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“In Queensland, Murdoch has a near monopoly in print, not just in Brisbane but in the major regional centres. The core skill craft of the Murdoch editors, through headlines, photo selection and personality-based stories is to de-legitimise Labor leaders over time, as opposed for example to [Prime Minister] Morrison, who is routinely referred to as matey “ScoMo” or respectfully as simple “PM”. And try and find one unflattering photo of Morrison for the whole campaign. All these factors have a cumulative effect.”
And yet, one difference between this campaign and previous elections was the willingness of Labor’s leadership to return fire on the Murdoch press.
‘Unrelentingly partisan’: Did the Murdoch press sway the election?
Despite Sky’s low ratings – most programs average fewer than 200,000 weekly viewers – Speers’ interviews are frequently reported in other media outlets.
“The power of that amplification is a huge benefit for Sky,” Allen says.
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Cassidy summarises the morning’s political news on the ‘Sunday Papers’ segment.
‘The most unfashionable rock star’: How ABC’s Insiders beat Sunrise and Today“You can’t just stick someone else in his chair and hope for the same result. It takes years to cultivate the kind of contacts David has. When he leaves with his little black book, it’ll be a loss for Sky.”
Cassidy – a former press secretary to the late Labor prime minister Bob Hawke – founded Insiders in 2001.
While most established programs continue to shed viewers, Insiders has bucked the trend and grown its audience.
via Rocked by Speers’ defection, Sky News may delay his move to ABC
one single wind renewable project in that region creates, all by itself, 350 jobs. That number will fritter down once the construction phase has finished. But, there are 10 more solar projects approved and one more under consideration for the region. And we are talking about just one small Council in Nth Qld.
via Sanders, Warren, and Wyden Slam Julian Assange Indictment
The Indictment of Julian Assange Under the Espionage Act Is a Threat to the Press and the American People
If the government gets to define journalism, what’s to stop it from making similar rulings about any outlet whose coverage it doesn’t like?
The latest national survey from the Emerson College polling group has the nation’s best-known democratic socialist, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, beating Trump by eight points. When Trump started his campaign against socialism in February, Emerson’s polling had Sanders leading the president only narrowly: 51-49. Three months into the campaign, Trump’s support has fallen to 46 percent, while the democratic socialist has risen to 54 percent.
via Socialism Is More Popular Than Donald Trump | The Nation
There’s a new Koch organization in town. Instead of trying to buy politicians to do the bidding of billionaires, as Charles and David Koch have historically done, this foundation will support community groups trying to cure the miseries of eons—everything from poverty to addiction.
And they’ve got some street cred, having successfully worked with renowned liberal Van Jones to secure legislation to reduce mass incarceration. Billionaire Charles Koch says the mission is this: “We must stand together to help every person rise.”
That is some good stuff, right there. It’s what labor unions have always preached—workers must stand together to gain the collective power essential to pull every one of them up. It works, too. In the middle of the last century, collective bargaining created the great American middle class.
Here’s the thing: Maybe it’s nice that some billionaires are willing to give. But billionaires’ “gifts” too often bear self-dealing strings. And handouts make many workers queasy anyway. They’d rather earn their own money and make their own decisions.
For Americans to achieve real freedom and self-governance, some of the billions that flow into the pockets of the already rich must go instead into the paychecks of the workers whose sweat creates profits. Political bribes, like the $500,000 the Kochs gave Ryan, must be outlawed. And the rich must be properly taxed so that the nation can afford to pave its roads, send its youngsters to affordable, properly government-supported technical schools and colleges, and restore its once-great middle class. American workers want autonomy, not charity, to help every person rise.
Being president is the ideal position for a self-refereeing psychopath. Those of us trying to sustain cultural norms try to show deference to the office of the president, which the psychopath can use as evidence of his supreme authority. The threat of being ousted from the press corps keeps the media respectful of the office from which the psychopathic referee-in-chief can systematically call fair on all his plays and foul on all critics.
The media end up in the role of petitioner, awaiting the president’s authoritative decision on the merit of the president’s decisions. The resistance ends up playing lawyer petitioning in the court he rules.
There’s no way to stop a self-refereeing psychopath short of relentlessly exposing his self-refereeing. Truth is, nobody asked him whether he agrees with his actions. The media should stop asking him and his lackeys to referee their own virtue.
Our obsession with money and susceptibility to charisma, over-confidence and surface gloss have propelled us into an age where sham, spin, trickery and twaddle have become the new norms.
The Communist State of the USA Weopnising International Trade (ODT)
It’s a process that has prompted fears from business that as Trump’s trade war grows into a broader technology-driven conflict with China, the US could end up damaging its own economic future.
That fits with the Trump administration’s mantra that economic security is national security. So far the administration has used that to justify tariffs on steel and aluminium and to threaten more import duties on cars and parts from the EU and Japan.
“It’s always tricky to get export controls right. Too lax and critical technologies end up in the hands of our adversaries. Too strict and we limit our high tech companies’ ability to grow and further innovate, and we encourage others to develop their own capabilities in critical sectors,” he said.
Trump eyes an even more powerful weapon than tariffs for his trade war
Everything the US denied now proves the USA is intent on world Domination (ODT)
Labor’s chances were not sunk by self-funded retirees, but by the very voters who stood to benefit most from the ALP’s policies
A big, bold reform program requires voters to take some things on faith. Few outside those directly affected have the time or inclination to delve into the complex details of tax treatment of investment properties or to understand franking credit refunds. In this election, voters were asked to take Labor on trust that its policy plans would not take jobs and the economy down with them.
Australia your swimming against the tide (ODT)
The government’s 2014 Climate Action Programme suggested that increasing energy efficiency could cut emissions by 25 to 30%. Lilium says future passengers will not pay more for a flight than they do now for a regular taxi ride. The company expects its product to be ready for commercial use by 2025.
via Zero Carbon Electric Air Taxi 5-Seater Completes Maiden Flight in Germany
Trump of course denied it and ran into the already waiting arms of the pedia with signd all prepared. A staged bit of press porn by a media rent boy if ever there was one (ODT)
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has accused the President of throwing a “temper tantrum” at a meeting with Democratic congressional leaders, openly questioning his fitness and suggesting a family or staff “intervention” after a dramatic blow-up at a White House meeting.
Key points:Ms Pelosi said Mr Trump has established a pattern of unpredictability
Ms Pelosi has accused Mr Trump of a “cover-up” in regard to Russian election meddling
Mr Trump said it was impossible to work on such legislation as long as Democrats continued their “phony” investigations of him
How language in MSM protects: They still call Trump’s behaviour as a President “Diplomacy” when it’s the antithesis of the very word.
They call a person who built a platform for transparency “WikiLeaks a “Spy” and make every effort to shut down “whistleblowers” on any government issue. They accept Facebook Twitter etc publishers because of their ‘size’ and they promote the division of the world by engineering the MSM. Today the MSM accept Donald Trump as a ‘diplomat ‘ however, want a life sentance for Julian Assange why?
He Allowed us to see the USA for what they are and for what they do and are about to do with his open post box platform. They denied any extra charges where pending for his extradition when the world already knew those extra charges were already prepared and ready for process. We wonder why Donald Trump behaves like he does an American. He simply is and can’t be believed. (ODT)
Reckless: How Donald Trump’s diplomacy is inflaming the world
18 Ways Julian Assange Changed the World
There are a hell of a lot of exceptions where it doesn’t
Busting anti- Australians bias of NewsCorp,24/5/19; Speers deserts to the ABC; Old Dog Thought; Money, LNP, Trump;
Three years is a long time in any democracy. Three years of callous disregard for the vulnerable, the ill and the homeless, for the voiceless First Peoples, for the disabled and the elderly, the unemployed and the underemployed, and those held in detention without trial — some of whom have already attempted suicide this week. Three years is also a long time to spruik religion to a secular society, spit in the face of science and ignore the havoc we are wreaking on our natural world.
Morrison has already wasted $185 million on a stunt purely to stop critically ill asylum seekers (including children) from receiving medical attention. Morrison voted against a banking royal commission 26 times. He believes coal is the answer to our problems. Morrison is a failed Treasurer, who managed to double our debt. And ScoMo campaigned with only one policy: tax cuts.
via The price of not paying attention: Five ministers we cannot afford
The New York State Assembly passed a bill Wednesday that would allow Congress to get President Donald Trump’s state tax returns.
The Assembly voted 84-53 to require New York’s tax commissioner to release any state tax return requested by the Joint Committee on Taxation, the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee for any “specified and legitimate legislative purpose.”
“Transparency is essential, especially when it comes to the conflicts or potential conflicts of those who craft public policy,” Assemblyman David Buchwald (D), the bill’s sponsor, said during the floor vote, according to Bloomberg.
The Assembly also voted Wednesday 85-49 on an amendment to the bill directing the New York Tax Department to give Congress state tax returns specifically for elected officials. The original bill would have let Congress request any New York resident’s state tax returns.
via New York Assembly Votes To Allow Release Of Trump’s State Tax Returns | HuffPost Australia
Trump’s Posturing is the Cover Up on a Grand Scale and he’s crawled out of the TV sets of the USA (ODT)
He then held a press conference in the White House Rose Garden that was unexpected but not necessarily unplanned.
via Trump storms out of Democrats meeting, impeachment likelihood increased
President criticized Fox News at a rally on Monday for giving Democrats airtime after candidate Pete Buttigieg appeared on the channel
via Trump turns on Fox News over 2020 coverage: ‘What’s going on there?’ | US news | The Guardian
I, like many others, are just coming to grips with the stunning victory of the conservative side of politics. While doing so we should keep in perspective that as of this moment it is only around 181,000 votes that separate the two parties.
Hardly a ringing endorsement of the conservative forces.
via The one that got away (Part one) – » The Australian Independent Media Network
LNP won the Wholesale Price of Electricity went UP. Lowering interest rates is boosting the poor into debt to spend to survive. Winners the banks who have trailing commissions are safe. They promised the dead won’t be given money to spend or charged for not spending it. However you will. (ODT)
He is planning to do it because the economy is weak, much weaker than his political masters suggested during the election campaign. Consumer spending is “unusually soft”.
via Cutting interest rates is just the start. It’s about to become much, much easier to borrow
Jesus says Iran can’t take a joke for God’s sake (ODT)
Washington’s peace-oriented threats towards Iran have paid off – at least according to Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, who says that the Islamic Republic had to “put on hold” its violent plans thanks to US efforts.
While Iran has repeatedly denied allegations that they are responsible for recent tensions and said that they prefer diplomacy to threats, Shanahan on Tuesday was certain that Tehran’s dangerous behavior had only been curbed by the US’s proactive measures.
These peace-keeping gestures presumably include sending a navy strike group to Iran’s border, ratcheting up crippling sanctions and President Donald Trump’s amiable threat to end the country altogether.
Thirty-seven percent of American citizens are socialist or communist. That’s far more people than voted for either Hillary Clinton (28% of eligible voters) or Donald Trump (27%) in 2016.
The majority is voiceless. A privileged minority rules. The United States is a political apartheid state.
If the Left were allowed on the ballot in this fake democracy, given space in newspapers and on television, invited to join political debates, and if it wasn’t brutally suppressed by the police and FBI, the Left wouldn’t need to wage a revolution in order to take over the country. Leftists could easily win at the ballot box if America were a real democracy.
Australians immune to Murdoch think past sloganeering and read policy lost. It shows the power of negative media fake scare mongering does win elections even when its simply sold as a choice between Bill and Me. Education matters and civics is badly missed in our schools. We need governments that work for Australia not firestarters that burn for it and their pockets. (ODT)
The left made up ground in Melbourne’s traditional Liberal-leaning south-east, while losing support in the western suburbs.
In the seat of Melbourne, the Greens’ Adam Bandt now holds the electorate he first won from Labor in 2010 with a margin of 23.3 per cent.
Election results 2019: The left-right identity fault line cracks through the quinoa curtain
The Salesman has to now the Murdoch/IPA product (ODT)
Kill Bill is a theme eagerly taken up, sadly, by Nine News and even our ABC, too cowed by budget cuts and calls to the top floor to dare not to follow the pack.
Saturday sees the finale of the one-month ScoMo Unplugged solo tour. Our narcissist-in-chief, benches the rest of his team to perform a solo populist parody: a beer-chugging, footy-kicking, basketballing, bingo-calling, razzle-dazzle hoopla-variety show while he repeatedly puts the boot into Bill Shorten. Pure vaudeville.
Look out! He’s behind you! Shifty Bill’s after your savings. Hell-bent on raising massive taxes. Look out. He’ll “take money from your pocket.”
Is it a spin-off from the Trump beats Clinton Show; the same franchise that brought us fake news and alternative facts? There are many alarming parallels. What is certain is that whilst Scott Morrison’s Coalition may get the votes he needs to form government, he has neither the statesmanship, nor the policies, nor the record of success to inspire any form of confidence. History suggests the very opposite; government by SNAFU.
Expect instead, a continuation of the ScoMo circus, lurching from chaos to catastrophe with nothing but the prompting of its sponsors and its mining, banking and other corporate lobby groups to guide it, – forever reacting to self-inflicted disaster – a vitiated democratic state that rules by force and fear and favour; not a democracy nor a meritocracy but a one-man band and his cronies, The ScoMo oligarchy.
via Hello ScoMo. Goodbye democracy – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Bill Shorten threatened our hip pocket – or at least the one we aspire to have – so he was punished too. And maybe he was punished because the Australian people never much warmed to him. He has resigned as Leader, though he says he will keep going until the ALP chooses a new leader. Maybe it will be one a little more inspirational than Bill Shorten.
The Coalition ran a cynical, deceptive and negative campaign. They labelled every one of Shorten’s initiatives a new tax. The catchphrase “The Bill you cannot afford” was powerful and effective. It may have been the last thing many voters thought of before they entered the polling booth. Labor can’t really complain. The template was Paul Keating’s anti-GST message before the 1993 Election — the unlosable election that John Hewson lost.
Keating lost the subsequent election in a landslide. Which heralded a decade of Howard conservative rule — a divisive decade from which Australia has, clearly, still not recovered.
A government can win one election too many. Three years of Scott Morrison at the helm might just be enough to keep the liars and the cheats out of power for a decade.
We can only be optimistic. It is all we can do right now. The alternative is unthinkable.
The laxity of political finance regulation at the federal level also creates loopholes at the state or territory level, where genuine progress has been made in limiting political expenditure by parties, candidates and lobbying groups.It is equally important that allowing paid political advertising in electronic media drives up the costs of political campaigns and increases dependence on wealthy donors.Australia could rein in the ever-increasing role of private money in its federal elections. Labor and the Greens are committed to greater transparency for political donations and spending caps on federal campaign expenditure, while the High Court has shown it is now unlikely to strike down reasonable (“proportionate”) regulation of political finance.Democracy should be about political equality, not about the deep pockets of billionaires.
Conclusion
I realise that all of these ideas may not be practical, and I have not worked out all the details. Rather, I hope to start a conversation here. Australia needs to get its democracy back. A major way we move towards this is by removing the poison that is Murdoch’s media empire and banning the wealthy from purchasing elections.
via The 2019 Election and The Need for Media Reform – » The Australian Independent Media Network
“Our democracy is built on an understanding that one branch of government won’t systematically obstruct another,” said Rep. Ro Khanna. “Mueller named McGahn as a critical witness: the American people need to hear his testimony.”
via ‘This Is the Cover-Up’: Trump DOJ Instructs McGahn to Disregard Subpoena by House Judiciary
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