WE, OF ALL GREEN LOONIES, MADE RUDE JOKES ABOUT MALCOLM'S FOLLY: PUMPING WATER BACK UP THE SNOWY MOUNTAIN. OUR MAIN OBJECTION WAS THAT THIS COULD BE AN ENGINEERING NIGHTMARE, THOUGH POSSIBLE... THE COST WOULD SOON BLOW UP, LIKE NUCLEAR SUBMARINES, WHICH WERE NOT THOUGHT OF YET IN THIS SILLY COUNTRY OF SO CLEVER POLITICIANS.

SO HERE WE ARE, THE DRILLING MACHINE ON ITS MERRY WAY, GETS STUCK IN A SOFT GROUND AREA, BARELY 150 METRES INSIDE THE MOUNTAIN ON A 15 KMS JOURNEY. THERE WERE AND STILL ARE FAR CHEAPER SOLUTIONS TO STORE POTENTIAL ENERGY. BUT THEN MALCOLM, THE KING OF HALF-BAKED SOLUTION, THE BIG BRAIN BEHIND THE FOLLY OF OUR NBN, WENT FOR SOME REVATILISATION OF THE SNOWIES. 

Our political landscape is completely flooded by a massive tide of official propaganda. Therefore, it’s hardly surprising that the few visible points of surviving dissent are often found among those individuals who had previously represented the highest peaks of journalism and academic scholarship.

It’s been more than 30 years since Philippine lawmakers moved to end the permanent U.S. military presence in the country. Previously, the U.S. operated two major bases, but many Filipinos saw the bases as a legacy of U.S. colonialism, and wanted to assert their independence.

Now, the Philippines is inviting the U.S. to increase its military footprint in the country again—giving access to four new military bases amid rising tensions with China, the two countries announced Thursday.

PMC Wagner placed the northern suburbs of Artemovsk and the villages of Paroskovievka and Krasnaya Gora in operational encirclement.

In the early morning, the PMC Wagner fighters who took Blahodatne, after their recent big breakthrough from the Soledar direction, launched an offensive operation and operationally surrounded the villages of Paraskovivka and Krasnaya Gora and cut off all supply routes. 

This was confirmed by PMC Wagner Mapping, other pro-Russian sources and a member of an artillery unit from the 108th Guards Kuban Cossack Air Assault Regiment of the Russian Federation.

This means that 6 Ukrainian Armed Forces groups are now trapped in these villages. These battalions include:

A Freedom of Information request has lifted the lid on some of the Future Fund’s overseas investments. Those looking in might not like all that they see, writes Rex Patrick.

Late last month, as Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ ‘Capitalism after the crises’ essay was going to print, the Future Fund were busily processing my Freedom of Information request (FOI) for their investment portfolios in a number of overseas jurisdictions. 

Everyone with a brain already knew the Empire did it. Now Seymour Hersh’s bombshell report not only details how Nord Stream 1 and 2 were attacked, but also names names: from the toxic Straussian neoliberal-con trio Sullivan, Blinken and Nuland all the way to the Teleprompter Reader-in-Chief.

Prolific author Robert Kagan’s latest elevation of Americans to God’s new chosen people leaps from the 688 pages of his new book, The Ghost at the Feast: America and the Collapse of World Order, 1900-1941. It is probable that none wish it were longer, as sage Samuel Johnson said of John Milton’s Paradise Lost.

The lion’s share of Kagan’s handiwork is a workmanlike chronicling of United States politics and foreign policy from the explosion of the U.S.S. Maine in Havana Harbor, Cuba, in 1898 through Pearl Harbor in 1941. The chronicle is meticulous but no literary equivalent of the Hope Diamond.

Prince Harry has been the subject of criticism from the military community and beyond after stating in his memoir Spare that he killed 25 members of the Taliban, according to reporting from leaked copies.

Aside from other shocking accusations—such as the claim that his brother, Prince William, knocked him to the floor during an argument—the 38-year-old also spoke of his decade-long service in the British army, which included being in charge of firing missiles from an Apache attack helicopter. 

BY SOLCYRE BURGA

We have a communication problem in Australia. Words that come out of a Black person's mouth are often heard so differently by white ears.

Take the ex-Green now crossbench senator Lidia Thorpe. She is constantly referred to as a "radical". Why? Because she is a champion of First Nations sovereignty.

Is that radical? First Nations people are the sovereign people of this country. This is, was and always will be our country.

The invasion and theft of our land does not change that. Never have our people ceded sovereignty.

On February 8, 2023, during a whirlwind visit by the Ukrainian president to Paris, Emmanuel Macron awarded the Legion of Honor to Volodymyr Zelensky, thus permanently dishonouring France.

by Christelle Nil

A lovely end of day — or a glistening night

In downtown Los Angeles where the shifting skies were made

Of yellow golden bursts and green streaks of purest jade

Above a boated harbour of attractive shopping malls on the edge

Of an ocean of silver sparks by Onyx, Tourmaline and liquid Pearls

We were looking for that famous shop of beautiful light

To buy a simple coffee and a TV

Everyone was so nothingly busy

No-one paid attention to our trollied follies

A soft crowd of strongest souls and full of muscular bodies

Dressed in black, platinum jewels and golden mink coats for Earls

So clean as America was right

And I’d been wrong all along.

Greed and equality had gone fine together along

Seventeen black dancers dressed in tinselling black

Came from the other side of the bay across a glass bridge

On February 10, 2023 former Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl sat down for an exclusive interview with Sputnik.

During the chat, Kneissl shared her thoughts on a number of poignant issues, such as the ramifications of Seymour Hersh’s revelations about the destruction of Nord Stream pipelines, the prospects of Turkiye becoming a natural gas hub and European politicians’ actions related to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

Sputnik: Good afternoon. We are in the Sputnik Studio in Moscow and our guest today is Karin Kneissl, former Austrian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Middle East expert, and energy analyst. Welcome.

Karin Kneissl: Thank you very much for the invitation.

Day by day, the ideas that define a dystopian society slyly creep their way into reality. Whether it is the constant surveillance at the hands of intelligence agencies or the abandonment of millions of people systemically left behind, the images associated with our society today can scare even the most cynical writers. One recent development grabbing headlines during the past few days is the building of a “Cop City” near the jewel of the South, Atlanta. The police killing of Tortuguita, a protester and environmental activist, is the latest transgression at the hands of the Atlanta police and its Cop City investors, but the forming of this project, with the help of financial elites, is what drew attention to the site in the first place.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has blocked the Ukrainian government and its military from using Starlink technology to fly and control drones, after earlier in the war SpaceX gifted thousands of Starlink dishes to Ukraine to help the population stay connected to the internet.

SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell in a statement asserted that Starlink technology was “never meant to be weaponized”. According to BBC, “She made reference to Ukraine’s alleged use of Starlink to control drones, and stressed that the equipment had been provided for humanitarian use.”

Next month [February 2023] will mark 1 year since Russia escalated its war on Ukraine. The senseless casualties and destruction have been met with stunning resilience by Ukraine and international opposition to Russia. Although the war continues, there is hope that Ukraine will emerge as an open and free democracy, which would include rebuilding its scientific enterprise with new infrastructure and laws.

BY NATALIYA SHULGA