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1.6b would be worth it. Staying in will result in orders of magnitude more loss and still nothing to show for it. The USA is simply not a trustworthy military ally.

I've got it, it was a bit hard to work it out and it took me a while but I finally figured it out. The line in the middle of the road is continious saying you can't overtake but it is obvious and clear enough that you can...Phew, that was a hard one

Finally! Afer a bit of rain on Satruday, which resulted in the cancellatoion of teh local jockey club meeting, the rain started to fall just before dawn this morning. It is the type of rain you raelly want after months of dry. It is gentle, soaking rain that does not result in rushing torrents across bare ground. After only a few hours I see that my drinking water tanks are replenished. Now I will wait to see if any seed that has been in the soil will germinate to give some late summer feed, or at least hold the topsoil together.

I can't read the article, so my response is in generic terms. In terms forward looking at the economy, to be honest, I am probably one of the last you would want an asnwer from. I am not going to get into virtue politics and try and keep this to economics. Chump is using two main levers - tariffs and stimulus, the latter being code word for increasing debt and government spending to stimulate the economy. It is sort of applying the foot brake and the throttle of a motorcycle simultaneously to get a balanced and steady result. He has fiscal policy levers; he is attempting to gain access to monetary policy levers, but let's leave that out of it for now. Economically, he seems to be using the latter to ease the pain of the former. With his political agenda of making America great again, and trying to reclaim the lost economic activity of domestic manufacturing or production, these levers can be weilded as an effective tool in achieving those aims, but only for so long. And there are existing structural issues with the US (and most major western) economies, that length of time before it comes back to bite is shortened. At the heart of it is the theory of price equilibrium (a google sesarch will give a concise but good AI explanation) It explains how prices are correlated to supply and demand. Assume the market for, I dunno, T shirts is in equilibrium - that is the price is set such that the amount of T shirts willing to be consumed by consumers is the same at which suppliers are willing to sell them. You have price equilibrium of supply and demand. If suppliers decide to increase the supply (say to become a dominant player in the market) and the demand does not change, in order to sell the higher volume of T shirts, the sellers will have to start discounting T shirts to a price where consumers are willing to buy the increased volume of T shirts. And of course, vice versa; if demand goes up and supply stays the same, consumers are willing to pay more per T Shirt for that same supply. There are other factors, such as price elastcity, lag, etc.. but let's keep it simple. According to this theory, though, one of two things will happen. If it is a permanent move one way, the price equilibrium will shift. This will usually happen where there is a constraint to one side of the equation. For example, if supply increases, but demand cannot (I dunno - the nuber od train rides one can take in a day??), and suppliers are willing to the increased supply at that price, then the price will stay there. More often what happens is there is a constraint on supply and the price forever changes for the worse (assuming no substitute goods or services are available). The other impact is that where the demand and supply if perfectly correlated (fully elastic), the increase or decrease in price will eventually lead to the supplier or consumer increasing or decreasing supply/demand accordingly which impacts the other's willingness to supply or consume at that price, and prices will eventually revert to their original equilibrium where both sides are willing to supply or consume the same volumes at that price. This is really important, because although we talk about the price of goods and services in this context, money or currency also has a price. And that price is not the exchange rate; it is the inflation rate. Inflation = a lessenign ov the value of money - it is not worth as much as it was. Deflation = increasing value of money - it is more valuable that the goods or services it is being exchanged for than it was, say yesterday. However, inflation is far more prevalent than deflation - so money is forever devaluing, right? Well, yes, and there are two reasons for it. The first is government interventions - monetary policy usually. Governments don't like inflation, because it usually results in a recession or worse. Although in theory, as prices drop, people will buy more of whatever it is, there comes a point where it is not economic for the suppliers to sell at that price. But, a quirk to the price equilibrium theory, when there is deflation, people will put off buying stuff because they know they can get it cheaper in the future. That collapse in demand leads to recessions and depressions. The second reason is simple - there is usually an increasing money supply in an economy. And where you have more of something that you want to exchange for something else that has value to you, you will offer more of that something you have. That is you will increase your supply of money in relation for the other thing you want that has had no increase in supply. The good example is the housing market. Remember when you or your parents could buy an average house in an average suburb for about 3.5 times annual salaries. Today it is something like 7 or more times salary. Why? This may sound mysoginistic, but women entring the workforce enmasse. What that did is put more moeny into to system and into purchasers hands. Supply of housing is relatively stable, especially in established areas, so what happens - you as a family with two working parents instead of one give more money to the seller as you are in competition with other buyers (demand). The net effect in real terms is both parents are now working but still no better off. So, if Chump increases tariffs, the price of the goods/services imported into America are higher and in theory, the consumer will want to buy less of them. But why do that? Because, the price at which they can be sold fom domestic manufacturers economically is higher and to try and even out demand between importers and domestic manufacturers is price (assuming quality/specification is on par). In other words, you are artifically cheapning money against imported goods. As I mentioned, assuming the quality, specification, amenity etc is simiar, responsible citizens would look to buy locally made, but at least through simple distributions, there would be a higher percentage of the domestically made product sold. Of course, there is a lag here, because where there was no manufacturing, it takes time to get it up and running. And that's where the stimulus comes in. It can be freebies to the people - as was the inflation reduction act. And some of Chump's is.. But it can also be setting the barriers to entry into the sector lower to get investment moving quicker and manufacturing churning stuff out quicker, too. That hass a knock on effect of creating employment and when there is a ready supply of labour, that will be a very good thing, because it won't increase costs (salaries) too much. Once construction is over, depending on the automation levels, there will be some permanent, sustained increase in employment over time. But now you have a lot of money now artifically entering the economy. More people are employed, which is a good thing and they can buy more stuff. Demand increases, but because there is more money in the system. Inflation is initially kept in check because there is usually some capacity in an economy to absorb short term changes in demand and supply without material impact on prices. Suppliers can supply more to meet the demand (or maybe there was already an oversupply). Everything is nice. However, once that capacity is used up, things start to change. Suppliers are now in a position where there is excess demand over normal supply volumes - the previous equilibrium price. What happens? People with more money still want the stuff and if suppliers can';t or don't want to increase the supply, they charge more. Consumers enter into comeptition with each other and pay the higher prices. You have inflation - or devaluing money.. because the money supply was increased. The money supply increase can be "natural"; i.e. a product of normal economic activity or it can be through government injection of new money - stimulus. This is usually done through a) printing money (bad - look at Germany in the 30s) or debt (less bad, and used properly as well as contained, can be very good). Either way, if done to excess, it is not sustainable, because, after all, the piper has to be paid (pied piper, not the aircraft company). Just look at quantitative easing, which was increasing the money supply.. it was really good to start with as it stabilised everything by gradually increasing the money supply. But they left the taps on for too long and inflation went ballistic. If they had of started turning off the taps earlier and took longer to do it, there would have been little impact on inflation. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. What Chump is doing is short term lever pulling.. He is creating that cosy bubble to protect everyone now. He will be in lag territory as the economy has capacity to absorb it and things will be humming along nicely. It's nice and artificial, but reality will kick in. With his attempt to get the levers of monetary policy, which can artifically increase inflation through interest to keep the lid from blowing off, influencing lower interest rates in the face of an artifically booming economic engine is a recipe for disaster as there will be more money floating in the system because it will be easy to get hold of. Enter the credit multiplier, which even further increases the money supply. What happens is I earn say $100. I put $50 in the bank. Multiply that by say a million people. Three is $50m in the bank. Now I want to start a business. So I borrow $1m. Others want to biy a house, a car, a holiday of a lifetime, etc. In the end, $45m of that money is lent out. The economy is now $95m. Now, the people/businesses we have spent the money on bank some of that money, after expenses, etc. Say, $20m is banked back as deposits, the other is spend on their expenses, and those that were paid bank say $10m of that.. The system now has the original $50m + the $45m lent but still has $30m in the bank and ready to lend out. And so the cycle goes until it essentially runs to a crtical reduction at which the economy can't sustain itself, and people start defaulting and the whole thing unravels (of course that is an overdramatisation). Say the borrowing rate is on average 10%. It makes it reasonably difficult to service large loans. Now Chump comes along and adds $50M to my economy. Whoa.. As a bank I don't want it sitting in my accounts as a liability - it is costing me money. So I want it lent out. But initially, demand hasn't changed, so what do I do? I reduce my interest rates to shift it. And this increases demand for lending, further pumping money into the economy and keeping the cycle going. But, with even more money in the economy, the same population can pay more for the same stuff, and eventually inflation will skyrocket. Then things get more expensive, and eventually people can no longer afford it as the money creation cycle slows. Then demand drops, employment drops, taxes drop, etc, The government has debt and the piper is coming along for its next payment. The proiblem with Chump is he looks to be weilding these levers for very short term political gain and the debt to the piper ever increasing. One day the piper will come calling and the house of cards that has now been built, rather than the solid foundation will fall.

Some anti fascist people are already working to identify and make public the identity of ICE officers, especially those proven to have used excessive force. It's exactly like the nazi brown shirts. You shouldn't expect to remain anonymous while following unlawful and inhumane orders.

We may have burned that bridge. I'd like us to learn the lessons from Ukraine and give up on manned subs altogether. Remotely operated seems far better in every respect.

Not only do you admit, but you show it with what you think is fake news from the ABC. If renewables are the reason for price rises, why is NSW, SA, and SE QLD getting free electricity because of solar? The reason for electricity price rises globally is the massive increase in gas price increases due to peak in demand of electricity post pandemic, severe supply chain issues, and the Russian invasion. I still don't know why, but that drove up coal prices, and guess what? John Howrards criminally short sighted policies of selling gas to the Chinese at even then knock-down prices and hold them for god knows how long at that price without indexation (must have been a very big brown paper bag involved somewhere) and successive governments allowing coal being liberalised to be traded on the open global market wthout reserving necessary supply domestically at cost of extraction plus decent profit margin (admittedly, when the price of coal is down, that would work against the consumer - but at least there would be certainty of what you have to pay), and - voilla! There you have your increasing electricity prices.. As with any new technology, there is a short term capital investment recovery built into the price, but in a fully competitive or well regulated market where structural impediments of entry and exit exist (take your pick), once that is recovered, the prices tend to stabilise near the cost of production + a margin for ongoing returns. We are starting to see it in solar. Renewables are cheaper longer term than any other form of generation. Remeber the price of colour TVs when they came out. More expesnive in absolute terms than you can buy them now. Imagine the real cost difference? Yeah, ABC don't get it right all the time and they do sometimes show bias, especially on one issue - in my opinion. But I have found when you dig into the facts, more often than not, they are far closer to objectivity than the others, willing to admit they make mistakes better than the others, and even on the area I think they are biased, they are no more so than most of the others (whether it fits my agenda or doesn't).

Not about Viet Nam, but still relevant. Back in 2000, I encountered a civvie who was working in the Australian Army compound in Dili (East Timor). He mentioned the following:- The Australians regularly patrolled the border (No, it wasn't Viet type thick jungle). They were concerned by Indos following and taking pot shots to harrass. I believe no casualties, just harrassment. So one day, the SAS followed a safe distance behind our patrol. The problem was removed. SAS still knew how to be invisible. The problem never reocurred. The incident was never reported. Aside from Youtoob BS, there are believable reports by American vets, to support those Vietnam stories. Mainly they highlight the arrogance & poor training of the US military.

I've just got back to Australia after visiting Vietnam, sitting in Sydney airport waiting for the Hobart flight. They call it the American war over there. I don't know why we went, or what the Yanks thought they'd achieve. Every Vietnamese person I talked to (apart from the hucksters trying to sell you stuff) was polite, friendly and with a great sense of humour. An interesting fact is that they burn cardboard shaped into shoes, clothes etc for their dead ancestors. They even burn fake money so the spirits can buy stuff in the afterlife. Now this next bit shows how lovely these people are. The fake money they burn is obviously Vietnamese dong. They then started worrying about the American and European dead in their country, not recognising the currency and going without. So now they also burn fake US dollars and Euros as well, so the foreign spirits are looked after. (Probably the more entrepreneurial Vietnamese spirits also grab the foreign currency because of the exchange rate!) But just think - regardless of how nonsensical the whole thing may be, they are concerned about the welfare of the dead soldiers who invaded their country.

My sister found this negative in a packet of old family photos and had it reversed on one of those online sites. I can only do 35mm with the attachment on my scanner whereas these old photos are are much bigger size negative. Among all the old photos there's a few like this one that have no corresponding prints. It would have been taken by my great uncle, but have no idea who the bloke on the horse is. It looks like the beach at Gaza in the background, which is one place they were in 1917.

Doesn't that just 'roll off the tongue!'

Yes the article I quotes is behind a paywall. But the seemed to loint out that quantitative easing, when added to the interactions you listed, can bring about some big financial swings. The big question is: will these hit tle voters pockets before their midterms? Will Chump force the interest rate down? Etc. Thanks @Jerry for taking the time to explain. (Ten out of ten for good typing, too)

The man who would be king is a good old movie. He was good in the hunt for red october as well.

Roger Moore (sounds like a porn star name) was the least "action hero" type of any Bond. I think the best was the last, Daniel Craig. Some of the fight scenes, especially in the first of his, were excellent.

Keep the beautiful heritage sites for public use not seel cheap and make billions for untaxed private profit . Start taxing properly and it would not be a problem.

Like so many stories on Facebook, you get half (or less) of what looks like a good story, then it says "Continued in comments". This usually means that there is a link in the first comment to the rest of the story, but often the link is missing, or links to an entirely different story. In this case, the link was missing. However, here is what was displayed. Five American soldiers walked into the jungle alongside four Australians. 4 days later, the Americans walked out, changed men. Their afteraction report contained a single phrase that would echo through Mayv headquarters for months. We are not ready for this. Wait, not ready. These were Rangers from the 101st Airborne. Men who had survived firefights that would break most soldiers. And yet, after 96 hours moving through Vietnamese jungle with Australian SAS operators, they filed a report that read, "Less like a military assessment and more like a confession of inadequacy." Oh, this story gets so much stranger than you think because what those American soldiers witnessed in those four days. The methods, the silence, the way those Australians moved through triple canopy jungle like they owned every shadow was so fundamentally different from everything they had been trained to believe about warfare that some of them requested never to patrol with the Aussies again. One lieutenant came back and told his commanding officer three words that got immediately classified. They're not human. You're about to discover why the most powerful military on Earth started sending its elite soldiers to learn from 120 men from a country most Americans knew only for kangaroos and beer. And trust me, by the end of this video, you'll understand why the Vietkong stopped referring to them as soldiers at all. They called them something else. Maang, the jungle ghosts. Stay with me. Natrang, September 1966. The May TV Recondo School had just opened its doors to train American long- range reconnaissance patrol personnel in the dark arts of jungle warfare. The facility sprawled across a compound near the massive naval air base, its training schedule designed to push soldiers to the absolute limits of endurance and skill. three weeks, 260 hours of classroom and field instruction culminating in an actual combat patrol through enemy controlled territory. The school's commonant, Major AJ Baker, had assembled what he believed to be the finest reconnaissance instructors in the American military. Green Berets who had run operations from the demilitarized zone to the Meong Delta. Veterans of Project Delta, men who had earned their reputations tracking communist forces through some of the most hostile terrain in Southeast Asia. But Baker knew something that troubled him deeply, something he would not speak about publicly, but that kept him awake on humid Vietnamese nights. His instructors, skilled as they were, were teaching methods developed for a different kind of war. And there was one group operating in country who had already solved the puzzle that American forces were still trying to figure out. The Australians had arrived in Puaktoy province in April of 1966 with a mandate that differed fundamentally from American doctrine. While US forces measured success in body counts and territory seized, the Australians had been given a single objective. Pacify the province using whatever methods necessary. The key phrase was whatever methods. Within the Australian task force operated a unit so small it barely registered on American organizational charts. The Special Air Service Regiment. three squadrons rotating through Vietnam, never more than 120 men in country at any given time. Their official designation was reconnaissance. Their actual function was something far more primal, something that would force American military doctrine to confront uncomfortable truths about the nature of jungle warfare. The first American personnel to observe Australian SAS operations did so almost by accident. In May of 1967, a squad of US Longrange Reconnaissance Patrol soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division had been attached to one squadron SAS for what was supposed to be a routine exchange program. The Americans arrived at Nuiidat, the Australian base, expecting to find familiar patterns. Professional soldiers conducting professional operations with perhaps a few tactical variations that came from operating in a different area of operations. What they found instead would fundamentally challenge everything they understood about warfare in Vietnam. Sergeant Michael Patterson had served two tours in Vietnam before his assignment to the Australian Exchange Program. He had run patrols through the Iron Triangle, conducted search and destroy operations in the Central Highlands, and survived firefights that had earned him two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star. He was not, by any measure, a novice to jungle combat. His first morning at New Dat Patterson watched an Australian SAS patrol prepare for insertion. Five men, each carrying approximately 80 lb of equipment. M16 rifles with modified flash suppressors. Enough ammunition to simulate the firepower of a force three times their size. Rations for 5 days. No air support pre-positioned. No artillery fire plan. No quick reaction force on standby, just five men who would walk into enemy controlled territory and not make contact with base for 72 hours. What struck Patterson immediately was the silence. American patrols buzzed with lastminute activity before insertion. Radio checks, weapons checks, final coordination with helicopter crews. ooooooooOOOOOOOOoooooooo This is where the link should have been. Some of the replies, apparently from American members, commented on how great the Special Forces soldiers were and how undertrained they made the Yanks look. Unfortunately when you leave a Facebook page to do something like create this post, then go back for more, the screen refreshes and you lose it. There were a couple of replies I would like to have copied.

For the hotrodders, Ed Iskenderian, of the "Isky Racing Cams" fame, passed away yesterday at the tremendous old age of 104. He was a real character, like so many hot-rodders. https://carbuzz.com/remembering-edward-isky-iskenderian/

It was well known amongst "ordinary" Australian soldiers, that the SAS were called "super-grunts", and they considered all other ordinary soldiers, as far below them in skills. Just the psychological effects of SAS training were severe, and huge numbers of SAS applicants fell out of the SAS courses, because they failed to make the grade. Their training is brutal.

That was interesting. At the end of the video they make the point that as effective as they Australian’s methods were in the field, they resulted in high levels of PTSD and long term difficulties adjusting to civilian life after the war.

True, we'll never see that money again. Whether we actually get the hoped for subs or not. Further, I question the wisdom of continuing the massive money drain, purely in the hopes of getting some outdated weaponry sometime in the distant future. What new war toys might our military wish to buy in 2040 (or later, when you allow for expected late delivery) for all those taxpayer dollars? Probably not those old-before-new subs. And what manufacturing capability & quality can we expect from the New America? Their industrial abilities are not what they used to be.

There's plenty who whinge more than you Jerry, and not even in England.

I know the military and the department of defence are always reviewing their property portfolio to optimise it for modern day use. A war machine costs money and requires modern amenities. However, I can't help but think there are brown paper bags passing about in the halls of our decision makers. Not for sall of the properties. But Victoria Barracks in both Melbourne and Sydney, for example, are historically significant and an essential part of the fabric of their area; they are architecurally and environmentally a part of the culture and provide a welcome relief from the many bland building around them. Of course, they and the land they are upon are a developer's nirvana. And developers have little regard for the quality of the environment of what they develop to the communities they affect. Yes, they will be expensive to maintain. But sometimes things are important enought to warrant the cost. Otherwise we end up with bland, faceless streetscapes with no acknowledgment of our past, nor the variety and space that can bring enjoyment to dull days.

Holy thread resurrection! I see it was started and up until today finished a day before I joined the forums! You fellas are into your 10th year suffering my rants and raves - more rants.. England has that effect on one.. Am I now a whinging pom?

This bike build project will have to progress in tandem to the shed renovation project. Until the 6x6 metre workshop space is properly sorted not much mechanical work can go on. There's a fair bit of structural alterations needed in there. A few more steel diagonal braces will have their brackets relocated so shelving and benches will sit against the wall better. One set of braces will be removed and the timber frame wall between the steel upright shed poles will be upgraded to a bracing wall to compensate for the loss of the diagonal braces. That section already has a timber wall frame attached to the poles, which also serves as a wall for an attached 3x3 metre room, so it's just a matter of fitting some more tie down and adding bracing ply. If I put bracing ply on both sides of the wall, the kN of bracing should exceed the original diagonals. In the short term, I've been clearing out the attached 3x3 metre room to put some shelving in to hold components for the bike project. As per the attached photo, the inside wall is unlined, so I'll insulate that and cover it with bracing ply, paint the wall, then put the shelves in. Before the shelving goes in, the adjoining wall at right angles to it (the one mentioned above) will have the corrugated iron cladding removed and be replaced with bracing ply (it's the rear side of the wall where the steel diagonals will be removed). In a fit of madness years ago, I fastened that corrugated iron internal cladding with roofing nails instead of roofing screws, so that's added a lot of extra work to removing it.

That colourised photo definitely shows water in the background. It would either be the coast near Gaza or possibly the Sea of Galilee where they stationed after the fighting to rest and reorganise. This photo is one of the ones at the Sea of Galilee, also called Lake Tiberias. The horses look like they could do with a rest to fatten those ribs up a bit.

If the ABC said anything that could be construed by the rabid right as even slightly left of centre, regardless of how factual it is, they get hounded by the Murdoch press and face political pressure. There is no comparison with Sky. If you think that the ABC is reporting factually incorrect news, provide examples.

Isn't there already a gold statue of him?

How much gilt do you want?

The Yanks sent a group of their soldiers to Jungle Training Centre, Canungra, so they could go through the Jungle warfare course that all Aussie soldiers had to pass, before being sent overseas to combat zones. None of them could complete it. They packed it in and went home. It was a bastard of a course, all designed to get Aussie soldiers used to real jungle warfare conditions. The worst part was slithering through deep mud on your back to get under a huge mat of barbed wired, with barely enough room to slide under it - all the while you were under live fire (just above your head, of course) and enduring constant but irregular detonations of explosives, just to simulate mines and artillery shells and grenades going off. Then you had to scramble up obstructions to reach the top of a 10 metre tower - then jump off the tower into a river that was about 50 metres wide - which you had to cross, of course. There was a rope dangling in the river which you could use to help yourself. Naturally, you also had to be carrying a fully-equipped backpack containing around 15 kgs, and your rifle - which you had to try and keep dry. After you made it to the other side, there was slippery, muddy, mountainous terrain to climb - and I mean it was that steep, you were on your hands and knees. Then there was the M60 machine gun that also had to be carried up that mountain. When one bloke peaked out with carrying the M60, someone else had to take it. After you made to the plateau at the top, you had to make camp for the night - wet or not. Of course, you had to post sentries al night, because this was the Jungle, and enemy were always probing your defences. So sleep was pretty patchy. Next day you had to walk a jungle trail with an F1 SMG - and shoot at targets that suddenly and unexpectedly popped up each side of the trail. These were enemy soldiers, taking potshots at you. You had to set up enemy ambushes, hide yourself completely - then endure many hours of waiting and waiting and waiting, for enemy to appear. In the hot sun, in the rain, in the cold. There was no respite, you dare not move. The enemy always appeared after a very long wait of course - and when you least expected them. If you messed up the ambush, you got to do it again. The obstacle courses were endless and made you exert yourself to the max. Climbing over huge walls, jumping through courses laid with tyres - all in mud of course. Scrambling up 10 metre ropes to cross other obstacles. I can only remember a few of them, possibly because my memory doesn't want to recall the rest. They were all designed to make you exert yourself to your limits. And you always carried your rifle with you, at all times. The course took 10 days out of your life, and at the end of it you were pretty buggered - but if you passed the course, you got your ticket to go to a real war zone, which was often far more different again to Canungra. American soldiers could never go anywhere in a group without making a lot of noise, giving off a lot of smells (cannabis and aftershave and scented soaps), and they were so trigger-happy, they were dangerous to be around. The SAS took especial pains to ensure they gave off no smell, never followed any kind of track or trail, were silent to an unbelievable level (hand signals were refined to the nth degree), and they often followed enemy and determined their likely path - then moved ahead of them, and waited silently and in hiding, for the enemy to pass. Then they'd step out behind the last of the enemy and dispatch them with as little sound as possible - then drag their body off the trail. The enemy would be totally unnerved at how their "tail end Charlies" could just vanish without a sound or a trace. It was psychological war at its finest.

There's plenty of videos on uTube in the same vein as that article, generally saying how the Australian SAS soldiers far outclassed the elite American troops in the jungle. I'm not sure how much is true and how much is hype. Here's a typical one.

Musk IS spreading his genes pretty well. He might have to move to MARS to escape the Alimony. Nev

That's the billionaires, that hold 90% of world wealth. You should know that, Nev.

Trumps new appointee to head the Federal Reserve, Kevin Warsh is seen as a "hawk" on U.S. interest rates, with a desire to keep them up until inflation in the U.S. is tamed. Trump wants the interest rates dropped NOW, and that made all the investors flee to gold and silver for fear of Trump getting his way, and causing more inflation. They feared that any Trump appointee to the Federal Reserve would just be a loyal Trump stooge, doing exactly what he wants. However, once all the investors learned that Warsh was being appointed, they dropped all their gold and silver investments (it's called "profit-taking" anyway), and put their money back into treasury bonds and other financial instruments. It seems obvious their fears about Trump ruling the interest rate levels and destroying the U.S. economy with his lack of economic knowledge has evaporated with the appointment of Warsh, and Warsh might have some backbone to resist Trumps demands and abuse. Jerome Powell certainly knows what it's like to be on the receiving end of Trump abuse, lawsuits and outrageous demands. It's critical that the Federal Reserve remains independent of any external political pressure - everyone in the U.S. knows that.

I agree Daniel Craig, was the best action bond and a far more rounded character, not a shallow cad like Moore or a more serious but still brutish and chauvinist Connery. The best old Bond was in my humble opinion, is George Lazenby a school mate of my dad in Goulburn. Lived a block from each other, he was a playboy in real life and didn't play the studio game nor want to be stuck in a role. Pity he was offered to continue in the role for more bond films. He was the Bond that was not brutish to women, showed his emotions and married only to see her killed at the end. Much more the Daniel Craig character but back 50 years. I am still a Connery fan but never saw a Moore film I liked.

The big problem is, that Govt assets are nearly always sold at below market prices to "mates in the know", who promptly turn them over for a massive profit. And the Govt then takes the money they got from the assets and pisses it up against the wall on vastly overpriced, often under-utilised, and generally vastly problematic, Defence purchases. Just look at the exorbitant and ever-increasing pricing of the MD F-35 fighter as an example. I employed a young Scottish bloke many years ago, who had worked for Marconi in the U.K. He said the rip-off profits staggered him when he sighted the figures. Marconi were supplying radar and navigation aids to the IAF in the late '60's, and he said, typically, a small electrical component that cost Marconi something like £14, was billed out to the IAF at a figure around £1,000!

Don't dare criticize anything Labor does. Nev said so. If Labor sold off the Harbour Bridge and Opera House, that would be OK with Nev.

He's not cheating. He's simply the best. (Which, replacing "He's" with "you're", is the next answer)

The military buildings in question are all heritage listed, and hold enormous emotional attachment for many, due to their links to all major wars. Plus, their architecture and construction quality is excellent, as it is with all military buildings.

You could NOT be MORE wrong . I talk to a Lot of War veterans . Some from the USA. When I meet groups of them anywhere on Bikes I go and have a yarn with them .The most helpful Instructor I know was an ex POW in Changi. He's in one of the Pictures taken and is Just Bones. HE is the Person who is responsible for supporting Me continuing to train and get a flyting Job I've also flown with WW2 ,Vietnam and Korean war Pilots most of whom have experienced things they don't want to speak of. Vietnam Vets got red paint thrown on them when they returned. Nev

I only heard it for the first time in 2018. I led a sheltered life.

Let's be fair about the ABC. It is the only broadcasting organisation that actually produces Australian worthwhile (actual theatrically worthwhile) content for television. In fact, it only seems to be the news and current affairs department that shows bias.

Makes me laugh, there's a few scooters getting around here with 2 extra wheels at the back on spring loaded swingarms. So they're basically a 4 wheel scooter. Only ever seen tourists riding them, the locals must giggle when they overtake them.

I never has enough Fiat currency to buy a new house, so I made do with a Renno

I think that muskovite no longer needs to sell cars to stay rich. So his interests are not focused on EVs. He clearly is focused on saving the human race. Particularly to save the human race from substandard humans. (It used to be called eugenics, up until some German guy gave that game a bad name)