| IndyWatch Aussie Politics Feed Archiver | |
 |
Go Back:30 Days | 7 Days | 2 Days | 1 Day |
|
IndyWatch Aussie Politics Feed was generated at Australian News IndyWatch. |
|
NSW Nurses and Midwives Association, June 2023: between Grafton and Maclean Hospitals another 40 nurses are needed to provide adequate staffing levels North Coast Voices
Grafton Base Hospital is a Level 3/4 rural community hospital with an est. 68 bed inpatient capacity which provides acute medical, surgical, orthopaedic, paediatric, anaesthetic, geriatric, obstetric and maternity, intensive and critical care, renal, oncology, palliative care, emergency, some specialist outpatient services and day surgery facilities. Maclean District Hospital is a Level 3 rural community hospital with an est. <43 inpatient bed capacity, an inpatient Rehabilitation Unit and a Day Surgery Unit.
Clarence Valley Independent, 14 June 2023:
Between Grafton and Maclean Hospitals another 40 nurses are needed to provide adequate staffing levels say the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association as the Local Health District tries to fill 180 nursing vacancies across the region.
NSW Nurses and Midwives Association Clarence Valley branch secretary Thea Koval said without agency nursing staff being called in, who are paid significantly more than NSW Health nurses, Maclean and Grafton hospitals would struggle to operate.
Without agency nursing staff our hospitals would not be able to be run with the nurses employed only by NSW Health, she said.
...Go Back:30 Days | 7 Days | 2 Days | 1 Day
Seeing the light Independent Australia
So it begins; he driving, me happy to be the passenger.
I know the Min Min is somewhere out there, somewhere beyond. No chance of even a glimpse until we shrug off the pull of the coast and plunge into the Outback. Leave far behind the coastal huddlers with their desk jobs, soft hands and short horizons. The Min Min isnt here, never would be. Have to turn away from the sea. Inland. Thats where well find it. Or not at all.
Hes taking this Toyota to a relative at Normanton in the far north and I grab the chance to go with him. I know hes not interested in the Min Min. For him this is just an Outback road trip for two grey blokes. Or maybe, for the well-read man he is, like the wanderings of Don Quixote with Sancho Panza.
Past Beenleigh and Ipswich, were on the Warrego Highway before long. Roadside has a veneer of grey gums and ironbarks. Move on up the range to Toowoomba, gateway to the famous Darling Downs.
"Were starting to pull away from the coast now," I say.
"How do you mean?" he says.
"Weve crossed the Great Dividing Range. All waters here drain inland, not to the east."
Beyond Toowoomba, busy grey clouds sloping away across the paddocks towards a low green strip along the south-western horizon. Here and there, low-set farmhouses shelter in clumps of trees well back from the road at the ends of driveways marked with fresh puddles.
Continue on past Dalby. More grey-cloud ceiling. Fallow fields and no trees nearby.
"This whole area used to be dense brigalow scrub before the First World War," I say.
"Whats brigalow?" he asks.
"A kind of wattle tree," I say. "Dark trunk and silver leaves. Only about 60 years since it finally gave up in the face of overwhelming machine and chemical onslaught."
Not visible from the car are the extensive coal seam gas fields in this area; gas trapped below ground in coal seams by the pressure of underground water. But its also a cropping area growing wheat, barley, chickpeas and more. Many farmers are unhappy; dont want drilling anywhere near their land. They say drilling has made their fields subside permanently. Whatever the truth of it, governments of both persuasions are backing expansion of the gas fields.
Gun-barrel straight road as I settle into a bit of a reverie. Road follows...
Virginity and violence in Tajikistan Independent Australia
In Tajikistan, women are still subject to discrimination and sexual repression, writes Johanna Higgs.
"The situation for women in Tajikistan is really bad," said Dilraboi Davlatnazar, a Tajik lawyer. "Its still a very traditional society and there are very young girls who get married at 16 or 17. I think that this is very bad. If a woman gets married then she should be a virgin. If shes not, then it would be a shame for the family."
We were sat in Davlatnazars office in the small mountainous village of Khorog, Tajikistan in the northeast of the country, bordering Afghanistan. I had come to Afghanistan to learn more about the situation of womens rights as part of my global work to raise awareness about violence against women and girls.
I have come across many forms of violence and discrimination against women throughout the world, however, arguably one of the least acknowledged forms of discrimination is against womens sexual rights. Sexual rights being the right to have control over ones own sexual behaviour and choices.
Throughout the world, patriarchal norms and values continue to subordinate women and girls right to making their own sexual choices. In many cases, this subjugation of womens sexual rights is justified by religious, cultural or political ideologies that oppose or deny the existence of womens right to be sexual, or at least seek to restrict or control them.
Part of this discrimination is the expectation that women be virgins before marriage. Expectations that are not placed on men.
So much is the case in Tajikistan.
This emphasis on a womans virginity stems from so-called traditional values, that see a womans central role in society as being that of motherhood. Gender stereotypes and traditional attitudes dictate that a womans value and honour are directly linked to her sexuality, more specifically, ensuring her virginity before marriage.
Women who are not virgins before marriage may face social stigma, rejection, violence, or divorce which in some cases can lead to harmful practices such as early and forced marriages, polygamy, or bride kidnapping.
Such beliefs are essentially informal customary laws which are supposedly intend...
The Revenge of Partygate: Boris Johnson Resigns The AIM Network
The agent of chaos is at it again. Boris Johnson, frontman of the Brexit disaster show, prime minister responsible for breaking regulations, rules and laws, and overall self-serving gross figure of indulgence, has decided to throw in the towel. He is leaving the House of Commons. The time had come for him to walk to
The post The Revenge of Partygate: Boris Johnson Resigns appeared first on The AIM Network.
Dont give me a home amongst the park trees The AIM Network
Recently in The New Yorker, author Andre Dubus III wrote about a weekend enjoying the high life in New York. The premise was I had been writing daily for nearly twenty years, and now my third published book had become a major best-seller, and I who at forty-one had never had more than three hundred
The post Dont give me a home amongst the park trees appeared first on The AIM Network.
Damned Van And The Whole Problem With Judging When Youre Not In The Room! The AIM Network
This morning I made myself a cup of tea. While this is a normal occurrence, I usually use a teabag but this morning I used loose leaf tea and a few moments later my wife opened the pantry cupboard and told me that there was tea all over the floor. Just to make sure that
The post Damned Van And The Whole Problem With Judging When Youre Not In The Room! appeared first on The AIM Network.
It's time for Albanese to stamp his authority Independent Australia
To ensure its longevity, the Albanese Government must pull recalcitrant public servants into line and take on the Murdoch media, writes Paul Begley.
SINCE WINNING a comprehensive victory in the May 2022 Election, there is plenty of evidence supporting the idea that Anthony Albanese is proving the critics wrong in the way he has established his authority domestically.
That said, and mindful that Albanese has been in government for just over one year of a three-year term, there are ominous signs that suggest his authority may be short-lived.
Although the opposition Coalition is pitifully weak on numbers and wafer-thin on talent, it enjoys two advantages over the government that could see Albaneses authority head south just as Julia Gillards government did a decade ago.
The first is an advantage Albanese gifted to his political opponents by generously declaring he would not fire partisan public service chiefs. The second is his reluctance to take action against the Murdoch media empire.
On the first, both the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme and the ACT Board of Inquiry into the ACT Criminal Justice System following the aborted Lehrmann rape trial, have shown senior public servants operating in ways that are consistent with a determination to remain loyal to the government that appointed and promoted them rather than to provide impartial advice as expected by a professional public service.
Competent public servants are capable of saying no minister when giving advice that takes into account the long-term public interest rather than short-term party political advantage. That became almost impossible during the Morrison years within a public service dominated at the top level by secretaries such as Phil Gaetjens, Mike Pezzullo,...
In which Polonius starts off the Sunday meditation, there's a detour with the Angelic one, and then a pice de tyke rsistance from the bromancer guaranteed to send stray readers screaming from the room ... loon pond
Long ago in a time far away, angry Sydney Anglicans once stalked the pond's pages in the cause of a Sunday meditation ... and given the religious tone of a few of today's lizard Oz offerings, it seemed only fair to note that the bigots are still in business, and ducking and weaving at what their Uganda forays have produced ...
For once the pond must stray from the lizard Oz for Sydney at centre of global Anglican stand-off over sex and colonialism ...
Well if you can't find a complimentary woman to do your bidding, why not hang a gay?
There's more at the link, and there's more religion to follow, but first the pond must get past prattling Polonius, doing a fierce impression of a knee-capping hard man ...
Daniel Ellsberg has died John Quiggin
Daniel Ellsberg has died, aged 92. I dont have anything to add to the standard account of his heroic career, except to observe that Edward Snowden (whose cause Ellsberg championed) would probably have done better to take his chances with the US legal system, as Ellsberg did.
In decision theory, the subsection of the economics profession in which I move Ellsberg is known for a contribution made a decade before the release of the Pentagon papers. In his PhD dissertation, Ellsberg offered thought experiments undermining the idea that rational people can assign probabilities to any event relevant to their decisions. This idea has given rise to a large theoretical literature on the idea of ambiguity. Although my own work has been adjacent to this literature for many decades, its only recently that I have actually written on this.
A long explanation is over the fold. But for those not inclined to delve into decision theory, it might be interesting to consider other people who have been prominent in radically different ways. One example is Hedy Lamarr, a film star who also patented a radio guidance system for torpedoes (the significance of which remains in dispute). A less happy example is that of Maurice Allais, a leading figure in decision theory and Economics Nobel winner, who also advocated some fringe theories in physics. I thought a bit about Ronald Reagan, but his entry into politics was really built on his prominence as an actor, rather than being a separate accomplishment.
The simplest of Ellsbergs experiments is the two-urn problem. You are presented with two urns. One contains 50 red balls and 50 black balls. The other contains 100 black or red balls, but you arent told how many of each. Now you are offered two even money bet, which pay off if a red ball is drawn from one of the runs. You get to choose which urn to bet on. Intuition suggests choosing the urn with known proportions. Now suppose instead of a bet on red, you are offered the same choice but with a bet on black. Again, it seems that the first urn would be better.
Now, on the information given, the probability of a red ball being drawn from the first urn is 0.5. But what about the second urn. Strictly preferring the first urn for the red ball bet implies that the probability of a red ball being drawn from the second must be less than 0.5. But preferring the first urn for the black ball bet implies that the probability of a red ball being drawn from the second must be more than 0.5. So, there is no probability number that rationalises these decisions.
The title of Ellsbergs paper was Risk, Ambiguity and the Savage Axioms. As a result, the term ambiguity has been applied, in contradistinction to risk, to the case when there are no well-defined probabilities. But this was not the way Ellsberg himself u...
The Great Koala National Park is no closer to becoming a reality than it was when Labor made a commitment to such a park in January 2015 North Coast Voices
 |
| IMAGE: Animal Justice Party NSW |
"Of more than 458 000 hectares of Areas of Regional Koala Significance (ARKS) mapped in NSW, only 21% are inside a National Park.
"One of our most iconic species is being subjected to native forest logging and out of control land clearing, and the National Parks estate can't save it unless something big changes.
"Koalas now face extinction in our lifetimes without urgent action. Yet their habitat has virtually no protection from the logging and clearing that is driving this decline.
[Nature Conservation Council (NCC) chief executive Jacqui Mumford...
Go Back:30 Days | 7 Days | 2 Days | 1 Day
Agape: Love in action Independent Australia
This short story is an *IA Writing Competition (fiction category) entry.
They are all quite clearly bonkers. The kids with their crazy haircuts and Doc Marten boots, the middle-aged dreamers and dissidents, a sprinkling of senior citizens who should know better: grans and grandads to save the planet.
And now, so Destiny has told me, I am one of them. I am most definitely not one of them but try convincing this bunch of extremists and eco-radicals. I have tried.
Destiny says:
"We read your book. Its brilliant. Its like a call to action."
I explain once again:
"Its just a story."
"I didnt even know how to pronounce it. Had to look it up."
"Ah-gah-pee."
"Love of humanity, love between god and mortals. Did I get it right?"
"Correct."
"Its perfect."
"Its just something I wrote years ago. Im a writer, not Che Guevara or Greta Thunberg."
"Greta tweeted how she loves your book. All those things you said in your podcasts and Youtube videos it is so inspiring."
"So, no word from Che?"
I recall a moment in the 60s, seeing the magazine pictures of his lifeless body with its rash of bullet wounds and make a mental note: thats what happens if you dont have a social media presence; you cease to exist.
"Destiny, hold on. Youve got me all wrong. Youre confusing the message with its sender. I am not who you think I am. Im a novelist, not a revolutionary."
Destiny has put on her serious face.
"Its like weve been chosen to put your ideas into action. We have one chance to save the world and were ready. But we need your help."
"...
British band Royal Blood gives Scottish fans the finger Independent Australia
Why did British rock duo Royal Blood get stroppy last week and diss an audience in Scotland? Because people weren't 'enthusiastic enough'. Yes. Really.
For context: it was BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend (R1BW) in Dundee. Dundee crowds are notoriously hard to please... apparently. BBC Radio 1 is the biggest pop music radio station in the UK and the gig had a relatively young audience of pop music fans.
So a poundingly loud, riff-heavy rock band being received with a lukewarm, bemused reception was almost guaranteed. And yet, in a sulky display of ill humour, lead singer Mike Kerr chastised the crowd about their lack of enthusiasm.
Footage from the show proves that the crowd were, in fact, getting into the set, but that wasnt enough for Kerr, who said:
Who likes rock music? Nine people. Brilliant.
And with that, Royal Blood walked off stage, giving the crowd the middle finger.
Last time I checked, the battle between real music and anything else was a thing of the past. Rock music, as a superior art form and the attendant prejudice that goes along with it, is all but done and dusted in the 21st Century.
If the annual Triple J Requestival (a week-long listeners-pick-the-music event) has taught us anything, younger generations and broadly speaking, large portions of the population dont have such regimented, homogenous music tastes. Anything is up for appreciation.
Royal Blood would have been better to put on a good show: win the crowd over with hard work instead of whinging. Their music is arguably good enough to blow an audience away had they just gotten on with it.
...Uneasy Locations: The Russian Embassy Site in Canberra The AIM Network
They think we are mugs and its insulting. Its all fine for politicians to be swimming, swerving and tossing about in the goo of paranoia that is surveillance, chatting to the ghost called foreign interference; but to expect the rest of the citizenry to be morons is rather poor form. But the formula has
The post Uneasy Locations: The Russian Embassy Site in Canberra appeared first on The AIM Network.
Voice Referendum Campaign Goes Local The AIM Network
By Gillian King I am a private person. I dont have a cat or a dog, and dog parks are a foreign territory to me. Yet, last week, I put on my YES t-shirt, picked up my corflutes and flyers, and headed off to a popular local dog park to talk to strangers about the Voice Referendum. There were six
The post Voice Referendum Campaign Goes Local appeared first on The AIM Network.
George Floyds killing capped years of violence, discrimination by Minneapolis police, DOJ says Pigs Fly Newspaper
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) The Justice Department on Friday issued a withering critique of Minneapolis police, alleging that they systematically discriminated against racial minorities, violated constitutional rights and disregarded the safety of people in custody for years before George Floyd was killed.
...
Integrity watchdog unleashed Pigs Fly Newspaper
In less than two weeks the new National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) will be officially in operation the long-awaited answer to a defining issue of the last federal election.
The need for an integrity watchdog became pressing given the failure of the Morrison government to legislate such a body as promised during its time in office, and the range of possible investigations into past government activities that were thought to have been corrupt but were being generally overlooked.
A prime example was the illegal...
I have been thinking on the premise of a new genre of
storytellingand having given it a lot of thought in that poetry and
song or rather song-line, or perhaps; prosetry, ie; a cross between
song and story-line..or prose and poetry..something like an opera
spoken, enacted and some parts sung around an informal gathering by
the incumbent storyteller of the group may be a good way of
going
I have used songs injected into several stories as mood creatorsan
accidental inclusion of personally favoured songs that I thought
enhanced the feeling of the story-lineand since I am a nobody in
the world of writing, I can do these sorts of experiments without
comment or criticismI can please myselfI have recently completed a
3 act piece on the Italian charcoal burners in the Murray Mallee in
the war years, calling it A reading opera.having failed to find
someone who could write and play music to accompany my own
libretto..here..: https://freefall852.wordpress.com/2019/08/04/a-ukulele-opera/
..
In a couple of other stories, I have woven the song into the length
of the storyin one case sung by the mother to her child: https://freefall852.wordpress.com/2017/01/18/beautiful-dreamer/
.in another shorter piece, I used the actual songs timed length to
be the same time length it takes to actually read the story..:
https://freefall852.wordpress.com/2018/10/14/a-two-dollar-coin/
I called this method..: Muse Music.
PwC and the Adani mine triple dip. A conflict of interest? Surely not Pigs Fly Newspaper
A humble footnote on page 30 of the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facilitys 2016-17 annual report reads: PwC supported NAIF in the development of its Risk Management Framework. NAIF was in the news in late 2016 because it had given conditional approval of a $1 bill...
In which the pond is forced to go there by the allegedly Aristotelian dog botherer, and the mind-numbing nattering of a tediously droning "Ned" ... loon pond
The pond was pleased to note a correspondent noting the keen Keane in Crikey noting ...
At The Australian, a severe reverse ferret has been required. Stenographers Dennis Shanahan and Simon Benson are today, hilariously, lamenting the politicisation of sexual assault allegations and insisting all sides have been damaged. But at last count, there is only one party thats ended the week with fewer senators than it began. The opposition would have been far better to have left The Australian to stew in its own sordid juices rather than following its lead.
The headline said it all, Oops! News Corp campaign to destroy Higgins takes out Liberal senator, (likely paywall), as did the lede ...After targeting Brittany Higgins and Labor, News Corp and the opposition have instead found that they've taken out one of their own in a disastrous week.
And yet as late as last night "the stenographers" were still front and centre in the commentary section, still bold as brass, but as putrid as month old sour milk ...
It wasn't just the reptiles ... Crikey also lost a grundling piece by the grundler: A statement regarding Crikey removing an opinion piece by Guy Rundle (likely paywall).
No need to go into the details of the imputations and errors, the lede will do: Crikey has made the decision to unpublish the article, and apologises to Brittany Higgins and readers.
In recent times, the grundler has attempted to become a tiresome latter-day Bob Ellis, with wild-eyed columns, pandering to the weirder elements in Crikey subscribers, but at least they decided to take him down this one time.
As for the reptiles, the keen Keane concluded by asking ...
If women, no matter their status, party or prominence, are still being made to feel unsafe in the nations Parliament without serious consequences for perpetrators, how much has changed?
Not much, not bloody much at all. (Would My F...
Far-Right grifter found guilty of running fake charity Independent Australia
Active during last year's devastating Northern Rivers floods, conspiracist influencer David Oneeglio has been found guilty by the Office of Fair Trading of requesting donations without approval, writes Tom Tanuki.
DAVID ONEEGLIO (known on social media as Dave Oneegs) was offered many opportunities by organised conspiracy as a "freedom" movement figurehead who stepped up at the start of the pandemic. He built a platform for ongoing merchandise sales, received overseas trips and built his conspiracist influencer brand during the height of the movement.
But he likely raised his largest pile of money in one fell swoop by collecting donations for another crisis: the devastating Northern Rivers floods of 2022.
And now Queensland's Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has determined that he collected it all illegally.
Oneeglio helped raise over $320,000 intended for supporting Northern Rivers locals and paying for expenses associated with the 2022 floods. The unregistered collection front he created to do this was named "...
We cannot let racism decide The AIM Network
Racism is: the process by which systems and policies, actions and attitudes create inequitable opportunities and outcomes for people based on race. Racism is more than just prejudice in thought or action. It occurs when this prejudice whether individual or institutional is accompanied by the power to discriminate against, oppress or limit
The post We cannot let racism decide appeared first on The AIM Network.
Quotes of the Week North Coast Voices
Google has announced that soon, when you search a question on its site, the first result displayed will be an AI-generated answer drawn from the open web. But many of the most trustworthy sources of information - academic journals, high-quality newspapers - are locked behind a paywall. There is a real chance the AI-powered search engines that will shape our lives will be biased toward misinformation or even falsehoods.
[The Conversation, webpage footnote, excerpt retreived 11 June 2023]
Weve logged our state forests to exhaustion, so were now going into plantations cutting old growth and remnant forest.
[Dr Tim Cadman, Adjunct Senior Research Fellow with Law Futures Centre and Institute for Ethics, Governance and Law at Griffith University, writing in Griffith News, 5 June 2023]
...Go Back:30 Days | 7 Days | 2 Days | 1 Day
Documents relating to the classification of 'Gender Queer: A Memoir' Requests or responses matching your saved search
Successful.
Correspondence between Senator Claire Chandler and Ita Buttrose Requests or responses matching your saved search
Successful.
IA Writing Competition: MAY WINNERS! Independent Australia
Independent Australia is proud to announce the IA Writing Competition winners for May!
A big CONGRATULATIONS to the following May entries:
Most Compelling Article
Highly Commended: Alex Lippa Capitalistic: It's time to re-design Medicare
(Read this excellent article HERE.)
MAY PRIZE WINNER: Frances Letters Responsible free speech key to a fair, harmonious Australia
(Read this excellent article HERE.)
Most Enthralling Fiction Work
Highly Commended: Harry Bough 'The Great Koala National Park'
(Read this excellent entry HERE.)
MAY PRIZE WINNER: Steven Gration 'The Cabins
(Read the winning entry HERE.)
Our May category winners Frances Letters and Steven Gration each receive a $100 cash prize and a 12-month subscription to IA, plus their entries have been published on the Independent Australia website.
They have also been shortlisted for the overall $500 prize and publication in the special printed edition of the Independent Australia Magazine, due in October.
The competition concludes on 30 September 2023, so get those pens flowing and keyboards t...
Reserve Bank forsaking Australians' best interests Independent Australia
The Reserve Bank's pledge to ensure that monetary policy is being designed to the greatest advantage of the Australian people is not being met, writes John Kampert.
IN AUSTRALIA, our currency unit is the $AU because Section 8 of the Currency Act 1965 provides: (1) The monetary unit, or unit of currency, of Australia is the dollar.
That does not mean that all Australian dollars in general use are creations of the Government. In fact, only about 4 per cent of the general economys money are Commonwealth-created banknotes and coins, the bulk of the general economys money, the remaining 96 per cent, is digital commercial bank currency. And that is where the topic of politics, banking and interest rates gets very interesting.
Unfortunately for many, that is not of interest, a mystery not to be bothered with. Most people think that the Government creates all $AU, both the physical and the non-physical kind, and that is not correct.
The 1966 text, Tragedy and Hope A History of the World in Our Time by Carroll Quigley states: Bankers Create Money Out of Nothing. In that section of the book, the author explains the origins of the current money creation system and that ends with:
William Paterson, however, on obtaining the charter of the Bank of England in 1694, to use the moneys he had won in privateering, said, The Bank hath benefit of interest on all moneys which it creates out of nothing. This was repeated by Sir Edward Holden, founder of the Midland Bank, on December 18, 1907, and is, of course, generally admitted today.
Professor Quigley thus documented that any bank can and does create money from thin air and that this has been done and has been known for cen...
The Financial Times reviews The Palestine Laboratory Antony Loewenstein
The Financial Times has reviewed my book, The Palestine Laboratory, and it feels like 7/10. Written by journalist Mehul Srivastava, I disagree with many of his criticisms but thats the life of an author.
Heres the intro:
Warfare is, among many things, a spectacular advertisement for weapons, especially in the age of television. Having watched Israels Iron Dome missiles streak over Tel Aviv hunting down Hamas rockets, the Ukrainian government contacted its Israeli counterpart last October, hoping to buy the air defence system to fend off the Iranian drones swarming their skies.
If theyd read Antony Loewensteins The Palestine Laboratory, they would have known not to bother. The tiny countrys weapons exports, which hit just over $11bn in 2021, are a means to an end, he argues. Despots and dictators are welcome to them, so long as they serve a geopolitical necessity.
Read the whole thing: The Israeli weapons and spyware falling into the hands of despots | Financial Times
The post The Financial Times reviews The Palestine Laboratory appeared first on Antony Loewenstein.
Heres What Sharyl Attkisson Told Me About the 2009 Pandemic "IndyWatch Feed Politics.us"
April 16, 2020 [America in lockdown: Day 34.]
The CDC would never launch a fake epidemic; certainly not
And meet our old friend, Dr. Anthony Fauci, in another context
History matters.
So I take you back to the summer of 2009, when the CDC and the World Health Organization were hyping the deadly H1N1 Swine Flu pandemic.
They were, of course, also urging people to take the new Swine Flu vaccine. On that subject, here is an excerpt from Robert Kennedy Jr.s Childrens Health Defense (3/27/20):
For example, [Dr. Anthony] Fauci once shilled for the fast-tracked H1N1 influenza (swine flu) vaccine on YouTube, reassuring viewers in 2009 that serious adverse events were very, very, very rare. Shortly thereafter, the vaccine went on to wreak havoc in multiple countries, increasing miscarriage risks in pregnant women in the U.S., provoking a spike in adolescent narcolepsy in Scandinavia and causing febrile convulsions in one in every 110 vaccinated children in Australiaprompting the latter to suspend its influenza vaccination program in under-fives.
Thank you. Dr. Fauci. Explain to us why you havent been downgraded to pumping gas in Death Valley or sent to prison?
Back to the Swine Flu pandemic. In the summer of 2009, the CDC was claiming there were thousands of cases in the US. But behind these statistics lay an unnerving secret. A crime, considering the CDCs mandate to report the truth to the American people:
Secretly, the CDC had stopped counting cases of Swine Flu.
What? Why?
CBS investigative reporter, Sharyl Attkisson, discovered the CDC secret; and she found out why.
The routine testing of tissue samples from the most likely Swine Flu patients was coming back, in the overwhelming percentage of cases, with: NO SIGN OF SWINE FLU OR ANY OTHER KIND OF FLU.
Attkisson wrote an article about this scandal, and it was published on the CBS News website. However, the next, bigger stepputting out the story on CBS television newswas waylaid. No deal. And CBS shut down any future investigation on the subject. Attkissons article died on the vine. No other major news outlet in the world picked up her article and ran with it deeper into the rabbit hole.
Here is what Attkisson told me when I interviewed her:
Rappoport: In 2009, you spearheaded coverage of the so-called Swine Flu pandemic. You discovered that, in the summer of 2009, the Centers for Disease Control, ignoring their federal mandate, [secretly] stopped counting Swine Flu cases in America. Yet they continued to stir up fear about the pandemic, without having any real measure of its impact. Wasnt that another investigation of yours that was shut down? Wasnt there more to find out?
Attkisson: The implications of the story were even worse than that. We discovered through our FOI efforts that before the CDC mysteriously stopped counting Swine Flu cases, they had learned that a...
Dumplings cop blame for sins of the Russians Independent Australia
While many are quick to blame Russia for its aggression against Ukraine, taking it out on international cuisine is lapsing into the moronic, writes Dr Binoy Kampmark.
THE UKRAINIAN blonde had the smell of trouble. She had perched herself, along with her mute friend, in a restaurant across from the famed South Melbourne Market. On arriving at the modish, glorious bit of real estate known as Tipsy Village, a Polish establishment famed for accented French cuisine, she shrieked: Why do you have Ruskie dumplings on your menu?
The Polish host, a man of butter-mild manner and infinite tolerance, covered in stout glory, took it in his stride. That is what they are called where I come from and that is what we serve, Peter Barnatt stated with serene clarity. (Such wickedness! Such a radical disposition!) The shrieking blonde wonder continued to invest in the dumplings some Satanic quality, as if each one had been a shell, soldier, a weapon massed and launched against her pristine homeland which she had, it seemed, abandoned.
We would just like coffees, she demanded. His temper finally disturbed, the host insisted that, as the two were not intent on dining, might just as well leave.
In a luxurious huff, they exited. Such behaviour was fascinating for being irresolvable no dining establishment worth its salt and cutlery should ever change that aspect of things. But for them, the issue had been decided, a prejudice firmed up and solid.
Names on the menu are a signature of a restaurants worth. Besides, dishes do not invade countries in tanks or bomb cities. The episode was also strikingly, amusingly moronic. Food had been made out as somehow guilty, disgusting, revolting all because of a name, an identity. The sin had moved in the dough, the mixture and the potatoes, dumplings with agency. The restaurateur was all the more guilty for hosting them.
Since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the gastro-culture war on serving dishes with a Russian name, be it with hint, flavour or substance, has been total. Hatred of the Kremlin has become bigotry towards the dish. In Madrid,...
Naomi Klein on the indispensable Palestine Laboratory Antony Loewenstein
Writer and author Naomi Klein has written a new column in the Guardian about the US presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr where she methodically debunks his populist appeal.
Im grateful for her mention, when discussing Kennedys blind embrace of Israel, of my new book:
Myth #3: He is anti-war and pro-human rights.
Kennedy is most persuasive when opposing US military intervention abroad, or when he is discussing the humanitarian cost of the war in Ukraine, and calling for a peaceful settlement. But how seriously should we take his pacifism and human rights concerns? One hint rests in the blanket supporthe offers the Israeli government, one of the top recipients of aid from the US military industrial complex he decries, and a nation consistently unwilling to entertain peace with justice, while escalating tensions with Iran. Have a look at Antony Loewensteins latest, The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World, for an indispensable accounting.
This position alone should cause Kennedys supporters to question his supposedly antiwar, anti-surveillance stance. So should his increasingly reactionary position on border controls. Kennedy talks a good game condemning the US for overthrowing democratically elected governments abroad and destabilizing entire regions.
The post Naomi Klein on the indispensable Palestine Laboratory appeared first on Antony Loewenstein.
My part in Elon Musks horrifying and tragic Everest catastrophe (Chapter Three) Independent Australia
Read Chapter One: The Infiltration
Read Chapter Two: Elon Musk and Keith the saucy, Reuters fake
llama
THE STORY SO FAR
It is 1994. A bright-eyed and ineffably heroic David Donovan has, as a rookie freelance journalist, managed to infiltrate a vast and bizarre Elon Musk expedition to scale Mount Everest. To do this, he has successively adopted various cunning disguises, including a garrulous one-eyed sherpa called Murray, and Bonny the amiable and reliable pack mule. On the way, he has gotten rather too close to Musk and befriended a statuesque fake llama called Keith, from Reuters.
We pick up this gripping tale as the exhausted Musk caravanserai, 14 days out of Kathmandu and much diminished now by natural and, for the most part, unnatural attrition at last sights Base Camp One, its first objective on its epic quest to reach the Roof of the World.
IT WAS ONLY on the 14th day of the trek though I recall it seemed so much longer that we at last cast our weary eyes upon Base Camp One, below us on an unlikely plain, with Everest looming gargantuan and vaguely threatening behind it.
Elon Musk, by this time, had, according to his PA/nanny, taken to spending the early part of the day reciting Mother Goose songs he apparently recalled from his childhood in Upper Right White Transvaal. As few of us in the party were familiar with Musks guttural native tongue, Afrikaans, we were all obliged to take that under advisement.
It had been a long and tortuous 14-day trek since last we set our eyes upon Kathmandu. It would take a book perhaps several weighty tomes, indeed to properly describe the many adventures and even more frequent misadventures we suffered during that perilous and demanding slog into the Himalayas. Let me merely fill you in...
Why so many people dont believe what they see and hear Antony Loewenstein
The growing public distrust of the mainstream media is an issue that should concern all living and breathing citizens (and yes, there are often good reasons for it).
Its an issue I discuss in this interview on The Jist podcast along with my new book, The Palestine Laboratory, and mass surveillance.
I previously appeared on The Jist in 2020 talking about disaster capitalism.
The post Why so many people dont believe what they see and hear appeared first on Antony Loewenstein.
ABC Radio Sydney interview on Israeli hacking tool, Cellebrite Antony Loewenstein
Israeli company Cellebrite sells a phone hacking tool thats ubiquitous across the world including in Australia.
Its an issue I investigate in my new book, The Palestine Laboratory.
Heres my interview with ABC Radio Australia in Sydney and Canberra where I discuss Cellebrite and other mass surveillance tools that exist in the West with barely any public awareness.
The interview starts at 1:19:53.
The post ABC Radio Sydney interview on Israeli hacking tool, Cellebrite appeared first on Antony Loewenstein.
CARTOONS: All eyes are on the man with the chicken-tikka tan Independent Australia
And we think an orange jumpsuit would suit you right, Donald!
Mark David is IA's resident cartoonist. You can see more cartoons from Mark on his website Mark David Cartoons, or follow him on Twitter @mdavidcartoons.
Liberals come a cropper when they try to dig afresh into the Brittany Higgins story Pigs Fly Newspaper
Two chances inquiry into Murdoch media will float: Fat and slim Independent Australia
Last week, the Greens introduced a Bill to the Senate to establish a parliamentary commission of inquiry into the Murdoch media empire. While many people will want to support such a move, Dr Martin Hirst says hes not convinced yet.
FOR SOME TIME, Ive been sceptical of calls for a royal commission into the Murdoch media despite efforts by former PM Kevin Rudd and now Malcolm Turnbull to get one established.
Theres always a danger of governmental overreach when it comes to press regulation and legal sanction. I would not be in favour of governments establishing too much legal control over news content. However, now that the Greens have tabled legislation, its time for a sober assessment of any proposed commission of inquiry.
Nothing is going to happen quickly. The legislation, the Murdoch Media Inquiry Bill 2023, has already been shunted off to a Senate committee thats not due to report until October. So we have time to digest the information and consider the implications of such a commission. But first, a short digression.
Despite its very obvious legion limitations, bourgeois press freedom is of some importance to progressives and the Left today. If we are to have any success in combatting the evils of late Anthropocene capitalism, our rights to organise, protest and propagandise are important. These things are also under attack and the last vestiges of media freedom of...
In which the pond averts eyes from reptile hypocrisy to take in Henry versus the machines, and a dash of roving Rove ... loon pond
If the pond remembers correctly from the days being dragged down to Tamworth's number one oval kicking and screaming, the technical term is being "sold a dump."
Some dropkick throws the ball to you, and you get your head taken off with a stiff arm or a coat hanger or whatever, or some boofhead thug with no neck creams you. Memory fades as to the pond's recollections and sometimes that's a relief.
Never mind, here's how the technical term applies in politics:
You see? Yesterday simpleton Simon (no conflict there) had the complete cheek to turn moralist and mutter "this should serve as a lesson in the perils of politicising sexual assault allegations."
Even worse, it was Liberals get burnt after turning up the Higgins' heat.
The pond couldn't resist a rich, ripe belly laugh. The reptiles had been politicising sexual assault allegations for weeks, neigh months, and poor old Captain Potato took the bait, marched in step to reptile orders, and thought he was on a winner... but thus far all it's won him is a lost senator, and the realisation that the reptiles have "sold him a dump" ...
A little while later the lizard Oz realised this simply wouldn't do and went with the "pox on both houses" and "both sides of politics" angle ...
Now it was a "pox on both houses exposing perils of politicisation", with both...
Podcast #96: Timor-Lestes parliamentary election The Tally Room
Ben is joined by former AEC official Michael Maley, who has just returned from a trip to Timor-Leste to help with the countrys recent parliamentary election. Ben and Michael discuss the constitutional structure, electoral system and party system of Timor-Leste. We also discuss the results of the recent elections, the likely shape of the new government, and the continuing dominance of the independence generation in Timorese politics.
This podcast is supported by the Tally Rooms supporters on Patreon. If you find this podcast worthwhile please consider giving your support.
You can subscribe to this podcast using this RSS feed in your podcast app of choice, but should also be able to find this podcast by searching for the Tally Room. If you like the show please considering rating and reviewing us on iTunes.
Credit to FelipeRev via Wikipedia for the map in the feature image.
The transcript is below the fold.
Ben: Welcome to the Tally Room podcast, Im Ben Raue. In todays episode well be discussing the recent Timor-Leste parliamentary election which saw a swing towards the CNRT party of President Jos Ramos Horta and former president and prime minister and possible new prime minister Xanana Gusmo.
My guest today is Michael Maley. Michael had a 30 year career at the AEC, at different times running research it and international assistance areas. Michael in particular has expertise in helping run elections in other parts of the world giving advice and part of that has been visiting Timor-Leste on a number of occasions. Hello Michael.
Michael: Good morning.
Ben: So before we talk about this latest election and whats happened this year with with Timor, tell me a little bit about your involvement in Timor-Leste because Ive been reading in the last couple of days about the AECs long history of providing election advice overseas when you worked at the AEC, but what has you been your involvement in the development of ah Timors voting system over the last few decades?
Michael: Wel...
Bipartisan support for The Voice makes its presence felt in the Richmond Valley NSW North Coast Voices
Byron Echo, 14 June 2023:
Showing their support for the Yes vote were Alice and dozens of Yes friends in Brunswick Heads. Photo Tree Faerie
The Richmond for Yes campaign kicked off this week, with a strong call for volunteers to help deliver a successful Voice referendum.
Bundjalung elder Charline Emzin-Boyd, who is leading the campaign locally, says, People who want to be involved in this special moment in history can get in touch with us at Yes23.
...
Go Back:30 Days | 7 Days | 2 Days | 1 Day
Dengue: is Africa ready to respond? "IndyWatch Feed Politics.pg"
Dengue is the fastest spreading infectious disease in the world. Around 70% of cases are currently found in Asia, but prevalence elsewhere is increasing due to anthropogenic factors including rapid urbanisation and globalisation.
The Aedes mosquito, which transmits dengue, has moved into new areas of Asia, as well as South and Central America. It is also expanding within Africa, and the warmer regions of some high-income countries, including Australia, the United States, and parts of southern Europe.
Between 1990 and 2019, there was an 85% increase in the number of dengue cases. This life-threatening disease is now endemic in 129 countries, with the worst dengue outbreak on record currently affecting Peru.
Caused by four different serotypes or strains of the dengue virus, infection will lead to life-long immunity to that serotype; but subsequent infection with another strain increases the risk of developing severe dengue. Children under the age of 10 are most vulnerable to severe infection or death.
The significance of dengue as a threat to the health of individuals and as a burden on health services and economies cannot be underestimated. This is especially true in contexts where health systems require further strengthening to function effectively, such as parts of Africa.
Africa has suffered Zika, chikungunya, yellow fever and multiple other mosquito-borne viruses (or arboviruses), some of which have spread across the world and are causing increasingly frequent outbreaks, especially in urban situations where Aedes mosquitoes thrive. We know that, after Asia, Africa is the second most heavily impacted region afflicted with arboviruses.
A 2022 survey from the World Health Organizations Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases conducted in 47 African countries revealed deep and widespread shortfalls in arbovirus outbreak preparedness, surveillance and control.
Misdiagnosis and misclassification of arboviral infections is a major challenge in the region. The overwhelming prevalence of malaria south of the Sahara can mask the presence of other arboviral infections, such as dengue, because of the similarity in many of the symptoms.
Due to the high mortality associated with malaria, in addition to the historic focus of global efforts to reduce the toll of illness and death from the disease, medical practitioners are inclined to focus on diagnosing and treating malaria. But this leaves non-malarial fevers to be treated symptomatically, and their cause often undetermined.
A lack of knowledge of healthcare workers on the symptoms of dengue, as well as an absence of a standa...
16 July National Cabinet Meeting Requests or responses matching your saved search
Partially successful.
Correspondants regarding former PM Paul Keating Requests or responses matching your saved search
Successful.
Action For Alice 2020 Requests or responses matching your saved search
Successful.
| IndyWatch Aussie Politics Feed Archiver | |
|
Go Back:30 Days | 7 Days | 2 Days | 1 Day |
|
IndyWatch Aussie Politics Feed was generated at Australian News IndyWatch. |
|
