Author: peterimrich

Informed Comment

“Some People Are Just Dying To Live With The Virus!” – » The Australian Independent Media Network

“And let me make it clear the government does not have a new position. The government’s position has always been that we need to open up immediately.” “So you’re saying that there’s no change and the government is committed to opening up as soon as it’s safe.” “No, I’m saying that Mr Morrison has been very clear that he wants these silly lockdowns to stop. Last year he told us to stop hiding under the doona even before we had a vaccine and now he’s saying that we can’t stay in the cave, so you can’t accuse him of being inconsistent.”

Source: “Some People Are Just Dying To Live With The Virus!” – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Scott Morrison

Ninety per cent vaccination rate needed to avoid mass fatalities: Report

lockdowns Prime Minister Scott Morrison August 20

New expert analysis argues Australia must vaccinate 90 per cent of the whole population before removing COVID restrictions, warning of huge outbreaks and thousands of deaths under the current reopening plan. It comes as Prime Minister Scott Morrison tries to corral state premiers into honouring their commitments to the 70 and 80 per cent targets linked to the Doherty Institute modelling, after Labor leaders in Queensland and Western Australia raised new hesitations. “The national plan we have developed and agreed is our pathway to living with this virus. That is our goal, to live with this virus, not to live in fear of it,” a frustrated Mr Morrison said on Monday. “We cannot hold back.”

Source: Ninety per cent vaccination rate needed to avoid mass fatalities: Report

Fight against Fake News, Fighting Fake News

Old Dog Thought- The New Alchemy- When a Morrison Promise is a said to be a Fact

Fighting Fake News with REAL 24/8/21; Murdoch Media’s Killing Fields; Morrison’s proclimations and promises; Murdoch’s Protection Racket;

Trump

Top 6 Ways Trump forced Abrupt US Departure from Afghanistan; and that Time Trump said Taliban would take over War on Terror

Trump was the first to push the domino

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had been deeply involved in the negotiations with the Taliban. In early January, 2021, VOA reported, “No U.S. servicemen have been killed in Afghanistan in almost a year, and Afghans are finally discussing peace and reconciliation among themselves. Such incredible progress,” Pompeo said in a series of tweets that came one day after several social media posts boasting of American “swagger” during his diplomatic tenure.”

Source: Top 6 Ways Trump forced Abrupt US Departure from Afghanistan; and that Time Trump said Taliban would take over War on Terror

Informed Comment

On Covid and climate we can achieve change – but we’re running out of time | Robert Reich | The Guardian

A large plume from the River Fire fills the air with smoke in Colfax, California.

Our collective tendency is to wait until big problems become catastrophic before dealing with them. Most of the time we’d rather not pay attention. We have all we can do to make a living, bring up our kids decently, save a bit for retirement, hopefully have a bit of fun along the way. We assume others will take care of the biggest threats. Or we tell ourselves there’s nothing more we can do. We may try to live modestly, recycle and conserve energy, use masks and get fully vaccinated. We might even write a few emails to politicians advocating for cleaner air and for stronger public health measures. Beyond this, it can feel hopeless. Hell, I was in a president’s cabinet. I personally know dozens of members of Congress. I have a big megaphone. But when it comes to this simultaneous pandemic and environmental crisis, I sometimes despair too.

Source: On Covid and climate we can achieve change – but we’re running out of time | Robert Reich | The Guardian

Afghanistan

Taliban in Afghanistan: Joe Biden says 11,000 flown from Kabul over weekend

People evacuated from Kabul arrive at Hindon Air force base near New Delhi, India on Sunday. Their flight carried 168 people, according to an Indian government spokesman.

Australia organised four flights out of Kabul last night and more than 300 people were evacuated. This brings the total to eight flights, in the middle of what Mr Morrison said was a “chaotic” situation. “What we are simply doing right now is getting as many people out safely, with the proper checks being done both on the airfield itself and as well as back in the Emirates, to ensure we are doing the right thing in terms of Australia’s national security interests, but also the right thing by humanitarian interests,” Morrison said. Which is what he virtually said when “stopping the boat” and that amounted to as little as possible. Morrison described it a “massive acceleration” for Morrison. “April to ensure we were massively accelerating how we were getting people processed to get them out of the country,” he said. However, he said many people were wise “in hindsight”.

Washington: US President Joe Biden says 11,000 individuals were evacuated from Kabul over the weekend and he remains committed to assisting all Americans who want to leave Afghanistan get out. Biden added Sunday that his first priority is getting American citizens out of Afghanistan “as quickly and safely as possible.”

Source: Taliban in Afghanistan: Joe Biden says 11,000 flown from Kabul over weekend

Australia's Shame

Reluctant Acceptance: Responding to Afghanistan’s Refugees – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Morrison’s ministers are full of excuses about Australia’s unimpressive effort. Defence minister, Peter Dutton, has constantly reiterated the idea that processing the paperwork is a difficult thing indeed, because some of the visa applicants cannot be trusted. Having aided Australian and other coalition forces in the past, they had proved flexible with shifting allegiances. “I’m not bringing people to Australia that pose a threat to us or that have done us harm in Afghanistan.” With such an attitude, shutting the door to the suffering, even to those who were part of the coalition’s absurd state building project in Afghanistan, will do little to trouble an unformed, unimaginative conscience.

Source: Reluctant Acceptance: Responding to Afghanistan’s Refugees – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Israel

Israeli snipers attack Gaza children | The Electronic Intifada

Paramedic carries wounded boy

When the world’s attention is on other things Israel always reveals itself

Israeli occupation forces injured more than 40 Palestinians, including at least 24 children, during protests in the Gaza Strip on Saturday. One of the injured is photojournalist Asem Muhammad Shehade, who was wounded in the face by shrapnel from a live bullet. Another is a 13-year-old boy reportedly in critical condition. Israeli snipers deployed on the Israel-Gaza boundary fired machine guns, live ammunition, rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas canisters at Palestinian civilians who were peacefully gathered near the eastern fence.

Source: Israeli snipers attack Gaza children | The Electronic Intifada

LNP, LNP Government

Morrison delivers for foreign corporations: Lowest wage rise on record

Australian workers have received all-time low annual wages rise over the financial year just ended, reports Alan Austin. AUSTRALIA HAD ALWAYS rewarded workers with steady wage increases year on year as industrial cooperation and improving productivity have generated ever-rising company profits. That is, until 2013, when the current Coalition Government came to power. In the eight years since then, wage rises have fallen to a fresh all-time low six times, the latest at an appalling 1.71%, according to last week’s data.

Source: Morrison delivers for foreign corporations: Lowest wage rise on record

COVID-19

Michael Pascoe: COVID political ground shifts – is an election moving it?

There’s a push in the LNP to STOP talking about the numbers

There’s a push within the Liberal Party, both federal and state, to open up New South Wales when it is 56 per cent fully vaccinated. More than half of NSW’s intensive care unit beds are already occupied. Florida has a fully-vaccinated rate of 51 per cent. Its ICU beds are 90 per cent full and filling fast. And Florida has roughly one ICU bed per 3500 people. NSW has one per 9500. This is why we can’t have nice things.

Source: Michael Pascoe: COVID political ground shifts – is an election moving it?

Scott Morrison

Glad not happy; PM leaks against her as Delta goes viral. – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Politics before Covid

It may be too cynical to say that the failure of COVID-zero was contrived to force the “learn to live with it” option – the Boris Johnson con over the Dan Andrews’ strategy. But, as Mick Young said, whenever the choice is between a conspiracy and a stuff-up, go with the stuff-up every time. Expect numbers of cases to soar in NSW because even its tough new measures are too little too late. Expect Berejiklian to run up the white flag and declare an easing of restrictions as soon as she can. The results will be horrendous. Expect her PM to continue his undermining until Gladys resigns. Enter her deputy, Dominic Perrottet, who’s always quietly advocated letting her rip, to be Morrison’s new gold standard, golden-haired boy.

Source: Glad not happy; PM leaks against her as Delta goes viral. – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Afghanistan

Australia grants visas for more than 100 former embassy staff in Afghanistan, a day after rejecting them | Australia news | The Guardian

People at Kabul airport seeking to flee the Taliban

The Australian government says it has granted humanitarian visas to more than 100 Afghan nationals who worked at its embassy, a day after telling them their visa applications had been rejected. The conflicting information has created confusion as thousands try to flee the Taliban regime. More than 100 embassy guards and full-time maintenance staff were advised via an email from the Department of Foreign Affairs on Saturday that their work for Australia was not enough to grant them a spot on evacuation flights. “Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs has considered your application. Unfortunately you are not eligible for certification under this policy,” the DFAT letter states.

Source: Australia grants visas for more than 100 former embassy staff in Afghanistan, a day after rejecting them | Australia news | The Guardian

Scott Morrison

Scott Morrison shielded by Murdoch protection racket

AMONGST THE MANY reasons why Morrison is virtually untouchable is that the most powerful news outlet in the country – Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp – chooses not to emphasise his political problems.

Source: Scott Morrison shielded by Murdoch protection racket

Fight against Fake News, Fighting Fake News

Old Dog Thought- Morrison only has answers to his questions. None to ours

Fighting Fake News with REAL 23/8/21; US and Australian Intelligence = OXYMORON; Politics of COVID; Suppression the newly forgotten ambition;

Future Possibility and Necessity, Future Shock

A Viable Human Future Depends on Living With Less | The Smirking Chimp

We face a defining choice. We can hold to course with an economy that grows GDP to provide a few with the opportunity to make a killing as they prepare to escape to outer space. Or we can embrace the current opportunity to transition to an ecological civilization, with a living economy dedicated to supporting us all in making a secure and fulfilling living on a thriving living Earth. Awakening to the reality that we cannot eat money and there are no winners on a dead Earth points us to the latter as the clearly better choice.

Source: A Viable Human Future Depends on Living With Less | The Smirking Chimp

Murdoch Media

The dark history of the “Great Replacement”: Tucker Carlson’s racist fantasy has deep roots | Salon.com

Tucker Carlson | The New Zealand flag is seen on the wall at the Botanic Gardens on March 18, 2019 in Christchurch, New Zealand. 50 people are confirmed dead, with with 36 injured still in hospital following shooting attacks on two mosques in Christchurch on Friday, 15 March. (Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images)

It’s worth looking back at that episode now for several reasons. First, Carlson has again been pushing “Great Replacement” discourse more recently, this time by attacking the idea of bringing Afghan refugees to the U.S. in the wake of the Taliban’s lightning conquest of that country. Second, because Fox News’ defense of Carlson has only supported the spread of this racist conspiracy theory. Third, because that theory has a bloody record of inspiring mass murder — not incidentally, but as a logical consequence of its central argument.

Source: The dark history of the “Great Replacement”: Tucker Carlson’s racist fantasy has deep roots | Salon.com

Afghanistan

Deconstructed: Biden’s Afghanistan Withdrawal

A journalist and a former soldier discuss what their experience in Afghanistan taught them about the war.

Source: Deconstructed: Biden’s Afghanistan Withdrawal

Scott Morrison

Taliban Afghanistan: Why Australian soldiers feel let down by Scott Morrison

Captain Jason Scanes (right) in Afghanistan with Hassan.

To some Morrison is the virus

9 View all comments Advertisement Captain Jason Scanes is an Afghanistan veteran who since 2013 has been trying to get his own and other Afghan interpreters safely to Australia in return for the faithful service they rendered our Diggers while there. He ramped up those efforts earlier this year, when it was announced the Coalition was pulling out and their lives would be at risk from the Taliban. He got nowhere.

Source: Taliban Afghanistan: Why Australian soldiers feel let down by Scott Morrison

Cuba

The Best Way to Support Cubans Is to End the US Blockade

The Left’s approach to Cuba should be simple: oppose US attempts to devastate the country’s economy through the blockade.

Source: The Best Way to Support Cubans Is to End the US Blockade

LNP Corruption, LNP Government

Government has drained ABC of objectivity

A free and objective ABC is an integral part of our decent society. It is up to Australians to ensure that it speaks for the voices of the people, in the interest of the nation. It is in the best interest of everyone to have a state broadcaster that publishes objective content, promotes the unity of the population in all its commonality and ensures the health of our democracy with a passion for truth.

Source: Government has drained ABC of objectivity

Scott Morrison

Peter Hartcher column: Inertia is the Morrison government’s personality disorder – and it keeps dawdling to destruction

Illustration: John Shakespeare

Do Nothing Salesman

“You don’t win the 100 metres at the Olympics by walking it,” he replied. In other words, it is a race. Those words were not spoken by any minister in the Morrison government. Heaven forbid. Recall that Morrison initially insisted the vaccine rollout was “not a race”. Until eventually admitting that it was.

Source: Peter Hartcher column: Inertia is the Morrison government’s personality disorder – and it keeps dawdling to destruction

COVID-19

Victoria ‘unlikely’ to eliminate Delta as PM backs NSW on reopening

Premier Daniel Andrews on Saturday announced a lockdown for regional Victoria.

We are living in Alice’s Wonderland of political flips and flops NSW and Morrison are now “leading” the way on Covid and case numbers are “no longer Relevant”. We are supposed to now believe Morrison and Berejiklian’s Liberals are brilliant, leading the way, while Andrews and McGowan are fools. 70% of adults vaccinated which mind you is actually only 50% of Australians and Covid will be deemed “just another flu. That’s now the LNP/Johnson-defined man-made yardstick never mind the virus.

The federal government-backed in NSW’s stance on Saturday and said it could reopen on its current vaccination targets, regardless of daily cases numbers and despite push back from other states.

Source: Victoria ‘unlikely’ to eliminate Delta as PM backs NSW on reopening

Healthcare, Public Health

Victorian emergency nurses leaving jobs because of burnout

nurses ppe

NSW is saying let it rip the numbers and spread are secondary to the vaccinations. However what about the hospitals Gladys. If Vic is currently suffering what about NSW?

Victoria’s emergency nurses are tired, stressed and burned out. Almost 20 months after COVID-19 was first detected, many working in hospitals are being forced into double shifts due to a shortfall of skilled and qualified critical care staff. Some haven’t taken annual leave since the pandemic began. And now, the state is facing its biggest outbreak since August 2020.

Source: Victorian emergency nurses leaving jobs because of burnout

Informed Comment

Gladys In “Pride And Prejudice” – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Gladys Berejiklian shows she knows Morrison will push her under a bus.

Yes, it’s the contradiction that gets me. I’m not suggesting that lockdown is easy, nor am I saying that kids unable to go to the playground won’t find it tough. I’m just wondering why now the same people who’ve been saying “Harden up, princess!” whenever anyone has talked about asylum seekers in detention, or the unemployed or any marginalised group, now suddenly find the fact that people are doing it hard a cause to be embraced. It’s almost like they’re pushing an « open up the economy and consequences be damned » agenda!

Source: Gladys In “Pride And Prejudice” – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Fight against Fake News, Fighting Fake News

Old Dog Thought- When a Do-Nothing Salesman runs a country of Alternative Facts. NSW shows us the way and rescue was never a promised warranty for putting on an Australian uniform
Illustration: John Shakespeare

Fighting Fake News with REAL 22/8/21 When A Do-Nothing is Captain of the Team; NSW leads the way; Morrison’s Rescue System; Morrison’s Australia is a Global Time Warp;

Alt-Right

The alt-Right: An era of misinformation incorporated

From climate denial to COVID-19 confusion to the destruction of liberal democracy, the question has to be asked — how did we get here? Who are the key players in Australia and who are their backers?

Source: The alt-Right: An era of misinformation incorporated

Alt-Right

Unvaccinated Terror: Proud Boys Push the Anti-vaccination Movement into a Violent Threat | The Smirking Chimp

Image

The irony of all this is that the best way to make this problem go away is to do the very thing that the anti-vaxxers hate most: Impose as many vaccine mandates as possible, in every way possible.

Source: Unvaccinated Terror: Proud Boys Push the Anti-vaccination Movement into a Violent Threat | The Smirking Chimp

Informed Comment

Informed Comment- Robert Reich
America

Despite Departure from Afghanistan, America still Has an Archipelago of 750 Military Bases around the World

From 2011 on, nearly a thousand combat outposts and a modest number of major bases have been closed in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as in Somalia. Just a little over five years ago, David Vine estimated that there were around 800 major U.S. bases in more than 70 countries, colonies, or territories outside the continental United States. In 2021, our count suggests that the figure has fallen to approximately 750. Yet, lest you think that all is finally heading in the right direction, the number of places with such bases has actually increased in those same years.

Source: Despite Departure from Afghanistan, America still Has an Archipelago of 750 Military Bases around the World

Informed Comment

Republicans split over Afghan refugees: Trump is now being led by the raging racism of his base | Salon.com

Afghanistan’s all-girl robotics team (First Global/Getty/Mark Wilson)

Murdoch promotes Nazi beliefs

Naturally, Tucker Carlson leads the pack, telling his rapt audience that any acceptance of Afghan refugees is just the latest chapter in the Democratic “Great Replacement” strategy to destroy the ethnic purity of America by polluting it with foreigners.

Source: Republicans split over Afghan refugees: Trump is now being led by the raging racism of his base | Salon.com

Afgahnistan

Afghan-Led Coalition Gives Biden Admin a Blueprint to ‘Prevent Further Harm’ to People of Afghanistan | Common Dreams News

Afghans make their way to the military entrance of the airport for evacuations in Kabul, Afghanistan on August 19, 2021. (Photo: Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

How much did the Australian Government spend in 2020 assisting the occupation of Afghanistan?

According to a recent analysis by Lindsay Koshgarian of the National Priorities Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, the U.S. could cover initial resettlement costs for 1.2 million refugees with the $18.6 billion the Pentagon budgeted for the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan in 2020 alone.

Source: Afghan-Led Coalition Gives Biden Admin a Blueprint to ‘Prevent Further Harm’ to People of Afghanistan | Common Dreams News

Informed Comment

Simple, simple words, simple, simple thoughts. My methodology of writing when angry – » The Australian Independent Media Network

My thought for the day We would be a much better society if we took the risk of thinking for ourselves unhindered by the unadulterated crap served up by the government, the media and self-interest groups.

Source: Simple, simple words, simple, simple thoughts. My methodology of writing when angry – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Comment

Wikipedia v ASPI: on sock-puppets and Wiki-sneaks – Michael West Media

ASPI, Wikipedia

Something is rotten with the state of propaganda

(Editor: ASPI is also Australia’s most influential and aggressive crafter of anti-China propaganda, funded to the tune of $11m a year by government and the military industrial lobby, foreign arms manufacturers that is).

The top of the ASPI page comes with this warning from Wikipedia in bold text: This article has multiple issues. This article relies too much on references to primary sources. This article may rely excessively on sources too closely associated with the subject, potentially preventing the article from being verifiable and neutral.

It is the standard Wikipedia disclaimer when Wikipedia suspects Something is rotten in the state of Denmark—or, perhaps one might say, in the Canberra suburb of Barton.  

More than half of the reference sources on the Wikipedia page come directly from ASPI itself and all but one either endorses or praises ASPI.

 

Source: Wikipedia v ASPI: on sock-puppets and Wiki-sneaks – Michael West Media

Afghanistan

Zoe Daniel: The fate of Afghans who assisted Australia is now in our hands

Afghan people sit inside a U S military aircraft to leave Afghanistan, at the military airport in Kabul on August 19, 2021 after Taliban's military takeover of Afghanistan. (Photo by Shakib RAHMANI / AFP) (Photo by SHAKIB RAHMANI

Morrison says those he wants to evacuate can’t make it to the airport due to the Chaos and the Taliban checkpoints. As a consequence, he could only airlift 160 out. The US has airlifted 9000 out in 6 days they too had to get to the airport. How did they manage and are continuing to manage  that?

Fixers risk their lives to inform the world

Afghans who worked for Australia in Afghanistan took huge risks. Now their fate rests on what risks Australia is prepared to take in return. . As many a reporter will say, a good foreign correspondent is only as good as their fixer. A good fixer will secure the exclusive interview that you get to put your name on and will get you to the centre of the unfolding event; be it conflict, upheaval, or tragedy, to bear witness to history. A good fixer will help explain the nuance, context, and background to a situation. They will help keep you safe, eyes open to everything from the risk of being robbed by petty criminals, to being attacked and kidnapped by local militias, arrested by the local secret police or worse.

Source: Zoe Daniel: The fate of Afghans who assisted Australia is now in our hands

Fight against Fake News, Fighting Fake News

Old Dog Thought- AFP, LNP allowed them to flourish, while Sky News freely promoted their kind. Meanwhile Dutton and Morrison focused on Muslim refugees, how politically Trump
Matthew Golos, known by his online moniker Volkskrieger.
Jarrad ‘Jaz’ Searby at fight training at Racism HQ.

Fighting Fake News with REAL 21/8/21; Nazis of Australia are protected Afghani refugees aren’t; Sydney staring at a further 3month lockdown;

Islam

Taliban “Islam” versus the Islam of the Prophet Muhammad and the Qur’an

I addressed a similar question regarding ISIL in a Nation essay, How Islamic is the Islamic State? All you have to do is think about the manifestations of Christianity. You have your Kentucky snake handlers and your QAnon militants, some of whom carried guns at the Capitol insurrection. Then you have your mainstream Presbyterians and Congregationalists. You have your Order of the Solar Temple cult inside Catholicism. And then you have mainstream American Roman Catholicism. And we haven’t even gone into Evangelicalism in Brazil or all the different ways Christianity is practiced in sub-Saharan Africa. There, you have millions of ordinary Catholics and Protestants but also the virulent Christian terrorist organization, the Lord’s Resistance Army. If we go back in time, you have your Protestant Peasants War in the early 1500s in Germany. You get the picture. In my view, the Taliban resemble the Ku Klux Klan. New York Times journalist David Sanger complained when I said that, saying that the Taliban took over a whole country and the KKK is a fringe. But I’d just like to point out that the KKK had enormous influence in the Democratic Party in the 1920s and that it took over the state

Taliban “Islam” versus the Islam of the Prophet Muhammad and the Qur’an

Murdoch Media

Tucker Carlson’s breathtakingly dishonest claim that refugees are behind the housing crisis | Media Matters for America

Tucker Carlson

It often seems beside the point to fact-check Fox News star Tucker Carlson — he’s a wildly dishonest demagogue whose effortless lying demonstrates abject contempt for his viewers. But I have a masochist streak, so let’s unpack Wednesday night’s whopper that the United States has a “housing crisis” in part because “we are now living through the biggest influx of refugees in American history.”

Source: Tucker Carlson’s breathtakingly dishonest claim that refugees are behind the housing crisis | Media Matters for America

Trump

Feds “deliberately targeted” BLM protesters on orders from Trump, Barr: report | Salon.com

Donald Trump and Bill Barr (Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images)

Should this be a surprise?

The Justice Department “deliberately targeted” supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement with harsh prosecutions at the “express direction” of former President Donald Trump and former Attorney General Bill Barr, according to a new report from the advocacy group Movement for Black Lives.

Source: Feds “deliberately targeted” BLM protesters on orders from Trump, Barr: report | Salon.com

Media, media distortion

Cable News Military Experts Are on Defense Industry Dole

US Army armored humvees and MRAPs driven by soldiers from 1-506 Infantry Division patrol in Paktika province, situated along the Afghan-Pakistan border, on November 27, 2008. Afghanistan is not in a security crisis and disillusionment and recriminations about its situation should be avoided, a UN Security Council team said Thursday at the end of a three-day assessment tour. AFP PHOTO/DAVID FURST (Photo credit should read DAVID FURST/AFP via Getty Images)

Jim Naureckas, an editor at Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, or FAIR, a progressive media watchdog, said such conflicts of interest put a premium on potential atrocities over existing ones. “The imaginary future bloodshed of the Taliban has so much more emotional weight in the coverage than the actual people who have been killed by the U.S. in the last 20 years,” he said. “There’s a symbiotic relationship between media outlets who need sources, the weapons industry that needs favorable news coverage, and the former military officials who need jobs, and it all works out together.”

Source: Cable News Military Experts Are on Defense Industry Dole

Israel

Want to report settler violence? You may soon be under investigation

“These settlers are doing the dirty work of a racist system,” Sam’s post continued. “As soon as they finished assaulting me, they went to the police and filed a complaint that *I* actually assaulted *them,* and a corrupt police system is in place that allows this to actually yield results. The police officer interrogating me literally invoked antisemetic [sic] conspiracy theories reminiscent of the George Soros obsession. I was the victim of an act of terrorism and *I* was the one who was arrested. These incidents are also exactly why I’m doing what I’m doing.

Source: Want to report settler violence? You may soon be under investigation

Afgahnistan

The Best Way to Help Afghans Is to Let Them Come to the US

The idea that the United States should have stayed in Afghanistan to stop it from falling to the Taliban is dangerously misguided. But there is one thing the US can and should do: admit every single Afghan refugee.

Source: The Best Way to Help Afghans Is to Let Them Come to the US

Afgahnistan

US evacuates 3,000 as Taliban revenge fears grow: Live news | Taliban News | Al Jazeera

The US has evacuated 9000 in 6 days. Morrison has managed 160. American evacuees seem to be making it to the airport in large numbers Morrison claims nobody is able to make it to the airport because the Taliban is preventing them. The numbers suggest somebody is lying and it’s not the those reporting on the American numbers.

The United States has evacuated about 3,000 more people from Afghanistan’s Kabul airport, according to a White House official, bringing the US evacuations tally to about 9,000 since August 14. Meanwhile, a United Nations threat assessment report says Taliban fighters are conducting “targeted door-to-door visits” of people who worked with the US and NATO forces, increasing the fear of revenge.

Source: US evacuates 3,000 as Taliban revenge fears grow: Live news | Taliban News | Al Jazeera

Australia

Australia: To where are we advancing? – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Morrison’s Evacuation

This is far too good not to share, and a big hearty thank you to Jaqueline for giving us the opportunity to do so. Let’s help this go viral. PS: Play video with sound turned on.

Source: Australia: To where are we advancing? – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Australia's Shame

Owning up: Australia must admit its involvement in Afghanistan has been an abject failure

Twenty years ago, Australian forces followed the US into Afghanistan in the wake of the September 11 attacks with a simple mission: to hunt down Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaeda leadership and remove the Taliban government that had sheltered them. That mission has ended in abject failure. Its costs have been significant: 41 combat-related deaths, 260 wounded, more than 500 veteran suicides, thousands afflicted by post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and around A$10 billion expended with precious little to show for it.

Source: Owning up: Australia must admit its involvement in Afghanistan has been an abject failure

Fight against Fake News, Fighting Fake News

Old Dog Thought- Morrison is evacuating himself and the LNP
From vaccines to Afghanistan, Scotty does nothing

Fighting Fake News with REAL 20/8/21; Informed Opinion of Scott Morrison; Morrison’s Self Evacuation; The Shovel

Conservative, Conservative Ideology

Alan Kohler: Modern conservatism offers few answers for a pandemic

conservatism alan kohler delta outbreak

COVID-19 is destroying the foundational ethos of individual liberty and small government, to the point where conservatives have been at sea, unable to respond effectively to the health crisis. It comes down to serving the public interest versus the self interest of elites and vested interests, which is not a conflict confined to conservatives: centre-left parties are fully capable of ignoring the public interest and looking after their mates. But in a pandemic, it seems, left-wing governments are more inclined to impose the restrictions necessary to control the virus. Two current illustrations of that are the mess in New South Wales and the crowds at Lord’s this week watching England v India, mask free. The NSW Liberal government was reluctant to lock down hard enough and deprive its citizens of liberty, with the result that the Delta version of COVID-19 is now out of control. The federal Coalition supported that, and criticised the Victorian Labor government’s hard lockdown, but is now forced into embracing total lockdown, along with Gladys Berejiklian.

Source: Alan Kohler: Modern conservatism offers few answers for a pandemic

Information

Why alternative truths? – » The Australian Independent Media Network

These ten factors contribute to the ongoing undermining of truth in society. We often seek simplistic answers to complex questions. Too many of us will not spend the time reading and examining the nuance and subtleties of issues. (Especially when they can be breezed over in a five-minute video.)

Source: Why alternative truths? – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Afghanistan

Everything You Need to Know About What’s Happening in Afghanistan

The Taliban have Hardware ” Made in America” and have had it for 20 years

The rapid collapse of Afghanistan to Taliban rule has created a chaotic, complicated situation. But here’s the fundamental point: the US has nothing to show for two decades of bloodshed and occupation.

Source: Everything You Need to Know About What’s Happening in Afghanistan

Uncategorized

Afghanistan only the latest US war to be driven by deceit and delusion

Many brave, honorable Afghans fought there, but the cohesion and commitment, the belief in their mission, was not there. By contrast, the Taliban were organized, dedicated and coherent, and armed and trained for the actual combat taking place, not for European-style trench and tank warfare. The Taliban clearly had a plan that worked for that country, as the speed of the takeover shows. It succeeded; the U.S. and the Kabul regime failed in what became mission impossible. The fall of Kabul was inevitable. Washington, once again, deluded itself into thinking otherwise. The secretary of state said, “This is not Saigon.” It is Saigon. It is Baghdad. It is Kabul.

Source: Afghanistan only the latest US war to be driven by deceit and delusion

WAR

“If Killing People Would Win This, We’d Have Won a Long Time Ago” | Washington Monthly

Israel sees killing as its most effective strategy to peace and stable government. Simply make 20% of its citizens second class and brutalize the rest. What lessons have the learned?

Yet killing, the application of lethal force, remained the central strategy in America’s 20-year campaign to create a stable government in Afghanistan. Why?

Source: “If Killing People Would Win This, We’d Have Won a Long Time Ago” | Washington Monthly