Mr. Putin has methodically targeted, through charm and cash and by fanning historical and ideological embers, the European Union’s weakest links in a campaign to assert influence in some of Europe’s most troubled corners. One clear goal is to break fragile Western unity over the conflict in Ukraine.

Pauline Hanson, the figure of popular racism from the 1990s, spoke at the Reclaim (White) Australia rally in Brisbane.  This is significant.

There is nothing, absolutely nothing right in the Middle East these days. There seems to be no hope left, and no fervor. All that was pure was dragged through filth. All that was great here was stolen or smashed by the outsiders. Enthusiasm had been ridiculed, then drowned, or burned to ashes, or shattered by tanks and missiles.

Documents uncovered by Wikileaks reveal the TPP to be a serious threat to global democracy (Image via Wikileaks.org)

Abbott’s senior public servants expose his incompetence and lies

The fifth of April, 2015 is Resurrection Day. Easter... Easter Bunny. Chocolate eggs. It's a day to make us believe in rabbits from the time we're toddlers in a basket. To stay forever as a basket case. From year to year it changes date because Easter is based on the moon calendar. Easter is not a fixed date like say Christmas, which was made to coincide with a pagan fiesta — the celebration of sumpthin' that became Santa Claus. But the whole lot is designed to place markers in our faith. The whole lot is boloney of course. 

Part I ….

I’ve never been too impressed by what college a person went to, or even if they attended college at all. Gore Vidal did not attend any college; neither did H. L. Mencken; nor did Edward Snowden, who has demonstrated a highly articulate and educated mind. Among the many other notables who skipped a college education are George Bernard Shaw, Ernest Hemingway, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Over 80,000 ["man"-made] chemicals are used in everyday products. We handle them, they're in our water, our food and in the air we breathe. It's impossible to escape them. But now there's growing concern that these chemicals are not safe.

An environmental group has renewed its calls to ban dredging, after a report about its impacts on the Great Barrier Reef.

from Crikey ….

The U.S. plans to increase its support for Saudi Arabia’s attack on Yemen: