Mainstream media coverage of the Voice to Parliament debate has highlighted the problem of bias and manipulation leaving an unfair media playing field. Dr Victoria Fielding reports.
The Robodebt saga was not the Public Service’s finest moment. The recent release of the National Cabinet minutes confirms that the problems of secrecy, obfuscation and ignoring legal advice are widespread. Rex Patrick explains.
Source: Robodebt Cancer – has our public service become the secret service? – Michael West
For the last year, media pundits have insisted that today’s inflation has nothing to do with corporate profiteering, much to the delight of the capitalist class. It is more than clear now that they were wrong.
Source: The Pundits Were Wrong: Corporate Greed Stoked Inflation
Two of Charles III’s key role models were prolific child sex offenders. Both Jimmy Savile and his friend, Charles’ great uncle Louis Mountbatten are deceased, but their respective and linked legacies of organised crime are emblematic of the ever-entitled British Empire, whose survival is owed largely to its supreme penchant for guiltless covert exploitation of children and other vulnerable, disempowered groups.
Source: Monarchy of Monsters: child exploitation rots the heart of the British Empire – The Shot
Gabriel Sherman’s cover story in Vanity Fair – ‘Inside Rupert Murdoch’s Succession Drama’ – has generated a lot of attention, and with good reason. Murdoch runs one of the most powerful but also one of the most secretive media corporations in the English-speaking world.
Source: The current state of Rupert Murdoch and his empire – Pearls and Irritations
Getting back to work before his contract expires is not a certainty for Carlson. Like many other television hosts, he has a contract that contains language — known in the media industry as “pay or play” — that allows networks to keep their biggest stars from working for their rivals as long as they are under contract, according to a person with knowledge of his deal.
Source: Tucker Carlson wants to get back on TV soon. But there is one big obstacle
All these trends point to a new progressive America — in about 20 years.
Twenty years is a long time, of course. These trends have already ignited an anti-democracy backlash — especially from Americans who are older, whiter, straighter, without college degrees, and mostly male — that is, from people susceptible to authoritarian strongmen peddling conspiracy theories and stoking hatred.
The Republican Party knows it’s doomed unless it radically restricts voting, or goes full throttle and wholly adopts Trumpian fascism.
So, my friends, the stakes ahead could not be higher.
Source: Why a New Progressive Era in America Is Likely — In About 20 Years | The Smirking Chimp
The death in custody on May 2 of Khader Adnan, the first Palestinian to die of a hunger strike for more than 30 years, sparked mass protests in Gaza and an exchange of fire between Israel and armed Palestinian groups. It was later announced that a ceasefire had been agreed, but the situation remains febrile.
The Israeli protests against its new right-wing government have now touched on Israel’s nuclear weapons. To underline what is at stake, former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak cast aside Israeli ambiguity over whether it possesses nuclear weapons to warn his compatriots that Western diplomats are worried that a Jewish messianic dictatorship could gain control over Israel’s nuclear weapons.
As King Charles arrived at Westminster Abbey on a $4 million hand-crafted carriage pulled by six horses, he would have been relieved to know that his citizens are flush with cash and doing things easy, otherwise the whole thing might have come across as insensitive.
Jim Chalmers’ long-awaited tweaks to the PRRT are the itsy-bitsyest “reforms” about, the equivalent of recycling old Christmas presents with a fancy new bow. Michael West reports on how the Treasurer is merely returning a couple of billion in gas sector subsidies, and only for a while.
“Chalmers slaps $2.4bn tax hit on oil and gas,” cried Murdoch’s The Australian. “$2.4bn gas tax hit on energy giants,” declared the AFR. Santos chief Kevin Gallagher was nowhere to be heard with his “Soviet-style” scaremongering. Is Australia still going the way of Venezuela and Nigeria, Kevin?
One could well be suspicious of the fact that promises were made to Morrison well before the election debacle. Promises of a safe and rewarding nest in which to land if the French were doublecrossed and lied to.
The ministerial code of conduct also requires former ministers to “not take personal advantage of information to which they have had access as a minister, where the information is not generally available to the public.” This is an unenforceable, and essentially dead letter. To Clancy Moore, the chief executive of Transparency International Australia, the code remains “effectively a toothless tiger”.
Source: Scott Morrison and Australia’s Lobby Complex – » The Australian Independent Media Network
“Yes” to the Voice referendum will be more than symbolic – it will be a foundational moment for our country, as will the “Yes”, in a referendum further in the future, to Australia becoming a republic. The right-wing conservatives of the Liberal Party are typically staunch monarchists and they’ll be celebrating the coronation – chanting and proclaiming at related events. But the Liberal Party has demonstrated its members and MPs are not nation-builders. The party is not modern, not inclusive and certainly no longer “the party for business”.
Source: “The… – The Fiberal Party of Australia – Lies & Misdemeanours The party is over.”
The French Government’s Research Minister, Silvie Retailleau, has announced a plan to shake up the country’s scientific research including investing an extra Euro 26 billion (equivalent to A$42.5 billion.)
Source: If only it was happening in Australia – Pearls and Irritations
AUSTRALIA HAS BEGUN its long, slow climb out of the sewers of sleaze and corruption now a new government committed to integrity has replaced the grimy and incompetent Coalition.
Source: Australia finally joins global efforts to stop terrorists getting easy finance
How bad has the military-industrial complex gotten? The arms industry donates tens of millions of dollars every election cycle, and the average taxpayer spends $1,087 per year on weapons contractors compared to just $270 for K-12 education.
Source: The Military-Industrial Complex Has Never Been Worse
In the end, if American voters decide that they would prefer an autocracy to a representative democracy, that is their prerogative, to end this 236-year-old experiment. But they should do so with their eyes wide open. And it is our job as journalists to make sure they have the necessary information to make an informed choice.
Source: Call It Trump’s Coup Attempt, Because It Damned Well Was | HuffPost Latest News
Rather than enable capitalist business structures for GPs, Medicare should provide real government-led health care, writes Alex Lipa.
Hard-nosed billionaires like green energy champion Andrew Forrest, and his former venture partner Mike Cannon-Brookes, know that Australia’s future prosperity will come from sunshine and electrons.
Source: The power budget: Australia on cusp of green economy – Michael West
The Albanese government has announced a Net Zero Authority to reduce national emissions and help industry, communities and workers manage the shift to a low-carbon economy.
Source: Australia finally has a Net Zero Authority – here’s what should top its agenda
A divided party that needs this come-back kid like it needs to be put down
The former PM says the correct Liberal stance is to oppose the Voice to Parliament. But many of his party colleagues disagree, and they are making themselves heard.
Nostalgic for a No campaign he could get behind – again – former prime minister Tony Abbott re-presented himself at Parliament House last week. He was being gagged, he said, by the refusal of the Parliamentary Committee Inquiry into the Voice referendum to allow him to give testimony in person.
Abbott had already given a written submission to the inquiry; he has also written extensively about his thoughts on the matter in The Australian newspaper.
What will a No victory do to the cause of reconciliation? How will we have a hope of closing the gap? How can Australia fashion its contemporary national identity if we can’t face the violence of our origin story? How will any of us ever be able to sit through a Welcome to Country again? How will we respond to the “almost endless protest” Pearson has warned of? How much more despair can we heap on the heads of Aboriginal Australians?
In short: what will happen next if we say no?
Source: Voice to Parliament: Tony Abbott is back for another No campaign
London’s many people of color seemed to have skipped this morning’s royal do.
Grant is expected to participate in media coverage of the event later on Saturday, despite the Wiradjuri man arguing the monarchy represents suffering for Australia’s First Nations people.
A good word for Charles
Charles from 1993: “Britain is a multi-racial and multi-cultural society. I have already mentioned the size of our own Muslim communities who live throughout Britain, both in large towns like Bradford and in tiny communities in places as remote as Stornaway in Western Scotland. These people, ladies and gentlemen, are an asset to Britain. They contribute to all parts of our economy – to industry, the public services, the professions and the private sector. We find them as teachers, doctors, engineers and scientists. They contribute to our economic well-being as a country, and add to the cultural richness of our nation.”
Source: King Charles III as Defender of all Faiths, including Islam
A changing climate is upon us, with more frequent land and marine heatwaves, forest fires, atmospheric rivers and floods. For some, it is the backdrop to day-to-day life, but for a growing number of people it is a life-changing reality.
It is now more remarkable when a year is not the hottest since our species began to develop civilisations.
The Modern State of Gattaca If you’re not Jewish you’re not a true Israeli but a 2nd rate citizen.
Gattaca: a warning against the societal acceptance of genetic perfectionism and genetic discrimination.
Amnesty International also recommends that Israel end the system of apartheid and cease the deployment of facial recognition technologies, mass surveillance and discriminatory targeted surveillance. In addition, it recommends that Israel end the regime of closures and other restrictions on freedom of movement that result in collective punishment. And the report says that Israel should immediately cease all settlement activity as a first step to dismantling all Israeli settlements.
Source: Israel Is Using a Vast Network of Biometric Cameras to Terrorize Palestinians | The Smirking Chimp
Cruz and other GOP lawmakers looking for funding from a billionaire defend Crow and Thomas
The outpouring of support from some Senate Republicans is unsurprising following their public backing of Crow after reports that the billionaire keeps a collection of Nazi memorabilia in his home.
“He has an extensive historical museum that examines World War Two,” Cruz told Insider, adding that the media is “deliberately” mischaracterizing the nature of Crow’s collection to further damage Thomas’ reputation.
Source: Senate Republicans stand by Clarence Thomas in the face of growing ethics allegations | Salon.com
Lidia Thorpe sets the bar with independent media’s Tom Tanuki, given mainstream press can’t be trusted enough to tell her side of the story.
Source: Beyond the media hype: Tom Tanuki talks to Lidia Thorpe
Another Hypocritical Pentacostalist is gone.
Former cabinet minister Stuart Robert will resign from federal parliament within weeks, causing a byelection in his Queensland seat and putting an end to a controversial political career.
Source: Stuart Robert to resign from federal parliament, causing byelection
Fundamentally the Culture Wars are politics established on the basis of anti- Multiculturalism and pro-Monoculture within Australia as a whole. Division and fragmentation are desired paths to foment chaos and distraction in our body politic.
The LNP’s tactic based on the lack of acceptance of cultural diversity is unfortunately supported by mainstream media and has become a breeding ground and opportunity neo-Nazi success and sympathy within the LNP itself. We saw what the Monkeypod Room did to its Federal branch. It resulted in 4 leaders and Dutton the last man standing. That united broad church, the LNP keeps talking about, has proven to be a myth that fell apart when attacked from within. They are only now calling them terrorists. The Victorian Branch is now a shit show on display. It truly did fall apart with the importation of American Republican-style politics into Australia. Their politics was the business of creating drama rather than dealing with it. Let’s face it where did Dutton first go when elected their leader? He went straight to America.
Dan Andrews stated that “This Americanisation of our politics has no place here,” and nor do the bigots’ “hateful views.” The vast majority are in agreement, as the Coalition parties are finding.
Source: Are Nazis running Victoria? – » The Australian Independent Media Network
When Governments do less and less?
In an asset-manager society, firms like Blackstone, Brookfield, and Macquarie act as the shadowy overseers of wealth funds that find a home in the assets that sustain human life, such as housing, energy, and transportation. The questions of how this came about, what the implications are, and who the ultimate winners and losers might be are all explored in brilliant clarity by Brett Christophers in Our Lives in Their Portfolios: How Asset Managers Own the World.
Source: Asset-Manager Firms Are Taking Over the Social Infrastructure on Which We All Depend
It seems clear that Morrison doublecrossed the French for AUKUS and the long-term promise of his new appointment on the board of a military think tank funded by the arms industry. A move that couldn’t be seen to happen immediately after his election loss.
The government seems under equipped to deal with this situation, lacking a backbone to challenge the legacy of the last decade of Coalition malaise, and with no ability to articulate how things could be if we thought independently as a nation state. After being roped into this position by a duplicitous Morrison government and barred from the AUKUS negotiations while in opposition, the government has passed on the opportunity to challenge the trajectory and tripled down, scared to take any position that dare challenge this new and dangerous status quo. Through a lack of inspiration, a callous detachment, and political cowardice, they continue to cede our sovereignty because its politically expedient for them to do so.
Source: The AUKUS truth: bipartisan defence policy sells short Australian sovereignty – The Shot
The prosecutor investigating interference in the 2020 election in Georgia has agreed to immunity deals with at least eight Republican fake electors who signed a certificate falsely stating that then-President Donald Trump had won the state.
Source: At Least 8 Fake Electors Have Immunity In Ga. Election Probe | HuffPost Latest News
The military-industrial complex (MIC) that President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned Americans about more than 60 years ago is still alive and well. In fact, it’s consuming many more tax dollars and feeding far larger weapons producers than when Ike raised the alarm about the “unwarranted influence” it wielded in his 1961 farewell address to the nation.
Source: This is not Your Grandfather’s Military-Industrial Complex: Unwarranted Influence
“I read it in the Rolling Stone” song By Chip Taylor. Feelings could be applied to Tucker Carlson ” Dogone I said it now I regret it because I read it”
According to Rolling Stone, Grossberg filed a lawsuit against the ousted host last month alleging both he and Fox News “fostered a workplace climate of misogyny and toxicity during her tenure at the company.”
The LNP is well known for importing GOP policies to Australia for little more than political gain while having minimal support of the Nation. They have stolen the ground from right-wing minorities like One Nation, and have declared Muslims Africans, unwanted and Chinese spies.
Nazi Germany is well known for its treatment of Jews. The United States is becoming well known for its treatment of the LGBTQ+ community, people of color, and other minorities. A pity that.
Source: Opinion | Nazi Germany and the Contemporary Republican Party | Common Dreams
In a move that has caught observers and the Kremlin by surprise, the leader of Russia’s Wagner Group mercenary force is withdrawing from Bakhmut, saying he has been starved of ammunition.
Source: Wagner mercenary chief blasts Putin and pulls out of Bakhmut
When free trade is just an illusion
When economics is a matter of scale corporations leave nations like Australia eating their dust. The massive subsidies paid for by ordinary citizens are the discounts that attract corporate investment. That fails to be spread equally across the world. America offers so much more honey to the multinational corporate hive. If rich in resources third-world citizens in poor nations pay the highest prices to attract investors to extract their resources and potential.
“We’re already moving people and capital to the US and delaying investments in Australia, and it’s not just us, it’s now most of the resources companies,” he tells me. “Australia has its own comparative advantages, but can’t outmatch the scale of the US subsidies.”
The US incentives program, mostly contained in its so-called Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), “is the biggest piece of peacetime industrial policy we have seen in the democratic world.”
Source: Federal Budget 2023: The US is stealing Australia’s ‘core’. Gym Chalmers needs the energy to stop it
The lethargy in lifting the age of criminal responsibility in Australia from 10 to 14 is scandalous given the numbers of vulnerable children caught up in the brutality of the criminal justice system daily.
Source: Attorney-Generals criminalising 13 year olds is a national disgrace – Pearls and Irritations
Over the years things haven’t changed all that much
Measured by column centimetres and video footage the Russians are top of the slobs – though likely to be dethroned by Okkers winning infamy by posing naked in culturally important places and loading their capers into social media.
Source: The ‘Ugly Aussies’ rubbishing our reputation in Indonesia – Pearls and Irritations
“We have a choice: protect fossil fuel profits or protect the future of our planet,” said British MP Jeremy Corbyn.
Source: ‘One of the Corporate Scandals of Our Times’: Shell Posts Record $10 Billion in Profits
Science disproves Jewish folklore that they were there before the Palestinian Arabs. DNA testing proves they both are descendants of the Canaanites.
What we now call Palestinians are for the most part descendants of groups who have been in the Near East for four thousand years, at least. A branch of the Canaanites became Jews, while others became Nabataeans and Phoenicians.
Murdoch profits yes, but trashes everything he builds. The Sun, The News of the World, Sky News Australia, Fox News and even his marriages. What he calls family is only held together by money and no doubt his will after death.
Fox also ranked last for “accurate” coverage of the 2020 election in the poll, with only 12% of Americans saying that the network’s 2020 coverage was “almost always accurate” and less than half saying it was “mostly accurate.” These values were lower than that for CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC and CBS in both categories with percentages for those networks ranging between 56% and 58% for the “mostly accurate” poll.
Don’t feel sorry for Murdoch feel sorry for yourself
If you have basic cable TV service, chances are you’re paying roughly two dollars a month for your access to Fox News. Whether you ever watch it or not.
A legal expert believes the conviction of four members of the Proud Boys, including the far-right group’s leader, Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, of seditious conspiracy over a plot to keep Donald Trump in power after he lost the 2020 election, has implications for the former president.
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