#UNGA President Donald J. Trump

America is the great democratic experiment. Although, this is getting on for some 250 years now. This nation is in the grip of the politics of grievance. Partisan politics in America is more about hating the other side than particularly loving the side you are voting for. Americans have been encouraged to focus their attention upon their grievances via decades of negative campaigning and attack ads. Demonizing ‘the other’ is the favoured political pastime in the 21C. Identity politics and social values are the main game these days. Economic issues are now seen through this ideological filter.Continue Reading

The Albanese Prime Ministership So Far

Anthony Albanese was an unlikely choice for Australia to elect as PM. During his campaign in 2022 gaffes were front and centre. The press pack descended upon these like hungry wolves in search of blood. If Scott Morrison had not been outed as such a compulsive liar and his Coalition government not soiled in Robodebt and Brittany Higgins’ merde, well, you know the story. Albo waltzed into office on a fresh bouquet of wattle bringing with him the hopes of Aussie progressives. Nearly 10 years of LNP incompetence and corruption had left us short of breath for an optimistic future. The Albanese Prime Ministership so far, however, is losing its shine, it seems.Continue Reading

photo of people campaigning

How can you have a candidate running for office in an election who continually claims that the electoral system has been defrauded? Surely, all candidates must respect the electoral process publicly? If a candidate is undermining the democratic basis of the electoral system it must make him or her unfit to stand. Democratic elections stand against tyranny. America is deficient in its laws governing the character and behaviour of those taking part in presidential elections. Trump has been allowed to go about falsely claiming that he won the 2020 election but was cheated out of office. Numerous enquiries have found no evidence for this. These include investigations paid for by his own legal team. There was no defrauding of the election – it is the big lie!Continue Reading

white house

Listening to some talking heads in the US there seems to be a collective downer across this once great nation. The diminishing American hegemony has quite a few gnashing their teeth and crying ‘poor me’. Of course, the Trump cult has this populist blowhard claiming he can arrest the slide by closing the borders and deporting people. Donald the compulsive liar is hoping to pout his way back into the White House. Americans looking for someone to blame for their less than stellar place in the world is putting their nation on a civil war footing.  Continue Reading

america ancient architecture art

Any sane person watching on has concern enough to be worried about Trump’s America. The very fact that this guy is still the leading GOP candidate for the 2024 presidential election is a judgement on the American people. Despots and dictators don’t rise to power without the help of the people. Everybody knows that Donald J Trump is a liar and a cheat. I mean, the guy is compulsive in both these character failings. More concerning is that he has broken the law on numerous occasions and has managed to avoid prosecution or conviction. No one voting for Trump is truly unaware of who is and how he goes about business.Continue Reading

flag of australia

Dear Australia, I don’t want to be negative but fear you are in the grip of vested interests. A letter to Australia to warn you about stuff. Ever since the days of the squattocracy some hard white men have been having their way with your resources. Never minding about the Indigenous blood they carelessly spilt upon your red earth. These determined settlers disregarded British instruction about allowing Aboriginal people to access their waterways and hunting grounds, preferring to slaughter them expediently instead. The British overlords were piss weak in this regard, it must be said.Continue Reading

unrecognizable hacker with smartphone typing on laptop at desk

Economics, as a subject and vocation, has been dominated and owned by banks and the people who work for that sector for centuries. Maybe it’s time to take back some control over something that sits at the centre of our lives. Knowledge is power. Economics rules our lives. Did you notice that governments around the world came to the fore when there was a public health crisis. Governments helped individuals and businesses out with money to keep them going through the pandemic. However, once that was over, we were all hit with an economic tsunami of high CPI inflation. Suddenly, no one could help, as all measures of direct assistance were considered inflationary. The money tree had been poisoned.Continue Reading

child in white long sleeve top and dungaree trousers playing with lego blocks

I have a daughter working in child care in Australia. She loves her job and is very good at what she does. However, she is paid a pittance for her skills in this space and the undervaluing of early education in Australia is a disgrace. Listening to Jessica Rudd from The Parenthood advocacy group speak at the National Press Club was enlightening and inspiring. Very little has shifted over many years in this space. The early education rip off in Australia continues. Ten years of Coalition federal governments did next to nothing for the nation in this important sector.Continue Reading

orange and white plastic toy

You can look at the national civic scene in the United States and shake your head in disbelief and disgust. American politics is so full of shit. It is easy to point the finger at the people and berate them for their childishness in believing so many lies. However, they have been lied to from the very beginning of their republic. The fear mongering by vested interests is legion. This whole anti-communist thing is such a load of garbage. I mean there has never been any iota of danger in America becoming a communist nation. It has been a complete beat up from its invention some hundred plus years ago.Continue Reading

person holding a sign

If you dip into American political history you are confronted with a whole bunch of surprising anomalies. America is so ideologically fraught and vulnerable to domestic propaganda. The riven polarising state of politics in America today is not as unusual as some commentators make out. Perhaps, it is more a reflection on the general ignorance about America’s past that we get this emphasis today. Political leaders have been lying to and manipulating their citizens for the life of the nation. Trump’s lies are legion but they are nothing new in the political framework of the United States.Continue Reading