How much longer are we prepared to accept the level of inequality that exists in the world?

US bombers flew close to North Korean mainland on Saturday

US President Donald Trump issued a familiar warning to North Korea on Tuesday, saying the US is prepared to use "devastating" military action if necessary - as two defense officials tell CNN that the rogue nation has moved a small number of fighter jets, external fuel tanks and air-to-air missiles to a base on its eastern coast to boost military readiness.

In September 2015 the Australian government decided that it was joining the US-led “coalition” to fight in Syria in what was described at the time as a war against the terrorist group ISIS (also known as ISIL, IS or Daesh). The decision was purportedly made following the receipt of legal advice as to the legality under international law of Australia joining that particular war. It was subsequently revealed that the government had received the legal advice a year earlier than when it said it was “waiting” for the advice.

In writing this I will probably be accused of again drawing too much attention to Tony Abbott. That is in fact precisely what I’m doing, and with some satisfaction, I might add.

To finish my week’s theme on “commongoodism” I take you back to 2015 when the darling of the Murdoch journalists was suggesting that all you really needed to be successful in politics, was a degree of sorts.

SA Senator Nick Xenophon’s bid for justice for an Australian citizen – who simply wants his passport back – has been rejected by the Senate.

“This really is a very significant scandal in the fact that a citizen of this country has been denied the ability to travel overseas” Senator Xenophon said.

The case against Monsanto is the gift that keeps on giving.

Profit is theft, in our current economy. That is the profound conclusion that must be addressed. But surely no one will agree with this on its face. It sounds equally absurd. But corporate/ceo/shareholder profit would not exist if workers were paid the full value of their work. All workers contribute to the profit or losses of a business. But in traditional capitalist practice, only the owners or shareholders receive the profits while 99% of the workers - the working class minus management usually - receives a static wage. And this wage *must* be depressed lower than the full value of their work otherwise profit could not exist.

I been to cities that never close down
From New York to Rio and Old London Town
But no matter how far or how wide I roam
I still call Australia home-ophobic

‘Rent-seeking’ is a term understood by most economists. It refers to the ability of powerful groups to extract special concessions and favours at the expense of the wider community.

How much fear do we want? Enough of it preserves our lives. Too much of it diminishes our lives. Currently, the balance is skewed by an overload of fear. Anxiety, its clinical name, is in epidemic proportions.

We celebrate our good luck in Australia but, writes Dr Samuel Douglas, when things don’t always go our way, we’d be glad to live somewhere that values the "fair go".

It's been a pressing theme for Australian authorities since September 11: certain spaces of communication are to be questioned and controlled. Despite amassing a set of rules and regulations that make Australia a leader (in a dubious sense) in accessing communications, the Turnbull government wishes for more.