This post was originally published on Michael West.
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A bill introducing harsh penalties and extending the scope of a law applying to those who obstruct public places was passed after an all-night sitting by the South Australian Legislative Council this week. Wendy Bacon reports on the rise of draconian anti-protest laws
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You could say the blues have followed me wherever I’ve gone. My mom came from a family of 18, picking cotton and peanuts in Georgia. My dad, who played the blues, couldn’t read. He learned numbers selling produce. I was born in Massachusetts, where my mom worked in the factories and raised me alone after More
The post Prayer Helped Me Survive Poverty, But I Needed Government Support, Too appeared first on CounterPunch.org.
This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Trish Brown.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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You could say the blues have followed me wherever I’ve gone. My mom came from a family of 18, picking cotton and peanuts in Georgia. My dad, who played the blues, couldn’t read. He learned numbers selling produce. I was born in Massachusetts, where my mom worked in the factories and raised me alone after More
The post Prayer Helped Me Survive Poverty, But I Needed Government Support, Too appeared first on CounterPunch.org.
This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Trish Brown.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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We look at the impact of the reelection of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Sunday in a tight runoff vote, extending his 20-year rule for a further five years. Erdoğan received just over 52% of the vote, beating challenger Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, an economist and former civil servant who unified a broad coalition but failed to unseat Erdoğan despite growing dissatisfaction with his governance and deep economic pain within the country. We speak with Cihan Tuğal, UC Berkeley sociologist and author of The Fall of the Turkish Model: How the Arab Uprisings Brought Down Islamic Liberalism.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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The United States has 4% of the world’s population but 16% of COVID-19 deaths. This series investigates the failures by federal agencies that led to over 1 million Americans dying from COVID-19 and what that tells us about the nation’s ability to fight the next pandemic. Epidemiologist Jessica Malaty Rivera is the host for this three-part series.
The first episode takes us back to February 2020, when reporters Rob Meyer and Alexis Madrigal from The Atlantic were trying to find solid data about the rising pandemic. They published a story that revealed a scary truth: The U.S. didn’t know where COVID-19 was spreading because few tests were available. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also didn’t have public data to tell citizens or federal agencies how many people were infected or where the outbreaks were happening.
Their reporting led to a massive volunteer effort by hundreds of people across the country who gathered the data themselves. The COVID Tracking Project became a de facto source of data amid the chaos of COVID-19. With case counts rising quickly, volunteers scrambled to document tests, hospitalizations and deaths in an effort to show where the virus was and who was dying.
Support Reveal’s journalism at Revealnews.org/donatenow
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get the scoop on new episodes at Revealnews.org/newsletter
This post was originally published on Reveal.
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Can a Prime Minister use a Cabinet reshuffle to sweep government dirt under the carpet? That’s a question now before the Federal Court in a case which will draw out whether Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus KC is a leader who supports transparency, or just another politician interested, first and foremost, in protecting his patch. Rex Patrick explains.
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The recent bust of a Sydney money laundering syndicate and the story of a charming Chinese criminal brought down by New Zealand authorities highlight the need for Australia to catch up on global anti-money laundering regulations
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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The new Labor government will soon have to deal with the mess of Sydney’s cemetery sector bequeathed by its predecessors. Cemeteries operator OneCrown is in disarray, with a damning report looming over the heads of its executives
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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The South Australian District Court has dealt a fatal blow to public sector whistleblowing, basically making it impossible for anyone to safely blow the whistle. Rex Patrick explains the public interest travesty.
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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Independent MP Rebekha Sharkie has just dropped a bombshell in Federal Parliament. The Labor Government has been caught out in a blatant pork barrelling scandal: Solar Rorts.
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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Stretched to breaking point by Covid, NSW’s public healthcare system is struggling to return to acceptable levels of staffing and efficiency. Labor is promising to remove the Coalition’s public services wages cap, while the Coalition promises to pour billions into attracting new healthcare workers.
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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News yesterday that our Collins Class submarines will get fitted with Tomahawks reveals a serious lack of understanding about the tactical use of land attack missiles on submarines.
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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Education is one key to the NSW election this Saturday. Student outcomes have been declining in NSW for years, while the gap between rich and poor students is growing. Callum Foote investigates the Liberal and Labor party policy platforms as part of our MWM series on election issues.
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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As the NSW election looms, both major parties have buried a big problem, burials. Both Labor’s Chris Minns and Premier Dominic Perrottet have no answer to Sydney’s burial crisis. The city’s public cemeteries expect to run out of space in the next five years. The former boss of the government’s new cemetery manager speaks out in a scathing critique of the lack of accountability and leadership in Sydney’s $5 billion cemetery sector. Callum Foote reports.
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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In a David and Goliath battle in the Federal Court today, Rex Patrick takes on Information Commissioner, Angelene Falk to challenge to the lengthy delays that plague freedom of information (FOI) requests being reviewed
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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Who will control the Tomahawk Missiles? News that Australia will purchase up to 220 Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles might seem like just another Defence purchase, but there’s a hidden sovereignty issue that needs to be examined.
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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See original post here.
The current system frequently leaves people feeling confused, anxious and angry, a charity claims.
People with mental health problems are being made even more unwell by the Government’s system of benefits assessments, a report reveals. Almost seven in 10 (66 percent) of claimants living with conditions such as bipolar disorder, depression and anxiety told mental health charity Mind that going through the assessment process made their mental health worse.
The current system frequently leaves applicants feeling confused, anxious and angry, and assessors reach “incorrect decisions far too often”, Mind told the Express.
The charity’s CEO, Sarah Hughes, said the Government urgently needs to shift from “gatekeeping benefits” to “prioritising support for disabled people”.
She said: “Benefit assessments should be providing the Department for Work and Pensions with an accurate picture of a person’s needs, so that person can get the support they need to get by.
“Instead, our findings show that not only are far too many assessments inaccurate but that they are also leaving the majority of people more unwell.”
Mind’s report – Reassessing Assessments: How People With Mental Health Problems Can Help Fix The Broken Benefits System – highlights the urgent need for the Government to better invest in training for assessors on understanding mental health issues.
Almost half (46 percent) of those assessed for Personal Independence Payment (PIP), and over a third (36 percent) of people assessed for Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) or Universal Credit (UC) feel their benefits assessor did not understand mental health problems.
Mind says this “must be addressed” as roughly one in three people receiving PIP and half of all claimants receiving ESA, have a mental health problem, cognitive impairment or learning difficulty as their main disability.
There has been a shift in focus from the Government towards getting people who are off work long-term back into the workforce.
But Mind warns this approach is likely to fail when the DWP’s own processes are making people struggle more.
The charity wants the Government to create a new commission, led by disabled people, tasked with proposing reforms to the structure and criteria of benefit assessments.
It also wants to see it establish an independent regulator for the benefits system to help hold the Government to account, protect the rights of disabled people and enforce improved assessments.
A DWP spokesman said: “Our assessors are all qualified health professionals and decisions are made using all the information available to us. If someone disagrees they have the right to ask for a review.”
They said the Government was increasing investment in mental health services in England “by at least £2.3billion a year by 2024”.
This post was originally published on Basic Income Today.
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Australia has just committed to spending $368 billion on second hand US Virginia Class submarines, and eight next generation British AUKUS nuclear submarines. It’s a strategic blunder, and it’s not even going to happen the way PM Albanese has suggested.
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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There will be no better opportunity than now for Anthony Albanese to ask US President Joe Biden for the release of Julian Assange. Michael West reports on the Belmarsh Tribunal and calls for the release of Australia’s number one political prisoner.
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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Science and secrecy are two words that rarely go well together. Yet remarkably, our peak scientific institution, the Australian Academy of Science is deliberately engaging in secrecy, aided and abetted by the Australian National University.
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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Sophie Scamps is introducing the ‘Ending Jobs for Mates Bill’ which intends to legislate a transparent and independent process for major Commonwealth public appointments
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The decision to acquire nuclear submarines has been made. The important question is who will be responsible for keeping the reactors safe?
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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The decision to acquire nuclear submarines has been made. The important question is who will be responsible for keeping the reactors safe?
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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The Robodebt Commission lays bare a lack of regard for the rule of law among both ministers and public servants. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister’s office is displaying a worrying lack of respect for rulings made by courts to protect citizen’s rights to transparency.
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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Documents reveal national security people involved in this week’s Media Roundtable in Parliament House along with Big Media types from Murdoch, Nine and Seven. Michael West reports on the government, media and Rex Patrick’s mysterious FOIs.
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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Listen to a reading of this article:
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The widespread refusal to accept that the US government bombed the Nord Stream pipelines is based solely on the faith-based belief that the US government would never do something so evil, despite its having done many things that are far more evil than this right out in the open.
“Okay sure they’ve been spending the last few years helping Saudi Arabia create mountains of child corpses in Yemen, but blowing up a pipeline? That would be a step too far!”
So much government nefariousness hides behind the completely unevidenced assumption “Oh, our leaders would never do anything THAT bad!” It’s a belief that is based on literally nothing. It’s believed because it is comfortable.
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Time to update the Ukrainian flag again. https://t.co/Uwp6Xjs2mO pic.twitter.com/ZWYDY5HZzC
— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) February 12, 2023
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You only get one shot at preventing nuclear war. There will be no do-overs. There will be no course-correction. There will be no learning from mistakes that were made. This is it. Our one and only chance. We’re living it.
Is it good enough? Are we using our one shot responsibly?
If the mushroom clouds turn up, will anyone honestly be able to tell themselves that our leaders did everything they could to prevent this from happening, and that we the rank-and-file citizenry did everything we could to pressure them into navigating wisely around this threat?
I personally don’t think so. I think if we meet our end that way it will be the result of a bunch of humans playing with armageddon weapons in an extremely reckless and irresponsible way with virtually no resistance from the public, because we didn’t like thinking about it much.
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The worst thing about Australia is America. All of the most destructive and dangerous things our country has done in recent decades, and all the most destructive and dangerous things it continues to do, have been the result of our role in the US-centralized empire.
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Hey I’ve got a smart idea, let’s make laws that require corporations to act like sociopaths, pursuing profit without any consideration for morality or human wellbeing, then let’s allow our entire civilization to be ruled by corporations.
Oh cool we already did that, good thinking.
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The fact that Biden has explicitly said the US will go to war to defend Taiwan, and that it won’t go to war to defend the far less geostrategically crucial Ukraine, should show you that the US does not go to war to defend human interests but to defend its own interests.
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Remember kids, anything China does with regard to Taiwan will be COMPLETELY UNPROVOKED. pic.twitter.com/I8Og9AvX1s
— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) February 13, 2023
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The biggest problem with the western anti-war movement is that there is no western anti-war movement. All the other problems you think you’re seeing in your “anti-war movement” are at best a very, very distant second to the fundamental problem that your movement has no movement. There’s no good reason to spend your energy worrying if the peace movement is doing it wrong or including the wrong people or not organizing correctly if there is no meaningful peace movement. Focus on fixing that problem first — on creating movement rather than creating inertia and sectarian squabbling.
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There’s this Pink Floyd line that’s been rattling around in my head, “You have to be trusted by the people that you lie to.” Because it’s so true; you can’t deceive people who don’t trust you. Propaganda only works if people don’t know it’s happening — if they don’t think of its source as untrustworthy.
That’s why it gives me hope that trust in the mass media is plunging to historic lows: if people sufficiently distrust those who lie to them, then those lies won’t take root in their minds anymore. Without trust, the propaganda machine can’t function.
All our world’s troubles are ultimately due to propaganda; people only consent to status quo systems which hurt their interests because their consent is manufactured via propaganda. And that propaganda only works because of public trust in the messengers.
We can fight this by working to exacerbate public distrust in the institutions that manufacture our consent, spreading public awareness of the fact that everything we’ve been taught to believe about our nation, our government and our world is a lie. All positive changes in human behavior — whether individual or collective — are always preceded by an expansion of consciousness. Make people more aware that they are being deceived, and the liars will no longer be trusted by the people they lie to.
Trust in the mass media has never been lower, meanwhile our ability to amplify our own voices and share ideas and information has never been higher. We can use this opportunity to free the collective mind from the chains of propaganda, so that we can finally get real change.
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My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, following me on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud or YouTube, throwing some money into my tip jar on Ko-fi, Patreon or Paypal, or buying an issue of my monthly zine. If you want to read more you can buy my books. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for at my website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here. All works co-authored with my husband Tim Foley.
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This post was originally published on Caitlin Johnstone.
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Tensions are rising. Defence has received a list of desirable new toys, including nuclear submarines, to beef up capability. But as Rex Patrick asks, what’s the use of such a list in the hands of a department with a proven track record of taking decades to deliver anything?
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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A Freedom of Information request has lifted the lid on some of the Future Fund’s overseas investments. Those looking in might not like all that they see, writes Rex Patrick.
This post was originally published on Michael West.
