Combine that with the fact that Russia is also “trafficking” Cubans into his army. The information source Cuba with America’s trade embargo assistance,
US national security council official John Kirby noted on August 30 that arms transfer negotiations between North Korea and Russia are “actively advancing” as the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, seeks to feed his war machine.
Source: Ukraine war: two good reasons the world should worry about Russia’s arms purchases from North Korea
No surprise Putin closed down the Wagner Group mercenaries to cut his costs and Shanghai them into his regular army to cut costs with an offer they couldn’t refuse. “We know who and where your families are”. Cubans are behind an even worse “economic 8 ball” with America’s trade blockade assisting Putin. Will Biden lower the embargo after 65 years crippling the Nation and aiding Putin’s new and cheaper armed force? Couple this with Putin currently meeting with North Korea for a boost in arms then what are the odds on Ukraine defending itself this winter?
Key points: Cuba said authorities were working to “neutralise and dismantle” the network Russia’s defence ministry has not commented on the allegations Moscow last year announced plans to increase Russia’s armed forces by 30 per cent
Source: Cuba alleges ‘human trafficking’ of citizens to fight for Russia in Ukraine – ABC News
Before voting in the upcoming Referendum, it’s vital to be educated on arguments from both sides to make an informed decision, writes Dr Abul Rizvi.
Source: How I decided to vote in the upcoming Voice Referendum
The ‘No’ campaign is distorting the truth on the Voice to Parliament and operating in bad faith, writes Dr Victoria Fielding.
The Age and SMH haven’t apologized for the misinformation they published in the article by Lisa Visentin 4 days ago which started the shitstorm about whether or not John Farnham was paid or not. Instead, they have come back with a poorly attempted deflection of “It’s Complicated” by Michael Dwyer.
It isn’t complicated Vinsentin maintained ” Farnham has allowed his 1986 hit to be used in a commercial, having agreed to license it for an undisclosed sum to Yes campaign outfit Uluru Dialogue.” That’s fake and Farnham and his management have denied it. So what was published by Visentin wasn’t verified and it was made up pure and simple. However, to date, neither she, Dwyer, or anyone at Ch9 has actually said sorry John or sorry Tim. Rather, they have tried to duck the issue and thrown a dead moggie on the table in the true political style of “never say sorry” just deflecting and distracting and trying to move on in hope that the 24/7 media cycle will make it disappear. Will they get away with it? John Farnham and his management have clearly stated that they have gifted their rights to the Voice gratis and like Aboriginal Australians deserve to be listened to. Their Voice matters.
If we’re talking about the words and notes on the page, You’re The Voice doesn’t in fact belong to Farnham. So was it entirely a gift?
Source: Voice to parliament: Did John Farnham gift ‘You’re The Voice’ to Yes campaign?
Howard stressed only the negative. No mention of the positive.
Source: “The truth… – The Fiberal Party of Australia – Lies & Misdemeanours | Facebook
Ambrose Bierce, whose cynicism supplies a hygienic cold wash, suggested that politics was always a matter of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. It involved conducting public affairs for private advantage. How right he was. One way of justifying such an effort is through using such words as the “national interest” or “public interest” in justifying government policies, from the erroneous to the criminal. They become weasel-like terms, soiling and spoiling language.
There is nothing to suggest that more flights will automatically reduce prices per se. As Karl Marx documents with expansive brilliance, markets tend towards concentration. In time, companies, much in the manner of hoodlums carving up neighbourhoods for their drugs trade, will divvy up their share and keep prices lucratively high. Miserable customers make for happy shareholders.
Paul Keating rightly calls it the “worst deal in all history,” and the Albanese Government intends to use Australian taxpayer’s money to build up the US and UK submarine construction and ship repair industry. Rex Patrick looks into the AUKUS detail.
Source: AUKUS submarines money drain is well under way – to the UK and the US – Michael West
Don’t blame Reynard Felix is a far far bigger killer
Australia’s unique environment is under relentless attack by unwanted aliens and climate change is about to supercharge the threat, top scientists warn.
Source: Invasive alien species driving destruction of nature worldwide
It’s incomprehensible, then, that many of our politicians support “unlocking the Beetaloo Basin” in the Northern Territory and developing another 48 oil and gas projects across Australia.
Man on a mission to not just self-destruct but take the planet with it
In the last few months events have occurred globally which indicate an astonishing, but not unexpected, acceleration in the pace of climate change. The world has now entered a new era of extremely dangerous climate impacts which are already proving catastrophic in many parts of the world. The factors which hitherto have constrained warming, such as the inertia of the climate system and the cooling effect of atmospheric aerosols, are fading, pushing the global climate system into uncharted territory.
Source: Breaking the suicidal impasse – Pearls and Irritations
Corporate capitalism, defined by the cult of the self and the ruthless exploitation of the natural world and all forms of life for profit, thrives on the fostering of chronic psychological and physical disorders. The diseases and pathologies of despair — alienation, high blood pressure, diabetes, anxiety, depression, morbid obesity, mass shootings (now almost two per day on average), domestic and sexual violence, drug overdoses (over 100,000 per year) and suicide (49,000 deaths in 2022) — are the consequences of a deeply traumatized society.
Source: Chris Hedges: Our Collective Trauma is the Road to Tyranny – scheerpost.com
Dog eating Dog ??
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has sparked rebukes from fellow Liberals and a backlash from Indigenous leaders after he pledged to hold a second referendum to change the Constitution if the Voice is rejected at the ballot box next month.
Source: Voice to parliament: Peter Dutton second referendum plan draws criticism
When even the RIGHT says YES because it really doesn’t matter to their current state of being but does to 3% who have heard No for the past 240 + years
And so it means nothing to most of us but it means everything to some of us. And it would be a sorry and senseless shame if those of us for whom it didn’t matter crushed the dreams of those for whom it could mean the world.
Source: National Times – Yes it’s news.com.au and yes it’s Joe Hildebrand… | Facebook
Norwegian Pride
A Voice to Parliament is “not treating the indigenous population better”, Åhrén says. Rather, “it’s providing equality by treating them differently, because they are different”.
Source: “From now… – The Fiberal Party of Australia – Lies & Misdemeanours | Facebook
Scott Morrison is developing into a post-prime-ministership peculiarity.
Source: National Times – Modern prime ministers have typically left… | Facebook
Along with the right-wing swine sits Peter Costello’s media that printed the fake news that the Wheatlys and John Farnham “sold” the rights to the Voice to the Yes campaign. Will Costello’s editorial staff print a retraction?
McDonagh told Guardian Australia he wasn’t aware the clip was used in the ‘no’ campaign and the posts appeared to be “deliberate copyright infringement by a bunch of rightwing swine”.
Source: Martin McDonagh calls out No campaign after film’s scene used in Voice ad | SBS News
After 76 years there is a particular shamefulness in proposing to defer statehood when an Australian Jew is permitted automatic citizenship, while survivors of the Nakba and their descendants languish in squalid refugee camps denied self-determination and the right of return enshrined in international law.
Source: Justice delayed is justice denied: The case for a Palestinian state – Pearls and Irritations
Belgium’s Minister of Development, Caroline Gennez, said in an interview that “Entire villages are being wiped off the map by the Israelis” in the Occupied Palestinian West Bank.
The Israeli ambassador to Brussels lambasted the remarks as “libel.”
To her credit, Ms. Gennez has stood her ground. And she should, since she is right.
Source: Belgian Minister says what Biden won’t: Israel is wiping Entire Palestinian Villages off the Map
Hatred and violence are surging across the United States as the former president lashes out at judges and prosecutors, reports Alan Austin.
Source: Facing life in prison, Donald Trump fuels racial violence in the USA
In 2018, Steve Bannon observed that: “The Democrats don’t matter. The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit.”
And they have
Source: We have the media we want – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Aint that the Truth
It got me wondering if there’s a book coming out soon by Peter Dutton “Everything You Don’t Need To Know About The Voice” which is filled with blank pages.
Andrew Bolt: You are all getting sleepy, your eyelids are heavy, my voice is like a warm blanket, wrapping around you and soothing you. As you listen to me, you become more and more relaxed. Your body is becoming heavier and heavier, sinking into the chair. Your eyes are becoming heavy, too, and you can feel yourself drifting off to sleep… You will reject political correctness and believe me when I say that black is white and you will read the Murdoch papers and believe them. When I count to three you will seem to be awake but you will never be properly woke and you will tell everyone how I’m the only one making sense…
Source: Peter Dutton Noes Everything! – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Wait a second!
Lisa Visentin’s headline in The Age and SMH says Wheatly’s son and Farnham PERMIT The Voice to be used when they Sold it.
Our media are celebrating the event as if it were a kind-hearted donation when like Colonists they’re making money off the backs of black people. The song might be a great choice but what we’re witnessing is an opportunistic act of destitution capitalism and not generosity here.
“It’s the first time Farnham has allowed his 1986 hit to be used in a commercial having agreed to license it for an undisclosed sum to the Yes campaign outfit Uluru Dialogue. He hoped allowing the song to support a Yes vote would help make the case for the constitutional change”
The Australian music legend has taken the rare step of licensing his iconic song You’re the Voice for a television ad for the Yes campaign.
Source: Voice to parliament: John Farnham permits his iconic song to front Yes campaign ad
Australia needs an arms industry like it needs a hole in the head. It will only contribute to flooding the world with more weapons of destruction when we are already being killed by floods, fires and irresponsible politicians through human induced global warming.
Source: Do we need an arms industry? – Pearls and Irritations
Artists living in extreme weather disaster zones are using creativity to protect their communities and our planet.
I…., governments gravitate in low fashion for the cheapest alternative. The payment of peanuts results in a monkey return.
The Australian and Canadian examples serve as salient lessons to those in government who forget their duties to the public. If you get into the bed of a sociopathic, petulant founder who could only conceive of dating girls through digital networks, using such skin-crawling argot as “the poke”, you are asking for trouble. Even more to the point, you are asking for some share of the blame in forfeiting your duties. Surely it would be more prudent for governments to establish their own information channels in times of crisis, invest in public broadcasters and improve their services to areas of a country, however remote?
India Power
Aditya-L1 is heading for a point in space called L1, about 1.5 million km from Earth from where the spacecraft will have an uninterrupted view of the Sun
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, on being asked about human-caused climate change, said he did not want to “politicize the weather.” Of course, it is not the weather that is at issue but climate, which is long-term and repeated weather patterns. DeSantis ducked the question because Koch Industries and ExxonMobil etc. are big donors to Republican candidates and he did not want to alienate them. DeSantis says that hurricanes are not more frequent now than in the twentieth century. But frequency is not the issue. Intensity is the issue. DeSantis turned down $350 million from the Biden administration for the green energy transition, of which governors like Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer are making use to create jobs and slash carbon pollution.
With the beginning of the hurricane season, the climate is announcing that it is perfectly happy to politicize DeSantis.
It’s going to be huuuge. The election campaign in the US of A, next year, will be bigger than Ben Hur. However, I am going to go out on a limb and suggest that many commentators are talking shit.
The federal legislative and administrative history regarding the treatment of First Nations in Australia has still been unsatisfactory since 1967. That is why we have an average life expectancy for non-First Nations exceeding the life expectancy of First Nations in the case of males by 8.6 years and females by 7.8 years. #TheVoice is a positive step forward to cure the CC and socioeconomic disadvantages First Nations face. A legislative voice alone can be easily torn down by the vicissitudes of either opportunistic or knee jerk politics. The former Howard Government Indigenous Affairs Minister Amanda Vanstone has admitted it was a mistake to have abolished the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (‘ATSIC’) in its entirety (source The Australian). Notwithstanding any internal administrative problems with ATSIC, it was delivering regional solutions for First Nations disadvantage. The tearing down of ATSIC sufficiently illustrates the inadequacy of there being only a legislative voice.
When I read the data about life expectancy alone, I know there is a federal legislative and administrative problem
#TheVoice is a positive step forward for Australia, and #TheVoice unifies us a nation. #TheVoice is a small step for non-First Nations Australians, but it is a major step for the hearts of First Nations.
8.6. That is why I am voting #Yes.
Source: Why I am voting ‘Yes’ – » The Australian Independent Media Network
AUSTRALIA’S SHAME WHY “YES” IS NECESSARY BUT ALBANESE IS SIMPLY A CHOICE!!
Before we begin I’d like to acknowledge how painfully Australian it is that the Prime Minister announced the date of the referendum – ostensibly about whether we should listen to Indigenous people – almost immediately after photo-oping in a personalised Rio Tinto shirt, a mining company that was recently urged not to blow up a 46,000-year-old Indigenous heritage site but did so anyway because this is Australia and we don’t listen to Indigenous people.
Source: The ‘No’ campaign’s argument isn’t based on fear – it IS fear – The Shot
At the energy think tank Ember, Matt Ewen and Sarah Brown have issued a new report showing that the use of fossil fuels in the European Union fell a remarkable 17% in the first two quarters of 2023, year over year. Indeed, hydrocarbons accounted for only a third of energy sources for electricity generation so far this year, an astonishing statistic.
The reduction in fossil fuel use was primarily owing to the abandonment of coal, which plummeted by almost a quarter (-23%) compared to the same period in the previous year. In May, 2023, the 27 nations of the European Union used coal to generate only 10% of their electricity, a record low unparalleled in recent years.
The use of fossil gas was also down, by 13%.
Source: Solar soars by 13%, Fossil Fuel use Plummets 17% in Europe in first 1/2 of 2023
The BRICS partnership now encompasses 47.3 percent of the world’s population, with a combined global Gross Domestic Product — by purchasing power parity, or PPP — of 36.4 percent.
In comparison, though the G7 states (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States) account for merely 10 percent of the world’s population, their share of the global GDP — by PPP — is 30.4 percent.
My thought for the day
Will we ever grow intellectually to the point where we can discern and understand the potential for the good within us? ( John Lord )
Source: The Times they are a Changing – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Pessutto struggling
Moves to “show cause” as plan to expel right-wing Pentecostal Brian Heath from the Victorian Liberal Party have been delayed. Thursday night’s meeting was overshadowed by the resignation of deputy opposition leader Matt Bach, from the leadership team and shadow cabinet. Andrew Gardiner updates.
Source: Pesutto in peril as Vic Libs delay expelling right wing Pentecostal Brian Heath – Michael West
Two former heads of the Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence agency have called on US President Joe Biden not to “legitimise” the Israeli government’s extremism, xenophobia and “coup” by inviting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House during his visit to the US next month.
Christians and Jews both turn to the Bible for their inalienable and God-given right Right to do whatever they wish to “nonbelievers” and in particular Black people. Simply ask Ethiopian and Sephardic Jews together with converted Christian First Nation peoples and ask how they’re treated. Even when they’re far stricter and more devout practitioners of their religions.
This distorted Christianity is at the core of our nation’s deep history of racism. Starting from the very beginning of European settlement, colonists used the Bible to claim Christian explorers had a divine right to seize lands that were not inhabited by Christians. They also argued that they had a godly duty to bring the Bible to native lands. These “Biblical” missions left fields of blood and fire behind them.
Then, as colonists took over the South, Christianity became a lynchpin of slavery. Faith leaders and policymakers professed that the Bible contained passages that clearly supported enslavement. For example, they claimed that Noah’s curse on Ham in Genesis 9:20-27 justified the subjugation of Black people. In some areas, slaveholders also distributed tainted Bibles that removed mentions of freedom and equality.
Has this rooster finally become a Feather Duster?
The arrogance that Trump and his acolytes bring to lying to the public is not the superpower they think it is. Trump fanboys like “Dilbert” creator Scott Adams may call him a “Master Persuader,” but in reality, a majority of Americans have always disliked Trump and his overall popularity has declined over time. And that’s in the world of politics, where lies have more power and “debate” is an unstructured mess that often privileges disinformation. In court, the rules of evidence and argument restrain Trump and other Big Liars more. So much so that Giuliani’s lies about Moss and Freeman, which were so popular among the MAGA right, were too stupid to even bother arguing about it at trial. The only question left is how much money the two will get from the sale of that Manhattan apartment.
Trump tries to make out he has billions squirreled away at the expense of America
Former President Donald Trump unleashed a rant on Truth Social after New York Attorney General Letitia James revealed that the one-term clown fraudulently overvalued his assets. Further, Trump and some people working for him (allegedly!) fraudulently inflated his net worth by $812 million to $2.2 billion yearly since 2011.
Source: Trump: Letitia James Is Defaming Me. I’m Worth Billions. I Swear! | Crooks and Liars
How does the No campaign propose to fix the problems faced by Indigenous people in this country?
Source: Voice to parliament: What are the No campaign’s alternative ideas?
No campaign advocates for peddling “myths and misinformation” about the looming referendum.
Source: “A… – The Fiberal Party of Australia – Lies & Misdemeanours | Facebook
For decades, the leadership of Australia’s public sector union has promised members that once a Labor Party government comes to power, it will lift wages and fix staffing shortfalls. The Albanese government is now refusing these demands.
Source: Australia’s Public Sector Union Is in Decline Thanks to Its Labor-Aligned Leadership
If your business relies on ripping off staff, taxpayers and other assorted bystanders – or needs to prevent public access to affordable life-saving medication – in order to stay afloat, it should just close down, writes managing editor Michelle Pini.
Source: Old, sick or dead? You still need to come and see the chemist
New Policy hears the Pharmacy Guild scream
Millions of Australians living with ongoing health conditions can get cheaper medicines under the first stage of the federal government’s 60-day dispensing policy.
olddogthoughts 
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