It is arguable that the US has never been a democracy in the normal sense of the word.
From slavery to restrictions on voting people have been disenfranchised – often by violence.
Donald Trump is working hard to keep it that way.
The Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) produces the largest global dataset on democracy with more than 32 million data points for 202 countries and territories from 1789 to 2025.
The tidal wave of climate disinformation and denial often appears overpowering.
In Australia One Nation, the Liberal Party and the National Party are all deeply committed to climate denial.
These Australian denialists are increasingly taking their policies from Donald Trump and Republicans. So far in the US the Trump administration has trashed climate programs and research while sacking scientists.
The Australian Census is a critically important Australian project which provides essential and accurate data about the lives of Australians.
Yet in one area – religion – it is unreliable. Unreliable purely and simply because intense lobbying by religious groups has sabotaged plans to ask a Census question which would provide more accurate data on Australians and religion than previous Censuses.
Once upon a time, a long time ago, in America Democrats had a lock on the Texas Senate seats and the state.
Robert A. Caro’s brilliant and monumental biography of LBJ showed how a combination of factors – from strategic use of funding opportunities created by the New Deal to some pork barrelling and to outright corruption kept the State on the Democrat lists.
The sacralisation of Anzac Day has gone through many iterations since it was first established as a commemorative day.
Initially it was a coming of age story – as if a society is nothing until it sheds blood – conveniently overlooking the huge shedding of blood in the Frontier Wars. It was also a reinforcement of its links with the ‘old country’.
In yet another indication that things Trump touch turn to dross is his much-touted ballroom.
Even Republicans avoided a vote on the measure for the $1 billion Trump wants for security for his ballroom leaving the whole project up in the air.
According to Strength in Numbers, the G. Elliott Morris Substack, reports that 68% of respondents oppose spending $1 billion on the ballroom. 57% oppose it strongly and only. 21% support it.
The US system makes it unlikely that, even if the House of Representatives impeaches Trump, the Senate would do so unless the swing against the Republicans also impacts the Senate in a truly extraordinary way.
And House impeachment won’t happen unless the Democrats win a majority in the November election – a fact which seems highly probable despite The Supreme Court’s gerrymandering efforts.
A large cohort of voters which helped elect Donald Trump in 2024 are now turning on him.
Stephen Greenhouse (The Guardian 3/5) writes that “Republicans should be alarmed that so many 18- to 29-year-olds have soured on Trump – his approval rating with that group has sunk from 48% in January 2025 to between just 25% and 33% in recent months, according to polls by YouGov/the Economist.”
The Australian Parliament has established an enquiry by the Australian parliamentary Joint Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs (JSCATSIA) into racism, hate and violence directed at Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
The Defending Country Memorial Project Inc. (DCMP) has lodged a submission to the Committee. https://www.defendingcountry.au/news/equality-in-war-commemoration-can-help-defeat-racism-defending-country-submission-to-parliamentary-inquiry
Democrats hoping to impeach Trump after the mid-terms will be buoyed by the latest poll from G. Elliott Morris Strength in Numbers newsletter.
It found that 55% of those surveyed support the House of Representatives voting to impeach Trump with 37% opposing and 8% are unsure.
Morris notes that House of Representatives Member John Larson has introduced 13 articles of impeachment against Trump and has been supported by 85 House members either supporting that or invoking the 25th Amendment.