The Brown Note

The recent statement, a woman would rather encounter a bear than a man, alone in the woods, sure has fired off an almighty sh$tstorm. But why are so many men so fragile and so easily triggered? I can't ever remember a woman feeling the need to say, not all women.

The Guardian newspaper is running a wholly honorable series on how we treat the the now, one quarter of Australian children who enroll in school, with some form of disability, commonly Autism or ADHD, not to mention a colossal amount of food allergies. The one question they and are no one is asking, what the hell caused one quarter of Australian school children, enrolling in schools to have some f...

The biggest student protests since the occupy wall street movement or even the Vietnam war, have been greeted with a predictable, time honored response from the American government, faculty and police. Infantilizing the protesters, claiming they're misguided, going about it the wrong way, beholden to malignant outside forces and even racist. Once again American student protests are on the right si...

Linda Reynolds, the former Liberal government defense minister, just got told by a judge, a young female staffer under her care, Brittany Higgins, was raped by her senior advisor, Bruce Lehrmann, in her own office. Most of us in her position would feel intense guilt and responsibility for such an event occurring under their watch - any CEO would resign in tears. Not Linda. Linda is forcing Brittan...

In reflection on my piece last week, celebrating Brittany Higgins victory in court, raped in her bosses office by another member of staff, and put through hell for years. Even though that piece got a paltry number of views, it got nearly the same number of comments, not one in support of a woman a judge just agreed was raped, none in criticism of Bruce Lehrmann, the man a judge just said raped her...

It gives me so much pleasure to finally be able to call Bruce Lehrmann a rapist, just as a judge did in court. And how wonderful would it have been, for Brittany Higgins to finally hear those words, in the only judgement handed down on the matter, after so many years of trauma an abuse. A look at the defamation trial and its aftermath, the biggest own goal in the history of own goals for rapist Br...

A few years back, on a trip through Mexico, I found one of my favorite places on earth - Mazatlán. Though well known in Mexico, I've never met a single other person who has even heard of it. The recent eclipse saw Mazatlán in the news as the first place in the America's to see it. So a shout out celebration to one of the greatest and most unsung beach side cities in the world, forget Cabos, its ga...

Trans actor Hunter Schafer - most famous for the TV show Euphoria - has come out and stated she no longer wants to play trans roles and that's all she gets offered. It feels like a watershed moment that hasn't quite hit yet. A look at the numerous elements around what roles, what actors are allowed to play, including the impact of only allowing trans actors to play trans roles - which I went throu...

Even though it was remarkably obvious to the entire world, who carried out the recent Moscow concert hall terror attack, Russian state media has continued to push the lie that Ukraine were responsible- and there's an obvious reason why.

John Howard did what Margaret Thatcher did in the UK - reshaped the country for worse forever, the awful impact of his terrible economic and cultural legacy shapes us to this day.   Posted in response to Greg Jericho's excellent article on the evil of this man - https://www.theguardian.com/business/grogonomics/2024/mar/26/blaming-john-howard-is-easy-but-his-government-helped-shape-the-world-we-liv...

Ex Australian state leader, Dan Andrews, is a hero of mine, no-one has stuck their middle finger up to the Murdoch press and the populist right quite like Dan. They never landed a blow on him through years of abuse, he just laughed in their faces. Unfortunately he shares the Achilles heel of UK and Australian Labor parties, by being an beholden to the Israel lobby. Him going to a back slapping bus...

Having posted many times about seeking peace and not just piling arms into this conflict, I again find myself on the same side as the Pope (?!) but this time Ukraine has a terrifying window of opportunity, with an American election only half a year away, and the prospect of a Putin loving puppet in the White House, the strength of their hand is shrinking rapidly.

Even FIFA don't seem quite as hypocritical as The Eurovision Song Contest - the most preachy of all major events when it comes to exclusivity for all, tolerance and promoting rights. They took a "principled" stand and immediately banned Russia from competing, to uphold "ideals of democracy" but maintain they are non-political (I guess upholding democracy isnt political?!) and wont ban Israel, beca...

Exactly what it says on the tin.

The Australian women's soccer captain, Sam Kerr, has been arrested and charged, in London, for allegedly racially abusing a white police officer. Mindblowingly, ex-mens player, and now major pundit, the universally respected Craig Forster, who has spent years publicly speaking out about racism, didn't even understand the difference between racism towards black people and white people. Here is my n...

Last week I posted that the Australian opposition leader, Peter "Potato" Dutton, was the most unelectable in twenty years, this week he lost an election. A small election with a swing towards him, but a fragment of what he needs, and now he's turning to nuclear power as a pivot. The lack of understanding the man has, let alone his lack of charisma is a rolled gold election win for Labor. I have al...

Sorry populist right, but the leader of the Australian opposition Liberal party, is the least electable since Mark Latham, twenty years ago. But keep doing what you're doing :)

In one of my irregular, "how to make friends", pieces - a new hill to die on, a defence of of the poster-boy for colonialism, The British Museum.

The recent death in custody of Russian political dissident, Alexei Navalny (which I don't actually think benefits Putin) has been met with a wave of Western condemnation and new sanctions against Russia, apparently the only nation committing these crimes international sanctions warrant... However the West's treatment of their own political dissidents and whistleblowers has been identical to what P...

Ignoring the dozens of personal and financial crimes Trump stands accused of, why is someone with charges hanging over their head, relating to trying overthrow democracy and the potentially treasonous handling of state secret, whilst lobbying for immunity from any crime, allowed to actually stand for President of that democracy? When many of these trials will be resolved after the next election, w...

If you are a protected male in politics like Barnaby Joyce, being filmed, lying sh$t faced in the gutter, babbling profanities, is either funny blokeish behavior to be forgiven or a need for sympathy. For a woman, being drunk comes loaded with innuendo regarding their morals, their credibility, their behavior and their deserving their treatment. And this was hardly Barnaby's first rodeo - but noth...

For most of us, the cost of living crisis has been raging for years, for the right wing media, it began the day Anthony Albanese was elected leader. Despite the Reserve Bank of Australia announcing six interest rate rises before Labor were even elected, despite the Liberal government near tripling the deficit and going into a per capita recesion by 2019, BEFORE COVID. But then right wing media onl...

The latest US regime change, in a country of 240 million people, that's the world's only nuclear armed Muslim nation, has happened in full view with barely a whimper from Western media.

The worst human being to have ever led Australia has finally quit politics. A man synonymous with lying, bullying, incompetence, smugness, and a total lack of accountability (or ability) - a look back at a vile dark stain on Australia.

Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said what we all knew, he never supported the two-state solution anyway. What Western media isn't even engaging in is what this means. Not the absolving of the West Bank and Gaza Strip into the state of Israel, but what Israel would do with a Palestinian population that numerically matching its own Jewish one.