We believed the lies of arseholes and now we have blood on our hands and no info?

Oh, here we fucking go.

Look at Old Mate here galloping on about copyright protections and piracy prevention!

Yeah yeah yeah - we've heard it all before.

At least this dickhead isn't parading around talking about paedos this time.
Source: here.

Don't get me wrong - I very much value the entertainment market - but one can tell that this is not what this SOPA bullshit is about, at all, due to the fact that a CEO said he wanted it to happen "in order to provide jobs"

The minute a CEO says it's about jobs, it is almost always in the interests of ordinary people - workers and professionals - to do the exact opposite of what they say.

Employees are totally expendable.

Look at forestry. We were told for years it was about job protection. Eventually the whole thing was mechanised and now they employ like ten people and the community - ecologically, financially, ethically - has lost everything.

The same thing will happen in the resource sector. Just watch.

These corporations know very well that the Internet is a force for change and they'll say anything they can in an attempt to have it regulated Big China styles so they can keep on fucking everybody over in order to increase shareholder value for the next financial quarter.

Just cause this guy is in music doesn't mean the same corp doesn't also own chemical weapons factories - it's all integrated.

If the mainstream music industry is losing money, it is almost certainly due to the fact that mainstream music is totally, and completely, fucking shit.

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.