Andrew Thorburn’s exit as CEO of Essendon Football Club has nothing to do with religious discrimination and everything to do with out-of-step bigotry, writes managing editor Michelle Pini.
Source: Andrew Thorburn, Matthew Guy and the politics of prosperity and hate
Alfred Adler was ahead of his time in centering what he called “social interest” in his psychological theories. His approach sought to combat shame and alienation and encourage concern for the common good — a psychological application of his socialist values.
Source: For Socialist Psychologist Alfred Adler, Collective Feeling Was the Cure
AFL club Essendon has moved quickly to restore confidence after its disastrous 1-day appointment of ex NAB boss Andrew Thorburn, confirming it had asked former Hillsong boss Brian Houston to oversee the organisation until a permanent new CEO can be found.
Source: Essendon appoints Brian Houston as interim CEO while it reviews hiring process | The Shovel
The speed of the Pentecostal movement’s growth means we need to be informed. Scott Morrison’s intrusions of religion into parliament have raised the discussion, despite traditional journalists lagging behind the urgent need. We can no longer say that “a man’s faith is his own business” when that faith demands the imposition of intolerant rules on the secular majority.
While the Right bemoans that the majority is cancelling their Christianity, we must counter that argument. It is not a faith that gives you spiritual comfort and guidance that the majority questions. It is a faith that denies the rest of us our well-being that we cannot accept.
Source: Why we must not tolerate intolerance – » The Australian Independent Media Network
What are the chances of this ever happening?
“The ‘we didn’t know’ narrative has always been ridiculous.” The Army’s top brass must be held accountable for Afghan war crimes rather than soldiers way down the chain of command, writes army veteran and retired officer, Stuart McCarthy.
The President of Mexico recently spoke out in support of Julian Assange as the WikiLeaks founder was honoured with the keys to Mexico City. Australia must do more to bring Assange home, writes Dr John Jiggens.
They’re doing it because the facts, which have never been on their side, are becoming more widely understood, so they have no other tactics to turn to.
Source: Opinion | The Draconian Silencing of Those Who Call Out ‘Israeli Apartheid’ | Mitchell Plitnick
After The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that billionaire Elon Musk proposed to Twitter that he buy the company at his original offer of roughly $44 billion — following months of his attempts to back out of the deal, resulting in a recent lawsuit — many right-wing media personalities celebrated the news and expressed hope that banned users would be allowed back on the social media platform.
The failure of U.S. intelligence to see the dysfunction in the Russian army and defense industries means that it also didn’t foresee Russia’s ongoing battlefield defeats, which are now having a profound political and social impact on both Putin and Russia. Putin has ordered a partial mobilization to replace heavy battlefield losses, sparking large-scale protests. At least 200,000 people have already fled Russia, including thousands of young men seeking to avoid conscription.
Source: CIA Thought Putin Would Quickly Conquer Ukraine. Why Did They Get It So Wrong?
Ten years on from former Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s Misogyny Speech, has media representation of women really improved? Dr Victoria Fielding examines why not much has changed.
Source: Ten years on from the Misogyny Speech, not much has changed
McQueen – who ousted a moderate, former MP Trish Worth, to become a vice-president – is known for airing her frank opinions, often unhelpful for her party.
McQueen at the weekend told the Conservative Political Action Conference Australia: “The good thing about the last federal election is a lot of those lefties are gone. We should rejoice in that.
“People I’ve been trying to get rid of for a decade have gone, we need to renew with good conservative candidates.”
McQueen – who ousted a moderate, former MP Trish Worth, to become a vice-president – is known for airing her frank opinions, often unhelpful for her party.
The Liberals’ four federal vice-presidents are discouraged from speaking out publicly; when they do, they are supposed to get the okay of the party’s director.
Early this year, with McQueen in mind, the party’s federal executive passed a motion saying that until the election only the president and director could make public statements about federal party matters.
But McQueen, a regular contributor to Sky News, dismisses suggestions she should go quiet. Whether she remains as a vice-president after the 2023 Liberal federal council will be a test of the Liberal organisation.
Source: View from The Hill: Without those ‘lefties’ the Liberals can’t regain government
Electricity providers have stung their customers for $10 billion in supernormal profits, despite crying poor to the regulators and despite siphoning out billions, largely free of tax to foreign billionaires and power companies. Mark Sawyer reports on the latest analysis of Australia’s energy sector.
The AER released some data on network profitability last year which no one seemed to notice which showed that the networks were making profits over the past 8 years that were two-thirds higher than what the regulator had originally deemed necessary to enable financing of reliable network provision. Total excess charges to customers adds up to almost $10 billion between 2014 and 2021 or between $800 to $1200 per customer (depending on state with only ACT residents managing to avoid these huge excess fees).
What’s worse is that there’s no sign of any real improvement in the AER’s ability to address this in recent years and the AER and AEMC don’t seem to be acknowledging any serious problem.
Co-ordinated government action is required to urgently improve the regulations governing monopoly electricity networks, to reduce pressure on consumer’s electricity bills.
Source: Gold-plated Rorters: power users gouged $10bn as big suppliers sobbed crocodile tears – Michael West
With their confidence shattered and the economy plunging into recession, people in the UK were today thinking how good it would be if there was some sort of network of local economies that they could join, in Europe say, to help them weather the upcoming storm.
The media is all over the story that Governor DeSantis was notified that the danger threshold for evacuation was hit on Sunday, but he waited until Tuesday to order one (leaving a trail of dead bodies in his wake).
Babcock Ranch—Florida’s first 100% solar-powered community with over 700,000 panels providing more than enough electricity for all 2000 homes—happened in 2015, it wasn’t a bunch of environmentally-minded old hippies putting the project together. In fact, the community—like the region around it—tends to vote solidly red.
It wasn’t to save the world that they built an all-electric, all-solar community: it was to avoid exactly what happened to the surrounding area; electric and water outages and the collapse of infrastructure that typically accompanies a hurricane.
In 2010 it cost around $6/watt to install residential solar with batteries (just the solar panels themselves were around $2/watt), so a typical home’s system cost between $40,000 and $60,000.
Today it’s around $1.40/watt (the panels themselves are now around $.38/watt) and not only is the price typically below $20,000 but there are huge federal incentives to make the systems even cheaper.
Solar and wind are now the cheapest ways to produce electricity in the United States. This is why over a quarter-million Americans today earn their living installing and maintaining solar and wind systems.
When our governments let slip the dogs of war, there will be benefits for a bunch of extremely well-connected brothers (and sisters) in armaments. Callum Foote reports from as close as possible on the networking opportunities being taken by Australia’s weapons merchants.
“They use our fear, and at the moment fear from the conflict in Ukraine and fear of conflict with China, to make their fortunes. The whole purpose of this industry is to win multibillion-dollar government contracts from increasingly sophisticated ways of killing people — it’s a twisted, brutal business model on display, and it’s time more politicians stood with peace activists to call it out”.
Source: Banned: MWM too ‘aggressive’ for the merchants of death but we won’t shut up – Michael West
The Americans have been doing it for years despite killing the wrong people. If it goes reported the chances of repercussions to those reporting it run higher than those committing such crimes. Oop! is simply not good enough.
Extending not only the use of drones but also the targeted killings of Palestinians, should prompt us all to question Israel and its accomplices, including the PA. Just months ago, an Israeli sniper murdered Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who posed no threat to the Israeli army at the time of her killing. The absence of on the ground contact in Israel’s new page of aggression against the Palestinians will take targeted killings like that of Akleh to a new level. In the past, such killings made headlines due to the involvement of Israel’s domestic security agency, Shin Bet. The Israeli plan to normalise such violence within the occupied Palestinian territories using the latest technology is upping the ante against Palestinian refugees, while extending the boundaries of what constitutes normalised and acceptable violence, as long as Palestinians are the victims.
Source: New Israeli Policy of Targeted Assassination of Palestinians . . . by Drone
The majority in all ex-Colonial countries must reaffirm their multi-racialism be they the UK, France Australia in fact the world can no longer promote racial differences moving forward.
When he launched his presidential campaign in 2019, Biden explicitly invoked Trump’s post-Charlottesville embrace of whiteness, saying “We have a problem with this rising tide of white supremacy in America,” and went on to oust a defender of white nationalism from America’s White House. Far from being chastened, however, the enemies of democracy have only intensified their efforts. To ultimately prevail in this defense of our democracy, we must clearly understand the underlying forces imperiling the nation, name the nature of the opposition, and summon the majority of Americans to unapologetically affirm that this is a multi-racial country.
Source: How whiteness poses the greatest threat to US democracy | Steve Phillips | The Guardian
America seems incapable of disproving Trump’s declaration that “there’s good on both sides ” made immediately after Charlottesville where the murder and assault were committed in plain sight by a white supremacists who were absolutely and clearly wrong. The storming of the Capitol on Jan 6th seems too difficult given the majority were white male ultra-right and far from moderate protesters after blood. No such leeway or time would have been spent if they had been black that’s for certain.
Everyone in public life — including leading Democrats, Joe Biden, and Republican leaders, including Mitch McConnell — must condemn Trump’s invitations to violence and bigotry. And they must also demand that Trump be held criminally accountable for his attempted coup, his instigation of the assault on the Capitol, and his theft of top-secret government documents.
Source: Trump’s “Death Wish” for McConnell | The Smirking Chimp
Australia can show the way You might not think it, given the decade of political climate wars, but Australia is the world leader in terms of solar electricity produced per person.
Fighting Fake News with REAL 5/10/22; Hope; Shame; Disgrace,
Australia can show the way You might not think it, given the decade of political climate wars, but Australia is the world leader in terms of solar electricity produced per person.
“Extremely investor friendly” is how the latest fossil fuel buyer describes Australia. Along with the twilight of the coal era with its astronomical profits has come the rise of squalid public relations tactics. Zacharias Szumer investigates the case of Liechtenstein-based coal trader Sev.en Global Investments, its billionaire owner Pavel Tykač and Sev.en’s propaganda associates.
The American people had no share in this windfall
The latest figures from the Bureau for Economic Analysis show that the profits of the U.S. coal and oil industry increased 340% between the first and second quarters of 2022. Companies selling petroleum and coal products made an estimated $49.7 billion in profits from April to June, compared with $11.3 billion from January to March.
The Commonwealth Bank, while publicly claiming to be an ethical bank, privately tells its perennial victims to go away, rendering them invisible, writes Dr Evan Jones.
Source: Commonwealth Bank is a disgrace to the public interest
Vladimir Putin’s bizarre ceremonies formalising Russia’s annexation of some 15 per cent of Ukraine once again revealed the yawning chasm between Kremlin triumphalism and reality.
Never mind Russian forces didn’t even fully control the territories Putin brought under the Russian flag.
Never mind Russia’s “referendums” were a blatant fabrication – with voting often held at gunpoint.
Never mind that by now more people have fled Russia than the 300,000 extra troops to be “partially mobilised” in support of Putin’s flagging war effort.
And never mind that Russian forces are retreating in many of their newly acquired lands, with the key city of Lyman liberated by Ukraine less than 24 hours after its annexation was announced.
Putin’s vitriolic rantings to a decidedly subdued audience provided plenty of distasteful soundbites.
He referred to the West as Satanists with “various genders”, calling for holy war against the transexual Western bogeymen.
Eventually it will become patently obvious that the one man who isn’t permitted to be criticised – Vladimir Putin – is in charge of the mess.
Source: Is this the beginning of the end for Vladimir Putin?
The above artist was shot and killed by occupation forces
The author came away from a trip to Britain and Israel last month deeply concerned about human rights, Julian Assange and the Palestinian people.
I asked a senior Israeli elected official if he thought there was a place for Arabs and Muslims in the Knesset. His response capped my trip. “The thing about you Americans is that you think we’re enemies with the Palestinians. We’re not. It’s not possible to be enemies with animals, only with humans. And the Palestinians are animals.”
Source: JOHN KIRIAKOU: A Depressing Journey – Consortium News
What we inherited with the Trumpster LNP
Toward the end of 2019, an article titled Lessons in how to hate China was published in Pearls and Irritations. Those lessons have been learned and learned well. Three years is a short time but the collective memory is also short. China is now the accepted enemy and the likelihood of war is spoken of more openly.
climate crisis and of a hegemonic shift from the US to China. It was an uncertain time and fear was being promoted. Those conditions still exist. The only difference is that the threat from the US and its allies has become more intense. We have learned to hate China and may well suffer from the education we have received.
Source: Learning to hate China – how well have we learned the lessons – Pearls and Irritations
Truss is a YO-YO PM
Treasury chief Kwasi Kwarteng announced a U-turn over an unfunded tax cut unveiled just days ago that proved unpopular even with his Conservative Party.
Source: UK Scraps Tax Cut For Wealthy That Sparked Market Turmoil | HuffPost Latest News
UK’s Truss proves to be a Yo-Yo
Oil jumped as OPEC+ considered reducing output at its upcoming meeting while the pound swung higher after the UK government said it would reverse a controversial tax cut that had roiled British markets.
LNP’s Angus Taylor a senior Liberal’s reply:
No. This is not [due to come in] until 2024. We want to see growth. We can provide the services that Australians need. And so … we do want to see the tax cuts come through. They’re very different from the UK tax cuts.
We haven’t seen anything like the reaction from the markets that we saw in the UK. So I think drawing that analogy, which I know some in Labor are doing, I think, is very inappropriate. They are not the same thing.
Source: Pound jumps after UK reverses tax cuts – Michael West
As I said, Trump is effectively on the ballot in the midterms. Which means — regardless of whether he decides to run again for president — our democracy is on the ballot. The midterm elections in five weeks will lay the foundation for all future races.
My friends, I cannot say this with more concern: Trump’s anti-democracy movement has been making astounding progress. We must stop it.
Source: Trump Will Be on the Ballot in 5 Weeks | The Smirking Chimp
The Coalition Government’s last year in office saw wealth shift further from the poor to the rich, as Alan Austin reports.
Source: Australia’s wealth increased last year, but mostly for the rich
Ok, I think that it’s time that we had a new acknowledgment of country… Something along the lines of: “I begin today by acknowledging the racists past and present and apologise for those who seem to think that the booing during the Welcome To Country was ‘understandable’ while ignoring the Nazi salutes from the same section of the crowd. I pay my lack of respect to the traditional rapists of our land and to racists past and present as well as emerging racists who should have been taught better by the elders who seem to think that they are above reproach and that nothing matters as long as you make money.”
Source: Acknowledge Meant Of Country… – » The Australian Independent Media Network
True to its word, the Albanese government has announced an inquiry into War Powers. Dr Alison Broinowski looks at the politics and the players, and the chances of reform so the decision to take Australians to war requires a vote of Parliament, rather than a one-man-call.
Source: War Powers Reform: those in favour say aye … or maybe “no comment” – Michael West
How quick is a day in politics and media? There was Andrew Bolt bragging about the influence he had with the powers to be in Australia. His “besties” were Tony Abbott and the Dutchman John Roskam head of the IPA. He even got his son James a “mini-me” job with the think tank podcasting among other things.
But like puffing on a Dandelion, all that good fortune, or some might call arse-licking, has blown away. So much for being Murdoch’s top “influencer”. A legend in his own lunchtime Bolt is a squeak in a world of talking heads. Lachlan is suing “Crikey” for its public opinion. Just a sentence that Bolt once insisted was everybody’s “free speech” right. His boss obviously doesn’t agree. In America, there wouldn’t even be a case to answer, but Bolt’s boss a historic loser here thinks otherwise. Bolt now has turned to the “right of free silence”. He knows on which side his bread is buttered.
There was a time, not so long ago, when corporate Australia lined up…
“Twenty or 30 years ago,” says John Roskam, whose 17-year tenure as executive director ended a couple of months ago, “we had dozens of ASX 100 companies supporting the IPA. Now, there’s not one.
“Not one,” he repeats, for emphasis. “Not one of the ASX 100 companies supports the IPA.”
No wonder Roskam sounds dispirited. Big business created the IPA. It was set up in 1943 following the collapse of Australia’s major conservative political party, the United Australia Party, in opposition to the perceived “socialism” of the Curtin Labor government.
Its founders included the chairmen of BHP and Coles, as well as the head of the Herald and Weekly Times newspaper group, Keith Murdoch, father of Rupert, among many other business leaders.
The fact that corporate Australia now has largely abandoned the IPA – although the Murdochs, whose business is listed offshore, are still supporters, as is mining magnate Gina Rinehart, whose interests are held privately – may be the clearest indication of the declining influence of not just the IPA but right-wing think tanks in general.
“Many people, including myself as a Liberal Party member, are frustrated with the direction of the Liberal Party. The libertarian alternative through the LDP is becoming more and more attractive.”
There are many other indicators, too.
So how should the west respond to young Russian men fleeing to avoid military service? Politically and legally, according to international law, they must be given protection.
Source: Ukraine war: why Russians fleeing conscription should be treated as refugees
The minute Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison brought their Christian beliefs to their roles as Australia’s PM they began diminishing Australia’s Democracy.
Conservative Christianity was once able to discriminate against LGBTQ people, but now it isn’t. As more people realize the rights that are due them by virtue of being human, the sphere of religious imposition shrinks, and the crusade is seeking to reclaim that lost ground. Really, when you get down to it, this is about a dominant caste that is waning in cultural status and is desperately trying to cling to that privilege and supremacy.
Source: How “religious freedom” became a right-wing assault on equality and the rule of law | Salon.com
A couple of myths have been spread about Israel’s cooperation with the European Union.
One, repeated by gullible reporters with Politico over the past few days, is that the relationship is “often testy.”
Another is that the bonds are not as strong as they could be because bleeding heart liberals in the Brussels bureaucracy constantly complain about the expansion of settlements in the West Bank.
A leaked EU paper demolishes those myths – no doubt inadvertently.
The paper was drafted by Brussels officials ahead of an Association Council meeting with Israel next week. It proves that the oppression of the Palestinians and the theft of their homeland are being accorded far less importance than topics regarded as more strategic.
A particularly telling fact – noted in the paper – is that the EU celebrates “the successful counterterrorism dialogues initiated with Israel in 2015.”
While such “dialogues” were still being held as recently as April this year, an “informal” working group on human rights has not met since 2016.
The real nature of the EU’s relationship with Israel can be deduced from these points.
Bloodthirsty Yair Lapid to visit Brussels for revived Association Council.
Source: Leaked paper proves EU has sidelined Palestinian rights | The Electronic Intifada
Australia won the last election. Why hasn’t the UK, US, Sweden, Italy, Brazil and so many more turned back the right-wing tide?? Only 900 attended the CPAC conference in Melbourne. So Albo should set a global example and make Australia a beacon of what can and needs to be done moving forward.
‘As wages fall while profits soar, our message is clear… We are here to win.’
Source: ‘Enough is Enough’: Hundreds of Thousands March Across the UK
Liz Truss’s government will not last a year, and the Conservative Party may then split, leading to an early election (due anyway by 2024). The Labour party is already seventeen points ahead in the polls, and its lead may even widen. It will be a wild ride, but the next British government will be led by Labour, which will rapidly reverse everything that Truss aspires to do.
Source: Opinion | Britannia Unhinged: UK’s Return to Trickle Down Economy is Suicide | Gwynne Dyer
Australia’s forthcoming tax cut for the rich and Truss announcement in the UK are just as indefensible and even increasing numbers of the current wealthy are against it.
A record share of the nation’s wealth is in the hands of billionaires, who pay a lower tax rate than the average American. This is indefensible
The key points of the fake National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) are:
1) Bare minimum protection for whistleblowers.
2) They have backflipped on their election promise for public hearings which will now only happen in exceptional circumstances.
3) Massive Breach of Open justice – This is also in part designed to intimidate whistleblowers from not coming forward.
For years, Bolt has argued that he has a right to free speech without the terrible restrictions that someone disagreeing with him might place on his freedom. We should reject political correctness and all that it entails.
So, I’m presuming that he must be very upset that Lachlan Murdoch should take Crikey to court because of what they printed and that he doesn’t feel that the idea that Lachlan has “has suffered and will continue to suffer substantial hurt, distress and embarrassment” should be a reason for him to sue them.
As for Andrew Bolt, I’m left presuming his opinion on the Lachlan Murdoch situation because he hasn’t made his views as clear as he normally does. Of course, this would have nothing to do with who his employer is, because that would lead some to draw the inference that he doesn’t really think his paper supports his free speech on all subjects.
Source: Andrew Bolt Does Not Support Murdoch’s Viewpoint! – » The Australian Independent Media Network
The Hill has fired Katie Halper from its morning show, Rising, for describing Israel’s policies as tantamount to apartheid. It’s a blatant act of censorship to silence a pro-Palestinian journalist.
Source: Left-Wing Journalist Katie Halper Has Been Fired for Calling Israel an Apartheid State
An Iranian journalist who reported on the death of Mahsa Amini has been thrown into solitary confinement, with no information about the charges against her, amid a major crackdown on the press in the country.
1) Why British? 2)Why not Pacific Islanders or SouthEast Asians they have hospitality experience?
The first of 200 British backpackers to take up the offer of cheap flights have arrived in Adelaide for working holidays.
The tourists were offered 10 pound or $17 flights to help fill workforce shortages in SA’s tourism sector.
“The backpacker market is an important part of our state’s visitor economy,” Tourism Minister Zoe Bettison said.
The recent accusations of racism against the Hawthorn Football Club had the same effect on me as it has on many other occasions. I have experienced it in numerous forms. I love my country, but the truth of it is that racists walk among us.
Source: Racism and all its ugliness (Part 1) – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Truss is, as the 2021 essay forecast, entirely immersed in the world and personnel of the billionaires’ ultra free market lobby groups masquerading as thinktanks. Her Chancellor is an ideologue and true believer in the message. The “thinktanks” face the moment of testing: who was the liberty for that they championed? Only the Ultra High Net Worth class and their High Net Worth enablers? Both the UK and the US stand on the brink of something unthinkable a decade ago. Australians must fight to ensure that our radicalised right (and the “thinktanks” that foster the internationally-networked radicalisation) don’t take us back down that path. We have a chance to rebalance the playing field. Will our right resume playing the game as a contest, or continue to try to trash the field?
A day after Russia annexed four Ukraine provinces, its troops have been forced to withdraw from a strategic occupied city for its operations in the East.
Source: Stinging retreat for President Putin in annexed Ukraine city
and
olddogthoughts 
You must be logged in to post a comment.