Tag: politics

WAR

Pernicious paradox: outsourcing our national security to the United States – Pearls and Irritations

Australian soldier with national flag.

Trivia Time: who said ‘All the way with LBJ’ regarding Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War?

Harold Holt, who succeeded Menzies as PM, in the completion of a flip from Austral-British to Austral-American focus for our national defence. It was contentious at the time, widely protested by Australian society, and of course (as time has played out), another contemptible waste of Australian lives and resources for no useful purpose. Another compromised commitment to Australia due to political ambition.

Source: Pernicious paradox: outsourcing our national security to the United States – Pearls and Irritations

Australia

Rex Patrick: as US-China tensions rise Australia remains pitifully unprepared for war – Michael West

 the issue is serious.

It’s not just about wasting money, as Defence has so often done in the past. It’s now very much about making sure we can deter conflict, and deal with it if deterrence fails. When it all goes bad you take what you’ve got to the fight, and a handful of contracts with blown schedules and budgets are not much of a weapon.

Source: Rex Patrick: as US-China tensions rise Australia remains pitifully unprepared for war – Michael West

Destructive Cults

Second Exclusive Brethren company scoops COVID contracts

Rapid antigen tests

A second company linked to the Exclusive Brethren won more than $100 million in government contracts for protective gear during the pandemic.

Dubbed an “extremist cult” by former PM Kevin Rudd, the group has condemned homosexuality, requires women congregants to wear head coverings and has been accused in courts of forbidding contact with family members who choose to leave.

Senior church figures including a son of global leader or “elect vessel” Bruce Hales, were behind a company awarded $26 million by the federal government to supply Covid tests, TND revealed last week.

It can now be revealed a second company run by a church member and with direct links to Mr Hales’s sons’  was awarded another $105 million in contracts to supply the government with tests and equipment during the pandemic.

Source: Second Exclusive Brethren company scoops COVID contracts

Israel

‘Antisemitism’, mendacity & zionist propaganda in Australia – Pearls and Irritations

Jerusalem, Israel-Palestine

It is sometimes alleged that there has recently been a recrudescence of Antisemitism. Usually this is a stalking horse for apologetic excuses for Israel’s crimes against the Palestinians and the global condemnation it properly attracts. This is a sleight of hand fallacy, citing a secondary phenomenon of the Fascist Right for a primary development on the Democratic left, with a view to compromising and confounding the latter. Accordingly, the contention that Antisemitism is on the rise in the mainstream is patently false and misleading. For as the scholarly Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism acknowledges, the rising democratic criticism of the conduct of the State of Israel is a clean, different thing from the marginal Neo-fascist return to the traditional politics of scapegoating Jews.

The misleadingly named `International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’ has been rolling out its pseudo-definition of ‘Antisemitism’ for some time to criminalise free speech criticism of Israeli human rights abuses and violations of international law. In recent times the Labor Victorian and New South Wales Tory governments have been seduced coercively into sneaking the IHRA pseudo definition, intended to criminalise criticism of Israel administratively and in our educational institutions, through their parliaments.

Source: ‘Antisemitism’, mendacity & zionist propaganda in Australia – Pearls and Irritations

Influence

‘Why Are These Conflicts Allowed?’ Corporate Giving to Group Tied to Supreme Court Sparks Concern

Poster cutouts of US Supreme Court Justices

The British East India Company set the framework for corporate influence.

Both alarm and concern were expressed Saturday in response to new reporting about a charitable group with close ties to the U.S. Supreme Court that has been soliciting and accepting donations from corporate interests and far-right activists with cases before the court.

Source: ‘Why Are These Conflicts Allowed?’ Corporate Giving to Group Tied to Supreme Court Sparks Concern

Indigenous Affairs, Indigenous Australia, Indigenous Australians

Nationals under fire over voice decision – Michael West

When Class systematically dissects even those that deserve attention the most it’s used to political advantage to put the brakes on recognition of injustice and halt progressive and just change

“It is important we bring respect to this. This should be a conversation we should be able to have,” he added.

Labor minister Bill Shorten told Nine Ms Burney had been a great advocate for First Nations Australians.

“The issue is about whether or not we put First Nations people on the nation’s birth certificate, the Constitution,” he said.

 

Source: Nationals under fire over voice decision – Michael West

LNP

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Smacks Down Lauren Boebert Over Shooting | Crooks and Liars

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Smacks Down Lauren Boebert Over Shooting

It’s been the same here in Australia. Morrison did it in the hope of political gain with Deves. Pentecostalists have entered Politics and are spreading hate. The only reason we haven’t seen a mass shooting is because of our gun control laws and the level of tolerance and inclusion due to multiculturalism in this country. The LNP have simply tried to Americanise our politics and will continue to do so if Peter Dutton is an indication. He went straight to America after being nominated Opposition leader in parliament.

AOC is right. This entire year has seen Republicans and their media agitators and MAGA supporters develop horrific conspiracies against the LGBTQAI+ community in order to gain political power. Revving up the hatred against “the Left” who only want tolerance and welcoming for all people.

It’s been sickening to witness.

Source: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Smacks Down Lauren Boebert Over Shooting | Crooks and Liars

Republicans

Top 6 Ways Republicans have Spread Hatred of Gays — Background to Club Q Mass Shooting

The three hundred anti-gay pieces of proposed legislation and the rhetoric against gay people have largely come from Republican lawmakers, therefore bear some of the blame for whipping up this kind of hate.

Source: Top 6 Ways Republicans have Spread Hatred of Gays — Background to Club Q Mass Shooting

Military- Industrial Complex

Opening the Floodgates for Profiteers of War

If the powerful leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senators Jack Reed (D-RI) and Jim Inhofe (R-OK), have their way, Congress will soon invoke wartime emergency powers to build up even greater stockpiles of Pentagon weapons.

Source: Opening the Floodgates for Profiteers of War

India

India’s BJP: The rise of the world’s biggest political party

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporters wear masks of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The rise of Religious Nationalism is detrimental to the principles of Democracy

India’s Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, has more members than most countries have people.

The unit’s latest report says there has been “a serious deterioration in the quality of democracy under leader Narendra Modi, whose Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party has presided over increased intolerance and sectarianism towards Muslims and other religious minorities” and that a failure to “crack down on the persecution of religious and other minorities by Hindu nationalists continues to weigh on India’s democracy score”.

To rise from the fringes of Indian politics to become the world’s biggest party has been a stunning achievement. But can Indian democracy flourish with a political behemoth like the BJP?

Source: India’s BJP: The rise of the world’s biggest political party

Oil & Gas, Oil Warfare

Saudi Arabia Oil Price Hike Is October Surprise Against Biden

Not just the Saudis but Russia, Israel, and the EU Right-Wing swing want Trump or the Republicans back. However, do Americans?

In reality, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states involved with OPEC+ have effectively sided with the Kremlin, which enables Russia to refill its coffers and to limit the impact of Western sanctions.

The implications are far-reaching, from the Ukraine war to the future relationship between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, and the emergent multipolar world order.

“The Saudis are working to get Trump re-elected and for the MAGA Republicans to win the midterms.”

Source: Saudi Arabia Oil Price Hike Is October Surprise Against Biden

Power

United States and Russia: Dangerous export of democracy and dictatorship – Pearls and Irritations

President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin participate in a tete-a-tete during a U.S.-Russia Summit on Wednesday, June 16, 2021, at the Villa La Grange in Geneva.

The United States and Russia are powers with self-serving ambitions, but their covert actions have produced more failures than successes. Even so-called short-term “successes” such as the coup in Iran have become long-term failures or liabilities. Clandestine Soviet activities in East Europe in the Cold War have created an East European membership for the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation that is passionately anti-Russian. U.S. covert action in Central America merely increased the violence in that region, bringing great embarrassment and substantial emigration to the United States.

“Whatsoever a man sowed, that shall he also reap.”

Source: United States and Russia: Dangerous export of democracy and dictatorship – Pearls and Irritations

Fight against Fake News, Fighting Fake News, Uncategorized

Old Dog Thought- CPAC was the celebration of the new Religious Right Christians. Like ISIS but normalised. The intolerant anti-Secular new MAGA Party

Fighting Fake News with REAL 7/10/22; Evangelism and Politics; MAKE AMERICA”S GOP AUSTRALIAN is here; ISIS showed them the way to the Christian State;

Turkey

In Turkey, Arrest of Pop Singer for Offending Clerics Prompts Fears of Turn to Fundamentalist Government

In a tweet Gülşen shared hours before she was sent to an all-women prison, the singer said:

A joke I made about a friend I have worked with for many years was published by those whose goal is to further polarize the society. I am sorry for letting these people use my words for ill intentions. As I thrive to protect the freedoms I believe in, I have been swept by the radicals I am critical of. I apologize to anyone who got offended watching the video. I should have found a different language; I will find it.

Source: In Turkey, Arrest of Pop Singer for Offending Clerics Prompts Fears of Turn to Fundamentalist Government

religion

Secret ministerial makeover smacks of rule by divine right

When the Separation of Powers were all but forgotten and Howard thought he was in control when feting the extreme religious sects to come to and join the Liberal Party.

By ruling in secret, the Morrison Government was not being responsible to the parliament and was not accountable to the people — who are the basis of its legitimacy, writes Bilal Cleland.

Secret ministerial makeover smacks of rule by divine right
Uncategorized

Justice Alito Laments Disrespect for Religion as Americans Abandon Faith – Will his Dobbs Push them Further Away?
SCOTUS BIGOTRY ON SHOW

Justice Alito Laments Disrespect for Religion as Americans Abandon Faith – Will his Dobbs Push them Further Away?

Justice Alito Laments Disrespect for Religion as Americans Abandon Faith – Will his Dobbs Push them Further Away?
Republicans

Republicans Are The Party Of Sickness And Death | Crooks and Liars

We know that Republicans want schoolchildren and other Americans to keep dying in mass shootings, because preserving easy access to AR-15s is much more important than preventing massacres. We know that Republicans want women who are experiencing ectopic pregnancies not to have access to appropriate care, because women’s deaths are the inevitable collateral damage that comes from banning all abortions. We know that Republicans hate vaccines now. But they never stop trying to find new ways to hurt people, because when they do, we howl in outrage, and there’s no sweeter sound to a Republican voter.

Republicans Are The Party Of Sickness And Death | Crooks and Liars
LNP

Calling on the Straights – » The Australian Independent Media Network

woman holds LGBTQI+ flag at Roe Overturned rally

The Texas attorney general has signalled his willingness to take a law making homosexuality illegal through to the Supreme Court should he have the chance. A Republican candidate in South Carolina’s primaries recently called for LGBTQI Americans to be pursued for treason, and executed. He received a quarter of the vote.

The Texas Republican Party platform, launched this Pride Month, named LGBTQI lives “an abnormal lifestyle choice.” Approximately 340 bills targeting LGBTQI existence have been introduced across America this year. The leader of the Christian Fascist organisation Protect Texas Kids tweeted, “Let’s start rounding up people who participate in Pride events,” and other figures on the Right have begun imagining a world where it is legal to hunt LGBTQI people.

In Australia, the Right faces different challenges to impose minority rule. It sees its best chance to regain power and reinstate the steps it had been taking to break our democracy in culture wars. These “moral” panics are distractions meant to disguise the fact that the Right can’t win on a platform of tax cuts for the rich and deregulation.

The new campaign to attack schools for being “woke” as signalled by Dutton, Sky News and the IPA’s Class Action campaign signal their intent to replicate the American crippling of schools and silencing of teachers. The IPA, like the American equivalents, is largely funded by fossil fuel figures who naturally do not want students taught to understand climate science. The harnessing of traditionalists scared of change, combined with radical Religious Right Christian Nationalist bodies, offers the LNP a new base that might offer electoral success.

Source: Calling on the Straights – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Fight against Fake News, Fighting Fake News

Old Dog Thought- Repetitive patterns of behavioural Systems for the benefit of who? They can be changed not just allowed to continue to evolve.

Fighting Fake News with REAL 12/7/22; Private Surveillance System; Private Energy System; The Political System; Another Way; The Education System;

religion, Uncategorized

Enraged evangelists subvert Christianity – » The Australian Independent Media Network

A recent IPSOS poll showed 78 per cent of Australians want religion to be separated from the business of government. Clearly, within that vast public majority are millions of religious moderates who support progressive social policy – like same-sex marriage, VAD, and the right of women to have full bodily autonomy.

Do “moderates” not believe that militant evangelism is actually subverting Christianity? Is there no concern that such extremism serves only to undermine the inclusiveness and tolerance that they see in the teachings of Jesus? And what are they prepared to do about that?

Enraged evangelists subvert Christianity – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Enraged evangelists subvert Christianity – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Informed Comment

The difference between manners and civility – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Meanwhile LNP Senator Hughes is outspoken in the media and acting as if it were Question Time calling the Australian Teaching Profession Marxists. Sounding like a an American Republican Trumpster she’s attempting to bring full blown “culture wars” to Australian politics. However, all she is doing is demonstrating her’s and the LNP’s ignorance. In her best un- Woke fashion Huges wants the Australian teaching profession cancelled, demonstrating she hasn’t a clue what even the term Woke means when demanding our children need to be taught what’s right rather than develop the skills of learningand assessing what’s right for themselves.

One of the promises the new Prime Minister made during the election campaign was to create or recreate a more civil parliament and, for that matter, a more tolerant and reasoned society. Most would all agree that we want our politicians to put their better minds to the problems confronting us. We want the screaming and disrespect to end.

The difference between manners and civility – » The Australian Independent Media Network
COVID-19

COVID cognitive decline more widespread than thought, say researchers at Australia’s first long-COVID clinic – ABC News

COVID cognitive decline more widespread than thought, say researchers at Australia’s first long-COVID clinic – ABC News

COVID cognitive decline more widespread than thought, say researchers at Australia’s first long-COVID clinic – ABC News

team has found something startling.

Cognitive decline widespread

Around one quarter of the ADAPT study’s participants were experiencing noticeable cognitive decline a year after getting COVID.

LNP Government, LNP Tactics

Coalition government spent $6m prosecuting Bernard Collaery and three other whistleblowers | Australian politics | The Guardian

Exclusive: Figures provided to the Guardian reveal exorbitant legal bill for pursuing cases against Collaery, Witness K, Richard Boyle and David McBride

Coalition government spent $6m prosecuting Bernard Collaery and three other whistleblowers | Australian politics | The Guardian
Israel

Palestinians ‘Are Bound to Win’: Why Israelis Are Prophesying the End of Their State | The Smirking Chimp

The latest predictions about Israel’s uncertain future are based on a different logic. Since Israel has always defined itself as a Jewish State, its future is mostly linked to its ability to maintain a Jewish majority in historic Palestine. By the admission of Morris and others, this pipe dream is now crumbling as the ‘demographic war’ is clearly and quickly being lost.

Source: Palestinians ‘Are Bound to Win’: Why Israelis Are Prophesying the End of Their State | The Smirking Chimp

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

America's Shame

AR-15s Were Made to Explode Human Bodies

A paratrooper crouches behind rocks as he signals to members of his squad to form a defensive perimeter after it was hit while leading a patrol near Duc Pho, 330 miles northeast of Saigon on June 5, 1967. The patrol of the 327th regiment of the 101st airborne division took some casualties, but then drove off the enemy in a short-range rifle fight. Paratrooper holds the AR-15 -- a modified version of the M-16 automatic rifle. AR-15 has a collapsible stock, shorter barrel and a flash hider. (AP Photo)

He Did Not Act Alone

Salvador Ramos, strode into a store and bought two AR-15s the week before the attack, an apparent birthday gift to himself. Anyone paying attention gets that the ease of purchase for such weapons — which are frequently used in mass killings — is an indication of how deep the gun problem in America runs.

Source: AR-15s Were Made to Explode Human Bodies

Informed Comment

Election 2022: Do we even want to solve housing affordability?”

The Coalition’s policy will make sense to many people.

But once we lose the primacy of need in something like housing, we lose the ability to see how my accumulated investments might be depriving you of something essential. We instead demand to be left to our investments. So, politics now cannot take a dollar off anyone, or even look vaguely like it will. It’s tempting to call this a “no losers” brand of politics, but of course, that’s not quite accurate. There are losers. It’s just that they’re the people who are already losing. We take nothing away from them except their prospects.

Source: Election 2022: Do we even want to solve housing affordability?”

religion

The Path Back to Cultural Suppression | The Smirking Chimp

Scott Morrison, in Australia, is following the path of the Republicans because he has nothing better to do than win at all cost, and the cost is a great disservice to Australia. His RDA Religious Discrimination Act is purely political to appease the small minority of Christian and other religious fundamentalists who have never forgiven the referendum that brought about Marriage Equality in Australia. His intransigent support of Katherine Deves has alienated him from members of his own party in particular his treasurer Josh Frydenberg who is battling to survive in his seat of Kooyong with no help from Morrison.

The Supreme Court will send us down that slippery slope if it rules to end the court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade opinion granting women a right to abortion. Opponents of the potential reversal warn that right-wingers will next go after contraception and same-sex marriage. I can imagine that happening.

Source: The Path Back to Cultural Suppression | The Smirking Chimp

Climate Change

A Successful Climate Movement Must Be a Working-Class Movement

The only way to stop climate change is to build a mass, working-class movement whose demands both resonate with average people and take on the billionaires who are profiteering from the climate crisis.

Source: A Successful Climate Movement Must Be a Working-Class Movement

LNP, LNP Corruption, LNP Government, LNP Tactics

Top Biden health official says trans youth being ‘driven to depths of despair’ | The Hill

Religious hate has been imported directly from America for use by the “blessed” Scott Morrison. A political tool applied by his “Captains Pick” Katherine Deves in Warringah to hopefully divide the whole Australian electorate by hate, in order to squeeze a few votes from the ultra religious right, god botherers, transphobes, and homophobes hidden under rocks. Even worse, he defends this action in the guise of “free speech” and ” the defense of women”,  Single handedly Morrison has shown he’s lower than a snake’s belly and a hypocrite who speaks in tongues. Particularly when he doubles down and says  he will protect children ( LNP politicians) from any “digital trolling” if they win. Morrison has shown he’s as two faced and corrupt as any tent crusader, QAnon, or other hate-preacher,we have seen here or come out of America.

Assistant Health Secretary Rachel Levine said trans youth are being “driven to depths of despair” and committing suicide at alarming rates, during a speech on Saturday about the dangers of anti-trans laws being passed in red states across the country. Levine, the first openly transgender federal official to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, said in a speech at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth that LGBTQ youth are being “attacked” and have “few places to turn” for help. “I want to say this very, very clearly: lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer Americans are committing suicide at a rate that should shock our conscience,” Levine said during the Out For Health Conference. “Even after decades of progress, the most vulnerable among us continue to suffer … transgender women of color not only continue to be harassed, but are more likely than the population at large to suffer violence and even murder.”

Source: Top Biden health official says trans youth being ‘driven to depths of despair’ | The Hill

Refugees

Final detainees at Melbourne’s Park hotel freed as refugee releases continue in lead-up to election | Australian immigration and asylum | The Guardian

Graffiti on the Park hotel in Melbourne in January this year

Morrison is now desperate to clean his decade of weaponizing Asylum Seekers and Refugees up. It certainly doesn’t fit his denials that he politicizes race, religion, or ethnicity. The rush is on.

Federal Greens immigration spokesperson Nick McKim criticized the timing of the release. “This is belated but welcome news, and their relief will be massive, but this is not the end of their story,” he said in a statement. “That they are being released on the eve of an election is a deeply cynical move and it proves once again that their detention and torture was always a political decision.” Kanis agreed, describing the release as a “last-minute political fix” ahead of the federal election.

Source: Final detainees at Melbourne’s Park hotel freed as refugee releases continue in lead-up to election | Australian immigration and asylum | The Guardian

Public Health

Brick by brick we say goodbye to Medicare – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Channel 9 also interviewed Mrs Morrison on 25 March 2022. The very resourceful online journalist Ronni Salt has previously examined on 13 March 2021 Media Cloud, and she discovered either Mr Morrison’s communications team, or some partisan elements of the media, referring to Mrs Morrison’s personal health problems on the following occasions:

1 July/August 2018 when Mr Morrison was vying to become leader of the Liberal Party (don’t be fooled by that hand on Mr Turnbull’s shoulder).

2 April/May 2019 when Mr Morrison was campaigning for re-election.

3 September 2019 when the story broke about Mr Morrison trying to obtain an invite for Mr Houston to attend a dinner at the White House with former President Trump.

4 February/March 2021 when questions were raised about the alleged conduct of some Liberal members or staffers.

Now I can’t say definitively what motivated Mr Morrison’s announcement on 25 March 2022 regarding some funding for endometriosis and pregnancy treatment, but the announcement has been made right before an election will be called, and if it wasn’t a politically motivated initiative  then why didn’t Mr Morrison introduce the proposed medical funding during June or July of 2019? Notwithstanding what opinions you may form about Mr Morrison’s announcement on 25 March 2022, or Ms Salt’s previous investigations, one fact is certain; Medicare is slowly but surely being pulled apart brick by brick, particularly by the Morrison Government.

 

Source: Brick by brick we say goodbye to Medicare – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Scott Morrison

Morrison plans east coast base for nuclear powered submarines

Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

Is Morrison announcement an American decision?  A $10Bn base plus ongoing payments to house and rent their submarine fleet and manpower?  We have already spent $3bn just planning, advertising and cancelling ours and got absolutely nowhere other than destroying our relationship with France. Is it any wonder Morrison has never been seen as a man of action just a stumble bum?

Mr Morrison will note there would be economic benefits from the submarine base that would also be used by visiting nuclear-powered US and UK submarines. Among the criteria set for the location of the base, Mr Morrison will say its proximity to a large population base so as to recruit and retain a substantially larger uniformed submarine workforce.

Source: Morrison plans east coast base for nuclear powered submarines

Racism

From “Crack Pipes” To “Critical Race Theory”: GOP’s 2022 Midterm Strategy Is Overt Racism | The Smirking Chimp

American Racism isn’t just political posturing it’s real, it’s systemic, and it’s here to stay as far as the Republicans are concerned!!

There are still eight months to go before the election — so this is probably going to get much worse. Republican leaders are desperate to change the subject away from the January 6 insurrection and the Big Lie, but Trump and his base are obsessed. Racist hysterics about “crack pipes” serve as a distraction. But this blunt racism is also about justifying Trump’s coup and ongoing efforts to steal the next election. The constant drumbeat of reminders that white supremacy is under very real threat from a multiracial democracy helps keep the GOP focused on why it is, exactly, they are organizing behind what has turned into an anti-democracy movement. Time to invest in anti-nausea meds, because Republicans are committed to this tactic of overt racism, clearly convinced it’s the key to winning the midterm elections.

Source: From “Crack Pipes” To “Critical Race Theory”: GOP’s 2022 Midterm Strategy Is Overt Racism | The Smirking Chimp

Capitalism

Why are young Australians locked out of home ownership? The answer is politics | Intifar Chowdhury | The Guardian

A sign displaying a property sold for Auction in Sydney, September 2021

 

Indeed, treasurer Josh Frydenberg remarked back in June that the rise is good for the economy. The federal government extended lukewarm sympathies for those who are struggling to get a foot in the property door for the first time, while merrily pointing out that many households are gaining from continued property price inflation. Therefore, price hikes are here to stay because simple solutions – such as building more houses and properly taxing property investments – are not as politically sound. That’s the reality of things: those with power and money impact the market more than those without. That’s why the winners become fatter winners and the losers continue to lose. What we are facing today is not an unsolvable crisis, but there is a lack of willingness to solve it among those in a position to do so.

Source: Why are young Australians locked out of home ownership? The answer is politics | Intifar Chowdhury | The Guardian

LNP, LNP Government, LNP Tactics

Rapid antigen testing results blow out daily case numbers

A COVID-19 rapid antigen test.

Morrison saw RATs as a means to throw Covid cases into chaos and camouflaging his total mismanagement of Covid yet again. It’s the only reasonable explanation for why he’s been so insistent on making some tests free and others paid for by us. He had no qualms in saying overpayments of JobKeeper would not be required to be repaid by corporations, but RAT tests needed to be paid for and the prices set by the ‘free’ market. A bonus to the retailers like Chemist Warehouse Harvey Norman and Ebay scalpers of the tests. Many corporations of course, sponsor him and support his “let it rip” stance against lockdowns threatening their profits. Morrison is a great supporter of corporate Socialism in a Capitalist nation.

Victoria’s case numbers doubled to overtake New South Wales on Saturday as the state scrambles to improve the accuracy of rapid antigen testing (RAT) numbers incorporated in the data. States are working to include the RATs now being undertaken by people at home, with Victoria and Queensland launching self-reporting systems and NSW to follow. Victoria’s daily figures were more than double the previous day’s total, with 51,356 cases. But the numbers were inflated by a backlog of RAT cases which accounted for about half and included some infections that were up to six days old as well as double ups with PCR tests. Based on a closer look at the health department figures, there were likely closer to 30,851 new cases in the state on Saturday — still a record, and an increase of more than 40 per cent on the previous day. The Victorian health department is now rushing to improve the accuracy of the state’s COVID-19 figures.

Source: Rapid antigen testing results blow out daily case numbers

Australia's Shame

Meet the Mining Billionaires Ransacking Australia

The super-profitable mining industry in Australia has produced a new class of ruthless billionaires. Their fortunes tower above those of the nation’s other business elites, and they’ve used this wealth to shape the political landscape in their interest.

Source: Meet the Mining Billionaires Ransacking Australia

LNP, LNP Corruption, LNP Government

Number 1 for 2021: The Morrison government is a sewer – » The Australian Independent Media Network

The countdown is over! Number 1 goes to Dr Jennifer Wilson for this article from February 2021 on what would be one of the biggest stories – and one of the biggest scandals – of the year. Congratulations, Jennifer. The Morrison government is a sewer.

Source: Number 1 for 2021: The Morrison government is a sewer – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Media

Neoliberal principles guide journalism in Australia

I was under the impression that no matter which government was in power the ABC’s charter was to critically test the truth and validity of what they claimed to be doing against what they were actually doing. Basically, fact-checking, for and on behalf of the electorate, not simply the mouth piece of the government. Abbot’s promise to both Murdoch and the IPA was to rid us of the ABC. The LNP seems to refuse and accept this. Rather, claiming any revelation not supporting what it is they are doing, is in opposition and therefore biased. As a consequence, they prefer to work with the private. A media which they feel they can control with promises of “cash for comment” in exchange for what it is they want. Now that is biased.

Journalists have the power to frame reality for audiences, because they set the standards for what is considered “good”, “bad”, “normal” or “controversial”.

Source: Neoliberal principles guide journalism in Australia

LNP, LNP Government

80 years on, the attack on Pearl Harbour offers lessons for today

Pearl harbour was a target and the naval base destroyed 25% of the pop of Hawaii were American Japanese and they were interned. Why is Morrison and Dutton intent on making Australia the foremost target in the region?

Then, on November 29 2021, the US Defence Department announced in its global posture review that it will concentrate military activities and infrastructure in Australia and select Pacific Islands. There’s no question the US and the UK are returning to the Pacific at levels not seen since the second world war. The AUKUS agreement, initiated by the Morrison government, encapsulates the escalating tensions due to China’s troubling acts. These include its rhetorical and trade war with Australia, aggressions towards Taiwan, military expansion in the South China Sea and its deepening influence in the Pacific islands as a suspected veiled means to project its military power. Australia’s prime minister and, most recently, defence minister have conjured up the Pacific War, saying “we live in the echoes of the 1930s”, citing “mistakes” that led to the war. China has lashed back, criticising the Australian government for super-charging fears that history is repeating at a terrifying scale and pace.

Source: 80 years on, the attack on Pearl Harbour offers lessons for today

Informed Comment

Revealed: Rupert Murdoch’s crack team of Liberal Party fundraisers – Michael West Media

“At the federal level the position is really dreadful, because donations do not include money that’s paid to fundraisers and events where people pay to sit at the same table as politicians. I think therefore it does mean that we’ve got to absolutely reappraise the whole system to avoid those sorts of perceptions of undue influence and too much access.” (former judge Anthony Whealy, QC.)

Source: Revealed: Rupert Murdoch’s crack team of Liberal Party fundraisers – Michael West Media

Australia's Shame

Ultranationalists Are Seeing an Organizing Boom in Australia

There’s a German warning drawn from historic experience. “If 10 people sit and dine with a Nazi you have 11 Nazis dining”

At a recent anti-vaccine rally in Melbourne, observers identified supporters of the Ustaše, a Croatian fascist movement with Nazi-collaborationist roots. It’s no fluke: the radical right is attaching itself to the anti-vaccine movement everywhere.

Source: Ultranationalists Are Seeing an Organizing Boom in Australia

NSW

School is in, but Perrottet didn’t do his homework – » The Australian Independent Media Network

He has six kids. The possibility of any one of them contracting Covid and being hospitalised is greater than in the average Aussie family simply because of the numbers. It will be significant  given the lessons learned from Israel’s experience. Even experts like Fauci have said increased hospitalisation of children is probable. However, for Perrotet politics seems to taken priority over his family’s personal risk. The only thing that protects them from their father’s irreponsibility their social and economic status? Perrotet doesn’t seem to care.

Per Quartz, “On Aug. 31, Israel registered 11,000 new Covid-19 cases, the highest daily number since the pandemic began. The worrying thing was: That day’s case count beat a record set in mid-January when only a small proportion of Israel’s population had been vaccinated. “By the end of August, at least 68% of Israelis had received at least one vaccine dose, but even the vaccinated were falling sick enough to need hospitalization.

“In Israel, as in the US or western Europe, children form a large part of the as-yet-unvaccinated population. In August, the Israeli government predicted that children would make up half of all new Covid cases by the time the school year began on Sep. 1, and it instituted strict testing regimens for schools.

“The delta variant is much more highly transmissible than was alpha. So, given that, you will see more children likely to get infected,” Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in mid-August. “A certain percentage of them will require hospitalisation.”

Source: School is in, but Perrottet didn’t do his homework – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Uncategorized

Mystery donors pay some of Christian Porter’s legal fees for defamation action against ABC – ABC News

Christian Porter stands in front of an Australian flag

Mr Blind Trust is what we get with Christian Porter. No need asking.May be an image of text that says 'Tweet The Shovel @TheShovel Snipe all you want. But who here among us can honestly say that they haven't had someone anonymously pay them to cover $1 million in legal fees for a law suit they initiated? 1:35 PM Sep 14, 2021 Twitter Web App View Tweet activity 261 Retweets 12 Quote Tweets 1,492 Likes'

Mr Porter says a blind trust has made a contribution to his legal fees A blind trust means the beneficiary is shielded from knowing who donated the money The federal opposition says Mr Porter should not have accepted the money without knowing who it came from

Source: Mystery donors pay some of Christian Porter’s legal fees for defamation action against ABC – ABC News

charity

Why are ‘religious’ organisations given tax free status? – » The Australian Independent Media Network

We have to stop living in the past, teach science properly in all schools, let people follow any beliefs they choose – as long as they do not harm others in so doing – and teach ethics in all schools, while the money saved from ceasing to give tax benefits to existing bodies – except for genuinely philanthropic activities – should be used to help all the people who are currently struggling to survive. Far more important than religion, is ensuring that all can survive, and that demands attention to climate change!

Source: Why are ‘religious’ organisations given tax free status? – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defends ‘tax the rich’ gown

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in her controversial “tax the rich” gown, pictured alongside fashion designer Aurora James.

New York congresswoman and progressive champion Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has defended wearing a gown emblazoned with the slogan “tax the rich” to the lavish Met Gala, saying she has elevated the debate about wealth redistribution in America.

Source: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defends ‘tax the rich’ gown