Category: Uncategorized
1. Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857
3. Hammer v. Dagenhart (1918)
4. Korematsu v. United States (1944)
5. Citizens United v. FEC (2010)
As for the sixth in this series, which may be the second-worst after Dred Scott, which caused the Civil War, you all know what that is, since it was just issued this week. Dobbs v. Jackson. It is the opening salvo of more such decisions inviting state governments to regulate our genitals and family life, which is the stealth agenda of the allegedly anti-government Republican Party.
When a small clique of unelected ideologues impose their will on 330 million people in a way that offends the vast majority of them, it calls forth a movement. Malcolm X and Martin Luther King each in his own way, coming from Islam and from Christianity, knew what to do about Jim Crow. They organized. Eventually even the Congress became concerned enough to strike down segregation and interference in voting rights. We may need to do the second all over again in this generation. And now there is the challenge of freeing the bodies of American women, and, indeed, of all Americans, from the death grip of the New Puritan Plutocrats.
One guy prosecuted for allegedly running a company while bankrupt, ten Crown directors off scot free for washing $70bn through casinos for Chinese Triads, drug and sex traffickers and other assorted criminals. One rule for rich and powerful, another for the rest. Michael West reports on the world of deluxe double standards.
Crown v Shannon: bigwigs off the hook, small fish fried – Michael West
In a nation where individuals are disposable and not the priority
Because I am a 53-year-old woman. The highest growing demographic for homelessness in Australia and I have had a severe and persistent mental illness for most of my life.
Have I asked for help? Yes! I used to work and teach Community Services and know how to do the research to find and ask for help. Have I been helped? No, I have received no assistance because I am a 53-year-old woman without children and I am the Government and any social services lowest priority. I am looking at least another two years before housing becomes available.
Breaking the cycle of homelessness – » The Australian Independent Media Network
‘Not in my backyard’: Sale of tacos under-regulated in the U.S.
‘Not in my backyard’: Sale of tacos under-regulated in the U.S.
Wow, we really dodged a bullet there!
Well, we put paid to that. We didn’t just restrict the sale of this merchandise. We went right ahead and banned at least 12 French cheeses that were deemed a brazen threat to our general community. In particular, a threat to the safety of our children. Children are precious right?
Because when things are really dangerous, then sensibly you restrict and regulate it okay?
These cheeses that undermine the very fabric of society, with their delicate harmony of aroma and finely developed bacterial sensibilities, such as Roquefort, Bleu de Gax, Mimolette, Morbier, Camembert de Normandie and Brie de Meaux will no longer be permitted to put our children in grave physical danger as has been consistently proven over many a past decade.
Mr Biden said empowering states to ban abortion made the US an outlier among developed nations on protecting reproductive rights.
‘Violence for weeks’ feared after landmark US abortion ruling
Millions of women are now less free than men, in the functioning of their own bodies and in the paths of their own lives
Roe v Wade has been overturned. Here’s what this will mean | Moira Donegan | The Guardian
Right-wing media celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade on Friday, ending the constitutional right to abortion almost 50 years after it had been recognized. The ruling was the culmination of a decadeslong project on the right and was celebrated across conservative media outlets and on Twitter.
How right-wing media reacted to the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade | Media Matters for America
With the end of Roe v. Wade achieved, the fascist right is setting its sights on shutting down all abortion solidarity and assistance.
After Roe, Far Right Plots Fascistic Anti-Abortion Enforcement
A man who has passionately called for governments to get out of people’s lives has somehow ended up in a job that requires him to work with the government every single goddamn day.
It seems to me that to run this argument is to suggest an equivalency exists between the left and the right when there isn’t one.
Trump’s Insurrection Stole the Strategies of Black Lives Matter
Donald Trump never gave a direct order to hang Mike Pence. In fact, Trump didn’t even come up with the specific idea of hanging, but when the insurrectionist mob he sent to the Capitol developed this idea on their own, he was only to happy to roll with it. As Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said during the first night of hearings, Trump responded to the chants of “hang Mike Pence” by saying the rioters “had the right idea” and that Pence “deserves it.”
Source: The Smirking Chimp | News And Commentary from the Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy
On the matter of trust, in March 2022 Roy Morgan published the results on polling undertaken that placed Angus Taylor as the 7th least trusted politician in Australia, placing behind Dominic Perrottet (6th), Craig Kelly (5th), Pauline Hanson (4th), Barnaby Joyce (3rd), Peter Dutton (2nd) and Scott Morrison (1st).
He has struggled with public perceptions that he has put his own, and his family’s, interests before the public interest. We all know that Morrison has damaged the Liberal brand, possibly irrevocably. We know that Peter Dutton had a limited field from which to choose when allocating shadow portfolios.
That does not make Angus Taylor a hopeless choice, but it illustrates the lack of front bench talent, and the question to ask is, is Angus Taylor up to the task? Did he lack the ability to do his last job properly, or was he running dead, to sabotage the transition to renewables? That is the question we must ask ourselves.
As to the Coalition attempting to put together an alternative government, I would question whether Peter Dutton as alternative prime minister, and Angus Taylor as the alternative treasurer, really cuts it. I wouldn’t vote for them in a fit.
Source: Was Angus Taylor running dead, or was he not so bright? – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Australia’s koalas may be doomed unless the new Labor Government implements strong policies to save them, writes Sue Arnold.
Source: Labor needs to lift its game to ensure koala survival
Who thought themselves guilty of an indictable offense?
Americans need to know who sought pardons from former President Donald Trump following the Jan. 6, 2021, siege of the U.S. Capitol, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said Sunday.
What one needs to remember 88% of Americans believe in strict gun control but 88% don’t get that programming they should. The majority of Americans believe there was an attempted coup on Jan 6th with Pence doing his job to prevent it and Trump doing nothing to stop that mayhem. Yet the minority voice is being programmed to megaphone and counter that majority’s voice to that truth as well. American media no longer is the best fit to protect the Constitution and Murdoch leads the revolution to tear it apart.
It shouldn’t be forgotten that Rupert Murdoch fled the UK because he was almost jailed for his transgressions against British media standards. He became an American citizen not for the love of America but the love of his already corrupt business model. He was kicked out of China, Not allowed into Canada or NZ. But has been welcomed into Putin’s Russia.
Facebook is bolstering right-wing media attempts to distract audiences from the first televised hearing from the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Media Matters compiled and analyzed more than 3,200 Facebook posts from U.S. news and politics pages from June 9 and 10 and found that a video from Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight is the top video post about the January 6 committee hearing. The video is also the top performing post overall among right-leaning pages.
I believe it goes back to the Howard Government, when LNG exports first began. Howard gave the gas extractive industry a huge leg-up, by not requiring them to provide for any sort of strategic domestic reserve. They were basically granted a laissez faire, free and unfettered share of the market without accountability to the national interests at the domestic level.
People might screech and whine all they like about a two-week old government confronted by this event. All it means, though, is that regardless of the evidence, nothing will convince an idiot otherwise.
In what he describes as a ‘fact-finding mission’, the Coalition’s new Veterans Affairs spokesperson Barnaby Joyce has set out on a three-year tour that will see him get to personally know the bar facilities of every RSL club in the country.
There’s one guarantee they don’t bother with the ALP, Greens, and Teals. So where does their money go? Politicians and parties that empathize with their more guns, and less control cause. But they, sure as hell do, cosy up to the increasingly extreme right to fire their bullet points. Barnaby Joyce unfortunately will not be in their sights as much as when he was the leader of the Nationals. Mass shootings well, they’re rare and in the above-pictured company not required to be talked about. Fired up: Shooters’ dollars on the rise, including political donations
The shooting at a Texas primary school which resulted in the death of 19 children demonstrates the power of the US firearms lobby. The same forces are at work in Australia, reports Callum Foote.
Scott Morrison is rightly being flayed for the last ignominious act of his campaign. On Saturday he announced that an asylum seeker boat had been intercepted on its way to Australia from Sri Lanka.
The Liberal Party followed this up with a text message mailout. Unforgivably, the Operation Sovereign Borders Commander was dragged into a political campaign. Alas such shenanigans have happened before and will happen again. Australian campaigns are littered with last-minute scare campaigns that went wrong. Generally sprung by the flailing side in the last few days, they are the Aussie equivalent of the ”October Surprise” of US presidential campaign
Source: Another one for the shame file of scare campaigns – Michael West
Blame Kooyong for the rise of the Man from the Monkey-Pod Room. “Keep Josh” sounds reasonable now doesn’t it?.
Dutton didn’t believe the LNP had moved Right enough under Tony Abbott so he gathered those that wanted more of an influence into the Monkey-Pod room the lunchroom meetings. How will the MSM promote him? By putting lipstick on a pig? Will they be believed? They claim if you say things often enough they will. But in the eyes of Australia can this right-wing warrior can be anything but the moronic Qld headbanger we have always known him to be? The worst ever Health, Immigration, Homeland, and Defense Minister?
Dutton has a delicate task ahead if he becomes Liberal leader. If he tacks too far right, he could easily split his own party
This is what News Corpse tried to convince Australia of in the last election. That the ALP, TEAL, and GREENS were divisive and hate parties. Look what happened to them.
The richest person in America tweeted last week that Democrats have “become the party of division & hate, so I can no longer support them and will vote Republican.” Hello? Democrats are the party of division and hate? What planet has Elon been living on?
Source: Bombardment by the Billionaires | The Smirking Chimp
“Nothing to see here,” Conway wrote. “Just a former president of the United States sharing a social media post advocating or predicting civil war in the United States. No biggie.” ( George Conway)
Source: “Any Republicans wanna speak out now?”: Alarm after Trump shares “civil war” post | Salon.com
The face of Community Unity and Democracy. Unity in Diversity
A wave of independent, teal candidates running on climate action and transparency rocked the election – causing major upsets for the Liberal Party.
Source: The teal wave: Meet the women who took on the Liberal Party and won
Keep the bastards honest 1977
I have become disenchanted with party politics as they are practiced in this country and with the pressure groups which have an undue influence on the major political parties. The parties seem to polarise on almost every issue, sometimes seemingly just for the sake of it, and I wonder if the ordinary voter is not becoming sick and tired of the vested interests which unduly influence political parties and yearns for the emergence of a third political force, representing middle-of-the-road policies which would owe allegiance to no outside pressure group. ( Don Chip )
Source: A sullen nation turns its lonely eyes to Albo, but the passion is elsewhere – Michael West
The need for strong action on the climate and environment crisis has never been more pressing, and some of the solutions can only be advanced by politicians. Both sides should be tackling the issue with more urgency, but it’s clear, as a group of scientists pointed out in The Age on Saturday, that between the two major parties, Labor’s policy is significantly better than the government’s.
Source: Election 2022: Labor’s climate change policy easily beats Coalition’s
Summarising Morrison
Leaving aside everything that they’ve done or haven’t done, the Liberals have a pretty impressive pitch which is basically just that: Leave aside everything we’ve done or haven’t done and re-elect us because we can change, but don’t elect Labor because change would be risky at a time like this.
https://www.facebook.com/FriendsOfTheAbc/videos/515679110054706
19h ·
We are live hearing from Kerry O’Brien about the issues at stake for the ABC. Find out from Michelle Rowland, the Shadow Minister for Communications, what policies Labor will implement for the ABC if it wins government.
If there’s a hung parliament, will the Greens and the Independents support the ABC in their negotiations? Sarah Hanson-Young, the Communications spokesperson for the Greens and Independent member for Warringah, Zali Steggall, will outline their positions. Margaret Reynolds, the national President of ABC Friends will address the event by video.
An invitation was also sent to the Minister for Communications, Paul Fletcher.
It might also be seen as a push privately directed by an organized privileged medical group for the state to intervene on their behalf against unwanted truths being revealed. It’s certainly not an action or decision seen handed down to protect unions. Our AG Michaela Cash had the Federal Police raid Media and union offices without any permission in our courts. The Government has been doing much the same things for the past decade in secret to protect themselves.
Former Fairfax Media chief executive Greg Hywood and high-profile investigative journalists Hedley Thomas and Nick McKenzie slammed a judgment forcing The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and 60 Minutes to hand over draft copies of an upcoming television program and newspaper investigation into the cosmetic surgery industry, arguing the ruling would be detrimental to public interest journalism if it became commonplace.
Source: Court order could have chilling effect on Australian journalism
Conslusion: You are What You Do
Political parties are free to say what they like, but it is their actions that define them. No amount of flowery rhetoric can hide the true nature of a political party, which is defined by its policies. The current Australian government may have flowery rhetoric in its beliefs, but, as I hope I have shown here, their actions and policies tell a different story.
Murdoch Media is a great influencer of racism no known as CRT the world over. In Australia, their media anchors are a simile of the head office of Fox News America. So much so, that they were taken off air for trying to broadcast NZ’s Christchurch massacre live. When accusations that they influenced the shooter’s actions Skye News anchors like Andrew Bolt ducked for cover and went to silence for a number of days. The racists they entertained on their programs like Bret Cotteral weren’t given the air time and were exchanged for others. When the going got heavy it’s not unexpected to see once convicted racial vilifier Andrew Bolt Bolt if he needs to face the consequences of his broadcasts.
They are reporting that this maniac uploaded a 106-page document that appears to be influenced by Tucker Carlson and other Fox News and right-wing personas promoting the despicable white supremacist Great Replacement Theory in their programs, often to attack immigration in America.
Source: Great Replacement Theory Reportedly Provoked Buffalo Shooter | Crooks and Liars
Striving for mediocrity in a world of excellence.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has slammed Labor leader Anthony Albanese today over his ‘extreme communist’ proposal to have people’s wages keep up with inflation.
The tiny pay stabilization of $1 has been slammed by Morrison, who dubbed the move as reckless. “It’s just not good economic management,” explained Morrison, “You can’t just hand money out to people that aren’t close mates of the Liberal Party front bench.”
After nine years of corruption, economic ruin and misogyny, the time has come to vote the Coalition out, writes Geoff Dyer.
ON SATURDAY 21 May 2022, Australians will be put to the test. Anything less than a landslide in favour of Labor and integrity-minded Independents would not do justice to the nation.
For nine years, the L-NP Government has dismantled, corrupted, outsourced or sold off the public institutions we rely on.
The L-NP has also purposefully fostered divisions within Australian society. It has promoted misleading media content, made false accusations, stirred up moral outrage wherever it can, regardless of whether it is dealing with genuine issues, and with no care who it damages along the way.
Whether it be gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, place of birth, wealth, or lack of it, the L-NP is eager to weaponise an issue to appeal to the worst in human nature and garner a few votes. Unity, forward planning, addressing community needs and good governance mean nothing when a desperately incompetent political party is willing to sink so low.
Australia has it’s faults too. How is it a Democratic majority system of rule can be so dominated by a minority of interests?
Washington: In a nation where states can make it difficult to vote and every result may be contested, some Americans are asking again: why can’t the US electoral system be more like Australia’s? They envy our centrally organised, independently run system replete with democracy sausages.
Source: Why Australia’s voting system is the envy of Americans
One might well ask ” What is the sound of Surrender” “KEEP JOSH”
Treasurer distances himself from PM over Katherine Deves
Staying with the federal treasurer for a moment, and Josh Frydenberg has distanced himself from the prime minister’s handling of the controversy surrounding hand-picked Liberal candidate for Warringah, Katherine Deves.
Morrison has been called out for being just that, the Great Aussie Bully leading the country with a bunch of right-wing thugs and sycophants Dutton, Taylor, Robert, and Joyce Cash. All have the nuanced negotiating skills of rabies-infected dogs.
Throughout history, the central struggle of civilization has been against brutality by the powerful. Civil society doesn’t let might make right
The election is two weeks away. Unlike in America, there are no fancy FiveThirtyEight-style modelers tinkering with projections and fueling Election Day nightmares. The most prominent weekly poll has remained pretty consistent, showing Albo’s Labor poised to win. (Other polls show the same.) Of course, the last election also predicted a Labor win, and ScoMo, the conservative, eked out a victory. But his lackluster response to Australia’s drumbeat of apocalypse appears to have had a lasting impact, and, like Ted “Cancun” Cruz, he’ll be remembered for skipping town for Hawaii during the country’s worst bushfire crisis. He was lucky that the state governments controlled the basic mechanics of the coronavirus pandemic, sparing Australians the worst outcomes—but voters remember ScoMo’s bumbling excuses for what he could control, the country’s painfully slow vaccine rollout. His reaction to the pandemic can be seen as a scaled study of his government’s response to the bigger and more relentless assault of climate change across the continent.
Source: There’s Something Very Disturbing About Australia’s Very Normal 2022 Elections – Mother Jones
80% Albanese, 20% a Draw
Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese have faced off in a fierce leaders’ debate. Now, our experts deliver their verdicts on the performances of Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese.
Source: Election 2022: Leaders’ debate verdicts from SMH and The Age journalists
Kew is not just a part of Australia but a part of the World and if their Rep J Frydenberg doesn’t represent the majority of Kew or Australia what reason is there to “Keep Josh”? Our concern here in Kew is Climate and government integrity. We’ve seen Frydenberg and his government breaking rules. We’ve seen him walk back on promises and we’ve seen him ignore these major concerns to such an extent he’s helped tarnish our reputation in the World and in the Pacific. Fiji put out the warning long ago that Australia was alienating it’s neighbors and Peter Dutton simply laughed. We witnessed Boomgate way back when Abbott was PM and things haven’t changed.
“Australia and India in that way are similar … from this episode, what should really come out is a lot of awareness,” she said.
“We are talking about India [which] has a population of 1.4 billion people, and all the working class — the daily wage workers who are out there in the field dealing with the heatwave directly — have contributed very little to climate change,” she said. “The onus of reducing emissions is not on India alone.” Back on the burning landfill pile, Sunita has also called for international action to change her life and that of her children’s. “I would like to tell people around the world that there should be a solution for all of this.”
Europe has faced a dilemma in standing up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, since most European countries have tied themselves to Russian methane gas and petroleum imports. These countries are thus funding the very war they rail against. Denmark, for its part, is accelerating the building of two mammoth wind facilities, one on an island in the Baltic Sea and the other on an artificial island in the North Sea. The wind facilities were scheduled to be completed by 2030, but in a declaration of independence from Russian gas, Dan Jørgensen, Denmark’s minister of Climate, Energy and Utilities, has said that his country must “be free of Russian fossil fuels as soon as possible” by moving the schedule substantially up.
Source: Denmark makes Bid for “Putin-Free” Energy by Accelerating Mammoth Artificial Wind Island Plan
1958 proudly proclaimed that one of the distinctions between it and the Labor Party was that the primary obligation of a member of parliament was to the electorate, and that to cross the floor, unlike the tightly caucused Labor Party, was permitted on conscience issues.
The Liberal Party is in coalition with the Nationals. If it wins the election it will be in the same coalition. Can it be trusted to do any more on climate change than prevaricate, obfuscate and avoid meaningful action, as it has done for years? If it requires the support of the centrist independents to govern it will have to change. It will have to take climate change seriously, it will have to honour its discarded commitment to have a corruption commission with teeth, it will have to restore accountability because it will be demanded as the price of being in government. It will have to be in a new parliamentary arrangement with people who are not forced into policy positions against the national interest by the most reactionary elements of the Liberal and National Parties.
Source: Election 2022: The Liberal Party has lost its way, says Fred Chaney
Billboards are bobbing up around Kooyong desperately imploring voters to “Keep Josh”, and we are only at the mid-point of the 2022 election campaign. Thanks, Scott Morrison.
“Mothball Him”
Meanwhile, Labor has sallied forth with its solution to the housing crisis, the government buying a share of peoples’ homes. This despite both parties ignoring, for decades and still now: negative gearing, SMF lurks, a 15-year delay in implementing money-laundering reforms, capital gains relief, and other incentives for property developers.
And talking about the latter, Rupert Murdoch’s front pages this weekend are splashing with dubious numbers in a report by government consultants and donors EY, commissioned by property lobby Master Builders, claiming that cutting red tape – that is, abolishing the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) – will cost us $50bn. How good is a six-week election campaign!
Source: Josh billboard begging, more wacky Rupert scares, Labor to buy you a house – Michael West
Morrison announces a “Lemming’s Promise” and expects us to follow
A Coalition pledge to keep taxes lower will inevitably lead to either budget blowouts, cuts to services or a broken promise, a leading economist has warned.
Source: Economists warn Morrison’s tax pledge guarantees fiscal irresponsibility
Morrison and Aesop’s Fable
It’s a case of the tent preacher leading a ragged bunch of camp followers into town banging his drum promising “miracles” having left disaster behind in his wake. It’s the huckster promising the last 3 years didn’t happen and weren’t his fault that it was the opposition that made him do it. Yes, It’s Morrison the grasshopper leaving our cupboard bare and a bill to pay, and the ant wanting, he, and his team to rebuild it. It’s the hare prancing about like the energizer bunny doing little or nothing while the tortoise has been purposefully moving forward knowing what the race really means It’s not about blind faith or optimism or blind trust but focused rational attention to work changing direction and everyone doing it together for their kids kids.
In a pair of opinion pieces commissioned by The Sun-Herald and The Sunday Age four weeks out from polling day on May 21, both men have laid out their visions for Australia’s future – while emphasising the risks presented by their opponents.
Before we’d even heard of COVID-19, before the first Wuhan bat had shed its first viral load, this government already had the worst fiscal record of any postwar government. Morrison’s debt run-up makes Whitlam, Hawke, Keating and Rudd and Gillard look like skinflints.
The Coalition inherited gross national debt at 20 per cent of GDP. By the time COVID-19 struck, it had run it up to 28. There’d been no crisis, yet it created the biggest load of national debt since 1958, drawing on the budget papers and a 2019 Treasury research paper,A History of Public Debt in Australia, which provides a consistent time series back to 1908.
Today? The Morrison-Frydenberg gross national debt is 42.5 per cent of GDP. Peak Whitlam was 24.5. Peak Hawke-Keating was 24. Peak Rudd-Gillard Government debt was 20.
Source: Election 2022: Morrison a failure in fields he claims to have mastered and jury still out on Labor
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