Murdoch’s Pollster Newspoll gives Albanese the thumbs up. Does that mean Murdoch Media support him the reverse can be argued against the belief Murdoch has switched away from Trump in America. He hasn’t.
Anthony Albanese has recorded the highest satisfaction rating of any new prime minister, according to a new poll in The Australian. And the ACCC has warned that Australia faces an “alarming” shortage of gas next year.
Albanese records highest satisfaction rating of any new PM
Not everyone on the Left of center politics agrees with the Albanese/ALP. Nor the belief in bipartisan politics. Many believe the rot set in with Hawke.
Labor’s climate bill is little more than symbolism. With escalating climate disasters and soaring inflation, it’s bad policy and even worse politics.
The Australian Labor Party’s Climate Bill Is Empty Symbolism
Fight Corporation price gouging, tax super profits and the wealthy.
Economic Update: Battle Inflation by Fighting Corporations, Not Working People | The Smirking Chimp
Economic Update: Battle Inflation by Fighting Corporations, Not Working People | The Smirking Chimp
and
Home to Africa’s oldest synagogue, Djerba celebrates its Jewish roots annually
To this day, and despite their not very large number, Jewish Tunisians continue to hold an important place in Djerbian society and are, like their non-Jewish neighbors, active in the island’s tourism industry.
How this Tunisian Island brings Muslims and Jews Together
Whenever the former prime minister paid his respects to Indigenous leaders past, present and emerging, he would include a shout-out to any servicemen and women in the audience. At best, it had been a clumsy attempt by Morrison to drape himself in the Australian flag; at worst, a passive-aggressive reminder that the white man was in charge.
Why the Coalition risks a backlash if it breaks the Voice
Marcia Langton says details on the Voice to Parliament are clear – ABC Radio National
Marcia Langton says details on the Voice to Parliament are clear – ABC Radio National
Rupert Murdoch has a history of bribing British police for stories which News UK CEO Rebekah Brooks admitted in 2003 as per the below video. So, is Murdoch now bribing Australian police given ABC journalist Mark Reddie has publicly accused the Australian Federal Police of giving special treatment to the News Corp paper Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph?
Is Rupert Murdoch bribing police again for stories given an ABC journalist says the AFP are giving scoops to News Corp?Kangaroo Court of Australia
Inflation in 2022 is being driven by.
Price Gouging at the Pump Results in 235% Profit Jump for Big Oil: Analysis
Price Gouging at the Pump Results in 235% Profit Jump for Big Oil: Analysis
Germany: Löwenbräu, other Beer Brands to be Made with Wind and Solar as Russian Gas Turns Unreliable
Germany: Löwenbräu, other Beer Brands to be Made with Wind and Solar as Russian Gas Turns Unreliable
The reaction from the three retail outlets has, for the most part, been tactical, and more likely a case of waiting for the OAIC’s verdict. According to Bower, “customers will welcome the news that Bunnings and Kmart are joining The Good Guys in pausing the use of facial recognition technology in their stores, but we know that what customers really want is for them to stop using it altogether.” To do so would be very much against the ill-spirited nature of Australian corporate culture, as privateering as any that can be found on this warming planet. They may have been bruised and slightly embarrassed, but they are unlikely to be compliant.
Facial Recognition Technology Down Under – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Shocking bail conditions for climate activists
Greg isn’t allowed to associate with himself.
A “non-association order” is a list the police can include in your bail conditions. It contains names of individuals you mustn’t communicate with. It’s the kind of thing they might use for co-conspirators in a crime, or members of a gang.
But Greg’s just someone who went out in support of a Blockade Australia action: so his heinous crime is standing around where cars were meant to be. And now his name is listed on his own non-association order.
“I feel like I’m going to get arrested for looking in the mirror,” he said.
PUTIN’s PRIDE
Not much to say about this, really. The video is almost certainly authentic, though the Russians deny that it is, of course. (Admitting to war crimes is something that no country ever does willingly.) Nonetheless, such acts and recordings are made and propagated on social media with the singular intent of spreading fear and terror. That is a major component of Russian strategy in Ukraine.
Horrifying Video Of Russian Soldier Castrating POW Sparks Outrage | Crooks and Liars
Justice Alito Laments Disrespect for Religion as Americans Abandon Faith – Will his Dobbs Push them Further Away?
Justice Alito Laments Disrespect for Religion as Americans Abandon Faith – Will his Dobbs Push them Further Away?
Christian Nationalism has been adopted by the right wing of the LNP in Australia and actively promoted by Peter Dutton Alex Hawke, and even Scott Morrison. These extremists have been supported in the Murdoch media by the likes of Andrew Bolt, Rowan Dean, Alan Jones and others at a time when anti-Muslim sentiment and Islamophobia were seen as politically expedient. Alex Hawke keeps trying it on now insisting Australia is a Christian majority nation when the last census showed otherwise and that well over 60%plus Australians aren’t practicing Christians at all. If Hawke is correct the LNP wouldn’t have lost the number of seats they did in the last election and Morrison’s captain’s pick in Warringah Katherine Deves wouldn’t have seen the backlash she did.
The Christchurch massacre saw these political and faux religious bigots like Bolt back off when they witnessed the results of their efforts to assist in the deaths of 51 innocent Muslims in New Zealand. The proud Aussie shooter even declared he was inspired by White Christian Nationalists in Australia who were given singular air time by people like Andrew Bolt who actively promoted their hate-speech and ideas without criticism. Morrison had no qualms in using his religious evangelistic beliefs politically against the the Separation of Powers in our Democracy just as is being done in the US and Peter Dutton will continue to do so.
Tyler describes Christian nationalism as “a political ideology and cultural framework that merges Christian and American identities, distorting both the Christian faith and America’s promise of religious freedom.”
Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Troubling Endorsement of Christian Nationalism Is an Urgent Threat | The Smirking Chimp
This report reads as if this emergency is a natural disaster and not the collapse of a man-made system that’s currently out of control. We have seen the collapse of man-made free-market systems before and occurring more regularly and have seen governments stepping in to bolster and stabilise them at everyone’s expense. Not just at the expense of their owners. Free markets simply don’t operate in everybody’s interest and never have so why should everybody pay least of all those that can least afford to? A race for profit was never one based on common sense.
We are currently feeling and experiencing proof positive of a collapse as if we have nobody to blame for it domestically. Yes, we have globally connected something the LNP denied about climate for over a decade simply because to think otherwise would have affected trade and the profit race of some. Our current domestic failure is a reflection of man’s failure to treat energy as a global resource but rather treat it as a privatised one. In Australia’s case owned by multinational corporations who control energy from resource to production and distribution. Wasn’t it always time for a total rethink on energy production and distribution not just now that the shit has hit the fan? One with a guaranteed better logical outcome for everybody? Common sense to the LNP seems to always be a Socialist plot.
Dump free-market and it’s private interests, propagandised mythologised as common, for a start. Energy should be socialised, free and common to everyone distributed as a basic need and equally allocated for a start. It should be nationalised from resource, production and distribution. Any payment system over and above a baseline should be determined according to ones means.
All energy companies and the system need to be totally integrated and regulated for both our and the planet’s betterment not simply owned by a powerful few. A common sense should prevail over any individual one. To say it can’t be done ignores the fact that it was done in the past during periods of war and national emergencies energy was socialised. Need came before profit dictated that private gain was last in line when it came to energy distribution. It was understood then that energy wasn’t a product best controlled by a free-market but regulated. It needed to be in a much fairer fashion the mechanics of which began with the war against Germany and Japan. Science, invention all our systems both economic and cultural changed and weren’t driven by business alone but rather a politics of common sense rather than individual interest. It’s been decades of the opposite with the LNP government mostly in power and we are all paying the cost through the nose for it not just those that profited.
Dutton now after only 2 months saying “stop talking the past just fix the problem” The problem being what he and the LNP spent a decade allowing to fester. Unfortunately, you can’t stop an avalanche or stampede in its tracks like Whitlam and Hawke did. Rudd and Gillard saved us from the GFC and history has shown us the ALP has always repaired the LNP’s mess and done the hard yards with the least amount of pain. While the LNP always operated on the race for profit allowing the nation to slide on every other social metric. The ALP remains dedicated to Democracy even if that means one arm tied behind it’s back and allowing idiots like Peter Dutton spout his inanities as opposition leader.
Consumers warned of looming ‘nightmare’ as AEMO reports record wholesale electricity costs – ABC News
and
Still, now that Pauline has set the precedent, I look forward to all sorts of people walking out of such Parliamentary traditions as the Lord’s Prayer, Oaths to the Queen, votes, Speaker’s rulings, etc. It should certainly liven up the place and lay the groundwork for a QANON take-over when Scotty gets back from his victory lap of… Oh, that’s right, he lost, I keep forgetting because I listen to the news.
Pauline Storms Out Declaring She Doesn’t Accept Reality And She Never Will… – » The Australian Independent Media Network
,
It’s A Miracle: We Agree On Something Marjorie Taylor Greene Said | Crooks and Liars
Does Scott Morrison, ex Australian PM, and Marjorie-Taylor Greene belong to the same Church? They certainly seem to think alike and have the same beliefs. They both claim not to trust don’t trust the very organisation that feeds them, the government. It seems they are united in their distrust of Democracy and that God has chosen them to lead the way.
“I trust [the government] even less now that I’m in it.”
It’s A Miracle: We Agree On Something Marjorie Taylor Greene Said | Crooks and Liars
Inspired by God? Not in the least, but rather by the Trump/Bannon model of maintaining power while in defeat. Morrison left his mark appointing posts according to the persons politics rather than merit. Peter Dutton, now opposition leader, first stop was America’s Republican Party. Dutton needed help on Right-Wing tactics and strategy training in opposition politics. Close examination will prove nothing is Aussie original when it comes to the new Dutton’s LNP.
Culture wars will be central to their agenda along with a dose of fear and the Abbottesque Chicken Little cry that the “Sky is falling in”. Homophobia, the Right to Life, turning the clock back on LGBTQI’s marriage equality Law and Order and Defence and their patriotic white history will all certainly be on this ex cop’s agenda. However, not the corruption or any investigation of LNP party members by any Integrity Commision.
Scott Morrison’s influence lingers after defeat
“Across all federal government appointees, 7% have a direct political connection. This figure rises to 21% among those positions that are well paid, prestigious, and/or powerful.’“
Scott Morrison’s influence lingers after defeat
Let’s hope that it is decades before our secular nation is taken over by the appalling sanctimonious religious hypocrites, alpha male misogynists and corrupt self-serving elitists who seem to be holding sway within the LNP! Australia has a long, proud history of keeping religion out of politics – let’s keep it that way by never voting LNP again.
Note: Thankyou to Dr Binoy Kampmark for the term “visionless plodder.”
Source: The legacy of the “visionless plodder” – » The Australian Independent Media Network
If the Murdochs didn’t want all this to happen, it wouldn’t happen. Rupert gave Carlson a job and a show, Lachlan reportedly speaks to him regularly, and together they made him the face of their network, which has defended him against any and all criticism for years.
“I’m 100 percent [Rupert Murdoch’s] bitch,” Carlson once said. “Whatever Mr. Murdoch says, I do.”
The Murdochs may want some credit from the establishment for having their relatively high-brow outlets, the Journal and the Post, criticize Trump. But they also want to speak to the party’s Trumpist, pro-insurrection base. And so they are cheering on Tucker Carlson’s blood-soaked white nationalism, his deadly anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, and his reprehensible 1/6 trutherism.
No, the Murdochs haven’t turned on Trump | Media Matters for America
Private equity vultures KKR are close to pitching a $20bn takeover bid for Australia’s largest private healthcare group, Ramsay Health Care which could see most of Australia’s private health system being controlled in foreign tax havens.
The US road to Raqqa and following the Islamic State. It ain’t Christian or Islam. It’s not Jewish but it is Unforgiving Fundamentalism of the worst kind.
Currently, there are at least 32 states—Arizona, Louisiana, and Ohio among them—that have either constitutional amendments, state laws, or both that prohibit same-sex marriage. The Obergefell v. Hodges ruling rendered these defunct in 2015, but if the Supreme Court were to overturn that decision, same-sex marriage would be instantly banned in at least 25 of those states—putting thousands of couples at risk.
Source: At Least 25 States Are One Supreme Court Decision Away From Banning Same-Sex Marriage – Mother Jones
Don’t for a moment think Murdoch has hardened against Trump
It remains to be seen how much impact the January 6 hearings will have. Most Trump voters know Trump did it, they know why he did it, and they approve. The hope is that just enough of them start to feel things have gone too far. I tend to be skeptical about that, but it gives me pause to watch Fox News and Trump spin as hard as they can. If Trump and his main propagandists are this worried about losing support, maybe that’s a sign of hope for the rest of the country.
Morrison pushed for boat statement: report – Michael West
Morrison pushed for boat statement: report – Michael West
American teachers are celebrating the brief opportunity to teach classes without having to whisper in terrified huddles.
Source: The Ferguson Report: US goes entire school day without mass shooting
Koalas and greater gliders lost vast swathes of habitat during the Black Summer bushfires but their slide further towards extinction has not halted logging
Source: ‘We’ll lose this species’: The fight to save koalas and greater gliders
Just as COVID is surging, test accuracy has plunged. Now what?
Just as COVID is surging, test accuracy has plunged. Now what?
Fast-mutating variants of the Omicron COVID-19 strain have made rapid tests for the virus much less accurate and liable to provide an inaccurate diagnosis in four out of 10 cases.
Doctors say the development is a major health dilemma.
The federal government has announced that funding would be cut for subsidies to drop the price of rapid antigen tests (RATs).
The decision has drawn criticism from pharmacists and the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.
But the vice president of the Australian Medical Association, Chris Moy, says taking steps to offset the tests’ falling accuracy and prevent them from being overused was far more important than ensuring they could be easily accessed.
ON IT GOES, the Liberal Party attempting to recast Australia into its own image.
And if there was to be such an image, it would be an alabaster statue of a tall and impossibly noble-looking Captain Cook, in a huge tricorn hat, sword gallantly outstretched, with a knee-high leather boot grinding into Australia’s virgin soil a dusky native’s head.
Yes, the Liberal Party is trying to change the history books again.
Enter MP Stuart Robert, stage right. Stage Far-Right, to be precise.
Stuart Robert’s alabaster history wars
Stuart Robert’s alabaster history wars
The Victorian Health Department has warned of rising COVID-19 cases and hospitalisations, mirroring similar patterns occurring globally due to the spread of the new Omicron sub-variants.
“Just like other healthcare systems around the world, our system has been under unprecedented pressure and we’re investing billions to get it back on track as quickly as possible,” a spokesman said.
COVID Victoria: Elected surgery delays projected to rise
Boris Johnson Was a Creation of the British Media
They may have criticisms of him today, but the British media was all in for Boris Johnson when they saw him as a necessary alternative to Jeremy Corbyn’s socialism. And despite everything, they would do it all over again in a heartbeat.
Boris Johnson Was a Creation of the British Media
A recent IPSOS poll showed 78 per cent of Australians want religion to be separated from the business of government. Clearly, within that vast public majority are millions of religious moderates who support progressive social policy – like same-sex marriage, VAD, and the right of women to have full bodily autonomy.
Do “moderates” not believe that militant evangelism is actually subverting Christianity? Is there no concern that such extremism serves only to undermine the inclusiveness and tolerance that they see in the teachings of Jesus? And what are they prepared to do about that?
Enraged evangelists subvert Christianity – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Enraged evangelists subvert Christianity – » The Australian Independent Media Network
New Zealanders living in Australia for more than a year could soon be eligible to vote and have an easier pathway to citizenship following discussions between the two nations’ leaders.
Voting rights, citizenship in Aus-NZ reset – Michael West
Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest reached a record high for the first six months of the year, as an area five times the size of New York City was destroyed.
Amazon reeling as Brazil’s deforestation breaks all former records
The link between film and the military-industrial complex has never been more evident than in the ‘Top Gun’ movies— a relentless advertisement for the U.S. defence sector, writes Dr Binoy Kampmark.
Source: ‘Top Gun’: The thinly disguised Pentagon recruitment drive
As long as Carlson plays the role of Trump in Media he’s Murdoch’s man, his sock-puppet, and is paid well for it.
It’s worth underlining at the outset that claims by the DOJ, FBI, and police should be treated with skepticism in all cases, including those below. But that’s not what Carlson was doing in his Wednesday segment. He was manufacturing a narrative out of whole cloth that the DOJ is in reality a secret police force bent on repressing and persecuting conservatives. Both historically and currently, the opposite is true. Police at the local and federal level are far more likely to infiltrate, investigate, and prosecute leftist activists than conservatives. But Carlson wants to convince his viewers they’re a persecuted, oppressed group to justify their grievances and stoke election denialism.
It took 9 years for the LNP to turn China from friend to enemy. During whole of Abbott’s Prime Ministership, they simply asked him to have Murdoch Media tone down the anti-China rhetoric, to no avail. It takes 8 years post-graduate work to get a Phd but Dr. Herscovitch of the ANU suggests Albanese is a failure because he hasn’t turned China around in a month, what’s he on about?
One sandwich doesn’t make a picnic and one statement good or bad isn’t a diplomatic failure or pass. You can’t turn 9 years of purposeful negativity around in a month. Yes, Albanese does have a difficult task after Abbott’s celebrating the Sino- FTA ,set up by the ALP, to Dutton’s beating of war drums and saber-rattling along with Murdoch’s revenge as help. China was far wiser than us they dumped Murdoch,
But if anybody can do it it will be this new government and without any help from the LNP. After all, China doesn’t operate on kneejerk reactions or short a term memory. It’s proven that without participating in the number of wars Australia has, and lost since WW2. China still has considerable investment in Australia.
“Albanese in using this kind of language about China using economic coercion against Australia is just reproducing a lot of the language that was used by Scott Morrison,” said Benjamin Herscovitch from the ANU’s School of Regulation and Global Governance.
Source: Reset upset? Albanese’s speech puts paid to post-election hopes
American influence isn’t as large as one imagines
The overruling of Roe v Wade by the US Supreme Court in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization has created a sense that those outside the US will somehow draw inspiration from the example of the sacred foetus and the diminished autonomy of its carrier.
Groups such as MSI Reproductive Choices have also drawn a line in the sand of resistance. “To anyone who wants to deny someone’s right to make decisions about what is right for their body and their future, our message is ‘We are not going back’.” Dobbs, in short, may prove on the international stage to be more damp squib than firecracker.
Overruling Roe v Wade: The International Dimension – » The Australian Independent Media Network
NATO has agreed on a new strategic concept that describes Russia as “the most significant and direct threat to allies’ security and stability”.
On Wednesday the alliance also formally invited Finland and Sweden to be members, a day after a historic deal in which Turkey dropped its objections to the two nations joining.
The memberships show Russian President Vladimir Putin that his efforts to weaken NATO are failing and have actually instead further inspired the two neutral countries to join the alliance.
“As NATO allies, Finland and Sweden commit to fully support Turkey against threats to its national security,” secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said.
NATO describes Russia as direct threat to security and stabili
Meanwhile, more American soldiers will be sent to Europe in a show of force against the Kremlin.
Senator Hughes’ disgraceful attacks on the teaching profession in this country by labelling them Marxist is divisive and insulting to teachers. Her ignorance about Keynes and Marx is very concerning. Senator Hughes’ behaviour is the worst level of American style cultural war to try to agitate in this country. Senator Hughes should be reprimanded by her leader Peter Dutton, but I suspect there is a greater chance Shakespeare himself will be teaching next term at my daughter’s school than Ms Hughes being pulled into line.
Source: Stop the culture wars, Senator Hughes – » The Australian Independent Media Network
1. Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857
3. Hammer v. Dagenhart (1918)
4. Korematsu v. United States (1944)
5. Citizens United v. FEC (2010)
As for the sixth in this series, which may be the second-worst after Dred Scott, which caused the Civil War, you all know what that is, since it was just issued this week. Dobbs v. Jackson. It is the opening salvo of more such decisions inviting state governments to regulate our genitals and family life, which is the stealth agenda of the allegedly anti-government Republican Party.
When a small clique of unelected ideologues impose their will on 330 million people in a way that offends the vast majority of them, it calls forth a movement. Malcolm X and Martin Luther King each in his own way, coming from Islam and from Christianity, knew what to do about Jim Crow. They organized. Eventually even the Congress became concerned enough to strike down segregation and interference in voting rights. We may need to do the second all over again in this generation. And now there is the challenge of freeing the bodies of American women, and, indeed, of all Americans, from the death grip of the New Puritan Plutocrats.
One guy prosecuted for allegedly running a company while bankrupt, ten Crown directors off scot free for washing $70bn through casinos for Chinese Triads, drug and sex traffickers and other assorted criminals. One rule for rich and powerful, another for the rest. Michael West reports on the world of deluxe double standards.
Crown v Shannon: bigwigs off the hook, small fish fried – Michael West
In a nation where individuals are disposable and not the priority
Because I am a 53-year-old woman. The highest growing demographic for homelessness in Australia and I have had a severe and persistent mental illness for most of my life.
Have I asked for help? Yes! I used to work and teach Community Services and know how to do the research to find and ask for help. Have I been helped? No, I have received no assistance because I am a 53-year-old woman without children and I am the Government and any social services lowest priority. I am looking at least another two years before housing becomes available.
Breaking the cycle of homelessness – » The Australian Independent Media Network
‘Not in my backyard’: Sale of tacos under-regulated in the U.S.
‘Not in my backyard’: Sale of tacos under-regulated in the U.S.
Wow, we really dodged a bullet there!
Well, we put paid to that. We didn’t just restrict the sale of this merchandise. We went right ahead and banned at least 12 French cheeses that were deemed a brazen threat to our general community. In particular, a threat to the safety of our children. Children are precious right?
Because when things are really dangerous, then sensibly you restrict and regulate it okay?
These cheeses that undermine the very fabric of society, with their delicate harmony of aroma and finely developed bacterial sensibilities, such as Roquefort, Bleu de Gax, Mimolette, Morbier, Camembert de Normandie and Brie de Meaux will no longer be permitted to put our children in grave physical danger as has been consistently proven over many a past decade.
Mr Biden said empowering states to ban abortion made the US an outlier among developed nations on protecting reproductive rights.
‘Violence for weeks’ feared after landmark US abortion ruling
Millions of women are now less free than men, in the functioning of their own bodies and in the paths of their own lives
Roe v Wade has been overturned. Here’s what this will mean | Moira Donegan | The Guardian
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