I’ve been in a relationship with the World Trade Center for 51 years. Sometimes we were close.

Trump’s insurrectionary army consisted of a bunch of Nazi-lovers, a swarm of QAnon fanboys, a squad of wanna-be Tom Cruisers, and three who found unintended ways to kill themselves. There are millions of them still willing to dye their hair for him.

The virus upended everything in 2020, then Trump’s clown army upended him and America, and in Byron Shire our stand-up comic and wise woman Mandy Nolan decided to quit joking and run for parliament — because the real disaster looming over us, the global eco-catastrophe, must be confronted.

Today is the day Trump got someone to concede the election for him, given he can't be a loser, existentially. What happens now?

There will be blood; how much and when it goes viral could determine the future of us all.

The weekly pop paper that corrupted Aussie teenagers in the 60s and 70s

We’re in a moment that requires immense change so we need visionary thinking. Almost all of our politicians and media chatterers are wildly incapable. They don’t see it as part of their job, let alone the heart of the matter.

Trump and his Republican base are preparing to win the upcoming election by preventing millions of voters from voting, including igniting a second Civil War.

Mormons — inspired by their man Mitt, in the photo — and women, constitutionalists, military and intelligence pros, are among the Republican voters who’ve had enough of the crowing rooster in the White House. In 2016 the Presidential election was tipped by voters who said they wouldn’t vote for that clown, and then did. This time a similar bunch of folks who won’t tell pollsters they’ve had enough, will switch off from Trump or not show up on the day. It won’t take many to change the outcome.

The decade — the 20-10s or was the teens? — is over and some good things did happen, amidst the many catastrophes slow and speedy. A big view of the past 10 years…

Recollections of Australia’s first pop music paper, on the occasion of its 50th anniversary — published at crikey.com in 2016.

Tim Stewart is Australia’s most prominent supporter of the nutbar QAnon online movement that believes a “Great Awakening” is coming in which Trump’s enemies, from the Deep State to Obama’s dog, will be destroyed. Tim is also a best mate of our PM Scott Morrison and Tim’s wife works fulltime in the PM’s office.

in Australia today the Coalition government frames every debate with the general rule being: Everything will be decided by Boss Morrison and the Appropriate Minister. The citizenry shall Keep Quiet and Obey.

The burden of Greta’s speech, and its shocking power, came from her refrain: “How dare you.”

Trump might be indicted for “high crimes” that can trigger impeachment, such as for telling the Ukrainian president he can have $400 million in “aid” but only if he slanders Joe Biden (exactly who the whistleblower was and what they said is crucial and as yet unknown). Or he could be embroiled in criminal charges for financial fraud and tax dodging, or lying under oath, or all the above. That said, crimes are hard to stick on a President, especially a bullshitting mud-slinger like this guy.

On Monday night, ABC’s 4 Corners did a Julian Assange update. Here are my four takeaways:

(1) In almost an hour of reporting, the ABC’s Michael Brissenden barely glossed the crucial stories Assange has published: American interference in the internal affairs of dozens of countries (including invading many of them), US phone-tapping of world leaders, how and why the Democratic Party subverted Bernie Sanders in 2016, multiple financial outrages of global corporations and high-rollers.

America’s men of privilege and power (let’s call them MOPPs) have always defended the Constitutional rights they declared for themselves, and fought like hell to keep any other rights from creeping in – specifically, “social” rights like the right to health, a home, an education, a fair share of nature, and the right of non-MOPPs to invent new rules. Australia, having never dared enumerate our citizens’ rights, will protect Christianity from “narks”, if our Pentacostal PM has his way.

In America today, three mega-billionaires – Bill Gates (Microsoft), Jeff Bezos (Amazon) and Warren Buffett (an “investor”) – combined, have more than the collective wealth of the  poorest-half of Americans. Those three guys’ net worth is $248.5 billion, compared to $245 billion for the bottom 160 million of the United States.

This is the kind of society USA-groupies like Morrison, Frydenberg & Co want in Australia.

There are two things that the Murdoch family, Clive Palmer, and their compradores in Canberra, will fight to the death to prevent us from getting our grubby little public mitts on.

The explosion of new ideas and ways of living that happened in the late 1960s and early 70s — known as the counter-culture — was not a frivolous indulgence in sex drugs and rock’n’roll, nor was it a failed attempt to redefine everything about our culture: it was a semi-successful attempt, and what we must do to save our species from self-extinction is complete the revolution.

Since Rupert Murdoch will die soon, surely, I’m posting here the first of several brief encounters I’ve had with him and his Empire over the last half-century. This is about bringing Rolling Stone magazine to Australia, when it mattered.

Millions of Trumpsters hate “political correctness” itself, meaning progressive reviewing of past and present injustices, more than they hate immigrants, or the other subsets of the community whom they see as benefiting from liberal social policies.

She spent the first 30 years of her adult life chasing after justice and equality for all, and particularly for people who were like her, black and female. She didn’t retreat or apologise on matters of principle.

The president at last admitted that the USA assumes the right to pillage resources from all over the planet while distracting everyone with bullshit about bringing us democracy freedom and prosperity. Everybody knows this but here it was on TV, straight from the horse’s arse.

Jim and Kim drank gallons of Johnny Walker Black Label while hatching new plots to whack the “mole” Angleton was certain was somewhere inside his team until, in 1963, Philby himself vanished and re-emerged living in Moscow. Angleton was shattered, unable to comprehend such treachery.

The current Congress might grant Trump powers never before given to a President, for example, to suspend the 2020 presidential elections, if enough people were in the streets protesting and enough right-wing open-carry armed thugs turned out to confront them