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Great song, and Harry Chapin is one of my favourite musos. W.O.L.D. goes around in my head many a time, and I often sing a few bars of it. It was a dreadful tragedy to lose him at age 38 in a freeway crash.

But if you bought them at $20 in 1998, you'd still be pretty happy - especially when you count the massive dividends paid out on them annually, along with the stock splits. One of SWMBO's Uncles was a CTB manager, and he was made redundant around 1997 when the Commonwealth was taken over by the Big Banks. He got a $250,000 redundancy payout, plus 50,000 Commonwealth shares as part of the deal. He's never sold any of them, AFAIK. Imagine what he's sitting on now. I bought 100 local Bendigo Bank shares in 2000 - $100 worth, because that's all I could afford at the time, because I was as broke as they make them. I was a founding customer of that branch at that time. Other well-heeled people bought up to several hundred thousand of those Bendigo Bank shares at $1 each. The shares paid 10% dividend for years, then they started paying 15% dividend, and the last few annual dividends were at 20%. But I know those profits have been at the expense of working people. I only wish I'd had $100,000 at that time, I'd be one of the baby boomers Chalmers is targeting - and I'd be squealing like a stuck pig, too - as they all are. I have no problem with Chalmers grabbing some money off the wealthy baby boomers, most of whom have made incredible capital gains over the last 30 or so years. Most are multi-millionaires.

Yep - banks don't lose value for long.

And the cat's in the cradle with the silver spoon

I am sure it will quickly bounce back.

Angriness takes its toll.

Thank you, Jim Chalmers, for your budget last night. Today CBA shares dropped about $18, which cost the parcel my wife left for the kids a bit over $10,000.

I won't believed that it has rained until I see it in the rain guage. Also the BOM's definitin of rain is any drops falling from the sky. My definition is the creek rising.

Nev's confidence about coming weather events is not something I can say I have the same confidence in. 10 day Forecast - Gilgandra: https://weather.com/en-TT/weather/tenday/l/Gilgandra+New+South+Wales+2827+Australia?canonicalCityId=36affdfba0f3fd7d6d0e3cdcf2f1d26b

It's the Prayer room in Canberra.. Nev

I can comfortably predict you won't get rain from Now till Xmas.. Nev

To Trump. ANYTHING with a touch of Obama on it has to GO. He doesn't think about things. He JUST reacts. I'm sorry for anyone who has to deal with him because it has to be a stacked Deck AND HE has to be the total Winner with the Loser having to have his Nose rubbed in the Cat$#!t. Nev

Another Positive to celebrate. It looks as if the Trump Tower at Surfers is not a Goer. Nev

He's made that pretty clear. Nev

There's another Flinders Peak in Queensland, on the SW side of Brisbane.

My positive today was a walk we did up Flinders Peak. It is a very foggy day here, but we climbed up and out of the fog into a beautiful sunny day. Then we climbed down into the fog, which still persists here at sea level. 1000011323.mp4

In the 2026 Budget, Govt services to veterans have been reduced by "better targeting" of monetary allocations. There's a lot of double-speak in this area, with DVA saying it has more money to pay to allied health providers. Then there's "an Annual Monetary Limit for veterans' allied health services", which appears to me, to be public service gobbledegook. It doesn't say, if that means individual Veterans face an annual limit on their health expenditure, or if the annual limit is the total paid to individual service providers. This needs clarification. Then there's the complication that Veterans are currently paid benefits under 3 Veterans Acts. I'm covered under the 1986 Veterans Entitlements Act, which covers all veterans up until 2004, when it was replaced by the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004 (MRCA). There's also a third Act, the Safety Rehabilitation and Compensation (Defence-related Claims) Act 1988 (DRCA). All three Acts are being replaced from 1st July 2026, by a new "Vets Act", which will cover all Veterans. Entitlements under previous Acts will remain unchanged. The bottom line is, the number of Veterans is dropping rapidly, and they will soon only make up a small number to be serviced by DVA. As a result, the money allocated to Veterans should decrease accordingly. There are barely a handful of WW2 Veterans left, there are only a small number of Korean War Veterans, and even the Vietnam Veterans numbers are depleting rapidly. Post-Vietnam War Veterans are only a relatively small number as well, because the size of the Australian Military has been much smaller in the decades since the Vietnam War. The 2026 Budget for Veterans: QUOTE: "Based on the 2026 Federal Budget, the Australian government is restructuring veteran services, resulting in a reported reduction in expenditure to providers of approximately $779.5 million over five years. While the government describes these changes as "better targeting" of services to veterans and their families, critics describe this as a reduction in support, with some labelling it a "bandaid" solution. Key Changes and "Better Targeting" Measures: The government expects to achieve savings of $779.5 million over five years from 2025–26, with an ongoing savings of $352.4 million per year. Reduction in Payments: Specifically, "better targeting" of services is expected to decrease government payments to providers by $606.6 million over five years. Allied Health Limits: A significant portion of this involves introducing an Annual Monetary Limit for veterans' allied health services, amounting to $748 million in savings over three years starting in 2027–28. Simplifying Referral Requirements: Further savings of $30.1 million over three years will be achieved by simplifying referral requirements. Context of Reforms (VETS Act): These changes are part of the broader Veterans' Entitlements, Treatment and Support (Simplification and Harmonisation) Act 2025 (VETS Act), which takes full effect on 1 July 2026. Single System: The current complex three-Act system will be replaced by a single, updated Act (based on the MRCA) for all new claims. 'Grandparenting': The government has provided assurances that those already receiving benefits before 1 July 2026 will not have their payments reduced or altered, and will continue to receive annual indexation. Goal: The stated goal of these reforms, based on the Royal Commission recommendations, is to reduce complexity and speed up claims, which has been a major source of distress for veterans. Impact on Services: Advocacy Funding: While payments to providers are reduced, the government has reported increased funding for the Building Excellence in Support and Training (BEST) program to support free, volunteer advocate services. Allied Health Fees: In a contradictory move, the Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA) noted that it is increasing allied health provider fees to improve veteran access to services, which was a recommendation of the Royal Commission. Grants: There will be a reduction in uncommitted grant funding for certain commemorative, memorial, and graves-related projects.The reforms aim to align veterans' support with modern workers' compensation schemes, placing a stronger emphasis on rehabilitation and early intervention."

Actually that treaty had a use by date and that date is fast approaching this year. Trump's actions might be his way of "making a deal". On July 14, 2015, the United States and its international negotiating partners reached an agreement with Iran on its nuclear program -The Iran Deal or “Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action” (JCPOA). Notice that this was an international agreement made by several countries with Iran. Trum likes to claim that it was unilateerally signed by Obama, but that, once again is a false claim. Obama signed as the representative of the USA, a country amongst others which signed. Here's an article about the history of that deal: https://armscontrolcenter.org/the-iran-deal-then-and-now/

Which Sunday or Monday are those?

We had a week of very strong and chilly winds last week, although the days were sunny. The high pressure systems travelling West to East across the Southern Ocean are still very big and very strong, making for extended periods of strong winds. It's unusual for this time of year, but the weather is following a similar pattern to last year. Big strong high pressure systems blocking cold fronts from coming in at higher latitudes. We had a very dry Autumn last year, and didn't get a "season break" until the start of the last week of May. But when it did rain, in came in adequate amounts and the right spacings, which all provided another excellent cropping season. OME, the 4 day forecast map is indicating you could get some rain by Sunday or Monday.

Marty, that's an interesting point. Seems like there was some avoidance of warranty obligations on your phone. A phone should be guaranteed for the set manufacturers period, and a change of owner should not be enough reason to wiggle out of a valid warranty claim. After all, the phone is made by Samsung in a Samsung factory, it's not like it's being knocked up out of spare parts in a backyard workshop in Mumbai. There's also the angle of "official dealer" and "grey market" dealer. It appears Samsung refuses to support resellers who are not "official dealers". But Nostech is an Australian company, with an ABN, and is supplying the genuine product, and Nostech offer a 12 mth warranty on all new phones they sell. Interestingly, Samsung offer a 24 mth warranty on new Samsung phones from "official dealers" - but only in Australia. In all other countries, the Samsung warranty is only 12 mths. Both the S26 Ultra and the A37 are appearing on my Samsung account as "registered devices" - but I did nothing to register them with Samsung, this happened the instant I activated the phones. There's nothing to say on there, that the S26 Ultra is a "foreign-purchased device", but perhaps that might come if I try to make a major warranty claim. There's plenty of technical support on the Samsung page for software problems, which I guess covers the vast majority of technical problems with phones. As many people are extremely mobile today, moving from country to country, I wonder how this pans out in the overall "origins" manufacturer scheming? A sticking point with warranty is the manufacturer can always claim the phone was abused, mistreated or dropped, to avoid any major warranty claim. Australian consumer law is pretty strong, and often, if a valid warranty claim is being rejected, there's always Tribunals to settle the matter. Hopefully, it won't come to that. A lot of Chinese products have very poor warranty backup - so be careful when you purchase that Chinese EV! I'm hearing some bad things about MG's total lack of owner/warranty support.

I recently bought a brand new Samsung Galaxy A17 for under $250, on special at Big W. The camera is not exceptional, but sufficient for what I require. Here are a couple of shots I took last night, hand held, under our bedroom light. The second one is the back of a hearing aid battery pack with very small print. $2 coin for size comparison.

America had a treaty with Iran on nuclear weapons, and Trump scrapped it, purely because it was arranged by Barack Obama.

I know now why they are building a windfarm in my local area. For the past few days the wind has been blowing continuously, and strongly. I'm doing my laundry this morning and am not looking forward to the effort involved in hanging it out. Talk about a one armed paperhanger in a windstorm!