Retired wannabe Oz socialist. One of those annoying progressives that Albanese now despises, but used to rely on for support. Sigh🫣
Australia
Joined December 2014
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Robert Barton retweeted
The quickest way to end Russia’s war is to hold the positions and move to discussions. What is very important here is that we decided: stop where we are, it’s a ceasefire, and we go to the diplomatic track. It can last one month, two months, or one year. Or it can last longer than we expect today. But we end the hot stage and people stop dying. When you hold, you speak about the contact line, slow down the pace of mobilization; the economy begins to work. You are in discussions. Dialogue is better than guns. That's why the best way to end this war is to exchange guns for words.
Of course, you will have thousands of questions. How to stop? Where to stand? What is the mandate of the monitoring mission? What is demilitarized? What does it mean? What do we need for this? Europeans. Reconstruction. Where to get the money? Thousands of questions, but this is the format to stop the war – ceasefire. If Putin doesn't want a ceasefire and says, “No, I want a long plan, with different questions, both difficult, sensitive, and not. And then, when we sign this long plan, we will stop the war,” it simply means he doesn't want to stop the war.
From an interview with DR Nyheder. (3/3)
Robert Barton retweeted
Ceding Ukrainian land for peace is just abstract words. It’s not only about reality, even more about philosophy. Putin was talking about Donbas, but then he decided to occupy Kyiv, our capital. His words were about Donbas, but the reality was about Kyiv. He kept saying he was defending Russian-speaking people and then tortured hundreds and thousands to death in Bucha and other places. So that wasn’t about Russian-speaking people.
This is why when Americans asked, “Can you exchange Donbas for security?” I said right there, “Can you tell me what it means? What security? NATO?”
“Not NATO, but similar to NATO.”
“Similar? But you don't want the answer about Donbas to be ‘similar.’ You want a clear answer about Donbas. This is your goal. And this is Putin’s goal, for today. What will you do if we have security guarantees but not NATO?”
They took our nuclear weapons. I'm not a fan of nuclear weapons. I think the world would be a better place without them. But the Russians took our nuclear weapons, didn’t they? They did. Then they stopped our integration into Europe, then prevented us from being in NATO. And in the end they occupied us. This is why it’s an abstract question. Nobody trusts Putin to stop if we leave Donbas. He will pause. Then he will come back in one year, two years, or five years. And who will be guilty?
From an interview with DR Nyheder. (2/3)
Robert Barton retweeted
I’ve written about the Russell Brand sentencing and fallout - and, sadly, what it does and doesn’t say about progress for women
marinahyde.com/p/russell-bra…
Robert Barton retweeted
How come Hamas gets designated as a terrorist organisation, but the Israeli army gets a free pass?
What has Hamas done that Israel hasn't done a 100 times worse?
How does one get called terrorism while the other gets dressed up as “military action”? Since when is starving 2 million people considered “military action”?
These are exactly the questions journalists should be asking politicians, loudly and repeatedly.
Robert Barton retweeted
Sure! Tell that to the 21,000+ children & 70,000 + adults who “got in the way” of bullets & bombs intended for Hamas.
The world sees through this pathetic propaganda.
Robert Barton retweeted
“Does anyone really believe that this election was honest. How could the poles be so wrong. Some early voting dumps were so large that it was impossible to win, no matter how many people went to vote. It’s all about the machines, which are far more important than the voter. President DJT.”
Robert Barton retweeted
This is truly a historic moment. President Trump has indefinitely suspended sanctions against Russia that would have been required in the Graham law. He went against the last request of Lindsey Graham, whom he called his friend. And he handed Putin the opportunity to finance the war against Ukrainians, who are fighting for their freedom.
Trump calls this a "national interest." But diesel prices went up because of his war against Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. So waiving sanctions on Russia does not solve that problem. Instead, it creates another one.
Putin cannot win on the battlefield, so he attacks civilians. Russian missiles and drones are destroying homes, hospitals, schools, and churches. According to the UN, just two weeks of October have been among the deadliest for civilians in Ukraine in recent years.
Forty percent of Russia's budget goes to the war. After Trump's latest decisions, Russia will make record profits. The formula is simple: "Money turns into missiles. Missiles turn into civilian deaths."
Trump is not stopping Russia's war against Ukraine. Trump is helping Putin win it.
As a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, I want to address the people of America, regardless of their political views.
Do you really believe that the killing of millions of people and the loss of Ukraine's independence are in your national interest?
If not, what will you do to stop America from financing the genocide that Putin is waging against Ukrainians with Trump's support?
#StandWithUkraine
Robert Barton retweeted
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Oleksandra Matviichuk:
Trump promised to end the war in 24 hours. Now he has decided to finance it. These are already the longest 24 hours in human history.
Witkoff called putin a humanitarian. I have interviewed hundreds of people released from russian captivity. They were beaten, raped, locked in wooden boxes, had their fingers cut off, their fingernails ripped out, and were tortured with electric shocks to their genitals. One woman described how her eye was gouged out with a spoon.
What is happening now is an imitation of a peace process.
I met a five-year-old girl in Kyiv. The russians abducted her mother because of her pro-Ukrainian views, tortured her, and repeatedly gang-raped her. They then took her to russia and fabricated a criminal case against her.
The girl hugged me, burst into tears, and began begging: “Please, bring my mommy back.” I am a human rights lawyer, but I have no legal tools to force russia to return her. I hugged the girl and promised that we would fight for her mother.
Journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna was my friend and colleague. She traveled to the occupied territories to tell the truth about russian crimes. She was abducted, tortured, and secretly transferred to russia. She was held without formal charges and without contact with the outside world.
She was denied medical care. She weighed just 30 kilograms. The russians refused to return her body to her parents for six months. When they finally did, several internal organs, her eyes, her brain, and part of her trachea were missing. We still do not know how she died.
Viktoriia believed that the truth could save thousands of lives. That people in other countries, once they learned the truth, would make the right decisions.
My friend and teacher, Professor Ihor Kozlovskyi, spent 700 days in russian captivity. For months, he was held alone in a small, dark basement cell without windows or fresh air. Rats crawled out of the sewer.
He gave philosophy lectures to the rats just to hear a human voice. He was tortured so severely that after his release, he had to learn to walk again.
Kozlovskyi told me: “Everything I have experienced does not make me see myself as a victim. The foundation of our existence is dignity. And dignity is action.”
Robert Barton retweeted
Trump needs to explain what the appropriate level of respect should be to a country that invaded you, kills, tortures and rapes your citizens.
Robert Barton retweeted
Codswallop ❗️
France accuses Iran of hacking supermarket fridges
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot on Monday accused Iran's Revolutionary Guards of being behind a recent cyberattack on French supermarket fridges, saying there would be consequences for the country. The Paris prosecutor's office said it had opened an investigation into an Iranian cyber unit affiliated with the Guards over the cyberattacks.
f24.my/CGzO
Robert Barton retweeted
Robert Manne destroys Roberts, Schama and Segal robertmanne.substack.com/p/o…
Robert Barton retweeted
It’s like asking Americans to show respect for Al Qaeda after they attacked us. Putin is terrorizing Ukrainian civilians every day now for over 4 years.
Robert Barton retweeted
Todd Blanche needs to read a history book. Richard Nixon didn't go to prison. His Attorney General Did.
Robert Barton retweeted
here's is full footage of the crashout Attorney General Todd Blanche just had on CNN, including him confirming he'll investigate Democrats on Trump's demand and leaving the door open to trying to imprison them
Robert Barton retweeted
No economist has ever explained the trap of being poor better than Terry Pratchett's boots theory.
A wealthy man buys a $200 pair of boots that lasts ten years.
A poor man can only afford $40 boots that leak after six months, so he spends $800 over the same ten years and still has wet feet.
Poverty isn't just a lack of money.
It's a continuous subscription fee for not having capital up front.