Australia already has public servants who just went along with the illegal Robodebt program. And nothing can be brought against them because of the toothless NACC stacked with sinecures.
As well, it's seven years since Dutton made his comments about Victorians being scared to go out to restaurants because of African gang violence. Those comments were widely reported but who criticised them? ~ a few letter writers to newspapers? He's planted those lies which feed the prejudices of the ignorant and/or conservatives.
More than ever, Australia needs more widely accessed independent media and politicians from all parties, as well as the Independents, to call out rubbish.
Excellent article. For some extra context to your dialogue regarding ‘Concentration’ Camps. A short dip into the history of the US occupation of the Phillipines after the Spanish - American war shows the US had a policy of burning villages, massacring villagers and concentrating into camps, wherein death through starvation and disease was common. They even called them Concentration Camps. They’ve done it before.
It's true, too, that Hitler and his crew found a lot of inspiration in the way southern states in the US enforced segregation. The whole history of the concentration camp, beginning in Cuba and then with the British in southern Africa, and endless other examples, is fascinating.
Actually, the image is from a public domain image archive. I'm going to try and use such sources but will also use AI if I can't find something that works. You can read some more about the image I used on this piece here: https://pdimagearchive.org/images/20130562-9b52-4e36-b082-ccb0dd0644c5/
Very prescient Tim. Trump has already started enacting Project 2025's plans re the ICE powers to raid previously safe locations, and the reclassification of those public servants along with the abolition of every single DEI agency and program. I shouldn't be amazed at how supine the press have been and their refusal to discuss Trump's implementation of Project 2025 given their wholesale dismissal of it as Trump's playbook prior to the election, but I am. How can such craven cowardice be explained, let alone justified? It seems to me that the MSM (and I include the ABC in that) has completely outlived its purpose and deserves to disappear.
I'm keen to write something about how the media works at times like this. Nazi Germany is again an exemplar. Let's just say, the world's biggest newspapers didn't cover themselves in glory then either. Coupla books you might want to check out:
Thanks Tim. I’ll follow up those suggestions. I’d be keen to read a piece on the complicity of the media. It seems that the oft-stated purpose of the media “to hold power to account” is a myth journalists and proprietors tell themselves to ease their guilty consciences.
AOC stood up at the democrats national convention and told the world that Harris, Biden and Co had been working 24/7 on a ceasefire in Gaza. She bullshitted like the rest of the craven arseholes. NO GUTS.
Bernie served 16 years till 2006 in the reps when he won his senate seat. He stood aside for Clinton and Biden, talks the talk and failed those many thousands of his followers who'd worked so hard for him. If the DNC will never allow a Bernie to represent the dems at a presidential election, why is he in the party.
All of that might be true and I certainly am not trying to excuse the failures of the Dems. But it doesn't change the fact that only AOC and Bernie are telling it like it is now.
'He Who Sups With The Devil Should Have A Long Spoon'. Aye, but me thinks Albanese, Marles, Wong along with Australia's interests are the next plate of finger food on a Lazy Susan full of humburgers, fries & shakes. doG help us.
Tim. The dems were in power for four years. They could have expanded the supreme court bench and evened the pack, yet failed to act.
In any number of ways the dems could have improved the life for those on low wages and with precarious employment and income, yet that was unaffordable in a nation that was funding foreign proxy wars to the tune of billions of dollars a year.
The self-proclaimed zionist, Joe Biden, was strongly against medicare for all, yet was content for the USA to provide aid packages to Israel, a state that provides free medicine to Israelis.
Some states in the USA were criminalising homelessness. Creating a new class of confined slave labour, because capitalism is incapable of providing shelter for the population. Even the great "progressive" governor of California, Gavin Newsom, told California councils there would be no state funding for any councils that failed to remove the homeless from council property. The nation that promotes US exceptionalism is unable to house its population.
As American citizens in their millions protested the ongoing supply of weapons to Israel for its campaign of annihilation in Gaza, Biden and Co treated them with contempt. When democrat supporters chanted ceasefire now at one of Harris' rallies, Harris shouted them down, telling them, "if you say that, you'll get Trump" and went on with, "I'm Speaking".
Harris and Co had been calling out Trump and those around him as fascists for months, and expected Americans to vote for them to avoid the horror of a Trumpian second term.
At the DNC, the dems trotted out those great progressives - the Cheneys. Only the likes of Harris and the DNC could offer redemption to the likes of Dick Cheney.
A recent Yougov poll disclosed that 29% of the 19 million Americans that stayed home on polling day, cited the ongoing slaughter in Gaza as the number one reason for staying home on November 5th.
Harris offered no change to the pathetic effort of the last four years of Biden's administration that she'd served in. The sole reason for the electorate to cast a vote for Harris was to not get Trump, and they expected the millions of Americans that were extremely agitated by the genocide in Gaza to forget the matter.
You quoted Dan Stone as follows, “The crucial characteristic of a concentration camp is not whether it has barbed wire, fences, or watchtowers; it is, rather, the gathering of civilians, defined by a regime as de facto ‘enemies’, in order to hold them against their will without charge in a place where the rule of law has been suspended.”
Israeli sociologist, Baruch Kimmerling, described Gaza as, "the world's biggest concentration camp ever," in 2003, a claim that was supported by the director of the Israeli National Security Council (NSC), Giora Eiland in 2004. In November 2023, former Major General Eiland stated that all Palestinians in Gaza are legitimate targets and a severe epidemic will bring victory closer.
The western world, including Australia, supported the state of Israel in its illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories and the blockade of Gaza for years.
The democrats in the USA deserted the working class and cut the throat of Bernie Sanders in favour of another Clinton who was in the thrall of Wall St, and a warmonger to boot, yet expected to be returned because Trump was the only option.
The Biden administration has continued the international regime change work of previous administrations, in January a reward of $40.6 million for assistance in the capture of Nicolas Maduro, President of Venezuela, for the crime of being an elected socialist president in the American world.
The UAE is said to be carrying out the USA's bidding in the civil war in Sudan.
And so it goes. The US was hit by successive hurricanes Helene and Milton in September and October 2024 and the Biden administration was able to offer paltry assistance to people who had lost everything, yet had no trouble supporting the military industrial complex and spending billions "rescuing" other democracies.
On the performance of Biden and Co over their term, were they truly worthy of a return?
The Australian two party system is no different to that, Albanese and Labor machine men have the attitude that what's good for business is good for the nation, and if you don't vote for Labor, you get Dutton.
Albanese and Co - are no different from Dutton and Co when it comes to support for USA's foreign policy and interventions around the globe.
Our alignment with the USA is no longer in Australias national interest, yet neither major party recognises where we are being directed. Our sovereignty is no more, our government has become a US satrapy awaiting orders from Washington, no matter the leader of the USA.
Agree with a lot of this. Clearly the Dems have a lot to answer for. And I've been banging on about Labor's shortcomings for a while, though how they handle Trump adds a whole new dimension. Only thing I would add is that we have to stop of thinking in terms of either/or Lab/LNP. We have a very strong possibility of minority govt and it is a genuine third choice we can make. It isn't a zero-sum game anymore.
As usual this is timely and we all know about WW 2 yet we are watching those who were persecuted and murdered by Nazis have now become little better in showing so much hatred toward a race of people whose land was handed over to the Zionists because the world stood by and allowed this terrible situation to have occurred.Who has educated the young reporters in their roles after uni? Who now owns our media ? What to do ? Vote for decent real politicians forget the major parties and Pauline and Clive and Katter Fat chance 🌚🎩😩
The word "Konzentrationslager" was first used by the Germans to describe the British camps in SA. They took a lot of inspiration from what the Brits did. Though, there is an argument that says, to quote Dan Stone, "camps in South Africa were set up by the British primarily with the aim of preventing a rural population, whose land been destroyed by the British Army’s scorched-earth policy, from supporting Boer guerrillas and not as ‘punishment’ camps..."
The Brits became less civilised as the empire wound down. Internment camps were used in by the Brits in Kenya and Malaya to prevent communal support of the insurgents. The same strategy was employed by the yanks in Vietnam.
As a nine and ten-year-old, I remember seeing Movietone Newsreels on the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya.
When the secret documents from the British administration in Kenya were released in 2011, it led one analyst to say, "this flips the script on who is civilised."
Australia already has public servants who just went along with the illegal Robodebt program. And nothing can be brought against them because of the toothless NACC stacked with sinecures.
As well, it's seven years since Dutton made his comments about Victorians being scared to go out to restaurants because of African gang violence. Those comments were widely reported but who criticised them? ~ a few letter writers to newspapers? He's planted those lies which feed the prejudices of the ignorant and/or conservatives.
More than ever, Australia needs more widely accessed independent media and politicians from all parties, as well as the Independents, to call out rubbish.
Excellent article. For some extra context to your dialogue regarding ‘Concentration’ Camps. A short dip into the history of the US occupation of the Phillipines after the Spanish - American war shows the US had a policy of burning villages, massacring villagers and concentrating into camps, wherein death through starvation and disease was common. They even called them Concentration Camps. They’ve done it before.
It's true, too, that Hitler and his crew found a lot of inspiration in the way southern states in the US enforced segregation. The whole history of the concentration camp, beginning in Cuba and then with the British in southern Africa, and endless other examples, is fascinating.
Thank you for the excellent article. I was very disturbed to see you used AI to generate the illustration.
Actually, the image is from a public domain image archive. I'm going to try and use such sources but will also use AI if I can't find something that works. You can read some more about the image I used on this piece here: https://pdimagearchive.org/images/20130562-9b52-4e36-b082-ccb0dd0644c5/
Thanks for following up
Very prescient Tim. Trump has already started enacting Project 2025's plans re the ICE powers to raid previously safe locations, and the reclassification of those public servants along with the abolition of every single DEI agency and program. I shouldn't be amazed at how supine the press have been and their refusal to discuss Trump's implementation of Project 2025 given their wholesale dismissal of it as Trump's playbook prior to the election, but I am. How can such craven cowardice be explained, let alone justified? It seems to me that the MSM (and I include the ABC in that) has completely outlived its purpose and deserves to disappear.
I'm keen to write something about how the media works at times like this. Nazi Germany is again an exemplar. Let's just say, the world's biggest newspapers didn't cover themselves in glory then either. Coupla books you might want to check out:
https://www.amazon.com.au/Newspaper-Axis-Barons-Enabled-Hitler/dp/0300256426
https://www.amazon.com/Press-Politics-Weimar-Republic-Bernhard-ebook/dp/B001PO5OHE
Thanks Tim. I’ll follow up those suggestions. I’d be keen to read a piece on the complicity of the media. It seems that the oft-stated purpose of the media “to hold power to account” is a myth journalists and proprietors tell themselves to ease their guilty consciences.
AOC and Bernie S are the only politicians in the US with any guts.
AOC stood up at the democrats national convention and told the world that Harris, Biden and Co had been working 24/7 on a ceasefire in Gaza. She bullshitted like the rest of the craven arseholes. NO GUTS.
Bernie served 16 years till 2006 in the reps when he won his senate seat. He stood aside for Clinton and Biden, talks the talk and failed those many thousands of his followers who'd worked so hard for him. If the DNC will never allow a Bernie to represent the dems at a presidential election, why is he in the party.
Follow the money!
All of that might be true and I certainly am not trying to excuse the failures of the Dems. But it doesn't change the fact that only AOC and Bernie are telling it like it is now.
I don’t think it’s just the next 4 yrs that should worry us and yet we have both major parties willing to turn a blind eye and kiss Trumps @rse.
I wonder how Australia will be viewed in the future.
The whole concept of "the next 4 years" is likely meaningless anyway. This isn't just a normal election cycle.
'He Who Sups With The Devil Should Have A Long Spoon'. Aye, but me thinks Albanese, Marles, Wong along with Australia's interests are the next plate of finger food on a Lazy Susan full of humburgers, fries & shakes. doG help us.
Is there a spoon long enough in this case?
Tim. The dems were in power for four years. They could have expanded the supreme court bench and evened the pack, yet failed to act.
In any number of ways the dems could have improved the life for those on low wages and with precarious employment and income, yet that was unaffordable in a nation that was funding foreign proxy wars to the tune of billions of dollars a year.
The self-proclaimed zionist, Joe Biden, was strongly against medicare for all, yet was content for the USA to provide aid packages to Israel, a state that provides free medicine to Israelis.
Some states in the USA were criminalising homelessness. Creating a new class of confined slave labour, because capitalism is incapable of providing shelter for the population. Even the great "progressive" governor of California, Gavin Newsom, told California councils there would be no state funding for any councils that failed to remove the homeless from council property. The nation that promotes US exceptionalism is unable to house its population.
As American citizens in their millions protested the ongoing supply of weapons to Israel for its campaign of annihilation in Gaza, Biden and Co treated them with contempt. When democrat supporters chanted ceasefire now at one of Harris' rallies, Harris shouted them down, telling them, "if you say that, you'll get Trump" and went on with, "I'm Speaking".
Harris and Co had been calling out Trump and those around him as fascists for months, and expected Americans to vote for them to avoid the horror of a Trumpian second term.
At the DNC, the dems trotted out those great progressives - the Cheneys. Only the likes of Harris and the DNC could offer redemption to the likes of Dick Cheney.
A recent Yougov poll disclosed that 29% of the 19 million Americans that stayed home on polling day, cited the ongoing slaughter in Gaza as the number one reason for staying home on November 5th.
Harris offered no change to the pathetic effort of the last four years of Biden's administration that she'd served in. The sole reason for the electorate to cast a vote for Harris was to not get Trump, and they expected the millions of Americans that were extremely agitated by the genocide in Gaza to forget the matter.
You quoted Dan Stone as follows, “The crucial characteristic of a concentration camp is not whether it has barbed wire, fences, or watchtowers; it is, rather, the gathering of civilians, defined by a regime as de facto ‘enemies’, in order to hold them against their will without charge in a place where the rule of law has been suspended.”
Israeli sociologist, Baruch Kimmerling, described Gaza as, "the world's biggest concentration camp ever," in 2003, a claim that was supported by the director of the Israeli National Security Council (NSC), Giora Eiland in 2004. In November 2023, former Major General Eiland stated that all Palestinians in Gaza are legitimate targets and a severe epidemic will bring victory closer.
The western world, including Australia, supported the state of Israel in its illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories and the blockade of Gaza for years.
The democrats in the USA deserted the working class and cut the throat of Bernie Sanders in favour of another Clinton who was in the thrall of Wall St, and a warmonger to boot, yet expected to be returned because Trump was the only option.
The Biden administration has continued the international regime change work of previous administrations, in January a reward of $40.6 million for assistance in the capture of Nicolas Maduro, President of Venezuela, for the crime of being an elected socialist president in the American world.
The UAE is said to be carrying out the USA's bidding in the civil war in Sudan.
And so it goes. The US was hit by successive hurricanes Helene and Milton in September and October 2024 and the Biden administration was able to offer paltry assistance to people who had lost everything, yet had no trouble supporting the military industrial complex and spending billions "rescuing" other democracies.
On the performance of Biden and Co over their term, were they truly worthy of a return?
The Australian two party system is no different to that, Albanese and Labor machine men have the attitude that what's good for business is good for the nation, and if you don't vote for Labor, you get Dutton.
Albanese and Co - are no different from Dutton and Co when it comes to support for USA's foreign policy and interventions around the globe.
Our alignment with the USA is no longer in Australias national interest, yet neither major party recognises where we are being directed. Our sovereignty is no more, our government has become a US satrapy awaiting orders from Washington, no matter the leader of the USA.
Agree with a lot of this. Clearly the Dems have a lot to answer for. And I've been banging on about Labor's shortcomings for a while, though how they handle Trump adds a whole new dimension. Only thing I would add is that we have to stop of thinking in terms of either/or Lab/LNP. We have a very strong possibility of minority govt and it is a genuine third choice we can make. It isn't a zero-sum game anymore.
Diane Englehardt, published a great article, Leadership in Crisis, on her substack
For Cryin Out Loud today.
I think it addresses the issues you discuss pretty well.
As usual this is timely and we all know about WW 2 yet we are watching those who were persecuted and murdered by Nazis have now become little better in showing so much hatred toward a race of people whose land was handed over to the Zionists because the world stood by and allowed this terrible situation to have occurred.Who has educated the young reporters in their roles after uni? Who now owns our media ? What to do ? Vote for decent real politicians forget the major parties and Pauline and Clive and Katter Fat chance 🌚🎩😩
The British did well with concentration camps in South Africa.
The word "Konzentrationslager" was first used by the Germans to describe the British camps in SA. They took a lot of inspiration from what the Brits did. Though, there is an argument that says, to quote Dan Stone, "camps in South Africa were set up by the British primarily with the aim of preventing a rural population, whose land been destroyed by the British Army’s scorched-earth policy, from supporting Boer guerrillas and not as ‘punishment’ camps..."
One is tempted to quote Mandy Rice-Davies.
The Brits became less civilised as the empire wound down. Internment camps were used in by the Brits in Kenya and Malaya to prevent communal support of the insurgents. The same strategy was employed by the yanks in Vietnam.
As a nine and ten-year-old, I remember seeing Movietone Newsreels on the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya.
When the secret documents from the British administration in Kenya were released in 2011, it led one analyst to say, "this flips the script on who is civilised."
The concept of "civilisation" has masked much uncivilised behaviour.