A Ukrainian officer who at one point commanded the notorious neo-Nazi Azov regiment has gloated on social media over graphic photos of dead members of an opposition party. The activists “disappeared” from the Ukrainian-held city of Severodonetsk in early March and appear to have been extrajudicially executed, with Maksim Zhorin implying such a fate awaits all “traitors.” 

“This is what the ‘Patriots for Life’ from Severodonetsk look like now,”Zhorin said in a Telegram [warning: Graphic images] post on Wednesday. “They disappeared on March 7, and now their new photos have appeared. They look like that,” he added with a smirking-face emoji.

Last week Defence Minister Peter Dutton announced that, what he called a Chinese spy ship, had been discovered off the Western Australian coast farther south than any similar vessel had ever previously been seen. He didn’t inform his public that it had been observed 250 kilometres offshore and therefore 50 kilometres outside Australia’s Exclusive Economic Zone and in international waters.

But the minister described it as an ‘aggressive act’. It was just one example of ‘acts of aggression from the Chinese leadership and from the Chinese government.’ The ANU’s Professor John Blaxland observed that ‘it was right for the Defence Minister to call out the presence of the Chinese ship.’ The timing of the calling out in the middle of an election campaign did not seem to trouble the professor.

Most Italians do not support the decisions to slap Russia with sanctions or send weapons to Kiev, an Italian independent investigative journalist, Matteo Gracis, told RT last week, arguing that Rome is acting against its own interests as it follows the lead of Brussels and Washington.

On May 9, Gracis published a video on YouTube in which he appealed to Russian government officials and ordinary Russians. “It is important that you know that Italians are not against you,” said the journalist, who has authored three books and founded the online media outlet L’Indipendente. “Our democracy is much less real than [the officials and the media] want us to believe,” he said, claiming that the actions of Rome do not reflect the will of the people.

Australian households are suffering the worst cost-of-living squeeze in more than two decades, with real wages now falling at the fastest pace since the GST was introduced in 2001.

At just 2.4 per cent, wages growth was less than half the rate of inflation over the year to March, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics data released on Wednesday.

Adjusting for inflation, real wages fell 2.7 per cent annually, meaning many households saw their purchasing power go backwards.

Ever since the withdrawal of the last US troops from Afghanistan and the fall of the country to the Taliban (a terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation), Washington has been unable to come to terms with the loss of its influence in the region. It is therefore doing all it can to turn the Central Asian nations into geopolitical rivals of the major regional powers – Russia, China and Iran – and their allies. It is also making an effort to preserve its control over major cross-border processes in a bid to dominate world politics.

BY Valery Kulikov

The Russian Ministry of Health announced Tuesday that McDonalds’ decision to leave Russia is expected to add more than four years to the average Russian’s life expectancy.

Turkey’s list of demands for NATO and its prospective members Finland and Sweden includes the removal of sanctions imposed on Ankara over its purchase of S-400 missile defense systems from Russia, as well as re-inclusion in the F-35 advanced aircraft program, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing “three senior Turkish officials.”

On May 15, Finland and Sweden officially announced their intention to join NATO in the wake of the ongoing Russian military offensive on Ukraine. To make it possible, all members of the alliance would have to unanimously support their bids. Turkey, however, said it would not say “yes” to Helsinki and Stockholm because they do not have “a clear unequivocal stance” against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Front (DHKP/C), groups that Ankara considers terrorist organizations. 

This is the final Part 8 of a series titled ‘Propaganda and the Media’, the first 7 parts of which were published earlier, and available here:[1]

 The entire series will now be combined into an eBook in .pdf format, available on bluemoonofshanghai.com (in the books section).

This is primarily an article about lies, about the people who tell them, and about their methods of telling them. This essay, long as it is, is only a brief introduction to only a minor aspect of this subject.

bulldozer

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has used his description of himself as a “bulldozer” to defend his record on COVID, saying it served Australia well – despite the country’s pandemic death rate edging closer to 8000. InDaily’s Stephanie Richards reports from the election campaign trail.

Campaigning in the marginal Labor-held electorate of Corangamite in regional Victoria on Wednesday, Morrison faced a barrage of questions about Australia’s spiralling COVID death toll and infection rate.

Australia reported 28,794 cases of COVID-19 and 37 deaths on Wednesday, from NSW, Victoria and Tasmania and the ACT. South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory are still to report their latest statistics.

Revisiting Gus's comments....

The war on terror has gone cold…

The only place terrorism is still significant is in Central Africa (Mali et al)… where the Wahhabi Jihadists are still active. 

Russia and China have managed to escape the clutches of the Empire — and not only this, China is also influencing many third world countries to be more independent economically.

Scott Morrison offers lucrative $300,000 incentive to retirees who downsize their homes so young families can buy their first property - and claims the incentive will free up 1.3million houses

Prime Minister said it will make up to another 1.3million houses available for sale

Proposal also features a two year grace period before asset testing for a pension

Mr Morrison said it's designed to help 'free up larger homes for younger families

A Productivity Commission survey of Australians over 60 found 70 per cent said moving to a smaller property with less upkeep was the reason for selling their house. Pictured is an older couple looking at a lap top computer...

READ MORE:

A dramatic shift in voter sentiment has tightened the race for power at the federal election by cutting primary vote support for Labor and giving the Coalition a boost that keeps it within sight of victory at the ballot box this Saturday.

The election will go down to the wire after voters softened their support for Labor over the past two weeks to cut the party’s primary vote from 34 to 31 per cent, wiping away the strong gains made by Labor leader Anthony Albanese in the lead-up to the formal election campaign.

With Prime Minister Scott Morrison on the offensive with an appeal to voters to back him on economic management and national security, the new survey shows a small increase in the Coalition primary vote from 33 to 34 per cent.

According to numerous US media reports and opinion polls in the US, Joe Biden is increasingly being described as one of the worst presidents in American history, proving to be “an unparalleled disaster.”

There have been several particularly disturbing stories in the media over the past week even if one chooses to tune out the US Congress’s pending astonishing overwhelming approval of a grant of $39.8 billion to Ukraine to continue the war to “weaken” Russia. Even so-called progressives in the Democratic Party voted for the war. So now the United States will be at war with Russia through proxy, like it or not, and the consequences could be devastating, particularly if NATO member Poland intervenes directly, as it has been threatening, but few in Washington seem to be awake to that reality.

BY Philip M. Giraldi