Barry the Barrister

[Olena Rohoza @OlenaRohoza]

🇺🇸🇺🇸🧐🤔“AND YOU STILL DARE TO OPEN YOUR MOUTH…”

Sasha Legerman: This is too accurate not to share.

This Australian’s response to Trump’s rant that “NATO does nothing for America” is absolutely devastating:

“Mate. You run a country where 600,000 homeless people will sleep on the streets tonight.

A country where 40% of adults can’t cover a $400 emergency without borrowing money.

A country where insulin costs more than a car payment, and people ration it just to stay alive.

A country where medical debt is the number one cause of bankruptcy.

A country where women die in hospital parking lots because doctors are too afraid of abortion laws to treat miscarriages.

You imprison more of your own citizens than any country on Earth.
More than China. More than Russia. More than North Korea.

In the land of the free, 2 million people sit in cages, and a quarter of them haven’t even been convicted of anything.
They’re simply too poor to afford bail.

Your life expectancy is declining. You’re the only developed nation where that’s happening.

Your infant mortality rate is worse than Cuba’s.

Your children practice active shooter drills between math and English classes while you sell defense stocks to your friends.

Your minimum wage hasn’t changed in 15 years.

Your teachers work two jobs, your veterans sleep under bridges, and you just spent a trillion dollars flattening a country that never attacked you.

And now a convicted criminal — found liable for sexual abuse, defending a pedophile, sleeping with a porn star, and running the biggest dumpster-fire campaign since the Taliban — is thanking you for yet another disaster.

And you call Greenland badly governed?

Greenland has universal healthcare. Free education. One of the lowest incarceration rates in the world.
Nobody there goes bankrupt because they got sick. Nobody dies in a waiting room because insurance refused treatment.

‘NATO wasn’t there when we needed them.’

When exactly was that, champ?
September 11?

Because NATO invoked Article 5 for the first and only time in history FOR YOU.

Soldiers from dozens of countries deployed, fought, bled, and died in Afghanistan FOR YOU.

Australia wasn’t even in NATO, and we still showed up. For twenty years.

And then you left at 2 a.m. without telling anyone and left everybody else to clean up the mess.

You don’t care that a great nation is being terrorized by your friend, and you haven’t shown it a single ounce of sympathy.

So maybe before calling other countries badly governed, take a look at your own backyard, you aluminum siding salesman with a spray tan.

The only thing badly managed in this picture is your damn mouth.

And you still dare to lecture the rest of the world?”

[Led By Donkeys @ByDonkeys]

“My name is Amos Goldberg. I am an Israeli Professor of Holocaust Studies. For nearly 30 years I have researched and taught the Holocaust, genocide and state violence.

And I want to tell whoever is willing to listen that what’s happening now in Gaza is a genocide.

A year ago when October 7th happened, like all Israelis I was in shock. It was a war crime and a crime against humanity. 1200 people - more than 800 of them civilians - were killed in one day. Children and the elderly were among those taken hostage. Communities were destroyed. It was outrageous, traumatizing, personal. Like most Israelis, I know people who were killed, who lost loved ones or whose loved ones were taken hostage.

But immediately afterwards came Israel’s response and within weeks thousands of civilians were killed in Gaza. It took me some time to digest what was unfolding before my eyes. It was agonizing to confront that reality. I was reluctant to call it a genocide.

But if you read Raphael Lemkin – the Jewish-Polish legal scholar who coined the term ‘genocide’ and was the major driving force behind the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention – what is happening in Gaza now is exactly what he had in mind when he spoke about genocide.

It does not need to look like the Holocaust to be a genocide. Each genocide looks different and not all involve killing of millions or the entire group. The United Nations Genocide Convention explicitly asserts that genocide is the act of deliberately destroying a group in whole or in part. Those are the words.

But there does need to be a clear intent.

And indeed, there are clear indications of intent to destroy Gaza: Israel’s leaders - including the prime minister and the minister of defence - and many high-ranking military officers, media personalities, rabbis, as well as ordinary soldiers were very open about what they wanted to achieve. There were countless documented incitements to turn the whole of Gaza into rubble and claims that there are no innocent people living there.

A radical atmosphere of dehumanization of the Palestinians prevails in Israeli society to an extent that I can’t remember in my 58 years of living here.

Now that vision has been enacted. Tens of thousands of innocent children, women and men have been killed. Over a hundred thousand were wounded. There is a near total destruction of infrastructure, intentional starvation and blocking of humanitarian aid. There are mass graves and reliable testimony of summary executions. Children that were shot by snipers. All the universities and almost all hospitals are gone. Almost all the population is displaced. There have been numerous bombings of civilians in so-called ‘safe zones’. Gaza does not exist anymore. It is completely destroyed. Thus, the outcome fits perfectly with the stated intentions of Israel’s leadership.

Lemkin - that scholar who coined the term ‘genocide’ - described two phases of a genocide. The first is the destruction of the annihilated group and the second is what he called ‘imposition of the national pattern’ of the perpetrator. We are now witnessing the second phase as Israel prepares ethnically cleansed areas for Israeli settlements.

And therefore, I have come to the conclusion that this is exactly what a genocide looks like. We don’t teach about genocides in order to realize it retrospectively. We teach about it in order to prevent it and to stop it.

But like in every other case of genocide in history right now we have mass denial. Both here in Israel and around the world.

But reality cannot be denied.

So yes, it is a genocide.

And once you come to this conclusion you cannot remain silent.”

- Statement to Led By Donkeys, December 2024
- Photo: Parliament Square, London, 8.40am, 4th December 2024

[Mark Ogge @MarkOgge]

Australia is the 2nd most road freight dependent country in the world and rely up to 98% on imported diesel.

Fast-tracking electric trucks will do a lot more to protect our national security than wasting taxpayers money on AUKUS

https://t.co/DW5hxOr0De

[James Tate @JamesTate121]

Trump called ABC News correspondent Rachel Scott a bitch, and I think we’re long past the point where anyone with a functioning conscience should be expected to shrug and mutter, “Well, that’s just Trump being Trump.” No. That phrase has done enough damage already. It’s the anesthetic we’ve used to numb ourselves to behavior that would have politically incinerated any other president in modern American history. Two professional lip readers independently confirmed what the video appeared to show: as Trump walked away from the press gaggle at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, he muttered, “She’s a bitch,” in Rachel Scott’s direction. The White House, naturally, offered no clarification. No apology. No denial worth taking seriously. Just the usual strategic silence that follows whenever this man says the quiet part out loud and hopes the outrage cycle burns itself out by dinner.
And what exactly provoked His Fragile Majesty this time? Journalism. Rachel Scott did her job. She asked an entirely legitimate question about why this administration appears preoccupied with beautification vanity projects while Americans are dealing with spiking gas prices against the backdrop of yet another Trump-fueled geopolitical mess in Iran. A straightforward question. The kind reporters are supposed to ask. Trump’s response was the usual slurry of grievance and invented drama, claiming Scott “probably don’t see dirt,” insisting the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool had been some sort of national biohazard requiring “11 or 12 truckloads of garbage” to be hauled away, as though the place had been abandoned since the Eisenhower administration. That’s nonsense. The reflecting pool undergoes regular maintenance, including draining and cleaning, as part of standard federal upkeep. But facts have always been optional when Trump needs a dramatic set piece for his performance of wounded masculinity.
This is not just about one ugly muttered insult. This is about a man with a long, unmistakable record of directing particular venom toward Black women who dare challenge him publicly. Maxine Waters? “Low IQ.” Kamala Harris? “Low IQ.” April Ryan. Yamiche Alcindor. Abby Phillip. And now Rachel Scott. The pattern is not subtle enough to require forensic analysis. When Black women do their jobs with intelligence, composure, and precision in Trump’s orbit, he does not engage on substance. He lashes out. He demeans. He attempts to diminish. It’s the behavioral vocabulary of a man who sees confident women, particularly Black women, not as professionals doing their jobs, but as threats to be put back in their place.
And here’s the truly pathetic part: Black women are statistically among the most educated demographics in this country, which makes Trump’s lazy insult repertoire not just racist and misogynistic, but spectacularly ignorant. The man who confuses confidence with insolence and accountability with disrespect continues to reveal exactly who he is, and yet somehow we are still asked, by some corners of this exhausted country, to treat each new offense like an isolated misunderstanding instead of what it plainly is: a character flaw so deeply embedded it has become governing style.
No. We are done normalizing this.
This is not “Trump being Trump.”
This is a president of the United States behaving like a bitter, insecure bully every time an intelligent woman refuses to play decorative furniture in his presence. And yes, that matters.
—Michael Jochum, Not Just a Drummer: Reflections on Art, Politics, Dogs, and the Human Condition

[Barry the Barrister @BarryFrancott]

If Australia stopped purchasing US “ghost” nuclear powered submarines and propping up the US and British industry that build them it could afford the Inland Rail and other infrastructure to make Australia Great. We could also fund the NDIS and build houses for our population.

[Tarric Brooker aka Avid Commentator 🇦🇺 @AvidCommentator]

'Albanese government axes funding for $45 billion Inland Rail project linking Melbourne to Brisbane'

Infrastructure is now so expensive we can't build bugger all in this country anymore, making high immigration all the more illogical.
https://t.co/ZBcp0HDGJD

[Mark Ogge @MarkOgge]

Why the hell is the Israeli ambassador still in Australia @SenatorWong ?

[Barry the Barrister @BarryFrancott]

Iran talks to resume this weekend led by the US’s Epstein Israeli delegation which makes failure almost inevitable. They have no credibility as they are questionable real estate developers not experienced diplomats https://t.co/Gay1oHHRFH

[Barry the Barrister @BarryFrancott]

Room for Jim Chalmers to become Australia’s greatest Treasurer. He has virtually all party support

[Peter Cronau @PeterCronau]

Note to Chalmers: “Norway taxes oil and gas at 78%.”

[stranger @strangerous10]

Ed Husic calls out Japan’s hypocrisy of resisting gas export taxes while pocketing $40B in energy import taxes.
“They import it, collect tax revenue, & make money reselling gas they’re not using themselves.”💥
Australia’s resources, Japan’s revenue.
This has to change. #auspol

[Barry the Barrister @BarryFrancott]

In other words, if Trump had asked, weak-kneed Marles would have agreed and Australia would have been at war without Parliament or the community approving

[Doug Cameron @DougCameron51]

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

[Australia Institute @TheAusInstitute]

Australia's gas exports rose by $48 BILLION in a decade.

In that same decade, revenue from the petroleum resources rent tax FELL by $450 million.

The PRRT is broken. This is why Australia needs a 25% gas export tax. #auspol

[The Tennessee Holler @TheTNHoller]

How convenient.

If you’re not mentioning this as part of why Israel won’t stop the bombings, you’re not telling the whole story. Bibi is out for Bibi.
https://t.co/ywZ7a3ZT4M

[SilencedSirs◼️ @SilentlySirs]

🚨 Vance: "Iran chose not to accept our terms."

Since when does a bomber set terms for the bombed?

You flew 10,000 km to a country you attacked,
demanded it sign your paper,
and called its refusal a "choice."

Iran didn't reject a deal.
Iran rejected an empire's invoice.

[Barry the Barrister @BarryFrancott]

Is Trump trying to bring Jeffery Epstein back from the dead?

[Dean Withers @itsdeaann]

Trump just posted a photo depicting himself as Jesus. He is depicting himself as God. He is not mentally fit to serve.

MAGA Christians: How could you POSSIBLY defend this?

[Barry the Barrister @BarryFrancott]

He does not know how to negotiate and is not helped by the two real estate developers with him. They have no understanding of Iran and its history. Lost the war and the peace.

[Aaron Rupar @atrupar]

JD Vance: "The bad news is that we have not reached an agreement. And I think that's bad news for Iran much more than it's bad news for the US. So, we go back to the US having not come to an agreement ... they have chosen not to accept our terms"

[Disquieted 🇵🇸 😷 #FreePalestine #MMT #UBI @Strongisgentle]

@ShiannonC China is taking the world forward while the US is holding us back.
We really need to hitch our wagon to a different group of friends, where we could be treated as a partner rather than a vassal.

[Barry the Barrister @BarryFrancott]

Who in the Israeli embassy is writing this embarrassing BS for Albo and Wong?

[Jenny Difficult-Frecklington-Jones 🇵🇸🇱🇧🇮🇷 @JonesHowDareYou]

Fixed it for you, @SenatorWong. #auspol #SolidarityWithIran

[Doug Cameron @DougCameron51]

In 2018 Richard Marles gave a speech on the US alliance.He referenced god, the special relationship, rules based order, shared values. He condoned Australian military personnel embedded with US forces keeping information from the Australian govt. How naive, how dangerously dumb!

[Gandalv @Microinteracti1]

The White House wonders why Europe won’t rally behind America in Iran. Maybe start by asking why your Vice President is flying to Budapest to have a warm chat with Viktor Orban, the man running a Russian influence operation from inside NATO’s borders.

While Europe has been bleeding money and weapons to stop Russian aggression, Hungary has been blocking NATO decisions, sheltering Russian intelligence, and doing Moscow’s diplomatic dirty work at every turn. Orban isn’t America’s friend. He’s Putin’s man in Brussels.

And JD Vance calls him a “good friend.”
Europe is supposed to line up behind a war that had no plan for day two, no strategy for the Strait of Hormuz, and no consultation with allies beyond Israel. A war that has already sent oil past $100 a barrel and left one of America’s most powerful warships reportedly retreating toward the Indian Ocean.

You don’t get to lecture Europe about loyalty while embracing the man working to destroy the alliance from within, and then demand backup for a war you started without asking anyone.

Gandalv / @Microinteracti1