Fisk on Assad’s real worry (and it isn’t poor little Obama)
Indeed: Obama roars. World trembles. If only. Obama says Assad must “step aside”. Do we really think Damascus trembles? Or is going to? Indeed, the titan of the White House only dared to go this far after condemnation of Bashar al-Assad by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Turkey, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, the EU and Uncle…
Murdoch press success; discuss Palestine and BDS and ignore occupation
Yet another skillful effort today in Murdoch’s Australian. It ain’t easy being so clueless on the Middle East but the paper strives for a moral blindspot and achieves an own goal: What concerns many people about the Max Brenner campaign, apart from the shadow of history, is that it is directed against something that, although…
Screw the media hacks who only follow elections to get high
Salon’s Glenn Greenwald on what elections are really about; the corporate press and business with the general populace mere bystanders: Obviously, at least in theory, presidential campaigns are newsworthy.… But consider the impact from the fact that they dominate media coverage for so long, drowning out most everything else.… A presidential term is 48 months;…
Having opinions about immigration detention isn’t acceptable
The message here is that privatised care enforces strict bounds of discussion, and honesty isn’t part of the equation: A mental health nurse was sacked from a job in a Darwin detention centre for voicing her opinion on the detention system. A termination letter says the worker, who wished to stay anonymous, was fired because…
Calling anybody who knows how much US money being paid to insurgents?
No, didn’t think Washington has any real idea: The U.S. military has moved to stem the flow of contract money to Afghan insurgents, awarding at least 20 companies new contracts worth about $1… billion for military supply transport and suspending seven current contractors it found lacking in “integrity and business ethics.” The new contracts, which were…
Sydney’s 2SER Radio on aid to Palestine and Zionist lobby pressure
I recently wrote about progressive unions in Australia being pressured by the Zionist lobby, conservative politicians and elements within the Labor Party to stop supporting Palestine. I was interviewed on Sydney 2SER radio’s AidWorks program about this issue and why BDS so scares Israel firsters opposed to Palestinian rights. The segment starts around 16.38:
Naomi Klein on blindly ignoring the Shock Doctrine in Britain
She’s right: Argentina’s mass looting was called El Saqueo—the sacking. That was politically significant because it was the very same word used to describe what that country’s elites had done by selling off the country’s national assets in flagrantly corrupt privatization deals, hiding their money offshore, then passing on the bill to the people with…
Just how are merchants of death supposed to make a good living these days?
Are the good times really coming to an end, or will Western-led wars be increasingly privatised? The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are winding down, Osama bin Laden is dead, and the federal government is deeply in debt. This spells the end of what was a golden decade for the defense industry. In the decade…