Mainstream media and the Federal Opposition are spreading “The-Voice-is-divisive” rhetoric — a shameless attempt to sow unnecessary seeds of division in Australian society, writes Belinda Jones.
Source: The Voice will enrich democracy says Solicitor-General: Dutton says ‘No’
Australia is the only democratic country in the world without a charter of human rights in either legislation or the Constitution.
Source: Yes, of course we need a Human Rights Act! – Pearls and Irritations
An Exception or New Normal caught out? The Paradise Papers sure did nothing to change the course of history
The Senate has quickly handed down its report into the PwC scandal and it pulls few punches, causing one governance expert to declare, “The findings are game over for PwC”. What’s the scam?
Source: Senate report is out: is the “multi-year cover-up” “game over for PwC”, or not? – Michael West
Stella Assange told a packed house at Westminster Central Hall in London Thursday night that her imprisoned husband has become a “deterrent” to stop other journalists from publishing secrets.
Australia’s military leaders need to be held to account for command failures in Afghanistan. It’s no surprise that calls of a cover-up are growing louder, writes defence whistleblower David McBride.
While much of humanity was glued to the unfolding drama over one tiny submarine, the Earth we all inhabit is slowly, steadily and implacably imploding around us.
Source: Our planet is imploding: when will we act to save ourselves? – Pearls and Irritations
A story of two sinking vessels in a world of extreme inequality.
Bottom line: Officially, America will continue to fulminate over China’s human-rights abuses and aggressive moves, threatening more “decoupling” of the two economies.
Unofficially — unless China is foolish enough to mount a full-scale invasion of Taiwan — the decoupling won’t happen, because American corporations want access to China’s huge market and its cheap and compliant manufacturing workers.
Foreign policy is for the cameras. When it comes to the real connections between China and the United States, profits speak louder than policy.
Source: Winkin’, Blinken, and Musk: America, China, and the “Decoupling” Myth | The Smirking Chimp
America is in a Trade War in which welfare plays a strong part. The industrial and Military Complex is but a sector of Capitalism for the American people pay dearly and along with the government providing Corporate Social Welfare to a failing motor vehicle industry along with others such as Industrial agriculture. Why are Americans so adverse to collectivism when their government so readily boosts their Corporations?
David Shepardson at Reuters reports that Ford Motor Co. and its partner SK of South Korea have received a $9.2 billion loan for 3 battery plants in Kentucky and Tennessee from the Department of Energy under the loan program called Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM). It is the biggest single low-interest loan ever awarded by the government Loan Program. The US government last gave out the big bucks to Ford in 2009 when the economy locked up and then crashed, under an initiative by President Barack Obama. Ford paid off the $5.9 billion loan, which
A Biden pardon of Trump would be the real crime because it will justify any future president using his office to commit criminal acts, deploy his supporters as his weapons and face no consequences for their actions.
The Founders of this great nation did not codify the power of the pardon to be wielded by the whims of a narcissistic leader to cement their immoral gains. That is the antithesis of the intent of the act.
To media hysterics, Dan Andrews got a pay rise this week, making him the country’s highest paid premier or chief minister. But that’s not the whole story, as James Fitzgerald-Sice reports
Source: Premier pay rates: are we getting value for money? – Michael West
In sum, resolution of the contradiction between foreign and defence policy can only come by exiting the alliance now by withdrawing from the AUKUS arrangements. However, many Australians would feel vulnerable and exposed following an alliance break-up. It would take a courageous government indeed to do that. But it is in Australia’s national interest.
Source: The courage to end the Alliance – Pearls and Irritations
The LNP’s version of “Arms Length” deal palm stretched out to be tickled at some time in the future to replace the Rolex watches forced to be handed in. He called those watches “fakes” or was that his mate and model Abbott?
“Former cabinet minister Stuart Robert met consulting firm Accenture to discuss a federal project worth $111 million after his close friend David Milo had been trying to help the firm win lucrative government contracts.
Source: “Former… – The Fiberal Party of Australia – Lies & Misdemeanours | Facebook
Murdoch and The LNP come flying in punching down
But for the Coalition, the strategy is clear. It wants to reduce the tone of debate around constitutional reform down to the level of an undergraduate culture-war exercise. This is where Sky After Dark comes in. The AFR reported yesterday that plans are underway for a 24-hour news channel entirely dedicated to the voice. Imagine being unable to sleep – you’re restless just thinking about whether you can pay the next electricity bill and nervous about the Reserve Bank’s decision on interest rates – so you get up at 3am to make yourself a warm drink and flick on the television, only to find Rita Panahi shouting at you because a Lions Club somewhere has come out in support of the voice. It’s the stuff of nightmares – but sadly there is a market for it.
Source: “In case… – The Fiberal Party of Australia – Lies & Misdemeanours | Facebook
When Religion, Politics and now the Weather are now inappropriate topics to talk about in public. Woke up America!!
“I take immense pride in having educated the public about the impacts of climate change during my career,” said Chris Gloninger of KCCI in Des Moines. Julia Conley Jun 22, 2023 8
Source: Iowa Meteorologist Resigns After Receiving Death Threats for Climate Coverage
Why does Washington believe they have the right to conduct joint military exercises off the Chinese Pacific coast, but will not tolerate even the barest hint of those activities by China and Cuba in ‘their’ maritime neighbourhood?
The nature of Capitalism’s insanity when the media put reckless adventurism above desperation and survival to define news for sale
Those who perished on the Titan should be grieved. But the incessant coverage of their fates has shown a latent snobbery towards the nature of death. Foolhardy explorers and doomed adventurers are to be admired, their names venerated; the anonymous refugee and asylum seeker is to be judged and reviled, their rights curbed, and coverage of their fates minimised.
Source: Deaths at Sea: From the Titan to the Mediterranean – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Democracy and War are incompatible
“Ideas like, there’s a civil war, or there are people who are pro-Russian … these are very touchy issues,” he said. “If a reporter either knowingly or unknowingly starts using these kinds of talking points in their report, it’s going to be something that Ukrainian authorities look at.”
Source: Ukraine Blocks Journalists From Front Lines With Escalating Censorship
A civil war is raging in Israel-Palestine, and the outcome won’t be pretty for anyone, including Americans. Fascist Israeli squatters are routinely attacking Palestinian hamlets with mayhem and murder on their minds, and the Israeli Army often takes the side of the aggressors.
Source: Another Day, another Israeli Pogrom Against Occupied Palestinians; or, Echoes of the Sudetenland
Young Jews aren’t visibly demonstrating here in Australia, why?
A new documentary called Israelism tells the story of young American Jews coming to question the narrative they were taught about “the only democracy in the Middle East.”
Source: Israelism Is a Powerful Indictment of Pro-Apartheid Indoctrination
America is heading into a presidential election in which Donald Trump is basing his candidacy on two Big Lies — that President Biden stole the 2020 election from him, and that Biden is orchestrating a prosecutorial witch hunt against him.
Source: The Warping of the American Mind: Trump’s Two Big Lies Are Getting Magnified | The Smirking Chimp
It’s simple: Australia’s right — both its political and media wings — has pivoted hard to the playbook of Republican far-right tactician Steve Bannon: they’re flooding the zone with shit.
Source: “Struggling… – The Fiberal Party of Australia – Lies & Misdemeanours | Facebook
Peter Costello’s Secret Sovereign Investment Fund
Australia’s sovereign wealth fund manages more than $200 billion of taxpayer’s funds but does so with a notorious penchant for secrecy. This third instalment in a series from Rex Patrick and Philip Dorling shines a spotlight on the Future Fund’s surprising gambling stake.
Source: Michael West Media – investigative journalists – always independent
The first successful year of the Albanese Government has been seriously undermined by a subservient defence policy which effectively outsources Australian leadership and puts at risk a more independent foreign policy.
There is still an opportunity for the Prime Minister to reassure Australians that our growing concerns are acknowledged.
This will require our government to listen to the many voices that have the experience and understanding of international relations to reset the terms of the AUKUS agreement in accordance with Australia’s national interest and in harmony with our place in the Asia Pacific region.
Source: A subservient defence policy undermines Albanese’s successful first year – Pearls and Irritations
Needless to say the “we” Morrison is referring to here is himself and all the Walter Mitty roles he played in the discussion to double-cross Australia’s ally in the Pacific France. The French have always been the world’s leading nation when it came to submariner science. They gave the world Cousteau while the US gave us TV’s Sea Hunt and the current game controller sub lost 4km down.
Morrison was interviewed extensively for a new chapter of the book The Secret History of The Five Eyes by journalist Richard Kerbaj, in which he reveals new details of how he duped Macron, while maintaining that not telling him was “not the same as lying to him”.
“Johnson will be remembered by history as the most immoral, dishonest and morally squalid of all British premiers.”
This is going a bit far; it was a certain Tony Blair who, playing the role of sidekick to US President George W. Bush, embarked upon an illegal war that led to the destruction of Iraq and a good portion of the Middle East. His conduct, both directly or otherwise, in the confection, and intentional misreading of intelligence material elevating Iraq’s Saddam Hussein to the level of globally dangerous despot, must surely be seen as squalid as any. Along the way, he corrupted public life and politicised institutions. And yet he moves and speaks, to this day, with impunity – the one who got away.
Israel seemingly gives an inch then continues to take a mile.
The Israeli government is at it again, actively discussing the construction of thousands of illegal settlement units as part of a massive settlement expansion scheme known as E1.
Source: Permanent Apartheid in Palestine: This is Why Israel Wants to Reactivate E1 Plan – scheerpost.com
If that had occurred during the days of the East India Company’s global activities it would never have become the British East India Company. When over 40% of British MPs were investors, joint shareholders and it’s protectors.
When corporations use their vast wealth to distort or seize control of the political process, they have ceased to operate within the constraints established at their creation. They are in violation of their own corporate charters and should be shuttered or sold off.
His Lawyers are jumping ship. He’s looking for “Yes, Men”.
During an interview with Fox News aired on Monday, June 19, former President Donald Trump had a lot to say about the 37-count federal criminal indictment he is facing. Special counsel Jack Smith and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) allege that Trump endangered the United States’ national security by storing classified government documents at Mar-a-Lago — and that he made matters worse by failing to turn some of them over when they were requested.
Far from being persecuted, Trump has been handled with vastly more deference than anyone else would be
the right wants us to believe that Biden and his administration will stop at nothing to put Trump in jail as quickly as possible.
if Trump gets off the hook and re-enters office, the independence and integrity of the justice department and FBI are likely to be destroyed anyway. He has made it clear that he would seek to weaponize law enforcement agencies against his political opponents, including by forcing the justice department to follow his personal and political vendettas.
These delays matter because they make it possible – even likely – that Trump will never truly face accountability for his actions. Trump’s trial in the documents case is unlikely to be held before the 2024 presidential election and the same is true for any possible charges in the January 6 case. If Trump wins the election and becomes president again – as current polls suggest he will – then he will have multiple tools at his disposal to derail the trials or even pardon himself. Justice delayed will be justice denied.
When Australia’s Politicians don’t have a clue about Civics they shouldn’t be in the job
If Littleproud wants an equal voice in the Parliament for all Australians, Tasmania should lose two members of the House of Representatives and lose 11 senators. South Australia should lose 10 senators. To be consistent Littleproud should be either advocating that or acknowledging that in the Australian constitutional compact there is a deliberate recognition that smaller entities require greater representation.
But the founding fathers specifically excluded one of those smaller entities – the First Nations or Indigenous people. The constitution stated they were not to be counted in the censuses which determined representation in the Parliament.
That was partly rectified by the 1967 referendum. But there was still no recognition and no mechanism to prevent Indigenous people being ignored or mistreated, even if they got to vote in their state of residence. And the poor treatment continues to this day.
The logic of the constitution calls for that recognition as does a sense of fairness and a practical need to do something about entrenched Indigenous inequality that might work when all else has failed: listening. People in the small states should especially support that. Or agree to back their extra senators.
Source: “Nationals… – The Fiberal Party of Australia – Lies & Misdemeanours | Facebook
On Thursday last the ABC told a “pretty flabbergasted” political editor Andrew Probyn that he’d been made redundant along with 120 others, 41 of them in news, in a major cost-cutting measure. The purpose: so that the ABC could save money to “become more like YouTube, Spotify and Netflix instead of a traditional broadcaster,” to quote The Financial Review.
Nevertheless, this man was celebrated as a hero by the LNP with $5+B in subsidies. “Better Money Managers” who the fuck thinks so? Corporate Minders, Caretakers of Capitalism that’s the scam? Morrison’s devotion was to manipulation by media marketing no matter the cost and we paid for the inevitable failures.
Qantas has dropped dramatically from the top five in an annual ranking of the world’s best airlines, falling all the way to 17th.
Source: World Airline Awards 2023: Qantas plummets; Singapore Airlines takes top spot from Qatar Airways
Dear future students wishing to come to Australia and study: don’t. The gurgling, decaying system is, on a regular basis, being exposed for what it is. If it is not students being exploited, it’s academics being manipulated to the point of ruinous ill-health. True, not all universities are equally rotten in the constellation of corporate manipulation, but each one is rotten in a slightly different way.
If I were advising Dutton, I’d suggest that he start learning how to compromise with Labor like a minor party would because the way things are going, his Liberals may end up being one before too long.
Murdoch actually saw a godless China as an opportunity China saw him as a danger and as an aggressive takeover attempt. Stupid he might have been on their side where the money is his sign from God’s gift.
How bad is this? Australia ranks 3rd behind the state-owned print media of China and Egypt, as the most highly concentrated media in private hands. Corporate monopolies dominate the economy, and global gambling syndicates monopolise Australian sport. Both fit comfortably with the nation’s monopolised media.
Source: Atheophobia – the Myopia of Monopolised Media – » The Australian Independent Media Network
What makes these most recent temperature spikes so alarming is that they’ve occurred before a forecast El Niño event in the Pacific, rather than during one.
It is now clear that Earth’s climate system is way out of kilter and we should be very concerned.
A shadowy, Israel-linked pressure group is attempting to remove artists supporting Palestinian liberation from Spotify. We Believe in Israel, an outgrowth of the Britain Israel Communications and Research Center (BICOM), is lobbying both the U.K. government and the popular music streaming platform in their efforts to censor a range of artists – including MintPress News’ Lowkey. Studying these organizations’ key figures, MintPress can reveal that the lobby group may have sympathetic ears in key positions in both.
Source: Shadowy, Israel-Linked Group Attempts to Censor Pro-Palestine Spotify Artists – scheerpost.com
So, we see, based on Robert Kennedy’s entire journey, that we have before us an anti-establishment candidate, a candidate who is not afraid to clash with huge financial interests, a candidate who is not afraid to go against the dominant system, defying the risks.
In closing, I would like to emphatically emphasize that the overwhelming majority of politicians who appeared in the past, before the elections, against the dominant system, when they gained power not only did not change a single hair from it, but instead turned into components of the system. Let’s hope that in the case of Robert Kennedy, if he wins the nomination of the Democratic Party and is elected president of the United States, the same will not happen.
The GOP is increasingly clear about their goal: Make America Russia, or at least Russia’s mini-me, Hungary. They are openly embracing a modern, westernized, Christian white supremacy-based version of classic fascism.
Source: Revealed: The MAGAT* Republicans’ Three-Step Plan for Classic Fascism | The Smirking Chimp
Let me be upfront: I’ll be voting for the Voice to Parliament. But I won’t be voting yes because I think it will give Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people any substantial influence on national policy. Rather I’ll be voting yes because it’s the only option on the table to give Indigenous Australians at least some recognition in our Constitution.
What Murdoch always wanted. Rid the ABC reporting on News and Politics and allow Murdoch to try to become Australia’s biggest influencer. The current changes seem to throw out of balance why the ABC was established in the first place.
The ABC’s mandate for independent and unbiased reporting, as well as its commitment to providing reliable news and information, helps in holding politicians and other public figures accountable for their actions.
It’s important to note that the ABC operates under a legislated charter that mandates its independence and impartiality. While the ABC aims to maintain editorial independence from political influences, there have been instances where political pressure or attempts to influence the organization have occurred. However, the ABC’s commitment to its charter and its strong reputation for journalistic integrity have helped maintain its role as a trusted and reliable source of news and information in Australia.
For
The job cuts will result in “gaping holes” in the ABC’s news around Australia and will “inevitably weaken its ability to deliver quality journalism to the Australian public”.
Source: ABC announces ‘digital transformation’ with job cuts
The media campaign against Brittany Higgins was a revenge tactic by the Murdoch press after she exposed the Liberal Party’s ignorance of women’s issues, writes Dr Victoria Fielding.
Source: Media’s weaponisation of Brittany Higgins’ rape allegations
“brutal places for women – whether their children have died, or they have been beaten, raped, duped or misrepresented. The questions that should be pursued are left hanging, while bit players cry foul and some journalists dig dirt like they are the only ones seeking the truth. Meanwhile the accused rapist gets a soft interview where he admits he lied, and all of his explanations are open to challenge. The DPP is hung out to dry, and the very woman whose appointed job is to support victims is attacked for doing her job. In all this the police are shown to be ignorant and cowardly non-upholders of the law. The substantive matter is sidelined, and the woman who spoke about the rape is neglected, and abandoned, her dignity and privacy shredded. She’s on trial by the media, and now the plaything of Peter Dutton and his colleagues”.
Source: Our law and order violate women – Pearls and Irritations
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