US President Donald Trump’s decision to first place, and then delay, a 25% tariff on goods from neighbouring Canada and Mexico, along with his hitting China with an additional 10% tariff increase has made quite a splash in the news. (more…)
Category: USA
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Back to Russia with love – détente is a win for everyone
One key fact was absent from virtually all of the reporting around the astonishing events of this past week. It was scarcely mentioned in stories about the Munich Security Conference, the call between Presidents Trump and Putin, the freezing out of the Europeans, the jaw-dropping statements by US Defence Secretary Hegseth, the ending of cherished plans to expand NATO into Ukraine, and the historic face-to-face meeting between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Riyadh. The missed central point: Russia has, in effective terms, won the war where it counts – on the battlefield. That more than anything is driving the calculus in Washington. (more…)
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‘Activist judges’: in the US and Australia, the Right intends to make the law its slave
One of the key strategies used by the transnational authoritarian Right to subvert democratic projects is “playing the refs.” Their strategists work to discredit journalists and media platforms that hold them to account. They tarnish academics, civil servants, agencies and charities that are expert in their inconvenient fields. Fact-checkers are made to look partisan, so nobody is left to call out lies. One target in America and Australia is the judiciary which they disparage with the label “activist judges”. (more…)
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The human cost of Trump’s cuts
Too many commentators are looking at the administrative changes Donald Trump is making at USAID rather than focusing on the tragic human consequences of the underlying policy changes. (more…)
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Trump – the wannabe king of America?
Some Americans have said it’s okay that Trump is effectively America’s king. After all, according to a 2017 survey, some 23 million Americans believe chocolate comes from brown cows. (more…)
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How new is Trump’s foreign policy outlook?
It was offensive, thoughtless, and ridiculous for President Donald Trump to ponder aloud at a press conference with Benjamin Netanyahu about America colonising Gaza, moving out the existing population, and turning it into a seaside holiday destination. Given how many statements like this Trump has made as president, not just as a candidate, it is tempting to see him as uniquely dangerous. (more…)
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Tariff politics, then and now
As Australia faces the threat of significant US tariffs on its aluminium and steel, it is worth remembering that 50 years ago our nation faced a choice between aligning itself with either a group of other nations, mostly from the Third World, that produced bauxite and wanted to set a price for this prime ore of aluminium, or with the US and the International Monetary Fund, then as now controlled by the US, which wanted bauxite prices to be determined on an open global market. (more…)
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A five-minute scroll
Dr Hussam Abu Safiya seen in an interview with an Israeli journalist from an Israeli jail draws a statement from his family of psychological terrorism. Owen James speaks of Palestinian children tried in military court while settlers are tried in civil court. Zelenskyy pushes back on Trump with facts. Dan Duggan was one of many pilots from across the world, none of whom are facing any charges. (more…)
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Trump’s tariffs will not restore American manufacturing
The decline in manufacturing jobs is common to most developed economies and is not unique to the US. Further, Donald Trump is nothing if not delusional, and his tariffs will only damage both the US economy and others as well. (more…)
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Europeans (and others) vs Trump
I am not suffering from what some of President Donald Trump’s more fervent supporters — both in the US and in Australia — like to call “Trump derangement syndrome”. That is, I’m not disputing that he won the presidential election held last November “fair and square”, as did the Republican Party in both the House and the Senate, and that together they have a mandate to implement the policies which they presented to the American people during the campaign which preceded those elections. (Whether they have a mandate to implement policies which they didn’t present to the people during the campaign, or indeed policies which President Trump explicitly distanced himself from during the campaign is another matter, but not one that I’m going to pursue here). (more…)
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US’ ‘China Initiative’ would be counterproductive
The “China Initiative” was the name of a controversial program run by the US Department of Justice, which was introduced in late 2018 during the first Trump administration. (more…)
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The fruits of American bishops’ failure
Five years ago, J.D. Vance, who is now the vice-president of the United States, received the Sacraments of Initiation at St Gertrude Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. (more…)
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A five-minute scroll
Concerns over police actions in Germany, proof the British Government knows that Israel is committing genocide and Trump’s suggestion for Gaza is a genocidal act. In Australia we wait for politicians to be equally outraged about attacks on Muslims. Jeffrey Sachs on the US wars of choice. (more…)
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Trump’s and Musk’s monopoly board
Christopher Pyne, one-time Australian minister of the crown, gratuitously recommends Greenlanders embrace Trump’s desired purchase of Greenland on the basis they would be financially far better off. Hello, is everything to be valued exclusively in financial terms? Is this what human beings are all about? (more…)
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Caligula’s horse and Washington
“Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future, too.” Marcus Aurelius (more…)
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Trump and Christianity – Why it matters
Trump has created what he calls a ‘Faith Office’ within the White House and appointed a Pentecostal pastor from Florida, Paula White, to lead it. Ms White, widely described in mainstream Christianity as a heretic, teaches a transactional faith. In other words, faith is demonstrated in prosperity. (more…)
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Appeasement in the 21st century
Commentary around Donald Trump tends to gravitate to the delusion that he is the leader of the most powerful country on the planet. Every time we blindly accept that delusion, we reinforce it, we assume that we are powerless in the face of such a powerful country. We forget that America’s power is a product of alliances struck during the cold war. Alliances based on the principle of co-operation. That co-operation was/is based on shared values of justice, the rule of law, human rights and constitutional democracy. (more…)
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Washington drops Ukraine, Israel backs down on Hamas demands
The two big stories in the news today are the Trump administration saying Ukraine is going to have to give up territory and NATO ambitions in order to secure a peace deal, while Israel appears to retreat from its ceasefire standoff with Hamas. (more…)
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The Gaza ceasefire is being sabotaged by Israel, by Trump, and by the media
The Gaza ceasefire (if you can even call it that) is already in grave peril. (more…)
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The need for Australia to act independently and be freed of the US alliance has never been greater
Never has there been a greater need for Australia to turn away from its military alliance with the United States and forge an independent and peaceful foreign policy. (more…)
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The lawless West
The low regard in which the Global West is held is intensifying. The second Trump administration is not the cause of this. It is simply accelerating this ominous process by openly embracing a lawless, imperial contempt for primary international and metropolitan governance rules, norms and conventions in response to the persistent retreat of American global dominance. Meanwhile, the Global South clearly observes how America’s traditional allies remain overwhelmingly loyal — or silent — as the US persists in asserting its role as their exceptionally unworthy leader. (more…)
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China’s digital sputnik moment
DeepSeek was virtually unknown when the year began. It is now shaking global stock markets and being called a “sputnik moment” for the US. Last month, xiao hong shi (Little Red Book) also emerged from seemingly nowhere, as US TikToc users began migrating en masse to this Chinese social media site in anticipation of TikTok being shut down. These follow a string of announcements by China’s digital tech giants on new developments in high-end semiconductor chips. (more…)
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Trump and foolish old men who redraw maps
It generally ends badly. An old tyrant embarks on an ill-considered project that involves redrawing maps. They are heedless to wise counsel and indifferent to indigenous interests or experience. Before they fail, are killed, deposed or otherwise disposed of, these vicious old men can cause immense harm. (more…)
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The real estate mogul
President Donald Trump is not quite the fool or the subjective (or subliminal) genius that pundits make him out to be. However, if there is one trait that his recent pronouncements point to it is that of a quintessential real estate mogul. (more…)
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Breaking barriers: The transformative impact of people-to-people exchange
American talk show host Jimmy Fallon humorously remarked, “Americans would literally rather learn Mandarin than use Instagram Reels!” Recently, more than 700,000 users who call themselves “TikTok refugees” from the United States flocked to a popular Chinese social media app named RedNote (or Xiaohongshu). This unexpected “migration” has connected netizens from the two great nations like never before. (more…)
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A five-minute scroll
Seventy-nine countries sign a letter supporting the International Criminal Court, but not Australia. Biden has laid the plan for what Trump will do next in Gaza. Paul Keating reminds us that life in Australia is comparably better than in the US. The Albanese Government is on track to meet 2030 goals for the renewable energy Dutton plans to cut. (more…)
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Letter to the leaders of the civilised world
“Take wisdom from the mouths of mad men” is an old Arabic proverb. It sprang to mind a couple of days ago, when I heard the narcissist leader of the “civilised” world, President Donald Trump, openly calling for the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. (more…)
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Trump’s Gaza grab shows America is no better than China
Australia’s former top diplomat says Donald Trump may achieve what 75 years of post-war anti-Americanism could not: concede the case for moral equivalence. (more…)
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Why Trump 2.0 still can’t win the trade war with China
On the third day after Donald Trump announced the imposition of 25% and 10% tariffs on imported Canadian and Chinese goods respectively, Canada yielded and co-operated with Trump’s demands, in exchange for a one-month suspension of the agreement by the US. (more…)
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A five-minute scroll
A Palestinian man describes the horror of his Israeli captivity while the BBC questions the president of Israel about the torture and abuse in their prisons. Jeffrey Sachs explains why the US went to war with Iraq in 2003. ABC Insiders uncovers Trump’s plan for Gaza while the King of Jordan says they will never accept the forced displacement of Palestinians. (more…)