Author: peterimrich

LNP, LNP Government, LNP Policy

Events will decide political fates and defy expert predictions
Prime Minister Scott Morrison during his address to the National Press Club of Australia in Canberra on Monday.

But the premiers have been given a free pass because the lockdowns have been funded by the Commonwealth. That money runs out in March, so it will be interesting to watch whether the will to imprison populations remains in the face of cash-strapped states being forced to bear the full financial cost of their decisions. If push comes to shove when the cash dries up expect the premiers to direct their communities’ anger at Canberra. This is a risk for Morrison because he won’t win a fight with a popular premier on a state’s home ground. It’s another depressing lesson from the pandemic: Australia is still a collection of colonies masquerading as a federation.

Events will decide political fates and defy expert predictions
Informed Comment, Uncategorized

‘Intruders’ not welcome: Coalition to decide who is worthy of education funding – Michael West

‘Intruders’ not welcome: Coalition to decide who is worthy of education funding – Michael West

When Scott Morrison became prime minister in 2018, the Coalition poured an extra $4.6 billion over a decade into Catholic and independent schools. Productivity Commission figures released this week show government funding for non-government schools continues to grow at a faster rate than for public schools. Judging by statements the new federal Education Minister Alan Tudge made to Parliament, that inequality will deepen. Lyndsay Connors reports

‘Intruders’ not welcome: Coalition to decide who is worthy of education funding – Michael West
jobs, Jobs Jobs, middle class jobs

More than 17,000 jobs lost at Australian universities during Covid pandemic | Australian universities | The Guardian
File photo of a student walking past buildings at the University of Sydney

Further cuts are likely this year as the border remains closed to international students, Universities Australia says

More than 17,000 jobs lost at Australian universities during Covid pandemic | Australian universities | The Guardian
LNP, LNP Government

‘Taxypayer-funded nong’: Kelly, Plibersek in fiery parliamentary clash
craig kelly tanya plibersek

Tensions have spectacularly boiled over in the halls of Parliament, with Labor frontbencher Tanya Plibersek and Craig Kelly squaring up in a heated argument over the Coalition MP’s debunked and “dangerous” claims about COVID.

‘Taxypayer-funded nong’: Kelly, Plibersek in fiery parliamentary clash
Humour

Vaccine Rollout To Be Managed By NBN Corporation, Morrison Confirms | The Shovel

Saying it was a faster and more affordable way to tackle the COVID-19 virus, Prime Minister Scott Morrison today confirmed that he had engaged the NBN Corporation to oversee Australia’s vaccination program.

Vaccine Rollout To Be Managed By NBN Corporation, Morrison Confirms | The Shovel
Uncategorized

podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-week-on-wednesday-with-van-badham-ben-davison/id1528299411

Fight against Fake News, Fighting Fake News

Old Dog Thought- White Supremacists hang one of their own out to dry.
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - FEBRUARY 01: Collingwood President Eddie McGuire speaks to the media at Collingwood Magpies AFL press conference at the Glasshouse Event Space on February 01, 2021 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)

Fighting Fake News with REAL;3/2/21 Eddy Everywhere The Case; LNP Porkbarrelling; The Brief against Trump;

Police

‘These Officers Should Be Fired and Indicted’: Outrage After Rochester Police Pepper Spray Handcuffed 9-Year-Old Child | Common Dreams News
Bodycam video released by the Rochester Police Department shows officers pepper spraying a 9-year-old girl after handcuffing her. (Image: Screenshot/Rochester Police Dept. footage)
Defund Police they are untrained to handle Family disputes

Outrage erupted and the phrase “She’s 9” was trending on social media early Monday after body-cam video footage emerged of police in Rochester, New York violently abusing a 9-year-old girl—including handcuffing her and then pepper-spraying her in the face while in the back of a cruiser. “This is your last chance, or pepper spray’s going in your eyeballs,” one female officer tells the young girl, handcuffed and sitting on the edge of the police car’s back seat during events that took place Friday. According to reporting, the police had responded to a family dispute but what resulted was a horrifying scene of multiple officers abusing a clearly traumatized and emotionally distressed young girl. “I want my dad,” the girl can be heard crying to the female officer. The girl later says, “No! You said you were gonna pepper-spray me. No, please, stop!”

‘These Officers Should Be Fired and Indicted’: Outrage After Rochester Police Pepper Spray Handcuffed 9-Year-Old Child | Common Dreams News
Informed Comment

Why Republicans Won’t Agree to Biden’s Big Plans and Why He Should Ignore Them | The Smirking Chimp

If there were ever a time for bold government, it is now. Covid, joblessness, poverty, raging inequality and our last chance to preserve the planet are together creating an existential inflection point.

Why Republicans Won’t Agree to Biden’s Big Plans and Why He Should Ignore Them | The Smirking Chimp
Biden

Biden Threatens Sanctions On Myanmar After Military Coup | HuffPost

President Joe Biden is threatening to slap new sanctions on Myanmar after a coup that saw the military arrest the civilian leaders of its government.

Biden Threatens Sanctions On Myanmar After Military Coup | HuffPost
CO2 Emmissions

Scientists: Earth is substantially hotter than at any time during past 12,000 Years; entire Holocene was Cool

The CO2 is trapping the sun’s heat on earth and not letting it radiate out into space. Some historians say we have now left the Holocene for the Anthropocene, for an era when earthlings are changing the climate in the direction of the tropical. Up until we did that, it had been cool on earth, and we liked it that way. We won’t like what is coming if we don’t swing into action and stop emitting green house gases.

Scientists: Earth is substantially hotter than at any time during past 12,000 Years; entire Holocene was Cool
Aboriginal injustice, Aboriginal people

Invitation To Country – » The Australian Independent Media Network

“You are not hated Brother. We don’t hate White Fellas. You are not hated because you were not scared like the others who flashed past and you stopped out here with us. What we hate is what your Mob did to us. We hate that.” Serious stuff, and laughs, it was quite a conversation. How could it not make me think about the need for real change in Australia?

Invitation To Country – » The Australian Independent Media Network
LNP, LNP Government, LNP Policy, LNP Tactics

View from The Hill: Now Scott Morrison’s ‘preference’ is for net zero emissions by 2050
Keeping on and really saying nothing

Scott Morrison has taken another, albeit very small, step towards endorsing a target of net zero emissions by 2050. He told the National Press Club on Monday: “Our goal is to reach net zero emissions as soon as possible, and preferably by 2050”.

View from The Hill: Now Scott Morrison’s ‘preference’ is for net zero emissions by 2050
Informed Comment

We can’t exorcise RWFWery (part 1) – » The Australian Independent Media Network

The Bleach Boy’s douche coup has failed – it was a close call but the stale waft of fried chicken grease has now been steam cleaned from the Oval Office curtains, Junior’s crack spoons and coke stash have been crated off to Berghof Sur-la-Mer while Eric was last seen trying to negotiate a revolving door at the Tijuana franchise of the El Chapo Cosmetic Surgery chain. Frigid Bardot is scrutinising the LinkedIn profiles of Miami divorce lawyers and Ivanka has a wax job as an update to her CV in anticipation of an out-on-bail tilt at the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

We can’t exorcise RWFWery (part 1) – » The Australian Independent Media Network
LNP, LNP Government

Craig Kelly: Community campaign to dump controversial MP

Screenshot_2021-02-02 Craig Kelly Community campaign to dump controversial MP

Controversial Liberal MP Craig Kelly’s relentless promotion of conspiracy theories and unproven coronavirus cures on social media have led to a campaign to boot him out of politics – a push being mounted by his own community.

Craig Kelly: Community campaign to dump controversial MP
Australian Politics, Corporate Politics

Hand that gives also receives: government-dependent sectors keep giving
peter costello

It took a pandemic to finally slow the hitherto remorseless rise of the big four consulting firms to the dominant position in Australian public affairs. Having grown in recent years to become one of the biggest sources of political donations while siphoning off billions in government contracts, Ernst & Young (EY), PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), KPMG and Deloitte all pulled their political funding back in 2019-20, but still made major contributions.

Hand that gives also receives: government-dependent sectors keep giving
Fight against Fake News, Fighting Fake News

Old Dog Thought- We should read & watch Murdoch Media for what it doesn’t say
Former prime minister Kevin Rudd has welcomed an on-air apology from Sky News commentator Peta Credlin.

Fighting Fake News with REAL ,2/2/21; Murdoch’s Gong & Defamation walkback; LNP scrambles to go Green; and Broke; Politics and the donors who own us;

Voting

Republicans are going all-out to limit voting rights. We know why | Republicans | The Guardian

In 2021 legislative sessions, lawmakers in 28 states have pushed a whopping 106 bills that would restrict voting access

Republicans are going all-out to limit voting rights. We know why | Republicans | The Guardian
Trump

Donald Trump Doesn’t Appear to Have a Lawyer for His Impeachment Trial – Mother Jones

Trump’s many post-presidential perks will go away if he is convicted. Trump would get to keep his Secret Service detail, but the rest—”a pension, access to health insurance, office space and staff”—aren’t guaranteed.

Donald Trump Doesn’t Appear to Have a Lawyer for His Impeachment Trial – Mother Jones
Republicans

Profile-In-Courage Rob Portman Explains How Republicans Will Weasel Out Of Convicting Trump | Crooks and Liars
Profile-In-Courage Rob Portman Explains How Republicans Will Weasel Out Of Convicting Trump

Portman claimed they need to “come up with a precedent for the future.” Don’t hold your breath for that to happen any time soon. The only precedent they’re setting is allowing criminality by a president to go unpunished, which Portman is fine with as long as it’s a fellow Republican being allowed to get away with it.

Profile-In-Courage Rob Portman Explains How Republicans Will Weasel Out Of Convicting Trump | Crooks and Liars
Capitalism

The GameStop Revolt Exposed Capitalism

The Reddit-led GameStop short squeeze wasn’t a threat to capitalism, but it did reveal to a huge number of people that the system is rigged. That’s popular education socialists should be grateful for.

The GameStop Revolt Exposed Capitalism
LNP, LNP Economic Management, LNP Government

Australia no longer in top ten global anti-corruption ranking

The latest global Corruption Perception Index (CPI) rankings places Australia at 11 out of 180 countries.

For almost 20 years, Australia ranked in the top ten (least corrupt) countries. In 2012, Australia ranked seventh with a score of 85. By 2018, it had fallen to 13th with a score of 77. In the latest 2020 rankings, it has also scored 77.

Being ranked 11th out of 180 is relatively good. But falling by eight points is not good. It is a wake-up call and raises serious questions about the ethical underpinnings of politics in this country.

Australia no longer in top ten global anti-corruption ranking

Peter Slipper

Paying the piper with One Nation’s James Ashby
He helped bring down Peter Slipper

In the matter of Ashby versus the Commonwealth, there is now a staggering $4,537,000 at stake and a piper still waiting to be paid, writes investigations editor and Ashbygate author Ross Jones. IN OUR LAST episode of the Ashbygate conspiracy, we reported James Ashby and his lawyers had initiated legal action against the Commonwealth, arguing it should pay Ashby’s legal bill which then stood at close to $4 million.

Paying the piper with One Nation’s James Ashby
Australian Politics

Whither Democracy? Political donations triple as AEC prepares 2021 data drop – Michael West

Whither Democracy? Political donations triple as AEC prepares 2021 data drop – Michael West
Australia democracy

When the Australian Electoral Commission drops its political donations data tomorrow, it will almost certainly show that corporate donations are rising at an alarming clip and that Australia is tracking the US. Stephanie Tran and Michael West report on the extraordinary rise of money in politics.

Whither Democracy? Political donations triple as AEC prepares 2021 data drop – Michael West
Informed Comment

Seeking the Post-Covid Sunshine: Neutrality in the Commercial Disputes Between Media Giants – » The Australian Independent Media Network

The harvesting of news content from the Old Media to the New Soft Media certainly degrades news reporting but this is essentially a commercial dispute which should be settled through negotiation between the parties. The LNP’s Media Bargaining Code fails to address the wider issue of tax evasion. Both Old and New media networks are involved in the tax evasion game. Although most of News Corporation’s operations are global and diversified well beyond the print media and television networks, the company shares with Google and Facebook a penchant for tax avoidance. News Corporation declared a loss on its entire operations in 2020 and 2018 (News Corporation Annual Report 2020):

Seeking the Post-Covid Sunshine: Neutrality in the Commercial Disputes Between Media Giants – » The Australian Independent Media Network
ALP

Joel Fitzgibbon Helps Albo Show Who’s In Charge! – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Still after Brexit, Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Scott Morrison and everything else that’s happened, betting on the most unlikely result would have made some people rich!

Joel Fitzgibbon Helps Albo Show Who’s In Charge! – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Fight against Fake News, Fighting Fake News

Old Dog Thought- Why does the IPA seem a sleeping Giant at the moment?
Australia democracy

Fighting Fake News with REAL 1/2/21 Morrison is Announcement Central as was Trump; The ALP is attacked for it’s Democracy; America’s Citizens United is here in the form of the IPA

Trump

Trump loses lead impeachment lawyers a week before trial
Former US president Donald Trump.

Former president Donald Trump has parted ways with his lead impeachment lawyers little more more than a week before his trial, two people familiar with the situation have said.

Trump loses lead impeachment lawyers a week before trial
America

Far-right extremist violence and American presidents: The pattern isn’t what you’d think | Salon.com
main article image

However unprecedented the nature of the Capitol riots, deadly violence perpetrated by far-right extremists and the conspiracies and ideologies underlying this violence are anything but new in the United States.

Far-right extremist violence and American presidents: The pattern isn’t what you’d think | Salon.com
Exposing Racism

Racial Disparities Apparent In U.S. COVID-19 Vaccination Drive | HuffPost
People wait in line for the COVID-19 vaccine in Paterson, N.J., Thursday, Jan. 21, 2021. Some hospitals around the U.S. are
Murdoch media declare it’s their fault as the are Reverse Racists

AP: Black Americans are getting inoculated for coronavirus at levels far below their share of the general population.

Racial Disparities Apparent In U.S. COVID-19 Vaccination Drive | HuffPost
Informed Comment

Can Joe Biden change Australian politics for the better? – » The Australian Independent Media Network

My thought for the day There are three kinds of people. Those who know. Those who know when they are shown, and those who have no interest in knowing.(JOHN LORD)

Can Joe Biden change Australian politics for the better? – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Uncategorized

Low-cost vaccine commitment ditched at Bill Gates’ behest

The decision to put profit before people is likely to have a devastating impact on the Global South. Poor countries are not in a position to inoculate their entire populations, especially as the world’s wealthiest nations hoard the large majority of the available vaccines while refusing to support moves by companies in the Global South to produce them for themselves. As a result, the planet’s poor will have to wait until at least 2024 to be immunised. This latest news is unlikely to do anything but set that clock further back.

Low-cost vaccine commitment ditched at Bill Gates’ behest
Uncategorized

Google & Facebook laws just a Backrub for News and Nine – Michael West
Bye Bye Google

Google threatens to withdraw search from Australia and Facebook to remove news posts. These are not idle threats. Is propping up old media with grants gouged from Google good public policy? It delivers cash for Rupert Murdoch but does it serve consumers? Kim Wingerei reports.

Google & Facebook laws just a Backrub for News and Nine – Michael West
Uncategorized

How Cuba Survived and Surprised in a Post-Soviet World

After the fall of the USSR, most observers expected Cuba to follow in its wake. But the Cuban system has now lasted for 30 years since the Soviet collapse. To explain its persistence, we need to drop Cold War stereotypes and look at the Cuban experience in its own right.

How Cuba Survived and Surprised in a Post-Soviet World
Fight against Fake News, Fighting Fake News

Old Dog Thought- Morrison lists QAnon and Houston as his besties
A QAnon protest in Washington DC in October 2020 (Image: Sipa USA/Graeme Sloan)

Fighting Fake News with REAL; 31/1/21; Morrison doesn’t glow; Google and the Rupert subsidies; Scott and QAnon are mates; Australia is shootin up the corruption ranks;

Trump

Six degrees of sedition: Was master trickster Roger Stone behind the Capitol riot? | Salon.com
main article image

On the night before the rally, Stone surrounded himself with symbols of potential violence in the form of his Oath Keeper security detail, who also chauffeured him around in a golf cart. When he spoke, he made clear that he knew exactly what would drive the masses over the police barricades the following afternoon, casting the futile fight in the common language of the QAnon fantasy movement, of a struggle between “dark and light, between the godly and godless, between good and evil.” Reached for comment for this article, Stone told Salon to “have a nice day.”

Six degrees of sedition: Was master trickster Roger Stone behind the Capitol riot? | Salon.com
Default Racism, Internalised Racism

Capitol Attack Was Culmination of Generations of Far-Right Extremism

Kelley now worries that the downturn in organizing, coupled with the Biden-Harris victory and the spectacle of right-wing violence at the Capitol, could make that demobilization permanent. “What we end up doing is demobilizing the very anti-fascist movements that many of us were in the streets fighting for this summer,” he said. “And then re-mobilizing it against these mobs by giving the state a pass.” The challenge in a post-Trump United States is “reminding people that there’s a long history of racism, and it doesn’t come from white men with horns. It comes largely from state policy and a long history, and a deep history, that we have to contest,” Kelley said. Otherwise, he said, “I fear that the summer of 2020 is going to be forgotten.”

Capitol Attack Was Culmination of Generations of Far-Right Extremism
White Terrorism

Terrorized Yet? If You Speak Out, You Probably Have Been. Or Will Be. | The Smirking Chimp

Which is why we’d better root out this homegrown terror with at least as much urgency and a lot more sanity than we did when we spent billions attacking the wrong enemy, getting ourselves mired after destabilizing the Middle East, all while enriching war profiteers and giving the American troglodytes of the right a big boost in their power to do us all harm.

Terrorized Yet? If You Speak Out, You Probably Have Been. Or Will Be. | The Smirking Chimp
Wall St

Reddit, GameStop And Wall Street: Here’s Everything You Need To Know | HuffPost Australia
The Redditors Have Revealed A Myth About The Stock Market

So what is happening with GameStop?

Reddit, GameStop And Wall Street: Here’s Everything You Need To Know | HuffPost Australia

Wall St

The Response to the GameStop Fiasco Shows It’s Still Wall Street’s Economy

Now that hedge funds are losing billions to Redditors buying stocks like GameStop, Wall Street wants heavy-handed intervention into the market, and brokerages have clamped down on the upstarts. It’s a reminder that there’s no such thing as “people’s capitalism” or “shareholder democracy” — the capitalist economy is structured to do what’s best for the business elite.

The Response to the GameStop Fiasco Shows It’s Still Wall Street’s Economy
UK

What Next for Scotland? | Washington Monthly
Nicola Sturgeon

Never has the prospect of an independent Scotland seemed more plausible. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s approval ratings in the region have dropped to all-time lows. Brexit, deeply unpopular in Scotland to begin with (the region voted 62 percent to 38 percent to remain), has become even more so. Independence campaigners comfortably lost their 2014 referendum. But fourteen polls in a row have shown a plurality of its residents now support independence.

What Next for Scotland? | Washington Monthly
Far Right

Australia must face up to the threat of organised right-wing extremism
A man wearing a 'Proud Boys' shirt and an Australian flag attends the Invasion Day rally in the city on January 26, 2021 in Melbourne, Australia.

Australia must face up to the threat of organised right-wing extremism or risk serious violence, an expert has warned, as the US issued a fresh domestic terrorism alert

Some 40 per cent of ASIO resources are currently directed towards right-wing extremist groups.

It’s not hard to pinpoint those that put the wind in the sails of these groups and it wasn’t the ABC (ODT)

Australia must face up to the threat of organised right-wing extremism
Fight against Fake News, Fighting Fake News

Old Dog Thought- The driving business of Capitalism is fraud

Fighting Fake News with REAL 30/1/21; Corporate Government and bad behaviour.

Republicans

Forget about a GOP crack-up: Republicans rally around a defeated Trump because they understand power | Salon.com
main article image
THIS GOP REPORT DOESN’T NOTE TENS OF THOUSANDS ARE LEAVING

Republicans don’t demobilize. They aren’t stupid just because they’re crazy. They know that they win by sticking together. They know that their differences matter less than their shared goal of maintaining power. No matter how baroque the conspiracy theories get or overt the fascist sentiment, Republicans aren’t going to see much attrition. Beating them will continue requiring mass mobilization on the left, as hard as that can be. The GOP is here to stay, and the sooner Democratic voters accept that, the more disciplined they’ll be at defeating them.

Forget about a GOP crack-up: Republicans rally around a defeated Trump because they understand power | Salon.com
Biden

Biden to have Feds buy 650K Electric Vehicles, Promising rapid Fall in EV Prices

President Joe Biden plans to create a million auto-worker jobs by replacing the enormous fleet of some 650,000 vehicles owned by the federal government with electric cars. He specified EVs that emit no carbon dioxide, which suggests he wants the government to buy pure EVs like General Motors’ Chevy Bolt or the Tesla 3. So reports Kate Duffy at Business Insider. Biden called it the biggest government infrastructure procurement program since WW II.

Biden to have Feds buy 650K Electric Vehicles, Promising rapid Fall in EV Prices
Filed under:
Trump

Trump’s Impeachment Is Unlikely to Result in a Conviction. But It May Increase His Chances of Being Criminally Prosecuted. | The Smirking Chimp

Lambe notes that “several defense attorneys who represent those arrested at the U.S. Capitol Siege on January 6 have said their clients acted specifically because they believed Trump told them to do so.”

Trump’s Impeachment Is Unlikely to Result in a Conviction. But It May Increase His Chances of Being Criminally Prosecuted. | The Smirking Chimp
Fox

After white nationalist troll is charged with election interference, Tucker Carlson flatly lies about the facts | Media Matters for America
tucker_carlson_8.png

Carlson also pretends that Douglass Mackey’s well-reported white nationalist background doesn’t exist

After white nationalist troll is charged with election interference, Tucker Carlson flatly lies about the facts | Media Matters for America
NRA USA

How The NRA Helped Foment An Armed Insurrection At The Capitol | HuffPost Australia
How The NRA Helped Foment An Armed Insurrection At The

Nine supporters of former President Donald Trump, all arrested on weapons charges in connection with the storming of the U.S. Capitol, had “enough ammunition to shoot every member of the House and Senate five times,” according to a startling new report on the role of firearms in the Jan. 6 insurrection.

How The NRA Helped Foment An Armed Insurrection At The Capitol | HuffPost Australia

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

AOC Nails Ted Cruz To The Wall: UPDATED | Crooks and Liars
AOC Nails Ted Cruz To The Wall: UPDATED

Dayum! That’s the way to talk to seditionists.

AOC Nails Ted Cruz To The Wall: UPDATED | Crooks and Liars