democracy

At upcoming talks with Washington, Moscow will not only obstruct but will put a complete stop to any eastwards expansion of the US-led NATO military bloc, the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister said on Tuesday.

Speaking to news agency Interfax, Sergey Ryabkov said his country would go into the negotiations with a clear agenda and reject any attempts by US diplomats to dilute the proposed agreement between the two parties.

“Our leadership has repeatedly said we can no longer tolerate the situation that is developing in the immediate vicinity of our borders. We cannot tolerate NATO expansion. We will not just prevent it. We will put a stop to it,” Ryabkov said.

queen

It could not have escaped anyone’s attention that Prince Philip died three weeks ago. (NOTE: This article was first published on May 4, 2021) He was 99 years old, had a history of heart trouble and, as the Queen’s long-standing consort, was as familiar as the Monarch herself. With his death a remarkable transformation took place as saturation media coverage recast the public image of the brash, boorish, ‘ladies’ man’ into a model of virtue, tact, and unimpeachable rectitude.

The Australian, a paragon of historical revisionism, saw Prince Philip as a man with the ‘common touch’, a ‘Royal larrikin’, a ‘moderniser’. To the Daily Mirror he was a ‘sensitive’, poetry-loving, ‘radical’. It was all a bit absurd.

' mask'

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has defended his handling of the Omicron COVID-19 outbreak, saying the state is in a strong position despite rising cases and testing chaos.

drones....

They defend the climate while preparing the end of the world

 

        by Manlio Dinucci  

    For Manlio Dinucci, the danger of global warming pales in comparison to the far more devastating threat of a nuclear winter that some COP26 participants are hastily preparing.

scapegoatThirty years on, I miss the ‘Evil Empire’.  As a child of the Cold War, I grew up only knowing the Soviet Union as our enemy. When it collapsed, it created a vacuum when it came to defending the US.

Bojo

truck This truck isn’t a real truck. This is probably our best representation of what we think about reality. From stupid religious beliefs to informed sciences, we have improved our vision, yet we are still blind as bats. An ant has as much location awareness as we have in our spacial set, though we tend to take more bulk, which in terms of relative infinite limit of importance is about zero. But we try to understand.

And this is good.

This young Down syndrome man in his early thirties took a similar truck made of different molecules — wood versus plastic — around the block daily like a dog on a leach. He had conversations with his “truck” like people have words with their dogs — animals that barely understand anything more than a wooden toy would, but are willing to learn to sit for a bone.

assange

We owe a debt to Julian... In this time of celebration, we wish Julian Assange the best gift that one can get for Christmas: FREEDOM. 

hat

Now we know when the election will be held: In March.

Well we don’t know for sure, of course, but after Thursday’s MYEFO [Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook] there’s no need for a pre-election budget in April followed by an election in May, a repeat of 2019 and the common assumption for 2022 up to now.

Thursday’s MYEFO was the election budget you have when you don’t have an election budget.

 

Federal budgets are no longer the announcement platforms they used to be – everything is pre-announced these days, so there’s no need for a budget to unveil election goodies.

scom

When thinking about next year's Federal Election, Australians should consider the incalculable damage Scott Morrison has done to Australian democracy during his first full term as elected Prime Minister, writes George Grundy.

AS PARLIAMENT closes out for 2021, the Morrison Government is taking steps to set the agenda for next year's Federal Election.

 

Scott Morrison will be hoping for no major bushfires this summer and a return to pre-COVID normality, so the battle can be fought around perceived LNP strengths such as the economy, national security and culture war issues like social media trolling.

 merry

Like many, my best Christmas memories come from childhood. Endless hot summers, the river, food and family. And faith.

I come from a big Aboriginal family. There's no Christmas like a black Christmas. There was never much money and presents were few and modest, but they were treasured. One year I got a book of Greek myths that opened a world of wonder and ideas that have stayed with me a lifetime.

We played cricket with a homemade bat carved out of an old fence post. Our ham came from a tin and chicken substituted for turkey.

But we were blessed. Christmas was a time of prayer and hope. My uncles were pastors in the Aboriginal church. They looked to the black church leaders of the United States like the reverend Martin Luther King Jr.

...

 

women!

Scott Morrison and his government enter the new year with a fresh iteration of their "women problem" — the multiple high-profile female independents contesting a number of Liberal seats.

It's not that the next parliament is likely to see a big influx of new lower house crossbenchers.

ABC election analyst Antony Green points out that, to win, independents in these seats would need a 25-30 per cent primary vote and to push the Liberal vote down to about 45 per cent.

One of these aspirants may succeed, two if they were extremely lucky. Perhaps the drive will end up nothing more than colour and movement.

However it goes, their challenges bring serious campaign trouble for Morrison.

nsw

9.03am  Victoria records 1510 new cases of COVID-19, seven deaths

9.02am NSW announces record 2213 daily cases of COVID-19, one death

8.12am Tributes flow for lives lost in Devonport tragedy

8.05am Daily coronavirus numbers will be ‘confronting’, but more lockdowns not the answer: Dutton

7.50am Victorian Premier tests negative to COVID-19

 

https://www.smh.com.au/national/australia-news-live-covid-19-cases-surge-in-nsw-victoria-as-restrictions-lift-across-the-nation-second-ashes-test-continues-in-adelaide-20211216-p59i8i.html

 

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW ###########!!!!!

letter

Prime minister’s department ‘can’t find’ sports rorts document requested by Rex Patrick under FOI

Attorney general’s office is seemingly at odds with Morrison’s department in fighting to keep the letter secret

 

ka-chingThe “acute phase” of the Covid-19 pandemic will end in 2022, billionaire Microsoft founder and vaccine enthusiast Bill Gates has predicted on his blog, also deeming the rise of the Omicron variant “concerning.”

“It might be foolish to make another prediction, but I think the acute phase of the pandemic will come to a close sometime in 2022,” the billionaire suggested in a post to his GatesNotes blog.