Cash was swepthunder the carpet (ODT)
via Michaelia Cash, invalid union raids and ‘Ensuring Integrity’ legislation
Author: peterimrich
The least Australia can do, for starters, is to censure Trump for colluding in Erdoğan’s invasion of Syria; giving the green light to his genocidal plans towards the Kurds. Other nations are already applying sanctions on Turkey. It is imperative we also take a stand against Erdoğan’s invasion before it is too late.
Prevailing on your BFF Donald Trump to resume control of the skies over North-East Syria would be a start while an international peace-keeping team could follow. You can send a team to the Golan Heights on Israel’s border. Surely you can also send a team where it’s needed most.
via Send a peace-keeping team where it’s needed most, ScoMo – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Anyway, I couldn’t help but feel that there was a little bit of inconsistency being shown here. I don’t just mean because Dutton is suggesting that we should be arresting our own protestors, while Wilson is disrupting traffic in another country. I’m talking about our position on China.
via Ita, Tim Wilson, Peter Dutton And The Water Boy… – » The Australian Independent Media Network
the Turkish military doesn’t function without the U.S. weapons industry—and the approval of the U.S. government. Absent all the hardware bearing Made in America stickers sitting in Turkish military bases, we would probably not be fretting about what Turkey’s government was doing to the Syrian Democratic Forces.
placing American military personnel in harm’s way apparently carries less political risk than endangering the profits of munitions manufacturers, or the careers of foreign policy experts.
via Turkey, the Kurds, and Lots and Lots of US Weapons | The Smirking Chimp
Trump gave the nod and Turkey took the option. Sticks and stones break boned Trump now words will allow death to happen (ODT)
Key points:
- US warns of devastating sanctions against Turkey, “great harm” to ties
- Kurds say nearly 200,000 people have been displaced
- Iran offers to mediate between Kurds, Syrian regime and Turkey
According to Turkish president Recep Erdogan, Turkey’s goal is to create a buffer zone separating Syria’s Kurds from the Turkish border.
But his country’s attack will do much more than that. If successful, it will destroy the most full-fledged democracy the Middle East has yet to see.
via Turkish attack on Syria endangers a remarkable democratic experiment by the Kurds
While Europe has scant influence over what happens next, the US has plenty – but seems determined to throw it away. Despite denials, it is clear from the White House statement issued on 6 October that Donald Trump rashly agreed to Erdoğan’s invasion, without consulting his allies, and facilitated it by withdrawing ground forces.
It was a disastrous decision the US is belatedly scrambling to correct. Betraying the Kurds, comrades-in-arms in the fight against Isis, was bad enough. Appearing to abandon Syria to Russia and Iran, America’s rivals and the main backers of Bashar al-Assad’s criminal Damascus regime, was a big strategic own goal, capping eight years of post-Arab spring US policy failures.
Trump puts himself in shit up to his bottom lip and sinking Impeachment, Obstruction, Giuliani,Syria, and is in desperate need to of a positive move he can call a win. So he uses up one he was saving for pre-election 2020. Given the news cycle is 24/7 what happenned in the past is easlily forgotten like for example starting a small trade war with China. Trump was the one who started it. Today he wriggled down to his chin and declared himself the hero and winner. After all the Chinese don’t broadcast in English or Does he broadcast in Chinese and if push comes to shove he always has Fox to run point guard for him. China has done nothing. Trump has declared a win but at best all we are seeing is Trump walking back from something he originally started and do doing a Kim Jong-un in reverse. Your being conned America (ODT)
US markets jumped on news of a US-China trade, but slipped back down on the detail
The “phase one” agreement is limited to agriculture, currency and intellectual property, well short of the comprehensive deal the US is seeking
It is expected to take 5 weeks to sign a deal, and while President Trump says it should be completed, he conceded it could still fall apart
Donald J. Trump@realDonaldTrumpSo now they are after the legendary “crime buster” and greatest Mayor in the history of NYC, Rudy Giuliani. He may seem a little rough around the edges sometimes, but he is also a great guy and wonderful lawyer. Such a one sided Witch Hunt going on in USA. Deep State. Shameful!2:11 AM · Oct 13, 2019Twitter for iPhoneUS President Donald Trump has defended his lawyer Rudy Giuliani as a “legendary crime buster” and “wonderful lawyer” after a media report that prosecutors are investigating whether the former New York mayor broke lobbying laws in his dealings in Ukraine.
“So now they are after the legendary ‘crime buster’ and greatest Mayor in the history of NYC, Rudy Giuliani,” Trump said in a statement on Twitter.
via Trump defends Giuliani amid reports of federal investigation
“To us, this inevitably means fruit and nut crops.” 1kg of almonds takes 860 liters of water to grow (ODT)
And big corporations are among those trying to cash in on it.
In farming country just north of Shepparton in northern Victoria, multi-million dollar agricultural investment corporation goFarm is buying up properties all over the district.
Documents obtained by the ABC from The Weekly Times show the company wants to control at least half of the Katunga Deep Lead Aquifer, an important groundwater resource for local farmers.
Peter Dutton has used his preferred diplomatic channel, 2GB, to mightily piss off our biggest trading partner by saying that the policies of the Communist Party of China are “inconsistent with those of Australia.”
Further wading into the mire, he proclaimed that “Australia is not going to allow university students to be unduly influenced by China, the theft of intellectual property or the hacking of government or non-government organisations.”
The reaction from the Chinese was predictable, calling his comments “irrational”, “shocking” and “baseless”.
via The Dud strikes again – » The Australian Independent Media Network
![Trump holds a campaign rally in Minneapolis, Minnesota [Leah Millis/Reuters]](https://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/imagecache/mbdxxlarge/mritems/Images/2019/10/11/8160c50c536b4ac88dff7f37781dad3a_18.jpg "Trump impeachment inquiry: 10 developments you may have missed")
![The deployment is part of what the US has described as defensive moves following the attack on Saudi Arabia's oil facilities last month [File: Massoud Hossaini/Reuters] [The Associated Press]](https://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/imagecache/mbdxxlarge/mritems/Images/2018/10/13/bc6825f4fd6b4adc949d9db6182bb3ca_18.jpg "US to deploy 3,000 additional troops to Saudi Arabia")
Trump’s Troops for Oil, but not for Life of any Kurd (ODT)
via US to deploy 3,000 additional troops to Saudi Arabia | Saudi Arabia News | Al Jazeera
Trump declares all American Institutions corrupt and therefore has the right of executive privilige. The right od a Dictator (ODT)
By contrast, the new report paints a picture of widespread opposition to the president’s actions within his own White House.
Four, and possibly more, national security officials in the White House were concerned about Trump’s actions, according to the report, both before and after the president’s now-infamous July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. In the call, Trump strongly indicated that U.S. assistance to Ukraine could be contingent on Zelensky giving him what he wanted, specifically: investigations into the 2016 election and former Vice President Joe Biden.
First the Trump Administration permitted the invasion by Turkey and now the media claims they are “warning against it. A whitewash in progress (ODT)
Key points:
Trump administration warns of “serious consequences” for offensive
Turkey vows to continue until all Kurdish militia forces are “neutralised”
Islamic State militants have escaped prison due to Turkish shelling
What’s not so obvious is that this conspiracy extends to the rule of law. According to this skewed version of reality, corruption has penetrated the bedrock institutions of American society: the political sphere, the intelligence agencies, the mainstream media. Corruption has transformed the very fabric of politics, culture, and law.
To root out corruption, then, it’s necessary to step outside the rule of law. Donald Trump hasn’t declared a state of emergency. But he is acting as if he has (which, in case you’re wondering, is illegal). His decision not to cooperate with congressional inquiries, including the most recent impeachment inquiry, is also part of this unstated state of emergency.
the President of the United States brazenly “colluded” with two foreign powers (to coin a term), publicly encouraging them to attack one of his domestic political opponents—the very thing the Founders most feared, and which they created the mechanism of impeachment to address. Yet the silence from the President’s party thus far has been deafening. Are we going to be a representative democracy ruled by law, or an autocracy led by a despot? Is the modern GOP really willing to burn the entire foundation of our republic to the ground in order to maintain its hold on power? (Rhetorical question. We know by now that they are.)
The modern Republican Party is about to decide just how savagely history will remember it. And if we as a nation allow them to get away with it, we deserve what we get.
My thought for the day
I found it impossible to imagine that the Australian people could be so gullible as to elect for a third term a government that has performed so miserably in the first two and has amongst its members some of the most devious, suspicious and corrupt men and women but they did. (John Lord)
via The Bill that Australia despised – » The Australian Independent Media Network
The Grattan Institute similarly wants ministerial diaries to be published and has called for the lobbyist register to be linked to the orange passes.
Related Article
Lobbyists with orange “sponsored passes” have access to every office in Parliament Lambie also supports the five-year cooling-off period and wants the lobbying code of conduct to apply to anyone who lobbies, regardless of whether they are on the register. She says this should be policed by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.“It will mean anyone who lobbies – whether they’re a third-party lobbyist for the mum-and-dad shop down the road, or an in-house lobbyist for Google – has to follow the same standards,” she wrote in 2017.
Fair and unbiased reporting is disappearing in Australia as the Coalition Government and Murdoch Mafia gain control of our news, writes Ranald Macdonald.
via Australia’s Right-wing stranglehold over public interest journalism
Covered because if they aren’t they are murdered Dutton’s Death Camps for Australian Women and Children (ODT)
Get us money or get us out of here,” the message from the desperate Russian Islamic State bride read. Writing in one of their encrypted Telegram groups, the women of al-Hawl detention camp in north-east Syria were trying to mobilise friends and family on the outside to organise a prison break.
via After Turkish invasion, prison break fears at al-Hawl Islamic State detention camp
The situation has duly worsened. On Monday, Guterres suggested the possibility that the UN would run dry of cash reserves by the end of October. In a letter to the 37,000 employees based at the UN secretariat, the secretary general explained that, “Member states have paid only 70 per cent of the total amount needed for our regular budget operations in 2019. This translates into a cash shortage of $230 million at the end of September. We run the risk of depleting our backup liquidity reserves by the end of the month.”
Of the current amount of some $1.3 billion owed to the UN by members, the US boasts the lion’s share of arrears at $1 billion. This figure of imbalance has not prevented Trump, from venting about other members. “So make all Member Countries pay, not just the United States!”
At what cost has always been the question asked but never answered by the LNP (ODT)
olddogthoughts 
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