In America today, three mega-billionaires – Bill Gates (Microsoft), Jeff Bezos (Amazon) and Warren Buffett (an “investor”) – combined, have more than the collective wealth of the poorest-half of Americans. Those three guys’ net worth is $248.5 billion, compared to $245 billion for the bottom 160 million of the United States.
This is the kind of society USA-groupies like Morrison, Frydenberg & Co want in Australia.
Read MoreDonald Trump, tired of threatening to invade Venezuela, nuke North Vietnam, or appoint Boris Johnson PM of GB, last week launched a new round of brinkmanship with the rulers of Iran.
There are two things that the Murdoch family, Clive Palmer, and their compradores in Canberra, will fight to the death to prevent us from getting our grubby little public mitts on.
Read MoreThe explosion of new ideas and ways of living that happened in the late 1960s and early 70s — known as the counter-culture — was not a frivolous indulgence in sex drugs and rock’n’roll, nor was it a failed attempt to redefine everything about our culture: it was a semi-successful attempt, and what we must do to save our species from self-extinction is complete the revolution.
Read MoreSince Rupert Murdoch will die soon, surely, I’m posting here the first of several brief encounters I’ve had with him and his Empire over the last half-century. This is about bringing Rolling Stone magazine to Australia, when it mattered.
Read MoreMillions of Trumpsters hate “political correctness” itself, meaning progressive reviewing of past and present injustices, more than they hate immigrants, or the other subsets of the community whom they see as benefiting from liberal social policies.
Read MoreShe spent the first 30 years of her adult life chasing after justice and equality for all, and particularly for people who were like her, black and female. She didn’t retreat or apologise on matters of principle.
Read MoreThe president at last admitted that the USA assumes the right to pillage resources from all over the planet while distracting everyone with bullshit about bringing us democracy freedom and prosperity. Everybody knows this but here it was on TV, straight from the horse’s arse.
Jim and Kim drank gallons of Johnny Walker Black Label while hatching new plots to whack the “mole” Angleton was certain was somewhere inside his team until, in 1963, Philby himself vanished and re-emerged living in Moscow. Angleton was shattered, unable to comprehend such treachery.
Read MoreThe current Congress might grant Trump powers never before given to a President, for example, to suspend the 2020 presidential elections, if enough people were in the streets protesting and enough right-wing open-carry armed thugs turned out to confront them
Read MoreThe Thrill of Shared Outrage (TOSO) about Trump gets us nowhere, so here instead are some facts and ideas that offer a glimmer of hope that America might yet be rid of him.
In practical terms, the Koch agenda is to remove all constraints on what individuals and businesses can do, which is what Charles Koch calls “libertarianism” (not to be confused with the anti-elite libertarianism promoted in the sixties by Sydney intellectuals such as Germaine Greer and John Anderson). They are shoveling billions into the US political system to build their dream society, the sole principle of which is unmitigated selfishness.
Read MoreLet’s acknowledge everyone who went to war, as well as people who had the courage to not go on principle, and those who fought from the 1950s through to today against joining the many American wars on poor nations seeking independence from, well, rich Americans.
“Quietly, the Liberals’ expectation now is that Turnbull will not be leading them to the next election.” Peter Dutton will be backed by those in the Coalition who, openly or secretly, prefer a leader whose only job outside of politics was being a Brisbane cop. Dutton goes after journalists with the same mouth-frothing energy he uses for immigrants, environmentalists, Dustin Martin’s dad, and Jonny Depp’s dogs.
Read MoreFacebook “mines” our personal information and sells it to advertisers who use it to target ads at us. You keep “liking” pink kittens and you’ll get ads selling baby cat food and pink hair dye. That simple business model brings in most of the company’s $42 billion annual income.
Read MoreIt is theoretically possible that the Australian Broadcasting Commission board might be persuaded to rein in its marauding Managing Director Michelle Guthrie, but in the USA, there in is no board, no way to rein Trump in.
Read More
The crisis behind the fake leader-of-the-free-world a result of businessmen having seized control of most supposedly democratic governments.
Read MoreLast weekend I concluded that, finally, Trump had alienated enough people in America for the “elite” to agree he has to be dumped. The following four recent events inspired this notion:
Read MoreBy delivering her rousing Golden Globe Awards speech, Oprah Winfrey made us ask if being a celebrity is sufficient qualification to be President, or are there experience and skill requirements?
Read MoreAfter Trump’s first year on the job, actually most of it on the golf course, a fair percentage of the world’s 7.6 billion people now see that neither knowledge, understanding, compassion, nor concern for the planet press his buttons. We can only hope that he doesn’t press the button, and kill untold millions of us, which he’s odds on to do.
This crooked real estate moocher entered the White House with no plan other than to undo every socially useful thing President Obama did, and be his bullying self. He gave top jobs in his administration to people who’d given him campaign money, also to people who promised to demolish the agencies he hired them to manage (eg climate change denier Scott Pruitt to run the EPA, into the ground), and to fellow business alpha-males like ex-boss of Exxon-Mobil Rex Tillerson who knew jack shit about affairs of state, to be Secretary of State.
Read More
