USA and the Coalition UK and Australia read it in the Murdoch news (ODT)
Category: Uncategorized
The problem Trump has no vision and is totally manipulated by those with short term interests (ODT)
“When Trump comes to power, the Arab spring is turned into an Arab winter. There are bushfires in Syria, in Libya, in Egypt, in Tunisia, in Yemen and elsewhere in the region,” he says.
“America’s interests are endangered, and Iran is seen by America’s allies, including Israel and Saudi Arabia, as the main beneficiary of Arab uprisings.
“And the more Iran is involved in Syria, the more it is involved in Yemen, the more it supports the Shias in Bahrain and inside Arabia and in Iraq, the more fearful and hostile America’s allies in the region get. And while they felt that Obama did not have a listening ear, in Trump they found a willing ally in not just containing Iran but to try and roll back Iran’s influence.
“And so when you get those three, inevitably Trump’s strategy of an aggressive reaction to Iran wins the day.”
“Our problem in the West has been that largely we’ve tended to be very reactive, we haven’t really had the patience to deal with this as a strategic issue, which I have to say the Russians do.
“I mean, the one advantage of Putin, as unpleasant as he is, is that certainly for those rulers in the Middle East is he seems to have a strategy and he sticks to it, whereas the West seems to be at sixes and sevens about what it’s planning to do and doesn’t really have a plan.”
Why America and Iran hate each other – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
The world’s greatest miracle was ready to happen 70 years ago when a nation of 700 million saved 1.3 billion people today. History isn’t one made by great men but by the needs of a nation of people. Today China has only 1 military deployment outside it’s borders and a nation of people fed, housed, educated with health, jobs all upwardly mobile and not simply because of Mao alone but necessity. (ODT)
LNP burns it’s CO2 emissions in a week and promotes for more (ODT)
NSW fires: The world has made the link between Australian coal, fires and climate
Andrew Bolt fled the country’s “NORMAL” weather. Meanwhile, Morrison who thinks its normal too is calling in the ADF to fight fires while Trump is preparing for war and wanting Australia to do it’s part for the Coalition of the Killing. Can the ADF do both or will Morrison bring back the draft for those on Newstart? (ODT)
Sydney’s Penrith the hottest place on Earth amid devastating bushfires
Why is it Republicans to win elections start wars? The USA has been losers in all their encounters since WW2 and Trump is no different. A loser he’s yet the biggest war machine on the planet he’s taking the US into yet another war they can’t possibly win. This time it’s illegal yet again. (ODT)
“This strike went forward with no notification or consultation with Congress,” committee Chairman Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) said in a statement Thursday. “Even if this strike was in self-defense, no current congressional authorization covered it and the President needs to notify Congress within 48 hours pursuant to the War Powers Resolution. The law requires notification so the President can’t plunge the United States into ill-considered wars.”
via Democrats Warn Of Massive Consequences After Assassination Of Soleimani | HuffPost Australia
A personal comment in response to the Trump regime’s assassination of redoubtable Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, a national hero now martyred by US imperial rage.
He represented Iranian resilience and resistance against US state-terrorism, its endless wars of aggression, its rage for global control by brute force — responsible for countless millions of deaths, vast destruction, and human misery globally.
The nation I grew up in long ago no longer exists. Never beautiful, it was world’s apart from today’s permanent US state of war on humanity at home and abroad.
via Stupid Is As Stupid Does Defines the Trump Regime’s Foreign Policy – Stephen Lendman
The United States, like Israel, has become a pariah that shreds, violates or absents itself from international law. We launch preemptive wars, which under international law is defined as a “crime of aggression,” based on fabricated evidence. We, as citizens, must hold our government accountable for these crimes.
via War With Iran
With the release by JustSecurity.org of unredacted emails on the Ukraine scandal showing that Trump personally (and illegally) withheld congressionally mandated military aid to an ally, the Republican defense of the president is collapsing. Some GOP senators such as Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski seem to be weakening on calling witnesses and subpoenaing records for the Senate trial, and the Democrats only need four Republican senators to ensure a proper proceeding, which would certainly put Trump’s presidency in peril.
It is extremely suspicious that Trump has abruptly begun trafficking in the sanguinary merchandise of all-out war just at this moment when his throne is on the brink of toppling.
Meanwhile, Morrison is cutting funds to the ABC (ODT)
Hurricane Katrina was one of the worst natural disasters in US history. It displaced of hundreds of thousands of people in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The damage was estimated at $US100 billion, and more than 1,000 people are thought to have died.
“Politics is a set of activities associated with the governance of a country or an area. It involves making decisions that apply to group of members. It refers to achieving and exercising positions of governance—organized control over a human community, particularly a state. … Politics is a multifaceted word.”
Our current Prime Minister needs to read the paragraph above very carefully. His very position and all activities in which he engages are political and both affect and are affected by the policies which he and his cabinet formulate.
via We were once the envy of the world, but look at us now – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Morrison is hell bent on cutting the budget of Public Media to the equivalent of 1984. (ODT)
There have been 670 emergency broadcasting events for the 2019-20 financial year so far, an ABC spokesman said, compared to 371 for the full 2018-19 financial year. In 2017-18 there were 256 events, a figure that had been surpassed by mid-September 2019.
via ABC under ‘growing’ cost pressure as bushfire emergency broadcasts surge
EMPTHY TRAINING 101 BY SCOTT MORRISON
via Scottie And The Art Of Shaking Hands! – » The Australian Independent Media Network
via 
‘The water kept rising’: Jaarta residents inundated by flooding that killed 21
Just after lunch on New Year’s Day, Nidya Desianti received a text alert, telling her to evacuate form her Jakarta home. But it was too late to leave.
To stamp out climate bullying that prevents action on climate change, which then results in the most devastating consequences, it is critical, for every single person in the country must make the commitment today that they will put the Liberal and National Parties LAST on their ballot.
Our future depends on it.
via Climate Bullying – A Deviant Behaviour – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Given the extent of money flowing into Labor’s associated entities, questions remain to be answered by the AEC as to the destination of the payments made by these entities.
What is also clear is that the money flows in a circular fashion between the various Labor branches and associated entities. One can’t help drawing a comparison with the way laundered and dirty money is put through a casino ‘washing machine’ to be legitimised. One thing is clear, the lack of transparency in our political donations system is disturbing. One can only imagine what the most recent AEC disclosures prior to the last election will reveal, or not reveal.
But what has all this union money achieved? One only has to look at Labor’s support for the gas sector and mining in Qld and NSW (come on down Joel FitzGibbon) and draw your own conclusions.
Until the political donations process in this country, particularly through ‘associated entities’ is made publicly accountable, we can only guess as to the extent our politics is being influenced by vested interests.
via Australian Labor, the CFMEU and its secret money – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Scott Morrison is trying desperately hard to find the right language to reassure Australians that he believes climate change is “real” but that he won’t do anything that might cost money to address it.
He wants us to be “patient” as he methodically changes his mind about whether volunteers should be paid since they “want to be there”, whether the ADF should be deployed, and whether we might in fact have to bring in some more aerial firefighting assets.
No “knee jerk reactions”… and certainly nothing that could possibly resemble being proactive from our PM.
He talks a lot about the funding that the Commonwealth is handing out. Because we all know we can’t have Labor’s “unfunded empathy”.
The Messiah from the Shire seems a little flustered that people expect him to actually do something – show some leadership maybe?
He keeps saying now is not the time for politics or photo shoots.
But what else has he got?
To quote another pretender to the leadership … he’s a “bit of a weathervane“.
via Do the smoky hokey – » The Australian Independent Media Network
London: Renewable energy has overtaken fossil fuels to become Britain’s largest source of electricity in a historic shift that could signal the “beginning of the end” for coal across Europe.
National Grid data released on New Year’s Day revealed coal represented just 2.1 per cent of Britain’s overall electricity output in 2019.
By comparison, black and brown coal fuelled 74 per cent of Australia’s energy mix in 2018.
As bushfires rage and the demands for action on climate rise, the gas cartel is developing a suite of enormous fossil fuel projects destined to blow Australia’s commitments to the Paris Agreement to smithereens. Michael West reports on the push to frack new provinces; the propaganda and the reality.
Denial that any man made events Australian, Global or otherwise have caused the current events these are purely a Natural event and LNP policies are sufficient to deal with it. Meanwhile Angus Taylor and Australia have been literally booed out of Cop 25 while cheered on by USA’a Donald Trump. It’s amazing how when push comes to shove Morrison now says “let the “experts do their job”. The very experts the LNP have been ignoring cutting the budgets of for the past years they have been in control. Morrison has been an expert denier long before he became PM. (ODT)
Prime Minister said: “There is no doubt natural disasters are termed that way because that is what they are. They are natural disasters. They wreak this sort of havoc when they affect our country and they have for a very long time..
Dangerous fire weather warnings spur evacuations in NSW and Victoria“Our emissions reductions policies will both protect our environment and seek to reduce the risk and hazard we are seeing today. At the same time, it will seek to make sure the viability of people’s jobs and livelihoods,”
Fox pundits are predicting a new “civil war” brought on by liberal anti-Trump activists and the media. But in reality, they’re the ones fantasizing about violence and using increasingly unhinged rhetoric.
via Watch: Fox News’ unhinged rhetoric in 2019 | Media Matters for America
Militiamen Breach U.S. Embassy In Baghdad; Trump Blames Iran
The developments represent a major downturn in Iraq-U.S. relations that could further undermine U.S. influence in the region.
via Militiamen Breach U.S. Embassy In Baghdad; Trump Blames Iran | HuffPost
Morrison , Dutton and Taylor vying for Australia’s worst (ODT)
According to Taylor, “Australia has strong targets, clear plans, an enviable track record” on climate change, and Australians should be proud of it.
But when overseas groups look at Australia’s record compared to the rest of the world, the assessments come out differently.
The most recent analysis ranked Australia as the sixth worst country on climate change overall.
An analysis by Climate Action Tracker says Australia’s Paris targets are “insufficient” and inconsistent with the Paris goal of keeping global warming well below 2C.
Australia has been placed consistently towards the bottom in the annual Climate Change Policy Index analysis of the world’s top 57 emitting nations.
The most recent analysis ranked Australia as the sixth worst country on climate change overall.
Morrison throws respect overboard a view from outside Australia.(ODT)
Welcome to our annual Top 5. Being an election year we expected the Top 5 would have been filled with election talk, but it was not the case (as you will see below). It is safe to say that with Labor expected to win the May election in a canter, we were not as vociferous as normal at election time. Indeed, it wasn’t until December when Morrison’s profound incompetence as a leader was on full display that we really threw ourselves into full-time politics.
via 2019: The Top 5 – » The Australian Independent Media Network
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