The “exclusion games” begin in Rio de Janeiro
Demonstrators will converge on the opening ceremony of the Rio Olympics to protest the social disaster that has accompanied the games. All up 77,000 favela dwellers have been displaced, 2500 people have been killed by police since Rio won the right to the games and the environment has been trashed.
A golf course that was built on the Marapendi nature reserve symbolises the destruction. The cost of the games is estimated to be around $16 billion. This immense expenditure has been paid for through savage cuts to health and education. Hospitals have been closed and students have been forced to occupy their schools to defend their education, while a fortune is poured into the Olympic circus by Mayor Eduardo Paes.
Cops draw guns on black Pokemon Go player
A black man’s Pokemon Go game ended abruptly in Iowa when four police officers confronted him with guns drawn in July. Faith Ekakitie, from the University of Iowa football team, was playing Pokemon Go in Iowa City Park. Ekakitie said he was “happy to be alive” after the police surrounded him without warning.
The six foot football player was profiled as fitting the description of another black man who allegedly robbed a nearby bank.
According to Ekakitie, “Not once did they identify themselves to me as Iowa City Police officers, but with four gun barrels staring me in the face, I wouldn’t dare question the authority of the men and woman in front of me … My pockets were checked, my backpack was opened up and searched carefully, and I was asked to lift up my shirt while they searched my waistband”. He wrote that he, “could very well [have] become another statistic on this day.”
NSW prison population at record levels
Harsh new bail laws have been driving record levels of incarceration and overcrowding in NSW prisons. The laws and have led to a massive 9 per cent increase in the prison population between April 2015 and May 2016 by pushing up the number of prisoners on remand. Prisons are bulging at the seams, with one corrective services document suggesting that mattresses be put on the floor.
The overcrowding is leading to violence. In January this year fights between inmates were up by 41 per cent compared to the same month in 2015.
All the evidence indicates that imprisonment increases the likelihood of someone re-offending—NSW currently has the worst rates of re-offending in the country. Liberal Corrections Minister David Eliot is using the disaster he created to bolster his agenda of prison privatisation by threatening to privatise prisons that don’t reduce re-offending rates.
Police could ban people from mosques on a whim
Draconian new police powers passed in NSW could see people prevented from attending mosques and other locations purely on the basis of police suspicion. The dramatic new “crime prevention” orders give cops the power to restrict people’s movements, limit who they associate with and who they work for and can even prevent their access to the internet. The orders are similar to those imposed on terror suspects but can be applied to anyone suspected of being associated with a serious crime. An order can be sought against someone even if they have not been convicted of any crime or have been acquitted. Breaching an order could bring five years in prison or a $33,000 fine.
The Liberal government rejected Labor amendments to increase judicial oversight. The Greens’ David Shoebridge proposed these orders, as well as the new “public safety orders” be scrapped. The suggestion that the orders could prevent people from going to church saw the Liberals’ leader in the legislative council, Duncan Gay, yell out “The police like churches.” When Shoebridge raised that people could be unfairly prevented from attending mosques there was no interjection.
Things they say
It’s good to see that you’re, you know, taking this up and working
Pauline Hanson’s response on learning that an SBS cameraman was Aboriginal
He took note of everything I said and was very interested in my opinion
Hanson on her first meeting with Malcolm Turnbull
His interest in Indigenous affairs has really got to be questioned—and why he doesn’t take note of the various reports that are out there
Co-chair of Reconciliation Australia Tom Calma on Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion
I don’t think it’s as terrible as the unions make out, so at this stage I think I’d support it
NSW One Nation Senator Brian Burston on the ABCC
Malcolm-Ieuan: Roberts., the living soul
How Queensland One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts described himself in a bizarre affidavit to Julia Gillard opposing the carbon tax
This smacks too much of the Jewish world conspiracy theorising I’ve always loathed
Andrew Bolt disassociating himself from Malcolm Roberts in 2012
They need to give way to modern young people, including young people in professions like business and law who are keen on changing society for the better.
Bob Brown shows his class bias in his hectoring advice to the NSW Greens
I just feel like the Clintons have betrayed me over and over
Kirk Voorhees, a 56-year-old truck driver and Bernie Sanders supporter on why he won’t be voting for Hillary
