We can laugh away McCormack’s rants and Morrison’s raves, but the government that purports to stand for freedom is using the state to quell dissent
Category: Uncategorized
Thanking the Sky-Man for us becoming more Californian (ODT)
According to an astounding report by the Washington Post, Republicans have (yet another) brand-new strategy to defend President Donald Trump from impeachment—and it involves throwing Rudy Giuliani, Gordon Sondland, and “possibly” Mick Mulvaney under the bus. Under this new approach, Republicans would essentially acknowledge what has become obvious to everyone: that Trump’s henchmen really did demand that Ukraine investigate Democrats in return for military aide and a White House meeting. But, Republicans insist, Trump himself knew nothing about the scheme:
Character assassination is what Fox News does. The problem for Trump when it comes to the impeachment scandal is that Fox News has too many characters it needs to assassinate.
Who shoots someone and then doesn’t take them to a medical facility? (ODT)
Two officers had entered a home in the community, 266 kilometers northwest of Alice Springs, early Saturday evening to arrest Walker for alleged property-related offences, police said. After an altercation, Walker was shot and then taken to the police station instead of a medical facility. Family were told Sunday that he was dead.
Guess Joyce doesn’t read the papers or follow Sky News and their CSIRO expert (retired) when they along with Bant declared a lot could have been done in the 6 years this Gov have been in power to minimize what is occurring at present. Joysce ducking for covere using the old cherry “Weather is Weather “. Quite disgusting thogh dictating that the dead were most likely Greens anyway. (ODT)
“What I wish [Greens MP Adam] Bandt would do is not try to extend this argument to political purposes … to make these spurious links, that a policy change would have stopped the fires is so insulting and just completely beyond the pale.
“To say that a policy that is conducted in Australia from a room in Canberra, where 76 out of 150 will vote for it, will change the bushfire season is an absurdity and erroneous and it is completely misleading because it’s going to have no effect on the climate whatsoever.”
via NSW fires: Barnaby Joyce claims two people who died ‘most likely’ voted for the Greens
My thought for the day
America may be the most advanced technological nation on earth but its social progress on matters of great moral importance, INCLUDING ITS POLITICS is still fighting its way out of the dark ages when mysticism was rampart. (John Lord)
via Impeaching the President: 5 possibilities – » The Australian Independent Media Network
US admits it will leave about 600 troops and call that a TRUMP”S WITHDRAWL. However whose counting? (ODT)
“There will be less than 1000 for sure,” Milley said, referring to the number present when President Donald Trump ordered their complete withdrawal last month.”The footprint will be small, but the objective will remain the same – the enduring defeat of ISIS,” Milley said.
US will leave about 600 troops in northeast Syria, top general says
Fake News Trump pulled out of Syria (ODT)
via U.S. Troops To Stay In Afghanistan Several More Years, Says General
Bushfires have wiped out about half the koalas living on a coastal reserve in New South Wales, experts estimated on Friday, as a record number of intense fires rage around the Australian state.
via NSW Bushfires Wipe Out Half Of Koala Colony, Threaten More | HuffPost Australia
And a majority of people across the nation think “if you have a go, you’ll get a go.”
But those who work on the frontlines of poverty reduction almost unanimously say the notion that hard work alone can lift someone out of poverty is just plain wrong.
“So, we can certainly see people who are the exceptions, and all those wonderful stories about people beating the odds are heart-warming because they’re exceptional.”
Campbell and Shields argue that Norway reaps the rewards from “direct ownership” of oil and gas fields, with global revenue of $46bn from the petroleum industry in 2019 compared with the $1.2bn Australia received from PRRT in 2017-18.
“As a result of the Australian government’s decision to raise little revenue from the exploitation of its oil and gas resources, drilling in the Bight is effectively a no-win proposition for Australia and the communities along its south coast,” the report said.
“While Australians are being asked to shoulder all of the economic and environmental risk of the project, a foreign government is likely to enjoy much of the financial gain.”
Is this a case of the Government assisting and protecting Murdoch’s interests rather than the publics’s since Murdoch entered the online gambling market? The LNP and Murdoch seem to have an up-close and personal interest in their mutual success. (ODT)
I’m confident that our national government, when the smoke and dust settles, will finally see the obvious and understand the word “unprecedented”. I’m sure it will then start to take decisive action to tackle the base cause – greenhouse emissions – then use the high moral ground to lean on other countries to also do the right thing.
NSW bushfires: What’s different about the NSW mega fires and why this is not normal
Lindsey Graham says Trump’s Ukraine policy was incoherent. It wasn’t. He knew what he wanted. But the strategy to defend the president in this impeachment proceeding is certainly incoherent at this point. He will probably survive a trial in the Senate, but none of his defenders are going to come out looking any better than he does. The central fact they can’t accept is that his behavior was indefensible.
via Looks Like GOP Might Run With the “Moron Defense” for Trump | The Smirking Chimp
Victoria’s anti-corruption commission has raided the offices of Ferrari-driving property developer and political donor John Woodman and the homes of local councillors as it prepares to publicly grill politicians and property players over land deals in Melbourne’s sprawling south-east.
via Raids and public hearings in Victoria’s biggest anti-corruption inquiry yet
Soft Diplomacy seems to be overcoming and Blue Dot the Federal Government has to offer(ODT)
The suspicious business of Politics(ODT)
Investigations editor Ross Jones looks into One Nation’s finances and unearths some “interesting” dealings.
The anonymous author of a widely anticipated book on the Trump White House has described the US president as spiraling from crisis to crisis “like a 12-year-old in an air traffic control tower”, according to scathing extracts published by the Washington Post on Thursday.
The unnamed author, identified only as “a senior official in the Trump administration”, also says that colleagues considered resigning en masse in order to raise alarm about the president’s conduct, but ultimately decided against it, according to the Post.
via Trump quashes hopes of early resolution to US-China trade dispute | Business | The Guardian
The retail sector is now in its third year of per capita recession and it’s not just the internet to blame. Alan Austin unpacks the latest retail sales data and how it reflects Australia’s poor economic management.
Tax Cut Flop: 1080 fails to revive torpid retail sector – Michael West
WHO NEEDS SOME TOTALLY AMAZING NEWS?!
Oh my god. Every day I clasp my hands together and thank the sweet universe that I live in Victoria. Thank you, Lily D’Ambrosio MP, thank you.
Please bear in mind: this timetable – and the money that the government are willing to put into it – gives the working people of the industry time and resources to *transition*. This is what we mean by a “just” transition. It is why it should be at the heart of every decision we make. (Van Badham)
Just how wrong was Trump when he started the trade war and put tariffs on Chinese goods. Now he’s doing a walk back and will media claim he has won. China has won the war they never started. (ODT)
The Fraudster Family caught in action. Any wonder they don’t want their Tax Returns made public. (ODT)
via Trump Ordered To Pay $2 Million In Charity Ethics Lawsuit | HuffPost Australia
Fox News doesn’t have, or doesn’t enforce, standards the way a normal news outlet does. Its hosts frequently buck the network’s purported ban on participating in campaign events, its efforts to limit abject on-air bigotry only highlights the horrific commentary it is willing to let slide, and its much touted wall between “news” and “opinion” divisions is extremely permeable.
And so when CNN reported on Wednesday that Fox hosts and personalities had been ordered not to identify the whistleblower whose complaint is at the heart of an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump’s abuse of power, the question was not whether that edict would be violated, but when.
via Fox violates its edict not to name the whistleblower | Media Matters for America
The population, science and business are all onside but the LNP isn’t(ODT)
We have truly lost our moral compass, following get-rich-quick cults and ignoring the needs of those who do not have a chance to ‘have a go’!
We waste food while the poor in other countries – and some in our own – are starving.
We have developed a throw-away economy where manufacturers build in obsolescence.
We pollute to the point that some fresh water sources are no longer suitable for consumption.
The rate of loss of species diversity is enormous. No surprise, when we recognise that humankind is the Earth’s most dangerous predator!
The clock is ticking ever closer to Doomsday, and all the wealth, in financial terms, which a few have accumulated, will not save them forever when the air and water are polluted and the temperatures soar out of control! They might end up living lonely lives in luxurious caves!
Government funding cuts and concentration on research that brings in money has not yet quite destroyed the CSIRO. We have plenty of sources of viable plans for action.
via The clock is ticking ever closer to Doomsday – » The Australian Independent Media Network
This submission by Jeffrey Knapp to the impending Parliamentary Inquiry into the Regulation of Auditing in Australia documents how the Big 4 audit firms – KPMG, PwC, Deloitte and EY – have undermined Australian auditing and financial reporting practice for multinational clients. Knapp includes a number of recommendations.
via Knapp: Big Four failed Australia for their multinational clients – Michael West
Bill Taylor, George P Kent and Marie Yovanovitch will tell complementary parts of the story and how it affects national security
olddogthoughts 
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