Issue 78:  17 February to 23 February

## Blurred Lines?

War! Who is it good for? Morrison most likely
Bernard Keane | Crikey
The immediate impact will be a sharemarket dip and an energy price rise — which will be bad news for motorists but even better news for Australia’s big fossil fuel energy exporters.

Arms industry: the tail wagging the dog
Jake Lynch | Green Left
War would be in no-one’s interests. With one obvious exception.

Putin’s Gamble 
Scott Burchill | Pearls and Irritations
Under pressure from pro-Russian separatists in Donbass, a series of incremental Western arms control abrogations, and the failure by both sides to implement the Minsk 2 accords, something eventually had to give.

War in Europe and the rise of raw propaganda
John Pilger | Arena
The war hysteria that has rolled in like a tidal wave in recent weeks and months is the most striking example. Known by its jargon, “shaping the narrative”, much if not most of it is pure propaganda. The Russians are coming. Russia is worse than bad. 

The ‘Quad’, Unlikley Allies and a World Undone
Guy Rundle | Arena 
Globalisation has created a world that is safe, until it very much isn’t. The specific form of globalisation we have…compels the West to seek to maintain a dominance it can no longer enforce.

Australian government accuses China of “aggression” over naval laser incident
Mike Head | World Socialist Web Site
Without providing any evidence to back his charge, Morrison branded the mere pointing of a laser rangefinder at the patrol spy plane as an “act of intimidation” that could have killed the flight crew.

Culture, economy and care

The era of magical thinking: what does the rise of NFTs say about our culture and economy?
Guy Rundle | Crikey
Does the buying and selling of NFTs signal a change in the art world? Or is it just a high-tech spin on the same old scene?

What’s the point of racism?
Priya De  | Red Flag
Marx famously wrote of the US, “labour in white skin cannot emancipate itself where the black skin is branded”. More than 150 years later, racism continues to be endemic to capitalism.

Federal Govt seeks delay to treaty aimed at stopping deaths in custody 
Giovanni Torre | National Indigenous Times
The deadline for implementing the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture, a treaty that supplements the United Nations Convention Against Torture, was 20 January 2022.

The hundreds who’ve died this year in Australia nursing homes deserve justice at the election
Jeff Sparrow | The Guardian
In response to questioning, the aged care services minister, Richard Colbeck, said that “the performance in managing Covid-19 has improved” and then blamed Labor for bullying him. Some might object he hasn’t been bullied enough.

NDIS: unregistered disability care providers a real risk
Amber Schulz | Crikey
The agency that oversees the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) has no idea how many of the workers it pays for to provide services are unregistered

Rail union condemns NSW gov’t shutdown of network 
Jim McIlroy | Green Left

Zombie Doctrine: belief in Coalition as “super economic managers” sticks, despite proof otherwise
Alan Austin | Michael West Media

The flawed logic behind the sovereign citizen movement
Marilyn McMahon | The Saturday Paper

How the Left Stopped Fascists From Organizing in Australia
Evan Smith | Jacobin
Far-right organizing in Australia is nothing new. But time and again, coalitions of anti-fascists, union militants, and community organizations have stymied the far right’s rise. That history stands as a resource for the Left to draw from today.

Australia needs to ditch coal before it’s too late
Gabriel Filippelli | Independent Australia