U.S. Politics 2016: A cry from the heart

GOPLifer, 22 July 2016:

Resignation letter

Chairman Cuzzone:

We come together in political parties to magnify our influence. An organized representative institution can give weight to our will in ways we could not accomplish on our own. Working with others gives us power, but at the cost of constant, calculated compromise. No two people will agree on everything. There is no moral purity in politics.

If compromise is the key to healthy politics, how does one respond when compromise descends into complicity? To preserve a sense of our personal moral accountability we must each define boundaries. For those boundaries to have meaning we must have the courage to protect them, even when the cost is high.

Almost thirty years ago as a teenager in Texas, I attended my first county Republican convention. As a college student I met a young Rick Perry, fresh from his conversion to the GOP, as he was launching his first campaign for statewide office. Through Associated Republicans of Texas I contributed and volunteered for business-friendly Republican state and local candidates.

Here in DuPage County I’ve been a precinct committeeman since 2006. Door to door I’ve canvased my precinct in support of our candidates. Trudging through snow, using a drill to break the frozen ground, I posted signs for candidates on whom I pinned my hopes for better government. Among Illinois Republicans I found an organization that seemed to embody my hopes for the party nationally. Pragmatic, sensible, and focused on solid government, it seemed like a GOP Jurassic Park, where the sensible, reliable Republicans of old still roamed the landscape.

At the national level, the delusions necessary to sustain our Cold War coalition were becoming dangerous long before Donald Trump arrived. From tax policy to climate change, we have found ourselves less at odds with philosophical rivals than with the fundamentals of math, science and objective reality.

The Iraq War, the financial meltdown, the utter failure of supply-side theory, climate denial, and our strange pursuit of theocratic legislation have all been troubling. Yet it seemed that America’s party of commerce, trade, and pragmatism might still have time to sober up. Remaining engaged in the party implied a contribution to that renaissance, an investment in hope. Donald Trump has put an end to that hope.

From his fairy-tale wall to his schoolyard bullying and his flirtation with violent racists, Donald Trump offers America a singular narrative – a tale of cowards. Fearful people, convinced of our inadequacy, trembling before a world alight with imaginary threats, crave a demagogue. Neither party has ever elevated to this level a more toxic figure, one that calls forth the darkest elements of our national character.

With three decades invested in the Republican Party, there is a powerful temptation to shrug and soldier on. Despite the bold rhetoric, we all know Trump will lose. Why throw away a great personal investment over one bad nominee? Trump is not merely a poor candidate, but an indictment of our character. Preserving a party is not a morally defensible goal if that party has lost its legitimacy.

Watching Ronald Reagan as a boy, I recall how bold it was for him to declare ‘morning again’ in America. In a country menaced by Communism and burdened by a struggling economy, the audacity of Reagan’s optimism inspired a generation.

Fast-forward to our present leadership and the nature of our dilemma is clear. I watched Paul Ryan speak at Donald Trump’s convention the way a young child watches his father march off to prison. Thousands of Republican figures that loathe Donald Trump, understand the danger he represents, and privately hope he loses, are publicly declaring their support for him. In Illinois our local and state GOP organizations, faced with a choice, have decided on complicity.

Our leaders’ compromise preserves their personal capital at our collective cost. Their refusal to dissent robs all Republicans of moral cover. Evasion and cowardice has prevailed over conscience. We are now, and shall indefinitely remain, the Party of Donald Trump.

I will not contribute my name, my work, or my character to an utterly indefensible cause. No sensible adult demands moral purity from a political party, but conscience is meaningless without constraints. A party willing to lend its collective capital to Donald Trump has entered a compromise beyond any credible threshold of legitimacy. There is no redemption in being one of the “good Nazis.”

I hereby resign my position as a York Township Republican committeeman. My thirty-year tenure as a Republican is over.

Sincerely,

Chris Ladd

Fatal Extraction: how Australian mining companies exploit Africa

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists:

Australia is a giant in African mining, but its vast, sometimes deadly footprint has never been examined – until now….

Number of Australian-listed mining companies active in Africa:
more than 150* 

Market capitalization:
about $133 billion*

One of the earliest recorded mentions of an Australian mine worker in Africa:
1902

Number of countries in Africa where Australian mining companies are active:
33*

Number of licenses:
about 1500*

Country with the most licences held by Australian-listed companies:
Tanzania (about 360)*

Number of fatalities linked to Australian-listed mining companies in Africa (2004-2015):
more than 380

Country with the most fatalities during that time:
South Africa (more than 240)

Median minimum mining wage in South Africa:
about $5500

Average starting salaries for Australian mine workers:
about $60,000

Number of Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) filings consulted:
more than 1000

Number of kilometers traveled by reporters in the Fatal Extraction team:
about 33,000

Number of reporters, researchers, and editors in the Fatal Extraction team:
30

*Pertains to mining companies listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) that have mining licences in Africa as of December 31, 2014. Read more about ICIJ's data methodology for Fatal Extraction. Contributors to this story: Cécile Schilis-Gallego and Will Fitzgibbon

FATAL EXTRACTION: AUSTRALIAN MINING'S DAMAGING PUSH INTO AFRICA  - more here.

Australia’s Wild West – slide presentation.

The Productivity Commission states what those with even a modicum of intelligence knew instinctively

Apparently the Australian Government is going to learn the hard way that modern free-trade agreements rarely provide low manufacturing-high primary production & natural resource extraction economies such as ours with the anticipated level of additional income from international trade.

The Guardian, 25 July 2016:

A key economic policy adviser to the federal government has said the Trans-Pacific Partnership has provisions of “questionable benefit” – including an investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) clause allowing foreign corporations to sue the Australian government if they think the government has introduced or changed laws that hurt their commercial interests.

The Productivity Commission made the comment in its annual trade and assistance review, released on Monday. The review quantifies the level of assistance governments give to Australian industry and this year criticises regional adjustment programs that have followed the exit of the carmakers, and also the Turnbull government’s big defence procurement spend rolled out in the countdown to the recent federal election.

On the TPP the commission says it is uncertain whether the US will sign the controversial pact before the presidential election in November 2016. While noting that, the commission says the TPP contains provisions of questionable benefit. “These include term of copyright and the investor state dispute settlement elements.”

The commissioner, Paul Lindwall, warned the success in defending a recent landmark ISDS case relating to tobacco plain packaging entailed reported legal costs of about $50m.

The tobacco giant Philip Morris used an ISDS provision in the Hong Kong-Australia bilateral investment treaty, signed in 1993, in an effort to sue the Australian government over the plain packaging laws implemented by the Gillard government in 2012. The case dragged on for years before an international tribunal ruled in Australia’s favour, saying Philip Morris Asia’s claim was an abuse of process.

“As it was resolved on a technicality, and costs are apparently yet to be recovered, this success should not be taken as an indication that ISDS is essentially harmless,” Lindwall said Monday…..

Australian Productivity Commission Trade & Assistance Review 2014-15 here.

The Sydney Morning Herald, 12 January 2016:

Australia stands to gain almost nothing from the mega trade deal sealed with 11 other nations including United States, Japan, and Singapore, the first comprehensive economic analysis finds.

Prepared by staff from the World Bank, the study says the so-called Trans-Pacific Partnership would boost Australia's economy by just 0.7 per cent by the year 2030.

The annual boost to growth would be less than one half of one 10th of 1 per cent…..

World Bank graphs: Trans-Pacific Partnership

According to The Age economics editor Peter Martin, the three North Asia free-trade agreements (with China, Japan and the Republic of Korea) combined are only expected to increase total Australian exports by 0.5 per cent and local employment by less than one-half of one-tenth of 1 per cent by 2035. The agreements will boost imports into Australia from these countries by est. 2.5 per cent, sending Australia’s trade balance backwards.

NOTE: At the dissolution of the Senate and the House of Representatives on Monday, 9 May 2016 the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties ceased to exist.  Any inquiries that were not completed have lapsed and submissions cannot be received.

NT Attorney-General Johan (John) Wessel Elferink's incompetence and possible negligence exposed

Sometime between 8.30 pm on 25 July 2016 and the following morning the Hon Johan (John) Wessel Elferink MLA (pictured left) was removed as the Northern Territory Minister for Correctional Services and Minister for Justice.

However, according to the Dept. of the Chief Minister (2.20pm 26.07.16) to the best of its knowledge he remains NT Attorney-General. 

Elferink also remains listed on NT Government main website as Minister for Children and Families, Minister for Health, Minister for Disability Services and Minister for Mental Health Services.

Here is how this serious issue is being reported in the mainstream media…….

Crikey.com.au, 26 July 2016:

The ABC’s Four Corners program has produced another swift response from government, with Malcolm Turnbull already promising a royal commission into allegations of abuse of children in Northern Territory juvenile detention. But despite protests from authorities that they could not have known what was going on, the abuse was well documented almost a year ago.

In last night’s graphic broadcast, journalist Caro Meldrum-Hanna detailed the use of tear gas on six boys held in the Behavioural Management Unit of the Don Dale Youth Detention centre outside of Darwin in August 2014, as well as so-called spit hood head coverings and strapping children to chairs in footage reminiscent of the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay…

The Guardian, 26 July 2016:

Malcolm Turnbull has announced a royal commission following the airing of shocking footage showing the treatment of children at the old Don Dale detention facility in Berrimah, outside Darwin.

The prime minister told ABC radio that like all Australians he was “deeply shocked ... and appalled” at the graphic footage of abuse at the centre, shown by the Four Corners program on Monday.

Four Corners showed shocking vision of instances of apparent abuse of teenage detainees and examined long running issues and instances of mistreatment in the Northern Territory youth justice system. CCTV footage showed the restraint and spit-hooding of one youth, as well as another being stripped and physically held down by guards on more than one occasion.

Turnbull said there was “no question” about the mistreatment of young people as recently as 2014.

He said the Don Dale centre had to be examined specifically but the royal commission would also consider “whether there is a culture that spreads across the detention system in the Northern Territory, whether it was specific to that centre”.

“The important thing is to get to the bottom of what happened at Don Dale, and there may be other matters connected to that to be looked into.”

Asked whether the royal commission would consider the Northern Territory justice system generally, Turnbull said inquiries needed a “clear focus so you get the answers to the specific problem”.

The deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, played down the prospect of a broader inquiry, noting “the wider you make it, the longer it takes”.

“We want this to get moving as quickly as possible, to get to a conclusion as quickly as possible. We don’t want this issue to be investigated for years.”

Asked what Nigel Scullion – a Northern Territory senator and Indigenous affairs minister since September 2013 – knew about the mistreatment, Joyce replied “if Nigel Scullion had known about this he would have acted”.

“The issue we had is that we didn’t know about this.”

Turnbull said he had consulted the Northern Territory chief minister, Adam Giles, federal attorney general George Brandis, Scullion and human rights commission president Gillian Triggs, who all agreed the government needed to move swiftly.

He noted the Don Dale centre had been “controversial” in the past and the subject of previous inquiries.

“We will get to the bottom of what happened here: we want to know how this came about, what lessons can be learned from it, why there were inquiries that did not turn up this evidence,” he said.

“We need to expose the cultural problems, the administrative problems that allowed this type of mistreatment to occur,” Turnbull said.

“We need to understand how it was that there were inquiries into Don Dale, as a place where there had been allegations of abuse – there were inquiries, but did not produce the evidence that we’ve seen last night.”

Turnbull said children in detention should be treated humanely, but did not call for Don Dale to be immediately shut down – the centre was moved to the adult jail at Berrimah following the events illustrated on Four Corners. He said the royal commission, to be conducted jointly with the Northern Territory government, would be established and would report as soon as possible.

Patrick Dodson, Labor’s shadow assistant minister for Indigenous affairs, called on the government to take a broader look at the justice system and detention, not just the Don Dale centre.

He said the Northern Territory’s attorney general, John Elferink, should immediately be stood aside until the inquiry took place…..

News Hub, 26 July 2016:

At a press conference today NT Chief Minister Adam Giles announced he had taken over the portfolios of Corrections and Justice from John Elferink, the now former minister responsible for young detainees in the Northern Territory, reports Australian media.

"Can I start by saying that anybody who saw that footage on television last night on Four Corners would undoubtedly describe it as horrific footage. I sat and watched the footage and recognised horror through my eyes," Mr Giles said.

Mr Giles said the footage that aired on ABC's Four Corners had been withheld from him, Mr Elferink and other officials in what he called a "culture of cover-up within the corrections system."

"I think there's been a culture of cover up going on for many-a-long year. The footage we saw last night going back to 2010 - and I predict this has gone on for a very long time."

That said Mr Giles sympathises with the Far North Australian Territory's desire to rid the community of youth crime.

"They've had a gutful of cars getting smashed up, houses getting broken into, people being assaulted. There's no doubt. And the majority of the community is saying let's lock these kids up," he said.

ABC News, 26 July 2016:

The man formerly in charge of the NT's juvenile justice system has a complicated history, which includes making citizens arrests and public altercations.

John Elferink was today sacked as Northern Territory minister for corrections after featuring in the Four Corners report which aired on Monday night, defending the actions of guards at the Don Dale detention centre near Darwin.

"When kids arm themselves with broken glass, when kids arm themselves with metal bars, then reasonable force has to be brought to bear upon them, to subdue them," Mr Elferink said during the program…..

ABC News, 26 July 2016:

The NT Government should not be allowed to play any part in the royal commission into the mistreatment of young offenders at Territory juvenile detention facilities, former chief justice of the Family Court of Australia, Alastair Nicholson, says…..

Human Rights Commissioner Gillian Triggs called for an independent inquiry into the treatment of NT children in detention.

Mr Turnbull said the royal commission would be held in conjunction with the NT Government but Justice Nicholson said the Territory Government was part of the problem.

"The fact that it's in conjunction with the Northern Territory Government troubles me, because the Northern Territory Government is part of the problem," he said.

"I think that will act as a brake on the freedom of the commission to inquire into what it ought to be inquiring into.

ABC Four Corners program, Australia's Shame, 25 July 2016 can be viewed here.

UPDATE

Chief Minister Adam Giles has now taken over as NT Minister for Correctional Services and Minister for Justice.

This is him on his feet in parliament less than six years ago - forgetting that exclusion from society is the punishment meted out by the courts when sending people to gaol or juveniles to detention and that the correctional system is not supposed to inflict additional punishment by way of harsh treatment or abuse of human rights.

Northern Territory Parliament, Hansard, 19 October 2010:

The recidivism rate is at all-time highs in Australia. The prison system is not teaching anyone anything. People are not afraid to go to gaol. If one of us in this room was deprived of our liberties and placed in a prison system, I am sure we would not like to be there. However, for the majority of the people who go to gaol it is like going on a holiday. Going to gaol is like going to a resort. Going to gaol is like having a reprieve from society as you know it. To have the clean bed, food, meals, $25 a week, Coca-Cola and chip vending machines - why would you not want to be there? More than half the people there do not have this in their normal lives. It encourages people.

I understand there are rules which guide the prisons in Australia and the United Nations, and how we use basic human rights in the treatment of prisoners and so forth. I understand that. What I do not understand is how we are soft, flaccid, and incapable of punishing prisoners in our Corrections system. The soft and flaccid approach of the treatment of prisoners in the Northern Territory is having a detrimental effect on building the social fabric in our towns and, in particular, Alice Springs…..

I would love to be the Corrections minister. It is not the portfolio I really aspire to but, if I was the prisons minister, I would build a big concrete hole and put all the bad criminals in there: ‘Right, you are in the hole, you are not coming out. Start learning about it’. I might break every United Nations’ convention on the rights of the prisoner but, ‘Get in the hole’. The member for Nelson spoke about if you do the wrong thing, you do not go to a course, or you cannot play pool. I am sure every taxpayer in the Northern Territory would like to have a pool table, or be unhappy to know prisoners get pool tables and are paid to do menial tasks.

New Matilda, 28 July 2016:

The man who will lead the Royal Commission into the abuse of children in juvenile detention in the Northern Territory needs no introduction. At least not to Aboriginal people. Chris Graham explains.

Brian Martin, the former NT Supreme Court Chief Justice, achieved infamy among Aboriginal communities in April 2010 when he described five white youths who bashed an Aboriginal man to death in a racially charged drunken rampage as “of otherwise good character”.

The youths – Scott Doody, Timothy Hird, Anton Kloeden, Joshua Spears and Glen Swain – spent the night getting drunk at the local casino, before driving up and down the dry bed of the Todd River, where homeless Aboriginal people sleep.

They abused campers, fired a replica pistol at them, and ran over at least one swag with their vehicle.

Eventually, the boys stopped and kicked to death Kwementyaye Ryder, aged 33, after he threw a bottle at their car as they drove at him.

The killing remains infamous in Alice Springs to this day, in part for the racial motivation behind the attack…..

But the killing is most infamous for the amount of time the five young men ending up serving.

Chief Justice Martin sentenced one of the men to as little as 12 months. The longest time served was four years.

One of Justice Martin’s justifications for the light sentences was that the youths would be caused ‘additional hardship’ in prison, given the overwhelming majority of inmates are Aboriginal.

Following is a story I wrote for the ABC’s Drum site in 2010, while staying in Alice Springs for several months. It should give New Matilda readers some insight to how Brian Martin’s stewardship of the Royal Commission is likely to be greeted by black Territorians.