
Cruelty in Your Name – Colosseum and after (ODT)

Cruelty in Your Name – Colosseum and after (ODT)
From this moment on, whenever anyone asks my why – as a lifelong environmentalist – I continue to vote Labor and will never, *ever* vote Green again, I’m gonna refer them to this speech from the Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews.
It was in response to a question from a Greens MP asking if Andrews would support a “climate emergency”. I could not like this more if it turned up on my doorstep with LPs of the entire KLF back catalogue and ten boxes of doughnuts. If you are with m…

Kurds saved the Yazidis in Iraq. The Kurds saved America from ISIS and now for Trump’s sake they have been betrayed and they will never be allowed to enter the paradise he calls America (ODT)
As the Kurds defend democracy first against neighbouring countries in the region, ISIS and now Turkey, the West once again abandon their supposed allies. Behrouz Bouchani, a Kurd and journalist fleeing from Iran has been imprisoned on Manus and now PNG for the past 6 years, since 2013. He has become the offshore absent conscience of Australian politics. He is one of Australia’s many political prisoners and yet he has committed no crime, broken no law, there has been no charge, no lawful detention or justice. All he ever wanted was to report the abuse, to tell the truth, to live, to be free. He is one of the many. Morrison and Dutton look on.
We like to watch our TV, we witness, we gloss over and we allow this injustice to continue on all fronts, even in our own country, in the absent halls of our own conscience.
The Ethic Protestism/Capitalism Lost and forgot about (ODT)
You could be forgiven for not knowing this is anti-poverty week. The poor, as we know, are always with us – which is great because it means we can focus on our own problems and worry about the poor’s problems later. We can fight to protect our tax breaks, then get around to wondering about how easy we’d find it to be living on $280 a week from the Pollyanna-named Newstart allowance.
via If Scott Morrison adhered by Christian principles, he’d increase Newstart
It would not make any sense to have the competition build overlapping fibre infrastructure. However, when the Government changed the game and went for its second-rate multi-mix technology version, I agree with Telstra that at that stage it would have been better for the Government to abandon the NBN altogether and leave it to the industry. We would have had, in many areas, a far better network at lower costs than the one we have today. Thanks to Tony Abbott (ODT)
Key points:
Most key savings and term deposit rates are below the inflation rates, eroding savers’ purchasing power
Standard savings accounts returns at major banks drop to around 0.1pc once introductory rates expire after a couple of months
Looking for better returns for savings means taking on higher risk
The impeachment inquiry is moving at dizzying speed. The Axios website noted that if everyone agrees to appear, Democrats will have interviewed 11 administration officials by the end of next week. Every witness has “bolstered the case against Trump”, Axios added, leaving White House officials demoralised or panicked.
Trump impeachment inquiry gathers pace as more officials testify | US news | The Guardian

Could it be as simplistic as trying to wedge the Dems politically and having them come out ‘for war’.Trump after all wants desperately to say he fullfilled his election promises. Struggling with the both the Style and Meaning of a President both Internationally doing what he says others can’t all for his domestic image. After all all he does is Campaign, watch TV, Twitter, sue and sack People posture and play golf. Jerry Lewis couldn’t have played him better. (ODT)

Shell’s BUSINESS MODEL and MINDSET incapable of even TRANSITION. BHP can see a future without COAL (ODT)
Mental deterioration can afflict any of us quite suddenly. On the other hand, it can overcome us in a number of smaller steps. Could this be the case with Donald Trump?
Let’s recount some recent events that are indicative.
Take the devastating fires in Southern California that Vox described ”…as the single most destructive and third-deadliest fire in state history”. In its account of the fires, Reuters reported: ”Donald Trump is known for his fiery comments, but his recent tweet has outraged prominent celebrities who slammed it as ‘demented’.
What did he say? Did he empathise with those who had lost their houses? Did he express horror at the appalling loss of life? No. He reflected on the emergency, in a Tweet of course, with: “There is no reason for these massive, deadly and costly forest fires in California except that forest management is so poor. Billions of dollars are given each year, with so many lives lost, all because of gross mismanagement of the forests. Remedy now, or no more Fed payments!” A dire threat as a proxy for empathy!
This example alone is sufficient to raise the suspicion of significant mental deterioration, even in someone as bizarre as Trump.
The president of the California Professional Firefighters assailed Trump with “The president’s message attacking California and threatening to withhold aid to the victims of the cataclysmic fires is ill-informed, ill-timed and demeaning to those who are suffering as well as the men and women on the front lines.” Celebrities lashed out at Trump’s ’ill-judged and out-of-touch’ tweet as an absolutely heartless response…there aren’t even politics involved. As you tweet, there are good American families losing their homes and evacuating into shelters.”
But that’s just the start. Read the rest of the piece here.
via Is Donald Trump mad? (Revisited) – » The Australian Independent Media Network

and

All US special forces personnel are being withdrawn from Syria after Turkish artillery targeted some of their bases to force them back from the border, and after Turkey cut off their supply lines. At the same time, Syrian Arab Army troops are advancing on the Kurdish northeast of Syria, raising the danger of US troops getting caught in the crossfire. A thousand such troops are too few even to defend themselves, and although no one is saying so, I suspect they also fear the anger of their betrayed allies, the People’s Protection Units or YPG, among whom they have been embedded, but whom Trump has now turned over to Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan’s abattoir.

Cash was swepthunder the carpet (ODT)
via Michaelia Cash, invalid union raids and ‘Ensuring Integrity’ legislation
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)
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
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