Failing to distinguish journalism from commentary and opinion is making News Corp a danger to our society, writes Dr Victoria Fielding.
Source: News Corp’s blurring of news and views damaging society
The pretense of Real Democracy in India has gone. Modi and the Hindutva have come out into the world where various forms of Nationalism are currently flourishing. The face of religious nationalism has been revealed publicly in America, Israel, Turkey, Hungary, and other places. Is Australia Center left or right today? The ALP is certainly paying its respect to Religious and other fascist leaders. If Trump wins in 2024 Albo will greet him as he does Netanyahu.
In 2023, Modi had little reason to fear either rebuke from the Biden administration, or censure from Congress. India is now seen as more useful than ever, and its canny leader does not need lecturing about his own band of dangerous religious authoritarianism. Best, then, to drop the democratic values act, a show that is becoming increasingly absurd.
Source: Hindutva Goes to Washington: Narendra Modi’s US Visit – » The Australian Independent Media Network
On the eve of Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s controversial visit to the United States, which several members of Congress say they will boycott, Israeli society is coming apart at the seams. The presidency in Israel is a purely symbolic post. Power resides with the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu and his extremist cabinet, which comprises open racists and fascists. His government’s expansion of Israeli squatter-settlements in the occupied Palestinian West Bank has drawn a rebuke from President Joe Biden, who says he’s never seen such a far-right government in Israel in all his years in office (which is a lot of years).
An exchange between Larry Stillman, Harold Zwier and Chandra Muzaffar on the question: When does criticism of Zionism and Israel lapse into antisemitism?
Source: When does criticism of Zionism and Israel lapse into antisemitism? – Pearls and Irritations
The REAL face of Anti-semitism- in America
I’m gonna go out on a limb here to suggest that he might be the problem. Not Jews.
Source: America First Crowd Applauds As Fuentes Says Jews Must Die | Crooks and Liars
Latest Polls show Dutton remains a massive loser!! Meanwhile, Albo’s honeymoon period as leader has been the longest of any prime minister since Bob Hawke and Dutton’s the worst. The LNP’s troubles aren’t over by a long shot so why are the mainstream media crowing and sounding more like Andrew Bolt? is it that bad news sells papers Or is because Andrew Bolt’s lazy journalism just falls in step with the conservative mainstream run by Murdoch, Costello and Stokes?
Support for the government also softened over the last month amid growing voter pessimism about the state of the economy and a fractious debate on the Indigenous Voice, but it retains an election-winning primary vote lead.
LNP Dreaming: The Culture War warriors flip to tell us they are the best “Money Managers” again cancelling 14 years of history that never happened. Murdochians like Bolt grab a crumb Fadden and shout it’s a loaf of bread. All soundbites, they have no history of success to even point to.
Coalition to target “Albo-nomics”
Source: National Times – Coalition to target “Albo-nomics” The Coalition… | Facebook
Recent inquiries have brought to light the lack of accountability from government institutions engaging in cruelty and human rights abuses, writes Max Costello.
Source: Institutional cruelty exposed by three royal commissions
The Albanese Government’s future popularity may rest on the action it takes against the architects of the Robodebt scheme, writes Michael Galvin.
Source: Albanese Government must take action against Robodebt masterminds
The Voice is ‘based on a particular person’s race and they will have rights that no one else in Australia has’, Senator Cash claimed. This is false.
Fact
The Voice would not grant any paramount rights. The representation it would provide for Indigenous peoples would comply with discrimination laws and conventions.
Source: Michaelia Cash is wrong on Voice to Parliament claim, experts say
America abandons its experiment and political dream
Instead of protecting freedom of the press, to which he pledged allegiance at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in April, Joe Biden is continuing Donald Trump’s prosecution of Assange under the infamous Espionage Act. Journalist James Ball is one of at least four journalists that the Department of Justice (DOJ) and FBI are pressuring to cooperate with the prosecution of Assange, Ball wrote in Rolling Stone.
The Australian Government in this case was the LNP the effen so called self proclaimed better money managers
The amount of taxpayer money given to the big four consultancy firms for management advisory services has increased by more than 1,270% in a decade, according to new analysis from the Centre for Public Integrity.
Neoliberalism and corporate greed are destroying the idea of a fair and equal society, dividing classes into ‘us versus them’, writes Dermot Daley.
There is great community opposition to the Labor Government’s embrace of AUKUS and its proposed spend of $368 billion on acquiring nuclear-powered submarines.
Source: AUKUS deal shows Australia’s subservience to U.S. dictates
For decades, the Indian state has suppressed the democratic rights of Kashmiris. Narendra Modi’s hard-right government is taking this pattern of repression to new extremes, with the complicity of Indian intellectuals who seek to toxify the cause of Kashmir.
Source: Narendra Modi Is Using Brutal Repression to Silence the People of Kashmir
The United Nations Development Program is calling for a pause in debt repayments to allow economies to mitigate shocks like pandemics and climate chaos. Brett Wilkins Jul 14, 2023 7
Source: UN Report Finds 165 Million Were Pushed Into Poverty Over Past Three Years
A minority of Americas politicians are ready to take a stand against Israel more support Russia and India who behave in in much the same way.
Remarks Saturday by Rep. Pramila Jayapal may signal the end of the “liberal except on Palestine” ploy of most Congressional Democrats, who decry police brutality against US minorities but are perfectly all right with Israeli government repression of the Palestinians being kept stateless and without rights. She explicitly denounced Israel as a “racist state.”
The major umbrella for the Israel lobbies in the United States, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), may have picked this fight when it threw its campaign money behind successful attempts to defeat rising members of the Progressive Democratic Caucus, which Jayapal chairs. Game on.
Ketamine might be better known as a recreational drug or anaesthetic. But there’s growing evidence for its use for people with hard-to-treat depression.
Source: Ketamine injections for depression? A new study shows promise, but it’s one of many options
The Australian Parliament House, on the 7th of July 2023, refused to give video of the night of the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins to the Federal Court, which put the Australian Parliament House in breach of a subpoena, in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case against Channel 10, Lisa Wilkinson and the ABC.
But the Australian Parliament House gave the video to Channel 7 for the Bruce Lehrmann interview a few weeks ago. Or did Linda Reynolds or Michaelia Cash give it to Channel 7?
There was a time when banks didn’t service you. They were government-run and provided the nation a service
Banks are closing, despite an assurance given to the Senate Inquiry by the Commonwealth Bank that it would not close regional branches until the Inquiry concludes at the end of the year. Dale Webster reports.
Source: Commonwealth Bank: Shifting goalposts and shutting doors
Should we be surprised? We once had the Nugan Hand Bank
The Nugan Hand Bank was an Australian-based merchant bank that operated during the 1970s. It was founded by Australian lawyer Frank Nugan and American ex-Green Beret Michael Hand. The bank gained notoriety due to its alleged involvement in illegal activities, including money laundering, drug trafficking, and arms smuggling.
During the Vietnam War, the CIA and other intelligence agencies were involved in covert operations in Southeast Asia. These operations included supporting anti-communist forces, gathering intelligence, and disrupting enemy activities. There have been allegations and conspiracy theories suggesting that the Nugan Hand Bank had connections to the CIA and was used as a front for intelligence activities.
Some of the claims made include the bank’s involvement in laundering money for the CIA’s covert operations, using drug profits to fund anti-communist activities, and facilitating arms smuggling in the region. However, it is important to note that these claims remain largely unproven, and the extent of the bank’s alleged involvement with the CIA remains a subject of speculation and controversy.
In the 1980s, investigations into the Nugan Hand Bank’s activities began, and the bank collapsed in 1980. Frank Nugan died under mysterious circumstances in 1980, and Michael Hand disappeared but was later found living in the United States. The investigations uncovered evidence of financial irregularities and illegal activities within the bank, but the direct links to the CIA’s involvement were never conclusively proven.
It’s worth noting that the Nugan Hand Bank case is regarded as one of the most infamous financial scandals in Australian history. However, the exact nature of its connections to the CIA and the extent of its involvement in illegal activities remains a subject of debate and speculation.
The Taliban has not once, but twice eradicated Afghanistan’s poppy cultivation, the world’s largest source of heroin. Despite western accusations, it has never been The Taliban behind the Afghan drug industry, but only ever the US and its allies, with billions in profits breezily laundered through the global financial system.
Source: How the Taliban crushed the CIA’s heroin bonanza in Afghanistan – Pearls and Irritations
The planet’s hottest year
Some regions are facing temperatures that are expected to remain well above 40 degrees Celsius, the European Space Agency says.
Source: Europe and US heat matches climatologists’ worst predictions
Multinational oil companies BP and TotalEnergies emerged as winners in Germany’s latest auction for the right to build offshore wind farms in the North and Baltic seas. The companies, which are headquartered in the UK and France, bid a combined 12.6 billion euros to construct turbines with a total capacity of 7 gigawatts (GW), roughly equivalent to 7 large conventional power stations, and almost equalling the country’s entire existing offshore capacity.
Unfortunately, Israel has assisted in the rise of global anti-semitism along with inceasing Jews against Israel so much so chaos and ignorance are reflected in the hatred shown in our schools. The ALP needs to take a stand against all fascist and apartheid states Israel is the current stand-out example.
The Israeli army’s recent attack on Jenin refugee camp resulted in 13 deaths (12 Palestinians, including four children, and one Israeli soldier killed by suspected friendly fire). An additional 143 Palestinians were injured, with 20 in critical condition, and up to 4,000 displaced.
Tucker Carlson hosted a Christian presidential forum but instead of promoting Christian values, he promoted Kremlin talking points about Ukraine.
Source: How Tucker Carlson Turned A Presidential Forum Into Putin TV | Crooks and Liars
When a picture tells the story in Fadden. Two devout Christians one Catholic and the other a Pentecostalist both with histories who prefer you not to talk about their mate Stuey. With the Murdoch’s Courier behind their backs and a 10 % lead, why on earth would they expect to get rolled? Qld and the Gold Coast you did it again and voted for crime and grime,
Stuart “Robodebt” Robert daren’t show his face because of the public derision that would ensue, so Barnaby stepped up to the mark, glad-handing in support of Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate’s favourite, Gold Coast Councillor and LNP candidate for Fadden, Cameron Caldwell.
Source: Barnaby bites back after sandwich-board encounter in Fadden
In place of Stuart Robert & Pentecostalism LNP’s Next Candidate is a hint to the future. The irony here closes in on LNP Truth
Queensland’s largest legal organised crime syndicate, the Liberal National Party, heads to the mattresses this Saturday to defend its territory in Fadden. Darren Crawford reports on the LNP’s latest plans to further normalise political corruption.
Source: Fadden uncovers LNP plans for Queensland crime forum
The story made its debut in that king of rags, The Sun. The howls followed. As an article headline read: “Top BBC star who ‘paid child for sex pictures’ could be charged by cops and face years in prison, expert says.”
Source: The BBC Falls for Murdoch’s Bait – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Under our current systems for profit generation, which is the primary driver of human behaviour on this planet, making a quality product that lasts a long time instead of quickly going obsolete or turning into landfill will actually drive you into bankruptcy.
Source: Profit-driven systems are driving us to our doom – Pearls and Irritations
The former prime minister pointed to climate policy as one area that had been a “catastrophe” for the Liberal Party – singling out Tony Abbott and the “right wing press” for blame.
“When they decided to take energy policy or climate policy and turn it into a culture war issue, that was a catastrophe for us; a catastrophe for our party. And it did a lot of damage to Australia,” he said.
Within the 43-minute podcast, Mr Turnbull – the co-chair of activist group ‘Australians for a Murdoch Royal Media Commission’ – a position he took over from former-Labor PM Kevin Rudd – also used some of his time to complain about News Corp.
The former journalist, barrister and investment banker said that politics operates in an ecosystem made up of the media.
“Now, that doesn’t mean the opinion pages of a few newspapers, that’s the whole thing: Social media, mainstream media, the works,” he said.
“And we’re operating in that environment, which has increasingly become untethered from truth.
“It’s increasingly focused on what I call anger-tainment, and it’s making political parties generally, but the Liberal Party in particular, very hard to manage.”
Source: National Times – ‘Antithesis of what Menzies stood for’: Turnbull… | Facebook
In the spirit of the French Revolution Australians are obliged to vote YES to The Voice and YES to a Republic if Democracy is to have any real meaning. The birth of this country was and continues to be far from Democratic and the LNP ensures us that it must stay that way.
The return of revolutionary symbols expresses an old French passion for equality. The Republic only makes sense if it organizes popular sovereignty and if it is social. To fight for a vibrant democracy, for more justice, for more equality, is in keeping with French history.
Racism is trying to disguise itself in Australia…Just watch and listen to what Dutton says. “things are just fine as they are. “We all want to close the gap” “Listen to Mundine and Price indigenous Australia is not united” Australia needs to change and accept it’s not what we are a multicultural nation. Dutton has said we are except for Muslims, Middle Easterners, Africans, Asylum Seekers, Chinese, and Pacific Islanders. He has simply imported American Racism along with MAGA politics to Australia. Simply watch and listen and you will hear Murdoch’s voice.
In the 1970s and 1980s, overt white supremacists and their organizations were largely marginalized in American society. As a way of staying relevant and expanding their influence, the leaders of the white right decided to repackage themselves and the movement to become more “respectable,” which meant putting on suits and ties and modifying their message of hate and its presentation. Central to this campaign involved changing themselves from white supremacists, operating under various labels such as the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis, into “white nationalists,” a term that would eventually evolve to include the “alt-right,” identitarians, so-called race realists, ethnonationalists, Western chauvinists and more. In reality, the supposed differences between “white supremacy” and “white nationalism” are largely pedantic, if not simply double talk, obfuscation and evasion.
So to be clear, white supremacists believe that “white people” are a “superior race” and that black and brown people, Jews, Muslims and other nonwhites are inferior be it because of biology or “culture.” White nationalism is the political project through which the goal of white dominance and total control over society is
Source: Why Republicans are trying to rebrand white nationalism right now | Salon.com
This is unfair and goes against what was agreed upon at COP27 in Egypt. Climate activists especially from the Global South must stand up to the U.S. and other Western powers that want to short-change developing countries.” Kenny Stancil Jul 14, 2023 17
Source: John Kerry Says ‘Under No Circumstances’ Will US Pay Poor Nations for Climate Damages
The Scam Now?
Comer’s latest stunt to try to whitewash Trump’s role in the unnecessary death of at least a half-million Americans is to argue — nonsensically — that the virus came out of the Wuhan virology lab and therefore something, something, something Trump is not responsible. He’s doing this with House Oversight Committee hearings this week.
Source: Did Trump Let 500,000 Americans Die Purely for Political Purposes? | The Smirking Chimp
Reaffirming Invasion Day
Voting against the Voice to Parliament is a promotion of racism and a revival of the White Australia policy of the past, writes Henry Johnston.
Source: Votes against the Voice will return us to White Australia
While “Governing” dominates the historic mindset and is passed down generationally we will remain a Colony whose interests lie in serving someone else rather than the people of this nation. It’s time to say YES to remind us on whose land this nation was born and YES to a Republic for who future governments should be elected to serve, ALL its people. The French did it with a Revolution we can do it with a referendum ballot box.
In RoboDebt’s wake, our very system of government needs to be bulldozed and rebuilt. Rex Patrick argues it is time for a republican model, for separation of powers.
Like the Fitzgerald Enquiry, the Robodebt Royal Commission has caught the public’s attention. You would hope we all learn from recent experience. The next time a political leader invites us to call them a derivative of their first name, tells us not to worry about that and they will save us from some claimed endemic fraudulent or radical activity by some group of people that really doesn’t exist – it’s really the time to commence worrying. Those that forget their history are destined to repeat it.
Source: Don’t you worry about that – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Desecrating, then burning the Holy Quran in Sweden has, once again, raised a political storm of condemnation but also of justification, if not outright approval [after a protester, with police permission, burned Islam’s holy book outside a Stockholm mosque last month.]
Such acts are protected by law, top Swedish and EU officials have declared.
But why are the rights of those who oppose Western agendas, colonialism, imperialism, Zionism and military interventions not equally protected by law?
NASA called the soaring heat “part of a pattern of increasing global temperatures, as a result of human activities, mainly carbon dioxide emissions.” Brett Wilkins Jul 13, 2023 4
Source: It’s Official, Say NOAA and NASA: This June Was the Hottest Ever Recorded on Earth
“Over 56 years, Israel has governed the occupied Palestinian territory through stifling criminalisation of basic rights and mass incarcerations,” said Albanese in a report to the UN Human Rights Council on 10 July.
Unfortunately it was not Australia’s Prime Minister who said this
Israel’s military occupation has morphed the entire occupied Palestinian territory into an open-air prison, where Palestinians are constantly confined, surveilled and disciplined,” a UN expert said today.
“Over 56 years, Israel has governed the occupied Palestinian territory through stifling criminalisation of basic rights and mass incarcerations,” said Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, in a new report to the Human Rights Council.
Source: Albanese: Time to dismantle Israel’s “carceral regime” – Pearls and Irritations
Since June 27, every news channel has been covering the recent protests in Paris. On the surface, these disturbances are the result of a police shooting of an unarmed 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk who was attempting to flee the police at a traffic stop. However, many news outlets neglect to note that this is neither an isolated incident nor a simple case of poor policing. These riots and similar instances in France demonstrate the country’s deep-seated institutional racism.
Source: The French “Nahel” Riots spring from Systemic Racism, not Immigration or Islam
Judge Aileen Cannon appointed by Trump, who has already favored Trump gets to make this decision? She doesn’t even have to recuse herself. Wow, Australia should be grateful for the Separation of Powers.
Judge Aileen Cannon, Who Showed Trump Favor, Gets …
On Thursday, prosecutors on special counsel Jack Smith’s team responded by asking US District Judge Aileen Cannon to not postpone the trial beyond the December date they recommended.
Source: Judge urged not postpone Trump’s trial over documents
Peter Dutton is complaining that the LNP can’t rig this byelection in Fadden by hiding the LNP’s historic record. His complaint he can’t wipe the Stuart Robert story.
“A byelection, triggered by Stuart Robert’s resignation,
Source: “A… – The Fiberal Party of Australia – Lies & Misdemeanours | Facebook
Key points:
- The federal government will decide on Philip Lowe’s future as RBA governor this month
- The Treasury and Finance secretaries are two of the candidates being floated to be the next governor
- Peter Dutton says they should be ruled out of consideration given their established relationships to government
The LNP were in Government for over a decade and “established relationships” far in excess of those of the ALP who have just been given jobs.
Dutton’s LNP had “established relationships” well before 2013 they turned the practise into the “new norm”
Remember when they turned their backs on treasury and finance in order to have their prospective budgets “independently audited”. Joe Hockey was voted the “World’s Worst Treasurer” and was given the American Ambassadorship. The chairman of ABC was Maurice Newman and in their pocket. Murdochians are even on the board with Janet Albrechtsen. While Speers has replaced Probyn as Political head of the ABC news.
The LNP appointed heads of departments not according to expertise but according to their politics. They were the Party that let the foxes into the henhouse and caused the current PwC scandal. They neutered the ABC with their appointments and here is Dutton parroting on that the ALP has “established relationships” with appointees and accusing them of doing what the LNP have been doing since Christ played ruck for Jerusalem. The ALP hasn’t even a track record when it comes to the level of corrupt appointments made by the LNP.
As the government weighs whether to keep or replace Philip Lowe as RBA governor, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton says two key candidates from treasury and finance should be ruled out of the running.
Source: Next RBA governor should not come from treasury or finance departments, Peter Dutton says – ABC News
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