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I was lucky to buy a bare 2000 sq m block of industrial land in a wheatbelt tiny country town, about 130kms NNE of Perth, in 2019. I paid $10,000 for it, because the seller was retiring and selling up all his assets. In the 6-1/2 years that I've owned it, the value of the block has gone from $10,000 to $110,000. The land/property pricing "bubble" must burst in due course. I really feel for the young people starting off, buying a house must only be a dream for them. SWMBO has a friend who has 2 sons and daughter. The daughter married several years ago and both she and her hubby are on good money, and they managed to buy an old timber-framed house in an average Eastern suburb for $780,000. But the middle son isn't married and is working on the mines to try and get enough to buy a house. He proudly told his Mum recently, he'd saved up $50,000 towards the house. But he goes to look at a building block in the far northern suburbs, about 70kms from the City, and they want $500,000 for a tiny bare patch of sandy limestone. So then he finds a reasonable sort of house for sale nearby for just $800,000. He calls the agent, and the agent floors him with the words, "I'm sorry, I've already had 2 offers for the property in excess of $1,000,000!! This is the standard story around trying to buy a house today, Chinese buyers roll up carrying suitcases full of banknotes, explaining they have the cash to pay for the property, right now! AUSTRAC cash payments reporting is only being extended to real estate agents from July 1st this year. It's way too late, it should have been done 15 or 20 years ago. The flood of Chinese black money has ruined our real estate purchasing ability.

You're full of it. The USA wasn't the only country offering assurances to Ukraine during the Budapest agreement. The UK, France, and China also offered their own assurances.......so where are they now? Do you want Russia lobbing nukes to appease your nonsense of the USA going to war with Russia. Europe smugly broke their own promises with NATO by not honoring the agreed proportions of military spending to GDP. The USA can only use European bases at the invite of their governments. Coups? Britain initiated the 1953 coup in Iran for economic reasons...................... and the US assisted due to the Big Red Scare that was sweeping the Europe and the USA. The stuff you are throwing out would be kind of funny if it wasn't so sad, but please, keep running off at the mouth with a half assed understanding of world events.

Talking to ex just the other night actually. As l said she's a good woman to things weren't all her fault and we still get along v well. But even she said the other night man, keep that place , she's paying 500pwk rent and has no chance of getting something, she's 55, says at least this is something and only 30mins from beautiful coast and a great town. l didn't ask her she just came out with that as we were talking. Back when we broke up , we talked about keeping our house man, wish we bloody did now tell you what, especially for her. That one was a helluva lot of work though. Wasn't just grass on one ac, 70ft cypress all over the place some of them fallen down, massive trees, all over grown , old sheds and crap all through it. House was solid but old too , she could've managed it in the end paying for some work but she didn't wanna take it on and l didn't want it so we sold it. As l say though not much money back then and 50 50 so, think l drank my share. She paid debts with hers.

Yeah l bet wd, just feel bloody grateful that l at least have this place tell you what. Thx to a divorce totally screwing us both financially and so then later a bad deal l did just to get into another house on my own that went south, if not for at least having this l'd be totally stuffed. That's why all this , coupled with age and then prices now, is such a big thing for me andddd l probably couldn't even get finance now if l was starting from scratch, let alone the amount you need. Use to be cheap as blocks everywhere in areas l'd choose only 3-5 yrs ago, now they've effg tripled in just that time. Same with houses. That house l bought, 9yrs ago now, well l went nto it with someone else but thx to them it just sold for 3 times what we paid for it, 3 times x in only 9 yrs- wish l got the money but bc of the deal going bad, the banks got that. This one l have now, l've had 18 yrs. Almost embarrassing what l pad for this back then ha, gone are those days though tell you what, it's madness. Although land is still very cheap out here compared to most places , this one is still 500% now, on what l paid for this 18 yrs ago. l could probably still manage to get a place like this now in an area like this, if l was starting from scratch again bc it's still at least very cheap here but from what l've been scanning, areas like this sadly will be the only way now for a lot of young couples and stuff. Only reason l got to keep this later on when we got divorced was we agreed if l pay off our credit card debt we had, l'd keep this. We made a little bit of money selling out house, but then that was split 50 50 and all long gone now, it wasn't much to now prices, nothin. Our house that we sold would also cost 3x what we paid for it , to buy again now just 10yrs later. That was an old renovator on 1 ac. l feel so badly for ex w now , the divorce wasn't really her fault she's a good woman , but the poor things paying 500 a wk right now, just to rent something, bc she never managed to get into her own place again after we split back then. My main thing now is sort out wtf l'm gonna do , with this one or whatever else, and thn to help my daughter later get her own place one day, she's 23 and thankfully has no interest in buying a house any time soon so gives me time to get ahead in whatever l do and hopefully be in a position to help her in the door later on.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/887890947476013

The USA is no longer a dependable ally. From threatening to take over Greenland (leaving Denmark in the unenviable position of having to prepare to defend their territory from both Russia and the US), to invading Venezuela after destroying boats and killing survivors without any sort of due process, to unilaterally attacking Iran, to incarcerating visitors even from traditional allied countries without cause. Jerry ask yourself - if Australia were attacked and made a request for US assistance, is it likely they would? My feeling is that unless there was profit for their god-king, the answer would be no.

Hi All, both of my kids, Caitlin (27 years old) and Lachlan (24 years old), have received $50,000 each from my mother in law's estate but I am so scared how to advise them on what to do. They both want to invest at the best return/risk ratio to get the best out of the money to buy their own nome in years to come. I spoke to the bank and all they offered was Term Deposit at around the low 4% when superannuation investments are getting around 8% by highly respected companies. Both of my kids are working full time. So any advice would be helpful as I am very confused on how to best help them. (PM me if you like to keep it private) I acknowlege that any ideas are not financial advice, I just want some advice to steer me a direction that might help or help to educate me as I know nothing other than a bank

America's civil war left 600,00 dead, which is far more than the current skirmish in Iran. Although England and France remained neutral, they supported the south. There must be a lingering political memory of all that.

Well, those countries that are bound are also bound to arrest someone who is charged or wanted for an international war crime if that person steps in their country. Would be interesting to see a charge brought against Chump and he then visit (pick any country) and see if that country would arrest him. Even Net may pose a problem for them.

That does not alter the fact that the are asked by others to put their shovel on those other's ship. How goo that shovel is or how they use it is a different question altogether. Still, compared to the alternatives,despite their drawbacks, I would rather the US anyday. Maybe we have been fortunate to be on their good side. Yep.. and at the same time appealed to the US as well to force assistance through.. In addition, when you appealed to the UN for military assistance, you are really appealing to the US as they would be the only ones to take the lead. That is my point.. they saw the US as their defender, and they kept asking the US for help. Again, asking the US to put he US shovel in their ship. Agreed.. again the Kuwaitis made direct pleas to the US as well as the UN... I sort of see a pattern here. That may be true - but in the Syrian civil war, the Syrian opposition groups made direct representation to the US for military help. Others want them to weild that shovel. Just as in Iran, opposition proxies also called for help.

The whole cost of land and housing now is just crazy. I'm so glad I did something about buying years ago and working hard to pay it off. I can't imagine what that would be like now; I'd be cut out of the market for sure, there's just crazy amounts of money involved these days.

That's right. The International law system is a toothless tiger. The ICC, the UN, all useless.

The USA is not a signatory to the war crimes convention and refuses it's jurisdiction.

And thanks to the others too not only really helpful hearing about the different situations and what's working for different people as in relation to to my situation here now , but really interesting to. Been browsing property over a very wide net of a few 100km last few wks just to see if l even have a choice and of what but can say one thing. Not that l think l'd even be able to get finance now prettyyyyy doubtful anyway but l'd sure as hell be needing some to get anything better than here. Prices are madness, too late in the day to be taking those on now can say that for sure.

Jerry I was just wondering if you got around to using Floorp browser. I've been using it since you made the suggestion and am fairly happy with it. While Floorp is around, I'll certainly never go back to Firefox. The only issue I have with Floorp seems to be since they had a major upgrade last year. It's no big deal, just a bit frustrating. When I right click to bring up the right click menu, I'm most often going for the 'open link in new tab' option which is at the top of the menu. When I'm just about to click that option, the menu jumps up one notch so I end up clicking the next one down 'open link in new private window', so I end up with multiple windows. I don't know if other Floorp users have the same problem. There's a Floorp group on Reddit, maybe I should ask there.

Another quandry well man, you've come to the right place 🙃. Thanks for the post to Jerry was really interesting. Don't really know anyone in this town as yet bar one bloke across the way met a few wks back. Classic of a guy we get along well but the funniest thing was though found out more about the town with him in 20mins last time than l could in 20yrs living here. Comes in handy ha ha. But l can say one thing so far, relating to all those villages over there for you and the different people, people here do seem very lay back and just have a kinda casual peace about them. Been noticing it a lot so at least that's pretty cool anyway. Well apart from old mate cross the way he's a lively cracker 😀 , good bloke though.

Well they haven't said anything that isn't true. Unlike the prick in the pic

https://www.trtworld.com/article/35eac28b7995

I never visited the English countryside when I was in the UK in 1985, but I did get to see some rural life near Belfast and that was a bit like Dibley in a lot of ways. When I was in London, I went out with a local girl for a while and she took me down to her local pub in Chelsea. I walked in and it was a dead spit of the one in the TV show Coronation Street. Old men with Andy Capp hats on drinking big glasses of warm, flat beer. It was a bit surreal as I thought that sort of stuff was only on television.

It sometiomes gets like that.

Jerry, Dibley kept flashing through my mind reading that post.

Wars anywhere, have to be run on a legal framework, otherwise leaders can be listed and charged and tried as war criminals. 196 countries have signed the Geneva Convention, which outlines what combatants must not do. However, there are plenty of countries and armed groups in the world who have never signed the GC, and who fail to observe any of the Geneva Conventions. https://www.icrc.org/en/document/what-are-rules-of-war-Geneva-Conventions

South Korea actually appealed directly to the U.N., when NK troops invaded on June 25, 1950. The U.N. passed a resolution two days later (Resolution 83), recommending that Allied nations come to SK's aid with military forces to repel the NK troops. U.N. Resolution on July 7, 1950, saw a unified U.N. Command structure formed from 16 nations. The U.S. took operational command of Allied troops in the action and they provided 90% of the troops in the Korean War, all under the command of Gen Douglas MacArthur. The war ended at a stalemate because Douglas MacArthur pushed into Nth Korea, and NK and China overwhelmed the Allied troops with sheer numbers, and MacArthur was forced to retreat. He reportedly requested military leaders for 30 to 50 nuclear weapons to use against the Chinese and Nth Koreans - and he also petitioned Congress directly, complaining about the Administrations war policies. Truman found out MacArthur had "gone over his head", and dismissed MacArthur, and the war ended with a truce - and the demarcation line at the 38th parallel, was then set in stone. After the Viet Minh defeated the French soundly at the Battle of Điện Biên Phủ in mid-1954, the Geneva Accord produced a Vietnam divided into two - the Communist North and the non-Communist South. The Americans supported the South, and provided 700 "military advisors" from 1955. The South was ruled by the totally corrupt and totally decadent, President Ngo Dinh Diem. Diem was a Catholic and repressed the Buddhists like Hitler did with the Jews. The situation got so bad, the Buddhist monks started regular self-immolation, and after Diem refused to step down, he was assassinated in a CIA-led coup on 2nd Nov 1963, just 20 days before Kennedys assassination. Meantimes, President Kennedy, himself a Catholic, had increased the American "advisor" presence in Vietnam from 700 in the mid 1950's to 16,000 by the time Kennedy was assassinated. As the Communist troops from the North made ever-increasing territorial gains on the South, the fluffed-up "Gulf of Tonkin" incident was enough reason for Lyndon B Johnson to escalate the war, with a huge level of bombings of the North, and ever-increasing U.S. troops on the ground. The requests from the South for military help were continuous, from the time the Communists aggressively invaded South Vietnam, in Jan 1959. The Gulf War began after Iraq, led by Saddam Hussein, invaded and occupied Kuwait on August 2, 1990, following disputes over debt and oil. In response to the invasion, the U. N. Security Council passed resolutions condemning the act, and demanding immediate withdrawal. A US-led international coalition of 35 nations was formed to liberate Kuwait. Following the failure of diplomatic efforts, and the passing of a UN-authorised deadline, the coalition launched Operation Desert Storm on January 17, 1991, successfully driving Iraqi forces out of Kuwait by February 28, 1991. Iraq initially requested assistance in the first place to beat back ISIS. The result was Operation Inherent Resolve. It was a military coalition operation, involving 80 countries, put together by the U.S. to defeat ISIS. But it became messy, because the Syrian Assad regime did not request military assistance to defeat ISIS, and ISIS had large number of fighters in Syria. The U.S. decided to move into Syria, regardless, supporting local military groups that looked useful to them. The U.S. nearly always declines to accept "requests for military assistance" from foreign countries, because that then makes the U.S. actions dependent on those requests - and if the country decides to revoke its request, the U.S must withdraw.