60 women Andrew Bolt ignored he’s a victim of women’s verbal violence (ODT)
We as a society go into collective outrage when strawberries have needles put in them. Or when sharks kill or attack a swimmer. Or when Hassan Khalif Shire Ali, a possibly mentally unwell man, kills Sisto Malaspina, a loved Melbournian.
Without conclusive evidence, the mainstream media saw fit to label it a terrorist act.
Yet when a man kills his partner or former partner, our politicians remain quiet.
We discover the normality of these racist firebrands in our media today in Australia (ODT)
One the one hand, people such as Bowers advocated for an unapologetic embrace of the black-shirt role play that unmistakably marked Charlottesville out as a neo-Nazi gathering; the extremist ideology that underpinned the movement; and also the racist violence that is the only real endpoint of fascist politics.
On the other hand, more strategic or disingenuous white nationalists were urging a path of “normie” dress, less pointed advocacy and quiet entryism into ordinary, conservative politics (their opponents like to refer to them as “optics cucks”).
Those who dismiss the small numbers on the far right rarely consider how small the membership of modern political parties tends to be
On podcasts and social media threads, white nationalists from this latter faction argued that young white nationalists should keep a low profile, stay in school and work, and carry out their political activism within established political institutions.
Ignorance of Trump is manifest in his kneejerk remarks on the Californian fires. This POTUS races to the cliff of stupidity. (ODT)
Los Angeles: Californian firefighters have slammed President Donald Trump for a tweet in which he asserted that this week’s devastating fires were the result of poor forest management.
Donald Trump will award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to seven “distinguished individuals,” including the wife of the Republican party’s largest donor, the White House announced.
Philanthropist Miriam Adelson, the wife of billionaire Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, is set to be honoured at a ceremony later this week.
Threatening Australian councils does Peter Dutton ever stop? He sees himself as the exemplary defender of the Liberal Right one day to the dumb ass goofball of boom gate offering to resign the next. (ODT)
Currently Australia’s most openly vile and incompetant Politician since Tony Abbott put his head down in his no longer certain seat of Warringah is Peter Dutton. As a politician Dutton has absolutely no redeeming features whatsoever that align him to any Australian values or ethos. The man has promoted culture wars, advocated collective punishment of Muslim and African Australians, and declared white Christian males to be the victims of these minorities from otherwise shithole countries despite all the data indicating the opposite. Dutton with MPs bullhorn in hand is forever calling for further upgrades to surveilence tests on all Australians under the pretext that the mentally ill if black or raised in Islam are in fact examples of radicalized terrorists among us.
Does the owner of a coffee house who was in the wrong place at the wrong time really need a State funeral? Politicians one and all really have grabbed the ball and changed the game. What Australians need are Services in this State yes but for all of us. As long as mental health prevention isn’t made a priority and remains hidden some people will continue to get messages from god think their Christ and unwittingly create mayhem by endangering themselves or others. Politicians like Dutton however do it as a matter of course. (ODT)
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has thrown down the gauntlet at the Muslim community to work more closely with police to prevent terrorist attacks, appearing to accuse Islamic leaders of withholding information from authorities.
The role of mental health remains in the background in these discussions surely what we have heard is that it was a major factor in this case as it was with Haider and Man Monis. (ODT)
source of confusion, in an age in which much ugly politicking has been conducted using shameless fear-mongering targeting vulnerable communities, is the belief that some communities, such as the Somali community, are rife with extremism. This is simply not true.
There is a limited problem with youth within the Somali diaspora being targeted by recruiters for terrorist networks like al-Shabaab, IS and al-Qaeda. But it is simply not the case that police and community leaders are failing to properly monitor dangerous individuals.
The risk of terrorism, from whatever quarter – and the continued threat of right wing extremism in the United States is a reminder of future threats that may come to Australia – is not going away any time soon.
There are no easy answers but what is clear is that simplistic responses only increase the threats and hand to the terrorists a victory they should never be given.
The Israeli parliament is scheduled to discuss a bill that would ease requirements on the death penalty for Palestinians next week.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu supported a bill that would allow the imposition of the death penalty for Palestinians charged with attacking Israelis. Debate on the bill is scheduled to restart next week.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has told an event in Sydney that he ‘cried on his knees’ over the plight of children in Nauru, and just wished he was in a position to directly effect change.
“You think about these children and you pray, you cry, and you pray some more. But there’s only so much you can do. It’s frustrating because you feel so powerless,” Morrison said, asking the audience whether they knew anyone who worked in immigration.
“I can’t tell you the number of times I wished I had connections with a government minister or someone in the immigration department with some sort of influence over the situation’,” he said.
“This new body count signals that, far from diminishing, the war is only intensifying.”
The United States’ so-called War on Terror has killed about half a million people in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, according to a new estimate from the Costs of War Project at Brown University’s Watson Institute.
Nizamdeen was not released because he was proven innocent. He was released because the system could not prove him guilty. This is the logic of how counter-terrorism policing and the law works against Muslims and people of colour who are policed as suspect communities.
Nizamdeen was charged with making a document connected to the preparation of a terrorist act. The sole piece of evidence was a notebook found in his workplace desk at the University of New South Wales. Despite denying the handwriting in the notebook was his, and the fact Nizamdeen had not used the office space for a month, he was arrested, deprived of access to a lawyer for six days and denied communication with his family for a month.
He was also classified as an “AA extreme high risk restricted” inmate, the highest classification under NSW’s corrective services system.
Mick Sheehy, NSW police’s detective acting superintendent, told the media that Nizamdeen had “affiliated” with ISIS, but less than two months later, the charges were dropped.
Mohamed Kamer Nizamdeen has called the AFP investigation ‘irresponsible’ and ‘biased’. LinkedIn
How ‘extremist identities’ become motive
Has anybody been to the psych ward of a public hospital? It’s not unusual to find people with severe mental health issues to be telling you they are Jesus or getting messages from god,being paranoind an a danger to themselves an others. We don’t instantly label them as ‘radicalized’ or even self-radicalised terrorist Christians. However if a Muslim has these mental issaues we don’t describe them as severely mentally ill. Why is it politician’s and the conservative right-wing media jump the gutter and immediately declare we are all in danger. The problem being is that we have buried the issue of menal health so that none of us recognize it and if we do we do nothing about it and often allow it to escallate and then excuse it for something else and that’s not a religious issue. Christians with severe mental illness exiist and have done extreme criminal things that have take them to Thomas Embling the hospital for the criminally insane and even under the most strict supervision serious incidents have even occurred there. Our issus isn’t “Muslim radicalisation” our problem is we refuse to recognize the increasing mental health problems our youth are suffering. We refuse to recognize that our politicians and media politicize events for their opportunity disregarding experts who tell them they are wrong. Currently we see White Right-Wing Christian terrorists week after week in the USA killing more Americans than Muslims ever did since 9/11. In that case politicians readily look for the mental health issues and avoid the “radical right” narrative. Our politicians need to stop politicizing the division between religions and calling it a National Security issue when it’s clearly a mental health one. Ali like Garoulos both were criminally insane both terrorized but neither were terrorists. Not a word mentioned about mental health here
Demonstrations are taking place in more than 1,000 U.S. cities and towns on Thursday evening—beginning at 5:00 PM (local time)—in response to President Donald Trump “installing a hack” to oversee the ongoing investigation of Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
“We’re not shedding any tears for, nor are we protesting for, Jeff Sessions. He’ll likely be remembered as the worst Attorney General in American history. We’re protesting Trump installing a hack to obstruct Mueller’s investigation.” —Public Citizen
By forcing Attorney General Jeff Session to resign and appointing Matthew Whitaker—a hostile critic of Mueller’s probe into election meddling—progressive organizers say the emergency nationwide #ProtectMueller protests are designed to raise the alarm about the “existential threat” Whitaker poses to the investigation and to let Trump know in no uncertain terms that “nobody is above the law.”
A few days before he was rolled from the top job, Malcolm Turnbull said “We will not hesitate to use a big stick, as we did with gas, to make sure the big companies do the right thing by you, their customers.”
Well the latest quarterly update from the AEMO shows just how effective that “big stick” was with the gas companies.
Wholesale gas prices increased across all markets compared to Q3 2017 despite a year-on-year reduction in demand (largely due to reduced gas-powered generation (GPG) demand). Average quarterly gas prices in the Declared Wholesale Gas Market (DWGM) in Victoria and Brisbane’s Short-Term Trading Market (STTM) were the second highest on record.
And it doesn’t look like getting better any time soon.
Lest we forget Tony Abbott aborted the NBN before birth (ODT)
For numerous broadband experts, not to mention millions of hapless NBN customers, this might be seen as a classic “no shit, Sherlock” moment. However, it is probably the most significant recent development in the long-running saga that began with Labor’s 21st century fibre-based national broadband network, only to end in tears for so many when former Prime Minister Tony Abbott ordered his heavily-wedged communications minister, Malcolm Turnbull, to “destroy the NBN”.
The Trumpsters are no accident and it will always be supported by Fox News because that’s where the cash flow is (ODT)
Sarah Sanders accused of sharing ‘doctored’ video to justify CNN reporter’s suspension
The White House press secretary — who is upfront in accusing media of sharing “fake news” — tweets a video which analysts claim contains extra frames to make it appear Jim Acosta struck a female intern.
Corman now agrees with Turnbull again but still blames him for the coup?( ODT}
Senator Cormann blamed Mr Turnbull for calling a “surprise” leadership ballot on Tuesday August 21, essentially sealing his own fate by revealing a high degree of support (35 votes) for Mr Dutton.
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann – whose shift in support was crucial in the coup against former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull – has conceded the Coalition had improved its electoral position just before his colleagues knifed their leader.
Senator Cormann said he had not seen internal party polling showing the Coalition ahead 52 to 48 in key marginal seats – polling Mr Turnbull revealed in his appearance on the ABC’s Q&A program on Thursday night.
Turbull is a citizen Abbott is still there that’s a big difference. Murdoch is the head of a mega media org News Corp beyond just influencers and is a member of the IPA an even bigger difference (ODT)
Malcolm Turnbull has challenged his Liberal enemies to reveal why they “blew up the government” in the move against him 11 weeks ago, naming the plotters in an interview that shed new light on the chaotic leadership spill.
Mr Turnbull also relayed an extraordinary statement from News Corp executive chairman Rupert Murdoch that “Malcolm’s got to go” and backed claims that MPs were bullied and intimidated to vote for the change.
The insurgency was led by Peter Dutton, was obviously strongly supported by Tony Abbott and others. Scott did not support it and he’s said that publicly,” he said.
He named Mr Dutton, Mr Abbott, Mathias Cormann, Mitch Fifield, Michaelia Cash, Greg Hunt, Steve Ciobo, Michael Keenan and Angus Taylor for the spill.
It’s a Game and it’s withour rules despite 5 bankruptcies and a life of liars poker ” The film “Oh Lucky Man” Sell Sell Sell (ODT)
George W. Bush saw a “thumpin’.” Barack Obama saw a “shellacking.” Donald Trump sees a “Big Victory.” Never one to admit defeat, even in the face of a major setback, President Trump wasted little time on Wednesday morning trying to frame his party’s election losses as a win even though Democrats seized control of the House of Representatives.
But even as he claimed victory, he quickly went on the offence against the newly elected Democratic House, threatening to retaliate if the opposition uses its new subpoena power to investigate him for corruption and obstruction of justice in an early foreshadowing of the bitter partisan warfare that could dominate the next two years.
You can read the whole list. But here is a sampling of the topics Cummings and his Democratic colleagues have set their sights on:
White House security clearances (involving Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, national security adviser John Bolton, and others)
The controversial addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census
The Trump administration’s Muslim travel ban
The State Department’s decision to close its cyber office
The Environmental Protection Agency’s use of a political loyalty list
The possible participation of Cambridge Analytica’s foreign employees in US elections
The deadly ambush in Niger that left four American soldiers dead
The use of private email by White House officials
Trump’s response to the hurricane that devastated Puerto Rico
The dealings of the Trump Foundation
Potential conflicts of interest between Kushner’s business actions and his policy advice
Payments the Trump Organization received from foreign sources
Russian intervention with state voting systems
Former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s contacts with foreign officials
You can now ask but you won’t get them so what can be done?(ODT)
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he doesn’t want to let Democrats see his tax returns once they assume control of the U.S. House of Representatives next year.
But that’s actually not up to the president ― according to the law, at least.
The leaders of key congressional committees can ask the IRS for anybody’s tax returns. Republicans simply did not want to do so. Democrats said in October that they would ask the IRS for Trump’s returns if they regained control of the House, which they did on Tuesday night.
Trump said Wednesday that he would hand over his tax returns if he weren’t being audited ― an excuse he has made since his 2016 campaign, even though nothing about an IRS audit prevents a candidate or a president from disclosing his returns.
US Attorney-General Jeff Sessions was fired on Wednesday after unrelenting criticism from President Donald Trump over his recusal from an investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 presidential race.
Sessions told the president in a one-page letter that he was submitting his resignation “at your request.”
Sessions’ departure was widely expected to come soon after Tuesday’s congressional elections in which Republicans retained their majority in the Senate but lost control of the House of Representatives.
That leakage started in 2016, but it wasn’t fatal because Trump managed to offset it with those working-class gains in the Midwest. Now he’s handed back those gains, and the suburbs have continued to desert. Trump’s Republican Party is now a rural one, capable of consolidating its rural support in the most Republican territory, but right now, not much else. The result is defeat in the House of Representatives despite a Republican-friendly gerrymander and a concerted effort in several Republican states to suppress the vote of Democrat-leaning minorities. It might not be the landslide the Democrats were hoping for, but we’re still talking about a win in the popular vote of around 9 per cent.
Israel’s propaganda messaging targeting the left includes greenwashing – falsely marketing Israel as environmentally friendly – and pinkwashing, a strategy that deploys Israel’s supposed enlightenment toward LGBTQ issues to deflect criticism from its human rights abuses.
Regard for Israel remains reasonably high overall – 62 percent view Israel as either an ally or friendly, according to the poll – especially when compared with the results for states that are routinely demonized in US media, including Turkey, Iran, China, Russia and North Korea.
But as Shalev notes, Israel’s standings “pale in comparison” to those of Canada (81 percent “ally” or “friendly”) and the United Kingdom (80 percent), and Israel’s position is lower than Germany (68 percent), Japan (69 percent) and South Korea (68 percent).
This poll confirms long-term trends about the profound change in the profile of support for Israel, which includes a dramatic erosion of support among younger American Jews.
It also suggests that the tens – perhaps hundreds – of millions of dollars Israel and its lobby are spending on shoring up that support has been a very poor investment.
Mark Latham’s announcement today that he is to lead One Nation to the next NSW election in March, and to seek a seat in the Upper House, reeks as the next stage in the “Trumpification” of the fringes of Australian politics.
It’s on again by Tony Abbott for his own sake “let’s make Abbott Great again”(ODT)
Tony Abbott and like-minded conservatives are in the midst of a concerted push to claim back the heart and soul of the Liberal party and potentially reinstall him as leader should the party find itself in opposition after next year’s federal election.
The tight-knit group, which includes Abbott, the MP for Hughes, Craig Kelly, the MP for Canning in Perth, Andrew Hastie, and the New South Wales senator Jim Molan have embarked on a series of events at rightwing branches exhorting conservatives to take back control of the Liberal agenda.
On Thursday night Abbott will hold a gala fundraiser for his campaign to retain the seat of Warringah, where he is almost certain to face a significant challenge from an independent in next year’s federal election.
And just as the new King replaced that deceased King, so too must we replace the old dead Australian culture with a new one … just as a language will absorb sounds and words from another tongue and “convert” them into common words of the dominant language, so too must we allow our culture to do the same..to innovate..to change.
So many important discussions this nation must have are being hijacked by sensationalist scaremongering and the caterwauling from the extreme right.
In true Trump fashion, racial profiling is on the rise. Muslims, Africans and asylum seekers are vilified in a frenzy of xenophobia. Aboriginal disadvantage is due to laziness and giving them too many free handouts.
We can’t even fix the tragic plight of the refugees on Manus and Nauru. They are “quietly” bringing people here they tell us in media reports that are supposed to satisfy the growing calls for immediate action whilst saying “shhhhhhh don’t tell anyone”. At the same time, to satisfy the indignant right, they continue to fight tooth and nail in court to stop these people being freed.
Any discussion about migration quickly simplifies to they are taking our jobs, making housing unaffordable, and clogging our cities.
Rumour Andrew Bolt is taking Ross Cameron’s place because the ratings of the Outsiders are better than his Bolt Report and he want’s to call it his show with Rowan Dean. (ODT)
Murdoch Media is a PR firm masquerading as News (ODT)
In response to controversy over Fox News hosts Sean Hannity and Jeanine Pirro campaigning with President Donald Trump, the network claimed that it “does not condone any talent participating in campaign events. … This was an unfortunate distraction and has been addressed.”
Fox’s statement is a lie.
Sean Hannity has previously participated in campaign events this year
Wisconsin’s Koch-funded Republican Gov. Scott Walker lavished the Taiwanese electronics giant Foxconn with over four billion in taxpayer subsidies last year in a deal that he claimed would create 13,000 jobs in the state, but that agreement is increasingly looking like a massive con-job amid new reports on Tuesday that Foxconn is planning to bring in Chinese workers to fill spots that the governor insisted would be filled by Wisconsinites
The pickle Australian policy makers find themselves in lies in the obligations of the Arms Trade Treaty, which insists on a ban on exports of weapons to countries where evidence can be shown of use against civilians. The Saudi-led campaign in Yemen against the Houthis, featuring a true orgy of civilian-targeted destruction, qualifies. But Yemen hardly qualifies as a humanitarian disaster in Australian political discourse (distant places have a certain ethical irrelevance to the plodders in Canberra). To make sure her bases are covered, Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne, in reference not to the war in Yemen but the killing of Khashoggi, suggested that, “All options are on the table”. It is already clear what option Canberra prefers: ignore the complicity of the House of Saud, and keep the procession of defence contracts going.
Actually, ‘game’ is not the right word: our lives, our rights, our ability to work hard and be paid accordingly, our chance to get above debt and enjoy a comfortable life that allows more than just the illusion of freedom and independence. That is what’s been taken. It is no game.
This should be a reasonable and achievable goal for everyone, and from the 1950s up until the mid 1990s, it was. However, it isn’t anymore and never will be again for the majority of us, without a counter revolution.
Almost all of us are destined to see out our days worrying about our rent or mortgage and paying just for the privilege of our existence.
In the world according to Trump, patriotism is no longer enough and must be replaced by nationalism (Mussolini’s party was the Nationalist Fascist Party). Charles DeGaulle observed that patriotism is loving your country an nationalism is hating other peoples’ countries.
And here are the top five ‘nations’ Trump hates:
1. Muslim-majority countries. “Islam hates us,” he pronounced. (Except for Muslim countries willing to suck up to the United States, which is most of them). Thus, Trump imposed his Muslim visa ban.
2. Iran: Trump violated the treaty with Iran; and now he is waging economic war on Iran— which is sure to result in new trouble.
3. Trump castigated Mexicans as rapists and criminals, and wants to wall them out.
4. Trump has now extended these insults to Guatemalans and other Central Americans, using them to insult our intelligence by presenting a small group of women, children and noncombatants seeking asylum at a port of entry), as a major threat. So it is only the non-fascist Latinos that Trump hates.
5. China, Trump yells, is taking advantage of us. He is pursuing a wideranging trade war with that country that will almost certainly at some point seize up the world economy and plunge it into a deep recession.
None of this bad—deplorable—behavior on Trump’s part is ideological. He is not merely playing a vigorous role to advance his stances in fierce partisan policy debates. He is continuing—and intensifying—his war on truth and propriety. He is abusing his office, deploying troops to counter a nonexistent enemy, to create fear in order to gain a political advantage. He seeks to divide, not repair. He exploits tragedy. He engages in racism. He encourages extremism that leads to political violence and murder. Trump has been guiding the GOP and large parts of this nation into a dark place.
It’s true that many of the House and Senate races are about local concerns and matters that directly affect voters: health care, education, wages, and so on. But all these contests are occurring within a Trump-dominated context. As the egotist he is, Trump has proclaimed that this election is about him. In this instance, he is correct. That means the midterms collectively are a referendum on the damage Trump is doing to the office of the president and the political culture of the United States. Though Trump may not be on the ballot, decency is—and its future is on the line.
He is not refiguring the character of democracy, he is destroying it, and in doing so, resurrecting all the elements of a fascist politics that many people thought would never re-emerge after the horrors and death inflicted on millions by fascist dictators. As Gil Scott-Heron once noted in the title of his studio album, it is “Winter in America.” Actually, it is worse: It is winter in fascist America.
When EVEN Fox News pulls a Trump campaign ad as racist…
Fox News of all people followed NBC in changing their mind about the ad.
“Upon further review, FOX News pulled the ad yesterday and it will not appear on either FOX News Channel or FOX Business Network,” ad sales president Marianne Gambelli says.
olddogthoughts 
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