In news that should surprise nobody (but which is really encouraging to have quantified in some numbers), a study of 17 US counties has concluded that if Donald Trump has held a rally there, coronavirus infections spike 82% of the time.
The President of the United States is a disease vector. Pass it on.
The fact is the LNP has increasingly modelled itself on the GOP and its transactional politics. It threw Democratic values out the door long ago (ODT)
On paper, America’s process for selecting judges is proofed against partisanship and corruption, while ours is open to all kinds of malfeasance. Yet in practice it’s a different story altogether.
Some Hong Kong and Taiwan people support the Trump administration’s China policy But experts caution that it’s Congress, not Mr Trump, that is pressuring China Experts say Joe Biden is not expected to present a stark change in US foreign policy on China
Just as Trump has a rusted on ‘base’, which lets him feel he is universally worshipped – except by the foolish few who believe ‘fake’ news – so, too, has the Coalition enabled Morrison to believe he is doing a good job of managing the economy, the country and our place in the world
Brookfield’s make-up artists are hard at work. They’ve taken “coal” out of the title, hired every broker in town to flog the thing and, in the most telling move, are rushing to get the deal done before the end of the year. Michael West reports on the ASX float of Dalrymple Infrastructure, which looks set to siphon off Aussie cash to an offshore haven, with yield-hungry retirees paying the price.
It’s both comical and disconcerting to see the Prime Minister huffing and puffing over a few, admittedly expensive, gold watches. As news of Australia Post CEO Christine Holgate’s up-market gifts for her senior executives surfaced this week, Morrison was apparently incensed.
Former PM Kevin Rudd has sought a royal commission into the Murdoch family’s influence on Australian democracy. Founder and director David Donovan explains how the Murdochs have subverted Australia’s frail democracy for over a century. THE IMPACT of the Murdochs on Australian politics is no new thing. It is in their blood and seemingly regarded as their birthright. This power to manipulate the Australian people through the information they are allowed to receive has, in fact, spanned three generations.
If Trump wins, expect to see dangerously unqualified ideologues in charge of the FBI, CIA, Pentagon and other key posts. There will be kangaroo court trials of Clinton, Obama, Biden and anyone else on the Fox News target list. There will be more comprehensive purges across government of career civil servants in favor of culture war inquisitors. The intelligence and immigration services will likely be converted into a secret police persecuting liberals and protesters (even more than they have been historically), and Trump will do all he can to use the full might of the military against civilian opposition.It is an unthinkable nightmare from which it would take generations to awaken–and America has just nine days left to stop it.
A crossbench plan to implement a federal anti-corruption commission has lit a fire under the federal Coalition and upped pressure on Scott Morrison to act on mounting government rorts.
In refusing to introduce acceptable air pollution standards, Australia’s politicians are essentially saying our lives and health do not matter, writes David Ritter.
As Donald Trump sees it, “We are leading the World in Economic Recovery.” Yet, less than two weeks before election day, the economy is weaker than he will ever acknowledge. The number of employed Americans in September was still 7 percent below the levels in February: Eight months into the pandemic, 10.7 million fewer people have jobs than before COVID-19. Those job losses are more than twice as great as those seen eight months into the Great Recession. And ominously for the president’s political fortunes, the recovery has not reached millions of Americans whose votes he most needs to win. Jobs issues could well imperil Trump’s reelection hopes, especially in critical swing states.
Perhaps though, what has annoyed the lynch mob most is that Andrews’ strategy for controlling the spread of COVID-19 in Victoria has worked. The number of cases has been falling steadily. This past weekend, record low figures were achieved. As a result, restrictions have been eased, as promised, with more to come next weekend. Whatever he does though, it will never be right, never enough for his detractors. The painful reality for the lynch mob though is that Andrews has stared them down, and they don’t like it. This daily inquisition is demeaning, unnecessary, unbecoming, and a pox on our politics. It must now stop.
Martha MacCallum, Fox News executive editor and anchor of The Story with Martha MacCallum, pushes right-wing narratives, pro-Trump talking points, and Republican spin during her on air appearances on Fox News. Part of the so-called “straight news” division, MacCallum has featured heavily in the network’s election coverage, as well as its promotional material, alongside anchor Bret Baier. Network executives have relied on the “straight news” operation to deflect criticism of the extreme racism and propaganda spewed nightly by opinion hosts like Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham in an effort to deter advertisers from fleeing their toxic programming.
Facebook Twitter Reddit Email Why are Havana’s food markets so empty? For the Cuban people, the U.S. War on Venezuela stands out as a clear culprit contributing to these daily frustrations and hardships.
Donald Trump considers any election in which he is not the “winner” to be null and void. Trump’s appointment of Amy Coney Barrett to the United States Supreme Court is an obvious quid pro quo to secure his “reelection” if his attorneys and other agents can sufficiently sabotage the vote on Election Day and beyond.
California’s top election official is investigating reports that the state’s Republican Party has set up unauthorized ballot drop boxes posing as “official” in several major counties, an illegal practice that could deceive voters into depositing their ballots at unsecure locations.
Paul Sakkal
By Paul Sakkal
October 12, 2020 — 8.30am
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The virus that causes COVID-19 can last up to 28 days on surfaces like mobile phone and ATM screens, much longer than previously thought, but lasts for much less time on softer surfaces, new CSIRO research shows.
While the Green New Deal argues for a “just transition” for fossil fuel industry workers, a new study shows few such workers have heard of the term. Workers can play a decisive role in greening the economy — but only if their own concerns and expertise are central to the transition process.
THE COMPLETE FAILURE of the Morrison/Frydenberg Budget to address the catastrophic state of Australia’s environment is well demonstrated by the user guide in the budget paper for agriculture, water and environment portfolio (page 9). Not one mention of biodiversity.
Frydenberg’s budget, based on discredited “trickle down” economics, misses an opportunity to restructure our economy, weakened by seven years of Coalition mismanagement.
Whether he recovers or not, Trump’s presidency is moribund; so utterly corrupted it is rotten to the core. Mendacity and recklessness are two of its worst traits, notes Frank Bruni. Add a third: Trump’s petty tyranny. If you wanted the boss to be happy, you left your mask at home, report Annie Karni and Maggie Haberman of The White House’s top-down culture of fear. A staff too frightened to displease their boss cannot tell him the hard truths he needs to know. In the end, this is the illness that has undone Trump. He is the architect of his own decline.
The lesson of Donald Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis is not that he deserved it or that anyone should celebrate — it’s that you can’t pretend that the basic laws governing the universe don’t apply to you forever.
Joe Biden in their work, but while he made a few statements that registered as not quite right, he was well within the norm of accuracy for 90 minutes of speaking without notes. Trump, on the other hand, was off the charts. According to Dale, “There were times, particularly during the conclusion of the debate, when almost every comment from Trump was inaccurate.”
“A serious tax cheat” is how his biographer David Cay Johnston describes Donald Trump. Johnston reports on the New York Times investigation into the finances of the US president, revealing Trump has previously lost two income tax fraud trials.
Worst-case predictions say Greenland will be melting 600 per cent faster than its present rate by the end of the century That alone could add around 30 centimetres to sea levels, without accounting for Antarctic melting Cutting our emissions rapidly buys us time to adapt to rising sea levels
While Ms Herriford’s lemonade stand did make a profit last year, she wanted to be clear that she does have a loan owing to her mother worth $14 – around $439,999,986 less than the loans owed by the Trump Organisation.
“He’s in a very precarious financial situation,” Painter said. “And we don’t know who the creditors really are. Because if Deutsche Bank makes a loan, you have no idea whether Deutsche Bank has the risk attached to that loan, or whether somebody else has made a commitment to Deutsche Bank to take on a piece of that, or all of it.” That poses national security and other risks to the United States and also highlights the legal and financial uncertainty Trump and his web of businesses may face if he loses in November. “When he’s not president anymore, we don’t know what’s going to happen,” Painter said. “And neither does he, so he wants to stay in order to continue to prop those businesses up. The minute he’s out, I think the loans could get called. And there could be a lot of investigations.”
Hartcher seems to use the Swedish and Freedom House studies as an opportunity to focus yet again on China as the worlds worst regime. When one could have easily have said China has done more than any other country to deregulate and allow it’s citizens freedoms and conditions they never previously had. Where as we are increasingly being surveilled and our privacy shredded like never before. China has educated, extended the life expectancy housed and provided work for more of it’s citizens can we say the same? We can’t even say we are proud of the social metrics that indicate we have improved the lives of Australia’s Indigenous people the most incarcerated people not just in Australia but the world. (ODT)
One of the things that slipped by unnoticed this year was some troubling news about the state of democracy. While the world was busy with the pandemic, a Swedish research group published its annual study of the health of democracy worldwide.The topmost countries in the Varieties of Democracy report are Denmark, Estonia and Sweden. Australia ranks the 14th freest nation, the US No. 36 and China 174th out of 179. The only countries ranked lower are among the world’s hell holes of suffering and repression – Syria, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Eritrea and North Korea. Australia turns out to be a beacon of liberty in a darkening world. But the metatrend towards illiberalism means that even the freest countries need to work on renewing their democracies.
New analysis reveals the government intends to cut billions of dollars from university research, while re announcing funds from elsewhere in the budget The government’s proposed changes to higher education funding will cut $2 billion a year from university research budgets, according to new analysis prepared by the sector’s peak body.
I suspect the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg means Donald Trump will win November’s US election. You might think conversely that it favours Joe Biden, and you might even be right. What interests me is that everyone agrees her death is hugely significant.
An unprecedented leak of thousands of files from the US government’s most confidential financial intelligence database has shone a spotlight on the world’s $2 trillion-a-year dirty money habit. As Nathan Lynch reveals, this story goes much deeper than the glib “bad bankers” narrative being trotted out by the world’s media.
“The whole world is focused on China now; it’s actually the defining story of our age,” Grant said. “It’s probably the thing that is most going to set the course of the 21st century: the emergence of an authoritarian superpower like China, which is on track to become the most powerful economy in the world and by some measures already is, set against what is seen as a weakening of democracy in the world and certainly a more damaged United States.”
As Australia-China relations continue to plummet and talk of a new Cold War intensifies, how much do we really know of a nation that is set to define the 21st century?
Forget about holding a Supreme Court seat open like in 2016 — because Republicans are in charge now
As soon as the news broke of the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at age 87, a number of right-wing media voices urged the rapid confirmation of a new justice — while the presidential election is less than seven weeks away.
Switzer seems to have ignored totally the sudden origins of the current hostilities. The benefit it has for Trump’s American domestic politics. How the LNP has dependantly fallen into step behind Trump and How Murdoch and our media have amplified a state of affairs as was done in the 60’s to take us into a real and physical war Vietnam one we should have ignored.
China certainly hasn’t been proactive but understandably reactive to it’s sovereign right to progress (ODT)
The Sino-American rivalry is likely to be the defining feature of international relations in the century ahead and it’s mainly going to take place in our neighbourhood. This is not a welcome development by any means, but it is our future.Why can’t our leaders just repair relations with China? If only Canberra toned down its rhetoric, restored a dialogue and rebuilt trust with Beijing, all would be well. Instead, the federal government needlessly provokes our largest trade partner by implementing foreign interference laws, rejecting the Huawei 5G network bid, and calling for an inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus.
Trump says the “best” Scientists in the world are wrong spreading the confusion division and chaos around Covid in the USA. Who would want to “buy American” when Trump says the best are wrong? (ODT)
One of the United States’ top health officials has contradicted President Donald Trump’s promise for a coronavirus vaccine by mid-October, telling Congress it may not be available until well into next year.
Years ago the “I see no evil, I hear no evil, I speak no evil” 3 wise monkeys ornaments were frequently on display. Abbreviate that to “Blind, Deaf, Dumb”, drop the word ‘wise’ and use the modern connotation of Dumb as being Stupid, and you have summed up Morrison.
“I thought I’d find it funny watching this, but instead it’s just chilling: as the West Coast faces a climate catastrophe, the president laughs at them and denies the problem exists.
We were always told what to think; what is correct and what is wrong. By the white dudes living in or coming from Europe and North America. They knew everything. They were the most qualified.
Morrison hasn’t moved on from “on the water matters” and ” Matter of National Security” That is the Morrison LNP Government other than the of course Abbott’s blame game. They can fight as they have the help of the IPA and Murdoch but they can’t and don’t govern as they have no plan. As a consequence their eye is firmly fixed on Trump (ODT)
Rejecting the premise or the characterisation of the question points to trickiness and deceit. Taking the time to provide an explanation is much more open and a discussion around why the question was inane, irrelevant or pointless demonstrates there is nothing to hide. While we have seen traces of real leadership and communication during the current pandemic period, at this stage it is certainly too soon to be able to call most of our political ‘leaders’ authentic leaders and communicators. We have an opportunity to embed a ‘new normal’ in political and business life into the future — our future leaders need to answer the question rather than reject or deflect them. Who knows, they might engender trust if they do.
