
Fighting Fake News with REAL 5/6/21; Pell and the Media; Trump’s Facebook Ban, Morrison & QAnon;;

We don’t help Labour Governments as far as we are concerned they are CUBA and GAZA rolled in one
Scott Morrison has ignored calls for urgent assistance for Victorian workers affected by the latest COVID lockdown, saying the federal government has already sent billions in help and that Queensland or Western Australia didn’t need extra support during their latest restrictions. It came after an extraordinary spray unleashed by Victoria’s acting premier and treasurer, who called the Prime Minister and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg “disgraceful”. “This idea we are working hand in glove, when they have never put their hand in their pocket, is nothing short of a disgrace,” state treasurer Tim Pallas said. “It is about time the Commonwealth stop with the words, stop with the empty gestures, the rallying speeches, with nothing behind them.”
Source: Victoria lockdown: Scott Morrison ignores calls for worker, business help

Victorians are waking to their fourth lockdown in 15 months, once again sparked by hotel quarantine, but the state’s chief health officer said it was “absurd” to blame a failure of contact tracing. More than 10,000 close contacts have been identified as the Melbourne cluster grew to 26 infections on Thursday, and virus detectives are racing to track everyone down. The list of exposure sites also swelled to more than 100 locations.
Source: 10,000 contacts and 100 exposure sites as Victoria lockdown begins

And at least three of the Australians blocked from returning home on Saturday’s flight from New Delhi to Darwin, because they tested positive for COVID-19, have since tested negative for the virus. The two revelations raise serious questions about the medical screening process set up by Qantas and the federal government for the resumption of travel between India and Australia.
Source: Australians in India test negative after being blocked from returning home

My thought for the day Why does western art always depict Jesus as white when as a middle eastern Jew he would have been brown-skinned.

Morrison is right – but not for his vacuous rhetoric. Future generations will judge us on what we deliver. Just as they judge us today on what we do rather than whatever our government might say – and then pretend it didn’t say or try to crabwalk away from. The inaction of this government to honour its obligations to its citizens in its travel ban on those trapped in India – or its chicanery on energy or climate change, its betrayal of its stewardship, or duty of care of the planet for future generations, is an indictment of its motives to seek and hold power for its own sake and a travesty of democratic principle and responsibility to its people. It is also a declaration of moral bankruptcy.
Source: Blood on your hands, Prime Minister? – » The Australian Independent Media Network

When the Federal Government, brandishing its latest dog whistle, announced on Friday (30 April) that any Australian citizens attempting to flee India’s raging pandemic outbreak would face $66,000 fines and five-year gaol terms, both Australians and the international community reacted with disbelief.
Source: India latest front in Morrison Government’s war on Australians
Health experts are urging the Morrison government to accelerate its delivery of doses to East Timor amid a deepening crisis there that has led China’s vaccine diplomacy to reach Australia’s doorstep.
Source: Coronavirus: As China backs East Timor, Australia urged to speed up vaccine delivery

It was entirely appropriate that Scott Morrison was on mute when he began his address to Joe Biden’s climate summit overnight. He had nothing to say or offer, and although Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said “Mr Prime Minister I’m not sure we’re hearing you,” the message Morrison was sending the world was clear enough. Morrison may as well just have stuck his middle finger up at the camera. Australia’s already woefully inadequate 26-28% emissions reduction target from 2005 levels by 2030 — set by arch-climate denialist Tony Abbott — now looks irrelevant at best and misleading at worst, regardless of how often Morrison and his ministers say that we will “meet and beat it”. The United States is committed to reductions of 50-52% compared with 2005. The UK is committed to a 78% cut on 1990 levels by 2035. Canada — a resource economy very similar to Australia’s — is committed to 40-45% of 2005 levels by 2030. Norway’s is 50-55% by 2030. Japan is committed to 46% from 2013 levels by 2030. South Korea lifted its target to a 24.4% reduction on 2017 levels by 2030. And the European Union this week ratified its commitment to a 55% cut by 2030.
Source: Australia’s climate-criminal status is on global display. What now?

Prime Minister Scott Morrison appears to be testing the waters of a zero net emissions target by 2050, saying the climate goal will be “won” by Australia’s mining and energy sectors, factories and industry.
Source: PM says mines and factories will help us reach zero net emissions

No amount of photo shoots and image massaging or efforts to silence dissent and exhortations to all row together along the Kakoda Trail (or some such inane analogy) can hide the man beneath the baseball cap.
How good is Scott?
Not very.

Morrison has repeatedly said he’s a “full termer” and has no plans of calling an election any time soon. It may be one of the few pledges he can keep.
A drop in the polls – largely due to the government’s manmade “women issues” combined with backbencher woes – had already left the Coalition teetering on the edge of minority government, making many MPs nervous.
The abrupt change in the government’s vaccine fortunes – once thought so golden that announcements came attached with Liberal party branding – turned nervous into anxious on Friday.

Scott Morrison’s dirt unit – the one that briefs the Prime Minister on gossip about press gallery bureaux but apparently not about alleged rape in a minister’s office down the hall – is worse than it seemed last week.
Michael Pascoe: Morrison’s mud throwing is worse than it seems

His problem is neither Christian Porter nor Linda Reynolds, the two ministers who for different reasons have caused so much political pain, volunteered to take one for the team.
Paul Bongiorno: Shuffling deck chairs can’t save sinking ship
In an earlier interview on the Nine Network’s Today show, Mr Albanese said Mr Morrison “doesn’t quite get it yet”. “We need to address gender inequality in our society. That’s why we put our childcare policy at the centre of our budget reply last year. That’s why we need to address issues like domestic and family violence leave. That’s why we need to address the issue of women’s representation in our national Parliament,” he said.
Labor’s Penny Wong, Bill Shorten highlight Morrison government’s gender crisis

Prime Minister Scott Morrison states in this interview that when Brittany Higgins expressed her intention to resign from the office of Michaelia Cash in January 2021, she was offered the opportunity to speak with him before her allegations of rape by a senior staffer in Parliament House were aired in the media. “At the time just before she departed she was offered the opportunity to come and speak with me with Minister Cash,” he says. The Higgins story broke on February 15 2021. Morrison has steadfastly denied that he knew anything about the alleged rape of Ms Higgins until that day. Ms Higgins left Cash’s office on February 5 2021, ten days before the story broke. Why would the Prime Minister offer to meet with Ms Higgins prior to her departure from Cash’s office, if, as he has maintained for the last two months and stated several times in Parliament, he knew nothing about the alleged rape until it was aired in the media?
Morrison (inadvertently) admits he knew? – » The Australian Independent Media Network

In his inability to listen to women, Prime Minister Scott Morrison keeps digging a bigger hole for himself, as evinced by his popularity slide in Newspoll and his latest failure to take a stand against the trolling of women by Coalition MP Andrew Laming. Yet the repeated failures indicate this is not just a matter of a “tin ear” but rather a contempt for women, reports Elizabeth Minter.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison: a “tin ear” or a contempt for women? – Michael West

Could it be a wank that brings Scooter Morrison undone? Not the metaphorical kind of Scooter’s self-indulgent posturing or his constant, carefully crafted photo ops but rather a literal wank – a hairy-palmed Lib staffer interrogating the prisoner in a female MP’s office and depositing a pearl necklace on her furniture.
Dumpster fire of the vanities: A reality check for the born-to-rulers – » The Australian Independent Media Network

In what it says is a win for consumers, the Federal Government has moved to a Netflix model of political scandal distribution, releasing 3 year’s worth of content all at once.
Government Shifts To Netflix Model Of Political Scandals, Dropping All 483 Episodes At Once | The Shovel

Scott Morrison has pointedly left in doubt the future of Christian Porter as Attorney-General, saying he is presently considering advice on Porter’s situation in the context of the “ministerial guidelines”.
Scott Morrison leaves Christian Porter’s future in doubt, amid reshuffle speculation

As more women of Parliament make a stand against Scott Morrison’s misogyny, his feeble attempts to save face are potentially losing voters, writes Andrew P Street.
Morrison’s misogyny sends his popularity plummeting
Rape, masturbation and lewd acts all part of Parliament House under Morrison

It’s increasingly difficult to keep apace of the torrents of misinformation, disinformation, obfuscation, avoidance, denial and bare-faced lies that emanate from the Morrison Government and its enablers every day.
Rape, masturbation and lewd acts all part of Parliament House under Morrison

On Friday of last week, I informed my wife that Michael McCormack would be the guest on ABC Insiders the coming Sunday. “Speers will have him for breakfast,” she answered with a touch of humour. And so it was. A giggling Laura Tingle confirmed my wife’s answer after the interview while the two other panel members just managed to contain themselves. On the one hand, it was hilarious. On the other, it was a strategy that a man so unqualified for leadership was the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia.
What is it like being interviewed by David Speers? Ask the Deputy Prime Minister. – » The Australian Independent Media Network
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