Leadership is all about self-sacrifice, not self-enrichment and this principle is lost on so many people in these self-defined leadership groups that do not resemble any form of leadership. These are management groups, the management is recruited by the company and individuals are placed in positions of power to control costs.

Leadership can be displayed at all levels of the organisation, an individual does not need to belong to one of these management groups to engage in leadership. The role of the leader is to provide guidance, this produces motivation and offers direction. Leadership is about trust, when you see a bunch of individuals engaging in self-enrichment then all aspects of trust are destroyed, not eroded – destroyed. Until these people are displaced from positions of power, then there will be no resemblance of trust in the organisation.

I really dislike the term invasion day, the indigenous protests on Australia Day were also off the mark in my opinion. However, in a free and democratic society, you are allowed to protest in a lawful and non-violent manner, so they had every right to be there.

Despite my dislike of this rally on Australia Day, I absolutely deplore what happened at the protest. This was a terror attack, or at least a potential terror attack. A man, who had his identity suppressed, hurled an explosive device into a crowd where approximately 2500 people had assembled. Fortunately, the bomb failed to detonate and we are so glad it did, the bomb was filled with ball bearings and screws, the potential harm to the assembled people could have been horrific. This was planned as a mass casualty event, the intent was to injure as many people as possible.

There has been some concern that it took nine days to declare this as an act of terrorism, although I am ok with this. The police need to conduct investigations, they need to collect evidence, and they need to lay charges. What we don’t want to see is the accused found not guilty at trial and released. This needs to be a watertight case, terrorism is life imprisonment and nobody wants to see him on lesser charges. This is the first time terrorism charges have been laid in Western Australia, they don’t want to mess it up, so if it takes another week and a half to get this right, then no problems.

TAG Heuer is a well known luxury brand dating back to 1860, the brand has a serious heritage and a history of innovation. The reputation of the Heuer watch company was tarnished during the 1980s and 1990s after the TAG acquisition. The brand became mass produced, the quality of the product deteriorated and the branding was haphazard to say the least.

The Heuer brand had a serious motor racing affiliation with Formula One being the pinnacle of their advertising alignment. Hence, the TAG Heuer Formula 1 models make sense from a marketing perspective. The Heuer motor racing sponsorship will improve with the LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton ownership with Frédéric Arnault taking the brand upmarket. With new CEO Julien Tornare taking control in January 2024, the brand is repositioning itself and becoming more upmarket.

The Formula 1 series totally fits the marketing profile of TAG Heuer, Techniques d’Avant Garde came from a formula one background so this should have been a great branding. However, the question I ask is, is this range a good fit for you? For me, the quality of the Formula 1 models that I tried on are just not what I want to be wearing at this phase of life. The Formula 1 series just does not meet the wrist feel that I require. The Formula 1 series are all quartz movements, that in itself is not an issue, they are an affordable entry into the TAG Heuer range.

For me, they just do not feel great on my wrist, and in watch circles, the wrist feel is everything. I do wear cheaper brand watches so you need to be a little aware of what you are wearing, the TAG Heuer is closer to Longines in quality and not Tissot or Hamilton, so that needs to be taken into account. An example is the Reference CAZ1014.BA0842, a 43 mm brushed case chronograph, a blue sunray dial with a three link bracelet with folding clasp and push release buttons.

As the losses mount in the Russian-Ukrainian war, the war is coming home for Russians. I do not mean indiscriminate bombing of Russian cities by Ukrainian missiles destroying apartment blocks, schools and hospitals. I am discussing the highly pinpointed targeting of Russian fuel refining and distribution networks.

This is highly effective, Russia is burning and all their citizens are seeing this in real time. The long-term lines waiting for fuel are seen by all, the inflation and scarcity of consumer items. Russians have food shortages, flight issues with aircraft now not maintained correctly, Russian financial reserves held. Firstly, there is the financial cost to the Russian government, this directly funds the Russian war, the price of oil, the shadow fleet is still operating – at least under duress.

The population has been mostly shielded from the effects of the war. The elites in Moscow and St Petersburg don’t send their children off to die as canon fodder, that is the domain of the poorer population further east in Russia. These are more ethnic minorities who are poorly organised in terms of political representation, they are mostly poor, and live in more sparsely populated areas. They lack the voice, they lack the wealth and they lack the power to displace the elite in Moscow, they are the voiceless cannon fodder.

Why did Anthont Albanese get booed walking through Bondi on his way to the beach vigil? It is easy, his government did little to stamp out antisemitism when it erupted in Australia. Albo was right when he said he could have done more, any government can do more so this was no revelation, this is a serious issue that rquires difficult questions to be asked and difficult decisions made. 

What the Albanese Government did was legitimise Hamas. I am not anti-Palestine, I am not anti-Israel, I believe in the right for the two states to exist. I also know this is not a simple situation to rectify. But seriously, you do not recognise Palestine when Hamas is ruling, there were hostages still held underground, and the military offensive still raging. This was not the time, we all knew Israel was not stopping until every last one of their citizens were returned.

Whilst Hamas was still attacking Israel, you do not recognise Palestine. We all know Hamas is a terrorist organisation. Look what happened to Palestinians, they made it through the war and were executed in the streets by Hamas terrorists emerging from the tunnels safe in the knowledge that Israeli troops would not hunt them down. They took their revenge on Palestinian enemies, they made it through the war and were beaten, tortured and executed in broad daylight. Their executions were recorded, this was not only symbolic, this sent a clear message to any person who was looking to oppose them.

So what did the Albanese Government do? It gave legitimacy to a terrorist organisation that planned and implemented the October 7 massacre of civilians in Israel. The death toll was huge, 1219 people murdered, systematic rape and sexual torture of Israeli women and 251 hostages taken. Why would the Australian government recognise this regime? When the military offensive is finished, living hostages repatriated, dead bodies returned and a ceasefire signed, then and only then should recognition of a Palestinian state be considered.

On last Saturday afternoon I received a message from my brother and I quickly jumped on my computer to check news outlets and social media to determine what happened. I was pretty surprised, we knew the US fleet was stationed in the Caribbean, they were not about to head home, so something was eventually going to happen. So it was really no surprise when missiles started hitting the capital Caracas, I view this as a flagrant violation of the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of Venezuela.

Initial reports were that CH-47 Chinook helicopters and V-22 Osprey were flying over the capital. It was later confirmed that modified MH-60 Blackhawk helicopters carrying Delta Force commandos were involved, conducted by the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment. Approximately 150 aircraft were used in the raid to take out air defences to allow the commando forces to fly in for a low level insertion.

President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were stopped just short of their safe room, the raid happened so fast, they were caught in bed and did not make it to this enclosure. I have nothing but respect for forces such as Delta, they are the elite counter-terrorist force of the US Army. The question I ask, is it legal for US forces to enter a country and kidnap the President? This sets a nasty international precedent, can countries openly flout international law without repercussion?

In August, the US deployed three destroyers in Caribbean waters, then immediately grew to three amphibious assault ships with approximately 6000 marines and sailors attached. In September, F-35 fighter jets were dispatched to Puerto Rico, there was also a submarine diverted to the region. The CIA was operating in the region, this goes without saying, they were operating drones over Venezuela and apparently had a human source close to Maduro. The CIA was aware of Maduro’s movements and routine after months of surveillance, they knew where he would be at any given time.

From September 2025 onwards, operations against small vessels in the area were targeted, this included killing people in the water after their boats were sunk, breaching international law. The strikes have been questioned as an overreach of executive authority, the United States does not have the authority to hunt down and execute Venezuelan nationals in international waters. In late October, the USS Gerald R. Ford, the most advanced carrier in the US Navy, was ordered to the region by the Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, so we knew this was going to escalate rapidly at some point.

There is certainly a fair degree of irony in the Trump Administration, who themselves attempted to overturn an election in the United States on January 6, 2021. Trump has announced that the United States will now run the country in the interim, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia should be immediately handed power in Venezuela. Donald Trump has viewed Nicolás Maduro as an illegitimate President since the July 2024 elections. Urrutia stepped up at the last minute when opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was ruled ineligible. Machado was forced to flee the country, but popped up in Norway to collect her Nobel Peace Prize – the irony is not lost on me here. We will see if the Trump Administration immediately hands over control of the country to Urrutia as the legitimate leader of that country.

Anthony Albanese, the Prime Minister who failed to tackle antisemitism is looking every bit the weak leader he is. Albo was warned what could happen, yet he did nothing. Instead, Albo and Foreign Minister Penny Wong brushed aside any criticism and pushed forward their agenda of legitimising Hamas.

We saw the firebombing of Synagogs, the graffiti attacks at Jewish businesses, the writing was on the wall then. We all saw the rise in antisemitism in Australia in the post October 7 period. We saw the Gas the Jews chants at the Sydney Opera House, the march across the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the authorities did nothing to temper the organisers.

There were absolutely failures of intelligence, failures of policing and a failure of policy. Islamic terrorism is real, we need to stop the erosion of firearm laws brought in during the Howard Government. As a nation, we have been pretty tolerant of Islamic terrorism in Australia, this does not help the Islamic case. This is an embarrassment to Australia internationally, the Albanese Government allowed this to happen, the Jewish community was living in fear and Albo and his mates were just dismissive of the Jewish community fears.

I view the videos of ICE agents on social media roaming the streets of Minneapolis terrorising the residents of this city and I ask myself, how did the United States decline so far so quickly? How did these poorly trained thugs get jobs at a federal agency?

The ICE agents are acting unlawfully, they are terrorising the residents of Minneapolis, this is a purposeful strategy of the Trump Administration to control Democratic states. There are more illegal immigrants in Texas, but as Texas is a Republican state, they are not stationing ICE agents en masse in this Republican state, instead Minnesota is the target of Trump retributions. This does not show the United States population in the best light here, they are looking like an insular and vengeful society.

What is happening in the United States is disgraceful, as an Australian watching from afar I am appalled. I am having Americans on social media decrying what is happening to their country. However, on this occasion at least, Donald Trump did win the election. After the Trump 2016 election and first term, US residents cannot claim they were not aware what the second term of the Trump Administration would be like. Every citizen knew what Trump was proposing, they voted on this and they are getting what they voted for.

We have witnessed two people shot dead by ICE agents, firstly Renee Good shot through the windscreen, only MAGA idiots really believe she was trying to run down a ICE agent. After she was shot, the ICE agent was overheard calling her a “fucking bitch” and then ICE agents prevented a doctor from administering first aid. Tragically she was left in the vehicle still and allowed to die, whilst ICE agents blocked people from providing assistance. Then the second death of Alex Pretti occurred when he tried to shield a woman being attacked by ICE agents, they jumped on top of him, removed his holstered weapon before riddling his body with 10 shots – this is murder.

As I view videos of ICE agents roaming the streets of US cities, I am asking myself, how has society totally abandoned the principles of freedom and respect? The US President is supposed to protect the Constitution of the United States, despite the efforts of Bullshit Barbie Karoline Leavitt, only the most MAGA devotee believes this.

In 30 years time, when the United States and the world in general look back at the Trump era, there should be some serious soul searching going on. Americans bang on about freedom, they name ships, spacecraft and aircraft after it. They have the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, this is all rubbish of course, they have totally abandoned the notion and principles of freedom.

Instead, they have poorly trained paramilitary groups roaming the streets with masks on detaining anyone who is not white. As I see it, these are poorly educated white nationalists being given a licence by the Trump Administration to act in a racist manner. This is an inherently a racist organisation that has been given legitimacy by Trump’s hate policies.

These ICE agents are smashing vehicle windows and dragging anyone out who they believe is not a citizen. They are throwing US citizens to the ground, arresting and detaining them. I am watching videos where former military personnel who have served in American wars are detained and arrested. Is this the United States they fought for? I seriously doubt it.

This is more akin to the brownshirts that terrorised Germany in the 1930s. We saw the rise of nationalism in Germany in the 1930s, these conditions created during the punitive period where Germany was crippled by a restrictive and unfair surrender treaty. This was a forced surrender agenda designed to restrict Germany that created the conditions that led to the second world war.

The United States is not operating under any such restrictions, they are not a defeated nation burdened with excessive war repatriations. Just this Trump narrative where they blame immigrants for all of society’s woes, this is a well practiced internal enemy that would be described as an easy target. The United States has some serious issues, taking the easy approach and targeting immigrants solves very little.

David Littleproud has been driving an enormous wedge in the Liberal and National coalition. He did it immediately after the election loss and he is doing it again, the disunity is destroying the opposition. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese must be loving this mess, he knows there is not an effective opposition, he can plan for the next election. The Liberal/National Coalition lost a record number of seats to the incumbent Albanese Government despite a multitude of mis-steps, the losses are not looking like they will be reversed any time soon.

One has to ask, what is going on in the National Party? I am also asking if David Littleproud is the right person to lead the party. The National Party will not govern in its own right, so they need to work with the Liberal Party. National Party policies might work in rural areas, to form government they need the Liberal Party to win inner city seats and we know the Liberal Party is losing inner city seats to the more moderate Teals. I was hoping the move away from the Peter Dutton disaster of becoming too conservative was learned, it clearly was not and the same mistakes look to be repeated.

David Littleproud has to take a look at the strategic outcomes of what the Coalition needs to achieve to win government. He is not offering any leeway here, David Littleproud is making the Coalition unelectable. In another two years time when Australia heads off to a general election, this infighting will drive voters away. Maybe not to the Labor Party, but to independents who will not align to the Coalition, who would want to align themselves with infighting and dysfunction. Conservative voters are switching to One Nation, this is not a great outcome for anyone, there is no moderate opposition policies, the Teals have won all the inner city seats away from the Liberal Party and they are well funded and look likely to hold these seats.