1/I have always deplored Australia's aggressive stance towards China. We were right to call for an inquiry into COVID-19, but Morrison's sledgehammer tactics were a grievous error. The US can get away with it. But Australia is a small nation economically dependent on China. 2/I cannot fathom why Morrison sought to emulate Trump other than that 'imitation is the sincerest form of flattery', in which case Morrison lacks an understanding of Trump as well as of China. Surely he didn't expect Trump to back him up or bail Australia out of this mess.

@tengbiao 1/Je suis entièrement d'accord!! ✊C'est précisément ainsi que je considère Trump. Merci de partager cet article, il clarifie plusieurs choses que j'ai eu du mal à articuler précédemment. J'ai parlé avec plusieurs amis du danger que Trump représente pour la démocratie. @tengbiao 2/Presque tous rationalisent que Trump est un outil à utiliser pour s'opposer au CCP, auquel je réponds, Trump est un couteau sans poignée, il n'y a pas de moyen sûr de le saisir. La fin ne justifie pas les moyens; Trump lui-même est une menace pour la démocratie.

1/I'll expand on this. My sons' primary school was able to build a new wing of portable classrooms and buy iPads for every class. The garden & cooking programs have been a huge success - for 10 years the kids have grown their own produce & raised chooks.

https://twitter.com/democratie_kate/status/1321980847197626369

2/Each class works in the garden once a week and the kids love it. They harvest the veggies and learn to make nutritional recipes from them. Any surplus is sold to parents on 'market day'. Once every school in the area had a kitchen and garden program. Now, ours is the only one.

1/OK, I'll address this once more & then I'm done.

The concept of renouncing one's 'entitlement to citizenship' is not a simple one, because there is no provision for it under Australian law. It depends completely on the law of the country to which one is entitled citizenship. 2/The 26 other 'entitled' parliamentarians aside, I see no practical reason to go through the hassle of applying to Lithuania essentially to say 'Hi, just letting you know I will never, ever claim citizenship in your country. Can you acknowledge in writing? Ačiū, gražios dienos!'

1/Hey Tweeps

I have ideas and I can make speeches but I can't organise an uprising. I can barely organise myself. I just got over a ten-year opioid addiction, I have MS, and I'm so tired. I'm working a demanding job that pays fuck-all at present because I'm still in training. 2/I translate Chinese for an e-publishing house. I taught myself to read & write it but I've only been learning for 2 years. Translation is not an easy job but I can do it from home, an important consideration b/c of my MS and being in the at-risk 10% for COVID-19 complications.

1/Fuck. I knew this would open a can of worms. I'm not done yet. I said I held off commenting until I was decently informed. But there was one crucial thing I overlooked and I'm so sorry. It's to do with the BRI and its relationship to China's central government. 2/The BRI is critical to China's success on the world stage and to Xi Jinping's claim to the presidency for life. That's why it's so important to the CCP and why China's top brass are pushing it so exhaustively. But there's one thing about this that misleads everyone.

@CaoAhMan It would be. How do you see that happening, though? (I'm still reading up on Dan Andrews & the BRI, by the way, even wading through the #NewsCorpse sludge just to see what the other side says about it) @CaoAhMan OK. I've come to some conclusions..

Dan signed up to BRI in 2018. I accept his statement that it was purely about jobs. But I'd like to know if he still maintains that position.

Since 2018 China has made it increasingly clear that trade and diplomacy can no longer be separated.

1/Australia, it's time.

This week's events have convinced me that we need to exert our power as a people, with the aim of replacing* the Australian federal government, not in 2022 but NOW. I don't say this lightly.

*by legitimate means; pls read thread before forming opinion 2/THIS GOVERNMENT CANNOT BE MADE BETTER.

There's no use appealing to them.

As we've seen this week, there's no use expecting them to obey the law either.

But the main reason for not waiting until 2022 to vote them out?

Bushfire season is coming. And they haven't got a plan.

1/Hey Tweeps

Today I was rightly called out on my assertion that Tony Abbott was the 'best Opposition leader'. I quote @OAustralian: 'He was not the best. He was the most effective. There is a fundamental difference with profound implications.'

https://twitter.com/democratie_kate/status/1307890902497550336

2/I agree with this statement 100%, & I'm spewing that I made such a clumsy remark in the first place. It's inexcusable. No, from me it is. It is literally my day job to translate from one language to another without loss of nuance; I understand the power of words extremely well.

1/Coming from South Australia, I'm puzzled by the reluctance to embrace renewables (or at least, I was until I worked out that the LNP are rapacious dummschnitzels who can't see further than their offshore bank accounts).

https://twitter.com/simonahac/status/1307175958848266240

2/We started building wind farms ages ago. I reckon I was still in high school when we started, so at least 20 years ago. In recent years there's been a bit of debate about wind power & 'silent noise' but there was none of this bullshit about wind farms causing cancer, et al.

1/Hey Tweeps

Thank you SO MUCH for all your lovely words and your encouragement. I would be flagging so hard right now otherwise. Most of you don't know me from a bar of soap but your support is amazing. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I'm actually crying now. 2/I'm so sorry if I've missed liking or replying to your posts personally. Every few seconds I get about 40 new notifications. It's crazy. But please know I really mean it when I say how much I appreciate this and how often it's kept me going today. You're good people.

UPDATE: Still reading sodding QLD Electoral Act. Much tired. Very eyestrain. Can't find my reading glasses, which I only use about once a year anyway. They make me look like my dad, which is scary. I might call it a night. On track to finish #ClivePalmer report by end of weekend. Thanks everyone. I really appreciate your kind words, because this is a deadset grind. I don't have the knowledge to try & get him on breach of party constitution, and for such a litigious man I'd expect him to have that side of it sewn up. But the truth is I just wouldn't know,

1/Hi Tweeps

I've had lots of offers of help on my #ClivePalmer investigation. Thanks heaps, I'll take you up on it, once I know what we're dealing with.

I'm reading through the relevant laws & drafting arguments as I go. I won't know what I've got until I'm through reading. 2/And while I'm grateful the AEC is taking a stand, I'm not so enamoured of their recent performance that I'm willing to abandon my efforts. They may drop their action if Palmer scours up 500 members or provides evidence of such.

1/UPDATE ON #ClivePalmer: It's quite late so I'm going to finish up. I've read through the first hundred or so pages of the QLD Electoral Act and have typed up my notes. All relevant provisions have been noted along with page numbers. 2/Regarding the section on function and powers of the QEC, subsection 4 is deliberately broad, stating the QEC 'may do all things necessary or convenient' in connection with the performance of its functions.

1/UPDATE ON #ClivePalmer AND #UAP

I'm exhausted. I've been through the entire Australian Constitution and am partway into the QLD Electoral Act. I need a break & I'm taking one. But I'll let you know what I've got first. 2/I haven't even begun reading the section on fraud yet so I expect to find more solid arguments against Palmer in due course. Right now I'm focusing on the definition of 'political party' according to the Act. My argument is that the UAP does not satisfy the definition.

1/If I ever run for parliament I'll have to renounce my Lithuanian citizenship. I'll do it, but I'm not happy. I'm proud to be a citizen of a nation that was the first occupied state to declare independence from the USSR & prevailed even after the Soviet military crackdown.

https://twitter.com/democratie_kate/status/1306417469515423744

2/I was born in Australia, as were my parents. My Lithuanian citizenship comes from my maternal grandfather, who fled his homeland during WWII. So I have no practical reason for retaining my dual citizenship; I have family in Lithuania but I do not need citizenship to visit them.

1/Something I fucking love since I quit taking opioids is how short my periods of depression are. I have an incurable optimism even though we are clearly fucked. I woke up with my throat all stiff (happens very rarely, an old MS symptom). Until it relaxes, I can't talk properly. 2/I am still waiting for my neurologist to give permission to get a Botox injection in my neck so I don't have to put up with it any more, but the public system is slow. Usually when my throat goes like this I feel hopeless and angry.

Compared to being solicited by a CCP apparatchik, anonymous clowns telling you to shut up/die/get a dick up ya (like that's going to shut me up. Wrong end, idiots) tend to lose whatever scary powers they may otherwise have possessed. #auspol

https://twitter.com/democratie_kate/status/1306112474026971136

That went on for MONTHS. I was too afraid to tell anyone. I did report it to home security but never heard back. I didn't try again, I distrusted the Morrison government too much by that point; I was worried they might think I was complicit.

1/At present I've no plans to run for parliament. I live in the second-safest Labor seat after Grayndler. I used to be a member of the Greens & weighed up joining Labor but I'd have to compromise more than I'm willing to give. My MS can be unpredictable & is my main obstacle.

https://twitter.com/democratie_kate/status/1305809288518983687

2/But I admit it has been something I've considered for a long time. I've been politically aware since I was fifteen or so, but when I got to university & became involved in student activism, I realised how passionate I was about equality, human rights & good government.

Morning Tweeps

Didn't sleep much so I don't know if I'm capable of a follow-up to yesterday, but I'll repost my #IStandWithDan video from last week. I was driving & thinking about it all & suddenly I was so annoyed I pulled over to the side of the road & filmed myself venting. Fuck I should have warned you, I sound like Michaelia Cash in this one because I was just so bloody irate. I'm sorry, I know it's early in the morning for bleeding eardrums. 😳😂

It's funny - underneath my shock is my snarky self still intact, going, This is educational! It'll help understand things better. Seriously. I'm white, so I have it easy. I have experienced gender discrimination but I've also kicked two dudes in the nuts who tried to molest me.

https://twitter.com/democratie_kate/status/1304459853029543936

So I don't feel disempowered. Anyway, now the initial shock's worn off, I'm still in one piece. I feel a bit of contempt, some anger on behalf of others w/MS & people who've lost their loved ones to it. Mine was caught very early. I get tired easily. That's about it.