Author: peterimrich

Australia's Shame

Afghan refugees can no longer wait — Australia must offer permanent protection now

Foreign Minister Marise Payne said today all Afghan citizens who were in Australia on a temporary basis would be supported by the government, adding no Afghan visa holder will be asked to return to Afghanistan at this stage. The words “at this stage” fall well short of Australia’s moral and legal obligations to Afghan refugees, and provide little comfort to temporary visa holders. With a range of options to expand protection for people at risk both within and outside Afghanistan, the Australian government must stop attaching qualifiers to its response, and start acting decisively and with humanity.

Source: Afghan refugees can no longer wait — Australia must offer permanent protection now

Scott Morrison

Australia must offer permanent protection to Afghan refugees now

Rhetoric accompanied with qualifiers= PM Scott Morrisson Sales exec. You want it done show him the votes and the money

The words “at this stage” fall well short of Australia’s moral and legal obligations to Afghan refugees and provide little comfort to temporary visa holders. With a range of options to expand protection for people at risk both within and outside Afghanistan, the Australian Government must stop attaching qualifiers to its response and start acting decisively and with humanity.

Source: Australia must offer permanent protection to Afghan refugees now

Scott Morrison

Australia rescues just 26 people from Afghanistan on evacuation flight with space for 128 | Australian foreign policy | The Guardian

Thousands of Afghans mobbed Kabul’s airport trying to flee the Taliban

Morrison applies his vaccination Logic to his Afghan evacuations. ” they’ll it ramp up” 26 were evacuated on flight leaving 102 seats vacant. The UK then did our heavy lifting taking 76 out. Meanwhile back in Afghanistan they’re crying out in an echo of Morrison’s own words ” Where The Bloody Hell Are You?”

Australia’s first evacuation mission to Afghanistan rescued just 26 people amid growing fears about dangerous conditions outside Kabul’s airport, but the prime minister says he hopes those numbers will ramp up with further flights in coming days.

Source: Australia rescues just 26 people from Afghanistan on evacuation flight with space for 128 | Australian foreign policy | The Guardian

Scott Morrison

Malcolm Fraser saved Vietnamese refugees – can Morrison find the same compassion for Afghanistan’s? | Bertin Huynh | The Guardian

Thousands of Afghans mobbed Kabul’s airport trying to flee the Taliban

Today, Australia stands at another seminal moment. Will our leaders today have the courage and compassion shown by Malcolm Fraser and the LNP of yesteryear?

Morrison and Dutton have yesterday flown 26 out of Kabul, 2 Australians and those who currently have visas for Australia, All in a plane that’s purpose built for 128 but able to take hundreds more. It’s now been reported that only 600 will be flown from the area and with testing qualifications and “if possible”. Allowing Morrison so much breathing space for further excuses it’s unbelievable in this crisis.

Morrison’s preferred arm twisted intake it seems  will be made up from the numbers already here but possible deportations will still remain hanging over their heads when it comes for the government to decide. Why does Morrison even claim to be a Christian?

Under Malcolm Fraser over 100,000 Vietnamese people came to Australia without the bureaucratic wall put in place as is by Morrison. Today they are  vibrant communities in Cabramatta and Inala which are testaments to their integration into our multiculturalism.

Morrison Shames us and this Nation he’s been watching and doing nothing about this potential holocaust steamrolling forward since April. Now he stands before us talking, as if this was a surprise that he has no control of. Morrison was and has been an enabler of what we are now witnessing but even more he’s become an active participant in declaring people must form a queue and wait fill out forms which haven’t been sent and aren’t available and he won’t listen to anyway because those might likely be terrorists. Such a fucking hollow excuse simply make one puke.

Source: Malcolm Fraser saved Vietnamese refugees – can Morrison find the same compassion for Afghanistan’s? | Bertin Huynh | The Guardian

Fight against Fake News, Fighting Fake News

Old Dog Thought- You couldn’t bring on an election fast enough. Morrison Shames us with his rhetoric
May be a cartoon

Fighting Fake News with REAL 19/8/21; Morrison Shames US; Destruction of Afghanistan; Counting the cost; PMs COVID Plan;

Truth in Humor

Following That Brief Disruption, We Now Return You to the Real News | The Smirking Chimp

Can you believe this shit? President Trump was reinstalled to his rightful post as POTUS last Friday and the lame stream media didn’t report that news. Wolf Blitzer didn’t have a word to say about it, nor did any of the folks over at MSNBC, the communist cable channel where the news is always faked.

Source: Following That Brief Disruption, We Now Return You to the Real News | The Smirking Chimp

Informed Comment

Digital Slaves: how Big Tech tracks us for profit – Michael West Media

“You are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else, you were born into bondage. Into a prison that you cannot taste or see or touch. A prison for your mind” – Morpheus, The Matrix.

Source: Digital Slaves: how Big Tech tracks us for profit – Michael West Media

Public/Private

The Untamed and Unregulated Beast of Private Military Security Companies | The Smirking Chimp

The number of groups operating as private sector security and military organizations, and the extent of their activities, is extremely difficult to track, as transparency is not a highly valued concept.

Source: The Untamed and Unregulated Beast of Private Military Security Companies | The Smirking Chimp

COVID-19

Greg Abbott Tests Positive for Covid-19 – Rolling Stone

AUSTIN, TX - JUNE 08: Texas Governor Greg Abbott speaks during a press conference where he signed Senate Bills 2 and 3 at the Capitol on June 8, 2021 in Austin, Texas. Governor Abbott signed the bills into law to reform the Electric Reliability Council of Texas and weatherize and improve the reliability of the state's power grid. The bill signing comes months after a disastrous February winter storm that caused widespread power outages and left dozens of Texans dead. (Photo by Montinique Monroe/Getty Images)

“Governor Greg Abbott today tested positive for the COVID-19 virus,” wrote Communications Director Mark Miner. “The Governor has been testing daily, and today was the first positive test result. Governor Abbott is in constant communication with his staff, agency heads, and government officials to ensure that state government continues to operate smoothly and efficiently. The Governor will isolate in the Governor’s Mansion and continue to test daily. Governor Abbott is receiving Regeneron’s monoclonal antibody treatment.”

Regeneron’s monoclonal antibody treatment is the same treatment former President Trump received after contracting the virus last October.

“Governor Greg Abbott today tested positive for the COVID-19 virus,” wrote Communications Director Mark Miner. “The Governor has been testing daily, and today was the first positive test result. Governor Abbott is in constant communication with his staff, agency heads, and government officials to ensure that state government continues to operate smoothly and efficiently. The Governor will isolate in the Governor’s Mansion and continue to test daily. Governor Abbott is receiving Regeneron’s monoclonal antibody treatment.” Regeneron’s monoclonal antibody treatment is the same treatment former President Trump received after contracting the virus last October

Source: Greg Abbott Tests Positive for Covid-19 – Rolling Stone

Pandemic

The pandemic is your fault according to the Coalition

The Coalition is not into suggesting that it’s the Government’s first and arguably only job to keep everyone safe, or that no one is okay until everyone is, or that the buck stops with them. No, it’s that everything would be fine if only you people were more responsible for your own health. In short, Gladys and Scott would very much like you to blame yourself for their failures. And that’s a game they seem to be winning.

Source: The pandemic is your fault according to the Coalition

Fox News

As U.S. war in Afghanistan ends, right-wing media pivot to attacking refugees | Media Matters for America

Tucker Carlson in front of a barbed wire fence and the American flag

As thousands flee an unfolding humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, right-wing media have begun fearmongering about Afghan refugees seeking asylum in the United States. ( Australia’s PM Scott Morrison echoes the same “we can’t let anyone on our planes.”)

Source: As U.S. war in Afghanistan ends, right-wing media pivot to attacking refugees | Media Matters for America

Afgahnistan

“The Afghanistan Papers” Tries to Answer Who Lost the War

A U.S. Marine patrols as his platoon searches house to house during day three of Operation Germinate in Farah Province, Afghanistan, on Oct. 9, 2009.

In the wake of this week’s Taliban takeover, many are asking a question that will be repeated by future generations: “Who lost Afghanistan?” Whitlock’s “The Afghanistan Papers” offers the definitive answer.

Source: “The Afghanistan Papers” Tries to Answer Who Lost the War

Afghanistan

Former interpreter urges Australian government to ‘try harder’ to save Afghans who helped ADF – ABC News

A man in a blue suit.

Scott Morrison says Australia will not be able to help everyone who assisted the ADF Raz Mohammad says the government is not trying hard enough He has called for Australia to increase its humanitarian visa offering

Source: Former interpreter urges Australian government to ‘try harder’ to save Afghans who helped ADF – ABC News

Afgahnistan

The PM’s rhetoric on Afghan refugees has to be treated with caution

Australian soldiers at `Kamp Holland` Military base in Tarin Kowt, Afghanistan in 2007.

Morrison asks us to honor those that went to Afghanistan to help Afghanis. Yet he doesn’t off any help or hope to those who helped us.

SBS News understands visa holders, including former interpreters for Australia, were initially told they would not be part of this first rescue operation.

Further confirmation about who was on the flight is being sought.

26 evacuees is Morrison’s political heroic number like vaccinations he “promises that will be ramped up”

Dutton says yes, from those who have already done the paper work years ago or are already here. We aren’t stupid to allow anybody on the planes.

In fact, Morrison is worried, like French President Emmanuel Macron, about a wave of asylum seekers from a horrifying takeover of Afghanistan. So Morrison revived his rhetoric about stopping boats and turning back asylum seekers. It is a warning sign for an ugly debate ahead of the election. This means the Prime Minister’s pledge to take 3000 refugees has to be treated with caution. It is not clear whether it is even possible to airlift that many in the weeks or months ahead. The notion of an orderly queue is always a fantasy.

Source: The PM’s rhetoric on Afghan refugees has to be treated with caution

Afghanistan

Failure in Afghanistan should prompt urgent reassessment of Australia’s war powers – » The Australian Independent Media Network

“For several months, numerous experts and NGOs have been pleading with the Morrison government to urgently offer visas to these staff and we have seen delay after delay.”

Source: Failure in Afghanistan should prompt urgent reassessment of Australia’s war powers – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Fight against Fake News, Fighting Fake News

Old Dog Thought- Morrison keeps thanking 41 ADF dead for their service there were 541.
Mahdi Alizada, from Afghanistan, spent five years in a detention facility on Borneo and is now a refugee representative.

Fighting Fake News with REAL 17/8/21; Afghanistan Morrison’s Shameful Abandonment; Afghanis Boats and Morrison’s LNP; LNP Education;

Trump

Top Nine Policy Recommendations for U.S. in wake of Afghanistan Debacle

The factor that was most responsible for the fall of Afghanistan was President Trump’s decision to announce the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan, even without consulting Afghan leaders or Western allies. His decision to hold talks with the representatives of the Taliban in Doha behind the back of the Afghan government emboldened the Taliban and undermined the morale of Afghan leaders and armed forces. It seems in this case, America first became America only. In his various interviews with the media, Tom Tugendhat, chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the British Parliament, said that negotiating with the Taliban behind the back of the Afghan government was as if US officials had negotiated with IRA terrorists at the height of the Troubles behind the back of US officials about the fate of Ireland. He complained: “we abandoned the Afghan people”.

Source: Top Nine Policy Recommendations for U.S. in wake of Afghanistan Debacle

Trump

Trump Slams Biden for Doing What Trump Bragged About – Mother Jones

As uncertainty consumes Afghanistan, Donald Trump is blaming Joe Biden for doing what Trump said he did. “He ran out of Afghanistan instead of following the plan our Administration left for him,” the former president wrote in a statement Saturday. Then, barely 25 hours later, another statement from Trump: “Never would have happened if I were President!” While we’ll never know exactly what a Trump administration-led withdrawal from Afghanistan will look like, we can make some educated guesses based on his words from barely a month ago. “I started the process, all the troops are coming home,” he told supporters at a rally in Wellington, Ohio in late June. “What are we going to say? We’ll stay for another 21 years, then we’ll stay for another 50. The whole thing is ridiculous.” And few months before that, in April of this year, Trump was clear about where he stood: “We can and should get out earlier…Getting out of Afghanistan is a wonderful and positive thing to do. I planned to withdraw on May 1st.” Trump’s former National Security Advisor even agrees, saying the former president “would’ve done essentially the same thing” as Biden. So let me get this straight, the only president t

Source: Trump Slams Biden for Doing What Trump Bragged About – Mother Jones

Trump

Liz Cheney: Donald Trump’s meeting with the Taliban “set all this in motion” | Salon.com

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

“The fact that Mike Pompeo was the first Secretary of State to meet with the Taliban, the fact that they were considering inviting the Taliban to Camp David on 9/11 — that set this all in motion,” Liz Cheney said of former President Donald Trump and his administration. She continued to say that she, as well as other ranking members of the party, were told by the former president and Pompeo that “we were going to renounce the Taliban, we were going to renounce Al-Qaeda…none of that happened.” As the well-known war hawk warned in early 2020, as the Trump administration left the Afghan government out of negotiations with the Taliban, “Any deal that the United States would contemplate entering into with the Taliban should be made public in its entirety.”

Source: Liz Cheney: Donald Trump’s meeting with the Taliban “set all this in motion” | Salon.com

Afghanistan

Taliban-Afghanistan: Refugees on-board US jet ‘most ever flown’

Image

While Biden Does Now, Morrison talks and emphasizes the past as far back as 2020

A US jet took a near-record number of passengers to safety following the collapse of Kabul, a US outlet has reported.

Source: Taliban-Afghanistan: Refugees on-board US jet ‘most ever flown’

Informed Comment

Lendlease fessus up to ATO tax scam audit, provisionally – Michael West Media

Lendlease, tax avoidance

Lendlease has finally admitted the Tax Office is conducting an audit on its $1 billion double dipping scam, while paying zero tax again in Australia.

Source: Lendlease fessus up to ATO tax scam audit, provisionally – Michael West Media

Uncategorized

Afghanistan War Has Been Hugely Profitable

Was the Afghanistan War a failure? Not for the top five defense contractors and their shareholders. Jon Schwarz

Source: Afghanistan War Has Been Hugely Profitable

Informed Comment

War Powers: immense profits for arms dealers, incalculable losses for Australians – Michael West Media

“Freedom’s always worth it,” said Scott Morrison. “What a waste,” said the father who had lost his son in Afghanistan. Afghanistan, Iraq, Vietnam. Tasha May totes up the immense cost of futile wars and the immense profits.

Source: War Powers: immense profits for arms dealers, incalculable losses for Australians – Michael West Media

Afghanistan

Michael Pascoe: Australia is an accessory to the Afghanistan disaster

Afghanistan Pascoe

Dissemble and delay, pray the crisis goes away. Like bushfire preparedness, like pandemic shortcomings, like climate change policy, the Prime Minister was told we had people who needed to be rescued long before yesterday. Maybe it was just the usual gross incompetence – or maybe the government didn’t really want to import any more Afghanis than it absolutely had to.

Source: Michael Pascoe: Australia is an accessory to the Afghanistan disaster

Enviroment

The environmental vandals – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Technology and new products will assist the transition to better environmental management. To demonstrate the point, was Michaela Cash correct when she claimed that Shorten was coming after your utes when promoting an electric vehicle subsidy? In a word – no. Ford in the USA is now accepting pre-orders for an all-electric F150 truck with a potential $7,500 US Government Tax Credit! If a large American ute is what you need to carry your tools during the week and tow your boat on the weekend, you’ll survive in an all-electric vehicle world. What do you think?

Source: The environmental vandals – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Comment

The Coalition governs for those that have, and the have-nots are left far behind – » The Australian Independent Media Network

My thought for the day Economics and society are so inextricably interwoven that we cannot ignore the human cost in our decision making. Conservatives should consider that. ( John Lord )

Source: The Coalition governs for those that have, and the have-nots are left far behind – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Fight against Fake News, Fighting Fake News

Old Dog Thought- Dutton was Morrison’s Minister for Home Affairs “keeping us safe” attacking Muslims, Africans and Rugees in Australia. What were ASIO and the AFP’s focus if merely 2 journalists could reveal the extent our homegrown Nazis
Graffiti in suburban Melbourne painted by members of the National Socialist Network.

Fighting Fake News with REAL, 17/8/12; Trump’s Afghanistan; Fox News and Capitalism, Germans and Climate Change; Australian Nazis and the Government;

Afghanistan

Former Nat. Sec. Adviser Whacks Trump’s Botched Negotiation With Taliban | Crooks and Liars

Former Nat. Sec. Adviser Whacks Trump's Botched Negotiation With Taliban

But to your specific question though, Donald Trump clearly was in this huge rush to both claim responsibility for withdrawing U.S. forces from Afghanistan, and also weirdly to have some kind of peace deal with the Taliban. And you will even remember he was talking about inviting them to Camp David for some big ceremony around the 9/11 anniversary, like that is a thing that actually happened. And the reality is efforts at diplomacy over the years were always predicated under successive administrations on the Afghan government being in the lead in any negotiation with the Taliban. You don’t negotiate your own exit with the adversary of the government that you are supporting. And that’s what the Trump administration did. They cut a deal with the Taliban that excluded the Afghan government, effectively again demoralizing them and making them feel like we were simply leaving them holding the bag entirely.

Source: Former Nat. Sec. Adviser Whacks Trump’s Botched Negotiation With Taliban | Crooks and Liars

Murdoch Media

Laura Ingraham Confronts the Core Problem for Capitalism

Laura Ingraham, host of The Ingraham Angle on Fox News Channel, at the American Conservative Union's Conservative Political Action Conference in Oxon Hill, MD, 2019.

“The government is literally putting anvils, in many ways, on people’s shoulders, either through the mandates, regulations, and now through free money,” Ingraham said to her guest, reality TV host Jon Taffer. “If we are not causing people to be hungry to work, then we’re providing them with all the meals they need sitting at home,” Taffer agreed. “These benefits make absolutely no sense to us.” Capitalism has been grappling with this problem for hundreds of years, but as history and Ingraham show, the answer now is the same as it’s always been: The laboring classes must be forced into circumstances in which they must work or starve.

Source: Laura Ingraham Confronts the Core Problem for Capitalism

Truth in Humor

The White Lotus Is a Perfect Satire of Today’s Rich

HBO’s brilliant The White Lotus reminds us that class society permeates everywhere, even on a tropical island — something that US television traditionally does its best to hide.

Source: The White Lotus Is a Perfect Satire of Today’s Rich

Australia's Shame

Defence hides Australia’s weapon sales to Israel amid war crimes investigation into Palestine – Michael West Media

Gaza, Israel, Australia weapons

Defence has elevated “opportunities for Australian companies” over human rights and transparency in weapons sales, as an investigation by Michelle Fahy reveals 187 permits for military exports to Israel.

Source: Defence hides Australia’s weapon sales to Israel amid war crimes investigation into Palestine – Michael West Media

conservatives

Right out there: how the pandemic has given rise to extreme views and fractured conservative politics

At times, it sounds as shrill as the sectarians on the far left whom it sometimes resembles. But those on the right are more consequential because they have significant media sponsors, they exploit real fears and frustrations, and they can sound reasonable when they criticise government excess and authoritarianism. That is because our governments have sometimes, during this crisis, practised excess and authoritarianism.

Source: Right out there: how the pandemic has given rise to extreme views and fractured conservative politics

Afgahnistan

Top 6 International Winners and Losers from Taliban Reassertion in Afghanistan

Here is a quick scorecard of the drawbacks and benefits of this development for regional neighbors:

Source: Top 6 International Winners and Losers from Taliban Reassertion in Afghanistan

Afghanistan

Desperate Afghans Are Trapped in an American-Made Fiasco

People wait inside Afghanistan's only passport office in the Kabul neighbourhood of Pul-i Surkh to provide or receive documents required for the issuing of their documents. The applicants were tired, hot, frustrated, upset and angry as they waited in various spaces inside the large compound, through what they described as a chaotic process with little order. It was above 30 degrees by 9AM this morning and far hotter inside the airless, enclosed structures of the passport office. According to a passport official, as many as 5,000 passports are being issued on a daily basis at the moment, as Afghans from across the country, many fearing a country-wide return of the Taliban, travel to the capital to apply for passports in the hope of using them to travel outside the country. Since May 1, when U.S. and international military forces began their final withdrawal from the country after nearly 20 years at war, the Taliban have taken total control of more than 160 of the country's roughly 400 districts. Afghans who believe they have reason to fear the Taliban have left districts for provincial capitals and provincial capitals for Kabul, where the government maintains a shrinking area of control.

Afghan friends and colleagues began asking for help leaving the country in June. The requests were nothing new, but in the past they’d mostly been in jest. Now they were serious and urgent. The people who made them weren’t just seeking a better life but refuge.

Source: Desperate Afghans Are Trapped in an American-Made Fiasco

Afghanistan

Morrison says troops died ‘for a great cause’ in Afghanistan. To quote a grieving father, that’s bullshit | Paul Daley | The Guardian

Demonstrators in the United States hold a 'This is not freedom' sign, as the Taliban took hold of Afghanistan for the first time in 20 years on Sunday

A government source says given the “deteriorating security situation” in Kabul, it is unclear when aircraft will be able to land, but planning for an airlift is proceeding for when “the situation allows”.

Morrison’s total failure and rear vision cover-up has lead him to walk back on his announced promise in just 24 hrs and he’s left others to deliver the message he couldn’t.

Our “gunna’  PM has announced Plenty of Promises. Two months ago he had sufficient warning he could and needed to save lives and he did nothing but promise, announce and bullshit yet again. The man’s like a wet Bunger on Guy Fawkes night all promise but just fizz.

He said, “It was bullshit. What he [Morrison] should have been referring to was the freedom of this country. And our country was not threatened. Again, this is just some way of trying to justify the loss of 41 lives in Afghanistan, the ruining of 261 [through serious injury] and some 500 who’ve since taken their own lives … these are lies. This is political spin.”

Source: Morrison says troops died ‘for a great cause’ in Afghanistan. To quote a grieving father, that’s bullshit | Paul Daley | The Guardian

Australia's Shame

Political ambitions and anti-lockdown protests: How neo-Nazis seek to spread influence

Graffiti in suburban Melbourne painted by members of the National Socialist Network.

If our politicians plead ignorance what do ASIO and the Federal Police do for the nation? How is it that a couple of investigative journalists do the job we ask our government to do? Don’t they keep telling us what they do is to keep us safe from “Asylum Seekers”. Dutton was eager to send Afghans back and keep Nazis safe

Politicians on both sides have called for Australia’s largest neo-Nazi group to be banned as a terrorist organisation after secret video and audio emerged of its violent inner workings and hopes to provoke a race war. Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews said on Monday that the National Socialist Network’s activities were disturbing and warned the threat posed by “extremist nationalist and racist individuals and groups is real and growing”.

Source: Political ambitions and anti-lockdown protests: How neo-Nazis seek to spread influence

Fight against Fake News, Fighting Fake News

Old Dog Thought- There is no such thing as Benevolent Racism,Sexism or Class just Racism, Sexism and Class.
Neo-Nazis from the National Socialist Network from their encrypted online sites.

Fighting Fake News with REAL,16/8/21; Media Watchdog has no teeth; LNP have given up service; John Pilger and Assange; Inside Racist Aussie HQ;

Republicans

Republicans claim to fear left-wing authoritarianism — but there’s no such thing | Salon.com

Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Kim Jong-Un and Donald Trump (Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images)

How in the world could 1% of the population ever win elections over the 99%? Simple. The 1% bamboozles the 99%. To win elections, the right must conceal its true intentions from the voters and instead engage in manipulative tactics, like lying and fearmongering. The lies are not just little lies.They are whoppers. They are the complete opposite of the truth. They are 180 degrees from the truth. They are the polar opposite of the truth, like from the North Pole all the way to the South Pole. Hence the term Big Lie.

Source: Republicans claim to fear left-wing authoritarianism — but there’s no such thing | Salon.com

drugs

Purdue Pharma Spent Over $1.2 Million on Lobbying

A coalition of survivors and advocacy groups are seen staging a die-in protest outside of The United States Bankruptcy Court, to call out the United States justice system for failing to hold the billionaire Sackler Family to account, in White Plains, N.Y. on Aug. 9, 2021.

At the Purdue Pharma bankruptcy trial that began Thursday, Judge Robert Drain is widely expected to approve a proposed settlement of the Purdue Pharma bankruptcy that would release members of the billionaire Sackler family, the company’s owners, from all current and future opioid-related civil claims.

Source: Purdue Pharma Spent Over $1.2 Million on Lobbying

Afghanistan

U.S. Embassy in Kabul will be mostly evacuated within next 36 hours – CBS News

Does anyone notice that there is no mention of evacuating Australia’s Afghan interpreters as ‘announced’ by PM Morrison. Morrison flew in announcements to save himself.

The U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan will be evacuated of all but a handful of key personnel within the next 36 hours, and all American diplomats should be out of the country entirely by August 31, multiple security and diplomatic sources in Washington and Kabul told CBS News. The evacuation comes as a U.S. defense official says it could be just a matter of days before the Taliban takes control of the capital, a city with more than 4 million people.

Source: U.S. Embassy in Kabul will be mostly evacuated within next 36 hours – CBS News

Climate Change

Humans’ fingerprints on climate change are becoming clearer

A wildfire near Lytton in Canada’s British Columbia in early July. The town recorded 49.6 degrees in late June, smashing the nation’s previous record temperature by a shocking five degrees.

When Canada and north-western US roasted in temperatures approaching 50 degrees in late June, climate scientists from seven nations jumped on the case and within days were able to declare such extreme heat to be “virtually impossible without human-caused climate change”. The so-called rapid attribution analysis found the blistering maximums to be the equivalent of a once-in-a-millennium event, that would have been 150 times rarer without the extra greenhouse gases we have pumped into our atmosphere by burning fossil fuels and clearing land.

Source: Humans’ fingerprints on climate change are becoming clearer

WAR

Grey Expectations: where Coalition, Labor, cross-bench stand on war powers reform – Michael West Media

#warpowers

in November 2020 found over 83% of Australians want Parliament to vote on this issue. Michael West Media decided to flip the same question back to our politicians to see what they had to say. We’ve contacted over 50 so far, with an aim to eventually seek out responses from all Senators and Members of Parliament. Some have been outspoken on the issue, some prosaic, and some so timid so as not to even venture a “no comment.” For this latter group we had to create a new category for politicians “in hiding, refusing to answer us”. Some responses have surprised us, but others, as one of our Twitter followers put it, “responded exactly how you would have expected them to respond.” Politics, like fashion, sees trends emerge.

Source: Grey Expectations: where Coalition, Labor, cross-bench stand on war powers reform – Michael West Media

Informed Comment

JOHN PILGER: A day in the death of British justice

As the High Court’s final decision on the Julian Assange trial draws nearer, John Pilger bears witness to the latest development in the attack on journalistic integrity.

Source: JOHN PILGER: A day in the death of British justice

COVID-19

Child Hospitalization for Covid-19 Hits All-Time High in US: Report | Common Dreams News

Students and children wearing masks during the Covid-19 pandemic.

American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Children’s Hospital Association showed that “children accounted for roughly 15% of all newly reported COVID-19 cases across the nation for the week ending on Aug. 5. Nearly 94,000 child cases of COVID-19 were recorded during that period, a 31% increase over the roughly 72,000 cases reported a week earlier. In the week before then, there were 39,000 new child cases.”

Source: Child Hospitalization for Covid-19 Hits All-Time High in US: Report | Common Dreams News

COVID-19

NSW lockdown: Entire state of NSW enters seven-day lockdown

The entire state of New South Wales will be subject to stay-at-home orders as lockdown came into effect in regional areas on Saturday 5pm. On the state’s worst day during the pandemic so far, Deputy Premier John Barilaro said on Twitter the stay-at-home orders would be introduced on Saturday for all of regional NSW. The regional lockdown is set to last for seven days.

Source: NSW lockdown: Entire state of NSW enters seven-day lockdown

Journalism

COVID-19 shows how journalistic class is failing us

Rudd's News Corp petition pushes Murdoch's minions into meltdown

The lack of working-class voices in Australian media is no secret these days. An article by comedian and author Nelly Thomas laments the loss of this important social component and the balance and insight it can bring to privileged journalists in the media. This loss is clearly observed now in the transmigration of journalists within the concentrated media landscape, as former Murdoch’s go to ABC and former ABC’s go to Nine-Fairfax, the working class get squeezed out, the ideas are extruded based on methods learned from a Murdoch tenure or a Channel 10 graduate program, no longer through working-class cadetships and valid lived experience.

Source: COVID-19 shows how journalistic class is failing us

Truth in Humor

If you’re not angry, you’re not paying attention – » The Australian Independent Media Network

A nation’s character is reflected in the calibre of the politicians it chooses “When there’s an idiot in power those who elected him are well represented.” Anonymous. They think they’re smarter than the rest of us. They don’t think of themselves as our employees but as our betters. They are the smug, entitled born-to-rulers, the haw-hawing, self-righteous ponces, the snooty, be-coiffed scolds and rural oiks who have come to believe the Big Con – that they are exceptional, the lifters, the elite, the superior managers. This honking nonsense from a cloistered cohort who’d struggle to colour coordinate the dildo display in the prayer room let alone run a country is hard to swallow in the good times. In a pandemic and climate crisis their misplaced vanities are killing people and helping to kill the planet.

Source: If you’re not angry, you’re not paying attention – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Israel

Israeli cities impose beach apartheid on Palestinians | The Electronic Intifada

Women and children play on a beach in the sea

Three Israeli coastal cities are being slammed by a civil rights group for effectively banning Palestinians from their beaches. Hadera, Netanya and Akka – known in English as Acre – are guilty of “apartheid initiatives that express a goal of achieving racial segregation,” said a lawyer for the group Adalah. Video shot by journalist Rafat Aker last week shows a busload of Palestinian men on an apparent day trip from the city of Jenin being denied access to the beach by police and local authorities. You can watch the full video in a mixture of Arabic and Hebrew below.

Source: Israeli cities impose beach apartheid on Palestinians | The Electronic Intifada

Fight against Fake News, Fighting Fake News

Old Dog Thought- Got a crisis throw an announcement at it
Victoria’s dental system is under enormous strain.

Fighting Fake News with REAL 15/8/21 Americans can’t deal with a Public Health crisis; Australia once could until Morrison not just one is with us; Afgahn announements flown in to save Morrison

Afghanistan

The Great Washington Ponzi Scheme in Afghanistan comes Crashing Down

US officials sent out to Afghanistan knew that it was a Washington Ponzi scheme. Billions were disappearing into the pockets of contractors and warlords. Only the arms manufacturers were happy. The US was massively bombing the country every year, the only reason that it was still able to be there. US officials confessed as much to government watchdogs, and the Washington Post managed to get those interviews and publish them in 2019. Nobody believed in the mission. There was no mission. There was a morass of corruption and incompetence. Many of the regional warlords under the new government were not easier on women or minorities than the Taliban had been, and were fundamentalists of a different stripe.

Source: The Great Washington Ponzi Scheme in Afghanistan comes Crashing Down