Andrew Bolt's Blog,9/5/18; Murdoch handed a gift better than a tax cut; Australian Democracy Diminished; Iran deal Smashed:

Budget Thoughts.. 2025 -- 7 years out

It has been dubbed the biggest union movement in a decade. The right to associate, the right to secure work benefits super and holiday pay the right to know your future.




Much of this rapid return to "the old normal" rests on the government's forecast that the past four or five years of exceptionally weak growth in wages will end next month. Wage rises will be a lot higher in 2018-19, higher again the following year and still higher, at 3.5 per cent a year, in the following two years and for the remaining years out to 2028-29.
I think this is the basic explanation for the budget's forecasts and projections, prepared by that well-known Italian economist, Rosie Scenario.

ABC CUT

A promising start, but no more: "The Government has announced it will freeze the ABC's annual funding indexation for three years from July 2019, costing the organisation $84 million.  ABC Managing Director Michelle Guthrie said freezing the indexation amounted to cutting the broadcaster." Excellent, but we're still paying it $1 billion a year.

08/05/2018

"ABC Managing Director Michelle Guthrie said freezing the indexation amounted to cutting the broadcaster. She said the $84 million cut would be compounded by a decision to cut $43 million in funding for news and current affairs.
Ms Guthrie said the organisation has faced $254 million in cuts since 2014."

"No cuts to the ABC "was Tony Abbott's mantra before the 2013 election and that was a straight out  lie that cost Australians $200 mill to their nations public information service and now Turnbull to curry favour with Rupert not only gave him $30 mill without explanation but now has like a termite shaved yet another $120 mill off the substructure of our public media in the hope we won't notice, calling it an "efficiency measure". All because of course, he might not otherwise get the $17 bill company tax bill through the Senate. Unlike the undocumented unexplained grant of an easy $30 million dollars.  story of the undocumented grant to Foxtel      No doubt a quid pro quo advertorial he has hoped to buy from Murdoch media, a terrific boost to the Coalition’s election chances, along with the $26 million to be spent by the business lobby. Clearly, the cut to the ABC called an "efficiency measure" is a backup. How is it the Independent Public Broadcaster's budget is held accountable to the political whims and false promises of the LNP who promised: "no cuts to the ABC". All up $ 250 mill has been taken off our ABC's bottom line.
 The ABC is finding it increasingly difficult to fulfil its charter because of this constant whittling of its budget since 2000 to provide services, Australian content, culture and information that private media doesn't. Yet again Australian electorate's capacity to access genuine information, news and to critically question its leadership has been severely damaged and limited. The need to be able to critically question government performance and accountability has been white-anted further diminishing Democracy in this country yet again. Murdoch more than any other private media service has been handed yet another "gimme" free gift even better than the tax cut in 2014.
LNP has once again given special consideration to the MSM at large and in particular Murdoch's Sky News by nibbling away at the ankles of Aunty that keeps the bastards honest. This the LNP attempt to close eventually close down Get Up and take the ABC out of the news business an Orwellian attempt to ensure all news and public narrative delivered is from the alliance of government, the IPA  BCA and simply entertainment any questioning of the narrative in their interest blocked.
Any correction to this Cultural nobbling of the ABC come from citizens parties that believe in the free association of individuals to receive and disseminate news and information freely and equally without constant fog from those in control of the technology and the restoring of the ALP to the government would at least be a start
 

Budget 2018: Climate change denial and conservation jobs slashed

 Budget 2018: What you won’t find in Morrison’s third budget

SOLID BUDGET, BUT LABOR WILL LOVE IT

Column This is a Budget Labor could live with. There’s an election-year spending spree and tax cuts for poorer Australians. And it’s all paid for by a cash windfall, massive immigration and more debt  — our 11th straight deficit in a row. Yet this Budget leaves the Turnbull Government a sitting duck for cashed-up Labor to outbid it.

08/05/2018
Bolt doesn't hide his light under a bushel does he when he says "no damage done" does he? "
This is a Budget Labor could live with. There’s an election-year spending spree, tax cuts for poorer Australians and just a worthless IOU to the “rich”. Bolt
The "chicken little" threat is however not far away fear that driving force that fuels conservative politics is always there to tell us the "sky is falling in". The eating away at the ABC is a means to counter any opposition to the distribution of "fake news" by the Murdoch corporation. Who can forget alarmist Abbott and his sudden cry "we've fixed it" while spending through the roof.

 

Budget 2018: Dodgy accounting and even dodgier politics

In breaking Iran deal, Trump goes on collision course with allies

Trump has undermined America’s relationships with its allies and friends, hindering any future diplomatic efforts to confront Iranian aggression.

“What the US wants from Iran is to abandon its independence. That’s bottom line… They don’t want any independent strong nation in the world, especially, in the Middle East. And – regardless of what we think of its political system – Iran has chosen the path of independence from the US. They don’t want to be a lackey of the US policy in the region. And the US is telling them: ‘We’ll punish you for this,” the expert explained.

" on Monday, Rouhani said Iran could stick with it if the European Union, whose economies do far more business with Iran than the U.S., offers guarantees that Iran would keep benefiting."
READ MORE: Iran will remain in nuclear deal, US withdrawal illegal - Rouhani

Trump is simply continuing his promise to isolate the US from the rest of the world and the rest of the world is giving him the bird.

Nobel Peace Prize My Ass (ODT)

  Iran nuclear deal: 2 winners and 5 losers from Trump’s withdrawal - Vox

And that’s only a partial list. What follows is a look at how seven different people and governments are affected by Trump’s announcement — a concrete way of looking at how this massive decision changes the world, for the better and (mostly) for the worse.

 Lost in the debate on Iran: Israel's Nukes and the Vanunu Case

“Kudos to @ChrisCuomo for pressing Netanyahu on that little uncomfortable fact that is typically ignored: the only country in the Middle East with a proven, clandestine nuclear weapons stockpile is . . . Israel. And the rogue state refuses to join the NPT.”
While the Trump Administration professes possible progress toward “denuclearization of the Korean peninsula” and worries about purported Iranian violation of its anti-nuclear deal, virtually no one in government or the media is paying attention to the multiple megaton elephant in the room. That is the Israeli nuclear weapons program, estimated as the 6th largest in the world, after the US, Russia, China, England, and France. As with the US, the development of an aggressive, expanding nuclear program is an expression of and contributes to a repressive and ever more militarized society.

 

Europe pledges to save Iran nuclear deal 'for our shared security'

The UK, France and Germany reject US sanctions and will continue to trade with Iran in an effort to keep it from restarting its nuclear program