Americans face, as they always say, their most important election in a generation.  Assessing the merits of any president isn't always easy.  Assessing the merits of Donald Trump is a whole other thing.

When protest buses attacking Daniel Andrews get forced off the road by police, and when politicians abuse private sector executives for doing their jobs, there is clearly something very wrong with our public services.  It all goes back to an unhealthy 1980s obsession with privatisation and "new public management".

The madness of 2020 has changed our lives forever.  We owe it to ourselves to ask how, who and why?

New Zealand has rewarded its sainted prime minister, heroine to the world, with a second term, following a landslide election result.  How did she do it?

Many are coming to the defence of the NSW Premier following her outing as a consort of the corrupt.  Their arguments in her favour, all five of them, are without merit.

Covid madness is alive and well and living in Victoria.

Should Daniel Andrew resign?  Should his NSW counterpart?  The chances are that each of these paragons of morality and competence has covered up the truth in the inquiries they have faced over the last week or so.  The now failed states of New South Wales and Victoria deserve much, much better.

We now inhabit a strange world where politicians and health bureaucrats, working in tandem, run just about every element of our lives.  This weird new system has replaced democracy as we once knew it, and it may not be over any time soon.  We should all find this quite chilling.  And sinister.  

It is fashionable to deride the Middle Ages.  "Medieval" is normally an insult, a term of abuse.  A new book begs to differ.  Pondering the lessons of the book, one is drawn to massive contrasts between our own age and that of "the medievals".  And the contrasts are mostly not in our favour.

After a silent six months, the Pell haters are back on task, following the Cardinal's return to Rome.  The Cardinal's exoneration by the High Court will not satisfy many of us who are still determined to see that those who sought his crucifixion are themselves brought to justice.  The story just got murkier.