From farm to pharmaceutical, diesel truck to dinner plate, pipeline to plastic product, it is impossible to think of an area of our modern-day lives that is not affected by the oil industry.

The story of oil is the story of the modern world. And this is the story of those who helped shape that world, and how the oil-igarchy they created is on the verge of monopolizing life itself.

The most dramatic example of this is recommendation 60 – which singles out the CFMEU for its “culture of disregard for the law” and suggests parliament consider legislation banning individual CFMEU officials.

Here we are at the end of 2015, and apparently there has never been a more exciting time to be an Australian.

Maybe, maybe not.

Republican frontrunner Donald Trump used a Yiddish vulgarity to refer to Hillary Clinton on Monday, saying she was “schlonged” in her 2008 Democratic primary loss to Barack Obama.

So how will the Pentagon succeed where the State Department has apparently failed? No one really knows. "There's not a lot you can do to message against that kind of enemy," says Will McCants, a fellow at the Brookings Institution who researches Islamic extremist groups. "A big part of their recruiting pitch is that they've been successful in creating a state in Syria and Iraq, and until that disappears, they continue to have a big talking point that no amount of tweeting or Facebooking is going to refute."

Shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus has had a court victory over the current minister, George Brandis, with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal overturning Senator Brandis' refusal to release his ministerial diary.

Global warming is real. Global warming is anthropogenic. Coal contributes a great portion of anthropogenic global warming. It's long been time to phase coal mining out. Time to place a stop on all new coal mining. Come on Turnbull, stop the bullshit and do something about it. 

Either a repeat of the kabinet kitchen or a new weirdo episode with senator Xenophon as squeezed by Annabel/Marie-Antoinette. Not one to shy away from pranks, I offer you the image I gleaned from watching a bit over 20 seconds of the show. One could sense the politics "a la plancha" which is a hot barbecued way to grill bull's balls, other bits and seafood in Spain. Xenophon is an old lemon and knows how to stir, even the most twirly-coiffed kitchen-journalist. On tonight's menu he planched an octopus which strangely enough looked like Tony Abbott in my dreams.

Brazilian government holds the mining giants responsible for one of the nation’s worst ever environmental disasters, and is demanding $5bn

The ATO's recent 'Corporate Tax Transparency Report' is reason to be "screaming from the rooftops for the companies in this list to explain how they have been exploiting us for years", according to former Assistant Commissioner of Taxation, John Passant.

Memo to white men: Abbott's bigotry and inflammatory language not a free speech issue

from Crikey …