Weekly Roundup – Top Articles & Commentary (Week 47, 2025)

   

Here are links to some selected articles of interest and our posts from this week.

•  "There will be no phase B in Gaza"
• The Crumbling Climate Catastrophe Dogma

• Bias has consequences - except at the ABC
• When Low Cost Cures are Left to Die
• Bill Maher eviscerates Gavin Newsom watch this

• Cost of Living: Democrat vs Republican
  
• ABC caught editing Trump, then Declares it Didn't - Judge for Yourself
  
• Censorship Creep:The New Western Trend to Silence Dissent
  
• Dershowitz on the problems with releasing the Epstein files

We welcome all feedback, so please feel free to submit your comments or communicate with me via email at grappysb@gmail.com or @grappysb on X.

Weekly Roundup – Top Articles & Commentary (Week 46, 2025)

    

Here are links to some selected articles of interest and our posts from this week.

• UN Watch Research Shows: UNRWA=Hamas
  
• The Unseemly Demonisation of Ivermectin
  
• The Gaza peace plan is teetering, Read the opinion article in Israel Hayom "There will be no phase B in Gaza"
• The Crumbling Climate Catastrophe Dogma
  
• Bill Maher hits it out of the court again, humorous and incisive

• Neural Implants: The Promise and Peril
  
• Bias has consequences - except at the ABC
  
• The Coming Wave - How AI Will Redefine Reality
  
• When Low Cost Cures are Left to Die
  

We welcome all feedback, so please feel free to submit your comments or communicate with me via email at grappysb@gmail.com or @grappysb on X.

Weekly Roundup – Top Articles & Commentary (Week 45, 2025)

    

Here are links to some selected articles of interest and our posts from this week.

• The Quiet Return of Racism to Australia
  
• Australia's ABC's Bias Fuels Antisemitism and Social Division
• Bill Gates negates his own Climate Zealotry
  
• Bill Maher Calls Out Real Apartheid - Gender Apartheid
  
• IDF orders removal of Chinese cars over espionage fears
  
• UN Watch Research Shows: UNRWA=Hamas
  
• The Unseemly Demonisation of Ivermectin
  
• The Gaza peace plan is teetering, Read the opinion article in Israel Hayom "There will be no phase B in Gaza"

We welcome all feedback, so please feel free to submit your comments or communicate with me via email at grappysb@gmail.com or @grappysb on X.

On the Grapevine WE15 Dec 24

Islamo-phobia or Islamist-phobia

Not a day passes without further outrageous anti-Semitic acts in one of Australia's state capitals. Yet in calling out these acts as 'unacceptable', un-Australian, and other cliches, our Labor politicians feel it necessary to mention Islamophobia. Implying without any justification that Islamophobia is somehow an equivalent problem to anti-Semitism. Nothing could be further from the truth. The most recent act against any Muslim was some 11 months ago. The outright vilification of Jews started on Oct 9 '23, in front of Sydney's Opera House, and has been a weekly event at incessant demonstrations.

So cut it out Ed Husic! Cut it out Richard Marles! Cut it out Chris Bowen!  You need to acknowledge that the rise in anti-Semitism in Australia has been caused by many Islamist constituents of your own electorates. 

The very people encouraging you to remember 'Islamaphobia' are the ones marching in the streets screaming anti-Semitic slogans. It is these wild mob of Islamists who are the drivers of anti-Semitism and indeed feed a real Islamist-phobia in our societies.

It will only stop once the government takes decisive action. I don't expect it to happen under this Labor government.  Hopefully, they only have a few more months in office. 

Weaponization of International Law

 Over the past four years under the Biden administration, we have seen the blatant weaponisation of many of the US's institutions against perceived Biden's Republican enemies. Now we are witnessing the weaponisation of UN institutions against perceived enemies. Israel is the most frequent victim, but the US is not spared. The recent article by Robert Williams titled "ICC Arrest Warrants and the Unacceptable Weaponization of International Law exposes the personal issues that led ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan to issue the warrants, the significant legal problems with the warrants, and the role of the international community in preventing such overreach from succeeding. Well worth a read.

United Nations violates its own charter

An incisive article in J-Wire highlights the UN's inconsistent treatment of Israel over the decades. Most notably in its most recent vote calling for an end to the occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. This is in 'flagrant' violation of Article 80 of the United Nations Charter which committed to Israel the land on the West Bank of the Jordan river, ie Israel and Judea and Samaria.

It seems UN commitments are rather fluid, you can commit one day and de-commit on another.

Read the full article here United Nations acts illegally in violation of its own charter

Massive turnout against Anti-semitism

Over 30,000 people attended the rally yesterday fighting antisemitism, which ended in Parliament Square.

You guys are absolute angels. Thank you. ❤️pic.twitter.com/68R1mmezKC

— Vivid.🇮🇱 (@VividProwess) December 9, 2024

Collapse of  Syria provides new opportunities for the West 

The rapid collapse of the Assad regime has changed the strategic balance with a weakened Russia and Iran. This is a great opportunity to remove the threats posed by Iran and its puppets. 

Here is an interesting discussion of the strategic factors. 

This is how we should respond to the anti-Israel crowd

THIS is how we should respond to the anti-Israel crowd: pic.twitter.com/mKqxLhR8w6

— Am Yisrael Chai 🇮🇱🎗 (@kyg_best) December 10, 2024

The Voice : Consider the Consequences

With but one week to go, we are in the 'home stretch' of this extended Voice referndum. Given the 24/7 media we now know what 'saturation' advertising really means. So no doubt you are getting 'over it'. Despite this if you are still in doubt about your vote, let me add a few words to try to sway you.

Despite the fine words by many a YES advocate downplaying the impact of the Voice, never mind the details, you owe it to our indigenous citizens, it is the moral thing to do, nothing could be further from the truth.

This is a momentous decision that will shape the nation's future. The Voice referendum carries significant implications for the country.

I have already recorded my reasons for voting NO (see Why I am voting NO to the Voice ), however,  that was not an exhaustive list, and in this note want to focus on some of the consequences of a successful YES vote.

One of the commitments Anthony Albanese announced on election night was that he would "implement the Uluṟu statement in full". The authors of this statement have made it clear that the Voice is just the initial step in 3 stage process emblazoned on many a T-Shirt " Voice, Treaty, Truth".

While Albanese has tried repeatedly to divert discussion from Treaty or Truth, preferring to narrowly focus our attention on the 'Vibe', it is nonsensical to simply vote YES and ignore what follows. After all Albo has repeatedly stated that he wants to implement the Uluru statement in full. So, we cannot but conclude that the Treaty and Truth steps are the necessary consequences of a YES vote.

Given the government's refusal to even discuss these steps there is no detail or formal policy position to review. However, we can rely on the authors of the Uluru statement to gauge their thinking. There are some 100 pages of notes recording formal discussions between the authors that are available The full document is printed in full here: Uluru Statement from the Heart. They cover a wide range of topics and these in turn trigger a whole range of questions. Questions like; -

• Questions about Treaty
• How does a country create a treaty with a subset of its own citizens?
• Who signs the treaty when government representatives are indigenous themselves?
• Will there be reparations?
• How much, who will pay and who will receive it?

• Questions about Truth telling and its implications?
• Have we not been telling the truth until now?
• Who determines what is true?
• Will the process build unity or cause more division ?

I will leave you to fill in the possible answers to these, but you should consider Voice, Treaty and Truth as a package. If the referendum passes Treaty and Truth are sure to follow. So if you don't like the possible implications of either of these additional processes and their consequences, you should vote NO.

10 rules to raise the standard of professional journailsm

In many earlier posts I have written about our media, highlighting bias, inappropriate priorities and the poor attitudes of journalists always looking for gotcha moments (see Media posts ).  The posts provide many examples of these failures so I won't go through them again.

A major contributor to these failures is the ever-increasing competition by a voracious media for engaged and loyal audiences. Journalists and news commentators adopt attitudes aligned with their audience in order to garner a following. This in turn drives the selection of the stories they cover, the arguments/questions they raise and their attitude in interviews.

Given journalists have these 'negative' drivers, management must be ever more proactive to ensure standards are maintained, or preferably raised. They can do this by setting clear editorial guidelines, and ensuring all journalists know are fully informed and expected to follow them. Moreover compliance should be monitored and any failures penalized.

This post would not be complete without at least a suggested list of Editorial Guidelines. My suggestions are based on the editorial guidelines for the highly professional PBS Newshour. (see Another Chapter Begins for Newshour)

10 rules for professional journalists

1. Do not report anything you cannot defend.
2. Cover, write, and present every story with the care you would want if the story were about you.
3. Assume there is at least one other side or version to every story.
4. Assume the viewer is as smart and as caring and as good a person as you believe yourself to be.
5. Assume the same about all people on whom you report.
6. Assume personal lives are a private matter until a legitimate turn in the story absolutely mandates otherwise.
7. Carefully separate opinion and analysis from straight news stories, and clearly label everything
8. Do not use anonymous sources or blind quotes except on rare and monumental occasions.
9. No one should ever be allowed to attack another anonymously.
10. Remember you are NOT in the entertainment business.

Even if followed rigorously these rules may not guarantee audiences, but would certainly raise the standards of news commentary.