Tag: USA

Democracy

Democracy in decline: Australia’s slide into ‘competitive authoritarianism’ – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Australia is at a critical point. A government that would cling to power to impose unpopular policy threatens the very nature of our democracy.

It is common to refer to countries that were “consolidated democracies” as corroding to “illiberal democracies”. Hungary is the most notable example. If, however, the term “competitive authoritarianism” is employed to describe regimes instead, it becomes clear that the danger for Australia is just as strong as it is for the USA and the UK, as well as for Hungary.

Source: Democracy in decline: Australia’s slide into ‘competitive authoritarianism’ – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Climate Change

Wind generation for First Time Outstrips both Coal and Nuclear in US

“Last Tuesday, total U.S. wind generation exceeded 2,000 GWh, making wind the second largest producer of electricity in the United States after natural gas for that 24-hour period. Did a quick look at EIA’s numbers going back to 2018. Don’t think that’s ever happened before.” Storrow notes that wind power in the US has occasionally bested coal, but not both coal and nuclear.

Source: Wind generation for First Time Outstrips both Coal and Nuclear in US

Informed Comment

The US Blockade Against Cuba Is an Act of War

For sixty years, the United States’ blockade against Cuba has worked to hinder the island’s development and prevent it from trading even with third countries. It’s time Washington stopped its cruel punishment of its smaller neighbor.

Source: The US Blockade Against Cuba Is an Act of War

Fossil Fuel Industry

Since Congress Lifted Crude Export Ban in 2015, US Has Dropped ‘Climate Bomb’ on World

Rail cars carrying crude oil are seen on April 24, 2020 near Odessa, Texas.After Congress lifted a ban on crude exports in late 2015, oil and gas production in the Permian Basin soared while domestic consumption remained flat—leading to a massive build-out of pipelines and other infrastructure that culminated in the U.S. “flooding global markets” with fossil fuels at the expense of humanity, in general, and vulnerable Gulf Coast communities already overburdened by pollution, in particular.

Source: Since Congress Lifted Crude Export Ban in 2015, US Has Dropped ‘Climate Bomb’ on World

Uncategorized

For First Time, US joins Brazil and India as “Backsliding Democracy”: GOP is making US a Third World Country

Sweden’s International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance finds this year that the United States of America has joined the ranks of “backsliding democracies,” joining India, Brazil, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia.

Source: For First Time, US joins Brazil and India as “Backsliding Democracy”: GOP is making US a Third World Country

Climate Change

Good Climate News: US will increase Solar Power by nearly 50% in 2022, and add 29 Gigawatts of Wind

The US will have 300 gigawatts of wind and solar by the end of 2022. We also have about 100 gigawatts of hydroelectric power. That is 400 gigawatts. If we can get enough battery storage to make full use of the sun and of strong winds, that would amount to a third of the 1200 gigawatts of electricity generation capacity in the US.

Source: Good Climate News: US will increase Solar Power by nearly 50% in 2022, and add 29 Gigawatts of Wind

Fight against Fake News, Fighting Fake News

Old Dog Thought- Morrison’s the bag man for Fossil Fuels. “The Morrison Way” The first rule in Morrisonland is there no lies.
Australia Russia and the Saudis sign a pledge

Fighting Fake News with REAL 13/11/21; The first rule in the Game of Lies is there are no lies; What is CHUKUS? 30 Secret Meetings;

Justice

New Grand Jury Seated As Trump Criminal Probe Continues | HuffPost Latest News

New York prosecutors investigating former President Donald Trump’s business dealings have convened a new grand jury to hear evidence in the probe.

NEW YORK (AP) — New York prosecutors investigating former President Donald Trump’s business dealings have convened a new grand jury to hear evidence in the probe as the previous panel’s term was set to run out, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press Thursday.

Source: New Grand Jury Seated As Trump Criminal Probe Continues | HuffPost Latest News

Australia's Shame

The Other 9/11: secrecy fight over Australian spies helping CIA overthrow Chile’s President – Michael West Media

Chile coup 1973

On the eve of it’s 48th anniversary, documents just declassified by the Australian National Archives show the extent to which the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) worked closely with the CIA in the lead-up to the Coup-d’état in Chile in September 1973. Story by Peter Kornbluh and Clinton Fernandes. The Australian Government’s obsession with secrecy has a long history. As The New York Times wrote two years ago, “no other developed democracy holds as tight to its secrets.” Just how deep this culture of secrecy goes, is being tested by Professor Clinton Fernandes who has been petitioning for the release of intelligence records on clandestine activity in Chile at the behest of the CIA to overthrow Salvador Allende. In short, 50 years ago, the documents show that the Australian Government set up an intelligence station in Santiago at the behest of the CIA, spied on Allende and conducted covert operations, and then played a role as a liaison between the CIA and Pinochet.

Source: The Other 9/11: secrecy fight over Australian spies helping CIA overthrow Chile’s President – Michael West Media

Climate Change

The new climate “pledge” from the Murdochs is straight from the fossil fuel playbook | Media Matters for America

Australia fires Fox News prime time

Plan to advocate for carbon neutrality in Australia is not likely to change Fox News’ climate denial coverage in the U.S.

Source: The new climate “pledge” from the Murdochs is straight from the fossil fuel playbook | Media Matters for America

Afghanistan

New Chapter of Afghanistan War: U.S. Drone Strike Kills Family

Relatives and neighbors of the Ahmadi family gather around the incinerated husk of a vehicle targeted and hit by an American drone strike, which killed 10 people including children, in Kabul on Aug. 30, 2021.

The drone strike that hit Khwaja Burgha, a working-class residential neighborhood in Kabul, was said to have killed numerous members of the Ahmadi family, with the youngest alleged victim being a 2-year-old girl. Morgue footage shared on social media showed the burned bodies of several children, as well as photos of the victims before their deaths. One of the dead, according to members of the Ahmadi family who spoke to reporters, was a former Afghan military officer who had served as a contractor for U.S. forces, as well as a worker at a charity organization. Join Our Newsletter Original reporting. Fearless journalism. Delivered to you. I’m in “The Americans said the airstrike killed Daesh members,” a neighbor of the family angrily told reporters after the strike, referring to the Islamic State. “Where is Daesh here? Were these children Daesh?”

Source: New Chapter of Afghanistan War: U.S. Drone Strike Kills Family

Military- Industrial Complex

We Can’t Fight the Climate Crisis Without Fighting the Military-Industrial Complex

If we’re serious about stopping impending climate disaster, we have no choice but to radically rein in one of the world’s worst polluters: the US military.

Source: We Can’t Fight the Climate Crisis Without Fighting the Military-Industrial Complex

Climate Change

Under Pressure from Biden, Japan pledges to double target for Renewables in energy mix by 2030, to 38%, and to Slash Emissions

Australia’s PM is caught between Biden and his Coalition partner  while the country suffers. Watch the salesman promise what he can’t or wont deliver.

The importance of having a U.S. leader like Joe Biden, who has come to believe in the necessity of drastically cutting the emission of greenhouse gases, was demonstrated Wednesday when Japan announced that it was doubling its proposed cuts to carbon dioxide emissions by 2030. This according to Reuters.

Source: Under Pressure from Biden, Japan pledges to double target for Renewables in energy mix by 2030, to 38%, and to Slash Emissions

Coal

Coal miners are on strike in Alabama for the first time in four decades, but cable news is silent | Media Matters for America

The logos for Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC and a question mark on a picket sign next to an outline of Alabama, figure of a worker in a mine, and the logo for the United Mine Workers of America

Union mine workers in Alabama are taking part in a historic strike, the first of its kind in four decades, accusing Warrior Met Coal of first exploiting its workers and now inspiring violence against them on the picket line. Freelance journalists are on the ground and local news has been covering the story from the start — yet more than three months into the strike, the historic labor action has not received so much as a single mention from CNN, Fox News, or MSNBC, according to a new analysis from Media Matters.

Source: Coal miners are on strike in Alabama for the first time in four decades, but cable news is silent | Media Matters for America

Julian Assange

Julian Assange extradition: US can appeal denial, UK court rules

The highest standard of torture in the world has been shown and set by the USA

The UK’s High Court has granted the US government permission to appeal a decision that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange cannot be sent to the United States to face espionage charges. The judicial office said on Wednesday that the appeal had been granted and the case would be listed for a High Court hearing. No date has been set.

Source: Julian Assange extradition: US can appeal denial, UK court rules

Iraq

A Litany of Failure: Nearly 20 Years Later, the US is Still Bombing Iraq, and Iraq is Still Condemning Israeli Occupation of Palestine

Joe Biden is still bombing Iraq in 2021, and Iraq is still supporting the Palestinians, and refused to join Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates in recognizing Israel. Iraq is now so firmly an ally of Iran that its leaders have to do photo ops with Arab leaders to try to escape the perception that Baghdad is too tightly linked to Tehran. Neoconservative fail.

Source: A Litany of Failure: Nearly 20 Years Later, the US is Still Bombing Iraq, and Iraq is Still Condemning Israeli Occupation of Palestine

Socialism

How ‘socialism’ stopped being a dirty word for some voters – and started winning elections across America

How ‘socialism’ stopped being a dirty word for some voters – and started winning elections across America

The leftist Democratic Socialists of America, which helped congressional star Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez get elected in 2018, looks to be a big political player again in New York City’s 2021 municipal elections. The group has not yet endorsed anyone for mayor – the top prize in New York’s June 22 Democratic primaries. But all 51 city council seats are up for grabs this year, and the DSA has members running for six of them – including Queens public defender Tiffany Cabán and Brooklyn tenant activist Michael Hollingsworth. With two state senators and five representatives out of 213 lawmakers, the New York State Legislature already has the country’s largest DSA legislative caucus. These Democrats share a leftist platform that includes guaranteeing housing as a human right and ending mass incarceration The DSA has upended local politics in this Democratic stronghold, and its wins extend well beyond New York – into Virginia, Nevada and beyond. How did socialism jump from the fringes of American politics into its very center?

Source: How ‘socialism’ stopped being a dirty word for some voters – and started winning elections across America

Immigration

A new analysis shows no migrant “surge” or border “crisis.” Here’s how often broadcast news has said there is one. | Media Matters for America
Border fence with broadcast network logos

In other words, in fiscal year 2021, it appears that migrants are continuing to enter the United States in the same numbers as in fiscal year 2019 — plus the pent-up demand from people who would have come in fiscal year 2020, but for the pandemic. That’s visible in the first figure, earlier, in which the blue trend line for the five months of data available for fiscal year 2021 (October, November, December, January and February) neatly reflects the trend line for fiscal year 2019 — plus the difference between fiscal year 2020 and fiscal year 2019.

A new analysis shows no migrant “surge” or border “crisis.” Here’s how often broadcast news has said there is one. | Media Matters for America
Corporate Tax Evasion, TAX, Tax Evasion, Tax rorts

Top 1% fails to report over 20% of income using potentially “criminal” tactics: IRS analysis | Salon.com
main article image
Why would anyone believe Trump wasn’t one?

The wealthiest 1% of Americans fail to report more than 20% of their income to the IRS, and some of those ultra-rich people use “sophisticated evasion technologies” and criminal tactics to avoid paying their full share, according to a new analysis by researchers at the IRS and economists. The analysis estimated that the top 1% of households fail to report 21% of their income. Nearly a third of that is through sophisticated schemes that random IRS audits fail to detect. The trend is even starker among the top 0.1% of earners, whose unreported income may be twice as high as the IRS estimates.

Top 1% fails to report over 20% of income using potentially “criminal” tactics: IRS analysis | Salon.com
WAR

‘Counter-Terrorism’?: Two Decades After 9/11, New Interactive Map Details Footprint of US War Machine in 85 Countries | Common Dreams News

‘Counter-Terrorism’?: Two Decades After 9/11, New Interactive Map Details Footprint of US War Machine in 85 Countries | Common Dreams News
President Donald Trump, who vowed to "bomb the shit out of" Islamic State militants and "take out their families," presided over a dramatic escalation in air and ground attacks on cities including Mosul, Iraq—shown here under U.S. bombardment—in which thousands of civilians were killed. (Photo: Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP/Getty Images)
This is now a business driven industry and not a defense of values for the USA

“The map raises a number of questions. Why is the United States militarily active in so many countries? Are these operations meeting the stated U.S. goals of reducing violence against Americans?”

‘Counter-Terrorism’?: Two Decades After 9/11, New Interactive Map Details Footprint of US War Machine in 85 Countries | Common Dreams News
Voting

Republicans are going all-out to limit voting rights. We know why | Republicans | The Guardian
<img src="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/ffccdf7030c46acc299f77fd64d81e5c0c599158/0_0_3319_1991/master/3319.jpg?width=445&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=e064f7e021d2b6abd0a5776ce2bd0f3e&quot; alt="Mitch McConnell Near the Senate Chamber in Washington, US – 28 Jan 2021

In 2021 legislative sessions, lawmakers in 28 states have pushed a whopping 106 bills that would restrict voting access

Republicans are going all-out to limit voting rights. We know why | Republicans | The Guardian
Coronavirus, Uncategorized

Was COVID-19 born in the United States? (part 2) – » The Australian Independent Media Network

A new bombshell emerged: the Trump Administration unfounded accusation of China for spreading the ‘Wuhan virus’ worldwide. It did not matter that such infamy had been questioned by both Japanese and Chinese reports. A report from a Japanese TV station which suspected some of the 14,000 Americans died of influenza may have unknowingly contracted the COVID-19 went viral on Chinese social media, stoking fears and speculations in China that the new virus may have originated in the United States. The report, by TV Asahi Corporation of Japan, suggested that the United States government may have failed to grasp how rampant the virus had gone on the United States soil. (Japanese TV report sparks speculations in China that COVID-19 may have originated in US, Global Times, February 23, 2020). Nor did the presence of suspected similar cases had occurred in Italy in late 2019 and elsewhere, as will be seen. On 12 March 2020, in a statement to the House Oversight Committee of the United States Congress the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Robert R. Redfield candidly admitted that: yes, some cases diagnosed as seasonal flu could have been COVID-19. As to exactly when that occurred, in October?, in November?, he could not be precise. China’s Foreign Ministry reacted to Dr. Redfield’s statements intimating that the virus could have originated in the United States.

Was COVID-19 born in the United States? (part 2) – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Filed under:
Biden

The USA, CIA and a poor night’s sleep for the world

Trump’s coup plot has been treated by many in the media as the last gasp of a deranged political despot, but we are told that American democracy remains strong and that a new day is dawning. Had the news been coming from almost anywhere else in the world the headlines might have been different. We would have been reading about a “failed state”.

The USA, CIA and a poor night’s sleep for the world
Fascism

A Deepening Democracy Crisis: More than 70 Percent of Trump Voters Distrust the Best-run Election in Years | The Smirking Chimp
Trump Built a Wall to Lock Latin American Politics into the USA

When America faces a leader with totalitarian impulses who thinks he can will his way into another term, it is also facing its greatest democratic crisis in decades. The passage of time always heals wounds, including political wounds. But what can be done to revive public trust in elections in the meantime is not just an open-ended question. Democracy’s fragile skin has been stretched as never before, when tens of millions of voters say that they don’t trust the results from the best-run election in years.

A Deepening Democracy Crisis: More than 70 Percent of Trump Voters Distrust the Best-run Election in Years | The Smirking Chimp
Coronavirus

Coronavirus: Hospitalised COVID-19 patients hit record 90,000 in US ahead of expected surge
Medical staff wear their photos outside their PPE in COVID ICU at a hospital in Texas.

Deaths Rate has increased by 68%

The number of COVID-19 patients being treated in hospitals across the United States has reached 90,000 after nearly doubling in the past month, just as holiday gatherings are expected to propel the next wave of infections.

Coronavirus: Hospitalised COVID-19 patients hit record 90,000 in US ahead of expected surge
LNP, LNP Government

Senior Republican senator Marco Rubio slams Beijing for ‘bullying’ Australia
Republican Senator Marco Rubio says other democratic countries need to stand up for Australia.

So much for “we stand alone” stance insisted by Morrison. Broadsides coming from America suggest otherwise. (ODT)

Senior United States Senator Marco Rubio has lashed the Chinese government for its “economic coercion” against Australia, saying it is important for a global alliance of democracies to speak up in support of Canberra. The intervention from the former Republican presidential candidate followed a sharp escalation in rhetoric from Beijing as it doubled down on its claim that the Morrison government is solely to blame for deteriorating relations between China and Australia.

Senior Republican senator Marco Rubio slams Beijing for ‘bullying’ Australia
LNP, LNP Government

Morrison’s Trumpist dilemma: A credible revisionist narrative is impossible

WHEN JOE HOCKEY, former cigar-chomping Australian Treasurer in Tony Abbott’s government and Australian ambassador to the USA between January 2016 and January 2020, made it clear that he agreed with his golfing buddy Donald Trump that fraud “for sure” characterised Democratic Party voting and that “there’s plenty of good reason to have litigation, I mean it is a complete dog’s breakfast right across the country,” he did more than jump into the unaerated, putrid goldfish bowl. He inadvertently shone a light on the real nature of the relationship between the current Australian Government and the Trump White House, a relationship which exposed the Australian Government as a kind of ex-officio branch of the Trump Republican Party.

Morrison’s Trumpist dilemma: A credible revisionist narrative is impossible
Coronavirus

Coronavirus: US COVID-19 deaths projected to more than double to 410,000 by end of year
Healthcare workers administer COVID-19 tests at a drive-through site in San Antonio, Texas.
MAGA

US deaths from the coronavirus will reach 410,000 by the end of the year, more than double the current death toll, and deaths could soar to 3000 per day in December, the University of Washington’s health institute has forecast.

Coronavirus: US COVID-19 deaths projected to more than double to 410,000 by end of year

 

Filed under:
Informed Comment

TikTok furore exposes data privacy hypocrisy in Australia and the U.S.

Microsoft is currently in talks with TikTok to buy out operations in the U.S., Canada, New Zealand and Australia. Considering Bill Gates and Microsoft’s massive failure with the Windows phone and in the battle with Android, they would be absolutely salivating at the prospect of owning a mobile app with over a hundred million young consumers. But will they protect private data? That prospect is highly doubtful. In early August, the Washington Post reported that Microsoft could use the data from TikTok for research and development in artificial intelligence. The only way forward is legislation that is both national and global in application and places democracy and the protection of privacy ahead of corporate interests and invasive security measures. Though with the governments of Trump, Scott Morrison and Xi Jinping, I don’t like our chances of that.

TikTok furore exposes data privacy hypocrisy in Australia and the U.S.
Middle East

Was F-35 Stealth Jet Sale to Arab UAE at heart of deal with Israel and Trump? Did Netanyahu Lie?
https://www.juancole.com/images/2020/08/was-f-35-stealth-jet-sale-to-ara-750x422.jpg

BBC Monitoring translates a report in the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot that alleges a high UAE official told its correspondent that “The aircraft are part of the deal.” That is, an arms deal was part of the agreement between the two countries, and that the US would sell Abu Dhabi F-35s was openly specified. So the United Arab Emirates made the treaty with Israel not to bring peace to the Middle East but to ensure that it is armed to the teeth. The UAE has a citizen population of only about a million (plus 8 million guest workers), so it is the Rhode Island of the Middle East. The country has enormous oil wealth, however, and has used it to begin asserting itself throughout the region, from Libya to Yemen. It joined Saudi Arabia in an air war on the Shiite Houthi rebels of Yemen, and Abu Dhabi clearly sees its sophisticated fighter jets as one key to regional dominance.

Was F-35 Stealth Jet Sale to Arab UAE at heart of deal with Israel and Trump? Did Netanyahu Lie?
India, Uncategorized

Comparing Poverty in India and America May Surprise You | The Smirking Chimp

Other comparisons relate to the World Bank’s definition of poverty as the pronounced deprivation of well-being:

  • Homicides: Numerous sources report a higher homicide rate in the U.S. than in India.
  • Suicides: Numerous sources report a higher suicide rate in India than in the U.S. (although WHO shows a higher male suicide rate in the U.S. than in India).
  • Alcohol Abuse: All sources report a higher alcohol-related death rate in the U.S. than in India.
  • Homelessness: Based on the best available data, the U.S. has a slightly higher rate of homelessness than India. The numbers may be understated for both countries.

via Comparing Poverty in India and America May Surprise You | The Smirking Chimp