Crimea river

Peace in our time? Probably not...

Since the annexation of Crimea earlier this year the situation in Ukraine is tense. In 2014 the estimated population in Ukraine was 44 million of which 17% were of Russian ethnicity.It is the largest country in Europe hence its importance politically and geographically ,
Putin denied the claims by Ukraine and the West that Russian special forces were fomenting unrest in eastern Ukraine.
In June Gazprom, the Russian oil company, shut of gas supplies to Ukraine , an action which may threaten European supplies .
The stand off continues and while it bis reported  Ukraine has sufficient supplies to last until December of this year it's highly likely that the situation will again reach crisis point before the end of the year. 
With the new Ukrainian government taking a harder line towards the Russian separatists and Russia with its finger very much on the pulse and supporting the separatists if not morally,  the tension continues .

Business as usual

"No surprises , then.." 

The interim report by David Murray, ex head of The Commonwealth Bank, has found, surprise, surprise no concern for the dominance,  of the big four banks but confirms there is a healthy level of competition in the backing sector. 

Sixty years ago, or thereabouts, Fred Schwed published a crazy look at Wall Street and investment banking entitled "Where are all the customer's yachts?" Unbelievably,  is still in print and worth a read should you find a dose of humour would help you unwind. In the book Schwed describes how investment bankers charge commissions basically stating that the clients money was thrown in the air and what stuck to the ceiling was returned to them, the rest going to the institution. 

After the GFC the banks have emerged stronger and more profitable than ever . Having brought about the disaster with wacky lending practices they were heavily subsidised and bailed out. Not so in Australia but the implicit guarantee of the Australian Government helped. a

A few years back when interest rates were coming down most of the big four refused to pass on the total cut to their clients. The cost of funds was too high and they claimed gross shareholder disappointment if their margins were to shrink. 

It's little wonder that the interim report/study is a balanced staid and stodgy summary of the current state of the banking industry. The outcome could have been different but it's  steady as she goes

with some minor rumblings about possible crashes. But that is to be expected. Crashes and Wall Street collapses are the tycoon's nightly thrills, Oh! Shudder!

The Sydney Morning Herald  Thursday July 10th 2014

A judge has compared incest and paedophilia to homosexuality, saying the community may no longer see sexual contact between siblings and between adults and children as “unnatural” or “taboo”.

  

District Court judge Garry Neilson said just as gay sex was socially unacceptable and criminal in the 1950s and 1960s but is now widely accepted, “a jury might find nothing untoward in the advance of a brother towards his sister once she had sexually matured, had sexual relationships with other men and was now ‘available’, not having [a] sexual partner”.

 He said the “only reason” that incest is still a crime is because of the high risk of genetic abnormalities in any resulting children “but even that falls away to an extent [because] there is such ease of contraception and ready access to abortion”.

The above has been swiftly denounced by a;ll and sundry. Little wonder. 

Yesterday,the NSW Bar has forbidden Judge Neilson from presiding over criminal cases. It takes an act of Parliament to stand down or remove a judge.

It's a wacky world and we are entitled to out own opinions but too often people in positions of power or influence come to believe they are untouchable ; they have been chosen to lead the world into an er of enlightenment..provided of course this reflects their views.

Nuts!How would George Brandis (our Attorney General who champions the rights of bigots  ) treat this?

FIFA FINALS

Fairly evenly matched

Empathy and communication

Could be better (much actually)

It would seem that the current crew in Canberra might have a bit to learn yet. 

Everything was thrown into confusion yesterday when Clive Palmer backed out his deal with the Coalition on the abolition of the Carbon Tax , claiming perfidy and dark deeds by the Government. He then went on holiday to New Zealand .

It would not be surprising if the Abbott government had in fact done a bit of "fine tuning"to the deal on the table but they claim vehemently they haven't contributed in any way to the ensuing ruckus,

The current Prime Minister and his followers appear to be suffering from a lack of trust as well as an

inability to communicate with the populace at large as to what they are up to. It's little wonder. They have kept mum on the refugee question and denied  until they are blue in the face that anything is going on. It took the Sri Lankan navy to inform us that they had " accepted" some 40 refugees ( who will be tried for breaking immigration procedures ) and for news to eventually filter out that there are some 100 or more other refugees of Tamil origin who are drifting aimlessly in the ocean somewhere.

Finally there is the budget which is a popular as an al fresco cafe in a hurricane. Selling the budget has turned  into a titanic silent struggle. Paul Keating would have been out on the hustings convincing all and sundry that what was proposed was necessary and vital for  country. Instead , since the budget, there have been rare glimpses of Joe ; it's almost as if he's in a huff. 

Another factor to consider is the government's seeming lack of empathy. They're just not "clicking" with the electorate. This and the lack of communication is contributing heavily to their poor performance in the polls. No doubt, the Liberals would claim they couldn't care less about the polls but it is a measure that shows the performance of the government.