#4corners

I saw a reference to a published survey of Australians’ attitudes toward the United States in light of Donald Trump’s presidency. It was commissioned by the United States Studies Centre, which I imagine has some skin in the game. In my own opinion, I think that Australians do not grasp how bad America has become under the Trump regime. Trump was a bit of a joke for Aussies, over the last decade, but the penny, just maybe, is starting to drop.

“New polling shows most Australians want to stick with the US alliance, despite holding overwhelmingly negative views towards the Trump administration and harbouring deep worries about the erosion of American democracy.

USSC Director of Research Jared Mondschein was quoted by ABC on the polling findings, saying "The Australian people are by no means fans of Donald Trump, but I think that at the same time Australians can see the strategic importance of the alliance, and that there aren't really many alternatives to the alliance." “

- (https://www.ussc.edu.au/australians-are-no-fans-of-donald-trump-but-see-no-alternative-to-us-alliance)

Trump’s America Shares Less & Less Democratic Ideals With Australia

The survey results suggest a grim sense of reality for many Australians when it comes to their global security and the US alliance. Better the devil you know, kind of thinking. The old white man’s fear of the yellow peril still runs in the veins of the Anglo-settler descendants of both countries. Our ridiculous AUKUS arrangement with the US, UK and ourselves is built on such anxieties. At $368 billion, we Australians get to fund the Americans and Brits in their bids to build some very expensive nuclear powered submarines. The recent historical evidence clearly indicates that these submarines will not be built for a long time, if at all, for our purposes. Despite this AUKUS is a useful fiction for our politicians and their constituents. Somewhat like the religious belief in the Almighty, never proven but never quite goes away.

The US Is Way Beyond The Pale In Terms Of Democratic Norms

Australians do not grasp how bad America has become. The brutal reality of masked ICE agents shooting a minister of religion in the head with pepper bullets. Smashing down doors and windows. Grabbing people off the streets. Forcing children out of schools. Arresting and detaining folk who have lived in America for 30 years. The extreme behaviour is more unAustralian than anything we have ever seen before. Trump ordering in the National Guard for no evidential reason into big Democrat cities like LA, Chicago and Washington DC. Heavily armed soldiers on the streets of America threatening everyday folk by their very presence. This is bad shit. This is not the actions of an ally that respects democratic norms.

The Trump Profiteering

4 Corners, the flagship ABC investigative reporting program, highlights Donald Trump and his family’s crypto currency profiteering during his second term. Hundreds of millions of dollars have already accrued to him, flagrantly in disregard of norms and laws. A convicted felon, a criminal, is running the United States of America. Everyday Aussies are disgusted by this blatant behaviour. The question must be asked, why are we not complaining about this at the highest levels of government?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sij89ENvZqQ Australia’s Balls Are In America’s Pocket At The Top

Former PM Paul Keating would say that Australia’s leaders have lost their bottle on the world stage. That, under their lack of guidance, we have become the tacit 51st state of America. Yes men have been running our country for years. This is why we get bugger all tax and royalties for our resources from American multinationals. Little men with low self-esteem have been giving the farm away for less than peanuts. Bought off cheaply via the revolving door into well paid lobbyist jobs post-politics. Keating was the last loud mouthed polly with big balls we have seen in Canberra. Bland party men have replaced all the originals. Scott Morrison was working for the US industrial military complex following his retirement from Canberra.

Trump’s Personal Retribution Show Trials

“The Trump regime stratagem is all about muddying the waters. It is Putinesque in its design to confuse and misdirect. Indictments of former FBI head James Comey and NY Attorney General Letitia James have zero chance of being successful, as they are based on no evidence of any real wrong doing. The retribution of Donald Trump is not only a large waste of public resources; it is destructive to the very foundation of the DOJ in terms of its perceived integrity in the public eye. The federal government and its agencies should not be used as the personal lawyers of the president.”

- (https://wordsforweb.com.au/the-dichotomies-of-now/)

Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of What Price Life?; The Stoic Golfer; Money Matters and America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump.

©WordsForWeb

ABC investigative reporters at work, as Four Corners exposes $50 billion ATO losses. The old joke about feeling like a mushroom, kept in the dark and fed on shit, comes to mind when considering what really goes on in the halls of power. Macro corruption is the term used to describe the situation in Australia, where the amounts are very large when dirty deeds are done downunder. Scamming millions of dollars from the tax office via bogus GST claims would be an unlikely occurrence one would think. I mean, the ATO is a pillar of our whole national edifice, so it must be bristling with top line security, right? Wrong, it is a $50 billion black hole bad joke on that score.

ATO Fleeced Out Of Billions Via GST Scam Reports 4 Corners

Hard working Aussies make up the lion’s share of tax revenue each year via income tax contributions. The workers would not be best pleased to discover that the automated GST reporting system at the heart of the ATO has been spewing forth unchecked money in the many millions, adding up to billions, to scammers and criminals. The lack of human oversight within the ATO automated system is gob smackingly appalling. We can thank former PM Tony Abbott for the retrenching of some 1, 000 employees from the tax office due to his government’s cuts to the public service in 2013-15.  The old right wing, short sighted, slash the bureaucracy stupidity at work here. DOGE disasters, often, take time to emerge, as the damage done reveals itself when there is no one there to stick their finger in the dam wall. This is why criminality and corruption always accompanies populist actions with no foresight, like getting rid of all the inspectors. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwfhSHg8HEg Convenience vs Security At The ATO Chris Jordan, another ex-copper, via KPMG came to run the ATO and bring in the automated digitisation of the tax system in Australia. He was appointed in 2013 and ran the show until 2024. “Chris Jordan leaves his high-profile role as Tax Commissioner dodging another hail of political brickbats but confident he has delivered much better service and a digital revolution at the ATO – as well as forcing multinational companies to pay billions more in tax. That’s despite the finale of his 11 years dominated by the politics of the PwC tax scandal and, just this week, criticism from the auditor-general about the ATO’s response to a giant GST fraud scheme that went viral on TikTok. Not only were 12 officials working at the tax office and around 140 other former ATO contractors and employees among the tens of thousands of Australians investigated or charged, the auditor-general found the agency’s internal risk framework was lacking.” - (https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/why-chris-jordan-wants-secrecy-laws-to-change-20240213-p5f4ox) A lot of good stuff, improving the convenience of lodging tax returns and getting refunds occurred under Chris Jordan’s watch at the ATO. There is no denying that, but a balance is required, obviously, between offence and defence. That Four Corners exposes $50 billion ATO losses indicates that the defence needs tightening up. The ATO needs to hire back those human workers and get some oversight happening ASAP. Please don’t give me anymore BS about AI doing it better and cheaper. Australians would not be happy about these huge losses to scammers and criminals. “None other than James Packer, son of the late, great anti-tax champion, billionaire Kerry Packer, is warning that AI will decimate tax revenue downunder. Why? It is because Australia depends upon the income tax from workers for the lion’s share of its tax revenue. AI has already started shedding jobs in middle management and the numbers are going to ramp up substantially very soon. The loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs to machines will impact the bottom line severely. Especially, as multinational corporations and rich people avoid paying tax in Australia.” - (https://www.midasword.com.au/ai-will-decimate-income-tax-revenue-downunder/) Unaccountable & Secretive ATO The 4 Corners expose showed how unaccountable the ATO is within the framework of the Australian government. The old too big to fail BS. The leadership at the ATO needs to be held accountable for such large losses. Secret deals with powerful people and wiping million dollar tax debts are not ideal behaviours. The inability for the ATO to stop repeat offenders cheating them out of tens of millions of dollars has the Australian people losing confidence in the institution. The ATO is perceived as a giant money pot by criminals and is, therefore, a major target in their eyes. Is it merely incompetence or is there corruption involved here as well? It might be time for the old Royal Commission to be rolled out to make the lawyers rich and to delve into the ATO more forensically? Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of Money Matters and America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump. ©MidasWord