Iraqi politicians led by cleric Moqtada alSadr and Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi say they have created an alliance that would give them a majority bloc in the new parliament after four months of political uncertainty.

In 1856, Queen Victoria Herself visited Napoleon III in a pompous affair, on a French ship, the "Bretagne"... after he had visited her in England, the previous year. After this first visit, Queen Victoria wrote her opinion of the Emperor in a memorandum:

According to Simon Tisdall at the Guardian, Trump is the first “rogue” US President... is Trump a rogue president? What does “rogue" mean? That Trump does not play the same game as before, the rules of which were to say diplomatic niceties and bomb the shit out of people who did not submit? Or is Dumbdumb a “rogue” because he says shit to get people to submit, but does not really want to bomb anyone?

The failed assassination of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is a game changer.

The August 4th attack was the first known attempt to assassinate a head of state with a drone. It will not be the last. There will be more of these kinds of attacks, and some of them may hit their mark. 

“The idea that you have foreign governments ... heavily involved in financing an institution that’s this tied to the secretary of state’s family — well, that appears to be something new.”

The rules of the game is that there is no rule, only shifting agreements from one day to the next. It’s a minefield that demands careful observation and footsteps.

PUT AUSTRALIA FIRST — PLACE CLIVE PALMER LAST...

Counting his own stupid government, Turdy Abbott destroyed five governments in his life-time so far. Can we entrust the voters of Warringah to do the right thing and at the next elections vote him OUT for the good of this country?

The “Christian" article that follows is not very nice but apparently it was written in response to a not very nice critique by a certain Boghossian that stated than "only brain damage people, can’t be atheist".  This hurts… Ouch. This mean that religious people are brain-damaged. Ouch.

Fresh from his failed bid to become prime minister, Peter Dutton has been reinstated to cabinet despite his key role in destabilising the government.