Author: peterimrich
Trump is not the cause of our divided nation. He is the symptom of a rigged system that was already dividing us. It’s not enough to defeat him. We must reform the system that got us here in the first place, to ensure that no future politician will ever again imitate Trump’s authoritarian demagoguery.
via Why Democrats Share the Blame for the Rise of Donald Trump | The Smirking Chimp
Trump’s Revenge John Bolton…. his unpublished book and what he might say between now and the election. (ODT
Trump wants to be a currency manipulator but can’t openly be one so he’s doing it indirectly by threatening more Tariffs . The 6 times bankrupt simply can’t be trusted isn’t respected and is leading America into a zone of even greater trade deficit. (ODT)
The new regulation would appear to be designed to give it more grounds to act to protect particular US companies or industries.
“U.S. farm bankruptcy rates jumped 20% in 2019 – to an eight-year high – as financial woes in the U.S. agricultural economy continued in spite of massive federal bail-out funding, according to federal court data.”
But Trump will tell you the Stock Market= America is booming (ODT)
via Filthy Rich: How America’s Unprecedented Inequality is Literally Killing Us
Even our talking points follow America these days how unoriginal are we? (ODT)
The opioid crisis: How Australia followed the US into a world of pain
The Coalition are the last party left standing against political donation reform, with Independent Senator Jacqui Lambie introducing a bill today that joins the reform pushes by the Greens, Labor, and Centre Alliance calling for greater transparency and disclosure of political donations.
via Dirty money is buying politics and party rooms – » The Australian Independent Media Network
One thing that gives me hope is the backlash against high-profile marketer, Russel Howcroft. Though not as culpable as those who deliberately misdirected scientific discussion, he helped Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s office improve the selling of its climate policies. This wasn’t a workshop to improve the policies – but to improve the spin.
So, to those that continue to misdirect and sow doubt over global heating, I ask, ‘are your pay cheques really worth it?’ And do you realise that by promoting the reputation of polluters you’re damaging your own personal reputations? In 10 years’ time having any link to coal or gas on your resume won’t be a good look.
The Public Relations Institute of Australia’s code of ethics states that members “shall not knowingly disseminate false or misleading information”. I suggest that any communications professional that positively represents fossil fuel interests is doing just that.
My fellow spin doctors, you’re going to regret spruiking fossil fuels
Dutton proves how simple he really is (ODT)
If what happens in courtrooms across the country to poor people of color is justice, what is happening in the Senate is a trial. If the blood-drenched debacles and endless quagmires in the Middle East are victories in the war on terror, our military is the greatest on earth. If the wholesale government surveillance of the public, the revoking of due process and having the world’s largest prison population are liberty, we are the land of the free. If the president, an inept, vulgar and corrupt con artist, is the leader of the free world, we are a beacon for democracy and our enemies hate us for our values. If Jesus came to make us rich, bless the annihilation of Muslims by our war machine and condemn homosexuality and abortion, we are a Christian nation. If formalizing an apartheid state in Israel is a peace plan, we are an honest international mediator. If a meritocracy means that three American men have more wealth than the bottom 50% of the U.S. population, we are the land of opportunity. If the torture of kidnapped victims in black sites and the ripping of children from their parents’ arms and their detention in fetid, overcrowded warehouses, along with the gunning down of unarmed citizens by militarized police in the streets of our urban communities, are the rule of law, we are an exemplar of human rights.
During recent increased US-Iran confrontation, so many people viewed the Selective Service website to find out about the draft that the website crashed. People were right to be concerned about a return of the draft.
“In Network’s 47-year history, we have never seen a Senate take absolutely no votes on issues of economic justice that could be scored on our Catholic Social Justice Voting Record.”
—Sister Simone Campbell, Network Lobby for Catholic
Australia’s government debt and the interest on that debt keep rising, despite Coalition denials. Alan Austin updates the record.
TREASURER JOSH FRYDENBERG has just increased both Federal gross debt and net debt to new all-time records.
This was revealed by Treasury and the Finance Department last Friday – just two days after Prime Minister Scott Morrison told the National Press Club that “going into 2020 the fundamentals of our economy are strong and in good shape”.
That speech was delivered just six weeks after Frydenberg announced to the world that “the Government is living within its means, paying down Labor’s debt”.
via Morrison Government breaks debt records in December — along with promises
While it is true, elimination of Australia’s 1.3% of global emissions won’t stop global climate change on its own, every little bit helps. Hugh Riminton points on the 10 Daily website
Our emissions, at less than two percent of global totals, will not be decisive in the fight. Therefore, it follows, we can change nothing. So let’s sprout new coal mines all over Queensland, and leave the issue to someone else.
And how gutless would that be?
In a nation that rightly reveres its ANZAC ideals, here’s a reminder: Australia has never beaten any deadly threat on our own.
We didn’t defeat Nazi Germany on our own.
But we did join the fight.
We didn’t defeat Japanese imperialism on our own.
But — by heaven — we were in the fight.
We did what we should be doing now. Seeking allies wherever we can find them, goading them into action, showing our willingness for the fight, and getting stuck in.
via Fiddling while Australia burns – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Liberal senator Jim Molan for his comments that he was “not relying on evidence” to form an opinion about climate change.
The Great Divider knows how to pit native-born Americans against immigrants, the working class against the poor, whites against blacks and Latinos, evangelicals against secularists, keeping almost everyone stirred up by vilifying, disparaging, denouncing, defaming and accusing others of the worst. Trump thrives off disruption and division.
But that begs the question of why we have been so ready to be divided by Trump. The answer derives in large part from what has happened to wealth and power.
via Why Democrats share the blame for the rise of Donald Trump | Robert Reich | Opinion | The Guardian
He remains in the Oval Office because almost every Republican senator preferred being in power to upholding the democratic principles upon which the US was founded.
In his letter to the Auditor General, Lawrence Gibbons said: “The establishment of a $48 million fund to assist local publishers was promising, but the allocation of funds into coalition-held seats in another blatant display of pork barreling was greatly troubling. Local media outlets are a vital cornerstone to a functioning democracy. They deserve better than to be treated with outright contempt and disregard.”
Former Senator Mitch Fifield is now Australia’s Ambassador to the UN. He did not respond to a request for comment.
via Press Rorts: media grants target Coalition seats – Michael West
So Clive James had various ways to attack the notion of Climate Change. He would deride and belittle those who speak up about IPCC science. He used bon mots or clever twists in language to make jokes about his opponents, who may not be more than political opponents. He approved of those who claim to be experts in scepticism, without bothering to verify them any more than he checked the claims of IPCC science. He asserted claims which were already debunked numerous times. He peppered his writing with historical names as if their name proves something. Far from affirming science, he affirmed denial.
via More Clive James: Climate Change Sceptic (Part 2) – » The Australian Independent Media Network
LNP Economic Management
In addition to some very serious problems with progress with the SEA 1000 program, there are some more fundamental questions to be addressed in the longer term. The first of these is whether the Attack class will embody the technologies required to be successful in its operations in the mid-2030s and beyond. In other words, will it be fit for purpose? An associated question is around the submarine’s cost effectiveness. The escalating cost of this acquisition means that the opportunity cost is also going up. With the submarines being designed mainly for joint operations with the US Navy, there are also significant risks in the future around whether a continuing US presence can be assumed.
via Scrap submarines project before it’s too late says former public service boss – Michael West
The government should also ban video surveillance analytics in publicly accessible spaces, perhaps with exceptions for rare cases such as the detection of bodies on train tracks. Such a ban would disincentivize mass camera deployments because video analytics is needed to analyze large volumes of footage. Courts should urgently reconsider the scope of the Fourth Amendment and expand our right to privacy in public.
Another bet from a famous conservative caught my eye last week. The Times of London, owned by Rupert Murdoch, announced plans to launch a radio station. It seems likely that Murdoch, whose new station will “target those disenfranchised” by the BBC, is continuing to bet heavily on political polarisation as a major force in media.
It’s also a bet on radio and a prediction that the conservative government will not be kind to the national broadcaster. (It will be interesting to see if Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison follows British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on this, though the ABC’s coverage of the bushfires has made that harder.)
It’s simply a case of giving the rich mo0ney and having the poor pay (ODT)
Standing next to Trump was Israel’s beaming Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who just got more land than his far-right, expansionist coalition had even dreamed of. It was not a coincidence that Trump had recently been accused of high crimes by the US House, while his buddy ‘Bibi’ had just been indicted for low crimes by Israel’s attorney general.
However, the real godfather in this historic theft was sitting almost unnoticed by media next to the presidential podium, looking very much the proverbial cat that swallowed the canary. Billionaire gambling mogul Sheldon Adelson and his wife beamed as their ‘boys’, Trump and Bibi, proclaimed their newly configured Mideast.
Close by was Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, a friend of the Netanyahu clan. Kushner’s father, Charles, served 14 months in federal prison for illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion, and witness tampering. Such is the milieu from which real estate developer Trump emerged.
via Trump/Bibi/Adelson Buy the Senate, by Eric Margolis – The Unz Review
How can Republicans pretend to the world that their vision of America – where a president can happily use military aid to coerce a foreign government to smear his political rival in an election – is the model for democracy?
Americans have become the doormats of their executive (ODT)
Grow Up Australia Wake Up! (ODT)
January 26 – ‘Australia Day’ – is a political project forced upon the nation by born-to-rulers. They want consensus for the wealth amassed through theft of Aboriginal peoples’ land and resources, and through the convict transportation system of slave labour. We will hear stories of triumphant ‘discovery’, and ‘progress’, but this couldn’t be further from the truth.
So decrepit was the first New South Wales colony that the military controlled all economic activity (the Rum Corps) – a beacon of reaction against even liberal capitalists across the world.
Why on earth did the flatpack colony set up here? Eight years prior to the Fleet’s arrival Captain Cook (the bloke we have memorials for across the country) was given urgent orders by London to find suitable land to establish a penal colony. After hundreds of years of wreaking absolute havoc on the peoples of England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland, British prisons were bursting at the seams.
Crime was a construction of the empire – a new and experimental time for creating systems of control. Political dissidents, peasants and workers attempting to defend themselves since the Enclosures and now facing violent industrialisation, were locked up in their thousands for crimes of theft, treason, riot, incitement, seditious libel and more.
via We’ll Never Advance Australia Fair Until We Face Our Black Past – New Matilda
Back to the days of cutting pigtails and yelling Two Wongs don’t make a White. We haven’t moved very far. (ODT)
Racial remarks, misinformation and fearmongering in workplaces, on public transport, and on social media.
via Chinese-Australians Facing Racism After Coronavirus Outbreak | HuffPost Australia
So don’t let the government get away with claiming that it can’t afford to pay for these services. Don’t allow it to laud the efforts of well-meaning, altruistic Australians without demanding an explanation of why the private altruism was necessary. We have a government for the purposes of providing healthcare, emergency management, social welfare and a host of other social provisions that we can’t do on our own. We expect our government to provide these services without fear or favour, to the needy regardless of how loud or visible they are.
If our government is not doing these things, it is not fit for purpose. So why exactly does it exist?
via Doing it for ourselves – » The Australian Independent Media Network
You can blame the LNP for denying what has come to pass (ODT)
Any notion of power for the Common Good has been tossed. (ODT)
The cynical logic goes like this: it’s in the country’s interest that you stay in power, so any means to achieve that end is justified
Fox Corp doesn’t need advertisers or subscribers they are indirectly subsidised. www.unfoxmycablebox.com
EVEN IF YOU
NEVER WATCH FOX NEWS
YOU’RE FUNDING THEIR PROGRAMMING#UNFOXMYCABLEBOXDue to the network’s toxic programming, advertisers have largely rejected Fox News. To date, Fox News has been able to ignore this advertiser exodus because it currently takes in approximately $1.8 billion annually in subscriber fees — well above industry averages for other networks.
While there are 90 million cable and satellite subscribers in the United States, Fox News averages just 3 million daily viewers at best. That means 87 million subscribers are being forced to subsidize a network they don’t watch and may not support.
“Trump’s defenders are saying that our Constitution does not apply to the powerful few.”
By Robert Lipsyte< Attorney General William Barr’s campaign to expand the powers of the presidency to unprecedented imperial levels has been misinterpreted as an attempt to raise Donald Trump to the level of his strongman heroes like Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un, and Jair Bolsonaro. Fake news! It’s really been an attempt to boost him into the same league with the strongman heroes of far too many American men: the head coaches of our major sports, especially football. As a gang of anti-democratic, anti-intellectual, authoritarian bullies dedicated to winning at any cost, they have paved the way for Donald Trump and his “base.”
If the American political class were interested in electing a decent president, perhaps even one with moral courage, personal dignity, and an inspirational vision, they would be concentrating on the character, philosophy, and background of the candidates, right? But since those in the political arena, at least brand Republican, are mostly concerned with donor dollars, expanding that base, and the charisma of their macho leader, many of them are all too ready to follow a big, loud, glad-handing figure eager to lead us deep into crises that he — and yes, it is a “he” — will claim only he can bulldoze through.
Source: ‘A Crisis for Democracy’: Senate Votes Against Hearing From Witnesses | Common Dreams News
This makes it hard to believe that the scolding from Alexander and his acolytes will matter a great deal, but it’s also hard to believe that anyone expected more. Alexander is not the hero that the impeachment process needed, nor perhaps even the one it deserved. But he is as close as anyone was going to get.
via Lamar Alexander Just Gave Democrats What They Wanted – The Atlantic
Australia’s answer to Margaret Thatcher. Appointing Anne Ruston as Families and Social Services Minister is up there with the sickest of cruel jokes.
At a forum with single mothers discussing being pushed into poverty, Senator Ruston dismissed the idea of raising Newstart in the most callous of ways.
“We can’t just keep on adding money to this bucket, because we’re not making a difference,” she said. “Giving (people) more money would do absolutely nothing … probably all it would do is give drug dealers more money and give pubs more money.”
“We’ve got to be fair to the people who pay for it.”
Holy shit Batman. Did she not realise who she was talking to?
via Anne Ruston – what a shocker – » The Australian Independent Media Network
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