onetrack

Ahhh, a 3.1 'quake is just a gentle bed-rocking, OME! - not a real earthquake! 😄

The Doctor who dealt with her after the meal, reckons he picked up very quickly, that she was "evil". She lied straight-out to him, after he asked her where she got the mushrooms, and she replied "Woolworths". All the evidence pointed to the fact that she picked the death cap mushrooms from Loch. The photo of the death cap mushroom on the scales she owned, and the fact that all the phone tracking pointed to her being in the location of Loch. And the fact she was within metres of the people she had poisoned in the hospital, and made no attempt to see them, or ask about their condition, was what finalised the Doctors opinion of her. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-08/chris-webster-erin-patterson-mushroom-murder-trial/105508638

American elections are all about gathering up the biggest number of well-heeled contributors to your party and massaging their egos with lots of promises. While Musk has the worlds biggest personal fortune, whether he can garner the money support from backers, that Trump has, remains to be seen.

Once you go out a Russian window, you're definitely out of a job!

Was it really only "the other night", OME? The earthquake records say that the only decent earthquake in recent times in your neck of the woods, was a 5.3 magnitude 'quake at Nyngan on May 23, 2025. https://earthquaketrack.com/p/australia/new-south-wales/recent

I bought a Thesaurus today - but when I got home, I found all the pages were blank!! I just didn't have the words to express how angry I was!!

There are thousands of earthquake-recording stations, all over the world. There are 150 stations in Australia and over 500 world-wide. They record in near real-time and the earthquake-watchers know about earthquakes within a few seconds of them occurring. This is all tied in with Tsunami warnings, because early warnings of Tsunamis are vital to reduce losses. https://www.ga.gov.au/education/natural-hazards/earthquake

I spent most of my business career paying interest rates at levels between 8% and 23% (the bad days of 1981-1983) - and I even got stung for a 30% interest rate on a hire purchase contract, during 1981. The deal was essentially illegal, but Esanda got away with it. What happened was, I purchased a used motor grader off a bloke in Albany, W.A. who had recently financed it through Esanda at 23% on a HP contract. This bloke decided the grader was too big for him, and wanted to get out of it. I had a medium-size older grader that he agreed to take as a trade-in, for the bigger, newer grader, that I needed. Often, when I acquired another machine off another contractor, I could arrange to simply take over the finance contract from the finance house involved. I had good relationships with nearly all the major equipment financiers, so it wasn't hard to do. However, when I asked Esanda if I could take over the grader owners contract, they agreed - but then, they promptly turned around and said, "Oh, hang on, things have changed as regards interest rates, we will have to write up a new contract for the deal - and the interest rate is now 30%!" I was furious, because it was a simple deal to just transfer the contract, as had been done many times before - but no-o-o, Esanda got greedy. I had no choice but to pay the asking rate, as all HP interest rates from all the financiers had rocketed accordingly, in previous months. A few years later, Esanda was taken to court by a farmer over a similar stunt they had pulled on him. This farmer had purchased a harvester on seasonal payments. In that case, the HP payments are made in one amount, directly after each harvest, over 3 or 4 years, generally. But this farmer had encountered a particularly bad drought year, and didn't have the funds that year to make that after-harvest payment - so he asked Esanda for a years deferment on the HP contract. In essence, the HP contract was merely extended for a year, and all the remaining payments under the original contract were made a year behind schedule, with normally, an additional agreed interest amount added for the delay in the contract payments. But after the farmer asked for the extension, Esanda lobbed a big money grab on the farmer, claiming that the delay in payment meant a new contract had to be drawn up - at much higher interest rates! So ... the farmer paid the new contract out, under the new agreed time frame, and vastly increased interest rate - but, then he took Esanda to court, claiming he'd been shafted with the whole deal - which he had been, of course. The judge agreed, stating there was no way that Esanda could draw up another contract for the same machine, at a vastly-inflated interest rate - because the contract extension was merely just that - an extension of an existing contract. Esanda had to repay the extra monies to the farmer - and in addition, they were forced to go back through their books and dig up all the other HP contract holders that they'd shafted in a similar manner. In my case, I lost out, because the grader deal was regarded as a new contract, thanks to the machine changing hands. But in the past, Esanda accepted the changeover as merely a continuation of the former contract by the initial purchaser. The finance houses always try to write the rules to suit their own ends.

See the body of evidence used to convict Erin Patterson ... https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-08/erin-patterson-murder-guilty-verdict-trial-evidence/105504308

Ooooh, Musk's money, financing the America Party, is perhaps going to outclass Trumps MAGA money? It's going to become known as the Battle of the Big Monies! 😄

You just don't want to have your money tied up in a coal-mining company, though! 😞 https://www.miningweekly.com/article/dartbrook-coal-mine-enters-administration-2025-07-08 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-07/griffin-coal-mine-debt-bluewaters-power/105492506 Just for once, Steve Thomas, the W.A. Liberal opposition Energy Minister, is spot on with his assessment.

I can feel Martys disappointment from here on the Left Coast!

What's not mentioned in those MSN articles that Red750 linked to, is that North Korea has promised to send another 25,000 to 30,000 of its troops to assist Putin. That is a major escalation of the Ukraine War, not any effort to back down. I would hope someone in the U.S. Defence Dept has whispered in Trumps ear, that he needs to do something concrete about stopping Putin - and that concrete move is getting more weaponry to Ukraine. So much for his laughable BS about stopping the Ukraine War in one day, once he was re-elected. I would've expected to have seen people throwing that in his face, but no, the silence is deafening.

Jerry will be sweet when he next heads to the USA - he'll make sure he's carrying a Trump bible, wearing a Trump watch, and wearing a MAGA hat - so he can breeze through the potential TSA reaming. 😄

I was quite amazed at the length of time - several days - that judge spent, instructing the jury. I don't ever recall a judges instructions to a jury taking that long before. But obviously, the judge was concerned the case balanced on a lot of what appeared to be, weak evidence, so he was making sure there could be little chance of error in the decision-making. The ABC led me to a case of women poisoning men, in Hungary, over 100 years ago. I had never heard of this event before, and an American woman has written a book about it. The story is extremely complex, with hunger and abuse and forced marriages, forming what seemed to be good reasons for these women to get rid what appears to be abusive husbands, and other menfolk. Life must have been unbelievably hard for these women and I do have some sympathy for them - but murder is murder, no matter how compassionately you approach it. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/non-fiction/review-the-women-are-not-fine-hope-reese/

I must say I was quite surprised at the verdict, I always thought she was just dumb, and did the poisoning by accident. But I wasn't privy to all the info the jury got, so the verdict must be reasonably sound. I do think she's got a few mental health problems, and lying does seem to be a forte of hers. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-07/erin-patterson-guilty-murder-verdict-death-cap-mushroom-lunch/105458058

Oooh, errr - this is what Google AI says about the level of psychos in the world ...... General Population: Estimates consistently place the prevalence of psychopathy in the general population at around 1%. This means that for every 100 people, one is likely to be classified as a psychopath. Variations in Estimates: Some research suggests that the percentage could be higher, with some studies indicating that up to 4.5% of the general population may exhibit some level of psychopathic traits. Criminal Populations: Psychopathy is significantly more prevalent in criminal and prison populations. Estimates range from 15-25% in adult prison populations. Business World: Some studies have suggested that psychopathic traits may be more common in the business world, with figures around 3-4% cited for senior positions, according to Wikipedia.

Here's the ABC obituary about Peter Russell-Clarke, I had no idea he was as old as he was. He was married for 65 yrs, that's some record! https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-06/peter-russell-clarke-dies-aged-89/105500112

An interesting angle regarding the housing crisis is going to appear next year. From July 1, 2026, every single "professional gatekeeper" involved in the real estate industry is going to fall under AUSTRAC money-laundering reporting rules. From that date, Real estate agents, property conveyancers, lawyers and accountants, will all have to do "due diligence" during real estate transactions, and prove up their clients identity and source of funds, and report suspicious transactions. Criminal gang money and bribe money has been invested into our housing market on a wholesale basis for decades, and it has seriously distorted our house pricing. No-one has any accurate figures on how much money invested into Australian real estate is "black" money - but the cocaine trade in Australia alone is valued at $12B, and most of that money finds its way into Australian real estate via money laundering. In addition, the criminal networks are not necessarily interested in good returns, they are just interested in legalising their illegal money. It appears Canada, and Vancouver in particular, have a similar problem, and Canada is applying similar steps to Australia. Another article points out that house prices here, are 30% above "fair value" and the consequences of that inflation is that it will need a 10 year plateau in house values, or a massive economic disruption to get them to down to "fair value" pricing. https://www.watoday.com.au/business/the-economy/what-happens-to-house-prices-when-the-drug-money-tap-is-turned-off-20250627-p5mav1.html https://www.watoday.com.au/property/news/how-far-house-prices-have-jumped-above-fair-value-20250620-p5m94j.html

Below is an excellent article, originally from the British Telegraph, pointing out how Trumps Big Beautiful Bill has just handed the Chinese the advantage in energy generation, and energy saving devices. https://www.watoday.com.au/business/the-economy/trump-s-big-beautiful-mistake-will-have-china-licking-its-lips-20250704-p5mcfm.html

It's not going to break my heart, and America is well down the list of countries I'd like to visit - especially an America run by the Orange Clown. I consider America an unsafe place to visit, with the massive number of firearms in public possession, with little ownership control, and many owned by permanently angry, foamy-mouthed ferals, who are classic MAGA adherents, and who prefer to shoot anyone they disagree with, or who "disrespect" them, or who "trespass" on their land. They really are a bunch of mentally-disturbed people. Did you see where one of the Jan 6 rioters, who was pardoned by Trump, promptly set about stalking and killing 36 law enforcement officials who had made it onto his "kill" list, as regards his previous Jan 6 prosecution? I mean, what kind of sicko keeps a "kill" list? A lot of MAGA adherents, no doubt. This bloke is another Timothy McVeigh, the instigator of the Oklahoma bombing, in the making. Fortunately, U.S. law enforcement managed to nail him, and prove his murderous intent, and this obviously alarmed the entire judiciary, as he was jailed for life this time. Let's see if Trump pardons him again, seeing as he appears to be a Trump Golden Boy. I wonder how many more of these malevolently murderous Trump worshippers are out there, from the Jan 6 rioters? Of course, they're all terrific Patriots, so it must be, they're being unfairly targeted by those evil Govt thugs. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/03/us/politics/jan6-assassination-plot-sentence.html

I was talking to a bloke recently who is good friends with a former part-time employee of mine. Ron was a shearer during shearing season, but came and drove my grader and dozers, out of shearing season. I haven't seen him for about 35 years, and the last I knew, Ron had moved to Geraldton. However, this bloke I met up with, who was born and bred in the little country town where I lived and did contract earthmoving in the 70's and 80's, has kept in touch with Ron. He said Ron had moved to Barmera in S.A. and had bought a vineyard (it must have been 25 or more years ago). But the wine industry fell in a hole, so Ron has apparently turned to growing vegies, with more profitable results. He said Ron grew pumpkins and other easy-growing surface vegies, but had recently found a good market in Adelaide for garlic - so he now grows a considerable amount of garlic, and says it pays far better than grapes ever did. It's like anything I guess, if you find a market for a product, and develop that market, and become a reliable supplier/grower, then you have it made. An Italian kid I went to school with (who was dumb as a rock), became a big veggie grower N of Perth, but I see in recent times he concentrates on celery, and is a big local name in celery. A deceased friend grew vegetables on 50 acres E of Bunbury, and he reckoned that sweet corn was the easiest and simplest crop to grow, and always provided a good income. The main problem he had was Coles and Woolworths buyers, they were scumbags, screwing growers senseless. Then there were the big local vegie growers telling Coles and Woolworths buyers, that if they continued to buy off the smaller growers, they would stop supplying Coles and Woolworths. Real Mafia tactics. I can recall one year he was growing onions, and the price went through the floor, so he ploughed all 50 acres of onions in, saying it was cheaper than picking them.

Every ex-PM of Australia costs us taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. In retirement, in the Whitlam, Fraser, Keating and Howard, Rudd and Gillard era, they got a free office, free office staff, free phone service, a free "private plated" car, free air travel (business or first class, of course), as well as their massive pensions, which lends a whole new world of meaning to the word "pension". In addition, these ex-PM's charge massive sums just for giving speeches - which they do regularly. As an example, Whitlam was costing taxpayers around half a million annually in pension, former position perks, and travel, phone and car entitlements, which he maxxed out at all times. It was reported that Whitlam was paid over $3M during his retirement, out of the public purse. This is the reason why politicians entitlements were cut back in recent years, because they unjustly enriched themselves with massive pensions and perks, that they organised for themselves. Despite having a Parliamentary tribunal for politicians pensions, it was essentially a rubber stamp for increases the pollies themselves put forward. Fraser probably became a great social improvements promoter, out of guilt, when he came to the realisation that not everyone was born with a silver spoon in their mouth. He was born into squattocracy wealth, and inherited huge wealth and properties, and he wouldn't have ever known what it was like, to struggle for a living. https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2018/10/28/former-prime-ministers-cost Compare our snout-in-the-trough PM's with Harry Truman. He ran the worlds biggest, most powerful and richest nation, and did it for $6250 a month from 1946 to 1949. Congress approved an increase in Trumans pay to $12,500 a month in 1950, part of which was to cover Presidential expenses, which were substantial. When Truman left office, he got NOTHING - No pension, no Secret Service protection, no office perks of any kind. And he consistently refused offers of big money to join corporate boards or other good-paying positions, saying to do so would demean the Office of the President of the U.S. The man stands head and shoulders above any other politician the world has ever produced - and the miserable excuse of a blatant money-grubbing, self-interested scumbag that is currently the U.S. President, is a galaxy away from Harry Truman. https://www.forbes.com/sites/taxanalysts/2014/04/23/its-good-to-be-the-ex-president-but-it-wasnt-always/#:~:text=In his last full year,reported just $34%2C176.70 in income. Here's a list of the more recent, revised levels of ex-P.M.'s pensions and perks, they are still substantial. https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2018/10/28/former-prime-ministers-cost

It was pretty easy for him, and easy for him to say, from his exalted squattocracy/high-ranking politician position, with all the perks that come with both positions.

For the dirt-cheap low cost of electronic items today, I no longer put up with things not working. I love Logitech keyboards, and I had a great one for several years - but the letters wore off it and it became a PIA to use, so I diced it and bought a new Logitech keyboard, where I can see what button it is that I'm tapping.