stone

Gus is a rabid atheist. Gus "has a soft spot for Roger Stone." This is to say that Gus thinks Stone was badly treated by the Mueller inquisition. Stone may have told a few embellished stories, but his main sin was that he worked from Trump. He was charged for an obscure misdemeanour that would not even attract a parking fine and Stone got 40 months of prison for it.

The system did not like Trump, but it could not get at him and despite the noise, the system still cant. The "system" is the gigantic mechanism of the US Empire. Trump was shutting the system down. Trump tried anyway without success, and even if Biden has now exited the US out of Afghanistan, the system has branched into another money making military venture: AUKUS or as some people call it F**KUS...

babar

Anyone remember ‘Babar the Elephant’? I do. The story of Babar was part of my childhood. I don’t remember if I enjoyed it or not but my guess is that I did, or I would not have stuck through watching episode after episode. There was the beginning, when Babar’s mother was killed by a hunter, when the little elephant was found, taken in and ‘civilized’ by the Rich Lady and when he returned home to the elephants, was made king, married Celeste and flew off in an air balloon to go on adventures, leaving behind the kingdom to his trusted advisor Cornelius and cousin Arthur.

Babar The Elephant – Racism, Sexism, and Privilege in Children’s Stories

Raoul Wieland examines the effect of colonialism in children’s stories like Babar.

chrissake

More American troops and military manpower will be deployed to Australia after a new strategic alliance was forged with the United States and Britain.

shit

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/what-the-submarine-deal-means-for-morrison-s-future-20210917-p58sjo.html

See also: a scum deal...

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW !

these

The Chinese embassy in Canberra has rejected what they call "unfounded accusations" against China by the defence and foreign ministers of Australia and their US counterparts after annual talks in Washington.

• China responds angrily to Australia-US joint statement criticising Beijing on issues like Hong Kong and Xinjiang

• The joint statement came a day after Australia announced a deal to acquire nuclear submarines in partnership with the US and UK

"thinkers"

It’s arguable that Britain’s path to this point — where it is at risk of decaying into a ‘competitive authoritarian’ regime — can be traced back to the first of the ‘conservative’ think tanks.

Britain’s democracy is in a perilous state. While 100 scholars of democracy recently posted a letter expressing their fears about the imminent threat to America’s political tradition — echoing many voices — the awareness of the threat to Britain’s Westminster system is less prominent, drowned out by the shambolic handling of the Covid crisis.

BY Lucy Hamilton

Like America and Australia, Britain’s government is at risk of decaying into a “competitive authoritarian” regime.

cons

Speaking on Thursday, Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly said that the French government will look to ensure that the financial loss to the country and the Naval Group is limited as much as possible, after the contractor's huge submarine deal with Australia was ditched in favor of the UK and US as suppliers.

waterloo

"I am angry and bitter. This isn't done between allies," Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told franceinfo radio on Thursday morning, after the leaders of Australia, the UK and US convened a virtual press conference on Wednesday night, announcing the AUKUS pact and the delivery of conventionally-armed nuclear-power submarines to Canberra.

treason

Kash Patel, the former chief of staff for the Defense Department, said Milley violated laws governing the chairman’s ability to exercise “any operational authority.”

“Congress put this in the statute because the U.S. military is to be led by a civilian, the commander-in-chief,” Patel told Fox News. 

“Furthermore, by law, the national command authority goes from the president to the secretary of Defense to include anything relating troop deployments, operations in theaters of war, and nuclear command.”

porter

The rules of Parliament's register of interests require MPs to declare footy tickets, flights, gifts, Chairman's Club memberships, assets, investments, and any other financial arrangement that "may conflict or may be seen to conflict with their public duty." When a politician is given "free stuff", voters at least deserve to know who's trying to curry favour.

Porter obviously received enough financial assistance that he felt the need to update his register three days ago. He revealed his legal fees were at least partly paid by "a blind trust known as the Legal Services Trust". But that's all he was giving away.

flu

We all have the word "Democracy" in our mouths and our media warn us against the authoritarian drifts of illiberal countries. However, some of us refuse to organize contradictory debates on the attacks of September 11 as well as on the reaction to the Covid-19 epidemic.

The celebrations of the 20th anniversary of the attacks of September 11, 2001 give rise to two absolutely contradictory narratives, depending on whether one refers to the written and audio-visual press or to the digital press. For some, Al Qaeda declared war on the West by plotting a high-profile crime, while for others the same crime masked a domestic coup d’état in the US.

sub

The ABC understands Prime Minister Scott Morrison convened a National Security Committee of Cabinet on Tuesday ahead of coordinated announcements in Washington and London.

Cabinet ministers were given special COVID exemptions to travel to Canberra for the top-secret discussions.

In a highly unusual step, the Prime Minister also invited Labor leader Anthony Albanese and three of his senior shadow ministers to be briefed on the plan.

American media reports say US President Joe Biden is scheduled to deliver "brief remarks about a national security initiative" on Wednesday afternoon in Washington local time.

coal

Up to 80 workers at New South Wales' largest coal mine have been ordered by BHP to accept transfers to interstate mines or resign from their positions.

• BHP is searching for a buyer for its Mt Arthur mine
• The company is winding up its labour hire arm at the mine, which employs 80 people
• A worker says he feels "chucked in the gutter" over the move

A worker who is facing the ultimatum said he felt "left in the street" by the company.

james

Is James Packer feeling the squeeze? It’s been 15 days since the sun set on the Euro summer, but James Packer is packing away the toys - for good. The embattled casino magnate, who turned 54 last week, has put his 108-metre giga yacht IJE on the market with a price tag of $280 million.

Britain’s exclusive Burgess super yacht brokers have effusively spruiked the largest yacht that Italian shipbuilders Benedetti have constructed, boasting of the “timeless sculptural exterior” from “sought-after designers Redman Whiteley Dixon” and a “relaxed beach house-style interior” of the “ultimate world-cruising family yacht”.

scumnukes

Biden to launch NUCLEAR tech working group alongside UK and Australia in apparent bid to push back against China – reports