merry

Like many, my best Christmas memories come from childhood. Endless hot summers, the river, food and family. And faith.

I come from a big Aboriginal family. There's no Christmas like a black Christmas. There was never much money and presents were few and modest, but they were treasured. One year I got a book of Greek myths that opened a world of wonder and ideas that have stayed with me a lifetime.

We played cricket with a homemade bat carved out of an old fence post. Our ham came from a tin and chicken substituted for turkey.

But we were blessed. Christmas was a time of prayer and hope. My uncles were pastors in the Aboriginal church. They looked to the black church leaders of the United States like the reverend Martin Luther King Jr.

...

women!

Scott Morrison and his government enter the new year with a fresh iteration of their "women problem" — the multiple high-profile female independents contesting a number of Liberal seats.

It's not that the next parliament is likely to see a big influx of new lower house crossbenchers.

ABC election analyst Antony Green points out that, to win, independents in these seats would need a 25-30 per cent primary vote and to push the Liberal vote down to about 45 per cent.

One of these aspirants may succeed, two if they were extremely lucky. Perhaps the drive will end up nothing more than colour and movement.

However it goes, their challenges bring serious campaign trouble for Morrison.

nsw

9.03am  Victoria records 1510 new cases of COVID-19, seven deaths

9.02am NSW announces record 2213 daily cases of COVID-19, one death

8.12am Tributes flow for lives lost in Devonport tragedy

8.05am Daily coronavirus numbers will be ‘confronting’, but more lockdowns not the answer: Dutton

7.50am Victorian Premier tests negative to COVID-19

https://www.smh.com.au/national/australia-news-live-covid-19-cases-surge-in-nsw-victoria-as-restrictions-lift-across-the-nation-second-ashes-test-continues-in-adelaide-20211216-p59i8i.html

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW ###########!!!!!

letter

Prime minister’s department ‘can’t find’ sports rorts document requested by Rex Patrick under FOI

Attorney general’s office is seemingly at odds with Morrison’s department in fighting to keep the letter secret

ka-ching

“It might be foolish to make another prediction, but I think the acute phase of the pandemic will come to a close sometime in 2022,” the billionaire suggested in a post to his GatesNotes blog. 

people...

China and Russia have become major champions of real multilateralism and international fairness and justice, President Xi Jinping said during a virtual meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing on Wednesday.

Praising Putin's support for China in safeguarding its core interests as well as his objection to attempts to sow discords between China and Russia, Xi said he hopes to work with Putin to review the outcomes gained from this year's development of China-Russia ties and make plans for future bilateral cooperation.

Pointing out that China-Russia ties have withstood the profound changes the world is going through as well as the COVID-19 pandemic, Xi said the two countries have firmly supported each other over issues concerning their core interests and safeguarded their common interests.

summit

The virtual summit for democracy organised from Washington is a gigantic qui-pro-quo. Many commentators have noted that it does not aim to promote a political regime, but to ideologically consolidate the military alliance behind the United States; a development that prepares new wars. Thierry Meyssan shows that, far from being hypocritical, Washington is on the contrary very clear in its objective. It is his partners who bear the blame by pretending to ignore that the words he uses do not have the same meaning for them.

SUMMIT FOR «DEMOCRACY»

There are no "common values" between Europeans and the US

by Thierry Meyssan

truss

Britain, which holds the G7 rotating presidency, said resumed talks in Vienna were the Islamic Republic's "last chance to come to the negotiating table with a serious resolution."

"There is still time for Iran to come and agree this deal," Truss said.

Her comments are the first time a signatory to the original Iran deal has given an ultimatum for the talks.

Negotiations restarted on Thursday to try to revive the 2015 deal between Iran and world powers, which Washington withdrew from under former President Donald Trump in 2018.

idiots

I am watching my favourite song on YouTube and right in the middle of the best trill, here comes an advert for UAP, with Craig Kelly yapping like a mad dog... He's desperate. I would not mind the interruption so much, if it were an ad for a new vacuum cleaner with extra suction, cordless and reverse self-cleaning. But Craig Kelly? And in front of the UAP yellow-piss background???

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.