In an “unprecedented” revelation that highlights the consequences of the seemingly endless war in Afghanistan, the United Nations announced Wednesday that U.S.-backed forces killed more Afghan civilians than the Taliban and other armed anti-government groups did in the first three months of this year.
Category: Uncategorized
‘this trial was about none of the above. Rather, this trial was purely and simply about the proper construction of a clause in an Enterprise Agreement.’
JCU has been at pains to point out that Ridd “was never gagged or silenced about his scientific views,” a matter that, Cocklin said, “was admitted during the court hearing.”
GetUp is a Platform Advance Australia an affiliated organization (ODT)
via The mystery of Advance Australia, Captain GetUp and the AEC
Barnaby Joyce’s outrageous behaviour on ABC Radio National has made a Coalition victory next month even more improbable.
BARNABY JOYCE is not an idiot. He is something far worse. He is a moderately intelligent man who falsely believes he is smarter than everyone else.
The world is full of these sort of men. It would be easy to dismiss them, except somehow these dolts seem frequently to find a way of weaseling themselves into positions of importance. And once there, their unfathomable self-confidence, combined with their manifest ineptitude, invariably causes chaos and calamity.
Washington: A former White House personnel security director has been instructed by the White House not to show up on Tuesday for questioning by the House Oversight Committee.
The move appears to be the latest effort by the Trump administration to push back against congressional inquiries of the White House, which have proliferated since Democrats took control of the House of Representatives in January.
When Trump caves into the law will he yell No Collusion? (ODT)
White House instructs official to ignore subpoena over security clearances
It appears he is complaining that Twitter has been trying to get rid of all the Russian bots and phony accounts that helped him in the 2016 election.
True narcissists can never stop bragging about themselves.Trump lives on Twitter and brags about his Twitter success, yet now he’s complaining that the social networking platform is targeting him and his followers.
via Trump Promotes Phony Twitter Conspiracy Against Himself | Crooks and Liars
President at work, wanting his Fake Russian Followers back on Twitter. The Bots Vlad and Olga have been fans since 2016 (ODT)
I should have never worried about a closed-door meeting between Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Donald Trump, because I should have known that the only Important Thing to Trump is the fact that he’s lost followers.
Perhaps Trump lost followers when Twitter removed the 5,000 bots unleashed to bash the Mueller report last week, which appeared to be connected to the Saudi Arabian government. Perhaps people are just tired of seeing his whining ways in their timelines.
via Trump Whines About Losing Followers In White House Meeting With Twitter CEO | Crooks and Liars
Sarah Huckabee Sanders lies about members of the White House Press Corps. She isn’t doing an actual job as Press Secretary, she’s merely playing the state propaganda minister on Fox News.
via Sarah Sanders Is Not Press Secretary, She’s A Fox News Shill | Crooks and Liars
Politicising the Public Service
The AFP’s ties to the Coalition have almost turned our nation into a police state, using terrorism and immigration as political tools, writes Bruce Haigh.
AS THE HOWARD REGIME progressed, through time it perfected the art of smoke and mirrors, reaching the art of the ridiculous under Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Abbott and Turnbull made notable contributions.
Over this twenty-three year period, the politicisation of the public service and associated institutions has aided and abetted the show business of the LNP and, to a lesser extent, the Labor Party. We have seen the trashing of truth for political ends. As an example, sustained pressure from Howard saw the Bureau of Statistics decide that one hour of work a week constituted employment. By what flight of common sense did that become accepted? It is nonsense intended at the time to boost the LNP’s political fortunes.
When Journalists are abusers of their own industry as they are on Murdoch media and have control on such a large scale over the technology and distribution of the lowest and most disgraceful standard of news and information Australia has ever seen in this country then the collateral damage done to those who claim “but I’m different” comes with the territory doesn’t? Who defines “exceptionalism”?
News Corp, Ch 9 and even the ABC have changed the nature of media today. So if you can’t stand the heat get out of the…business seems a consequence of loss of power. There was once Speaker’s Corner Murdoch Media and other Corporations bought all the fruit boxes and own the microphones. Back in the day any abuse was policed by other speakers and listeners in face to face contest not so today. Social media really doesn’t do the same but on the whole it gives individuals a voice “some” not so nice but are they the norm? Pick up the front page of Murdoch press turn on Sky and 2GB and you’ll witness the norm the musak of media Australians are forced to endure. (ODT)
As Posetti puts it, “What many journalists are enduring in online communities goes well beyond [critique] – it involves targeted abuse, threats of violence, often sexualised in the case of women journalists, and it risks spilling into the physical realm. Research indicates that it’s chilling their online activities and even leading some to leave the profession all together.” Which might be what some want.
I mention my message because of what happened to Radio National presenter Patricia Karvelas after her appearance on Barrie Cassidy’s Insiders. She read on-air a text from Joyce denying any involvement in negotiations on water buybacks and was roundly abused on social media.
The entire water buyback story, dubbed #watergate on Twitter, is made more thrilling because of the way in which Australia’s enthusiasm for Barnaby Joyce has declined even more quickly than our rainfall. But it’s become compelling for another reason. It’s become a linchpin for social media attacks on journalists.
The destruction of The Fourth Estate in the USA and what the American Constitution intended. Extreme Conservative Collusion to privatise and monopolise Propaganda in the USA under the banner of News and Opinion ” Money for nothing and chicks for free” as far as the current President and TV Reality personality is concerned. (ODT)
Here’s how Fox News is spinning the Mueller report
and
The Mueller report didn’t address collusion, but that’s not stopping Fox News from screaming “no collusion”
The promise of pardons for those who work toward his goal indicates the extent to which he’d go to undermine the current legal system in favor of one that is in tune with his will. As Goering put it, “The law and the will of the Fuehrer are one.” Trump’s vision of America is a white Christian male-dominated Herrenvolk democracy. How to make that vision real is up to those below him, and no law should stand in the way.
Once the law is transformed into the expression of the leader’s will, there’s not much we can do to stop him.
via Welcome to the Fourth Reich: Donald Trump’s assault on the rule of law will not end well | Salon.com
He’s been squirming like a stuck pig more and more as the deadline was due and here is why. The only thing that save the man was the Presidency himself and he believed he was greater and even that wouldn’t work. (ODT)
Attorney General William Barr has just banned bail for migrants seeking asylum…which by the way, is not a crime..and they need somewhere to keep these people, to concentrate them if you will.
Dictionary.com defines a concentration camp as: “a guarded compound or imprisonment of aliens, members of ethnic minorities, political opponents … for the confinement and persecution of prisoners.”
Well guess what, America?!
We are now officially building and maintaining concentration camps for migrant families who have come to our borders seeking asylum. Even though the mainstream media is reporting that the Trump Administration is “considering” tent concentration camps, the truth is that they have already been erected. As The Daily Beast published just two days ago, these camps already exist in El Paso, TX. These camps are former military hospital facilities converted to prison camps. Representative Nanette Barragan (D-CA) said after visiting the camp that it was “filthy” and “heartbreaking.”
via Concentration Camp Tents Ordered By Trump Administration | Crooks and Liars
But it has been an uncomfortable moment for Sanders, forcing him to speak about himself rather than systemic problems in American society.
He’s discovering that the shift from underdog to frontrunner comes with a catch: increased scrutiny. It’s a price Sanders will have to pay for the right to take on Donald Trump in 2020.( Matthew Knott Ch9)
What a load of hypocritical bullshit this is on the part of the Ch9 writer for The AGE Matthew Knott. It’s what you can expect from Murdoch Inc, and we will hear for a long time to come as an attack on Burnie Sanders.
However, individuals don’t choose their position in the Capitalist social system so readily it selects them in most cases. I’m an Australian millionaire and a Socialist. I believe it makes Sanders and I reasoned rather than just emotionally selfish because we know where we stand in the grand scheme of things. Sanders and I aren’t the exceptions nor do we need to be destitute, to be honest. To be able to recognise a rigged system for what it is and not support it is being educated. Education is something Capitalism has commoditised and is fast removing critical thinking from its curriculums.
We don’t believe in Charity and therefore have no need to give money away frivolously on bandaid causes. That too is the Capitalist promise of the trickle-down economic solution to everything rather than the taxing one so commoditising Charity as well.
AOC, Ilhan Omar is currently young Democrats and left-wing Socialists in Congress. Capitalism will if it continues on its current path will make them millionaires but not hypocrites or never Mother Theresas. They see a broader problem as does Sanders the American system.
It’s why the question is a distraction which will be aired by some thinking they are just devils advocates but are more just pushing the barrow helping regressive turn on the emotion rather than the truth of reasoned progress. (ODT)
It’s exactly what the right-wing strategy is to scream “fire” in a crowded cinema. Dutton, Bolt Morrison have all called Melbourne the most dangerous city in Australia when their “fire” is the Sudanese. Racism at it’s worse. (ODT)
It might be objected that such a law is incompatible with a right of free speech, but many years ago the US Supreme Court dealt with that objection, noting that the (first amendment) right of free speech did not authorise falsely shouting “fire” in a crowded theatre.
It is a shame that we need laws to discourage the sort of comments which result in events like the Christchurch killings, but shame is no excuse for not acting. It is our hope that stronger criminal penalties will help facilitate the cultural changes that mean they will one day no longer be needed.
Lady Justice, the famous symbol of the US legal system, is depicted by a blindfolded goddess who wields a sword in one hand and a set of scales in the other. The blindfold is meant to convey the idea that all people are equal before the law, and everyone will be judged without bias or preconceived notions. Today, however, the blindfold appears to have slipped, and Lady Justice is increasingly meting out justice according to status and financial well-being of the person appearing before her.
In order to avoid imminent disaster, it’s time to firmly affix the blindfold and ensure that all Americans – not just those who can afford it – are seen as truly equal before the law.
Here’s what Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said that wound everyone up: The U.S. should tax income over $10 million per year at a top rate of 60 or 70 percent.
Republicans responded by shamelessly lying about what this meant, pretending that Ocasio-Cortez was advocating a tax rate of 70 percent on all income. Some older Democrats, such as House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, adopted the standard Democratic tactic of cowering in fear before a deceptive Republican onslaught, like abused dogs.
The hullabaloo was understandable: Ocasio-Cortez’s forthright advocacy demonstrated that American politics, against the odds, can sometimes be about what Americans want. After the “60 Minutes” episode aired, The Hill commissioned a poll that found that 59 percent of registered voters support raising the top marginal tax rate to 70 percent. The idea, The Hill wrote, even receives “a surprising amount of support among Republican voters. … 45 percent of GOP voters say they favor it.”
via Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Agrees With America About Taxes
Change The Rules Campaign
Join the biggest movement for workers in Australia right now. Join the Change The Rules Campaign. Don’t forget to join your union. If you want to fight the Liberals, do the one thing they hate and one thing they can’t break – stand in solidarity.
I will leave you with my favourite Change the Rules Tweet today. This tweet has an important heartfelt message and it goes to the heart of this article.
via Change the Rules – Casual and Insecure Work – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Where is Pilger’s place in the Media Industry not evenings in Byron Bay? He predicted what would happen the day before Assange was arrested (ODT)
Its Bullshit. The media, it’s Bullshit. We have been lied to since the 50s. Where’s the anger? Why aren’t we angry? Where’s the protests and the movements?
That said, the decline of moral standards and creeping dishonesty amongst the US leadership is broad. For instance, asked this week why Washington endorsed the Israeli seizure of the Golan Heights but sanctioned Russia for its reabsorption of Crimea, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told senators there was an “international law doctrine,” which would be explained later. Of course, it turned out there was no such thing.Pompeo’s boss also struggles with the truth. On Thursday, Trump said “I know nothing about WikiLeaks. It’s not my thing.”Yet, in 2016 he called it “a treasure trove,” saying “I love WikiLeaks.”
via American values: Embassies are for chopping up journalists, not protecting them — RT Op-ed
Fox Corp now includes the White House (ODT)
A comprehensive list of former Fox employees who have joined the Trump administration
Trump’s Returns
Mnuchin is not yet complying with the Democrats’ request for Trump’s tax return partially because he does not see “the legitimacy of the asserted legislative purpose.”
The history of the provision shows, however, that Congress enacted this measure to enable investigations into private individuals and the highest-ranking government officials to ensure that they are not getting favorable treatment or evading their taxes.
Maryanne Trump Barry, the president’s sister, resigned her seat as a federal appeals court judge on Thursday to avoid an investigation into her ― and her brother’s ― alleged tax fraud.
Democrat receives 3,181 mentions on Fox News and Fox Business
Figures suggest media obsession with congresswomanThe finding will reinforce perceptions that Fox, owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch, is obsessed by Ocasio-Cortez, portraying her as a radical socialist who threatens the American way of life.
She tweeted in response on Friday: “Fox News brought me up 3,000+ times in *6 weeks.* That’s how hard they’re fighting against dignified healthcare, wages, & justice for all; and turning their firepower on the youngest Congresswoman in history to do it. Too bad for them, cause we don’t flinch.
#ForThePeople.”
via Fox mentions Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for 42 days running – 3,181 times | US news | The Guardian
She must be an Indigenous Australian in Texas. Or has Texas been studying and applying the Australian method of shaming itself? (ODT)
Gina Dianne Guidry, 52, charged with state felony
Guidry allegedly snatched cash from customer at food truck
But like most of Israel’s attempts to justify its use of lethal force against Palestinians, it doesn’t hold water.
It is based on a lie, intended to cover up the intentional killing of a medic.
An investigation by the human rights group Al-Haq found that Mizher had not been on the rooftop before he was killed.
Additionally, the figure seen in the video is wearing a white shirt under his high-visibility vest. Mizher was wearing a black shirt under his vest, as is shown in a group photo of the volunteer medics taken hours before a bullet to the stomach took his life, published as an appendix in Al-Haq’s report.
The video, which includes no time stamps, shows a rooftop in al-Walajiya neighborhood, according to Al-Haq. Mizher was shot on Dheisheh’s main street, 300 meters away from the rooftop shown in the video.
Rather than throwing a stone – which would hardly justify the use of lethal force by heavily armed and armored soldiers, even if it were true – Mizher was “fatally shot while attempting to tend to an injured youth, as part of his duties as a first responder,” according to Al-Haq’s investigation.
Yes, Netanyahu is facing corruption probes and is practically annexing the West Bank. But for many Jewish Israelis, he has also provided relative security, a better economy, and growing international legitimacy — which makes the unknown alternative much worse.
via Five reasons why voting for Netanyahu was a rational choice for Jewish Israelis | +972 Magazine
The youth of the world already have begun to march out of their classrooms to hold weekly Friday’s 4 Climate rallies in front of parliaments and government offices to demonstrate their sense of frustration and urgency to the deteriorating state of Mother Earth, and the questions it raises about the future questionable survival of all of life unless the whole ball of wax is seriously re-configured. But will even more youth, and now even all their mothers and fathers, join them once America’s state trial of the century begins to spin its evil web of propaganda?
Tony Abbott? Peter Dutton? Who will lose their seat in election 2019?
First Dog on the Moon
Having a good memory for past federal elections and the tactics employed, going back as far as 1958, I cannot recall a time when dishonesty and outright lies played such a pivotal role in the strategy of the Liberal Party.
This Election, Try Telling the Truth – » The Australian Independent Media Network
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