Here's the first one I've heard of.

Trump to impose 200% tariff on John Deere products manufactured in Mexico. The basis of Trump's decision is that by moving production to Mexico, John Deere is removing jobs from the USA. John Deere's decision is based on the bottom line. This despie John Deere being a massively profitable company already.

Also at the moment John Deere is embroiled in a number of consumer initiated civil suits arising from its refusal to release fixes for software bugs in its vehicle operating systems. If something controlled by the software glitches, John Deere technicians are the only ones who have the digital keys to get into the software to debug it. Imagine being in the middle of harvesting many thousands of hectares of crop and you can't continue because you have to wait for a technician to travel from a depot out to the machine in the field. Not only are you up for the cost of the service call, but you lose due to down time. 

So, here goes....

I'll kick off with a link to a news mob I've never heard of. 

https://tomorrowsaffairs.com/the-transnational-dimension-of-theepstein-casea-hybrid-warfare-against-the-west

My curiosity is particularly piqued by the fact that nobody has officially delved into Epstein's banking records. I did think that it would be an important part of analysing any (possibly) corrupt/criminal case?

Since 2021, over 2000 home builders have gone into liquidation, two in just this last week in Victoria, including some of the biggest. The problems have been shortage of tradesmen and supplies, with some builders more than $2 mil in debt.

But the government(s) want to force older homeowners to downsize, and add additional taxes onto landowners who are not developing the land they own. With builders going out of business, who is going to develop this land to provide the housing? Where are the building materials coming from? These additional taxes add to the inflation, which will increase interest rates, further complicating the problem, making homebuying more out of range and rental rates out of the reach  of people who already can't afford to rent.   

This will draw the ire of everyone here, but I think to a degree, she is right. It is part of their religion to eliminate all infidels, ie, non Muslim. Their Imams preach it in their Mosques. There may be many Muslims who would not go that far, but how would you know. Any religion or nationality is welcome if they accept others on an equal basis, but if they want to change us to their way of thinking they should be removed. If they want that kind of existence, there are many other places in the world that provide that. If it is so good, why did they come here in the first place?

A sinkhole appeared at AJ Burkitt Oval in the Banyule Flats Reserve in Heidelberg on Monday evening. 

At present we have the State of Israel and the Islamic Republic of Iran using military weapons against each other, and very often without consideration for the safety of non-combatants. I have not heard that a declaration of war has been issued  by either Nation. So are they engaged in a war, or are they ignoring International Law. 

I suppose that if they are not signatories to those laws, they both can do what they like, but their actions put them outside the pale of acceptable, civilised behaviour.

What gets me is that the government of the State of Israel claims that it is acting in self defence, however I see no invading army crossing its borders. In the 21st Century, does the word “invasion” now mean  an aerial crossing  of a border by destructive devices?

If it is, the next question is.... is somebody planning to 'turn it into glass' in order to bring peace to these troubled places?

A third of the U.S. naval fleet parking on the doorstep, is probably unsettling to the inhabitants of Iran.

Some of Australia’s most valuable and historically significant military landholdings are now up for grabs, including Victoria Barracks in Sydney’s exclusive Paddington and its Melbourne counterpart, as well as the birthplace of the RAAF, Williams Base at Point Cook. Theis is an operating airfield and home of the RAAF Museum

In days of yore, kings, emperors and other governing bodies facilitated trade across distance by producing tokens (coins) to which they assigned a nominal value, usually based on a set amount of the valuable physical item. Evenutally the valuable physical item came to be a metal. The metal could be gold, silver, copper or an alloy such as bronze. The common feature of the item was that it could be used to produce other things such as jewellery in the case of gold and silver, or simpler objects in the case of copper and bronze. The value of the item was related to a predetermined value of the metal, and that value was set by the producer of the item. 

As the populations of the regions using coins increased, and the amount of trade carried on over large distances increased, the amount of valuable physical material available to produce coins lessened. Also as the value of transaction increased, it became difficult to carry large weights of coins over long distances. So 'paper money' was invented.  Paper money was first used in China in the 7th century A.D.  Like modern banking, individuals would deposit coins with a trustworthy party and receive a note indicating the amount. The note could then be redeemed for currency at a later date. In other words, the note was backed by actual physical items. 

Eventually global trade grew to such levels that governments could not continue to meet the promise of exchanging note for valuable physical items made of "precious" metals. This lead to the adoption of fiat currencies and fiat money. In monetary economics, fiat money is an intrinsically valueless object or record that is accepted widely as a means of payment. Accordingly, the value of fiat money is greater than the value of its metal or paper content. Fiat money generally does not have intrinsic value nor a use value. It has value only because the individuals who use it (as a unit of account or, in the case of currency, a medium of exchange) agree on its value. They trust that it will be accepted by merchants and other people as a means of payment for liabilities.

From 1944 to 1971, the Bretton Woods agreement fixed the value of 35 United States dollars to one troy ounce of gold. The Bretton Woods system required countries to guarantee convertibility of their currencies into U.S. dollars with the dollar convertible to gold bullion for foreign governments and central banks.  Other currencies were calibrated with the U.S. dollar at fixed rates: for example the pound sterling traded for many years within a narrow band centred on US$2.80. The Bretton Woods system was ended by what became known as the Nixon shock, a series of economic changes by United States President Richard Nixon in 1971. These changes included unilaterally canceling the direct convertibility of the United States dollar to gold. Since then, a system of national fiat monies has been used globally, with variable exchange rates between the major currencies.

In modern economies, relatively little of the supply of  money is physical currency. For example, in December 2010 in the U.S., of the $8,853.4 billion of money supply in all forms , only $915.7 billion (about 10%) consisted of physical coins and paper money

So now, all those trillions of dollars spoken of in relation to international and domestic debt are simply numbers in ledgers. Their actual worth relies solely on the promises of the buyer to pay the seller what is owed. Global debt reached a record high of nearly $346 trillion by the third quarter of 2025, driven by surging government borrowing in both developed and emerging markets. This figure represents over 300% of global GDP. That means that roughly only $115 trillion in debt could be met through productivity. The remaining $230 trillion is Scotch mist.

What have I (and we) done wrong?

We are always guilty until proven innocent - it's about time that stopped.

In the past fortnight Laws/Regulations have been made in two areas relating to firearms and "hate speech". Assuming that they have been assented to by the Crown, they are enforceable. But can you quote them, or even have no 'ignorance' of them? If we must know, in detail, what these laws and regulations cover, then it is incumbent on the governments which made them to provide the necessary information to all persons who would have to comply with them. Maybe a campaign should be started to force our lawmakers to set up the facilities to provide that information.

How many times have we heard "We will never let terrorist attacks change us or divide us"?

https://7news.com.au/news/chris-minns-makes-shocking-call-for-heritage-listed-bondi-footbridge-at-the-centre-of-alleged-terror-attack-c-21304192

Leave the bridge as it is, lets not cave in to anyone, or group.

It is implied in the attached news report that the position of Ambassador will not be a 'job for the boys'. It might be filled by a career Pu8blic Servant who has the wide ranging skills needed to deal with international relations.

Are we getting too americanised?

Should our coppers carry assault rifles like in USA?

What think you?

But times are a-changing.

A new kid on the block is catching up. And at the same time, warfare and weaponry is changing whilst USofA don't appear to be keeping up.

Think how Ukraine has rapidly changed the whole approach to war, and doing very well at it.

And the chinese are building a bigger military threat of their own.

Let me say that I see ideas like restricting the total number of fireams held by an individual as being dificult to manage. Don't forget that the authroities only know about the registered firearms held by the community. We know that there are very many unregistered firearms in the community. Once again, any restriction on total number of firearms owned will only impinge on owners who are following current laws.

How many is too many? A person might reasonably own several different types of firearms. Maybe one shotgun for hunting and another for target shooting. Maybe a centrefire rifle for kangaroos and another for pigs. And don't forget the .22 for rabbits and foxes.

The first step that I fully agree with is the unification of records kept by States and Territories relating to licensed persons and registered guns. In this digital age unifying those records might only require the transfer of existing records from one database to another. It might need a bit of program development, but for years fingerprint records have been linked across States and Territories.

Firearms licences only for Australian citizens???? Look at the ages of young Middle Eastern men using firearms in the drug and illicit tobacco wars. They are no doubt Australian citizens, having been born here.

Here's the criteria:

a child born in Australia gains citizenship if at least one parent is an Australian citizen or permanent resident at the time of birth; otherwise, they aren't automatically a citizen, but can acquire it on their 10th birthday if they've lived in Australia for their first 10 years.

Protecting society from the misuse of firearms is an impossibility through laws, be they equitable or restrictive. Before slamming down on firearm ownership, careful consideration must be made of the consequences of any regulations proposed.

Only this bunch of losers (and I lump together both major parties and the spineless independents who voted yes) could take leave of their senses, bend the entire state over a barrel, and pimp our collective arse to the AFL.

Only they could ignore the planning experts and every economist, all of whom comprehensively rejected this monstrosity, and approve something which will cost well over $1b, bring in revenue of less than half of that, dominate the historic Hobart waterfront, and has no parking or public transport. Oh, and when in use will block up traffic on the busiest street in the city.

At a time when Tasmania is already holding historic levels of debt, just been downgraded by S&P, and is crying out for staff and services in health, education and justice.

This guy puts it better than I ever could.

Victoria, stop complaining about your state government, I think we've got it worse right now.

https://www.crikey.com.au/2025/12/04/tasmania-macquarie-point-stadium-cost/

An alien traveller marooned on planet earth would do the following:

1. Use his superior technical knowledge to make innovations that generated lots of money.
2. Gain control of the media so he could manage the story about himself and limit any leaks about the truth.
3. Build space communication devices that could send a distress signal and, when needed, call down a mother ship.
4. Build political connections to suppress information about alien objects in the sky.
5. Develop rockets that could, eventually, carry him back to the mother ship.

This is not a movie script. It is happening.

Despite being the English equivalent of Pauline Hanson, and being a major force in Brexit which the majority of poms now feel some regret for, this idiot is polling high enough for the words "possible future prime minister" to be muttered adjacent to his name.

There have been several articles recently about people's recollections of him at school, which he is attempting to deny, obfuscate and minimize.

This is one ... Have a read and tell me whether this sounds like a suitable leader of old Blighty.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/25/dont-believe-nigel-farage-denials-targeted-me-for-being-jewish-and-it-hurt