Facebook Inc. removes Nazi hate symbol from Trump election campaign ads

The President of the United States is campaigning for reelection using a Nazi concentration camp symbol.

Nazis used the red triangle to mark political prisoners and people who rescued Jews.

Trump & the RNC are using it to smear millions of protestors.

Their masks are off. pic.twitter.com/UzmzDaRBup

— Bend the Arc: Jewish Action (@jewishaction) June 18, 2020

After Twitter began to discuss certain election campaign ads being run on behalf of Donald Trump's re-election bid Facebook quickly removed the symbol.

National Public Radio NPR reported on the same day that:

The Trump campaign responded by drawing a lighthearted comparison to the red triangle symbol: "This is an emoji." 

The campaign also falsely claimed that the symbol is used by antifa groups and noted that it is not in the Anti-Defamation League Hate Symbols Database. 

In an interview with NPR, Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, pointed out that the database is not a collection of historical Nazi imagery.

It should be noted that the triangle emoji approved in 2015 is an up pointing triangle. There is no down pointing approved emoji.

Trump himself was not tweeting an immediate response to Facebook's action, nor did he do so in the following days. 

He appeared to be much more exercised by future US Supreme Court appointments (in light of the same court upholding the legality of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program) and former national security advisor John Bolton's tell-all book "The Room Where It Happened" due for release soon.

Tweet of the Week

Speaker Tony Smith shows he's got no time for parlour games during #qt, on the final parliamentary session for the fortnight @abcnews #auspol pic.twitter.com/K2lU8IvcX9

— ABC Politics (@politicsabc) June 18, 2020

Cartoon of the Week

Cathy Wilcox

Clarence Valley gun ownership remains relatively low to date in 2020

From 1 January to 31 March 2020 an est. 6% of the Clarence Valley population owned at least one registered firearm.

Clarence Valley firearm licence holders by postcode (excluding businesses, clubs, dealers & collectors) as of March Quarter 2020:  

2460 -  2,202 people with 8,675 firearms (one person holding 158 individual firearms)

2462 - 277 people with 1,019 firearms

2463 - 496 people with 2,091 firearms

2464 - 146 people with 580 firearms

2465 - 26 people with 122 firearms 

2466 - 74 people with 312 firearms 

2469 - 600 people with 2,092 firearms 

Total - 3,821 people*

NOTES

*Out of this total 680 individuals holding a firearm licence currently have no firearm in their possession. 

Data can be found at 
https://www.police.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/685350/NSW_Firearms_Licensing_and_Ownership_Information_Mar20.pdf

Serco-managed Clarence Correctional Centre to open on 1 July 2020

Image: Tweed Daily News

The est. $700 million purpose-built 1,700 bed Clarence Correctional Centre will open in thirteen days time and will hold both men and women.

This NSW prison at Lavadia in the Clarence Valley will be managed by the U.K. based multinational Serco Group.

Serco's contract has an estimated total value to the corporation over a 20-year term of approximately AUD$2.6 billion.

North Coast Voices readers may recall that the Serco Group has on numerous occasions been the subject of allegations concerning corruption, mismanagement, privacy violations and human rights abuses at its facilities and by its staff.

There will likely be more than a few fingers being crossed in the Clarence Valley that Serco through its subsidiary Serco Australia Pty Limited will not behave improperly or unlawfully when prisoners begin to fill what is being touted as the newest and largest correctional facility in Australia.

Morrison & his hard right mates won't back down on slashing Australia Post mail services

Here is what Australia Post states it has been doing to keep letters and parcels moving during the COVID-19 pandemic.......

Eight extra freighter flights and 600 more casual staff employed to help speed up delivery, along with new and repurposed facilities.

With many retail businesses closing shopfronts in rural and regional areas due to the economic downturn leaving only their online store available to customers, Australia Post and its more than 2,000 post offices in these areas have become increasingly vital links in the supply chain.

So how did the Morrison Government respond to the increase in mail traffic?

It introduced new Australia Post regulations via Australian Postal Corporation (Performance Standards) Amendment (2020 Measures No. 1) Regulations 2020 and on the back of this decided to cut mail deliveries to every second day, stretch mail delivery times to between five and seven days, as well as abandoning priority mail.

What this means it that unless each postie can deliver two days worth of letters, small parcels and unsolicited mail during one working day, there will be a backlog of undelivered mail quietly mounting up at local mail distribution points - which would eventually blowout the time between posting and delivery to a matter of weeks.

The possibility also exists that by June next year mail delivery will be reduced even further, potentially causing delivery chaos.

Echo NetDaily, excerpt, 16 June 2020:

The Morrison Government voted eight times over two days to slash Australia Post deliveries. Yesterday Labor Leader Anthony Albanese moved to disallow the Prime Minister’s regulations which cut the frequency of postie delivery rounds, extend mail delivery times for millions of Australians and put the jobs of up to one in four posties and many others at risk.... 

The changes will affect everyone who relies on Australia Post Justine Elliot said these changes will affect everyone who relies on Australia Post. It will particularly affect the elderly in our region, who will be most disadvantaged by these cuts to mail delivery services. 

‘Many seniors are not on the internet and they instead rely on the mail for their letters, cards and bills and now, due to Government cuts, they’ll be waiting longer for important correspondence. The fact is the mail is often a lifeline for our seniors. 

‘People in our regional and rural communities still rely on the postal service more than many other types of services. Australia Post service standards are fundamental and for the benefit of all Australians. 

‘Under the Morrison Government’s plan, mail delivery across the North Coast will blow out from three business days to seven full days. These changes will slash the frequency of postie delivery rounds and put the jobs of up to one in four posties at risk. 

‘At a time of economic downturns across regional Australia, this Government is now slashing jobs and services......

One MP was particularly unimpressed.

I got really crank tonight. I just had to tell you about it. Sorry no captions - just totally in the moment!! 😡 pic.twitter.com/I0tzNBsoKj

— Ged Kearney (@gedkearney) June 16, 2020

REX Regional Express Airline ditched its promise to keep flying into Grafton Airport during the COVID-19 pandemic because it wanted to fight a trade war with Qantas at other airports & didn't want to waste its few dollars on the Clarence Valley. However, Clarence Valley Council is about to tear itself apart rather than face that truth.

REX Regional Express airline has previously admitted that due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic it was on the verge of bankruptcy in March 2020, that keeping all air routes open would create a potential financial loss in the vicinity of $10 million a month and, that its current focus (after receiving est. $53.8 million in an untied federal government grant) was on pursuing a trade war with Qantas in which it was putting on extra non-profitable flights into certain airports where it will openly compete with the larger airline.

Rex's skeleton air service into Grafton Airport was always going to be a casualty of the airline board's current grandiose plans.

Even S&P Dow Jones Indices' removal of Rex from the S&P/ASX Index All Ordinaries list effective 22 June 2020 recognised the less than stellar financial outlook for this company.

However, Clarence Valley Council cannot see past the 'fig leaf' excuse Regional Express Holdings gave for terminating what it has previously deemed unprofitable flights into the Clarence Valley from 3 July 2020.

Instead Council will play out the old political animosities held by a clique of male wannabees who never made it past local government.

The Daily Examiner, 16 June 2020, p. 1:

A threat of legal action by a Clarence Valley councillor has led to the cancellation of an extraordinary council meeting in Grafton this afternoon. 

Clarence Valley Mayor Jim Simmons said a decision to cancel the meeting was made on receipt of a letter from solicitors representing Cr Debrah Novak. 

The meeting had been called to demand Cr Novak apologise to regional air carrier REX Airlines for comments she made about the airline during last month’s council meeting. 

Cr Novak said Rex management needed to “pull its finger out”. 

On June 4 the council received correspondence from REX saying that despite council waiving 100 per cent of the head tax it collected from the airline, it would cease to operate its Grafton service from July 3. It cited “hostility” from councillors as its reason for cutting the service. 

Cr Simmons said the letter called for an injunction against holding the meeting because the matter should have been dealt with during the May meeting and not have been brought up at a separate meeting. 

The mayor said he had a similar misgiving and had contacted the NSW Office of Local Government for advice. 

“I expect I’ll get that advice tomorrow morning,” Cr Simmons said. 

But he said Cr Novak was not off the hook and the matter would most likely appear as a report from general manager Ashley Lindsay at next week’s council meeting. 

“It might have to be in a different format, but there are still issues here the council must deal with,” he said. 

Meanwhile business groups have expressed their dismay at REX’s decision and Cr Novak’s role in it......