Henry Kissinger did not invent some novel doctrine of foreign-policy-by-barbarous-atrocity, he simply continued the family tradition. Henry Kissinger straddled US foreign policy across two presidencies from 1969-1977. Notable in the current moment is the framing that Kissinger was somehow uniquely evil–and that he shifted US policy in this direction. Christopher Hitchens described Kissinger as a Continue reading »
politics
‘Alternative’ medicines and therapies comprise the biggest scam in the country. But if you think that industry is going to be cleaned up … you’re joking. According to the best estimates, Australians spend well over $5 billion a year on alternative medicines and therapies. Globally, the market is valued at $2.4 trillion, equal to the Continue reading »
There is greatness in a system that tolerates public grumbling. Australia’s brand of democracy is a wonderful thing, in which the integrity of every referendum and election relies on the care, commitment and community spirit of thousands of ordinary citizens. People like you and me. It is citizen civics (expertly coordinated by the AEC) and Continue reading »
Western Australia is famously a long way from everywhere. Given our isolation, it’s not surprising that politics can be a bit parochial. While this may have been forgivable in another era, at this current historical juncture it’s becoming rather embarrassing. But before ‘eastern staters’ start feeling too smug, it’s important to recognise that in many Continue reading »
From the perspective of a 1960s and 1970s protester, the domestic and international scenario looks worse than grim. Following the 2016 US election cycle, a campaign worker for a moderately liberal Congressional candidate working from an upstate New York campaign headquarters told me after that candidate’s abysmal loss to a far right-wing Republican, “I refuse Continue reading »
Under Australia’s Constitution, the people of Australia have no way of binding the parliaments and governments they elect to be loyal to them. This is because once parliaments and governments are elected the members must take an oath that obliges them to give their loyalty solely to a foreign monarch who has no reciprocal obligation Continue reading »
“The human heart is weak and impulsive; if we find instruments of death in our hands, sooner or later we will use them,” said the Pope in his Christmas Day blessing. “And how can we even speak of peace, when arms production, sales and trade are on the rise?” Pope Francis condemned the global arms Continue reading »
It is the urgent task of the American people to overhaul a foreign policy that is so broken, corrupted, and deceitful that it is burying the government in debt while pushing the world closer to nuclear Armageddon. US foreign policy seems to be utterly irrational. The US gets into one disastrous war after another — Continue reading »
If the gloves are off from the blood-soaked hands of Israel and the United States, then the gloves should come off for the rest of the world to tell them what they think of their genocidal actions and brutality. There’s no longer any pretence, no false humility, no drawing of the veil from either country. Continue reading »
A central characteristic of narcissistic sadists according to the great psychoanalyst, Erich Fromm, is their desire to reduce all living matter to dead matter. Fromm describes these narcissistic sadists as necrophilious characters. We are currently witnessing the genocidal actions of a necrophilious duo of Netanyahu and Biden. The first claims to be Jewish, the second Continue reading »