It’s clear that Australian sovereignty is being seriously, perhaps fatally, imperilled by the policies of successive Australian governments populated by Austral-Americans. 

Defence Minister Richard Marles’ address to parliament on February 9, entitled ‘Securing Our Sovereignty’, deserves a close reading.

It was delivered at a time when, in the minister’s own words, “it has never been more important to guard, reinforce and enhance our sovereignty”.

by GUEST AUTHOR MICHAEL CALLANAN

However, it’s clear that this vaunted sovereignty is being seriously, perhaps fatally, imperilled by the policies of successive Australian governments.

IF YOU WERE A BETTING MAN, AN INSURANCE ACTUARY AND A COMMANDER IN CHIEF OF AN ARMY OF PASTRY COOKS, WOULD YOU BET AGAINST RUSSIA GETTING WHAT IT WANTS IN UKRAINE? 

AS A BETTING MAN, YOU WOULD SAY THAT RUSSIA WILL EVENTUALLY GET 99.9 PER CENT OF WHAT IT WANTED BACK IN DECEMBER 2021.

IF YOU ARE AN INSURANCE ACTUARY YOU WOULD ASSESS THE RISK OF MOST OF WESTERN WEAPONS SUPPLIED TO UKRAINE BEING BLOWN UP AT ABOUT 90.5 PER CENT. 

THE CHIEF OF THE PASTRY COOKS WOULD PREPARE CAKES FOR A RUSSIAN "VICTORY" — WHICH WOULD BE HUMBLY GETTING THE DENAZIFICATION OF MOST OF UKRAINE, THE DEMILITARISATION OF UKRAINE, THE SPLIT OF UKRAINE AS THE DONBASS REGION IS RETURNED TO RUSSIA AFTER A CENTURY OF VAGARIES. 

THE NEGOTIATIONS WILL HOVER AROUND WHERE THE NEW BOUNDARIES OF WESTERN UKRAINE ARE GOING TO SETTLE. WILL ODESSA AND TRANSNISTRIA BECOME PART OF THE RUSSIAN UNION?

The drills’ commander, Nicolas Le Nen, called the war games the return of major military operations to French territory.

More than 7,000 servicemen are currently taking part in France’s biggest military exercise in decades, which is dubbed Orion 23 and is scheduled to be wrapped up in May.

Apart from French soldiers, servicemen from the US, the UK and Spain are involved in the drills that will simulate parachute operations and amphibious landings along the Mediterranean coast.

The operations, which are currently in full swing across the Occitanie region in France, will then move to the Atlantic coast regions of Nouvelle Aquitaine and Brittany. The drills consist of four stages, with the most important Phase 4 expected to see a major air-land "confrontation" between France and a simulated enemy.

The domesticated silver fox is a form of the silver fox which has been domesticated — to some extent — under laboratory conditions. The silver fox is a melanistic form of the wild red fox.

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky warned Americans to keep supporting Ukraine or risk geopolitical irrelevance, during a press conference on the anniversary of Russia’s military operation in the country. Should it stop funding Kiev’s war effort, the US will "lose the leadership position that they are enjoying in the world," the Ukrainian leader declared on Friday. 

"If they do not change their opinion…they will lose NATO, they will lose the clout of the United States, they will lose the leadership position they are enjoying in the world," Zelensky declared, following a speech in which he declared 2023 the "Year of Invincibility" and vowed to unite the world against Russia.

Perhaps no figure from ancient Rome is as famous as the gladiator — a warrior of the arena that fought to the death against beasts, criminals, and other gladiators, for the entertainment of Roman society.

Gladiators have become heavily mythologized figures, in part thanks to famous works of fiction like the film Gladiator, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Russell Crowe, or the classic Spartacus, but what were they like really?

EXISTENTIAL ENTERTAINMENT HAS INCLUDED WAR IN MOST EPOCH OF HUMAN SOCIETIES. AT THE LIMITS OF OUR ERRANDS, HOW MUCH LIES, PORKIES, BULLSHIT ARE WE PREPARED TO ACCEPT IN OUR SYSTEMIC SHARINGS OR LACK OF THEM — AND IN OUR CONQUESTS OF "OTHERS" WHICH WE DISGUISE AS PROTECTION OF OUR OWN SPACE?

LET'S FACE IT. WE NEVER HAVE HAD FREE WILL. WE HAVE BEEN SHAPED BY LANGUAGE, HISTORY — OUR OWN AND THAT OF THE TRIBE IN WHICH WE EXIST — THE PRESENT STATUS OF THE TRIBE, RELIGIONS, PROPAGANDA, GOVERNANCE SYSTEMS, OUR PHILOSOPHIES AND EVEN OUR "FREE-WILLED" CHOICES WICH INFLUENCE THE NEXT. WE KNOW THIS.

CHOOSING TO DEFEND A SYSTEM VERSUS ANOTHER TENDS TO PLACE LIMITS ON OUR FREE WILL.

IN 2018, THE GUARDIAN, AN ORGAN OF MEDIA PROPAGANDA, PUBLISHED AN ARTICLE THAT SUMMED UP WHAT WE HAVE EXPLORED OVER THE YEARS ON THIS SITE IN REGARD TO DEMOCRATIC CHOICES. AT THE LIMITS OF OUR ERRANDS, HOW MUCH LIES, PORKIES, BULLSHIT ARE WE PREPARED TO ACCEPT IN OUR SYSTEMIC SHARINGS OR LACK OF THEM — AND IN OUR CONQUESTS OF "OTHERS" WHICH WE WILL DISGUISE AS PROTECTION OF OUR OWN SPACE? 

Financial podcasts have been featuring ominous headlines lately along the lines of “Your Bank Can Legally Seize Your Money” and “Banks Can STEAL Your Money?! Here’s How!” The reference is to “bail-ins:” the provision under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act allowing Systemically Important Financial Institutions (SIFIs, basically the biggest banks) to bail in or expropriate their creditors’ money in the event of insolvency.

The problem is that depositors are classed as “creditors.” So how big is the risk to your deposit account? Part I of this two part article will review the bail-in issue. Part II will look at the derivatives risk that could trigger the next global financial crisis. 

As a journalist, scholar and media reformer, I have been following the activities of WikiLeaks for over a decade, assessing the disrupting force of new radical platforms for disclosure. WikiLeaks is a crucial example of a digital platform that exposes the contradictions of the internet as a tool for openness and secrecy, freedom and surveillance, free speech and censorship.

by Benedetta Brevini

DECEMBER 2 2020

But it is much more. I don’t think that anyone would dispute the incredible impact that WikiLeaks revelations have had, not just to disconcert and embarrass power elites, not just to expose crimes in the public interest, but also for bringing renewed debates on free speech, digital encryption and quests for better protections for whistleblowing to the mainstream.

Although Jimmy Carter left the White House in one of the biggest landslides of the modern American era, tributes poured onto social media moments after the Carter Center announced that he would receive hospice care. The oldest-living former president elicited praise often reserved for public figures who have already died, but the attention focused more on what he did after his presidency than during it.

The CIA had funded 42 programs against Cuba, some of which targeted anti-racist, feminist and LGBT activists

Daughter of Raul and member of parliament, Mariela Castro (photo) is not so much recognized for her surname as for her action in favor of LGBT rights. The feminist recounts the advances of the Family Code in Cuba, one of the most inclusive on the Continent, and a heavy context of adversity, with the United States quick to recover progressive causes for hegemonic ends.

BY Lina SANKARI (L’Humanité Magazine)

Greg Sheridan, in his opinion piece of Tuesday 21 February, provides yet another display of his spiteful, vacuous journalism – his erroneous claims that I am not the progenitor of the APEC Leaders’ Meeting, and that my views on Australian strategic policy are eccentric and at odds with the US alliance.

PJ Keating reply to Greg Sheridan – The Australian, 21 February 2023

I will deal with the APEC Leaders’ Meeting first. This is easy enough because the Australian government records of the time are now open. Sheridan was never one to let evidence stand in the way of his prejudices and clearly prefers the fact that Bill Clinton failed to mention me in his autobiography re the Leaders’ Meeting than he does Australian archival evidence.

WASHINGTON, February 24 (Sputnik) - US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday that Americans dislike seeing countries bully each other, despite the United States maintaining an armed presence at approximately 750 bases across 80 countries.

"I think viscerally most Americans don’t like to see a big country bullying another, and they just feel it’s wrong and want to do something about it," Blinken said during an interview with CBS. 

The old rat had lived well

Avoiding traps and the poisoned rice

Eating human foods and drinking from their filtered well

But now he was arthritic from over-indulgence 

Of patés, brioches and victuailles imported from La France

About to die, unable to climb to the attic twice, not even once

I better commit suicide and eat those blue wheat pellets

I remember my days with the young female ratlettes

Thin and debonaire

I were suave, full of rat-pong and expertise in my lair

I am becoming blind as well, my beautiful black eyes becoming foggy

This is the price of eating too well, the refined crap from them bourgeois bins

Full of preservatives and nasty chemicals without names

But tasty nonetheless for the really refined palate of Sir James

Obese like the cat next door with whom I shared a plate on Frid’y