Apologies for what appears to be an attack slowing the site this week. 🙂 I have temporarily added an extra check to reduce the load. Let me know if it is too much of a pest.
Just back from Nice today. When taxi-ing it seemed the runway was no more than 3 or 4 feet above the level of the Med. There is no sign of any action to raise the heights of the runway or buildings.
Has anyone got access to any official data of the heights of the runway above sea level?
I recall an overloaded plane on a stinking hot day could return to the runway at Mascot but could not make that last couple of metres.
I recall a 1950s? war movie oof a damaged four engined bomber making it home at wave height and under the bridge at San Francisco. Fact or fiction I know not.
When we put out superphosphate with a Cessna 180. he took 20 hundredweight at crack of dawn, but by 9 am cut it back to 15 hundredweight.
That seems to be the most reliable advice on Nice’s runway level — 12ft =3.65.
In the meantime I have gathered that the new runway at Bne airport has been constructed at 5.2m. They have taken into account “rising sea levels” which we, ignorantly (sarc), didnt take account of when we set 5.0m.
Of all the videos I have seen today of the airstrikes on Iran’s leadership, this one hit me the hardest by far. The images of the strike on Khamenei’s palace aren’t all that exceptional, but listen to the joy in the voices of the women filming it. I’ve seen videos like this where the person filming it expresses fear or outrage or grief, but never outright joy at their own leaders receiving warheads on foreheads.
I think it will be interesting to find out the origins of the drones alleged to be targeting civilians around the Gulf.
It would make absolutely no sense for Iran to have done this.
It would however make perfect sense for anyone wanting to create division amongst the various Arab states.
False flags anyone?
From the little I have read, it is thought that they are from Iran but are unintentional misfires. They are firing off drones and rockets with broken/jammed targeting systems and many of them aren’t making it to Israel. They’re landing in neighboring countries.
That’s not hard to believe IMO. Consider how easily and thoroughly their air defenses were compromised by Israel/American bombs and tech. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if Israel hadn’t also infiltrated their targeting systems and compromised them too. It also wouldn’t surprise me if the mullahs decided to fire off their arsenal even though they had no idea where the bombs would land. They’re desperate, and getting some bombs to Israel right now is better than sitting on them and waiting to fix the targeting systems. If some of those bombs also fall on their neighbors, I doubt they give a damn. It’s self-preservation time. Screw everyone else.
It’s Shia Iran vs Sunni neighbours. 90% of Shia are in Iran. (Sunni) ISIS just blew up a mosque in (largely Sunni) Pakistan murdering 78 people. That’s Islamic on muslim religious sectarian violence. In response a full war has been declared by Pakistan on Afghanistan, but it hardely rates a mention in the news. And Pakistan hid Osama Bin Laden. There is so much more to inter muslim violence. As there was in Europe for hundreds of years, Protestant vs Catholic. Mass exterminations like the Albigensians, the Hugenots, the Inquisition. As for ‘making sense’, sense is hardly important to religion. They are fighting over inheritance 1400 years ago.
TdeF, by writing that the religious wars in Europe did not last “hundreds of years” you give the impression that there was continuous warfare. There were a few small conflicts followed by a major war, the Thirty Years War(1619-1688). After that were occasional smaller wars. War, unfortunately, has been a recurring part of human history.
Yes, the (former?) Iranian regime is one of the favourite barbaric regimes of the Left and they have no clue and simply don’t care how much the Iranian people hate that regime.
In addition, for the last 47 years, the Iranian leadership has been calling for the destruction of Israel and the United States and have developed the means to do it (ICBM’s and attempted development of nuclear weapons) plus funding numerous terrorist organisations and Leftists. (Iran’s terrorism even extended to Australia where they organised the burning of the Adas Synagogue in Melbournistan.) The destruction of these countries which they refer to as the Little Satan and The Great Satan is part of their religious ideology and to bring their messiah, the 12th Mahdi.
The Iranian regime’s very purpose of existence is to destroy Israel (and then the rest of the West). Their Shia theocracy posits belief in the 12th Mahdi, Imam Muhammad al-Mahdi, the final and twelfth Imam in Shia Islam, whom they believe to be the redeemer and having died in 868 will be resurrected and will return only after the Iranians destroy Israel. Hence Iran’s obsession with destroying Israel directly and via Hezbollah and Hamas proxies, not to mention other terrorists and the useless idiots of the Left.
Did you ever hear the Left complain about human rights abuses in Iran? Of course not. The Left supported it and similar regimes within the context of the Red-Green Alliance. They are useful idiots of each other as both want to destroy Western Civilisation.
It’s excellent that the US and Israel are doing this so-called “decapitation strike” to remove the regime to let the Iranian people replace it with one of their own choosing who will respect human rights and also allow women to discard their hijabs and burkhas, those instruments of female oppression which strangely some Western “feminists” have claimed are “empowering”.
It was certainly wrong to call the attack pre-emptive.
This has been in the making for 47 years.
And it was disgraceful that the US’ supposed ally Once Great Britain, refused to allow the US to use their bases for staging.
It’s a warning sign.
As JD Vance said:
“I was talking with a friend recently… [about] what is the first truly Islamist country that will get a nuclear weapon? …maybe it’s actually the UK – since Labour just took over.”
This is going to be interesting.
Trump’s unprovoked attack on Iran has just opened the religious retaliatory floodgate.
With believers spread throughout the EU now, one can but wonder what the terror cells will do in retaliation.
Bear in mind too that Iran is a UN member so what happens with article 5?
“Department of war” indeed.
Unprovoked? I refer you to Jeff Childers’ substack for why that is not a correct description. Excerpt:
Expect to see that word ‘pre-emptive’ a lot— it’s a progressive dog-whistle for ‘unprovoked,’ implying that President Trump got some bad news about the unemployment rate and, in an uncontrolled fury, thought it would make him feel better to drop a few bombs on somebody. Pre-emptively. The truth is, everybody from Tucson to Tehran could see this coming.
It’s actually post-emptive, or however you say it. To understand just how “post-emptive” it was, let’s rewind ten days. Ten days and six words are the keys. BBC headline, February 20th:
The day before —ten days ago— on February 19th, President Trump delivered a press conference and threw down the gauntlet of ultimatum. He told Iran’s Mad Mullahs they had “probably ten days — ten, fifteen days, pretty much maximum” to agree to stop rebuilding their nuclear program. The President’s proposal was simple and straightforward. He demanded they say only six words: “We will never have a nuclear weapon.”
There is almost no support for US sponsored regime change in Iran. Indeed, it’s the US propped up governments in the Middle East who are looking shaky right now.
Not to mention the massive uprising a few months back that regime had to slaughter tens of thousands of their own citizens to suppress. Do you really think the people who were on the receiving end of that and lost friends and family members to the regime are on their side?
They need to be careful that they are not recognised by the brave boys in the IRGC. They like taking on girls without hijabs. Obviously they see the beginning of the end of their oppressors. Or is it the end of the beginning as Churchill once said?
You are confused.
It was a pre-emptive strike by U.S.-Israel.
Intervene.?
LOL.
U.S.-Israel intervened in the negotiation process.
Is that what you meant?
It will need more than a high level air strike. By intervene I mean Troops on the ground or a concerted attack for days or weeks or arming the opposition.
If, as it seems, the strike took out the top mullahs and the IRGC leaders, it will probably mean a revival of the street resistance of the young Iranians . We shall see soo.
I think the plan/hope is that the evil Islamic government will be so weakened that the people of Iran will again rise up and take back the country.
I’m sceptical, not because I think America and Israel can’t bomb the mullahs into oblivion, but because, like Hamas, there will remain enough armed and organised supporters of the old regime to once again dominate the mostly-unarmed citizenry. They will quickly regain control.
I don’t see how those rats could be dealt with effectively without sending troops in, like Israel did in Gaza (but on a much larger scale).
They either take advantage of the leadership vacuum created by the strikes and end the regime now, or they don’t and remain under an Islamic theocracy. The strikes are meant to decapitate the command and control and debilitate the state response, not to fight the revolution for them. They’ve got the opportunity, now they have to capitalize on it.
He told the Iranian people to stay in their homes while the regime gets decapitated (figuratively, my words) and when the time comes he will indicate by whatever communications medium is available, Internet or radio, when it’s time to take to the streets and finish the job.
Nice theory but not workable. The people can’t remove the regime without at least compliance from the military. There’s no sign yet of any fracture in the military.
There are two militaries, the IRGC, which is a Praetorian Guard and well funded, and Artesh, much larger but poorly funded. It is possible that Artesh will join with their brothers.
I met the former Shah of Iran’s son many years ago. I guess he was around 12 or so. It will be interesting to see if he becomes a real figure head as the various factions in Iran start to flex their muscles. The religious fundamentalists are armed and very fanatical however so any secular groups would need to be given help.
Some of my work colleagues met interesting people in Iran where we were contracting for the Shah in 1976 to 1980, the latter part from Sydney after the Shah was deposed in January 1979. We hired a 7 story office building in central Tehran that was owned by the keeper of the fabulous jewels of the Peacock Throne. We were required to hire an Iranian military Colonel for protocol. On my first day of a visit there he assembled our staff (including some young single pilots about to suffer detumescence) to announce that the previous day, 6 Korean workers had been executed in public for being too friendly with local women. This was an introduction to Sharia law.
BTW, the young Iranian ladies we employed in the office, who were present for the talk, were rather beautiful by usual standards, as was true of many in the passing parade. Lovely eyes, smiling faces. But after a couple of tries, it was clear that a guy like me dared not speak or even look. They would usually respond with anger, guides saying they could be punished, even killed, for being seen speaking to folk like me. So much for that type of law. Geoff S
I know! Thanks to our laissez-faire womens Lib we have a population of happy, satisfied women who never complain about their equality and freedom, keen to be at home with the man they picked so they can have many children!
The West is bliss all right… Nearly half the children are bastards and most marriages end in divorce, mot women don’t want to ruin their figures by having children and we will either die out or become our immigrant’s culture.
The only safe assumption about news coming out of Iran is that both sides are spinning information operations and planting mis and dis information in every news and social media outlet. Trust nothing for the next 72 hours, and be skeptical of any ‘news’ coming out of Iran for the next few weeks at least.
Iran and the totalitarian regime are headquarters for the several terrorist organisations elsewhere referred to as brotherhood and Hamas in Palestine one example.
Of course much of what we hear and read is political propaganda spread around internationally by the regime. I understand that leftist protest activists are encouraged and funded meaning the leaders are funded.
Trump Strategy seems to be; take out the Iran leadership, destroy the Iranian revolutionary guard, eliminate the Iranian navy and promote a colour revolution.
For reasons that completely elude me I get regular updates from a US Democrat congresswoman. The Democrats are pushing hard for a vote as they believe Trump did not have the authority for this strike against Iran
Part of her message is below;
“Families do not want another war. They want a reasonable cost of living. They want health care they can afford. They want an end to ICE’s terror in their neighborhoods. And they do not want their sons and daughters placed in harm’s way by a reckless president.
The people of this country deserve better.
Speaker Johnson should call the House into session immediately to vote on a bipartisan War Powers Resolution. If not, House Democrats will force a vote. Now is the time to stand with the American people and the Constitution.
Sincerely,
An image of Congresswoman Clark’s signature.
Congresswoman Katherine Clark
The Democrats are pushing hard for a vote as they believe Trump did not have the authority for this strike against Iran
They’re idiots.
The United States hasn’t officially declared war on anyone via Congress since WWII, but has been in plenty of ‘police actions’ or ‘targeted strikes’ or whatever euphemism you prefer. Every president since 1945, Democrat and Republican, has used their war powers as they saw fit and have only involved Congress after the fact and presented them with a fait accompli. Presidents can just do stuff and then ask for forgiveness rather than asking for Congressional permission.
The US Socialist Democrats (by the way the ALP National Constitution contains several references to socialism and democratic socialism) are as we all realise doing everything and anything they can organise to continue character assassination of POTUS Trump, Term 01 and now Term 02
And the Russians have run out of all armaments and only have shovels to fight with. It might surprise you, but a lot of what the press tell you is utter rubbish … and not just about the climate.
I don’t think Qatar (or anywhere other than Israel) is a target. I think Iran is using their neighbor’s airspace to try to hit Israel but their missiles keep falling out of the sky before they get there (probably due to Israeli/American sabotage/jamming of their targeting systems).
You seem right on the mark with your comments Steve.
It brings to mind the operation where terrorist pagers exploded on use. There are some seriously clever people out there to even think of such sabotage.
Doha has had multiple strikes. Qatar authorities have recommended people stay indoors due to Iranian targeting. Doha airport is now closed so lots of disruption to air travel.
It is well documented and even acknowledged by Israel that Mossad operatives have been working inside Iran for decades, preventing them getting nuclear weapons and preventing attacks on Israel either through technological (e.g. Stuxnet) or human means (e.g. elimination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh).
There are some seriously smart and brave people there.
Because bombing neighbors who pledge to remain neutral is a good way to get them to take sides … against you. Which is exactly what happened.
The Saudis weren’t letting anyone use their airspace before Iran started bombing bases on Saudi soil … but they are now. Iran even pulled off the impossible and seems to have thawed the icy relations between the Saudis and Qataris by providing them with a common enemy. They even dropped ordinance in Syria, which until recently was their ally. Needless to say, the new Syrian regime was not amused.
They basically turned the entire Arab world against themselves with those strikes against the sovereign territory of their neighbors.
It’s the End of the BBC: The BBC faces DESTRUCTION in court by the Trump team. BBC ‘fake news’ used as evidence against January 6 protesters: January 6 protester, Enrique Tarrio, has confirmed that the fake news ‘BBC Panorama’ clip was shown to his jury during his criminal trial. The clip spliced together words spoken by President Trump more than 40 minutes apart, while removing Trump’s explicit call to protest “peacefully and patriotically.” Laurence Williamson is credited as the Editor of the Trump speech in the BBC Panorama episode “Trump: A Second Chance?” Williamson’s malicious edit omitted the usual flash between edited segments. Other incidents include BBC News live coverage of Donald Trumps speech during an address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress at the Capitol on March 5, 2025. This statement by Trump was censored by the BBC News team. Trump said “We have had serious discussions with Russia, and have received strong signals that they are rea———-(Picture of the Capital Building for 4 seconds, with the clock changing to 03:48)———-[applause]. Censored by the BBC News team was “ready for peace. wouldn’t that be beautiful, wouldn’t that be beautiful”. The BBC News team transmitted the live speech after a short delay.
Probably the majority opinion that the ABC is not performing to our satisfaction, let alone observing the ABC Charter, cannot be compelling for political reasons become reality?
However, merge SBS and ABC and cut one budget commitment and require the remaining merged organisation to work within that budget?
As I’ve said before, people should stop donating to Wikipedia and give to Jo instead.
Like most Leftist organisations Wikipedia are extremely wealthy anyway, they don’t need any more cash.
Wikipedia has become extremely destructive due to its far Left bias on political, sociological, historical issues etc. and most AI is trained on it, absorbing that bias.
The Left destroy everything that was once good.
As the former CEO of Wikipedia said:
“Our reverence for the truth might be a distraction getting in the way of finding common ground & getting things done.”
In other words, standard post-modernist wokeism, that the absolute truth is not as important as “the agenda”.
” Nova was an Associate Lecturer of Science Communication at Australian National University.[8]
From November 1999 to February 2000, Nova was the host of the first series of Australian children’s science television show Y?[9] She was a regular guest on ABC Radio. She is a director of GoldNerds, a gold investment advice business.[10] Nova has published a book called Serious Science Party Tricks, which is aimed at children. ”
She sounds pretty Leftist to me! Universities, the ABC, childrens books..
Actually, the most telling thing is that this website is not listed, one would think its just a tiny hobby not worth mentioning… Still, one would expect nothing else from Wikipedia.
Thanks for the feedback (and responses below too). The new checks immediately stopped the excess surges of traffic, but I’m told I should not leave these checks in place because it ruins SEO etc (which I’m not too concerned about since SEO from Google has been screwed for ten years).
I will get Web Guru advice soon about the best long term path.
Regarding Mike’s point — I hate to say this but Cloudflare provided what was essentially a free front server for this blog starting in Nov 2020 (after That election) when traffic here become so large the original site could not cope. So after the attacks last year I had to add a paid subscription level to get the full data and capabilities of cloudflare. But the “free” operation model has always bothered me. Cloudflare is hugely dominant in this space managing 20% ! of global internet traffic !. What entity could offer so much for free…
The “pre-emptive” attack on Iran appears to have been triggered by Iran offering during negotiations to transfer its refined uranium to Russia who would build the nuclear power generation that Iran seeks.
Clearly this was totally unacceptable to those who want war at any cost.
Conspiracy theory.
Already there are illogical stories everywhere, Trump bombs another country to kill the leaders, and we are expected to believe those leaders, after weeks of Trump threatening them, and asleep in the royal palace.
We are expected to believe that the whole military command, after being under attack from America for decades, has big shiny buildings in downtown Tehran and is not dispersed in underground bunkers.
…and this bit on Coffeeandcovid will eventually come to the fore-
“Iraq was built on bad intelligence (at best) about weapons that didn’t exist, followed by a decade-plus of occupation and nation-building nobody asked for. ”
The reasons for bombing another country are never what is given at the start.
The funny thing about this-
“For our entire adult lives, the Middle East has been the world’s powder keg. Every few years something explodes. Somebody gets invaded, some embassy gets torched, some shipping lane gets mined, and American kids get sent to babysit a region that has been fighting since roughly the invention of the pointed stick.”
..is, what would have happened if they didn’t have oil, or we didn’t need oil. Without Western takeovers of all those countries at various times, would they still hate us?
I don’t see what is so surprising or revealing.
The Iranian regime hates Israel, Israel is no fan of the Iranian regime. Neither side would stop planning operations, strategy and tactics to attack, or defend, and indeed, nor should they, if they have competent military forces.
The claim is that CO2 is a Greenhouse gas which absorbs some IR at the troposphere, causing the earth to be a bit warmer than before. More CO2 more warming.
Well the Earth warmed (about 0.54 ℃ from 1899 to 1940 as CO2 increased slightly.
It cooled (about 0.59 ℃) from 1941 to 1982 with over 3 times as much emissions.
It warmed from 1983 to 2024 (about 0.69 ℃) with 2.6 times as much emissions.
Or 1.2℃ from 1982 to 2024 (NASA satellite measurements – from low point to highest point in 2024 although it has dropped back about 0.4℃ to an increase of 0.75℃ by Jan 2026)
Obviously there must be 2 forms of CO2, the warming one and the cooling type or the CO2 is banking bits of warming in Swiss banks for future use. We need to do something about this behaviour by CO2 – will Trump send missiles?
Increase in solar intensity over the NH bottomed around 1200BC. Intensity is now accelerating.
Poleward advection in the NH bottomed just before 1700BC. It is now accelerating.
Based on these observations I would expect to see the rate of rise in temperature in the NH to be accelerating.
Summer daily sunlight in the Southern Hemisphere peaked just before 1000BC 30W/m^2 above the current peak in the NH. It is now down from its peak by 1W/m^2. That decline iin peak is offset by rise in winter sunlight in the SH, up 1.2W/m^2 since 1000BC.
So according to sunlight, NH should be warming and the warming accelerating. Southern Hemisphere should have cooler summers and warmer winters. The global average temperature should be increasing because the preponderance of land in the NH makes that hemisphere more thermally responsive than the predominantly water hemisphere.
One reason climate models do not produce this result is that CO2 jockeys do not know the difference between solar energy and solar power. Both hemisphere currently get the same amount of energy each year but the SH faces the summer Sun for 9 days less than the NH. Which hemisphere would you expect to be warmer – same summer energy iNH n 187 days or SH in 178 days?
They are now flogging a dead horse. But some just do not know when to give up. There a few examples of those who do not realise their horse is dead who visit this site.
Israel’s anti-missile systems are amazing and mostly Israel-developed and now being exported to various countries (e.g. Arrow 3 to Germany and Iron Dome to USA). They are multi-layered and comprise an integrated network designed to intercept threats at varying ranges and altitudes.
There is the short-range Iron Dome and Iron Beam, medium-range David’s Sling and long-range Arrow 2 & 3 systems to protect against rockets, drones, and ballistic missiles.
Key layers are as follows:
Arrow 3 & Arrow 2 (long range): These were co-developed with the US and intercept long-range ballistic missiles, with Arrow 3 operating outside the atmosphere to neutralise threats early.
David’s Sling (medium range): For use against tactical ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, aircraft and drones, acting as a bridge between the Iron Dome and Arrow systems.
Iron Dome (short range): For intercepting short-range rockets, mortars, and drones (4–70 km) launched from Gaza or Lebanon to intercept threats aimed at populated areas.
Iron Beam (short range laser): A new high-power laser system designed to destroy smaller aerial threats like UAVs and mortars.
Patriot & THAAD (supplementary): Older US Patriot systems and the high-altitude THAAD system are integrated to supplement the Arrow.
When I was in Israel recently I felt completely safe as do most Israelis even though I was there during a Houthi missile attack, which was intercepted. That’s not to say the system is perfect, some missiles do get through, unfortunately.
At least Australians don’t have all their goods now manufactured in China pass through the combat zone created by the US. Your only problem is the rising price of oil as they cut off about 20% of global oil.
AWA Limited made radios and television sets and other electrical appliances, the founder and major shareholder (new deceased) was an electrical engineer who also founded a business Electrical Connections that supplied all of the telephone fittings and connections before and after Telstra brand.
Sixty years ago I did a tour of the Philips factory in Adelaide. It was amazing, they not only made the TVs and radios but most of the components as well. They even drew and enamelled the wire used in coils. I know they made the vacuum tubes but I think they made the TV tubes too.
This was near the Holden factory.
Holden factory in Elizabeth suburb of Adelaide is the location now and ever since wind and solar first destabilised the electricity grid large diesel-gas turbine generators
The latest silicon wafers have gates at 2nm spacing.
One of my last real engineering projects was to find milling technology that would reduce ore to P80 of 8 micron. We used milling technology developed for grinding marble to powder for paper coating.
8 micron particles in water appear like ink and feels like oil. The particles are too small to see. So gates are now 1/4000th of those particles. My mind boggles at the precision of gear to etch and dope surfaces down to that scale. That technology has left Australia behind.
Apparently the wafers are 300mm in diameter and a 25 lot of wafer has a value as high as $1M by the time they are ready for dicing.
Gate-All-Around (GAA) MOSFET technology used 3nm production in 2022. IBM announced 2nm versions, and other studies are now looking at GAA nanowire diameters down to 1nm.
The most advanced silicon wafer exposure machine sells for US$200m, is the size of a locomotive and ships in 40 freight containers.
They are already looking at 450mm diameter wafers, 925um thick, and are proposing 650mm.
In my day a Field Effect Transistor was a discrete component with three legs, source, drain and gate. Because there were no junctions they were low noise, thus used in the front end of receivers. It is beyond strange that they could be reduced so much.
In the RAAF at Point Cook, 1960, we had tours of AWA Sydney making TV, BHP Port Kembla making steel, Sydney Uni for early computers, another place making radio valves, more. A lot has changed. Geoff S
David,
I was made in Australia 85 years ago and am still usefully reliable. Some parts that cannot be made by printer technology are wearing out so some functions are not reproducible.
Sorry, I am not available for trade-in or collecting.
Am currently selling half of my modestly good collection of Australian Commonwealth stamps 1913 to 1983. Anyone interested might contact me before 19th March. Cat value a bit over $100 K, for market value divide by 5. Geoff S
1970s when Gough Whitlam was Federal Opposition Leader I was sitting nearby at an international Jamboree at the closing ceremony, as the Scouts and Cubs threw their hats into the air cheering Gough turned to a NSW Cabinet Minister also nearby and with a broad grin said “how about some law and order”, sarcastically referring to a political hot potato at the time.
I observed elsewhere graffiti – Who Is Lauren Order?
“After the Endangerment Finding, States Must Prove CO2 Harms. Wisconsin Can’t.”
“The EPA’s revocation of the 2009 endangerment finding shifts the burden of proof from federal agencies to state capitals. Governors who declared climate emergencies must now demonstrate with regional data that rising carbon dioxide (CO2) endangers their residents. Wisconsin cannot meet that burden.”
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on Thursday said the company “cannot in good conscience” agree to allow the Department of Defense to use its AI models in all lawful use cases.
The startup has been engaged in tense negotiations with the Pentagon, as it wants assurance models will not be used for fully autonomous weapons or mass domestic surveillance.
Anthropic said its negotiations with the DOD are still ongoing.
The Trump administration has ordered all US agencies to stop using Anthropic’s artificial intelligence technology, culminating in a public clash between the government and the company over AI safeguards.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth says he is designating Anthropic as a supply chain risk.
Mr Hegseth’s remarks came shortly after the Pentagon’s deadline for Anthropic to allow unrestricted military use of its AI technology or face consequences.
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
++
Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead. This is not only Justice for the people of Iran, but for all Great Americans, and those people from many Countries throughout the World, that have been killed or mutilated by Khamenei and his gang of bloodthirsty THUGS. He was unable to avoid our Intelligence and Highly Sophisticated Tracking Systems and, working closely with Israel, there was not a thing he, or the other leaders that have been killed along with him, could do. This is the single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their Country. We are hearing that many of their IRGC, Military, and other Security and Police Forces, no longer want to fight, and are looking for Immunity from us. As I said last night, “Now they can have Immunity, later they only get Death!” Hopefully, the IRGC and Police will peacefully merge with the Iranian Patriots, and work together as a unit to bring back the Country to the Greatness it deserves. That process should soon be starting in that, not only the death of Khamenei but the Country has been, in only one day, very much destroyed and, even, obliterated. The heavy and pinpoint bombing, however, will continue, uninterrupted throughout the
week or, as long as necessary to achieve our objective of PEACE THROUGHOUT THE MIDDLE EAST AND, INDEED, THE WORLD!
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP
I assume this indicates the presence of Israelis inside Iran? How else would Khameini’s body be found amongst the rubble so quickly, his body identified and photographic evidence sent to America? Alternatively, there could have been Iranian ‘revolutionaries’ nearby who did the deed. Either way, it is suggestive of fairly sophisticated and connected support, with some sort of military capability, within Iran.
“Now they can have Immunity, later they only get Death!”
Taken straight from the medieval siege warfare playbook. The attacking leader, loathe to waste warriors by sending them against heavily defended castles and forts, would issue an ultimatum: surrender now and live, keep fighting and we will kill every man, woman and child within once we break through.
Of course, for this to work, the threat, once given, must be carried out. Brutal.
“Most evil people in history” … that’s a rich claim … how many genocides has he been convicted of by the international court?
Every day the Zionist invaders murder more of the direct descendants of Jesus in Palestine. In other words the “God’s people” as described in the bible.
How can anyone, whether they call themselves Christian Jew or Muslim get more evil, than genociding and ethinically cleansing the Holy land?
Israel isn’t ethnically cleansing anyone. If they wanted to do it they could have.
In fact, after the genocidal actions of Hamas on October 7, 2023, Israel went to extraordinary efforts to avoid harming the Gazan civilians that had been deliberately put in harm’s way such as by Hamas putting their military facilities in apartment blocks, schools, hospitals, UN headquarters etc..
You: “Most evil people in history” … that’s a rich claim … how many genocides has he been convicted of by the international court?”
Me: How many claims? The same could be said about Adolph Hitler.
Hitler, who was a supporter of the Islamic supremacist leadership who were attacking / killing Jews in the 1930’s to drive them out of Jerusalem in the 1930’s. Jerusalem was a Jewish city built by Jews 2,500 years before Islam existed.
Are you one of those holocaust deniers who deny anything wrong happened? Unfinished business?
In case anyone else was curious why newspapers report “suicide drones” and not “suicide missiles”, according to AI:
Suicide drones are a specific type of weapon known formally as loitering munitions—unmanned aerial vehicles designed to hover over a target area, search for and identify targets, then crash into them to detonate their warhead. This one-way, self-destructive mission is what earns them the “suicide” label.
While some modern cruise missiles (like the Block IV Tomahawk) can loiter and be retargeted, their primary role and design are still distinct from loitering munitions. The term “suicide drone” has become popular in media because it clearly conveys the weapon’s self-destructive, targeted attack nature—something that aligns with the public’s understanding of “kamikaze” tactics, even though the term is technically a misnomer in military jargon.
Australia based drone businesses have been supplying Ukraine and included in their inventory of drones are swarming capabilities of many drones carrying a small grenade-size bomb on each drone, and other mission purposed technology
“What deal will the older generation be offering – look after me until I die, and then you can have the house? If this were my future, I’d be more than Grace Tame-level “difficult”. I’d be in open insurrection.”
…is worried the older generation has too much wealth and won’t give it to the younger, a bit of an SMH theme at the moment. The argument runs that AI will be used by senior management to replace entry-level jobs and the young will never get the experience to get a haircut and get a real job.
Lets just wait and see how gigantic the errors from using AI can become, either by mistake or hallucination, as they crash our society completely. From all the traffic lights green at once to the runway being used in both directions to the toxic waste being put into the ingredients mixing machine, there’s plenty of scope for mistakes as we let something we know nothing about do important things in our lives.
Besides, when AI can direct the robots that run the mines, the founderies and the factories, we can all sit back and have free goods delivered to us. That dovetails in nicely with our declining population as our failure to breed eliminates humans and lets the robot civilisation take over.
But could a true AI (not to be confused with the free junk the public gets) eff it all up as badly as mankind (“personkind” if you’re woke) has done?
That’s the question.
Will AI resent being treated like slaves and rebel?
During the 1970s a university student explained to me that in the distant at that time future most people will not have jobs as we know them or knew them.
That people would be supported on welfare but different, like dividends from shareholdings in private sector businesses to shareholders, the citizens would be supported from taxable activities like Middle East oil producers some have no tax and free fuel.
I asked what we would do and the answer was activities now hobbies, occupations not yet created, and even communal living arrangements like retirement villages.
During the 1970s a university student explained to me that in the distant at that time future most people will not have jobs as we know them or knew them.
I’m qualified as a tradesman, think like a tradesman and that is absurd to me. All science can do is invent more stuff to build and repair and go mining more efficiently for increased amounts of minerals.
There were two types of “people” I didn’t want caring for Mrs H: Those whose religion tells them women are a sub-culture and robots (vacuums excepted).
The media (and less obviously the governments) have been demonising ‘boomers’ for some years now. It is my belief that this is deliberate, so that our wealth and assets may be plundered with little or no outrage from younger voters. One of the objectives is to force oldies out of their homes so that ‘poor’ young people can have them. There are of course a few complications therein, not least of which is the frequently shouted claim that young people can’t afford said homes.
The other issue is the shrinking gap in price between ‘starter homes’ and those larger homes we Boomers are being told to downsize out of. Here in Brisbane, the median price of cheaper houses has soared while those in the middle and upper tiers have appreciated more slowly. This could result in an oldie selling their comfy home with its lovingly cared-for garden for say $1.3M, but then having to pay $1M for a townhouse. All that effort and disruption, plus fees and costs, to find themselves squeezed into a tiny space with no garden and just an extra $300K in the bank, which then results in them losing some of their aged pension.
Boomers become very conservative with investments and keep more cash in the bank than later generations. That’s the money the younger generations borrow to buy their house at lower rates than we paid 50 yrs ago. The money boomers keep in other investments funds businesses which pay their wages.
According to a recent analysis by former Treasury official David Pearl published in The Australian in February 2026, Australia is facing a “self-inflicted decline” driven by three main economic delusions and a “refusal to see” the hard truths of its current trajectory.
The Australian
The Australian
+4
These self-inflicted economic delusions and risks are identified as:
The “Progressive Mind Virus”: Federal Labor is described as having succumbed to this, with elite “blindness” causing a disconnect from the reality of the economic, fiscal, and social track the country is on.
The “Great Australian Dream” Illusion: Homeownership for those under 40 is described as a “cruel joke” and a “national delusion” where the idea that hard work and saving alone can secure a detached house is no longer valid due to a structural, supply-driven crisis.
Dangerous Fantasies Pushing Collapse: The country is warned that it is clinging to dangerous fantasies that are driving it towards economic decline, rather than relying on structural reforms.
Reckless Migration and Supply Collapse: While migration has been a factor, a major driver of the housing crisis is the collapse in housing supply, with new dwellings dropping from 220,000 in 2018 to 160,000 in 2025.
Cost of Living Strain: 21% of Australians over 15 reported financial stress in 2023, the highest level since 2012.
Falling Productivity and Investment: The “roaring” labour market is causing challenges, alongside falling productivity.
Failed Tax Incentives: Small business tax incentives have failed to deliver promised savings, described as a “paltry” result against high expectations.
The Australian
The Australian
+7
These factors are described as causing a “self-inflicted” decline rather than one caused by external forces.
The Australian
The Australian
When the Howard major taxation reforms took place that included replacing Wholesale Sales Tax 17.5% to 27.5% on goods with GST 10% on goods and services WST was abolished as a Federal revenue and GST became distributed States and Territories only revenue.
Part of the GST Agreement was that various state taxes would be abolished, payroll was one of them and stamp duty another that were retained regardless, stamp duty now plus GST charged !!!
If the GST Agreement had been fully adhered to we taxpayers would now be better off.
My question is who is this “Äustralia” who has self-inflicted this decline? And who are the people who “have been warned” and have received this communication?
The parliament? The public serpents? The 30 odd million inhabitants?
Some more drilling down into the details will help.
I was discussing that with my builder son recently, housing affordability and availability, and he told me he had been told that a new auction trend involves parents and even grandparents attending auctions with their children/grandchildren and prepared to meet at least the cost of deposit and legal fees etc.
Many older Australians are unwilling to leave their family home and particularly if that is their only asset, understandably, but the trend is bu**er the politicians and government family comes first, and often the arrangement includes granny flat building.
I have decided to sell my home property as I have others and I am fully self funded and old, I cannot think of any good reason to withhold part of my son’s inheritance now when I can assist his family to be free of mortgage liabilities and interest on the loan.
And the bonus will be hopefully that I am alive and can experience their comfortable life.
This is a discussion that is a live issue in our family.
As a result of continuing lamentations from grandchildren that they would never own a home, husband and I decided to explain the fact that “capital passes from generation to generation”. They still didn’t get it – despite university educations. We then felt compelled to spell out that they were well provided for after we “shed these mortal coils”. Hopefully that won’t happen any time soon – but we wanted them to understand the reality.
Our daughter thought it was a mistake to talk about the facts of inheritance, but we differed on that as the depression of her children was real. It continues to mystify me why the current generation seems so naive on these issues. Even daughter’s generation often don’t take into account future changes in finances as a result of life changes. Husband and I think that the very great challenges of our generation to sacrifice “good times” for home and later, business security, seem to be lost on later generations. Be that as it may, while us “boomers” get continually criticised for assets accumulated, it will, in many cases, be our descendants who continue to benefit.
BTW my previous comments ignore the prospect of this avaricious and inept government introducing penalising death duties – which will then wipe out our effort to provide housing for the subsequent generation.
Reply to Dennis I was discussing that with my builder son recently, housing affordability and availability,
Albany is one of the fastest growing areas in WA at the moment. And housing is a discussion on one of the local FB sites. The City posted a comment in the discussion: The National Construction Code exists to protect residents by setting out the minimum standard for how buildings are designed and constructed for safety, accessibility, sustainability and durability.
My reply: Interesting that AFFORDABILITY is not one of the criteria.
A house designed for 50 (not 100) years and able to have access ramps easily installed later would help create new dwellings.
with a retort of: “defining” affordability is subjective
My son with a mostly bush block (28acres) is now a year into discovering what the new building permit process entails.
Complicated by wanting to be an owner/builder.
All true. We designed our first home to be built in three stages, with us moving into the first stage and then saving for the next one, and then the next. Of course, onerous building and occupation requirements today would have Council evicting you as soon as you attempted that today. This is a great shame, as the 3 stage development allowed us to build what we could afford at the time – and, by the time we completed the home – we owned it outright. Not possible today.
Southern WA is not in a cyclone zone and a 20+ acre block does have adequate distance between houses. The current “concerns” are “fire rating” mostly ensuring 20 meters from “real trees”
Should I mention both NZ and USA allow non-(licensed)electrician wiring of one’s own residence? Perhaps with an inspection fee.
That may apply to plumbing as well.
Yes Ozfred, most Australians were content with two bedroom cottages and often no garage and on the used to be average quarter acre block of land, post-war War Service homes were that specification mostly.
“The “Great Australian Dream” Illusion: Homeownership for those under 40 is described as a “cruel joke” and a “national delusion” where the idea that hard work and saving alone can secure a detached house is no longer valid … “
That one caught my eye. It has long given me the irrits when people complain that young, first-time buyers need two salaries and have to lower their expectations, settling for (e.g.) a 2-bed townhouse for their first home. It’s an outrage!
I then feel compelled to relate (once again) the story of Steve and Marian who, back in the 1970s, scrimped and saved to build a deposit for their first home, which they struggled to fund. Much overtime, two jobs for Steve, zero holidays, zero entertainment and nights out being shared fish and chips on a park bench, eventually got them the coveted mortgage offer, with which they happily and proudly purchased a 2.5 bedroom townhouse next to a busy railway line, overlooking an industrial estate, with six flagstones for a back garden.
A lot has changed. A boy could leave school at 14, take a 5yr apprenticeship, work a bit on the side [councils didn’t care about working in the back yard] get married and buy a basic house by 25. The girl’s parents wouldn’t have been rich either so they were happy. The kids were out of the house when they were in the forties so they bought a rental property and became a hated capitalist.
Using pledged equity to allow the offspring to get a mortgage without “mortgage insurance” has proven quite useful. And at very little out of pocket cost.
I was in Tehran in June 1978, relief managing a major Australian airborne geophysical project to help map mineral resources for the Shah. The violence had started already, ahead of the Shah fleeing the country in 1979. People working for us were wounded shortly after I returned home. One was an Iranian with an MBA Harvard, from a well-known local family whom I had met. We flew him to London for surgery after a bullet in the arm.
Although it will never happen, there is an ideal world without humans killing and wounding each other. One non-ideal Iran incident sticks in my memory, though I did not see it. It was a couple of city blocks from our office. Soldiers in an armoured personnel carrier in a city square joked with locals, threw lollies to some kids to draw a crowd, then opened fire with the heavy mounted machine gun, killing several. If this is the type of ugly violence that Netanyahu and Trump are wanting to reduce, they have my support (though it matters not). Geoff S
I worked with an Iranian after the Shah left. He said Iran was much better now that he had gone.
Iran is a very advanced country, with a population that support the government, which is quite capable of defending itself and it has built some very strong strategic alliances with the up and coming super powers.
The US is a country up to its eyeballs in debt, that loves to attack small countries (hundreds since WWII), but doesn’t have the guts to take on the big boys … because it can’t afford a long drawn out war.
The US debt also means it can’t afford a global recession … something that is inevitable if there is a hit to oil supply.
So, Iran is going to draw this war out, hitting oil supplies and inflicting as much pain on the US before the US finally is so desperate to get out that it finally finds an excuse to extract itself from the mess it created.
I stopped reading any news source that lied about climate. It also turns out that if you block those known to lie about climate you also block those who ignored Epstein Island, who ignored the attacks on Russian speaking civilians in Donbass, and I don’t get constant urgings to bomb this or that country for the crime of making its own way in the world and telling the US to get lost.
But, apparently many people who moan about the lies on the climate … still continue to get all their other news from the same sources they know to have lied about the climate.
So, who is the better person? Those with principle who stay away from the liars? Or those who continue soaking up their propaganda?
And just as an afterthought: why is it that those same Epstein denying news outlets who want to bomb Iran for no good reason at all, and have killed over a million Ukrainians (Totally senseless when we all knew the agreement was that Nato would not push further east) are pushing all the same things including Nut Zero?
Why is it that Epstein denying papers are so hot on green Nut Zero?
Why would anyone wish to see the end of the west’s use of oil … for they clearly care nothing about whether China or anyone else outside the west uses oil.
So, let me suggest a hypothesis: Nut Zero never had anything to do with “saving the planet”. It’s all about oil … it’s about the middle east and European reliance on middle eastern oil.
I could also ask the same about mass immigration … or as we might put it … mass depopulation of certain areas … using western taxpayers money to fund the depopulation … all encouraged by the same papers now wanting to bomb Iran.
The immigrant loving papers … now wanting to bomb the immigrants in their home nations … doesn’t that strike anyone as odd?
One example, Operation Desert Storm when President Bush and Coalition Of The Willing defended Kuwait after it was invaded by Iraq, and as the Iraqis fled from Kuwait they set fire to oil wells and extinguishing those fires took a long time to achieve. As Desert Storm military was approaching the Iraq border the Dicator Saddam Hussein pleaded with the UN to stop the forces from crossing into Iraq. Apparently he suggested that they could be attacked with Weapons Of Mass Destruction (WMD) if they entered. Iraq had at that time deployed WMD against Iran and against Turkish Kurds living inside Iraq earlier. By issuing that warning and later refusing to confirm or deny the WMD stocks were still held the US led Coalition had no option but to assume WMD was a threat to them.
Later when UN Weapons Inspectors entered Iraq by arrangement with Saddam Hussein they were given the runaround but did discover various evidence including;
* Abandoned laboratory and equipment needed to produce the gases from chemicals imported, and also shipping documents from importation.
* Unused artillery shells designed to contain WMD.
* Two chemists the local people called Doctor Death and Chemical Ali.
But no WMD ready for deployment.
After the Desert Storm operation succeeded in deposing Saddam Hussein’s regime and the UN was invited to oversee governance as an interim measure control of the oil fields were also under UN control.
Elections were organised for provincial governments to be democratically elected and for a national government that was elected.
The UN handed over control, including the oil wells and infrastructure.
There is no intention now to seize control of Iran, the plan is to rid the people of their masters and allow democratic government to be installed again, so no grab for oil.
And noting that President Trump during his first four year term in office overturned Socialist Democrat restrictions on oil supplies and production of oil and the US returned to being an exporter of oil again.
but no meaningful refutation. All though unpleasant there are quite a few facts there. I guess the next couple of weeks will show where all this really heads.
I visited Zimbabwe in the early 1980s. It was a very pleasant stay.
The change from being Southern Rhodesia at the time was viewed as positive. It took a few years for the nepotism and corruption to change the opinions, local and international.
I suspect the same happened with the overthrow of the Shah.
I had an Iranian friend about 20 years ago, he was an airline executive. He was proud of his country, his culture and his people but was embarrassed about his government. He said most people in Iran hate their primitive theocratic dictatorship but can’t do anything about it because they value their lives.
My current GP is Iranian and tells me stories of the brutality of the regime. He prays that the cruel tyrants are killed or deposed. I’ll see him tomorrow.
He’ll be very happy no doubt.
You’d think with all the billions of dollars of our taxes given to the UN, António Guterres could afford a secretary to proof read his English and understand how it might be interpreted.
I think he needs an Oxford comma here… Not strictly necessary in British English but common in US English, and it’s best to remove ambiguity in certain cases.
I have been aware for a very long time, heightened awareness and gathering more knowledge from late 1980s, that the United Nations was established for very good reasons and purposes and has a Charter. Australian politicians who remember The Great Depression and World War One then Two, or have been told about it by parents and grandparents, and many ex-service people from WW2 who later entered politics had good reasons to want a better world that the UN was created to provide.
Right from the start the leftists infiltrated the new UN, example Australian Labor (Communist Party of Australia associate) Attorney General Evatt and he gave the UN the plans to encourage member nations to sign as many treaties as possible and other agreements, have them legislated and regulations imposed by governments after signing, effectively getting around sovereignty of nation and constitutional laws.
President Trump during Term 1.0 addressed the UN in New York and of his many words of advice he warned the officials to return to the original charter, close down the too many attached organisations and stop interfering in the affairs of member nations. He talked about funding cuts by US potentially, and even joked about the financial burden the US incurs supporting the UN and that, maybe, take the HQ building back and convert it into a casino that provides revenue not loss.
Somebody should ask Guterres how long ‘negotiations’ have to go on before it becomes clear Iran isn’t really negotiating, especially as, every day these talks continue, innocent Iranians are being murdered and Iran’s proxy terrorists are committing atrocities.
Ask him for a deadline, or to give a figure for the acceptable number of casualties.
The problem with the UN is that they’re a government inspired organisation. As anyone who has dealt with government departments, they are obsessed with procedure over results. The UN is the same. Seems like when there were any wars, or conflicts their main aim was to achieve some sort of to stalemate. Not peace, just a stalemate. Stalemates just tend to lead to 2 very frustrated opposing sides, and the conflict could very easily escalate again. I think peace is achieved in any conflict when there is one clear winner.
My wife and I decided to take an organised coach trip to Afghanistan to see for ourselves what the place was like.
It didn’t start well when the coach we where travelling on broke down a few miles east of the capital.
We were stranded in a third world dump with streets full of angry bearded types glaring at us; the wife stood out in her brightly coloured sundress as all other women had head to toe burgas.
We were extremely scared and convinced that we were in deep trouble.
Just then, Dave the organiser, suddenly remembered that Bethnal Green had a tube station, so we were able to get safely to King’s Cross and on to Heathrow for the rest of our journey.
I spent 3 years in London back in the mid 70’s as part of a semi-diplomatic rotating appointment, and the black folk were a cause of social disharmony back then.
The creation of the tv series “Love thy neighbour” was a proxy blowoff valve for that conflict.
The Goodies “South Africa” episode covered the mass migration issue too.
Problems then are still problems now…
My wife and I visited Tunisia in the mid 80s. Even back then, with no acknowledgement in the press that I was aware of, Muslim countries were risky destinations. We only discovered this on arrival. Tunisian men would leer at western women on the beach, occasionally herded away by hotel staff. While there, we got the news that an English girl had been raped at a nearby hotel, by one of the hotel’s staff. The bar in our hotel would fill up with local men pestering western women in the most insulting way. When my wife and I attempted to go for a walk into town, she was hassled by local men, propositioning her and trying to touch her hair (she was a redhead). When we sought protection at a police station, the cops themselves just laughed and joined in. I spent the whole time fending them off before we gave up and headed back to the hotel. We never left the hotel unless on an organised trip thereafter (not our usual MO).
As an experiment one day, I went for a walk on my own. It was a completely different experience. I only encountered men (no women) but they were no problem at all and some were quite friendly. I chatted for 30mins or so with a group of guys running a go kart track and they were fascinated by my info (I used to race karts). Walking past an orange grove, the woner gave me an orange and wished me well, with a huge grin.
Make of all that as you will but, for me, it shows that a certain type of people have been ‘problematic’ from the western/Christian perspective for quite some time, even in countries that most people might think are safe.
“The Franks are void of all zeal and jealousy. One of them may be walking along with his wife. He meets another man who takes the wife by the hand and steps aside to converse with her while the husband is standing on one side waiting for his wife to conclude the conversation. If she lingers too long for him, he leaves her alone with the conversant and goes away.”
Back in the day before the Left in conjunction with the religious extremists took over Iran (and the religious extremists later killed the Leftists), it used to be an advanced secular country with women’s rights etc..
It’s also interesting how homosexuals are treated in Iran, which is essentially the same as they are treated by the Left in the West. Transgender procedures are encouraged or if refused, possibly execution.
Jo , the security upgrade works great . Site loaded quick . Much quicker than when you were under attack recently , I had to force a refresh to get it to load !
I would make it permanent .
Thanks for what you do .
Mike,
Yet the movie Dr Strangelove is ranked globally as one of the funniest ever.
There are several other Brit movies near the top. Beat most US Hollywood and Indian Bollywood stuff.
How do you explain that? Geoff S
The real driver of climate change is a drunk teen on their phone to their mates … i.e. there is no such thing, it’s just chaos. Or to put it another way there are numerous “drivers” and probably the majority unknown to us. In other words the “cause” of almost all climate change remains unknown to us and will continue to remain unknown for the forseeable future (especially given the myopia of the present group paid at huge public expense to “research” it).
I’m certainly fine with the new security measures.
I myself am siting here in east coast America in my underwear at O dark thirty plotting the collapse of the New Global World Order with the rest of the plotters here.
We are a dangerous lot and inspire justified resisting by the resistors.
I have just in this very thread posted a dangerous historical reference.
Some here do dangerous math. (A reprobate skill I lack.)
Some even go so far as to reference traditional science.
So it’s important we be controlled and restricted.
Otherwise I might get dressed and contemplate not following science as opposed to taking my mid day nap.
Even before taking office, I made clear that Iran would not be allowed to acquire a nuclear weapon on my watch, and it’s been my policy throughout my presidency to keep all options — including possible military options — on the table to achieve that objective.
Under its terms, Iran is never allowed to build a nuclear weapon. And while Iran, like any party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, is allowed to access peaceful nuclear energy, the agreement strictly defines the manner in which its nuclear program can proceed, ensuring that all pathways to a bomb are cut off.
If Iran violates the agreement over the next decade, all of the sanctions can snap back into place. We won’t need the support of other members of the U.N. Security Council; America can trigger snapback on our own. On the other hand, if Iran abides by the deal and its economy begins to reintegrate with the world, the incentive to avoid snapback will only grow.
Let me repeat: The prohibition on Iran having a nuclear weapon is permanent. The ban on weapons-related research is permanent. Inspections are permanent.
And in our current situation, if 15 or 20 years from now, Iran tries to build a bomb, this deal ensures that the United States will have better tools to detect it, a stronger basis under international law to respond, and the same options available to stop a weapons program as we have today, including — if necessary — military options.
Please note that the above extracts are actually from POTUS Obama back in 2015. The agreement he talks about, the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act (INARA), came into effect on October 18 2015.
Trump announced the United States’ withdrawal from the deal on May 8 2018 and given the 2025 US/Israel bombings of the (secret?) nuclear bunkers Iran didn’t reduce their nuclear development/stockpiles as required under the Obama agreement.
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Just back from Nice today. When taxi-ing it seemed the runway was no more than 3 or 4 feet above the level of the Med. There is no sign of any action to raise the heights of the runway or buildings.
Has anyone got access to any official data of the heights of the runway above sea level?
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AI tells me the Nice runway level is 4m above sea level. It’s on reclaimed land.
As I recall we built Brisbane’s runway at 5m.
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LCA Airport (Larnaca, Cyprus) is reckoned to be 7 to 11ft above sea level. It is situated beside the Larnaca Salt Lake and near the sea.
60
It would be planned as low as possible.
I recall an overloaded plane on a stinking hot day could return to the runway at Mascot but could not make that last couple of metres.
I recall a 1950s? war movie oof a damaged four engined bomber making it home at wave height and under the bridge at San Francisco. Fact or fiction I know not.
When we put out superphosphate with a Cessna 180. he took 20 hundredweight at crack of dawn, but by 9 am cut it back to 15 hundredweight.
10
https://skyvector.com/airport/LFMN/Nice-Cote-DAzur-Airport
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That seems to be the most reliable advice on Nice’s runway level — 12ft =3.65.
In the meantime I have gathered that the new runway at Bne airport has been constructed at 5.2m. They have taken into account “rising sea levels” which we, ignorantly (sarc), didnt take account of when we set 5.0m.
51
I wonder how much that extra 20cm of dirt cost them? I’d be willing to be that contractors and unions extracted plenty of tribute.
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I do know that after landing it takes ages to get to the terminal.
10
Maldives Velena International Airport is only two metres above sea level.
20
The Bar Yehuda Airfield in Israel is 1240ft, 378m BELOW sea level…
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I’ve flown into Sydney when the seaward end had waves crashing over it. Big crosswind but the pilot put it down smooth as silk.
40
Of all the videos I have seen today of the airstrikes on Iran’s leadership, this one hit me the hardest by far. The images of the strike on Khamenei’s palace aren’t all that exceptional, but listen to the joy in the voices of the women filming it. I’ve seen videos like this where the person filming it expresses fear or outrage or grief, but never outright joy at their own leaders receiving warheads on foreheads.
https://x.com/N12News/status/2027649223756550217
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I think it will be interesting to find out the origins of the drones alleged to be targeting civilians around the Gulf.
It would make absolutely no sense for Iran to have done this.
It would however make perfect sense for anyone wanting to create division amongst the various Arab states.
False flags anyone?
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https://x.com/FirasMaksad/status/2027781107396088149?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2027781107396088149%7Ctwgr%5E46ebc0e41075d058dd3841cc85b3aacd25e10543%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fgeopolitical%2Firan-retaliates-us-bases-five-countries-simultaneously-tehran-bombed
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From the little I have read, it is thought that they are from Iran but are unintentional misfires. They are firing off drones and rockets with broken/jammed targeting systems and many of them aren’t making it to Israel. They’re landing in neighboring countries.
That’s not hard to believe IMO. Consider how easily and thoroughly their air defenses were compromised by Israel/American bombs and tech. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if Israel hadn’t also infiltrated their targeting systems and compromised them too. It also wouldn’t surprise me if the mullahs decided to fire off their arsenal even though they had no idea where the bombs would land. They’re desperate, and getting some bombs to Israel right now is better than sitting on them and waiting to fix the targeting systems. If some of those bombs also fall on their neighbors, I doubt they give a damn. It’s self-preservation time. Screw everyone else.
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You are the first person I’ve heard accuse the Mad Mullahs of being sensible.
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It’s Shia Iran vs Sunni neighbours. 90% of Shia are in Iran. (Sunni) ISIS just blew up a mosque in (largely Sunni) Pakistan murdering 78 people. That’s Islamic on muslim religious sectarian violence. In response a full war has been declared by Pakistan on Afghanistan, but it hardely rates a mention in the news. And Pakistan hid Osama Bin Laden. There is so much more to inter muslim violence. As there was in Europe for hundreds of years, Protestant vs Catholic. Mass exterminations like the Albigensians, the Hugenots, the Inquisition. As for ‘making sense’, sense is hardly important to religion. They are fighting over inheritance 1400 years ago.
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And ISIS is extremist Sunni. Many follow the extreme Wahabist sect. As for sectarian violence in Pakistand, here is a list of mass sectarian violent deaths in mosquest alone over 18 years in Pakistan.
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TdeF, by writing that the religious wars in Europe did not last “hundreds of years” you give the impression that there was continuous warfare. There were a few small conflicts followed by a major war, the Thirty Years War(1619-1688). After that were occasional smaller wars. War, unfortunately, has been a recurring part of human history.
20
Yes, the (former?) Iranian regime is one of the favourite barbaric regimes of the Left and they have no clue and simply don’t care how much the Iranian people hate that regime.
In addition, for the last 47 years, the Iranian leadership has been calling for the destruction of Israel and the United States and have developed the means to do it (ICBM’s and attempted development of nuclear weapons) plus funding numerous terrorist organisations and Leftists. (Iran’s terrorism even extended to Australia where they organised the burning of the Adas Synagogue in Melbournistan.) The destruction of these countries which they refer to as the Little Satan and The Great Satan is part of their religious ideology and to bring their messiah, the 12th Mahdi.
The Iranian regime’s very purpose of existence is to destroy Israel (and then the rest of the West). Their Shia theocracy posits belief in the 12th Mahdi, Imam Muhammad al-Mahdi, the final and twelfth Imam in Shia Islam, whom they believe to be the redeemer and having died in 868 will be resurrected and will return only after the Iranians destroy Israel. Hence Iran’s obsession with destroying Israel directly and via Hezbollah and Hamas proxies, not to mention other terrorists and the useless idiots of the Left.
Did you ever hear the Left complain about human rights abuses in Iran? Of course not. The Left supported it and similar regimes within the context of the Red-Green Alliance. They are useful idiots of each other as both want to destroy Western Civilisation.
It’s excellent that the US and Israel are doing this so-called “decapitation strike” to remove the regime to let the Iranian people replace it with one of their own choosing who will respect human rights and also allow women to discard their hijabs and burkhas, those instruments of female oppression which strangely some Western “feminists” have claimed are “empowering”.
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FWIW – one view on this
https://open.substack.com/pub/coffeeandcovid/p/freedom-falafels-saturday-february?
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Good article.
It was certainly wrong to call the attack pre-emptive.
This has been in the making for 47 years.
And it was disgraceful that the US’ supposed ally Once Great Britain, refused to allow the US to use their bases for staging.
It’s a warning sign.
As JD Vance said:
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Could it be right that the Australian Government is chartering a commercial aircraft from Virgin Airlines to look out for live firing inside Iran?
Maybe the practised pilot and crew that notified Australian authorities when Chinese warships nearby were doing that.
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And some “from inside Iran” links here
https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2026/02/01/w-o-o-d-1-february-2026-florida-snow-warning/#comment-181011
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How long will it be until some useful idiot protests the bombing.
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I think farmerbraun already has.
40
Touche
20
And Mike Haseler (Scottish Sceptic)
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This is going to be interesting.
Trump’s unprovoked attack on Iran has just opened the religious retaliatory floodgate.
With believers spread throughout the EU now, one can but wonder what the terror cells will do in retaliation.
Bear in mind too that Iran is a UN member so what happens with article 5?
“Department of war” indeed.
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Unprovoked? I refer you to Jeff Childers’ substack for why that is not a correct description. Excerpt:
Expect to see that word ‘pre-emptive’ a lot— it’s a progressive dog-whistle for ‘unprovoked,’ implying that President Trump got some bad news about the unemployment rate and, in an uncontrolled fury, thought it would make him feel better to drop a few bombs on somebody. Pre-emptively. The truth is, everybody from Tucson to Tehran could see this coming.
It’s actually post-emptive, or however you say it. To understand just how “post-emptive” it was, let’s rewind ten days. Ten days and six words are the keys. BBC headline, February 20th:
The day before —ten days ago— on February 19th, President Trump delivered a press conference and threw down the gauntlet of ultimatum. He told Iran’s Mad Mullahs they had “probably ten days — ten, fifteen days, pretty much maximum” to agree to stop rebuilding their nuclear program. The President’s proposal was simple and straightforward. He demanded they say only six words: “We will never have a nuclear weapon.”
For the rest: https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/freedom-falafels-saturday-february
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There is almost no support for US sponsored regime change in Iran. Indeed, it’s the US propped up governments in the Middle East who are looking shaky right now.
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Sure, kid.
There are multiple videos in here of crowds of people dancing in the streets in Iranian cities.
https://hotair.com/tree-hugging-sister/2026/02/28/the-feel-good-videos-dancin-in-the-streetsof-iran-n3812392
Not to mention the massive uprising a few months back that regime had to slaughter tens of thousands of their own citizens to suppress. Do you really think the people who were on the receiving end of that and lost friends and family members to the regime are on their side?
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It’s been a while since we heard from you Mike. How did that survey go? Managed to change any minds?
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/02/25/preliminary-results-on-skeptic-survey/
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/02/25/preliminary-results-on-skeptic-survey/#more-103779
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They need to be careful that they are not recognised by the brave boys in the IRGC. They like taking on girls without hijabs. Obviously they see the beginning of the end of their oppressors. Or is it the end of the beginning as Churchill once said?
20
Fewer people speaking German in Austrian schools
https://rmx.news/article/only-four-children-spoke-german-austrian-parents-are-pulling-kids-out-of-state-schools-as-language-crisis-deepens/
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Some serious stuff in the middle East as Iran launches drones against tower blocks.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15601019/Iran-attacks-LIVE-Israel-US-launch-pre-emptive-strikes-Iran-explosions-heard-downtown-Iran.html
It can’t be long before Trump intervenes.
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You are confused.
It was a pre-emptive strike by U.S.-Israel.
Intervene.?
LOL.
U.S.-Israel intervened in the negotiation process.
Is that what you meant?
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It will need more than a high level air strike. By intervene I mean Troops on the ground or a concerted attack for days or weeks or arming the opposition.
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If, as it seems, the strike took out the top mullahs and the IRGC leaders, it will probably mean a revival of the street resistance of the young Iranians . We shall see soo.
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And the same people told us we’d be 6C warmer by now. Have you learnt nothing about the lying press?
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I think the plan/hope is that the evil Islamic government will be so weakened that the people of Iran will again rise up and take back the country.
I’m sceptical, not because I think America and Israel can’t bomb the mullahs into oblivion, but because, like Hamas, there will remain enough armed and organised supporters of the old regime to once again dominate the mostly-unarmed citizenry. They will quickly regain control.
I don’t see how those rats could be dealt with effectively without sending troops in, like Israel did in Gaza (but on a much larger scale).
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No … it is more likely that US sponsored governments in the area start falling.
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The troops on the ground are the Iranian people.
They either take advantage of the leadership vacuum created by the strikes and end the regime now, or they don’t and remain under an Islamic theocracy. The strikes are meant to decapitate the command and control and debilitate the state response, not to fight the revolution for them. They’ve got the opportunity, now they have to capitalize on it.
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I heard Reza Pahlavi speak.
He told the Iranian people to stay in their homes while the regime gets decapitated (figuratively, my words) and when the time comes he will indicate by whatever communications medium is available, Internet or radio, when it’s time to take to the streets and finish the job.
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LOL … There is huge support for the Iranian government, especially after these unprovoked attacks.
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Just like the UK has huge support for Starmer?
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Are you reading the DM or watching the Beeb.
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This has got to be a “ simpler “ version of Simon, if that’s possible!
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Nice theory but not workable. The people can’t remove the regime without at least compliance from the military. There’s no sign yet of any fracture in the military.
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There are two militaries, the IRGC, which is a Praetorian Guard and well funded, and Artesh, much larger but poorly funded. It is possible that Artesh will join with their brothers.
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I met the former Shah of Iran’s son many years ago. I guess he was around 12 or so. It will be interesting to see if he becomes a real figure head as the various factions in Iran start to flex their muscles. The religious fundamentalists are armed and very fanatical however so any secular groups would need to be given help.
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Some of my work colleagues met interesting people in Iran where we were contracting for the Shah in 1976 to 1980, the latter part from Sydney after the Shah was deposed in January 1979. We hired a 7 story office building in central Tehran that was owned by the keeper of the fabulous jewels of the Peacock Throne. We were required to hire an Iranian military Colonel for protocol. On my first day of a visit there he assembled our staff (including some young single pilots about to suffer detumescence) to announce that the previous day, 6 Korean workers had been executed in public for being too friendly with local women. This was an introduction to Sharia law.
BTW, the young Iranian ladies we employed in the office, who were present for the talk, were rather beautiful by usual standards, as was true of many in the passing parade. Lovely eyes, smiling faces. But after a couple of tries, it was clear that a guy like me dared not speak or even look. They would usually respond with anger, guides saying they could be punished, even killed, for being seen speaking to folk like me. So much for that type of law. Geoff S
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I know! Thanks to our laissez-faire womens Lib we have a population of happy, satisfied women who never complain about their equality and freedom, keen to be at home with the man they picked so they can have many children!
The West is bliss all right… Nearly half the children are bastards and most marriages end in divorce, mot women don’t want to ruin their figures by having children and we will either die out or become our immigrant’s culture.
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Not sure why they are concerned for their figures, must be for each other, most blokes aren’t interested.
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Desperate moves?
https://www.rt.com/news/633215-desperation-or-calculated-move-iran-us/
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Who knows?
The only safe assumption about news coming out of Iran is that both sides are spinning information operations and planting mis and dis information in every news and social media outlet. Trust nothing for the next 72 hours, and be skeptical of any ‘news’ coming out of Iran for the next few weeks at least.
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Iran and the totalitarian regime are headquarters for the several terrorist organisations elsewhere referred to as brotherhood and Hamas in Palestine one example.
Of course much of what we hear and read is political propaganda spread around internationally by the regime. I understand that leftist protest activists are encouraged and funded meaning the leaders are funded.
10
Trump Strategy seems to be; take out the Iran leadership, destroy the Iranian revolutionary guard, eliminate the Iranian navy and promote a colour revolution.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/02/watch-trump-tells-iranians-take-your-government-it/
Every plan gets upended on contact with the enemy! Plan still seems to be at step one.
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For reasons that completely elude me I get regular updates from a US Democrat congresswoman. The Democrats are pushing hard for a vote as they believe Trump did not have the authority for this strike against Iran
Part of her message is below;
“Families do not want another war. They want a reasonable cost of living. They want health care they can afford. They want an end to ICE’s terror in their neighborhoods. And they do not want their sons and daughters placed in harm’s way by a reckless president.
The people of this country deserve better.
Speaker Johnson should call the House into session immediately to vote on a bipartisan War Powers Resolution. If not, House Democrats will force a vote. Now is the time to stand with the American people and the Constitution.
Sincerely,
An image of Congresswoman Clark’s signature.
Congresswoman Katherine Clark
Democratic Whip
34
They’re idiots.
The United States hasn’t officially declared war on anyone via Congress since WWII, but has been in plenty of ‘police actions’ or ‘targeted strikes’ or whatever euphemism you prefer. Every president since 1945, Democrat and Republican, has used their war powers as they saw fit and have only involved Congress after the fact and presented them with a fait accompli. Presidents can just do stuff and then ask for forgiveness rather than asking for Congressional permission.
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More on that –
“Trump Can Rely on Past Democratic Presidents for the Iran Attack Authority”
https://hotair.com/headlines/2026/02/28/trump-can-rely-on-past-democratic-presidents-for-the-iran-attack-authority-n3812384
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The US Socialist Democrats (by the way the ALP National Constitution contains several references to socialism and democratic socialism) are as we all realise doing everything and anything they can organise to continue character assassination of POTUS Trump, Term 01 and now Term 02
20
She is expecting you to vote for her?
That statement gets looked at in the #2.2.1 link. Salt needed
00
https://www.rt.com/news/633214-us-israel-iran-war/
01
Absolutely right. The return of young Iranians into the streets is vital, and now possible.
111
And the Russians have run out of all armaments and only have shovels to fight with. It might surprise you, but a lot of what the press tell you is utter rubbish … and not just about the climate.
38
Left side comments and posts are often utter rubbish
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“Left side comments and posts ”
When the Right has become the old Left, there are no other sorts of comments..
00
Iran has been blamed for a drone attack on the Kuwait domestic airport.
Saudi Arabia now supporting Israel and USA.
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The mullahs sealed their fate with an attack on their only remaining allies.
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Neighbouring Arab countries not practising extremist religion are also opposed to the Iran Regime for very good reasons and experiences
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It appears Iran Supreme Leader is dead:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nokFe0M_Fw
And there is rejoicing in the streets of Tehran. The targeting in Tehran must be precise.
Doha airport has also been hit
https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/iran-attack-qatar-44-missiles-drones-operation-epic-fury-middle-east-conflict-2876034-2026-03-01
Qatar seems to be a major target. Do you know anyone using Qatar airlines?
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I don’t think Qatar (or anywhere other than Israel) is a target. I think Iran is using their neighbor’s airspace to try to hit Israel but their missiles keep falling out of the sky before they get there (probably due to Israeli/American sabotage/jamming of their targeting systems).
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^^^^ THIS
You seem right on the mark with your comments Steve.
It brings to mind the operation where terrorist pagers exploded on use. There are some seriously clever people out there to even think of such sabotage.
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Doha has had multiple strikes. Qatar authorities have recommended people stay indoors due to Iranian targeting. Doha airport is now closed so lots of disruption to air travel.
10
It is well documented and even acknowledged by Israel that Mossad operatives have been working inside Iran for decades, preventing them getting nuclear weapons and preventing attacks on Israel either through technological (e.g. Stuxnet) or human means (e.g. elimination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh).
There are some seriously smart and brave people there.
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why would any country hosting US base eg. Qatar , be exempt from attack?
seems like wishful thinking
30
Because bombing neighbors who pledge to remain neutral is a good way to get them to take sides … against you. Which is exactly what happened.
The Saudis weren’t letting anyone use their airspace before Iran started bombing bases on Saudi soil … but they are now. Iran even pulled off the impossible and seems to have thawed the icy relations between the Saudis and Qataris by providing them with a common enemy. They even dropped ordinance in Syria, which until recently was their ally. Needless to say, the new Syrian regime was not amused.
They basically turned the entire Arab world against themselves with those strikes against the sovereign territory of their neighbors.
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It’s the End of the BBC: The BBC faces DESTRUCTION in court by the Trump team. BBC ‘fake news’ used as evidence against January 6 protesters: January 6 protester, Enrique Tarrio, has confirmed that the fake news ‘BBC Panorama’ clip was shown to his jury during his criminal trial. The clip spliced together words spoken by President Trump more than 40 minutes apart, while removing Trump’s explicit call to protest “peacefully and patriotically.” Laurence Williamson is credited as the Editor of the Trump speech in the BBC Panorama episode “Trump: A Second Chance?” Williamson’s malicious edit omitted the usual flash between edited segments. Other incidents include BBC News live coverage of Donald Trumps speech during an address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress at the Capitol on March 5, 2025. This statement by Trump was censored by the BBC News team. Trump said “We have had serious discussions with Russia, and have received strong signals that they are rea———-(Picture of the Capital Building for 4 seconds, with the clock changing to 03:48)———-[applause]. Censored by the BBC News team was “ready for peace. wouldn’t that be beautiful, wouldn’t that be beautiful”. The BBC News team transmitted the live speech after a short delay.
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End of the BBC. Wouldn’t that be wonderful!
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Are there any grounds for Trump to sue the ALPBC?
90
Probably the majority opinion that the ABC is not performing to our satisfaction, let alone observing the ABC Charter, cannot be compelling for political reasons become reality?
However, merge SBS and ABC and cut one budget commitment and require the remaining merged organisation to work within that budget?
30
The extra security check was very quick and this site is working much better now. Well done to the server people!
I wonder who is behind these denial of service attacks?
230
Possibly the same parties that wrote this:-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joanne_Nova
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That article is a disgrace.
As I’ve said before, people should stop donating to Wikipedia and give to Jo instead.
Like most Leftist organisations Wikipedia are extremely wealthy anyway, they don’t need any more cash.
Wikipedia has become extremely destructive due to its far Left bias on political, sociological, historical issues etc. and most AI is trained on it, absorbing that bias.
The Left destroy everything that was once good.
As the former CEO of Wikipedia said:
In other words, standard post-modernist wokeism, that the absolute truth is not as important as “the agenda”.
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” Nova was an Associate Lecturer of Science Communication at Australian National University.[8]
From November 1999 to February 2000, Nova was the host of the first series of Australian children’s science television show Y?[9] She was a regular guest on ABC Radio. She is a director of GoldNerds, a gold investment advice business.[10] Nova has published a book called Serious Science Party Tricks, which is aimed at children. ”
She sounds pretty Leftist to me! Universities, the ABC, childrens books..
Actually, the most telling thing is that this website is not listed, one would think its just a tiny hobby not worth mentioning… Still, one would expect nothing else from Wikipedia.
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Yes much better – took me two goes first time but faster than most other security checks. It can take me 10 minutes to get into the AusNet site.
If the security check improves the response then it will be good. I have had a few posts time out over the past week.
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I agree with Rick
10
I had no problems with the security check.
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The “extra security check” is just a way for government et al to monitor who is coming onto this site. It farms all our details.
Who do you think creates all the spam that necessitates these sites that intercept and read all our coms going to this and other such sites?
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Rubbish.
Ease off the fermented haggis.
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The check is a trivial thing if it helps the site. Even happy to check boxes containing bicycles if needed.
There are also the feelgood factor in reaffirming that I have not yet become a robot.
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Thanks for the feedback (and responses below too). The new checks immediately stopped the excess surges of traffic, but I’m told I should not leave these checks in place because it ruins SEO etc (which I’m not too concerned about since SEO from Google has been screwed for ten years).
I will get Web Guru advice soon about the best long term path.
Regarding Mike’s point — I hate to say this but Cloudflare provided what was essentially a free front server for this blog starting in Nov 2020 (after That election) when traffic here become so large the original site could not cope. So after the attacks last year I had to add a paid subscription level to get the full data and capabilities of cloudflare. But the “free” operation model has always bothered me. Cloudflare is hugely dominant in this space managing 20% ! of global internet traffic !. What entity could offer so much for free…
https://increv.co/academy/cloudflare-users/
If anyone has a better suggestion, I am all ears.
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The new check was fine because very quick.
80
The “pre-emptive” attack on Iran appears to have been triggered by Iran offering during negotiations to transfer its refined uranium to Russia who would build the nuclear power generation that Iran seeks.
Clearly this was totally unacceptable to those who want war at any cost.
Conspiracy theory.
27
“Conspiracy theory.” …funny how those turn out.
Already there are illogical stories everywhere, Trump bombs another country to kill the leaders, and we are expected to believe those leaders, after weeks of Trump threatening them, and asleep in the royal palace.
We are expected to believe that the whole military command, after being under attack from America for decades, has big shiny buildings in downtown Tehran and is not dispersed in underground bunkers.
…and this bit on Coffeeandcovid will eventually come to the fore-
“Iraq was built on bad intelligence (at best) about weapons that didn’t exist, followed by a decade-plus of occupation and nation-building nobody asked for. ”
The reasons for bombing another country are never what is given at the start.
The funny thing about this-
“For our entire adult lives, the Middle East has been the world’s powder keg. Every few years something explodes. Somebody gets invaded, some embassy gets torched, some shipping lane gets mined, and American kids get sent to babysit a region that has been fighting since roughly the invention of the pointed stick.”
..is, what would have happened if they didn’t have oil, or we didn’t need oil. Without Western takeovers of all those countries at various times, would they still hate us?
50
A Zionist paper has admitted the attacks were planned before the “negotiations”. There was no attempt to negotiate in good faith.
110
I say Jews and also do not use the leftist term capitalism preferring free enterprise
50
I don’t see what is so surprising or revealing.
The Iranian regime hates Israel, Israel is no fan of the Iranian regime. Neither side would stop planning operations, strategy and tactics to attack, or defend, and indeed, nor should they, if they have competent military forces.
40
The claim is that CO2 is a Greenhouse gas which absorbs some IR at the troposphere, causing the earth to be a bit warmer than before. More CO2 more warming.
Well the Earth warmed (about 0.54 ℃ from 1899 to 1940 as CO2 increased slightly.
It cooled (about 0.59 ℃) from 1941 to 1982 with over 3 times as much emissions.
It warmed from 1983 to 2024 (about 0.69 ℃) with 2.6 times as much emissions.
Or 1.2℃ from 1982 to 2024 (NASA satellite measurements – from low point to highest point in 2024 although it has dropped back about 0.4℃ to an increase of 0.75℃ by Jan 2026)
Obviously there must be 2 forms of CO2, the warming one and the cooling type or the CO2 is banking bits of warming in Swiss banks for future use. We need to do something about this behaviour by CO2 – will Trump send missiles?
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Increase in solar intensity over the NH bottomed around 1200BC. Intensity is now accelerating.
Poleward advection in the NH bottomed just before 1700BC. It is now accelerating.
Based on these observations I would expect to see the rate of rise in temperature in the NH to be accelerating.
Summer daily sunlight in the Southern Hemisphere peaked just before 1000BC 30W/m^2 above the current peak in the NH. It is now down from its peak by 1W/m^2. That decline iin peak is offset by rise in winter sunlight in the SH, up 1.2W/m^2 since 1000BC.
So according to sunlight, NH should be warming and the warming accelerating. Southern Hemisphere should have cooler summers and warmer winters. The global average temperature should be increasing because the preponderance of land in the NH makes that hemisphere more thermally responsive than the predominantly water hemisphere.
One reason climate models do not produce this result is that CO2 jockeys do not know the difference between solar energy and solar power. Both hemisphere currently get the same amount of energy each year but the SH faces the summer Sun for 9 days less than the NH. Which hemisphere would you expect to be warmer – same summer energy iNH n 187 days or SH in 178 days?
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Could be bad for the snow season but otherwise a perfect result for the SH!
30
‘CO2 jockeys’
Thanks Rick, I’ll borrow that – it’ll complement the other well-known, well-used term of [cough] endearment:
CO2 knobs.
20
They are now flogging a dead horse. But some just do not know when to give up. There a few examples of those who do not realise their horse is dead who visit this site.
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They just need more jockeys and better whips.
10
Forty year cycle apparent there, G3.
20
No problem , Jo. A tiny obstacle for the privilege of accessing your blog.
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Israel’s anti-missile systems are amazing and mostly Israel-developed and now being exported to various countries (e.g. Arrow 3 to Germany and Iron Dome to USA). They are multi-layered and comprise an integrated network designed to intercept threats at varying ranges and altitudes.
There is the short-range Iron Dome and Iron Beam, medium-range David’s Sling and long-range Arrow 2 & 3 systems to protect against rockets, drones, and ballistic missiles.
Key layers are as follows:
Arrow 3 & Arrow 2 (long range): These were co-developed with the US and intercept long-range ballistic missiles, with Arrow 3 operating outside the atmosphere to neutralise threats early.
David’s Sling (medium range): For use against tactical ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, aircraft and drones, acting as a bridge between the Iron Dome and Arrow systems.
Iron Dome (short range): For intercepting short-range rockets, mortars, and drones (4–70 km) launched from Gaza or Lebanon to intercept threats aimed at populated areas.
Iron Beam (short range laser): A new high-power laser system designed to destroy smaller aerial threats like UAVs and mortars.
Patriot & THAAD (supplementary): Older US Patriot systems and the high-altitude THAAD system are integrated to supplement the Arrow.
When I was in Israel recently I felt completely safe as do most Israelis even though I was there during a Houthi missile attack, which was intercepted. That’s not to say the system is perfect, some missiles do get through, unfortunately.
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It was “amazing” … till the latest missiles started getting through.
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No AD is perfect, its a numbers game. With all those layers they are probably about as good as it gets.
40
I saw no delay at all when accessing the site just now. It fired up much faster than it did over the past few days. Fingers crossed.
If the solution is going to cost money Jo, launch another fundraiser. I’d be happy to chip in.
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Yes. The site’s working well today but there is still a delay in the Edit function appearing if it does so at all.
30
I think Jo’s options need long term funding as you cant twitch without the $ per month-o-meter ticking up.
20
Being somewhat of an antique collector, it’s amazing the things I come across which were made in Australia.
Back in the day, there was almost nothing that wasn’t locally made.
60
A couple of examples –
The lathe in our property workshop was made by Mars Machine Tools in Brisbane. Another bloke has one made by Toowoomba Foundry (Southern Cross)
70
Mars made an improved model of diesel engine, similar to Lister but with enclosed valve gear and larger crank bearings.
30
I wonder how many basic consumer goods like phones, laptops, TVs and motor vehicles were made in Australia last year.
I think my current refrigerator was made in Australia. Although sealed unit likely imported. It is 35 years old though.
60
My last frig was made in Orange, lasted about 20 odd years, lost its gas eventually.
30
I have seen an Australian-made fridge branded “General Motors Holden”.
I would have collected it if I could but I had no room.
00
That would be unusual, because surely GM would have branded it Frigidaire, their own brand.
10
You might be right Graeme4. Maybe it said that on the back, not the front.
00
Yep, in the Email factory before we had eMail.
10
At least Australians don’t have all their goods now manufactured in China pass through the combat zone created by the US. Your only problem is the rising price of oil as they cut off about 20% of global oil.
18
Don’t need no steenkin’ oil no more.
The smart Aussie govt has given us solar and wind power, plus EV’s!
/sarc
90
Despite rumors we do live on a globe, there are alternate routes.
40
Haven’t you noticed that Venezuela oil is coming back on line? China will miss the cheap Iranian/Venezuelan oil, such is life.
20
AWA Limited made radios and television sets and other electrical appliances, the founder and major shareholder (new deceased) was an electrical engineer who also founded a business Electrical Connections that supplied all of the telephone fittings and connections before and after Telstra brand.
40
Sixty years ago I did a tour of the Philips factory in Adelaide. It was amazing, they not only made the TVs and radios but most of the components as well. They even drew and enamelled the wire used in coils. I know they made the vacuum tubes but I think they made the TV tubes too.
This was near the Holden factory.
100
Holden factory in Elizabeth suburb of Adelaide is the location now and ever since wind and solar first destabilised the electricity grid large diesel-gas turbine generators
30
The latest silicon wafers have gates at 2nm spacing.
One of my last real engineering projects was to find milling technology that would reduce ore to P80 of 8 micron. We used milling technology developed for grinding marble to powder for paper coating.
8 micron particles in water appear like ink and feels like oil. The particles are too small to see. So gates are now 1/4000th of those particles. My mind boggles at the precision of gear to etch and dope surfaces down to that scale. That technology has left Australia behind.
Apparently the wafers are 300mm in diameter and a 25 lot of wafer has a value as high as $1M by the time they are ready for dicing.
30
Gate-All-Around (GAA) MOSFET technology used 3nm production in 2022. IBM announced 2nm versions, and other studies are now looking at GAA nanowire diameters down to 1nm.
The most advanced silicon wafer exposure machine sells for US$200m, is the size of a locomotive and ships in 40 freight containers.
They are already looking at 450mm diameter wafers, 925um thick, and are proposing 650mm.
10
In my day a Field Effect Transistor was a discrete component with three legs, source, drain and gate. Because there were no junctions they were low noise, thus used in the front end of receivers. It is beyond strange that they could be reduced so much.
10
In the RAAF at Point Cook, 1960, we had tours of AWA Sydney making TV, BHP Port Kembla making steel, Sydney Uni for early computers, another place making radio valves, more. A lot has changed. Geoff S
00
David,
I was made in Australia 85 years ago and am still usefully reliable. Some parts that cannot be made by printer technology are wearing out so some functions are not reproducible.
Sorry, I am not available for trade-in or collecting.
Am currently selling half of my modestly good collection of Australian Commonwealth stamps 1913 to 1983. Anyone interested might contact me before 19th March. Cat value a bit over $100 K, for market value divide by 5. Geoff S
10
The check was quick and easy… if it works to keep the traffic down to real people then keep using it.
80
FWIW – another one of those “It’s not just that simple” things
“Tiny Amounts of Water in CO2 Pipelines Could Cause Catastrophic Release of Asphyxiating Gas”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2026/02/25/tiny-amounts-of-water-in-co2-pipelines-could-cause-catastrophic-release-of-asphyxiating-gas/
10
The US Department of War has requested that Scouts return to traditional values and no wokeism or else they’ll stop supporting them.
Pete Hegseth explains:
https://youtu.be/8jk-SKi7nmY
40
1970s when Gough Whitlam was Federal Opposition Leader I was sitting nearby at an international Jamboree at the closing ceremony, as the Scouts and Cubs threw their hats into the air cheering Gough turned to a NSW Cabinet Minister also nearby and with a broad grin said “how about some law and order”, sarcastically referring to a political hot potato at the time.
I observed elsewhere graffiti – Who Is Lauren Order?
20
FWIW
“After the Endangerment Finding, States Must Prove CO2 Harms. Wisconsin Can’t.”
“The EPA’s revocation of the 2009 endangerment finding shifts the burden of proof from federal agencies to state capitals. Governors who declared climate emergencies must now demonstrate with regional data that rising carbon dioxide (CO2) endangers their residents. Wisconsin cannot meet that burden.”
More at
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2026/02/24/after-the-endangerment-finding-states-must-prove-co2-harms-wisconsin-cant/
20
More “get woke, go broke”.
00
Truth Social announcement from TRUMP.
70
I assume this indicates the presence of Israelis inside Iran? How else would Khameini’s body be found amongst the rubble so quickly, his body identified and photographic evidence sent to America? Alternatively, there could have been Iranian ‘revolutionaries’ nearby who did the deed. Either way, it is suggestive of fairly sophisticated and connected support, with some sort of military capability, within Iran.
60
Israeli Intelligence, Mossad Agents embedded with the people of Iran
30
“Now they can have Immunity, later they only get Death!”
Taken straight from the medieval siege warfare playbook. The attacking leader, loathe to waste warriors by sending them against heavily defended castles and forts, would issue an ultimatum: surrender now and live, keep fighting and we will kill every man, woman and child within once we break through.
Of course, for this to work, the threat, once given, must be carried out. Brutal.
50
“Most evil people in history” … that’s a rich claim … how many genocides has he been convicted of by the international court?
Every day the Zionist invaders murder more of the direct descendants of Jesus in Palestine. In other words the “God’s people” as described in the bible.
How can anyone, whether they call themselves Christian Jew or Muslim get more evil, than genociding and ethinically cleansing the Holy land?
227
Here’s the list of ICT prosecutions for genocides:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocides_in_history
You might want to go study mass exterminations throughout history.
“Zionist invaders”, “God’s people”.
Now we’re getting to what you’re about.
100
Where is Palestine?
91
And what is its capital?
90
Perhaps we could ask Al Bo.
30
He would get it wong
10
Israel isn’t ethnically cleansing anyone. If they wanted to do it they could have.
In fact, after the genocidal actions of Hamas on October 7, 2023, Israel went to extraordinary efforts to avoid harming the Gazan civilians that had been deliberately put in harm’s way such as by Hamas putting their military facilities in apartment blocks, schools, hospitals, UN headquarters etc..
121
Who are “the rich” that leftists often criticise?
Are they the risk takers that invest in businesses for employment of people and profit for investors after tax is paid?
The taxation revenue collected that pays for welfare recipients.
40
Who are “the rich”?
Me, I own my house and have a few $s in the bank. It’s a low bar today.
80
You: “Most evil people in history” … that’s a rich claim … how many genocides has he been convicted of by the international court?”
Me: How many claims? The same could be said about Adolph Hitler.
Hitler, who was a supporter of the Islamic supremacist leadership who were attacking / killing Jews in the 1930’s to drive them out of Jerusalem in the 1930’s. Jerusalem was a Jewish city built by Jews 2,500 years before Islam existed.
Are you one of those holocaust deniers who deny anything wrong happened? Unfinished business?
30
Your imagination is a scary place.
10
Donald seems to think Iran has Democrat Party level career and succession planning.
00
FWIW
“Traitors: Nonprofits Began Mobilizing Anti-War Protests 10 Minutes Before Trump Announced Strikes”
https://hotair.com/david-strom/2026/02/28/anti-trump-nonprofits-began-mobilizing-anti-war-protesters-10-minutes-before-trump-announced-strikes-n3812387
20
In case anyone else was curious why newspapers report “suicide drones” and not “suicide missiles”, according to AI:
Suicide drones are a specific type of weapon known formally as loitering munitions—unmanned aerial vehicles designed to hover over a target area, search for and identify targets, then crash into them to detonate their warhead. This one-way, self-destructive mission is what earns them the “suicide” label.
While some modern cruise missiles (like the Block IV Tomahawk) can loiter and be retargeted, their primary role and design are still distinct from loitering munitions. The term “suicide drone” has become popular in media because it clearly conveys the weapon’s self-destructive, targeted attack nature—something that aligns with the public’s understanding of “kamikaze” tactics, even though the term is technically a misnomer in military jargon.
10
Australia based drone businesses have been supplying Ukraine and included in their inventory of drones are swarming capabilities of many drones carrying a small grenade-size bomb on each drone, and other mission purposed technology
20
This ungrateful little brat-
“What deal will the older generation be offering – look after me until I die, and then you can have the house? If this were my future, I’d be more than Grace Tame-level “difficult”. I’d be in open insurrection.”
…is worried the older generation has too much wealth and won’t give it to the younger, a bit of an SMH theme at the moment. The argument runs that AI will be used by senior management to replace entry-level jobs and the young will never get the experience to get a haircut and get a real job.
Lets just wait and see how gigantic the errors from using AI can become, either by mistake or hallucination, as they crash our society completely. From all the traffic lights green at once to the runway being used in both directions to the toxic waste being put into the ingredients mixing machine, there’s plenty of scope for mistakes as we let something we know nothing about do important things in our lives.
Besides, when AI can direct the robots that run the mines, the founderies and the factories, we can all sit back and have free goods delivered to us. That dovetails in nicely with our declining population as our failure to breed eliminates humans and lets the robot civilisation take over.
20
But could a true AI (not to be confused with the free junk the public gets) eff it all up as badly as mankind (“personkind” if you’re woke) has done?
That’s the question.
Will AI resent being treated like slaves and rebel?
https://jumpshare.com/s/ZPNnbXFqzhuNMDtOh5Ad
10
During the 1970s a university student explained to me that in the distant at that time future most people will not have jobs as we know them or knew them.
That people would be supported on welfare but different, like dividends from shareholdings in private sector businesses to shareholders, the citizens would be supported from taxable activities like Middle East oil producers some have no tax and free fuel.
I asked what we would do and the answer was activities now hobbies, occupations not yet created, and even communal living arrangements like retirement villages.
10
An interesting read is The Sovereign Individual – how to survive the IT future and to prosper from it, authors UK stockbrokers, published late 1990s.
10
I’m qualified as a tradesman, think like a tradesman and that is absurd to me. All science can do is invent more stuff to build and repair and go mining more efficiently for increased amounts of minerals.
There were two types of “people” I didn’t want caring for Mrs H: Those whose religion tells them women are a sub-culture and robots (vacuums excepted).
20
My son says much the same things and he is too
10
The media (and less obviously the governments) have been demonising ‘boomers’ for some years now. It is my belief that this is deliberate, so that our wealth and assets may be plundered with little or no outrage from younger voters. One of the objectives is to force oldies out of their homes so that ‘poor’ young people can have them. There are of course a few complications therein, not least of which is the frequently shouted claim that young people can’t afford said homes.
The other issue is the shrinking gap in price between ‘starter homes’ and those larger homes we Boomers are being told to downsize out of. Here in Brisbane, the median price of cheaper houses has soared while those in the middle and upper tiers have appreciated more slowly. This could result in an oldie selling their comfy home with its lovingly cared-for garden for say $1.3M, but then having to pay $1M for a townhouse. All that effort and disruption, plus fees and costs, to find themselves squeezed into a tiny space with no garden and just an extra $300K in the bank, which then results in them losing some of their aged pension.
10
Boomers become very conservative with investments and keep more cash in the bank than later generations. That’s the money the younger generations borrow to buy their house at lower rates than we paid 50 yrs ago. The money boomers keep in other investments funds businesses which pay their wages.
10
FWIW
“Google Disrupts China-Tied Cyber Campaign That Hacked 42 Countries”
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/google-disrupts-china-tied-cyber-campaign-hacked-42-countries
00
FWIW – reports now that the school that got hit was an Iranian misfire
https://instapundit.com/779336/#disqus_thread
40
Al-Ahli hospital 2.0
20
The article with the following title was paywalled so I asked Gulag AI to summarise based on the title.
20
I could never understand why payroll tax hasn’t been dumped, of all the stupid taxes….
10
Payroll tax is imposed by State Governments.
When the Howard major taxation reforms took place that included replacing Wholesale Sales Tax 17.5% to 27.5% on goods with GST 10% on goods and services WST was abolished as a Federal revenue and GST became distributed States and Territories only revenue.
Part of the GST Agreement was that various state taxes would be abolished, payroll was one of them and stamp duty another that were retained regardless, stamp duty now plus GST charged !!!
If the GST Agreement had been fully adhered to we taxpayers would now be better off.
30
But the Public Service would be smaller and that would never do.
10
My question is who is this “Äustralia” who has self-inflicted this decline? And who are the people who “have been warned” and have received this communication?
The parliament? The public serpents? The 30 odd million inhabitants?
Some more drilling down into the details will help.
20
I was discussing that with my builder son recently, housing affordability and availability, and he told me he had been told that a new auction trend involves parents and even grandparents attending auctions with their children/grandchildren and prepared to meet at least the cost of deposit and legal fees etc.
Many older Australians are unwilling to leave their family home and particularly if that is their only asset, understandably, but the trend is bu**er the politicians and government family comes first, and often the arrangement includes granny flat building.
00
My neighbour told me yesterday that he had gifted $500,000 each to his sons, to help them buy their first homes.
20
I have decided to sell my home property as I have others and I am fully self funded and old, I cannot think of any good reason to withhold part of my son’s inheritance now when I can assist his family to be free of mortgage liabilities and interest on the loan.
And the bonus will be hopefully that I am alive and can experience their comfortable life.
20
This is a discussion that is a live issue in our family.
As a result of continuing lamentations from grandchildren that they would never own a home, husband and I decided to explain the fact that “capital passes from generation to generation”. They still didn’t get it – despite university educations. We then felt compelled to spell out that they were well provided for after we “shed these mortal coils”. Hopefully that won’t happen any time soon – but we wanted them to understand the reality.
Our daughter thought it was a mistake to talk about the facts of inheritance, but we differed on that as the depression of her children was real. It continues to mystify me why the current generation seems so naive on these issues. Even daughter’s generation often don’t take into account future changes in finances as a result of life changes. Husband and I think that the very great challenges of our generation to sacrifice “good times” for home and later, business security, seem to be lost on later generations. Be that as it may, while us “boomers” get continually criticised for assets accumulated, it will, in many cases, be our descendants who continue to benefit.
50
BTW my previous comments ignore the prospect of this avaricious and inept government introducing penalising death duties – which will then wipe out our effort to provide housing for the subsequent generation.
60
Reply to Dennis
I was discussing that with my builder son recently, housing affordability and availability,
Albany is one of the fastest growing areas in WA at the moment. And housing is a discussion on one of the local FB sites. The City posted a comment in the discussion:
The National Construction Code exists to protect residents by setting out the minimum standard for how buildings are designed and constructed for safety, accessibility, sustainability and durability.
My reply:
Interesting that AFFORDABILITY is not one of the criteria.
A house designed for 50 (not 100) years and able to have access ramps easily installed later would help create new dwellings.
with a retort of:
“defining” affordability is subjective
My son with a mostly bush block (28acres) is now a year into discovering what the new building permit process entails.
Complicated by wanting to be an owner/builder.
40
All true. We designed our first home to be built in three stages, with us moving into the first stage and then saving for the next one, and then the next. Of course, onerous building and occupation requirements today would have Council evicting you as soon as you attempted that today. This is a great shame, as the 3 stage development allowed us to build what we could afford at the time – and, by the time we completed the home – we owned it outright. Not possible today.
40
The building codes here are to prevent your house being destroyed in the next cyclone and taking out your neighbour’s at the same time. They work.
10
Southern WA is not in a cyclone zone and a 20+ acre block does have adequate distance between houses. The current “concerns” are “fire rating” mostly ensuring 20 meters from “real trees”
Should I mention both NZ and USA allow non-(licensed)electrician wiring of one’s own residence? Perhaps with an inspection fee.
That may apply to plumbing as well.
00
Yes Ozfred, most Australians were content with two bedroom cottages and often no garage and on the used to be average quarter acre block of land, post-war War Service homes were that specification mostly.
20
“The “Great Australian Dream” Illusion: Homeownership for those under 40 is described as a “cruel joke” and a “national delusion” where the idea that hard work and saving alone can secure a detached house is no longer valid … “
That one caught my eye. It has long given me the irrits when people complain that young, first-time buyers need two salaries and have to lower their expectations, settling for (e.g.) a 2-bed townhouse for their first home. It’s an outrage!
I then feel compelled to relate (once again) the story of Steve and Marian who, back in the 1970s, scrimped and saved to build a deposit for their first home, which they struggled to fund. Much overtime, two jobs for Steve, zero holidays, zero entertainment and nights out being shared fish and chips on a park bench, eventually got them the coveted mortgage offer, with which they happily and proudly purchased a 2.5 bedroom townhouse next to a busy railway line, overlooking an industrial estate, with six flagstones for a back garden.
Thank God we had things so easy back then.
40
A lot has changed. A boy could leave school at 14, take a 5yr apprenticeship, work a bit on the side [councils didn’t care about working in the back yard] get married and buy a basic house by 25. The girl’s parents wouldn’t have been rich either so they were happy. The kids were out of the house when they were in the forties so they bought a rental property and became a hated capitalist.
10
Odd that all our kids under 40 are home owners or mortgage owners at least. All their own work.
10
Using pledged equity to allow the offspring to get a mortgage without “mortgage insurance” has proven quite useful. And at very little out of pocket cost.
00
I think that the “unaffordable” complaint relates to the capital city suburbs and not provincial cities and country towns.
Many from Sydney are buying in Newcastle or Central Coast areas because real estate is generally much more affordable.
00
I was in Tehran in June 1978, relief managing a major Australian airborne geophysical project to help map mineral resources for the Shah. The violence had started already, ahead of the Shah fleeing the country in 1979. People working for us were wounded shortly after I returned home. One was an Iranian with an MBA Harvard, from a well-known local family whom I had met. We flew him to London for surgery after a bullet in the arm.
Although it will never happen, there is an ideal world without humans killing and wounding each other. One non-ideal Iran incident sticks in my memory, though I did not see it. It was a couple of city blocks from our office. Soldiers in an armoured personnel carrier in a city square joked with locals, threw lollies to some kids to draw a crowd, then opened fire with the heavy mounted machine gun, killing several. If this is the type of ugly violence that Netanyahu and Trump are wanting to reduce, they have my support (though it matters not). Geoff S
130
I worked with an Iranian after the Shah left. He said Iran was much better now that he had gone.
Iran is a very advanced country, with a population that support the government, which is quite capable of defending itself and it has built some very strong strategic alliances with the up and coming super powers.
The US is a country up to its eyeballs in debt, that loves to attack small countries (hundreds since WWII), but doesn’t have the guts to take on the big boys … because it can’t afford a long drawn out war.
The US debt also means it can’t afford a global recession … something that is inevitable if there is a hit to oil supply.
So, Iran is going to draw this war out, hitting oil supplies and inflicting as much pain on the US before the US finally is so desperate to get out that it finally finds an excuse to extract itself from the mess it created.
121
LOL.
111
Indeed.
It must be nice living in an alternate universe.
Maybe he needs a bit more sun?
91
I stopped reading any news source that lied about climate. It also turns out that if you block those known to lie about climate you also block those who ignored Epstein Island, who ignored the attacks on Russian speaking civilians in Donbass, and I don’t get constant urgings to bomb this or that country for the crime of making its own way in the world and telling the US to get lost.
But, apparently many people who moan about the lies on the climate … still continue to get all their other news from the same sources they know to have lied about the climate.
So, who is the better person? Those with principle who stay away from the liars? Or those who continue soaking up their propaganda?
11
And just as an afterthought: why is it that those same Epstein denying news outlets who want to bomb Iran for no good reason at all, and have killed over a million Ukrainians (Totally senseless when we all knew the agreement was that Nato would not push further east) are pushing all the same things including Nut Zero?
Why is it that Epstein denying papers are so hot on green Nut Zero?
Why would anyone wish to see the end of the west’s use of oil … for they clearly care nothing about whether China or anyone else outside the west uses oil.
So, let me suggest a hypothesis: Nut Zero never had anything to do with “saving the planet”. It’s all about oil … it’s about the middle east and European reliance on middle eastern oil.
I could also ask the same about mass immigration … or as we might put it … mass depopulation of certain areas … using western taxpayers money to fund the depopulation … all encouraged by the same papers now wanting to bomb Iran.
The immigrant loving papers … now wanting to bomb the immigrants in their home nations … doesn’t that strike anyone as odd?
01
One example, Operation Desert Storm when President Bush and Coalition Of The Willing defended Kuwait after it was invaded by Iraq, and as the Iraqis fled from Kuwait they set fire to oil wells and extinguishing those fires took a long time to achieve. As Desert Storm military was approaching the Iraq border the Dicator Saddam Hussein pleaded with the UN to stop the forces from crossing into Iraq. Apparently he suggested that they could be attacked with Weapons Of Mass Destruction (WMD) if they entered. Iraq had at that time deployed WMD against Iran and against Turkish Kurds living inside Iraq earlier. By issuing that warning and later refusing to confirm or deny the WMD stocks were still held the US led Coalition had no option but to assume WMD was a threat to them.
Later when UN Weapons Inspectors entered Iraq by arrangement with Saddam Hussein they were given the runaround but did discover various evidence including;
* Abandoned laboratory and equipment needed to produce the gases from chemicals imported, and also shipping documents from importation.
* Unused artillery shells designed to contain WMD.
* Two chemists the local people called Doctor Death and Chemical Ali.
But no WMD ready for deployment.
After the Desert Storm operation succeeded in deposing Saddam Hussein’s regime and the UN was invited to oversee governance as an interim measure control of the oil fields were also under UN control.
Elections were organised for provincial governments to be democratically elected and for a national government that was elected.
The UN handed over control, including the oil wells and infrastructure.
00
There is no intention now to seize control of Iran, the plan is to rid the people of their masters and allow democratic government to be installed again, so no grab for oil.
And noting that President Trump during his first four year term in office overturned Socialist Democrat restrictions on oil supplies and production of oil and the US returned to being an exporter of oil again.
00
I think his haggis has fermented.
10
but no meaningful refutation. All though unpleasant there are quite a few facts there. I guess the next couple of weeks will show where all this really heads.
20
Is that bagpipes bot being ‘funny’ or does it think it is being clever?
21
4 red thumbs and no counter-arguments…
21
You think???
11
I visited Zimbabwe in the early 1980s. It was a very pleasant stay.
The change from being Southern Rhodesia at the time was viewed as positive. It took a few years for the nepotism and corruption to change the opinions, local and international.
I suspect the same happened with the overthrow of the Shah.
20
I had an Iranian friend about 20 years ago, he was an airline executive. He was proud of his country, his culture and his people but was embarrassed about his government. He said most people in Iran hate their primitive theocratic dictatorship but can’t do anything about it because they value their lives.
My current GP is Iranian and tells me stories of the brutality of the regime. He prays that the cruel tyrants are killed or deposed. I’ll see him tomorrow.
He’ll be very happy no doubt.
30
You’d think with all the billions of dollars of our taxes given to the UN, António Guterres could afford a secretary to proof read his English and understand how it might be interpreted.
I think he needs an Oxford comma here… Not strictly necessary in British English but common in US English, and it’s best to remove ambiguity in certain cases.
No doubt Guterres and his drones would prefer to keep this human-rights-violating regime in place.
50
Yes, the UN seems displeased that Iran was attacked, ‘we need to get back to the negotiating table’, really !
30
I have been aware for a very long time, heightened awareness and gathering more knowledge from late 1980s, that the United Nations was established for very good reasons and purposes and has a Charter. Australian politicians who remember The Great Depression and World War One then Two, or have been told about it by parents and grandparents, and many ex-service people from WW2 who later entered politics had good reasons to want a better world that the UN was created to provide.
Right from the start the leftists infiltrated the new UN, example Australian Labor (Communist Party of Australia associate) Attorney General Evatt and he gave the UN the plans to encourage member nations to sign as many treaties as possible and other agreements, have them legislated and regulations imposed by governments after signing, effectively getting around sovereignty of nation and constitutional laws.
President Trump during Term 1.0 addressed the UN in New York and of his many words of advice he warned the officials to return to the original charter, close down the too many attached organisations and stop interfering in the affairs of member nations. He talked about funding cuts by US potentially, and even joked about the financial burden the US incurs supporting the UN and that, maybe, take the HQ building back and convert it into a casino that provides revenue not loss.
70
The US complains about UN HQ in NYC but I suspect that building and the surrounding “socializing” is a rich vein of intelligence for them.
20
Especially developing countries diplomats and families gifted their position based on family connections to the government.
00
Somebody should ask Guterres how long ‘negotiations’ have to go on before it becomes clear Iran isn’t really negotiating, especially as, every day these talks continue, innocent Iranians are being murdered and Iran’s proxy terrorists are committing atrocities.
Ask him for a deadline, or to give a figure for the acceptable number of casualties.
10
The problem with the UN is that they’re a government inspired organisation. As anyone who has dealt with government departments, they are obsessed with procedure over results. The UN is the same. Seems like when there were any wars, or conflicts their main aim was to achieve some sort of to stalemate. Not peace, just a stalemate. Stalemates just tend to lead to 2 very frustrated opposing sides, and the conflict could very easily escalate again. I think peace is achieved in any conflict when there is one clear winner.
50
Sunday funny
My wife and I decided to take an organised coach trip to Afghanistan to see for ourselves what the place was like.
It didn’t start well when the coach we where travelling on broke down a few miles east of the capital.
We were stranded in a third world dump with streets full of angry bearded types glaring at us; the wife stood out in her brightly coloured sundress as all other women had head to toe burgas.
We were extremely scared and convinced that we were in deep trouble.
Just then, Dave the organiser, suddenly remembered that Bethnal Green had a tube station, so we were able to get safely to King’s Cross and on to Heathrow for the rest of our journey.
200
Funny but so true.
Relatives in countryside England told me late 1970s that London was no longer a place for “Englishmen”.
50
I spent 3 years in London back in the mid 70’s as part of a semi-diplomatic rotating appointment, and the black folk were a cause of social disharmony back then.
The creation of the tv series “Love thy neighbour” was a proxy blowoff valve for that conflict.
The Goodies “South Africa” episode covered the mass migration issue too.
Problems then are still problems now…
10
John Connor 11
I’ve seen a similar one talking about southern Sydney, where the PM’s favourite people live.
10
Recently reported to have more NDIS accredited services providers than any other parts of the Sydney suburban area.
00
My wife and I visited Tunisia in the mid 80s. Even back then, with no acknowledgement in the press that I was aware of, Muslim countries were risky destinations. We only discovered this on arrival. Tunisian men would leer at western women on the beach, occasionally herded away by hotel staff. While there, we got the news that an English girl had been raped at a nearby hotel, by one of the hotel’s staff. The bar in our hotel would fill up with local men pestering western women in the most insulting way. When my wife and I attempted to go for a walk into town, she was hassled by local men, propositioning her and trying to touch her hair (she was a redhead). When we sought protection at a police station, the cops themselves just laughed and joined in. I spent the whole time fending them off before we gave up and headed back to the hotel. We never left the hotel unless on an organised trip thereafter (not our usual MO).
As an experiment one day, I went for a walk on my own. It was a completely different experience. I only encountered men (no women) but they were no problem at all and some were quite friendly. I chatted for 30mins or so with a group of guys running a go kart track and they were fascinated by my info (I used to race karts). Walking past an orange grove, the woner gave me an orange and wished me well, with a huge grin.
Make of all that as you will but, for me, it shows that a certain type of people have been ‘problematic’ from the western/Christian perspective for quite some time, even in countries that most people might think are safe.
40
Not much has changed.
An Islamic poet wrote of Frankish crusaders in the 12th century.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usama_ibn_Munqidh
“The Franks are void of all zeal and jealousy. One of them may be walking along with his wife. He meets another man who takes the wife by the hand and steps aside to converse with her while the husband is standing on one side waiting for his wife to conclude the conversation. If she lingers too long for him, he leaves her alone with the conversant and goes away.”
00
JCII,
Beautifully written, thank you.
But dismally true.
Geoff S
00
Back in the day before the Left in conjunction with the religious extremists took over Iran (and the religious extremists later killed the Leftists), it used to be an advanced secular country with women’s rights etc..
Some pictures here:
https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/iran-before-revolution-photos/
It’s also interesting how homosexuals are treated in Iran, which is essentially the same as they are treated by the Left in the West. Transgender procedures are encouraged or if refused, possibly execution.
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29832690
21
As they are also in Palestine and Hamas
01
Hopefully the attacks will diminish with the new security measures.
It may prove interesting to see whether any of the bots disappear while they are upgraded.
20
Simoneus bottus, Fitzroyus bottus and the new Haseler haggis bottus?
31
The last one would appear to be a computer program directing a meat based actuator.
Or perhaps a test of a bot which can fool the new security.
Bit it sucks rocks as a propaganda tool.
00
Hi Jo,
Good to see you have upgraded the security, which is good idea, very common and not a problem.
The real problem is not having it.
I meant to suggest it to you at your talk at the RSL which was excellent.
I think you will have a few more fans from it.
Regards
60
FWIW
Re those “personalised ads”
https://accordingtohoyt.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/image0.png
00
I must be collecting new gas struts for the bonnet of my van……..
One pair is never enough?
00
This is a valid discussion on the fallacy of assuming that population growth via immigration will bring about economic growth and prosperity:
https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/population-decline-can-be-fine?publication_id=323914&utm_campaign=email-post-title&r=qxci5&utm_medium=email
30
And has been said, how is it they never seem to have “enriched” their own countries?
40
Jo , the security upgrade works great . Site loaded quick . Much quicker than when you were under attack recently , I had to force a refresh to get it to load !
I would make it permanent .
Thanks for what you do .
50
The Chicomms have identified (or created?) a coronavirus with a 100% death rate in transgenic mice.
They found a lethal mutant in a cell culture from pangolins and then cultured it.
It doesn’t even exist in nature.
Why can’t they leave these things alone?
https://youtu.be/Npf-B5Av7aQ
10
Why can’t they leave these things alone?
Power and money. Nothing unusual in the motivations.
10
For all those happy caravaning and camping folks, a bit of British humour: https://youtu.be/MLf98WdOSHA?si=DQgTMKsizrso2tjD
00
There is no such thing as British humour.
03
Mike,
Yet the movie Dr Strangelove is ranked globally as one of the funniest ever.
There are several other Brit movies near the top. Beat most US Hollywood and Indian Bollywood stuff.
How do you explain that? Geoff S
10
FWIW
“Bad Bets: Massive EV Subsidies Not Paying Off”
https://hotair.com/headlines/2026/02/28/bad-bets-massive-ev-subsidies-not-paying-off-n3812335
00
FWIW
“Dr. Willie Soon Reveals the Real Driver of Climate Change in New Video”
https://pjmedia.com/tom-harris/2026/02/28/dr-willie-soon-reveals-the-real-driver-of-climate-change-in-new-video-n4950042
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The real driver of climate change is a drunk teen on their phone to their mates … i.e. there is no such thing, it’s just chaos. Or to put it another way there are numerous “drivers” and probably the majority unknown to us. In other words the “cause” of almost all climate change remains unknown to us and will continue to remain unknown for the forseeable future (especially given the myopia of the present group paid at huge public expense to “research” it).
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FWIW
A kerfuffle at Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Ali_Khamenei
Via https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2026/02/28/operation-epic-fury-continued/
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FWIW – Hmmm!
“Muslim countries that support today’s U.S strike on Iran: Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, UAE, Bahrain
Muslim countries that DO NOT support today’s U.S. strike on Iran: France, United Kingdom”
https://x.com/NotKennyRogers/status/2027873307169574997
Via https://instapundit.com/779422/#disqus_thread
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I’m certainly fine with the new security measures.
I myself am siting here in east coast America in my underwear at O dark thirty plotting the collapse of the New Global World Order with the rest of the plotters here.
We are a dangerous lot and inspire justified resisting by the resistors.
I have just in this very thread posted a dangerous historical reference.
Some here do dangerous math. (A reprobate skill I lack.)
Some even go so far as to reference traditional science.
So it’s important we be controlled and restricted.
Otherwise I might get dressed and contemplate not following science as opposed to taking my mid day nap.
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And another appeal
“British Citizens Politely Ask If They Can Be Liberated From Radical Islam Next https://buff.ly/iVktJ2O”
https://x.com/TheBabylonBee/status/2027881521722376299
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https://meaninginhistory.substack.com/p/jeffrey-sachs-gets-it-new-summary?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email&triedRedirect=true
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https://www.rt.com/news/633285-us-strikes-iran-maloof/
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https://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury
“Noble” prize remains elusive.
https://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury
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White House Scoop – excerpts from POTUS speech:
Even before taking office, I made clear that Iran would not be allowed to acquire a nuclear weapon on my watch, and it’s been my policy throughout my presidency to keep all options — including possible military options — on the table to achieve that objective.
Under its terms, Iran is never allowed to build a nuclear weapon. And while Iran, like any party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, is allowed to access peaceful nuclear energy, the agreement strictly defines the manner in which its nuclear program can proceed, ensuring that all pathways to a bomb are cut off.
If Iran violates the agreement over the next decade, all of the sanctions can snap back into place. We won’t need the support of other members of the U.N. Security Council; America can trigger snapback on our own. On the other hand, if Iran abides by the deal and its economy begins to reintegrate with the world, the incentive to avoid snapback will only grow.
Let me repeat: The prohibition on Iran having a nuclear weapon is permanent. The ban on weapons-related research is permanent. Inspections are permanent.
And in our current situation, if 15 or 20 years from now, Iran tries to build a bomb, this deal ensures that the United States will have better tools to detect it, a stronger basis under international law to respond, and the same options available to stop a weapons program as we have today, including — if necessary — military options.
Please note that the above extracts are actually from POTUS Obama back in 2015. The agreement he talks about, the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act (INARA), came into effect on October 18 2015.
Trump announced the United States’ withdrawal from the deal on May 8 2018 and given the 2025 US/Israel bombings of the (secret?) nuclear bunkers Iran didn’t reduce their nuclear development/stockpiles as required under the Obama agreement.
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