When will Australians realise, as Paul Keating has been unerringly consistent in arguing, that they are part of the cosmopolitanism and complexity of Asia, and not a Western imagined community presided over by a fast declining America?
Month: July 2023
Why don’t you see this news about China in our mainstream media?
Why Are There No Slums in China? Walking through China’s cities, you will quickly notice the absence of large slums or pervasive homelessness common to the rest of the world.
The single dumbest thing the U.S. empire asks us to believe nowadays is that surrounding its two biggest foes with war machinery is a defensive action, rather than an act of extreme aggression.
Source: Caitlin Johnstone: Biden Lies About ‘Not Surrounding’ China
Something has gone horribly wrong in how customers are treated. We all know it. Peter Mills traces the problem back to how executives and business leaders are incentivised.
Source: Michael West Media – investigative journalists – always independent
Peter Dutton covered up a lot of corruption in the previous government and one of his puppet’s he used to do the dirty work was Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity (ACLEI) Commissioner Jaala Hinchcliffe.
After Jaala Hinchcliffe was appointed Commissioner of the ACLEI in 2020 she ended “16 corruption investigations, 13 of which were into Home Affairs”. And who was Minister for Home Affairs? Yep, Peter Dutton.
Morrison didn’t only scam the French he scammed Australia and left us to cover it up. Now that’s what I call a STING
The chief of US Naval operations Admiral Michael Gilday was recently reported from Washington as saying the US shipyards are only producing subs at a rate of about 1.2 a year. He says a minimum of two a year is needed to fill the Navy’s own requirements. Until then, he said, “We’re not going to be in a position to sell any to the Australians”. A senior Biden advisor, Kurt Campbell added there was also “a troublingly large number of submarines in drydock that needed to be back into the water quickly”.
Source: Good news on nukes: US can’t sell Australia nuclear subs – Pearls and Irritations
We’ve proven the market is there, and that it needs to be monopolistic to succeed, and that if we leave it to the marketplace it will become so enshittened as to become a net negative instead of a net good. It all points to the core premise of social media—subscription-based multicasting—as something the government needs to regulate as a core economic and social good. The billionaires all had their chance, and they turned it all to shit so that they could buy slightly bigger yachts. Screw ’em.
Source: The Case For Social Media Socialism | Crooks and Liars
It will be difficult for the Chinese path to socialist modernisation to be seen as a model to be adopted by other countries unless these countries also ground their programmes on a socialist footing. Poverty was not eradicated by cash transfer schemes or by rural medical programmes alone, though these are valuable policy options: it was eradicated by a socialist commitment to ideas such as dignity and realize them in the world.
Source: How to Eradicate Poverty
“I do not sign restrictive conditions of release,” Hammerschlag told +972 upon his release. “I was wearing a hat with a photo of 47-year-old Atef Hanaysha, who was shot in the head during a demonstration in Beit Dajan. If there is anything to be ashamed of, it is the Israeli army and Israel itself.”
Source: An Israeli activist was thrown in jail for a week — over a hat
“God promised us this land” Doesn’t cut it
If Israel were stripped of its endlessly elaborate narrative, all that would be left would be the violent replacement of a native population with an imported Jewish “tribe.”
Source: Palestinians are in Israel’s crosshairs because they are not Jews | The Electronic Intifada
Worker pay, already failing to keep pace with cost-of-living increases, is at risk of being further suppressed as artificial intelligence and other technologies threaten to automate 27% of existing jobs in wealthy countries.
Source: Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community | Common Dreams
Talk about shooting yourself in the foot or should I say in the head
Let’s remember that no one appreciates academic freedom more than visitors from China and other countries under authoritarian rule. When that freedom is violated by harassment and suspicion, word gets back to China very quickly, and the rewards for returning to China, in money and prestige, become tantalizing.
Source: Who Needs Chinese Scientists? America Does – CounterPunch.org
Trump is bringing back 2016 in 2024 and recycling that fence that Mexico didn’t pay for.
In his 2024 run, Donald Trump is tripling down on his “Muslim ban” — and making Islamophobia explicit.
Source: Trump “Muslim Ban” Returns for 2024 Presidential Election
‘Not sustainable’ for robodebt sealed chapter to be secret forever, Bill Shorten says Australians who received unlawful debt notices want the people who made ‘callous decisions’ to face consequences, government services minister says Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast Paul Karp Chief political correspondent @Paul_Karp Mon 10 Jul 2023 18.34 AEST Last modified on Mon 10 Jul 2023 19.31 AEST Bill Shorten has said it is “not sustainable” for the robodebt royal commission sealed chapter to remain secret forever, as the Greens push for its release within 12 months.
The double standard is glaring, further illuminated by the findings of the Robodebt Royal Commission. While the AFP dithered for years investigating the blue-chippers from PwC for selling state secrets to foreign corporations, it was as quick as a rat up a drainpipe when it came to sending out letters to Centrelink clients threatening them with prison sentences unless they paid their Robodebts. Michael West reports.
Source: Robodebt and Robododger: PwC’s consulting operation revealed – Michael West
“Those hostile to an Indigenous Voice to Parliament — such as Warren Mundine, Peter Dutton and extreme-right activist group Advance — insist that it is “elites” who are pushing the Voice. But it doesn’t take much checking to see that it’s the No campaign with the strongest claim to the title of elite — financial and political.
Australia’s super-rich are perfectly entitled to spend their doubtless hard-earned cash backing the No campaign, and engaging in any other political activity they feel like. And they’re not the ones proclaiming the “elite” nature of Yes advocates. But Advance’s pretence that it’s bankrolled by “grassroots donations” and its opponents are out-of-touch elites — including attacks on “corporate elites” funding the Yes campaign — sits rather poorly with the reality of its donors.
Source: “Those… – The Fiberal Party of Australia – Lies & Misdemeanours | Facebook
Chris Hedges: Journalists Abandoned Julian Assange and Slit Their Own Throats The failure by journalists to mount a campaign to free Julian Assange, or expose the vicious smear campaign against him, is one more catastrophic and self-defeating blunder by the news media.
Source: Chris Hedges: Journalists Abandoned Julian Assange and Slit Their Own Throats – scheerpost.com
Was this the result of Howard, Abbott, and Morrison’s inspiration in telling the EU how to illegally treat asylum seekers? We saw Howard promoting the “children overboard” scam. Abbott the “illegal entry” of internationally legal asylum seekers and Morrison telling the world no person by coming here by boat will ever be allowed to settle. The LNP created Fortress Australia and Abbott and Morrison took it to the world.
The incident “demonstrates once again the inhumane and lethal nature of the European border regime,” said a research agency involved with the investigation.
Source: Probe Suggests Greek Coast Guard Caused Deadly Migrant Shipwreck—and Tried to Cover It Up
Tony Abbott was eager to have us become part of NATO
Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating, whose waspish ire has also been trained on the NATO Secretary-General. In his latest statement, Stoltenberg was condemned as “the supreme fool” of “the international stage”. “Stoltenberg by instinct and policy, is simply an accident on its way to happen.” In thinking that “China should be superintended by the West and strategically circumscribed,” the NATO official had overlooked the obvious point that the country “represents twenty percent of humanity and now possesses the largest economy in the world … and has no record for attacking other states, unlike the United States, whose bidding Stoltenberg is happy to do.”
Source: An Accident Waiting to Happen: NATO Looks to Asia – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Economic plunder of the planet by the Industrial-Military Complex
ALP just did a $1B manufacturing deal with Germany and are proud of it. WTF, isn’t arms dealing the equivalent of fossil fuel export just like gas and coal?
Most of us understand the need to cut carbon emissions. But a huge share of our tax dollars are funding the most carbon-intensive institution on the planet.
Post Covid and Trump America is on the up again economically. Yet the feeling of well-being isn’t. Australia is also on the way up with the ALP in charge. However, we have a feeling of well-being generated by the fact the LNP is no longer the government. While the ALP seems a united team nationally the political fringes Greens, Independents, and One Nation still hold a measure of sway.
However, in America, there’s a serious division between the States which is reflected in the Democratic Party nationally. Biden seems to have to struggle to get things done. Meanwhile, SCOTUS makes America seem a Fascist Dictatorship rather than the great Democratic experiment with its recent rulings.
In other words, the economy is getting better overall – but overall has become a less useful gauge of wellbeing as the rich get richer, the poor grow poorer, and the working middle is under worsening siege.
Source: Why aren’t Americans happier about the economy? | Robert Reich | The Guardian
Before Trump and MAGA America was Great there was only cooperation and accommodation between America and China, the world’s largest economies. But along came Trump who turned domestic politics on its head. He promoted Russia and Nth Korea while transforming China, Mexico, and Latin America into the enemy. With the help of Murdoch Media, the transformation was relatively quick as he needed blue-collar America to back him.
Will Americans see through the contradictions of China-bashing to prevent war, seek mutual accommodation, and thereby rebuild a new version of the joint prosperity that existed before Trump and Biden?
Source: American China-Bashing Is Dripping With Contradictions | The Smirking Chimp
When the Liberals run out of money they come after the poor
Source: Silence of the damned – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Several media outlets including RMIT ABC Fact Check, and AAP Fact Check and AFP Fact Check are publishing articles fact-checking claims about the Voice.
But why is it legal for politicians and other campaigners to lie to you?
Telling lies is legal
Source: It’s legal to tell lies in the Voice campaign. Here’s how to spot them
So what’s going on with the climate, and why are we seeing all these records tumbling at once?
Source: Why are so Many Climate Records breaking all at Once?
That’s why Big Oil is fighting back. Much of the “anti-woke” rhetoric you hear from right-wing politicians and media is funded by fossil fuel interests.
Source: Oil Should Stay in the Ground—And Get Out of Politics | The Smirking Chimp
Once again, the extreme religious right in Israel demonstrates its never-ending racism, violence and inhumanity towards the Palestinian people. Once again, the current Israeli government led by Benjamin Netanyahu demonstrates that it is the direct political expression of the madness of religious extremism, which considers settlement expansion in East Jerusalem and the West Bank an existential issue, and promotes criminal practices, the essence of which is the expulsion of Palestinians from their cities and towns and depriving them of their basic rights as a policy that serves Greater Israel.
Source: The Israeli Far Right’s Alliance with PM Netanyahu is Leading the Mideast into Madness
In the wake of the largest Israeli military assault in the occupied West Bank in nearly 20 years, escalating a horrific year of violence against Palestinians, it’s time to ask what is the end game for Israel’s most extremist far right government, and its most important patron, the United States.
Source: 10 Questions We Must Ask About Continued US Support for Israeli Apartheid | The Smirking Chimp
Murdoch continues to run his politically biased and opinionated “Talk TV” despite seemingly financial loss. What’s the Scam?
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch has insisted he will not shut down TalkTV despite questions over the fledgling news channel’s future as it struggles to revive ailing viewer numbers.
Source: Rupert Murdoch to keep TalkTV open despite low viewing figures
Yesterday’s Flavor lost
Probably not surprising that Tucker’s rants on Twitter aren’t exactly setting the world on fire. Fox News viewers skew heavily to the one-foot-in-the-grave demographic and probably aren’t that jacked to jump on Twitter for their Tucker fix.
Australia’s security agencies must watch closely the speech and actions of Don Jr and expel him at the earliest opportunity, as Alan Austin reports.
What sort of headline is this? Are mainstream media trying to blame Albo?
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has accused his predecessor Scott Morrison of showing “no contrition whatsoever” after the former PM was named in a scathing Robodebt report.
Source: ‘No contrition’: Albanese slams Morrison’s Robodebt response
“We were just doing the job you voted us to do” Isn’t this the politicized excuse of all corrupt governments?
Opposition leader Peter Dutton claims the Robodebt royal commission was politicised from the very beginning and apologised to people impacted by the illegal debt collection scheme.
Source: Claims govt milked political advantage from Robodebt – Michael West
Morrison also added that he didn’t hold a hose, telling us: “The proposal was initiated within the public service and was not a government-initiated measure by ministers. It was initiated by departments before I became the minister for social services.” See, nothing to do with him; he was just standing there waiting for a photo…
Source: Gee, Mr Morrison, We’re Not All Goldfish! – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Media outlets such as A Current Affair were more than happy to provide platforms for the demonising effort. “We will find you,” he told the program, “we will track you down, and you will have to repay those debts, and you may end up in prison”.
Source: Morrison, Porter, Tudge: The Robodebt rogues gallery
The average global temperature hit an unofficial high Tuesday and Wednesday. Then, Thursday was even steamier.
Earth’s average temperature hit an unofficial record high on Tuesday, according to the University of Maine’s climate data website Climate Reanalyzer: 62.9 degrees Fahrenheit (17.18 degrees Celsius). It wasn’t a fluke. The temperature hit the same reading on Wednesday.
Then on Thursday, the average surpassed the brand new record, hitting 63 degrees Fahrenheit.
Source: Did Planet Earth Just Have its Hottest-Ever Week? – Mother Jones
The earth is getting especially hot this year, as record after record falls. Seth Borenstein at AP reports that three times this past week, the average temperature of the earth topped anything ever recorded. Thursday’s average 62.9 °F. (17.18 °C.) broke the record yet again.
Israelis against their Government
TEL AVIV (Reuters) – Israel’s business hub Tel Aviv saw the biggest anti-government protest in weeks on Saturday against a renewed push by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right coalition to overhaul the justice system.
Source: Israeli Protests Reignite As Netanyahu Pushes New Justice Bill | HuffPost Latest News
The Israeli army’s recent attack on Jenin refugee camp resulted in 13 deaths (12 Palestinians, including four children, and one Israeli soldier killed by suspected friendly fire). An additional 143 Palestinians were injured, with 20 in critical condition, and up to 4,000 displaced. While this mass displacement has received less media attention than other aspects of the Israeli operation, it is central to understanding the region’s politics. Forced migration has always been core to the dynamics of modern Palestine and Israel. Most Palestinians are refugees, and Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip is organised around control of movement. While often framed as a fight over religion and ideology, this is ultimately a struggle around demographics, displacement and mobility.
My thought for the day
I find the most objectionable feature of conservative attitudes is its propensity to reject well-substantiated new knowledge, science in other words because it dislikes some of the consequences that may flow from it. (John Lord )
Former Prime Minister was found to have given “untrue” evidence under oath at the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme which means he can now add perjurer to his long list of crimes.
If ever there was an instance of such a hideous failing in government policy and its cowardly implementation by the public service, Australia’s cruel, inept and vicious Robodebt program would have to be one of them.
Source: The Robodebt Rogues Gallery – » The Australian Independent Media Network
When Scott Morrison gets around to disputing the Robodebt Royal Commission’s findings about his crucial role in the scandal – the disaster, the obscenity, the potential crime – remember this: The commission’s findings fit Mr Morrison’s modus operandi.
Source: The ‘horror story’ of Robodebt ‘monster’ one of cascading failures
and Morrison’s response same as Brian Huston’s denial denial denial
olddogthoughts 
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