Trump is propping up democracy...

...in other countries

 

Eureka

A tiny radioactive capsule that was lost in the Australian outback for more than two weeks and posed a “significant public health risk” has been found by the side of the road.

  Guardian

So they say that's where they found it.

The 8mm by 6mm capsule, which fell from a secure device on a truck that was travelling from a Rio Tinto mine site in the Pilbara region of Western Australia to Perth, was found south of the town of Newman.

Well, it wasn't secure, actually, was it? If that's what happened to it.

A 20-metre exclusion zone has been established where the device was found, just a short distance from where it began its 1,400km journey to Perth. Authorities will now survey the area for any contamination.

[...]

The Australian defence force is now verifying the small radioactive device by its serial number. It is being stored at a secure location in Newman, before being transported to Perth on Thursday, inside a lead container to shield people from radiation.

And why wasn't it transported that way in the first place? IF that's actually what happened to it.

It was initially detected by staff inside a car that was travelling at 70km/h past the capsule. A handheld radiation device was then used to find the exact location on the ground.

[...]

“It does not appear the device has moved,” he said. “It appears to have fallen off the truck and landed by the side of the road. It is remote enough that it is not near any major community.”

How coincidentally fortunate. Shall we reconsider the rerport:

According to WA authorities, the capsule was packaged on 10 January, transported offsite on 12 January, and the casing it was contained within arrived in Perth on 16 January. It wasn’t until nine days later, on 25 January, that it was discovered missing when the package was unpacked for inspection.

[...]


It is believed a bolt securing the lead-lined gauge containing the capsule worked loose somewhere on the journey – potentially shaken loose by the vibrations of the truck – and the capsule fell through a hole left by the missing bolt.

[...]

Last week, Robertson defended the state government’s decision to wait before informing the public, saying the mine and depot had to be searched and excluded, and the route confirmed.

“It is unusual for a gauge to come apart like this one has,” he said on Friday.

Very. 

Unusual set of circumstances.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 02/02/2023:

A radioactive piece of material that is not currently being regulated – that is, it isn’t under some kind of authority or oversight – is known as an “orphan source”. And while Australia is a highly regulated country, it has had its own orphan sources. In 2019, a density moisture gauge with a radioactive core was stolen from the back of a ute in Ipswich.

[...]

A similar theft was carried out in Campbelltown in 2016. In 2013, there were four separate incidents of radioactive sources getting stuck in a piece of offshore equipment and becoming “deemed irretrievable”.

According to the Australian Radiation Incident Register, there are annual occurrences of radioactive sources being lost, stolen, or found. There was one incident in 2020, six in 2019, another one in 2018, four in 2017 and a whopping 15 in 2016. 10 of those were reports of finding low-level hospital waste.

[...]

One of the most famous international incidents happened in 2001, when three people from the village of Lia in Georgia found two hot metal objects while they were collecting firewood in the nearby forest. They used these objects – later found to be abandoned radioisotope sources – as heaters when they spent the cold night in that forest.

Within hours, the individuals complained of nausea, headaches, dizziness and vomiting.

[...]

In one case study, listed under “transport” rather than “lost/stolen/found”, the register says a decayed radioactive source went missing in transit.

“It eventually arrived at the transport company’s Sydney depot – nine days after it had been shipped,” the register reported.

And that’s just in Australia. Globally, the Centre for Nonproliferation Studies’ global incidents and trafficking database shows there have been 1,205 incidents of “nuclear and other radioactive materials outside regulatory control” since 2013.

[...]

On Thursday, Albanese said it was “quite extraordinary” that they found the capsule.

“Thank goodness … because it was such a strange story, wasn’t it?” he said during an interview with a Perth radio station.

“Little radioactive, tiny little thing that they were looking for, like a needle in a haystack.

“[They] probably shouldn’t have lost it in the first place.”

  Guardian

Probably.

Missing radioactive capsule in Australia

Emergency officials in Western Australia warned that a tiny radioactive capsule was on the loose, with a harried hunt underway along a lengthy stretch of highway for what was essentially a toxic needle in a haystack.

[...]

The capsule — which is less than a third of an inch long — went missing somewhere along the more than 800-mile stretch of road between Newman and Perth, the department said. It contains cesium-137, a radioactive material used in gauges for mining, one of the main industries in resource-rich Western Australia.

[...]

“Exposure to this substance could cause radiation burns or radiation sickness,” it said, cautioning people not to touch it or move it if they come across it. Anyone who sees the capsule should stay at least five meters (16 feet) away from it and report it, the department said.

[...]

Specialists are focusing on “strategic sites” along the route the truck took, Ray said, noting they were concentrating on high-population areas near Perth.

[...]

Darryl Ray, acting head of the emergency department, said in a statement Sunday that officials had received specialized equipment to search for the capsule. The equipment will allow workers to look for the capsule while in a moving vehicle, and they plan to use it this week, he said.

[...]

It’s possible the capsule has been missing for a couple of weeks. It departed the mine on Jan. 12 and was thought to have arrived on Jan. 16, but its disappearance was discovered Wednesday when it was missing from the package it was transported in, with the gauge inside “broken apart” with screws and a bolt missing, the department said. Officials said they believe the capsule fell off the back of a truck.

  WaPo

Fell off the back of a truck. Really? Is this how they ship something dangerous? On the back edge of an open truck? Bullshit. That is not what happened.  The gauge mysteriously broke, sending screws and a bolt - and the dangerous capsule - flying?  Bullshit.  That is not what happened.  Could they not come up with a more believable story?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 02/01/2023:

They found it.  So they say that's where they found it.

There's hope for Australia

From The Guardian online:

FFS

Thanks to Australia, we're not the MOST mentally blighted country in the world.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

No more cow farts?

The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)'s affiliate company Future Feed developed a cattle feed with seaweed that cuts down on the amount of greenhouse gases the animals emit into the atmosphere.

[...]

The organization garnered recognition and was awarded the Food Planet Prize for its innovation, which Future Feed director Michael Battaglia said can virtually eliminate methane from cattle's bodies.

"We know that just a handful [of the product] per animal per day, or 0.2 percent of their diet can virtually eliminate 99.9 percent of methane," Battaglia said.

[...]

"We think we can tackle the dairy and the feedlot part of that pretty simply, which may be 5 megatons in Australia and globally 500 megatons of emissions," Battaglia said. "That's equivalent to taking 100 million cars off the road."

CSIRO-affiliated company Future Feed hopes to use its winning to help communities gain income from selling and growing seaweed through an international commercial fund, ABC News reported.

  The Hill

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Don't believe your eyes

"Came into contact with..."

See if YOU can readily identify them as journalists. 

That big-ass camera the cop knocks out of the cameraman's hands might have been a clue.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

P.S.  Off topic:  I like the credit on that video.

Hmmm

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Take out the journalists, Part whatever

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

The greatest country on earth

Tom Hanks had a cold, or so he thought: slight fever, body aches, chills, the usual.

In the United States, those symptoms may not be enough to get tested for the new coronavirus. But he and his wife, Rita Wilson, who also felt sick, weren’t at home — they were in Australia.

Here, testing is free and widely available, thanks to early and coordinated planning for a pandemic. On Thursday, Mr. Hanks said he and his wife had seen the efforts firsthand, as they tested positive for the virus.

“The Medical Officials have protocols that must be followed,” Mr. Hanks wrote in an announcement he posted on Twitter, choosing capital letters for his new acquaintances. “We Hanks’ will be tested, observed and isolated for as long as public health and safety requires.”

[...]

Some countries, like the United States, are looking increasingly ill prepared, or, in the case of Italy, fighting to avoid being overwhelmed. Others, like South Korea, moved quickly to test and isolate huge numbers of people and appear to be bringing their outbreaks under control.

[...]

Prime Minister Scott Morrison, still bruised from a failure to react quickly to the country’s bush-fire crisis this summer, set an emergency coronavirus plan in motion on Feb. 28.

Rather than play down the risks or promise that the problem would fade in a month or two — as President Trump did — Mr. Morrison was one of the first world leaders to declare that the virus would span the planet.

[...]

Testing has been a priority from the beginning.

Days after China shared the genome of the virus, Australia’s private testing industry — which handles everything from blood tests to stool samples — was mobilized, with the government making tests free through Medicare, the national health care plan.

[...]

Anyone with symptoms who has traveled through countries with an outbreak of the virus, or who might have come into contact with someone who did or who seems sick, can be tested.

There is even a drive-through clinic in South Australia that will let you stay in your car for a swab, a model also used in South Korea.

  NYT

Testifying at House Oversight Committee, CDC Director Robert Redfield said that the agency has no plans to establish drive through testing centers like those in South Korea and Italy because “We’re trying to maintain the relationship between individuals and their healthcare providers.”

  Protect Our Care

Some states/cities are setting up their own.  Thank god for local officials who can take the reins when the federal government is so inept.

In the United States, little if anything about the process has been efficient or convenient. Tests have been slow to arrive across the country, in part because of a manufacturing problem, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Criteria for who should be tested have been widened only recently. At first, the C.D.C. recommended testing only those who had traveled to Wuhan, China, or had contact with a suspected coronavirus case and had a fever or respiratory symptoms.

In late February, the guidelines were relaxed, but a patient still had to be hospitalized to be eligible for a test. Vice President Mike Pence announced on March 3 that the C.D.C. would lift those restrictions, granting tests if a physician ordered them, but doctors were asked to keep certain factors in mind before doing so. And laboratories are still reporting that the demand for testing is greater than the supply.

  NYT

So, if you think you might have the virus and you can't get tested (as seems to be way too many stories I keep reading), get yourself a ticket to Australia? Flights are not crowded these days. 

How contagious is the virus? It seems to spread very easily from person to person, especially in homes, hospitals and other confined spaces. The pathogen can travel through the air, enveloped in tiny respiratory droplets that are produced when a sick person breathes, talks, coughs or sneezes.

Stop breathing.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

And to dust you shall return

Biblical.

Australians exercising their rights

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

You CAN indict an attorney general and a secretary of state

When a summary appeared last week of the July phone call between Trump and the Ukrainian president, the scope of involvement by the Trump administration seemed at first to be limited. Trump had mostly used his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to pursue his project, it seemed.

But that picture has quickly changed. The release of a whistleblower report Thursday suggested an active role by Barr, and said that a dozen US officials had listened to the Trump-Ukraine phone call, and that summaries of the call had been distributed more widely – raising the question of what proportion of Trump administration energies in recent months have been devoted to Trump’s pet projects.

[...]

Both William Barr, the attorney general, and Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, collectively participated in contacts between Trump and leaders of at least four foreign countries, according to multiple reports.

Those contacts were variously aimed at producing stories that could damage Joe Biden, Trump’s potential 2020 opponent, or at producing stories that could undermine the US intelligence community assessment from 2017 of Russian election tampering in the last election, the reports said.

[...]

Barr and Pompeo – whose vast portfolios nominally run from administering criminal justice in the United States to securing international alliances and combating threats abroad – have separately tried to distance themselves from the avalanching revelation that Trump’s conduct of the matters of state has apparently, in significant proportion, been devoted to the pursuit of the president’s personal bugbears and ambitions.

  The Guardian

When you live with pigs, you learn to grunt.

Barr was previously reported to be “surprised and angry” to find his name mentioned in a summary of a call between Trump and the Ukrainian president, while Pompeo, when asked what he knew about that phone call, replied that he had not seen a copy of the whistleblower document that flagged it: “I haven’t seen the complaint,” he told ABC News.

For Barr: sure, he's angry. He thought, for whatever reason(s), that his name would be kept out of it. And for Pompeo: that's not an answer to the question.

In fact, Pompeo reportedly took part in the call, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing a senior state department official. For his part, Barr flew to Italy and to London to ask for help in “investigating” the roots of the Russia investigation, the Washington Post reported.

He was in Italy when the complaint became public knowledge, which was just recently. So, they're still at their ventures on behalf of Trump's reelection campaign.

Trump also asked the Australian prime Scott Morrison for help, and Morrison agreed to assist, something first reported by the New York Times, and confirmed by the Australian government.

“It should trouble all of us that the attorney general is flying overseas and spending his time focused on discrediting the origins of the Mueller probe instead of combating crime here in the US,” tweeted the former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti. “His personal involvement reinforces the view that he does Trump’s bidding.”

“Pretty clear that Barr is working feverishly [with] Trump to produce some kind of anti-Mueller report,” tweeted the MSNBC host Chris Hayes.

The justice department defied that characterization, issuing a statement Monday describing Barr’s work as business-as-usual to support the US attorney John Durham’s ongoing investigation of the FBI’s former investigation of Russian election tampering. The justice department opened the counter-investigation following Trump’s repeated claims that his campaign, which had serial secret contacts with Russian operatives, had been unfairly targeted for scrutiny.

[...]

But it was very unusual for the attorney general, much less the president, to be personally involved at such lengths in an internal investigation.

[...]

“In a real investigation, all that is needed is a request from a line prosecutor to the foreign country, made through the [justice department] Office of International Affairs, and pursuant to the terms of a mutual legal assistance treaty,” tweeted Harry Sandick, a former prosecutor in the southern district of New York.

[...]

Pompeo oversees the internal state department investigation – but has refused questions about it.

Trump finally got the attorney general he wanted.

One night in late October,
When I was far from sober,
Returning with my load with manly pride,
My poor feet began to stutter,
So I lay down in the gutter,
And a pig came near and lay down by my side;
Then we sang “It’s all fair weather when good fellows get together”,
Till a lady passing by was heard to say:
“You can tell a man who boozes,
By the company he chooses”,
And the pig got up and slowly walked away.

~Anonymous

UPDATE:

To be clear, this is not assistance in investigating the Bidens, but in the ostensibly legitimate investigation into the investigators of the Mueller investigation.

UPDATE:

Protect the white man alert

Tucker Carlson apparently had a report on South Africa.



His Twitter skills are not improving. He failed to notice that @MikePompeo4USA  didn't have a blue check mark and that it's some fan in Kansas.

  

This isn't the first time he's gotten the wrong account. In the time it took me to create this post, the first tweet has been deleted.  It was up for ten hours.  Odd that someone alerted him to having the wrong Pompeo account but didn't help him delete it at that time.  I wonder if his tweet was how he "asked Secretary of State @SecPompeo" to get on that story.

But, it's this addition that really caught my attention: “South African Government is now seizing land from white farmers.”   He's concerned about white farmers.

Also, what's with this "large scale killing of farmers"?  Perhaps it's referencing this article.  But this one indicates that "Murders of farmers in South Africa are at a 20-year low, research by one of the country’s biggest farmers’ organisations claims."  So maybe Mike Pompeo doesn't need to poke his nose into South Africa's business.  (And I feel quite certain that Old Lardass wouldn't be asking him to if it weren't white farmers.)

The Australian home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, said earlier this year that white South African farmers who wanted to migrate to Australia “deserve special attention” and “help from a civilised country like ours” due to the “horrific circumstances” of land seizures and violence.

His comment prompted a diplomatic row with Pretoria.

[...]

Land is a focus of deep resentment. According to the Land Audit Report, 72% of agricultural land is owned by white farmers, down from 85% when apartheid ended. Much remains in the hands of the minority Afrikaner community, the white descendants of colonial-era settlers. Of 56 million South Africans, about 8% are white, according to the census.

All major political parties now agree on the need for extensive land reform. In February parliament passed a motion to begin the process of amending the constitution to allow for the expropriation of land without compensation.

  Guardian

Well, we can't have countries going around returning land stolen from the indigenous populations by taking it away from their white overlords.

UPDATE:

White supremacist David Duke responds to Trump's tweet:



UPDATE:

South Africa responds:

It was the "coffee boy"

If [George] Papadopoulos, who pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I. and is now a cooperating witness, was the improbable match that set off a blaze that has consumed the first year of the Trump administration, his saga is also a tale of the Trump campaign in miniature. He was brash, boastful and underqualified, yet he exceeded expectations. And, like the campaign itself, he proved to be a tantalizing target for a Russian influence operation.

[...]

The information that Mr. Papadopoulos gave to the Australians answers one of the lingering mysteries of the past year: What so alarmed American officials to provoke the F.B.I. to open a counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign months before the presidential election?

[...]

It was not, as Mr. Trump and other politicians have alleged, a dossier compiled by a former British spy hired by a rival campaign. Instead, it was firsthand information from one of America’s closest intelligence allies.

[...]

Exactly how much Mr. Papadopoulos said [during a night of heavy drinking] at the Kensington Wine Rooms with the Australian, Alexander Downer, is unclear. But two months later, when leaked Democratic emails began appearing online, Australian officials passed the information about Mr. Papadopoulos to their American counterparts, according to four current and former American and foreign officials with direct knowledge of the Australians’ role.

  NYT

So all that GOP/Trumpette squealing about "the dossier is fake! the dossier was paid for by Clinton!" is just more distraction and hopeful muddying of the waters in an attmpt to discredit Mueller's investigation. The Steel dossier is only one bit of information that was brought into the mix after the investigation had already begun.

I assume Mr. Downer has long since been interviewed by Mueller, and I suppose the worthless Congressional committees investigating the deal will be asking to see him now.

F.B.I. officials disagreed in 2016 about how aggressively and publicly to pursue the Russia inquiry before the election. But there was little debate about what seemed to be afoot.

[...]

Interviews and previously undisclosed documents show that Mr. Papadopoulos played a critical role in this drama and reveal a Russian operation that was more aggressive and widespread than previously known.

[...]

Mr. Papadopoulos, then an ambitious 28-year-old from Chicago, was working as an energy consultant in London when the Trump campaign, desperate to create a foreign policy team, named him as an adviser in early March 2016. His political experience was limited to two months on Ben Carson’s presidential campaign before it collapsed.

The company you keep, right? I don't think it was Carson who foisted Papadopoulos off on the Trump campaign. At any rate, it was Sam Clovis who actually brought him on board. (Clovis also brought on Carter Page. I imagine Clovis, who had to withdraw as the nominee for heading the Dept. of Agriculture earlier this year, is persona non grata in Trump circles these days.)

[D]uring his job interview with Sam Clovis, a top early campaign aide, he saw an opening. He was told that improving relations with Russia was one of Mr. Trump’s top foreign policy goals, according to court papers, an account Mr. Clovis has denied.

Clovis was interviewed by Mueller's team and testified before the grand jury at the end of October. Is he still denying that assertion? Do they make orange jumpsuits that large?

In a May 4, 2016, interview with The Times of London, Mr. Papadopoulos called on Prime Minister David Cameron to apologize to Mr. Trump for criticizing his remarks on Muslims as “stupid” and divisive. “Say sorry to Trump or risk special relationship, Cameron told,” the headline read. Mr. Clovis, the national campaign co-chairman, severely reprimanded Mr. Papadopoulos for failing to clear his explosive comments with the campaign in advance.

From then on, Mr. Papadopoulos was more careful with the press — though he never regained the full trust of Mr. Clovis or several other campaign officials.

If this comes up in trial, I assume the Trump lawyers will be painting Papadopoulos as a loose cannon who went off without permission in whatever attempts he made to work with the Russians.

In late April, at a London hotel, [Joseph Mifsud, a Maltese professor who had valuable contacts with the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs] told Mr. Papadopoulos that he had just learned from high-level Russian officials in Moscow that the Russians had “dirt” on Mrs. Clinton in the form of “thousands of emails,” according to court documents. Although Russian hackers had been mining data from the Democratic National Committee’s computers for months, that information was not yet public. Even the committee itself did not know.

Whether Mr. Papadopoulos shared that information with anyone else in the campaign is one of many unanswered questions. He was mostly in contact with the campaign over emails. The day after Mr. Mifsud’s revelation about the hacked emails, he told [Trump aide Stephen] Miller in an email only that he had “interesting messages coming in from Moscow” about a possible trip. The emails obtained by The Times show no evidence that Mr. Papadopoulos discussed the stolen messages with the campaign.

And yet, he told an Australian diplomat? Seems a little unlikely.

It is also not clear why, after getting the information in May, the Australian government waited two months to pass it to the F.B.I. In a statement, the Australian Embassy in Washington declined to provide details about the meeting or confirm that it occurred.

It isn't unreasonable to think that the Australian diplomat passed the information to his counterpart -  an American diplomat - not the FBI. And now we're getting into some deep water where, if true, the question would have to be: why didn't the American diplomat immediately pass the information to the FBI? Who would an American diplomat report to? State, right? And who was Secretary of State at the time? John Kerry. Did they huddle with Clinton about the information? (Remember that Clinton accused Trump of being a Russian puppet during the debates.)

I'm off on a slight speculating tangent here, but I don't think it sounds unreasonable. In fact, I think it sounds more reasonable than that the Australian diplomat had the information and held it for two months and then told it to the FBI. I don't think that's how it would work. He wouldn't go directly to the FBI.  He's in the diplomatic system.  That's where he'd go.

Once the information Mr. Papadopoulos had disclosed to the Australian diplomat reached the F.B.I., the bureau opened an investigation that became one of its most closely guarded secrets.

[...]

Issuing subpoenas or questioning people, for example, could cause the investigation to burst into public view in the final months of a presidential campaign.

It could also tip off the Russian government, which might try to cover its tracks.

[...]

Senior agents did not discuss it at the daily morning briefing, a classified setting where officials normally speak freely about highly sensitive operations.

Besides the information from the Australians, the investigation was also propelled by intelligence from other friendly governments, including the British and Dutch.

Curiouser and curiouser. What did those countries' spies come up with?

There's some really strange shit going on. This is going to be the mother of all stories when it's finished.

UPDATE 1/2/18:

The ambassador to the United States Joe Hockey personally steered Australia's dealings with the FBI on explosive revelations of Russian hacking during last year's presidential campaign in a sign of how politically sensitive the Australian government regarded the bombshell discovery, Fairfax Media understands.

It is also understood there is now annoyance and frustration in Canberra that the High Commissioner to Britain Alexander Downer has been outed through leaks by US officials as the source of information that played a role in sparking an FBI probe into the Trump campaign's dealings with Moscow.

[...]

Mr Downer conveyed the conversation to Canberra via an official cable, though apparently not immediately – perhaps because he did not take the 28-year-old adviser's claims altogether seriously until the hacked emails were released by Wikileaks in late July.

  Sydney Morning Herald

I suppose that is an alternate explanation to mine. But mine makes more sense. [Laughing emoticon]

Mr Hockey is believed to have been involved in discussions with the FBI, indicating the Australian government was keenly alive to its political sensitivity.

[...]

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is planning a trip to the United States in February, Fairfax Media understands. Mr Turnbull said on Monday he was "not at all" worried that Australia's role in sparking the investigation that has become a consuming headache for Mr Trump would damage his relationship with the President. Beyond that he refused to comment.

UPDATE 1/5/18:

Along with the Aussies and the Brits, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, France and Estonia also provided intelligence to the Top Secret investigation.

  Chicago Sun Times

Milk People

About a week after Donald Trump was inaugurated as president of the United States, he had a phone conversation with Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull. The call focused on the deal earlier done with the Obama administration, under which the US would take a number of refugees currently held in Australian offshore detention centres on Papua New Guinea’s Manus island and Nauru, and Australia would receive a corresponding number of people the US wanted to resettle elsewhere.

[...]

The transcript of the phone call, released by the Washington Post, discloses several uncomfortable things. Firstly, the number to be resettled in the US is entirely up to them (according to Turnbull). More fundamentally, Turnbull’s discussion with Trump is troubling because it shows that Turnbull has so little understanding of refugee issues and so little concern for the Christian faith he claims to follow.

[...]

Turnbull told the president of the United States that all the deal required was that the Americans go through the vetting process, and if eventually they took no refugees at all, that would be consistent with the deal. Of course, it was not consistent with the way the deal had been described to Australians when it was first made public.

[...]

It must be obvious to Turnbull that his party’s treatment of people seeking asylum since 2001 has led the US president, and most of Australia, to believe that the people held on Manus and Nauru are criminals. It is the lie on which the Coalition has made itself popular. It is the lie which is essential if the public is not to see the grotesque hypocrisy of self-styled Christians locking up innocent people for years as a warning to others.

[...]

Clearly Trump believed he was being asked to resettle criminals. He seems not to understand that a country like Australia would imprison innocent people for years. Turnbull, despite his experience as an advocate, did nothing to dispel Trump’s misunderstanding and said nothing to justify jailing innocent people for years. After all, what sort of government would do that?

[...]

It is not surprising that Turnbull is troubled about the release of the transcript: it shows him at his worst.

  Guardian

Turnbull: [...] I want to congratulate you and Mike Pence on being sworn in now. I have spoken to you both now as you know. I know we are both looking to make our relationship which is very strong and intimate, stronger than ever – which I believe we can do.

  Transcript @ The Guardian

Haha. Homeslice.

And what about how the transcript shows Trump? Here's a sample:

Turnbull: Yes, the agreement, which the vice president just called the foreign minister about less than 24 hours ago and said your administration would be continuing, does not require you to take 2,000 people. It does not require you to take any. It requires, in return, for us to do a number of things for the United States – this is a big deal, I think we should respect deals.

Trump: Who made the deal? Obama?

Turnbull: Yes, but let me describe what it is. I think it is quite consistent. I think you can comply with it. It is absolutely consistent with your executive order so please just hear me out. The obligation is for the United States to look and examine and take up to and only if they so choose – 1,250 to 2,000. Every individual is subject to your vetting. You can decide to take them or to not take them after vetting. You can decide to take 1,000 or 100. It is entirely up to you. The obligation is to only go through the process. So that is the first thing. Secondly, the people — none of these people are from the conflict zone. They are basically economic refugees from Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. That is the vast bulk of them. They have been under our supervision for over three years now and we know exactly everything about them.

Trump: Why haven’t you let them out? Why have you not let them into your society?

Turnbull: OK, I will explain why. It is not because they are bad people. It is because in order to stop people smugglers, we had to deprive them of the product. So we said if you try to come to Australia by boat, even if we think you are the best person in the world, even if you are a Noble [sic] Prize winning genius, we will not let you in. Because the problem with the people —

Trump: That is a good idea. We should do that too. You are worse than I am.

[...]

Turnbull: The given number in the agreement is 1,250 and it is entirely a matter of your vetting. I think that what you could say is that the Australian government is consistent with the principles set out in the executive order.

Trump: No, I do not want say that. I will just have to say that unfortunately I will have to live with what was said by Obama. I will say I hate it. Look, I spoke to Putin, Merkel, Abe of Japan, to France today, and this was my most unpleasant call because I will be honest with you. I hate taking these people. I guarantee you they are bad. That is why they are in prison right now. They are not going to be wonderful people who go on to work for the local milk people.

Turnbull: I would not be so sure about that. They are basically —

Trump: Well, maybe you should let them out of prison. I am doing this because Obama made a bad deal. I am not doing this because it fits into my executive order. I am taking 2,000 people from Australia who are in prison and the day before I signed an executive order saying that we are not taking anybody in. We are not taking anybody in, those days are over.

Turnbull: But can I say to you, there is nothing more important in business or politics than a deal is a deal. Look, you and I have a lot of mutual friends.

Trump: Look, I do not know how you got them to sign a deal like this, but that is how they lost the election. They said I had no way to 270 and I got 306. That is why they lost the election, because of stupid deals like this. You have brokered many a stupid deal in business and I respect you, but I guarantee that you broke[red] many a stupid deal. This is a stupid deal. This deal will make me look terrible.

[...]

rump: [...] I am going to say that I have no choice but to honor my predecessor’s deal. I think it is a horrible deal, a disgusting deal that I would have never made. It is an embarrassment to the United States of America and you can say it just the way I said it. I will say it just that way. As far as I am concerned that is enough Malcom [sic]. I have had it. I have been making these calls all day and this is the most unpleasant call all day. Putin was a pleasant call. This is ridiculous.

Turnbull: Do you want to talk about Syria and DPRK?

Trump: [inaudible] This is crazy.

Turnbull: Thank you for your commitment. It is very important to us.

Trump: It is important to you and it is embarrassing to me. It is an embarrassment to me, but at least I got you off the hook. So you put me back on the hook.

Turnbull: You can count on me. I will be there again and again.

Trump: I hope so. OK, thank you Malcolm.

Turnbull: OK, thank you.

Homeslice is a great diplomat.  Probably the best in the world.

Why is this being leaked now? Are we about to take some of Australia's wrongly imprisoned Middle Eastern refugees?

Oh, bingo.

From Reuters June 16:

The United States will tell dozens of refugees held in an Australian-run offshore detention center whether they will be offered resettlement in America within six weeks, two detainees told Reuters on Friday.

  Reuters

"Dozens"?  Not 2,000?

Any bets on whether this particular leak was done at Trump/Kelly's behest?

 ...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Popular Everywhere

The Greens are moving to block Donald Trump from visiting Australia, claiming that his racist and xenophobic policies and opinions, and his contempt for the rule of law, ought to bar him from getting a visa.

They want to amend Australia’s visa laws to give parliament the power to block any foreign leader from entering Australia on the grounds of character, saying their amendment has been designed with the US president in mind.

[...]

The Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, told Guardian Australia this week that he wanted to use the first week of parliament of 2017 calling for a renegotiation of the Australia-US alliance, saying it no longer served the country’s interest.

  Guardian

I wonder if they would have such a strong view had T-Rump not called Australia's deal-making over refugees "dumb".

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Bye-Bye Australia

Australia is scrambling to save its agreement to resettle refugees in the US after Donald Trump raged publicly at “a dumb deal” and told the country’s prime minister Malcolm Turnbull in private it was the “worst deal ever”.

The US president took to Twitter late on Wednesday night in Washington to condemn the refugee swap and brand the asylum seekers held in camps on Nauru and Manus Island “illegal immigrants”.

[...]

The deal was confirmed by White House spokesman Sean Spicer, before being walked back hours later in a phone call from another presidential aide. It was then confirmed by the state department, and further by the US embassy in Canberra, before the president’s tweet cast grave doubt on whether the deal could progress.

Earlier in the day, the US state department had insisted the deal was on.

[...]

Both Australian-run detention camps have been the subject of sustained criticism by the UN, human rights groups and other nations over systemic sexual and physical abuse of those detained, including rapes, beatings, and the murder of one asylum seeker by guards; child sexual abuse; chronic rates of self-harm and suicide; dangerous levels of sustained mental illness, harsh conditions and inadequate medical treatment leading to several deaths.

The majority of the refugees held on the detention island by Australia – most for more than three years – are Iranian.

[...]

Trump, according to the Post report, accused Australia of seeking to export the “next Boston bombers”.

  Guardian

And here's the kicker:

The deal with Australia does not commit the US to unconditionally accepting any number of refugees from Australia’s offshore detention islands. The deal only commits the US to allowing refugees to “express an interest” in being resettled in America. Any, even all, refugees may be rejected during the “extreme vetting” process.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Tough Talkin' T-Rump

via GIPHY

T-Rump's Anthem:

(Except Australia no longer gets a pass.)

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Absurd and Obscene

Improving relations around the world. Hearts and minds.