Author: peterimrich

Scuffles break out as National Guard moves in to disperse protesters blocking entrance to Trump’s Mt. Rushmore event (VIDEOS) — RT USA News

Scuffles break out as National Guard moves in to disperse protesters blocking entrance to Trump’s Mt. Rushmore event (VIDEOS)

Trump “look what I’ve started mum” He’s Your President America!

via Scuffles break out as National Guard moves in to disperse protesters blocking entrance to Trump’s Mt. Rushmore event (VIDEOS) — RT USA News

Old Dog Thoughts- Australians told to Shut our mouths but China the government says is worse

Fighting Fake News with REAL 4/7/20; Predicting a Labor win; Your Choice America Trumpster freedom or Death; You can’t blow whistles in Australia agains Authority;

Fox is doing all it can to deny the coronavirus pandemic is getting worse | Media Matters for America

Fox hosts downplay coronavirus surge

via Fox is doing all it can to deny the coronavirus pandemic is getting worse | Media Matters for America

US reports daily case record of 52,000 after Trump says Covid-19 will ‘disappear’ | World news | The Guardian

Donald Trump at the White House in Washington DC on 17 June 2020.

via US reports daily case record of 52,000 after Trump says Covid-19 will ‘disappear’ | World news | The Guardian

‘Such an Appalling Human Being’: Ex-trump Voters Reveal Why They Finally Soured on the President | The Smirking Chimp

An article published on Pew’s website this week explains: “Roughly seven in ten white evangelical Protestants, 72%, say they approve of the way Trump is handling his job, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted June 16-22. That is a 6 percentage point drop from 78% recorded in April, in line with the 5-point drop during that period among U.S. adults overall. The share of white evangelicals who say they ‘very strongly’ approve of Trump’s performance is now at 59%, down 8 points from 67% in April.”

via ‘Such an Appalling Human Being’: Ex-trump Voters Reveal Why They Finally Soured on the President | The Smirking Chimp

New research shows the South Pole is warming faster than the rest of the world

via New research shows the South Pole is warming faster than the rest of the world

Mueller report redactions unlikely to be revealed before presidential election after Supreme Court agrees to hear Trump appeal — RT USA News

Mueller report redactions unlikely to be revealed before presidential election after Supreme Court agrees to hear Trump appeal

Is it any wonder Trump needs the judges onside?(ODT)

via Mueller report redactions unlikely to be revealed before presidential election after Supreme Court agrees to hear Trump appeal — RT USA News

Murdoch press supports ‘reformed climate activist’ Michael Shellenberger

THE AUSTRALIAN misled its readers this week when it carried a major article purporting to be written by a climate activist who was, as it turned out, admitting climate science was bunkum.

Andrew Bolt was certainly promoting it, Like Trum he doesn’t read either (ODT)

via Murdoch press supports ‘reformed climate activist’ Michael Shellenberger

Clear as ABC: We need our public broadcaster because there is an absence of political truth – » The Australian Independent Media Network

via Clear as ABC: We need our public broadcaster because there is an absence of political truth – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Unions say Coalition’s ‘demonising’ of unemployed is groundwork for Covid-19 welfare cuts | Welfare | The Guardian

Prime minister Scott Morrison speaks to the media during a visit to Electro Optics Systems

 

via Unions say Coalition’s ‘demonising’ of unemployed is groundwork for Covid-19 welfare cuts | Welfare | The Guardian

Why Bernard Collaery’s case is one of the gravest threats to freedom of expression

via Why Bernard Collaery’s case is one of the gravest threats to freedom of expression

Peter Dutton given Friday noon deadline to avoid contempt of court charge | Peter Dutton | The Guardian

Peter Dutton

via Peter Dutton given Friday noon deadline to avoid contempt of court charge | Peter Dutton | The Guardian

Westpac joins underpayments scandal with 8000 staff short-changed

Westpac estimates it will pay $8 million to people who were underpaid their long service leave.

Westpac will pay $8 million to 8000 staff who were underpaid their long-service leave entitlements, in the latest case of underpayment by one of Australia’s biggest companies.

via Westpac joins underpayments scandal with 8000 staff short-changed

Old Dog Thoughts- Trump found smoking a bong before speaking;

Fighting Fake News with REAL,3/7/20; The 1% ; US to rid itself of Covid by Stopping testing; Trump smoked a bong and spoke;

Old Dog Thoughts- Drugs and Money Remdesivir Profiteering or America has a major major problem dumping Obamacare.

An ampule of drug rests in a person's hand

Fighting Fake News with REAL, 2/7/20; Humour, The Arts, COVID-19; Defence and political optics; Shareholder move;

“Independent” think-tank ASPI behind push for more defence spending rakes in advisory fees – Michael West

Illustration showing all the business connections with Australia Strategic Policy Institute

Funded by the Department of Defence, the Australia Strategic Policy Institute collects millions more as it drives the “China threat” narrative. As Marcus Reubenstein reports, while ASPI is the media’s go-to experts for public comment, ASPI is remarkably coy about revealing all its funding sources.

via “Independent” think-tank ASPI behind push for more defence spending rakes in advisory fees – Michael West

The ‘job snob’ stereotype has been used for decades to denigrate the unemployed. Facts tell a different story | Australian economy | The Guardian

Prime minister Scott Morrison

Australia’s seen enough shut shops and Centrelink queues to disbelieve the old beat-ups. So why is the prime minister restarting them?

Economists are calling the impact of coronavirus a “depression-level crisis”; it is stunning to consider the Liberal government refusing to remember the lessons of the Depression. Pandemic or not, sacked workers cannot furnish markets with spending, and neither can the workers without jobs to go back to when jobseeker payments are halved and jobkeeper taken away – scheduled for September. They won’t be spending big in the Laundy family’s 30 pubs.

They’ll be fighting to keep their families together – nursing a bitter awareness of just who abandoned them, and for how little.

via The ‘job snob’ stereotype has been used for decades to denigrate the unemployed. Facts tell a different story | Australian economy | The Guardian

and

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jun/30/deeply-hurtful-claims-of-australian-jobseekers-turning-down-work-are-based-on-scant-evidence

COVID-19: Where was it born: China, the United States or Ukania? (A diabolical struggle: part 1) – » The Australian Independent Media Network

COVID-19: Where was it born: China, the United States or Ukania? (A diabolical struggle: part 1) – » The Australian Independent Media Network

COVID-19: Where was it born: China, the United States or Ukania? (A diabolical struggle: part 2)

 

Geoffrey Rush appeal: Daily Telegraph and Nationwide News lose defamation case against actor – live news | Film | The Guardian

Australian actor Geoffrey Rush outside the federal court in Sydney last November.

via Geoffrey Rush appeal: Daily Telegraph and Nationwide News lose defamation case against actor – live news | Film | The Guardian

Environment Minister approves Whitehaven’s tenth coal mine – Michael West

via Environment Minister approves Whitehaven’s tenth coal mine – Michael West

‘Without Urgent Govt Intervention,’ Koalas Face Extinction in New South Wales by 2050 | Common Dreams News

A koala named Pete from Pappinbarra at The Port Macquarie Koala Hospital on November 29, 2019 in Port Macquarie, Australia.

via ‘Without Urgent Govt Intervention,’ Koalas Face Extinction in New South Wales by 2050 | Common Dreams News

What is really wrong with the country: 10 Years of Quiet Australians

via What is really wrong with the country: 10 Years of Quiet Australians

Old Dog Thoughts- Murdoch vs Rush

Australian actor Geoffrey Rush outside the federal court in Sydney last November.

Fighting Fake News with REAL, 2/7/20; Rush beats News Corp’s appeal; Humour, The Arts, COVID-19; Defence and political optics; Shareholder move;

Donald Trump’s Re-Election Playbook: 25 Ways He’ll Lie, Cheat and Abuse His Power | The Smirking Chimp

via Donald Trump’s Re-Election Playbook: 25 Ways He’ll Lie, Cheat and Abuse His Power | The Smirking Chimp

Coronavirus update: Anthony Fauci warns US could soon have ‘100,000 cases a day’, Australians make European Union’s safe travel list – ABC News

A close up of Anthony Fauci wearing a mask.

via Coronavirus update: Anthony Fauci warns US could soon have ‘100,000 cases a day’, Australians make European Union’s safe travel list – ABC News

On key date he was reportedly briefed on Russia bounty story, Trump was live-tweeting Fox News and hosting network personalities at the White House | Media Matters for America

Trump Fox

Already, Fox News is spinning for Trump on this point, with Fox & Friends co-hosts claiming, “All presidents don’t read all of their briefings,” and adding, “It might have been printed in it, it doesn’t mean that he actually heard about it.”

via On key date he was reportedly briefed on Russia bounty story, Trump was live-tweeting Fox News and hosting network personalities at the White House | Media Matters for America

Senate Republicans Make Sure Trump Can Hide Offers Of Foreign Election Help | Crooks and Liars

Senate Republicans Make Sure Trump Can Hide Offers Of Foreign Election Help

Why would Republicans, supposedly “America first” adherents, want to prevent Americans from knowing about foreign interference in our presidential election – unless they have something to hide?

via Senate Republicans Make Sure Trump Can Hide Offers Of Foreign Election Help | Crooks and Liars

Trump views US troops as disposable – the Russian bounty scandal makes that clear | Donald Trump | The Guardian

Trump on an unannounced visit to Bagram air base in Afghanistan last year. Trump has consistently displayed a cavalier attitude to armed forces’ lives.

Trump’s Disposables…poor and black (ODT)

via Trump views US troops as disposable – the Russian bounty scandal makes that clear | Donald Trump | The Guardian

Wilful ignorance of facts on Chinese investment is cheap politics – Michael West

Photo of Chinese flag flying over Parliament House, Canberra

Fears of China buying up the country run deep, with opportunistic politicians and commentators long showing a willingness to not let “facts” get in the way of the truth. And the facts are that: China’s land interests are predominantly leasehold, it owns just 2% of foreign investment stock and is subject to a much lower threshold test. With the Australia-China relationship at a low ebb, it is time to call out this destructive tactic, writes James Laurenceson.

via Wilful ignorance of facts on Chinese investment is cheap politics – Michael West

Belgium removes statue of King Leopold II in wake of Black Lives Matter movement – ABC News

A bust of Belgium's King Leopold II, is hoisted off of its plinth by a crane as it's removed from a park in Ghent, Belgium.

via Belgium removes statue of King Leopold II in wake of Black Lives Matter movement – ABC News

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Chaotic world order and rising tensions with Beijing push Scott Morrison to overcome fear of ‘negative globalism’ | Australian politics | The Guardian

Parliament House is seen behind an Australian and a Chinese flag in Canberra, Australia, 23 March 2017 (reissued 25 November 2019)

But Morrison went further. He presented his disdain for summitry not only as a personal foible but also as a reflection of his worldview – his belief that international bodies and gatherings should be mistrusted and that they threaten to undercut the nation’s independence and interests. Morrison rejected what he labelled “negative globalism” and warned that Australia must tread warily to avoid being dictated to by an “unaccountable internationalist bureaucracy”.
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But this was before the Covid-19 pandemic. Never mind Climate Change

via Chaotic world order and rising tensions with Beijing push Scott Morrison to overcome fear of ‘negative globalism’ | Australian politics | The Guardian

The Kafkaesque Imperium: Julian Assange and the Second Superseding Indictment – » The Australian Independent Media Network

America is the New China and China is rapidly becoming the New America (ODT)

Assange’s stance on information, and his encouragement to the young to rush into the ranks of the Central Intelligence Agency, is taken as an exhortation of bad faith, encouraging the theft of classified information and the ruination of secrecy. A better reading of this, urges Gosztola, is to see this as a call “to young people to help the public address a crisis of corruption in government by forcing transparency at a time when the government abuses the classified information system to conceal waste, fraud, abuse, and other illegal actions.”

The new indictment has made something of a mockery of the London extradition proceedings. Judge Vanessa Baraitser conceded to being informed of the superseding document by email, but still awaits its official receipt. Prosecution barrister Joel Smith merely remarked that both parties were still pouring over its contents and implications. “If we need to involve the court … then we will inform the court at the appropriate time.” Summers was less sanguine, suggesting that the expansive larding of the new indictment would affect future management hearings. “This shows,” stated Hrafnsson, “how they are abusing due process in the UK and flaunting the legal system’s rules.”

via The Kafkaesque Imperium: Julian Assange and the Second Superseding Indictment – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Is this another JobKeeper bungle?

After an initial $60 billion bungle, the JobKeeper figures still don’t seem to be adding up. Tarric Brooker reports.

AS THE CLOCK ticks down toward the conclusion of the Morrison Government’s JobKeeper program – now less than three months away – figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) have raised further questions about how many workers are actually being covered by the policy.

via Is this another JobKeeper bungle?

Old Dog Thoughts- Egocentrics are junkies for an attention hit,

Fighting Fake News with REAL 1/7/20; Humour , A Rat comes to the Cheese;

Donald Trump Is a Very Dumb Man

The male version of Sarah Palin has arrived (ODT)

John Bolton’s absurd, self-aggrandizing new book reveals a shocking secret: Donald Trump knows next to nothing about Africa. The continent is better off without his ignorant meddling.

via Donald Trump Is a Very Dumb Man

Trump on FUX TV Touts Long-shot, Can’t-lose Gambit: ‘How to Overcome a Rigged, Corrupt Election? Just Trump It.’ | The Smirking Chimp

via Trump on FUX TV Touts Long-shot, Can’t-lose Gambit: ‘How to Overcome a Rigged, Corrupt Election? Just Trump It.’ | The Smirking Chimp

The Covid-BLM Diversion; “Shock Therapy” behind a smokescreen of hysteria and racial incitement, by Mike Whitney – The Unz Review

This is precisely right. The country has been deliberately plunged into another Great Depression with the clear intention of imposing harsh austerity measures that will eviscerate Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and any other social safteynet programs that benefit ordinary working people, retirees, or anyone else for that matter. None of it is random, spontaneous or spur-of-the-moment policymaking. It’s all drawn from a centuries-old Imperial Playbook that’s being used by scheming elites to implement their final plan for America: Tear down the statues, destroy the icons and symbols, rewrite the history, crush the populist resistance, create a permanent underclass that will work for pennies on the dollar, pit one group against the other by inciting racial hatred, political polarization and fratricidal warfare, promote the vandals who burn and loot our cities, attack anyone who speaks the truth, and offer unlimited support to the party that has aligned itself with the corrupt Intel agencies, the traitorous media, the sinister deep state, and the tyrannical elites who are determined to control the all the levers of state power and crush anyone who gets in their way.

via The Covid-BLM Diversion; “Shock Therapy” behind a smokescreen of hysteria and racial incitement, by Mike Whitney – The Unz Review

Delisting Chinese Firms From US Exchanges – Stephen Lendman

Trumpism and the drag on a nation(ODT

According to commander of US Naval Forces in Europe, Africa, and NATO’s Allied Joint Force Command Admiral James Foggo:

“NATO can no longer ignore China’s activities in Europe.” Citing no credible evidence, he falsely claimed Beijing aims to undermine the international rules-based order.

Claiming as well that it maintained peace throughout the post-WW II era ignored endless US preemptive wars against invented enemies.

Is US conflict with China inevitable — given the country’s growing prominence on the world stage while the US declines?

China pursues cooperative relations with other countries. So do Russia, Iran, and other nations the US is hostile toward.

Washington’s drive for unchallenged dominance risks unthinkable nuclear war if it pushes things too far against nations able to hit back hard in self-defense if attacked.

via Delisting Chinese Firms From US Exchanges – Stephen Lendman

Why is this ongoing American ‘revolution’ bound to fail?

The outrage over the brutal police killing propelled millions of people to the streets. The mood has been truly rebellious, revolutionary, geared for big changes.

But then, nothing!

Revolution is being postponed. Opportunities lost. Postpone by how many years?

The truth is – there are no shortcuts. Those who sincerely want to change the United States will have to follow the revolutionary formula from other countries. The formula is mainly based on education, knowledge, and determined, selfless work for the country and the world, called “internationalism.”

Unless the US comes up with an absolutely new strategy, formula, but right now, frankly, it seems to be extremely far from coming up with it!

via Why is this ongoing American ‘revolution’ bound to fail?

US Republicans begin to break ranks with Trump on face mask issue | Coronavirus pandemic News | Al Jazeera

US House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a Republican from California, wears a mask as he leaves following a press conference in Washington, DC, the United States [File: Saul Loeb, AFP]

via US Republicans begin to break ranks with Trump on face mask issue | Coronavirus pandemic News | Al Jazeera

Defund the CEOs | The Smirking Chimp

In 2018, 50 major U.S. corporations paid their top execs over 1,000 times what they paid their most typical workers.

We could do bolder still. We could deny government contracts and subsidies to corporations with wide gaps between executive and worker pay. Our tax dollars should not subsidize — in any way — the exploitation of working people.

Or as an excellent New York Times analysis has just put it: “For the voices of workers to be heard, the influence of the wealthy must be curbed.”

via Defund the CEOs | The Smirking Chimp

Revisiting failed climate strategy of CCS renders investors speechless – Michael West

drawing of two dirty coal-fired power stations

Carbon capture and storage, the prohibitively expensive climate mitigation strategy, is back on the Coalition’s agenda. Yet the facts speak for themselves. Of Shell’s total emissions of 656 million tonnes a year, its two CCS plants remove just 5 million tonnes a year from the atmosphere; the few plants in the world only exist because of huge government subsidies; while European oil companies use CCS primarily as a “feel-good” marketing message. Tim Buckley and Clark Butler report.

via Revisiting failed climate strategy of CCS renders investors speechless – Michael West

Australia China relations doomed to fail because of our ignorance:

via Australia China relations doomed to fail because of our ignorance:

Morrison morphs into ‘Strict Father’ mode – » The Australian Independent Media Network

In accepting Morrison’s ‘Strict Father’ behaviour, we are also accepting his judgement, which in turn is predicated on his political ideologies and his belief system. To expect the electorate to accept unthinkingly his decisions on this basis is a big call.

What are you prepared to accept from our national leader?

via Morrison morphs into ‘Strict Father’ mode – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Old Dog Thoughts- The acceleration and desperation of Private Media’s role is the 2020 Massage

Fighting Fake News with REAL 30/6/20. Australians in Trumpsville; Private schools; Humour;

Donald Trump’s re-election playbook: 25 ways he’ll lie, cheat and abuse his power | Opinion | The Guardian

Donald Trump listens during a meeting in the East Room at the White House.

via Donald Trump’s re-election playbook: 25 ways he’ll lie, cheat and abuse his power | Opinion | The Guardian

Free speech in the US is as illusory as free-range eggs there – neither really exists — RT Op-ed

Free speech in the US is as illusory as free-range eggs there – neither really exists

via Free speech in the US is as illusory as free-range eggs there – neither really exists — RT Op-ed

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