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To say Albo is the Aussie version of Chump, IMHO, is a bit rich. I agree with @nomadpete - he represents the less ship party, but it so far is not making some of the fundamental changes needed. I sympathise with Albo et al.. and I imagine, given his history in Labnor where we was firmly on the socialist left faction of the party, having to walk the balance of a small but powerful set of vested interests versus what is in his mind better for the community would not be an easy job. And between him and anything that the LNP have served up from Howard onwards, I would prefer him and his team and suggest Australia would poltiically and economically be in a lot better shape - assuming hubris didn't set in like it normally does. While the media play its part, in the second election of Labor, they increased their majority - so Aussies aren't quite as beholden to the media as we like to think. But the reality is for the majority of Australians, life is getting worse in a material sense while for the elite, it seems to be getting disproprotionately better and Labor are perceived as not doing enough to change things for what they promise and/orstand for. There are challenges in making change - defiinitely. And in a global economy, it is very difficult to stand up against vested interests without some real ramifications. If you think QANTAS taking its maintenance facilities to a low cost country is not representative of threats that are made to governments who want to introduce changes to even things up, think again. Many companies here have moved operations overseas because they could get a better deal and the government stared down their threats. If you lose employment as a government, there is a backlash. GBut that still does not mean we should not crticise poor judgment or performace,because it is not as poor as the other mob. That just permits the race to the bottom and people get fed up and the nutty protest parties flourish. The UK has shown this, and now, unbelievably for a country such as Australia, One Nation is getting a look in beyond rabid loonies. Of course, the US has made the protest person their leader on some chumped up promises.. but so detached from the real world are the political elite, that people have had enough. Its sort of what my Iranian employee said, it's sad it has to come to this, but something has to change.

The ceremony would have been a lot more respectful if he hadn't shown up at all.

We need more chuckles, the news is all too much gloom and worry today ....

I travelled through Iran to Afghanistan in 1975 before the Shah was deposed. I found most locals polite but border officials etc were not. I even hitch hiked from the Turkish border to a small town & then took a bus to Tehran. The main roads were good having been built by the US but the rest was quite poor then. I was only there for a week & saw some amazing architecture & ancient sites. If the place wasn't run by Islamist fanatics it would be great. The Shah was very wealthy but most people were poor. One of the reasons for the original takeover. Back to the sinking of the Iranian warship. US military sources stated it was the first sinking of a an enemy ship by a submarine launched torpedo since WW2. Well No. There have been 4 since and of course that included the British nuclear submarine HMS Conqueror sinking the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano in 1982 during the Falklands war. The Yanks don't get much right especially history that they continually re-write to suit their narrative. As for fuel prices it doesn't bother me as they have yet to figure out how to tax the sun.

You know you are getting old when your kids start talking about choosing an old folk's home..... for themselves.

Back to the latest Middle East conflict.... Sorry to post a meme but I couldn't resist. I once thought Dubya was the worst, but not any more. Being a sociopath means never having to say 'sorry'.

The good thing about dating a woman our age .......... you don't have to worry about meeting her parents.

Scomo and Abbot were a lot worse.

The ancient Greeks invented everything, even sex. But it took the Italians to think of involving women.

Maybe he didn't want his combover to blow around.

She obviously doesn't like him much.

The 1.7M barrels of oil purchased in 2020 as part of Australia's storage reserves, and stored in a Texas salt cavern, was severely criticised by opponents after it was purchased, with opponents claiming it would be of little use to us in the event of a war, because of the time lag in accessing/shipping it (2 to 3 weeks), and the risk of loss via enemy attack in shipping channels, when on its way here. The message must have been heeded, because that oil reserve was sold off in 2022. I have no idea whether a financial loss or gain was incurred in the sale - but it may been sold at a profit, as oil prices spiked in 2022, thanks to the Ukraine invasion by Russia. Regardless, the simple fact remains, we still do not have the stipulated 90 days of oil reserves in hand, as required by the IEA. Our fuel reserves are currently around 34 to 36 days, and that should be of great concern to every politician with more than one functioning brain cell. Unfortunately, we have quite a number of politicians who seem to lack any functioning brain cells.

The WLTP range for the MG Excite 51 is 350km not 405km. The WLTP range for my MG Essence 64 is 435km with the lower spec Excite 64 it is 450km. None of the models has a quoted 405km range. This is the old out dated NEDC range which was very inaccurate & was created in laboratory tests in the 1980s based on urban driving. It was last updated in 1997. A friend of mine has an Excite 51 & gets over 300km. In mine the range is about 380 to 400km based on 110km highway driving & some 50 - 80 km driving. Driving around in an urban environment at 50 - 60 kmh gives me much higher range. The range estimator (also known as the guess-O-meter) has given me 505km from a full charge & that would have been close if I hadn't gone over 50kmh. It has a level of intelligence that works out the range based on your driving style & it is surprisingly accurate. It is 182km from my house to Gold Coast Airport & a few weeks ago I left with 100% charge & arrived with 52%. Most of this was at 110kmh on the Pacific Highway. I could have got home without getting a charge but just like with my old petrol car I would never let the fuel get that low. I spent 15 minutes at the BP in Ballina for a comfort stop & coffee & added some charge. Cost me $9.04 but there was plenty left when I got home. Other than long trips it costs nothing to run my EV as I charge from solar, supplemented by my home battery and 3 hours of free power every day. I'll never have to worry about the price of petrol going up because of wars or other reasons for shortage. In any vehicle, electric or internal combustion it all depends on how you drive, the terrain, weather, the total weight of the vehicle and use of accessories like air conditioning etc.

It appears that 'prang' is a relatively new word, created by the RAF. The date might be the mid-1930s, but its first documented use was in 1940/41.

Pete Hegseth torpedoed an UNARMED ship sailing home from a friendly naval exercise, killed 87 sailors, and left the rest floating in the Indian Ocean without lifting a finger to help. On March 4th, a U.S. submarine fired a single Mark 48 torpedo into the hull of the IRIS Dena, an Iranian frigate returning from India's MILAN 2026 multinational naval exercises. The ship had roughly 180 people on board. At least 87 were killed and 61 remain missing. Sri Lanka's navy had to step in and rescue the 32 survivors. Here's what makes this even more sickening. Both the U.S. and Iran were participants in the same Indian-hosted exercise, which required ships to operate without live ammunition. The U.S. sent a P-8A patrol aircraft that flew drills alongside the Dena just days before a submarine destroyed her. Former Indian Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal called the attack premeditated, noting the U.S. knew exactly where the ship was because it had been invited to the same exercise. Strategic affairs expert Brahma Chellaney put it bluntly: if the Dena was lightly armed or unarmed, the strike resembles a premeditated execution more than combat. And Pete Hegseth? He bragged about it. Called it a "quiet death" at a Pentagon press conference, grinning like a man who just won a prize at the county fair. Trump has openly stated that wiping out Iran's navy is a key war objective. The Second Geneva Convention requires belligerents to take all possible measures to search for and rescue the shipwrecked after an engagement at sea. International law scholars, former Pentagon officials, and members of Congress are now openly debating whether this attack was legal and whether the U.S. violated its obligations by abandoning survivors in the water. Sinking a ship that was someone's guest, that was following peacetime protocols, that couldn't fight back. Then leaving sailors to drown thousands of miles from home. That's not strength, thats a warcrime.

The media are having a wonderful time spreading fear and anxiety, claiming that petrol will be $2.50 a litre within a couple of days. There is zero reason why petrol should go from around $1.50 on Monday to $2.50 next week, we live in a global economy with oil sourced from dozens of sources, and a small jump in the price of oil per barrel, doesn't translate to a $1 a litre increase within 10 days. It's simply motorist-gouging at its finest, and I hope it sends EV sales through the roof.

A Japanese gentleman was visiting the United States for the first time. He’d seen America on television for years and was excited to finally experience it in person. On the last day of his trip, he climbed into a taxi and asked the driver to take him to the airport. As they drove along the highway, a Honda zoomed past the cab. The man leaned toward the window, clapped his hands, and exclaimed: “Ahh! Honda — very fast! Made in Japan!” A few minutes later, a Toyota flew by. Again, he leaned out excitedly and said: “Toyota — very fast! Made in Japan!” Soon after that, a Mitsubishi sped past them. Once again, the man smiled proudly and shouted: “Mitsubishi — very fast! Made in Japan!” By now, the taxi driver was getting a little irritated… but he kept quiet and continued driving. Finally, they arrived at the airport. The driver stopped the car and said, “That’ll be $300.” The Japanese gentleman’s eyes went wide. “Three hundred dollars?! That’s very expensive!” The taxi driver smiled and replied: “Meter — very fast. Made in Japan.”

Oh, they've got a plan, alright - and it all centres around our ol' mate Donny, and the ever-increasing level of his personal financial gains - from any worldly conquests, Presidential decisions, and trade deals jockeying. I must say, I'm surprised he hasn't managed to score a deal with the U.S. military, to use Trump-branded armaments. I bet he's seen the profits of the U.S. military-industrial complex, and is itching to get his major share of them.

Flight Radar 24 is free to use. There is a paid version but I use the free version.

A couple was on their honeymoon, lying in bed, about ready to consummate their marriage, when the new bride says to the husband, "I have a confession to make, I'm not a virgin." The husband replies, "That's no big thing in this day and age." The wife continues, "Yeah, I've been with one guy." "Oh yeah? Who was the guy?" "Tiger Woods." "Tiger Woods, the golfer?" "Yeah." "Well, he's rich, famous and handsome. I can see why you went to bed with him." The husband and wife then make passionate love. When they are done, the husband gets up and walks to the telephone. "What are you doing?" asks the wife. The husband says, "I'm hungry, I was going to call room service and get something to eat." "Tiger wouldn't do that." "Oh yeah? What would Tiger do?" "He'd come back to bed and do it a second time." The husband puts down the phone and goes back to bed to make love a second time. When they finish, he gets up and goes over to the phone. "Now what are you doing?" she asks. The husband says, "I'm still hungry so I was going to get room service to get something to eat." "Tiger wouldn't do that." "Oh yeah? What would Tiger do?" "He'd come back to bed and do it again." The guy slams down the phone, goes back to bed, and makes love one more time. When they finish he's tired and beat. He drags himself over to the phone and starts to dial. The wife asks, "Are you calling room service?" "No! I'm calling Tiger Woods, to find out what the par is for this damn hole."

Yeah ... Predicting the death of a 96 year old. Amazing!

Doesn't seem like much of a prophet. He allows himself plenty of wriggle room to adjust his prophesies to match what actually happens.

You like Facts and Truth? Try using them then. Your Idol, Trump, doesn't either. Nev

Typical house and land prices in Perth have gone through the roof. Up around 40-50% in just the last 2-3 years. I was talking to a real estate agent last week. He sold a house near mine for $1.1m about 18 months ago. He said he would list it today at $1.5m. One of my daughters is renting and there’s no way she can afford to buy now. Three years ago she could probably have managed a mortgage but not now. Our other kids are reasonably secure but I worry about her. Once a parent, always a parent!

Probably the same reason I joined ... to provide some opposition to the excessive far-left viewpoints that distort facts and truth.

We went to a Post Modern Jukebox stage show at the Astor Theatre in Perth about 18 mths ago. They put on quite a show, but I prefer the original golden oldies. SWMBO loved them, she was the one who saw the show, and booked the tickets.

Yes, Nev. And labor signed off the obscene Woodside gas deal, and also passed special laws to enable the foreign owned salmon fish farms to have special pollution exemptions. So I say, 'both major parties.'

That's a certainty. However i cannot give him credit for single handedly destroying a global civilisation. Civilisation (not always civil) will stumble on regardless. The tangerine toddler has simply acted out all the hidden failings of the world order. Failings that were previously dormant, or simply hidden, and until he came along, weaknesses were slowly eroding the moral fibre of world order. For instance, governments of most countries have always suffered from CEO type rot. The job description calls for a ruthless, results driven psychopath, usually overpaid. It doesn't call for a considerate egalitarian, fairminded person. The USA has a history of overt selfishness. Their glorification of capitalism overrides the welfare of the populace. Politics and War is all about making money. It's just that tRump makes it so obvious. As with our Australian system, both major parties are plainly in the pockets of the megarich. That is certainly not ethical.

How do you separate the Men from the Boys in Greece? With great difficulty. Nev

They threatened that a while ago and Trump went OFF his tiny Brain and chucked all his toys out of his Pram. Nev

The free trade agreement between Canada, Mexico and the USA (which, ironically, Trump signed for in his first term) is coming up for review. We have heard a lot from Canada dealing with a number of areas of trade, but Mexico has been quiet. I wonder of the Mexican Government is quietly letting Canada do the talking and Mexico is standing in the shadow of Canada going , 'Yeah! Us, too." I think that Canada is more important to the USA in terms of energy supply. Imagine if Canada simplyt switched off the power to the USA for a day. I don't think Carney would be so mean to US citizens.

Spain ha ha. Nah not goin anywhere, tis my land, can't leave it, goods and bads.

She was brought up alongside him, and knows him better than a lot of people - and she holds a PhD in clinical psychology, so she knows well, what drives people.

That seems a pretty dumb place to store our crude given the geographical distance. We probably have no means to refines it here anyway but the yanks always do whatever they like irrespective of agreements and/or water tight contracts.

No, that's an incorrect assumption. The article says "$700M worth of agricultural exports". That amount would be comprised largely of agricultural machinery. We have no tractor industry left in Australia, so we import American-built tractors, harvesters and tillage equipment by the shipload. And they are all big-ticket items. Some of the headers and tractors are now approaching the $1M mark for purchase price. The amount of American beef shipped to Australia can barely be measured, they can't supply enough beef to Americans, so they ship in ... wait for it ... AU$5.2B worth of Australian beef each year! The level of American shipments of beef to Australia is estimated to be around US$1M to US$2M at a maximum - a drop in the ocean compared to the AU$19.5B worth of beef that Australia exported in total in 2024. https://globalaginvesting.com/australia-opens-market-to-u-s-beef-imports-after-two-decades/

I just found out Katherine has a "River Cam", pointing at the old rail bridge. The river is lapping the underside of both road and rail bridges at present. https://www.katherine.nt.gov.au/about-katherine/living-in-katherine/river-cam.aspx Some of the lower Katherine suburbs are getting wet feet, right about now. The main bridge is now closed to all traffic. It appears that they have a levee bank with removable gates. The "dry side" of the gates doesn't look too dry, to me!

. He forgot the toilet Paper. It will be in short supply as well as most things, if trucks can't get Fuel. If he had a Prang, He'd have Burn problems as well. Prang is an old aviation term. Nev

I wouldn't own a hybrid for reasons of complexity with 2 power plants, a small battery and a complex drive train, maintenance and a reliance on fossil fuels. Studies have shown most hybrid owners do not get anywhere near the claimed economy. There are a number of reasons but with plug in hybrids many owners do not plug them in so their fuel consumption from the relatively small ICE engine can be very high. For most of my EV driving the energy is free as I charge at home off my rooftop solar panels supported by my home battery plus getting free power for 3 hours a day. On a recent trip to NZ I left the car at Gold Coast airport after leaving home with 100% battery. I still had just over 50% when I got to the airport. Most of the trip was at 110kMh. I stopped at Ballina BP on the way home & put it on the fast charger for 15 minutes while I went for a comfort break & coffee. It was pouring with rain at the time & I wanted a buffer to make sure I'd get home. Cost me $9.04 for a bit over 15 kWh of charge so had plenty left when I got home.

Hybrids give the engine a hard time and are as requiring of maintenance as any ICE car is. Perhaps even more, long term. It appeals to people who want to have the best of both worlds The actual range on the Battery is very short and the vehicles are expensive. Out of warrantee I wouldn't want to OWN one.. I HAVE driven them and find them unpleasant and the fuel saving varies a lot depending whether its Hilly or higher constant speed on the flat.

This morning I was listening to music on my radio. The music was mainly orchestral and the radio is mono. The thought struck me what a wonderful device the radio's speaker is. It can reproduce the wide range of pitch and tone produced by a number if instruments playing at the same time simply by an electrical current causing a fibre cone to vibrate.

Maybe that's why Vladimir is so quiet on all this. If China can't source that oil from Iran, Russia will pick it up. Money to be made. He might also pick up some oil trade to China to replace their Venezuela imports. Last year more than half of Venezuelan exports went to China. From Vlad's perspective - lose a couple of allies, but gain a heap of money.

At risk of thread drift, (getting back to the WARs), allow me to introduce my hero (sadly, deceased).... Col David Hackworth. Korean War & Viet Nam war. His book "About Face" is my go - to war book. Relevance? Simply this, "Has anything changed over the last 90 years when it comes to Americano arrogance and warmongering? I see the same sort of background happening now WRT Iran, as Col Hackworth observed during Viet Nam's war. Have they learned nothing? No exit plan. No "Mission Accomplished" target. No concrete mission plan. Lots of USA military might, but no follow up plan. PS I need to track down my copy of his book, leant it many times returened n-1 times

I use the free version which I've had on my phone for years.

I'm calling BS on that, Onetrack. I know for sure and for certain that there is no such thing a rain.

By that logic, anyone who gets elected is beyond criticism. Trump is the antithesis of a democratic leader and distorts the Constitution, law and even truth. He is a dictator at heart and egotistical sociopath. Just because he managed to get elected, he is actively trying to destroy society.

Yeah sadly though China's only a small part of it. These absolute morons, have let in a million and a half immigrants in their 4yrs, when we were a million houses short, but eh, so they've plus added 50% and went 1.5. To top that off, only 7% of those 1.5mill, were trades and skills we're actually also short of, the rest, God knows, they reckon family members and extras and all sorts. Butttt, apparently that's only part of it, they've also geared everything to investors and wealthy and literally sabotaged what little progress in new housing we could've made as well as reopened the door to China and their cases full of cash. Apparently, "everything " , they've done, only pushes house prices up and lines wealthy pockets. l can't pretend to even understand half of it but the immigrants and Chinese alone, more than screwed our own people especially our young. Makes me sick to the stomach but so 4yrs later we're in a worser state than ever. There's a dozen other things they've done to in real reports- can't even wrap my head around. But yep you bet rg, always a parent and yaknow, if my d wasn't to get married well she's gonna need help so l'm gonna be doing everything l can on the side. Got a small investment for her to which is suppose to go off well, if l get that lucky really hoping that can help her to by then. But yeah saw Perth rg l think they said is leading the pack this yr, must be bloody mad, feel so bad for young people there , everywhere but gees, crazy shyt over there, qld to. Somem like my place here onetrack , mine was a bit more though and closer to the coast and a really nice town but yeah worth about 130 now so nothing compared to even better town stuff let alone city but it's still 500% plus it's been rented out 18yrs to and that's paid for it 4 times over on top . Just a shame it's such small money for the market now most places better or we'd be sitting pretty eh.

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.

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