Grumpy Old Nasho

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".

That was a big surprise, who expected that in Australia? A far right party to counter the far left policies of Labor, providing balance in the political arena. The scales are leveling out, at last.

We already know that, it's nothing new, been like that since the 60s, through to the present day.

What we need at the moment is a far right minister of immigration. This would counter the entrenched far left leaning bipartisan policy we have right now, and always have had. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over hoping for a different result. In the US, Trump is busting up the established far left to bring back sanity to the economy, immigration, and to put the US back on a strong footing without the confusion of internationalism and wokism, ruining America.

Yes, a bit like the ALP and the Coalition have infiltrated into all levels of government and everything else in OZ. Nothing can be done without them approving it and being done their way. Trump is only copying what the two major parties do here. The major parties infiltrate into everything and making sure they have the right puppets as heads of all govt Departments, the RBA, the AFP, the AEC, the military, the ABC, etc, etc.

The Lycoming Studebaker engine looked very much like this Chrysler Spitfire straight 8. In those days the flat heads all looked the same, just that some were more compact than others. There was a modern straight 8, I just can't find it now but If I recall correctly, it was rear engine east-west in an Italian sports car, or racing car. https://silodrome.com/spitfire-straight-8-engine/