'To hell with you're double standards, we're coming rougher every time'.

President-elect Donald Trump can talk all he wants about walls and send armed thugs in uniform to deepen the terrorisation of immigrants in the United States. But it is unlikely you can stop people who are determined to win what little freedom and safety this fucked up world has to offer.

For that matter, that smug suited prick Malcolm Turnbull should consider this too.

Immigrada, Immigraniada
Immigrada, Immigraniada da da
Immigrada, Immigraniada
We coming rougher everytime

In corridors full of tear gas
Our destinies change every day
Like deleted scenes from Kafka
Flushed down the bureaucratic drain

But if you give me the invitation
To hear the bells of freedom chime
To hell with your double standard
We comin' rougher every time

We coming rougher, we coming rougher
We coming rougher everytime
(Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey)
We coming rougher every time

Immigrada, Immigraniada
Immigrada, Immigraniada da da
Immigrada, Immigraniada
We comin' rougher everytime

And those who made it and quickly jaded
To them we got nothing to say
Immigrada, Immigraniada
For them Don Quixote kind of way

But if you give me the invitation
To hear the bells of freedom chime
To hell with your double standard
We comin' rougher every time

We coming rougher, we coming rougher
We coming rougher everytime
(Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey)
We comin' rougher every time

Immigrada, Immigraniada
Immigrada, Immigraniada da da
Immigrada, Immigraniada
We coming rougher everytime

Frozen eyes, sweaty back
My family's living on the railroad track
All my life I back in black
But man, I got to earn this black

I gotta pay representation
To be accepted in a nation
Where after efforts of a hero
All comes start again from zero

It's a book of a true stories
True stories that can't be denied
It's more than true, it actually happened
It's more than true, it actually happened
It's more than true, it actually happened
We comin' rougher every time
Rougher every time
We comin' rougher every time

We coming rougher, we coming rougher
We coming rougher everytime
(Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey)
We coming rougher every time

Immigrada, Immigraniada
Immigrada, Immigraniada da da
Immigrada, Immigraniada
We comin' rougher everytime

Manics Monday: if you tolerate this...

So if I can shoot rabbits, then I can shoot fascists...

Yes, its Manics Monday! By which I mean I have, in a desperate bid to somehow inspire myself to post SOMETHING, SOMETIME on this godforsaken fucking blog, I have invented another novelty I'll drop more or less straight away.

I have decided to institute days of the week to post songs according to the name of the act, and so this is the first Manics Monday, in which I post a classic track from the veteran Welsh socialist rockers.

I was going to post A Design For Life, the Manics '96 anthem about working class life and defiance that, a decade ahead of its time, seems to capture something essential about the rich's class war austerity in their native Britain and beyond.

But, well.. I dunno...  there is just something about Australia right now... with our government absolutely determined, like it is a MOTHERFUCKING POINT OF PRINCIPLE for these pricks, to send MORE BABIES to the hellish prison camp on Nauru -- a place the scene of serious allegations of child abuse where employees are actually bound by law TO NOT REPORT CHILD ABUSE... I dunno... It just makes it impossible NOT to post "If You Tolerate This, Then Your Children Will Be Next" (and a great "live in the in studio" recording I hadn't heard before)

Coz that is not just the NEEDED sentiment... it is the actual sentiment of large numbers of people across the country in a humanitarian uprising of sorts to say NO. At the centre of this, baby Asha -- in a Brisbane hospital after suffering bad burns in the Nauru jail, whose medical personnel refused to discharge her to be sent back... with an ongoing picket focusing the government to promise to place the baby in :community detention"... only to then come out and insist that, as soon as they can, they send the one-year-old to the widely condemned hell camp. Despite NZ offering to take Asha and dozens of other innocent asylum seekers the government is determined to jail in on an isolated island in hellish conditions.

Say what you will, you gotta admire principles, even if the principles seemingly belong to 1930s Nazi Germany.

The Manic Street Preachers' 1998 track was about the Spanish Civil War -- in which thousands international volunteers travelled to fight against those principles... resisting General Franco's fascist forces under the slogan "No Pasaran" (they shall not pass).

The title comes from a recruiting poster (below) urging working class anti-fascists and socialists to join the anti-fascist side -- and the phrase "if I can shoot rabbits, then I can shoot fascists" was the explanation a Welsh farmer gave for deciding to fight.

But today, in Australia and elsewhere in the Western world where asylum seekers face growing racist hysteria and terrible treatment, the recruiting poster slogan carries its own resonance. It is something captured by Tony Benn, the late English socialist politician and longtime comrade and mentor to current British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, when he said:

“The way a government treats refugees is very instructive because it shows you how they would treat the rest of us if they thought they could get away with it.”

Well there you go. I plan to do another post tomorrow based on an act starting with T for Tuesday, but I dunno... I don;t know if I can think of any act I like at all that starts with T. I've wracked my brains and nothings comes up... maybe something will come to me before midnight tomorrow.

The Daily Carlo: Well Jesus fuck, the week this country has had... let's just have a *nice song*

Christ almighty. I mean... christ. This fucking country. This fucking week. 

On top of everything else like the torturing of children in jails and like children in jails is horrific enough, especially when you consider how unspeakable the jails are, and the ongoing genocide against Aboriginal people with huge incarceration rates and the fucking fact that you can fucking kill workers, in the 21st century, you can be responsible for the death of building workers on your site and when the workers protest your fucking responsibility, when they say for god's sake let's improve safety.... the trade union involved gets fined $3.5 million... and the employer? NOTHING! NOT A FUCKING THING THEY CAN JUST KILL WORKERS WITH FUCKING IMPUNITY!!!

And that is just the FUCKING START!!! THE VERY FUCKING START!!!

Because THIS WEEK  a man found not guilty of terrorism dared asked a fucking elected politician a question of some fucking TV show apparently set up for that very purpose of having members of the public ask questions... and THE FUCKING GOVERNMENT USED IT AS AN EXCUSE TO SEEK TO SMASH THE ABC, WHICH IS SO COWARDLY IT GOT ON ITS KNEES TO BEG FOR MERCY ONLY THERE WAS NO MERCY COZ ABBOTT SMELLED BLOOD SO HE CALLED A PRESS CONFERENCE WITH *TEN* FLAGS!!! YES TEN!!! A RECORD!!! AND HE SAYS "HEADS WILL ROLL!!!"

Because, as our prime minster asked the supposedly independent national broadcaster... "Which side are you on?"

And why? Because of a perfectly obvious point that severe attacks on the Muslim community, including the destruction of the rule of law, would likely lead to more radicalisation among young Muslims.

And the man who was asked the question was Liberal MP Steve Ciobo -- a member of the government, you know those in power. And he said, on national TV that he would be happy to see the questioner deported! Like thrown from the country!

Why was this such a fucking scandal? Because he was once accused and then acquitted of terrorism-related charges and dared ask him a question he didn't like! And the scandal for the government and the Murdoch press is the bloke got to ASK A QUESTION!!! And this man, this elected MP, is on record as saying the previous prime minster should have had her throat cut!!!

The Murdoch press, arguably, went a bit nuts with this "scandal".

But unlike some they were willing to ask the hard questions:

AAARGHH JESUS FUCK! Now an inquiry in the ABC to smash them up a bit further. On top of the most insane laws stripped people of the most basic democratic rights.  And this is barely scratching the surface really. This is just all I can think of in a stream of consciousness rant fuelled by cheap cider.

So I think we need this song. We specifically need glorious country folk husband-and-wife duo Shovels and Rope singing it. We need their glorious version of Nick Lowe's classic song. So play it. For christ's sake play it. PLAY IT!




'As I walk through this wicked world... searching for light in the darkest of insanity...' And no. I don't care if you think I am a fucking bleeding heart hippy. FUCK YOU.

(What's So Funny About) Peace Love And Understanding

As I walk through
This wicked world
Searchin' for light in the darkness of insanity.
I ask myself
Is all hope lost?
Is there only pain and hatred, and misery?
And each time I feel like this inside,
There's one thing I wanna know:
What's so funny 'bout peace love & understanding? Ohhhh
What's so funny 'bout peace love & understanding?
And as I walked on
Through troubled times
My spirit gets so downhearted sometimes
So where are the strong
And who are the trusted?
And where is the harmony?
Sweet harmony.
'Cause each time I feel it slippin' away, just makes me wanna cry.
What's so funny 'bout peace love & understanding? Ohhhh
What's so funny 'bout peace love & understanding?
So where are the strong?
And who are the trusted?
And where is the harmony?
Sweet harmony.
'Cause each time I feel it slippin' away, just makes me wanna cry.
What's so funny 'bout peace love & understanding? Ohhhh
What's so funny 'bout peace love & understanding? Ohhhh
What's so funny 'bout peace love & understanding?

Yeah. So FUCK YOU. I hate you all. Just listen to the song. Why can't you all be more like Shovels and Rope's Cary-Ann Heart and  Michael Trent, you goddamn arseholes?

The Weekly Carlo: This Human Rights Commission pro-human rights bias is truly incredible

Hello loyal readers! This is day five since I began my Brave and Inspirational Internet Commitment to blog every day!

Now, rather than waste your time with a *whole new* blog post filled with *all new rambling thoughts and rants* and *attempts at jokes* and all those things you have come to hate whenever you click of one of my posts in the vain hope maybe *this* time it will actually be enjoyable, entertaining and informative, I have decided to share with you all my latest weekly "Carlo's Corner" column that I write for Green Left Weekly!!! WOOHOO!!!

And I can this weekend post The Weekly Carlo because I like to talk about myself in the third person in blog post titles as if I am important! Anyway, enough about me, here's something by me!!!

Carlo's Corner: Human Rights Commission's bias towards human rights is just unbelievable

It seems there is no end to the incredible bias facing the poor, beleaguered Tony Abbott government. 

If it isn't an ABC journalist daring to ask a government minister a question they don't like, it's the Human Rights Commission releasing a report on the plight of children in immigration detention centres that even the most impartial observer would have to admit shows a distinct and unmistakable bias in favour of respecting human rights. 

Full article 

Yeah, I am pretty generous, I know, sharing that with you, like, for free! You can even read this other ting I wrote at the news satire site The (un)Australian yesterday called Teenager Right To Shout 'I Wish I'd Never Been Born', Climate Scientists Say. Wow! Don't thank me, just buy me a beer some time, via the Pay Pal button on the right hand side of the blog!



'When the Devil is all around, got you crawling on the ground...' Here is a BONUS random clip by South Carolina's awesome country folk duo Shovels and Rope at the Grand Ol' Opre! I AM SEEING THEM NEXT THURSDAY IN SYDNEY!!! 

Thousands are sailing... a song for our times. RIP Phil Chevron

'And I never even got so far that they could change my name...'


I break my long silence on this godforsaken blog to post that song, due to the tragic news today that its writer, The Pogues' Phil Chevron, lost his long battle with cancer, aged just 56.

I mean seriously what kind of fucking godforsaken world is this when Phil Chevron is taken from us yet Robin Thicke lives? A severely fucked-up world is the answer. A severely fucked up world indeed.

I am extremely glad I had the immense pleasure of seeing the pretty much "classic" Pogues line up in Sydney last year. It was an amazing night, I couldn't believe my eyes -- there on stage was these legendary figures from another, glorious era, who created an entire new genre of their own. And Phil Chevron stepped up to sing "Thousands Are Sailing" while Shane McGowan staggered off stage to refill his drink.

I put the full words to "Thousands Are Sailing" below, coz it is not just a great song, but fucking goddamn poetry. And its story of forced emigration -- specifically about Irish emigration to America -- is just really fucking relevant. And the tragic dying trying to reach safety is really fucking relevant, from the horrific death of 363 (at last count) who died trying to reach Italy to the goddamn hellhole of *THIS* so-called country where the authorities make of point of letting asylum seekers die.

SO FUCK YOU TONY ABBOTT, FUCK ALL THE RACIST POLITICIANS WHO KILL THE DESPERATE MAY YOU ALL ROT IN THE DEEPEST, DARKEST, HOTTEST RECESSES OF HELL! NOW JUST READ PHIL'S WORDS COZ THEY ARE GREAT!


Thousands are sailing

The island it is silent now
But the ghosts still haunt the waves
And the torch lights up a famished man
Who fortune could not save

Did you work upon the railroad
Did you rid the streets of crime
Were your dollars from the White House
Were they from the five and dime

Did the old songs taunt or cheer you
And did they still make you cry
Did you count the months and years
Or did your teardrops quickly dry

Ah, no, says he, ‘twas not to be
On a coffin ship I came here
And I never even got so far
That they could change my name

Thousands are sailing
Across the western ocean
To a land of opportunity
That some of them will never see
Fortune prevailing
Across the western ocean
Their bellies full
Their spirits free
They’ll break the chains of poverty
And they’ll dance

In Manhattan’s desert twilight
In the death of afternoon
We stepped hand in hand on Broadway
Like the first man on the moon

And “the blackbird” broke the silence
As you whistled it so sweet
And in Brendan Behan’s footsteps
I danced up and down the street

Then we said goodnight to Broadway
Giving it our best regards
Tipped our hats to Mister Cohen
Dear old times square’s favorite bard

Then we raised a glass to JFK
And a dozen more besides
When I got back to my empty room
I suppose I must have cried

Thousands are sailing
Again across the ocean
Where the hand of opportunity
Draws tickets in a lottery
Postcards we’re mailing
Of sky-blue skies and oceans
From rooms the daylight never sees
Where lights don’t glow on christmas trees
But we dance to the music
And we dance

Thousands are sailing
Across the western ocean
Where the hand of opportunity
Draws tickets in a lottery
Where e’er we go, we celebrate
The land that makes us refugees
From fear of priests with empty plates
From guilt and weeping effigies
And we dance





'The island it is silent now, but the ghosts still haunt the waves ' Phil Chevron sings his song.

RAISE A BEER, YOU GODDAMN BASTARDS.