The story reads like a spy novel in which none of the characters are clean, few are identified and the origins of the work is still either secret or attributed by default, without ANY proof, to Russia. By this I mean that from early on it seems that the US secret services (?) or someone in the US cyber industry “knew” that “Russia” had infiltrated the DNC in a major breach. So the question is why was not this fully disclosed before now? The main investigation was carried out by SecureWorks. What was the relationship between SecureWorks and the DNC? 

It hit me this week, around the time when Sarah Huckabee Sanders was blithely seconding Chief of Staff John Kelly’s Civil War revisionism, that I missed Sean Spicer.

31 October 2017

Actor Russell Crowe has lashed out at Australia's handling of the escalating situation at the Manus Island detention centre, labelling it a "nation's shame" and offering to house and support refugees himself.

More than 600 men are refusing to leave the now-decommissioned centre in Papua New Guinea and relocate to alternative accommodation. They have expressed concerns for their safety, and asylum seeker advocates say the facilities are not ready.

read more:

..

Examples of some of the roughly 3,000 Facebook ads bought by Russian operatives to interfere in the 2016 US presidential election have been released by the US House Intelligence Committee.

On 25 October, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and I visited The Baker at Sutton to further understand the pressures facing small businesses and discuss electricity prices.

Mathematics and chance have made some strange bedfellows, especially in the realm of games. For example anyone playing chess at the highest level would know that the white team, having the first move, should always win, unless a mistake is made and this advantage is lost. But there are games where chance is a greater factor in success or failure. You could be given a rotten hand at poker and win on bluff alone but this stretches the “Game Theory” beyond mathematical equations. Or does it? 

Some readers were alarmed that the book was "redacted": indeed, names (only a few on a large set) were blackened, so as to make them illegible ...

This decision is fully agreed between the author and the publisher.

In fact, the author does not reside in France for the reasons that we know, the editions Demi-Lune could be considered legally responsible for his remarks, and would be exposed to expensive lawsuits, even to the removal of the book. Consequently, we decided by mutual agreement, not to withdraw the contentious paragraphs, but to hide some names.

The book is available in foreign language versions, and from the Voltaire Network website.

***

The author: Thierry MEYSSAN

Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop has said there is a "powerful argument" that US President Donald Trump's threat to scrap the Iran nuclear deal could imperil efforts to negotiate a peaceful outcome with North Korea.

In a significant sharpening of Australia's public rhetoric on the Obama-era Iran agreement, Ms Bishop said she had asked US officials, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, how they would counter the argument that North Korea could not trust the US if it walked away from previous international agreements.

read more:

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/bishop-warns-trump...

Washington: A federal grand jury has approved the first charges in the investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election, a source briefed on the matter told Reuters.

The charges are still sealed under orders from a federal judge, but plans have been prepared for anyone charged to be taken into custody as soon as Monday.

read more:

http://www.smh.com.au/world/special-counsel-robert-mueller-files-charges...

I will believe it when I see it... It sounds a bit more lame than an AFP raid on GetUp! or a trumped up charge. Excuse the pun. But I really believe the cat (or the rat) did it. 

History is full of it. 

I’ll keep this brief, because there’s only one thing you can say about the events of the past 24 hours: what a complete shocker.

Around 30 years ago, Mad magazine did this short social study of Donald Trump... Now you know...