Influence, Wealth and Power

There are both vocal supporters and vocal opponents of carbon capture and storage, and there are arguments for both sides. This page goes beyond reporting on how carbon capture and storage fails to make current 'blue hydrogen' projects sustainable, and looks at the underlying principle that dictates why carbon capture and storage, despite having genuine valuable applications, can never enable 'blue hydrogen' to be environmentally sustainable, but is so popular politically.

Around the world, many countries have both a battle with equality for some racial groups and minorities and also a battle with crime-rates within and by those same groups. Should we consider crime rates the real sentinels of problems and a solution require focusing on factors behind crime rates? Or is the correct response to rising crime rates or crime rates within specific groups an adoption of being "tough on crime", thus increasing rates of incarceration and even deaths in custody for oppressed minorities and racial groups? This is an exploration of not adjusting the level of penalties and instead focusing on the core issues and inequalities behind crime-rates. It is clear that it is "damaged people" in general rather than specific racial groups that correlate with elevated crime rates, so why not use crime rates to identify who is facing inequality?

A quick internet search with the keywords 'lead crime' in the search bar will reveal many articles which all propose that lead pollution in the air caused a dramatic increase in violent crime. Any victim of violent crime in affected locations has a right to feel disturbed by this, but what about perpetrators of violent crime, and should society share the guilt?

There is no universally agreed definition of either race or racism, with no clear agreement on whether race is real or not, and there is more agreement on the reality of racism, there is less on exactly what constitutes racism. This is a look at both the concept of race, and what it means to be racist.

It was a reference to the wonderful children's politician's fairy tale of 'trickle down economics' that started me on the question: How do the wealthy get wealthy? The answer is by collecting wealth from many people, the more people contributing wealth, the more wealth to be gained. The effective path to great wealth is farming humans to collect a small amount of wealth from each human 'in the farm'.

Its the economy stupid. Voters want the best economic outcome, but by measuring the economy using 'Economic Activity', governments can effectively cheat the public. In many western societies, instead of maximum prosperity, governments often pursue maximum economic activity, which benefits big business and governments, but can result in an economy which in theory is going well, while at the same time individuals fall behind. This is the kind of economic policy makes frustrated voters turn to Trump and Brexit.

From "the biggest corruption scandal ever" in Brazil, problems in Venezuela, human rights in Saudi Arabia and Iran, to the problems caused by lobbyists against action on climate change, an abundance of fossil fuels is a source of political power, yet rarely force for good, and Australia, with a wealth of coal and gas, is not spared. The current crisis in Ukraine not only drives up energy prices globally, but it also creates a dilemma for gas producing nations.

The powerful and the wealthy argue that increasing population is good for the economy. But while, the larger the population, the greater the power in being leader of the population, if anything this leads to less individual wealth and happiness. Countries are a finite size with finite resources. More people means, on average, a smaller share each. Of course, everyone's share isn't equal, and those with enough wealth, can still even grow their share, leaving less for everyone else. It is not just politicians who benefit at the expense of the masses, as the larger the population, the greater the wealth of the most wealthy, and the more revenue to monopolies and the largest businesses on the stock indices.

What if Russia and China both intended that the invasion of Ukraine would trigger global inflation and food shortages, and a potentially new financial crisis? That Putin sees himself in the image of Peter the Great and restoring the Russian empire is no secret, and is generally portrayed as evidence that Putin has completely lost the plot. But what if there is a bigger plan involving both Russia and China that starts with triggering a global financial crisis? A dangerous game by two desperate leaders needing to bring others with them as their own economies collapse.

When it dawned on me that global economy is effectively a Ponzi scheme, it felt was a 'light bulb' moment'.  But has anyone else seen this?  I did an internet search and was not surprised to find that it has, indeed, dawned on many others as well. If you do a search, as I did, you will find many insights into this topic and that there are several different ways the global economy can be seen as a Ponzi scheme. Scary!

Was Feb 24th, the start of WWIII? Is it a world war of sanctions, troops and tanks, or nuclear? NATO, and specifically the US, seem to feel the risk of WWIII is so real, that they refuse Ukraine any assistance that could defeat Putin's forces and anger him further. Their hope seems to be "let him win on the battlefield but lose through sanctions".

Putin taking on 'the whole salami' in Ukraine, has advanced the world to a crisis with two potential outcomes: The invasion stalls long enough for Putin to lose power in Russia, leading to an end to expansionism not just in Russia, but most likely also improving the worlds relationship with China.The invasion succeeds, showing the response of nations as powerless in response to aggression, greenlighting a path that could lead to an extension of age of tyrants, and potentially WWIII.

Democracy is under threat, and a significant part of the problem stems for the distortion of the current model of 'opposition'. While the politics of division and polarisation of the USA Trump republicans vs Biden democrats attracts most attention on the world stage right now, what happens in Australia following the recent election which saw democracy strike back (page coming soon), has the potential to provide the world with an alternate blueprint for the role of the opposition party, which could reinvigorate democracy and spread to the US and elsewhere. Is there an alternative to the current Republicans vs Democrats style, where 'opposition' is about each party demonising the other?

I recently watched an episode of "Comedians in cars getting coffee",(C6:E4 11:55) where Ricky Gervais has a photo of Hitler as a baby. And relates, "I talk about sci-fi, and I always go back and kill Hitler". And I go, I go, they go "well people tried all the time", and they go "No I'd go back and kill him as a baby". I go, "You'd go back, and kill baby Hitler, who hasn't done anything wrong yet, and just strangle him? Have you seen Hitler as a baby" and I pull out this photo and I go "He was adorable".

The internet was heralded as providing ‘disintermediation’, enabling everyone able to connect with everyone else directly. Yet, somehow, gatekeepers have emerged, controlling the ability to connect, and in many cases the potential to extort revenues for connecting people, with these additional additional fees resulting in increased prices and resultant inflation. Do we risk having legalised […]

Economic growth. The holy grail of ensuring a prosperous society. Or is it, that, in the 21st century, increasingly economic growth could mean as few as just the wealthiest 1% get richer, while all others get poorer? Economic Growth: Is Economic Growth The Holy Grail, Or Is Its Desirability A Myth? Two sources of myth […]

This is an an examination of the roles of employment in society. This a reference page as background to deeper explorations on the impact or robotics, the arguments for a 'living wage' or basic income, and other topics.

Job Terminators? There is a virtual barrage of reports warning that robots and automation could displace 40% to  50% of the workforce in the next few decades. During the almost 300 years of the growth age, new jobs have emerged to take the place of those replaced by automation.  Will this continue, or as many […]

From a variety of media reports, I had the impression that Bloomberg first held off entering the nomination race because as long as Joe Biden had it covered. But now, Bloomberg could emerge as assisting Bernie Sanders to defeat Job Biden.

Yes, another post on finances…but the Democrat candidates debate gets one thinking….now to the point. I do not like the idea of wealth tax. There is an enormous wealth inequality problem and while a wealth tax sounds like a direct solution, I feel there are problems with any implementation, such that there just must be […]

Most of us have heard of confirmation bias. Opportune arguments are like a weaponisation of Chinese whispers, where the message is intentionally changed before being passed on, with the goal of using peoples confirmation bias as a path through their defences. Start with a message accepted through confirmation bias by a person with one set of beliefs, but add a twist designed to cross belief systems. But who is being manipulated, those promoting the new message, or those receiving it?

War relies upon both sides feeling the other side are the "bad guys" The invasion of Ukraine has reached a point where Ukraine has defeated Putin in the global PR war, labelling Putin and the invaders the "bad guys", and requiring Putin to escalate measures to try to ensure the new does not spread to much in Russia, and in the military. Meanwhile, there is still a physical invasion war going on, and as Putin's desperation to hide reality increases, so will the resulting devastation.

There was a news story recently, and I wondered , “if this is reported in other countries, how is it reported?”.  In other words, how would the story look from a different perspective. I tried setting my google search to another country, and searching to see what would result. In fact I tried different search […]

Is there such a thing as freewill? Aren't we just complex chemical reactions where the results of the reaction are entirely determined by the ingredients?

Obama is currently a ‘lame duck’ president with a hostile senate, and approval rating that suggests a likely hood the next US president may well be a republican. In Australia when the less conservative party took a position to take steps to address climate change, it became a call to arms for conseratives opposed to […]

The labels ‘left’ and ‘right’ date back to French Revolution in 1789, but that history hardly conveys what the terms mean today. This post reviews that original concept and history, and looks further into how the concepts have evolved into todays positions of ‘left’ and ‘right’. This post starts discussion on how the concepts apply […]

The republicans in the senate have a clear motive for wanting a new supreme court judge appointed before the election, but with Donald Trump the motivation is not quite as clear. This page contemplates the possible motives of Donald Trump for his rush to appoint a new judge to the high court prior to the […]

The recent G20 wrapped up with a commitment to target economic growth level for the G20 of 2.1% by 2018. Global population grwoth is over 1.1% so this means the worlds richest countries will be getting richer by just over 1% avove population increase per annum by 2018.  Is there any suggestion that this addional […]

I have heard repeated media statements on how ISIS/ISIL managed to recruit young Sunni Muslims from around the world to join their cause.  It has been stated that society must reach out to the Muslim community to stop these young men being recruited from their midst. Certainly these recruits from around the world join the […]

The Australian Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, announced a ‘bold’ decision to award an Australian knighthood to the husband to the Queen of England, Prince Philip. I will provide background for the world majority with zero exposure to Australia’s relationship to the British royal family, but Australia ceased awarding knighthoods in 1986 as part of a […]

On Monday September 15th, Malcolm Turnbull replaced Prime Minister Tony Abbott as the leader of the liberal party, ensuring Malcolm Turnbull would become the fifth prime minister (or head of government) of Australia within five years. This post looks at how this seemingly crazy frequency of change actually takes place, the underlying ‘crisis’ and implications […]

The relationship between fear and hate. There are three immediate responses to fear:  Fight, Flight and Freeze.  In the longer term these correspond to : ‘active hate’, avoidance or ‘passive hate’ with ‘freeze’ being an immediate response with no long term result. To hate is to either to wish to avoid the source of fear, […]

The Australian prime minister (Malcolm Turnbull) was interviewed on the ABC program ‘7:30’ answering questions on government policy regarding tax concessions for real estate investments.  The Prime Minister spoke of the need to retain a specific tax concession because reducing the concession would reduce demand, and to reduce demand would result in lower prices.  The […]

Last night, the Australian Government announced a new budget.  Many of the stated premises of the budget seemly clearly out of touch with the current reality.  Either the government is unaware of the current reality, or the government is not being completely open with the electorate.

I suggest there are two key points in common between the nomination of Donald Trump as the republican candidate, and the ‘Brexit’ vote in the United Kingdom: the failure of our economic system to deliver distribute of increased economic wealth a backlash against immigration Economics. The first point is that we have created a disconnect […]

Red or Blue?  What will the litmus indicate in the Australian election just one week in the aftermath of the stunning ‘Brexit’ outcome? It could be argued that the ‘Brexit’ result will play to whichever party best manages to leverage the angle presented to them. The players and positions. Liberals Position: Strong and Steady. This […]

The proposal that Asad used chemical weapons in order to kill Syrians depends on the following steps, from the almost certain through steps with less and less certainty it was chemical weapons that were really to blame for deaths in the recent attack chemical weapons were in fact launched by forces supporting Assad, and not […]

What are these competing ideologies, and why do they clash? This page is the exploration of the what and the why of the left and the right. I expect to keep revisiting and updating this topic, as it seems too deep to fully analysis in one attempt. In particular interest to me is the question: […]

This is an amazing diplomatic saga, that just could have an impact on the world political balance. Background. The Main Event. Round 1: Recalled Ambassadors. Round 2: Biden to Macron, “I was under the impression you had been told”. Round 3: Macron, “I don’t think, I know [Scott Morrison Lied]” . Round 4: Morrison: Denials […]

As the youtube video to the right demonstrates, I am certainly not the first person to see similarities between Trump and Voldemort. In my case, the focus is on how and why they attract followers, or “coup eaters”, the Trump equivalent to “death eaters”, and the consequences of a possible return. The Plot Of Trump […]

The world has reached peak child, and is headed towards peak population. Many economic metrics collapse between peak child and peak population, resulting in bear stock markets and even collapses, all if the real economy and outside their investment portfolios, most people are relatively unaffected. Economic Ponzi Scheme Metrics. Peak Child and National Economies. Market […]

The whole “my body my choice” is perfect for polarisation, as you can be outraged because: People are being forced into medical choices for their own bodies. or People are making selfish choices that can cause harm to can harm others. Whatever you believe, “my body my choice” drives polarisation. I will look into each […]

A key pillar to democracy is the establishment and availability of truth. Today, the establishment of truth is under question, and the availability of truth can be swamped by the availability of “alternate truths” based on “alternative facts”, creating what has been judged by the academy of sciences, to be a threat on the same […]

Update: This was written prior to the escalation of events with the Australian Government escalating things by cancelling his visa. That update is now on the Djokovic PR story page, while this page will focus on the overall story of Djokovic and his image. Both pages will be updated after the events of the Australian […]

Overview. There are No Heroes: Morrison – Djokovic. The Timeline. Overview. Novak Djokovic had committed a nightmare public relations mistake, appearing to gloat at having managed an exemption from the vaccination requirements for the Australian Open tennis tournament. Not necessarily a crowd favourite to begin with, Djokovic’s public announcement of the exemption that he had […]

A friend was commenting on how her employer, a major ‘blue-chip’ employer, was transforming the workplace.  The shift in emphasis is  to less work needing to take place in the office, and more provision for people to work from home.  The direction it is heading is for people only to attend the office for scheduled […]

Initially, it seems the tech industry is just dumb. You could think: “So they get me to watch adds, and they collect my data. It is not like letting them collect my data is going to cost me anything! It is not like Facebook, Google, Instagram, WhatsApp etc have some way of getting their hands […]

The US has an election this November, with the possibility of the winner being decided by the US congress, and not by the election itself. I am even going to suggest this is the most likely of all outcomes. How this is even possible, as well as how each outcome would change the world is […]

It is almost certain Trump will hold the lead in votes counted at the end of the night on November 3. While it is possible that Trump could still hold the lead once all votes are counted, Trump is extremely unlikely take the risk that will eventuate and will instead launch legal challenges to the […]

As I said yesterday, it is almost certain Trump will hold the lead based on votes counted at the end of the night on November 3. While it is possible that, were Trump to wait until the end of the vote count, Trump would still be in the lead, it seems less and less likely […]

Posted 2020-Nov-4 9:58am UTC As expected Trump effectively declared victory on election night, and has stated there will now be legal action call the election at the current point. Also as expect the vote was tight, and Trump does, again as predicted, hold the lead on the basis of votes counted so far, but is […]

Posted 2020-Nov-5 6:07am UTC (midnight Nov 4 US Eastern Time) Updated: There have been two big surprises on and following election day. The first, is how precisely election results have been in line with predictions: as predicted, Trump would narrowly lead on election night based on counted votes as predicted, Trump would declare victory on […]

The whole 2020 US Election scenario was extremely predictable. That is because it was predictable there would be states with an early count favouring Trump, even when the majority of the state voted for Biden. This ‘flip’ happens all the time. Imagine people in a large hall. The master of ceremonies asks ‘all those who […]

The US election is not officially declared. At least two days after even to me, it was clear the result would be around 306-232, there is still some uncertainty. Here in Australia, all 5 free to air Television networks had at least one digital channel focus on the US election on election day. I will […]

I know. There are a lot of claims that Trump “lies all the time”. But consider for a moment, what if Trump is not lying? What if he actually believes the things he says? More specifically, if you read all there is in this post, could you be forgiven for believing in many ways Trump […]

Three new chapters of the story playing out: Partisan reactions to Trump call Georgia Sec of State Georgia Senate Elections The Presidential Confirmation Soap Opera On display is the huge disconnect between sides, and in general a lack of ‘theory of mind’.  Theory of mind as a personal capability is the understanding that others have beliefs, desires, intentions, and perspectives that are […]

Several issues related the events of this day highlight system failures for either the US, or in some cases, the entire globe ( I will update this page over the next few days). Recap 25th Amendment: Fail Impeachment? Social Medial: Fail Blame Protesters: Fail Biden Response: Fail Romney: Not a Fail Recap On Jan 6th, […]

Tennis. Not something I normally bother to commit thoughts on, but there is a surprise in tennis sufficiently intriguing that I am creating a page to track. This a story of how someone of amazing ability, can exist in obscurity, most likely in this case due to hurdles created by their own mind. Right now […]

Web searches give results tailored to you. Haver you ever wonder what other people see? Search Services Exist To Earn Money, And Show What They Want You To See. The Revenues Come From Providing ‘Tweaked’ and Biased Search Results and Information. Incognito or otherwise: Personalised Search Results (with bias) = Maximum revenue. Does the bias […]

After a long history resisting action on climate change, the Australian government finally 'committed' to net zero by 2050, and then did an about face from their previous 'anti-EV' stance and announced support for electric vehicles. Or did they?

The USA does have a real problem. Donald Trump has a campaign slogan ‘Make America Great Again’.  So has America stopped being great?  The USA has changed from a country where most people saw their incomes increasing and saw themselves getting richer, to a country where most now see themselves getting poorer.  For people seeing […]

There are claims that a range of web sites such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and even Google search, can be addictive and harmful in a number of ways, so I set out to explore the topic. The findings include the potential to brainwash an entire generation to become controlled by the AI behind social media, […]

Of all the developed countries, Australia has the poorest standing on climate. Bas Eickhout: Dutch Parliament Delegation leader (via CNN) .

There is conventional wisdom: too many cups of coffee can be bad for you. There are also, a surprising number of of extremely rigorous reports confirming a certain number of cups of coffee per day may be a good thing. What is most often missing is the definition of ‘a cup’. How big is ‘a […]

There are at least four conflicting perspectives to population growth. Continued population growth is an economic requirement, is the optimum path for economic prosperity, and therefore must continue indefinitely. Global population will peak at approximately 9 billion around 2050 (official UN projection according to wikipedia page at time of writing), or at most around 11 […]

My suggestion in my future population posts is that population growth has a greater effect on economic indicators than on real wealth of citizens.  Here is an attempt to look at the economic impact of population growth, and what factors are real and identify any cases where indicators are positive beyond any real economic benefits. […]

Since Facebook launched and entered the influence industry, they have been running what sounds like a deal almost ‘too good to be true’. Using Facebook, you can have your own place on the web, completely for free. While there are many, many, organisations that will host your web site for a price, Facebook will host […]

I am not actually a fan of Donald Trump in the role of President of the USA. However I do feel there are lessons to be learnt from the fact that Trump won an election to be president of the USA, and I worry that neither the democratic party in the USA, nor the world […]

With the support of both Republicans and Democrats The Google/Facebook and fake news vs the press continues. I thought I would open a place to keep track of any further progress in the press vs influence industry battle. I will update this page as the story evolves and new info comes to hand. Ciciline’s bill, […]

I recently explored thoughts on ‘should Facebook own the internet‘, and as I further explore, I thought that while much of what I posted also applies to Google, Google deserved their own post. Both Google and Facebook earn their revenue as ‘persuaders’, so it comes as no surprise that Google and Facebook have both tried […]

The wealth differential is increasing not just between rich and poor individuals, by in the corporate world as well.  I have been thinking about the increasing trend towards monopolies and the problems with modern government structure and monopolies. Starting with some thoughts on the background, and then why monopolies may be on the increase. The […]

Summary: Most of us now live under ‘finite world economics’, where population growth results in a smaller share of wealth for each individual and the majority of the population, but increased revenues for Governments, nationwide businesses and multinationals who gain revenue from the entire population.  The rich win, the rest suffer. The now finite World […]

The Wikipedia article on Wealth inequality in the United States describes wealth inequality as a problem almost every would like to see reduced. Yet wealth inequality is increasing, not decreasing. What gives? Is humanity unable to address this problem? Or is will to address the problem not as universal at it might appear? Either consensus […]

Formulae | Terms | Implications | Finite World The formulae: Annual-wealth-created = total-work-done + asset-wealth-accessed Total-work-done = average-personal-productivity * population Per-capita-wealth  =  average-personal-productivity  + (asset-wealth-accessed / population) Asset-wealth-accessed = accrued-wealth + natural wealth-accessed The Terms Total Wealth. The total wealth is simply the wealth of the society overall.  The sum of the wealth that is […]

I live a society that worships sport and ‘sporting achievement’ almost as a religion. Sporting stars are some of the highest paid people in a society where these same sporting stars are regarded as ‘role models’ for youth. The obsessions with sport worries me. But do not get me wrong, I watch the Olympics and […]

The ‘old boys network’ is real, and that is one key reason and many ethnic groups are unrepresented in positions of power and influence. 1: But why is this so? And 2: how do we change things?

I was reading a news article today a comment on how Venus Williams has been a tireless campaigner for women in sport:  It made me contemplate how equality in sport may actually be counter productive towards achieving gender equality overall.

Just as it seems Pete Buttigieg may have won Iowa, I read that polls show many Americans believe the country is not ready for a gay president. There are even stories of a voter wishing to change their vote after learning that ‘Mayor Pete’ was gay. However, there has also been suggestions voters are also […]

My definition of tribalism: Part of the nature of humanity that leads us to support those from the group we identify with, over those from other groups. Most people watching an event at the Olympic games will support the contestant from their own country over those from other countries, even when they had not previously […]

The truth is there is no such thing as ‘free education’. There is always a cost so someone must pay, and the question is “who pays?”.  The choice is between ‘society pays’ (free?) and ‘user pays’. At first, the economic rationalist argument  “why should society pay for the university education of the elite?” appears compelling, […]

It was recently claimed by the opposition party in Australia, that Australia is now in ‘Per Capita Recession‘. A response from the Prime Minister stated that there was no such recognised economic term, implying that the figures underpinning a ‘Per Capita Recession’ are of no real consequence. A recession is two quarters of negative GDP […]

Donald Trump personifies the a populist right leader. This post looks at what this means and how this movement can be so at odds with other ‘conservatives’. The Origin of The Conservative Right. The basic origin of ‘left and right‘ in politics can from the wealthy and powerful being to seated to the right and […]

Populist Coup has begun. Will the Coup really have impact beyond Australia? How? The Judgment of Solomon Populist Coup has Begun Today Australia took a key step in an inevitable seismic shift to the extreme populist right.  With Trump in power in America, ‘Brexit’ in the UK, why does this matter on the world stage? […]

Clearly, immigration policy is one of the cornerstones of ‘populism’. A key reason for the intensity of debate on this topic is the misdirection by one group of the ‘elites’, creating confusion between the terms ‘immigrants’ and ‘refugees’, in order to engineer a confidence trick of substituting greed driven economic migration for humanitarian refugee intakes. […]

Back in 1986, the movie Highlander was released. It was actually sufficiently successful to inspire four sequels, plus spin offs and even a reboot. Something in the original clearly stuck a chord, and the tagline and concept ‘in the end there can only be one’  could be part of this.  The plot centres around a small group of […]

Tariffs have almost universally been declared a bad idea.  My point is that while it may be true that tariffs do not normally produce positive economic outcomes, tariffs may be necessary to achieve positive moral outcomes. Almost every regulation we place on business hopefully achieves a positive moral impact, but does come at an economic cost […]

The actor Morgan Freeman has declared he is determined to produce a movie based on the novel ‘Rendevous with Rama’ by Arthur C Clarke.  Great Sci-Fi writers like Clarke are renown for their insights in to the possible future and this novel is no exception.  After again reading this novel I realised the insights into […]

Governments of developed countries all around the world are running budget deficits right now, and the reason follows from free trade.  I have posted before on how every ethical decision our society makes comes at an economic cost. In many cases, this economic cost is a government cost and require increasing taxes, but in today’s […]