voltaire's democratic reluctance....


Je vois des peuples infortunés gémissants sous un joug de fer, le genre humain écrasé par une poignée d’oppresseurs, une foule affamée, accablée de peine et de faim, dont le riche boit en paix le sang et les larmes, et partout le fort armé contre le faible du redoutable pouvoir des lois...
Former US Secretary of State and CIA Director Mike Pompeo seems irked that the Ukraine conflict could end without Russia groveling and handing over concessions on a silver platter.
The Australian government remains silent on Israel banning 37 international aid organisations in Gaza, despite warnings from humanitarian groups. Stephanie Tran reports.

The fatal shooting of a woman in Minneapolis, Minnesota, by an ICE agent was a “tragedy of her own making,” US Vice President J.D. Vance has said, throwing his full support behind the agency.

Are Russia and China, the BRICS, willing to continue to let Trump redraw the ‘mappa mundi’ according to his own exclusive interests? Or is it time to see a real alternative to US hegemony take shape?
No alternative to US hegemony?
Ricardo Nuno Costa

A new analysis finds that the richest 15 billionaires in the U.S. saw their wealth skyrocket by nearly $1 trillion in the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, which also contained one of the single largest cuts to welfare benefits in U.S. history.

With corporate media forcing PM Albanese into a small target corner on messaging, the right is filling the rhetorical void. Andrew Gardiner looks at the repercussions.
Albo’s search for the middle leaves him exposed on both flanks
by Andrew Gardiner