(We) can do better

This is a truly outstanding interview on imminent international relations.  You will learn an amazing amount. The interviewer, Kevork Almassian, originally from Syria, currently living in Germany, knows what questions to ask formidably intelligent Vietnam Veteran and retired US State Senator, Colonel Richard Black.  Black actually has answers.  The interview starts with why Trump reversed his original policies on Syria and Afghanistan.

The following message about shocking proposals for a wall of multistorey appartments on the fragile banks of Frankston's much-loved Kananook Creek, was sent on 12 January 2023 to members and friends of The Port Phillip Conservation Council.

Engrossing discussion of the arcane and unfair legal and political web entrapping Julian Assange: Lee Camp's excellent questions allow Stella Assange to use her legal and personal experience to comment in depth on the political relationships and laws and legal systems involved, such as the post 9-11 terrorism extradition laws; Britain's unequal status in US-British extradition laws; the incompatibility of how freedom of the press as conceived in the US is not possible in Britain

By boasting that the Minsk Accords were only used by the west to enable the Kiev regime to re-build its defeated armed forces, Angela Merkel, Francois Holland and Petro Poroshenko, have revealed to the world that they have on their hands, not just the blood of Russian-speaking Ukrainians and Russians, but also of ethnic Ukrainians, the lives of whom, US-puppet President Zilenskiy is sacrificing in their thousands in this criminal war.

"Canada introduces ban on foreigners buying property, allows exceptions for refugees and permanent residents - ABC News" https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-02/canada-bans-foreigners-from-buyin

Response to new Centre for Population report: Australia must stabilise its population below 30 million to stop the growing impacts on climate and biodiversity, as well as preserve quality of life, according to the environment organisation Sustainable Population Australia (SPA). SPA president, Ms Jenny Goldie, was commenting on the latest report from the ‘Centre for Population’, the Treasury office which advises the federal government on population. Their report is due to be released Friday 6 January.

"It is important that we fight. The stakes are high. Urbanisation has become like tobacco and fossil fuels. A lot has been written about the dark arts employed by the tobacco companies and their lobbyists, and the fossil fuel companies and their lobbyists, to muddy the waters and prevent the public from understanding the damage their products do to public health and to the environment.

The Port Phillip Conservation Council Newsletter is a fount of information on what is going on in and around Port Phillip Bay, where many of us live here in Melbourne and its suburbs.  The mainstream news sites, programs, and publications simply don't publish this kind of vital information anymore; instead they promote developer and political spin, much of which is designed to exploit the bay without consulting the citizens who live around it.

In this issue: VICTORIAN ELECTION FOLLOW-UP; HUME COUNCIL APPROVES FIVE STOREY DEVELOPMENT IN SUNBURY; RYMAN HEALTH 6 STOREY APPLICATION NOW BEFORE MOONEE VALLEY COUNCIL; CROWAG 2023 TREE COVER FORUM; CROYDON CONSERVATION SOCIETY UPDATE; GOOD NEWS 1.

In this issue: VICTORIAN ELECTION; CLIFFORD HAYES NOT RE-ELECTED TO LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL; LESSONS FROM THE ELECTION FOR PLANNING DEMOCRACY; SPEECH TO PROTECTORS OF PUBLIC LANDS AGM; SPEECH TO NORTH EAST LINK RALLY; WIN OVER VICSMART CRAZINESS; MIAMI HOTEL WEST MELBOURNE – DEVELOPERS BEHAVING BADLY; RESIDENTS SAY IN PLANNING – MICHAEL BUXTON; RESIDENTS SAY IN PLANNING – CITY OF MELBOURNE CONSULTATION RULES; SAVE WESTERNPORT WOODLANDS; PROTECTING NATIONAL PARKS FROM OVERDEVELOP

John Menadue might be a bit before the time of some of you here, but he is very heavy duty. He was the Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet – Australia’s top bureaucrat – during the Prime Ministership of both Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser. Nowadays he writes a Public Policy Journal called Pearls and Irritations.

At Woodford Folk Festival, 28 December 2022, Prime Minister Albanese spoke about how democracies all over the world are coming ‘under attack from a whole range of corrosive, insidious forces’ and that ‘no-one is immune’ (see Appendix 2 below). He also said that by next year there will be an indigenous voice in parliament.

My name is Ian Hundley and I very much appreciate the opportunity to say a few words this morning. I campaign against the North East Link principally as a member of the Stop North East Link Alliance. As Greg and Kelvin have highlighted, canopy tree cover in Melbourne is in a critical state.  An urban forest with about 30% cover is central to offsetting the effects of climate change. The annualized loss of 1-1.5% in canopy cover that is now occurring is alarming.

Doctor Monique Ryan, the independent MP for the Victorian federal seat of Kooyong, is critical of the Victorian state government's decision to restrict accesss to PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) tests.

Donate via Paypal at [email protected] Canadian journalist Eva Bartlett previously reported on Syria's ongoing resistance to the terrorist invasion which started in March 2011. (This war, sadly still continues in December 2022 as Syria remains the brunt of vicious sanctions at the hands of the US government and its allies.) Since March 2022, Eva has been reporting from the Donetsk region in what was the eastern region of Ukraine.

Former PM John Howard's latest book, The Menzies Era, is not as you might expect, an exercise in right wing propaganda, or at least not overtly, but an historical account which jolts the mind back to things forgotten or chronologically misplaced, due to the passage of time.

As shown in the RTD (Russia Today Documentary channel) video embedded below, the Ukrainian army, presumably under the orders of President Volodymr Zelensky, has, since September 2022, been firing artillery shells and launching rockets at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant from the opposite bank of the Dnepr river.

The theft of Syrian oil by US forces illegally occupying Syria, and the US-NATO backed destruction of infrastructure and economy, have left Syrians in extreme danger of dying from cold and starvation this winter. Before the war Syria, which is the seat of one of the earliest civilisations, had a healthy economy and was host to many refugees from neighboring states.

Update 7/12/22: See also Pentagon Papers whistleblower reveals that he also committed the 'offence' for which Assange has been indicted.

Every Friday at Sydney Town Hall, this group continues to stand up for Julian Assange. Stirring speeches about Australia's whistleblowers and Australia's involvement in war-crimes, Albanese's failure towards Assange, our crocodile tears for the prisoners of other regimes, but not for Julian Assange.

As the embedded YouTube video below shows, yesterday, on 30 November 2022, in the House of Representatives, during question time , Dr Monique Ryan, the independent member for the north-eastern Melbourne metropolition seat of Kooyong, pointed out to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese that only political intervention will free Julian Assange.

There are two critical facts which, to me, don't seem to have been taken into account by many of those, both here and overseas, who are fighting for Julian Assange's freedom. Had these facts been understood and then acted upon, I believe that Julian Assange would be free today or, at worst, our prospects of freeing him in the near future would be much greater than what is now the case.

Next week, both the House and the Senate are sitting. We must demand that, this time, its gag on discussion about Julian Assange be lifted.

Dr. Kathy McInnes addresses Port Phillip Conservation Council in Victoria, Australia.

From The Orangutan Project: On Wednesday 9 November members of the Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA) in East Kalimantan rescued a tiny baby orangutan from East Kutai district in East Kalimantan. They handed the infant over to the Bornean Orangutan Rescue Alliance (BORA) so she could receive urgent medical care in the BORA Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre.