The federal Labor government has promised to craft a national housing and homelessness plan and to fund new social housing, returning Canberra to a field it all but abandoned for a decade. A new Productivity Commission report is scathing about current arrangements and calls for far-reaching change. (more…)
John Menadue
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The flaws and fantasies of the new Biden doctrine
The US president’s new National Security Strategy is ambitious — and delusional about America’s role in the world. (more…)
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The non-West coalesces
Something recently happened in Vienna, where the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, now known as OPEC–Plus with the inclusion of the Russian Federation, convened for its first in-person session since 2020. It is something of epochal importance, though you will not know this if you rely solely on the reports carried in our corporate-owned media. (more…)
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Terror on Crimea Bridge and Russia unleashing shock’n awe
The western narrative of a ‘losing Russia’ has just been decimated by Moscow’s blitzkrieg against Ukraine and its foreign-backed terror operations. (more…)
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White Man’s Media: The Washington consensus and legacy media frames and conditions our thinking and actions. An updated repost
Western media including our own act as conveyer belts for Washington propaganda.Think.Gaza (more…)
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“Pictures and words”: The manipulative uses of images and language in Ukraine
12 OCTOBER—I have been reading for some days, mostly in independent publications whose credibility I am not in a position to assess, about what goes on in the territories Ukrainian troops have recently retaken. It seems that what ensues very quickly are violent campaigns of reprisals wherein those whose sympathies lie with Russia are called “collaborators” and subject to assassination or arrest. (more…)
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COVID-19 border policies strengthen Japan’s Insular mindset
From April to August 2020, Japan implemented a re-entry ban for all foreign nationals, including permanent residents, with some exceptions. This came as a shock to many who considered Japan ‘home’ since they found themselves either trapped outside the country or unable to leave to see sick family members or attend funerals. (more…)
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How the West’s sanctions on Russia boomeranged
When President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in February, he began two very different wars. One was a military conflict in which the Russian armed forces have suffered repeated defeats, from the failure of the initial invasion to the successes of the Ukrainian counter-offensive. (more…)
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When will the stars shine again in Burkina Faso?
This is a tale from far away about tribulations and upheavals in countries adjacent to the Sahara desert. It has direct relevance to Australia in that much of the upheaval arises from the overthrow of the Libyan government in 2011 by NATO or more particularly France and the United States. (more…)
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Iranian and Turkish moves to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation challenges US hegemony
The SCO can further its goal of challenging the wider Western-dominated ecosystem and prevent Washington from setting the global agenda. (more…)
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A conversation with Paul Keating: Australia’s strategic interests, alliances and standing up for ourselves
Not many were given a continent, says Keating on the challenges and opportunities that Australia faces. We have to stop ignoring the realities of the region in which we are positioned. (more…)
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US rejection of Moscow’s offer for peace talks is utterly inexcusable
It is absolutely pants-on-head gibbering insanity that these direct negotiations are not already presently underway. (more…)
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Ukraine’s revenge on the West
As the balance of power shifts again in Ukraine, its reverberations will impact the very unity of the EU project. (more…)
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Jeffrey Sachs urges dialogue amid rising Taiwan-China tensions
Jeffrey Sachs, who has been named this year’s Tang Prize laureate for Sustainable Development, has urged Taiwan and China to commit to dialogue to find a peaceful resolution in the midst of rising tensions between the two sides. (more…)
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How the US, not just Russia, helped bring the world closer to nuclear war
The West has effectively been challenging Russia’s right to be a hegemonic power.
What if the proxy US campaign in Ukraine doesn’t lead to Russian regime downfall but instead to a desperate Putin using nuclear weapons? (more…)
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Watch Stella Assange slap the mustache off John Bolton’s war criminal face
Stella Assange just delivered a beatdown on one of her husband’s persecutors that was so scorched-earth demolishing I feel like I need a cigarette after watching it. (more…)
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Dr Aran Martin appointed as Editor of Pearls and Irritations
At Pearls and Irritations we are pleased to announce the appointment of Dr Aran Martin to the position of Editor. (more…)
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US hanging fire on Australia’s nuclear subs
High-ranking US naval official points to shipyard and labour constraints that could push delivery well beyond 2030. (more…)
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How Israel practices apartheid
Between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, Israel has built and reinforced a single regime of rule to ensure Jewish Israeli supremacy and domination over the indigenous Palestinian people, who are politically and geographically fragmented into different categories in which they have lesser, little, or no rights in comparison to Israeli Jews depending on their status (second-class citizen, subject to military rule, or refugee). This is textbook apartheid. (more…)
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Jeffrey Sachs: The US or its ally may have sabotaged Nord Stream.
Why does the US star economist suspect the USA and not Russia to be behind the leaks in the gas pipelines? And what awaits the German economy now? His answers. (more…)
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It’s only a ‘Conspiracy Theory’ when the US Government is accused of the likely sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines
The western political/media class has been dismissing as “conspiracy theories” all claims that the US is likely responsible for last month’s sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines, even while levelling the exact same accusations against Russia without ever using that term. Which probably says a lot about the way that label has been used over the years, if you think about it. (more…)
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We won’t recognise the annexation
Does any country buy Israel’s self-righteousness – it doesn’t recognise the annexation of the four provinces – at a time when Israel is trying to persuade world leaders to recognise its own annexations. (more…)
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Nothing’s more important than avoiding nuclear war
Avoiding nuclear war is the single most important agenda in the world. The single most important agenda in history. It is more important than your political faction. It is more important than how Vladimir Putin makes your feelings feel. It is more important than anything else. (more…)
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Australia and China: A conversation with Paul Keating
La Trobe University’s Ideas and Society Program is extremely pleased to be able to invite you to an online discussion between former Prime Minister, Paul Keating, and James Curran, a Professor of History at the University of Sydney and author of Australia’s China Odyssey, on a question fundamental to the future of Australia – our relations with China and, thus, the United States. (more…)
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Peace, prosperity are ASEAN watchwords
Southeast Asian nations must call out US attempts to destabilise the region with anti-China rhetoric. (more…)
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Who profits from Pipeline Terror?
The War of Economic Corridors has entered incandescent, uncharted territory: Pipeline Terror. A sophisticated military operation – that required exhaustive planning, possibly involving several actors – blew up four separate sections of the Nord Stream (NS) and Nord Stream 2 (NS2) gas pipelines this week in the shallow waters of the Danish straits, in the Baltic Sea, near the island of Bornholm. (more…)
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The Palace Lunch
Stuart Revill, then Manager of ABC London, wrote a letter to his mother-in- law, Ethel Brunton Gibb on the occasion of being invited to Buckingham Palace for lunch, c. 1978. (more…)
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Memo to the Productivity Commission: fixing inequality is the key to productivity
Every five years the Productivity Commission is charged with examining everything that can be done to lift Australia’s productivity. (more…)
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US hypocrisy knows no limits on war crimes by US presidents
President Biden’s condemnation of Russia at the UN on Wednesday, where he claimed Russia had violated the UN Charter by invading Ukraine, a country he ludicrously said posed “no threat” to its larger neighbour, is epic hypocrisy coming from the leader of a country that not long ago invaded and destroyed Iraq based on a total fraudulent claim asserting that country was developing or even already had weapons of mass destruction. (more…)
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In The Australian Wars, Rachel Perkins dispenses with the myth Aboriginal people didn’t fight back
First Nations people please be advised this article mentions colonial violence towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. (more…)