Informed Comment

Why the televised hearings on the January 6 insurrection will be historic | Robert Reich | The Guardian

‘No president in history has staged an attempted coup to change the outcome of an election.’

They will mark a milestone in the battle between democracy and autocracy. Everyone should tune in and watch them

Those who claim that a president cannot be criminally liable for acts committed while in office apparently forget that Richard Nixon avoided prosecution only because he was pardoned by his successor, Gerald Ford.

Those who argue that Trump should not be criminally liable because no president in American history has been criminally liable, overlook the fact that no president in history has staged an attempted coup to change the outcome of an election.

Without accountability for these acts, Trump’s criminality opens wide the door to future presidents and candidates disputing election outcomes and seeking to change them – along with ensuing public distrust, paranoia and divisiveness.

Source: Why the televised hearings on the January 6 insurrection will be historic | Robert Reich | The Guardian

Fox News

Fox News Viewers Have No Clue: Network Blocks Nearly All Critical Coverage of Donald Trump | The Smirking Chimp

The selling of “Alternative Facts as News”= Fake Product

Ingraham:

They’re all upset that Fox isn’t covering it live. We actually do something called, you know, cater to our audience…

Their audience doesn’t want to hear any news that makes them unhappy so Fox will keep giving them what they want: owning the libs, Dr. Suess and Mr. Potatohead — and white nationalism. ( As you can see, they’ve even got the beloved, charismatic, superstar Steven Miller on as a regular these days.) If “the news” was a person, it could sue Fox News for fraud and win.

 

Source: Fox News Viewers Have No Clue: Network Blocks Nearly All Critical Coverage of Donald Trump | The Smirking Chimp

Fox, Fox News

Capitol crime as Fox News cancels the greatest show in town

Protesters scale a wall at the US Capitol on January 6 last year.

It’s an Orwellian and cowardly move – suppressing rather than heralding the news.

a band of racists, goons, gun-nuts and thugs invading the seat of freedom and democracy, egged on by a malevolent and reckless conman –how this all happened should be of interest to most Americans. Yes?

Well, no. At least that’s a “no” from Fox News. That’s right, the nation’s most-watched news network and the in-house news source for the American right, announced it would not carry the hearings live. Instead, it will run its usual evening line-up of hate-mongering political commentators, including Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity. The network says it will run the hearings on its sister channel, the Fox Business Network, which has a fraction of the viewers, and on its streaming service.

This is plainly a move to minimise the import of the hearing. It’s a political decision, not a news one. It’s designed to reduce any cauterising effect a true account of how the insurrection unfolded might have on Fox’s core viewership.

 

Source: Capitol crime as Fox News cancels the greatest show in town

America's Shame, American Politics

Republican Congressional Candidate: We Need A Leader Like Hitler | Crooks and Liars

Carl Paladino on Fox News

The legitimization of American Neo- Nazis is real and in plain sight

Carl Paladino apparently loves Trump rallies and finds them similar to another foreign leader in history. So do we, but not in a good way.

Paladino was asked by host Peter Hunt how to rile up the people for change.

“I was thinking the other day about somebody had mentioned on the radio Adolf Hitler and how he aroused the crowds. And he would get up there screaming these epithets and these people were just — they were hypnotized by him. That’s, I guess, I guess that’s the kind of leader we need today. We need somebody inspirational. We need somebody that is a doer, has been there and done it.”

It used to be verboten to even mention the Nazi leader when bashing a political rival in Congress, but Paladino is using Hitler as his inspiration.

With the rise of white supremacy throughout the Republican party and Fox News because of Trump, his comparison will be celebrated.

Source: Republican Congressional Candidate: We Need A Leader Like Hitler | Crooks and Liars

Russia

Russia-Ukraine war: Polish president Andrzej Duda says calls with Vladimir Putin ‘like speaking to Hitler’

Polish President Andrzej Duda.

Duda, in an interview with Bild first released on its YouTube channel late on Wednesday (Thursday AEST), said such discussions only legitimised an illegal war in Ukraine.

“Did anyone speak like this with Adolf Hitler during World War II?” Duda said. “Did anyone say that Adolf Hitler must save face? That we should proceed in such a way that it is not humiliating for Adolf Hitler? I have not heard such voices.”

The conflict in Ukraine, described by Moscow as a “special military operation” to stamp out perceived threats to its security, has flattened cities, killed thousands of civilians and forced more than 7 million people to flee the country.

Ukraine and its Western allies say Russia is waging an unprovoked war to grab territory.

Polish President Andrzej Duda has slammed the leaders of France and Germany over their phone conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Source: Russia-Ukraine war: Polish president Andrzej Duda says calls with Vladimir Putin ‘like speaking to Hitler’

Fight against Fake News, Fighting Fake News

Old Dog Thought- Mates Rates
AUKUS

Fighting Fake News with REAL 10/6/22; Dutton’s advice; AUKUS, UBER’s Pocket Fluff Tax; Casino Progress;

Informed Comment

9 Coalition years equal 50 years regression, Dutton notwithstanding

Have you heard the one about how the Liberal leopard changed his spots? He moved from the Government spot to a spot in the shadows to pounce on progress at a future date. (Michelle Pini)

THE MORE the Liberal and National parties talk of change, the more things stay the same.

Apart from the front men (for they are usually men) who are quite regularly replaced or recycled, this is true no matter which Coalition yardstick you care to examine: health, gender equality, education, climate change, Indigenous affairs, the economy, cost of living pressures or corruption.

While the regression in these areas certainly fluctuates in terms of severity, the fact that they remain largely unaddressed by the previous Abbott/Turnbull/Morrison Government is testament to the degree to which the Coalition entrenches inequity across most social parameters.

Source: 9 Coalition years equal 50 years regression, Dutton notwithstanding

ALP Government,

O Lucky Man? Albo out to break the Labor hoodoo – Michael West

Labor is back in power. It is a rare gift. The ALP has held the reins of government for less than a third of the time in Australia’s history. And the party seems doomed to get the call from the electorate just as trouble is brewing.

Source: O Lucky Man? Albo out to break the Labor hoodoo – Michael West

LNP Government

As the world turned to shit, the Coalition turned to religion – » The Australian Independent Media Network

If this didn’t tell you what Morrison and the Pentecostalists were intent on doing then nothing will. They wanted the end to the separation of powers, go the way of Israel and turn Australia into an Apartheid White Christian State. More so they were intent on doing it by stealth. It’s why the religious discrimination bill was their priority if they had won the election.

With all that’s going on in the world – a pointless war, a global pandemic, rampant global heating leading to increasingly severe and compounding natural disasters, superpowers competing over our region, soaring cost of living, rising inflation, unaffordable housing, poverty, social unrest – the last government spent its dying days fighting for a religious discrimination bill we didn’t need and arguing over trans women playing sport.

Source: As the world turned to shit, the Coalition turned to religion – » The Australian Independent Media Network

social welfare

Fear and confusion from jobseekers as ‘dramatic’ changes to Centrelink mutual obligations loom – ABC News

A woman in a blue top standing at a balcony

Major ( LNP ) changes to unemployment services begin in under a month – but many of the 800,000 jobseekers who’ll be affected are still unclear on exactly how.

Source: Fear and confusion from jobseekers as ‘dramatic’ changes to Centrelink mutual obligations loom – ABC News

Informed Opinion

Opinion | When the US Is Truly Run by These Fascists It Will Be Too Late | Thom Hartmann

Reasons not to be American Australia.

We can’t pretend we don’t know what’s happening and where it will lead if it’s not stopped—the question is what we will do about it.

Source: Opinion | When the US Is Truly Run by These Fascists It Will Be Too Late | Thom Hartmann

American Brainstorm

A Spanish Court Calls: Mike Pompeo, We Want You – » The Australian Independent Media Network

According to the report from Yahoo!News last September, a former Trump national security official claimed that the administration saw “blood” in the aftermath of the release. Ideas and plans were exchanged among various officials to abduct Assange, and even, given the chance, assassinate him.

Source: A Spanish Court Calls: Mike Pompeo, We Want You – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Fox News

Fox News’ ongoing complicity in the January 6 insurrection | Media Matters for America

U.S. Capitol building with Fox logo

Fox’s vaunted “straight news” team will instead provide coverage on its lightly watched sister network, Fox Business. On the main channel, it will be business as usual, with prime-time propagandists Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham airing their regular shows and providing counterprogramming for the Trumpist faithful until 11 p.m. ET, when the “straight news” team will air special coverage of the hearing once much of the audience has gone to sleep.

Source: Fox News’ ongoing complicity in the January 6 insurrection | Media Matters for America

Republican Hell, Republicans

Both Sides Don’t: 44% Of GOP Says ‘Accept Mass Shootings’ | Crooks and Liars

Mass shootings are just a part of life in America and we’ll all just have to get used to it, say 44% of Republicans. Never call them “pro-life” again.

Informed Comment

WATCH: AOC Rips Lax Gun Laws, NRA ‘Blood Money’ During House Hearing

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

“For all the billions and trillions that this body authorizes in the name of national security, we can’t even keep our kids safe from their schools being turned into a war zone.”

Source: WATCH: AOC Rips Lax Gun Laws, NRA ‘Blood Money’ During House Hearing

Israel

Israel’s Crisis in Parliament is a Crisis for its Apartheid in the Palestinian West Bank

A Coalition of Disagreement about the West Bank’s Apartheid Rule. Israel relies on the fact that the holocaust will never be forgotten but their involvement in acts of State-sponsored genocide like that committed under their supervision at the Shatila refugee camp in Lebanon 1983 will.

The “Judea and Samaria Emergency Regulations, Governance and Legal Aid Act,” passed soon after the Israeli military occupation of the Palestinian Territories in 1967, put Israelis who squatted on Palestinian land under Israeli law but put the Palestinians under military rule.

Source: Israel’s Crisis in Parliament is a Crisis for its Apartheid in the Palestinian West Bank

Fight against Fake News, Fighting Fake News

Old Dog Thought- At least Dutton back benched the Pentecostalists but not Sky News.

Fighting Fake News with REAL; 9/6/22; LNP Pentecostalism; Sky News the Torture Channel; Meme;

Informed Comment

Albo’s to-do list: There’s a lot for the new government to fix – » The Australian Independent Media Network

My thought for the day Labor will deliver a future where no one is held back, and no one is left behind (Anthony Albanese). ( John Lord )

Source: Albo’s to-do list: There’s a lot for the new government to fix – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Media

I watched all of Sky After Dark’s election coverage and have some fucking concerns | The Shot

By cruel editors, I was tasked with watching Sky After Dark’s election coverage. All of it. As if this election wasn’t painful enough on its own. After a four-week long mental breakdown we decided I had seen more than enough horror.

From Rita Panahi’s ‘exclusives’ that are just her ripping stories from Qanon websites in America, to Chris Kenny’s crying about ‘ABC virtue signallers’, to Andrew Bolt’s ramblings about ‘the woke brigade’, to Paul Murray yelling about the ‘mad left’, to Peta Credlin’s constant name dropping of Tony Abbott, to Cory Bernardi’s hosting with all the sense and charisma of a wet Klan hood, to Piers Morgan’s nightly rants about Meghan Markle, to Joe Hildebrand existing; I suffered through it all.

 

Source: I watched all of Sky After Dark’s election coverage and have some fucking concerns | The Shot

Informed Comment

Dutton and Trump politics – » The Australian Independent Media Network

The mainstream media in Australia is currently whitewashing fascist politics. It is not just sycophantic, or lazy, journalism. It is dangerous.

Without a strong news media, Australia faces a clouded future. Albanese’s government may be able to repair our Rule of Law protections adequately to protect us into the future from the international right’s authoritarian games. The radical right might lose their hold on the Liberal and National parties. We have seen in America, however, that this form of the right is prepared to play the long game. Journalists that help them whitewash their cruellest actions aid them in this plan.

Source: Dutton and Trump politics – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Peter Dutton

Skilled migration: Business wants the benefit but not the burden

Not just the Worst Health Minister but the Worst Immigration Minister as well. Dutton also noted as the Worst Homeland Minister needless to say he was also the first. But now he’s going for the Quadrella as the Worst Opposition leader. But like Morrison he doesn’t care. He has the job, and that’s what it’s all about not how well it’s done. He’s a step closer to being the Worst PM and outdoing Morrison.

Dutton made Australia’s skilled temporary visa internationally uncompetitive in a world where competition for skilled migrants will only intensify. It was a classic case of Dutton again shooting Australia in the foot.

Source: Skilled migration: Business wants the benefit but not the burden

Education

Indigenous education: New resource seeks to teach Victorian history through Aboriginal eyes

Worawa Aboriginal College principal Lois Peeler and students arrive at the launch of the Aboriginal Change Makers resource.

What the LNP and Peter Dutton want stopped

When Yorta Yorta and Dja Dja Wurrung man Tiriki Onus was a schoolboy, he recalls a year 10 teacher telling the class “that the Aboriginal people of south-east Australia were extinct”.

Source: Indigenous education: New resource seeks to teach Victorian history through Aboriginal eyes

ALP Government,

Assange is still in jail – what can the new government do? – Michael West

Julian Assange, Wikileaks

There are signs that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese seems more interested in dealing with the plight of Julian Assange than was the Morrison government. UK Home Secretary Priti Patel has to decide whether or not to sign off on Assange’s extradition to the US by the middle of this month. Albanese must act now, writes Greg Barns.

Source: Assange is still in jail – what can the new government do? – Michael West

Informed Comment

The CEO-to-Worker Pay Gap Is Climbing to Truly Obscene Levels

We in Australia have been following American Capitalism blindly for the past decade with the help of the LNP government

A new report finds that the gap between worker pay and CEO compensation continues to grow at some of the United States’ lowest-paying firms. At dozens of companies, the ratio exceeds one thousand to one.

Source: The CEO-to-Worker Pay Gap Is Climbing to Truly Obscene Levels

ALP Government,

Defence faces budget blowout with Aukus nuclear submarines to cost more than scrapped French project | Australia news | The Guardian

American nuclear-powered submarine

The Albanese government faces the prospect of a blowout in defence spending, with analysts warning that the nuclear-powered submarines will cost “significantly more” than the cancelled $90bn French project.

Source: Defence faces budget blowout with Aukus nuclear submarines to cost more than scrapped French project | Australia news | The Guardian

Victorian Election

Energy crisis ‘perfect storm’ requires serious climate action

The State of Victoria

VOTERS will be looking for a party able to ramp up Victoria’s renewables capacity, provide transition certainty to energy workers in the Latrobe Valley, and prove to the world that our state is both serious and ambitious as a leader in meeting the global challenge to mitigate climate change.

Source: Energy crisis ‘perfect storm’ requires serious climate action

Police, What Police Do

The Alternative to Police That Is Proven to Reduce Violence – Mother Jones

“We’ve had an overreliance on policing for decades, so it’s really good to see responses that are not as reactionary.”

Source: The Alternative to Police That Is Proven to Reduce Violence – Mother Jones

Gun Deaths USA

Guns in the US: Why the NRA is so Successful at preventing Reform

At least 60 votes are still needed to usher any legislation through the Senate and avoid a “filibuster”, which allows lawmakers to stall or prevent a vote on bills. Even apart from the NRA’s clout, a major challenge is that the gun control movement is subject to what political scientists label an “issue attention cycle”. In short, focus on the issue is fleeting. A calamity like the one in Texas gets considerable press for a while but then fades into the backdrop and is replaced by other headlines. The sustained political will needed to pass gun reform simply doesn’t persist.

For all the horror mass shootings, most gun violence in America occurs through a “slow drip” of casualties. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that more than 45,000 Americans died from gun-related causes in 2020, with about 43% being homicides.

Source: Guns in the US: Why the NRA is so Successful at preventing Reform

Israel

Why does the world allow Israel to continue its oppression of Palestinians?

Israeli Jews protest with Palestinians standing in front of them, knowing that if they didn’t they would get shot. Israel claims to be a Liberal Democracy but it shoots journalists and jails those that strive for truth and justice. In 2022 the world can rely on the fact that Israel is not what it presents itself to be and certainly not what it once was when the world supported it during the the 6 Day War in 1967. Israel isn’t even a shadow of what it once was.

Thirty-one-year-old Ghofran Warasnah was shot dead by the Israeli occupation forces located at the entrance of Al-Arroub Palestinian refugee camp near Hebron. Ghofran was a Palestinian journalist who was heading to work. According to reports paramedics were barred from reaching her for 20 minutes and the ambulance carrying her dead body was attacked by Israeli forces. This brings to mind the murder of Shireen Abu Akleh.

Source: Why does the world allow Israel to continue its oppression of Palestinians?

Fight against Fake News, Fighting Fake News

Old Dog Thought- Reflections on demotion

Fighting Fake News with REAL 8/6/22; Reflections on Morrison, The true decievers;

Julian Assange

Enough is enough: PM Albanese must now intervene for Assange

Prime Minister Albanese has said that the pursuit of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange served no purpose; it is now time to do all in his power to bring him home, writes Dr Binoy Kampark.

Source: Enough is enough: PM Albanese must now intervene for Assange

Informed Comment

Who is it that can’t manage money? – » The Australian Independent Media Network

If only we had of voted Morrison in we’d have never known

“The economy was weaker in the March quarter than was forecast at election time.

“Growth at 0.8 per cent was…much weaker than what was expected for the corresponding period in the pre-election fiscal outlook”.

He added: “Consumption, dwelling investment, new business investment export and the nominal GDP were all weaker in the March quarter than was anticipated by our predecessors in the Budget and by the departments at PFO.”

“Although the national accounts are notoriously backward looking, if you think about what has happened in the economy since the end of March: inflation is higher, we have had an interest rate hike, petrol prices are up 12 per cent since the end of April, wholesale electricity prices are up 237 per cent since the end of March, and gas more than 300 per cent higher than the average of the last few years.”

Robust in parts, resilient in parts, but with rising inflation, chickens coming home to roost, and a perfect storm of energy rate spikes.

Who is it that can’t manage money?

 

 

Source: Who is it that can’t manage money? – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Comment

Barnaby sounds worried – » The Australian Independent Media Network

For years, he has been doling out money hand over fist, often to people with connections to the Liberal or National parties, for water rights or dubious dams.

There was the Politics in the Pub night in Shepparton where Joyce promised irrigators more water from the Murray-Darling.

“We have taken water, put it back into agriculture, so we could look after you and make sure we don’t have the greenies running the show.”

He dismissed a Four Corners program about water theft as “them trying to take more water off you, trying to create a calamity.”

Never mind about fish kills and dried up rivers and towns with no drinking water.

Then there was ‘Watergate’ where Barnaby paid $80 million to a company with connections to Angus Taylor for worthless overland water flows.

Urannah dam is a whole other can of worms with hundreds of millions being funnelled to a company run by people with links to the LNP for a project facing serious questions about its economic benefit.

Likewise the Dungowan dam proposed for Barnaby’s own electorate, where he said he has “no real interest” in seeing the business case because “we’re not asking for a return”.

In March, Joyce promised $5.4 billion to build the Hells Gate dam on the Burdekin River despite there being no business case and no assessment of the environmental impacts yet.

Barnaby’s baby, the Inland Rail, also deserves scrutiny.

Source: Barnaby sounds worried – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Uninformed Comment

Peter Dutton 2.0 – The re-imagining – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Two idiots with no ideas of their own Andrew Bolt and Dutton chat on Sky News demanding “parents should decide the national curriculum”. So what do elected governments in a democracy get paid for?   Not a word on how that should be achieved if it wasn’t their job? Parents should stop work and homeschool and assess their kids any way they want one can only assume.

... Australia’s version of Sean Hannity, Andrew Bolt, Dutton revealed how that ‘soft’ side will dictate his behavior. Taking a leaf out of the playbook of the absurd Republicans such as Sarah Palin and Marjorie Taylor Greene he unveiled his first target in his quest to win back the sensible middle. That is to attack teachers using the treatment of LGBTIQA+ students as his weapon of choice. The assault in the US on these children is obscene and the right wing of our Liberal Party has its own history using teachers as the focus of their dog-whistle tactics.

Dutton…. With the enthusiastic encouragement of Bolt he made is initial gambit in presenting what will be his friendly, softer side. He firstly attacked those radical teachers who, as part of the Union movement, control the ALP, uninterested in the fact that the Teachers Union is not affiliated with the Australian Council of Trade Unions.

…. Dutton has embraced this right-wing diatribe questioning the values of the National Curriculum and parroting almost word for word Florida’s Republican Governor, Ron DeSanto’s views that parents are excluded from the teaching of their children. Dutton’s articulation of this right-wing position is that he ‘wants to shine a light on (the exclusion of parent’s rights) and let parents be the judges on what is being taught in schools’.

How far away are we from the condemnation of critical race theory? Not far when you consider the Ramsay Centre’s history curriculum based on the premise that the civilization of western values are superior to those in non-western cultures. Tony Abbott, after all, has insisted on the need for the Ramsay Centre to be explicitly “right-wing”.

Source: Peter Dutton 2.0 – The re-imagining – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Capitalism

Capitalists Want Your Retirement to Be Miserable

Finance’s conquest of the supports necessary to deal with the universal human fate of growing old spells certain disaster for our golden years. The retirement-financial complex should be fought tooth and claw.

Source: Capitalists Want Your Retirement to Be Miserable

Coal

It is now Cheaper to Switch from Coal directly to Wind and Solar than to Natural Gas

Another problem with “natural” gas as a bridge is that much gas production in the US is now via hydraulic fracturing or “fracking,” which releases large amounts of methane into the atmosphere. Methane does not stay in the atmosphere as long as CO2, but it is 25 times more potent as a heat-trapping gas. Our current methane crisis appears to derived from fracked wells that have been left uncapped.

Source: It is now Cheaper to Switch from Coal directly to Wind and Solar than to Natural Gas

Peter Dutton

Peter Dutton hints at controversial shift towards nuclear power

dutton nuclear

Dutton’s idea for the next century when the LNP will be dead and buried like its once proposed nuclear waste dump on Indigenous land. Meanwhile the rest of the world will be running on energy from the sun and the natural movement of the planet and mining of fossil fuels a forgotten nightmare.

New Opposition Leader Peter Dutton appears set to bring a debate about nuclear power back to the centre of Australian politics.

Source: Peter Dutton hints at controversial shift towards nuclear power

LNP, LNP Corruption, LNP Tactics

The Coalition didn’t do much on nuclear energy while in office. Why are they talking about it now? | Nuclear power | The Guardian

Hinkley Point C nuclear plant under construction in the UK

The con: Is the delay. It is in and money to be made in distracting the transition to a more rapid closure of the fossil fuel industry even if the case for renewable clean energy has been proved. If you can’t beat the argument’s direction of progress then delay it for as long as possible. Just as the LNP, IPA and Murdoch are a coalition for the defense of fossil fuels and will now continue to be, while declaring they are on board with reducing emissions and profiting from their efforts.

the Institute of Public Affairs, a rightwing group with a history of climate science denial that is supported by fossil fuel and mining interests, released what it described as polling showing people were open to the idea of nuclear energy. News Corp newspapers ran its arguments uncritically.

Why does the case for nuclear energy persist?

There is an assumption by some people, including Coalition MPs, that renewable energy cannot do the job, despite the expert advice that says otherwise. These critiques rarely address that advice head on.

But there is also a long history of nuclear energy being used as a delaying tactic for acting on climate change in Australia, including by fossil fuel interests.

Source: The Coalition didn’t do much on nuclear energy while in office. Why are they talking about it now? | Nuclear power | The Guardian

Climate Change

A huge Atlantic ocean current is slowing down. If it collapses, La Niña could become the norm for Australia

No one laughs at God in a hospital but the LNP and Sky News After Dark do. Medicine like Climate science isn’t an exact but the Deniers appreciate and take advice from doctors if and when it suits their interests. When it doesn’t they become anti-vaxxers pout scream but still expect hospitals and doctors to take care of them and their children. Hospitals are dealing with more Covid now than ever before and now they blame Dan Andrews for giving them what they wanted. They check the weather forecasts and act accordingly but laugh at Climate science simply because it suits their interests to demand it to be exact not skeptical the very nature of the inquiry, research and it’s resulting predictions.

Climate change is slowing down the conveyor belt of ocean currents that brings warm water from the tropics up to the North Atlantic. Our research, published today in Nature Climate Change, looks at the profound consequences to global climate if this Atlantic conveyor collapses entirely.

Source: A huge Atlantic ocean current is slowing down. If it collapses, La Niña could become the norm for Australia

Israel

Israel’s assaults on public health infrastructure amount to war crimes | The Electronic Intifada

A young girl is treated on a hospital bed

They shoot Palestinians, journalists bomb hospitals ensuring those they shoot have no chance of medical care, and then declare they are “defending themselves”. The world is shocked by Putin’s attack on Ukraine but say nothing about what Israel has been doing for decades and calls normal.

In May 2021, the Israeli military dropped hundreds of bombs on the Gaza Strip, destroying houses, schools, businesses, and health care facilities.

Perhaps nowhere was the human toll of that month more apparent than at al-Shifa hospital, the “only hospital in Gaza equipped for emergency assistance.”

Source: Israel’s assaults on public health infrastructure amount to war crimes | The Electronic Intifada

Israel

Israel’s peace camp is taking up bulldozers to fight the occupation

Activists from several left-wing Israeli groups gather for a photo in front of a bulldozer ahead of a protest against the Homesh outpost, May 28, 2022. (Oren Ziv)

Jews protest like Palestinians but don’t get shot why is that?

In contrast to the actions of the radical left in the West Bank, however, only Israelis participated in this protest. “It is clear that if Palestinians tried to do such a thing, they would encounter live ammunition,” said Mills. “We are taking advantage of our privilege here.”

Source: Israel’s peace camp is taking up bulldozers to fight the occupation

Fight against Fake News, Fighting Fake News

Old Dog Thought- It only took a decade for the LNP to have us slide down the International corruption and Democracy ladders to our lowest point

Fighting Fake News with REAL, 7/6/22 Truth In Humour; ABC, Who’s Peter Dutton?;Susan Ley; ICAC, Ruperts Helpers; Barnaby at the RSL;

Uncategorized

Don’t blame Labor for surging energy prices, blame Howard – » The Australian Independent Media Network

I believe it goes back to the Howard Government, when LNG exports first began. Howard gave the gas extractive industry a huge leg-up, by not requiring them to provide for any sort of strategic domestic reserve. They were basically granted a laissez faire, free and unfettered share of the market without accountability to the national interests at the domestic level.

People might screech and whine all they like about a two-week old government confronted by this event. All it means, though, is that regardless of the evidence, nothing will convince an idiot otherwise.

Source: Don’t blame Labor for surging energy prices, blame Howard – » The Australian Independent Media Network

LNP Economic Management

National accounts mark Coalition ‘F’ for Fail on the economy

LAST WEDNESDAY’S national accounts confirm what voters have apparently already decided — that the Morrison Government was not that great at economic management after all.

Source: National accounts mark Coalition ‘F’ for Fail on the economy

Informed Comment

It is hard to fathom what a hateful place Australia has become – » The Australian Independent Media Network

We have become a hateful place over the last decade – suspicious of each other, greedy, unprincipled, uncaring, focused only on what’s in it for me.

The election showed the country is ready for a reset. It will be up to all of us to be part of that. We can and must do better.

Source: It is hard to fathom what a hateful place Australia has become – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Pacific Region

Australian Diplomacy in the Pacific Is Driven by Self-Interest

Australia’s Labor government is promising Pacific countries a new and friendlier era in diplomatic relations. But without challenging the vested interests and right-wing politics that dominate the region, these promises are altogether empty.

The new opposition Liberal Party leader (and previous immigration minister) Peter Dutton was famously caught on camera joking about the threat of rising seas to Pacific Islands. This was just one example of the “disrespect” Penny Wong has repeatedly referred to on her Pacific tour.

But Australia’s neglect of its climate commitments and the existential threat it continues to pose to its neighbors is not fundamentally an attitude problem. It’s a problem of interests.

Source: Australian Diplomacy in the Pacific Is Driven by Self-Interest

Newscorp

Peter Van Onselen, who has a history of stalking women online, has attempted to intimidate Tegan George before her court hearing against Channel 10 which is a criminal offence – Kangaroo Court of Australia

Peter van Onselen and his supporters Kate McClymont, Neil McMahon and Samantha Maiden

Peter Van Onselen, who works for News Corp, Channel 10 and has a history of stalking women online, is now facing the possibility of being charged with contempt of court in journalist Tegan George’s legal proceedings against Channel 10.

Source: Peter Van Onselen, who has a history of stalking women online, has attempted to intimidate Tegan George before her court hearing against Channel 10 which is a criminal offence – Kangaroo Court of Australia

Uncategorized

New Veterans Affairs spokesman Barnaby Joyce begins mammoth tour of all 1,135 RSL front bars | The Shovel

In what he describes as a ‘fact-finding mission’, the Coalition’s new Veterans Affairs spokesperson Barnaby Joyce has set out on a three-year tour that will see him get to personally know the bar facilities of every RSL club in the country.

Source: New Veterans Affairs spokesman Barnaby Joyce begins mammoth tour of all 1,135 RSL front bars | The Shovel

Uncategorized

Friendlyjordies- Historical facts
drugs

Canada’s drug experiment could work here. This is why

The criminalisation of drugs creates stigma towards people who use them.

The Canadian government’s announcement that it will trial decriminalisation of drugs in British Columbia for three years may seem radical to some outside observers, but for those of us in the alcohol and other drug field, it’s been a long time coming.

Source: Canada’s drug experiment could work here. This is why