Hi Sheila. I think you know perfectly well that Russia uses various tactics to disseminate its propaganda, such as troll factories. The same technique is done for Russian speaking audiences. Fortunately much Kremlin propaganda is clumsy, such as literally hundreds of Russian TikTok influencers using identical scripts as shown here: wwwDOTviceDOTcom/en/article/epxken/russian-tiktok-influencers-paid-propaganda
Comments
Tell us where all this Russian propaganda is, Robert
You say, "Russian propaganda is everywhere," then only mention RT, which, as you say, is no longer available on youtube. In fact, it has been banned and destroyed in the UK, the US, France, Germany and Australia. However, there is actually very little from Russia in Australia or elsewhere in the Anglosphere, so please tell us where you find it. Whilst you may be able to access RT, most people cannot and do not even know it exists. Furthermore, they have no idea whatsoever about the situation from Russia's point of view.
Russia repeatedly denied its intention to invade Ukraine
The title of this comment has been changed from "Why is James So Gullible?". Robert, should you wish to continue making comments here on candobetter.net, I advise you to desist from making ad homonym attacks. I particularly object to ad homonym attacks that can be viewed on our front page, as will occur when the title includes an ad homonym attack. - Ed.
Dear James, I have no interest in doing a "desktop investigation" from the comfort of my computer room on war propaganda produced by Russia. Obviously, any such investigation would be unsatisfactory and inconclusive. I take this item of war propaganda as seriously as I took Russian claims that they weren't about to invade Ukraine, which I presume you gullibly swallowed until the invasion actually transpired. I also don't trust claims made by Ukraine without independent verification from qualified and reliable experts because subterfuge is part of the art of war.
Apart from pushing Russian propaganda and vilifying Ukraine and its people, I see that you are a compulsive liar. To give just one example, you headline this thread with the claim "Victoria Nuland has confirmed that there is an Illegal US bio-weapons program in Ukraine" then quote a rant by Glenn Greenwald that embeds words spoken by Victoria Nuland that sustain the claim. I can only assume you didn't think I'd read it or watch the entire footage of Nuland's response to Rubio for context.
Could you effectively refute Russia's UN bio-weapons claims?
On 6 April 2022, as published in Illegal US bio-weapons programs in Ukraine, Georgia and elsewhere - evidence given at UN Security Council (2/5/22),Russia presented, to the United Nations Security Council, what they considered to be evidence that the US had been operating biological warfare laboratories in both Ukraine and Georgia. At that session Dilyana Gaytandzhieva also made a presentation in support of those allegations.
All present were free to make their own contributions to the debate. A number spoke in support of Russia's allegations, whilst others supported Russia's call for an independent investigation of those allegations.
Only delegates from Ireland, Norway and Albania, allies of the United States attempted to rebut those allegations.'
Perhaps you could tell us, Robert, whether you think those speakers succeeded in in refuting Russia's allegations or. if not, how you might have been more effective?
For their part, neither the US nor the UK attended that session. Do you think they missed an opportunity to further refute the claims made against them or do you think they were afraid to confront their accusers?
Can't have wages going up!!!
According to a letter to the editor of The Age today an article in the same publication of 29/4 entitled " Coles boss calls for more immigration" quoted Coles boss Steven Cain as saying “I would certainly like to see more focus on getting more immigration into the country because, eventually, we’ll see rising wages if there isn’t more supply.”
Someone on another forum aptly commented that the quote was "Worthy of a Ponzi nomination for Rent-Seeker of the Year."
Is your grasp of science sufficient?
Robert Chernenko wrote:
I have absolutely no interest in rebutting what the Bulgarian "journalist" Dilyana Gaytandzhieva, who pushes anti-Western pro-Kremlin lies has to say in a blog. Why would anyone? As Brandolinis Law notes, "the amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude larger than to produce it."
In order to show to me that Dilyana Gaytandzhieva is not as authoritative as I believe her to be then, surely you only need find one specific claim somewhere in one of her articles and produce evidence that refutes that claim. How would require, on your part, more than a small fraction of the effort Dilyana put into writing any one of her articles, let alone an "order of magnitude" more? The fact that you have not shows me that either your grasp of science is insufficient to understand her articles or that you have not been able to find in her articles even one claim that you are able to debunk.
Regarding Vladimir Putin, presumably you preferred Russia the way it was, when it was ruled by Boris Yeltsin. I will deal with your smearing of Vladimir Putin some other time.
On JFK, I am curious to whether or not you believe that Lee Harvey Oswald killed JFK with his 'magic bullet' on 22 November 1963.
Ukraine does not host US Bioweapon labs
A response to this post can be found below - Ed, 4/5/22.
Dear James Sinnamon, did you closely read what Victoria Nuland said in the Glenn Greenwald text you quote? Contra your bizarre headline Nuland doesn't say there is an "illegal US bio-weapons program" in Ukraine. Biolabs are everywhere. Australia has thousands of them. I've worked in crop research biolabs. Obviously many biolabs work on animal, plant and human pathogens that have security protocols that could be disrupted by war, as well as proprietary information. It is clear the Russians don't place a high value on safety. The Russians didn't bother with safety issues when they occupied the damaged Chernobyl plant and subjected the Ukrainian workers and their own soldiers to health risks. Radiation sickness is now a problem for their soldiers. See for instance wwwDOTtheguardianDOTcom/us-news/2022/apr/01/first-thing-russians-flee-chernobyl-with-radiation-sickness-says-ukraine
What I find far more convincing is the dozens of fact checks by groups like NPR that clearly refute and give background on the Russian claim of US bioweapon labs in Ukraine: wwwDOTtheguardianDOTcom/us-news/2022/apr/01/first-thing-russians-flee-chernobyl-with-radiation-sickness-says-ukraine
I have absolutely no interest in rebutting what the Bulgarian "journalist" Dilyana Gaytandzhieva, who pushes anti-Western pro-Kremlin lies has to say in a blog. Why would anyone? As Brandolinis Law notes, "the amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude larger than to produce it."
I note, however, that Gaytandzhieva has been called out by moderate centre left sources like the "The Guardian" for pushing Kremlin narratives.
By the way, do you tweet as @malthusista? Did you seriously write "The last national leader that the US had who measured up to Vladimir Putin's stature was JFK". ??! Vladimir Putin is a violent murderous war-mongering criminal who has nipped Russia's budding democracy in the bud, waged war against his neighbours and killed, poisoned, murdered and chased out of Russia nearly all independent voices, including the press. What is wrong with you? Why does this blog lionise far-right dictators like Putin and fascist politicians like Marine Le Pen?
Russian propaganda is everywhere
James Sinnamon has responded to some of what Robert Cherminko has written below in the article Even Victorian Nuland has confirmed that there is an Illegal US bio-weapons program in Ukraine (30/4/22)- Ed
From what I have seen, you faithfully and uncritically recite Kremlin propaganda and publish obviously false narratives, for instance the false claim that the US was silly enough to have bioweapon labs in (corrupt and unstable) Ukraine, a country always at risk of Russian invasion. On the other hand, you studiously and deliberately ignore the independent Russian journalists who risk being poisoned, jailed, killed and tortured to push back against the Kremlin narrative and tell the truth.
I can't work out what the purpose of this blog is, other than to push the agenda of extreme nationalists and fascists like, Putin and Marine Le Pen, in order to ensure Europe is ripe for World War 3. Strangely, while engaging in rampant war mongering, you claim to want peace. Interestingly, your rhetoric is almost a carbon copy of that used by the Third Reich on the eve of World War 2.
By the way, if I want to know the Russian persective, Russia Today and so on can be accessed in 2 seconds, even though YouTube has (rightfully in my view) given these outlets the flick. Interestingly, Russian state propaganda made for the local consumption is now trying to justify Russian first nuclear strikes against western Europe. Any thoughts on that?
Policy of no URLS
You can post a URL if you give your email address and we make you a contributor, but you don't give your email address. If we allow URLs from quasi-anonymous sources, we will get a ton of spam and have to spend hours a week culling it. It can also provide a way in for hackers. (See https://blog.knowbe4.com/top-12-most-common-rogue-url-tricks) We used to allow URLs and that was our experience. In our most recent update, we were advised to stop allowing them. But I agree with you, it is a pain. We will review the policy. In the meantime, how about just putting 'dot' in instead of .? Or paste the name of an article and the publication, if that is appropriate, then people can look for it on the internet. Given that we have lots of exposure here to US, UK, and other Anglosphere and also French mass media, I doubt you will come up with anything we haven't already heard about, but have a go. :-) We aren't suppressing the western mass media stuff. It floods the world and everything else is hard to find. Candobetter dot net reflects a perspective that is rare as hens' teeth in the Anglosphere.
Masks would be a sensible measure against Covid 19
Nancy Baxter MD PhD,Head of Melbourne School of Population & Global Health said this morning on ABC Radio National that we have now 10 times the number of deaths as we would from flu without Covid 19. She said this could be significantly reduced if people would wear masks in indoor settings. She also mentioned that we are not hearing about the statistics any more (which we are not)
It is totally bizarre and makes a complete mockery of Daniel Andrews' sepulchral tones in his daily medial briefings in the early days of the pandemic, the 5km radius, not being able to have visitors, only allowed out for an hour per day for exercise ……..Melbourne was the most locked down city in the world and now it's "let it rip".
Why not allow URLs? Why
Why not allow URLs? Why suppress links that may not align with your anti-Ukrainian narrative?
Patrick Lancaster, like many
Patrick Lancaster, like many of the cranks you promote on this website, has been exposed as a fraud on numerous occasions. Hardly any western journalists are allowed to report from Russian war zones and those that do are carefully vetted to ensure they stay on message. Nearly independent Russian journalists have bee shot, poisoned, imprisoned or chased out of Russia by Putin's thugs. Yet you don't on that.
Here is one example of Lancaster being exposed wwwDOTyoutubeDOTcom/watch?v=Fiomfv8NWi8
You also showed your hand by siding with the fascist candidate, Marine Le Pen, in the French Presidential election.
I can't fathom what the point of this blog is, other than to engage in rampant war mongering and to promote extreme right wing nationalism and fascism in Europe. Being Ukrainian by descent (but not birth, I'm 2nd generation Australian), I am chilled by the lies you say about my country.
To Robert Chernenko
Try leaving out URLs when you make your answer or substitute the word 'dot' for actual dots in URLs. We do not approach our articles with view to justifying Russia's actions,but we do see this as a NATO conflict, carried out in Ukraine, and we publish what seems logical.
I did attempt to an extensive
I did attempt to an extensive rebuttal of your faithful recitation of Kremlin propaganda but your auto mod settings were twice tripped. Oh well.
Stella Moris: Act now to prevent Julian Assange's kidnapping
Stella Moris, to whom Julian Assange was recently married, appeals for action to prevent the extradition of Julian Assange to the United States. She argues that documents from the US government have revealed that it reserves the right to inflict upon Julian Assange the very treatment that a UK court had previously ruled would cause Julian Assange's death. She concludes by calls upon the US government to drop the case against Julian Assange as has been demanded by every free speech and free press organisation.
I spoke to @StellaMoris1, Julian's wife about a court decision clearing the way for his extradition to the US. It now goes to the UK Home Secretary for a final sign off and even though Assange will be able to appeal that decision, hope is running out pic.twitter.com/M2SO5hg440
— Ayman (@AymanM) April 23, 2022
Pakistan: huge demonstrations against coup & for Imran continue
Huge demos in Lahore, Peshawar and Karachi against the coup in Pakistan. Massive support for Imran Khan and anger against the corrupt political mafias and generals that unseated him with US support. Khan is a radical new voice of the people pursuing an independent foreign policy. pic.twitter.com/sifKdGy5FX
— Martin Jacques (@martjacques) April 23, 2022
U.S. credibility
How does the US have so much credibility for the average person - or seems to? How do they achieve this plausibility? Obviously the media is a big thing but is it to do with their "costumes" which are the same as ours and the Russians for that matter but different from the Afghans and the Iraqis. It's possibly part of it, anyway. They don't wear "silly clothes". Or is it partly that we are so accustomed to their accent via the movies which we have been exposed to since childhood? The interviewees describe what has been happening very well - that it has morphed into a monster over the last few decades. Maybe, the problem is - that they were our friends, our saviours , our heroes (sort of) 50 - 80 years ago and it's hard to believe that this can happen. It's like finding out that your father who used to bring home presents for you like plastic sandals and white rabbits is a murderer!
2 MPs who try to beat politico-moral inertia on Julian Assange
60 Minutes: Senator Wilkie says Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese both need to ask US to let Assange go (9 April 2022)
Andrew Wilkie interviewed by 60 Minutes, says Scott Morrison should ask Biden to free Julian, and so should Anthony Albanese, especially in view of our new close relationship to the US. Full @60Mins Report: https://t.co/VWMMfa2HhH https://t.co/B1laR7RhUX
https://www.facebook.com/tara.cummins.7712/videos/400611008153432/
Irish Senator Paul Gavin lambasts UK Gov for cowardly 'no comment' on Julian Assange plight
Senator Gavan points out the appalling hypocrisy of the British Government, in its treatment of the human rights of a man who exposed more war crimes than any other individual." This took place in October 2021 at the eanad Éireann debate -Tuesday, 19 Oct 2021, Vol. 279 No. 7
https://www.facebook.com/tara.cummins.7712/videos/4573581339413692
DEPUTY FRANKIE FEIGAN: "The Minister [Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Defence, Deputy Coveney] considers this to be a legal matter within the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom that appears to be subject to ongoing legal proceedings. The question of the next steps for Mr. Assange rests with the UK judicial authorities. As legal proceedings are under way on this matter in another jurisdiction, the Minister does not intend to comment on this case."
SENATOR PAUL GAVAN: "It is so disappointing. We have a seat on the UN Security Council yet the Minister of State says the Government will not comment on perhaps the biggest human rights case facing the western world. What a contrast with the situation in Belarus. That is a situation involving a legal case.
That is a legal matter and the Government has no problem commenting on it. It has no problem commenting on legal proceedings in Russia but it will not offer a word of condemnation or stand for human rights when it comes to a man who has done more to expose war crimes than any other individual in my lifetime. The Minister of State is here to say there is nothing to see here and he will not comment.
Where are the values of this Government? How can this be acceptable in the face of the horrendous plight of Mr. Julian Assange? We all know why this is happening. The US wants to send a message to the world that if anybody tells the world what it does, this is the treatment that will be meted out. This is the punishment that will be received. We can see that happening to Julian but the Minister of State is here saying he has no comment. It is appalling."
Sergei Lavrov confronts allegations against Russia over Ukraine
Robert,
The only death sqauds in Ukraine are those fighting on behalf of the Kiev regime which was imposed upon Ukraine by the Maidan coup of February 2014. Those death squads are comprised of neo-nazis who openly worship Stepan Bandera, the infamous Ukrainian who collaborated with the occupying Nazi Germans in the Second World War against Jews, Poles, Russians and other ethnic minorities within Ukraine. According to Wikipedia, between 1.2 million and 1.6 million were murdered by those collaborators over that period of time. The most notorious incident was at Babi Yar from 29 September until 30 September 1941.
Given that a number of political opponents of President Zelensky have been murdered by his death sqauds and that all independent TV channels have been closed and given the proliferation of US-operated bio-warfare laboratories on Ukrainian soil, what sane and decent Ukrainian would not see the Russian military operation as, at worst, an evil far less than the continued rule of Zelensky?. (Incidentally, Zelensky, just like the former president Poroshenko before him in 2014, stood as the peace candidate in the 2019 elections and won an overwhelming 70% of the vote.)
Most, if not all, of the accusations made by the corporate newsmedia against Russia arising from its Special Military Operation in Ukraine, launched on 24 February, were put to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in a recent 56 minute interview by Geeta Mohan, Foreign Affairs Editor of India Today. I think you will find that all of those accusations were rebutted.
The Interview was originally posted to YouTube, but is now on Facebook. I have embedded that interview here:
You should also consider watching United Nations Security Council debates on Ukraine. One debate occurred two weeks ago and lasted almost 4 hours. Whilst Russian and its supporters are in a minority on the Security Council, I have, nevertheless, found that Vasily Nebenzya, the Russian representative representative was able to rebut accusations from the US, the UK and other allies on the Security Council.
What is your plan for getting
What is your plan for getting the Russian death squads out of Ukraine? If Ukraine falls, will Moldova be next? Are the Baltic States safe?
Amazing unison of voices
Given the volume of the crowd and therefore the distances involved , those voices are remarkably in unison, almost as one voice.
Demand the illegitimate parliament face Pakistan's voters now
In the face of popular protests in support of Imran Khan, the illegitimate majority that now controls Pakistan's parliament installed Shehbaz Sharif as Prime Minister of Pakistan on Sunday 11 April. Shehbez Sharif and his parliamentary supporters are probably counting on being able to continue to defy the popular resistance to their rule and not be held to account for their treason for until October 2023, 18 months from now, when the next general elections are scheduled to be held.
Given the overwhelming support enjoyed by Imran Khan from the people of Pakistan, it may prove impossible for that parliament to continue to cling on to power for anything like that length of time.
@ImranKhanPTI As the legitimate Prime Minister of Pakistan, you should demand at forthcoming protests that the turncoat MPs who committed treason on behalf of the US be held to account to voters at an election now & not be permitted to wait until Oct 2023 https://t.co/HjpSBB9dIn https://t.co/3EXzh6xxvN
— Malthusista (@malthusista) April 12, 2022
Julian Assange interviews Imran Khan prior to him becoming PM
Mass protests in Pakistan right now following ouster of @ImranKhanPTI.
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) April 10, 2022
WATCH: Julian #Assange interview with #ImranKhan about the WikiLeaks cables and what they reveal about #Pakistan. (The World Tomorrow, 2012)https://t.co/XtXjiKOStJ
Imran Khan thanks Pakistainis who protested US-sponsored coup
Thank you to all Pakistanis for their amazing outpouring of support & emotions to protest against US-backed regime change abetted by local Mir Jafars to bring into power a coterie of pliable crooks all out on bail. Shows Pakistanis at home & abroad have emphatically rejected this
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) April 10, 2022
Never have such crowds come out so spontaneously and in such numbers in our history, rejecting the imported govt led by crooks. pic.twitter.com/YWrvD1u8MM
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) April 10, 2022
Imran Khan must continue to show resolve and skill to prevail
Thank you , Sheila.
Whilst Imran Khan has shown enormous courage and skill in standing up to the United States, he must continue to do so in order to overcome the US's parliamentary accomplices, who now form the majority of Pakistan's parliament.
That illegitimate majority is now trying to prevent the occurrence of the general election that Prime Minister Imran Khan ordered on 4 April. Were that election to occur, few of those now in control of Pakistan's parliament would remain in office.
At around midnight, Queensland time, tomorrow night, that is Saturday 9 April and not Friday 8 April as I had previously erroneously posted, Imran Khan will be addressing the Pakistani people about the current political crisis. Hopefully, we will be able to get both the video and transcript of that address and then be able to republish it here, on candobetter.
Impressive Imran Khan standing up to USA
I think that Khan has documented the United States' interference in his country's democracy in a way that cannot be denied. Of course the US-NATO serving corporate press will contrive in some way to make it all seem Khan's fault. I hope it does not get to the point where he is designated with the 'mad dictator' title that generally precedes an aggressive regime change, and possibly invasion. The US seems to be restlessly looking for more ways to extend its political territory and trade wars. I guess the divisions between Pakistan and India may stop India from backing up Imran Khan in such a situation, but it would be good if they did not. I have been very impressed with Khan's performance to date. I think he is good for Pakistan.
Imran Khan to address Pakistan tonight about attempted coup
Correection: i first erroneously wrote that the address was to occur at around midnight on Friday (Qld time, UTC+10), when, in fact, it was to occur around midnight on Saturday.
I have called a cabinet mtg tomorrow as well as our parl party mtg; & tomorrow evening I will address the nation. My message to our nation is I have always & will continue to fight for Pak till the last ball.
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) April 7, 2022
As Pakistan is 5 hours ahead of GMT, 'tonight' (presumably around 7pm in Islamabad) would be around midnight in Queensland, Australia, which is 10 hours ahead of GMT. Hopefully, there will be a video recording and a transcript of the address made available.
Debate on alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine
A debate on claims that Russian soldiers murdered hundreds of Ukrainian civilians can be found on Iran's PressTV at War Crimes Accusations in Ukraine (6/4/2/22). Unfortunately, I was unable to embed that video here, so visitors will have to follow the link in order to view the debate.
In that debate, Ian Williams, who professes to have been opposed to the numerous past wars by the United States, nevertheless argues, that the US is right to oppose what he claims is Russian aggression against Ukraine.
Tony Gosling argued that, given that Ukrainian President Zelensky has allowed the United States' effective control of Ukraine to continue, thereby threatening the very existence of Russia, Russia was left with no choice but to launch its Special Military Operation against his regime on 4 February.
Zelensky's continuation of the war against the Russian speakers in the Donbass and his efforts to make Ukraine even more closely aligned with the US through NATO membership were contrary to his 2019 presidential election promise to bring peace to Ukraine.
The previous Ukrainian President Poroshenko also promised, in his 2014 election campaign, to bring peace to Ukraine, but, instead, continued with the war against the Donbass and also became a puppet of the US.
In my opinion, Tony Gosling convincingly won the debate.
The mp4 file can be found at https://preview.presstv.ir/ptv///program/20220406/Spotlight06042022.mp4.
Another troll post
This post has been moved to our Troll 'contributions' to candobetter page. - Ed, 7 Apr 2022
Bucha massacre claim an outright fake - former Indian ambassador
From The Bucha Provocation(4/4/2022) | Moon of Alabama :
The former Indian ambassador M.K. Bhadrakumar calls it an outright fake:
An indignant Moscow has angrily demanded a United Nations Security Council meeting on Monday over the allegations of atrocities by Russian troops in areas around Kiev through the past month. Prima facie, this allegation is fake news but it can mould misperceptions by the time it gets exposed as disinformation.
A Tass report says: “The Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday that the Russian Armed Forces had left Bucha, located in the Kiev region, on March 30, while “the evidence of crimes” emerged only four days later, after Ukrainian Security Service officers had arrived in the town. The ministry stressed that on March 31, the town’s Mayor Anatoly Fedoruk had confirmed in a video address that there were no Russian troops in Bucha. However, he did not say a word about civilians shot dead on the street with their hands tied behind their backs.”
Even more surprising is that within minutes of the “breaking news”, western leaders — heads of state, foreign ministers, former politicians — popped up with statements duly kept ready and only based on the videos, seconds-long videos and a clutch of photos, ready to pour accusations. No expert opinion was sought, no forensic work was done, no opportunity given to the accused to be heard.
Troll post
This post has been moved to our Troll 'contributions' to candobetter page. - Ed, 7/4/22
Pro-Russian German car protest - not on script either
Not everyone on script in Germany either. People are seeing through the propaganda.
An apologist for the US and its neo-nazi footsoldiers?
Steve M,
I am still waiting for your response to my comment Russia or the United States - which is the aggressor? of Wednesday 30 March - more than 6 days ago.
Whilst you have at least posted a response to the above Video testimony by a Ukrainian woman against her US puppet ruler President Volodymyr Zelensky, there is little more substance.
You claim to not be 'pro-war' whilst repeating the lies of the same corporate newsmdedia that lied to us about "Weapons of mass destruction", Libya, Syria, the Vietnam war, the Korean war, etc., etc.
One 'argument' you have presented is:
NATO poses no threat to Putin's Russia because Russia has nuclear weapons.
The Russia/Ukraine border, is at one point, less less than 400 kilometres from Moscow. How would US nuclear-armed missiles based on Ukraine, as little as 400 kilometres from Moscow and other large Russian cities not be a threat to Russia?
Back in October 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, US President John F. Kennedy conceded that Russian President Kikita Khruschev was right to be alarmed that US nuclear-armed missiles were based in Turkey. In return for the Soviet Union removing its nuclear-armed missiles from Cuba, JFK quietly removed the missiles from Turkey.
How is it any less reasonable for Vladimir Putin to feel no less threatened by US nuclear-armed missiles placed that much closer to Moscow?
Clearly, given the United States' record, since 1945, for waging bloody wars against so much of humanity, again, as I explained here, how could all Russians, including Vladimir Putin, not be terrified at the prospect of Ukraine being covered with US missile launchers, military airfields, naval bases and bio-weapons facilities?
Whilst I would feel somewhat mystified as to why Russia would need to buy weapons from France, I fail to see how this is relevant.
You wrote:
… tell your friend Mr. Putin to stop murdering, torturing and raping Ukrainians.
Time and time again, Russia has refuted claims that it has deliberately killed Ukrainian civilians. In fact, the Ukrainian neo-nazis forces have again and again fired at Russian forces from behind human shields. They use human shields precisely because they realise that the Russian army tries very hard to avoid killing civilians.
The Russian Army even tries hard not to kill regular Ukrainian soldiers (as opposed to neo-nazis including those in the Azov Battalion). When they launched the Special Military Operation on 24 February they did not launch missiles at any of Ukrainian army barracks in which tens of thousands would have been asleep.
If you still insist that the Russian Army is committing atrocities against Ukrainian civilians, please feel welcome to show us what you consider to be evidence of Russian atrocities and, perhaps, we can proceed from there.
Steve/Stoll fails to counter logical argument, resorts to abuse
So, Steve or Mr Stoll, I gave you a chance, but your response is just abuse. I assume that is because you do not know what you are talking about. If you are not a troll, I can only suppose that mass-media brainwashing has disabled your ability to think logically, and that cognitive dissonance has overwhelmed you emotionally. You have my sympathy.
Vile lies
Once again the candobetter war criminals dissemiate Russian lies to justify the orgy of murder torture abductions and rape carried out in an illegal war on behalf of the deranged dictator , Vladimir Putin.
Response to Steve: Ukraine could assist US-NATO attack on Russia
Okay, I will take you on your word and see what happens. Is this what you mean by your argument? "NATO poses no threat to Putin's Russia because Russia has nuclear weapons. Until relatively recently, NATO countries like France were even selling weapons to Putin."
Zelensky was talking about stocking up on nuclear weapons, and that seemed to be the immediate provocation for Russia's special operation (invasion). Russia would not be able to intercept medium range nuclear weapons targeted against it, because the distance between Russia and Ukraine is too short. If Ukraine were to deploy such medium range nuclear weapons, that would also give the United States a chance at a first strike on Russia. So Russia had no defence except to invade Ukraine and destroy all of Ukraine's military arsenals and infrastructure, which is what President Putin announced was intended by Russia's Special Operation.
The threat to Russia from Ukraine has been political and economic, with a US coup against a pro-Russia government, accompanied by US backing of civil war against the pro-Russian populations of Donbass. The US has been pumping weapons into Ukraine and helping train its militia. Until the US coup removed the pro-Russian president, there was not much trouble in that region. Ongoing for years have been the United States attempts to prevent Russia from supplying gas to Europe via Nordstream 2. The United States finally succeeded in getting Germany to suspend its agreement with Russia for the pipeline (which Germany had originally asked to be built) when it drew the whole of the EU into war against Russia. That is largely what the war is about. It is a trade and currency war (since USD petrol currency is crucial for US international dominance).
Obviously a lot of other trade considerations are affected, but I won't complicate my answer with those. Except to say that US-NATO's efforts to destroy the Russian economy seem more likely to destroy US-NATO allies' economies. Somehow US-NATO forgot about China, India, etc, plus all the other countries that have suffered through US-NATO invasions and economic interference.
As for France and other NATO countries selling weapons to Russia, it defies common sense and safety, but it probably doesn't defy commercial sense.
Vile Putinista Propaganda
I have presented an argument. Meanwhile you recycle the lies generated by the bloodthirsty Chinese and Russian propaganda organs. Utterly shameful.
Editor's comment: The 'argument' that Steve M presented is all of two sentences, consisting of 27 words. Here it is, again:
That was an on-script Russian troll delivering one of the most wooden performances I have ever seen. Does anyone on this site have even half a brain?
I think its time that Steve M applied his talents elsewhere.
Response to Steve/Mr Stoll
Steve M. /Mr Stoll,
The fact that you only repeat slogans, use intemperate language, and never give any evidence or argument, makes your assertions impossible to take seriously. They are just examples of how someone can be emotionally swayed by one version of events to get angry at another version. Then again, trolls use the same technique: repetition and insults. Here, we use argument.
Troll post
This post has been moved to Troll Posts - Ed, 7/4/22
Chinese Lies
Why on earth would you recycle crude Chinese propaganda like this? In another post you uncritically reproduce Russian Ministry Of Defence lies. Just how low can you go? Does your war mongering have no limits?
Russian troll no. 2
I'm not called Mr Stoll in any other forum nor do I somehow as a private citizen represent NATO. Both these claims are deranged. I am also not pro-war. I want Putin and his murderous thugs out of Ukraine. NATO poses no threat to Putin's Russia because Russia has nuclear weapons. Until relatively recently, NATO countries like France were even selling weapons to Putin. Stop your warmongering and tell your friend Mr. Putin to stop murdering, torturing and raping Ukrainians
US-NATO troll callling me a Russian Troll
Dear Mr Stoll (for that is the name you go by in another forum).
Your comments are instructive in the art of pro-war trolling, providing, as they do, a classic example of war-propaganda. They aim to stigmatise me and my work and cause others to avoid association with me, not through reason, but purely via abuse. Given that I am only a tiny player on the internet sphere, I take this as an indication of the overkill that US-NATO feels it needs to engage in so as to combat any opinions contrary to its propaganda, even when it has managed to censor most branded and government news and analysis sites, so as to prevent Australians from hearing anything from the other side in the Ukraine war, for fear that people then might call a halt to the continuous US-NATO hostile intervention along Russia's borders.
Russian troll
That was an on-script Russian troll delivering one of the most wooden performances I have ever seen. Does anyone on this site have even half a brain?
Russia or the United States - which is the aggressor?
Steve M,
You aware of how many people the United States has killed just since 1990, let alone since 1945, aren't you?
Many hundreds of thousands, possibly over one million Iraq alone. Hundreds of thousands killed in Syria and Yemen. At least many tens of thousands killed in each of Libya, Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Somalia. The numbers of dead in each one of these conflicts is at least one order of magnitude larger than the 1,151 civilians that may have been killed in Russia's Special Military Operation against the United States' puppet Ukrainian regime of Volodymyr Zelensky which was launched on 24 February.
And what about the many millions killed by the United States in each of the Korean and Vietnam wars?
And yet, the government of Ukraine, supposedly representing the will of all Ukrainians, wanted to form a military alliance with such a country through NATO!
How could Russia not have seen this as a threat to its own existence?
I consider the omission of the above context in our 'news' media narrative about the Ukraine-Russia conflict to be censorship. Don't you?
And what about the removal of Oliver Stone's "Ukraine on Fire" from YouTube?
The war in Ukraine, in fact started in November 2013, when the United States paid Ukrainian vassals from US Secretary of State Victoria Nuland's $7 billion war chest to stage violent protests against the democratically elected government of President Victor Yanukovych. After Yanukovych was forced to flee for his life, Russian speakers in Crimea, without firing a shot, voted overwhelmingly in a referendum to secede from Ukraine and rejoin Russia.
Ukrainians in the eastern Russian-speaking provinces of Lugansk and Donetsk peacefully protested against the regime and were met with tanks and bullets. They organised self-defence forces to resist the new regime. The conflict in that region has cost over 14,000 lives so far. Much housing and infrastructure of those regions has been destroyed by the Ukrainian regime's neo-nazi Azov battalion footsoldiers.
Even according to Wikipedia the civilian death toll since 24 February, presumably not including from Lugansk and Donetsk and Lugansk, is 1,151 civilian deaths and 1,824 wounded confirmed.
The number of civilians killed in each conflict started by the US well exceeds what Russia is alleged to have killed in Ukraine so far. In each of those many conflicts initiated by the US, the numbers killed by the US exceeds the numbers killed by Russia since 24 February by at least an order of magnitude.
None of this is mentioned in any of Australia's government and commercial 'news' reports on Ukraine. How is this not censorship?
How about properly informing yourself about the facts of the Russia/Ukraine conflict before you make further posts to candobetter?
And why do you consider it necessary to smear the editor of candobetter?
Here's the ABC report on censoring of Russian volunteer by 3ZZZ
Here's the ABC report. It contains no critical analysis, no horror at the formal censorship of the other side.
(https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-29/ukraine-russia-war-live-blog-vladimir-putin-volodymyr-zelenskyy/100945928#):
Melbourne community radio station suspends volunteer presenter over offensive content
Melbourne ethnic community radio station 3ZZZ has suspended one of its Russian broadcasters after complaints were made about offensive content.
In a statement released last night, the station said a complaint had been made that the presenter was broadcasting offensive material related to the Ukraine conflict.
The volunteer presenter has been stood down.
3ZZZ said it met with the broadcaster to emphasise the seriousness of the matter and request a formal response.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority is also investigating the program, which is accused of broadcasting pro-Kremlin content.
3ZZZ broadcasts programs in more than 60 languages and claims to have more than 400,000 listeners.
And here is a link to The Guardian on the same subject: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/mar/29/melbourne-radio-station-3zzz-suspends-russian-language-broadcaster-over-ukraine-war-reports
Triple Z volunteer stood down
Heard on the ABC (RN) this morning that Community radio 3 (I think) ZZZ has stood down a Russian speaking volunteer for imparting disinformation and propaganda on that station. Subsequent Internet searching has yielded nothing
Vile Putinista Propaganda
This is one of the creepiest and most dishonest websites on the internet and the video posted here is crude propaganda that is reminiscent of the Third Reich's justification for invading Sudetenland .
I'm amused by Newman's incessant whining about censorship given her lies are all over the internet and the thug she supports, Vladimir Putin, detains people for merely holding up a blank sheet of paper, has poisoned multiple opposition figures, routinely locks up political prisoners and ethnic undesirables (Crimean Tatars etc) and has elevated to hero status the Nazi philosopher Ivan Ilyin, even having his remains brought to Russia from Switzerland and commemorated.
Twitter 'informs' us that RT is 'Russia state-affiliated media'
In fact, the example below, relates to a Chinese government official, Zhang Meifang who has been labeled a '"China Government Official' by Twitter. Twitter has apparently presumed that many of its users are too stupid to be able to work out for themselves that Zhang Meifang is an official of the Chinese Government.
RT and RT video programs like CrossTalk, Going Underground and Worlds Apart were funded by the Russian government. Newsmedia funded by the British State such as the BBC is not similarly labeled, nor is the US government funded National Public Radio (NPR) labeled thus.
A more likely motive for tweets from those working for Russian or Chinese government media organisations being so labeled is to imply that that those making those tweets must be doing so for nefarious purposes and that those who follow those accounts and even retweet those tweets, knowing that they are produced by people working for those overseas governments, must also be doing so for nefarious purposes.
In my experience, Tweets labeled "Russia state-affiliated media" & "China government Official" r quite informative & insightful. Had there been more such tweets back in 2011, the destruction of Libya & hundreds of thousands of #Syria|n, Iraqi & Yemeni lives might have been saved https://t.co/7RemKITrZu
— Malthusista (@malthusista) March 20, 2022
Property Prices And Money Policy Point To New Crisis
In 1881, two years after his book Progress And Poverty was published, American theorist Henry George said at a meeting (paraphrasing): Speculation is surely a part of the equation as to why real estate prices rise (say thanks to those who build properties in places like New York to house immigrants until they could save enough to purchase their own homes). However, he believed, the rises should be a reflection of productivity.
Prior to the mid-1980s from America to Australia, what Henry George asserted a century earlier held true. However, over the past 20 years, particularly so in the last decade, the speculative attribute has become the foremost aspect of the equation that has forced real estate prices to rise. But what is most intriguing, and demonstrable since 2010, is that it sits on the timeline when wage increases have flattened.
Astonishingly, real estate prices have risen about 22% from October 2020, through to January 2022, when the country was locked-down with corona virus. This big increase took place when productivity was sluggish due to the lock downs. This has been exacerbated with people being able to borrow money at low rates of interest. The fusion of these elements has culminated with people borrowing staggering amounts of capital to buy properties. With the result being that Australia has become a massive Ponzi-scheme!
On February 7, economic writer Alan Kohler, wrote on the insanity of real estate: ‘Australia is an over-borrowed building society’. Kohler tells us about the rise and demise of the Pyramid Building Society. You can gain the whole picture of this tale by googling up Pyramid’s profile. However, although Pyramid was established in 1959, it was not until 1983, when its board ramped up borrowing more capital. But when real estate prices declined, it was left holding under priced assets and went broke on July 1 1990. The uncomplicated reason for its demise was because it had borrowed way too much capital. Thus, when the music stopped it couldn’t find a chair and went bust.
Kohler writes: “Oh dear, that’s what Australia is now: A permanent building society that has borrowed too much for expensive properties (and) is now facing higher interest rates.”
Kohler also gave his opinion of what the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, Phillip Lowe, said at the Press Club meeting on the economy (February 5):
“In my brief spot on 7.30 that night, I called it an extended shrug of his shoulders to the threat that rising interest rates will bring to bear upon borrowers already hocked to their eyeballs in debt.”
Essentially, what Kohler’s suggesting that Lowe and the RBA’s board, neither knows what is going to happen or, more to the point, as to exactly what they are going to do about this conundrum facing them: a), whether to raise interest rates to curb inflation ; or b) to sit tight with the 0.01% rate; because of the disaster that it would ensue for mortgagees having to find at least $400 per month more to service their loans. Obviously, the latter scenario would spawn a dire scenario that would seriously afflict the ability of low-income earners to meet their increases in mortgage commitments.
Kohler gives us data on the household debt to disposable income ratios of 1989 and 2022, informing us that it has:
“tripled from 0.6 to 1.8 times”.
Of course, circumstances are much different now in 2022, than what they were in 1989. For instance, official interest rates back then were 18%, as opposed to the low 0.01% currently in place. However, when interest rates inevitably have to rise and, for argument’s sake, they get to just 1.5%, it means the minimum amount of money needed to cover an increase in mortgage repayments will be around a minimum of $400 per month.
But, providentially (sic), for at least for the next two months, the war in the Ukraine has presented Phil Lowe and the RBA with an excuse to hold off on raising interest rates. Alas, after that time, Lowe and the RBA won’t be able to continue dilly dallying around with indecision on raising rates.
But inevitably, whether it is Phil Lowe of the RBA or Jerome Powell of the US Federal Reserve or the Bank of England etc, etc, the confluences of the war in the Ukraine and inflation will soon bear upon the big picture and force central banks to bite the bullet. Which means they will have to raise interest rates and, quite likely, it could also see the reemergence of stagflation once again - to further complicate an already complex scenario.
Are we witnessing the collapse of globalism?
Gross censorship on The Conversation about Ukraine war
The Conversation has, on two occasions, censored a comment I wrote linking to Jimmy Dore's video. The latest article was https://theconversation.com/why-russian-attacks-on-innocent-ukrainian-citizens-will-probably-intensify-178621.The comment was sober and non-inflammatory, in fact based on the introduction to the above article. I can only suppose that putting a link in that would lead the public to records of high profile speakers, going back as far as 2014, talking about US-NATO in Ukraine was more truth than The Conversation could bear. Nonetheless it is terribly disappointing to have such direct proof that they will allow people to argue around these points but will absolutely refuse real information to Australians about the Ukraine war. It is really sickening to read the emotive, biased articles on the Conversation on the subject of the Ukraine war, focusing on the suffering of the Ukraine people, yet to have the Conversation, in reality, protect the aggressors.
Big Business at work for Big Australia
Jennifer Westacott is the chief-officer of the Business Council of Australia [BCA] and she is regularly solicited for media commentary in print and electronic media channels. The reoccurring message she parlays on behalf of BCA, is pressuring governments to ramp-up immigration intakes as the means to power the economy.
On February 18, Westacott wrote an opinion-piece in the Financial Review: "Migrants, more women more productivity."
In The Australian of 18/2/22 she gets a mention in the article: "Bosses want budget boost for migrant workers catch-up."
Westacott pressed a case for the Federal government to increase the permanent migrant intake to about 220,000 per year in the next two years, up from the 160,000 before the borders were closed, in order to catch up on lost numbers. However, to be able to catch up on the lost numbers in the next two years would, of course, require having to double the number of permanent migrants arriving to about 320,000.
A mere two weeks after Dominic Perrottet ascended to the premiership of NSW in mid-October 2021, this boof-headed, economic-rationalist was duly championing a like-minded scheme. Still, he went way further than Westacott by advocating for the numbers to be raised to 400,000 and continuing until 2027!!!
But if the permanent number of immigrants were to become 220,000 per year, it actually means the number of immigrants entering the country in a year will be in the vicinity of 500,000. This is so, because the permanent component of the gross figure of immigrants arriving into Australia in the previous decade, averaged about 40% per year. The other 60% are classified as temporary-migrants, with the largest contingent of them from 2014 being international students. Yet, after completing their courses, around 65% of international students remain in the country for at least 2 years, and up to 6 years working in some capacity. The rest of the temporary migrant categories can be anything from IT workers, backpackers to seasonal-agricultural workers.
With respect to agricultural workers, there is a clause in this visa-type which stipulates that if they worked diligently harvesting crops for at least 3 months, then they would have their 12-month visa extended by that period.
According to an immigration lawyer I know well, this clause in working visa-types has been ruthlessly exploited for years:
He told me in February 2016, a firm he was working with sent him to Mildura to speak with a group of Asian workers undertaking agricultural chores, and who wanted to utilise working 3 month to transition to another visa, which permitted them to stay longer and work in urban areas.
He said on attending a shed on a property he encountered four other lawyers from other firms doing the same thing. There were over a hundred potential customers. The other striking matter is they were all women aged between 25-35.
Most were from Vietnam, and were intending to work in nail/manicure businesses, and their agricultural visas were only a means to allow them to transition to work elsewhere.
Corruption and manipulations rule – all for Big Business!
Plague immigration reduces your political representation and smo
For immigrationists, the vilifying "racism" insult is just a figure of speech, or a rhetorical weapon for slandering and defaming nationalistic Aussies. It's not something believable that has any real moral significance. This is how mass immigration works: When Aussies refuse poverty wages, employers can undercut them by paying immigrants poverty wages. And the immigrationist politicians justify this by slandering Australian workers if they murmur about this. I try to understand the obsession of those weird people afflicted with craving for more population growth. It is the pathological obsession of this age, and it has infected the debate about population and the economy.
Reserve Bank killed my sister
The Reserve Bank killed my sister. She died last week of loneliness and dementia in a Christian aged care home at Mentone.
Zero interest rates have boosted the price of my sister's house by an astounding 20% a year. But of course, her house had to be sold to pay the very large bond demanded by the aged care home three years ago.
Reserve Bank dogma and zero interest rates have been great for real estate speculators. Wonderful for the stockbrokers along Pitt Street and Collins Street. The Bank cares about climate change and ethnic diversity and gender fluidity.
But the Reserve Bank couldn't care less about the thousands of senior Australians in aged care, all who have paid millions in aged care deposits, with all those deposits getting zero interest in bank term deposits. Refundable deposits are the foundation financial structure of the aged care industry.
A modest interest rate of 3% on my sister's $450,000 deposit would have created an extra $13,500 for the nursing home. Not much. But enough for some extra nursing shifts, some better food from the kitchen, and an occasional bunch of fresh flowers.
David Z Hughes
News from correspondent in Pakenham area
Our correspondent from Pakenham recommends reading a recent publication "Future of the Fringe" by Michael Buxton in partnership with Andrew Butt, Michael Buxton. Prof. Buxton has worked with the Green Wedge Coalition
and also lodged a recent submission to the Victorian Parliament strongly advocating preservation of Green Wedges.
Our correspondence t also notes the following:
The Victorian State government has put in place in the Pakenham district a change in who now conducts the railway management, general structure and current works. They appear to be separately managed now rather than under government control.
Our correspondent draws our attention the area on a map of Pakenham East and the western boundary of Ryan Road,
"the northern boundary of Princes Highway with extensions developed, and southward toward a freeway parallel with the country rural rail line to Nar Nar Goon (until now!) A new suburb is obviously being planned (Pakenham East) which is expected to provide for over 7,100 dwellings supporting between 20,000 and 22,000 residents.)
Julian Assange nominated for Nobel Peace Prize
Julian Assange has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his fight for human rights, democracy and press freedom, it was confirmed today.
German MEP Martin Sonnenborn responded to an appeal by Mr Assange’s partner Stella Moris ahead of today’s deadline for nominations.
“Julian Assange has made unique and undeniable contributions to peace by lifting the fog of war,” Ms Moris said urging support for the journalist who remains locked up in Belmarsh high-security prison. " Source and headline image Morning Star
Kharkov residents don't wish to fight their Russian brothers
? Ukrainian civilians in Kharkov, 2nd largest city in Ukraine when asked about taking arms against Russia: “No. I wouldn’t. None of the people I know would. No one of the civilian population of Ukraine would fight with the Russian brothers.”
— ASB News / MILITARY〽️ (@ASBMilitary) January 28, 2022
pic.twitter.com/lRwWhBBWGa
JFK unjustly blamed for the Bay of Pigs invasion, AGAIN
Of United States' President John F. Kennedy (JFK), in his otherwise informative Why does the US Need Wars and Armed Conflicts? | New Eastern Outlook (12/1/22), Vladimir Danilov lists the Bay of Pigs invasion, which lasted from the 17th until the 20th of April 1961, just three months after President JFK's inauguration, as yet another of many examples of the United States meddling in the affairs of other nations:
… the Bay of Pigs Invasion, was a disastrous operation in 1961, which John F. Kennedy gave an order to initiate.
In fact, President John F. Kennedy inherited the Bay of Pigs invasion plan from the previous administration of President Eisenhower. Whilst he was clearly well informed about other geo-political conflicts including the struggles for independence in Algeria, Congo and Vietnam, JFK was not so well-informed about Cuba.
To get his approval for the Bay of Pigs invasion to succeed, the CIA convinced JFK that the communist Cuban governemnt of Fidel Castro was deeply unpopular and once the Cuban contras had landed on Cuban soil, the whole population of Cuba would rise up in support of those contras.
That did not happen. Once the invasion commenced, the population of Cuba rallied behind Fidel Castro's government. In bloody fighting, the Cuban armed forces, supported by the national militia, were able to drive the contras back to the beach.
At this point the commanders of the US Air Force and US Navy appealed to President Kennedy to allow them to give military support to the contras to prevent the defeat of the invasion.
When he received this request, President Kennedy realised that they had claimed that Castro's government was unpopular, the CIA had lied to him. He refused to allow the US Navy and the US Air Force to bombard the Cuban armed forces in support of the invading contras. As a consequence, the contras were quickly defeated and the survivors captured.
JFK vowed "to splinter the CIA in a thousand pieces and scatter it to the winds" for their deception. Unfortunately, with all of the other challenges he faced as President, he was not able to achieve that. The CIA then succeeded in first finishing off JFK in Dealy Plaza, Houston, Texas on 22 November 1963.
Had Kennedy lived, there is a good chance that he would have been able to fulfill his plans to disband the CIA and thence to dismantle the United States military-industrial complex against which his predecessor President Eisenhower had warned. The Vietnam war would have ended and a long series of bloody wars in the Middle East and Africa as well as a number of bloody CIA-sponsored military coups in Latin America, as well as Indonesia, could have been prevented.
Steps to not only limit nuclear weapons, but to remove them altogether from the world's military arsenals would have commenced.
President John F Kennedy's legacy stands in stark contrast to that of his successors right up until former President Donald Trump and the current President Joe Biden. Were JFK's true legacy to be acknowledged by Vladimir Danilof and other journalists opposed to the United States' empire, then the prospects of overcoming that murderous empire would be so much better.
70% of Ukrainians think Zelensky should not run for a 2nd term
On 24 November 2021, three months ago Sputnik News reported Almost 70% of Ukrainians Believe Zelensky Should Not Run for New Term, Poll Shows.
Almost 70% of Ukrainians believe that incumbent President Volodymyr Zelensky should not run for a second term over failure to fulfill election promises, according to a survey published by the Razumkov Center on Friday.
…
Nearly half of all those polled, or 42.5%, expressed the opinion that the president's Servant of the People party is worse than the "old" parties, 33% said that it did not differ significantly from them, and only 14% of citizens were sure that the party was indeed the "party of new people that makes positive changes in the society."
…
Stella Moris: Julian Assange wins appeal, but remains imprisoned
Statement from @StellaMoris1 today outside the High Courts after Julian Assange won his application to appeal to the UK Supreme Court#FreeAssangeNOW #DropTheCharges pic.twitter.com/l0ypaU9CDB
— Don't Extradite Assange (@DEAcampaign) January 24, 2022
retired dilettante
Much the same in the US and Canada. wake me when it's over.
Tasmanian journalist Dean Yates: Make Julian an election issue
Tasmanian journalist Dean Yates describes in What I Got Wrong About Julian Assange (7/1/2022) in Consortium Newswrites that he now regrets having had repeated media slurs against Julian Assange, in a Crikey.com article he wrote about Julian Assange on 6 August 2020.
Dean Yates acknowledges that he "wrote that Assange dumped the Iraq and Afghan war logs on the internet without redacting names."
Of this he writes "I was wrong and lazy in repeating that slur which appeared whenever you Googled Assange’s name. That must make it true, right?"
Whilst two of Julian Assange's Australian supporters had tried to correct him, Dean Yates had brushed them off.
Dean Yates continued,
Their overtures nagging at the back of my mind, I recently did what I should have done at the time: read the submissions Assange’s legal team made at his extradition hearings and transcripts of witness testimony. I soon realized how mistaken I was.
He then describes Julian Asange's laborious and painstaking efforts to redact from any Wikileaks publication, anything that could either help reveal the source of the leak or endanger any life.
Dean Yates points out that no one has been held to account for the the ruin that the United States' brought to Afghanistan, Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries, whilst Julian Assange has been tortured and imprisoned for revealing to the world the truth about those illegal wars. He concludes:
That’s why we need to make Assange’s freedom an election issue in Australia. It’s why we need to make noise on social media, in the mainstream media, to politicians, and on the streets. Because Assange is being tortured in a foreign country for telling the truth about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And he will be extradited to America where he will likely die in prison.
Remember - the Australian government eagerly took part in the invasion of Iraq. His case is the biggest test of press freedom in decades. Make some noise Australians! Bring Assange home."
At candobetter.net, we have also been, since at least prior to the 2019 elections, trying to have the issue of Julian Assange put to voters at Federal elections and also trying to have the issue discussed of the floor of Parliament.
Should a substantial number of those Australians who have also been campaigning for Julian Assange get behind Dean Yates' proposal, then we I think we stand every chance of making a decisive difference in the campaign to free Julian Assange at the next Federal election.
However, given the changes made to our electoral system by the ruling Liberal/Labor duoply, it will be much harder for candidates who support Julian Assange or who, in any other other, way oppose the US and Australian military-industrial complexes, to stand. Only parties with more than 1500 members can stand candidates. So, other than a number of Greens candidates, who have spoken up for Julian Assange, we could have little choice, that is, unless the Sustainable Australia Party can be persuaded to support Julian Assange.
Certainly we should also make the repeal of those anti-democratic laws another issue for that election.
Freedom thrust on us
A beautiful allegory of real freedom attained.
It's unfortunate that freedom has been thrust upon us as they no longer care, it's too expensive and too much trouble to protect the population. Governments are just sacrificing older and weaker people.
Iranians remember where they were at news of Soleimani's death
Thank you for this article recognising Iran's great and legitimate grief over Soleimani's assassination by the United States. It is interesting that you also mention US President Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1960.
Looking at Press TV Iran over the past few days, when it has been marking the anniversary of Soleimani's assassination, I have been reminded of when President Kennedy was assassinated. Everyone in the Western world, and further afield, remembers where they were when President Kennedy was assassinated. I was in Brighton, Victoria, and my Australian parents were exchanging words of disbelief, shock, and despair. I asked what was wrong and my father told me that Kennedy had represented a great hope for the world, and that an assassination of a president meant that the United States had breached rules of civilisation.
Looking at Presstv Iran, you realise that Iranians feel the same way about General Soleimani's assassination. Every Iranian - and people further afield - can remember where they were, and how they reacted, when they heard of General Soleimani's death. It is clear that Iranians saw Soleimani as a man of immense courage and integrity, and they relied on him to lead the fight against Islamic State's attempt to take over the Middle East. From Iranian documents and testimonies, it seems clear that Soleimani's assassination was not only a sordid and cruel breach of Iranian sovereignty by a country - America - which is taking on the worst aspects of the Roman Empire - but that it was one of those crimes, like the assassination of President Kennedy - that can undo vast networks of hope and good in a few minutes. :-(
Richard Wynn asked to explain shocking park destruction
20-12-2021
The following letter was sent to Ministers Richard Wynne (Planning) , d'Ambrosio (Environment) and Shaun Leane (Local Government and Suburban Development ) by Protectors of Public Lands Inc.
Dear Minister,
I write on behalf of Protectors of Public Lands to ask you to intervene in the current destruction of an area of Fawkner Park by Melbourne City Council. The works are termed "improvements" to the Pasley Street entrance to Fawkner Park, but in our opinion they are a degradation of this Victorian Heritage Registered park.
Unfortunately, trees have already been felled for the purpose of laying down a multi- purpose games court and skating area. Concreting of the area is scheduled for Monday 20th December 2021. PPL Vic. Inc. is asking you to intervene urgently to stop the works now so that restoration of the park can start as soon as possible.
There was very inadequate public consultation for these works, and they are being carried out in the absence of a current Master Plan. The Master Plan of 2006 gave no inkling of the dramatic changes that are now proposed. The Master Plan was meant to be reviewed in 2016, and would have involved considerable consultation. In November 2017, only a very small, select number of opinions were sought about this current plan. This current development is also at odds with the current espoused strategy of MCC of enhancing nature and connectivity to increase biodiversity.
Why the lack of consultation? This seems to be part of the trademark of many governments. Who really has a vested interest in this development? Who gains most? Why the push to do this so quickly?
PPL Vic. Inc. supported the decision of Heritage Victoria to deny the City of Melbourne a Permit for the works proposed for Fawkner Park on Heritage grounds. This decision was appealed at great expense by City of Melbourne, its lawyers and the Heritage Council and the decision was overruled in favour of this development.
Furthermore, PPL Vic. Inc. is of the opinion that the MCC has ignored the changed needs of the community at large in light of the pandemic of 2020 to 2021 (and probably beyond) when green areas have been shown to be invaluable to the people of Melbourne.
In this era of acknowledged climate change, these works will destroy the shade and cool of the lawns and trees, make the area impermeable to rainwater, and in total will be a local environmental negative.
This development is extremely ill considered and should not go ahead until there is a new Master Plan and appropriate consultation.
Yours sincerely,
Fiona Bell, President.
Protectors of Public Lands Victoria Inc (PPLVic.Inc)
Phone 0425 707637
Senate to force vote on Government's handling of Assange in Fep
Such a gut wrenching decision. We will keep fighting. @MarisePayne is the Australian government going to intervene now for this Australian citizen being appallingly persecuted for publishing details of warcrimes? https://t.co/nbzIoPP3n0
— Janet Rice (@janet_rice) December 10, 2021
Minister who orchestrated Assange's arrest Judge's ‘good friend’
From Assange judge is 40-year ‘good friend’ of minister who orchestrated his arrest (2/12/21) by Matt Kennard and Mark Curtis | Declassified UK :
Julian Assange’s fate lies in the hands of an appeal judge who is a close friend of Sir Alan Duncan - the former foreign minister who called Assange a “miserable little worm” in parliament.
Lord Chief Justice Ian Burnett, the judge that will soon decide Julian Assange’s fate, is a close personal friend of Sir Alan Duncan, who as foreign minister arranged Assange’s eviction from the Ecuadorian embassy. The two have known each other since their student days at Oxford in the 1970s, when Duncan called Burnett “the Judge”. Burnett and his wife attended Duncan’s birthday dinner at a members-only London club in 2017, when Burnett was a judge at the court of appeal.
Now the most powerful judge in England and Wales, Burnett will soon rule on Assange’s extradition case. The founder of WikiLeaks faces life imprisonment in the US.
Great article on how Mary Drost defended our heritage & quali...
Hello all,
A wonderful article on a real contributor who has sought practically to defend quality of life and heritage values.
Expounding the authority of the People of Our Commonwealth was a keystone in her directions, perhaps a cause now needed more than ever in todays climate.
M/s Drost was awarded the Order Of The Wattle Blossom, the historic Native Australian award in 2017 by Australia First.
The citation award:-
" For exemplary engagement in advancing Residential Community Authority as paramount to retaining suburban heritage and culture"
Continuing good fortune, and many thanks to her.
Mary
Had Australia objected Britain could not have imprisoned Julian
The imprisonment and torture of Julian Assange by Britain is clearly illegal under international law as well as British law. Had the Australian government told the British government to release Julian Assange at any point in time over the last nine and a half years, the British government would have been left with no choice but to comply. If they had not, Australia would have had recourse to the International Criminal Court and to the United Nations and with international public opinion overwhelmingly on julian Assange's side, Britain would have quickly found it had no legs to stand on and left with no choice but to free Julian Assange without delay.
However, recently leaked documents show that the Australlian government has not only failed in this basic duty of care towards Julian Assange, but it has actually worked with the Swedish, British and United States governments against Julian Assange behind our backs.
Had George Christensen's motion been seconded, then debated and voted upon, many of the facts about Britain's and Sweden's monstrous treatment of Julian Assange since 16 June 2021 would have been revealed to all Australians on the floor of our Parliament [1] regardless of whether or not there was sufficient support for Julian Assange there to carry the vote.
The profile of the campaign to free Julian Assange would have been greatly lifted here, in Australia, and elsewhere.
Footnote[s]
[1] Given the astonishing refusal by all 14 other members of the Julian Assange Support Group to second George Christensen's motion, I no longer feel as assured as I previously had that, had the bill been debated that those 14 members would have used their voices, as effectively as they could have, for Julian Assange.
Assange on bail yet.
Julian Assange and his no holds barred approach is a threat to the establishment James, and on those grounds he won't find genuine assistance through the political process. I believe they could do better, primarily because in politics they make the rules and must be seen as seperate from legal framework. What are their opinions?
Do you have some suggestions?
There is an active deportation order against Julian, do you think the Australian embassy could intervene some how, take responsibility for Assange while waiting for the appeal process to complete.?
What were you hoping would happen
Letter to local member Peta Murphy asking for her vote for Bill
I was unable to email the email below to my local member, Peta Murphy as her Connect page contains no email address. - James
Dear Peta Murphy, As my elected member for the Federal electorate of Dunkley, I am writing to request, as a matter of urgency, that when George Christensen puts his "Illegal Detention of Australian Journalists (Free Julian Assange) Bill 2021" [1] that you cast your vote for this bill. Julian Assange is the most famous and most revered Australian anywhere in the world for his establishment of the Wikileaks news service. His treatment for the last nine years and, in particular, the last two and a half years, where he has had to endure solitary confinement for 23 hours per day and has suffered a tooth abscess and other ailments from medical neglect in Belmarsh Prison, is monstrous. George Christensen's bill rightly calls for this treatment of Julian Assange, or any other journalist, by any person in the world, including individual members of governments to be defined as a crime. The punishment for that crime would be by 7 years in prison. This means that any person, including any government leader or government minister, who has, in any way, facilitated the imprisonment and torture treatment of Julian Assange, for the last nine and a half years, be arrested and tried should they ever land on Australian soil. I ask you to vote for George Christen's motion when it is put to the House of Representatives. Yours faithfully, James Sinnamon FOOTNOTE[S] [1] See https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22legislation%2Fbills%2Fr6822_first-reps%2F0000%22;rec=0 and https://candobetter.net/james-sinnamon/blog/6201/george-christensen-put-parliament-bill-make-australian-government-act-free
Professor of Geography
Hi there,
A "catastrophist" is one who believes that Earth and/or all of its landforms are predominantly created through cataclysmic events. It does not apply, however, to a Malthusian as it has no connection to the idea of pessimism. I have seen, though not of late, the word "catastrophean" applied to the glass-half-full perspective to population growth.
Best,
Jesse
New files expose Australian govt’s betrayal of Julian Assange an
New files expose Australian govt’s betrayal of Julian Assange and detail his prison torment https://t.co/vlBPUdcKD1 via @TheGrayzoneNews
Well done @KitKlarenberg #dfat #auspol
— KellieTranter (@KellieTranter) November 18, 2021
End of lockdown unleashes hoards on fragile Mornington Peninsula
On the once beautiful Mornington Peninsula where:
Numbers of overflow bored Melbournians has reached fever pitch
Foreshores are being trampled to death and parked over
Street and beach rubbish at never before seen volumes on Cup Day (but bad all the time now)
Air B&B rentals are creating noise and amenity issues as cashed up patrons paying $thousand per night do whatever they please including urinating in the street, throwing condoms over the fence, doof doof music until 3 AM
Housing affordability is now acknowledged as a crisis issue by local council, with hundreds of homeless sleeping on foreshores
Trees being chopped down everywhere (especially in areas with water views and cashed up new owners able to pay $4 million or so for a pretty standard house which they’ll bowl over) etc. etc.
All hallmarks of systems at breaking point, and all thanks to the elephant in the room - overpopulation.
RT praises COVID-19 super-spreader Brazil's President Bolsanaro?
I posted the following beneath an article, Precedent of charging Bolsonaro with ‘crimes against humanity’ threatens leaders that deviate from the western Covid narrative (2/10/21) | RT. This appalling article appeared on Russia's RT. RT normally reports and analyses geopolitical, social and scientific issues far more truthfully and with far greater insight than the western corporate newsmedia. - JS
On this occasion, RT's readership should definitely question more this anti-scientific hogwash which has somehow found its way onto the pages of RT.
Fortunately I live in Australia where the state governments of Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) have listened to the medical experts and acted to halt the spread of COVID-19 through vaccination and seemingly harsh measures such as lockdowns. Even though the Australian Federal government was slow to act, the quick action of those State Governments (following some mistaken decisions in the early months of the initial COVID-19 pandemic at the start of 2020) has allowed Australia to greatly reduce the spread of COVID-19 and deaths from COVID-19, certainly in comparison to countries like the US of Donald Trump and Joe Biden and Brazil.
Julian guilty of no crime behind bars as war criminals roam free
Outside the high court, during the second day of the hearing of the United States' appeal against Judge Vanessa's ruling of 6 January against the extradition of Julian Assange, Irish member of the European Parliament (MEP) Clare Daly (
It's a travesty #Assange is locked up, fighting extradition in the courts, bound by law to ignore what is blatant to all: this is a political persecution.
But I was honoured to be there this week, standing with his supporters on the right side of historypic.twitter.com/2369XfIZiU
— Clare Daly (@ClareDalyMEP) October 29, 2021
Will Parliament meet its obligation to discuss Julian Assange?
The following is posted to Assange chronology at KellieTranter.com :
Kellie,
(I think this is my fourth attempt to post here since 2:11AM this morning.)
Thank you for this most useful resource.
However, I think you should also point out somewhere in this chronology that, whilst millions are protesting around the globe for Julian Assange, both the Australian Government and the Opposition have apparently colluded to prevent any substantial discussion of Julian Assange on the floor of our Parliament. One example is Labor MP julian Hill's motion. He first foreshadowed, on 15 June (four and a half months ago), the following motion:
MEMBER FOR CLARKE: I give notice that on the next day of sitting (Monday 21/6/21 - JS) I shall move that this House:
(1) notes that:
(a) the trial and extradition of Mr Julian Assange are inconsistent with international law, and Australian legal standards, and contravene the legal rights and protections for which those laws and standards provide;
…
(The full text of Julian Hill's foreshadowed motion is included in the article above.)
This has yet to be put. Whilst I had naively thought that a motion only needed a mover and a seconder to be put, apparently any motion not formerly put by the Government or the Opposition is designated a "Private Member's Motion" (PMM) which must pass through an arcane set of procedures, before it can even be put. However, a PMM can only be put on Mondays in a time period of less than 2 hours. In that period, that PMM and all other PMM's approved of by the Parliamentary Selection Committee the previous Wednesday must also be put and debated.
So far, not one motion concerning Julian Assange has been approved by the Selection Committee. Greens Senator Andrew Wilkie has, so far, made two unsuccessful attempts.
Whilst this motion, if put, might not be carried, I think that a full debate on the floors of our Parliament at least would greatly raise the profile of Julian Assange and make may more people understand the facts behind his illegal imprisonment and torture. Furthermore, the Australian public and the rest of the world, as they are entitled to, would know where each and every one of our elected members of the House of Reprentatives and the Senate stand in relation to this outrageous treatment of Julian Assange.
The fact that nearly all of our Parliament seemingly fears any discussion about Julian Assange is most revealing.
Public alarmed as power elite tries to talk up mass migration
On Thu, Oct 21, 2021, The Age carried the following letters to the editor, under the heading, "POPULATION"
Fewer people for our health and environment I read with alarm the article, “Migration quota may rise to aid recovery” (The Age, 20/10), and realised how little we have learned from these past two years.
Some leading economists have presented strong arguments that immigration’s supposed effect of increasing wealth is a mirage: yes, it increases gross domestic product but only because there are more people, not because there is increased wealth for individuals.
Just months before the pandemic arrived, the media ran many stories and letters about Melbourne’s population growth being out of control, that the CBD was overcrowded and that public transport was unable to cope with so many people. Now the focus is on climate change and our need to reduce our carbon footprint.
But none of our decision makers are connecting the dots. Australia could have learned so much from the pandemic: we could have appreciated the need for fewer imports and more self-reliance; we could have understood that big is not better and in fact, our relatively smaller population helped to save us from the worst of COVID-19; and that our quarter-acre blocks are better living spaces than high-rise apartments. We could have learned all Australia’s advantages in staying near zero population growth, for the sake of our health and our environment.
But our decision makers learned nothing. We seem condemned to repeat the mistakes of the past.
Pam Cupper, Dimboola
Putting the needs of business before the people The lord mayor is dreaming to believe the recent population forecasts give the council a strong basis for planning the city’s recovery – “Melbourne’s heart will find its beat again” (The Age, 20/10).
The forecasts are built on very shaky ground, namely that international migration will return to pre-pandemic levels. But immigrant numbers are determined entirely by government decisions, and will and should be hotly debated.
Does the community want 144,000 new residents, in the next 19 years, squeezed into its CBD? They will clog the city’s arteries rather than improve its heart beat.
Both the forecast and the lord mayor’s reaction perpetuate a business-win, people-lose scenario.
Ian Penrose, Kew
Recipe for more ecological degradation and conflict
According to Josh Frydenberg, to maintain Australia’s living standards, we need to ensure the population keeps increasing through migration. However, population growth is linked to increased demand for food, water, housing, energy, healthcare and transportation. More humans mean more ecological degradation and conflicts and a higher risk of disasters, including pandemics. A government with any capacity for leadership and innovation would recognise this scenario and come up with a technology-based solution that utilises our existing population.
Leigh Ackland, Deepdene
"No reason why [the Assange] case should still be going"
From
Former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou joins Shadowproof managing editor Kevin Gosztola to discuss a major report from Yahoo! News on CIA director Mike Pompeo and the agency's plans to destroy WikiLeaks and kidnap or kill WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
The above video was posted on the Shadowproof YouTube channel. The title of this comment is taken from the words of John Kiriakou in this interview, as posted to Twitter: "There is no reason why this case should still be going."
Will sustained low migration bring property sector down to earth
"As a nation, we’ve become used to about 60 per cent of our population growth coming from immigration. Take that away for a couple of years, and even the RBA’s cheap money eventually confronts a more powerful fundamental."(Michael Pascoe, "The housing rocket ride set to splutter," Opinion, The New Daily, Sept 2, 2021.)
We all lose - Birds First
There is something extraordinarily human about the wild life of the bush,
and the lonely camp-dweller and lover of the wild can easily understand
the translation of bird and animal into the legends and traditions of the
aborigines. Like the natives themselves, birds are far keener observers
of the white man than he is of them, and have a much greater intelligence
than the most observing of us credits them with.
Whenever I pitch my camp I become at once an object of scrutiny to the
bird life surrounding the spot I have chosen. Each bird has its own
method of observation, some peer stealthily, watching my movements from
some hidden spot, others are openly curious and perch anywhere round
where they can get a good view of the intruder, others come mocking or
uttering unfriendly warning, or even contemptuous notes. Every species of
bird has its own personality, so to speak, and in the native bird legends
their personality is always taken into account. Daisy Bates 1938
"Free Julian Assange" shouted during Keir Starmers maiden speech
The Twitter post, which has been embedded below, includes a short video taken from a recent maiden speech by the UK Labour Party leader Keir Starmer at a Labour party conference.
#FreeAssange #Amazing #JulianAssange #PressFreedom #WikiLeaks #StopTorturingAssange #DropTheCharges https://t.co/kDUoOtD2Xf
— Free Assange Frankfurt am Main (@freeassangeffm) September 29, 2021
Battle for Lane Cove magpies is lost
I have received an email today saying that "unfortunately the Animal Justice Party have just released a post saying that the culling will go ahead." (See AJP Face Book Page)
"Killing" would be an appropriate word rather than "culling".
Port Adelaide protest against Nuclear Submarines, Fri 24 Sep
Protest this Friday 24 September in Port Adelaide against Prime Minister Scott Morrison decision to purchase nuclear powered submarines from the United States. The location of the protest is to be announced.
SNAP RALLY NO NUCLEAR SUBMARINES by Nuclear Operations Watch Port Adelaide. Friday 24th Sep. Location TBA. Ph 0418 894 366 for more details. @teapot21 @ClareS20136014 @ForAdelaide #NoNukes#NoMoreWar#EndTheUSAlliance pic.twitter.com/YfJ6PJtp7Y
— RaineBelgrave (@BelgraveRaine) September 19, 2021
beautiful magpies
I work as a road traffic controller, and was on site in Hastings on 16/9 when subject to magpies attention.
I was on a double lane road with tall eucalypts set back in nearby paddocks and about four magpies came to like me.
It was interesting when realising the birds were starting to target me with swooping, and I was able to gauge there incoming flights, observing them lining me up and seeming to restrain their swooping until after I had just been distracted from watching them with road traffic flow.
The birds were sourcing food from the paddocks in their flying about, probably for nearby nestings, and would perch in branches across the road from me before swooping, usually about head height and I was able to view them coming at me for about 30 metres, quiet amazing to see their incoming projectory sweep.
I was able to simply move my traffic stop bat at the last moment to cover my face/head when the maggies were about two metres away, and they would swing off. Sometimes their unobservable return swoop from my rear would allow them to swipe my hard hat with a light clink.
The swooping went on intermittently for most of the day and was enjoyable in appreciating an aspect of bird life and nature.
Wearing the hard hat isolated any likely concerns.
Leave the maggies alone!
m
Lane Cove magpies
To Open Space Officer, Lane Cove Council or to whom it may concern,
I am very disturbed to hear of the intention of the council to harm nesting magpies in the Lane Cove area. This action could become a terrible precedent and warrants reconsideration.
Whilst it is most undesirable that birds harm humans I feel that, as an intelligent species we can, through education co-exist with these amazing birds and our lives can be enriched. There must be a wealth of expertise within the staff of the Lane Cove Council together with Parks New South Wales that could be employed to address this problem during spring in a constructive way. As our cities grow and nature diminishes, wildlife habitat disappears. A community is extremely lucky if any wildlife can find a place to live amongst us. If we are to co-exist then pubic education is needed to increase empathy and to increase our alertness generally in the environment and other life around us. The "go to" solution should not be to exterminate.
I am very concerned that if the "guilty" magpies are killed, the dependent babies will not survive.
If further assistance is needed in mounting a public education campaign in order to live with magpies on a long term basis in built up areas, I suggest enlisting the help of Birdlife Australia or PETA https://www.peta.org.au/issues/magpie-swoop/
Although magpies are very intelligent , we cannot educate them but we can educate ourselves and our children. Please give this a try. I know you already have but please extend this rather than going in for the kill.
Sincerely ,
(details supplied)
Delta has made its mark
Yesterday Victoria entered a new phase in grappling with this virus. We have been told that case numbers are gong to rise and we cannot stop this even with lockdown. Today the reported number over the past 24hours is 176 after nearly 4 weeks of strict lockdown. Delta entered the state in July just when Victorians were enjoying a little freedom. Two removalists brought in the updated version of Covid 19 -Delta and Melbourne has been in lockdown since the 6th of August. Regional areas have had intermittent relief from this. Looks like this will have a profound, widespread ongoing negative effect on the health of the population despite access to vaccinations.
Congratulations on dream
You must congratulate dear Marigold for her engagement with the big themes of Climate Change and Covid Management, even in her dreams during Victorian Lockdown 6.
It is impressive that she was so focussed on looking for leadership and actively effecting change in her dream that she promptly arrives in Canberra trying to discuss plans at the needed highest level - with our Prime Minister and Deputy PM.
Sadly, there is no focussed attention to managing either and she found herself lost and tied up in an endless circular roundabout and not getting anywhere, neither moving forward nor back ... echoes of the actual situation.
Perhaps Marigold could enter the dreamscape fray for us all again and keep trying to persuade and direct better national management of these two crucial issues in that additional psychic realm. It is an inspired holistic approach.
Thank you for your efforts,
Magpie
Insightful but not exhaustive explanation of Assange's situation
In Julian Assange is Not a Martyr - The U.K. High Court continues to cave to U.S. pressure.(13/5/21), Zack Thomas gives a detailed and insightful account of Julian Assange's current circumstances. Zack analyses the recent decision by the UK High Court to allow the U.S. prosecutors to appeal Judge Vanessa Barraitser's decision of 6 January that Julian Assange was psychologically capable of enduring circumstances in the American prison system. [1]
However a number of questions remain unanswered for me, including:
- Why has Julian Assange's Defence team not appealed against Vanessa Barraitser's ruling which upheld all of the U.S. prosecution's case against Julian Assange? Whilst, of course, we should be concerned about the psychological harm that being locked for 175 years in a United States' dungeon will cause Julian, why are they only focused on this and not the former?
- Where can a comprehensive record of the High Court hearing of which Zack Thomas has written be found?
Footnote[s]
[1] Whilst ruling that prison conditions in the U.S. were too harsh for Julian Assange, Judge Vanessa Barraitser, nevertheless, implicitly ruled that Julian Assange's 23 hours per day solitary confinement, so far for 2 years and 4 months - a fate far worse than those endured by terrorists, murderers and embezzlers in Britain's prison system, was not too harsh.
Resource Scarcity
Don you forgot to include Resource Scarcity which can be put into perspective by reading Simon P Michaux's "The Mining of Minerals and the Limits to Growth".
tupa.gtk.fi/raportti/arkisto/16_2021.pdf
The other scarcity facing Australians, of course, is fresh water, we're consuming more than it is being replenished.
Cheers,
John Bentley
Unpaid work of older people
Older people are over represented in voluntary environmental organisations. Older people who are retired or semi-retired have the time to do unpaid work such as working in opportunity shops, telephone counselling and other work in the community. They are valuable members of society from the social perspective. From the economic point of view they spend money in restaurants, on holidays which benefit those who for whom they are customers. Older people get such a bad wrap and furthermore are expected to move out of their houses to make way for younger people. That's pretty disrespectful in anyone's language! I think Australia can do better!
City of Melbourne, don't spend money! (Media release)
Media release
City of Melbourne, don’t spend the money!
In reference to Item 6.3 Adoption of the proposed draft Budget 2021-22, City of Melbourne special council meeting, today, Tuesday 29 June at 2.45pm:
The $52.2 million expenditure allocated to Queen Victoria Market (QVM) infrastructure (page 42 of the budget) cannot be justified, nor is it required for QVM's core business and viability.
When the CBD became a ghost town overnight due to the lockdown, photographs were taken of queues of Queen Victoria Market (QVM) customers snaking down Queen, Victoria and Elizabeth Streets waiting to get into the food halls.
The open-air sheds of the upper market also attracted its fair share of customers who parked in the open air at-grade car park. Market ground-level operations made it safer for traders as well in this pandemic environment.
The market took a blow like the rest of Melbourne, particularly with the 5 km restriction, but was the only sign of life to be seen in the CBD.
This disproportionate budget item alarmingly indicates CoM’s intention to erode the heritage values of QVM by completely changing the way this heritage market operates.
This expenditure has been allocated for the trader and northern sheds and the underground waste disposal system all centrally located in Queen St between the Upper and Lower Market. The trader shed includes underground storage, change, shower and lunch rooms, while the northern shed is for centralised loading and unloading of produce mimicking a supermarket model. The small family-owned businesses regard this as unnecessary gold-plating and fear it will lead to overhead costs and rent which will be passed on the their customers.
In 2018 the Peoples’ Panel, a deliberative democracy initiate by the then new Lord Mayor, even then rejected the grandiose QVM infrastructure plans, yet this budget still persists with infrastructure gold-plating without factoring in how our world has changed.
What is the justification of this infrastructure gold-plating?
Rate payers should rightly expect that a budget infrastructure investment would be based upon a cost benefit analysis. Yet there appears to be no evidence of this under-pinning this level of expenditure. In fact this budget expense is setting QVM and Council up for further losses.
Market viability is tenuous as it is. Unnecessary construction works causing further disruption will certainly adversely impact on trade; will result in further trader attrition, and QVM will become a Council white elephant, lost to Melbourne.
In light of this, Friends of QVM, urge the council to step back, reflect and reset. Do what is required for health and safety and simply allow traders, in these fragile economic circumstances, go about earning their living, and re-allocate much of this expenditure to where it is needed elsewhere.
The People’s Panel said it all. The City of Melbourne Budget should not enable unnecessary and unproductive renewal works which will detract from traditional QVM operations, and will undermine heritage values, lose even more traders and deter loyal customers who come from far and wide.
For further information contact Mary-Lou Howie 0401811893
Melbourne protest for Julian as Gabriel & John visit Chicago
As John Shipton and Gabriel Shipton visited Chicago in their "Bring Julian Assange Home" tour of the United States, Melbourne supporters of Julian Assange protested outside the British Consulate from 7:30 AM until 9:00 AM in the early morning of Friday 19 June.
AFP/Vic Pol were very pleasant. Warned us re quarantine hotel behind 90 Collins St. We all know where covid outbreaks are leaked from in Melb. Not the usual 'Leaks' we're interested in but good to see authorities serving and protecting the public as they should. #FreeAssangeNOW pic.twitter.com/vninftYG18
— RaineBelgrave (@BelgraveRaine) June 18, 2021
AFP/Vic Pol were very pleasant. Warned us re quarantine hotel behind 90 Collins St. We all know where covid outbreaks are leaked from in Melb. Not the usual 'Leaks' we're interested in but good to see authorities serving and protecting the public as they should. #FreeAssangeNOW pic.twitter.com/vninftYG18
— RaineBelgrave (@BelgraveRaine) June 18, 2021
Motion for Julian Assange now cannot be put for 7 more weeks!?!
Below is some of the correspondence between myself and Julian Hill MP, who advised me yesterday, on 15 June (this was first mistakenly written as '15 March' - apologies, JS 21 June), that he had put a notice of motion that is included in the above article. The text of the e-mail was:
Hi James
I have given notice of the motion below.
Have asked for some debate time - will see if we can get any allocated.
Julian
I then published the above e-mail and e-mailed Julian Hill, thanking him for his efforts and I also made posts to Twitter to advise other supporters of Julian Assange of this very welcome development. However, earlier today, at 1:02 PM on Wednesday 16 June, he e-mailed me, advising me:
... neither [Andrew Wilklie's proposed motion nor my proposed motion] were selected for debate this Monday but that’s common as there is usually a lot of stuff from earlier weeks, so I’d expect we will get some debate time in the next sitting in August.
My response to Julian Hill was:
… I will not be the only person who will feel badly disappointed by this news.
Monday 9 August [the first sitting day on which it will be possible to move a Private Members' Motion] is nearly seven weeks away!
Which other Private Members' Motions does the Selection Committee think could possibly be more important and more urgent than yours? In all of that coming seven weeks, Julian Assange, who is in poor health, will remain locked up in solitary confinement for 23 hours per day. This further delay in action to bring about Julian Assange's freedom could well result in his death or severe detriment to his health.
Can you explain to me more about the process of selection? Is there any way it can be speeded up? Can you give me the names of those who are on the Selection Committee?
Julian Hill has not yet responded.
I posted this bad news to Twitter:
Bad news friends. Julian Hill has just informed me that the Selection Committee has not allowed his motion 2 be put this Monday. It cannot be put as a Private Members Motion until Mon 9 Aug in the next sitting - nearly 7 weeks away! https://t.co/vTGi2y0jbC https://t.co/InjG5Teo4M https://t.co/BWFQqD5ux8
— Malthusista (@malthusista) June 16, 2021
What can be done about this?
That (by my count) 24 supporters of Julian Assange in this country's Federal Parliament cannot be an effective voice for the illegally imprisoned Australian citizen Julian Assange on the floors of our Parliament should be considered unacceptable. Other means to hold the Federal Government to account for its unconscionable conduct, whether inside or outside of Parliament, will have to be found.
As well as members of the Group, members of the major parties should also be approached by their local constituents. It should be put to each of those MPs:
Regardless of whether or not you support Julian Assange, do you find it acceptable that supporters of Julian Assange in our Parliament have been prevented from being able to comprehensively put their case to Parliament and from being able to debate it in Parliament?"
If that member agrees with you that this is not acceptable, ask that member to move a formal motion to suspend standing orders so that, without any further delay, Julian Hill be allowed to put his foreshadowed motion (included above) and that Andrew Wilkie also be allowed put his own foreshadowed motion.
Should youfind the time and energy to approach your local member as I have suggested, please advise me of how he/she responds, whether that response is favourable or unfavourable.
Koala as Australia's ambassador for habitat preservation
Deborah Tabert of the Australian Koala Foundation made it clear in an ABC interview aired today that if we cannot save the koala we cannot save any of our wildlife. Her recent book "The Koala manifesto" (available through Australia Koala Foundation), I understand sets out the reasons for this conclusion. In her interview she spoke beautifully about the iconic quality of the koala and the desperate need NOT to chop down another koala habitat tree. She was talking about the loss of animal life in the bushfires of summer 2019-20, now estimated at around 3 billion animals -mammals reptiles birds , frogs. The koala is one animal that can represent and help the others because of its photogenic , picturesque quality of just sitting in a tree fork looking sensational. Deborah mentioned the clamidia problem but ultimately said it was largely a manifestation of habitat loss. She talked of the millions of skins that were sent to the US earlier last century and that President Herbert Hoover stopped this importation (thus helping to save the koala) She painted lovely word pictures alluding to May Gibbs' illustrations on how full of enchanting and picturesque wildlife our country would have been at the beginning of white settlement.
The "Bring Assange Home" group can force debate in Parliament
Editorial comment: The following, appears to be from an e-mail, I sent to the office of one of the members of the "Bring Julian Assange Home" Parliamentary Group - JS, 14 June 2021.
Thank you, Nate, for your concern and for your input.
Frankly, I am mystified, firstly, as to why, apparently, so little has been said so far on the floor of Parliament about Julian Assange and, secondly as to why, with only one exception, not one of the 22 members of the Australian "Bring Julian Assange Home" Parliamentary group that I have e-mailed have even bothered to respond to my e-mails, other than with automated responses. (Comment: I now appreciate that, whilst I consider this matter urgent, each of these members have an extraordinarily large amount of emails and phone calls to deal with. - JS)
The exception is this response from Liz, a member of Andrew Bartlett's Hobart office, on Friday 28 May:
I will pass on your email to Andrew. Please be assured he is continuing to look for every opportunity to lobby for justice for Julian.
In March this year Andrew and George Christensen, as co-chairs of the Bring Julian Assange Home Parliamentary Group, met with Mr Michael Goldman, Charge d’Affaires at the US Embassy in Canberra to relay their concerns about the ongoing attempts by the United States to extradite Julian. You can read about the meeting in more detail here Parliamentarians take Julian Assange case to US Embassy (22/2/2021).
That short article, referred to by Liz, describes how Andrew Wilkie, Mr Julian Hill and George Christensen of the "Bring Julian Assange Home" parliamentary group, " met with Michael Goldman, Charge d’Affaires at the US Embassy in Canberra. The article concludes:
Mr Hill said he believed the delegation had received a fair hearing. “This is a matter of principle,” Mr Hill said. “You don’t have to like or agree with Julian Assange, but he deserves fair treatment like any other Australian. The US should do the decent, humane thing and drop the prosecution, accepting the UK court’s decision that Mr Assange is unwell and should not be extradited.”
Whilst Julian Hill MP, Andrew Wilkie and Liz from Andrew Wilkie's Tasmanian Office hope that their "receiv[ing] a fair hearing" from Michael Goldman, the Charge d’Affaires at the US Embassy in Canberra will influence United States President Joe Biden to drop his country's effort to extradite Julian Assange or will influence British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to release Julian Assange from his illegal imprisonment at Belmarsh Prison, I believe that other more forceful approaches are needed.
One approach is shown in the motion I asked all of them to put to put to Parliament in an e-mail I sent to all of them in the early morning of Monday 24 May. That motion is in the above article, but I will also include it here:
This Parliament finds it unacceptable that Australian journalist Julian Assange, who is not guilty of any crime, continues to be held in London's Belmarsh prison in solitary confinement for 23 hours every day, whilst those who started the 2003 Iraq war have yet to be held to account for this crime against humanity.
Accordingly this Parliament calls upon the British government to immediately expedite, and in a more transparent fashion than previously, all outstanding legal matters concerning Julian Assange including his own appeal against his continued imprisonment.
Should the British government fail to do so, this Parliament instructs Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Foreign Minister Marise Payne, as a matter of urgency, to raise this at the United Nations and at the International Criminal Court.
As the above article show, the House of Representatives is meeting later today (Wednesday) and tomorrow (Thursday). Then it will break for 11 days before resuming on Tuesday 15 June.
Those who, like me, hope to see our government act to free Julian Assange or, failing that, be held to account for failing to do so, should contact the offices the Parliamentarians listed in the above article and let him/her that you expect that motion to be moved and seconded by members of the "Bring Julian Assange Home" Parliamentary group and that you expect him/her to vote for that motion.
Why no motion to debate Assange's fate in the Oz Parliament?
Why, indeed, James, has there been no motion to debate Assange's fate in Australian Parliament? This looks like a big fail by his Parliamentary Support Group. Do they have a reason? Did any of them engage with you about your suggestion? How many even answered? I ask this because I have written to parliamentarians myself, with very few responses. A couple of decades ago, they would not dare ignore their constituents. These days they just act like we are a blur. Is this Parliamentary Support Group for Assange actually for real? Or are they just trawling for a few votes. We need some real parliamentarians. Julian Assange needs some real human beings - like yourself. Thank you for trying to help him.
John Quiggin, "Lower birthrates may just be the tonic we need"
John Quiggin, "Lower birthrates may just be the tonic we need," Opinion, Canberra Times, 1 June 2021. This is a good article, solidly debunking the trite spin of growthers we hear constantly promoted by the ABC, the Age and the Murdoch Press, and the likes of Bernard Salt.
Breeder reactors -ncldes video of Power Sattelites
Hi Sheila,I don't think peak uranium has any credibility. Over to Brave New Climate:
"Efficiency: IFRs are over 100 times more efficient than conventional nuclear. It extracts nearly 100% of the energy from nuclear material. Today’s nuclear reactors extract less than 1%. So you need only 1 ton of actinides each year to feed an IFR (we can use existing nuclear waste for this), whereas you need 100 tons of freshly mined uranium each year to extract enough material to feed a conventional nuclear plant.
Unlimited power forever: IFRs can use virtually any actinide for fuel. Fast reactors with reprocessing are so efficient that even if we restrict ourselves to just our existing uranium resources, we can power the entire planet forever (the Sun will consume the Earth before we run out of material to fuel fast reactors). If we limited ourselves to using just our DU “waste” currently in storage, then using the IFR we can power the US for over 1,500 years without doing any new mining of uranium.[3]
Exploits our largest energy resource: In the US, there is 10 times as much energy in the depleted uranium (DU) that is just sitting there as there is coal in the ground. This DU waste is our largest natural energy resource…but only if we have fast reactors. Otherwise, it is just waste. With fast reactors, virtually all our nuclear waste (from nuclear power plants, leftover from enrichment, and from decommissioned nuclear weapons)[4] becomes an energy asset worth about $30 trillion dollars…that’s not a typo…$30 trillion, not billion.[5] An 11 year old child was able to determine this from publicly available information in 2004.
Safety: The IFR is safer than conventional nuclear because the reactors safely shut down based on the laws of physics if something goes wrong. Today’s third generation nuclear designs are very safe: 1 accident predicted every 29 million reactor years. The IFR should be even safer due to the passive safety inherent in the design. Also, IFRs are much safer than the coal plants they replace. Coal power plants are estimated to kill 24,000 Americans per year, due to lung disease as well as causing 40,000 heart attacks per year. Outside of the Soviet Union,[6] commercial nuclear has never killed even a single member of the public in its entire 50 year operating history.
Proliferation resistant: The IFR is proliferation resistant on two counts. First, the pyroprocess used to recycle the fuel does not and cannot produce plutonium with the chemical purity needed for nuclear weapon. One of the world’s top nuclear proliferation experts is strongly in favor of the IFR for this reason. Second, if all reactors were IFRs, there would never again be need for enriched uranium. Because possession of a pyroprocessing facility could give a nation a leg up in a quest for a nuclear weapons capability, facilities for both reprocessing and uranium enrichment should be operated under strict international supervision. The need for international control is arguably the most compelling reason for the U.S. to proceed rapidly with the IFR.
Consumes existing nuclear waste from nuclear reactors and weapons: Fast reactors consume our existing nuclear waste (from reactors and decommissioned weapons) and transforms it into elements that are safe after 300 years.
Minimal waste: A 1 GWe IFR plant generates 1 ton of fission products each year that needs to be sequestered for 300 years until it is safe. A conventional nuclear plant of the same capacity creates about 100 tons of “waste” each year, containing isotopes that need to be sequestered for 1 million years according to the current US depository requirements. If you powered your entire life from IFRs, the amount of waste you’d generate would be smaller than 1 soda can and it would need to be stored for only 300 years.
Nuclear material security: The nuclear material in the reactor or reprocessing facility would be too hot for a terrorist to handle. The nuclear material that leaves the site are the fission products which are completely useless for making a nuclear bomb.
The IFR creates a huge economic opportunity for the US to be the leading clean energy supplier to the world. Nuclear is the lowest cost scalable energy technology we have and the IFR is our best nuclear technology. If we focus on the IFR and invest in ramping up the volumes and reducing the cost, the IFR will be cheapest power source that every country will want everywhere instead of coal. Our economy will benefit and our planet will too."
The Integral Fast Reactor – Summary for Policy Makers (16 Oct 2009) by Barry Brook | Brave New Climate
Normal uranium is abundant enough in the earth's crust to run us for millions of years - especially in breeder reactors. How? Because a normal non-breeder reactor like the Light Water Reactor has an EROEI of about 40 to 60, but because breeder reactors eliminate the ENORMOUS energy costs of mining and refining uranium by burning nuclear waste which has ALREADY been mined and refined, the EROEI is in the THOUSANDS. It's not hard. If all the steel and concrete that goes into a nuclear reactor is costed, and all the energy and fuel and embodied energy of the equipment that mines and refines the uranium is accounted for, and that comes out to an EROEI of say an average 50, what happens when you then chuck that uranium into a breeder that gets 100 TIMES the energy out of each bit of uranium? You get EROEI of 50 * 100 = average of an Energy Profit of 5000 TIMES the energy it took to make the nuclear power plants. Why? E=MC2 comes out as a very very big number! So in terms of energy profit, you can pretty much mine anywhere on the planet - like dirty in your backyard or your local granite quarry - or better coal where it was concentrated by the processes of life itself millions of years ago - and mine. Conventional resources will be enough to get us into the golden age of nuclear breeder reactors, but you can mine anywhere on the planet and concentrate out even the tiny ppm of uranium and still come out with a vast energy profit.
Then there's thorium, which is a WASTE PRODUCT of mining from rare earths! America already has enough thorium stored away in shipping containers to run her for something like 50 years. Pretty much any RARE EARTH mine on the planet produces enough thorium to run the entire planet for a year - and there are rare earth mines all over the planet. There's about 4 times as much thorium as there is uranium in the earth's crust.
Then there's the fact that uranium from seawater becomes economical if the price of uranium doubles - and that will never run out. It's renewable, in that continental drift and mountain formation + erosion = uranium particles being topped up in the oceans faster than we can use it. Google uranium from seawater and read the most credible, latest results from labs. We won't NEED it for centuries, but even with today's technology we can just dangle dongles in some ocean currents and they will absorb uranium at only double the cost of regular uranium. As fuel is only about 5% of the cost of nuclear power (because the power plant is such a big investment in this technology), doubling the fuel does not immediately mean double the cost of the product - as it does with oil. It would hardly impact nuclear power prices. AND we don't have to worry about it for centuries.
Lastly, we may not need breeder reactors as our 'forever engines' if we discover fusion, or if we get a base on the moon. One decent city on the moon could start firing PowerSats into orbit so cheap that this moon-base could tap into the $10 TRILLION dollar a year energy industry and guarantee more and more investment in space based energy. Grab a hot cocoa and your favourite snack, and watch Isaac Arthur on PowerSats that beam solar power down to the earth. It's good stuff, and almost economic from earth today - let alone from bulk manufacture from the moon in generations to come! (They could just RAILGUN it back into our orbit at about 1/26th the energy cost of a launch from earth.)
Upward Bound: Power Satellites - Isaac Arthur, 27/7/2018
How transmitting power down from space may be our future.
Beaming energy down from satellites in orbit to replace the production of electricity on Earth may solve many of our problems, and avoid a potential economic or ecological crisis such as energy bottlenecks or global warming. Today we will explore how wireless microwave transmission of energy down to rectennas may not only be possible, but could be massively profitable in the near future and spur our exploration and colonization of space.
Visit our Website: http://www.isaacarthur.net
IAEA report refutes smear that Russians disregarded safety
Subject was: Response to Robert Chernenko on Ukraine nuclear etc - Ed
Robert Chernenko wrote above recently
He ignored the fact that the United States has for decades refused any independent investigation of the biolabs it funds, which makes them illegal. He shows no curiosity or alarm at the detailed and documented reports of bio-weapon designs and projects in Ukraine and many other countries, nor, for example, their funding in Ukraine by the United States President's son, Hunter Biden - which we have noted here: https://www.candobetter.net/admin/blog/6335/illegal-us-bio-weapons-programs-ukraine-georgia-and-elsewhere-evidence-given-un. See also https://www.candobetter.net/taxonomy/term/6017.
So, without dealing with the alarming context of these biolabs, he changes tactic and says that Russia does not place a high value on safety, then quotes an article in The Guardian, dated 1 May 2022. That paper simply reported what it had heard from the Ukrainians, without balancing it with the Russian response.
However, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report, dated 24 February – 28 April 2022, says that, "On 4 March, Ukraine informed the IAEA that Russian forces had taken control of the Zaporizhzhya NPP site. Ukraine reported that the facility’s training centre — located a few hundred metres from the reactor units — had been hit by a projectile and a localized fire had broken out that was later extinguished." (Source: IAEA Summary Report by the Director General 24 February – 28 April 2022.) What the report avoids saying is that the Russians reported that Ukrainian soldiers had caused the fire. There is also an allusion to a laboratory having been trashed, but another report by the Russians shows that no vital equipment was damaged and it looked as if the sabotage had been mainly cosmetic, in order to try to implicate the Russians. That report has to stand until the west finds evidence to the contrary.
A later version of the Guardian article (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/01/russians-fled-chernobyl-with-radiation-sickness-says-ukraine-as-iaea-investigates) of the same date, was balanced with some comments from the IAEA Director General Grossi. In the IAEA report on the matter, it says that the IAEA was unable to confirm reports of high radiation doses to Russian soldiers.
Robert wrote:
Robert's above statement and conclusions are contradicted by the IAEA report:
"Radiation monitoring: Radiation monitoring data from the Chornobyl site, regularly provided through the online radiation monitoring system, have not been received through the International Radiation Monitoring Information System (IRMIS) since 24 February. However, the SNRIU has reported some radiation measurements from the Chornobyl site. Some of these measurements from the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone indicated an increase in the gamma dose rates that was attributed to the displacement of soil due to heavy machinery movements in the area. Based on these data, the IAEA assessed radiation levels as low and within the operational range measured in the exclusion zone since it was established, and therefore considered that they posed no hazard to the public. In the absence of relevant data or observations, the IAEA has not been able to confirm reports of Russian forces receiving high doses of radiation while being in the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone. "
The Director General of the IAEA has taken an apparently very pro-Ukrainian approach, and has even been seen shaking hands with the Ukraine President Zelensky. Whilst he implies that Ukrainians did all the work, nevertheless, his reports admit that the Russians withdrew and left management of the plants to their Ukrainian teams, having restored power to Ukraine, leaving no pressing nuclear problems or safety issues.
Robert wrote:
Unfortunately Robert has given the Guardian story about 'radiation sickness' again, instead of the reference he wanted to give. However we cannot take what the US National Public Radio (NPR) says for gospel, just because it is the NPR, or because it may quote some 'authorative' figure. One has to carefully examine the statements, the evidence, the logic, and whether the opinion of the other side has been sought and reported. From what I have seen, the NPR is in war-mode like the rest of the US press and reports all Russian perspectives as if they were laughable, and attacks anyone prominent who doesn't. This is not serious journalism.
Robert wrote:
Robert should look at what Dilyana Gaytandzhieva actually writes and says before he cancels her, instead of just doubting her on the say-so of western propaganda. The fact that there are professional character assassination pieces all over the web about Dilyana Gaytandzhieva means one should look very carefully at what she is saying, because the purpose of those attacks is to make you look away from what she is saying. She is being seriously attacked because she has seriously documented US provision of arms to terrorists in Syria, for instance. This is not news to anyone who has talked with Syrians in Syria and, if people look at our site, they will see that we have been covering Syria for some time, and with local reporting as well. Anyone who exposes US war-crimes gets that kind of treatment if they are at all successful. Look at what the United States and the UK are doing to Julian Assange. That should be enough to make anyone severely doubt the honour of your government and of the western press.
Robert wrote:
Yes, I can relate to that here.
Robert wrote:
So, if the Guardian says it, you automatically believe it?
Robert wrote:
The west says that Putin has poisoned the Skripals, brought down MH17, poisoned Navalny, censored the news, waged war against his neighbours, etc etc. Somehow the western press and the leaders whose opinions it reports all know immediately what poisons were used, who administered them, who shot planes down, almost before these things happen. They never allow Russia to participate in their investigations, and they use these confected incidents as fodder for continuous anti-Russia propaganda. Much of the time, they imply that Russia is actually the same as the [defunct] USSR. And when Robert talks about Russia invading its neighbours, I suspect he also thinks that.
The west uses and abuses international sport and international commemorations of WW2 to drum this propaganda in. It is so ridiculous, anyone awake has to be suspicious.
And what is the motive of US-NATO in this propaganda? It is so they can say, to anyone who criticises the west's own serial invasions and continuous warmongering, that this is all Russian 'disinformation'. They imprisoned Julian Assange for telling the truth. Yet Australians are supposed to believe that Russia just invaded Ukraine for no reason at all. And to put up with blanket censorship to back the lies up.
Even the Pope questions the narrative:
"Pope Francis has said that NATO’s eastward expansion may have provoked Russian President Vladimir Putin into launching an attack against Ukraine. In an interview published on Tuesday by Italian daily Corriere Della Sera, the pontiff speculated that “the barking of NATO at Russia’s door” could have driven Putin into launching the military campaign on February 24. “I can’t say if it was provoked, but perhaps, yes,” he said. (Original Italian:
"La preoccupazione di papa Francesco è che Putin, per il momento, non si fermerà. Tenta anche di ragionare sulle radici di questo comportamento, sulle motivazioni che lo spingono a una guerra così brutale. Forse «l’abbaiare della Nato alla porta della Russia» ha indotto il capo del Cremlino a reagire male e a scatenare il conflitto. «Un’ira che non so dire se sia stata provocata — si interroga —, ma facilitata forse sì». "(Source: Intervista a Papa Francesco: «Putin non si ferma, voglio incontrarlo a Mosca. Ora non vado a Kiev», Corriere del sera, 3 March 2022, https://www.corriere.it/cronache/22_maggio_03/intervista-papa-francesco-putin-694c35f0-ca57-11ec-829f-386f144a5eff.shtml)
Whilst Russia may have committed crimes, I cannot take those reported by our press seriously, because they make so little sense. The crimes of the west, however, have been very carefully investigated by people who have had to flee for their lives or have faced prison - Daniel Ellsberg, Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning, and many others - see for instance https://www.employmentlawgroup.com/timeline-us-whistleblowing/ I did not wake up one day and decide I wanted to embrace Russia, or Syria, but I did come to realise, decades ago, that most of what I read in the paper/saw on TV and heard from politicians was seriously limited and distorted, and reflected very little of what people actually thought or cared about. I read more than one language and look at various media outlets from all over the world - something that is actually possible these days with the internet, but which US-NATO and allied governments have been trying to prevent.