The Big Budget Bribe.2018

joe6pack Uncategorized

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The 2018 Federal Budget will be announced tomorrow ( or what little parts already haven’t been) but a desperate Government hoping to bribe the voters into re-electing them.

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By all reports they are going to spend big on infrastructure as well as any other items the think will be looked upon favourably as well as giving tax cuts and other sweeteners immediately to the lower classes while the more affluent will have to wait a few years.

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Morrison and Mal are indeed trying to be Santa Claus. The hypocrisy is astounding by them as well as the complicate media,

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What happened to the DEBT AND DEFICIENT disaster   we were warned about day in and day out when it was much lower than what it is now? What about the Sovereign Risk to Australia,? WE were all going to be ruined unless it was bought back under control.

 

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This is the biggest bribe in place since Costello’s last one, which was the last trick to save their tired old Government from losing. This coming budget is about saving Turnbull/Morrison and the rest of Coalscums jobs.It will be talked up as brilliant by their sprukers and lickspittles , Labor will pillared from post to paddock if they don’t immediately agree to pass all the measures in the budget and then get out of the way and let the rightful rulers get on with their agenda with out question.

 

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Will the Public fall for it, or are they more savvy than given credit for?

Time will tell.

3,079 thoughts on “The Big Budget Bribe.2018”

  2. The hand-wringing and moaning from journalists over the Fairfax/Nine takeover is so very hypocritical.

    Take the latest screed to hit the web, by none other than Murpharoo.

    Nine’s Fairfax takeover shows the Australian media industry is in the fight of its life
    “The Turnbull government wrote the law that has now killed one of the biggest and oldest independent media company”
    https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/jul/26/nines-fairfax-takeover-shows-the-australian-media-industry-is-in-the-fight-of-its-life

    Any second thoughts about all that one-eyed, slavish support for Turnbull now, Katharine-with-an-A?

    Here’s the thing – no-one is compelled to watch Channel 9 (I can’t remember the last time I did) or to read anything from the increasingly right-leaning Fairfax. The way our media has been for the last six years or so has sent a lot of us off in search of decent, unbiased reporting because we don’t get it from the big media providers.

    The way this lot are carrying on you’d think Australan political journalism has always been a model of independent comment, a shining example of true democracy in action, the very essence of fair and unbiased reporting. Where have all these people been? Don’t they ever read their own papers?

    • What’s that? Fairfax Media is “embattled”? They’re “challenged” and/or “face a test” with the Nine merger?

      When you agree with everything the Murdoch press says, one of you is redundant; guess which one it is…

    • I started sailing away from local meeja in 1998. Praise be the intertubes. At the time it was all free so come on down reading all the legendary names The Times of London, New York Times, Le Monde, Bild e etc etc etc.

  3. Dick Smith foods were still a thing?

  5. (May contains duplicates; apologies, but too much context is better than none.)

    • With any luck, JB will follow FU and get written out of the next parliamentary session.

  6. Asked about leadership for a fifth time in the same press conference, Albanese ruled it out.

    “Well, I don’t know how many times I can say it,” he said.

    “Here’s this, I’ll say it really slowly. No. There you go. There you go, in a word. It’s not hard. “

    Nice one, Amy

    Shorten maintained he was unaware of any issues until last week, which Malcolm Turnbull said was an assertion he found “very hard to believe” accusing Shorten of ‘not paying attention’.

    “He’s got a member of parliament over a long period of time with problems in her office, so severe that the Labor party appoints a lawyer to go and investigate,” he said.

    “It is scarcely creditable that neither Bill Shorten or Tanya Plibersek knew anything about it.”

    Earlier this year, Turnbull said he was unaware of his deputy prime minister’s affair with a staffer, despite staff turnover in Barnaby Joyce’s office, which included his long term chief of staff and the staffer, Vikki Campion, herself. Turnbull only took action against Joyce once the Daily Telegraph confirmed Campion’s pregnancy earlier this year.

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/jul/26/albanese-knew-of-emma-husar-bullying-claims-but-did-not-tell-bill-shorten

  8. Hansard doesn’t seem to be recording votes in divisions any more. (Or maybe I’m just looking in the wrong place) If you want to see the voting record on the media reform bill, debated in September last year, them it’s all here –

    https://theyvoteforyou.org.au/divisions/senate/2017-09-14/8

  10. Despite all the screams about the end of journalism as we know it, the MSM keep on ignoring the big stories.

    Like this one –

    Catherine Marriott demands Nats release findings of probe into Barnaby Joyce sex harassment claim
    Catherine Marriott says she is ‘extremely frustrated’ at the delay of the investigation into her claims against Barnaby Joyce.
    https://outline.com/d9PnB4

    Only the Murdoch papers and the West Australian seem to be running it. Crap about Shorten’s leadership and who knew what about the Emma Husar investigation and when they knew or didn’t know seem to be far more important at Fairfax and The Guardian. The ABC has a plague of crickets.

    We all know it will be a whitewash anyway.

    Earlier today Tony Windsor had this to say –

  11. US to bolster its Marines presence in Australia to tackle ‘China threat’

    The US continues to ramp up its military footprint in Australia, aimed at countering a perceived threat presented from China. With plans to station 2,500 Marines in Darwin, US military presence in the Pacific continues to expand.

    Marine Corps presence in Australia has ballooned since the first rotation of 250 troops arrived in the country in 2012. There are currently 1,500 members of the Marine Rotational Force-Darwin stationed in Australia’s Northern Territory along with an array of US weapons and aircraft. That number is to swell to 2,500 “as soon as practicable,” the Department of Defense said following a meeting between the US and Australia this week.

    https://www.rt.com/news/434274-marines-darwin-increase-china/

  12. I’m still here folks, reading all your wonderful and thoughtful comments (I haven’t missed any even though I have not been commenting much myself lately) .

    In relation to PJK’s latest comments about the Nine/Fairfax merger, when you see Keating letting rip at anything that he feels strongly about, one surely has to wonder what would have been the kind of Australia we would have now if the electorate had have had more sense than to have given that miserable excuse for a human being let alone a leader of the country, “honest” John Howard the best part of 11 years to turn us into a country that we have now.

    So large section of our populous, convinced by the likes of Pauline Hansen or Peter Dutton that people attempting to come to our country seeking asylum as a result of the military adventurism of Howard, Bush & Blair are to be feared, treated as criminals and locked away indefinitely on some god forsaken island in the middle of nowhere that the msm now just treat it as a given that that is how it should be.

  13. Monitor: Recent US-Led Airstrikes Kill at Least 73 Syrian Civilians

    US-led coalition air strikes targeting Islamic State militants have killed at least 73 Syrian civilians during the month of July, with most of these deaths occurring in two strikes in Deir Ezzor province, according to monitor and media organizations.

    The UK-based journalistic monitor group Airwars reports the deadliest of the recent US bombings blasted an ice processing plant between the towns of Al-Bagouz Al-Fawqani and Al-Sousse in Deir Ezzor, where many civilians had gathered to collect ice on July 12. Step News Agency reported US-led warplanes launched five successive strikes, killing 35 civilians and wounding 25 others. Smart News reported 28 civilians were killed, along with 26 IS fighters, with scores of civilians including women and children injured. Other local media sources reported as many as 58 civilians died in the attacks.

    According to monitor and local media organizations, at least 24 and as many as 30 civilians, including women and children, died when US-led air strikes targeted several Deir Ezzor locations between Al-Sousse and Al-Dahra. Local media including Baladi News reported most of the dead were refugees fleeing from areas still controlled by IS.

    Shortly after dawn on July 16, between 10 and 13 civilians, reportedly almost all of them women and children from a single family, died in a US-led bombing in Al-Baghouz. Step News Agency said the number of casualties was expected to rise as many victims were trapped beneath rubble after the attack.

    https://original.antiwar.com/brett_wilkins/2018/07/24/monitor-recent-us-led-airstrikes-kill-at-least-73-syrian-civilians/

  14. An independent journalist in Eritrea

    By Thomas C. Mountain
    Posted on July 26, 2018 by Thomas C. Mountain

    Officially I don’t exist. I am an independent journalist in the small east African country of Eritrea who. after 12 years here and over 150 internationally published articles, I find that officially I don’t exist.

    According to the international media there are no independent journalists in Eritrea and in spite of multiple interviews on international news channels, they persist that I don’t exist.

    Committee to Protect Journalists (aka Committee of Suspect Journalists) published an article of mine (“Ethiopia Bombs Itself) on its website where, as always, I identified myself as an independent journalist in Eritrea and still CPJ said that I did not exist later that year in their annual report on press freedoms.

    I contribute to independent websites across Africa and am listed as a columnist in Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Somalia, Eritrea, Kenya and south Asia, amongst other countries, for years now yet it doesn’t seem to matter, it still persists that I don’t exist.

    I have contributed almost 100 articles over the past 15 years to CounterPunch, which receives 2 million unique visitors every month making it the largest left wing English website on the planet but even this doesn’t matter, there are no independent journalists here in our small, peaceful east African country of Eritrea.

    Why is this you may ask? Maybe its because we are socialist, and although Ethiopia seems headed in our direction, Eritrea remains, like Cuba in Latin America, the only socialist country in Africa.

    Socialism is always bad, right? End of conversation, what else do you need to know?. Especially what it’s really like on the ground in Eritrea from an independent journalist.

    Thomas C. Mountain is an independent journalist in Eritrea, living and reporting from here since 2006. See thomascmountain on Facebook, thomascmountain on Twitter or best contact him at thomascmountain at g mail dot com.

    http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/24681

  15. The Case for Stripping Former Officials of their Security Clearances

    COMMENTARY: Former CIA agent John Kiriakou argues that no former intelligence official should be allowed to keep their security clearances when they leave government, especially if they work in the media.

    I’ve known John Brennan for 30 years. He was my boss in the CIA’s Directorate of Intelligence decades ago. John was hard to get along with. His superiors generally didn’t like him. He was once fired from a job at the CIA. He’s not particularly bright. And then he found a patron in former CIA director George Tenet, who saved his career. Brennan has had his run. He succeeded beyond his wildest dreams…

    Besides legacy, Brennan and the others have cashed in on their government service. They’ve all become rich by sitting on corporate boards. Brennan is on the board of directors of a company called SecureAuth + CORE Security. He also serves on the board of The Analysis Corporation, which he helped found before joining the Obama Administration. Finally, and most importantly, Brennan is now the official talking head and “Intelligence Consultant” for NBC News and MSNBC.

    To me, this is the point that is the most obviously wrong. How is it that former officials who now have no role in government are able to keep their active security clearances? This has abuse written all over it. First, these officials run the risk of exposing classified information in a television interview, either inadvertently or not. Second, and more cynically, what is to keep them from propagandizing the American people by simply spouting the CIA line or allowing the CIA to use them to put out disinformation? What’s to keep them from propagandizing the American people by selectively leaking information known only to the intelligence agencies and Congress? Or to release information passed to them by the FBI?

    No former intelligence officials should have a security clearance. There’s no purpose for it other than propaganda and personal enrichment. And if Brennan or Hayden or Clapper or any other former intelligence official becomes an employee of a media company, he or she should not have a security clearance. Period. Donald Trump ought to act right now.

    https://consortiumnews.com/2018/07/25/the-case-for-stripping-former-officials-of-their-security-clearances/

  16. Violent Coup Fails in Nicaragua, U.S. Continues Regime Change Efforts

    The violent coup in Nicaragua has failed. This does not mean the United States and oligarchs are giving up, but this phase of their effort to remove the government did not succeed. The coup exposed the alliances who are working with the United States to put in place a neoliberal government that is controlled by the United States and serves the interests of the wealthy. People celebrated the failure of the coup but realize work needs to be done to protect the gains of the Sandinista revolution.

    Other Latin American leaders spoke out against involvement in the coup. Bolivian President Evo Morales condemned US “interference” in Nicaragua, denouncing the “criminal strategies” used against the government of Daniel Ortega. Morales accused the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) of “openly supporting violence” in Nicaragua.

    The United States is not giving up. Also on the anniversary of the revolution, the NICA Act, designed to escalate the economic war against Nicaragua, was introduced in the Senate. It has already been passed by the US House of Representatives. The Senate bill, called the Nicaragua Human Rights and Anti-corruption Act of 2018, imposes sanctions, calls for early elections and escalates US intelligence involvement in Nicaragua. It is a law that ensures continued US efforts to remove the democratically-elected government.

    At the same time, USAID announced an additional $1.5 million for Nicaragua to build opposition to the government. This will fund the NGOs that participated in the protests, human rights groups that falsely reported the situation, media to produce the regime change narrative and other support for the opposition.

    https://www.truthdig.com/articles/violent-coup-fails-in-nicaragua-u-s-continues-regime-change-efforts/

  17. blockquote>Israeli bulldozers demolish water pipeline in Palestinian village

    NABLUS (Ma’an) — Israeli bulldozers destroyed a water pipeline supplying the northern Jordan Valley village of Ras al-Ahmar with fresh drinking water, on predawn Wednesday.

    According to a local official, Mutaz Bisharat, four Israeli bulldozers raided the Ras al-Ahmar village along with seven Israeli military jeeps, and began to destroy the water pipeline.

    Bisharat added that Israeli bulldozers razed the land for five hours to create a military road.

    He pointed out that the destroyed water pipeline was used by local Palestinian farmers for drinking water and to irrigate their lands.

    Israeli forces destroyed a water pipeline of 1500 meters and 6 inches in length, and created a 2.5 kilometer-long road linking the main road of Ras al-Ahmar village to the Msheibek area, which Israel declared a closed military zone.

    Locals told Ma’an that while Israeli forces razed the land, Palestinian residents were prevented from entering or exiting the area.

    https://maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=780505

    • I was once told that if I didn’t examine why I hated something, I would become like it. I sometimes wonder if the Israeli’s doing these things actually realise that they are repeating what was done to their ancestors barely eighty years ago.
      I also wonder if there is anyone who could break this vicious cycle of hate, repression and bloodshed.

  18. The IMF just might have learnt something from the last time when Argentina told them to get stuffed on repayments

    June 20, 2018

    The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) today approved a three-year Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) for Argentina amounting to US$50 billion (equivalent to SDR 35.379 billion, or about 1,110 percent of Argentina’s quota in the IMF).

    The Board’s decision allows the authorities to make an immediate purchase of US$15 billion (equivalent to SDR 10,614 billion, or 333 percent of Argentina’s quota). One half of this amount (US$7.5 billion) will be used for budget support. The remaining amount of IMF financial support (US$35 billion) will be made available over the duration of the arrangement, subject to quarterly reviews by the Executive Board. The authorities have indicated that they intend to draw on the first tranche of the arrangement but subsequently treat the remainder of the arrangement as precautionary.

    The Argentine authorities’ economic plan backed by the SBA aims to strengthen the country’s economy by restoring market confidence via a consistent macroeconomic program that lessens financing needs, puts Argentina’s public debt on a firm downward trajectory, and strengthens the plan to reduce inflation by setting more realistic inflation targets and reinforcing the independence of the central bank. Importantly, the plan includes steps to protect society’s most vulnerable by maintaining social spending and, if social conditions were to deteriorate, by providing room for greater spending on Argentina’s social safety net.

    https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2018/06/20/pr18245-argentina-imf-executive-board-approves-us50-billion-stand-by-arrangement

  19. Israeli Soldiers Demolish A Kindergarten And A Women’s Center Near Jerusalem

    Israeli soldiers invaded, on Wednesday morning, Jabal al-Baba Bedouin Palestinian community, southeast of occupied East Jerusalem, and demolished a kindergarten and a women’s center.

    The soldiers surrounded the Palestinian community and assaulted many residents, before demolishing the kindergarten and the women’s center.

    The attack is part of a series of violations, and constant Israeli attempts to displace the Palestinians from Jabal al-Baba, in addition to al-Khan al-Ahmar, and numerous communities, for the construction and expansion of its illegal Jewish-only colonies, in direct violation of International Law.

    The illegal Israeli colonialist plan, known as ‘E1 Jerusalem Plan’ meant to encircle the eastern part of Jerusalem with colonial settlements to surround the city, and claim it for Israel, denying the Palestinian people’s historical and ongoing claim to the city.

    The plan, which began in 2005 and has vastly expanded Israeli colonial settlements on Palestinian lands, is set to displace hundreds of thousands of residents from their homes and add them to the Palest

    http://imemc.org/article/israeli-soldiers-demolish-a-kindergarten-and-a-womens-center-near-jerusalem/

  25. The below is about what can happen in teh UK with a no-deal Brexit

  26. Some late-night myth-busting.

    Paul Keating is in the news now, and with that has come a repeat of the incorrect claim that says he dropped out of high school, or did not finish his education.

    Here’s what happened.

    Keating was born in January 1944. Just keep that in mind. He’s not quite two years older then I am and we were both educated in NSW under the same education system.

    When Keating was at high school in the 1950s it was the normal thing to leave school after completing Third Year and gaining your Intermediate Certificate. Only students who were academically inclined and were looking at going to uni or teachers college went on to complete two more years at high school. Some high schools did not even offer those two final years. The compulsory six years at high school that we have now began in 1962.

    Teenagers leaving after Third Year might go on to apprenticeships, or go to TAFE, then known as Technical College, to learn skills that would lead to employment, or as Keating did, they might go straight into the workforce.

    Students leaving school at that level would have already turned fifteen during their final school year, or would reach that birthday early in the new year. That’s what happened with Keating. He did not each the age of fifteen until a few weeks after leaving school. He did complete his education, doing all that was required at that time. He completed the education that the majority of school students left school with back then.

  27. Good morning Dawn Patrollers

    Greg Jericho explains how low inflation levels don’t add up with the reality of people’s lives. He conclude that regardless of the level of inflation, until we see wages growth start to rise closer to 3%, there is little sign either of the economy of households able to handle an interest rate rise.
    https://www.theguardian.com/business/grogonomics/2018/jul/26/low-inflation-levels-dont-add-up-with-the-reality-of-peoples-lives
    Mueller is examining Trump’s tweets in wide-ranging obstruction inquiry.
    https://www.canberratimes.com.au/world/north-america/mueller-is-examining-trump-s-tweets-in-wide-ranging-obstruction-inquiry-20180727-p4ztw1.html
    John McDuling goes inside the Nine-Fairfax deal. IMHO it all comes down to how Nine defines the term journalism.
    https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/nine-promises-to-safeguard-fairfax-journalism-in-4-2-billion-tie-up-20180726-p4ztsn.html
    Elizabeth Knight explains how the deal was done.
    https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/fairfax-s-new-dance-partner-how-the-nine-deal-was-done-20180726-p4ztrr.html
    Stephen Bartholomeusz says the merger is about survival rather than cost reduction.
    https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/the-nine-and-fairfax-merger-is-about-survival-not-costs-20180726-p4ztq3.html
    And the SMH editorial says something like this was bound to happen.
    https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/the-media-business-was-bound-to-change-20180726-p4ztpe.html
    Fairfax heavy James Chessell assures us that journalism standards and independence will be maintained. Under the circumstances what else COULD he say?
    https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/smh-commitment-to-quality-independence-will-not-change-james-chessell-20180726-p4ztv3.html
    Katharine Murphy says Nine’s Fairfax takeover shows the Australian media industry is in the fight of its life.
    https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/jul/26/nines-fairfax-takeover-shows-the-australian-media-industry-is-in-the-fight-of-its-life
    Quentin Dempster tells us the proposed end of Fairfax Media as an entity governing the editorial output of The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian Financial Review and regional newspapers has provoked mounting anger by some of Australia’s most prominent journalists.
    https://thenewdaily.com.au/money/finance-news/2018/07/26/anger-nine-takeover-fairfax/
    Bill Shorten’s job being “on the line” gives no joy to Catherine McGregor.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/shorten-s-leadership-on-the-line-and-that-brings-me-no-joy-20180726-p4ztrq.html
    Phil Coorey reckons that if Labor tanks on Super Saturday, there are some factors people should consider before pressing the button on Bill Shorten.
    https://outline.com/eXz7E
    And Michelle Grattan pens “Voters in Braddon and Longman probably aren’t even aware they could be pivotal to the future of Bill Shorten’s leadership and Anthony Albanese’s ambition.”
    https://theconversation.com/grattan-on-friday-albanese-is-race-ready-if-byelection-voters-fire-starting-gun-100623
    And she writes about Paul Keating’s vitriolic attack on the Nine-Fairfax deal.
    https://theconversation.com/paul-keating-unleashes-vitriolic-attack-on-nines-takeover-of-fairfax-100604
    Dave Donovan writes “Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp propaganda machine wants Bill Shorten gone — which should tell us all we need to know about the Labor leader.”
    https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/by-election-bias–how-rupert-murdoch-runs-all-australias-media,11726
    Doug Dingwell reports that public service commissioner (for the time being) John Lloyd is now facing an inquiry into a second complaint about conduct.
    https://www.canberratimes.com.au/politics/federal/john-lloyd-faces-inquiry-into-second-complaint-about-conduct-20180724-p4zt9g.html
    David Crowe writes that Pauline Hanson all at sea as One Nation sinks to a new low.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/pauline-hanson-all-at-sea-as-one-nation-sinks-to-a-new-low-20180726-p4ztsk.html
    The One Nation candidate for Longman, Matthew Stephen, sold his tiling company on paper, and disclaimed its debts, less than three weeks after his firm received payment of $66,000 from a long-running legal dispute. Porline can really pick ‘em!
    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/jul/27/one-nation-candidate-received-66000-payout-three-weeks-before-selling-debt-laden-company
    Jenna Price gives John Falzon a boost in his preselection contest for the new federal seat of Canberra. And for good reason.
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/why-those-in-poverty-are-depending-on-a-bunch-of-labor-preselectors-20180726-p4ztt3.html
    Mark Gambino opines that fixed wireless broadband technology offering high-speed internet is a sleeping giant that could seriously threaten the dominance of the NBN, particularly given recent findings on the failings of the fixed-line network.
    https://thenewdaily.com.au/life/tech/2018/07/26/fixed-wireless-broadband-internet/
    It looks like Imran Khan has got over the line in Pakistan but some are calling “no ball!”.
    https://www.theage.com.au/world/asia/cricket-star-imran-khan-declares-victory-in-pakistan-election-20180726-p4ztvs.html
    National Australia Bank will refund 305,000 superannuation customers more than $67 million for not explaining to some customers they could switch off a financial planning fee.
    https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/nab-to-refund-67-million-to-305-000-super-customers-20180726-p4zttr.html
    Meanwhile Treasury has used a submission to the financial services royal commission to sledge the corporate and banking regulators for not doing enough to clamp down on rampant misconduct in the industry.
    https://outline.com/Rp3J6h
    The peak bodies for general practitioners and social services have united to call for major changes to My Health Record to ensure it can only be used for medical purposes.
    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/jul/27/gps-and-social-service-providers-demand-my-health-record-protections
    Nick O’Malley tells us Dick Smith has always had a fractured relationship with free market. Closing his company is testament to this fact.
    https://www.smh.com.au/business/consumer-affairs/dick-smith-is-a-terrible-capitalist-for-such-a-rich-man-20180726-p4ztta.html
    Peter Hannam reports that the Queensland government warns it may block the Turnbull government’s signature energy plan, saying that it won’t sign any deal that undermines the state’s ambitious renewable energy target.
    https://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/deal-breaker-queensland-flags-renewable-energy-as-key-to-emissions-deal-20180726-p4zttg.html
    And, for various reasons, Hanson and Leyonhjelm have warned Turnbull they could sink his national energy guarantee if he is forced to rely on independent support to secure his signature energy reform.
    https://outline.com/7c2PmK
    How Venezuela turned into shit.
    https://outline.com/m6SMZw
    Aisha Dow tells us that general practice clinics could be pushed to open longer and offer video appointments to better meet the needs of younger and time-poor Australians who struggle to see their doctor within traditional office hours.
    https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/gp-clinics-could-open-longer-to-give-young-people-better-health-care-20180726-p4ztpf.html
    Charles Wooley says an unmuzzled Eric Abetz may have undermined his party’s chances of winning tomorrow’s Braddon by-election.
    https://outline.com/yLsUUE
    Facebook shares tanked big time yesterday!
    https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jul/26/facebook-market-cap-falls-109bn-dollars-after-growth-shock
    Meet the new voice assistant who will change how people live at home.
    https://www.domain.com.au/living/the-next-level-of-alexa-meet-the-new-voice-assistant-who-will-change-how-people-live-at-home-20180725-h12j0o-754135/?utm_campaign=featured-masthead&utm_source=the-age&utm_medium=link
    More funny business in NSW local government.
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/i-didn-t-realise-it-was-corrupt-council-planning-boss-fronts-icac-20180726-p4ztu5.html
    The signs are there that Michael Cohen will flip.
    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jul/26/is-michael-cohen-about-to-flip-on-donald-trump
    Harold Mitchell looks at the vilification of African migrants.
    https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/we-re-in-this-together-african-migrants-deserve-a-fair-go-20180725-p4ztmd.html
    Nicole Hasham writes that three directors of a Great Barrier Reef charity entrusted with almost half a billion dollars in public money have refused to give evidence to a Senate inquiry scrutinising the controversial deal, raising the prospect they will be forced to appear. There seems to be something that is trying to be hidden.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/leaked-documents-show-reef-charity-directors-unavailable-for-senate-scrutiny-20180726-p4ztr9.html
    Clementine Ford is concerned by the reactionary trend towards mandatory sentencing and the effects it is having.
    https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life-and-relationships/the-new-sentencing-laws-do-not-address-the-root-cause-of-violence-20180726-p4ztvt.html
    Dolla Merrillees, the director of the Powerhouse Museum who presided over the institution’s failed fashion ball which caused the museum to spend three times more money than it raised, has stepped down. What a surprise.
    https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/failed-fashion-ball-claims-powerhouse-museum-director-20180726-p4ztqd.html
    Catharine Pepinster writes that Pope Francis has utterly failed to tackle the church’s abuse scandal and he must act decisively or many more Catholics will lose their faith.
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/26/pope-francis-catholic-church-abuse-scandal-failed
    And it’s goodbye to the iconic Lee Lin Chin!
    https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/please-don-t-hate-me-lee-lin-chin-is-leaving-sbs-20180726-p4zttp.html

    Cartoon Corner

    A very busy contribution from David Rowe on the new media seascape.

    Peter Broelman and Winston Peters’ flag remarks.

    Zanetti rolls out the CFMEU yet again.

    Matt Golding and Dick Smith.

    Glen Le Lievre and the future of newspapers.

    David Pope looks ahead to journalism at the new nine.
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/act/david-pope-20120214-1t3j0.html
    More in here.

  29. “Voters in Braddon and Longman probably aren’t even aware they could be pivotal to the future of Bill Shorten’s leadership and Anthony Albanese’s ambition.”

    They obviously have a better grip on reality than the CPG and MSM.

  30. Pauline Hanson will be appearing all over Longman polling places on Saturday, except she won’t be there in the flesh, because she will still be on her luxury cruise on the Queen Elizabeth.

    In a move obviously inspired by The Goon Show her party has ordered fifty cardboard cutouts! They chose a photo taken years ago, when Hanson was much younger and much less shrivelled than she is now.

    https://outline.com/64UGy3

    • LOL!

      On the bright side, the cardboard cutouts won’t flip-flop unless the wind exceeds Beaufort Force 3 (gentle breeze.)

    • Let’s hope it is gale force wind then. How stupid do these people, besides ON supporters, do they think everyone else is.

    • James Ashby – “A photo visual of Pauline is as good as her being there because it is a presence,’’ Mr Ashby said. “People will still be able to come and get a photo with Pauline.”

      t’s actually better than having the real Pauline there – no-one has to listen to that strangled voice, or look at the horrors time has wrought on her face.

  31. Fairfax –

    We need to understand Turnbull’s part in the proposed take-over of Fairfax so it’s time for a history lesson. It’s also important to understand this is not yet a done deal. It could fall over, as past Fairfax proposed deals have. It’s all up to the ACCC now.

    Thirty years ago Turnbull was part of a Kerry Packer/Conrad Black attempt to take over Fairfax. This explains how it went.
    https://www.afr.com/business/media-and-marketing/how-malcolm-turnbull-triggered-a-fairfax-obsession-20180726-h136gk

    Now Turnbull has been instrumental in engineering another take-over, maybe this time it will be a successful one.

    Does anyone remember what was going on just over a year ago, in May 2017?

    Fairfax was in financial trouble, as usual. There were only two options – sell the company or break it up and flog off the very successful “Domain” and use the proceeds to reinvest in the newspaper and radio parts of the business. No-one was talking about Stan, the Fairfax-owned subscription TV service back then, although now it’s being given as one of the reasons for Nine’s offer, along with Domain. Both are good earners. Funny how things can change in just one year, isn’t it.

    Finding a buyer for Fairfax was a problem though, thanks to our laws at the time. An overseas sale was the only option to save the whole financially struggling Fairfax empire unless a new Australian company formed with the intention of buying a failing newspaper/radio business. We had laws that prohibited local media companies having across-the-board media access. Domain could be broken off and sold though, and as late as February this year Michael West was writing about a possible sale being under way.
    https://www.michaelwest.com.au/domain-on-sale-as-fairfax-topples-like-the-twelve-apostles/

    In June 2017 Fairfax was all set to be sold to US private equity firm TPG Capital, in a consortium with the Ontario Teacher’s Pension Plan Board. TPG had promised to maintain Fairfax’s charter of editorial independence, and to respect all current agreements about employment and redundancy payments, so maybe that’s why there was no outrage from journalists, Fairfax or otherwise, at the time. Maybe it explains why no-one was screaming about the death of “quality journalism” and the end of true democracy in the Australian media at the time.

    Everyone seemed happy to have an Australian company flogged off to the Yanks (and the Canadians) and, what’s more, to a company that had said it intended to sell Fairfax within five years. Who they might sell to was a question no-one asked.

    The TPG sale fell apart at the beginning of July 2017. Another US company, private equity firm Hellman & Friedman, had made an earlier bid to buy Fairfax, but that went nowhere as well.

    So there was Fairfax, without a buyer, facing financial problems and desperately in need of an offer.

    Turnbull was already on his way to the rescue.

    The government had already tried to get a media reform bill through parliament, but it had lapsed when Turnbull prorogued parliament in April 2016. It had been dug up and rebadged and was introduced in the Reps on 15 June 2017, a month after the TPG and Hellman bids had been made. A cynical person might suggest it was a back-up plan, intended to allow a Fairfax sale to an Australian media empire if the foreign sale fell through.
    https://www.fairfaxmedia.com.au/pressroom/au—nz-press-room/au—nz-press-room/fairfax-media-to-allow-tpg-consortium-and-hellman-friedman-to-conduct-due-diligence

    Turnbull’s media reform bill allowed the removal of the 2 out of 3 cross-media control rule which prohibited control over more than two out of three regulated media platforms in any one commercial radio licence area. It was being debated in parliament when the sale to TPG was being discussed.

    Here’s the bill and its history –
    https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=r5907

    Labor wasn’t having a bar of it, but deals with Xenophon got it through the Senate, with amendments, in September last year.

    The new legislation allowed one Australian media organisation owning 2 out of three media platforms to take over another owning a different 2 out of 3 platforms, giving the merged new company access to TV, broadcasting and newspaper rights across the country.

    So there you are – Turnbull was instrumental in all this. Without his media reform laws Nine would have been prohibited from merging with/taking over Fairfax.

    What puzzles me is why yesterday’s announcement seems to have been such a shock to just about every MSM journalist. It’s no secret Fairfax has been looking for a buyer for ages, it’s no secret Turnbull changed the law to allow a merger between Australian media companies to happen, so why didn’t any of them ever think this was likely? Why didn’t they see it coming?

    Were they all too busy writing stories about imaginary Labor leadership challenges and witch-hunts involving Emma Husar to take notice of what was going on around them?

  32. Dangerous criminal gang leaders –

    View this post on Instagram

    WARNING: Dangerous Gang Leaders!! As promised, this has just gone up in Kensington, Victoria, Australia. Behind Doutta Gala Hotel, Brock Way car park. Hope it lasts a little longer than a day LoL. (Swipe to see other photos) Text says: "Warning: Highly Dangerous Criminal Gang Leaders. Wanted for: Stoking racism to win elections; Using racism to divide and distract us as they steal from the poor and give to the rich". $ $ Australia's Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton once again have fabricated 'African Gangs' hysteria. We all know who the gangsters are don't we. Don't forget there's a protest in solidarity with the African community at Channel 7 headquarters in Melbourne this Saturday, 2pm! Look up facebook event for details. $ $ $ #pmmalcolmturnbull #peterdutton #africangangshysteria #supersaturday #victorianelections2018 #crimehysteria #artandpolitics #politicalmurals #vantrudd #victoriansocialists #freetherefugees #fightracism #bringthemhere

    A post shared by van nishing (@van.nishing) on

    Artist and activist Van Thanh Rudd is Kevin Rudd’s nephew.

  33. Election in Victoria coming up?

    The Victorian Labor Party will be investigated by police over its misuse of public money during the last state election campaign.

    In March the State Ombudsman found Labor had misused more than $388,000 of taxpayer funds by employing electorate officers to political purposes.

    Police have now announced the fraud squad will investigate whether there has been any criminal wrongdoing.

    “Victoria Police undertook reassessment of the material in relation to allegations of misuse of parliamentary budget entitlements to determine if further investigation was required,” it said in statement.

    “This assessment has now been completed and a formal investigation will now be conducted by the fraud and extortion squad.

    “As this is an active and ongoing investigation, it would not be appropriate to provide further comment at this time.”

    More to come.

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-27/victoria-labor-party-rorts-claims-fraud-squad-investigation/10044076

    • Yep, that is why we have so called Sudanese Gangs stopping everyone from being alive. Sadly, I think many people are buying into the bullshit. I will be very surprised if Labor get re-elected here and then Federally. People only know what is being said in the media, and the media wouldn’t lie, would they.

  35. Turnbull and Big Trev remind me of those aged Jehovahs Witnesses chaps who knock on your door on Saturday mornings and try to get you to accept the latest issue of “The Watchtower”. Fake as.

    Turnbull- “Bill Shorten, Bill Shorten, Bill Shorten” ….. woman talks about medals ….”Oh look, kids who don’t vote. Let’s talk to them”.

    I’m assuming the photo this woman is referring to is a photo-shopped job that appeared on Twitter. A lot of people thought it was real. They need to have their eyes tested.

    Here’s the original – I can’t find a version that will work here.

    https://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/b75cd2127c0e007e8757dd519909c36c?width=1024

  36. Wow, this is stunning.

    • One of the most important groups of phytoplankton Ehux now has a place in the worlds genomic library.

      An international consortium has unravelled and sequenced the a vitally important phyto-plankton Ehux genome. They are now working to characterize the workings of individual genes of Emiliana huxleyi.

      “Ehux” is a coccolithophore, with an exoskeleton made of calcium carbonate. Over the course of eons the shells of Ehux produced the chalk that is seen in the iconic White Cliffs of Dover on England’s south coast.

      http://russgeorge.net/2013/06/19/ehux-genome/

  37. And now for Mattel’s latest release – Pilot Barbie!

    I have no idea when this was taken, or where.

    Stand by for the new Flight Attendant Ken. Comes complete with handbag.

  40. Interesting thought about the cardboard Paulines –

  43. The cutouts weren’t cut out for strong winds

    Malcolm Turnbull and a Liberal candidate were heckled, One Nation asked for extra police to protect the life-size cardboard cutouts of its leader and Bill Shorten was nowhere to be seen.

    The final full day of campaigning before the super Saturday polls brought last gasps from all sides, as the main parties attempted to gain an edge in crucial contests, some of which remained too close to call.

    Wind played havoc with the cardboard cutouts of Pauline Hanson that One Nation advisers have judged to be almost as good as the real thing. A short distance away, Turnbull was heckled by voters on Bribie Island over cuts to penalty rates and the ABC, and the controversy surrounding a candidate’s false claim that he had earned a medal for distinguished military service.

    But it was not just the wind One Nation was worried about – the party’s national director, Michael Pucci, has written to the Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, asking for extra police to protect the inanimate Hansons.

    One Nation rolled out the cardboard cutouts after Hanson left Australia for a luxury cruise she had booked in February, meaning she would miss the final days of a campaign in which her party was expected to play a decisive role.

    “I write to you with concerns about possible illegal behaviour on the eve of the Longman byelection,” Pucci said in his letter to Palaszczuk.

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/jul/27/byelection-race-turnbull-heckled-as-parties-make-last-ditch-bid-to-woo-voters

  45. There’s still time for Lucy to ditch the libs though. She knows how to go about it that’s for sure.

  46. Re that headline: “Bill Shorten refuses to promise that Labor will end asylum detention”

    That headline is not literally misleading, but it is confusing. Due to the use of double negatives, it almost reads like “Bill Shorten refuses to promise that Labor will NOT end asylum detention.” Now that would have been bad. Unfortunately, someone quickly reading it could easily have miscontrued it as that – a message other than what it was.

    Latika’s Bourke’s fault, not Bill Shorten’s.

    Nonetheless, Shorten laid out a significant policy marker in answering THAT question on Q&A last night. This was a subtle but important shift, coming as it did from the leader of the ALP.

    Shorten was careful with his words, as he should be. The statement was no doubt meant as a signal to all voters concerned with this issue as a humanitarian one – particularly green voters.

    Why should anyone expect Shorten to categorically “refuse” to rule in or out anything? In the context of a looming federal election, last night’s statement was as far as he could reasonably be expected to go.

    And it was actually pretty far, and gives us a lot of hope.

  47. ABC late news tut tutting over Labor attack ads, showing a bunch of people displaying a variety of responses. I like the guy who said he’d have to do his own research about it. I hope he does. Then Andrew Probyn lamenting that although yes, the coalition had in fact said some nasty things themselves, now that Labor’s doing it it’s a terrible thing for politics & the country.

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