old man emu

Don't you think that the concentration of the Press into the few hands of the wealthy, who see news as a product to be sold for profit, is the reason why people are accepting falsehoods as facts? Go visit the TROVE website and have a look at the old newspapers from your region. Long ago, these newspapers mainly reported simple facts. If a Minister said so-and-so, the newspaper would print the words spoken, and give reasonably equal space to the opposite view. Newspaper did not, on the whole, depend on sensationalism. As Joe Friday from Dragnet was want to say, "The facts, ma'am. Just the facts". Now we get a little bit of fact and a whole lot of comment and opinion, which is usually biased for or against by the whim of the newspaper's owners.

I was wrong in thinking that the original no longer existed, but it is on display at Brisbane Airport. I was thinking of the flying replica which is owned by HARS at Shellharbour Airport, Albion Park NSW.

There are many planes from the first half of the 20th Century that were used to do some unique things. Unfortunately, most of them no longer exist as saving today for our tomorrows wasn't a high priority in the aviation world of those times. Happily, around the world several of those unique planes remain. One can view Ross and Keith Smith's actual 1919 England to Australia Vickers Vimy at Adelaide Airport. But you won't see Smithy and Ulm's original Southern Cross. Happily there is one plane with a strong Aussie link that has recently undergone restoration to airworthy condition in England. This plane is Sidney Cotton's Lockheed 12-A Electra. Who, what do you ask? Sidney Cotton was an Australian-born character of the first half of the 20th Century. I would not be too far wrong in suggesting that that rake, Errol Flynn, modeled himself after Sidney Cotton. What do you wear in an open-cockpit military aircraft in WWI to keep out the the cold? Why, of course. You wear a Sidcot suit. His experience with high level and low-temperature flying as a member of the Royal Navy Air Service, led Cotton in 1917 to develop the revolutionary new 'Sidcot' suit, a flying suit which solved the problem pilots had in keeping warm in the cockpit. This flying suit was widely used by the Royal Air Force until the 1950s. In the 1930s, At a time when most photographs were in black and white, Cotton purchased the rights to sell outside of France a French colour film called Dufaycolor, which led him to engage in frequent travels throughout Europe, which he did flying himself about. In September 1938 during the Sudetenland crisis, Cotton was approached by agents of the Deuxième Bureau (the French intelligence department) to undertake spy flights over Germany. Cotton's role in promoting Dufaycolor gave him a plausible excuse to fly to Germany. Starting on 25 March 1939, using the cover of a newly founded dummy corporation, the Aeronautical Research and Sales Corporation of London, Cotton started to make spy flights over Germany, Italy and the Italian colony of Libya in the pay of the Deuxième Bureau. In April 1939, Cotton was recruited by Fred Winterbotham of MI6 to take clandestine aerial photographs of the German military buildup. Cotton turned over his Lockheed Electra airplane to the Deuxième Bureau while MI6 provided Cotton with a new Lockheed 12-A Electra aircraft. Cotton's was the last civilian aircraft to leave Berlin before the outbreak of hostilities. After Cotton took off from the airport in Berlin, he noticed Luftwaffe planes on their way to bomb Poland. Upon landing in Britain, he told British customs that he just left Berlin earlier that morning and was told: "Left it a bit late, haven't you?" One biography is titled Sidney Cotton: The Last Plane Out of Berlin It is this Lockheed 12-A Electra which has been returned to England and restored. The restoration is the subject of his video. The story of Cotton's escapades in spying on Germany was the subject of an Australian, made-for-television program. This is the trailer for the programme.

I've seen a creek run a banker.

Having honed my skills on the subject of identifying bots and AI generated posts, I have come to the conclusion that GON IS NOT a bot nor a user of AI.

when they come without factual support nor reasonable suggestions to solve what is being complained of.

Or $50.00 for this one: https://www.melbournetoolsales.com.au/double-headed-sheet-metal-nibbler-cutter-drill-att~9586?srsltid=AfmBOoor7LKvQol3eiNHRpmIAzEmWHDiyFFef_azu86X5snZ4agVE6AA

Hitler created and published his manifesto, Mein Kampf , Volumes 1 & 2 well before his Party got large enough to influence elections. His aims were there for everyone to see. IN the 1932 election, his Party only gained 196 of 584 seats with 33% of the total vote. Voting wasn't compulsory and voter turnout was reduced from prior elections. I think he had the support of the Social Democrat Party, which had 121 seats. The rest of the seats went to special interest groups, although the Communist were next best with 100 seats. Now move to the US 2024 election. Although Trump denied any involvement, Republican leaders produced their manifesto Project 2025 well before the election and publicised it widely. The problem was that Trump's advertising campaign did not reference it, relying on slogans and catchphrases as any successful sales campaign does. The problem that the USA is facing now is simply the result of the voters not reading the fine print of the contract they were entering into. A further problem lies in the way the Constitution deals with the replacement of a serving President. The process has to be initiated either by the Vice-President advising the Senate that the President can't do the job, or the Senate takes similar action. With the Republicans in control of both Houses, such an action is unlikely. Even if Trump was removed, the Constitution directs that the Vice-President takes up the reins. In any case, it's Trump or Vance for the next three years and eleven months.

It certainly considered a lot of things, especially Part 8.

I don't see it as a victory for Trump's deal making ability. This is written in the referenced article: Ukraine floated the idea of opening its critical minerals to investment by allies last autumn. It would seem that Zelenskiy's government has been trying to work out how to pay for the US materials since before Trump got elected. Although the plan at the early stage might have been a hedge bet incase Trump did win because he was telling the voters that he was going to make other countries pay for US military aid. Trump is simply harvesting in summer the crop planted in winter. Making recipients of US aid and then making them pay for it after a conflict has been resolved has been US policy since the introduction of the Lend Lease Act during WWII. It took the British many years to repay its debt, and Australia was paying for many years. The US not only got paid for its "aid", but a lot of the repayments were in the form of leases on military facilities. No doubt Germany is still under the debt burden of the Marshall Plan, whether in money terms or real estate.

He could have drawn a circle more neatly, but Wolfie had hold of him

I'm not as harsh a Nomad. Absolvo te.

Don't know about the stethoscope, but she looks like she'd be a high producing milker with those mammaries.

Long gone are the days when an invasion armada could sneak up to the shores of another country undetected. That was not so in 1942 when there was the threat of a Japanese invasion. Plans were made to evacuate coastal areas of NSW and have the people and livestock move west across the mountains. I can't remember where I sourced this information from some years ago, but I assure you that I have read it. Here's a link to a newspaper report https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/270574182 and another to a museum collection https://mhnsw.au/stories/general/world-war-ii-1942/ Please note that I am NOT referring to the idea of "The Brisbane Line" which was pretty much a furphy.

No, but it's cheap to buy, as many Nations have done so. Foreign ownership of Australia is not something that is widely announced.

I haven't heard much from Dutton on this matter. Do you think that Dutton's mob are the "Co" part of your thought?

Without sounding like a disciple of Voldemort, I'm wondering if Australia's seemingly diplomatic silence over so many things that affect the US's international relations is simply a wait-and-see strategy. Not that I don't think its unwise to hold off at this stage, until the tariff situation is sorted. Unfortunately this silence does make one nervous about what backroom arrangements have been made. China hasn't helped by having a couple of its naval vessels take a late summer cruise through the south Pacific. But then, do we know how many US submarines are doing similar things? In a realistic world, the US has a lot to lose if we kicked them out. Their facilities here are too important to their "defence" strategies. I am yet to be convinced that China has military intentions away from its own shores. Why should they shed blood when they can get whatever they need through trade and investment?

Surely one of the aims of a tariff is to make the price of locally produced goods competitive with imported goods. Therefore, agricultural products produced in the USA which are given tariff protection should be competitive with imports. The things illustrated in the video were corn, soy beans and fruit. These are things used in large amounts in the USA, so the same things as imports should be more expensive. I did not want to concentrate on products themselves, but I wanted to highlight the propaganda aspect of the video - stating the worst to create fear. As I said, I think this video is anti-Trump, but it uses the same falsehood-telling of pro-Trump videos. Both sides of the propaganda war use lies, which is bad reporting.

Getting back to the topic of bad reporting. Does anyone know of Trump's 25% tariffs have begun yet? I was watching a video allegedly about the bad effects of the tariffs on sales of US agricultural products. What attracted my attention to the reporting was that the creator was saying that sales of those products had fallen so much that producers were facing ruin. To my thinking, at the moment there are no 25% tariffs in force, and if they were, then they would apply to products coming into the USA, not going out. In other words, is the message of the video false? Clearly since the video has an anti-Trump bias, could it have been made by radical left-wingers who used lies to instill fear into the US population?

Define "communism". I doubt if you know what the term actually means.

Closing down the US Social Security Department is the modern application of the comment, "Let them eat cake". "Let them eat cake" is the traditional translation of the French phrase "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche", said to have been spoken in the 18th century by "a great princess" upon being told that the peasants had no bread. The French phrase mentions brioche, a bread enriched with butter and eggs, considered a luxury food. The quote is taken to reflect either the princess's frivolous disregard for the starving peasants or her poor understanding of their plight. Now it's often used to describe someone who is out of touch with the needs of others, as Trump and Musk obviously are. Attributed to Marie-Antoinette, the phrase can actually be traced back to Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Confessions in 1765, 24 years prior to the French Revolution, and when Antoinette was nine years old and had never been to France. Rousseau does not name the "great princess", and he may have invented the anecdote altogether, as the Confessions is not considered entirely factual.

What Trump and Musk are doing to the Government of the USA keeps bringing this short scene to mind And this one

A fool and his money are soon Partied.

Someone should tell Musk that air traffic control is not rocket science.

Good shit, man.