All it took was a recording of Donald Sterling insulting Magic Johnson in a derogatory manner for the 24-hour news world to stop on its axis.
Now imagine if Donald Sterling 鈥 in all of his paranoid, racist fervour 鈥 had an army at his disposal and bombed Magic Johnson in his home, killing him in his sleep.
If such a scenario sounds like hacky Phillip K Dick fan fiction as written by Mike Lupica, then you have not been paying attention to the dystopian, genocidal panorama in Gaza, where no one is safe. You are unfamiliar with the name Ahed Zaqout.
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Hideous. Sadistic. Vicious. Murderous. That is how veteran academic and author Noam Chomsky describes Israel鈥檚 month-long offensive in Gaza that killed at least 2000 people and left almost 10,000 injured.
Police used smoke and tear gas to enforce a curfew on protesters early on the morning of August 17 in Ferguson, Missouri, where an unarmed black teenager was killed by police on August 9, said the next day.
Seven people were arrested during the night. Campaign group More claimed that all seven were arrested after being 鈥渄ragged out of cars, some parked in their own driveways鈥.
Former British prime minister, and current United Nations鈥 Middle East 鈥減eace envoy鈥, Tony Blair has an insatiable appetite for cuddling up to despots and tyrants. This time it is Egypt's dictator, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, responsible for the mass murder of more than 1000 peaceful demonstrators.
An inhumane policy that damages some to deter others. Detention centres that cause psychiatric disorders, self-harm and suicide. Arbitrary. Unjust. Cynical.
This is how an open letter, named "J'accuse", signed by more than 220 psychiatrists, human rights lawyers, priests, health professionals and other experts describes Australia鈥檚 refugee policy.
The National Union of Students called a national day of action to 鈥渃elebrate鈥 education minister Christopher Pyne鈥檚 47th birthday on August 13. Students used the occasion to protest the federal government鈥檚 funding cuts to higher education, which will mean students will have to pay up to three times more for a university degree than they do now and will pay more interest on their HECS-HELP fee.
You can see where federal treasurer Joe Hockey is coming from with his comment about poor people not having cars and so not being affected by the rise in the fuel excise tax, can't you? On the planet he seems to be lost on, the rich are the real oppressed.
The rich are paying too much tax 鈥 or even 鈥渁ll the tax鈥 according to a recent rant in the Australian 鈥 doing all the work, doing the heavy lifting, while the rest of society bludges off them.
More than 200 staff and students rallied outside Fisher Library at Sydney University on August 13 to protest proposed cuts to the university's library system. The cuts will involve closures and staff redundancies.
"If the university gets its way all four libraries will lose their staff and collections. Two will become little more than post-grad only PC labs," the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) said.
Moreland residents were outraged when they heard Moreland City Council had voted to cut $100,000 from the Carbon Management Plan in the council's budget last month.
This cut the budget for climate action from $525,000 to $424,000 and would have resulted in some of the council's solar energy projects not going ahead.
The $100,000 cut came as a shock, considering the council鈥檚 previous initiatives to tackle carbon emissions.
At a rally in solidarity with Palestine in Sydney on August 9, Chilean community activist and Socialist Alliance member Paula Sanchez told the 1000-strong crowd about the growing number of Latin American countries cutting diplomatic and trade ties with Israel in protest against its war on Gaza. Sanchez addressed the rally on behalf of the Latin American Social Forum.
One of the promises Prime Minister Tony Abbott made when he was elected last year was to create 1 million jobs over the next five years. This translates to a monthly increase of about 17,000 jobs. Yet in the 10 months since September last year, only 11,000 jobs a month have been created 鈥 and more than half of these were part-time jobs.
Two ministers and five backbenchers have been suspended from the Liberal Party in NSW as a consequence of Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) investigations over the past couple of months.
The latest ICAC hearings, which resumed on August 4, are centred on illegal donations from property developers in Newcastle and the Central Coast.
When Labor Premier Nathan Rees banned these donations in November 2009, it was not well received by significant groupings in the Liberal and Labor parties.
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