Middle East conflict

[Litespeed]

What Red said times 10

[red750]

That manuscript was a copy of a Facebook post.

[rgmwa]

Looks like it’s a ‘no’ from us then. 

[Litespeed]

Now we can hope he spits the dummy and cancels the AUKUS deal

[onetrack]

I really think the AUKUS deal and the Yank submarine deal needs to be cancelled - from our end.

The last thing we need is to deal with, is a tantrum-throwing toddler when he's supposed to be leading the worlds only remaining superpower, and setting statesmanship-like behaviour and standards. 

On top of that, the subs are vastly overpriced, and will be delivered 30 years too late, and be obsolete when they are delivered.

[Jerry_Atrick]

Not to mention they are too large for our more shallow regional waters. 

 

I posted a YT video of war games where one of our "noisy" Collins class subs easily accounted for one of their nuclear subs...

 

(and ours was commanded by a native Brit... How is that for irony in an AUKUS context). 

[old man emu]

There were war games held a few years ago around Hawaii. Our clunky Collins Class sub "torpedoed" a US destroyer or such through the sheer cunning and seamanship of our Captain

[Jerry_Atrick]

On another note, one of the interesting things to come from this was our refugee system, which is considered one of the worst ones in the development world and freuently is the subject of intenational condemnation, including from teh UN: https://www.unhcr.org/au/monitoring-asylum-australia

 

Despite the reasons for our asylum system, and despite the need to ensure all apoplications meet the criteria required that they are not a risk to Australia and that if returned to their homeland, they are likely to be persecuted, killed, etc for the people they are (e.g. activitists, gay, etc). OK, the Ausssie government could easily identify them, but how could they in a day determine their status and likely safety at home? Yeah they are footblallers, yeah they are women.. Did that make them eligible or able to be ualified as not being an undue rrisk? Yes, you could argue they were to go back to a war zone, but there are many refugees in camps and detention centres in that position, so why wouldn't it apply to them. 

 

As it turns out, they themselves deided they no longer needed asylum and it was safe to return.. to a war zone. Of course, there could be something more nefarious at operation - they may well have received threatd or legitimately been concerned of the ramifications them staying in Australia would have on their families by the regime. 

 

But now, it beckons the question - if it is good enough to turn around anylum claimes very quickly for some footballers, then why is it good enough for us to virtually torture our Asykum seekers? Yes, we shoiuld be diligent with applicants and make clear economic migrants should be sent back to go through other routes of migration. But waiting up to 4 years before one can even get permission to apply for asylum is cruel. 

Edited yesterday at 11:54 AM by Jerry_Atrick

[onetrack]

A criminal behaviour record is the primary reason for rejection in an application for admittance to Australia - and always has been - the same as most countries.

But unfortunately, many refugees make sure their criminal behaviour records are erased, lost, or otherwise made unavailable.

 

This is how the criminal Lebanese arrived in Australia as "refugees" in the mid-to-late 1970's. They claimed they were refugees from the civil war in Lebanon - but the truth was, they were largely jailbirds with a long history of criminal behaviour, and the Syrian Army purposely destroyed all their criminal records, so nothing showed up in a search by immigration authorities.

 

As a result, they fell into limbo in the Immigration Dept applications - and Malcolm Fraser overrode the Immigration Dept heads who wanted to send them back - because Fraser was a "softie" who claimed that sending them back meant certain death for them.

As we've seen with all the recent "Middle-Eastern Crime Gangs" murderous activities in mostly SW Sydney, they are still criminals, and still indulging in massive amounts of high-level criminal behaviour.

 

If you watch "Border Security - Australias Front Line", you will see many arrivals by air producing fake reasons, fake documentation, and outright lies to gain entry to Australia for various nefarious reasons. Many just want to disappear once they get into the country.

They're interviewed and checked out at length, by BS officers - and sent straight back to where they came from, if their stories and information don't stack up.

 

All immigrant applications should be treated the same, regardless of whether they are claiming to be refugees under threat of death if they return to their country of origin, or not.

The problem is, a lot of these people are sent here, or come here, simply because they're troublemakers where they came from, and the locals want shot of them.

 

And of course, numbers of them are either drug mules, full-time scam operators, and "footmen" for major crime gang operations. They arrive with ill intent.

[facthunter]

I guess most of you won't be travelling to the USA anytime soon. Also Man who go on camping holiday often have Naughty in tent. 'Confucius'.  Nev

[old man emu]

13 hours ago, onetrack said:

the recent "Middle-Eastern Crime Gangs" murderous activities in mostly SW Sydney, they are still criminals, and still indulging in massive amounts of high-level criminal behaviour.

When I was a new Constable back in 1980, fresh from the Police Academy, I was posted to Campsie, which is next-door to Bankstown. The Division included Lakemba. At that time it was strongly Lebanese. One of the notoriuous families there was the Alameddine family. They crooks then are now old men, but the now we have the third generation which is carrying on the criminal activities.

 

The Alam al-Dins, also spelled Alamuddin or Alameddine, were a Druze family that intermittently held or contested the paramount chieftainship of the Druze districts of Mount Lebanon in opposition to the Ma'n and Shihab families in the late 17th and early 18th centuries during Ottoman rule. The Sydney branch of the family came as refugees from the Lebanese Civil War.

[facthunter]

 

Sir Frances Drake was a Pirate. Jack the ripper was English (I think).  A few English Kings weren't that hot. There was more crime in the UK during WW2 than in Peace time.  Then there's the Italian Mafia..  The Russian and Ukrainian thugs and gangs. Chinese triads.  and so on. Nev

[red750]

BREAKING🚨
IT HAS BEGUN. INDIAN OIL TANKER ALLOWED TO CROSS STRIAT OF HORMUZ AFTER IT PAID IN CHINESE YUEN
A major shift in the global financial system has just taken place. An Indian 0il tanker was all0wed to pass through the Strait of Hormuz after paying its dues in Chinese yuan rather than U.S. dollars. 
This development represents a clear break from the long-standing “petr0dollar” system and suggests the world may be entering a new phase where the U.S. dollar is no longer the only currency dominating global energy trade.

[Marty_d]

Iran has stated it's letting any ships through which aren't supplying the US or its allies.

China gets something like 95% of its oil through the Strait of Hormuz and those ships aren't being attacked.

[facthunter]

It amounts to 37% of the total from that area.  Trumpet won't like that arrangement but he has Plenty anyhow and wishes to make A profit from that. JD Vance mentioned Others will be More affected so at least HE acknowledges there ARE others. Nev

[ClintonB]

4 hours ago, facthunter said:

 

Sir Frances Drake was a Pirate. Jack the ripper was English (I think).  A few English Kings weren't that hot. There was more crime in the UK during WW2 than in Peace time.  Then there's the Italian Mafia..  The Russian and Ukrainian thugs and gangs. Chinese triads.  and so on. Nev

I watched a documentary on you tube where DNA has matched a polish bloke to be Jack the Ripper, familiar matches of bloody clothes tested positive to his line.

he also was an early suspect according to police records.

 

[pmccarthy]

Abe Kozminsky, but the DNA result is dodgy. I think there is only a 10% chance or less that it was him.

[old man emu]

3 hours ago, red750 said:

paying its dues in Chinese yuan rather than U.S.

The Chinese yuan (CNY), or Renminbi (RMB), is the official currency of China and ranks as the world's fifth-most-traded currency as of April 2025.  It is a Reserve currency for the International Monetary Fund and is seeing growing use in international trade. A few countries are looking at leaving the $US and moving to the Yuan which is probably a good idea considering teh amount of trade the rest of the World does with China.

 

The only reason the World uses the $US for trade is because the USA was the strongest economy in 1944 when the Bretton Woods system of monetary management established the rules for commercial relations. IN 1944 just about every non-Axis country was up to its neck in debt to the USA, and the former Axis countries would be beholden to the USA for reconstruction.

 

Bretton Woods the place in the USA where 44 countries, including the United States, Canada, European countries, and Australia, met to govern monetary relations among independent states. 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. The Bretton Woods system was supplanted by the Jamaica Accords in 1976. The accords allowed the price of gold to float with respect to the U.S. dollar and other currencies, albeit within a set of agreed constraints.

[randomx]

On 17/03/2026 at 11:10 PM, Jerry_Atrick said:

While the battery technology will still evolve quickly, early days is hardly how I would characterise it. In the UK, we are finding traction is really taking off.. There are battery charging only service stations: https://www.bp.com/en_gb/united-kingdom/home/news/press-releases/bp-launches-first-dedicated-ev-charging-and-convenience-hub.html

 

 

 

 

l meant early days for EV's,all of it, they haven't even begun. Whatever we buy now will be a T model ford in 5yrs time. 300 500k, like l said, nothin!  Self charging or God knows just round the corner, 1000s of k.

Flying cars or God knows what any day too, China already is, Japan to.

This whole thing , AI , all of it, cars, robots, crapola left and right has not even scratched the surface but the speed it will from here, l don't think most people have any fkg idea.

 

l have a theory, right or wrong l don't giva shyt just sayin who bloody knows but everything they're rushing through right now and all your infrastructure, useless!

Nothing will be even need it soon, it'll be all wrong for what's coming .

Same with all the windfarms and solar stuff, l just worry about whether they're gonna take all that down later and restore the landscape bc it won't be long and we won't even need them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 5 hours ago by randomx

[randomx]

Paid 269 for diesel today, ouch.

That was in a regional town l was just passing through but never the less.

 

On the war, me's still predicting a total shyt show yet to come. Rump know not what he do, no bloody idea.