Category: Uncategorized
Conservatives take us to Wars the ALP takes us out of them. SOS Save OUR SONS (ODT)
Australia must think through its interests and principles with the U.S. before taking part in an attack in Iran, writes former executive chairman of UNSCOM, the UN Special Commission to disarm Iraq, Richard Butler.
Australia is likely to be drawn into U.S. hostilities with Iran
My thought for the day
Do you shape the truth for the sake of good impression? On the other hand, do you tell the truth even if it may tear down the view people may have off you? Alternatively, do you simply use the contrivance of omission and create another lie. I can only conclude that there is always pain in truth but there is no harm in it. ( John Lord)
4,752,160 ALP
3,989,404 LIBERALS
1,482,923 GREENS
642,233 NATIONALS
488,817 PALMER’S MOB
479,836 INDEPENDENTS
438,587 PAULINE’S MOB
Whatever I may think of the coalition between the Liberals and the Nats I will say this for them. They have formed an effective coalition. Despite the fact that the Libs don’t really give a toss about the bush, and that the Nats don’t really give a toss about the cities, their Coalition enables them to get elected, and re-elected. I gnash my teeth at that fact, but I accept that fact as reality.
via We are defined by our politics … – » The Australian Independent Media Network
The wealthiest 3 billionaires in the U.S. –Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett — now have as much wealth as the bottom half of the U.S. population combined.
Since 1982, these three families have seen their wealth increase nearly 6,000 percent, factoring in inflation. Meanwhile, the median household wealth went down 3 percent over the same period.
The dynastic wealth of the Walton family grew from $690 million in 1982 (or $1.81 billion in 2018 dollars) to $169.7 billion in 2018, a mind-numbing increase of 9,257 percent.
via Is Bernie Sanders Right that 3 Billionaires Have more Wealth than Half of America?
The making of America’s Royal Family. Meritocracy stripped from America (ODT)
“It may be shocking to some, but being someone’s daughter actually isn’t a career qualification,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter. “It hurts our diplomatic standing when the President phones it in & the world moves on.” (AOC)
“Ivanka Trump is not on the National Security Council – she is not an adviser on the issues being discussed,” Michael McFaul, an ambassador to Russia under former president Barack Obama, said of Ivanka Trump’s presence.
“So her presence undermines the professional look of the Trump delegation, both to other countries and to national security professionals in the Trump administration.”
President Donald Trump has come under fire for making family members part of his staff since the beginning of his administration, and then for clinging more tightly to them in a White House racked by turnover.
The President keeps the counsel of Ivanka Trump and Kushner closer than anyone, the official said.
via Ivanka Trump tests her diplomatic chops and riles a legion of critics
Not all Jews are BIBI or TRUMP so mae are BDS (ODT)
Israel was established and continues to exist in a mentality of constant war. Our racism is only a symptom.
via The origins of Israeli racism lie in our hyper-militarized society | +972 Magazine
Like Trump, Hitler liked long speeches. His July 28, 1922 speech was approximately 6,140 words in length and would have taken over an hour for Hitler to deliver. Trump’s speech at his June 26 rally in Orlando lasted more than an hour.
It is a sad day for our country when comparisons between the leader of Nazi Germany, and the president of the United States, are apt. It is an even sadder day when no one seems to notice.
This is politics for the age of reality television. The star gets the audience talking, wins friends and enemies in equal measure and somehow thrives while others are voted out. The spotlight is its own reward.
Tweeting an invitation to Kim, and then meeting the North Korean leader at a military checkpoint, adds to the drama.
Trump-Kim meeting: Stunts and bombast in high-stakes reality show
Here’s a word of advice to Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Unless he wants to risk a smudge on his reputation of the sort that accompanies John Howard to this day: don’t get involved in conflict with Iran beyond limited naval engagement in a Gulf peace-keeping role.
via Acting on Iran has painful shades of joining the US in Iraq
New Jersey would have to pay almost $25 billion to build almost 2,700 miles of seawalls to protect its coastal communities from anticipated sea-level rise by 2040, according to the latest study on the state’s vulnerability to rising ocean levels.
via NJ could need 2,700 miles of sea walls to defend against rising waters – NJ Spotlight
via
It’s all very well to offer tax cuts but it kinda feels like a man in a trench coat is offering us a bag of lollies.
How will they simultaneously deliver surpluses whilst collecting $158 billion less in revenue, and keep the economy growing when it is only government spending and a temporary boost in commodity prices that is keeping us out of recession?
Increase the GST? Increase the pension age to 70? Introduce GP co-payments? Sell off the ABC? Increase fuel taxes? Tighten eligibility to family payments and disability support? Underspend on the NDIS? Tougher compliance rules for Newstart? Workchoices 2.0? Increase university fees?
Before you gleefully grab the bag of lollies, you should be wary of what’s under the trenchcoat.
via Beware the man in the trenchcoat offering lollies – » The Australian Independent Media Network
One of the first two cabinet ministers to quit Parliament after last year’s Liberal leadership coup described Prime Minister Scott Morrison as an “absolute arsehole,” an explosive new book claims.
Michael Keenan, who served as justice minister under Scott Morrison when he was immigration minister, made the comments to colleagues at a lunch at the Garum Restaurant in Perth in April 2018, just months before Mr Morrison became leader.
According to Plots and Prayers, political commentator Niki Savva’s new book about last year’s leadership stoush, Mr Keenan told his West Australian colleagues, including Finance Minister Mathias Cormann, Attorney-General Christian Porter and Mr Morrison’s chief ally Ben Morton, that Mr Morrison was an “absolute arsehole”.
via Scott Morrison given explosive character assessment by Michael Keenan in Plots and Prayers book
The last 6 years have all been below average with the LNP claiming they have been “fixing it” the sure have!!(ODT)
While global household incomes grow thanks to the boom, here’s why ours keep falling – Michael West
Ranking the worst quarterly growth achievers:
John Howard romps in in 1st, 2nd and 4th positions with the worst quarterlies
Harold Holt comes 3rd and 5th
Labor’s Paul Keating is 6th.Consecutive negative quarters – and bearing in mind the definition of recession is two negative quarters in a row – this time ranked by annual negatives:
Mr Howard is the winner with four quarterly negatives in a row (and the worst annual result at negative 2.943 per cent)
Mr Holt had three in a row (and an annual negative 1.237 per cent).
Mr Keating had four in a row (and an annual negative 1.147 per cent)
via Hospital Pass: Josh Frydenberg and the Coalition as, ahem, superior economic managers – Michael West
And isn’t a compassionate god more likely to be on my side than Folau’s when I say that Peter Dutton and Scott Morrison are going to Hell for their treatment of the people on Manus and Nauru? I say this without even arguing for a moment that these people – including the children that Peter “Before the cock crows will deny that his constitutionally eligibility three times” Dutton insists aren’t in detention – have the right to seek asylum and are not people arriving in this country illegally… Ok, I know you may spend several minutes unpacking that sentence… Like I said, we’re all in Hell now.
Spud will be given licence as the panicked poltroons on the right ram through draconian legislation to protect their self interests, further curbing our right to know and to express an opinion. His focus will turn inwards, away from flotillas of climate refugees as he excises more and more of our freedoms. What’s left in our dams will fuel his water cannons, he’ll seek military deployment against civilians and he’ll decorate the halls of Parliament and the street lampposts with his image.
Stock up on canned goods and ammo.
Too hyperbolic? Too dystopian? You haven’t been paying attention. When you see Spud in a uniform it will be too late.
via Dick Tater and the climate emergency – » The Australian Independent Media Network
In 2005, Trump told Stern he wanted to have kids with Melania (this was just before his affair with Stormy Daniels). “‘Cause I like kids,” said Trump. “I mean, I won’t do anything to take care of them,” he bragged. “I’ll supply funds and she’ll take care of the kids. It’s not like I’m gonna be walking the kids down Central Park.”
Prince of a fellow there, but probably not likely to be named Father of the Year, unless Lindsey Graham needs to engage in a little more personal self-abasement, or Mike Pence gets to feeling he hasn’t sucked up enough to the boss lately.
Now, however, Stern, with a book coming out, says he’s “evolved,” and that he’d “feel really shitty” if he hadn’t. Don’t look for him to turn over any of that $650 million to charities or to help the kids at the border, or make good on the harm he did by ridiculing dwarves and drunks, however, or by insulting women, or just being the Crown Prince of American Jerks, the Avatar of American Assholery.
And, unless you’re an asshole yourself, don’t buy his fuckin’ book. Send what you’d spend on that trash to provide relief for the immigrant children at the border, maybe. Or just throw the dough in the gutter.
via Howard Stern, Donald Trump, and the Rise of American Fascism | The Smirking Chimp
There are many religious practices that are reactionary, medieval and barbaric. Opposition to them is not racist.
The same is true with the Jewish community. Although there is no doubt that most Jews in Britain are more liberal than the Jewish leaders and the Board of Deputies, there is no doubt that the majority are supporters of Zionism. It is also arguable that a majority of Jews do not realize the extent of Israeli racism and how Zionism mandates a form of apartheid.
However it is a fact that a Jewish ethno-nationalist state in Israel cannot be other than a racist apartheid state. The argument that it is anti-Semitic to oppose an identity that is itself based on support for racism is untenable.
If indeed the majority of Jews do support a Zionism that mandates the demolition of Palestinian villages such as Umm al-Hiran in order to build Jewish towns in their place, then that is clearly a racist identity. If the majority of British Jews support a state where the chief rabbi of Safed issues an edict that non-Jews cannot rent property from Jews, then how is that not racist?
The idea that opposition to religious identity is, in itself, a form of racism is a type of blackmail.
via Let’s be honest about Britain’s obsession with “anti-Semitism” | The Electronic Intifada
In a rare interview that she granted due to her role as chairman of mental health organisation Beyond Blue, Gillard also said the ‘‘lesson’’ that parties should not release detailed policies, as the ALP did, had been evident since the John Hewson-led Liberal Party defeat in 1993, but that there were ‘‘probably a few more factors’’ in Labor’s election loss.
‘‘I am prepared to say I was surprised. Surprised and disappointed,’’ Gillard said of the election result.’’
via Gillard’s take on Labor’s election – fear campaigning is easier now
olddogthoughts 
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