Julian Assange, Sweden, And Continuing Battles
It had been, from the start, a cruel wait and see game. Lacking logic and consistency, the Swedish effort to extradite Julian Assange from the United Kingdom, not for formal…
Dr Binoy Kampmark
The Release of Chelsea Manning
It was one of the brighter acts in a darkening turmoil in the last parts of the Obama presidency, but the decision to commute Chelsea Manning’s sentence added a zest…
Trump Slip Ups in The Oval Office
It has the air of a hunting party, and the quarry, on this occasion, was a lumbering US President with a loose tongue. The individual aiming the rifle in this…
Fantasies of Worth: Macron’s French Mission
The outcome of the French presidential elections did not suggest a France on the verge of rapid, vigorous renewal. It suggested the opposite, a state in atrophy, the Fifth Republic…
The World For Ransome: The Effects of Wannacry
What a stealthy bugger of a problem. Malware deftly delivered, locking the system by encrypting files and making them otherwise impossible to access unless a fee is paid. A form…
Jeremy Corbyn’s Electoral Vision: Labour’s Leaked Manifesto
It is unfortunate that policies otherwise deemed middle of the road and social democratic tend to be seen in Britain as offspring of a lunatic mother long held in indefinite…
Chopping James Comey
“Having refused to admit his errors, the [FBI] Director cannot be expected to implement the necessary corrective actions.” US Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein Any sense that Donald Trump had…
The Macron Denial
The cheer was always going to be qualified. The bubbles would be less effervescent, more a case of relieved sighing rather than frothy exultation. After another electoral hack, and another…
Olympian Politics: The Australian Olympic Committee
It was a scrappy affair, and it resulted in a predictable result: the re-election of veteran administrator John Coates as president of the Australian Olympic Committee by 58 votes to…
Greater Albania And The Balkan Problem
The Balkans has always been cursed by a recurring theme: that each entity within it can, at some point, become greater and more consuming in territory than the next neighbour.…
Hillary Clinton’s Lament
“I’m back to being an active citizen and part of the resistance.” Hillary Clinton, May 2, 2017 Predictability in these tumultuous times will get you removed from office, or render…
Empty Values: The Australian Concept of Citizenship
It has been a lowering conversation, and one that Australia’s politicians have been engaging in with various degrees of discomfort. The Australian prime minister, for one, doesn’t seem to know…
The Trade Dreams of Boris Johnson
“My chances of being PM are about as good as the chances of finding Elvis on Mars, or my being reincarnated as an olive.” Boris Johnson, UK Foreign Secretary Few…
Days of Illusion: Donald Trump’s First 100
The human capacity, notably in cultures where measurements are valued, places much stock in numbering deeds. In the case of the US presidency, power is supposedly meant to translate into…
North Korea’s Military Gambit
“All options for responding to future provocation must remain on the table. Diplomatic and financial levers of power will be backed up by a willingness to counteract North Korean aggression…
Turkey’s Kurdish Agenda
Any doubts that Turkey’s involvement in the conflict against Islamic State is purely symbolic were dispelled by a latest round of air strikes against Kurdish positions in northeast Syria and…
Short Choices: The French Presidential Elections
The establishment got another burning in the French elections on Sunday, revealing again that there is no level of voter disgust that will not find some voice in the current…
Anzac As Apologia And Religion
Soaked to the core, Melbournians gathered around the War Memorial in thousands, gazing at the flickering, all-resistant eternal flame in an annual tribute to Australia’s fallen. Each year, the secular…
Mike Pence in Oz
Vassal visiting time, and the next slot in the US imperium tourism schedule was one of America’s more cosy allies, Australia. The US Vice President Mike Pence popped in to…
Trump, The DOJ And Julian Assange
“I’m glad that the Justice Department has found a way to go after Assange. He’s gotten a free ride for too long.” Rep. Peter King (R-New York), Apr 20, 2017…
Cults of Old Age: The Passing of Emma Morano
The novelist Anthony Powell spoke of old age as penalisation for a crime one had not committed. Obviously, not being biblically inclined in that sense, the antics of Adam and…
Donald Trump, North Korea And Nuclear Brinkmanship
Warring toddlers, fanatical children, one-eyed adolescents who confuse noise with constructive contribution - this is the state of the world, with the recent, and ongoing spat chapter of Washington and…
The Mother Of All Bombs Goes To Afghanistan
These are the times where magnitude and size matters. Bombs in number with much heft and presence are being sought to root out those non-state jihadists of the Prophet, destructively…
Pompeo, Power And WikiLeaks
“Vested interests deflect from the facts that WikiLeaks publishes by demonizing its brave staff and me.” Julian Assange, The Washington Post, Apr 11, 2017. The Central Intelligence Agency’s current director,…
Forced Removal From United Airlines
Flying United Airlines was never a pleasant business. Functional, sterile, with staff more appropriately disposed to a deep freeze morgue than the hot blood of enthusiastic living, the airline was…
Joining The War Train: Trump’s Liberal Cheer Leaders
“Action is consolatory. It is the enemy of thought and the friend of flattering illusions.” Joseph Conrad, Nostromo (1904). At the psychological heart of every liberal is a milk soft…
Trump Strikes Syria
All bets are off in the latest round of escalation in the Syrian conflict. The attack on al-Shayrat airbase involving 59 cruise missiles launched from the USS Ross and Porter…
Ice And Busts: The Lost War On Drugs In Australia
It was hard to tell whether Australia’s Federal Police authorities, along with their Victorian colleagues, were gloating at their latest effort. Thrilled at the unearthing of a stash of methamphetamine,…
The Hazara Dilemma: Ghani In Australia
Australian government officials are at it again, and the visit by President Ashaf Ghani to Canberra on Sunday piqued interest amongst various members of the Afghan community concerned about the…
Trump In Outer Space: The NASA Bill
“You could send Congress to space.” Senator Ted Cruz, Mar 21, 2017 The NASA authorisation bill was another Trump huff and puff show, brimming with the usual air of minted…
Sebastian Gorka: Dreams of Fighting Jihad
Counter-terrorism has been a pop field for some decades. As vague as what it purports to counter, it has generated a pundocracy of sorts, guns and mouths for hire across…
Brexit And Away!
Painful moves and painful movements have been underway in Brexiting Britain. Prime Minister Theresa May of the UK initiated the Brexit bluster via letter, and March 29, 2017 may well…
What Cost Liberty? Civilians In The “Liberation” Of Mosul
Bombs do not have a conscience, however named, blessed or created. They go, at least in a rough sense, where directed, and if the deliverer is ill disposed, confused or…
The Electronics Ban And Lessons In Futility
Security measures are often exercises in futility. Resembling placebos, they are the reassurance authorities make as acts of intrusive inconvenience. Queues are increased at airports in the vain hope that…
Disaster As Joy: Cyclone Debbie Strikes
“If the building starts to break up, protect yourself w[sic] mattresses, rugs etc under strong table or hold onto solid fixture.” Queensland Ambulance, Twitter, Mar 28, 2017 Townsville, North Queensland: The…
Romancing Coal: The Adani Obsession
The rain pours with torrential fury in north Queensland, opening up with ominous welcome as it slices through layers of stifling humidity. But the fury is also being registered in…
The Murky World of Deradicalisation
It has attracted money and the implementation of programs, another standard diversionary tactic common in many societies. It is all touted as a good bit of social engineering, a form…
WikiLeaks, “Year Zero” And The CIA Hacking Files
“It is now up to the device and OS manufacturers, like Apple, Google, or Samsung, to fix their volcanoes back into mountains.” Telegram Statement, Mar 8, 2017 The paradox with…
Poaching In Europe’s Suburbs
“There has never been a case like this in a zoo in Europe, an assault of such violence, evidently for this stupid trafficking of rhinoceros horns.” Thierry Duguet, head of…
Russia, Ukraine, And The ICJ: Opening Arguments At The Hague
Matters have been far from plain sailing for the parties in the Ukrainian conflict, and Kiev was determined to remind international audiences about matters in taking Russia to the International…
Trump, Twitter And The Ban Debate
It is said that Twitter has been responsible for stirring nascent revolutions in the Middle East, going beyond its initial description as the Seinfeld platform of social media. It has…
Electoral Interference As Reality: A Brief History
We should not forget the encouragement: hack those emails, extolled Donald J. Trump during the presidential campaign in 2016. It was the first public evocation of its sort, an invitation…
The Reality Show Comes To Congress: Trump’s Joint Address
Let us tear through these Trumpland evocations, the business pitches of this show and publicity act that was the first address by the President to a joint sitting of the…
Australia’s One Nation Train
The global populist fever is catching. Put the nation first before all else, patria before sense. Make America Great Again. One Nation before any other. Australia has been a fairly…
The Extradition Saga of Kim Dotcom
The hunger with which US officials pursue copyright or general intellectual property violations is insatiably manic. The degree of that hunger is expressed by the now suspended, and most likely…
From Rights To Repentance: Norma McCorvey and Roe v Wade
“I wasn’t the wrong person to become Jane Roe. I wasn’t the right person to become Jane Roe. I was just the person who became Jane Roe, of Roe v…
A Tale of Two Realities: Donald Trump And Israel
“After what came out after the meeting between Netanyahu and Trump, I am not exaggerating if I say that yesterday there was a semi-official announcement of the death of the…
Adolf, The Donald And History
History may not be as useless as art, but it certainly performs a function that is almost without utility. George Santayana may well have crowed about the warnings of repeating…
The Resignation Of Michael Flynn
It takes little these days for the darkened air of the Kremlin to have an impact on the politics of other countries. Across continents, it has become a tenured dark…
Between Message And Martyrdom: The World Press Photo Of The Year
tur“Photographs really are experience captured, and the camera is the ideal arm of consciousness in its acquisitive mood.” Susan Sontag, On Photography (1977) The photograph is a still image of…
Bungling In Yemen: Trump And The Cult Of The Action Hero
“Rather than advancing a political solution that almost everyone agrees is the only way to solve the conflict, it seems the Trump administration’s actions are just adding fuel to the…
Legal Stutters: Trump Falters In The Ninth Circuit
“SEE YOU IN COURT, THE SECURITY OF OUR NATION IS AT STAKE!” Donald J. Trump, Twitter, Feb 9, 2017 It seems in little need of recapitulation, but the Executive Order…
Populism In Australia: Channelling Trump Down Under
Australia’s prime minister has been politically tone deaf for the duration of his tenure, which was won by the political assassination of his predecessor, Tony Abbott. Since being in power,…
The Courts versus Donald Trump
The resilience of the US legal system is being tested in the first great and continuing confrontation between the Trump administration and his marshalled opponents. The battle is testing the…
Cold War Redux: The “Fake Information Age”
London.: The great tedium of history is that those who refuse to acknowledge its immemorial works tend to see exceptional events everywhere. The next event of terror is singular; the next…
The Brexit Debate: Down The Rabbit Hole With Parliament
London: What role Parliament? Edmund Burke put forth his known idea before the electors of Bristol on November 3, 1774. An ideal, and therefore refutable notion, was advanced: “Certainly, gentlemen,…
Fussing About The State Visit: Queen Elizabeth II And Trump Traumatic Disorder
London: Trump Traumatic Disorder has been making its away across the Atlantic, numbing British officials, activists and commentators on one vital point: Should President Donald J. Trump be able to see…
The Fake News Inquiry: Old Wine In New Bottles
London: Any inquiry into fake news is much like having a Royal Commission into the make up and motivation for Halal food. (The latter absurd proposition has been put forth…
Chaos At The Airports: Blocking Trump’s Executive Order
The diary of this particular US administration is bound to be heavy with incident. Executive orders are now coming out of the Trump administration at pace, and the question of…
Killing The TPP: Trump’s Executive Action
One of the conspicuous absences from the sound and fury last weekend’s protests was the impending executive act of President Donald Trump affirming the US exit from the Trans-Partnership Agreement. …
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