November 26, 2022

The case of the wolf and the sheep in Hong Kong

Recently, a correspondent on Australias national broadcaster casually referred to Hong Kong as a police state. This ignores that the courts operate under common law rules. The role of the judge is key. They are not mouth-pieces of the central government. In HKSAR v Lai Man-ling & 4 Others, Hong Kongs image overseas has been tarnished by a decision to convict people for writing a childrens book, a judgement which no one can understand and which was wrong.

November 9, 2024

Russia's reasons for attacking Ukraine

Vladimir Putin rarely uses English in his speeches. So if in his speech to the recent BRICS meeting in Kazan he insisted the reason for Russia’s 2022 attack on Ukraine was that he was duped (he pronounced it ‘dooped’) by Germany and France in the 2014-5 Minsk Accords then he probably meant it.

December 12, 2023

State sanctioned killings are not the image of India we are used to

The revelations in recent weeks of Indian government involvement in the assassination in Vancouver of a Sikh separatist - and in a conspiracy to murder another in New York - may turn out to be what those in the diplomatic business call manageable.

February 22, 2023

Russia and China draw 'Red Lines' on their borders; US draws them on the other side of the planet

Reacting to China’s announcement that it will be putting forward a proposal for a political settlement to end the war in Ukraine, theUS ambassador to the United Nations said that if China begins arming Russia in that conflict this will be a “red line” for the United States.

February 1, 2023

The transition to a steady-state economy: a reply to Michael Keating

Scientific research shows that the environmental impacts of human civilisation have exceeded several planetary boundaries. To avoid societal collapse and to assist the transition to an ecologically sustainable civilisation, we must transition to a steady-state economy.

November 19, 2022

Proper perspective can mend relations between China and Australia

The meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Tuesday on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Bali, Indonesia, should serve as a harbinger for the mending of the damaged bilateral relations between the two countries.

April 4, 2025

Appreciating being in Australia and resolving to make the best of our opportunities

That we live in one of the best contemporary democracies is to be appreciated.

January 13, 2025

A US-China war is just around the corner. True or false?

Before asking whether we are on the precipice of a calamitous war between the United States and China, we need to query who wants such a conflict and who will benefit from it.

November 6, 2024

More than 1-in-10 Americans would "take action" to overturn 2024 election results

Close to half of Republicans (46%) and more than a quarter of Democrats (27%) said they would not consider 2024 election results to be legitimate if the other party’s presidential candidate won, according to polling by the World Justice Project. Some of them would go further: 14% of Republicans and 11% of Democrats surveyed said they would take action to overturn the 2024 election based solely on who is declared the winner.

December 27, 2023

Kissinger's atrocities fall solidly within the norm of US empire

Henry Kissinger did not invent some novel doctrine of foreign-policy-by-barbarous-atrocity, he simply continued the family tradition.

October 13, 2023

Israel's latest terrible war

Michael Hirsh has just published a withering review, in Foreign Policy, of the lead-up to horrific war now underway between Israel and Hamas entitled Netanyahus Road to War.

January 31, 2023

Leak confirms U.S. agents created massive 'Kremlin web-bots' scam

A group of top US agents, mostly Democrats, pumped hundreds of fake news stories into the mainstream media, it was revealed at the weekend.

October 25, 2024

The terrifying parallels between 9/11 and Israel’s response to Oct. 7

The tragedy in the Middle East is that what Hamas’ Sinwar was to bin Laden, Israel is to America.

October 11, 2023

Nine 'planetary boundaries' set the limits of global economic freedom

One of the most important developments in economics is something in which economists had no hand: the identification of the environmental limits which humans, busily producing and consuming, cross at their peril.

March 27, 2023

The Road to War: latest film by David Bradbury

As international tensions rise to a new level, with the Ukraine war passing its first anniversary and the Albanese Government set to announce its commitment of hundreds of billions of dollars to new weaponry, nuclear propelled subs, stealth bombers etc, The Road to War brings into sharp focus why it is not in Australias best interests to be dragged into an American-led war with China.

February 25, 2023

The real news Washington does not want you to know about

Faced with a mini-Chernobyl in Ohio and bombing of the Nord Stream pipelines, the Chinese balloon was a distraction White House needed.

December 4, 2024

Biden Pardons his son: The US "rules based order" in action

When I’m asked what I think of Biden granting a pardon to his son for offences, which Biden himself has spoken openly about as deserving of prison, I don’t have much to say. On the same day, I see criticism of China because a senior military official has been removed from his post and is under investigation. The two things are about as incompatible as it gets.

October 29, 2024

Lying western press scramble to frame Israel's attack on Iran as self-defence

Israel has launched a round of airstrikes on Iran which the western news media are falling all over themselves to falsely frame as “retaliatory” strikes against an unprovoked missile attack by Iran.

February 15, 2024

Behind bellicose bluster, N. Korea is turning airfields into greenhouse farms

While bellicose rhetoric continues to be lobbed across the DMZ, North Korea appears focused on bolstering not just its weaponry, but its farms as well.

February 1, 2024

The silence of the damned

Our leading humanitarian and civic institutions, including major medical institutions, refuse to denounce Israels genocide in Gaza. This exposes their hypocrisy and complicity.

November 6, 2023

Battle of the gods

An older man, grey-haired but quite firm in his manner as he spoke to the ABC TV reporter on Palestines West Bank. He was an Israeli, he said, and he was claiming the building site because, God gave us this land.

January 29, 2023

Whats not to like about Rudds appointment as Canberras man in Washington?

On Dec. 20, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the appointment of former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd as his countrys next ambassador to the U.S.

December 18, 2021

Australia is at risk of letting its democracy decay beyond retrieval

Having adopted a banal imitation of American exceptionalism, Australia is at risk of following the US into decline.

December 27, 2024

I have learned a few things

I have learned a few things in my time on this earth. Not many, but a few.

December 14, 2024

Genocidal attitudes masked in the trappings of patriotism

The decision by Australia’s federal Opposition leader to avoid standing by the Aboriginal flag is a dangerously divisive and cynical move.

December 11, 2024

Finally, the effort to engineer regime change in Syria has been achieved

“The first CIA effort at regime change in Syria was in 1947 at the very moment of its inception. And there were multiple efforts to overthrow governments in Syria and well before Bashar Al Assad took power. … They all failed. There were efforts of course to change the Bashar Al Assad regime, to overthrow it. Hillary Clinton and others famously advocated that the United States CIA spent about 5 billion dollars in training of various groups including this one to overthrow the regime, presumably on behalf of Israeli security interests which have been foremost in the minds of the Biden Administration … So as I said there are many foreign hands in this. Precisely what role was played by whom is a little bit murky still. But finally, the effort to engineer regime change in Syria has been achieved.”

January 19, 2024

Global cooperation key to preventing 'Runaway' climate and AI chaos: UN chief

“Geopolitical divides are preventing us from coming together around global solutions for global challenges,” said United Nations Secretary-General Antnio Guterres.

December 19, 2023

Yemen is none of our business

US presidents are losing their authority as the worlds policemen. Russia fights to keep Ukraine out of NATO. Israel fights in Gaza to wipe out the Palestinians. China and the Global South advance their national interests without fighting at all. All can and do ignore President Bidens wishes.

October 26, 2023

In this conflict, context is everything

The truth of the matter is that Western Governments bear the primary responsibility for both the carnage in Israel and the genocide in Gaza.

December 27, 2022

Best of 2022: Ayshehs story: A victory for victim-survivors of domestic violence against NSW police

Policing practices collude with and perpetuate the cycle of domestic and family abuse and violence against women.

December 5, 2022

Pentagon fails another audit, yet congress poised to approve $847 billion budget

“This isn’t using our taxpayer dollars wisely,” said the National Priorities Project. “It’s robbing programs that we need, like the discontinued child tax credit that cut child poverty by half.”

December 16, 2024

Sanction rebounds: The US will cripple its own economy

The Biden Administration is leaving Trump a time bomb. The US seems intent on trying to cripple China, but the effect is rebounding badly and will most likely cripple its own economy.

March 21, 2023

Empire-funded think tanks are not valid sources: notes from The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

ATTENTION JOURNALISTS:

It is never, ever acceptable, under any circumstances, to cite think tanks funded by governments and the military industrial complex as sources of information or expertise on matters of national security or foreign affairs.

January 11, 2023

Wars and more wars: the sorry U.S. history in the Middle East

The American republic morphed well over a century ago into an empire of many endless wars. With U.S. troops still in Syria, Iraq, Somalia and numerous African countries, with over 800 military bases in more than 70 countries and a war budget of roughly one trillion dollars a year, its no surprise that one of our main exports is weapons and that arms merchants call the shots in Washington. Presidents come and go, but the wars dont: they drag on. And when a president does manage to extract the country from one of these military quagmires, as Biden did in Afghanistan, he gets nothing but grief.

March 19, 2022

Bridget Brennan and Kirstie Wellauer - More evidence of 'genocidal killings' of Aboriginal people in frontier times

A pattern of brutal reprisals began to emerge in the late 19th and the 20th centuries as thousands of Aboriginal people were murdered in colonial times, new research suggests.

March 15, 2021

Beyond apocalypse fatigue

We can have economic growth without wrecking the planet, says economist Per Espen Stoknes.

January 27, 2025

Lancet study finds Gaza’s true death toll from Israeli genocide exceeds 60,000

A new study published in The Lancet estimates Gaza’s death toll at 64,260 in the first nine months of the war, 41% higher than official figures, highlighting the devastating impact of the ongoing genocide.

November 15, 2024

Russian Ambassador Alexey Pavlovsky discusses Ukraine, Western influence and Australia’s role in the ongoing conflict

In this exclusive interview with Alexey Pavlovsky, the Ambassador of the Russian Federation to Australia since 2019, he shares his insights on the complex dynamics between Russia, Ukraine, and the West, as well as his reflections on Australia’s stance in the ongoing conflict.

November 10, 2024

2024 'Virtually certain' to be hottest year on record: EU climate agency

A new report contained “the bleakest news possible, especially with a climate denier U.S. president in office for the next four years,” said one climate scientist.

December 3, 2023

Israel has Haaretz newspaper in its sights as it tightens screws on media freedom

The Israeli government is putting pressure on the left-leaning newspaper Haaretz to line up in support of the government in its conduct of the war in Gaza.

November 10, 2023

Spooky fiddling: The CIA playbook and the overthrow of Whitlam. Part 4

In a telephone conversation between Kissinger and Nixon following the 1973 military coup d’tat in Chile, the President asked if our hand showed in the overthrow and death of the democratically elected President Allende. Kissinger explained that we didn’t do it, in terms of direct participation in the military actions. I mean we helped them, Kissinger continued, [redacted words] created the conditions as great as possible.

January 18, 2025

“Barbarians and their accomplices”- Israel and Western media

The year just past, and we had all better face this, will be remembered as the year the Zionist regime in Israel dragged the Western post-democracies into a state of barbarism we, the inheritors of “the Judeo–Christian tradition,” were supposed to have left behind many centuries ago. I offer this assertion after lengthy reflection. In its suggestion of the historic magnitude of our moment, I do not consider it in the slightest hyperbolic.

February 23, 2024

Europe, U.S. are losing charm for Chinese tourists

Mr. Liu Dafeng has been a fan of overseas travel. He lives in China’s Shenzhen city, southeastern Guangdong province. After weeks of preparation and paperwork, his plan of a long-awaited trip to Britain was shattered after his visa application was denied.

January 28, 2024

Why I believe what I believe about the Chinese Revolution

Late last year, a colleague sent me a letter decrying some of my writings about China, notably the last newsletter of 2023. This newsletter is my response to him.

March 11, 2023

Lock up your resources, the Aussies are coming

Ignorance and fear can be effective weapons in a manipulative politicians arsenal. Theyre guaranteed to pierce the armour of those least protected by doubt and most susceptible to flannel.

January 6, 2023

As crimes of apartheid worsen, the Wests exceptionalism toward Israel must end

Israel’s new administration will be one that does not conceal its intention to preserve and further entrench the apartheid tyranny over the Palestinians, while fully cultivating Jewish supremacy as a political and legal credo.

March 18, 2024

America is dumbing itself down. Banning TikTok wont halt the slide

The US has created the conditions for the decline of its own society.

December 21, 2023

The death of Israel

Settler colonial states have a terminal shelf life. Israel is no exception.

December 8, 2023

How Western allies subvert international law and norms to contain China

The US has been ruthlessly militarising what some Pentagon strategists have called the island chains of defence in the Indo-Pacific with quiet Five Eyes help.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal