Donald Trump sinks lower and lower in polls and rhetoric. And every day he takes the US a step further along the road to being a Fascist state. Indeed, the film Civil War – released before Trump was re-elected – is looking increasingly prescient.

In the film Kirsten Durst plays a journalist crossing a dystopian civil war landscape and (spoiler alert) dies protecting a young journalist from a demented President trying to kill her. This is obviously fictional as Trump probably wouldn’t know one end of a gun from the other – and given his aversion to military service – would probably not know how to use it if he did. The film seemed a bit like a documentary – if a very uncomfortable one. read more

You could be forgiven for thinking that Robert Darnton and others had left nothing for anyone to say about the French Revolution – not that this stops many from holding forth anyway.

Yet Antoine Parent, a French economist at University Paris 8, is one of the co-authors of a study published in Nature (27/8) which uses epidemiology to explain the Great Fear which preceded the Revolution. Their findings go beyond the Revolution and have significant implications for today’s political environment. read more

Is the AI boom heading towards a bust – just like many other boom and bust developments of the past?

Four researchers at MIT NANDA have published a report – The State of AI in business 2025 – which raises some interesting facts.

They said: “Despite $30-40 billion in enterprise investments in GenAI, this report uncovers a surprising result in that 95% of organisations are getting zero return.” read more

Opinion polling may be very useful for making political predictions but there is one thing which is even better – elections – as one recent US one illustrates.

On August 26 an election in Iowa’s 1^st Senate district – a seat Trump won by 11% in 2024 – the Democrat candidate Catelin Drey defeated Republican Christopher Prosch by a margin of 10% breaking the supermajority that Iowa Republicans had in the state legislature. read more

While there is no doubt that our acquisition of nuclear subs from the US will either be massively delayed and over budget or binned on some Trumpian whim what’s worse is that we may never get our multi-billion dollar deposit back if that occurs.

This is in stark contrast with Canada which is buying subs – albeit not nuclear – which can be delivered by 2035.Timely delivery is important to the Canadians given that Trump continues to threaten Canada with annexation and is bristling at the economic damage Canada is doing to the US through widespread boycotts and other activities ranging from Mark Carney’s rapier to Doug Ford’s elbows up. read more

The RSL has been a significant force in Australian politics but it’s clear it is now suffering from a range of problems. Once upon a time it had easy access to government, but the interests of veterans are now far more diverse and complex than in the past. It needs more than a regular visit to have tea with the Minister as was the practice of yore. read more

Back in 2024 the blog speculated on the many missed opportunities in Australian political history. It asked if only we had done some things and not done some we did. 

Reading it almost a year later it still seems relevant. This is what we wrote back then:

Everyone has the odd ‘if only’ thought from time to time. read more

For some totally incomprehensible reason the Australian Army is axing funding for the Salvation Army’s Red Shield Services Sallyman service.

Everyone is familiar with the Salvos. They might be housing the homeless, providing street people and families in need with food and always being there when everybody else has given up. read more

It is easy to be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of opinion polling coming out of the US. But then the fact is that it is overwhelmingly negative for Donald Trump and makes for delightful reading.

……and the considerable recent evidence shows just how far underwater he is.

For instance, recent polling in key states – states he won in 2024 – show how disillusioned his voters have become. read more

The British media has always been populated by larger than life figures – from Northcliffe to Maxwell, Beaverbrook to Harmsworth, Barclay to Lebedev and, of course Rupert Murdoch.

They have used their power to undermine or promote governments; create scare campaigns; and use their power to enrich themselves or others. They have been scandal ridden and the huge phone tapping saga from a decade or so ago, for instance, embroiled many media companies. read more