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Labor Hegemony Under Threat? Perspectives on the By-Election in Ipswich West

By Denis Bright

The tidal wave swing against Labor in the Ipswich West by-election on 16 March 2024 created no ripples on the stagnant Bremer River.

Historic struggles on behalf of the Labor Movement will come and go in the future without any lasting effects from the by-election results. The Timothy Molony Oval in front of St. Mary’s Church is usually the venue convivial Labor Day socials and even the starting point for a protest march against the Bjelke-Petersen Government over the dismissal of railway employees for extended strike action during the early 1980s. I can see the same thing happening in the future if David Crisafulli and Peter Dutton take power on behalf of an older style LNP support base.

Even if Labor were to lose government on 25 October 2024, its support base would soon bounce back as in the Can Do Days of Premier Campbell Newman (2012-15) whose government was soon out of its depth in delivering for the people of Queensland. In those days, the state LNP promised to reduce the state debt, now the promise is about reducing crime.

With all the additional police and judicial resources developed to fighting and preventing crime, does the LNP really believe that Labor is soft on crime?

The chorus about Labor being soft on crime came from the Murdoch press with the support of eyewitness news reports. Stocking up fear is a misplaced political game strategy that seems to work in outer metro suburbs and regional areas. Crime embedded in cultural disadvantage. It has been a curse across Queensland even though overall crime rates present a complex challenge as noted by Griffith university criminologist, Michael Townsley (ABC News 26 November 2023). This is an excellent price of ABC journalism.

The state-wide Newspoll of voting intentions across Queensland was released in The Australian on the eve of the Ipswich West by-election. The Newspoll indicated the prospect of a 9.6 percent decline in Labor’s primary vote since the last state election on 31 October 2020. The swing against Labor on a TPP basis was 7.2 percent as support for the Greens on 13 percent (+3.5 percent since 2020) moderated the swing against Labor. The absence of a Green Party candidate at the Ipswich West by-election removed this moderating effect on the swing against Labor. These swings against Labor were more than excelled in the Ipswich West by-election.

By-elections provide opportunities for local conservatives in Ipswich to mount populist campaigns on issues like crime and self-perceived neglect of the city. At a state level, these campaigns hit their mark in the seat of Ipswich on the eve of the Great Depression in 1929 and again in 1974, 1998 and 2012.

Darren Zanow’s campaign excelled in the use of these superlatives.

In the provision of public health services for Ipswich, the LNP chose to overlook problems associated with years of neglect by the federal LNP in support for the Commonwealth-state health agreements and long-term failure to fund renumerations paid for highly expensive specialist and diagnostic services. Disadvantaged voters should ask their GPs to add a statement about financial disadvantage to their medical referrals. They will usually be bulk billed as a result of this initiative.

The transition in Labor leadership in Ipswich West from Ivor Marsden (MLA 1949-66) to Labor’s Vi Jordan produced a remarkably close result at thee 1966 state election. Labor retained the seat by a mere 227 votes after preferences. Labor bounced back with a swing of 11.3 percent after preferences at the next state election in 1969 with further swings in 1972. Defeat came again for Labor in Ipswich West on 7 December 1974 when the populist campaign by Joh Bjelke-Petersen reduced Labor to eleven members after the loss of 22 Labor seats.

Even in 1974 when Labor had the advantage of a largely unionized local workforce in manufacturing and railway workshops, populist campaigns could work against Labor. This is not the case in the contemporary workforce in Ipswich.

A half century later, the Ipswich West electorate offers a very diverse demography between semi-rural western components and suburbs like Chuwar, Karalee and Barellan Point on the fringes of Brisbane’s wealthy mortgage-belt suburbs in the Moggill electorate.

Excuses aside, the swing to LNP candidate Darren Zanow exceeded all expectations. Labor candidate Wendy Bourne may have retained the seat if the Green Party had decided to endorse a candidate. The flow of preferences from the Legalise Cannabis Queensland (LCQ) were not strong enough to retain the seat for Labor:

 

 

Three consecutive terms of Labor representation in Ipswich West since 2015 were certainly not cast aside after robust policy debates. The populist campaign from the LNP and One Nation hit the electorate with a thump as in previous occasions when Labor lost the seat to conservative opponents. In the pre-depression era both the seats of Rosewood and Ipswich fell to the conservative on the mantra of giving young people a chance for work as the global financial crisis approached.

As in 1929, the result in Ipswich West is a tragedy for the Queensland government. The 2022-23 budget delivered $1.3 billion in capital works for Ipswich City across the three state seats in Ipswich. This is around ten percent of the state’s total capital works spending. In a growing city, this extraordinary expenditure is easily absorbed into the routine provision of roads, hospital services, schools and a wide range of community services (Queensland Budget Papers).

Commitment of $59.2 million in social housing for Ipswich in the 2022-23 budget was never acknowledged in the LNP’s populist campaign strategies.

Given the warnings prior to the by-election in Ipswich West on 16 March 2024, the people of Queensland deserve a new team of media communicators to deliver messages of hope to voters in outer metropolitan and regional seats before the David Crisafulli style is perhaps successfully transferred to the state election campaign prior to 25 October 2024.

Fortunately, the Queensland election date is still a few months away.

However, there are communication problems between some Labor policy elites at both federal and state levels with more disadvantaged voters in regional and outer metropolitan areas. The 2022 Australian election result swings did not extend to most of Queensland. Queensland Labor was left with just five members of the House of Representatives and just three out of a total of twelve Queensland senators.

In Maryborough, state local member Bruce Saunders knows how to handle this problem with his commitment to local manufacturing industries and active community development programmes, appropriate for a regional heritage city. Maryborough once posed problems for Labor candidates prior to the arrival of Bruce Saunders on the state political scene.

The communication theories to bring government back to the needs of people are well developed. Some Labor’s policy elites in all states and territories have obvious links to lobbyists from corporate giants and firms from the global military industrial complexes. Readers should take a glance at the LinkedIn site in their own locality to peruse these quite obvious but still circumstantial connections.

Ohio State University’s Communications department has long been a champion of progressive media communication but there are literally dozens of exponents.

The Ohio State University’s journalism department has been involved in developments in communication theory, particularly in areas where digital media, changing audiences, and the evolving role of journalism intersect. Here are some examples:

Faculty Research

  • Gerald Kosicki: A leading expert in the fields of survey methodology and public opinion research. Examines how technology and the changing media landscape affect how we understand and measure public opinion.
  • Morgan Ellithorpe: Researches the intersection of journalism, audience engagement, and social media. Analyses how news organizations use social platforms and how audiences interact with news content online.
  • Nicole Kraft: Focuses on health communication, especially how media portrayals of health issues and persuasive messaging influence health behaviours.
  • Kendra Garrett: Explores media representation, particularly the portrayal of race and gender in media such as news and entertainment programming.

Projects and Initiatives

  • The Media Project: An initiative within the School of Communication aiming to bridge the gap between research and the media industry. They run workshops, conduct research, and host events on issues like audience behaviour and the impact of new technologies on news delivery.
  • Eye on Ohio: A project bringing together student journalists and faculty to address critical issues facing the state of Ohio. Their work exemplifies the interplay between journalism practice and the broader social and communication theories surrounding civic engagement.

I became an instant fan of Associate Professor Gerald Kosicki when I looked at his work some years ago. This is very relevant to the construction of alternatives to the David Crisafulli style of campaigning which hit its targets in Ipswich West and Inala on 16 March 2024.

In support of Premier Steven Miles, I must add that by-election results must not distract Labor from delivering good government for Queensland, including tough on crime strategies.

Premier Miles delivered the prospect of additional police resources to Ipswich during the by-election campaign.

The notion that Labor is soft on crime is totally ridiculous and a distracting ruse by conservative populists to bring down the government of Queensland on 25 October 2024 and the federal government likewise in 2025.

As global economic conditions worsen as in 1929, opportunities will soon dry up under the austerity programmes from the LNP in government at all levels.

 

Denis Bright (pictured) is a financial member of the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA). Denis is committed to consensus-building in these difficult times. Your feedback from readers advances the cause of citizens’ journalism. Full names are not required when making comments. However, a valid email must be submitted if you decide to hit the Replies Button.

 

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No wind power, no solar farms. Let’s go NUCLEAR!

By Bert Hetebry

Holidaying down at Busselton in the last week, enjoying time catching up with family and taking opportunity to walk for miles on the pristine beach.

Busselton is in the State parliamentary district of Vasse, one of the few Liberal held seats in the W.A. lower house. And there are plans afoot to build a wind farm 35km offshore.

Shock horror!

As I was strolling along, back to the jetty where hopefully the cafe would be open, I was asked whether I liked the view… pointing to the horizon, a line separating the dark blue of the water and the lighter blue of the morning sky, I was assured that the plans to change that view with ugly wind turbine towers was going to happen… the line would be interrupted by a series of wind turbines, 15 to 70km off shore at between Mandurah and Bunbury, the most southerly turbines about 70km north of where we were standing, in other words, the view he was extolling, which would only be ruined if you stood on the nearby newly constructed hotel of about six stories high, to see, on a good day, the most southerly of the 200 turbines, maybe, just the very top of the arc as the turbine rotated, but only using very powerful binoculars.

I asked the person apart from the view, what other concerns he had about the proposed plan. Killing of sea birds was one objection. The expense of the project, reliability of power supply were just some of the further objections he raised. The conversation flowed on to solar panels and their contribution to renewable energy, batteries and so forth, and again, negativity was the underlying sentiment of his responses. The short active life of solar panels and that they finish off in landfill, the unreliability of power generation, only while the sun is shining, batteries are not adequate to the task, and so on and on he rambled until I saw someone wandering down with a coffee cup in hand and begged off.

I was more than a little disturbed by the gentleman’s objections to renewable energies and sought a quick google to do casual fact check, and surprisingly, his fears appear to be unfounded.

Firstly, the impact of the turbines on birds, yes, it is agreed that some birds do get killed by the rotating turbine blades. Birds also fly into high rise glass towers and die, they even fly into my windows in the evening when lights are on inside and the glass doors are closed. And yes, it is not a good thing to see, but when we consider the area which the wind farm will occupy as a part of the ocean, the danger is minimal and will have been considered in the planning.

Secondly, the expense and reliability of getting the power to shore using underwater cables. Listening to the objection, I thought this may be the first time ever that this problem had been considered, that we were likely to electrocute the marine life, kill off the fish and endanger the lives of surfers and swimmers with electricity seeping into the ocean.

Thirdly, this is not new technology, the first offshore wind farm was constructed in 1991 and had an operational life of over 35 years, Denmark’s fishing industry has not collapsed due to fish stocks being electrocuted. Currently there are about 290 offshore wind farms operating around the world with 26 more under construction. China has the most offshore turbine capacity followed by United Kingdom, Germany and Vietnam.

Fourthly, longevity. Wind farms have a designed minimum operating life of 30 years and are about 90% recyclable or able to be repurposed after decommissioning.

Another objection raised was the recycling of solar panels, that they end up in landfill, creating more problems after their useful life.

Up to 95% of materials used in solar panels are recyclable and has become an important industry both here in Australia and wherever solar panels have become an important part of the power generating mix. Panels have a useful life of between 20 and 30 years and contain both easy to recycle components such as aluminium frames and glass, and other metals including copper and silver. The cost for recycling is around $20 per panel. So yes, it costs money to get rid of the old ones to replace them when they are no longer doing the job. But they no longer end in landfill.

I was told batteries won’t do the job in providing power when the sun isn’t shining, or the wind isn’t blowing. Tell that to my friend who recently installed solar panels and battery and uses that to power his new EV as well as his day-to-day power needs in his home and shed. Tell that to the people of South Australia who have batteries connected to the grid after the epic fail of several years ago. Or the bank of batteries coming online in the Kwinana hud south of Perth. But some people don’t want to know. they’d rather use… COAL was the answer given to my question when I asked another local. Not surprising really since the coal mining centre of Collie is nearby. I half expected nuclear as being the preferred option.

And the alternative offer by the federal opposition: Nuclear.

Time and again the leader of the opposition has tried to goad the Prime Minister on the election campaign to comment on reducing the cost of electricity, yet the proposition by the opposition is to build very expensive nuclear power plants and has now asked that the question should be put to the electorate as a plebiscite. Two questions actually, do we support Nuclear Power Station and would we like one in our back yard. I can just see the results of such a plebiscite, yes, absolutely need nuclear power, but heck no, not in my back yard.

Perhaps the opposition leader is still basking in the afterglow of having won the race debate, the defeat of the Voice Referendum, that he should be proposing a plebiscite on Nuclear Power. However, his comments regarding the Marriage Equality plebiscite are interesting, commenting that the ‘postal survey had worked, was appropriate for “fundamental change” to society, but should not be repeated. (Unless it is my idea?). I think a popular vote on what was a human rights issue – equality before the law – was a very bad idea.’

I would think that if the Marriage Equality plebiscite were, as he sates, a human rights issue, the law that was changed would have been one which denied a human right and therefore needed changing. Which then leads onto the proposed plebiscite to gain endorsement for a change to the law which would allow nuclear power plants to operate in Australia sometime in the next twenty years or so since that is how long it will take according to the various commentators on this topic, coal fired plants will have to keep operating and CO2 emissions will keep rising as renewable energy sources are rejected.

 

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Racing the Sun

By James Moore

“If you want to know the secrets of existence, do the math. There is no other way. There is only one truth, the truth of mathematics. It is the infallible, absolute truth. All truth-seekers come in the end to mathematics. Pythagoras got there first. It’s time for everyone else to join him and hear the Music of the Spheres. Are your ears attuned to the perfect notes of the universe? Only the gods can hear the divine music. Are you one of them?” – Thomas Stark, The Sheldrake Shift: A Critical Evaluation of Morphic Resonance.

Origination of the idea is still confounding. Maybe the cause was my endless fascination with the natural world, rhythms of the seasons, mysteries of the sky, mountains beyond mountains, and glorious desert lights. I only knew that I had never seen a total eclipse of the sun, and one was supposed to cross the North American continent one August day in 2017. In fact, the shadow was to mark a track northwest to southeast across the U.S. and turn midday into the dark of night, which was a phenomenon I wanted to experience. The location nearest to Austin was almost a thousand miles distant, and according to coordinates, sitting in the midst of a Nebraska cornfield.

I called Gary, who loves motorcycling almost as much as I.

“Hey, I want to go see the eclipse,” I said.

“It’s not coming anywhere near us, is it?”

“Depends on what you mean by ‘near.’ Is Nebraska included in that term?”

“Not exactly. Is that the closest? Where you can experience the ‘totality?’”

“Yeah, I wanna go. Nighttime in the middle of the daytime will be an amazing experience.”

“Isn’t it like 48 hours from now? And, not to repeat myself, but in Nebraska?”

“Yeah, let’s ride up there.”

“Seriously? It’s August, and 110 degrees, and we’re old guys.”

“All true. But at least we can still act like we aren’t, and usually do.”

“I don’t know, man. Lemme think about it and call you back.”

The next morning, just after dawn, we were rolling north of Austin on U.S. Highway 281, up through the Hill Country and the Bosque River Valley to pick up the Chisholm Trail Parkway to Fort Worth and beyond to the Interstate through Oklahoma. There was no real plan more detailed than just putting miles under our wheels until we ran out of daylight. We would find a campground, probably near the Kansas and Nebraska line, sleep in our tents, and get out early the next day for a few more hours to reach the path of totality.

There are places you can go and natural events to be experienced that take you closer to the world as it is. In the Australian Outback, beneath the shining coal curve of a night sky, a sense arrives that you are falling into the stars and the Southern Cross is almost at hand. There is nothing but you and the planet turning beneath your feet and you think you know and feel things you did not before the night arrived out there beyond human intervention. Up on the Great Divide in the Rocky Mountains, the stars seem to come up from an unseen valley and rise with a haste as if they were consciously chasing the sun from the sky. Nightfall on the South Rim Plateau of Big Bend National Park will drape you with constellations that create a night eternally different than any other you will ever live.

By the time we crossed the Red River on the Oklahoma border, the temperature was already past the century mark. Our goal for the day was to ride 650 miles to Salina, Kansas, where we would camp and leave early the next morning for a spot in Central Nebraska. The mileage was ambitious even in the best of motorcycle weather and the dry, 100-plus degree wind scouring the prairie was drawing moisture from our bodily determination to get as close as possible to the eclipse path. We were stopping every 100 miles to drink fluids to prevent dehydration but the previous summer I had learned even that simple protocol could be inadequate. On a ride down from Colorado with my bride sitting pillion, I had experienced 75-mile-an-hour vertigo in the July Texas heat. My view of the horizon began to teeter and flip. I was able to stop the motorcycle without falling, get the kickstand down, and dismount, but could not stand upright. Eventually, an ambulance took me to a hospital for an overnight of scans and IV drips.

 

 

“I hate the Interstate,” Gary said over the helmet intercom.

“Me, too, but in this case, it serves our purpose. Gets us far, fast.”

“I’m rethinking this a bit,” he said. “Maybe the heat is giving me unexpected clarity or something. But it seems a long way to go for a little over three minutes of excitement.”

“No turning around, man. We’re halfway across Oklahoma. More than halfway to Salina.”

“Let’s get off here and get something cold to drink.”

The American Interstate is a bane and a benefit. The hissing roar of rushing tractor-trailers and family sedans never ceases while suggesting endless commerce produced by the concrete. Somewhere near Salina, we would pick up a more sedate two-lane into the oceans of cornstalks and find our place to await the mysterious minutes of the total eclipse of the sun. After gassing up the bikes, we found shade next to the quick stop’s wall and guzzled water between bites of a microwave burrito with the texture of industrial cardboard.

“Pretty glamorous, eh?” I asked Gary.

“Yeah, only Kansas could be more amazing. I wonder what their microwave Mex food is like.”

“Never thought you’d have such adventure, did you?”

“Anything is possible in Oklahoma, ya know?” He tossed his burrito wrapper. “Let’s go. Beautiful Kansas awaits.”

The transition from day to night across the plains states is a process that often feels like it might be measured in almost geologic time. In Kansas, under clear skies, the planet feels like it slows on its axis to facilitate an appreciation of the celestial magic. Pastel blue begins to fade and become tinged with orange and then deepened with purple and mixtures of colors not clearly distinct as one but stunning in a combined clarity. We were, however, too busy to notice while looking for our tent sites in the dark at a commercial campground and discovered they were gravel parking slots. The circumstance was intolerable after 14 hours of suffering in the sun on a motorcycle and we found hotel rooms a few miles distant.

 

 

We ended up the next morning at an intersection of two roads not far from the Nebraska community of Belleville. The county chip seal cut through long fields of tall corn and we parked the motorcycles at a country convenience store. Above the ticking of the stopped engines, we were close enough to hear the shuffling of cornstalks brushing against each other in a rising breeze. Families were arriving in farm trucks and sedans, setting up lawn chairs and ice chests in the ditches by the road. A few tractors materialized out of a section of crop and stopped with a diesel rattle. Conversations were muted and I thought there was a sense among the small gathering that they were expressing reverence for the approaching moment. Gary and I sat a bench by the gas station and walked into a clearing as the light began a rare midday diminution.

 

 

There did not seem a shadow. Instead, it was if a giant rheostat that controlled the sun was twisted down to reduce illumination of its subject planet. A few children squealed with glee but I was concentrated on the grasshoppers, fooled by the darkness and chirping wildly in the cornrows. Birds nearby began to coo and sing with their evening rituals and the entire universe appeared to pause and listen for the music of the spheres. I did not dare even glance at the corona. I am monocular and have but one good retina and I was not willing to risk its rods and cones for a glimpse of the moon’s transit between the Earth and Sun. Just one quick look can cause damage to vision and two will almost certainly burn the thin tissue at the back of the eye that provides imagery to the brain by capturing light. In just over three minutes, nature gave back the light with the same predictability of a passing cloud. Engines started, ice chests thumped closed, car doors slammed, a few horns blew, power lines hummed, and the world wagged on.

 

 

The natural world is as kind and gentle as it is dangerous and cruel. As a TV correspondent, I witnessed communities destroyed by floods and hurricanes and tornadoes and earthquakes with a capricious kind of brutality. There was great horror in the suffering of those scenes but also marvel at the power of destruction, which is not accurately measured with dollar signs and damage estimates. Nonetheless, I have no memory of ever not being drawn to the trails and canyons and rivers and deserts and the mysteries of just being, my constant amazement at the miracle of all existence. I remember standing next to the Colorado River on a sandbar at the bottom of the Grand Canyon and staring at the water and thinking about the millions of years the river had been running to cut that deeply into rock. What also struck me was that throughout unknowable millennia from the instant I observed those racing waters and standing wave rapids, the Colorado, if unbothered by humans, would still be doing the same thing I was witnessing, running unto the sea.

My instinctual love of nature was probably a perception of it as a refuge from a troubled childhood and it did not find an expression until I came across a unique literary work during my collegiate years. On the Loose was a kind of diary, written by two brothers, Terry and Renny Russell, about their youth spent wandering seashores and national parks and any western landscape distant from civilization. Their poetic text and stunning photos became a touchstone for the nascent environmental movement after it was published by the Sierra Club and sold more than a million copies. Mine is worn from frequent rereads but still serves as a catharsis when I convince myself there are too many complications in all our lives, and their burdens cannot be eased. Nature, the Russell brothers, argued, resolved all such contentions.

“One of the best-paying professions is getting ahold of pieces of country in your mind, learning their smell and their moods, sorting out the pieces of a view, deciding what grows there and there and why, how many steps that hill will take, where this creek winds and where it meets the other one below, what elevation timberline is now, whether you can walk this reef at low tide or have to climb around, which contour lines on a map mean better cliffs or mountains. This is the best kind of ownership, and the most permanent. It feels good to say ‘I know the Sierra’ or ‘I know Point Reyes.’ But of course you don’t-what you know better is yourself, and Point Reyes and the Sierra have helped.”

 

 

An eclipse, like all of nature’s majestic endeavors, can fill a soul with edifying conclusions. Eclipses are rare and those with totality even more scant and scattered across history’s timeline. One is coming for my home in the Texas Hill Country and the odds indicate the moon shadow is not likely to pass this spot for another 375 years. On April 8th, I will not need to jump my motorcycle and chase a cosmic experience down lost highways. Instead, I will step out my door and stand by the back gate and watch the darkness cross the land. If I were as smart as the ancient Greek philosopher Pythagoras, I would reduce the experience to numbers, and listen. He was convinced the great movements of the sun and planets and all the stars in the sky created an eternal hum he described as “the music of the spheres.” I wish that I could sing along.

But I am grateful to have a chance to listen.

This article was originally published on Texas to the world.

James Moore is the New York Times bestselling author of “Bush’s Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential,” three other books on Bush and former Texas Governor Rick Perry, as well as two novels, and a biography entitled, “Give Back the Light,” on a famed eye surgeon and inventor. His newest book will be released mid- 2023. Mr. Moore has been honored with an Emmy from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for his documentary work and is a former TV news correspondent who has traveled extensively on every presidential campaign since 1976.

He has been a retained on-air political analyst for MSNBC and has appeared on Morning Edition on National Public Radio, NBC Nightly News, Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, CBS Evening News, CNN, Real Time with Bill Maher, and Hardball with Chris Matthews, among numerous other programs. Mr. Moore’s written political and media analyses have been published at CNN, Boston Globe, L.A. Times, Guardian of London, Sunday Independent of London, Salon, Financial Times of London, Huffington Post, and numerous other outlets. He also appeared as an expert on presidential politics in the highest-grossing documentary film of all time, Fahrenheit 911, (not related to the film’s producer Michael Moore).

His other honors include the Dartmouth College National Media Award for Economic Understanding, the Edward R. Murrow Award from the Radio Television News Directors’ Association, the Individual Broadcast Achievement Award from the Texas Headliners Foundation, and a Gold Medal for Script Writing from the Houston International Film Festival. He was frequently named best reporter in Texas by the AP, UPI, and the Houston Press Club. The film produced from his book “Bush’s Brain” premiered at The Cannes Film Festival prior to a successful 30-city theater run in the U.S.

Mr. Moore has reported on the major stories and historical events of our time, which have ranged from Iran-Contra to the Waco standoff, the Oklahoma City bombing, the border immigration crisis, and other headlining events. His journalism has put him in Cuba, Central America, Mexico, Australia, Canada, the UK, and most of Europe, interviewing figures as diverse as Fidel Castro and Willie Nelson. He has been writing about Texas politics, culture, and history since 1975, and continues with political opinion pieces for CNN and regularly at his Substack newsletter: “Texas to the World.”

 

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Israel government continues to block aid response despite ICJ genocide court ruling, says Oxfam

Oxfam Australia Media Release

International community resorts to sea routes and air drops rather than challenge Israel for systemically undermining unfettered access of relief

Israeli authorities have rejected a warehouse full of international aid including oxygen, incubators and Oxfam water and sanitation gear all of which is now stockpiled at Al Arish just 40 km away from the border of 2.3 million desperate Palestinians in Gaza.

The aid originates from many humanitarian organisations around the world and has been rejected over weeks and months as result of an unpredictable and chaotic regime of approval, scanning and inspection, ultimately controlled by Israeli authorities. The reasons for rejection are not clear, says Oxfam.

In a new report today, Oxfam said this rejected aid was just one example of an overall humanitarian response that Israel has made so dangerous and dysfunctional as to be impossible for aid agencies to work at the speed and scale necessary to save lives, despite best efforts.

Oxfam says that Israel’s government ultimately bears accountability for the breakdown of the international response to the crisis in Gaza. It is failing in its legal responsibilities to the people whose land it occupies and breaking one of the key provisions demanded by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) – to boost humanitarian aid in light of the risk of genocide in Gaza.

Oxfam believes that people living in Gaza will suffer mass death from disease and starvation far beyond the current 31,000 Palestinian war casualties unless Israel takes immediate steps to end its violations.

“The ICJ order should have shocked Israeli leaders to change course, but since then conditions in Gaza have actually worsened,” said Oxfam Middle East and North Africa Director, Sally Abi Khalil. “The fact that other governments have not challenged Israel hard enough, but instead turned to less effective methods like airdrops and maritime corridors is a huge red flag, signalling that Israel continues to deny the full potential of better ways to deliver more aid.”

“Israeli authorities are not only failing to facilitate the international aid effort but are actively hindering it. We believe that Israel is failing to take all measures within its power to prevent genocide,” Abi Khalil said.

Oxfam’s report “Inflicting Unprecedented Suffering and Destruction” identifies seven crucial ways that Israel is actively preventing the delivery of international aid into Gaza and punishing all Palestinians living in Gaza by deliberately depriving them of life and safety.

The report says that Israeli authorities:

  • Only allow aid in via two crossings into Gaza – at Rafah and KarmAbu Salem/Kerem Shalom – despite having total control to open more, thereby creating avoidable choke points for aid;
  • Are leading a dysfunctional and undersized inspection system that keeps aid snarled up, subjected to onerous, repetitive and unpredictable bureaucratic procedures that are contributing to trucks being stranded in giant queues for 20 days on average;
  • Are routinely and arbitrarily rejecting items of aid as having “dual (military) use”, banning vital fuel and generators entirely along with other items vital for a meaningful humanitarian response such as protective gear and communications kit. Much rejected aid must go through a complex “pre-approval” system or end up being held in limbo at the Al Arish warehouse in Egypt;
  • Have cracked down on humanitarian missions, largely sealing off northern Gaza, and restricting international humanitarian workers’ access not only into Gaza, but Israel and the West Bank including East Jerusalem too.

Israel has allowed 15,413 trucks into Gaza during the past 157 days of war. Oxfam says the population of Gaza needed five times more than that just to meet their minimum needs. In February, Israel allowed 2,874 trucks in – a 44% reduction from the month before.

Israel’s actions are also undermining international aid by its continued military assault inside Gaza, unparalleled in terms of intensity, brutality and scope – and which Israeli leaders themselves have called a “total siege” – as Oxfam highlights:

  • Israel’s assault has caught Gaza’s own aid workers and international agencies’ partners inside a “practically uninhabitable” environment of mass displacement and deprivation, where 75% of solid waste is now being dumped in random sites, 97% of groundwater made unfit for human use, and the Israeli state using starvation as a weapon of war;
  • Israel has rendered nowhere in Gaza safe amid the forcible and often multiple displacements of almost the entire population, which makes the principled distribution of aid unviable, including agencies’ ability to help repair vital public services at scale;
  • Its attacks are disproportionate and indiscriminate upon civilian and humanitarian assets – including people – such as solar, water, power and sanitation plants, UN premises, hospitals, roads, and aid convoys and warehouses, even when these assets are supposedly ‘deconflicted’ after their coordinates have been shared for protection.

“The state of Israel has created the perfect storm for humanitarian collapse and only the state of Israel can fix it,” Abi Khalil said.

Celine Maayeh, the Advocacy and Research Officer for one of Oxfam’s partner organisations in Gaza, Juzoor for Health and Social Development, said:

“Juzoor has been overwhelmed with support from all over the world, but we’re so frustrated in our helplessness and inability to actually get enough aid into Gaza. For the first few weeks, we managed to procure whatever we could get our hands on from local markets. Now, there is almost nothing — no resources, no supplies. In the North the situation is beyond dire. There’s been an alarming increase in cases of malnutrition among children in the last month, and yet the only food the team is able to find to feed people living in 45 shelters is some vegetables. There is an indisputable, man-made, intentional deprivation of aid that continues to suck the life out of any and all humanitarian operations, including our own.”

Oxfam is calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire to end the death and suffering because the measures intended to protect civilians or give them aid are not working. Armed Palestinian groups must release the civilian hostages they hold unconditionally. Displaced people should be allowed to return home in safety.

Other states are obliged to take all diplomatic, economic and political actions necessary to prevent genocide in Gaza, to enable more aid and to prevent the possibility of Palestinians being forcibly displaced outside of Gaza. States should discontinue their arms sales and other forms of security assistance that would facilitate the risk of genocide and ongoing war crimes and crimes against humanity by Israel upon Gaza.

Oxfam says that Israel’s 16-year illegal blockade had already left Gaza in a weakened state. “The international community has failed both Palestinian and Israeli people by ignoring the root causes of this decades-long conflict,” Abi Khalil said. “It is abundantly clear that military force cannot resolve this, but only intensify the cycles of violence.”

“Israel must lift its total blockade of Gaza and belligerent occupation of Palestinian territory and we call on all parties – finally – to work toward a fair, just and lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians grounded in international law,” she said.

 

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Plan to dump eight toxic oil platforms off Gippsland

Friends of the Earth Media Release

Threat from mercury, lead & radioactive waste pollution

A multinational fossil fuel company has applied to the federal government to dump the majority of eight offshore oil platforms into Bass Strait close to the Gippsland coast in Victoria.

Esso, which is owned by Woodside and ExxonMobil, wants to remove the topsides of the platforms before cutting the massive pylons, or jackets, and dumping them into the ocean.

The eight facilities are among 13 that need to be decommissioned in coming years.

They have been found to contain high levels of asbestos, mercury, lead and other heavy metals, as well as thousands of tonnes of hazardous radioactive waste, technically enhanced and worsened in the extraction process*.

Esso says that they will be creating so-called artificial reefs, but the level of toxins and radioactivity in the resulting sea life is likely to be high, given recent studies.

Friends of the Earth (FoE) is calling on the government to immediately reject the application, and to force the company to safely and responsibly remove all of the steel and other recyclable materials from the facilities.

Friends of the Earth Offshore Fossil Gas campaigner Jeff Waters says Esso is being deceptive, because it’s “rigs to reef” scheme is nothing but an attempt to save money.

“Esso has to rent a European decommissioning ship, so they are rushing to complete the Bass Strait decommissioning in one season,” Jeff Waters said.

“If they were to be forced to recycle the hundreds of thousands of tonnes of perfectly good steel, they’d need to hire such a ship over several years.”

“Esso’s toxic fish factory has to be stopped.”

“They’re using scientific studies that they paid for to justify turning the ocean off Gippsland into a toxic dump,” Waters said.

”Those retired oil platforms contain huge amounts of mercury and hazardous radioactive waste, which will poison the areas around them and render the sea life too dangerous to consume.”

“It’s also a waste of perfectly good steel that could be recycled and turned into much-needed wind turbine towers and bases.”

Friends of the Earth is also calling on the Victorian government to intervene.

“The state government needs steel to build wind turbine towers and bases,” Jeff Waters said.

“The state government should be picking up the phone to their federal colleagues today and demanding that this steel be recycled.

Friends of the Earth is calling on the government to extend the existing temporary decommissioning levy to force the oil and methane industry to pay for world-standard onshore breaking and recycling facilities.

FoE has also launched a new website and petition that can be signed at RecycleTheRigs.org

 

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ACFID welcomes Australian Government’s reinstatement of funding to UNRWA

Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) Media Release

The Australian Council for International Development (ACFID), the peak body for humanitarian and development organisations, welcomes the Australian Government’s announcement to reinstate the funding of the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA).

“This decision is overdue given the urgency of the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and UNRWA’s lifesaving support amongst a population currently on the brink of famine,” said ACFID chief executive Marc Purcell.

“Children are already dying of starvation on the world’s watch. Parachuting aid is not a solution. Five civilians have already died in trying to reach air drops in Gaza, and the aid is only reached by those who are fit and able to do so. Women, children, elderly and people with disability are left behind, those who are sick, injured and starving will not receive this relief.

“It is essential that the Australian Government redoubles its efforts to ensure aid convoys can enter Gaza safely via land. We call on the Australian Government to urge that aid convoys and humanitarian workers are not targeted further by the Israeli defence forces as they seek to assist civilians.”

It has been almost three weeks since the Director of UNRWA in Gaza warned the Australian Government of UNRWA’s pending collapse without donors reinstating their funding. This would have meant the collapse of the entire humanitarian response.

“ACFID has actively advocated for UNRWA’s funding to be reinstated since its suspension, recognizing the vital backbone that UNRWA is in providing the humanitarian response in Gaza and across the region,” said Mr Purcell.

Since the allegations arose, UNRWA actively responded, including with the dismissal of staff alleged to have been involved in the October 7 attack.

Over 31,000 people have now died in Gaza since October 7, thousands more are injured or missing, and more than a quarter of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are estimated to be facing catastrophic levels of deprivation and starvation.

ACFID welcomes the additional funding of $4 million to UNICEF and calls on the Australian Government to continue considering further ongoing funding for the humanitarian response in Gaza, the West Bank & the region, including to Australian NGOs providing crucial and lifesaving assistance.

ACFID continues to call for the Australian Government to publicly advocate for an immediate and permanent ceasefire to prevent further loss of life in Gaza.

 

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ActionAid “categorically denounces” the reported forcible transfer of millions from Rafah to so-called “humanitarian islands”

ActionAid Media Release

Riham Jafari, Communications and Advocacy Coordinator at ActionAid Palestine, said:

“We categorically denounce the reported green light from the US for Israel to undertake military action in Rafah and forcibly transfer the million plus people sheltering in Rafah to so-called “humanitarian islands” within Gaza so Israel can continue its violent rampage which is now entering its 6th month.

“These people are not simply an inconvenience in this war, this flagrant disregard for international law constitutes a gross violation of the rights of Gazans, who have already endured countless displacement since this crisis began. Palestinians in Gaza must be guaranteed their inalienable right to return to their homes.

“We demand an immediate cessation of this plan and call for all parties to prioritise the protection of civilians and adhere to their obligations under international law. All this ceasefire talk from leading nations is hot air if they allow the Israeli government to facilitate the mass transfer of the now largest refugee camp on earth. This cannot be allowed to happen, and we urge governments to ensure it does not for the good of humanity.”

 

About ActionAid

ActionAid is a global federation working with more than 41 million people living in more than 71 of the world’s poorest countries. We want to see a just, fair, and sustainable world, in which everybody enjoys the right to a life of dignity, and freedom from poverty and oppression. We work to achieve social justice and gender equality and to eradicate poverty.

 

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EVs now mainstream in Australia after record year of growth

2023 was another landmark year for electric transport in Australia with rapid growth in both EV sales and charging infrastructure, according to the Australian Electric Vehicle Industry Recap 2023 released today.

The Recap, produced by the Electric Vehicle Council finds:

  • EV sales (including both battery EVs and plug-in hybrids) grew by 120%
  • The total Australian EV fleet surpassed 180,000 electric vehicles
  • Charging infrastructure locations increased by 75 per cent on the previous year, with 348 locations added across Australia

The Recap also contains details on the top 20 EV models sold, an update on how Australia is tracking against the EVC’s recommended target of 1 million EVs by end of 2027, and the launch of a national EV ownership survey in collaboration with the University of Sydney.

The Recap also includes analysis of media claims about a slowdown in EV sales in the US, which the report finds has been vastly overstated.

“Most of the commentary about a slowdown in the US has come from those with an interest in talking down the growth of EVs, when the reality is electric car sales are still going strong in America,” said EVC chief executive Behyad Jafari.

“Naturally, as the total number of EVs sold continues to become ever larger, achieving the same levels of annual growth in percentage terms becomes increasingly difficult to achieve. The growth in EVs between 2021 and 2022 in the US was 66 per cent while in the most recent year it was 46 per cent. 46 per cent is extraordinary annual growth in any market.”

Mr Jafari noted that extending the benefits of EVs to a broader cohort of Australians would requiring ongoing policy reform.

“After a long period of anticipation last decade, it’s now genuinely exciting to see the electric vehicle revolution now rolling out all over Australia,” Mr Jafari said.

“EV drivers are everywhere and if you talk to them they’re typically effusive about their decision. Not having to worry about petrol prices or regular maintenance, and enjoying a more fun driving experience tend to top the reasons given for satisfaction. And our cities and towns are benefiting with less and less air and noise pollution.

“To sustain this positive trajectory we need sensible reform. The federal government’s New Vehicle Efficiency Standards are a crucial step that finally brings Australia into line with the rest of the developed world. This move will see Australian drivers finally being given the same kind of choice offered to Americans and Europeans.

“EVs are no longer a novelty, they are a core part of everyday Australian lives. Hopefully the abundant benefits of switching to an EV will be embraced by millions more Australians as the decade progresses.”

 

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Intelligence Committee tables report on military secrets legislation

Parliament of Australia Media Release

The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security (PJCIS) today tabled its Advisory Report on the Defence Amendment (Safeguarding Australia’s Military Secrets) Bill 2023.

The Committee’s unanimous report recommended that the Bill pass and made four recommendations for the Government’s consideration including:

  • assessing the existing legislation and procedures and whether they sufficiently cover working or training for paramilitary organisations and militias by former defence personnel
  • providing the Minister for Defence with the ability to determine by legislative instrument classes or categories of non-former Defence members that are not required to apply for an authorisation – for example, in cases where a company has been approved to provide goods under the Defence Export Control (DEC) arrangements
  • assessing how existing legislation and procedures covering former National Intelligence Community officers and their work for foreign governments should be strengthened, and address the need for further legislation

The Bill would amend the Defence Act 1903 to regulate the work that certain former defence staff members can perform for or on behalf of a military organisation or government body of a relevant foreign country, without a foreign work authorisation.

Mr Peter Khalil MP, Chair of the PJCIS, said “Once passed, this Bill will deal with the potential of former defence staff members revealing sensitive defence information and placing Australia’s national security at risk. In addition it provides our allies with more confidence that securing sensitive military information is at the forefront of the Australian Government’s national security thinking.”

Further information on the inquiry can be obtained from the Committee’s website.

 

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Issues Changing the Nation: Never Ending AUKUS Submarine Policy Sagas

By Denis Bright

The issue of AUKUS has resurfaced from the murky depths of undersea politics. ABC News graphics (featured image) reminds readers of the latest additional payment to fast track the AUKUS deal with its proposed cost of at least $368 billion.

Public policy interest in the AUKUS submarine saga is now being propelled by doubts about US construction deadlines for the high technology nuclear-powered submarines. The US Navy confirmed that it will halve the number of nuclear-powered submarines on offer in its 2025 budget. Second-hand LA Class submarines will not be available for sharing with Australia as they will be needed in the USA. Even the construction schedule for AUKUS-class submarines in Adelaide is now in doubt (ABC News 13 March 2024).

For readers who are new to this issue, I might restate some background to the AUKUS deals. The commercial military industrial complexes do not advertise their hidden details. Making a request to Gemini-Google Bard provided this summary for verification by readers:

  • US Virginia-class submarines: Australia will acquire at least three (and potentially up to five) Virginia-class nuclear-powered attack submarines from the US. The first of these might be in early 2030s. The leading corporations from the US military industrial complexes are General Dynamics and Huntington Ingalls Industries (Newport News Shipbuilding). Numerous supportive technology companies engage in preparations for these developments including involvement from Boeing.
  • AUKUS-class submarines: Provided through US and British commercial providers of a new class of nuclear-powered attack submarines during the 2040s. The British firms particularly embedded in the AUKUS Programme are:

: BAE Systems will play a critical role in the construction of the AUKUS submarines.

: Babcock International will be involved in construction and maintenance.

: Rolls-Royce will be involved in design and delivery of the nuclear reactors.

  • Temporary Rotational Deployment UK Astute-class and US Virginia-class submarines are planned on a rotational basis to HMAS Stirling in Western Australia.

The US Studies Centre in Sydney (9 February 2024) offered commentary by its Director Professor Peter Dean and research associate Alice Nason:

AUKUS has become a case study in generational politics. Public opinion polling reveals only 33 per cent of Gen Z and millennial voters believe it’s a good idea for Australia to have nuclear-powered submarines, compared with 66 per cent of voters aged sixty-five and over.

Still, on some things, all generations agree: a plurality of Australian voters feel nuclear-powered submarines are not worth the cost to Australian taxpayers. Only 21 per cent of voters believe the submarines warrant their $368bn price tag.

These apprehensions, especially among young people, should alarm our policymakers. The people who are expected to staff Australia’s new submarine enterprise as of now don’t support it. This is only the tip of the iceberg for Australia’s workforce challenge.

Australia will build up a sizeable military industrial complex over the next half-century if the AUKUS deals proceed as planned. Lobbying in support of AUKUS has attracted retired political leaders from both sides of politics who are committed to the goal of a more militarized Australia (Anton Nilsson Crikey.com 23 January 2024).

From the far-off United States, Anna Massoglia and Dan Auble from the Open Secrets site were able provide details of lobbying by major corporations in during 2023 just in support of AUKUS. Boeing, Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics topped the lobbying spending with a combined expenditure of over $US80 million.

David Hardaker of Crikey.com exposed the roles of conservative lobbyists in support of the efforts of the military corporates (31 May 2023). This is an exercise in investigative journalism at its best:

A Crikey investigation into the power of conservative political lobbyists CT Group has revealed that two US companies represented by CT are set to be among the biggest winners of the “forever” AUKUS defence deal hatched by former prime minister Scott Morrison.

One of the companies, General Dynamics, is the lead contractor for constructing the US navy’s fleet of nuclear-powered submarines. The other company, Centrus Energy, is the leading provider of nuclear fuel for US national security purposes and for naval reactors.

CT’s US entity, CTF Global LLC, has acted as a lobbyist for General Dynamics and Centrus Energy since it set up shop in Washington in 2018, taking on the client list of long-term lobbyist Larry Grossman who was seeking to extend the global reach of his firm.

The evolution of the CIT Group as defence lobbyists came as it reached the peak of its political influence in Australia at the end of 2018 with its then-Australian CEO Yaron Finkelstein joining Morrison’s staff as principal private secretary.

In parallel with Australia, the CT Group also enjoyed the closest of relationships with then-UK prime minister Boris Johnson. David Canzini, a former CT executive, was part of Johnson’s team as a deputy chief of staff.

Readers can follow the investigative trails offered through Crikey.com:

Explore the Series

  1. Crosby Textor: the pollsters that took over the Liberal Party and became a global power.
  2. Mere coincidence? Crosby Textor is the common link in Morrison’s AUKUS deal.
  3. Scott Morrison issues blanket denial on nuclear submarine questions.
  4. Spooks and spies: Crosby Textor moves into shadowy territory.
  5. Crosby Textor group’s influence on the Liberals has been pervasive. Is it time to cut the link?
  6. Crosby Textor’s influence on prime ministers helped it dominate the Anglosphere.

In this era of cost-of-living politics, no one on either side of politics seems to worry about the irregular additional costs of the AUKUS deals. There was an unexpected allocation of $A835 million to France was imposed on the Labor Government for breach of contract from the cancellation of Malcolm Turnbull’s submarine deal.

The Register of Lobbyists and the Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme (the Scheme) from the Attorney-General’s Department do not provide easy access to the specific roles played by lobbyists for firms associated with military industrial complexes. Just knowing which lobbyists have an association with a company like the CT Group is of little practical purpose in investigative journalism. This is a sample register extract for the CT Group which was mentioned in the Crikey.com articles.

The LinkedIn site offers more clues by showing which ex-politicians or former military personnel and policy advisers with links to Australian and global military industrial companies through both lobbying activities or the convening of forum events or other corporate links. There is nothing sinister about the openness of the opportunities offered through LinkedIn which opens a new world of connections for further investigation by journalists.

Here are just three examples.

 

 

 

 

The anecdotes from LinkedIn can be followed up with a direct communication to the person listed and further research on his/her activities within the military industrial complexes through quite legal lobbying or forum events.

However, cheering on the military is historically a dangerous practice. During the reign of Queen Victoria, the British Empire was once united around the need for Freedom of Navigation to advance its economic diplomacy against China in the two Opium Wars. The US and France joined Britain in the second round in the Opium Wars (1856-60).

Britain once had a balance of payments problem with China during the Days of Empire. It authorized the export of opium to China to address this imbalance.

Imperial China rejected Britain’s efforts against China in the two Opium Wars.

Critical discussion might be painful to political elites. Armed conflicts in a nuclear age are even worse. Let’s pause for some reflection before more jingoism gets Australia into real trouble through over-commitment to global corporate military industrial complexes and the expansion of a stronger home-grown variant in Australia.

Denis Bright (pictured) is a financial member of the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA). Denis is committed to consensus-building in these difficult times. Your feedback from readers advances the cause of citizens’ journalism. Full names are not required when making comments. However, a valid email must be submitted if you decide to hit the Replies Button.

 

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Independence Way

By James Moore

There was a line, but we pretended it did not exist. That was the best way to get through each day as we came of age. In our factory town, there were the laborers and the management, and the families in our neighborhood supplied the muscle and bone to build the cars rolling out onto the American road. Mostly, our fathers were from below the Mason-Dixon Line and bending their backs to an assembly line felt like no great chore and paid immensely better than chopping cotton. Until the unions, laborers could not afford to own what they built for others.

A great, gray factory separated our fortunes. After World War II, it had begun manufacturing cars but retained its name as the Tank Plant. Sherman tanks were assembled, tested, and shipped out of the facility in Southern Lower Michigan. Great pride was taken in delivery of the armored attack vehicles to Allied troops moving across the European and African continents. Blue collar workers of both sexes, not carrying guns, felt the importance of their contributions. The families living on our side of the vast structure, after the war, were the welders and fabricators and drill operators and people with modest skills and growing families.

Managers of the workers, foremen and shop executives, and businesses that thrived by serving the factory’s needs for raw materials and services, lived on the other side of the Tank Plant. Their homes were middle and upper middle class but when we were inhabiting 800 square feet tract houses, the contrast was startling. I did not ever enter those grand houses, except for rare moments when invited by a classmate, and I was always afraid to brush against the wall and looked at my feet to make certain I did not track the floors. In one of the wealthiest neighborhoods, there was golf course that held a big professional tournament and as I dragged my pro’s bag around the course I looked at the magnificent homes that lined the fairways and wondered how such money was accumulated.

 

The Tank Plant, Grand Blanc, Michigan, 1945

 

I had no understanding of how class distinctions evolved, or why my situation was so dramatically different from the overwhelming majority of the other students in my school. When I saw them in their new cars and down jackets in the winter time, though, I understood there were economic and educational forces at work that made our lives abundantly different. My mother carried burgers and open-faced sandwiches as a waitress at a short order restaurant and my father lifted bumpers out of a metal press and stacked them on pallets for delivery to the assembly line. Neither ever drew a breath without worrying about money, how to pay for school clothes, the oil delivery truck that filled up the tank out back to run the furnace in the middle of the house, groceries, electricity, and the burdensome monthly mortgage of $62.50 on a $10,000 VA loan.

I only have memories of wanting to leave and five decades later I still do not want to go home, though I infrequently visit. Our little house had neither space nor money to make life enjoyable and when the snow piled up the window frame and we were unable to leave, I felt as if I might be trapped for the rest of my existence. When the roads became passable after a blizzard, we often wore old socks on our hands for gloves and stuffed them into our pants pockets before we got off the bus at school because we did not want our classmates to know our modest deprivations. Such humiliation is hard to endure when both of your parents are working 60-hour weeks and still cannot afford to properly clothe their six children. I was angry because I listened to too many people talk about opportunities my struggling parents never encountered in their American life.

To get away from all this, I took to the highway when I graduated high school at age seventeen. I was less afraid of strangers on the road than I was of my father’s thundering right hand or his snapping razor strop and the kitchen drawers he tossed through the living room window when he could not control the anger he possessed after how his life had unfolded. These were factors I was unable to explain to drivers who stopped to offer a ride when I stood by the pavement with my thumb cast into the traffic. I did not want to offer up any background, I just wanted to put miles of road behind me and keep moving westerly. The questions kept recurring, though.

“Hop in kid. Where you going?”

“Out west. Maybe California, if I can get there.”

“What the hell’s wrong with you?”

“I’m sorry. I don’t know what you mean.”

“You look like you weigh maybe 140 pounds. Somebody could hurt you. Do your parents know what you are doing or where you are going?”

“My mother does. She cried when I left, but she knew I had to go.”

“Why’d you have to go? You like sleeping under bridges and in cornfields more than sleeping under the roof at your parents’ house?”

“No mister, but it ain’t that simple. Honest.”

I remember that conversation with a trucker near Scottsbluff, Nebraska, out near the Wyoming line. He was not just big in the middle like a man who sat and ate and worried all day but his arms were large with rounded muscles and the more questions he asked the more afraid I became. When he stopped talking, he kept looking over at me as if he were making an assessment as to whether I was crazy or if I might be able to escape. I never knew which.

“Hey, can you let me off up here, a few miles down the road? I kinda want to spend time in Wyoming, hiking around.”

“What for?”

“I like history, you know, westward expansion and that stuff. I want to see that Independence Rock that’s around here somewhere. Lots of people traveling on wagon trains left their names and initials carved into the rock. There are even still ruts where all the wagon trains went by.”

“Okay, kid. Whatever you want. But you sure?”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m sure.”

He reached across the bench seat in the cab and patted my knee. I did not look at his face but I wanted out of his truck.

“You can go all the way to California with me, if you want. I could use the company. I’ll get you a few meals, too. Road gets lonely when you live on it.”

“No, no,” I said. “I’ve got to get off here. I’m doing research, see, about Manifest Destiny, you know, when all the Europeans went over the mountains and wiped out the Indians on the way.’

“Manifest destiny, huh? Okay, kid. Whatever ya want.”

 

Independence Rock, Oregon Trail, Wyoming

 

The truck slowed in the breakdown lane and my hand was on the metal frame of my backpack before he had engine-braked to a full stop. I opened the door and dropped the nylon pack to the ground, thanked him quickly, and jumped out behind my gear. I reached up and swung the passenger door closed and heard the air brakes hiss as he released them and dropped the cabover into gear.

I walked away from the Interstate and did not look back because I wanted to be certain the 18-wheeler was moving west with its load of refrigerators. About five minutes later, I turned around and went back and quickly got a ride in the bed of a pickup that was going south of Casper toward Independence Rock. When I finally jumped over the tailgate and onto the road, I was disappointed at the famous formation I had read about in school. I thought it looked a bit like a giant turtle and was oddly insignificant to have become a place of such import in American history.

 

 

The rock was covered with the names of an estimated 5000 travelers who had moved past it on their way west during the 1800s. I had already begun to think if it as a place of hope because every wagon train that had gone west from Fort Laramie included people who had survived attacks by indigenous peoples, endured winds and rain and floods and hunger, but had pressed onward to whatever they had envisioned might exist for them in Utah or the Willamette Valley or the California coast. The granite outcrop became a kind of bulletin board for travelers on the Oregon Trail, who carved inscriptions of their names and dates and observations as they began the long, dangerous climb toward the Great Divide.

On July 26, 1849, J. Goldsborough Bruff

“… reached Independence Rock … at a distance looks like a huge whale. It is being painted & marked every way, all over, with names, dates, initials, &c – so that it was with difficulty I could find a place to inscribe it.”

 

Pioneer Inscriptions, dated 1850

 

The name was derived from a Fourth of July celebration at the site in 1830 by a group of fur trappers. Even as a 17-year-old in his first summer of wandering, I knew I was in a spot both sacred and profane. The Plains Indians certainly did not want to tolerate the strangers transiting lands they had roamed freely in time beyond memory and they often fought desperately, and futilely, to stop the increasing numbers of white transgressors. The emigrants, though, were too numerous and did not stop coming and their determination outweighed their fears. The trail was also fraught with perils of disease like small pox and yellow fever and dysentery from bad water, and had claimed thousands of lives, but the survivors remained hopeful of a life they were barely able to describe or define.

Even though I wondered if there were ghosts still hovering nearby, the spirits of travelers who had died with their unrealized aspirations somewhere near the rock, I still walked off to find a place to unroll my bag and sleep. There did not seem to be many tourists about and traffic was hurrying to bigger national parks with grander views. I belonged where I found myself at the end of that day. I, too, was determined to make it over the Divide, if only by hitchhiking the next morning, but as my eyes grew heavy and the wind came down off the Rockies, I was also unable to see my future. I felt, though, the power of all the hope that had led those souls of long ago to that rock.

And I was anxious to move further west.

 

This article was originally published on Texas to the world.

James Moore is the New York Times bestselling author of “Bush’s Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential,” three other books on Bush and former Texas Governor Rick Perry, as well as two novels, and a biography entitled, “Give Back the Light,” on a famed eye surgeon and inventor. His newest book will be released mid- 2023. Mr. Moore has been honored with an Emmy from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for his documentary work and is a former TV news correspondent who has traveled extensively on every presidential campaign since 1976.

He has been a retained on-air political analyst for MSNBC and has appeared on Morning Edition on National Public Radio, NBC Nightly News, Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, CBS Evening News, CNN, Real Time with Bill Maher, and Hardball with Chris Matthews, among numerous other programs. Mr. Moore’s written political and media analyses have been published at CNN, Boston Globe, L.A. Times, Guardian of London, Sunday Independent of London, Salon, Financial Times of London, Huffington Post, and numerous other outlets. He also appeared as an expert on presidential politics in the highest-grossing documentary film of all time, Fahrenheit 911, (not related to the film’s producer Michael Moore).

His other honors include the Dartmouth College National Media Award for Economic Understanding, the Edward R. Murrow Award from the Radio Television News Directors’ Association, the Individual Broadcast Achievement Award from the Texas Headliners Foundation, and a Gold Medal for Script Writing from the Houston International Film Festival. He was frequently named best reporter in Texas by the AP, UPI, and the Houston Press Club. The film produced from his book “Bush’s Brain” premiered at The Cannes Film Festival prior to a successful 30-city theater run in the U.S.

Mr. Moore has reported on the major stories and historical events of our time, which have ranged from Iran-Contra to the Waco standoff, the Oklahoma City bombing, the border immigration crisis, and other headlining events. His journalism has put him in Cuba, Central America, Mexico, Australia, Canada, the UK, and most of Europe, interviewing figures as diverse as Fidel Castro and Willie Nelson. He has been writing about Texas politics, culture, and history since 1975, and continues with political opinion pieces for CNN and regularly at his Substack newsletter: “Texas to the World.”

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Join Craig Foster for Sydney Big Walk 4 Refugees this Sunday

Media Release

Join Craig Foster, refugee communities and dignitaries for the Sydney leg of the Big Walk 4 Refugees – a 2.5km walk from the Maritime Museum to Fleet Park – this Sunday 17 March.

In the first four weeks of the virtual walk, hundreds of people in all states and territories have powered through 40,000 kilometres to show support for 10,000 refugees living in Australia who are waiting for permanent visas.

Clocking 60 million steps to date – or 2.5 laps of Australia ­­- walkers are expected to complete more than 50,000 kilometres by the time the virtual walk completes on 26 March 2024.

According to Craig Foster, humanitarian and former Socceroo captain:

“We’re walking together to raise awareness of the impact of endless uncertainty and impermanence on 10,000 children, women and men who came to our shores seeking safety more than a decade ago.

“These families and children are stuck in limbo, waiting for permanent protection. Despite contributing in every way and being loved members of our communities; growing up here and completing their schooling here, they still don’t have the same opportunities, protections and sense of inclusion.

“As a country, we have made progress and there is more work to do, more people who also need and deserve our help. Which is why I’m calling on the Australian government to provide permanent visas for all 10,000.”

Refugee Rights Campaigner at Amnesty International Australia, Zaki Haidari will also attend:

“We are walking in solidarity with our 10,000 brothers and sisters. The walk highlights that they have been living without certainty or clarity for over a decade, mainly on short-run temporary visas with no way to meet goals or plan their futures.

“They are part of our community and have contributed significantly to Australia as workers, volunteers, cultural ambassadors. Their visa status has denied them reunion with parents, siblings, partners, children.

“It is time for the Labor government to stop such unnecessary, inhumane practices and treat them with the dignity and respect they deserve.”

 

 

Refugee supporter and activist, Ian Rintoul, Refugee Action Coalition Sydney says:

“Why are we blocking brilliant young people from going to university after completing their secondary schooling in Australia?

“Why are we blocking people from being able to work in much-needed areas such as aged, disability and child care where we have skill shortages?

“Why are we blocking families from reuniting after a decade?

“The Australian government needs to have the ticker to stop this cruelty and provide permanent visas for all 10,000 so they can plan and rebuild after living here for more than 10 years.”

The Big Walk 4 Refugees was launched on 13 February to show support for 10,000 refugees who were overlooked by the Australian Government’s announcement a year earlier of permanent pathways for 19,000 refugees.

In the first two weeks of the Big Walk, walkers smashed out 16,650 km from Hobart, around the coastline, arriving in Canberra on 27 February four weeks ahead of schedule. Walkers are running more than 500 virtual rings around Parliament House each day.

Join us on for the Sydney Big Walk 4 Refugees. Meeting at 1pm at the Welcome Wall, Maritime Museum, 1 Murray Street, Darling Harbour for our walk to First Fleet Park near Circular Quay. Distance has been limited to accommodate walkers fasting for Ramadan.

 

 

Photo opportunities are available with refugee walkers:

  • 1pm: Welcome Wall, Maritime Museum (Murray Street) Darling Harbour
  • 1-2pm: Walking to First Fleet Park
  • 2pm: At First Fleet Park.

Spokespeople available for interview before, during or after the walk:

  • Craig Foster, humanitarian and ex-Socceroo coach
  • Zaki Haidari, Amnesty International campaigner and refugee from Afghanistan who received permanent residency in Australia in 2023
  • Ian Rintoul, refugee advocate, Refugee Action Coalition Sydney

Facebook event: https://fb.me/e/19v2bOEjd

For more information about the Big Walk 4 Refugees visit www.bigwalk4refugees.au

 

 

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Bridging The Gap In Remote, Rural & Regional Skills Training

Independent Tertiary Education Council Australia (ITECA) Media Release

A new assessment of skills training across remote, rural and regional Australia highlights the complementarity of independent Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) and public TAFE colleges. The 2024 Remote, Rural and Regional Skills Training Snapshot is published by the Independent Tertiary Education Council Australia (ITECA), the peak body representing independent skills training, higher education, and international education providers.

Data in the 2024 Remote, Rural and Regional Skills Training Snapshot shows that approximately 1.12 million students engaged in skill training in remote, rural, and regional settings choose to study with an independent RTO. This is 87.3% of all students in skills training across these regions.

“Investing in skilling, upskilling, and reskilling workers in remote, rural, and regional Australia drives economic vitality, fosters community resilience, and bridges opportunity gaps. This is what makes the work of ITECA members so critical to these communities,” said Troy Williams, ITECA Chief Executive.

ITECA’s view is that the data shows the need for the Australian, state and territory governments to put students at the heart of the skills training system, ensuring that they are supported to study with the provider of their choice.

“The key to improving skills training across remote, rural and regional Australia relies on a mutually supportive network of quality independent RTOs and public TAFE colleges,” Mr Williams said.

The official data on student satisfaction shows why students trust independent RTOs to deliver the training to help them achieve their life and career goals.

“When supporting remote, rural and regional students to get into a job and secure, private RTOs achieve great outcomes with 84.8% per cent of students employed after training. Independent RTOs achieve some of the highest levels of student satisfaction,” Mr Williams said.

The 2024 Remote, Rural and Regional Skills Training Snapshot also highlights that 86.4% of female students in remote, rural and regional areas study with independent RTOs, that’s 505,255 students.

In the Regionalisation Ambition 2032 vision statement, the Regional Australia Institute (RIA) sets a national goal to increase the share of skilled workers employed in regional Australia to 80% of the regional workforce.

“It’s clear that both students and employers trust independent RTOs to help achieve this target,” Mr Williams said.

ITECA is an active participant in the Alliance For Regionalisation, a grouping of more than thirty Chief Executive Officers from from the most influential peak bodies in the country, with the purpose of working to help bring the Regionalisation Ambition 2032 to life.

 

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By-election for Cook

Department of the House of Representatives Media Release

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Hon Milton Dick MP, has issued the writ for the election of a Member of the House of Representatives, for the electoral division of Cook in New South Wales.

The dates in connection with the by-election will be as follows:

Issue of writ: Monday, 11 March 2024

Close of rolls: Monday, 18 March 2024

Close of nominations: Thursday, 21 March 2024

Declaration of nominations: Friday, 22 March 2024

Date of polling: Saturday, 13 April 2024

Return of writ: On or before Wednesday, 19 June 2024

 

 

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A Broken Land

By James Moore

“The government of the United States doesn’t want peace. It wants to exploit its system of exploitation, of pillage, of hegemony through war. It wants peace, but what’s happening in Iraq? What happened in Lebanon? Palestine? What’s happening? What’s happened over the last hundred years in Latin America and in the world?” – Hugo Chavez

I am trying to be optimistic. The nature of Americans is to buy into the notion that anything is possible in our country. We are convinced the only two kinds of people in this nation are millionaires and those who will very soon be millionaires. There is little accommodation for failure. If you live in the United States you are expected to buy into the calculus that X amount of effort will always produce Y amount of results, which is, obviously, utter nonsense. Failure, however, is always your fault, not a flaw in the land of the free and the articulations of capitalism. You are expected to pull yourself up by your bootstraps even if you were born into a family that cannot afford boots.

This delusion that anybody and everybody can make it here is often central to the conflicts at the heart of our body politic. The successful, hurrying down that smooth, shining road toward a great horizon of affluence, do not wish to look into the ditch and see the losers struggling to climb back up onto the roadbed. They are there of their own accord. Why should we afford them a hand up when they might become reliant on assistance? America’s unresolved moral dilemma revolves around how much to help, and that unanswered question has almost always informed our politics and created the great divide between our two major political parties. How much government is too much government?

There is one Republican consultant who is famously quoted as saying his party will not be happy until government is “shrunk to the size that can be drowned in a bathtub.” The anti-Washington infection that has spread across the land began in earnest with Ronald Reagan, who once said, “The scariest words in the English language were, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’” He quickly set out to make his hoary aphorism into a reality by blowing up the Air Traffic Controllers’ union to intimidate American labor and pretending that AIDS would go away if the feds would just ignore its increasing rate of fatality.

Trump made a similar assertion as the pandemic was spreading throughout the population when he said, “It’s going to disappear. It’s disappearing.” His proclamation, a barely subtle attempt to remove government from responsibility of managing the spread of the coronavirus, was made the day after he was released from being hospitalized for the disease. Spring weather, though, made him hopeful he would be shed of any responsibility for Washington’s involvement. “You know,” he said, “A lot of people think that (coronavirus) goes away in April with the heat, as the heat comes in. Typically, that will go away in April.” Instead, millions subsequently died. What went away were family members, loved ones, children and grand parents, while Trump talked of horse tranquilizer cures.

Rank conservatism has, historically, offered nothing but suffering to Americans. There is, in fact, no such brand of politics functioning in this country. It might be considered conservative to cut corporate taxes and believe the falsehood that freed capital will then be invested back into jobs and economic expansion, but that never happens. Nobody gets trickled down on. Investors are paid fat dividend checks and corporate boards buy back stocks at premiums to regain control of their companies from small shareholders. Hoarding capital and cutting taxes to giant businesses does little more than generate huge national debts for the government, and nobody does that better than “conservatives.” Trump and his massive tax cuts for business created a $7.2 trillion dollar increase in the federal deficit in the four years he was in office, a figure that presently accounts for 30 percent of the total national public indebtedness. Conservative George W. Bush cut corporate taxes just as he launched a war that would eventually cost a few trillion and left President Obama an historically high deficit, which the Democratic President cut in half before leaving office.

Conservatives do not act conservatively in this country. What they really want is a form of anarchy, an expression of the attitude that government’s only role is to pave roads, protect the border, and then get the hell out of the way. We are supposed to rely on our own “rugged independence” to succeed, a concept whose notional value is utterly worthless. Nobody really makes it on their own. Wealthy business magnates like to claim they built their companies without government assistance but that obfuscates the investment of tax dollars in the infrastructure and common carrier laws that made delivery possible for their products, whether digital or physical. Governments built the roads and harbors and airports, keeps them safe and operational, and provides regulations to offer some assurance consumers will not be buying unsafe drugs or food or fly in airplanes that have not met safety standards. When those rules fail, and an aircraft falls from the sky or masses become addicted to opioids, the causes tend to be corporations cutting corners to increase profits and serve the capitalism that has made America an economic engine for much of the world.

Argumentation over how much government, and its optimal role, is central to the division of the American electorate. We have split into camps that can no longer seem to compromise or find a middle ground that is best for our country. Progressive thinkers believe in government as the organizing principle of any society and that it gives life to a culture and an economy by creating an environment of opportunity. The conservative belief is that the larger the government the less freedom is offered the individual. Their primary assertion is proved false by their own politics, which have taken away reproductive and even voting rights while banning certain books their standards claim ought not be available, and forcing their Christian religion into public institutions like schools and government. Conservatism explicitly is a resistance to change and the implications of that are we would have no equal rights for minorities or women or regulations to protect our air and water or even minimum wage laws.

If ruination comes to America, therefore, it will be driving a tank loaded with ballistic missiles of explosive partisan grievance. The symptoms of our potential collapse are already clear and manifest. The most recent former president just spent a day at his resort consorting with Viktor Orban, the dictator and authoritarian leader of Hungary. While his formal title is prime minister, Orban has made himself the source of all policy and government actions, discriminatory and unfair to millions who disagree. Undoubtedly, Trump sidled up close seeking pointers on how to run the U.S. into an even more diminished democracy. “He’s the boss, and that’s it,” Trump said.

 

Little Men Seeking Bigness

 

Trump has no formal authority as a former president but has managed to put his country into a precarious situation with his egotistical obstinance. After years of complaining by conservatives about a crisis at the border, Democrats and Republicans collaborated to create the strongest reforms in a half century. The Senate easily achieved passage of the measure and there is a wide majority for the same result in the House. Trump, however, realizes that if the problem is solved in a bipartisan agreement, he will be robbed of his lead issue. Consequently, he has told House Speaker Mike Johnson, a man who claims god told him he was to play the role of Moses in America, to not bring the legislation to a vote on the house floor, and Johnson has complied. Partisanship by the sycophantic constituency of Trump’s GOP has ground America to a halt.

We are also failing to keep our geopolitical promises. Speaker Moses, also at the behest of the non-president Trump, has blocked a funding measure that would re-arm Ukraine in its defense of the Russian invasion. The congressional stasis has NATO countries wondering about the reliability of the American commitment to the protection of Europe. While the house speaker seeks flattery from the putative dictator Trump, Ukraine is dying under assault with a constantly diminishing ability to respond militarily because of a lack of U.S. armaments. We continue, meanwhile, to become victims of our own military adventurism. The same funding legislation to help Ukraine would also continue the flow of weapons to Israel as it fights Hamas and razes Gaza. The IDF has averaged 100 deaths of children each day of the war, with a total dead of well over 30,000, and President Biden has yet to demand a cease fire from the Israelis. Instead, he has ordered the U.S. military to build a peer to deliver food and medicine to Palestinians suffering under the Israeli assault and he has set the plan in motion even as he continues to supply Israel with bombs, artillery, tanks, and jet fighters. The absurdity of the contradiction appears to escape most voters, and, apparently, the president.

Biden, however, does not lie like the sociopath Trump, and his party. After the president had defied critics and dark expectations of failure with his State of the Union Speech, the GOP’s response to his list of accomplishments came from an Alabama U.S. Senator. Even in 2024, Republicans thought it was a good idea to put an accomplished woman in her kitchen, wearing a diamond-encrusted cross, referring to getting dinner on the table, and whispering about the horrors of a Biden presidency. One of the stories she told, however, was a complete fabrication about drug cartels that had sex trafficked a woman in the “Del Rio Sector,” Border Patrol parlance for a stretch of the Rio Grande that is identified by that city’s name. Britt described the woman being raped and tortured and declared that this was not even acceptable in a Third World Country. “Enough is enough, Mr. President,” she said into the camera, addressing Biden. What she did not say is that the woman was not assaulted in the U.S. but was in Mexico and the crimes committed against her were back during the administration of George W. Bush. Lying used to put an end to a politician’s career but to lie and deny has become a widely accepted tactic in the age of Trump.

 

@katzonearth

This isn’t going to make her like TikTok more. #katiebritt #sotu #stateoftheunion #lies #politicians #biden2024 #trump2024 #immigration #traffickingawarenes #mexico #bordersecurity #fyp

♬ original sound – Jonathan M. Katz

 

Lies work, of course, and their abundance has proliferated after the Citizens United ruling by the Supreme Court, which gave corporations the right to invest almost without restraint in politics. Most candidates are doomed when they are opposed by big business donors and the victims are usually progressive thinkers who expect a functioning government. What the electorate wants tends to have very little to do with what is desired by the corporatists and the political action committees they front. AIPAC, the American-Israeli Political Action Committee, as a single example, has committed to spending $100 million dollars to defeat congressional candidates who do not unilaterally support Israel and the genocide it is committing in Gaza. Israel’s disproportionate response to the October 7th Hamas attack is costing Mr. Biden support on the left, particularly in the swing states of Michigan and Minnesota, which may help lead to the restoration of Trump.

It has become rationalization to suggest Americans have confronted greater challenges and triumphed in glory but that ignores our long history of adventurism with meddlesome wars and overseas political manipulations and assassinations. The scions of the Bush family are largely responsible for the tensions and the fire and warfare burning across the Mideast today even though public memory is short and understanding of the lies that launched their invasions is minimal. We also ignore the inescapable fact that our involvement in Central America’s politics and economies has much to do with the sea of immigrants now presenting themselves at our gates, and that the problem with drug cartels is a consequence of our national appetite for their narcotics. Accepting responsibility is not a part of who we have become in this country. Our disfunction will lead to our end, if not corrected. The party out of power refuses to cooperate with the party in power and fires accusations of blame for every crisis. When the public finally listens, there is a new party in the majority and the displaced officeholders have no reason to cooperate with those who lied them out of office. Little in the way of governance is achieved.

We are a broken land.

This article was originally published on Texas to the world.

James Moore is the New York Times bestselling author of “Bush’s Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential,” three other books on Bush and former Texas Governor Rick Perry, as well as two novels, and a biography entitled, “Give Back the Light,” on a famed eye surgeon and inventor. His newest book will be released mid- 2023. Mr. Moore has been honored with an Emmy from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for his documentary work and is a former TV news correspondent who has traveled extensively on every presidential campaign since 1976.

He has been a retained on-air political analyst for MSNBC and has appeared on Morning Edition on National Public Radio, NBC Nightly News, Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, CBS Evening News, CNN, Real Time with Bill Maher, and Hardball with Chris Matthews, among numerous other programs. Mr. Moore’s written political and media analyses have been published at CNN, Boston Globe, L.A. Times, Guardian of London, Sunday Independent of London, Salon, Financial Times of London, Huffington Post, and numerous other outlets. He also appeared as an expert on presidential politics in the highest-grossing documentary film of all time, Fahrenheit 911, (not related to the film’s producer Michael Moore).

His other honors include the Dartmouth College National Media Award for Economic Understanding, the Edward R. Murrow Award from the Radio Television News Directors’ Association, the Individual Broadcast Achievement Award from the Texas Headliners Foundation, and a Gold Medal for Script Writing from the Houston International Film Festival. He was frequently named best reporter in Texas by the AP, UPI, and the Houston Press Club. The film produced from his book “Bush’s Brain” premiered at The Cannes Film Festival prior to a successful 30-city theater run in the U.S.

Mr. Moore has reported on the major stories and historical events of our time, which have ranged from Iran-Contra to the Waco standoff, the Oklahoma City bombing, the border immigration crisis, and other headlining events. His journalism has put him in Cuba, Central America, Mexico, Australia, Canada, the UK, and most of Europe, interviewing figures as diverse as Fidel Castro and Willie Nelson. He has been writing about Texas politics, culture, and history since 1975, and continues with political opinion pieces for CNN and regularly at his Substack newsletter: “Texas to the World.”

 

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