Comments

Thanks for that.

This further enhances the admiration I have long had for both Robert Francis Kennedy (RFK) and his elder brother. They were both truly selfless, courageous and intelligent individuals. Both had the moral fortitude that drove them to turn on even those that less honourable politicians in their shoes would have felt indebted to, namely the gangsters that had helped get John F Kennedy elected in 1960. There had to have been ballot rigging on Nixon's side as well as JFK's in the 1960 presidential ballot, Otherwise, why didn't Nixon take his complaints further? On JFK's side it was organised on his behalf by his father, whilst he kept arm's length from it. Without that, he would have lost instead of winning narrowly.

Robert Kennedy and his brother could have chosen to feel indebted to those gangsters. Instead Robert, as Attorney General, launched the most effective campaign of prosecutions against criminals in the history of the US. It was as if JFK and RFK particularly felt the necessity to demonstrate that they would not be beholden to the corrupt influence of anybody.

However, I have one small concern about Robert Kennedy. In one sense of which I am aware, he did not provide a good example to the world. He had 11 children, which hardly sets a good example to a world with a population increasing as rapidly as it was in the 1960's. Still, I think given what he, Robert and Edward achieved (and what JFK junior might have achieved had he not been killed in that air crash of 1999), a few more Kennedys in the world today would easily do far more good than any harm caused by their increased ecological footprint.

A comment, linking back to this story and quoting the article and some of the comments attracted the following response on johnquiggin.com:

... I saw Bob Hawke as guilty of treason and treachery long ago for opening up Australia to the free – read unfair – market without warning or compensation to most of those who would be adversely affected.

Howard just turbocharged the process.

Nick Xenophon said this week that the Eurozone regards Australia as the “Taliban” of free markets. In other words, the “fundamentalists” of free markets.

Thanks for the link. It’s very informative.

Check out Mimi al-Laham's latest broadcast in which she tears to pieces the fabric of lies (shamefully repeated by Australian 'Labor' Foreign Minister Bob Carr on ABC LateLine on Monday night) about the Houla massacre. A still later broadcast Al CIAdA in Syria montage (which I haven't yet watched) is to be found here. Also check out the on-line debates on The Punch and Crikey. Last time I looked, those peddling the corporate lies about Syria appear to have gone silent. These show how open and uncensored discussion wherever it is allowed on the Internet as it is allowed on candobetter enable the truth to be discovered fairly quickly by those wishing to do so.

This shows why both JFK and and Solon were so passionately in favour of controversy.

This is a response to a discussion on johnquiggin.com which began with a post linking back to this article.

@FB

the issues you raise are far too complex for me to fully respond to here (although you are welcome to discuss them on the page I linked to above). JFK had to work in the midst of the military-industrial complex against which his predecessor Dwight D Eisenhower warned in his departing speech of January 1961. This and other facts, put in "JFK and the unspeakable - Why he died and why it matters" of 2008 by James Douglass, explain why
Kennedy supported the Bay of Pigs invasion whilst absolutely refusing to provide any direct military assistance with warships near the Cuban coast at the time nor aircraft after a popular uprising against Castro did not result
from the establishment of the beachhead by the Cuban exiles.

I suggest you look at the speech to the American University given by JFK on 10 June 1963 at www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG2PwhT0TDc five months before his murder and ask yourself if the man who gave such a speech would have been capable of launching two illegal invasions of Iraq resulting in the deaths of
2 million Iraqis since 1991, the invasion of Libya in 2011 in which more than 50,000 Libyans died and the current destabilisation of Syria with terrorist proxies.

The post to which the above post is a response follows, - Ed;

@Malthusista

Reading these excerpts show that it is not possible to exaggerate the good intentions and greatness of JFK. His example leaves to shame most of today’s warmongering world ‘leaders’.

Hmmm

1. Responsible for isolation of Cuba; numerous assassination plots against Castro, attempted disruption of Cuban economy through industrial and agricultural sabotage, swine flu etc ..
2. Responsible for October missile crisis through positioning of missiles in Turkey. Had the USSR not backed down, a nuclear exchange might have occurred
3. Responsible for support of Ngo Dinh Diem and then murderous coup against him in Vietnam; began escalation that led to Vietnam War

Like Obama, he was very intelligent, and on the surface, a genial fellow, but he was driven by exactly the same thing that all US imperialist leaders are driven by, and acted accordingly. Had he lived long enough, he’d not have acted much differently from LBJ.

The post, to which the post immediately above is a response, follows, - Ed;

Sorry if this seems off-topic, but today happens to be JFK’s 95th birthday. Reading Alistair Horne’s “A savage war of Peace” of 1977 about the Algerian War of independence shows that in the 1950?s Senator Kennedy was an outspoken supporter of the Algerian Independence and was able to shift US policy from supporting French colonialism to neutrality even before he was elected to the office of President. Reading these excerpts show that it is not possible to exaggerate the good intentions and greatness of JFK. His example leaves to shame most of today’s warmongering world ‘leaders’.

It was curious that nowhere in any of your posts did you raise the Nazi Holocaust against Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals and the mentally ill. I would be interested to read your response to the treatment of David Hoggan, mentioned by you, in a paragraph in the Wikipedia article Holocaust denial:

The beginnings of the modern denial movement

In 1961, the American historian and a leading protégé of Barnes, David Hoggan published Der Erzwungene Krieg (The Forced War) in West Germany, which claimed that Germany had been the victim of an Anglo-Polish conspiracy in 1939. Though Der Erzwungene Krieg was primarily concerned with the origins of World War II, it also down-played or justified the effects of Nazi antisemitic measures in the pre-1939 period.[39] For an example, Hoggan justified the huge one billion Reich-mark fine imposed on the entire Jewish community in Germany after the 1938 Kristallnacht as a reasonable measure to prevent what he called "Jewish profiteering" at the expense of German insurance companies and alleged that no Jews were killed in the Kristallnacht (in fact, 91 German Jews were killed in the Kristallnacht).[39] Subsequently, Hoggan wrote one of the first books denying the Holocaust in 1969 entitled The Myth of the Six Million, which was published by the Noontide Press, a small Los Angeles publisher specializing in antisemitic literature.[40] Hoggan became one of the early stars of the Holocaust denial movement, because he had a number of university professorships.

...

This was posted as a comment in response to the story "Québec's Student Strike Turning Into a Citizens' Revolt " of 25 May at http://truth-out.org/news/item/9372-quebecs-student-strike-turning-into-a-citizens-revolt :

This fight against the globalisation of eduction in Canada sets an example to the whole world and is to be warmly applauded. What the Quebecois students face is precisely what we faced in Australia in 1986 when the 'Labor' Government of Prime Minister Bob Hawke and Treasurer Paul Keating introduced the so-called "Higher Eduction Contribution Scheme" (HECS).

As the name implies, HECS was sold as merely requiring students to make a modest 'contribution' to the cost of their own tertiary eduction. In fact 1986 is the very year I commenced my own tertiary education as an adult. I participated in protest against HECS. The protests failed in part because the Australian students' associations had previously been undermined from within by forces funded from without.

After HECS was introduced, the 'Labor' government proceeded to ramp up the amounts that students were required to 'contribute'. The even more reactionary Liberal/National Government of John Howard, which succeeded then Prime Minster Keating's Government in 1996 continued that process. Now as a consequence, Australian tertiary education has been almost completely globalised with native Australian students comprising only a small minority of students at many campuses.

See also:

On Candobetter:

Montreal students protest fees and civil liberties for more than 100 days of 2 June 2012

On Global Research:

The Quebec Student Strike Celebrates Its 100th Day
“We Didn’t Know It Was Impossible, So We Did It!”
- by Malav Kanuga - 2012-05-23

Quebec student strike: Police begin to apply draconian Bill 78
- by Keith Jones - 2012-05-24

Charest Wants to Transform Quebec Into a “Right-to-Study State”
- by Pierre Dubuc - 2012-05-25

From the mainstream newsmedia:

Quebec students challenge bill aimed at protest crackdown of 25 May in the Globe and Mail

Quebec education minister blasts pro-strike employees
?Ministry scolds employees who support Quebec students ('employees' changed to 'bureacrats' in heading just now) of 25 May in the Sun News

Quebec students return to the streets of 26 May in The Australian

Thousands rally against Quebec crackdown on protests of 25 May in The Australian

Quebec's 'truncheon law' rebounds as student strike spreads of 24 May in The Guardian

Paul Watson's arrest is guaranteed a political plot - CIA doing deals again.
It is a matter of whom he has upset most and so who has most to gain and the means to internationally plot against him.

“In our efforts to defend the lives of whales, dolphins, seals, sharks, and fish we have made some powerful enemies, most notably the government of Japan. It is no coincidence that the extradition request by Costa Rica was issued the same month (October 2011) as the Japanese whaling (ICR) lawsuit against Sea Shepherd was initiated. The extradition request was in reference to a complaint from Costa Rican fishermen who I caught poaching in Guatemalan waters. The fishermen were not injured and their boat was not damaged. The incident was fully documented for the film Sharkwater. Interpol originally denied this extradition order and deemed it as politically motivated. Therefore the question must be asked why Germany is now taking into account accusations made by illegal poachers.”
- Captain Paul Watson

Tigerquoll
Suggan Buggan
Snowy River Region
Victoria
Australia

The video embedded below is from Russia Today (http://rt.com/news):

I could only see the above video on my Windows 7 compute and not my Ubuntu Linux system. Perhaps someone should tell RT to better support open source software and give less preference to proprietary Micro$oft software.- Ed.

See also: Syria bombing: Pictures show horrifying aftermath of Damascus blasts which killed 55, Syria: 70 killed in huge Damascus explosions, Syria mired in blame game over Damascus bombs in the 'left-wing' Guardian.

It's a shame that apparently no-one thought to stand in any recent state election campaign explicitly opposed to the zombie economists' policy of privatisation. It seems as if Queenslanders' emphatic repudiation of privatisation at the 2012 state elections and the repudiation of privatisation in the 2011 NSW elections has at least helped to cause the Victorian Government to re-think some of its plans to sell-off the few public assets that Kennett hasn't flogged off. In March the Baillieu Government announced that it intended to flog off the Port of Melbourne, but changed its mind anticipating the drubbing that the Queensland Labor Government of Anna Bligh was about to face on 28 March as a result of its privatisation policies. Whilst the sell-off of public assets seems to have slowed down, the sale of other Australia assets to foreign interests has gathered steam, including the sale of farmland to Qatar.

The comment above has been adapted from comment I unsuccessfully attempted to post in response to article Zombies reach Australia on to johnquiggin.com. Point 7 of that site's discussion policy (which I hadn't read) states: "Comments with large numbers of links will trigger spam filters and be rejected automatically". So It was deleted. Whilst this is understandable I still think this is unfortunate. The strength of the Internet is for material, particularly material arguing opposed viewpoints to be directly linked or else linked to from a single document, thereby allowing readers to more easily consider the comparative merits of contrary arguments. Solon and JFK would have surely agreed. That is why my articles and comments often contain a number of links. (At least I have been able to post a shorter comment from that page containing a link back to here.)

The following comment from the page linked to by NIMBY, puts it very well:

One wonders what the ANZACS suffered and fought for against Japan's attempted invasion during World War 2. Now, a foreign invader, an "investor", just has to have enough cash to buy up large swathes of land, and they have access to Australia's sovereignty and future. No warfare, no diplomatic debates, no weapons, no frontlines. Japan's invaders or any other foreign nation, if they came now with enough cash, could simply buy our farmland, businesses, property and even water. Globalization is wiping out Australia's patriotism. Australia is being chopped up into pieces for for the best offer. Australians wouldn't be able to buy in the same countries. Australia is FOR SALE on the international market.

Posted by: Pepe of Heidelberg Vic 7:39pm Wednesday

Those who have run Australia since the late 1970's could be likened to the rulers of France who made peace with Nazi Germany in 1940. In return for being allowed to rule the southern-western half of France from the town of Vichy and to retain control of France's colonies, the Vichy French government allowed Nazi Germany to conduct its war against the UK and America from the north-eastern part of France unhindered. That part of France included the Atlantic shore, from which, until 1944, U-boats, which almost prevented necessary supplies from reaching England by sea, were launched. More French soldiers killed and died fighting against the Allies, including Australia, in Syria, North Africa, Madagascar and elsewhere than did fighting against Nazi Germany.

Judging from what we are now witnessing in 2102, had the Japanese landed on Australia's shores in 1942, almost certainly a sizable section of Australia's ruling elite would have chosen to make deals with Japanese not dissimilar to the deals Vichy France made with Germany.

For preventing any chance of that eventuating, we owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the ANZACs and their American allies who stopped the Japanese in New Guinea, the Solomons and the Coral Sea and to the then Labor government of Labor Prime Minister John Curtin.