Issue 77:  10 February to 16 February

## Parliamentary Fire Sales

The global ‘freedom movement’ is a carnival of crank and conspiracy – and very dangerous
Van Badham | The Guardian
The relevant historical lesson is that the threat to democracy doesn’t come from the proportion of the people these groups can claim to represent. It’s about the size of the damage they are willing to do. 

The Americans are coming! ASIO looks away as hate groups gain foothold
Henry Reynolds | Pearls and Irritations
One has to wonder if Burgess had felt any embarrassment about the burning of the doors of Old Parliament House a short distance away from ASIO’s new palatial headquarters on the other side of the lake? 

Ottawa uprising delivers the right a chance to unite as progressives truck off
Guy Rundle | Crikey
Sounds innocuous enough, until we have a global mobilisation of right-wing wingnuts on our hands.

Twelve years after US-backed military coup, Honduras’s left is back in power 
Ben Radford | Green Left

Bait and Cringe: The PM, the Shampoo, and the Ukulele
Lauren Rosewarne | Meanjin
When we’re exerting energies thinking about his stunts and forming any opinions, we’re all getting owned. 

Indigenous party targets education, land councils in federal election tilt
Tom Zaunmayr | National Indigenous Times

## Education, Ethics and Ageing

Deaths and profits pile up in aged care
Jerome Small | Red Flag

A Government Adrift, and Out of Time
Ben Eltham | Meanjin
The religious discrimination implosion did confer one advantage on the government. It distracted many from the disaster unfolding in aged care.

Fracking crisis looms for US oil companies
Contributor | Vanguard
The use of ‘fracking’ by US oil companies a decade ago was responsible for the lowering of the price of a barrel of oil to levels too low for some countries, notably Venezuela and Iran, to seriously compete on international markets. But its days are numbered, with consequences for US hegemony.

Shaking off the political bulldust to find a ‘pathway’ to success
Ross Gittins | SMHAge
One of the key policy debates that should be happening is on education – and there are good ideas out there. But will we hear about them from our leaders?

Online safety begins with participation
Lizzie O’Shea, Samantha Floreani | Overland
Online safety need not be about virtuous fearmongering—it can and should be about promoting the autonomy and security of individuals, as against both big tech and the surveillance state. 

Defamiliarising Capitalism through Speculative Fiction
Ali Rıza Taşkale | Progress in Political Economy
Speculative fiction relies on imagination and projection, and its plots and settings resemble empirically observable, social and technological trends. Thus, it is arguably an ideal vehicle for critiquing the features of capitalism.

## Economics

Australia’s 4% unemployment in isolation hides what’s really going on in the labour market
Greg Jericho | The Guardian
A reduced labour force might provide a good-looking jobless rate but not necessarily a better economy or community

A Portrait in Cadging: PwC’s grants-for-grants rort, consulting bonanza, even a sweatshop
Michael West | Michael West Media
While they hunt down Robodebt victims for every penny, PwC pays no tax, rakes in billions for consulting to government, quietly runs a sweatshop in Sydney’s West and has even jagged a grant to tell the government who should get grants. 

NSW nurses and midwives lead the way with vote for state-wide strike
April Holcombe | Red Flag