Here’s an idea:

Remove tax exemption status from charities and churches.

Howard’s privatisation of the welfare system was still-born and did little more than make charities service delivery arms for the state.

Churches jumped at the opportunity because it seemed to place them at the centre of society again after decades of declining influence, but over time it has hollowed out their ethos as they’ve become bureaucratised and constrained by the government policies attached to the funding.

That leaves us with a situation where (as with primary & secondary education) if the state withdrew its funding and/or tax concessions from religious organisations the whole sector would collapse almost overnight.

I suppose you could call it creative disruption but no government that values its chances of re-election will risk it.

Here is an idea, NO Income Tax

Only a Sales Tax of maybe 15%

Let the Economy rip

Just looked at Juan Browne’s Blancolirio YouTube on the Meccico medivac prang in Philadelphia.
Things which seem fairly certain:-
– the engines were “turning and burning” all the way;
– temperature was 49 degrees F and no chance of ice accretion on the wings which might cause a stall;
– in fact no sign of any aerodynamic stall from the NTSB telemetry data (airspeed was high throughout);
– aircraft appears to be flying (albeit uncontrolled) all the way to the end.
Browne thinks there are two likely culprits:-
1. some sort of flight control issue with the spoilers or yaw damper; or
2. spatial disorientation. It was not uncommon during WW2 for inexperienced pilots to spear in a mile off the end of the runway at night. Long story but it is the eyes and ears playing tricks. This aircraft is a particularly slippery piece of kit and it looks like they lost it in cloud, and came out of the soup heavily nose down at 400′.
Number 1 was my initial guess, but I have now moved my chips to number 2.

Teh Paywallian Media Diary reporting Channel Stokes election night coverage to feature Peanut Head and Plibbers. Will they be able to contain their glee? Should make for good TV and plenty of LOLs.

John

I don’t understand why the USA is by far the biggest user of psychoactive drugs. It is the elephant in the room the USA refuses to address.

John, the reasons why the US has a huge drug culture is complex. But rest assured, if the American government goes after the cartels in a big way others will rise up. Demand will find its own supply chain. As you suggested, they’ve been going after illicit drugs for over a century and it’s come to nought.

Brian Burke says federal Labor ‘rudderless and shambolic’Paige Taylor
2 hours ago

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Disgraced former Western Australian premier Brian Burke has sought to intervene in the federal election campaign, lashing his former Labor Party as rudderless and shambolic at the federal level.
Mr Burke on Sunday said of the Albanese government: “There have been so many mistakes that it’s hard to rank them.”
The twice-jailed former premier’s reappearance is likely to be uncomfortable for WA Premier Roger Cook and Anthony Albanese, who know Mr Burke has the potential to be political poison for both sides of politics and ministers at state and federal level.
MPs in Perth and Canberra were banned from dealing with Mr Burke after WA’s Corruption and Crime Commission laid bare his extraordinary reach as a lobbyist two decades ago. He was not convicted of any charges resulting from those hearings, and he is known to continue to talk to key figures in politics and business.
“Many worry about the rudderless, shambolic and thoroughly confusing government response to the problems in the Middle East. Who among us would ever have believed the multicultural community we boast about would be riven by this imported bitterness,” Mr Burke said.
“Perhaps firebombing St Mary’s or St George’s cathedrals would have more vividly brought home the problem for all of us in the arson attack on the synagogue in Melbourne.
“Graffitied slogans attacking Catholics and Anglicans instead of Jews would round things off nicely to underline the one thing that’s crystal clear – the terrible damage to our community of the lack of consistent, cogent and decisive leadership. And that includes the proper policing of racist and religious attacks.”
Mr Burke was a television news reporter for Channel 9 in Perth before he became premier during the WA Inc era in the 1980s. His government got close to high-flyers such as Alan Bond, raising concerns about corruption. A royal commission followed and in 1994 Mr Burke was jailed for two years over a travel rort. In 1997 he was jailed again for stealing $122,585 in campaign donations; however, the convictions were quashed on appeal.
Mr Burke rebuilt a career as a highly effective lobbyist in the early 2000s but the Corruption and Crime Commission hearings into his business cruelled the Gallop government.

Good stuff from Spanian:

Street Food in the Jewish Ghetto from Schindlers List – It’s All Eats

We watch a lot of dashcam videos at home.
My daughter, being a ghoul, likes them.
Much of the complete idiocy you see can only be explained by drugs.

I really don’t understand Canada and Mexico. The US, just on their export side alone ( not counting the impact of US imports) accounts for 20% and 25% of GDP. Higher if you count the impact of imports on domestic activity. Why the hell would you piss off the US over the long term when you should be groveling and every week asking what you could do better.

Mexico deserves the biggest fcking caning of all. The fcking cretins’ economy is impacted by possibly even 30% of their GDP. They let 7 million illegal trample through the shithole in order to break through the then non-existent US border. The cartels supply fent which kills 50-100k Americans. Are they brain dead? They thought no one would turn up and object to this bullshit?

@Adam_Creighton

A fifth of Australians are disabled according to the government. What utter nonsense.

@AmandaRishworth

There are 5.5 million Australians with disability and our Albanese Labor Government is committed to an inclusive Australia where all people with disability can thrive and reach their goals as equal members of the community.