Jozef Imrich, name worthy of Kafka, has his finger on the pulse of any irony of interest and shares his findings to keep you in-the-know with the savviest trend setters and infomaniacs.
''I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center.''
-Kurt Vonnegut
"Three great forces rule the world: stupidity, fear and greed."
~ Albert Einstein
Putin has a special hold over Trump. There are many theories ...
Newly released Epstein estate emails and congressional documents show that Jeffrey Epstein tracked Donald Trump’s schedule and offered to give Vladimir Putin and Sergey Lavrov insight into Trump ahead of the 2018 Helsinki Summit, prompting intense scrutiny from lawmakers like Senator Sheldon Whitehouse regarding potential geopolitical ties
Donald Trump is not only coddling Vladimir Putin. He is becoming Vladimir Putin. He’s always sought to justify even the worst of Putin’s atrocities. Questioned in 2017 about Putin’s murders of politicians and journalists, it was put to him bluntly that the Russian leader is “a killer”.
Trump’s response: “There are a lot of killers. We’ve got a lot of killers. What do you think? Our country’s so innocent?”
Donald Trump seems to identify so closely with the Russian dictator that it appears he is turning into Vladimir Putin.ARTWORK: MARIJA ERCEGOVACMoral equivalence? Worse, outright admiration: “I do respect him,” said Trump. The kind of respect one mafia don has for another. The moment Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Trump hailed it as “genius”. He congratulated the Russian president for sending “the strongest peace force I’ve ever seen”.And the American leader is notable for the favours he showers on Putin. Ten days ago, after the US Congress had voted to increase sanctions on Russian oil, Trump didn’t just refuse to impose them. He went further and reversed pre-existing US sanctions that had been imposed four years earlier. Trump claimed this would cut the price of diesel in America. It has made no useful difference. On the day of his announcement, the New York Harbour wholesale spot price for diesel was $US4.91 a gallon. Four days later, it was $US5.11
All he’s done is bring Putin back into the legal marketplace for oil. So he can sell at a higher price to fund his war on Ukraine.
Putin repays Trump’s sycophancy with contempt. When Trump declared an “energy ceasefire” between Russia and Ukraine last week “effective immediately”, Ukraine suspended its attacks on Russian energy assets for three days. Putin said nothing and just continued his non-stop bombing of Ukraine’s energy assets.Now London’s Financial Times reports that Trump envoys are pressing European governments to hand over to Washington the Russian cash they froze in their banking systems in response to the Ukraine invasion – some $US300 billion worth. The idea is for Trump to use it as an inducement to Putin to negotiate peace, apparently. Germany, not trusting Trump, has ruled out any such idea.
Trump’s timing seems quixotic. His blatant pandering to Putin is hurting Republicans running in the US midterm elections due in two weeks. As US news outlet Axios points out: “With control of Congress hanging in the balance, Trump is embracing a dictator viewed unfavourably by 81 per cent of his own 2024 voters, according to a January YouGov poll.”
Peter Tesch, a former Australian ambassador to Moscow, remarks: “He’s enthralled. Putin turns Trump the bully into this cowed, servile individual. You see it time and time again.”
Analysts have puzzled over the hold that the ex-KGB officer enjoys over the American businessman. Theories include Russian kompromat on Trump, Russian payments to Trump and so on. None has been proven.
Trump is doing more than favouring Putin. He is acting in Putin’s interests even when it harms his own. He seems to identify so closely with the Russian dictator that it appears he is turning into Putin.
Consider the close and growing similarities in their political characteristics and conduct.
A photo of Donald Trump with Vladimir Putin hanging in the White House.BLOOMBERG
One: Putin took power initially by democratic means and was very popular for some time. Trump likewise.
Two: Putin appeals to Russian nostalgia for a bygone greatness, which Trump echoes with his promise to “make America great again”.
Three: Putin has allowed elections to be held but does not respect democratic principles. He manages the system to ensure that he cannot lose. Trump has not succeeded in rigging elections to date, but refused to accept his loss in 2020.
Four: Putin rides roughshod over the Russian Constitution. He has continuously expanded the power of the presidency to dominate the courts and legislature under his so-called “vertical of power”. Trump has done the same under the “unitary executive” doctrine. His administration ignored 57 of the 165 court rulingsagainst it in the first six months of its current term, for example, according to the Washington Post’s count.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin with US President Donald Trump.AP
Five: Putin uses his paramilitary Rosgvardia forces to repress dissent and intimidate the public. Trump deployed National Guard units to some Democrat-controlled cities. When his ICE officers use roughhouse tactics and shoot US citizens, the president defends the officers and blames the injured civilians.
Six: Both leaders have created circles of competitive oligarchs around themselves as a way of keeping them in thrall to the president.
Seven: Putin’s vision of Russian greatness demands the territorial conquest of neighbours. First he attacked Chechnya, then Georgia, then Ukraine. Next, he’s said, is Europe. Similarly, Trump has claimed Greenland and Canada and threatened to invade Cuba. He snatched the leader of Venezuela and appointed a puppet president.
Eight: Both leaders launched poorly planned and badly executed wars that they are not winning and will not quit.
President Donald Trump reiterated on Tuesday that he would like the US to control Greenland, arguing the territory is strategically vital to American security.
Nine: Both concocted pretexts for their invasions.
Ten: These wars are inflicting pain on the ordinary citizens of the aggressor nations. Americans are suffering economically. Russians are being killed and maimed as well as suffering economically.
Eleven: Both men use their powers vindictively to harass critics. Trump cancelled the Secret Service protection for his former national security adviser, John Bolton, once Bolton became a regular critic, in spite of an Iranian fatwa against Bolton’s life. Today, Trump is rifling through the home of a leading congressional critic, Ilhan Omar, to try to fit her up with a deportation order. Putin had at least 768 political prisoners in detention in 2024, according to the human rights group Memorial.
Twelve: Corruption is a hallmark of the Putin and Trump presidencies. The investor and anti-corruption campaigner Bill Browder estimates Putin’s corrupt gainsat more than $US200 billion. Trump’s income leapt from $US760 million in the year before returning to the presidency to $US2.4 billion in 2025, according to Forbes magazine.
Nearly 90 per cent of respondents to a Fox News poll last week said they were either extremely or very concerned about government corruption, putting the issue just ahead of inflation and high prices as a concern.
The president’s attitude to forthcoming elections is devil-may-care, it seems: “I’ve already won, IN A MASSIVE LANDSLIDE,” he wrote last week.
Which president said that? That’d be Donald Putin.
Peter Hartcher is political editor and international editor of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
Open Alex Blog: “”Trust in science is under more pressure than it has been in a long time. Paper mills, hijacked journals, citation rings and a flood of machine-written manuscripts mean that “is this a real journal?” is now a question every reader, reviewer, funder and university has to ask. And the tools for answering it have not kept up. The traditional answer is a deny list. Something like the old Beall’s List: a roster of predatory journals, so you can filter them out of a search, an evaluation, a systematic review. We understand the appeal. Nobody wants to cite a paper mill by accident. But we’re not building a deny list, and we don’t think you want one either.
So that’s what we’ve done. Every source in OpenAlex now has a listed_in field: the external journal lists that source appears on. If you want to keep predatory journals out of a query, you filter in journals that somebody you trust has vetted…”
Former Trump attorney Alina Habba told the president that another one of his top advisers — former Kennedy Center leader Ric Grenell — failed to deposit a multimillion-dollar donation that her billionaire husband made to the center a year ago. - Axios
Researchers from UNSW Sydney’s Center for Healthy Brain Aging analyzed data from 22 studies and found that there were 11.4 million new dementia cases in 2023 — a number that’s projected to more than double to 24.7 million by 2050.
This means that every year, the equivalent of the population of Australia will develop dementia, according to geriatrician Dr. Liron Sinvani, the director of research and innovation for the Northwell Institute for Healthy Aging
“In terms of the scale, obviously, this number of new dementia cases is staggering,” Sinvani told The Post. “This is not a future problem. It’s an accelerating epidemic crisis that demands immediate attention.”
The new study focused on incidence — the rate at which people develop dementia or new cases per year — instead of prevalence, or the total number of people living with the condition at a given time.
The rapidly rising numbers are due to aging populations, with Sinvani noting that about 1 in 9 people have dementia after 65, “but after 85, it could be almost 1 in 3.”
Until there’s a treatment, we’ll need to invest heavily in android caretakers because there just won’t bet enough young people to go around.
I struggled through this morning’s media news reports from the UK, USA and elsewhere. I usually end up with more ideas as a consequence of doing so than I have a chance to write about. I am aware that there is a practical limit to the number of articles that people want to read by me each day. Today I had no such problem.
I had to read deeply between the lines to come to support my belief that an election might be on the way, about which I published this morning.
9 FBI Agents Sued Blanche, Patel, FBI, DOJ Over Being Fired for Working on Trump Documents Case
Notes from the Front: “FBI agents who were fired for having worked on the Trump documents case (dubbed by the FBI as project “Plasmic Echo”) have filed a lawsuit naming Blanche, Patel, the FBI, and the DOJ as defendants, and I am rubbing my hands with glee.
You see, in the *70-page* complaint (included for Notes from the Front members) they *start* by recounting all of the misdeeds that Trump did in that case! Right there in black and white!:
The Epstein Wall Street Records Act
“Today, Rep. Robert Garcia, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), together with Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Ron Wyden (D-OR), with all Oversight Democratic Members and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), introduced the Epstein Wall Street Records Act.
This bill seeks accountability for the financial institutions and bank executives that enabled disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking operation. “Jeffrey Epstein used his immense wealth to abuse women and girls for decades. Meanwhile, banks and financial institutions enriched him and themselves by servicing his accounts and helping him move money around. We need to know what financial institutions and their executives knew about Epstein, whether they complied with relevant law, and what regulatory agencies learned,” said Ranking Member Robert Garcia.
“I have spent the last year calling on Donald Trump’s financial regulators to launch investigations into the big banks and executives who may have enabled Jeffrey Epstein’s horrific crimes,” said Senator Elizabeth Warren. “Since they have failed to act, Congress must. The bipartisan Epstein Wall Street Records Act will ensure overdue accountability for the wealthy and well-connected on Wall Street who put profits over people.” “The Epstein Wall Street Records Act is about transparency and releasing financial records that are critical to holding the Epstein Class accountable and fighting to get justice for the survivors. I’m proud to cosponsor this bipartisan bill,” said Congressman Ro Khanna.
“The Epstein Wall Street Records Act requires the Federal Reserve, the FDIC, the Comptroller of the Currency, and the SEC to release their files on Jeffrey Epstein’s money,” said Congressman Thomas Massie. “The Epstein Files Transparency Act forced the Attorney General to release DOJ, FBI, and U.S. Attorney’s Offices’ files. This bill does the same for bank regulators. Justice for the survivors means following the money.”
“Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking operation left a money trail, and Wall Street has serious questions to answer. Our legislation will force federal regulators to release their records, investigate the banks and executives who may have enabled his crimes, and hold lawbreakers accountable,” said Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi. “Epstein’s survivors deserve the full truth, no matter how powerful or well-connected those responsible may be.”
Of the $US1 billion spent by the Republican campaign apparatus since September 1 of this year, just $US11 million of that had gone towards ads promoting the candidate’s relationship with Donald Trump.
Candidates themselves are telling us exactly what they think their voters want to hear. The president’s unpopularity is changing the Republican Party.
President Donald Trump arrives on Air Force One in Kansas on Monday.AP
Trump held a midterm convention in Dallas last month where he expected all the battleground Senate candidates to speak or appear, but a third avoided the event.
In most midterm elections, the party that holds the White House hides away from the president. Midterms typically bring a shift to the opposition – such is the nature of America’s everlasting dissatisfaction with anyone in power.
But in Trump’s first midterm as president in 2018, candidates bucked the historical trend, with 27 per cent of their advertisingdemonstrating their loyalty to the party’s unquestioned leader. This time, there has been a clear shift – that figure has crawled to just 2.4 per cent.
For much of the past decade, one of the core facts of American politics was that Trump himself was the source of the Republican Party’s power, even in challenging national environments.
He still holds unilateral control over the party’s nominating contests, thanks to his singular status within conservative media. His idiosyncrasies have become Republican orthodoxy.
During the primary contests, 70 per cent of advertising dollars went toward ads tying candidates to Trump. By the time the general election arrived, and Trump’s unpopularity began to set in, Republican ads in the general election focused on the core policies of Trump’s Republican Party – without naming him explicitly.
They hammer on immigration, an obsession with transgender people, and tax cuts, core parts of Trump’s brand.
And they still rely on Trump to encourage Republican diehards to turn out. They accept his “Total and Complete Endorsement” and appear with him at rallies, though the opportunity looks different now.
At the weekend, Trump appeared in Georgia with local gubernatorial candidate Rick Jackson, who did not mention Trump’s name once in his five-minute speech introducing the president at the rally.
Conservative campaigners are trying to sell voters on a Republican government and hope that they’ll forgive or forget who leads that government.
Meanwhile, Democrats are using their war chest to lash Republican candidates to the sinking ship of a president whose approval rating is now lower than it was in the aftermath of the January 6 insurrection.
This is most apparent in the middle of the country, where the Senate battlefield has dramatically expanded. Agricultural states like Texas, Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa, longtime Republican strongholds, are showing signs of rejecting their Republican leadership in the face of soaring diesel prices and a global export market hampered by Trump’s tariff regime.
Trump’s victory in 2024 came on the back of a promise to Americans who felt that they had been neglected – that someone, somewhere was getting a better deal than them.
He then spent the next 18 months slapping his name on policy after policy despite many of them – including his tariffs, the war on Iran and changes to tax rates and food assistance – seeming to ensure that those same people would get an even worse deal.
In those new battlegrounds, Republicans are being forced to spend hundreds of millions of dollars, including Elon Musk’s recent injection of more than a quarter-billion US dollars ($395 million), mostly towards Texas.
Through these final two weeks, campaigns are now focusing their resources on turnout.
Conservative voters are not necessarily considering voting for a Democrat. They’re choosing between the voting booth and staying at home.
Republicans invested heavily in the idea that Trump’s 2024 coalition would become their destiny. His historic gains among young people, black men and Latinos seemed to be the beginning of a realignment.
That belief became the key bet they would make for the future. Their redistricting efforts in 2025 – in which they redrew electoral boundaries across many states – assumed that a midterm environment would still favour Trump’s party.
On that basis, they took conservative voters out of safe districts and dispersed them to eliminate battleground districts and spread the Democrats thin.
In Houston, a Republican boundary change was an attempt to starve black voters of the possibility of electing a Democratic Representative. The redrawn electorate would have led to a Trump victory in 2024 by 20 points. A recent pollshows the Republican candidate is just 6 points ahead.
To understand the scale of this problem for the Republicans, a 14-point swing nationwide would deliver Democrats a 93-seat majority in November. It’s wildly unlikely, but this is the problem that Republicans have created for themselves.
Danger comes when a map designed for one reality is implemented in a very different one. The House is now generally presumed to be a safe Democratic lock, with many of the redrawn seats shifting toward Democrats.
That redistricting effort came from the same assumption that Republican donors are now questioning: that Trump’s wave would last longer than two years.
Now, Republicans are pouring money into ads trying to create space between themselves and an unpopular president.
The persistent irony of an American midterm election is that it tests whether a political coalition can hold together without the leader who assembled it being on the ballot. This time around, it will also test if that coalition can hold together when the leader himself is now a reason for voters to refuse to show up.
No one can predict what will happen on the Tuesday after the first Monday of November. But Republicans are using their advertising budgets to say exactly what they think their voters want to hear.
Cory Alpert is a PhD researcher at the University of Melbourne looking at the impact of AI on democracy. He previously served the Biden-Harris Administration for three
