San Diego: Australians are being urged to accept hard decisions to fund a decades-long plan to build nuclear-powered submarines after the potential $368 billion cost sparked a political furore over whether the nation could afford the mammoth outlay on a stronger defence force.

The federal government said the investment was essential to shield the country from security threats by purchasing an interim fleet of nuclear-powered submarines from the United States in the 2030s before building a future fleet in Adelaide that would enter service in the 2040s.

But the Greens said the increase in defence spending would require future cuts to health and education and warned they would not help in parliament to make any savings, while the Coalition warned against ‘‘cannibalising’’ other defence programs to pay for the submarines.

Oliver Stone is a filmmaker with 3 Oscar wins and 11 Oscar nominations. His films include Platoon, Wall Street, Born on the Fourth of July, Scarface, JFK, Nixon, Alexander, W, Snowden, and documentaries where he has interviewed Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, and Vladimir Putin. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygAqYC8JOQI

OUTLINE:

0:00 - Introduction

2:54 - Nuclear power

15:52 - Russia and US relations

21:07 - JFK and the Cold War

FRI

[This article was originally published in April, 2021 at which time Raytheon had obtained $2.36 billion in Pentagon contracts since Austin’s appointment. Since that time, CAM has kept tabs on Raytheon’s contracts and the article has been updated.—Editors]

The Pentagon has awarded the defense giant Raytheon Technologies, the second largest weapons-maker in the world, over $30 billion in government contracts since Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III’s confirmation on January 22nd, 2021.

 Jeremy Kuzmarov

Austin was on Raytheon’s board of directors prior to his confirmation.

The new currency should be able to become an “external money” storage of capital and reserves down the road, not just a settlement unit.

Ah, the joys of the Big Circle Line (BKL, in Cyrillic): circumnavigating the whole of Moscow for 71 km and 31 stations: from Tekstilshchiki – in the old textile quarter – to Sokolniki – a suprematist/constructivist gallery (Malevich lives!); from Rizhskaya – with its gorgeous steel arches – to Maryina Roscha – with its 130 meter-long escalator.

BY PEPE ESCOBAR

NEW MODERN DIS-FUNCTIONAL SOCIETY: 

SOCIAL CLASSES AND WESTERN VALUES BEYOND THE OLD CLASS WARFARE OF WORKERS, BOURGEOIS MIDDLE CLASS AND RULERS (NOBILITY AND KINGS) WHO WERE IMBUED WITH THE FEAR OF GOD. NOW:

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has offered bipartisan support to pass budget savings the Albanese government will need to fund the massive submarine program, expected to cost more than $200 (now about $400) billion for at least eight submarines.

Senior administration officials maintain that unity between Washington and Kyiv is tight. But the fractures that have appeared are making it harder to credibly claim there’s little daylight between the U.S. and Ukraine as sunbeams streak through the cracks.

For nine months, Russia has laid siege to Bakhmut, though capturing the southeastern Ukrainian city would do little to alter the trajectory of the war. It has become the focal point of the fight in recent weeks, with troops and prisoners from the mercenary Wagner Group leading the combat against Ukrainian forces. Both sides have suffered heavy losses and reduced the city to smoldering ruins.

THERE IS AN ELECTION LOOMING IN NEW SOUTH WALES.... THE POSTERS ARE UP, BOREDOM HAS SET AMONGST THE POPULATION... WE REMEMBER ANDREW CONSTANCE WHO PROMISED THAT THERE WOULD BE INCREASE OF PUBLIC TRANSPORT, BUT THEN HE RESIGNED FROM PARLIAMENT, WAS TO RETIRE BUT RE-PRESENTED HIMSELF FOR RE-ELECTION. HE GOT BOOTED OUT BY LABOR.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese chose Sydney, his hometown, for hosting the QUAD Leadership Summit which will be held midway through 2023, news agency the Hindustan Times reported.

The dates of the leadership summit have not been worked out but US President Joe Biden, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will travel to Australia to strengthen cooperation between the four nations and collectively thwart Chinese aggression that is impacting the Indo-Pacific region as well as the Asian continent.

Saudi Arabia and Iran to restore ties in China-brokered deal

After seven years of tension, Riyadh and Tehran will reopen embassies and revive a 2001 security agreement

Saudi Arabia and Iran agreed on Friday to resume diplomatic ties and re-open embassies within the next two months. Relations between the Sunni kingdom and the Shia republic broke down in 2016, and the two powers have backed opposing sides in multiple regional conflicts.

The agreement came after several days of talks in Beijing. As a result of the negotiations, both countries agreed to reopen their embassies “within a period not exceeding two months,” and to commit to “non-interference” in each other’s internal affairs, according to a joint statement by Saudi, Iranian, and Chinese officials. 

Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), on Saturday urged Christian leaders of various denominations and international organizations, including the UN, to pressure Kiev over its plan to evict monks from Ukraine’s largest Orthodox monastery, the Kiev Pechersk Lavra.

The controversial plan was put in motion on Friday, when the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) was informed that its monks and clergy must vacate the monastery by March 29. The notice was given after a government commission decided the country’s largest religious organization was somehow in violation of the terms of its lease from the state. The church, however, has already stated that it refuses to move out, insisting there are no legal grounds for the eviction.

At around 10 a.m. EST this morning [March 9, 2023], Michael Shellenberger and I will be testifying at the “Hearing on the Weaponization of the Federal Government on the Twitter Files” for the House Judiciary Committee, in the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. Just before, around 9:00 a.m., we’ll also be releasing a TwitterFiles “Statement to Congress” thread, which will be submitted to the record. It contains some surprises.

By Matt Taibbi / Racket News

My opening:

It seems that poor old Albanese has been sold a very greedy—though only virtual—pup. Think of the comparison with another Labor PM, Ben Chifley. Albanese doesn’t come out of it very well.

Caracas, paralyzed. A hiccup shook the sides of the cerros that the ranchitos are climbing. Hills, more hills. Then the whole country. The sovereign people. From the posh apartment buildings of the poshest neighborhoods to the humble hovels of the humblest pueblos.

BY Maurice LEMOINE

March 5, 2013
Murió.
He is dead, gone forever.
El commander...
Chávez Hugo Rafel Chávez Frías, President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
Murio el comandante, coño !
58 years old.