o'brien

“One gets an impression that the West has lost a culture of political dialogue. The partners have forgotten how to address problems in a civilized manner,” said Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Pankin on December 8. Pankin explained that the West most often responds to any decision that does not conform to its logic by unilateral sanctions. “In fact, no state pursuing a sovereign, Western-independent policy can be immune from them,” he believes.

To conduct such actions, President Biden even nominated a particular staff member, James O’Brien, to serve as the US coordinator for sanctions policy, whose functions would include all matters related to the compilation and coordination of White House blacklists.

 

passport

In a year where Australians sought consolation in statistical models and predictions, one thing became clear: you just can't predict the future.

And that's exactly what's on display at this year's Behind the Lines political cartoon exhibition.

The annual exhibition offers up a satirical summary of the year that was in politics with 126 different artworks from more than 40 cartoonists.

 

This year the theme of the exhibition is "prophecy and chance" — tapping into the idea that no one could have expected the year to unfold as it did.

hypocrite...

 and children

US President Joe Biden and his predecessor ordered the chaotic and bloody evacuation of the US embassy in Kabul, which drew in NATO allies including the UK. The airlift became a humanitarian disaster as thousands of Afghans tried to enter the airport and climb onto cargo planes — some clinging to the undercarriage until they fell to their deaths.

 

 

US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin has ordered that no US armed forces personnel will face punishment for an August drone attack that killed civilians amid American withdrawal efforts.

The move was confirmed by Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby, who told reporters Monday that "none of the recommendations dealt specifically with issues of accountability".

 

elon

Time magazine has named Elon Musk, chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX, as its 2021 Person of the Year, calling him “the man who aspires to save our planet and get us a new one to inhabit.”

tackscuts

The word out of the federal government is a desperate Scott Morrison will use improved numbers in the budget to attempt a huge tax cut to buy his way back into government.

John Howard tried and failed with the same tactic in 2007 when Labor’s Kevin Rudd quickly matched him, but at least then the budget was in rude good health thanks to years of the mining boom.

This time a measure of the Prime Minister’s desperation is that he even is considering yet another electoral bribe on top of the hugely generous tax cut for higher-income earners already baked into the next term.

assangeAssange Verdict: Vengeance Is Ours, Saith the Agency

by Ray McGovern Posted on December 11, 2021

Are the CIA and its contractors able to bully not only the U.S. Department of Justice, but also the UK judiciary? This is not hard to conclude after the High Court decision announced early Friday to bow to the US and extradite Julian Assange.

deckchairs

If you thought discourse in the United States couldn't get more childish, think again: This week, the White House is convening the geopolitical equivalent of the He-Man Woman-Haters' Club from Our Gang.

The club has an official name, of course; the Summit for Democracy, wherein US President Joe Biden and 110 of his closest friends have a super-secret special meeting in their treehouse to talk about how great they are. But however hard they try to gussy it up, this affair is no different from what Spanky, Alfalfa and Buckwheat got up to in those Hal Roach short films decades ago.

 

BY Ian Goodrum

 

speers

The case for a review of Insiders and sacking its producers, presenter and most regular guests has strengthened as the year has progressed, writes Alan Austin.

 

PRESENTER OF THE ABC's Insiders program David Speers enthusiastically endorsed the Morrison Government’s economic credentials on 7 November:

 

The Prime Minister is urging us to move on and you can see where they want to spend the coming weeks and months ... on the better news we are seeing on the economy. The Reserve Bank this week had some pretty rosy forecasts... roaring back to life, unemployment dropping back to 4%, steady increase in wages... It’s clear this is what the Government wants to make its central election pitch.

 olympics

The American song “Yankee doodle” is sung to a very old, traditional English air, know during the 18th century as “Kitty Fisher’s Locker”. Kitty Fisher was of course a famous whore...

  

I hate cartoonists who misrepresent reality… I don’t mind augmentation, enlargement, magnification, inflation, multiplication of reality to make a point. But MISREPRESENTATION? I hate that… I hope that I don’t fall into that trap… Most of my subjects deserved to be deflated. The original cartoon in the Sydney Morning Herald of 13/12/2021 is appalling. Sorry, whoever you are, Badiucao, that was a rotten cartoon… I indulged in rescuing reality at top...

 

freedomola

On December 9-10, [this article was written on the 8th of December] President Biden will host the "Summit for Democracy" that will bring together, in a worldwide online connection, "leaders of government, civil society and the private sector." The invitation list includes 111 countries. Among them are 28 of the 30 NATO members: Turkey and Hungary are missing but, on the other hand, Israel and Ukraine are there, along with 26 of the 27 EU members except Hungary.

 

abc

We’re the bloody I-P-A

And we hate your A-B-C

Because your A-B-C costs money

As it spreads the annoying truth

with its 4-Corners sleuth

and other Australian Story.

 

We’re the bloody I-P-A

And we hate your A-B-C

Because the A-B-C costs you money,

About 11 cents per day!

But our I-P-A won’t you tell

Where we get our bloody money

As this would upset Gina

And her big mining-cartel.

 

We’re the bloody I-P-A

And we hate your A-B-C

We hate balance of opinions

We know best about your onions

Which should be conservative

Fascist and from the I-P-A

 

vax

We have been bombarded with information from scientists with various opinions, from politicians who need to be seen doing something about something — and doubters who don’t trust anyone. All this flurry of facts, figures, statistics came with a certain amount of ferocity and contradictions. Do we pay attention? Do we follow the “governments’ recommendations"? Is there a bit of dictatorship in having to be vaxxed in order to work? What are our responsibilities versus our freedom of choice?

 

It is VERY difficult to find the truth in which there is not a middle ground. We’re either in danger or the whole thing is overblown. Even now, without any real study of long term effects, we’re about to vaccinate our kids with GMOs. 

 

liberty

On the same day as Joe Blinkered Biden holds his "Summit for Democracy", the UK courts, completely void of Magna Carta spirit, decide to send Julian Assange to the gallows in the USA. How ironic, yet tragic!. Thank you Julian, for not doing anything but being a prisoner of her majesty's illegal hubris, so silently showing us the MASSIVE hypocrisy of this US machine that does not have a single good bone in its body, despite having good people amongst the folks. But the ENTIRE political mob? Idiots!!! RAND PAUL excepted...

 

news

Just a few decades ago, it was still possible for the left to find space on corporate-owned airwaves. Progressive talkers like Tom Leykis, Lynn Samuels and Phil Donahue found wide audiences until they got pushed off the air by the corporate powers that be. I worked talk radio in Los Angeles and San Francisco until 2007.