Author: peterimrich

Informed Comment

Jobactive report: who profited from it? – Michael West Media

MW JOBACTIVE REPORT (FINAL)

Our financial analysis of the major earners from the publicly funded jobactive model suggests that it is primarily American-owned multinational corporations who are profiting, in the billions, from the privatised employment services model. The two largest jobactive providers, Max Solutions and APM are both controlled by American investment firms and together account for 56% of the $3.3 billion handed out to employment service providers since its inception in 2015.

Source: Jobactive report: who profited from it? – Michael West Media

Scott Morrison

Scott Morrison says there are only four countries in the G20 with a better emissions record than Australia. Is that correct? – ABC News

Scott Morrison at a press conference tight head shot. Verdict is "misleading" with a red cross

Is Australia doing better on reducing emissions than all but four countries in the G20? RMIT ABC Fact Check investigates. The verdict Mr Morrison’s claim is misleading.

Source: Scott Morrison says there are only four countries in the G20 with a better emissions record than Australia. Is that correct? – ABC News

Truth in Humor

A Tale Of Two Leaders But Whatever You Do Don’t Say It’s A Race! – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Scott Morrison is never photographed just doing his job. Because he does nothing. Abbott was. He was photographed in his budgie smugglers, on his bike, and in his volunteer fire gear because that’s what he did. He wasn’t caught posing like Morrison constantly is. Morrison thinks watching very expensive paint dry is the way to Aussie hearts. Like Lara Bingle he will too.

I don’t see Gladys standing for a number of reasons: How do the Liberals counter the obvious? She had to stand down as premier because ICAC were investigating her for misconduct and conflicts of interest, but we don’t worry about such things in Canberra. Then there’s also the: So this why she resigned her seat and didn’t merely stand down as Premier; she was planning this all along. She’s just turned her back on the people of NSW in their hour of need. The whole Morrison strategy is to talk her up and then say that she won’t stand because an unelected body like ICAC has stood in her way, and isn’t it good that we haven’t rushed into having a federal integrity body! There’s a distinct possibility that she’d be in Opposition, which might mean that she could become the Opposition leader but it’s hardly the sort of gig that one would willingly take on when you could just try for a much better paying job lobbying for Wagga. Even if the Liberals won the next election, she’d have to go to Canberra and listen to Scott Morrison’s speeches in the party room.

Source: A Tale Of Two Leaders But Whatever You Do Don’t Say It’s A Race! – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Comment

How do we make an ideal society? – » The Australian Independent Media Network

My thought for the day Of all the things that have caused the disintegration in the public’s trust in the body politic. It is the lack of a truth that defines it. ( John Lord )

Source: How do we make an ideal society? – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Comment

Undermining trust in institutions is a dangerous game to play – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Climate change deniers in parliament have eroded confidence in our scientific institutions like the CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology. Their tireless efforts to present us with evidence are dismissed as alarmism or fake news. Their ongoing research into mitigation and adaptation is ignored in favour of support for pollution as usual. It seems the only people we can trust are ScoMo and Barnaby, backed up by the church, the police and Dutton’s army, any criticism of whom will be seen as unpatriotic heresy. That all of this is done for purely political purposes is quite legitimate apparently, though it does inevitably lead to humiliating backflips and apologies. The real worry is that, having let the dogs off the chain, this government is rapidly losing control of the pack.

Source: Undermining trust in institutions is a dangerous game to play – » The Australian Independent Media Network

LNP, LNP Government

Change to secret evidence refused in Bernard Collaery case

Michaela Cash as AG is proving to be as astute as Christian Porter was. With and IQ of a bucket of bricks but persistence of a bear trap she’s determined not to let Porter’s case against ex ACT’s AG Bernard Collaery go. Heaven forbid we might discover the LNP government’s criminal conspiracy in its dealings with Timore Leste and oil companies.

The ruling is a small win for Collaery, but the attorney-general can still choose to make a fresh application for more restrictive orders on the basis of changes to the current circumstances.

The case has already been appealed to the High Court as the Commonwealth seeks to have part of the Court of Appeal judgment – which found secret trials diminished public trust in the justice system – redacted from the public.

Source: Change to secret evidence refused in Bernard Collaery case

Capitalism

Want to be a criminal in America? Stealing billions is your best bet to go scot-free | Judd Legum | The Guardian

‘Walgreens workers in California were able to recover wages lost from wage theft by filing a class-action lawsuit. But, for many workers, that kind of lawsuit isn’t an option.’

A wave of shoplifting crimes are attracting front-page news, while the $15bn stolen by corporations from workers receives no coverage at all

Source: Want to be a criminal in America? Stealing billions is your best bet to go scot-free | Judd Legum | The Guardian

Bye bye Democracy, Democracy

The End of Democracy’s Fourth Wave? The New Authoritarians in the Mideast and Eastern Europe

The free media in Russia is suppressed and civil society is monitored for security by laws and regulations. In Hungary, human rights organisations are delegitimised and those following the laws and regulations are persecuted, and in Belarus, President Lukashenko dismisses university professors and public servants according to political whims because laws and regulations enable him to do so. In the Arab countries, there are choppy seas of authoritarian actions of rulers and governments whose only concern is the subjugation of citizens, managing society and controlling public space.

Source: The End of Democracy’s Fourth Wave? The New Authoritarians in the Mideast and Eastern Europe

Capitalism

Richest 1% Took 38% of New Global Wealth Since 1995. The Bottom Half Got Just 2%

World Inequality Report chart

The new analysis shows that 2020—a year of pandemic-induced economic dislocation that pushed tens of millions of people worldwide into extreme poverty—marked “the largest increase in the share of global billionaires wealth available on record.” “In the U.S., the return of top wealth inequality has been particularly dramatic, with the top 1% share nearing 35% in 2020, approaching its Gilded Age level,” states the report, whose contributors include prominent economists Thomas Piketty and Gabriel Zucman. “In Europe, top wealth inequality has also been on the rise since 1980, though significantly less so than in the U.S.” At present, the richest 10% of the world’s population grabs more than half of all global income, the researchers found. The billions of people in the poorest half of the global population, meanwhile, get just 8% of the world’s income.

Source: Richest 1% Took 38% of New Global Wealth Since 1995. The Bottom Half Got Just 2%

Fight against Fake News, Fighting Fake News

Old Dog Thought- LNP MPs are in the main ex- lawyers seen complaining the ABC has better ones because their constant barrage tends to be brushed aside and fails to get traction
Peta Credlin

Fighting Fake News with REAL, 8/12/21; Biden tells Morrison to “jump”; Credlin’s seeming apology; LNP lawyers complain the ABC has better lawyers than them;

Informed Comment

If Gladys is a “great candidate”, our country is truly corrupt – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Morrison is doing a Trump, running on  “Alternative Facts, and polluting the very idea of Democracy.

Gladys Berejiklian managing to resign in disgrace, face the ICAC and bag a better job is emblematic of Australia becoming more corrupt.

Source: If Gladys is a “great candidate”, our country is truly corrupt – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Comment

Let’s be clear, Gladys Berejiklian is being investigated because SHE brought her personal life to work – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Let’s be clear here. It was Gladys that mixed work and play. It was Gladys that chose to keep the relationship secret rather than manage the conflict of interest transparently. It was Gladys that overruled departmental advice to, instead, award grant money to bolster her partner’s political standing. As Gladys so arrogantly said in her defence, “I don’t think it would be a surprise to anybody that we throw money at seats to keep them. At the end of the day, whether we like it or not, that’s democracy.” Pork barrelling is not illegal, but it certainly isn’t democracy either.

Source: Let’s be clear, Gladys Berejiklian is being investigated because SHE brought her personal life to work – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Media

Paul Bongiorno: Liberals reworking ‘Kill Bill’ strategy for Anthony Albanese

Bongiorno Albanese

Morrison on a photoshoot to Bathurst shot himself. Yes, you can fool people some of the time but we are witnessing a man playing with the same gun we did before the last election but shooting himself. The question will he be sacked for a 3rd time as he was by NZ and the Aus Tourist Boards? In Morrison’s case “Ego” is s dirty word.

Mr Morrison rightly picked last time enough voters, particularly in Queensland and Western Australia, had grave reservations about Mr Shorten and his agenda and were reassured by the hastily confected “daggy dad” from suburbia who had replaced Malcolm Turnbull. One of the Liberals’ most experienced campaign strategists believes the past three years have dramatically changed the equation. Mr Morrison is no longer largely unknown and free to define himself in staged picture opportunities that are contradicted by the reality of his performance as Prime Minister.

Source: Paul Bongiorno: Liberals reworking ‘Kill Bill’ strategy for Anthony Albanese

Scott Morrison

‘Sustainable’ logging: when will we twig to the scams? – Michael West Media

logging for woodchipping

”Trust – and verify” was the motto of the Americans when negotiating nuclear arms cuts with the Soviets during the Cold War. It may be a good policy for proponents of the new clean-energy wonder cure, green hydrogen, writes Sue Arnold. In the battle to save the planet while ensuring an adequate source of harm-free energy, we are destined to seemingly take one step forward and two steps back, or at least sideways. Scott Morrison’s carbon mantra “technology not taxes” is incapable of providing the proper policy required. Governments appear to be rushing into green hydrogen without comprehensive understanding, methodology and defined sources.

Source: ‘Sustainable’ logging: when will we twig to the scams? – Michael West Media

Informed Comment

Peta Credlin’s apology to South Sudanese community result of human rights commission complaint | Sky News Australia | The Guardian

Peta Credlin

Credlin’s apology wasn’t her St Paul moment she was forced to apologise because of Section 18C and the complaints put in to the UNHRC. Unlike Andrew Bolt she accepted the verdict and didn’t take it to court to be publicly found guilty. Credlin is far smarter.

Sky News host Peta Credlin’s apology to the South Sudanese community for comments which incorrectly linked them to a Covid-19 outbreak was a condition of a resolution to a human rights commission complaint against her. On Friday, Credlin issued a four-minute on-air apology for blaming the community for an outbreak in Melbourne and making other harmful comments. Her apology came almost 18 months after the offending statements were broadcast on 26 June 2020. Two individuals, who were also acting on behalf of other members of the community, made a complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission on 3 November 2020 regarding Credlin and Australian News Channel (ANC), the company which operates Sky News Australia. Peta Credlin Sky News host Peta Credlin issues lengthy apology to South Sudanese community over Covid comments Read more The complaint related to the 26 June 2020 segment, and an apology Credlin made three days later. The complainants alleged the segments were discriminatory, contrary to s18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, and lodged a complaint on behalf of themselves and “other members of the South Sudanese community in Victoria who are aggrieved by the making and by the making and broadcasting of the Credlin Imputations”.

Source: Peta Credlin’s apology to South Sudanese community result of human rights commission complaint | Sky News Australia | The Guardian

Uninformed Comment

Liberal or Labor, News Corp will back the winning team

This reads as a very uninformed puff piece on News Corp and Sky’s strategy as ” influencers and churnalists”, they are more than just wannabe lap dogs, much more and worse. As far back as Gough Whitlam Murdoch realized his business model was reliant on where the money came from and that was not from Labor. His investment money spent between elections was seen as a necessary expense to insure and modernise where the advertising dollars flowed every three or four years depending on the country. Yes, elections here have always been his tri-annual influencer’s payout for media and he has always wanted  the bulk of what was spent. Labor had X5-10 times less money spent on political promotion than the LNP, who had the direct backing of donors, the IPA, and the likes of Clive, Hanson and other sattelite right-wingers. So Murdoch isn’t about to even seem to change horses to attract a lesser payout. His business model is American and it dictates he won’t change too randomly. When Abbott was losing in Warringah News Corp was tossing the Teleraph over fences gratis.

Thus, it’s not hard to imagine that if the polls stay trending thusly or if new scandals emerge around Morrison’s remaining frontbench, that a few more generous pieces about Albanese will start to get published. Perhaps some editorials will explain how Labor had learned the lessons of the disastrous Rudd/Gillard/Shorten years and that they’ve abandoned their nutty leftism and are finally behaving like economically-responsible grown-ups. Whatever threadbare excuse they use to justify switching their support, it’ll be a placeholder for “because they’re going to win and we want to make them think we were responsible for that”. And when that happens, it’ll be all over bar the belligerent Morrisonian shouting — not because News anoints our leader, but because the team at News are masters of jumping on the winning horse and pretending to have been riding it all along.

Source: Liberal or Labor, News Corp will back the winning team

Informed Comment

How much meat do we eat? New figures show 6 countries have hit their peak

Eating meat comes with an enormous environmental footprint, with food systems responsible for an estimated 34% of global emissions. And yet, in most countries, meat consumption is continuing to rise.

Source: How much meat do we eat? New figures show 6 countries have hit their peak

History

In Algeria’s Freedom Struggle, the Spirit of Frantz Fanon Is Still Alive

Critical lessons from Frantz Fanon

Hamza Hamouchene Frantz Fanon died 60 years ago today. In his last decade, he was deeply involved in Algeria’s anti-colonial struggle — providing lessons that can still be used in the country’s fight against dictatorship today.

Source: In Algeria’s Freedom Struggle, the Spirit of Frantz Fanon Is Still Alive

Trump

Once Again, Trump Admits He Fired Comey To Protect Himself | Crooks and Liars

Once Again, Trump Admits He Fired Comey To Protect Himself

Trump continued, “So you’re coming into a hornet’s nest. I was gonna say before, if I didn’t fire Comey. They were looking to take down the president of the United States. If I didn’t fire him.”

Source: Once Again, Trump Admits He Fired Comey To Protect Himself | Crooks and Liars

Fight against Fake News, Fighting Fake News

Old Dog Thought- Morrison helped destroy the Australian Motor Industry then shoots himself at Bathurst
Federal ICAC

Fighting Fake News with REAL 7/12/21; Morrison shoots himself at Bathurst;

Uncategorized

Treasurer Measurer: exploding the Liberal election myth of superior economic managers – Michael West Media

Josh Frydenberg, Australia economy

Does the Liberal Party’s claim to be “superior economic managers” stack up? No. We dig back to Harold Holt, through 60 years of Australia’s Treasurers, to find the best and worst. A Callum Foote investigation. “It’s not for me to tell the Australian people how they should spend their money”. That was Josh Frydenberg as Australia’s pre-Pandemic economy spluttered towards recession in 2019.

Source: Treasurer Measurer: exploding the Liberal election myth of superior economic managers – Michael West Media

Uncategorized

Fact checking Frydenberg’s flood of furphies and fabrications

The LNP are outright liars so why doesn’t the MSM challenge them? If you sit down with a liar and accept their lies you are a liar even if you just want their business and profit. 3AW, 2GB, are LNP boosters that’s why the LNP are only too happy to sit and answer their softball questions. However should anyone want truth and to test what’s being said they’re boycotted and accused of bias.

Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is ramping up the falsehoods as an election looms, writes Alan Austin. VETERAN MELBOURNE RADIO presenter Neil Mitchell asked Treasurer Josh Frydenberg point blank last Thursday if he had ever told a lie. Frydenberg immediately said “no” and Mitchell accepted this without challenge. Perhaps Mitchell hasn’t read any of the articles chronicling the multiple falsehoods. Or perhaps he has, but believes dishonesty and deception are essential for the Coalition to be re-elected.

Source: Fact checking Frydenberg’s flood of furphies and fabrications

LNP, LNP Corruption, LNP Government, LNP Tactics

Liberals want Berejiklian to run for Warringah, despite ICAC investigation

Federal ICAC

How dare LNP Politicians be questioned for “integrity” by any body other than the LNP itself. Royal Commissions are there to investigate the ALP and their Left-Wing comrades because unlike Morrison, Frydenberg, Dutton, Tudge, or Berejiklian Liberals “never” lie. They have attested to that publicly.

Scott Morrison’s attacks on NSW’s ICAC and endorsement of embattled former premier Gladys Berejiklian to join federal politics have intensified, with the Prime Minister saying she would be a “great” candidate, despite an ongoing corruption investigation.Senior Liberals are escalating their public calls for Ms Berejiklian to switch from NSW politics to Canberra – despite a cloud hanging over her knowledge of corruption by ex-boyfriend Daryl Maguire – in the face of a huge community campaign from Warringah incumbent Zali Steggall.And even as the federal government stalls its plans for a Commonwealth integrity body, Mr Morrison has again attacked the NSW anti-corruption watchdog, hinting that an adverse finding against Ms Berejiklian wouldn’t scupper any bid for high office.“I think she would be great. The way that Gladys Berejiklian has been treated has been shameful,” PM Morrison said on Monday.gladys berejiklian icacMs Berejiklian gives evidence to ICAC in October.“I don’t call that justice.”

Source: Liberals want Berejiklian to run for Warringah, despite ICAC investigation

Informed Comment

Scott Morrison’s #themtoo moment – » The Australian Independent Media Network

When women across the nation joined together in an outpouring of grief and anger to demand change, Scott Morrison refused to come out and face the March 4 Justice crowds, instead saying from the floor of parliament that it was a triumph of democracy that protesters were not “met with bullets”. This is not the time to point at someone else saying they do it too. It shouldn’t be necessary to form another committee to work out what to do either. It’s easy. Just stop it!

Source: Scott Morrison’s #themtoo moment – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Climate Change, Climate Change denial

Where to start?: Boards struggle with climate change risks, fail to act

Almost half of the directors surveyed said their boards should pay more attention to climate but did not know how to do so.

While petrol head  Morrison was at Bathurst having his photo taken. The Corporate boards that he has handballed the emission reduction problem to solve have been scratching their heads saying they don’t know what to do. Yes, the Morrison plan simply said “you fix it”  as he walked out of the room.

Many Australian boards are struggling to prepare their companies or organizations for climate change, with almost half the country’s directors saying they don’t know how to tackle the issue. A first-of-its-kind study by the Australian Institute of Company Directors into how boards are approaching climate change reveals that 77 per cent of directors are concerned about how it will affect their organization, but often failed to act.

Source: Where to start?: Boards struggle with climate change risks, fail to act

Uncategorized

Peta Credlin apologises for false South Sudanese claims

Sky News host Peta Credlin apologised for the second time in 18 months to Victoria’s South Sudanese community.

Credit where credit is due but why on a Friday night? When most viewers aren’t paying attention? This seems a forced apology forced on Murdoch media under legal obligation. Credlin however wasn’t the only Sky presenter to have abused the South Sudanese, and she certainly isn’t leading an apology chorus. Andrew Bolt was an active smearer of the the Sudanese. He avoided referring to them as Christians when spitting his bile at Islam No apologies coming from him for tarring all African refugees with the same brush.

Sky News host Peta Credlin has issued a lengthy on-air apology to Victoria’s South Sudanese community after anger about a program in which she falsely blamed them for a Melbourne COVID-19 outbreak last year.

Source: Peta Credlin apologises for false South Sudanese claims

LNP, LNP Government

80 years on, the attack on Pearl Harbour offers lessons for today

Pearl harbour was a target and the naval base destroyed 25% of the pop of Hawaii were American Japanese and they were interned. Why is Morrison and Dutton intent on making Australia the foremost target in the region?

Then, on November 29 2021, the US Defence Department announced in its global posture review that it will concentrate military activities and infrastructure in Australia and select Pacific Islands. There’s no question the US and the UK are returning to the Pacific at levels not seen since the second world war. The AUKUS agreement, initiated by the Morrison government, encapsulates the escalating tensions due to China’s troubling acts. These include its rhetorical and trade war with Australia, aggressions towards Taiwan, military expansion in the South China Sea and its deepening influence in the Pacific islands as a suspected veiled means to project its military power. Australia’s prime minister and, most recently, defence minister have conjured up the Pacific War, saying “we live in the echoes of the 1930s”, citing “mistakes” that led to the war. China has lashed back, criticising the Australian government for super-charging fears that history is repeating at a terrifying scale and pace.

Source: 80 years on, the attack on Pearl Harbour offers lessons for today

Informed Comment

Australia proves resilient against China trade sanctions but loses diplomatic influence in Asia | Australian foreign policy | The Guardian

The flagpole of the Australian Parliament is seen behind the roof of the Chinese Embassy in Canberra

Australia is not only trending down in diplomacy in South East Asia but globally since the LNP became government. The Lowey Institute Report is linked here.

Despite gains from vaccine diplomacy, border closures ‘weighed heavily on external views of the country’, Lowy Institute thinktank finds

Source: Australia proves resilient against China trade sanctions but loses diplomatic influence in Asia | Australian foreign policy | The Guardian

Republicans

The Republicans had a plan for their judges — and it went way beyond Roe v. Wade | Salon.com

Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett (Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images)

And then, of course, there is the 2024 presidential election. Trump may or may not run again, but whoever the Republicans run, they will be looking for him to follow Trump’s example and act as a pardon machine. If you are a Republican and you are charged with any crime in connection with electing other Republicans, or even with committing violent crimes against the government of the United States, you won’t have anything to worry about. They already own enough judges, and if they get the White House back, it will be ollie-ollie-in-come-free for every Republican conspirator there is.

Source: The Republicans had a plan for their judges — and it went way beyond Roe v. Wade | Salon.com

America's Business, America's Shame

We do it to Ourselves: 30 Gun Homicides in England in 2020 (167 US Equiv.), vs. 13,620 in US

Image

Revised The murders by a high school student in Oxford, Michigan, who was given a gun by his parents even though he was making death threats and the school called them to conferences out of concern, have shaken the state and become national news. That is because the parents are being charged with criminal negligence in the deaths of those young people, as well. The gun used was a Glock semi-automatic of a sort developed by Austria for its army but which is freely available to civilians in the US because gun manufacturers have bought Congress. Coinciding with this tragedy,

Source: We do it to Ourselves: 30 Gun Homicides in England in 2020 (167 US Equiv.), vs. 13,620 in US

Informed Comment

‘Utterly Obscene’: Just 8 Pfizer and Moderna Investors Became $10 Billion Richer After Omicron Emerged

Moderna vaccine

“When is a new covid variant good news? When you’re a pharma shareholder, obviously.”

Source: ‘Utterly Obscene’: Just 8 Pfizer and Moderna Investors Became $10 Billion Richer After Omicron Emerged

Fight against Fake News, Fighting Fake News

Old Dog Thought- Morrison at Bathurst, foot on the gas pedal of an industry which the LNP closed. Handballed emissions problem to boards who say “We don’t know what to do!”
May be an image of text that says 'The Chaser @chaser Factcheck: Albo's claim that Dutton is a boofhead checks out TRUTH'

Fighting Fake News with REAL 6/12/21/; The Mafia and Guy; Truth; Our American Friends and Trade; Alan Jones;

Informed Comment

Suffering in comparison: Australia’s economic outcomes the worst in 60 years – Michael West Media

Josh Frydenberg, GDP, Australia economy

Australians are treated like mushrooms kept in the dark and fed bullshit. If QAnon is the great fantasy spin doctor of 2021 then the LNP is Q.

What would Menzies say? Treasurer Josh Frydenberg would have us believe Australia’s economy is back to leading its rivals after two years of pandemic. The latest economic update shows instead that we are not only lagging the field, we have had one of the poorest outcomes in the developed world, writes Alan Austin. The quarterly national accounts provide invaluable data on the state of Australia’s economy. Yesterday’s are the worst set of outcomes since the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) began tabulating this series in 1959, when the prime minister was Robert Menzies. That’s based on Australia’s historic data, or comparison with other developed countries, or both.

Source: Suffering in comparison: Australia’s economic outcomes the worst in 60 years – Michael West Media

Scott Morrison

All capitalism ‘can do’ is destroy our planet

Private Enterprise created the very problem Morrison says it will now fix. Capitalism is the problem that fucked the climatic “norm” in the first place.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s new slogan is hypocritically telling us that our planet’s saviour from the climate crisis is the very thing destroying it, writes Dr William Briggs. NOW THAT COP26 has come and gone, the world seems to be getting back to business. Our Prime Minister assures us that this “business” will be our saviour. All we have to do is to accept that capitalism is the cure and not the disease.

Source: All capitalism ‘can do’ is destroy our planet

Truth in Humor

Australian politics is unequivocally fucked | The Shot

This occurs through Murdoch media’s relentless ramming of Liberal Party propaganda into our eyeholes. Through the ABC’s enthusiastic embrace of the false balance doctrine – “tonight on Q&A, a climate scientist and a psychopath from the IPA!” – and sucking Sydney off whenever it can. Through NineFax’s desperate and overwhelmingly successful race to be worse than it used to be. All of this adds up to a horseshoe to the part of the skull containing our grasp on reality, an intravenous drip of dickhead. For next year to be better than this year, everything needs to change. The collision of a once in a 100-year global pandemic, historic levels of wealth inequality, climate collapse, rampant misogyny, and the corrupt, uninterested political leadership that inevitably emerged at the ass-end of neoliberalism’s upwards wealth redistribution project has been a fucking nightmare to behold. The hope we must cling onto is the fact real, objective reality has become so obviously discordant with the version of reality spun out of Canberra people are starting to notice.

Source: Australian politics is unequivocally fucked | The Shot

LNP

Political Fragmentation: The Challenges Posed by a Possible Lifeline for the Re-Election of the Federal LNP – » The Australian Independent Media Network

In the wake of the surprise Coalition victory at the May election, Palmer said he had “decided to polarise the electorate” with an anti-Labor advertising blitz in the final weeks of the campaign, rather than attempting to win seats for the United Australia party. In the final week alone, Palmer spent $8m in electoral advertisements. The submission noted the party was reported to have spent $60m on a “contentious” campaign that failed to win a single seat but Palmer “claims to have secured the Coalition government’s win with his preferences”.

Source: Political Fragmentation: The Challenges Posed by a Possible Lifeline for the Re-Election of the Federal LNP – » The Australian Independent Media Network

LNP

Matthew Guy wants to make Victorian a manufacturing great again

Victorian Opposition Leader Matthew Guy.

Little Matthew Guy has a Liberal vision of turning Victoria into an Australian China, Vietnam or Cambodia just as Morrison is. Filling our region with an imported and casualized workforce in “factories”. Meanwhile, 2021 owners of such organizations are dreaming of becoming automated in order to shrink human labor costs. It seems Little Matthew Guy still has a 20th-century vision returning to factories like those that used to make shoes and clothes for our military but with imported labor which fits with Morrison’s scheme of an easily manipulated, exploited casualized and an imported workforce. A workforce to keep the cost of labor down to less than automated. Currently the LNP are doing just that with a Pacific nations workforce.

We used to call it “blackbirding” cheapening labor costs. Doesn’t Guy realize China has an extremely highly-skilled workforce building the most advanced equipment the world has ever seen? Is he actually suggesting his incentives be directed to the renewable energy sector? The sector Morrison has put the brakes on. If he is he sounds very Dan Andrews to me. Albo is incentivising retraining by making TAFEs free. Neither are dreaming of factories filled with the sweat of human labor.

Opposition Leader Matthew Guy wants to reclaim Victoria’s historic position as the manufacturing engine room of Australia with a $2.5 billion fund he says will create thousands of jobs.

Source: atthew Guy wants to make Victorian a manufacturing great again

LNP, LNP Economic Management, LNP Government

Australia exports to China: new figures show Canberra caught in election trap as Washington and Beijing do business

A large screen in Beijing shows talks between Xi Jinping and Joe Biden in November.

Singapore: Australian cattle farmers and abattoirs lost half a billion in exports to China in the last two years, cotton producers were down $870 million, copper exporters $1.5 billion.But the Chinese importers did not miss those products. Australia’s great Indo-Pacific ally, the United States, was happy to make up for the shortfall.The same happened with timber and coal. As Australia’s coal exports fell by $11 billion, the US added $1.8 billion to its usual load over the same period. Russia, Canada and Indonesia also sent more.Markets are unsentimental; when there is a gap they fill them. The US and Australia have made much of their united front on China’s economic coercion, but the truth is American exporters have been eating Australia’s lunch.

Source: Australia exports to China: new figures show Canberra caught in election trap as Washington and Beijing do business

Informed Comment

There Is No Doubt Any More: The US Supreme Court Is Run by Partisan Hacks | The Smirking Chimp

If there’s any doubt about the partisan hackery of the supreme court’s six Republican appointees, it will be on full display when they overturn Roe v Wade, the 1973 decision that established a constitutional right to abortion and prohibited states from banning the procedure before fetal viability, about 23 weeks.

Source: There Is No Doubt Any More: The US Supreme Court Is Run by Partisan Hacks | The Smirking Chimp

Fight against Fake News, Fighting Fake News

Old Dog Thought- The worst Economic Report in 60 years is “Recovery” to Frydenberg.
Josh Frydenberg, GDP, Australia economy
Watch The Best of Steptoe and Son | Prime Video
Morrison and Frydenberg = Steptoe and Son

Fighting Fake News with REAL 5/12/21; The Worst in 60 years; We have become America’s toy – yoyo:

Informed Comment

What privileged middle-aged white men call “woke identity politics” is what matters to everyone else – » The Australian Independent Media Network

If it wasn’t for the feminazis, the ABC lovers, the gays, the Aborigines, the refugees, the ecoterrorists, the inner-city latte sippers, the kids, the aged, the disabled, the homeless, the poor and all those other woke identity politics bleeding heart whingers – this government could get on with the serious business of wealth creation and post-politics employment planning.

Source: What privileged middle-aged white men call “woke identity politics” is what matters to everyone else – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Uncategorized

Labor’s 2030 climate target betters the Morrison government, but Australia must go much further, much faster

Albanese plays a political but straight ball. Why 43% and not 45% because Morrison put the Brakes on. for the past 3 years.

Go further, faster

Announcing the policy on Friday, Albanese said the planned emissions reduction was consistent with that of Canada, which has a comparable economy. If Labor wins government at next year’s election, Australia could “go to international climate conferences and not be in the naughty corner”, Albanese said. “I wanted to make sure we have a policy that doesn’t leave people behind, that supports industry, supports jobs and gets the balance right.” There’s no question that Labor’s target is inadequate. But it provides a solid framework for further action in the next decade. Any federal government that implements meaningful policy to reduce emissions will quickly realise it’s in Australia’s interests to go further, faster. Doing so will leave households better off, grow jobs in regional Australia, and ensure we play a role in the global effort to avert climate catastrophe.

Source: Labor’s 2030 climate target betters the Morrison government, but Australia must go much further, much faster

Informed Comment

Not a dry eye in the House as rats abandon ship – » The Australian Independent Media Network

The federal government’s contempt for global co-operation, humanity and for climate science is brazen. Nothing is more important than winning the next election. And serving the fossil-fuel oligarchs who rule us through their wholly-owned subsidiary, the Liberal National Coalition. Yet what neither may have counted on is the Morrison government’s rapid disintegration through ineptitude and acute dysfunction combining with its record of betrayal over COVID to keep any of its promises; discharge its responsibilities. Add in the seamy underbelly revealed in the release of Kate Jenkin’s report, an expose of toxic masculinity and bullying guaranteed to alienate women voters. Despite all of Clive Palmer’s money and anti-Labor lies it may be in for a big shock at the ballot box.

Source: Not a dry eye in the House as rats abandon ship – » The Australian Independent Media Network

LNP, LNP Economic Management, LNP Government

‘Revolving door’ between public service and consultancies

Senior Victorian public servant Adam Fennessy.

Now no longer Independent of Government they are totally reliant on them for their contracts and have become the Organ Grinders Monkeys

Some of the most senior figures to have left the Victorian public service in recent years for jobs in the consultancy sector are back in charge of government agencies or departments.

Source: ‘Revolving door’ between public service and consultancies

Informed Comment

Democracy: A work in progress – » The Australian Independent Media Network

My thought for the day “We’ve had it now for the last dismal decade. This destruction of our Democracy. It’s damaged both sides of politics, it’s damaged our country and our reputation. It has to stop. It must stop.”( John Lord )

Source: Democracy: A work in progress – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Uncategorized

Pentagon to expand military presence in Australia against China

Previously America said jump and Australia’s LNP sent our boys wherever we we were told, Vietnam, Afghanistan Iraq and Syria. Today we not only did a massive one-way trade deal double crossing the French who are our Pacific neighbors but we have handed our sovereignty over to America and become their foremost base in the region. Yes ,the yanks are hers and we have to set up that base to accommodate them. That will make us the single most  target in the region for technological and tactical attack long before we even have a single submarine.
Meanwhile America is cooperating with China on Climate, trade and taking the commerce we once had with China. Trade in wine,beef, diary and education have slipped away. Good one …Scott Morrison Marketeer where is any Quid Pro Quo? We are now China’s fully fledged enemy and an American vassal.
 

There is an unabashed encouragement of greater U.S. garrisoning and military presence in Australia. Australia would commit to investing in and expanding naval facilities in Darwin and on the west coast. This, in turn, ‘could be matched with a greater U.S. naval presence at these facilities, for the purpose of joint activity through the Indian Ocean and up into Southeast Asia’. The authors take issue with conservative U.S. troop numbers that had been present through Marine Corps rotations in Northern Australia during the Obama era. It was time to roll up the sleeves and co-opt Australian real estate and resources to advance Washington’s agenda. The report said: ‘Specifically, the United States should forward deploy Navy surface, subsurface and uncrewed vessels to Australia; expand the Air Force rotational presence to include larger numbers and more frequent presence of high-endurance intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platforms; and increase both Marine and Army presence to facilitate greater training and integration within the alliance.’

Source: Pentagon to expand military presence in Australia against China

Fox News

Former Fox News employee slams network: “Beyond reckless” for enabling conspiracies | Salon.com

Maria Bartiromo and Tucker Carlson (Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images/Chip Somodevilla/Steven Ferdman)

What we have been witnessing with Fox News, News Max, OAN, and the privatized media is that their business models have made them the Organ Grinders Monkeys. Driven by the need for the dollar they have sacrificed truth for the Autocratic Capture of the American narrative, the “Big Lie” and Right-Wing messaging. Yes, they have done a Trump, become ratings-driven, and are now anybody’s for a price. As we know money flows from the top down, not up, is generally reactionary, and is in the hands of an oligarchy. Trump knew that, but couldn’t really manage it as he’s just an old-school grifter, and not really a politician. However, now darker forces are at play and working on the Autocratic Capture of the very electoral process state by state trying to turn America away from Democracy to a single party-run Autocracy the likes of Hungary, Russia, and Turkey. Who claim to be Democrcies because they have elections too!!

“What Steve and Jonah did in giving up compensation and a high visibility post was to put their money literally where their mouth is,” Stirewalt said, adding, “What Fox allowed in Tucker Carlson’s documentary, which said that January 6 was potentially a false flag operation undertaken by the federal government and that Americans were being put in Guantanomo over pictures of waterboarding, was beyond reckless and is another mile-marker down the road to the kind of Alex Jones-ian, Infowars-ian garbage that makes it impossible to have any kind of conversation.”

Source: Former Fox News employee slams network: “Beyond reckless” for enabling conspiracies | Salon.com

Informed Comment

The Most Important Choice Ahead | The Smirking Chimp

If America falls whose left standing?

Biden must use the full strength of his presidency – his bully pulpit, the power of the executive branch, his influence inside the halls of the Senate (and over his old putative friend, the senior senator from West Virginia), and the credibility that comes with being President of the United States – to end the filibuster, and thereby open the way for voting rights. It is necessary. It is time.

Source: The Most Important Choice Ahead | The Smirking Chimp

America's Shame

As Iran Negotiates on Nuclear Deal, Americans Wrongly believe it has a Bomb — and that Israel Doesn’t!

How the Fuck is this possible in 2021?

“more Americans think Iran possesses nuclear weapons than think Israel does. While Israel has been known to possess nuclear weapons for decades (without officially acknowledging it) and Iran is not known to have ever possessed any, the American public perception presumes a different reality: 60.5%, including 70.6% of Republicans and 52.6% of Democrats, say Iran possesses nuclear weapons — compared to 51.7% who say Israel does, including 51.7% of Republicans and 51.9% of Democrats. More Americans think Iran possesses nuclear weapons than think Israel does.”

Source: As Iran Negotiates on Nuclear Deal, Americans Wrongly believe it has a Bomb — and that Israel Doesn’t!

Israel

‘Bombshell’: Israeli Spyware Used to Hack iPhones of US State Department Officials

An Israeli woman uses her iPhone in front of the building housing the Israeli NSO group, on August 28, 2016, in Herzliya, near Tel Aviv. (Photo: Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images)

Multiple news outlets revealed Friday that Apple notified at least 11 U.S. State Department officials that their iPhones were recently hacked by an unknown party or parties with spyware developed by the private Israeli firm NSO Group.

Source: ‘Bombshell’: Israeli Spyware Used to Hack iPhones of US State Department Officials