Or to put the matter more baldly, who will be able to afford any of the wondrous goods and services powered by AI if we no longer have incomes?
Category: Informed Comment
Once fact becomes interchangeable with opinion, once truth is irrelevant, once people are told only what they wish to hear, journalism ceases to be journalism and becomes propaganda.
Source: Chris Hedges: The Trump-Russia Saga and the Death Spiral of American Journalism – scheerpost.com
The latest prison figures show state and federal government departments are still failing First Australians, as Alan Austin reports.
Source: Prisoner numbers declining but Indigenous people still overrepresented
Greg Sheridan, in his opinion piece of Tuesday 21 February, provides yet another display of his spiteful, vacuous journalism – his erroneous claims that I am not the progenitor of the APEC Leaders’ Meeting, and that my views on Australian strategic policy are eccentric and at odds with the US alliance. PJ Keating reply to Greg Sheridan – The Australian, 21 February
Source: The “little Americans” that populate Australia – Pearls and Irritations
The McCarthy-Trump-Fox complex is internally consistent — connecting authoritarianism, right-wing Republican hackery, GOP political fundraising, Trump-boosting ratings outrage, and greed. It’s a vicious cycle designed to sow anger and distrust while advancing the power and wealth of McCarthy, Greene, Trump, Carlson, and Fox News.
This is the same combination that fueled Trump’s presidency and led to his first attempted coup. Will it lead to a second?
Source: A Second Attempted Coup? The McCarthy-Trump-Fox-Complex | The Smirking Chimp
A court decision last week green lights bold defamation action against the English-speaking world’s most powerful media empire, as Alan Austin reports.
Source: Companies chasing billions from Fox News for ‘malicious’ election lies
The higher the world’s central banks lift interest rates, and the more they risk pushing us into recession, the more our smarter economists are thinking there has to be a better way to control inflation.
Source: Inflation is too tricky to be left to the Reserve Bank
Interesting how people who claim to be against government interference are all for it when it serves their preference. “I’m tired of ‘woke'” is meant to stop conversation. There’s no engagement, like “That’s not exactly how that happened.” It’s anti-engagement, like so much of today’s rhetoric.
Why so afraid to engage? Afraid you might LOSE?
Maybe because when people try engage in absurd talking points it becomes so damn obvious those talking points are not only wrong, but the wrong headed. Talking point: “Blacks had slaves too!” Response: “So? And your point is…?” Citing African “history” makes nothing right, defends nothing. It’s like saying, “Hey, that guy over there murdered someone too,” hoping to get another discussion of murder off the table. Intentional distraction. A classic case of “Look over THERE instead!”
If slavery is wrong it’s wrong: another example doesn’t make it right.
Source: Inspection- Of “Woke,” Anti-Woke and the Anti-Culture War | The Smirking Chimp
This ingloriously subservient status to Washington has been laid bare yet again, and along with that, the increasingly likely prospect of being targeted in any future conflict that involves the United States. Hardly a responsible state of affairs, and one on the verge of being treasonous.
There is nothing Gautam Adani will not do for money. In this sense, he is admirably dedicated to greed, so much so he has become its foremost caricature worthy of permanent enthronement. Mark this man’s name in the scriptures of eternity: There was nothing he did not do for the filthy lucre.
Source: Corrupt and Fraudulent: Laying Bare the Adani Group – CounterPunch.org
We know some of the companies and individuals who paid big money to political parties, but we don’t know them all, reports Alan Austin.
But there’s now evidence companies are raising their prices over and above the increase in those costs.
“There’s no doubt that corporations have taken advantage of the supply chain problems and the desperation of consumers to jack up prices far more than required to cover their own costs, and their record profits have made this inflation far worse,” economist Jim Stanford, from the Centre for Future Work, told The Drum.
The International Energy Agency, in a new report that is just out, estimates that 90% of new global electricity demand through 2025 will be met by low-carbon sources — renewables and nuclear. It is mostly renewables, but the report mentions the French bringing their reactors back on line and the building of a few new nuclear plants in China, Japan, India and South Korea.
Source: IEA: Renewables plus Nuclear are able to meet 90% of Globe’s New Electricity demand Through 2025
Informed Comment
Biden’s speech reminded me of how good a president he has been, especially given what he inherited from the former guy, who made a fetish out of dividing and angering Americans while accomplishing nothing except giving a giant tax cut to big corporations and the rich.
Harvard Law
What else do DeSantis and Cruz have in common? Both graduated from Harvard Law School (DeSantis, class of 2005; Cruz, class of 1995).
So, the two likeliest Republican candidates for president as Trump fades, who have both attacked the legal foundations of American democracy, are the products of the most prestigious law school in the nation.
Source: Ron DeSantis and Ted Cruz: The Shame of Harvard Law School | The Smirking Chimp
Chalmer’s Value-Based Capitalism seems to be in the footsteps of Biden’s America. Will we ever truley be able to walk and talk for ourselves. Or do both nations really reflect whats best for their peoples
Biden’s larger achievement has been to change the economic paradigm that has reigned since Reagan. He is teaching America a lesson we once knew but have since forgotten: that the “free market” does not exist. It is designed. It either advances public purposes or it serves the monied interests. Biden’s democratic capitalism is neither socialism nor “big government.” It is, rather, a return to an era when government organized the market for the greater good.
Source: The State of Joe Biden’s Union: The Return to Democratic Capitalism | The Smirking Chimp
“Know your place” is a phrase used in the past by members of the Liberal Party when they observed, in their view, members of the Labor Party acting above their station.
The lessons of the last election should have left an indelible scar on those involved in the Luddite politics of the past decade. Have they not understood that the people, in their judgement, said they had had enough of their rancid unempathetic behaviour? Yet they go on unmoved as if nothing transpired while trying to give the Leader with a public image of a racist bigot a personality transplant. Queensland excepted.
But the attacks led by the Opposition leader Peter Dutton could have a fatal effect on the proposal. He knows that history tells us that without the support of the opposition, the referendum won’t pass. That is unless the people vote as they did in the election and decide to confirm their thoughts of May 21 2022, with a resounding yes vote that shatters conservative negativity for decades to come.
Source: Know your place – » The Australian Independent Media Network
LNP POLITICS BEFORE FACTS
But what evidence is there that Labor’s decision to abolish the card has played a role in rising crime in Alice Springs?
Official crime data compiled by the Northern Territory government, meanwhile, shows that almost all types of criminal offences were on the rise before Labor’s cashless debit card changes.
The verdict Mr Joyce is ill-informed.
Some of the idiot balls in Australia are made local. Kmart is in trouble for deciding that Australia Day merchandise doesn’t sell well enough to justify stocking it, a version of the American “woke companies” gambit. The “threat” of the anodyne Voice to Parliament is created out of thin air by the Murdoch Dog Line. This furphy is manufactured as part of the illusory anglosphere “Critical Race Theory” threat. Any effort to teach a more balanced history of our colonial nations is met with stonewalling rage. So fragile are the white bastions of our greatness that stories of the pain inflicted in their creation would apparently destroy everything.
The damage that will be done to Australia’s First Nations people over the course of this referendum by the drastic mischaracterisations in the Murdoch media is substantial. The marriage equality “debate” was brutal for LGBTQI+ Australians, beset by slander. As Noel Pearson pointed out, Australia likes Aboriginal people much less than we like the gay people we know in our families, social and work spaces.
The exception to that calculus is trans people. There are so few that many older Australians have never met someone who is gender diverse. This has made them a very useful target of disinformation and dehumanisation.
Source: When culture war games trend lethal – » The Australian Independent Media Network
My thought for the day
The real enemy of neo-conservative politics in Australia is not Labor or democratic socialism. It is simply what Australians affectionally call “a fair go.” (John Lord )
Source: The year ahead – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Not only is the story false, but it leaves out the bigger and more important story behind today’s federal debt: the switch by America’s wealthy over the last half century from paying taxes to the government to lending the government money.
This back story needs to be told if Americans are to understand what’s really happened and what needs to be done about it. Republicans won’t tell it, so Democrats (starting with Joe Biden) must.
Source: The Biggest Story You’ve Never Heard About Today’s Federal Debt | The Smirking Chimp
The Albanese Government has acted promptly to begin the process of restoring Australia’s reputation in the region, as Alan Austin reports.
Source: Australia’s renewed commitment to neighbourliness is saving lives
Antitrust laws were enacted more than a century ago to protect our democracy from being undermined by giant corporations. Yet this what Twitter and Meta are now doing. In my view, we should reduce the size and reach of these huge corporate megaphones by using antitrust laws to break them up.
Source: Should Trump Get Back His Giant Megaphones? | The Smirking Chimp
Its your pocket that’s being picked
Who doesn’t want an extra hundred bucks in their pocket each month, right? Yet Australians are on average throwing away at least that much by paying for subscriptions they’ve either forgotten about or no longer use.
Source: Forgotten subscriptions costing billions – Michael West
wit
Murdoch was caught red-handed illegally corrupting UK media. Let off by the Tories he fled the UK for America to do the same there, He’s trie and continues to do so in Australia for 47 years. But for the ABC, he has become the least trusted media maggot in the country. However, trusted news and information aren’t his primary business. Rating numbers are. Influence for the moneyed is. Cash and making it flow from the top down the business model. Win or lose doesn’t matter dependence does. Now, Ch9 has joined him in that chase along with Kerry Stokes. All vying to be lifes narrators to the masses for the wealthy and powerful
Fox News is after me again.
This is nothing new. Former Fox host Bill O’Reilly once accused me of being a communist (this was before O’Reilly was ousted after it was reported that he and Fox News paid five women $13 million to settle various sexual misconduct lawsuits).
We are at a crossroads. The Ultra High Net Worth Individual (UHNWI) class is creating a new international feudal order, assisted by the professional enabler class including politicians in pursuit of their money. One of those enabling mechanisms is the media. In Australia, News Corp serves as the strongest weapon in the creation of their desired world.
Source: Distracted by hate, we are robbed – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Now an explanation is needed
After telling Rex Patrick his PM’s Diary FOI request would be processed for $1,344, and after Rex paid the deposit, the Prime Minister’s Office has backflipped and is now refusing to process the request for 29 pages on the grounds that doing so “would substantially and unreasonable interfere with the performance of the [Prime] Minister’s functions”. What’s the scam?
Source: Rex Hex: PM’s office backflips, refuses to release Albo’s diaries – Michael West
The policymaking apparatus behind the AUKUS security pact was shoddy from the start. It has raised questions about the extent US power will subordinate Australia further in future conflicts; it has brought into question Australia’s own sovereignty; and it has also raised the spectre of regional nuclear proliferation via the use of otherwise closely guarded propulsion technology.
Source: Nuclear Submarine Doubts: US Lawmakers and AUKUS – » The Australian Independent Media Network
The East India Corporation did it to India, China and the West Indies it was termed PLUNDER the unregulated process of “free marketing” whitewashed and legitimised by the British government. It has never stopped since its systemised corporate application came into being only allowed to accelerate and be refined with the politics and media that promote it rewarded in return. Piracy has never really stopped merely redefined.
Oxfam , the British charity, has released a new report finding that the global problem of wealth inequality is growing ever more threatening. Of all the new wealth the entire human race has produced in the past two years, the richest 1% gobbled up 66% of it. The less-rich 99% of us only got a third of it.
Source: Billionaires Gobbled up 2/3s of New Wealth at $2.7 bn/ day, as 800 million go to bed Hungry: Oxfam
The Liberal Party needs to be held accountable for its racist attitudes and scandals that largely get brushed aside, writes Dr Victoria Fielding.
Decades ago, research conducted by ExxonMobil predicted the global effects of climate change, which was then denied in the name of profit, writes Dr Binoy Kampmark.
Source: ExxonMobil predicted climate change but kept the world burning
Safeguarding democracy worldwide looms as a major task for 2023, requiring global collaboration to succeed, as Alan Austin reports.
Source: Gaoling a president is a helluva challenge, but sometimes it has to be done
Worry is always the decision-makers’ burden when moving forward and doing things “right”. Unintended mistakes tend to occur but are often politicized by the opposition, and oh boy, did we see that with the”Pink Bats” scandal. But here is the difference the difference ” Robodebt” The NBN and Asylum seeker deaths were wrong, Yes. one was right the other totally wrong on human and AI grounds and none were accomplished overnight. Pink Bats couldn’t be predicted to have 5 deaths the other three could be guaranteed to be system failures on a grand scale. .
The Chubb review shows there’s integrity in the carbon credit system designed to support decarbonisation, but Ms Constable is concerned about the proposed rapid changes for the regulator. “It takes time to build expertise and get things running smoothly, so we’ll be watching to make sure implementation matches the ambition.”
Source: Australia’s industrial makeover ramps up – Michael West
Australians are sticklers for tradition when it comes to our Constitution. Despite 44 proposed changes, only eight have ever been successful.
Source: Ideas for a better democracy – » The Australian Independent Media Network
The task for Biden and the White House will be to keep an even keel by not getting distracted by this commotion, and continuing the important business of governing the nation. Over the long term (meaning during the next two years of run-up to the 2024 election), the contrast between the House Republicans’ zany partisan escapades and Biden’s seriousness of pubic purpose will offer the most potent means of avoiding all false equivalences. Classified Documents,
Source: False Equivalence: Biden’s Documents | The Smirking Chimp
Another needless, fatuous endeavour; another irresponsible drain on the public purse; another expression that the military-industrial complex Down Under is thriving in all its insidious stupidity. But Australia’s purchase of HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System) batteries from the United States can be put down to loneliness – or the feeling of being left out. And history shows that loneliness in the context of weapons and harm involves a need to acquire more means to do further harm.
Source: Joining the War Club: Australia’s HIMARS Purchase – » The Australian Independent Media Network
A New Study Blows Up Myth That Russian Bots Swayed 2016 Election for Trump However, one of the paper’s authors warned that “it would be a mistake to conclude that simply because the Russian foreign influence campaign on Twitter was not meaningfully related to individual-level attitudes that other aspects of the campaign did not have any impact on the election.”
Source: New Study Blows Up Myth That Russian Bots Swayed 2016 Election for Trump – scheerpost.com
First a Morrison government whitewash, next disappearing advice from former Attorney-General Christian Porter. On the trail of government rorts, Transparency Warrior Rex Patrick finds obfuscation at every turn and a broken Freedom of Information regime which attacks the heart of democracy and responsible government.
Source: The dog ate my Cabinet document: Christian Porter’s vanishing rorts advice – Michael West
The real battle for America isn’t between the left and right, or even between Republicans and Democrats. It’s between the oligarchy — corporate and Wall Street monied interests — and everybody else.
Source: With McCarthy, the Trump Coalition of MAGAs and Oligarchs Lives On | The Smirking Chimp
The year 2023 will be a hard slog for the government. Perhaps a momentous one in terms of urgency and necessity. There is no point in prioritising one over the other because they are all critical.
Source: A comprehensive to-do list for Labor in 2023 – » The Australian Independent Media Network
The government must stop putting the responsibility for fighting inflation on working people whose wages have gone nowhere for four decades. Put the responsibility where it belongs — on big corporations with power to raise their prices.
The Western establishment doesn’t appear to understand how Western journalists could exercise their own agency and judgment to critique U.S. foreign policy without them being agents of a foreign power, writes Joe Lauria. By Joe Lauria Special to Consortium News The United States was fou
Source: A History of Dissent
olddogthoughts 
You must be logged in to post a comment.