Is Trump on his way to becoming America’s Dictator? Mussolini had a Party behind him prepared to tear up Italy’s Constitution. Hitler modelled himself on Mussolini. and both ensured the separation of powers were literally non existant. Interest and Social Darwinism is all that counted reason rationality and science were not required. Sounds like Trump to a tee. GOP has made every effort to take over the courts and fund the police and Military at every opportunity. (ODT)
On Wednesday evening, an associate of Trump’s private lawyer said on national television that Trump knew all about their schemes to push the president of Ukraine into announcing a sham investigation of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
And on Thursday morning, the Government Accountability Office announced that the White House broke the law when it withheld security assistance for Ukraine in that effort to pressure Ukraine into doing Trump’s bidding.
It’s the same thing Republicans have been saying for months, even though the White House only released the Ukraine aid after learning that someone from within the administration had filed a formal whistleblower complaint about the illegal holdup.
The interview and the implications of Republican lawmakers and Trump insiders mingling with shady figures at the hotel caused #TrumpHotel to trend on Twitter, especially after MSNBC analyst David Corn compared it to the cantina at Mos Eisley from the first “Star Wars” movie:
What if Rupert Murdoch’s legacy is not that of being labelled the “great climate change denier” but the man who told the world: “The planet deserves the benefit of the doubt.”
McKenzie is now Agriculture Minister and Deputy Leader of the National Party and her comments today fall into the categories of ;
that’s the way we always do things in the coalition. Otherwise how would we win ?
My career is going quite nicely, thank you. So please don’t rock the boat.
We should sack the National Office of Audit as they are clearly all Lefties
You all need to take a cold shower because we won the election : so there !
Are you from the ABC ?
So far, the Prime Minister hasn’t commented but in true Westminster fashion it is fully expected that he will sack McKenzie before the week is out … or perhaps not.
Just as we had gotten used to the fact that the president is, in effect, under congressional indictment, just as we had settled into a more or less stable stalemate over when (and if) the Senate will hold an impeachment trial, the president shook the snow globe again, by ordering the assassination of foreign military officials and threatening the destruction of Iran’s cultural sites. Nothing better than the promise of new war crimes to take the world’s attention away from a little thing like extorting a U.S. ally to help oneself get reelected.
There is no celebration in the act of 4 steps backwards which Trump initiated in the first place lying his tits off that tarriffs were an income producing policy. But then when the damage done was hurting moving 2 steps forward again to ease the pain and calling that a win.. That’s what Kim Jong un is an expert at. doing. Threatening, promising and then threatening again gaining regaining inches maybe but losing all respect the nation once had for being trusted. Republicans are doing it for themselves and not the country (ODT)
The US and China have declared an official truce in their two-year long trade war, signing a deal that will see the US reduce some tariffs and China purchase hundreds of billions of dollars worth of American goods and services.
US President Donald Trump and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He signed the “phase one” agreement at a ceremony at the White House on Wednesday morning (Thursday morning Australian time).
America and it partners 1) Don’t tell them what you’re doing when committing murder 2) tell them to jump and insist on how high. 3) if they don’t comply turn your backs. (ODT)
Human Rights of Catholic pederasts need to bo protected. but not all pederasts. Is this archbishop running a recruitment program for exclusion and division or an inclusive program for all Australians Australians. It’s time this country had a Bill of Rights? (ODT)
The state’s teachers, doctors, nurses, childcare workers and school principals already have to report crimes against children to authorities, but Archbishop Mark Coleridge says the laws would “limit and unjustly interfere” with the human rights of Catholics.
An example of the planet, the best of possible worlds the LNP government has been leading us into this century. (ODT)
The AQI hit 4,650 on New Year’s Day in Canberra, the capital city of Australia. That was the day that fires chased us home from the beach. When we got to our house, I stuffed paper towels in the crevices of the doors, but it was wasn’t enough. That night, I didn’t sleep. It was sweltering. And every breath tasted like sticky tar.
Moreover, there are basic questions such as why we are building inferior French-designed subs instead of leasing from the US; or why have we made ourselves more of a target for terrorists and the likes of Iran by having joined wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and now the US armada in the Straits of Hormuz; or why would we contemplate an additional “national guard” to handle disasters.
All this rather than assigning national disaster responsibilities to all three arms of the ADF – for transport and logistics, recovery programs, our own fleet of water-carrying aircraft.
Would it be too much to ask that we drop the “talking points” crap and actually tell the truth about the current situation so we can make a plan that actually reduces emissions without having to resort to accounting dodges and PR spin designed to make it look like you give a shit?
However it will have little or no impact on News Corp, Sky or Fox Corp (ODT)
Last week News Corp Australia commercial finance manager Emily Townsend told senior management she found it “unconscionable” to continue working for the company given she believed it had mislead readers about the cause of the bushfires sweeping across Australia.
James’ intervention shows that such concerns aren’t just held by some outspoken employees and left-wing critics on Twitter. They go to the very top of the Murdoch family tree.
The comments were a clear rebuke of James’ father Rupert, who insisted at News Corp’s annual general meeting in December: “There are no climate change deniers around I can assure you.”
For anyone who has read the opinion pages of News Corp publications or tuned into Fox News, it was a laughable statement – and one Mudoch’s second-eldest son refused to let go uncorrected.
For example, several recent News Corp articles highlighting the role of arsonists in causing bushfires have been used by prominent Fox News hosts to discredit the link between climate change and bushfires.
In an editorial last week The Australian said its bushfire reporting had been “wilfully and ineptly misrepresented by The New York Times and Guardian Australia as climate denial”.
The Bullshit Trump Spins is beyond belief he is a puppet because he hasn’t the IQ to have constructed this. The man does not READ (ODT)
the Bethlehem Doctrine is the formal policy position on assassination of Israel, the US and UK governments. So that is lie one. under which “imminent” is a “concept” which means neither “soon” nor “definitely going to happen”. To twist a word that far from its normal English usage is to lie. To do so to justify killing people is obscene. Furthermore the Bethlehem Doctrine specifically applies to “non-state actors”
Soleimani was a high official in Iran who was present in Iraq as a guest of the Iraqi government, to which the US government is allied. This greatly exacerbates the illegality of his assassination even further.
Let us now move on to the next lie, which is being widely repeated, this time originated by Donald Trump, that Soleimani was responsible for the “deaths of hundreds, if not thousands, of Americans”. if you take every American killed including and since 9/11, in the resultant Middle East related wars, conflicts and terrorist acts, well over 90% of them have been killed by Sunni Muslims financed and supported out of Saudi Arabia and its gulf satellites, and less than 10% of those Americans have been killed by Shia Muslims tied to Iran.
Soleimani actually was involved in intelligence and logistical cooperation with the United States in Afghanistan post 9/11 (the Taliban were his enemies too, the shia Tajiks being a key part of the US aligned Northern Alliance). He was in Iraq to fight ISIL.
WMD Scandal, Gulf of Tonkin Scandal, The Lying President Scandal 20,000 lies ago the scandals just keep coming and Fox Corp cleans the blackboard (ODT)
Witness to Corporate Crime committed in plain sight. America is a Fascist State when a Corporation can and does fly in the face of peoples elected governments no matter what their persuasion. Sending the message that the State is whatever the Corporations declare it to be. Justice and Equality are under Corporate control. (ODT)
The problem has been a relative small group of deniers have dominated policy as they did anti- Marriage Equality and we saw what happened there howerver they are still in play and we see their efforts to legislate laws for bigotry as opposed to equality. Strangely enough many are also science deniers and simply political opportunists who the current Australian leadership still pander to the API the most obvious and whose members media giants like News Corp, Sky and 2GB give a voice far louder than their true representation in the community. However we saw what happened in Warringah and the possibilities when the electorate isn’t distracted by economic bullshit and fear by the likes of a billionaires like Clive Palmer and Gina Rineheart with Coal interests next to Adani . (ODT)
When I had the privilege of serving as Australia’s minister for climate change, I had access to the leading scientists in Australia and internationally, the evidence and the analysis. That is what motivated me to legislate a comprehensive set of greenhouse gas emissions-reduction policies, including a carbon price. My objective was to respond to the climate science with policies that were environmentally effective, economically efficient and socially fair.
In Australian politics, a relatively small group of science-deniers and appallingly irresponsible political opportunists have successfully dominated the policy response to climate change in recent years. We all know who they are. In Australia’s national interest, in the interest of future generations, this group should be marginalised.
1) globally, by failing to take appropriate action on climate change, ranking 57 out of 57 countries on climate change policy, yet still defending Australia’s policies as acceptable, and
2) nationally, by failing to provide and implement national, long-term strategies for prevention, preparation, management and recovery for the growing incidence and severity of natural disasters linked to climate change.
The Government’s own reports, briefings and reports demonstrate it knew about the risks posed by lack of appropriate action to mitigate the consequences of climate change, and yet it did nothing tangible at all. The Morrison Government’s multiple failures, which have arguably contributed to the loss of life, homes, communities, wildlife and over 10 million hectares, must be seen as a gross act of negligence.
America has a history of lying to create the opportunity to invade and occupy countries who frankly don’t want them there (ODT)
The fingerprints of Pompeo are all over this provocation to war. In a striking parallel to the deception that accompanied the Gulf of Tonkin crisis in 1964—in which the American public was told about an attack on a U.S. ship that never happened, precipitating the Vietnam War—Pompeo and his allies carried out a complex deception in regard to the Soleimani hit. They claimed they had to kill the second most popular leader of Iran with no advance notice to Congress because the Iranian general was planning a massive attack that put the country in “imminent” danger. Trump officials have so far not provided any evidence publicly to back up this version of events. In fact, when briefed by DoD officials Wednesday, Democrats complained about the lack of hard evidence presented, leaving them unconvinced there was an imminent threat. Republican Sen. Rand Paul, R-KY., said the briefing was “less than satisfying.”
Donald Trump occasionally utters unspeakable truths. In March 2018 he called Bush Jr.’s decision to invade Iraq “the worst single mistake in US history.” Earlier, Trump had said that Bush should have been impeached for launching that disastrous war.
Yet on January 2 2020 Trump made a much bigger mistake: He launched all-out war with Iran—a war that will be joined by millions of anti-US non-Iranians, including Iraqis—by murdering Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the legendary hero who defeated ISIS, alongside the popular Iraqi commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. Gen. Soleimani was by far the most popular figure in Iran, where he polled over 80% popularity, and throughout much of the Middle East. He was also adored by millions even outside that region, non-Muslims as well as Muslims. Many Christians throughout the world loved Gen. Soleimani, whose campaign against ISIS saved the lives of thousands of their co-religionists. Even Sunni Muslims (the people, not the billionaire playboy sheikhs) generally loved and admired the Shia Muslim Gen. Soleimani, a saintly warrior-monk who was uncommonly spiritual, morally impeccable, and the most accomplished military genius of this young century.
There is no link between droughts and climate change is the argument posited by News Corp pundits like Andrew Bolt and the LNP government’s right wing who Morrison says has “no influence”. It’s the same argument put by Big Tobacco smoking and cancer that there is no direct link. But Kelly Morrison and News Corp pundits keep silent on that score and I’m sure don’t encourage their kids to smoke.
After 40+ years of scientific research the evidence is clear that there is a correlation between the rate rise of CO2 and global warming records. That warming has intensified lengthened and changed the nature of droughts and lengthened the fire danger periods changing the nature of the fuels readily burnt. Climate change has in fact significantly impacted the consequences experienced of the bushfires we see today. Predictions to this effect were made by climatologists more than 10 years ago ignored and scoffed at.
The biggest response in 2013 was heard by ex LNP PM Tony Abbott who said science of global warming was crap. Today we hear Scott Morrison declaring it’s no time for politics. We need to deal with the new reality and we are doing that but forget the cause. (ODT)
“There is no link, the facts that cause the fires are the drought and the drying of the environment,”
“I follow the science,” lies Craig Kelly, MP for Hughes, who lobs on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, a pulpit for Piers Morgan, a Daily Mirror, former editor, sacked in 2004, for publishing fake images purporting to show British soldiers torturing Iraqi prisoners.
Mr Budde said there was a case for regional and rural Australia to have fibre-optic cables.
“While that might be cost costly … I think on the other side, the social, economic benefits are as important, if not more important in situations like this,” he said.
The problem is: democracies can’t function properly if there isn’t a shared truth, no matter how broad, among the voting public.
And yes, the split in our shared reality didn’t happen overnight. It has eroded for years with the help a strident, polarising Murdoch media and talkback radio, much of which is spread widely online.
But social media’s ability to filter the facts, and experience, has accelerated this trend to a crisis level.
This is something being learned the hard way in the US, when life and death decisions are being taken on worldviews that are only half-shared within the nation.
Specifically, Mr Morrison wants the inquiry to examine three areas of climate policy: emissions, resilience and mitigation.
He would much prefer the debate focused on resilience and mitigation, nominating land clearing and dam construction as areas ripe for improvement.
These are worthy areas to examine, but largely relate to the symptoms of climate change. It’s just as important, if not more-so, to confront the cause.
There’s still no sign of any “historic change” from Mr Morrison on that front.
olddogthoughts 
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