If there ever was an issue where erring on the side of caution is preferable to the alternative, it is global warming. Donald Trump, whether he and his sycophants want to acknowledge it or not, already has blood on his hands created by his racist rhetoric. Will his “grand finale” be a legacy that results in the deaths of millions?
GREED. Too many lifestyles, particularly of the wealthy, are driven not by what they can leave for the future, but how much profit they can make today; therefore, any laws that impede their greed are anathema.
And for those who believe that America’s so-called “leaders” will do what the greedy and corrupt will not: FORGET IT. In addition to Trump seeking to obliterate climate change from the nation’s, and world’s, consciousness, several rulings by America’s corrupt and politicized Supreme Court have ensured that, for decades to come, plutocrats and corporations will be able to buy and sell politicians like trading cards.
Author: peterimrich
– July was the hottest month ever recorded, i.e. the hottest since about 1850 when scientific records began being kept around the world using modern thermometers. So writes Chelsea Harvey at Climate Wire via The Scientific American.
July was more than 1 degree Fahrenheit warmer than the late 20th century average. That is huge. Enormous. The surface temperature of the earth includes Antarctica and the oceans (which are deep and cold). To get an average rise of a whole degree means that some places on land are 15 degrees warmer. Some places on land were already 110 F. in July, so adding any increase at all is a severe health risk to people who live there.
Our Government has enacted so much legislation and specific committees to ensure they are never blamed for any wrongdoing. It’s not wrong if previous corruption is now legal. If an “Opposition” doesn’t provide headlines, how will media give punters a heads up as to how our nation’s taxpayers are being taken for a ride?
Think about it, below are just three examples that do not pass the pub test.
Cushy jobs with big business dealing with Government
Mutual obligation only goes one way
Sorry, I’ll ‘fess up and fix that paperwork
There are many more examples of rules for us and none for them. Worse, we are not even being informed as to how unaccountable and above the law these people in Government are. Kenneth Hayne is spot on saying trust in politics has “been destroyed”, worse, most of us are not even aware of just how secretive and unaccountable our Federal Government is.
via Our politicians have become an unaccountable ruling class
Death by Trump (ODT)
Before he was deported, Jimmy Aldaoud had never stepped foot in Iraq. Born in Greece to Iraqi refugee parents, he immigrated to the United States with his family via a refugee resettlement program 40 years ago, when he was just 15 months old. He considered himself American and knew hardly anything of Iraqi society. Still, on the afternoon of June 4, he found himself wandering the arrivals terminal of Al Najaf International Airport, about 100 miles south of Baghdad, with around $50, some insulin for his diabetes, and the clothes on his back.
The biggest snakes in the room were the number of Rupert Murdoch affiliated employee from the UK,USA and Australia that not just made up the speakers but also the attendees in the room along with the members of the the LNP IPA and Menzies Center. This is a nest of vipers united globally by a toxic and fascist media organisation run by Rupert Murdoch. (ODT)
As far as hiding snakes go Farage admitted to hiding “Asked if it (CPAC) is a nationalist movement, Mr Farage said he preferred the term “nationist”, given the ugly connotations of “nationalist”.
Nigel Farage won the largest burst of applause of the morning at a conservative political conference in Sydney on Saturday for describing Malcolm Turnbull as a “snake” who had “hijacked” the Liberal Party.
Mr Farage, leader of Britain’s Brexit Party and formerly leader of the UK Independence Party, was at the second day of the inaugural CPAC Australia, organised as the first local partnership of the powerful annual Conservative Political Conference in the United States. He said the event, set to return next year, was evidence that the broad conservative movement he represents was rising around the world.
thervia Nigel Farage calls Turnbull a ‘snake’ at conservative talk fest
Rather than speak out, these departing Republicans have chosen to flee. Had they spoken up earlier like Rep. Hurd and offered any sort of collective resistance to Trump’s white supremacist policies, the situation we find ourselves in might not be as dangerously wretched.
Of course, they didn’t resist. Soon they will be gone, and we will all be the better for it.
via A Wave of Trump-Fueled Republican Retirements Puts Texas in Play | The Smirking Chimp
No need to accelerate to renewables Trump will save us (ODT)
And our government is negotiating to purchase the right to some of the US stockpile, which will remain in the salt domes until we call for it to be sent our way on ships, assuming they can get here in time.
In short, if things get a bit more tricky, our choice will be panic buying at the pumps, or going cap in hand to Trump, who cares about nothing but a sweet deal … for him.
You can bet he’ll want a lot more than a pound of flesh – or the Australian military on Iran’s borders – in return.
Anyone got any old skates? It was simpler then.
Panic buying? Begging Trump for oil? No worries. She’ll be right
“I am concerned because we hear speeches that resemble those of Hitler in 1934,” he said. ” ‘Us first. We . . . We. . . . ‘ These are frightening thoughts.”
It is not the first time the pontiff has made such remarks, but his comments published on Friday came as Italy’s populist government appeared to be on the verge of collapse.
On Thursday, Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, the most powerful politician in Italy, called for parliament to be dissolved and asked President Sergio Mattarella to order snap elections that could make Italy’s government lean even further right.
via Pope Francis says recent political speeches sound like ‘Hitler in 1934’
We are in unexplored territory in predicting what is to come, because we have a welded-on belief that we can predict the future based on the past. But examination of weather patterns since the Industrial Revolution makes it quite obvious that the pattern is now continually and more rapidly changing as the years go by, with severe weather events occurring increasingly in both frequency and severity.
Anyone who cannot accept that the whole world needs to take action is living in a fool’s paradise – or doesn’t give a damn about future generations of life on earth!
via Destruction and disaster are the consequences of delay – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Christchurch shooting accused Brenton Tarrant’s path to white-bred terrorism
In an Australian town population of less than 20,000, Grafton skews a little older, a little poorer and significantly whiter than is the average for Australia, with 87 per cent of its residents born in the country.population of less than 20,000,
Tarrant became influenced by the ultra-right cultural messaging found on social media and even the legitimate world ” The virus that exists needs to be distinguished from those fully infected by it. Andrew Bolt is certainly a carrier and influencer
Bannon told American journalist Joshua Green, author of the book Devil’s Bargain. “… You can activate that army. They come in through GamerGate or whatever and then get turned on to politics and Trump.” In Australia the likes of the UPF and Reclaim Australia spring to mind.
One rich topic of discussion by their infected racist members is “replacement theory”; the Identitarian notion of “white” displacement by our Immigration policies. In its American guise, the “invaders” are characterised as either Latin American or Muslim. The type of ideas promoted in Australia by the likes of Andrew Bolt against Muslims, Africans who makes people like Lauren Southern welcome in Australia and defends her Identarian and Replacement Theory conspiracies.
“clues about how his( Tarrant) politics were developing, and how his online and real-life travels were converging. In 2016, he commented on Facebook with a post in support of Blair Cottrell, the Australian who led the anti-Islam white nationalist United Patriots Front (UPF). Bolt constantly provided legitimacy to these promoters of division and hate telling Australia like Trump that their movements were filled with “nice people”, and he still does it regularly inviting them on his shows and speaking of them as if they were true “patriots”. Antifa is the real enemy, according to Bolt in his otherwise wholesome White Western and Christian Australia. “Communists will get what communists get, I would love to be there holding one end of the rope when you get yours, traitor,” he wrote to Cottrell’s critics. Cottrell later told the ABC that he didn’t know Tarrant, but confirmed the UPF had received a donation from someone in that name.” Like-minded thinkers, it would seem.
After Barcelona Bolt reflected and called to arms Christians who he called “gutless” lacked the conviction of the suicidal jihadis to fight back. A conviction he wrote and said in many ways he admired. In the likes of the UPF and other groups ready to fight back. All these were soundbites put out in the Murdoch Press and Sky News politicising and defining what is normal in Australia. Bolt promoted “shitposting in the form of Milo, Cartoonist Bill Leek, and as Tarrant said ” “For now we appeal to the anger and the black comedic nature of the present, but eventually we will need to show the warmth and genuine love we have for our people.”. Bolt certainly tried out his own efforts publicly when he mocked the likes of the South Sudanese for running a community Beauty Contest on an IPA podcast. Or his the defence of those that calling Adam Goodes an Ape. For, Bolt it was just a good old Aussie joke no harm intended. But in, fact it is part of the racist virus that had totally infected Tarrant, and a contagion Bolt carried and helped spread. Yes, like Trump, he’s a Racist who influences and provides the fertile ground for some to become fully infected.
It’s not as if it wasn’t recognised either, because Bolt was after all convicted under our RDA Act Section 18&19 and found guilty of racial vilification. Bolt might not be as infected to the degree that the Christchurch shooter was, but he’s undoubtedly a carrier that helps spread that contagion.
Others like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez couldn’t explain it more clearly We shouldn’t ask is Trump a Racist? Is Bolt one and is News Corp a Racist organisation? They all are and carriers spreading the disease.
‘I don’t want to hear the question ‘is this president racist?’ anymore. He is.’ — @AOC held nothing back while condemning Trump for using the language of white supremacy
“There is a difference between white supremacists & white supremacy. White supremacy is like a virus. Supremacists are those who have been completely overcome by the disease, but supremacy – the virus – exists on a larger scale beyond just the infected. It also lays dormant.
White supremacy is often subconscious. & Clearly, our nation has not been inoculated. WS is our nation’s original sin; the driving logic of slavery, of Native genocide, of Jim Crow, of segregation, of mass incarceration, of “Send Her Back.” It never went away.
Healing ourselves of white supremacy will be hard. It will be hard because it requires us to confront *ourselves.* We wish it were as simple as denouncing a white hood, a burnt cross, vile language. But we need to address where supremacy *begins,* not just where it ends.
Perhaps more than the obvious last steps of the supremacist, we must examine the nuance of their first steps. That is a painful inquiry, bc for many, we may see familiarity in those first steps. And that familiarity is very difficult to see + admit. We’d rather not talk about it.
Recognizing white supremacy in ourselves – our institutions, our subconscious, our own past remarks or acts (no matter how consciously unintentional), is what makes the healing work ahead challenging. But it is not impossible, and confronting it is the only way to move forward.
What this moment is asking of us is to discuss *white supremacy and racism* as much – or possibly more than – *white supremacists and racists.* When we do that, I believe we will start to make progress.
But it is incredibly important that we recognize that perfectly normal, good people are capable of aiding racism & white supremacy. Recognizing that it is not about pillorying people. It’s about learning to recognize *the virus* & end an oppressive system designed to hurt us *all.*”
Australians in their somewhat laconic fashion voted to give arguably the worst government in its history another term in office. Little did they know that it would continue carrying its baggage around with it like lost passengers at a domestic baggage terminal.
When you take a look at the current load of baggage it is carrying you realise that nothing has changed. Their propensity for stuffing things up compares with not being able to find one’s car at the Melbourne airport and then not being able to afford the car parking.
via The weight of so much baggage – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Frydenberg told a deliberate porky to Parliament because there is no way – unless he is a compete dill, which he is not – that he did not see the same documents as Tony Magrathea before he put pen to paper.
So he knew about these when he completed his Qualification Checklist.
Lawyer Trevor Poulton threatened to bring an s44 challenge to Josh’s eligibility on the grounds that, because Frydenberg’s mother was a Hungarian citizen, Josh might have a right to Hungarian privileges. Fair question.
Well, our PM went ballistic, spitting righteous indignation from every orifice in his head plus one:
“I’ll tell you what it’s a time to draw a line on, and it’s anti-Semitism. I mean, the scourge of anti-Semitic graffiti that we’ve seen in Melbourne just this year, it is absolutely sickening and disgraceful. And for a Holocaust denier and an anti-Semite to seek to progress that agenda by pretending to have some sort of constitutional purity on Josh Frydenberg, I’m just going to call it out for what it is. And I think Australians… I think they would share that. Anti-Semitism has no place in this country.”
Poor old Trev once wrote a book titled ‘The Holocaust Denier’. I haven’t read it and I doubt the tongue-speaker in chief has either. A flick through the Amazon review indicates there is no actual denying going on apart from a character who is a denier. And I’m not talking fabric weight.
Morrison’s indignation is a total furphy.
Frydenberg misled Parliament.
China Isn’t Russia it is an example of what Social Engineering cand acomplish in in just 70 years for 1.3 billion people. It’s passing the USA on it’s way up while Trump is pushing the buttons and heading down. (ODT)
Neoliberalism Has Met Its Match in China | The Smirking Chimp
Trump is an inveterate liar, having told thousands and thousands of lies during his 2.5 years in office.
One of the things he has repeatedly lied about is El Paso.
In his State of the Union address, Robert Moore wrote for Texasmonthly.com, Trump alleged that El Paso had been one of the worst cities in the US for crime but that since the partial border wall built in 2008-2010 it had abruptly become safe:
“The border city of El Paso, Texas, used to have extremely high rates of violent crime—one of the highest in the country, and (was) considered one of our nation’s most dangerous cities. Now, with a powerful barrier in place, El Paso is one of our safest cities.”
Rep. Veronica Escobar tweeted out newspaper headlines from 20 years ago touting El Paso as the third safest city in the US:
The year 2000 was eight years before the wall started being built.
Moore points out that border towns across the US have low crime rates, exactly the opposite of what Trump would expect.
By depicting El Paso as crime infested when Mexicans were supposedly unconstrained by a wall, Trump implied that Mexicans are criminals, bringing their crime over the border.
In other words, their commerce itself is undesirable.
That’s rhetorical economic terrorism. But then some young man heard the words and took them to heart and implemented them. That is White al-Qaeda.
via White al-Qaeda, Trump and Economic Terrorism against El Paso
The GOP’s criticism of Twitter comes as Trump and McConnell are being pressured to endorse gun control measures after last weekend’s mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Canton, Ohio, that left 31 people dead.
Trump’s denigration of minorities and immigrants has prompted many to blame him for contributing to an anti-immigrant atmosphere.
McConnell has long led Republican efforts in the Senate to stifle gun control proposals and is resisting Democrats’ cries to interrupt Congress’ recess and approve new restrictions.
Republicans halt Twitter spending after platform locks McConnell account
and
Texas, mid El Paso grief, is about to loosen gun laws
Writing in The Atlantic, David Graham reminds us that Obama is still presidential, Trump is all a President shouldn’t be:
” … whilst Trump’s efforts at consoling and uniting are intermittent and clumsy, it feels as though the role of president is vacant, and Obama is sliding right back into it by habit—his and the nation’s.”
The President alluded to the mental illness of the shooters. Obama had legislated to prevent anyone with a history of mental illness from purchasing guns. Trump reinstated it. Why did he do so?
Read carefully Obama’s language as it condemns Trump’s racial and ethnic hatred and violence without naming him.
“We should soundly reject language coming out of the mouths of any of our leaders that feeds a climate of fear and hatred or normalizes racist sentiments; leaders who demonize those who don’t look like us, or suggest that other people, including immigrants, threaten our way of life, or refer to other people as sub-human, or imply that America belongs to just one certain type of people.”
Indeed it is masterly prose from a former president walking a fine line between condemnation and occupying a place above it.
America is a huge and complicated country. Its success has been born of the annihilation of one race and the enslavement of another.
It goes without saying that they would be a greater nation with more men like Obama … and less like Trump.
via Mass murder: The prose of a president past – » The Australian Independent Media Network
From Trump: In a 1991 book by John O’Donnell, former president of Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, he quotes Trump as saying: “Black guys counting my money! I hate it. The only kind of people I want counting my money are short guys that wear yarmulkes every day. … I think that the guy is lazy. And it’s probably not his fault, because laziness is a trait in blacks. It really is, I believe that. It’s not anything they can control.” Trump at first denied the remarks, but later said in a 1997 Playboy interview that “the stuff O’Donnell wrote about me is probably true.”
via Racism Unconstrained: The Life and Times of Donald Trump | The Smirking Chimp
This is an Invasion (ODT)
via Netanyahu pledges to build more illegal settlements after teen killed | The Electronic Intifada
Just Cloning Around (OTD)
Much has been written about Andrew Hastie’s idiotic comments this week comparing the rise of China to that of Nazi Germany. Having James Patterson come out in support just added to the Nazi theme with his unnerving likeness to the stereotypical Hitler Youth image.
Tony thinks Jesus is still top dog, backed up by the military might of the English-speaking Judeo-Christian Western world crusaders.
Scott Morrison’s foray into the matter was not helpful when he relegated China to “customer” status.
And they wonder why our relationship with China is at an “all-time low”.
BRITAIN NOW HAS the most far-Right Government in its history with the ascension of Boris Johnson to Prime Minister. Johnson is the epitome of a Monty Python, upper-class twit but with more than a touch of thuggish bully. The UK press has given Johnson the moniker “BoJo” which is frighteningly similar to the moniker given to our very own far-Right ScoMo.
However, the similarities between Morrison and Johnson’s rise to the top go a lot further — both are part of a drive to install far-Right governments to advance the interests of U.S. imperialism. In both cases, the Murdoch press played a significant role in destabilising their predecessors.
Journalist Anthony Hilton claims Murdoch explained he was so opposed to the EU because:
“When I go into Downing Street they do what I say; when I go to Brussels they take no notice.”
A faction of the U.S. ruling class has decided the answer to the connected crisis of a struggling economy and rising social inequality domestically and declining power abroad is fascism. They are now attempting to reorganise the world to achieve this goal.
via ScoMo to BoJo — how the U.S. far Right is reshaping the world
AOC is right White Supremecy is a virus that exists in the US not everyone has caught it. White Supremacists have and we should stop asking if Trum is one. He has fully contracted the disease as has Tucker Carlson and Fox News, (ODT)
if they held “witnessing whiteness workshop” in their hometowns, Carlson called on his guest “to be honest and make a negative generalization about any other racial or ethnic group” besides white people.
June 18, 2018: Carlson accused people speaking up against the government detaining children in cages at the border of just wanting to “change your country forever.” Carlson also dismissed criticisms against Trump’s family separation policy, arguing that the costs of immigration are “entirely on you” and if you complain about it “they will call you ‘Hitler.’”
July 5, 2018: While criticizing a Congolese immigrant for protesting Trump’s policies, Carls
via Tucker Carlson’s descent into white supremacy: A timeline | Media Matters for America
There is a growing tendency among both Jews and non-Jews to label those with whom they have profound political differences, especially on the subject of Israel-Palestine, as antisemitic. The accusation is a severe one: in most countries in the West, antisemitism is considered a taboo, and the identification of a person or organization with antisemitism often renders them illegitimate in the public arena.
via Distorting the definition of antisemitism to shield Israel from all criticism | +972 Magazine
Where is that multi million $$ going to be spent? (ODT)
Mining giant BHP is facing renewed pressure to abandon its membership of the Minerals Council of Australia after it was revealed the lobby group is directly involved in an upcoming multimillion-dollar pro-coal advertising blitz.
BHP faces fresh calls to quit Minerals Council ahead of pro-coal ad blitz | Business | The Guardian
.
After Donald Trump accused Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of “trafficking in vicious anti-Semitic screeds” at a rally in North Carolina, the crowd erupted in the chant “Send her back! Send her back! Send her back!” Trump later claimed he did not agree with the chants and that he had tried to cut them short. A tape of the event, however, makes clear that this was a lie. Moreover, Trump refused to retract the racist tweets that set in motion this frenzied mass expression of racism by renewing his call for the four Congresswomen he attacked to leave the country if they do not embrace his worldview of patriotism and American exceptionalism. In fact, he mentioned to reporters that he was “enjoying” the latest controversy over his comments, which have drawn international condemnation.” This was a spectacle that had the markings not only of a current white nationalist rally but also echoes of the hate-filled spectacles that took place in Germany and Italy in the 1930s and 1940s.
He’s now denying any of it on Twitter employing his two word slogan Fake News (ODT)
President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign has harnessed Facebook advertising to push the idea of an “invasion” at the southern border, amplifying the fear-inducing language about immigrants that he has also voiced at campaign rallies and on Twitter.
“We don’t have a country right now,” he said in footage shown in one ad. “We have people pouring in, they’re pouring in, and they’re doing tremendous damage.”
He seized on the “invasion” imagery again in the run-up to the 2018 midterm elections, when he claimed without evidence that a caravan of migrants making its way north toward the border had been infiltrated by “criminals and unknown Middle Easterners.”
via Trump campaign uses Facebook ads to amplify his ‘invasion’ claim
This new turn toward nationalism among American conservatives is troubling for reasons other than its implicit indictment of rootless cosmopolitanism. Right now Muslims, the LGBTQ community, and the undocumented are certainly more vulnerable to Trump’s attacks than American Jews. Trump is telling prominent people of color in Congress — not prominent Jewish politicians — to “go home.” The intended audiences for these messages can interpret the rhetoric according to their favorite intolerance: racism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, xenophobia.
But the assault on globalists, on the elite, on financiers like George Soros all push in the same direction: against the internationalism that is in such short supply when it is needed the most.
It completely baffles me that the politicians of America, most notably President Trump, can’t see that things are far beyond the point of being out of control. I get it — the NRA has the White House in their grasp and as long as Trump keeps sending those thoughts and prayers, everything will be okay. But how much does the world have to take before enough is enough? And yes, I realise this is largely an American problem, but it still affects all of us around the world, that our own human race can turn on one another in such a violent way. It’s like America has become a troubled relative in need of a serious intervention.
The Trumpster handbook is the NRA Trump isn’t original he is a reflection of his voters (ODT)
In the aftermath of Saturday’s mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, President Donald Trump has been widely criticized for spreading hateful anti-immigrant hysteria. The blame is well earned, but Trump is not alone. For years, the National Rifle Association has pushed the false narrative that law-abiding Americans are in danger from an invasion of violent foreigners crossing into the country from Mexico. The only way to protect yourself and your family, the gun lobby warns, is to stock up on weapons and take responsibility for your own safety.
News Corp is taking us Back to the Future of the world of “Dole Bludgers” and a Labour Force that simply doesn’t want to work. (ODT)
The “job snobs” are back on the agenda.
With some in the Australian government’s own ranks arguing for a lift in the unemployment benefit, senior ministers appear to be upping the rhetoric about joblessness being a matter of choice for many.
“There are jobs out there for those who want them,” the federal minister for employment, Michaelia Cash, has told the Australian.
The Murdoch-owned newspaper published her comments in a front-page story on Monday that suggested Department of Employment research showed almost half of all employers were finding it difficult to hire workers due to “lack of interest” – or because applicants did not have adequate qualifications.
The article was vague on which issue was the bigger problem, but it led with the claim “job-seekers are actively snubbing work opportunities”.
Here are some other commentaries you may find informative: From Trump to Johnson, nationalists are on the rise – backed by billionaire oligarchs by George Monbiot; US ambassador: Trump likes Boris Johnson for ‘calling it as he sees it’ by Frances Perraudin; Why Bois Johnson’s lies and amorality could prove his undoing by Paul Mason; I was Boris Johnson’s boss; he is utterly unfit to be prime minister by Max Hastings; Boris Johnson’s braggadocio will soon come back to haunt him at Number 10 by Andrew Rawnsley; and Boris Johnson Faces a Swift and Bloody Nemesis by Roger Cohen.
Is your mind dizzying already? What should we do?
via Get used to the new world leadership – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Last year, when a rabid, anti-immigrant antisemite murdered 11 people in a Pittsburgh synagogue, I called it an act of domestic terrorism inspired by the ideology of Trumpism. The shooting took place during the height of the 2018 midterm campaign when Trump was inciting fear of an immigrant “caravan” from Central America. The shooter got the message. Hours before his bloody rampage, he accused a Jewish refugee support agency of bringing “invaders in that kill our people”.
Saturday in El Paso it was deja vu all over again.
olddogthoughts 
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