Excellent analysis here from Tim Dunlop.

bsky.app/profile/marg...

This isn’t an academic threat to democracy, social inclusion and genuinely liberal values where people are all valued equally. It is a clear and present fascist program attached to a military political project that stifles dissent at home and kills “adversaries” abroad.

The whole of Palantir’s manifesto is dystopian, but this is really chilling; “The question is not whether AI weapons will be built; it is who will build them and for what purpose.” They have a plan to build AI weapons to kill what we hold precious, we need a plan to stop them.

These monsters from the Valley act as if their own perspective is the organising principle of reality. They flatten the world until it reflects their own image back at them, and they call it order. They recast dominance as necessity, exclusion as clarity, cruelty as truth-telling. What they are building is not just a politics, but a way of being in which other lives appear as obstacles, or worse, as background.

On Palantir’s manifesto, their AI fantasies, and how Silicon Valley billionaires think they are the new Guardians of the Universe.
tdunlop.substack.com/p/the-softwa...

Palantir's CEO published a manifesto arguing Western tech firms have a "moral debt" to US military dominance, that AI weapons are inevitable, and that "some cultures are dysfunctional." This isn't just a regularly evil tech or defence contractor, it’s a fascist political project.

Had this ruling not been delivered, the trajectory was clear: the normalisation of exceptional powers, a gradual expansion of police authority and a real erosion of the public sphere without any formal ban. From a conflict studies perspective, closing public space does not produce "cohesion" • It produces accumulated tension. Protest is not a flaw in democracy; it is one of the means through which democratic societies manage conflict peacefully. This ruling is not about a single law. It defines the limits of what the state can do when it finds public dissent uncomfortable. It reaffirms a basic principle: the subject to the comfort of power expression and accountability. freedom of expression, the rule of law and multiculturalism - are not tested in times of calm but in moments of sharp disagreement. After this decision, supporting Palestine is no longer just a political stance. It has become a defence of democracy itself. When the right to protest for Palestine is protected, so too is the right to dissent, to challenge authority and to take part politically. That gives this ruling significance beyond its immediate context.

Sorry. With Alt Text.

No one says it better than Keating 👏🏻

People are always like “the German word for this, the German word for that” but the Chinese don’t get enough credit for coming up with the phrase ”the garbage time of history” to describe the present.

ETTE-SCLUSIVE: Data exposes The Australian’s campaign against Dr Randa Abdel- Fattah A sweeping data investigation reveals what appears to be a sustained, coordinated media offensive by News Corp's The Australian targeting Palestinian-Egyptian academic and author Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah...

EXCLUSIVE: A data investigation reveals what appears to be a sustained, coordinated media offensive by The Australian targeting Randa Abdel-Fattah. The paper has written more articles on her than Nine papers, Guardian, ACM papers & ABCNews online COMBINED

www.ettemedia.com/exclusive-me...

"Budgetary make-believe": Marles lifts defence spending, mistaking spending targets for strategy Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles has released the defence strategy you have when you don’t have a defence strategy. What the Deputy Prime Minister offers as justification for this strategy requiri...

Allan Behm on the dangerous delusions of Richard Marles…

We need an unequivocal statement from Labor that Australia will not be dragged into an illegal war led by Netanyahu and Trump.
Obfuscation, weakness, sycophancy, fear and appeasement of Trump weakens our economy sovereignty and standing on the world stage. Courage not cowardice!

Australia really is determined to go down with the crumbling US empire. Marles says the rules-based order provides middle powers such as Australia with agency. But how much agency can there be for a country that only exists as a pawn for the USA?

Australia is determined to go down with the crumbling US empire. Marles says the rules-based order provides middle powers such as Australia with agency. But how can we have agency if we exist only as a pawn for the USA?

The High Court’s decision to strike down Victoria’s campaign funding laws is a win for democracy & a reminder that political finance reform must strengthen fairness, transparency & integrity. It also sends a message nationally as federal electoral reform laws are being challenged in the High Court.

Important to remember he is networking with some of the big & worst figures of the upper class transnational Right. He’s Hastie’s biggest supporter as future PM. If Hastie can pull his LNP together, what do his Christian Nationalist associations mean for our rights? We can’t ignore him.

Get behind!

The Oz was behind Pell but not the Pope.
Always back the paedophile I guess.

Sun 12Apr2026 Sydney Morning Herald: "The people in Gaza are generally terrorists. They don't deserve to live there." With international attention focused on Iran, the "pioneers" of Israel's religious Zionist movement have their sights set on Gaza.

Sun 12Apr2026 Sydney Morning Herald headline describes Palestinians in Gaza as "generally terrorists" and the Zionist Israelis seeking to take the occupied territory as "pioneers". This is obscene Israeli Zionist propaganda. 😠 #ThisIsNotJournalism #IsraeliTerrorism

Are going to hear a denunciation of this from Albanese and Taylor, or we we cool with supporting our principal military ally in yet another genocide?

1:38 Roberts-Smith case Ben Roberts-Smith arrested over multiple war crimes By Nick McKenzie, Chris Masters and Perry Duffin Updated: April 7, 2026 - 12.34pm, first published at 11.19am Ben Roberts-Smith has been arrested in relation to multiple counts of murdering unarmed Afghan civilians and prisoners in what looms as the most significant war crimes prosecution in Australian history. Roberts-Smith is expected to be charged on Tuesday with five counts of war crime - murder following a joint investigation between the Office of Special Investigator and the Australian Federal Police. The maximum penalty for the offence of war crime - murder is life imprisonment. Lay Courts "It will be alleged the victims were not taking part in hostilities at the time of their alleged murder in Afghanistan," AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett told • on Tuesday in Sydney. C "It will be alleged the victims were detained, unarmed and were under the control of ADF

Even if slow, good to see justice still works in Australia for our wannabe crusaders prepared to harm the innocent for their religious? cultural? agenda. Particularly by contrast with the US where his ilk has control of the military.
#Auspol

Read this 🧵 to contemplate what it means to belong to “Western Civilisation” this Easter.
#Auspol

Tony Abbott is back in Budapest telling the West that "the best migrants are our own children" The pronatalists, immigration fearmongers and Christian coercives are having another gabfest in Hungary. Australians should be paying attention.

open.substack.com/pub/lucyham2...

“I supported and committed Australian military resources to this illegal war. Now it’s up to you to manage - and suffer - the consequences. Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will deliver an address to the nation tonight, outlining the government's response to the Middle East conflict and encouraging Australians to "play their part". He is expected to urge Australians to save fuel for areas and industries that "most need it". The address will be simulcast on television and radio across Australia at 7pm AEDT.

people simply love it when you storm out of the gates to support an illegal war, then lecture them about personal responsibility after it makes their lives worse

“I supported this war. And now you will have to suffer the consequences of it.”

Courtesy of lucyham@bsky.social… Apparently they do disclose, but not in the places where they publish. Journalists or interested people would need to search it out.

Thanks for clarifying Lucy. Will correct…

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute & the Perth USAsia Centre appear not to have disclosed financial support they receive from the U.S. and Japanese governments, and major fossil fuel companies, even where they have been directly advocating for projects that benefit interests of their backers.

Effective diplomats are able to put themselves in the shoes of other countries & consider how they might respond to their circumstances. If she was in a govt. being illegally attacked by two rogue states, would she be inclined to deescalate - to cease defending her country?

Fake news on everything from whales to wind farms: Australia is flooded with climate misinformation Disinformation is everywhere: AI-based material was even used to generate some of false claims in submissions to the inquiry into misinformation.

No doubt that misinformation and disinformation through social media and AI is fossil-fueling climate denial.

But the core problem is a political and media establishment which has been cozy with coal, oil and gas lobbies for decades. #ClimateCrisis #auspol
theconversation.com/fake-news-on...

How about "No Wars!"?