It is more than inter-operability and inter-changeability with the US military. Anthony Albanese and Richard Marles need to break up the American network in our Department of Defence that the Washington Post has exposed.

The Washington Post has found that a retired US Admiral is ‘now a Deputy Secretary of Defense for Australia’.

I wonder how the Admiral handles ASTEO documents- for Australian eyes only?

By John Menadue

Watch Professor Jeffrey Sachs describe the US as “the most violent country in the world” and then get shockingly shut down at the Athens Democracy Forum.

He doesn’t hold back when describing the US governance culture: “A semi-democratic white-dominated hierarchical racist society that aims to preserve privilege by the elites [and founded as] a slave-owning genocidal country”. Ouch!

That’s why he argues that “the biggest mistake of president Biden was to say ‘the greatest struggle of the world is between democracies and autocracies’.”

He adds: “The real struggle of the world is to live together and overcome our common crises” under thunderous applause.

By Arnaud Bertrand

Trussonomics lives on in Australia – and via our man at the UN. Liz Truss is gone as British Prime Minister, but the forces that elevated her live on – both in the UK and here.

Indeed, they arguably are less damaged here than there as Ms Truss’ nearest and dearest associates have inevitably copped splatter as the Trussonomics hit the fan.

However, whistleblower and privacy advocate Edward Snowden has cautioned against celebrating the company’s downfall too early, suggesting it could still bounce back and pose a threat to society.

“Sure laugh at Zuckerberg’s stock crash,” Snowden tweeted on Thursday, adding that people should not forget that “in five years he’s gonna own your eyeballs and pause the ads every time you blink.”

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has tried to calm advertiser concerns about his acquisition of Twitter, telling them that he’s buying the social media platform to help save human civilization and that he won’t let it become a “free-for-all hellscape.”

Speaking on the eve of closing his $44 billion takeover of Twitter, Musk posted a message to advertisers explaining his rationale for the deal. “I didn’t do it to make more money,” he said. “I did it to try to help humanity, whom I love. And I do so with humility, recognizing that failure in pursuing this goal, despite our best efforts, is a very real possibility.”

US Accelerates Plan to Deploy Upgraded Nukes to Europe

The US wants to replace its nuclear bombs in Europe with an updated version of the B61-12 on a faster timelineby Dave DeCamp Posted on October 26, 2022Categories News

The US has accelerated plans to deploy an upgraded version of its primary nuclear gravity bomb to Europe amid heightened tensions with Russia over the potential use of nuclear weapons.

‘No one can sit out the coming storm’: Putin’s milestone Valdai speech

Western hegemony should be replaced with an actual order respectful of all, the Russian leader said

The world is entering a decade of tumult as the pursuit of a more just world order clashes with the arbitrary hegemony of the collective West, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday, addressing the annual meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club.

Putin’s speech ranged from biodiversity to “cancel culture,” the nature of what the West has to offer and Russia’s response, followed by hours of answering audience questions. Here are six key points from his opening remarks.

The West stokes conflict to preserve hegemony

When war comes, governments always believe that they must boost the morale of their people by showering them with propaganda. The stakes are so high, life and death, that debates get tougher and extremist positions become popular. This is exactly what we are witnessing, or rather how we are being transformed. In this game, the ideas defended by some and others have nothing to do with their ideological presuppositions, but with their proximity to power.

30 Democrats walk into the White House demanding diplomacy with Russia. Yes, this is a joke

A group of US representatives appealed to President Joe Biden to pursue diplomacy with Russia, only to retract their letter shortly thereafter, proving that not even the suggestion of talking to Russia is tolerated

BY ROBERT BRIDGE 

This week, a group of 30 congressional Democrats, undoubtedly more concerned about suffering an election blowout in November than experiencing a nuclear winter, called for dialogue with Moscow, only to immediately retreat from their ‘radical’ position hours later.

Why did no Australian media outlet tell us the easily discovered truth about the compromising of the integrity of the Australian submarine decision process revealed by US journalists last week?

On October 18th the Washington Post published a closely documented article by Craig Whitlock and Nate Jones titled “Former U.S. Navy Leaders Profited From Overlapping Interests On Sub Deal”.

A public call to ban The Grayzone by a UK Foreign Office veteran and psy-ops specialist confirms the malign intentions of British intelligence.

The Arvamusfestival (Opinion Festival) convened this August by the Estonian Foreign Ministry featured as its centerpiece an English-language panel on “how to deal with misinformation…in the interests of curbing its propagation.” 

BY KIT KLARENBERG

The Conservative (“Tory”) Party has been in power in the United Kingdom for 12 years, with a long line of forgettable Prime Ministers surfing over restive voters who demanded Brexit, reduced immigration, and more national sovereignty [How long have the Conservatives been in power and who were the Prime Ministers, by Caroline Westbrook, Metro, October 20, 2022].

The United Nations abruptly wrapped up its anti-torture mission to Australia on Sunday after inspectors were not allowed to visit numerous jails and detention centers in the country, according to the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT).

"Usually doors are only closed if officials have something to hide," Stuart Rees, Australian academic, human rights activist, and author, told Sputnik. "Too often, even in democracies, leading politicians like to think that their (outdated) views of sovereignty entitle them to ignore UN obligations. A certain authoritarianism implies that State forms of punishment and containment should never be challenged."

BY EKATERINA BLINOVA

The U.S. public relations firm helping Egypt organise COP27 also works for major oil companies and has been accused of greenwashing on their behalf, openDemocracy can reveal.

Hill+Knowlton Strategies, which has worked for ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron and Saudi Aramco, is managing communications for Egypt’s presidency of the U.N. climate conference, which will take place next month in Sharm El Sheikh.

By Ben Webster and Lucas Amin
openDemocracy

The EU seeks to outright confiscate Russian assets rather than just freeze them, but the bloc has yet to lay the legal groundwork for doing so, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday.

The official delivered her remarks during a conference devoted to the rebuilding of Ukraine, which was attended by a number of Kiev’s prominent international donors.

“Our aim is not only to freeze, but to seize the assets,” she said, although cautioning that establishing a legal base for such a move is “not trivial.” 

According to von der Leyen, the EU has created a task force that includes various international experts “not only to map out what has been frozen,” but also to see what the legal preconditions would be for seizing Russian assets and using them for the reconstruction of Ukraine.