I sure hope Leigh Sales takes Barnaby up on his offer to come back and identify these huge onshore reserves that no-one else knows about.And if I was a state premier, I would be having a very serious conversation with the Federal government about how telling lies for political purposes is not helping the nation.
Source: Show us the gas, Barnaby – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Deputy Labor leader’s Light on the Hill address highlights growing inequality and takes aim at same-sex marriage postal survey
In an article titled Inside the terrifying mind of Tony Abbott, Bernard Keane quotes a study from 2015 which looks into the psychological basis for climate change denial and why one particular demographic — older white males — tends to dominate the ranks of climate denialists. The study identified that “denial is driven partly by…
Fifty years ago, the film Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner challenged social norms by exposing the discrimination faced by inter-racial couples. In those days, it was considered ‘unnatural’ for whites to marry blacks. Some people may still feel this way but the wider community has thankfully and rightly moved on from such ignorant prejudice. It…
Source: That’s the story of, that’s the glory of love – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Besides being a pathological liar, Tony Abbott is a noted pugilist who in the past has thrown a few himself, particularly at women.At university he kicked in a glass panel door when defeated in an election.Referred to a women Chairperson as “Chairthing”.He was accused of assaulting a women at University and later acquitted. He was defended by a QC and the girl defended herself.Another women accuses him of throwing punches at her. And hitting either side of a wall she was standing against. He says it never happened but others collaborated her story.He threatens to punch the head in of Lindsay Foyle who disagreed with him on a women’s right to an abortion.In 1978 a young teacher by the name of Peter Woof bought assault charges against Abbott. He punched him in the face. It never went anywhere. Abbott was represented by a legal team of six and the young man could not afford to defend himself.And he did punch out Joe Hockey’s lights during a rugby match.
And after 18 months of appalling governance Abbott the then Prime Minister could not lay claim to any policy that has progressed the nation. His leadership was abysmal and his Ministers were found wanting with a litany of failures in, education, health, environment and the economy. Turnbull’s government has been no better.Both Abbott/Turnbull governments had enough diplomas to staff a university, but both were so intent on implementing a warped right-wing ideology, with a baseless mandate, that they forgot that policies actually mattered. They governed with propaganda calculated to make you feel good about the wrongs being perpetuated on you.
Thursday 21 September 2017 Never in the history of politics have Australians elected a man so unqualified in the area of science as Tony Abbott. Having demonstrated on many occasions his inability to grasp “Climate Science” and the “NBN” he remains a Luddite of the first order. Now before you point your finger at my…
By using energy storage with solar panels, homeowners were able to go off-grid, showing how distributed power could speed future storm recovery.
Experts say that, rather than lots of evidence, there is no evidence, here or overseas, to show that mandatory testing will help unemployed drug addicts receive treatment and find jobs.
As Turnbull theatrically struts around throwing out childish taunts like Blackout Bill and No Coal Joel, it should be remembered that it isn’t Labor who has changed their support for emissions reduction and renewable energy.You cannot privatise an essential utility and then create such uncertainty that the industry effectively grinds to a halt.Our energy crisis can be laid squarely at the feet of a divided Coalition whose own power struggles over the last decade have made it impossible for them to come up with any sort of enduring policy.
The ways in which information that is freely available to all, is being ignored both by politicians and media outlets, demonstrates that no matter how well educated we are, we will continue to play right into the hands of those who are really running the country, unless we take a greater interest in what our government and their media allies are doing.
Source: When Bullshit Baffles Brains – » The Australian Independent Media Network
The outrage follows a similar incident in June when a single parent at St Justin’s Catholic primary school in Sydney claimed “emotional abuse” because of an educational program about the Stolen Generation.As part of a role-playing exercise, students were told their parents were not looking after them properly and the government had ordered they be taken away from their parents..”
“Imagine the outrage of these parents would feel if German where Children in primary schools are regularly taken to concentration camps to be reminded of their inglorious history. In fact today’s German parents in the main welcome the truth of thei past being taught and not hidden. We have hidden our Brutish Colonial past and seem to have retained the attitudes that went with it. (Old Dog)
Source: Perpetual outrage about nothing – » The Australian Independent Media Network
I know we are supposed to show respect to the NO side in the marriage equality debate but for how long? When Robert Menzies introduced the Marriage Act in 1961, a Country Party senator wanted to change the act to define marriage as being between a man and a woman. The amendment was voted down…
Saturday 9 September 2017 Have you ever written something and felt that you hadn’t finished what you intended to say? Such was the case after I had completed my Friday post; “Out of gas, steam, and no energy for gay marriage.” When I reread it later it seemed empty of conclusion. Now that the High…
Source: Day to Day Politics: Words left unsaid. – » The Australian Independent Media Network
By Christian Marx In case you have been living under a rock or living on a diet of Rupert Murdoch, you will be aware of the massive underemployment and unemployment problem enveloping Australia, and indeed the rest of the Western world. This has not occurred by accident. It has been implemented strategically and systematically by…
Source: The Great Australian Swindle – » The Australian Independent Media Network
That bastion of bigotry and bullshit, Miranda Devine, informed us last year that Cheltenham Girls High School had banned the use of gender specific terms like “girls”, “women” or “ladies” and that teachers were told “that if they did not support decisions of LGBTI students they would be breaking the law, would be considered homophobic and were not welcome by the school”.The story was a lie.Every year we hear that Christmas carols have been banned and every year it is shown to be another lie.The Coalition for Marriage aired an ad where mother Cella White, an avid campaigner against the Safe Schools program, tells viewers that her son’s school told him “he could wear a dress next year if he felt like it”.Except it never happened.
The Coalition have made their strategy quite clear. They are delving back to the 50s for a reds-under-the-bed scare campaign. Turnbull said Shorten was “thoroughly Stalinist”. Matthias Cormann waffled on about Cold War socialism and “socialist revisionism”, whilst, ever the adherent to today’s talking points, Dan Tehan accused Shorten of being a “would-be East German”…
Source: Attacking the ‘socialist left’ is a hard sell – » The Australian Independent Media Network
The Truthdig columnist sits down with Tyrel Ventura and Tabetha Wallace to discuss violence between the alt-right and antifascist (“antifa”) movements.
Sunday 3 September 2017 I well recall in 2013 when Tony Abbott faced the ABC’s most capable and ferocious interviewer, Kerry O’Brien, about the benefits of the NBN. He was later to appoint Malcolm Turnbull to destroy it because he didn’t think it served any real purpose other than watching pornography. Anyway, on this night…
Indian journalist Gaurav Tyagi charts the rise of Adani, its links to corruption and its proposed coal mines in Australia.
Source: The ‘crony capitalist’: Understanding Adani — an Indian perspective
Data from Australia’s longest-running lifestyle survey shows an overwhelming tide of support toward the rights of same-sex couples within Australian society.
We’re all supposed to be equal before the law, but you ain’t anything like equal if they can afford a lawyer and you can’t.
Source: Defeated by high legal costs: the terrible injustice most of us could face
Trump promised to drain the swamp. . . now he is surrounding himself with starving alligators expecting welfare
Source: Dear Trump voter – Salon.com
“In the past two decades, just three people have died as victims of terrorist attacks (broadly defined) in Australia. They were the two victims of the Martin Place siege and the NSW police accountant Curtis Cheng.”
In the same time period, 60,000 people suicided, 24, 700 died in road accidents and 1600 were killed by their partner.
But by all means, let’s pretend terrorism is Australia’s Big Scary Thing.
More Australians have died at the hands of police, lawfully or unlawfully, in 10 years, than from terrorist attacks in Australia in the past 20 years.
Source: The threat of terrorism in Australia is a scam that costs us dearly
When newly elected secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, Sally McManus, defended the right of unions to take unlawful industrial action, there was outrage. Leigh Sales opened with the loaded question “Do you believe in the rule of law?” “It shouldn’t be so hard for workers in our country to be able to…
According to a recent survey commissioned by Australian Seniors Insurance Agency, 86 per cent of people over 50 believed “having to be politically correct all the time” was ruining society, and 86.6 per cent said it was “inauthentic”. The first thing that struck me when reading that was why an insurance agency would be asking…
In my opinion, the more diverse, tolerant, inclusive and accepting our society is, the safer we are. People come here knowing what the country is like – why would they try to change it into the country they have left? We are all different. We all have something to offer if accepted and encouraged to do so. We don’t have to look alike or have the same beliefs or eat the same foods.Problems arise when people feel alienated or isolated – all people, not just migrants. It’s no fun when people keep putting you down, not because you have done anything wrong, for just being who you are.
Source: Let’s talk about immigration – » The Australian Independent Media Network
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – In his unhinged news conference on Tuesday, Trump equated what he …
Source: Fascism in Charlottesville: Why it had a monopoly on violence & Intimidation
Steve Bannon ran, and is still likely pulling the strings at, Breitbart, the “Stormfront” in a business suit with a skinny tie. Bannon once characterized it as enabling what he called the “alt right,” by which he meant a slightly more presentable version of the skinheads, KKK, bikers, Neo-Nazis and other far right fringe supremacist groups that might appeal to today’s youth, including the educated.Breitbart has been wildly successful, since conspiracy theories, race resentment, Islamophobia, misogyny and other base emotions have a visceral appeal.I would argue that the success of the Neo-Neo-Nazis calling themselves “alt-” lies in an unconscious class dilemma that they displace onto
I would argue that the success of the Neo-Neo-Nazis calling themselves “alt-” lies in an unconscious class dilemma that they displace onto race.That is, not only must Trump dump Bannon, but so should the youth protesters who have been misled by Breitbart fake news. They should turn instead to a different challenger of the status quo, Bernie Sanders
Source: Bannon must go, but after that, Protesters should listen to Bernie | Informed Comment
When the consumer price index is dissected, the real problem is the rate of increases.
Source: Ross Gittins: ‘Why the cost of living is not as high as you think’
Tabcorp was fined $45 million in March for breaching money laundering laws 108 times over five years. AUSTRAC boasted at the time that the ruling was the largest civil penalty in Australian corporate history. Applying the same standard to the 53,760 breaches Commonwealth Bank is accused of would see it staring down the barrel of a $22 billion penalty.
Just to be clear, political correctness is “the avoidance of forms of expression or action that are perceived to exclude, marginalize, or insult groups of people who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against.”Tony seems fixated on protecting the Aussie right to sink the boot in and to keep the bastards out of our pubs – oh no, wait…. that was women and Aboriginals.Tony’s concern for religious freedom comes from the man who thought the burqa should be banned, the man who called for a “religious revolution” inside Islam, declaring “all cultures are not equal”, the man whose government insisted the school chaplaincy program must not fund non-religious counsellors, the man who insists that our laws and our school curriculum should be based on some “Judeo-Christian” heritage.
”Tony seems fixated on protecting the Aussie right to sink the boot in and to keep the bastards out of our pubs – oh no, wait…. that was women and Aboriginals. the man who insists that our laws and our school curriculum should be based on some “Judeo-Christian” heritage.
“History Repeats: Abbott walks in the shoes of Bob Santamaria and the NCC Australia’s answer to America’s Senator McCarthy hunting out the godless left and others ” Old Dog
Source: Freedom of speech? You gotta be shitting me – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Can any of our politicians tell us what the ‘national interest’ is? We have no clear economic policy, population policy, employment policy or immigration policy
During the 2013 election campaign, Joe Hockey was asked “Should you win the election, at what stage will you own the economy and at what stage will it no longer be Labor’s fault?” He responded “We will own the economy from day one, whether it’s Labor’s fault or not… I’m not afraid to accept responsibility…
1 In a doorstop interview on a cold and winter day in Canberra the former Prime Minister Tony Abbott made his intentions known as to how he will campaign for the ‘NO’ vote.He intends linking it to free speech.He intends linking it to political correctness.He intends linking it to freedom of religion.It wasn’t my intention to continue with this subject today but I recalled when working on the Republic campaign in 1999 just how dangerous Tony Abbott was. John Howard played good cop and Abbott and Nick Minchin played bad cops.They did so by scare-mongering, lying and fabricating impossible situations like riots with alsatians in the streets.His intention is clear. He will if he can turn the plebiscite into a public brawl on these unrelated issues. He will try to drag Turnbull into an ideological demarcation dispute – separating the right and left of his party.In meat in the middle of Abbott’s sandwich will be lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people whose emotional wellbeing he gives not a thought.How on earth the three things he mentioned are related to a question about marriage equality are beyond me, but the devious Abbott – who couldn’t lie straight in bed – will find a way.
Source: Day to Day Politics: Abbott makes his intentions known. – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Wednesday 9 August 2017 So the best-assembled brains-trust ever in the history of Australian politics has decided to let the issue of Marriage Equality go yet again down the path of a plebiscite. So desperate they are to have the public confirm what is already known that they are prepared to spend up to $170…
The strategy of the marriage equality opponents in the Coalition is to retain the conservative status quo at all costs.
Source: Turnbull takes a dive for his conservative colleagues on marriage equality
Bill Shorten needs to be better prepared with some specifics when asked about Labor’s plan for job creation. Obvious answers are the renewable energy industry and building infrastructure but there is one Labor initiative that never rates a mention that will create jobs in every part of Australia – the NDIS. In July, the Productivity…
Source: Labor should get specific about job creation – » The Australian Independent Media Network
The government is trying to sell us the line that, if businesses make more profit, wages will go up. This flies in the face of all evidence. Corporate profits in Australia rose 6.0 percent quarter-on-quarter to 82.63 AUD billion, an all time high, in the March quarter of 2017 from a 20.1 percent rise…
Source: Record corporate profit has seen record low wage growth – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Thursday 3 August 2017 When the lady with the awful hairdo uttered these villainous words of inequity … ”There is no such thing as society. There are only individuals making there are only individuals making their way” (paraphrased) … and when the second-rate actor aligned his politics with the Christian Right, the scene was set for…
Australia’s own version of Seven Up shows conditions slipping.
Source: HILDA. Why we’re suddenly concerned about inequality. Things have stopped getting better
Tuesday 1 August. One of the central tenants of the ideology of conservatism is that change should only ever be incremental. It is totality unsuited to a modern society where technology and a newly awakened benefit of the benefits of science is driving change at a relentless pace. But it is not only technology that…
Although America’s right-wing plutocrats may disagree about how to rank the country’s major problems – for example, inequality, slow growth, low productivity, opioid addiction, poor schools, and deteriorating infrastructure – the solution is always the same: lower taxes and deregulation, to “incentivize” investors and “free up” the economy. President Donald Trump is counting on this package to make America great again.
Source: Why Tax Cuts for the Rich Solve Nothing | By Joseph Stiglitz | Common Dreams
“Success in creating Artificial Intelligence would be the biggest event in human history. Unfortunately, it might also be the last, unless we learn how to avoid the risks. In the near term, world militaries are considering autonomous-weapon systems that can choose and eliminate targets.” We humans, Hawking adds, “are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete and would be superseded by AI” In short, the robots race out of control, become self-actuating and are not held back by any moral boundaries.
Source: Can the World Defend Itself from Omnicide? | By Ralph Nader | Common Dreams
Friday 28 July 2017 When I was studying for my Dip of Fine Arts I often used to say when we were discussing its history that ”Art in all its forms is but a reflection of society”. A “class” fascination for me was trying to identify the political leanings of my fellow students. Invariably when…
Source: Day to Day Politics: What does art say about politics? – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Back in 2001, Four Corners did a program on the working poor called Going Backwards, where they quoted the statistic that 42 per cent of Australians living in poverty lived in families where one or both adults work.Then Employment Minister, Tony Abbott, summed up the Coalition view.“I’m prepared to accept that lots of people in work are doing it tough. But that’s true of lots of people at — on comparatively good incomes because they have heavier responsibilities.”Lord knows, keeping up with the lifestyle in the Northern and Eastern suburbs of Sydney can be expensive. Even people who score a job that requires no qualifications, no experience and no expertise, that pays in the top 1% of incomes and that allows you to charge your employer for pretty much everything, can struggle because of their “higher responsibilities”.
Source: Coalition advice for the poor – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Media commentary research shows that the Murdoch press is the major contributor to this supposed idea of class warfare. The Financial Review has recently run 10 articles on this theme. The Daily Telegraph 21 and The Australian 77. Add to that a few disgruntled Labor hacks that couldn’t get their own way and you can identify who is leading the chorus. But us, well we seem to be leaderless.
Friday 21 July 2017 When in February of 2016 I was invited to write a piece for the US political blog Crooks and Liars about Donald Trump I did so with the thought innermost in my mind that he would drift from the American psyche long before the Republican Convention. He would never become President.…
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