Foolish boos marred Anzac Day and our remembrance of sacrifice. Michael Pascoe writes our most solemn day is a challenge, a reminder to be better, not national pride deserved.

Monday. It is a public holiday in NSW, WA and the ACT to compensate for Anzac Day falling on a Saturday. I’m not sure that’s the right thing to do, not sure it pays due respect to what, for now, is our real national day, a day with a solemn underpinning. 

But a holiday it is two days after the event. Discarded sprigs of rosemary binned, flags furled. Actual flags packed or shoved away, metaphorical flags at least wrapped a little less obviously around those who seek to wear them, brandish them.

Donald Trump likes to convey the impression of being a strong president who fully exercises the powers granted to him under the US Constitution. As commander-in-chief of the armed forces, he is allowed to initiate a military operation but must formally notify Congress within 48 hours. In the case of the Iran war, he did do this on time, on March 2.

Iran war deadline heats up Trump-Congress showdown

BY David Ehl

Some expressions have a unique history, and the term “state capitalism” is undoubtedly one of the most elastic in contemporary political science. When the West tries to name contemporary China, to offer a scholarly description of it, or, to use Marxist terminology, to identify the social formation that characterises it, “state capitalism” immediately bursts into the discourse: from right to left, from Marxists to liberals and including conservatives, everyone seems to agree. As if it were self-evident that China falls into such a category, a remarkable unanimity, from Steve Bannon to Frédéric Lordon, erases the usual ideological animosities. (1)

NON, LA CHINE N’EST PAS UN “CAPITALISME D’ETAT”

NO, CHINA IS NOT “STATE CAPITALISM”

BY Bruno GUIGUE

What if a country could bomb another nation… kidnap its president… and claim its natural resources as its own?

On January 3rd, 2026, under the leadership of Donald Trump, the United States launched a shocking military operation over Caracas, Venezuela. 150 warplanes. A full blackout. And the capture of Venezuela’s sitting president Nicolás Maduro.

Trump claimed Venezuela had “stolen American oil.” But was that oil ever America’s to begin with?

This video breaks down the real history of Venezuela’s oil industry, from foreign contracts with companies like ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell to the 1976 nationalization under Carlos Andrés Pérez. We uncover the truth behind ownership, compensation, and the global energy struggle.

The struggle between Liberty and Authority is the most conspicuous feature in the portions of history with which we are earliest familiar, particularly in that of Greece, Rome, and England. But in old times this contest was between subjects, or some classes of subjects, and the Government. By liberty, was meant protection against the tyranny of the political rulers. The rulers were conceived (except in some of the popular governments of Greece) as in a necessarily antagonistic position to the people whom they ruled.

On Liberty

John Stuart Mill — 1859

INTRODUCTION

The German Bundeswehr has for the first time officially adopted a military strategy, citing an increasingly dangerous international situation. The strategy defines the future focus of the German armed forces and analyzes how the Bundeswehr can counter potential threats.

"Rarely has a military strategy been as necessary as it is in this historic period," Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said during the presentation of the new strategy in Berlin.

Germany unveils first-ever military strategy for Bundeswehr

Australia’s defence and foreign policy settings are focused on geopolitical rivalry, while far greater systemic risks – especially climate disruption – receive little strategic attention.

Blinded to the greater risks, the Albanese Government and the security commentariat have spent four, unrelenting years making the case that China is the biggest threat to Australia’s future.

David Spratt

CNN — [2024] Elon Musk says artificial intelligence will take all our jobs and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

“Probably none of us will have a job,” Musk said about AI at a tech conference on Thursday.

While speaking remotely via webcam at VivaTech 2024 in Paris, Musk described a future where jobs would be “optional.”

Finnish Finance Minister Riikka Purra has warned of growing pressure on the country’s public finances. The warning comes just days after the government unveiled a multi-year fiscal plan that combines increased military aid to Ukraine with domestic spending cuts.

The government’s fiscal plan for 2027–2030 was presented earlier this week. It includes cuts of €240 million to social and healthcare spending but €300 million in increased military support for Ukraine.

“The state of public finances is extremely difficult, and the debt-to-GDP ratio is approaching 90%,” Purra said in an interview with the outlet Yle on Saturday.

“We’ve been hit not only by external shocks,” she highlighted, adding that the nation struggles with high unemployment, near-zero economic growth and an aging population.”

There is no good and evil… only desires of intent that are natural for survival but extended by humans [homo dumbdumus] into the realm of stylistic choices. Some of these desires encroach on others’ desires. Conflict will happen.

Daily we deal with these conflict with a reasonable ability while also managing boredom… Most of the artful dramas and comedies are based on these conflicts. The medium have extended from early greek stage performance, from myths of antiquity told through Homer and others, to TV shows. 

At a civilisation conflict level, these desires have led to war. Plenty of it. We know.

In the past, these conflicts were localised, until the Roman Empire took most of the mediterranean nations and a few other places like England.

This was the beginning of the geopolitical age.

We are on the biggest heist and media/political snowjob in Australia today. Shell’s Australian boss fronted a parliamentary inquiry into gas this week and somehow could not say what revenue her company made or how much Australian gas it exported. Meanwhile, Ken Henry, one of the country’s most respected tax experts, told the same inquiry to “just do it” and “stop the crap” on taxing Australia’s finite natural resources.

The gas lobby has spent years convincing politicians, media and the public that foreign multinationals should keep exporting Australian gas while paying little in the way of income tax and royalties. Now they are making super profits thanks to the US/Israel war on Iran. 

WHY WOULD THE WEST WISH PUTIN TO INVADE UKRAINE? GOOD QUESTION MR WATSON...

THE ANSWER LIES MANY YEARS EARLIER AND A FEW YEARS LATER... WE KNOW THAT AMERICA AND THE BRITISH HEGEMONY HAD PREPARED THE GROUND FOR WAR... THE TERM "UNPROVOKED" WAS ALREADY WRITTEN IN THE RESPONSE OF THE WEST TO THE "PUTIN INVASION".

FOR YEARS, NATO HAD REINFORCED THE UKRAINIAN ARMY, WHICH FOR ALL INTENT AND PURPOSES HAD COLLAPSED IN 2014, FORCING THE MINSK AGREEMENT I AND II... FROM THIS TIME ONWARDS, THE WEST WAS PREPARING TO FORCE RUSSIA INTO A VIETNAM-STYLE WAR OF ATTRITION IN UKRAINE, THAT WOULD WEAKEN RUSSIA, EVENTUALLY LEADING TO THE COLLAPSE OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION. THIS COLLAPSE HAS BEEN THE AMERICAN GOAL SINCE 1917....

Once the Nazis were done, quite a few people started scratching their heads. Obviously one thing to baffle any sane observer was the sheer enormity of their crimes, accomplished, moreover, with frenetic, really start-upish drive and ambition in a mere 12 years: World War? Check. Genocides? Check. Bad hairstyle? Check.

Mein AI – Palantir’s Alex Karp wants us to know he has big plans

The surveillance giant is not even hiding its truly evil plans for humanity anymore, and its only downfall might be its hubris

BY Tarik Cyril Amar

Public Opinion sets the scene for the ensuing drama: Eurydice is dissatisfied. Her husband, Orpheus, is obsessed with music, and she wishes to have a more attentive admirer. In fact, she has already taken a new lover, the shepherd Aristaeus (the mortal disguise of the god Pluto, ruler of the Underworld). When she is mortally wounded, Pluto reveals himself, and the two go happily off to the Underworld. Orpheus is pleased with the outcome. Unfortunately for him, Public Opinion declares that decency requires the reluctant Orpheus to retrieve his wife.