Jerry_Atrick

Given I had to top up my heating oil tank and the price quoted doubled from the last fill about 6 weeks ago, if I didn't laugh, I would have to cry. In fact I am thinking of cancelling the order... As I canrun the hot water on electricity.

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.

On another note, I finally got a very brief chat with one of my reports, who is Iranian - and holidays in Israel - well, when I say holiday, attends to the capital of her faith, which started in Iran and was thrown out I believe.. B'Hai faith.. I didn't have time to speak to her in detail about it, but to sum up her view, regime change was needed as there were zero human rights outside of a clique.. Those vids you see of modern day Iranian life that depict tolerance aren't the norm, apparetly. She is sad that it has come to what it has and that the current situation is far from perrfect, but something had to happen. I didn't get around to whether she supports Chump and Net on this matter.. And I slept in this morning so won't be in the office until tomorrow, when hopefully she will be in the office, and I will ask more. Of course, she represents one person's view..but a person who from a religious perspective is in the minority, but has direct experience and still has family there.

It's an interesting decision to say the least. OK.. there were 3 Aussies on the submaring that sunk the iranian vessel. Dfeence personnel exchange is common The Aussie government may or may niot have been informed of ther planned strike beforehand but the US Navy is hardly going to surface, drop of 3 submariners and then return to its mission... Sending our assets us entirely different. And given how slow Australia was in sending assets to Ukraine, us sending as solitary asset to the ME so quickly indicates one of two things (or something in between): Australia was strongarmed into it or Australia supports it. Either way, a small - almost symbolic contribution drags Australia into the thick of it. And the Iranan regime has operatives globally, so if you don't live in a big city, be thankful. No doubt there will be a terrorist attack in London soon. I am sure the security agencies are working overtime preventing and intercepting attempted attacks, and they are generally excellent in this role. But they only have so many resources at thir disposal. I returned to London not long after the Tavistock bus was blown up in London in 2005 and it was then I started work in banking in London. Conscious that the banking sector may well be a target (we were once locked in the building while protestors condascended on a competitor's building next door, but we were also targeted), I started coming into work very early and leaving late - and used the motorcycle as they are likely to a) blow up some concentrated mass transit vehicle or b) ram into crowded areas for most damage. My route was circuitous, but minimised concentratio of population. The London Bridge attack, admittedly during social hours so I would have unlikely to have been there at the time, took place on part of what would be my normal route, however, I would go over Soutwark bridge instead and around a ring road - adding about 5 minutes or so to the trip on a motorbike, but only sprinkings of people on the street. My purchase and return to motorcycling for work was coincidental, and to be honest, the times I normally travel to work on public transport would minimise the risk, but I am glad I did get the motorcycle now as it gives me almost complete control of timing and routes.

Behind a paywall,but it looks like the Iranian women's soccer team have taken a like to Australia: https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/sos-hand-signal-as-bus-drives-iranian-women-s-soccer-team-from-final-match-20260309-p5o8mq.html

One if the issues is not the actual closure of the Hormuz Strait, but the unavailability of insurance. Most shipping is financed and every maritime finance agreement (usually leases) includes maintaining insurance as a covenant to the lease agreement. No insurance, no sailing - it is as simple as that.With the US rather stupidly torpedoing the Iranian warship, as far as Iran is concerned, if they weren't already, all bets are off. The other problem is most cargo/freight shipping is sold as futures contracts, which have specific terms and conditions. In theory, the freight has to be performed according to the standard terms and conditions, which I think includes route stipulation. So, if the route markedly changes, and it's really not profitable to reroute, under the standard terms, force majuere may be able to be invoked and the futures contract voided. If there is no force majuere clause, the shipper may have to reroute, but een then it can be an issue,because the freight contract will specify a time to deliver. In either case, the shipper may well go broke - or at leastdeclare bankruptcy. In the former case (lease agreement), two things happen. The lessor/s take control of the ship - which is an unusual occurence, or the lesee will moor the ship in a dangerous area (e.g. Somalia) and let the lessor/s know they can pick it up there (more often). This will take out shipping capacity. And with an absence of supply while demand goes high... and costs increase... frieght spot prices which are not subject to the same constraints as futures contracts will skurocket. Yeah, they can reroute and the supplies will take a week or two longer to get to where they are going, but you are going to pay for it.

Go with the flow

I understood your point. I don't think it adequtely addressed OTs. And, maybe I didn't make mione clear enough. There is a difference between baddies in a population of people, than the population systematically preaching bad. Yep, I am sure the crazy gunman who killed the 56 Muslims in Christchurch as a Christian. But he didn';t do it in the name of Christianity - and if he did - it was his delusion that Christianity these days promotes it. I don't see too many Christians wearing only one type of cloth these days and I don't see too many Christians stoning their fellows for doing it. Nor am I threatened for being an athiest, nor are those living in fear of being gay out of religious hatred, or if you are in the tragic position of being a woman who has been raped!. Now, go into some of the countries or regions where Islam is preached and see how long people of the above disposition would last - preciseley because of the religion. Yep, the MSM may inflame it, but it seems to tbe there. But hey, maybe spend time in these countries to affirm it. I spent some time in a moderate country, UAE (Abu Dhabi), and I can tell you, I will never, ever go back, so much so that all middle eastern countries are off my layover list travelling to Australia. And that is a moiderate country.

It's hard to react to that post.. Sad for Piastri.. But a Carltion loss is always sweet 🙂 Hawks flopped as well..just not so spectactularly...

He idolises smarties

As far as I am aware religion was not the core foundation and justification of Hitler, Franco, no Mussolini's barbarity. And even if it was, it is fair to say that as a vast majority, Christian faiths have modernised a bit and at least preach inclusivity and not that their God will kill infidels, etc. It may be that the press over egg it, but for some reason, there appears to be more of it under Islam than any other mainstream religion

Back to topic. This is an interesting report:

I am not into F1, but a mates son is in college doing engineering and has an placement on a scheme run by the F1 teams to bring on the next round of engineers. All he has wanted to do in his teenage years is work on F1 cars, so best of luck to him. I saw a headline on the Age' website quoting Piastri as sayingthe Mercs are just too quick.. Not sure in what context, but that doesn't bode well for McLarens. A bit of trivia.. My old home airport, Fairoaks, was right next to the McLarens Technology centre, where they did most oftheir F1 development:

Hasn't the ACCC warned servos and oil companies not to price gouge? Heaard someone on the radio day they are pretty much a toothless tiger, though I do remember them forcing Qantas, I think to refund fares over some scam of some sort. Over here, the prices are fairly stable. at the moment, which is a surprise. They usually jack it up straight away, and when the oil and gasoil prices settle back to normal levels, it allsort of takes a very long time for the retail price to retract and then no where near what it was.