Quick Quips: What Is a Lie?

18/06/2019

The Economist posted a video a couple of months ago discussing whether or not politicians lie. I didn’t agree with most of it, seeing as their conclusion was that something was only a lie if the person telling it had the intent and knowledge they were doing so. They instead try to palm certain things off – even Trump’s antics – as things like ‘exaggeration’, ‘untruths’ (isn’t that just synonymous with lies?), ‘nonsense’, or (quoting the academic prowess of a philosopher) ‘bullshit’. How trite.

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Israel Isn’t Building, It’s Demolishing

17/06/2019

Headline after headline shot across social media and the news earlier this week about Ramat Trump – Trump Heights. This apparently new town was announced and celebrated by Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the US Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman. Only, there is no new town.

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US Declarations Are Not Law

15/06/2019

To the contrary, much of what the US does on an international stage (and some may argue national as well) is in blatant opposition to international law. Nowhere is this more obvious than its unconditional backing of Israeli colonial dreams against the Palestinians.

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Amnesty International Calls for Rethink on Myanmar Relations

15/06/2019

Amnesty International (AI) released a report on May 29^th calling on the UNSC and international partners to rethink the current approach to Myanmar in the wake of new atrocities and potential war crimes. A few years ago, there was international outrage over the Myanmar military’s treatment of the Rohingya, an ethnic minority in the region. Australia has been indirectly involved in these atrocities since the start.

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Institutionalised Racism in Australia

11/06/2019

The new series on Netflix, When They See Us, has taken America and the media by storm. I have not watched it myself, but have read into it and watched an interview the director of the series did with Democracy Now!. There really is very little to say other than take the time to look into and understand it, because the clips I have seen, and details of the story, are damning proof, if anyone was still in doubt, about the rampant institutionalised (or in some cases blatant) racism that exists in Western societies. Australia is not exempt.

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The “National Security/Interest” Myth

10/06/2019

As the last couple of weeks have been quite busy with university assessments, admittedly the frequency of my posts here has dropped considerably. Equally as regrettable, or perhaps worse, is the lack of time I’ve set aside to read the books I have literally piled around me. So this week I plan on getting back into the swing of things to catch up on the missed days. The big news this week is the AFP raids, but how much does ‘national security’ really play into this?

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Australia’s “Inauthentic Opposition”

06/06/2019

For a number of decades now, the Democrats in the US have been referred to, along with the Republicans, as ‘neoliberal’, ever plodding along to the ‘right’ to slowly normalise the inequalities that plague Americans each day, and which was one factor that led to Trump’s successful election. The term “inauthentic opposition” has been used to describe this slow but obedient drift, which most certainly leaves many people disillusioned about how their system works, when the flawed two-party system functions as one corporate body. Here in Australia, the Labor Party is definitely earning themselves this abysmal title.

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Quick Quips: Blame America – I Do

03/06/2019

Having been busy with university work the last two weeks, I have regrettably let my daily post spree falter yet again – although dare I say the 2000 words in the previous post counts for three or four standard posts? I think not, but I should have more time in the coming weeks. There’s no real limit to the number of things to talk about these days – mostly due to the US, as always.

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Molecules of Anything but Freedom

30/05/2019

If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years, it is that any topic can be made comedic with little to no exception. The problem today is, instead of hearing these kinds of jokes from actual comedians, they come from our governments. And actually, they aren’t even joking, they’re serious. It’s just better to laugh ourselves to extinction than dwell on the future. It’s a free world, after all.

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WikiLeaks and Whistleblowers: Attacks on Press Freedom

27/05/2019

Julian Assange has now been charged under the US’ Espionage Act, potentially facing over 170 years in prison and being the first person to be charged under this Act for merely publishing material leaked to WikiLeaks. A number of whistleblowers have faced this charge, from Daniel Ellsberg (who leaked the Pentagon Papers) to Daniel Hale (who revealed the assassination and drone programs implemented by Obama). But where is the media outrage? The public interest?

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