America is the most unequal country in the developed world. We also pay the lowest taxes among all developed nations. Is there a connection?

Francis Richard Conolly's well-reasoned documentary chronicles the rise of the moneyed elite and the means employed to control history and undermine democratic institutions since WWI. It is a long film - three and half hours - and worth every minute.

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How many insults does the European Union expect Russia to bear without consequences? Ethnic cleansing of Russian people by the Brussels-backed Kiev regime, a refugee crisis on Russia’s borders, economic sanctions based on groundless accusations hurting Russian society – and now this – the neo-Nazi cabal that seized power in Ukraine with CIA backing last year has repeatedly been found guilty of siphoning off Russia’s natural gas exports to the EU.

It’s been 18 months since Tony Abbott lost his job as Leader of the Opposition & that’s surely time enough for him to have worked-out what he should be doing as Prime Minister: playing head of government, leading the party that holds the majority of seats in the House of Representatives & acting as chief adviser to the Governor-General.

A recent report by the United States Congressional Research Service details hundreds of overseas military deployments spanning more than two centuries. The scope of and justification for the deployments vary wildly, from conflicts with pirates and bandits to formal declarations of war against an array of sovereign nations.

“Australians need to engage in a national conversation about how inequality is impacting on our lives, our culture, our economy and our society. We need to make clear to our political representatives what kind of society we want for our children and grandchildren. Politicians will not act while the community accepts growing inequality passively.”

The Extremely Dark and Unexamined Underside of the Charlie Hebdo Affair

Don Argus is the former Chairman of BHP Billiton and before that was CEO of the National Australia Bank.

from Crikey

Were you to plot a perfect satirical novel of the contemporary world, you might end it with a mass public march, led by a series of oligarchical leaders holding a banner saying "Freedom and Democracy" -- at the end of which everyone who participated would be arrested because they may well be enemies of such freedom and you can't be too careful.

I read Rupert Murdoch’s The Australian every day. I want to know what the fruitcake faction of capital is up to. That includes not just Murdoch’s journalists and his major ‘serious’ newspaper outlet in Australia but the Abbott government they serve and influence and the Liberal base they feed and incite.

The poor face onerous rules while rich corporations avoid tax with impunity.

Australian politicians love the idea of mutual obligation. But the disparities underlying it are becoming more and more extreme. Welfare recipients are painted as getting “something for nothing”, and pushed into more and more restrictive versions of the social contract.

The effects of fracking could be as dangerous as asbestos, thalidomide, or tobacco toxins, the UK’s leading scientist has warned, claiming the government has adopted the process without considering the side effects.

Possibly the most lamentable outcome of the raised tension and insecurity that has accompanied the theatre of terrorism in Australia is the decline in our political culture, which will last for as many years as such a threat is declared – even if it is never fully demonstrated.