eye and swear allegiance to the cause, but don’t get all soft before the game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1khA40_7DA These Sydney Swans Don’t Play Like Bloods

Hey Sydney, I don’t want to see another pre-match embrace prior to running down the race. Find your own inner strength and play like a banshee running wild on the plains. Hunt in packs and tackle like you fucking mean it. If I see another half arsed, armsy tackle going high and being broken by an opponent I will cry. I can’t call you the Bloods because you don’t deserve that name. You don’t play like the Bloods. Hey Sydney, stop hugging and start contesting like you mean it.

Misapplied Love Therapy At The Wrong Time

Group therapy can be transforming for individuals and teams. But there is a time and place for group therapy and physical displays of affection. Hugging can be a healing experience. Doing such stuff right before the fight of your life is not a great idea. It is sending the wrong kind of message to the players. Embracing and hugging is about slowing things down. AFL is the opposite. AFL is fast and furious. Cuddling is not. This is a misapplication of therapy. This is dumb. I come from a group therapy background. I did a lot of transformational groups over the journey. My advice is embrace each other post-game. Express your love and admiration after the contest. Timing is everything in life and football. Young footballers are impressionable and the wrong kind of therapy can be harmful, even if meant for all the best of reasons. Ditch the love stuff before the contest! Do it before its damage cruels this season.

The Swan’s Defence A Leaking Love Boat

“The Sydney Swan’s defence is a leaky boat. These defenders just don’t defend enough when it matters. Tom McCartin standing off when his player is free, resulting in goals to Adelaide. Too many Sydney defenders guarding space when they need to be on a man. AFL has forgotten what a defence is really about, as there are too many attacking players who just cannot defend. Riley Bice has zero defensive skills and he is not alone in this regard back there. The only man on man defender in the Swans backline is Will Edwards and he is a rookie. Will Edwards struggles to take a mark when it really matters. You are not going to win a premiership with this leaky boat and winning finals look beyond this team right now.”

- (https://www.golfdom.com.au/sydney-swans-defence-is-a-leaky-boat/)

Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of The Stoic Golfer; The AI Heresy; What Price Life?; America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump; and other titles. NOW AVAILABLE AT APPLE BOOKS & GOOGLE PLAY BOOKS. Google Play Books AUDIOBOOK

©GolfDom

We live in a segmented reality, where companies operate in their own little economic spheres. Sure, they are aware of markets and modify behaviours to some degree to take best advantage of these. However, these corporations do not act with any holistic responsibility to the greater good. AI is a tacit technological arms race in the competitive business world. Artificial Intelligence is fundamentally about replacing human beings with a cheaper and better machine alternative. The obvious economic downside of this is that when hundreds of millions of human jobs are replaced by AI, who is going to buy the products and services these companies produce? Many seemingly intelligent people know this but we do not see any slowing down of the AI revolution. This is due to the dangers of our disconnected world, where competing companies are only concerned with their own fortunes.

Our Leaders Are Disconnected From Caring For Us

Our governments and leaders are not addressing this obvious AI trap. They appear to be in thrall to the marketing bling of the tech lords. A well known union leader downunder has called out this by referring to the AI charge being driven by 4 billionaires and the Chinese. Are these instigators really interested primarily in the wellbeing of you and me? And in the billions of human beings about to be impacted economically around the globe? The wealth and power divide in places like the United States, where this technology has emerged from, has never been greater. The digital revolution took a dark turn a decade or so ago, perhaps around the time of the death of Steve Jobs? Since then, the spectre of technocracy and its fascist overtones have laid its enshittification hands upon our smart phones and computers.

The promise of technology has been replaced by the addictive clamour of social media, doom scrolling, and never ending subscription fees for everything. The digital mirror shows a dirty side to humanity. Greedy billionaires and craven politicians.

We Are Disconnected From Our Collective Power

Ultimately, we the people, have the economic lever to switch off the AI trap. Collectively we could decide to stop using the technology utilising AI in our lives. To turn off the economic tap funding these companies. We could take things into our own hands and stop being mindlessly driven by the allure of digital convenience. When you lose your job and others around you are similarly excised from their careers, you could take a stand. You could think to yourself it does not make sense to support those dehumanising our economies. The dangers of our disconnected world are that we do not join the obvious dots. The demise of unions has not been an accidental thing. Right wing figures and governments have purposely denigrated unions and union leaders to diminish their influence and power. Why? Because it is easier to take down individuals than a collective. Strength in numbers and all that. America always sings the praises of the individual and bags socialism relentlessly. The myth of pulling yourself up by your bootstraps is just that, a bullshit story. In reality, it is community that is more important than individual ambition. We live in communities and need each other.

Billionaires are an illustration of a sick economy and culture. They are nothing to be proud of. If one man has the wealth of hundreds of millions of people, like Elon Musk, that is an obscenity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPShWz_D2SE Brett Hemenway Falk & Gerry Tsoukalas

“If AI displaces human workers faster than the economy can reabsorb them, it risks eroding the very consumer demand firms depend on. We show that knowing this is not enough for firms to stop it. In a competitive task-based model of a transitioning economy, each firm captures the full cost saving from automation but bears only a fraction of the demand loss it creates in the product market; the rest falls on rivals. This demand externality traps rational firms in an automation arms race, displacing workers well beyond what is collectively optimal. The resulting loss harms both workers and firm owners. More competition and ``better'' AI amplify the excess; wage adjustments and free entry cannot eliminate it. Neither can capital income taxes, worker equity, universal basic income, upskilling, or Coasean bargaining. A Pigouvian automation tax can. The results suggest that policy should address not only the aftermath of AI labor displacement but also the competitive incentives that drive it.”

- (https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.20617) Your Political Leaders Will Not Save You Or Your Living

Governments and business leaders are telling us that this social dislocation and disruption is inevitable because the markets deem it to be so.

This neoliberal surrender is a callous disregard for human life and wellbeing. The entire AI phenomenon is a downgrading of us in favour of machine intelligence. It is about a small percentage of humanity benefitting economically at the expense of the rest of us. The effect will be Social Darwinism on a massive scale and if you find yourself on the wrong end of the equation – you and your loved ones are fucked! I don’t see Donald Trump shedding any tears over your misfortune. In fact, I don’t hear any governments taking any real steps to deal with the fall out. If we have any brains or guts, we will do what we can to turn off the economic taps to those driving this AI replacement of human beings policy.

AI Job Losses & How Australia Punishes The Unemployed Economically

“AI is coming for your job. As someone who has just been replaced by an automated program this is real, let me tell you. In light of this it is pertinent to remember that Australia punishes the unemployed economically. It is bipartisan policy of Australian governments to provide below the poverty line welfare payments to the unemployed. This has been going on for decades and is one of the reasons why we have a substantial number of older Australians living in poverty. These folk cannot afford to visit the dentist to get treatment because it is too expensive and dental is not included in Medicare. This in one of the wealthiest nations on earth.”

- (https://wordsforweb.com.au/australia-punishes-the-unemployed/)

Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of The Stoic Golfer; The AI Heresy; What Price Life?; America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump; and other titles. NOW AVAILABLE AT APPLE BOOKS & GOOGLE PLAY BOOKS. Google Play Books AUDIOBOOK

©WordsForWeb

The truth is that businesses use technology to hide behind it. Have you ever tried to contact Kayo after its tech fails you? Nobody is employed there to answer the phone or respond to emails, apparently. If you have ever worked for Uber you will know that its support for drivers is effectively zero. These companies hide behind their digital technology and treat customers and workers with disdain if the narrow lane of digital convenience fails. Big Tech is a con really. Elon Musk is the richest man in the world and most of his companies have never actually made any money. Big Tech gets on the government teat and sucks up tax payers’ billions like a vacuum cleaner. The digital sector is a scam and AI will be their biggest con yet.

Digital Convenience Is A Trap

The reason why technology companies are the darlings of the stock market is that they don’t pay out much of their revenue in wages to human employees. It is less than 1% in many instances, whereas in the past big corporations in the manufacturing sector paid out some 75% of their revenue in wages. On the surface this looks like a no brainer, as an improvement to the bottom line. However, if you step back and look again from afar, the forest does not look so healthy. Who is going to buy these digital services when most of the jobs are obsolete and have been taken over by AI? If you or your superannuation fund are investing in Big Tech stocks, well that is an investment in the demise of humanity, as we know it. Will we end up in a situation where governments tax their citizens and then use that money to pay for these digital services? Are we already in that position to some degree?

Big Tech Billionaire Oligarchies

We know that these big tech American corporations do not pay their fair share of tax in the nations they operate in. They avoid paying corporate tax on their revenue by shifting profits to tax havens. They get away with this reprehensible behaviour via their size and influence with despots like Trump. Nations like Australia and, even, the European Union are too afraid to take on the might of the United States. Especially, now with the unhinged military actions of the Trump regime in Iran and Venezuela, fresh in the minds of their leaders.

Enshittification & The Con Of Digital Convenience

The enshittification of the digital world continues apace, as the tech lords narrow their focus on aggrandisement. These oligarchs are in the Trump camp and are happy to advance their antidemocratic pursuit of domination and extreme wealth at the expense of the rest of us. Long gone are the benevolent smokescreens of yesteryear. They don’t give a fuck about humanity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ai-fC-2Bpo AI Is About Culling Humans

AI is, in reality, all about getting rid of the human factor from big tech. Machines to do it all mean more money and less irritating engagement with actual people. These giant corporations control the world and funnel billions to a select few. Governments have drunk the kool aid and blather on about how great AI will be for productivity and GDP. Yeah, when you sack all the workers productivity looks a lot better, but that is barely half of the equation. Stupid is as stupid does. Economists have not thought this thing through to the end game, obviously. What will the hundreds of millions of displaced workers do for a living? How will they survive? How will they find meaning in their lives? Nobody has an answer for these questions. They just duck and weave out of the way. The narrow lane of digital convenience will not house and feed the world’s population. Who will make the call on the cull? Elon Musk? Mark Zuckerberg? That weird Palantir guy? Get ready for a war between humans and machines. We will blame the useless leaders of 2026 for their failure to see what was coming. Politicians in the pockets of billionaires. Shortsightedness of epic proportions. The shitfight to end all shitfights’ is coming.  The greedy rich on the Right and the rest of us. Armageddon is coming!

Sporting The Seig Heil

“Whilst watching a documentary about Adolf Hitler it was startling to hear that he seized upon the example of cheer leaders in American sport to be incorporated into his own political rallies. A close friend of Hitlers had attended college at Harvard and was sharing the cheer leading song and explaining the phenomenon to him. Thus, the whole Seig Heil and Nazi salute is important to understanding the rise of Hitler. The crowd reactions to their Fuhrer were no accident or natural occurrence, as it was a devised and scripted propagandistic technique. Manipulating crowds at rallies became a powerful tool in the Nazi arsenal. It is shocking how quickly human beings display their herd mentality when exposed to it at events like these.”

- (https://www.housetherapy.com.au/understanding-the-rise-of-hitler/)

Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of The Stoic Golfer; The AI Heresy; What Price Life?; America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump; and other titles. NOW AVAILABLE AT APPLE BOOKS & GOOGLE PLAY BOOKS. Google Play Books AUDIOBOOK

©HouseTherapy

All those Aussies voting One Nation and who claim they are not racists, your leader Pauline Hanson meets with far right thug, Tommy Robinson. White Australia policy aspirations are in the air, it seems. Blame all your woes upon the immigrant. The cost of living crisis has you looking around for convenient scapegoats. It is the same old story for a nation of dumb and craven folk. 30 years ago most of us knew that people like Pauline Hanson were fringe at best and nasty/dangerous at worst. That a third of some parts of Australia would vote for this racist and xenophobic political party is a sign of the times.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRZ6MfydmXE

White Supremacist Pauline Hanson & Her One Nation

People have not got smarter, despite all this digital technology, quite the reverse. Dumber and nastier is the flavour of these One Nation folk. Playing the politics of grievance is the right wing way. Why have they got more brazen about their hates? Donald Trump is in the White House. It gives pissweak little people the gumption to bare their poisonous souls. Blame it on those with darker skin. They would rather follow some rabid Queenslander spouting rubbish than look for real solutions. Meanwhile, over in Trumpland they are killing Americans with the wrong coloured skin. Trump’s ICE stormtroopers are gunning down folk at traffic stops suspected of the misdemeanour of overstaying visas. Yes, it is categorised as a misdemeanour, but they are shooting them dead just the same. Pauline Hanson is a big fan of Donald Trump.

Far Right Party One Nation & Its Aussie Racist Voters

One Nation voters are all about hate and indulging their grievances. Pauline Hanson meets with far right thug, Tommy Robinson. This is what social media and the internet has brought us to. American inventions all of them, along with fast food and big corporations not paying their fair share of taxes. Do you know what makes the fast food sector possible? Low wages paid to those who work there. Uber Eats and the like? Drivers getting financially screwed by big tech. America is a land populated by rapacious scumbags like Trump. They eat their own over there. Then, they export it to places like Australia. None of these American corporations pay proper amounts of tax on the revenue they generate here.

News Corp paid zero corporate tax over the last 10 years. Uber, Google (Alphabet), Amazon, Microsoft, Meta (Facebook & Instagram), Apple, Pepsi, and the rest all avoid tax by shifting their profits to tax havens via accounting tricks. We are missing out on tens of billions of dollars every year. I don’t hear Pauline Hanson and her puppet master, Gina Rinehart, talking about this.

The One Nation Domestic Strategy

The far right political strategy manual is invariably about exploiting the politics of grievance. Dumb, fearful people are ripe to blame their frustrations on others. Identify a weaker target, like refugees and immigrants, and heap blame on them. Punching down is a favourite Aussie sport. Right wing parties never deign to attack those above them on the food chain. Billionaires and the powerful are off the menu. Big American corporations are way above their pay grade. Manipulate the hoi poloi to fight among themselves. Divide and conquer. Tommy Robinson is a nasty little far right thug in the UK, who beats up Muslims. Pauline Hanson and Karl Stefanovic, representing Aussie racists, have celebrated this racist thug. This is the real beating heart of One Nation and far right politics downunder. 10 million Germans joined the Nazi Party during Adolf Hitler’s time. Women used to scream with excitement when the Hitler motorcade went past, like what happened with the Beatles a couple of decades later. Many women talked about Adolf’s big blue eyes and his charisma. Idealogues who aren’t troubled about hurting others are dangerous people. Stephen Miller in Trumpland and the murders of Americans he has instigated.

Racial purity is a foul thing. A bullshit idea disproved by geneticists.

Still, it grabs the attention of dumb f**** looking for others to blame for their own failures. Show me a One Nation voter and I will show you someone with a bone to pick and an axe to grind. Losers in love and life, most often, and looking to outsource all responsibility for their transgressions. Pauline Hanson meets with far right thug.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOFgpPxlAOc The Politics Of Hate

“You know a lot of the apparent support for One Nation comes from older white Australians. Pauline Hanson and her campaign machine promote the idea that things were better back in the day. This right wing idealisation of the past, of there being some sort of golden age, is nothing new. Fascists in Hitler’s era promoted the concept of the pure German who lived during a bucolic time of yesteryear. Romanticising the past appeals to older folk especially. Contrasting it with the present and focusing on negative stuff like urban crime and demonising special interest groups plays well with this audience. Hitler and the Nazis attacked the immorality of the Weimar Republic, which won them electoral support from conservative Germans. Pauline Hanson attacks Muslims, refugees and immigrants, as all things bad for Australia. The idealisation of the past is a never land, in that it never really existed the way they say it did.”

- (https://wordsforweb.com.au/the-idealisation-of-the-past-is-a-never-land/)

Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of The Stoic Golfer; The AI Heresy; What Price Life?; America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump; and other titles. NOW AVAILABLE AT APPLE BOOKS & GOOGLE PLAY BOOKS. Google Play Books AUDIOBOOK

©WordsForWeb

AFL commentator David King blows hard over the stars of the game. King rhapsodises about these star factor players in his puff pieces masquerading as expert punditry. It is akin to the lead singer of a pop band getting all the acclaim, as the media ignores the rest of the musical group. Of course, without the bass and drums there is no band. Likewise, without the other footballers in the team there is no winning combination. Focusing on individuals is what PR machines and the media always do, it is the easy option when telling stories. It is not the real story though. It is one of the reasons why America is in the shit right now, with a lying, cheating king called Trump running the show. AFL is a team game not an individual pursuit.

AFL Stars Don’t Shine Without Their Team Mates

I turn to the example of the Sydney Swans AFL team. Here is a side with some serious cream sitting at the top of its list. Isaac Heeney, Chad Warner, Errol Gulden, Brodie Grundy, Nick Blakey and co are terrifically talented AFL players. What happens, however, when a team is built around such high end star factor and that quality gets injured or goes out of form? What if too many of the lesser lights, the role players, aren’t up to it? You end up with players losing contests to their opposition and being uncompetitive when it matters. 23 players now fill the game day roster; and the real deal sides that go all the way are those with enough buy in and talent to fill all the seats on the train. Coaching great Paul Roos used to talk about the bottom 6 players on your playing roster deciding who wins grand finals. Footy is a team game and David King would be well advised to remember that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uu852BXQc5Y AFL Teams Relying On Stars Are Vulnerable To Counter Measures

If you are an AFL side relying on your high end talent to get the job done every week, you are vulnerable on this basis. Hard taggers doing shutdown roles on your Heeney and Warner can block that advantage. Injuries, fair or otherwise in origin, can likewise reduce that advantage further. If your team has grown used to being lifted over the line by the star factor, then it builds weakness in the other members of the side. Bad habits emerge, like relying on the superstars to make things happen. The Sydney Swans are looking, very much, like an AFL side in this invidious position currently.

It is like technology, bloody marvellous when it’s working. Not so great when it doesn’t!

A Champion Team Beats A Side With A Few Stars

AFL is a team game not an individual pursuit. The PR machines, sponsors, advertisers, betting companies and the media wont to emphasise the stars. They are invested in them. The collective will ultimately win out over individual brilliance. David King gets paid by those invested in telling a different story. ‘A champion team will defeat a team of champions’, so the old saying goes. If you want to pick a premiership winner identify those sides with that approach and makeup. Brisbane, obviously, have a coach who builds that team confidence over everything else. Hawthorn looks to be the collective with the best team credentials to challenge. These sides have stars, obviously, but the full 23 bleed to win and have that belief on the day.

Tell Us Something We Don’t Already Know & Can See

Every AFL side drafts and recruits to get the best players it can. A Buddy Franklin puts bums on seats in the grandstands at the ground. We all like to watch the very best go about their work on the field. The clubs themselves and the AFL are the firmament in which these stars can shine. Without it they have no arena to do battle. LIV Golf bought the stars of golf and overpaid a thousand fold to do so. This damaged the game itself and probably wrecked the careers of golfers like Cam Smith and others in the process. They might be rich but have lost something else along the way. Now, LIV Golf has choked on its own hubris and collapsed in ignominy. No individual player is bigger than his club or the AFL. David King in his loud ‘mansplaining’  way would do well to remember that. Banging on about the stars of the game is lazy journalism. It is PR masquerading as punditry. He is not alone in this, as other voices in the media follow his lead. The stars can tell their own story on the field and we have eyes to see their wondrous exploits.

We do not need the Greek chorus to endlessly repeat their feats in an echo chamber on radio and TV.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=527zR-G-6Zo Hitler’s Little Dick

“Scientists have revealed the genome of Adolf Hitler, the most reviled man in modern history. Hitler is likely to have had Kallmann syndrome, which points to a micro-penis in his pants. It begs the question did Hitler’s small penis cost millions of lives? How so? The association between physical deformities and killers is well established in criminology studies. The burden of not measuring up in that most sensitive of areas would, in all likelihood, spur a lifetime of resentment. All that angry oration, Hitler was famous for, speaks of overcompensation.”

- (https://www.midasword.com.au/did-hitlers-small-penis-cost-millions-of-lives/)

Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of The Stoic Golfer; The AI Heresy; What Price Life?; America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump; and other titles. NOW AVAILABLE AT APPLE BOOKS & GOOGLE PLAY BOOKS. Google Play Books AUDIOBOOK

The Sydney Swan’s defence is a leaky boat. These defenders just don’t defend enough when it matters. Tom McCartin standing off when his player is free, resulting in goals to Adelaide. Too many Sydney defenders guarding space when they need to be on a man. AFL has forgotten what a defence is really about, as there are too many attacking players who just cannot defend. Riley Bice has zero defensive skills and he is not alone in this regard back there. The only man on man defender in the Swans backline is Will Edwards and he is a rookie. Will Edwards struggles to take a mark when it really matters. You are not going to win a premiership with this leaky boat and winning finals look beyond this team right now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjBd5XAKqH4

Swan’s Lack Of Grit Sinks Hopes Of Victory

Sydney lack gritty players. The transfer of Luke Parker to North Melbourne has seen the demise of this type of player at the Swans. Have a look at the body types prevalent throughout this AFL side. They all look like long distance runners. The sports science department has taken over the game of AFL. Apart from Isaac Heeney and James Rowbottom there are no hard stocky body types in the squad, it seems. Angus Sheldrick is a nuggety type but he did not measure up against the Crows in this fight on this night. Adelaide outmuscled and outperformed Sydney all night. They won contest after contest. Sydney players were second to the ball all evening. Too many downhill skiers like Jake Lloyd, Matt Rosas and others who cannot handle the heat.

“ADELAIDE has stunned Sydney on a soggy Friday night at the SCG, fending off a late fightback to win by 16 points and shatter the Swans' unbeaten home streak. The Swans reeled back in the Crows’ game-high 27-point lead in the second term but were unable to run over the visitor as they took a 10.11 (71) to 13.9 (87) victory.”

- (https://www.afl.com.au/news/1561993/match-report-sydney-swans-v-adelaide-crows) Highlights In Hairdos But Few On The Field For Sydney

Some of the Swan’s boys visited the Paddington hair salons and let loose on the peroxide bottle. New hairdos are exciting; but I wish they had the same fervour for winning games of football by putting everything on the line. The whole team needs to develop  a bit of mongrel about them. The Swans lack true grit big time. You cannot trust this group when the pressure is on them. Dean Cox must wonder about the character of some of these guys. Errol Gulden had his worst outing since coming back from a long layoff. Heeney cannot carry this side on his lonesome. Charlie Curnow had a shocker. Ineffective tackling plagues the Swans like a virus. Broken tackles mount up in numbers like infected folk in a pandemic. Hayden McLean has not taken a contested mark for a fortnight and tackles like a man half his size, if at all. Are the pressures of a modern metrosexual world undermining these once suburban and country lads now living in a big city? The Adelaide Crows were harder at it for longer and wanted it more.

The Good Among The 23 On The Night At The SCG

The really good players on the night were Chad Warner and Braeden Campbell in his return game in 2026. Both Swans’ were exciting and broke the lines frequently. Tom Papley was brilliant up forward kicking four goals. Paps was the fire starter even on this wet night of football at the SCG. Nick Blakey was great off half back, as per his usual high standards. Jai Serong and Brodie Grundy tried hard all night but were not quite at their best. Matt Roberts was pretty darn good for four quarters too. James Rowbottom was huge in the second half kicking goals and tackling like a machine. I wonder why other Sydney players cannot apply themselves defensively like Rowbottom? Are they too afraid of getting their hands dirty?

Signs Indicate Swans Down On Confidence

You know when the Swans team are down on confidence, because they cannot take marks under pressure. Brodie Grundy needs to take more marks around the ground. A lack of aerial presence and missed shots at goals tell us, psychologically, that these players lack belief! Curnow missed repeatedly and failed to kick a goal all night. McDonald missed his first opportunity in front of the big sticks. ADELAIDE, IN CONTRAST, KICKED THEM EASILY! Especially, in that opening quarter, where it seemed apparent that the home team were still thinking about their hairdos rather than the defending. It was a f****** disgrace! Getting absolutely belted by the Dockers in that second half has left a few scars, obviously. The Sydney Swan’s defence is a leaky boat and few players can swim by the looks of things. Will this be yet another wasted season, where the red and whites cannot fulfill their destiny? Talent of the few cannot defeat the belief of an entire committed team. This was apparent against Adelaide on a wet SCG night.

Lightweight Running Defenders Cannot Get The Job Done For Sydney

Why is the Sydney Swan’s defence a leaky boat? There are too many attacking players down there and too few real defenders. Nick Blakey is a star and a great attacking half back. Riley Bice is a similar style of player but without the defensive skills or inclination. Tom McCartin is a wonderful footballer but plays both roles in defence and, therefore, gets caught out too often. Dane Rampe is getting long in the tooth and cannot handle the lockdown roles he used to. Callum Mills is not big enough to take on the big dogs. Will Edwards is a rookie. Harry Cunningham is another getting on in years and copped a swinging arm from Fogarty to go down with concussion. The Sydney defender body types back there are too lightweight. Riley Thilthorpe and Fogarty were too big and strong for the Swan’s defence on the night. The Dockers made mincemeat of them the week before. I cannot see Sydney winning finals with the current lineup and defensive mindset. Mark McVeigh is the current defensive line coach at the Swans.

https://www.sydneyswans.com.au/afl/coaches

Downhill Skiers??????

“The accusations are coming quick and hot – ‘they can’t win the premiership!’ ‘Swans just not good enough!’ The Sydney Swans’ downhill skiers. Too many players running ahead looking for the easy option rather than winning contests. For the first 7 games of the 2026 season Sydney had this aggressive forward handpassing, which was tearing opposition sides apart. Now, according to the loud mouthed ‘so-called’ experts, those opposing teams have worked out how to stop the juggernaut. The Sydney Swans have struggled to beat ordinary AFL sides of late and are losing to the real contenders, Hawthorn, Geelong and Brisbane.”

- (https://www.golfdom.com.au/the-sydney-swans-downhill-skiers/)

Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of The Stoic Golfer; The AI Heresy; What Price Life?; America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump; and other titles. NOW AVAILABLE AT APPLE BOOKS & GOOGLE PLAY BOOKS. Google Play Books AUDIOBOOK

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