Dutton regularly proclaims what he opposes, but what he will do in terms of new policies mostly remains a mystery or alternatively will not work.
Source: What does Dutton stand for? – Pearls and Irritations
Category: Informed Comment
Our expectation is that the assault on Gaza will be stopped by the global voices of humanity and that our universities have a critical role in strengthening and hastening this movement. Universities must take a stand against the mass suffering of Palestinians, particularly women and children. We urge our universities to act on this matter urgently and uphold principles of justice, human rights, and the rule of international law.
Source: A call for university action against Israeli scholasticide – Pearls and Irritations
“The taxpayer is paying almost $700 million per year to a company masquerading as a hospital operator which, at best, can deliver services for 250 public beds, yet the Royal North Shore Hospital, which has about 700 public beds, costs the taxpayer about $700 million a year to run.”
Source: Heat is on to put Sydney’s privatised Cayman Islands hospital back in public hands – Michael West
Israelis around the world having been army-trained and have gained a reputation for being greater criminals than any Palestinian families out of Israel. They are often single and known around the world for being involved in varied criminal. Drugs, Prostitution, and simply muscle for hire. But that is something you would never hear from Dutton it would upset the the Israeli (Jewish) Lobby.
With the current arrivals from Gaza – some 340 or so have managed to drip themselves from the Palestinian territories – the bedwetting fantasies of terror being induced by the opposition seem absurd and callous. But absurdity is a proven calculus for electoral success – at least sometimes.
Source: A Copper’s Skewed Logic: Politicising Palestinian Visas – » The Australian Independent Media Network
A society where one set of religious views is imposed on a large number of citizens who disagree with them is not a democracy.
Source: Opinion | Behold! Trump’s GOP Theocracy Is Coming | Common Dreams
The best defence against authoritarianism is to create the best Democracy possible
Andrew Bolt and Sky News say it’s bullshit but his insurance premiums will boom
Key facts:
- 40 per cent of all properties in NSW are now at moderate to high risk of flooding.
- The risk of catastrophic loss, both financially and physically, will drive up insurance premiums.
- NSW’s so-called Black Summer bushfires of 2029-20 cost $4.9 billion.
- Insurers have paid our $13 billion in climate-related claims in NSW.
- The combined value of coastal properties exposed to coastal erosion damage is $25 billion.
- Some suburbs and land lots will see reductions in risk from the elements due to favourable weather forecasts.
- Some regions will see no change at all. But for many, the situation will worsen during the next 30 years.
Source: Revealed: Properties in nature’s firing line – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Last chance for Julian Assange. It is time for Albanese to put his words into action.
Julian Assange’s case to be allowed an appeal of his extradition to the US is coming up in the High Court of Justice in London next week. We requested permission to attend via the court’s broadcast link but were refused. What’s the scam?
Source: Those pesky colonial journalists and justice for Assange. What’s the scam? – Michael West
That’s Sky News Australia,UK and Fox News USA shit that’s the Anglosphere
I am convinced Peter Dutton and others of his ilk, including his supporters in the media, believe that the effect of lying diminishes over time, and they forget that they leave behind a residue of broken trust.
Source: Sky News: where facts don’t seem to matter – » The Australian Independent Media Network
How is it that taking a job with AUKUS doesn’t smell of favors carried forward?
There are few surprises regarding the final episode of Nemesis, the three-part account on how the Australian Liberal Party, in partnership with the dozy Nationals, psychotically and convulsively disembowelled themselves from the time Tony Abbott won office in 2013. Over the muddy gore and violence concluding the tenures of Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull, one plotter rose, knife bloodied and brimming with confidence: Scott Morrison. As always, he claims to have done so without a trace. That, dear readers, is the way of all advertising men.
Source: When Scott Morrison met Nemesis – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Government contractors have to report on their performance every month. When there is a cost blowout or progress is behind schedule, the department responsible for the spending knows about it, but we rarely do. What’s the scam?
Source: Project blowouts. They know it, but they won’t show it. – Michael West
How the fuck did we get to this failure and refuse to accept that we have simply been wrong since the Belfour Declaration in 1917 and even made it worse in 1948 by declaring Israel a State?
You know there is a shocking decimation taking place when news footage shows only two colours – grey and red. Images of the persecution and murder of Gazans are utterly heartbreaking. Israel is asking the world to allow it to commit genocide. The US, and the West, are saying “Yes, go ahead”.
Source: Don’t just mow the grass – burn down the entire forest – Pearls and Irritations
Israel’s tentacles stretch as far as Australia, Melbourne, and into your work place demanding laws to criminalize the likes of Australia’s Medical Profession. But don’t be surprised if they don’t counter this with antisemitism again by crying out against Israel isn’t being antisemitic. Zionists have just tipped the expression on it’s head like the extreme right-wing have “Woke”, “Racism” and “Feminism” Meanwhile crying out “Stop killing Gazans” isn’t antisemitic. Killing Gazans is!
Medical doctor and sexual assault specialist Dr Jennifer Martinez said she was attacked and trolled online by Zionists and Israel sympathizers after she responded to a comment about human rights.
Martinez maintains she has never made an antisemitic comment in her life, nor has she commented on the rape allegations of October 7.
PM Albanese is moving to criminalize doxing after names of 600 Zionist creatives leaked. But who is doxing the doxer?
But Australian doctors are calling out the hypocrisy after flagrant breaches of their privacy went unchecked.
Source: Doxing hypocrisy: pro-peace doctors doxed en masse – Michael West
If only he were Black, Muslim or a woman he’d be gone.
After Barnaby Joyce MP was filmed sprawled on his back on a Canberra footpath, managing editor Michelle Pini explains why Australian voters should indeed take a dim view of his persistently chaotic behaviour.
Source: Why Barnaby’s drunken planter tumble – and other mad acts – matter
The Government has been happy to have Australia be the world’s quarry. But now, Labor is shaping a role for us as the world’s CO2 dump.
Source: Vision 2024: aim to “make Australia a better quarry” … and a CO2 dump – Michael West
Australia’s leading business lobby, Business Council of Australia, glosses over its tax avoiding members while cashing taxpayer cheques. Zacharias Szumer delves into the latest donation disclosures from the AEC.
Source: A tangled web of donations and grants. Business’ top lobby, DFAT and the AEC – Michael West
Yes, you can argue Labor remains too rigid, traumatised by their past ordeals and the limp, wet threat of the Murdochracy. But for every shuffle they make dragging Australia into some form of responsible government, however much they stink at climate change management, or understanding genocide in Gaza, they’ll never extinguish the wretched stench of the years Australians spent under the hands of the Enemies Of Woke, the federal Coalition, whose only achievement after over 9 years in power has been an uptick in national corruption commission referrals and Canberra cocaine sales. Roll on 2024.
Source: Goodbye to all that – the Coalition’s year of living aimlessly – The Shot
Dutton has never been a leader and as the party’s thug has never had a mind of his own. Ever since winning the opposition’s leadership from a reluctant membership Dutton flew to America and has returned
Trump’s formula
Concentrating on the base, concentrating on outrage and division and never letting facts get in the way of a good headline, is the Trump formula, right down to Sky News YouTube and social media promotion mimicking its Fox News model.
We can only speculate on which of these areas will benefit most from Submarines being built in the UK and the US, the announcement is long on rhetoric and very, very short on detail. But who are we to argue? That AUKUS pot of gold is very real, even if the rainbow isn’t.
Source: Banana Shire takes AUKUS by storm. What’s the scam? – Michael West
Strangely, conservatives have never realised that kids from low socioeconomic backgrounds are our most untapped source of potential growth. They are the most undervalued resource.
Given the federal government’s brusque termination of previous agreements entered into by Victoria with purportedly undesirable entities, the Albanese government has a useful precedent. With legal proceedings underway in the International Court of Justice in The Hague seeking to determine whether genocide is taking place in Gaza, along with an interim order warning Israel to abide by the UN Genocide Convention, a sound justification has presented itself. Complicity with genocide – actual, potential or as yet unassessed by a court – can hardly be in Canberra’s interest. Over to you, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
Richard Barnes reports..
Lobbying is the scourge of the Australian body politic. Described by the eminent retired public servant and publisher John Menadue as “pervasive and insidious” and here at Michael West Media as a toxic and powerful influence over democracy, it is now coming under political purview via an inquiry by the Senate into lobbyist access to Parliament House.
To date, the slaughter in Gaza continues. Israeli politicians and military officials persist in claiming that murderously innovative approaches to killing Palestinian civilians are not, by definition, genocidal. But the walls of justifiable impunity, so proudly claimed by Israel in its righteous mission of self-defence, are proving increasingly porous.
Elections in the world’s largest democracies in 2024 will shape the future of the world for years to come, Alan Austin reports.
OBSERVERS CONCERNED about global democracy are now fidgeting nervously at the prospect of American voters abandoning their 235-year history of “We the people” in favour of a dictatorship ruled by Donald Trump. Several other electoral contests are generating similar apprehension.
Source: 2024: A year when Trump (and others) will test the resilience of global democracy
When is the acquisitive nature of open frontier capitalism too much? When Elon Musk is told that US$56 billion as a pay package is unfair. This, at least, was the finding by Delaware Court of Chancery by Judge Kathaleen McCormick regarding the spellbinding 2018 compensation package for the planet’s wealthiest human being.
Source: When Much is Too Much: Elon Musk’s Compensation Package – » The Australian Independent Media Network
The headline conveys a tale of acquisition, narcissism, and unimaginable wealth. The world is overflowing with money inherited, earned honestly or obtained through corrupt means. Nevertheless, little is acquired through equal opportunities. It is a world where the rich have a significant advantage. It is a rich man’s world.
Source: Money, money, money. It’s a rich man’s world. – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Australia’s peak science body, CSIRO, has refused to disclose its advice on Carbon Capture and Storage technology. Is it telling the ministers that it doesn’t work, or not? Rex Patrick does the FOIs
Source: Why is CSIRO hiding its advice on Carbon Capture and Storage? – Michael West
My thoughts for the day
Sometimes, it is good to stop, think, evaluate and formulate one’s own opinion instead of being influenced by the media and other vested interests. ( John Lord )
Source: It’s a nasty business this, being in Opposition – » The Australian Independent Media Network
From the other side of the legal aisle, the South African foreign minister, Naledi Pandor, wished that the ICJ had grasped the nettle to order a halt in military operations. But, with some deft reasoning, she was satisfied that the only way Israel could implement the provisional measures would be through a ceasefire. Much the same view was expressed by the Associated Press: “The court’s half-dozen orders will be difficult to achieve without some sort of cease-fire or pause in the fighting.” That logic is clear enough, but the actions, given the various statements from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his officials alleging slander and a blood libel against their country, are unlikely to follow.
Residents of al-Dahra forced to evacuate by Israeli army and then fired on, as Khan Younis relentlessly targeted by Israeli strikes and snipers shoot at Palestinians leaving al-Amal Hospital.
At least 26,083 people have been killed and 64,487 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. The death toll in Israel from the October 7 Hamas attacks stands at 1,139.
“This is the case with respect to the right of the Palestinians in Gaza to be protected from acts of genocide and related prohibited acts identified in Article III, and the right of South Africa to seek Israel’s compliance with the latter’s obligations under the Convention.”
It is clear from the ruling that the court is fully aware of the magnitude of Israel’s crimes. This makes the decision not to call for the immediate suspension of Israeli military activity in and against Gaza all the more distressing.
But the court did deliver a devastating blow to the mystique Israel has used since its founding to carry out its settler colonial project against the indigenous inhabitants of historic Palestine. It made the word genocide, when applied to Israel, credible.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) refused to implement the most crucial demand made by South African jurists: “the State of Israel shall immediately suspend its military operations in and against Gaza.” But at the same time, it delivered a devastating blow to the foundational myth of Israel. Israel, which paints itself as eternally persecuted, has been credibly accused of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Palestinians are the victims, not the perpetrators, of the “crime of crimes.” A people, once in need of protection from genocide, are now potentially committing it. The court’s ruling questions the very raison d’être of the “Jewish State” and challenges the impunity Israel has enjoyed since its founding 75 years ago.
Source: Chris Hedges – It May be Genocide, But it Won’t Be Stopped – Brave New Europe
Watch for the Murdoch/Dutton/ Beat up
Australians ended 2023 to shock-horror reports of “the largest cohort of foreign fishers to be detained in over a decade.” The Return of the Living Dread? Not quite – just 30 Indonesian ‘trepangers’ – sea cucumber fishermen. Duncan Graham with the story
Source: Sex and the sea slugs. Indonesian boat-people invasion is more about sea cucumbers – Michael West
America was at one time a Dream it still is but a nightmare.
When Americans actually focus on the presidential election and the stark reality of choosing between Biden and Trump, I expect they will once again choose Biden.
Even if Trump is not yet criminally convicted, I doubt that a majority of Americans will want for their president a man who has 91 criminal charges against him, who has been impeached twice, who has orchestrated an attempted coup, who has profited financially while president, who has stolen top-secret documents, and who has been judged to be a rapist.
Period.
No Mystery: Money talks. Abbott wants back in as well. Is Jim Molan’s seat really on offer?
My thought for the day
The Australian Parliament is just an excuse for conservative, mediocre minds who cannot debate with intellect, charm or wit to act deplorably. And in doing so debase the Parliament and reveal themselves as moronic imbecilic individuals. Dutton and Morrison are two such individuals.( John Lord )
We are ruled by murderous tyrants. By nuclear-armed thugs who would rather starve civilians to protect the continuation of an active genocide than allow peace to get a word in edgewise. Our world can never know health as long as these monsters remain in charge.
From the first days in their Jewish day schools and youth organisations, young Jews are drilled with the lie that Palestine was ‘a land without people for a people without a land’. From its inception, the Zionist movement has sought to suppress Palestinian history and narratives. Whenever there are exhibitions or events or publications featuring Palestinian artists, writers or speakers, there is a huge geschrei from the usual suspects in the Zionist propaganda machine, protesting at this example of ‘antisemitism’.
Source: Efforts to suppress Palestinian history defeated – Pearls and Irritations
What a cowardly act it was. A national broadcaster, dedicated to what should be fearless reporting, cowed by the intemperate bellyaching of a lobby concerned about coverage of the Israel-Gaza war. The investigation by The Age newspaper was revealing in showing that the dismissal of broadcaster Antoinette Lattouf last December 20 was the nasty fruit of a campaign waged against the corporation’s management. This included its chair, Ita Buttrose, and managing director David
“Accuracy and impartiality are core to the service we offer audiences,” Justin Stevens explained to staff. “We must stay independent and not ‘take sides’.”
This pointless assertion can only ever be a threat because it acts as an injunction on staff and a judgment against sources that do not favour the accepted line, however credible they might be. What proves acceptable, a condition that seems to have paralysed the ABC, is to never say that Israel massacres, commits war crimes, and brings about conditions approximating to genocide. Little wonder that coverage on South Africa’s genocide case against Israel in the International Court of Justice does not get top billing on in the ABC news headlines.
Palestinians and Palestinian militias, on the other hand, can always be written about as brute savages, rapists and baby slayers. Throw in fanaticism and Islam, and you have the complete package ready for transmission. Coverage in the mainstays of most Western liberal democracies of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as the late Robert Fisk pointed out with pungency, repeatedly asserts these divisions.
Desperation is to create Trillionaires Trump will they are so so needed
Since Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration, regulatory agencies have protected the public from corporate harms. The only reason to end these protections is to give corporate America even higher profits by shifting the risks of harms to individual people. Watch your wallets.
Source: What’s the “Chevron Doctrine” and Why Should You Want To Preserve It? | The Smirking Chimp
Is this going to continue to be Murdoch’s America ?
The danger is that Trump will capture so much of the public’s attention that he will appear to be the more dominant and stronger candidate, and Biden will be left with so little attention that he appears to be the more submissive and weaker of the two. If Trump dominates the battle of attention, Biden will effectively disappear.
Source: How Trump Is Exploiting Our Scarcest Resource | The Smirking Chimp
There is no doubt an inquiry into supermarket pricing is a positive step in light of crippling food prices. Certainly, instigating mandatory requirements instead of a voluntary code that sets out some nice suggestions can only be a good thing. Anyone familiar with the banking industry would know that voluntary codes of conduct are not worth the paper they’re written on.
Palestinians will never, given current conditions, be permitted sovereignty and anything remotely resembling a thriving, viable state. Israel, whose very existence is based on predation, dispossession and war, will never permit a Palestinian entity to be given equal standing at the diplomatic or security table. The US, in the tatty drag of an independent broker, will go along with the pantomime, promoting, as Blinken is, a sham, counterfeit form of autonomy, one forever subject to conditions, demarcations and restraints. And one thing is almost certain about any future rump Palestinian entity: it will be deprived of any right to defend itself.
Why is there more homeless today, per capita, but fewer squatters? Fifty years on, Wendy Bacon looks back on the landmark protests of Victoria Street, Kings Cross.
Fifty years ago this week, hundreds of people gathered in Victoria Street, Kings Cross, to support a group of squatters who had been evicted by truckloads of Kings Cross bouncers hired by a property developer Frank Theeman.
Source: The battle for Victoria Street, Kings Cross – fifty years on – Michael West
Happy New Year Accredible and Aussie Home Loans. I have a great big box of accountability just for you!
We are spammed relentlessly but when Aussie Home Loans and Accredible spammed Andy Schmulow, they bit off more than they could chew. Andy shows us how to bam the spammers.
Source: Michael West Media – investigative journalists – always independent
In all this excitement about the Conservatives possibly winning the next election, one thing seems to have escaped the minds of those supporting this idea: When in the hurly burly of an election campaign, the electorate is reminded of the sins of the National and Liberal parties over nine and a bit years, the hairs on the ends of voter’s heads will stand on end. Will they then feel inclined toward a repeat dose of the same medicine?
Source: 2024: A Year of Change for Labor – » The Australian Independent Media Network
It’s the war of a generation, fossil fuels and fossil media in a battle to the death against new energy and new media, and new media just landed another savage blow. Michael West on fossil fuel spruikers, fossil media, the AFR and the Sandfire DeGrussa solar project.
Source: Michael West Media – investigative journalists – always independent
olddogthoughts 
You must be logged in to post a comment.