The former New South Wales director of public prosecutions, Nicholas Cowdery, has questioned the use of the fixated persons unit to arrest a 21-year-old producer for the Friendlyjordies YouTube comedy channel.
Category: Uncategorized
Israel’s “change coalition” facilitated, then criticized a Jewish supremacist rally in East Jerusalem, where Palestinians were threatened by racists and assaulted by the police. Robert MackeyRobert Mackey June 17 2021, 7:25 a.m.
Source: Israel’s New Leaders Facilitate, Then Criticize Racist Rally
My thought for the day. “I feel people on the right of politics in Australia show an insensitivity to the common good that goes beyond any thoughtful examination. They have a hate on their lips, and their hate starts with the beginning of a smile.”
PS: In its wisdom (or cruelty), the government granted the Tamil family community detention, which in reality is no decision at all, just an extension of its problem (or misery). This should be of no surprise given their attitude to such matters.
I believe that l have not fully covered my argument in this piece, so l will continue on this theme in my next post. Your comments might be of some assistance.
Source: What’s it all about, Albo? Morrison or you? – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Prime Minister Morrison would probably claim that it was his Coalition Government’s inspired leadership that was responsible for our good fortune. It’s not. Morrison’s Government chose to directly manage two parts of the response to COVID-19, aged care as well as vaccine procurement and distribution. Both have been botched. The Federal Health Department records that out of the 910 deaths in Australia, 685 of them were in aged care homes funded and under the direction of the Federal Government. It is certainly the case that residents in aged care homes often have other medical issues that could have increased the mortality rate, however low wages, casualisation of employment and the need for multiple jobs across aged care providers (all apparently Coalition policy) certainly didn’t contain infections to one facility.
Source: It’s not dumb luck. Is it more sinister? – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Bruce Pascoe’s Dark Emu will continue to be granted recognition, if not immortality. But Sutton and Walshe’s Dark Emu Debate will undoubtedly be acclaimed. As a critique of Pascoe’s book, it’s just about perfect — a volume with the twin virtues of rigour and readability.
Reporting on Friday revealed that Facebook knowingly allowed a digital marketing firm tied to a pro-Trump group to release a series of ads purporting to be from a fake left-wing organization ahead of the 2018 midterm elections, while election officials failed to investigate the group at the time. As The Guardian reported, a right-wing marketing firm called Rally Forge ran a $5,000 ad campaign beginning just days before the 2018 election, showing ads promoting Green Party candidates in an effort to split the Democratic vote and help Republicans in several close races. The ads were purported to be placed by a group called America Progress Now and expressed support for democratic socialism.
Source: Facebook allowed pro-Trump group to pose as leftists in attempt to split Democratic vote | Salon.com
There are a lot of totally gormless, Murdoch-manipulated, ill-informed intellectual midgets out there who keep voting for the worst, most callously inhumane, ineffective and corrupt regime – the LNP – over and over again! Tragically, it is these unspeakably stupid fools who believe everything they inhale from the twisted, totally biased, lying Murdoch press who keep propping up cruel, totally inept, misogynistic, self-serving, smug and elitist politicians – like Abbott and the current totally inept, smirking dullard, Morrison, who has a long, notorious history of taking credit for the hard work, blood, sweat, toil and good ideas and achievements of other people! Sadly, it is likely to happen again until gormless LNP voters attempt to learn more and research the backgrounds of the notorious types of ruthless psychopaths they put into power. In my experience there are three sorts of people who vote for the LNP:
Source: Scott Morrison: Who’s he trying to impress? – » The Australian Independent Media Network
AuthorAustralian Labor Party This is what Australia’s Health Minister genuinely believes – https://www.buzzfeed.com/markdistefano/hunt-healthcare-us
BUZZFEED.COMNew Health Minister Used Maiden Speech To Call For US-Style HealthcareNew Health Minister Used Maiden Speech To Call For US-Style Healthcare
Australian Labor Party
1t5ShpconSssmoried · Is this what Greg Hunt meant when he said he thinks Australia should move to a US-style healthcare system? Scott Morrison and the Liberals are not on your side.
Popular support for Prime Minister Scott Morrison has fallen sharply amid Victoria’s COVID-19 lockdown, the poor vaccine rollout and disputes about quarantine facilities. But the latest Newspoll, which was released on Sunday night in The Australian newspaper, shows the two major parties locked 50-50 on a two-party-preferred basis despite the primary vote of both parties remaining the same. Conducted with 1506 voters between June 2 and June 5, the poll found the Coalition’s primary vote of 41 per cent remains unchanged since April and on par with its May 2019 election victory. Labor’s primary vote of 36 is also unchanged from the last poll, but close to three points better than its election performance.
Source: Support falls for PM Scott Morrison as Coalition regains lost ground
The Coalition is cracking down on charitable organisations. However, the Australian charity promoting arms deals on behalf of weapons makers that profit from humanitarian catastrophes is unlikely to be in the government’s sights. With the weapons expo LandForces wrapping up in Brisbane this week, Michelle Fahy delves into the charity behind LandForces.
Source: Landforces’ brothers in arms: how a weapons peddler qualified for charitable status – Michael West
Every time Israel bombs Gaza into smithereens, it is left to others to try to rebuild. The European Union, Qatar, and even the Biden administration are offering aid. (The US is giving a piddling $150 million; even tiny Qatar is pledging $500 million.)
But the filibuster, a Senate rule requiring 60 votes to advance a bill, allowed Republicans to kill the commission on Friday even though 54 senators voted to move forward and 35 senators voted in opposition. (Several senators missed the vote entirely.) This proves once and for all that the filibuster doesn’t encourage bipartisan compromise. It impedes it.
Boteach is a huge supporter of the odious Trump and is as dedicated to the Israeli colonial enterprise in the Palestinian Occupied Territories as Cecil Rhodes was dedicated to colonizing southern Africa with superior white people. He flings the charge of anti-Semitism around the way former Grand Wizard of the KKK David Duke throws around accusations that white people are disadvantaged. Boteach actually thinks it is wrong for Palestinians in al-Khalil, which he calls Hebron, to protest having their property stolen. Supporting human rights for Palestinians is not anti-Semitic. In fact, opposing anti-Semitism as a form of bigotry is incumbent on anyone who cares about Palestinian human rights.
“I admire what Liz Cambage said,” this Indigenous athlete says, “but it is easier for her, from America, where she is surrounded by famous black athletes, and a strong movement for black people. Here, we are nearly invisible, have no mention in the Constitution, and are not recognised in a mostly white world. If I said what she said, from here, I would be torn apart by mainstream and social media , and it is not just worth it.”
Source: ‘We’re overlooked’: Why aren’t some of our best athletes in the Sporting Hall of Fame?
Facebook is up there with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp when it comes to sowing the seeds of doubt about climate science, conducting just six fact checks a month on billions of posts per day. Elizabeth Minter reports.
Source: Forked Tongue: Facebook is in News Corp’s league on subverting climate science – Michael West
Israeli air strikes on the densely populated urban areas of the Gaza Strip had by Thursday evening killed 109 Palestinians, among them 28 children, and had wounded 621 persons. The Israeli Air Force deliberately destroyed some of Gaza’s taller buildings, alleging that the ruling Hamas party had offices in them. They gave advance warning so that families could leave their homes. But the huge bombs falling on a civilian city inevitably did damage also to nearby buildings and have left families homeless. Flying glass and debris injured noncombatants.
Both Facebook and Instagram are facing allegations of censorship following the erratic, widespread removal of recent posts from pro-Palestinian users critical of the Israeli government, including those who documented instances of Israeli state violence. Mass violence has gripped Israel and Gaza since last week. Tensions kicked off amid Palestinian protests against planned evictions in occupied East Jerusalem to make way for Jewish settlers. Eventually, Israeli security forces stormed the Al Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem’s old city, one of the holiest sites in Islam. The Palestinian militant group Hamas responded with rocket fire aimed at Israel. Israel, in turn, unleashed massive aerial bombardments and artillery attacks against the occupied Palestinian Gaza Strip, reportedly leaving more than 120 people, including 20 children, dead. At least 900 Palestinians have been injured since Monday. Reports said that in Israel, seven people, including a soldier and a child, had died as a result of the violence, with more than 500 injured. “Facebook claims that their policy on the word ‘Zionist’ is about Jewish safety,” Dani Noble, an organizer with Jewish Voice for Peace who reviewed
Source: Facebook’s Secret Rules on Word “Zionist” Impede Criticism of Israel
Michigan’s Rep. Matt Maddock (R-Milford), has written legislation co-authored by eight other Republican House members, requiring professional fact checkers to file a $1 million fidelity bond, with a $1,000/day fine for not doing so, and subject them to lawsuits by any “affected person,” The Detroit News has reprted.
Source: Michigan Republicans Want To Criminalize Fact Checking | Crooks and Liars
The budget measures for 2022-23 announced on budget night total $24.7 billion, half of which is the extension of full expensing for small business ($10.9 billion) and the loss carry-back extension ($3.2 billion). The other big-ticket item in that year is aged care ($4.6 billion). So, 185 per cent of the estimated improvement in the bottom line for 2022-23 was budgeted to be spent in the budget. Exactly the same goes for 2023-24: The pre-budget improvement in the deficit would have been $15.8 billion; measures announced on Tuesday – $29.3 billion, or 185 per cent of the gain. In other words, the Coalition has had a conversion towards spending money and accepting deficits, but mainly in two and three years’ time. By the way, there’s an interesting increase in the mysterious item called “decisions taken but not yet announced”, which I’ve always taken to mean “secret war chest”. It’s gone from $6.6 billion over four years to $10.3 billion. There must be an election coming.
Source: Alan Kohler: The Coalition’s (sort of) conversion to debt and deficits
ENERGY GIANT AGL has launched legal action against environmental advocacy organisation Greenpeace Australia Pacific, following the launch of a Greenpeace campaign alleging AGL is Australia’s biggest corporate climate polluter.
Remember when Murdoch Media’s Andrew Bolt and Sky News informed Australia it was less serious than the common flu. They will remain silent on that here on in. Rupert Murdoch was quick to be vaccinated now his Fox News is spreading the ant- vaxxer’s VAERS reports.
Save the ABC it provides the REAL News
Researchers are trying to figure out if the long-term impacts of severe COVID-19 disease are different to other illnesses Long stays in hospital with other critical illnesses can have long-lasting consequences It’s not known if, or when, people will recover completely from infection
“The Department of Justice should immediately make clear its reasons for this intrusion into the activities of reporters doing their jobs.”
Do we progress and move forward on the basis of our faith, belief, or the careful collection and analysis of data over a long time developing reasoned models of possible and probable outcomes?
As Australia’s oldest freethought organization that promotes reason and evidence as to the basis for policymaking, the Rationalist Society of Australia will continue to inquire into the beliefs of this country’s political leaders. We will, unwaveringly, continue work to advance the cause of secularism.
Jarrad Searby was a Proud Boy in February, and he’s a Nazi now. It only took a couple of months. The transition is simple and that’s why it’s worth documenting.
Horrified barely scratches the surface of how I felt the day I learnt what is defined as genocide. After being directed to the United Nations 1948 Genocide Convention website. My heart sank reading Article II. (Excerpt from the Article II of UN Website) In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: Killing members of the group; Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
Source: Australia’s genocidal identity – » The Australian Independent Media Network
You know who’s not canceled? The endless parade of conservative pundits and politicians complaining about “cancel culture.” You know who is canceled? George Floyd is canceled. Breonna Taylor is canceled. Ma’Khia Bryant is canceled. Andrew Brown Jr. is canceled. They are the true victims in America’s longest-running culture war. Anyone who tells you different is just gaslighting. You want “cancel culture”? America is plagued with cancel culture. And no one is more American than conservatives, as they never cease reminding you.
According to the FBI, a former GA sheriff’s deputy bragged in text messages with members of an alleged extremist group that he planned to charge Black Georgians with felonies to keep them from voting. He also bragged to the group that he beat a Black man who was in custody, but the incident apparently never happened. Via the Belleville News-Democrat:
Source: FBI: White Extremist GA Cop Planned To Frame Black People For Felonies | Crooks and Liars
Tips for allies: make educating yourself your own responsibility; do not discredit people’s feelings and experiences of racism based on your (in)experience of it as an ally; challenge the status quo every time you can; racism is systemic, it does not rest, Black people are black 24/7, an ally should be one 24/7; be loud about your allyship and make sure your actions match your words; and last, but not least, understand you are not a hero for being an ally; you are just a human doing the right, decent thing.
The Federal Government secretly deleted from the “independent review” into the corporate regulator three-quarters of the findings into $118,557 the regulator’s boss James Shipton charged taxpayers for his personal “tax advice”.
Source: Josh Frydenberg secretly deletes ASIC corruption findings
Our latest research, published today shows the establishment of populations in every part of this giant continent could have occurred in as little as 5,000 years. And the entire population of Sahul could have been as high as 6.4 million people. This translates to more than 3 million people in the area that is now modern-day Australia, far more than any previous estimat
Source: The First Australians grew to a population of millions, much more than previous estimates
US federal agents have searched the Manhattan home and office of Rudy Giuliani, former President Donald Trump’s attorney, a law enforcement official says. The raid marks an escalation of the investigation into the Ukrainian business dealings of Mr Giuliani. Mr Giuliani’s lawyer, Bob Costello, confirmed search warrants had been executed, and that authorities had seized mobile phones. Mr Giuliani, 76, did not immediately respond to a request for comment as members of the media assembled outside his apartment. The warrants included an allegation that Mr Giuliani failed to register as a foreign agent, a violation of lobbying laws.
Source: US federal officers raid Rudy Giuliani’s home, office
Garofalo then responded by giving an example while making the case that the “good” side of slavery should be taught in public schools. “If you’re teaching, if you’re having a discussion on, whatever the case may be, on slavery, and you can talk about everything dealing with slavery. The good, the bad, the ugly, the whole …” Garofalo declared, to which Hilferty quickly replied, “There’s no good to slavery, though.”
Raoul Peck’s HBO docuseries Exterminate All the Brutes isn’t easy to watch — but it’s important popular education on the 600-year development of the concept and system of white supremacy associated with colonialism, slavery, and genocide.
Source: Exterminate All the Brutes Exposes the Murderous History of Colonialism
Advertise with Mother Jones On February 11, Donald Trump Jr. sat in front of his computer for a video deposition. He swore to tell the truth. But documents and a video obtained by Mother Jones—and recent legal filings—indicate that his testimony on key points was not accurate.
It’s not entirely Scott Morrison’s fault that he managed to look like a dissembling idiot at President Joe Biden’s leader’s summit on climate change last week. He probably hasn’t read a word of the science about global warming and the grim future that awaits his children and grandchildren. That’s not an excuse, but it tells us the scientists and bureaucrats who advise him and other politicians have been falling down badly on their jobs. Those people who actually know what’s going on have allowed themselves to be intimidated by Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch and their bullies, who in turn have been collaborators in the crime of the century.
Source: Alan Kohler: Scott Morrison, the Murdochs and the crime of the century
SAVE THE ABC
As has been well documented, the violent incursion of the Capitol by thousands of white nationalists, armed militiamen, and a who’s who of MAGA-faithful was sparked by widespread, yet false claims about a stolen election, promoted for months by the most powerful man in the world in his public pronouncements and his social media channels. These lies found a reliable echo chamber in the right-wing corporate media ecosystem—Fox, affiliates of Sinclair Broadcasting, One America News, and a countless array of local and national voices that rhetorically agitate listeners every day on political talk radio. Nevertheless, it was social media that received the majority of the public backlash after the riot.
The protests of summer 2020, as well as the people who gathered this year to protest over the death of Sarah Everard and the police, crime, sentencing and courts bill, brought together people from a wide range of backgrounds. Police and prison violence has shown itself to be a problem that can’t be solved through self-regulation; the criminal justice system cannot put itself on trial. Despite what the government may think, the harm caused by police, prison and border systems is both a racist and a British problem. The outcome of the Chauvin trial, despite its political cheerleaders, reaffirms the necessity of finding alternatives to the criminal justice system as we know it.
Source: Prosecuting individual police officers won’t deliver racial justice | Race | The Guardian
Trump was not the only rightwing populist on the world stage. A combination of unregulated social media disinformation, backlashes against modernism, efforts to retain undue privilege by domestic ethnic majorities at the expense of disadvantaged minorities, and the elevation advantage-taking con artists have all contributed to the a disturbing global alliance of incompetent authoritarians. Nations as diverse as Brazil, Hungary, India, Russia, Turkey, Poland, Israel, the United Kingdom and the Philippines have all empowered far-right leaders, most with clownish conservative temperaments and a habit of doing more to troll the orthodoxy of international decency than to serve their own people.
Source: Trump Is Gone (For Now), But Right-Wing Populism Is Still a Global Curse | Washington Monthly
“They would be the first to say, ‘look let’s not insult China. Yes, let’s quietly object to their human rights practices, but don’t confront them to the point where they lose face and patience with New Zealand and carry out reprisals,” Mr Hoadley said. “The Australian situation is a kind of lesson to New Zealand of what to avoid.” For those people who rely on trade with China to pay their bills, the feeling is one of pragmatism. “If they were to ever shut their doors, it would have a massive impact,” Chris said. “They’re a major player in dairy exports for New Zealand and we want to keep them on-side.” The expectation among producers in New Zealand is that the Government will maintain the status quo with their Chinese customers. “They’re the face of the country, so we need them to be doing the right role for us,” he said. “All those decisions are out of our control. We just have to ride the wave.”
Spain’s far-right Vox party began its Madrid election campaign with a rally in the multiracial working-class suburb of Vallecas, prompting clashes with locals. Media responded with a condemnation of the “twin extremisms” — showing how those who defend the poor and marginalized are falsely equated with those who abuse them.
Source: No, Left-Wing Activists Aren’t the Same As Fascist Thugs
