America’s gone to the dogs and DJ Trump has taken them there? Fake New has been his weapon of choice against truth and or even the search for it. Murdoch’s fox News his primary hired gun for hire who thrives on a divided America doubling his profit in 21/22. Does anyone for a moment think he’d turn against his cash cow?
“None of this demonstrating in the snow shit,” one commenter wrote in a MAGA forum. “Summertime was made for killing fields.”
Labor is pushing ahead with Stage 3 tax cuts to benefit the wealthy, but with so many Australians struggling to make ends meet, IA founder and publisher Dave Donovan argues that the timing couldn’t be worse.
It’s facing enormous challenges since Labor won the Federal Election and immediately embarked on a whole new way of doing governance that (so far) positions policy before politics. At first blush, this seems to be the opposite of the “flood the zone with shit” strategy practised by the now defunct L-NP Government led by the now defunct Prime Minister, Scott Morrison.
It’s a challenge for voters as well, reeling as we are from years of daily chaos that rapidly became our new normal as the former Government lurched from one scandal to another, as lies went unremarked and commentators, rather than contest this cavalier abandonment of truthfulness and transparency, normalised it by declaring we were in a “post-truth” world.
A Virus worse than Covid the leaders of the variant forms of the less than Liberal Coalition these past 22 years. When any means were justifed by their ends and Australia was left behind.
Whatever it takes – » The Australian Independent Media Network
An investigation by the Department of Home Affairs determined that former Prime Minister Morrison
pressured public servants to publicise the interception of an asylum seeker boat on the day of the May 2022 federal election, a damning report has found.
But the officials in Home Affairs had acted with integrity and refused to amplify a media statement they were forced to write about the Border Force operation unfolding on the high seas.
The report into the extraordinary circumstances surrounding one of the last acts of the previous Morrison government was prepared by the secretary of the Department of Home Affairs, Michael Pezzullo AO.
The Liberal Party then sent text messages to ‘undecided’ voters early in the afternoon urging a vote for the Liberals and Nationals to ‘stop the boats’. Apart from the obscene use again of human suffering to make a political argument – something all Australians should be ashamed of – the action breached the Coalition’s 8-year facade of not commenting on ‘on water matters’.
Former Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews claims that no ‘caretaker’ conventions were breached, something that the investigation questions. According to media reports, the Coalition was pressuring public servants to upload a ministerial statement by Andrews, promote the boat arrival on social media as well as briefing ‘selected’ reporters.
A departmental statement was eventually issued minutes after Mr Morrison announced the interception in his final press conference as prime minister, but the report concluded officials refused requests to post it on social media or send it directly to journalists.
Proper recognition and commemoration of the Australian Frontier Wars at the Australian War Memorial would be a practical expression of the Spirit of Uluru. As the Albanese government begins the lengthy process of enshrining the Voice in the Australian Constitution, having the Memorial commit to Australian Frontier Wars recognition and commemoration could happen soon – provided the will exists in both the Memorial and the government.
three days of intense conflict have extracted a very heavy civilian toll in Gaza. The Palestinian Health Ministry reports at least 44 dead and over 350 civilians wounded. Reportedly among the dead were 15 Palestinian children, including five boys killed by a missile strike as they visited their grandfather’s grave.
Trump buried any evidence long ago it was never taken to be a keepsake.
Shortly before 7 p.m. ET on Monday night, former President Donald Trump issued a press release confirming that the FBI had conducted a “raid” of the Mar-a-Lago resort which serves as one of his residences.
Fox is furiously poisoning the well after the Mar-a-Lago search | Media Matters for America
Will Joe Biden be re-elected in 2024? With his current approval rating in the cellar, most pundits assume he will be toast by the next presidential election. At 81, he would also be the oldest person ever elected president, slightly exceeding the typical American’s lifespan.
So, the conventional thinking goes, Biden will be demolished by Donald Trump (or a Trump surrogate such as the Texas senator Ted Cruz or the Florida governor Ron DeSantis), thereby subjecting the US and the world to an even crazier authoritarian than Trump 1.0.
And there’s little sign from Beijing of an approach that better tries to woo the hearts and minds of Taiwan’s 23 million people, if China is still intent on peacefully seizing control of them.
Ignoring the will of the voters and continually writing off the governments they choose as “Taiwan separatist forces” who “are doomed to fail” isn’t cutting through.
Even the head of the opposition KMT party — which Beijing still pins its hopes on as the more friendly side of Taiwan’s political spectrum — voiced support for Nancy Pelosi’s visit and chided Beijing’s militaristic response, overruling some within his party who opposed the US House Speaker’s visit.
Inflation isn’t problem for all Australians the widening wealth and income gap is
The average income across the nation’s richest postcode soared beyond $300,000 for the first time as residents of Cottesloe and Peppermint Grove in Perth’s western suburbs enjoyed an 81 per cent increase in earnings – and during a recession.
On its way to electoral oblivion, the Morrison government kept the dollars flowing to select beneficiaries, in defiance of the 70-year-old parliamentary “caretaker” convention, writes #Mate.
Key points The Victorian Electoral Commission redrew the boundaries for state seats ahead of the November election. Labor stands to benefit from the redistribution, with two net gains, based on the 2018 vote.AdvertisementOpposition Leader Matthew Guy’s election prospects have been dealt another blow, with new state electorate boundaries predicted to give Victorian Labor a net gain of two seats ahead of November’s state election.
Imagine if a budding identity thief had a free, user-friendly, publicly searchable database that contained the name, location, date of birth, and mother’s maiden name of millions of people. Enter Amazon registries. We already know that Amazon collects plenty of personal information and data that can be arduous for its users to obtain, but the company also readily shares your information for anyone to access when you set up a registry. Because the default visibility settings of registries for weddings, birthdays, new babies, and other occasions are preset to public, Amazon reveals to the world information that financial institutions and other service providers request for identity authentication — and that identity thieves can use to take over your life.
Instead of preparing for a state election in just over 100 days, and impressing on the voters their readiness to govern, Liberals are scouring their own ranks for the source of a catastrophic leak while also fighting off an insurgency from religious extremists who threaten to convert the Liberal Party to the Illiberal Party.
The Psychedelic Renaissance Is on the Verge of an Uneasy EnlightenmentBy Benjamin Y. Fong Pharma companies and shrewd investors are poised to make massive profits off the medical legalization of psychedelics. For now, they’re united with the psychedelic movement’s true believers — an uneasy truce that must break in one party’s favor.
In 2018, the average carbon dioxide intensity for new passenger vehicles in Australia was 169.8 compared to 129.9 in the United States, 120.4 in Europe and 114.6 in Japan, the report said.
Never in the history of this nation have the rich and the privileged been so openly brazen.The rise of narcissism and inequality and the demise of compassion illustrate the state of the world.( John Lord )
Gaping loopholes, earnest advisers and an international reputation for stability have made Australia a place of choice for illicit funds. Despite a crackdown on the foreign ownership of established houses, there are still many ways for crooks to score a piece of the action, no matter which government is in power, writes Nathan Lynch in an extract from his book The Lucky Laundry – how the Aussie economy got hooked on the world’s dirtiest cash.
Dutton’s political career has not been what you’d call “stellar” by any means; rather he has plodded along with the flat-footedness of a beat police officer.
Under cover of climate debate, the Greens and Labor swiftly and smartly killed off a longstanding loophole which let Australian billionaires hide their financial affairs. Michael West reports on politicians beating the lobbyists.
We are talking about the “grandfathering” exemption, a loophole standing since 1995 which allowed Australia’s richest families of the time to hide their financial affairs.
Former prime minister Kevin Rudd has launched a scathing rebuke of the emerging conservative campaign against a referendum on an Indigenous Voice to parliament, attacking his longtime rival Tony Abbott for suggesting the body would change Australia’s system of government.
The arc of history bends slowly towards justice but, 15 years on from the national apology to Indigenous people, it’s time to walk the next steps in the long journey to reconciliation. There has already been too much delay since Indigenous leaders signed the Uluru Statement from the Heart five years ago.
Young girl among the dead as Israel launches wave of airstrikes on the Gaza Strip | The New Daily
A narrow strip of land where 2.3 million people live on a patch of 365 square kilometres, Gaza has been a constant point of conflict ever since Hamas took control.
The area has since been under blockade, with Israel and Egypt tightly restricting movement of people and goods in and out.
“We have not yet been able to reconstruct what Israel had destroyed a year ago. People didn’t have the chance to breathe, and here Israel is attacking again without any reason,” said Mansour Mohammad-Ahmed, 43, a farmer from central Gaza.
Michael Pascoe: Professional classes make billion-dollar tax rorts possible
“The key lesson from WA Inc was that the shonks, crooks, spivs and conmen only really thrive with the assistance of the professional classes – the accountants, lawyers, valuers, journalists et al.
“It took at least a culture of acquiescence and, more likely, one of mercenary complicity for the likes of Bond and Connell to prosper.”
They are resurrected in light of Rio Tinto settling its tax avoidance bill with the ATO last month – close enough to $1 billion worth of tax it attempted to dodge on the vast fortune it has made exporting WA iron ore and funnelling the money through its “Singapore marketing hub”.
“Singapore marketing hub” might make it up there with “colourful racing identity” as a useful euphemism.
As Australia looks down the barrel of an inflation rate close to eight per cent this year, borrowers and investors are wondering how much further official interest rates will rise.
The latest scandal again raises questions about Guy’s integrity and judgment.If, as Guy insists, the deal didn’t go ahead, why did he accept the resignation of his chief of staff? And if, as an email seen by The Age indicates, Guy was aware of the proposed contract why did it take him 10 months to act?At best, Guy is a victim of his own carelessness. But in both cases he let ambition or ignorance cloud his political judgment.
A Federal Police warning to the Coalition government over the conduct of one of its MPs was kept secret until it was too late for his constituents, writes Rex Patrick.
LNP’s Bridget Archer crossed the floor on this vote
Perhaps not since the marriage equality vote has the passage of a bill in the House of Representatives carried such a combination of substantive and symbolic import as the Albanese government’s climate legislation.
Australia’s leading scientific research organisation, the CSIRO, has delivered a damning blow against the renewed push by the federal Coalition for nuclear power, saying it is expensive, and too slow to make a significant contribution to any serious climate targets.
Jeremy Corbyn’s critics are once again furious because he stated an undeniable fact. Corbyn was shamefully denounced as a dangerous antisemite primarily because he supported the democratic rights of the Palestinians.
Putin’s War of Vengence. Nine years for a Joint seems to mirror America’s determination to make Julian Assange suffer.
A Russian court has sentenced US basketball player Brittney Griner to nine years in prison for illegal drug possession, the TASS news agency reports from the court in Khimki near Moscow.She was also fined one million roubles ($23,395), according to media reports.
One joint and one whistleblower two individuals up against the states of Russia and America
Putin might do a deal and let Griner go after his judiciary sentenced her to 9 years jail. Will he do it for releasing Julian Assange and surprise us all with his humanitarian spirit?. Imagine the positive publicity he’d get. However, would America then do it? Little has changed when it comes to the barbarism of states despotic or democratic in name.
As we approach the 50th anniversary of the election of the Whitlam Government, Victor Kline asks, what would Gough do to solve the chronic deficiencies of our current society?
It seems Matthew Guy is twisting what was initially reported. He agreed to the corrupt proposal and a contract was drawn up between Caitlin and the unnamed donor. However, the contract was reported to have been rejected by the said unnamed donor, and not by Matthew Guy or Caitlin. Everyone knew that the contract constituted a transgression of the rules, and whilst it didn’t eventuate the conspiracy nevertheless did. The unsigned contract remains evidence of the intended corruption. Guy should stand down. Conspiracy to commit a crime is a crime no matter if it didn’t occur.
A question remains who leaked the email to The Age, why, and just how divided and corrupt is the current Victorian LNP?
Opposition Leader Matthew Guy says his former chief of staff never signed a contract with any donors to provide funds in addition to his taxpayer-funded salary.
It was a big day for the Albanese government on Wednesday when its 43% emissions reduction targets were guaranteed passage in the Senate. Announcing the news, Albanese and Energy Minister Chris Bowen were grinning from ear to ear.
One of the ‘arguments’ that are brandied about concerning the Voice is ‘lack of detail’. The government is not being precise in its definitions of what these changes would mean in practice. This claim can be laid to rest if one reads the report that serves as the basis for the Voice. In this piece I want to provide some of the ‘missing detail’ by quoting from and analysing the report. Since the media will seemingly not do its job, somebody has to.
olddogthoughts 
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