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Yes the US has been in the Middle East for decades ‘helping’ the Arabs extract their oil and gas reserves. I’m sure they would like to get their hands on the Iranian oil too but the regime there doesn’t want their help, Iran is a disruptor in the region, and a threat to Israel and US interests, especially if they get nuclear weapons. I don’t think the oil is a reason for this war starting. It is about the threat to Israel generally with or without nuclear weapons but especially with them. That’s Trump’s stated aim for getting involved but he’ll grab anything else he can get.

Is it really Trump's idea? The idea just came to me that the USA has been planning moves to control oil producing nations for a long time. Can you remember the old riddle: Q: Why doesn't the USA invade (insert name of country)? A: Because it doesn't have any oil. I reckon the US military has been planning these actions for decades, however previous Presidents have been relatively reluctant to implement those plans. I think that we can all agree the Trump is unlike any previous President. Theodre Roosevelt once said, "Speak softly, but carry a big stick". Trump's versoion is, "Yell loudly and thump with your big strick".

Don't think much of anything he's done was planned , well not until he just woke up next morng aweeee, we might do blah blah. Man's an idiot. But crikey then jezuz, how are China reserves then eh, bloody hell. God they're smart buggers. As for Pootin , they reckon he might not even be able to get any oil outa there to cash in anyway. Ukr's doing such a magnificent job of blowing the place to hell oil wise and Pootin's ran out of workers and money to repair anything, getting them all killed in Ukr. l'll say one thing for Pootin though. At first he's Nato thing became a laughing stock because he actually forced them even closer not further away. But now his offsider Chump is so busy destroying Nato for him things might turn back in his favor anyway soon.

Whenever I hear an old lady who sounds like my mum, I know she is from the Riverina

Still paying $3.20 for diesel where I am. Petrol is a fair bit cheaper.

I miss my old 6 cylinder 4 litre Fairlane; it ran on the smell of an oily rag and rivalled a lot of 4 cylinder cars for economy. Only because it was low reving. It used to do 1850 rpm at 100 k/hr, and 2150 at 110 k/hr. My little Rodeo with the turbo 4 cylinder diesel does 3000 rpm at 100 k/hr. The Fairlane was only economical if you drove it like an old bloke. A young bloke with a heavy foot could make it drink a bit.

I know of a big kid who has mar-a-lay-go

Well, life on the CBF1000 continues. It is actually a very good all round bike.. I feel like I can tour on it all day, yet it has a little lean forward, and you can throw it nicely around - it won;t win any races, but is a smooth and responsive in line 4, with reasonably well matched suspension. It is a bit of a winter hack in places and now the weather is better, I will attack some of the rust spots. The stator still seems OK.. but I have narrowed the electrical issue I have with it. I have finally sorted out the heated grips, and they have a led that flashes green when it detects a drop below about 12.8volts or some such number, indicating the system is not charging and the ignition is switched off. And, whenever the high beam goes on or the brakes are applied, the light immediately starts flashing. As soon as they are released (or the high bean goes off), the led goes back to normal operating mode (red light for high). I have a USB connection and when it is drawing a current, it doesn't affect the heated grips, so I am thinking there is an issue with the wiring around the lighting. The switchgear is hard to get the high beam to stick on - but not a problem with the flash switch. Should be fun to trace.

I haven't had fritters for years but I don't ever remember any potato in them. The ones we had were corn beef fritters, just shredded corn beef in a type of batter fried.

I agree with that. He certainly didn't go into it for Netanyahu or Israel. He went into it for himself because he thought the Iranian leadership would fold in a couple of days and he'd be famous as the President who had the nerve to take on the Iranians and show the world how weak his predecessors were. He wanted the world to applaud how smart and amazing he is. All he's managed to do is demonstrate how vain and stupid he is.

This has been in development for some time: https://aptera.us/

Maybe I am giving Chump too much credit - but I seriously doubt if there was enough internal opposition, he would have pursued. He as chickened out well before it got to implementation (of tariffs) before. Maybe Net gave him the oil idea; maybe there was some other US internal people driving it. I juyst don't think Chump would have gone in purely with Israel's interests at heart.

You're giving him far too much credit for forward planning. Trump is an opportunist, not a thinker. He's had it in for Iran for years and Netanyahu gave him the hard sell a couple of weeks before the war. Hegseth was for it, Vance was against it, and Rubio was on-board but only for getting rid of their missiles, while John Ratcliffe told him straight out that Netanyahu was pulling the wool over his eyes. Trump went for it anyway. Now that he's created this mess, he's latched onto the idea of going into partnership with the Iranians to charge a toll on ships using the strait. I don't think the Iranians will be very interested in that, nor in handing over their oil. If Trump did somehow try to grab the oil, Xi would be on the phone to the White House.

I disagree. I think he is using Netanyahu and the Israel conflict as a means to an end. The way I see it is that he wants to be able to control the oil from Iran in the same way as Venzuela.. and control the supply to China.. Israel, to me, is a smokescreen to his objectives.

And they pronounce potato cakes as fritters. Don't mention scallops, they're seafood.

Trump was fooled into this war by Netanyahu's hard sell. He's a useful idiot for both Netanyahu and Putin.

South Australians are strange. They pronounce Lego as "lay-go".

Teardrop shaped cars help. Apparently the Hyundai Ioniq 6 has a drag coefficient of 0.21Cd.

I like to drive and ride fast.. It is something that is tolerated here where it is relatively safe; i.e. motoways or dual carriage motorways where the traffic isn;'t too bad. The limit on both is 70mph (c. 110kph), but when I leave for London at 3:30am, I hover around the 80mph (c. 130kph) mark and pass the same police in the same spot with the same gun and they never come after me. However, drive dangerously, even when under the limit, and they guve you extremely short shrift. But, I do know when I drive or ride faster, the increase in fuel usage is noticeable. It is usied mostly to push the air out of the way, and the square rule kicks in. Amazoing how many people have slowed down since fuel prices have gone up.

One of the disadvantages of global trade and movement. While it is bad news, forewarned is forearmed; and the more people that know about it and its potential conseuences (think $12 lettuces), the more pressure that can be put on government to put resources intol finding a way to solve the problem. It only becomes depressing when no-one oof who we entrust and pay handsomely to look after this tries to do anything about it when they should.

Trump's aims are all over the place so at best, he might have a concept of achievement, but no idea of how to get there. However, he will drop Netanyahu like a hot coal if he sees some face-saving way out of the mess that he's created.

How did you draw that conclusion?

Are you driving people to severe depression? Let's look on the Bright side a bit More.. Nev

A land of droughts and flooding rains. If it's not one thing it's another impacting on agriculture. While we are well aware of the problem of fuel supply coming into sowing season, there is a biological problem that is impacting the pollination of our food crops. In June 2022, varroa mite was detected in sentinel hives at the Port of Newcastle, New South Wales. The mite is a parasite of European bees which kills them. When it was detected, thousands of bee hives were destroyed in an attempt to control its spread. That didn't work too well. The upshot is that commercial bee-keepers were not able to place their hives amongst the plants that need bees for pollination. As a result many crops, such as apples, pears and nuts failed to produce. Worse still, while 'domesticated' hives were reduced in numbers, escapee broods headed off into the native forests, taking the mite with them. Control or eradication of the mite in Australia is now impossible using current methods.