Given Joe Biden’s apparently intimate involvement in Hunter’s dealings, it follows that his intent in pardoning his son is effectively to secure a pardon for himself. (more…)
Category: USA
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Syria’s Assad has fallen – just as the Pentagon planned 23 years ago
When westerners see ‘enemy’ governments fall, or civil wars erupt, they are led to think they are the geopolitical equivalent of a natural event. Nothing could be further from the truth. (more…)
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Trump’s economic delusions
Trump’s economic strategy is based on a series of delusions that will result in higher inflation, a bigger trade deficit and a loss in the value of the American dollar. How can that Make America Great Again? (more…)
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A five-minute scroll
In 24 hours the Middle East has changed. Craig Murray gives the perspective of distances and the significance of the change, Netanyahu speaks to the opportunities and challenges while Wikileaks reminds us of notable moments. Peter Cronau reveals the lopsided outrage over the Melbourne Synagogue fire, and a former Chief Adviser to the British Prime Minister calls out the US policy on Taiwan. Ron Paul calls on the US to stop foreign aid. A new week begins. (more…)
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The end of pluralism in the Middle East
A truly seismic change in the Middle East appears to be happening very fast. At its heart is a devil’s bargain – Turkey and the Gulf States accept the annihilation of the Palestinian nation and creation of a Greater Israel, in return for the annihilation of the Shia minorities of Syria and Lebanon and the imposition of Salafism across the Eastern Arab world. (more…)
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Assad is out, woke Al-Qaeda is in
Well it looks like the government of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad is on its way out, likely to be replaced by one or more US puppet regimes depending on whether the nation maintains its current borders or is carved up into separate states. The empire notches another win. (more…)
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The demon in the mirror
Incoming US President Donald Trump will force us, as citizens of the ‘West’, to face the demon in the mirror. (more…)
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Chomsky is right says Professor Walt
The wide-ranging political views of the exceptional, international public intellectual, Noam Chomsky, have recently been searchingly assessed in the journal, Foreign Policy, by Professor Stephen M Walt, in an article entitled, “Noam Chomsky Has Been Proved Right”. (more…)
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Google faces verdicts from anti-trust trials as Trump term approaches
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Biden Pardons his son: The US “rules based order” in action
When I’m asked what I think of Biden granting a pardon to his son for offences, which Biden himself has spoken openly about as deserving of prison, I don’t have much to say. On the same day, I see criticism of China because a senior military official has been removed from his post and is under investigation. The two things are about as incompatible as it gets. (more…)
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Trump’s tariffs are a fool’s game
US President-elect Donald Trump’s protectionist trade policies — marked by high tariffs — have been a major economic setback for the United States. The costs of these policies have harmed domestic buyers and caused job losses in sectors related to the targeted industries. Rather than resolving the trade imbalance issue as Trump intended, his administration’s fiscal expansion and subsequent reactions from affected countries have led to a major surge in the US trade deficit. (more…)
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America’s decline: An Australian-American’s response to the US elections
My friends will have to excuse me for not being sufficiently riled up about the second coming of Trump. To me, he’s a phase in America’s inevitable decline, on the way to the end of the US Empire.
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Feng Yujun on the prospects of Russia-Ukraine war after Trump’s reelection
The leading expert on Russia says Trump’s bold claim to end the Russia-Ukraine war within 24 hours is highly unlikely to materialise, and only a just peace can lead to lasting peace. (more…)
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Biden’s last hurrah against Russia and Putin
Frustration escalates for the lame duck president. (more…)
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Obtuse China Policy and the “International Rules-Based Order” in a Trumpian world
In the ballyhooed, strident context of Trumpian change, if not, hysterical disruption, it is especially important to pinpoint and consider the real and the “factually alternative” content of Chinese foreign policy and international relations.
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From non-aligned Indonesia, a picture paints a thousand misunderstandings
There is more to the eye in the official photo and video of Indonesia President Prabowo on the phone to President-elect Trump. Australia misses the vital details. (more…)
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It can’t happen here
The novel It Can’t Happen Here, written by Sinclair Lewis was published in 1935 during the rise of fascism in Europe. It tells the story of Berzelius “Buzz” Windrip, a demagogue who is elected President of the United States, after fomenting fear, and promising drastic economic and social reforms while promoting a return to patriotism and traditional values. After his election, Windrip takes complete control of the government via a self-coup and imposes totalitarian rule with the help of a ruthless paramilitary force. (more…)
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Gross inequality and economic injustice: How did it come to this?
“Remoteness between ownership and operation … is an evil in the relations between men, likely or certain in the long run to set up strains and enmities which will bring to nought the financial calculation.” – John Maynard Keynes (more…)
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Satellite honours for AUKUS: Joe Courtney’s Order of Australia Award
Joe Courtney, who serves as Congressman for Connecticut’s second district, has received a rather curious honour. It has come in the form of a tribute from a US satellite – some would rightly say annexure or some other subordinate status. A press release from his office on October 22 announced that Rep. Courtney had been “appointed by the Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia as an Honorary Officer in the General Division of the Order of Australia (AO).” (more…)
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On the verge of WWIII?
‘Joe Biden allows Ukraine to use long-range US-supplied ATACMS missiles on targets in Russia, prompting threat of world war’ – so runs the ABC headline of 18 November. Serious stuff, not to be lightly discounted, and yet perhaps what we are seeing is primarily performative politics, viewed through the smoke of uncertainty and reflected in the distorting mirrors of propaganda. In short, whilst the consequences could not be more dangerous, when we unpack the narrative, it seems that, at the moment at least, the situation is not so critical as it might appear. (more…)
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Trump’s wake-up call to Australia’s leaders
Trump’s anti-China 60% import tax barrier will weaken China’s economy and is predicted to have flow on effects impacting negatively on Australia’s economy. Will our political leaders now realise that Australia’s involvement in a military war against China for which they are furiously preparing, would have a devastating impact on our economy and Australian life generally as all trade with China would cease in such a scenario? (more…)
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The American-style Cultural Revolution is taking root in the US
Trump’s shocking cabinet picks are reminiscent of what Mao Zedong did after launching the tumultuous Cultural Revolution in 1966. Under his slogan “revolution is no crime; to rebel is justified,” Mao encouraged the firebrand Red Guards and grassroots loyalists to take over power at central and local government levels across the country, writes Wang Xiangwei. (more…)
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America, We are out of your China fight
Australia must leave the China debacle, constructively. In withdrawing from America’s aggression against China, we should offer our diplomacy as a patient bridge between China and the US. That will take time. America will become even more extreme before it considers peaceful coexistence with China. Meanwhile our action will be a moderating influence, as we pick up our own distracted security priorities. (more…)
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The US political system and its capitalist, imperialist agenda has failed
Trump’s victory has exposed, for a second time, the failings of the entire US political system and its pursuit of a capitalist, imperialist agenda. (more…)
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A five-minute scroll
Not being reported? President Xi Jinping gives President Joe Biden boundaries. Jason Clare MP says you can’t bomb your way to peace while a Gaza Psychiatrist shares footage of bodies in Gaza. Peter Garrett calls out AUKUS and Senator Barbara Pocock supports the issues raised by Senator Lidia Thorpe. Footage of Keir Starmer from 2014 on devastation on Croatia reveals a different approach than the British government is showing to Gaza. (more…)
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Trump Redux: what matters to foreign relations
As the novelty of Donald Trump’s win wears off, we have moved beyond the superficialities of the views of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Ambassador Kevin Rudd about the Trump agenda and persona. (more…)
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A five-minute scroll
Three times smaller, Israel has dropped the equivalent of three atomic bombs on Gaza, and still they continue unabated, exposing Governments in their complicity and media alike. In New Zealand Māori leaders mobilise on a 1000 kilometre plus walk to Wellington in protest of legislation from the right-winged government. In the US the analysis of the US election continues, Chris Hedges talks about the Democrats and Trump, Bernie Sanders talks about oligarchy. A five-minute scroll. (more…)
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Detaching Australia from the death grip of the United States
Our challenge now is to detach Australia from the death grip of the United States and to pursue an independent future, which we are quite capable of doing. To do so we will need not only to remove the old sycophantic parties but also to root out the US ‘security’ zealots from our own secretive security establishment. They will not go easily. (more…)
