A powerful confession by US soldier Mike Prysner on his experience fighting in Iraq. “Our real enemies are not those living in a distant land whose names or policies we don’t understand; The real enemy is a system that wages war when it’s profitable, the CEOs who lay us off our jobs when it’s profitable, the Insurance Companies who deny us Health care when it’s profitable, the Banks who take away our homes when it’s profitable. Our enemies are not several hundred thousands away. They are right here in front of us.” – Mike Prysner
Former Treasurer Joe Hockey announced his retirement from politics today, saying it was time to devote more time to his beloved 2014 Budget.
Mr Hockey, who has been the member for North Sydney since 1996, said he was the only person who still believed in the budget. “It has never given up on me, and I have never given up on it. It is only 17 months old – it needs my full attention now”.
Mr Hockey said he felt he could still pass the budget. “But I can’t do that while I’m in the Parliament. That will now be something I do in the privacy of my own home.
“I will have more to say in due course, but for now I ask you to respect our privacy”.
Fox Cable News announced its pick for the 10 Republican presidential candidates it will allow in its Thursday debate. These are candidates who are getting at least 3% support in a basket of opinion polls, including one commissioned by Fox itself. CNN will follow a similar procedure for the debate it will televise in September.
Now that we know the roster of the big ten, I thought we should review them on one key issue, of how likely they are to drag us into another war. And what is amazing is that sending US troops back into the Middle East and going to war there is virtually a plank in the GOP platform. After the disaster in Iraq, they are actually running on war and against diplomacy for the most part!
I think this saber rattling in part has to do with the advent of truly big money in US politics and the end of campaign finance limitations. Since the Republican Party is in general the representative of the 50% of the economy dominated by big corporations, and since arms manufacturers are among those big companies, the GOP has become increasingly the party of war and belligerence. If you actually drop those bombs, you have to order more, which is good for some businesses. In fact, one candidate who did not make the cut and is a notorious warmonger, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), is apparently mainly backed by military-industrial complex money. It is no surprise that he is perhaps the most aggressive candidate in his statements on foreign policy, though he has a lot of competition.
Here is how they stand on this key issue of war and peace, life and death:
Donald Trump (with a polling average of 23.4 percent):
“America’s primary goal with Iran must be to destroy its nuclear ambitions. Let me put them as plainly as I know how: Iran’s nuclear program must be stopped–by any and all means necessary. Period. We cannot allow this radical regime to acquire a nuclear weapon that they will either use or hand off to terrorists. Better now than later!”
I take “by any means necessary” to be enthusiasm for war on Iran, since their civilian nuclear enrichment program cannot be shut down by any other means.
Trump has also urged a US bombing campaign against Iraqi oil refineries as a way of defeating Daesh (ISIL, ISIS). Since Iraq will need those refineries to rebuild after Daesh is defeated, bombing them wouldn’t be optimal. But there you have it.
“that not only would he undo any deal with Iran on his first day as president; he would do so even if our European allies wanted the deal to continue.”
Mediaite also notes, “Huckabee proposed a “third option” that involves taking the Russians, Iranians and Saudi Arabians “out of the energy business” but making the U.S. energy independent.” Short of going to war on them, it is hard for me to imagine how he would do that.
. He said: “If you’re gonna have rules for war, you should just have a rule that says no war,” he said. “Other than that, we have to win. Our life depends on it.”
Rapper and proud Yorta-Yorta man Briggs takes a look inside Reiby, a Juvenile Justice Centre on the outskirts of Sydney, to get an idea of what life is like as a young, indigenous A-class offender.
The prime minister said he would ‘sweat blood’ for my people, that his personal mission was to redress Australia’s ‘national shame’. But words are easy
This week is the 8th International Basic Income Week. It made me contemplate yet again Basic Income as an alternative worthy of serious contemplation as the employment situation in remote Indigenous Australia teeters towards disaster.
It is no exaggeration to say Tony Abbott is the worst prime minister Australia has had. To the extent that his brief and destructive leadership of the country is remembered, it will not be remembered well. Abbott is a prime minister without a legacy. In attempting to defend one this week, he came up with not much: some jobs, a few trade agreements, an infrastructure project, a border protection regime founded on human rights abuses, a royal commission so compromised by bias its own commissioner had to consider removing himself.
Just to reinforce that we have not had any change of thinking with a new leader, Christopher Pyne rolled out his “new curriculum”, endorsed by state education ministers yesterday. There is to be a greater focus on Western civilisation and our Christian heritage. Indigenous issues have been cut from parts of the curriculum, and students…
Immigration department responded to a breach disclosing personal details of thousands of asylum seekers in a way that was ‘unfair to a significant degree’
DALLAS – (CT&P) – Dimwit, religious kook, and Irving, Texas Mayor Beth Van Duyne announced at a press conference this morning that all digital clocks currently in use within the city limits of the Dallas suburb will be seized by police if not turned in by 8:00 A.M. Central Time on Monday.
The ban was put into effect by executive order at 9:00 A.M. this morning.
“All digital clocks currently in use by businesses, churches, whorehouses, Christian militias, and the general public should be handed in over the weekend to police stationed at collection points we’ve set up around the city,” said Van Bruyne, as saliva dribbled from the side of her mouth.
“These clocks represent a ‘clear and present danger’ to our safety as Americans who love Jesus. We regret that this action is necessary, but it has become apparent to us that it is impossible for schoolteachers and police to tell the difference between a hydrogen bomb and an innocent digital clock used to tell time or wake your sorry ass up after a late night on the town in Dallas.”
Mayor Van Duyne’s action was deemed necessary after a brilliant young student, Ahmed Mohamed, brought a homemade clock to school which teachers and police mistook for a 30 megaton nuclear device.
Ahmed was subsequently handcuffed and dragged away by Irving’s version of jack-booted Nazi thugs, and received a three-day suspension from school for exhibiting “creativity, critical thought, and an intellect unbecoming to the Christian religion.”
“We just can’t afford to take chances with these Mooslims and our electronic devices,” said Van Duyne, as she clicked a couple of ball bearings together in her right hand. “Digital clocks are mysterious gadgets and no one in Texas has ever really understood how they work. You never know when one might vaporize a city, and I’m just not willing to take a chance like that with the lives our white Christian citizens.”
Rupert McTurd, president of the Partially Sane Residents of Dallas County Civil Rights Protection League, told CNN that the ban was the result of Van Duyne’s lifelong battle with paranoid schizophrenia.
“This is the same woman that’s terrified that sharia law is going to instituted in a 95% white Christian community,” said McTurd. “She’s been out of her fucking mind for quite some time now, and the only reason she got elected in the first place is because she looks like a used up ex-cheerleader from Muleshoe, and she has roughly the same IQ.”
PSRDCCR and other civil rights groups have already filed lawsuits in federal court today to overturn the ban and have Van Duyne committed to a psychiatric facility in Radiation Flats just south of Lubbock.
In a heated interview this afternoon, controversial 2GB radio host Ray Hadley grilled new PM Malcolm Turnbull about how he came to power, asking him to confirm his version of events by swearing on a copy of ‘Prestige Homes Of Point Piper: A Definitive Guide For Discerning Buyers’.
But Turnbull hit back, saying it was offensive to bring his faith into a discussion about politics.
Earlier, Hadley suggested Turnbull had been planning Monday’s coup behind Tony Abbott’s back for months, a claim which the new PM denied.
“If you look down to your right hand side of the studio there’s a book there,” Hadley said.
“Jonestown: The Power & Myth of Alan Jones?” Turnbull asked, before finally locating the leather-bound Point Piper volume, featuring some of the finest investment opportunities in Eastern Sydney.
“Do you want to put your right hand on it and swear that what you’ve told listeners is true?” Hadley asked, adding, “It would make it a lot easier for people to believe you”.
But Mr Turnbull declined, saying “I don’t have to swear on this collection of beautifully-appointed luxury homes, mate. I find that offensive”.
Half of Victoria’s 6506 prison population comes from just six suburbs or towns: Broadmeadows, Corio, Doveton, Frankston North, Maryborough and Morwell.
Labor seats dominate in the list of electorates with high unemployment rates at the time of the 2011 Census. The odd seats out in the top 20 are two unusual Coalition electorates in Morwell and Frankston.
There are 32 electorates where more than 2% of the population are Muslim, and Labor holds 29 of these seats. There is a strong concentration of Muslims in areas of north-west Melbourne where there is a large concentration of Turkish born residents, while many Muslims in south-east Melbourne come from different ethnic backgrounds. The state median value for Muslims per electorate is 1.1%. The National held seat of Shepparton has the highest concentration of Muslims in a Coalition held seat with 4.4%. and is regarded as the model of Multicultural integration.
Distinctive ‘cross-checking’ tradition helps explain extraordinary accuracy in 21 stories about dramatic sea level rises between 7,000 and 18,000 years ago
America’s major foreign policy and training of Islamist radicals in the past are responsible for “disasters” in the Middle East now, such as Syria and Libya and Islamic State, a former head of the US consulate visa department in Saudi Arabia J. Michael Springmann told RT.
The ousted PM never strayed from the belief that his God-given mission was to save a nation in peril. But Australians didn’t buy it – we don’t see ourselves that way
Saying it was ‘harmless’ and that ‘we should just let him have his fun’, members of the Coalition front bench have agreed to let Tony Abbott keep on thinking that he is running Australia for now.
“He’s been looking forward to this all of his life, so it won’t hurt anybody to let him pretend for a few more months,” said one front bencher.
One Parliamentary staffer said it was cute watching Mr Abbott play make believe. “It is quite adorable really. Seeing him run around, playing with his terror alert metre, telling everyone what to do. We just go along with it and say ‘Yes Prime Minister!’ We’ve even set up his own little office with some Australian flags. It’s all quite harmless really”.
“I have no qualms with it,” said another staffer. “Peta, bless her, still gives Tony his daily briefing. I think some of the guys even set up a mock cabinet meeting the other day for Tony to run. It’s harmless”.
When contacted for comment Mr Abbott said simply, “The adults are in charge now!”
BRUSSELS – (CT&P) – The European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union, met in emergency session in Brussels this morning to discuss possible sanctions against the United States if it looks like a Republican might win the White House in 2016.
President Jean-Claude Juncker explained to journalists after the meeting that member nations were alarmed by what they saw on CNN.
“We all saw clips of the first debate on Fox News, and after a brief meeting we decided that is was just more of that organization’s propaganda,” said Juncker. “But after last night, it seems that the GOP is seriously proposing that one of these clowns should be president of the United States.
“I was on the phone all morning long with panicked leaders from all over Europe, and I think I can speak for the entire continent when I say that we don’t want any of these fucked-up individuals to have the authority to launch nuclear weapons.
“Half of them are religious kooks and the other half don’t have the sense God gave a goat,” said Juncker, as he wiped sweat from his brow.
“We’d like to make it clear that this is not an indictment of the American people in general. We all have faith that the last thing Americans want is to put another hick in charge that will throw another land mass into chaos like Bush and that demon from hell Cheney did the Middle East. But we have to err on the side of caution and be ready to impose strict sanctions in the unlikely event that America loses its collective mind and tries to elect one of these idiots.”
President Juncker did not specify what form the sanctions might take, saying that the specifics were yet to be determined. However, he did say that European leaders would be “pulling out all the stops” to prevent the world from being subjected to another moron in the White House.
Is complacency about the threat of nuclear war misplaced? Future Tense hears from three experts about which hotspots run the risk of turning into nuclear trouble zones.
Contributing editor-at-large Tess Lawrence hopes that the ascension of Malcolm Turnbull to the prime ministership will usher in a better and less brutal form of politics.
Greg Sheridan’s eulogy of the Abbott Prime Ministerial era in The Australian yesterday, says a lot about his loyalty to a close friend, but little by way of a believable appeasement for what was probably the worst performance by any national Australian leader in our short history. Sheridan is brave in predicting that, “History will…
The rise of Jeremy Corbyn to the UK Labour Party leadership suggests the old corporatist political consensus is collapsing in the wake of its failures, as people cast about for a better course.
It’s grown from nothing to costing taxpayers $4 billion this year, and growing fast, and there are few controls. Now the salesmen and shysters are in charge of Australia’s vocational education system.
The biggest factor behind the recessionary trend is not the Chinese market, austerity budgets, or even the threat of higher US interest rates this year.
In the Mediterranean climate of California, with its warm, wet winters and hot, dry summers, the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada mountains plays a critical role. It serves as a natural water storage system that feeds waterways and reservoirs during the dry summer months.
As part of the government’s newly found willingness to send ministers jetting off to far-flung places to find out what is actually going on (and gaining credits in the polls for doing so), the Prime Minister…
2015 and 2016 could be the hottest years on record due to climate change and a powerful El Niño.
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