A mooted succession plan in Bronwyn Bishop’s Sydney seat has been denounced by local Liberal party members as “North Korean nepotism”.

Rupert Murdoch, executive co-chairman of Fox News' parent company, wrote on Twitter that while Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz "bets uniting white conservatives/evangelicals enough [...] Trump appealing across party lines. Surely the winning strategy".

The battles are furious... The debates are like tar pits and asphyxiating feather pillows... but one of these candidates will finish on top...

I believe Al Bundy would do a great average job as President of the USA... or grandpa Simpson (with a Abraham Lincoln top-hat)...

The rat before Homer, though... 

Yes, in this article from the SMH, 1959, the notion of global warming had not penetrated our brains and science was still going as if the "natural" rhythms of the climate was in charge. As I have mentioned before on this site, science believed rightly that the earth's climate was going towards another ice age.

Governments in Hobart and Canberra have discovered that trees make their carbon accounts look good, but it’s a con.

The Royal Bank of Scotland has sent out a research note calling for clients to brace themselves for what would be a "cataclysmic year" on the markets.

The bank's advice? "Sell everything".

In Gus collection of odd stuff, there was this article published in the SMH (1961), before the Gladesville Bridge, Sydney, was built... The amazing story here is that engineer Tony Gee was just 22 years old when he was given the job to design the bridge. After searching for a month, I have found the picture above. Hurray...

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From David Corn

On Friday night, New York Times columnist David Brooks, a mild conservative, and I were on the PBS Newshour, and our discussion of Cruz's recent surge in Iowa really ticked off some within the right-wing press. Here are a few headlines:

One of the unstated goals of imperial warfare is to make hapless civilians pay a price for having the temerity to be born in a targeted nation.