Thursday, January 29, 2026

Labor must use its mandate to reform our unfair tax system

Alexander Hamilton warned that when a government betrays its people, the right of self-defense remains.

“If the representatives of the people betray their constituents, there is no resource left but the original right of self-defense.”(Federalist Papers, No. 28)

 


Culture is like a forest. The seeds are your core values. Once they take root as behaviours, they can grow into trees, populating your cultural forest. Bad seeds produce unhealthy forests, infertile, and plagued by infestations. Good seeds produce a healthy forest and ecosystems that support life. One is sustainable, the other is simply not.
Diane Kalen-Sukra, Save Your City: How Toxic Culture Kills Community & What to Do About It

As we’ve seen – especially over the past decade or so – population growth isn’t inevitable.
While the global population has grown every year for the past seven decades, some countries have seen their numbers shrink. And increasingly, those with falling birth rates (including Australia) have relied on immigration to keep their populations growing.

Labor must use its mandate to reform our unfair tax system
Millie Muroi’s suggestion that we should move away from taxing workers and move to a land tax is a good one that was proposed in Ken Henry’s taxation review of 2010 (“Immigration’s a fix, not a panacea”, January 28). After Tony Abbott’s successful campaign to remove the carbon tax, federal governments of both persuasions have not been brave enough to make any major changes to our tax system. The tragedy is that if the carbon tax had not been abolished, we would be raising an additional $70 billion a year. Similarly, the federal government was pressured by mining companies to dilute the effect of the resources rent tax (PRRT) to the extent that it now receives more revenue from HECS fees than the PRRT. With the opposition in chaos and Labor being expected to win at least the next election, surely it is time that our government started implementing some of the serious changes that our system of taxation desperately needs. Peter Nash, Fairlight

Two huge ships are floating off the coast of Sydney. This is what they’re doing

Slovak Fico on Amerikan President::
“Robert Fico, one of the few EU leaders to frequently support Trump’s stance on Europe’s weaknesses, was concerned about the U.S. president’s “psychological state,” two of the diplomats said.”
European leader spoke of shock at Trump’s state of mind after Mar-a-Lago meeting

8 Years ago Slovak PM Robert Fico resigns

Owl: ‘Poetry is my true métier’ — Blake Morrison on Afterburn

In a dip on the A12, late at night,
no warning, the kids asleep in the back,
an owl flew into the windscreen.
I’d hit flying creatures before,
soft-winged insects mashed to splut
that furred up the headlights like kettle scale.
This was a downy white pillow flap
yet hard enough to score the glass
with a crack running side to side.
I slowed, pulled up. The owl was surely dead
but its body wasn’t lying in the grass
nor ahead on the beam-lit tarmac.
I searched for an age while the kids slept,
longing for a bright accusing eye
and a pulse in a cloud of feathers.
Wherever it lay, I couldn’t atone:
driving home I felt the future grow dark
as the crack widened and I fell inside.
From ‘Afterburn’, published by Chatto & Windus
‘Afterburn’ by Blake Morrison is published by Chatto & Windus, £12.99

CBP Murdered Alex Jeffrey Pretti in Minneapolis MN on January 24, 2026

[Trigger Warning] There have been dozens of social media posts and articles written in the past two days about the brutal murder of 37 year of American Citizen Alex Pretti, an RN who worked at the VA in Minneapolis. This court filing, dated January 24, 2026, USDC, District of Minnesota, includes a redacted declaration of a licensed physician [he fears for his safety and remains anonymous in the filing] who witnessed the murder, and attempted to provide medical assistance to Mr. Pretti after he was beaten, whipped with a pepper sprayer cannister, and shot ten times in five seconds, at point black range, in the back and chest, by possibly four unidentified ‘agents.’ The doctor describes the scene, the actions of the agents, the lack of medical care provided to the victim, and his horror and distress during and subsequent to the murder. Please read this sworn first person testimony. Facts matter. Immediately after the murders of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Jeffrey Pretti, government spokesmen stated, falsely, that the two individuals were “domestic terrorists.” DHS has covered up and refused access to state and local investigation teams to forensic evidence connected to these murders, as well as to the identity of the murderers of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti. The family does not have possession of their son’s body for burial. Mr. Pretti was licensed to carry the gun he had with him, and did not at any time make an effort to use it, threaten or brandish the gun. He was using his cell phone to take video of agent brutality, and protecting two women, when he was seized, pepper sprayed in the face, thrown to the ground and beaten by up to 6 unidentified men. One or more of these men then murdered Pretti, execution style, having dragged his body into a semi upright position, whereupon they placed and discharged their weapons into his neck and chest, brutally and illegally killing him.

On the left is the text of an Affidavit by a witness to the shooting who also recorded the events from a distance or no more than five feet from the shooting. The are many postings of audio and video on social media on social accounts. Caveat – All the claims to date made by DHS and Trump Administration about the shooting are false. [Trigger Warning] Selected videos and information on the event are as follows…this is a developing story:

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