Tag: The Scam

Israel

The US List of Countries Allegedly Sponsors of Terrorism: Another Imperialistic Scam – CounterPunch.org

Unilateral Coercive Measures

Reality of Terrorist States

The examples of Israeli state-sponsored terrorism include the 1954 Lavon Affair, an unsuccessful bomb plot in Egypt that led to the resignation of the Israeli minister of defence.[15] In the 1970s and 80s Israel was a major supplier of arms to dictatorial regimes in South America, Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.  In Indonesia, as reported by Noam Chomsky, Israel served as a proxy of the United States, providing aircraft used by Indonesia to massacre the Timorese[16]. More recently Israel has been accused of sponsoring and supporting several terrorist groups in its proxy wars against Iran, Lebanon and Syria.

Source: The US List of Countries Allegedly Sponsors of Terrorism: Another Imperialistic Scam – CounterPunch.org

Israel

Israel-US Gaza Plan Stares Us in the Face

  • In public, Biden appears “tough” on Netanyahu, urging him not to “invade” Rafah and pressuring him to allow more “humanitarian aid” into Gaza.

  • But already the White House is preparing the ground to subvert its own messaging. It insists that Israel has offered an “extraordinarily generous” deal to Hamas – one that, Washington suggests, amounts to a ceasefire. It doesn’t. According to reports, the best Israel has offered is an undefined “period of sustained calm”. Even that promise can’t be trusted.

  • If Hamas accepts the “deal” and agrees to return some of the hostages, the bombing eases for a short while but the famine intensifies, justified by Israel’s determination for “total victory” against Hamas – something that is impossible to achieve. This will simply delay, for a matter of days or weeks, Israel’s move to step 5 below.

  • If, as seems more likely, Hamas rejects the “deal”, it will be painted as the intransigent party and blamed for seeking to continue the “war”. (Note: This was never a war. Only the West pretends either that you can be at war with a territory you’ve been occupying for decades, or that Hamas “started the war” with its October 7 attack when Israel has been blockading the enclave, creating despair and incremental malnutrition there, for 17 years.)

Source: Israel-US Gaza Plan Stares Us in the Face

Informed Comment

Welcome to West Air – our latest flight of Qantas fancy! – Michael West

The Spruce Goose

We are very excited to announce that Michael West Media will be starting an airline. We haven’t set a date yet, nor do we have any planes, pilots or stewards, but watch this space, tickets will be on sale soon!

We made this decision after Qantas – an actual airline with planes, pilots, stewards, and some very clever finance people, revealed to the world (and the ACCC) that although it is an airline, it doesn’t really sell airline tickets as such. Its customers are:

not buying a specific flight when they book to travel but instead a ‘bundle of rights’ to fly.

Source: Welcome to West Air – our latest flight of Qantas fancy! – Michael West

Trump

“Illegal”: Trump caught diverting campaign donations as legal bills pile up | Salon.com

Former U.S. President Donald Trump is introduced at the Oakland County Republican Party's Lincoln Day dinner at Suburban Collection Showplace on June 25, 2023 in Novi, Michigan. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

What’s the Scam America? It’s your money!

Former President Donald Trump has been siphoning money raised for his 2024 presidential campaign into a political action committee (PAC) that covers his personal legal finances.

Source: “Illegal”: Trump caught diverting campaign donations as legal bills pile up | Salon.com

Australian Politics

Dreadnoughts and Virginias: why is Australia paying more than twice the price for submarines? – Michael West

Marco the French President got it right when he said he was double-crossed. It was all about the money and selling the soul of the nation. The ALP hasn’t changed the direction or in any way deflected the AUKUS scam. They are assisting the rampant profiteering of the Military-Industrial Complex at the expense of the French.

Paul Keating described the AUKUS submarines deal negotiated by the Albanese government as the “worst deal in all history”. Is he right, and if so, just how bad is it?

Source: Dreadnoughts and Virginias: why is Australia paying more than twice the price for submarines? – Michael West

Banks

Co-purchasing homes flagged as fix for housing woes – Michael West

What owning your own home has come to in Australia. This is a partnership offer to drive up the cost of housing, or a 3rd party acting in combination like a Muslim bank who can’t charge interest because they are unlicensed. Are they investment partners really and/or landlords who charge rent instead? Something current banks aren’t prepared to do. What they are saying is go find a surrogate parent or angel, it’s not our problem.

Would-be homebuyers teaming up with private investors to stump up a deposit has been floated as a possible model to ease Australia’s housing crisis.

Source: Co-purchasing homes flagged as fix for housing woes – Michael West

Informed Comment

Robodebt Cover-Up: documents on repairing Australian Public Service buried – Michael West

What's the scam

Under FOI, I requested Commissioner Woolcott’s briefing, minutes and talking points associated with the March 8 bureaucratic talk fest. Woolcott, a Coalition appointment (and former staffer to Andrew Peacock and Chief of Staff to Alexander Downer) retires in 4 months, has refused access to the documents he holds, claiming it’s not in the public interest to release them.

Source: Robodebt Cover-Up: documents on repairing Australian Public Service buried – Michael West

Murdoch Media

Coalition and Murdoch media distort truth about asylum seekers

Coalition and Murdoch media distort truth about asylum seekers

The Worst Health, Immigration and Home Affairs Minister on record. Facts vs Political point scoring.

it seems sufficient time has passed since the biggest labour trafficking scam in Australia’s history, a scam that started when Peter Dutton was Immigration Minister, for the Murdoch press to start agitating about asylum seekers who have arrived by plane.

Source: Coalition and Murdoch media distort truth about asylum seekers

Trump

Trump sues his former lawyer Cohen for $US 500 million | The New Daily

Grifted funds were raised not for politics but for personal use, and revenge. Employment of lawyers who in all probability won’t be paid. It is what Donald Trump has done all his life to turn American law into a tool and it has allowed him.. Breaking people for revenge’s sake is his sociopathic bent. This is personal it’s not political but the money spent will have been taken from political donations. Cohen is just someone, a Jew, he intends to squash for the benefit of his  Nazi funders to watch on cheer and keep donating whether he wins or loses. Just another scam

Source: Trump sues his former lawyer Cohen for $US 500 million | The New Daily

Trump

Trump Spox: We Love Trump. He Doesn’t Take Us For Suckers | Crooks and Liars

Trump Spox: We Love Trump. He Doesn’t Take Us For Suckers

Donald Trump didn’t have a presidency — it was a crime spree. And the former President, to this day, has been playing his supporters for suckers. It’s been the longest grift ever.It Keeps Running,

Just late last year, Trump announced his foray into NFTs. The virtual trading cards targeting his supporters for sales depict him as a superhero. And more recently, after the one-term scandal-plagued President announced that he would be arrested on Tuesday of this week, he sent out an email blast begging for donations. The arrest hasn’t happened yet, but the grift did. He raised $1.5 million in three days.

Source: Trump Spox: We Love Trump. He Doesn’t Take Us For Suckers | Crooks and Liars

Informed Comment

Businesses are fuelling inflation with unnecessary price hikes — and struggling Australians are paying for it – ABC News

Escalators at Carindale shopping centre busy with Christmas shoppers

But there’s now evidence companies are raising their prices over and above the increase in those costs.

“There’s no doubt that corporations have taken advantage of the supply chain problems and the desperation of consumers to jack up prices far more than required to cover their own costs, and their record profits have made this inflation far worse,” economist Jim Stanford, from the Centre for Future Work, told The Drum.

Source: Businesses are fuelling inflation with unnecessary price hikes — and struggling Australians are paying for it – ABC News

Corporate Greed

Robbing Australia: profits soar for gas giants, royalties and tax languish – Michael West

What's the scam?

Foreign gas giants Shell, Chevron, Exxon are enjoying an explosion in revenue while paying virtually no income tax and forking out just spare change in royalties. What’s the scam?

Source: Robbing Australia: profits soar for gas giants, royalties and tax languish – Michael West

Universities

The great Sydney University grant swindle – Michael West

Sydney University Business School

Australia’s universities have been corporatised and compromised, and business schools are at the vanguard of academic capture. Jeanne Ryckmans investigates the rise and fall of the five-star travelling former professor who led the high-life on public grants.

Source: The great Sydney University grant swindle – Michael West

Informed Comment

Still Faxing: CITIC the gigantic tiny Chinese coal miner – Michael West

What's the scam?

CITIC the Chinese coal mining juggernaut churns out $8bn in revenue from its suite of Australian coal mines, gets government subsidies, but pays almost no tax and actually faxes in its one financial report to regulators. What’s the scam?

Source: Still Faxing: CITIC the gigantic tiny Chinese coal miner – Michael West

Informed Comment

Fossil fuel subsidies soar past disaster relief, even public schools funding. What’s the scam? – Michael West Media

Fossil fuel subsidies, TAI

This week on Q&A Barnaby Joyce said “we are a government who only spends money where we see a return on investment and growth in GDP”. Well we know that!! So little has been devoted to Age-Care, flood disasters, pensioners, job seekers yet debt blew out 400% above 2013 levels. It went from 10% of GDP to over 40% and is heading to 50%. So where did the money go and why doesn’t it matter now?  It mattered ever so badly when the ALP were in government. The LNP are currently screaming taxes taxes will go up under the ALP yet they have constantly been the highest under the LNP.

The scam is that flood and fire victims and other ordinary Australians don’t have lobbyists and don’t pay political parties. What are they thinking, that politicians will just help them because …?

Cruelling somewhat the Budget pitch euphoria in corporate media today, The Australia Institute has sallied forth with its annual analysis of hand-outs to coal and gas multinationals, state and federal, finding they cost the public $11.6b in 2021-22, or $22k per minute.

It’s a $1.3b (12%) increase on last year thanks to the feds. Across all budgets there is $55b committed, which is 11 times the balance of Australia’s Emergency Response Fund ($4.8b in Dec 2021), while $11.6b in 2021-22 is 56 times the budget of the National Recovery and Resilience Agency.

The subsidies cost the Federal government more than it spent on public schools in the same year ($9.7b). Now *that’s* a scam … and we are yet to see the Budget.

Source: Fossil fuel subsidies soar past disaster relief, even public schools funding. What’s the scam? – Michael West Media

Informed Comment

What’s the scam? Archives – Michael West

Google: What’s the Scam?

what’s the scam Google: What’s the Scam? by Michael West | May 1, 2021 Google Australia raked in $5.2bn revenue last year and paid the Tax Office … drumroll … zero income tax. What’s the scam? The scam used to be that Google simply pretended its income from selling services in Australia to Australians really belonged overseas so it invoiced straight from Singapore. No revenue here, ergo no tax. Now the scam is how they define revenue. They claim their revenue is $1.4bn but, buried in a footnote is the admission that gross revenue last year was actually $5.2bn. GST mysteriously plunged from $114m to $43m and “service fees” to foreign associates stomped in at an heroic $3.8bn. They actually paid $133m in tax in 2019. That’s $133m more than Rupert Murdoch’s News Australia Holdings paid in six years. But they’re back to their dodgy old ways – paying no tax again. Although they recorded a tax charge of $53m – this is what they claim they paid, their cashflow statement shows income tax received (not paid) of $22m last year. They got a tax benefit. That’s the scam.

Source: What’s the scam? Archives – Michael West

"For Coal", Israel

Netanyahu advisers hatched anti-Semitic conspiracy against George Soros | The Electronic Intifada
Yair Netanyahu, the son of the Israeli prime minister, shared this meme on Facebook depicting George Soros as a puppet master, an image reminiscent of classic anti-Semitic propaganda.

Israeli leaders helped birth today’s most notorious anti-Semitic conspiracy theory.

That’s the conclusion from recent reports about the origins of a right-wing plot against liberal Jewish billionaire George Soros.

The demonization of Soros – often in overtly anti-Semitic terms – has become a leading theme of the international right in recent years.

And two of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s key advisers were responsible for it.

via Netanyahu advisers hatched anti-Semitic conspiracy against George Soros | The Electronic Intifada

TAX

As workers notice no Raise, the Tax Scam Is Starting to Sink In | Informed Comment

As workers notice no Raise, the Tax Scam Is Starting to Sink In

The Koch Brothers alone will spend $20 million on ads selling the tax bill. This is a drop in the bucket compared to the $1.4 billion they stand to gain every year in tax breaks. It’s also a tiny fraction of their overall campaign spending on the 2018 midterms elections, which is projected to reach $400 million.

The Kochs have their work cut out for them. A new poll from Politico shows most workers report seeing no increase in their take home pay after the new tax laws took effect.

This is important.

The whole premise behind adding $1.5 trillion to the debt, giving massive handouts to the ultra-wealthy, and giving a tax break to the nation’s most profitable corporations was that working folks would also get a bit of cash.

Turns out, they’re not seeing that money. But the PR push is having an impact.

via As workers notice no Raise, the Tax Scam Is Starting to Sink In | Informed Comment