Australian media’s alarm over Chinese spy ship highlights stark double-standard – Pearls and Irritations

220720-N-OZ224-1008 JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii (July 20, 2022) – Royal Australian Air Force Flight Lt. Nathan Owen loads sonobuoys on a P-8A Poseidon at Pearl Harbor during Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2022, July 20. Twenty-six nations, 38 ships, three submarines, more than 170 aircraft and 25,000 personnel are participating in RIMPAC from June 29 to Aug. 4 in and around the Hawaiian Islands and Southern California. The world's largest international maritime exercise, RIMPAC provides a unique training opportunity while fostering and sustaining cooperative relationships among participants critical to ensuring the safety of sea lanes and security on the world's oceans. RIMPAC 2022 is the 28th exercise in the series that began in 1971. Image: Wikimedia Commons/ U.S. Navy photo by Aviation Structural Mechanic Airman Apprentice Hannah Cox/ no copyright license

Media China Baiting is promoting LNP’s Fear Factor. To smother the attention on Dutton

The mainstream media has once more tried to generate alarm about the presence of two relatively innocuous Chinese electronic spy ships in international waters during the latest biennial Talisman Sabre military exercise spread across the Australian mainland and offshore oceans. It involves 30,000 troops from 13 countries. Although the Indian prime minister Narendra Modi had publicly assured his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese that his country would attend, India did not turn up.

Source: Australian media’s alarm over Chinese spy ship highlights stark double-standard – Pearls and Irritations

The GOP’s Billionaire Primary Is Just Getting Started | HuffPost Latest News

Republicans are lining up megadonors to back their presidential campaigns: Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison is supporting Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.); hedge fund manager Ken Griffin and venture capitalist David Sacks are potentially supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis; former President Donald Trump has previously had the backing of reclusive billionaire Timothy Mellon; and Mets owner Steve Cohen is reportedly backing former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

And a big chunk to pay one man’s legal bills

But the 2024 Republican primary, which is just entering its adolescence, is set to be defined not by the passions of donors chipping in $20 in response to an email, but by millionaires and billionaires cutting checks worth tens of thousands of dollars, if not tens of millions, in response to a PowerPoint presentation and a sales pitch from a super PAC official.

Source: The GOP’s Billionaire Primary Is Just Getting Started | HuffPost Latest News

Stormy Daniels May Have the Last Word on Donald Trump

FILE - Former President Donald Trump speaks during a rally, July 7, 2023, in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Many state Republican parties made changes to their rules ahead of the 2020 election by adding more winner-take-all contests and requiring candidates to earn higher percentages of the vote to claim any delegates. Those changes all benefit a frontrunner, a position Trump has held despite his mounting legal peril, blame for his party's lackluster performance in the 2022 elections and the turbulent years of his presidency. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)

Only a career criminal finds himself facing four indictments in four different jurisdictions at the same time. That level of legal exposure is generally reserved for those who engage in crime sprees of historic proportions.

Source: Stormy Daniels May Have the Last Word on Donald Trump

DeSantis campaign slams Trump for allegedly spending over $40 million on legal fees | Washington Examiner

Donald J. Trump stands at a podium at a rally as his supporters stand behind him.

A spokesman for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s presidential campaign is criticizing former President Donald Trump after a new report alleged that his super PAC spent more than $40 million in legal fees.

Source: DeSantis campaign slams Trump for allegedly spending over $40 million on legal fees | Washington Examiner

Old Dog Thought- Silent Colonisers. The second invasion

Fighting Fake News with REAL 31/7/2023, The Productivity Report, The Defence Tragedy of a Vassal State,

“The Productivity Commission Report… – The Fiberal Party of Australia – Lies & Misdemeanours | Facebook

‘Business as usual’: Closing the Gap efforts inadequate
Dutton demands “business as usual” when it comes to the Voice. He says No is our best choice. Tony Abbott falsely claims $30B has been spent on specific programs for Aboriginals. and that progress has been made. Both Abbott, Dutton and now John Howard are bullshitting and shaming this nation.
The Productivity Commission Report card says otherwise. Is it any wonder 83% of Indigenous Australians are united and want a change while the LNP calls this divided. They simply want to be listened to and deserve to be as we built this Nation on their land.
The commission’s latest data on Closing the Gap showed four of 17 targets were on track to be met, while another four were going backwards.
“Overall progress against the priority reforms has been slow, uncoordinated and piecemeal,” the commission said in its report.
The review found it “too easy” to locate examples of government decisions that contradicted the commitments, and exacerbated rather than reduce disadvantage and discrimination.
This was particularly obvious in youth justice systems.

Source: “The… – The Fiberal Party of Australia – Lies & Misdemeanours | Facebook

If you can read this (your lucky) … – » The Australian Independent Media Network

 

Greed is not good, whoever dies with the most toys doesn’t win and we all deserve to live in a compassionate society. Education of our children is too important to be a political football and using it as such disadvantages all of us. The sooner our political leaders realise that – the better off we all are.

Source: If you can read this … – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Half a bil per aerial truck for the Royal Australian Air Force – what’s the scam? – Michael West

RAAF Hercules

It’s not often the Australian Government acquires the same type of aircraft, from the same company, to perform a similar role across a span of 66 years. The Albanese Government’s purchase of new transport aircraft provides an interesting insight into the eye-watering costs of defence procurement. What’s the scam?

Put simply, the C130J, like the C130A before it, is an aerial truck.

No doubt the C130Js are more capable aircraft than their predecessors. But can they carry 10 times as much cargo in a given time, or fly ten times as far? Is each one ten times more capable? I doubt it.

Source: Half a bil per aerial truck for the Royal Australian Air Force – what’s the scam? – Michael West

Barbie Pathologies: It’s All About a Doll – » The Australian Independent Media Network

The absurd nature of the whole doll business reached a highwater mark on Australia’s ABC network in Gruen, a program dedicated to demystifying the world of advertising. On the panel, hardboiled advertising veterans dissect the entrails of their industry, including its ruthless manipulations. For one of the panellists, Russel Howcroft, Barbie was something of a modern Joan of Arc, a figure who really ought to think deeply about who she will eventually marry. “She’s just a toy, Russel!” came the mocking response from a fellow panellist.

Source: Barbie Pathologies: It’s All About a Doll – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Australia’s Right is importing Orbanism: we can’t ignore it – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Viktor Orbán at CPAC in Texas in 2022

Greg Sheridan Murdoch’s Political Editor has more strings to his bow or is Murdoch the bow and Sheridan his arrow?

Senior Australian “conservative” figures continue to attend conferences backed by illiberal Hungarian leader Viktor Orban. The Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC) hosted its 2023 London Summit in late June, featuring Alexander Downer and Greg Sheridan as two of the five speakers. Australians must focus on connections between our Right with Hungarian fascistic politics.

Source: Australia’s Right is importing Orbanism: we can’t ignore it – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Renewable Energy poised to overtake Coal, Providing 1/3 of Global Electricity: IEA

Change is coming faster than you think Adani. Who are you going to sell to? Like his Billion dollars coal-fired generator in India for sale for $1 Adani’s investment in Australia will be up for Sale “Come in Suckers”

Depending on how cold the winters are, the IEA expects renewable sources of energy to outstrip coal in 2024, and forever thereafter. It calls this change “structural.” That is, it isn’t a blip or something that could easily be reversed. We are entering a world where people will routinely get more electricity from wind, solar, water and battery than from dirty coal. While Asia is still somewhat wedded to coal and China is even still building new coal-fired power plants, this slight increase in use will be more than offset by the rapidly dwindling numbers of coal-fired plants in the US and Europe. So IEA expects coal use to decline over the next couple of years, and that renewables will go on growing from strength to strength.

Source: Renewable Energy poised to overtake Coal, Providing 1/3 of Global Electricity: IEA

Rights Groups Vow to Fight Israel’s ‘Ethnic Cleansing’ of Bedouin Village of Ras Jrabah

Israeli ethnic cleansing of Bedouin villages

“The forced displacement of Ras Jrabah’s residents to expand the Jewish city of Dimona… serves as clear evidence that Israel is committing the crime of apartheid against its Palestinian citizens,” said one legal advocacy group.

Source: Rights Groups Vow to Fight Israel’s ‘Ethnic Cleansing’ of Bedouin Village of Ras Jrabah

“These People Are Admitting They Lied to You”: Trump’s Own Men Undermine His “Delusional” Defense | The Smirking Chimp

Source: “These People Are Admitting They Lied to You”: Trump’s Own Men Undermine His “Delusional” Defense | The Smirking Chimp

Avoiding the same fate: Political Polarisation in the US – Part 5 – Pearls and Irritations

Male hands with 3D render of USA and China.

Australia must carefully monitor US domestic developments as a barometer of longer term risks to the reliability of our “great and powerful friend”, and to avoid being drawn into a US war against China. But the biggest lesson from the political polarisation in the US is that it is better to have lower overall economic growth but sustain a fairer society, than to go for broke while impoverishing ordinary citizens. The price of failing to do that is the risk of bitter polarisation, political violence, and democratic tensions.

Source: Avoiding the same fate: Political Polarisation in the US – Part 5 – Pearls and Irritations

Trump’s defamation lawsuit against CNN dismissed

Donald Trump is the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination

Rolling the dice of Law Trump’s the loser? Do his lawyers get paid? In advance and from his PAC donations. After all he was busted for inappropriately using his charity and lying about not accepting his wages when President. Trump talked the talk but never walked the walk.

A US federal judge has thrown out Donald Trump’s $475m defamation lawsuit against CNN, in which the former US president claimed the network’s description of his election fraud as the “big lie” associated him with Adolf Hitler.

Source: Trump’s defamation lawsuit against CNN dismissed

Old Dog Thought- Howard, Abbott, Morrison, Dutton Set the benchmark that defined the Party

Peter Dutton

Fighting Fake News with REAL, 30/7/2023, Peter Dutton, Who is John Howard? Fact or Fiction 2GB Abbott and Ben Fordham = FICTION, Scott Morrison Truth in Humor, Grumpy Geezer, The Real Sinead O’Connor overlooked, News Corp’s Greg Sheridan and Fascist Politics, Star Spangled Kangaroo,,

Peter Dutton’s corruption allegations that will almost certainly end his political careerKangaroo Court of Australia

Peter Dutton

Peter Dutton will be forced to address corruption allegations next week when parliament resumes because 2 whistleblowers, which includes an acting AFP Commissioner, have shined a light on corruption during Peter Dutton’s time as Home Affairs Minister and the suspect $billions paid to dodgy contractors.

Source: Peter Dutton’s corruption allegations that will almost certainly end his political careerKangaroo Court of Australia

National Times – No, the NIAA doesn’t spend $30b a year on… | Facebook

Ben Fordham assists in promoting FACT or FICTION

In this case Tony Abbott hasn’t changed his spots it’s all FICTION

During a radio interview with 2GB’s Ben Fordham this week, former prime minister Tony Abbott also name-checked the NIAA, citing the “hundreds of people” working for the agency in Canberra as among the reasons a Voice was not needed.

He then claimed that the agency “disburses something like $30 billion a year on various Indigenous programs”.

Mr Abbott’s comments echo similar claims on social media that “dedicated Indigenous bodies” such as the NIAA were collectively “funded to the tune of 30 BILLION PLUS dollars”.

However, in a statement to CheckMate, a spokesman for the NIAA said it “has never administered funding of $30 billion per annum”.

Source: National Times – No, the NIAA doesn’t spend $30b a year on… | Facebook

Conservatives are masters of scare because they have experience in it – » The Australian Independent Media Network

In the United States, the advertising industry employs more psychologists than the health industry. It is all calculated to take power over your decision-making. And it works. The same can be said for Australian mainstream media; it also wants your brand loyalty and the power to coerce you into its way of thinking. It uses techniques similar to the advertising industry; the main ingredients are untruth and creating perceptions with subliminal messages.

Source: Conservatives are masters of scare because they have experience in it – » The Australian Independent Media Network

From national embarrassment to personal humiliation – » The Australian Independent Media Network

His shamelessness has survived his ostracism to the opposition backbenches where his unemployability stands out like a hi-vizzed walrus at a choir practice – the guy whose smarm included “if you’re good at a job you’ll get a job“, the guy who initiated the dob-in-a-bludger hotline. This is schadenfreude tied in a big, pink bow.

The denigration from his Tory cohort was shrugged off:

He fucked us and his fingerprints are absolutely fuckin’ everywhere on that. The bloke thinks he is a master strategist. He is a fuckwit.” (Anonymous federal Lib MP).

Everyone wants him to piss off. But people don’t want a by-election,’’ a senior Liberal source told news.com.au. (Julia Banks, ex Lib MP – “menacing controlling wallpaper”).

Catherine Cusack ex Lib MP – “… it’s just all come a bit late for the Liberal party. The party I joined 40 years ago and loved. The party he has ruined.

Concetta Fierravanti-Wells – an autocrat [and] a bully who has no moral compass,He has used his so-called faith as a marketing advantage.”

Gladys Berejiklian – “a complete psycho”.

 

Source: From national embarrassment to personal humiliation – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Home Affairs: Scandal has stuck to Scott Morrison, but offshore truths could soon hit home for Peter Dutton

Scott Morrison and successor Peter Dutton in 2018.

Ministerial Incompetence is of Olympic Dimension

The revelations were made in the Home Truths series of articles by investigative reporters at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and 60 Minutes. The articles by Michael Bachelard, Nick McKenzie and Amelia Ballinger raise apparent malpractice in two of the department’s responsibilities: One is systemic abuse of the visa system by criminal gangs; the other is dubious payments for the letting of contracts to run Australia’s offshore immigration processing and detention centres in Nauru and Papua New Guinea.

The most politically sensational of the reports? That the Australian Federal Police told Dutton as home affairs minister in July 2018 that an Australian businessman was under investigation for bribery, and that Dutton’s department awarded the same man’s company a multi-million-dollar government contract a month later.

Source: Home Affairs: Scandal has stuck to Scott Morrison, but offshore truths could soon hit home for Peter Dutton

Fascism will fall when action speaks louder than words

We are “normalizing Nazis in Australia” and the police allow, no protect, them when they gather in public. Murdochian’s like Andrew Bolt even provide these homegrown domestic slugs with encouragement and readily provide a platform for their Voice. It resulted in the Christchurch massacre shooter’s declaration that programs like Bolt’s provided him with the inspiration to slaughter 52 innocent NZers. It was Bolt and the guests in his show that helped motivate him growing up. What did  Bolt do? For days after the massacre it seemed like he went into hiding. For a number of days he was silenced. After all the NZ government had to shut Sky News down because they continued to shoot the massacre LIVE.

Bolt was a constant voice against ANTIFA telling us how organized and pervasive they were. He  even accused them of personally attacking him without any solid evidence. He made out he was a warrior. He baited our Australia’s Christian Youth telling them what cowards and limp dicks they were for not being committed to “fighting”  like the Barcelona bombers did. He publicly said he admired these terrorists for their commitment to fight for what they believed to their death. Bolt was really a coward rarely showing his face in public and never holidaying in Australia. The faux patriot spent his money elsewhere.

We must hook our impeccable understanding of exactly what the problem is with White supremacists to tangible, activist action. We cannot deal with these scumbags merely by endlessly explaining them to each other. Support anti-fascist action by being part of it and support the protection of Sunshine’s multicultural community by making it hard for neo-Nazis to comfortably organise events there.

Source: Fascism will fall when action speaks louder than words

Greg Sheridan, Australian conservatives flirt with Orban’s fascistic politics – Pearls and Irritations

Victor Orban

Murdoch’s The Australian  Political Editor Greg Sheridan actively participates in Fascist politics. He doesn’t just report it.

Senior Australian “conservative” figures continue to attend conferences backed by illiberal Hungarian leader Viktor Orban. The Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC) hosted its 2023 London Summit in late June, featuring Alexander Downer and Greg Sheridan as two of the five speakers. Australians must focus on connections between our Right and Hungarian fascistic politics.

Source: Greg Sheridan, Australian conservatives flirt with Orban’s fascistic politics – Pearls and Irritations

Michael Pascoe: ‘Insult conservatism’ – yes, Murdoch can go lower

For a preview of where Sky News is heading, it’s easy to check the direction of the Murdoch format pacesetter, Fox News.

Crikey’s Bernard Keane this week detailed the Australian Communications and Media Authority’s uselessness.

On average, it takes more than nine months for ACMA to finalise an investigation on the rare occasions it attempts them.

“The recent occasion in which the ACMA did inquire into Sky News – for blatant climate denialism on Outsiders – saw the regulator commence an investigation in June 2022 about broadcasts in late 2021. It was completed in December 2022 and was not released until April this year,” reports Mr Keane.

“So, in the event that the ACMA can bring itself to investigate Sky News’ lies about the Voice, don’t expect any findings until at least late 2024, when it might finally produce a report saying it had ordered the organisation to provide more training to its presenters.”

And remember that the Murdochs’ local broadcasting venture is still catching up with the Fox News model, still looking for a local Greg Gutfeld.

 

Source: Michael Pascoe: ‘Insult conservatism’ – yes, Murdoch can go lower

The Other Sinead O’Connor, Pro-Palestinian Critic of Violent Israeli Extremist Ben-Gvir, and Muslim Convert

Tragically, Sinead O’Connor is dead at 56. Many of the obituaries of Irish protest singer have been oddly thin, and have ignored key moments in her life. One was her contretemps with Israeli extremist Itamar Ben-Gvir, now the country’s Minister of National Security. She later became fiercely critical of the Israeli treatment of Palestinians. Another was her conversion to Islam in 2018.

Source: The Other Sinead O’Connor, Pro-Palestinian Critic of Violent Israeli Extremist Ben-Gvir, and Muslim Convert

Caitlin Johnstone: The Star-Spangled Kangaroo

A U.S. warship has been ushered into service in Sydney. The ship is called the U.S.S. Canberra to honor the military union of the United States and Australia, and, if that’s still too subtle for you, it has a literal star-spangled kangaroo affixed to its side.

Source: Caitlin Johnstone: The Star-Spangled Kangaroo

Israeli Squatter-Settlers Rampage in Palestinian-Americans’ West Bank Hometown

Like many American-born Palestinians, Abu Awwad, a 38-year-old truck driver, planned to move his family to “our homeland” for two or three years, so his American-born children, aged three, 11 and 14, “could learn the language and the culture.” It’s what his father did with him when he was a kid growing up in the US.

He and his wife, Dina, who became a US citizen through marriage, shipped their furniture to a house that his father had built in the West Bank town of Turmus Ayya, next door to the house where Dina grew up.

Their plan went up in flames. Literally.

Source: Israeli Squatter-Settlers Rampage in Palestinian-Americans’ West Bank Hometown

A descent into violence? Political polarisation in the US – Part 4 – Pearls and Irritations

The United States Capitol, often called Capitol Hill, is the seat of the United States Congress, the legislative branch of the U.S. federal government. Capitol Hill, at the eastern end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Can the United States avoid a descent into political violence? Of the 52 cases where countries reached the levels of polarisation which now exist in the US, half had their status as democracies downgraded. The US is the only Western democracy to have sustained such intense polarisation over such an extended period. It really is in uncharted territory.

Source: A descent into violence? Political polarisation in the US – Part 4 – Pearls and Irritations

Old Dog Thought- John Howard speaks of Aussie luck, gratitude, and no fucking reparations

Whitewashing Black History

Fighting Fake News with REAL, 29/7/2023, John Howard, The real Peter Dutton, Truth in Humor, Inflation, Trump,

Yes to Kathryn Campbell’s plum job Prime Minister, but why? – Michael West

Anthony Albanese

“Innocent until proven guilty”. The LNP and media gave her the opportunity to do a Stuart Robert, resign, and deflect the blame away from them. However, we still have a principle to uphold “The Separation of Powers” in this country. The ALP, unlike the LNP, accept that.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese signed off on Kathryn Campbell’s termination on June 21, 2022, the day before he announced she was off to serve in a plum $892K per annum job in Defence’s AUKUS team. The big question is why? Rex Patrick reveals the FOIs.

Source: Yes to Kathryn Campbell’s plum job Prime Minister, but why? – Michael West

Democracy takes poll position in Timor-Leste

 

THE FIRST OF MANY things that strike you at polling places in Timor-Leste is the total lack of assaults on voters by how-to-vote card boosters — the sort that swarm all over Australian voters like demented, malaria-lugging mosquitos.

Source: Democracy takes poll position in Timor-Leste

400 years and counting: Your social status is determined by class – Pearls and Irritations

Equality concept between two men.

Due to the entrenched English class system, research has shown that the strong familial persistence of social status across generations has not changed in the UK across 400 years of accumulated data. With growing inequality and the emergence of ultra-wealthy and privileged classes in Australia – are we following the same path?

Source: 400 years and counting: Your social status is determined by class – Pearls and Irritations

The Bible Told Me So – » The Australian Independent Media Network

The Right-Wing wants books banned but children taught about the sex, violence, and criminal behavior in the Bible

A recent candidate for congress in Colorado Springs, Rob Rogers, offered school board officials and superintendents the insight that there is more sex and violence in the bible than any of the books ASD 20 has marked for banning. Rogers, who is an Air Force veteran and data scientist, argued that the bible meets or exceeds what the district’s protesting parents are using as a legal definition of obscenity, and it, too, needed to be removed. Rogers ran for congress in Colorado’s 14th District and was defeated, but his children attend an ASD 20 school. His request to remove the bible was not immediately answered, though he insists the demands from parents to take other books off the shelves happened quickly after they complained their standards of decency were offended.

Source: The Bible Told Me So – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Will the Triumph of the Messianic Israeli Far Right Destabilize the Country?

Israel could well be heading toward its own January 6. The parallels are real. Both the Republican Party and Likud have empowered and invested in their countries’ most extreme far right-wing ideologues, and seized upon opportunities and vulnerabilities to dismantle democratic guard rails that disrupt their agenda. While the U.S. has empowered Congressional Reps such as Marjorie Taylor Green, Tommy Turberville, and Lauren Boebert; Israel has elevated Bibi’s extremist henchmen Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich to czar-like positions on the Cabinet, where they can pursue their worst draconian fantasies against both Palestinians and Israeli leftists and centrists, whom they dismiss as traitors and terrorists.

Source: Will the Triumph of the Messianic Israeli Far Right Destabilize the Country?

The Widening Breach, in Israel and in Israel-US Relations – CounterPunch.org

Image of Israeli flag.

Netanyahu put himself at the service of morally bankrupt and politically extremist cabinet members with radical goals: the removal of all Palestinians from Israel, the elimination of checks on the prime minister’s authority, resistance to US pressure, and declaration of Israel as a Jewish state.

Source: The Widening Breach, in Israel and in Israel-US Relations – CounterPunch.org

14-Year-Old Boy Killed by Israeli Occupation Forces During West Bank Raid

Fares Abu Samra funeral

Fares Abu Samra was the 37th Palestinian child killed by Israeli forces this year. Brett Wilkins Jul 27, 2023

Source: 14-Year-Old Boy Killed by Israeli Occupation Forces During West Bank Raid

With Israel in Turmoil, its “Lost Boys” are Stoking Extreme Nationalism

Put them in uniform and what you see is a parallel to Hitler Youth and the Nazi education programs

The national security minister himself — Itamar Ben-Gvir — is a settler with ties to youth in the West Bank, indicating the presence and radicalization of these young men is part of a larger strategy to conquer the land while feigning diplomacy. As more and more young men are brought to the region to attend these “rehabilitation centres” and then drafted into the army, Israel is preying on these traumatized youth to maintain strongholds in the West Bank. Rather than receiving counselling and home placements, these boys are encouraged to use their fundamentalist teachings to support the army and government’s goal, no matter the personal toll.The Conversation

Source: With Israel in Turmoil, its “Lost Boys” are Stoking Extreme Nationalism

Political Polarisation in the US – Part 3: Causes – Pearls and Irritations

Conceptual graphic illustration of American flag losing pieces of puzzle. Art represents a nation’s struggle to stay united through new and complicated challenges of the times. For political and social themes.

One of the great claims for representative democracy and federations is that they provide a uniquely successful way of dynamically negotiating, rather than suppressing, social differences and tensions. So, when it appears to be failing to do that in one of the world’s oldest and most successful democracies it is worth asking “why has this happened”?

Source: Political Polarisation in the US – Part 3: Causes – Pearls and Irritations

Donald Trump May Face 4 Indictments by Election Day. Here’s the Breakdown. – scheerpost.com

Donald Trump May Face 4 Indictments by Election Day. Here’s the Breakdown. A federal indictment stemming from the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol is expected this week.

Source: Donald Trump May Face 4 Indictments by Election Day. Here’s the Breakdown. – scheerpost.com

Another Indictment! Trump Told Aides to Delete Security Footage in Coverup Attempt – Mother Jones

The new superseding indictment filed Thursday by special counsel Jack Smith in Florida says that on June 27, 2022, a maintenance worker at Mar-a-Lago, Carlos De Oliveira, told another employee, who is not named: “The boss” wanted a server containing the footage deleted. The alleged exchange came a few days after Trump’s lawyers received a grand jury subpoena seeking the footage.

Source: Another Indictment! Trump Told Aides to Delete Security Footage in Coverup Attempt – Mother Jones

Old Dog Thought- LNP leaders all piss off overseas hoping for dead moggies to be thrown on the table by Rupert in order to save them.

Dead cat on the table, 1819, 61×55 cm by Théodore Géricault: History,  Analysis & Facts | Arthive

Fighting Fake News with REAL, 28/7/23, Peter Dutton Convenient Holiday, Paladin the Deal, Truth in Pictures, Sky News- NO News, No to Democracy,

Overseas affairs with corruption: Peter Dutton’s latest hits

There are not enough moggies that Murdoch can throw on the table to misdirect the stench of corruption and conspiracy coming from a decade of LNP rule. Dutton Morrison Robert all run for cover hoping advisors will find a solution or that the attention can simply be deflected. There’s Abbott lurking in the background waiting to be called back. Who else would dare want to lead this nest of snakes?

Yet another bribery scandal pointing to maladministration of the Home Affairs portfolio by then-Minister Peter Dutton has emerged. Dave Donovan and Michelle Pini take a closer look at the murky details. 

Source: Overseas affairs with corruption: Peter Dutton’s latest hits

Dutton asked to ‘please explain’ over immigration contract

The Opposition Leader Peter Dutton “needs to explain” why the department he once administered entered into contracts with a man under investigation by federal police for bribery, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says.

Source: Dutton asked to ‘please explain’ over immigration contract

 The Voice referendum will be history long before Sky News is held to ‘account’ for its lies- Liberal Party of Australia – Lies & Misdemeanours | Facebook

Voice referendum will be history long before Sky News is held to 'account' for its lies

The word “News” isn’t even a cover any longer for these bought and paid-for propagandists. They’re unregistered quid pro quo guns-for-hire Lobbyists bought and paid for by a small group of monied interests in an arrangement dating as far back as 1975. Rupert’s arrangement “Well support you as long as you get rid of the ABC for us”

Voice referendum will be history long before Sky News is held to ‘account’ for its lies

Source: “As… – The Fiberal Party of Australia – Lies & Misdemeanours | Facebook

Paladin majority owner paid $1.2 million to his mother who was working at Home Affairs

Paladin founder and majority shareholder Craig Thrupp.

Paladin majority owner Craig Thrupp defended the transfers which are under investigation by the anti-corruption watchdog.

Source: Paladin majority owner paid $1.2 million to his mother who was working at Home Affairs

PwC and the Adani mine triple dip. A conflict of interest? Surely not – Michael West

A humble footnote on page 30 of the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility’s 2016-17 annual report reads: “PwC supported NAIF in the development of its Risk Management Framework.” NAIF was in the news in late 2016 because it had reportedly given “conditional approval” of a $1 billion loan to Adani for its Carmichael Coal Mine.

In news that may surprise precisely no one, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) was also working for Adani. In fact, not only did PwC “act for” Adani in trying to secure the NAIF loan, the firm also produced economic modelling that purported to show that delays to the Adani mine had cost Queensland 2,665 jobs.

Source: PwC and the Adani mine triple dip. A conflict of interest? Surely not – Michael West

Seven deadly sins in the Defence industry – Pearls and Irritations

Top of nuclear submarine. Naval fleet.

And the LNP will blame the ALP

If previous defence acquisitions are any guide, the enormous cost of nuclear-powered submarines for the Royal Australian Navy will almost certainly escalate well beyond the estimated but un-itemised initial price of $A368 billion. The record of corruption of the two US submarine builders suggests that the project will also probably suffer from mismanagement. The final bill is likely to be astronomical.

Source: Seven deadly sins in the Defence industry – Pearls and Irritations

Prison hulks and river blades: fortress building in the climate-catastrophe era – » The Australian Independent Media Network

News headlines featuring the cruel asylum seeker policies

Britain has commissioned a prison hulk to house immigrants, in a cruel re-enactment of history. Meanwhile, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has implemented two strategies to stop immigrants crossing the Rio Grande into America: one is a floating barrier with razor wire and rolling motion that pulls people under the water; the other is an apparent order to push people into the river, including mothers holding small children. One horrifying aspect for an Australian audience reading these developments is that we have been part of the inspiration for their increasingly horrifying treatment of the displaced.

Source: Prison hulks and river blades: fortress building in the climate-catastrophe era – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Iranian Court Sparks Controversy By Diagnosing Hijab Protesters With Mental Illness

Iran no longer able to invoke God in their courtrooms turn to Psychiatry, After all the West is noted for it and prisons are the biggest mental “hospitals” in the country. some argue over 50% of those incarcerated are suffering from mental illness and even more after release.

Judges in Iran have diagnosed three prominent actresses sentenced for not wearing the hijab as mentally ill, anti-family, and antisocial, prompting top psychologists in the country to condemn the “abuse of psychiatry and psychology in the judiciary.”

Source: Iranian Court Sparks Controversy By Diagnosing Hijab Protesters With Mental Illness

Israel Is Bullying Progressives on Borrowed Time

Israel’s naked attempt to enforce an unflagging pro-Israel consensus, as it did in stoking backlash against Rep. Pramila Jayapal’s sensible recent comments that the country is a “racist state,” may work in the short-term. But the future belongs to Palestine.

Source: Israel Is Bullying Progressives on Borrowed Time