Secretary of State Marco Rubio is beginning to look interesting. I do not think his surgeon is very good: The work has accentuated his mild lazy eye; his cheekbones are beginning to look dangerous to touch; his brow is wandering into the realm of the perpetually surprised.

The Many Faces of Marco Rubio
You can facelift an illegal war in Venezuela, but it won’t make it any prettier.

Jude Russo

We will draw the veil of charity over the unusual maneuvers involving his hairline. I am a nearly middle-aged Italian American man, and making fun of others’ misfortunes of coiffure invites heaven’s revenge.

Front-line situation is dire: high casualties and unsustainably high desertion rates.

Gen. Cerski (noted Sept 8) acknowledged Ukraine faces roughly a threefold disadvantage in forces/resources in key sectors.

Ukraine struggles to man the front — manpower is in “terminal decline” while Russia is reportedly achieving net monthly gains.

Leaders are pinning hopes on technological fixes (UAVs, ground robots, drones) to substitute for missing personnel.

The speaker argues quantity matters: even if Ukraine narrows some technological gaps, Russia’s greater production capacity and redundancy make it hard to match at scale.

Innovations escalate quickly on both sides; any tactical advantage is rapidly mirrored, so sustained technological superiority is unlikely.

When Trump announced that the American government would be taking an equity stake in Intel, Mussolini likely turned over in his grave. The blending of Big Business with Government was not invented by Trump or Mussolini, but really is best exemplified by the British East India Company.

The most powerful company in the history of Western civilization was the East India Company, which later merged with the British government. They cornered the market on textiles for over a century, while simultaneously running the global opium industry and slave trade. Its creation and use of private mercenary armies allowed it to control India long before the British government did, while the East India Company’s leased troops massively outnumbered the Indian military for centuries.

French President Emmanuel Macron has privately admitted that NATO is the driving force behind the Ukraine conflict, prominent American economist Jeffrey Sachs has said. 

Macron, along with other Western leaders, has repeatedly claimed that Russia launched its military operation against Ukraine in 2022 without provocation and has insisted that Moscow is solely responsible for the conflict.

Macron admitted NATO behind Ukraine conflict – Sachs

The French president privately said the US-led military bloc instigated the crisis, according to the economist

On August 30th, Andriy Parubiy was shot dead in broad daylight in Lviv, Ukraine. A key figure in the foreign-fomented Maidan putsch and a prominent and influential politician locally for many years, he was mourned by a welter of British, European and US officials. 

The Neo-Nazi Who Knew Too Much?

by Kit Klarenberg

Princess, beautiful false eyelashes

Powdered cream face, lips red-sticked 

Crafted brows, gold-tinted hair splashes

Smooth skin from products handpicked

At the mega beauty health warehouse

For tall women that are hiding a mouse

Old men like me are ruined castles 

After too many battles against all

The last one lost to time and nature

Chase of faster rabbits down the hole

Becoming more dangerous hassles

Towards my last day of kingly tenure

With a reserved greek-style mausoleum 

Or simple grave for having made this far

Between history and the dusty museum

As I become an extinguished star

… To be forgotten by slaving underlings

Daily born, clever, simple or suckers

Psychopaths megalomaniacs and others

Ruling by crookery, deceit, fear and mongerings

The unnerving alliance between Big Tech and the second Trump administration goes much deeper than many in the public realize. What factors are motivating President Trump and Silicon Valley’s monumental investments in “artificial intelligence” infrastructure and the expanded integration of “AI” into military and governmental operating systems?

A former Israel Defence Forces chief of staff says more than over 10% of Gaza’s population of approximately 2.2 million was killed or injured since October 2023.

Belying persistent efforts by  Israel and its defenders to deny the staggering number of Palestinians killed during the 23-month Gaza genocide, the general who led the Israel Defence Forces during most of the war acknowledged this week that about 220,000 Palestinians have been killed or wounded.

China’s recent display of its newly acquired military might surprised not only international observers, but also its own seasoned diplomats.

As Fu Ying, the former ambassador to Australia and the UK, told the Financial Review Asia Summit this week, she had not realised how far China’s military capacity had advanced.

Geoff Raby

THE ASSASSINATION OF CHARLIE KIRK MAY NOT CHANGE THE COURSE OF HISTORY, BUT UNLIKE THE MURDERS OF JFK, MLK AND OTHER POLITICIANS VYING FOR POWER, IT HAS IMPACTED THE WHOLE OF AMERICA, WITH A SINGLE BULLET TO AN AVERAGE SPRUIKER.

WHAT FOLLOWS IS A FEW OF THE COMMENTS/OPINIONS FROM THE GENERAL MEDIA AND SOCIAL MEDIA… WHAT HAS BEEN OMITTED IS WHERE DID THE GUY WHO CLAIMED TO HAVE (THEN DENIED) SHOT KIRK LEARNED HIS SHARPSHOOTER'S SKILLS. AT MOST TIMES, THE MEDIA GOES ON A FLURRY OF CLUES ABOUT THIS OR THAT SHOOTING CLUB OR ARMY, YET THERE HAS BEEN MOSTLY SILENCE ON THE ISSUE.

THIS EXPOSé IS POSTED AS A RECORD OF WHAT PEOPLE HAVE SAID, NOT ABOUT WHAT GUS THINKS. TRYING TO FIND A CARTOON HAS BEEN STRANGE TO SAY THE LEAST, AS SOME GOT CANNED QUICKLY BY PUBLISHERS, INCLUDING SOUTH PARK.

WAS KIRK SHOT BECAUSE HE DISPLEASED NETANYAHU?

It seems likely that our prime minister will meet Donald Trump at the United Nations General Assembly later this month.

AUKUS submarines will cost five times the entire annual defence budget. We can’t fund both AUKUS and a self reliant defence capability. We must choose self reliance.

John Menadue

Anthony Albanese has been wise not to heed the Austral-Americans urging him get to Washington as soon as possible to meet Trump. He decided not to join the Conga line of heads of state and government prostrating themselves before Trump, only to be humiliated.

The president of the UN General Assembly, Annalena Baerbock, has said she could imagine UN peacekeeping forces being deployed to Ukraine to secure a ceasefire and postwar peace if supported by the majority of UN states.

Baerbock, the former German Green and foreign minister, who took over the UN job on September 9, was speaking to German weekly newspaper Bild am Sonntag.

Killing the Hamas leaders in Qatar would clear the way to ending the Gaza conflict and the return of Israeli hostages, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday, just days after the Jewish state bombed the militant group’s top members in Doha.

Hamas has said that its leadership was not taken out by the Israeli attack, which it described as an attempt to assassinate negotiators working on a potential settlement to the Gaza conflict.

“The Hamas terrorists chiefs” in Doha have “blocked all ceasefire attempts in order to endlessly drag out the war,” Netanyahu claimed.

“Getting rid of them would rid the main obstacle to releasing all our hostages and ending the war,”Netanyahu wrote on X on Saturday.

The Government has just announced a spend of $1.7B on new ‘Ghost Shark’ underwater drones. But there appears to be more stealth in the budget than there is in the capability. Former submariner Rex Patrick reports.

Pete Quinn must be pretty happy.

Ghost Shark drones – “music to Trump’s ears”

by Rex Patrick

Quinn was the Head of Navy Capability for five years. His responsibility in that role was to identify the needs and requirements of Navy’s future capabilities and to plan for, develop and deliver them to the fleet.

While he was in that role, Anduril Industries (Anduril) were successful in two limited tenders; one awarded in 2021 for $4.9M and the other awarded in 2022 for $77.5M.