When thieves fall out
Open Thread – Wed 20 Dec 2023
- TULIP versus ruinous Labor
- Open Thread – Weekend 18 May 2024
- Bumtree #15
- Bumtree #14
- Open Thread – Thurs 16 May 2024
DMT. Once or twice…enlightening. Ten or twelve times…Terence Howard.
Well at least she wasn’t dragged through the streets of Flemington on the back of the HiAce. Hun: Premier Jacinta…
A guy was walking down the beach and stubs his toe on something in the sand. He looks down and…
knock over one statue and feel the WOKE pride ..! It is a sad thing, especially when Gen. Robert E.…
Dot what is happening at present is just a feint by the Houthis before the big one.
They haven’t sunk anything, they haven’t seriously damaged a ship or killed a crew member. The so called antiship missiles are jury rigged contraptions. After months of attacks they are starting to look like the Kuznetsov, stuck in dry dock and only being refitted for propaganda purposes.
A destroyer can carry up ~90 missiles. The destroyers don’t have to fire expensive missiles, they have cannons and phalanx capability; jamming might be an option. Even using their helicopters might be possible.
Saudi Arabia should be in on this. Surveillance aircraft and with F15Es\Eurofighters on continuous air patrol with refuellers will be a very serious threat to the launch sites. Even aircraft launched from the Gulf carriers and using refuellers could contribute.
Vicki fresh ripe apricots halved and sprinkled with vanilla sugar and roasted are nectar of the gods — absolutely delicious roasted with nectarines, plums and peaches — delicious served with ice cream or if there are left overs of the roastage mixed through ice cream and re-frozen. Salivating madly, sadly it will be a very very quiet Christmas this year in our home.
Yes – I adore apricots. I have brought quite a few back to Sydney & will be making a few jars of apricot jam for Christmas gifts.
The black ring is like an Apple Watch.
It tracks your activity.
A lot of people like them over the watch as it doesn’t chirp away.
The wearer can check their activity on the app on the phone.
Confirmed in the pre-Christmas political posturing: the Elbow regime’s strategy to win the 2025 federal election will be to blame the former LNP government actions before the 2022 election.
Elbow is a dead man walking. The question is whether the ALP’s Faceless Men get to him before voters do.
I expressed my reservations a few days ago Gilas. So count me in.
Anything is possible.
As betting man, I’d back BL “winning”.
The only decent apricots are home grown. I don’t know what it is , perhaps it’s cold storage that ruins those you can buy in food stores. They’re absolutely awful in comparison.
Justices tend to take a very dim view of people publicly and knowingly compromising a fair trial for even (especially?) the most patently guilty.
I fancy that this will be the principle upon which he makes an example of 10/Wilkinson.
I would’ve agreed with you until I saw this, which made me very concerned they mean business.
The Houthis only have to get lucky once.
From the New Comments – https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/sitrep-122023-putin-and-zelensky
The Houthi attacks are very interesting. Gomming up global merchant shipping.
Also, I am sure all those cheap drone attacks are really just intel gathering operations to see how US/western ships react to attacks; gathering radar profiles and missile performance for use when it matters; sending swarms of anti-ship hypersonic missiles and large scale drone attacks.
You know the Iranians and Russians (and Chinese) are watching this very, very closely.
And it is also just so funny knowing that those ships have an extremely limited compliment of AA missiles that can only be reloaded in port. US military equipment is just so retarded and poorly thought out.
Meanwhile as stated in Simplicius76 Article
A $2M missile vs. a $2,000 drone: Pentagon worried over cost of Houthi attacks
DECEMBER 20, 2023
As American warships rack up kills against Houthi drones and missiles in the Red Sea, Pentagon officials are increasingly alarmed not just at the threat to U.S. naval forces and international shipping — but at the growing cost of keeping them safe.
U.S. Navy destroyers have shot down 38 drones and multiple missiles in the Red Sea over the past two months, according to a Defense Department official, as the Iran-backed militants have stepped up attacks on commercial vessels moving energy and oil through the world’s most vital shipping lanes. On Saturday alone, the destroyer USS Carney intercepted 14 one-way attack drones.
Houthi leaders have said the attacks are a show of support for the Palestinians, and that they won’t stop until Israel halts its operations in Gaza. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Monday announced a new international maritime coalition to safeguard shipping and counter the attacks.
The cost of using expensive naval missiles — which can run up to $2.1 million a shot — to destroy unsophisticated Houthi drones — estimated at a few thousand dollars each — is a growing concern, according to three other DOD officials.
The officials, like others interviewed for this story, were granted anonymity to describe sensitive operations and internal deliberations.
“The cost offset is not on our side,” said one DOD official.
Experts say this is an issue that needs to be addressed, and urge DOD to start looking at lower-cost options for air defense.
“That quickly becomes a problem because the most benefit, even if we do shoot down their incoming missiles and drones, is in their favor,” said Mick Mulroy, a former DOD official and CIA officer. “We, the U.S., need to start looking at systems that can defeat these that are more in line with the costs they are expending to attack us.”
DOD officials would not confirm what types of weapons are being used or the range at which the drones are being intercepted, citing operational security.
But former DOD officials and experts said only one weapon would make sense for that job: the Standard Missile-2, a medium-range air defense weapon that can reach up to 92 or 130 nautical miles, based on the variant.
The latest variant, the Block IV, costs $2.1 million a shot.
A destroyer could also use the ship’s 5-inch gun with air bust rounds, which have been tested against similar drones on ranges with positive results, according to one former Navy official with expertise in that type of ship. This is a lower-cost option but can only reach targets less than 10 nautical miles away — which is likely too close for comfort.
The shortest-range options are the Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile, with a range of less than 5 nautical miles that costs $1.8 million per shot, or the 20mm Close-In Weapons-System gun, for targets inside one nautical mile.
But again, the closer the Houthi weapons get to the ship, the greater the risk of impact.
“My guess is the [destroyers] are shooting SM-2s for as long as they can — they are not in [the] business of taking chances on hostile targets getting close,” the former official said.
Experts also point out that destroyers are limited in how many missiles they can shoot before needing to return to a U.S. weapons pier to reload, and each ship contains 90 or more missile tubes. But with so many destroyers in the region — at least four as of Tuesday — magazine capacity likely won’t be a problem in the near future.
By contrast, experts estimate the Houthi one-way attack drones, which are primarily Iranian-made, cost just $2,000 at most. The larger Shahed-136 is estimated at $20,000, said Shaan Shaikh, a fellow with the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Either way, that’s a significant cost difference.
“Right now, [the] U.S. does not seem to have a better option other than what it is using,” said Samuel Bendett, an adviser with the Center for Naval Analyses, a federally funded think tank for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. He drew a parallel of the DOD’s capabilities to Ukraine’s, as it shoots down Russian drones.
“Obviously, that’s a different domain — shooting Houthi drones at sea may be a different-order task, but it seems that driving down the cost of such defenses is essential in the long term,” Bendett said.
Keeping international commerce flowing is one of the U.S. Navy’s primary missions, and Austin has indicated he is taking the crisis seriously. The Pentagon has dispatched a massive amount of firepower to the region, including two carrier strike groups: the Gerald R. Ford in the eastern Mediterranean and the Dwight D. Eisenhower in the Gulf of Aden. At least four destroyers and a cruiser are now patrolling near the Bab al-Mandab chokepoint.
On Monday, Austin also announced the formation of a new maritime task force, called Operation Prosperity Guardian, to counter the attacks, which includes at least nine partner nations from around the world.
Nineteen nations have signed on to the task force, including some Arab partners, but only nine want to attach their names to the effort, according to a senior administration official. The situation is complicated for Arab nations because of the perception that the task force is designed to protect Israeli-linked commercial vessels, explained one of the DOD officials.
“These attacks are reckless, dangerous and they violate international law,” Austin told reporters in Israel Monday ahead of the announcement. “This is not just a U.S. issue, this is an international problem, and it deserves an international response.”
Yet the attacks have already disrupted shipping in the passageway that connects the Indian Ocean with the Suez Canal, through which about 12 percent of world trade passes annually. The world’s largest shipping companies this week started rerouting vessels away from the Red Sea, instead forcing ships to go around Africa via the southern Cape of Good Hope.
Bern
True, but it appears that commercial shipping will be hanging lefts and rights around the Cape for now. It’s not like it hasn’t happened before. I’m guessing the maxi cargo ships will be in huge demand now. Imagine trying to traverse that market which can move 200% in a month.
A mining trader once told me that after securing a deal, the first thing you do before anything else is secure the freight charge – even before going for a coffee.
Seems Twitter is down…
Obama bombed the shit out of the Houthis for 5-6 years.
Didn’t seem to do much.
Exactly, do to others what they do to you.
Republicans float booting Biden off state ballots after Trump ruling
Dover
Not the Persian Gulf? All part of the same theatre?
Luck happens to those who plan and are resourceful. Dancing won’t cut it. Their hardware sucks, they been at it for weeks if not months, still no luck.
Unlike Australia’s pissant military undermined by decades of underspending and bludgeing off the Yanks, the Pentagon has a contemporary track record of winning military battles with proven technology.
I’d be fairly confident the US military will see off the shoulder-launched guerilla army of the Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen.
Justice Lee says, after tomorrow, they’ll reconvene in early February to discuss any remaining aspects of the trial.
So, don’t expect an outcome until March at the very earliest!
JC
My guess is that commercial apricot growers use plenty of water and fertilisers to give their product size and weight at the expense of taste.
You are correct. Home grown have the best taste.
Chrysanthou did quite a good job in highlighting a lot of inaccuracies in BL’s account of things (some may call them lies).
For example, why go back to Parliament House to get your house keys when your girlfriend (who tried to call you five times and you didn’t answer) is at home?
Yet, not sure if his “lies” (she called him a pathological liar) topple a defamation claim…
They’ve been shooting at the 20 year old USS Mason for seven years now without success. They had a go at her with twelve antiship missiles in 2016.
It was fun to hear that ship was on point when the current unpleasantness started. She’s been swatting drones and Silkworms for the last two months. It’s funny. Must be the most combat experienced ship in the US Navy by now.
Refrigerated transport, and long periods of cold storage are the enemies of taste. Picked a little too early for ease of crating and transporting, left in cold storage, then presented to the consumer as “fresh”.
Always used to get my peaches from the orchards up at Kenthurst. Still warm from the sun.
Was he actually asked why? Or is she just surmising.
I can picture this lothario whipping back to get his keys in the hope that he could sneak in after a night on the tiles and turps.
Heh, a song.
The Presidents of the United States of America – Peaches (1996)
The Potuses are a Seattle rock band and Peaches is a song, to translate this into something more intelligible. They’re fun! 😀
Goanna
Talk to Woolies the so called “Fresh Food People” who are NOT.
The ACCC should have a go at them as they are no way fresh food people.
And as for apricots………………
True Calli
it’s pretty hard to second guess motives.
Tom
So with all that technology why couldn’t the Yanks beat the Vietnamese or the Afghans?
Pentagon has a contemporary track record of winning military battles with proven technology.
And losing wars.
Haha, everyone’s a hypocrite except carbon-spewing climate warrior Chris Bowen.
Chris Bowen hits back at opposition over criticism of Labor’s air travels, argues decisions are in ‘best interests of taxpayer’ (Sky News, 21 Dec)
You pollies must kill the planet to save it eh Mr Bowen? I have to say it’s unusually rich even for Labor to call the opposition hypocrites for calling you for your own personal climate hypocrisy. Next time use Zoom or, if you must, a kayak.
Please, please let it be a biodegradable kyak.
Paper for preference.
Plus crocodiles for colour and movement.
JR, the key is my qualifier “contemporary” — i.e., the past half-century.
Technologically, the US hasn’t lost a battle since the fall of Saigon — except for the defeats forced on it by politicians like Lloyd Austin.
That’s because (unlike bludgers like Australia), America has a military-industrial complex that spends whatever it takes to achieve global military dominance.
PS: the Pentagon doesn’t answer to whoever is in the White House. It is a law unto itself.
Bruce of Newcastle
Dec 21, 2023 6:03 PM
Haha, everyone’s a hypocrite except carbon-spewing climate warrior Chris Bowen.
“The publication of expenses came as the first in more than a year, after being stalled in mid-2022 due to what the incumbent federal government says were technical issues with the Parliamentary Expenses Management System inherited by former Coalition leadership.”
LOL. More and more excuses that are not very creative any more. Just more and more BS.
How to wreck a Great Country. Vote LayBore/Green/Teal that’s how. FFS.
The mother of Yotam Haim, one of the three Israeli hostages that were killed by the IDF, has a beautiful message of forgiveness and understanding for the Soldiers.
Don’t underestimate the Yemenis. They are like the Pashtun. Tough, resilient, cunning and fanatical. Just ask the Brits about Aden. Interestingly they were the frontline troops for Islam in the 7th century. Many tribes in Iraq and Syria are from those conquests. The rulers of UAE are proud they are originally from Yemen. But they understand brutal force. So that is the only solution. Or covertly send over Davo Sharma to sort it out.
Oh yes!
Our little tree grew six this year and I ate one of the two remaining after the birdies had visited. Harvest this year has produced (2) apricots, raspberries, 20 nectarines ripening under netting (so not harvest yet), 30 or so apples, plums and almonds.
Plus, my favourite, the most superb, huge magnolia grandiflora. All on two to three yo trees.
Tom
Dec 21, 2023 6:06 PM
I sort of agree with you but Ukraine is the next one that they are going to lose IMHO.
The USA won twice in Vietnam and gave up twice.
They made the fundamental error of assuming that they could change entrenched culture. I doubt that they will try that with the Houthis.
PS, the Vietnamese are now probably more inclined to free enterprise than are the DemonRats in the US.
“If you wind up with a boring, miserable life because you listened to your mother, your Dad, your priest, to some guy on television, to any of the people telling you how to do your shit, then you deserve it. Frank Zappa“
JohnJJJ
Dec 21, 2023 6:12 PM
Don’t underestimate the Yemenis. They are like the Pashtun. Tough, resilient, cunning and fanatical. Just ask the Brits about Aden. Interestingly they were the frontline troops for Islam in the 7th century. Many tribes in Iraq and Syria are from those conquests. The rulers of UAE are proud they are originally from Yemen. But they understand brutal force. So that is the only solution. Or covertly send over Davo Sharma to sort it out.
LOL. The Gurkhas would sort them all out – for a price.
Climate change, of course.
The Diplomat: The World is Ignoring Afghanistan’s Climate Investment Needs (19 Dec)
Poor buggers, they’re probably scared of sinking beneath the rising seas or something.
The big reason they lost in Vietnam was because it was a war run by politicians and bureaucrats. If Stormin Norman was around the result would have been entirely different. Here’s an example of how stupid McNamara and Co were. The ingress route for the aircraft were in designated corridors, thereby allowing anti-anticraft munitions to be set up at optimal sites.
They won in Afghanistan, did so much better than the Soviets. The USA lost the PR war and the Taliban took over as soon as they left. It is not the fault of the USA that the populace bowed down to Islamists.
It is weird to now see right wingers attacking the USA and proclaiming its inevitable decline. For decades that is what the left did. The USA has a recruitment problem, most countries do but the USA by far remains the dominant military presence in the world.
If it’s anything like nectarines it probably hybridisation. Get a decent nectarine and 2 weeks later when you go back it’s a different hybrid on the shelf.
The Gurkhas would sort them all out – for a price.
Agreed. Mountain people. Same everywhere e.g Caucasus,, . Even the Swiss.
feelthebern
Dec 21, 2023 4:47 PM
The black ring is like an Apple Watch.
It tracks your activity.
Thank you FTB.
One lives and one learns..
Sorry, not so much the Dandenongs or Blue Mts.
They made the fundamental error of assuming that they could change entrenched culture. I doubt that they will try that with the Houthis.
PS, the Vietnamese are now probably more inclined to free enterprise than are the DemonRats in the US.
I disagree. The Vietnamese are nationalists and were defending their country.
And the Vietnamese call it ‘The American War’.
Same as the Afghans but they are a mob of waring tribes and not a country. No other invading nation has ever beaten those tribes. And most probably never will.
Words fail me…
Interesting that Don Farrell was defending Elbow’s WA holiday in the media last week.
Farrell controls more votes in the Caucus than anyone else.
But it may mean nothing.
Mrs Biden can twerk to the musical accompaniment.
cheap old slag
Policing Woke.
Vietnamese “nationalists” who were a client state of the USSR and were even gifted with Soviet fighter pilots; also implementing proto Pol Potian ideas of killing off all Vietnamese owning more than X amount of acres of land.
The only thing they were “waring” for was total enslavement under Communism.
Without contradicting Tom’s point (since it only addresses a parallel point) one thing America possesses is a ‘militia’-mentality where they view the members of the military as normal people like them.
I don’t mean in the sense of Michigan militiamen who cut their breakfast bread with their guaranteed 2nd amendment protected arms and think the rules of grammar are an infringement upon their citizen sovereignty.
I mean a profound admiration and honour of those who volunteer to serve. Any number of wars have acquired a certain dignity leeched through from the dignity of the US military members. It is a veneration that has been cynically exploited again and again.
One of the tricks that the Democrats have used is to claim opposition to a war but not the soldiers – even as they supported North Vietnam for example. They cared for the soldiers they actually hoped to be ground into the mud.
Trump was the first President I can remember who said he was ditching a war because it was not worth the cost in American blood – he actually cared about American troops. That resonated in America in the way that Americans could agree with.
Any rival “Nationalists” were betrayed to the French, or murdered as early as 1945. There was only going to be one model of Government for Vietnam.
This sort of bullshit has a nasty habit of getting out of hand.
Is the world coalescing into a Christian/Islam/others polarity?
Try and map that coalition out, all you strategists.
Over the past couple of days I’ve been reading the WSJ back stories on “Fat Leonard”.
There’s been a fresh chapter overnight.
Fascinating stories for those with WSJ subscriptions.
Will no doubt be a movie within a few years.
Dunno who will play the title role.
Dot
Dec 21, 2023 6:52 PM
Go to Vietnam. They are not communists. The USA is their friend now and China is their enemy.
My thoughts exactly. The Supreme Court will do exactly what they did after the election in 2020, they stalled until it was too late and will do so again. This Court is a complete waste of time and should they disappear would anyone even notice? But then again the Senate and the House are doing the same. Americans are screwed by their political class just as they are by the business class and the academic class.
I see the current situation in the US as class warfare with the elites so pissed off by the people that they are importing a new population via the open border. The elites want an ignorant and compliant populace which they think the new arrivals will fit just fine.
Dot
Dec 21, 2023 6:52 PM
Actually Dot, it is Australia that has the Marxist (Commie) Feral Guv’ment. Vietnam is much more sensible. They are building Coal Fired Power Stations.
Katie Hopkins on LAWLESS Society & Who Controls the World
I should have added to my last comment that our elites, business and political, don’t like us either and are importing our replacements as fast as they can. That half the population is in financial trouble because of the massive immigration numbers does not interest them in the least. The new arrivals will vote for them so they don’t need us any longer or our children and grandchildren.
Alito was the one who wouldn’t hear the Pennsylvania case in 2020.
The world is becoming politically multi-polar but religion isn’t the driving factor.
The Vietnamese embraced French patisserie culture and dismissed existentialism – can’t have been stupid.
And I say that as someone who was once a keen exponent of existentialism because it gave exotically novel depth to mundane events. Where else can your choice of socks could be a transcendence from ‘etre pour autrui’ to ‘etre pour soi’ and finally to resolve into ‘etre en soi’.
I am my socks. My socks are me. Neither can be without the other. I am not the same being in time when I choose different socks.
On the apricots, I think commercial producers pick them green before they have time to develop all the flavour, otherwise they don’t travel well. They are then ripened with a special gas. Btw the best apricots come from home trees in dry areas, small but chock full of flavour, totally irresistible and will guarantee you won’t sh*t right for weeks from constantly eating way too many.
CRISIS: France breaks EU ranks as migrant terrorism pushes them to breaking point | Nigel Farage
Fetterman Donors Want Their Money Back: He’s Too Normal Now
Lizzie:
My response is that you are not only right, you are bloody well right!
Had Israel on day one of the Hamas invasion, napalmed the hell out of the Gaza Strip, it would be quiet in the ME.
Yes, they would have lost their kidnapped citizens, but what’s the balance sheet on that now?
Israel and the rest of the West need to adjust to a policy of “A prisoner is considered dead or in a state of existence that death is preferable.” otherwise the kidnappings will continue. The only ones getting any advantage from the current policy are our enemies, and our negotiator class who are strutting the world stage proclaiming their superior moral positioning while more people die.
FFS, stop the bullshit and crush the animals that wage war on us.
There’s actually now a good deal of momentum in Europe to revise the refugee conventions.
Stricter policies on irregular migrants, including border detention centres and a swifter processing & deportation process have just been announced.
The EU may well solve the problem before the UK does.
“Israel Can Defend Itself However They Want” – Vivek Ramaswamy
CallI:
Noooo!
Calli the Diplomat?
No. I can’t see that happening.
🙂
Vietnam is a manufacturing hub for China. Particularly textiles, because cheaper to make garments or anything textile related there than in China.
I hardly think the two countries are “enemies” while this trade connection exists.
seems to some people that Ukraine can defend itself, but Israel cannot
20 years too late.
For example, consider the strategic partnership between atheist China, Orthodox (mostly) Russia and Shia Muslim Iran.
They are ripened with ethylene, another “greenhouse” gas.
But this one’s good because not cow farts.
Russell Brand
America, Say Hello To Your New Landlord
Indeed.
Gutfeld: Democrats are ‘freaking out’ over this
Arky is the apricot tree specialist. Get in here you slacker and bring us up to speed on the latest possum fuelled tragedy.
I hardly think the two countries are “enemies” while this trade connection exists.
They have fought many many wars. The last one was in 1979. The next one will be over the South China Sea which is not Chinese.
Wake up.
An episode of The Caspian Report highlights that shift. At present Vietnam is in transition, moving towards the USA
Pali boosters are trying to counter the ill treatment of hostages with before after photos of a fellow released from Israeli detention.
Lost 27 kg in 3 months.
Because he has serious health issues, possibly a stomach cancer.
I’m awake. Do you manufacture in China? Do you know anyone who does? I do.
China has always been the principal enemy.
Viets hold ancient grudges in the same way as Balkan Slavs do.
I am my socks. My socks are me. Neither can be without the other. I am not the same being in time when I choose different socks.
Are you smoking those socks again? Thought so.
Israel does not have an open ended approval to do as it pleases. No country does. Ukraine isn’t levelling suburbs, Russia and Israel are.
Joe Biden
@JoeBiden
Trump poses many threats to our country: The right to choose, civil rights, voting rights, and America’s standing in the world.
But the greatest threat he poses is to our democracy.
If we lose that, we lose everything.
11:26 AM · Dec 21, 2023
This post got community noted hard.
I wonder if that’s the reason why twitter x went off-line.
A one party socialist state with a mixed market economy?
😀
He’s all over the shop on Israel. He lost a lot of support by being tepid, at best (hostile, some might say), towards Israel prior to 7 Oct. The Republican base noticed, they weren’t born yesterday.
The problem with angling yourself to be the replacement Trump is you have to also have the same policies and instincts, and unfortunately Vivek can’t fake it enough. At least he’s trying though. Which is better than the other various creepy crawlies vying in the GOP primary.
That was abrupt of me. I have no doubt that the Vietnamese resent the establishment of cheap Chinese sweatshops in their country because Chinese are demanding mich higher wages for their work.
But money talks. How long the arrangement works is anyone’s guess. But don’t be fooled by “MDe in China” tags on garments. Most likely they are finished in Vietnam and shipped across the border.
Ukrainian nazis were levelling suburbs in Donbas in 2014.
If they wanted their suburbs to be safe, they shouldn’t have sold their country to a nuclear power that wanted to set up shop five yards from Russia.
Next to ‘FAFO’ in the dictionary, a map of Ukraine should appear.
The war is one of the most avoidable, scandalous enormities in modern history.
It took months of preparation for the Gulf and Iraqi wars. Because of geographic issues Yemen is much more difficult. No-one wants another land invasion. Another decades long occupation in the hope of making uneducated murderous Islamists change their ways. How’d that work out last time? Trump certainly won’t go for it. He wants the USA to stop being involved in so many wars.
Napalm Gaza, kill all 2 million of them. Is that your proposal?
Here’s Why The Gov’t Won’t Fix Homelessness Or Stop Crime! -With Tucker Carlson
Citizen Free Press
@CitizenFreePres
Alan Dershowitz is fed up:
“In the sixty years I’ve been practicing and teaching law, I’ve never seen a decision that is so antidemocratic and so unconstitutional. It is absurd.”
Cockies, more likely.
I’ve been besieged by cockies all day. They are ridiculously friendly, but more than a dozen have been lurking most of the day at my front door, including door cockie. Who is hilarious.
Been a couple of damp days so I don’t know what is causing it. The corellas are famished too. But there’s something since my elderly lady kooka came by four times today, and the rest of the family three times. Dunno why they’re all hungry. Ok the fig trees have now been stripped, and the cockies had been eating figs. But that doesn’t explain the kookas. Go figure.
Vicki:
For Gods sake, don’t let Arky know. We remember the Saga of the Apricot Tree in his backyard where the poor bugger ended up with Australia’s first case of apricot poisoning as he challenged the cockies to an apricot eating and jam making contest.
COP28 & The Inconvenient Truth about Coal
A one party socialist state with a mixed market economy?
Welcome to Australia and the UniParty. The Ruinaballs will fix everyfink’. LOL
Vietnam’s stunning capitalist success story
So many reports on this Roger. Took me a few seconds to find them. Contradictions are common in human behavior. Don’t make inferences that ignore that common occurrence.
If true, I’d confidently suggest that’s higher than in the USA.
But still, the Communist party will never voluntarily relinquish political control.
Boambee John:
With the piracy, the best result is what the Royal Navy did a couple of centuries ago. Wipe out the village the pirate ships operate from – because the villagers are the pirate base and therefore complicit.
Fuel Air Explosives on the target, and don’t bother with the occupation. It worked before, it will work again.
Sorry. It was Gab and the possums, Arky and the cockies.
Deadly animals of Australia. 😀
‘It turns out communist Vietnam loves capitalism more than the US does’
Heh…I was right!
‘Trump was right!’ Biden is moving in the ‘opposite direction’ for the US, warns top US economist
No comparison to the destruction Russia is causing. Russia is using a sledgehammer to kill a flea. Death toll will potentially be in the millions. Putin’s war has gained nothing for Russia, it has only caused harm, strengthened NATO, and revealed the deplorable state of the Russian military.
Sure, Ukraine sucks, but Russia’s stupid solution is far worse Ukraine’s crimes.
I’ve noticed that all my visiting birds are more hungry on rainy days.
It could be that there are less insects in flight, which most of them are adept at snapping up, so my feeding sessions (early morning and about 4pm) become more desirable.
Robert S
Ah, yes. The “punitive expedition”, first cousin to gunboat diplomacy
Good against undeveloped piratical places like Yemen..
LOL. Almost nothing in that sentence is correct except the nazi bit. Which is fun since the Russians actually have had more nazis in their TOB than the Ukrainians do.
This war has amused me because of the inability of certain partisan peoples to see reality even after it has been rubbed in their faces over and over.
And no, I’ve had no side in the fight at any time. I know some Russians as friends, I have never met a Ukrainian.
“Hitchhikers “ on 7Mate. A shadow of the original…but there it is.
Everything in the sentence is correct, Bruce.
Calling reality-based observers “partisans” of Russia is the sort of ad hom nonsense that kept the war going – long after it was obvious Ukraine was destined to lose. Some people cannot assimilate the truth that foreign and defence policy realism has nothing to do with Brittany-esque feelings. Russia’s concerns about Ukraine were rational. The US State Department’s fantasy of regime change in Moscow was not rational. It was always idiotic. As for Nazism, if it has bona fides for little else in the twentieth century, Russia certainly earned a few when it came to smashing Nazism. They did the lion’s share of it.
Correct.
I noticed that on a visit to Vietnam in 2010. Our tour guide was emphatically anti-China and talked a lot about their national centuries-old struggle against China. I expected a lot of commentary against France and US and did not get a murmur. The most bemusing was sellers’ preference for US dollars over every other currency.
I liked the movie, and the TV series. Zooey is luminous (but a complete fruitcake in real life). The radio play is still the best though since you get to fill in the details in your head the way you want them. Which is my beef with Peter Jackson and LOTR – a three movie epic of what wasn’t what was inside my head when reading the book seems a waste to me. 😀
Can’t watch because I still don’t have a television. It’s liberating.
Um, no, it isn’t. Do get your brain looked at CL.
Actually, I would be more likely to buy clothes made in Vietnam than those labelled as made in China. I don’t like the thought of enriching a country making veiled threats against my country.
Let’s get beyond the “everyone I don’t like is Hitler” stage of using the N word.
This is where picking up an arm of the otherwise risible three-part Aboriginality test.
Does the person themselves identify as a Nazi?
Gas delivery ragheads- no, they identify as Servants Of Allah etc.
Russian Z Force? No, they identify as Russians.
Ukrainians with Swastika, Black Sun and Totenkopf tattoos and a deathwish against ethnic Russians?
-ding ding ding, we have a hit.
All good, Bruce. You don’t get to hear Vogon poetry.
John, you need to check in with neocon narrative control.
The official story is that Ukraine is swatting away Russia with tremendous ease – not that it’s an embattled flea.
I doubt it but the toll could have been zero if the US stayed off Russia’s footpath.
Russia’s economy has sailed through the war and ‘sanctions’ with relative ease. Washington has created a post-Nixonian rapprochement between Moscow and Beijing – long considered the worst possible strategic error to enable. NATO has been shown to be incapable of even provisioning a proxy – let alone committing to a kinetic war. Militarily, Russia has defeated the combined might – materiel-wise – of Europe, the US and Australasia – the richest nations in human history.
The prestige value of this is incalculable.
Crossie
Ditto, including India, Bangladesh and Indonesia with Vietnam.
It can be difficult, at one time I managed to get boxers made in Bangla, but not now.
strengthened NATO
Depends on how one defines it John.
Sure there are more member nations.
I am more concerned with how brittle US defence supply chains are.
This became apparent over 12 months ago & in typical US fashion they are working rapidly to correct key aspects of that.
But they are more vulnerable now than a lot of people would like to admit.
Part of the problem is that you are looking at propaganda and taking it as fact. It isn’t. Almost all of what comes from the Russophile side is lurid propaganda and easily falsified. The Ukie side isn’t any better. The best approach is to disbelieve both sides and piece together a picture from outside sources and stuff that can’t be distorted.
Like the sat pics. Nothing is happening on the ground. So the glorious Russian Army Striding Westwards headlines from Simplicius and Big Serge are garbage. (So are the Ukie ones going the other way.)
The manpower balance has been interesting as both sides have been bleeding out. Not sure which is the side more likely to collapse, it seems fairly even (ie 3:1 loss ratio against the Russians, or they would’ve won by now just on manpower).
I was amused by Z being fingered by Indolent as a dictator this morning since Putin fits exactly the same criteria.
Baddies vs baddies. Plus geopolitics.
Which is why the EU will support the Ukies, since they have feared Russia for four hundred years, and that ain’t changing anytime soon.
Some identify as “Russians Plus”.
https://www.rferl.org/a/russian-neo-nazis-fighting-ukraine/31871760.html
NSFW, this is a little shocking.
Oh my.
(In a whisper, a voice is heard – let’s stay the hell away!)
..
Rosellas, me dear.
On punitive expeditions, they were replaced in the 1920s/1930s with “air control”. Trouble in the desert? Identify the village the troublemakers came from. Drop warning leaflets (Can the villagers read? Meh!). A couple of days later, bomb the place flat.
Move on to the next bunch of troublemakers.
It worked better than sending columns of troops out to be ambushed, and kept the RAF alive.
stage of using the N word.
Speaking of the N word.
In the final Indiana Jones movie the character who I will call “Sassy Black Woman” yells into the face of a white man “You Stupid Cracker”.
I found it quite shocking.
I’m not sure if it was the stupidity of the dialogue or if I immediately thought of if that was reciprocated.
Or maybe I’ve become a snowflake.
waistcoats, pocket squares, silk ties – sipping American whiskey in brandy snifters
Like something out of a Leni Riefenstahl flick
oh wait hang on
I think it is a tragedy that Putin has his brain explosion, since if he hadn’t Russia would be in the box seat right now. The US is a dead parrot. The EU is hopelessly mired in green rubbish. China has a wicked demographic catastrophe.
But no Putin had to commit to a quixotic crusade for no useful purpose which meant a couple million of his best and brightest people fled, half a million have been maimed and killed, and his economy was turned into a stupid munitions factory. Pyrrhus must be feeling mollified in Hell.
..
Question: How might the war have been avoided, and who should have done the avoiding?
Raises a point though
Can someone be a Nazi without an overarching organized force?
Or are we looking at disconnected LARPers?
Can someone be a Nazi without an overarching organized force?
Are you referring to the ladies on the Benny Hill show?
No, it doesn’t.
Rusich and RIM are not “LARPers”.
What, like Rusich and Wagner?
To be fair Azov are just as fruity as those are.
The funniest thing though is Putin is denazifying Ukraine using actual Nazis.
Oman shows that the Brits could potentially have fought out a victory in the Yemen, but to what end, there was no reliable local to support and ultimately no political will in the sunset of empire.
The critical mass of population/culture replacement are already there in Europe. Only broad based expulsion or ethnic cleansing will save them now.
And yes, they were warned about this 40 years ago and the governments kept denying there was a problem. They performed the same role as the orchestras greeting the new arrivals at Auschwitz.
Now it’s too late and the governments are realising they are also going to be on the chopping block as well.
Remember the MEK – the Kurdish Popular Front (or whatever they called themselves?) they thought – just like the European leaders – they could control the Mullahs in Iran. After the revolution, they were first against the wall.
It’s the very first thing that happens after revolutions – the purges.
John H:
Yes.
We did it to Germany and Japan to stop them from murdering our citizens. Notice that they stopped killing our civilians after 1945?
It works.
Or is Gaza a special case?
Or would you prefer to just kill a few thousand Israelis every year to avoid upsetting your sensibilities?
You see, that’s the problem right there – you and your ilk think that a small amount of dead each year is preferable to dealing with the problem. Whereas I think that dealing with the problem with massive retaliation in the first instance solves it for a damn long time.
My last trip to Vietnam was 20 years ago. Anti Chinese sentiment very noticeable even by ethnic Chinese Viets. Uc or Australians (Before dickheads found the place) were held in high regard and yes everyone knew our allegiance to the US at the time. Apparently our willingness to engage soon after the war noted. Also the friendship bridge built over the Mekong R that saved farmers a 2 day trip to market in Saigon from the Mekong Delta as well.
The party was a front and not respected but so long as everyone were allowed to make money no one cared about them. The old guard had died off and everyone I talked to said the old guard were feared but their progeny were ignored despite trying to throw the weight around daddy did.
Half the residents of Saigon (yes it was still called that by most) had a relative in Sydney or Melbourne by my dead reckoning.
Non European population in Europe.
This isn’t a big number and could be easily dealt with.
The going rate to have your children exempted from being conscripted was nine thousand dollars – U.S., and even the trishaw drivers in Hanoi preferred to be paid in Yankee dollars..
Oh and an anecdote to the above. I was sitting in a bar in Vung Tau the day Saddam was dragged from his spider hole in Iraq. We watched it on TV.
Good times, good times.
Cost of anti-drone missiles vs cost of drones. Yawn. Seems a similar equation (or inequality) applies to many things. The ability of the USA to outspend the Soviet Union, such as the Star Wars program (Strategic Defence Initiative); the cost of airport security vs the cost to terrorists to mount attacks (e.g. the dumb-as shoe bomber). The US should easily be able to outspend missiles for drones for a long time – I’d hope there’s also a strategy to prevent resupply of drones / drone-building technology and materials. The benefits of protecting global commerce well outweigh the cost of the missiles. (Note to Albo – we should be contributing!!)
Ok I was lacking clarity-
Can someone be a Nazi if their overarching force is not Nazi?
Ie, Hamas is territorially agressive and genocidal, but not Nazi brand
And the Australian Army has purged the Knights of the Jedi Council, but that don’t mean its heritage comes from galaxy far, far away
Interrupted viewing today but, yes, she sounded a bit snippy with the jurdge, and tried to drown him in alternate waves of precedent and unsubstantiated assertions.
I did wonder if it was partially for the benefit of the Bandanas, who will likely be footing a hefty bill.
Boambee John:
Piracy is a capital crime.
Easy solution. They can go back to fishing and farming like their forebears.
At the moment it’s FAFO and they’re finding out piracy is easier. Let’s change that equation.
On home grown fruit.
Pick it early.
I prefer solid crunch and a bit of tartness over sugary ripe but soft.
Pears particularly.
Yeah but it’s problematic if those drones you’re shooting down cost US$2,000 apiece while the protective missiles cost many,many multiples of that. I can’t believe the US hasn’t built drones defending against drones at a similar cost. Is there such a technology? Surely there is.
Yeah but it’s problematic if those drones you’re shooting down cost US$2,000 apiece while the protective missiles cost many,many multiples of that.
Even worse when the multi billion Oz navy isn’t fitted out with the tech or hardware to even participate.
Homegrown fruit- apples and apples.
Find out which variety you have.
Varieties are cultivated for different purposes- broadly, agricultural varieties (which are increasingly all you can find in the Bunninged market) are selected to be harvested all at once, and underripe with it.
Old varieties are much more likely, but not guaranteed, to have an extended season. Frinstance if you’re lucky enough to have a Granny Smith (which was a ag production variety on debut) you can one-up the cockies and pick the lot, cook with some, let the acid fade out of the long-term storage crate and end up with one of the most magnificent aromatic eating varieties, which no-one knows about.
*doesn’t work with store-bought GS’s, because of the hard wax glaze
I prefer solid crunch and a bit of tartness over sugary ripe but soft.
Phrasing ?
Twitter back up.
Wonder what happened.
Reddit theories re the twitter outage are fantastic.
I didn’t say panties.
So there is that.
They don’t get charged
Imagine being able to beam false satellite GPS data at a drone, or intercept drone vision relay to its base with fake vision info.
Napalm Gaza, kill all 2 million of them. Is that your proposal?
Of course not. Napalm is inhumane. We’ve discussed this: a small neutron bomb. The big nukes are to go to iran.
This isn’t a big number and could be easily dealt with.
How?
He’s been talking down China for the past 20 odd years. He’s like the Big Serge of a China implosion but he’s interesting to read.
Kyle Bass on X
As does Biden, which was the point of the comment. And does Putin come anywhere near the other two in terms of cupidity? I doubt it.
Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner visit Israel
Wodney
Lots and lots of free ladyboy catalogues. Spread them out through the entire non European male population as that should keep them busy. Look at you for instance.
AG
@Yolo304741
This is why the Democrats are scared.
Exactly this.
A quick question for the technerds amongst us – My modem is working in backup mode, what does that mean apart from ultra slow downloads and taking 20 minutes to download a video that takes 3 minutes to run. The ?frame rate? is 144p – not anywhere near video quality.
Buccaneer
Then he has virtually guaranteed that it will happen again, and maybe the ‘activist’ will get lucky. A bit too bloody late to ‘monitor the situation’
JC
Dec 21, 2023 10:21 PM
I said How? And you come back with your usual Red Neck Obtuse Abuse. What an intelligent response. NOT.
But typical of some one who wants more “Argy Bargy”.
Stiff shite Junior. Go to NYC for that crap.
Robert Sewell
Dec 21, 2023 10:29 PM
A quick question for the technerds amongst us – My modem is working in backup mode, what does that mean apart from ultra slow downloads and taking 20 minutes to download a video that takes 3 minutes to run. The ?frame rate? is 144p – not anywhere near video quality.
Get in the Time Machine and go Back to the Future. Then get Broadband,
“Vooking” and “Idiot” are two words that spring to mind!
Reading around blogs, if anyone thinks the US is going to be able to manufacture arms for the “free world” look up how many powder plants they have operating.
Here’s a start: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235055137_Optimizing_the_Capacity_and_Operation_of_US_Army_Ammunition_Production_Facilities
It’s a bushfire.
It’s December. It’s the bloody solstice ffs.
Let it burn.
Ferkin ruling class, why do they insist on incinerating our money upon the Sisyphean idiocy of trying to not ever burn a man-made, fire-dependant landscape?
Was in Vietnam three weeks ago. Everyone wants to run a small business. US dollars please. Everyone ignores the government, who are mostly useless. They were going that way when I was there last 15 years ago, and now are even more so.
Very odd place.
Central Banks & Complexity
And for Junior Cretin if this Poster has not fallen asleep yet –
QUESTION: Why do you seem to be the only analyst who understands central banking? My son got an internship at one of the major banks in New York during the summer. I won’t say which bank, but he asked a senior-level guy there about you and the interest rates, explaining I had been following you for years. He said you were the only one with international experience and who has ever advised multiple central banks. Is that the answer?
PK
ANSWER: Perhaps in part. But there is a massive gap between the experience of those of us who have dealt at high levels internationally and domestic analysts who always seem wrong calling the shots based on the headlines they read.
The number one problem is this fiction that the dollar is a fiat currency when, in fact, currency from the beginning of time has ALWAYS been valued NOT by its pure metal content but by who issued it. There has historically always been a premium to the currency of the dominant economy.
When Cyrus the Great conquered Lydia, he continued to strike coins of their design because they were highly regarded in international trade. We see the same with Roman coinage imitated in India when they, too, could have issued their own designs, but the Roman coinage carried a premium.
Even when the Barbarians were on the Northern frontier of Rome, they too took silver and struck imitations of Roman coins because they were worth more than the metal content. In 260AD, when emperor Valerian the Persians captured me, there was a Financial Panic of 260AD where bankers suddenly did not know if Roman coins would still be worth anything when there was no emperor.
Rain Money QEWhile everyone claimed hyperinflation would engulf the world because of Quantitative Easing (QE), I warned there would be no such inflation. Indeed, with QE, there was no inflation, and people then developed the Modern Monetary Theory, claiming that they could increase the money supply and it would not result in inflation.
The entire problem rests with the fact that these people not only did not understand the role of money but also failed to grasp international capital flows and how they play into the world economy. Because you can now buy US TBills and place them as collateral to trade with at a brokerage house, the debt is simply money that pays interest. BEFORE 1971, it was illegal to borrow against government bonds. For you see, if you could borrow against the bonds, that meant the bonds were part of the REAL money supply.
Once debt became cash that paid interest, that changed economics forever. I have said over and over again the Fed is NOT the problem, and it can not stop inflation with interest rates. The REAL money supply if the national debt, so if the Fed buys-in 30-year bonds and creates cash to do so, it is NOT increasing the money supply; it is increasing the liquidity – that is all. Swapping cash for bonds does not change the balance sheet. If you buy a house for $100,000 and pay cash, then you have merely converted your cash into an asset.
Now, it all depends upon the buyer. If I have a building and sell it to a fellow American for $10 million, it does NOT alter the domestic money supply. However, if I sell it to Brit, he brings in cash to buy the property, and that DOES INCREASE the money supply BECAUSE he has imported $10 million that did not previously exist within the domestic system.
This is a very complex topic that only those of us in international finance ever encountered. I helped the Japanese reduce their trade surplus for political reasons. I had them buy gold in New York, export it to London, and sell it there. The trade statistics only count dollars in and dollars out – not the product. Buying gold and exporting it reduced the trade deficit, and nobody understood anything.
Margaret Thatcher handled a lot of the takeover boys during the 1980s when they made the move about Wall Street. They never understood what I was doing. The stocker was way undervalued when you could buy a company, sell its assets, and double your money. I took it to another level. I ran the model on currencies, and we would then buy like all the Courage Pubs in England but borrow in Swiss in a currency that would decline against the asset. We were making 20% on the currency moves besides the asset values. I was restructuring companies selling assets in one currency to buy assets in another to create balance hedge portfolios. That’s how I became friends with Maggie Thatcher. She wanted to know who this guy was sending companies into Britain.
Maggie was one of the few world leaders who grasped what I was doing. She kept Britain out of the EU because she understood what and how I was restructuring multinational companies. They staged a coup against here to take the pound into the Euro, then Soros attacked the overvalued pound in the ERM, and John Major had to reverse the entire mess, making Soros very rich in the process.
I will get around to doing my memoirs. I understand what I was doing set the stage for the world economy post-1971 Bretton Woods. That’s why Milton Friedman bothered top listen to my lecture about currencies in Chicago.”
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/armstrongeconomics101/inflation/central-banks-complexity/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=RSS
And I have not used bold text once so as to help the Blog Owner. I’m nice like that.
JC
Dec 21, 2023 10:21 PM
All that you can contribute to this Blog is venom. You snake.
Several options here:
1. So-crates the supercompuda is 1800 years old;
2. Marty the fraud merchant, who did 11 years in the bin for fleecing the helpless is 1800 years old;
3. Marty the convicted criminal is 1800 years old;
4. Taking into account this gem – ‘In 260AD, when emperor Valerian the Persians captured me‘ – the ChatGPT is faulty.
Taking any of the options as anywhere near close to the mark, the entire works of this Ponzi schemer may be discounted as horseshit.
Oh yeah, I left that part out that interested you.
Catalogues of lots and lots of ladyboys with giant sized cocks. You once told us how you’ve always gone for that.
C.L.
Dec 21, 2023 8:56 PM
Correct and Game Over for the UKR. Next.
Blessed. I am a great Aunt again, to a very fat little girl, who is very loved and appears very contented. Happy Days
Surely it’s not as bad as contributing Marty Farts and constant talk of being attracted to huge appendages on ladyboys. Surely not.
JC
Dec 21, 2023 11:34 PM
Deluded as usual with a fertile imagination covered in manure and BS, Those NDIS Anger Management Classes are still not working for Australia or you. Waste of taxpayer money.
So, once again, how would you fix the issue? That one Up Fred. If you can see that far that is.
The Blog awaits…………………………………With baited breath.
Or maybe not as you are full of shite.
This one’s really funny, KD.
If this fraud was actually helping Japan buy gold in the US and sell it in London thereby reducing the US trade deficit. In the meaningful size the fraud is suggesting, it would also have blown up the UK trade surplus. It would’ve blown it sky high considering the disparity of the UK economy vs the US. Never happened and only someone who loves big cocks on ladyboys would believe such lowrent swill. In other words a crook who loves huge lasyboy cock.
2. Marty the fraud merchant, who did 11 years in the bin for fleecing the helpless is 1800 years old;
Maybe he’s the God-Emperor from Warhammer 40k.
JC
Dec 21, 2023 11:41 PM
Stay in NYC and have a chat with the KRUDD in DC. FFS.
Whoops
Should read
blown up the UK trade deficit.
Of course no one in the US and UK governments would’ve noticed that sort of thing and of course the strait laced Japanese government would also been open to that sort of subterfuge.
Whoops
Should read
blown up the UK trade deficit.
Of course no one in the US and UK governments would’ve noticed that sort of thing and of course the straight laced Japanese government would also been open to that sort of subterfuge.
…………………………..LOL
So, once again, how would you fix the issue? That one Up Fred. If you can see that far that is.
I love it how when you are challenged you keep avoiding the question. And then after plenty of challenges you conveniently ignore it.
Well, I won’t. So come on you fat arse short arse Big Nose Mafioso Bully. Answer the question. What would you do if it is apparently so easy?
The Blog and Nation awaits.
As we can see in this on page 2 , the UK trade account doesn’t appear to be molested by either subterfuge in gold sales, nor giant ladyboy cock.
https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1057/elmr.2010.5.pdf
So, once again, how would you fix the issue? That one Up Fred. If you can see that far that is.
The answer is that you have NFI.
I’m happy to explain it, but it comes at a cost, wodney:
1. No talk about much you love big cock on Thai ladyboys
2. No pasting Marty swill
for exactly one month. Can you do that for the blog?
JC
Dec 22, 2023 12:01 AM
All you can ever do is rabbit on as if you are some sort of Pompous Windbag. Oh, my goodness, which is just what you are. The Mouth from the South. A Sictorian no less. A fat arse Big Nose Mafioso Bully.
Back to NYC and good riddance.
New OT up.
Demands come at a cost wodney.
Which of the two couldn’t you agree to?
Let’s agree that we leave ladyboy one aside and agree you won’t paste the fraud’s bullshit for a month? I’m trying to be flexible.
Let’s do a deal here Wodney.
Amita H, houthi and Hezbollah aside
twits including Taleb are flooding x with the Jesus Christ was a Palestinian narrative, ‘genetically closer’ really?
crying about the open air prison has now shifted to what happened to our beautiful gaza?