Australia - No Recession For Over 25 Years - The Clock Is Ticking

According to a Bloomberg article Australia has probably broken the world record for the longest period without recession. The term 'recession' is often defined as 2 consecutive quarters of negative economic growth.
There seems to be consensus around the fact this is more good luck than good management. We are so dependent on China's growth that it's not surprising costume foreign affairs minister Julie Bishop wanted to sign an extradition treaty with them, even though they are a Maoist dictatorship with a cartoon legal system.

The iron ore is still moving to China but the reality is both countries are heavily in debt.

Our population is still growing and house prices are rising in tandem. Those graphs look good but the real problem is debt. Australia is buried in it and it just keeps growing.

As Australians debt went up their wages went down. That has pressurised people's lives and they are more inclined to change governments. Meanwhile, government debt is currently 34% of GDP.
Australia's total debt is currently 3.7 times GDP. That means it can never be repaid.
Australia's record run is really a record run of borrowing. By averting the GFC in 2008 Australia was actually setting itself up for an even heavier fall. Will 2017 be the year for a big economic 'correction' in Australia.
(graphs from Bloomberg)

Tasmanian Attorney General Hospitalised With Brain Tumors

ABC Tasmania

Vanessa Goodwin, Tasmania's Attorney-General, is seriously ill with brain tumours, an emotional Premier Will Hodgman has announced.

Ms Goodwin, 47, was rushed to hospital yesterday and was found to have "multiple tumours", Mr Hodgman told a press conference this morning.
Mr Hodgman said it was clear Ms Goodwin would be unable to fulfil her duties and he would be taking over her portfolios of Attorney-General, Justice, Corrections, and Arts.
"These shocking things put everything in perspective. Health and welfare of all politicians is important," he said.
"It will be a difficult time for the Government."
Mr Hodgman described Ms Goodwin as a "warm-hearted, hardworking and highly respected member of our community".

"Sadly her mother died of the same condition last year. I spoke at Edyth's funeral."
Edyth Langham-Goodwin, a Tasmanian Liberal Party stalwart and socialite, was 78 when she died in July.
"[Vanessa] has got an extraordinary network of friends and we will stand beside her ... we will support Vanessa the whole way," Mr Hodgman said.

"We'll have to stand together and get through this together.
"Needless to say very shocking and distressing news for all of us that know her, my thoughts are with the staff and colleagues … they love her to bits."
Mr Hodgman said Labor Opposition Leader Rebecca White and Greens Leader Cassy O'Connor had conveyed their best wishes to Ms Goodwin.

"I've known Vanessa all my life, we were born two days apart, our parents were best friends so I consider her one of my close friends and one of my most trusted and reliable workmates," Mr Hodgman said.
"She is held in very high regard by people in the community, she's hardworking, warm-hearted and intelligent and she's very committed to her job, so we'll miss having her around.
"I spoke at Edyth's funeral and it was very tough for Vanessa to go through, so our thoughts are now with her.

Ms Goodwin was elected as the Liberal Member for Pembroke in August 2009.
In 2014 she was appointed the Attorney-General, Minister for Justice, Minister for Corrections, Minister for Arts and Leader of the Government in the Legislative Council following the state election in March.

The accomplished 47-year-old criminologist and lawyer received a PhD in Law at the University of Tasmania and prior to her election spent 11 years working with the Department of Police and Emergency Management.
Ms Goodwin has described herself as a fitness enthusiast, who "enjoys cycling and running" and has completed the gruelling 61-kilometre Kokoda Track hike.

Fairfax Media Has Call Centres Protected By A Serial Killer

Fairfax Media has been running call centres out of the Philippines for the past 5 years. They use the Philippines because it shares the same time zone as Eastern Australia. Fairfax would be paying call centre workers a fraction of what Australians earn. Fairfax probably justify this racket on economic grounds but the world is changing faster than they thought.

Back in July last year, a majority of stupid Philippinos elected a self-confessed serial killer as president. His name is Rodrigo Duterte. Duterte has admitted to personally slaughtering people on the streets of Davos City while he was mayor. Since becoming president Philippine National Police and unidentified ''vigilantes” have killed over 7,000 people. In just 8 months.

A Fairfax journalist was defensive when called-out for the hypocrisy of financially supporting Duterte while at the same time reporting on the bloodbaths. How much do Fairfax pay in taxes to support Rodrigo Duterte? One Fairfax journo appears to have made reporting on dead Philippinos a routine chore. We contacted him for comment and got no answers.

Fairfax have been exposed exploiting cheap Asian labour but it has become a lot more expensive than employing Australians. Will Fairfax accept they have made a mistake or will they continue to pretend offshoring labour is socially acceptable, even when it means supporting a serial killer?


HOW TO READ FAIRFAX ARTICLES FOR FREE

We would not have phoned the Philippines if Fairfax Media was able to mange their information technology. They can't. They may be trying to force Australians to subscribe with credit cards rather than PayPal, even though they claim to accept PayPal.
We dumped our Fairfax subscription a month ago and discovered we don't even need it. Fairfax Media lets you read the first 30 articles a month for free. How do they know how many stories you have read? They use browser cookies. On the Chrome browser just paste this into a new tab:
 chrome://settings/clearBrowserData
Use it to clear the cookies but leave 'passwords' unchecked.
You can easily clear cookies on other browsers like Firefox as well. Fairfax Media do not have the power to count the articles you read on your own computer.

It's as simple as that. Fairfax Media are a joke! Do not renew your subscription if you care about law and order and the future of civilisation.

A MESSAGE FOR FAIRFAX
“Duterte won’t be challenged politically because of the war against drugs or the extrajudicial killings,” says Antonio La ña, political analyst and professor of constitutional law at the University of the Philippines. “He will be challenged if there are economic consequences to the killings, or other things that he is doing that could see him perceived as irrational and unpredictable.”

Huge Carbon Release From Massive Permafrost Thaw

Fake Weather. How Long Will TV Weather Reports Pretend Everything Is Normal?
By Bob Berwyn, InsideClimate News

Huge slabs of Arctic permafrost in northwest Canada are slumping and disintegrating, sending large amounts of carbon-rich mud and silt into streams and rivers. A new study that analyzed nearly a half-million square miles in northwest Canada found that this permafrost decay is affecting 52,000 square miles of that vast stretch of earth—an expanse the size of Alabama.

According to researchers with the Northwest Territories Geological Survey, the permafrost collapse is intensifying and causing landslides into rivers and lakes that can choke off life downstream, all the way to where the rivers discharge into the Pacific Ocean.

Similar large-scale landscape changes are evident across the Arctic including in Alaska, Siberia and Scandinavia, the researchers wrote in a paper published in the journal Geology in early February. The study didn't address the issue of greenhouse gas releases from thawing permafrost. But its findings could help quantify the immense global scale of the thawing, which will contribute to more accurate estimates of carbon emissions.

Permafrost is land that has been frozen stretching back to the last ice age, 10,000 years ago. As the Arctic warms at twice the global rate, the long-frozen soils thaw and decompose, releasing the trapped greenhouse gases into the air. Scientists estimate that the world's permafrost holds twice as much carbon as the atmosphere.

The new study was aimed at measuring the geographical scope of thawing permafrost in northwest Canada. Using satellite images and other data, the team studied the edge of the former Laurentide Ice Sheet, a vast expanse of ice that covered two-thirds of North America during the last ice age. The disintegration of the permafrost was visible in 40- to 60-mile wide swaths of terrain, showing that, "extensive landscapes remain poised for major climate-driven change." 

"Things have really taken off. Climate warming is now making that happen. It's exactly what we should expect with climate change," said Steven V. Kokelj, lead scientist on the Canadian mapping project. "And the maps that we produced clearly indicated it's not just a random pattern. We're sort of connecting dots here for the scientific community."

Tasmania Gets Another Festival

Turnbull Government Celebrate Worst Ever Heatwave With Group Coal Fondling Event

THE PSYCHOPATHS LAUGHED AND THEN THE HOMES STARTED TO BURN 
Here we observe a new level of cognitive dissonance in the Turnbull minority government of rabid psychopaths.
On February 9, 2017 Australia's treasurer Scott Morrison entered parliament with a lump of coal. The coal was lovingly stroked by many of the Turnbull front bench. Two days later on Saturday 11 February, Richmond on the outskirts of Sydney recorded 47 degrees (116.6F) in a heatwave that smashed all previous records and made NSW the 'hottest place on Earth' according to climate reanalyzer.
As NSW and Eastern Australia endured a catastrophic heatwave, bushfires broke-out and 30 homes were destroyed. During this heatwave their highly-paid 'representatives' stroked a lump of coal as the catastrophe unfolded. This is worse than Nero fiddling while Rome burned because for Nero it was just Italy, for these yokels it's the planet.

The heat stats are mind-blowing. The town of Walgett hit 47.9 and is close to breaking the record for the highest number of consecutive days over 35 degrees. The record is more than 50 days over 35 degrees.

Back to the Turnbull ministers. Morrison is off with the fairies if he thinks coal will drag Australia out of debt. It's digging us deeper into debt and the fact he is blind to this reality is a tragedy for the nation. Mannequin environment minister Josh Fryemburnt also stroked the coal in a symbolic gesture that the environment means shite in his micro-brain. Barnaby Joyce has recovered from skin cancer long enough to stroke the coal, while Social inSecurity Minister Christian Porter wants a pregnant-looking Minister for revenue Kelly O'Dwyer to look at his chunk.
By Tuesday 14 February thousands of bats were dropping out of trees and dying of heat stress in NSW.

Man-made climate alteration is serious but the Liberal politicians appear to be surgically lobotomised from comprehending science and reality.
Lets be clear? The NSW heatwave was not natural.

Stay tuned for the next Liberal reverie, but it looks like they are not going to to be in government for much longer.

The 'Angry Summer'. 205 Records Broken In 90 Days.
The final word on the Turnbull psychopaths. 

The Truth Is Out. Trump Is a Phuktard

We actually support Trump's stance on 'extreme vetting' of Moslem's entering the US, but when Trump failed to include Saudi Arabia in his immigration 'blacklist' we realised he is just another Yankee blow hard. All talk and no brains.
As well as a lot of Neanderthal bullshite Saudi Arabia just happens to practice stoning people to death but Trump registered 8 companies in Saudi Arabia during the US election alone.
That pretty much makes Trump a supporter of terrorism and barbarism in our opinion. Trump's comment that 'torture works' confirms Trump does not have a high IQ as he claims. If intelligent people believed in torture then the Spanish inquisition would have been the golden age of civilisation. The US will never, ever become great again under Trump. The US is phukted and deep down you all know it. It's now just a slow progression to the bottom of the barrel for everybody in the US. We feel sorry for you because most of you didn't even vote for Trump.

Trump uses hormones to grow hair
The Trump hair mystery has finally been solved by his ex-physician Dr Harold Bornstein who told the world Trump uses Finasteride which converts testosterone to dihydrotestosterone.

Dr Harold Bornstein

Dihydrotestosterone is listed as an 'endogenous androgen sex steroid and hormone'. Dr Bornstein also takes it which explains why he breached doctor-patient confidentiality with none other than the President of the USA. Do you see a pattern here? (other than male pattern baldness).

Isn't it all great again? A President on hormone replacement therapy?
Unfortunately Finasteride effects sexual performance, especially if is stopped. Does that mean Trump has got to take it? With all his 'locker room talk' we recon he can't afford to stop taking it.
But is there other medication Dr Bornstein didn't mention? We know it's always nice to have a card up the sleeve. Trump could destroy this guy unless he was frightened more would be revealed.

Trump Is Actually Letting Terrorists Into The US

Trump's Muslim Ban - His Sinister Choice of Blacklisted Countries
from Paul McGeough

The new President is cravenly political in the countries he decided to put on a refugee and migrant blacklist. And his inclusions and exclusions don't make sense.

Trump claims to be motivated by the horrific September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, but the countries of which the 19 aircraft hijackers were citizens are not on the list – most came from Saudi Arabia and the rest from the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Lebanon.

Also absurdly absent are Pakistan, Turkey and Afghanistan – all of them hotbeds of terror. In excluding them, Trump is grovelling to their leaders, not making a gesture to their people.

But there's something a bit more sinister in his choice of targets.

In the 40 years to 2015, not a single American was killed on US soil by citizens from any of the seven countries targeted - Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen - according to research by the conservative-leaning Cato Institute.

But the same research shows that in the same period nearly 3000 Americans were killed by citizens of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Turkey — most victims of the September 11 attacks.

And oops, wouldn't you know it, Trump has multimillion-dollar business operations in all those countries.

In 2015, he registered eight hotel-related companies in Saudi Arabia, according to The Washington Post; in Turkey, two luxury towers in Istanbul are licensed to use his name; in Egypt, he has two companies; and in the UAE, he has naming and management deals for two golf courses.

Melbourne Car Attacker An Ice User Out On Bail

The death toll from the January 20 Melbourne car attack is 5 dead with another 2 in a critical condition. Perpetrator 26 year old Dimitrious 'Jimmy' Gargasoulas says he is half Greek and half Tongan. The car attack has a Wikipedia page.
A friend of Gargasoulas claimed he 'was a great guy but ice destroyed him.' According to an unnamed witness he was shouting 'Allahu Akbar' while doing donuts outside Flinders Street Station.
Earlier that day Gargasoulas critically injured his own brother in a gay hate crime.
Obviously Jimmy Gargasoulas was psychologically unravelling in the weeks proceeding the attack. He used the same method as the Berlin and Nice truck attacks and according to a friend 'he converted to Muslim and changed very quickly. For over a month he’s been on edge'.
So was this car attack 'terrorism'? Pauline Hanson claimed it was, but Gargasoulos appears to have been psychotic at the time. But aren't all terrorist attacks carried out by people who are mentally unstable? The broken Australian legal system let this nutter back onto the streets on January 14, less than a week before the terrible car attack. Lets see how the judges resolve the 'nutcase or terrorist or both' conundrum?

Ship Carrying Cocaine Was Headed To Tasmania

More details of the December 12, 2016 arrest of the Kaiyo Maru No.8 carrying 186 kgs of cocaine off the coast of Tasmania have been revealed.

Police have now broken an alleged cocaine importation syndicate based in Melbourne. Police had monitored the syndicate for about a year. It appears the syndicate were using the 'mothership' method of importing drugs, relying on a smaller vessel such as a fishing boat to bring the drugs ashore.

The Kaiyo Maru No.8 had been fitted with long range fuel tanks. After travelling down the WA coast the vessel headed for Tasmania. Something went wrong off the Tasmanian coast with the rendezvous boat failing to arrive.
After about 2 weeks of waiting the Kaiyo Maru No.8 then changed course, travelling south of New Zealand. This is when the Australian authorities pounced. The arrest took place in international waters. There are still important pieces of this jigsaw puzzle that are missing.
(Images from Fairfax Media)
Ultra-Dumb Tasmanian Legal System Tries To Silence The Chinese Nationals Story
Feb 3 and we learn that the idiotic Tasmanian legal system has prevented one of the accused Cheng Gang Wang from communicating with his lawyer because they can't afford $390 for an interpreter. Read about it in the Examiner.

The Turnbull Ministry Are Nearly All Lawyers And Accountants

Lawyers circled yellow, accountants blue

There are only 2 Professions in the Turnbull Cabinet
The picture above shows Turnbulls cabinet, the outer ministry and the parliamentary secretaries (called assistant ministers).
Our investigation of the second Turnbull Ministry reveals the dominance of two professions - lawyers and accountants. The Liberal Party have 18 cabinet ministers and of those 12 are lawyers. The Liberals have another 5 lawyers in the outer ministry and assistant ministers, a total of 17 lawyers. The Liberals have 4 accountants in the cabinet. No other professions are represented. The Nationals and Liberal-Nationals have 1 lawyer who is 'Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister'. Obviously Turnbull prefers to surround himself with lawyers? We termed 'accountants' anybody with a finance degree. This includes economics, taxation, business and 'applied economic geography' which is treasurer Morrison's background.

Observations
There is just 1 doctor of medicine, the Nationals Dr David Gillespie and he is an assistant minister. The Minister for Health has degrees in taxation and accountancy but not health. We have lawyers running defence, environment, employment, trade, foreign affairs, finance and social services.
In the outer ministry, as well as lawyers and accountants we see a few arts degrees, two journalists and a career politician. Strangely, we have a British-born ex-fisherman as Minister for Indigenous Affairs. There is an indigenous member of the Turnbull ministry who is the 'Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care'.

We only found one person that ran their own business and she is an assistant minister.
Anybody with real world experience has been relegated to the outer ministry or is a parliamentary secretary. By excluding all other life skills except law and finance, Turnbull has created the most inward-looking government in Australia's history. No wonder they are constantly bungling routine government activities? They also 'blame the victims' for government mistakes such as irresponsible borrowing. And it's taking it's toll. As the angst rises in Australia caused by this dysfunctional cartel of corporate lawyers and bean-counters, we decided this facebook graphic says it best.