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He's doing it for a reason. He WANTS an incident in LA so he has an excuse to stomp down harder. He would be thrilled if a protestor killed a cop or soldier. I know I sound like a broken record, but this is 1930's Germany all over again.

Well, it's happened. I have seen the light. I am a changed man, a convert, my eyes have been opened, and I see the error of my ways. Before you have concerns about my mental health, this is not a religious experience. But if I had been on the road to Damascus... it'd be astride a cruiser. As someone who's only ridden sports / sports tourers (Honda VFR750 x 2, Triumph Speed Triple, Suzuki VF750F - but that was a high-revving piece of shit) - I've always had a vague contempt for cruisers. You know, the standard stuff... they're too heavy, too slow, don't handle, can't corner, produce more noise than power, etc. However, while age doesn't always bring wisdom, it usually brings an appreciation for comfort, and a lesser appetite for risk. I'm not 20 anymore. I don't want to do 250kph, tucked down over the tank, or take corners at double the signposted recommendation. For a potted history of my riding, I started on a road/trail (Honda XL185) as my learner's bike at 18, moved to a VFR750 as soon as I had an open licence, and spent the next couple of decades (almost) riding the bikes listed above. When I became a dad at 36, I did the "responsible" thing - sold my bike and packed away the bone-dome and leathers. A while back @nomadpete said he was regretfully parting ways with his XV1100. I'd been feeling the need to start riding again (mid life crisis?) and after mulling it over for way too long, I mentioned this to my missus. To my surprise she fully supported me getting a bike, to the extent she told me to contact Peter there and then. I did, but unfortunately he'd already sold his machine a month before. A few days later however, this prince among men (still talking about Peter) messaged me with a Facebook ad for a Honda 750 Shadow. I had a look at the bike, took it for a test ride (now that was bloody scary, 17 years since I'd been on a bike and a totally different style), thought about it for a couple of days then bought it. She doesn't have a name yet (I was thinking of "H" names, like "Helen the Honda", but one of our neighbours is named Helen, so the phrase "I'm just off to ride Helen" might lead to some marital misunderstandings.) But she's 21 years old, all her chromework still looks great, and she sounds like a motorbike should. She's also very comfortable and easy to ride. This evening I rode to karate. While it was damn cold, it was a beautiful night and I really enjoyed the ride. This being my 4th ride on the bike, I'm starting to get more comfortable with her - although it'll still take a few more rides until I'm ready to have my wife on the back seat. So yes, I'm a cruiser convert. Apologies to all the Harley riders I've thought bad things about. (Only thought, because some of them are scary!) And yes, it's true. Her suspension is made for comfort, not corners. Around 80% of the engine output IS noise. (Very nice noise!) And she's much more comfortable gently swaying around curves at 60km/h than doing 110 up the highway. But now I think all those things are positive. Here she is. The photo doesn't do the colour justice - it's almost a candy apple red.

Gentlemen, I present to you, the new @Marty_d:

Another page from the fascist playbook . Remove the intellectuals, the free thinkers, anyone who may disagree with "maga" thought. Next it's jail anyone who will not bow to his power. This has already started by detaining immigrants and visitors to the USA, merely on impressions you are anti trump. Very scary stuff

Can they wait til he's meeting with his US puppet? Far more beneficial for the world if both are removed together.

I think everything with wings and a beak is descended from a small number of dinosaur species. Evolution has differentiated them into the massive and hugely successful avian world there is today. Mind-boggling when you consider the differences between a hummingbird and an emu or emperor penguin.

Blessed are the little dinosaurs. For they didn't inherit the earth.

Knowing that a bunch of people are "devious scheming fuckers" doesn't necessarily mean Litespeed has "unmitigated hatred" for them. (Not trying to speak for you Litespeed!) I agree with his depiction of them, and I don't hate them, just think they're wrong most of the time. When it comes to Trump and his cronies, well THERE I have unmitigated hatred. Does that equate me with the MAGA morons?

BREAKING: Donald Trump escalates his fascist assault on Harvard University as it leaks that the White House will soon send a letter to federal agencies ordering them to "identify any contracts with Harvard, and whether they can be canceled or redirected elsewhere." And it gets even worse... A senior administration official informed ABC News of the plans, which comes amidst Trump's escalating war against the legendary university. Harvard is still refusing to provide the MAGA administration with data on its international students, a bold and commendable decision. The letter, which ABC News acquired a copy of, claims that being a federal contractor "comes with the deep responsibility and commitment to abide by all federal laws and ensure the safeguarding of taxpayer money." It alleges that Harvard University "continues to engage in race discrimination, including in its admissions process and in other areas of student life," constituting yet another assault on DEI from this administration. ] Of course, these allegations are just pretext. Trump wants to bring Harvard to heel so that he can mutate it into another bastion of MAGA policy and thought. This is about his accumulation of raw power. The letter orders federal agencies to compile their list of Harvard contracts and suggest action to take by June 6th. The attacks have been relentless. Over the weekend, Trump launched another prong of his institutional siege by threatening to strip $3 billion in allocated funds from Harvard and funnel it to other schools. Last week, Harvard filed a lawsuit challenging Trump's authoritarian and blatantly unconstitutional executive ordered that barred the school from teaching international students. One need not care about Harvard as a school to care about this issue. This is a story about gross White House overreach, about a president who isn't content to simply tank the global economy with tariffs and alienate our allies on the world stage. He won't be satisfied until he controls every aspect of American society. If we don't stand up now, it will soon be too late to do anything at all. Facebook member group Occupy Democrats

Just announced that Jackie Lambie has retained her Senate seat against Pauline Hanson's daughter.

I must be special, then, the site lets me read everything on there with no subscription. Perhaps they insist that Tasmanians be kept in the dark, information-wise? 🙂 You can sometimes get around paywalls by clicking on the "Site information" menu at the start of the URL and by disabling Java. Here is the full text, courtesy of WAToday. It's an opinion piece by Chris Masters, who I think you would know, and who possesses some level of respect amongst the journalist set. OPINION: Roberts-Smith’s rabid band of supporters has an outspoken new member – Gina Rinehart Chris Masters Investigative journalist May 25, 2025 — 3.00am “What went on over there, stays over there.” “You can’t judge combat from the comfort of an armchair.” “What right have you to tear down our heroes?” “It’s war, for god’s sake.” Since the first public challenges to Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith’s reputation in 2017, those words, this retaliatory refrain, has been unrelenting and unchanged. All in the face of profound evidence revealing Australia’s most decorated living soldier is a war criminal. After last week’s 245-page rejection of Roberts-Smith’s Federal Court appeal and Justice Anthony Besanko’s 726-page ruling in 2023, the keen eyes of four judges have now found to a civil court standard that Roberts-Smith murdered four captives in Afghanistan. Under the Geneva Convention and Australia’s own laws of armed conflict, executing detainees is unlawful. But there are rules and there are norms, and the norms according to the “it’s war” apologists are based on an insiders’ “take no prisoners” realpolitik. Within the Defence diaspora, online debate runs hot and loud. The “I stand with Ben” brigade is undeterred by the court rulings. Brigadier Adrian d’Hage, former head of Defence public relations who was awarded a Military Cross for his service in Vietnam, is taking them on. And he’s far from alone among soldiers with combat experience disavowing the so-called realists’ justification for murder. “That is not the way we fight. We have a long and hard-won reputation as being feared fighters, but fighters who engage according to the Geneva Convention,” d’Hage says. Given many critics’ apparent aversion to examining those pages, here is a distillation of key evidence. On April 13, 2009, Ben Roberts-Smith kicked an old man to his knees and instructed a junior soldier, in an exercise of “blooding”, to shoot him in the head. Soon after, he frogmarched a second Afghan man fitted with a prosthetic leg, threw him to the ground, and killed him with a burst of machine gun fire. On October 12, 2012, a third unarmed and detained man was executed by an Afghan partner force member upon Roberts-Smith’s instruction. And on November 11, 2012, Ali Jan, a father of three with no established links to the Taliban, was handcuffed and kicked over a small cliff by Roberts-Smith, who then ordered two comrades to drag him to cover, where he was shot dead. At numerous speaking events, Age investigative journalist Nick McKenzie and I have argued the following: It is morally wrong to kill or order the execution of captives. It is strategically wrong because it turns the population further against your mission. All those Australian soldiers bravely patrolling the fields of Uruzgan as a protective force against the Taliban were placed at greater risk. And it is wrong to force an act upon a fellow soldier so destructive of conscience and self-respect. Soldiers who have earned the Special Air Service Regiment’s sandy beret are rightly proud. When they returned to civilian life as psychological wrecks because of what they saw and did, as did occur, the damage was obvious. From my own observation, the self-harm to the regiment was the main reason for a brave group of Special Air Service Regiment soldiers to speak up. Nick and I both know they did so with extreme reluctance, all under subpoena, because of a view within the ranks that dobbing in your mate was a worse sin than exposing a war crime. That view was shared by members of the uber wealthy. Billionaire Kerry Stokes has spent millions on Roberts-Smith’s case. Multi-millionaire John Singleton funded a full-page newspaper advertisement describing attacks on the war hero as “disgraceful”. And now Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart, is quoted querying why this “brave and patriotic man” should be “under such attack”. I can only wonder what is in their minds. Do they believe that in their real world, ruthlessness is a necessity that should be honoured? Last December, my brother Roy and I spoke to a well-heeled audience of Aussie expats in Singapore. We were warned ahead of time that there would be a pro-Roberts-Smith sentiment and opposition expressed to our reporting. The day before, Roy and I had walked the grounds of the Alexandra Hospital. We found a small plaque commemorating the massacre of 250 patients and staff by Japanese forces on February 14, 1942. I spoke the next day of the shock that is still felt about those helpless victims being dragged into the garden and bayonetted to death. And I asked how we could condemn the Japanese while excusing our own. There was no answer. I am with Albert Camus, who said: “In such a world of conflict, a world of victims and executioners, it is the job of thinking people not to be on the side of the executioners.” Chris Masters is a Gold Walkley award-winning journalist and author. He was the first Australian journalist to be embedded with special forces in Afghanistan.

The Maga movement is a far right cult. It's the modern equivalent of the Brownshirts in 1930s Germany. The rest of the USA needs to wake up and fight this movement before it's too late. Their democracy is already fractured by this evil man and his followers. It will shatter completely if they don't stand up to it

But fossil-fuelled vehicles are equally useless! So much for the anti-EV brigade rant. All the people drowned drove their fossil-fuelled vehicles into deep floodwaters. EV's have the same fording depth ability as fossil-fuelled vehicles. I was sitting on 120kmh in my diesel Hilux on the freeway yesterday, heading North to Muchea, when a Tesla came up behind me, going faster. He pulled up level with me for a minute, then took off in an acceleration spurt, that no fossil-fuelled vehicle could ever achieve. The HP ratings of some of the more powerful EV's put IC engines to shame. In floods, there's not much use for any currency, either cash or electronic. You're just looking for food and drinkable water, and hopefully find some rescuer prepared to provide them for free. Money doesn't come into it when rescuing people from life-threatening disasters.

The hate is growing.

Interesting fact: A shark will only attack you if you are wet.

I have 2 Chinese made inverters. Probably around 90% of all home rooftop solar systems have Chinese made inverters. As with almost everything you buy now you register the warranty and provide your Email address and other contact details. My units are connected via WiFi to my network and when I log in to the web enabled system to check production statistics that information is accessible if required by the manufacturer. I am pretty sure that the warranty registration process has this specified. Everything I have purchased in the last few years has an on-line product registration process where your email and other contact details are stored. The manufacturer is more interested in selling more of their products and improving performance to stay ahead of their competitors than spying on you. In my case and it would be the same for the vast majority of other consumers of these products they would not find anything worth while & if they were able to do something even remotely strange and it was found out that would be the end of them.

That's a laugh. The most corrupt criminal in the whole country is Trump himself.

There is a movement in California to succeed. This would be good for California but bad for the US Here's why the state wants to become an independent country Of the $4.67 trillion in revenue from the states in 2023, over 35% came from the nation's four most populous states: California (12.2% of the total), Texas (8.9%), New York (8.0%), and Florida (6.7%) g I think it would be good for California to cut loose the anti-intellectual red states, who educationally and financially are not pulling their weight. The situation 8in California is not a state of emergency. This is political theatre from the man (and a dress rehearsal for the rest of the country) who pardoned the Jan 6 mob, where people actually died. The reason people are kicking up against the ICE raids is that "we are only going after criminals" has proved to be bulshit. Using the military against their population is crossing a dangerous line usually reserved for dictatorships.

Imagine what we could do if the $380B was kept here, and invested into Australian defence manufacturing. I reckon conventional subs will become obsolete, as tanks have become in this age of drone warfare, and remotely-controlled unmanned mini-subs such as the Huntingdon version will become the norm for underwater stealth activities. They can't get sub crews at the best of times, it's the next best thing to a kamikaze mission during wartime. We have the Australian-designed Ghost Shark mini-sub under development here, the Govt need to wake up and understand that buying war equipment now, for delivery in 20 or 30 years time, is about on a par with ordering a hundred Sopwith Camels in 1919 for use in WW2. We had enough of a problem with obsolete equipment in 1939. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Shark_(submarine) https://www.defensemirror.com/news/33048/Huntington_Ingalls_Unveils_Remus_620_UUV

Let me think... The US has a deal whereby some insignificant country promises to give them billions of US greenbacks for subs that they don't even have to provide. Good for US? You bet it is.

But now that he has trashed the system of checks and balances (regardless of its shortcomings), there is no control over subsequent dictator types. Then the only rule left will apply:- 'Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely' (or something like that)

Even though He's a SOD I don't go with the "shoot them" concept. I don't even go with the death penalty. Nev

Albo to the rescue?? I'd really like to see Albo rescue Australia from the grip of AUKUS. And from reliance on a rogue state (USA), for our defence purchases.

That was taken from my kitchen window.. we look down on the pheasants... er... peas....ants 😉 We shoot one of them.. just can't remember which 😜

The fossil fuel Farm Boy is going to get a shock soon. "Twiggy" Forrest has just purchased 360 huge battery-powered dump trucks, 55 battery-powered giant excavators and 60 new battery electric bulldozers from Liebherr, with the intention of being fossil-fuel free on his iron ore mines by 2030. That's really putting your money where your mouth is. Farm Boy is going to end up whingeing (they're good at that) about how he can't compete with his fossil-fuel tractors, when farmers with battery-powered tractors are running rings around him with lower operating costs. https://reneweconomy.com.au/fortescue-strikes-4-billion-deal-for-electric-trucks-and-dozers-to-eliminate-fossil-fuels-at-giant-mines/

The ABC is going to rebroadcast that series "Walking with Dinosaurs", starting on 3rd June. The advertising blurb talks about the monstrous beasts that ruled the planet. But what about the little dinosaurs? We all know about the leviathan dinosaurs, but surely there must have been heaps more little ones running around under the feet of the big ones. Just think of the plains of Africa and North America in present times. There are hundreds of big animals, but do we ever hear of the little ones? The have to be there. And back in the Age of Dinosaurs, there had to be little ones. I bet that mammals didn't evolve from 50 tonne behemoths. Those big animals were at the end of their evolutionary development. Let's give our support to Compsognathus, a "chicken-sized" dinosaur. Compsognathus longipes is one of the few dinosaur species whose diet is known with certainty: the remains of small, agile lizards are preserved in the bellies of both specimens so far discovered.

Don't get all carried away. You still have a Sav to finish.

You don't want to know my 4-word mantra when I see Donald Trump

I like Jackie, rough as guts, but her heart's in the right place, and she comes out with some spot-on assessments.

My brothers 85 in September, and he's still going just fine. He's had a major prostate operation, and had a knee reconstruction, in the last 12-18 mths, and he reckons he's better now, than he was 15 years ago. Meantimes, I'm watching associates, former employees and former clients drop off the perch in their 60's and early 70's! I just turned 76, and I've still got 10 solid years of shed building and machinery restoration work in front of me! I can't possibly depart now, or anytime soon! 😄

Trump thrives on all the lightweight stuff, he's as shallow as a birdbath in midsummer. He's a BS-artist of the highest level, has zero credibility as regards anything he says or promises ("I will end the Ukraine War on Day One"), totally reverses decisions in breathtakingly rapid time, is totally consumed by his own opinions, and is easily influenced or changes direction merely by stroking his ego. But by far, the most frightening part of Trumps personality is the way he worships wealth and uses the Presidency as a simple extension of his business aims. His promotion of cryptocurrency (the favourite haunt of drug syndicates and global crime gangs) and his constant massaging of the uber-wealthy, should be ringing alarm bells all through the U.S. Govt and legal circles. Trump dinners with billionaires - https://www.wired.com/story/people-paying-millions-donald-trump-mar-a-lago/ But no-one does anything about it, because he also thrives on bullying, abuse and threatening behaviour that is exacerbated by the massive power he wields. His use of "executive orders" is frightening, he's found he can use "executive orders" to do anything he wants, and uses them to bypass all the normal Governmental controls. In times past, Presidential executive orders were rarely used, and only in extreme cases of urgent and critical decision-making. Roosevelt was the only other big user of executive orders, but Roosevelt was a humanitarian individual and did what was needed to assist his fellow Americans. Roosevelt only used the majority of his executive orders during the Great Depression and during WW2, periods that did require urgent and major decisions.

... Or start the bargaining at $2k/ton plus 40% tariff so he thinks he's getting a bargain.

I've had a ripper of a day today. First I went to Woolies to get some groceries. Several of the things I wanted were on really great specials - better that 50% off. Then I went to Officeworks to buy a new desk chair. I got one on Clearance that was originally priced at $449 for $149, which was the amount I had intended spending on a chair. On the way home I popped into a hardware store to see if they had the type of insulation I want to put into a wall. I've been chasing this stuff at Bunnings outlets all over the place without success. The hardware store I went to has enough for my needs and they say it's a slow mover. I couldn't get a pack because the back of my car was filled with the new desk chair.

Everyone sees Trump as a joke.

My paternal grandfather never sat down to a meal without a long neck bottle of Vic Bitter on the table, and rolled his own cigarettes, Havelock tobacco and Tally Ho papers. My father did not drink or smoke. If he went to a pub, he drank sarsaparilla. My two sons don't smoke, but have a drink occasionally. The elder of the two worked as a barman in a number of hotels and nightclubs years ago. The younger one has managed a couple of pubs over a period of 25 years, and has been manager and part owner of a pub in Ascot Vale for more than 15 years. See photo. My late wife and I at dinner at the Union hotel.

Bit off topic there.. Back to Batteries. The clean Future of personal transport free of the OIL monopoly and a local product for the fuel source. Independent of many manipulative Fossil fuel protaganists wedded to profits from an inefficient use of a limited and polluting resource imported and not secure. Nev

This was presented as a joke on FB, but I bet there's more than a hint of truth to it, knowing American education. Billy comes home from school very upset that he got zero for geography. His mother says, "What was the question?" Billy says, "Where is Portugal?" His mother says "It can't be too far away." and gets out a map of the suburb. After looking all over the map, and not finding Portugal, she gets a map of the region. After the same result, she looks at a map of the state Still no Portugal. She says, "I'm going down to speak to that teacher. There is no Portugal anywhere. Our maid comes from Portugal and she rides here every day on her bike."

What he's bragging about as `deals' are mostly memoranda of understanding, which are a long way from hard currency contracts.

Many of the original media articles are totally wrong, misleading, and alarmist. There are no "Chinese solar panels with kill switches", it's a huge beat up. The truth of the matter is, some Chinese inverters have been discovered to have electronic components in them, that are not listed on the bill of materials in the components list. This was only discovered when communication security checks were being done on Govt installations that had installed the Chinese inverters. No-one has yet produced any evidence that the devices found were nefarious, had inbuilt shut-down abilities, or were even installed by the manufacturers. They could have been installed by anyone, anywhere, along the manufacturing, transport, or installation trail. The electronics experts are still trying to figure out the purpose and operational abilities of the devices. They may simply be wi-fi devices that send back equipment usage information to the manufacturer to enable the manufacturer to determine usage methods, styles, modes, etc, that enables the manufacturer to gain insight into how the device is used, and to enable the manufacturer to improve performance, or to add desirable features to a new improved model. I have a Canon printer that does just that. Canon ask you when you set the printer up, if you will allow the printer to send aggregated usage information and other data back to Canon occasionally, so Canon can identify methods of usage and modes, that will improve their knowledge of how the printer is used. Every now and then, when I'm using the printer, a pop-up message appears saying the printer is sending information to Canon. All printer operation stops while this is being done (about 5-8 seconds), and then the the pop-up window disappears and printing operations can then be resumed. Canon stress that no identifiable personal information is being sent to Canon - and really, I don't care too much if it is, anyway - what is Canon going to do with a small amount of information about me, that only relates to how I use my printer? It's not like it contains my licence or banking details. If there are unspecified wi-fi devices in the inverters, that are used in critical infrastructure, then that certainly raises questions as to why they're not listed, and what they're capable of. I'm sure the electronics and communication security people will be right onto it. I'd have to say its simply a possible lapse in documentation - after all, the operations manuals will be in Chinglish!

For a quick getaway I suspect.