Tax Havens

$1 trillion in the Shade – the annual Profits that Multinational Corporations shift to Tax Havens continues to Soar

(The Conversation) – About a decade ago, the world’s biggest economies agreed to crack down on multinational corporations’ abusive use of tax havens. This resulted in a 15-point action plan that aimed to curb practices that shielded a large chunk of corporate profits from tax authorities.

But, according to our estimates, it hasn’t worked. Instead of reining in the use of tax havens – countries such as the Bahamas and Cayman Islands with very low or no effective tax rates – the problem has only gotten worse.

Source: $1 trillion in the Shade – the annual Profits that Multinational Corporations shift to Tax Havens continues to Soar

Australia

AUKUS and B-52’s stand in the way of a treaty with Indonesia – Michael West

Two plus two meeting in Indonesia

A recent meeting of ministers generated a swag of the usual cliched statements, but also some hope of strengthening our relationship with our closest neighbour. But there are obstacles on both sides of the Timor Sea, reports Duncan Graham from Indonesia.

Source: AUKUS and B-52’s stand in the way of a treaty with Indonesia – Michael West

Cuba

John Kiriakou: A Trip to Cuba – scheerpost.com

Cuba is a 45-minute flight from Miami. American Airlines flies there six times a day. I urge all of you to make the trip, if you are able. I’ve been to 70 countries around the world. But rarely have I had my eyes opened, rarely have I been so enlightened, like on this trip to Cuba. Go to Cuba. Experience the culture, the music, the poetry, and the history. Learn how the Cuban people live and see how resilient they are.

Our government is simply wrong on Cuba. We would benefit from full diplomatic relations right now. We would benefit from a close working relationship with the Cuban government and the Cuban people. The Cuban people love Americans. Almost everybody in the country, literally, has a relative living and working in the United States. It’ll be a lot of work, but it can be done. And we would all be better off for it.

 

Source: John Kiriakou: A Trip to Cuba – scheerpost.com

Putin

Chancellor Scholz on Ukraine: Putin Tried to Blackmail Germany with Fossil Gas, but only Accelerated Energy Diversification

Russia’s attempt to blackmail Germany and the rest of Europe into giving up its support of Ukraine by cutting energy supplies has failed, chancellor Olaf Scholz has said on the anniversary of Russia’s invasion attempt of its western neighbour. “Those who look at the past year will see: the Russian president has failed,” Scholz said in a statement.

Source: Chancellor Scholz on Ukraine: Putin Tried to Blackmail Germany with Fossil Gas, but only Accelerated Energy Diversification

Fight against Fake News, Fighting Fake News

Old Dog Thought- What doesn’t kill you Cate?

Fighting Fake News with REAL 26/2/23, Cate Blanchet, Indonesia & AUKUS

LNP

Victorian politics: Conservative Liberals plan to roll party president Greg Mirabella

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America has arrived in Australia in the form of the LNP

A group of conservative Liberals are war-gaming to roll party president Greg Mirabella and the more moderate members of the powerful administrative committee, prompting fears of a conservative takeover of the Victorian division.

 

Source: Victorian politics: Conservative Liberals plan to roll party president Greg Mirabella

Truth in Humor

RoboSuper OR “When Labor Run Out Of Money They Come After Yours”! – » The Australian Independent Media Network

So now that there are rumours that there may be some changes to the taxation benefits to people with superannuation balances of over $3 million, it’s Labor who’ve run out money and not the Liberals who doubled the debt BEFORE Covid hit and tripled it after. No, Labor have run out of money and they’re looking to raise revenue to balance the budget! Outrageous. The Liberals never worry about balancing it; they just tell us that they intend to because that’s what good housekeepers do.

Source: RoboSuper OR “When Labor Run Out Of Money They Come After Yours”! – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Comment

The “little Americans” that populate Australia – Pearls and Irritations

Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation member countries flags on world map with national borders.

Greg Sheridan, in his opinion piece of Tuesday 21 February, provides yet another display of his spiteful, vacuous journalism – his erroneous claims that I am not the progenitor of the APEC Leaders’ Meeting, and that my views on Australian strategic policy are eccentric and at odds with the US alliance. PJ Keating reply to Greg Sheridan – The Australian, 21 February

Source: The “little Americans” that populate Australia – Pearls and Irritations

Israel

The illusion of Israeli democracy has been shattered | The Electronic Intifada

People across the world have watched the thousands of Israelis demonstrating against their government with at least some bemusement. After 75 years of Israel denying its own agency in the terrible catastrophe it has inflicted on the Palestinians, its new government is now blamed for doing something most Israeli governments have never done – openly discussing the aim of controlling the whole of Palestine through an exclusive Jewish apartheid state.

Source: The illusion of Israeli democracy has been shattered | The Electronic Intifada

Israel

The settler-colonial origins of Israel’s constitutional crisis

Thousands of Israeli protesters rally against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's new government in Tel Aviv, February 11, 2023. (Gili Yaari/Flash90)

Tens of thousands of Israelis have filled the streets of major cities in recent weeks to protest significant judicial reforms that the new far-right Israeli government, elected late last year, is seeking to ram through the Knesset with a narrow majority. These developments have been framed as a major constitutional crisis and have brought on talk of an Israeli “civil war” and drawn the intervention of concerned outsiders. This crisis, however, is not about diverging from the essence of the Israeli political system, but rather about continuing it. To understand why, one must look at the origins of Israel’s constitutional crisis, which was and continues to be shaped by the state’s desire to prioritize settler colonialism over liberal governance.

Source: The settler-colonial origins of Israel’s constitutional crisis

Murdoch Media

The Root of Fake News Is the Corporate Lust for Profit in Media

Recent court disclosures prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt: Fox News knowingly lies to its audiences. But corporate media is fundamentally a vehicle for profit-making, which means that both right-wing and liberal outlets have an incentive to lie.

Source: The Root of Fake News Is the Corporate Lust for Profit in Media

American Dream

Right-wing media figures defend and even endorse Marjorie Taylor-Greene’s calls for “national divorce” | Media Matters for America

Right-wing figures agreed with Greene’s sentiment that political differences between the left and right have made a national divorce inevitable

Source: Right-wing media figures defend and even endorse Marjorie Taylor-Greene’s calls for “national divorce” | Media Matters for America

Israel

Jimmy Carter was Pilloried for Worrying about Israeli Apartheid, but he has Been Amply Vindicated by History

From his bed in the Hospice Jimmy Carter has grown and stands taller than Presidents who followed him

Carter’s prescient 2006 book Palestine: Peace, Not Apartheid elicited a storm of criticism from many Jewish organizations and leaders. It prompted condemnation from the powerful lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Council (AIPAC), and leaders such as Alan Dershowitz, who outrageously branded Carter’s judicious book “a foray into bigotry.” Carter has been the only American president with the candor to call out Israel for mirroring apartheid policies of South Africa. So it’s timely to revisit the message, consequences and reactions to that book, as his passing approaches. Since AIPAC and Dershowitz have lost the credibility they once had, their branding and character assassination of Carter doesn’t reflect so badly on him, when you consider the source.

Source: Jimmy Carter was Pilloried for Worrying about Israeli Apartheid, but he has Been Amply Vindicated by History

Informed Comment

A Second Attempted Coup? The McCarthy-Trump-Fox-Complex | The Smirking Chimp

The McCarthy-Trump-Fox complex is internally consistent — connecting authoritarianism, right-wing Republican hackery, GOP political fundraising, Trump-boosting ratings outrage, and greed. It’s a vicious cycle designed to sow anger and distrust while advancing the power and wealth of McCarthy, Greene, Trump, Carlson, and Fox News.

This is the same combination that fueled Trump’s presidency and led to his first attempted coup. Will it lead to a second?

Source: A Second Attempted Coup? The McCarthy-Trump-Fox-Complex | The Smirking Chimp

Putin

More Evidence Emerges That US Wanted Russia to Invade

 

In the past year, additional proof has emerged proving the West’s provocation of Russia to give it its “Vietnam” in Ukraine.

Consortium News on Feb. 4, 2022 warned that the U.S. was setting a trap for Russia in Ukraine, as it had in Afghanistan in 1979 and Iraq in 1990, to provoke Russia to invade Ukraine to provide the pretext to launch an economic, information and proxy war designed to weaken Russia and bring down its government — in other words, to give Russia its “Vietnam.” Twenty days later Russia invaded.

Source: More Evidence Emerges That US Wanted Russia to Invade

Fight against Fake News, Fighting Fake News

Old Dog Thought- The LNP/ Murdoch are now MAGA in Australia

Fighting Fake News with REAL, 25/2/23, Fueling Inflation, Israel Terrorist State, LNP MAGA in Australia,

Uncategorized

Corporate profits fuelling inflation, research finds – Michael West

Did you hear QANTAS made a “record profit”? Did you hear Joyce tell you the price won’t come down to where it was pre-Covid? Did you hear QANTAS was a “superior product”? Currently, all corporations seem to be singing the same song. Banks, Mining, Gas and Oil.

It costs you over $1000 to disconnect your gas isn’t that legalised extortion? It costs to change your bank loans. It “costs” your spending isn’t driving inflation corporate profiteering is.

New research points the finger at excess corporate profits as a core driver of inflation and says there’s scant evidence of a wage-price spiral in the Australian economy.

Source: Corporate profits fuelling inflation, research finds – Michael West

Australian Economy

Lowe’s secret inflation fear: big companies’ price-setting power – Pearls and Irritations

Small piggy banks and large piggy bank balancing on a seesaw.

Despite the grilling he got in two separate parliamentary hearings last week, Reserve Bank governor Dr Philip Lowe’s explanation of why he was preparing mortgage borrowers for yet further interest rate increases didn’t quite add up. There seemed to be something he wasn’t telling us – and I think I know what it was.

Source: Lowe’s secret inflation fear: big companies’ price-setting power – Pearls and Irritations

Banks

What Will Happen When Banks Go Bust? Bank Runs, Bail-Ins and Systemic Risk – scheerpost.com

When banks go bust who pays?

The question is whether the Fed would see depositors as “systemically important,” but the rush to compete for deposits shows that they are. Arguably deposits are the people’s weapons of mass destruction: pull them and the banks go down. The banks need our deposits; and we need the sort of self-sustaining financial system in which money, credit and banks are treated as public utilities, accessible by and accountable to the people whose full faith and credit backs them.

Source: What Will Happen When Banks Go Bust? Bank Runs, Bail-Ins and Systemic Risk – scheerpost.com

ALP Government,

The Qld end to the beginning for the failed War on Drugs?

IA applauds the Palaszczuk Queensland Labor Government’s new stance on drug law enforcement, sensibly stating that drug use is primarily a health issue, not one of criminal justice.

Source: The Qld end to the beginning for the failed War on Drugs?

Capitalism

The Capitalist Road to Serfdom

Walk into a Bank or BHP and you won’t find Democracy or individuals but we nevertheless support them.

By design, the corporation is not a democratic enterprise. Its management is hierarchical, its imperatives are growth and profit, and its structure is a de facto class system of owners, managers, and workers. You could argue that in the earliest days of capitalism, something like the concept of free enterprise actually existed: firms of various sizes competed, with even the largest dwarfed in both size and influence by most nation states. Today, the world’s biggest companies not only wield monopolistic power and exert considerable political influence, but in many cases have market capitalizations exceeding the GDPs of entire countries.

Source: The Capitalist Road to Serfdom

Fox News

“Incredibly damning”: Legal experts say Dominion already has “staggering” evidence against Fox | Salon.com

Rupert Murdoch (Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images)

Emails and text messages showing Fox News executives and hosts dismissing the same election conspiracy theories they aired improved the chances that Dominion Voting Systems will win their case against the network, legal experts say.

Source: “Incredibly damning”: Legal experts say Dominion already has “staggering” evidence against Fox | Salon.com

ASIO

Spy hive uncovered by ASIO reportedly linked to Russia

Parliament cyber hackers asio

Australia has spies but is not very good as far as the craft. Even our allies have been known to spy on us. Israel’s Mossad and America’s CIA to name two have been spying on us for years. We on the other hand spied on Timor Leste much to our shame and embarrassment. We got caught and tried to cover it up badly,  It’s the very nature of ASIO to keep secrets misinform and practice the art of fakery. So is this what we are seeing being done here in the name of openness? It’s a pity our spy chief bears the name of Burgess another notorious Russian spy in the UK,

A hive of foreign spies busted by Australia’s intelligence agency in the past year was reportedly linked to Russia.

Source: Spy hive uncovered by ASIO reportedly linked to Russia

Cuba

Does Cuba Have a Future? | The Smirking Chimp

Their choice has never been free due to the over 60 year blockade by America

Over 220,000 Cubans streamed out of the country toward America, many of them through Nicaragua and then across the Mexican border, a dramatic increase from the 39,000 in 2021. Leading the rush to the exit are young people, who represent the future of the country. It’s not quite as large a demographic drop as in Venezuela, which has lost over a quarter of its population since 2015. But combined with a low birth rate and an aging population, the outflow of Cubans threatens the long-term viability of the country.

Source: Does Cuba Have a Future? | The Smirking Chimp

Israel

Israeli Rampage leaves 11 Dead, over 100 Injured in Occupied Nablus, but Kamala Harris only Condemns Russian Occupation of Ukraine as War Crime

Israeli notion of Collateral Damage 11 dead 100 some critically wounded. All for the sake of three alleged now-dead suspects. State-sponsored vigilante mayhem the equivalent of a Nazi or KKK raid condemned by 140 nations and only supported by 25% the likes of Nth Korea, Hungary, the Congo, Australia and the USA among others. Israel hypocritically voted against Russia this week having abstained for the past year. According to Netanyahu there simply is and never was a Palestine so there is no “illegal occupation”. The global Jewish community increasingly disagrees.

A daytime Israeli military raid on Wednesday on an apartment in the Palestinian city of Nablus in the Palestinian West Bank spiraled out of control, with the Israeli troops killing 11 persons and wounding over one hundred civilians with gunshots. Some of the injured are in critical condition. The Israelis say that they were after three young men, two members of the “Lion’s Den” resistance group, and the other a member of “Islamic Jihad.” The three were accused of having carried out attacks against Jewish squatters on Palestinian land. The troops killed all three, apparently by blowing up a building in which they were making a last stand.

Source: Israeli Rampage leaves 11 Dead, over 100 Injured in Occupied Nablus, but Kamala Harris only Condemns Russian Occupation of Ukraine as War Crime

Israel

Biden Administration Takes Its Capitulation to Israel to an Absurd New Level – scheerpost.com

As the new right-wing Israeli regime ramps up its oppression of Palestinians, the Biden administration has taken its capitulation to Israel to a new and absurd level. After nominating an independent expert to serve on a human rights commission, the U.S. State Department withdrew the nomination because the expert accurately called Israel an apartheid state. A week later, the United States prevented the United Nations Security Council from voting to condemn Israel’s illegal settlements in Palestinian territory.

Source: Biden Administration Takes Its Capitulation to Israel to an Absurd New Level – scheerpost.com

Ukraine

Who’s Winning and Losing the Economic War Over Ukraine? – CounterPunch.org

A picture containing text, outdoor, nature, wave Description automatically generated

Since weapons have only just started rolling off production lines to build these stockpiles, the scale of war profits anticipated by the arms industry is best reflected, for now, in the 2022 increases in their stock prices: Lockheed Martin, up 37%; Northrop Grumman, up 41%; Raytheon, up 17%; and General Dynamics, up 19%.

Source: Who’s Winning and Losing the Economic War Over Ukraine? – CounterPunch.org

Fight against Fake News, Fighting Fake News

Old Dog Thought- QANTAS rubs it in your face if you’re not a shareholder or upper-echelon executive

Fighting Fake News with REAL, 24/2/23, Media, Morrison, Michael West Media- QANTAS brags,

Capitalism

Qantas shareholders re-Joyce, not taxpayers, passengers and staff – Michael West

Alan Joyce Qantas results presentation

The ebullience with which Qantas chief Alan Joyce announced the airline’s record half year pre-tax profit of $1.4 billion, underscored the jarring disconnect now at play in the company. Michael Sainsbury reports.

Source: Qantas shareholders re-Joyce, not taxpayers, passengers and staff – Michael West

Fox News

The Corruption at Fox News Is Worse Than You Assumed – Mother Jones

An explosive legal filing reveals evidence showing the network is crooked from top to bottom.

Source: The Corruption at Fox News Is Worse Than You Assumed – Mother Jones

Fox News

Fox insiders admit even Fox viewers don’t trust Fox | Salon.com

Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity (Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images)

Murdoch has never been in the News or the Trust business. Ratings ,ratings ratings, just as for Trump, is all that matters as far as their business model goes. Murdoch just happens to be far better at the business than Trump. The defamation case against them must prove “mal-intent” to harm Dominion Voting Systems. Surely even in the US that’s a laydown Misere?

Recently released internal Fox communications don’t just reveal the company’s willingness to amplify lies its leaders knew were toxic to American democracy, the emails and texts also reveal that Fox’s viewers are just like most people – even they don’t trust Fox.

Source: Fox insiders admit even Fox viewers don’t trust Fox | Salon.com

Human Rights

How Queensland’s Human Rights Act protects fugitive Australian journalist Shane Dowling from being extradited to NSWKangaroo Court of Australia

On the 3rd of September 2021, the NSW Supreme Court sentenced Shane Dowling (me) to 10 months jail for contempt of court and issued an arrest warrant but the Queensland Human Rights Act gives the right to a “fair hearing” to every Queenslander which I say was breached.

It’s a “right” that will be tested in court if I am arrested but the right to a “fair hearing” guaranteed by a Human Rights Act is something every Australian should have which they currently don’t.

Source: How Queensland’s Human Rights Act protects fugitive Australian journalist Shane Dowling from being extradited to NSWKangaroo Court of Australia

Scott Morrison

Facebook-Morrison swims in a swamp of US influence peddlers.

May be an image of 1 person and text that says 'FORMER PRIME MINISTER SCOTT MORRISON SPEAKS DURING A SYMPOSIUM OF THE INTER-PARLIAMENTARY ALLIANCE ON CHINA (IMAGE: AAP/AP/EUGENE HOSHIKO) Hon. Scott Morrison'

National Times3d ·Morrison swims in a swamp of US influence peddlers. But who does he speak for? ( David Hardaker for Crikey)

Source: Facebook

Privatisation

Ambulance chasers Slater & Gordon win a shiny takeover bid. What’s the scam? – Michael West

What's the scam

Long-suffering shareholders of law firm Slater & Gordon may soon be out of their misery, with private equity vultures honing in for a buy-out. What’s the scam?

The scam is private equity ain’t there for the justice Your Honour; there is profit to be had exploiting Australia’s legal system by running about drumming up lawsuits for a buck. Private equity mob Allegro intends to restructure (euphemism for sackings and leverage) and sell again in a few years for a big profit.

Source: Ambulance chasers Slater & Gordon win a shiny takeover bid. What’s the scam? – Michael West

Australia's pride

Australia condemns brazen US blockade of Cuba in UNGA vote – Pearls and Irritations

Red marker over Cuba island.

Australia should be proud of its vote in the General Assembly in November last year to condemn the ongoing US blockade of Cuba.

Source: Australia condemns brazen US blockade of Cuba in UNGA vote – Pearls and Irritations

Cuba

Cuba and Vietnam, What’s the Difference? – CounterPunch.org

Map of Cuba

What the Pentagon and the CIA have never been able or willing to recognize is that the last thing the Cuban people want is to be ruled again by the U.S. government. Notwithstanding the horrors of living under socialism, given a choice between socialism and U.S. rule, most Cubans would pick socialism any day of the week. Given a choice between economic liberty and socialism, I think most Cubans would pick economic liberty, just so long as the U.S. government butted out of their lives.

Source: Cuba and Vietnam, What’s the Difference? – CounterPunch.org

Fight against Fake News, Fighting Fake News

Old Dog Thought- The sharks circle and see an opportunity to privatise social justice

What's the scam

Fighting Fake News with REAL, 23/2/23, ALP and the Greens,Turnbull on AUKUS, Dutton’s Pick, What’s the Scam?,

Australia

A Parliament of Landlords Will Not Solve Australia’s Housing Crisis

The overwhelming majority of Australian Labor Party federal MPs are landlords. Maybe that’s why they can’t solve the housing crisis.

Source: A Parliament of Landlords Will Not Solve Australia’s Housing Crisis

ALP Government,

Santos’ wins fracking approval for Towrie gas development from Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek – Michael West

Tanya Plibersek

At 4:55 pm yesterday afternoon, Tanya Plibersek approved another Santos fracking project to go ahead in Queensland’s Surat Basin. No announcement or fanfare, and only a single researcher keeping a close eye picked it up, reports Callum Foote.

Source: Santos’ wins fracking approval for Towrie gas development from Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek – Michael West

ALP Government,

‘Making climate crisis worse’: Greens blast Labor after Queensland coal seam gas expansion approved | Climate crisis | The Guardian

Australian Greens leader Adam Bandt speaks to the media during a press conference at Parliament House

Decision allows Santos to open 116 new wells with an operational life of about 30 years in Queensland’s Surat Basin

Source: ‘Making climate crisis worse’: Greens blast Labor after Queensland coal seam gas expansion approved | Climate crisis | The Guardian

Israel

When will it ever end? – Pearls and Irritations

President Bill Clinton greeting Ariel Sharon and Yitzhak Mordechai December 12, 1998

This is an act of piracy colonisation and plain and simple invasion of the lands of other people. It’s a government-sponsored act of rape by Israel

Every time we Palestinians, despite all the compromises we offer, try to gain a modicum of justice we find not only is it denied to us, but that we are the ones to blame for this lack of progress for a peaceful co-existence with our occupiers.

Source: When will it ever end? – Pearls and Irritations

Republicans

Is the new AP African American Studies course Dangerous? Students don’t think so

This is the New America,

Three days after the nation honored Martin Luther King Jr.’s leadership in the Civil Rights Movement, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Education announced that no Florida public high school would be allowed to teach the nation’s first and only Advanced Placement or AP African American Studies course at the college level. She asserted that the “course lacks educational value and is contrary to Florida law.”

Source: Is the new AP African American Studies course Dangerous? Students don’t think so

Republicans

Who Does Kevin McCarthy Think He Is, Handing J6 Footage To Fox? | Crooks and Liars

Who Does Kevin McCarthy Think He Is, Handing J6 Footage To Fox?

In Murdoch’s pocket?

Rep. Bennie Thompson, who is the ranking Dem on the Homeland Security Committee, yesterday blasted Kevin McCarthy for handing over tens of thousands of hours of riot footage from Jan. 6, 2021, to Fox News host Tucker Carlson. How the hell does this happen? Via The Hill:

Source: Who Does Kevin McCarthy Think He Is, Handing J6 Footage To Fox? | Crooks and Liars

Fox News

Revealed: How Fox prime-time hosts and executives attacked Fox reporters who fact-checked Trumpworld’s 2020 election lies | Media Matters for America

Jacqui Heinrich, Kristin Fisher, Dana Perino, and Neil Cavuto with a red background of Fox News logos

A new filing by Dominion Voting Systems for a motion for summary judgment in its defamation lawsuit against Fox News revealed that multiple Fox executives and prime-time hosts privately attacked a handful of Fox hosts and reporters for fact-checking the 2020 election lies being spread by former President Donald Trump and his staff. The court document also exposed that these senior Fox personnel knew the Trumpworld claims were lies, even as the network continued to push them.

Source: Revealed: How Fox prime-time hosts and executives attacked Fox reporters who fact-checked Trumpworld’s 2020 election lies | Media Matters for America

ALP Government,

Malcolm Turnbull says Labor has failed to answer if Aukus deal compromises Australian sovereignty | Aukus | The Guardian

Malcolm Turnbull

Former PM says if operation of nuclear subs depends on US then that is ‘a momentous change which has not been acknowledged’

Source: Malcolm Turnbull says Labor has failed to answer if Aukus deal compromises Australian sovereignty | Aukus | The Guardian

Bernie Sanders

Sen. Bernie Sanders, “Embarrassed” by “racist” Israeli Government, Threatens to Withhold Aid

Sanders, who is Jewish, has several beefs with the current government in Israel, not least that he is “embarrassed” by it. Israel should not reflect on Jewish Americans, who are only responsible for their own individual actions and speech. The world is unfair that way, though, and for some people the fascist takeover in Israel will raise questions about what sort of person would not only support it but also try to silence anyone who speaks out against it. Sanders clearly feels that it is an albatross about his neck.

Source: Sen. Bernie Sanders, “Embarrassed” by “racist” Israeli Government, Threatens to Withhold Aid

Russia

Russia-Ukraine war: Putin accuses West of starting war in Ukraine in long, lacklustre speech

Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures as he gives his annual state of the nation address in Moscow.

Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the West of starting the war in Ukraine, but said that he would not start a nuclear war, in a lengthy and rambling speech to the nation on Tuesday.

Source: Russia-Ukraine war: Putin accuses West of starting war in Ukraine in long, lacklustre speech

Murdoch Media

Murdoch Propaganda Readies Australia for War with China

Anyone who’s paying attention knows the behavior of the U.S. war machine is as relevant to Australians as it is to Americans, writes Caitlin Johnstone.

Source: Murdoch Propaganda Readies Australia for War with China

LNP

Dutton and the DeLorean – » The Australian Independent Media Network

When Dutton opposes, he is using the same process as Trump – promising to make Australia great again by returning to undefined ‘conservative’ values. As we’ve seen in the USA, the armed followers of Trump’s returning America to greatness agenda mounted a deadly coup on the US Congress while Trump and his assortment of hangers on and media supporters did nothing. Unfortunately, those that should have done so, the leaders of Trump’s political party, his Vice President and Congressional Leaders as well as the media should have stood up to him far earlier – but didn’t. The ‘Convoys to Canberra’ and similar activities demonstrate that the same forces have infected the Australian political system and the Coalition has and continues to provide tacit approval.

Source: Dutton and the DeLorean – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Truth in Humor

Victim in sexual assault case finally speaks out | The Shovel

The victim in a case about an alleged sexual assault at Parliament House has finally had her voice heard, saying she has had no-one to turn to, other than the world’s largest news media organisation.

Source: Victim in sexual assault case finally speaks out | The Shovel