shirro
@shirro@aussie.zone
- Comment on This bloke is doing good work. 1 week ago:
Just read an article by Jericho that shows excise on spirits (eg rum and scotch) raised twice as much as the PRRT. Beer isn’t far behind. What an absolute joke with current gas demand.
They should add labelling to all alcoholic beverages, “you are funding schools and hospitals because rich cunts own your government”
- Comment on This bloke is doing good work. 1 week ago:
Good stuff. This should be more widely known and discussed.
- Comment on Netflix is very pushy about cancelling 3 weeks ago:
Meanwhile in NZ charges have been filed against Hello Fresh for alleged misleading behavior and re-activating accounts without consent.
- Comment on Is there an Australian equivalent for boycotting american products ? 3 weeks ago:
Not really. I was only using it as a visa alternative for some online payments so it was redundant. PayPal runs scams like Honey and was founded by Nazis so they had to go. Unfortunately visa is also US controlled but it seems the lesser evil until I find something better.
- Comment on Is there an Australian equivalent for boycotting american products ? 3 weeks ago:
A lot of money goes to the US in IP licensing and services. We could make a big difference there.
My software has been free free and open source for years though I still pay money to Gaben.
If creatives can’t use FOSS for some reason there are some alternatives to Adobe. Davinci Resolve is supposed to be excellent and is from Blackmagic who are Aussie(Melbourne) and have a lot of other cool high end gear. The Affinity Suite was from the UK but got bought by Canva who are Aussie founded(Perth) but not sure I would trust them and they look to have a lot of US VC. Also in the creative area Røde Microphones are Aussie(Sydney) vs Shure from US.
I stopped all payments on Paypal and closed it but I had been meaning to do that for ages for other reasons. Amazon Prime went - they are a shit greedy anti-union, anti-Australian company anyway. No loss. Most streaming went over the last few years due to the great enshitification.
I am sure a lot of supermarket products are US owned but thankfully fuck all is made there.
- Comment on Facebook searches for Cyclone Alfred were blocked for containing content breaching 'community standards' 3 weeks ago:
Never been in a tropical storm but I have been forced to leave areas ahead of bushfire fronts and travel close to fire effected areas. I dread the day some extremist nutcase defunds ABC Radio. You can’t always rely on phone reception.
- Comment on Labor says Dutton has questions to answer over timing of share purchases 4 weeks ago:
Exaclty. They have a dumbarse first past the post system where you either vote for a shit party or throw your vote away. So people throw their vote away if they are disillusioned with the shit two party system.
We have an S tier electoral system where you can rank your preferences and make politicians aware that people are voting for particular issues and still make sure your vote goes to the least bad major. We don’t want the sort of ignorance they have in the US where nobody gives a fuck and votes then they act all surprised with the results. Fuck that. As major parties go the ALP is ok. They won’t be my first choice but I am not leaving a vote that impacts my family to a bunch of News Corp readers.
- Comment on Labor says Dutton has questions to answer over timing of share purchases 4 weeks ago:
Bullshit.
- Comment on Labor says Dutton has questions to answer over timing of share purchases 4 weeks ago:
Immigration has always been driven by the demands of the business community, not by bleeding heart lefties. We have low unemployment which puts pressure on wages and it is hard to find in demand skills. And we have construction and real estate speculation that is dependent on strong population growth to maintain profits.
When labour were truly a left wing workers party they backed the White Australia policy to protect the hard won rights of Australian workers which could be undermined by exploitation of immigrant labour. That turned out to be ignorant and wrong headed as immigrant labour aspires to the same conditions and revitalizes unions.
In every horticultural areas of Australia there are mini-busses of islander labour everywhere flown into the country by government programs to undercut Australian workers, but those guys aren’t immigrants. There used to be another word for it in the old days that I can’t use it now to call it out or I will cop a lot of shit about it.
Racists (cross-politics) want the immigrant intake to be in their own image but they aren’t opposed to population growth. Environmentalists and sustainability types (generally center left) want lower immigration to put less demand on the environment and infrastructure.
I don’t think average people care about gender identity either way. Nothing more Aussie than live and let live. They care about their wages, mortgages and paying their bills. Culture wars is manipulative bullshit to try and trick people to vote against their self interest and unfortunately it works.
- Comment on Labor says Dutton has questions to answer over timing of share purchases 4 weeks ago:
No. They are center. They were way ahead of the coalition on market friendly economic reforms, floating the dollar, abandoning a many tarriffs, reducing subsidies, privatizing the comm bank etc. It wasn’t until Howard that the coalition started to catch up.
To be fair radical left wing politics has not been competitive in the world. They can’t maintain the economic productivity needed to deliver wealth and quality of life improvements demanded by working people so they always end up in autocracy or revolution. That is why social democracy thrived and why China has a successful mixed system. The problem is maintaining the balance between social policy and capitalist wealth creation. The social policy side is constantly undermined by the ultra rich, lobby groups and the flip flop election cycle and people start to take things like public healthcare and education for granted.
- Comment on Labor says Dutton has questions to answer over timing of share purchases 4 weeks ago:
That is a terrible idea. You just threw your vote away, That is how the really bad guys get in.
- Comment on New report skewers Coalition’s contentious nuclear plan – and reignites Australia’s energy debate 4 weeks ago:
The LNP has no intention of building nuclear power. They are pushing the interests of the fossil fuel lobby and prolonging the life of stranded fossil fuel investments. If we could do it economically they would find a way to make it uneconomic to keep the coal fires burning.
Australia has extremely high costs, small population (scaling issues - 30m in an area the size of continental USA) and lack of expertise. If built with Australian labour and to our high safety and environmental standards nuclear would be a very costly and delayed. There would be massive costs to taxpayers and energy consumers which would not sit well with coalition voters and supporters. That money could have been put into cheaper alternatives that could be delivered faster and provide consumers and business with savings. Many coalitions voters already benefit from cheap solar PV and are aware of the cost benefits of renewables and possibly even have investments in them.
The only good reason for us to have a civilian nuclear industry would be to help develop a nuclear deterrent but we are signed up to non-proliferation and our major allies don’t want us to have an independent capability as it lessens their influence The coalition certainly have no interest in that direction as they are the ones who left a huge gap in our capabilities going with the AUKUS deal.
- Comment on Trump Paralyzes the U.S. Wind Power Industry | The president, who despises wind turbines, has paused federal permits and leasing for such projects, putting company plans in limbo 5 weeks ago:
You think people are better informed now? The volume of information seems inversely proportional to the quality.
- Comment on Families fighting to keep loved ones out of extremist groups struggle to find intervention programs 5 weeks ago:
Yeah, sorry. Its a bit much. I have seen school teachers frustrated with the situation…I don’t know how common it is.
- Comment on Families fighting to keep loved ones out of extremist groups struggle to find intervention programs 1 month ago:
I have two teenage boys. It is a worry.
I know that older men have been targettimg boys for over a decade now, seducing them with edgy memes and porn then exploiting their social awkwardness with appeals to misogyny which is a pipeline to other bigotry and the whole alt-right movement. Raeicalised young men are the emerging threat now as boomer power dies out.
You hear of little kids talking about their favourite social influencing sex trafficker rapists like it’s socially acceptable now. I worry that the social progress women have made is going to go backwards, perhaps a lot, and I have a daughter as well.
Despite being very competent gamers and consuming plenty of online media my boys seem to have escaped with their critical thinking intact so far. I don’t hover over them. They could be into stuff of course and I wouldn’t know. We have walked into this with our eyes closed.
- Comment on Australia accuses China of 'unsafe' fighter jet move 1 month ago:
Oops. Sorry. Every time the media runs click bait about North Korean missiles hitting Australia I get the ruler out and see Europe and the western coast of the USA are closer than me. I recalled distances from Beijing to Sydney vs European cities, not the South China sea.
Still there are over 600 million people living to the north of us in the ASEAN group, a couple of their countries having contested claims in the South China Sea. It is fucking weird that we fly past them all to go up there and swing our dicks around. It looks arrogant and it looks like we are the US’s bitches. When Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines ask us for help perhaps we should be good neighbors. Until then what the fuck are we even doing?
- Comment on Australia accuses China of 'unsafe' fighter jet move 1 month ago:
Yep. Its a different hemisphere. Europe is closer to China than us. Why aren’t the Brits, French and Germans doing this?
For us to travel half way across the world to intrude into their airspace is clearly provocative and dumb considering they are a major export market and have a tiny military that would be better served protecting our national security. As Canada and Europe are finding out, the US alliance isn’t what it used to be. If China started shooting back, chances are Trump would leave us to fend for ourselves. We probably aren’t getting those submarines either.
- Comment on trump puts 25% tariffs on Aussie steel and aluminium 1 month ago:
Unless China gets control of our mining companies and then we lose that strategic advantage.
- Comment on trump puts 25% tariffs on Aussie steel and aluminium 1 month ago:
A lot of US brands are just relabeled Chinese stuff with a markup. They get us badly on financial, services and IP. I am down to one streaming service and I only have one hosting service left which I will be moving to Australian owned hosting soon. All my PCs run open source except for games. I will probably keep buying Steam games but it isn’t realistic to totally cut out US business. Things like PayPal and Netflix are easy to do without.
- Comment on Australian Federal election 2025: Taiwan offers to help counter online disinformation in lead-up to poll 1 month ago:
Are people still buying Murdoch papers and watching Sky News? Are all the US media giants who have kissed the ring of self-identifying NAZIs still operating? Then the media environment is already fucked.
The ALP and Greens will struggle more than ever to get their message out to voters if they rely in normal channels. They have to get really creative.
- Comment on A 25-Year-Old Is Writing Backdoors Into The Treasury’s $6 Trillion Payment System. What Could Possibly Go Wrong? 1 month ago:
Heads up if you get a lot of tech news/discussion from HN they appear to be heavily censoring submissions along these lines.
- Comment on Australia bans DeepSeek on government devices over security risk 1 month ago:
Meanwhile our governments services and tenders practically demand US software and services provided by US companies on US controlled hosting. I haven’t seen any good use for LLMs beyond being an amusement but downloading the Deepseek model to run locally is absolutely safe and local models is all anyone should be using with any data where they have a responsibility, ethical or legal, to maintain privacy and security. And it you are doing things properly and everything is local then Deepseek reportedly has some efficiency advantages that make it worth considering over alternatives.
Once again Australia does whatever its told. I kind of understand when it is the mining barrons or real estate developers given they do at least make some economic contribution to the country. But I have no idea why we suck off US tech bros when all they do is lower our productivity by addicting us to crap products, corrupt our democracy and extort rent from us for the privilege.
- Comment on Grace Tame wears anti-Murdoch shirt to prime minister’s Australian of the Year morning tea 2 months ago:
She has nothing to lose and any attack only makes her stronger. She has a remarkable story and I don’t think any the less of her because her circumstances give her the freedom to do what most others simply cannot without bringing on their own destruction.
But we should all contemplate on how starkly her freedom contrasts with every other public figure in Australia who lives in fear of what the Murdoch press would do to them. Nobody else can speak freely, not the most powerful political elites or business leaders or celebs. No PM. No Premiere. They all kiss the ring. They have no choice.
- Comment on The guardian on Joe Rogan's popularity in Aus, and some peoples' reasons for listening. 2 months ago:
I suspect he is the Taylor Swift or Mr Beast of talk shows. If you have no experience with music then Taylor is very accessible and easy to discover. Mr Beast will be on the front page when you visit Youtube if you don’t have an established watch history. I expect Rogen is popular because he is popular. The platforms promote him because he has an audience and he is always being discussed.
It is the lowest common denominator stuff. You can likely discuss Rogen along with the Cricket or free to air reality tv with regular people and be on common ground.
Rogan’s ignorance is comical and a bit concerning how many people hang on his words but he fills a niche that people seem to desire. They don’t want to be edgy or make an effort. They want to be like everyone else. When they claim to be upset about all the haters they are behaving more or less like Swifties. They absolutely love hanging out with other Swifties and can’t understand why we don’t all agree with them. That isn’t being a victim. That is petulance.
- Comment on Nonstop Wildfires Are Straining the Global Arsenal to Fight Them 2 months ago:
Taking hard won gains from working people isn’t going to be popular. Most developed countries like South Korea, Japan and part of Europe already have low enough birth rates already to the point of concern about sustainability of their aging populations.
Let’s life the poor out of poverty and give them access to birth control and social services so that they have choices and all the evidence suggests they will choose quality over quantity and smaller families or careers over large families.
Working people fought for centuries for the conditions we currently enjoy only to have them eroded by crap like the gig economy. We should not give up parental benefits. We should give up waste and extreme consumerism not nurturing families.
- Comment on Nonstop Wildfires Are Straining the Global Arsenal to Fight Them 2 months ago:
I believe the majority of our growth comes from immigration. If we penalize Australian parents I expect business would demand the government offset a lower natural birthrate with higher immigration. Removing hard fought benefits for Australians would likely only make kids and parents lives miserable and create more inequality and social problems.
Developed countries tend to naturally adopt low birth rates even with fair allowances for parents and care givers as the financial and lifestyle sacrifices are still relatively large. The natural birthrate in Australia gets a boost from immigration and would likely trend lower if we weren’t running a huge pyramid scheme.
- Comment on McDonald's Australia and Netflix launch Squid Game Meal 2 months ago:
Exactly.
I wonder what their reaction would be to a tv show where a bunch of CEOs were forced to compete to the death to entertain the masses.
Would that get a McDonald’s merch tie in. I think seeing private healthcare and fast food CEO’s being mown down by machine guns in a battle royale would be a real crowd pleaser.
- Comment on McDonald's Australia and Netflix launch Squid Game Meal 2 months ago:
Wasn’t the original Squid Game a social commentary, a critique of inequalities created by capitalism in South Korea kind of like Parasite? Anyone else think it completely went over the heads of Mr Beast, Netflix, McDonalds and most of the viewers?
- Comment on The loyalty tax shoppers willingly pay despite push for supermarket competition 3 months ago:
These are real estate companies as much as retailers. Location is important. I can ride a bike to Woollies and IGA. It is a 40km round trip to Aldi. The savings aren’t enough to cover the inconvenience, petrol and vehicle maintenance.
- Comment on How anger at the rollout of renewables is being hijacked by a new pro-nuclear network 3 months ago:
Yes. The fossil fuel groups pushing nuclear is just a pivot. It is denial and delay all the way and they always funded these psuedo protest groups.
It is a shame. I am moderately pro-nuclear but we can’t have any sensible debate about the reality of nuclear power in Australia while one side is only in it to preserve stranded asset value.
They have no commitment to nuclear power or reducing carbon emissions which is why they don’t care about the economics. It is a cynical con but I think it might prove successful in winning voters concerned about climate change over to the coalition at the next election.