Empowered by the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling allowing unlimited independent financial contributions to support political campaigns, outside spending during the current election cycle has hit a record $1 billion, according to a report published Thursday by the watchdog group OpenSecrets.
‘Turning Into the Super PAC Election’: Outside Spending Tops $1 Billion for 2024
If the UK had preferential voting as we have, the result would have been much closer.
The BLP increased its vote by only 2% and received a total vote lower than the Jeremy Corbyn-led BLP in 2017 and 2019.
Starmer also had a poor result in his own electorate.
Like Albanese, Starmer was wedged on AUKUS and supports this absurdity.
Voters in both the UK and Australia are turning away from the tired old two party system.
One striking feature of the election was the collapse of the Tory vote by 24%. It confirms the old adage that Oppositions seldom win elections. It is Governments that lose them, as happened in Australia at the last election.
UK voters rejected the Conservatives for numerous reasons, but they were lukewarm about Labour.
This voter turn off was also reflected in the low voter turnout which at 59% was the lowest in 20 years and the second lowest since 1885.
“Do I really want to, contribute to Biden being our nominee? And I struggled, because it’s — do I want to vote for someone who’s supporting a genocide? No.”
Whether It’s Biden or Someone Else, Gaza Remains Top Priority for “Uncommitted” Voters
The question pundits always ask following a leadership debate – who won?! – cannot reasonably be asked about today’s 2024
Prem Thakker Trump’s racist remarks toward migrants and Palestinians was met with little more than “thank you, President Trump.”
Trump Used “Palestinian” as a Slur. Biden and Debate Moderators Didn’t Say a Word.
We’ve had the ‘other‘ budget, the ‘dirty‘ budget, and the ‘inflation-fighting‘ budget, but with a budget surplus of $9.3B, where are the subsidies for households, particularly low-income and rentals to electrify with rooftop solar, air, conditioners for heating and cooling and to get rid of our gas stoves?
Source: Brown Budget glosses over climate as temperatures rise, ice melts – Michael West
Not that Israeli society is currently an exemplar of social cohesion in comparison. Netanyahu’s fascistic coalition is well aware of the deep and deepening detestation with which it is viewed by a significant proportion of its own people. This after six months of unrelenting military assault that has failed to achieve the destruction of Hamas and/or the release of the remaining Israeli captives in Gaza.
Even the 2.5% of the global oil and gas industry’s capital spending currently investing in renewable energy is resented by shareholders. BP was threatened by a hedge fund for depressing its share price by this “irrational” spending.
Lacking any moral framework, this shareholder model demands government regulation to behave responsibly.
It is likely that a Trump victory at the end of this year will leave one of the world’s largest economies expanding its fossil fuel sector, cutting back every limit on carbon energy and stripping incentives promoting clean energy. Any regulation mitigating the immorality of shareholder capitalism will be stripped away. It is possible that China or India might step into a gap left on the global stage by America, but the damage to international cooperation will be extensive.
The world’s fate might rest on this election.
Many well-intentioned Americans are laboring to convince themselves and their neighbors that Biden-Trump 2.0 is something more than a depressing rerun: It’s also, yet again — and for perhaps the third time — a decisive showdown between fascism and democracy. Both things may be true, and there’s no doubt that this election could have dramatic real-world consequences. But to the rest of the world, it looks more like a dismal sideshow, and the notion that it will determine the planet’s future looks like another narcissistic Yank delusion: Our blind, bumbling Colossus will continue its decline, no matter which of the old guys wins.
Source: America in 2024: Blind, blundering Colossus on a downward slide | Salon.com
Elections in the world’s largest democracies in 2024 will shape the future of the world for years to come, Alan Austin reports.
OBSERVERS CONCERNED about global democracy are now fidgeting nervously at the prospect of American voters abandoning their 235-year history of “We the people” in favour of a dictatorship ruled by Donald Trump. Several other electoral contests are generating similar apprehension.
Source: 2024: A year when Trump (and others) will test the resilience of global democracy
In 1987, then-Prime Minister Bob Hawke pledged that “by 1990, no Australian child will be living in poverty”.
Hewson’s final paragraph is:
In commenting on the release of the UN report, Secretary-General António Guterres said 2024 would be a “tough” year, but “it must be the year that we break out of this quagmire”. This should certainly be the case for Australia. It is time to address the hollowness and inadequacy of our democracy and its debate.
How true.
Source: Breaking out of the Quagmire – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Trump’s belligerent rhetoric merges a vocabulary of dehumanization with a language of racial cleansing and repeated threats of violence. He claims that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country,” states that “the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff deserves to be executed, and to discourage shoplifters urges police officers to shoot them. Running an openly authoritarian political campaign, Trump unapologetically states, with a smirk on his face, that he wants to be a dictator. For the far-right and MAGA politicians, fascist politics is now displayed and enacted as a badge of honor.
Source: The politics of emergency time and the emerging threat of fascism – Pearls and Irritations
Given the fact that the US in 2024 has been openly enabling genocide, vetoing the UN, and giving the nod to Bibi to illegally take over Palestine, and it’s all over the internet, why keep Julian Assange locked up? There are no “secrets” Joe. There is Trump and certainly not an effen secret anymore but the Israelis know they have his support. So let Assange go and win some brownie points and deal with AIPAC and let the non Zionist Jews rally in your favour. Become what America pretends to be for once a liberating force
The Russians, Israelis, and Nth Koreans are working their tits off for Trump. Biden is working to unite the English-speaking world against the Chinese and we can see it all. Worst of all we are forced to listen to the bullshit. Listen and watch, watch corporate and right-wing media battle with Rupert Murdoch for any excess gravy flow there is from the least progressive at the very top. After all 2024 is an election year and lobbyists are hard at work making more promises but non in the interests of any Common Good
In terms of posterity’s calling, there are surely fewer better things at this point for a US president nearing mental oblivion to do, or a Tory government peering at electoral termination to facilitate, than the release of Assange. At the very least, it would show a grudging acknowledgment that the fourth estate, watchful of government’s egregious abuses, is no corpse, but a vital, thriving necessity.
Every nation, regardless of its size or power, must step up to the plate and share the burden of deconstructing the MIC.
In all this excitement about the Conservatives possibly winning the next election, one thing seems to have escaped the minds of those supporting this idea: When in the hurly burly of an election campaign, the electorate is reminded of the sins of the National and Liberal parties over nine and a bit years, the hairs on the ends of voter’s heads will stand on end. Will they then feel inclined toward a repeat dose of the same medicine?
Source: 2024: A Year of Change for Labor – » The Australian Independent Media Network
“Listen you Motherfuckers the Head Warden of Camp Gaza is speaking”
“Gaza residents are Palestinian, therefore Palestinian bodies will be in charge, with the condition that there will be no hostile actions or threats against the State of Israel,” Gallant’s office said in a statement on Thursday (local time).
Biden is right to campaign on the threat Trump represents. Just don’t think his base sticks with him because they don’t understand that threat. They understand. Maybe better than anyone else.
Source: Trump’s threat to democracy is the heart of Biden’s campaign—and Trump’s
When Peter Dutton said the quiet bit out loud about how he wasn’t interested in making it easy for Labor to govern, surely that should have been the signal that he’s not interested in working with them to improve conditions for all Australians by mitigating their poor policy. In other words, Dutton was saying that he wants to screw things up as badly as he can in order to improve his chances of being elected. While he may not be the first Opposition leader to think that way, there’s a danger with making it too obvious. You might as well say, “Yes well, this is a great idea and very much needed but we’re going to try and block it because it might make the government too popular!”
Source: Why Rupert Murdoch Is Not The Devil… – » The Australian Independent Media Network
An analysis of the “voluntary” displacement of the Gaza Strip
Senior Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, are again publicly advocating the ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Strip. Their proposals are being presented as voluntary emigration schemes, in which Israel is merely playing the role of Good Samaritan, selflessly mediating with foreign governments to find new homes for destitute and desperate Palestinians. But it is ethnic cleansing all the same.
“Alarm bells should have started ringing in early November when US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other Western politicians began insisting there could be “no forcible displacement of Palestinians from Gaza”. Rather than rejecting any mass removal of Palestinians, Blinken and colleagues objected only to optically challenging expulsions at gunpoint. The option of “voluntary” displacement by leaving residents of the Gaza Strip with no choice but departure was pointedly left open.
While ethnic cleansing has been intrinsic to Zionist/Israeli ideology and practice from the very outset, it also has a flip side: the 1948 expulsion of the Palestinians expanded what had been a conflict between the Zionist movement and the Palestinians into a regional, Arab-Israeli one. The second Nakba Israel is currently inflicting on the Gaza Strip similarly appears well on its way to instigating the renewal of hostilities across the Middle East.
Source: Mouin Rabbani: Netanyahu and Senior Israeli Officials Advocate ‘Voluntary’ Ethnic Cleansing of Gaza
By Jessica Genauer, Flinders University | – (The Conversation) – Sadly, 2023 has been a violent one on the global stage. War broke out between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, leading to the deaths of thousands of Palestinians and hundreds of Israelis, including many children on both sides. And the bitter war between Russia and Ukraine continued with no end in sight. As a result of the focus on these two conflicts, other countries have dropped off the radar for many people. Some of these nations have been dealing with simmering unrest, however, which could erupt in 2024 and seize
Switching to Russian Rule
Washington: Since beginning his 2024 presidential campaign, Donald Trump has said the “termination” of the Constitution would have been justified to overturn the 2020 election; told followers, “I am your retribution”; and vowed to use the Justice Department to prosecute his adversaries – starting with US President Joe Biden and his family.
Beneath these public threats is a series of plans by Trump and his allies that would upend core elements of American governance, democracy, foreign policy and the rule of law if he regained the White House.
Source: US presidential election: How Donald Trump plans to wield power if he wins back White House
When people talk about genocide in Gaza, they’re not just talking about the thousands of civilians who’ve been killed in Israeli airstrikes. The policies Israel has been deliberately putting in place have the potential to kill many, many more people than that in the coming months, and if Netanyahu and his goons get their way, that’s exactly what will happen.
Source: Gaza is deliberately being made uninhabitable – Pearls and Irritations
The next U.S. presidential election is almost exactly one year from now. All of us have a moral duty to do everything we can — non-violently — to ensure that our democracy endures.
Source: Putin, Trump, Netanyahu, Johnson: The Neo-Fascist Spectrum | The Smirking Chimp
It’s going to be huuuge. The election campaign in the US of A, next year, will be bigger than Ben Hur. However, I am going to go out on a limb and suggest that many commentators are talking shit.
Trump is bringing back 2016 in 2024 and recycling that fence that Mexico didn’t pay for.
In his 2024 run, Donald Trump is tripling down on his “Muslim ban” — and making Islamophobia explicit.
Source: Trump “Muslim Ban” Returns for 2024 Presidential Election
Are we about to see another massive campaign of highly targeted lies — amplified by foreign, malicious actors — designed to put Donald Trump back in the White House and Republicans in charge of Congress?
Source: How Trump, Putin and the GOP Plan To Rig the 2024 Election | The Smirking Chimp
Trump didn’t do this alone he galvanized the profit-seeking media to obliterate truth in America. Behind the scenes Trump talks to the top end of town asking for $$ and in public he does the same asking for nickel and dime donations from working Americans claiming to be the victim of a Democrat-run bureaucracy and Judicial system. One he crafted and controlled federally while President. If money is so easily laundered in America foreign interference in the race for the top job will be simple. After all, did the Paradise Papers stop money laundering, or tax evasion in any way?
Chaos is not just Trump’s playground but his weapon against Democracy. As long as the media and he are mutual benefactors in rejecting the truth Trump has more than a chance to win. Murdoch’s media Fox News is still his prime promoter.
“The moment you stop seeking the truth and start rejecting it, actively, that’s the moment when you lose this wonderful system of government, and we are there right now.
” Luntz said Trump was weaponising the various court proceedings against him to fashion himself as being persecuted rather than prosecuted.
“He actually knows the language of victimisation better than any politician I’ve seen anywhere across the globe, and he uses it effectively and has caused people to rally around him.
Source: 2024 US election: Trump could win again says pollster Frank Luntz
The more Republican opponents Trump has the better for him. He could sponsor more himself to win the Republican nomination or even not turn up.
Republicans once warned about a repeat of 2016, when the sprawling GOP field failed to coalesce around a Trump alternative, giving him the nomination. But much of the urgency that once existed among Trump’s GOP rivals to limit the field has faded in recent months.
Source: Trump’s 2024 Calculus: The More GOP Rivals, The Better For Him | HuffPost Latest News
For Republican Party elected officials and leaders, it’s time to stop being the nits at the poker table. Trump no longer holds the cards. His bluffing days should be over.
Despite Donald Trump facing a slew of legal problems, there is still a slight chance of the former President posing a threat to American democracy, writes George Grundy.
The worm has turned
“It is interesting to see these numbers. Trump has a lot to overcome here, he’s got headwinds now, and he is not doing himself favors when he announces a big announcement and the announcement is he is releasing digital trading cards that only enrich him, not the campaign, it wasn’t even for the campaign,” Daily Caller Editorial Director Vince Coglianese told “Fox News Sunday” host Shannon Bream about polling numbers showing 39% of people were hoping for Trump to run again, while 58% didn’t want to see Trump run.
Source: ‘A Lot To Overcome’: Daily Caller Editor Reacts To Trump 2024 | The Daily Caller
…it’s his future plans for a would-be second term that should scare the ever-loving shit out of everyone in this country, and then make them shit some more.
Source: Trump’s Authoritarian Plans for a Second Term Should Scare the Crap Out of You | Vanity Fair
All indications are that Trump is going to cast the midterm elections as a referendum on himself rather than on Biden. That’s hardly surprising, given Trump’s sociopathic ego. He cast his entire presidency as a referendum on himself.
Source: How Trump Might Save the Democrats | The Smirking Chimp
By Ad astra Have you ever felt overtaken by the velocity of world events? Have your ever felt overwhelmed by the pace of change? Have you ever wondered what the world will be like in Twenty Twenty-Four, forty years after George Orwell’s prophetic novel Nineteen Eighty-Four? Studying the facts and contemplating what the world will…
Source: Twenty Twenty-Four – our Orwellian destiny? – » The Australian Independent Media Network
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