Fighting Fake News with REAL 25/3/23, Truth in Humour. The Voice , It’s Role, China US & Us,
Legal experts aren’t political experts according to the LNP who won’t be swayed.
A leading expert says the proposed wording of the constitutional change for an Indigenous voice will ensure parliament decides the legal effects of its representation.
Source: Constitutional expert says voice wording clears issues – Michael West
The federal police treatment of independent senator Lidia Thorpe at a protest outside Parliament House has been labelled disturbing and concerning by the Indigenous Australians minister Linda Burney.
The Federal Labor Caucus did not endorse the deal – it simply noted it.
Source: The Federal Labor Caucus did not endorse AUKUS – Pearls and Irritations
Former Prime Minister John Howard says he will combine the 20th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq with Easter celebrations this year, with plans to run a special Easter egg hunt that contains imaginary eggs.
Shell, the other U.K. “super-major” oil company, also re-entered Iraq in 2009 after an invasion in 2003 that was widely denounced at the time as a war-for-oil on the part of the U.S. and U.K., Matt Kennard reports.
Source: BP Extracted £15 Billion of Iraqi Oil After British Invasion
Sanders’ new manifesto is an important reminder of what we should be fighting for, and a reminder that the Democratic party establishment is a main enemy of progress and justice.
Source: Bernie Sanders Keeps Us Focused on What Matters ❧ Current Affairs
Former President Donald Trump’s decision to hold a rally in Waco, Texas is a “blaring air horn” to violent extremists to go to war in his name, wrote the editorial board of the Houston Chronicle on Thursday.
Trump’s legal team in the hush money case has recoiled at the idea of him going in person and recommended that Trump…. quietly turn himself in next week and schedule a remote appearance, even citing guidance from his Secret Service detail about potential security concerns. But Trump has rejected that approach and told various allies, over the weekend, that he didn’t care if someone shot him — he would become ‘a martyr.’ He later added that if he got shot, he would probably win the presidency in 2024, the sources said.”
Donald Trump didn’t have a presidency — it was a crime spree. And the former President, to this day, has been playing his supporters for suckers. It’s been the longest grift ever.It Keeps Running,
Just late last year, Trump announced his foray into NFTs. The virtual trading cards targeting his supporters for sales depict him as a superhero. And more recently, after the one-term scandal-plagued President announced that he would be arrested on Tuesday of this week, he sent out an email blast begging for donations. The arrest hasn’t happened yet, but the grift did. He raised $1.5 million in three days.
Source: Trump Spox: We Love Trump. He Doesn’t Take Us For Suckers | Crooks and Liars
For some reason, I find myself yet again writing about this referendum. Why can’t people comprehend the simplicity of it? Is it because Aboriginal people solely occupied Australia before white people came along? “They didn’t own the land: The land owned them” (as our editor would say).
THERE’S NO US WITHOUT THEM
THE VOICE in NINE POINTS and a PREAMBLE By Paul Smith PREAMBLE – Addressed to serving military personnel and veterans Reconciliation with former enemies ought to be prominent in the ethos of the Australian military – serving personnel and veterans alike. What greater example is there of such mutual generosity than the existence of Turkish…
Source: First Among Equals: The Voice – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Bruce Lehrmann’s lawyer Paul Svilans filed an affidavit in his defamation case against Channel 10 and News Corp which shows further evidence of the Australian Federal Police’s conspiracy to protect Bruce Lehrmann from rape charges.
Life is dwindling on the reefs that ring Australia with more than half of the most common species in population decline, new analysis shows.
Scientists have collated data from three Australian reef monitoring programs that are among the longest-running in the world.
Reflecting the diminishing public support for the AUKUS deal, a new Guardian Essential Poll has found that only one quarter of Australians support paying the $368bn price tag to acquire nuclear submarines. For decades Australians were gung ho about going to war – almost any war. Today – despite the best efforts of the Nine Media (Peter Hartcher in particular) and other media – they are now far more hesitant.
Source: Guardian Essential Poll: AUKUS support collapses, 3-in-4 oppose – Pearls and Irritations
Q: What is more threatening to a democracy than a fascist? A: A stupid one. The Republicans have an abundance of them. My piece of a couple of weeks ago; One step away from total fascism singled out a few of them. I did not except that in the short number of days since …
From the article:
“Ron DeSantis Wants to Make It a Felony to Have an Undocumented Person in Your Home or Car.
A new Florida bill criminalizes not just undocumented Floridians but anyone who associates with them.”
I wonder if he’ll also get some bounty hunters after them. It seems to be the done thing.
Friends in America tell me that DeSantis is worse than Trump. It’s hard to imagine, but I trust their word.
I hope they never find out how bad he can really be.
Source: One step away from total fascism (part 2) – » The Australian Independent Media Network
As it now stands, there are two nations on the soil of geographic Palestine, an Israeli one and a Palestinian one. The Palestinian nation, however, is prevented from having a national government. Palestinians are stateless, they are a homeless nation. They are kept stateless, and therefore without basic human rights, by the much stronger Israelis, who get billions and sophisticated weaponry from the United States annually.
That disparity between a full Israeli nation and the stateless, rights-less Palestinians, has driven the conflict and ensured that Israel comes out on top.
Bezalel Smotrich, the ultra-far-right Israeli finance minister, declared in Paris on Sunday that Palestinians do not exist.
Source: Smotrich unmasks Israel’s truly genocidal face | The Electronic Intifada
An arrest warrant for war crimes alleged against Vladimir Putin highlights the bias shown by the media in overlooking sins of the “good guys”, writes Dr William Briggs.
Source: Putin’s arrest warrant an act of political hypocrisy
It was a powerful piece of disinformation that became so deeply embedded in the American consciousness that it was nearly impossible to dislodge.
Source: George W. Bush’s Iraq Lies Served as a Blueprint for Trump
Australians under 40 face an uncertain future and lower living standards than their parents or grandparents enjoyed. To bring us back from the brink, Australia needs to end the neoliberal consensus.
Source: Australians Under 40 Must End Neoliberalism for Good
A climate change conspiracy theorist has uncovered a set of strange patterns and repeated terminology in research papers, which he says is highly suspicious.
Source: Climate denier says it’s suspicious that every single scientist says EXACT same thing | The Shovel
We simply do not have the luxury of time to look away, to stick our heads in the sand.
Those who go without meals, education and opportunity have no time at all. It’s happening right now, every day. Is that the Australia that we will be satisfied with? If so, all our self-congratulatory attempts, all our flag waving and claims to being a sovereign state become a moot point.
“China has been around for 5,000 years. The United States has been around for 250 years. And it’s not surprising that a juvenile like the United States would have difficulty dealing with a wiser, older civilisation.”
Source: From Balloons to AUKUS: The War Drive Against China – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Why, if naval security was its objective, did Australia choose an iffy nuclear submarine agreement with the U.S. over a sure-shot supply of French submarines? This is a question that Malcolm Turnbull and Paul Keating, the Australian Labor Party’s former PMs, asked. It makes sense only if we understand that Australia now sees itself as a cog in the U.S. wheel for this region. And it is a vision of U.S. naval power projection in the region that today Australia shares. The vision is that settler colonial and ex-colonial powers—the G7-AUKUS—should be the ones making the rules of the current international order. And behind the talk of international order is the mailed fist of the U.S., NATO, and AUKUS. This is what Australia’s nuclear submarine deal really means.
Source: The U.S. and UK’s Submarine Deal Crosses Nuclear Red Lines with Australia – CounterPunch.org
News yesterday that our Collins Class submarines will get fitted with Tomahawks reveals a serious lack of understanding about the tactical use of land attack missiles on submarines. Exposing the blithe war enthusiasts of the Murdoch press, former submariner Rex Patrick explains why Tomahawks on a Collins is a dumb idea.
As the dust settles on the Robodebt Royal Commission, an examination of how the scheme was orchestrated clearly shows its architects should face prison time, writes Paul Begley.
It is never, ever acceptable, under any circumstances, to cite think tanks funded by governments and the military industrial complex as sources of information or expertise on matters of national security or foreign affairs.
You don’t necessarily need to march in a parade, or donate to a charity, or cover yourself in glitter and pretend to be interested in The Real Housewives franchise, or go to a drag show – you just need to be smart enough to see that anti-trans hysteria is being pushed on you because they think you’re weak enough to fall for it.
Source: Nazis and grifters think you’re stupid enough to fall for trans panic, Australia | The Shot
Grossberg is suing Fox for sexual harassment she said she experienced there, and for allegedly setting her up to take a fall in its $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems for Fox’s spreading of false claims about the 2020 election. On March 20, The New York Times reported that Grossberg “says she and other women endured frank and open sexism from co-workers and superiors at the network, which has been dogged for years by lawsuits and allegations about sexual harassment by Fox executives and stars.” Fox had also filed a lawsuit to silence Grossberg, but the network withdrew that lawsuit the next day. As the Times reported, Grossberg’s lawsuit specified sexual harassment and a misogynistic work environment on Carlson’s highly-watched show:
It seems a radical message from the Left of Socialism however demanding to be an EMPEROR and the Oligarch King. Even though he only has around $2.5 B, Rather than a servant of Democracy he wants a TRUMP DEMOCRACY installed. . Trump is PUTIN and KIM JONG-UN in a LATIN DICTATOR in America
On Saturday morning, the former guy posted in all caps on his Truth Social platform that he expected to be “ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK” and called for his supporters to “PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!” He also described the United States as a “DYING” and “THIRD-WORLD” nation, where “THE AMERICAN DREAM IS DEAD!” He added that the 2020 election was “STOLEN,” our borders are “OPEN,” and “PATRIOTS” are being “HELD IN CAPTIVITY LIKE ANIMALS.”
The drums of war are banging as the debate over the AUKUS submarine deal reveals deep divisions about what Australia’s role should be in a US conflict with China. But what does the people of Australia think? And should they have a say? War Powers reform remains just talk but is more urgent than ever, Zacharias Szumer reports.
Source: Could this one reform stop Australia from going to war with China? – Michael West
What happened on March 20, 2003 wasn’t a “mistake.” It wasn’t well-intentioned but “unwise.” It was a calculated, premeditated crime perpetrated on a massive scale. Thousands of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis died in a war premised on transparently nonsensical lies.
Source: The Invasion of Iraq Wasn’t a “Mistake.” It Was a Crime.
Among the lying liars who lied the U.S. into invading Iraq, Joe Biden stands out as a big reason why the lies swallowed the culture, becoming a damning indictment of a society that would elect him president.
Source: IRAQ 20 YEARS: Sam Husseini — The Lies, and Lies About the Lies, About the Invasion
Twenty years on, former US President George W. Bush, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, and Australia’s own John Howard, the troika most to blame for not just the criminal invasion of a foreign country but the regional and global cataclysm consequential to it, remain at large. Since then, Bush has taken to painting; Blair and Howard have preferred to sell gobbets of alleged wisdom on the lecture circuit.
Source: Criminals at Large: The Iraq War Twenty Years On – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Wealth creates power; power creates more wealth. Unattended, this can become a vicious cycle.
Source: Opinion | Bailing Out the Undeserving Rich—Again | Common Dreams
It’s nothing to do with what Trump says, but all to do with his actions, what he does, his breaking of the nation’s laws.,and inciting others to do so. Basically, Trump was and continues to be an un-presidential, not by any means a citizen, but a Mafia boss. A warlord and baron robber who needs to be brought to justice and to heel.
Conservative attorney George Conway called out Republicans for acting like “complete disgraces” in their defense of former President Donald Trump’s alleged underhanded dealings.
Although Palestinian human rights organizations are upset that the ICC indicted Putin relatively quickly, while Israel’s crimes in the Palestinian West Bank have gone on with impunity, the rapidity with which Mr. Khan has moved on Russian crimes is a sign that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu may well be next.
LNP Vic divided by the extreme Right wants to jump Left on one leg
The Age last year revealed the Victorian Liberal Party’s powerful administrative committee voted for Deeming to run in the federal seat of Gorton at the 2022 election, but was deemed too risky by Scott Morrison’s office to run as part of his team.
The department admits that the storage and disposal of such waste and spent fuel will require necessary facilities and trained personnel, appropriate transport, interim and permanent storage facilities and “social license earned and sustained with local and regional communities.” But it also notes that the UK and the US “will assist Australia in developing this capability, leveraging Australia’s decades of safely and securely managing radioactive waste domestically”.
That’s mighty good of them to do so, given that both countries have failed to move beyond the problem of temporary storage. In the UK, the issue of disposing waste from decommissioned nuclear submarines remains stuck in community consultation. In the US, no option has emerged after the Obama administration killed off a repository program to store waste underneath Nevada’s Yucca Mountain. The reasons for doing so, sulked Republicans at the time, were political rather than technical.
Source: Spent Matters: The AUKUS Nuclear Waste Problem – » The Australian Independent Media Network
The current AUKUS submarine contract reflects a profoundly tragic lost opportunity, as Alan Austin reports.
Source: Australia’s submarine deal is a disaster and we know who to blame
The deal does nobody any good. It heightens tensions in an already dangerous part of the world.It weakens the Australian economy and places our people at great risk. It consigns millions of Australians to continued waiting lists for basic services because there will be no fat in any budget any time soon.
All this to stave off an enemy that is still to be proven to be anything but a mirage and to prove fealty to the United States.
Source: AUKUS cements U.S. interests and endangers Australia’s security
The making of ISIS
The looming US war on Iraq may or may not go well militarily, but the US does have the advantage of overwhelming military superiority. The real question is whether it can successfully wage a war of public opinion during and after the military conflict. Iraq is a minefield of religious sensitivities because of the Shiite shrines. Unless the Bush administration is very careful, the 1920 great rebellion could be repeated, this time against an American Mandate. Worse, we could return to the bad old times of the 1980s when it was Shiite radicals who attacked Marines, blew up our embassy in Beirut, and took US hostages. We should be careful not to create allies for al-Qaeda from among its natural enemies.
20 years ago, on 20 March 2003, the US, the UK, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq in an illegal act of aggression. As with all wars, we were told this one would be quick. The pretext for the invasion was – despite authoritative doubts raised at the time – claims about the Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein having weapons of mass destruction. There were no such weapons in Iraq, although plenty of them in two of the invading nations. After on-again off-again ADF deployments, the last Australian troops finally left the country in June 2020.
Source: Twenty years on, ‘coalition of the willing’ rebranded – Pearls and Irritations
Republicans are weary of Donald Trump’s calls for protests amid the belief by the former president that he’ll be arrested this week in connection with a years-old hush-money payment to a porn star.
Mr. Trump has called on his supporters to protest and “take our nation back!” prompting warnings of caution Sunday from prominent conservatives who say they do not want a repeat similar to the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol.
olddogthoughts 