It was Kronic stupidity.

The reprehensible censorship employed by the Barnett government in response to The Bakery's planned Kronic Blowout show back in June will no doubt be remembered well by those reading this a few months later. For those who aren't familiar with the story, have a gander at my previous post on the topic here.

Vicious colonial scumbucket Rob Johnson: In charge of W.A. State violence
(source)

As I was cleaning out my inbox tonight I came across this press release... whether it ever made it to the actual press, I don't know, but here it is for posterity.

Kron Voyage

Is the government out of control in the West???

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Kronic Blowout cancelled by WA State Government

Is the government out of control in the West???

The WA State Government banned Kronic (synthetic weed) in Western Australia on Monday but couldn’t introduce the ban officially/legally until Friday at which time it becomes an illegal substance in Western Australia. 

Headliners Perth based reggae/dub band SUNSHINE BROTHERS and nu-soul act COSMO GETS decided to have a laugh about it and accepted my offer to perform at a Kronic Blowout to welcome in the prohibition, have a laugh and make a point. 

The irony is that the bulk of the demand for Kronic was generated in the first place by sensationalist and ever more meaningless mainstream media reports and the pursuant bumbling press releases from the Government agencies. 

The media & government PROMOTED it to the people in a frenzy nearly matching the unbelievably tawdry planking episode. 

The result of this totally legal party being advertised was a MASSIVE over-reaction by media, numerous ministers & government agencies and finally this afternoon the police with support of the director of liquor licensing stepped in to ban the event under very, very shaky application of the law. 

Early this afternoon the police visited the venue and requested that they shut down for 24 hours under section 114 of the liquor act  

LIQUOR CONTROL ACT 1988 - SECT 114

114 . Closure of licensed premises by police

(1) Where a member of the Police Force for the time being on duty at any place has reasonable grounds for believing that at or in the vicinity of that place — 

(a) civil disorder, a breach of the peace or a threat to public safety is occurring or is likely to occur; and 

(b) in the interests of maintaining the peace or ensuring public safety it is or may be desirable that licensed premises be closed, 

that person may require the licensee, or an employee or agent of the licensee, to close the licensed premises or a part of those premises, or to cease the sale, supply or consumption of liquor (including the sale of packaged liquor) on or from the premises or a part of the premises, for a specified period or until further notice, and a person who, without reasonable cause, contravenes a requirement so made commits an offence.

This is a completely legal show making a valid social and political comment. 

If they are arguing that Kronic – a currently legal substance itself by their own bumbling laws – risks public safety does that mean that all liquor licenses selling alcohol or permitting smoking which is also legal should be shut immediately? 

There was no indication of any kind that any kind of trouble would eventuate from this show and no real grounds to stop it in this way.  

The decision implies that intelligent adults who got the joke and were keen for a night out are in some way violent or below the law or sub-standard is completely horrendous. 

Sometime [sic] you feel like you are free to comment in this country or to engage in mild satire but you clearly are not when it comes to the WA Government.

You think before saying or doing ANYTHING that our government would be smart enough to read very balanced and SCIENTIFIC Global Commission Report on Drugs prepared by global leaders, health experts etc so they are fully informed about the bigger picture and the shortfalls in policy rather than focussing on the minutia of Kronic and a single night concert making a point and having a laugh at a government with no real concept of what needs to be done. 

Do they actually think Kronic is a preferred drug or just something that people who like and want to smoke natural, real weed who don’t want to get busted use to get a little high every now and then. 

Read the major report on drugs – it pretty much comes up with the opposite conclusion to our government policy

Downloadable [here]

I never did find out who Kron Voyage was, but they disappeared off Facebook pretty quickly, as did later attempts to encourage people to Dress Homeless For CHOGM...

"Be excellent to each other": 'Progress' as Actual Progress, rather than just being the word developers use whenever they want to wreck your shit

Progress is only actually progress if the resulting situation is better than the original was.

For example, the Citibank building in Perth is not progress when compared to the vastly superior Moir Chambers that once stood in its place. LOOK AT THAT SHIT. Fuck Citibank.

Citibank:
today your architecture
tomorrow the world

UPDATE: 29 October 2011 - Correction: Citibank actually took over the building after the new one was built. The new building was originally known as the 'New T & G Building.' Irrespective of this, the building is an architectural clusterfuck - an inferior shoebox - and regardless, Citibank can go get fucked for all of the many dubious things that they have done over the years. Both the building and the new owners suck arse.

Similarly, your monocultural pine plantation was a backwards move because the original wilderness was simply better, providing a thriving ecosystem that benefitted not just humanity but also the millions of life forms themselves.

What's that, multinational timber mill guy, you think you're better than them?

Listen, douchebag, your products suck and your mill is manned by robots and computers... so quit trying to manipulate your workers, whom you rip off with your stingy wages, into violently defending your share price.

Fuck your share price. If your company doesn't exist for the public good then it sucks and should be closed down.

The entire share market is based on fiat capital which doesn't really exist. Fiat capital is based on debt, and nothing else.

Therefore not only is it not REAL, the current economic structure is INFERIOR to the gold standard we had before, and was set up only to benefit aristocrats.

The capitalist fiat notion of 'economy' sucks and is not progressive.

It was originally all just based on British aristocrats enclosing The Commons and taking what was everyone's and making it their own.

Classism is pretty much the bullshit that fuels non-progressive politics. It's the aristocrats trying to maintain power. If they can't do it through force they do it through lies, such as organised religion.

What a crock of shit.

Now, before you start, I'm not valorising the working class. They are generally less educated and violent, and easily manipulated, and don't have the start-up capital to affect real change that the versatile middle classes do.

Plus most of them are now the pawns of aristocrats through their mindless brand loyalty; and the inherant anger that has them listening to mean-spirited wankers like Alan Jones and voting for neo-conservative creeps like Tony Abbott.

Fuck all neo-cons. Allowing homos to marry, for example, and other forms of legal social equity are advantageous to society because they spread love, not fear.

No true progress comes from fear.

War sucks for this reason and is just an excuse for non-progressive, non-accountable corporations to increase their share price in an economy that doesn't exist. It's the most transparent thing ever. Fuck you, Dick Cheney.

The government's role should be to keep such corporations (and real estate developers) in line, and also to act as a community chest enabling every citizen of the planet to be fed, clothed, educated, at least have a roof over their head and have access to water and cheap utilities and to be able to go to the hospital when they're sick either for free, or for cheap, or at the very least without upfront payment.

For this reason, paying tax is actually cool so long as the money is going to the correct places and not pumped into bullshit like the police force.

For god's sake, how many more times do we need to see the police used for the sole purpose of protecting the aforementioned Aristocrats of Big Capital before people learn to critically analyse the situation.

The people with the guns are not your friends.

They are trained to hate you, and assume you are a criminal, to further the power of politicians and big business who, let's face it, are in bed together nine times out of ten, trying to make the world more shit--as I asserted above.

To prevent this, and to ensure the aforementioned positive uses of government, we should all be mindful to engage in a popular, pluralist democracy based on education, rationalism, empathy, responsibility and peace.

You are not an individual floating in space alone. Your lifespan is brief but your influence can be significant. Use it wisely. And, for god's sake, don't be some Prince's pawn.

In closing, feel free to disregard the above. If all else fails, have a sick time with cunts. Even if they're aristocrats. Friendship is mutually beneficial and a totally progressive situation.

This Disgusting Pig Must Go

As news comes in hard and fast this morning about Barnett's thugs dragging protesters into cars at James Price Point, it's worth reflecting what we've gotten ourselves into.

I'd apologise to Fat Mike but he's an arrogant cunt and so am I.

• Kimberley Land Grab where our state police are being used to protect Woodside's interests
• Unadulterated corruption and collusion between the state and mining companies.
• The introduction and subsequent cross-pollination of genetically-modified canola into the state's food supply.
• The concurrent sale of our public food assets to Monsanto, of all people.
• Collusion with real estate developers to turn land, which was bequeathed to the state under the condition that it never be developed, into a private canal estate in the middle of Rockingham.
• Consistant attempts on behalf of Police Minister Rob Johnson to remove the presumption of innocence from a wide range of laws: this includes his failed Stop & Search legislation, temporary CHOGM laws as well as a range of traffic and other legislation.
• Failure to ensure that our hospitals and prisons are owned by the community, not sold to profiteering cowboys.
• Consistant disrespect of our state's traditional owners and an utter disregard for everybody else. A perpetuation of imperial mores that belong in the 19th Century.

It's time to fucking go, Colin. Enjoy your cushy retirement job as a "consultant" to Woodside.

The Two Speed Economy Is An Act Of Warfare

Barnett's guns Tasering the fuck out of an unarmed man.
source

Don't be fooled by moral panics re: supposed alcoholic violence.

Prices up to curb drinking? What a joke.

We all know who the aggressors are, and they earn $1000 a day.

The Barnett Government is creating nothing less than class war.

The implementation of a Two-Speed Economy is artificially impoverishing anybody who does not capitulate to the whims of transnational mining interests.

We live on land that they want to convert into a quarry.

So, the Barnett Government have the guns (police) while their boyfriends in mining own the propaganda machine (newspaper). One can give mandate to the other.

It's terribly obvious, and so damn easy, they must wonder at night why the CCC hasn't busted in the door of the Weld Club with an axe.

This whole thing is of particular concern for the educated middle class, for whom economic imperative does not necessarily outweigh ecological and social concerns.

If you fit that category, and you want to maintain a clear conscience, you're on a fast-track back to poverty.

Western Australia could very easily slide into sheer hell if the appropriate people do not grow some testicles quickly.

This means you.

Western Australian Douche-Bag Of The Week Awards

^^ Opposite of douche-bag: An amazing pic from the Kimberley blockade.

(Pic thieved from Ben Collins at the ABC. Sorry about that, Ben.)

There are a number of complete douche-bags who deserve this award this week.

Third Place must surely go to the fine folks at Woodside and their enablers in WA Parliament.

These shit-heads have sent in contractors to clear land at James Price Point despite the fact that environmental approval is yet to be forthcoming, and simultaneous to recommendations that 20 million hectares of Kimberley Country be declared a national heritage site.

It's wonderful to see the people of the Kimberely sticking it up these greed-merchants. They have my full support!

Douche-Bag Number Two is the Idiot Who Decided To Outlaw Kronic.

Now, I haven't taken this synthetic marijuana substitute, nor do I necessarily condone illicit drugs, but everyone with a brain knows that prohibition fails to address any of the social or health issues surrounding those kind of shenanigans.

Yet WA, the same state who was, you'll remember, most reluctant to pass the legislation in 1967 granting Aboriginal people the same basic citizenship rights as other Australian human beings, has embarrassed itself publicly yet again. It's the same old shit from cowardly fascists.

Pretty sure the Premier is sitting back drinking some of his special Rio Tinto clean-skin faux-sauvignon blanc tonight......

Helen Lovejoy: Sort of like Margaret Court, except I'd bone her.

(source)

On that note, prize for the Biggest Douche-Bag Around goes to the Absolute Jerk-Off Who Revoked The Bakery's License For 24 Hours so that they couldn't send Kronic out in style.

Just to re-iterate for any gibbering, McDonald's munching Repressive State Apparati reading this, I'm not necessarily pro-drugs. What I am defending here is personal freedom and civic democracy.

But this decision was an absolute disgrace, and any tatters of credibility that this government has left have crumbled like shitty synthetic fibres in the rains of makuru.

How dare Cockroach Barnett turn around and feed The Bakery this one:

When you receive Government funding with it goes some mutual obligations and responsibilities. [source: The West]

Veiled threat? I wouldn't say it was veiled at all...

This scum-bag and his party full of CEOs and Old Money are a disgrace to the very word "liberal" and all that "liberalism" stands for.

They are Tories, plain and simple, and this is just another excuse to lock up young people and anybody else who dares to question whether the laws we're handed are actually beneficial in any way.

The kicker, and this is where the powers-that-be really start showing their colours, is that the organisers of the Kronic party turned around and decided to hold a Say 'No' To Legal And Illegal Drugs Party at the Civic Hotel (a private venue) instead.

Then, according to promoter Kron Voyage:

Liquor licensing came and threatened the venue and bar manager with a $60k fine so they had no other option but to dis-allow the show. The west australian government have canned an anti-drug event featuring local bands and artists, absoulute discrace!... [sic]

Nobody seems to be able to answer the question re: what legal grounds, exactly, the Civic was threatened, or what they're supposed to have done wrong.

Oh, and while I'm at it, the Encouragement Award for this week's Douche-Baggery goes to Commercial Media who beat up this entire thing in the first place. You know who you are. I bet you're so fucking proud of yourselves for making deadline. I hope your brother gets put in gaol.

OK, so, to round out this post: props to The Bakery / Artrage, a ballsy-as-hell promoter, and the Save The Kimberley mob for their pro-democracy stance this week. Positive vibes all 'round.

You know you're from Perth when...

 (Don't even think about it, pal)

(pic stolen from this guy)

You get onto the bus.

You look for a seat.

All of the double seats are taken, by one person each.

Each of those people has politely sat on the window side of the double seat.

(Probably reluctantly, mind, but people are looking.)

You kinda roll your eyes internally and decide to stand.

Too many cunts on the bus.

Q&A WA: Don't mention the war!

This one's an opinion piece...

The question I was handed by an anonymous source
from within the mining industry.
Source: scanned.

In November 2010, the ABC's Q&A programme came to Perth.

As I have, in recent times, been reasonably interested in What Goes On, I was particularly keen to become involved.

Eventually, after a near-miss in which I was not selected, a friend of mine came to the party with a guest pass.

It probably goes without saying that this event was intense.

On the panel was my most loathed of jerks: the enviro vandal and Protector of Big Business, the Right Honourable Cockroach, Mr Colin Barnett.

This man has an utterly infuriating position on everything.

Early in the programme he made the blanket announcement that if Australia became a republic then WA would effectively secede:

That is a distinct possibility. [see transcript]

Later, he dismissed the issue of Aboriginal incarceration in the WA prison system; going on to explain:

You know, many of the young Aboriginal people in prison are there for traffic offences, for driving without a licence in Aboriginal communities. Well, that's clearly a ridiculous situation. [see transcript]

(To be fair, he did briefly mention that leglisation would be introduced to try and combat this. Whether it ever happens is another matter.)

I tried repeatedly, in vain, to question this man regarding the loathed Stop & Search bill; which was still on the table at the time.

But it seems the show was focused on more nationally-important (I suppose) issues: the relationship between the mining industry and Aboriginal people, asylum seeker policy, and the like.

The intensity on the ground floor was insane and bizarre. It's something I won't forget in a hurry.

The weirdest part was the audience dynamic.

Now, it seems that most people are generally good people; and most of the rest are at least well-intentioned.

It doesn't take half a heart to realise that, even though I'm sure most people would probably prefer that the issue would just go away, what's going on with asylum seekers in this country is pretty fucked.

So generally, and this is just an example issue, most people in the crowd were pretty appalled by the Premier's attitude toward the issue and the vague lip service paid by the ALP's representative Stephen Smith.

Only the Greens' Rachel Siewert was willing to show some balls.

Unfortunately she is a sensible and informed, quietly spoken woman who can't really hold a candle to sensationalist questions such as this one from Gerrit Van Der Sluys:

...here in WA we are increasingly used as a perceived dumping ground for possible asylum seekers ... why is it that these people are being given more help and better treatment then homeless and impoverished Australian citizens? [see transcript]

Enter the Young Liberals.

These infuriating ideologues have to be in the highest category of 'jerk' known to man.

As I quickly learned by squabbling with them on Twitter later in the evening, they hold belligerent and dismissive attitudes towards every idea that's not based on neo-liberal post-colonialism.

They probably represented about a third, or maybe a quarter, of the audience on this particular evening. That's pretty high odds. There were heaps of them.

One of them (LYLSWA Treasurer Anthony Spagnolo) was even referred to by name by Barnett.

It's actually to the ABC's credit that these people were given a chance to speak--and they spoke a fair bit.

But it's an example of their boisterous ingratitude that they were on Twitter throughout the proceedings claiming that the "communist ABC" was censoring them and swinging the debate in the leftist direction.

If anything, these douche-bags were over-represented.

It would be disingenuous for me to claim that there isn't a place for conservative politics within the Grand Plethora. Of course there is, so long as all other angles of discourse get a look-in.

But if this is the future of the conservative party in this country then we are completely and utterly fucked.

Between Barnett--with his monarchist, protectionist, neo-liberal agenda--the steely-eyed lost cause Julie Bishop, and these kids in the audience, there wasn't one among them who came out not looking like a complete fuck head.

The only conservative who came out looking like he actually had a soul was mining industry fucko Andrew Forrest.

His attempts to give Aboriginal people large-scale employment in the mining industry are admirable, but, of course, they fail to take into account the fact that not everybody views life the same way he does.

Thank christ, then, that Marianne Mackay had managed to land herself a spot in the front row.

This relentless woman, who I'd not encountered before but have seen talk a couple of times since, pointed out fiercely that the traditional Aboriginal worldview of Country is anathema to large-scale industrial mining, and asked what the point was of employing Aboriginal people to do the one thing they didn't want to do:

If people want to help Aboriginal people get employment, don't help our people kill our land. You know, save our environment. Get on environmental protection. [see transcript]

I'm white, of course, but I'm also an environmentalist and I wish this point had been discussed further.

(It's important to note that the one Aboriginal member of the panel, Tony Wiltshire, is a successful businessman and is clearly down with the capitalist paradigm as a way forward for equality.)

But the thing I'll remember most about this whole ordeal--and it was indeed an ordeal--was the man who slipped me a piece of paper imploring me to ask his question.

He'd evidently sussed me out and desperately wanted his question answered.

"I can't ask this," he told me urgently.

"I work in mining. If I ask it, I'll lose my job."

Shit, I'll try! I thought, but I was unsuccessful in this regard.

Peering down at the neatly typed and folded piece of paper he had given me I saw the following words... written repeatedly.

Mr Premier, would you let us know whether your government has any public policies or strategies to maintain at least the current prosperity and living standards of all Western Australians, after you have send [sic] the last shipment of WA's non-renewable resources overseas? [see image above]

It shits me greatly that I wasn't quicker on the uptake.

Somebody needed to ask this question, because it's one of the most fundamental ones that Western Australian society is facing.

There's no question we're getting fat off digging up shit and selling it, but what (on Earth) are we going to do afterward?

We in WA don't exactly have the best track record of pulling off these kinds of large-scale stunts without screwing ourselves long-term... one look at the Wheatbelt should remind us of this.

As Andrew Forrest said in his final speech, to the baffled consternation of many people both in the studio and on Twitter:

I've got a number of incredibly rich friends and I can assure you they're no happier than anyone in this audience. [56:10]

Well, if money doesn't make you happy, what does? And where are our priorities? And what legacy are we leaving behind?

I do hope Q&A returns at some point, because all I was left with after this one was dozens of questions, mild confusion and a battered psyche.

NB: All unattributed quotes in this article are the author's own interpretation based on ground floor experience. It's not possible, to my knowledge, to link to old #qanda quotes on Twitter, but if it is please let me know and I'll attribute them more thoroughly. The specific Q&A episode can be streamed, and the transcript accessed, here.

Unfortunately...

 

used with permission
(legit culture jam)

OMG: Facebook Privacy Ammendments Mean They Actually Own You

pic stolen from here

 ZOMG!!! THIS JUST IN

In a statement released earlier today, popular social networking website Facebook.com have announced that they actually own everybody, and have done for several months.

"Privacy changes were made in late 2010 that mean that not only do we legally own all information posted on the website, we own all information contained within that information," explained Stall Bot #9567.

"Essentially what this means is that we own everything contained within every photo on Facebook.

"So if you or any of your things happen to be in a photo that happens to be on Facebook, we actually own it now, by law. This includes your clothes.

"This also includes things that up until now nobody owned. For example, that tree in the background of your wedding photo? We own it."

Bot #9567 says Facebook didn't feel it important to mention this earlier.

"We couldn't really give a fuck. All it would result in would be a barrage of Moronic Facebook Groups which we'd have to pay lip service to. Everyone is still going to keep using the website regardless."

As a deterrent from any dissent, Facebook have threatened to upload The Social Network to their servers at the slightest hint of government investigation.

"Us owning The Social Network would result in an ironic disturbance of Williamsburgian proportions," said the Bot.

"It is likely that the fabric of space-time would rip. Most Facebook users wouldn't be able to handle it."

Stop sitting on that wall outside KFC: Here are the plans for The Nu-Hydey

 this is what the pub looked like during the ALH era

photo stolen from: (unknown author)

I'm going to spare everybody the sentimental fucking spiel about The Hydey. It was what it was. It was good for ages, then it got shit because Paul Higgins sold it to Woolworths' subsidiary ALH. Then it was a corporate pub, not a family/community concern. It begun to smell and the beer got pretty bad, but at least heaps of apathetic kids worked there and would give me Coopers Red on my rider.

You can hear all about how cool The Hyde Park Hotel was in the new seven minute documentary called The Hydey, which was put together by local film luminaries Travis Johnson and Lindsay Hallam. I don't think you can view it anywhere cause it was a Town Of Vincent thing. They did a pretty damn good job of it though, and I believe there is a full length film in the works.

Anyway, after it was sold The Hydey was still pretty important to everybody, so when ALH made initial plans to close it by coming up with some convoluted lie about noise complaints (circa 2007), they were called out on their bullshit by a whole host of people including WAM and then- arts minister Sheila McHale.

The corporation clearly elected to bide their time and then try again, which they eventually did once the government had changed... and once everybody who used to like the place became utterly sick of watching the same five bands playing the same five shows to the same five cunts in a place that stunk (circa 2009).

So, in January 2010 it closed to live music for good, the bottle shop and bistro were ripped out and replaced with a Dan Murphy's bottle barn. The front bar was pretty much razed to the ground apart from a few walls/roofs and is being slowly re-constructed... into something that will be doubtless repulsive.

As evidence, please consider the following document:

Plans For Hyde Park Hotel Redevelopment: Amended 18 February 2009.

We were assured by various people at ALH that there would continue to be live music at the venue once the renovations were completed.

(I would reproduce the latest correspondence I had with their state manager, but unfortunately it has been lost.)

However, I really fail to see how anybody is going to be able to fit a live band onto a stage 19.5 m² that faces directly into a bar, and where the best possible viewing space is approximately the size of the old saloon bar where we [the musicians] used to keep our equipment. (See p.3 and p.5 of the PDF for comparison.)

I mean, OK, it's possible. Prove me wrong, please.

But what I can see happening is: either I'm going to walk past and Luke Steele's old man is going to be playing the blues with, like, one other old bastard, or there's going to be some douche bag with a "salmon" (PINK you fuck) shirt on w/ popped collar playing Semi Charmed Life for the third time that evening.

At least there's a beer garden though. And it's worth noting that Vincent Council were pretty good in sticking up for the mug punter by refusing initial approval due to "...loss of entertainment and change in culture of the premises" (p.8).

This is something ALH were forced to refute (p.11), claiming that the front bar "...will achieve a new lease of life." (ibid.). Hahahahahaha. These people wouldn't know what cultural 'life' meant if Don Rat walked up and punched them in the face.

In any case, the renovations to the front bar are slowly under way and it will be interesting to watch.

Meanwhile, see you at a different bar.

Further info on the ALH renovations can be found:

• in the Heritage Impact Statement (which takes the 'jazz' angle--interesting!), and;
• the council minutes (24 February 2009) (skip to p.131 of this one).

UPDATE: 18 July 2012 - the seven minute short for The Hydey documentary can be viewed here.