John Nicolay

Dick Cheney was “restrained and proper”?

Were you alive during the Bush Administration, Peter?

Dick Cheney “restrained and proper”?

WTF is wrong with NYT journalists?

This is great, Elaine.

I’ll take two!

Normalize being normal (if you’re a DC journalist).

Not sure we’ve had a situation before where a state Premier and the leader of the opposition are of opposite genders and both - let’s face it - kinda spunks …

French football club denies Fowler’s racism claims, threatens legal action Montpellier has denied racism claims made by Mary Fowler in her book Bloom, where she wrote that her and another black teammate were given bananas instead of flowers at a farewell presentation.

Normally, I believe Australia should respect the sovereignty of other nations and look for non-violent solutions to international disputes.

But if we have to invade southern France to defend Mary Fowler, we should.

www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer...

This will end badly …

I think you’re shifting the goalposts here a bit. There have been strong norms in liberal democracies that governments remained bound by contracts entered into before they took office and against retrospective legislation long before ISDS.

My point isn’t to denigrate with Romney or McCain: all I’m saying is the fact that they had to pander to racists to remain viable in the GOP said a lot about the GOP (at least to those who weren’t being wilfully blind at the time).

Perhaps you’ve heard it a thousand times because it’s true, and in fact is one of the institutional underpinnings of liberal democracy.

Counterpoint: a nation’s sovereign credibility is an asset that belongs to every citizen, and it’s both incredibly irresponsible and anti-democratic for any group of politicians to use it as a plaything.

Do you remember what Romney had to do and say to make himself acceptable to the GOP in the primary campaign?

It was a massive red flag to anyone who wasn’t in denial about what the GOP had become.

On the one hand, congratulations, what an incredible achievement, here’s to another 25 and so on.

On the other hand: I feel old.

Thanks, but no, thanks.

Is the point that Barrow Island is close to Ningaloo so the emissions from Gorgon gas affect the reef more than other emissions?

Drinks on you then?

Ron, please, don’t put that image in our heads …

He was doing exactly what he was paid to do!

Major Tom (Coming Home)

The nice thing about watching the German football team win big at home is that you get to hear the chorus of Peter Schilling’s banger Major Tom over and over again:

open.spotify.com/track/709ffF...

That’s exactly what I’m paying you for.

You need to understand, Karl: a reporter’s job is not to challenge lies; it’s to write them down.

Is it too soon to wonder what her third incarnation will be?

Olivia Nuzzi's 'American Canto': Read the Exclusive Excerpt She flamed out and she faded away. 'Vanity Fair'’s West Coast Editor returns to the written word to survey scorched earth.

women are always saying “lord grant me the confidence of a mediocre man.” ok well he did. now what. is the world a better place? look at what you’ve wrought.

‘Time to go home’: neo-Nazi who rallied outside NSW Parliament has his visa cancelled Civil engineer Matthew Gruter was one of the 60-odd black clad neo-Nazis who staged a made-for-social-media rally on Macquarie Street earlier this month.

See ya, dickhead!

www.smh.com.au/national/nsw...

*Of course* the journalist I admire most is constantly re-evaluating his conclusions and is prepared to publicly change his mind about a view he expressed strongly at the time …

And of course this is worth reading and reflecting on.

Somehow managing to seem both pathetic and evil in the same one-paragraph email…

To state the obvious: the reason Trump is doing this is because he knows he would lose the House vote, so the only thing left to salvage is stopping people from seeing the extent of Republican defiance.

I’m not a big supporter of violence but if the next ten or so strangers to meet Larry Summers just straight-up sucker-punch him in the face I am not going to lose any sleep.

If there were a God, sir, surely He would have acted by now.