Category: South America
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MPs take six-month holidays
Enticing menu of current affairs, independent and FREE of charge: MPs in Sydney and Canberra shut up shop; Getting to know Stig Abell; Hachette job on Woody Allen; Inside Pentecostalism; When the Pope met Boris Johnson; Don Watson’s Quote of the Week. MPs close parliament and take six-month holidays Federal MPs unanimously voted this week…
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President Xi, world leader
Psst! China’s President Xi just became the leader of the world If you had been reading the mainstream press in Australia or listening to the radio or watching television, you may be excused for missing the story that China’s President Xi Jinping has just been elevated to world leadership. By a unanimous vote, the 2,200 delegates…
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The romance of Malcolm and Pauline
PM Malcolm Turnbull surrenders to Pauline Hanson’s One Nation … Critical moment in French presidential race … Albert Namatjira legacy needs your help … Remembering England’s Shrewsbury pickets … Real news from Afghanistan and Ecuador … Turnbull & Pauline: A love story In the 1990s France’s far right National Front under the leadership of Jean-Marie…
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The coup in Brazil
Impeachment of Brazil’s first female president masterminded by CIA … Coalition betrays marriage rights … Israeli journo gives verdict on Zionist state … Rupert Murdoch never changes … One Nation unredacted – Great Crashing Bores 11 continued … Coup in Brazil is bloodless … so far When the CIA launched its successful coup against the…
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Alex Mitchell’s Weekly Notebook – Fat cats caught out. Surprise!
STOP PRESS. Global Scoop! Rich bastards and multi-national companies don’t pay tax. Really!! … America’s squillionaires to be outed next … how Panama Papers will help Bernie Sanders in Big Apple primary … speechwriter Bob Ellis re-assessed Fat cats caught in Panamagate A truckload of documents from Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca has exposed a…
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Alex Mitchell’s Weekly Notebook – 40th anniversary of Whitlam’s dismissal: more questions
In the thick of Australia’s greatest era of social and cultural reform, a vice-regal coup succeeded in overthrowing the elected government of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. It was November 1975 and the capitals of the Western world were swirling with hyper-inflation, OPEC’s “oil shock”, massive government debt and rising unemployment. A year earlier President Richard…
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Alex Mitchell’s WEEKLY NOTEBOOK – Abbott’s Budget heralds an early federal election
This week’s Federal Budget was not about Australia’s economic future. And it wasn’t about the future of the country either. Its overriding purpose was to rescue Prime Minister Tony Abbott. It was the “Save Abbott” budget. It sets the stage for a snap federal election between now and the end of the year. He has…
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Alex Mitchell’s WEEKLY NOTEBOOK – The generals and governors who plotted against Whitlam
During the politically tumultuous days in Australia in late 1975, some top army officers and businessmen held weekly after-work “drinkies” at the exclusive Queensland Club in George Street, Brisbane. While whiskies, G&Ts, brandies and ports were being served, discussion turned to who should run the nation in the event of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam being…
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Alex Mitchell’s WEEKLY NOTEBOOK – Canberra takes first step towards Palestine statehood
Maria Vamvakinou, Labor MP for Calwell in Victoria, has tabled a private member’s Bill in Federal Parliament calling for the diplomatic recognition of Palestine, a step already taken by the House of Commons in Britain and the parliaments of Spain and Sweden. Ms Vamvakinou, a co-convener of the Parliamentary Friends of Palestine group, told MPs:…
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ALEX MITCHELL’S WEEKLY NOTEBOOK – Charge the ‘lying rodent’ with war crimes in Iraq
The legendary Canberra political correspondent Alan Ramsay was asked why he referred to Prime Minister John Howard as “toad” in his sulphurous columns. “Because the Herald won’t let me use turd,” he replied. Fair enough. However, I prefer “lying rodent”, the description given to him by a Liberal colleague, Senator George Brandis, in 2004. Charge…