Category: Uncategorized
Will the British send him back to Sweden and wash their hands that way? (ODT)
via Assange arrest reveals British justice is just a ‘plaything’ of Washington — RT World News
“Not just wacko but a whacko jellyfish” (ODT)
The question about whether Trump’s love for the organization has endured is in reference to a comment the president made at a 2016 campaign rally after WikiLeaks released the bounty of hacked Democratic emails. “Oh, we love WikiLeaks,” Trump said, praising the release of the stolen materials.
It was only one of several occasions Trump commended WikiLeaks during the campaign. He mentioned it 141 times in the last month of the campaign alone as he sought to use the hacked emails to cast Hillary Clinton’s campaign in an unflattering light. “WikiLeaks is unbelievable,” he said at one rally.
Such a fixture was “WikiLeaks” in Trump’s stump speeches that several supercuts have been made of him relishing the damage the organization did to his opponent.
and
The Government lied on the back of the CSIRO’s scientific denials. Politics over land care. (ODT)
Adani’s key water management plan for its coal mine in Queensland was so flawed its outcomes were unreliable, scientists from the CSIRO warned federal Environment Minister Melissa Price’s department.
The Americans let loose the Dogs Of Law but not on the those who published thesecrets in the Paradise Papers (ODT)
Julian Assange leaves the Ecuadorian embassy: His epic story
and
https://theconversation.com/julian-assange-q-a-wikileaks-founder-arrested-in-london-115325
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested by British police on Thursday after they were invited into the Ecuadorian embassy where he has been holed up since 2012.
“Julian Assange, 47, has today, Thursday 11 April, been arrested by officers from the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) at the Embassy of Ecuador,” police said.
Police said they arrested Assange after being “invited into the embassy by the Ambassador, following the Ecuadorian government’s withdrawal of asylum.”
via Julian Assange arrested at Ecuadorian embassy by British police
The Coalition government’s use of taxpayer money for political advertising – as much as A$136 million since January, according to Labor figures – is far from an aberration in Australia. It is part of a sordid history in which public resources have routinely been abused for electoral advantage.
For example, the Coalition governments of Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull spent at least A$84.5 million on four major advertising campaigns to promote their policies and initiatives with voters. The ALP governments of Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard spent A$20 million on advertising to promote the Gonski school funding changes and another A$70 million on a carbon tax campaign. Going further back, the Coalition government under John Howard spent A$100 million on its WorkChoices and GST campaigns.
Read more: The difference between government advertising and political advertising
This is also a history in which hypocrisy is not hard to find.
via Government advertising may be legal, but it’s corrupting our electoral process
“Now man you better come up with the money” (ODT)
On the eve of Israel’s election, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took credit for President Donald Trump’s decision to impose sanctions on Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, by designating it a foreign terrorist organization.
“Thank you, my dear friend, President Donald Trump,” Netanyahu tweeted in Hebrew, “for answering another one of my important requests.”
via Netanyahu Thanks Trump for Sanctioning Iran at His Request
Conclusion
We need to set this anti-tax nonsense aside. Tax is how government pays for itself. Indeed, it is necessary to fund all the crap that conservatives love. On a wider scale, tax is citizens contributing financially to their society. This in turn pays for the government services those citizens enjoy. This is Rousseau’s social contract. In the modern world, this means that everyone contributes to the cost of, and enjoys, health, education, infrastructure, transportation and other essential services. But that’s communism according to conservatives. My response to that is if you hate socialism so much, resign from office immediately and claim not one penny of that big, fat pension. As I have said previously, conservatives do not hate socialism per se, they hate certain recipients.
The anti-tax propaganda needs to go and we need to, as the line goes, be a society, not just an economy.
via Tax Cuts: The Great Conservative Scam – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Hadley says he’s reformed but has no problem calling a young girl a “grub” (ODT)
Why are News Corp and Hadley so obsessed with a small-time drug user and peddler? Why has Hadley been talking with Dutton about one detainee out of 5,276? Why Is the Minister so down on this guy when much bigger fish, like William Betham, are free to roam the Gold Coast?
Hadley/Dutton/News — an unholy triumvirate if ever there was one.
via Dutton’s ‘adviser’ Ray Hadley and the case of the on-again-off-again visa
Morrisons truth campaign starts with lies by omission. Firstly the LNP destroyed our car industry. Secondly all the major manufacturers of cars around the world are going electric so consumers won’t have the choice Morrison claims they will have. The Indistry and the government globally are supporting the change along with investors so why is Morrison acting as if he is unaware of what’s going on? Or is he treating Australians as mugs? (ODT)
Federal Election 2019: Scott Morrison blasts Bill Shorten over electric car gaffe
This is Anti-Semitism and Pro-Israeli Politics Israel is your country and America is protecting it F*****s Anti- Israel isn’t anti-Semitism. Netanyayu has just promised to annex the West Bank if only Israelis vote for him and he has the guns to do it. (ODT)
Addressing American Jews on Saturday in Las Vegas, President Donald Trump casually invoked the anti-Semitic trope of dual loyalty by referring to Israel’s leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, as “your prime minister.”
Given that Trump was speaking to Jewish Republicans — including Sheldon Adelson, the American casino magnate who is one of Netanyahu’s biggest donors — the president was not wrong to assume that the crowd was strongly pro-Israel, but the accusation that the loyalty of non-Israeli Jews to their home countries is somehow suspect has a long, ugly history.
Later in his address to the Republican Jewish Coalition gathering, Trump referred a second time to American Jews as if they were Israelis by saying that a victory for Democrats in the 2020 election “would cripple our country and very well could leave Israel out there all by yourselves.”
via Donald Trump, Not Ilhan Omar, Accused Jews of Dual Loyalty
Billions of dollars of tax cuts to big businesses sound good, but they would have taken even more from the bottom line. As for the idea that they’d stimulate more economic activity, I’m yet to read of any CEO announcing that they would have invested more, but the idea that they’d be taxed at 30% rather than 25% if they made an extra billion, so they decided it wasn’t worth it.
No, when someone tells you that the Liberals are good economic managers, you can remind them of the re-opening of the Christmas Island detention centre, only to announce it’s closure a few months later. Although anyone who still believes the old line about the Liberals being good economic managers will probably reply:
“But they’ve saved over a billion dollars by closing it! Imagine how they’ll be able to spend that…”
A phone tower that Barnaby Joyce fought for ended up on the northern NSW property of long-time friend and mining baron Gina Rinehart, who gets an annual fee to host the tower. Locals are baffled why the tower was put there over another location, as it’s plagued with reception problems.
via Gina Rinehart, Barnaby Joyce and the ‘epic fail’ phone tower
One way of measuring what scientists think of each other’s work is to look at how many times scientists cite the studies of other people.
Ridd does not have a Google Scholar profile (the easiest place to check citations), but his ResearchGate page shows his work has been cited 3,113 times. For comparison, according to ResearchGate, Terry Hughes has been cited 41,600 times. Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg of the University of Queensland – a pioneer of coral bleaching research – has also been cited 41,600 times.
I mention Hoegh-Guldberg, because during one of the Rozner interviews, Andrew Bolt claimed the Queensland scientist had been forced to back-pedal on his claims over the years.
Hoegh-Guldberg told me:
“My 1999 paper predicted back-to-back bleaching and loss of corals by mid-century. But that’s happening right now. The impacts we predicted are actually unfolding much quicker than we thought.”
So, is Ridd a world-renowned expert on the Reef? “No,” said Hoegh-Guldberg. “If he was, it would be reflected in his citations. He’s not heavily cited.”
Unequal?
Alan Jones, a Sydney shock jock who thinks climate science is “witchcraft”, has also tried to pain Ridd as the plucky underdog going up against a big institution.
“Here is a bloke who is challenging the groupthink on climate change, but it’s unequal wherever you turn.”
Unequal? Unequal, except for the fact that it was Ridd who chose to take his employer to court, not the other way around.
Unequal, except for the support of an entire news channel and a quarter-of-a-million dollars to hire a top legal team.
And unequal, except for the support of a think tank that has accepted at least AU$4.5 million in funding since 2016 from Australia’s richest person, mining magnate Gina Rinehart.
Unequal?
Great Barrier Reef: Sky News and Peter Ridd are deliberately misleading
Just when you thought News Corp’s political coverage couldn’t be any more partisan, the Courier Mail published a federal budget front page that was little more than blatant propaganda for Scott Morrison’s government.
The Brisbane tabloid’s front page, headlined “Australia at Crossroads”, featured big green road signs that pointed right to financial rewards and tax cuts under the Coalition and left to risk and debt under Labor. “Beware left turn: $200b tax hazard ahead,” said the bullet-ridden sign.
News Corp journos see red over pro-budget propaganda blitz | The Weekly Beast | Media | The Guardian
Almost dutifully, it seems, the left once again forms its traditional circular firing squad, a big one this year. We’re locked and loaded, ready to tear a new asshole–or a lot of them–shooting the shit out of each other in the interest of fighting fascism, all while arguing that the right wingers are a bunch of dumb fucks.
Yeah, right, THEY’RE the dumb fucks. And let’s never forget it.
http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/jaime-oneill/84185/a-big-head-start-for-fascism
Tucker Carlson opens his piehole to suggest Chris Hayes isn’t a “real” man? Let’s recall multiple times Tucker Carlson was whipped on nationwide cable television. Also, he has no blue-chip advertisers left.
And then there’s this. Tucker’s show is without national advertisers because he is such a pu**y he pushes white supremacy on the air for clicks and views.
Biggest threat to Murdoch media and it’s personalities is withdrawlof their advertisers Just do It (ODT)
Left Out Of Cool Kids Club, Tucker Carlson Lashes Out At AOC And Chris Hayes | Crooks and Liars
and
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How Fox has been using racist, nativist, and anti-immigrant rhetoric to talk about border issues
blog April 4, 2019 12:23 PM EDT
AND VOTE THESE BASTARDS AND THEIR FILTHY LEECHING CONSPIRATORS OUT OF OUR LIVES AND OUR PARLIAMENT!
This .. OUR nation has been sold off piecemeal in both body and spirit, heart and soul, in sunshine and shadow by the upper-middle classes for their own and ONLY THEIR OWN benefit. It has NOT been the petty lower-middle classes of the skilled trades, it has NOT been the semi-professional workers or the small agricultural producers and family businesses … We have been betrayed by that class of society that has structured its own higher-echelon network to embrace those most suited to their deviousness and greed and excluded those from their ranks who show the first signs of honour and decency … these upper-middle classes are NOT the employers of Australian workers, rather, they are the “Judas Iscariots” selling the heart of our nation for a paltry thirty pieces of silver … leaving the working poor to be crucified on the cross of penury, sickness and homelessness … instead of honouring our national needs.
via Sunshine and Shadow – » The Australian Independent Media Network
I’ve listened hard for the sound of wealth trickling down but all I hear is the sound of the excluded still waiting
Paladin corruption allegations;
Royal Commission findings on banks;
no charges laid over questionable tip-offs on AFP’s union raid from Michaelia Cash’s office; and
Northern Territory’s public service corruption charges.
The government said reopening the centre was vital after changes to refugee medical transfer laws — but nobody has been transferred there.-
Political Hoax (ODT)
via No Refugees Have Been Sent To Reopened Christmas Island Detention Centre
Household wealth and income
Rate of annual wage rises: down from seventh in 2013 to 21st now.
Gross domestic product per capita: down from fifth to seventh.
Gross national savings: down from ninth to 19th.
Mean wealth per adult: down from second to fourth.
Household debt: up from the fourth highest to the second highest.
Gini coefficient (equality of wealth distribution): down from 12th to 28th.
Government and business measures
Budget deficit as a percentage of GDP: down from ninth to 25th;
Government spending as a percentage of GDP: down from fifth to eighth;
Growth in the volume of exports of goods and services: down from fourth to 18th.
Heritage Foundation economic freedom: down from first to third.
Value of the Australian dollar: down from 92 U.S. cents to 71.1 cents.
Value of the Australian dollar: down from 91.3 Japanese yen to 79.3 yen.
Value of the Australian dollar: down from 116 Kiwi cents to 105 cents.
There are probably only two significant variables on which Australia has improved relative to the rest of the world since 2013 — executive salaries and corporate profits. This explains why this analysis will not be found in Australia’s mainstream media.
Key points:
Chlamydia notifications have risen in Australia by 13 per cent since 2014, with three-quarters of these among 15–29-year-olds
Gonorrhoea and syphilis figures have also gone up
Experts say STI rates are increasing not because people are having more sex, but because they are having sex with different networks of people
The number of new corals on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef has plunged by 89% since unprecedented bleaching events in 2016 and 2017, scientists say.
Great Barrier Reef: Mass decline in ‘coral babies’, scientists say – BBC News
Women with imposter syndrome, take note: young, rich males are inclined to bluff and get away with it, a UCL study shows
You will never see this in the Western MSM (ODT)
Israeli anti-occupation activists demonstrate in the heart of Tel Aviv in solidarity with Palestinians taking part in the Great Return March and against the continuing blockade on Gaza.
via Hundreds of Israeli activists protest Gaza blockade outside IDF headquarters | +972 Magazine
The hosts of the March 29 edition of Fox & Friends used the images of caged migrants in El Paso to fearmonger about another caravan, dubbed “the mother of all caravans.” While airing images of the caged El Paso migrants, co-host Brian Kilmeade warned that with both groups, “we don’t even know the criminals that, percentage-wise, are probably in that mix” and “trying to bust through” to the United States. Despite the fearmongering, co-host Steve Doocy eventually admitted that “we don’t know whether or not the ‘mother of all caravans’ is heading our way.”
The story of the people CBP has caged in El Paso is the latest expression of a well-defined trend: Fox News dominates discussion of important political issues by its sheer volume of coverage, allowing conservatives to set a misleading framing that ultimately misinforms discussions happening elsewhere.
Republicans have no intention of crafting a new health-care plan, fearing the potential political damage that such a proposal could cause in 2020, numerous GOP lawmakers, legislative staffers and administration aides told The Washington Post.Senate Republicans, who were caught off guard by Trump’s rapid shift to focus on health care last week, have said the White House would need to make the first move by putting forward its own proposal. But administration officials said nothing firm is in the works.
via Republicans to replace Obamacare with a health plan cooked up in the White House
olddogthoughts 
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