porter

The rules of Parliament's register of interests require MPs to declare footy tickets, flights, gifts, Chairman's Club memberships, assets, investments, and any other financial arrangement that "may conflict or may be seen to conflict with their public duty." When a politician is given "free stuff", voters at least deserve to know who's trying to curry favour.

Porter obviously received enough financial assistance that he felt the need to update his register three days ago. He revealed his legal fees were at least partly paid by "a blind trust known as the Legal Services Trust". But that's all he was giving away.

flu

We all have the word "Democracy" in our mouths and our media warn us against the authoritarian drifts of illiberal countries. However, some of us refuse to organize contradictory debates on the attacks of September 11 as well as on the reaction to the Covid-19 epidemic.

The celebrations of the 20th anniversary of the attacks of September 11, 2001 give rise to two absolutely contradictory narratives, depending on whether one refers to the written and audio-visual press or to the digital press. For some, Al Qaeda declared war on the West by plotting a high-profile crime, while for others the same crime masked a domestic coup d’état in the US.

 

sub

 

The ABC understands Prime Minister Scott Morrison convened a National Security Committee of Cabinet on Tuesday ahead of coordinated announcements in Washington and London.

Cabinet ministers were given special COVID exemptions to travel to Canberra for the top-secret discussions.

In a highly unusual step, the Prime Minister also invited Labor leader Anthony Albanese and three of his senior shadow ministers to be briefed on the plan.

American media reports say US President Joe Biden is scheduled to deliver "brief remarks about a national security initiative" on Wednesday afternoon in Washington local time.

coal

 

Up to 80 workers at New South Wales' largest coal mine have been ordered by BHP to accept transfers to interstate mines or resign from their positions.

Key points:

• BHP is searching for a buyer for its Mt Arthur mine
• The company is winding up its labour hire arm at the mine, which employs 80 people
• A worker says he feels "chucked in the gutter" over the move

A worker who is facing the ultimatum said he felt "left in the street" by the company.

james

 

Is James Packer feeling the squeeze? It’s been 15 days since the sun set on the Euro summer, but James Packer is packing away the toys - for good. The embattled casino magnate, who turned 54 last week, has put his 108-metre giga yacht IJE on the market with a price tag of $280 million.

Britain’s exclusive Burgess super yacht brokers have effusively spruiked the largest yacht that Italian shipbuilders Benedetti have constructed, boasting of the “timeless sculptural exterior” from “sought-after designers Redman Whiteley Dixon” and a “relaxed beach house-style interior” of the “ultimate world-cruising family yacht”.

scumnukes

 

Biden to launch NUCLEAR tech working group alongside UK and Australia in apparent bid to push back against China – reports

 

idiot

In his new book, Yale historian Samuel Moyn explores whether the push to make U.S. wars more “humane” by banning torture and limiting civilian casualties has helped fuel more military interventions around the world. He looks in detail at the role of President Obama in expanding the use of drones even as he received the Nobel Peace Prize.

 

“What happened after 2001 is that, in the midst of an extremely brutal war on terror, a new kind of war emerged. … It was important to Americans to see their wars fought more humanely,” says Moyn. “Even though this represents a kind of progress, it also helped Americans sustain war and helped make the war on terror endless.” Moyn’s new book is “Humane: How the United States Abandoned Peace and Reinvented War.”

 

Transcript

 

 

scomonuke

 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken faced bipartisan criticism Tuesday over the botched US withdrawal from Afghanistan — as a top Senate Republican questioned whether President Biden is actually calling the shots in the White House.

Blinken’s second consecutive day of grilling by Capitol Hill lawmakers even saw the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee blast last month’s humiliating exit — which included the killings of 13 American service members — as “clearly and fatally flawed.”

Also during Tuesday’s hearing:

trumpnuke

 

Of course. "Trump was going to bomb the planet with nukes"...There is a bit of misunderstanding around the trap in the MSM about this. And I mean DELIBERATE MISUNDERSTANDING about what Trump has said or not said… For example: 

 

President Donald Trump has floated the idea of thwarting hurricanes headed for the US by bombing them, including by dropping nuclear bombs on hurricanes to disrupt their course, Axios reported, citing conversations with sources who heard Trump's comments and were briefed on a National Security Council memo that recorded the comments.

 

TRUMP DENIES IT OF COURSE BUT THIS "MEMO” MADE "GOOD COPY” for the pundits...

 

 

gladys

Gladys Berejiklian's own Treasury officials appear to have initially advised against setting aside $5.5 million for a grant pursued by Daryl Maguire, but the grant was later approved and came from a fund overseen by Ms Berejiklian, according to an internal government memo obtained by 7.30.

abbott

 Former prime minister Tony Abbott has been fined $500 for allegedly failing to wear a mask as required by public health orders.

Mr Abbott was photographed this week by a member of the public in Manly who observed him talking to a friend at Fairy Bower near the main beach.

He was subsequently reported to NSW Police, who confirmed on Saturday the former prime minister had been issued with a fine.

“A 63-year-old man was issued a $500 Penalty Infringement Notice on Friday (10 September, 2021), for failure to comply with wearing face covering directive,” police said in a statement.

taxes

House Democrats’ plans to raise taxes on the rich and on profitable corporations stop well short of the grand proposals many in the party once envisioned to tax the vast fortunes of tycoons like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk — or even thoroughly close loopholes exploited by high-flying captains of finance.

 

Instead, the House Ways and Means Committee, influenced more by the need to win the votes of moderate Democrats than by progressive Democratic ambitions, focused on traditional ways of raising revenue to pay for the party’s $3.5 trillion social policy bill — by raising tax rates on income.

horseshit

The George Bush Center for Intelligence is the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency, located in the unincorporated community of Langley in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States; near Washington, D.C.

ill-reputeJournalist Glenn Greenwald teared into several prominent Democrats after they praised ex-President George W. Bush’s speech about the “dangers to our country” rising “at home” – 20 years after the beginning of his ‘War on Terror’.

 

In his speech on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks – which sparked Bush’s invasion of Afghanistan, war crimes, and the rise of a surveillance state against American citizens – the former president warned that there was “growing evidence that the dangers to our country can come not only across borders, but from violence that gathers within.”

 

revolution

The American Revolution is often credited to be the first before the French Revolution. But these two events that bear the name “revolution” have nothing in common. nothing at all...

 

The American Revolution was mostly the revolt of a rich people who did not want to pay taxes (what’s new in the land of the Pilgrims?) and the French Revolution was from a people who could not afford bread ("let’s them have cake"). As well the American Revolution was helped by the French armies against the English without whom the American Revolution would have completely fizzled. The debt to the French was soon erased by what could have been the first US “false flag” event called the XYZ affair.