He was a young American from Chicago, via South Vietnam. He was lean and clean and crew cut, and he was telling us about his experiences up there. Conditions were really rugged, he said. Charlie was unpredictable and vicious.

Addo asked him, “Who's Charlie?”

“VC,” he said.

"Oh well, I s'pose you have to be unpredictable and vicious to get a VC."

Peto said, “VC means Viet Cong, you mug. Septic Tanks don't get VCs. They get purple hearts.”

“Oh.” Addo said. “Must be all that ice-cream they eat. Sends their blood pressure up.”

The young bloke said that where he was stationed they didn't get much ice-cream. And nearly every night they got mortared.

Addo said, “Peto just gets bombed.”

Peto ignored this slander, and the young American looked puzzled.

Addo said, 'Anyway, what are you doing down here?'

“I came down on R an' R,” the Yank said.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vp7DR3bktLk

Colonel Douglas Macgregor argues the US needs to return to strategic clarity about its interests, objectives and priorities. This entails ending the Ukraine War by walking away. Colonel Macgregor is a combat veteran, a PhD, an author of many books on war strategy, and served as a senior official in Trump's Department of Defense during his first administration. Colonel Macgregor is also the CEO of Our Country Our Choice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rm-KDhp2DZ4

Israeli strikes included the bombing of a school-turned-shelter, which killed 13, and the bombing of a children's hospital

Gaza’s Health Ministry said on Wednesday that Israeli attacks killed at least 38 Palestinians and wounded 105 over the previous 24-hour period as US-backed Israeli strikes pound targets across the Strip.

Israeli Attacks Kill 38 Palestinians in Gaza Over 24 Hours

Dave DeCamp

The Health Ministry said that one body was recovered from the rubble over the same period. The ministry’s numbers are based on dead and wounded Palestinians brought to hospitals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5L8jbRU5eE

Megyn Kelly begins the show by discussing George Clooney's new comments about her claiming he's more of a journalist than she is, how he claims he speaks truth to power but was ignored the Biden cognitive decline for weeks, her true history of journalism, and more.

GUSNOTE: THIS WOULD BE ONE FOR THE KEEPER... BUT BECAUSE JOURNALISM IS DISCUSSED HERE AND JOURNALISM IS NEVER OBJECTIVE, NOR ARE HISTORIANS, WE NEED TO PAY ATTENTION...

The president is bringing out the differences between political cultures and traditions in Australia and the US, especially in attitudes towards what government can and should do.

Donald Trump is coming to mean many things for this nation’s political leaders and for the Australian people. Mad king, tariff tyrant, spoiler of world orders, trasher of international rules. And still a hero to some.

James Curran

"If I were president, I would stop terrorist attacks against the United States in a few days. Definitively.

First, I would apologize to all the widows, orphans, tortured people, those who fell into poverty, and the millions of other victims of American imperialism.

Then, I would announce to the four corners of the world that American interventions in the world are definitively over, and I would inform Israel that it is no longer the 51st state of the United States but henceforth—oddly enough—a foreign country.

And then, I would cut the military budget by at least 90%, using the surplus to pay reparations to the victims. That would be more than enough. A year's military budget of $330 billion is equivalent to more than $18,000 an hour since the birth of Jesus Christ.

That's what I would do in the first three days.

Senior opposition figure Andrew Hastie has warned Australia's long-standing military alliance with the United States faces uncertainty under President Donald Trump's "unpredictable" America First agenda.

Speaking alongside Opposition Leader Peter Dutton at the unveiling of the Coalition's long-awaited defence policy, the former soldier said a massive increase in military spending was needed to deal with rapidly changing geo-strategic circumstances. 

Young adults in the United States are experiencing anxiety and depression at twice the rate of teens, with more than half reporting that their lives lack meaning or purpose, according to a new report from Harvard University.

The report, called "On Edge: Understanding and Preventing Young Adults' Mental Health Challenges," was released Tuesday by the Harvard Graduate School of Education's Making Caring Common project.

Gen Z young adults face double the depression and anxiety of teens, Harvard report finds

October 24, 2023
Lynn Jolicoeur

The world's coral reefs are going through the most intense bleaching event ever recorded, with 84% of them now affected, scientific authorities announced on Wednesday.

The current crisis, the fourth global bleaching event since 1998, is more intense than the 2014-17 episode that caused some two-thirds of global reefs to experience the harmful whitening.

Coral bleaching occurs when the colorful algae that live within corals and feed them begin to produce toxins as a result of warming waters, causing their hosts to expel them. This exposes the corals to a greatly increased risk of disease and starvation.

The Trump administration said on Tuesday that the 145 percent tariffs imposed on Chinese imports will eventually "come down substantially" while expressing optimism about future talks to reach a US-China trade deal, US media reported.

US says tariffs on China will drop ‘substantially’; expert warns Washington faces difficulties in achieving initial goals as bullying unsustainable
By Ma Jingjing

It's very hard to focus on Australian politics when the world keeps getting tipped off its axis like this.

But with voting now having commenced at pre-polling stations around Australia, let us not overlook the historic, all-Australian union that was consecrated on Tuesday morning.

While there is a range of Australian war poetry, much of the poetry associated with Anzac Day is not Australian.

The greenback has hit a three-year low while gold soars past $3,500 per ounce. Things aren’t looking good, experts say.

Trump, Tariffs and Trust: The dollar's slide "reflects Trump’s meddling in Fed policy via tariffs and eroding trust in the US financial system,” Paul Goncharoff, financial analyst and general director of Goncharoff LLC, tells Sputnik.

Further De-Dollarization? If the Fed gives in to Trump’s pressure, it would signal faltering financial health - shaking confidence in the dollar, accelerating de‑dollarization and triggering the sell‑off of US monetary assets, the analyst argues.

This week, newspapers around the world received reports and signed documents from South Africa. The reports said that, in 1975, Israel agreed to sell South Africa nuclear weapons. South Africa then released an arms agreement signed by current Israeli President Shimon Peres. This is the document “heard round the world.”

The Arms Circus, Israel Keeping The World In Turmoil

By Gordon Duff

26 May, 2010
Mycatbirdseat.com