Category: Informed Comment

Informed Comment

Tapping into the Trump self-destructive American poison

And for Australia?

Meanwhile, far away on an island continent blessed way beyond any deserving, the Guardian has published a humbling poll that alleges 33 per cent of Australians, if they were eligible, would vote for Trump compared with 41 per cent for Harris – a mere eight-point difference. 

Given the saturation coverage here of the election and, especially, Trump’s multitudinous legal, character and policy failings, not to mention his level of dingbat craziness that only Greg Sheridan could like, that is a bit of a worry about the direction of our own nation’s psyche. 

This is not to suggest Harris is a great candidate, just that Trump is so palpably bad that America is considered something of a worrying joke everywhere outside of Russia and amongst a third of Australians. 

Who knew the drive of the Murdochs’ Fox News business model could  reach so far? 

Tapping into the Trump self-destructive American poison

Informed Comment

Harris or Trump, does it really matter? Not for Blackrock 

Last month BlackRock announced its total assets under management reached $A17.6 trillion, up from $A13.9 trillion the previous year. Comparing this to global GDP, only the U.S. and China have economies larger than BlackRock’s assets; its assets are 6.4 times the value of Australia’s economy.

The fact that capital is running the U.S. has real impact on Australia, 25.1 percent of foreign investment in Australia comes from the U.S., by contrast China, our largest trading partner, accounts for a paltry 1.9 percent of foreign investment in Australia. 

Harris or Trump, does it really matter? Not for Blackrock 

Informed Comment

Regulators duck for cover as Australian media fails to correct “40 babies beheaded”

Michael West reports.Australia’s mainstream media continues to push the unfounded October 7 narrative of “babies beheaded” and “mass rapes” which gave rise to Israel’s extreme “collective punishment” in Gaza.

Regulators duck for cover as Australian media fails to correct “40 babies beheaded”

Informed Comment

Rex Patrick v Mark Dreyfus court battle a big win for political integrity
Rex Patrick v Mark Dreyfus court battle a big win for political integrity

Rex Patrick v Mark Dreyfus court battle a big win for political integrity

Informed Comment

The Deep State Influence on Global and Australian Politics

By Denis Hay

Description: Uncover how the deep state influence shapes global politics, including Australia’s policies, serving corporate and geopolitical interests. Introduction: The Shadowy World of the Deep State In a world where democracy is celebrated as the cornerstone of modern governance, the concept of a “deep state” challenges our most fundamental beliefs.

The Deep State Influence on Global and Australian Politics

The AIM Network

Informed Comment

How U.S. Influence Keeps Neoliberalism Alive in Australia
Renegotiate Trade Agreements

Australia must push to renegotiate trade agreements that lock in neoliberal principles. By removing provisions like ISDS clauses, Australia can regain control over its economic policies and introduce reforms that help its citizens rather than multinational corporations.

Challenge Military Spending

Australians can call for a reduction in defence spending, especially in areas that directly help the U.S. military-industrial complex. By reallocating these funds to healthcare, education, and social services, the government can begin to address the needs of its citizens instead of prioritizing foreign military

How U.S. Influence Keeps Neoliberalism Alive in Australia

Informed Comment

Notes From a Phoney Campaign: Catfight in Philly


+ With Harris, it sounds like we will get Cheney’s foreign policy, AIPAC’s Middle East policy, Goldman Sachs’ economic policy, and Exxon’s climate policy.


+ The one thing Harris could have done was use the debate to condemn the killing of Americans (if she can’t bring herself to condemn the killing of Palestinians) by Israeli forces and announce her support for an arms embargo. This is, of course, the one thing she would never risk doing (and didn’t).

Notes From a Phoney Campaign: Catfight in Philly

Informed Comment

Chris Hedges- Ultimate Betrayal
Informed Comment

Craig Murray: The End of Western Pluralist Democracy

The Five Eyes intelligence services are plainly building up Venn diagrams of the democratic opposition to Zionism and the neoliberal project.

No major Western leader is ever again going to be able to speak about human rights or ethical values, without attracting howls of derision. They are turning on their own people in order to prevent protest at a genocide they actively support.

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer stepped up the pressure on opponents of Zionist genocide last Thursday with the arrest of journalist Sarah Wilkinson and the charging of activist Richard Barnard, both under the draconian Section 12 of the Terrorism Act which carries a sentence of up to 14 years in prison.

The U.K. MSM has of course ignored these, but is universally carrying outrage at the conviction of two Hong Kong journalists for sedition, which carries a maximum sentence of … two years. 

But they tell us it is China and not the U.K. that is the authoritarian dictatorship.

Craig Murray: The End of Western Pluralist Democracy

September 3, 2024

Informed Comment

Chris Hedges Report: Roots of Mideast Conflict

Chris Hedges Report: Roots of Mideast Conflict

Informed Comment

Wellness as Tyranny: The Cult of Toxic Happiness

The cult of forced happiness acts as a conscious program to defang and dilute opposition, maligning critics who refuse to join the fascists of the grin, the authoritarians of the forcedsmiled. It stiffens the sinews of groupthink and discourages naysayers who wish to challenge organisational behaviour or correct errors. Whistleblowers worried about reporting corporate malfeasance or criminality in government organisations find themselves hounded and scolded for not being loyal in patriotic silence. They should have tasted wellness and its therapeutic properties. To be unhappy, it follows, is to be critical and dangerously free.

Wellness as Tyranny: The Cult of Toxic Happiness

Informed Comment

Tactical Paranoia: Peter Dutton’s Palestinian Problem

Tactical Paranoia: Peter Dutton’s Palestinian Problem

Informed Comment

SCOTT RITTER: The Murder of Others
An atomic cloud hangs over the Japanese city of Nagasaki after the US dropped the second nuclear bomb on the country.

August 13, 2024

The U.S. has had a moral obligation to commemorate Nagasaki, but this year the U.S. refused to mark its murder of innocent Japanese by defending its murder of innocent Palestinians.

SCOTT RITTER: The Murder of Others

Informed Comment

Caitlin Johnstone: US Escalates War On Dissent

The U.S. empire has been doing everything it can to restrict the flow of inconvenient information as public opposition to its criminality swells at home and abroad.

Caitlin Johnstone: US Escalates War On Dissent

August 10, 2024

Informed Comment, Uncategorized

AUKUS Revamped: The Complete Militarisation of Australia

AUKUS Revamped: The Complete Militarisation of Australia

Informed Comment

The ASIO Astrologers: Terror Threats and Radicalisation Down Under

Such addresses as those given by Burgess generate their own sinister code. That code promises further surveillance and control, a call for increased monitoring and cocooning of the Australian body politic and broader society from a wicked world. While ASIO is tub-thumping about the dangers of increased radicalisation, the absurdly named office of the e-Safety Commissioner wages war against the offending defilements of the Internet. With these officials in charge, the world will be made safe for censorship and docile thought.

The ASIO Astrologers: Terror Threats and Radicalisation Down Under

Informed Comment

Despite Monckton’s climate denial, the world is still burning
Despite Monckton's climate denial, the world is still burning

Viscount Christopher Monckton has become notorious for his climate change denial, despite scientific evidence proving him wrong time and again. Steve Bishop writes.

Despite Monckton’s climate denial, the world is still burning

CLIMATE CRISIS |

Informed Comment

Chris Hedges- The End of Empire
Informed Comment

A look at the true nature of the Republican Party and its agenda of inequality.
Blaming the Left for Trump is victim blaming

While the Left has received criticism for Trump’s rise in popularity, it’s important to look at the true nature of the Republican Party and its agenda of inequality.

Blaming the Left for Trump is victim blaming

DONALD TRUMP |

Victoria Fielding

Informed Comment

Kamala Harris: Papier-mâché Coronation

The New York Times, that reliable organ of establishment politics and anti-Trump mania, has also aired the view that the Democratic Party, in not endorsing a competitive process, had adopted “the playbook of ruling parties in authoritarian states.” From the top, the choice has been dictated; the rank and file had to accordingly “fall in line and clap enthusiastically.” The “manifest weaknesses” of Harris – her unpopularity, her poor campaigning, her abysmal management and tendency towards favouritism, her “penchant for excruciating banality,” and her Bay Area standing – were to be religiously ignored.

Kamala Harris: Papier-mâché Coronation

Informed Comment

Mainstream media coverage of Israel’s assassination campaign misleads the U.S. public

[The New York Times’s Ronen] Bergman, whose ties to Israeli intelligence are an open secret, could scarcely hide his glee at the successful assassination.

The New York Times and others are nowhere explaining the context, history, and possible motivations behind these assassinations. Among them that Benjamin Netanyahu may have ordered the attacks for his own selfish political reasons and to put off his trial for corruption — even though other media don’t hesitate to make that connection, including a leading newspaper in Israel itself.

What’s more, most U.S. coverage frames Israel’s killings as heroic actions of self-defense, instead of the truth — that the assassinations are violations of international law and an enormous threat to global security.

Mainstream media coverage of Israel’s assassination campaign misleads the U.S. public

Media Analysis

Informed Comment

Greasing Palms: The Thales Blueprint for Corruption

Yesterday’s officials are today’s arms sales consultants. The defence sector, notably for such countries as France, is simply too lucrative and important to be cleansed of its unscrupulousness. Even as these investigations are taking place to ruffle Thales, the Brazilian military establishment, by way of example, has happily continued doing business with the French weapons giant.

Greasing Palms: The Thales Blueprint for Corruption

Informed Comment

No to Russia, yes to Israel. But are the Olympic Games still relevant?

The TV rights bonanza has stalled, the frenzy to secure hosting rights is a thing of the past, and the Olympic’s political relevance has been reduced to who can be the most outraged over the artistic merits of the opening ceremony.

No to Russia, yes to Israel. But are the Olympic Games still relevant?

by Kim Wingerei | Jul 30, 2024

Informed Comment

Big Lie: Biden & Harris Hate Israel; Trump Loves Russia

On the fantasy worlds of Democrats trying to free Palestine from the river to the sea and Republicans trying to turn the White House into a puppet regime of Moscow, writes Caitlin Johnstone. 

Big Lie: Biden & Harris Hate Israel; Trump Loves Russia

July 29, 2024

Informed Comment

Facts and figures confirm Murdoch’s minions are continually lying to you

We knew this would happen. As soon as preliminary insolvency figures to June showed a surge above previous years, it was inevitable that members of the craven news media would blame Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Labor. So they did.

Facts and figures confirm Murdoch’s minions are continually lying to you

Informed Comment

The Tortilla Curtain

No matter how many times Greg Abbott and Trump lie about her being a failed “border czar,” Harris’ responsibility was to mitigate the root causes of migration, which, unsurprisingly, she accomplished. Initiatives established by the Biden Administration and instituted by Harris have included numerous investments in jobs for the region by American corporations.

  1. Gap committed to increasing its material sourcing from Central America, aiming for $150 million and is expected to create 5,000 additional jobs in the region​.
  2. Visa plans to invest $270 million over the next five years to integrate more people and small- to medium-sized businesses into the global financial system​
  3. AgroAmerica, a family-owned food corporation is investing $100 million across several projects, including a food ingredients refinery, a banana plantation, and an avocado plantation and processing plant, which will create 1,000 permanent jobs​ with living wages.
  4. Nespresso (Nestlé) is supporting over 7,500 coffee producers with regenerative agriculture practices and training​​.
  5. Target has committed to increasing its spending by $300 million in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras by 2033.
  6. Columbia Sportswear plans to create over 6,900 jobs in the region by purchasing up to $200 million in products​​.
  7. Millicom is investing an additional $350 million by 2025 to expand and maintain its mobile and broadband networks​ in the region.

Those are plain and stubborn facts, not the political untruths being spread by Abbott and Trump. Lying, of course, has worked effectively in modern American politics, but there is a rising hope it’s time is almost done.

The Tortilla Curtain

Informed Comment

ExtraForegone Conclusions: Paul Kagame Retains Power

Having laid waste to any viable, let alone sprouting opposition, the president has created conditions where any transition of power – when it comes – will be monstrously difficult. The shadow of the 1994 genocide is a long one indeed, and strong-man politics is a perilous formula for a smooth succession. Whatever the broader stated goals of Kagame for his country, he remains motivated by a desire to preserve the position of the Tutsis, keeping the rival Hutus in check. Ethnicity, far from vanishing as a consideration, retains an aggressively beating heart.

ExtraForegone Conclusions: Paul Kagame Retains Power

Informed Comment, Informed Opinion

Social Democracy: Transitioning from Neoliberalism

Call to Action

Join the movement for a fairer and more equitable Australia. Advocate for policy reforms, support public investments, and hold our government accountable. Share this article with your contacts and on social media to spread the word.

Social Democracy: Transitioning from Neoliberalism

Informed Comment

Billionaires Tossed No-Longer-Useful Biden

Democrats are anointing another amoral politician  as a mask for outsized corporate greed, the folly of endless war, the facilitation of genocide and the assault on our most basic civil liberties.

Chris Hedges: Billionaires Tossed No-Longer-Useful Biden

July 23, 2024

Informed Comment

Puppet Realisations

When the money talked he walked
A few days later, Biden’s performance at the NATO Washington summit produced sharp intakes of breath when introducing the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky as Russia’s Vladimir Putin. He also managed to mangle his Vice President, confusing Kamala Harris with Trump. The elites proved increasingly disgruntled. With the donor based now in open revolt, threatening withdrawal of support, the decision was a foregone one. Pity they are not willing to step aside as well.

Puppet Realisations: Biden Stands Aside

Informed Comment

Media Normalised Trump
Media has normalised Trump's bullying — it's time to take control

Presidential candidate Donald Trump has become notorious for his aggression and bullying, which the mainstream media is happy to ignore.

Media has normalised Trump’s bullying — it’s time to take control

DONALD TRUMP |

Rosemary Sorensen

Informed Comment

Alan Austin-Logic shows Trump cannot win another term
Logic shows Trump cannot win another term, but don’t relax just yet

Common sense and evidence prove that former President Donald Trump will not lead America again. But will reason prevail?

Logic shows Trump cannot win another term, but don’t relax just yet

DONALD TRUMP |

Alan Austin

Informed Comment, Informed Opinion

Smoking gun evidence of a political cover-up?

Senior Australian Federal Police, with almost certain involvement from politicians, secretly considered applying for a suppression order to protect Bruce Lehrmann but they didn’t tell Bruce or his barrister. So, who was […]

Senior AFP secretly considered a suppression order to protect Bruce Lehrmann – Smoking gun evidence of a political cover-up?

ByShane Dowlingon•( 1 Comment )

Informed Comment

Informed Comment China’s EVs in 2024

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The International Energy Agency signaled last week that the rate of increase in world petroleum demand fell in the second […]

China and the Slowing Petroleum Market: EVs displaced 1.5 mn. Barrels per Day in 2024

Juan Cole

Informed Comment

The Gaza Genocide Deepens: The Reckoning Begins for the Perpetrators

Meanwhile, deep in the Pentagon and U.S. intelligence agencies, analysts are creating scenarios of what forthcoming retaliation against our country could look like. With cheap, advanced armed drones increasingly producible by more makers anywhere, these scenarios are not the stuff of science fiction.

By kicking the two-state solution down the road for decades, favoring Israel, with supine Congressional backing, our presidents have assured that our own national security, not to mention our tradition of free speech in the U.S., is increasingly vulnerable.

The Gaza Genocide Deepens: The Reckoning Begins for the Perpetrators

Informed Comment

Chris Hedges: Statement on Attempted Trump Assassination

Chris Hedges’ thoughts on the assassination attempt on former President Trump.

Chris Hedges: Statement on Attempted Trump Assassination

July 14, 2024 Editor

Informed Comment

Orwell revisited. The Government playing word games with weapons to Israel


Government in damage control 

The Albanese government was forced to employ new language following evidence given by a Defence Department official in a recent Senate Estimates hearing.

Orwell revisited. The Government playing word games with weapons to Israel

Informed Comment

Why Isn’t the Media Reporting on Trump’s Growing Dementia?

A few weeks ago, at a rally in Nevada, Trump told his followers that boat manufacturers are now required to use electric engines. He claimed that someone at a boat company in South Carolina told him, “It’s a problem, sir. They want us to make all-electric boats.” (There is no such requirement.)

Trump then said the South Carolinian warned him “the boat is so heavy it can’t float. Also, it can’t go fast because of the weight.”

Trump continued:

“So I said, ‘Let me ask you a question,’ and [the South Carolinian] said, ‘Nobody ever asked this question,’ and it must be because of MIT, my relationship to MIT — very smart. He goes, I say, ‘What would happen if the boat sank from its weight? And you’re in the boat and you have this tremendously powerful battery and the battery is now underwater and there’s a shark that’s approximately 10 yards over there?’

Why Isn’t the Media Reporting on Trump’s Growing Dementia? by Robert Reich | July 8, 2024 – 6:23am | permalink

» article continues…

— from Robert Reich’s Substack

Informed Comment

Life expectancy data reaffirms the horrors of a Trump Presidency

The latest life expectancy data confirms that some countries – including Australia – are making better choices than others,

 Alan Austin …

Life expectancy data reaffirms the horrors of a Trump Presidency

DONALD TRUMP |
Informed Comment

The US Supreme Court Outs the Imperial Presidency

Much ink, resources and litigation, is bound to be expended over the next few years over what falls within official, as opposed to unofficial acts, that attach to the office of the US president. Along the way, a few laws may well be broken. With a delicious sense of irony, the Supreme Court ruling will also shield President Joe Biden from vengeful prosecutions planned by Trump and his courtiers. The law can, every so often, be fantastically double-edged.

The US Supreme Court Outs the Imperial Presidency

Informed Comment

Dutton Goes Full Trump

As was made obvious on the ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday (23 June), Peter Dutton has gone full Trump – say anything to own the headlines, positive or negative doesn’t matter, truth and facts don’t matter.

By Michael PascoeJul 1, 2024

Dutton goes the full Trump

Informed Comment

WikiLeaks as a resistance to the US or any empire – Pearls and Irritations

WikiLeaks typed on a tradition typewriter

In echoing the US remonstrations to all but itself to construct and abide by a global ‘rules-based order’, one can only think of Gandhi’s reply to a question about his view of ‘Western civilisation’: ‘I think it would be a very good idea.’

Source: WikiLeaks as a resistance to the US or any empire – Pearls and Irritations

Informed Comment

The National Anti-Corruption Commission has fallen at the first hurdle – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Never in Australian politics did the Australian public so unintelligently elect a series of right-wing governments over a decade that were rotten, to the core, infected with hatred for the less well-off but happy with the burden they carried. So ignorant of its incompetence. So willing to break laws and trash conventions. They were so utterly corrupted by lying that they sometimes knew not when or why they were telling them.

Source: The National Anti-Corruption Commission has fallen at the first hurdle – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Comment

Chris Hedges: The Impending Collapse of US Empire

The public perception of the American empire, at least to those within the United States who have never seen the empire dominate and exploit the “wretched of the earth,” is radically different from reality.

These manufactured illusions, ones Joseph Conrad wrote so presciently about, posit that the empire is a force for good. The empire, we are told, fosters democracy and liberty. It spreads the benefits of “Western civilization.”

These are deceptions repeated ad nauseam by a compliant media and mouthed by politicians, academics and the powerful. But they are lies, as all of us who have spent years reporting overseas understand.

Source: Chris Hedges: The Impending Collapse of US Empire

Informed Comment

The National Anti-Corruption Commission has fallen at the first hurdle – » The Australian Independent Media Network

That so many remnants of that era still exist in the ranks of conservatives must surely remind our citizens of how badly they governed. This is a sobering thought when the current Leader sees nothing wrong with their ideology.

Source: The National Anti-Corruption Commission has fallen at the first hurdle – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Comment

Dutton’s Detailed Plan… – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Now I know what some of you are thinking. How can they just decide that old power stations are the appropriate place without a lot of expert analysis into their suitability? Well, the answer to that is simple: It doesn’t really matter because they’ll never got the ban overturned unless there’s a really massive change in the Senate and so paying the owners of coal fired power stations for their land is something that keeps everyone happy because the owners can use the money and the subsidies to keep the coal burning and we won’t have to worry about little things like uranium processing or finding some company with a shack on Kangaroo Island to be the ones to organise the build or waste or being blamed when the whole thing runs into more delays than Snowy 2.0?

Source: Dutton’s Detailed Plan… – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Comment

‘Scandalous’: G7 Nations Spend 62 Times More on Military Than Humanitarian Aid | Common Dreams

U.S. warplanes on an aircraft carrier deck

Source: ‘Scandalous’: G7 Nations Spend 62 Times More on Military Than Humanitarian Aid | Common Dreams

Informed Comment

Narcissistic Personality Disorder in the USA – ScheerPost

There are nine basic criteria used to diagnose the personality disorder, and I would argue that the United States currently meets all of them. Let’s have a look:

Source: Narcissistic Personality Disorder in the USA – ScheerPost

Informed Comment

What They’re Really Saying When They Talk About Trump! – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Donald Trump and Scott Morrison making thumbs up gestures

According to some sections of the media, when Labor are in power they are responsible for every bad thing that happens. But, of course, there is a consistency because when the Coalition is returned to power, Labor are still responsible for every bad thing that happens!

Source: What They’re Really Saying When They Talk About Trump! – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Comment

This is the Real America