UNCLE RUPERT’S MEDITATIONS ON THE DISRUPTION ECONOMY

by James Reed
Rupert Murdoch – speaking on the topic of “The Global Australian” at the Lowy Institute, Sydney 31 October 2013 (The Australian 1 November 2013, p.12) thinks that Australia can do better than Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong, becoming an “egalitarian meritocracy” with “more than a touch of libertarianism”.
What! – Surely, according to the textbooks these diverse political philosophies are inconsistent with each other? But no matter, Uncle Rupert ploughs on saying that we’ve got immigration, immigration, IMMIGRATION! “Which adds its own dynamism to any economy”. Tell that to China, if they are still listening, or the rest of Asia.

Better yet, Australia will be an economy thriving on “disruption”. Australia is set to become the world’s most diverse nation, giving us “an incredible competitive advantage”. Why? Well, because of this racial diversity we get trade ties, as if economics doesn’t decide these matters.

This is the money elites’ equivalent of “multiculturalism gives us good food” - because locals can’t read cookbooks or establish trade deals. It means that racially homogenous societies like China and Japan can’t do trade deals. It is utter politically correct nonsense.

Murdoch wants disruption in the “creative destruction” sense of Joseph Schumpeter. He may well live to see what hyper-capitalism is actually set to deliver to the world: “destructive destruction” and ultimately a Mad Max warlord world. And there will be no way off of the third rock from the sun.  

HISTORY AS IT IS NO LONGER TOLD: BELLOC ON CHARLES I AND CHARLES II

by James Reed
Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953) was one of the best nonfiction prose writers of the 20th century. No jargon, just clear explanation and description; the reader immediately knows where he stands. Belloc was also one of a group of insightful wise Englishmen (Belloc was born in France, later becoming a naturalised Englishman) who did not mindlessly accept capitalist myths of the inevitability of progress, and that economic growth and technological development would produce unquestionable good for humanity. As with J.R.R Tolkien (1892-1973), who used fiction in The Hobbitt and Lord of the Rings to express his own personal dread that the West was losing its soul and spiralling out of control, Belloc used nonfiction works such as The Servile State (1912) to articulate his own views of the often self-destructive nature of the modern myth of “progress”.

In his historical works Belloc vehemently rejected Whiggish history, one which looks back at “how we won the war”, seeing the world as a logical progression to the superior present. For the Whigs, science is assumed to dispel superstition and produce an age of Enlightenment.
As well, although not as frequently mentioned, modern institutions such as banking, are taken by Whiggish humanists to be an improvement over other systems of commerce. The possibility that a tyranny has been created is not considered because it is outside of the conceptual framework. Belloc did not accept this assumption, that the power behind money served the common good, and he was one of a select group of intellectuals who was aware of, and prepared to write in opposition to the money power.

Interestingly enough, Belloc was a true Traditionalist and not a naïve believer in the virtues of democratisation. This was a more retrospective vision, seeing a monarchy as preferable to a parliamentary democracy because a democracy required only the monarch to be good to work, but a parliament required most of the parliamentarians to be good, which is expecting a miracle of human nature.

Charles I (1600-1649) and Charles II (1630-1685), tell the story of the retreat of monarchy under the guise of representative democracy. The axe which killed Charles I was the endgame of the moneyed class on their road to power . These fascinating histories show that both circumstance and character resulted in the death of monarchy.
I won’t spoil the plot by offering a potted summary: read these books in place of the badly written fictions that line bookshop shelves. With Christmas approaching, and that time of year when we traditionally recharge our batteries, Charles I and Charles II, are two ideal gifts.

Listen to C.H. Douglas' 1934 BBC address on Youtube

“The Causes of War” Part1:

And the “National Dividend” Part 2: 

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT COMMITTEE AND NSA MASS SURVEILLANCE

European Parliament: The Committee has designated an inquiry into NSA Mass Surveillance of EU Citizens.

NSA Whistleblower Thomas Drake’s Statement Before EU Parliament Committee by Government Accountability Project on September 30, 2013:

“Thank you to the European Parliament and the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee for inviting me to speak before your critically important public hearings – and the challenge you collectively face regarding the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs and their impact on your respective member countries as well as the privacy of citizens in my country and yours.

The fundamental issue before your Committee is a foreign government (often in league with the intelligence apparatus of other countries as well as cooperating internet, phone and data service providers), spying on you under the guise of protecting its own interests in the name of national security – a convenient constraint of monitoring and control especially when conducted in secret - outside the purview of law and public debate - while subverting your sovereignty.

I used to fly as a crypto-linguist on RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft in the greater European theatre during the latter years of the Cold War. My primary target of interest was East Germany. The Stasi became monstrously efficient using surveillance to enable their pathological need ‘to know everything’ – their very operating motto. However, I never imagined that the US would use the Stasi playbook as the template for its own state sponsored surveillance regime and turning not only its own citizens into virtual persons of interest, but also millions of citizens in the rest of the world. Do we really want to become subject to and subjects of a secret surveillance state?

In a surveillance state everybody is suspicious and laws protecting privacy and citizen sovereignty are regarded as inconvenient truths bypassed in the name of keeping the rest of us safe and secure as justification for the wanton and surreptitious bulk copy collection and unbridled access to vast amounts of data about our lives. Unfortunately, this surveillance regime has now grown into a globe girdling system that has gone far beyond prosecuting terrorism and other international crimes and wrongdoing.

Your Committee faces the challenge of dealing with a secret hidden shadow surveillance state dissolving the very heart of freedom and liberty and our respective citizen rights and using this power to expand sovereign-free zones – even when it undermines the very fabric of society, breaks trust between nations and endangers the very mechanisms we use for commerce and trade.

This exceptionalism gives rise to an ends justifying the means mentality in violating the sovereignty of other nations and citizens far beyond the real threats we do face from those who would cause us real harm, but often exaggerating those very threats in public for access to all of our data behind the scenes. When national security services are more than willing to deliberately compromise the very information technology services and protocols that so many citizens as well as commercial and private enterprises rely upon and enjoy for legitimate confidentiality, data protection, and security in order to conduct their day to day business, it becomes very difficult to maintain trust in those systems.

Nothing less than the very sovereignty of our citizens and states are at stake in the face of an unfettered surveillance state apparatus….” Drake's full statement and a video of Drake reading the statement here...

WANG, PUP AND COMPANY PROBLEMS

by Richard Miller
For all PUPies out there, those who voted for the Clive Palmer United Party in Western Australia, and gave us Australia’s first Chinese-born senator Zhenya Wang – did you know that the public company led by Wang is in financial trouble? According to The Australian (15 October 2013, p.2) this company has been saved from insolvency in the last three months by a cash injection of $421,000 from the man Clive himself.

At the moment Wang can draw a salary as chief executive. Previous to the cash injection, Wang was hired as a casual contractor as part of an austerity drive. The company had ceased paying director’s fees six months ago. But don’t worry, Wang will swing into the Senate on 1 July, 2014 and will be funded by all of us, from taxpayers’ money.

Have a look at “Professor” Clive’s solution to the illegal’s problem. He thinks America is on the right track, selling illegal’s $400 flights and assessing persecution claims on arrival. He thinks that is what the US does. It’s not that simple. Asylum-seekers are still held in detention while claims are assessed.
Our immigration lawyers will run to court to keep them here as soon as their plans touch down. Then if rejected, they return by boats. (The Australian 15 October 2013, p.2)

I am deeply concerned about PUP which may turn out to be worse than even the Liberals. Wake up Australia, please!

** The latest news is that Mr. Wang missed out on that Senate seat. But the disputed count could go to the High Court and even result in a new election.  

COMMUNIST ‘FAT CATS’: FORBES COUNTS 168 BILLIONAIRES IN CHINA

Whatever happened to the Communist utopian vision of the State withering away and the Proletariat living ‘happily ever after’? 
The Conversation. Author is Mark Beeson, Professor of International Politics at Murdoch University, 23 October 2013. There are a record 168 billionaires in China, according to the most recent Forbes list. Adam Nelson “To get rich is glorious” – Deng Xiaoping’s famous aphorism has clearly been taken to heart by at least 168 people in China. That’s the number of billionaires identified in Forbes’ annual China Rich List.

Second only to the United States, the swelling ranks of the spectacularly wealthy are at best an incongruous anomaly in what is still notionally the People’s Republic. At worst they are a threat to the legitimacy and durability of the existing political order in China. No doubt many will think this is no bad thing.

China is, after all, an authoritarian regime with limited tolerance of opposition and dissent. It’s human rights record doesn’t withstand close scrutiny – unless lifting millions of people out of grinding poverty is recognised as a not insignificant contribution to the life chances of the most disadvantaged.
For those who wonder why there hasn’t already been more unrest about growing levels of inequality in China, this has to be part of the answer. The reality is that the benefits of successful economic development have been widely shared, even if some have done significantly better than others.

Big Earners: China’s Top Five Moneybags:
Wang Jianlin has made a fortune out of developing real estate in China and is expanding his business around the world.
Wang Jianlin ($14.1 billion): Joined the army in 1970 and the Communist Party in 1976. Sits on a number of powerful state bodies. A property developer, owns a chain of cinemas in the US, is building a $1 billion hotel in London, loves celebrities.
Zong Qinghou ($11.2 billion): A self-made man, borrowed money to start a small drinks business which is the now the largest in China. Has been a delegate to the Chinese National Congress since 2002.
Li Robin ($11.1 billion): Received the highest high school scores in his state and was sent to the State University of New York. Worked for Dow Jones and Infoseek in the US before making his fortune with Baidu, China’s largest search engine.
Li Hejun ($10.9 billion): Originally acquired small dams until he built the world’s largest privately owned hydropower station in western China. Has a fast expanding renewable energy business. Enjoys golf.
Ma Huateng ($10.2 billion): Owner of enormous internet company Tencent, which has a series of products with messenger services, online games and video players.

The problem for the Communist Party of China and the elite group of its members who actually run the show is that they have yet to develop a discourse that actually makes sense of this fundamental “contradiction”, as the Marxists used to say.
It is not simply that inequality is becoming an ever more visible part of the contemporary social order in China. There is also the problem that some of the comrades are clearly benefiting from their connections to China’s expanding capitalist class. Indeed, many in the senior ranks of the Communist Party of China – or close members of their families – are the capitalist class.

When the New York Times revealed last year that former premier Wen Jiabao’s mother had, amongst other things, a $120 million investment in a financial services company, more than eyebrows were raised. Despite the Chinese government’s efforts to limit discussion on increasingly influential social media outlets, the damage to “Uncle Wen’s” man-of-the-people image was significant.

China’s netizens (internet users) have become similarly indignant and outspoken about the antics of the sons and occasionally daughters of China’s ruling class. Not only has conspicuous consumption apparently become de rigueur, but so has an expensive education at the most prestigious schools and universities in the West.

The fact that disgraced former power-broker Bo Xilai’s son had been educated at Harrow was one of the more bizarre revelations of the recent political turmoil in China. The idea that Bo represented “the left” in China and was the inheritor of Mao Zedong’s socialist mantle was equally confounding. Perhaps it is no more unlikely than a plutocrat like Mitt Romney claiming to be a regular guy…” Read further here…

Readers would do well to also read what Solzhenitsyn had to say of the new ‘Russia’ when he had returned to his native land - “What Kind of 'Democracy' Is This?”, New York Times, January 4, 1997

It was so easy to take over the reins of state-controlled systems after the ‘implosion’ when one is in the driving seat.

Have you heard? 10 Million Intend to Move to Australia over Next Decade

Source: ABC. Brian Johnson forecasts that Australia is only seeing the beginning of Chinese property investment. Research from CLSA China* estimates that more than 10 million wealthy and middle-class Chinese intend to move to Australia over the next decade."
*CLSA: Investment banking company. Founded: Hong Kong, China  

FROM THE LEAGUE’S ARCHIVES: THE DISTORTION OF HISTORY

On Target, 9th April, 1965 Vol.1 No.10

Walk into any bookshop in Australia, ask for a book on Communist China and it is probable that you will be offered the Pelican publication, "The Birth of Communist China" by C.P. Fitzgerald. It is significant that the same Pelican publication is offered in Communist bookshops. Why? Because this book ignores the well-established truth that China passed under Communist control primarily because of Communist influence on top policy making decisions in the U.S.A.

Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975), former President of the Republic of China 1928-1949

Having trained in Moscow, Chiang Kai-shek knew that a coalition Government with the Communists, insisted upon by Washington, would be fatal. But when he resisted, Chiang Kai-shek's military supplies from the U.S.A. were cut off. This loss of military supplies was a vital factor in Chiang Kai-shek's defeat at the hands of the Communists.

C.P. Fitzgerald ignores this aspect of the Chinese story, generally presenting the view advanced by the Communists. Who is C.P. Fitzgerald? He is Professor of Far Eastern History in the Australian National University, Canberra. His book is dedicated to Sir Douglas Copland, who said, following his term as Australian Ambassador to China, that the Chinese Communists were not real Communists, but only "agrarian reformers". This was pure Communist propaganda.

A survey of much of the "history" being taught in Australian schools and Universities today shows that young Australians, the leaders of tomorrow, are being brainwashed to accept viewpoints which favour the Communists, even if only indirectly. And still we hear naive people exclaiming, "I cannot see any evidence of Communist influence in Australia!"

THE SO-CALLED ‘ECONOMIC REFORMS' OF GORBACHEV AND YELTSIN

The New Times May 1997, p.8
“The so-called economic reforms - Mikhail Gorbachev's between 1987 and 1990, then Mr. Yeltsin's from 1992 to 1995 - are another problem. Having noisily proclaimed the slogan of perestroika, Mr. Gorbachev was probably concerned with smoothly transferring party personnel into the new economic structure and safeguarding the party's own funds.

He took no steps to create small and middle-level private manufacturing, though he did wreck the system of vertical and horizontal links in the existing Communist economy, which, though it worked badly did work. In that way, Mr. Gorbachev opened the door to economic chaos, a process further improved by Yegor T. Gaidar's "reform" and Anatoly B. Chubais's "privatization".

Genuine reforms are a co-ordinated, systematic effort combining numerous measures aimed at a single goal. But from 1992 on, no such program was ever declared. Instead, there were two separate actions, which were not co-ordinated with each other, let alone with the economic benefit of the country.

The lack of any competitive environment meant that the monopolistic producers could inflate costs of production while at the same time reducing its volume and the outlay for it. This sort of "reform" quickly began to destroy production and, for much of the population, made consumer goods and many food items prohibitively expensive…”

Solzhenitsyn did warn us the Communists were still in control, May 1997 p.7

“After the collapse of the Soviet system, Solzhenitsyn returned to his native Russia. He went on to warn that Communists were still controlling Russia. And as the Communists of Russia and China moved closer, the International Bankers insisted on pouring billions into sustaining Russia which in turn is helping to finance Communist China. The mass media chose to ignore Solzhenitsyn's warning."

AND NOW FOR THE 21st CENTURY SILK ROAD - TPP ‘EURASIA’

Australia has seven FTAs (Free Trade Agreements) currently in force with New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, US, Chile, the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) (with New Zealand) and Malaysia.
The countries covered by these FTAs account for 28 per cent of Australia's total trade.
Australia is currently engaged in nine FTA negotiations - five bilateral FTA negotiations:
China, Japan, Korea, India and Indonesia; and four plurilateral FTA negotiations: the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the Pacific Trade and Economic Agreement (PACER Plus), and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP).
The countries covered by these negotiations account for a further 45 per cent of Australia's trade....
Website: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade  

GAY MARRIAGE AND THAT ‘IRRITATING” CONSTITUTION

by Ian Wilson LL.B.
Predictably enough, legal advice from the Commonwealth Solicitor-General to the Abbott government about the ACT’s gay marriage laws, has concluded that the ACT laws are invalid because of an inconsistency with the Commonwealth Marriage Act. (The Weekend Australian 5-6 October 2013, p.1,4)

It is interesting to see Labor’s Bill Shorten’s response to the Abbott government’s proposed High Court challenge to the laws: “In principle, I support strongly the Territory’s right to make laws and I obviously support marriage equality”. Well, in the past the Labor Party had a different attitude to State’s rights of autonomy on the homosexuality issue (Tasmania) and with the Franklin Dam issue. Basically, I think for Labor, state laws are to be upheld if they are consistent with modern Labor “values” and rejected otherwise.

What would the Founding Fathers of the Labor Party think if they could see what this party has become today?  

A “JAMES REED” THEME PARK - AT LAST!

by James Reed
I may have to leave Australia for I have found my ultimate politically incorrect town – Taiji, Japan. Forget about racial and radiation politics, for here is a place where at a marine mammal park one can swim with dolphins and then eat a dolphin burger! Dolphins and whales are slaughtered nearby, done by stabbing the cute little fellows with sharp stakes, as documented in the film, “The Cove”.
And, silly me, I thought that the Japanese employed special aqua-samurai, who beheaded dolphins with a single swipe of their mystical Katana swords, the same type of weapon used to behead Aussies in World War II. By the way, no hard feelings about that one, trading pal.

The Japanese believe that they have a right to harvest “fruits of the sea” such as whales and dolphins. Yes, they are proud of kujira katsu (whale burger) and as one Japanese official has said to The Australian (8 October 2013, p.8) “we do not aim to cease our legitimate business because of criticism from outside”. That’s the spirit. After all, given multiculturalism, how could this cultural practice by non-whites be criticised at all?

The Indian government now regards dolphins as non-human persons; the Japanese as burger fillings. Who is right and how, given political correctness, can we whites even squeak about this topic? I think I will just have to throw another dolphin on the Barbie while I work that one out.  

A CRISIS OF PERCEPTION - A VERY DISCONNECTED APPROACH

“I would suggest that one of the major problems that increasingly confronts us is that the predominant mode of thinking keeps us firmly on this wrong path. When people talk of things like an ‘environmental crisis’ or a ‘financial crisis’ what they are actually describing are the consequences of a much deeper problem which comes down to what I would call a ‘crisis of perception’. It is the way we see the world that is ultimately at fault.
If we simply concentrate on fixing the outward problems without paying attention to this central, inner problem, then the deeper problem remains, and we will carry on casting around in the wilderness for the right path without a proper sense of where we took the wrong turning.
That is why I wanted to put this book together. With Tony Juniper and Ian Skelly’s help, I want to demonstrate that we have grown used to looking at the world in a particular way that obscures the danger of a very disconnected approach. All of the solutions I want to suggest depend for their success upon looking at the world in a different way.
It is not strictly a new way and that is why we will travel back in time to see the world as the ancients saw it, but it is a way of seeing things that stands very much at odds with what has become the only reasonable way of looking at the world. If that reaction starts to grow then I urge you to hold onto one important fact, that this timeless view of things is rooted in the human condition and in human experience.
It may be a bit daunting if I suggest at the outset that I want to include in this journey a brief tour of ‘traditional philosophy’ but I can assure you that such an explanation will be painless and that everything will be explained simply. Not least because it is simple…”

- - Prince Charles “Harmony: A New Way of Looking at the World” 2010

Wendell Berry on His Hopes for Humanity

When men and women have lived long and sincerely with respect to each other and our natural world, their wisdom can be refreshing and inspiring. At 80 years of age, Wendell Berry is one of those people.
This documentary, featuring a rare public interview with the man, is challenging and inspiring, humorous and hopeful… worthy of reflection by those who care for the Earth…

The MACHINE STOPS SERIES…

by Arnis Luks
My wife Beata and I were interested to hear Harry Dreckow (a longstanding League supporter) talk about contour ploughng of his farm. Harry had chisel-ploughed his paddocks following the topographic contour of the land for 40 years; this caused the rain to go deeper into the soil and stay in the trenches instead of going to run-off, with a subsequent increase in the total depth of the topsoil. Our front yard has a northern sloping aspect that lends itself to this type of methodology.

Immediately following heavy rains we dug trenches following the contours and re-aligned the roof downpipes to feed into the first (highest) trench. Along the length of this first trench we fitted perforated black ag-pipe to evenly distribute the rainwater. All the soil excavated from the trench was placed immediately downhill to form a contour dam and this became our main growing area.

At a pre-determined water level the first contour dam would overflow into the next ag-pipe and dam and so on down the face of the front yard. This causes most cloudbursts to meander slowly across the property feeding the soil, in particular the downhill side of each dam. We backfilled all the open trenches with timber chips as a safety measure to ensure the finished surface level, apart from terracing, was fairly even.

We have initially planted peas, beans and lupins as a manure crop and also to provide some produce. We have used timber chip mulch elsewhere across the front to minimize moisture losses, reduce weeds as well as feed the soil. This method is not new, but it is new for us as we rely on our victory gardens* to do more with less. Harry’s knowledge, part of the social credit of our community, has been used correctly. Building on from this, with our current understanding, will provide a legacy for the next generation.

The natural world, which supplies all our physical needs, and our home communities and fellowship, combine to supply all our social and spiritual needs, and form the real economy. This way of life is vitally necessary to us, and we have the skills, the knowledge, the resources and the faith to put it into practice - as ‘the machine’ continues on with its terminal convulsions.
*Victory Gardens: Victory gardens, also called war gardens or food gardens for defence, were vegetable, fruit and herb gardens planted at private residences and public parks during World War I and World War II to reduce the pressure on the public food supply brought on by the war effort… These gardens produced up to 40 percent of all the vegetable produce being consumed nationally.
Philippians 4:19 And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.  

** A DVD of Harry Dreckow’s life-time work on his farm was earlier produced and is available from Heritage Bookshop Services and/or Veritas Books Online.