Celebrating 25 Years of Scoop
Binoy Kampmark
Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne.
Binoy Kampmark - Latest News [Page 2]
Kamala Harris: Papier-mâché Coronation
Saturday, 3 August 2024, 7:05 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The idea of a valid contest within the party has well withered on the vine, adding even more succour to the authoritarian varnish Harris’ critics identify as critical. The sycophantic celebration of her presumptive nominee status adds even more of a ... More >>
Assange, CIA Surveillance And Spain’s Audencia Nacional
Thursday, 1 August 2024, 12:24 pm | Binoy Kampmark
US officials have persisted in their reticent attitude, refusing to cooperate with Spain’s national high court, the Audiencia Nacional, regarding its investigation into the Agency’s espionage operations against the publisher, spearheaded by the ... More >>
Greasing Palms: The Thales Blueprint For Corruption
Tuesday, 30 July 2024, 6:44 pm | Binoy Kampmark
As Bernard Keane of the Australian publication Crikey observes, “bribery might be a tool in Thales’ arsenal for dealing with defence officials around the world, along with stringing out negotiations for its own ends and refusing to comply with ... More >>
The Olympic Games: Perennially Costly And Always Over Budget
Sunday, 28 July 2024, 5:09 pm | Binoy Kampmark
For the budget-minded types, the Olympics, and analogous monumental sporting events, continue to lose their appeal – along with the finances. The extortionate strain on the public wallet, the bleeding of funds from budgets, has made them most unattractive ... More >>
Rwanda Elections' Foregone Conclusions: Paul Kagame Retains Power
Saturday, 27 July 2024, 2:21 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Whatever the broader stated goals of Kagame for his country, he remains motivated by a desire to preserve the position of the Tutsis, keeping the rival Hutus in check. Ethnicity, far from vanishing as a consideration, retains an aggressively beating ... More >>
Puppet Realisations: Biden Stands Aside
Wednesday, 24 July 2024, 9:16 am | Binoy Kampmark
Having been endorsed as the only viable candidate to battle Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential elections, Joe Biden was subsequently browbeaten and harried into leaving the way open for another candidate. It involved some movement of political furniture, ... More >>
Conventional Wisdom: The ICJ Ruling On Israeli Settlements
Monday, 22 July 2024, 2:07 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Given the avalanche of international opinions, deliberation and understanding on the status of the settlements that arose after 1967, the ICJ was merely revising homework and reiterating home truths of international law. More >>
NATO: 75 And Still Threatening
Saturday, 20 July 2024, 6:17 pm | Binoy Kampmark
In Washington’s absence, the NATO family might retreat into fractious insignificance. The ensuing anarchy, rather than stimulating war, may well do the opposite. More >>
Dutton’s Quixotic Proposal: Nuclear Lunacy Down Under
Thursday, 18 July 2024, 2:51 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Politics and facts are not necessarily good dinner companions. Both often stray from the same table, taking up with other, more suitable company. The Australian opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has never been discomforted by facts, preferring ... More >>
Tony Blair: Profiteer And Emissary Of Artificial Intelligence
Monday, 15 July 2024, 3:27 pm | Binoy Kampmark
In May, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI) released a report that unabashedly embraced the role of AI in influencing the way states govern. It is the accompanying document to Blair’s own address given at the Future of Britain Conference on July ... More >>
The Convulsed Republic: The Shooting Of Donald Trump
Sunday, 14 July 2024, 3:42 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Far from this being incredible, such acts of violence speckle and blood US politics. Candidates have been previously gunned down in cold blood. Presidents, whether going to the theatre or appearing in public motorcades, have been very publicly assassinated. More >>
“We Love You Joe, But…”: Hollywood’s Advice To President Biden
Friday, 12 July 2024, 1:06 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Given that the US President is now not so much functioning in twilight as in rapidly descending darkness, the recent intervention by Hollywood grandee and Democrat benefactor George Clooney has prompted ever more tittering about the electoral prospects of ... More >>
Terminating Partnerships: The UK Ends The Rwanda Solution
Thursday, 11 July 2024, 5:05 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Yet it was a sadistic policy of beastly proportion, offering no prospect of genuine discouragement or deterrence to new arrivals, stillborn in execution and engineered to indulge a nasty streak in the electorate. More >>
Trendy Appointments: Australia’s Special Antisemitism Envoy
Wednesday, 10 July 2024, 12:46 pm | Binoy Kampmark
When a government is in trouble, new committees are born, officials appointed, and fresh positions created. An essential lesson in governing is to give the impression of governing, however badly, or ineffectually, it might prove to be. More >>
In Westminster At Last: The Threat Of Nigel Farage
Monday, 8 July 2024, 1:02 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Farage is already promising rapacious raids into enemy territory. “We are coming for Labour … be in no doubt about that.” While eschewing notions of working with the Conservatives, he offered an olive branch by way of invitation: Tory members ... More >>
Massacre At The Ballot: The Punishing Of The Tories
Sunday, 7 July 2024, 3:24 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Given that Labour proved the largest beneficiary of a voting system that should only ever apply in a two-way contest and given the prospect of Reform and the Greens posing ever greater threats from either wing of politics, appetite for electoral reform ... More >>
The US Supreme Court Outs The Imperial Presidency
Wednesday, 3 July 2024, 1:25 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The US Supreme Court has much to answer for. In the genius of republican government, it operates as overseer and balancer to the executive and legislature. Of late, the judges have seemingly confused that role. More >>
Assange’s Return To Australia: The Resentment Of The Hacks
Monday, 1 July 2024, 1:05 pm | Binoy Kampmark
His return to Australia after striking a plea deal with the US Department of Justice sees him in a state with some of the most onerous secrecy provisions of any in the Western world. More >>
Hunted Biden: The First Presidential Debate Disaster
Sunday, 30 June 2024, 12:01 pm | Binoy Kampmark
While Donald Trump was always going to relish the chance to be not only economical with the truth but simply inventive about it, Joe Biden seemed a vanishing shadow, longing for soft slippers and the fireplace with cocoa, a case of comfort rather ... More >>
Assange’s Release: Exposing The Craven Media Stable
Friday, 28 June 2024, 3:08 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The WikiLeaks project was always going to put various noses out of joint in the journalistic profession. Soaked and blighted by sloth, easily bought, perennially envious, a good number of the Fourth Estate have always preferred to remain uncritical of power and ... More >>
