Middle East conflict

[facthunter]

They go down in recessions when Job Losses happen. In a depression they can't find any buyers. Nev

[Jerry_Atrick]

The Brent Crude price is still lower than it was at the height of COVID:

 

 

https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/brent-crude-oil

 

I recall Australia feeling a bit nervous about dunny paper, but not petrol. I guess not being allowed more than 5ks from your home probably had something to do with it. 

 

Yes. the Strait of Hormuz was still open, but freight wasn't going terribly quickly between places and it was super expensive to boot. 

 

In Australia's case, it would appear our polliies since Howard may have had something to do with our current predicament:

 

 

Edited Sunday at 07:29 PM by Jerry_Atrick

[randomx]

Yep for sure.

They reckon whoever's been in over the last 30yrs , doesn't matter which , they've all still just basically done all the same stuff. Sold off everything, killed our manufacturing, ran house prices to the moon and completely stuffed and sold off our resources gas and oil, given our power companies free reign to just abuse the shyt out of us and forcing house holds into a both working scenario just to be able to cover our costs of living and paying off a house.

l remember Howard saying ah, we don't have to make anything here why should we we can import anything we need. l also remember them pushing and pushing mums and dads both into working, they pushed that one none stop and kinda brainwashed the country into believing this is all how it should be.

They were the ones that even started trying to blend two wages into a households income and passing it off as one to make housing look more affordable and the norm for both to be working just to be able to afford a house and costs of living. They normalized all that and it's all just flowed on from there. 

 

This gov now, sadly the worst and most hopeless l've ever seen with what they're doing to this country. 

At least some of the population are finally at least slightly aware of what they're doing nowa days though. Don't know if it's gonna be enough to get them out though and who the hell can we even replace them with anyway right now.

But given another term it'll be a Howard thing all over again and just send our country so far down the toilet even further for decades to come. Especially with their immigration and housing. 

 

 

 

 

Edited Sunday at 10:23 PM by randomx

[facthunter]

The Important thing now is  the Once Proud UAP -Liberal Party is Near extinct. When Liberal is bad They  say they are Both as Bad as each other. It is not that simple. If you think it is you are Not paying much attention.  It's TOO easy to just say that. Not all Pollies are Corrupt. It's a pretty thankless job for not a lot of Money and we need the Best suited People Possible, and their tenure  is relatively short and in the Federal Parliament they travel a lot and are away from Home. Nev

[randomx]

Saw two predictions this morng from huge names , one was Jeffery Sachs, sorry forgotten the other, watched a lot of reports this morng.

But , both saying the US will lose this and it could go on 12mths.

That's about what l reckon too but crikey, could you imagine what the world economy is gonna look like by then if it does.

[nomadpete]

[randomx]

Well , we'll see how this 5 day negations go eh , any thoughts ?

[rgmwa]

Probably about as well as Day 1.

Iran said they were surprised to learn they were apparently in talks with Trump. As the last two round of negotiations resulted in them being bombed during the talks, they won't be keen to try again. Now he's set another deadline of 5 days or else! Meaning if the Iranians ignore him again, he'll be forced to set another deadline.

 

 

[red750]

Good ole TACO.

[facthunter]

DJT makes it up as he goes along. Nev

[kgwilson]

Yep it's TACO Tuesday. Just another one to add to the list.

 

4 Corners was interesting last night. It just confirmed that the billionaires club is running the US  & to hell with the people so long as they continue to profit in ever increasing amounts.

[facthunter]

Kleptocracy is the Name for it I Believe. Left to their devices they will reduce you to Slaves. Everywhere Less and less people have More and More. and that is how it will be IF  WE don't do something about it .  Nev

[red750]

U.S President Donald Trump suggested Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was the first to advocate military intervention against Iran, telling a Tennessee roundtable: “Pete, I think you were the first one to speak up, and you said, ’Let’s do it because you can’t let them have a nuclear weapon.’”

The Iran war enters its fourth week with conflicting administration accounts about decision-making. 

Some officials claim Israel was preparing to strike regardless, while others cite Iran’s nuclear threat. 

Trump said Iran’s retaliatory strikes were unexpected, contradicting reports that internal warnings were issued but ignored. The conflict has killed 13 American service members and caused a regional crisis. 

Trump extended his Monday deadline for Iran by five days, with uncertainty about how the war began and who ultimately decided to start it.

The war began with US strikes in late February and expanded across the region, with over 1,500 killed in Iran, 1,000 in Lebanon, 15 in Israel, and 13 US personnel. 

[Jerry_Atrick]

2 hours ago, kgwilson said:

Yep it's TACO Tuesday. Just another one to add to the list.

Tell me about it. I was going to lay on a TACO trade, but decided even this was too big for Chump to go flippantly into TACO mode. How wrong was I? 

[red750]

When things are going his way, it's always his idea. When they are going wrong, he'll blame  the first person to come along.

[onetrack]

Trump knows what he's doing, just ask Nettinyahoo. Trumps scheme is to utterly bamboozle the Iranians by changing the direction of the war every day. He's simply stopping at present because someone told him at the rate they were burning up armaments and military equipment, they'd have to stop fighting next week.

 

The 10 U.S. radar setups scattered around the U.S.-friendly Middle Eastern nations, destroyed by the Iranians in the last couple of weeks, have a total replacement value of nearly US$3B.

And those radars were crucial to determine the what and where of the incoming Iranian missiles, rockets and drones.

 

If you think it's been a costly couple of weeks for the Iranians, I can tell you it's been just as costly for the Americans. And those radar setups can't be replaced overnight - unlike Iranian Shahed drones.

Another massive equipment loss was the KC-135 tanker, about US$80M, plus about 120,000 litres of jet fuel. In addition, several other KC-135's have been damaged by shrapnel and drone attacks, taking more aerial refuelling ability out of the equation.

 

These U.S. losses are the reason the Yanks requested our Wedgetail AEW&C surveillance aircraft. Let's hope we don't lose it to some dumbf**k, trigger-happy Americans, or their Kuwaiti allies.

 

Edited yesterday at 12:46 PM by onetrack

[old man emu]

There are about 9 million Iranians. Nine Million Iranians more than somewhat annoyed at having their lives endangered and their economy destroyed, all over supposed weapons of mass destruction that it seems they know how to make, but don't have all the bits and pieces to do so. There is only one regime that needs to be changed, and that sits on the North American continent.

[pmccarthy]

I can't let that pass. You would have to be wholly ignorant of the last 40 years of history to think that Iran has not been a threat and an ongoing disrupter of western society, and the leading global sponsor of terrorism. I am very pleased that they have been interrupted in their quest for a nuclear weapon.

 

To argue that the problem is the mullahs and not the people of Iran is a specious argument. Every society must take responsibility for what its leadership does and bear the consequences, as did Germany and Japan.

[old man emu]

8 minutes ago, pmccarthy said:

Every society must take responsibility for what its leadership does and bear the consequences, as did Germany and Japan.

So, you will bear the responsibility for the actions of the Australian Government even if that Government is not of your preferred Party? 

 

(Had to frame it that way - preferred party - to avoid introducing anti "this one or that one" comments.)

[rgmwa]

3 hours ago, old man emu said:

There are about 9 million Iranians. 

 About 92 million. 

[randomx]

Yeah that's what l thought.

 

But anyway, reports everywhere today Iran has openly said in the last 24hrs themselves , there are no talks there is no agreement and that basically Rumps making it all up.

They've also been continuing strikes even as we speak.

So who bloody knows, smells like a typical Rump rat though. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[old man emu]

My mistake.

[onetrack]

Trump is BS Central. There wouldn't be two consectutive words come out of his mouth with an element of truth in them. To Little Donny, the big surprise is the Iranians didn't come begging for him to stop as soon as his bombing campaign started - but they have turned into the best guerrilla fighters the Middle East has seen in decades. Something the Americans can never understand, nor can they adopt any strategy, that works to defeat a guerilla campaign.

There is no "big present" to the U.S., it's all Trump BS, trying to make himself look like a winner in the third week of fighting, when we all know war is a protracted and costly business. Just ask his best mate, Putin.

[rgmwa]

Trump is saying that the Iranians have sent him a valuable and important present but he won't say what it is. He seemed a bit surprised but says it's given him confidence that they're dealing with the right people.  I'm wondering what it is. Maybe a 44 gallon drum of aviation fuel for his new 747, could be a gold pipe bomb? Who knows?

[onetrack]

Yeah, I bet it's a Big and Beautiful Gold Present. A golden bomb in the shape of Donald, specially delivered to him in person, by an Iranian courier!

They know just how much he loves getting personal, gold-plated presents!

 

Edited 15 hours ago by onetrack