As Chinese women face stigma for remaining unmarried past their late 20s, the boyfriends for rent business is booming.
Source: My time as a fake boyfriend to China’s ‘leftover women’ – Al Jazeera English
Month: May 2016
Dr Evan Jones continues his analysis of corrupt self-regulation in the banking sector, demonstrating the critical need for a Royal Commission.
Source: Self-regulating banks rob us blind: The need for a Royal Commission (Part 2)
By James Moylan Ignorance is our default setting Ever since the enlightenment the various religious and totalitarian forces scattered about the globe have fought a constant rearguard action in defence of their turf. ‘Yes’, they argue, ‘these new-fangled scientific ideas might explain how things work, but we remain the final custodians of why things are…
An investigation reveals the Government has clawed back more than $41 million in false claims by private employment agencies.
Britain and America “profoundly” underestimated the chaos that would be unleashed by the toppling of Saddam Hussein, Tony Blair has admitted, in one of his starkest expressions of regret over the Iraq War. With the long-awaited Chilcot Inquiry report into the war due to be published within weeks, Mr Blair said that the West had not foreseen the “forces of destabilisation” that fill the vacuum left by the dictator’s fall.
Ex-PM’s campaign in blue-ribbon stronghold Warringah succumbs to maneuvering among rank-and-file Libs speculating about “life after Abbott”.
Source: Election 2016: Infighting, retirement speculation hits Tony Abbott’s campaign for Warringah
Most of us have highly stereotypical, caricatured views of the parties’ respective strengths and weaknesses.
Source: How Bill Shorten has the tactical edge on Malcolm Turnbull
VANGUARD – For an independent Australia and Socialism
Source: International contradictions and our fight for proletarian power
The New York Times has run a full-length op-ed in its Monday edition which labels Australia’s offshore refugee detention policy as cruel and dehumanising. Regular columnist Roger Cohen wrote that Australia’s treatment of refugees “follows textbook rules for the administering of cruelty”.
Source: Australia’s asylum seeker policies criticised again in New York Times | SBS News
While Duncan Storrar was being dragged through the mud for asking a hard question, students from an exclusive college were being protected from investigation and Malcolm Turnbull was dining in a private club
India recently launched a “mini space shuttle” for just $14 million. Many people commented, expressing their unhappiness at India investing in space travel while so many of their people live in poverty. The space industry is worth more than a hundred billion dollars worldwide. Most of this is dominated by just a few countries. If India can break into this industry at a lower cost, it could provide a massive stimulus to their economy.
And let’s take a look at a few of the things that were more expensive than their latest launch, shall we?
Isis execution squads have appeared in the streets of Fallujah, a city 40 miles west of Bag
India’s on-going heat wave, which set a new record for the country’s highest-ever recorded temperature last week, is melting tarmac on the roads of some of India’s busiest cities. Residents in the city of Valsad, Gujarat, had to fight melting tar while crossing the road as temperatures rose to 36C. Video footage from NDTV shows people becoming trapped on a melting road surface as their shoes stick in the softening tarmac.
Source: India’s roads melt as record-breaking heat wave continues | Asia | News | The Independent
Few of the incidents in the New York Times-Reddit analysis resembled planned massacres that attracted intense media and political attention in recent years
Source: Most victims of US mass shootings are black, data analysis finds | US news | The Guardian
Like many Palestinian citizens before him, Israeli police insist on holding Maysam Abu Alqian responsible for the beating he took in broad daylight. The beating of 19-year-old Maysam Abu Alqian by plainclothes Border Police officers…
Source: For Israeli police, every Palestinian is guilty until proven innocent | +972 Magazine
Alexander Van der Bellen, a former Green party leader running as independent, pips the Freedom party’s Norbert Hofer
Source: Far-right candidate narrowly defeated in Austrian presidential election | World news | The Guardian
It is looking ever-more likely that climate change is to be placed way down the order of business – at least for the major parties.
Source: Why has climate change disappeared from the Australian election radar?
An Australian soldier speaks publicly for the first time about a commando night raid in which five Afghan children were killed.
AGL Energy chief Andy Vesey has singled out the advance in battery storage as the factor that will “change the world” of energy investment.
Source: AGL Energy’s Andy Vesey sees batteries ‘changing the world’
Christopher Pyne rejects the NBN is behind schedule and says the Government has no regrets over its policy for a slower, cheaper network.
NEW YORK – (CT&P) – A New York Times/SurveyMonkey Poll taken over the weekend has found that over 90% of commencement speakers at high school graduation ceremonies around the country this year told seniors that they actually matter and will make a difference in society.
In the survey, over 1000 commencement speakers were asked a variety of questions regarding the subject matter and overall tone of the speeches they gave.
“Frankly, we were shocked by what we found,” said Professor John Two Horns of SurveyMonkey.
“Almost every speaker we surveyed told graduating seniors that they were ‘the future of America,’ would ‘make a huge difference,’ and were ‘really important.’ We couldn’t find a single speaker that told these kids that their lives really didn’t matter one iota in the overall scheme of things. I mean, someday the sun will burn out and all traces of humanity will be gone. Why doesn’t someone tell them that? ”
“It’s as if these commencement speakers entered some alternate universe for an hour where facts and figures don’t matter,” said John Bigboote of the New York Times. “We don’t know what to make of it, other than they’re saying what the little cretins want to hear. I mean, it’s not as if they need their self-esteem pumped up any more; they’re already narcissistic little monsters anyway.”
Dr. John Mud Head of SurveyMonkey who managed the joint survey agreed.
“My kid just graduated a few years ago and it seemed like we were going to some fucking awards ceremony every other week and watching a soccer game every ten minutes,” said Dr. Mud Head. “It was pure hell. These kids have no idea what they’re in for, I can tell you that.”
Dr. Mud Head said that SurveyMonkey planned on conducting a follow-up survey of graduates ten years from now once they’ve found out that they’re not so fucking precious.
Getting paid $270 to stay in your own house, without any of the tax implications that apply to other people, is just a quirk of the system, say a group of people who are uniquely placed to change the system.
“It does feel a little unfair that taxpayers would be lumped with paying off our investment properties, with us getting all of the capital gains. But laws are laws,” said Finance Minister Mathias Cormann, adding, “Do you know anyone whose job it is to make and change laws?”
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said he didn’t want or need the money, but took it anyway because he was a stickler for the rules. “I wouldn’t want to mess around with the powers that be,” he said at a campaign function about the need for Australians to lessen their reliance on Government.
A cross-party group of MPs, including former SNP leader Alex Salmond, may renew their attempts to impeach Tony Blair following the publication of the Chilcot report later this year. According to reports, Mr Salmond has begun rallying support for an attempted prosecution, pending the findings of the report, which will be released in July. In the UK, impeachment is the procedure whereby MPs can vote to have someone put on trial before the House of Lords. It is a centuries-old procedure which has not actually been used since 1806.
By Ad astra If you had to pick a minister to deliver a nasty message, you would not go past Peter Dutton, master of cruel comments, replete with his trademark po-face and matching body language. Last week, on Sky News, responding to the suggestion by the Greens that we should up our refugee intake to…
Source: Hordes of illiterates – » The Australian Independent Media Network
‘Lord forgive them for they do not know what they’re doing’ … I wonder if this famous quote could apply to our modern-day great freak out over Muslim women and the headscarf. The audacity really! Why cover up when you could be free?
Source: Great Western debate: What’s cooking under the Muslim headscarf? — RT Op-Edge
Eyewitnesses say Border Police officers attacked an Arab worker in central Tel Aviv after he allegedly refused to show them his identity card. Police: The suspect refused to identify himself and attacked the police officers, biting…
Source: Border Police assault Arab supermarket employee in central Tel Aviv | +972 Magazine
The failure of Israeli liberalism has made the ascent of a far-right and openly racist leader sadly in keeping with the country’s mainstream politics, writes Michael Brull. By the time you read this, Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the right-wing Israeli party Yisrael Beiteinu, may be Israel’s new Defence Minister. In this article, I want toMore
Source: With New Defence Minister, Israel Pivots Further Towards Open Racism – New Matilda
The long-awaited Chilcot report into the Iraq war is reportedly set to savage Tony Blair and other former government officials in an “absolutely brutal” verdict on the failings of the occupation.
Cenk Uygur | (The Young Turks) | – – “The planet keeps getting warmer. The level of destruction from natural …
Source: The Hottest Year on Record: 12th month in a row of unprecedented heat | Informed Comment
We are a nation of boat people on Aboriginal land. We are a country built on immigration by migrants, refugees and First Peoples and most of us are damn proud of this, even if Immigration Minister Peter Dutton isn’t. I know I’m proud of where I come from.
Source: Time to embrace the potential refugees offer Australia
Dr Evan Jones tracks the criminal history of self-regulation in the banking sector, demonstrating the critical need for a Royal Commission.
Source: Self-regulating banks rob us blind: The need for a Royal Commission
Malcolm Turnbull had a decision to make this week when Peter Dutton went rogue in his bid to impose border protection and boats on the election campaign and, in the process, become the most polarising figure in Australian politics.
Source: Malcolm and the boats card
Bad things happens when good people stay silent. Dr David Berger is speaking out. Above is a photo of my grandmother, Margot von Bentheim, taken with my mother in the Spring of 1925. She would have been 60 when I was born, but she died at the age of 35. A Jewish refugee from the Nazis,More
Source: It’s Okay To Compare Australia In 2016 With Nazi Germany, And Here’s Why – New Matilda
Monday 23 May 2016 1 “This is my legacy, this is Malcolm Turnbull’s legacy, this is our legacy, and that’s why it’s so important that we re-elect a Coalition government on July 2.” (Tony Abbott). A legacy as I understand it is a gift by will, of money or personal property, something handed down or received…
Source: Day to Day Politics: Abbott still living in dreamland. – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Don’t miss Amy Goodman’s new commentary posted on AJ+ about the media and the 2016 election.
Source: Amy Goodman on AJ+: How the Media Ruins Elections | Democracy Now!
We speak with world-renowned political dissident Noam Chomsky about the Republican party, the rightward shift in U.S. politics and the 2016 election. “If we were honest, we would say something that sounds utterly shocking and no doubt will be taken out of context and lead to hysteria on the part of the usual suspects,” Chomsky says, “but the fact of the matter is that today’s Republican Party qualify as candidates for the most dangerous organization in human history. Literally.”
Israel’s Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon has announced his resignation, citing a “lack of faith” in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The move comes after Netanyahu apparently proposed replacing him as part of a move to expand the coalition government. Political sources say the PM offered ultra-nationalist politician Avigdor Lieberman the defence portfolio instead.
“We give rogue youth every chance”.
Source: More Aboriginal Children Heading For Detention If Bail Laws Changed, Experts Warn – BuzzFeed News
ALP fear their National Broadband Network policy has been leaked to the Liberal Party.
Source: Labor Claims NBN Staffer Took Photos Of Unreleased NBN Policy – BuzzFeed News
Read more The 27 cities with the best quality of life in the world
Source: The 33 cities with the worst quality of life in the world | Business | News | The Independent
The notion of “public interest” has been officially abandoned. The interests of the government are now paramount and they intend to keep a very tight control on information whilst being selectively ruthless about who they pursue. In 2006, Lateline aired a program called Sexual slavery reported in Indigenous community in which an unnamed youth worker…
Source: Public interest be damned – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Want to understand the failures of the “free market” and the key to getting a decent wage? Here’s the real story
Source: The “middle class” myth: Here’s why wages are really so low today – Salon.com
The American commercial broadcaster, American Broadcasting Company (ABC) has revealed in a news article how the presumptive nominee of the Grand Old Party, Donald Trump has deliberately failed to fulfil his tax obligations to the United States. Trump was a business magnate before entering into …
Source: Breaking: ABC News Fingers Donald Trump in a Massive Tax Evasion Scandal AnonHQ
There is a simple explanation why Washington refuses to proscribe the militant groups Jaysh al-Islam and Ahrar al-Sham as terrorist. Because Washington relies on them for regime change in Syria.
Source: US ‘leverage in Syria’ thanks to collusion with terrorists — RT Op-Edge
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