Any change to this current racial system we have had in place for 240 years Peter Dutton calls “dangerous”. He’s a real redneck. A Trumpster who treats his slaves with compassion
As we head toward the referendum on the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament later this year, it is worth considering the long history of how governments have tried and failed to authentically listen to First Nations people.
The Newspoll conducted for The Australian newspaper and reported on Sunday night shows 46 per cent of all voters support the voice to parliament while 43 per cent are opposed and 11 per cent don’t know.
Source: Support for Indigenous voice under 50 pct: Newspoll – Michael West
I am the child of holocaust survivors. I cannot remain a member of a party which turns a blind eye to the ongoing persecution of millions of people who have a right to live in peace and freedom in the land of their ancestors. On the 19th of May, 2023, I tendered my resignation from Continue reading »
Source: Here’s why I can no longer be a Labor Party member – Pearls and Irritations
Ever since the British East India Company was established, and declared the best systemic model for doing business for joint profit, corporations have been acting as pirates knighted and blessed by governments to operate at will. In fact today Corporations have grown so large they manipulate governments in a way that brings the relationship nearer to Mussolini’s Fascist dream.
Occasionally however reality bites and their criminality reveals itself as we saw with the Pandora Papers and now consultancies and PwC. The pity of it all is the system has never really changed. Back in the day the British MPs and the Crown were all corporate investors. Today MPs flock to get jobs after politics in these mega-corporations which is a return for favors past.
A few individuals may or may not be singled out as rogues and left unpaid too hot to handle. An enormous PR push will be bought, set in place, and like after the Pandora Papers everything will settle and go back to normal
Sudden political excitement about the unethical, almost certainly illegal conduct of a large, too big to disappear, accountancy company, deflects attention from the primary site of a cancerous managerialist disease. That site was infected with the idea that individuals labelled managers, usually but not always accountants, could be trusted to decide how government departments, universities, hospitals and other public institutions, could be more cost effective.
Source: Managerialist and consultancy deceits: PWC and others – Pearls and Irritations
This seems more a PR advertorial praising Coles for declaring it will stop raping the environment “from now on”. Poor Coles they weren’t t at fault it was their REDcycle program, and they did it for years until caught out. Is Coles applying for sainthood here? By making this a heroic-sounding “public vow” using the media and abusing us as fools? Robert-Smith should have taken the hint and got Kerry Stokes to publicly declare that he too like Coles now promises he’ll never be a war crim again.
Supermarket giant Coles has partnered with an environmental group in a bid to tackle the challenge of plastic waste and recycling months after the collapse of its REDcycle program.
Big-money special interests “want to divide us up,” said the indepedent senator at a living wage rally in South Carolina, “and we are determined to bring working people together.”
Source: When 3 Men Richer Than 165 Million People, Sanders Says Working Class Must ‘Come Together’
The Spanish-language Twitter account for Palestine, “Palestino Hoy,” announced on Thursday that the Palestinian delegation in Mexico City will now be upgraded from a “Special Delegation” to a full embassy, after Mexico fully recognized the state of Palestine.
Source: Mexico Fully Recognizes Palestine as an Independent State, welcomes formal Palestinian Embassy
The original goal of the United States blockade against Cuba was to worsen conditions and inspire Cubans to overthrow their government. Regime change hasn’t been forthcoming. Now the US maintains the devastating sanctions as a threat to other nations.
Source: The US Is Punishing Cuba to Send a Message to the Whole World
The Separation of Powers in a Democracy has the Justice System determine whether actions are treasonous or not, not politicians or politically motivated individuals. Unfortunately in America, it seems that that separation is tenuous in that judges and judicial system is made up of party political appointees. So Rhodes who claims to be a proud American is simply stating the obvious. All prisoners in the US are political and some on a bipartisan basis.
However, not all those incarcerated committed a treasonous act when breaking American laws. Rhodes is no Cool Hand Luke neither a victim or a hero. He and his band of Oaf Keepers are simply treasonous thugs who stood by and were ready. waiting for the call of the greater Oaf Trump who was President and believed he should be for life. Trump had brown-eyed Democracy and wanted to remain in the job as king “America’s Shame” is their court system not separate from politics and one also slow to judge those with a degree of status and heaps of money from the wealthy and corporate donors. Wealth allowed Trump to play with the courts and remain free for 78 years. American prisons reflect that very class system within which US citizens live and by which they’re threatened
Source: Stewart Rhodes Says He’s a Political Prisoner. Are Republicans Listening?
But speaking of mysteries, there’s been quite a few pop up this week:
Cato has previously advised a raft of high-profile people and organisations, including Fairfax Media, once the publisher of this masthead; photographer Bill Henson, who was pilloried for his dark images of young models; and former David Jones chief executive Mark McInnes, who was accused of sexual harassment in a case that later settled.
Her firm also worked for the interests of the now-disgraced soldier Ben Roberts-Smith, with a former journalist associated with Cato’s outfit conducting counter-reporting on this masthead’s investigation of the former soldier.
Source: PwC tax leak scandal: Sue Cato hired by group of partners ahead of Senate hearing
Disgraced war hero Ben Roberts-Smith waged an aggressive campaign to cover up his war crimes, invoking a special forces’ code of silence as well as smearing and threatening those he thought had revealed his misconduct.
Source: How Ben Roberts-Smith intimidated witnesses, invoked SAS code of silence
Education, contacts and luck can play a considerable role when it comes to building up wealth.
Being born into a wealthy and highly educated family is a fortunate event. Likewise, random strokes of luck (like winning the lottery) do not come from years of hard work. We may even push the argument a bit further and conclude that being intelligent is a form of luck itself.
Many things that contribute to achieving financial success are beyond our control. Most, if not all, extremely wealthy people have been blessed by Lady Luck somehow.
Conversely, making the most of what luck brings us certainly matters. Granted, a good deal of individuals merely cash in the benefits of inherited privilege.
Regardless, many small and big fortunes stem from an intelligent use of the resources we are lucky to have been gifted with – whether they are intellectual, educational or socioeconomic.
Source: Are rich people more intelligent? Here’s what the science says
Over the period 1992-2020, the water stored in the world’s largest 1972 natural lakes and reservoirs, accounting for approximately 90% of Earth’s total freshwater storage, decreased overall by 53%. Two-fifths of lakes and two-thirds of reservoirs experienced severe water losses over this period and the trend was not limited to arid areas; it was also observed in the humid tropics and high latitude areas.
Source: Environment: Who are the green groups pocketing dirty dollars?
Right-wing provocateurs have encouraged uncivil “freedom of speech” which targets minority groups and has no place in an open and compassionate Australia, writes Frances Letters.
Source: Responsible ‘free speech’ key to a fair, harmonious Australia
When a Rabbi called for them to be killed like rats what hope is there for the Israeli State?
From nighttime detentions without a court order, to blindfolding and beatings: the silence of Israeli mental health therapists in the face of severe harm to Palestinian children is particularly alarming.
Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin says that Kremlin factions are destroying the state by trying to sow discord between him and Chechen fighters.
Key points:
- Yevgeny Prigozhin blamed Kremlin factions for the dispute between him and Chechen forces
- Russian President Vladimir Putin held a security council meeting on “interethnic” relations inside the country.
- Russian shelling had killed at least four civilians across Ukraine in the previous 24 hours
Source: Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin says Kremlin factions are destroying the Russian state – ABC News
My thought for the day
American exceptionalism is a concept that should not be included in the same sentence as making America great again.( John Lord )
Dutton spent years perfecting his hard-man, free-speech warrior character – once noting that criticisms were like ‘water off a duck’s back’. But in an impressive display of his range, he was able to quickly pivot to a thin-skinned, hypersensitive litigant, when he was told someone wrote a five-word mean tweet about him. Utterly convincing.
Source: Introducing ‘The Defo Awards’ for Services to Defamation Fuck-Ups — The Shovel
I carry with me the fuzzy cognitive dissonance of a white man educated in a settler colony, an old land with new rulers, an Imperial outpost trying to be better, more inclusive and kinder but refusing to go to therapy, refusing to listen, refusing to admit there might indeed be some unreconciled structural hurt surrounding a certain genocide-and-dispossession situation – Australia’s “wHaT rAcIsM?!” brigade only ever a dog-whistle away from the Culture War’s frontlines.
A nation asking itself whether it wants to start listening to its First Nations Peoples on matters that concern them is not at risk of losing its non-existent egalitarian nature, the purity of its constitution, of its democracy – it is simply at risk of understanding itself for the first time, and when you exist in denial nothing is more terrifying.
The State of HARD Labor
by Wendy Bacon | Jun 3, 2023 A bill introducing harsh penalties and extending the scope of a law applying to those who obstruct public places was passed after an all-night sitting by the South Australian Legislative Council this week. Wendy Bacon reports on the rise of draconian anti-protest laws
Source: Michael West Media – investigative journalists – always independent
Justice Anthony Besanko found that Chris Masters and Nick Mackenzies and their publishers were substantially reporting the truth about Ben Roberts-Smith. It is a win for quality investigative journalism, but will we now see criminal charges against the former soldier?
Source: A win for journalism. But Ben Roberts-Smith is still at large. What’s the scam? – Michael West
When some of the SAS witnesses Nine Entertainment subpoenaed refused to give evidence about alleged war crimes on the grounds of self-incrimination it was game, set and match as far as proving war crimes had been committed in Afghanistan.
It was in the 1970’s I witnessed a paid consultant do a report for a local Australian Council. He was an American and had done a study and report for Los Angeles. Here in Australia, the work he was submitting was simply substituting and retyping the local council’s name where Los Angeles was written. The rot was already present.
Last year the NSW Education Department paid almost $10 million to Deloitte Consultants for ‘expert’ advice, not to mention how much of tax-payers revenue went into the pockets of the disgraced PWC for similar nonsense. This reliance on outside know-how is a ‘logical’ step up from the failed policy of governments employing experts in leadership to head up their departments. What return did we get? After all this time, NSW school system is on life support evidenced by the abject failure of this experts’ approach.
Source: $10 Million for consultants: a further step from reality – Pearls and Irritations
Claims that former Pink Floyd singer Roger Waters deployed antisemitic imagery at recent concerts in Berlin are baseless. The charges are being elevated by media figures and politicians who detest his advocacy for Palestinian liberation.
Source: Roger Waters’s Critics Are Smearing Him as Antisemitic Because They Hate His Pro-Palestine Activism
“Israel continues to indiscriminately rain bullets and bombs on worshippers, murdering the old, the young, attacking even funerals and graveyards as it encourages lynch mobs to target Palestinian homes and businesses, as it imprisons its children, as it continues its project of settler colonialism, expelling Palestinians from their homes, carrying the ongoing Nakba… our silence is no longer acceptable,” she said later. “Palestine can no longer be the exception to our pursuit of justice.”
Mohammed’s criticism of Israel, reference to white supremacy, and an offhand criticism of New York City’s police department have led to public condemnations from U.S. politicians and pro-Israel groups. Many are calling for the university to be defunded over the speech.
Source: Lawmakers Attack CUNY Law Grad for Criticizing Israel in Commencement Speech – scheerpost.com
The Kremlin can continue to rely on the global black market to smuggle in key components. But it all takes time and money. Russia has neither as Ukraine prepares its counter-offensive. Sanctions are most assuredly working. Besides, there is no other moral choice.
Source: Vladimir Putin no longer has the money or the kit to sustain a modern war
It’s astonishing now that the analytical dust has settled on the budget that out of 57 leading Australian economists, most have given it top marks. What planet we may ask do they – and the Labour Government – live on? Not one critically endangered by climate change and a catastrophic decline in biodiversity which collectively pose an unprecedented threat to our (not to mention the world’s) wellbeing and prosperity.
Source: The federal budget: what planet does Labour live on? – Pearls and Irritations
Overall, Australia had 15 universities ranked in the top 100.
Source: Western Sydney University tops global sustainability rankings
Australia is suffering internally and is a Global embarrassment in the eyes of the rest of the world. The very call to a “No vote” is living proof of a level of racist politics sustained and actioned illegally and immorally for these past 240 years. Any demand for “No” is simply proof of an Inglorious past still living in the present and that makes us an exception on the planet among those nations where First Nations Peoples were colonized and their presence went less than recognized in the name of Empire. God didn’t give White Australia this Nation just as God didn’t give Jews Israel. However, Dutton thinks otherwise.
It’s the no vote that’s dangerous.
Source: (1) “There’s a… – The Fiberal Party of Australia – Lies & Misdemeanours | Facebook
Former soldier Ben Roberts-Smith has failed in his bid to sue journalists for exposing his war crimes in Afghanistan. His downfall is set to embarrass the political elites who championed him.
Source: An Elite Soldier’s Downfall Has Created a Dilemma for Australian Politicians
The FBI has reopened an investigation into Australian journalist Julian Assange, according to front-page reporting from the Sydney Morning Herald.
Source: FBI Reopens Julian Assange Case, Despite Australian Pressure
There is no debate to be had Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is simply WRONG on so many levels. NATO may have provoked but Putin took the bait and attacked resulting the planet being threatened like never before.
And then there’s the link between climate and security. “We should work to combine security issues with the environmental and climate agenda,” Ackermann concludes. “This war revealed so many things that we hadn’t seen, that we didn’t want to see, so we’d closed our eyes. Now they are revealed, and we have to be working on that.”
Source: Environmental Hazard: How Russia’s War in Ukraine Threatens the Planet
If he were the White House janitor he’d be done and dusted long ago. It’s not that he’s an ex- President either. He has enough money to stall justice and die long before he’s ever convicted.
Trump’s remarks on the tape create extreme legal jeopardy for him, since they reveal that he was aware that he possessed classified documents, and that he was not actually able any longer to declassify them. Moreover, the “Secret” classification is a sweet spot for espionage prosecutions, Lowell points out, since a mere “Confidential” classification is considered too trivial to bring charges over, while possession of a “Top Secret” document might not be prosecuted for fear that the document itself would be exposed to the light of day.
Source: Smoking Gun: Trump’s Theft of Classified Iran Materials Caught on Tape, May bring him down
Despite Kerry Stokes and other conservative right-wing mainstream media efforts to support Ben Roberts-Smith. The VC’s awardee’s denials and his court actions against CH9 investigative journalists fail to exonerate him. Will Roberts-Smith a declared war criminal now retain his VC in the face of his failure? Will he continue to be held up as an Australian hero?
War criminal and bully: the judge’s findings By
After another harrowing day in court that revealed yet more horrific detail about his time in the Middle East, former Aussie soldier and all-round family man Ben Roberts-Smith remembered that he was actually the fucking idiot who started all of this.
Source: Ben Roberts-Smith Suddenly Remembers He Initiated This Fucking Trial — The Shovel
Ambulance Chasers pretending to be Galahad
Johnson & Johnson pelvic mesh victims have expressed dismay at efforts by their law firm, Shine Justice, to stiff them with exorbitant finance costs. Callum Foote investigates.
Source: Shine Justice to offload heavy finance costs onto pelvic mesh victims? – Michael West
Australians are tired of neoliberalism. We are sick of that much talked about and ever-widening gap between the haves and have-nots.
Victoria became the most privatised of states after former Liberal Premier Jeff Kennett sold everything except the site on which the Victorian Parliament sits — though given time, this too may have been on the cards.
Meanwhile, the mainstream media’s most hated state leader, Victorian Premier Dan Andrews, has enjoyed a 6.5 per cent increase in support since the 2022 State Election, while the Liberal Opposition is down 6.5 per cent. It is not too much of a stretch to posit that the decision by the Andrews Government to restore the State Electricity Commission in Victoria has contributed to voter trust in his Government.
While the hunters are in full tally-ho mode pursuing the PwC fox finally flushed out of the Canberra thicket, there is a whole colony of rabbits quivering in the long grass, awaiting dogs picking up their scent.
Source: Michael Pascoe: Waiting for other PwC shoes to drop in Canberra
Intentional confusion on the part of the fearmongering LNP seems to have gained some traction in Australia as far as the First Nation Peoples are concerned. Australia remains unique and behind the rest of the world in its resistance to what other nations have regarded as common sense for generations.
According to the latest Resolve Strategic poll for Nine media, support for a Yes vote in the upcoming referendum has fallen to 44%. Opposition has climbed eight points to 39%, while 18% are undecided.
A critical difference
Source: (1) A critical… – The Fiberal Party of Australia – Lies & Misdemeanours | Facebook
, Democratic lawmakers and the Biden administration should seek legislation that puts more of the onus of fighting inflation on big corporations. Such legislation would:
— Allow the Justice Department to bust up monopolies (and prevent further consolidation through mergers and acquisitions) when three or fewer corporations have more than half the sales of a particular market.
— Direct the Federal Trade Commission to find that any such corporation has engaged in unlawful price gouging whenever it has raised prices higher than the rate of inflation, and impose a fine that would claw back those unlawful gains.
— Permit the Treasury Department to impose a windfall profits tax on large corporations, above a specific reasonable rate of return or profit margin.
If Republicans won’t go along, Biden and the Democrats should make this a major campaign issue for 2024.
They should ask the public: Do you want more jobs and higher wages, or do you want large corporations making fatter profits by raising prices?
In The Palestine Laboratory, Loewenstein does not merely indict Israel for its failure to live up to the promise of its founding principles and its leading role in the supply, sustainment and normalisation of a border-industrial complex. He also condemns Europe, the US, Australia and the West for their politicisation of fear of the outsider, their receptiveness to divisive demagoguery, and their moral complicity in the immiseration of millions who live under occupation and oppression, and the millions more who roam the Earth in search of safe harbour. Israel may have lost its way, but once-civilised nations seem to be following it into the darkness.
Source: The Harvard of anti-terrorism: how Israel’s military-industrial complex feeds the global arms trade
Following in Victor Orbán’s neo-fascist goose-steps, Trump, DeSantis, and the GOP are imposing his Hungarian brand of Christian nationalism on America. In power since 2010, Orbán — now a fabulously wealthy kleptocrat — turned Hungary from a functioning democracy into a corrupt, single-party, authoritarian oligarchy and provided a beacon for the MAGA Republican sedition caucus.
Source: Why are U.S. Republicans Importing an Alien Fascist Christian Nationalism from Orbán’s Hungary?
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