Author: peterimrich

Informed Comment

Inflation Isn’t the Problem! The Real Problem Is Employers Are Shafting Workers | The Smirking Chimp

More inflation buzz today. The U.S. consumer price index for January is expected to have risen 0.5% — culminating in an annual rise of 7.3%, which would be the largest such increase since 1982. Yes, prices are increasing. But would you prefer a recession? As a practical matter, that’s the choice the Fed gives us. When the Fed puts on the brakes, it often pushes the economy into a ditch. A recession will cause far more hardship for many more Americans than inflation is now causing.

Source: Inflation Isn’t the Problem! The Real Problem Is Employers Are Shafting Workers | The Smirking Chimp

Trump

Can Trump Be Barred for Running for President Because He Flushed Papers Down a Toilet? – Mother Jones

“It would raise a substantial constitutional question,” he says, “because it would constitute Congress placing an additional qualification on the office of the presidency after the Constitution itself had established the criteria. But it is an open question of law. The final resolution would be up to the courts and the Supreme Court.” The old saw is that Al Capone met his demise because of tax crimes. It’s unlikely Trump will meet his because he flushed papers down the White House commode.

Source: Can Trump Be Barred for Running for President Because He Flushed Papers Down a Toilet? – Mother Jones

Fight against Fake News, Fighting Fake News

Old Dog Thought- The ” News” Jenny on 60 Minutes ” The dog ate his homework” and Saving the Koala
morrison

Fighting Fake News with REAL; 11/2/22; Religious Government; Jenny is still running the country;

Informed Comment

Why am I crying? – » The Australian Independent Media Network

I cried because their experiences should never have happened – they should have been safe.

I cried for all the women and children who should have been safe.

I cried in anger and frustration at our failure to make them safe – to prevent the dehumanising harm that endemic violence causes.

I cried that power is wasted on those whose only aim is to stay in power by whatever means it takes.

But mostly…

I cried with pride.

Source: Why am I crying? – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Education

Private school funding rises five-fold while public school funding stagnates – Michael West Media

Why has Australia gone backward in the past decade in comparison to the rest of the world?

New school funding figures show that government funding for private schools increased by nearly five times that for public schools over the last 10 years, writes Trevor Cobbold.

Source: Private school funding rises five-fold while public school funding stagnates – Michael West Media

ASIO

ASIO director-general tells of foiling foreign attempt to interfere in election

 

“Australians who were targeted by the foreign intelligence service included current and former high-ranking government officials, academics, members of think tanks, business executives and members of a diaspora community,” Mr Burgess said.Mr Burgess said while terrorism remained a key threat, espionage and foreign interference – sometimes by “friends with sharp elbows” – were the agency’s main security concern.

A diaspora (/daɪˈæspərə/ dye-AS-pər-ə) is a scattered population whose origin lies in a separate geographic locale. Historically, the word diaspora was used to refer to the mass dispersion of a population from its indigenous territories, specifically the dispersion of Jews.

ASIO fails to name the Foreign State that has attempted to interfere in our elections. However, the term “diaspora ”  was used and it is commonly applied to Jews in their relationship to Israel. We have previously been told Israel is extremely eager to become a part of AUKUS. Their history is that of “friends with sharp elbows”.  Is ASIO simply stating the obvious at a time when their budget might be under review? Israel’s Mossad has spied and been caught previously. Israel has a history as an influencer on Australia’s elections for years both Labour and Liberals their target. Is there some other “diaspora”?

Source: ASIO director-general tells of foiling foreign attempt to interfere in election

Stock Market

Now More Than Ever, the Stock Market Doesn’t Matter

A pedestrian is reflected in a mirror while walking past the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., on Monday, Feb. 22, 2016. U.S. stocks advanced, with the Standard & Poor's 500 Index headed toward a six-week high, amid gains in banks and commodity shares as oil surged. Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Whether stocks plunge, which they might, or go back up or just head sideways, it’s irrelevant for almost all of us.

Source: Now More Than Ever, the Stock Market Doesn’t Matter

Journalism

The decade of News Corp’s demise

A Year Ago and Today

Can a world without the influence of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp be imagined? Alan Austin, it seems, has such a vivid imagination. AT THE BEGINNING of the decade there is optimism for renewal of the media landscape in several countries as support for News Corp appears to be dwindling.

Source:

The decade of News Corp’s demise

and

 Van Onselen and the decline of journalism

Informed Comment

Morrison pins his hopes on the complacency or ignorance of voters – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Morrison’s advantage is that his unstated quid pro quo relationship with a corporate MSM, a private media which assists by producing a numbing mist and not News. A cocktail of sport, entertainment, and a scattering of trivial reports sold as but what it isn’t “News”. It’s actually a distraction a soporific fake product. Grace Tame and Brittany Higgins started a conversation at the NPC and 60 Minutes follows it up with Morrison hiding behind his wife Jenny’s skirt. The issue of Morrison and te Sexism in Canberra diffused rather than addressed proves and speaks to Tame and Higgin’s claim that Morrison has done nothing.

Murdoch doesn’t even hide the fact that they aren’t a News organisation anymore but use the term “opinion” to cover up their primary function propaganda, or a cash for comment business model. Meanhile  Morrison’s LNP shreds our Democracy and the ABC to consolidate their’s and Murdoch’s model of and transition to one party rule.

By Mike Scrafton We’re facing a climate calamity, yet the PM believes Australians are more focused on the next holiday than threats to their children’s future. In his recent address to the National Press Club, Prime Minister Scott Morrison typically infantilised voters and kept the focus on economic growth. He believes the voters, cocooned in their cloistered suburbs, are oblivious to the threats that will crush their children’s future prospects.

Source: Morrison pins his hopes on the complacency or ignorance of voters – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Scott Morrison

‘Good Godly Leadership’: Citipointe Christian College’s extensive links to Queensland’s LNP | Queensland | The Guardian

Citipointe Christian College principal Brian Mulheran

The road to the Dark Ages is being paved by the LNP. Will Evolution be again banned or tested in Schools? Marco Polo was declared a heretic and jailed. Hitler burned books and censorship is being called for by ISIS. The Catholic Church once banned Sociology as recently as the 50s and 60s.

Before the end of the last school year, the principal of Brisbane’s Citipointe Christian College, Brian Mulheran, brought his teaching staff together and asked them to pray. Multiple teachers recall how Mulheran ran a PowerPoint presentation that listed the key elements of the federal government’s proposed religious freedom bill. As he went through them in turn, he led staff in a prayer that each measure would be enacted in 2022. 

Citipointe college and its principal jumped the gun this week, attempting to force families to sign enrolment contracts that contained anti-gay and anti-trans provisions that lawyers say likely breached Queensland’s existing anti-discrimination laws. Mulheran initially framed it as “a legitimate exercise in religious freedom” but by the end of the week, the attempt to enforce the contracts – and some say momentum for the government’s religious freedom laws – had collapsed.

In the process, what has become increasingly clear is the extent to which Citipointe – both the Pentecostal megachurch and its school – has promoted conservative political activism alongside what it preaches.

Source: ‘Good Godly Leadership’: Citipointe Christian College’s extensive links to Queensland’s LNP | Queensland | The Guardian

Critical Thought

North Carolina’s New Education Bill Promotes Historical Erasure and White Supremacy | The Smirking Chimp

What Australia’s LNP wants but can’t come up with yet is how to do away with history and the facts of how we got here. The prefer myth unlike the Germans. Lest we forget the Catholic Church once banned books and maintained the reading of Sociology was a sin. The teaching of Evolution was heretical and science dangerous.  Today it’s the process or way we study history and apply CT Critical Thinking or particularly CRT and focus on Race. Post-war Germany still practices CT  today and does it daily. Gone is the notion of an Aryan super race. Why do we see the rise of white superiority again in America and here and that Racism should never be taught or history learned or discovered? Don’t we have freedom no a requirement to learn only to be  trained when it comes to education? Trained like the Hitler Youth once were or the way Muslims are in Madrasses,orthodox Jews, and Christian cults are? Andrew Bolt thinks so.

In the state of North Carolina, the legislature saw fit to pass House Bill 324 in response to the Critical Race Theory madness set off by a FOX News interview. The bill outlaws teaching that includes the following:

1. “One race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex.”

2. “An individual, solely by virtue of his or her race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously.”

3. “An individual should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment solely or partly because of his or her race or sex.”

4. “An individual’s moral character necessarily determined by his or her race or sex.”

5. “An individual, solely by virtue of his or her race or sex.”

6. “Any individual solely by virtue of his or her race or sex, should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress.”

7. “That the belief that the United States as a meritocracy is an inherently racist or sexist belief, or that the United States was created by members of a particular race or sex for the purpose of oppressing members of another race or sex.”

Source: North Carolina’s New Education Bill Promotes Historical Erasure and White Supremacy | The Smirking Chimp

Informed Comment

The Real Fake News Crisis in America Comes From Corporate Media

The difference between “media” and actual journalism is the root of the misinformation crisis. We’re drowning in content that is increasingly valued only for its potency in the political wars, rather than judged on its factual merits and its choice of targets. That kind of media content strays farther and farther from reality because it’s about entertaining and inflaming rather than educating and informing.

The answer to misinformation, then, is not some censorship regime, and it’s not more intense fan culture around individual media icons so that everything is a self-enriching culture war between cable TV pundits and Spotify hosts.

The answer is an audience that actually values accurate and necessary information, even if it offends their preconceived notions — an audience that runs away from corporate media outlets that force-feed them lies and liars, and runs toward news organizations that report hard truths.

That’s the kind of news organization we’re working to build here. And we know it’s going to take a long time to build a true independent and trustworthy Fourth Estate in the wreckage of a corporate media landscape, where the flames of bullshit smolder and suffocate the discourse.

But that’s the only way forward.

Source: The Real Fake News Crisis in America Comes From Corporate Media

Fight against Fake News, Fighting Fake News

Old Dog Thought- Morrison’s $1.2Bn Domestic Abuse of the ABC Exposed
Ita Buttrose

Fighting Fake News with REAL, 10/2/22; ABC still cut $1.2 Billion over the LNP Decade; Private and Public School Funding; Source of Real Fake News Murdoch Model;

Misinformation

Morrison’s misinformation campaign is his greatest weapon

The Morrison Government has become so entangled in scandals and misinformation that it’s difficult to determine what’s real anymore, writes Dr Jennifer Wilson. STEVE BANNON, sometime White House Chief Strategist in the administration of former U.S. President Donald Trump, coined the term “flood the zone with shit”. This strategy, succinctly identified by Bannon though not created by him, involves disseminating masses of disinformation intended to seed public mistrust and erode the public’s ability to determine what is true. Overwhelmed by disinformation, it becomes impossible to identify one coherent narrative and the search for truth becomes too exhausting to pursue. When the public is exhausted, the zone has been flooded with shit. There is confusion, anger, insecurity and fear, and having concluded that there is no knowable truth in politics, people instead yearn for an authoritative leader, someone who appears to cut through the shit for them, as the only feasible alternative.

Source: Morrison’s misinformation campaign is his greatest weapon

Informed Comment

Michael Pascoe: Here comes the window dressing (Cheers, Biloela family!)

Scott Morrison and the Biloela family

Media staged politics is at the expense of humanity and everything decent. The history of Morrison’s cruelty will be on display. The ABC has seemingly been promised some money back that was taken away after Morrison’s win as it was after Abbott’s. It’s par for the LNP.

The Biloela Family will be used in Morrison’s cruel plan to advertise a false fact “I’m not the man they say I am”. These people have been held politically captive to be released for just this sort of event. We have to remind ourselves, Morrison is simply looking to stop a small % swing against him in marginal electorates. He’s not trying to influence the whole country. So Religious Discrimination stays, ICAC goes, humanizing Morrison remains a priority according to the polls. So acts like this will and must remain on the agenda no matter how calculating they seem to the majority of us. There will be very Australian not a French polish used and it’s coming our way. However, what lies beneath won’t change.

The good news: I’m quietly confident the Biloela family will be “home to Bilo” before the election. The bad news: They should have been there years ago. The despicable news: The timing of their release is being delayed for political theatre, the staging of a “Liberal moderates acting tough, achieving change” pantomime.

Source: Michael Pascoe: Here comes the window dressing (Cheers, Biloela family!)

Scott Morrison

Scott Morrison gave $4 million to Christian Esther Foundation

The PM’s boast in 2019 became rather hollow after the Esther Foundation started to unravel less than six months after he granted the public funds.

Source: Scott Morrison gave $4 million to Christian Esther Foundation

COVID-19

Living with Covid, or dying from Covid – » The Australian Independent Media Network

While the Australian per capita Covid fatality rate was one of the lowest in the world, Omicron and the new “let it rip” approach has us on a trajectory to catch the leading high-fatality-rate nations.

Source: Living with Covid, or dying from Covid – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Fossil fuels

A hot Kurri Kurri: why Labor’s fossil proposal is even worse than the Coalition’s – Michael West Media

Fossil fuel subsidies

The point isn’t whether or not the ALP’s proposals are better or worse than the LNPs but rather why has politics driven the ALP to come to an agreement of any sort with the LNP over the Kurri Kurri gas plant? It’s very existense serves no purpose now let alone in the future. If there isn’t a finacial case is there is there a welfare case for an electorate in transition?

The Kurri Kurri gas plant proposal. No financial case, no necessity, a billion-dollar price tag, infrastructure unfit for purpose, a nearby gas plant that does the same job and faces the rising affordability of batteries. Callum Foote reports on why Labor’s proposal may be even worse than the Coalition’s.

Source: A hot Kurri Kurri: why Labor’s fossil proposal is even worse than the Coalition’s – Michael West Media

Great Barrier Reef

Great Barrier Reef Fantasies: The Morrison Government’s Electoral Ploy – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Such funding promises as that of the Morrison government are decidedly narrow, the stuff of spreadsheet wonks and committees. These are almost always doomed to failure. Throw money at the problem in isolation, tinker with that deficiency, and ignore the more calamitous, expansive picture. John C. Day and Scott F. Heron, both of James Cook University, summarise the point: “While the new funding is meant to address other threats to the natural wonder and may improve its resilience, failing to address the climate threat is both disappointing and nonsensical.” The picture painted by Day and Heron is bleak. In December 2021, the ocean temperatures on the Reef proved to be the warmest on record. The risk of a fourth mass bleaching event in this decade was very much a serious proposition. Both the Commonwealth and Queensland governments have also shown an appetite for approving new coal and gas projects, which bring with them a greater expansion of ports and increased shipping. This is despite warnings stretching back years, including a 2013 declaration by concerned scientists about industrial development of the Great Barrier Reef coast. “As scientists, we therefore are concerned about the additional pressures that will be exerted by expansion of coastal ports and industrial development accompanied by a projected near-doubling in shipping, major coastal reclamation works, large-scale seabed dredging and dredge soil disposal.”

 

Source: Great Barrier Reef Fantasies: The Morrison Government’s Electoral Ploy – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Comment

A quarter of the world depends on Glacier Melt for their Water; it will be Gone Sooner than Expected

Mountain glaciers are essential water sources for nearly a quarter of the global population. But figuring out just how much ice they hold – and how much water will be available as glaciers shrink in a warming world – has been notoriously difficult. In a new study, scientists mapped the speed of over 200,000 glaciers to get closer to an answer. They discovered that widely used estimates of glacier ice volume may be off by about 20% in terms of how much Earth’s glaciers outside the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets could contribute to sea level rise. Mathieu Morlighem, a leader in ice sheet modeling and a coauthor of the study, explains why the new results hold a warning for regions that rely on glaciers’ seasonal meltwater, but barely register in the big picture of rising seas.

Source: A quarter of the world depends on Glacier Melt for their Water; it will be Gone Sooner than Expected

Democracy

Revulsion Against Billionaire Wealth Isn’t About “Envy.” It’s About Democracy.

Rotterdam has been forced to walk back the dismantling of a historic bridge to make way for Jeff Bezos’s superyacht. But the incident is a reminder that billionaires’ obscene wealth isn’t just about hoarding resources — it’s also about undermining democracy.

Source: Revulsion Against Billionaire Wealth Isn’t About “Envy.” It’s About Democracy.

Trump

Trump’s “love letters” from Kim Jong-un spirited from White House, seized at Mar-a-Lago: report | Salon.com

Donald Trump (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Trumpism and self aggrandisment formula

  1. Always hide things and use people  2) ensure the next Administration flies blind leave nothing behind 3) Serve yourself never the Country

Former President Donald Trump improperly removed boxes of documents from the White House that were seized last month by the National Archives And Records Administration, according to the Washington Post. Trump has repeatedly run afoul of the Presidential Records Act, which requires all official documents and gifts to be preserved. Trump repeatedly tore up documents in violation of the law and White House staffers routinely put documents in “burn bags” to be destroyed, the Post reported last week. The National Archives said that some of the documents it has turned over to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot were torn up and had to be taped back together. The National Archives also retrieved boxes of documents that had not been turned over at Mar-a-Lago in January, according to the Post. Trump advisers denied any “nefarious intent” to the outlet, which noted that the boxes contained gifts and letters from world leaders, including a letter from former President Barack Obama and letters from North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, which Trump once described as “love letters.”

Source: Trump’s “love letters” from Kim Jong-un spirited from White House, seized at Mar-a-Lago: report | Salon.com

Media

We know who Trump is already – Columbia Journalism Review

it’s easy, here, to miss the forest for the trees. Only a handful of Congressional Republicans have meaningfully embraced the proper, zero-tolerance standard for Trump’s election lies; last week, the Republican National Committee censured two of them while declaring the events of January 6 “legitimate political discourse.” The trend is clear. Hearing one minute that Trump is stronger than ever and the next that he is getting weaker risks obscuring it.

Source: We know who Trump is already – Columbia Journalism Review

Fight against Fake News, Fighting Fake News

Old Dog Thought- This scorpion is asking for a free ride. Never forget it’s nature!
Scott Morrison and the Biloela family

Fighting Fake News with REAL 9/2/22; John Lord, Biloela

Informed Comment

The government is falling apart… let’s hope the voters are paying attention – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Why is it people like Trump can gain voters’ attention but those on the left don’t seem to be able to do the same as Whitlam and Hawke once did? Their enthusiasm was contagious. I dare say it’s to do with the a shift in the media more so than the politicians. Bill Shorten and Albanese have both been regarded as as inspiring speakers in the ALP. Plibersek has a great media presence next to them Morrison Frydenberg look incompetent. But the media guarantees that, that in fact, won’t happen.

My thought for the day We live in a time where horrible things are being perpetrated on us. The shame is that we have normalised them and adjusted accordingly. (John Lord)

Source: The government is falling apart… let’s hope the voters are paying attention – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Peter Dutton

Paul Bongiorno: ‘Dutts’ to the rescue in a sure sign of desperate times

Instead, Carr doubled down in another tweet saying unless another minister fessed up “who has most to gain from undermining further a flailing PM?”.

There is nothing “common” or united in this view unless you’re a totally paranoid lunatic. A fuckwit that no longer knows up from down. Turning to Andrew Bolt only proves you are a fringe dweller and idiot. Bolt’s been wrong most of his career as a commentator. For two decades he insisted the world was “cooling”. He said he once worked as a belly dancer’s minder. It was Walter Mitty Andrew Bolt who kept telling us Tony Abbott had seen the folly of his ways and was about to change.

Bolt’s not a commentator he’s an ape aligned with Dutton’s Monkey Pod room and want to take charge of the Canberra asylum. But then this Australia-hater also wants to retire to a barge in Amsterdam. A place more “socialist, multiculturalist, multiethnic with a population twice that of Melbourne. If Conservatives see Andrew Bolt as their “leading” media voice then we have nothing to worry about.

Bolt, was to our misfortune, an accident waiting to happen. In the 80s while working for Murdoch he realised hated “News” and journalism because it entailed work and attention so he became their obit writer. However even that was a mental strain so he gave it away for Murdoch’s new propaganda for profit arm. It hadn’t the demands of journalism and  was regarded by real reporters as a Dorothy Dixer, opinion only soft job. Andrew Bolt’s been there ever since. Today it’s rated and awarded the APC’s most media complaints of which News Corp totals 66%.

A common view is that “Dutts”, as they call him, could save seats in his home state of Queensland and help stem the bleeding to the right on issues of vaccine mandates and religious freedom elsewhere. The view has support outside the parliamentary Liberal Party. One of Australia’s leading conservative commentators, Andrew Bolt, used his popular News Corp column on Monday to urge: “Peter Dutton, get ready to lead”. Bolt wrote the Prime Minister Scott Morrison “looks finished and is now making a fool of himself to get some love”. The columnist, like many across the Parliament, was simply aghast at Morrison’s stunt on Friday where he massaged a woman’s scalp and washed her hair for the benefit of the cameras in a Melbourne salon.

Source: Paul Bongiorno: ‘Dutts’ to the rescue in a sure sign of desperate times

Dutton

‘Most to gain’: Bob Carr doubles down on Dutton text claims

bob carr

What, Dutton isn’t suing Carr for his “hurt feelings”? It raises the question that Carr knows he wouldn’t dare because Carrt just might have the goods on Dutton. Heaven help Australia if Dutton, the once head of the Monkey Pod room and Boomgate, did win the job.

Former Labor foreign affairs minister Bob Carr has doubled down on his allegations that Peter Dutton is behind the leaking of explosive texts about the Prime Minister. The Defence Minister described Mr Carr’s claims as “baseless” on Sunday night – after he tweeted an accusation that Mr Dutton was the serving Liberal cabinet member behind the leak of messages blasting Scott Morrison as a “complete psycho”. “Bob Carr’s tweet is baseless, untrue and should be deleted,” Mr Dutton tweeted a little over an hour after the allegation was made. But Mr Carr, who is also a former NSW premier, told Sky News on Monday that he had a “rock solid media source” for his allegations – although he would not reveal who it was.

Source: ‘Most to gain’: Bob Carr doubles down on Dutton text claims

Informed Comment

Forget Carr’s tweet, Morrison made it harder for him to be toppled – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Morrison installed a less Democratic rule to stop him from being toppled. The same rule that America applies in its Senate. 51% vote no longer cuts it in a Democracy.

In December of the same year, the population was out for blood. Scott Morrison disappeared (for the first time) while New South Wales was on fire, and without an election on the horizon, many were clamouring for another spill to undo the last one. Yet, a week later, Morrison unexpectedly called upon his flock to toggle the rules, thereby making it harder for a sitting leader to be knifed behind a curtain. It would now take a two-thirds majority to bring about the Ides of March and topple a leader. In his own words, it was a move inspired by “listening to the Australian people”, with Morrison believing that the problem at the top was invalidating our votes. Therefore, he was doing us a favour by making it harder to remove him, who, at the time, wasn’t actually chosen by the people.

Source: Forget Carr’s tweet, Morrison made it harder for him to be toppled – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Comment

How to fix politics – get rid of political staffers and media advisers and hire some policy experts – » The Australian Independent Media Network

In response to the current leaked texts fiasco, Coalition politicians are dismissing it as a media beat up, that everyone sends nasty texts after a bad day, it’s normal to disagree sometimes. What rot! There is nothing normal about the whole business and it underlines just what a toxic workplace culture exists in our parliaments. Blowing off steam to a partner or close friend might be one thing – nasty name-calling in print sent to people who live by leaking to the media is not how any management team should behave. So why do our politicians do all this? Because their staffers and media advisers think it’s a good idea? The marketing approach is delivering increasingly worse results in terms of personnel and outcomes. Politicians can’t be experts at everything but they could listen to people who are. How about we leave the hairdressing to hairdressers, get rid of the personal photographer and image consultants, and get some policy experts onboard instead.

Source: How to fix politics – get rid of political staffers and media advisers and hire some policy experts – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Retirement

Retirement villages: the most complicated finance contracts in Australia – Michael West Media

Retirement village contracts

Capitalist redistribution of wealth only ” trickles up” but it’s done intentionally and systemically.

It’s one of Australia’s most complex legal challenges. Experts have found that only 1 in 20 people can properly understand a retirement village contract. There is a better way if only politicians could agree to help retirees, reports Callum Foote.

Source: Retirement villages: the most complicated finance contracts in Australia – Michael West Media

Truth in Humor

Canberra Convoy protestors briefly pause to let government destroy itself | The Shovel

A group of anti-vaxxer protesters planning to overthrow Australia’s parliamentary system will take a day off today to let the Coalition government do some of the heavy lifting.

Source: Canberra Convoy protestors briefly pause to let government destroy itself | The Shovel

COVID-19

Covid Survivors at Higher Long-Term Risk of Cardiovascular Damage: Study

Firefighters and paramedics with Anne Arundel County Fire Department load a pediatric Covid-19 patient who is in cardiac arrest into an ambulance after responding to a 911 emergency call on January 17, 2022, in Glen Burnie, Maryland.

“We’re going to see more heart disease, strokes, blood clots, and other problems,” warns one epidemiologist.

Source: Covid Survivors at Higher Long-Term Risk of Cardiovascular Damage: Study

NRA USA

NRA Silent as Amir Locke Slain by Police for Having a Gun He Legally Owned

“The NRA has not commented — we have a longstanding policy of not commenting on ongoing investigations,” Amy Hunter, an NRA spokesperson, told The Intercept. In late 2012, after the massacre of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, the NRA was faced with a strategic choice: Recognize that lax gun laws had gone too far and find some reasonable compromise, or dig in. The NRA decided to make its stand, blaming mental health care and video games for the shooting. “The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun,” NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre famously said. Who the NRA decides to stand up for — whose life matters, and whose doesn’t — lets us know what LaPierre meant by good.

Source: NRA Silent as Amir Locke Slain by Police for Having a Gun He Legally Owned

Fight against Fake News, Fighting Fake News

Old Dog Thought- The Monkey Pod Room has never really gone away

Fighting Fake News with REAL; 8/2/22 Dutton, Monkey Pod Room, Bolt, Cash; Trickle Up

Uncategorized

Australian TV: ABC, SBS win funding reprieve as government outlines Netflix reforms

Communications Minister Paul Fletcher has announced a funding boost for the ABC and SBS.

Presented as largesse and generosity on the part of the LNP  it is in fact nothing of the sort. All that has happened is that the L-NP has given back less than what they took away in the first place. When they illegally failed to fund “our” ABC. If they win this unwinnable election they will return to that regular practice of shredding and neutering the ABC from auditing commenting on their governance for us.  Lets no forget Abbott promised, “no cuts” then simply cut Aunty’s budget. Morrison the spin doctor called it an “efficiency review”. He doesn’t lie does he just rearranges the language? This ” faux win” is returning the ABC to behind where it should have been 3 Years ago. If the L-NP win it will be taken away again and our ABC will continue to be shackled in PUNISHMENT PARK. There is only one true Democratic Party in a Capitalist system run by Oligarchs and currently they are in opposition a vote for the ALP is a step to a better Democracy.

The ABC’s $3.3 billion in funding includes $45.8 million under its Enhanced News Gathering program for journalism in regional communities. This is an increase of $87.2 million over the current triennium. The indexation freeze – which was in place for three years and was blamed for widespread cuts to programming and redundancies in 2020 – will be lifted. The funding boost comes despite a souring in the relationship between the federal government and the ABC last year due to multiple lawsuits and an attempt by Liberal Senator Andrew Bragg to launch an inquiry into the broadcaster’s complaints handling system.

Source: Australian TV: ABC, SBS win funding reprieve as government outlines Netflix reforms

Uncategorized

No time for federal ICAC: Cash

L-NP wants to prioritize Religious Discrimination having lost the referendum on Marriage Equality. They see the utmost urgency in policing freedom of speech online because they regard any negative murmur or commentary on their performance as “online abuse”. These Free Speech Advocates feel the need to close down any “leaks” not in their control. Then they want to introduce laws that entitle their Ministers to sue for defamation at taxpayer expense and if sued defend themselves at ours as well. To do what Peter Dutton did at absolutely “no cost”.  Forget ICAC because the LNP has lowered us on the International Corruption Index by 50%. So why on earth would a Morrison Government want an ICAC or anyone investigating or judging them?

Senator Cash said the first priority of the Prime Minister was to ensure passage of the Religious Discrimination Act and to remove the right of faith-based educational institutions to expel gay students under section 38(3) of the Sex Discrimination Act. The next priority was to amend privacy laws to help combat online abuse.

Source: No time for federal ICAC: Cash

Scott Morrison

Barnaby Joyce not the first to call Scott Morrison a liar

Scott Morrison feb 6 lies

The Christ Like Figure this Miracle Man only when he looks in the mirror. He sees a Truth Teller and Calls  “Bring on the Crucifixion” “False Facts can’t harm me.” Morrison pushes Billy McMahon off the pedestal of Australia’s worst PM.

Can’t recall When asked about the catalogue of lying allegations, Mr Morrison said he could not think of an instance in which he has lied in public life. “I don’t believe I have,” he responded. Whether or not entirely by its own design, Labor’s years-long effort to paint Mr Morrison as someone on bad terms with the truth has well and truly stuck. On the eve of the first Parliamentary sitting week for the year, faced with historically low poll figures and an election just around the corner, the Prime Minister is in a terrible position.

Source: Barnaby Joyce not the first to call Scott Morrison a liar

Informed Comment

Australia’s structural cruelty goes beyond refugee policy – » The Australian Independent Media Network

To reframe a description of an Australian government’s policies from cruel to evil, I acknowledge the insights and outrage of Crikey commentator Guy Rundle. Writing on January 12, he refers to the treatment of Park Hotel refugees as “an evil that manifests itself in plain sight”, his charge confirmed by the experiences of 24-year-old detainee Mehdi Ali, who was only 15 when first imprisoned, after he tried to escape oppression in Iran by travelling to Australia by boat. Powerful, proud Canberra politicians have been so preoccupied with appearing strong towards powerless refugees that they appear to enjoy inflicting psychological harm, a practice described by Rundle as “just straight existential horror, weaponized to create permanent damage”.

Source: Australia’s structural cruelty goes beyond refugee policy – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Tertiary Education

Political interference poses ‘existential threat’ to universities, ANU chief warns | Australian universities | The Guardian

Student accommodation at the Australian National University in Canberra

On Monday Prof Brian Schmidt said he was “dismayed” that the education minister had interfered in the awarding of Australian Research Council grants before Christmas, and took aim at both major parties for backing the power to override independent recommendations. On Christmas Eve the acting minister, Stuart Robert, revealed that the government had nixed six grants for proposed research relating to climate activism and China, prompting a widespread backlash from academics.  Academics condemn government’s ‘shortsighted’ decision to veto research grants

Source: Political interference poses ‘existential threat’ to universities, ANU chief warns | Australian universities | The Guardian

Trump

Republicans back Pence rebuke of Trump on overturning 2020 election | TheHill

Former Vice President Mike Pence holds his arms out wide in a gesture as he speaks from a podium.

A number of GOP figures on Sunday said they backed former Vice President Mike Pence in his rebuke of former President Trump’s claim that he had the authority to overturn the 2020 election results.

Source: Republicans back Pence rebuke of Trump on overturning 2020 election | TheHill

and

Informed Comment

Billionaires’ Absurd and Growing Wealth Undercuts Democracy

The obscene wealth of the world’s billionaires doesn’t just mean they get to lead lives of luxury. It also means they have almost complete control of the economy — control that is fundamentally undemocratic and unjust.

Source: Billionaires’ Absurd and Growing Wealth Undercuts Democracy

Uncategorized

Stop Feeding Joe Rogan’s Trolls: Progressives Must Reclaim the Politics of Pleasure | The Smirking Chimp

The problem is that darkness has spread across progressive discourse, sucking light and color and fun out of everything. Liberalism has focused so long on subtraction that we forgot that our main appeal is additive. Equality and justice aren’t just about bodies surviving, but granting all people the opportunity to feel good, to feel fulfilled, to have a chance to use their precious years on earth actually living. We don’t just want people to survive. We want them to thrive. Well, 2022 is the year to get our groove back. The right has opened the door, by inviting us to debate whether sex should be fun and reading should be pleasurable. That’s a fight that the left can win, easily. We just have to remember that fun matters, beauty matters, and people are drawn more to the light than the dark. We used to be people who knew this. We can get back to who we once were.

Source: Stop Feeding Joe Rogan’s Trolls: Progressives Must Reclaim the Politics of Pleasure | The Smirking Chimp

Cuba

Hemispheric Gangsterism: The US Embargo Against Cuba Turns 60 – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Prior to inking the prohibition of the importation into the US of all goods of Cuban origin and all goods imported from or through Cuba, Kennedy had a particular vice that needed feeding. The resourceful press secretary Pierre Salinger was ordered to scour Washington and gather as many Cuban cigars (the H. Upmann Petit Upmann was a favourite) as he could by the morning. The mission was a success: 1,200 cigars were found. Acting with suitable presidential hypocrisy, Kennedy could then authorise the proclamation. As Salinger recalls, “Kennedy smiled, and opened up his desk. He took out a long paper which he immediately signed. It was the decree banning all Cuban products from the United States. Cuban cigars were now illegal in our country.”

Source: Hemispheric Gangsterism: The US Embargo Against Cuba Turns 60 – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Fight against Fake News, Fighting Fake News

Old Dog Thought- I rob you of 100K, give it back 3 years later in order rip you off even more that’s a Scamo not a “Win” for you?
May be an illustration

Fighting Fake News with REAL 7/2/22; The ABC has won Nothing from this L-NP; Dark Money; Elections; AEC

 

 

 

Australian Politics

AEC cracks down on Twitterati, lets breaches by major political parties slide – Michael West Media

Phillip Morris donates to the NP

Year after year, political parties receive tens of millions of dollars in “dark money”. This week, The Centre for Public Integrity, published research showing over $1.38 billion (29.5%) of political party funding since the 1998-99 financial year is of unexplained origin. In the 2020-21 financial year, some $68 million (38.6%) of party income was of unexplained origin. You won’t see who has been funding this year’s federal election as the donations data only happens once a year. By the time the February disclosures come along they are already at least 7 months old. We won’t see this until next February.

Source: AEC cracks down on Twitterati, lets breaches by major political parties slide – Michael West Media

LNP, LNP Government

Despite 566 deaths from COVID in aged care, Minister Richard Colbeck says the sector is not in crisis – ABC News

Richard Colbeck looks down while answering questions at a hearing inside parliament house

The LNP are making a feast of their ineptitude suggesting 60% of aged care deaths were in palliative care patients so that’s ok. Palliative staff needn’t be highly paid because are going to die anyway. This government treats them like “untouchables” outside of real society. So everything is well with the world and their political management of it. $0.77cents an hour is a generous bonus. A tip if of course they qualify. There’s no “crisis” according to Richard Colbeck. “Why is everybody picking on me. I’m doing what all LNP Ministers do. After all Scott Morrison went to Hawaii.

‘The last days of their lives’ The government knows just how politically devastating the aged care crisis is. Perhaps that’s why the Minister for Health, Greg Hunt, engaged in an insulting attempt to downplay the severity of the mounting death toll. In a briefing on Monday he volunteered some “important information”: He had been told that 60 per cent of those who died in aged care were palliative and “were in the absolute last days of their lives”.

Source: Despite 566 deaths from COVID in aged care, Minister Richard Colbeck says the sector is not in crisis – ABC News

COVID-19

Israel is rolling out fourth doses of COVID vaccines. Should Australia do the same?

Morrison blamed Itagi for the delays in approving RATs. Journalist Michael Pascoe of the New Daily proved he was lying. Itagi had approved their use as far back as August last year. It was on Morrison’s head to act and he didn’t. Itagi has already approved a 4th dose of vaccine for the vulnerable and again is simply waiting for Morrison to act. He hasn’t will he blame on them again?

Email Twitter6 Facebook184 LinkedIn Print While Australia’s booster program of COVID vaccines is just getting going, governments overseas are evaluating the need for a fourth dose program. Earlier this year, Israel began offering a fourth dose of the Pfizer mRNA vaccine to people who are immunocompromised, older people, and front line health workers. Israeli medical experts have since suggested fourth doses for everyone over 18. A number of other countries are deploying or considering a fourth dose program. Meanwhile, the UK have ruled it out for the time being. In Australia, a fourth dose for significantly immunocompromised people – such as those with certain cancers – was approved by ATAGI in early January and is being evaluated for other high-risk populations by the government. While there is evidence a fourth dose would help protect our most vulnerable, it may not be the answer for the broader Australian community.

Source: Israel is rolling out fourth doses of COVID vaccines. Should Australia do the same?

COVID-19

Politicians are hiding behind numbers as Covid deaths rise. Human stories must not be diminished | Lenore Taylor | The Guardian

Politicians are hiding behind numbers as Covid deaths rise. Human stories must not be diminished | Lenore Taylor

The ALP’s Pink Bats were an accident politicized by the LNP with relish. They danced on the dead’s graves while the ALP mourned. 6000 Covid -19 Deaths have been excused by  Scott Morrison as nothing really to do with him, “all the world is suffering”. We weren’t and we held the line until we realized Morrison wasn’t going to do anything other than call it “a natural disaster” which we can’t control, and must simply push through. It’s not his fault even when he’s forced to say “sorry”.

But death will lead the stories. That’s what we have been afraid of, either personally, or for vulnerable friends and family. That’s our collective trauma. More than 5.7 million deaths around the world so far. More than 5,900 in Australia.

Source: Politicians are hiding behind numbers as Covid deaths rise. Human stories must not be diminished | Lenore Taylor | The Guardian

Israel

Amnesty says Israel is an apartheid state. Many Israeli politicians agree | Chris McGreal | The Guardian

Israeli forces intervene during a protest against construction of Jewish settlements in Kafr Qaddum.

Who speaks for Israel? Rightwing lobby groups in Washington and US politicians would have Americans believe that it is them – and not Israel’s own former prime ministers and others who actually live in the Jewish state. Earlier this week Amnesty International released a report making a 280-page case that Israel’s treatment of Palestinians constitutes apartheid. The response in the US was a wave of orchestrated outrage – outrage that not only denies what many prominent Israelis say is true but, in effect, denies their right to say it.

Source: Amnesty says Israel is an apartheid state. Many Israeli politicians agree | Chris McGreal | The Guardian

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