Author: peterimrich

Murdoch Media

Daily Telegraph does a fine job of dole bashing but forgets to work in the facts | Amanda Meade | The Guardian

bar worker opera bar sydney

Fake News, Fake Product is sold as News which you Pay for when buying Murdoch Media. The ACCC turns it’s back as does the APC. MSM Fake News is coupled with promoting and praising a Party and its political donor’s interests. Morrison is given an “A” for his “work” of not holding the hose in 2021. It’s Australia’s Shame

“The job snobs who refuse to work,” screamed the headline on page one of the Daily Telegraph. On social media the claims were even more dramatic: “Job snobs snub $100k bar work”. “Young Australians should have their welfare cut to force them off the sofa and into hospitality jobs, industry figures say,” the Tele reported. But inside Murdoch’s Sydney tabloid there was no evidence of a job offering $100,000 for bar work, no “job snobs” and no “industry figures” calling for an end to the dole. There were, however, two politicians happy to prop up the Tele’s dole-bashing article.

Source: Daily Telegraph does a fine job of dole bashing but forgets to work in the facts | Amanda Meade | The Guardian

Informed Comment

A Critique of Obscene Wealth | The Smirking Chimp

Unjust, unnecessary, and undemocratic, extreme wealth must and does strive to secure global capitalism’s support and sustenance. The considerable success of these means to secure wealth has now led to the increasing criticism of capitalism. The existing system produces an economic inequality so extreme that it reacts back to jeopardize both obscene wealth and the system itself. At that, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Marx would smile.

Source: A Critique of Obscene Wealth | The Smirking Chimp

Israel

No Steady Electricity, Little Potable Water – Palestinian Gaza under Israeli Occupation is a Place of Slow Death

An explosion in Gaza is inevitable, and Israel must shoulder its responsibility for its consequences for the simple reason that it is persisting in the slow death of two million Palestinians. Given the circumstances in which we find ourselves, therefore, I ask this: what if the Palestinian leadership forgot about the political division and decided to seize this historic moment and ignite resistance across all of occupied Palestine? If this was to happen, I am sure that it would be the beginning of the end for the Zionist enemy.

Source: No Steady Electricity, Little Potable Water – Palestinian Gaza under Israeli Occupation is a Place of Slow Death

Republicans

Republicans are plotting to destroy democracy from within | Lawrence Douglas | The Guardian

Police push back at pro-Trump mobafter they stormed the Capitol building on 6 January.

Come 2024 these quiet custodians of democracy will have been replaced with loyalists and hacks ready to muddy the waters or supply the votes to secure a Trump win. The 2024 election will not witness a repeat of the events of 6 January. By the time Congress tallies the electoral votes on 6 January 2025, the putsch could be complete. And if it is, it will have been staged in the small offices of the election officials in the key swing states. And it’s all being scripted now.

Source: Republicans are plotting to destroy democracy from within | Lawrence Douglas | The Guardian

Fox News

Eric Alterman Notes Suddenly, Media Types See Fox Isn’t ‘News’ | Crooks and Liars

Eric Alterman Notes Suddenly, Media Types See Fox Isn't 'News'

Fox isn’t News and has no Rights of protection under the 4th Amendment

This is a mistake. Fox is something new—something for which we do not yet have a word. It provides almost no actual journalism. Instead, it gives ideological guidance to the Republican Party and millions of its supporters, attacking its opponents and keeping its supporters in line. And it does so at a hefty profit, thereby turning itself into the political equivalent of a perpetual motion machine.

Source: Eric Alterman Notes Suddenly, Media Types See Fox Isn’t ‘News’ | Crooks and Liars

Informed Comment

Is Rep. Jim Jordan a Traitor to the United States?

Julian Assange a Wakley Award winning journalist not even living in the US published the truth that has never killed anyone and has been declared a traitor by the United States. Jim Jordan incited and conspired Jan 6th with a cabal, a ring of others to overthrow the duly elected government and continues to do so. America is truley an example of a broken Democracy.

The message from Schmitz that Jordan forwarded was false and misleading, and he sent it with the purpose of obstructing the Congress from certifying the election. So maybe Kirschner has a point. We know that Jordan talked with Trump on January 6. If we ever find out what he said, it could be a basis for a charge of conspiracy sedition.

Source: Is Rep. Jim Jordan a Traitor to the United States?

Scott Morrison

Michael Pascoe: Morrison confirms election tactics of lie, deny and deflect

election tactics

He says he doesn’t hold the hose. He is the hose and nothing goes past him. Morrison is who JFK directed not to ask “what will my country do for me” but “what can I do for my country”

The degradation of Australian politics continued this week with the Prime Minister doubling down on his core campaign tactics as he raised a middle digit to the concept of integrity in the use of public funds. Confronted yet again with evidence of corrupt use of government grants, Scott Morrison stuck with the strategy he, his ministers and backbenchers have used ever since his #sportsrorts hit the Auditor-General. Mr Morrison told the National Press Club 23 months ago that there was absolutely nothing wrong with corrupting community sports grants for partisan political purposes, nothing wrong with misleading hundreds of community sporting clubs, nothing wrong with wasting the time of thousands of volunteers applying for funds that would not be granted on merit. “How good are sports rorts?” he may as well have shouted, never mind The New Daily’s collaboration with spreadsheet supersleuth Vince O’Grady to fully disclose the politically corrupt nature of those grants.

Source: Michael Pascoe: Morrison confirms election tactics of lie, deny and deflect

Australia's Shame

$16 billion in secret Coalition spending sets up bitter election battle

government spending Josh Frydenberg

Hours after a newspaper exposé shone another light on the Coalition government shamelessly funnelling discretionary grants to electorates it holds or wants to win, Labor leader Anthony Albanese warned of a “frenzy” of skewed spending before next year’s election. He probably didn’t expect that less than 24 hours later, his prediction would be starkly laid out in black-and-white line items on Treasury papers.

Source: $16 billion in secret Coalition spending sets up bitter election battle

Australian Pride

Alan Kohler: How good is the Australian Electoral Commission?

Australian Electoral Commission Donald Trump Alan Kohler

As we watch the slow, momentous collapse of American democracy, a Scott Morrison-ism comes to mind: How good is the Australian Electoral Commission?

Source: Alan Kohler: How good is the Australian Electoral Commission?

Climate Change

Insurance Companies Are Profiting Big Off of Climate Change

Insurance companies not only offer coverage to fossil fuel projects, but also use millions of people’s premiums to invest in the fossil fuel industry’s expansion. We can’t stop climate change without reeling the insurers in.

Source: Insurance Companies Are Profiting Big Off of Climate Change

Climate Change

Banks suspected in AGL’s climate foul play

What their boards pledge and what they actually do needs examination,and transparency because past behavior has shown just how corrupt they are. It seems the LNP put on some Royal Comissions for show then do the Morrison nothing.

Despite pledging support for climate action, it’s possible one of Australia’s big four banks is coming to the financial rescue of pollution giant AGL, writes David Ritter. A REAL-TIME “whodunnit?” is playing out across the Australian banking industry. At least one of Australia’s big four banks is considering loaning $800 million to the nation’s worst domestic climate polluter, AGL. The question is, who is involved? And why?

Source: Banks suspected in AGL’s climate foul play

Informed Comment

You heard that Right – “Peace Movements in Islam” – Juan’s new Book Challenges Stereotypes

This groundbreaking volume fills a gaping hole in the literature on global peace movements, bringing to the fore the many peace movements and peacemakers of the Muslim world. From Senegalese Sufi orders to Bosnian women’s organizations to Indian Muslim freedom fighters who were allies of Mahatma Gandhi against British colonialism, it shows that history is replete with colorful personalities from the Muslim world who made a stand for peaceful methods.”

Source: You heard that Right – “Peace Movements in Islam” – Juan’s new Book Challenges Stereotypes

Fox News

Is Fox News The Greatest Cancer on American Democracy? | The Smirking Chimp

We keep yelling “freedom of the press” but surely “the press” has like everything else changed over time and needs redefining and clarifying? Because Fox News certainly isn’t what the “press” was last century let alone the century before or even when the Constitution was written.

The UK made a judgment on Murdoch’s News of the World so much so Murdoch shut it down in order to keep his license and not be jailed. The British almost declared him “unfit” to run a media company. Surely Americans need to give consideration to events like that.

However, let’s face it they had no qualms in planning to assassinate or kidnap Julian Assange and sentence him to 175 years in jail for a single event. How many years did American Democracy dream of ways to kill Castro? The great experiment at home but Fascism in foreign affairs is Ok it seems. in the past 30 years they have allowed Murdoch to do them slowly. More harm done to their nation than Assange has ever done. Murdoch has assisted in supporting the extreme right, inciting and normalizing violence, riots, pandemic death, and continues to do so in plain sight under the protection of the 4th amendment. Nobody has died because of Julian Assange’s actions. He didn’t even commit the crime he’s accused of on American soil. You can be arrested in outer space if America chooses.

As my SiriusXM colleague Michelangelo Signorile points out, even “real news” guy Chris Wallace has jumped ship. To continue with Rudd’s metaphor, if our media and body politic are infected with a cancer it’s time to isolate it so it can’t further harm our democracy and, by extension, the democracies of the world.

Source: Is Fox News The Greatest Cancer on American Democracy? | The Smirking Chimp

Trump

Mark Meadows is having a really bad week — and Trump’s is even worse | Salon.com

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows listens as President Donald Trump speaks to the press outside the White House on October 30, 2020 in Washington, DC. President Trump will travel to Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota for the campaign rallies ahead of the presidential election on Tuesday. (Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images)

Trump and his henchmen are feeling the heat right now

Source: Mark Meadows is having a really bad week — and Trump’s is even worse | Salon.com

Fight against Fake News, Fighting Fake News

Old Dog Thought- JFK to Morrison “Stop asking what Australia can do for you but what you can do for your country” Afterall you do hold the hose as much as you don’t want to

Fighting Fake News with REAL; 17/12/21; Democracy or Corruption; Journalism, MSM, ACCC

Informed Comment

Depressed by the press: journalism bows to the authoritarians – » The Australian Independent Media Network

In Australia, for example, coverage of asylum seekers in the conservative, particularly tabloid, media has over the last decade been based too often on the incorrect framing that they are “illegal” and “queue jumpers.” Too rarely is the coverage based on the facts. This media (intended) failure has enabled the government to continue to persecute innocent people who came to us seeking safety.

Culture war “games” have thus turned life and death issues into something too “political” to address (either rationally) or intelligently. The spirit of Schwartz Media, Michael West Media and our other organisations dedicated to holding the powerful to account needs to be embraced by our legacy masthead writers. We need to consider the laws that can be crafted to balance the damage done by Malcolm Turnbull’s 2017 slashing of our media ownership laws. In a moment when the climate and democracy decay form a deadly helix, we cannot afford to have entertainment or agenda masquerading as news.

We need to debate new ways to fund the reliable news utterly critical to the functioning of democracy.

Too much is at stake to allow our news to frame this moment as “business as usual.”

 

Source: Depressed by the press: journalism bows to the authoritarians – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Comment

Mainstream media is Morrison Government’s puppet

Morrison hates accountability — this is no secret. Since the start of his political career, he has acted with scant regard for any form of repercussions and any standards he cannot actively control, he rages against. He has consistently lost his temper in Parliament and the truth is an anathema to him. In many ways, he should be a strong media’s dream. He is a constant source of supercilious behaviour, masquerading as an everyman for which journalists can constantly critique.

The media is meant to act as a watchdog for those in power. Politics already has too few checks and balances to ward off corruption in this country, so a fawning media only emboldens this behaviour further. If some in the media aren’t going to do their job as the Fourth Estate, it seems all rather pointless.

Source: Mainstream media is Morrison Government’s puppet

LNP, LNP Corruption, LNP Economic Management, LNP Government

Government defends pork barrel allegations

coalition pork barrel

Morrison admits he doesn’t “govern” for all Australians when he says the LNP are” better represented” when applying for grants. After all, 50% of Australia didn’t vote for him their “needs ” obviously have little or nothing to do with the grants given out. He agrees only politics does. So,his pork-barrelling is quite ok and he’s the better politician because of it. How much a Dervish can he get?

Birmingham claims the LNP supports disability but  only regional areas areas is would seem. He says that despite the fact we know that the current LNP program is to cut the NDIS. Data is data and neither Morrison or Birmingham put up a convincing argument that bribing electorates enhances Democracy , or that they are working for all Australians. When will these pricks stop normalising gaslighting? The biggest distribution of welfare has been Corporate, it’s been direct, and shit, given the increased income and wealth gaps these past 8 years we know how well that’s worked. As a consequence the money comes flowing back by way of donations x5 times that of the opposition and that’s just what is visible. Is it any wonder Andrew Robb quit politics for a $1M pay packet or the many others that are now well paid lobbyists for major industries? Or that Barnaby gets a massive personal cheque from Gina or Abbott’s daughter a scholarship?

Senator Birmingham also pointed to other grant programs that provided strong support to Labor electorates, such as disability support.Prime Minister Scott Morrison put the discrepancies between Labor and Liberal electorates – including Defence Minister Peter Dutton’s inner Brisbane seat receiving almost 50 times more than its Labor-held neighbour – to Coalition seats having good local members.

Source: Government defends pork barrel allegations

Informed Comment

Integrity means far more than just not engaging in criminal conduct – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Integrity means the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles. That sets the bar far higher than just not engaging in criminal conduct. How many of our politicians would pass a genuine integrity test?

Source: Integrity means far more than just not engaging in criminal conduct – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Comment

Australia Has Rolled Workers’ Rights Back to the 1800s

The Australian High Court has just ruled that, if an employment contract says you are a casual worker, then you must be a casual worker — even if you work regular, ongoing hours. The decision is a massive blow to workers’ rights.

Source: Australia Has Rolled Workers’ Rights Back to the 1800s

Informed Comment

Are we being served? Restaurateurs swamped by labour rout in wake of bruising lockdowns – Michael West Media

The world of work has changed dramatically in the past two years of pandemic. Emergency measures have sent businesses to the wall and left others unable to fill staff gaps. We have learnt overdue lessons on the value of the people who conduct the many backbreaking and thankless tasks in hospitality and tourism. But control of the commanding heights of the labour market remains with the big end of town, writes Michael Sainsbury.

Source: Are we being served? Restaurateurs swamped by labour rout in wake of bruising lockdowns – Michael West Media

Australia's Shame

Jailing Former Immigration Ministers: Denmark’s Inger Støjberg – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Dutton and Andrews come to mind and what it was they got away with when Immigration Ministers

Immigration ministers in other countries should take note but the lessons of this case are unlikely to be learned in Australia. Down under, immigration officials act with brutal impunity confident that their callous decisions are unlikely to ever face stern judicial eyes. No Australian immigration minister has faced proceedings for culpability in returning people to lands they have fled, only to endure torture, persecution and disappearance. Or for ruining the mental health of asylum seekers locked in indefinite captivity in a subsided Pacific concentration camp system. They have set the standard, and countries like Denmark have been inspired. Støjberg might well count herself unlucky.

Source: Jailing Former Immigration Ministers: Denmark’s Inger Støjberg – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Pauline Hanson

One Nation treasurer charged with fraud | The Canberra Times | Canberra, ACT

A senior member of Pauline Hanson's One Nation party has been charged with fraud.

A man who is reportedly a senior member of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party has been charged with four counts of fraud after a police investigation into election funding.Queensland Police arrested the “financial administrator for a political party” after raids on his Hamilton home in Brisbane and an office at Holt Street, Eagle Farm on Wednesday morning.Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party’s Brisbane office is located on Holt Street.

Source: One Nation treasurer charged with fraud | The Canberra Times | Canberra, ACT

Conversation

AOC in Conversation With Noam Chomsky

At 93, Noam Chomsky is the most important leftist intellectual alive. At 32, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is one of our most important leftist elected officials. The two recently spoke about our prospects for winning a better world.An

Source: AOC in Conversation With Noam Chomsky

Israel, Israel Crimes

Why does the US turn a blind eye to Israel’s expansion of Squatter-Settlements on Palestinian Land?

Invasion Continues unabated

If the US does not care about settlement expansion, why would it be concerned about how the two-state paradigm is applied, considering that it is no longer viable and Israel is well on its path to de-facto annexation in any case? If the US and Israel are on the same page when it comes to preserving the Palestinian Authority and its compromised politics (and “sacred” security coordination with the occupation state), there is little difference in terms of the ultimate aim that Israel is aiming for, which is complete control over all Palestinian territory. The US certainly doesn’t seek an alternative reality, not when it is so heavily invested in Israel. It is only that Biden has publicly aligned himself with international consensus, while Israel has been publicly rejecting any political negotiation for a solution, which gives Gantz any reason to claim political divergence with Washington.

Source: Why does the US turn a blind eye to Israel’s expansion of Squatter-Settlements on Palestinian Land?

Fox News

Jan. 6 Committee Just Proved Fox News Knowingly Lies on Air — but Don’t Expect Their Viewers to Care | The Smirking Chimp

The Great American Experiment has become a diseased version of what was once intended and they keep feeding that disease rather than curing it. The System is very broken and there is no equivalence to the actions on both sides of the divide. There is no common purpose the ‘we’ is just ‘me’. One group still wants to Serve America while the other simply Service it. Trump has been doing the latter all his life and Mary his neice warned and told America so.Even she didn’t believe he’d get as far as he has.

If voters and activists are going to care, they need to start seeing consequences happen, and not just to the foot soldiers who stormed the Capitol. Trump, Meadows and other co-conspirators who organized and led the coup are all walking around free, openly plotting another coup, while also cooking up various schemes to defraud their own supporters. As long as the Department of Justice treats an organized conspiracy to overthrow the government as beneath attention, Democrats can’t expect voters to take this seriously. Yes, even if they release a bunch of text messages proving what everyone already suspected.

Source: Jan. 6 Committee Just Proved Fox News Knowingly Lies on Air — but Don’t Expect Their Viewers to Care | The Smirking Chimp

Fox News

Text-gate fallout: Hannity, Ingraham and Don Jr. unveiled as whiny MAGA wimps! | Salon.com

Donald Trump Jr, Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity (Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images)

In a Democracy there is a common day to day reality with which we all accept and work,agree and disagree in order to achieve the best possible outcome for everyone. Good bad or ugly one might disagree with the result at any one time but not the process. One can try to push that interpretation hard and to the edge but the fundamental agreement remains in place and that’s Democracy. In a Democracy both sides accept the possibility of compramise and a negotiated loss while moving forward. However today that no longer holds as far as the Republicans are concerned and we saw that on the 6th of Jan yet the Democrats keep going as if nothing has changed and that the political system isn’t broken beacuse to do otherwise is to accept war. However the Democracy is broken because the chaos has spilt beyond politics and has polluted all accepted institutions behaviors and cultural beliefs, reality shattered. Power is in the hands of the rule breakers and until arrested chaos will reign. There can’t be a one party Democracy.

There was a catalyst and when Murdoch arrived and and tipped over America’s world with alternative facts he polluted the Fourth Estate and turned it against the nation along with the wealth of 0,01% that wanted to control it. If the British had Murdoch there’d have been no independance or brave experiment.

As for the grifters and weasels and toadies of Fox News, and as for his own first-begotten son, Trump now knows what he has always suspected: They sucked up to him for all the usual reasons — money, power, fame and another personal advantage — but were never true believers. How sharper than a serpent’s tooth! Fundamentally, those whiny MAGA hangers-on and wannabes were still tethered to the world of Jake Tapper and Anderson Cooper, where there were still norms and standards and a shared sense of bottom-line reality, where it was still possible to go “too far” and where the horrified reactions of polite and normal people in the coastal cities still mattered. They can never possibly eat enough crow — or enough of something else, also a word of four letters — to fully make up for this betrayal.

Source: Text-gate fallout: Hannity, Ingraham and Don Jr. unveiled as whiny MAGA wimps! | Salon.com

Fight against Fake News, Fighting Fake News

Old Dog Thought- History holds the data of 8years of false promises made. We are about to be showered with more
Bill Shorten’s electorate of Maribyrnong received $717,000 while Josh Frydenberg’s Kooyong got $5.8 million. 

Fighting Fake News with REAL 16/12/21; Wake Up Australia and Get a Government that Cares; History holds the data of their false promises;

Informed Comment

This might help Labor win the ‘must win’ election – » The Australian Independent Media Network

My thought for the day The left of politics is concerned with people who cannot help themselves. The right is concerned with those who can. (John Lord )

Source: This might help Labor win the ‘must win’ election – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Comment

Banquet of the Chooks: MYEFO budget leaks gobbled up in media feeding frenzy – Michael West Media

Tamed Estate, MYEFO, media

They sure were feeding the chooks last night. Rupert Murdoch’s The Australian went live with its “exclusive” story at midnight: “Covid-19, NDIS, in $50bn blow to mid-year budget”. Michael West takes a light look at the Morrison government’s media and marketing tactics.

Source: Banquet of the Chooks: MYEFO budget leaks gobbled up in media feeding frenzy – Michael West Media

LNP, LNP Corruption, LNP Economic Management, LNP Government, LNP Policy

No, There Is No Such Thing as the Undeserving Poor

Former Liberal Party minister Pru Goward recently published an opinion piece outlining her views on the “underclass.” Her analysis exemplifies the ignorance, mediocrity, and condescension of Australia’s elite.

Source: No, There Is No Such Thing as the Undeserving Poor

LNP, LNP Corruption, LNP Economic Management, LNP Government

How $2.8 billion of your money is spent — it grossly favours Coalition seats

LNP CORRUPTION IN PLAIN SIGHT

Liberal electorates received three times more taxpayer money than Labor-held seats, as a detailed analysis of more than 19,000 grants reveals a highly politicised system rife with uneven spending. See the funding your electorate received.

Source: How $2.8 billion of your money is spent — it grossly favours Coalition seats

Pork Barrelling

Government grants: A broken system failing every taxpayer

Former NSW Treasury secretary Percy Allan notes government grants now appear to go through a political cost-benefit analysis.

The system under which billions of dollars of grants are handed out to communities across Australia is irretrievably broken. There’s no other conclusion to be drawn from the figures compiled by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age that, grant by grant, electorate by electorate, show a community’s ranking on the electoral pendulum dictates its financial support.

Source: Government grants: A broken system failing every taxpayer

NBN

Tony Abbott’s NBN plan may have been a better option

Suicide is painless

With all of that in mind, if we at the time would have followed Tony Abbott’s advice to kill the NBN altogether, would that have been better? Was Malcolm Turnbull’s alternative of stripping down the fibre to the home (FttH) plan to the Multi Technology Mix (MTM), with hindsight, indeed the better option?

And the NBN is not the only casualty of this level of politicking. The energy policy, climate change policy, electric vehicle policy — all have been delayed by the Coalition Government for a decade. They are now finally followed by one backflip after the other.

Obviously, this also reflects the voters who preferred a conservative government that would not come up with those “scary” progressive policies. We no longer are trying to reach each other at the middle ground. When I (and others) between 2007 and 2012 tried to build broadband bridges between the Labor Government and, at that time, the Coalition Opposition, there was absolutely no interest from the Liberal Party to do this — not on broadband, not on smart energy, not on e-health and so on.

Now, 10-15 years later, all these policies are suddenly being accepted by the Coalition. What a waste of time having delayed progress on these issues for so long.

Source: Tony Abbott’s NBN plan may have been a better option

New Zealand

NZ report card 2021: from COVID to housing and happiness, it was a tale of two countries

As school and university students ponder their end-of-year results, it’s only fair we cast a critical eye over the country, too. Using international and domestic indices and figures, it’s possible to get an idea of how well – or poorly – New Zealand has done in 2021.

Source: NZ report card 2021: from COVID to housing and happiness, it was a tale of two countries

Fox News

Fox News delivers deafening silence on network hosts’ texts to Mark Meadows from January 6 | Media Matters for America

Fox News logo over the January 6 mob at the Capitol

With Murdoch the degree of consolidation of MSM in Australia guarantees there is no “free speech” in Australia other than on the Internet and Morrison is trying to curb that by ridding us of the ABC and restricting the the cash flow available to Independent media.

  • Sean Hannity texted to Meadows: “Can he make a statement. Ask people to leave the Capitol.”
  • Laura Ingraham wrote: “Mark, the president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home. This is hurting all of us. He is destroying his legacy.”
  • Brian Kilmeade said: “Please, get him on TV. Destroying everything you have accomplished.”

Fox News let over 16 hours pass before even mentioning the bombshell information released by the House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection, which revealed failed attempts by multiple Fox personalities to convince then-President Donald Trump to call off a mob of his supporters who had attacked the Capitol. Those same hosts have deliberately lied about the attack ever since, and sought to stop the investigation.

Source: Fox News delivers deafening silence on network hosts’ texts to Mark Meadows from January 6 | Media Matters for America

Fox News

Cheney outs Hypocritical Fox Anchors who Texted Trump Hysterically to Halt Insurrection they later Denied

You won’t find news in any Murdoch media. He’s selling a polluted inedible product without a warning.

This episode underlines once again that Fox is merely a propaganda arm of the Trump wing of the Republican Party. To any extent it still relies on a public accommodation, the FCC should launch an investigation into it for its dangerous anti-vaxxer stance and its cascade of wretched lies that injure the public good and are helping bring the United States to the brink of partisan violence.

Source: Cheney outs Hypocritical Fox Anchors who Texted Trump Hysterically to Halt Insurrection they later Denied

Informed Comment

Why I Don’t Trust the Mainstream Media | The Smirking Chimp

In Australia I follow AIM, IA, Michael West Media all of whom aren’t included in any Morrison Government Media plans to have Big tTech pay.. The Shovel and the The Shot are good for a laugh. There is truth in humor and it often hits the target. These are just a few along with some others listed below.

I follow the mainstream media, but I don’t limit myself to it. And I don’t rely on it to educate the public about bold, progressive ideas that would make America and the world fairer and stronger. I read the Guardian, the American Prospect (which, full disclosure, I helped found thirty years ago), Mother Jones, and The Atlantic. I follow several blogs (Daily Kos and Talking Points Memo, for example). I listen to the always thoughtful Democracy Now. And I subscribe to a few newsletters (I hope you like this one and spread word of it). But even with news sources I trust, I still ask myself: how are choices being framed? What’s being left out? What big underlying issues are being assumed away or obscured? When our democracy is under assault from so many directions, I think we need to educate and re-educate ourselves (and our children) about how to learn what’s really going on — how to absorb the news critically. Isn’t this a minimal responsibility of democratic citizenship? What do you think?

Source: Why I Don’t Trust the Mainstream Media | The Smirking Chimp

Informed Comment

How the Reserve Bank rescued Australia from Scott and Josh – Michael West Media

RBA, Josh Frydenberg

Extraordinary details have emerged of how the Reserve Bank intervened to stop Treasurer Josh Frydenberg crashing the economy as the pandemic took grip, how, contrary to their fable of “superior economic management”, the Morrison Coalition pursued political gain over good government, and how they have been borrowing its billions almost for free. Investigation by Michael West and @13foot7.

Source: How the Reserve Bank rescued Australia from Scott and Josh – Michael West Media

"For Coal", Fight against Fake News, Fighting Fake News

Old Dog Thought- Barnaby Joyce and Alex Antic now there’s a united front speaking Morrison and chewing gum.
Alex Antic a poster boy for Australia's Trumpists

Fighting Fake News with REAL 15/12/21; The US a Global legal entity; Republicans Alex Antic a Clone. Media

LNP

The Coalition Vs Public Opinion – » The Australian Independent Media Network

 

Fortunately for the rest of us, some are actively making meaningful change to mitigate the imminent (based on the research of scientists) climate catastrophe. A regional bus company in Queensland is moving it’s 120 vehicle diesel bus fleet which, the owners claim [annually] consumed more than a million litres of fuel and produced 3,100 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. to a fleet powered by green hydrogen which they will produce themselves using solar power and rainwater. The real irony of this is the bus fleet is located in Emerald – one of the the principal service communities for the ‘Coalfields’ in Central Queensland. The same ‘Coalfields’ that Senator Canavan claims to represent. Somebody’s making it up – and it’s unlikely to be the people investing capital to reduce emissions in their own business. When was the last time a Coalition government actually acted to validate the country’s public opinion rather than those of vested interests?

Source: The Coalition Vs Public Opinion – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Julian Assange

Barnaby Joyce wants end to Assange extradition

Julian Assange

Barnaby Joyce speaks out when the PM doesn’t and he speaks out clearly when he says Julian Assange is being extradited to a country for a crime he didn’t even commit in that country. Meanwhile Scott Morrison stays silent, setting the bar showing what every Australian citizen can expect from this Prime Minister…NOTHING

Mr Joyce says Mr Assange didn’t steal secret US files but only published them, which did not breach any Australian laws at the time, and he was not in the US when leaks were put online. “The question is then: Why is he to be extradited to the US? If he insulted the Koran, would he be extradited to Saudi Arabia? “If we are content that this process of extraditing one Australian to the US for breaking its laws even when he was not in that country is fair, are we prepared therefore to accept it as a precedent for applying to any other laws of any other nation to any of our citizens?” Mr Joyce’s opinion piece came a day after independent Tasmanian MP Andrew Wilkie called on Prime Minister Scott Morrison to pick up the phone to US President Joe Biden and British PM Boris Johnson to end the prosecution. Mr Wilkie, a former intelligence analyst, said the prosecution of Mr Assange had always been political and could be solved politically by Mr Morrison. Mr Assange faces 175 years in prison in the US.

Source: Barnaby Joyce wants end to Assange extradition

Scott Morrison

Scott Morrison’s ego is killing democracy

The vanity of our Prime Minister along with a complicit mainstream media have destroyed the fabric of democracy, writes Dr Jennifer Wilson.

Source: Scott Morrison’s ego is killing democracy

Peter Dutton

How to Chill Free Speech: Defamation Down Under – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Not fit for office

In the public domain, individuals who had known a thing or two about the spiritual and physical torment of rape expressed their puzzlement over Dutton’s response. Higgins, who is seeking redress for her own suffering in this matter, found the minister’s legal response to Bazzi “baffling”. “I’ve been offended plenty.” Despite that, it still afforded “people … the right to engage in public debate and assert their opinion.” The whole case was a “shocking indictment on free speech.”

In finding for Dutton in November, Justice White ruled that the tweet had been defamatory, and that Bazzi could not resort to the defence of honest opinion. With classic, skewering casuistry, the judge found that “Bazzi may have used the word ‘apologist’ without an understanding of the meaning he was, in fact conveying.” If this had been the case, “it would follow that he did not hold the opinion actually conveyed by the words.” Let it be known: if you do no not understand the meaning of certain words, you can have no opinions about them.

Despite his eagerness to seek damages for all grounds, Dutton was only successful on one of the four pleaded imputations. Claims for aggravated damages and an injunction targeting Bazzi’s comments, were rejected. The Defence Minister’s appetite for pursuing Bazzi for his full legal bill also troubled Justice White, who had repeatedly urged the parties to reach a settlement. Why had Dutton not sued in a lower court, he asked? The reason, claimed Dutton’s barrister Hamish Clift this month, was because his client was a prominent figure requiring a prominent stage to protect his prominent reputation. “It would not be appropriate for the court,” retorted White, “to exercise their discretion more favourably to Dutton simply because of the important public and national office of which he holds.”

 

 

Source: How to Chill Free Speech: Defamation Down Under – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Comment

Tim Wilson is getting hysterical – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Wilson, is part of the past 30 years and a glimpse of the future of our most taxing government. Wilson thrashes about trying to convince us Labour is what the LNP has always been and Labor never was. Wilson was groomed by the very secretive IPA whose fake cover is that of an ” independent research think tank”. Which is meant to convey some intellectual prowess proves to be little more than an attention-seeking bully, government and public influencer. They’re the ideal Party thugs in the mold of Abbott, and Dutton. The new generation of clones that haven’t progressed a historic inch.

He goes on to tell us that “The media fundamentally got the last election wrong because they underestimated what issues move votes. They missed the nearly one million retirees who risked losing a third of their income overnight because of Labor’s retiree tax.” Seriously? Excess franking credit refunds are more important than action on climate change? Throughout his article – eight times in fact – Wilson uses the term so-called “independents”. He thrashes around trying everything he can to discredit and invalidate them. And then he finishes by saying they “will do far more damage to Labor and the Greens than Liberals at the ballot box.” So why are you so worried, Tim?

Source: Tim Wilson is getting hysterical – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Australia's Shame

Time to end the ‘criminality with impunity’ of Australia’s immigration detention regime – » The Australian Independent Media Network

The unfitness for office of Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his coalition government now stands comprehensively exposed. Yet the apparent criminality of Liberal-National cruelty to immigration detainees has somehow remained largely unexposed, unprevented, and unpunished for nearly a decade.

Source: Time to end the ‘criminality with impunity’ of Australia’s immigration detention regime – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Australia's pride, Australia's Shame

Migrants Are Increasingly Crossing the English Channel—and Dying Along the Way | Washington Monthly

Migrants' Boat

Howard,Abbott, and Morrison’s legacy lowered the bar on how refugees and asylum seekers should be treated globally. They inspired Trump’s wall and Australia has never been seen in the same light ever since. It’s certainly not the place of a “fair go”. Abbott was still promoting his inhumane policies in the UK even recently while in the guise of a ” unpaid trade advisor”. These national leaders raised the bar on Australia’s shame, and lowered the one on our our pride, and international image in the worst of all possible ways.

At the end of September, nearly 700 migrants and refugees were rescued from an overloaded 50-foot boat limping in off the coast of Lampedusa. And just three weeks ago, 75 people drowned in those blinding turquoise waters. As long as wars continue to displace people and repressive governments deny them basic rights like freedom of thought, protection from torture, and an education, they will continue to risk everything for a chance at a better life.

Source: Migrants Are Increasingly Crossing the English Channel—and Dying Along the Way | Washington Monthly

Fox News

Media Matters on Chris Wallace Quitting Fox News | Media Matters for America

“Fox executives routinely pointed to Chris Wallace in defending themselves from criticism that the network is a dangerous propaganda channel. Wallace gave Fox News a thin veneer of respectability; and now, the veneer is gone.

Source: Media Matters on Chris Wallace Quitting Fox News | Media Matters for America

Uncategorized

As last Coal Chimney Falls, Will Green Energy Issue in Scotland Break up the United Kingdom?

 

But if UK electricity transmission tariffs are a centrifugal force, helping drive Scottish separatism, things like UK investment in wind turbine factories are centripetal, tying Scotland to the UK. Likewise, Scotland exports a good deal of its extra wind-generated electricity to England, and is responsible for 25% of UK wind energy. If I were them, I’d be nervous about losing access to that enormous market for green energy. So in some ways the UK constraints on electricity transmission do impel nationalist politicians to dream of being shut of London. But in other ways the renewables energy industry is binding Scotland more closely to the UK.

Source: As last Coal Chimney Falls, Will Green Energy Issue in Scotland Break up the United Kingdom?

Informed Comment

Yearly Wages of Most US Workers Grew Just 28% Since 1979 But ‘Skyrocketed’ for Top 0.1%

Walmart worker

The inequality, said two experts, “reaffirms the need to place generating robust wage growth for the vast majority and rebuilding worker power at the center of economic policymaking.”

Source: Yearly Wages of Most US Workers Grew Just 28% Since 1979 But ‘Skyrocketed’ for Top 0.1%