from our friend Dr Vacy Vlazna

The Work for the Dole program could again become a core element of welfare policy for the unemployed in Australia, but there is a considerable body of evidence which shows it is unlikely to help people find jobs.

In a few, mad hours this morning, state Labor’s electoral hopes have been damaged irreversibly.

Party faithful went to bed last night harbouring outside hopes of a state election victory.

Oh lord. Oh lord. Can the government do anything right? There is no evidence for it. None. Everything it touches turns to grotesque failure. It hurts me to contemplate the federal reigning monstrosity in the Yankee Capital. I may have to send out for a bottle of Padre Kino red to get me through it. The Great Purple Father is the worst wine known to man, thirty-nine cents a trainload. Never mind. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has stepped up his criticism of the ABC, accusing the national broadcaster of being unpatriotic in its coverage of the Edward Snowden leaks and asylum seeker abuse claims.

What has the world learned about Australia from Abbott’s keynote address to the World Economic Forum? Alan Austin reports from France.

People ask me all the time why we don’t have a revolution in America, or at least a major wave of reform similar to that of the Progressive Era or the New Deal or the Great Society.

You have one chance to speak to the world’s most powerful people. What do you say?

Picture the scene: A classroom in some little town, a bunch of kids in their middle years of schooling. A special visitor is coming today, the assistant manager of the local bank, to explain how the world economy works.

He speaks in short sentences and anodyne generalities.

Maybe Maurice Newman was dizzy from the schadenfreude of seeing a climate scientist getting stuck in Antarctic sea ice?

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison says he will not tolerate people "sledging" Australian Navy personnel amid allegations asylum seekers were burned after being forced to hold on to parts of a hot boat engine.

In an electoral system, run by and for a corporate oligarchy, deception and demagoguery are essential elements – entertaining the people while working for the wealthy.

Every US President has engaged, in one fashion or another, in ‘play acting’ to secure popular approval, neutralize hostility and distract voters from the reactionary substance of their foreign and domestic policies.

From the normally execrable Cut&Paste in The Australian on Monday 13 January.

‘Opposition foreign affairs spokesperson Tanya Plibersek, [and deputy Labor Party leader] the other day: