The alt-Right: An era of misinformation incorporated
Climate denialism is bought and paid for by a rotten political system - corruption that comes from the dominance of political donations in public life, the lack of transparency around donations, and the way they facilitate the influencing of policy by vested interests. The persistence of climate denialism in Australian politics reflects the wealth of mining and energy companies prepared to use a deeply flawed political system to wield power.
"Known as the Cool Heads Coalition, an investigation conducted by the Climate Investigation Centre shows Exxon and their supporting groups funded a network of foundations, institutes and other groups around the world to carry out the task of promoting and convincing the public and politicians that it was all a bit of alarmism. This was to the tune of 98 million dollars we know of between 1997 and 2015.
Other key players in the Coalition include the Scaife family, Mercer family and the Lynde family Foundations and the Koch-backed network of organisations and dark money channels including the Donors Trust and Capital Fund. The Koch group is interesting because of its long-established agenda to go further, of demolishing our democratic institutions, welfare state and middle class to usher in an oligarchic society in which the economic and political life is controlled by a handful of billionaire families.
Supporters of this objective call themselves “libertarians”. This theme needs to be examined again with the rise of QAnon and the alt-Right, particularly as a consequence of the Trump era and the work of Steve Bannon.
Two identified Australian beneficiaries of undisclosed amounts of this Cool Heads Coalition money are the Lavoisier Group and the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA). It seems that Australia, with its domination by mining money in the economy, is ripe to play a key role in this international corporate push for an oligarchical rebirth
Many commentators in the media have noted the growing far-right influence in Australia in the last ten years. We have the well-established libertarian groups, identified as being part of the self-described Australian Libertarian Network. Many of these are also members of the international Atlas Network of libertarian or pro-free market groups who advocate the kind of governance seen emerge in the U.S. during the Trump era.
ASIO has also identified a rise in right-wing terrorist/hate groups, largely anti-Moslem/immigrant or refugee in nature. This has been accompanied by a rise in political organisations of what may be described as racially motivated, emphasising the benefit of “Western civilisation” and individual liberty. An example is the group Advance Australia, now registered with the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) as a ‘political campaigner’ who claims to survive on donations from the public. It has received considerable loans from the UK-based Christian charity, the Burleigh Trust."
The alt-Right: An era of misinformation incorporated (independentaustralia.net)
"Advance Australia is a group of rich white men on a campaign to make themselves richer," he said.
"They want to work on issues that are in their own self-interest, that are the vested interests of the corporate lobby they represent."
What is Advance Australia, the new conservative lobby group taking on Get Up! - ABC News
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-21/what-is-advance-australia/10520122
Holding the country ransom while owning mining shares — guess who?
"The parliamentary register of interest reveals five of the 21 Nationals in government have more than a mere philosophical interest in the resources sector.
And it shows that while the Nationals continue to stand in the way of a net zero emissions by 2050 target, many in their party room have a financial interest in the continued strength of the resources sector.
Nationals’ Deputy Leader David Littleproud has the most resources-heavy share portfolio of anyone in the party. He owns shares in BHP, mining company South32, Blue Energy (oil and gas exploration) and Atlas, an iron ore company which is run by Gina Rinehart, whose Hancock Prospecting acquired it in 2018. He also has shares in Ausenco, an engineering company primarily servicing the resources industry. Littleproud’s dependent children are listed as having BHP and South32 shares.
Regional Health Minister David Gillespie, who was promoted to the frontbench after Barnaby Joyce returned to the party leadership, has shares in BHP, South32 and gold extractor Northern Star Resources. So does his wife.
Senators Perin Davey and Susan McDonald have shares in BHP. Ken O’Dowd, who is retiring as the member for Flynn in central Queensland has shares in energy giant Woodside Petroleum. According to the section of his statement detailing “bonds, debentures and like investments”, O’Dowd has interests in BHP, Rio Tinto and Caltex.
The registers also lay out the close relationship between the Nationals and mining companies. Senator Matt Canavan, who is one of the mining industry’s most vocal advocates in federal parliament, received a commemorative plaque from Bravus (née Adani) with the first coal extracted from its controversial Carmichael mine. Bravus also paid for him to sit in their corporate box for a basketball game in Rockhampton."
Nearly a quarter of federal Nats own mining shares (crikey.com.au)
Why are the Australia government doing nothing to fight the climate crisis?
For a start, the PM is a member of a wacko cult who believe “the end of the world is all part of Gods plan”.
Divine providence
“Morrison’s mention of an election miracle coheres with the Pentecostal belief in the divine providence. Put simply, this is the belief that, in spite of the apparent chaos in the world, as the old song puts it, “He’s got the whole world in his hands”.
According to Pentecostal theology, all of history – and the future – is in the control of God; from creation, to the Fall of humanity in the Garden of Eden, to the redemption of all in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In turn, this will lead to the second coming of Christ, the end of the world and the final judgement.
This is why further action on reducing carbon emissions to counter the environmental damage wrought by climate change may have little intellectual purchase with the PM. If the end of the world through climate change is part of God’s providential plan, there is precious little that we need to or can do about it.”
Five aspects of Pentecostalism that shed light on Scott Morrison's politics
Does this look like a PM interested in fixing climate issues?
Scott Morrison brings a chunk of coal into parliament – video
http://act.greenpeace.org.au/dirtypower
Climate denialism is bought and paid for by a rotten political system - corruption that comes from the dominance of political donations in public life, the lack of transparency around donations, and the way they facilitate the influencing of policy by vested interests. The persistence of climate denialism in Australian politics reflects the wealth of mining and energy companies prepared to use a deeply flawed political system to wield power.
https://www.crikey.com.au/2019/11/18/climate-denialism-rotten-political-system/?utm_campaign=Weekender&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wkndr=S2FjbnI2MHlOSEJobXh5eEVDdUpCQT09
If only Climate alarmism was 1 % of the Oil lobby's cy baby megaphones and this perpetual whining and complaining about all the horrible things that will happen if we stop using fossil fuels, including a ruined economy, ruined welfare, society is set back to the 19th century, electricity prices skyrocketing, everyone is losing their jobs and all the petroleum products we have to "do without" etc, - in short, the world is going to hell if we stop using fossil fuels. And this endless whining floods down social media like a sewer stream.
https://reneweconomy.com.au/cheaper-cleaner-more-reliable-the-stunning-success-of-south-australias-renewable-transition/?fbclid=IwAR1Wte6-QKtOKvraitS6LS8IjWv27xmscUAXaE9qbLun4beRCQpK3PyYUD0
