With a series of Western leaders visiting Kiev in recent weeks, the Biden administration is considering dispatching a top-level official to the Ukrainian capital, Politico reported on Wednesday. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have traveled as far as Poland, but have not visited Ukraine.

Among the names being considered are Secretary of State Tony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Politico reported, citing “two US officials.” The officials said that regardless of who is chosen, the trip likely won’t be announced in advance for security reasons.

The Scott Morrison administration recently unveiled Australia's largest military expansion plan for nearly 40 years.

The country intends to enlarge its regular armed forces from the current 60,000 personnel to 80,000 by 2040, which will cost about AU$38 billion ($28.29 billion).

Initially, the Australian defense ministry planned to increase the number by 12,500. But the Morrison government doesn't think that is enough to cope with the "security threat" the country is facing, and at last managed to increase the hike to 20,000.

Although that might still seem a small number to countries like the United States, the hike is larger than the current size of the country's air force or navy, which consist of 15,087 and 15,449 personnel respectively.

Musk had previously criticised Twitter for its policy of censoring some posts and suspending user's accounts — including ex-US president Donald Trump's — for political reasons. He had earlier mooted setting up a rival platform that would enshrine free speech. 

Tesla Motors founder Elon Musk has made an audacious $41 billion takeover bid for social media giant Twitter.

The South African venture capitalists has offered $54.20 per share to existing investors.

That was 38 per cent over market value for the US-based Big Tech behemoth on April 1, the last trading day before Musk's purchase of a 9.2 per cent stake in the corporation for $2.89 billion was announced on April 4.

Monday, April 4, 2022: It was, from my point of view, just another day in the life of @RealScottRitter—my Twitter “handle.” I had a phone call scheduled with the editor of a publication I write for where we would discuss topics for a weekly column I was responsible for. I was also under deadline for another article I was writing for a second outlet that published my work, and was preparing a pitch to a third platform for another article. Such is the lot of a freelance writer—it is literally publish or perish. 

Michael Tracey on the Refugee Crisis and US Troop Buildup in Poland

“Every couple of days we get another so-called ‘gaffe’ from Biden where he appears to be revealing another layer of involvement in this Ukraine conflict.” – Michael Tracey

by Mnar Adley

One of the interesting features of the ongoing war in Ukraine is the extent to which the Australian mainstream media has almost entirely ceased to bother offering an objective assessment of what is actually happening in the ongoing war in that country. The latest examples refer to the alleged murder of citizens in the town of Bucha by Russian soldiers. The allegations of the Ukrainian forces are accepted without question. The facts of the case create a different picture.

IN AN ARTICLE ON PEARLS AND IRRITATIONS, A FORMER CATHOLIC PRIEST, STILL VERY MUCH RELIGIOUSLY CHRISTIAN IN HIS BIAS, TELLS US A LOT OF BULLSHIT about UKRAINE, WHICH GUS EXPLAINS IN FULL CAPS...

HERE GOES PAUL COLLINS: 

In the gospels Jesus challenges the religio-political establishment, hostility to him grows, and he is convicted on trumped-up charges and dies as a common criminal on the cross. His life seems over.

The resurrection of Christ is a symbol of the victory of life over death. Volodymyr Zelenskyy is a contemporary symbol.

dragonsea

We already have explored passenger travel with the SeaGlider. Now the new logistics of goods transfer for a fossil fuel-free new world. Here is gus' 1500 tonnes cargo-ship the DragonSea: 33 knots at most times.

IN consideration OF THE NEXT FEDERAL ELECTIONS, ONE NEEDS TO BE AWARE THAT THE SCOTT MORRISON GOVERNMENT WANTS TO "DESTROY" THE ABC, BY WHATEVER MEANS. THIS has been OFFICIAL LIBERAL PARTY (CONSERVATIVE) POLICY. So, why do you (and me) need YOUR ABC? The ABC provides the best news service and promotes a higher cultural platform that unites Australians, while understanding diversity. It is an essential service to YOU (and me), the Aussie citizen. By law, the ABC has to be funded by the government, but successive CONSERVATIVE governments have cut the ABC budget to the bone — making its survival precarious....

After having shown that the war in Ukraine was prepared by the Straussians and triggered on February 17 by Kiev’s attack on the Donbass, Thierry Meyssan returns to the secret history that links the Anglo-Saxons to the Banderites since the fall of the Third Reich. He sounds the alarm: we have not been able to see the resurgence of Nazi racialism in Ukraine and in the Baltic States for thirty years, nor do we see that many of the Ukrainian civilians we welcome are steeped in Banderites’ ideology. We are waiting for Nazi attacks to begin in Western Europe before we wake up.

RISING TENSIONS (14)

The alliance of MI6, the CIA and the Bandéristes

by Thierry Meyssan

The Russian invasion of Ukraine “is in many ways bigger than Russia, it’s bigger than Ukraine,” State Department spokesman Ned Price recently declared. “There are principles that are at stake here.…

FOREIGN POLICY

BRIAN DOHERTY | 5.5.2006 4:14 PM

News.com is never shy about claiming all of the power and influence that its mortal enemies fear it has.

It has sometimes claimed that its support has turned particular elections. It has then tried to parlay this assistance into easy entrée into the lobbies of new governments, to get obsequious attention from ministers and prime ministers, and its stock in trade – a constant and insatiable demand for favours, particularly in relation to licences and exemptions from monopoly legislation. It has also used this access to resist any form of regulation, control or accountability. It turns quickly and savagely on politicians who have wondered about its excesses and abuses of power.

US President Joe Biden accused Russia of committing a “genocide” in Ukraine during a speech in Iowa on Tuesday, while trying to promote corn-based ethanol as a way to lower gas prices amid a 40-year record inflation.

“Your family budget, your ability to fill up your tank, none of it should hinge on whether a dictator declares war and commits genocide half a world away,”Biden said in Menlo, Iowa, some 45 miles west of Des Moines. The hamlet of some 300 residents is located next to a factory producing bioethanol from corn – something the White House is trying to encourage now in order to combat the rising fuel prices, for which it blames Russia.

William Hazlitt (10 April 1778 – 18 September 1830) was an English essayist, drama and literary critic, painter, social commentator, and philosopher. He is now considered one of the greatest critics and essayists in the history of the English language, placed in the company of Samuel Johnson and George Orwell. He is also acknowledged as the finest art critic of his age. Despite his high standing among historians of literature and art, "his work is currently little read and mostly out of print."