WorldWatch - 9 January 2021

The US Capitol stormed, Israel attacks Syria and China continues to lock up the opposition in Hong Kong all admit a world-wide pandemic. There is certainly a rapidly changing and volatile dynamic to current world affairs.

Australian COVID measures continue in place with hard borders in WA, QLD, TAS, VIC, SA and NT restricting who can travel into their state. Greater Sydney along with some surrounding areas continues to have tight restrictions on the number of people in a residence and yet the Sydney cricket match has been allowed to proceed with ever-changing restrictions. Whether or not the SCG match should proceed with a crowd is a deeper question, however, it seems to be at odds with the other decisions that are being made.

The US Capitol has been stormed, allegedly by MAGA supporters, although there are some reports that ANTIFA were actually the initial intruders. The media on the whole is outraged at the violation of the Capitol building, but yet on the whole fails to consider that when people feel disenfranchised they are liable to take matters into their own hands. The fourth estate needs to be accurately reporting that the Capitol was being stormed, it needs to be reporting that their are allegations that ANTIFA were involved. They need to be determining who the people were, there are plenty of photographs (investigative journalism) and reporting back who those people are and what their affiliations are. The fourth estate needs to be clearly reporting on the voting irregularities that seem suspicious, investigating, and then reporting the evidence that supports and/or contradicts the suspicions around the election. It is only where the fourth estate fulfills its role that democracy can flourish.

Meanwhile China is rounding up the opposition in Hong Kong; and one wonders how long before the same thing happens in the US.

Today Trump and the official accounts were ‘permanently suspended’ from Twitter along with a number of other significant conservative accounts. Twitters own reporting seemed to provide conflicting reasons as to why including the risk of the account being used for subversive purposes or being used by others for those means. Meanwhile, in response, other conservative accounts apparently abandoned the platform heading for the likes of Parler and Gab. Parler has already been deplatformed by Andriod and Apple is threatening to do the same.




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