The question opponents of critical race theory don’t want us to ask is: How did the past affect the present? What parts of the ugly side of our history have we retained, even unintentionally? Understanding these lessons is the whole point of studying history. We do a disservice to our own history if we do not study all of it, in all of its complexity, in order to secure a better future.
Source: If You Love Our Country, Don’t Ban Its History | The Smirking Chimp
To all parliamentary members, As a member of the Labor party, I am pleading with you, the federal parliamentary members, to stop what you are doing for a moment and ask yourself the following questions: Do you want to be the next government? Do you want to win the next election? Two simple questions, both of which should evoke a resounding, YES response. If they don’t, you should not be there. One more question : Are you willing to do what is necessary to achieve an election victory? If the answer is NOT YES, then for Christ’s sake, get out of the way!
The Coalition is cracking down on charitable organisations. However, the Australian charity promoting arms deals on behalf of weapons makers that profit from humanitarian catastrophes is unlikely to be in the government’s sights. With the weapons expo LandForces wrapping up in Brisbane this week, Michelle Fahy delves into the charity behind LandForces.
Source: Landforces’ brothers in arms: how a weapons peddler qualified for charitable status – Michael West
Some will say that it’s too political, but right now is an opportunity for everyone to back the proposed change in the school curriculum
Source: Teaching Australia’s truth is an opportunity for all young people | Hayley McQuire | The Guardian
Higgins remains engaged with the Australian federal police and it will be known within weeks whether or not her sexual assault complaint will be prosecuted. Morrison’s ‘investigations’ into Brittany Higgins’ rape allegation are yet more smirk and mirrors Penny Wong Read more The AFP commissioner, Reece Kershaw, told a Senate committee last week that “a brief of evidence is likely to be provided to the ACT director of public prosecutions in coming weeks”.
Melbourne-born man Russell Moore has died in a US prison following a three-decade fight to be returned to Australia. Moore, also known by his adoptive name James Hudson Savage, died at Apalachee Correctional Institution in Florida on June 2.
Source: Indigenous man Russell Moore dies in US prison following 30-year legal fight to come home
An investigation by the NSW Environment Protection Authority has confirmed numerous bird deaths in western NSW were caused by the consumption of mouse bait. The finding follows reports of native birds suspected to have been poisoned in the state’s central-west.
Source: Dead galahs collateral damage in fight against mouse plague
A secret marketing strategy to convince Australians to support a controversial overhaul of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) says the federal government must be “seen” to have listened to concerns of disability groups, who will be targeted with an extensive campaign. A leaked communications and engagement strategy from the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA), which administers the $26 billion scheme, reveals an aim to announce a legislation date in late August. It also aims to combat any backlash from the disability community through what Labor calls an “expensive multi-media spin campaign”.
Source: Secret NDIS report warns of backlash unless government is ‘seen’ to have listened
Fox News has not mentioned recent remarks in which retired Gen. Michael Flynn, former President Donald Trump’s first national security adviser, expressed support for a military coup in the United States.
Source: Fox hasn’t mentioned Flynn’s call for a military coup in the U.S. | Media Matters for America
The lack of a police response to the nighttime looting stood in stark contrast to the New York Police Department’s deployment of its riot squad, the Strategic Response Group, or SRG, to suppress political protests during the day. When a peaceful march reached Manhattan’s Bryant Park earlier that night, the police were ready: The SRG formed a line to block their advance. When the protesters knelt in the street, SRG officers struck with batons and made arrests. It was one example of many where the NYPD moved swiftly against demonstrators. The previous day, police mounted a “level three mobilization” against a protest in Brooklyn and responded in well under two hours, according to city records. NYPD data reported that at least 108 people were injured by police during last summer’s unrest. The NYPD was roundly criticized by elected officials and in three government reports for using violent riot tactics against political protesters. It was a double-dip failure in public safety: Not only did the city brutalize protesters exercising their First Amendment right to assemble, but it also stood by as throngs of nonpolitical actors rampaged the city’s storefronts. Risks to residents and pro
Source: Amid 2020 Protests, NYPD Took Hours to Respond to Riots
When it’s a trend and not one off it’s systemic
An Intercept and SITU reconstruction of an incident in North Carolina last June shows police intentionally trapped and tear-gassed hundreds of peaceful protesters.
Source: Police Across the U.S. Deliberately Kettled Peaceful Protesters
Biden would do well to heed the warning and with the stroke of a pen, lift trade and travel restrictions and allow unrestricted remittances. These measures would quickly infuse more money into Cuba’s economy and alleviate the needless suffering Cubans are experiencing at the hands of an administration that does not consider the well-being of 11 million Cubans “a priority.”
Source: Biden Should Make Normalizing Relations With Cuba “A Priority” | The Smirking Chimp
So, is it bigoted to say that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians? No. Is it inaccurate? That is harder to say.
Source: Was Mark Ruffalo wrong to accuse Israel of Genocide?
Under the agreement, Lapid and Bennett will split the job of prime minister in a rotation. Bennett will serve the first two years, while Lapid is to serve the final two years. The historic deal also includes a small Islamist party, the United Arab List, which would make it the first Arab party ever to be part of a governing coalition. The agreement still needs to be approved by the Knesset, or parliament, in a vote that is expected to take place early next week. If it goes through, Lapid and a diverse array of partners that span the Israeli political spectrum will end the record-setting 12-year rule of Netanyahu.
Source: Netanyahu Opponents Reach Coalition Deal To Oust Israeli Prime Minister | HuffPost
What would Mathias Corman do if he were still with us “go for it”
Australia is the only OECD country to propose new coal mines on a scale so large that it will effectively double our emissions output, a new report has revealed. Global Energy Monitor’s report, released on Thursday, found Earth will surpass the four degrees of warming as outlined by the Paris climate agreement if all the world’s currently approved coal mines come to fruition. The report found coal producers are actively pursuing 2.2 billion tonnes per annum of new mine projects around the world.
Source: Approved coal mines will set world on track for over 4 degrees warming
ABC management has knocked back an upcoming Four Corners episode by prominent journalist Louise Milligan about the relationship between Prime Minister Scott Morrison and a supporter of the QAnon conspiracy theory, a decision that could be seen as an attempt to dampen tensions between the national broadcaster and the federal government.
The UK decision, which may be influential on any future court challenge in Australia, looked at five key criteria to determine that the drivers were workers who were subject to the control of their “employer”. These were: Uber sets the fare for rides booked through the app and drivers are not able to charge more than the fare calculated; Uber specifies and imposes the terms on which the drivers perform their services; the drivers’ choice about whether to accept requests for rides is constrained by Uber, for example by penalising drivers who decline trips too frequently; Uber exercises control over the way drivers perform their services, via a rating system; and Uber restricts communications between passengers and drivers to prevent any continuing relationship beyond an individual ride. The next move in Australia will be to take the issue to the courts for determination but in the meantime a driver owned co-operative seems like a good alternative for the drivers : after all it doesn’t take much to set up an ‘app’, does it ?
Source: Is Jack as good as his master ? – » The Australian Independent Media Network
In 1975, an Australian constitutional coup brought down Gough Whitlam’s reforming Labor government, with the Queen’s governor-general delivering the fatal blow. Whitlam’s fate was a crucial lesson for left-wing movements everywhere: capitalists will only allow so much democracy before pushing back.
Source: Gough Whitlam’s Government Was the Victim of a Right-Wing Coup
The greatest danger to American democracy right now is not coming from Russia, China, or North Korea. It is coming from the Republican Party. Only 25 percent of voters self-identify as Republican, the GOP’s worst showing against Democrats since 2012 and sharply down since last November. But those who remain in the Party are far angrier, more ideological, more truth-denying, and more racist than Republicans who preceded them. And so are the lawmakers who represent them. Today’s Republican Party increasingly is defined not by its shared beliefs but by its shared delusions. Last Friday, 54 U.S. senators voted in favor of proceeding to debate a House-passed bill to establish a commission to investigate the causes and events of the January 6th insurrection. This was 6 votes short of the number of votes needed for “cloture,” or stopping debate – meaning any further consideration of the bill would have been filibustered by Republicans indefinitely. So there will be no investigation.
Source: The Greatest Danger to American Democracy | The Smirking Chimp
The QAnon conference came amid reports that Trump is attempting to orchestrate another election coup from his far-off kingdom at Mar-a-Lago. According to a Tuesday tweet from the New York Times’ Maggie Haberman, the former President has been telling a number of people he’s in contact with that he expects he will get reinstated by August.” Trump’s reported thinking echoes that of his former lawyer’s, Sidney Powell. On Saturday, Powell told attendees to the QAnon conference that Trump “can simply be reinstated.”
Michael Flynn made some news this Memorial Day weekend. Not in a good way for a retired lieutenant general. Appearing at a “For God & Country” conference in Dallas that was associated with the nutty QAnon movement, Flynn was asked “why what happened in [Myanmar] can’t happen here.” The questioner, who called himself a “simple Marine,” was referring to the brutal military coup that overthrew the democratically elected government there in early February and and installed a junta that has killed over 800 people and detained thousands—and he was citing the Burmese coup as a positive example. People in the pro-Trump, Big Lie-embracing crowd cheered to show their desire for similar action in the United States. Flynn replied, “No reason. I mean, it should happen here.”
These partisan, sustained attacks on democracy have nothing to do with Trump’s day-to-day involvement in the GOP. He simply arrived five years ago and tapped into the party’s obvious authoritarian leanings and gave it political permission to pursue an agenda built around throwing out millions of legitimate votes each election cycle. As longtime conservative commentator Charlie Sykes recounted last week that following Trump’s 2016 win and what it unleashed, he and fellow pundit George Will “had to admit that we obviously didn’t understand what the conservative movement was about, that all the intellectual cover of the right had been this tiny, thin layer on top of this molten something or other that turned out to be pretty ugly.” The media need to stop pretending Trump is steering the Republicans’ eager descent into madness. The press needs to acknowledge, in its straight news coverage, that the GOP is no longer a mainstream player and is quickly evolving into something very different and unparalleled. And that Republicans are making these un-American moves freely and of their own accord.
Source: The Republican Party Is Freely Choosing Fascism | Crooks and Liars
More than 100 scholars of democracy on Tuesday released a joint “statement of concern” calling on Congress to combat ongoing GOP attacks on voting rights and ensure fair and free future U.S. elections with federal legislation. Published online by the think tank New America, the scholars’ statement comes as Republican lawmakers nationwide continue to propose and enact state-level voter suppression bills. This past weekend, Texas House Democrats staged a walkout to block state Senate-approved legislation widely denounced by voting rights advocates and other critics across the country, including President Joe Biden.
Commodifying poverty, welfare reaping, and growing debt
American Web Loan was set up as a tribal lender, but a class-action lawsuit reveals who controlled the company — and made massive profits — behind the scenes.
Source: How a Payday Lender Used Tribal Immunity to Get Rich Quick
I suppose it’s impossible to know everything, but I know that Australians should make a more meaningful attempt to know something about their everyday politics. About what’s going on in the world, particularly their homeland.
Source: When what I do know is only surpassed by what I don’t – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Mathias Corman has done a 180 degree turn on Morrison
As with the Government’s energy policy and its NBN rollout, its plans for electric vehicles – or rather the lack thereof – is another disaster, writes Paul Budde. WE HAVE HAD former Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s “kill the NBN” policy, Scott Morrison bringing a lump of coal into the Parliament and then-Small Business Minister Michaelia Cash tried to scare Australian ute drivers by proclaiming they would be obliterated by electric vehicles (EVs).
Source: Another gross failure: Australia trails on electric vehicle uptake
Why the LNP can’t be trusted. Their politicians are little more than ‘guns for hire’ opportunists and careerists taking advantage of what seems the best path for them to gain advantage for themselves at any one time. Men without any real conviction or plan the least able to be trusted to give the public service rather than service them. The concept of a ‘common good” shrunk.
Former finance minister Mathias Cormann has called on the world’s richest nations to develop an “ambitious and effective” plan to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 in his first speech as head of the OECD.
Source: Mathias Cormann calls for ‘ambitious’ plan to reach net-zero emissions
Sky News commentator Andrew Bolt has supported the opinion of Education Minister Alan Tudge that the Australian history curriculum is ‘hateful’, writes A L Jones. “NEO-MARXIST RUBBISH”, says a NSW Cabinet minister of the new draft national curriculum. And the Federal Education Minister Alan Tudge agrees with Andrew Bolt that the history section is biased against our Western heritage and should include, for example, “what bad things Aborigines did to Aborigines”. Mr Tudge said in a Sky News interview with Bolt:
“I do get concerned that students don’t have a firm understanding of how we did become this rich, egalitarian, free, Western-liberal democracy… If you don’t understand that, then you’re less likely to value it and defend it.”
What a load of crap by these two hypocrites not judging, but protecting their history of Australian mythical facts from critical eyes and wanting to retain dogma rather than encourage reasoned research and critical analysis of the reality of our varying past perspectives . The 500 years of colonial western history is writ large in the crippled African continent, the tragedy of the Latin Americas run by serial dictators, a middle east left in tatters totally repressed with the hate caused by caused by the West, and then there’s Australia walked over by jackboots that remain largely in place today and ruled over by white supremacists. If any nation or culture were to be regarded as having done the most to lift billions to a better state of being in the fastest possible time then China is light years ahead of us. Even India has accelerated improvement since casting off the shackles of Western Colonialism. Maybe not as fast as China it might be argued but nevertheless fast enough for us to see just how far the West had held them back for hundreds of years.
What Aborigines did they did it to each other not globally or to the rest of the world. To suggest they wouldn’t have changed without European invasion is typical of White supremacist arrogance. The instruments of the torture used by the West are now “pay to see” items in European tourist centers. We can see what we did to each other and to others without a second thought using “god’s name” as justification. Things we did to those we self righteously decreed were “lesser humans” and that these two bastards pretend today never existed let alone be taught to the next generation. Our museums are filled with the trophies gained by rape, pillage, slavery,pain and slaughter done, but not to be emphasized or taught or remembered in their “heroic” but false history of the world.
The LNP and Murdoch media hand in hand are found here preaching “Cancel Culture” not just antiseptically editing the past but any form of critical theory, reasoned research or analysis in search of truth. That is an excercise far too dangerous for them because the next generation just might want to reexamine the values taught them and change things for the better when realizing the worst of our past. Hitler believed in the the Bolt and Tudge principle of education as well.
The one thing that strikes me is these ultra-conservatives always combine the notion of Western Culture with Christianity with it’s then inferred god given right to their historic truth. It’s tied very much to the notion of the ‘elect’. A notion In line with the preachings of other religious extremes and cults. Groups like today’s neo-Nazis, Trumpsters, Moonies, ISIS, and other anti-democratic, authoritarians. People like Bolt and Tudge who want to turn our schools into unenlightened fundamentalist christian equivalent of Madrasas teaching only their orthodoxies. Beneath their suits beats the rise of yet another Inquisition and a return to the heart of darkness.
This is an interesting podcast relevant to what we see happening today https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-cult-of-trump/id1551582052?i=1000523783469 The Cult of Trump
(ODT)
Source: Right-wing media backs Alan Tudge on ‘leftist’ history curriculum
Because Palestinians resisted having their lands and homes stolen by Israelis, its Zionist government inflicted yet another in their series of murderous assaults on that captive, victim people. This barbarity it pretends to justify on grounds of “self defense”.
Source: The Big Con | The Smirking Chimp
Every time Israel bombs Gaza into smithereens, it is left to others to try to rebuild. The European Union, Qatar, and even the Biden administration are offering aid. (The US is giving a piddling $150 million; even tiny Qatar is pledging $500 million.)
In a prime time address on Sunday evening, right wing extremist Israeli politician Naftali Bennett announced that he intended to join a government of national unity, including left wing and centrist parties, which would unseat long-serving Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. The coalition was mainly put together by Yair Lapid of “There’s a Future” (Yesh Atid) Party, but Lapid is willing to have a rotating prime ministership and is willing to let Naftali take the first turn, for two years. Netanyahu himself went on an unhinged Trump-like rant on television calling Bennett a sham for being willing to go into coalition with the Left (which Netanyahu has often done). The move would allow Israel to avoid a fifth election in a little over two years this summer.
BHP counts all the carbon emissions from projects it operates but ignores the climate impact of its investments in projects managed by other companies. This is not a credible approach to climate change, writes Peter Milne, from independent energy and climate news site Boiling Cold, as all owners have a say on the big decisions that affect emissions. Ignoring emissions is also great for executive bonuses.
Source: BHP carbon accounting good for executive bonuses, not for climate – Michael West
New documents show the government negotiated the controversial $80m Watergate deal directly with the Cayman Islands company founded by Energy Minister Angus Taylor. The Department failed to notify the Senate. Jommy Tee investigates the email trail between the Department, then overseen by Barnaby Joyce, and secretive Switzerland director and Taylor associate Connor Maloney.
When he launched his defamation action against the ABC over an article reporting a claim of historical rape against him, Christian Porter boldly indicated he looked forward to going into the witness box to clear his name. His lawyers said: “Mr Porter will have and will exercise the opportunity to give evidence denying these false allegations on oath”. In the event, he never got near the witness box. On Monday Porter settled for an ABC acknowledgement it hadn’t intended to suggest he was guilty, regretted some had read its article that way, and did not contend the accusations against him could be substantiated to a legal standard.
Source: View from The Hill: Porter decides it’s time to ‘fold em’ in ABC defamation case
Christian Porter just doesn’t know when to leave sleeping dogs lie – he just has to have another twist of the tail, another kick in the guts. After agreeing during mediation to withdraw his expensive defamation action against the ABC and their investigative journalist, Louise Milligan, to wear his own legal costs, not to insist that the ABC report in question be taken down and not to receive any of the damages he had been hoping for. He took these body blows like the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail responding that this was just a scratch, a mere flesh wound, and that the ABC had been forced into a “humiliating backdown”.
Source: A Humiliating Backdown – Really? – » The Australian Independent Media Network
The ABC has doubled down on its defence of the Four Corners article at the centre of a now-defunct defamation case brought by Christian Porter, with the public broadcaster stating it does not regret its reporting and stands by the story. The former attorney general on Monday dropped his high-stakes defamation bid against the ABC, holding a press conference in which he sought to claim he had forced the broadcaster to back down, despite not securing an apology or retraction. Far from ending hostilities between the parties, the deal to drop the case has sparked a fierce war of words between Porter, the ABC and the Four Corners journalist Louise Milligan, who broke the original story. After the ABC agreed to add an editor’s note on its story saying it “regretted” that some readers had “misinterpreted” the article “as an accusation of guilt against Mr Porter”, the former attorney general insisted the public broadcaster had been forced into a “humiliating backdown” and had admitted to regretting the “sensationalist” article. But the ABC hit back, saying it “has not said that it regrets the article” and “stands by the importance of the article”.
Like his actions on so many other issues, Morrison is sniffing the breeze and working out which way he should jump (after all he has to win an election in the next 12 months to retain power). It seems fence sitting and blaming others is far easier than accepting responsibility or making a decision. And it seems he is convinced that blowing the racist dog whistle regularly doesn’t seem to hurt.
Source: Bring out the dog whistle – » The Australian Independent Media Network
The current surge in COVID-19 cases in Melbourne is a result of the Morrison Government’s mismanagement of the pandemic and vaccine rollout, writes Dr Jennifer Wilson.
Source: Morrison Government facing the consequences of vaccine rollout disaster
Today we discovered that no-one knows how many aged care workers have been vaccinated.It seems that we do not know how many aged care workers had been vaccinated, as there seems to be no-one keeping track of who has received the vaccine, and who hasn’t. According to the Department of Health, work is now “underway” to survey aged care workers at the nation’s facilities (read: literally counting heads).
Source: There’s no record of vaccinated aged care workers – » The Australian Independent Media Network
A Senate hearing has descended into a fiery stand-off after Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck admitted the federal government still doesn’t know exactly how many staff in Victoria have had COVID doses. It’s now 100 days into the federal vaccination rollout, and federal health officials have admitted that 21 aged-care homes across Australia are yet to receive even a single dose of vaccine – while the number of vaccinated staff may be as low as 8 per cent. Health department officials could only confirm that around 32,000 aged care workers, out of 366,000 nationally, had gotten their first doses – but stressed this was a “minimum”, and that many more workers would be vaccinated, but they weren’t sure how many exactly.
Source: ‘Extraordinary’: Less than 10 per cent of aged-care workers fully vaccinated
Pundits and politicians today are being accused of stochastic terrorism. The most obvious example is Donald Trump, whose rhetoric has inspired violence from supporters, writes Dr Gerard Gill.
For now, Biden and Senate Democrats are struggling to figure out whether they need to negotiate with, fight, or ignore Republicans who want to pare down the president’s infrastructure plan into a small-ball program with no political impact. Rather than look for outside-the-box revenue raisers that might create some novel politics around taxes, they are haggling over how much to weaken Biden’s opening offer in order to bring all Democrats and at least some Republicans on board.
Source: Why Joe Biden Should Listen to Bernie Sanders on Corporate Taxes | Washington Monthly
The Murdochs’ purge of rational voices and gutter intensification of the crackpot corral have paid off. Fox News has regained its cable-news ratings supremacy, it’s projected to trounce CNN’s primetime audience this month, and its ad revenues have never been better. All that in profitable service to Trump and, more so, the millions of lobotomized lowlifes who adore him. Trump is, of course, repaying the network with his traditional gratitude. Yesterday he grabbed his Crayon kit and scrawled: “It was the day that [Paul] Ryan went on the board of Fox … that Fox totally lost its way and became a much different place.” But the Murdochs don’t care, as long as they rake in the dough.
Source: By Hitting Rock Bottom, Fox News Is Back on Top | The Smirking Chimp
“What the Israelis call ‘defense’ is not defense! We need the world to help us defend our families and homes against the occupation,” Ghabayne said. “We have been enduring this siege and occupation for a long time. We just wish that we Palestinians can finally live with a little peace. We don’t want wars, we don’t want occupation, we just want our families to live in a free Palestine.”
Source: Gaza Reconstruction Will Again Run Up Against Israel Siege
Snigger at that if you think I’m being ridiculous, but remember that this is the government that had Dan Tehan tell us that the vaccine rollout “wasn’t a race”. Why not? Well, because the Melbourne Cup is a race, so…
This is the last in my series on ‘manipulations,’ and since I have been throwing a lot of mud on who does it, it would seem fair if I explained how they do it and why we should fight it.
Source: You are being manipulated politically. Here’s how. – » The Australian Independent Media Network
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