Jerry_Atrick

Ha Ha.. When I told my son, as I was going to bring him over as well, his response was, "Great, dad! Can I have the £800 you were going to spend on me?"

Looks like getting to Aus will take a little longer:

My next car is a BEV... Many people I know are getting them.. Petrol and Diesel cars are on their way out - at least in China and Europe. Range anxiety is a less of a concern now and it will keep decreasing. It was never my concern. My concern is the time and money I invest in this house.

If you buy Apple for anytjing other than aethetics these days, you're being ripped off. They were great innovators and disrupters, but the pack has caught up iand in some cases overtaken Apple and much lower prices. So, yeah, I would complain, too.. 😉

Yes.. In the old days, I had my way of getting to the front. Sadly 9/11 closed that off. Thanksfully I don't get hangovers.. Am usually fully rested by the time the plane lands in Melbourne.

Yes.... Keen for an excuse to take a few days off (my manager is married to a Melbournian and knows it is a solemn religious festival, and not merely sport). Keen for an excuse to get to Aus, even if for a few days Keen to catch up with a few people I haven't for quite some time. And enjoy a game of footy at the same time

I was not suggesting being belligerent by any stretch of the imagination. Diplomacy is an art as well as a learned skill. What everyone seems to be doing is slurping up Chumps arse and not, via diplomacy, setting a a standard. All these "red lines" are breached by Chump, yet everyone persists? Why? Can you answer that? Because they will be voted out, sacked (execs), etc. That is on you and me.. and eveyone else. That is my point. But if you think it is just getting it off my chest.. well.. you can take it any way you like.. You got any better ideas? Becauise so far, nothing else is working.

A member of me team recently returned from the US - Portland, WA. In his observation, the average American doesn't really know or care what is going on in the Whitehouse; with their government. It is a bit like most people everywhere. People just go about their daily lives; they vote and then they wait for the next election to vote.. that is their participation in democracy. Unless something directly affects them, they see the news, and go about their daily life. The news they see is 1/2 hour a day in the evening, like most people; they see their social media channels, more revolving around lifestyle or interests than politics. Which is why Chump is a product of society. Execs are not kowtowing to Chump.. they are doing what they are paid to do.. get the best value for their shareholders. If it would cost them more to kowtow to Chump, they wouldn't. Kier Starmer slupring up Chump's posterior so much, his nose was poking outside Chump's mouth showed how utterly powerless the UK has been. But it is also symptomatic of how spineless the west has become. At school and at home, we are taught to stand up to bullies, otherwise they will just keep doing it. But for some reason, as a collective society, we seem to have lost our spine to stand up to bullies, accept it is going to hurt, but know in the long run it will be less pain - because the bully will continue otherwise. We have seen it play out with Russia and we are seeing it play out with Chump. The unprecedented second state visit to a royal family who are probably less receptive to Chump and his cohorts than they were to Gadaffi - as an attempt to placate the bully and curry flavour - simply has emboldned him, and after showing the UK as a gutless bunch of arse lickers has achieved no relative benefit. Tariffs are the same as they are for most countries, Chump and his cohorts -0 including Farage - continue to belittle the UK (and other countries), and their coercive efforts become intesififed and brazen. Why do they do it? Because they are scared if standiung up to Chump will heap on some short term pain, the electorate will vote them out - because the electorate collectively won't like any pain.. only gain. In truth, and it is probably by design, more and more of the electorate can't afford the pain as it won't just mean a drop in living standards over discretionary spend, but it will mean they can't put food on the table, keep up the excessive mortgage payments and can end up hungry, homeless, or both. Either way, at some stage, it is all going to end in tears as we have allowed our society to develop to the stage it has and not been more rigirous in who we select and how we participate to make sure this doesn't happen. Is it Cantonese or Mandarin I have to learn?

Devil is in the details

New random thought I had this morning.. If the Hawks win the preliminary final, as a member, I get priority access to grand final tickets. If I can get one, I will be in Aus next week.

Many a true word are said in jest

Do you think she needs enlargment? Last night, I stopped at Fleet Motorway services on the way home to get a bite to eat. It was late - a little after 10pm and the services were quite empty. Sitting on one of the charis was a couple.. he looked reasonabley professional. She was covered in tatts from head to toe, quite large, and her mammaries were commensurate with the rest of her size, and there was very little left to the imagination, apart from I know why metal prices are high - the amount stuck into her face caused a shortage of the stuff. I don't normally take stock of those around me in alternative gear, but I had to try and work out what it really was.. I dare not take a photo - would have had to replace the lens afterwards.

Yes, as did the UK, France, Switzerland, Germany, and no doubt q few others. Gold reserves were used to back the currency - or more accurately - limit the money supply. I don't know of any country that still uses what was called the gold standard. Up until recent events, some short term swings and a definitive upward trend only started after COVID: I can't easily find a graph from 1997. By comparison, here is the NASDAQ Composite index from 1996: At 2006, the NASDAQ composite is lets say an even 2,000points; Today, it is 22,261, over 10 times its value in 2006. In a straight line,m that is a 1,000 percent increase. Using the chart here: https://onlygold.com/gold-prices/historical-gold-prices/ , in 1996, the price was $369 a troy ounce, today according to the Royal mint, the spot price is $3.652.21, slightly less than 10x the prince in 1996 and the recent increase is because of global risks probably not foreseeable in 1996. But if we look at the NASDAQ curve, it would have given results sooner and then corrected and the rate if increase over time is better. So, yeah.. maybe selling gold was not a good decision, but it depends what they did with the money. If they invested it in NASDAQ following ETFs, they would be slightly ahead. If they invested it in Kodak, they would be quite behind. The reality is they probably invested it in government stuff they normally invest in oir pay for, and how do you measure that? Or maybe they should have invested in bitcoin on its launch in 2009, when it was less than USD $0.01... Google is telling today it is worth USD$85,974.60. That is one hell of a long bubble... Point is, it was not necessarily the wrong decision to dispense with the gold, because we have not provided the net value - there is a cost to keeping gold whether it is your vaults or someone elses. We haven't factored the effect of that on the value of the investment.

The "castle" doctrine does not change this. Even that article effectively admits it. It would be very dangerous if it did

Yes, agree with Nev's post except CBA being the best. Not as bad as ANZ IMHO, but wouldn't trust them as far as I could throw them.