How Australia spends its money, and how this compares to other OECD countries.
Month: May 2016
Watch your back, Hillary. Poll data suggest adults aged 18-29 favor want no part of our neoliberal economic model
Hundreds of leaked pages from the controversial Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) show that the deal could be about to collapse, according to campaigners. The huge leak – which gives the first full insight into the negotiations – shows that the relationship between Europe and the US are weaker than had been thought and that major divisions remain on some of the agreement’s most central provisions.
The first Turnbull budget will be propped up by around $13 billion of so-called “zombie measures”, which are still on the books from the first and second Abbott budgets but not yet passed by the Senate.
Source: Budget 2016: Tony Abbott’s ‘zombies’ add billions to Malcolm Turnbull’s first budget
The idea that smart kids should sacrifice their own education to drag up their peers from non-English speaking families is simply obnoxious.
Australian minister accuses refugee advocates of inciting self-harm after second incident of self-immolation in a week.
Source: Refugee sets herself on fire at Australia’s Nauru camp – AJE News
Al-Qaeda is back in Afghanistan, joining Isis and the Taliban in waging jihad. The three most prominent Islamist terrorist groups in the world are now in one violent arena and drawing the West back into a bloody conflict it had sought to leave behind.
Despite an intensifying media crackdown, Arab journalists are defying repression in the cause of freedom of expression.
When the former London mayor Ken Livingstone said in an interview that Hitler was “supporting Zionism” before he “went mad and ended up killing six million Jews”, he was quickly suspended from the Labour Party, which was already in the throes of a painful row over anti-semitism. But while Livingstone’s tone-deaf comments came at a very politically sensitive moment, the historical error at their heart is all too familiar.
I have zero expectations from racist Jews, but I’d expect the Arabs, my own community, to be less judgmental of young people. You have no idea what it’s like to walk down the street fearing…
Source: Israel’s Arab community has nothing but contempt for its young | +972 Magazine
It’s budget night! Play along at home with The Shovel’s Budget Night Bingo.
Follow us @TheShovel as we live-tweet the budget from just before 7:30pm EST. It’ll be just like the CIA’s live-tweet of bin Laden’s assassination, but less appropriate.
Noam Chomsky confirmed that Bernie Sanders’ policy ideas aren’t radical — in fact, a wide majority of Americans support them.
Source: Chomsky: Bernie Sanders’ Movement Is a “Force That Could Change The Country”
Tuesday’s federal budget may well irrevocably damage its attractions as a retirement savings vehicle for many Australians.
Are you as well off as you think you are, or are you just average? Compare yourself to the rest of Australia with our income calculator.
Tigist Desta doesn’t have it easy.
Source: Only ‘doctors and lawyers’ get in to popular state schools
A video featuring a woman being forcibly removed from a bathroom by police has gone viral in the wake of states passing anti-LGBT “bathroom” laws.
Source: Watch Cops Drag Lesbian out of Bathroom for “Not Looking Like A Woman” (VIDEO)
John Passant examines negative gearing and the sectors that continue to benefit from this and other tax concessions favoured by the Turnbull Government.
Source: The tax concessions Turnbull won’t abolish all overwhelmingly favour the top 10%
By James Moylan Near the end of August in 2013 Tony Abbott launched the Liberal Party Campaign with a rousing speech full of pithy one-liners and simply jam-packed with heartfelt promises. But so much has happened in the last 31 months that most people have entirely forgotten the raft of promises that were made and…
Source: Promises, promises – » The Australian Independent Media Network
The famous actor Matt Damon (Yeah Matt Damon, not Mark Wahlberg) gave a BRAVE and SHOCKING speech by Howard Zinn, where he mentions “the “topsy turvy world” we’re living in where the wrong people are in jail and the wrong people are out of jail.” He also says that “the wrong people are in power, […]
Source: Matt Damon Gives SHOCKING Speech On Global Elite Calling For Global Disobedience!
Rich and large, rude and loud. If there were a Pacific neighbourhood watch group, Australia would be the neighbour the group had to watch.
Source: Australia is a bad neighbour and we should be better than this
If you follow American politics, by now you’re privy to the case of the many bathroom bills introduced by religious conservatives in various states.
The recent, rather unsurprising revelation that all of the anti-trans propaganda is nothing but propaganda reminded me of the utter effectiveness of the Goebbels model. Particularly the fabrication of anxiety. Or as Doob put it in Goebbels’ Principles of Propaganda:
Propaganda to the home front must create an optimum anxiety level.
- Propaganda must reinforce anxiety concerning the consequences of defeat.
- Propaganda must diminish anxiety (other than that concerning the consequences of defeat) which is too high and cannot be reduced by people themselves.
Goebbels, of course, was not alone- nor was he the brilliant creator of modern marketing. Long before him monotheistic religions had already put those principles into practice with extraordinary success. The creation of anxiety has been the backbone of interpersonal manipulation forever.
We can…
My dear friends, I am writing this because I want to say … We are sorry that when you needed us, instead of helping we threw you into hell
UPDATE 2.20PM: The Department of Immigration and Border Protection has confirmed Iranian refugee who set himself on fire on Nauru on Wednesday has died.”A 23-year-old Iranian man who set hims
Source: Nauru Refugee Omid Dies From Burns, As Two Reportedly Arrested For Suicide Attempts
The Turnbull government has again rejected the sale of Australia’s largest private land holding to a Chinese business interests, declaring the proposed deal was not in the national interest.
Source: Scott Morrison’s decision to block S. Kidman and Co sale leaves investors fuming
Simmering tension within the British Labour Party over claims of antisemitism has boiled over. First MP Naz Shah was suspended; now theparty’s former London mayor, Ken Livingstone has joined her. It’s an ideal moment to consider what antisemitism actually is. Many probably – perhaps secretly – gave up puzzling over antisemitism long ago. They’ve moved on to some other issue, like battery hens, where the oppressors are shamefaced and the victims can’t speak.
Source: What actually is antisemitism? | Voices | The Independent
For Saudi Arabia to break its “addiction” to oil sounds a bit like the Catholic Church trying to end its addiction to Christianity. It is not only the world’s largest oil exporter; it also sits on the world’s largest oil reserves. But this was indeed what the man overseeing the Saudi economy, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, proposed in the Vision 2030 plan, launched last week.
Source: Saudi Arabia’s retreat from oil places it on the right side of history | Voices | The Independent
Just like his adventure in Yemen, Saudi Arabia’s young Deputy Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman got it all wrong this week. It’s not Saudi Arabia which suffers from “oil addiction”, it’s we who are addicted. The unique Saudi drug – a cocktail of wealth, arrogance and infantile Puritanism – is far more dangerous, since it depends on the arithmetic (or myth) of its 716 billion barrels of oil reserves.
A 24-year-old Palestinian and her teenage brother were shot and killed by Israeli troops after allegedly trying to stab Border Police officers. The police’s version of the events doesn’t add up, but nobody in Israel,…
Source: For most Israelis, Palestinian lives don’t matter | +972 Magazine
At least 800 Australians have been linked with the Panamanian firm Mossack Fonseca, and there could be many more. And this firm is just one of a multitude of similar firms operating similar tax secrecy networks in similar jurisdictions to Panama.
Source: Are The Panama Papers Just The Tip Of Australia’s Tax Avoidance Iceberg? | Andrew Leigh
False allegations are being used as weapons against Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.
Source: How Israel lobby manufactured UK Labour Party’s anti-Semitism crisis | The Electronic Intifada
What the CIA did to Abu Zubaydah was barbarous. That his torturers have gone unpunished is an American tragedy
The real players who have unrivaled influence over who takes the White House
Source: Drudge, Koch, Soros, Bezos: These 4 non-politicians will determine the next president – Salon.com
On the 1st of May 1946, over 800 Aboriginal stockmen walked off their jobs in a coordinated strike against their employment conditions on pastoral stations across the Pilbara. While the strike officially lasted until August 1949 many stockmen never returned to their former employment in the pastoral industry.
[
Download for free the song CLANCEY & DOOLEY & DON McLEOD in MP3 format, and the SHANE HOWARD TOUR POSTER – see below] The Western Australian Aboriginal Pastoral Workers Strike of 194…
Source: WA Aboriginal Pastoral Workers Strike of 1946 | Workers BushTelegraph
There’s a vast difference between being a victim of discrimination and the reality of fewer people agreeing with you than you’re used to
For some reason, there’s an expectation that for Indigenous people to move forward on constitutional recognition or a treaty we have to be in furious agreement; to be of one voice. Why?
Source: The high standard applied to Indigenous recognition – The Drum (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
In October 1931, union men in Newark, New Jersey, staged a major protest march. During the previous two years, the United States had tumbled into economic depression, with the unemployment rate rising as the stock market sank.
Sunday, April 17, was the designated moment. The world’s leading oil producers were expected to bring fresh discipline to the chaotic petroleum market and spark a return to high prices.
Source: Did OPEC Just Start Preparing for the End of the Oil Era? | The Nation
Robert Reich explains how we can close the “Racial Wealth Gap”
Source: Robert Reich On The “Racial Wealth Gap” And How To Close It | Crooks and Liars
Saturday 30 April 2016 In 2013 the then Treasurer Wayne Swan, wrote an essay about the ever-increasing inequality that had invaded our society. The right-wing Murdoch press immediately attacked his piece as class warfare. So what the hell is this class warfare everyone talks about? I would have thought that there was less class distinction in Australia than…
Source: Day to Day Politics: Class Warfare? Yes it is. – » The Australian Independent Media Network
That’s his story and he’s sticking to it.
Source: Donald Trump Doesn’t Know We Invaded Iraq After We Invaded Afghanistan | Crooks and Liars
Trump’s personalism is how he pushes away the protection of constitutional principle with every fiber of his being.
olddogthoughts 
You must be logged in to post a comment.