(We) can do better

From the National Tertiary Education Union: Australian universities’ governing bodies have become stacked with unelected big business appointees, a new report has revealed.

Dear Prime Minister Anthony Albanese,

As you are surely aware, Julian Assange has been locked away since 11 April 2019 – more than 5 years ago - in solitary confinement for more than 23 hours per day for more than 5 years

If Julian Assange, who has broken no British law [1] can be treated in this way, this means that any Australian citizen can also be imprisoned. (This article has been adapted from a PDF file. To download, see the end of this article.)

Alison Tahmizian Meuse continues with her Twitter/X account @AliTahmizian to report how Armenians are continuing to resist Armenian President Nikol Pashinyan's most recent betrayal of Armenia - his attempt to hand across to Azerbaijan the region of Tavush. (Below is the latest update of 3 May.)

(Updates from 21 April) After years of surrender of territory to the neighbouring Azerbaijan, by President Nikol Pashinyan, Armenians have stood up and opposed Pashinyan's latest betrayal, the attempted handover of Tavush, the region painted red on the map in the north-eastern corner of Armenia. Currently, Ilham Aliyev, President of Azerbaijan is allowing the export of oil to the fascist regime of Benjamin Netanyahu which, has, in the six months since 7 October 2023, murdered over 32,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The oil is piped from Baku in Azerbaijan, through Georgia to the north of Armenia, thence through Turkey to its port of Ceyhan, from where it is shipped to Israel. This is in spite or Turkish President Erdogan's supposed opposition to Israel's genocide. In recent nationwide local government elections, Erdogan's so-called "Justice and Development" party was wiped out because of the disgust by Turkish voters at Erdogan's duplicity. Hopefully these protest in Armenia will not only lead to the ouster of President Pashinyan, buy also of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. For further information, please follow the Twitter/X account of Alison Tahmizian Meuse at @AliTahmizian or her embedded posts here.

Public expenditure must instead address the climate emergency and other urgent social needs. There is no evidence that China presents a military threat to Australia. Continued trade and pursuit of mutually beneficial relations in our region offers our best security.

Update 18 April: George Galloway's guest predicts that Israel will start World War 3 on Saturday.

As the newly-elected UK MP George Galloway recently stated, on Episode 334 of his Mother of All Talk Shows (MOATS), "Will they, won't they, will they won't they, will they they join the dance - Biden says 'no', Netanyahu says 'yes'. Who is going to prevail? How can Netanyahu not say 'yes' because his cabinet have, by a majority, already decided that, within 24 to 48 hours, what will effectively become World War 3 will begin. So, hold your children close and listen carefully to tonight's show, the Mother of all Talk Shows. Who knows? It may be the last time that we ever talk. It's going to be the Mother of all Talk Shows. Stay tuned."

Gideon Levy gives very clear, succinct, and unvarnished opinions in this bombshell interview by Afshin Rattansi of Gideon Levy, author of The Punishment of Gaza and Israeli Haaretz Newspaper journalist.

(Update 7pm +11 27/3/24) Dear Andrew Wilkie, Adam Bandt, Josh Wilson, Bridget Archer, David Shoebridge, Ms.

Super Members Council warns that allowing first homeowners to withdraw their super for a house deposit could see property prices rise by nearly $75,000 across Australia’s five largest capital cities, new modelling from the Super Members Council shows. Pouring retirement savings into housing would inflame an already-inflated property market – pushing up the major capital city median price by an estimated 9%.

I’m writing to you as an anti-war activist, seeking your support for Petition E

As votes are counted, the last remaining Liberal state government in Australia has won 13 out of the 35 seats in the Tasmanian government. The main opposition Labor Party has won 10 seats, the Greens have won 2 seats and 10 seats have yet to be decided.

On SyrianaAnalysis, marking the 13th anniversary of the CIA-engineered dirty war in Syria, two Syrian journalists - Kervork Almassian and Hekmat Aboukhater discuss the appalling machinations of the anti-Syria lobby in Washington DC and the ignorance of the US public.

Some welcome relief for two million people in Gaza as Australian Government restores lifesaving aid. Massive public pressure has greatly contributed to the Government’s decision following Open Letters and history making 22 consecutive weeks of tens of thousands marching in capital cities for the people of Gaza. Australia must pressure for immediate and permanent ceasefire to stop the genocide and end occupation.  

Angus Deaton is the Dwight D. Eisenhower Professor of Economics and International Affairs, Emeritus, at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and the Economics Department at Princeton University. He is the 2015 recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.

Questioning one’s views as circumstances evolve can be a good thing

WEDNESDAY 27 MARCH 2024: This important webinar co-sponsored by over 18 organisations will feature Pine Gap expert, Professor Richard Tanter, whose forthcoming paper, "Pine Gap, Gaza and Genocide", will be summarised to spark discussion among the panelists on the role of Pine Gap in colonial violence and surveillance in Australia and Palestine.  

The webinar is moderated by  Dr Amy McQuire, Darumbal and South Sea Islander journalist

In the recent 29 February by-election for the UK seat of Rochdale, George Galloway campaigned against Israel's mass-murder of Palestinians in Gaza and for Julian Assange's freedom. He defeated the two major pro-war parties, Labor and the Conservatives, to become the new MP for Rochdale in the House of Commons. In the attached 18 minute YouTube video, he is interviewed by Syrian-born British journalist Richard Medhurst.

George Galloway has been declared winner of the Rochedale by-election in the United Kingdom. Previously, Galloway had been an elected member of the House of Commons in 1987 for 8 years, in 2005 for 5 years and in 2012 for for 3 years. In all those years George Galloway has been an outspoken supporter of struggles against imperialism, against apartheid in both Israel and South Africa and for the rights of the working classes and underpriveleged at home.

On 29 February 2024, Israeli soldiers machine-gunned crowds of Palestinians in north Gaza while they stood waiting for food to arrive. Something between 80 and 200 Gazans were killed and hundreds are wounded. "How can this still be possible?" a friend wrote in an email sent to me at 02:19 hrs.

Proposed motion: "The need for the Government to cease using one of the most secretive military export systems in the world to hide from the public the export of Australian military equipment to the State of Israel, particularly as the Chief Economist of DFAT has acknowledged that DFAT data showing millions of dollars in 'arms and ammunition' being exported to Israel is credible." (Senator McKim - Australian Green, Tasmania.) Extract from "Matters of Urgency, Israel" [Australian]

At the end of this document you can see a list of who voted for Mr Wilkie's motion for, among other things, [underlining] the importance of the UK and USA bringing the matter to a close so that Mr Assange can return home to his family in Australia. The motion was carried by a majority, which included the Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese. References: Nos 11 and 12 in THE PARLIAMENT OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES VOTES AND PROCEEDINGS No. 104
WEDNESDAY, 14 FEBRUARY 2024

In this 14 minute video, British journalist Richard Medhurst (@richimedhurst) gives all of the critical facts about the Australian journalist Julian Assange who faces the threat of extradition to the United States.

"The Victorian Government has failed to fund 500 housing places for young people living with mental illness almost three years after making the commitment – a key royal commission recommendation." (Council to Homeless Persons, Melbourne City Mission and Orygen)  The homelessness press-release says nothing about how massive overseas immigration and investment has driven the excessive demand that has resulted in high prices and housing shortage, but this is the elephant in the room, and t

As a citizen of Australia, a purportedly democratic country, I understand that the only way to properly fix serious domestic and international problems - threats to the environment and to our standards of living, ending the population growth Ponzi scheme, ending the illegal imprisonment of Julian Assange, stopping Israel's genocide in Gaza and stopping US wars against countries like Iraq, Libya and Syria - is to put into office a Government that chooses to serves our best interests.

The following has been adapted from a leaflet PDF file. (See Appendix for how to print the PDF file, from which this article was adapted.) In the face of overwhelming votes for a ceasefire by both the United Nations General Assembly on 22 December and by several meetings of the UN Security Council, the Israeli ‘Defence’ Forces (IDF) have continued their latest war against the men women, children and babies of the Gaza Strip. This war began on 7 October, 134 days ago. Since then, with aerial bombardment, tank and artillery shells, rocket fire, banned phophorous, bullets - and who knows what else – the IDF have killed as many unarmed Palestinians in Gaza as they were able to. At the outset of this war, Israel also cut off power and stopped supplies of food, water, medicine and other essentials from going into Gaza, thereby causing many to die of starvation, thirst and illness.

Stop the Great Wall of Frankston and others call for people to come and join us at 11 am this Saturday on Kananook Boulevard at the Rear of Harbour site (next to rear of McDonalds).

Starting on Tuesday 20 February, 9 days from today, a two day hearing, to decide whether or not Julian Assange is to be extradited to the United States, will commence. It seems highly likely that the judge will rule that Assange be extradited to the United States. There he will face a kangaroo court hearing, thence imprisonment for 175 years, in conditions even worse than the solitary confinement he is now being made to endure in London's Belmarsh Prison (find PDF adaptation of this article here).

One of many interesting parts of Tucker Carlson's interview with Vladimir Putin was Putin's explanation of what he means by needing to stop the Nasification of Ukraine.

Going to prison is probably one of the worst things that can happen to a person, even if the prison is well-run with kindly staff. Jail can happen to anyone but mostly it happens to males lacking personal and financial resources. In Australia most cases never go to trial by jury, and many jail-terms are the result of plea-bargaining, rather than based adequately on justice or evidence. Wealthy, influential people can usually stay out of prison.