WARNING
via Real Estate Rescue’s Dominique Grubisa: The dame selling distress
Author: peterimrich
“But here’s the problem: Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison withdrew half-a-billion dollars in funding from delivery of the first set of targets. It’s therefore important to ask: what is their funding commitment for the new set of targets?”
Only one member of the Australian media questioned Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s narrative about the “innocent” failure of Kevin Rudd’s Closing the Gap scheme. This failure of accountability from all major Australian media outlets skirts over the $1 billion in funding cut from Indigenous services. Callum Foote lays down the real numbers in this investigation of yet another instance of media succumbing to Government public relations narratives.
via Closing the Gap: how a captive media failed to question Scott Morrison on defunding – Michael West
The secret propagands wars the US funding mind bending religious sects (ODT)
Office bearers of US-backed Chinese language news service Decode China are linked with Falun Gong, the spiritual group that has spent millions backing Donald Trump through fake social media accounts. The same people are on the board of the National Foundation for Australia China Relations, raising scepticism about its ability to repair fractured relationships. Marcus Reubenstein investigates US state funding of anti-China media in Australia and links to global arms dealers via ASPI.
via Propaganda Wars: US state department funds anti-China news outlet in Australia – Michael West
Kylie Moore-Gilbert is a case that should concern us all. It is not only a matter of an Australian citizen, young and vulnerable, locked up in deplorable circumstances overseas. It is also how this connects to other issues of freedom of expression here and internationally. We must continue to defend the right to responsible speech, to create the conditions in which divergent views are heard with respect and continue to think about how information supports our most vulnerable at a time like this.
Our immediate goal must be Kylie’s unconditional release and that is the responsibility of Minister Payne, even if she has been missing in action on this issue. As part of a wider campaign, we need to become more active in ensuring our world is far safer to consider different ideas without the hostility that is becoming commonplace.
via Kylie Moore-Gilbert’s imprisonment a reminder of the need for free speech
The leader of the Birther attack on Obama refuses to show his tax papers (ODT)
New York: US President Donald Trump’s latest efforts to block a grand jury subpoena for his tax returns could provide him with the immunity from prosecution that the Supreme Court has rejected, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said in a court filing on Monday.
Trump was dealt a blow by the Supreme Court last month when in a 7 to 2 decision, the court said he was not protected by presidential immunity from state-court level actions. The court allowed for the case to get sent back to the US District Court in Manhattan for any additional challenges Trump would seek to make.
via Trump is blocking tax returns subpoena to secure immunity: court filings
He’s killed via the increase in poverty by refusing to sign the assistance bill, increased mental illness, slow to act on COVID-19 and turned the street protests into wars. Trump is a mass murderer.(ODT)
Is adversarial politics damaging our democracy?
Those who despise adversarial politics find it to be contemptible, a damaging affliction on our political system. They resent the stifling impediments it places on governing, on governments carrying out what they promised the electorate they would do. They see it as focused on ‘winning’, on gaining a political advantage, rather than telling or establishing the truth, or contributing usefully to the discourse. It sets the teeth of the electorate on edge, which ‘turns off’ in despair. Voters would prefer politicians to be open and upfront, more focussed on the good of the nation, less willing to corrupt the usually-worthy principles that brought them into politics in the first place. At least our PM and Opposition leader are now cooperating well during the COVID-19 crisis.
What can we ordinary citizens do?We might be able to bring about change if we, who pay our politicians’ wages via taxes, raise our voices against the use of exaggerated, depreciatory, derogatory and dishonest language by politicians, commentators and columnists. While the media might miss the theatre and the ‘newsworthy’ copy adversarial politics provides, the public would applaud a more measured approach, free from adversarial behaviour – so wasteful, so unproductive, so distasteful. We could write to our parliamentarians individually. Responders to this piece may have other suggestions. Sadly though, if history tells us anything, any change for the better is probably a vain hope.
via Is adversarial politics damaging our democracy? – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Scott Morrison Named (ODT)
A former Coalition minister has slammed the federal government’s handling of aged care and called for major structural change in a submission that exposes years of failure to help older Australians.
One of Tony Abbott’s own ministers after the 2013 election, Liberal Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, says the government has not had the political fortitude to fix the sector after spurning calls for action when it took power.
She also names Prime Minister Scott Morrison as one of the ministers of the social service responsible for aged care in the federal cabinet during the time she says the government squandered a chance for reform.
via Government squandered opportunity for aged care reform: Concetta Fierravanti-Wells
Peter Leahy’s wife is a director of a company awarded $38 million in contracts from federal departments, mostly Defence and Foreign Affairs and Trade. The company had earned $2.2 million in revenue from federal government contracts before Leahy resigned as Chief. Michelle Fahy investigates.
Family Ties: Defence contracts go to company linked to wife of former army chief – Michael West
A very coordinated effort by IPA/LNP/News Corp/Tim Wilson
The US economy could benefit if the nation were to “lock down really hard” for four to six weeks, a top Federal Reserve official has said, as a senior White House official warned America was entering a new phase in which the coronavirus was “extraordinarily widespread” in rural areas as well as cities.
via Coronavirus: US COVID-19 cases soar, Federal Reserve urges ‘really hard’ lockdown
Coronavirus protects Trump. Bet all media won’t be banned. (ODT
But this year the Republican party appears intent on repeating its nomination of Trump, whose dismal performance in handling the coronavirus pandemic has dragged his popularity to historic lows, with no cameras present, in subversion of the president’s own instinct for spectacle and obsession with TV ratings.
One noisy theme in the Donald Trump Disruption Show in an otherwise chaotic assemblage of messages has remained fairly constant: winding back US troop commitments. The US has fought its complement of wars, bloodied and bloodying. Time to up stakes and head home. It was a message that sold in 2016 across the aisles of politics, and it is one that continues to resonate. But the practice of it has proven murkier. Nothing this president does can be otherwise. The US military complex remains sprawling, overweight and defiant. As a result, the military footprint has been not so much dissipated as readjusted.
When you have nothing left blame the MEDIA, avoid the truth at all costs Do the Trump (ODT)
Russians as well as the French could not understand why Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky made waves in the US that blew into an impeachment trial and ended with the bombardment of Belgrade. Bill was unfaithful to Hillary? That’s not nice, but it is their private affair. President Clinton lied? Well, he was not in the confession booth. Traditional religions, be it Catholic or Eastern Orthodox, are quite tolerant of venial sin. Puritanism, the Old as well as its New offspring are deadly serious in everything, and are unafraid of killing or bullying a sinner to death. They may have begun with witches, but they are ending up targeting ordinary folk.
Currently their targets have a lot of wampum, for it is no fun to bully a person for no material gain. Us, impecunious men, we have nothing to be afraid of yet. But it might be wise to save society before the New Puritans bring down disaster onto all of us. In my opinion, America’s influence on the world should be reversed, or at least limited. Let America get influenced by Europe for a change. Mercifully, Europe is suffering from a very light case of New Puritanism that may be entirely cured with a healthy dose of Anti-Americanism. I hear the vaccine is under development.
Governments MUST have contingency plans for disasters, particularly ones like pandemics, which may be few and far between but which are, sooner or later, inevitable.
To have a government which looks after the wealthy with greater care than it does the needy could be seen as incompetent or even evil.
via “Money is the root of all evil” – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Australia is right behind America walking in Trump’s shadow, (ODT)
via Millions in US face financial ruin as emergency jobless benefits end
Jonah is at home on the SS Florida the Whale is waitng in antcipation (ODT)
Florida accounts for 10 percent of the country’s COVID-19 cases, with almost half a million cases and already 7,021 deaths. Fifty-one hospitals have run out of ICU beds as the state still is adding another 9,725 new cases on average a day. The hurricane has only contributed more chaos to the equation. State-run coronavirus testing sites have closed on Florida’s eastern coast in anticipation of the storm (originally, the state considered consider closing all of its testing sites before Isaias changed tracks). And hospitals also must plan for the worst. Florida Governor Ron De Santis said he doesn’t “anticipate hospitals needing to evacuate patients.” But one small hospital in Brevard County, which is in the anticipated path of the storm, already has moved its COVID-19 patients. The state has had to stockpile supplies in preparation, including 20 million masks, 22 million gloves, 10 million gowns, 1.6 million face shields, 270,000 coveralls and 20,000 thermometers, while ensuring there are generators for nursing facilities should the power go out.
via A Hurricane, a Pandemic, and Trump: The Triple Crisis Is Barreling Down on Florida – Mother Jones
Trump’s crony at Kodak has made tens of millions thanks to a $765 million, taxpayer-funded loan to help the company get into the pharmaceutical business – and manufacture chemicals for hydroxychloroquine.
CEO Bonus and Share price move smells like a case of insider trading? (ODT)
via Trump’s Kodak Crony Just Made Millions From Taxpayers To Make Hydroxychloroquine | Crooks and Liars
America’s biggest danger of foreign interference comes from Israel. It’s spending American Aid to boot. (ODT)
Our QED database includes dozens of examples of dubious travel claims made by politicians. But what is more concerning than the apparent inappropriate use of public funds is the MPs’ lack of accountability and their arrogant treatment of the fourth estate – the journalists holding power to account. Elizabeth Minter reports.
via QED travel rorts: it’s not just the misuse of money. We have a right to answers. – Michael West
Trump declares this a historic rebound by the best President ever and he’s your’s America. (ODT)
Trump throws the dead cat on the table (ODT)
When I talk to local people, like a city council or a schools’ committee, I say, “What cost are you willing to accept for being wrong? What is an acceptable cost to you?” Frankly, we got lazy, and we’re not prepared for something like this. Even people like me and my colleagues, we would look at the data and kind of think, can it really be that bad? It’s hard to admit to yourself that it really can be that bad, but you have to know in the back of your mind that it may well be.
via How Our “Balkanized” Health Care System Made the Pandemic Far Worse – Mother Jones
Snake Oil selling has always been an American tradition. At least pet rock’s were refreshingly honest as was a can of Fresh Air. James Murdoch couldn’t “TAKE IT ANYMORE” Tucker Carlson wants to do more selling (ODT)
The Daily Caller is a right-wing publication with a history of promoting false information and hiring or publishing white nationalists and other bigots. In 2019, Facebook began partnering with Check Your Fact for the social media giant’s fact-checking program. Popular Information’s Jugg Legum documented in March how the Daily Caller used “its role as a Facebook fact-checker to boost Trump and discredit a mainstream media outlet, Politico.”
Check Your Fact states on its “about us” page that it is “a for-profit subsidiary wholly owned by The Daily Caller, Inc. Majority owners of The Daily Caller, Inc. are co-founder and publisher Neil Patel and co-founder Tucker Carlson. The Daily Caller’s fact-checking team is funded by The Daily Caller’s general news budget, as well as revenue generated through advertising.” (Carlson sold his stake in the Daily Caller last month.)
![Screenshot_2020-08-01 Our relatives are carted into the maw of underpaid overworked profit-at-all costs aged care First Dog[...].png](https://olddogthoughts.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/screenshot_2020-08-01-our-relatives-are-carted-into-the-maw-of-underpaid-overworked-profit-at-all-costs-aged-care-first-dog....png?w=845)
via 
The LNP Government pays the ABC less that’s why they don’t need more, But Murdoch gets the $40 mill bonus prize.Seems to me if the ABC isn’t included big tech will just publish the ABC won’t they? (ODT)
Rio Tinto has just announced an astronomical profit, largely on the back of its continued exploitation of Indigenous land in WA. Yet Rio still does not have an Indigenous Australian in a senior executive role. To maintain its social licence the company must also move its headquarters to Australia and up its royalties, writes Stephen Mayne.Indigenous Land,
via Rio Tinto: ditch the colonial baggage and get with a 21st-century program – Michael West
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