Category: Uncategorized

Poor Josh Frydenberg: caught on the wrong tram, heading for trouble

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The problem is, the economy seems to be running out of puff because it’s caught in a vicious circle: private consumption and business investment can’t grow strongly because there’s no growth in real wages, but real wages will stay weak until stronger growth in consumption and investment gets them moving.

Policy has to break this cycle. But, as Lowe now warns in every speech he gives, monetary policy (lower interest rates) isn’t still powerful enough to break it unaided. Rates are too close to zero, households are too heavily indebted, and it’s already clear that the cost of borrowing can’t be the reason business investment is a lot weaker than it should be.

That leaves the budget as the only other instrument available. The first stage of the tax cuts will help, but won’t be nearly enough. “Structural reform” is always a nice idea, but fixing a problem of deficient demand from the supply side would take far too long to be of practical help.

via Poor Josh Frydenberg: caught on the wrong tram, heading for trouble

What should Labor’s strategy for this term be? – » The Australian Independent Media Network

via What should Labor’s strategy for this term be? – » The Australian Independent Media Network

What is truth, who owns it, and why do Morrison and Trump abuse it? – » The Australian Independent Media Network

My thought for the day

I used to believe that Americans were the only people in the world that believed their own bullshit but we are now their equal. John Lord

via What is truth, who owns it, and why do Morrison and Trump abuse it? – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Old Dog Thoughts-Trump Drones On and so does Dutton.

Fighting Fake News,24/6/19, Straight from the Trumps mouth; Dutton Hell’s Doorman, The grifters of debt run Australia” Economy;

The “Center” of American Politics Is on the Left

No Psychiatrist Would Deny Trump’s Sociopathic Personality | The Smirking Chimp

via No Psychiatrist Would Deny Trump’s Sociopathic Personality | The Smirking Chimp

Trump Offers Thoughts And Prayers To Family Of Downed Drone – The Shovel

Screenshot_2019-06-23 World – The Shovel.png

via Trump Offers Thoughts And Prayers To Family Of Downed Drone – The Shovel

Is America still the world’s only superpower or is China a real rival? Experts aren’t so sure anymore – Donald Trump’s America – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Close up shot of Donald Trump hugging an American flag on a pole

Key points:

A superpower has superior military might, and economic, diplomatic and cultural influence
The erosion of America’s global power may be accelerated by the US’ current foreign policy
China is considered an emerging superpower despite still calling itself a “developing” country

via Is America still the world’s only superpower or is China a real rival? Experts aren’t so sure anymore – Donald Trump’s America – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

‘When they can hide him no longer – danger will strike’

Illustration: John Shakespeare

Murdoch’s Dog in the UK Political Race His Form. It was Abbott in Australia and Trump in the USA. All seem to have something in common other than just Rupert (ODT)

via ‘When they can hide him no longer – danger will strike’

Perhaps it’s the better result in the long run – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Thus, the next three years will reveal, as world events take control, the great lie that has captivated 51.5% of the electorate concerning the Coalition’s economic credentials. Frydenberg’s inability to react will consign him to the political scrap heap and Morrison along with him. By 2022, no longer will that outrageous claim be sustainable, even to the most loyal Coalition voter.

So, notwithstanding a likely unemployment rate of 7%, with no capital investment, the mess that an incoming Labor government will have to deal with and an economy they will have to resurrect, it’s perhaps the better result in the long run.

And so, with the 51.5%, who will get far less than they bargained for and the rest of us who will watch it play out as expected, the truth of it will finally be revealed.

via Perhaps it’s the better result in the long run – » The Australian Independent Media Network

A 40-year mortgage means lower monthly repayments, but ultimately it’s ‘advantage to the lender’ – Business – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Sold sign on Queenslander-style house in a street in Brisbane.

Indentured Labor or Modern Day Slavery Keep them under contract and working without complaint. (ODT)

via A 40-year mortgage means lower monthly repayments, but ultimately it’s ‘advantage to the lender’ – Business – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

The Coalition’s tax plan is bollocks – » The Australian Independent Media Network

via The Coalition’s tax plan is bollocks – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Old Dog Thoughts – The Reality Show King.The Ratings Chase Screw Quality

Trump Staged Iran 'Strikes' For Maximum MTP Interview Impact

Fighting Fake News, 23/6/19; Trump turned news into his personal chase for ratings;

Noam Chomsky: The Real Election Meddling Isn’t Coming From Russia

Noam Chomsky: The Real Election Meddling Isn't Coming From Russia

We looked at the institutional structures of the [mainstream] media. What are they? They are major corporations, that are often parts of bigger, mega-corporations. They have a product that they sell to a market. The product is readers of newspapers, or viewers on television, and the market is advertisers.

So they are corporate institutions that sell readers to advertisers. They are all closely linked to government. There is a lot of flow, in and out, of personnel, with a lot of influence.

And we asked a simple question, that anyone who believes in free markets would ask at once: Do the structure of the producer, of the market, and the links to other power structures, does that affect the media content? That is the propaganda model. There is nothing arbitrary about it. That is just elementary. And if you believe in free markets, that is exactly what you would look at.

via Noam Chomsky: The Real Election Meddling Isn’t Coming From Russia

From Galápagos to Guam: US Military Bases are a Threat to Local Communities | The Smirking Chimp

164 Nations have an American military presance. 59,000 troops are deployed and paid but nobody knows where they are. (ODT)

This month I got two of the most distressing pieces of news I could imagine. The first was a headline: US to use Galápagos island as a military airfield. The second came from my grandmother: two of our family friends are in the end stages of Agent Orange poisoning.

 

via From Galápagos to Guam: US Military Bases are a Threat to Local Communities | The Smirking Chimp

Lying does work: Just ask any Liberal Prime Minister – » The Australian Independent Media Network

When politicians collectively or individually over a long period seek lie for their own individual benefit or that of their parties then the lie only serves to denigrate the liar, and show contempt for the voter’s intelligence.

Sir Walter Scott said this about lying:

”Lying is probably one of the most common wrong acts that we carry out (one researcher has said ‘lying is an unavoidable part of human nature’), so it’s worth spending time thinking about it.

Why is lying wrong?

There are many reasons why people think lying is wrong; which ones resonate best with you will depend on the way you think about ethics.

Lying is bad because a generally truthful world is a good thing: lying diminishes trust between human beings: if people generally didn’t tell the truth, life would become very difficult, as nobody could be trusted and nothing you heard or read could be trusted – you would have to find everything out for yourself and an untrusting world is also bad for liars – lying isn’t much use if everyone is doing it.”

When it was revealed that the Coalition knew that a report would say that renewables were not the cause of the SA blackouts the conservatives had to tell lies on top of lies to justify the first one.

via Lying does work: Just ask any Liberal Prime Minister – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Britain to use more clean power than fossil fuels for the first time in 2019 – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

A long line of wind turbines in the middle of the ocean.

Britain is on track to use more electricity from zero-carbon sources such as wind, solar and nuclear than from fossil fuel plants this year, the country’s National Grid said.
Key points:

Last week Britain became the first G7 country to commit to net-zero commissions by 2050
The successful transition has been largely due to a huge increase in Britain’s wind power capacity
It plans to phase out all coal-fired power generation by 2025

via Britain to use more clean power than fossil fuels for the first time in 2019 – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Coal lobbyist rises in the PM’s ranks

IN CASE THERE WAS any doubt about the ties that bind Australia’s top coal lobbyists with the Federal Coalition Government, former Minerals Council of Australia CEO Brendan Pearson has been tapped as a senior advisor to Scott Morrison.

The appointment, revealed in The Australian on Wednesday, shifts Pearson up in the Coalition pecking order from the office of the Minister for Finance, Mathias Cormann, to Morrison’s inner sanctum.

via Coal lobbyist rises in the PM’s ranks

Angus Taylor is on a mission – » The Australian Independent Media Network

It is clear that Angus Taylor is a man on a mission. What’s less clear is whose best interests are driving him.

Richard Taylor also made a submission to the department’s review of how environment laws affect the agriculture sector. His submission called for changes to make the laws more simple and compatible with broadscale agriculture and best-practice weed control.

It’s handy when your family has such a prominent platform on which to express their views and such insight into investment opportunities.  Even handier when they get to make and change the rules that directly affect them.

via Angus Taylor is on a mission – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Rowers’ Reprise: how Angus Taylor’s mates cleaned up without him – Michael West

Rowers’ Reprise: how Angus Taylor’s mates cleaned up without him

via Rowers’ Reprise: how Angus Taylor’s mates cleaned up without him – Michael West

Old Dog Thoughts – Among a collapsing Immigration system we find Australia’s Global Shame

The incident comes amid a worsening mental health crisis on the island.

Fighting Fake News,22/6/19; Medivac and why the sick are “unsafe”; Dutton political pill hiding 100,000 Asylum seekers arriving by plane;

Yes, Liz Cheney, AOC is right that US is Running Concentration Camps for Refugees

https://www.juancole.com/images/2019/06/yes-lynn-cheney-aoc-is-right-tha-750x422.jpg

via Yes, Liz Cheney, AOC is right that US is Running Concentration Camps for Refugees

Let’s Shut Down the Authoritarian Machine | The Smirking Chimp

The American Coup threat or reality? (ODT)

Trump’s ominous tweet about how his supporters might “demand” that he stay in office for more than two terms is the latest proof that his authoritarian ideology has little regard for the law. The tweet also reflects Trump’s strong desire to use threats of violence, if necessary, to reshape the political landscape and mode of governance.

via Let’s Shut Down the Authoritarian Machine | The Smirking Chimp

Bolton Argues War With Iran Only Way To Avenge Americans Killed In Upcoming War With Iran

Illustration for article titled Bolton Argues War With Iran Only Way To Avenge Americans Killed In Upcoming War With Iran

via Bolton Argues War With Iran Only Way To Avenge Americans Killed In Upcoming War With Iran

U.S. Claims Drone Was Minding Own Business On Its Way To Church When Iran Attacked It Out Of Nowhere

Illustration for article titled U.S. Claims Drone Was Minding Own Business On Its Way To Church When Iran Attacked It Out Of Nowhere

via U.S. Claims Drone Was Minding Own Business On Its Way To Church When Iran Attacked It Out Of Nowhere

Back from Iran War Brink: Trump wants to Walk back Iran Crisis that He created with Severe US Sanctions

https://www.juancole.com/images/2019/06/600px-Global_Hawk_NASAs_New_Remote-Controlled_Plane_-_October_2009.jpg

via Back from Iran War Brink: Trump wants to Walk back Iran Crisis that He created with Severe US Sanctions

Iran Crisis: Have We Learned Nothing From the Iraq War?

via Iran Crisis: Have We Learned Nothing From the Iraq War?

Britain not drunk enough to accept Boris Johnson will be next prime minister

via Britain not drunk enough to accept Boris Johnson will be next prime minister

Cold War spy satellite images show Himalayan glaciers are melting fast – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

A black and white image showing glaciers on the Himalayan landscape.

via Cold War spy satellite images show Himalayan glaciers are melting fast – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

‘I am Imran’ | The Saturday Paper

Image may contain: 2 people, people smiling, text

Imran Mohammed just graduated from high school jailed by the LNP for 5 years in Australia a country that stole opportunity from many people for little more than political self -interest rather than National Interest and pride, Australia’s shame. (ODT)

I thought I’d lost all hope when the Australian government forcibly moved me to Manus Island on October 29, 2013. For so long, my life was controlled. It was not mine. I was not allowed to live the way I wanted. I saw what I didn’t want to see, I ate what I didn’t want to eat. I wore clothes that I didn’t want to wear. I heard what I didn’t want to hear. I slept when I didn’t want to sleep. I was treated in a way I didn’t want to be treated and I lived where I didn’t want to live.

via ‘I am Imran’ | The Saturday Paper

Politics of envy: Feeding the rich in an entitled society

Australia has become a country that takes from the poor to give to the rich.

This morning, the Financial Review had a piece titled ‘Tax cuts are no handout to the rich’. Well, of course, they would say that, as their whole purpose as a media publication is to write pieces that are of interest to those with money or interested in money.

What really grated, though, was this tweet which the Liberals also flogged:

Unless the full tax cut package is passed, high income earners risk losing out to the “silent thief” of tax bracket creep, according to new analysis.

We are constantly told we need a surplus and we can’t afford to “waste” money. The Government has no money to help the homeless, raise Newstart, raise the pension or support community legal services — in fact, they are always looking for “savings” in these areas. Savings being the euphemism for cuts.

But the Government does have money to spend on tax cuts for those on high wages and big business.

Now, if everyone in Australia is supposedly equal, how can a Government justify giving wealthier people more money when we have people who are homeless, starving and living in abject poverty?

Worse. When this issue is raised, it is called “politics of envy”.

via Politics of envy: Feeding the rich in an entitled society

Coalition tax plan would give Australian workers an edge

Image result for Corman and Joe Hockey after Abbott's first budget smoking cigars

LNP lie the Australian Economy is Strong. Yes and the Lies keep coming. Let’s not forget their first budget cuts cuts cuts. Now it’s trickle up trickle up and our Economy is weak our deficit up and wages flat. (ODT)

“To keep our economy strong and make it stronger into the future, we must ensure our income tax system is internationally competitive, provides the right incentives and supports aspiration,” he said.

via Coalition tax plan would give Australian workers an edge

Robert Reich: The GOP Is the Most Corrupt Party in Living Memory

Robert Reich: The GOP Is the Most Corrupt Party in Living Memory

Not since Warren G. Harding’s sordid administration have as many grifters, crooks and cronies occupied high positions in Washington.

Trump has installed a Star Wars Cantina of former lobbyists and con artists, including several whose exploits have already forced them to resign, such as Scott Pruitt, Ryan Zinke, Tom Price, and Michael Flynn. Many others remain.

via Robert Reich: The GOP Is the Most Corrupt Party in Living Memory

Old Dog Thoughts – The battle of narratives distracts from the economic realities.

Sensible discussion in a surveillance state

Fighting Fake News 21/6/19; Your being watched bythe state; Aus Labour being totally scammed and powerless,

Trump’s extreme rhetoric at his rally was ripped from Fox News

https://youtu.be/viGAa_n7dPM

Murdoch now is the Puppet Master

During his 60th rally as president, Donald Trump said, “Our radical Democrat opponents are driven by hatred, prejudice, and rage. They want to destroy you, and they want to destroy our country as we know it.” This rhetoric directly mirrors what Fox News personalities regularly say.

via Trump’s extreme rhetoric at his rally was ripped from Fox News

Donald Trump, Iran, and the Gulf of Tonkin Redux

Trump administration appear intent on war against Iran. This week on Intercepted: As the U.S. accuses Iran of attacking civilian ships while offering scant evidence, grave historical parallels are emerging with the Gulf of Tonkin incidents in 1964 that were manipulated to justify Lyndon Johnson’s dramatic escalation of the war in Vietnam. California Democrat Rep. Ro Khanna is preparing legislation aimed at stopping an attack on Iran, and he says he would not put it past national security adviser John Bolton to manipulate evidence. Journalist Negar Mortazavi of The Independent analyzes what war with Iran would look like and exposes the State Department’s funding of propaganda operations against Iran. Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman talks about the parallels with the build up to the Iraq invasion of 2003 and shares stories from her early life as a journalist.

via Donald Trump, Iran, and the Gulf of Tonkin Redux

Can Donald Trump Hold Off an Economic Crash Until the Election? | The Smirking Chimp

We’re there again. In some very real ways, in fact, we never got out of it.

Over the past five years, if there had not been a multitrillion-dollar increase in government, corporate, and individual borrowing, the U.S. economy would have contracted, rather than grown.

All of our national economy’s growth has been on borrowed money for all of Trump’s presidency: there’s quite literally no “there” there.

This is not how a healthy economy is supposed to work; instead, Trump is maintaining and inflating an economic Potemkin village, a pretend economy made out of cardboard, chicken wire and bubble gum that will collapse in the face of the first stiff economic wind.

If Trump and his collaborators can hold back the winds until November of next year, the GOP has a chance in the elections.

via Can Donald Trump Hold Off an Economic Crash Until the Election? | The Smirking Chimp

Chorus of Outrage as Trump Admin. Throws Climate, Public Health Under Bus by Killing Obama-Era Clean Power Plan | Common Dreams News

Power plant

via Chorus of Outrage as Trump Admin. Throws Climate, Public Health Under Bus by Killing Obama-Era Clean Power Plan | Common Dreams News

Solar Growing by leaps and Bounds in India, fueling Irrigation and Jobs

Related image

Sky New’s Peta Credlin was paid by Adani to do an advertorial on coal entrely ignoring the real facts of what is occurring in India and why Adani is divesting away from coal and to Solar energy. The total avoidance of mentioning the reality of what is occurring  renders that Sky News as Fake (ODT)

India is now for the first time in history investing more in solar energy than in coal.

There is a simple reason for this. Coal costs roughly 5 cents a kilowatt hour to generate electricity. India just let a bid for 1.2 gigawatts of solar energy and four companies scooped it up at 3.6 cents a kilowatt hour. The only advantage coal and gas had is that the sunk costs of plant construction have already been written off. But in India today, it is actually cheaper to build a new solar park than to go on operating a coal plant.

Over-all, India is now the lowest-cost producer of solar electricity, at about 8.5 cents a kilowatt hour. Solar photovoltaic has been declining annually by about 23% year on year since 2010.

Asia hosts over 3 million photovoltaic power jobs, nearly 90% of the global total.

India has grown from 3 gigawatts of installed capacity in 2014 to over 30 GW in 2019!

India might not be able to triple that amount but it will at least double it to 60 gigawatts. From the beginning of time till now, the US has only put in 63 gigawatts of solar, total, and Japan has done 60. For India to catch up to those two countries (#2 and #3 for solar panels) in only two years will be almost a miracle.

via Solar Growing by leaps and Bounds in India, fueling Irrigation and Jobs

Northern Territory’s youth justice system is a theatre of the absurd and Australia’s great shame | John Lawrence | Opinion | The Guardian

Don Dale youth detention centre in Darwin, Northern Territory. Treatment of children at the centre sparked a royal commission.

Little has changed since the royal commission. There is no way this would continue to happen to white Australian children

via Northern Territory’s youth justice system is a theatre of the absurd and Australia’s great shame | John Lawrence | Opinion | The Guardian

Danger UXB – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Anyone thinking we’ll have three years of calm, considered and competent governance is in for a rude shock. What chance it will all blow up in their faces and we get an early opportunity to correct the mass madness of just last month?

via Danger UXB – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Angus Taylor met with environment department even as it investigated company he part-owns | Australia news | The Guardian

Angus Taylor (left) had talks with the office of then environment minister Josh Frydenberg (right) about the laws at the centre of an investigation into the alleged poisoning of endangered grass on a property owned by a company that he and his brother have an interest.

Angus Taylor has previously denied on the record that he intervened in the investigation of the alleged illegal clearing of the critically endangered grasslands on the property near Delegate.

In April, in response to the issue being raised in Senate estimates, a spokesperson for the minister told Guardian Australia: “The minister has not made any representations to federal or state authorities in relation to this investigation.

via Angus Taylor met with environment department even as it investigated company he part-owns | Australia news | The Guardian

Old Dog Thoughts-False Flag Nations

United States: The false flag empire

Fighting Fake News and its presenters,20/6/19; America a False Flag State; AFP’s False Flag attacks aimed at the ABC; Dutton’s focus on boats is to misdirect;

Renewable Energy Employed 11 Million People last Year, 8% Growth Forecast

https://www.juancole.com/images/2019/06/renewable-energy-employed-11-mil-750x422.jpg

via Renewable Energy Employed 11 Million People last Year, 8% Growth Forecast

Preventing Donald Trump’s re-election will take everything the Democrats have – Donald Trump’s America – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

US Vice President Mike Pence watches as President Donald Trump holds his hands to his head while standing in front of a US flag.

He is the most unpopular president in modern American history, with poll approval ratings consistently in the low-to-mid-40s.

Mr Trump has successfully trashed the institutions of accountability — especially Congress and the mainstream press — so that he can keep his balance and control of his narrative.

The Republican congressional leadership has collapsed into a spineless, subservient heap at Mr Trump’s feet, even as he alters the party’s DNA on balanced budgets, tax reform, American exceptionalism, free trade, immigration, the promotion of democracy and opposition to dictatorships.

via Preventing Donald Trump’s re-election will take everything the Democrats have – Donald Trump’s America – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

I Could Do Trump’s Polling with Zero Respondents | The Smirking Chimp

via I Could Do Trump’s Polling with Zero Respondents | The Smirking Chimp

Trump Seethes and Calls Fox ‘Fake News’ after Seeing a Story That Made Him Mad | The Smirking Chimp

via Trump Seethes and Calls Fox ‘Fake News’ after Seeing a Story That Made Him Mad | The Smirking Chimp

Orlando Sentinel Endorses ‘Not Donald Trump’ 2020 | Crooks and Liars

Orlando Sentinel Endorses 'Not Donald Trump' 2020

Ouch. That’s gotta hurt.

The Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board published their endorsement for president in 2020. It’s…wait for it… “Not Donald Trump.”

This, on the day that Mango Mussolini “officially” kicks off his 2020 re-election campaign, where? You guessed it. Orlando, Florida.

Oh, dear.

via Orlando Sentinel Endorses ‘Not Donald Trump’ 2020 | Crooks and Liars

The falsity of fake news – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Difficult to pin down when this narrative actually began, but for argument’s sake I’ll posit its start with the recent Australian Federal Election and the plethora of fake news trumpeting a Labor victory.

A successive run of negative polls published over at least two years, pointed to this mythical Labor win.

Indeed, dire poll numbers prompted Malcolm Turnbull’s putsch, which lead to the demise of Tony Abbott and ultimately the triumph of Scott Morrison.

The script suggested a brave new Shorten Labor Government replete with the sparkling post-modern trappings of a new Whitlam/Hawke/Keating imperium.

But the thumping hangover of this self-inflicted delusion is made worse by recent raids on the ABC and a News Corp journalist, both aided and abetted by the home-grown master of the dark art of fake news, the Minister for Home Affairs, Peter Dutton.

The falsity of fake news – » The Australian Independent Media Network

How Australia blew its future gas supplies

Widespread blackouts avoided by gas deal

things remain so dire that there is talk of importing gas, either the Australian stuff on sale so cheaply overseas, or supplies from one of our competitors, Qatar.

Back on the farm, our parents, who knew how to provide without running out of anything, would have been scandalised almost beyond words.

via How Australia blew its future gas supplies