EndemicEarthling - Network

Remember the months and months Israel pretending it wasn't blocking food into Gaza? Remember how hard the US tried to go along with...

Remember the months and months Israel pretending it wasn't blocking food into Gaza? Remember how hard the US tried to go along with this? Remember the doomed pier, designed to fail, but they could pretend for a while? Remember the faux outrage at any suggestion Israel might be using starvation as a weapon of war?

Now they don't even both with a halfhearted pretence.

If there wasn't already overwhelming evidence sufficient to convict senior Israel leadership of numerous crimes against humanity, this latest announcement represents a slam dunk case.

Furthermore, no effort made to even bother attempting to hide the fact they are (once again) shifting the goalposts and reneging on a previous agreement. Doing it purely because they want to and Trump has a given green light to any atrocity Netanyahu wants to inflict.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/02/israel-cuts-off-humanitarian-supplies-to-gaza-as-it-seeks-to-change-ceasefire-deal

National Gallery of Australia: we were worried that this artwork with elements depicting symbols of Palestinian solidarity was going to get...

National Gallery of Australia: we were worried that this artwork with elements depicting symbols of Palestinian solidarity was going to get vandalised, so we insisted on vandaliding it ahead of time.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/feb/21/national-gallery-of-australia-says-it-covered-palestinian-flags-on-tapestry-after-security-assessment-ntwnfb

#art #Auspol #Palestine #solidarity #censorship #CancelCulture #NGA

The US Supreme Court has made it clear that (what remains of) the US legal system has no intention of pursuing any kind of accountability...

The US Supreme Court has made it clear that (what remains of) the US legal system has no intention of pursuing any kind of accountability for Biden and Trump's complicity in Israel's genocide and crimes against humanity in Gaza, leaving the way open for the International Criminal Court to step into the breach.

Another journalism fail. Here's what today's headline ought to have been:Israel breaches Gaza ceasefire deal as Trump &...

Another journalism fail. Here's what today's headline ought to have been:

Israel breaches Gaza ceasefire deal as Trump & Netanyahu announce agreement to cooperate in ethnic cleansing of Gaza

(Subheading: Pressure mounts on ICC over lack of arrest warrants for last two US presidents, both accomplices to Netanyahu's alleged crimes against humanity)

Finally got around to reading Owen Jones' lengthy investigative piece laying out in detail the systemic anti-Palestinian bias at the...

Finally got around to reading Owen Jones' lengthy investigative piece laying out in detail the systemic anti-Palestinian bias at the #BBC, including reporting on the experiences of more than a dozen very frustrated BBC journalists, and accounts of how various spefic stories were spun by senior editors to blunt and obscure evidence and perspectives critical of Israel.

https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/bbc-civil-war-gaza-israel-biased-coverage

I have multiple people I know well who still (somewhat inexplicably) consider the BBC a reliable and objective source of news, and whose attitudes to the ongoing genocide in Gaza are correspondingly muted as a direct result. This kind of investigation and the evidence it gathers can sometimes open chinks in the mental armour so many of us wear, those habitual modes of thought and mental shortcuts that help to hold deeply uncomfortable realities at bay, such as the fact that most major western media outlets are deeply invested in helping to manufacture consent for some of the 21st century's most horrific crimes against humanity.

#OwenJones #MediaBias #BBCbias #InvestigativeJournalism #DropSiteNews #Gaza #GazaGenocide #CrimesAgainstHumanity

All I want for #Christmas is...https://firstdogonthemoon.com.au/cartoons/2024/12/18/and-what-do-you-want-from-santa-this-christmas/...an end...

All I want for #Christmas is...

https://firstdogonthemoon.com.au/cartoons/2024/12/18/and-what-do-you-want-from-santa-this-christmas/

...an end to the global hegemony of imperialist capital and the venal militarist fossilfuelocracy.

#FirstDogOnTheMoon

Environment Minister #Tanya_Plibersek and the #ALP government approve four more #CoalMine expansions in these lands now called...

Environment Minister #Tanya_Plibersek and the #ALP government approve four more #CoalMine expansions in these lands now called Australia.

They claim that as these four coal mines are (mainly) extracting #MetallurgicalCoal, that they are unavoidable and necessary, as there is not a currently viable alternative to metallurgical coal in steel-making.

But there are alternatives. They are only considered 'non-viable' because under current economic practices they are not yet as cheap as metallurgical coal. And they only seem to be more expensive than coal due to coal not having to pay its true costs. And coal doesn't have a price anywhere near reflective of its myriad actual harms (immediate and long-term, local and planetary) since the Australian government joins a globally dominant delusion that #externalities don't need to be considered when there's masses of short-term profit to be had by burning our collective future.

If the #CoalIndustry were held responsible for the toxic and climate-disrupting rubbish it dumps (for free!) into the global atmosphere, then it would rapidly become apparent that burning more coal, whether in thermal energy production or in making steel, is utterly unaffordable.

https://web.archive.org/web/20241219112033/https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/dec/19/albanese-government-coalmine-expansions-approved-boggabri-caval-ridge-horse-pit-lake-vermont-meadowbrook-vulcan-south

#ClimateCrisis #CoalChokesOurFuture #DirtyEnergyDirtyPolitics #Auspol

On those who warn against 'divisiveness'In a time of acrimony and unrest, politicians urge social cohesion and decry those who stoke...

On those who warn against 'divisiveness'

In a time of acrimony and unrest, politicians urge social cohesion and decry those who stoke division. They label protesters troublemakers and haters. They bring in new regulations making it more difficult for ordinary people to publicly criticise the injustices of the status quo and to organise against them in a coherent and effective manner (i.e. #CriminalisationOfDissent).

But real social cohesion can only be built on mutual respect across differences in combination with a sense of shared responsibility for common goods. Respect requires trust. Trust requires honesty and a sustained commitment to working towards shared goals. And so when those who demonise protesters for 'divisiveness' have themselves demonstrated a sustained commitment to dishonesty in service of merely private goods, or goods for a limited group at the expense of those outside it, then it is the accusers who are guilty of their own complaint.

To be established and maintained, social divisions and exclusion always require both the propagation of falsehood and the use of violence to suppress the truth. Thus, to speak frankly about actually existing injustices is not to be divisive, but to hold open the only path towards any kind of genuine social peace.
#divisive #SocialCohesion

According to often cited claims, Hamas alone had around 30,000 militants at the start of Oct 2023, representing approximately 1.3%...

According to often cited claims, Hamas alone had around 30,000 militants at the start of Oct 2023, representing approximately 1.3% Gaza's population.

So if you took a random sample of 5,000 people in #Gaza at that point, you would have picked more #Hamas militants than the Israeli military managed to target in hundreds and hundreds of airstrikes.

The #Airwars report includes a detailed explanation of their methodology and links to their full dataset, and is available for free here: https://gaza-patterns-harm.airwars.org/.

The report has been usefully summarised by UK journalist #OwenJones in this 9 minute video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrhGKDpH0vA.

A new report by UK #NGO #Airwars has extensively analysed all available data about the victims of 606 "incidents of civilian harm"...

A new report by UK #NGO #Airwars has extensively analysed all available data about the victims of 606 "incidents of civilian harm" (mainly Israeli airstrikes) that were recorded in #Gaza over the first 25 days of the escalation back in October 2023.

The newly published report found that a minimum of 5,137 civilians were confirmed killed in the strikes. (There were likely considerably more whose bodies were never recovered, or who have subsequently died of their injuries, or who have died due to the collapse of the healthcare system that began in these strikes). The victims included over 1,900 children, a toll for children around seven times greater than any previous month of warfare anywhere in the world analysed by Airwars (which was established in 2014). Gaza is by far the most intense and deadly conflict for civilians over this period.

Out of all those confirmed killed in the 606 incidents analysed in the report, Airwars found the number of #Palestinian militants (Hamas or otherwise) was between 30 and 58, meaning combatants were only 0.6%–1.1% of all deaths (=98.9–99.4% civilian death rate for these airstrikes).

This data does not point to a military that is attempting to limit civilian casualties, rather than opposite.

NSW Labor Premier Chris Minns does not seem to have come across a protest that he doesn't want to ban—with PM Albanese and federal...

NSW Labor Premier Chris Minns does not seem to have come across a protest that he doesn't want to ban—with PM Albanese and federal Labor backing him up at almost every step of the way.

Feels like these Labor leaders might need a little refresher on the history of the labour movement they purport to represent...

#NSWpol #Auspol #CriminalisationOfDissent #ChrisMinns #AnthonyAlbanese #ALP

A case study in disinformation unrepentantly shared by almost all major western media outlets & a large number of politicians.What...

A case study in disinformation unrepentantly shared by almost all major western media outlets & a large number of politicians.

What happened in Amsterdam? Not an antisemitic pogrom targeting random Jewish people out of racial animosity, but a bunch of racist visiting football hooligans chanting genocidal slogans, engaging in various acts of property destruction, threatening and assaulting local residents, all without response from the authorities. Instead political representatives and establishment media come out en masse in support of the hooligans committing incitement to genocide.

https://youtu.be/DvTyg1kJGzM?si=GG2akEaaGbHEvq35

Documenting arbitrary executions, deliberate starvation & systematic deprivation of shelter, medical care, and other essentials by...

Documenting arbitrary executions, deliberate starvation & systematic deprivation of shelter, medical care, and other essentials by Israeli forces in northern Gaza.

The 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, unanimously adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, creates a positive obligation on all nations to prevent genocidal violence, an obligation which almost every nation is currently failing, with some being directly and actively complicit to greater or lesser degrees, via providing weapons and diplomatic support to Israel even as the slaughter continues.

Whether there shall remain any shred of international humanitarian law left after the Gaza genocide is a question increasingly likely to be answered in the negative, a casualty of this horrific crime that even all those willing to consider Palestinians as less than fully human will come to regret in the lawless days ahead.

https://euromedmonitor.org/en/article/6544/'They-killed-them-without-them-moving-a-muscle':-Field-executions,-starvation,-and-forced-displacement-by-Israeli-army-in-northern-Gaza

Who had "Leader of the Free World™ expresses support for middle eastern football hooligans after they rampaged through a European...

Who had "Leader of the Free World™ expresses support for middle eastern football hooligans after they rampaged through a European city chanting racist and genocidal slogans" on their bingo card for 2024?

And Trump's not even president yet.

In May 2023, LECC described a pattern of consistent, systemic noncooperation from NSW Police, effectively thwarting or delaying many of...

In May 2023, LECC described a pattern of consistent, systemic noncooperation from NSW Police, effectively thwarting or delaying many of LECC's attempts at investigation. As a result, LECC described some of its own powers as merely 'illusory': “In every critical incident investigation to date, involved police officers have refused to consent to the commission investigator being present or to remotely observe their interviews.”

In New South Wales, the number of official complaints each year of police misconduct have more than tripled since 2015–16.

https://web.archive.org/web/20231023104458/https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/oct/23/nsw-police-watchdog-routinely-denied-access-to-internal-officer-interviews-report-finds

#NSWpolice #LECC #NSWpol #corruption #transparency #PoliceWatchdog #PoliceAbuse #ACAB

Examples of LECC's failure to address serious matters abound.For instance, #LECC knew for at least a year that a group of very senior...

Examples of LECC's failure to address serious matters abound.

For instance, #LECC knew for at least a year that a group of very senior officers (including the then NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller and three of his Assistant Commissioners) co-owned a bunch of racehorse with business figures in the gambling and gaming industries, some of them under criminal investigation. The senior police figures had not disclosed this obvious conflict of interest as required (connections between police and the gambling and gaming industries having been specifically labelled high risk by the Woods Royal Commission). And yet LECC did nothing.

Then, in 2022 after Commissioner Fuller had resigned and was about to be appointed as head of Racing NSW (peak horse racing body), investigation by #ABC journalists revealed these undisclosed links and LECC was forced to address them. However, LECC's initial response completely cleared Fuller and rubbished the ABC reporting. Months later, a subsequent LECC examination of its own earlier response resulted in a complete 180º-turn: a ban on such business arrangements and an exoneration of the #InvestigativeJournalism that had revealed them.

#NSWPoliceCommissioner #NSWpolice #transparency #corruption #GamblingIndustry #HorseRacing #EndHorseRacing #WoodsRoyalCommission

The police watchdog is called the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission, or #LECC. LECC ought never be mentioned without also mentioning that...

The police watchdog is called the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission, or #LECC. LECC ought never be mentioned without also mentioning that the former #Coalition government established it in 2017 with such insufficient funding that it only has the resources to investigate 1-2% of the thousands of complaints made against NSW Police each year. Enormous numbers of complaints, including those involving serious #corruption, are either completely unaddressed or handed over for police to investigate themselves.

The Coalition founded LECC in 2017 as a replacement for multiple prior police accountability organisations, including the Police Integrity Commission (PIC) that was set up after the Woods Royal Commission confirmed longstanding allegations of serious and non-isolated police corruption in NSW. As it was being set up, the Police Union and relevant government minister sought to prevent anyone who worked at PIC from being hired for LECC, according to testimony under oath in 2018 from the newly appointed LECC head to parliamentary committee (claims denied by the then police minister).

#WoodsRoyalCommission #PoliceCorruption #PoliceAbuse #transparency #PoliceWatchdog #NSWpol #NSWpolice

NSW Police again the beneficiary of apparent legal double standards, as judicial hearings involving serious drink-driving charges against a...

NSW Police again the beneficiary of apparent legal double standards, as judicial hearings involving serious drink-driving charges against a senior officer receive extraordinary court secrecy. The court registrar attempted (and failed) to have the entire trial process conducted in the absence of media. Nonetheless, there is a 40 year court order suppressing the identity of the officer, longer secrecy than is granted even for cabinet discussions. The individual allegedly consumed approximately 24-36 standard drinks at a single event before driving and crashing his vehicle in a tunnel, then departing the scene before his blood alcohol could be tested.

A recent report from the police watchdog (LECC, see below) found that the senior detective was "treated more leniently in the way in which he was managed by his commander and in the police review of his driving”. It notes that other officers lost confidence in the integrity of their organisation as a result of this "favourable treatment".

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/oct/17/extraordinary-secrecy-surrounds-court-details-of-senior-nsw-police-officer-charged-with-drink-driving-ntwnfb
(I would have used #InternetArchive for this weblink, but its save page feature is temporarily unavailable, apparently due to recent DDOS attacks)

#NSWpolice #NSWpol #Auspol #transparency #GovernmentSecrecy #SecrecyLaws #RuleOfLaw #DoubleStandards #corruption

Headlines you won't see, but ought to: "Today's celebration of health and fun brought to you by the purveyors of death and...

Headlines you won't see, but ought to: "Today's celebration of health and fun brought to you by the purveyors of death and planetary ecological breakdown."

#Sportwashing is the practice of sanitising the reputation of a government or corporation through sponsoring sporting events, associating their organisation with the significant public goodwill attached to sports.

A new report by a climate research group called the New Weather Institute calculates that #DirtyEnergy megacorporations have collectively spent at least US$5.6b in such deals.

From the report: “Fossil fuel companies are seeking to associate their product, whose #AirPollution alone is estimated to kill over 5 million people a year, with sport’s immense #SocialCapital and positive health impacts.

“They do this for many of the same reasons that #tobacco companies sponsored sport before it was largely banned – to portray themselves in a positive light and normalise their activities in the eyes of billions of sports fans.

“These types of sponsorship deals buy so-called ‘social licence’ to operate, in an attempt to divert attention from their role in fuelling the climate crisis and harming human health.”

#ClimateCrisis #FossilFuels #FossilFuelledFascism #SocialLicence #advertising

See also #greenwashing

https://web.archive.org/web/20240917233718/https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/sep/18/fossil-fuel-companies-sponsor-billions-in-global-sportswashing-deals

Real estate agents are rarely considered the victim. But when it comes to the behemoths of property listings in Australia, estate agents...

Real estate agents are rarely considered the victim. But when it comes to the behemoths of property listings in Australia, estate agents have faced price gouging to the tune of a 5000% price rise over the last 15 years for a 'premium' listing on the market-dominant platform. Without paying for that 'premium' service, properties tend to disappear from search results.

Since the behemoth in question is a subsidiary of (and substantially bankrolling) Australia's dominant media company (i.e. #Murdoch), with a market capitalisation greater than supermarket giant #Coles, here is yet another reason the political duopoly are reluctant to touch structural #TaxJustice issues such as #NegativeGearing or #CapitalGainsTax.

#RealEstate #WealthInequality #Auspol #AusMedia #PriceGouging #HousingJustice #HousingPolicy #housing #PropertyBubble #CostOfLiving #MurdochMedia #MurdochPress

https://web.archive.org/web/20240000000000*/https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/sep/19/the-bear-at-the-door-estate-agents-say-they-fear-speaking-out-about-realestatecomau-price-gouging