A senior Morrison government minister has spoken out against sexual violence and harassment, saying they are problems men need to fix. Defence Industry Minister Melissa Price joined thousands of women outside Parliament House this week to protest against sexual discrimination and abuse. “Let me be clear – this is a bloke problem, not a woman problem,” she wrote in The Australian on Friday. “Too often we hear about the number of women who have been raped, rather than the number of men who have raped women.
The great mystery of the past month is why the Prime Minister, for all his political strengths, has no plan to deal with a crisis gripping the nation’s attention and eroding support for the government
Amid the GOP’s nationwide voter suppression onslaught that threatens to restrict ballot access for tens of millions of Americans, Senate Democrats’ introduction of the For the People Act on Wednesday was welcomed by progressives who also emphasized that passing the comprehensive plan to strengthen the country’s democracy through the Senate will require the upper chamber’s majority to scrap the anti-democratic 60-vote filibuster.
Eric Trump, the former President’s son who runs the family business, is pushing to transform the Trump Organization’s Miami Doral Resort into a gambling destination by actively lobbying Republicans in the state legislature to change a longstanding law.
On December 18th, before nearly anyone else was eligible, billionaire Murdoch got his COVID shots. Now he rakes in the Billionaire Bucks from Fox News suckers who watch their top stars discourage vaccination.
Every cell in your body comes from a single cell: an egg, fertilised by a sperm. Each contains the exact same genetic blueprint for your life: your DNA. Yet cells in your brain look and behave nothing like those in your muscle or skin.
By way of contrast, it’s hard to recall a government less able than Morrison’s to articulate a national vision, one less cultured and less interested in changing anything unless it’s another of those workplace relations bills that this time – we promise – will unleash the animal spirits of Australian capitalism.
Nicolle Flint seemed to be trying for a Julia Gillard moment yesterday when she attacked Anthony Albanese. “I say to the leader of the opposition: I will not be lectured by you. I will not be lectured by your side of politics about the treatment of women in this place.” Ms Flint, after saying that “the safety of women in this place should be above politics,” went on to get very political: “What I say to the Labor party today is that they may not have held the spray can to vandalise my office with sexist slurs and they may not have held the camera pointed at me by the stalker or called me evil in GetUp’s phone calls, but they did create the environment in which hate could flourish.” Oh come on, Nicolle.
Men must realise that this implies no threat to them, no disenfranchisement nor emasculation. Empowering women will not disempower men but rather help to, as Robert Kennedy said in 1968; “tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world.” In the civilised world, in these troubled times, the very survival of humankind depends upon collaboration, cooperation and mutual understanding. Patriarchy has had its day.
The Morrison Government’s handling of the Porter rape allegations has seen a seismic shift in the public mood and people have had enough, writes managing editor Michelle Pini.
What are U.S. extremist groups doing since the Jan. 6 riot? Local chapters of the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, Groypers and others are breaking away from their groups’ national figureheads. For instance, some local Proud Boys chapters have been explicitly cutting ties with national leader Enrique Tarrio, the group’s chairman.
Too Old for Jail But Not Too Old for President in 2024
The sheer numerical immensity of Trump’s explosive crimes, from those once much covered to those now mentioned only in passing, still staggers. The latest is this nitroglycerin of a story, which, it seems to me — have I been out of touch? — somehow barely made it into the passingly mentioned file.
Clinical trials using magic mushrooms, ecstasy and other psychedelic drugs in potential breakthrough therapies for debilitating mental illnesses will be funded by the federal government as part of global efforts to advance innovative treatments. There is growing international evidence showing substances such as ketamine, psilocybin and MDMA can successfully treat resistant mental illnesses, including depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, when used in a controlled environment and supported by psychiatric care.
The workplace abuses of the 18th and 19th centuries have returned under the guise of the gig economy. The Morrison government has now proposed sweeping changes to labour laws that will cut wages, entrench precarious work, cripple unions and hand absolute power to bosses. But the assault on casual workers is just the beginning. If the IR bill becomes law, permanent workers will also be affected. Alison Pennington reports.
Same water, same valuer, $80m and nought. The same type of water licences for irrigation properties near those for which the Coalition government paid $80 million in 2017 were valued at zero between 2008 and 2010, writes investigative reporter Kerry Brewster in this exclusive report.
On Friday of last week, I informed my wife that Michael McCormack would be the guest on ABC Insiders the coming Sunday. “Speers will have him for breakfast,” she answered with a touch of humour. And so it was. A giggling Laura Tingle confirmed my wife’s answer after the interview while the two other panel members just managed to contain themselves. On the one hand, it was hilarious. On the other, it was a strategy that a man so unqualified for leadership was the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia.
It was with a sense of exhaustion and despair that I attended the women’s March for Justice yesterday. I’ve been attending similar protests for most of my adult life and yet, here we are, facing a Federal Government that offers us less justice than any other in my memory.
Ok, I think I got most of it. I’m writing it from memory so I may not have it one hundred percent accurate but like I said, I am auditioning for Peter Van Onselen’s role writing for “The Australian” so accuracy isn’t really needed… Whoops, is that defamatory? Or do you have to actually diminish someone’s reputation which PvO has already done that himself?
About two and a half years ago, as media speculation about where Amazon would locate its second headquarters reached a fever pitch, The Onion, a satirical website, decided to make its own projection. “‘You Are All Inside Amazon’s Second Headquarters,’ Jeff Bezos Announces to Horrified Americans as Massive Dome Envelops Nation,” the site declared.
A quarter century ago, I and other members of Bill Clinton’s cabinet urged him to reject the Republican’s proposal to end welfare. It was too punitive, we said, subjecting poor Americans to deep and abiding poverty. But Clinton’s political advisers warned that unless he went along, he jeopardized his reelection.
Murdoch sacked journalists so what’s original Australian content?
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp says a landmark three-year agreement with Facebook to pay for its Australian content will transform the terms of trade for journalism.
Faced with the unemployment crisis of 1890, jobless workers in Melbourne formed a union to fight for relief. But the Australian labor movement remained indifferent to their struggle — and soon paid the price. Those self-defeating attitudes are still alive in unions today.
Lendlease’s tax scam rivals the biggest heists of the century – alongside Rupert Murdoch, Chevron and Macquarie Bank. Yet its effects are spreading from a mere rip on the ATO to the nurses and teachers fund Aware Super which just acquired a chunk of retirement village assets. If Lendlease can ‘double dip’ on tax deductions, then anybody can. It opens up the Tax Office to millions of amended assessments. Michael West reports.
Writing in The New Daily, it was Dennis Atkins who drew our attention to the notion that we had a ‘transactional’ Prime Minister. He recounted an exchange between Nick Xenophon and the PM when Xenophon asked him if he’d like to catch up for a coffee to have a chat about issues, to which Morrison responded: ‘What for?’ ‘No, mate. I’m purely transactional.’ It was Morrison’s way of saying: “What’s in it for me?’. Reflect on that and then ask yourself how often he behaves in this self-seeking way.
Morrison Nice March Girls. Lucky We Aren’t Myanmar Yet
Across the country on Monday, tens of thousands of women marched to protest against gendered injustice. They left the jobs that don’t pay them enough. They left their unequal burden of unpaid work. They left schools and universities and homes to protest, once again, things women have been protesting about for decades. The fact that women are not safe at work. That they are not safe on their way home or after they get home. That they are not safe in childhood or old age. That wealthy white men who show such contempt for women’s lives, bodies, safety and futures are the ones writing the laws and policies that govern us.
Where the Bloody Hell are you a Morrison “Failed” Campaign
The Prime Minister’s comments were about Australians’ right to protest His choice of words, saying protesters in other countries would be “met with bullets”, drew criticismLiberal MPs have backed the Prime Minister
“Not far from here, such marches, even now, are being met with bullets, but not here in this country.” That comment elicited a furious response from Greens leader Adam Bandt and Senator Larissa Waters, who blasted him for an “insulting” message. “The Prime Minister’s message for women who were demanding justice and change, was ‘be grateful we didn’t shoot you’. This is unbelievably appalling behaviour,” Mr Bandt railed.
Dr. Nicholas Freudenberg thinks that capitalism is damaging to both human health and to the planet. And after reading his new book, “At What Cost: Modern Capitalism and the Future of Health,” it is hard to disagree. The food we eat is filled with toxins. The planet is heating up uncontrollably. And that was true long before 2020: since last year, we have learned the hard way that liberal capitalist societies like ours are barely capable of addressing their most basic responsibility, protecting public health.
Thus passed another primetime journey through the Fox wormholes of bile and infantile ridicule. I suspect the network’s ratings will only regrow, once all the Trumpeteers overcome the trauma of an unstolen election. Just look at the appetizing grist to grind, already here, or on its way: the exciting, systematic disenfranchisement of un-real Americans; the jeering at the inexorable flaws and foibles of dispensing nearly $2 trillion; more Bidenesque gaffing; the gift-wrapped purges; the exhilarating race to retake Congress; the scramble to crown the next Führer. And Fox News will be there to cover it, as will Newsmax, OAN, Breitbart, The Federalist and all the other reactionary organs of chronic hate.
Big Pharma protecting its Patent Rights to recipes like Coca Cola and KFC
“It is unforgivable that while people are literally fighting for breath, rich country governments continue to block what could be a vital breakthrough in ending this pandemic for everyone in rich and poor countries alike.”
Dr. Chris Pernell called on public health officials to partner with churches, barbershops, hairdressers and other trusted members of Black and Brown communities in order to provide more equitable distribution of COVID vaccines.
Less than two decades ago, South Australia generated all its electricity from fossil fuels. Last year, renewables provided a whopping 60% of the state’s electricity supply. The remarkable progress came as national climate policy was gripped by paralysis – so how did it happen?
But there is at least one other deal process in Australia that may have piqued Murdoch’s interest. An auction is under way for Australia’s largest listed gambling business, Tabcorp, after the $10 billion firm told the market last month it had received numerous approaches for its wagering business, which includes the TAB and Sky Racing brands.
Trump didn’t drain the swamp. He filled it up and fleeced it. This is what ordinary, corrupt, greedy politicians do. They come up with ways to use the business of politics to fill their own pockets. Trump was never a good businessman. He wasn’t a good politician either. He was always just a cheap crook like the rest of them.
NYU’s Democracy Program director explains the importance of passing H.R. 1 in the face of a relentless assault on voting rights by Republican state legislatures. On the eve of the passage of the For the People Act, Wendy Weiser, the director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU’s law school, told The New York Times, “Voting rights in America are under significant attack, more than they have been in decades — an attack through racially targeted efforts to restrict access to voting.” She also explained:
Republican Senator Ron Johnson, a staunch Trump sycophant, let his racist flag fly high when he said that he was unafraid of the insurrectionists on January 6 because they were not members of Black Lives Matter or antifa.
Americans take credit; we never admit wrongdoing. Taking responsibility for oneself is what we preach to other people and other countries. The Navy’s recruiting slogan says it all: “A Global Force for Good.” That’s only true in a comic book right-wing world, or one in which other countries are as forgiving of our “mistakes” as we ourselves are. In fact, that is the unspoken demand we make of them.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has brokered an electoral alliance that is almost certain to bring Israel’s version of the Ku Klux Klan into the Israeli parliament when elections are held later this month. Netanyahu’s primary aim is to make sure he wins a decisive majority by shoring up the far-right bloc so that he can pass an immunity law to neutralize his current corruption trial. Enter Otzma Yehudit, or the Jewish Power party. Otzma Yehudit is strongly influenced by the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, whose virulently anti-Palestinian Kach party was barred from Israeli elections more than 30 years ago. Since being proscribed, Kach has been declared a terrorist organization in most western countries, including the United States, Canada and the European Union. Most of the leadership of Jewish Power had previously been involved with Kach, including its current leader, Itamar Ben Gvir, who held a position in Kahane’s movement in his student days. Jewish Power’s former leader and current chair, Michael Ben Ari, has been banned from entering the US because of his links to Jewish terrorism.
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