Laurie O’Brien
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lgobrien.bsky.social
Laurie O’Brien
@lgobrien.bsky.social
250 followers 190 following 94 posts
Social justice - education - natural environment.
Each exploited by Corporations - time for change.

Fortunate to reside on Turrbul and Yuggera land.
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Laurie O’Brien
dropsitenews.com
Reuters, France 24, the UN Human Rights Office, & UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese herself have all confirmed the vid is doctored & that she never made the remark it falsely attributes to her.

The clip was amplified by UN Watch and its executive director Hillel Neuer, who has repeatedly...
Reuters, France 24, the United Nations Human Rights Office, and UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese herself have all confirmed the video is doctored and that she never made the remark it falsely attributes to her. The clip was amplified by UN Watch and its executive director Hillel Neuer, who has repeatedly amplified false claims about Albanese over the years. cc @CommunityNotes
February 15, 2026 at 7:20 PM
Reposted by Laurie O’Brien
aaliamauro.bsky.social
Spain's Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Díaz:

I have left X. That network is a place of hate.

We are not vassals of Elon Musk or Trump.

Spain should do the right thing and sanction Elon Musk and freeze all his assets in the country.
February 8, 2026 at 4:29 PM
Reposted by Laurie O’Brien
jamesboycebooks.bsky.social
Perhaps the Israeli President could be asked about the crimes of these settler soldier units of the IDF while he Australia?
Settler-only IDF units functioning as ‘vigilante militias’ in West Bank
Exclusive: ‘Regional defence’ settler units are escalating violent displacement of Palestinians, Israeli reservists and activists say
www.theguardian.com
January 31, 2026 at 7:12 AM
Reposted by Laurie O’Brien
maranoagirl.bsky.social
AU. Chris Sodoti.
johnmenadue.com/post/2026/02...
Isaac Herzog is accused of inciting genocide in Gaza. He shouldn’t be welcomed to Australia
Writing in the Guardian on Thursday UN Commissioner Chris Sidoti laid out the reasons Isaac Herzog should not be welcome in Australia, and urged the Prime Minister to correct his terrible mistake in i...
johnmenadue.com
February 6, 2026 at 8:02 PM
Reposted by Laurie O’Brien
lucyham.bsky.social
Thanks to @michaelwestbiz.bsky.social for the updates on who is funding the #AtlasNetwork linked Advance astroturf front group. Mega-rich funding faux-battler grievance. Zionist money continues to be a feature from founding on. michaelwest.com.au/the-billiona...
#Auspol
The billionaires bankrolling rightwing astroturfer Advance Australia - Michael West
Gina Rinehart, James Packer, Mark Leibler and other business figures the major backers of right-wing lobby group Advance Australia. #AEC
michaelwest.com.au
February 5, 2026 at 7:14 AM
lgobrien.bsky.social
January 31, 2026 at 12:42 PM
Reposted by Laurie O’Brien
jeremywalker.bsky.social
BREAKING! WORLD FIRST! 🔥Australia's public broadcaster publishes extended #AtlasNetwork explainer by Gareth Hutchens. When I went on ABC radio 3 years ago to talk about the global Atlas network of 550+ orgs, no one had heard of it. Atlas HQ wanted to keep it that way.
www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01...
January 25, 2026 at 10:40 PM
Reposted by Laurie O’Brien
jksteinberger.bsky.social
This article on the Atlas Network by @garethhutchens.bsky.social is epic, epic reporting. Interesting that my criticism of Swiss media rebroadcasting of Atlas Network climate denial made it into Australian media - but not Swiss. Thanks @jeremywalker.bsky.social for your leadership on this. 🙏🙏🙏
Quote from linked article: Julia Steinberger, Professor of Societal Challenges of Climate Change at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, also wrote a submission. She was a lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for the sixth assessment report 2018-2023. She said traditional media had shown itself to be "shockingly vulnerable to the uncritical broadcasting of climate disinformation": "In Switzerland, traditional media very often rebroadcasts communication from politically oriented actors, such as members of the Mont Pélerin Society, or affiliates of Atlas Network think tanks, as though they were neutral commentators," she said. "These actors propagate climate denial and disinformation, trying to cast doubt on the science and the scientists doing climate research. "Traditional media shied away from investigative reporting into the funding and activities of these think tanks, and such investigative reporting was left to organisations with much smaller means, such as DeSmog."
January 27, 2026 at 3:12 PM
Reposted by Laurie O’Brien
anatolkirichenko.bsky.social
This is Australia #auspol
Give Lucy Hamilton a follow on her stack @lucyham.bsky.social
My fave Aus forensic writer 🦘

substack.com/app-link/post?publication_id=3526487&post_id=186022190
Brief: compulsory reading from the ABC
Gareth Hutchens, ABC business and economics reporter, has produced an excellent, approachable and detailed introduction to how the Mont Pelerin Society and the Atlas Network function.
substack.com
January 27, 2026 at 11:28 PM
Reposted by Laurie O’Brien
deniseshrivell.bsky.social
This is really good.

Every Australian should know about the influences underpinning our politics - which goes a long way to explain the mess we’re in #auspol
January 25, 2026 at 10:50 PM
Reposted by Laurie O’Brien
tasinquirer.bsky.social
If four million pigs or chooks died on farms in a year, questions would be asked. Last year's death toll of Tas #salmon sparks calls for companies to be fined under animal welfare law, to avoid 2025 mortality rates becoming the "new normal". #politas #auspol

tasmanianinquirer.com.au/news/more-th...
January 25, 2026 at 9:12 PM
Reposted by Laurie O’Brien
lucyham.bsky.social
Big day for the understanding of the #AtlasNetwork in Australia. Thanks to Gareth Hutchens and the ABC for publishing the story (and the namecheck 🫣).
You can’t understand the last 50 years of Australia’s history (closer to a century in quieter ways) without this.
#auspol #NZpol
If you're wondering which reporters in Australia regularly cover these think tank networks, there aren't many. The independent journalist Lucy Hamilton is a stand-out. Anthony Klan from The Klaxon is another, along with Michael West from Michael West Media. The Guardian keeps tabs on some of the individuals and organisations in the ecosystem. The ABC and Sydney Morning Herald report sporadically on it. Dr Jeremy Walker from UTS is one of the most prominent Australian academics working in this space. He made a detailed 75-page submission (No. 243) to the committee that discusses early fossil fuel industry knowledge of the disastrous environmental impacts of the greenhouse effect, the corporate funding sources for different free-market think tanks, and the links between various groups in the ecosystem.
January 25, 2026 at 9:26 PM
Reposted by Laurie O’Brien
coupdegraz7.bsky.social
#UNRWA #Jerusalem
972mag.com +972 Magazine @972mag.com · 26d
TODAY: Israeli authorities demolish the UNRWA headquarters in Jerusalem.
January 21, 2026 at 9:41 AM
Reposted by Laurie O’Brien
jommytee.bsky.social
Ronni nails it.
ronnisalt.bsky.social Ronni🧂Salt @ronnisalt.bsky.social · 26d
My latest article in @theshot.net.au on the dark days of McCarthyism coming to Australia to eclipse our cultural landscape under the guise of eradicating communism - whoops sorry - antisemitism

The Adelaide Festival, the arts and the dark arts

#allfeedbackwelcome

🙏🏽
theshot.net.au/uncategorize...
The dark arts - The Shot
The ideology of the Israel lobby in Australia is this - burn it to the ground rather than ever allow an opposing voice.
theshot.net.au
January 21, 2026 at 6:45 AM
Reposted by Laurie O’Brien
jamesboycebooks.bsky.social
Am I missing something? Surely what the Israeli President has said about the Palestinians is the very definition of ‘hate speech’ and violent extremism under the legislation going through parliament today?
January 20, 2026 at 8:33 AM
Reposted by Laurie O’Brien
maranoagirl.bsky.social
Best of 2025 - The inflation myth propping up private school privilege.
johnmenadue.com/post/2026/01...
Best of 2025 - The inflation myth propping up private school privilege
Private schools regularly blame inflation for rising fees, yet funding arrangements mean they are largely compensated for cost increases. Their fee-setting power widens the resource gap while feeding ...
johnmenadue.com
January 19, 2026 at 7:58 AM
Reposted by Laurie O’Brien
mleroi.bsky.social
x.com/swilkinsonbc...
January 18, 2026 at 10:43 AM
Reposted by Laurie O’Brien
cathywilcox.bsky.social
As ever, the letter-writers bring the wisdom.
We have a crisis of leadership at so many levels, and you only need to look at theocratic and repressive states to see that harsh, arbitrary rules and punishment do not make a society safe or harmonious.
January 15, 2026 at 10:59 PM
Reposted by Laurie O’Brien
caitoz.bsky.social
January 15, 2026 at 8:24 PM
Reposted by Laurie O’Brien
lucyham.bsky.social
🧵 Decades of concerted, networked, well-funded effort to demonise Muslims unites the disparate factions trying to build new nationalisms around a faith identity. Christofascists around Trump, Israeli-Jewish nationalists around Bibi & Modi’s Hindutva cooperate. lucyham29.substack.com/p/australian...
Australians' freedom of speech is under attack because Palestinians are seen as less than human
A coalition of forces is working to stop Australian speech and protest that criticises Israel. Cultural landmarks like Meanjin and the 2026 Adelaide Writers Week festival are victims.
lucyham29.substack.com
January 15, 2026 at 2:10 AM
Reposted by Laurie O’Brien
jamesboycebooks.bsky.social
One of the many problems of having marketing men and corporate executives run arts festivals is they assume human beings are always motivated by self interest. It’s unimaginable to them that writers could sacrifice their own interests for the common good.
January 11, 2026 at 5:05 AM
Reposted by Laurie O’Brien
caitoz.bsky.social
Trumpers were sold the story that their guy would fight the deep state globalists to benefit ordinary Americans. Now he's advancing every CIA/neocon agenda known to man in the middle east and Latin America with the goal of global domination as life in the US gets worse and worse.
January 10, 2026 at 11:23 PM
Reposted by Laurie O’Brien
jamesboycebooks.bsky.social
A must read on the Palestine Action hunger strikers. How can this be happening in the UK? Under a Labour Government . Given the UN findings, surely past time for the few remaining countries in the world with respect for international law to speak up
Let’s be clear: if the Palestine Action hunger strikers die, the government will bear moral responsibility | George Monbiot
The three remaining hunger strikers have been convicted of nothing. Yet with astonishing cruelty, ministers refuse to listen to their reasonable demands, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
www.theguardian.com
January 7, 2026 at 1:36 PM
Reposted by Laurie O’Brien
jamesboycebooks.bsky.social
The media focus must be on the best known names but please support also lesser known & unwaged writers who have often laboured years on a book for little financial reward and for whom, festivals are a rare opportunity for promotion. In a boycott, these authors make the biggest sacrifice.
Authors withdraw from festival after Palestinian Australian author dropped
After Randa Abdel-Fattah was dropped from Adelaide Writers' Week by the Adelaide Festival Board, a slew of authors, including Michelle de Kretser, have withdrawn from the event.
www.abc.net.au
January 8, 2026 at 7:22 AM