The big four consulting firms have increased their federal business by 400 per cent over a decade while donating steadily to the major political parties that shape big decisions on government projects.
Source: Big four consultancy contracts blow out to $1.4 billion
Australians under 40 face an uncertain future and lower living standards than their parents or grandparents enjoyed. To bring us back from the brink, Australia needs to end the neoliberal consensus.
Source: Australians Under 40 Must End Neoliberalism for Good
The Constitutional Expert Group, appointed to advise on the proposed Voice to Parliament referendum, has concluded that the “draft amendment is constitutionally sound” and does not amount to a “veto” power or provide anyone with “special rights”.
How does this fit into the current debate?
Source: An Indigenous Voice to Parliament will not give ‘special rights’ or create a veto
Here’s a reason not to “take the money” If Trump had not been the failed businessman he is, he’d have $12 B just from investing his father’s gift conservatively when he first started. Today he has $2B and 4000 court cases in his wake. Hardly a person to take business advice from.
‘If you don’t take the money now, you will get nothing after the merger takes place, and only say how smart the original signees were.’ Donald Trump
But in more recent years I’ve come around. As America has moved closer to being an oligarchy — with staggering inequalities of income, wealth, and power not seen in over a century — and closer to Trumpian neofascism (the two moves are connected), “It’s a Wonderful Life” speaks to what’s gone wrong and what must be done to make it right.
Soon after “It’s a Wonderful Life” was released, the FBI considered it evidence of Communist Party infiltration of the film industry. The FBI’s Los Angeles field office — using a report by an ad-hoc group that included Fountainhead writer and future Trump pin-up girl Ayn Rand — warned that the movie represented “rather obvious attempts to discredit bankers by casting Lionel Barrymore as a ‘scrooge-type’ so that he would be the most hated man in the picture.” The movie “deliberately maligned the upper class, attempting to show the people who had money were mean and despicable characters. This … is a common trick used by Communists.”
The FBI report compared “It’s a Wonderful Life” to a Soviet film, and alleged that Frank Capra was “associated with left-wing groups” and that screenwriters Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett were “very close to known Communists.”
This was all rubbish, of course — and a prelude to the Red Scare led by Republican Senator Joe McCarthy of Wisconsin, who launched a series of highly publicized probes into alleged Communist penetration of Hollywood, the State Department, and even the US Army.
The movie was also prelude to modern Republican ideology. Since Ronald Reagan, Republicans have used Potter-like social Darwinism to justify everything tax cuts for the wealthy, union-busting, and cutbacks in social safety nets. Rand herself became a hero to many in the Trump administration.
Julian Assange a Wakley Award winning journalist not even living in the US published the truth that has never killed anyone and has been declared a traitor by the United States. Jim Jordan incited and conspired Jan 6th with a cabal, a ring of others to overthrow the duly elected government and continues to do so. America is truley an example of a broken Democracy.
The message from Schmitz that Jordan forwarded was false and misleading, and he sent it with the purpose of obstructing the Congress from certifying the election. So maybe Kirschner has a point. We know that Jordan talked with Trump on January 6. If we ever find out what he said, it could be a basis for a charge of conspiracy sedition.
My thought for the day The left of politics is concerned with people who cannot help themselves. The right is concerned with those who can. (John Lord )
Source: This might help Labor win the ‘must win’ election – » The Australian Independent Media Network
New South Wales “urgently” needs to implement a “ring of steel” around Sydney to stop the Delta variant spreading across the country, epidemiologists have warned. So far, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Prime Minister Scott Morrison have both rejected calls to ring-fence Sydney.
Source: Nation at risk without ‘ring of steel’ around Sydney, epidemiologists warn
Overwhelmingly, Australia’s leading economists want the budget to boost social housing and the JobSeeker unemployment benefit rather than bring forward personal income tax cuts.
Top economists back boosts to JobSeeker and social housing over tax cuts in pre-budget poll
key points:
Medical experts said influenza spikes, which occurred this year in NSW, would strain hospitals
Both the flu and COVID-19 shared identical symptoms and would frustrate data-collection for both
Evidence from China and Italy showed lockdowns needed to be enforced for several monthsNews Corp says otherwise demanding we go back to work( ODT)
People have a tendency to expect history to repeat itself. Of course, it often does, but that doesn’t suit the point I’m making, so I’ll pretend I’m Tony Abbott and just ignore history so that I can make my point.
As criticism mounted over the country’s alleged role in the disappearance and possible death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the Trump administration reportedly urged the leaders of Saudi Arabia Friday to stick to killing random Yemeni civilians. “The potential murder of a high-profile journalist critical of their regime raises grave concerns for us, and we appeal to the leaders of Saudi Arabia to restrict their extrajudicial murders to Yemeni people who don’t have any public platform,” said President Trump, adding that the White House would not sit idly by as the Saudis caused the deaths of innocent people unless they were Yemeni children in a school bus or a group of Yemeni people attending a wedding.
via Trump Administration Urges Saudis To Stick To Killing Random Yemeni Civilians
The window to overthrow the Trump regime is rapidly closing. We must move swiftly to make governance impossible through nationwide strikes and other nonviolent resistance. If we do not, the last vestiges of democracy will die.
Source: Chris Hedges: Make America Ungovernable – Chris Hedges – Truthdig
On some matters, such as Donald Trump’s future Supreme Court choices, the Vermont senator is less combative than some of his colleagues. On other issues, he digs in his heels.
Source: Clara Romeo: Bernie Sanders Gives Leadership Tips to Democrats Facing the Trump Era – Truthdig
olddogthoughts 