An evil, self-serving tyrant

49 Comments

1. I agree.
   The IPA is a far greater threat to our nation than terrorists will ever be.
   Its goals are to remove all safety nets.
   To remove the regulations that ensure that what we eat and the products we use, and that our work places are safe.
   They want to maximise the socializing of risk and the privatization of profits.
   In short, their goal is to create an immense wealthy but tiny elite with a massive underclass of working poor who lead short, brutish lives of servitude.

2. I am surprised that no western govt secret service or even some criminal organisations haven’t sent the old f#ckarse to meet his demons!..after all, unless he has been doing something totally subversive in a political manner(which is useful to a corrupt govt’), or aiding by cover-up those criminals that suit him (which is useful to a criminal activity), he really is of no use to anyone, in that he doesn’t deliver news, he corrupts sport, he is a promoter of division in the areas of racism and sexism and in general has benefited humanity about as usefully as an outbreak of ebola.

3. Anthony..My analysis of the IPA mentality is like watching a young child brought to the breakfast table, still clutching their soft-cuddly toy of the moment, gets food placed in front of them, grudgingly eats same…partially…complains for want of a lolly, throws soft toy on floor when denied, then cries for its return, goes back to eating…chucks spoon, farts..shits self in nappy and whines when is being washed and cleaned and then goes sniffling into snuggling into shoulder mode with a sooky frame of mind and starts to plot tomorrows strategy in advance.

   ( note ; not a description of what my children were like!)

4. I turned off my TV, stopped all print media and now work with a network of current and former pilots to prosecute those who are actively destroying our planet. Interesting to read recently that Icon of liberty and freedom, Senator John McCain, has been operated on for brain cancer. Maybe Murderoch will get lucky too?

5. Point for point, your article nails all that is corrupt in Australian, and indeed World Politics today Katherine.
   But I fear your call for non-compliance and activism will fall on very myopic minds. Too busy watching and caring about Foetid Old Shitpile’s Foxtail inability to stream Game of Thrones ( Oh the Irony! ), the ‘average ‘Strayan is just too damn apathetic to care.

   We are a country of frogs in a saucepan, and until we take back our lives, we will continue to be owned by vile liver-spotted octogenarian oligarchs.

6. It’s not only the media that he’s got his grubby little hands on, but also Syrian oil and vaccinations. Yes, vaccinations. I read somewhere that he’s bought into the company that has the vaccinations for that new virus (whose name I forget) that come out of West Africa about a year ago.

7. What will replace the Murdoch press? Who to trust for news? MSM, including the ABC, run the same storylines as a form of subversive propaganda. Can anyone suggest a list of online publications that are balanced, insightful and provide forward-thinking solutions based analyses? Thanks.

8. The conundrum for the “good guys” is that they do not do “strategic assassinations” and so suffer the intrusions of the criminals for taking the moral high ground, versly, the “bad guys” only assassinate those who stand in their way of profiteering from corruption and opportunism..and if we observe that the above virus in the article has survived for a long, long time in both worlds of criminal and political corruption without getting targeted by a “contract”…?

9. Roswell if things have not changer the Murdochs invested heavy in Glaxo Smith Klein (GSK) and James is on the board.
   I think and someone can correct me if I am wrong also are involved in Merck & Co.

10. Katherine,

    spot on. I cringe that you use ‘alliance’ to describe these fetid bits of shit, who operate under Murdoch rules of depravity. Perhaps a better collective noun for them would be ‘sewerage pond’?

    I also agree that we need to be non-compliant and mobilised. I take heart by Big Minds like Corbyn and Sanders saying the same thing. Also, I’ve booked my ticket to join #McManusstan #Rhiannonstan united.

    #MRU works for me.

    …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

    Joseph Carli,

    just as well you put that footnote, as you seemed to have insider knowledge of spoilt brat children! 🙂

11. just a few points. the property and assets they covert are not the ‘tax payers’. they are the sovereign assets of all australian citizens. permanent residents pay tax but have no sovereign interests in public assets. the minerals of a country belong to its sovereign people who are citizens and regardless of the tax they pay.

12. Shutterbug.. Regrettably it does seem that way.

13. Never been able to forgive the LNP, for selling Queensland Rail, now Aurizon.
    Absolute bastards, who have the knack of saying one thing, then doing another.

    Copied from an unknown Author.

    “I used to think I was just a regular bloke, but . . .

    I was born white, which now, whether I like it or not, makes me a racist.

    I am a fiscal and moral conservative, which by today’s standards, makes me a fascist.

    I am heterosexual which, according to gay folks, now makes me a homophobic.

    I am non-union, which makes me a traitor to the working class and an ally of big business.

    I am non muslim, which now labels me as an infidel, kafir,

    I am older than 70, which makes me a useless old man.

    I think and I reason, therefore I doubt much that the main stream media tells me, which must make me a reactionary.

    I am proud of my heritage and our inclusive Aussie culture, which makes me a xenophobe.

    I value my safety and that of my family and I appreciate the police and the legal system, which makes me a right-wing extremist.

    I believe in hard work, fair play, and fair compensation according to each individual’s merits, which today makes me an anti-socialist.

    I believe in the defence and protection of the homeland for and by all citizens, which now makes me a militant.”

    Unsure,
    Mark Needham

14. Shutterbug
    You are right we are a nation of frogs comfortable in our warm pan, just waiting for the water to boil.

    I am constantly on the look out for something that will motivate us out of this apathy.

    So far the issue that seems to motivate most people is welfare, or more correctly how to pay for it, with a limited supply of funds.
    Both sides of politics use the narrative that welfare, pensions, health, etc is nice to have and we must fund it as best we can, because we care about these matters but they already cost so much of the pie, its very difficult to fund everything we would like.

    Meanwhile no such argument about funding politicians pay rises, or the allocation of millions of dollers in allowances, or the billions allocated to funding mining exploration, tax concessions for desiel fuel, tax cuts for banks and business, millionairs and not to mention the billions and billions spent on war. And whats this $30million gift to the American owned private pay TV station Fox!

    Why, because our politicians know that there is no shortage of money, they know that an appropriation bill authorises the RBA to create as much money as they need! But, But they dont want everyone to know this because we would demand that welfare, pensions, health care, and government services must be fully funded, it simply suits the polies (the Right especially) to foster the lie that goverment spending is funded by taxes and therefore the pie is only as big as the taxes collected. Most people buy this because it falls exactly in line with their own household experience where they must earn to spend.

    The truth is that our Constitution requires that Parliament funds its budget forcast by an appropriation bill, once past, this bill essentially authorises the RBA to create (by keystroke) the funds in the Treasury account at the RBA. (The RBA gets its power via the RBA Act 1959.)

    Given that under Part V of the RBA Act, the RBA is the only authorised body to issue our currency, it states what the form of that currency will take, and makes that currency our legal tender. Meanwhile the Incomes Assesment Act legally forces to pay our tax obligation. Which of course can only be paid with legal tender!

    In short the government must have to have provided (by spending into existance) our currency BEFORE we can pay our taxes.

    And if you think about it – it cannot be any other way unless we used a forign currency to trade internally/externally and pay our tax obligation.

    S G B

15. It’s what many of us have been thinking. Thank you for saying it all and putting it in one blog post.

16. ” I think and I reason…”
    ” “I used to think I was just a regular bloke…”…….The one negates the other, I would have thought.

17. Nothing short of a revolution will get rid of those malignant bastards.

18. The strong words and anger that come through in this article fairly describe the world’s worst oligarch and like minded traitors like the IPA. The other most serious crime of all I would like to add is the stalling of all serious attempts to counter global warming which on current trends WILL destroy the earth’s biosphere. This is even worse than the dissolution of our democracy, the theft of our nation’s wealth and the step by step implementation of a feudal and autocratic state.

    Our right wing corporate overlords in the Minerals Council, Business Council, the rest of the commercial mass media and in many corporate boardrooms are equally complicit.

    Unfortunately given the willful ignorance, apathy, selfishness or political disconnection of much of the electorate largely due to decades of neoliberal media propaganda and the exploitation of vulnerabilities in our democratic processes, the best we can realistically hope for at this point in time is a neoliberal lite Labor government perhaps in some sort of cooperative agreement with the Greens, that can gradually unwind some of the worst aspects of neoliberalism, environmental destruction and the corruption of our democracy.

    If Sanders or Corbyn or others with similar values attain government elsewhere this may also help swing the political mood in Australia as well. Politicians love to ride the wave of any big swings in popular opinion (and unfortunately later sell any concessions to the highest bidder).

    Or we could avoid the pointless delay and all vote for the Greens at each election and have a Labor opposition. 🙂

19. I vote for you, Andreas.

20. Andreas.. jolly good point there re cc, there is an angry elephant in the room.

21. No is not enough (Naomi Klein).

22. I agree Murdoch has poisoned the minds of 3 generations of Australians. They are so used to it, they dont realise. Has done the same in the UK and the USA. I was lucky to grow up in a non-Murdoch tainted country. It makes a difference. What has to happen here is for people to get together and do whatever they can, however small, to counter the propaganda. The first thing they can do is elect a progressive government, and then support it and agitate for continued reforming of every possible area which needs reform. Huge swathes of the voters in this country would be quite unaware (a) of Murdoch’s continued influence on their thinking and (b) what the IPA is, much less what its aims are. Seeing TheAIM is independent and IS aware of it, perhaps the “powers behind the scenes/editorial bods” could make it a goal to raise community awareness of the agenda which drives the Liberals to a great extent. To run a series of articles which expose the IPA’s history, and list their aims – all numbered, I think there are 75? The Friends of the ABC are ramping up their activity to raise awareness and have funding restored. One of IPAs goals is of course to “priviatise” the ABC – in other words, remove a potent competitor to Murdoch.

23. Sounds good, Jaquix

24. Andreas
    “Or we could avoid the pointless delay and all vote for the Greens at each election and have a Labor opposition.”
    So would that be a Greens/LNP Alliance that Labor would be in opposition to?
    Di Natale likes a good LNP deal
    I thought the ideal solution with the Greens was to dispose of 1 or 2 ALP MPs in Melbourne, try to minimise loses in NSW {if the split doesn’t happen} and get about the same % of the vote they have for the last 25 years or so and all would be well in Greens world

25. Wow, Go the friends of the ABC !

26. nurses1968, the fact is that the ALP have vote more with the Coalition than the Greens
    http://www.hawkerbritton.com/images/data/How%20the%20Senate%20has%20Voted%20May%202016.pdf
    I would not vote for di Natale but I would vote for the Greens if Lee Rhiannon and Hall Greenland have the chance to be in the senate, I would like to see more “real” socialist in the t
    senate and not fence seaters.

27. Joseph CarliJuly 23, 2017 at 11:57 am
    “Such insight. Wow”
    stunned,
    Mark Needham

28. Now, now..Mark..such compliments…a simple genuflection would suffice…

29. In this world of fake news, it is good to read something that is completely true, thank you Kathryn Byrne

    The Murdoch Dynasty grows like a cancerous tumour destroying everything in its path to pursue their agenda to acquire dominance, absolute power, and obscene wealth at the expense of our democracy.

    @ Mark Needham

    After reading your comment dated, July 23, 2017 at 11:13 am, I believe you would get along extremely well with Murdoch.

    Or, were you being satirical? – these days it is so difficult to know satire from sulking.

30. Thanks again Jennifer but I’m one of those untrustworthy dual citizens and wouldn’t make the cut anyway.

    Nurses… no chance of any Greens and Liberal or National coalitions as both sides despise each other more than ever. Richard is definitely to the left of all Labor’s MP’s including lefties like Senator Doug Cameron because if in government he would deliver a policy platform that is much more progressive and worker friendly than Labor would.

31. … not to mention, more compassionate and supportive of unemployed people on Newstart, who want decent conditions and want meaningful employment opportunities too.

    But sshhh don’t tell neoliberal nurses coz He is complacent in his socio-economic security and is happy for others less fortunate to fall through the cracks.

32. I have been waiting for the ‘strayan people to wake up for most of my life.
    Hope I can live long enough to see it actually happen.
    Or at least long enough to see murdoch off …

33. I hope you see either/or too, crypt0

    I expect I can at least see Rupey off to Hell

    … but I hope too I can see AUS ppl wake up out of their neoliberalist stupor.

34. All of this and more detailed in “”Democracy in Chains” by Nancy MacLean. Truly terrifying. For some historical perspective also “The Unconscious Civilization”by John Ralston Saul. He saw this coming 25 years ago.

35. Christian Marx ‘Nothing short of a revolution will get rid of those malignant bastards’. Agreed. You don’t save a sinking ship by rearranging the deckchairs on the deck. The problems are systemic and structural and nothing more than a system change will change things. Voting for an alternative political party to operate within the same system will just delay implementation of the real correction necessary. Change comes by changing the relationships between, and functions of, the positions in the structure and, thereby, by changing the structure. Changing the identities of the occupants of the positions is merely superficial change and will inevitably have no affect. That’s the reason you should OPPOSE THE MAJOR PARTIES

36. Andreas Bimba
    I guess the latest Newspoll make the Greens revolution that much more difficult
    Newspoll: Majors turn tide on Greens, One Nation

    http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/newspoll/newspoll-labor-keeps-winning-edge-against-coalition/news-story/86a5f504c3da68693341aee351c8f940

    Labor steals Di Natale’s lunch

    http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/labor-steals-di-natales-lunch-as-young-voters-shift-allegiances/news-story/13eb41450a6eb5f35aae588f81250f66

37. Rupert is true to himself and the son of a father. (If only he was the son of his mother?)

    Pardon my ignorance but how does murdoch operate that is different from hearst, beaverbrook, packer or his dad? Perhaps he is just smarter than them?

    Pardon my lack of understanding but, kathryn what would you have him do?

    ps
    Good for a laugh Andreas. Vote for the diludbransimkims oops dibransimkims is a waste of a dollar.

    The real greens could move into labor and leave the boys to polish their pragmatism with malc, slimey X and the hinches.

38. If Rupert’s robots try to discredit the Greens more than Labor doesn’t that indicate they dislike or fear their influence more than ‘neoliberal lite’?

39. @ diannaart
    “Or, were you being satirical? – these days it is so difficult to know satire from sulking.”

    One more to add to the list.

    I disagree, which makes me uneducated and a sulker.

40. Large media organisations are always going to be very much pro-business and pro-growth, regardless of the cost to the working class. As media success are dependent to a large degree on advertising, executives will always be mixing with and sucking up to other big business executives, and will thus form the same mindset, even if they didn’t have it to begin with. As regulation affects their ability to grow and monopolise they will also be promoting the type of politician that is libertarian minded. Murdoch in particular became an expert in political corruption due to his experience with regulation in Australia.

    Our aging population is also a problem. I really do think that over 70’s should not have the vote (or at least for it to be optional). I once had an argument here with Kaye Lee as to whether people become more conservative as they age. As evidence on the net said there was no case, I submitted – but honestly I still think they do become more conservative. Even if they do not become more conservative, they become more easily swayed by things such as Fake news due to a higher propensity to become fearful. In a relative sense they also MUST be more conservative than the young as they grew up in more conservative times.

    “Here’s What to Expect With the Changing of the Guard at Fox News”

    “From a straightforward market standpoint, there’s no question that Fox News is catering to a rapidly-aging viewership. The average age of an O’Reilly viewer was over 70, which means that even within an already aging demographic—cable-TV viewers—the network skews old”

    http://fortune.com/2017/04/24/murdoch-fox-news/

41. The Coalition gain the vote of conservative voters and I also think older people are generally more conservative but do the Coalition really deserve this vote? The Coalition are in reality not pro jobs or pro growth as their current neo-liberal ‘trickle down’ Monetarist economic ideology constricts the economy and prevents full employment as any MMT economist fully realises.

    Prior to the 30+ year neoliberal era, conservative governments such as when Menzies was PM had fiscal deficits and trade protectionist policies that kept unemployment low otherwise people would have elected a Labor government. The Coalition, Labor and also the Greens are actually pro business but the Coalition are currently happy to see a greater share of national wealth go to the top few percent, for home ownership to become unaffordable, for climate change to be ignored and for essential government services to deteriorate.

    The conservative mindset fears change, fears debt and excessive government spending and longs for the good old days but has been duped by the Coalition that has long ago deserted them and 95+% of Australians for the big end of town. Labor has not been much better.

42. Mark

    For what its worth my education is somewhat truncated and am prone to a sulk occasionally, also.

43. Sure, I’m rather moody myself – but what Mark posted was indeed one big sulk. You can tell an a’hole wrote it.

44. Mark is an a’hole? That’s a term to reserve for the likes of Tony Abbott – people who have a great deal of power and have no reason to fear or lord it over others who don’t have power.

45. Just listening to news regarding refugees on Manus & Nauru, the award for a’hole of the year must surely go to Dutton – for lies and harm to innocent people.

46. Yes diannaart.

    Dutton knows he is an arsehole. I was listening to Richard Fidler on RN see http://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/conversations/conversations-david-gillespie/8717944

    A most interesting insight into what constitutes a sociopath.

    Surely Dutton comes close to that assessment.

    Even if he doesn’t realise the depth of his own depravity, we are beholden to remind him of it throughout the rest of his life, so he cannot enjoy his ill-gotten gains and power.

47. Jennifer

    I do enjoy Richard’s interviews, his programs are a haven of sense in an increasingly senseless world.

    Very fond of learning more about sociopaths having encountered far more than what I believe is my fair share in a single lifetime.

    Unfortunately Dutton is relatively young which means he has time to do a lot more damage unless we have a change of Federal government which remains stable for at least a couple of terms. He particularly incensed me with stating the helpless and hapless refugees who do not qualify for the ‘largess’ of the US of A, cannot settle in OZ even if they have family living here! Because that would “send the wrong message to people smugglers”. FFS.

    …and Turnbull has handed this leech the blood-bank…

    Indeed, I need some sense right now – thank you for link.

48. A very clear portrait description of this horrible, nasty iniquitous LNP government

49. When Rupert dies, I sincerely hope he is buried here in Australia, so we can all turn his grave into Australia’s most popular public urinal.