Comments

James Sinnamon

Sun, 2023-10-01 03:06

I posted the following beneath an which announced that they protested every Tuesday outside of the Adelaide of of the Foreign Minister Penny Wong :

In my experience, our are a lot more effective when we hand out leaflets.

Last Friday evening, we handed out approximately 250 copies of the double-sided A5 leaflet entitled "Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, end the illegal torture and imprisonment of Julian Assange or step aside". The PDF file from which the leaflet was printed is at https://candobetter.net/files/endTheIllegalImprisonmentOrStepAside_29sep23.pdf . It is embedded within the article of the same name, which has been adapted from the leaflet. The article is at https://candobetter.net/geoffrey-taylor/blog/6711/prime-minister-anthony-albanese-end-illegal-torture-and-imprisonment.

If you would like to hand out copies of that leaflet next Tuesday, please feel encouraged to download that file. I got those leaflets printed at Officeworks. I print them in black and white (colour costs quite a bit more ) for 10c per side. I then get charged $1 to have the printed A4 pages guillotined into twice as many A5 leaflets. So, to print out 300 double-sided A5 leaflets, I pay $31 .

Sue (not verified)

Mon, 2023-09-04 14:01

Artificial population- boosting in Australia by the use of artificial government- sanctioned cities, by-passing  public approval is a dangerous and  immoral human experiment with no logical end-point or justification.  It is a recipe for depressed automaton people who are likely to suffer from learned helplessness.  I would believe that the original author of this idea had got it from Barbie Land except that the idea pre-dates the film.  Perhaps it's a perversion of Fantasy Land but will of course, contrastingly be the unhappiest kingdom of them all.     

ZPG (not verified)

Wed, 2023-08-16 08:54

The national cabinet meeting on the housing supply will not dare mention the gigantic demand from 1.5 million new migrants. All delegates will remember what happened to Gladys Berejiklian when she had the brains and the courage to call for a halving of the immigration intake. The property mafia whacked her good.

Karina Finkenau (not verified)

Tue, 2023-08-01 03:24

Please have a look what is happening around the world! Please see with open eyes and do what is according to the law, according to Humanrights, what is necessary to save democracy,your can help to come to a historic decision to the better to the human to democracy and freedom,free Julian Assange !

Sheila Newman

Tue, 2023-07-25 16:20

The Senate Inquiry Committee has responded overall to submissions, announcing, as follows:

"Coordinated campaigns and form letters

The committee has received a large volume of material associated with two coordinated campaigns, including from a third-party coordinated campaign and the Australian Christian Lobby, as well as three form letters from Fair Agenda, Surrogacy Australia and Cherish Life.

Correspondence associated with the campaigns and form letters either note that they do not support abortion services, or that they do support abortion services.
In light of the similarities of the views expressed in the campaigns and the form letters, the committee has agreed to publish a sample of each of the campaigns and form letters along with the key topics raised by individuals and the number of emails received in respect of each campaign.

The committee will also be providing details of each of the campaigns and form letters in its final report."

Source: https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Community_Affairs/ReproductiveHealthcare

Vanessa Hegarty (not verified)

Fri, 2023-07-21 19:00

I heard an interview on Radio National today about this.  They seemed to be basing it on black & white neighbourhoods in America, an entirely different scenario. Apart from that, Sydney is west vs east whereas Melbourne luckily is more scattered with its low socio-economic areas, Frankston right next Mt. Eliza, Footscray in another direction etc. so we are quite different to Sydney demographically.  They also don't take into account that a lot of migrants want the big house with a back yard in the suburbs. A lot of Indians buy in new estates in Wyndam when a lot of them could probably afford a townhouse in Hawthorn for example. And they never talk about heritage and character being the main reason for NIMBYism of course most if this being in a city's oldest inner suburbs, although from memory the interviewer Andy Park did query this in the interview.  

Another point is that when the American soldiers returned from the war they were allowed to apply for government mortgages but only whites could apply. So I suppose a lot of segregation in the suburbs started from thereon. Although I know things were racist there before that, but when the soldiers cames back it was when America really prospered and the middle class and sprawling suburbs were created but the blacks had no help to be part of it.

quark

Tue, 2023-07-11 18:53

Golf course redevelopment as named by the Victorian Government is the fast track to a much diminished environment, The impact of losing the open space, access to nature , wildlife habitat and mitigation of the urban heat island effect, is compounded by the dramatic increase of population in the area.  How can this be anything but a negative and theft from the people of Victoria? 

admin

Mon, 2023-07-10 13:06

The following is in response to a US Action for Assange Facebook :

Robert F. Kennedy Junior is far more capable or acting to free Assange than could Cornel West be by standing as a Greens candidate. How, given the idiocy of US 'instant runoff' voting, could Cornel West facilitating Donald Trump's victory over Joe Biden (or vice versa) possibly help free Julian Assange?

To be better informed, please visit RFK Junior's Twitter page at https://twitter.com/RobertKennedyJr . See also (5 May 23 - artcle above).

When RFK Junior becomes the Democrat Party nominee, I sure hope that Cornel West has the good sense to step aside and throw his support support behind RFK Junior.

Sheila Newman

Fri, 2023-07-07 22:01

It would, of course, be great if, as the developer suggests, Sonia Kilkenny's intervention has unsettled the whole investment community because that would assist democracy and help stop the horrible population and overdevelopment jugganaut speeding Frankston's way.

Anonymous (not verified)

Fri, 2023-07-07 21:57

The developer wanting to build up on 446-450 Nepean Hwy, Danny Ciarma, was quoted describing the people fighting for height limits as NIMBYs and seemed to think Kilkenny acting on behalf of her electorate was somehow a slur.  

"But the developer of 446-450 Nepean Highway, Urban DC founder Danny Ciarma, said the minister’s intervention was “suspicious”, “a slap in the face” and would “undermine investment confidence in the whole state, not just Frankston”. “She’s unsettled the whole investment fraternity, which is going to further exacerbate the whole undersupply issue that we face.”

“It is very clear to me that Sonya bowed to her voters as a local member of the area and put her local constituents in front of and before the greater planning policies of the state,” Ciarma said.

Premier Daniels Andrews has flagged a housing and planning reform package, expected within the next two months, that is widely expected to include greater state government planning controls and a smaller role for councils.

No decision had been made yet by VCAT, and Ciarma said he was unsure what the overlay would mean for the decision.

“I’ve spent the last 18 months working with council and the council planners very closely in formulating a design that meets the proposed structure plan in every way,” he said.

“It’s not for some disgruntled local NIMBYs to put their thoughts forward and have their wishes granted to the detriment of the greater good.”"

Source: Article by Rachael Dexter in the Age, 5 July 2023, "Minister intervenes on ‘Great Wall of Frankston,’" https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/minister-intervenes-on-great-wall-of-frankston-20230705-p5dlxh.html

Sheila Newman

Fri, 2023-07-07 21:08

Interim DDO14 with mandatory 3 storeys/ 12metre height along part of Nepean Hwy next to creek , until 27 Oct 2023. This is an interim outcome for the brave people arguing against the Great Wall of Frankston.  Unfortunately Frankston has also become a so-called 'Activity Centre,' since then, which means high-rises all over the place, especially in the CBD.

Convenor (not verified)

Sun, 2023-07-02 22:28

Many will remember Julianne seeking proof of corroboree grounds in the park during the fight against East West link.  Friends of Royal Park and Royal Park Protection Group have organised a Special meeting with presentations about the Wurundjeri relationship to  Royal Park.

 

You are invited to hear 2 presentations.

 

"(Not) Royal Park” – Recovering the Enduring Importance of a Kulin Nations Gathering Place for Culture, Health, Wellbeing and Healing”. 

Presentation by Alasdair Vance, Associate Professor, Child Psychiatry, Royal Childrens’ Hospital, University of Melbourne &  Janet McGraw, Associate Professor, Faculty of Architecture, Building & Design, University of Melbourne

 

“A name for Royal Park – Quor-nóng?”  Presentation by Andrew Tanner, Graduate Researcher, Linguistics, La Trobe University.

 

When: July 15th at 2pm

Where: Walmsley House

 

 

Regards

Paul Leitinger

Convenor – RPPG

Bill (not verified)

Sun, 2023-07-02 22:17

Pity the poor koalas whose trees will be bulldozed for little benefit to Australians either. "Some 100,000 homes, as well as hospitals, new highways a university and a city the size of Mackay are all tipped to be delivered to this booming South East Queensland region by 2046."  

James Sinnamon

Sat, 2023-07-01 12:06

I posted the following beneath (30/6/23) | Consortium News by Joe Lauria:

Thank you, Joe. This is the best example of basic facts on the Russia-Ukraine conflict I have been able to find, so far. Still, I think this could be improved upon by additions (e.g. the US bombing of Nord Stream in September 2022 and Kiev's criminally insane bombardment of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant) and images to become a comprehensive fact-sheet about the Ukraine conflict - something to show our Parliamentary 'representatives' when they give sanctimonious speeches, which omit basic facts, in support of the Kiev regime. See also at beneath the article "Putin rebuts in detail US-NATO accusations, provides dishonoured Ukraine neutrality agreement" (18/6/23).

James Sinnamon

Sat, 2023-07-01 00:54

It is surely even more in the interests of the Ukrainian people than it is in the interests of the Russian people to have the war ended now. One somewhat dated estimate of Ukrainian military dead is 300,000. So, at least many tens of thousands have died on both sides. This vast tragedy could have been avoided had Ukrainian President Volodomir Zelenskyy lived up to his April 2019 election promise to end the war. There is no way that any informed Ukrainian (apart from the nazis in the Azov battalion and the Right sector) who has seen through the lies of the Ukrainian state media, would want a peace settlement that does not include the arrest and trial of US puppet President Zilenskyy. It is in the interests of Ukrainians, most of all, that Russian soldiers, whether inside the Wagner Group or not, fight as hard as possible to remove Zilenskyy from power.

.

The above is part of a post that I posted beneath the video embedded below:

 

Last Warning To Ukraine | Prigozhin breaks his silence on the mercenary rebellion in Russia

 

On Douglas McGregor's comments on his own role in the Gulf War of 1990-1991

In the above Video, Douglas McGregor likens the strategic choices faced by the Russian general staff in 2023 to those faced by himself and the similarly outspoken ex-marine intelligence officer, Scott Ritter, during the Gulf War of 1990-1991. Whilst this may be valid in a technical-military sense, and whilst I admire Douglas McGregor for so courageously informing the world truthfully about the Russia-Ukraine conflict in 2023, he seems, to consider the Gulf War to have been a just war by the United States and its allies against Iraqi aggression.

The fact is, that Saddam Hussein was deliberately set up by, amongst others, then US ambassador to Iraq, April Glaspie. After the Kuwaitis, provocatively slant drilled, beneath the border, into Iraqi oil fields, he approached Glaspie to ask how the US would regard an Iraqi conflict with Kuwait.

Glaspie told Hussein that this would not concern the US.

However, after Iraq occupied Kuwait, contrary to what Glaspie had told Hussein, the US then launched its war against Iraq, with devastating consequences to both the people and infrastructure of Iraq, For more information, see (2012) | Global Research.

admin

Wed, 2023-06-14 11:40

I fear that, whilst I was deleting well over 100 spam comments posted by robots overnight, I accidentally deleted a comment with a title similar to the above. I apologise to the author for my mistake and ask him/her to please consider re-posting that comment either here or wherever else the comment was posted.

- Ed, 11:46am, Wed 14 June 2023 +10

admin

Mon, 2023-06-12 21:32

I received the following from the office of Greens Senator Penny All-man Payne:

Re: Please use your voice in Parliament this week to help free Julian Assange (Case Ref: PA6751)

Senator Penny Allman-Payne <[email protected]>

5:56 PM (3 hours ago)

to me

Dear James,

Thanks for your email to Senator Allman-Payne calling for the release of Julian Assange. My name is Kirsten and I am responding on the Senator’s behalf. 

The Australian Greens will continue to call on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to pick up the phone to the UK and US governments immediately to secure Julian’s freedom.

The information released by Julian Assange in Wikileaks has been used as evidence in court cases around the globe, freeing prisoners and exposing scandals, torture, murder, and illegal surveillance. 

The decision of the United Kingdom to extradite Julian Assange to the US has sickening consequences for Julian, his family and for press freedom around the world. His deteriorating health condition and the ongoing proceedings are unjust and torturous. Extradition to the United States sets a dangerous precedent for press freedom across the world. 

You can read Australian Greens spokesperson for Foreign Affairs, Senator Jordon Steele-John’s, article on freeing Assange here: 

It is time to bring him home. It is time for the Albanese government to do more. 

The Greens will always support journalists’ right to speak truth to power, and we will continue the fight to bring Julian home.

Just last month, Senator David Shoebridge, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, Senator Janet Rice and Senator Allman-Payne had the opportunity to meet Mrs Assange in Canberra. We are standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Stella and the Assange campaign in this ongoing fight for justice for Julian.

Thank you again for your email and for your advocacy on this important matter. For any further information, please don’t hesitate to contact our Justice spokesperson, Senator David Shoebridge: 

In solidarity,

Kirsten Kennedy
Office Coordinator and Executive Assistant
in the office of

admin

Thu, 2023-06-08 01:11

I posted the following to a the US Action 4 Assange Facebook page:

It seems to me that the best way that Ilhan Omar and other US supporters of Julian Assange can help win his freedom is to support RFK Junior's campaign to be the Democratic Party's candidate in the November 2024 Presidential elections. To find out how outspoken RFK Junior has been, please see his and related Twitter Pages https://twitter.com/rfk4potus https://twitter.com/RobertKennedyJr https://twitter.com/hashtag/Kennedy24?src=hashtag_click - and long Video Discussions with RFK Junior, for example, "Live Discussion Robert F. Kennedy Jr & Elon Musk: Presidential Candidate"  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=db9tSsFIfuA "Rekindling the Spirit of the Classic Democrat | Robert F. Kennedy Jr." at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1h5AhrDajI , etc., etc.

RFK Junior faces the same crooked Democratic National Committee which suppressed (bizarrely, with Sanders' own collusion) the 2016 grassroots campaign to make Bernie Sanders the Democrat Presidential campaign, but with RFK Junior's leadership and with a sufficiently large grass-roots campaign, he could succeed.

Whilst January 2025 when, hopefully, President Robert Francis Kennedy junior will be inaugurated, seems too long to wait for Assange to be freed, RFK junior's campaign should still greatly help to lift the profile of the Assange campaign, including here, in Australia[1] and quite possibly make the difference necessary to free him.

FOOTNOTE[S]

[1]  Here, In Australia,  Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has, so far, since he assumed the office of PM  in May 2022, failed to use the power vested in him as the leader of a sovereign state to end the illegal imprisonment  of Julina Assange Assange

Andrew Sparkinson (not verified)

Fri, 2023-05-26 22:31

Mr Albanese is entitled to his opinions also and it is becoming apparent he just may believe, that  heads in the sand types are voters too. by the way what whistle blowers have we persecuted?  

DeFor Mary (not verified)

Tue, 2023-05-23 19:17

End Politicians plague-level immigration and resultant overpopulation chaos. Clogged roads, crowded schools/hospitals/public facilities, pollution, waste, eco-system/environmental decline, home invasions, house price-rent madness, homelessness, wages falling, poor living conditions - Aussis now strangers in the street!
 
Population has increased by 30% in 13 years - 
70% being alien immigrants/ foreign 
students, and 457 Visa workers.    
     
The Conservation Society holds to 14 Million People as the Sustainable Population for Australia:-
Australia First will:-
I]    Introduce a Peoples’ Commission for Population, with paid delegates from community and environmental  groups to oversee sustainable population directions for our Native Land and Australian civilisation. 

ii]    The Commission to be authorised under the Citizenship Act, to direct Legislators for closing down the Lib/Lab/fake Greens destructive Immigration Programme.

iii]     The Commission to oversee orderly repatriation of [edited out for legal reasons] immigrant excess, to pursue a population level in accord with the Conservation Society optimum for our Australia. 

iv] Repatriation to involve [edited out for legal reasons] , welfare parasites, fake refugees, criminals, drug cartels, 457 visa workers, foreign students, etc.

v] A Public Educative programme to expose the extensive overpopulation effects to our Ancient Continent and its Ecological Order, Australian Heritage, and cause for economic decline to 
our People. 

   End all immigration!   
Australia First Party 
Reclaiming the Vision Splendid

 . 

godddrav (not verified)

Sat, 2023-05-20 15:06

Editor.  This message is about a Russian movie (also on youtube at ) which seems to be a critique of the soviet state (note that the Soviet Union no longer exists), departing from the question of whether one can effectively study the soviet union via its own publications. It's all in Russian. The actual message posted to candobetter says, "We offer visit the video room and look [url=государственная-граница-фильм.html] Good movies state border[/url] Interesting: Former captain of the border guard Vladimir Danovich refuses to emigrate from Russia and agrees to participate in the creation of a new border service of the young Soviet state.

Sue (not verified)

Sun, 2023-05-14 23:16

Frankston residents and visitors are being ripped off with this Great Wall. In fact Victorians are being ripped off as we don't have to live in a place to feel the loss when a place is ruined. Prof. Buxton articulates very well that the beauty of the  foreshore and sea will be commandeered for private benefit at the expense of everyone else. 

Reader (not verified)

Tue, 2023-05-09 20:49

The observations in this article mirror my perceptions. The ABC seems to have become a compliant vehicle for propaganda to disable Australian solidarity by making Australians distrust eachother. Thank you for stating it so clearly Sally.

James Sinnamon

Mon, 2023-05-08 01:44

I posted the comment further below in response to:

RFK Jr is an anti-vaxx conspiracy theorist. Just because he supports the release of Julian Assange is no reason to support him politically.

The above was posted beneath (/5/5/23) | wsws by Oscar Grenfell, in response to an earlier comment in which I agreed with what was written in that article. My response to the above comment follows:

If RFK junior's views on COVID-19 and vaccination are so bad, that would surely be made evident in the televised debate that RFK Junior wants to be held between all who are contesting the Democratic Party pre-selection to be that party's presidential candidate.

However, the Democratic Party National Committee (DNC) has refused to allow this debate. Even if we disagreed with RFK Junior's views on COVID-19 and vaccination, should we not support a candidate who wants to end the shipment of billions of dollars worth of US weapons to the Zilenskyy regime in Kiev and close down all foreign US bases as well as free Assange?

Perhaps the editors of this World Socialist Web Site should ask someone to write an article here about the 2024 US Presidential elections. To article could explain whether or not any of the candidates for pre-selection in either the Democratic or Republican parties deserve support or, indeed, whether or not workers in the US and the rest of the world have any stake in the outcome of these elections.

admin

Fri, 2023-04-28 01:06

Robert F. Kennedy Junior's support amongst registered Democrats has now reached 19%, where (I think) it was previously 8%. He still has some way to go before he secures the Democratic Party nomination to be their candidate for the 2024 Presidential election, but this looks, to me, like good progress.

 

<div align="center"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Looks like Americans are waking up! <a href="https://t.co/SgqSaz8eYs">pic.twitter.com/SgqSaz8eYs</a></p>&mdash; North Carolina Music () <a href="https://twitter.com/NewNCMusicScene/status/1651599713479557126?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 27, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>

admin

Thu, 2023-04-27 23:11

The following was tweeted by Robert F. Kennedy Junior, who is seeking to become the Democratic Party Candidate in the 2024 Presidential elections following the decision by the Central Committee of the US Democratic Party not to allow him to debate the incumbent Democratic Party candidate sitting President Joe Biden in the forthcoming Democratic National Convention:

Anne-Marie (not verified)

Mon, 2023-04-24 11:04

In 1981 I went to China with a friend as independent tourists. Our connection at the time was a mutual friend working for the Australian Government in Beijing with whom we planned to stay. Unfortunately he was "Medivac-ed" out the day we arrived so we were on our own although still had the use of his apartment. In a nutshell, our stay in China was a nightmare from which we spent all our time trying to wake up. Basically we were unwelcome as independent tourists and as a result of this had a lot of difficulty getting around.  We were detained at Xian airport but after questioning, allowed to leave. The old Russian hotel we booked into asked us to leave ASAP. We could not make a successful train booking through China Travel Service as the tickets we were given were useless. Twice we waited at the station but there was no train.  It seemed equally impossible after several days of trying to book a flight out of Xian until we were lucky enough  to get a flight back to Beijing when a young man we met selling tickets by the roadside took pity on us and organised our "escape".  When we finally left China after about a 8 days of this stress I swore never to return and had not revised this resolution until seeing this video.  Perhaps I can finally expunge these bad memories. 

Richard Seeto (not verified)

Fri, 2023-04-14 20:10

I pull no punches as the time for polite discourse with these three Judases is long past.

To say that Australia as a government have no say over the protection of its own citizens is absolute bullshit of the ALP kind...

Let me make a suggestion, PM can tell Britain, now no longer great that unless it releases Julian Assange, we can cut contacts and trade with that decaying once great stealer, robber, rapist and genocidist of nations of the world and...for...

The US: Unless it releases Julian Assange forthwith, it can remove all its Australia bases and take them back to where-ever it likes...

Are these suggestions helpless?

What is helpless is that the Three Clown Judases of the ALP prefer to kowtow to the interests of a Foreign nation over and above our very own and they have a hide to insist that Australia has sovereignty over our political decisions...see ex PM Paul Keating's excellent interview in the ABC Journalists Club...

More foreign countries including organisations and Democratic members of Congress of the US are calling for the freedom of Julian Assange yet, our three faking Judas clowns are twitting their fingers doing fuckall saying they can do nothing. (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9MDpxVl0lY)

This I can say: Henceforth, I will no longer vote for or support the ALP and I exhort all True Believers to work to remove all three including Richard Marles who is instrument to yoke our Australian Treasury to continue to pay contributions and tribute to the UK and US for software upgrades, spare parts, maintenance etc. etc...And...

To add insult to injuries, the Yanks will have a lapdog to do the fighting in proxy for them whilst they sit back to direct the wars plus the US can say if and when we can use the nuclear submarines for whatever purposes we liked.

Good one???

Richard Seeto

Editor's comment: Thank you, Richard Seeto, for your insightful and informative comment. I have changed the title from "Pensioner's Discount" to "Remove military bases of the country now torturing Assange."

I think that the kind of Australian government which acts to make the US desist from its illegal efforts to extradite Assange would also remove, from Australian soil, all military bases of the US and its UK ally and it would end the . Such a government would not need to allow such bases to remain in return for the US abandoning its illegal and morally repugnant efforts to extradite Assange. Could I also suggest that next time you post a comment, not to boldface the whole comment with the <strong> </strong> tags, but, for now, I have left the content of the above comment the way you originally posted it.

James Sinnamon

Thu, 2023-04-13 15:27

Earlier this morning I posted, to the Facebook Page , the following:

Thank you for allowing me to post here and make comments.

I am trying to get the Australian government use the powers vested in it, as the leadership of a sovereign nation, to make the British government end its illegal imprisonment of Assange and make the US government desist from its ilegal efforts to extradite him.

You can view past speeches I have made at our weekly Melbourne Friday evening vigil for Julian Assange on my YouTube Channnel at . I have written articles about Assange on our web-site, candobetter.net/. Two recent examples are (9/4/23) at and (28/11/22) .

The fact that the Australian government has not even approached the British or US governments to ask, or even beg, for Assange's freedom, let alone demand it, makes the Australian government complicit with the US and the UK in the imprisonment and torture of Assange.

What is almost as bad is the fact that there is so little discussion of Assange in the Australian Parliament, even though there are 40 members of the Bring Julian Assange Parliementary Support Group" (https://www.assangecampaign.org.au/bring-julian-home-campaign/). Hansard shows that so far in 2023, Assange has only been mentioned twice. The frequency of Assange being raised was little better in the previous two years.

Once back in December 2021 an independent member of Parliament, Andrew Wilkie tried to move a motion which called upon the Australian government to act to free Assange, but the major parties (Liberal and Labor) colluded to prevent that motion even being put. So, there hasn't even been debate on Assange in Australia's Parliament.

Sadly, neither Wilkie nor any other supporters of Assange in Paliament, have made any further attempts to have Assange debated since then. 'Debate' is limited to a very occasional statement made in support of Assange or the presentation of a petition. These rarely even draw responses from the government, far less action to free Assange.

My post was approved. However, I subsequently could not find my own post from the main page of Julian Assange Supporters - International. I could only find it again, because I had previously that page on my Firefox web browser. If I am not able to find that post, then how can any other visitors to Julian Assange Supporters - International find my post? I had truly thought that what I had written could help build the campaign to free Julian Assange by drawing the attention of other Assange supporters what is obstructing our campaign and making suggestions about how we can overcome those obstacles.

Sheila Newman

Tue, 2023-04-04 22:42

Barbara, you are dead right. The Sustainable Australia Party seems to be the only one serious about stopping overpopulation and overdevelopment.  Hard to imagine which independents to vote for, but having more independents may undermine the major parties, which are so invested in population growth and overdevelopment.  It is a shame that was not voted back in. He made some excellent attempts to reform the land-shark system that the Victorian State government takes advantage of.

Barbara (not verified)

Tue, 2023-04-04 21:27

For those concerned about overdevelopment, who did you vote for in past elections? As long as Liberal or Labor remain in power these developments will continue. If you are serious about stopping overdevelopment, take a very good look at indepentents. The Sustainable Australia Party is a good start. Clifford Hayes was against overdevelopment but was not voted back in. No council can afford to fight the amount of cases taken to VCAT. Remember this at the next council elections.  

Sheila Newman

Fri, 2023-03-31 10:28

  Next Monday 3 April 2023 10.30am at the Frankston Life Saving Club, Channel 9 is planning an interview regarding the Stop the Great Wall campaign. This is your chance to express your grave concerns for Council’s plan for the future of Frankston.  Turn up and show support for this Frankston cause.  

James Sinnamon

Fri, 2023-03-31 08:11

The following video shows Independent MP Dr. Monique Ryan speaking to the House of Representatives yesterday on Thursday 30 March 2023 on the risks of death from acquiring COVID-19 during a visit to hospital. One in 10 can die from a COVID-19 infection acquired in hospital. This speech can be found in .

I look forward to Dr. Monique Ryan being just as outspoken in support of Julian Assange as she was on .

James Sinnamon

Sun, 2023-03-19 15:59

In fact, a closer perusal of Hansard has shown me that Greens Senator Peter Whish-Wilson has been quite outspoken for Julian Assange. The above article was written in a rush early in the morning of Saturday 18 March, not long before the protests against the AUKUS war alliance and for Julian Assange started outside the Melbourne State Library at 1pm. Nonetheless, all the hard efforts of Senator Whish-Wilson and other members of the Bring Julian Assange Home Parliamentary Support Group have had almost no effect. The government's conduct towards Assange is no better as a consequence. I will soon publish another article which will rectify what I have written above.

admin

Sat, 2023-03-18 22:59

My to Facebook :

If, from Monday 20 March, when Federal Parliament next resumes, a lot more was said on the floor of Parliament about Julian Assange, than what has been said so far this year. that might help free Assange?

"Why has so little been said in the Australian Parliament about Julian Assange?" (18/3/2023) https://candobetter.net/james-sinnamon/blog/6584/why-has-so-little-been-said-australian-parliament-about-julian-assange

https://youtu.be/EzxstIh5J7c

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Mike P (not verified)

Thu, 2023-03-16 10:57

I’m feeling the urge to break out in a choral singing of ‘I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night . . .’

Sue (not verified)

Mon, 2023-03-13 10:17

One would think that Writers' Week would be an ideal forum for informed real time discussion on current global affairs with (presumably) an assembly of participants with above average command of words.  Perhaps that's the problem!

quark

Thu, 2023-03-09 19:00

This does not make any sense to those who will not benefit and especially those who will be impacted negatively on a daily basis but it must make a lot of sense - dollar sense to those who are going to benefit big-time. 

Judy Andrews (not verified)

Thu, 2023-03-09 18:36

If any of these proposals goes ahead, they will cast a shadow over the beach for half each day - the morning.  As the beach is the best asset Frankston has, and is constantly touted as such by the council for tourism publicity, why would you cut off your nose to spite your face and approve this?  Crazy!   

quark

Mon, 2023-03-06 23:17

We seem to have no more say re our quality of life in terms the density and sprawl of our major cities where most of us in Australia live than does a chook in a battery egg farm.

James Sinnamon

Wed, 2023-03-01 00:23

How any ordinary Australian who thinks about it for longer than 2 minutes can support further growth in the population of Australia is beyond me. Clearly Australia has long ago surpassed its optimum population size. Any further continuation with Australia's natural resources and habitable land could only lead to more congestion, pollution and chaos. Any economy which allows some within Australia to gain, whilst making Australian society poorer on the whole, is clearly dysfunctional.

Sheila Newman

Sat, 2023-02-18 12:33

The Pulse blogspot

/why-do-we-keep-falling-for-idea-that.html?fbclid=IwAR10brQO37IUD-J-bvpmh0SZidxtC3LqH8w_c93PNnCI1kzWJ74osI_Y6X0

Interestingly, the website is owned by Ross Elliot, who is actually in the growthist field. See his qualifications below:

Ross Elliott. BA (Hons). MAICD

Executive engagement   |  Industry advocate | Business strategy

​

​​

  • BA (Hons) University of Queensland 1981 to 1985

  • Certificate in Commercial Real Estate Analysis and Investment, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2020 (98% v class average 84%)

​

Sheila Newman

Fri, 2023-02-17 20:32

Robyn Wood on Thursday 2023-02-16, wrote the following comment, which was accidentally deleted. So I'm reproducing it here: I'd like links to these references please. Similar surveys that seek opinions on population growth get quite the opposite result. There have been only two public inquiries into population, both by ALP governments, and both overwhelming rejected higher populations. The first one, “The Jones Inquiry” received 261 submissions with only 19 of these arguing for higher populations. There were 13 submissions from academic institutes, only one of which supported population growth. Most, including the CSIRO’s, argued for smaller populations. A submission from the Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander Commission, (ATSIC) expressed concern not only for the impact immigration would have on the nations prosperity, but with considerable forethought, predicted that the higher populations created from our substantial immigration, would create a situation where the needs of the existing society, including the original owners, would be given a lower priority.

Mick Rosenberg (not verified)

Fri, 2023-02-17 17:55

It’s obvious that war crimes were committed!   The criminals have been left to walk free.          Future Journalists are too scared to report on what is really happening.  Julian Assange does not deserve to be treated the way he has.  Countries that have not supported Julian should hold their heads in shame.  History will show us that.     All the world can see how dishonest our leaders are.     Julian Assange should be bought back home as a hero.  Julian has many followers all around the world.   

James Sinnamon

Wed, 2023-02-15 01:44

The encounter with Sheila, that Andriy Bondar refers to, begins beneath Sheila's article of 21 November 2022, New industrial law bill may cut down on mass import of cheap workers, if passed. The title that Andriy Bondar gave to his post was "This is a garbled post".

Sheila responded, appropriately in my view, with a comment entitled "Post ungarbled. Your comments mostly correct, Andriy, if abusive."

In his next comment, in spite of Sheila conceding where she could see that Andriy Bondar was correct, Andriy Bondar attempted to further denigrate Sheila. After three sentences of this, he changed the subject completely and launched into a tirade against Sheila, similar to what he wrote above.

This tirade concerned articles we had written elsewhere, on candobetter.net, about Vladimir Putin, Russia and Ukraine. Sheila responded. Then we heard nothing more from Andriy Bondar, until now.

Regarding, the "critical guests," "every single one of which" has "copped abuse and been shown the door or otherwise treated poorly," I have no idea what he is talking about. Of course, he is welcome to provide examples.

Andriy Bondar (not verified)

Tue, 2023-02-14 20:01

Sheila, you have no way of knowing if I read what Hersh wrote. You also say I turned up on a "on a population discussion list." I know nothing about any population discussion lists- you just made that up. My only previous encounter with you was correcting your numerous mistakes in regard to industrial law on this website. You even conceded most of your mistakes.   Having looked over the past 12 months's worth of encounters with critical guests on this site, I note that every single one of them has copped abuse and been shown the door or otherwise treated poorly. There isn't even a single exception. As such, I bid you farewell and shall travel to more fructuous pastures. Enjoy talking amongst yourselves.

Sheila Newman

Tue, 2023-02-14 08:26

Basically Andriy is acting as a media-gatekeeper. He does not actually read anything that he criticises, but just repeats slurs designed to put himself and others off reading it.  It would be interesting to see Andriy actually try to refute Seymour Hersh's detailed expose on how the US government organised the blowing up of Nordstream 2, but I doubt that would ever happen, because Andriy would not be able to bring himself to read anything that contradicts his 'mainstream' view of war.  This is because he is either programmed to obedience through the usual wedge politics imposed on the bulk of a poorly educated and uncritical population, or his is a professional troll.  I suspect the latter because he only recently appeared on a population discussion list, where he acts divisively and to confuse.

James Sinnamon

Tue, 2023-02-14 00:47

As with his previous 'contributions' to the discussion about the Ukraine-Russia conflict, Andriy Bondar has not cited sources for his latest attempt to depict Vladimir Putin as like Hitler or the Antichrist whilst attacking me personally. nor has he addressed what I added to two of his previous comments.

I chose to respond, in the way I did, to his comments because I believed it would help visitors better understand the content. I still preserved all of his original content within  those comments. If that still troubles Andriy Bondar, he can always find somewhere else to post his views.

I should also apologise to other site visitors, who find themselves subjected the venomous lies that were posted above. I will have to find a way to put such posts somewhere linked to from here so that those, who are sufficiently curious, can still follow the link and read the posts for themselves.

Andriy Bondar (not verified)

Mon, 2023-02-13 21:38

I see that my above comments have been edited (the titles have been changed) and have editorial insertions put in them without my consent. Am I right in assuming this has been done by James Sinnamon rather than Sheila Newman? I ask because Sinnamon's peculiar idées fixes appear in the editorial comments. I have never had this happen on the mainstream media sites where I have commented over the years. Such behaviour is unethical but it certainly confirms my priors. As to the new batch of factual claims made above by Sinnamon (I assume), I would need to see data from neutral sources before I assess them. In any event, it is well reported that Russia is killing its own soldiers with sledgehammer blows to the head- the Putin approved Wagner terrorist group has a long history of using this tactic and Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin appears to be quite proud of it. He no longer even denies it. Why do facts like that not appear on this site? Why is there no mention of Russia using thousands of convicted criminals as cannon fodder? Why is there no mention of Russia's few remaining independent journalists having mostly fled the country? Or the journalists who have been jailed or died in suspicious circumstances? Or citizens being punished for even calling the war a war instead of the ridiculous euphemism, "special military operation"? But most importantly, why have you concealed Putin's open embrace of Nazism, for instance his continued crackdown on LGBTI people, anti-Satanist witch hunts and lionization of the Hitler loving madman Ivan Ilyich? Are you denying that Putin had Ilyich's grave moved to Russia from Switzerland and laid a wreath on it? Having said all that, I note that in the last French Presidential election Sheila Newman expressly called for French voters to vote for Marin Le Pen, whose party is the continuation of her father's anti-semitic, holocaust denying National Front. One could be forgiven for thinking that an openly anti-LGBTI, pro-Putin, pro-Ilyinist and pro-Le Pen war-loving website such as this could itself be designated far right, if not outright fascist. Would you be comfortable with such a designation?   And as to me being riled up, well no, I gather your readership is so small that it is irrelevant. 

DeFoe Mary (not verified)

Mon, 2023-02-13 21:12

HE VOICE YELLS  LOUD OVER
ITS TRUE PURPOSE

As the pro-Voicers loud-hail about the Aboriginal voice to parliament and the anti-Voicers try hard to negate what’s almost certain to be a rigged referendum, the true objective evades all.

Firstly, the brevity of detail surrounding this mooted “voice” should tell you all you need to know: that it’s something that the deep state wants and aims to get but is misleading Australians and our massive immigrant demographic about what it all earnestly means.

The critics are naturally labelled as “racists” while the proponents are effusive with fuzzy feelings and promises of constitutional emancipation for the Aborigines. The notion one must undertake if they’re to follow the pro-voice logic is that Aborigines are currently excluded from the electoral process. One is also led to assume that they have “special needs” that aren’t being met and that, in the first place, they assume a priority in the Australian state that’s been sorely overlooked from day one.

What hasn’t been ignored is the sluice gates of immigration pouring a burst dam’s worth of immigrants into the country year after year—an accretion of interlopers that only paused for the global COVID project (sic) to facilitate what the World Economic Forum (WEF) gloats about being the first phase of the “great reset

Now immigration numbers are back in full swing under the guise of, among other names, Overseas Students. On one hand, we have a government that is eager to amplify a “voice” for a disunited aggregate of tribal peoples who share nothing much in common least of all a common language; and on the other, they want to further disenfranchise those remaining pureblood Aborigines [sacred to Australia Firsters], by forcing an influx of disparate races into their (sic) lands to swamp them even further into total marginalisation.

Either the internationalist “managers” of the economy known as Australia are just stupid with obstinate egalitarian notions of what’s right, or else they’re hoodwinking us. Given that the latter is always the case 100% of the time then it’s a fair bet that “the Voice” is a distraction from other social projects; especially given its vagueness of detail and the rush the globalists are in to establish one.

Firstly, it sets a pretext for “amending” the constitution; an act of bi-partisan tampering that’s unlikely to end with just ‘the Voice.’ Secondly, while the sweaty masses are all het-up about that Voice, they’re not paying attention to its actual purpose, which has almost nothing to do with justifying the insufferable “welcome to country” balderdash in parliament or improving Aboriginal self-esteem through the parliamentary gravy train. In truth, the “Voice” is about solidifying Australia as an Asian migrant zone. Confused? Don’t be.

Australians as perceived during the Vision Splendid era were a distinct set of the Caucasian race. Our ancestors invariably hailed from Europe and we shared customs, culture and a common language. That’s all going and the government-invited invaders are screaming up the charts and outpacing the founders of this country to such an alarming degree that according to the 2021 Census 51.5% of our 25.5 million population was either born overseas or has a parent born overseas. In other words, not Aussies. Don’t be misled if you’re told that a large swathe comes from the UK either because one look at poor old lost Blighty and you’ll quickly see that could mean anything from Pakistani to Senegalese. 

Nepalese represent the fastest-growing migrant group, with Indians at the top, and Mandarin the most spoken language outside of English. Other European languages such as Greek and Italian are on the way out, as are fairdinkums ourselves. This is not by accident but by design—as the intent for Australia is not to honour in the footsteps of the “ANZACS” but to integrate into Asia as an economic zone with a principal loyalty to America’s Satanic Empire. 

With such a disparate grouping of races, many of which bring with them ethnic and religious conflicts, the motif of Aboriginality serves as a fixed point of cultural agreement in a tokenistic kind. After all, the Aboriginal “flavour” serves only disingenuous ceremonial purposes and as a semiotic veneer for this new economic zone: it’s not expected that all the alien imports learn Aboriginal histories and customs. But it means that the “colonial past” and the labour movement are flushed down the can and supplanted by this undemocratic revision of the nation.   

     
Therefore, the Voice is not for Aborigines, but for multi-racialism and rampant commercialism. It is a voice for plunder, exploitation, and the epochal lies that characterise the actors behind ‘the great reset.’

Oppose the Voice for the fraud it is, with every bit of strength you can! 

The Australian peoples movement of Australia First is developing, and will be issuing an Aboriginal New Dreamtime Programme, to advance an organic based REAL FUTURE for our Aborigines.     
                                         Mary Defoe

Anonymous (not verified)

Mon, 2023-02-13 14:12

Yeah, nah. The Kim Dotcom observations have been widely reported and Kim's record is not so black and white. (See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udAFWsSnxsI) Doesn't seem likely that he made it up, but, even if he did, his is not the only sign pointing to the  US.

Motivation, opportunity, and threats put the US (and anyone found loitering with them) as prime suspects.

Seymour Hersh's very detailed account is probably true for the simple reason that the bad guys (the United States and NATO) have failed to argue it point by point. Instead, they have just tried to smear the author, whose credentials are so good that this just makes them look like liars incapable of defending their lies, despite enormous budgets just to do that.

You are also trying to smear him, rather than argue motive, opportunity, intention, and all the points that Hersh makes.

ABC Australia mirrors Australian cabinet policies and consistently reports whatever the Whitehouse gives as reasons to go to war. The US always find mad dictators wherever they want to invade and pillage, and weapons of mass destruction, chemical weapons, babies thrown out of incubators, etc etc.  How could anyone not born yesterday believe them, unless thoroughly brainwashed from childhood?  Four Corners also does terrible reports sometimes, such as perpetuating the Russian interference nonsense in US elections. With anything important that affects foreign relations, they pull their punches.

Unfortunately Australia is one of the bad guys and it is friends with a whole gang of them.

We have a government that has allowed Julian Assange, who exposed countless US and other war-crimes to be locked up illegally for years, on behalf of the United States. What further proof do you need to indicate that Australia's media and governments are built on lies, war, propaganda, and defending criminals?

The ABC has almost nothing to say about Julian Assange.  None of the mainstream journalists stand up for him - because they are too scared of their bosses or so ignorant that they actually cannot question what they are telling the general public.

All our news is censored since the beginning of the war, at a time when everyone could and should be able to read what the other side(s) have to say.  But that would prevent the war, so we have censorship.

It amazes me that you get so riled up.  Ours is one of very few sites that doesn't swallow the pro-Ukraine message hook, line and sinker.  Do you expect every single journalist in the world to agree with your ideologically stuck view of the world?

Andriy Bondar (not verified)

Mon, 2023-02-13 14:08

Editors' comment: How Andriy, an ethnic Ukrainian, could not hate Zilenskyy, who has sent tens of thousands of his brothers to their deaths in his war of choice in the East, is beyond me. Is Andriy aware that Zilenskyy, whether through stupidity or criminal intent, ? Has he seen films of Ukrainians, including ethnic Hungarians being hunted down to be conscripted by Zilenskyy to fight and die in the East?

Re the editor's comment, all my claims are from the mainstream media and you may easily google them. It takes less than 10 seconds to find literally thousands of links about Kim Dotcom's wealth and legal issues, for instance. This is also common knowledge as it has been well reported, so the author of this article is obviously aware of them but made a deliberate decision to conceal this information from the readership.  I did not bother providing links as this website dismisses mainstream reporting and will not allow links or even paragraph breaks, although I note paragraph breaks, for the first time ever, are in my above reply. - I edited the comment to make it more readable - Ed.

 

As an aside-  I now see that this website is running a claim by the convicted pedophile and notorious chatroom child groomer, Scott Ritter, that the Ukrainians are using chemical weapons against the Russian Ilynist-Putinist invaders. (Editors' comment: As we know from the Jeffrey Epstein saga, large numbers of the US political elite were also guilty of pedophilia. If Ritter, himself, has been found guilty of some counts of pedophilia, the fact remains, we owe our lives to Scott Ritter, who achieved agreements to control the nuclear arms race in 1988, following the US deployment of cruise missile and the Soviet response. Had this not occurred, nuclear war would almost certainly have occurred.) Without hard evidence, verified by neutral sources, I see this as just another racist attack on my fellow Ukrainians. For whatever reason, this website is determined to see all Ukrainians exterminated in a Second Holodomor.

admin

Mon, 2023-02-13 02:22

Dear Elena,. Thank you for your reply   On Thu, Dec 1, 2022 at 5:13 PM Tieri, Elena (S. Georganas, MP) <> wrote:
Hello James,   On behalf of Steve, I thank you for your email and commend you on the action you are taking.   Steve shares your concerns and is very proactive when it comes to human rights and the violation of liberty and voice. Within Parliament, he speaks on behalf of many who are suffering at the hands of injustice.   As a member of the Parliamentary Friends of the Bring Julian Assange Home committee, he takes concerted action to bring a humanitarian focus on Julian’s plight; and will continue to do so until Julian is returned to Australia.   Thank you once again for reaching out to Steve. He has heard your voice and will bring it to Parliament to fight for something you both truly believe in.
    I am glad to hear of this.   Nevertheless, the fact remains, that very little is even said in Parliament about Julian Assange, let alone debated and voted upon.   In the past sitting week, Julian Assange was not mentioned once in the House and his name was only said twice in the Senate.  The amount of discussion about Assange in the 2022 sitting year was little more. As I have said when I speak out at our weekly vigils for Julian Assange every week outside Flinders Street Station in Melbourne (See "End the Australian Parliamentary Gag on Discussion about Assange" at ), I think 40 members of the Bring Julian Assange Parliamentary Support Group could find ways to make their presence in Parliament more widely known.   I will be writing to other members of the Bring Julian Assange Support Group to ask each of them, as well as Steve Georganas, to, this week, try, once more, to have the issue of Julian Assange debated in Parliament. Please try to have Andrew Wilkie's foreshadowed motion of 2 December 2021, which was outrageously disallowed, put to this sitting. This is the foreshadowed motion:
That the House: (1) notes that:   (a) Walkley Award winning Australian journalist, Mr Julian Assange, remains incarcerated in HMP Belmarsh in the United Kingdom, despite a British Court earlier this year finding that Mr Assange could not be extradited to the United States of America for health reasons;   (b) the US continues to pursue Mr Assange and has recently been back in court in the UK appealing the earlier decision to refuse the extradition;   (c) the reason for the US's determination to extradite Mr Assange is limited to Wikileaks' exposes in 2010 and 2011 of US war crimes and other misconduct in Iraq and Afghanistan, and in Guantanamo Bay, including the release of the 'Collateral Murder' video in which a US helicopter in Iraq gunned down innocent civilians including journalists;   (d) recent revelations in the media show the Central Intelligence Agency developed plans to abduct and assassinate Mr Assange; and   (e) the continuing incarceration of Mr Assange, and any extradition to the US, would not only be a grave injustice but a severe threat to his health and life; and (2) calls on the Prime Minister to:   (a) speak directly with his counterparts in the US and UK to bring an end to this madness, including the US dropping all charges against Mr Assange and the UK allowing his immediate release; and   (b) commit to not allow the extradition of Mr Assange to the US from Australia.
As I said in my talk, if the Speaker pronounces that the necessary motion to Suspend Standing Orders to allow the above motion to be put is defeated, then call for a Division to (1) verify that the majority of members have voted against that procedural motion (2) make known to voters the names of MP who oppose the issue of Julian Asange being debated in parliament.   That way, members who behave, in my view, undemocratically, can, at the next federal; election, be held to account by their constituents for their conduct.   Thank you for your attention.   Yours faithfully,   James Sinnamon  

Andriy Bondar (not verified)

Sun, 2023-02-12 21:04

Editor's comment: The original title given to this comment was "Little Miss Breathless in Australia?" I changed the title so that readers are more likely to understand the purpose of this comment. As for this post's effort to dismiss Seymour Hersh, please also see the 29 minute Video discussion . Otherwise, for now, I will just point out that no sources are given for the claims made below. I expect that if they had been cited, we would find that they are the same sources that lied about Iraqi WMDs, supposed Syrian and Libyan governments murder of their own peoples, 'North' Vietnamese 'aggression' against 'South' Vietnam, Oswald's 'magic bullet', etc., etc.

 

I checked out the link that you would have us believe proves former UK Prime Minister Liz Truss sent a text message to the US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, saying, "It is done." moments after the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline explosion. Your link is to some obscure Pakistani website that advertises samosas (which I quite enjoy) and the "evidence" consists of nothing apart from a tweet by the notorious troll, serial liar and convicted fraud Kim Dotcom. Kim Dotcom claims to have personally seen the alleged phone comment on hacked intel. It is beyond me why anyone would take this unsupported claim seriously as Kim Dotcom furnished no evidence and repeatedly makes outrageous claims.  At least when Kim Dotcom dishonestly accused  Lt Gen Valerii Zaluzhnyi of wearing a Nazi bracelet, he provided a blurry image! But such are the standards of your citizen journalism that random unsubstantiated tweets from known frauds constitutes breathtaking evidence, so long as it fits in with your conspiratorial, Russia Today approved worldview.

One imagines Kim Dotcom is rather unhappy with the US government, which seeks his extradition from NZ for several hundred million dollars worth of copyright infringement, money laundering and racketeering. Also of interest is how Kim Dotcom, who dropped out of high school without a penny in his pocket, has somehow been able to accumulate the wealth to have almost 20 luxury cars, a mansion and 10 million dollars in the bank. Not being a conspiracy theorist myself, I shall not speculate.

As to the 85 year old Mr Seymour Hersh, about whom you claim to be breathless, his claims about the US and Norway being behind the blowing up of Nordstream2 have about as much hard and verifiable evidence as the litany of other conspiracy theories he has pushed in his dotage, such as his James Bond like claim about the killing of Osama Bin Laden. That is to say, nothing whatsoever.  

Accordingly the ABC, which you breathlessly criticise and accuse without evidence of lying, is likely not reporting Seymour Hersh's latest tale for the same reason it doesn't report most of the millions of other grubby claims and conspiracy theories that flood the internet each day of the week and lure in the gullible, the immature and the weird. Any claim that the ABC is beholden to the government is obviously false given the ABC's habit over many decades of running stories that shame the Government of the day, such as those on Robodebt,  war crimes in Afghanistan, corruption in politics and policing and so on. How many time has just one program, 4 Corners, shone a light in dark corners that have embarrassed governments over the years? It must be dozens.  You will not get that in your preferred Ilyinist-Putinist  (Nazi) Russia, which controls most of the media and has caused independent journalists to flee the country.  

James Sinnamon

Sun, 2023-02-12 01:42

Prime Minister Albanese should take note from the young female Syrian in the embedded video below: The illegal sanctions which Australia, the US and its other allies imposed against Syria, made life close to unbearable for Syrians, even before the earthquake. Those illegal sanctions are now causing death as those struggling to rescue earthquake survivors are deprived of life-saving equipment and medicine as consequence of the sanctions.

 

Lucia Vorpasso (not verified)

Mon, 2023-02-06 19:32

How do I lodge an objection to Planning Permit Application NO: MV/269/2022? Thank you

James Sinnamon

Sat, 2023-02-04 13:38

The comment below has been posted to (1/2/2023) | Consortium News :

 

The Australian Parliament sits from this coming Monday 8 March - two days from now.

Even though the "Bring Julian Assange Home Parliamentary Support Group" numbers 40, the major parties on both sides have, so far, successfully colluded to prevent any substantial discussion, on the floors of either the House of Representatives or the Senate, about the treatment of Julian Assange and successive governments' [mis]handling of his case.

This must end. A modest start will occur during the next sitting commencing Monday 8 February:

Independent member Monique Ryan will be asking Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to explain why, contrary to his claims made to her during a previous Question Time on 30 November 2022 (hxxs :// candobetter.net/admin/blog/6513/video-parliament-will-government-intervene-bring-mr-assange-home-dr-monique-ryan), a FOI request has revealed that, for six months, no Australian government department official has been in contact with any US government official over Julian Assange.

However, when the time allowed in Question Time for each question and response is two minutes, much more is needed than a question or two even by an MP as capable as Monique Ryan. A proper debate on the floors of Parliament, in which the case for government action to free Julian Assange can be put, is urgently needed.

James Sinnamon

Wed, 2023-01-18 03:22

I posted the following comment beneath the Consortium News YouTube Video  :

Thank you, Joe Lauria, for raising the issue of Greens Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto.

Even though the required number of signatures were collected to put NATO membership to a referendum, the Swedish Parliament, presumably, including Greens Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, refused to hold the referendum. Without consulting the people of Finland, they abandoned Finland's past neutrality and made Finland an ally of the United States, the country which has killed an estimated 20 million people since 1945 (https://www.globalresearch.ca/u-s-regime-has-killed-20-30-million-people-since-world-war-ii/5633111). The Finnish government, like the similarly corrupt governments of Germany, Sweden, France, the UK and nearly every other European nation, are also allied with US puppet Ukrainian President Zelensky (elected in 2019 as the supposed 'peace' candidate with 70% of the vote) and his nazi Azov Battalions against the people of Ukraine, Russia and the rest of humanity.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande have both bragged about the 2014 Minks Accords supposed peace agreement was only to make time for the defeated Ukrainian military to rebuild with US money, equipment and 'advisors' in order to re-launch their war against Russian speaking Ukrainians and Russia.

Merkel and Hollande have the blood of tens of thousands of Ukrainians and Russians on their hands. It is with such people that the Greens Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto also wants Finland to form a military alliance with.

admin

Sun, 2023-01-15 14:06

The following was to the Facebook Group Canberra Conversations

The above video can now be watched non-live. Fortunately (and unfortunately) it's length is 4 hours and 22 minutes. The Schiller Institute should be thanked for convening, filming and thence publishing the Symposium. (It has also been embedded within "Live at 2:00 AM(+11): Stop NATO's World War and Dismantle the 'International Assassination Bureau'" at hxxps://candobetter.net/admin/blog/6539/live-200%E2%80%AFam11-stop-natos-world-war-and-dismantle-international-assassination-bureau [here].)

If the truth behind the murders of JFK, Malcolm X, MLK, RFK and numerous witnesses to those murders can be made widely known in 2023, even almost 60 years since those events, it still might be possible to hold to account today's heirs to those murders and reverse the coup of 22 November 1963 in the United States. With someone else approaching JFK's greatness in the White House - perhaps Tulsi Gabbard? - we could finally eradicate the threat of war from this earth.

James Sinnamon

Thu, 2023-01-12 10:32

In his otherwise informative speech below, former US Marine intelligence officer Scott Ritter said that, by supplying Ukraine with far fewer weapons than President Zilenskiy had requested, the US was choosing to prolong the conflict rather than help the Kiev regime to defeat Russia.

This presumes that, had the US supplied all the weapons that Kiev had requested, Kiev would have been able to use those weapons to defeat Russia. Most likely, the US understood that a large volume of the stream of US weapons entering Ukraine would have been destroyed by the Russians en-route with missiles and aerial bombardment. In any case, those additional weapons would have had to find their way into the hands of Ukrainian troops who were motivated to use them effectively.

If the delivered weapons were, in spite of all this, started to pose a threat to the Russian forces, this could most likely have been dealt with by an increase in the numbers of Russian forces deployed in its Special Military Operation.

Sheila Newman

Sat, 2022-12-31 13:46

A friend of ours was recently in the cardiac unit at Frankston Hospital.  She was transferred out of there to a private cardiac facility because the ward was about to close down for a remake into a THIRD covid ward for the hospital.

Everywhere you went there, staff warned you to wear masks outside in the greater community, because of the rocketing rate of infection.  Staff, visitors, and patients all wore masks continuously to reduce infection risk in the hospital. Obviously the rate of admissions for COVID 19 illness is climbing again.  There are several probable factors: 1. People are not taking precautions in social distancing, mask wearing, or hand-sanitising.  (How many times have you tried to sanitise outside a supermarket or somewhere similar, and there was nothing in the dispenser?) 2. People who are not vaccinated are getting sicker than those who are vaccinated.  3. People don't realise how serious the illness can be and therefore do not access the rapidly acting anti-virals now available or 4. They fall outside those categories. 5. No-one has any clear idea of the current incidence of COVID-19, nor of the preponderant strains, because they are either not testing, or not reporting their test results.

Sue (not verified)

Fri, 2022-12-30 10:08

What did go wrong? Was it something peculiar to Australia or was it the rise of neo-liberalism internationally which Australia did not withstand? What has happened in Australia is a disgrace when compared with the picture painted above of the prosperous Menzies era in Australia. It seems that the values present in this past era are no longer held. Governments do not seem to care that not just housing ownership but even rentability have declined to the extent that people now live in 3rd world conditions - in cars and tents. They don't seem to care that educational standards have fallen and children are falling through the cracks. It's not about having a high general standard for everyone but instead just as long as someone "makes it". Governments don't like unemployment to be too low, either and "skills" shortages become the urgent cry when training of our own population has been long neglected.   There is rising inequality with the obscenely, osentatiously wealthy and a class of people delivering their meals to them on bicycles.  That's what I see, in a nutshell and this situation seems to be OK with Labor  too.

admin

Sat, 2022-12-24 03:15

Comment: In truth, I don't normally object to the Ukrainian flag. However, in the current political climate, raising of Ukraine's flag almost always implies support for the nazi-infested regime of US-puppet Ukrainian president Volodomyr Zelensky as it was intended to in the Parliament of Slovakia.

Sarolta E Kérészy (not verified)

Fri, 2022-12-02 00:18

I am ashamed to be Australian. Of Hungarian origin. Bi / TRI lingual + 1. Albanese's words hide deception.continuing the Oz tradition of being Corporations owned and a mere Yankee wipe rs. He has no shame. A slitherer like his predecessor and a traitor to all those refugee migrants who sought  not only a better life but also safer.

Sheila Newman

Thu, 2022-12-01 16:02

I note that Prime Minister Albanese abused his position in Australia's parliament yesterday to cast more gratuitous slurs on Julian Assange.

"I, sometime ago, made my point that enough is enough. It is time for this matter to be brought to a conclusion. "

What, for instance, does 'Enough is enough' mean in the context of someone being held illegally even for one minute? What does 'enough is enough' mean in the context of someone being held in solitary confinement, whose only crime was to jump bail in order to seek asylum to save his life - a misdemeanor for which he served out his full unreasonable sentence years ago?

"I don't express any personal sympathy with some of the actions of Mr Assange. [...] As I said, I don't have sympathy for Mr Assange's actions, on a whole range of matters."

What purpose does it serve for the Australian Prime Minister to mention and repeat again that he does not 'express any personal sympathy with some of the actions of Mr Assange'? What actions? The action of exposing US war crimes? The action of seeking asylum?  What is the purpose of this totally unspecific slur, except to abuse a public platform in order to throw yet more mud on the courageous Assange? And what is the purpose of that?

"[...]when you look at the issue of Mr Assange and compare that with the person responsible for leaking the information, Bradley Manning, now Chelsea Manning, she is now able to participate freely in US society."

And, what's this statement about 'leaking the information'  - you mean exposing massive war-crimes?? And then noting that 'the person responsible' - Bradley Manning - is now able to participate freely in US society.  In this way, Albanese implies that Assange is guilty because Manning was guilty and obviously Albanese thinks people should be punished for exposing war-crimes.  His position seems to be that the US should not be punished for its war-crimes, and that we should not even know about them.  What on earth does the Prime Minister stand for then?

Any British or American hearing the PM's weasle-words on Assange would rightly derive the idea that Albanese does not give a stuff about Assange, or truth, or justice, or false imprisonment, or torture, or asylum, or democracy, or war-crimes. Albanese delivers this message loud and clear, through the parliamentary megaphone.

Source of excerpts in Albanese's full response to Dr Monique Ryan:

"I, sometime ago, made my point that enough is enough. It is time for this matter to be brought to a conclusion. In that, I don't express any personal sympathy with some of the actions of Mr Assange. I do say though that this issue has gone on for many years now, and when you look at the issue of Mr Assange and compare that with the person responsible for leaking the information, Bradley Manning, now Chelsea Manning, she is now able to participate freely in US society.

The government will continue to act in a diplomatic way, but can I assure the member for Kooyong that I have raised this personally with representatives of the United States government. My position is clear and has been made clear to the US administration that it is time that this matter be brought to a close. This is an Australian citizen. As I said, I don't have sympathy for Mr Assange's actions, on a whole range of matters. But, having said that, you have to reach a point whereby what is the point of this continuing, this legal action, which could be caught up now for many years into the future? So I will continue to advocate, as I did recently in meetings that I have held. I thank the member for her question and for her genuine interest in this, along with so many Australian citizens who have contacted me about this issue."

Sheila Newman

Thu, 2022-12-01 14:04

I have ammended the article in question to indicate that it was not worth importing cheap labour until Howard brought in his Corporations and Work Choices legislation.  Thank you for pointing out my mistakes. With regard to mentioning 2009,  maybe I was going to say something (but got interrupted) about the high rate of mass migration into the country, which was particularly shocking as outnumbering natural increase around that time - actually from 2007.

(See, for instance, Table 4: Components of population growth: 1980–2015 at https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp1617/Quick_Guides/MigrationStatistics.)  

Anyway, I decided not to pursue that subject, and you are right that that year did not make sense. 

With regard to the term 'industry-based awards,' I was also thinking of occupation-based awards, my point being the erosion of collective bargaining through the introduction of enterprise bargaining in Australia.  Collective bargaining was the hallmark of Australia's leadership in industrial law legislation and worker and citizen empowerment, from the world's first 8 hour day (1856) through to Federation and the Australian Constitution, and onwards - up until John Howard's changes to the interpretation of the Australian Consitution, which has practically outlawed collective bargaining to all intents and purposes.  

The substitution of a few sparse rights in the Fair Work Act for the historic rights acquired over many decades through the old state award systems, is nothing compared to the historic rights and power acquired through the old award systems. These systems were created between unions, government, and workers. They empowered unions and thereby workers, providing a bulwark against the tendencies for governments to side with employers and big money.  Your comment that most workers go to the Fair Work Tribunal about unfair dismissals is an indication of the lack of scope for workers regarding the laws that underpin that tribunal.  The situation of workers regarding other employment rights is very poorly defended by that Tribunal.There is a good paper on this here: "?" https://www.aierights.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Ron-McCallum-Debate-2018-discussion-paper.pdf

You write, "Whether or not foreign guest workers are allowed in Australia is a separate issue and not dealt with in the Fair Work Act 2009 or its predecessors." That is not the point. The point is that the system that Howard introduced covers something like 80% of workers and it permits them to be paid at different rates for the same work, when that was not legally possible in most industries before.  This makes it profitable to import cheap workers from overseas and that is what has happened.

It is irrelevant to this argument whether you think "an appropriately monitored guest worker system can help raise poor people in developing coutnries out of poverty whilst simultaneously ensuring Australian consumers have affordable fruit/veg and so on ..."  Except to say that, without enforceable, detailed awards in a unionised system with teeth, it is not possible to have an 'appropriately monitored guest-worker system.

Australian farmers have been forced to compete in a globalised, unlevel playing field, which does not reflect the cost of production in this country, which requires a huge amount of fertiliser, irrigation, and mechanisation (and environmental damage).  This leaves no margin at all for paying pickers and packers properly.  The notion of affordable fruit and vegetables is meaningless in the context of the cost of long-distance travel, vast overseas imports, oversupply in all seasons, and enormous spoilage. 

In industrial case-law 'industry' traditionally refers implicitly to large numbers of people who get their hands dirty doing something relatively unskilled.   Industrial law is mired in class division, which is, of course, a reflection of power. That is one of the chief things supposed to separate Liberal from Labor in this country, but Labor did seem to allow things to drift after Howard's essential destruction of worker and citizen-rights, with the Fair Work Act not much better  It is therefore surprising that Albanese seems to be taking a more traditional Labor tack.  I can only hope that this will bear out.

The history of Australian industrial laws as a protection against slavery is that Australian workers at the turn of the century, having ended transportation of forced ‘white’ labour (convicts and indentured labour) noting the kidnapping of Pacific Islanders, also rejected ‘non-white’ slavery through the White Australia policy, which was a trade-off for allowing manufacturers to import foreign goods.  Australian employers were kidnapping Islanders as slaves and would have imported African slaves if allowed.   An ammendment to the Masters and Servants Act August 1847 forbade the transportation of ‘Natives of any Savage or uncivilized tribe inhabiting any Island or Country in the Pacific Ocean’. Masters and Servants Act 1847 (NSW) No 9a. No.IX., 16 August 1847. Six weeks later a Legislative Council motion disapproved the prospect of introducing Pacific Island workers into the colony, because it “May, if not checked, degenerate into a traffic in slaves.” .  Whitlam decoupled the notion of cheap imported labour from skin colour, but continued to protect Australian and State Awards. Howard managed to reverse theses and the protection they carried against 

Sheila Newman

Thu, 2022-12-01 13:56

Andriy Bondar, I have corrected the mistakes you pointed out in my industrial law article, but you have failed to point to any specific mistake I might have made in reporting on Ukraine. Instead, you continue to pretend that this site is pro-Putin rather than anti-war and anti-censorship, and make inflammatory comments with the excuse that you were born in Ukraine.  That kind of behaviour is hardly a good advertisement for Ukraine. 

This war is mostly, like all wars, a huge money-laundering operation for criminals operating within criminal states, with the support of completely captive mass media. Already more than 60 billion USD has gone into the black smoking pit of Ukraine, and out the other end into various private bank accounts.  

The most relevant article that I have produced about Nazism in contemporary Ukraine is from a Jewish site that tracks the creation of Nazi monuments around the world, including GPS links to the actual monuments, with dates and histories, at https://candobetter.net/anonymous/blog/6321/nazi-monuments-ukraine-mushroomed-2014-time-us-interference. How about you look at the links and argue with those facts? This article is a partial copy from a Jewish site "Nazi collaborator monuments in Ukraine,", https://forward.com/news/462916/nazi-collaborator-monuments-in-ukraine/ I copied parts of it because it is a subscription-only site, which has only temporarily made this information on Ukraine available. This article shows an explosion of monuments since 2014, which was the time when multiple US political figures were present in Ukraine, intervening in elections there. Several were recorded fraternising with Neonazis, and the current President of the United States and his son have interfered with the Ukrainian judiciary by having Poreshenko remove a public prosecutor because he was going after a wealthy criminal who was mixed up in a Biden-Ukraine commercial exploitation. And that criminal was the one who financed the television series that made Zilensky famous and his political campaign.

I do not know how many Ukrainians supported Ukrainian Nazis leading up to the war. There was plenty of resistance from the Donbass region and from people all over Ukraine who did not want the Euro-Maidan, but most people stopped resisting because the Nazi revenge on them was so terrifying.  That reign of terror obviously continues.  The United States, which is behind the war in Ukraine, has a history of using political extremists to change regimes and to fight their battles on the ground. There is probably not much difference between ISIS and Ukraine's neo-nazis.

Poreshenko admitted that he never intended to negotiate the Minsk Agreements in good faith - but just to buy time to get US support to make war on Russia.  Ukrainians should be thankful for this??? What craziness! What psychopathy. He could have avoided war. Ukraine could have been a peaceful country.

As for what Ukrainians in Ukraine think about this - how would we know? You get shot in Ukraine if you criticise the war. 

Andriy Bondar (not verified)

Tue, 2022-11-29 11:27

Sheila Newman lives in Australia. In spite of this, her article on Australia's employment law is a garbled pile of falsehoods and nonsense. In short, her research and comprehension are vastly inferior to the point of being comical. In just a few short paragraphs, as I have shown above, she manages to get almost everything completely wrong. It therefore comes as no surprise that Newman, who has has probably never even set foot in my ancestral homeland and country of birth, Ukraine, manages to get every fact wrong. Instead of engaging in even the most elementary research, Newman simply regurgitates Russian state propaganda about the Ukrainian people being Nazi Satanists and pads it out with "independent reporting" from a gaggle of Russian state approved shills. Absent from her articles is any mention of the non-State Russian journalists who have been murdered, tortured, imprisoned and forced in to exile. Absent from her articles is any mention that genuine journalism from Russian controlled territory is impossible given the vague and broad laws that criminalise calling the invasion of Ukraine a war, criminalise saying anything that could be considered an insult to the military and so on.  Also strangely absent from her articles is the chilling nature of Russian state propaganda or any mention of Putin's proto-fascist and imperialist ideology. Nowhere is there any mention of Putin's devotion to the Hitler loving fascist Ivan Ilyin, whose remains Putin had returned to Russia from Switzerland so that Putin could lay flowers at his grave.   For details, see here: www youtube com /watch?v=bfVYiHY7lok

James Sinnamon

Mon, 2022-11-28 12:30

Just now, I had a telephone conversation concerning Julian Assange with a Canberra staff member of . I 'phoned Senator Roberts, because of all the 7 automatically-generated replies I have received so far, in the last two days, from members of the Bring Julian Assange Home Parliamentary Support Group, in response to my e-mails, his seemed to be the most promising.

Roberts' reply pointed to his web-site . A search showed that this site included 2 articles about Julian Assange dated 12 August 2022 and dated 21 June 2022. The most recent article had 20 comments in response.

Whilst at first Senator Roberts' staff member welcomed my phone call and expressed compassion and concern for the terrible plight of Julian Assange, he discourteously hung up the phone after 11 minutes.

From what the staff member said, he seemed to be implying that, if my suggested motion to suspend standing orders, in order to allow a motion in support of Julian Assange to be put, was lost, then even just calling for a division of the House was not allowed. I attempted, several times to confirm whether or not that that was the case, but each time got interrupted. He hung up on me after 11 minutes.

In spite of the obfuscation by Roberts' staff member, it seems to me that members and senators are allowed to call for a division should any motion they put, procedural or otherwise, be defeated. That should have been done 12 months ago on 2 December 2021 when Andrew Wilkie's foreshadowed motion was disallowed and it could be done this week in Parliament. Then we would learn the names of those MPs who support free speech in Parliament and the names of those who use their votes to suppress free speech.

It is now unclear to me whether Senator Malcolm Roberts is part of the solution or part of the problem.

admin

Sun, 2022-11-27 23:33

Editor's not: The original tweet, which features Aleksandr with large nazi tattoos all over his body. Presumably, it was deemed by the previous owners of Twitter to have been too embarrassing for the democratic freedom-loving President Zilenskyy and removed.

James Sinnamon

Sun, 2022-11-27 23:17

I Posted the following beneath (25/11/22) | Consortium Newsby Caitlin Johnstone:

Next week, the House of Representatives will be sitting for 4 days and the Senate will be sitting for 5 days.

 

I believe that it is most urgent that every one of us who supports Julian Assange contact those 39 members (or 41 including Anthony Albanese and Barnaby Joyce) of "The Bring Julian Assange Home Parliamentary Support Group" (hxxps://www.assangecampaign.org.au/bring-julian-home-campaign/ - 'htxxs://' because correctly-formated URLs with 'https://' are disallowed there as they are on many sites) and urge them to try, once more, to have a motion, similar to what Andrew Wilkie tried unsuccessfully, 12 months ago on 2 December 2021, put to Parliament. This time, should the necessary procedural motion be defeated, then a division should be called, so, that at least we can find out the names of those MPs and Senators who are both happy to allow the illegal imprisonment and torture of Julian Assange to continue and who are opposed to those who have opinions, which differs from theirs, from being being put to Parliament.

For more information, please see my article “Your Parliament won’t allow 39 members, who support Julian Assange, to speak – Why?” (27/11/22) at hxxps://candobetter.net/james-sinnamon/blog/6511/your-parliament-wont-allow-39-members-who-support-julian-assange-speak-why (this page).

patricia walsh (not verified)

Sun, 2022-11-27 15:48

I demand that my country represents my view and that of the thousands of other Australians who believe that Julian Assange should be home by Christmas, rescued by the Australian government as an Australian citizen being persecuted by an illegal and dangerously threatening process. Anyone standing in the way of such actions is threatening our democracy, Sincerely, Trish Walsh

Andriy Bondar (not verified)

Sun, 2022-11-27 10:56

This is a garbled post riddled with misinformation and errors. I'll outline just a few examples.    You blame John Howard for weakening worker conditions then immediately contradict yourself by saying 2009 is when things got worse:   
Up until 2009 Australian employers had not had much to gain by importing immigrant workers because they had been required to employ them under the same industrial awards as native born workers.
In truth, 2009 is when Federal Labor brought in the Fair Work Act 2009 (Howard lost office in 2007). Contra what you say, most workers traditionally covered by Awards are covered by the Modern Awards established under that FW Act 2009, which remains in force to this day.  Additional worker entitlements are in the body of the FW Act and in associated regulations.  The Modern Awards didn't diminish entitlements (per the Take Home Pay Order provisions). Again, contra what you say, imported workers are covered by the Modern Awards.   You say:
Employees do not have the personal power, time, or specialist education to negotiate their rights workplace by workplace, let alone enforce these severely attenuated rights via the arcane, confusing, expensive processes available under the Fair Work Commission.
Workers mainly go to the Fair Work Commission to dispute a dismissal. The hearings are informal and the default is that neither party has legal representation. I took my own dismissal dispute to the FWC where it was resolved without a hearing, as happens 90% of the time. The process is very simple. Claims for underpayments under Awards and Enterprise Agreements are held in the appropriate federal or state court, not the Fair Work Commission.   You say:
Industry-based awards and bargaining will start to give workers a basis on which to claw back some of the many rights they have lost. 
As already stated, we already have an Award system.  You've also incorrectly used the term "industry-based awards". That term has a particular meaning and doesn't describe all awards as some are occupation based, which you would know if you understood the subject matter you are waxing lyrical about. Whether or not foreign guest workers are allowed in Australia is a separate issue and not dealt with in the Fair Work Act 2009 or its predecessors. As an appropriately monitored guest worker system can help raise poor people in developing countries out of poverty while simultaneously ensuring Australian consumers have affordable fruit/veg and so on, I personally don't have an in-principal objection to it.          

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