PricewaterhouseCoopers used government secrets to help clients in Australia and the US avoid tax – a scandal that has forced resignations and threatens contracts worth hundreds of millions
Murdoch has lost the war on renewables in the UK
A new study commissioned by the UK private electric utility Drax and carried out by professors at Imperial College London has confirmed that in the first quarter of this year, wind turbines in Britain generated more electricity than did fossil gas plants. This is the first time the UK got more electricity from a renewable source than from gas, and it could mark a major turning point.
Source: For First Time, Wind provided more Power than Fossil Gas for Britain, enough to Power 300 mn. Teslas
Global Climate Report 2022 The World Meteorological Organisation’s (WMO) 2022 update continues to tell the same sad story of political neglect:
Source: Environment: Emissions, climate change and disasters got markedly worse in 2022
After almost 79 years on this beleaguered planet, let me say one thing: this can’t end well. Really, it can’t.
In fact, among those who have spoken out fearfully on the subject is the man known as “the godfather of AI,” Geoffrey Hinton, a pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence. He only recently quit his job at Google to express his fears about where we might indeed be heading, artificially speaking. As he told the New York Times recently, “The idea that this stuff could actually get smarter than people — a few people believed that, but most people thought it was way off. And I thought it was way off. I thought it was 30 to 50 years or even longer away. Obviously, I no longer think that.”
Now, he fears not just the coming of killer robots beyond human control but, as he told Geoff Bennett of the PBS NewsHour, “the risk of super intelligent AI taking over control from people… I think it’s an area in which we can actually have international collaboration, because the machines taking over is a threat for everybody. It’s a threat for the Chinese and for the Americans and for the Europeans, just like a global nuclear war was.”
And that, indeed, is a hopeful thought, just not one that fits our present world of hot war in Europe, cold war in the Pacific, and division globally.
Goodbye to the Hippocratic Oath.
It seems counterintuitive for a governor, especially one likely to run for president, to sign a bill promoting death and disease for Americans for the sake of protecting doctors’ anti-woke politics but here we are.
Source: Florida To Allow Medical Providers To Deny Care Based On ‘Conscience’ | Crooks and Liars
Your Vote Should Matter
Stated simply, if you vote for a Republican, you’re probably voting against your personal preferences for the nation.
You’re voting against democracy, which is supposed to honor voters’ desires.
You’re voting for those who claim to care what you think, but use such rhetoric to seduce you.
You’re voting for people whose sole agenda is the acquisition and retention of power. Other than Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) desire to retain his slim, four-person GOP majority in the House of Representatives, there’s no reason for him or any true party leader to tolerate the continuing presence of Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.), who was a disgrace long before his recent federal indictment for fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds, and false statements.
Source: The GOP Has a Very Anti-American Agenda | The Smirking Chimp
Peter Dutton says “any sensible government must consider small modular nuclear as part of the energy mix”, even though nuclear power is banned in every state and territory, small nuclear power plants create long-living radioactive waste, and we are quite literally one of the sunniest and windiest countries on earth with enough renewable energy to power resources to power our country 500 times over. The nuclear argument gets dusted off and wheeled out every five years or so, as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said last year, and “we have this economic analysis of whether nuclear power stacks up and every time it’s rejected”, as the AFR ($) reported.
Source: FROM CRIKEY… PETER PANS BUDGET
Voted Australia’s worst ever Immigration Minister Dutton demands The ALP fix it.
“The opposition has in the past said they want the students and tourists to get back quicker, so there’s an inconsistency there.”
Source: Dutton urges migration rethink to ease cost pressures
“Many who suffered RoboDebt are getting $350 per week while Campbell is receiving $17,100 per week. Every day she sits in Defence is a day of insult to those who suffered from the RoboDebt scheme. Rightly, there is anger in the community. Albanese must act.” (MWM)
Kathryn Campbell is well known in the parklands and on the footpaths where some of Australia’s most disadvantaged live. Witnesses at the RoboDebt Royal Commission made her the face of the governance scandal. But in stark contrast to those affected by RoboDebt, she now sits in a plum job inside the Department of Defence on her old $900K salary. Former senator Rex Patrick examines the ins and outs.
Source: Kathryn Campbell – from RoboDebt ignominy to plum Defence job with the PM’s help – Michael West
It’s like leaving the country for place where there isn’t any extradition.
LNP politician Stuart Robert announced his intention to retire – for ‘family reasons’ – shortly after an audit uncovered possible corrupt activities during his time in the Morrison Government, writes Belinda Jones.
Source: Nothing ‘Honourable’ about scandal-ridden Stuart Robert’s tipped retirement
Green bans
‘Black ban’ was a term already used by the union movement to describe a particular kind of activism that involved strike action against a particular job or employer in order to protect the economic interests of workers.
Drawing on the new conception of unionism, Jack Mundey coined the term ‘green ban’ in 1973. There were three main kinds of green ban:
- defending open, public, spaces
- protecting existing housing from demolition when its demolition was intended to make way for freeways or high-rise development
- preserving older, not-yet-heritage-listed buildings.
The term ‘green’ was chosen – rather than ‘black’ – because it was considered more in keeping with the nature of the activity, which involved a strong concern for the environment.
1971: First green bans imposed in Sydney
Where has all the water gone and what is being done?
Even in the face of such climatic disturbance affecting that most vital of resources for life, countries will still find the miraculous energy and industry to wage war or at least prepare for it, all the while continuing to despoil environments. In time, the proposition that war will even be waged over water supply is a distinct, disturbing possibility.
Source: Aqueous Matters: Europe’s Water Crisis – » The Australian Independent Media Network
The citizen’s starter kit to understanding the new global information cartel.
Until World War II, America had no permanent arms manufacturing industry. Now it did, and this new sector, Eisenhower said, was building up around itself a cultural, financial, and political support system accruing enormous power. This “conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience,” he said, adding:
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes… Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.
A country that can’t abide by the truth of it’s own mistakes
A report published this week featuring previously unreleased drawings by Abu Zubaydah—a 52-year-old Saudi who has been imprisoned by the United States for more than 20 years at CIA “black sites” and Guantánamo Bay—offers new insight into torture suffered by a man caught up in a case of mistaken identity.
Source: Drawings by Guantánamo ‘Forever Prisoner’ Abu Zubaydah Expose Details of US Torture
While seemingly having little or no effect on Israel these public excercises are essential to remind us of Israel’s crimes against humanity.
On May 15, 2023, the United Nations will stage a high-level special meeting to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Nakba – the mass displacement of around 750,000 Palestinians from their homeland in 1948.
Source: The Nakba at 75 – Palestinians’ Struggle to get Recognition for their Catastrophe
Doing the job he was groomed for.
The former Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, has been somewhat of an absentee in the Federal seat of Cook. Since losing the May 2022 election, he has been aggressively chasing up contacts and deals on the consultancy circuit, bellyaching about the usual talking points: the gruesome China menace; defence matters; and, just to round it off for good measure, additional iterations of the China menace.
Source: Scott Morrison and Australia’s Lobby Complex – Pearls and Irritations
From relieving the backlog of visa processing to maintaining integrity of the migration system, the 2023 Budget seeks to repair the mistakes of the Coalition. Dr Abul Rizvi reports.
Source: Budget aims to fix Dutton’s migration policy disasters
The world’s biggest tech companies are now richer and more powerful than most countries. According to an article in PC Week in 2021 discussing Apple’s dominance: “By taking the current valuation of Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and others, then comparing them to the GDP of countries on a map, we can see just how crazy things have become… Valued at $2.2 trillion, the Cupertino company is richer than 96% of the world. In fact, only seven countries currently outrank the maker of the iPhone financially.”
Source: Big Tech Companies Are Becoming More Powerful Than Nation-States – scheerpost.com
Banking : Capitalism with a Socialist Safety Net
It looks like 2008 all over again. Economic and financial mismanagement feature in scorching, consuming brilliance. The culpable, bungling banksters, have returned with their customary, venal incompetence. In the customary script, they habitually seek the role of the public purse to socialise their losses. Along the way, they will avoid richly deserved prison sentences, lie low, and return to repeat their sins.
People are getting arrested at a factory in the U.K. belonging to Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer for doing nothing but exercising the democratic right to protest.
Source: Craig Murray: Extreme Policing
Despite the White House’s rhetoric about supporting global democracy, the U.S. sold weapons in 2022 to 57 percent of the world’s authoritarian regimes.
Source: Biden Approves Weapons Sales to Most of World’s Autocracies
Tlaib’s resolution commemorates 75 years since Palestinians were violently expelled from their homes.
Source: Rep. Rashida Tlaib Asks Congress to Condemn “Israel’s Ongoing Nakba” Against Palestine
![Israel kills Palestinian civilians in Gaza air strikes on May 9, 2023 [Mohammed Asad/MEMO]](https://olddogthoughts.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/whatsapp-image-2023-05-09-at-11.04.42-2.jpeg "Israel kills Palestinian civilians in Gaza air strikes on May 9, 2023 [Mohammed Asad/MEMO]")
– Israel has killed at least 13 Palestinians in its latest air strikes against the besieged Gaza Strip, including civilians, four women and four children, local medical sources have confirmed. The air strikes were carried out simultaneously in the southern Gaza city of Rafah and the centre of Gaza city at about 2:30 am today. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, 20 people were wounded in the air strikes, including three children and seven women. Some of the wounded are in a serious condition.
Source: Israel recklessly kills 13 Palestinian civilians in Gaza Air Strikes
Nowhere Else to go. He actually explains what it is he does with the English language when claiming he speaks the truth
Carlson’s lawsuit and announcement sound an awful lot like someone else we know, the so-called “demonic destroyer” himself: Donald Trump. Filing angry lawsuits claiming that everyone is lying about everything and then taking to a social media platform to keep the brand alive until the next move is right out of old number 45’s playbook. Trump, however, always had his next chapter planned out from the moment he launched his pathetic little cult channel. He knew he was going to run for president again. Tucker Carlson has said he has no intention of doing that and he’s run out of real television networks so all he really has left is something like this.
Source: Tucker Carlson’s Takeover and the Dramatic Decline of Twitter | The Smirking Chimp
Trump rents Realty to supporters of neo-Nazis and profits
Eric Trump wants to hide it, but he’s speaking alongside anti-semites at a QAnon-linked rally at a Trump resort
Source: Gosh, how do the Trumps keep “accidentally” hanging out with Hitler fanboys? | Salon.com
Australians’ satisfaction with life as a whole is at its lowest level in 21 years, according to the latest Australian Unity Wellbeing Index survey, a collaboration between Deakin University and mutual company Australian Unity.
Source: Australians’ satisfaction with life is at its lowest level in two decades
Rupert Murdoch’s propagandist Samantha Maiden published an article on Tuesday (9/5/23) in a deliberate and calculated attempt to publicly shame Brittany Higgins.
Despite a promise not to close regional branches, the Commonwealth Bank is bending the rules on the definition of ‘regional’ and closing yet another branch. Dale Webster reports.
Source: Commonwealth Bank breaks pledge to halt branch closures
Wage earners above $180K + aren’t a threatened species. Stage 3 tax cuts don’t protect our enviroment
This is not a trade-off between the environment and the economy. Roughly half our GDP relies on natural systems. And nature has enormous benefits for the health and wellbeing of people and communities.
We must seriously examine our national priorities, and demand that Australian governments invest our national wealth in the species and ecosystems we depend on.
What about the other major economic sectors? Scott Morrison has joined a Military Lobby group called a “think tank”. Was this a planned offer of a job made prior to the French being screwed? A prior whispered offer before AUKUS was announced. Given Morrison’s secrecy on just about everything one might well wonder,
In research that took several months, Jones and her colleagues found almost half (48%) of internal tobacco company lobbyists held positions in state, territory or federal government before or after working in the tobacco industry.
The Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday sent a letter asking Harlan Crow—the billionaire GOP megadonor who has secretly showered U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas with hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts since the mid-1990s—to provide a full accounting of his financial ties to Thomas and any other judges on the high court.
Source: Nine GOP Senators (All On Judiciary) Got Checks From Harlan Crow | Crooks and Liars
How is it Santos can be charged so quickly and Trump can’t?
The first-term congressman was charged with seven counts of wire fraud, one count of theft of public funds, three counts of money laundering and two counts of making materially false statements to the House of Representatives, the latter of which is related to two financial disclosure forms he filled out as a candidate.
Truth was assassinated at CNN and what was left of it turned into a theatrical joke. George Santos a competing liar was arrested and charged in a matter of months. Donald J Trump has been left uncharged for a matter of years and it took a woman to bring him down.
Truth didn’t stand a chance. Trump, 76, was like a child with crumbs around his mouth repeatedly telling a parent (Collins, 31) that he didn’t take the last cookie.
Source: Toe-curlingly bad television: Trump’s torturous town hall backfires on CNN | US news | The Guardian
US Spends 3 Times More Than China and 10 Times More than Russia; Rest of World Spends $363bn Less Than US
At least the Russian president and his state-run media make no secret of his regime’s alliance with Wagner. The American government, on the other hand, seldom acknowledges its own version of the privatization of war — the tens of thousands of private security contractors it’s used in its misguided war on terror, involving military and intelligence operations in a staggering 85 countries.
Source: The Mercenaries Who Fight for American Empire | The Smirking Chimp
LNP were the greatest bunch of liars we have experienced as a government employed to serve the Nation. They should never be allowed back. A Public Service on Contract is a Service always under a precarious employment future and readily manipulated to serve the government rather than the people.
A total of 54,000 full-time equivalent workers were consultants, contractors and labour hire staff, while 144,300 public servants were actually employed in the APS. Labor says the blowout in external contractors was because the Coalition was pretending to cap APS numbers to look like it was clamping down on public employment expenditure. Minister for the Public Service Katy Gallagher said the results of the audit painted a true picture of the APS workforce under the former government.
Source: National Times – Coalition relied on a “shadow workforce” in the… | Facebook
The High Flyers 2023 report from the Institute for Policy Studies demonstrates how the boom in private aviation has a disproportionate negative effect on our environment while private jet owners continue to pay less in taxes than commercial air passengers.
Source: The People and Planet Subsidizing the Private Jets of the Ultra-Rich | The Smirking Chimp
The weaponised unreality – or alternative reality – in which the right finds itself immersed has not developed by chance. It is the project of decades of constant work, and billions of dollars. Social media sprays it around the globe, now out of the control of the people who funded and designed the strategies.
The concept of “marketing doubt” was honed by the tobacco lobby from the late 1960s, deferring action on the science that had proved smoking was a deadly risk. Muddying the debate was enough to prevent legislators setting restrictions and courts imposing damages. It is estimated that, in America alone, 16 million people died from tobacco use over that period.
Source: Dark Money funding Weaponised Unreality – » The Australian Independent Media Network
The historian of American foreign policy Gabriel Kolko would often say that those who seek to determine the destiny of humankind were in for surprises and, ultimately, disappointment.
Source: In international politics, how the worm has turned for the United States – Pearls and Irritations
Labour is now the largest party in local government, surpassing the Tories for the first time since 2002.
Source: A Conservative Wipe-Out in the 2023 England Local Elections – CounterPunch.org
Le Monde reports that a European Union diplomatic delegation to Tel Aviv announced Monday that it was canceling the diplomatic reception for Europe Day there because the government of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had selected far-right extremist Jewish Power leader Itamar Ben-Gvir to represent it.
Sanctions are a form of collective punishment. Their costs are overwhelmingly borne by innocent people rather than governments. And they are just another form of war, not an alternative to it. The US’s many sanctions across the world need to end.
Source: US Sanctions Are Brutal and Inhumane. And They Don’t Work.
“Yeah, that dog won’t hunt,” Turley replied. “If that’s the argument on appeal, then it’s going to be a rather quick appeal.”
Source: Jonathan Turley Trashes Trump’s Appeal: ‘That Dog Won’t Hunt’ | Crooks and Liars
On Tuesday afternoon, less than three hours after it began deliberations, a Manhattan jury found Donald Trump liable for sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll in a Manhattan department store in the mid-1990s—and for defaming her when he called her a liar when she went public with her allegations in 2019. The jury did not find him liable for rape, and the $5 million won’t make much of a dent in his net worth, even considering he’s nowhere near as rich as claims to be. And yet, this was obviously an incredible moment, and turn of events, considering that Trump has essentially never once been held accountable for a lifetime of horrific behavior.
“just be more right wing bro I swear bro one more push to the right bro and we’ll finally win an election bro I swear this is what we need to do bro just one more push bro”
Fighting Fake News with REAL; 10/5/23, Satire, Truth in Humor, The Voice , Dutton, News Corp
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