Geoffrey Taylor's blog

The Russian revolution of 7 November 1917, one hundred years ago today, was a profound political upheaval which put in power political leaders resolved to remove poverty, exploitation, unemployment, economic chaos, and war from Russia and the rest of the world. The Russian revolution and sympathetic revolts in Germany in 1918 helped finally bring to an end the First World War, in which 18,000,000 died.

Had the revolution spread to Germany, Hitler's Nazi Party could not have seized power in 1933 and the Second World War, in which an estimated 60 million died, would have most likely been prevented.

Title previously was: How the Second World War almost didn't happen

During the recent United States' presidential election campaign almost the entire mainstream was heavily biased against Donald Trump, and in favour of Hillary Clinton. Surprisingly, given Hillary Clinton's repeated claim that Donald Trump was a puppet of Vladimir Putin, the Russian news service RT America was also strongly biased against Donald Trump. Whilst it would be wrong to conclude from this that Clinton was actually Putin's puppet, rather than Trump, how was it possible for a Russian taxpayer-funded news service to act against Russia's own interests by promoting the russophobic Clinton?

The following article, together with an embedded 1:36 minute video, was previously published on the English language edition of the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) on 14 May. See also: Australian boxers fighting for peace in Syria (26/5/16) | SBS and other republished SANA articles: Australian sport delegation concludes visit to Lattakia (19/5/16) and Australian boxing team conducts friendly matches with Syrian national team (14/15/16).

The Australian Boxing Team visiting Syria in solidarity with its fight against terrorism conducted yesterday a series of exercises preparing for a set of matches today in Fayhaa Sports City.

Rev. David Smith, head of the Australian delegation, a boxer and a cleric, said in a statement to SANA:" We want to draw the attention of the world to the fact that Syria is alive, and there are still life and joy and sports here, not just death and destruction; which is always the message broadcasted on television. We are doing that through sport because we want to play with our friends here and build more relations with Australian and Syrian people, and we want to show the whole world the real Syria and the real Syrian people"

The otherwise informative ₁ Russian English language web-site Sputnik International has published on 18/5/16 a 'news' report Houthi Rebels Carry Out Wave of Arrests in Yemen, Use Torture. (A copy of the article is included below as an appendix.) As the title suggests, it claims that the same Houthi rebels, who have been fighting an invasion of Yemen by Saudi Arabia since March 2015, "have carried out a brutal campaign against their political opponents, arbitrary arresting people, using tortures and kidnappings."

The article cites a report Yemen: Spree of arbitrary arrests, disappearances and torture by Huthi forces (18/5/16) by the supposed human rights organisation Amnesty International.

The article, Amnesty International: Syria: Armed Opposition Groups Committing War Crimes in Aleppo City, originally published here on 14 May 2016, has been made an appendix. At face value, the article appeared to confirm what candobetter and other news sources (as opposed to the msm) have been writing about the terrorist invaders. However, concealed within the article is the claim that "the scale of war crimes by government forces is far greater" i.e. precisely the same narrative that is clearly intended by the Western msm to justify the expansion of the current war, ostensibly against Islamic State, into a war to remove the allegedly even more brutal 'regime' of President Bashar al-Assad.

On 3 March 2016, more than two months ago now, the supposed human rights organisation Amnesty International 'reported':

Russian and Syrian government forces appear to have deliberately and systematically targeted hospitals and other medical facilities over the last three months to pave the way for ground forces to advance on northern Aleppo, an examination of airstrikes by Amnesty International has found.

Even as Syria's fragile ceasefire deal was being hammered out, Syrian government forces and their allies intensified their attacks on medical facilities. ...

Previously published on the PressTV YouTube channel Dozens of locals followed the unlikely pet walk to the beach where they gathered round to take photos with the felines. The owner had purchased the two infant lions from a run-down zoo in Gaza at the start of the year. The cat-loving family has been raising the cubs in a three-room apartment with their four children. But what will happen when the cubs grow up? Your comments invited.

See also: Issues that should be decided at the 29 November Victorian State elections (14/10/14).

On 18 November, the Melbourne Age reported in Greens campaigning hard on East West Link in Melbourne inner-city seats:

Ellen Sandell, Greens Melbourne candidate

"The Victorian Greens have pledged to continue to campaign against the East West Link in marginal seats despite Labor promising to scrap the project if elected. As the Greens aim to win a balance of power in the upcoming state election, Victorian Greens leader Greg Barber said the party was campaigning fiercely about the East West Link in a number of inner-city marginal seats. ... "In the hotly contested seat of Melbourne, Greens candidate Ellen Sandell criticised the opposition's stance on the East West Link.

See also: comment Opposed to $500 million Chinese theme park for NSW Central Coast (10/8/14) by the Australia First Party.

The Wyong Shire Council on NSW's Central Coast, has given its approval for the construction of the "Chappypie China Time" theme park to be built on 15.7 hectares of bushland at Warnervale. The bushland was sold to the Australia Chinese Theme Park Pty Ltd (ACTP) for $10 million. A short presentation by the Wyong Shire council to promote the Theme Park is shown below:

From Global Research article, Conscripted Soldiers of West Ukraine Refuse to Fight against Donbass Rebels (25/7/14). Includes embedded YouTube video. Mass Protests By Families of Men Drafted into the Ukrainian Army Transcript of the Video Location of Protests: Prykarpattia Region, West Ukraine

News Anchor: In the Ciscarpathian region (Prykarpattia, West Ukraine) mass protests took place. The main participants are the families of men summoned for military draft. People trust neither local authorities nor military leadership in Kiev. They have many questions to the authorities and they demand immediate answers. More in our video report, coming up next.

Polish media outlet Nie has published a bombshell account about direct Polish involvement in Ukraine's destabilization. Its source alleges that the Polish Foreign Ministry had invited Ukrainian militants into the country and trained them outside of Warsaw in September 2013.

Malcom Fraser was Minister of the Army from 1966 until 1971 as Australia was participating in the war against Vietnam.

He became Prime Minister of Australia as a result of the CIA's coup against the Whitlam Labor Government in 1975 as described in Chapter 40 of The CIA – a forgotten history₁ (1986) by William Blum. Christopher Boyce about which the movie The Falcon and the Snowman₃ (1985) was made, observed CIA interference in Australian politics at the same time.

Update, 19 Feb 2014: You can watch the program on-line here. Apologies for this late notice, but after serving his prison sentence of 24 years for spying on the United States Government, Christopher Boyce will reveal all in a program to be broadcast tonight at 9.30 tonight on Dateline on the free-to-air SBS One television station.