A modern day King Midas where everything he touches turns to shit.

Gen X had musos that stood on the shoulders of giants from the sixties who themselves were aided and abetted by their psychoactive drugs experimentation, and a spurning of authority.

“‘When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,’ said Piglet at last, ‘What’s the first thing you say to yourself?’

‘What’s for breakfast?’ said Pooh. ‘What do you say, Piglet?’

‘I say, I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today? said Piglet.

Pooh nodded thoughtfully. ‘It’s the same thing,’ he said.

The hinterland is much more interesting, although the graffiti at the WW2 coastal defences south of Port Kembla is something else. Lots of beauty along the escarpment including great views from Bald Hill Lookout, Stanwell Tops and superb Japanese at “Sanpo” at Helensburgh ten minutes from there.

This. 👇👇

We never had to worry about fake news until we had a fake president.

Who owns presidential records? Trump's Justice Department says it's him The Trump administration asserts a nearly 50-year-old law requiring the preservation of presidential records is unconstitutional. Historians warn important papers could be destroyed.

The Trump administration asserts a nearly 50-year-old law requiring the preservation of presidential records is unconstitutional. Historians warn important papers could be destroyed. n.pr/4sIYv9O

The Strait CLOSED…China WON Without Entering the WAR | Prof Jiang Analysis YouTube video by Prof Jian Analysis

Yes. Master Sun Tzu wrote 2500y ago: "Subdue the Enemy without fighting is the greatest victory" as Prof Jiang explained it is happening right at this moment in the Iran War

youtu.be/cweC7NPDxi4?...

Wine judges spit. Less appealing with solid bulk.

It’s time to axe the Morrison-era policy strangling Australia’s humanities degrees 'Unless we have lawyers from all class backgrounds, we will have a legal system that is shaped by a particular narrow set of perspectives and assumptions and blind spots.'

"In November last year, Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi took matters into her own hands, introducing a bill calling for fees for humanities degrees to be reversed to pre-JRGB levels, taking into account indexation. The effect would halve the cost of an arts degree 1/2 www.crikey.com.au/2026/03/16/s...

Analysis in today’s @nytimes.com is spot on..

Trump signs executive order urging more research into ibogaine and other psychedelics | CNN Politics President Donald Trump on Saturday signed an executive order aimed at encouraging expanded research into ibogaine and other psychedelic drugs, part of a broader push to explore emerging mental health ...

What could possibly go wrong?

edition.cnn.com/2026/04/18/p...

Zelensky Says Kyiv Seized a Russian Position With Drones and Robots. Is This a Game Changer? - The Moscow Times Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Kyiv’s forces had, for the first time, captured a Russian position using drones and unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) only. “For the first time in th...

Zelensky Says Kyiv Seized a Russian Position With Drones and Robots.

Psych impact: For Russians in trenches, being forced to surrender by swarms of robots and FPV drones is demoralizing and weird in a new way. For Ukrainians, it’s a rare, clean “future is ours” narrative in a grinding war.

The FBI Director, the DC US Attorney, and the Secretary of Defense walk into a bar and they all trip over because the bar is set so low.

As historian Manning Clark said that there are two types of political leader: “the enlarger of life” and the “punisher and straightener”.

The Liberal tradition of punishing and straightening as exemplified by Robodebt continues whenever in power, and Crisafulli is a proud Queensland practitioner.

I find it galling when Barnaby Joyce, admittedly correctly, says that people are moving to One Nation (like they did Independents) because they're unhappy with their economic conditions after decades of the major parties being government: because he WAS one of the major parties.

Deputy PM.

Twice!

You can configure it so you don’t get buzzed but on the plus side wrt buzzing, my wife gets up at 5:15 am several times a week to go to the gym and her Apple Watch gently buzzes her awake as opposed to a banshee alarm going off and sending the dogs into a frenzy of barking.

The richest 10% of Americans own roughly 87% of stocks.

The richest 1% alone own roughly half of all stocks.

It's worth pointing out once again that the stock market is not the economy.

As someone who forgets where they left their phone at least daily, it’s worth it for that alone.

Meanwhile the tide at Stanwell Park is 0.7 m and falling, and in Canberra it’s currently 10°C and I’m at 615 metres above sea level. 😎

I wouldn’t be too sure given there are 100,000 watch faces available via apps. Alternatively “You can create an "original" Blue Poles watch face by downloading a high-resolution image of the Jackson Pollock painting, setting it as your wallpaper, and choosing the Photos watch face on your iPhone.”

I hadn’t worn a watch after I got an iPhone some 12 years ago, but my Apple Watch is a game changer. As well as telling me the time it finds my iPhone, retraces my steps to my car, is a handy timer, pedometer, measures my blood oxygen and heart rate, rates my sleep, tells me sunrise and sunset…

And in Australia two positives can make a negative.

Yeah. Right.

Republicans’ big 2026 problem: An unhinged Trump who doesn’t seem to care about them | CNN Politics It’s almost as if President Donald Trump doesn’t care that what he’s doing could torpedo the GOP’s hopes in less than seven months — because Congress doesn’t matter much to his view of power.

“It’s been nearly a decade since Sen. Lindsey Graham, now a Trump ally, posted his infamous tweet.

“If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed…….and we will deserve it,” the South Carolina Republican said.”

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose

www.cnn.com/2026/04/14/p...

WW2 coastal fortification, Port Kembla, New South Wales.

The US Is Covertly Propagandising Australians, Whilst Monitoring Our Migrant Crime The Trump White House has confirmed that its embassies are monitoring and combating the spread of anti-US information and proactively disseminating its own pro-US propaganda.

Foreign interference: US covertly propagandises AUs while monitoring its migrant crime. This is a crime.
AU law: www.homeaffairs.gov.au/about-us/our...
Crime www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/blog/the-us-...
Albo: There’s nothing this Puddin’ enjoys more than offering slices of himself to strangers.

What George Orwell published as a cautionary tale in 1949 has come to be the norm.
War is Peace.
Freedom is Slavery.
Ignorance is Strength.

Trump has always lived, brain fart to brain fart. This time instead of bankrupting himself he’s bankrupting the world.

Indeed.
This is akin to those who seek to excuse a wife basher because “he’s a good bloke, or he’s a “pillar of the community”.

There are rules of engagement in war.
BR-S is alleged to have broken those rules.
He should be judged on that evidence at trial.
His previous “good work” is irrelevant.