Over this last weekend, however, a bunch of thugs in black hoodies rather than brown shirts marched through Newtown to disturb World Pride celebrations, intimidating LGBTQI+ people, all the while incongruously waving their rosaries around. The man credited with promoting it is a Maronite Christian, but it is uncertain which denominations accompanied him.
Source: Fascist politics on our streets and in speaking tours – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Joseph Stalin died 70 years ago today, having stamped his indelible mark upon the Soviet system. Stalin’s legacy continues to haunt the post-Soviet landscape, right up to the present war with Ukraine.
“There’s a great danger that Israel will turn into a dictatorship,” warned one protester.
Source: Israeli Anti-Government Protests Hit New Heights as 200,000 March in Tel Aviv
Is this article a defense of the Murdoch’s, The Current Israeli Government, The Russian Invasion of the Ukraine and Donald Trump? Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
It is perhaps as Oscar Wild once put it “that sometimes you have to do something bad to do something good”.
The recently released filings have made it clear that Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch are actively involved in Fox’s coverage and personnel decisions
The single most destructor of American Democracy
Let me ask you, though, in like an alternate universe where they would go out there and say, we knew, we’ve always known. I mean, you cannot undo the damage that has been done, Angelo, to our democracy.
Source: Dominion Lawsuit Means Fox Will Only Get Worse | Crooks and Liars
Trivia Time: who said ‘All the way with LBJ’ regarding Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War?
Harold Holt, who succeeded Menzies as PM, in the completion of a flip from Austral-British to Austral-American focus for our national defence. It was contentious at the time, widely protested by Australian society, and of course (as time has played out), another contemptible waste of Australian lives and resources for no useful purpose. Another compromised commitment to Australia due to political ambition.
Source: Pernicious paradox: outsourcing our national security to the United States – Pearls and Irritations
China is the victim of the largest and greatest propaganda campaign in human history. Whether this is a sign of things to come or an aberration based around a particular point in time remains to be seen but propaganda it is.
Source: The greatest propaganda campaign in human history – Pearls and Irritations
While having children often leads to less pay for mothers, fatherhood leads to an increase: Men with children typically earn more than both women — with or without kids — and men without children. This parenthood paradox, at least in part, may be responsible for maintaining the gender pay gap, which has been consistent for 20 years.
Source: We Live in a Society That Pays Men More When They Have Kids, But Women Less – scheerpost.com
The latest official statistics confirm Australia’s economy is back among the global leaders. Alan Austin suggests it is time for reform.
Source: Labor can manage the economy, now let’s fix the inequalities
Capital is beginning to flee Israel in the wake of the prime minister’s judicial overhaul.
Source: Netanyahu Could Become the BDS Movement’s Greatest Ally
Politicizing the Public Service and private consultancies must end
It shouldn’t be necessary, but it is. Today, independent member for Mackellar, Sophie Scamps, is introducing the ‘Ending Jobs for Mates Bill’ which intends to legislate a transparent and independent process for major Commonwealth public appointments. Callum Foote reports.
Whether it’s a good idea or not, the decision has been made. We will be acquiring nuclear submarines. An important question follows; who will be responsible for keeping the reactors safe? Rex Patrick examines the issue after new information was released by Government under FOI.
Source: Who will keep our submarine reactors safe? – Michael West
A Bank of Melbourne customer is left confused after being told to contact the economic and trade sanctions team over a $30 transfer to a family member.
Corporations and institutional investors won’t deviate from maximizing short-term profits and shareholder returns unless they are required to do so by law. And even then, only when the penalty for violating the law multiplied by the probability of getting caught is higher than the profits from continuing with the illegality.
Fox’s actions are not only an egregious violation of FEC law and regulations “but also a nefarious attempt by people in power to operate a press entity as a political organization, in blatant disregard of the rules that govern our elections and democracy.” Media Matters concludes, “As such, we respectfully request that the Commission immediately investigate these violations, fine Respondents the maximum amount permitted by law, and take appropriate remedial action.”
Source: FEC Complaint Filed Against Fox For Giving Kushner Confidential Biden Info | Crooks and Liars
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new book, Bibi: My Story, is an interesting and entertaining read for anyone who is comfortable with his or her own racism and with demonizing subject populations as inferior people.
If you don’t care about human rights violations and if you are a champion of war crimes, this book is for you.
Here is an Israeli leader who is proud of his violations of the laws of war (like blowing up Lebanese civilian planes in 1968) and he’s also proud of his racist restrictions against African immigrants because they are more prone to crime than other peoples, according to his ac
Source: AS`AD AbuKHALIL: Netanyahu’s Anthology of Errors, Fabrications & Falsehoods
Perhaps the most powerful objection against Israel’s demand on others to recognise its “right to exist” are claims it had made about itself during the country’s founding. Israel’s declaration of independence was based on the Balfour Declaration, the Mandate of the League of Nations and the General Assembly’s Partition Resolution. Every one of those claims have been challenged on legal grounds since 1948. The Balfour Declaration of 1917 for example did not recognise the right of the Jewish people to a state in Palestine. It simply stated that the British government viewed “with favour the establishment in Palestine of a home for the Jewish people” but that this was to be without prejudice to the “civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine.” The clear and obvious goal of the declaration was to create a “home” for the Jewish people “In Palestine“, not erase Palestine as Israel has done to supplant a new state on top of it.
Source: No, Discussing Israel’s ‘Right to Exist’ is not Antisemitic; States don’t have Rights, People Do
#Just like “The Project”, I feel that I should offer an apology. People can’t help the way that they look and if Nosferatu is offended by being compared to Stuart Robert, I must say that I’m sorry.
Source: Rutger Bregman And Why I Am Less Angry Than Sometimes… – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Nothing normal.
Whenever a narrative is detached from observable, tangible, bona-fide, actual real reality but widely believed anyway, staggeringly shitty things always happen. As the gulf between what is and what is believed grows larger, trauma, misery, oppression, and, in the worst cases, piles of gooey, smelly, otherwise-avoidable death inevitably follow.
Whenever mass delusions like Australia’s climate debate occur, it is meant to be journalism’s mission to peel back the layers of crud, these conditioned false truisms, and drag democracies closer to a state of informed decision making. But here’s the fucking thing: as the dust settles on this age, what emerges is the largest media voices – particularly Murdoch, but on this topic almost everyone in Australia, from the ABC to Channel 7 – helped spread and proliferate mass delusion more effectively than any other force, bar the Church, on the fucking planet.
These same voices now and forever tell us The Greens, the only party with a position conducive with humanity’s continued tenancy on Earth, are the unreasonable ones?
Inhumanely wealthy individuals in mining have purchased the support of both major parties. And the extreme propaganda end of the “news” spectrum has enabled this by claiming the climate crisis is nonsense, for decades, while the more “reasonable” press allows that stupidity to survive by telling us to consider both sides as the fires and floods keep getting worse
Source: How to sell out your species while pretending to be the adults in the room | The Shot
I am not a journalist. As a writer, I don’t know what label people put on me. Blogger, perhaps? Columnist? Most certainly, l don’t write like one. l just write about such things as Super concessions to wealthy people.
In his appearance at the Robodebt Royal Commission yesterday, Stuart Robert wants us to believe that not only was he the one that finally put a stop to the illegalities of income averaging, but that he knew it was wrong all along. However, the pesky Westminster system stopped him from speaking out.
Source: Stuart Robert – loyal Robodebt slayer – Michael West
Scott Morrison and Stuart Robert presided over a gross policy failure that brutally harmed vulnerable Australians and cost the nation $1.2 billion in compensation. Yet they still have their jobs, writes Belinda Jones.
Source: Morrison and Robodebt-responsible ministers deserve to lose their jobs
Or, to boil it all down: What this all suggests is that Fox News leadership is genuinely worried that their viewers will perceive them as a propaganda outlet, instead of a news organization. Why that bothers them is hard to suss out. As the court filings show, the leadership of Fox News felt pressure from their audience to downplay actual facts and play up conspiracy theories. It feels like theirs is not an audience who cares about facts, or even the illusion of facts. But watching Fox’s machinations around this case, it seems that they believe keeping up the pretense that they are “news” matters to their viewers, even if no one actually believes it.
Media Matters has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission regarding Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch providing confidential material to the Trump campaign in 2020. The revelation was included in recently released court filings regarding Dominion Voting Systems’ lawsuit against Fox Corp. and Fox News.
Audio Interview
The use of the century old Espionage Act in the Julian Assange case continues to set the chilling precedent of a bleak future in American journalism, a precedent that endangers even those outside US borders.
Source: The Nightmare Espionage Act That is Killing Julian Assange and the First Amendment – scheerpost.com
People like Marjorie Taylor Greene don’t just emerge out of nothing: there’s a hand above these puppets, feeding their bellies and pulling their strings.
The vicious statement by Bezalel Smotrich, finance minister in Netanyahu’s ultra-right government, comes days after the town of Huwara was attacked by hundreds of settlers. By Peoples Dispatch Days after it came under attack from illegal Israeli settlers, the Palestinian town of Huwara, near
Days after it came under attack from illegal Israeli settlers, the Palestinian town of Huwara, near Nablus, was targeted by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Wednesday.
In a TV interview, Smotrich claimed that calls made by some of the extremist settlers to raze the town were just, and that instead of leaving the task to private individuals, “the state [of Israel] should be the one to do that.”
Huwara was attacked by hundreds of Israeli settlers on Sunday. At least one Palestinian was killed and close to 400 were injured. The attacking settlers torched scores of Palestinian homes and burnt their property under the full protection of Israeli security forces.
Source: Israeli Official Calls for Razing Palestinian Town of Huwara
Some might think that state genocide is a new phenomenon in Israeli occupied Palestine. I can assure you that this is the very essence of Zionism. The point was, and still is, to occupy the land, get rid of the people by any and every means, and change the topography and the demography of Palestine to favour Jewish supremacy.
Source: An open call for genocide in Palestine – Pearls and Irritations
The five-page document mentions a 1993 visit to the U.S. and a fantasy book the Russian mercenary leader co-wrote with his children.
Source: Hacked Resume Gives Inside Look at Wagner Group Founder Yevgeny Prigozhin
Andrew Bolt has spent a lifetime of dutifully projectile vomiting Murdochian corporate propaganda in our face. He truly does need exorcising.
Why is it that The Age once a Newspaper has segued into being a model of what Murdoch Media is? A valueless corporate profit system. It too now presents fiction as fact and competes for attention and money from the wealthy only! It’s not begging for the money of ordinary Australians but only the self-interested wealthy among us. That Murdochian change has become noticeable since Peter Costello took over.
Sneaky? It’s one way to claim the ALP are being sneaky and keep Robodebt in the background. Forward Estimates have never been right and The Age is doing little more than presenting fiction as fact
Albanese and Chalmers have found a way to propose change without a breach of faith: announce it early, legislate it this term but make sure it takes effect after the next election. They are attempting reform with the permission of the Australian people.
And they have a chance to ask permission to go further.
The question amounts to ” do we want a fairer Australia or not” Treasurer Jim Chalmers asked that question as history has shown us the rich have got richer and the poor poorer by unbelievable margins. So does this minor change now seem so unreasonable?
The Age and the FSC’s “new analysis” seems to indicate it is. No mention of the fact that the 500k people in some distant future of 50+ years will amount to 3% of some 18M people. Indigenous Australians are 3% of the Australian population and we havent given a fuck what happened to them for over 200 years. No predictions are made about the wage vs profit distribution imbalance currently 8%. If that’s maintained the average Australian family will be living below the poverty line and with zero super just as the unemployed on Job Seeker are today. It seems The Age and the FSC aren’t interested in a fairer outcome for all Australians only for some.
When the analysis is applied to all workers aged 25 and over, it finds the full impact would extend to 526,071 workers over their working lives and into retirement, a period that would cover at least five decades.
Source: Superannuation changes: Super tax could one day hit six times the workers the government claims
The whining in corporate media over Treasurer Jim Chalmers modest changes to superannuation has been at fever pitch all week. What’s the scam?
Source: Media caps off a week of super dishonesty over super. What’s the scam? – Michael West
It doesn’t matter which country you’re in if America deems you’ve broken their law they can extradite you from anywhere or even as they once did have you rendered. They have done it to Australians already. Kidnapped and sent to locations like Egypt and then on to Guantanamo. Habib and Hicks are just two we know of. The fact you have an Australian passport means sweet FA, Assange and Duggan are current examples.
The increasingly shabby treatment of former US marine Daniel Edmund Duggan by Australian authorities in the service of their US masters has again shown that the Australian passport is not quite worth the material it’s printed on.
In January this year, Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court heard that Australian Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus accepted a request from the US before Christmas to extradite Duggan. Duggan holds Australian citizenship, but Canberra has often regarded this as irrelevant when it comes to the US-Australian alliance.
Jim Chalmers is the only ALP Minister that has even hinted at the need for this but we know that will never happen.
We need to reset our economy so it serves We The People, rather than just the morbidly rich and their massive corporations.
Source: In Praise of Inefficiency: Should We Serve the Economy or Should It Serve Us? | The Smirking Chimp
Reminder of the UK,
Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch may have damaged the company’s defense in Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit — but some media analysts believe he is setting up Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott to “take the fall” in the case.
Murdoch testified in Dominion’s defamation lawsuit against Fox News that employees who intentionally spread lies on air “should be reprimanded” and “maybe got rid of” as he did in the UK
Peter Costello’s Ch9 and The Age are currently celebrating the demise of Murdoch’s Fox News. They nevertheless apply the very same business model themselves and have adopted and accelerated it since Peter Costello became CEO. They are celebrating like Rumpelstiltskin once did only they too will crash. We can be assured Ch9 won’t, any day soon, return to a fair, balanced and ethical standard of news reporting. We only need to look at their reporting on the minor adjustment to Super the ALP proposes to evaluate their true colours. It has begun with calling it “a raid” on all super accounts despite the fact that no legislation has been passed. It’s as if the first domino has already fallen which it hasn’t. According to the media, ALP are now coming after everything and everyone’s savings not just the over-rewarded wealthy’s welfare benefits that protects them from feeling the pain of inflation.
As revealed in the hearings and motions filed to date, Fox personalities such as Tucker Carlson can be seen fretting about the stock price going down. He and other stars targeted fellow staffers who did present the truth. When a Fox reporter posted a Tweet fact-checking – and dismissing – the claims against Dominion, Carlson texted another Fox host, Sean Hannity, “Please get her fired.” The offending tweet disappeared.
The Chinese attempts to help resolve the Ukraine war via a 12-point plan for negotiations have been met with hostility from the USA and its allies, writes Dr William Briggs.
Source: China’s peace plan shot down by Western propaganda machine
The Nazification of Israel seems to be complete in the words of the Israeli Civil Administrator of the Palestinian West Bank in the Defense Ministry declaring a whole Palestinian town should be ” wiped out of existence”. The American and Australian governments fully support the current Israeli government yet condemn China’s inhumanity for their re-education programs. Australia put refugees in offshore detention centres and kept them and their children there for decades keeping the conditions secret from the rest of the voting population and having Murdoch media’s Chris Kenny call them “luxury holiday camps”
The Israeli minister of finance, Bezalel Smotrich, who is also the civil administrator of the Palestinian West Bank in the Defense Ministry, called Wednesday for the Palestinian town of Huwwara to be “wiped out of existence.” Smotrich was at a conference held by the financial newspaper TheMarker, and was asked why he liked a Tweet sent out by Samaria Regional Council deputy head David Ben-Zion, which called for Huwwara to be “erased today” and added that there was “no room for mercy,” according to the Jerusalem Post..
Source: Israel’s Ahmadinejad: Smotrich calls for Palestinian Town to be Wiped off the Map
Pink Bats were fairy floss compared to Robodebt carnage and denial. We can still here the echoes of outrage and the demands the LNP made back then to the accidental unorchestrated deaths of 5 workers. The ALP didn’t “double down” like Stuart Robert who is still a Cabinet Minister in Dutton’s shadow front bench
The former PM and all the architects of this unlawful scheme which drove thousands to despair and suicide must face consequences for their part in Robodebt. Managing editor Michelle Pini reports.
Source: Morrison, Robert, Tudge & Co should be in the foetal position over Robodebt
olddogthoughts 
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