Grumpy Old Nasho

"Opposition Leader Peter Dutton says he will slash $24 billion from public service spending to pay for his $9 billion injection into Medicare, doubling down on plans to cull tens of thousands of public servants so he can match Labor’s health spending while still promising smaller government. The Coalition has refused to say the precise number of jobs it will cut if elected, but Dutton on Monday confirmed that he would find the money for free GP visits by targeting the 36,000 workers Labor has added to the public service since elected." https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/dutton-says-24-billion-from-public-service-jobs-will-pay-for-bulk-billing-boost-20250224-p5leo7.html If it was me, I'd allocate that $9 billion as a down payment on a big beautiful Consumer Affairs Bureau, the biggest the world has ever seen, with enormous and far reaching powers. It would be so beautiful, everyone would get their refund in an instant, a click of a mouse, for anything they purchase that even hints at fraud, scamming, shoddy workpersonship, inferior materials, false and misleading advertising, playing on people's weaknesses, selling items that are out of stock, sold land that the purchaser will probably never get deeds to, insurance companies refusing to pay out. Local Councils resuming land and properties for a stated public purpose, then selling it off to private developers, or such, other than the stated public purpose. Wouldn't I have fun, if I was running it. Powers would include jailing CEOs, jailing govt officials, freezing funds of online and real time small businesses hitting them with big fines that would brings tears to their eyes, and take years to pay off. I'd teach them a lesson they'd never forget.

I meant that the sacked public servants living on a military wage would find out soon enough how money has to be managed prudently for maximum bang for the buck. Re: subs. We first had to pay compensation to the French, how much was it? 83 or 830 million? ... No feelings, no remorse, no apologies from anyone, just cop it sweet. I hope the voters remember that when walking up to the voting booth.

Zelensky has agreed to the minerals deal. But we've yet to see the other half of the deal as far as Putin is concerned. What has he agreed to, and what's in it for him? That will determine what he does in the future.

Dutton wants to sack 36,000 public servants. Crikey, have we really got that many? Put them all in uniform to fill the vacancies in the military. That would teach them a bit of discipline, not to waste money.

Nope, it's nuclear weapons. Putin has threatened to use them, and the Europeans weren't listening to Putin, they kept fueling the war instead. Trump comes in and finds a way to defuse Putin's threat .. what does it matter which way it is, as long as it's successful, and it looks like it will be with Zolensky agreeing to mineral sales to the US. And there'll have to be some give & take to end the conflict.

Well in that case, Europe should then consider their contributions to Ukraine as DONATIONS as well, and not convert frozen Russian assets to pay for Europe's assistance to Ukraine. It's theft if they do.

And why just Europe, have we frozen any Russian assets here?. Albo has sent tens of millions to Ukraine, does he have a plan to get that back?

Whatever the outcome, it's still dangerous threatening diplomacy, any way you look at it. It won't help in the peaceful resolution of ending the conflict.

Trump blocks 16,000 migrants from Canada. 16mins, watch first five.

That seems like a dangerous game to play. The frozen assets are only frozen and still belong to Russia. No matter the terms and conditions the Europeans have come up with, Europe would wise to unfreeze the assets and let Russia continue to own them. Otherwise they are being stolen, which would make Putin hopping mad.

Zero illegals crossing the southern border ... now dealing with illegals crossing Canadian/US border.

I found a link " Additionally, Green was able to conclude that the aircraft struck the mountain in a steep right bank, facing a north-easterly direction. This was interesting as the north-east direction was the reciprocal to the one the Southern Cloud was meant to be flying on. " What Happened? "It is hard to properly conclude what exactly occurred. The most likely scenario is that the Southern Cloud ran into terrible weather and wind, where the wind blew it off course and over the Snowy Mountains. The pilots tried to get back on course, and believing they were away from the mountains decided to descend. However, the wind meant they were still over the mountains and so they proceeded to fly into Deep Creek Gorge. After seeing terrain ahead no doubt Shortridge would have been forced to turn to avoid, however there was insufficient room for a turn and the aircraft went into the side of the northern ridge of the gorge where it would have crashed. Other theories that cannot be ruled out include the aircraft breaking up mid-flight or the plane entering a spin or a spiral. " https://www.antiqueairshow.com/post/the-disappearance-of-the-southern-cloud-unraveling-an-decade-long-aviation-mystery Taking off with only the Sydney Morning Herald for a weather report from the night before, what could go wrong? They only had to wait 15mins before taking off to get the latest weather report from the Sydney Weather Bureau, geez!

So what happened, did they fly blind into the side of a mountain? Is there a link to read?

You name them, they were there. My foreman was Fijian. Fellow workers were from all over Europe, Italians, Germans, Yugoslavs, Spanish, etc.

Flying by the seat of their pants perhaps, gazing at stars?

No, never saw one, I was working night shift, busy ducking for cover from earth moving explosion rocks raining down out in the field. Quite hazardous working there.

That's interesting about the Southern Cloud. My mum grew up in Cooma, just 60ks from the crash site, she was 9 at the time of that crash, and her uncle has a memorial plaque in the center of the town just for him, for his bravery in WW1. I worked at the Talbingo Snowy Dam site for a short time 6 months after discharge from conscription. All that time and family history and I never knew anything about the Southern Cloud. It crashed only 2ks from Worlds End ... what a terrible omen. I'll bet the plane was under-powered and over weight for the conditions and such a long flight. No radio contact either. Big lessons to learn in those days, probably putting profits before safety.

Well he's getting things done, stopped the illegals, working on a peaceful solution between Ukraine and Russia, helping to get hostages returned to Israel, cutting govt spending and waste, creating a more favorable outcome for US manufactures, etc ... looks good so far.

How much more plain do I have to make it? New parties start up to put forth issues that other parties refuse to address because those issues are not in their psyches. You can mention them, but they'll be met with blank looks on their faces. Keating said: "If you don't understand it, don't vote for it" ... well that is very true today with issues such as youth crime and domestic violence, with massive govt social security spending but society is getting worse. How many cars and trucks have crashed into houses and shopfronts? Why do young children die in hospital waiting rooms for hours waiting for medical attention? Why do drivers who hit and run, flee after they've killed someone? Both the ALP and the Libs are chasing votes with policies of spending billions on medicare. They are both lefty parties, can you see? They have been moving to the left for years, and now new parties are filling the vacuum on the right, and not before time. You can't bury your heads in the sand forever, sooner or later you've got to pull them out, or you'll get run over.

When complaints are ignored and not addressed by our leftwing duopoly, it's only natural that further steps will be taken by the complainants, such as forming new parties opposing those who refuse to address the complaints.

There's far right parties all around the World, they are countering far left Govts, and that's most of them in the Western World, except the USA now, thank heavens. The human mind has a natural propensity to "balance out". A rusted-on lefty quite often will seek work in the dreaded private sector. A righty CEO of a large corporation may, and often does, support lefty causes. Palmer's T.O.P party will be just one more far right party joining many others globally, to continue leveling the political scales. Balance is stability, no matter how far the "weights" are apart, as long as they are equal in weight. The far right is adding more weight all the time to bring the scales down level. They're not there yet, but as the far left concede ground, which they must do, the quicker the scales will balance out.

Taking a neutral stance would help to understand what I'm saying. Stand back and look at the whole picture. For one thing, ask yourself why there is a bipartisan policy on immigration that cuts out all conversations on the subject. We can talk till we're blue in the face, but nothing changes, much to the frustration of those who speak in a reasonable and an intelligent way, expressing concern for the problems that mass non discriminatory immigration causes. What is mass immigration for anyway? For more tax income? To fill all the habitable land right up? No one seems to know. Can you offer a sensible reason, or would you say "It's just what the major parties want, and therefore we shouldn't interfere".

Menzies & Co were still fighting WW2, I reasoned much later when I'd put a few more years on. My mum and dad were the same. Menzies read the oldies right, but failed to read the 20y/olds right. We were cannon fodder and numbers, you should remember that. I was out before Whitlam come in, but even then, I sensed that his govt was too extreme, how long did he last? Frazer was another extremist before softening, but he softened the wrong way, he really didn't know what he was doing, he tried to side with Whitlam's policies, and got turfed out. They were moving to the left inexorably, with that union thug Hawke telling us all to shut up while he pretended to appease the business sector. The business sector fell in line with the new "Progressive Humanist" philosophy, as did the media. He wasn't a Rhode Scholar for nothing.

It's all about eliminating extremes. Given that there will always be left and right, why not keep the gap narrow between the two? At present, they are miles apart and prone to engage in ugly verbal stoushes and potential violence. New laws are coming into being for just those, when all they have to do is narrow the political divide by taking steps to reduce the number of politically disenfranchised constituents. This can be done by listening and acting on their complaints instead of pounding them into the ground. A typical far right constituent would more than likely be quietened if only a quarter of what they're asking for is met. The left would need to concede some political territory - give and take. Our problem is a lack of democracy, our democracy is the reserve of the strongest, with the most money, and now made worse by public funding changes that apparently favor the major parties, the very same parties who designed these new funding rules. We are going backwards, instead of moving forward by including everyone in the the democratic process. The amount of money a political party receives shouldn't be the determining factor for who is listened to, and who is reviled. Everyone needs to be listened to, and complaints acted upon in a positive and unselfish manner.

Labor is by nature leftwing, but they've gone even further to the left with their "Progressive Humanism" policies, evolving into "politically correct" socialist censorship commissars. Backed up by the Coalition who see votes in aspects of the Labor party's socialist policies, like no need to integrate multiculturalism, and undemocratic mass indiscriminate, non discriminatory immigration. What is the obvious conclusion of leftwing philosophy if it's given free rein? It's a type of communism that we end up thinking is normal by the time it comes around. We already think their current far left socialist policies are normal, they have crept up on us, starting in Whitlam's time. Nature is now providing a balance to this all this far left socialist policy making. The far right is fighting back. You should be grateful for the balance the human mind endows us with. There are two cerebral hemispheres to every brain, not just one. One is leftwing, and one is rightwing. If one becomes too dominate, the other will tell you, "Hey wait a minute".