Morrison spends $3.5B on tanks to keep us “safe” Ho Ho!
Australian governments and businesses have been warned they face their greatest hacking threat yet, Apache Log4j. John Stapleton reports on Australian Cyber Security Centre warnings of possible widespread systems failure.
PODCAST
Klein is a professor of climate justice at the University of British Columbia and the author of many books on climate change, including her latest, “How to Change Everything: The Young Human’s Guide to Protecting the Planet and Each Other.”
A groundbreaking new study published this week identified what could be an unexpected tool in the world’s fight against COVID-19: cannabis. Yes, you read that right. According to a peer-reviewed paper published this week in the Journal of Natural Products, titled “Cannabinoids Block Cellular Entry of SARS-CoV-2 and the Emerging Variants,” at least three compounds naturally occurring in the cannabis plant were shown in lab tests to be effective at stopping coronavirus molecules from entering human cells. The mechanism effectively mimics the activity of antibodies, with the cannabis compounds attaching themselves to the virus’ spike protein, one of the authors told Salon. The study concludes:
Source: Could cannabis prevent COVID? To the authors of a new study, it sure looks like it | Salon.com
Oxymoron = IDF Investigates the IDF
The Israeli Defense Force told Reuters that soldiers carried out an overnight raid in Jiljilya and that a Palestinian was “apprehended after resisting a check.” The IDF claimed the man was alive when soldiers released him, despite other detainees claiming they witnessed otherwise. Israeli army spokesperson Amnon Shefler said the incident would be investigated “in a thorough and professional manner.”
( See also: Democracy Now! ““It Is Apartheid”: Rights Group B’Tselem on How Israel Advances Jewish Supremacy Over Palestinians” ) The International Criminal Court has determined that Israel has committed war crimes, and the UN Human Rights Council’s open-ended Commission of Inquiry will also be looking at such crimes committed by the settler-colonial state. Israeli rhetoric treats both as intrusions in its domestic affairs completely dissociated from its violations of international law. The state and its apologists simplify the slightest semblance of justice as an anti-Israel campaign instigated by the Palestinian people. When B’Tselem spoke, the world listened, even if only briefly. Next up was Human Rights Watch in April last year when its report, “A Threshold Crossed” pointed out that, “Israeli authorities are committing the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution.”
lmagine if those in the anti war community, or those advocating “Black Lives Matter” even attempted such an action at the Capitol Building. There likely would have been a mass slaughter. Government forces would have opened fire like never before. lmagine the outrage by those very Republican officials, the ones who were cheering the insurrection last 6 January, if the shoe was on the other foot.
Sleight Of Hand
The ERC members are Scott Morrison, Josh Frydenberg, Simon Birmingham, Anne Ruston, Peter Dutton, Dan Tehan, Stuart Robert, Barnaby Joyce and Bridget McKenzie.
A closer look at the 2021 grants suggests not, as does the track record of the ERC members.
For a start, while Labor seats appear to score more money than Coalition seats, there were more than twice as many Coalition grants – 102 to 46.
That raises the suspicion that Labor seats had a few large grants that don’t quite fit the “pork barrel” definition.
For example, the biggest single CDG last year was $33 million that went to the Labor-held seat of Perth.
It went to the Western Australian Cricket Association – it was for rebuilding the WACA.
That’s a bigger-picture investment than the local electorate.
.
Source: Michael Pascoe: More of same in 2021 with community grants corruption
Whatever, I’m sure that he’ll get a glowing reference and will have no trouble picking something else up in the near future. Like I always say, you’ve got to hand it to Scotty. Yes, you do. There’s no way he’ll get off his backside and do it for himself!
What was Scott Morrison’s plan when he decided Australians should “live with Covid”? Did he give any thought to the impact this would have on older people living in aged care homes? Sarah Russell reports on the plight of our most vulnerable.
Source: “Living with Covid” – not so easy if you’re in an aged care home! – Michael West Media
Morrisons “Freedom”, ” Let it RIP” “Push Through” call it what you want they have truly fucked the Economy, our supply chains, reduced the frontline staff needed to prevent death and Abbott ex PM even promotes it these days. But to keep us safe he’s bought 120 obselete tanks for $3.5B no doubt to use against us if push comes to shove when and if he cancels the election and calls a national emergency..
I believe the whole east coast should be going into lockdown right now because it’s evident that even triple vaccinated can catch Covid and then be required to isolate, so the rhetoric about getting out there and getting vaccinated is all good and well…yes it will help fight infection but it won’t stop one from catching it and having to isolate until better. It’s already disrupted the distribution centres for Woolworths and Coles, shelves are empty, delivery drivers are sick or having to isolate. The more they just let it go in the community the more the infection will spread. Even non-infected people going to work are at risk of catching Covid. Sooner or later no one will be able to go to their place of work. Scott Morrison and Dominic Perrottet have a lot to answer for as they have neglected to protect Australians. This is all their fault. They let it loose instead of stomping on it in the beginning and relying too much on everyone getting their vaccines and now thousands of people are infected.
Source: 2022 has well and truly begun – » The Australian Independent Media Network
My thought for the day Scott Morrison’s words and actions bring into question the very essence of the word truth. Or they have at least devalued it to the point of obsolescence.( John Lord )
The saga of a tennis star’s visa cancellation certainly serves to highlight the incalculable damage the federal government is suffering as it utterly fails to deal with a pandemic catastrophe which its own Libertarian easing of restrictions helped create. It also exposes a mind-boggling degree of incompetence and miscommunication, of posturing and dissembling that would be comic were it not so toxic to the health of the commonwealth.
Source: ScoMo plays Djoko but Dutton buys tanks – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Remember when News Corp spent decades telling us the planet was actually cooling. Andrew Bolt was declared a world expert by the IPA in the book on Climate Change “Facts”. Today he calls the above a “New Religion” and promotes the denials of his cherry-picked anti- scientists who he gives voice on his Murdoch platform.
Climate change is not a matter of a dystopian future. We are living it. Now. And it is an increasing challenge. It is a challenge we can overcome, but the longer we burn fossil fuels the steeper the task will be.
Source: We are so F*cked unless we act Now: The 7 Hottest Years on Record were the last 7 Years
Twenty-three scientists from around the world teamed up to analyze thousands of temperature measurements taken throughout the world’s oceans. The measurements, taken at least 2,000 meters (about 6,500ft) deep and spread across the globe, paint a clear picture: the Earth is warming, humans are the culprit, and the warming will continue indefinitely until we collectively take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Many claimed early in the pandemic that COVID-19 would flatten inequality in a deeply unequal world. Luckily for the ultrarich, central banks stepped in, making the global elite richer than ever.
Source: The Central Banks Made the Superrich Even Richer During the Pandemic
Critics of the purchase have included otherwise hawkish pundits such as Greg Sheridan of The Australian, who spent some of last year shaking his head at the proposed acquisition after it was announced by the US Defence Cooperation Agency. The decision, he opined unleashing his talons, was one of “sheer idiocy,” an “anachronistic frivolity.” Tanks and other heavy, tracked vehicles would “never be of the slightest military use to us.” Sheridan poses a range of questions. In any confrontation with China, could a tank defend shipping in the South China Sea? Or “take out enemy submarines?” Or “deliver attack missiles over hundreds of kilometres?” His solutions: buy more jets, manufacture more drones, and address naval capabilities. Others also argue that Dutton, were he to be genuinely interested in Australia’s security and safety, would be spending more time on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and coping with the threats posed by climate change, or investing in pandemic responses. Now that would be a big ask. The tank fraternity, a gathering of near cultic loyalty, are swooning in triumph. As Peter J. Dean, director of the Defence and Security Institute at the University of Western
What can they do to Australia’s Tanks
Here’s a scenario to consider: a military force has purchased a million cheap, disposable flying drones each the size of a deck of cards, each capable of carrying three grams of explosives—enough to kill a single person or, in a “shaped charge,” pierce a steel wall. They’ve been programmed to seek out and “engage” (kill) certain human beings, based on specific “signature” characteristics like carrying a weapon, say, or having a particular skin color. They fit in a single shipping container and can be deployed remotely. Once launched, they will fly and kill autonomously without any further human action.
Source: Killer Robots and the Laws We Need to Stop Them | The Smirking Chimp
Save the ABC! Improve Internet Freedom! Increase Media Diversity. While the LNP attacks the ABC, wants to control the Internet and rejects media diversity the MSM have his back. They supports their current quid pro quo arrangement with Murdoch Costello and Stokes but are certainly pissed at the way he zig zags them on a daily basis forcing their editors to play “Scotty Says”.
The mainstream media has eschewed objectivity in favouring the Liberal Party’s “let it rip” pandemic strategy, writes Dr Victoria Fielding.
Source: Mainstream media applauds Morrison’s ‘let it rip’ strategy
Morrison is as slippery as an eel and a liar to boot.
“If Mr Albanese thinks that the answer is to put Australia back into lockdown, then I don’t agree … if Labor are for lockdowns, that’s for them. My government is for keeping Australia open and pushing through. “You have two choices here. You can push through or you can lock down.” However, Mr Albanese has not called for lockdowns.
Source: Scott Morrison pivots back to ‘freedom’ rhetoric after ‘let it rip’ criticisms
Why the ABC is so essential!!
Media ownership and diversity are obviously not front-of-mind issues for most of the electorate. But they are not negligible considerations either. Morrison relies heavily on the support of News Corp, which has become a de facto propaganda arm of the government. Anything that unsettles that cosy arrangement would compromise his media strategy and make an already difficult set of circumstances even more awkward.
Source: As COVID rips through Australia, is Scott Morrison’s media strategy starting to fail as well?
In Australia, where the per capita rates of COVID are now among the worst in the world, the government has handed the health care crisis over to the free market to handle. The results are predictably catastrophic.
Source: The Novak Djokovic Battle Is a Distraction. COVID Has Exposed Australia’s Health System.
Big business profiteers have made out like bandits through the Pandemic, emboldened by myriad failures of government and community panic. Callum Foote and Stephanie Tran report on the RAT test wave and the wave of private hospital profiteering looming in its wake.
Source: Big business profiteers ride Omicron wave, private hospital profit wave is next
Stuart Robert once again played politics the way a cat burglar does a house or a pickpocket your wallet. He hopes it will go unnoticed. Whether it’s Rolex watches,his personal expenses or NDIS funding Roberts loves to make out he’s the invisible man and wasn’t there. He’s not a representative politician rather than the phantom who only represents himself and his party’s not his electorate or the common good..
The open letter signed by 63 present and former ARC laureate fellows, sent to Mr Robert and ARC chief executive Professor Sue Thomas on Tuesday, said the researchers were “very concerned in the way that applications for 2022 ARC Discovery Projects were managed”. They said the decision came a month late when university research offices were closed and staff would be unprepared to start work by January 1.
Source: Australian researchers condemn government’s ‘political and short-sighted’ funding
Where would Australia be if Trump wins and the Military assisted him in a coup? Morrison has modeled his Government far more on Trump than he has Biden.
He’s right of Trump on Climate Change an an anti- Mandater on vaccines and lockdowns, “let it rip” his pandemic message. He’s far more aggressively anti- China a manufactured message for domestic politics. He fundamentally is a Trumpster on borders, media, education, and health. Even the 200% increase in government debt is no longer an issue. By and large, the likelihood of us participating in a war and being a greater target than we were in 2013 has increased insurmountably. Our reliance on a Trump America has been welded by Morrison’s LNP. Unfortunately We saw what happened to the Kurds in Syria, those left behind in Afghanistan, and weakening ties to the EU under Trump while he cozied up to Russia, Nth Korea, Hungary, and other dictators. Morrison and Abbott have dragged Australia’s reputaion in the eyes of the world to the worst it’s ever been.
The prospect of members of law enforcement agencies and the military breaking off into rogue commands seems like something out of a political thriller. And it’s probably not very likely. But then the election of Donald Trump was unlikely as was the insurrection of January 6th. I would have thought it unlikely that police officers would defend a vicious mob beating other cops with flagpoles or that active duty military would boldly participate in it. We all should recognize by now that anything can happen.
Source: Trump’s troops: The far-right has a tight grip on too many in uniform | Salon.com
The Morrison “plans” don’t fly!! “Gunna Scott Morrison PM” does it again and again and again. He fails!! Fails to deliver on his god damned ever changing plans.
He called the ALP incompetent back in 2013 “for Pink Bats” ” for a Government debt 1/3rd of today’s” “for Saving us from the GFC” and “for making us the world’s best economy” Our media buries that historical news today with their hands out hoping for the promised rewards the cashed-up LNP has. A political war chest x 5-10 times that of the ALPs ready to be distributed via ads like Harvey Norman’s JobKeeper bonus has been. Corporate Socialism was Mussolini’s idea of Fascism too.
Labor leader Anthony Albanese has blasted the Coalition government for overseeing a COVID “crisis” in aged care, with barely half of Commonwealth facilities having received vaccine booster shots so far and hundreds of homes battling active outbreaks. Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said 1500 of the nation’s 2600 Commonwealth aged-care facilities had received vaccine boosters, with the remainder scheduled to receive them by the end of January. But with hundreds of homes battling outbreaks and thousands of residents in effective lockdown, Mr Albanese claimed the Morrison government had dropped the ball. “How is it that in spite of what has occurred before, the aged-care system, which is run, funded and regulated by the federal government, still hasn’t got this right?” the Labor leader said. “It’s something that should just not have happened. It could have been foreseen.”
Source: Almost half of aged care homes waiting for boosters amid 500 outbreaks
Subs and tanks Australia is truly committed to one-way trade and pleasing America and allowing the Stars and Stripes to be firmly planted on Australian soil in the region. Money for war seems to have no boundaries for this government while our health isn’t as important. One feels Morrison is preparing for a domestic threat.
Australia has locked in its purchase of more than 120 tanks and other armoured vehicles from the United States, at a cost of $3.5 billion, as part of a major upgrade of the army’s fleet.
Source: Australia commits to $3.5 billion tank purchase from the US
Whichever way the Federal Circuit Court decides, Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews’ decision to cancel Novak Djokovic’s visa has made Australia an international laughing stock. It highlights the dangers of ministers and prime ministers becoming involved in individual visa decisions for purely political purposes. But how did it come to this?LNP
Source: Djokovic case makes Australia an international laughing stock
It seems the Government is more intent on their domestic political image than finding a solution to Djokovic’s case. They did much the same when Kevin Andrews insisted Dr Haneef was a terrorist. Like Trump, they are now announcing their intention to hold Djokovic, no matter what the court’s decision is. “Illegals” ar simply who the LNP says they are Dutton and Morrison mande that clear. More to the point now they need to prevent him from playing in Victoria the Labor State who simply said he was eligible to play in their event.
Morrison has proved to be the most bumbling PM in history. He and Abbott will go down as a pigeon pair. Abbott was fired a number of times historically and Morrison was fired twice once by NZ and again by Australian Tourism and the minister at the time. Jobless he entered politics. He obviously has a history and those sackings were justified given the way he conducts himself hasn’t changed.
The submission also leaves the door open for the government to cancel Djokovic’s visa a second time, even if the court overturns the decision. “An order for immediate release does not prevent re-detention if there is power to detain,” the document read. Djokovic is in detention at the Park Hotel in Carlton after the federal government cancelled his visa to attend the Australian Open tournament. On Friday, he launched a court challenge to that decision and it will be heard on Monday.
Source: Novak Djokovic Australian Open 2022: Court showdown looms as Home Affairs defends interrogation
Swedish social democracy produced one of the most humane societies in history. That wouldn’t have happened without a militant labor movement and a working-class political party.
They said that about Hitler and Trump let’s not forget insisted he was a German immigrant simply because he was concieved he claimed in the fatherland.
A Republican senator who broke publicly with former President Donald Trump amid the latter’s false claims about the 2020 election worked on Sunday to reiterate that the former president lost to Joe Biden fairly. As the nation focused its attention on the one-year anniversary of the attack on the US Capitol, senator Mike Rounds joined ABC’s This Week to dismiss the falsehoods that Mr Trump and his loyalists within the GOP continue to spread about his defeat. “We simply did not win the election, as Republicans, for the presidency,” Mr Rounds said on Sunday.
Morrison saw RATs as a means to throw Covid cases into chaos and camouflaging his total mismanagement of Covid yet again. It’s the only reasonable explanation for why he’s been so insistent on making some tests free and others paid for by us. He had no qualms in saying overpayments of JobKeeper would not be required to be repaid by corporations, but RAT tests needed to be paid for and the prices set by the ‘free’ market. A bonus to the retailers like Chemist Warehouse Harvey Norman and Ebay scalpers of the tests. Many corporations of course, sponsor him and support his “let it rip” stance against lockdowns threatening their profits. Morrison is a great supporter of corporate Socialism in a Capitalist nation.
Victoria’s case numbers doubled to overtake New South Wales on Saturday as the state scrambles to improve the accuracy of rapid antigen testing (RAT) numbers incorporated in the data. States are working to include the RATs now being undertaken by people at home, with Victoria and Queensland launching self-reporting systems and NSW to follow. Victoria’s daily figures were more than double the previous day’s total, with 51,356 cases. But the numbers were inflated by a backlog of RAT cases which accounted for about half and included some infections that were up to six days old as well as double ups with PCR tests. Based on a closer look at the health department figures, there were likely closer to 30,851 new cases in the state on Saturday — still a record, and an increase of more than 40 per cent on the previous day. The Victorian health department is now rushing to improve the accuracy of the state’s COVID-19 figures.
Source: Rapid antigen testing results blow out daily case numbers
Washington: Hospitalisations of US children under five with COVID-19 soared in recent weeks to their highest level since the pandemic began, according to government data released Friday on the only age group not yet eligible for the vaccine. The worrisome trend in children too young to be vaccinated underscores the need for older kids and adults to get their shots to help protect those around them, said Dr Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
Source: US COVID: Hospitalisations of kids too young for vaccines soar
Health- medical frontline staff shortage, Education- Teaching Staff Shortage and Morrison is yelling “Let it RIP”.
We all want our kids to be back at school, learning and playing and doing all the normal kid stuff. But these are not normal times and teachers are not easily replaceable babysitters.
Source: Teachers are not babysitters – » The Australian Independent Media Network
The Morrison government, Immigration Minister Alex Hawke and the business lobby desperately want a surge in immigration to fire the economy but 330,000 migrants are stuck on bridging visas as the permanent migration program remains – contrary to reports – mired at an intake of 160,000. Former immigration chief Abul Rizvi on a murky MYEFO and the migration backlog.
Source: Visa Gridlock: the migration surge is coming … but who is it? – Michael West Media
Morrison, the ‘ad man’, has gone from “Where the bloody hell are you?” to “Your not Welcome and never will be!” in selling Australia to the rest of the world. Now is it any wonder he was sacked as NZ and Australia’s CEO of Tourism.
The global media frenzy over Australia’s temporary detention of anti-vaccine tennis star Novak Djokovic has inadvertently drawn attention to the cruel mistreatment of refugees imprisoned in the same run-down, bug-infested facility in Melbourne. News reports showing Djokovic’s fans, and local anti-vaxxers, rallying in his support outside the Park Hotel, a makeshift detention center, have included images of protesters decrying the suffering of the dozens of refugees who are also there. Some of those people have been in Australian detention facilities for close to nine years, just for arriving in the country by boat, seeking asylum.
Source: Refugees Held With Djokovic in Australia Briefly in Spotlight
LNP supports privatized Prisons for Profit and Prisons for Profit support the LNP. Isn’t that a perfect Quid pro Quo policy? The LNP’s urgency in privatizing all government services is not just a Quid pro Quo movement described by Mussolini as the ideal state. He called it Fascism. However quite the opposite of the ideal Australians strive for called Democracy. Save Our Public Service
The immigration detention industry in Australia profits from imprisoning refugees. The Australian Government outsources the day-to-day management of its cruel immigration detention system to private corporations who, in turn, make political donations to them. One of the largest beneficiaries of Australian Government contracts is Serco Group, which has an octopus-like grip on many former government and community services in the UK and across the globe that are now privatised for profit. This human rights-abusing “profit before people” approach must be stopped and the rights of asylum seekers upheld everywhere.
Source: Djokovic unhappy but Australia’s refugees face lifelong persecution
Why on earth did Dan Andrews grant him a visa? Whoops, state governments don’t grant visas. We granted him a visa based on Dan Andrews say so. The medical review was an independent process. Oh look, a high profile resignation, let’s talk about that instead!!
DON’T LOOK!!
December discussion at the American Geophysical Union suggested that the massive Thwaites glacier in Antarctica, the size of Florida, could plop into the ocean in the next 10 years, with the potential to set in train further collapses, raising sea level by as much as six feet. Thwaites itself could raise the level by two feet. A two meter sea level rise is half of everything the UN scientists in the IPCC report were expecting by the end of the century, which means they likely were way too conservative. One thing they could not foresee is that the South Pole has heated up 3 times as fast as other areas on earth in recent decades.
Colbert’s opening musical take-off on “Rent,” entitled “Abhor-rent,” let loose the bundle of nervous tension into peals of near-maniacal laughter that felt like medicine. That’s what music is…that’s what good comedy is, right? Medicine. As an added bonus, of course his monologue was primo, too.
Source: Colbert Puts The Insurrection Anniversary In Musical Perspective | Crooks and Liars
Will Bannon result in Trump being ultimately charged with multiple felonies?
Trump is going to end up charged with a felony, or multiple felonies. He made clear that he thinks the House Jan. 6 committee is being thorough, almost to a fault, in the way they’re going about their investigation of the events before, during and after the day itself. Woodward is a Washington Whisperer par excellence. He’s been at it for almost 50 years. He is one of the least excitable guys I’ve ever met. But on Thursday, as he was being interviewed by Lawrence O’Donnell, he looked like he was about to levitate out of his chair.
That’s why for Donald Trump, Jan. 6 this year was even worse than Jan. 6 last year. As Richard Nixon discovered, when Bob Woodward says you’re in trouble, you’ve really got something to worry about.
Source: Donald Trump should be very afraid: This anniversary was not good news for him | Salon.com
Former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said on Thursday that Donald Trump watched the Capitol riot unfold “gleefully” on January 6, proudly rewinding footage of the insurrection on his television. “All I know about that day was that he was in the dining room, gleefully watching on his TV as he often did, ‘look at all of the people fighting for me,’ hitting rewind, watching it again — that’s what I know,” Grisham told CNN’s “New Day.” Her remarks, made on the anniversary of the riot, align with past reports about Trump apparently glued to the TV screen as the riot played out. Last year, Washington Post reporter Carol Leonnig said in a CNN interview that the president was in the dining room of the Oval Office” during the insurrection, “watching it and almost giddy.”
Who is responsible for international tennis players’ entry into the country for the Australian Open? On Wednesday, the Prime Minister was telling us it was Victoria, but the following day he was proudly boasting it was him.
Source: Nicholas Reece: Failure of the federation has gone too far this time
My thought for the day We live in dark times where horrible things are being perpetrated on us. The shame is that we have normalised them and adjusted accordingly. ( John Lord )
Source: Now let’s get this straight: We don’t have the best… – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Then there is the issue of why the federal government is throwing millions of dollars at golf clubs at all – they are, after all, private businesses, whatever their ownership structure, and part of the big business that is golf.
Source: Michael Pascoe: The Great Golf Rort where Labor seats need not apply
While the rest of the anglo world eg the UK is issued “free” Rats Morrison has withheld doing the same,why? Simply because self-testing programs would have revealed even more Covid cases numbers in the community amplifying his failure to act. Morrison is the living example of President Meryl Streep in “Don’t Look Up”.
A vaccination program could have occurred in the first half of 2021 in anticipation of an expected winter wave of the virus. Yet by September, only one-third of the population over 16 had been fully vaccinated. We vaccinated too late for the arrival of Delta. Similarly, we knew that the Omicron variant would arrive here in December. We could have fast tracked the booster program and not closed the vaccination centres over the Christmas-new year period. We could have reduced the time between the second and third doses earlier. We failed to anticipate what could have been anticipated.
Source: Government COVID response a series of policy failure
olddogthoughts 
You must be logged in to post a comment.