kgwilson

And he is calling on all his nutter followers to Protest. The information is not from any official channel but from illegal leaks. Trumps legal team say that he has based his post on media reports so that is probably fox news. Trumps says it is from illegal leaks from a corrupt and highly political Manhattan DAs office & his lawyer says that "the district attorney's office has engaged in a practice of leaking everything to the press, rather than communicating with President Trump's attorneys as would be done in a normal case". I reckon this new lawyer Susan Necheles is about as smart as Rudy Giuliani & Sydney Powell & various others who have been indicted themselves.

There are so many guns in the US that when they go to "protect democracy" in a place they weren't even asked to go, there are guns everywhere there too so it is the same as home but they make sure theirs are the biggest ones.

Nothing like this surprises me in a country where a large percentage of the population still think Trump won the election and know little about what happens in the rest of the world or even where the other countries are.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, told reporters at a press briefing that it was likely that the drone broke apart upon impact in the Black Sea, in 1,219-1,524 metres of water, and would be difficult to recover. "There's probably not a lot to recover, frankly, as far as the loss of anything of sensitive intelligence, etcetera. As normal, we would take, and we did take, mitigating measures," General Milley said. "So we are quite confident that whatever was of value is no longer of value." From that statement above The US isn't too worried. Part of the design is built in self destruct mechanisms. That, including how deep the water is plus the corrosive effects of salt water on electronics will likely mean the Russian will learn virtually nothing.

Right through trumps presidency, Pence was known as trumps poodle. While he made the right decision on Jan 6, he should have given trump a serve at the time as it was his and his family's lives that were threatened. He was gutless then & waiting 2 years to make a statement criticising trump is almost as gutless.

Russian Telegram channels have also been reporting that field commanders have been refusing to follow orders around Vuhledar where they lost an entire brigade of 140 vehicles including 36 tanks a few weeks ago. Basically it is a mutiny because after the loss, the high command decided to send soldiers to the front line in vehicles, drop them there and leave. They would be left in groups of 10-15 men as infantry and were cut down easily by the Ukrainian defenders. The 155th Naval Infantry brigade and regular Army Cossacks refused to follow orders when the moron Shoigu instructed the Eastern commander to take Vuhledar at any cost. After seeing what happened to their mates it was obey and certain death or mutiny and maybe survive. Shoigu went to the area and organised new troops to the front so Ukraine sent a few Himars in to Berdiansk, Yakymivka & Melitopol where they were assembling as a "welcome to the front" present.

I got refuelled by a truck at Parkes, one of the rare times I have used Avgas. The refueller asked how much and I said it'll probably take 50 litres as the tank was close to half full. The blokes helper pulled the hose out before the pump had completely stopped so I got Avgas all over the front deck. The quality of their filling process was pretty poor. Hopefully the quality of the fuel was better.

Simple statements but spot on.

I bought a new Hilux Ute fitted with an aluminium Toyota made tray in 09 when the government was allowing full write off for tax when purchased. I had an aluminium fabrication business in Noosaville & we made racks to carry long things on top as well like 4-5 metre slatted driveway gates. The sides and rear folded down for over sized items & the rear rack was bolted to the chassis through the tray floor so it was flat when the rack was removed. The business still has that Ute & the tray is still in good working order so it was really good for what we used it for. We carted glass balustrade and pool fence panels, stainless steel posts and panels as well as aluminium everything. The 2.7 litre petrol engine is on its 3rd time round the clock & there is no rust in the body even though it lives right on the coast.

They also fall down stairs all the time and rarely open a window without falling out. Some that have done these things weren't even drunk, they just didn't see or weren't able to resist who pushed them.

All the current twin cab utes have grown huge, Ugly and tall. This includes Ford Rangers, Mazda BTs, Toyota Hiluxes etc and are all trying to look like ugly American pickups like to F250 & RAM. The top of the tailgate is at shoulder height or higher in some models, but still with a pathetically short tray. They are nothing like the Japanese UTEs of the 90s or early 2000s or the best of them all Holden & Falcon utes that drove like a car with the tray space capacity of a truck.

Until this recent change in company philosophy Toyota was on the road to bankruptcy. Hybrids are expensive and not very efficient and appeal to people with range anxiety and who deep down don't really think that the EV revolution will kill off ICE transportation. The advances in battery technology in just the past couple of years has been astounding. The price of Lithium has gone through the roof and with Sodium now rivalling Lithium for energy density at less that 1/3 of the cost so most new EVs will be using this in the near future. CATL is now mass producing Sodium batteries. Not only that the first solid state EVs are rolling off the assembly line. Average range has more than doubled in the last couple of years as well as charge times with 350 KW super chargers appearing. Toyota got to the very top with its range of vehicles and the best reliability but like all things being there breeds complacency while rivals diversify and catch up and eventually overtake. It may be too late for Toyota to maintain its position especially with the huge development going on in China. Tesla still holds No 1 spot in technology, manufacturing and sales and doesn't look like relinquishing this for some time yet.

Trump is just a delusional con man. He appeals to all the moronic, religious, conspiracy theory, nut jobs that inhabit the US Southern States. He used his fathers wealth to con his way through life and he really believes his own lies. The only God in the US is money & when Fox News began to lose viewers they changed horses in mid stream with their anchors even admitting they knew the whole thing was bullshit while pushing the outrageous claims by Giuliani and that completely unhinged Sidney Powell. And yet the lawsuits continue and the idiots keep popping up when they should have all been incarcerated long ago.

I note that the Chinese have risen from the bottom to almost the top just behind Japan as the worlds largest car exporter and as far as manufacturing goes they are by far the largest. Only 3 or 4 years ago Great Wall and MG were pretty crappy. Now they are joined by a myriad of other Chinese brands & the MG4 electric vehicle has been hailed as the best medium EV in the world by many motoring writers. They still make some shocking crap with stupid claims and heaps of fake stuff especially mobile phones & electronic stuff but pay a reasonable price and you get very good quality. China is now the undisputed world factory for consumer goods. Their efforts to get into the very top echelon of semi conductor production has so far not been able to match silicon valley & US designed chips are produced in Taiwan & South Korea, but they are not far behind and may catch up & surpass the US before we know it. It is all pretty scary but there is one big issue & that is they rely on their income from the West. If the US & Europe stopped buying Chinese made stuff and started making everything again that they now get made in China, the Chinese economy would collapse totally. That of course will never happen but with the now realisation of what is happening with the rise of Chinas political and military might, the mad scramble to reduce the reliance on China is beginning in earnest.

The paid parental leave bit threw me so I checked. In both NZ & Australia you can get paid parental leave shared between partners. It is for 18 weeks in Australia & up to 52 weeks in NZ. It is means tested in Australia but not in NZ & there it starts at week 36 of pregnancy. If you have money you can get the very best education in the world in the US, but then that is how everything works in the US. There are some safety nets but often they are hard to find and many fall through the gaps. Australia seemed keen to emulate the US system while the Lib/Nats were in the box seat and the original social welfare process has been eroded steadily for quite a number of years. Things may begin the level out again but cost and demands for so many things that were not issues many years ago will ensure little change.

Ordinary Russians especially older people have seen worse times under Soviet rule but they are continually fed lies about the West and only see what State propaganda allows them to on TV which is based on being attacked by the West and defence of the motherland. Putins support is very high amongst these people and they believe they are being attacked by Nazis and now by LGBTQI+ Nazis. They also have something in common with the US poor. Most are devoutly religious and believe their god will provide. Yeah right. The educated, intelligent and informed Russians have mostly fled the country if they don't have major family ties keeping them there. Authoritarian regimes have almost all got where they are by eliminating intellectuals, academics, political challengers and top religious leaders. The Russians are masters of this from centuries of practice. Stalin got rid of 20 million.

The 60c a kWh nearly sent the NSW Government broke back in 2010 as the uptake has massive and thousands of Solar installations of only about 1.5 kW were getting cheques in the mail instead of a bill. It was stopped immediately but those who had contracts for I think 5 years kept getting the credits for that time. I installed my system in 2014 & while it is only 2kW I still export half of what I produce but now the feed in tariff is only 5.5 cents a kWh.

Classic pincer movement to encircle troops, cut off supplies and exit routes. Used very successfully in WW2 by both the Germans & Soviets & also to destroy the German counter attack in Normandy which led to the liberation of France.

Don't forget that the US & the UK are members of NATO as well. The UK has somewhat been relegated to a lesser power since WW2 but they still have a very professional Army, Navy and Air Force and produce some very formidable weaponry as well as being an independent Nuclear power. BAE Systems is the worlds 3rd largest armaments producer and their latest Dreadnought class nuclear submarines are supposed to be better than anything else with Rolls Royce producing some of the best safest hi tech mini nuclear reactors. At present there are some 10,000 Ukrainians in the UK being trained with some of the trainers supplied by the Australian Defence force. These are practical support processes. The US has some of the best equipment and armaments and they seem content to keep throwing money at the war (while absolutely needed) rather than any real practical assistance other than some "How to use training".

The US & Western Europe make up well over half of Chinas trading so sanctions against them by China will hurt China as much as them, probably more. With Chinas rapid rise to become the worlds factory so has the cost of manufacture there with the increase in labour costs so manufacturing is shifting to places like Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and of course India. While Western businesses get masses of things made in China, it is to a specification they have supplied and they still have the capability to manufacture it at home though most of the manufacturing infrastructure is gone and would need to be re-established or outsourced to other countries. China does make good stuff but makes masses of cheap rubbish over specified copies. Xi Jinping is not stupid & while he wants to keep in Putins good books, any direct involvement by supplying Putin with weapons is very risky and I don't think he will go that far.

Just like the pre-D-Day inflatable stuff in 1944 that helped fool the Germans into thinking the invasion was going to be at Calais. This time though the Russians know that some are fake. The problem for them is to know which ones will bite.

There were several unsuccessful attempts on Hitlers life during WW2 and the entire Western World & the USSR was at war with Germany. The attempts were all internal. No-one could get near the arsehole. Putler is the same. He is totally paranoid about his security. If it happens it will have to be an inside job by a suicide jockey. Putin just organises for anyone who he thinks is becoming a threat to fall down stairs or out a window. Hitler wasn't that subtle. They were summarily shot.

2ks over. How do they account for speedo error? I know all speedos are supposed to read over the limit but some are pretty accurate. Accuracy changes with tyre wear as well. I don't know about Victoria but a speedo check is not part of the annual inspection in NSW.

If you have ever been to Jackson Bay, the furthest South you can go by motor vehicle (4WD minimum) on the West Coast of the South Island of NZ you will know what a sandfly bite is like. The buggers are huge. They put their bum up & head down and suck blood out by the litre & there are about 10,000 per cubic metre of air. I met a helicopter pilot there who was recovering deer shot in the mountains for the venison export market back in the 1980s. He told me he was refuelling and put 20 litres of fuel into his chopper before he realised it was actually a Jackson Bay sandfly. The stories are as tall as the mountains down there.

True. They all have lethal proboscis, but nothing bites with its bum.