“We do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.” – Thomas Jefferson
Source: Vote for You – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Category: Informed Comment
Malaysia also announced, in addition to barring ships using the Israeli flag from docking in the country, the banning of “any ship on its way to Israel from loading cargo in Malaysian ports.”
Blockade, barring, embargo, constriction – all these measures are familiar to the Israeli security establishment as it seeks to strangle and pulverize the Gaza Strip. While closing ports to Israeli shipping is modest in comparison to starving and strafing an entire population, it is fittingly reciprocal and warranted. The Israel campaign against Gaza, and Palestinians more generally, is no longer a local, contained affair.
Source: The Economic Incentive: Blocking Israel’s Supply Chain – » The Australian Independent Media Network
In 1983, there were 50 major corporations dominating the world’s media. By 2002, this had been reduced to nine. Rupert Murdoch says that eventually there will be three, including his own. If we accept this, media and information control will be the same, and we shall all be citizens of a murdochracy.
Rupert Murdoch began his empire. The voracious trail starts here. No statue stands; his is a spectral presence, controlling the only daily newspaper, even the printing presses. Across Australia, he owns almost 70 percent of the capital city press and the only national newspaper and Sky Television and much else. Welcome to the world’s first murdochracy. What is a murdochracy?
It is where the fealty and augmentation of Murdoch’s editors and managers are undisguised, an inspiration to his choir on seven continents, where even his competitors sing along, and wise politicians heed the Murdochism: “What’ll it be? A headline a day or a bucket of shit a day?”
Source: National Times – Nothing seems to have changed since John Pilger… | Facebook
The Holocaust was weaponized from almost the moment Israel was founded. It was bastardized to serve the apartheid state. If we forget the lessons of the Holocaust, we forget who we are and what we are capable of becoming. We seek our moral worth in the past, rather than the present. We condemn others, including the Palestinians, to an endless cycle of slaughter. We become the evil we abhor. We consecrate the horror.
Source: Chris Hedges: Israel’s Genocide Betrays the Holocaust – ScheerPost
Did 2023 see more or less transparency from Government? Is the Albanese Government more or less transparent than the Morrison Government? Transparency Warrior Rex Patrick looks back to answer these questions and give out some awards, many of them likely not wanted.
Source: Rex Patrick’s Transparency and Opaqueness Awards 2023 – Michael West
While confidence curdled, as with much else with tech assets, leading to the company stock falling by as much as 87% of value. The language ignores what Palantir really does.
As Gaza is being flattened and gradually exterminated by Israeli arms, Palantir remains loyal, even stubbornly so. “We are one of the few companies in the world to stand and announce our support for Israel, which remains steadfast,” the company stated in a letter to shareholders. With a record now well washed in blood, the company deserves a global protest movement that blocks its appeal and encourages a shareholder exodus.
The real question is whose interests those lawmakers are pursuing. Are they working for the vast majority of Americans, or are they beholden to those at the top? The recent history of bankruptcy — right up to Rudy Giuliani’s use of it last week — provides a clear answer.
Source: Why Can Only the Rich and Powerful Go Bankrupt? | The Smirking Chimp
Coming in at ninth in our most popular stories of the year is one by former ABC journalist and now star IA columnist Alan Austin – who always features in our top ten – with this incisive December story about his former employer and its growing relationship with the Murdoch media.
Source: #9 TOP IA STORY OF 2023: ABC complaint over Insiders’ collaboration with Murdoch’s News Corp
“Bet with mates, start a multi-together!” says Sportsbet. Meanwhile, Australia’s biggest bookie has pulled off a multi of its own. Wally the Chartered Accountant and Michael West reveal how Sportsbet and its accountants KPMG have cooked up a souffle of goodwill to take the Tax Office for a lap around the track and funnel the losses of Australian punters to their corporate maaates overseas.
WE CAN CLOSE another year of recording what is happening in global economics – as distinct from what mainstream media falsely report – on a positive note. America’s economy, still the world’s biggest and most influential, is emerging strongly from the disastrous Trump period.
This is significant for several reasons. First, it means 335 million Americans now enjoy greater prosperity and security. Second, millions of people in other countries are benefiting from the increased trade generated by a thriving USA. A quick glance at the blue chart, below, shows the surge in imports since Donald Trump was ousted.
Source: Trump’s ‘greatest economy’: A lie that could end America’s experiment
‘Please don’t make me sound like a cheap tabloid journalist’ ( Rick Morton and The Saturday Paper)
Source: National Times – ‘Please don’t make me sound like a cheap tabloid… | Facebook
If you go to the link provided, you will find a more comprehensive explanation of negative bias. However, I have given you something to think about. Moreover, we must all adjust to the fact that negativity plays a vital part in the election of a government. The reality is that a large cohort of folk thrive on scandals. They prosper on negativity. They believe they are always told the truth even when it is demonstrably not the case.
Our only recourse is to tell the truth; sometimes, more is needed. We must remind everyone of how dreadful the Coalition really was.
Over the decades and with few exceptions, in major U.S. media—notably unlike major media in most of the rest of the world—Chomsky has been persona non grata.
On Friday, the United Nations Security Council voted 13-1 for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and unconditional release of all hostages. The U.S. voted against the resolution. The U.K. abstained. The draft resolution was not adopted due to the U.S. veto.
Source: Chris Hedges: The Evil Israel Does is the Evil Israel Gets – ScheerPost
A philosopher once said:
“The secret of change is to focus all your energy on not fighting the old, but on building the future.”
The Republican Party is in an integrity death cycle. As the GOP is taken over by Trump’s enablers and sycophants, the few remaining principled Republican lawmakers want out. As they depart, the Trump rot spreads.
Republican lawmakers who remain are the most self-aggrandizing and least principled. Which in turn causes the GOP to degenerate further.
Tragically and frighteningly, this means that if Trump regains the presidency, Republican lawmakers in Congress and the states will be even readier to do his bidding.
As the political clock ticks relentlessly, there is little time for substance over optics in parliament Katharine Murphy for the Guardian and The National Times
Source: National Times – As the political clock ticks relentlessly, there… | Facebook
And so, as we hurtle toward authoritarian aristocracy, we must normalize the idea of wealth redistribution. There is no good reason against it, not a single one. We can have either billionaires or democracy, not both.
Source: We Can Have Either Billionaires or Democracy. Not Both. – CounterPunch.org
If I were going to commit a genocide, I’d make sure to kill as many women and children as possible to eliminate the future generations of the people I was trying to wipe out. Come to think of it, I guess I’d basically do what Israel is doing in Gaza.
Source: Caitlin Johnstone: If I Were Going To Commit Genocide
Many conservatives believe that they have the power to shape society in a way that benefits the elite. They see themselves as the superior class, adhering to the principle of the aristocracy or the ‘betters’. They believe that they are natural leaders and the best suited to rule. They feel entitled to all the benefits that society creates as a reward for their superiority.
Considering that we live in a more complex and scientifically advanced world than ever, it seems unrealistic to expect the LNP, with its Luddite principles, to guide us through these complexities. Since the May 21, 2022 election, Labor has been busy correcting the mistakes made by Abbott, Turnbull, and Morrison. Fixing the country’s economy may take years.
Sorry, I cannot swallow this nonsense. Andrew, Michaelia and Gerard should get a grip on themselves.
Anyway, Coalition strategists would know victory next time for them is a huge ask. First-term governments federally very rarely lose.
An appropriate response to Kissinger’s death would be for the U.S. to own up to the entirety of what Nixon and Kissinger wrought.
Source: Henry Kissinger, 1923–2023. War Criminal. | The Smirking Chimp
One of the great lies in the present discourse about Palestine and Israel is the myth of eternal hostility between Jews and Muslims.
Source: It can be another way: Jews and Muslims can live peacefully
In 1948, King Abdullah of Transjordan told Golda Meir: “I believe with all my heart that divine providence has brought you back here [to Palestine and the Middle East], restoring you, a Semitic people who were exiled to Europe and shared in its progress, to the Semitic East which needs your knowledge and initiative. Only with your help and your guidance will the Semites be able to revive their ancient glory. We cannot expect genuine assistance from the Christian world, which looks down on Semitic people. We will progress only as the result of joint efforts.”
Source: Never Forget: Jews and Muslims have Often imagined themselves in History as Siblings and Allies
If both Bruce Lehrmann and Linda Reynolds hadn’t lied and deceived the court during the rape trial, would it have changed the result? I think the ACT need another Inquiry.
As Bruce Lehrmann’s latest defamation case against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson plays out, Michelle Pini examines the hazy world of legal cases surrounding the former Liberal Party staffer.
Source: Bruce Lehrmann ‘lights fires’ in alleged rape cases and assorted legal stoushes
An Industry: Advisers employed to break the backs of ordinary Australians via Tax Fraud
All this follows the raid of Scale Facilitation by the AFP in June over the biggest alleged tax fraud in Australian history.
Scale had established a subsidiary in Malta, with the help of PwC, to reduce its tax exposure in Australia.
Source: Failure at Scale as high-flying Collard company ordered to wind up – Michael West
ASIC is back with new ways to ‘fix things’ following damaging testimony in yet another Senate Estimates hearing this week. Whatever the fix might be, holding Big 4 accountants or big corporates to account is still not in the corporate regulator’s plans. Michael West and Kim Wingerei report.
You could drive a truck through it, no make that a road train – ASIC’s view of itself that is, versus that of its critics.
In this week’s Senate hearing, the Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB) told Senator Deborah O’Neill that ASIC had refused the AASB access to the financial accounts of the Big 4 (EY, PwC, Deloitte and KPMG) because “it might offend”. Instead, the AASB had to purchase the data from a third-party (private) company.
Source: ASIC. Big fat cash-cow or world-class regulator? – Michael West
The desperation shows when the cry of Anti-Semitism is used as a smokescreen to deflect Truth
Actual hatred of Jews absolutely does exist in western society, but it’s much more peripheral than racism toward immigrants and people of colour. You don’t typically see the average westerner espousing a hatred of Jewish people unless they dive down some pretty obscure and fringey rabbit holes that leave them babbling about the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and denying the Holocaust and such nonsense. Jewish people simply are not othered that much in western society compared to other minorities, so if an Israel apologist needs to shout down western criticism of Israeli atrocities as arising from a hatred of Jews, they must necessarily resort to fallacious reasoning.
The Government has just released its ‘Review into Secrecy Provisions’ which contains the greatest assault on democracy and accountability that there’s been in many years.
Source: Michael West Media – investigative journalists – always independent
But if capitalism and its moneyed interests are in charge, those excesses grow to the point where they are able to extinguish democracy and ride roughshod over the common good.
Hence the reason Trump’s neofascism, and the complicity of today’s Republican Party with it, are attracting the backing of some of the richest people in America.
What’s the alternative? A loud pro-democracy movement that fights against concentrated wealth at the top, enormous CEO pay packages, a politically powerful financial sector, and tax cuts for the wealthy and large corporations.
And fights for higher taxes on the top (including a wealth tax) to finance Medicare for all, affordable housing, and accessible child care and elder care.
The willingness to make this a fight — to name the moneyed interests backing neofascism, explain why they’re doing this, and mobilize and energize America against their agenda and in favor of democracy — is critical to winning the 2024 election and preserving and rebuilding American democracy.
Source: The Connection Between Neofascism and Capitalism (and Happy Birthday, Joe!) | The Smirking Chimp
The Albanese Government is refusing to release details of six gas reservation scheme options that could make energy significantly cheaper, arguing for secrecy which serves the interests of multinational gas companies. Transparency warrior Rex Patrick with the story.
Source: Redacted. Gas lobby in lock-step with Government on “secret” gas reservation options – Michael West
What can we take from these figures so far from the next election? Just what has Dutton done to deserve the public’s support? Well, nothing comes to mind. What Newspolls do is provide Murdoch newspapers with a solid base from which to attack Labor. They create stories around their polling that are of little substance or importance.
Source: The mystery of polls is that they tell us nothing – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Francesca Albanese’s powerful address was simple, forthright and based on international law, a consideration of the history in the region, and compassion for our shared humanity. With the UN urging Israel to enact a ceasefire, with people of all backgrounds protesting daily in major capitals around the world, with one thousand Gazan children dying each and every week, the other Albanese’s government – and Australia’s media class – has lacked that clear understanding of history, lacked that clarity around international law, and most devastatingly lacked that compassion for our fellow humans.
Source: Australian media annihilated by someone who knows what they’re talking about – The Shot
The consequence of neutering the ABC and allowing the consolidation of private media has resulted in the media chaos we now experiencing. Privatization has been sold as the big dream but it has only resulted in Oligarchs, a Plutocracy, and a concentration of interests that doesn’t allow diversification to thrive or a political party to serve all citizens the best.
Australia can’t be a functioning democracy unless voters understand policy platforms on offer and the stakes. Unless we properly control dis- and misinformation in the civic space, we have little chance to vote well. Albanese must find a backbone for his own sake as well as the nation’s.
olddogthoughts 
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