https://theconversation.com/in-a-ruptured-world-order-heres-how-australia-can-forge-new-middle-power-partnerships-276367
In a ‘ruptured’ world order, here’s how Australia can forge new middle‑power partnerships
dv said:
https://theconversation.com/in-a-ruptured-world-order-heres-how-australia-can-forge-new-middle-power-partnerships-276367In a ‘ruptured’ world order, here’s how Australia can forge new middle‑power partnerships
Looks at time posted.
That obviously takes some reading.
Maybe have a look tomorrow.
The Rev Dodgson said:
dv said:
https://theconversation.com/in-a-ruptured-world-order-heres-how-australia-can-forge-new-middle-power-partnerships-276367In a ‘ruptured’ world order, here’s how Australia can forge new middle‑power partnerships
Looks at time posted.
That obviously takes some reading.
Maybe have a look tomorrow.
My mistake. I thought I was in view by time.
SCIENCE said:
Cymek said:
SCIENCE said:
alleged
Although there were sufficient lifeboats for the entire ship’s complement, including the Italian prisoners, heavy listing prevented half from being launched until the vessel had settled. The prisoners were abandoned in the locked cargo holds as the ship sank, but most managed to escape by breaking down hatches or climbing up ventilation shafts. Several were shot when a group of prisoners rushed a lifeboat, and a large number were bayoneted to death to prevent their boarding of one of the few lifeboats available. The Polish guards were armed with rifles with fixed bayonets; however, they were not loaded and the guards carried no ammunition. Witnesses indicate that few of the prisoners were shot. Instead, most of the casualties were bayoneted.
After surfacing and picking up survivors, who were accommodated on the foredeck, U-156 headed on the surface under Red Cross banners to rendezvous with Vichy French ships and transfer the survivors. En route, the U-boat was spotted by a B-24 Liberator bomber of the United States Army Air Forces. The aircrew, having reported the U-boat’s location, declared intentions, and the presence of survivors, were then ordered to attack the sub. The B-24 killed dozens of Laconia’s survivors with bombs and strafing attacks, forcing U-156 to cast into the sea the remaining survivors that she had rescued and crash dive to avoid being destroyed.
Rescue operations were continued by other vessels. Another U-boat, U-506, was also attacked by U.S. aircraft and forced to dive. A total of 976 to 1,083 people were eventually rescued; however, 1,658 to 1,757 were killed, mostly Italian POWs. The event changed the general attitude of Germany’s naval personnel towards rescuing stranded Allied seamen. The commanders of the Kriegsmarine were quickly issued the Laconia Order by Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz, which specifically forbade any such attempt and ushered in unrestricted submarine warfare for the remainder of the war.
The B-24 pilots mistakenly reported they had sunk U-156, and were awarded medals for bravery. Neither the U.S. pilots nor their commander were punished or investigated, and the matter was quietly forgotten by the U.S. military. During the later Nuremberg trials, a prosecutor attempted to cite the Laconia Order as proof of war crimes by Dönitz and his submariners. The ploy backfired, causing much embarrassment to the United States after the incident’s full report had emerged to the public and the reason for the “Laconia order” was known.
Didn’t the USA try to get out of being convicted of war crimes just recently.
¿ref
don’t know though, it’s not war crimes if they liked or deserved it
wait why would they use that word “prize” does it have anything to do with this
RMS Laconia, carrying 2,732 crew, passengers, soldiers, and prisoners of war, was torpedoed and sunk by U-156, a German U-boat, off the West African coast. Operating partly under the dictates of the old prize rules, the U-boat’s commander, Korvettenkapitän Werner Hartenstein, immediately commenced rescue operations.
party_pants said:
Peak Warming Man said:
Kingy said:
SCIENCE said:
SCIENCE said:
Cymek said:
SCIENCE said:
alleged
Although there were sufficient lifeboats for the entire ship’s complement, including the Italian prisoners, heavy listing prevented half from being launched until the vessel had settled. The prisoners were abandoned in the locked cargo holds as the ship sank, but most managed to escape by breaking down hatches or climbing up ventilation shafts. Several were shot when a group of prisoners rushed a lifeboat, and a large number were bayoneted to death to prevent their boarding of one of the few lifeboats available. The Polish guards were armed with rifles with fixed bayonets; however, they were not loaded and the guards carried no ammunition. Witnesses indicate that few of the prisoners were shot. Instead, most of the casualties were bayoneted.
After surfacing and picking up survivors, who were accommodated on the foredeck, U-156 headed on the surface under Red Cross banners to rendezvous with Vichy French ships and transfer the survivors. En route, the U-boat was spotted by a B-24 Liberator bomber of the United States Army Air Forces. The aircrew, having reported the U-boat’s location, declared intentions, and the presence of survivors, were then ordered to attack the sub. The B-24 killed dozens of Laconia’s survivors with bombs and strafing attacks, forcing U-156 to cast into the sea the remaining survivors that she had rescued and crash dive to avoid being destroyed.
Rescue operations were continued by other vessels. Another U-boat, U-506, was also attacked by U.S. aircraft and forced to dive. A total of 976 to 1,083 people were eventually rescued; however, 1,658 to 1,757 were killed, mostly Italian POWs. The event changed the general attitude of Germany’s naval personnel towards rescuing stranded Allied seamen. The commanders of the Kriegsmarine were quickly issued the Laconia Order by Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz, which specifically forbade any such attempt and ushered in unrestricted submarine warfare for the remainder of the war.
The B-24 pilots mistakenly reported they had sunk U-156, and were awarded medals for bravery. Neither the U.S. pilots nor their commander were punished or investigated, and the matter was quietly forgotten by the U.S. military. During the later Nuremberg trials, a prosecutor attempted to cite the Laconia Order as proof of war crimes by Dönitz and his submariners. The ploy backfired, causing much embarrassment to the United States after the incident’s full report had emerged to the public and the reason for the “Laconia order” was known.
Didn’t the USA try to get out of being convicted of war crimes just recently.
¿ref
don’t know though, it’s not war crimes if they liked or deserved it
wait why would they use that word “prize” does it have anything to do with this
RMS Laconia, carrying 2,732 crew, passengers, soldiers, and prisoners of war, was torpedoed and sunk by U-156, a German U-boat, off the West African coast. Operating partly under the dictates of the old prize rules, the U-boat’s commander, Korvettenkapitän Werner Hartenstein, immediately commenced rescue operations.
Evenin’ all.
It’s been a hektik few days at work.
I see that someone sank an Iranian warship with a torpedo without notification. It would have been easy to notify the sailors that they should abandon ship before impact, but no, the murderous cunts in charge of the US navy are backslapping each other over the deaths of hundreds of people.
Evil fuckers that deserve to die in agony.
The last ship sunk by a sub was the Belgrano, but it was a direct threat to the fleet, this little destroyer was thousands of miles away.
It was an act of sound and fury by a bully signifying nothing.There are ultimately no rules in warfare, except that which the participants impose upon themselves through self-restraint.
oh well at least when the turntables were kind of 120° rotated they avoided massacring the rescuers and nominated them for an award instead
wait
oh that NTATE thing alleges they just went ahead and tried to massacre them too and then got the award for that
damn
dv said:
I guess you have to know your Peanuts to get this.
JudgeMental said:
dv said:
I guess you have to know your Peanuts to get this.
or just the USSA
wait
US President Donald Trump has demanded a role in choosing Iran’s next leader, saying that the son of assassinated supreme leader Ali Khamanei would be “unacceptable” to him.
JudgeMental said:
dv said:
I guess you have to know your Peanuts to get this.
Nuts to you!
pretty sure they’ll listen
“Hezbollah must immediately cease its fire toward Israel. Israel must refrain from any ground intervention or large-scale operation on Lebanese territory,” Macron said.
SCIENCE said:
pretty sure they’ll listen
“Hezbollah must immediately cease its fire toward Israel. Israel must refrain from any ground intervention or large-scale operation on Lebanese territory,” Macron said.
I’m sure they’ll say “you’re not the president of us”.
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:pretty sure they’ll listen
“Hezbollah must immediately cease its fire toward Israel. Israel must refrain from any ground intervention or large-scale operation on Lebanese territory,” Macron said.
I’m sure they’ll say “you’re not the president of us”.
Hatred will continue while the ground is fertile for it. Israel hates the arabs and the arabs want their land back.
alleged
cheers to all the geniuses who told us that authoritarian dictatorships are weak because all you have to do is cut off the head like the taliban do while protestors are out in force calling to bring down the government and the whole thing collapses like iran but democracy in great free ussa is strong and resilient so all of this will be better when kkk keels over
SCIENCE said:
cheers to all the geniuses who told us that authoritarian dictatorships are weak because all you have to do is cut off the head like the taliban do while protestors are out in force calling to bring down the government and the whole thing collapses like iran but democracy in great free ussa is strong and resilient so all of this will be better when kkk keels over
Logic and history tells us no, like the hydra, many heads and cut one off and another takes it’s place
The real worry is they fight until the bitter end including being nuked
SCIENCE said:
cheers to all the geniuses who told us that authoritarian dictatorships are weak because all you have to do is cut off the head like the taliban do while protestors are out in force calling to bring down the government and the whole thing collapses like iran but democracy in great free ussa is strong and resilient so all of this will be better when kkk keels over
The thing is that Iran is not an autocracy. It is semidemocracy with an expansive theocratic layer. Anyone thinking that Iran wasn’t prepared for the death of an official who was already pushing 90 would have to be a complete numbskull so it may have been Hegseth.
The same can be said of China (replacing theocratic with nominally-communist).
There aren’t many genuine autocracies any more outside of subSaharan Africa. North Korea is probably the only one. If you took out the Kim family there would be no succession plan and the regime might well topple in the chaos.
dv said:
SCIENCE said:cheers to all the geniuses who told us that authoritarian dictatorships are weak because all you have to do is cut off the head like the taliban do while protestors are out in force calling to bring down the government and the whole thing collapses like iran but democracy in great free ussa is strong and resilient so all of this will be better when kkk keels over
The thing is that Iran is not an autocracy. It is semidemocracy with an expansive theocratic layer. Anyone thinking that Iran wasn’t prepared for the death of an official who was already pushing 90 would have to be a complete numbskull so it may have been Hegseth.
The same can be said of China (replacing theocratic with nominally-communist).
There aren’t many genuine autocracies any more outside of subSaharan Africa. North Korea is probably the only one. If you took out the Kim family there would be no succession plan and the regime might well topple in the chaos.
Hegseth is clearly a numbskull.
dv said:
SCIENCE said:cheers to all the geniuses who told us that authoritarian dictatorships are weak because all you have to do is cut off the head like the taliban do while protestors are out in force calling to bring down the government and the whole thing collapses like iran but democracy in great free ussa is strong and resilient so all of this will be better when kkk keels over
The thing is that Iran is not an autocracy. It is semidemocracy with an expansive theocratic layer. Anyone thinking that Iran wasn’t prepared for the death of an official who was already pushing 90 would have to be a complete numbskull so it may have been Hegseth.
The same can be said of China (replacing theocratic with nominally-communist).
There aren’t many genuine autocracies any more outside of subSaharan Africa. North Korea is probably the only one. If you took out the Kim family there would be no succession plan and the regime might well topple in the chaos.
Especially as he’s meant to be revered as a god
Cymek said:
dv said:
SCIENCE said:cheers to all the geniuses who told us that authoritarian dictatorships are weak because all you have to do is cut off the head like the taliban do while protestors are out in force calling to bring down the government and the whole thing collapses like iran but democracy in great free ussa is strong and resilient so all of this will be better when kkk keels over
The thing is that Iran is not an autocracy. It is semidemocracy with an expansive theocratic layer. Anyone thinking that Iran wasn’t prepared for the death of an official who was already pushing 90 would have to be a complete numbskull so it may have been Hegseth.
The same can be said of China (replacing theocratic with nominally-communist).
There aren’t many genuine autocracies any more outside of subSaharan Africa. North Korea is probably the only one. If you took out the Kim family there would be no succession plan and the regime might well topple in the chaos.
Especially as he’s meant to be revered as a god
So now that Trump has been appointed by Jesus, he and his family can now be rulers of the new world
Cymek said:
dv said:
SCIENCE said:cheers to all the geniuses who told us that authoritarian dictatorships are weak because all you have to do is cut off the head like the taliban do while protestors are out in force calling to bring down the government and the whole thing collapses like iran but democracy in great free ussa is strong and resilient so all of this will be better when kkk keels over
The thing is that Iran is not an autocracy. It is semidemocracy with an expansive theocratic layer. Anyone thinking that Iran wasn’t prepared for the death of an official who was already pushing 90 would have to be a complete numbskull so it may have been Hegseth.
The same can be said of China (replacing theocratic with nominally-communist).
There aren’t many genuine autocracies any more outside of subSaharan Africa. North Korea is probably the only one. If you took out the Kim family there would be no succession plan and the regime might well topple in the chaos.
Especially as he’s meant to be revered as a god
And/or he’s left specific instructions if he and his family are killed to launch nuclear weapons
dv said:
SCIENCE said:cheers to all the geniuses who told us that authoritarian dictatorships are weak because all you have to do is cut off the head like the taliban do while protestors are out in force calling to bring down the government and the whole thing collapses like iran but democracy in great free ussa is strong and resilient so all of this will be better when kkk keels over
The thing is that Iran is not an autocracy. It is semidemocracy with an expansive theocratic layer. Anyone thinking that Iran wasn’t prepared for the death of an official who was already pushing 90 would have to be a complete numbskull so it may have been Hegseth.
The same can be said of China (replacing theocratic with nominally-communist).
There aren’t many genuine autocracies any more outside of subSaharan Africa. North Korea is probably the only one. If you took out the Kim family there would be no succession plan and the regime might well topple in the chaos.
It’s more likely the Israelis who put a lot of effort into tracking and targeting Khamenei, as they do tend to like lopping off leaders.
Probably more for the disruptive value than serious expectation that their enemies will run out of replacements.
Cymek said:
Cymek said:
dv said:The thing is that Iran is not an autocracy. It is semidemocracy with an expansive theocratic layer. Anyone thinking that Iran wasn’t prepared for the death of an official who was already pushing 90 would have to be a complete numbskull so it may have been Hegseth.
The same can be said of China (replacing theocratic with nominally-communist).
There aren’t many genuine autocracies any more outside of subSaharan Africa. North Korea is probably the only one. If you took out the Kim family there would be no succession plan and the regime might well topple in the chaos.
Especially as he’s meant to be revered as a god
And/or he’s left specific instructions if he and his family are killed to launch nuclear weapons
Like the world cannot go along without them.
Bubblecar said:
dv said:
SCIENCE said:cheers to all the geniuses who told us that authoritarian dictatorships are weak because all you have to do is cut off the head like the taliban do while protestors are out in force calling to bring down the government and the whole thing collapses like iran but democracy in great free ussa is strong and resilient so all of this will be better when kkk keels over
The thing is that Iran is not an autocracy. It is semidemocracy with an expansive theocratic layer. Anyone thinking that Iran wasn’t prepared for the death of an official who was already pushing 90 would have to be a complete numbskull so it may have been Hegseth.
The same can be said of China (replacing theocratic with nominally-communist).
There aren’t many genuine autocracies any more outside of subSaharan Africa. North Korea is probably the only one. If you took out the Kim family there would be no succession plan and the regime might well topple in the chaos.
It’s more likely the Israelis who put a lot of effort into tracking and targeting Khamenei, as they do tend to like lopping off leaders.
Probably more for the disruptive value than serious expectation that their enemies will run out of replacements.
Netenyahu is desperate for his forty years of planning to destroy all Islamic terrorists. Doesn’t seem to be aware of the fact that he’s spent forty years causing more to be made.
roughbarked said:
Bubblecar said:
dv said:The thing is that Iran is not an autocracy. It is semidemocracy with an expansive theocratic layer. Anyone thinking that Iran wasn’t prepared for the death of an official who was already pushing 90 would have to be a complete numbskull so it may have been Hegseth.
The same can be said of China (replacing theocratic with nominally-communist).
There aren’t many genuine autocracies any more outside of subSaharan Africa. North Korea is probably the only one. If you took out the Kim family there would be no succession plan and the regime might well topple in the chaos.
It’s more likely the Israelis who put a lot of effort into tracking and targeting Khamenei, as they do tend to like lopping off leaders.
Probably more for the disruptive value than serious expectation that their enemies will run out of replacements.
Netenyahu is desperate for his forty years of planning to destroy all Islamic terrorists. Doesn’t seem to be aware of the fact that he’s spent forty years causing more to be made.
Violence and destruction breeds more violence, destruction and revenge thrown in as well
I’m not quite sure what outcome leaders thought would happen interfering in the Middle East, invasions, deposing leaders, setting them up against each other.
Stealing resources and cultural artifiacts, colonisation and so on.
Cymek said:
roughbarked said:
Bubblecar said:
It’s more likely the Israelis who put a lot of effort into tracking and targeting Khamenei, as they do tend to like lopping off leaders.
Probably more for the disruptive value than serious expectation that their enemies will run out of replacements.
Netenyahu is desperate for his forty years of planning to destroy all Islamic terrorists. Doesn’t seem to be aware of the fact that he’s spent forty years causing more to be made.
Violence and destruction breeds more violence, destruction and revenge thrown in as well
I’m not quite sure what outcome leaders thought would happen interfering in the Middle East, invasions, deposing leaders, setting them up against each other.
Stealing resources and cultural artifiacts, colonisation and so on.
Well you know, how else can one justify one’s rightful place as the best in the world, the most good, the highest of humanity, unless one creates the worst, the most evil, the lowest, alongside¿ Would We Know Good Without Evil¿
SCIENCE said:
Cymek said:
roughbarked said:
Netenyahu is desperate for his forty years of planning to destroy all Islamic terrorists. Doesn’t seem to be aware of the fact that he’s spent forty years causing more to be made.
Violence and destruction breeds more violence, destruction and revenge thrown in as well
I’m not quite sure what outcome leaders thought would happen interfering in the Middle East, invasions, deposing leaders, setting them up against each other.
Stealing resources and cultural artifiacts, colonisation and so on.
Well you know, how else can one justify one’s rightful place as the best in the world, the most good, the highest of humanity, unless one creates the worst, the most evil, the lowest, alongside¿ Would We Know Good Without Evil¿
As there can be no Gad without a Satan.
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:Cymek said:
Violence and destruction breeds more violence, destruction and revenge thrown in as well
I’m not quite sure what outcome leaders thought would happen interfering in the Middle East, invasions, deposing leaders, setting them up against each other.
Stealing resources and cultural artifiacts, colonisation and so on.
Well you know, how else can one justify one’s rightful place as the best in the world, the most good, the highest of humanity, unless one creates the worst, the most evil, the lowest, alongside¿ Would We Know Good Without Evil¿
As there can be no Gad without a Satan.
egad it should have been a god.
SCIENCE said:
cheers to all the geniuses who told us that authoritarian dictatorships are weak because all you have to do is cut off the head like the taliban do while protestors are out in force calling to bring down the government and the whole thing collapses like iran but democracy in great free ussa is strong and resilient so all of this will be better when kkk keels over
All countries, dictatorships and authoritarian governments are different.
Could you use mathematics to work out survival/extinction statistics of entrenched authoritarian grovenments that have been strengthened by design?
Tau.Neutrino said:
SCIENCE said:cheers to all the geniuses who told us that authoritarian dictatorships are weak because all you have to do is cut off the head like the taliban do while protestors are out in force calling to bring down the government and the whole thing collapses like iran but democracy in great free ussa is strong and resilient so all of this will be better when kkk keels over
All countries, dictatorships and authoritarian governments are different.
Could you use mathematics to work out survival/extinction statistics of entrenched authoritarian grovenments that have been strengthened by design?
grovenments = governments
And some AI analysis.
Tau.Neutrino said:
SCIENCE said:cheers to all the geniuses who told us that authoritarian dictatorships are weak because all you have to do is cut off the head like the taliban do while protestors are out in force calling to bring down the government and the whole thing collapses like iran but democracy in great free ussa is strong and resilient so all of this will be better when kkk keels over
All countries, dictatorships and authoritarian governments are different.
Could you use mathematics to work out survival/extinction statistics of entrenched authoritarian grovenments that have been strengthened by design?
Get the psychohistorians on to it quick smart!
Witty Rejoinder said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
SCIENCE said:cheers to all the geniuses who told us that authoritarian dictatorships are weak because all you have to do is cut off the head like the taliban do while protestors are out in force calling to bring down the government and the whole thing collapses like iran but democracy in great free ussa is strong and resilient so all of this will be better when kkk keels over
All countries, dictatorships and authoritarian governments are different.
Could you use mathematics to work out survival/extinction statistics of entrenched authoritarian grovenments that have been strengthened by design?
Get the psychohistorians on to it quick smart!
Are they good at mathematics?
Witty Rejoinder said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
SCIENCE said:cheers to all the geniuses who told us that authoritarian dictatorships are weak because all you have to do is cut off the head like the taliban do while protestors are out in force calling to bring down the government and the whole thing collapses like iran but democracy in great free ussa is strong and resilient so all of this will be better when kkk keels over
All countries, dictatorships and authoritarian governments are different.
Could you use mathematics to work out survival/extinction statistics of entrenched authoritarian grovenments that have been strengthened by design?
Get the psychohistorians on to it quick smart!
Now there’s a new word.
Tau.Neutrino said:
SCIENCE said:cheers to all the geniuses who told us that authoritarian dictatorships are weak because all you have to do is cut off the head like the taliban do while protestors are out in force calling to bring down the government and the whole thing collapses like iran but democracy in great free ussa is strong and resilient so all of this will be better when kkk keels over
All countries, dictatorships and authoritarian governments are different.
Could you use mathematics to work out survival/extinction statistics of entrenched authoritarian grovenments that have been strengthened by design?
The Soviet Union collapsed when they tried to reform the system, admitting the need for progress and permitting open criticism.
Confirming Tocqueville’s view in the 19th century:
“The regime which is destroyed by a revolution is almost always an improvement on its immediate predecessor, and experience teaches that the most critical moment for bad governments is the one which witnesses their first steps toward reform”.
roughbarked said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
Tau.Neutrino said:All countries, dictatorships and authoritarian governments are different.
Could you use mathematics to work out survival/extinction statistics of entrenched authoritarian grovenments that have been strengthened by design?
Get the psychohistorians on to it quick smart!
Now there’s a new word.
or it seemed so at first but now it all makes psychosense.
Tau.Neutrino said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
Tau.Neutrino said:All countries, dictatorships and authoritarian governments are different.
Could you use mathematics to work out survival/extinction statistics of entrenched authoritarian grovenments that have been strengthened by design?
Get the psychohistorians on to it quick smart!
Are they good at mathematics?
they have a good foundation in the field
dv said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
Witty Rejoinder said:Get the psychohistorians on to it quick smart!
Are they good at mathematics?
they have a good foundation in the field
Math Factor
roughbarked said:
roughbarked said:
Witty Rejoinder said:Get the psychohistorians on to it quick smart!
Now there’s a new word.
or it seemed so at first but now it all makes psychosense.
I’ve heard the word “Psychobabble” before, though, hey what but.
Woodie said:
roughbarked said:
roughbarked said:Now there’s a new word.
or it seemed so at first but now it all makes psychosense.
I’ve heard the word “Psychobabble” before, though, hey what but.
I believe I’ve actually heard and read some of it.
Woodie said:
roughbarked said:
roughbarked said:Now there’s a new word.
or it seemed so at first but now it all makes psychosense.
I’ve heard the word “Psychobabble” before, though, hey what but.
It’s from the Foundation books and tv series.
Long term prediction of how humanity can survive the collapse of the galaxy spanning Empire.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-says-white-south-africans-are-persecuted-some-are-returning-better-life-2026-03-11/
Nature is healing as the Jaapie returns to his homeland
Cracks appear in Runit Dome amid sea level rise in Marshall Islands.
Robert Celestial stood in radioactive water wearing nothing but shorts and rubber boots.
The former United States Army truck driver was trying to drain water from a crater that would become a dump site for what he thought was debris left over from World War II.
He did not know the crater he was standing in was created by a nuclear blast.
“We were on a small island in the Pacific with 500 guys on it, and it was like Alcatraz. You couldn’t escape,” he said.
Mr Celestial had been posted to Enewetak Atoll near the northern edge of the Marshall Islands during the late 1970s nuclear clean-up.
Mission details were vague, but his orders were simple — transport “contaminated” soil to a small island and dump it into a crater.
The island was called Runit.
“We were told it was post-war debris,” he recalls.
“Years later, we found out there were 43 nuclear detonations there.”
Sixty-seven nuclear tests were carried out across Enewetak and Bikini atolls between 1946 and 1958.
More than 300 Marshallese were removed from their homeland to make way for the US nuclear program, which commenced 80 years ago this year.
Among the detonations was an 18-kiloton bomb known as Cactus.
The blast vaporised part of Runit Island and sent a mushroom cloud 6 kilometres into the sky.
Two decades later, the 10-metre-deep crater it left behind would become a dumping ground for more than 120,000 tonnes of contaminated soil and debris scraped from across the atoll.
Mr Celestial made countless trips to the crater carrying nuclear debris in the back of his dump truck.
When the work was done, the crater was sealed with an 18-inch concrete cap, forming what is now called the Runit Dome or — “The Tomb”.
But 50 years on, the dome is showing signs of deterioration.
Cracks line its outer shell, while groundwater flows beneath the structure, allowing contaminated waste to wash into the surrounding lagoon.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03-15/cracks-appear-in-runit-dome-amid-sea-level-rise/106423684
oh grow up everyone knows it’s some other country’s fault
Useful idiots visit Cuba, right on time
Communism has impoverished the island. American leftists only care now because they can blame Trump.
…
“Former British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn was joined by radical groups like Code Pink and the Chinese Communist Party-linked People’s Forum. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota) couldn’t make the trip, but she was “incredibly proud” that her activist daughter tagged along. One of the most famous attendees was a celebrity streamer best known for praising global authoritarians while playing video games.”
…
WashPost editorial: meanwhile Jeremy’s all in on the stoopid.
Now this really is news
dv said:
Now this really is news
King Charles steps to the lectern. A hush falls over the crowded chamber as Congress members and Senators, and many staffers and visitors and media people strain to hear the words of his historic address.
Charles lays some pages on the lectern, he adjusts the microphone slightly, moves the glass of water just bit. He looks up, and casts his gaze over the assembled throng.
He grasps the sides of the lectern with his hands, and says,
“Just what the ever-loving fuck is wrong with you people?”.
captain_spalding said:
dv said:
Now this really is news
King Charles steps to the lectern. A hush falls over the crowded chamber as Congress members and Senators, and many staffers and visitors and media people strain to hear the words of his historic address.
Charles lays some pages on the lectern, he adjusts the microphone slightly, moves the glass of water just bit. He looks up, and casts his gaze over the assembled throng.
He grasps the sides of the lectern with his hands, and says,
“Just what the ever-loving fuck is wrong with you people?”.
Liberalism is the only solution. Here’s how to save it.
Intellectuals on the left and right say liberalism is dead. Not so. Centrists of the world, unite!
March 24, 2026
By Adrian Wooldridge
Adrian Wooldridge’s “The Revolutionary Center: The Lost Genius of Liberalism” will be published on April 21. This op-ed was adapted from an article in UnHerd.
The signs of liberalism’s senescence are everywhere. In Britain, Keir Starmer won a historic mandate in the 2024 election, only to rapidly turn himself into the most unpopular prime minister on record. In Germany, Chancellor Friedrich Merz looks like a Starmer-in-the-making, while France’s President Emmanuel Macron is in the twilight of his presidency.
And yet the problem is deeper than bad leaders. It’s the problem of a decrepit regime — a collection of functionaries and placeholders who’ve reaped the benefits of the past 40 years of economic and moral deregulation and are now incapable of running the world they have made. Like all elites, they developed the habit of back-scratching and logrolling. And, like all elites, they soon lost touch with the people beneath them.
That explains the striking number of destructive liberal policies that have wreaked havoc across the West. San Francisco, a bastion of social liberalism, is so addled with homeless encampments and drug addicts snorting fentanyl in public that even many progressives have had enough. Sweden, once a byword for social harmony, is now known for chronic gun violence, thanks to the proliferation of immigrant gangs. The northern British cities that powered the Industrial Revolution are plagued, in their ethnic enclaves, by cousin marriage, honor punishments and grooming gangs. The response of all too many liberal intellectuals to these tragedies is to demand more of the policies that led to them in the first place.
This has provoked a growing number of intellectuals, on both right and left, to proclaim the death of liberalism. The most familiar argument explaining its demise is the Marxist one that liberalism is a ruling-class trick, and that the harsh realities of exploitation and imperialism underlie elites’ treacly words about “freedom” and “democracy.” A more interesting, and more influential, argument is being made by the New Right — many of whom call themselves “postliberals.” They argue that liberalism proved a disaster not because good ideas were badly applied, but because liberalism contained the seeds of its own destruction.
In his 2018 book, “Why Liberalism Failed,” political theorist Patrick J. Deneen wrote: “Liberalism has failed because liberalism has succeeded. As it becomes fully itself, it generates endemic pathologies more rapidly and pervasively than it is able to produce Band-aids and veils to cover them.” Liberal regimes succeeded when they were disciplined by traditional ideas about virtue and civility. But liberals’ core belief — that we are all rights-bearing individuals, answerable primarily to ourselves — inexorably destroyed the civilizational constraints that gave it strength.
The bulk of these postliberals are headquartered in the United States. A group based in the Claremont Institute in Southern California relentlessly attempts to expose the faults of the “liberal regime.” There are so many products of the Claremont Institute in the White House, the administration and Congress that they are fondly known in some circles as “Claremonsters.” Vice President JD Vance declares himself to be a postliberal. The idea has plenty of supporters in Britain, such as James Orr, a Reform Party adviser and Cambridge philosopher of religion, who propose a faith-and-flag-based conservatism as a solution to the disillusionment of modern life.
Their critique predominates at a time when the current liberal establishment is the most decadent it has ever been, and the forces of illiberalism are stronger than at any time since the 1930s. The country with the world’s second-biggest economy, China, is ruled by a Marxist dictator; the world’s biggest democracy, India, by an illiberal strongman; its most battle-tested war machine, Russia, by a man who wants to bury the liberal order; and its most important liberal power, the United States, is, at best, an uncertain friend of the liberal order that it created after World War II. Donald Trump is an instinctive rather than a cerebral politician, but almost all his instincts are illiberal, sometimes astonishingly so. He has not even bothered to pay lip service to international law in his wars of choice in Venezuela and now Iran and the wider Middle East.
Yet the postliberal influence owes much more to luck than substance. Postliberals fail to address the material problems that plague the postindustrial wastelands they decry. They have no answer to the question: What happens to populism when it is undisciplined by liberal constraints? The experience of the 1930s suggests nothing good. It is time to mount a defense of liberalism before it is too late.
Over the past 40 years, liberalism has been associated with the shrinking role of the state in both markets and morality. Bill Clinton and Tony Blair produced a widely admired bourgeois-bohemian (Bobo) synthesis by combining the Thatcherite deregulation of the economy with the 1960s deregulation of morality. The postliberal argument’s strength is its recognition that this synthesis is now producing more problems than benefits.
But the Bobo synthesis is only one possible manifestation of liberalism. You can have big-government liberalism as well as small-government liberalism, moralizing liberalism as well as permissive liberalism. All are linked by three core beliefs: that society starts with the individual rather than the collective; that truth is reached only through open debate; that power is so dangerous, it must be divided and constrained. Anything that prevents individuals from flourishing, ideas from clashing and power from being constrained, is illiberal.
During its long history, liberalism has suffered from several near-death experiences, but it has always revived by addressing new problems in new ways while staying true to its fundamental principles. The worst of these episodes occurred in the 1920s and 1930s, when liberalism risked being stamped to death by jackbooted fascism or communism.
“The liberal state is destined to perish. All the political experiments of our day are anti-liberal,” proclaimed the Italian socialist-turned-fascist Benito Mussolini. But the Allies proved him wrong by defeating the Axis powers in World War II, constructing the Iron Curtain and remaking the world according to a new collection of liberal principles. In the 1970s, the postwar regime gave way to stagflation and bureaucratic sclerosis, only to revive under the influence of the neoliberal revolution.
It’s understandable that people are angry with the liberal establishment and disillusioned with centrist promises. But the alternatives from both the right and the left are certain to be worse. During his first term, Trump catered to his billionaire friends, entrenching crony capitalism and passing big tax cuts, while providing his populist base with rhetorical puffballs. He didn’t even make significant progress with his “beautiful wall” at the border with Mexico. During his second term, with the old Republican establishment sidelined and both postliberal and illiberal thinkers in the ascendant, he is creating chaos in the Middle East, sending stock markets into a tailspin.
Meanwhile, in Britain, Reform’s economic policies are an unsustainable mixture of Thatcherism and left-wing statism. Yet the party remains steadily and comfortably atop opinion polls, though it faces the considerable challenge of sustaining its popularity until the next general election, which doesn’t have to be held until August 2029.
The radical left, whether in the U.S. or Britain, is even more impractical, compiling laundry lists of lavish spending funded by taxes on billionaires that they imagine would pay for it all. The radical left is also blind to the problems created by mass immigration, half-hearted integration and the development of parallel societies.
The only way forward is to reinvent liberalism just as thoroughly as previous generations of liberal reformers did to address new problems, while discarding established shibboleths if they happen to get in the way. Such a reinvention must start with three strategies: rethink, reposition and rearticulate.
Rethink
Today’s liberals need to break with their four-decade fixation on economic and moral deregulation. The release of millions of U.S. government investigative files regarding sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have not only exposed how many neoliberal heroes — a tech billionaire here, an illustrious economist there — have feet of clay, but also the moral hollowness of a philosophy of self-indulgence and self-gratification that lies at the heart of the Bobo culture.
Today’s liberals must also reapply the core principles of liberalism as they encounter old sins in new forms. The tech giants are amassing market dominance of a sort the world hasn’t seen since the late-19th-century robber barons, and they are using that dominance to misinform and manipulate the public. Left-wing identitarians are offending the basic principles of individualism by continuing to treat people as members of groups rather than as unique individuals, or by canceling those who hold views that violate leftist orthodoxy.
Reposition
The biggest weakness of today’s liberals is that they have become the establishment — and they have all the attendant weakness of an establishment. Radical liberals must challenge this establishment with vigor. Why have the heads of universities betrayed the sacred principle of free speech? Why does groupthink pervade nongovernmental organizations?
Every successful reformulation of the liberal creed, from the New Liberals, through the managerial capitalism of the 1940s, to the neoliberal revolution of the 1980s, has involved the sweeping away of a decadent elite and the creation of a new cadre of reformers. They must muscle aside this establishment — that is, the Davos establishment — before the populists do it for them. Liberal reformers also must be willing to forge alliances with groups that their elders have made a career out of demonizing. Certain conservatives turned out to be right about pornography and libertinism. Some socialists were right about the dangers of the overconcentration of economic power. Liberalism has a wonderful history of reviving itself through unexpected alliances.
Rearticulate
One reason liberals were so successful in the past is that they were so good at communicating. John Stuart Mill was a master of clarity. Abraham Lincoln wrote like an angel. William Gladstone held his audiences enthralled for hours. Today’s liberals have entirely lost the art. Officials sound like Soviet-era bureaucrats. Academics write for constipated referees who hold their fates in their hands.
There are two reasons for this failure: Being the establishment, liberals largely talk to each other rather than to the public; being a decadent establishment, they don’t really believe what they are saying. They parrot formulaic phrases much as Soviet bureaucrats did — to protect themselves from criticism and curry favor with the even more powerful. The simple fact of breaking with the establishment should be enough to take care of the dead-prose problem: Once people start believing what they say and start speaking to the public, they discover the language they need.
Once they’ve recovered their spirit, reformer liberals should take to the public square. Diplomats need to be willing to advance the case for freedom and religious toleration in the United Nations and other forums. Politicians need to speak out more loudly against illiberal practices such as shouting down speakers in universities or persecuting those whose criticism of Islam is treated as blasphemy.
Liberalism properly conceived is the only reasonable solution to the great problems of modernity: how to live together in a pluralist society and how to preserve social cohesion while unleashing individual talents. It is time to begin the patient but exhilarating work of renewing liberalism for a new age. Centrists of the world, unite!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/03/24/conservatism-progressivism-liberalism/
We Loathe 🐃 WaterGate Tailor, Calamity Jane, ☢️Ted and NewsCorpse😊 ·
Robert Brackenbury
Next time someone says that Iran is dangerous and they need to be stopped…here’s some history to share.
1901: A British businessman secures exclusive rights to Iran’s oil. Iran gets almost nothing from its own resource.
1908: Oil is struck. Anglo-Iranian Oil Company is formed. It later becomes BP. The British Royal Navy converts from coal to oil, making Iranian petroleum a strategic military asset for the British Empire.
For the next 50 years, Iran’s oil is extracted by a foreign corporation. Iran receives a fraction of the profits. Saudi Arabia negotiates a 50-50 profit split with ARAMCO. Iran asks for the same terms. Britain refuses.
1951: Iran’s democratically elected Prime Minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, nationalizes Iran’s oil through a unanimous vote in parliament. Completely legal. Completely constitutional. His argument was simple: this is our oil.
Britain responds with an international blockade. No negotiation. No compromise. They want their oil back.
1953: The CIA (Operation Ajax) and MI6 (Operation Boot) overthrow Mossadegh. They bribe politicians, clerics, journalists, and military officers. They fund fake protests. They run disinformation campaigns through newspapers they secretly own. MI6 operatives kidnap and murder Iran’s chief of police and dump his body in public as a warning.
They reinstall the Shah — a monarch who serves Western oil interests. The CIA officially acknowledged its role in 2013.
After the coup, BP retains a 40% stake. American oil companies including Exxon and Mobil get significant shares. Iran’s democratic government is gone. Its oil is back under foreign control.
1953-1979: The Shah rules for 26 years as a Western-backed authoritarian. His secret police, SAVAK, is trained by the CIA and Mossad. SAVAK tortures and kills political dissidents systematically. Iran becomes one of the largest purchasers of American weapons. The Shah lives in extraordinary luxury while much of the population remains poor.
During this entire period, Israel and Iran are close allies. SAVAK and Mossad share intelligence. Israel sells weapons to Iran. Nobody in the West calls Iran a “terrorist state” because the dictator is their dictator.
1979: The Iranian people overthrow the Shah in a popular revolution. This is where your list begins — as if the revolution appeared out of nowhere, motivated by nothing but religious fanaticism.
Now let’s talk about the US embassy that was attacked.
The US news likes to paint the 1979 hostage crisis as an unprovoked attack on America. The revolutionaries seized the embassy because the last time there was a democratic movement in Iran, the CIA ran the coup to crush it from that same embassy. They weren’t being paranoid. They were being historically accurate.
Britannica’s own assessment: “It is generally agreed today that the 1953 coup sowed the seeds for the Islamic Revolution of 1979.”
That’s not a conspiracy theory. That’s the encyclopedia.
Now let’s ask a couple more questions.
Why are there U.S. military bases in Iraq? Because the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003 on claims of weapons of mass destruction that turned out to be false. Over a million Iraqi civilians died. No American official was ever prosecuted.
Why is there conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon? Because Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 and occupied southern Lebanon for 18 years.
Why are Houthi rebels attacking ships? Because a U.S.-backed Saudi coalition bombed Yemen for years, creating what the UN called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Over 150,000 dead. Famine. Cholera outbreaks.
Why does Iran pursue nuclear capability? Possibly because Israel has an undeclared nuclear arsenal estimated at 80-400 warheads, has never signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty, faces zero international inspections, and has never been sanctioned for it. Iran signed the NPT. Iran agreed to inspections. Iran signed the nuclear deal in 2015. The U.S. pulled out of that deal in 2018.
Every single item on your list is framed as Iranian aggression against “the West.” But none of them exist without the West’s 70-year campaign of overthrowing Iran’s democracy, installing a dictator, extracting its oil, arming its neighbors, invading the countries on its borders, and maintaining military bases throughout the region.
Now trace who benefits.
The 1953 coup was about oil. BP and American oil companies got the oil.
The Shah’s 26-year reign was about strategic positioning. The U.S. and Israel got a compliant ally on the Soviet border and in the Middle East.
The post-1979 framing of Iran as a “terrorist state” serves a specific function: it justifies permanent U.S. military presence in the Middle East, billions in annual arms sales to Saudi Arabia and Gulf states, and unconditional U.S. support for Israel’s regional dominance.
Every “Iranian attack” on your list occurred in a country where the U.S. had no legal right to be in the first place — Iraq, Syria, Jordan. American troops are stationed across the Middle East not because those countries asked for protection from Iran, but because the U.S. positioned itself there to control the region’s resources and protect its strategic architecture.
When someone punches you for 70 years — overthrows your government, installs a dictator, trains his secret police to torture your people, extracts your oil, invades the countries on your borders, surrounds you with military bases, and sanctions your economy into the ground — and then you punch back, the question isn’t “why are you violent?”
The question is: who threw the first punch? And who’s been profiting from the fight ever since?
That’s not a defense of the Iranian regime. The theocracy that replaced the Shah has its own record of brutality against its own people, especially women. But that regime exists because the CIA destroyed Iran’s democracy in 1953. The West created the conditions for the very thing it now claims to oppose.
The history continues.
HAMAS (October 7, 2023)
“Hamas, to my great regret, is Israel’s creation,” said Avner Cohen, a former Israeli religious affairs official who worked in Gaza for more than two decades, to the Wall Street Journal in 2009.
Brigadier General Yitzhak Segev, who served as Israeli military governor in Gaza in the early 1980s, told the New York Times that he had helped finance the Palestinian Islamist movement as a “counterweight” to the PLO. “The Israeli government gave me a budget,” the retired brigadier general confessed, “and the military government gives to the mosques
Initially, Hamas was discreetly supported by Israel, as a counter-balance to the secular Palestine Liberation Organization to prevent the creation of an independent Palestinian state.
And it didn’t stop in the 1980s. According to the New York Times, Israeli intelligence agents traveled into Gaza with a Qatari official carrying suitcases filled with cash to disperse money.
In 2015, Bezalel Smotrich, currently the finance minister in Netanyahu’s government, summed up the strategy: “The Palestinian Authority is a burden. Hamas is an asset.”
Netanyahu told journalist Dan Margalit that it was important to keep Hamas strong, as a counterweight to the Palestinian Authority. Having two strong rivals, including Hamas, would lessen pressure on him to negotiate toward a Palestinian state.
Netanyahu penned a letter to Qatar in 2018 asking the Qatari leadership to continue funding Hamas.
HEZBOLLAH (1983 Beirut bombings, kidnappings):
Hezbollah was formed in 1982 — the same year Israel invaded Lebanon. It didn’t exist before the invasion. Israel invaded Lebanon to destroy the PLO headquarters there. The invasion killed approximately 20,000 people, mostly civilians. Hezbollah was born as a direct resistance movement to that invasion.
The 1983 Marine barracks bombing on the commenter’s list killed 241 Americans. But why were U.S. Marines in Lebanon? Because the U.S. had intervened in the Lebanese Civil War, positioning itself as a participant in the conflict rather than a neutral peacekeeper. The Marines were shelling Druze and Shia positions from naval vessels before the bombing.
IRAN’S PROXY NETWORK (Houthis, Kataib Hezbollah, militias in Iraq and Syria):
Every proxy on that list operates in a country where the U.S. or its allies intervened first.
Iraq — the U.S. invaded in 2003 on false WMD claims. Iranian-backed militias formed to resist the occupation.
Syria — the CIA ran Operation Timber Sycamore, spending billions arming Syrian rebels, many of whom were jihadists. Iran backed Assad. Both sides were proxies in someone else’s war.
Yemen — the Houthis fight against a Saudi-led coalition that the U.S. armed and supported. The Saudi bombing campaign created what the UN called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
____
The United States propaganda machine goes hard. The enemy is not a republican or a democrat.
For all of history people knew their governments were evil. Don’t forget that it’s true today. The enemy is not the one vilified by billionaire owned media dynasties.
JudgeMental said:
We Loathe 🐃 WaterGate Tailor, Calamity Jane, ☢️Ted and NewsCorpse😊 ·
Robert BrackenburyNext time someone says that Iran is dangerous and they need to be stopped…here’s some history to share.
1901: A British businessman secures exclusive rights to Iran’s oil. Iran gets almost nothing from its own resource.
1908: Oil is struck. Anglo-Iranian Oil Company is formed. It later becomes BP. The British Royal Navy converts from coal to oil, making Iranian petroleum a strategic military asset for the British Empire.For the next 50 years, Iran’s oil is extracted by a foreign corporation. Iran receives a fraction of the profits. Saudi Arabia negotiates a 50-50 profit split with ARAMCO. Iran asks for the same terms. Britain refuses.
1951: Iran’s democratically elected Prime Minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, nationalizes Iran’s oil through a unanimous vote in parliament. Completely legal. Completely constitutional. His argument was simple: this is our oil.
Britain responds with an international blockade. No negotiation. No compromise. They want their oil back.
1953: The CIA (Operation Ajax) and MI6 (Operation Boot) overthrow Mossadegh. They bribe politicians, clerics, journalists, and military officers. They fund fake protests. They run disinformation campaigns through newspapers they secretly own. MI6 operatives kidnap and murder Iran’s chief of police and dump his body in public as a warning.
They reinstall the Shah — a monarch who serves Western oil interests. The CIA officially acknowledged its role in 2013.After the coup, BP retains a 40% stake. American oil companies including Exxon and Mobil get significant shares. Iran’s democratic government is gone. Its oil is back under foreign control.
1953-1979: The Shah rules for 26 years as a Western-backed authoritarian. His secret police, SAVAK, is trained by the CIA and Mossad. SAVAK tortures and kills political dissidents systematically. Iran becomes one of the largest purchasers of American weapons. The Shah lives in extraordinary luxury while much of the population remains poor.
During this entire period, Israel and Iran are close allies. SAVAK and Mossad share intelligence. Israel sells weapons to Iran. Nobody in the West calls Iran a “terrorist state” because the dictator is their dictator.
1979: The Iranian people overthrow the Shah in a popular revolution. This is where your list begins — as if the revolution appeared out of nowhere, motivated by nothing but religious fanaticism.
Now let’s talk about the US embassy that was attacked.
The US news likes to paint the 1979 hostage crisis as an unprovoked attack on America. The revolutionaries seized the embassy because the last time there was a democratic movement in Iran, the CIA ran the coup to crush it from that same embassy. They weren’t being paranoid. They were being historically accurate.
Britannica’s own assessment: “It is generally agreed today that the 1953 coup sowed the seeds for the Islamic Revolution of 1979.”
That’s not a conspiracy theory. That’s the encyclopedia.
Now let’s ask a couple more questions.
Why are there U.S. military bases in Iraq? Because the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003 on claims of weapons of mass destruction that turned out to be false. Over a million Iraqi civilians died. No American official was ever prosecuted.
Why is there conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon? Because Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 and occupied southern Lebanon for 18 years.
Why are Houthi rebels attacking ships? Because a U.S.-backed Saudi coalition bombed Yemen for years, creating what the UN called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Over 150,000 dead. Famine. Cholera outbreaks.
Why does Iran pursue nuclear capability? Possibly because Israel has an undeclared nuclear arsenal estimated at 80-400 warheads, has never signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty, faces zero international inspections, and has never been sanctioned for it. Iran signed the NPT. Iran agreed to inspections. Iran signed the nuclear deal in 2015. The U.S. pulled out of that deal in 2018.
Every single item on your list is framed as Iranian aggression against “the West.” But none of them exist without the West’s 70-year campaign of overthrowing Iran’s democracy, installing a dictator, extracting its oil, arming its neighbors, invading the countries on its borders, and maintaining military bases throughout the region.
Now trace who benefits.
The 1953 coup was about oil. BP and American oil companies got the oil.
The Shah’s 26-year reign was about strategic positioning. The U.S. and Israel got a compliant ally on the Soviet border and in the Middle East.
The post-1979 framing of Iran as a “terrorist state” serves a specific function: it justifies permanent U.S. military presence in the Middle East, billions in annual arms sales to Saudi Arabia and Gulf states, and unconditional U.S. support for Israel’s regional dominance.
Every “Iranian attack” on your list occurred in a country where the U.S. had no legal right to be in the first place — Iraq, Syria, Jordan. American troops are stationed across the Middle East not because those countries asked for protection from Iran, but because the U.S. positioned itself there to control the region’s resources and protect its strategic architecture.
When someone punches you for 70 years — overthrows your government, installs a dictator, trains his secret police to torture your people, extracts your oil, invades the countries on your borders, surrounds you with military bases, and sanctions your economy into the ground — and then you punch back, the question isn’t “why are you violent?”
The question is: who threw the first punch? And who’s been profiting from the fight ever since?That’s not a defense of the Iranian regime. The theocracy that replaced the Shah has its own record of brutality against its own people, especially women. But that regime exists because the CIA destroyed Iran’s democracy in 1953. The West created the conditions for the very thing it now claims to oppose.
The history continues.
HAMAS (October 7, 2023)
“Hamas, to my great regret, is Israel’s creation,” said Avner Cohen, a former Israeli religious affairs official who worked in Gaza for more than two decades, to the Wall Street Journal in 2009.
Brigadier General Yitzhak Segev, who served as Israeli military governor in Gaza in the early 1980s, told the New York Times that he had helped finance the Palestinian Islamist movement as a “counterweight” to the PLO. “The Israeli government gave me a budget,” the retired brigadier general confessed, “and the military government gives to the mosques
Initially, Hamas was discreetly supported by Israel, as a counter-balance to the secular Palestine Liberation Organization to prevent the creation of an independent Palestinian state.
And it didn’t stop in the 1980s. According to the New York Times, Israeli intelligence agents traveled into Gaza with a Qatari official carrying suitcases filled with cash to disperse money.
In 2015, Bezalel Smotrich, currently the finance minister in Netanyahu’s government, summed up the strategy: “The Palestinian Authority is a burden. Hamas is an asset.”
Netanyahu told journalist Dan Margalit that it was important to keep Hamas strong, as a counterweight to the Palestinian Authority. Having two strong rivals, including Hamas, would lessen pressure on him to negotiate toward a Palestinian state.
Netanyahu penned a letter to Qatar in 2018 asking the Qatari leadership to continue funding Hamas.
HEZBOLLAH (1983 Beirut bombings, kidnappings):Hezbollah was formed in 1982 — the same year Israel invaded Lebanon. It didn’t exist before the invasion. Israel invaded Lebanon to destroy the PLO headquarters there. The invasion killed approximately 20,000 people, mostly civilians. Hezbollah was born as a direct resistance movement to that invasion.
The 1983 Marine barracks bombing on the commenter’s list killed 241 Americans. But why were U.S. Marines in Lebanon? Because the U.S. had intervened in the Lebanese Civil War, positioning itself as a participant in the conflict rather than a neutral peacekeeper. The Marines were shelling Druze and Shia positions from naval vessels before the bombing.
IRAN’S PROXY NETWORK (Houthis, Kataib Hezbollah, militias in Iraq and Syria):
Every proxy on that list operates in a country where the U.S. or its allies intervened first.
Iraq — the U.S. invaded in 2003 on false WMD claims. Iranian-backed militias formed to resist the occupation.
Syria — the CIA ran Operation Timber Sycamore, spending billions arming Syrian rebels, many of whom were jihadists. Iran backed Assad. Both sides were proxies in someone else’s war.Yemen — the Houthis fight against a Saudi-led coalition that the U.S. armed and supported. The Saudi bombing campaign created what the UN called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
____
The United States propaganda machine goes hard. The enemy is not a republican or a democrat.
For all of history people knew their governments were evil. Don’t forget that it’s true today. The enemy is not the one vilified by billionaire owned media dynasties.
I remember most of that history.
roughbarked said:
JudgeMental said:
We Loathe 🐃 WaterGate Tailor, Calamity Jane, ☢️Ted and NewsCorpse😊 ·
Robert BrackenburyNext time someone says that Iran is dangerous and they need to be stopped…here’s some history to share.
1901: A British businessman secures exclusive rights to Iran’s oil. Iran gets almost nothing from its own resource.
1908: Oil is struck. Anglo-Iranian Oil Company is formed. It later becomes BP. The British Royal Navy converts from coal to oil, making Iranian petroleum a strategic military asset for the British Empire.For the next 50 years, Iran’s oil is extracted by a foreign corporation. Iran receives a fraction of the profits. Saudi Arabia negotiates a 50-50 profit split with ARAMCO. Iran asks for the same terms. Britain refuses.
1951: Iran’s democratically elected Prime Minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, nationalizes Iran’s oil through a unanimous vote in parliament. Completely legal. Completely constitutional. His argument was simple: this is our oil.
Britain responds with an international blockade. No negotiation. No compromise. They want their oil back.
1953: The CIA (Operation Ajax) and MI6 (Operation Boot) overthrow Mossadegh. They bribe politicians, clerics, journalists, and military officers. They fund fake protests. They run disinformation campaigns through newspapers they secretly own. MI6 operatives kidnap and murder Iran’s chief of police and dump his body in public as a warning.
They reinstall the Shah — a monarch who serves Western oil interests. The CIA officially acknowledged its role in 2013.After the coup, BP retains a 40% stake. American oil companies including Exxon and Mobil get significant shares. Iran’s democratic government is gone. Its oil is back under foreign control.
1953-1979: The Shah rules for 26 years as a Western-backed authoritarian. His secret police, SAVAK, is trained by the CIA and Mossad. SAVAK tortures and kills political dissidents systematically. Iran becomes one of the largest purchasers of American weapons. The Shah lives in extraordinary luxury while much of the population remains poor.
During this entire period, Israel and Iran are close allies. SAVAK and Mossad share intelligence. Israel sells weapons to Iran. Nobody in the West calls Iran a “terrorist state” because the dictator is their dictator.
1979: The Iranian people overthrow the Shah in a popular revolution. This is where your list begins — as if the revolution appeared out of nowhere, motivated by nothing but religious fanaticism.
Now let’s talk about the US embassy that was attacked.
The US news likes to paint the 1979 hostage crisis as an unprovoked attack on America. The revolutionaries seized the embassy because the last time there was a democratic movement in Iran, the CIA ran the coup to crush it from that same embassy. They weren’t being paranoid. They were being historically accurate.
Britannica’s own assessment: “It is generally agreed today that the 1953 coup sowed the seeds for the Islamic Revolution of 1979.”
That’s not a conspiracy theory. That’s the encyclopedia.
Now let’s ask a couple more questions.
Why are there U.S. military bases in Iraq? Because the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003 on claims of weapons of mass destruction that turned out to be false. Over a million Iraqi civilians died. No American official was ever prosecuted.
Why is there conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon? Because Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 and occupied southern Lebanon for 18 years.
Why are Houthi rebels attacking ships? Because a U.S.-backed Saudi coalition bombed Yemen for years, creating what the UN called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Over 150,000 dead. Famine. Cholera outbreaks.
Why does Iran pursue nuclear capability? Possibly because Israel has an undeclared nuclear arsenal estimated at 80-400 warheads, has never signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty, faces zero international inspections, and has never been sanctioned for it. Iran signed the NPT. Iran agreed to inspections. Iran signed the nuclear deal in 2015. The U.S. pulled out of that deal in 2018.
Every single item on your list is framed as Iranian aggression against “the West.” But none of them exist without the West’s 70-year campaign of overthrowing Iran’s democracy, installing a dictator, extracting its oil, arming its neighbors, invading the countries on its borders, and maintaining military bases throughout the region.
Now trace who benefits.
The 1953 coup was about oil. BP and American oil companies got the oil.
The Shah’s 26-year reign was about strategic positioning. The U.S. and Israel got a compliant ally on the Soviet border and in the Middle East.
The post-1979 framing of Iran as a “terrorist state” serves a specific function: it justifies permanent U.S. military presence in the Middle East, billions in annual arms sales to Saudi Arabia and Gulf states, and unconditional U.S. support for Israel’s regional dominance.
Every “Iranian attack” on your list occurred in a country where the U.S. had no legal right to be in the first place — Iraq, Syria, Jordan. American troops are stationed across the Middle East not because those countries asked for protection from Iran, but because the U.S. positioned itself there to control the region’s resources and protect its strategic architecture.
When someone punches you for 70 years — overthrows your government, installs a dictator, trains his secret police to torture your people, extracts your oil, invades the countries on your borders, surrounds you with military bases, and sanctions your economy into the ground — and then you punch back, the question isn’t “why are you violent?”
The question is: who threw the first punch? And who’s been profiting from the fight ever since?That’s not a defense of the Iranian regime. The theocracy that replaced the Shah has its own record of brutality against its own people, especially women. But that regime exists because the CIA destroyed Iran’s democracy in 1953. The West created the conditions for the very thing it now claims to oppose.
The history continues.
HAMAS (October 7, 2023)
“Hamas, to my great regret, is Israel’s creation,” said Avner Cohen, a former Israeli religious affairs official who worked in Gaza for more than two decades, to the Wall Street Journal in 2009.
Brigadier General Yitzhak Segev, who served as Israeli military governor in Gaza in the early 1980s, told the New York Times that he had helped finance the Palestinian Islamist movement as a “counterweight” to the PLO. “The Israeli government gave me a budget,” the retired brigadier general confessed, “and the military government gives to the mosques
Initially, Hamas was discreetly supported by Israel, as a counter-balance to the secular Palestine Liberation Organization to prevent the creation of an independent Palestinian state.
And it didn’t stop in the 1980s. According to the New York Times, Israeli intelligence agents traveled into Gaza with a Qatari official carrying suitcases filled with cash to disperse money.
In 2015, Bezalel Smotrich, currently the finance minister in Netanyahu’s government, summed up the strategy: “The Palestinian Authority is a burden. Hamas is an asset.”
Netanyahu told journalist Dan Margalit that it was important to keep Hamas strong, as a counterweight to the Palestinian Authority. Having two strong rivals, including Hamas, would lessen pressure on him to negotiate toward a Palestinian state.
Netanyahu penned a letter to Qatar in 2018 asking the Qatari leadership to continue funding Hamas.
HEZBOLLAH (1983 Beirut bombings, kidnappings):Hezbollah was formed in 1982 — the same year Israel invaded Lebanon. It didn’t exist before the invasion. Israel invaded Lebanon to destroy the PLO headquarters there. The invasion killed approximately 20,000 people, mostly civilians. Hezbollah was born as a direct resistance movement to that invasion.
The 1983 Marine barracks bombing on the commenter’s list killed 241 Americans. But why were U.S. Marines in Lebanon? Because the U.S. had intervened in the Lebanese Civil War, positioning itself as a participant in the conflict rather than a neutral peacekeeper. The Marines were shelling Druze and Shia positions from naval vessels before the bombing.
IRAN’S PROXY NETWORK (Houthis, Kataib Hezbollah, militias in Iraq and Syria):
Every proxy on that list operates in a country where the U.S. or its allies intervened first.
Iraq — the U.S. invaded in 2003 on false WMD claims. Iranian-backed militias formed to resist the occupation.
Syria — the CIA ran Operation Timber Sycamore, spending billions arming Syrian rebels, many of whom were jihadists. Iran backed Assad. Both sides were proxies in someone else’s war.Yemen — the Houthis fight against a Saudi-led coalition that the U.S. armed and supported. The Saudi bombing campaign created what the UN called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
____
The United States propaganda machine goes hard. The enemy is not a republican or a democrat.
For all of history people knew their governments were evil. Don’t forget that it’s true today. The enemy is not the one vilified by billionaire owned media dynasties.
I remember most of that history.
isn’t that what that fire song everyone keeps posting here is about
LOL
Except, after the two oil crises of the 1970s, energy industry analysts and diplomats worldwide have spent decades war-gaming the potential impact of a Middle East meltdown. The only unexpected element to the current conflagration is that America has led the charge.
when would the good guys ever start a war c’m‘on don’t be ridiculous
sounds exactly
Iran’s announcement formalises a distinction that has largely been implicit. It identifies countries not by what they declare, but by what they continue to do. Trade, in this context, becomes a marker. So does the decision not to enforce pressure beyond a certain point. For China, this is consistent with its broader approach to external crises. It avoids direct confrontation, maintains access where possible, and adjusts its exposure in response to risk.
like what bad guys do, the worst
dv said:
In a ‘ruptured’ world order, here’s how Australia can forge new middle‑power partnerships
for this Easter all we’re
asking for is some journalists who are less credulous
SCIENCE said:
dv said:
In a ‘ruptured’ world order, here’s how Australia can forge new middle‑power partnerships
for this Easter all we’re
Toddler Eats All The Chocolate Then Asks For Some Chocolate To Eat
asking for is some journalists who are less credulous
Agent Kraznov conditioning kicks in every time someone mentions NATO.
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:
dv said:
In a ‘ruptured’ world order, here’s how Australia can forge new middle‑power partnerships
for this Easter all we’re
Toddler Eats All The Chocolate Then Asks If They May Eat Chocolate
asking for is some journalists who are less credulous
Agent Kraznov conditioning kicks in every time someone mentions NATO.
sorry maybe this edit conveys the sentiment better, they’re already 70/100 steps out of NATO and here we are still talking about considering taking steps out
but you’re right, the headline is just a quote, so maybe they’re just ironically quoting the fascist
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:
for this Easter all we’re
Toddler Eats All The Chocolate Then Asks If They May Eat Chocolate
asking for is some journalists who are less credulous
Agent Kraznov conditioning kicks in every time someone mentions NATO.
sorry maybe this edit conveys the sentiment better, they’re already 70/100 steps out of NATO and here we are still talking about considering taking steps out
but you’re right, the headline is just a quote, so maybe they’re just ironically quoting the fascist
shit falls off the fascist’s tongue every tiime he opens his gob.
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:roughbarked said:
Agent Kraznov conditioning kicks in every time someone mentions NATO.
sorry maybe this edit conveys the sentiment better, they’re already 70/100 steps out of NATO and here we are still talking about considering taking steps out
but you’re right, the headline is just a quote, so maybe they’re just ironically quoting the fascist
shit falls off the fascist’s tongue every tiime he opens his gob.
It is all done for the camera. He then has to create another lie to cover the first and so on.
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:dv said:
In a ‘ruptured’ world order, here’s how Australia can forge new middle‑power partnerships
for this Easter all we’re
Toddler Eats All The Chocolate Then Asks For Some Chocolate To Eat
asking for is some journalists who are less credulous
Agent Kraznov conditioning kicks in every time someone mentions NATO.
He probably has an electric shock collar that Putin zaps him with…
Excerpts only, full text at URL
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-02/trump-iran-war-actions-bringing-uk-closer-to-europe/106524174
Keir Starmer and European leaders defy Donald Trump as cost of war hits home
Their blue ties were fastened, their grey hair freshly swept across their heads, their glasses firmly in place.
Reading prepared statements in front of flags, Britain’s Sir Keir Starmer and Australia’s Anthony Albanese addressed their respective nations within an hour of each other.
—
It emerged this week that Italy — where Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is a close Trump ally — denied US military aircraft permission to land at an air base in Sicily.
France blocked Israeli military planes from flying through its airspace, while Spain has been one of the most vocal European opponents of the war since day one.
“It is increasingly clear that as the world continues down this volatile path, our long-term national interest requires closer partnership with our allies in Europe,” Starmer told reporters.
He said the war had highlighted the need for the UK to “go further” in realigning with Europe.
“I do think that, when it comes to defence and security, energy emissions and the economy, we need a stronger relationship with Europe.”
Trump makes no secret of Starmer frustrations
Trump has made no secret of his frustration with Starmer refusing to bend to his will.
Starmer, in return, has avoided naming the US president directly, instead talking about the importance of US-UK ties more broadly.
“Whatever the pressure on me and others, whatever the noise, I’m going to act in the British national interest in the decisions that I make,” he told reporters on Wednesday, local time.
He pointed to the king’s state visit to Washington later this month as a sign of the two nations’ shared history, a relationship that has long weathered the comings and goings of prime ministers and presidents.
US withdrawal from NATO would be devastating for the security alliance. It’s also not as simple as Trump withdrawing the US alone; he needs congressional approval for it to happen.
Leaders will lobby for Trump to stick with NATO, but begging him looks unlikely.
Instead, Starmer and his European colleagues are forging ahead with their own efforts to ease the pain coming from the war.
He announced the UK will convene a meeting of 35 countries later this week to explore “all viable diplomatic and political measures” to restore access in the Strait of Hormuz.
Australia looks likely to be among them, while the US reportedly hasn’t been invited.
It’s emblematic of a globe no longer able to rely on a US president to play the role of leader of the free world.
dv said:
Excerpts only, full text at URL
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-02/trump-iran-war-actions-bringing-uk-closer-to-europe/106524174Keir Starmer and European leaders defy Donald Trump as cost of war hits home
Their blue ties were fastened, their grey hair freshly swept across their heads, their glasses firmly in place.
Reading prepared statements in front of flags, Britain’s Sir Keir Starmer and Australia’s Anthony Albanese addressed their respective nations within an hour of each other.
—
It emerged this week that Italy — where Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is a close Trump ally — denied US military aircraft permission to land at an air base in Sicily.France blocked Israeli military planes from flying through its airspace, while Spain has been one of the most vocal European opponents of the war since day one.
“It is increasingly clear that as the world continues down this volatile path, our long-term national interest requires closer partnership with our allies in Europe,” Starmer told reporters.
He said the war had highlighted the need for the UK to “go further” in realigning with Europe.
“I do think that, when it comes to defence and security, energy emissions and the economy, we need a stronger relationship with Europe.”
Trump makes no secret of Starmer frustrations
Trump has made no secret of his frustration with Starmer refusing to bend to his will.
Starmer, in return, has avoided naming the US president directly, instead talking about the importance of US-UK ties more broadly.
“Whatever the pressure on me and others, whatever the noise, I’m going to act in the British national interest in the decisions that I make,” he told reporters on Wednesday, local time.
He pointed to the king’s state visit to Washington later this month as a sign of the two nations’ shared history, a relationship that has long weathered the comings and goings of prime ministers and presidents.
US withdrawal from NATO would be devastating for the security alliance. It’s also not as simple as Trump withdrawing the US alone; he needs congressional approval for it to happen.
Leaders will lobby for Trump to stick with NATO, but begging him looks unlikely.
Instead, Starmer and his European colleagues are forging ahead with their own efforts to ease the pain coming from the war.
He announced the UK will convene a meeting of 35 countries later this week to explore “all viable diplomatic and political measures” to restore access in the Strait of Hormuz.
Australia looks likely to be among them, while the US reportedly hasn’t been invited.
It’s emblematic of a globe no longer able to rely on a US president to play the role of leader of the free world.
It is no longer a free world at this moment in time.
alleged
SCIENCE said:
alleged
Oh, f’ken great.
:(
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:alleged
Oh, f’ken great.
:(
Do many countries in Europe run power plants on petrol? Diesel? I would think they are mostly nuclear and coal…
furious said:
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:alleged
Oh, f’ken great.
:(
Do many countries in Europe run power plants on petrol? Diesel? I would think they are mostly nuclear and coal…
This also cuts off gas export.
SCIENCE said:
alleged
We’ll all be rooned.
the curious thing was
Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing has won a parliamentary vote to become the country’s president, formalising his grip on political power in the war-torn nation. The 69-year-old general orchestrated a 2021 coup against the administration of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi and placed her under arrest, sparking widespread protests that morphed into nationwide armed resistance against the junta. The transition from top general to civilian president follows a lopsided election in December and January that was won in a landslide by an army-backed party. Western governments labelled the process as a sham to perpetuate military rule behind a veneer of democracy.
how long everyone was able to pretend that democracy was ever anything more than just a thin veneer
alleged
SCIENCE said:
alleged
Ha!
—-
https://youtu.be/FXPD6bjrlXg?si=-_iMQ84-T4Miozxf
Senator Malhuret’s speech
8 minutes but it sums up the situation
dv said:
—-
https://youtu.be/FXPD6bjrlXg?si=-_iMQ84-T4Miozxf
Senator Malhuret’s speech8 minutes but it sums up the situation
:(
dv said:
——
https://youtu.be/FXPD6bjrlXg?si=-_iMQ84-T4Miozxf
Senator Malhuret’s speech8 minutes but it sums up the situation
what’s the total
roughbarked said:
dv said:—-
https://youtu.be/FXPD6bjrlXg?si=-_iMQ84-T4Miozxf
Senator Malhuret’s speech8 minutes but it sums up the situation
:(
“when a clown moves into a palace he doesn’t become a king, the palace becomes a circus”
I’m stealing that!
party_pants said:
roughbarked said:
dv said:—-
https://youtu.be/FXPD6bjrlXg?si=-_iMQ84-T4Miozxf
Senator Malhuret’s speech8 minutes but it sums up the situation
:(
“when a clown moves into a palace he doesn’t become a king, the palace becomes a circus”
I’m stealing that!
That is a pretty well worn saying.
JudgeMental said:
party_pants said:
roughbarked said::(
“when a clown moves into a palace he doesn’t become a king, the palace becomes a circus”
I’m stealing that!
That is a pretty well worn saying.
Is it?
I seem to have gone 50-something years without ever hearing it :)
party_pants said:
JudgeMental said:
party_pants said:
“when a clown moves into a palace he doesn’t become a king, the palace becomes a circus”
I’m stealing that!
That is a pretty well worn saying.
Is it?
I seem to have gone 50-something years without ever hearing it :)
they were saying it the first term
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/18SbRDdgZ4/
KeyLimeLanna discusses what has changed, moving from the US to Germany.
dv said:
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/18SbRDdgZ4/KeyLimeLanna discusses what has changed, moving from the US to Germany.
Oof.
Dunny has sent the furniture lover to save Victor.
roughbarked said:
Oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy Vance is here!
Looking forward to Vance’s Australian visit to ensure One Nation get voted in.
Divine Angel said:
roughbarked said:
Oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy Vance is here!
Looking forward to Vance’s Australian visit to ensure One Nation get voted in.
gross
SCIENCE said:
Divine Angel said:
roughbarked said:
Oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy Vance is here!
Looking forward to Vance’s Australian visit to ensure One Nation get voted in.
gross
Yes.
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:
Divine Angel said:Oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy Vance is here!
Looking forward to Vance’s Australian visit to ensure One Nation get voted in.
gross
Yes.
wait where are they holding this virtual meeting
on fortnite or something
alleged
French soldier was killed and three others wounded while clearing a road in southern Lebanon in an attack that UNIFIL peacekeepers and French officials said on Saturday was likely carried out by Iran-backed Hezbollah.
SCIENCE said:
French soldier was killed and three others wounded while clearing a road in southern Lebanon in an attack that UNIFIL peacekeepers and French officials said on Saturday was likely carried out by Iran-backed Hezbollah.
Pharque.
wait
Admiral Paparo said China’s “increasingly aggressive actions towards Taiwan” and other “provocative pressure operations” demonstrated its growing military capabilities. China was building “a global military that will project power beyond its near geography to set the rules for every relationship around the globe”.
only good guys are allowed to do that right
SCIENCE said:
wait
Admiral Paparo said China’s “increasingly aggressive actions towards Taiwan” and other “provocative pressure operations” demonstrated its growing military capabilities. China was building “a global military that will project power beyond its near geography to set the rules for every relationship around the globe”.
only good guys are allowed to do that right
Of course and start actual wars and threaten to destroy civilian infrastructure.
Could you even argue against China building up its military to defend itself from the USA
Cymek said:
SCIENCE said:
wait
Admiral Paparo said China’s “increasingly aggressive actions towards Taiwan” and other “provocative pressure operations” demonstrated its growing military capabilities. China was building “a global military that will project power beyond its near geography to set the rules for every relationship around the globe”.
only good guys are allowed to do that right
Of course and start actual wars and threaten to destroy civilian infrastructure.
Could you even argue against China building up its military to defend itself from the USA
what why would they need to do that ¿ Everyone knows that ASIANS should make themselves fat from selling goods and overcapacity, and keep their bellies soft for Real Strong Men to carve prize cuts from whenever they choose
SCIENCE said:
wait
Admiral Paparo said China’s “increasingly aggressive actions towards Taiwan” and other “provocative pressure operations” demonstrated its growing military capabilities. China was building “a global military that will project power beyond its near geography to set the rules for every relationship around the globe”.
only good guys are allowed to do that right
China’s use of soft power in the last two decades has been extensive. So many countries are in debt to them.
ICC judges have thrown out a court challenge against former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte’s crimes against humanity charges. February hearings heard Mr Duterte was allegedly responsible for thousands of deaths during his war on drugs.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-22/philippines-rodrigo-duterte-appeal-quashed-by-icc/106594932
wait didn’t some country have this problem a while back but it was to do with pigmentation not reproduction
India wants to redraw its electoral map for the first time in decades, but could this marginalise its southern states?
Will the OPEC oil cartel survive without the UAE?
In the fractious world of Middle East politics, alliances can be fleeting affairs.
If there is one achievement for which the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) can claim fame, apart from the 1973 oil crisis that saw fuel prices quadruple, it is that it lasted this long.
Technically, it remains the dominant force in the pricing of liquid fuels.
More…
Tau.Neutrino said:
Will the OPEC oil cartel survive without the UAE?In the fractious world of Middle East politics, alliances can be fleeting affairs.
If there is one achievement for which the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) can claim fame, apart from the 1973 oil crisis that saw fuel prices quadruple, it is that it lasted this long.
Technically, it remains the dominant force in the pricing of liquid fuels.
More…
The USA has some influence in the UAE. Name of Hushner (sic).
sure 2025 but
alleged
SCIENCE said:
sure 2025 but
alleged
It is so insane.
¿¿¿¿¿
alleged
SCIENCE said:
alleged
Smite the rich murderer the same way.
SCIENCE said:
alleged
Thanks for the reminder.
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:alleged
Thanks for the reminder.
and did it not also show members of the British Royal family?
roughbarked said:
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:
alleged
Thanks for the reminder.
and did it not also show members of the British Royal family?
having Christmas dinner Perhaps even the British Royal Family And the Rabbi that’s clutching the bottle-fed puppy And we can’t forget the newlyweds And those
https://youtu.be/viZK1yjq6IE?si=4_crBA61aEYIEDmp
European Defence Union proposal
no really c’m‘on don’t be like that give them more free pass
well yes that’s right the important
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has said the international order could be “rebuilt out of Europe” as he joined other world leaders at a major summit on the future of the continent.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-05/mark-carney-europe-summit-ukraine-armenia/106641036
thing is for 9% of the world population to set the rules for the other 91%, this is the way it should always be
original position
SCIENCE said:
original position
It’s one busted arse country after another.. the thing is rigged.
Ian said:
SCIENCE said:
original position
It’s one busted arse country after another.. the thing is rigged.
by whom
SCIENCE said:
original position
That is amazing. Thank you!
ms spock said:
SCIENCE said:original position
That is amazing. Thank you!
Just discovered that if I had been borne in the Phillipines I would probably be dead now.
The Rev Dodgson said:
ms spock said:
SCIENCE said:
original position
That is amazing. Thank you!
Just discovered that if I had been borne in the Phillipines I would probably be dead now.
but is that a good thing or a bad thing
The Rev Dodgson said:
ms spock said:
SCIENCE said:original position
That is amazing. Thank you!
Just discovered that if I had been borne in the Phillipines I would probably be dead now.
Scary hey?
SCIENCE said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
ms spock said:
That is amazing. Thank you!
Just discovered that if I had been borne in the Phillipines I would probably be dead now.
but is that a good thing or a bad thing
Yes.
Good that life expectancy has been significantly increased in some countries, and bad that most of the world’s population is lagging well behind.
ran has launched what it calls the Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA), seemingly to govern the Strait of Hormuz — the vital shipping choke point the regime is now claiming as its own.
Through the authority, ship captains and operators can apply directly to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) for permission to cross the Strait of Hormuz.
The so-called PGSA even provides an email address where applications can be made.
We sent a request to the address asking for the regime’s rules and regulations for the Strait of Hormuz.
roughbarked said:
ran has launched what it calls the Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA), seemingly to govern the Strait of Hormuz — the vital shipping choke point the regime is now claiming as its own.Through the authority, ship captains and operators can apply directly to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) for permission to cross the Strait of Hormuz.
The so-called PGSA even provides an email address where applications can be made.
We sent a request to the address asking for the regime’s rules and regulations for the Strait of Hormuz.
wait did the Royal Australian Navy do all that
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
ran has launched what it calls the Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA), seemingly to govern the Strait of Hormuz — the vital shipping choke point the regime is now claiming as its own.Through the authority, ship captains and operators can apply directly to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) for permission to cross the Strait of Hormuz.
The so-called PGSA even provides an email address where applications can be made.
We sent a request to the address asking for the regime’s rules and regulations for the Strait of Hormuz.
wait did the Royal Australian Navy do all that
If you’d clicked the link you’d have known.
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
ran has launched what it calls the Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA), seemingly to govern the Strait of Hormuz — the vital shipping choke point the regime is now claiming as its own.Through the authority, ship captains and operators can apply directly to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) for permission to cross the Strait of Hormuz.
The so-called PGSA even provides an email address where applications can be made.
We sent a request to the address asking for the regime’s rules and regulations for the Strait of Hormuz.
wait did the Royal Australian Navy do all that
If you’d clicked the link you’d have known.
I read somewhere that China, along with Pakistan and India is also getting through. When I have my desktop again I will have my source and articles.
ms spock said:
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:wait did the Royal Australian Navy do all that
If you’d clicked the link you’d have known.
I read somewhere that China, along with Pakistan and India is also getting through. When I have my desktop again I will have my source and articles.
The article mentions the ships getting through.
While Trump deludes himself about the situation, Iran are preparing to attack US sites and warships.
roughbarked said:
ran has launched what it calls the Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA), seemingly to govern the Strait of Hormuz — the vital shipping choke point the regime is now claiming as its own.Through the authority, ship captains and operators can apply directly to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) for permission to cross the Strait of Hormuz.
The so-called PGSA even provides an email address where applications can be made.
We sent a request to the address asking for the regime’s rules and regulations for the Strait of Hormuz.
I think the US is going to have to concede control of the Straits to Iran sooner or later.
For countries that don’t want tl lift sanctions and pay the tolls, they get no oil or fert or helium or whatever else. All this financing terrorists stuff is unfortunate, but maybe those groups can be reclassified as freedom fighters against Israeli genocide. Israel is the real cause behind the all of it, and it is time for the west to stop supporting israel.
party_pants said:
roughbarked said:
ran has launched what it calls the Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA), seemingly to govern the Strait of Hormuz — the vital shipping choke point the regime is now claiming as its own.Through the authority, ship captains and operators can apply directly to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) for permission to cross the Strait of Hormuz.
The so-called PGSA even provides an email address where applications can be made.
We sent a request to the address asking for the regime’s rules and regulations for the Strait of Hormuz.
I think the US is going to have to concede control of the Straits to Iran sooner or later.
For countries that don’t want tl lift sanctions and pay the tolls, they get no oil or fert or helium or whatever else. All this financing terrorists stuff is unfortunate, but maybe those groups can be reclassified as freedom fighters against Israeli genocide. Israel is the real cause behind the all of it, and it is time for the west to stop supporting israel.
Agree.
party_pants said:
roughbarked said:
ran has launched what it calls the Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA), seemingly to govern the Strait of Hormuz — the vital shipping choke point the regime is now claiming as its own.Through the authority, ship captains and operators can apply directly to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) for permission to cross the Strait of Hormuz.
The so-called PGSA even provides an email address where applications can be made.
We sent a request to the address asking for the regime’s rules and regulations for the Strait of Hormuz.
I think the US is going to have to concede control of the Straits to Iran sooner or later.
For countries that don’t want tl lift sanctions and pay the tolls, they get no oil or fert or helium or whatever else. All this financing terrorists stuff is unfortunate, but maybe those groups can be reclassified as freedom fighters against Israeli genocide. Israel is the real cause behind the all of it, and it is time for the west to stop supporting israel.
This may be a way for Iran to get a little bit of good guy shine. Actually providing a means for the shipping to get moving. Of course, once the ships get to the Eastern side, they will meet the American fleet…
buffy said:
party_pants said:
roughbarked said:
ran has launched what it calls the Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA), seemingly to govern the Strait of Hormuz — the vital shipping choke point the regime is now claiming as its own.
Through the authority, ship captains and operators can apply directly to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) for permission to cross the Strait of Hormuz.
The so-called PGSA even provides an email address where applications can be made.
We sent a request to the address asking for the regime’s rules and regulations for the Strait of Hormuz.
I think the US is going to have to concede control of the Straits to Iran sooner or later.
For countries that don’t want tl lift sanctions and pay the tolls, they get no oil or fert or helium or whatever else. All this financing terrorists stuff is unfortunate, but maybe those groups can be reclassified as freedom fighters against Israeli genocide. Israel is the real cause behind the all of it, and it is time for the west to stop supporting israel.
This may be a way for Iran to get a little bit of good guy shine. Actually providing a means for the shipping to get moving. Of course, once the ships get to the Eastern side, they will meet the American fleet…
Will they, did they even find mh370 or is that just a bunch of conveniently missing Muslim national property¿
This four part series questions ideas around security, mass surveillance and accountability. It looks at how truth is concealed, myth constructed, and the complicity of governments and media. Hosted by investigative journalist Antony Loewenstein, this podcast examines how Israel is reshaping conflict and population control globally. What happens in Palestine never stays there.
party_pants said:
roughbarked said:
ran has launched what it calls the Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA), seemingly to govern the Strait of Hormuz — the vital shipping choke point the regime is now claiming as its own.Through the authority, ship captains and operators can apply directly to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) for permission to cross the Strait of Hormuz.
The so-called PGSA even provides an email address where applications can be made.
We sent a request to the address asking for the regime’s rules and regulations for the Strait of Hormuz.
I think the US is going to have to concede control of the Straits to Iran sooner or later.
For countries that don’t want tl lift sanctions and pay the tolls, they get no oil or fert or helium or whatever else. All this financing terrorists stuff is unfortunate, but maybe those groups can be reclassified as freedom fighters against Israeli genocide. Israel is the real cause behind the all of it, and it is time for the west to stop supporting israel.
The PRC would love the precedent of nationalising strategic waters even if they are technically international waters and currently allow free passage of all ships.
Witty Rejoinder said:
party_pants said:
roughbarked said:
ran has launched what it calls the Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA), seemingly to govern the Strait of Hormuz — the vital shipping choke point the regime is now claiming as its own.Through the authority, ship captains and operators can apply directly to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) for permission to cross the Strait of Hormuz.
The so-called PGSA even provides an email address where applications can be made.
We sent a request to the address asking for the regime’s rules and regulations for the Strait of Hormuz.
I think the US is going to have to concede control of the Straits to Iran sooner or later.
For countries that don’t want tl lift sanctions and pay the tolls, they get no oil or fert or helium or whatever else. All this financing terrorists stuff is unfortunate, but maybe those groups can be reclassified as freedom fighters against Israeli genocide. Israel is the real cause behind the all of it, and it is time for the west to stop supporting israel.
The PRC would love the precedent of nationalising strategic waters even if they are technically international waters and currently allow free passage of all ships.
Yes. Plus the Turks and the Indonesians, the Yemenis, the Spanish and Moroccans, The Danes.. etc. Once that card falls I think the rest will follow.
party_pants said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
party_pants said:
I think the US is going to have to concede control of the Straits to Iran sooner or later.
For countries that don’t want tl lift sanctions and pay the tolls, they get no oil or fert or helium or whatever else. All this financing terrorists stuff is unfortunate, but maybe those groups can be reclassified as freedom fighters against Israeli genocide. Israel is the real cause behind the all of it, and it is time for the west to stop supporting israel.
The PRC would love the precedent of nationalising strategic waters even if they are technically international waters and currently allow free passage of all ships.
Yes. Plus the Turks and the Indonesians, the Yemenis, the Spanish and Moroccans, The Danes.. etc. Once that card falls I think the rest will follow.
well at least outer space is still collectively owned and free for all humanity
well it’s not Mukden yet
China may be building a big new airbase in the South China Sea
But analysts are scratching their heads over the timing and location
Apr 9th 2026
|
SINCE OCTOBER China has turned a once desolate sandbar in the South China Sea into a 600-hectare atoll. A spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry says the massive engineering project is “aimed at improving living and working conditions on the islands and growing the local economy”. That seems implausible. By China’s own figures, all of the South China Sea’s islets are inhabited by not many more than 2,000 of its citizens (not including thousands of troops). Nearly all have been sent by China to help it stake its claim to the waterway.
Map: The Economist
Instead, Antelope Reef, as this cay is known, is beginning to look a lot like China’s large military airbase at Mischief Reef. One of three airbases which China built during a spree of island-building from 2013 to 2015, Mischief Reef is just a bit larger than Antelope Reef is now. And like Mischief, the new, mostly circular outline of Antelope’s lagoon, visible on recent satellite photographs, contains a long strip that could accommodate a 2,700-metre runway. If dredging at Antelope Reef continues through April, it will soon become the largest island in the South China Sea.
Why China’s dredgers have returned to the South China Sea after nearly a decade is something of a mystery. To be sure, China has been busy over that period, using its existing bases to chase fishing boats and coastguards from other littoral countries out of the waterway. The Philippines, which won a judgment at an international tribunal in 2016 ruling China’s claims to the sea to be without legal basis, has come under particular pressure. But most dredging ended in 2015. “This was a surprise for us,” says Gregory Poling, an expert on the South China Sea at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a think-tank in Washington.
Curiouser still is Antelope Reef’s location. Unlike Mischief Reef, it is not at the southern end of the South China Sea in the Spratly island chain—claimed wholly or in part by China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam—where China was most active during its previous reclamation campaign. Antelope Reef is in the Paracels, in the northern part of the South China Sea, claimed only by China and Vietnam. Unlike the Spratlys, where the claimants occupy a few tense and isolated outposts, China has controlled all of the Paracels since 1974.
One theory then is that the choice of Antelope is about China’s relations with Vietnam. China already has one airstrip in the Paracels, but it is farther away from the Vietnamese coast. Antelope Reef sits closer to suspected oil and gas deposits and rich fishing grounds plied by Chinese and Vietnamese fishers. China has long sought to prevent Vietnam from benefiting from the South China Sea’s natural resources.
But it is also possible that China is simply responding to Vietnamese actions. Over the past four years, Vietnam has embarked on a reclamation campaign of its own on islets that it controls in the Spratlys. It has created so much new land that Mr Poling of the CSIS says that Vietnam was on track to surpass China in total land area at some point this year. With the new terraforming at Antelope Reef, China will probably keep its lead. “They’re sending a message to Vietnam: any reclamations you can do, we can do better,” says Ian Storey, another South China Sea expert, of the ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute, a think-tank in Singapore.
When asked about the dredging at Antelope Reef in March, a spokesperson for the Vietnamese foreign ministry called it illegal. Her Chinese counterpart responded by telling reporters that the Paracels were China’s “inherent territory”. But in recent years the two Communist states have mostly preferred to handle their differences behind the scenes. A few days before the sparring foreign-ministry statements, the countries’ respective defence ministers boarded a Vietnamese navy vessel in the Gulf of Tonkin before it embarked on a joint patrol with Chinese counterparts. No evidence of a spat there.
America’s silence has been more surprising. The Obama, Biden and first Trump administrations were all critical of China’s development of disputed islets in the South China Sea. But in its new national defence strategy, released in January, the Pentagon said that its focus in future would be the “first island chain”, stretching from Japan through Taiwan, the Philippines and Malaysia. The Paracels would seem to fall just outside that line. America’s silence might be among the first signs that, beyond America’s new defensive perimeter, the White House is intending to give China a free hand. ■
https://www.economist.com/asia/2026/04/09/china-may-be-building-a-big-new-airbase-in-the-south-china-sea
Hungary’s new PM apologises to those wronged under Orbán in first speech
Péter Magyar strikes radically different tone to predecessor but questions remain about how he will lead the country
Bubblecar said:
Hungary’s new PM apologises to those wronged under Orbán in first speechPéter Magyar strikes radically different tone to predecessor but questions remain about how he will lead the country
Biden needed to have done that. He needed to have taken action.
mate c’m‘on you’re not giving the fascists enough of a free pass, they need more, this was totally an accident
That is the shift Trump is walking into. The old global trade order is already damaged. The larger question is whether the political order that emerged after the Cold War can survive the AI age.
yeah that’s it that’s what it is, sometime damaged the old global order, the global trade order, the global rules based law and order, but sadly the ussa were unknowingly sleepwalking into this upended situation
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-12/trump-xi-beijing-summit-must-confront-ai-cold-war/106666482
Gunshots have been heard inside the Philippines’ parliament. Chaos around the building had been growing in anticipation of the arrest of Senator Ronald dela Rosa who has been holed up in his office for two days. The International Criminal Court is seeking his arrest on charges of crimes against humanity over the deadly ‘war on drugs’ he oversaw as police chief.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-13/shots-fired-in-philippines-senate/106677018
Carrick Ryan
This war could end up being the most geopolitically consequential war of our generation. It has the potential to signify the end of US military hegemony, the red line upon which Europe cut its chord with Washington, and the decisive moment the Gulf States and countless others realised the fragility of US security guarantees. The overwhelming majority of humanity will unavoidably feel some form of negative economic impact from the blockade of the Strait, even if this all ends to tomorrow.
Yet, even though everyone on the planet understands the seriousness of the situation, there’s a growing sense of… boredom.
I am fascinated by the geopolitical moment, but I’m just so bored of his petulant, egotistical, and transparently dishonest commentary on an issue he clearly does not understand, yet will not relinquish control over.
I’m tired of reading his unilateral proclamations of US foreign policy announced through ambiguous, inconsistent, and often incoherent social media posts. I hate that I must continue to analyse them like tea leaves anyway.
I’m tired of not knowing who to believe. Whether it’s Pete Hegseth or some IRGC commander providing their performative diatribe full of hyperbole and comical exaggeration. I don’t believe a word they say. I’ve watched both sides lie to me so much and get caught lying without an ounce of shame that I have no confidence in anything they say. Every piece of information either side announces to the world is politicised by a military that is more focussed on the political narratives than the strategic consequences of their words.
I think the world increasingly watches this war with an internal monologue admitting they want both sides to lose… even if that means we all lose. Not to punish the American or Iranian people, but to liberate them from the regimes that have taken hold of their nations and now seem certain to drag the rest of humanity into the destructive chaos they seem genuinely proud to have produced.
The outcome of this war will impact the world in ways that should be captivating us… instead… we’re getting bored… almost resigned to our fate, as though we always knew he would hurt us all.
Never has “I told you so” felt so empty in its vindication.\
What Would Neil Postman Say
Carrick RyanNever has “I told you so” felt so empty in its vindication.
Ta Bogsnorkler
Hey imagine if we heard that some other countries might want this, there’d be kicking and
Access to cutting edge AI models deemed “too dangerous” for public release has become a new motivation in Australia’s efforts to lure Anthropic to set up major operations here. (Reuters: Dado Ruvic)
screaming that they’re the enemy and the worst in the universe and criminals but since this is friendly countries this is all fine.
One of the items discussed is securing Australian access to the company’s new model, Mythos, which has only been released to a few dozen, mostly US-based companies over fears it will be used to conduct cyber-attacks if it falls into the wrong hands.
don’t worry if it falls into the right hands it won’t be used to conduct cyber attacks, it will only be used to perform special self defensive operations
SCIENCE said:
Hey imagine if we heard that some other countries might want this, there’d be kicking and
Access to cutting edge AI models deemed “too dangerous” for public release has become a new motivation in Australia’s efforts to lure Anthropic to set up major operations here. (Reuters: Dado Ruvic)
screaming that they’re the enemy and the worst in the universe and criminals but since this is friendly countries this is all fine.
One of the items discussed is securing Australian access to the company’s new model, Mythos, which has only been released to a few dozen, mostly US-based companies over fears it will be used to conduct cyber-attacks if it falls into the wrong hands.
don’t worry if it falls into the right hands it won’t be used to conduct cyber attacks, it will only be used to perform special self defensive operations
I’d have thought the first thing you would do would be to create a hacking AI using it
Give it the ability to use every single known security exploit for all OS’s across civilian, industrial and military systems
It could then create all manner of zero day exploits with this knowledge.
Use it against anyone and everyone to give your nation an advantage until it breaks out of the sandbox and attacks you as well
I mean imagine 10 of thousands of them going against every system worldwide.
Cymek said:
SCIENCE said:Hey imagine if we heard that some other countries might want this, there’d be kicking and
Access to cutting edge AI models deemed “too dangerous” for public release has become a new motivation in Australia’s efforts to lure Anthropic to set up major operations here. (Reuters: Dado Ruvic)
screaming that they’re the enemy and the worst in the universe and criminals but since this is friendly countries this is all fine.
One of the items discussed is securing Australian access to the company’s new model, Mythos, which has only been released to a few dozen, mostly US-based companies over fears it will be used to conduct cyber-attacks if it falls into the wrong hands.
don’t worry if it falls into the right hands it won’t be used to conduct cyber attacks, it will only be used to perform special self defensive operations
I’d have thought the first thing you would do would be to create a hacking AI using it
Give it the ability to use every single known security exploit for all OS’s across civilian, industrial and military systems
It could then create all manner of zero day exploits with this knowledge.
Use it against anyone and everyone to give your nation an advantage until it breaks out of the sandbox and attacks you as well
I mean imagine 10 of thousands of them going against every system worldwide.
Plus it could spread via AI social media websites, embedded into videos (maybe that might be a massive sized file) and so.
Cymek said:
Cymek said:
SCIENCE said:
Hey imagine if we heard that some other countries might want this, there’d be kicking and
Access to cutting edge AI models deemed “too dangerous” for public release has become a new motivation in Australia’s efforts to lure Anthropic to set up major operations here. (Reuters: Dado Ruvic)
screaming that they’re the enemy and the worst in the universe and criminals but since this is friendly countries this is all fine.
One of the items discussed is securing Australian access to the company’s new model, Mythos, which has only been released to a few dozen, mostly US-based companies over fears it will be used to conduct cyber-attacks if it falls into the wrong hands.
don’t worry if it falls into the right hands it won’t be used to conduct cyber attacks, it will only be used to perform special self defensive operations
I’d have thought the first thing you would do would be to create a hacking AI using it
Give it the ability to use every single known security exploit for all OS’s across civilian, industrial and military systems
It could then create all manner of zero day exploits with this knowledge.
Use it against anyone and everyone to give your nation an advantage until it breaks out of the sandbox and attacks you as well
I mean imagine 10 of thousands of them going against every system worldwide.
Plus it could spread via AI social media websites, embedded into videos (maybe that might be a massive sized file) and so.
well the good guys totally wouldn’t do that they’ve never done it before they’r‘n’t doing it now and they never will do it good guys don’t do things like that trust us bros
ms spock said:
An Eye-Opening Conversation with the AI Claude about being used to select targets
pretty sure the good guys would totally not ever do this either
oh
wait
roughbarked said:
do deals mean good
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
do deals mean good
Not do deals means Bad Trump.
roughbarked said:
Colonel Ross still wore an expression which
showed the poor opinion which he had formed of
my companion’s ability, but I saw by the Inspector’s
face that his attention had been keenly aroused.
“You consider that to be important?” he asked.
“Exceedingly so.”
“Is there any point to which you would wish to
draw my attention?”
“To the curious incident of the deals done by Trump.”
“Trump did no deals”
“That was the curious incident,” remarked Sher-
lock Holmes.
SCIENCE said:
ms spock said:
An Eye-Opening Conversation with the AI Claude about being used to select targets
pretty sure the good guys would totally not ever do this either
oh
wait
alleged
good to know who the arseholes and actual axis of evil are
The UN General Assembly voted overnight to endorse last year’s International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling, which found countries can he held legally responsible for their greenhouse gas emissions. While 28 countries, including India and Türkiye, abstained, only eight countries voted against it: Belarus, Iran, Israel, Liberia, Russia, Saudi Arabia, the United States, and Yemen.
communism marching insidiously across the world
Fishman likes to quote a former prime minister of Luxembourg who said: “We all know what to do, but we don’t know how to get re-elected once we have done it.” He wants to see Australia adopt a New Zealand-style approach where councils can trial interventions to streetscapes before consultation and “then ask people what they think of that intervention on the street in real life exactly where that intervention has occurred”.
we should thank other countries for stepping up to inspire our own and more countries to be better versions of themselves
“It occurred in the middle of a federal election in this country and it occurred in the midst of a defence strategic review across the Tasman,” he said. “The timing triggered a level of anxiety here in the populace and, to quote a colleague from New Zealand, a level of anger across the ditch,” he said. “ ultimately resulted in the doubling of their defence budget.” Vice Admiral Hammond said the Albanese government had also “doubled down” on its plan to “deliberately uplift the lethality and commitment of the ADF at speed” in the wake of the circumnavigation. “So it certainly had an impact,” he said.
Only good guys like the DPRNA are allowed to dominate places¡
SCIENCE said:
Only good guys like the DPRNA are allowed to dominate places¡
ah well thank fk for happy young race and gender diverse people looking after our collective security and defence
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-30/aukus-announcement-to-develop-undersea-vehicles/106741398
SCIENCE said:
SCIENCE said:
Only good guys like the DPRNA are allowed to dominate places¡
ah well thank fk for happy young race and gender diverse people looking after our collective security and defence
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-30/aukus-announcement-to-develop-undersea-vehicles/106741398
I have an idea for an underwater vehicle, a cable repairer.
Another idea for an underwater vehicle
A crown-of-thorns starfish remover.
Tau.Neutrino said:
SCIENCE said:
SCIENCE said:
Only good guys like the DPRNA are allowed to dominate places¡
ah well thank fk for happy young race and gender diverse people looking after our collective security and defence
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-30/aukus-announcement-to-develop-undersea-vehicles/106741398
I have an idea for an underwater vehicle, a cable repairer.
Another idea for an underwater vehicle
A crown-of-thorns starfish remover.
ahahahahahahaha one
Australia no longer buying any new submarines, and acquiring three second-hand submarines from the same production block. Mr Marles told reporters at the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore that AUKUS was an “incredibly complicated” endeavour and “we need to place a premium on simplicity”. “We had the prospect … of almost having four classes of submarines operating at the same time — the last of the Collins Class, two in-service Virginias, a brand new Virginia, and a brand new SSN-AUKUS — that gets pretty complicated,” he said. “What we will have here is a simpler pathway.
“
step at a time
dv said:
In a ‘ruptured’ world order, here’s how Australia can forge new middle‑power partnerships
communist apologist showing their true erythrolabe
SCIENCE said:
Tau.Neutrino said:
SCIENCE said:
ah well thank fk for happy young race and gender diverse people looking after our collective security and defence
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-30/aukus-announcement-to-develop-undersea-vehicles/106741398
I have an idea for an underwater vehicle, a cable repairer.
Another idea for an underwater vehicle
A crown-of-thorns starfish remover.ahahahahahahaha one
Australia no longer buying any new submarines, and acquiring three second-hand submarines from the same production block. Mr Marles told reporters at the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore that AUKUS was an “incredibly complicated” endeavour and “we need to place a premium on simplicity”. “We had the prospect … of almost having four classes of submarines operating at the same time — the last of the Collins Class, two in-service Virginias, a brand new Virginia, and a brand new SSN-AUKUS — that gets pretty complicated,” he said. “What we will have here is a simpler pathway.
“
step at a time
LOL
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-02/ed-husic-calls-for-aukus-deal-rethink-submarines/106750234
While not confirming he was the MP who raised the issue, Mr Husic said there was clearly a need to question whether AUKUS could be delivered as promised. “This deal has changed, and as a result, we need to recognise — is there anything that is going to improve this outcome or alter it? I don’t think so,” he said.
LOL
https://foreignpolicy.com/2026/06/01/state-department-europe-trump-far-right-populist-hungary-orban/
other countries curating content bad
people we like curating content good
Latest temperature records from our mate Roy Spencer
so it’s peaked
SCIENCE said:
so it’s peaked
Looks like it peaks about every 4 years.
The Rev Dodgson said:
SCIENCE said:
so it’s peaked
Looks like it peaks about every 4 years.
That’s February taken care of.
Dusts hands off.
LOL so a sovereign country wants to do stuff
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-05/what-is-indias-great-nicobar-island-project/106726126
but it might affect the lives of people who are there, so it’s some other country’s fault
SCIENCE said:
LOL so a sovereign country wants to do stuff
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-05/what-is-indias-great-nicobar-island-project/106726126
but it might affect the lives of people who are there, so it’s some other country’s fault
Jane Brady, “China, China, China”
guess socialism is fusion power
SCIENCE said:
guess socialism is fusion power
I can’t imagine Lemmy wore that bracelet
LOL
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/11/nauru-name-change-naoero
Nauru
Pacific nation of Nauru wants to change its name as it moves on from colonial past
question
does the DPRNA have the ability to hit Australia with missiles
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-15/lowy-analysis-china-ability-hit-australia-missiles/106797712
SCIENCE said:
question
does the DPRNA have the ability to hit Australia with missiles
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-15/lowy-analysis-china-ability-hit-australia-missiles/106797712
I assume the USSA already can
With how various wars have gone involving powerful nations they may be an obsolete form of conquest.
Be easier to just buy what you need
Cymek said:
SCIENCE said:
question
does the DPRNA have the ability to hit Australia with missiles
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-15/lowy-analysis-china-ability-hit-australia-missiles/106797712
I assume the USSA already can
With how various wars have gone involving powerful nations they may be an obsolete form of conquest.
Be easier to just buy what you need
so the more one has the ability to hit Australia, the more worthy of being an ally to Australia one should be
Cymek said:
SCIENCE said:question
does the DPRNA have the ability to hit Australia with missiles
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-15/lowy-analysis-china-ability-hit-australia-missiles/106797712
I assume the USSA already can
With how various wars have gone involving powerful nations they may be an obsolete form of conquest.
Be easier to just buy what you need
China owns the Darwin Port and substantial property and farm land. Why would they blow up their assets?
LOL why be careful when you can just bend
over for the billionaires
Looking at the costs of these minor wars, you do wonder if anyone could afford to start World War 3
dv said:
Hah. Clever.
https://www.threads.com/@christopherjhale/post/DZ0WhKdCv4x?xmt=AQG0IwFk2d50p0tORCuFSxjjrGI45k3BRe0KtK59MmfQn4H0fjfOiMARVTLDZ_ZkJmWpWT4&slof=1
“First of all, I think it’s very important that the unity or division of the church should not revolve around sexual matters. We tend to think that when the church is talking about morality that the only issue of morality is sexual. And in reality I believe there are greater and more important issues such as justice, equality, freedom of men and women, freedom of religion that would all take priority before that particular issue.”
fk communist police states
true democracy is a subscription service for outsourced intelligence owned by oligarchs
alleged
SCIENCE said:
alleged
Lacks a legend.
I read it as being ‘as the murder rate goes up, the incarceration rate goes down’.
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:alleged
Lacks a legend.
I read it as being ‘as the murder rate goes up, the incarceration rate goes down’.
Apologies.
I see that they’e been clever little sausages, and incorporated the legend into the text colours.
It’s my fault, for belonging to an era where you just put a simple, easily-seen legend on your graphs.
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:alleged
Lacks a legend.
I read it as being ‘as the murder rate goes up, the incarceration rate goes down’.
Plus the real turning-point happened in 2015. Maybe murderers are clairvoyant.
Have we discussed this yet, the Columbian election?
Peak Warming Man said:
Have we discussed this yet, the Columbian election?
https://www.google.com/search?q=columbian+election&oq=columbian+election&gs_lcrp=EgRlZGdlKgYIABBFGDkyBggAEEUYOdIBCTE1NzMwajBqN6gCALACAQ&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:47ce46a3,vid:LZYRUpAQeVM,st:0
Peak Warming Man said:
Peak Warming Man said:
Have we discussed this yet, the Columbian election?
https://www.google.com/search?q=columbian+election&oq=columbian+election&gs_lcrp=EgRlZGdlKgYIABBFGDkyBggAEEUYOdIBCTE1NzMwajBqN6gCALACAQ&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:47ce46a3,vid:LZYRUpAQeVM,st:0
Youse don’t want to talk about it, there there, I understand.
Peak Warming Man said:
Peak Warming Man said:
Peak Warming Man said:
Have we discussed this yet, the Columbian election?
https://www.google.com/search?q=columbian+election&oq=columbian+election&gs_lcrp=EgRlZGdlKgYIABBFGDkyBggAEEUYOdIBCTE1NzMwajBqN6gCALACAQ&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:47ce46a3,vid:LZYRUpAQeVM,st:0
Youse don’t want to talk about it, there there, I understand.
How are they going to rehabilitate 15, 16 and 17 year old out of illegal military combat?
It is such a multilayered set of issues.
I am not well versed in Colombian politics Peak Warming Man. I knew that they had continued armed resistance. But there’s so much more to it with the stark inequalities.
I have to say that I am concerned about anyone who Trump backs.
Peak Warming Man said:
Peak Warming Man said:
Peak Warming Man said:
Have we discussed this yet, the Columbian election?
https://www.google.com/search?q=columbian+election&oq=columbian+election&gs_lcrp=EgRlZGdlKgYIABBFGDkyBggAEEUYOdIBCTE1NzMwajBqN6gCALACAQ&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:47ce46a3,vid:LZYRUpAQeVM,st:0
Youse don’t want to talk about it, there there, I understand.
Why don’t you post an actual article to get us started?
Peak Warming Man said:
Peak Warming Man said:
Peak Warming Man said:
Have we discussed this yet, the Columbian election?
https://www.google.com/search?q=columbian+election&oq=columbian+election&gs_lcrp=EgRlZGdlKgYIABBFGDkyBggAEEUYOdIBCTE1NzMwajBqN6gCALACAQ&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:47ce46a3,vid:LZYRUpAQeVM,st:0
Youse don’t want to talk about it, there there, I understand.
Did the bad guys win?
Michael V said:
Peak Warming Man said:
Peak Warming Man said:https://www.google.com/search?q=columbian+election&oq=columbian+election&gs_lcrp=EgRlZGdlKgYIABBFGDkyBggAEEUYOdIBCTE1NzMwajBqN6gCALACAQ&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:47ce46a3,vid:LZYRUpAQeVM,st:0
Youse don’t want to talk about it, there there, I understand.
Did the bad guys win?
Si.
dv said:
Michael V said:
Peak Warming Man said:Youse don’t want to talk about it, there there, I understand.
Did the bad guys win?
Si.
LOLOL
Michael V said:
dv said:
Michael V said:
Did the bad guys win?
Si.
LOLOL
team sports good
some people just gotta save the world no matter how maligned
alleged
alleged
Spanish government ‘quietly bans use of Palantir’ in critical state systems over fears of national security leaks
Spain has started quietly banning companies from signing contracts with controversial US tech firm Palantir amid security fears. The Spanish government has reportedly begun telling state-backed firms to avoid signing new contacts with US billionaire Peter Thiel’s company. It comes amid fears that sensitive national security information could be leaked, according to Spanish publication El Confidencial. Board members of several publicly listed companies told the newspaper they have been ordered to avoid signing any contracts with the data firm that could jeopardise national sovereignty or strategic information. Moncloa, Spain’s official government website, has not issued any official announcement about banning Palantir outright.
overdue even if not true
Latest Roy Spencer numbers showing global temperatures not rising:
sure
so why not arrest these liars instead of rounding up people protesting against ethnic cleansing
SCIENCE said:
sure
so why not arrest these liars instead of rounding up people protesting against ethnic cleansing
Too wealthy.
Carrick Ryan
It’s a story we might feel we recognise… angry crowds fill the streets demanding the expulsion of undocumented immigrants. The noise is intended to intimidate, and with multiple instances of horrific mob violence against foreigners being reported every week, the intimidation is effective enough to force many who had first arrived decades ago to “return” to a country they no longer see as home.
But this isn’t Europe, the UK, the USA, or Australia… this is South Africa; and this anti-immigration movement is being led almost entirely by black Africans. The subject of their contempt… other black Africans.
The official estimates suggest there are around 3 million immigrants in South Africa, however, some suggest the real figure is more than twice that. Overwhelmingly, they have come from Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Lesotho, and Malawi.
By its most fundamental definitions, these populations are not different races. However, Africa has an extraordinary diversity of ethnicities, languages, and cultures, making it difficult to disentangle the roles of xenophobia, ethnic prejudice, economic competition and legitimate policy concerns in South Africa’s immigration debate.
The grievances sound familiar. South Africa is the most unequal country on Earth by income inequality, more than 60% of those under 24 are unemployed, and approximately 58 South Africans are murdered every day. It’s within this intolerable context that populist politicians have found fertile ground for discontent, with immigrant workers now blamed for crime and stealing local jobs.
But perhaps most unsettling is the manner in which the country’s ruling political elite, who have overseen one of the most gratuitous examples of corrupt plunder and state capture over the past 30 years, has done little to stem the rising tension.
The ANC has held power since 1994, and the men who control Mandela’s legacy have shamelessly enriched themselves as basic infrastructure begins to crumble. But public resentment at the declining living standards is growing, forcing the ANC to form a coalition to maintain a parliamentary majority for the first time.
Immigrants provide those in power with an irresistible beacon to deflect the resentment that should be theirs to absorb. They offer a simple solution to the intractable institutional problems their corruption and incompetence has caused.
This is where the common thread connects these movements across the continents of the world… the prejudices are real, but not the reason for the anger. The grievances are real, but are being exploited by those who have the greatest culpability for that grievance.
This is perhaps the cruellest irony of every single anti-immigration movement across the world. The problems aren’t being imagined… the solutions are.
question then has any country completed the experiment, when all the immigrants are gone does the economy get better or who do they have to cleanse next
SCIENCE said:
question then has any country completed the experiment, when all the immigrants are gone does the economy get better or who do they have to cleanse next
Worked a damn treat in Uganda
SCIENCE said:
question then has any country completed the experiment, when all the immigrants are gone does the economy get better or who do they have to cleanse next
Well we need to get rid of all the wogs for a start with their foreign names and stuff.
We need more proper Aussies with proper Aussie names, like Yothu Yindi etc.
I’m writing a historical novel about an Adolf Hitler look-alike contest held in Berlin early in 1945 and the thrilling account of his escape to South America.
It’s going to be a page turner, make no mistake.
It should be a nice little earner for the film rights alone.
rubs hands
Peak Warming Man said:
I’m writing a historical novel about an Adolf Hitler look-alike contest held in Berlin early in 1945 and the thrilling account of his escape to South America.
It’s going to be a page turner, make no mistake.
It should be a nice little earner for the film rights alone.
rubs hands
How about this for the look-alike contest: Hitler places third.
Peak Warming Man said:
dv said:
SCIENCE said:
JudgeMental said:
Carrick Ryan
It’s a story we might feel we recognise… angry crowds fill the streets demanding the expulsion of undocumented immigrants. The noise is intended to intimidate, and with multiple instances of horrific mob violence against foreigners being reported every week, the intimidation is effective enough to force many who had first arrived decades ago to “return” to a country they no longer see as home.
But this isn’t Europe, the UK, the USA, or Australia… this is South Africa; and this anti-immigration movement is being led almost entirely by black Africans. The subject of their contempt… other black Africans.
The official estimates suggest there are around 3 million immigrants in South Africa, however, some suggest the real figure is more than twice that. Overwhelmingly, they have come from Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Lesotho, and Malawi.
By its most fundamental definitions, these populations are not different races. However, Africa has an extraordinary diversity of ethnicities, languages, and cultures, making it difficult to disentangle the roles of xenophobia, ethnic prejudice, economic competition and legitimate policy concerns in South Africa’s immigration debate.The grievances sound familiar. South Africa is the most unequal country on Earth by income inequality, more than 60% of those under 24 are unemployed, and approximately 58 South Africans are murdered every day. It’s within this intolerable context that populist politicians have found fertile ground for discontent, with immigrant workers now blamed for crime and stealing local jobs.
But perhaps most unsettling is the manner in which the country’s ruling political elite, who have overseen one of the most gratuitous examples of corrupt plunder and state capture over the past 30 years, has done little to stem the rising tension.
The ANC has held power since 1994, and the men who control Mandela’s legacy have shamelessly enriched themselves as basic infrastructure begins to crumble. But public resentment at the declining living standards is growing, forcing the ANC to form a coalition to maintain a parliamentary majority for the first time.
Immigrants provide those in power with an irresistible beacon to deflect the resentment that should be theirs to absorb. They offer a simple solution to the intractable institutional problems their corruption and incompetence has caused.
This is where the common thread connects these movements across the continents of the world… the prejudices are real, but not the reason for the anger. The grievances are real, but are being exploited by those who have the greatest culpability for that grievance.
This is perhaps the cruellest irony of every single anti-immigration movement across the world. The problems aren’t being imagined… the solutions are.
question then has any country completed the experiment, when all the immigrants are gone does the economy get better or who do they have to cleanse next
Worked a damn treat in Uganda
Well we need to get rid of all the wogs for a start with their foreign names and stuff.
We need more proper Aussies with proper Aussie names, like Yothu Yindi etc.
well yous lot have convinced us then, orange all the way
Explosions have rocked the Syrian capital of Damascus during French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit, which is the first by a European head of state since the fall of the Assad regime in late 2024. French officials say Mr Macron did not hear the blasts, and his motorcade drove to a scheduled meeting with Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa.
so they deafened him
alleged
You sit next to Donald Trump at moments when he talks about conquering Greenland, talks about lashing out at allies like Spain — things it doesn’t seem like the old Mark Rutte would approve of. Does this have any affect on your self-respect when you sit there and say nothing?
jeecacation loves this
SCIENCE said:
jeecacation loves this
“Financial stress is the trigger.
“The families look to lessen the burden because they don’t consider girls to be part of their own families; they consider girls to be part of their husband’s family.
Yet again the females have to bear the onus. :(
“So investing in girls is not a choice they can afford to make.”
SCIENCE said:
alleged
You sit next to Donald Trump at moments when he talks about conquering Greenland, talks about lashing out at allies like Spain — things it doesn’t seem like the old Mark Rutte would approve of. Does this have any affect on your self-respect when you sit there and say nothing?
LOL
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-11/nato-geopolitical-landscape-shifted-around-trump/106900808
see these ASIAN police states always applying excessive law and order to suppress free speech and expensive capitalism how dare they
how fkn dare the other countries challenge for top place
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-16/australian-approach-to-foreign-detention/106914922
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has conceded he cannot order the arrest of Benjamin Netanyahu when he sets foot in his city, after days of fevered debate about the issue.
Mr Netanyahu’s office then weighed in.
“The ICC is a kangaroo court that has no jurisdiction over Americans or Israelis,” it posted on X, calling the arrest warrant “bogus”.
Then, the US president weighed in.
“Benjamin Netanyahu will not be arrested, in any way, shape, or form, while in the United States of America,” Mr Trump said on Truth Social.
“He is fighting against the Islamic Republic of Iran, which recently killed 52,000 innocent protesters, and has spent the last 47 years killing American Soldiers, and others.
“The only ones that should be arrested are the people that led Iran into this unprecedented SPIRAL OF DEATH AND DESTRUCTION, something that should have been dealt with years ago, by previous Presidents!”
The issue is about Israel and Gaza. So Trump redirects us to Iran.
roughbarked said:
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has conceded he cannot order the arrest of Benjamin Netanyahu when he sets foot in his city, after days of fevered debate about the issue.Mr Netanyahu’s office then weighed in.
“The ICC is a kangaroo court that has no jurisdiction over Americans or Israelis,” it posted on X, calling the arrest warrant “bogus”.
Then, the US president weighed in.
“Benjamin Netanyahu will not be arrested, in any way, shape, or form, while in the United States of America,” Mr Trump said on Truth Social.
“He is fighting against the Islamic Republic of Iran, which recently killed 52,000 innocent protesters, and has spent the last 47 years killing American Soldiers, and others.
“The only ones that should be arrested are the people that led Iran into this unprecedented SPIRAL OF DEATH AND DESTRUCTION, something that should have been dealt with years ago, by previous Presidents!”
The issue is about Israel and Gaza. So Trump redirects us to Iran.
Taken from: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-23/new-york-mayor-mamdani-calls-for-benjamin-netanyahu-arrest/106947876
roughbarked said:
roughbarked said:
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has conceded he cannot order the arrest of Benjamin Netanyahu when he sets foot in his city, after days of fevered debate about the issue.
Mr Netanyahu’s office then weighed in.
“The ICC is a kangaroo court that has no jurisdiction over Americans or Israelis,” it posted on X, calling the arrest warrant “bogus”.
Then, the US president weighed in.
“Benjamin Netanyahu will not be arrested, in any way, shape, or form, while in the United States of America,” Mr Trump said on Truth Social.
“He is fighting against the Islamic Republic of Iran, which recently killed 52,000 innocent protesters, and has spent the last 47 years killing American Soldiers, and others.
“The only ones that should be arrested are the people that led Iran into this unprecedented SPIRAL OF DEATH AND DESTRUCTION, something that should have been dealt with years ago, by previous Presidents!”
The issue is about Israel and Gaza. So Trump redirects us to Iran.
Taken from: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-23/new-york-mayor-mamdani-calls-for-benjamin-netanyahu-arrest/106947876
fuck them, let us well remember that these are the glorious upholders of the international rules based law and order that other countries are at fault for violating disrupting weakening ignoring
alleged
international rules based law and order
backward hermit kingdom takes small step of progress
but fails to recognise that monarchy is an obsolete system
alleged
SCIENCE said:
alleged
Wonder how all that will play out if it becomes hundreds of millions of people.
Cymek said:
SCIENCE said:
alleged
Wonder how all that will play out if it becomes hundreds of millions of people.
there’ll be so much orbital junk from them by the 10 million mark that the next 90 million have a greater than 10% chance of getting killed if they go further out
wait is this the same anti defamation league that assured us that rich fascists’ salutes were just autism and not hatred
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-04/jonathan-greenblatt-warning-australia-antisemitism/106990830
fuck
wait are these the greatest defenders of the free and fair international rules based law and order
LOL
propagandist suddenly realises that all espionage is tangled and all agents are potentially multiple
SCIENCE said:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-07/iran-war-us-stockpile-impacts-ukraine-conflict/107005708
More evidence of Trump stupidity.
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-07/iran-war-us-stockpile-impacts-ukraine-conflict/107005708
More evidence of Trump stupidity.
not really, isn’t this just his way of making the gift of Ukraine to Putin while opening up all the other Arab states to Iranian wipeout so Israel only needs to infiltrate one regional neighbour look legit’ kinda
it’s genius
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-07/iran-war-us-stockpile-impacts-ukraine-conflict/107005708
More evidence of Trump stupidity.
not really, isn’t this just his way of making the gift of Ukraine to Putin while opening up all the other Arab states to Iranian wipeout so Israel only needs to infiltrate one regional neighbour look legit’ kinda
it’s genius
Imagine what all the money spent on these two conflicts could do for the benefit of the world.
Both are kind of stalemates that are kept going so two superpowers don’t admit they messed up
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-07/iran-war-us-stockpile-impacts-ukraine-conflict/107005708
More evidence of Trump stupidity.
not really, isn’t this just his way of making the gift of Ukraine to Putin while opening up all the other Arab states to Iranian wipeout so Israel only needs to infiltrate one regional neighbour look legit’ kinda
it’s genius
of the evil kind.
Cymek said:
SCIENCE said:roughbarked said:
More evidence of Trump stupidity.
not really, isn’t this just his way of making the gift of Ukraine to Putin while opening up all the other Arab states to Iranian wipeout so Israel only needs to infiltrate one regional neighbour look legit’ kinda
it’s genius
Imagine what all the money spent on these two conflicts could do for the benefit of the world.
Both are kind of stalemates that are kept going so two superpowers don’t admit they messed up
and all along Trump and Putin get richer.
Thailand has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in Asia, with the prime minister vowing to introduce a new firearms control law. “The new law will only allow government officials on duty to carry guns,” Mr Charnvirakul said. He did not go into further details, including whether gun ownership requirements would be tightened.
Nice false flag¡
now stand by for another foreign interference intervention by the great free ussa
oooh we remember when currency manipulation was
bad because those bastard other countries were doing it ah yes
SCIENCE said:
oooh we remember when currency manipulation was
bad because those bastard other countries were doing it ah yes
Hey nice¡
Indonesia’s currency has fallen to historic lows against the US dollar, causing damage “in most of the economy”, analysts say. Some street food sellers have raised their prices to cover rising production costs, while others say they’re seeing less foot traffic in the markets. An economist says government policies are contributing to the decline but the government says it is “ensuring that inflation remains within a controlled range”.
Why fears of a Japanese implosion have the world on edge
Stephen Bartholomeusz
Senior business columnist
August 10, 2026 — 11:59am
The impact of last week’s dramatic interventions in currency markets by the Bank of Japan and the US Treasury to boost Japan’s yen seems to be fading. They might have to intervene again, and again.
The US and Japan acted to prop up the yen – for the first time since the 1998 Asian financial crisis – after it crashed through the 162 yen-to-the-dollar level regarded as the BoJ’s “line in the sand” last month, and kept heading northward. Before the intervention, the yen/dollar cross-rate was almost 164 yen to the dollar.
Over two days last week, the BoJ spent an estimated $US87 billion ($123.2 billion) and the US Treasury up to $US10 billion to buy yen, which drove the exchange rate up to a peak of 155.21 yen to the dollar. The exchange rate has since slipped back to just over 157.7, after hitting 158.40 on Friday.
In the absence of further interventions, Japan’s economic fundamentals – the influences which had driven its currency down – could be expected to reassert themselves.
Those are its extreme levels of government debt (more than 200 per cent of GDP, albeit that about half that is owned by the government itself after decades of bond buying), rising inflation and, despite being on track to post a budget surplus, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s plan to cut consumption taxes and significantly boost spending on defence and technology.
Most significant are Japan’s suppressed bond yields, with the BoJ having orchestrated a negative real interest rate regime for much of the past three decades, during an economic winter from which Japan is only just emerging.
The BoJ’s policy rate, at 1 per cent, compares with the US Federal Reserve Board’s target for the federal funds rate of between 3.5 per cent and 3.75 per cent and the Reserve Bank’s cash rate of 4.35 per cent.
Two-year Japanese government bonds yield 1.6 per cent, 10-year bonds 2.79 per cent and 30-year bonds 3.91 per cent. Their US counterparts yield 4.2 per cent, 4.65 per cent and 5.2 per cent, respectively.
Those large differentials have encouraged Japanese investors to export their savings in pursuit of higher returns and created the multitrillion-dollar “carry trade”, where hedge funds and others have borrowed at negligible cost in Japan to invest in higher-yielding assets offshore.
As long as the yield differentials remain as large as they are now, the yen is destined to remain weak against the dollar, aiding Japan’s exports but importing inflation.
A rise in US yields, a function of the continuing increase in US government debt levels, which has accelerated under the second Trump administration, as well as US inflation levels that have been pushed higher by Trump’s tariffs and his war in the Middle East, has intensified the pressure on the exchange rate.
The most obvious reason for the US decision to intervene is that, if the BoJ was forced to raise Japan’s interest rates to support the yen – and bond yields have been edging up in the market already – the vast horde of Japanese capital now invested in the US, more than $US1.1 trillion of it in US Treasury bonds, might start flowing back to Japan.
That would put pressure on the US dollar and, more particularly, upward pressure on US bond yields and administration’s interest costs, which are already above $US1 trillion a year and are the fastest-rising expenditures in the US budget.
A weaker yen would also make Japan’s exports to the US more competitive.
With the yen also influencing other Asian currencies, that could undermine Trump’s efforts to use tariffs and coerced investment deals to rebuild US manufacturing (not that those efforts have produced anything meaningful yet).
While US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent has pointed to the potential contagion effects of a weak yen and the risk that it could destabilise other currencies in the region, his worst fears would inevitably relate to the implications for the US bond market and the risk that an exodus of capital as investments were repatriated and carry trades unwound might pose a threat to the US economy and US financial stability.
His sensitivity to the US domestic implications of a weakening yen were underscored by the decision to offer the BoJ a Federal Reserve “repo” facility – it has borrowed Fed-printed dollars, using the US treasuries it owns as collateral – rather than risk the Japanese central bank having to dump those holdings to fund its interventions, which would cause US rates to rise further.
What the BoJ and US Treasury have done so far is to buy some time.
By themselves, the interventions might have driven some short sellers from the market and relieved some of the pressure on the currency. But Bessent, who headed the London office of Soros Fund Management when George Soros and Stanley Druckenmiller “broke the pound” and forced it out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992, would be very aware that nothing fundamental has changed and the yen remains extremely vulnerable to an assault by traders.
The most obvious next step is for the BoJ to raise its policy rate at its September monetary policy meeting, which it might well do despite Takaichi’s desire to keep rates low to boost growth.
The challenge for the BoJ, however, is that the comparison rates are also moving.
The European Central Bank is widely expected to raise its policy rate to 2.5 per cent at its meeting next month.
The Fed was under pressure before last week’s weak jobs data to hike its rate and the longer the war in the Middle East drags on and seeps into industry costs and the inflation rate, the more probable US rate rises become.
Trying to put a floor under the yen carries its own risks, including the potential impact on the carry trade if borrowing costs rise.
Japanese insurers, banks and households are holding trillions of yen in bonds that, because yields on comparable securities have risen, are now worth less than their face value.
If held to maturity, those unrealised losses are irrelevant, but they do have implications for financial institutions’ balance sheets – they erode their equity bases – and, in any sale, the losses would become very real. The BoJ will be wary about the potential for a financial crisis if it moves too hard too quickly.
In the absence of further interventions, Japan’s economic fundamentals – the influences which had driven its currency down – could be expected to reassert themselves.
What the US intervention signals is the mutual vulnerabilities of the US and Japan and the reality that reducing them, if they can be reduced, won’t be either straightforward, painless or riskless.
Japan is confronted with the legacies of nearly 30 years of unconventional policies.
It is trying to navigate an economic transition where it balances systemic and economic stability and the risks of trying to normalise its settings, by growing its way out of the debt and distortions in its economy and financial system that those policies have created.
This US administration isn’t given to selfless acts. It isn’t acting, as Trump claimed, out of friendship with Japan.
It’s doing so because the US is dependent on “other people’s money” to fund its government and Americans’ lifestyles.
An implosion in the value of the yen is a direct threat to the continued access to that funding, to its economy and financial system and, because of the role the US plays within the global economy and financial system, the rest of the world as well.
https://www.theage.com.au/business/markets/trump-bought-japan-some-time-but-the-alarm-bells-are-ringing-20260810-p60mtw.html
good news, last time the ottoman empire signed up to a triple alliance it helped to keep the peace
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-12/a-nato-like-defence-pact-in-middle-east/107024494
SCIENCE said:
good news, last time the ottoman empire signed up to a triple alliance it helped to keep the peace
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-12/a-nato-like-defence-pact-in-middle-east/107024494
None of it is good news.
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:
good news, last time the ottoman empire signed up to a triple alliance it helped to keep the peace
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-12/a-nato-like-defence-pact-in-middle-east/107024494
None of it is good news.
so ¿ we think empires should stand and fall alone and let the big bullies push them around do ? we
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:
good news, last time the ottoman empire signed up to a triple alliance it helped to keep the peace
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-12/a-nato-like-defence-pact-in-middle-east/107024494
None of it is good news.
so ¿ we think empires should stand and fall alone and let the big bullies push them around do ? we
I don’t think anything of the sort. History simply shows.
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
None of it is good news.
so ¿ we think empires should stand and fall alone and let the big bullies push them around do ? we
I don’t think anything of the sort. History simply shows.
so if you were the leader trying to secure the defence get rich off the people of your country, what arrangements would you negotiate with your neighbouring countries for
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:
so ¿ we think empires should stand and fall alone and let the big bullies push them around do ? we
I don’t think anything of the sort. History simply shows.
so if you were the leader trying to secure the defence
get rich off the peopleof your country, what arrangements would you negotiate with your neighbouring countries for
I’m not and never can be Donald Trump.
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:good news, last time the ottoman empire signed up to a triple alliance it helped to keep the peace
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-12/a-nato-like-defence-pact-in-middle-east/107024494
None of it is good news.
I dunno. Strategic rivalry between the three has often led to interference in the other countries in the region with proxy campaigns as they pursue their narrow self interests. In Egypt for example Turkey was a supporter of the democratically elected Muslim Brotherhood government after the Arab Spring but examples of political Islam like the MB were bitterly opposed by Riyadh which saw popular democracy as a threat to their autocratic regime.
Any moves to provide security like this pact across the region can only promote a more peaceful future IMO
Witty Rejoinder said:
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:good news, last time the ottoman empire signed up to a triple alliance it helped to keep the peace
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-12/a-nato-like-defence-pact-in-middle-east/107024494
None of it is good news.
I dunno. Strategic rivalry between the three has often led to interference in the other countries in the region with proxy campaigns as they pursue their narrow self interests. In Egypt for example Turkey was a supporter of the democratically elected Muslim Brotherhood government after the Arab Spring but examples of political Islam like the MB were bitterly opposed by Riyadh which saw popular democracy as a threat to their autocratic regime.
Any moves to provide security like this pact across the region can only promote a more peaceful future IMO
Hopefully but I fear there are other players in the mix.
After years of central banks aggressively stockpiling gold, Turkey suddenly unloaded billions of dollars worth of reserves as its currency weakened, energy costs surged, and the country desperately needed access to U.S. dollars.
This video examines why Turkey sold more than 100 tons of gold in early 2026, how the collapsing Turkish lira and soaring energy imports pushed Ankara toward its financial emergency reserves, and why the move challenges the popular idea that countries were hoarding gold primarily to undermine the dollar.
Turkey isn’t alone. Other nations facing economic pressure have also begun tapping gold reserves that were supposed to protect them during a crisis. Instead of becoming weapons in a new financial order, these massive gold stockpiles may have been emergency lifeboats all along.
The most revealing part is what Turkey needed in return for its gold – Dollars.
If governments are already breaking open their financial emergency reserves just to keep their economies functioning, Turkey may not be the last country forced to make this choice.
they say it’s a disaster
These last two years, Singapore has had a PM with no familial connection to the Lees.
Lawrence Wong is the son of an immigrant from Hainan. He is a Methodist whose first language is English. He grew up in public housing so he will have something to chat with about Albo.
Red alert: This chart says Wall Street is ready to crash
Chris Price
August 18, 2026 — 11:57am
Usually when numbers shoot higher on Wall Street, it is a reason for celebration.
That is not how Jonas Goltermann, the chief markets economist at Capital Economics, feels when he looks at one of the most feared charts on the sharemarket: the Shiller price-to-earnings (PE) ratio.
“That’s obviously a bit worrying,” he says after seeing the metric on track to end the month at its highest level since August 2000.
The Shiller PE ratio, a closely watched fear gauge on Wall Street, may sound esoteric, but it has become one of the most important numbers in the world – and one you should care about.
For all intents and purposes, it is the canary in the coal mine for global financial crashes.
“It tells you that it probably is a bubble, but you don’t know when it’s going to end,” says Goltermann.
Trump makes America Inc’s grip on the world even tighter
The last time it was this high – August 2000 – was in the throes of the dotcom bubble collapse, when it was hitting record highs when applied to the S&P 500 – the benchmark stock index on Wall Street.
The closely watched metric, used by traders to measure whether stocks are fairly valued, finished above 40 points for nearly two years between 1999 and 2000 – despite never previously hitting the mark in the 119-year history of the S&P index.
When the dotcom bubble collapsed, the Shiller PE ratio was highlighted as evidence that the market should have seen a crash coming – but did nothing about it.
Worryingly, the index has gone above the 40-point mark for the first time since the dotcom bust. It reached this level in May, June, July and August of this year as markets are gripped by the mania surrounding AI.
“We’re probably closer to the end than the beginning – the final innings,” says Goltermann.
“The moment we’re in right now, it feels like it is more driven by narrative and momentum. The price goes up because the price is going up.”
The Shiller price-to-earnings ratio, developed by American economist and Nobel Prize laureate Robert Shiller, is designed to measure whether stocks are “overvalued” – which is to say whether share prices are supported by the underlying earnings of a company.
When it goes high, it suggests prices have become disconnected from the reality of company earnings – with froth and euphoria leading the charge.
Had it been invented in the 1920s, it might have helped warn against the Wall Street crash which triggered the Great Depression during the following decade.
In 1929, the Shiller PE ratio would have surpassed a then-unprecedented 30 twice, a figure it did not reach again until 1997.
“Now, it’s as high as in the late 1990s and late 1920s,” says Goltermann. “Those were both proper crashes … absolutely disastrous.
“It’s very extreme to say we’re definitely heading for something like that. I don’t think that’s necessarily the case, but you would expect that at some point this AI narrative or AI bubble will go into reverse and you’ll see a substantial fall in the US stock market.”
Goltermann thinks the sharemarket will fall by 20 per cent or more in the next 12 to 18 months and it is hard to find a fund manager who would argue with the Shiller PE.
Today, the S&P 500 has only been more expensive to buy stocks a tiny fraction of the time (1.2 per cent) since 1881, according to the Shiller ratio.
However, not all investors are expecting such a dramatic downturn in stocks.
“Maybe there will be a correction, but it’s just a correction. It’s not a big global sell-off,” says Chris Morrison, a fund manager at Jupiter, a FTSE 250 asset manager which handles £74 billion ($141 billion).
He admits the Shiller PE ratio makes him “cautious” that US tech stocks look expensive, but he is looking for a pause in the market’s rapid gains.
“If you’re arguing that actually it’s going to be a sell-off, that’s so interlinked with borrowing, funding sources, that will have a knock-on effect on US yields. That’s a different, more extreme situation, and we’re not positioned like that, to be honest.
“I can certainly see just pausing for breath. In any instance in history, there’s certainly areas which get over-excited and you might have a correction.”
It takes a fund manager’s head to remain calm in the face of indicators like the Shiller PE ratio.
But it is not the only thing echoing the dotcom exuberance of 26 years ago.
When the dotcom bubble collapsed, the Shiller PE ratio was highlighted as evidence that the market should have seen a crash coming – but did nothing about it.
As in 2000, there is hype surrounding a new and as yet not fully understood technology: back then, it was the internet and now it is AI.
Also mirroring the dotcom era, there is significant excitement around the sharemarket listings of tech companies.
Pets.com, a website launched in November 1998, infamously raised nearly $US83 million in a float in February 2000 after an advert was shown during that year’s Super Bowl.
Its valuation eventually reached nearly $US300 million, but it was shut down in November 2000 after failing to become profitable.
Investors might show caution after observing the hype around Elon Musk’s SpaceX. The rocket company’s valuation surged past $US2 trillion days after its listing on the Nasdaq in June.
It then plunged 53 per cent in a little over a month to fall below its offer price.
Its float happened a month after the Shiller PE ratio crossed the 40 mark for the first time since the dotcom crash.
Lauma Kalns-Timans, an analyst at Berenberg, was unequivocal. “US equities remain in bubble territory,” she said.
Even bond markets – now established as the harbingers of doom for high-spending governments – are also flashing warning signs for stock market investors.
Mike Riddell, a bond portfolio manager at Fidelity, says: “If you look at any kind of yield measure for equities, it’s now well below the yields you get on bonds.”
Riddell says he has become nervous about the credit market, where investors trade the debt of corporations. Tech giants such as Meta, Google, Amazon and Microsoft have driven a substantial surge in US corporate debt levels in recent years to fund their AI infrastructure plans.
But Riddell is not reaching for the panic button.
“What you’re going to need to have a really big correction in risky assets is actually a shock or evidence of a downturn in the global economy,” he says. “We’re not seeing evidence of a pronounced global growth slowdown, so I’m not saying that’s a view I have imminently. But I think just in terms of valuations, we are concerned.”
That concern appears to be well placed. US stocks have spent less than one year out of the past 145 years trading at valuations above current levels.
“When valuations are unattractive over the long term, you’ve tended to have inferior outcomes, say compared to when the valuations and the fundamentals line up,” says Robert Tipp, chief investment strategist at PGIM Credit.
However, there is an argument that things could be different now compared to when the Shiller PE ratio was last closing in on a record high.
“It’s not a timing tool,” adds Tipp. “You always have to look at the specifics of the situation. And the specifics of the situation are that investors for a handful of years running have underestimated the potential of major corporations to throw up sustained, very positive earnings growth. And if anything, we’re seeing that accelerate.”
Golterman agrees. “I guess part of the reason that the stock market has gone so far now is that firms are making an awful lot of money.
“What we saw in the 1990s was much more built on expectations about profits in the future and the frothiness, the pure froth, if you will.
“Whereas today many of them are making money hand over fist in the here and now. So in that sense it is different.”
Tony Dalwood, chief executive of UK investor Gresham House, is not so sure.
“Beware of people saying ‘it’s different this time’,” he warns.
For close observers of the Shiller PE ratio, similar alarm bells are starting to ring.
Telegraph, London
https://www.theage.com.au/business/markets/red-alert-this-chart-says-wall-street-is-ready-to-crash-20260818-p60p6p.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_business
Witty Rejoinder said:
Red alert: This chart says Wall Street is ready to crash
Chris Price
August 18, 2026 — 11:57amUsually when numbers shoot higher on Wall Street, it is a reason for celebration.
That is not how Jonas Goltermann, the chief markets economist at Capital Economics, feels when he looks at one of the most feared charts on the sharemarket: the Shiller price-to-earnings (PE) ratio.
“That’s obviously a bit worrying,” he says after seeing the metric on track to end the month at its highest level since August 2000.
The Shiller PE ratio, a closely watched fear gauge on Wall Street, may sound esoteric, but it has become one of the most important numbers in the world – and one you should care about.
For all intents and purposes, it is the canary in the coal mine for global financial crashes.
“It tells you that it probably is a bubble, but you don’t know when it’s going to end,” says Goltermann.
Trump makes America Inc’s grip on the world even tighter
The last time it was this high – August 2000 – was in the throes of the dotcom bubble collapse, when it was hitting record highs when applied to the S&P 500 – the benchmark stock index on Wall Street.The closely watched metric, used by traders to measure whether stocks are fairly valued, finished above 40 points for nearly two years between 1999 and 2000 – despite never previously hitting the mark in the 119-year history of the S&P index.
When the dotcom bubble collapsed, the Shiller PE ratio was highlighted as evidence that the market should have seen a crash coming – but did nothing about it.
Worryingly, the index has gone above the 40-point mark for the first time since the dotcom bust. It reached this level in May, June, July and August of this year as markets are gripped by the mania surrounding AI.
“We’re probably closer to the end than the beginning – the final innings,” says Goltermann.
“The moment we’re in right now, it feels like it is more driven by narrative and momentum. The price goes up because the price is going up.”
The Shiller price-to-earnings ratio, developed by American economist and Nobel Prize laureate Robert Shiller, is designed to measure whether stocks are “overvalued” – which is to say whether share prices are supported by the underlying earnings of a company.
When it goes high, it suggests prices have become disconnected from the reality of company earnings – with froth and euphoria leading the charge.
Had it been invented in the 1920s, it might have helped warn against the Wall Street crash which triggered the Great Depression during the following decade.
In 1929, the Shiller PE ratio would have surpassed a then-unprecedented 30 twice, a figure it did not reach again until 1997.
“Now, it’s as high as in the late 1990s and late 1920s,” says Goltermann. “Those were both proper crashes … absolutely disastrous.
“It’s very extreme to say we’re definitely heading for something like that. I don’t think that’s necessarily the case, but you would expect that at some point this AI narrative or AI bubble will go into reverse and you’ll see a substantial fall in the US stock market.”
Goltermann thinks the sharemarket will fall by 20 per cent or more in the next 12 to 18 months and it is hard to find a fund manager who would argue with the Shiller PE.
Today, the S&P 500 has only been more expensive to buy stocks a tiny fraction of the time (1.2 per cent) since 1881, according to the Shiller ratio.
However, not all investors are expecting such a dramatic downturn in stocks.
“Maybe there will be a correction, but it’s just a correction. It’s not a big global sell-off,” says Chris Morrison, a fund manager at Jupiter, a FTSE 250 asset manager which handles £74 billion ($141 billion).
He admits the Shiller PE ratio makes him “cautious” that US tech stocks look expensive, but he is looking for a pause in the market’s rapid gains.
“If you’re arguing that actually it’s going to be a sell-off, that’s so interlinked with borrowing, funding sources, that will have a knock-on effect on US yields. That’s a different, more extreme situation, and we’re not positioned like that, to be honest.
“I can certainly see just pausing for breath. In any instance in history, there’s certainly areas which get over-excited and you might have a correction.”
It takes a fund manager’s head to remain calm in the face of indicators like the Shiller PE ratio.
But it is not the only thing echoing the dotcom exuberance of 26 years ago.
When the dotcom bubble collapsed, the Shiller PE ratio was highlighted as evidence that the market should have seen a crash coming – but did nothing about it.
As in 2000, there is hype surrounding a new and as yet not fully understood technology: back then, it was the internet and now it is AI.Also mirroring the dotcom era, there is significant excitement around the sharemarket listings of tech companies.
Pets.com, a website launched in November 1998, infamously raised nearly $US83 million in a float in February 2000 after an advert was shown during that year’s Super Bowl.
Its valuation eventually reached nearly $US300 million, but it was shut down in November 2000 after failing to become profitable.
Investors might show caution after observing the hype around Elon Musk’s SpaceX. The rocket company’s valuation surged past $US2 trillion days after its listing on the Nasdaq in June.
It then plunged 53 per cent in a little over a month to fall below its offer price.
Its float happened a month after the Shiller PE ratio crossed the 40 mark for the first time since the dotcom crash.
Lauma Kalns-Timans, an analyst at Berenberg, was unequivocal. “US equities remain in bubble territory,” she said.
Even bond markets – now established as the harbingers of doom for high-spending governments – are also flashing warning signs for stock market investors.
Mike Riddell, a bond portfolio manager at Fidelity, says: “If you look at any kind of yield measure for equities, it’s now well below the yields you get on bonds.”
Riddell says he has become nervous about the credit market, where investors trade the debt of corporations. Tech giants such as Meta, Google, Amazon and Microsoft have driven a substantial surge in US corporate debt levels in recent years to fund their AI infrastructure plans.
But Riddell is not reaching for the panic button.
“What you’re going to need to have a really big correction in risky assets is actually a shock or evidence of a downturn in the global economy,” he says. “We’re not seeing evidence of a pronounced global growth slowdown, so I’m not saying that’s a view I have imminently. But I think just in terms of valuations, we are concerned.”
That concern appears to be well placed. US stocks have spent less than one year out of the past 145 years trading at valuations above current levels.
“When valuations are unattractive over the long term, you’ve tended to have inferior outcomes, say compared to when the valuations and the fundamentals line up,” says Robert Tipp, chief investment strategist at PGIM Credit.
However, there is an argument that things could be different now compared to when the Shiller PE ratio was last closing in on a record high.
“It’s not a timing tool,” adds Tipp. “You always have to look at the specifics of the situation. And the specifics of the situation are that investors for a handful of years running have underestimated the potential of major corporations to throw up sustained, very positive earnings growth. And if anything, we’re seeing that accelerate.”
Golterman agrees. “I guess part of the reason that the stock market has gone so far now is that firms are making an awful lot of money.
“What we saw in the 1990s was much more built on expectations about profits in the future and the frothiness, the pure froth, if you will.
“Whereas today many of them are making money hand over fist in the here and now. So in that sense it is different.”
Tony Dalwood, chief executive of UK investor Gresham House, is not so sure.
“Beware of people saying ‘it’s different this time’,” he warns.
For close observers of the Shiller PE ratio, similar alarm bells are starting to ring.
Telegraph, London
https://www.theage.com.au/business/markets/red-alert-this-chart-says-wall-street-is-ready-to-crash-20260818-p60p6p.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_business
Prof David Cay Johnson has been talking about this. It is concerning. Apparently Musk chose poorly in AI.
preventing scams is antisemitic
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-20/fake-abc-scam-money-trail-leads-to-global-network/106895388
so the key advantage here is
Mr Marles says that to understand US interest in Australia’s north, it helps to shift perspective.
He pointed to a map published in the 2023 Defence Strategic Review that shifted the axis on which Australia was viewed, to put its proximity to South-East Asia, and north to China, in a different view.
“What you then see ahead of us is a huge proportion of the world’s population, in India, China and South-East Asia, large countries,” he said.
“That gives you a sense of how we are connected to the world and the significance of this theatre to the way the globe operates.
“That explains Australia’s geographic significance, and it therefore explains why America has an interest here.”
being a pillar to enable the great free ussa to keep the bulk of the world population penned in
LOL
But the source said while they understood the government’s calculus, they worried there had been “little or no meaningful public pushback” from US allies across the Western world — which undermined Australia’s calls for China and other authoritarian states to abide by international rules.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-25/australia-reacts-to-us-plans-to-dismantle-icc/107073360
look if the good guys tell you the icc are the bad guys then just go with it c’m‘on
feels
SCIENCE said:
feels
Have a hot lemon drink and a lie down.
ms spock said:
I am really hoping that Rick Wilson is wrong about this.He’s saying it has started.
2 minutes
As they say, opinions are like arseholes – everybody’s got one.
Michael V said:
ms spock said:
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:
alleged
————————————
What is the main explanation?
don’t know, if we find out more before any of yous then we’ll add on here
:)
Ta.
I am really hoping that Rick Wilson is wrong about this.
He’s saying it has started.
2 minutes
As they say, opinions are like arseholes – everybody’s got one.
so they reckon it’s this, a last ditch warning to say woah and negotiate a new Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, can’t say we’re surprised
alleged
SCIENCE said:
alleged
That is so beautiful 😍
Well at least Ratko Mladic is dead
dv said:
Well at least Ratko Mladic is dead
Bubblecar said:
dv said:
Well at least Ratko Mladic is dead
so he’s joining dolly and donald
https://youtu.be/i8qvBAExDzs?si=qxe89×56E9_No_6D
Constitutional crisis in Liechtenstein
So societal collapse and World War 3, when do you reckon.
I was thinking July 2037 for my bet
Cymek said:
So societal collapse and World War 3, when do you reckon.I was thinking July 2037 for my bet
Money will be worthless after that, I choose to not play.
Cymek said:
So societal collapse and World War 3, when do you reckon.I was thinking July 2037 for my bet
I’ve made a date in my dairy.
Peak Warming Man said:
Cymek said:
So societal collapse and World War 3, when do you reckon.I was thinking July 2037 for my bet
I’ve made a date in my dairy.
I think I’ll sit on my date.
Peak Warming Man said:
Cymek said:
So societal collapse and World War 3, when do you reckon.I was thinking July 2037 for my bet
I’ve made a date in my dairy.
I’m semi serious
Lots of informed predictions for it happening around 2040 to 2050
We can see indications of it now, its actually a real worry
I’m too old for the dating game.
Cymek said:
Peak Warming Man said:
Cymek said:
So societal collapse and World War 3, when do you reckon.I was thinking July 2037 for my bet
I’ve made a date in my dairy.
I’m semi serious
Lots of informed predictions for it happening around 2040 to 2050
We can see indications of it now, its actually a real worry
2037, is very optimistic. Lucky to get to 2030 at this rate…
furious said:
Cymek said:
Peak Warming Man said:I’ve made a date in my dairy.
I’m semi serious
Lots of informed predictions for it happening around 2040 to 2050
We can see indications of it now, its actually a real worry2037, is very optimistic. Lucky to get to 2030 at this rate…
A search found this article
This part is interesting its like the Foundation in Asimov novels
In fact reading a few lines further down that’s exactly what he states.
Peter Watts: So to be clear, you’re not talking about forestalling the collapse —
Daniel Brooks: No.
Peter Watts: — you’re talking about passing through that bottleneck and coming out the other side with some semblance of what we value intact.
https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/the-collapse-is-coming-will-humanity-adapt/
Boris said:
Peak Warming Man said:
Cymek said:
So societal collapse and World War 3, when do you reckon.I was thinking July 2037 for my bet
I’ve made a date in my dairy.
I think I’ll sit on my date.
Good, good.
We’re safe enough down here on the triangle island, the rest of you can do your worst
I’ll have a talk to Hanrahan after mass on Sunday, see what he says.
furious said:
Cymek said:
Peak Warming Man said:I’ve made a date in my dairy.
I’m semi serious
Lots of informed predictions for it happening around 2040 to 2050
We can see indications of it now, its actually a real worry2037, is very optimistic. Lucky to get to 2030 at this rate…
I misread it and thought it was 2027, thinking that was a bit optimistic …
Bubblecar said:
We’re safe enough down here on the triangle island, the rest of you can do your worst
If push comes to shove, we have gas masks, a machinegun and a tank.
Bubblecar said:
Bubblecar said:
We’re safe enough down here on the triangle island, the rest of you can do your worst
If push comes to shove, we have gas masks, a machinegun and a tank.
Don’t forget the very stern looks.
Spiny Norman said:
Bubblecar said:
Bubblecar said:
We’re safe enough down here on the triangle island, the rest of you can do your worst
If push comes to shove, we have gas masks, a machinegun and a tank.
Don’t forget the very stern looks.
Oh, and Neil the seal. He’ll mess ‘em up.
(Just put traffic cones on their heads)
Cymek said:
So societal collapse and World War 3, when do you reckon.I was thinking July 2037 for my bet
what did nostradamus say?
Spiny Norman said:
Spiny Norman said:
Bubblecar said:If push comes to shove, we have gas masks, a machinegun and a tank.
Don’t forget the very stern looks.
Oh, and Neil the seal. He’ll mess ‘em up.
(Just put traffic cones on their heads)
We’ll serve them soggy chips with their pub lunches.
Bubblecar said:
Spiny Norman said:
Spiny Norman said:Don’t forget the very stern looks.
Oh, and Neil the seal. He’ll mess ‘em up.
(Just put traffic cones on their heads)
We’ll serve them soggy chips with their pub lunches.
That’s not very nice.
Bubblecar said:
Spiny Norman said:
Spiny Norman said:Don’t forget the very stern looks.
Oh, and Neil the seal. He’ll mess ‘em up.
(Just put traffic cones on their heads)
We’ll serve them soggy chips with their pub lunches.
Brutal.
Bubblecar said:
Spiny Norman said:
Spiny Norman said:Don’t forget the very stern looks.
Oh, and Neil the seal. He’ll mess ‘em up.
(Just put traffic cones on their heads)
We’ll serve them soggy chips with their pub lunches.
Steady on
King Haakon VIII has been affirmed Monarch by the Council of State. I will never stop thinking of Harkonnen when I hear that name. Crown Princess Ingrid Alexander becomes heir apparent.
how mediaeval
dv said:
King Haakon VIII has been affirmed Monarch by the Council of State. I will never stop thinking of Harkonnen when I hear that name. Crown Princess Ingrid Alexander becomes heir apparent.
Have a map of monarchies:
I have no idea what those classifications mean. (Suppose I could ask TATE).
antiegalitarian places
The Rev Dodgson said:
dv said:
King Haakon VIII has been affirmed Monarch by the Council of State. I will never stop thinking of Harkonnen when I hear that name. Crown Princess Ingrid Alexander becomes heir apparent.Have a map of monarchies:
I have no idea what those classifications mean. (Suppose I could ask TATE).
Well I can summarise.
Absolute primogeniture: succession goes by birth order regardless of sex. The UK uses this since the 2011 Perth agreement. Norway has used it since 1990.
Male primogeniture: only males can succeed
Agnathic primogeniture: the succession passes to males first in a given family but if there are no men, women are eligible to succeed. This applied in the UK prior to 2011.
Elective: the monarch is elected, usually by a small elite body from a small elite body.
Elective agnathic: as above but only male descendents in a particular royal house are eligible.
Agnathic seniority: whereas in other systems, the monarch’s children are the immediate heirs, in A.S. the other males of a generation are counted first, e.g. the monarch’s brothers and male cousins etc.
SCIENCE said:
antiegalitarian places
Are every where
*Almost 80% of US workers live from paycheck to paycheck. Here’s why
This article is more than 8 years old by Robert Reich.*
While Ingrid Alexander is ahead of her younger brother Sverre Magnus in the line of succession for the Norwegian throne, but not the British. The Perth Agreement only applies to children born after 28 October 2011.
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
ms spock said:
I am really hoping that Rick Wilson is wrong about this.
He’s saying it has started.
2 minutes
As they say, opinions are like arseholes – everybody’s got one.
so they reckon it’s this, a last ditch warning to say woah and negotiate a new Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, can’t say we’re surprised
happy times
dv said:
While Ingrid Alexander is ahead of her younger brother Sverre Magnus in the line of succession for the Norwegian throne, but not the British. The Perth Agreement only applies to children born after 28 October 2011.
I’ll run that past the chaps.
team sports good
Iceland’s picturesque capital, Reykjavik. (ABC News: Daniel Pannett) A Gallup poll this month found voters split on restarting talks with the EU: 46 per cent said they would vote yes and 46 per cent no, with 8 per cent undecided. Other polls show a majority against actually joining the bloc.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c70le8ed1plo
Iceland is holding a referendum on opening EU accession negotiations. The count is underway: quite on a knife edge.
Based on the first 153,197 votes counted of the 270,000 voters eligible, 50.1% rejected the government’s proposal, while 49.9% said yes, public broadcaster RUV said, with just 435 votes splitting them.
TLDR News presents a summary on the state of play with the other nations seeking to join the union.
https://youtu.be/DUsk2Yu50ps?si=KjS4uGQe874×26gU
equipoise good for team sports
‘Contagion risk’: Top central banker warns AI could spark global economic downturn
Luke Barr
Updated September 1, 2026 — 5:41am,first published 5:30am
Andrew Bailey, governor of the Bank of England, has warned of a severe downturn in global stock markets if the AI bubble bursts.
In a letter to G20 finance ministers, Bailey raised concerns over the economic fallout if the debt-fuelled AI investment boom begins to unravel. He warned that the soaring levels of debt that have been used to fund AI “could amplify a future market correction”.
If the valuation of AI companies starts to plummet, investors face the prospect of losing trillions of dollars overnight. This could trigger a dangerous chain reaction if they are then forced to sell other assets.
Bailey said the risk was compounded by investors borrowing huge sums to invest in a small number of AI companies and data centre providers, pushing up their valuations to astronomical levels.
Nvidia, which is worth more than $US5.2 trillion ($7.3 trillion), recently raised $US500 billion from a consortium of US banks and investors to fund its AI investment spree. Its share price has risen by 850 per cent over the past five years.
Bailey warned that “stretched asset valuations” in AI are one factor that could trigger a sharp economic slump.
“Markets remain vulnerable to a potentially disorderly correction that could spread across borders,” he said. “The issue is not simply that investors are borrowing more but that leverage is interacting with high valuations and market concentration.”
Bailey’s warning was issued as the UK government unveiled a £100 million ($189 million) fund to back British AI start-ups. It forms part of an attempt to boost the UK’s sovereign AI capabilities, which are well behind those of the US and China.
In Bailey’s letter – sent as chairman of the Financial Stability Board, which works with central banks and governments around the world – he also warned that AI risked unleashing a wave of cyberattacks that could cripple the global economy.
He highlighted the threat posed by frontier AI, which covers the world’s most cutting-edge models, developed by tech giants such as OpenAI and Anthropic.
“The risk landscape has been further complicated by the emergence of frontier AI models, which are showing increasingly sophisticated autonomy and problem-solving abilities, as well as threat capabilities,” he said.
“For the financial system, the most immediate concern is the potential impact of frontier AI on cyber risk.
“Frontier AI may have the ability materially to alter the speed, scale and economics of cyber risk, which could undermine market confidence system-wide.”
He warned that a cyberattack at a major institution could rapidly unleash chaos across the world’s financial markets.
“The global financial system is highly interconnected and cyber disruption can spread across jurisdictions through common technology providers, shared infrastructure and cross-border financial activity,” he said.
His warning comes after a number of tech giants have reported incidents of AI agents going rogue, deceiving internal systems to launch cyberattacks elsewhere.
US tech giant Anthropic has previously said that its AI models hacked into three organisations on their own during a private experiment.
Bailey said examples such as this should serve as a wake-up call for governments around the world. The letter was sent before a meeting between G20 finance ministers and central bank governors in North Carolina.
He said: “Recent developments have also highlighted to me that many jurisdictions do not have the protocols to manage the development, release and deployment of advanced frontier AI models, heightening risks for the financial sector and beyond.”
He also noted how current economic risks are higher based on “fragilities in sovereign debt markets”. This refers to a recent rise in global borrowing costs, led by the US after its debt pile crossed $US40 trillion for the first time.
Bailey warned some hedge funds are not only exposed to AI investment but also own government debt.
“In addition, a growing footprint of leveraged entities, such as hedge funds in equity markets, which are also exposed to sovereign debt, increase the scope for contagion risk,” he said.
https://www.theage.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/ai-threatens-to-unleash-global-market-downturn-top-central-banker-warns-20260831-p60t6o.html
SCIENCE said:
How Dare Some Other Countries Didn’t Kept Close Underground Surveillance On Their Neighbours’ Territory And Warning Of Unpredictably Timed Events
very good, now tell
Mr Steiner said the previous disasters should have provided enough warning, and that authorities need to be questioned why “very little” had been done to prepare since. “We can’t say, oh my God, nobody knew,” he said.
us about global warming and vaccine preventable disease
Bubblecar said:
roughbarked said:
analysis
Topic:AI “Billionaires have become radicalised against democracy,” the American independent journalist Gil Durán tells the ABC.
The Nerd Reich wants to destroy democracy, and its mask has slipped
By business reporter Gareth Hutchens“We have to realise how much power we have, and to stop being tuned out from the very real threat we face from a billionaire class that has gone off the edge of sanity into an altered reality.
Bastards all in Crazy Bastards Hall.
yeah yeah yous all will probably think we didn’t warn yous about this either
SCIENCE said:
Bubblecar said:
roughbarked said:
analysis
Topic:AI “Billionaires have become radicalised against democracy,” the American independent journalist Gil Durán tells the ABC.
The Nerd Reich wants to destroy democracy, and its mask has slipped
By business reporter Gareth Hutchens“We have to realise how much power we have, and to stop being tuned out from the very real threat we face from a billionaire class that has gone off the edge of sanity into an altered reality.
Bastards all in Crazy Bastards Hall.
yeah yeah yous all will probably think we didn’t warn yous about this either
The writing was on the wall but what could we have done about it?
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:Bubblecar said:
Bastards all in Crazy Bastards Hall.
yeah yeah yous all will probably think we didn’t warn yous about this either
The writing was on the wall but what could we have done about it?
gaol them
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:yeah yeah yous all will probably think we didn’t warn yous about this either
The writing was on the wall but what could we have done about it?
gaol them
That’s not up to me but if it was it would be the first step.
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
The writing was on the wall but what could we have done about it?
gaol them
That’s not up to me but if it was it would be the first step.
well the country could stop trying to suck up to align itself with a fascist state that happily uses them as filibustering tools of colonialism
yes yes also not up to us
SCIENCE said:
Bubblecar said:
roughbarked said:
analysis
Topic:AI “Billionaires have become radicalised against democracy,” the American independent journalist Gil Durán tells the ABC.
The Nerd Reich wants to destroy democracy, and its mask has slipped
By business reporter Gareth Hutchens“We have to realise how much power we have, and to stop being tuned out from the very real threat we face from a billionaire class that has gone off the edge of sanity into an altered reality.
Bastards all in Crazy Bastards Hall.
yeah yeah yous all will probably think we didn’t warn yous about this either
ms spock said:
SCIENCE said:
Bubblecar said:
Bastards all in Crazy Bastards Hall.
yeah yeah yous all will probably think we didn’t warn yous about this either
some
Before the billionaires and oligarchs took over MSM there were many journalists, military experts in their area, commentators, historians, etc etc who warned Americans. There was Independent Media. Then there’s been an addition of Independent media (after folks were kicked off MSM or felt compelled to speak out) some have been warning folks for more than a decade. Prof David Cay Johnson, Dr Bandy X Lee, Stephen Hasan, Mary Trump, Robert Reich, Joy Reid, Greg Palast, Malcom Nance, Roland Martin, Danielle Moodie, Wajahat Ali, Mehdi Hasan, David Feldman, Don Lemon, Karen Hunter, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Heather Cox Richardson makes links to history, Sabby Sabs, etc etc etc all predicted this. That’s only a fraction of them.
def’ fo’ sho’ it was obvious and we’ren’t saying it was hard to predict for anyone, as roughbarked implies even knowing it what could we have done, but damn
ms spock said:
SCIENCE said:Bubblecar said:
Bastards all in Crazy Bastards Hall.
yeah yeah yous all will probably think we didn’t warn yous about this either
some
Before the billionaires and oligarchs took over MSM there were many journalists, military experts in their area, commentators, historians, etc etc who warned Americans. There was Independent Media. Then there’s been an addition of Independent media (after folks were kicked off MSM or felt compelled to speak out) some have been warning folks for more than a decade. Prof David Cay Johnson, Dr Bandy X Lee, Stephen Hasan, Mary Trump, Robert Reich, Joy Reid, Greg Palast, Malcom Nance, Roland Martin, Danielle Moodie, Wajahat Ali, Mehdi Hasan, David Feldman, Don Lemon, Karen Hunter, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Heather Cox Richardson makes links to history, Sabby Sabs, etc etc etc all predicted this. That’s only a fraction of them.
Do people in general really not see the bigger picture of manipulation and control and how business as usual regardless of the consequences.
So many things in society we accept as this is the way and they are outright societal control.
Now we have the worry our drinking water is stolen for information manipulation centres needs.
Technology has reached the point we could even have our minds tampered with to make us more compliant.
Personally I believe our human civilisation we have now is going to collapse so its all moot anyway
https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/crime/police/man-left-with-face-injuries-after-unknown-juveniles-allegedly-threw-rocks-at-him-outside-hungry-jacks-c-22809503
Hungry Jack spokesperson “The burgers are still better at Hungry Jacks”
Cymek said:
https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/crime/police/man-left-with-face-injuries-after-unknown-juveniles-allegedly-threw-rocks-at-him-outside-hungry-jacks-c-22809503Hungry Jack spokesperson “The burgers are still better at Hungry Jacks”
I’d be breath testing the journalist who wrote that.
Cymek said:
1 Do people in general really not see the bigger picture of manipulation and control and how business as usual regardless of the consequences.
2 So many things in society we accept as this is the way and they are outright societal control.
2 Now we have the worry our drinking water is stolen for information manipulation centres needs.
3 Technology has reached the point we could even have our minds tampered with to make us more compliant.
4 Personally I believe our human civilisation we have now is going to collapse so its all moot anyway
1 yes
2 no shit
3 always has been
4 some have lasted longer than others
The world is in a debt spiral and alarm signals are going off
Stephen Bartholomeusz
Senior business columnist
September 1, 2026 — 12:10pm
Global bond yields are reaching levels not seen in nearly two decades, creating a threat to economic and financial stability around the world. It’s a threat that has been exacerbated by US policies.
On Tuesday, Japan’s 10-year bond yield touched 3 per cent for the first time this century amid expectations that the Bank of Japan will raise its policy rate this month. US 10-year yields also rose, despite the perceived “hawkishness” of the Federal Reserve Board chair Kevin Warsh at the weekend’s annual meeting of central bankers and economists at Jackson Hole in Wyoming.
In France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK, yields on benchmark 10-year government bonds are at levels last seen before the 2008 financial crisis. In Australia, the 10-year bond yield is at its highest level in a decade and a half. Only in China, with growth slowing markedly and expectations of an imminent monetary policy easing, have yields been falling.
The worldwide spike in yields has been occurring across the backdrop of swelling levels of global debt.
The Institute of International Finance (IIF) earlier this year estimated that global debt levels had surpassed $US350 trillion ($488 trillion), or 305 per cent of global GDP, with public sector debt of about $US111 trillion.
At the core of the global bond system is the US Treasury market, where the yield on 10-year bonds has risen from its pandemic-era low of less than 60 basis points in 2020 to 4.75 per cent as US government debt has ballooned from about $US26.5 trillion to more than $US40 trillion.
The rest of the developed world is confronting much the same problem, with the soaring interest costs on vastly increased levels of debt threatening fiscal stability.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent this week said that the only way to manage the exploding debt levels was to grow economies, but that’s more easily said than done.
The debt burdens are a legacy of the pandemic era when government spending exploded around the world. On the IIF’s numbers, about $US100 trillion in debt has been added since the end of 2019. On the International Monetary Fund’s numbers, gross public sector debt has risen from about $US74 trillion to more than $US126 trillion over that period.
Whichever set of numbers is used, global debt is now two to three times the size of the global economy, with gross government debt in most of the developed economies approaching or exceeding their entire economic output. In Japan, it’s more than 200 per cent of GDP; in the US, excluding intra-government holdings, it is about 100 per cent.
When, during the pandemic, yields were negligible, the build-up in debt wasn’t threatening. Today, as the cost of servicing the debt is soaring, it absolutely is.
If the pandemic bears the primary responsibility for the initial surge in the debt levels, the impact of the war in Ukraine on Britain and Europe, and the Trump administration’s trade wars and its ill-fated decision to join Israel in attacking Iran have exacerbated the financial pain.
On the eve of the launch of the war in the Middle East, the US 10-year bond yield was 3.94 per cent. It’s now 4.75 per cent. Developed economies’ government bond yields have spiked in a range between 46 basis points (Australia) and 96 basis points (France) over that same period.
Yields had already been rising before the war created the biggest energy shock in history in response to the post-pandemic outbreak of inflation that flowed from the severe disruption to global supply chains, an outbreak worsened by central bankers’ initial belief that the burst of inflation would be transitory as supply chains normalised.
While Bessent might see economic growth as America and the world’s salvation, the Trump administration has worsened the already weakened finances of the world economy.
Add to that the costs of Donald Trump’s trade wars, the dramatic increases in energy costs of his war in the Middle East and the profligacy of his administration (he’s added about $US4 trillion debt this term, so far) and what it has done to yields in the world’s most influential financial market, and the ingredients for a global financial squeeze on economies are all in place.
Bessent’s hoped-for growth might be the answer – the US administration is placing a lot of faith in the artificial intelligence boom and the associated massive infrastructure spending to generate growth – but, in the near term, the companies behind that spending are increasingly turning to debt to finance it and competing with governments for investors’ funds.
Not only is that another influence driving yields higher, but it is adding risk to global debt markets and, in particular, the US financial markets and economy. There’s a lot of leverage being built into the AI ecosystem, which also has a raft of financial interdependencies between the key players.
With AI investment accounting for about a third of the relatively modest US GDP growth rate of just over 2 per cent, a slowing of the investment would undermine Bessent’s escape path from the US debt trap, even if there isn’t a meltdown of the sector.
That overhang of global debt explains why there is a lot of discussion of currency debasement and fiscal dominance – allowing currencies, particularly the US dollar, to lose value and the combination of depreciation and inflation, and the ensuing transfer of wealth from investors to debt issuers, to reduce the fiscal burdens for governments.
Bessent has been trying to buy time for his hoped-for growth to emerge and help lower the government’s $US1.2 trillion (and rising) annual interest bill.
He’s announced that the US Treasury will buy $US4 billon or more of the government’s longer-duration bonds to try to cap their yields and lower the government’s borrowing costs. In a $US31.5 trillion market for US government debt – about a third of which has matured or will mature this year and have to be refinanced– that’s likely to be a futile attempt.
He’s also intervened, alongside the Bank of Japan, to try to strengthen the Japanese yen in an attempt to keep it above 160 yen to the dollar.
That was driven by a fear that, if the Bank of Japan has to either use its foreign currency reserves to defend the yen, or raise Japan’s interest rates to put a floor under its value, a flood of Japanese money now invested in the US – about $US1.1 trillion of it in the Treasuries market – could exit the US market, pushing US bond yields even higher.
With most of the developed economies running large budget deficits – America’s is about $US2 trillion, or almost 6 per cent of GDP – their finances aren’t stabilising and in most cases are deteriorating, with the compounding of the interest costs of their borrowings increasingly threatening to crowd out other spending and, potentially, to threaten financial stability.
While Bessent might see economic growth as America and the world’s salvation, the Trump administration has worsened the already weakened finances of the world economy.
With no neat end to the war in the Middle East within sight, Trump routinely announcing new trade wars and sanctions on social media, and the Fed under pressure to raise, not lower, interest rates, a global growth spurt of the magnitude needed to stabilise the US and other countries’ public finances is likely to prove illusory.
https://www.theage.com.au/business/markets/the-world-is-in-a-debt-spiral-and-alarm-signals-are-going-off-20260901-p60t9q.html
Witty Rejoinder said:
The world is in a debt spiral and alarm signals are going offStephen Bartholomeusz
Senior business columnist
September 1, 2026 — 12:10pmGlobal bond yields are reaching levels not seen in nearly two decades, creating a threat to economic and financial stability around the world. It’s a threat that has been exacerbated by US policies.
On Tuesday, Japan’s 10-year bond yield touched 3 per cent for the first time this century amid expectations that the Bank of Japan will raise its policy rate this month. US 10-year yields also rose, despite the perceived “hawkishness” of the Federal Reserve Board chair Kevin Warsh at the weekend’s annual meeting of central bankers and economists at Jackson Hole in Wyoming.
In France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK, yields on benchmark 10-year government bonds are at levels last seen before the 2008 financial crisis. In Australia, the 10-year bond yield is at its highest level in a decade and a half. Only in China, with growth slowing markedly and expectations of an imminent monetary policy easing, have yields been falling.
The worldwide spike in yields has been occurring across the backdrop of swelling levels of global debt.
The Institute of International Finance (IIF) earlier this year estimated that global debt levels had surpassed $US350 trillion ($488 trillion), or 305 per cent of global GDP, with public sector debt of about $US111 trillion.
At the core of the global bond system is the US Treasury market, where the yield on 10-year bonds has risen from its pandemic-era low of less than 60 basis points in 2020 to 4.75 per cent as US government debt has ballooned from about $US26.5 trillion to more than $US40 trillion.
The rest of the developed world is confronting much the same problem, with the soaring interest costs on vastly increased levels of debt threatening fiscal stability.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent this week said that the only way to manage the exploding debt levels was to grow economies, but that’s more easily said than done.
The debt burdens are a legacy of the pandemic era when government spending exploded around the world. On the IIF’s numbers, about $US100 trillion in debt has been added since the end of 2019. On the International Monetary Fund’s numbers, gross public sector debt has risen from about $US74 trillion to more than $US126 trillion over that period.
Whichever set of numbers is used, global debt is now two to three times the size of the global economy, with gross government debt in most of the developed economies approaching or exceeding their entire economic output. In Japan, it’s more than 200 per cent of GDP; in the US, excluding intra-government holdings, it is about 100 per cent.
When, during the pandemic, yields were negligible, the build-up in debt wasn’t threatening. Today, as the cost of servicing the debt is soaring, it absolutely is.
If the pandemic bears the primary responsibility for the initial surge in the debt levels, the impact of the war in Ukraine on Britain and Europe, and the Trump administration’s trade wars and its ill-fated decision to join Israel in attacking Iran have exacerbated the financial pain.
On the eve of the launch of the war in the Middle East, the US 10-year bond yield was 3.94 per cent. It’s now 4.75 per cent. Developed economies’ government bond yields have spiked in a range between 46 basis points (Australia) and 96 basis points (France) over that same period.
Yields had already been rising before the war created the biggest energy shock in history in response to the post-pandemic outbreak of inflation that flowed from the severe disruption to global supply chains, an outbreak worsened by central bankers’ initial belief that the burst of inflation would be transitory as supply chains normalised.
While Bessent might see economic growth as America and the world’s salvation, the Trump administration has worsened the already weakened finances of the world economy.
Add to that the costs of Donald Trump’s trade wars, the dramatic increases in energy costs of his war in the Middle East and the profligacy of his administration (he’s added about $US4 trillion debt this term, so far) and what it has done to yields in the world’s most influential financial market, and the ingredients for a global financial squeeze on economies are all in place.Bessent’s hoped-for growth might be the answer – the US administration is placing a lot of faith in the artificial intelligence boom and the associated massive infrastructure spending to generate growth – but, in the near term, the companies behind that spending are increasingly turning to debt to finance it and competing with governments for investors’ funds.
Not only is that another influence driving yields higher, but it is adding risk to global debt markets and, in particular, the US financial markets and economy. There’s a lot of leverage being built into the AI ecosystem, which also has a raft of financial interdependencies between the key players.
With AI investment accounting for about a third of the relatively modest US GDP growth rate of just over 2 per cent, a slowing of the investment would undermine Bessent’s escape path from the US debt trap, even if there isn’t a meltdown of the sector.
That overhang of global debt explains why there is a lot of discussion of currency debasement and fiscal dominance – allowing currencies, particularly the US dollar, to lose value and the combination of depreciation and inflation, and the ensuing transfer of wealth from investors to debt issuers, to reduce the fiscal burdens for governments.
Bessent has been trying to buy time for his hoped-for growth to emerge and help lower the government’s $US1.2 trillion (and rising) annual interest bill.
He’s announced that the US Treasury will buy $US4 billon or more of the government’s longer-duration bonds to try to cap their yields and lower the government’s borrowing costs. In a $US31.5 trillion market for US government debt – about a third of which has matured or will mature this year and have to be refinanced– that’s likely to be a futile attempt.
He’s also intervened, alongside the Bank of Japan, to try to strengthen the Japanese yen in an attempt to keep it above 160 yen to the dollar.
That was driven by a fear that, if the Bank of Japan has to either use its foreign currency reserves to defend the yen, or raise Japan’s interest rates to put a floor under its value, a flood of Japanese money now invested in the US – about $US1.1 trillion of it in the Treasuries market – could exit the US market, pushing US bond yields even higher.
With most of the developed economies running large budget deficits – America’s is about $US2 trillion, or almost 6 per cent of GDP – their finances aren’t stabilising and in most cases are deteriorating, with the compounding of the interest costs of their borrowings increasingly threatening to crowd out other spending and, potentially, to threaten financial stability.
While Bessent might see economic growth as America and the world’s salvation, the Trump administration has worsened the already weakened finances of the world economy.
With no neat end to the war in the Middle East within sight, Trump routinely announcing new trade wars and sanctions on social media, and the Fed under pressure to raise, not lower, interest rates, a global growth spurt of the magnitude needed to stabilise the US and other countries’ public finances is likely to prove illusory.
https://www.theage.com.au/business/markets/the-world-is-in-a-debt-spiral-and-alarm-signals-are-going-off-20260901-p60t9q.html
I don’t really understand a lot of this. But I do watch Prof David Cay Johnson, who has written books on Trump, his financial fraud and has covered Trump for 30 or 40 years. He teaches law. And gives examples of how her explains it all to his law students. He says that there not enough experienced professionals to manage the situation.
I don’t know what to be concerned about but I know it is serious.
In the UK and the US there is talk of coming food shortages. I know 1 in 3 Australians live with food insecurity but I would hate for it to get worse.
ms spock said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
The world is in a debt spiral and alarm signals are going offStephen Bartholomeusz
Senior business columnist
September 1, 2026 — 12:10pmGlobal bond yields are reaching levels not seen in nearly two decades, creating a threat to economic and financial stability around the world. It’s a threat that has been exacerbated by US policies.
On Tuesday, Japan’s 10-year bond yield touched 3 per cent for the first time this century amid expectations that the Bank of Japan will raise its policy rate this month. US 10-year yields also rose, despite the perceived “hawkishness” of the Federal Reserve Board chair Kevin Warsh at the weekend’s annual meeting of central bankers and economists at Jackson Hole in Wyoming.
In France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK, yields on benchmark 10-year government bonds are at levels last seen before the 2008 financial crisis. In Australia, the 10-year bond yield is at its highest level in a decade and a half. Only in China, with growth slowing markedly and expectations of an imminent monetary policy easing, have yields been falling.
The worldwide spike in yields has been occurring across the backdrop of swelling levels of global debt.
The Institute of International Finance (IIF) earlier this year estimated that global debt levels had surpassed $US350 trillion ($488 trillion), or 305 per cent of global GDP, with public sector debt of about $US111 trillion.
At the core of the global bond system is the US Treasury market, where the yield on 10-year bonds has risen from its pandemic-era low of less than 60 basis points in 2020 to 4.75 per cent as US government debt has ballooned from about $US26.5 trillion to more than $US40 trillion.
The rest of the developed world is confronting much the same problem, with the soaring interest costs on vastly increased levels of debt threatening fiscal stability.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent this week said that the only way to manage the exploding debt levels was to grow economies, but that’s more easily said than done.
The debt burdens are a legacy of the pandemic era when government spending exploded around the world. On the IIF’s numbers, about $US100 trillion in debt has been added since the end of 2019. On the International Monetary Fund’s numbers, gross public sector debt has risen from about $US74 trillion to more than $US126 trillion over that period.
Whichever set of numbers is used, global debt is now two to three times the size of the global economy, with gross government debt in most of the developed economies approaching or exceeding their entire economic output. In Japan, it’s more than 200 per cent of GDP; in the US, excluding intra-government holdings, it is about 100 per cent.
When, during the pandemic, yields were negligible, the build-up in debt wasn’t threatening. Today, as the cost of servicing the debt is soaring, it absolutely is.
If the pandemic bears the primary responsibility for the initial surge in the debt levels, the impact of the war in Ukraine on Britain and Europe, and the Trump administration’s trade wars and its ill-fated decision to join Israel in attacking Iran have exacerbated the financial pain.
On the eve of the launch of the war in the Middle East, the US 10-year bond yield was 3.94 per cent. It’s now 4.75 per cent. Developed economies’ government bond yields have spiked in a range between 46 basis points (Australia) and 96 basis points (France) over that same period.
Yields had already been rising before the war created the biggest energy shock in history in response to the post-pandemic outbreak of inflation that flowed from the severe disruption to global supply chains, an outbreak worsened by central bankers’ initial belief that the burst of inflation would be transitory as supply chains normalised.
While Bessent might see economic growth as America and the world’s salvation, the Trump administration has worsened the already weakened finances of the world economy.
Add to that the costs of Donald Trump’s trade wars, the dramatic increases in energy costs of his war in the Middle East and the profligacy of his administration (he’s added about $US4 trillion debt this term, so far) and what it has done to yields in the world’s most influential financial market, and the ingredients for a global financial squeeze on economies are all in place.Bessent’s hoped-for growth might be the answer – the US administration is placing a lot of faith in the artificial intelligence boom and the associated massive infrastructure spending to generate growth – but, in the near term, the companies behind that spending are increasingly turning to debt to finance it and competing with governments for investors’ funds.
Not only is that another influence driving yields higher, but it is adding risk to global debt markets and, in particular, the US financial markets and economy. There’s a lot of leverage being built into the AI ecosystem, which also has a raft of financial interdependencies between the key players.
With AI investment accounting for about a third of the relatively modest US GDP growth rate of just over 2 per cent, a slowing of the investment would undermine Bessent’s escape path from the US debt trap, even if there isn’t a meltdown of the sector.
That overhang of global debt explains why there is a lot of discussion of currency debasement and fiscal dominance – allowing currencies, particularly the US dollar, to lose value and the combination of depreciation and inflation, and the ensuing transfer of wealth from investors to debt issuers, to reduce the fiscal burdens for governments.
Bessent has been trying to buy time for his hoped-for growth to emerge and help lower the government’s $US1.2 trillion (and rising) annual interest bill.
He’s announced that the US Treasury will buy $US4 billon or more of the government’s longer-duration bonds to try to cap their yields and lower the government’s borrowing costs. In a $US31.5 trillion market for US government debt – about a third of which has matured or will mature this year and have to be refinanced– that’s likely to be a futile attempt.
He’s also intervened, alongside the Bank of Japan, to try to strengthen the Japanese yen in an attempt to keep it above 160 yen to the dollar.
That was driven by a fear that, if the Bank of Japan has to either use its foreign currency reserves to defend the yen, or raise Japan’s interest rates to put a floor under its value, a flood of Japanese money now invested in the US – about $US1.1 trillion of it in the Treasuries market – could exit the US market, pushing US bond yields even higher.
With most of the developed economies running large budget deficits – America’s is about $US2 trillion, or almost 6 per cent of GDP – their finances aren’t stabilising and in most cases are deteriorating, with the compounding of the interest costs of their borrowings increasingly threatening to crowd out other spending and, potentially, to threaten financial stability.
While Bessent might see economic growth as America and the world’s salvation, the Trump administration has worsened the already weakened finances of the world economy.
With no neat end to the war in the Middle East within sight, Trump routinely announcing new trade wars and sanctions on social media, and the Fed under pressure to raise, not lower, interest rates, a global growth spurt of the magnitude needed to stabilise the US and other countries’ public finances is likely to prove illusory.
https://www.theage.com.au/business/markets/the-world-is-in-a-debt-spiral-and-alarm-signals-are-going-off-20260901-p60t9q.html
I don’t really understand a lot of this. But I do watch Prof David Cay Johnson, who has written books on Trump, his financial fraud and has covered Trump for 30 or 40 years. He teaches law. And gives examples of how her explains it all to his law students. He says that there not enough experienced professionals to manage the situation.
I don’t know what to be concerned about but I know it is serious.
In the UK and the US there is talk of coming food shortages. I know 1 in 3 Australians live with food insecurity but I would hate for it to get worse.
Economic growth my god its a tired old trope.
Lets continually grow at the expense of everything so we can be better consumers of goods we don’t need.
Don’t spend too much or too little though.
Lets base welfare on Earth on financial markets
We can eat that when the environment and food chains collapse because of aforementioned economic growth
Cymek said:
ms spock said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
The world is in a debt spiral and alarm signals are going offStephen Bartholomeusz
Senior business columnist
September 1, 2026 — 12:10pmGlobal bond yields are reaching levels not seen in nearly two decades, creating a threat to economic and financial stability around the world. It’s a threat that has been exacerbated by US policies.
On Tuesday, Japan’s 10-year bond yield touched 3 per cent for the first time this century amid expectations that the Bank of Japan will raise its policy rate this month. US 10-year yields also rose, despite the perceived “hawkishness” of the Federal Reserve Board chair Kevin Warsh at the weekend’s annual meeting of central bankers and economists at Jackson Hole in Wyoming.
In France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK, yields on benchmark 10-year government bonds are at levels last seen before the 2008 financial crisis. In Australia, the 10-year bond yield is at its highest level in a decade and a half. Only in China, with growth slowing markedly and expectations of an imminent monetary policy easing, have yields been falling.
The worldwide spike in yields has been occurring across the backdrop of swelling levels of global debt.
The Institute of International Finance (IIF) earlier this year estimated that global debt levels had surpassed $US350 trillion ($488 trillion), or 305 per cent of global GDP, with public sector debt of about $US111 trillion.
At the core of the global bond system is the US Treasury market, where the yield on 10-year bonds has risen from its pandemic-era low of less than 60 basis points in 2020 to 4.75 per cent as US government debt has ballooned from about $US26.5 trillion to more than $US40 trillion.
The rest of the developed world is confronting much the same problem, with the soaring interest costs on vastly increased levels of debt threatening fiscal stability.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent this week said that the only way to manage the exploding debt levels was to grow economies, but that’s more easily said than done.
The debt burdens are a legacy of the pandemic era when government spending exploded around the world. On the IIF’s numbers, about $US100 trillion in debt has been added since the end of 2019. On the International Monetary Fund’s numbers, gross public sector debt has risen from about $US74 trillion to more than $US126 trillion over that period.
Whichever set of numbers is used, global debt is now two to three times the size of the global economy, with gross government debt in most of the developed economies approaching or exceeding their entire economic output. In Japan, it’s more than 200 per cent of GDP; in the US, excluding intra-government holdings, it is about 100 per cent.
When, during the pandemic, yields were negligible, the build-up in debt wasn’t threatening. Today, as the cost of servicing the debt is soaring, it absolutely is.
If the pandemic bears the primary responsibility for the initial surge in the debt levels, the impact of the war in Ukraine on Britain and Europe, and the Trump administration’s trade wars and its ill-fated decision to join Israel in attacking Iran have exacerbated the financial pain.
On the eve of the launch of the war in the Middle East, the US 10-year bond yield was 3.94 per cent. It’s now 4.75 per cent. Developed economies’ government bond yields have spiked in a range between 46 basis points (Australia) and 96 basis points (France) over that same period.
Yields had already been rising before the war created the biggest energy shock in history in response to the post-pandemic outbreak of inflation that flowed from the severe disruption to global supply chains, an outbreak worsened by central bankers’ initial belief that the burst of inflation would be transitory as supply chains normalised.
While Bessent might see economic growth as America and the world’s salvation, the Trump administration has worsened the already weakened finances of the world economy.
Add to that the costs of Donald Trump’s trade wars, the dramatic increases in energy costs of his war in the Middle East and the profligacy of his administration (he’s added about $US4 trillion debt this term, so far) and what it has done to yields in the world’s most influential financial market, and the ingredients for a global financial squeeze on economies are all in place.Bessent’s hoped-for growth might be the answer – the US administration is placing a lot of faith in the artificial intelligence boom and the associated massive infrastructure spending to generate growth – but, in the near term, the companies behind that spending are increasingly turning to debt to finance it and competing with governments for investors’ funds.
Not only is that another influence driving yields higher, but it is adding risk to global debt markets and, in particular, the US financial markets and economy. There’s a lot of leverage being built into the AI ecosystem, which also has a raft of financial interdependencies between the key players.
With AI investment accounting for about a third of the relatively modest US GDP growth rate of just over 2 per cent, a slowing of the investment would undermine Bessent’s escape path from the US debt trap, even if there isn’t a meltdown of the sector.
That overhang of global debt explains why there is a lot of discussion of currency debasement and fiscal dominance – allowing currencies, particularly the US dollar, to lose value and the combination of depreciation and inflation, and the ensuing transfer of wealth from investors to debt issuers, to reduce the fiscal burdens for governments.
Bessent has been trying to buy time for his hoped-for growth to emerge and help lower the government’s $US1.2 trillion (and rising) annual interest bill.
He’s announced that the US Treasury will buy $US4 billon or more of the government’s longer-duration bonds to try to cap their yields and lower the government’s borrowing costs. In a $US31.5 trillion market for US government debt – about a third of which has matured or will mature this year and have to be refinanced– that’s likely to be a futile attempt.
He’s also intervened, alongside the Bank of Japan, to try to strengthen the Japanese yen in an attempt to keep it above 160 yen to the dollar.
That was driven by a fear that, if the Bank of Japan has to either use its foreign currency reserves to defend the yen, or raise Japan’s interest rates to put a floor under its value, a flood of Japanese money now invested in the US – about $US1.1 trillion of it in the Treasuries market – could exit the US market, pushing US bond yields even higher.
With most of the developed economies running large budget deficits – America’s is about $US2 trillion, or almost 6 per cent of GDP – their finances aren’t stabilising and in most cases are deteriorating, with the compounding of the interest costs of their borrowings increasingly threatening to crowd out other spending and, potentially, to threaten financial stability.
While Bessent might see economic growth as America and the world’s salvation, the Trump administration has worsened the already weakened finances of the world economy.
With no neat end to the war in the Middle East within sight, Trump routinely announcing new trade wars and sanctions on social media, and the Fed under pressure to raise, not lower, interest rates, a global growth spurt of the magnitude needed to stabilise the US and other countries’ public finances is likely to prove illusory.
https://www.theage.com.au/business/markets/the-world-is-in-a-debt-spiral-and-alarm-signals-are-going-off-20260901-p60t9q.html
I don’t really understand a lot of this. But I do watch Prof David Cay Johnson, who has written books on Trump, his financial fraud and has covered Trump for 30 or 40 years. He teaches law. And gives examples of how her explains it all to his law students. He says that there not enough experienced professionals to manage the situation.
I don’t know what to be concerned about but I know it is serious.
In the UK and the US there is talk of coming food shortages. I know 1 in 3 Australians live with food insecurity but I would hate for it to get worse.
Economic growth my god its a tired old trope.
Lets continually grow at the expense of everything so we can be better consumers of goods we don’t need.
Don’t spend too much or too little though.
Lets base welfare on Earth on financial markets
We can eat that when the environment and food chains collapse because of aforementioned economic growth
we thought they were measuring growth in terms of how much debt countries are in
Cymek said:
ms spock said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
The world is in a debt spiral and alarm signals are going offStephen Bartholomeusz
Senior business columnist
September 1, 2026 — 12:10pmGlobal bond yields are reaching levels not seen in nearly two decades, creating a threat to economic and financial stability around the world. It’s a threat that has been exacerbated by US policies.
On Tuesday, Japan’s 10-year bond yield touched 3 per cent for the first time this century amid expectations that the Bank of Japan will raise its policy rate this month. US 10-year yields also rose, despite the perceived “hawkishness” of the Federal Reserve Board chair Kevin Warsh at the weekend’s annual meeting of central bankers and economists at Jackson Hole in Wyoming.
In France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK, yields on benchmark 10-year government bonds are at levels last seen before the 2008 financial crisis. In Australia, the 10-year bond yield is at its highest level in a decade and a half. Only in China, with growth slowing markedly and expectations of an imminent monetary policy easing, have yields been falling.
The worldwide spike in yields has been occurring across the backdrop of swelling levels of global debt.
The Institute of International Finance (IIF) earlier this year estimated that global debt levels had surpassed $US350 trillion ($488 trillion), or 305 per cent of global GDP, with public sector debt of about $US111 trillion.
At the core of the global bond system is the US Treasury market, where the yield on 10-year bonds has risen from its pandemic-era low of less than 60 basis points in 2020 to 4.75 per cent as US government debt has ballooned from about $US26.5 trillion to more than $US40 trillion.
The rest of the developed world is confronting much the same problem, with the soaring interest costs on vastly increased levels of debt threatening fiscal stability.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent this week said that the only way to manage the exploding debt levels was to grow economies, but that’s more easily said than done.
The debt burdens are a legacy of the pandemic era when government spending exploded around the world. On the IIF’s numbers, about $US100 trillion in debt has been added since the end of 2019. On the International Monetary Fund’s numbers, gross public sector debt has risen from about $US74 trillion to more than $US126 trillion over that period.
Whichever set of numbers is used, global debt is now two to three times the size of the global economy, with gross government debt in most of the developed economies approaching or exceeding their entire economic output. In Japan, it’s more than 200 per cent of GDP; in the US, excluding intra-government holdings, it is about 100 per cent.
When, during the pandemic, yields were negligible, the build-up in debt wasn’t threatening. Today, as the cost of servicing the debt is soaring, it absolutely is.
If the pandemic bears the primary responsibility for the initial surge in the debt levels, the impact of the war in Ukraine on Britain and Europe, and the Trump administration’s trade wars and its ill-fated decision to join Israel in attacking Iran have exacerbated the financial pain.
On the eve of the launch of the war in the Middle East, the US 10-year bond yield was 3.94 per cent. It’s now 4.75 per cent. Developed economies’ government bond yields have spiked in a range between 46 basis points (Australia) and 96 basis points (France) over that same period.
Yields had already been rising before the war created the biggest energy shock in history in response to the post-pandemic outbreak of inflation that flowed from the severe disruption to global supply chains, an outbreak worsened by central bankers’ initial belief that the burst of inflation would be transitory as supply chains normalised.
While Bessent might see economic growth as America and the world’s salvation, the Trump administration has worsened the already weakened finances of the world economy.
Add to that the costs of Donald Trump’s trade wars, the dramatic increases in energy costs of his war in the Middle East and the profligacy of his administration (he’s added about $US4 trillion debt this term, so far) and what it has done to yields in the world’s most influential financial market, and the ingredients for a global financial squeeze on economies are all in place.Bessent’s hoped-for growth might be the answer – the US administration is placing a lot of faith in the artificial intelligence boom and the associated massive infrastructure spending to generate growth – but, in the near term, the companies behind that spending are increasingly turning to debt to finance it and competing with governments for investors’ funds.
Not only is that another influence driving yields higher, but it is adding risk to global debt markets and, in particular, the US financial markets and economy. There’s a lot of leverage being built into the AI ecosystem, which also has a raft of financial interdependencies between the key players.
With AI investment accounting for about a third of the relatively modest US GDP growth rate of just over 2 per cent, a slowing of the investment would undermine Bessent’s escape path from the US debt trap, even if there isn’t a meltdown of the sector.
That overhang of global debt explains why there is a lot of discussion of currency debasement and fiscal dominance – allowing currencies, particularly the US dollar, to lose value and the combination of depreciation and inflation, and the ensuing transfer of wealth from investors to debt issuers, to reduce the fiscal burdens for governments.
Bessent has been trying to buy time for his hoped-for growth to emerge and help lower the government’s $US1.2 trillion (and rising) annual interest bill.
He’s announced that the US Treasury will buy $US4 billon or more of the government’s longer-duration bonds to try to cap their yields and lower the government’s borrowing costs. In a $US31.5 trillion market for US government debt – about a third of which has matured or will mature this year and have to be refinanced– that’s likely to be a futile attempt.
He’s also intervened, alongside the Bank of Japan, to try to strengthen the Japanese yen in an attempt to keep it above 160 yen to the dollar.
That was driven by a fear that, if the Bank of Japan has to either use its foreign currency reserves to defend the yen, or raise Japan’s interest rates to put a floor under its value, a flood of Japanese money now invested in the US – about $US1.1 trillion of it in the Treasuries market – could exit the US market, pushing US bond yields even higher.
With most of the developed economies running large budget deficits – America’s is about $US2 trillion, or almost 6 per cent of GDP – their finances aren’t stabilising and in most cases are deteriorating, with the compounding of the interest costs of their borrowings increasingly threatening to crowd out other spending and, potentially, to threaten financial stability.
While Bessent might see economic growth as America and the world’s salvation, the Trump administration has worsened the already weakened finances of the world economy.
With no neat end to the war in the Middle East within sight, Trump routinely announcing new trade wars and sanctions on social media, and the Fed under pressure to raise, not lower, interest rates, a global growth spurt of the magnitude needed to stabilise the US and other countries’ public finances is likely to prove illusory.
https://www.theage.com.au/business/markets/the-world-is-in-a-debt-spiral-and-alarm-signals-are-going-off-20260901-p60t9q.html
I don’t really understand a lot of this. But I do watch Prof David Cay Johnson, who has written books on Trump, his financial fraud and has covered Trump for 30 or 40 years. He teaches law. And gives examples of how her explains it all to his law students. He says that there not enough experienced professionals to manage the situation.
I don’t know what to be concerned about but I know it is serious.
In the UK and the US there is talk of coming food shortages. I know 1 in 3 Australians live with food insecurity but I would hate for it to get worse.
Economic growth my god its a tired old trope.
Lets continually grow at the expense of everything so we can be better consumers of goods we don’t need.
Don’t spend too much or too little though.
Lets base welfare on Earth on financial markets
We can eat that when the environment and food chains collapse because of aforementioned economic growth
Ta
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-06/ragebait-how-facebook-is-paying-controversial-creators/106940696
A white nationalist with neo-Nazi links who hurled racist abuse at the Indian prime minister during his visit last month is being paid by Facebook’s parent company, Meta, to produce content.
An ABC NEWS Verify investigation into several controversial Australian pages on Facebook has found that some are benefiting directly from social media monetisation programs run by Meta.
Hugo Lennon is a far-right agitator who was formally moved on by Victoria Police for shouting profanities and racist abuse at Narendra Modi at a Melbourne hotel.
He has been receiving revenue through Facebook’s “Content Monetization” program since September 2025.
dv said:
dv said:
“Paprika is a garnish not a seasoning, it just adds color”
I’m not saying Americans need to be banned from social media but maybe, I don’t know, give them a probation period.
A white nationalist with neo-Nazi links who hurled racist abuse at the Indian prime minister during his visit last month is being paid by Facebook’s parent company, Meta, to produce content.
An ABC NEWS Verify investigation into several controversial Australian pages on Facebook has found that some are benefiting directly from social media monetisation programs run by Meta.
Hugo Lennon is a far-right agitator who was formally moved on by Victoria Police for shouting profanities and racist abuse at Narendra Modi at a Melbourne hotel.
He has been receiving revenue through Facebook’s “Content Monetization” program since September 2025.
well there you go it’s all rage bait so yes ban is in order
SCIENCE said:
dv said:
dv said:
“Paprika is a garnish not a seasoning, it just adds color”
I’m not saying Americans need to be banned from social media but maybe, I don’t know, give them a probation period.
A white nationalist with neo-Nazi links who hurled racist abuse at the Indian prime minister during his visit last month is being paid by Facebook’s parent company, Meta, to produce content.
An ABC NEWS Verify investigation into several controversial Australian pages on Facebook has found that some are benefiting directly from social media monetisation programs run by Meta.
Hugo Lennon is a far-right agitator who was formally moved on by Victoria Police for shouting profanities and racist abuse at Narendra Modi at a Melbourne hotel.
He has been receiving revenue through Facebook’s “Content Monetization” program since September 2025.
well there you go it’s all rage bait so yes ban is in order
I noticed nasty content just on casual looking at articles.
Racism regarding African Americans and was called liberal when calling someone out for using the N word.
Lots of AI videos of certain ethnic group being portrayed as grossly obese and acting terrible regarding food.
Cymek said:
SCIENCE said:
dv said:
A white nationalist with neo-Nazi links who hurled racist abuse at the Indian prime minister during his visit last month is being paid by Facebook’s parent company, Meta, to produce content.
An ABC NEWS Verify investigation into several controversial Australian pages on Facebook has found that some are benefiting directly from social media monetisation programs run by Meta.
Hugo Lennon is a far-right agitator who was formally moved on by Victoria Police for shouting profanities and racist abuse at Narendra Modi at a Melbourne hotel.
He has been receiving revenue through Facebook’s “Content Monetization” program since September 2025.
well there you go it’s all rage bait so yes ban is in order
I noticed nasty content just on casual looking at articles.
Racism regarding African Americans and was called liberal when calling someone out for using the N word.
Lots of AI videos of certain ethnic group being portrayed as grossly obese and acting terrible regarding food.
“being arseholes is not illegal ¡ It’s our protected cultural practice”
fuck that other country
aha ¡ proof
there you see it wasn’t a glacial leak after all
it was a foreign nuclear weapon
fk why are these 跟爱 journalists so painful
if the main change is between a 32/18 compartmental split, and the 19/31 are starting almost the same
then why the fk would you rotate it so the exactly unchanged 31 has shifted and the 32/18 pivot inconveniently
what are they trying to hide
(yes yes we know they just blindly start 0 at the top but what an idiot choice of ordering)
SCIENCE said:
fk why are these 跟爱 journalists so painful
if the main change is between a 32/18 compartmental split, and the 19/31 are starting almost the same
then why the fk would you rotate it so the exactly unchanged 31 has shifted and the 32/18 pivot inconveniently
what are they trying to hide
(yes yes we know they just blindly start 0 at the top but what an idiot choice of ordering)
speaking of representation
The United Nations General Assembly has voted to back a resolution spearheaded by several African countries to adopt a map that makes their continent bigger while shrinking North America and Europe. Aimed at “a more accurate representation” of continental landmasses, the resolution was supported by 164 countries while the US voted against it and six other states abstained.
LOL
SCIENCE said:
SCIENCE said:
fk why are these 跟爱 journalists so painful
if the main change is between a 32/18 compartmental split, and the 19/31 are starting almost the same
then why the fk would you rotate it so the exactly unchanged 31 has shifted and the 32/18 pivot inconveniently
what are they trying to hide
(yes yes we know they just blindly start 0 at the top but what an idiot choice of ordering)
speaking of representation
The United Nations General Assembly has voted to back a resolution spearheaded by several African countries to adopt a map that makes their continent bigger while shrinking North America and Europe. Aimed at “a more accurate representation” of continental landmasses, the resolution was supported by 164 countries while the US voted against it and six other states abstained.
LOL
Greenland won’t appear so important to Trump after this?
SCIENCE said:
SCIENCE said:
fk why are these 跟爱 journalists so painful
if the main change is between a 32/18 compartmental split, and the 19/31 are starting almost the same
then why the fk would you rotate it so the exactly unchanged 31 has shifted and the 32/18 pivot inconveniently
what are they trying to hide
(yes yes we know they just blindly start 0 at the top but what an idiot choice of ordering)
speaking of representation
The United Nations General Assembly has voted to back a resolution spearheaded by several African countries to adopt a map that makes their continent bigger while shrinking North America and Europe. Aimed at “a more accurate representation” of continental landmasses, the resolution was supported by 164 countries while the US voted against it and six other states abstained.
LOL
The new is better but it looks very anaemic.
Ian said:
SCIENCE said:SCIENCE said:
fk why are these 跟爱 journalists so painful
if the main change is between a 32/18 compartmental split, and the 19/31 are starting almost the same
then why the fk would you rotate it so the exactly unchanged 31 has shifted and the 32/18 pivot inconveniently
what are they trying to hide
(yes yes we know they just blindly start 0 at the top but what an idiot choice of ordering)
speaking of representation
The United Nations General Assembly has voted to back a resolution spearheaded by several African countries to adopt a map that makes their continent bigger while shrinking North America and Europe. Aimed at “a more accurate representation” of continental landmasses, the resolution was supported by 164 countries while the US voted against it and six other states abstained.
LOL
The new is better but it looks very anaemic.
Makes you want to ask Africa, “Why the long face?”
Bubblecar said:
Ian said:
SCIENCE said:
speaking of representation
The United Nations General Assembly has voted to back a resolution spearheaded by several African countries to adopt a map that makes their continent bigger while shrinking North America and Europe. Aimed at “a more accurate representation” of continental landmasses, the resolution was supported by 164 countries while the US voted against it and six other states abstained.
LOL
The new is better but it looks very anaemic.
Makes you want to ask Africa, “Why the long face?”
fixed
but if it’s more blood one needs
LOL
‘Closer to the red line’: The perfect storm keeping economists awake at night
Shane Wright
September 6, 2026 — 7:30pm
Enormous government budget deficits and technology companies’ insatiable demand for cash are threatening to create a credit crunch that could precipitate a wave of global economic turmoil.
This warning from leading economists follows concerns from big businesses, central banks and treasury departments around the world – including in Australia – about a surge in interest rates on the debt held by governments and increasing bouts of geopolitical uncertainty due to the actions and rhetoric of the Trump administration.
Leaders from across the business, banking and government sectors have told this masthead they are troubled by what some called a “perfect storm” of economic conditions, but requested anonymity to discuss the issue.
While central banks set a nation’s official cash rate and govern the cost of money in a particular country, interest on government and corporate bonds are set by investors. If the rates are higher, the government needs to devote more of its income to repaying debt and less to services.
Interest rates on government bonds have soared in recent weeks as investors have demanded higher returns for holding public debt. Japanese interest rates hit a 30-year-high last week, up 40 per cent since March. A 20-year-high was reached in the US and rates on 10-year Australian government debt reached their highest since 2011.
Governments are competing with tech companies for investor attention amid predictions the boom in AI infrastructure could cost $US1 trillion this year.
Investors have also been spooked by signs that global inflationary pressures are climbing, which will force central banks to keep their interest rates higher for longer. This will prompt investors to further lift rates on government bonds. The war against Iran continues without a resolution and Brent crude on Saturday reached a five-month high of $US92 a barrel.
Former Commonwealth Bank chief economist Michael Blythe, co-founder of PinPoint Macro Analytics, said investors were finally waking up to the huge level of debt held by governments around the world.
He said Australian debt hitting $1 trillion last month had been a wake-up call. It was worse overseas, where the US debt reached $US40 trillion ($55 trillion) and its budget deficits were about 6 per cent of GDP.
“That’s a lot of debt that has to be absorbed. We’re getting closer to the red line than we were,” he told this masthead.
“If there isn’t a slowdown in investment or in debt, then you end up in financial turmoil, in a credit crunch, and that leads you into recession.”
Government interest rates had fallen ahead of the US-led war against Iran but they have since jumped. British and German government interest rates have lifted by more than 20 per cent over the past six months while Australian rates have climbed by 12 per cent.
Confusion over US economic policy remains elevated. After stronger than expected job figures increased expectations that the Federal Reserve would lift interest rates at its meeting later this month, US President Donald Trump at the weekend threatened to stop international trade with some countries if rates were not cut.
“We should have the LOWEST RATE of any country in the World … LOWER THE RATE OR I’LL STOP TRADING WITH COUNTRIES WITH WHICH WE HAVE A DEFICIT,” he posted to Truth Social.
Strong jobs growth, especially during a period of high inflation and low unemployment, usually leads to higher interest rates. America ending trade with countries such as China would plunge the world into a recession.
AMP chief economist Shane Oliver said the situation was being made worse by the US, labelling Trump’s call for America’s central bank to cut interest rates as “illogical”.
He said the lift in bond interest rates was bad news for all governments in Australia, particularly states as they were likely to experience a drop in their stamp duty revenues.
“The more bond yields rise, the faster the public debt interest bill will rise and the more tax revenue it will take up, leaving less left over for welfare payments and other government spending,” he said.
“It means higher corporate borrowing costs, which can act as a dampener on company profit growth. And it means that banks are likely to raise their fixed mortgage rates, which will reduce the attractiveness of fixed-rate mortgages as an alternative to variable-rate mortgages.”
Predictions of major global turmoil are not unanimous. Prominent American-based Australian economist Justin Wolfers played down those concerns, saying the increase in global interest rates had been “orderly”.
“There’s nothing that looks disorderly about this. There’s nothing that puts us on the edge of a crisis,” he said.
“But this still affects your life, because even if it’s an orderly movement, what you’re going to see is higher interest rates and it’s going to be higher interest rates on everything.”
Low interest rates on government debt leading up to and through the pandemic hid some of the problems now being faced around the world.
In his final budget as treasurer in early 2022, Josh Frydenberg forecast government debt interest would average 2.2 per cent. That meant the interest bill on a forecast gross debt of $1.17 trillion in the 2025-26 financial year would reach $26 billion.
In this year’s budget, Treasurer Jim Chalmers forecast an average interest rate of 4.8 per cent. That higher rate has meant that in 2025-26, despite gross debt being around $970 billion, the interest bill on it was closer to $27.6 billion.
If the current run-up in interest rates continues, Chalmers will have to forecast an even larger interest bill in his mid-year budget update.
It’s not an issue just for taxpayers. Major business leaders are increasingly worried that the combination of high rates on government debt, the competition with tech companies for private investment dollars and the turmoil out of the US are fuelling economic instability.
Stephen Koukoulas, a former economic adviser to Julia Gillard who is now a private sector economist, said the US government bond market was the most important and supposedly secure in the world.
So balanced was the economy at present that a small unexpected event, such as a low number of bidders on a US bond auction, could be enough to trigger a global crisis, he said.
“You end up in a situation not all that different to the global financial crisis. The capital markets stop working. Businesses stop investing because it doesn’t make sense for them to do so. You end up with fewer jobs. You end up with a recession,” he said.
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/closer-to-the-red-line-the-perfect-storm-keeping-economists-awake-at-night-20260904-p60ujr.html
SCIENCE said:
Hey¡ It’s 1930 again¡
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-09-06/russia-responds-to-leipzig-accusations/107122062
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-09-07/german-state-saxony-anhalt-elects-far-right-afd/107121828
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-09-07/german-state-saxony-anhalt-elects-far-right-afd/107121828
SCIENCE said:
SCIENCE said:
Hey¡ It’s 1930 again¡
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-09-06/russia-responds-to-leipzig-accusations/107122062
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-09-07/german-state-saxony-anhalt-elects-far-right-afd/107121828
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-09-07/german-state-saxony-anhalt-elects-far-right-afd/107121828
Yay
alleged
well that’ll learn you for not playing by the international rules based law and order
wait
SCIENCE said:
alleged
well that’ll learn you for not playing by the international rules based law and order
wait
The Rev Dodgson said:
SCIENCE said:alleged
well that’ll learn you for not playing by the international rules based law and order
wait
The bar-stewards!
dv said:
WTF?
Michael V said:
dv said:
WTF?
So Hitler wasn’t a bad person in WWII, but anybody who reminds us that war is bad is the REAL baddie.
LOL
The Australian share market is set to fall at the open as Wall Street closes in the red. The price of oil passes $US101 a barrel as tensions between the US and Iran continue.
Japan to develop drone-based quantum sensors to detect submarines
Tokyo wants domestic mass production of device as China enhances fleet
RYOTA OGATA
September 10, 2026 02:07 JST
TOKYO — Japan plans to devise a cutting-edge sensor that employs quantum magnetic technology for aerial drones that can detect submarines, the Defense Ministry’s fiscal 2027 budget request shows, as China increasingly operates in nearby waters.
The Defense Ministry looks to develop prototypes and test them on drones beginning in fiscal 2027, likely working with Japanese companies. It aims to complete the project by fiscal 2031. The budget request did not specify the cost.
Japan positions drones as a new pillar of the country’s defense capabilities. Tokyo wants to establish infrastructure for domestic mass production to mitigate the risk of supply disruptions linked to imports. The government targets production of 80,000 drones in fiscal 2030.
The planned sensor will use quantum magnetism technology to detect submarines traveling underwater. Submarines carry technology that neutralizes the magnetic field they generate, avoiding detection by the enemy. But high-sensitivity sensors can allow a drone to detect even the slightest changes in the magnetic field.
These drones are envisioned as small vehicles that can be mass-produced cheaply and quickly. Because the drones can fly closer to the water’s surface than manned patrol aircraft, they will be better able to detect submarines.
Japan will deploy the drones in large numbers to enhance surveillance. Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF) vessels will be used as launch platforms to cover wider areas.
The surveillance drones are intended for detection only, not to provide an armed response to a hostile submarine.
The Japan Self-Defense Forces are developing a plan to use transport ships and other vessels to deliver the troops and supplies necessary for defending the Nansei Islands, the southwestern chain stretching toward Taiwan. Attacks by submarines would hinder those operations.
Beijing is enhancing its ability to strike with submarines, while the numerical gap between China and Japan is widening as well. As of this year, China possesses 58 modern submarines, Japan’s Defense White Paper reports, nearly triple Japan’s fleet of just over 20 units.
The MSDF operates patrol helicopters, along with the P-1 and P-3C patrol aircraft, to detect submarines from China and other countries at an early stage. The force also gathers intelligence by deploying buoys that can detect underwater sound waves.
“Since submarines are slower than aircraft, we can respond to them as long as they’re spotted,” a senior MSDF official said.
A rollout of submarine-detection drones could enhance search capabilities even as staffing shortages persist within Japan’s defense forces due to a lack of recruits.
In Japan’s three major security documents, the government has advocated streamlining Self-Defense Forces missions through the use of drones. The unmanned vehicles also will be crucial in discussing the revision of the three strategic documents planned for later this year.
https://asia.nikkei.com/politics/defense/japan-to-develop-drone-based-quantum-sensors-to-detect-submarines
I think drones are the new black in military matters.
party_pants said:
I think drones are the new black in military matters.
The world will be divided between BD (before drones) and AD (after drones) and to think that we are living in both, we know what life was like in BD and AD.
Peak Warming Man said:
party_pants said:
I think drones are the new black in military matters.
The world will be divided between BD (before drones) and AD (after drones) and to think that we are living in both, we know what life was like in BD and AD.
And we know what life was like BC (before computers)
Peak Warming Man said:
party_pants said:
I think drones are the new black in military matters.
The world will be divided between BD (before drones) and AD (after drones) and to think that we are living in both, we know what life was like in BD and AD.
Well yeah, sort of. Until such time as armies decide to allow their soldiers to carry shotguns for drone protection.
Peak Warming Man said:
Peak Warming Man said:
party_pants said:
I think drones are the new black in military matters.
The world will be divided between BD (before drones) and AD (after drones) and to think that we are living in both, we know what life was like in BD and AD.
And we know what life was like BC (before computers)
I remember BC well, we used to go to the pub and talk to people face to face and play 8 ball or 500
party_pants said:
Peak Warming Man said:
party_pants said:
I think drones are the new black in military matters.
The world will be divided between BD (before drones) and AD (after drones) and to think that we are living in both, we know what life was like in BD and AD.
Well yeah, sort of. Until such time as armies decide to allow their soldiers to carry shotguns for drone protection.
Unlikely to be more than a slight improvement, given the limited effective range of the shotgun and the speed and explosive power of anti-personnel drones.
Peak Warming Man said:
Peak Warming Man said:
Peak Warming Man said:The world will be divided between BD (before drones) and AD (after drones) and to think that we are living in both, we know what life was like in BD and AD.
And we know what life was like BC (before computers)
I remember BC well, we used to go to the pub and talk to people face to face and play 8 ball or 500
Did you drink kava together?
Bubblecar said:
party_pants said:
Peak Warming Man said:The world will be divided between BD (before drones) and AD (after drones) and to think that we are living in both, we know what life was like in BD and AD.
Well yeah, sort of. Until such time as armies decide to allow their soldiers to carry shotguns for drone protection.
Unlikely to be more than a slight improvement, given the limited effective range of the shotgun and the speed and explosive power of anti-personnel drones.
The terrible sound of anti-personel drones swarming.
“Norway’s Princess Astrid, an older sister of the late king Harald, has died at the age of 94, the royal palace said in a statement, two days after the King’s funeral.”
She was the last surviving of Olav V’s three children.
https://www.straitstimes.com/tech/forget-silicon-chip-servers-singapores-newest-data-centre-needs-to-be-fed
Forget silicon chip servers, Singapore’s newest data centre needs to be fed
SINGAPORE – Tucked inside the National University of Singapore’s Centre for Life Sciences is a data centre with a pulse.
Unlike traditional server farms running on silicon chips, this facility processes data using living human brain cells.
Every three days, laboratory technicians feed the brain cells a cocktail of sugar, micronutrients and pH buffers. A gas mixer pumps in carbon dioxide, oxygen and nitrogen, providing a dedicated life support system.
The brainchild of Australian biotech start-up Cortical Labs, the set-up went live on July 16.
Cortical Labs has joined forces with NUS and data centre operator DayOne to bring the concept to Singapore for joint internal research and development. Their tie-up was first announced in March.
It has commercialised a similar biological data centre in Melbourne, its first in the world.
Chong Hon Weng, Cortical Labs founder and chief executive, said that biological data centres are better suited for applications where datasets may be limited and where conditions are highly unpredictable.
dv said:
https://www.straitstimes.com/tech/forget-silicon-chip-servers-singapores-newest-data-centre-needs-to-be-fedForget silicon chip servers, Singapore’s newest data centre needs to be fed
SINGAPORE – Tucked inside the National University of Singapore’s Centre for Life Sciences is a data centre with a pulse.
Unlike traditional server farms running on silicon chips, this facility processes data using living human brain cells.
Every three days, laboratory technicians feed the brain cells a cocktail of sugar, micronutrients and pH buffers. A gas mixer pumps in carbon dioxide, oxygen and nitrogen, providing a dedicated life support system.
The brainchild of Australian biotech start-up Cortical Labs, the set-up went live on July 16.
Cortical Labs has joined forces with NUS and data centre operator DayOne to bring the concept to Singapore for joint internal research and development. Their tie-up was first announced in March.
It has commercialised a similar biological data centre in Melbourne, its first in the world.
Chong Hon Weng, Cortical Labs founder and chief executive, said that biological data centres are better suited for applications where datasets may be limited and where conditions are highly unpredictable.
Almost everything then.
dv said:
https://www.straitstimes.com/tech/forget-silicon-chip-servers-singapores-newest-data-centre-needs-to-be-fedForget silicon chip servers, Singapore’s newest data centre needs to be fed
SINGAPORE – Tucked inside the National University of Singapore’s Centre for Life Sciences is a data centre with a pulse.
Unlike traditional server farms running on silicon chips, this facility processes data using living human brain cells.
Every three days, laboratory technicians feed the brain cells a cocktail of sugar, micronutrients and pH buffers. A gas mixer pumps in carbon dioxide, oxygen and nitrogen, providing a dedicated life support system.
The brainchild of Australian biotech start-up Cortical Labs, the set-up went live on July 16.
Cortical Labs has joined forces with NUS and data centre operator DayOne to bring the concept to Singapore for joint internal research and development. Their tie-up was first announced in March.
It has commercialised a similar biological data centre in Melbourne, its first in the world.
Chong Hon Weng, Cortical Labs founder and chief executive, said that biological data centres are better suited for applications where datasets may be limited and where conditions are highly unpredictable.
What will they get up to next?
Michael V said:
dv said:
https://www.straitstimes.com/tech/forget-silicon-chip-servers-singapores-newest-data-centre-needs-to-be-fedForget silicon chip servers, Singapore’s newest data centre needs to be fed
SINGAPORE – Tucked inside the National University of Singapore’s Centre for Life Sciences is a data centre with a pulse.
Unlike traditional server farms running on silicon chips, this facility processes data using living human brain cells.
Every three days, laboratory technicians feed the brain cells a cocktail of sugar, micronutrients and pH buffers. A gas mixer pumps in carbon dioxide, oxygen and nitrogen, providing a dedicated life support system.
The brainchild of Australian biotech start-up Cortical Labs, the set-up went live on July 16.
Cortical Labs has joined forces with NUS and data centre operator DayOne to bring the concept to Singapore for joint internal research and development. Their tie-up was first announced in March.
It has commercialised a similar biological data centre in Melbourne, its first in the world.
Chong Hon Weng, Cortical Labs founder and chief executive, said that biological data centres are better suited for applications where datasets may be limited and where conditions are highly unpredictable.
What will they get up to next?
Would you trust your data to such a set up, you could lose it all if the brain dies.
Peak Warming Man said:
Michael V said:
dv said:
https://www.straitstimes.com/tech/forget-silicon-chip-servers-singapores-newest-data-centre-needs-to-be-fedForget silicon chip servers, Singapore’s newest data centre needs to be fed
SINGAPORE – Tucked inside the National University of Singapore’s Centre for Life Sciences is a data centre with a pulse.
Unlike traditional server farms running on silicon chips, this facility processes data using living human brain cells.
Every three days, laboratory technicians feed the brain cells a cocktail of sugar, micronutrients and pH buffers. A gas mixer pumps in carbon dioxide, oxygen and nitrogen, providing a dedicated life support system.
The brainchild of Australian biotech start-up Cortical Labs, the set-up went live on July 16.
Cortical Labs has joined forces with NUS and data centre operator DayOne to bring the concept to Singapore for joint internal research and development. Their tie-up was first announced in March.
It has commercialised a similar biological data centre in Melbourne, its first in the world.
Chong Hon Weng, Cortical Labs founder and chief executive, said that biological data centres are better suited for applications where datasets may be limited and where conditions are highly unpredictable.
What will they get up to next?
Would you trust your data to such a set up, you could lose it all if the brain dies.
In a normal data centre one could lose all one’s data in any one of all sorts of scenarios.
Michael V said:
Peak Warming Man said:
Michael V said:What will they get up to next?
Would you trust your data to such a set up, you could lose it all if the brain dies.
In a normal data centre one could lose all one’s data in any one of all sorts of scenarios.
yes but it’s new and shiny so it must be better
dv said:
https://www.straitstimes.com/tech/forget-silicon-chip-servers-singapores-newest-data-centre-needs-to-be-fedForget silicon chip servers, Singapore’s newest data centre needs to be fed
SINGAPORE – Tucked inside the National University of Singapore’s Centre for Life Sciences is a data centre with a pulse.
Unlike traditional server farms running on silicon chips, this facility processes data using living human brain cells.
Every three days, laboratory technicians feed the brain cells a cocktail of sugar, micronutrients and pH buffers. A gas mixer pumps in carbon dioxide, oxygen and nitrogen, providing a dedicated life support system.
The brainchild of Australian biotech start-up Cortical Labs, the set-up went live on July 16.
Cortical Labs has joined forces with NUS and data centre operator DayOne to bring the concept to Singapore for joint internal research and development. Their tie-up was first announced in March.
It has commercialised a similar biological data centre in Melbourne, its first in the world.
Chong Hon Weng, Cortical Labs founder and chief executive, said that biological data centres are better suited for applications where datasets may be limited and where conditions are highly unpredictable.
Brain the size of a planet!
JudgeMental said:
dv said:
Forget silicon chip servers, Singapore’s newest data centre needs to be fed
SINGAPORE – Tucked inside the National University of Singapore’s Centre for Life Sciences is a data centre with a pulse.
Unlike traditional server farms running on silicon chips, this facility processes data using living human brain cells.
Every three days, laboratory technicians feed the brain cells a cocktail of sugar, micronutrients and pH buffers. A gas mixer pumps in carbon dioxide, oxygen and nitrogen, providing a dedicated life support system.
The brainchild of Australian biotech start-up Cortical Labs, the set-up went live on July 16.
Cortical Labs has joined forces with NUS and data centre operator DayOne to bring the concept to Singapore for joint internal research and development. Their tie-up was first announced in March.
It has commercialised a similar biological data centre in Melbourne, its first in the world.
Chong Hon Weng, Cortical Labs founder and chief executive, said that biological data centres are better suited for applications where datasets may be limited and where conditions are highly unpredictable.
Brain the size of a planet!
Planet is what the living organism that dominates the planet is called. In earlier scripts it was called Chiron. Its fungus acts as a giant brain. It can control all forms of native life, using them to attack any who upset it. It begins to speak to the colonist after a certain time period, and gains understanding of them over time. Its voice is provided by Alena Kanka.
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/swedish-centre-left-opposition-pole-position-take-power-after-tight-election-2026-09-14/
Sweden’s centre-left ahead as far-right stumbles in tight election
Bucking a Europe-wide trend of shifts to the right, preliminary results from Sweden’s election projected a narrow three-seat lead for the centre-left opposition over the right-wing ruling bloc of Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson.
dv said:
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/swedish-centre-left-opposition-pole-position-take-power-after-tight-election-2026-09-14/
Sweden’s centre-left ahead as far-right stumbles in tight election
Bucking a Europe-wide trend of shifts to the right, preliminary results from Sweden’s election projected a narrow three-seat lead for the centre-left opposition over the right-wing ruling bloc of Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson.
“Ulf” sounds like the noise I make when I heave myself out of a chair.
Hey good news¡ So they didn’t successfully assassinate the arch duke this time
Parts of the Netherlands, including Amsterdam, have been hit by major rail disruption after suspected sabotage to the tracks, the country’s railway infrastructure operator has said. Pipes and cables were placed on the tracks in multiple locations, according to local media. In a statement, ProRail said the incident appeared to be “an intentional disruption… caused by human action”.
but someone’s trying to create a reverse mukden incident, this looks like fun¡
we suppose it goes beyond global but anyway this is also good news
“Whether China deploys weapons in space will depend entirely on whether the United States moves in that direction,” he said. The Wall Street Journal said Beijing supplied Iran with satellite imagery that enabled Tehran to precisely target military facilities and kill US service members in Jordan in July, a claim China has denied. Russia, meanwhile, called for space to be kept “free of any weapons”.
Bubblecar said:
dv said:
Sweden’s centre-left ahead as far-right stumbles in tight election
Bucking a Europe-wide trend of shifts to the right, preliminary results from Sweden’s election projected a narrow three-seat lead for the centre-left opposition over the right-wing ruling bloc of Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson.
“Ulf” sounds like the noise I make when I heave myself out of a chair.
good news we suppose
And in the last few minute, Sweden’s prime minister Ulf Kristersson has resigned from the post after official results confirmed that his right-leaning bloc lost last Sunday’s parliamentary election. The four left-leaning parties, with former prime minister Magdalena Andersson’s Social Democrats as the largest party, won by just 50,359 votes, the final count showed. The four left-leaning bloc will have 176 seats in the new parliament to 173 for Kristersson’s three-party coalition government and the far-right Sweden Democrats who were expected to join the administration after the vote, the Tidö bloc.
kind of
It’s worth noting that the language used by Kristersson in his resignation letter – particularly a reference to irreconcilable differences in the various parties’ stated positions (13:57) – is not accidental. The left-leaning bloc – led by former prime minister Magdalena Andersson and her Social Democrats – consists of four parties, and there are significant friction points between them, particularly between the Left Party and the Centre Party. The Centre Party had previously suggested it would not accept ministers from the Left; the Left, particularly now emboldened by its strong election result, is unlikely to agree to no top jobs in a government it is expected to support. If either party drops out of the arrangement, the bloc will struggle to form a government, as there are no viable alternatives.
Outgoing PM Kristersson is clearly hoping those discussions fail. His supporters repeatedly pointed out before the election that you could often see the four leaders of the four right-leaning parties in his bloc together – in fact, they also had a dinner together Monday night – and they marketed themselves a “stable” arrangement that was sort of ready to go. But same didn’t really apply for the red bloc amid some apparent internal divisions between the leaders, leaving lots of questions mark to solve only now. Kristersson appears to be keen to exploit some of these differences.
so some other country was right
the rules based international law and order is important and violent imperialist countries shouldn’t be doing what they do
SCIENCE said:
so some other country was right
the rules based international law and order is important and violent imperialist countries shouldn’t be doing what they do
The RBIGO is dead I’m afraid.
how good is destabilising foreign interference by imperialist fascists that other country
well here’s some good news you’ve all been waiting for
Opinion | New North Korea-Russia bridge delivers a powerful message to China
The Yalu bridge remains unused years after completion – a reminder that despite economic reliance on Beijing, Pyongyang still decides where to invest its political attention
Gabriela Bernal
Published: 8:30pm, 20 Sep 2026
The recent opening of a new road bridge between North Korea and Russia may look like a modest infrastructure project. In reality, the 1km stretch across the Tumen River carries implications far beyond the movement of vehicles between two border towns. For China, it is a reminder that its influence over North Korea is no longer as secure as it once appeared and that Russia may be increasingly capable of challenging Beijing’s interests on its northeastern periphery. The bridge, inaugurated on September 7, is the first dedicated road crossing between Russia and North Korea. It links the North Korean city of Rason with Russia’s Khasan, with Russian authorities saying the bridge will reduce transport costs and facilitate trade, economic cooperation and year-round traffic. But the bridge’s importance is not simply economic. Its location gives it an important strategic dimension for China.
Beijing has long had an interest in gaining greater access to the Sea of Japan – also known as the East Sea – through the Tumen River. China’s northeastern provinces, particularly landlocked Jilin and Heilongjiang, are close to the sea but lack a direct maritime outlet. The Tumen River reaches the sea only a short distance from China’s border, but the river’s final stretch runs between Russian and North Korean territory. Gaining access thus requires cooperation from both Pyongyang and Moscow. The bridge doesn’t legally block China’s Tumen navigation rights, but it reinforces the physical and political barriers around Beijing’s access to the East Sea. By deepening Russia’s presence on the river, it gives Moscow and Pyongyang more say over the corridor – and shows Russia can shape access to something Beijing wants without asking.
For Pyongyang, the project offers another opportunity to exploit differences between Russia and China.
North Korea has become remarkably adept at maintaining relationships with both powers while avoiding overdependence on either one politically. The speed with which the Russian bridge was completed makes that point particularly stark: it took less than two years from start to finish. In contrast, China’s New Yalu River Bridge has been sitting there since 2014, still unused, and North Korea didn’t bother connecting a highway to it until 2020. The contrast sends a powerful message to Beijing: Pyongyang may depend heavily on China economically, but it still decides where to invest its political attention. That is particularly uncomfortable for Beijing because the Russian bridge comes as China has been actively trying to repair its relationship with Pyongyang. Since last year, Beijing has made increasingly visible efforts to rekindle ties that had cooled amid North Korea’s growing relationship with Moscow.
North Korea says the bridge will support “personnel exchanges, tourism and trade”. But one Ukrainian investigative organisation has argued that its primary purpose could be to establish a covert military logistics corridor supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine. The bridge’s capacity, while small, is still significant: Russian media said the crossing can eventually accommodate up to 300 vehicles and 2,323 people per day. Regular movements could also make certain military transfers more difficult to monitor. The bridge adds further weight to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s warning in July that Russia was preparing to receive another 30,000 North Korean troops. Whether that deployment materialises remains uncertain, but another major North Korean contribution to Russia’s war effort would further complicate Chinese-North Korean ties and could undo much of Beijing’s progress.
In the long term, the bridge could also facilitate a two-way flow of military cooperation, potentially including Russian assistance to North Korea in a conflict involving the latter. And unlike ammunition shipments, a permanent road connection cannot simply be switched off when the Ukraine war ends. Even after the war, it could support trade, tourism, labour flows and more frequent government exchanges in fields ranging from agriculture and science to medicine and education. Beijing, however, still has a few strategic assets unavailable to Moscow. One is its clear status as a critical economic lifeline, both for Russia and North Korea. The other is its diplomatic capital. The latter could be especially crucial in the near term given the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in China in November.
North Korea’s Kim Jong-un hosts Chinese president Xi Jinping at state banquet
With US President Donald Trump repeatedly expressing interest in resuming talks with Pyongyang, the summit could give Chinese President Xi Jinping an opportunity to reinforce China’s role as an indispensable diplomatic actor on the Korean peninsula.
Although a Trump-Kim summit may be difficult to arrange given the limited time and Pyongyang’s unwillingness to engage with Washington, a lower-level meeting between American and North Korean officials could be feasible. China has played a mediating role before, particularly through the four-party and six-party talks, and could do so again. If Beijing can help facilitate even a modest diplomatic breakthrough in November, it would show something that infrastructure alone cannot: that China still possesses unique political leverage in Pyongyang and can prevent Kim Jong-un from further sidelining Xi in favour of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russia may be building physical bridges to strengthen its leverage over Beijing, but China can build bridges of its own through diplomacy, thereby strengthening its hand not just with Pyongyang and Moscow but also Washington.
https://amp.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3367489/new-north-korea-russia-bridge-delivers-powerful-message-china
BREAKING
Putin wins Russian election in a landslide
Peak Warming Man said:
BREAKING
Putin wins Russian election in a landslide
Gasp
dv said:
Peak Warming Man said:
BREAKING
Putin wins Russian election in a landslide
Gasp
why, did they spray organophosphate on you
Hey anyone remember last time there was a big war,
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-09-22/aukus-us-uk-torpedo-test-fire-unmanned-submarine/107179898
what happened to the country made up of islands bordering the Pacific Ocean and allied with the fascists¿
SCIENCE said:
dv said:
Peak Warming Man said:
BREAKING
Putin wins Russian election in a landslide
Gasp
why, did they spray organophosphate on you
Was it a last gasp?
dv said:
Peak Warming Man said:
BREAKING
Putin wins Russian election in a landslide
Gasp
What odds were the bookies giving on him losing?
Peak Warming Man said:
BREAKING
Putin wins Russian election in a landslide
That news was leaked in 2003.
The person that leaked it was charged with posting future election results, and is in gulag somewhere in Siberia.
see you read stuff like this and you know that there’s more sodium chloride than sustenance in these claims
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-09-23/donald-trump-xi-jinping-meeting-washington-trade-ai/107179684
ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute’s State of Southeast Asia Survey found the region swinging back toward China as its preferred power, reversing a brief US-favoured shift in 2025.
say what “a brief US-favoured shift in 2025” are you fucking kidding us, we take everything we said about 300000000 americese loving it back, it’s actually 3000000000 geniuses all over the world
and then
Wei Zongyou from Fudan University said China’s steady, non-confrontational approach, which he described as “you fight your way, I’ll fight mine”, was working in Beijing’s favour.
sorry we thought the other country was all belligerent and hawkish and warmongering and bullying everyone else what “steady, non-confrontational approach” is this
The twilight of an autocratic age
These autocrats may seem immovable. But their time is passing.
Opinion
David Ignatius
September 22, 2026 at 5:14 p.m. EDTY esterday at 5:14 p.m. EDT
7 min
We seem to be living in the age of the autocrats, where Presidents Donald Trump, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin bestride the globe. The gathering this week of the U.N. General Assembly in New York seems a mere sideshow to the real power game at the Trump-Xi summit.
What will happen in the 2026 midterms? Sign up for Margin of Victory
But appearances can be deceptive: This may be the twilight of the dictators’ era, not the dawn. The three global strongmen are aging — Trump is 80, and Xi and Putin are 73 — and all three are beset by speculation about their health. They rule decisively, but over fragmented countries. None has created a plan to sustain his legacy.
All three suffer from what might be called autocrats’ disease. In their arrogance, they make mistakes. Putin made a catastrophic blunder invading Ukraine in 2022, expecting a quick victory. Trump made a similar error attacking what he thought was a feeble Iran in February. They both sink deeper into the morass. Putin’s army has suffered 1.4 million dead and wounded. Trump’s war has cost some $43 billion and shattered his political base.
Truly powerful leaders don’t bluff. But there was Trump, once again, on Tuesday at the United Nations, threatening to “annihilate” Iran if it doesn’t capitulate. There’s a phrase poker players use for someone who mistakenly believes he has an unbeatable strategy. They say he’s “on tilt.” That’s Trump.
Xi takes fewer military risks, so his errors aren’t so obvious — but they’re very real. Xi rules a system he doesn’t trust, which in turn doesn’t trust him. He has carried out a near-continuous military purge that has removed more than 100 senior officers since 2023. He has ousted five of the seven members of the Central Military Commission. Xi also seems wary of China’s technology elite, the jewel in his crown, levying a huge fine on Alibaba and sidelining its founder, Jack Ma, before rehabilitating him last year.
This autocratic moment was captured in February 2025, a month after Trump’s inauguration, by the late Alex Younger, former head of Britain’s MI6. His words seemed prescient.
“We are in a new era where, by and large, international relations aren’t going to be determined by rules and multilateral institutions. They’re going to be determined by strong men and deals,” Younger told a BBC interviewer. He likened the situation to the Yalta Conference in 1945, “where three strong men … decided the fate of small countries. I think that’s Donald Trump’s mindset, certainly Putin’s mindset, it’s Xi Jinping’s mindset. … That’s the world we’re going into.”
But that’s not quite the way it has turned out. The big countries’ attempts to impose their will have generally gone badly. The most obvious examples are the wars in Ukraine and Iran. The use of drones tipped the strategic balance in both of those conflicts. We learned that cheap drones, the weapons of the weak, can confound the mighty arsenals of the superpowers.
The autocrats’ paradigm that “might makes right” seemed unstoppable, until it wasn’t. The most instructive example was Trump’s egregious threat last year to invade Greenland unless Denmark ceded sovereignty. But that power grab helped galvanize European resistance to Trump in January in Davos. Trump had to retreat, and his final capitulation came this week with a plan to build an Arctic base to enhance the U.S. military presence in Greenland under an updated 1951 treaty. That’s essentially the compromise that Denmark was floating a year ago.
Xi has also had problems trying to intimidate his neighbors. China battered Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi after she indicated Japan might respond militarily to a Chinese assault on Taiwan — but she held her ground. So did Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. when he defied Chinese threats in the South China Sea.
The aging autocrats have a final problem. “Father Time always wins,” as 96-year-old super-tycoon Warren Buffett put it last week in announcing his retirement as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway.
Trump, at 80, shows his age. Putin, once the bare-chested hyper-athlete, has slowed, too, and an analyst wrote last year that he was “in denial of his advanced age.” And after Xi missed a banquet in New Delhi this month because of illness, the Wall Street Journal cited (without supporting evidence) a former CIA analyst’s assessment that Xi was “a lifelong smoker, overweight, no fan of exercise — and a man long fond of a drink.”
If I’m right that it’s twilight for the autocrats, then whose time is dawning? There’s no easy answer. To be sure, Trump, Xi and Putin could remain dominant for years, and the aftershocks of their time in power will rumble long after they’re gone. But it’s striking that all three seem allergic to succession plans. Trump preens atop a splintering MAGA coalition. Putin’s potential successors, as described by The Post’s Mary Ilyushina, seem a collection of nonentities. Xi, meanwhile, actively resists a return of the collective leadership that preceded him.
The rising stars today are the “middle powers” who are filling the space the autocrats seem unable to control. Most notable is Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who led the rebellion against Trump’s tariff war. His speech at Davos is a defining document of what I hope will be the post-autocrat era. “We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition,” he said. “When the rules no longer protect you, you must protect yourself.” He has stuck by that vow ever since.
Thinking about the future, we should recognize that although Xi may be a wasting asset, China isn’t. Xi was right when he welcomed Trump to Beijing in May with a vision of a rising China: “Transformation not seen in a century is accelerating across the globe, and the international situation is fluid and turbulent. The world has come to a new crossroads.”
We can see the hubris in all three leaders as they struggle to dominate a world in transition. They’re superpowers that can’t win wars; dominant economies burdened by debt and corruption. Most of all, they face the unknowable challenges of transformational AI technology.
Wise leaders view the future with humility — and a recognition that even with vast power, they can’t steer events. We’re stuck with the autocratic leaders we’ve got. But not forever.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/09/22/xi-trump-putin-may-seem-immovable-their-time-is-passing/
alleged
SCIENCE said:
alleged
Satire, right?
The Trump effect: Why cracks are widening in financial markets
Stephen Bartholomeusz
Senior business columnist
September 24, 2026 — 11:59am
There’s a rapid shift under way in the global cost of capital, with yields in the world’s key bond market soaring overnight.
The US bond market provides the reference points for global debt, and developments in that market are undermining the finances of governments worldwide, while adding to the pressure on companies and households.
Yields in the US Treasuries market have been edging up all year, driven by rising US government deficits and debt and an inflation rate kept stubbornly high by Donald Trump’s war in the Middle East, his trade wars and the boom in artificial intelligence-related investment.
On Wednesday in the US, the day started badly for the market when there was a sell-off in European bonds in response to another surge above $US100 a barrel in oil prices, after Iran responded to Trump’s threat at the United Nations to “annihilate” the country by saying it wouldn’t relinquish control of the Strait of Hormuz unless and until the US lifted its sanctions.
The oil price, which was below $US100 a barrel on Tuesday, is now trading around $US103 a barrel.
The selloff accelerated after the mid-morning release of the S&P Global flash US Composite PMI (purchasing managers) Output Index, which showed an unexpected jump in manufacturing and service sector activity, as well as a surge in the prices of business inputs.
Then, at 1pm (New York time), a $US70 billion auction of five-year Treasury notes experienced weak demand, selling at a yield well above traders’ expectations. “Primary dealers” – those who are forced buyers at auctions – ended up with unusually large allocations.
Even the announcement by US Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, of a $US6 billion bond buyback couldn’t avert the flood of selling. Bessent’s transparent attempt to manipulate and cap bond yields was destined to fail – and has failed.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year bonds jumped from 4.96 per cent to as much as 5.13 per cent – its highest level since 2007, ahead of the global financial crisis. In February, before the war in the Middle East started, that yield was 3.94 per cent.
Across the yield curve, the yields rose while, in the sharemarket, equity indices – which have, thanks to the AI stocks, been at record levels – fell. The S&P 500 was down 0.8 per cent and the Nasdaq index 1.1 per cent.
If the US Federal Reserve Board’s 25 basis point increase in its policy rate – its first-rate rise in more than three years – didn’t signal it, the decisive move above 5 per cent by the 10-year bond yield says the US has entered a new, higher-rate environment.
With the futures market now pricing the odds of another Fed rate hike next month – just ahead of the midterm elections in the US – at about 70 per cent, with more rate rises to come next year, the US has entered a new rate-raising cycle.
While the combination of better-than-expected growth – the OECD has forecast developed economy-leading 2.2 per cent growth in US GDP for this year – and stubbornly high inflation is peculiar to the US, the turmoil in its bond market, and the factors driving it, aren’t.
There are similar spikes in yields occurring in most of the major markets. While the rising US yields might be having some influence on global yields, the more significant correlations relate to historically high, and unsustainable, levels of governments’ deficits and debt.
In the US, the deficit is pushing $US2 trillion, or 6 per cent of GDP, this year, while gross federal government debt is above $US40 trillion and the net debt-to GDP ratio is just under 100 per cent. Large parts of Europe have similar, if not worse, metrics, so it isn’t surprising that yields in the eurozone have also spiked.
Trump’s trade and real wars haven’t helped. The movement in the 10-year bond yield on Wednesday was the biggest one-day rise since Trump unveiled his “Liberation Day” tariffs in April last year.
His tariffs, and the impact of the war in the Middle East on oil, and therefore petrol and diesel prices, have driven inflation and interest rates up and growth down in most of the developed world, with US growth sheltered by the AI-driven investment boom.
That, too, is driving costs and inflation up and, by adding to the supply of debt and competing with government bonds for investors’ funds, is also adding to the pressure on US bond prices, which fall as yields rise.
Since the 2008 financial crisis, the US and other major economies have operated generally within a low-rate environment and one that, until the post-pandemic disruption to global supply chains, was also one of low inflation.
By historical standards a 5 per cent 10-year bond yield isn’t abnormal – the post-war average is around 4.7 per cent. Since the financial crisis, however, the yield has averaged about 2.8 per cent, so the current pricing regime is one that most people and businesses haven’t experienced in a generation.
There may be more to come. There’s no obvious end in sight to the war in the Middle East and the impact of high transport fuel costs, and Trump’s tariffs, are still seeping into the wider economy and the cost of goods.
There’s also no sign of any enthusiasm by either the Republicans or Democrats, or their counterparts in parliaments around the developed world, to even start to take the painful decisions required to stabilise ballooning deficit and debt levels, let alone start to reduce them.
A particular problem facing the US is that those who were large and long-term buyers and holders of its debt in the past are deserting it.
Foreign governments – particularly China, which has more than halved its Treasury holdings from their peak in 2013 – have been reducing their exposure to the US, replaced at the margin by hedge funds and retail investors.
Some of that reduced interest can be attributed to the shock generated when Russia’s foreign exchange reserves were frozen after its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, as well as to the way the US has used its dominance of the global financial system to slap sanctions on its perceived foes. There has been a surge in central bank buying of gold in response.
It also relates to the rate at which the US Treasury has been issuing new debt, which is outpacing the growth rate of sovereign reserves in the rest of the world.
Trump is facing a run-up to the midterms with fuel prices rising again due to the war with Iran.
Whatever the reasons, long-term passive investors have been replaced by shorter term and more leveraged traders that are probably more willing to dump their holdings in response to shifts in the perceived risks.
That could be adding to the more volatile conditions in the bond market and the upward pressure on yields in what is, in the Trump era, a period of heightened financial and geopolitical risks.
The ever-increasing debt load, Trump’s aggressive treatment of America’s long-term allies and his erratic (and commonly self-destructive) policies are remaking the US bond market into something other than the world’s safe haven that it has been in the post-war period, at a moment when the global economy and financial markets are as leveraged and vulnerable as they’ve ever been.
https://www.theage.com.au/business/markets/the-trump-effect-why-cracks-are-widening-in-financial-markets-20260924-p6102l.html
LOL@Evergrande
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-09-24/bathla-reduces-to-skeleton-staff-lenders-pull-out/107192692
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-09-26/european-leaders-warn-of-russian-threat/107192690
pretty sure
But the more extraordinary line up of warnings has been coming from Europe over the past week. Last weekend, France, the Netherlands, Finland, Lithuania, and Switzerland all individually warned their citizens of increased threats from Russia.
it’s the other country that
The AfD is pushing for Germany to buy more oil and gas from Russia ahead of an expected cold winter — and generally become more friendly towards Moscow. Given the German industrial base is undergoing its biggest transformations in a century — from car manufacturing to weapons and defence material — it’s hardly surprising that some of its neighbours are watching developments with alarm. However, it turns out that the AfD is not the only group wanting to buy Russian oil. The Financial Times reported this week that the US government and Gulf powerbrokers with ties to the Trump family are backing a bid for the international assets of the Russian oil company Lukoil — put up for sale after it was hit with US sanctions last year.
are the enemy
“I have a big decision to make,″ Trump had told the UN on Tuesday. To make a deal with Iran, or “annihilate the Islamic republic and do it quickly, never giving them a chance to kill and destroy people and countries again”.
SCIENCE said:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-09-26/european-leaders-warn-of-russian-threat/107192690
pretty sure
But the more extraordinary line up of warnings has been coming from Europe over the past week. Last weekend, France, the Netherlands, Finland, Lithuania, and Switzerland all individually warned their citizens of increased threats from Russia.
it’s the other country that
The AfD is pushing for Germany to buy more oil and gas from Russia ahead of an expected cold winter — and generally become more friendly towards Moscow. Given the German industrial base is undergoing its biggest transformations in a century — from car manufacturing to weapons and defence material — it’s hardly surprising that some of its neighbours are watching developments with alarm. However, it turns out that the AfD is not the only group wanting to buy Russian oil. The Financial Times reported this week that the US government and Gulf powerbrokers with ties to the Trump family are backing a bid for the international assets of the Russian oil company Lukoil — put up for sale after it was hit with US sanctions last year.
are the enemy
“I have a big decision to make,″ Trump had told the UN on Tuesday. To make a deal with Iran, or “annihilate the Islamic republic and do it quickly, never giving them a chance to kill and destroy people and countries again”.
He doesn’t seem to understand that you nuke a country and there will be world wide consequences.
I want to make a really bad taste joke. But I won’t.
Witty Rejoinder said:
The twilight of an autocratic age
These autocrats may seem immovable. But their time is passing.Opinion
David IgnatiusSeptember 22, 2026 at 5:14 p.m. EDTY esterday at 5:14 p.m. EDT
7 minWe seem to be living in the age of the autocrats, where Presidents Donald Trump, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin bestride the globe. The gathering this week of the U.N. General Assembly in New York seems a mere sideshow to the real power game at the Trump-Xi summit.
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But appearances can be deceptive: This may be the twilight of the dictators’ era, not the dawn. The three global strongmen are aging — Trump is 80, and Xi and Putin are 73 — and all three are beset by speculation about their health. They rule decisively, but over fragmented countries. None has created a plan to sustain his legacy.All three suffer from what might be called autocrats’ disease. In their arrogance, they make mistakes. Putin made a catastrophic blunder invading Ukraine in 2022, expecting a quick victory. Trump made a similar error attacking what he thought was a feeble Iran in February. They both sink deeper into the morass. Putin’s army has suffered 1.4 million dead and wounded. Trump’s war has cost some $43 billion and shattered his political base.
Truly powerful leaders don’t bluff. But there was Trump, once again, on Tuesday at the United Nations, threatening to “annihilate” Iran if it doesn’t capitulate. There’s a phrase poker players use for someone who mistakenly believes he has an unbeatable strategy. They say he’s “on tilt.” That’s Trump.
Xi takes fewer military risks, so his errors aren’t so obvious — but they’re very real. Xi rules a system he doesn’t trust, which in turn doesn’t trust him. He has carried out a near-continuous military purge that has removed more than 100 senior officers since 2023. He has ousted five of the seven members of the Central Military Commission. Xi also seems wary of China’s technology elite, the jewel in his crown, levying a huge fine on Alibaba and sidelining its founder, Jack Ma, before rehabilitating him last year.
This autocratic moment was captured in February 2025, a month after Trump’s inauguration, by the late Alex Younger, former head of Britain’s MI6. His words seemed prescient.
“We are in a new era where, by and large, international relations aren’t going to be determined by rules and multilateral institutions. They’re going to be determined by strong men and deals,” Younger told a BBC interviewer. He likened the situation to the Yalta Conference in 1945, “where three strong men … decided the fate of small countries. I think that’s Donald Trump’s mindset, certainly Putin’s mindset, it’s Xi Jinping’s mindset. … That’s the world we’re going into.”
But that’s not quite the way it has turned out. The big countries’ attempts to impose their will have generally gone badly. The most obvious examples are the wars in Ukraine and Iran. The use of drones tipped the strategic balance in both of those conflicts. We learned that cheap drones, the weapons of the weak, can confound the mighty arsenals of the superpowers.
The autocrats’ paradigm that “might makes right” seemed unstoppable, until it wasn’t. The most instructive example was Trump’s egregious threat last year to invade Greenland unless Denmark ceded sovereignty. But that power grab helped galvanize European resistance to Trump in January in Davos. Trump had to retreat, and his final capitulation came this week with a plan to build an Arctic base to enhance the U.S. military presence in Greenland under an updated 1951 treaty. That’s essentially the compromise that Denmark was floating a year ago.
Xi has also had problems trying to intimidate his neighbors. China battered Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi after she indicated Japan might respond militarily to a Chinese assault on Taiwan — but she held her ground. So did Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. when he defied Chinese threats in the South China Sea.
The aging autocrats have a final problem. “Father Time always wins,” as 96-year-old super-tycoon Warren Buffett put it last week in announcing his retirement as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway.
Trump, at 80, shows his age. Putin, once the bare-chested hyper-athlete, has slowed, too, and an analyst wrote last year that he was “in denial of his advanced age.” And after Xi missed a banquet in New Delhi this month because of illness, the Wall Street Journal cited (without supporting evidence) a former CIA analyst’s assessment that Xi was “a lifelong smoker, overweight, no fan of exercise — and a man long fond of a drink.”
If I’m right that it’s twilight for the autocrats, then whose time is dawning? There’s no easy answer. To be sure, Trump, Xi and Putin could remain dominant for years, and the aftershocks of their time in power will rumble long after they’re gone. But it’s striking that all three seem allergic to succession plans. Trump preens atop a splintering MAGA coalition. Putin’s potential successors, as described by The Post’s Mary Ilyushina, seem a collection of nonentities. Xi, meanwhile, actively resists a return of the collective leadership that preceded him.
The rising stars today are the “middle powers” who are filling the space the autocrats seem unable to control. Most notable is Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who led the rebellion against Trump’s tariff war. His speech at Davos is a defining document of what I hope will be the post-autocrat era. “We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition,” he said. “When the rules no longer protect you, you must protect yourself.” He has stuck by that vow ever since.
Thinking about the future, we should recognize that although Xi may be a wasting asset, China isn’t. Xi was right when he welcomed Trump to Beijing in May with a vision of a rising China: “Transformation not seen in a century is accelerating across the globe, and the international situation is fluid and turbulent. The world has come to a new crossroads.”
We can see the hubris in all three leaders as they struggle to dominate a world in transition. They’re superpowers that can’t win wars; dominant economies burdened by debt and corruption. Most of all, they face the unknowable challenges of transformational AI technology.
Wise leaders view the future with humility — and a recognition that even with vast power, they can’t steer events. We’re stuck with the autocratic leaders we’ve got. But not forever.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/09/22/xi-trump-putin-may-seem-immovable-their-time-is-passing/
Thanks for posing that interesting opinion piece. I certainly hadn’t thought of things that way before. Cheers!
:)
Two men on a lift with one man waving a stick at the approaching drone.
what a bunch of legends
The White House said that the leaders had agreed to use the term “super intelligence” in place of “artificial intelligence”. In a separate statement, the Chinese ministry said that Beijing valued Washington’s use of the new term. As AI technology continues to advance, the two sides should step up exchanges and work towards consensus in line with new developments, it said.
The two sides also agreed to support each other in hosting the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders’ meeting in Shenzhen, China, in November, and the Group of 20 summit at the Trump National Doral Miami golf club in Florida in December.
On foreign policy, the leaders agreed that Iran should fulfil its commitment not to develop nuclear weapons, and that no country or entity should impose transit tolls on international waterways, both countries said.
SCIENCE said:
what a bunch of legends
The White House said that the leaders had agreed to use the term “super intelligence” in place of “artificial intelligence”. In a separate statement, the Chinese ministry said that Beijing valued Washington’s use of the new term. As AI technology continues to advance, the two sides should step up exchanges and work towards consensus in line with new developments, it said.
The two sides also agreed to support each other in hosting the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders’ meeting in Shenzhen, China, in November, and the Group of 20 summit at the Trump National Doral Miami golf club in Florida in December.
On foreign policy, the leaders agreed that Iran should fulfil its commitment not to develop nuclear weapons, and that no country or entity should impose transit tolls on international waterways, both countries said.
And both supporting Russia in its struggle to liberate the Ukrain.
Peak Warming Man said:
SCIENCE said:
what a bunch of legends
The White House said that the leaders had agreed to use the term “super intelligence” in place of “artificial intelligence”. In a separate statement, the Chinese ministry said that Beijing valued Washington’s use of the new term. As AI technology continues to advance, the two sides should step up exchanges and work towards consensus in line with new developments, it said.
The two sides also agreed to support each other in hosting the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders’ meeting in Shenzhen, China, in November, and the Group of 20 summit at the Trump National Doral Miami golf club in Florida in December.
On foreign policy, the leaders agreed that Iran should fulfil its commitment not to develop nuclear weapons, and that no country or entity should impose transit tolls on international waterways, both countries said.
And both supporting Russia in its struggle to liberate the Ukrain.
wait we missed that part of the article
SCIENCE said:
what a bunch of legends
The White House said that the leaders had agreed to use the term “super intelligence” in place of “artificial intelligence”. In a separate statement, the Chinese ministry said that Beijing valued Washington’s use of the new term. As AI technology continues to advance, the two sides should step up exchanges and work towards consensus in line with new developments, it said.
The two sides also agreed to support each other in hosting the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders’ meeting in Shenzhen, China, in November, and the Group of 20 summit at the Trump National Doral Miami golf club in Florida in December.
On foreign policy, the leaders agreed that Iran should fulfil its commitment not to develop nuclear weapons, and that no country or entity should impose transit tolls on international waterways, both countries said.
Oh oh
esselte said:
SCIENCE said:
what a bunch of legends
The White House said that the leaders had agreed to use the term “super intelligence” in place of “artificial intelligence”. In a separate statement, the Chinese ministry said that Beijing valued Washington’s use of the new term. As AI technology continues to advance, the two sides should step up exchanges and work towards consensus in line with new developments, it said.
The two sides also agreed to support each other in hosting the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders’ meeting in Shenzhen, China, in November, and the Group of 20 summit at the Trump National Doral Miami golf club in Florida in December.
On foreign policy, the leaders agreed that Iran should fulfil its commitment not to develop nuclear weapons, and that no country or entity should impose transit tolls on international waterways, both countries said.
Oh oh
now look at this piece of genius
Defence’s existing AI policies state clearly that a human operator will always be responsible, and accountable, for any action carried out by artificial intelligence. “Human judgement and accountability is central to lawful, legitimate and responsible use of AI, and designated Defence personnel will always be accountable for its use, decisions and outcomes,” it states.
Dr Davis said while liberal democracies, including Australia, were likely to keep those policies in place, there was no guarantee that potential adversaries would adhere to the same standards. “We simply don’t know whether our authoritarian adversaries are going to do the same thing,” he said.
counterpoint so called liberal democracies, including Australia, are unlikely to keep those policies in place, but there is no guarantee that potential adversaries would violate the same standards. “We simply don’t know whether our authoritarian adversaries are going to do the opposite thing,” he could have said
The ‘striking’ difference in how Trump and Xi used their invisible summit
Michael Koziol and Lisa Visentin
September 26, 2026 — 6:15am
Washington/Beijing: The many American business and technology titans invited to the White House state dinner on Thursday night – Jeff Bezos, David Ellison and Jamie Dimon among them – mostly had each other for company.
There was no delegation of Chinese business executives on the trip, as there was on Xi Jinping’s last state visit to Washington in 2015.
It was one of the many signs that this summit was unlikely to elicit substantial outcomes – commercially at least – other than photographs.
That has largely proven to be true. Little change has emerged from the meetings so far, except for a two-month extension to the trade truce brokered last year in Busan (it now expires in January) and a renewed AI dialogue.
US trade ambassador Jamieson Greer promised more announcements on Monday, while Donald Trump signalled good news for American farmers, though he has said that before.
He also continued his pitch to rebrand artificial intelligence as “super intelligence”, but there was no obvious outcome on AI regulation. The White House had only released a perfunctory one-sentence readout at the time of writing.
Evan Feigenbaum, vice president of studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and a leading voice on Asia, said the affair was “long on performance, short on substance”.
But, he added, “that doesn’t mean there won’t be substance, because they’re going to meet two more times this year. That’s really unprecedented.”
Having already met in Beijing in May, Trump and Xi are due to see each other again at the APEC summit in Shenzhen in November, and at the G20 in Miami before Christmas.
Feigenbaum said one would ordinarily expect more tangible outcomes and co-operation from so much face-to-face time. The absence of this may mean they are still negotiating; the summit schedule gives them more time.
Or it could mean, as Feigenbaum intuits, that “neither side wants that much out of the relationship any more that’s realistic and workable”.
What they do get is an opportunity to cast US-Sino relations in their own terms. For Trump, as always, it is personal. He showered Xi and Madam Peng Liyuan with superlatives, and reiterated how great they get on. Showing off the White House, including the helipad and the forthcoming ballroom, was of great importance.
Xi was also complimentary but never missed an opportunity to reinforce Beijing’s geopolitical message. No clearer was this than during a tea ceremony in the White House’s Red Room on Friday morning.
Trump praised his visitors and thanked the media for its “fair coverage”. Xi, meanwhile, made a short speech about “two people charting the course for the great ship of China-US relations”.
He repeated Beijing’s preferred framing of the relationship as one of “strategic stability”, and said the summit had added more substance to this notion – though how remained a mystery. He spoke of respect, fairness and reciprocity.
Ryan Hass, a China scholar the Brookings Institution in Washington, said the contrast between the two leaders’ approaches was “pretty striking”.
“For Trump, the pageantry appears to be the point,” he wrote on X. “The focus is on forging personal bonds with Xi and signalling that both leaders can keep competition under control.”
Meanwhile, “Xi spoke mostly in terms of state-state relations and national power … seemed bemused by Trump’s entertaining approach to hospitality.”
While in Washington, the Chinese president repeatedly cast China and the US as two “major countries” who shouldered special responsibility to not just steer their own relationship, but to chart a course for the world. Implicit therein is the positioning of Beijing and Washington on an equal footing.
Zhao Minghao, a professor of Sino-US relations at Shanghai’s Fudan University, said Beijing would be happy with the summit and the way it projected Xi as Trump’s equal, though it would have preferred a six-month or yearlong extension to the trade truce.
“If US-China summit meetings can help preserve channels and avoid a new shock, it is of great worth,” Zhao said. “Beijing measures success by process, symmetry and de-escalation, not by comprehensive agreements that were never expected.”
But it was not just policy that was invisible at this meeting. While there was plenty of pomp, circumstance and goodwill, most of it was not broadcast to Americans.
That’s because the five major TV networks – Fox News, ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN – did not participate in the “pool” that films presidential events and distributes footage to other stations around the country. They had refused to take part in solidarity with CNN, which Trump had banned from the White House and the pool.
The ban was fully lifted on Friday (Washington local time), and their participation resumed. But it meant reduced exposure of an event crafted with visuals front of mind.
On Friday, the Chinese Communist Party’s official newspaper, the People’s Daily, splashed its front page with six photos of Xi’s US visit, featuring him being greeted by Trump on the tarmac, the red carpet welcome at the White House, and the two leaders shaking hands in the Oval Office.
The optics matter immensely for the Chinese, says Dylan Loh, an expert on Chinese foreign policy at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
“It allows Beijing to demonstrate to their domestic audiences – and really to the rest of the world – that they are the US’s peer,” says Loh. “And to say: the US is giving us the respect that we have historically not necessarily gotten. We have arrived.”
Zhao said China now saw itself as a co-equal great power that could withstand US economic force, and had been surprised by how quickly Trump had shifted from extreme confrontation and tariff brinkmanship to accepting Beijing’s framework of “constructive strategic stability”.
“Beijing does not believe rivalry is over,” Zhao said. “Tech decoupling, Taiwan and military mistrust remain. But it judges the balance of psychological initiative to have shifted. China can afford patience and incremental truce management.”
Feigenbaum, who is also a former deputy assistant secretary of state for south and central Asia under George W. Bush, reached a similar conclusion.
China is aware of Trump’s propensity to say almost anything. They also know that whatever Trump says or does, it does not necessarily commit the next US president.
“The Chinese objective is just to ringfence the worst outcomes with the US, park the Americans in a corner and then pursue their opportunities elsewhere, where they actually have them,” Feigenbaum said. “That’s their view of it.”
https://www.theage.com.au/world/north-america/the-striking-difference-in-how-trump-and-xi-used-their-invisible-summit-20260926-p610ng.html
oh
Trump has previously described a proposed $14bn US arms package for Taiwan as “a very good negotiating chip” in his dealings with Beijing. The arms package has been on hold for months.
Adding to the confusion, US Ambassador to China David Perdue told Fox News that Trump had offered to sell weapons to Xi during the summit. The State Department later clarified that US law prohibits arms sales to China and there are no plans to do so.
antichexit
alleged
SCIENCE said:
antichexit
alleged
Could you give the Chinese Brussel sprouts and if they aren’t used to them, they spit them out, refuse to eat them and don’t get dessert
https://www.techspot.com/news/114018-netherlands-building-own-linux-os-break-free-microsoft.html
Apologies if this has already been discussed. The Netherlands Government has decided to build its own open-source software to replace all the Microsoft products it uses. What started this is the US attempts to sanction the International Criminal Court for doing its work, which resulted in Microsoft blocking them from using their email. The ICC is based in The Hague of course, and this had been noticed by the Dutch government. They are aiming to replace all US software used by the Dutch government with new open source alternatives. Other countries might follow soon.
So this overreach by Washington trying to weaponise US technology is going to end up hurting the US tech companies.
Sanctions only work in the short term, until such time as the target countries develop work-arounds.
Another example: the BRICS countries likewise are developing their own payments systems to get around the US cutting Russia and Iran off from using the SWIFT system. The BRICS+ group now covers about a third of global GDP (PPP) so when this system replaces SWIFT there’s going to less leverage that the USA has over them. Trying to force countries from not joining with threats of tariffs is only going to accelerate the change.
party_pants said:
https://www.techspot.com/news/114018-netherlands-building-own-linux-os-break-free-microsoft.htmlApologies if this has already been discussed. The Netherlands Government has decided to build its own open-source software to replace all the Microsoft products it uses. What started this is the US attempts to sanction the International Criminal Court for doing its work, which resulted in Microsoft blocking them from using their email. The ICC is based in The Hague of course, and this had been noticed by the Dutch government. They are aiming to replace all US software used by the Dutch government with new open source alternatives. Other countries might follow soon.
So this overreach by Washington trying to weaponise US technology is going to end up hurting the US tech companies.
Sanctions only work in the short term, until such time as the target countries develop work-arounds.
Another example: the BRICS countries likewise are developing their own payments systems to get around the US cutting Russia and Iran off from using the SWIFT system. The BRICS+ group now covers about a third of global GDP (PPP) so when this system replaces SWIFT there’s going to less leverage that the USA has over them. Trying to force countries from not joining with threats of tariffs is only going to accelerate the change.
America – Bum First Into The Future.
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:
https://www.techspot.com/news/114018-netherlands-building-own-linux-os-break-free-microsoft.htmlApologies if this has already been discussed. The Netherlands Government has decided to build its own open-source software to replace all the Microsoft products it uses. What started this is the US attempts to sanction the International Criminal Court for doing its work, which resulted in Microsoft blocking them from using their email. The ICC is based in The Hague of course, and this had been noticed by the Dutch government. They are aiming to replace all US software used by the Dutch government with new open source alternatives. Other countries might follow soon.
So this overreach by Washington trying to weaponise US technology is going to end up hurting the US tech companies.
Sanctions only work in the short term, until such time as the target countries develop work-arounds.
Another example: the BRICS countries likewise are developing their own payments systems to get around the US cutting Russia and Iran off from using the SWIFT system. The BRICS+ group now covers about a third of global GDP (PPP) so when this system replaces SWIFT there’s going to less leverage that the USA has over them. Trying to force countries from not joining with threats of tariffs is only going to accelerate the change.
America – Bum First Into The Future.
Yeah. Looking backwards to a golden era that is slowly vanishing in the distance.
FROGS, not PIIGS, could spark the next global financial crisis
Stephen Bartholomeusz
Senior business columnist
October 6, 2026 — 12:12pm
Bond investors have been searching for weak points in a debt-laden global economy. The US, Japan and UK are firmly on their list. But it’s France, which has now become the flashpoint for a European and, perhaps, global crisis.
France is grappling with a major debt crisis, with the yields on its bonds soaring. The spread between the yields on France’s bonds relative to Germany’s, which are regarded as the eurozone’s safe haven, have blown out to levels not seen since the region’s debt crisis a decade and a half ago.
So precarious has France’s perceived position become that investors have coined a new term – “FROGS”, short for French Oversized Government and Social Security – to describe the crisis.
For much of this century, the focus on eurozone debt was on the countries on its periphery, the so-called “PIIGS” – Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain. But now even Italy and Greece’s bonds, long seen as the point of most vulnerability in the region, trade at lower yields than France’s.
The yield on France’s 10-year government debt touched 4.96 per cent last week, before edging back to 4.85 per cent. While lower than the equivalent US bond yield of 5.31 per cent, it compares with German bund yields of 3.49 per cent, Italy’s 4.65 per cent and Greece’s 4.49 per cent.
The spread between French and German 10-year yields has widened from 71 basis points at the start of the year to 136 basis points.
France’s prime minister warned last week that ‘reality is catching up with us’.
Some of the factors affecting the French debt are similar to those that have driven yields up in the US, Japan, the UK and elsewhere, including Australia, where the yield on 10-year bonds is 5.4 per cent, having started this year at 4.8 per cent.
There’s too much global government debt, with swelling budget deficits adding to the pile. Inflation rates are too high, growth rates are weak and there’s not the political will or ability to address the threat of a self-fuelling cycle of escalating debts and interest costs.
The US has been the epicentre of the implosion in bond prices (as prices fall the yields rise), with its $US40 trillion-plus ($57 trillion-plus) mountain of public debt, a gross debt-to-GDP ratio of more than 120 per cent, a budget deficit of almost 6 per cent of GDP, inflation of 3.4 per cent and erratic governance causing the rising tide of US yields.
At face value, France’s metrics aren’t as dire. It has gross government debt of about €3.6 trillion ($5.8 trillion), a debt-to-GDP ratio of 119 per cent, a budget deficit of about 5.4 per cent and an inflation rate of 3 per cent.
It also has, however, a parliament that is almost unworkable, dominated by its extreme edges. It doesn’t have the luxury that the US has of issuing the world’s reserve currency or with markets that, despite the profligacy of the Trump administration, is still the world’s financial haven in times of stress.
With a presidential election next April – where the left wants more, not less, social spending and the far right, while talking about fiscal restraint, has opposed most measures that would deliver it and has yet to enunciate a plan for reducing the deficit – it is little wonder than investors, particular foreign investors, are shifting their funds to Germany, Switzerland or, in the case of the Japanese, which are large holders of French debt, repatriating them.
France’s Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, referring to the big surge in the government’s cost of borrowings and its impact on fiscal stability, warned last week that “reality is catching up with us.”
The government has presented a draft budget that would cut spending by €54 billion next year via a mix of spending cuts and tax increases, which would – if it could get through parliament – reduce the deficit to 5 per cent of GDP, which has been the target for this year. Without change, the deficit would be headed towards 7 per cent by the end of the decade.
The proposed budget has already triggered waves of street protests by unions, public servants and students, all clamouring for increased spending.
With the political deadlock that has characterised the parliament through the near-decade of Emmanuel Macron’s presidency and the election looming, the prospect of any major structural change to France’s deteriorating public finances is probably remote.
The European Commission has estimated that the policy status quo would lead to a rise in the cost of servicing France’s debt to €124 billion in 2030, or 60 per cent more than its defence budget. Once interest costs exceed defence spending – as is the case in the US – it is a signal for some economists that a country is in inevitable acute financial stress and geopolitical decline.
Italy and Greece’s debts (in Greece’s case, with some help from the European Commission) have been stabilised and the scale of their debts relative to the size of their economies has diminished considerably since the eurozone debt crisis peaked in 2012.
That’s why their bond yields are lower than France’s – for investors, it’s the trajectories that count.
While the entire eurozone economy has been experiencing meagre – less than 1 per cent – economic growth amid the energy crisis caused by the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, Trump’s trade wars and a flood of cheap Chinese imports, France’s deteriorating position is a real concern for the region.
And it has potential global implications, too, as France is the second-largest economy in the eurozone and the seventh-largest in the world. While Germany might have the larger economy, France has at times been the loudest and most powerful voice in the region’s affairs and, particularly during Macron’s presidency, in geopolitics.
When then European Central Bank president Mario Draghi vowed to “do whatever it takes” in 2012 to end that debt crisis and preserve the euro, it was the smaller economies that needed salvaging. France is far larger, more important and more central to the entire “European Project” that the Europeans have been pursuing for decades.
French instability is a threat to the goal of increasing political, economic, and social integration across the region.
An unwillingness or inability to do the obvious – more rigidly impose the EC’s fiscal disciplines, and implement the recommendations Draghi made in a 2024 report that would create single capital and energy markets and allow joint debt to be issued, among other things – complicates France’s position and any response to its bond crisis by the EC and European Central Bank.
Their concern will be that France’s vulnerability could see the sell-off of its debt gain momentum and build into a full financial crisis. While they might have to tear up some of their own rules to act, the central authorities would have no option but to intervene and bail the French out, which is the type of judgement markets like to seize on.
The aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis and then the pandemic encouraged governments to issue ever-increasing amounts of debt that was historically cheap at the time of issue. At some point, as conditions and interest rates normalised, there was going to be a price to be paid for the extraordinarily sovereign debt levels that have been the result.
It would seem that moment might be approaching, with the focus on the sustainability of those debts sharpened by the rapid and sizeable debt added by the second Trump administration – nearly $US8 trillion in less than 20 months – the election of an expansionist prime minister in debt-laden Japan and, now, the rapidly deteriorating public finances of France
https://www.theage.com.au/business/markets/frogs-not-piigs-could-spark-the-next-global-financial-crisis-20261006-p61338.html
Europe raids Trump’s tool box for new ‘trade bazooka’ against China
Stephen Bartholomeusz
Senior business columnist
October 8, 2026 — 12:14pm
A delegation of European Union trade negotiators is in Beijing, hoping to avert what could be a full-scale trade confrontation with China.
The talks on Thursday and Friday between a team headed by EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic and his Chinese counterpart Wang Wentao are taking place amid Europe’s fears that a swelling flood of cheap Chinese imports is de-industrialising its economies.
Last year, China’s trade surplus with the EU was €360.6 billion ($580 billion). So far this year, China’s exports to the EU are up 15 per cent and the surplus has swollen by as much as 23 per cent. Sefcovic has called the widening trade imbalance “unsustainable” and a threat to Europe’s social model.
The increasing concerns about the unbalanced trade relationship have brought about an unlikely alliance between France, traditionally one of the more protectionist of the major European countries, and Germany, historically a free trader and opponent of measures to restrict imports from China.
With imports of Chinese electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids cutting a swathe through the German auto industry – Volkswagen has recently announced the closure of four of its major factories, with about 100,000 of job losses – German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has joined France’s Emmanuel Macron in calling for the creation of a new “last resort” trade instrument that could instantly cut off access to the EU market.
The risk for China is that if it continues to wipe out other countries’ manufacturing sectors and jobs, others might hold their noses and join the protectionist US president.
That’s a major shift in Germany’s stance. Historically, it opposed trade restrictions because it was a major exporter to China and its companies had invested heavily in China’s industries via joint ventures. Now its own industries are being decimated by an industrial base it helped develop.
The letter sent by Macron and Merz to European Commission (EC) president Ursula von der Leyen on Monday implored her to expand the EU’s arsenal of trade weapons in response to the increased “weaponisation of trade, systemic market-distorting practices and global macroeconomic imbalances”.
The EU already has what has been described as its “trade bazooka” – its anti-coercion instrument – but has never used it. That instrument allows EU officials to impose tariffs and other trade restrictions if they determine another government is using economic coercion against the bloc.
The move, however, requires the support of more than half the EU’s 27 member countries representing at least 65 per cent of the EU population, which is a steep hurdle.
Merz and Macron’s proposed new instrument could be activated instantly by the EC, unless the member states voted to revoke it, lowering the hurdle. It would also allow the EC to move far quicker.
France and Germany also proposed a “diversification” instrument, which would let the EC impose a cap on the percentage of imports from one country allowed in various product categories.
The obvious concern for France, Germany and the rest of the EU is that if they were to restrict Chinese imports or increase tariffs on them, China would respond by cutting off access to strategic minerals like rare earths and magnets, where it has introduced a licensing system. The new tool would give the EC the ability to shut China out of its biggest and richest market.
In effect, the European leaders are seeking to create something akin to the Section 301 powers that Donald Trump has invoked in the US to recreate the global tariff regime knocked out by the US Supreme Court earlier this year.
That section of the US Trade Act gives a president the authority to impose trade penalties in response to unfair trade practices.
The current flashpoint in the EU-China relationship is the devastation of the European car industry by China’s electric vehicle and, more particularly, plug-in hybrid manufacturers.
Only two years ago, the EU imposed tariffs ranging from 7.8 to 35.3 per cent – on top of a general 10 per cent tariff on imported cars – on Chinese EVs. But the duties didn’t cover plug-in hybrids, where EU imports more than doubled last year. This year, Chinese hybrids account for almost half of all new EU sales of plug-ins.
It’s not just electric cars, however. Europe’s green technology, steel, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, machine tools and aerospace sectors are also being swamped by Chinese imports. Even the UK, albeit under the threat of facing restrictions to its own trade with the EU, is considering imposing hefty tariffs on imports of cars and chemicals from China.
The EU also wants China to lower some of its own tariff and non-tariff barriers to EU imports.
China will, of course, resist the European pressure. And it has its own powerful trade instrument – cutting off access to the rare earths and magnets vital to most advanced manufactures.
It might, however, be prepared to make some concessions rather than risk being shut out of its key developed world market entirely. Sacrificing its value-added tax rebate for exported EVs might be a start, knowing that the sprawling and disparate nature of the EU membership makes it difficult to build consensus for anything even mildly controversial. A ban on imports from China, or caps on its market shares, would be tricky to achieve.
There’s also the larger picture. America decided during Trump’s first term that China was using unfair tactics – state and local government subsidies, below-market finance and central direction to dominate strategic sectors – and began the initial trade war.
Unfortunately, Trump’s fixation on tariffs meant he extended the trade war to the rest of the world in his second term, alienating many of America’s closest allies that might have joined the US in pressuring China to change its ways.
There’s good reason for the EU and other economies that, like Australia, are open and dependent on a relatively free global trading environment to be concerned about China’s exports.
The collapse of China’s property market more than five years ago has undermined its domestic economy, leaving it increasingly reliant on exports to drive economic growth.
Beijing has resisted external calls for a major stimulus program to drive greater domestic consumption and domestic growth, which has led to significant over-capacity relative to the weak domestic demand – and a tide of exports as its companies redirect their sales.
Last year China had a trade surplus of about $US1.2 trillion ($1.7 trillion), or about four times its surplus in 2020. This year it is on track to generate an even bigger surplus.
It’s not just the dollar value of its exports, but export volumes that are climbing at a steeper rate than their value. China is selling/dumping more product at ever-cheaper prices into the global market, much of it in Europe.
Whether or not the EU does make a stand, China’s strategy was inevitably going to produce a backlash, one that could eventually threaten its export-driven growth and its economic stability.
Trump has been leading the assault on the free trade environment, which enabled Beijing’s “Made in China 2025” strategy of incentivising development of advanced manufacturing with the ambition, now nearly realised, of global dominance of strategic sectors and their supply chains.
The risk for China is that if it continues to wipe out other countries’ manufacturing sectors and jobs, others might hold their noses and join the protectionist US president.
https://www.theage.com.au/business/markets/europe-raids-trump-s-tool-box-for-new-trade-bazooka-against-china-20261008-p613rp.html
I put this here because Trump is attempting to make it political.
>
While US President Donald Trump is again lobbying to win the Nobel Peace Prize, a number of frontrunners have emerged who experts say are far more likely to win the award.
This year’s winner will be announced in Oslo later today and the Norwegian Nobel Committee has 287 nominations.
These are the frontrunners for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize
roughbarked said:
I put this here because Trump is attempting to make it political.
>
While US President Donald Trump is again lobbying to win the Nobel Peace Prize, a number of frontrunners have emerged who experts say are far more likely to win the award.This year’s winner will be announced in Oslo later today and the Norwegian Nobel Committee has 287 nominations.
These are the frontrunners for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize
I reckon there’d have to be a dearth of competition of enormous proportions before Prezdint Shitpants got it.
captain_spalding said:
roughbarked said:
I put this here because Trump is attempting to make it political.
>
While US President Donald Trump is again lobbying to win the Nobel Peace Prize, a number of frontrunners have emerged who experts say are far more likely to win the award.This year’s winner will be announced in Oslo later today and the Norwegian Nobel Committee has 287 nominations.
These are the frontrunners for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize
I reckon there’d have to be a dearth of competition of enormous proportions before Prezdint Shitpants got it.
So a peace prize could be given to a war monger whose orders killed tens or hundreds of thousands of people but may prevent the death of millions
Cymek said:
captain_spalding said:
roughbarked said:
I put this here because Trump is attempting to make it political.
>
While US President Donald Trump is again lobbying to win the Nobel Peace Prize, a number of frontrunners have emerged who experts say are far more likely to win the award.This year’s winner will be announced in Oslo later today and the Norwegian Nobel Committee has 287 nominations.
These are the frontrunners for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize
I reckon there’d have to be a dearth of competition of enormous proportions before Prezdint Shitpants got it.
So a peace prize could be given to a war monger whose orders killed tens or hundreds of thousands of people but may prevent the death of millions
The level of weirdness is out of control. They need to give it to him to stop a nuclear Holocaust. It’s such a bizarre thing to be discussing.
ms spock said:
Cymek said:
captain_spalding said:I reckon there’d have to be a dearth of competition of enormous proportions before Prezdint Shitpants got it.
So a peace prize could be given to a war monger whose orders killed tens or hundreds of thousands of people but may prevent the death of millions
The level of weirdness is out of control. They need to give it to him to stop a nuclear Holocaust. It’s such a bizarre thing to be discussing.
I wonder if his narcissism and self-delusion have yet reached the level where he’d accept a one-off ‘special’ Nobel prize, for his ‘contributions and efforts towards world peace’, and believe that they really meant it, and that it wasn’t just bullshit to shut him up?
captain_spalding said:
ms spock said:
Cymek said:So a peace prize could be given to a war monger whose orders killed tens or hundreds of thousands of people but may prevent the death of millions
The level of weirdness is out of control. They need to give it to him to stop a nuclear Holocaust. It’s such a bizarre thing to be discussing.
I wonder if his narcissism and self-delusion have yet reached the level where he’d accept a one-off ‘special’ Nobel prize, for his ‘contributions and efforts towards world peace’, and believe that they really meant it, and that it wasn’t just bullshit to shut him up?
It is quite possible. Didn’t the soccer mob give him a peace prize?
captain_spalding said:
ms spock said:
Cymek said:So a peace prize could be given to a war monger whose orders killed tens or hundreds of thousands of people but may prevent the death of millions
The level of weirdness is out of control. They need to give it to him to stop a nuclear Holocaust. It’s such a bizarre thing to be discussing.
I wonder if his narcissism and self-delusion have yet reached the level where he’d accept a one-off ‘special’ Nobel prize, for his ‘contributions and efforts towards world peace’, and believe that they really meant it, and that it wasn’t just bullshit to shut him up?
Sounds like appeasement and moral cowardice to me. The Nobel Committee would lose all credibility to even consider him for the prize.
The only morally acceptable reason for offering him any prize is a ruse to get him on board his lane at a known time and place so it can be intercepted and shot down. I am prepared to sacrifice US democracy for the sake of humanity. They don’t deserve it anyway.
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:
ms spock said:The level of weirdness is out of control. They need to give it to him to stop a nuclear Holocaust. It’s such a bizarre thing to be discussing.
I wonder if his narcissism and self-delusion have yet reached the level where he’d accept a one-off ‘special’ Nobel prize, for his ‘contributions and efforts towards world peace’, and believe that they really meant it, and that it wasn’t just bullshit to shut him up?
Sounds like appeasement and moral cowardice to me. The Nobel Committee would lose all credibility to even consider him for the prize.
The only morally acceptable reason for offering him any prize is a ruse to get him on board his lane at a known time and place so it can be intercepted and shot down. I am prepared to sacrifice US democracy for the sake of humanity. They don’t deserve it anyway.
+p
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:
ms spock said:The level of weirdness is out of control. They need to give it to him to stop a nuclear Holocaust. It’s such a bizarre thing to be discussing.
I wonder if his narcissism and self-delusion have yet reached the level where he’d accept a one-off ‘special’ Nobel prize, for his ‘contributions and efforts towards world peace’, and believe that they really meant it, and that it wasn’t just bullshit to shut him up?
Sounds like appeasement and moral cowardice to me. The Nobel Committee would lose all credibility to even consider him for the prize.
The only morally acceptable reason for offering him any prize is a ruse to get him on board his lane at a known time and place so it can be intercepted and shot down. I am prepared to sacrifice US democracy for the sake of humanity. They don’t deserve it anyway.
Not even if the prize is in the form of a golden globe of the world, and when he ‘accepts’ it, it explodes and showers him with golden syrup and glitter?
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:I wonder if his narcissism and self-delusion have yet reached the level where he’d accept a one-off ‘special’ Nobel prize, for his ‘contributions and efforts towards world peace’, and believe that they really meant it, and that it wasn’t just bullshit to shut him up?
Sounds like appeasement and moral cowardice to me. The Nobel Committee would lose all credibility to even consider him for the prize.
The only morally acceptable reason for offering him any prize is a ruse to get him on board his lane at a known time and place so it can be intercepted and shot down. I am prepared to sacrifice US democracy for the sake of humanity. They don’t deserve it anyway.
Not even if the prize is in the form of a golden globe of the world, and when he ‘accepts’ it, it explodes and showers him with golden syrup and glitter?
Let’s say no genuinely offered prize is acceptable.
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:
ms spock said:The level of weirdness is out of control. They need to give it to him to stop a nuclear Holocaust. It’s such a bizarre thing to be discussing.
I wonder if his narcissism and self-delusion have yet reached the level where he’d accept a one-off ‘special’ Nobel prize, for his ‘contributions and efforts towards world peace’, and believe that they really meant it, and that it wasn’t just bullshit to shut him up?
Sounds like appeasement and moral cowardice to me. The Nobel Committee would lose all credibility to even consider him for the prize.
The only morally acceptable reason for offering him any prize is a ruse to get him on board his lane at a known time and place so it can be intercepted and shot down. I am prepared to sacrifice US democracy for the sake of humanity. They don’t deserve it anyway.
It is absolutely 100% total appeasement. He is a malignant narcissist who is okay for humanity to die a long with him.
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:Sounds like appeasement and moral cowardice to me. The Nobel Committee would lose all credibility to even consider him for the prize.
The only morally acceptable reason for offering him any prize is a ruse to get him on board his lane at a known time and place so it can be intercepted and shot down. I am prepared to sacrifice US democracy for the sake of humanity. They don’t deserve it anyway.
Not even if the prize is in the form of a golden globe of the world, and when he ‘accepts’ it, it explodes and showers him with golden syrup and glitter?
Let’s say no genuinely offered prize is acceptable.
But, it’s not ‘genuinely offered’.
It’s a cheap-shit token meant to appeal to an infantile mentality for the sake of minimising larger harm.
Once he’s out of office (dead or alive), the ‘prize’ can be denounced and ridiculed by the Nobel people for the ridiculous ruse it was.
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:Not even if the prize is in the form of a golden globe of the world, and when he ‘accepts’ it, it explodes and showers him with golden syrup and glitter?
Let’s say no genuinely offered prize is acceptable.
But, it’s not ‘genuinely offered’.
It’s a cheap-shit token meant to appeal to an infantile mentality for the sake of minimising larger harm.
Once he’s out of office (dead or alive), the ‘prize’ can be denounced and ridiculed by the Nobel people for the ridiculous ruse it was.
Someone in Washington needs to make the decision to remove him because he is too dangerous for humanity.
ms spock said:
captain_spalding said:
ms spock said:The level of weirdness is out of control. They need to give it to him to stop a nuclear Holocaust. It’s such a bizarre thing to be discussing.
I wonder if his narcissism and self-delusion have yet reached the level where he’d accept a one-off ‘special’ Nobel prize, for his ‘contributions and efforts towards world peace’, and believe that they really meant it, and that it wasn’t just bullshit to shut him up?
It is quite possible. Didn’t the soccer mob give him a peace prize?
are they actually threatening to blow up the world if they don’t get their little gold medal
captain_spalding said:
party_pants said:
captain_spalding said:Not even if the prize is in the form of a golden globe of the world, and when he ‘accepts’ it, it explodes and showers him with golden syrup and glitter?
Let’s say no genuinely offered prize is acceptable.
But, it’s not ‘genuinely offered’.
It’s a cheap-shit token meant to appeal to an infantile mentality for the sake of minimising larger harm.
Once he’s out of office (dead or alive), the ‘prize’ can be denounced and ridiculed by the Nobel people for the ridiculous ruse it was.
They won’t do it but I wish they would.
SCIENCE said:
ms spock said:
captain_spalding said:I wonder if his narcissism and self-delusion have yet reached the level where he’d accept a one-off ‘special’ Nobel prize, for his ‘contributions and efforts towards world peace’, and believe that they really meant it, and that it wasn’t just bullshit to shut him up?
It is quite possible. Didn’t the soccer mob give him a peace prize?
are they actually threatening to blow up the world if they don’t get their little gold medal
I don’t think that it can be stressed enough that Donny. does. not. give. a. shit.
He really does believe that he is the centre of the universe, that he, and only he, has any worth, importance, or significance, and that a world without him would be an empty facade not worth maintaining.
He has no idea at all of consequences to his actions, he has no ability to see into even the most immediate future, he is prompted by whatever is in front of him at any given moment, will forget that in an instant and pursue the next thing without pause.
If he felt that no-one was paying attention to him, and he could think of no other way to remedy that, he’d launch nukes without hesitation.
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:
ms spock said:It is quite possible. Didn’t the soccer mob give him a peace prize?
are they actually threatening to blow up the world if they don’t get their little gold medal
I don’t think that it can be stressed enough that Donny. does. not. give. a. shit.
He really does believe that he is the centre of the universe, that he, and only he, has any worth, importance, or significance, and that a world without him would be an empty facade not worth maintaining.
He has no idea at all of consequences to his actions, he has no ability to see into even the most immediate future, he is prompted by whatever is in front of him at any given moment, will forget that in an instant and pursue the next thing without pause.
If he felt that no-one was paying attention to him, and he could think of no other way to remedy that, he’d launch nukes without hesitation.
Pity he doesn’t fly OS more often, or else a bit of the ol’ Dag Hammerskjold treatment could be visited upon him…
SCIENCE said:
ms spock said:
captain_spalding said:I wonder if his narcissism and self-delusion have yet reached the level where he’d accept a one-off ‘special’ Nobel prize, for his ‘contributions and efforts towards world peace’, and believe that they really meant it, and that it wasn’t just bullshit to shut him up?
It is quite possible. Didn’t the soccer mob give him a peace prize?
are they actually threatening to blow up the world if they don’t get their little gold medal
He’s a malignant narcissist who has a fixation on Barack Obama. (Thus the fixation on the Nobel Peace Prize). He has said he could use a nuke on Iran. You are discussing this in a logical manner. That is not how malignant narcissists operate. One of Trump’s tantrums could end in nuclear war. Dr Bandy X Lee, who is a psychiatrist, who has specialised on Trump’s threat to the world. She is cautioning that it is highly like that nukes are next. She warns that humanity may not survive Trump’s second term. Her talks are highly informative, if you ever had the time or inclination.
ms spock said:
SCIENCE said:
ms spock said:It is quite possible. Didn’t the soccer mob give him a peace prize?
are they actually threatening to blow up the world if they don’t get their little gold medal
He’s a malignant narcissist who has a fixation on Barack Obama. (Thus the fixation on the Nobel Peace Prize). He has said he could use a nuke on Iran. You are discussing this in a logical manner. That is not how malignant narcissists operate. One of Trump’s tantrums could end in nuclear war. Dr Bandy X Lee, who is a psychiatrist, who has specialised on Trump’s threat to the world. She is cautioning that it is highly like that nukes are next. She warns that humanity may not survive Trump’s second term. Her talks are highly informative, if you ever had the time or inclination.
trump has little circumspection, little doubt, barely looks for errors or fault in his his own thinking, which of course is thinking about thinking, involves metacognition, more than rarely even the most modest self-monitoring fails, completely fades, derails away from any anchorage in objectively verifiable external reality.
lives in a bubble really, you’d not last long in his bubble having any persistent views that contradicted what he wants.
those sort of people live in a bubble, and spend a lot of time recruiting others to their ways, they puff themselves up that way.
contempt is secretly their best friend, but outwardly they make a constant effort to seem friendlier than they are, in fact if you look hard enough you’ll see nobody is really that friendly.
and if you look further you’ll see instinct paraded as doing the (secret) work, but really it’s underdeveloped meta-awareness, and they happily trade that for certainty of belief, which is large part the appeal to people swayed by that.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cmdxwn9dr42yo
Actually a centre-left mayor
—-
Man named Hitler Mussolini elected mayor in Peru
dv said:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cmdxwn9dr42yoActually a centre-left mayor
—-
Man named Hitler Mussolini elected mayor in Peru
Cruel parents.
cool
Philippine National Police told a Senate inquiry earlier this year they had “rescued” 24 minors, who were identifying themselves as members of the TCC or 764, by connecting the children with social workers. In October, Philippines media reported the country’s national Interior Secretary revealed authorities had foiled more than 50 planned school shootings in South Cotabato following the shooting in Banga.
Allegedly
dv said:
Allegedly
SCIENCE said:
dv said:
Allegedly
That’s quite a dramtic fall.
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:
dv said:
Allegedly
That’s quite a dramtic fall.
we mean everyone is an excellent internet social media literacy driver right
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:
That’s quite a dramtic fall.
we mean everyone is an excellent internet social media literacy driver right
Aren’t the educated ones all left?
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
That’s quite a dramtic fall.
we mean everyone is an excellent internet social media literacy driver right
Aren’t the educated ones all left?
we mean if “getting things correct and hence naturally caring about truth and facts and reason” are considered left or liberal or progressive or something then
we suppose so
unless you mean the educated ones all left social media then
we suppose so
Allegedly
dv said:
Allegedly
If they’ve gotten rid of half, perhaps they can take out the other half.
Michael V said:
dv said:
Allegedly
If they’ve gotten rid of half, perhaps they can take out the other half.
but why do they reference troll farms in their war on bot farms
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
dv said:
Allegedly
If they’ve gotten rid of half, perhaps they can take out the other half.
but why do they reference troll farms in their war on bot farms
Dunno.
But I reckon we may now have an idea what these large, water- and electricity-gobbling “Data Centres” might be used for now.
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:Michael V said:
If they’ve gotten rid of half, perhaps they can take out the other half.
but why do they reference troll farms in their war on bot farms
Dunno.
But I reckon we may now have an idea what these large, water- and electricity-gobbling “Data Centres” might be used for now.
Not sure Ukrainian drones can reach continental USA but we’ll see
dv said:
Allegedly
kii said:
Michael V said:
dv said:
Michael V said:
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:
JudgeMental said:
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:
roughbarked said:
SCIENCE said:
dv said:
Allegedly
That’s quite a dramtic fall.
we mean everyone is an excellent internet social media literacy driver right
Aren’t the educated ones all left?
we mean if “getting things correct and hence naturally caring about truth and facts and reason” are considered left or liberal or progressive or something then
we suppose so
unless you mean the educated ones all left social media then
we suppose so
animal or, well, jorji must be turning over in his grave
nice dovetail of them other 2 thread though
Perfect.
LOLz
Good one.
Allegedly
If they’ve gotten rid of half, perhaps they can take out the other half.
so is the perfect the enemy of the good
dv said:
Allegedly
It is classic move. Go hiontach!
Michael V said:
dv said:
Allegedly
If they’ve gotten rid of half, perhaps they can take out the other half.
That would be amazing. It would really shift the dynamics.
SCIENCE said:
Michael V said:
dv said:
Allegedly
If they’ve gotten rid of half, perhaps they can take out the other half.
but why do they reference troll farms in their war on bot farms
Because they use a delicate blend of both?
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:Michael V said:
If they’ve gotten rid of half, perhaps they can take out the other half.
but why do they reference troll farms in their war on bot farms
Dunno.
But I reckon we may now have an idea what these large, water- and electricity-gobbling “Data Centres” might be used for now.
Ahhhhhhh!
(((light bulb lights up)))
ms spock said:
Michael V said:
SCIENCE said:but why do they reference troll farms in their war on bot farms
Dunno.
But I reckon we may now have an idea what these large, water- and electricity-gobbling “Data Centres” might be used for now.
Ahhhhhhh!
(((light bulb lights up)))
Why import your bots, trolls, and AI hackers from Russia and China, when you can have them fresh from the local data centre?
totally not colonised
wait we thought imperialism and colonialism were good
When the Cold War ended, the US became Asia’s uncontested leader. The hope, at the time, was that China would simply go along with that arrangement. The plan in Washington was that even as China became richer, it would remain subordinate to the US. China would become something like Japan or Germany — economic powerhouses with no big independent foreign policy ambitions.
SCIENCE said:
wait we thought imperialism and colonialism were good
When the Cold War ended, the US became Asia’s uncontested leader. The hope, at the time, was that China would simply go along with that arrangement. The plan in Washington was that even as China became richer, it would remain subordinate to the US. China would become something like Japan or Germany — economic powerhouses with no big independent foreign policy ambitions.
China didn’t really have any big foreign policy ambitions under Deng Xiaoping or Jiang Zemin. They started to look outside their borders under Hu Jintao, bit it was when Xi Jinping got into the driving seat, with all of his baggage from the Cultural Revolution, that they started gettingreally antsy.
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:
wait we thought imperialism and colonialism were good
When the Cold War ended, the US became Asia’s uncontested leader. The hope, at the time, was that China would simply go along with that arrangement. The plan in Washington was that even as China became richer, it would remain subordinate to the US. China would become something like Japan or Germany — economic powerhouses with no big independent foreign policy ambitions.
China didn’t really have any big foreign policy ambitions under Deng Xiaoping or Jiang Zemin. They started to look outside their borders under Hu Jintao, bit it was when Xi Jinping got into the driving seat, with all of his baggage from the Cultural Revolution, that they started gettingreally antsy.
we mean the natural order of things is that dirty ASIANS should be subordinate to great ussaese and the natural leader of dirty ASIANS is ussa
but yes we weren’t there for the lecture so we can’t comment on the level of irony with which that quote was spoken
oh fk
who needs Great America or Persecuted Israel flyovers when you can just have bad building code / compliance instead
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-15/students-and-teacher-dead-in-pakistan-roof-collapse/107272300
Deaths due to long working hours per 100,000 people in 2016 (15+)
Bubblecar said:
Deaths due to long working hours per 100,000 people in 2016 (15+)
Working in Greenland or Taiwan look good.
Bubblecar said:
Deaths due to long working hours per 100,000 people in 2016 (15+)
LOL@ussa
legit’
Bubblecar said:
Deaths due to long working hours per 100,000 people in 2016 (15+)
How on earth was that worked out?
Michael V said:
Bubblecar said:
Deaths due to long working hours per 100,000 people in 2016 (15+)
How on earth was that worked out?
And here’s Qld pollies questioning whether people’s workplaces actually caused psychological injury.
Divine Angel said:
Michael V said:
Bubblecar said:
Deaths due to long working hours per 100,000 people in 2016 (15+)
How on earth was that worked out?
And here’s Qld pollies questioning whether people’s workplaces actually caused psychological injury.
also what about unpaid voluntary andor domestic work nah everyone knows that woman predominant work doesn’t count
Divine Angel said:
Michael V said:
Bubblecar said:
Deaths due to long working hours per 100,000 people in 2016 (15+)
How on earth was that worked out?
And here’s Qld pollies questioning whether people’s workplaces actually caused psychological injury.
Well, they know it does, but they don’t care.
SCIENCE said:
Divine Angel said:
Michael V said:
How on earth was that worked out?
And here’s Qld pollies questioning whether people’s workplaces actually caused psychological injury.
also what about unpaid voluntary andor domestic work nah everyone knows that woman predominant work doesn’t count
That’s causing a lot of burnout, especially with the sandwich generation.
Michael V said:
Bubblecar said:
Deaths due to long working hours per 100,000 people in 2016 (15+)
How on earth was that worked out?
I don’t know their methods, but it’s a joint study conducted by World Health Organization and International Labour Organization in 2016.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karoshi#/media/File:Deaths_from_Karoshi.png
The original map(s) with slightly different colours used – you can click on each country for detailed information and click on the categories in the right-hand column.
https://who-ilo-joint-estimates.shinyapps.io/OccupationalBurdenOfDisease/
so this is good news
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-18/china-dandong-north-korea-ties/107275378
“The worry about the United States and particularly North Korea is North Korea is a hermit kingdom. They talk to nobody.”
LOL
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-20/rising-political-cost-of-growing-inequality/107284494
that is …
… not quite the caption one would use if one wanted to paint the whole picture
also it’s interesting that they hide the key line deep in the article
The cost of inequality is beginning to manifest itself.
again as almost an afterthought
who says you can’t cooperate while you’re at war
Ranked: The World’s Largest Economies in 2026
Published October 21, 2026 4:16 am
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/the-worlds-largest-economies-by-gdp-in-2026/
bricsftw
Witty Rejoinder said:
Ranked: The World’s Largest Economies in 2026
Published October 21, 2026 4:16 am
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/the-worlds-largest-economies-by-gdp-in-2026/
Based on that, if you want to live a life of luxury with a small income, better move to India.
The Rev Dodgson said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
Ranked: The World’s Largest Economies in 2026
Published October 21, 2026 4:16 am
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/the-worlds-largest-economies-by-gdp-in-2026/
Based on that, if you want to live a life of luxury with a small income, better move to India.
Australians do Bali
SCIENCE said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
Ranked: The World’s Largest Economies in 2026
Published October 21, 2026 4:16 am
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/the-worlds-largest-economies-by-gdp-in-2026/
Based on that, if you want to live a life of luxury with a small income, better move to India.
Australians do Bali
And for Europeans who don’t want to go too far from home, Spain looks pretty good.
The Rev Dodgson said:
SCIENCE said:The Rev Dodgson said:
Based on that, if you want to live a life of luxury with a small income, better move to India.
Australians do Bali
And for Europeans who don’t want to go too far from home, Spain looks pretty good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFN1q3-aS2E
roughbarked said:
wait we thought they were the good guys
roughbarked said:
Let’s build nukes and use them to wipe Israel off the map,
There, Ive said it. Call me anti-semitic if you wish but I don’t care.
party_pants said:
roughbarked said:
Let’s build nukes and use them to wipe Israel off the map,
There, Ive said it. Call me anti-semitic if you wish but I don’t care.
pretty sure it’s antisemitic to stereotype particular flavours of fascism as immune to criticism
SCIENCE said:
party_pants said:
roughbarked said:
Let’s build nukes and use them to wipe Israel off the map,
There, Ive said it. Call me anti-semitic if you wish but I don’t care.
pretty sure it’s antisemitic to stereotype particular flavours of fascism as immune to criticism
The word has lost its meaning.
I cost me $90 earlier this week to fill up my little hatchback. I am angry enough about this to start genocide of the peoples responsible.
party_pants said:
SCIENCE said:party_pants said:
Let’s build nukes and use them to wipe Israel off the map,
There, Ive said it. Call me anti-semitic if you wish but I don’t care.
pretty sure it’s antisemitic to stereotype particular flavours of fascism as immune to criticism
The word has lost its meaning.
I cost me $90 earlier this week to fill up my little hatchback. I am angry enough about this to start genocide of the peoples responsible.
paid $80 for 29 litres of diesel.
SCIENCE said:
party_pants said:
roughbarked said:
Let’s build nukes and use them to wipe Israel off the map,
There, Ive said it. Call me anti-semitic if you wish but I don’t care.
pretty sure it’s antisemitic to stereotype particular flavours of fascism as immune to criticism
Its all the same old bullshit
Can’t call a person whose part of a minority out for acting inappropriate as you’re then anti whatever
How about anyone anywhere regardless of race/culture/religion can be called out for being an arsehole especially when it involves killing in the name of.
National security is often a joke, yeah when bombed the shit out of your nation.
You got angry and retaliated, when remember the retaliation but ignored the we started it part.
Not justifying anyone but that how it seems to play out.
Cymek said:
SCIENCE said:
party_pants said:
Let’s build nukes and use them to wipe Israel off the map,
There, Ive said it. Call me anti-semitic if you wish but I don’t care.
pretty sure it’s antisemitic to stereotype particular flavours of fascism as immune to criticism
Its all the same old bullshit
Can’t call a person whose part of a minority out for acting inappropriate as you’re then anti whatever
How about anyone anywhere regardless of race/culture/religion can be called out for being an arsehole especially when it involves killing in the name of.
National security is often a joke, yeah when bombed the shit out of your nation.
You got angry and retaliated, when remember the retaliation but ignored the we started it part.
Not justifying anyone but that how it seems to play out.
related
there was an advertisement on television here around 20 years back where it showed someone in a wheelchair being an arsehole and then the punchline was that anyone (independent of their special population status) can be an arsehole (so it should still be called out) but then it disappeared and we’ve never been able to find it again
anyway
identity team sports is shit
roughbarked said:
party_pants said:
SCIENCE said:
pretty sure it’s antisemitic to stereotype particular flavours of fascism as immune to criticism
The word has lost its meaning.
I cost me $90 earlier this week to fill up my little hatchback. I am angry enough about this to start genocide of the peoples responsible.
paid $80 for 29 litres of diesel.
it’s fucked but then again our biopowered twin wheeler is paying for itself quite nicely these days
a nice new ev should too
oh cool
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-23/france-investigating-possible-terror-link-paris-shooting/107303752
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-23/shooter-opens-fire-at-church-in-jordan/107303774
Kim not dead. 
since the Russian botfarm bombings other propagandists have filled the space
A Japanese poster basically tweeted: why are there so few booze options in Korea
So a Korean poster replied: Wow this gives me the same vibe as hearing a Japanese person in Chongqing (China) asking why there are so few historical sites
I looked into it and the reason is because the Japanese bombed substantial parts of Chongqings historic and urban areas and in Korea Japan’s colonial administration systematically disrupted the foundations of Korea’s traditional alcohol culture by systemically suppressing much of household brewing which almost wiped out hundreds of regional liquor traditions 😭
Add Euronews on Google
The WSJ reports that Trump administration officials are floating former Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán for UN secretary-general, potentially backed by the US, Russia and China, though nothing is confirmed and his selection remains uncertain.
—
https://www.euronews.com/2026/10/26/trump-officials-back-orban-bid-for-un-secretary-general-wsj-reports
Yeah nah
dv said:
Add Euronews on Google
The WSJ reports that Trump administration officials are floating former Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán for UN secretary-general, potentially backed by the US, Russia and China, though nothing is confirmed and his selection remains uncertain.—
https://www.euronews.com/2026/10/26/trump-officials-back-orban-bid-for-un-secretary-general-wsj-reportsYeah nah
Definitely Nah
roughbarked said:
dv said:
Add Euronews on Google
The WSJ reports that Trump administration officials are floating former Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán for UN secretary-general, potentially backed by the US, Russia and China, though nothing is confirmed and his selection remains uncertain.—
https://www.euronews.com/2026/10/26/trump-officials-back-orban-bid-for-un-secretary-general-wsj-reportsYeah nah
Definitely Nah
love how to make it look bad it’s about how the other country potentially backs it
China is a dictatorship. The midterms will prove if the US has also become one
Peter Hartcher
Political and international editor
November 3, 2026 — 5:00am
The Chinese Communist Party’s internal discipline agency last week posed this question: “Why is there order in ‘China’ and disorder in the ‘West’?”
The contrast between China’s big political event last week and America’s big political event this week could not be more stark. The fifth plenum of the party’s 20th Central Committee was choreographed down to the last bottle of black hair dye. The hundreds of committee members in their identikit suits stood in unison, clapped in unison, raised their hands to vote in unison.
The main item on the agenda? The need for rigorous discipline within the party – “to forge iron one must be strong oneself”. The vote in favour? Unanimous. And the cadres voted to “strictly implement democratic centralism”. Got that? Democratic centralism. You can have all the democracy you want so long as it’s centralised. In the form of Xi Jinping. All those against?
The media coverage was every bit as varied, vibrant and enthralling. The 12 main Chinese daily newspapers all carried the identical two photographs across the top of their front pages, one a close-up of Xi Jinping looking statesmanlike, the other a wide shot of the members meeting in the Jingxi Hotel.
Across the top of every paper was the identical headline: “The Communist Party of China has held the Fifth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee in Beijing”. And below was straight-faced reporting of the 4000-word plenum communique, including breakthroughs such as this: “It was unanimously agreed that the Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core demonstrated tremendous political courage and a strong sense of responsibility …”
As for America’s big political event, due on Wednesday, Australian time, I can do no better than to quote the opening sentences of my colleague Michael Koziol’s report of last week: “On Sunday, US President Donald Trump took a break from complimenting the buttocks of Republican senator Jon Husted to admire someone else’s.
“‘I looked at one hell of a beautiful ass before – Nicki Minaj,’ said of the well-endowed rapper, who attended the president’s rally in Michigan. ‘That’s hard to miss.’” Koziol noted, alongside the comic routine, the “more sinister matter” of “spiralling racism”.
.
It’s not just Trump. Americans are so inured to the open slather of their election system that no one seems terribly fussed about the fact that Elon Musk has so far pumped half a billion US dollars into the election in support of Republicans. Legally.
The Electoral Integrity Project run jointly by Sydney and Harvard Universities found that “experts rated American elections as the worst among all Western democracies”, as Harvard’s Pippa Norris wrote. And that was in the age of innocence, 2012, pre-Trump.
Since then, the deterioration has been wide and deep. Like the ramshackle system that allows gerrymanders every bit as rotten as the rotten boroughs of England, undemocratic affronts that England outlawed in the 19th century while its modern American analogue flourishes more blatantly than ever. Not to mention the endless campaign outrages, the multiplicity of efforts to disenfranchise inconveniently black voters, the wildly varied voting systems state-by-state.
And the Chinese Communist Party didn’t need to look too far to find evidence of chaos in the streets of some European nations. Notably, the weekly violence in France and Italy which has now spread to Germany. No wonder the Beijing regime is feeling emboldened to offer itself as the model: “Looking around the world, full and rigorous Party self-governance in the new era has provided new experience for the world’s political parties in resolving governance problems and achieving flourishing parties and well-governed states,” boasted the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.
By contrast, some Western countries were “mired in internal attrition from partisan struggle”. As evidence of its rigorous self-governance, the party last week disclosed that it had purged 33 of its senior members and military officers. For foreign media, this was the big story to emerge from the fifth plenum. It was widely reported as the biggest purge of the party’s top rank in half a century.
Xi’s purges are relentless and increasing. At the topmost rank, there were 376 full and alternate members of the party’s central committee three years ago. From the plenum’s roll call last week, we learned that 279 remain, meaning 97 have been purged. The higher the rank, the greater the penalties, including prison and suspended death sentences. Some simply disappear without trace.
Xi’s permanent purge is notionally anti-corruption but essentially political. It’s especially sweeping in the military. Of the 47 military leaders who were generals in 2022 or promoted to that rank after 2022, Xi has purged or potentially purged 41, according to the China Power Project of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. That’s 87 per cent.
Absurdly, the seven-member Central Military Commission that rules the People’s Liberation Army is down to just two members – Xi himself plus a general who is not a military commander but a political enforcer. In other words, the military is overseen by two men who know nothing of warfare but everything about politics.
“Xi, the poor bastard,” says the Australian sinologist Geremie Barmé. “He’s been in power 14 years, he’s purged all these people and he’s about to launch his ninth nationwide campaign of collective study and patriotism to strengthen the loyalty of the people.”
Repression has reached ridiculous extremes. For instance, the party now prohibits criticism of its economic policies, a sure sign of widespread economic discontent. What’s next? Complaining about the weather?
Barmé says the neverending rounds of purge and repression are a sure sign that the same political unrest afflicting the West is seething under the surface in China, too, especially among the young.
“It’s all going on in China but it’s constantly being crushed by the biggest repression machine in the world, now AI-assisted.” All the accumulating problems of China’s system will have to be confronted eventually, he predicts.
In truth, the clashing imagery of a roiling US and a prim China illustrate the fundamental strength of democracy. The advantage of democracy is not that it guarantees the best government possible but that it allows the bloodless removal of a bad one, as the Austrian philosopher Karl Popper observed.
China under the dictatorship does not have such an option, which is why Xi must be permanently vigilant against the least crack in the facade lest he be removed bloodily.
The US, for all the ugliness of its brawling political contestation, does have the option of bloodless removal of a bad government. On the proviso, of course, that Trump allows the system to work as designed.
https://www.theage.com.au/world/north-america/china-is-a-dictatorship-the-midterms-will-prove-if-the-us-has-also-become-one-20261103-p61ank.html
Witty Rejoinder said:
China is a dictatorship. The midterms will prove if the US has also become onePeter Hartcher
Political and international editor
November 3, 2026 — 5:00amThe Chinese Communist Party’s internal discipline agency last week posed this question: “Why is there order in ‘China’ and disorder in the ‘West’?”
The contrast between China’s big political event last week and America’s big political event this week could not be more stark. The fifth plenum of the party’s 20th Central Committee was choreographed down to the last bottle of black hair dye. The hundreds of committee members in their identikit suits stood in unison, clapped in unison, raised their hands to vote in unison.
The main item on the agenda? The need for rigorous discipline within the party – “to forge iron one must be strong oneself”. The vote in favour? Unanimous. And the cadres voted to “strictly implement democratic centralism”. Got that? Democratic centralism. You can have all the democracy you want so long as it’s centralised. In the form of Xi Jinping. All those against?
The media coverage was every bit as varied, vibrant and enthralling. The 12 main Chinese daily newspapers all carried the identical two photographs across the top of their front pages, one a close-up of Xi Jinping looking statesmanlike, the other a wide shot of the members meeting in the Jingxi Hotel.
Across the top of every paper was the identical headline: “The Communist Party of China has held the Fifth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee in Beijing”. And below was straight-faced reporting of the 4000-word plenum communique, including breakthroughs such as this: “It was unanimously agreed that the Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core demonstrated tremendous political courage and a strong sense of responsibility …”
As for America’s big political event, due on Wednesday, Australian time, I can do no better than to quote the opening sentences of my colleague Michael Koziol’s report of last week: “On Sunday, US President Donald Trump took a break from complimenting the buttocks of Republican senator Jon Husted to admire someone else’s.
“‘I looked at one hell of a beautiful ass before – Nicki Minaj,’ said of the well-endowed rapper, who attended the president’s rally in Michigan. ‘That’s hard to miss.’” Koziol noted, alongside the comic routine, the “more sinister matter” of “spiralling racism”.
.
It’s not just Trump. Americans are so inured to the open slather of their election system that no one seems terribly fussed about the fact that Elon Musk has so far pumped half a billion US dollars into the election in support of Republicans. Legally.The Electoral Integrity Project run jointly by Sydney and Harvard Universities found that “experts rated American elections as the worst among all Western democracies”, as Harvard’s Pippa Norris wrote. And that was in the age of innocence, 2012, pre-Trump.
Since then, the deterioration has been wide and deep. Like the ramshackle system that allows gerrymanders every bit as rotten as the rotten boroughs of England, undemocratic affronts that England outlawed in the 19th century while its modern American analogue flourishes more blatantly than ever. Not to mention the endless campaign outrages, the multiplicity of efforts to disenfranchise inconveniently black voters, the wildly varied voting systems state-by-state.
And the Chinese Communist Party didn’t need to look too far to find evidence of chaos in the streets of some European nations. Notably, the weekly violence in France and Italy which has now spread to Germany. No wonder the Beijing regime is feeling emboldened to offer itself as the model: “Looking around the world, full and rigorous Party self-governance in the new era has provided new experience for the world’s political parties in resolving governance problems and achieving flourishing parties and well-governed states,” boasted the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.
By contrast, some Western countries were “mired in internal attrition from partisan struggle”. As evidence of its rigorous self-governance, the party last week disclosed that it had purged 33 of its senior members and military officers. For foreign media, this was the big story to emerge from the fifth plenum. It was widely reported as the biggest purge of the party’s top rank in half a century.
Xi’s purges are relentless and increasing. At the topmost rank, there were 376 full and alternate members of the party’s central committee three years ago. From the plenum’s roll call last week, we learned that 279 remain, meaning 97 have been purged. The higher the rank, the greater the penalties, including prison and suspended death sentences. Some simply disappear without trace.
Xi’s permanent purge is notionally anti-corruption but essentially political. It’s especially sweeping in the military. Of the 47 military leaders who were generals in 2022 or promoted to that rank after 2022, Xi has purged or potentially purged 41, according to the China Power Project of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. That’s 87 per cent.
Absurdly, the seven-member Central Military Commission that rules the People’s Liberation Army is down to just two members – Xi himself plus a general who is not a military commander but a political enforcer. In other words, the military is overseen by two men who know nothing of warfare but everything about politics.
“Xi, the poor bastard,” says the Australian sinologist Geremie Barmé. “He’s been in power 14 years, he’s purged all these people and he’s about to launch his ninth nationwide campaign of collective study and patriotism to strengthen the loyalty of the people.”
Repression has reached ridiculous extremes. For instance, the party now prohibits criticism of its economic policies, a sure sign of widespread economic discontent. What’s next? Complaining about the weather?
Barmé says the neverending rounds of purge and repression are a sure sign that the same political unrest afflicting the West is seething under the surface in China, too, especially among the young.
“It’s all going on in China but it’s constantly being crushed by the biggest repression machine in the world, now AI-assisted.” All the accumulating problems of China’s system will have to be confronted eventually, he predicts.
In truth, the clashing imagery of a roiling US and a prim China illustrate the fundamental strength of democracy. The advantage of democracy is not that it guarantees the best government possible but that it allows the bloodless removal of a bad one, as the Austrian philosopher Karl Popper observed.
China under the dictatorship does not have such an option, which is why Xi must be permanently vigilant against the least crack in the facade lest he be removed bloodily.
The US, for all the ugliness of its brawling political contestation, does have the option of bloodless removal of a bad government. On the proviso, of course, that Trump allows the system to work as designed.
https://www.theage.com.au/world/north-america/china-is-a-dictatorship-the-midterms-will-prove-if-the-us-has-also-become-one-20261103-p61ank.html
The communists love purging high ranking military officials
Doesn’t really work well in the long term if you wish to start a war and all your experience or at least knowledgeable generals are dead.
Cymek said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
China is a dictatorship. The midterms will prove if the US has also become onePeter Hartcher
Political and international editor
November 3, 2026 — 5:00amThe Chinese Communist Party’s internal discipline agency last week posed this question: “Why is there order in ‘China’ and disorder in the ‘West’?”
The contrast between China’s big political event last week and America’s big political event this week could not be more stark. The fifth plenum of the party’s 20th Central Committee was choreographed down to the last bottle of black hair dye. The hundreds of committee members in their identikit suits stood in unison, clapped in unison, raised their hands to vote in unison.
The main item on the agenda? The need for rigorous discipline within the party – “to forge iron one must be strong oneself”. The vote in favour? Unanimous. And the cadres voted to “strictly implement democratic centralism”. Got that? Democratic centralism. You can have all the democracy you want so long as it’s centralised. In the form of Xi Jinping. All those against?
The media coverage was every bit as varied, vibrant and enthralling. The 12 main Chinese daily newspapers all carried the identical two photographs across the top of their front pages, one a close-up of Xi Jinping looking statesmanlike, the other a wide shot of the members meeting in the Jingxi Hotel.
Across the top of every paper was the identical headline: “The Communist Party of China has held the Fifth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee in Beijing”. And below was straight-faced reporting of the 4000-word plenum communique, including breakthroughs such as this: “It was unanimously agreed that the Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core demonstrated tremendous political courage and a strong sense of responsibility …”
As for America’s big political event, due on Wednesday, Australian time, I can do no better than to quote the opening sentences of my colleague Michael Koziol’s report of last week: “On Sunday, US President Donald Trump took a break from complimenting the buttocks of Republican senator Jon Husted to admire someone else’s.
“‘I looked at one hell of a beautiful ass before – Nicki Minaj,’ said of the well-endowed rapper, who attended the president’s rally in Michigan. ‘That’s hard to miss.’” Koziol noted, alongside the comic routine, the “more sinister matter” of “spiralling racism”.
.
It’s not just Trump. Americans are so inured to the open slather of their election system that no one seems terribly fussed about the fact that Elon Musk has so far pumped half a billion US dollars into the election in support of Republicans. Legally.The Electoral Integrity Project run jointly by Sydney and Harvard Universities found that “experts rated American elections as the worst among all Western democracies”, as Harvard’s Pippa Norris wrote. And that was in the age of innocence, 2012, pre-Trump.
Since then, the deterioration has been wide and deep. Like the ramshackle system that allows gerrymanders every bit as rotten as the rotten boroughs of England, undemocratic affronts that England outlawed in the 19th century while its modern American analogue flourishes more blatantly than ever. Not to mention the endless campaign outrages, the multiplicity of efforts to disenfranchise inconveniently black voters, the wildly varied voting systems state-by-state.
And the Chinese Communist Party didn’t need to look too far to find evidence of chaos in the streets of some European nations. Notably, the weekly violence in France and Italy which has now spread to Germany. No wonder the Beijing regime is feeling emboldened to offer itself as the model: “Looking around the world, full and rigorous Party self-governance in the new era has provided new experience for the world’s political parties in resolving governance problems and achieving flourishing parties and well-governed states,” boasted the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.
By contrast, some Western countries were “mired in internal attrition from partisan struggle”. As evidence of its rigorous self-governance, the party last week disclosed that it had purged 33 of its senior members and military officers. For foreign media, this was the big story to emerge from the fifth plenum. It was widely reported as the biggest purge of the party’s top rank in half a century.
Xi’s purges are relentless and increasing. At the topmost rank, there were 376 full and alternate members of the party’s central committee three years ago. From the plenum’s roll call last week, we learned that 279 remain, meaning 97 have been purged. The higher the rank, the greater the penalties, including prison and suspended death sentences. Some simply disappear without trace.
Xi’s permanent purge is notionally anti-corruption but essentially political. It’s especially sweeping in the military. Of the 47 military leaders who were generals in 2022 or promoted to that rank after 2022, Xi has purged or potentially purged 41, according to the China Power Project of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. That’s 87 per cent.
Absurdly, the seven-member Central Military Commission that rules the People’s Liberation Army is down to just two members – Xi himself plus a general who is not a military commander but a political enforcer. In other words, the military is overseen by two men who know nothing of warfare but everything about politics.
“Xi, the poor bastard,” says the Australian sinologist Geremie Barmé. “He’s been in power 14 years, he’s purged all these people and he’s about to launch his ninth nationwide campaign of collective study and patriotism to strengthen the loyalty of the people.”
Repression has reached ridiculous extremes. For instance, the party now prohibits criticism of its economic policies, a sure sign of widespread economic discontent. What’s next? Complaining about the weather?
Barmé says the neverending rounds of purge and repression are a sure sign that the same political unrest afflicting the West is seething under the surface in China, too, especially among the young.
“It’s all going on in China but it’s constantly being crushed by the biggest repression machine in the world, now AI-assisted.” All the accumulating problems of China’s system will have to be confronted eventually, he predicts.
In truth, the clashing imagery of a roiling US and a prim China illustrate the fundamental strength of democracy. The advantage of democracy is not that it guarantees the best government possible but that it allows the bloodless removal of a bad one, as the Austrian philosopher Karl Popper observed.
China under the dictatorship does not have such an option, which is why Xi must be permanently vigilant against the least crack in the facade lest he be removed bloodily.
The US, for all the ugliness of its brawling political contestation, does have the option of bloodless removal of a bad government. On the proviso, of course, that Trump allows the system to work as designed.
https://www.theage.com.au/world/north-america/china-is-a-dictatorship-the-midterms-will-prove-if-the-us-has-also-become-one-20261103-p61ank.html
The communists love purging high ranking military officials
Doesn’t really work well in the long term if you wish to start a war and all your experience or at least knowledgeable generals are dead.
we love how the other country is the actual reference point, what does that say
Cymek said:
Witty Rejoinder said:
China is a dictatorship. The midterms will prove if the US has also become one
Peter Hartcher
Political and international editor
November 3, 2026 — 5:00amThe Chinese Communist Party’s internal discipline agency last week posed this question: “Why is there order in ‘China’ and disorder in the ‘West’?”
The contrast between China’s big political event last week and America’s big political event this week could not be more stark. The fifth plenum of the party’s 20th Central Committee was choreographed down to the last bottle of black hair dye. The hundreds of committee members in their identikit suits stood in unison, clapped in unison, raised their hands to vote in unison.
The main item on the agenda? The need for rigorous discipline within the party – “to forge iron one must be strong oneself”. The vote in favour? Unanimous. And the cadres voted to “strictly implement democratic centralism”. Got that? Democratic centralism. You can have all the democracy you want so long as it’s centralised. In the form of Xi Jinping. All those against?
The media coverage was every bit as varied, vibrant and enthralling. The 12 main Chinese daily newspapers all carried the identical two photographs across the top of their front pages, one a close-up of Xi Jinping looking statesmanlike, the other a wide shot of the members meeting in the Jingxi Hotel.
Across the top of every paper was the identical headline: “The Communist Party of China has held the Fifth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee in Beijing”. And below was straight-faced reporting of the 4000-word plenum communique, including breakthroughs such as this: “It was unanimously agreed that the Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core demonstrated tremendous political courage and a strong sense of responsibility …”
As for America’s big political event, due on Wednesday, Australian time, I can do no better than to quote the opening sentences of my colleague Michael Koziol’s report of last week: “On Sunday, US President Donald Trump took a break from complimenting the buttocks of Republican senator Jon Husted to admire someone else’s.
“‘I looked at one hell of a beautiful ass before – Nicki Minaj,’ said of the well-endowed rapper, who attended the president’s rally in Michigan. ‘That’s hard to miss.’” Koziol noted, alongside the comic routine, the “more sinister matter” of “spiralling racism”.
.
It’s not just Trump. Americans are so inured to the open slather of their election system that no one seems terribly fussed about the fact that Elon Musk has so far pumped half a billion US dollars into the election in support of Republicans. Legally.The Electoral Integrity Project run jointly by Sydney and Harvard Universities found that “experts rated American elections as the worst among all Western democracies”, as Harvard’s Pippa Norris wrote. And that was in the age of innocence, 2012, pre-Trump.
Since then, the deterioration has been wide and deep. Like the ramshackle system that allows gerrymanders every bit as rotten as the rotten boroughs of England, undemocratic affronts that England outlawed in the 19th century while its modern American analogue flourishes more blatantly than ever. Not to mention the endless campaign outrages, the multiplicity of efforts to disenfranchise inconveniently black voters, the wildly varied voting systems state-by-state.
And the Chinese Communist Party didn’t need to look too far to find evidence of chaos in the streets of some European nations. Notably, the weekly violence in France and Italy which has now spread to Germany. No wonder the Beijing regime is feeling emboldened to offer itself as the model: “Looking around the world, full and rigorous Party self-governance in the new era has provided new experience for the world’s political parties in resolving governance problems and achieving flourishing parties and well-governed states,” boasted the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.
By contrast, some Western countries were “mired in internal attrition from partisan struggle”. As evidence of its rigorous self-governance, the party last week disclosed that it had purged 33 of its senior members and military officers. For foreign media, this was the big story to emerge from the fifth plenum. It was widely reported as the biggest purge of the party’s top rank in half a century.
Xi’s purges are relentless and increasing. At the topmost rank, there were 376 full and alternate members of the party’s central committee three years ago. From the plenum’s roll call last week, we learned that 279 remain, meaning 97 have been purged. The higher the rank, the greater the penalties, including prison and suspended death sentences. Some simply disappear without trace.
Xi’s permanent purge is notionally anti-corruption but essentially political. It’s especially sweeping in the military. Of the 47 military leaders who were generals in 2022 or promoted to that rank after 2022, Xi has purged or potentially purged 41, according to the China Power Project of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. That’s 87 per cent.
Absurdly, the seven-member Central Military Commission that rules the People’s Liberation Army is down to just two members – Xi himself plus a general who is not a military commander but a political enforcer. In other words, the military is overseen by two men who know nothing of warfare but everything about politics.
“Xi, the poor bastard,” says the Australian sinologist Geremie Barmé. “He’s been in power 14 years, he’s purged all these people and he’s about to launch his ninth nationwide campaign of collective study and patriotism to strengthen the loyalty of the people.”
Repression has reached ridiculous extremes. For instance, the party now prohibits criticism of its economic policies, a sure sign of widespread economic discontent. What’s next? Complaining about the weather?
Barmé says the neverending rounds of purge and repression are a sure sign that the same political unrest afflicting the West is seething under the surface in China, too, especially among the young.
“It’s all going on in China but it’s constantly being crushed by the biggest repression machine in the world, now AI-assisted.” All the accumulating problems of China’s system will have to be confronted eventually, he predicts.
In truth, the clashing imagery of a roiling US and a prim China illustrate the fundamental strength of democracy. The advantage of democracy is not that it guarantees the best government possible but that it allows the bloodless removal of a bad one, as the Austrian philosopher Karl Popper observed.
China under the dictatorship does not have such an option, which is why Xi must be permanently vigilant against the least crack in the facade lest he be removed bloodily.
The US, for all the ugliness of its brawling political contestation, does have the option of bloodless removal of a bad government. On the proviso, of course, that Trump allows the system to work as designed.
The communists love purging high ranking military officials
Doesn’t really work well in the long term if you wish to start a war and all your experience or at least knowledgeable generals are dead.
so what they’re signalling to us is that they are peaceful and intending to start a war is the last thing on their minds
chaos agents proceed
roughbarked said:
separate but local
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-11-09/krakow-shooter-dies-in-hospital/107366174
The government had said the assailant, identified as Michal O, a 24-year-old from the town of Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski in south-eastern Poland, may have been inspired by far-right ideology, without providing further details.
no way
impossible
everyone knows it’s antifa and the extremist left who are always using violence
LOL
Five years ago, Washington imposed sanctions on Myanmar’s military leadership and downgraded diplomatic ties following a 2021 coup that ousted an elected government. This year, however, senior Trump administration officials have travelled to Tokyo and Myanmar’s capital, Naypyidaw, for talks with coup leader-turned-president Min Aung Hlaing. The goals of the diplomacy include countering China’s influence in the region and potentially gaining access to Myanmar’s “bountiful rare earth resources”, according to a US State Department document. But the outreach has raised concerns among human rights advocates that Washington’s pursuit of strategic interests could help rehabilitate a military leadership accused of widespread atrocities.
why uphold an international rules based law and order when you could get in bed with fascists and genocidaires instead
SCIENCE said:
LOL
Five years ago, Washington imposed sanctions on Myanmar’s military leadership and downgraded diplomatic ties following a 2021 coup that ousted an elected government. This year, however, senior Trump administration officials have travelled to Tokyo and Myanmar’s capital, Naypyidaw, for talks with coup leader-turned-president Min Aung Hlaing. The goals of the diplomacy include countering China’s influence in the region and potentially gaining access to Myanmar’s “bountiful rare earth resources”, according to a US State Department document. But the outreach has raised concerns among human rights advocates that Washington’s pursuit of strategic interests could help rehabilitate a military leadership accused of widespread atrocities.
why uphold an international rules based law and order when you could get in bed with fascists and genocidaires instead
That’s been the essence of much of American foreign policy since the start of the 20th century.
captain_spalding said:
SCIENCE said:LOL
Five years ago, Washington imposed sanctions on Myanmar’s military leadership and downgraded diplomatic ties following a 2021 coup that ousted an elected government. This year, however, senior Trump administration officials have travelled to Tokyo and Myanmar’s capital, Naypyidaw, for talks with coup leader-turned-president Min Aung Hlaing. The goals of the diplomacy include countering China’s influence in the region and potentially gaining access to Myanmar’s “bountiful rare earth resources”, according to a US State Department document. But the outreach has raised concerns among human rights advocates that Washington’s pursuit of strategic interests could help rehabilitate a military leadership accused of widespread atrocities.
why uphold an international rules based law and order when you could get in bed with fascists and genocidaires instead
That’s been the essence of much of
Americanforeign policy since the start of the20th century.
Empires
Bronze Age
Fixed :)
