via Sex Is Only For Heterosexual Couples, Says Man Wearing GORGEOUS Gold Hat – The Shovel
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We should challenge climate deniers on every opportunity, not by providing them with factual information, we have tried that, but by challenging their motives, their unwillingness to change, their prejudices and unreasonableness, their intellectual laziness, their lack of credentials, their bias, lack of substance and their lack of caring. We should call them for what they are – future thieves and environmental vandals who are committing crimes against humanity. If you think this is harsh, just remember history show us it is unreasonable people who usually kill off the reasonable. We are reaching the end of the road to salvation and climate deniers are blocking the way forward.
via Future thieves are beyond reason – » The Australian Independent Media Network
“We need a serious debate in this country on issues,” Sanders said. “We don’t need to demonize people who may disagree with us. … I appeal to my supporters: Please, engage in civil discourse.” He pointed out (rightly) that “we’re not the only campaign that does it. Other people act that way as well.” But he added, “I would appeal to everybody: Have a debate on the issues. We can disagree with each other without being disagreeable, without being hateful.”
The Saving of Trump’s Privates (ODT)
Impeachment in Wonderland: First the Trial, Then the Evidence. | The Smirking Chimp
Forty-two percent is a terrifying number, because it’s about more than Trump. That number represents the percentage of Americans who have, it appears, wholly rejected reasoned discourse and democratic values. Due to the quirks in our electoral system that give disproportionate power to rural and suburban areas, and due to voter suppression efforts from the GOP, that 42% will likely control the Senate for the foreseeable future and will quite possibly win the presidency again in 2020.
via Impeachment trial should remove any lingering doubt: Republicans are beyond redemption | Salon.com
First
I’m, of course, talking about the recent bushfires. Just to recap the main talking points:
The bushfires, while bad, are nothing new because we’ve always had them.
These bushfires are not unprecedented. We’ve had worse.
They should not be politicised by talking about climate change.
They are the result of “greenie” influence and a lack of fuel reduction burns.
They are unprecedented because, in the past, we used to do fuel reduction burning.
They are not the result of climate change because a hotter climate doesn’t cause fires.
Don’t talk about climate change and try to politicise the issue.
Have we mentioned arson?
It’s all the states’ fault for not doing fuel reduction burning because that used to enable the fires to be put out before they’d got out of control.
We’ve always had droughts and fires and floods, so this is nothing new.
Of course, we believe in climate change, but, of course, some people will want more evidence before we do anything like… well, before we do anything.
Who is Matt Kean and why should we listen to someone who’s NSW Environment Minister?So in spite of the clear signals that Scott Morrison is considering that he’s prepared to change Coalition policy on climate change as long as it doesn’t involve anything which will affect jobs… In particular, his job. And so long as somebody can guarantee that this action won’t affect the Surplus, coal exports and ensure that his daughters get to ride on a unicorn, then he’s prepared to take it to the party room.
Then there’s Twiggy
Moreover, the politics of getting started are different than the politics of maintaining and extending climate action. One way to create broader coalitions of support is to build justice and equity into every climate action. Overly technocratic climate initiatives, such as smart cities, can get stuck and fail to catalyze broad decarbonization in part because they fail to generate broad and diverse coalitions to build on initial successes.
Building a better society is not possible without addressing climate change. Addressing climate change is not politically feasible without pursuing a more just and equitable society to ensure broad support.
via We need a Whole Revolution: Why Incremental Change won’t solve the Climate Crisis
“After a day of hobnobbing with billionaires in Davos, President Trump publicly revealed that cuts to earned Medicare and Social Security benefits will be on the table as soon as the end of this year. The cruel irony of this scene cannot be overstated.”
Coupled with the Citizens United ruling (ODT)
Despite James Murdoch’s speaking up against the company’s climate change denial, nevertheless, the award for the Most Dangerous Disinformation and Misinformation Crusade goes to the Rupert Murdoch Media Empire for its tenacious and tireless climate denialism, as exemplified by its broadcast and print outlets in Australia during that country’s bushfire catastrophe.
Murdoch’s Massive Media Australia-on-Fire Disinformation Crusade | The Smirking Chimp
“A trial without evidence is not a trial. It’s a cover-up,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a floor speech before voting began on the issues.
Republicans Block Request For New Evidence In Senate Impeachment Trial | HuffPost Australia
“If the president is so confident in his case, if Leader McConnell is so confident the president did nothing wrong, why don’t they want the case to be presented in broad daylight?”
For Indigenous Australians, colonisation meant their sovereignty over the land was never recognised. It meant they were not acknowledged in the constitution and still aren’t. It meant murders, being pushed off their land, racism and institutionalising whole generations of children to “breed out the colour.” It meant that every year for 232 years, on the anniversary of the day Sir Arthur Phillip stuck a flagpole in the sand at Sydney’s Woolloomooloo, Australians would celebrate the colony while Indigenous Australians were made to remember a history that brutalised their culture.
via Six Things Indigenous People Want You To Know This Survival Day | HuffPost Australia
I don’t see myself as being particularly gifted in prophetic wisdom, but on at least three occasions in 2019 I said that it would take an event of catastrophic proportion to wake the Australian population from its malaise over climate heating.
That it has happened gives no pleasure to my words. That they make for a catalyst for action does.
The unsurprising drop in Scott Morrison’s approval rating confirms my prediction that the public mood for action is as hot as the flames that have caused so much devastation.
via As prophetic as I may be – » The Australian Independent Media Network
The Morrison Government has failed to release its own integrity commission legislation for consultation. They continue to stall. Revelations of $100 million of sports grants targeting marginal seats show why a Federal ICAC is needed, perhaps also a special prosecutor. Independent MP Zali Steggall has joined the many voices calling for a Federal ICAC. How many more are needed before those with entitlement respond?
Plato understood democracy but even he could not have foreseen the age of political entitlement. We need to return democracy to the voters.
Socialism is working in the Scandanavian Countries (ODT)
How slow we are to notice like Climate Change we have been telling you this for 2 decades. (ODT)
Places to watch in 2020
National elections will be held this year in Hong Kong, Singapore, Jordan, Iran, New Zealand, Croatia, Greece, Iceland, Lithuania, Ireland, Poland, Romania, Peru, Bolivia, Venezuela, the USA and several smaller states in Africa and elsewhere. So plenty of theatres of potentially intriguing political contest.
Do these raise hopes for the future?
Yes, says Charles Richardson:
‘Anti-democratic forces remain firmly in control in much of the world. Recovering from the losses of the last few years is going to be a long haul. But as Angela Merkel would say, “Wir schaffen das” [We will get there]. But it’s not going to be easy.’
Are we expected to protect the unprofitable? Was the ‘free market ever really ‘free’ or rigged to trickle up ? Suddenly the term Socialism for the rich comes into focus. How about mobilising forces for clean energy? Are ordinary Australians expected to insure the profits of the extraordinary few? Particularly those who continue to invest in the unwanted? We have done that for the past 20 years and flatlined wages, issued company tax cuts and a variety of other economic decisions favouring the ever growing unequal share of GDP in this country. Particularly clean air, water and public health. We have seen the family of one working to survive become two, three and even families merging to survive.
The cry to “mobilise” forces has always been at the expense of “work forces”. Insurance companies are about to take a hit Scott is about to insure all Australia is to bear the cost easing the burden on the only “some”. Needless to say who will benefit the most. (ODT)
The Reserve Bank has been warned it may have to buy up coal mines and fossil-fuel power stations as part of extraordinary actions to save the economy from climate change-induced financial disaster.
The BIS said climate change events that severely affected the financial health of the banking and insurance sectors could force central banks to intervene and “buy a large set of carbon-intensive assets”.
via RBA told to ‘mobilise all forces’ to save the economy from climate change
Here we see the LNP Treasurer quoting Wayne Swan when the LNP tore into him for saying this same thing back in 2008 and saved us from the GFC. How hypocritical are these jerks claiming “saving the country” is ok for them when it wasn’t ok for the ALP. Back then The Australian and News Corp didn’t give the government support but just criticism. Andre (ODT)
“Let me make it very clear on the budget that we believe the budget in surplus is important because we believe it gives the nation the opportunity to respond to circumstances like these when they arise,” he said.
“And [while] we do believe that these are exceptional circumstances and why we would love to see the budget in surplus, we would not like to see it in surplus at the expense of these local communities.”
via Australia fires: Treasurer warns surplus at risk as economy hit
Oh you mean like when Labor steered us through the Global Financial Crisis emerging as the strongest economy in the world?
His advice came from Roskam and the IPA. Someone has told him the next election is 2 years away. (ODT)
Under the Trump regime, historical amnesia is used as a weapon of (mis)education, politics, and power. The notion that the past is a burden that must be forgotten is a centerpiece of authoritarian regimes, one that allows public memory to wither and the threads of fascism to become normalized. While some critics eschew the comparison of Trump with the Nazi era, it is crucial to recognize the alarming signs in this administration that echo a fascist politics of the past. As Jonathan Freedland points out, “the signs are there, if only we can bear to look.” Rejecting the Trump-Nazi comparison makes it easier to believe that we have nothing to learn from history and to take comfort in the assumption that it cannot happen once again. No democracy can survive without an informed and educated citizenry.
Albo Enters the Lion’s Den: The Sky Interview, Part One – » The Australian Independent Media Network
and
Albo in The Lion’s Den: The Sky Interview,…Part Two
We pick up with Mr. Albanese and the trained monkey already in…
The Big Four banks and Macquarie, big Liberal Party donors all, have received over $2.3 billion in taxpayer-backed funds from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. That is almost one-third of every dollar ever invested by Australia’s green bank. Anthony Klan investigates dramatic rise in CEFC funds to the Big End of Town, particularly Macquarie, which coincides with a sudden rise in affection from Prime Minister Scott Morrison. This is Part II.
via Green Bank Besieged: CEFC, coal and the Giant Vampire Kangaroo – Michael West
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