For a man who had taken a stunning electoral blow two weeks earlier, Barack Obama completed his Asian trip with an air of unperturbed leadership of the world - whatever the Republicans at home thought about who was in charge of what now will happen in the United States.

In my view, the ABC is not ‘our’ ABC, nor is it ‘our beloved’ ABC. It certainly isn’t an ‘impartial’ ABC. It is up to its armpits in defending capitalism. Sometimes it questions aspects of capitalism, but more often it seems to be pushing a conservative agenda.

Gus' interpretation of Turdy Tony's deception on Aboriginal affairs: Crookery at the most despicable level...

from Crikey …..

Defending the Abbott government’s decision to cut more than $300 million from the public broadcaster budgets yesterday, Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the Prime Minister’s election eve commitment to make no cuts to the ABC or SBS must be taken in “context”.

Here at Crikey, we agree. Below is just some of the context we found while searching online this morning.

“Russia reinforced what Western and Ukrainian officials described as a stealth invasion on Wednesday [August 27], sending armored troops across the border as it expanded the conflict to a new section of Ukrainian territory. The latest incursion, which Ukraine’s military said included five armored personnel carriers, was at least the third movement of troops and weapons from Russia across the southeast part of the border this week.”

People love how cheaply and efficiently Jeff Bezos sells and delivers product to their door. So much so that his net worth, as the founder and chief executive of Amazon, is about $US30 billion ($34 billion).

Yet Bezos concerns himself with how much time his employees spend going to the toilet. The workers in his many warehouses, known as pickers, are constantly monitored.

If Tony Abbott thought radio host Alan Jones would provide him with a sympathetic forum to bask in his successful hosting of the G20 summit on Monday, he had another thing coming.

The adolescent country. The bit player. The shrimp of the schoolyard.

Australia's possible dual British citizen PM Tony Abbott today described Australia as “nothing but bush” before the arrival of the First Fleet. First Nations’ representative Natalie Cromb responds.

The meteoric rise to power of Barack Obama in 2008 was propelled by one of the greatest demagogic US Presidential campaigns of all time: To millions of young Americans, he promised to end the US wars in the Middle East. To millions of working and middle class voters, he promised to end the economic crisis by confronting Wall Street.

Suppose you’re in the supermarket shopping for groceries. While you’re strolling the aisle with your cart, a shadowy figure looms over your shoulder and changes the prices on the items you want to buy before you get a chance to pick them up.