While this budget does contain some evidence of forward thinking: there is a plan for building things, and for aged care – a disgracefully neglected area of public policy – and for income tax reform if you buy propositions on the never-never – at its core it’s more of the same.

For the Coalition, budgets – apart from the first atrocity in 2014, which was genuinely ideological, a wolf in wolf’s clothing – have all been about surviving until the next one. 

The field of “Trump studies” is vast—but disappointingly homogenous.

So … Donald Trump, who is a chronic liar, wants people to believe that he paid a six-figure sum to stop a porn star from making false accusations defamatory of his, um, character. Right.

They started calling the 2018 federal budget a pre-election budget weeks ago.

That hasn't been based on any inside information or actual leaks.

To have been in ‘democratic’ Britain for the past eight weeks has been quite an educational experience.

Holy mackerels!

This article from 1958... 60 years later and the only thing that has improved is the size of the weapons...

The article on the play "for children" is quite funny, especially when they mention the "Pirates of Mosman Bay"... See http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/24007 to get the full picture... As well as "incentives" to bribe the kids... Lovely. The more unruly they are, the more "incentives" they get... That's the way the world works...

When Dr. Harold Bornstein described in hyperbolic prose then-candidate Donald Trump's health in 2015, the language he used was eerily similar to the style preferred by his patient.

Pompeo is in Saudi Arabia to make sure they dance to the same tune as the USA and stop the fight with Qatar. This skirmish between the Saudis and Qatar is a fly in the ointment as the USA has its biggest military base there. It is a hindrance to the US next move: destroy the deal made with Iran. This is why the 5th and 6th Fleet are in the vicinity of the Middle East. Forget Syria: too many bloody Ruskies there... But hitting Iran? That's on the cards...

The French judicial investigation into the relationship between the French group Lafarge and jihadist groups committed to destabilizing the Syrian government, has just shed light on the close ties between this transnational and the French Secret Services.