I woke up on Sunday morning and decided to turn the television on at around 8.30 in the morning and flicked the news on, I was shocked with what was being reported. An assassination attempt had been made on the life of former president and presidential nominee Donald Trump at a political rally, whilst I do not support his policies, any person or group that supports violence to achieve their goals should be dismantled.

The attempted assassination of a former president during an election cycle is pretty much unheard of. I recall the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan back in 1981 and was shocked at the assassination of Anwar Sadat a little later in 1981. I like to go for a run on Sunday mornings, as it was training I did not consider going outside and instead spent the morning watching news reports and following up on my computer. Former President Trump has been making big statements so let us see if he winds back the rhetoric after this assassination attempt.

The photographs taken by Associated Press photographer Evan Vucci are remarkable, the best of the shots was of a defiant Trump surrounded by the Secret Service with his clenched fist raised upwards. Capturing a shot of the bullet flying past former President Trump’s head is amazing, that captured a moment in time. Evan Vucci had previously been awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his breaking photography work during the George Floyd riots, Vucci captured the moment Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi ditched his shoe at President George Bush in Iraq who did a pretty good job of dodging the projectile.

For me, it has been difficult to watch unfold, the hold-ups in US congress, Germany fumbling through and the rest of Europe dithering. I am not thrilled with Australia’s effort either, we should have got the Taipan helicopter to Ukraine to save lives.

The Trump syndrome to appease Russian President Vladimir Putin has been ratcheted up, Trump was a failure as President and will be a bigger failure in a second term. Now Russia is gaining ground in Ukraine, land that had been liberated by Ukraine previously. This is the most stupid thing ever, the Ukrainian lives lost liberating this land two years ago have been disrespected.

This is a failure of NATO, western Europe and the alliance in general. Whilst the Russian threats have been empty so far, they are considered extreme. Western Europe is finally starting to smarten up that Russia is a threat to them also. Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia are very concerned as they are so close to Russia, all Russian troops need to do is cross the river. Putin is testing NATO, he is probing to determine how far he can push.

Poland is well aware of the threat, their military is already pretty big and will defend their country. Should Russia have a crack at Poland, Russia will absolutely lose that war as Poland sees this threat and there is no way they will be unprepared. Poland is building a highly respectable military force and Russia will not win a conventional war against Poland, they will try, but I believe Poland would stop any Russian advance through their territory.

I am looking at the newspapers and television news watching anti-antisemitism at Australian universities and I am frankly shocked. I believe Palestine, along with Israel has the right to exist, this is a complicated situation here. There are some viewpoints being pushed by organisations such as Hamas and their proxies on social media, in the community and especially on university campuses. So I am not surprised when I read about pro-Palestinian organisations targeting the universities around the world.

I was appalled at the October 7 surprise attack of Israel, I was not the only one, it was a shocking attack. Watching the young people flee the music festival, they were running for their lives. Those that got to their vehicles were then ambushed on the road out. The sexual violence directed towards the captured Israeli women was nothing short of barbaric, I cannot believe anyone would seek to defend sexual assault, gang rape and mutilation of women. There are even apologists seeking to deflect and deny these events occurred in much the same way holocaust deniers operate.

Women were abducted, raped by multiple men and received injuries related to sexual torture and extreme and barbaric violence. Anyone who supports war crimes of sexual abuse and objectification of women are appalling. The New York Times published a very well researched article based on the sexual abuse of women during the October 7 attacks, the savagery of these attacks against women are beyond denial. Women were targeted, the plans of Hamas involved the kidnapping of women, sexual violence and barbarity of these Hamas fighters must not be explained away.

There was never a chance of Israel not responding. The whole Israeli defensive doctrine is based on immediate and disproportionate action. So I ask, was anyone surprised with the Israeli response? You can be sure Israel will retaliate and that retaliation will be extremely forceful, there will be no half measures here. They can forget their silly from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free slogans. Palestine needs to be free of Hamas, then they will be fully free from tyranny.

Linda Reynolds was finally able to speak publicly after the Bruce Lehrmann v Network Ten defamation trial. Senator Reynolds has been absent from the public eye for the aborted rape trial and the defamination trial. Now she is seeking justice herself, all she requires is for Brittany Higgins to come out and publicly apologise for comments made that were clearly untrue. 

Senator Reynolds spoke eloquently about the role of lawmakers and how she was targeted in the Senate by the Labor women. Katy Gallagher is a disgrace, they targeted Reynolds in a now successful attempt to gain power from the Liberal government. This was already a Liberal government in decline, they had been in power since 2013 and lost government in 2022 that was dominated by the infighting between Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull. Yet the Australian Labor Party resorted to gutter politics to win the election, they were well aware that no political cover up had occurred but set about the false narrative to discredit the Morrison Government. 

Brittany Higgins is wrong and needs to just get on with apologising publicly to Linda Reynolds. Sure, Higgins has been terribly influenced by now husband and Labor Party lackey David Sharaz. Brittany Higgins as a young woman has to learn that you can not just go onto social media and defame people. David Sharaz has backed down, not apologised but thrown himself on the mercy of the court as he does not have the financial resources to fight this case.

Higgins might have to think long and hard here, Justice Lee was scathing as he found no political cover up. Fiona Brown acted properly and Linda Reynolds did not cover up any sexual assault instead attempting to get Higgins to report the sexual assault to the Australian Federal Police. Instead, Higgins wanted to go to the media instead and bypass all facets of legal requirements of determining guilt. Higgins was wrong to make the public statements about Fiona Brown and Linda Reynolds, Justice Lee has determined there was no political cover up and Brittany Higgins needs to come clean and apologise to Linda Reynolds unreservably and not post further accusations. 

I was in the city on a Saturday afternoon having a drink at the Globe Hotel overlooking Railway Lane. There was a pretty good vibe around in the hotel and adjoining lane, there was an older clientele around, there was a Rod Steward concert this evening, so they were in town to watch him.

Then all of a sudden, there was an influx of unaccompanied youths swarming into the area and running riot. I reckon the average age was around 10 or so with some up to 15 years old. Whilst there was a variety of ages, there were a few talker ones, they were young. Regardless, these were a bunch of youths with no parental control. So where were their parents? This is a social issue, you could see these were punks from disadvantaged families; however, their disadvantage stems from their deadbeat parents.

These punks were running riot, they were sitting at the table grabbing the food, one punk had grabbed a steak knife and was vandalising the table by carving into the wood. They were harassing patrons at the Ribs & Burgers food outlet, all the patrons had now moved inside to get away from these out of control punks. Couples and families had come out on a Saturday night for some entertainment and were now subject to undisciplined youths with no boundaries or self-control.

There were around twenty of these punks running around, one of our party was sitting with her back to the lane. There was not much of a retaining barrier to the lane, these punks were now sitting on the wall, I had my eyes glued to the space just behind her, I was watching her back. She could easily be harassed or assaulted, they could easily grab her over the retaining barrier to keep patrons in the licenced bar area.

That is when I noticed the punks had stolen the steak knives from the table and were concealing these weapons. This was highly concerning, not only were these punks using these knives to vandalise property, they looked like they had malicious intents. I left the licenced area and wandered over to ## so I could inform the manager what had occurred. I was a little taken aback by his attitude, he did not seem to be acting in the best interests of his patrons and other businesses in the vicinity.

He was not concerned as he had called security who were on their way, I was now highly concerned as these steak knives could be used on these private security guards, they needed to be warned that these youths were armed and acting in an aggressive manner. I was concerned that their steak knives would be used on the security guards, one of whom was a smallish female in both stature and size who did not look imposing. Her body language was not that she had any self-defense skills and could handle herself.

We have entered a week where we will finally have hope, there is a new beginning as a new management regime takes over. Initially, I would expect minimal changes as the new manager steps in, he should take an observation period to see what is working and what needs rectification. The damage that has been done will take years to repair, this will be a long-run turn-around situation.

Hopefully the cronyism will finally end, the leader of the three stooges has retired, this will now leave the other two exposed, their benefactor has departed and the people who they have wronged are lining up. Without this management protection, the other two would be pretty nervous right now, they know they are in for restructuring. They have been complicit in the abuses that have occurred, they have been fully compliant in the bullying, they know it and they fear retribution.

I have long argued the current management has three major failings, that is a) no quality focus, b) no regard for safety, and c) running a protection racket for their crony mates. We are discussing major compliance failings and shortcomings, this undermines the whole registration process. What individuals are now seeing is the lies espoused by the fab three. The safety aspect has been appalling, I never want to hear these two statements again, a) what is the minimum we need to do, and b) let’s not make a rod for our backs.

When it comes to safety, there is no limit, we have been reported by our clients for both quality and safety breaches, this is how we are perceived and we have lost so many clients in the process that we must now rebuild the reputation. During official inspections, we have willfully misled the safety inspector that represents the government safety regulator. We have previously been issued non-compliance [improvement] notices and every client is now aware of the reputational damage caused by the management failures. I am looking forward to this new beginning, I hope to work in a constructive manner with the new manager to restore our lost reputation and quality.

Wouldn’t it be ironic if the same person who took out Larry [not his real name] for corruption also took out his disciples a number of years later. These legacy appointments made through a corrupt process have not been repealed, the issues have not been addressed and the individuals have been emboldened to act in a manner that is detrimental to a state government organisation.

We never believed the story that Larry’s expertise in spreadsheets was required in another section, he was being promoted and was needed elsewhere. That fake story made no sense, we were the largest and most profitable section. This profitability was made possible due to years of under-investment and poor management.

Sure, record numbers of apprentices rolled through the doors, they unfortunately were not serviced to the betterment of engineering trades, their employers and the primary industry where they are employed. The profits from this primary job was being skimmed to prop up underperforming areas, it just doesn’t make sense.

So here we are, we have a number of non-performing people being carried by a performing area. They behave like a state government department is a private business concern, this will always end badly, they promote those who agree with them, the ones they can control so they maintain their unethical status – not that they see it that way.

However, when you white-ant others, you tend to make enemies, especially with those who are ethical. What I see is ethical people tend to be organised, they keep accurate records, accurate record keeping is not the domain of those who are cheating the system, that tends to be incriminating, so you look for inaccuracies and falsified statements and entries – then you have them.

The mean girls of Australian politics have been named as Kristina Keneally, Penny Wong and Katy Gallagher. Described as the cantankerous cabal, Keneally, Wong and Gallagher have lowered parliamentary standards and brought into serious question why female quotas are required in parliament when this behaviour manifests on pretty much a daily basis. 

What happened to Kimberley Kitching was just deplorable, this is a classic deflection, the behaviour of Katy Gallagher at the Senate Estimates Committee questioning Senator Linda Reynolds smacks of double standards. Whilst Kimberley’s funeral was a sedate affair, her husband Andrew Landeryou lashed out at the cantankerous cabal, that was a pretty good sledge. 

Senator Wong is the Foreign Minister so this is a real credibility issue for her. Since Senator Wong was involved in the questioning of Senator Linda Reynolds in the Senate Estimates Committee, she has now been tainted with the misconduct charges levelled against Senator Katy Gallagher.  As Penny Wong was asking questions under parliamentary privilege, there is a real concern of collaboration and abuse of power.

When I look at retirement, that is early retirement, I think of age 60 in Australia as that is the earliest age a person born after 1963 can retire. For non-baby boomers like me, unless we have a very good reason such as personal hardship, the soonest we can unlock our retirement funds is age 60. If you hit age 60 and have the funds, then retirement is clearly the best option, if you are fit enough, then you should enjoy ýour retirement.

So if you look to delay your retirement, there had better be a very good reason, such as personal hardship. Ultimately, there is the time value of money to consider, then, more importantly is the value of time. No matter how much wealth you possess, the value you place in your time is what is valued in your life. Being financially secure is important, you need money to enjoy activities and your time, for me scuba diving, sailing, kayaking, mountain bike riding, hiking and boating.

So, for me I am looking to travel and write, I intend to become a digital nomad. I need to find a way to supplement my income. Yes, I will be living off my retirement benefit, I also seek to perform some part time work to earn some income to reduce the draw down on my retirement benefit whilst still enjoying the benefit of becoming semi-retired. I will look to generate an income from my digital activities and I am looking forward to it.