Why I must now focus on Australia’s nuclear question
For the past 18 years, I have been running two websites dedicated to the nuclear-free cause. I started these when John Howard was proposing nuclear power for Australia. The hazards then were obvious, environmental and health damage, further oppression of Aboriginal people, threats to civil liberties, proliferation of nuclear weapons, and more.
Over the last few years the threat of nuclear war has increased. It has become clear that men in power have come to believe that a nuclear war can be won, despite what the scientists tell us. The idea of nuclear disarmament has gone out the window, as ever new, cleverer, bigger nuclear weapons are devised by our fine “defenders”.
While danger has increased, knowledge and understanding of history has decreased. So we have a Western world that pays no attention to the background to the war in Ukraine, and confidently believes that it is all about one “evil” man – Putin, and nothing to do with the complex story of the Donbass region of Ukraine, and its quest for autonomy.
Meanwhile the horror of the Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza continues, and the Netanyahu government’s ruthless oppression there is backed by Western weapons, and moral support – because we “don’t want to be anti-semitic, do we?” And again, the history of the region is ignored.
These two situations could so easily tip the world over the brink – to nuclear war. (I have been trying to bring attention to this.)
But as if that were not enough – there’s more on-the-brink background. We must now hate not only Russia, but also China, and Iran, and be ready to nuclear bomb them. We must build up more nuclear weapons – to the gratification of those lovely armaments companies and their happy shareholders.
And if that all is not enough to have us now teetering on that brink, we now have the most powerful nation in the world run by a deranged President Trump, who is supported, perhaps himself controlled, by a small group of obscenely rich men of brilliant minds but lopsided morals, including the ketamine-dependent Elon Musk.
So, to get back to the point. In this crazy new world, the new USA government will destroy or control political, judicial, educational and social institutions, with the aid of Murdoch media and social media. Misinformation and lies will be rife, and it will be a struggle to find media sources that can be trusted. But decent people, with the will for co-operation and for collective action continue – we just have to find them.
I have tried, through my websites, to cover those international political issues that bring nuclear war ever closer. But now, it is just too hard.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, here in Australia, we have the unique situation of an entire continent being taken over, militarily, by the USA. Liberal and Labor governments have let it happen. Labor Prime Ministers, terrified by what happened to the one Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, who dared to stand up to the USA, continue to kowtow to America.
If the “tech bros” and the shadowy Atlas Foundation can play a role in bringing the chaotic Donald Trump to power in the USA, they could well do the same thing here, helping to bring Dutton’s nuclear madness to Australia. However, I must give Dutton some credit, too. He now looks likely to offer all sorts of other enticements to Australian voters, and perhaps just soft pedal on the nuclear propaganda, and hope we forget about it.
It is up to those of us who are aware, and perhaps have the time, to explore the scenario of what the nuclear industry would mean for this country.
Australia is somewhat scarred by the nuclear industry already, with the abomination of the British nuclear bombing of Aboriginal land in the 1950s, and with the environmental and health destruction of uranium mining. But Australia now has this unique opportunity – to be the world leader in renewable energy, and energy conservation.
Australia does not have to be “USA’s beachfront against China” as one American politician said recently. Australia does not have to be the Southern Hemisphere base for USA’s nuclear-armed bombers, and nuclear submarines.
So, anyway, I reckon that the job for aware Australians is to keep the focus on Dutton’s nuclear nuttiness, exposing its lies. For my own part, I’m narrowing the scope of my websites and newsletter, taking them back to their original theme – for a nuclear-free world.
See also: For Australia, the nuclear lobby brings out the big massage!
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Well the nuke lobby don’t waste any time. I tried to post this on Facebook, but look what happened:
“We removed your post”
Noel Christina Wauchope
Jan 20, 2025
https://theaimn.net/2025-australias-dangerous-nuclear-dance-with-dutton/
You shared this on your profile. This goes against our Community Standards on spam.
It bears out my contention – “Apres Trump – le deluge” of pro-nuclear spin, and lying Trumpist, Duttonist brainwashing.
@ Noel re FB :
I’m not at all surprised.
I had a post on an astrophotography page deleted (by FB) because I described the Bortle light pollution scale, and it was flagged as “misleading”, despite it being widely used in amateur astronomy circles.
I also tried posting the link. It was immediately removed.
Most of my anti-Trump posts also get removed by Facebook these days.
John Lord’s post of three days ago; “Lack of detail Dutton Launches Much to Do About Nothing campaign” was removed by Facebook on every group or page it was posted on.
It’s their reasons for removing the posts that baffles me. Some rubbish that we’re encouraging people to click on the links to spam the website.
Yup, they just removed this post from The AIMN Facebook page.
The excuse given was that “The post may use misleading links or content to trick people to visit, or stay on, a website.”
They add that “This goes against our Community Standards on spam.”
What a crock of shit.
Somebody I know (but can’t remember who) was banned from Facebook for 48 hours recently for calling Peter Dutton a ‘twerp’.
If you aren’t right wing, lurv and worship Donald, The Orange Messiah (and P. Duddy to a lesser extent) and think anything nookalear and fossil fuel is the greatest. Climate change…baahh…fake news. Then Farcebook doesn’t like you.
As with many above,and others on Facebook,link is removed as spam by FB within minutes of posting
Someone directed me to a discussion on Facebook where a couple of people had the same experience: their posts had been removed. They too were puzzled.
However, one discovered that if you post it as a comment, it doesn’t get removed.
Yes, indeed FB is now a complete scourge. Since the techbros kissed the Donald’s ring, and esp since the arch misogynist Mr Zed recently talked of masculizing corporates and ending independent fact checking, it was the last straw for me. I stopped any assocn with Twitter / X about a year ago after the lying lunatic amped FRWNJ mis/disinformation and wanton assaults, I have vacated the space.
It’s a slower process to exit FB, as I have family groups etc and lotsa friends there. I have broadcast my Bluesky handle to them and encouraged them, although Bluesky (no tracking or commercialization of info) is not YET as almost limitless in ‘surface friendly’ methods of posting / sharing personal info and forming ‘groups’, so the shift for many would be a big ask.
On my usual Firefox browser, I use DuckDuckGo (no tracking or sharing of personal info) as my search engine. Via Firefox, I have also blocked FB from tracking all / any of my search / email activities, accordingly however, that means FB blocks any of my posts where I embed any articles from an ‘external’ source. However I can circumvent this blockage by using an old Safari browser (no longer supported by FB) to make a post with embedded articles from ‘external’ sources – works fine, and then can be seen regardless of what browser I use. There’s more than one way to skin a cat.
Also, as far as Google goes, I quite some time ago turned off all tracking etc in my Google a/c settings, then logged off Google, and (apart from a couple of checking expeditions) never log into my Google a/c or give them access to my manoeuvres try as they might.
As a result, I enjoy a significantly ad / spam free existence online. And for those that wrangle their way through, it greatly helps that I have my own domain where I run a couple of hundred ‘blocks’ and can add to them as and when it suits – it’s a piece of cake. And most ad / spammer pests give up pretty soon as my ‘turn-backs’, by their own hand, clog their systems.
Incidentally, it’s great to have friends in the loop, like AIMN, and when little glitches arise, they can be sorted pretty quickly.
Thanks Michael, it’s good to be back.
And it’s great to have you back, Clakka.
Also, re FB – I’ve been hearing mass reports of people being automatically signed on as followers of the new POTUS, VPOTUS and FLOTUS accounts, without their say-so or knowledge. Meta is now deliberately trying to inflate follower numbers of those accounts, and steer MAGA and Project 2025 propaganda into peoples’ feeds.