What we saw occurring in Los Angeles was amazing in modern America, there have been riots before in LA. However, sending in the National Guard to quell rioting based on immigration squads roaming the streets is not what anyone expected, well that was before Donald Trump came to power anyway. It could have been brought under control easily, just stop the illegal deportations.

So now we are seeking on the news masked ICE agents riding around in black SUVs raiding streets, homes, and places of work. Remember the Trump lies before the election, “they are eating the cats, they are eating the dogs” to a believing crowd. Trump told blatent lies during the election [for starters] and his followers lapped it up, claims of voter fraud, any story that does not fit his narrative is decried as fake news.

It is clear Trump targeted a Democratic state, the Governor Gavin Newsom has hit back hard. Newsom now openly mocks Trump, he has taken a mocking and condescending approach to mimicking Trump. We all know how fragile Trump’s ego is, so this really irk him. Newsom has the strategy right, whilst no other Democrat can land a punch on Trump, Newsom is doing a splendid job.

What we are seeing with ICE is scenes out of Nazi Germany in the 1930s. The Trump administration is targeting immigrants and deporting them en masse. I am seeing so many correlations with the Gestapo, the MAGA supporters are the Brown Shirts and Karoline Levitt is the head of Propaganda. No wonder the LA population was rioting, they stood up to an authoritarian regime when it was needed.

Fake watches are for fake people, that’s a pretty harsh assessment, probably not the negative advertising I would want to be associated with. So where did this advertising originate? Well, Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie [FHH] is an advisory board with the intent to promote watchmaking that is located in Geneva. This think tank engages in education, promotion and certification. The Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry [FHS] is to protect and promote the Swiss watch industry and is headquartered in Bienne, Switzerland.

Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie is a largely Richemont Group undertaking with Audemars Piguet, and Girard-Perregaux owned by Sowind Group along with Ulysse Nardin. The Richemont Group brands include Cartier, A. Lange & Söhne, Panerai, Piaget, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Vacheron Constantin, and IWC. Then there is TAG Heuer of LVMH and independent brands include Oris, Czapek, and Breitling.

The campaign was launched in 2009 at the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie [SIHH], a trade show in Geneva. The SIHH was an invitation only event including authorised dealers and journalists, apparently some selected VIP collectors were also invited. The message is that wearing fake luxury implies that the person is not authentic, they are pretentious and lack humility, that is a hard message to sell. Then there is the issue that criminal networks produce fake goods, that is a real concern and a much easier message to promote.

There is the hommage, a design that is directly copied, I see so many cheap watchmakers replicate a Rolex Submariner or the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak. Sure, the Gérald Genta designed Audemars Piguet Royal Oak and Patek Philippe Nautilus integrated bracelet design have been copied by watchmakers from Rolex, Chopard, Bulgari, Girard-Perregaux and Tissot to Citizen. So I ask, where does a design style infringe copyright? An integrated bracelet timepiece, a dive watch, a pilot’s watch or a field watch all correspond to certain design features.

When I am in Singapore I love eating out at Little India, it isn’t often you can relate excellent value to such a decent quality. In one such instance I was flicking through a menu to make my order, the waiter politely interrupted me to explain that I was selecting overlapping dishes. Instead, I could order this and this instead of what I was ordering to still obtain the varied tastes I was seeking.

This particular food already comes with these tastes and it will also be cheaper – hard to argue with this logic. Another trip and another restaurant I was arguing the bill, but not how bills are normally argued. On this occasion I was trying to tell them they have undercharged me, it couldn’t possibly be this cheap. She recalculated the bill at my insistence to find I was wrong and she was right all along. This is what I love about eating in Singapore’s Little India, great value combined with amazing food.

After an application to the Federal Court in the Channel 10 defamation case, Lisa Wilkinson was to read from a pre-prepared script. It would appear Lisa Wilkinson’s skill-set was to read from the autoscript teleprompter, her skills are not of an investigative journalist, but instead just of a talking head.

We all know Lisa Wilkinson is pretty good at pre-production meetings, the recorded audio of the meeting with Brittany Higgins and David Sharaz along with producer Angus Llewellyn was both interesting and dull. There were a bunch of what could only be described as deadbeats sitting around mostly junk talking. Then there were hints of interest when they got to Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Defense Minister Linda Reynolds, from the recording we all knew this was a political hit job, nothing more.

If we believe the testimony, Wilkinson’s producer Angus Llewellyn was the brains behind the operation, there was plenty of planning going on. I am not sure if the strategy was well prepared. The strategy was simple, to cause maximum damage to the Liberal government including former Prime Minister Scott Morrison and former Defense Minister Linda Reynolds. I cannot believe after all this time that these actions have still yet to be resolved, I would be surprised if Lisa Wilkinson will work again, no one wants to take the risk to hire her again.

The war in Ukraine is very much an artillery and drone war. Ukraine as the much smaller invaded nation is putting up an amazing fight as the nation with limited resources. The adaptation of low-cost drones on the battlefield through necessity will be studied and debated for years to come in military colleges worldwide. What Ukraine has implemented as a cost effective means to determine Russian aggression is noteworthy.

In the early days of the invasion, Ukraine was utilising Javelin missiles to destroy Russian tanks. This was reasonably cost effective as a $250k Javelin missile could take out a million dollar main battle tank. But when you start using a $300 – $1000 drone to destroy a main battle tank, well that return on investment got a whole lot better. Sure Russia has been pulling out old tanks from its cold war inventory to throw into battle, these could be older T-62 and T-64 tanks that are cheaper insofar as they have already been paid for.

However, Russia is losing main battle tanks at an alarming rate. These need to be replaced, that is a cost, this is a cost that is becoming harder to justify as the war drags on and losses mount. The cost of Russian main battle tanks, a T-64 is about $1.1 million, T-72 $1.2 million, T-80 $3 million, T-90 $4.5 million based on estimates. Russian tank losses in September 2025 are estimated to be T-64 [274], T-72 [1529], T-80 [1130], and T-90 [168]. That is significant main battle tank losses, losses of armoured fighting vehicles is double that of main battle tanks, that is amazing losses.

So this brings us to Magyar’s Birds, Róbert Bródi known by his call sign as Magyar is the founder of Magyar’s Birds. He was a businessman prior to the invasion in the agricultural field, Bródi was assigned to the 206th Battalion of the 241st Brigade when he joined the Territorial Defence Forces of Ukraine, that is basically the military reserve. Based on Bródi’s entrepreneurial knowledge and skills, he raised funds to purchase a fleet of drones that he set up an aerial reconnaissance unit named Magyar’s Birds. The unit is engaged in reconnaissance and patrolling, kamikaze drones and targeting individual soldiers on the battlefield. I follow Magyar’s Birds on the battlefield through their video releases, great work, keep up the liberation of Ukraine.

According to Charlie Munger, you need $100,000 to get your investment portfolio multiplying. Naturally, this means saving $100k, as no one is likely to gift $100k to you. So, by definition, saving the first $100k is the most difficult proposition. So, who was Charlie Munger? Charlie was none other than the business partner of Warren Buffett, the famed investor.

From there according to Charlie, compound growth makes future gains easier to achieve. At a 7% return, saving $650 a month, it takes 9.5 years to save $100k. So I jumped on a compound interest calculator to test the theory and it indeed takes just over 9 years to save almost $100k. If I switch the calculator to 10 years, it works out at $78k for regular deposits and $34.5k in interest giving a $112.5k return.

So I cleared the calculator and added $112k and entered 25 years in, at year 23, the million dollar threshold was reached, so now I need to add the initial 10 years and at 33 years the target was reached. Ok, so now I have a baseline, I cleared the Moneysmart compound interest calculator and used a $650 a month deposit and 34 year range to find one million is achieved at the 33 year mark. So to put this into perspective, that is saving $162.50 a week for the next 34 years, that is not taking inflation into account either. So yeah, Charlie was right, the first $100k is the hardest and as long as you don’t give up and keep saving, you can get there.

What a disaster, after landing at Frankfurt Airport, the plan was to catch an S-Bahn train to the Hauptbahnhop, that is the central station. The plan was sound, the execution was flawed as we headed off in the wrong direction.

Around the fourth stop we had realised the mistake and stepped off at a desolate platform at that time of night. Opelwerk is an unusual name but once we were standing alone on the platform and could see the tall Opel building not far from the station, the name of the station made perfect sense.

I thought the best option was to step across the platform and pick up a train going in the opposite direction. This is not necessarily the best option, we really needed to first check the train timetables and stops, after a sixteen hour flight and working right up to the flight, I wasn’t feeling the greatest so I wasn’t moving around too much.

That was a mistake, we needed either the S7 or the S9 trains, the first one didn’t stop at that platform, what next? Move platforms and the train stops at the platform you were just standing at? As it turns out, a lone woman arrived at the platform and she was willing to assist with directions. We didn’t have much time, but we were able to get over and get on the correct platform when our train arrived. Thankfully, the night turned out all right after all.

What a disaster the Trump war with Iran has been, the United States attacked the nuclear development facilities in June 2025 and according to President Trump, totally obliterated the uranium enrichment facilities. So, based on this assessment, less than a year later, the United States was forced to attack Iran again.

What is known is that Donald Trump is a calculating and habitual liar, there is little point fact-checking Trump now, by the time the research is completed and published, Donald has told a further thirty to fifty blatant untruths. This is his strategy, of course, the media is unable to keep up with the sheer volume of lies. Should a journalist attempt to hold Trump accountable, he will personally attack them, call them obnoxious, call female journalists names such as “piggy” or targeting disabled people, and refer to them as producing fake news.

So the Trump Administration failed to take in account the Iranian response to the attacks on their country. This is a bilateral operation with Israel, NATO, ANZUS, the Quad, and AUKUS allies were not consulted or informed. So when the Iranians took the highly foreseeable action to close the Strait of Hormus, only the senior members of the Trump Administration were surprised. When I say close the Strait of Hormuz, I note Chinese, Pakistani and Indian flagged ships were able to navigate through the strait. That is because these nations have not engaged in the attack on Iran, Trump is even calling on China to police the Strait of Hormuz. Sure, this affects China, but it is not up to them to clean up after Trump’s mess.

Then Trump and Hegseth start to insult NATO partners and demand they come to the aid of the Trump debacle. Seriously, Europe, South Korea and Japan were then publicly called out to come to the aid of the United States. First, we were told the United States has the strongest navy in the world and does not need assistance, this is not long after threatening to invade Greenland, telling news outlets allies in Afghanistan and Iraq were back from the frontlines and not contributing. Tell that to the families of the fallen soldiers, this is an outrageous insult.

Then Trump comes out and states this is a test of NATO, to see if they have the back of the United States. What does this idiot think happened in Afghanistan when the United States was attacked? Australia and European allies immediately invoked their respective treaties and came to the defence of the United States. Trump is a fucking moron, he is not fit to hold office and a total embarassment to any intelligent Americans. To the MAGA faithful who voted this moron in, the rest of the world laughs as you lose health benefits and get poorer as his oligarchy sponsors get richer at their expense. For the rest of us non-Americans who are losing wealth through the mistakes of the orange idiot, get your act together.

The Human Rights Law Centre is sponsoring a project to support whistleblowers across the country. According to their webpage, whistleblowers speak up about human rights abuses, corporate misconduct, and government wrongdoing. The Human Rights Law Centre argues whistleblowers play an important role in democracy, but face reprisal for doing so. Therefore, they advocate for stronger protections for those who speak up about wrongdoing in order to protect democracy and transparency.

The Whistleblower Project is the first dedicated legal centre in Australia to protect and empower whistleblowers to speak up about wrongdoing. They provide legal advice and representation to whistleblowers, they also advocate for stronger protections to end the prosecution of whistleblowers. Part of their charter is to ensure accountability for injustice, the Whistleblower Project state whistleblowers face, legal, financial and personal reprisal and offer resources and support for courageous whistleblowers who risk their futures for uncovering wrongdoing.

United States President Donald Trump is a moron, he is a genuine idiot and is bringing the world to the edge of economic ruin through his ill-thought attack on Iran. We are seeing United States policy published on his social media account, this is not coming from Congress. Allies such as NATO, ANZUS, or the Quad are not consulted or informed, they are just called on to clean up the mess Trump created.

Trump is not a strategic thinker, the United States as a dominant country needs to be predictable, the other powers including China, Russia, and North Korea have to make decisions on a rational United States. How the United States under Donald Trump could not foresee Iran closing down the Strait of Hormuz is a total failure of strategy, there is no strategy. So what does Trump do? Well, he jumps on his social media account bypassing Congress and demands Iran open the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours. Trump’s threat is that the United States military will then target energy generation, oil and gas facilities, and other civilian infrastructure that are basically protected under the Geneva Conventions if Iran does not comply with his demands.

Donald Trump has threatened Iran with destruction of the power generation, so this forces Iran to retaliate or surrender. This is unlikely, Iran has been predictable, they will retaliate, they will target the power generation utilities of the Gulf nations. The UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq are understandably nervous, the power generation and oil production facilities are at risk of being targeted. Iran also stated they would target the desalination plants of the gulf nations, that is a major concern and a relatively easy target for them. Naturally, Iran does not expect to beat the might of the United States military, what they are looking to do is hold out against US Forces, cause a huge economic shock to the United States military funding, and cause an energy related worldwide recession. All the international economies need is an external shock, sharemarkets are down 9% in Australia and Wall Street down more.

What we know about Donald Trump is that he is a pseudo strongman, he is in a powerful position, that is true, but we know he is not a bright guy. What is likely is Trump will back down, he will claim Iran is desperately attempting to contact the United States. What we know is Trump’s good mate Steve Witkoff has been trying to contact the Iranian powers, along with family member Jarrad Kushner, the son-in-law of Donald Trump. Now, before we decry nepotism, Kushner has some excellent credentials. Jarrad took over control of Kushner Companies after his father was convicted of 18 charges including tax evasion, witness tampering, and illegal campaign contributions. Guess what, his father Charles Kuschner was pardoned by Donald Trump in 2020. So hopefully we see another TACO [Trump always Chickens Out] backdown, what he will claim is the art of the deal, I would call this the art of the backdown.