rgmwa

10 kts surfaced, 20+ kts submerged.

Three subs, whether used or not, don't seem enough to provide an effective defence, even if we eventually get them. You could barely maintain one consistently on station. I assume we're hoping the US will locate some of theirs here once we've built the necessary facilities. On the other hand the AUKUS design, if it ever gets built, is massive and will take years to get all the bugs ironed out of it. We'll probably be the ones stuck with doing most of the testing. Being designed jointly between Australia, the UK and the US it will probably not suit anyone. Reminds me of an old joke about what a camel is - a horse designed by a committee.

He's probably also mindful that his cancer diagnosis might curtail his time in charge.

You can probably add rare earths to that list as well. The point is their motivation for defending us would be their military and commercial interests here, while our interests in defending them in places like Vietnam and Iraq were mainly about staying in their good books.

The US will only defend us if it's in their own interests. They probably would if Australia was attacked but mainly to protect their intelligence assets and forward bases, not us.

Worse than that. It was meant to be a text message.

Wondered where that went. The perils of technology and senility.

But it’s their three legged system of government that allows a corrupt president to accumulate so much power. It would be very difficult if not impossible for a prime minister of this country to do what Trump is doing.

Trump has demonstrated how weak the US Constitution and their system of government is if you want to exploit or ignore it.

Good thing you got there early.

Could be and it looks pretty wet as well which suggests water had something to do with it too, especially being so close to a canal. Those units further along are probably going for a good price now.

The basic structure is concrete but the bricks held on pretty well. I remember seeing pictures of a block of flats in Japan that toppled over in an earthquake like that with barely any structural damage. The embankment in the China photo seems to have slipped which might have triggered the collapse.

They got most of the design right. The building held together pretty well.

Bots would be able to spell better.

I was a bit surprised that the recent discussion on the AI thread didn't seem to tempt him.