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I know I shouldn't post this, and Nev will drag me over the coals, but this way I can say I had a head job from an Asian lady at the shopping centre for $15, and not be lying.

I am hoping the Facebook friend invitations from Desi Freeman will now stop.

I rarely repost Farcebook pages, but this one is spot on ...... "Senator Claude Malhuret stood up in the French Senate this week and systematically torched every single member of Trump's cabinet. Nobody was spared. Not one. "A year ago, here in France, I compared Trump's presidency to Nero's Court. I was wrong. It's the miracle court," Malhuret began. Then he went through the roster. "An anti-vaxxer, former heroin addict as Minister of Health." (That's RFK Jr) "A climate-skeptic Minister of Economy." (That's Scott Bessent) "An alcoholic TV host, Minister of the Armed Forces." (That's Pete Hegseth) "An old Qatar agent, Minister of Justice." (That's Pam Bondi, whose former firm collected $115,000 a month lobbying for Qatar) "A groupie of Putin, Minister of National Security." (That's Tulsi Gabbard) Then he pulled back and went bigger. "A Turkish proverb says: When a clown settles in a palace, he does not become king. It is the palace that becomes a circus." Malhuret pointed out that since Trump created his so-called Board of Peace, he has launched more military strikes than Biden did in his entire term. He called out the Boeing jet Qatar gifted Trump worth $400 million. He called out the stock market manipulation that only insiders benefit from. He called out the Gulf investment deals enriching Trump and his family. "Any one of these conflicts of interest would have caused an immediate procedure of impeachment here," Malhuret said. "But we are not here. We are in MAGA's America where public business is conducted in favor of private interests." Then came the line that cut deepest. "Every time the Epstein affair resurfaces, bombs explode somewhere in the world and cause a distraction." This is how the world sees us now. Not through Fox News. Not through Truth Social. Through the cold, clear eyes of allied nations watching a great country be hollowed out by crooks. Every American should hear this speech. Share it everywhere."

That's a pretty high ranking.

True. But Oscar was NOT armless, was he! But he didn't have a leg to stand on.

The news about the U.S. bases damage, is largely correct. The U.S. military themselves have admitted damage has been incurred at 13 U.S. bases in the Middle East, with DoW damage estimations of around US$800M. There are other reports saying the number of bases seriously damaged is actually 17, and the total repair bill for all the Iranian damage is likely to exceed US$3B - and more importantly, take years to rebuild, simply because of the complexity of the equipment in the bases, and the requirement for a lot of electronic replacements, that are still in short supply from COVID-era restrictions. Even many car manufacturers are taking shortcuts in vehicle manufacturing, and leaving out optional equipment that is electronics-heavy, due to the ongoing chip shortage. What our dopey Tangerine Toddler doesn't understand, is that Taiwan may now even make overtures to China to form an alliance, to prevent a Taiwan-China war. This is because Taiwan is starting to realise that their major ally is no longer a reliable ally - and is likely incapable of protecting/supporting Taiwan in the event of a Chinese aggressive military move on them. If that alliance happens, China will then control the majority of the worlds cutting-edge chip manufacturing, and give Trump and his sycophants another dose of heartburn, because America still hasn't got any local chip manufacturing sorted yet. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cddq7j48p35o https://defencesecurityasia.com/en/us-bases-uninhabitable-iran-missile-strikes-centcom-force-posture-2026-war/

From Occupy Democrats. BREAKING: Trump is left reeling after the New York Times reveals that Iran’s attacks have bombed EVERY American military base in the Middle East so badly they are “virtually uninhabitable!” Thanks to the Trump administration’s criminal lack of preparation and shocking understimation of Iran’s military capabilities, the US military is now working remotely in the Middle East, putting civilians in danger as they work out of hotels and makeshift operations centers in civilian areas. “The result, according to current and former military officials, is a war that is much harder to prosecute.” The Times reports that “many of the 13 military bases in the region used by American troops are all but uninhabitable, with the ones in Kuwait, which is next door to Iran, suffering perhaps the most damage.” Iranian officials have even accused the U.S. military of using civilians as human shields by putting American troops in hotels. This is sure to prompt another furious tirade from Donald Trump who we now know is not getting the full picture of just how badly this war is going for him and is instead just getting a highlight reel of war porn, watching our tax dollars blow things up for two minutes every day. This is a perfect demonstration of the blind hubris of the Trump administration. After two decades of watching America uncontestedly bomb the poorest people in the world, Trump and Hegseth couldn’t even conceive of an enemy with a sophisticated military and able to fight back, despite all the evidence to the contrary. They took no preparations, expected no reprisals. They didn't evacuate anyone from the Middle East until AFTER the war had started. They didn't bother to prepare for drones. They attacked Iran because they are cowards and bullies, thinking that they could impose their will on Iran by simply killing one old man. They were very, very, wrong, and now they’ve started a fire they cannot put out with lies and bombs.

Sorry, GON but I have zero sympathy for you. And some people meekly pay a fine that is ridiculously easy to get out of. As I said, I have failed to vote on 3 occasions and paid zero fines. If you are paying fines it is because you choose to. It is perhaps a question of "what have the Romans ever done for us" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc7HmhrgTuQ We live in a country with pretty good health, although like most things in life, it has it's problems; however, it doesn't tend to bankrupt people as it does in the US. If you believe you get nothing because you live in the bush, then move. I lived in the bush for 21 years and loved it, but I understood that in having the peace and quiet of a lovely bush block, I could not whine about not having the services of the city. There is a connection between the country life you enjoy and the 37km drive into town. If the facilities of a town were just down the road from your property, then you would be complaining about the amount of traffic. When I lived in the bush, I enjoyed the "solitude" but by the very definition of that word, services were further away. You can't realistically have both. So what is it that the non-Anglos get in the bush that you don't? I thought you moved to the bush so you would have to mix with non-Australians Again, why pay it at all? There are plenty of ways of avoiding it. So, exactly what is it you want? Do you want a post office built across the road from your property? You just can't have everything, the solitude a remote property must come at a cost, it is only "remote" because it is a "remote" If you think I am a city person who doesn't understand well, as I said, I have lived this life. It was great, with pros and cons, but worth it, and I never whinged about it because to me whinging about the place you live is lioke saying I have made a bad choice.

That post, apart from the typos, is quite coherent. The message might be crap, but it is correctly written following the rules of syntax and rhetoric. It can't have been written by a person whose inability to verbally express an idea clearly is exhibited on a daily basis. Trump's not writing these posts. He must have one of Musk's IT whiz-kids doing it.

I believe it's captioned Duck Donald. Nev

Following a spike in accidents and deaths, Queensland is putting new laws before parliament to crackdown on the use of ebikes. Faster, more powerful e-bikes — anything over 25km/h — will now be treated like motorbikes or mopeds, meaning they can only be ridden on the road and must be registered and insured. On footpaths, riders will have to slow right down to 10km/h, and a new offence will make it illegal to ride near pedestrians without proper care. There’s also a broader push behind the scenes, with plans to tighten rules on retailers, crack down on tampering, improve lithium battery disposal, and roll out education campaigns to try and get on top of the growing issue. Parents could also be held responsible, with fines able to be passed on if their child breaks the rules. Police are being given stronger powers too, including random breath testing, and the ability to seize and impound illegal devices on the spot, with repeat or serious cases potentially seeing bikes destroyed. There’s also a broader push behind the scenes, with plans to tighten rules on retailers, crack down on tampering, improve lithium battery disposal, and roll out education campaigns to try and get on top of the growing issue. E-wheelchair users will be exempted from these rules. Transport Minister Brent Mickelberg branded the suite of changes "nation-leading reforms". "We are banning under-16s from these devices because the safety of kids is paramount," he said. "We've taken the time to get this right, and our reforms strike the right balance between keeping Queenslanders safe from those who do the wrong thing, while backing the Queenslanders who do the right thing."

It will only be fair if all fossil fuel tax breaks including excise exemptions on diesel are removed. The same for FBT on leases. For decades we have propped up fossil fuels and bussiness vechicles and now EVs are popular they want to change the rules. Yes, we should get taxes for the infrastructure, we should also be taxing the environmental harm- which is far more expensive.

You first need to get rid of the tens of millions of idiots who support him, and who post on FB pages that Trump has done nothing wrong, and he's the greatest leader America has ever had! Americans deserve all the shitty living conditions they're going to get, simply because they voted this moron in.

Probably not a bad thing Peter, half the "news" on Facebook is, as you mentioned, fake.

The next thing to go will be the food deloivery services from take-away places. Thousands of Indians will be out of work! I was asked to do a couple of jobs in Sydney, but I am considering cancelling them due to the uncertainty of fuel supply. I don't want to be stuck in Sydney out of fuel.

The current numbers in both the US House of Representatives and Senate preclude the impeachment of Trump. Even if Trump was impeached, Vanve would take over, and he's a puppet on a string too. Some of us might not like what Kerr did to Whitlam, but at least there was a workable procedure that enabled him to do it.

Get her to do your nails and you can add "hand job" in there too.

I have decided it is time to get back into flying. Trundling off to Dunkeswell to do my SEP renewal. Although this post should probably go onto the mother site, it was a random thought that popped up inot my head. Will try and book it for Thursday this week; if not, it will be Tuesday following week.

The Iranians don't know the meaning of surrender and will fight to the last man.

"Jog on" is pure British slang. Never heard it used here.

Stop watching the local TV news, it's full of shock and horror news events that amplify the levels of crime. Australia is still a pretty safe place to live. However, if you're a member of a crime gang, a drug dealer, or a member of an outlaw motorcycle gang - then yes, Australia is pretty unsafe for you. The other gang members are definitely out to get you. Most killings are targeted, and carried out by criminals. The rest of us lead pretty safe lives.

Let me get this straight. You live so remotely that you have to drive to a mailbox, yet expect a mobile polling booth for your convenience? I suppose you want someone to wipe you butt for you as well.

Well, I have a great piece of positive news. My Hilux is suffering from noisy rear wheel bearings, so I thought I'd get a couple of new ones. I started looking around, and you have to buy a kit with seals and collar, as well as the bearing. The best price I could find was around $104 each. Now, I'm a bit fussy with bearings, and I much prefer to buy German, American, Japanese or even Taiwanese bearings, as I consider them superior bearings to Chinese, and even Thai-made bearings. As my Hilux was built in Thailand, I suspect it has Thai, or even Chinese bearings. I think that's the reason they haven't performed as well as I'd expected (the Hilux has done 190,000kms and has done a lot of heavy hauling). So I kept looking around, and I was amazed to find a website throwing out Timken bearing kits to fit my Hilux - on "clearance" - at - wait for it - $4.89 each!! The company is in Doncaster in Vic, so I ordered them last night - and blow me down, they were delivered this afternoon!! The two bearing kits cost me a grand total of $25.79 including delivery!! The company is Precision International, and I reckon they must have packaged them at first light, and run them out to the airport to catch the early morning flight to Perth!! What is even better - I opened one of the packets and the bearings are actually Made in Japan!! Bonus! So this little exercise has made my day!! Thank you muchly, Precision International!

I have to sign up to get that. Anyhow be away from now as am going to Scone early Fri Morning .Jetstar to Newcastle. CU all Monday. I might see Marty there.. Those in the West, Watch out for Narelle. Forecast to extend to Esperance. Unusual trajectory. Cheers, Hoo Roo and fly safe Nev

This image shows the type of terrain around Tehran.

Red, your link is a Faecesbook scam site, designed to suck in anyone who believes everything they read. There is no $5M contribution to a homeless centre by Barnaby Joyce and Pauline Hanson, it's all TOTALLY FAKE NEWS. Just like the FB stories and photos of Pauline Hanson collapsing in Parliament, 100% lying, total BS.

GST is proportionately more expensive for those who earn less. While it is a flat rate, it requires a higher proportion of a low income persons money than a high income person.

Nothing personal, GON, but why do you object to a progressive mindset? We need to make progress. Without progress we are stuck in 'same old, same old' systems. I wish our politicians started making progress toward fair policies. Progressive is the opposite of 'stuck in the past.'

Trump is saying that the Iranians have sent him a valuable and important present but he won't say what it is. He seemed a bit surprised but says it's given him confidence that they're dealing with the right people. I'm wondering what it is. Maybe a 44 gallon drum of aviation fuel for his new 747, could be a gold pipe bomb? Who knows?

Trump is BS Central. There wouldn't be two consectutive words come out of his mouth with an element of truth in them. To Little Donny, the big surprise is the Iranians didn't come begging for him to stop as soon as his bombing campaign started - but they have turned into the best guerrilla fighters the Middle East has seen in decades. Something the Americans can never understand, nor can they adopt any strategy, that works to defeat a guerilla campaign. There is no "big present" to the U.S., it's all Trump BS, trying to make himself look like a winner in the third week of fighting, when we all know war is a protracted and costly business. Just ask his best mate, Putin.

You may also remember Tony Abbott's "$100 lamb roasts", and Scummo's "EV's will kill the weekend". Any hyperbole from politicians should be taken with a grain of salt, as should election promises.

There are about 9 million Iranians. Nine Million Iranians more than somewhat annoyed at having their lives endangered and their economy destroyed, all over supposed weapons of mass destruction that it seems they know how to make, but don't have all the bits and pieces to do so. There is only one regime that needs to be changed, and that sits on the North American continent.

A metre further on and Onetrack would hav been up Shyte Creek if the bloke had hit him, no doubt causing serious injury o even death. The reason: Onetrack was crossing the footpath and "failed to give way to a pedestrian on the footpath". Here's a point. I know that it's an offence for an adult to ride a bike long a footpath, and Posties have to remain below 10 kph. However, I doubt if the Law has caught up to E-scooters to include them in that rule. There is (was?) an offence of 'Furious riding" which applied to bikes. Nevertheless, it is the primary duty of the driver of a motor vehicle to avoid collisions with persons, animals and objects. In the case of persons, it does not matter what contribution they might make to the collsion. Sucks, don't it?

A French, a German and an Italian spy are captured one day. The captors grab the French spy, take him to the next room and tie his hands behind a chair.They then proceed to torture him for 2 hours before he finally cracks, answers all questions and gives up all of his secrets. The captors then grab the German spy. They tie his hands behind the chair in the next room too and torture him for 4 hours before he finally cracks and tells them what they want to know. They then grabbed the Italian spy. Once again, they tie his hands behind the chair and begin torturing.4 hours go by and the spy isn’t talking. Then 8 hours, then 16 and after 24 hours they give up and throw him back into the cell. The German and French spy are impressed and ask him how he managed to not talk. The Italian spy says, ” I wanted to, but I couldn’t move my hands.”

Trump knows what he's doing, just ask Nettinyahoo. Trumps scheme is to utterly bamboozle the Iranians by changing the direction of the war every day. He's simply stopping at present because someone told him at the rate they were burning up armaments and military equipment, they'd have to stop fighting next week. The 10 U.S. radar setups scattered around the U.S.-friendly Middle Eastern nations, destroyed by the Iranians in the last couple of weeks, have a total replacement value of nearly US$3B. And those radars were crucial to determine the what and where of the incoming Iranian missiles, rockets and drones. If you think it's been a costly couple of weeks for the Iranians, I can tell you it's been just as costly for the Americans. And those radar setups can't be replaced overnight - unlike Iranian Shahed drones. Another massive equipment loss was the KC-135 tanker, about US$80M, plus about 120,000 litres of jet fuel. In addition, several other KC-135's have been damaged by shrapnel and drone attacks, taking more aerial refuelling ability out of the equation. These U.S. losses are the reason the Yanks requested our Wedgetail AEW&C surveillance aircraft. Let's hope we don't lose it to some dumbf**k, trigger-happy Americans, or their Kuwaiti allies.

E-bikes and e-scooters are out of control, Australia-wide. Half the problem is the unlimited accessibility and ease of purchase of these things, the other half is no age restrictions and no training. And it's not just juveniles, either. The number of young males in their 20's riding these things at high speed with no registration, onto footpaths, then onto roads, then cutting through traffic, then back onto footpaths, is large. SWMBO and I were in Albany on the weekend. We filled up at an unattended (card only) servo, on the main road, Albany Hwy. We climbed back into the car and went to drive out the exit onto the highway - and a young bloke about 20 on an e-scooter, doing about 60kmh along the footpath, screamed past the front of the car, missing us by less than a metre. I was only going slow and looking back up the highway to my right for approaching traffic (there was none), and I didn't even see this bloke on my right, he was going so fast, he had no hi-vis or lighting - and the last thing I expected was a vehicle doing 60kmh on the footpath. Plus, there was signage, posts and other obstructions in front of the servo, that helped conceal the e-scooter rider. It's time laws were brought in restricting the sale of these things, a requirement for training and licencing (both bike and rider), and rigid enforcement of the rules. We've had idiots here just kill themselves, simply by falling off them at speed.

Whenever we buy most things, we pay tax - GST.. Maybe we should all get PAYE/PAYG tax decreases? Or at least get the same breaks as companies - Other costs such as transport, more formal clothing (regardless of whether it has a logo on it or not), should be able to be deducted? We should be able to contract ourselves out to a no-tax jurisdiction, and charge ourselves a massive amount for our labour out of the tax haven more than we get in our salary to build up the losses, claim that against our salary as a tax deduction and not pay tax at all... Then we are levelling up the playing field.

By that logic, the CEO's of Coles, Woollies, the banks, Qantas, et al, should pay less tax because their staff pay tax? The tax is in what THEY earn, not their staff.

When things are going his way, it's always his idea. When they are going wrong, he'll blame the first person to come along.

When we were paying 17% on the home loan we did not eat out ever, didn’t go out for coffee, turned out the lights in empty rooms, and bought a second hand car. It wasn’t hard, we were just as happy.

Probably about as well as Day 1. Iran said they were surprised to learn they were apparently in talks with Trump. As the last two round of negotiations resulted in them being bombed during the talks, they won't be keen to try again. Now he's set another deadline of 5 days or else! Meaning if the Iranians ignore him again, he'll be forced to set another deadline.

As a regular e-bike rider, I think there may be a case for sensible regulation. There are many e-bikes that are very fast and powerful, and at this stage, not even legal. I think there could be a use for these bikes, but we just have to work out a way of making them compatible with other traffic and pedestrians. Micro transport has many benefits for a city. The majority of bike riders, electric or not, are taking a vehicle off the road for that particular journey. When I ride to my local supermarket, which has limited parking, someone else can park in my car park. On a recent walk around Melbourne CBD, I noted how many delivery bikes were on the roads. Each one of these is likely displacing a car or motorcycle. There can be friction between the different travellers, but we just need to work out sensible rules to coexist. I regularly ride on Rail Trails, which are shared between bikes, walkers and sometimes horses; it seems to work well. E-bikes are a relatively new technology. We need to sensibly work out how to use them and not throw the baby out with the bathwater, and we definitely don't want to turn it into a culture war.

It's not before time, it's been getting out of control. One of the worst areas is my local town. It's the high school kids who are the worst offenders. The police have tried a crack down but it doesn't seem to have helped much. If you go to town you really have to keep a good eye out for them as it's quite scary when you're walking along the footpath and a gang of them roar past at 30kph only inches away. I can't say I blame the kids; it's a no-brainer what will happen if you give kids what is in effect an electric motorcycle and let them ride it anywhere they like. I saw a couple of kids outside the shopping centre the other day with those big ones that have tyres the size of a Harley front wheel. There's been people killed around here, mainly the kids colliding with each other.

I'd really like to see what this great Australian Plan is, that One Nation has for ALL Australians in ALL States. I suspect there's no plan, except to blame immigrants for every problem that arises. Pauline Hanson is a Female Donald Trump. Says what people want to hear, but has no long-term plans, indulges in "stunts" to keep her name in the media, and picks people for her party members who have zero leadership skills, they only need to support a radical right wing agenda that focuses solely on, "too many immigrants from s***hole countries". I like going through the long list of deadbeat One Nation picks for representatives, who have turned out to be criminals, total rabbits, incompetent, geriatric, or who changed sides as soon as they were elected. And none of them, were immigrants from "s***hole countries".

One Nation would be a disaster for Australia’s interests. There would be no bright future from a right wing populist party with Pauline in charge.

No , They have been under scrutiny because the have always bent or broke the rules even to the point of been completely illegal. PHON doesnt believe rules apply to them nor their billonaire mates

I'm not a bearing expert, but I have been watching a few videos of a bloke who fixes electric hand tools. That often requires replacing bearings. He often comments that while bearings are often made in China, to quality depends on whioch company they are made for. In other words, they are manufactured to specification. If the spec is good, then the company name is imprinted on them as well as the Made in China mark. If they are El Cheapo, they are marked simply with China. One thing that I have learned from those videos is that the cheaper tools from names like DeWalt and Milwauke use the cheap bearings. That means that it is often not worth the labour to replace them so the tools are throw away.

I think these bikes (which are illegal) could probably be made legal with adequate regs, more like a motorbike. I believe at the moment 250watts is the limit for road use. I think that a bike that does 100 kp is a motor vehicle and should be regulated as such.