Five years ago, J.D. Vance, who is now the vice-president of the United States, received the Sacraments of Initiation at St Gertrude Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. The Dominicans to whom the parish has been entrusted presumably instructed him regarding the basic tenets of Catholic Christianity, stressing that love is the basic reality of the universe Continue reading »
USA
I am not suffering from what some of President Donald Trump’s more fervent supporters — both in the US and in Australia — like to call “Trump derangement syndrome”. That is, I’m not disputing that he won the presidential election held last November “fair and square”, as did the Republican Party in both the House Continue reading »
The “China Initiative” was the name of a controversial program run by the US Department of Justice, which was introduced in late 2018 during the first Trump administration. It operated under a typically broad mandate to counter alleged China-related national security threats to the United States. Might messages in Chinese fortune cookies represent, as the Continue reading »
Trump has created what he calls a ‘Faith Office’ within the White House and appointed a Pentecostal pastor from Florida, Paula White, to lead it. Ms White, widely described in mainstream Christianity as a heretic, teaches a transactional faith. In other words, faith is demonstrated in prosperity. Blessed are you who are poor, for yours Continue reading »
The two big stories in the news today are the Trump administration saying Ukraine is going to have to give up territory and NATO ambitions in order to secure a peace deal, while Israel appears to retreat from its ceasefire standoff with Hamas. US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth said on Wednesday that the US Continue reading »
The low regard in which the Global West is held is intensifying. The second Trump administration is not the cause of this. It is simply accelerating this ominous process by openly embracing a lawless, imperial contempt for primary international and metropolitan governance rules, norms and conventions in response to the persistent retreat of American global Continue reading »
Never has there been a greater need for Australia to turn away from its military alliance with the United States and forge an independent and peaceful foreign policy. This would necessarily mean an alternative self-reliant defence policy and the forging of friendly and mutually beneficial relations with the fraternity of non-aligned/neutral nations. Even before the Continue reading »
The Gaza ceasefire (if you can even call it that) is already in grave peril. Hamas has announced that it will be postponing the release of any more Israeli hostages in response to repeated ceasefire violations by Israel and consistent failure to meet its terms of the agreement. The IDF has been routinely killing Palestinians Continue reading »
America’s co-President, Donald Trump, was irate after being told that he could not have a tee time at the newly renamed Gulf of America. Aides tried to tell the co-President that the Gulf wasn’t actually a golf course but co-President... Read More ›
“Take wisdom from the mouths of mad men” is an old Arabic proverb. It sprang to mind a couple of days ago, when I heard the narcissist leader of the “civilised” world, President Donald Trump, openly calling for the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. Trump clearly said that Gaza is a “hell”; Gaza is totally destroyed, Continue reading »