Your son is what we refer to in Yiddish as a mensch. There is no higher praise. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12...

Just want to share with my American friends how the Australians respond to a shooting tragedy. Action, rather than thoughts and prayers.

Beyond heartbroken that Sydney’s Jewish community has been targeted this evening in an evil hate crime resulting in the death of nine people,so many injured, and faith and confidence in our multicultural city lost forever. We unconditionally stand in sorrow and love with Sydney’s Jewish community. ❤️

>1,700 people are dead from floods & landslides across Indonesia, Sri Lanka,Thailand, Malaysia & Vietnam, with many more still missing & more extreme rain predicted It's barely news in Australia Has anyone in the Albanese govt even acknowledged these warming-induced unnatural compound disasters❓

Thank heaven (in Australia) for @johnmenadue.com , @deepcutnews.bsky.social @michaelwestbiz.bsky.social @crikey.com.au and The Sunday Shot @davemilbo.bsky.social . Also some fine writing on Substack.

Independent media is essential. Pearls and Irritations relies on reader support to keep publishing principled, independent analysis that challenges power and widens public understanding. If you value that work, please consider donating.

open.substack.com/pub/deepdive... Please read. The agonies continue. The “world” is looking away. When did you last see on mainstream media a factual account of living conditions in all illegally occupied territories, especially Gaza - or what’s left of it? Why are most journalists silenced?

johnmenadue.com/post/2025/12... "Could the ulterior motive relate in some way to the fact that, beneath the ground, there is a vast wealth that dwarfs whatever substance processing and manufacturing takes place above it? ...#Venezuela..same category as other lust-objects in President Trump’s gaze."

"The current strategy against Venezuela which...involves serial murder on more than 80 counts on the high seas, internal destabilisation, and the threat of invasion, is but the latest example of the antics of a rogue superpower." johnmenadue.com/post/2025/12... @davemilbo.bsky.social For SShot?

ICE raids are cruel, inhumane, and do nothing to serve public safety. My responsibility is to be the mayor to each and every person that calls this city their home. That includes millions of immigrants— of which I am one.

With respect to conscience votes, Labor is worse than the Liberals. Seems a very unprogressive thing to do to force people to vote against their own conscience. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11...

The Albanese government has signed up to a commitment to phase out fossil fuels…and to achieve that goal….it says we need more fossil fuels…FFS Climate denial is not confined to the hard right of Australian politics thepoint.com.au/opinions/251...

BREAKING: Comey case dismissed without prejudice. Halligan invalidly appointed, judge rules. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Comey: "I'm grateful the court ended the case against me, which was a prosecution based on malevolence & incompetence... I was inspired by the career people who refused to be part of this travesty. It cost some of them their jobs, but it preserved their integrity, which is beyond price"

Bravo!!

Refugees Are Suffering. This Novelist Won’t Look Away. www.nytimes.com/2021/09/01/b... I’m very eager to read this. @rabihalameddine.bsky.social 📕👏👏👏👏👏📚📚📚

An utter disgrace. A Trumpian level of destruction being wrought at the CSIRO under Albo. "The environment unit, which has more than 700 full-time equivalent roles, will be reduced by 130 to 150. Four of its nine research focuses will not continue"

Socialism is what they called public power. Socialism is what they called social security. Socialism is what they called the growth of free and independent labor organizations. Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps all the people. —Harry Truman, 1952

johnmenadue.com/post/2025/11... %26 Irritations ABC bias intelligently discussed. @davemilbo.bsky.social of interest — though no surprises.

Well worth your time.

This should be front page news. Every day.

A horrendous report on ABC radio from a Brisbane doctor doing a second tour in Gaza with Medecins sans Frontières. She says the ceasefire is in name only, the genocide continues and the deprivation of basic food, shelter and resources means even the injured haven’t what the need to heal.

This is obscene. The challenges facing the nation means we should be scaling up CSIRO, not cutting it to shreds. While we are sending billions to the US for nuclear shipyards, our science and industrial base at home is falling apart for lack of funds and direction.

The Asia-Pacific has witnessed the true costs of nuclear testing. We carry its burdens still. We will oppose any effort to normalise the testing and use of these weapons of indiscriminate destruction. #auspol #AsiaPacific #APLN

(New from us) ‘Now the Pacific is leading the way again. Island leaders have a bold plan to become the world’s first region powered entirely by renewables and energy storage.’ #ClimateCrisis #COP30 w/ @wesleymorgan.bsky.social @smartenergycouncil.bsky.social theconversation.com/how-pacific-...

David, you don't need to buy but can order from library my book, "Your name is not Anxious". If reading hard - I wrote it for those times we feel flooded - there's also an audio edition. I brought decades of personal & clinical care to it. Things can be at least steadier. Warmest thoughts with you.

@davemilbo.bsky.social Congratulations Dave - and to @jodyer.bsky.social - on how well the "Sunday Shot" is going. Lots of backroom effort, but tremendously well worthwhile. Good guests; always stimulating discussion. Enjoyed seeing @antounissa.bsky.social yesterday. Also discussion re young people.

A government that can’t bring itself to tax fossil fuel, big tech or any wealth properly but defunds its critical institutions is not a good government, sorry

@davemilbo.bsky.social Congratulations Dave - and to @jodyer.bsky.social - on how well the "Sunday Shot" is going. Lots of backroom effort, but tremendously well worthwhile. Good guests; always stimulating discussion. Enjoyed seeing @antounissa.bsky.social yesterday. Also discussion re young people.

The accelerating tragedy of the invasion and land and water theft on the West Bank - by the unchecked occupiers - is clearly "too much" for Western media to face. (Never mind Senator Wong.) It breaks ALL international laws. This article is welcome. Please circulate it. www.smh.com.au/world/middle...

johnmenadue.com/post/2025/11... %26 Irritations @davemilbo.bsky.social of real interest to you.

This is URGENT. Financial scandals running into millions, adding to the #HumanRights abuses in the treatment of #asylumseekers. They should have been a major concern of #NACC. They are not. @tonyburkemp.bsky.social has NO excuses of stupidity. Yet the #Nauru story stinks & we need #transparency.

www.smh.com.au/politics/fed... George Megalogenis always worth reading. With LNP proving a bankrupt "opposition" how must the representation system change so truly representative "coalition" can hold Labor to account? LNP totally unworthy of shadow power, or the attention and perks that go with it.

And in sports news, relegation looms for the Liberal Party after conceding yet another own goal in their umpteenth loss on the trot.

Happy to help you out, BBC. #GazaGenocide #GazaHolocaust #WesternMediaComplicity

Israel rejects over 100 aid requests for Gaza since ceasefire: UN

johnmenadue.com/post/2025/11... %26 Irritations Thrilling to read!

Last day to book! events.humanitix.com/happiness-an... After 20 years, this may be the final "Happiness & Its Causes" ... if you haven't already experienced, do so now.

It was great to speak to @crystaljane.bsky.social about Governor-General Kerr's dismissal of PM Gough Whitlam and the Whitlam govt - so much interest in this momentous event 50 years later and so much more still to be told. Listen to Crikey's CutThrough podcast and find out! #auspol

In the aftermath of #robodebt, Jay Coonan @antipovertycentre.org said instead of "changing the narrative", the government was contributing to "further demonising welfare recipients". The Albanese govt's first priority should be to fix its dodgy and illegal payment suspensions system - #robodole.

Are We Losing Our Democracy? www.nytimes.com/interactive/... Almost but not quite comical.

I had a spare t-shirt cartoon.

Cracks in the NACC ".. NACC’s credibility in tatters and little prospect of recovery, only a dramatic intervention by Parliament can prevent a further disillusionment with Australia’s political and bureaucratic institutions." #auspol @adamseconomics michaelwest.com.au/cracks-in-th...

Why I started Readers and Writers Against the Genocide (RWAG) 'As a literary community, we trade in creative freedom, free speech and the contestation of ideas,' says RWAG founder Aviva Tuffield. www.artshub.com.au/news/opinion...

An outstanding article from Prof Peter Slezak: Jewish humanitarian and passionate, intelligent peacemaker. You are flooded with information, I know. But this is definitely worth your time - and sharing. "Time for a 'just peace' for all peoples in Palestine"