The greatest show on Earth is now a circus of double-dealing and sleight of hand applied to geopolicy. In the West, so-called experts are announcing a Ukraine counteroffensive as if it were an upcoming sports contest. Conversely, in the trenches of Ukraine, Wagner Group’s leader Yevgeny Prigozhin is running interference for a counter-counter offensive Russia has planned. Fox News’s Tucker Carlson is fired for telling the world how American media really works, and Ukraine Nazis assassinate Russian media persons with real bombs.

BY Phil Butler

The Chinese are not only fully awake but fully cognisant of the Anglo-Saxons’ wiles in the debt, and semiconductor sectors, as well as in honey, Hello Kitty and all others.

“Let China sleep. For when she wakes, the world will tremble”. Although The Dictionnaire Napoléon attributes this apothegm not to the great Napoleon (who loved a good bon mot almost as much as he loved a good battle) but to British actor David Niven playing the British Ambassador during the Boxer rebellion in the 1963 Hollywood blockbuster 55 days at Peking, it matters not.

BY Declan HAYES

If you haven’t heard of the theory of blanket dismissal, that might be because the phrase was first used in 2009. Although I may have been the first person to use those particular words, I cannot claim to have originated the concept. Probably some Greek philosopher or Greek housewife came up with the idea centuries BC.

BY TheDarkMan

Uncommon industry collaboration to improve digital safety

GARM is the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, a cross-industry initiative established by the World Federation of Advertisers to address the challenge of harmful content on digital media platforms and its monetization via advertising.

GARM was launched at Cannes(https://wfanet.org/knowledge/item/2019/06/18/Global-Alliance-for-Respons...) in the summer of 2019 and has been working hard to highlight the changes needed for advertisers to feel more confident about advertising on social media. As of November 2019, GARM is a flagship project of the World Economic Forum

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Tuesday attempted to describe Russia as analogous to Adolf Hitler’s Germany. Her remarks followed a claim to reporters that the “US and allied forces” had secured victory in the Second World War.

“This week marks, as you all know, the anniversary of the end of WWII in Europe and the victory of the United States and allied forces over fascism and aggression on the continent,”President Joe Biden’s press secretary told reporters at the daily briefing.

“The European continent now faces new aggression,” Jean-Pierre added. “The US has rallied the world in response, and we will continue to support the people of Ukraine as they defend their independence and their democracy.”

Ukraine joining NATO is far from a done deal, EU foreign policy commissioner Josep Borrell said in an interview on Wednesday. The Spanish politician was commenting on a statement made by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg that all members of the US-led military bloc had agreed Kiev would join – just not when.

“This does not depend on the NATO secretary general, but on NATO member countries,” Borrell told the Spanish TV channel La Sexta. 

The Guardian found itself last weekend at the centre of an anti-semitism controversy. Its cartoonist Martin Rowson was accused of using anti-Jewish “tropes” as he depicted a Conservative government mired in corruption, including in its ties to the outgoing BBC chairman, Richard Sharp.

Way back in the 1990s Bud Light ran a series of TV commercials featuring a group of men dressed in drag to take advantage of “Ladies’ Night” discounts. Videos of these ads have resurfaced lately in light of the recent flap over Bud Light’s embrace of trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney.

Jimmy and Americans’ Comedian Kurt Metzger discuss whether these ads could actually air today but with somber music and played straight rather than for laughs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zfys-c5D7Xg&t=307s

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW....

SUBB

At a time when the Reserve Bank’s interest rate rise is adding to cost of living pressures and increasing the chances of a recession, Albanese is finding it hard to justify the staggering $368 billion cost of AUKUS nuclear submarines.

Anthony Albanese says it only took him 24 hours to decide to back the AUKUS pact between Australia, the UK and the US. And not much longer, it seems, to decide to get nuclear submarines, if not precisely how. The rush shows. At a time when the Reserve Bank’s interest rate rise is adding to cost of living pressures and increasing the chances of a recession, Albanese is finding it harder to justify the staggering $368 billion cost of these submarines. As explained below, this is 20 times more than 12 superior conventional submarines would cost.

LUCKY... PETER HARTCHER WRITES UNDER THE OPINION UMBRELLA... HARTCHER IS TELLING YOU LIES. RUSSIA IS WINNING THE MILITARY OPERATION IN UKRAINE, CAREFULLY. AND IF YOU THINK IT IS A HARD SLOG, IT IS FOR UKRAINE. PRESENTLY, ACCORDING TO SECRET AMERICAN OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS, THE UKRAINIAN ARMY IS LOOSING SEVEN "MEN" TO ONE... IN FACT, ACCORDING TO SOME INDEPENDENT REPORTS, ON SOME DAYS THE UKRAINIAN ARMY LOSES 100 TO ONE. ARTYOMOVSK IS NOW 98 PER CENT RUSSIAN. SO WHY IS THIS TAKING SO LONG FOR THE RUSSIANS TO TAKE IT ALL?

In England, on May 6, we witnessed the coronation of the greatest of all kings. The British press preemptively assured us that he had no political rights, only a representative function. Is that so? Then how did the Prince of Wales manage to change the agenda of the House of Commons a hundred times during his mother’s reign and have subjects removed that displeased him? Experts assure us that these were only minor bills, but what right did the Prince, not the MPs, have to deem them unimportant?

West must be ready for unfavorable outcome in Ukraine – Czech president

Ukraine will suffer “terrible losses” no matter what happens with its planned counteroffensive, Petr Pavel has warned

The conflict between Russia and Ukraine may not end in victory for Kiev, and its Western backers should prepare for such an outcome, Czech President Petr Pavel has told The Guardian newspaper.

“I think we should do anything… at our disposal to encourage Ukrainians and to support them to be successful. But internally, we should also be ready for other contingencies,” said Pavel, who was in London for the coronation of King Charles III.

A lot will depend on the outcome of Ukraine’s planned spring counteroffensive, explained the Czech leader, who has a background in intelligence and served as chairman of the NATO Military Committee between 2015 and 2018.

Nato is reportedly planning to open a liaison office in Japan to coordinate with close partners across the Indo-Pacific region including Australia, South Korea and New Zealand.

The plans are likely to attract criticism from the Chinese government, which has previously warned the western alliance against extending “its tentacles to the Asia-Pacific”.

BY Daniel Hurst

LORD CHESTERFIELD — OR THE HISTORY OF DIPLOMACY BEFORE THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION AND THE COLONIALISATION OF AUSTRALIA

Lord Chesterfield was a character who was famous for preaching do as I say, not as I do, especially in his letters to his illegitimate son… Samuel Johnson said of these letters that "they teach the morals of a whore, and the manners of a dancing-master" as a means for getting on in the world, implying that Chesterfield promoted good manners as a method of advancement, rather than inherent moral value. 

The good Lord Chesterfield missed his chance to foresee the future. No-one does really. 

Being told that "the papists in Ireland are all up!", he replied: "I am not surprised at it, why, it is ten o'clock, I should have been up too, had I not overslept myself”.