How Donald Trump is insulating himself from future investigations

 

They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world: someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for.

~ Tom Bodett

Allegations of jobs for mates and retribution for perceived enemies have offered jaw-dropping insight for all ratepayers in NSW, not just those in Parramatta.

The 440 times sacked council boss Gail Connolly ‘couldn’t recall’ during her ‘Spanish Inquisition’

Whither Writing Workers? Ramble

 

IRS IT department has shrunk 42% under Trump

Snapshot Report: Status of the IRS’s Workforce as of January 2026 June 9, 2026 Report Number: 2026-IE-R009 – According to IRS records, 31,273 employees separated, took a DRP – Deferred Resignation Program & Early Out Offers or used some other incentive to leave the agency during the one-year period between January 2025 and January 2026. 

These departures represent approximately 30 percent of the IRS’s workforce and impact certain business units more than others. The IRS began to backfill select positions. As of January 2026, approximately 2,000 employees have been hired. As a result, the net effect on IRS staffing was a decrease of 28 percent. Overall workforce reductions have impacted employees in certain IRS business units and positions (job series) more than others. 

For example, approximately 33 percent of revenue agents and approximately 32 percent of tax examiners separated from the IRS. Revenue agents conduct examinations (audits) by reviewing financial records of individuals and businesses to verify what is reported. 

Tax examiners are responsible for reviewing and processing federal tax returns to ensure compliance and accuracy. The following graphics show the business units and job series impacted the most.

Note: “Between 2024 and 2030, an estimated 30.4 million Boomers will reach traditional retirement age. The share of the U.S. population over age 65 was 12.4% in 2007 and 17.9 in 2024. It is projected to reach 21.2% by 2035.”

We Sued ICE to Get Its Spyware Contract

404 Media: The Agency Is Redacting Essentially Everything – “Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) contracted with a spyware company that tells customers it ensures they can use the tool without the agency being caught doing so, according to documents obtained by 404 Media through our ongoing lawsuit against ICE. 

In September, we sued ICE for documents related to its $2 million contract with Paragon, a company that makes powerful spyware for remotely hacking phones and accessing encrypted messaging apps. In response to the lawsuit we’ve now been given the first batch of documents by ICE, but have many more to go. 

The vast majority of the documents it has provided so far are heavily redacted, and it is still withholding information in the public interest that would more fully explain why the agency wanted to buy such a potent and controversial surveillance tool…”

How Donald Trump is insulating himself from future investigations

CNN – no paywall: “The deal that President Donald Trump reached with his own administration to set-up an “anti-weaponization fund” for his allies is the latest example of how his second stint in the White House has focused on undermining checks on presidential power and insulating himself from future investigations. 

The agreement highlights the new hurdles Trump is erecting that that could stymie probes by congressional Democrats, successor administrations and even authorities outside the federal government. On several fronts, Trump is dismantling post-Watergate transparency mandates, attacking Congress’ power of the purse, rewarding loyalists accused of committing crimes that support his causes, and assaulting independent agencies and executive branch watchdogs. 

Trump has done so by capitalizing on and accelerating an expansion of presidential power embraced by the conservative Supreme Court, and by blowing through norms and political gravity that reined in other presidents, former government attorneys and constitutional scholars told CNN. When Congress in the 1970s passed constraints on the presidency in response to the scandals of the Richard Nixon administration, courts at the time backed those laws.

 “What we’ve now seen is this dramatic pendulum swing in favor of just more executive power that’s consolidated within the president himself, that’s no longer dispersed,” said University of Southern California Gould School of Law Professor Adam Zimmerman. “We also see someone who’s willing to use that power to push that power to the limit.” 

The latest gambit – a controversial agreement arising from a legally dubious lawsuit Trump brought against the IRS – is more sweeping in its protections for the president than initially reported. Its language could shield Trump from more than just tax-related probes. And the broad criteria for whom could benefit from the nearly $1.8 billion fund could incentivize individuals to not comply with congressional investigations into the president…”

‘Shocked but not surprised’: Top bureaucrat accuses minister of lying under oath

‘Shocked but not surprised’: Top bureaucrat accuses minister of lying under oath

The release of secret parliamentary evidence has revealed that Local Government Minister Ron Hoenig has been accused of lying under oath by one of his own top public servants.

The allegation was contained in the transcript of a closed-door parliamentary inquiry published after Brett Whitworth – the deputy secretary of the Office of Local Government (OLG) – requested his evidence be released.

Whitworth said he was “shocked but not surprised” to hear Hoenig explicitly deny discussing the Bayside preselection with him during budget estimates in September. Whitworth says they discussed the matter several times.

Local Government Minister Ron Hoenig has defended his involvement in the matter with former Labor mayor Bill Saravinovski.SITTHIXAY DITTHAVONG

The inquiry was examining the end of Bill Saravinovski’s 40-year career as Bayside mayor, councillor and Labor powerbroker after he was referred to the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT). The release of Whitworth’s evidence once again places Hoenig’s involvement in the Saravinovski matter under the spotlight.

Saravinovski, who spent 40 years on Rockdale and Bayside councils, was dumped from Labor’s ticket just weeks before the local government elections in September 2024. NCAT later found Saravinovski guilty of misconduct on three grounds and issued a reprimand.

According to a transcript of the evidence, Whitworth claimed Hoenig approached him on four or five occasions for post-meeting “corridor conversations”. Whitworth said Hoenig’s repeated questioning of him across late 2023 and early 2024 made him “totally uncomfortable” given the matter related to a Labor Party preselection.

“I have been a public servant for 30 years. I have been dealing with ministers face-to-face for at least 15 or more. I know that there is a point where ministers are public servants and there is a point where ministers are political entities,” he responded.

Once Hoenig crossed that line, Whitworth said he “switched off”.

Hoenig, a former barrister, has served as a significant political figure in the Bayside area for decades, serving as mayor of the former Botany Council for 30 years until he was elected as the member for Heffron in 

According to a transcript of his evidence, Whitworth told the inquiry: “I’m sure that I’d said on at least one occasion, ‘The issue of [Labor] preselection is not a matter for me, and it’s not a matter for you.’ He would say, ‘Yes, I know, but it’s a time issue. We’ve had this for far too long’.”

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After Whitworth made the allegation in a citizen’s right of reply tabled with parliament in late June 2025, Hoenig explicitly denied discussing the Bayside preselection with his deputy secretary after the matter was raised during budget estimates in September.

When asked how he felt hearing Hoenig deny discussing the preselection, Whitworth said he was “shocked but not surprised”, alluding to a line from the television series The West Wing.

“My reaction was to stare blankly at the books … and keep my face as contained as I possibly can,” he said.

When pressed on whether he expected Hoenig to lie, Whitworth replied: “No, I didn’t. It’s not that I expected the minister to lie. Again, you’re asking me to speculate on what the minister was thinking at the time.”

He later said the reason he did not contradict the minister’s evidence during budget estimates was because he held “a fear that if I opened the door, then what else comes out?”

In his evidence, Whitworth said the decision to take action against Saravinovski was his own, and based on material provided by the Independent Commission Against Corruption. He decided against raising it with the departmental secretary because “I didn’t see that it was a matter of the minister misusing political office for a Labor Party matter”.

While under parliamentary privilege, the minister justified his pressure on Whitworth as necessary to prevent Saravinovski from running for council again while facing “overwhelming evidence of corruption and misconduct”.

Hoenig reiterated his denial that he raised the preselection with Whitworth, saying that “recollections could differ in respect of the nature of conversation”.

The Herald later revealed a political plot leading to the office of NSW Premier Chris Minns resulted in Saravinovski being replaced as mayor by Ed McDougall, the chief of staff to Lands and Property Minister Steve Kamper. Jo Jansyn, a Bayside councillor and Hoenig staffer, lost Labor preselection and quit her job the next day.

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Despite the allegations levelled against Saravinovski, senior Labor powerbrokers nominated his then 21-year-old son, Christopher – who had no political experience or notable professional standing – to replace him on the party’s Bayside ticket.

In late September last year, Saravinovski was charged with providing misleading evidence to the state’s corruption watchdog.

Hoenig did not respond directly to questions about Whitworth’s claim he lied, saying he had answered questions on the matter extensively during budget estimates and in parliament.

“I maintain that my frustration with this matter was that a referral of material by the ICAC detailing serious misconduct against a serving councillor was not being dealt with quickly enough,” he said.

“Since being appointed as minister my continued focus has been ensuring that misconduct-related issues are dealt with swiftly and effectively to ensure the integrity of decision-making in local government is preserved.”

Tanzhaus Zürich - Gabriella exploring Mittleurope

 Tanzhaus Zürich - Gabriella exploring Mittleurope

DOUBLE TROUBLE: DANCE. & THE WIZARD IS NOT REAL

The Tanzhaus collaborators from The Field invite you to an evening of solidarity: DOUBLE TROUBLE brings together two solo pieces that reinforce rather than compete with one another. 

In the wizard is not real, lisa laurent navigates grief through a grotesque yet poetic soundscape that oscillates between fragility and humour. 

Dance. by Gabriella Imrichova revolves, as an excessive tirade, around refusal, obsession and the all-consuming nature of control. Two radical bodies that, between collapse and self-empowerment, make intense, contradictory states visible.

Scholarships: Awarded the prestigious ATLAS scholarship at the ImPulsTanz International Dance Festival in Vienna. 

Is cold-water swimming good for you, really?

Yes 

Whether in the sea, a lake, river or lido, cold-water swimming – immersing yourself in water typically between 10 and 15°C – has become a popular way to support wellbeing.

Venturing into cold water can act as a controlled stressor. The body responds instantly: skin temperature drops, heart rate and blood pressure rise, and blood vessels constrict to preserve heat in the core. At the same time, stress hormones such as cortisol and norepinephrine are released, explains Dr Mark Harper, author of Chill: The Cold Water Swim Cure. 

With repeated exposure, this brief stress can train the body to become more resilient – a phenomenon known as hormesis. “The body dampens its stress response, reducing chronic inflammation and insulin resistance,” says Harper. It also activates brown fat, which helps regulate temperature and metabolism, thereby increasing energy expenditure, adds scientist Dr Susanna Søberg.

It’s the mental-health benefits, however, that many swimmers rave about. While the initial cold-water-shock response briefly increases inflammation, studies suggest stress levels drop significantly around 12 hours later. Nutritional therapist Hannah Lawton says this may be due to stimulation of the vagus nerve, supporting parasympathetic (“rest and digest”) activity and the release of mood-regulating neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine, helping to ease stress and anxiety. 

Taking a dip in Oxford for HTSI, October 2024 © Tom Craig. Model, Grace Clover at IMG

Despite common misconceptions, cold-water swimming is reportedly as beneficial for women as it is for men, with some evidence suggesting it may help regulate body temperature during perimenopause and alleviate endometriosis symptoms. There could also be added benefits from being outdoors and swimming socially.

Water below 20°C is optimal. “Start swimming in summer, when it’s above 15°C,” recommends Dr Harper. He also advises to always swim with others. “Don’t try to control your breathing, and enter the water gradually to allow the body to adapt,” says Dr Heather Massey, associate professor in extreme environments and physiology at University of Portsmouth. Just a couple of minutes is enough to begin with, while building up to five can boost alertness, focus and energy. 

---

No

Evidence is still mixed on whether the benefits of cold-water swimming come from the cold water itself or from surrounding factors such as being in nature, overcoming a challenge and social connection. “We know that some people even experience improvements just by being close to water,” says Dr Massey. “There is debate over what the magic ingredient is.”

There are also important safety considerations. Each year, hundreds of deaths are linked to cold water, meaning it’s an activity that should be approached with care. Diving is not generally advised: when the face and body are exposed to cold simultaneously, the body can enter autonomic conflict – a state in which the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems are activated simultaneously, explains Dr Massey.

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“It sends competing signals to the heart to speed up and slow down at once,” she says. This can trigger serious cardiac arrhythmias and, in rare cases, be fatal. Instead, “get your body in and, once your breathing is under control, that’s when you can put your face in”, advises Dr Harper. Those with high blood pressure, heart conditions or underlying health issues should consult a GP before taking part. Warming up quickly afterwards is also key to reducing risk and avoiding hypothermia, Lawton notes.

Many begin cold-water swimming without proper guidance or progression, says Dr Søberg. It’s important to seek qualified instruction – in the UK, for example, through Royal Life Saving Society UK or Swim England-accredited coaches with open-water safety training, although qualifications vary based on the kind of water.

“It’s important to listen to your body and never start when you’re feeling exhausted, run down or depleted,” she advises. Experts also caution against hyperventilation-style breathing techniques popularised by figures such as Wim Hof, instead favouring slow, steady breaths.

Not everyone will enjoy the cold. Those with Raynaud’s or other circulatory conditions – as well as pregnant women – should check with their healthcare provider before trying it. The good news is that even minimal exposure can be beneficial. According to Dr Harper, simply dunking your face in a sink of icy water can instantly lower stress levels. 

Login.gov – identifying data about you in third party control

 “Give a soft answer to an angry person. If you touch a match to gasoline, you get an explosion. However, if you touch the same match to water, you extinguish the match.”

— Darrell Case

Inside the White House Freakout Over the Epstein Files

CNN Reliable Sources: “Inside the White House Freakout Over the Epstein Files” is the title of Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan’s explosive excerpt from their forthcoming book “Regime Change.” Now comes the freakout over the “freakout” article. The New York Times published the “Regime Change” excerpt at 6 a.m. ET today, and it immediately intensified the White House’s anxiety about the book.

Follow up to Trump Mentioned in Epstein Files ‘More than One Million Times’ – The New York Times – Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan: “On July 17, 2025, at around 6 o’clock in the evening, President Trump’s top officials filed into the White House Situation Room — the secure bunker where classified and high-stakes national security matters are discussed and decided. This was where President Barack Obama, along with Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the president’s national security team, watched the raid that ended with the death of Osama bin Laden in 2011. 

Now, however, Trump’s most senior advisers had gathered — without him — to figure out how to gain some measure of control over a very different kind of crisis threatening to engulf the presidency: the Epstein files. Ten days earlier, the Justice Department and the F.B.I. had jointly released a memo that bluntly stated that their review had found no “client list” of powerful men for whom the notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein had allegedly procured underage girls and young women. 

Intended to put to rest years of speculation and end the pressure campaign to release the voluminous material in the department’s possession, the memo instead had the opposite effect, setting off a backlash that was notably loud among the MAGA base. And it was about to get worse: The Wall Street Journal was preparing a damaging article about Trump’s relationship with Epstein. The president’s desperate attempts to kill the story had failed. His team now had to get everyone onto the same page about how to counter the growing swarm of attention. 

They needed a gesture of transparency to appease an increasingly angry base, but also a way to convey the message that the president was sympathetic to his supporters’ concerns. Which itself was a problem, because he clearly wasn’t…”

Login.gov – identifying data about you in third party control

The Drey Dossier: “…Login.gov is open source, which means the government publishes its code in the open for anyone to read, so I read it, and I walked the recent changes, since every edit gets posted in public with a date stamped on it. Over the last couple of months somebody added a new piece and named it a proofing agent. 

Proofing is just the bureaucratic word for proving you are who you say you are, so a proofing agent is a stand-in that does the proving for you. What it actually does, according to the code, is let an approved outside organization hand login.gov your name, your Social Security number, your date of birth, your address, even your passport, and login.gov will run the full identity check on that pile of data and, if it all lines up, stamp you verified. You come out the far side a confirmed, government-trusted person, and you were never anywhere near it. So the single promise the whole system was built on, that it has to actually be you, is gone, traded for an approved organization that can conjure a verified you out of a spreadsheet. Of everything in this piece, that is the part that scares me most. And it appeared in the code right after a particular man arrived to run the place…” 

[Note – Login.gov – “The public’s one account for government. Use one account and password for secure, private access to participating government agencies” – this site is required to access services including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Your personal identifying data has been compromised multiple times using portals such as these, with increased security breeches due to the DOGE project [Elon Musk] as well as other billionaire controlled government contracts awarded during this administration.]

See also Notes from the Circus: “…Trump installs DOGE personnel inside the Treasury payment system, the IRS database, the Social Security records, the security clearances database, in violation of the Privacy Act and a stack of other statutes. Some plaintiffs have managed to establish standing in some of these cases, after extended litigation. In many of the cases, plaintiffs have been dismissed on standing grounds. Where plaintiffs have survived, the merits proceed slowly while the data continues to be accessed…”

Trump's Bloody, Garish Birthday Gift to Himself: A White House UFC Fight 

The wild weekend in Washington began with MMA fighters menacing one another on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and ended with the Trump clan stalking the octagon. 

It was an imperial scene in the shadow of the executive mansion, a showcase of American excess to celebrate the president’s birthday.

“You wanna act like a fucking animal?”

The fight wasn’t until Sunday, but it was Friday night on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, where Martin Luther King Jr. said, “I have a dream,” and two MMA fighters were already getting physical. Ilia Topuria shoved Justin Gaethje in the stomach, and Dana White, the head of the UFC, stepped in to separate the two.

“Look where we’re at, look at this beautiful view, and you want to act like an animal?” Gaethje said. “Like an emotional little animal, like a female.”

The ugly moment set against the neoclassical majesty of the background would set the tone for a wild weekend in Washington, where the garish spectacle and bloody combat of MMA fighting and its supporting culture descended on the capital for President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday. The main event, Sunday night’s UFC title card on the South Lawn of the White House, was ostensibly held to celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary. But everyone knew why we were really here.

Trump wanted a big birthday party, one that would rival the military parade he sought for himself in the first term. Dana White loves Trump, and what fight promoter could resist such a massive spectacle at the White House? He liked the idea so much that TKO, the parent company of UFC, was willing to shell out more than $60 million—with ample help from donors like the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Polymarket—to bankroll the show. Mark Zuckerberg, whose company Meta has a partnership with the UFC, had a prime seat. So did David Ellison, the head of Paramount, which has the exclusive rights to televise the competition. After the final bout, a riveting show that ended a little after 1 a.m. when Topuria was forced to withdraw because his face was beaten to a pulp, Trump’s progeny wandered around the blood-smeared octagon, smiling and chatting as fireworks erupted overhead.

The red-white-and-blue spectacle was allegedly a celebration of America's 250th anniversary—that just happened to fall on the president's birthday.

 SAUL LOEB/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Billionaire heiress sues over $12 million tax sting following separation

Billionaire heiress sues over $12 million tax sting following separation

Billionaire heiress and renowned philanthropist Debbie Dadon is suing her top-tier financial advisers, alleging they botched her affairs to the point where she is facing a $12 million-plus tax bill.

Dadon, the daughter of Marc Besen – Highpoint Shopping Centre’s former owner and co-founder of the Sussan retail brand – is suing tax specialists from Deloitte and Pitcher Partners in the Supreme Court of Victoria, claiming both groups gave her bad advice.

Debbie Dadon is one of the Melbourne’s most respected philanthropists.

Dadon alleges in court documents that the advisers encouraged her to set up an investment structure to receive $58.3 million in dividends from business projects overseen by her and her former husband Albert Dadon’s property development and investment group Ubertas.

Under their advice, Debbie Dadon claimed a $17.4 million tax offset from the more than $58 million in income she earned in 2015 from four companies as the result of her financial separation from her jazz musician and businessman ex-husband.

Debbie Dadon alleges that the Australian Taxation Office has since refused to allow the offset, meaning that she now faces a $12.3 million tax shortfall – a sum that could increase significantly once penalties are included.

She alleges in court documents that both Deloitte Private (an arm of the accounting and consulting group, Deloitte) and Pitcher Partners provided representations that were false and misleading, acted negligently and provided advice that was not of a competent standard.

The 69-year-old comes from one of Melbourne’s most prominent and respected business and philanthropic families.

Her sisters, Carol Schwartz and Naomi Milgrom, and brother, Daniel Besen, are all accomplished business people who also have prominent roles in the arts and philanthropy.

The Dadons’ daughters, Stef and Jess, are hugely successful entrepreneurs in their own right, founding the wildly popular Twoobs environmentally conscious footwear brand.

Alongside her sisters, Debbie Dadon is a director of the Besen Family Foundation – one of the largest private family charitable organisations in the country.

The foundation provides grants to support the development and operation of a wide range of causes from children’s libraries to bird sanctuaries, Indigenous community programs and the Holocaust Museum.

Stef and Jess Dadon founded the hugely successful Twoobs shoe brand.PAUL HARRIS

It states on its website that it supports projects “which enable the community to thrive, in spirit of inclusion, equity, empowerment and unity”.

The Besen family also oversees an impressive art collection which is held at the Eva and Marc Besen Centre at the family’s Yarra Valley winery, TarraWarra. Marc Besen, a popular figure in Melbourne’s social circles, died in 2025, while his beloved wife, Eva, died in 2021.

The Dadon family is well known for its striking property developments including two major towers on St Kilda Road and an apartment complex overlooking Flagstaff Gardens.

According to court documents, Debbie Dadon was involved in the Ubertas business with her husband since 1982 until their financial separation in 2013 and 2014, after which the assets of the business were divided up between the couple.

Ubertas’ 350 William development rises above Flagstaff Gardens.JESSE MARLOW

The 2015 dividends that flowed through to Debbie Dadon were the result of the financial agreement from the couple’s separation two years earlier.

She alleges she was encouraged by Deloitte and Pitcher Partners advisers in 2015 to set up a new company, D Dadon Holdings, to receive the dividends as fully franked.

Fully franked dividends are a tax offset that represents the corporate tax a company has already paid on its income and is a common way to stop investors from being taxed twice on the same earnings.

As the result of Deloitte Private and Pitcher Partners’ allegedly poor advice, Dadon is now expected to pay more tax than what would have been otherwise levied on these sorts of dividends.

The case reveals that the Tax Office queried the arrangement in 2024 following a 2018 review of the Ubertas Group known as Project Sofia Audit – an audit that was later dropped by the Tax Office in 2024, according to court documents.

Deloitte, Pitcher Partners and lawyers for Debbie Dadon were all approached for comment.

As the lawsuit was only filed earlier this month, Deloitte Private and Pitcher Partners are yet to file a formal defence in response to Debbie Dadon’s claim

EDITOR'S PICK

• Commercial real estate

Thinking outside the boxDebbie Dadon alleges that she was not properly informed by her financial advisers that the tax offset could not be applied unless her company held its interest in the shares for a continuous period of at least 45 days.