‘When one reaches the end of one’s life one should be able to say that the world is a little better because one has lived. Bringing a ray of happiness to some mother in a back street, who has a family to rear...may tip the scales in our favour’. Ben Chifley, Australian PM 1945-49

Happy Saturday. 💙🌊😏

A dozen federal public servants are earning over $1 million a year at the Future Fund Management Agency. We’re not talking about Secretaries who run big government departments but employees. How can the government justify this? What kind of APS work warrants $1 or $1.5 mil?

“We live in the age of search engines that offer us thousands of instantaneous answers. Yet, no matter how powerful they may be, they merely return what already exists and tend to give us what we already want. In the age of technology and consumerism, the great danger is not only censorship but also homogenization, and not merely imposed silence but the noise that makes it impossible to listen. “Art is a different kind of ‘search engine.’ It does not proceed by indexing but by inquiry. Indeed, its inquiry is a focused attention that is not satisfied with the mere sum of facts, for it never ceases to dig deeper, seeking the thread that unites them. Your art, when it resists homogenization, when it draws our gaze, when it compels us to pause before that which cannot be consumed, is a form of cultural and spiritual regeneration.” — Pope Leo XIV

The system works.....😆😅

Cardinal Robert McElroy, less than a mile from the White House on World Day of Migrants: “We must recognize that in abandoning the words of Deuteronomy and the Statue of Liberty, we are losing our soul as a nation.” He told Catholics to fight every dimension of Trump’s war on immigrants. The cathedral applauded for half a minute.

These billboards just appeared in Liverpool.

Indeed. Bruce Baird was a good and honourable man. John Howard brutally screwed his federal career because he was way too moderate, and sympathetic to asylum seekers.

Great article. We have everything to lose under US military dictatorship. Australia should be building research partnerships with China, not walls. I’ve worked with a Chinese medical research team in Harbin and we've so much to learn from them in delivering timely, equitable healthcare.

👇Thinking that, in 2-3 decades, a hulking Virginia class sub will be 'undetectable' ranks as arguably your most idiotic belief, @AlboMP @SenatorWong. Your kneejerk backing of AUKUS, & subsequent refusal to scrap it, drives us (previous) Labor supporters away in droves. 😡🇦🇺😡

Robots fighting each other on Ukraine's frontline, and the West has no idea how far behind it has fallen. This is changing warfare forever, and yet we keep ordering tanks and artillery like drunks at closing time who insist on one more round of whatever they were drinking in 1985.

The death of Bruce Baird Brings to an end a chapter of remarkable integrity in politics. His moral rejection of Howard’s cruel asylum seeker policies cost ho I’m his promised ministry. He did not buckle and for that he was a beacon of principle above career opportunity. RIP

At 3:54 pm Donald Trump emerged from the White House with freshly colored hair and makeup, as Marine One’s engine roared in the background. He walked directly over to the waiting press, threw his hands out in front of him, gesturing at the empty ground in front of him, while he squeezed his legs together and arched his torso forward, yelling to the reporters, “This is the way the White House is supposed to look. Not asphalt. Broken, dirty asphalt. Look at it.” He then paused, frowning as he looked over his left shoulder, and continued, “The finest stone you could buy anywhere in the world.” The gathered press said nothing, confused by his odd behavior. The President then took three steps forward and appeared to remember why he had come outside in the first place. “Okay. So, I’m heading to Alabama, a place that I won all three times. Record votes, like Texas, like Oklahoma, like a lot of them. And we’re going to give a little speech, and I hope they like it.” For the next 6 minutes and 52 seconds, we watched the President struggle to answer questions, follow the conversation, and even walk in a straight line. Donald Trump is gravely unwell, and whatever is behind his serious decline appears to be rapidly accelerating. open.substack.com/pub/heathe…

It is the most extraordinary thing that the US can gift the world such a wonderful global leader. Thank you so much for Pope Leo XIV.

The cretinous Hegseth’s ban on beards would’ve been sad news for Ulysses S. Grant, the victor of the Civil War, a Republican and the 18th President of the United States.

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Finally, a sensible policy. ‘The Greens support a dramatic downgrading of the US-Australia alliance — including renegotiating the bedrock ANZUS treaty.’ “The US military bases aren’t making us safe; they’re making us a target.” smh.com.au/politics/federal/…

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BREAKING: In a shocking development Canada announces it will build a coalition of countries who share their values to build their economy and trade opportunities and will exclude the United States. “If the U.S. no longer wants to lead, Canada will.”

“AI can process information quickly, but it cannot replace human intelligence. And don’t ask it to do your homework for you.” — Pope Leo XIV