That’s right. “And, as we’ve seen with Trump, he’ll say one thing and then do another: after securing a good mineral deal, he could virtually promise anything.” This deal, or any other deal such as AUKUS, will be forgotten about or retracted.
Their cognitive and emotional faults are likely to be exaggerated, performative distractions to provide humorous cover to help you ignore their authoritarian, imperialist Neoliberalism governance. They appear to continue the (now very old) US strategy of militarist expansionism, coupled with economic and espionage coercion and bribery.
I specifically want Australia to end or minimize our: Force Posture Agreement -remove US forces from Australian soil and waters (https://ipan.org.au/end-aukus/); AUKUS (kills our sovereignty, kills our peace focus by building up war culture & infrastructure to prepare our complicity in the next US war of aggression; ends hundreds of billions of $ needed in public health, education, and housing; attacks Chine rather than defending our waters and lands); Sinophobia (PRC appears authoritarian, but they have invaded only Tibet AFAIK, and are not a invasion threat to us if we invest in an actual DEFENSE force instead of wasting it on pointless AUKUS attack subs); US blind adoration (the USA has invaded Nations every few years, has trained scores of illegal coups, has supported many atrocious massacres, has consistently supported the war crimes of allied Nation States like Israel, shows no sign of change under GOP or Democrat governance -maybe a Greens).
Donald Horne, still right 60 years on. This is the lucky country run and ruined by utter duds. Just two tiny little nuggets of intellectual courage at the end of WW2 and under Whitlam rise above the long smear of crap since settlement.
But it’s only a declaration.How many of Trump’s announcements come to anything his attention span and real interest in anything seems just for the moment
I’m thinking of Donald Horne’s idea of the lucky country- mentioned by another in this comment section- and also Paul Keating reference to Australia as a ‘banana republic’. Both are apposite. I’m not sure what it is about this land I call my country, where our ‘leaders’ appear eager to prostrate themselves like serfs at the feet of great empires. It’s like we are frightened of independence and autonomy. It’s like we crave the reassurance of someone who is powerful and overbearing. Like we are servants looking for a master where we trade (quoting Pink Floyd here) ‘a walk on part in a war for a lead role in a cage’. Please, we can’t be a vassal state for ever, can we?
The other great Australian novel title that springs to mind is Xavier Herbert’s’Poor Fellow My Country’. Things seem a bit grim. We have improved from the nadir of the Morrison years.
Thank you for this excellent report of the Washington visit by PM Albanese . The photograph of the two of them says it all .
The cat playing with the little mouse so eager to obey and agree to any demand , before being ultimately destroyed by said cat. The giving away to Trump of multi billions of dollars for submarines that may never eventuate , the selling off to America of rare earths and critical minerals , not to mention the abandonment of any consideration for the health of the natural environment in order “ to seal the deal “. All this as a priority over funding for the Public Interest , the numbers of homeless , the appalling underfunding of Health and Education . It’s a sickening and unforgivable display of spineless incompetence .
Thank you thank you for continuing to report on this truly terrifying meeting that has been so under-reported. This meeting was such a big moment for Australia as it confirmed that Labor will not be challenging the status quo. Would love to read/listen to your suggestions on what steps we need to take now. The UK Greens have taken an interesting direction as of late, and Jason Hickel presents some very compelling ideas... to name a few.
Yet again Australia has prostrated itself before the Master. You have highlighted numerous issues that have been a bugbear of mine and need to be debated seriously in this country if we are to mature as a nation:
* subservience to the US
* selling off resources cheaply and not value-adding
* neglect of the environment
* placing military alliances and resources deals above the needs of Australians
* blind adherence to the needs of business
I could keep going, but you have started a discussion I believe needs to be pursued. Please keep exploring these issues as the political class bumbles its way forward.
The LNP appears to have been captured by the miners, particularly Gina Hancock.
LNP politicians are putting the profits of a handful of billionaires ahead of taking a fair return from the nation's resources, which belong to every Australian, to make a better Australia.
That just proves the LNP are unfit to govern when they refuse to put the national interest of everyone ahead of a handful of billionaire donors to their party.
That’s right. “And, as we’ve seen with Trump, he’ll say one thing and then do another: after securing a good mineral deal, he could virtually promise anything.” This deal, or any other deal such as AUKUS, will be forgotten about or retracted.
Trump's mental health limitations are are a deliberate comedic foil and distraction.
Like POTUS George W Bush being a Texas village idiot while https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/12/leadup-iraq-war-timeline/
Like 'dignified' Barack Obama bothsides-ing genocide, or 'Genocide' Joe Biden being a 'nice, old guy' while https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/10/gaza-genocide-crime-israel-did-not-commit-alone-says-special-rapporteur
Their cognitive and emotional faults are likely to be exaggerated, performative distractions to provide humorous cover to help you ignore their authoritarian, imperialist Neoliberalism governance. They appear to continue the (now very old) US strategy of militarist expansionism, coupled with economic and espionage coercion and bribery.
I specifically want Australia to end or minimize our: Force Posture Agreement -remove US forces from Australian soil and waters (https://ipan.org.au/end-aukus/); AUKUS (kills our sovereignty, kills our peace focus by building up war culture & infrastructure to prepare our complicity in the next US war of aggression; ends hundreds of billions of $ needed in public health, education, and housing; attacks Chine rather than defending our waters and lands); Sinophobia (PRC appears authoritarian, but they have invaded only Tibet AFAIK, and are not a invasion threat to us if we invest in an actual DEFENSE force instead of wasting it on pointless AUKUS attack subs); US blind adoration (the USA has invaded Nations every few years, has trained scores of illegal coups, has supported many atrocious massacres, has consistently supported the war crimes of allied Nation States like Israel, shows no sign of change under GOP or Democrat governance -maybe a Greens).
Donald Horne, still right 60 years on. This is the lucky country run and ruined by utter duds. Just two tiny little nuggets of intellectual courage at the end of WW2 and under Whitlam rise above the long smear of crap since settlement.
Every time I see a good idea in a foreign country I reflect that Australia is the land of the missed opportunity.
But it’s only a declaration.How many of Trump’s announcements come to anything his attention span and real interest in anything seems just for the moment
I’m thinking of Donald Horne’s idea of the lucky country- mentioned by another in this comment section- and also Paul Keating reference to Australia as a ‘banana republic’. Both are apposite. I’m not sure what it is about this land I call my country, where our ‘leaders’ appear eager to prostrate themselves like serfs at the feet of great empires. It’s like we are frightened of independence and autonomy. It’s like we crave the reassurance of someone who is powerful and overbearing. Like we are servants looking for a master where we trade (quoting Pink Floyd here) ‘a walk on part in a war for a lead role in a cage’. Please, we can’t be a vassal state for ever, can we?
The other great Australian novel title that springs to mind is Xavier Herbert’s’Poor Fellow My Country’. Things seem a bit grim. We have improved from the nadir of the Morrison years.
But there’s a long long way to go.
Thank you for this excellent report of the Washington visit by PM Albanese . The photograph of the two of them says it all .
The cat playing with the little mouse so eager to obey and agree to any demand , before being ultimately destroyed by said cat. The giving away to Trump of multi billions of dollars for submarines that may never eventuate , the selling off to America of rare earths and critical minerals , not to mention the abandonment of any consideration for the health of the natural environment in order “ to seal the deal “. All this as a priority over funding for the Public Interest , the numbers of homeless , the appalling underfunding of Health and Education . It’s a sickening and unforgivable display of spineless incompetence .
Thank you thank you for continuing to report on this truly terrifying meeting that has been so under-reported. This meeting was such a big moment for Australia as it confirmed that Labor will not be challenging the status quo. Would love to read/listen to your suggestions on what steps we need to take now. The UK Greens have taken an interesting direction as of late, and Jason Hickel presents some very compelling ideas... to name a few.
Yet again Australia has prostrated itself before the Master. You have highlighted numerous issues that have been a bugbear of mine and need to be debated seriously in this country if we are to mature as a nation:
* subservience to the US
* selling off resources cheaply and not value-adding
* neglect of the environment
* placing military alliances and resources deals above the needs of Australians
* blind adherence to the needs of business
I could keep going, but you have started a discussion I believe needs to be pursued. Please keep exploring these issues as the political class bumbles its way forward.
Australia: Third world country with a first world economy.
Albanese is trying to foster local processing, but it's a hard slog.
The refusal of the LNP to support increasing the Resources Rent Tax inhibits income raising.
The LNP appears to have been captured by the miners, particularly Gina Hancock.
LNP politicians are putting the profits of a handful of billionaires ahead of taking a fair return from the nation's resources, which belong to every Australian, to make a better Australia.
That just proves the LNP are unfit to govern when they refuse to put the national interest of everyone ahead of a handful of billionaire donors to their party.