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San Francisco – Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued this statement on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine:

“Russia’s launch of a premeditated war against the sovereign nation of Ukraine is an attack on democracy and a grave violation of international law, global peace and security.  Putin’s unprovoked actions will cause devastating loss of life and a diminishing of Russia in the world order.

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US Foreign Policy Is a Cruel Sport

Bear baiting was long ago banned as inhumane. Yet today, a version is being practiced every day against whole nations on a gigantic international scale.

BY DIANA JOHNSTONE

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France has downgraded its diplomatic relations with Australia in a new Indo-Pacific strategy.

French President Emmanuel Macron reacted with fury last year when Prime Minister Scott Morrison revealed plans to scrap a $90 billion deal to buy submarines.

Mr Morrison instead signed a partnership with the United States and Britain, known as AUKUS, under which Australia will buy nuclear-powered submarines.

A document issued by Mr Macron and his foreign affairs minister, France’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, takes a cool approach to Australia.

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The history lesson by the Sydney Morning Herald as to what is the "Ukraine crisis" is a bit glib and should be taken with a grain of salt. It tries to be "balanced" but it still smells of Western toilet cleaner. Yes we know, we can twist history whichever way we wish — and Putin does it as well. But AN AGREEMENT WAS MADE THAT NATO WOULD NOT MOVE EAST, after the fall of the Berlin wall.

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It has been a rough 2 weeks for the US science community. After 4 years of bludgeoning by the Trump administration, hope resurged a year ago as a new White House promised to value science. But there have been missteps, the most recent taking place on the heels of another blunder that many saw coming. Eric Lander, who just stepped down as President Biden’s science adviser and director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), was a prominent research figure with a well-known record of bullying and callous actions. With the notable exception of the 500 Women Scientists organization, the scientific community was embarrassingly silent about Lander’s nomination.

"weldering"

As a jack-of-all-trades and a master-of-many (retired) — and a cartoonist by accident since 1951 — Gus was surprise to see "Scotty of Weldering*" trying his luck at loosing his eyesight while yet wearing another hat... No Scotty, this isn't a hat, but a welding helmet that you place on your face BEFORE trying to make a spark.  

Actually I wasn't surprised. Our idiot Prime Minister, Scott Saucisson, is ready to do anything to show "the boys" that he is capable of doing anything wrongly while being a danger to himself — and probably a danger to anyone around him...

Morrison's politics is the art of bullshit compared to the precision of welding in a straight line... ScoMo performs both really badly. Crappily... Time to give up Scotty... Time...

EU.

The EU has agreed to impose new anti-Russia sanctions in retaliation to Moscow’s decision to recognize the breakaway republics in eastern Ukraine. These range from limiting access to European financial markets to targeting individual officials behind the move, the EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell said on Tuesday.

The upcoming sanctions “will hurt Russia and will hurt a lot,” the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs said in Paris, speaking alongside France's Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian. Accusing Moscow of committing “grave violations,” Borrell said neither the recognition of Donetsk (DPR) and Lugansk (LPR) People’s Republics, nor further steps by Russia in Ukraine, will go “unanswered.”

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The US diplomat George Kennan, an astute observer of Soviet Russia under Stalin, offered his observations later in life on the question of NATO expansion. The tragedy of our times is that those views are being ignored.

Winston Churchill once famously quipped that the “Americans will always do the right thing, but only after all other possibilities are exhausted.” That bit of dry British humor cuts to the heart of the current crisis in Ukraine, which is loaded with enough geopolitical dynamite to bring down a sizable chunk of the neighborhood. Yet, had the West taken the advice of one of its leading statesmen with regards to reckless military expansion toward Russia, the world would be a more peaceful and predictable place today.

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In a December 2021 press release, Mr Palmer said: "We are very pleased to announce that we are officially celebrating 90 years since this great party first held government under our inaugural Prime Minister, Joseph Lyons."

"We are also commemorating other United Australia Party leaders who were Prime Ministers of Australia in Billy Hughes and Sir Robert Menzies," he said.

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NSW's passenger-train system was shutdown today (21/02/22), after the latest chapter of an industrial dispute between the state government and rail union came to a head last night.

The Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) planned to carry out low-level industrial actions on Monday, after two hearings before the Fair Work Commission at the weekend.

The government says the fact the trains aren't running is the union's fault, but the union is blaming the government.

RTBU state secretary Alex Claassens said an agreement for protected action was made at a hearing on Saturday, before Transport for NSW tried to prevent the plans at a second hearing on Sunday.

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The Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and his United States counterpart Antony Blinken are scheduled to hold a meeting next week at an as yet undisclosed European location. It is difficult to see what the two men have to talk about. Lavrov has recently held meetings in Moscow with his British counterpart Elizabeth Truss. To call that meeting a complete waste of Lavrov’s time would not be an exaggeration. That woman’s ignorance was at an appalling level, apparently unable to distinguish between the Black and Baltic Seas, and naming two Russian cities as part of Ukraine.

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On 2 November 2021, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appointed Nazi leader Dmitro Yarosh as adviser to the Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armies, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi.

Founder of the Ukrainian Volunteer Army, Yarosh has been a long-time member of NATO’s stay-behind networks. Already back in 2007, he was put in charge by the CIA of coordinating Nazi and Islamist groups against Russia during the second Chechen war, when he rounded them up in Ternopol (western Ukraine). He later played a key role in the 2014 EuroMaidan protests as top dog of the “Right Sector” [1].

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Politicians love nothing more than winning elections.

There's the glow that comes with knowing the public has trusted you with office over your political opponents, and the excitement of what a term might bring.

There are policies to enact and promises to keep, jobs to hand out and history to write.

But whoever wins the next federal election, which has to be held by May, has a whole bunch of political curve balls already heading their way.

The last thing a newly-elected government wants to do is watch life become more expensive for millions of constituents, knowing they will likely cop the blame.

And yet that is exactly what lies in wait for whoever is Prime Minister come June 2022.