To learn the whole dreadful story of Donald Trump’s ascendancy to the presidency, one could not do better than to read Thom Hartmann’s forthcoming book, “The Last American President: A Broken Man, a Corrupt Party, and a World on the Brink”. (more…)
Category: USA
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How Chinese diaspora voters reshape Australian and US politics
Chinese diaspora communities in Australia and the US both face racism and loyalty suspicions under “China threat” narratives, yet their voting has diverged. (more…)
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The future of surveillance tech is already here – in the US, not China
Chinese citizens enjoy public safety in exchange for compromised privacy. In the United States, people are facing an increasingly unchecked state. (more…)
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As US warms up to Pakistan, India must refashion diplomacy
India’s multi-alignment strategy has been severely tested as it finds little support from the West. (more…)
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Australia and Japan cannot accept America’s war on China
Japan and Australia together must induce the US to face the reality of what it is asking. (more…)
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Stephen Colbert’s firing: the critical unanswered question
Why now? It was either pandering to Trump, management’s incompetence, or both. (more…)
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The war on US science
The US was already having problems with the performance of US academic institutions in scientific areas when Donald Trump arrived with the mission to nobble universities. (more…)
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Navigating a bipolar world
The US might yet save us from ourselves by adding conditions to the nuclear submarine agreement that no Australian Government could accept. (more…)
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Albanese can afford to ignore noises and focus on delivering goods for voters
Although few can fault the prime minister for trying to generate more imports and exports with our biggest trading partner, everyone — ranging from an obscure Chinese social media influencer wannabe to Australian opposition luminaries such as Barnaby Joyce — has an opinion about the visit, and everyone seems to be ready to offer the prime minister a wealth of warnings and free advice. (more…)
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Australia needs to recognise the rationale for a US-China war has changed
Up until the Trump era, it was understood that the United States might go to war with China to in order to defend democracy in Taiwan. (more…)
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Who’s afraid of Donald Trump?
With his use of extreme tariffs to punish countries with trade surpluses, US President Donald Trump seems to be making an economic fool of himself. (more…)
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What Australians think of Trump and the US
While the Murdoch media — and most of the pontificators writing op-eds for the rest of our news outlets — are having conniptions about whether and when Albanese might get a meeting with Trump, it comes at a time when the Australian public have little trust in the US and even less in Donald Trump. (more…)
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A warning from the past about the United States of today
The Trump administration’s actions at home and support for horrors abroad raise the question: is America becoming a fascist police state? (more…)
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As Trump flip-flops on tariffs, what’s the point of negotiating at all?
Are the tariffs a reality show aimed at Americans, a way to gain the upper hand on China, or just a distraction from sector-specific duties? (more…)
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Mahmoud Khalil to sue Trump admin for US$20m over ‘unconstitutional’ detention
“There must be accountability for political retaliation and abuse of power,” said Khalil. “And I won’t stop here.” (more…)
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Netanyahu leaves Washington without a Gaza ceasefire, just like he wanted
Benjamin Netanyahu is sabotaging talks, hoping Donald Trump will blame Hamas if negotiations fail. (more…)
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Imperial hypocrisy about ‘terrorism’ hits its most absurd point yet
The US has removed Syria’s al-Qaeda franchise from its list of designated terrorist organisations just days after the UK added nonviolent activist group Palestine Action to its own list of banned terrorist groups. (more…)
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US sanctions UN expert Albanese over criticism of Israeli genocide
One critic said Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s “crude effort” to sanction Francesca Albanese “only serves to establish that the US is an international outlaw.” (more…)
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Suggesting a Nobel for Trump is a Netanyahu obscenity
Intent on stroking one another’s outsize egos, two thugs in the White House smirk at the latest ingratiation-beyond-belief feature of their alliance. (more…)
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‘Indefensible’: Trump budget law subsidises private jet owners while taking healthcare from millions
A provision of the budget law that President Donald Trump signed last week will leave taxpayers to “pick up the tab for the private jet industry and billionaire high flyers”. (more…)
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The disastrous consequences of an epidemic of misinformation about the safety of vaccines
None of the “Ship of Fools” Donald Trump appointed to head his major government departments was qualified for their new roles. (more…)
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Trump’s budget and the 21st century great divergence
Donald Trump’s recently passed budget has the capacity to lay the foundation for a widening gap between the world’s two largest economies, the United States and China, and make China as great, comparatively, as it was before the industrial revolution. (more…)
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Lawsuit aims to end ‘systematic’ snatching of brown-skinned people by Trump agents
“These guys are popping up, rampant all over the city, just taking people randomly, and we want that particular practice to end,” one attorney in the case said of Department of Homeland Security agents. (more…)
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The deep politics behind Trump’s presidency
It is not easy to find a coherent, positive message in the chaos Donald Trump is sowing, but let me try…. (more…)
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MAGA buyers’ remorse and the trouble with Christian nationalism
For those who do begin to question, the challenge is not to nudge them leftward or toward some ideologically approved alternative. The challenge is simply to stay in the discomfort long enough for something more honest to emerge. (more…)
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Mamdani’s magnificent primary win – What follows
People are asking about my reaction to Zohran Mamdani’s spectacular and decisive upset in the Democratic primary victory for Mayor of New York over ex-Governor Andrew Cuomo. (more…)
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Trump’s Big Ugly Bill is fascism in writing
It establishes an anti-immigrant police state in America, replete with a standing army of ICE agents and a gulag of detention facilities, and it was passed by a narrow margin despite popular opinion. (more…)
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Ocasio-Cortez calls Trump’s budget bill ‘deal with the devil’
“It explodes our national debt, it militarises our entire economy, and it strips away healthcare and basic dignity of the American people. For what? To give Elon Musk a tax break and billionaires the greedy taking of our nation.” (more…)
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The Western allies of the US as vassal states
A vassal state is one that retains some autonomy at home but is effectively dominated by another power in its foreign affairs. (more…)
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Iran: The things it won’t do to say
If Thomas Friedman’s fairytale world of light-versus-darkness were to evaporate, less noble motives for US and Israeli actions might be revealed. (more…)