Author makes clear from the start that 🇦🇺 is not some poor exploited US colony: its leaders are enthusiastic participants in the 🇺🇸 Empire. Imperial identity instrinsic to Australia. Aus-army rejected superior 🇨🇦rifles in favour of full inter-operability with 🇬🇧guns during WW1.

More background history. Australian core identity exclusively Anglo-Celtic. Far from seeing itself as a "subject", 🇦🇺 saw itself as an autonomous lieutenant within British Empire in its own right. Satellites like Papua & many Pacific islands still constitute 🇦🇺's own colonies.

Author demonstrates he "gets it" in how Empire has evolved since WW2 - direct political control is expensive & troublesome, always more effective to puppet foreign states economically. Leaders know any Chinese takeover of Australia from the US would be commercial, not military.

Australia's concerns about its place within the US Empire stem not from its constantly waging wars (far from 🇦🇺shores, with minimal casualties), but rather over its unimportance in US strategy. I'm extremely doubtful Aus attracts more foreign (real) brains per-capita than🇨🇭.

The now omnipresent media catchphrase, the "Rules-Based International Order" was actually first coined by an Australian PM, Kevin Rudd. Serving as a rhetorical alternative to "international law" of an increasingly anti-🇺🇸 UN, it was intended as a dig against Chyna from the start.

Australia's founding legend as a "convict dumping ground" simplistic. From first settlement, Britain planned Australia an autonomous naval base for easing Indian-Chinese trade (*cough* opium) or conducting hostile operations against other European Empires in the SE Asia region.

Australia's extreme lack of economic complexity, something bemoaned by local commentators. Despite its wealth, 🇦🇺 exports are less diverse than many 3rd world states. Foreign investors have controlling shares in the entire top 20 on Aus stock exchange. https://x.com/haravayin_hogh/s...

On Global Value Chains (GVCs). About 80% of all international trade is moving intermediate goods/service between different arms of the same companies. . E.g 🇦🇺 &..Boeing, or 🇺🇸/🇲🇽 automobile industry. More proof Trump tariffs were/are just America punching itself in the face.

Australian sovereignty as an economic zone rather than a nation. Its founding Constitution granted special legal exceptions for 🇬🇧 ships in 🇦🇺waters. When the UK generously gave up this right, it took 12 years for abandonment-syndrome Aus leaders (4 of them) to finally accept it.

No Australian equivalent to 🇺🇸 restrictions (did anything equivalent exist prior Nixon in 1973?) to restrict war-powers of executive leaders. Small states, which are (relatively) less plugged into US Empire like Netherlands & Norway have considerably more public input on policy.

Section on Pine Gap, a 🇺🇸surveillance base located near Alice Springs. All Australian readers know already, but for context, an 🇦🇺PM, Gough Whitlam, was "sacked" by the Queen's representive. Official story is budget deadlock, but near-certainly due to his dispute over Pine Gap.

Book doesn't touch on "The Dismissal" Whitlam affair though, both because it's universally known by Australians, full story is unknown, & it's a long digression. Pointed out that to this day, US Congress is better informed on Pine Gap's activities than the Australian parliament.

In an cringeworthy display, Australia's most hawkish, US-Israeli toady & anti-Chyna parliamentarians have dubbed themselves "The Wolverines". The name comes from a group of lone teenage-partisans (like Animorphs) in a 1984 ColdWar schlock film in which the USSR invades America.

Conversely, author sensibly points out the left-wing cliche of 🇦🇺fighting "other people's wars" is not really true. Expeditions in which its military fights prove its usefulness to the 🇺🇸, occasionally allowing 🇦🇺 to dominate far larger states than it could alone, like Indonesia.

Author tosses in his leftist credentials on the Raj in India. Leaving aside whether 🇬🇧-rule really was more extractive than the Mughals, the main thing is that Indians believe Anglos ruined their country & resent them for it. So why encourage their immigration to the Anglosphere?

Quoting here indicating where I distrust the author. He claims 1860s Japan & the Ashante state of 🇬🇭 (non-literate, human-sacrifice, ritual cannibalism, like 🇳🇬) were at similar development levels is one of the most absurd things I've read in a long time. https://x.com/haravayin_hogh/s...

On the 1st Trump admin. Aus 2016 PM terrified by Trump's initial isolationist rhetoric, as 🇦🇺 has invested & voluntarily sacrified more for its US partnership than any other state. Australian importance in US-thinking proportional to US hawkishness abroad. Pine Gap details.

Mining & 🇦🇺politics. As shown above, foreigners hold majority shares in all top 20 companies in the 🇦🇺stock exchange. Most are mining related, with the "pro-rural" National Party being their most naked proponent. Lefty hero Whitlam aiding 🇮🇩 annexation of West Papua (bc mining).

Author on Australia's gargantuan mineral wealth. The idea of nationally-owned mining conglomerate is appealing, but it seems obvious to me that any PM attempting such a move would be instantly replaced via party coup, which the parliamentary rules in 🇦🇺 make trivially easy.

Author on electric vehicles & "renewables" being a colossal scam, at least when judged on environmental impact. Extreme pollution damage is inflicted in the process of "rare-earth" mining & non-recyclable plastic waste. I recommend Vaclav Smil's books on this subject.

Curious window into 🇦🇺-🇮🇱 relations, revealed by K. Rudd of all people. In summary: 🇦🇺-"could you pleeease stop faking our passports for Mossad assassinations? We'll stop sharing intel, we're super serious" 🇮🇱-"ok, promise we'll stop, appreciate the intel" *keeps doing it anyway*

Author seems surprised despite himself that 🇦🇺 would suddently support tiny East Timor's 1999 independence-bid vs its giant Indonesian neighbor for less than altruistic reasons. On submarine warfare: apparently effective anti-sub measures even more expensive than subs themselves.

In 2016 🇦🇺planned to buy $50 billion worth of subs from 🇫🇷. This was reneged (+$583 million cancellation fee) for $338 billion 🇺🇸nuclear-subs only worth for offensive operations, purchased (sticker price!) as part of AUKUS. Red line: 🇦🇺independent defence-capability a big no-no.

Chapter on Chyna. Readers should be familiar with its "Century of Humiliation" informing its leaders. After background, author points out 🇨🇳 is actually extremely vulnerable to blockade. Its buildup is simply defensive, hysterics over CCP world domination plans notwithstanding.

🇦🇺-🇨🇳 relations. Australia in the unenviable position being potentially forced into hostilities with (by far) its biggest trading partner. Much 🇺🇸pressure over asserting its "right" to conduct military/espionage activity within China's coastal exclusive economic zone.

In excerpt above, the Cold-War era international treaty on mutual military rights to coastal EEZ didn't concern the USSR, as it was an unusually autarkic and land-based power. If 🇨🇳 demands to amend the law of sea succeeded, 🇺🇸navy could theoretically lose rights to Persian Gulf.

Scenarios for 🇺🇸-🇨🇳 war. RAND corp thinks Chyna would start with invading Korea, to pin US troops in a tough theatre, where Chyna has local dominance in the Yellow Sea. Study mentions 🇦🇺 just twice, its help a given. Aus-Chinese loyalty concerns.. who could have forseen this?

Solomon Islands & other 3rd World states now gravitating towards Chyna simply because they find their development aid more effective. Plus they don't get lectured about over parades. A US-trained Afghan sergeant killed 3🇦🇺soldiers. Ofc, 🇺🇸 released him early from prison.

After the USSR's collapse, US thinktanks went trawling for plausible new enemies to justify military spending (& their jobs). An early candidate was India. One 🇦🇺 thinktank director writing a novel depicting an 🇮🇳 invasion. John Howard would later facilitate this without a shot.

Abusive remarks on Indians in general & Nehru in particular by Menzies, 🇦🇺's longest-serving PM. In contrast to 🇨🇳, 🇮🇳 chose conciliation with both the West & its own colonial-era elite in its cautious development plans. In 2013, 🇮🇳 equalled Africa for population in raw poverty.

@haravayin_hogh Author is East Timorese with an axe to grind. Also wrote a book on Noam Chomsky. Pass.

@BigWilkD Shouldn't have to say this, but you don't need to be 100% ideologically-aligned with someone to find value in things they write or say.

@haravayin_hogh your doing gods work with this thread i don’t have time to read the whole book myself

@stillreezy It's barely over 100 pages, if you skim over the "political science 101" sections it's really a glorified pamphlet. Some really striking info in there nonetheless