When a title in the Washington Post is so revealing, you can understand that the handwriting is on the wall, and that really is SO revealing, and if it is not an “I hate to tell you so, but I told you so” moment, then how else can we interpret the headline “Ukraine’s inability to demonstrate decisive success on the battlefield is stoking fears that the conflict is becoming a stalemate and international support could erode?”

BY Henry Kamens

Not only appears to be!

It is time for us to use the words Occupation, Illegality and Apartheid. We are applying these words to an occupying power truculent and implacable in its determination its occupation will never end, committed to a creeping annexation to deliver it a permanent hold over Palestinian land and Palestinian people. … Twenty years ago it would have been unthinkable that Australia’s oldest and largest political party would endorse Palestinian recognition. That’s now taken for granted as the very least we can do in the face of a cruel and continuing catastrophe. 

BY BOB CARR

Pain and dying. It’s what we do. We endure the pain of birth through a passage that is too narrow both for child and mother. In China, more than fifty per cent of birth are done through Caesarean sections. We also use pain killers. Could the natural birthing limit the size of our brain? Much of what we do in life is designed to alleviate pain and achieve a certain level of contentment, though we are often told “no pain, no gain”. This of course is a contentious concept. Can we achieve a better way of thinking? 

In eighteenth century Europe, a bold new idea came along with the “robots” of Monsieur Jacques de Vaucanson. They were not robots per se, but automated figurines that through various clock mechanisms could perform complex tasks such as playing music, drawing images and playing games. Eventually, we thought such machines could develop reason and emotions. 

Joe Biden has accused his opponent Donald Trump of trucking with 'domestic extremists'. Ryan Cristian, founder and editor of podcast The Last American Vagabond, pointed out the hypocrisy of the president who arms Ukrainian Nazis.

The CIA is using fascist groups as tools of state policy at home and abroad, says an independent media commentator.

Several dozen members of the Blood Tribe and Goyim Defense League neo-Nazi groups marched to Disney World in Florida on Saturday.

Russia will extend its voluntary cut in oil exports by 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) until the end of the year, Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Novak announced on Tuesday. 

“The additional voluntary reduction in oil supplies for export is aimed at strengthening the precautionary measures taken by the OPEC+ countries in order to maintain stability and balance on the oil markets,” the official stated.   

Russia will review its voluntary cuts monthly, in order “to consider the possibility of deepening the reduction or increasing production, depending on the situation on the world market,” Novak added.   

The EU intends to endorse the African Union’s bid to become a permanent member of the G20 at the group’s upcoming summit in New Delhi, people familiar with the matter have told Bloomberg.

With Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping both announcing that they’re going to skip the event in New Delhi next week, Brussels is looking “to seize the moment... to show that it is serious about redefining its partnership with Africa, despite the troubled legacy of colonialism,” the news outlet claimed in a report on Tuesday.

According to the sources, the bloc's officials are planning to organize a “mini-summit” with the African Union (AU), which incorporates 55 of the continent’s countries, on the sidelines of the G20 event on September 9, the first day of the two-day gathering.

Adani Group, chaired by India’s second-richest man Gautam Adani, on Thursday categorically rejected allegations of stock-trading violations made by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), an international investigative platform known for its work on the ‘Panama papers’ and ‘Pandora papers’. 

Long time ago, there was joy in the air

When one was young without wear and tear

The days were full of love and beauty

While the earth gave us a horn of bounty

Then the psychos won the time of day

With illusions and promises of goodness

Hiding behind a horrible deceitful mess

Pompously leading a deranged military

With war drums beaten to the tune of hate

Claiming righteousness to justify our madness

Did we osmose the psychos’ ugly fate

How come now we took the bait

Have we destroyed our own goodness

That of our youth without anger nor debate

The days were full of love and beauty

While the earth gave away tons of bounty

Until the psychos won the day either way.

The Qantas board of directors should resign and regulators ought to investigate charging Alan Joyce with insider trading. Michael West reports.

Can Alan Joyce be prosecuted for insider trading? If he knew about the ACCC investigating Qantas’ ‘phantom flights’, which is false and misleading conduct, then the answer is yes.

The ACCC began investigating Qantas last year. By the time Joyce sold $17m worth of his personal Qantas stock in early June, the investigation was in full swing. It was only made public on Thursday, Qantas shares dropped almost 7% on the news to close Friday at $5.82.

President Biden on Monday mocked former Commander in Chief Donald Trump as a “great real estate” developer who “didn’t build a damn thing.”

Biden ripped Trump — the head of a New York City real-estate dynasty and architect of the country’s controversial border wall with Mexico — while touting himself as the US’s infrastructure king.

“Guess what? The great real-estate builder, the last guy here, he didn’t build a damn thing,” the 80-year-old president said during a Labor Day rally in swing-state Pennsylvania. 

“Under my predecessor, ‘Infrastructure Week’ became a punchline,” Biden said, referring to the dayslong Trump initiative in which his administration touted its national development plans. 

The prime minister has criticised the opposition's proposal for a second referendum as "sabotage", saying it ignores what Indigenous people have asked for.

Thanks to a great response last week to an article about Klaus Schwab’s creep-tastic use of the term “transparency,” I’m pressing forward with a Devil’s Dictionary-style lexicographical project, tracking multitudinous dystopian alterations to American political speech.

It is no secret that United Nations mediation is in a state of decline. The U.N. is no longer in the lead role in conflict countries where the secretary-general and his representatives or special envoys are mandated to provide mediation and good offices. In most of these conflicts, powerful members of the Security Council, regional and subregional organizations are taking the lead, pushing the U.N. to the sidelines. 

By Jamal Benomar
PassBlue

Transgender activists have called out Anthony Albanese over his answer to the question: 'What is a woman?'

September 2 marked the 78th anniversary of the World War Two surrender ceremony onboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. This moment formalized Japan’s unconditional capitulation to the United States, and its allies, and marked the end of the conflict. From the Japanese perspective, it had been ongoing since the Marco Polo bridge incident of July 7, 1937, which started the Sino-Japanese War.

There was no negotiation, only a simple surrender ceremony in which Japanese officials signed documents, without conditions.

Because that is what defeat looks like.