Lobbyist for the world’s arms manufacturers, so predictable. Was he promised the deal before or after he doublecrossed the French?
” over 25% of major-party federal MPs who served in executive government had moved across to peak bodies, lobbying firms or directly into big business in their political afterlife.” See More
The Sydney Morning Herald this week quoted a confidant of Mr Morrison’s saying that the former prime minister was preparing to join a defence company.
Upcoming federal and state budgets are expected to fund climate change by adding to record subsidies paid to fossil fuel companies.
Source: ‘Cooking the climate’ with subsidies for gas producers – Michael West
More and more Australians are facing crippling poverty while many corporations continue to rake in the money while still claiming government handouts like JobKeeper, writes managing editor Michelle Pini.
Source: Profits before people: Corporate greed set to continue
If only the media would cover the persecution of Julian Assange with the same the same zeal as the wedding of shock-jock Kyle Sandilands; and the controversial attendance of Albo. At this time, when Jackie-O turned up late to the wedding, Michael West reports on World Press Freedom Day.
Source: World Press Freedom Day! But for Julian Assange, David McBride, where is the freedom? – Michael West
Democracy gets an almighty punch to the guts in WA
AAP has confirmed about 10 officers were involved in the search at the home of Roebourne-based Ngaarda Media reporter Eliza Kloser on Friday.
The journalist shares the property with a colleague charged over an incident at Woodside Energy’s annual general meeting on the same day.
During the search in connection with her colleague’s alleged actions, Kloser’s bedroom, clothing, bedding and other personal items are understood to have been searched.
Western Australia’s police commissioner has defended the treatment of a journalist who had her home searched and equipment seized.
Source: Commissioner Col Blanch defends journalist’s home search
A succession of events starting in Barcelona, Spain, in February, and followed in Liège, Belgium, and Oslo, Norway, in April sent a strong message to Israel: The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) is alive and well.
The Nazification of Fox News and the Dominion lawsuit threw the Murdoch’s into a panic
A recurring theme of his show during the six years that it ran in prime time on Fox News was the displacement of white Americans by people of colour. Carlson often framed topics in the news as part of a larger struggle between “us” and “them,” with immigrants and other marginalised groups steadily and surely taking from whites what had long been theirs: political and cultural power in the United States.
The text message by Tucker Carlson set off panic at the highest level of Fox News and contributed to a chain of events that ultimately led to the TV host being fired.
Source: ‘It’s not how white men fight’: The Tucker Carlson text that sent Fox News into a panic
On a more serious note, another Biden administration, flavoured by the bouquet garni of error, is likely to make more wars, not fewer, likely. In the Indo-Pacific, a containment strategy of China is being pursued with militaristic glee, with a bewitched Australia supplying the strategic real estate in a policy of forward defence. In Ukraine, a proxy war with Russia continues to be waged, drawing NATO and the US into ever closer conflict. Biden’s Blunderland does not promise to be pretty, let alone an entertaining place.
Source: Rerunning Biden’s Blunderland – » The Australian Independent Media Network
One of the bigger beneficiaries of California’s CJPA and the U.S. Senate’s JCPA is a conglomerate that seems determined to get rid of local news and replace it with right-wing spin produced at a “National Desk.”
National and state-level bills would allow chains like Sinclair to continue to neglect the information needs of the communities they’re supposed to serve.
Source: Opinion | How Lawmakers Are Helping Sinclair Broadcast Group Destroy Local News | Common Dreams
It is difficult to imagine a scenario for next year’s Presidential elections which does not increase the already bitter polarisation of American society. The level of irrationality and violence in the United States means that in the coming decades it may well veer between bellicosity and isolationism. In the face of an uncertain American polity, tying ourselves yet closer to the American alliance seems a foolhardy enterprise.
Source: Bitter polarisation of American society undermines case for US alliance – Pearls and Irritations
The worst of corporatised journalism was when Murdoch & Roger Ailes took radio’s shock-jocks and put them on cable TV and called it News
As I write, we don’t yet know all the details of what led Fox to toss cash-cow Carlson to the curb. But one thing is certain: It wasn’t for his perversion and poisoning of the national political discourse. That was his raison d’etre at Fox. He was no truth-teller. He was a pro-MAGA, for-mega-profit propagandist. Carlson’s personal journey is a tale of the Trump era. Like the GOP, he was already on the path to right-wing demagoguery before Trump oozed down that escalator. As those dark political winds grew stronger, he eagerly raised the sails and exploited the Trumpification of the Republican Party and the conservative movement. But by ending up a Fox cast-off whose phoniness has been thoroughly exposed, Carlson has finally provided something of a public service. He has both emblemized and revealed the fundamental truth of the network: We distort, and we divide. No journalist could have done that better.
Artificial intelligence “godfather” Geoffrey Hinton has resigned from his job at Google, saying that “bad actors” will use new AI technologies to harm others and that the tools he helped to create could spell the end of humanity.
Source: AI ‘godfather’ Geoffrey Hinton warns of dangers as he quits job at Google
“Sky after dark is more akin to the One Nation party than the Liberal party. In fact, I think they’re incredibly damaging to the Liberal party,” Guy told 3AW host Neil Mitchell in a podcast.
They’ll bow and scrape to the monarch of a foreign land, they’ll profess “humble affection” and “obedience” to the head of England’s special breeding program for hooray-Henries, chinless wonders, lords and nobles, they will prostrate themselves before inherited privilege who “cannot be other than a member of the Anglican Church, can never be other than British and can never be an Indigenous person.” They’ll listen to lobbyists, they’ll hear the rent seekers, they’ll take note of the carpet baggers and grifters but they’ll continue to ignore those most deserving of a sympathetic hearing.
Are we getting the best from the ABC?
It seems the automatic go to for the ABC on matters military is Major-General Mick Ryan. His opinion is usually presented as unbiased fact. Is that the case?
Source: ABC analyst Mick Ryan’s US government funded affiliations – Pearls and Irritations
Israeli occupation authorities have started plans to confiscate 70 Palestinian homes in the Old City of the southern occupied West Bank governorate of Hebron.
Source: Israeli Occupation seizes 70 Palestinian Homes in Hebron, will Turn them over to Israeli Squatters
Matt Taibbi: America, the Single-Opinion Cult – scheerpost.com
While no threat from China exists, media propagandists are trying to ignite a war the likes of which we’ve never seen. John Pilger reminds us that we need to raise our voices before it’s too late.
Source: JOHN PILGER: Danger of war exists if we don’t speak up now
Those such as Julian Assange, who challenge the stratocracy, who expose its crimes and suicidal folly, are ruthlessly persecuted. But the war state harbors within it the seeds of its own destruction. It will cannibalize the nation until it collapses. Before then, it will lash out, like a blinded cyclops, seeking to restore its diminishing power through indiscriminate violence. The tragedy is not that the U.S. war state will self-destruct. The tragedy is that we will take down so many innocents with us.
Source: The Giant Sucking Sound of War and US Militarism | The Smirking Chimp
Separatism Abbott came to Australia by boat in 1778 and was then written into our Constitution. Had the First Nation people here been recognized and treaties signed a united nation might have progressed and an appropriate Constitution written.
Instead of recognizing the faults of the past and the inbuilt racism that they contained Abbott wants to deny history and the common sense that would correct it’s shame.
When Peter Dutton announced he would step in to lead the campaign against the Voice, Noel Pearson lost a night of sleep and delivered a withering portrayal of the Opposition Leader.
Government gross debt recorded last Friday was $894.6 billion, revealing the Albanese Government has added just $6.1 billion in its first 11 months. That compares with an average of $71.5 billion added each year by the previous Coalition Government over its term.
Source: National Times – Dazzling brilliance would be fantastic, but we’ll… | Facebook
Is the ALP gaslighting us with their “Safeguard Mechanism”?
Add Chevron’s carbon capture disaster to Woodside’s Browse Basin climate bomb and now the Perdaman fertiliser plant in the Pilbara and Western Australia is going to burn a giant hole in the Labor government’s Safeguard Mechanism. Callum Foote reports.
Source: WA Carbon Fiasco: Pilbara plant to blow more CO2 than Safeguard Mechanism will save – Michael West
reminder of how Mark Latham’s last defamation suit went
Source: National Times – Just a reminder of how Mark Latham’s last… | Facebook
The war industry, a state within a state, disembowels the nation, stumbles from one military fiasco to the next, strips us of civil liberties and pushes us towards suicidal wars with Russia and China.
Silences filled with a consensus of propaganda contaminate almost everything we read, see and hear. War by media is now a key task of so-called mainstream journalism.
In a way, Hemedti and Al-Burhan will continue to fight for the “I am Sudan” motto, rather than for democracy and Sudan’s future. Each one of them believes he has the right to decide when and how any democratic transition should happen when, in fact, both are only repeating the vicious cycle of military rule and its disastrous consequences.
Source: The ‘I am Sudan’ Motto and the elusive Transition to Democracy
Threats of violence and death against women for wearing the wrong clothes are not only inhumane but extremely misogynistic, writes Johanna Higgs.
Compared to Trump Biden has become Godzilla when it comes to China. That’s no praise of Trump.
The US has been increasingly treating Taiwan like a sovereign nation with whom diplomatic relationships and alliances can be formed, in violation of its longstanding One-China policy that has kept the peace for decades. And I just think it’s worth noting that the western media who’ve lately been condoning these moves became outraged at Donald Trump just a few years ago for doing the same thing to a far lesser degree.
Tony Abbott appears to be living proof that a “Voice to Parliament” isn’t necessarily going to be listened to by Parliament. He already has a citizen’s voice recognized by our constitution and no longer represents any special group of people that deserve a privileged place. He simply is a son of the invaders of this land that overran the first peoples here. He seems to believe he represents that privileged group and that they deserve to retain a special place in this country.
Former prime minister Tony Abbott has accused Labor MPs of gagging figures who are sceptical of this year’s referendum after he was blocked from appearing at a key parliamentary inquiry into the proposed Indigenous Voice to parliament.
Source: Voice to parliament: Tony Abbott denied chance to speak at parliamentary inquiry
The Australian headlines Stuart Wood (Vic) comment on NSW’s Bar Association support for The Voice has to be the lowest historical dog act ever seen in the Australian media. They might as well have headlined a KKK comment from the USA for the relevance Wood’s words have for the NSW Association
“The headline crawled across the front of The Australian like a Warren Zevon song: “ ‘Lawyers backing Yes for money’, may it please the court”.
Source: Stuart Wood describes support for the Voice as a commercial decision
With control of 65% of print media in Australia Murdoch’s hope was to turn Sky News into Fox News here. However since the 1990’s it’s been a major fail and disappointment. He simply couldn’t rid us no matter how much he tried of the ABC. Australia’s Democratic strength and revival depend on the restoration and revival of the ABC that Murdoch insisted the LNP destroy in doing so they destroyed not only themselves but weakened our 2- party Parliamentary Democracy and fragmented the nation.
But the Liberal Party is not for changing and hasn’t understood that opposition for the sake of opposition doesn’t work anymore. And with a change in demographics and voting patterns, they might be out of office for a long time. This change isn’t good news for the Labor Party either, and there are suggestions that this could be the last majority government – from either side of government – and the future will be based around coalitions of common political interests.
Source: National Times – New Politics Australia Murdoch’s end, wasteful… | Facebook
While China, with a bill of $292 billion, is leant upon as an excuse for increased military expenditure by other powers, the United States remains the undisputed premier spender, making up a staggering 39% of the global total at $877 billion. Hardly the sort of figure to be sported by a peacemaker.
Source: Preparing for War: The Global Military Budget – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Republicans chasing money go to Israel
What does it mean to say that there “has never been a Palestinian state” in the Holy Land? This is one of the allegations Florida Governor Ron DeSantis made on his trip to Israel, where he fell all over himself taking far right wing colonialist stances. DeSantis actually did a history degree at Yale University and his professors must spit up a little bit when they hear him talking like that. Or just hear him talking.
Source: Yes, Mr. DeSantis, there is a Palestinian People that has exercised Power in Historical Palestine
Indeed, the Nakba is an all-encompassing Palestinian story of the past, present but also the future. It is not only a story of victimization, but also of Palestinian sumud – steadfastness – and resistance. It is the single most unifying platform that brings all Palestinians together, beyond the restrictions of factions, politics or geography.
For Palestinians, the Nakba is not a single date. It is the whole story, the conclusion of which will be written, this time, by the Palestinians themselves.
Source: Why the Nakba Has Come to Define Palestinian Identity | The Smirking Chimp
However described, the shabby treatment of Julian Assange never ceases to startle. While he continues to suffer in Belmarsh prison awaiting the torments of an interminable legal process, more material is coming out showing the way he was spied upon while staying at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Of late, the Spanish daily El País…
Source: Foiled Escape: UC Global, the CIA and Julian Assange – » The Australian Independent Media Network
When reality mimics fiction chasing the “god machine”
There’s no God mode in real life, of course, but the world’s military organisations are very interested in weapons that promise something like it: lasers and other “directed energy weapons”. The US government, for example, is spending nearly US$1 billion per year on directed energy projects.
Australia wants 8 subs and a God Machine as weapons of “defence” not war we are told. However, they don’t seem to give a shit about the fact we already have weapons that are destroying the planet and taking advice from those manufacturing them.
Nearly two years ago relief was expressed that the USA had emerged under President Biden to offer world leadership on climate change. Sadly this leadership has been a disappointment and today both the US and other high emitters such as Australia are not on track to meet the challenge.
Source: The USA and Australia fail on climate change – Pearls and Irritations
Former workers at major tech firms are coming forward to say they were paid six figures to do nothing, a strategy to hoard them from rival companies. It’s just one of many ways capitalists manipulate labor markets. The others aren’t so nice.
Source: For Supposed Free Marketeers, Capitalists Sure Do Love Manipulating Labor Markets
“I’m paid to predict things,” Carlson tells us at one point. “I try and think a lot about what connects certain outcomes that I should have seen before they occurred.” Given what was just about to happen to Carlson less than three days later, this indicates either that Carlson was terrible at his job, or that he never understood what he was paid for to begin with.
Carlson showed himself as the paragon of propaganda, courageously telling the Heritage Foundation gala exactly what it wanted to hear.
Informed Comment
His kids are teenagers now. They sometimes get things wrong. Minchin is nearly 50. He sometimes get things wrong, too. He says: “We try to get things wrong together.” It’s probably the best that any of us can do.
Source: Tim Minchin: ‘Politics affects my mental health … I feel gaslit’ | Tim Minchin | The Guardian
I ordered a delicious but bog-standard pizza last night and it cost me thirty fucking dollars. JobSeekers are expected to live on forty fucking dollars a day. I do not keep meticulous financial records but I am fucking certain my shelter and nourishment, bills and bullshit, for the rest of the day cost more than the ten fucking dollars difference.
Source: What is the point of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese? – The Shot
While we’ve been busily distracted on the big issues like cost of living, AUKUS, the Voice, access to doctors and a broken gas market, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been quietly wrapping a highly controversial topic in a Cabinet secrecy blanket. Rex Patrick looks at politicised government advertising and raises concerns about the new Government Communications Sub-Committee of Cabinet.
Source: The best democracy money can buy – Rex on Albo’s secret advertising sub-committee – Michael West
It’s a very funny thing. In the US, the provision of services in such industries as security and intelligence is outsourced in a sprawling complex of contractors and subcontractors. In Australia, the entire military and security establishment is outsourced to Washington’s former mandarins, many of them earning a pile in consultancy fees. This, perhaps, is what Australia’s Defence Minister Richard Marles means when he talks about the Australian Defence Force moving “beyond interoperability to interchangeability.”
Source: Australia: Outsourced to the US Military Establishment – » The Australian Independent Media Network
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