With much discussion recently over the Seven Mountains Mandate and Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate’s appointment of a “spiritual advisor”, the Pentecostal Church has crept its way into our governments and caused genuine concern to anyone believing in our country’s dire need for separation of church and state.
Source: AUDIO: David Donovan interview on Morrison’s Pentecostal politics
My thought for the day The real enemy of neoconservative politics in Australia is not Labor or democratic socialism. It is simply what Australians affectionally call – a fair go. ( John Lord )
Source: “If you want change, change the government” – » The Australian Independent Media Network
The verdict is that, for me, the current Coalition Government is the single worst government in living memory, possibly in our history of representative government.
From the top to the bottom they shred convention, they outsource our governing functions to multinationals, they have starved our elderly in Aged Care, they keep the unemployed poverty stricken, they are fanning the flames of conflict with China, they have destroyed our social fabric, and they run kangaroo courts. They have devalued our Australian identity by flouting international standards of behaviour, and by trying to be the Trumpian nightmare of the Pacific. There’s not a lot to like.
Scott Morrison does not deserve another term.
Source: Does Morrison deserve another term? – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Thirty-one retired judges have issued a pre-election plea to Australia’s political leaders to urgently establish a strong anti-corruption commission, warning it is critical in reversing the “serious erosion of our shared democratic principles”.
The election table is groaning under dead cats as the Liberals look for some traction on the dung heap they built and are rapidly sliding down. I don’t want to hear any more. Five more sleeps and we wake up to find out the result of what I think will be the most important election in my lifetime. A choice between profit or wages, between greed or saving the planet, between transparency or secrecy, between democracy or the cult of Morrison.
Source: “Labor haven’t released their costings” – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Apparently, Kooyong isn’t an important seat as far as Morrison is concerned. You won’t find him walking the streets there. It seems he would prefer Josh lost because history shows win or lose Morrison isn’t giving up his job without a fight.
He engineered his way into it and will need to be levered out. If numbers count Josh Frydenberg would easily have 66% hands up to see Morrison waved farewell by a Party who can’t stand him. So Morrison in order to stay would be only too pleased to see Josh gone. That’s why Howard and Costello have been walking the streets there, but not Morrison.
With just three days left before polling day, Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese will deliver last-ditch election pitches in key eastern state seats, after a day in which policy costings dominated debate.
Source: Morrison and Albanese target final key seats amid costings row
Private consultation was promised to be cheaper, more efficent, allowing money to be spent elsewhere.
Since the Coalition took office in 2013, contracts awarded to the big four accounting firms have risen by 209%, or by $70 million per year on average, from $309 million to $936 million in 2021.
Source: Coalition continues to spike consultancy costs to a billion – Michael West
Aran Mylvaganam, a Tamil refugee from Sri Lanka, came to Australia unaccompanied in 1997, at the age of 13. Having spent much of the last two years as a community and union organizer, he is now standing as a Senate candidate for the Victorian Socialists.
Source: Meet the Socialist Refugee Running for Australia’s Senate
Meanwhile for the sake of money the LNP, IPA, and News Corp deny the urgency just as they did the pandemic. They say we just have to live with it.
Climate scientists and concerned citizens are sounding the alarm as daily, weekly, and monthly records for atmospheric carbon dioxide levels continue to be shattered while the fossil fuel-powered capitalist economic system responsible for skyrocketing greenhouse gas pollution plows ahead.
Source: Earth’s Atmospheric CO2 Hasn’t Been This High In Millions of Years
U.S. journalists themselves are also working to change how outlets cover Israeli violence. Last year several of them – including reporters from The Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post and ABC News – issued an open letter calling on fellow journalists “to tell the full, contextualized truth without fear or favor, to recognize that obfuscating Israel’s oppression of Palestinians fails this industry’s own objectivity standards.” So far, over 500 journalists have signed on.
Accurate language in the reporting of Israeli-Palestinian violence is not only a concern for journalists’ credibility – it would also provide U.S. news consumers with a deeper understanding of the conditions on the ground and the deadly consequences.The Conversation
Source: How media reports of ‘Clashes’ mislead Americans about Israeli-Palestinian Violence
Democrats should make this an issue in the run-up to the 2022 midterms. While Republicans rail against the utterly fake danger to the United States of undocumented immigrants voting in American elections, Democrats should rail against the real danger to American democracy of foreign money affecting American elections through foreign investments in American corporations.
Source: How Russian Oligarchs, the Saudis, and China Are Swaying American Elections | The Smirking Chimp
The Man who talks in tongues.
When the fires came, he went to Hawaii. When there were floods, he called in the ADF, for photo opportunities. When a staffer was raped in his party’s Parliamentary offices, the only thing that got done quickly was getting the couch cleaned. As for an integrity commission, he promised it before the last election and has voted against one 31 times.
Some fixer.
Source: Mad ‘Bulldozer’ Morrison ─ can he fix it? No, he can’t
Morrison calls France, America and Albanese and all verified and consistent reports liars and fake news. Just how like TRUMP is he?
Mr Morrison denied the veracity of the report, saying the government “absolutely complied with all of the issues that needed to be addressed in forming that partnership”. “We understood absolutely what the requirements were and we met them 100 per cent,” he said on Monday.
The major difference is clear Morrison is offering no support, “use your own money and the banks”. It’s all private your money your risk your debt. We’ve seen the consequences of that in a fluctuating market. Debt enslaves the citizenry in a Capitalist Economy. Governments are regulators ensuring it’s not diminished for Housing, Education, Health, and even Welfare. They brought in Robodebt your mistake, not theirs. The LNP housing policy is all for the benefit of those with incomes up to $200,000 effectively cutting out those with the least income and creating a middle-class welfare system.
Labor is offering a publicly funded scheme and assistance as shareholders to partner the lowest income earners with qualifications. A far less inflationary and pork barrelling scheme than the LNP one.
So which has the most honest intent of helping it’s certainly not the LNP’s. So all Barnaby Joyce can do is play pitbull, and bark at Tanya Plibersek so the differences between the two policies remain unspoken about on Morning TV? When your not offering anything of benefit just bark and distract.
Sunrise presenter Natalie Barr intervened in a fiery on-air clash between Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce and Labor front-bencher Tanya Plibersek.
Source: Sunrise host blasts ’embarrassing’ trainwreck TV interview
Inspired by the Brian Houston’s leadership approach to Hillsong no doubt. He will be pushed to leave but 60% of the numbers are now required to force him out. Who will be their leader if Josh isn’t kept Peter Dutton ?
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has refused to say if he will stand down if he loses Saturday’s election after spending the day defending a controversial housing plan the day after launching it.
Source: Scott Morrison refuses to say if he’ll stand down if he loses election
1-11 boxes all to be numbered with your order of preference. Place your choice FIRST and the ASSHOLES LAST. It’s your VOTE AUSTRALIA make it WORTHWHILE!!!!
Government is about making decisions that impact the lives of Australians in a fair, equitable, transparent and compassionate manner. If you are over 18, voting is compulsory in Australia. So when you go to cast your vote this week, consider this: No political party controls your ‘preferences’, you do. Follow the instructions on the ballot papers you are given and you will cast a valid vote. If a Coalition Government is so bad why has Morrison been part of one for almost a decade and do we really want to have three more years of a Government that is more concerned with staying in power than demonstrating accountability and transparency? Maybe that’s one reason why many Australians have lost faith in the political system. What do you think?
Source: This election – you do have a say – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Millions of Filipino workers travel abroad each year to labor in dangerous, exhausting, and unregulated conditions. Scattered throughout the world, these hyperexploited workers have been delivered by the Philippine state to serve the needs of foreign powers.
Source: How Migrant Workers From the Philippines Power Modern Capitalism
Morrison introduced the “efficiency dividend” a $1Bn cut to the ABC almost a decade ago when “No cuts” to the ABC were a promised LNP policy. That promise isn’t even an Oxymoron its a simple straight-out lie and a 1000 cuts were always planned. The “efficiency dividend” was a funding cut by another name. But it’s an illegal one at that and goes against the intended grain of the ABC as a legally constituted Independent Statutory Body, not one to be interfered with by any government let alone abused, as has been the case by the series of LNP governments this past decade. In effect neutering the constitutionally formulated body and our Democracy one and the same time. Yes the LNP has taxed us by stealth all these years at a greater rate than the ALP.
The government will increase the efficiency dividend, which cuts public sector spending, to 2 per cent The Coalition says the move will raise $2 billion in revenue Labor will release its policy costings on Thursday
Source: Cuts to public sector spending underpin Coalition’s forecast budget improvement – ABC News
At least four major shootings took place this past weekend, leaving dozens injured and thirteen dead in four cities across the country.
Source: Americans reeling after major shootings rock 4 U.S. cities in 1 weekend | Salon.com
Fox avoids systemic dysfunction it’s always an individual problem that emerges from absolutely nowhere other than La La Land but definitely not from a dysfunctional social environment. Nature’s defects can’t be controlled because like evolution Social Darwinism has brought about the best society has to offer and shit happens! Social change is at best incremental and never revolutionary and needs to be controlled. Power wealth and privilege are in the main deserved is the ideology sold and they must be protected at all cost.
By David — May 16, 2022 Fox News correspondent Nate Foy suggested that a man allegedly planned out a racist shooting rampage in Buffalo, NY because he had “mental health” problems.
Source: Fox Focuses On Buffalo Shooter’s ‘Mental Health,’ Not Racism | Crooks and Liars
Australia has a bipartisan gun control policy though one wonders if it will last as there are minorities that want to see it relaxed if not removed. We also have compulsory voting that suggests a majority-ruled Democracy but it fails to be reflected in our minority lead governments. Then the art of negotiation comes into play and history shows that the ALP is far better when one counts the number of bills passed. It’s not reflected in the job being done by the LNP, IPA, and Murdoch alliance. Their focus has been working on staying in power and so much money is spent on that alone that social progress and government services get left behind. When the front pages of Murdoch and the mainstream private media aren’t News or information and our public broadcaster the ABC has been reduced to a shadow of itself Democracy becomes a shadow of itself and politics dominates and narrows government service.
In the face of such dark events and horrific loss of life, it’s important to emphasize that we can and must do better as a nation. The work extends from battling against hateful political extremism and strengthening gun laws to taking greater action in communities throughout the country to stop mass shootings before they happen.
Source: Violent Far-Right Extremism Is Fueling Mass Shootings in America – Mother Jones
Putin backs off for now but wait for the American Midterms!
Vladimir Putin has appeared to climb down from Russia’s objections to Sweden and Finland joining NATO, saying Moscow had no issues with them entering the US-led military alliance they now aim to join in reaction to his invasion of Ukraine.
Source: Russia-Ukraine war: Sweden, Finland set to join NATO as Vladimir Putin appears to back off threats
In his pitch for re-election, Scott Morrison is hammering several talking points that the facts overwhelmingly refute, as Alan Austin reports.
Source: Scott Morrison has ten key election messages — nine are not true
The need for strong action on the climate and environment crisis has never been more pressing, and some of the solutions can only be advanced by politicians. Both sides should be tackling the issue with more urgency, but it’s clear, as a group of scientists pointed out in The Age on Saturday, that between the two major parties, Labor’s policy is significantly better than the government’s.
Source: Election 2022: Labor’s climate change policy easily beats Coalition’s
Mr Frydenberg’s claim is misleading.
The first reason is that the figures the Treasurer has quoted are from different years. Australia is sourced to 2020, New Zealand and Canada to 2019 and the OECD to 2018.
This inconsistency is particularly problematic as emissions figures to 2020 include large reductions as a result of the pandemic, and not government policy, while prior years do not.
Figures for 2020 are available for New Zealand, Canada and 32 of 38 OECD countries.
An unholy alliance of carbon farmers and Big Gas lobbyists are quietly shaping Australia’s emissions reduction framework to maximise their take of taxpayer money while increasing emissions as much as possible. Callum Foote follows the money.
Summarising Morrison
Leaving aside everything that they’ve done or haven’t done, the Liberals have a pretty impressive pitch which is basically just that: Leave aside everything we’ve done or haven’t done and re-elect us because we can change, but don’t elect Labor because change would be risky at a time like this.
19h ·
We are live hearing from Kerry O’Brien about the issues at stake for the ABC. Find out from Michelle Rowland, the Shadow Minister for Communications, what policies Labor will implement for the ABC if it wins government.
If there’s a hung parliament, will the Greens and the Independents support the ABC in their negotiations? Sarah Hanson-Young, the Communications spokesperson for the Greens and Independent member for Warringah, Zali Steggall, will outline their positions. Margaret Reynolds, the national President of ABC Friends will address the event by video.
An invitation was also sent to the Minister for Communications, Paul Fletcher.
It might also be seen as a push privately directed by an organized privileged medical group for the state to intervene on their behalf against unwanted truths being revealed. It’s certainly not an action or decision seen handed down to protect unions. Our AG Michaela Cash had the Federal Police raid Media and union offices without any permission in our courts. The Government has been doing much the same things for the past decade in secret to protect themselves.
Former Fairfax Media chief executive Greg Hywood and high-profile investigative journalists Hedley Thomas and Nick McKenzie slammed a judgment forcing The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and 60 Minutes to hand over draft copies of an upcoming television program and newspaper investigation into the cosmetic surgery industry, arguing the ruling would be detrimental to public interest journalism if it became commonplace.
Source: Court order could have chilling effect on Australian journalism
The history of the IPA is curious. Many of the key players in its early years are either still around, or their children are. Its ideas haven’t really evolved much, but if you want to characterise them, they are crudely elitist, ideologically stunted, narrow-minded, science-phobic, greedy, and in most cases, fully imported. For a charity that pays no tax, they have very few clients in need.
The only reason they are of any interest to anyone is that they have captured the Federal Government, by stealth, and their inane policies are the reason this country is so conspicuously underachieving.
There is not one thinker of note amongst its membership. Some of the current members appear to be the offspring of former members; a sort of self-replicating supply of not-so-bright apparatchiks. If you are searching for the reason behind the diminishing sense of pride attached to being Australian, the IPA is to blame.
For a roll-call, these are some of the current members of the IPA, or their affiliates; Institute for Progress (AIP), Australian Taxation Alliance (ATA), who are current, or recent members of the current Parliament: Abetz, Birmingham, Cash, Christensen, Cormann, Evans, Fletcher, Frydenberg, Hawke, Hunt, McGrath, Morrison, Paterson, Porter, Roberts, Ryan, Stoker, Dean Smith, Tony Smith, Tehan, Tudge, and Tim Wilson.
All part of the global Atlas Network. That would be where we get the passion for no minimum wage, and no health care. Past members include Abbott, Howard, and let us never forget that our current PM is a fervent member.
They have been effectively bought by a handful of robber barons, who pay no taxes, and have no commitment to what was, twenty years ago, a democracy to be proud of.
Source: The IPA has captured our government – » The Australian Independent Media Network
News Corpse’s business model is that of a paid influencer, not as a News organization. If the ALP wins nothing will change. However, the question of selling a fake product is rarely addressed other than by private defamation action. News isn’t opinion! Yet opinion is constantly on the front pages of News Corp mastheads. Yet, the Herald Sun isn’t sold as an “Opinion Paper”. Their impotence will be felt on their bottom line and editors might be sacked. However, their direction won’t change because they market themselves to those with the money and will continue to do so and they aren’t on the Left of the political spectrum. They will continue to promote fake news and opinion rather than the product they duplicitously promise but never deliver.They are the Peter Foster of Australia’s media without the record of arrests.
News Corporation’s dominance, and its bias, do matter. But they matter less than they used to. The evidence shows naked campaigning and biased reporting undermines trust, and that undermines the purpose of the exercise.
Source: Election 2022: Will News Corp’s impotence be exposed?
In Australia, Murdoch allows Andrew Bolt to promote violence. He wrote that he wished young white Christians had the same commitment the Barcelona bombers had in fighting for their beliefs, to their deaths. In fact,Bolt called Australian youth “gutless” for their lack of fight. If that wasn’t a clarion call to violence what is? Had a Muslim done the same or an Indigenous Australian they’d have been arrested for incitement.
We saw the expression on Bolt’s face when two pranksters glittered him. It was full of potential GBH on Bolt’s part while a joke on the two young men trying to escape his reaction. Yet, the story was spun to make Bolt look like the hero/victim crying ANTFA ANTIFA in his defense. Who and where is that mysterious “terrorist” organization ANTIFA today that organization that Bolt couldn’t identify the leaders of back then, but said was a fully-fledged “organization” like ISIS among us.
He’s been little more than Newscorp’s foghorn blowhard influencer, and recruiter for the Australian Right. Just as Tucker Carlson is at Head Office Fox News, Fox Corp in America. This shooting in Buffalo had the same characteristics as the NZ massacre where the shooter’s hero was Brett Cotteral a regular guest on Andrew Bolt’s shows and promoted by him as a great modern-day Australian patriot.
Carlson, meanwhile, has been at the forefront of popularizing various often contradictory conspiracy theories, mostly intended to portray the Jan. 6 insurrectionists as noble patriots and lambaste any Republican who dares say otherwise. While these GOP leaders and media personalities are generally careful to avoid direct calls for violence, their overall message of sympathy and support for right-wing terrorism is undeniable. So Saturday’s mass shooting in Buffalo, while horrifying, is really no surprise.
In Australia, Andrew Bolt, convicted racial vilifier, has been preaching that the BLM is a “racist movement”. Racial against whites and intent on their replacement. Straight from the bible of America’s white racist ultr-right
The LNP has adopted and politicized it to such an extent that its policies have turned to the restriction of historical facts that can be taught in our schools and the creation of degrees taught in universities. Any demand for structural inclusion by showing up the level of exclusion of people of color is now deemed revolutionary and divisive and called Cultural Replacement Theory or the (CRT) conspiracy. It’s deemed as dangerous as Marxism once was by the far right-wing media along with the demands of other like-minded groups that threaten power, privilege and the current order of things. By demanding equality, and justice and spotlighting the facts of and methods adopted to exclude people of color from opportunities afforded whites .
Eleven of the people he shot were Black, and two were white. As the manifesto he left behind makes clear, this was fully intentional. The first listed goal in his manifesto was to “kill as many blacks as possible”.
The assassination of Abu Akleh places an onerous responsibility on the shoulders of journalists armed with their pens and cameras to not flinch in the face of brutal suppression.
Her untimely death has allowed the world to witness a colonial settler regime that, to date, has escaped consequences for its gross violations and abuses of fundamental human rights.
Unless this changes, expect Israel’s illegal occupation and war crimes to continue unabated. The agency of change possessed by media activists must thus be utilised to the optimum.
Source: Shireen Abu Akleh Exemplified Speaking Truth to Power
The Israeli military’s killing of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh is simply a more flagrant display of commonplace Israeli assaults on Palestinians. The only way to truly end the impunity is to cut off US funding.
Source: Israel Killed Al Jazeera Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. It Must Be Held Accountable.
Kicked out of China Murdoch wants in on the East as well. So Russia appears to be his target for the New World Media Order. Murdoch has adopted Steve Bannon’s Breitbart model of spreading Fake News anywhere and everywhere and taken control of cash for comment business in the global confusion and chaos he’s helped create. Why not support Putin and attract ratings to sell influence on behalf of those with money?
Two Fox News anchors interviewing the Finnish ambassador to the United States on Thursday seemed to be trying to discourage the country from joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization following Finland’s announcement that it will pursue membership. The Fox interview, during which the anchors repeatedly suggested the action will have only negative consequences for Finland, follows years of pro-Russia coverage by Fox, which continued even after Russia’s unprovoked and illegal invasion of Ukraine.
NATO’s secretary general says Vladimir Putin’s invasion has not gone to plan and Ukraine “can win this war” as new intelligence indicated Russia may have lost one third of the force it sent to the country. Speaking after a meeting of NATO foreign ministers, Jens Stoltenberg said Russia’s military was not achieving “its strategic objectives”. “They failed to take Kyiv, they are pulling back from around Kharkiv, their major offensive in Donbas has stalled,” said Mr Stoltenberg. “Ukraine can win this war.”
Source: Russia may have lost a third of its troops: British intelligence
Australia’s reputation was diplomatically trashed by Morrison’s sting. He lied to both the French,and the Americans by not doing what he had promised while backstabbing Albanese. All in all, he singlehandedly compromised the integrity and reputation of our ADF. All of his duplicitous actions risked our National Security for what? His own personal interest, his entrenchment, and praise. Now he’s even losing that National Security political debate he held to be so precious because he’s the one still lying about what he actually did. The term National Security has actually dissolved to become Morrison Security.
Scott Morrison’s efforts by stealth to secure the AUKUS deal had global ramifications, with the French president enraged and the US president blindsided.
Source: AUKUS deal: duplicity and deception behind Australia-UK nuclear submarine alliance
Morrison’s own behavior guarantees he non pursuit of an ICAC
The establishment of a federal anti-corruption commission is shaping up to be a key election issue.
Source: Coalition runs away from federal ICAC as calls hit fever pitch
The war over wages has become central to public debate in the lead-up to the Federal Election, with Albanese advocating real wages could rise alongside productivity growth, writes Graham White.
Source: Claims that minimum wage rise risks ‘runaway’ inflation bogus
They are all about to benefit from stage 3 tax cuts the rest of will be left to watch.
It was pointed out, too, that politicians’ salaries have not suffered from the near-decade of wage stagnation that has afflicted the rest of us. Their pay has gone up 30 per cent over the past 10 years. The annual base rate for a backbencher is now $211,250 (ministers and shadows get more), and the prime minister’s salary is $550,000.
Morrison, his media backers and the business lobby were horrified at the thought that the wages of the poorest workers should meet inflation – which is to say, workers should not take a pay cut.
“Morrison supports decline in living standards” should have been the headline
With prominent independents creating unusual contests in some seats, voters may be confused about how to allocate preferences. But there is a simple solution
Vote RYAN 1, and the LNP 11, UAP 10. The rest is yours to choose. Vote LNP 6 above the Line in the Senate
Political parties are free to say what they like, but it is their actions that define them. No amount of flowery rhetoric can hide the true nature of a political party, which is defined by its policies. The current Australian government may have flowery rhetoric in its beliefs, but, as I hope I have shown here, their actions and policies tell a different story.
Under threat from Independent candidates, so-called Liberal moderates have chosen a new and rather extraordinary campaign pitch – if we want action on climate change or protection of gay rights or gender equity, we need to send more moderate Liberal MPs to Canberra.
We tried that before and the Liberals themselves booted them out.
Malcolm Turnbull had his leadership rolled in 2009 over action on climate change and again in 2018 for the same reason. Moderate Julie Bishop’s long service as deputy leader meant nothing to the big swinging dicks who apparently hold sway in the party.
Kelly O’Dwyer, Craig Laundy, Jane Prentice, George Brandis, Arthur Sinodinis, Christopher Pyne, Sharman Stone, Judi Moylan, Sue Boyce, Judith Troeth, John Alexander, Scott Ryan and Tony Smith – all gone.
Here’s a tip for the so-called moderates – if you, like the rest of us, think your party is going in the wrong direction, change parties. Or go teal next time.
Source: The extraordinary plea from Liberal moderates – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Hating Barnaby Hating Scott Hating Barnaby Hating….
In campaign debates, in radio stations, television studios, people to people encounters all over the nation, the name Barnaby Joyce comes up as the biggest brake on Australia making a greater commitment to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions. Does the leader of the National Party deserve the brickbats? Maybe we should look to our backyards, writes Mark Sawyer.
Source: Hating Barnaby Joyce: is it him, or is it us? – Michael West
Fugitive Australian journalist Shane Dowling (me) has been on the run since the 3rd of September 2021, in Queensland, from an arrest warrant issued by Justice Kelly Rees in the NSW Supreme Court on behalf of Kerry Stokes’ Seven Network and Seven West Media. Given that, it should be no surprise that Australia has dropped from #25 to #39 in just 12 months on the World Press Freedom Index.
olddogthoughts 
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