The wealthiest 400 people in the world saw their combined net worth grow by $92 billion last year, hitting $4.1 trillion. The bonanza for the super-rich was underwritten by governments and central banks around the world, which fueled surging stock markets and record corporate profits by pumping hundreds of billions into the financial markets.

In June 2014 a very distinguished scholar was publicly wondering: “Is the Abbott government Fascist?” He felt justified in asking the question by the observation that “Since the last Federal election, people have been shocked at where Australia seems to be heading. So where is Australia heading? Towards fascism? There are straws in the wind.”

The UN Security Council rejected on Tuesday a Palestinian resolution calling for peace with Israel within a year and an end to the "Israeli occupation" of Palestinian territories by late 2017.

What a winner! Billboard Bill sitting in an empty hall with that ‘WTF am I doing?’ look in his eyes.  That image alone is sure to inspire millions of people. [Sarcasm for those who can’t spot it.]

The Abbott government says they are all about jobs and growth, but for who?

In 2012, unions were outraged by a decision to allow Gina Rinehart to import more than 1,700 foreign workers on 457 visas for her latest project in Western Australia.

The magnitude of Prime Minister Tony Abbott's "woman problem" has been underlined in new research which shows women rate the government very poorly across all policy areas and are harsher than men in their assessment of the government's overall performance.

Female voters are also more pessimistic about the economic outlook, according to the new polling analysis.

Joe Hockey said “We are going to give economic reform a red hot go in 2015.”

Christmas and the New Year is a time of hope. Yet all this Abbott government and its media spruikers offers is fear – fear of terrorism; fear of asylum seekers and fear of the unemployed are its current playthings.

Thus Abbott tells us about terrorism ‘chatterings’, fitting well into his initial narrative of the Sydney siege as our ‘ brush with terrorism’ and the Daily Telegraph lyingly painting the hostage crisis as being carried out by the IS death cult.

Increased chatter; increased chatter; increased chatter; increased chatter; increased chatter; increased chatter; increased chatter; increased chatter; increased chatter; increased chatter; increased chatter; increased chatter; increased chatter; increased chatter; increased chatter; increased chatter; increased chatter; increased chatter; increased chatter; increased chatter; increased chatter; increased chatter; increased chatter; increased chatter; increased chatter; increased chatter; increased chatter; increased chatter; increased chatter; increased chatter; increased chatter; increased chatter; increased chatter; increased chatter; increased chatter; increased chatter; increased chatter; increased chatter ................

If you go to Tony Abbott’s facebook page, at time of writing, you will find six threads about the Martin Place siege and one about the slaughter of innocent children in Pakistan.  Four days after its release, you will not find any comment about Hockey’s MYEFO.  That in itself should be cause for concern.

In 1964, the Brazilian military, in a US-designed coup, overthrew a liberal (not more to the left than that) government and proceeded to rule with an iron fist for the next 21 years. In 1979 the military regime passed an amnesty law blocking the prosecution of its members for torture and other crimes. The amnesty still holds.

from Crikey ….

In the course of 2014, around 70 women and children will have died at the hands of a partner, ex-partner or father. We don’t know exactly how many, because governments across Australia don’t keep uniform sets of data, but we know roughly how many based on historical data.

Drone strikes and other "targeted killings" of terrorist and insurgent leaders favoured by the US and supported by Australia can strengthen extremist groups and be counterproductive, according to a secret CIA report published by WikiLeaks.

According to a leaked document by the CIA's Directorate of Intelligence, "high value targeting" (HVT) involving air strikes and special forces operations against insurgent leaders can be effective, but can also have negative effects including increasing violence and greater popular support for extremist groups.