As Labor goes through yet another bout of self-destructive leadership undermining and internal dissent, and a shadow cabinet reshuffle is leaked to the press ahead of time, this morning’s news should be enough to show them the way.
If anyone should go, it should be Joel Fitzgibbon – » The Australian Independent Media Network
As if often the case, Abbott slips up on the issue of what norms undergird his country. Being tenaciously Anglophile, he can still make the specious remark that Australians are distinct in not necessarily wishing to form queues. “Thanks to the pandemic, we’re now told to form orderly and socially distanced queues – as if we were English.” Given the fact that he has been, since the 1990s, a member of governments that insisted upon queues being the natural order of life, not to mention governing war zones, applications for asylum and detaining refugees indefinitely, this seems something of a retreat.
The Mad Monk Strikes: Tony Abbott, Taxi Rides and Coronavirus Despotism – » The Australian Independent Media Network
This is an important first step in ending our material support for war globally, and the genocide in Yemen in particular,” said Rep. Ilhan Omar.
‘Good’: Anti-War Democrats Applaud Biden for Freeze on US Arms Sales to Saudis and UAE | Common Dreams News
“The real work of determining what kind of world we want to live in is the proper subject of democracy, not high finance. The Redditors have made this clear to the world, and for that they should be celebrated rather than condemned.”
The Redditors Have Revealed A Myth About The Stock Market | HuffPost Australia
A clear majority of Americans want twice-impeached former President Donald Trump to be convicted by the Senate and barred from holding office in the future, according to polling results released Monday, the same day the House of Representatives delivered an article of impeachment against Trump for “incitement of insurrection” to the upper chamber of Congress.
Poll: Majority Want Trump Barred From Holding Future Office | Crooks and Liars
Fox News’ prime-time hosts appear to be trying to make inroads with violent extremists and conspiracy theorists as they attempt to pull out of an unprecedented ratings spiral. Over the last week, they have defended the Proud Boys, QAnon adherents, and white nationalists, while flirting with anti-vaccination sentiment.
Fox prime time’s apparent solution for ratings woes: Pandering to Proud Boys, white nationalists, QAnon, and anti-vaxxers | Media Matters for America
Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham comments have raised eyebrows and struck many as hypocritical
Fox hosts accuse media of ‘gushing’ over Biden – after four years of fawning over Trump | Media | The Guardian
It is crucial to an understanding of the global consequences of the coronavirus pandemic to consider the transition to alternative energy sources for the benefit of future generations. Covid-19 is affecting people all over the world, but a year ago it was just another public health issue. That has all changed, and it actually affects every aspect of our lives as individuals and as nations.
Will the Pandemic help Shift the world from Oil to Green Energy?
Democracies have slightly outperformed authoritarian countries in suppressing the coronavirus, according to an analysis that found smaller populations and competent bureaucracies were the major factors in managing the global pandemic.
COVID Performance Index ranks the countries that handled the pandemic best
Own Goal: IPA report a ringing endorsement that Coalition policies have failed – Michael West
The Institute of Public Affairs has scored an epic “own-goal” by calling out the slide in Australian quality of life. A new report by the Liberal Party think tank identifies the drop in home ownership, high incarceration rates, the low level of skills training and debt as the main culprits but, as Michael Tanner reports, the declining standards are a direct result of Liberal Party policies.
Own Goal: IPA report a ringing endorsement that Coalition policies have failed – Michael West
The intention of this post is to examine three areas of concern which have arisen or have persisted in concerning the world at large. They are: the COVID-19 pandemic; Climate Change; and Donald J. Trump. The focus will be on how these topics are presented in various arenas, including Murdoch media.
Three strikes out! – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Some Australian cultural reflexes reinforce the tendency. Many of us like diversity, but only as a therapeutic source of national pride. We don’t always like it when it challenges us. A certain disapproval seems reserved for minorities who don’t express perpetual gratitude for the opportunities presented by this great land. If you’re from a migrant background and offer criticism of Australian society, you risk being lashed as an unpatriotic ingrate.
Why Australia lags rest of world in political diversity
what we do know are the ways the trial could end. There are four of them, to be exact.
Donald Trump’s Senate impeachment trial will end one of these four ways – ABC News
Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley and several other members of the “sedition caucus” are still in Congress and stand as a constant reminder of how much accountability and healing must still occur.
America’s national healing depends on Donald Trump facing real punishment | Salon.com
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and 44 other Republicans voted on Tuesday to dismiss the Senate impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump over the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol earlier this month. Only five Republicans voted with every Democrat to table Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul’s effort to dismiss the trial before it even got started. The GOP senator argued that holding such a trial of a former president was not constitutional, even though there is precedent for the Senate trying former government officials.
45 Senate Republicans Vote To Dismiss Trump’s Impeachment Trial | HuffPost Australia
A new report from Ember and Agora Energiewende finds that in 2020, the 27 countries of the European Union generated more electricity with renewables (wind, solar, hydro) than with fossil fuels (coal and natural gas). The growth in renewables has all come from wind and solar. These two increased by 51 terawatt-hours in 2020, substantially higher than the yearly average growth during the past decade.
President Biden, We can do this too: Europe generates more electricity with Renewables than Fossil Fuels for First Time
Like other forms of intolerance, however, Islamophobia can be objectively assessed. Empirical studies are an effective means of exposing this prejudice, one that plagues both sides of the political spectrum.
Hating on Muslims in Western Media is based on the Big Lie
Aboriginal Pride by Jodie Freeman
To everyone… – » The Australian Independent Media Network
What’s missing is the the UK in identifying the award accurately. Australia Day Awards are awarded to Australians which Murdoch isn’t. They aren’t awarded by foreign organizations intending to boost the image of foreigners. Particularly when the title of the said organization is a false flag. (ODT)
Rupert Murdoch has accused social media platforms of creating an ideologically driven atmosphere of conformity, garnering applause as well as accusations that his vast media empire is guilty of the same crime. In a pre-recorded acceptance speech thanking the Australia Day Foundation for honoring him with a lifetime achievement award, the Fox News owner expressed dismay over a “wave of censorship that seeks to silence conversation, to stifle debate and ultimately stop individuals and societies from realizing their potential.”
After Rupert Murdoch slams ‘woke orthodoxy’ & social media censorship, critics lambast tycoon’s own ‘malign influence’ — RT World News
When the banking royal commission wrapped up in early 2019, the government said it was committed to enacting change. Senior business reporter Ben Butler explains how two years on, most recommendations have either been delayed or abandoned
Two years on from Australia’s banking royal commission, why has progress stalled? | Australia news | The Guardian
A new report from Roll Call details some of the many challenges facing the Republican Party as it looks to an uncertain future following former President Donald Trump’s electoral defeat. As the party turns its focus to the 2022 midterms, it remains “divided over Trump, their midterm prospects and the state of the GOP itself,” Roll Call’s Bridget Bowman, Kate Ackley, and Stephanie Akin report.
GOP in Disarray after Historic Defeat: ‘Political Disaster Doesn’t Begin to Describe How Bad This Is for Republicans’ | The Smirking Chimp
Donald Trump incited this riot and his supporters carried out his orders. That is a fact, in spite of all the denials floating around Trumpworld and Republicans in denial. Anyone who doubts it as a fact should spend the 10 minutes to watch the video above, compiled by Just Security.
This Video Should Convict Trump And End The GOP | Crooks and Liars
“Trump confessed he was wrecking USPS to rig the election. His toady Postmaster General DeJoy carried out that arson. It’s time to clean house.” by Jake Johnson, staff writer
Biden Urged to Fire Entire Postal Service Board for Complicity in ‘Devastating Arson’ by Trump and DeJoy | Common Dreams News
The sudden lurch from Trump to Biden is generating vertigo all over Washington, including the so-called fourth branch of government – CEOs and their army of lobbyists.
CEOs’ Newfound Concern for Democracy is Bunk | The Smirking Chimp
In a country that seems obsessed with individual freedom, even if it kills other people by giving them a dreadful disease, the idea of putting society first, and helping those less fortune seems akin to communism. It seems ironic that the countries that are truly great are Scandinavian countries that are social democracies on the whole. For example, consider performance on valuable attributes such as happiness (Finland No. 1, USA No.18), education (Finland No.1, USA No. 20), community (Iceland, No. 1, USA No. 21), and life satisfaction (Finland No.1, USA No. 17). Given its enormous wealth, America is consistently outperformed by other developed countries on things that really matter to people. It seems the problem is that for far too long many Americans have believed their own propaganda.
America the Terrible – » The Australian Independent Media Network
The mainstream media claims to prize objectivity above all else. But for every story scrutinizing corporate power, you’ll find 10 or 20 depicting CEOs and corporations as the great saviors of America.
For the Corporate Press, It’s All the Spin That’s Fit to Print
Corporate governance experts are urging more of Australia’s big companies to repay funds received through the federal government’s JobKeeper wage subsidy scheme, warning taxpayers will bear the brunt of the $90 billion cost for decades.
‘Unjustly enriched’: Mounting calls for corporate Australia to repay JobKeeper as profits recover
The Government’s fetish for deregulation plays right into the hands of predatory multinationals Uber and Deliveroo which exploit both Australia’s tax and labour laws to siphon profits overseas. Michael West and Callum Foote report on Uber’s exploitation and the prospective tsunami of lawsuits rolling its way.
Uber Xploitation: Uber’s secret settlement presages a wave of lawsuits – Michael West
My thought for the day Never allow racism to disguise itself in the cloak of nationalism.( John Lord)
January 26, 1788: The day the white men came and plundered – » The Australian Independent Media Network
It gave Scott Morrison a Howard moment — “we’ll decide who searches Australia and the manner in which they search!” — as he huffed, “we don’t respond to threats”. (This will surely be news to anyone who follows the LNP-News Corp relationship.)
Could Australian small businesses survive without Google search function?
So, is Morrison’s behaviour a lack of leadership, which seems likely given his stance or lack of it on so many issues, or is it a demonstration of his and the right-wing intolerance, insensitivity and racism towards our own Indigenous peoples? Perhaps he is simply appealing to his base and it is all about votes. Whatever the case, history will not be kind to him when it judges his performance. Or is it all three. I suspect it is the latter.
Morrison: Opportunity Lost to Attack Racism or Political Expediency? – » The Australian Independent Media Network
OPINION: There’s been a fair bit of talk about moving the date of Australia Day recently. But these people don’t have any idea what they’re messing with. 26th January is sacred. Mark my words, it ‘aint moving. Do all the complaining you want. But buggered if you’ll stop me celebrating Cooko’s triple century against a full-strength Japanese attack on a deteriorating Gallipoli wicket in ‘44-‘45. It was the making of this country. Bob Hawke gave the nation a day off to celebrate. And yet here we are, trying to mess with it.
“No-One Can Tell Me To Stop Celebrating The Anniversary Of Captain Cook’s 334 Not Out Against The Advancing Japanese Troops At Gallipoli” | The Shovel
, neoliberal globalisation gave rise to the political and cultural blowback called Trumpism in the US and its ethnonationalist cousins across the world. Making a fetish of normalcy is a form of American exceptionalism. “America is back” may prove as myopic and delusional as “Make America Great Again”.
Did America really Duck the Dark Night of Fascism? The delusion of normalcy that haunts the United States
At Mother Jones, we’ve corrected countless Trump falsehoods over the past four years, from his bull about the stock market and hooey about global warming to disinformation about the legitimacy of the election and bunkum about the coronavirus pandemic. It was exhausting. And numbing.
Trump Lied More Than 30,000 Times During His Presidency. No Wonder We’re Exhausted. – Mother Jones
Before Donald Trump began his run for president, there was a war against journalism in the United States. President George W. Bush used the Espionage Act and sought to jail reporters who refused to give up their sources, not to mention killing journalists in war zones. When President Barack Obama, a constitutional law scholar, came to power, he did so claiming that he and Joe Biden would represent the most transparent administration in history. But then reality set in.
Biden Should Repudiate Espionage Act Prosecutions of Whistleblowers and Journalists
Trump can diminish both the GOP and himself. The question is by how much?
Yes, there is a deep schism in the GOP between the traditional budget-conscious, business-friendly old guard and the nativist culture warriors still loyal to Donald Trump. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, having exploited the useful idiot in the White House for conservative judges and a tax cut, now wants nothing to do with him or his ilk. (McConnell, according to a revealing New Yorker piece, is particularly terrified of the GOP losing corporate donors in the wake of the Trump-stoked putsch on Jan. 6.)
Larry Hackett: Republicans and Trump loyalists go head to head
The sudden lurch from Trump to Biden is generating vertigo all over Washington, including the so-called fourth branch of government – chief executives and their army of lobbyists.
Don’t believe the anti-Trump hype – corporate sedition still endangers America | Donald Trump | The Guardian
Psychiatrists use the term Stockholm syndrome to describe a set of psychological characteristics first observed in people taken hostage in 1973 However what Right-Wing Zionists in Israel are doing is mirroring what the Nazis did to the Jews during the holocaust. (ODT)
This is consistent with Israel’s goal of extinguishing all Palestinian hope for the same freedom in their native land that Israeli Jews enjoy. Israel continues to seize Palestinian land, demolish Palestinian homes, build settlements for Israeli Jews in the occupied West Bank, and deal cruelly with protesters — indifferent to law and morality, but sensitive to the charge of racism. Even Arabs who are Israeli citizens don’t have equal rights with Israeli Jews.
Anti-Semitism and Israel: Right-wing Zionists play a deadly word game | Salon.com
Now that Donald Trump has gone, what will his ride-or-die supporters in Australian media do? How will they “own the libs” when the libs have their hand at the tiller? Whose ideas will they crib as US conservatism falls deeper into a post-Trump fugue? The recent output of high-profile Australian Trumpists suggests that the solution will be to gradually back away from Trump himself, even as they double down on aspects of the Trumpist movement. That’s necessary because, even for the diehards and the know-nothings, since the 6th of January, Trump the man has revealed himself to be a spectacularly toxic liability. He departed, according to Gallup’s numbers, as the least popular US president in the history of opinion polling: he had the lowest average approval rating over the life of his presidency and, unlike every other president since Roosevelt, he never enjoyed majority approval.
We shouldn’t forget which Australian commentators carried water for Trump | Donald Trump | The Guardian
The general model of improvement and reform revolves around the piecemeal tinkering mode. That mindset has to change significantly. Major system change is needed not just with the electoral system, but also the Federation, the Constitution, industrial relations and, finally, of course, the Republic. To think that we can just continue to argue whether or not an Australian president should be directly or indirectly elected is to miss the point about Australia’s democracy crisis completely. Sure, COVID-19 is still the main issue discussed by the media, but well before the next election, Australians need to insist on fixing their democracy and, also, insist on competence in government. That can only come primarily via the ALP and the Greens, in unison and in coalition with other progressive parties and independents. Australia needs a new political culture. This won’t come from piecemeal tinkering.
Our political culture is rotting at its core
‘Crazed mob’ on Capitol Hill didn’t come out of nowhere: Noam Chomsky dissects America’s airbrushed ‘ills’ on RT
‘Crazed mob’ on Capitol Hill didn’t come out of nowhere: Noam Chomsky dissects America’s airbrushed ‘ills’ on RT — RT USA News
While Putin is arrresting 1000’s of it’s citizens Pravda is crying corocodile tears, no real tears, for its asset lost Donald. Will the Russians finance his incompetence amplifying theirs?
They’re beholden to dark forces controlling them. Will martial law be declared ahead on the phony pretext of foreign threats and domestic terrorism to counter? Will what remains of a free and open society be replaced by full-blown totalitarian rule, enforced by police state harshness? Make no mistake. Biden/Harris and members of their regime are enemies of ordinary people, hostile to their interests, wanting them exploited, not served. Along with likely escalated foreign aggression against one or more invented enemies, homeland despotism will likely harden on their watch for our own good we’ll likely be told.
Biden Address: Deception
It was all over quickly, and for Anthony, it was enough. He and Baird were out of D.C. by nightfall. On the way back, he said, he got messages from militiamen back home who were vowing to follow them back into the Capitol with weapons. He brushed it off, telling them it was a ludicrous idea. He doesn’t think they’d have come anyway. He sensed the momentum sapping from the militia crowd and predicted a period of indecision and infighting. That was the mood, at least, on the eve of Biden’s inauguration.
What’s Next for the Militias?
Reading RT convinces me that Trump was definitely a Russian asset in the USA. Russian troops numbers, not disclosed, have arrested 1000s of it’s citizens. Mostly the youth of Russia for simply protesting the jailing of a political opponent of Putin’s. But more so like Oliver Twist asking for more. Believe me Russia has a far greater domestic police force than America.
If you thought a president who needs 25,000 troops to safeguard his inauguration from threats that appear to have been manufactured would at least treat his praetorians with some gratitude and respect – well, you’d be wrong.
Banished to a cold garage, investigated for sedition, exposed to Covid… Biden sure respects his National Guard troops — RT Op-ed
These precautions are eminently sensible, given the threat of right-wing violence. And the last thing the new administration wants on its first day of office is to hold a very visible super-spreader event in the nation’s capital. But it’s not a good look for American democracy when the peaceful handover of power has the appearance of a banana republic installing a tinpot dictator—or resembles the America of 1861, for that matter, when a huge security presence at Abraham Lincoln’s inauguration presaged the outbreak of civil war.
Maybe now the U.S. should stop talking down to the World about “Democracy Promotion”
olddogthoughts 
You must be logged in to post a comment.