BBBruce @Didaho@qoto.org

The Pandemic and War — Not Government Spending — Caused Inflation, According to Nobel Prize Winner

https://theintercept.com/2022/12/12/inflation-covid-war-joseph-stiglitz-ira-regmi/

#USpol
#BlackMastodon

Australian #FossilFuel windfall profits for coal, gas, LNG.

Most of the companies involved in coal, gas and LNG are foreign owned, profits go overseas. They have structured their investments to pay little if any tax payments in Australia.

We need a windfall profits tax in Australia.

See Australia Institute Gas Giants Reap $40 Billion in Windfall War Profits: Report

#Auspol #windfallprofitstax
https://australiainstitute.org.au/post/gas-giants-reap-40-billion-in-windfall-war-profits-report/

Former prime Minister Scott Morrison to face yet another reckoning as he faces the Robodebt inquiry today.
My questions.
1. Has anybody psych tested him?
2. When do we replace former with disgraced?
3. Will we actually get any sense out of him?
4. Are there penalties for any wrong doing, eg perjury if he lies, charges if he's found to have deliberately done something illegal, class action payments from his own pocket against class action claims of negligence resulting in suicides?
#auspol

Live-tooting the 2022 Wallace Wurth lecture, delivered by journalist, whistleblower, political theorist, human rights champion, Kurdish cultural advocate, award-winning author and survivor of Australia's offshore concentration camps: Behrouz Boochani. Delivered at UNSW on 13th Dec 2022.
Behrouz Boochani fled from persecution under the Iranian government for his journalism and advocacy for Kurdish language and culture.
His journey through many dangers led him to Indonesia, via a number of other nations that also do not offer safety to #refugees.
From here, he attempted, twice, to travel by boat across the open ocean to an original signatory (and major author) of the UN Refugee Convention: Australia. #auspol
During his journey, Australia (further) abandoned its commitment to the Convention, re-establishing a system of 'offshore' #DetentionCentres on impoverished Pacific islands that were once under direct Australian colonial rule and which remain deeply dependent upon Australian foreign 'aid', which these days comes on the condition of doing Australia's dirty work, establishing a legal fiction of arm's length indefinite incarceration of refugees on behalf Australia, paid for by Australia (with extensive corruption and graft) but beyond the reach of Australian courts and media.

Getting a lot of q's about what today's nuclear fusion breakthrough means for climate. My answer is: not much. We already have the technologies we need to decarbonise 80% of the electricity sector by 2030 even as demand soars due to electrification: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abn0661

Cooker: "NRMA vaccines are a scam!"

Me: "They're called RACV vaccines in Victoria"

Cooker: "Dictator Dan calls them something else? Typical! They'll still kill you but"

Me: speechless.

#auspol

"The Defence Department has bluntly opposed growing calls to strip or otherwise reduce the unilateral power of the prime minister to send the country to war or enter armed conflict without parliamentary approval or oversight."

I think the Defence Department can go and get fucked.

#auspol #war

No paywall on this link

https://www.crikey.com.au/2022/12/13/defence-parliament-no-say-war/?su=ZlJXN0xTOHIzcXNzaC9wRlJPenpUQT09

Did you know: there are protesters in Australia who allegedly committed acts that just a few months ago would have been legally considered minor traffic offences, yet who are now facing months or years locked up, and are currently under bail conditions that effectively prevent them from going online at all, from being able to contact many/most of their friends, and who are subject to the complete loss of any right to privacy (being able to have all their devices searched by police at any point, and they must share any passwords)? And all this without yet having been convicted of any crime, while awaiting trial for alleged offences that just nine months ago would have most likely been resolved with a fine of a few hundred dollars.

#CriminalisationOfDissent #auspol #FreeVioletCoco #AusPol2022 #NSWpol

Pretty clear where this is headed. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/dec/12/twitter-safety-council-dissolved-before-meeting

Families of Jan 6 officers snubbing McConnell. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMB7QMIUkhA

US Senator Jon Tester gets it right https://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-senator-says-sees-no-215004648.html

20 Iconic Photos of the Climate Crisis https://kottke.org/22/12/20-iconic-photos-of-the-climate-crisis

Via @andrewstroehlein: UN official ‘alarmed’ by jailing of climate activist who blocked traffic on Sydney Harbour Bridge | Human rights groups around the world express outrage over ‘disproportionate’ punishment of Deanna ‘Violet’ Coco https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/dec/03/un-official-alarmed-by-jailing-of-climate-activist-who-blocked-traffic-on-sydney-harbour-bridge #ClimateActivistJailed #Australia #Auspol #UN #HumanRights

1.Shrinking ad revenues means fewer resources to fill more blank spaces.
2.Squeezed MSM thus elevates flakey opinion, speculation & manufactured outrage over fact.
http://3.Media owners run partisan agendas while a cowed ABC recycles News-Nine attack lines. 2/3