Joe Biden is signing off on an oil drilling program on US soil which he said he’d never do and it’s one of the largest ever. Could it be that panic over fuel prices has set in on the left?

Germany is demolishing windmills to clear the way for new coal mines.

Bank of England is cutting the sacred climate change spending, and has leaked this news to the world. Apparently the risk of costly climate and Net Zero policies have become a bigger threat to the UK’s economy and financial stability than climate change.

It appears that the desire for reelection of the mainstay governments of the western world is greater than their belief in climate change.

Perhaps they will now do something sensible, if only for the wrong reasons. Perhaps our plea of "God help us" has been heard...somewhere.

So our government has picked up the Liberal initiative of nuclear subs, they have done something right, but but have an awful lot of catching up elsewhere in the real world.

Of course I'll believe the story about subs when the first couple are in Oz, crewed by Oz navy people, after all there was a story about French subs a few years back.

Watching National Press Club right now & Paul Keatinge's just gone up in my estimation more than any Polly here so far with his replies to idiot journos !!

The silliest thing that I heard today is that, after deliberately putting up the price of electricity with stupid climate and emissions policies, our Socialist government is going to spend $3 BILLION'S worth of borrowed money to help Australians pay their power bills.

It's all about getting the population dependent on Big Socialist Government - nothing else. It's not about electric power: it's about raw, political power.

Paul Keating. What a lunatic. Only the equally loony ABC digs him up when they run out of other rubbish.

OK, tbbn, you have $368 billion dollars to put into the defense of Australia. How would you use that money most effectively?

Eight submarines in about 15-30 years time? Or maybe a serious counter-cyber program that could start right now (there probably is one already but imagine the effect of really serious funding). Who will be better off in the future - the country with eight submarines or the country with a cyber capacity to take out those submarines remotely?

Any other ideas that would be more useful that eight future submarines?

Keating has nothing to do with this topic. Keating has nothing to do with anything any more. For reasons best known to himself, Indyvidual slipped him in, and I, equally guilty off getting off topic, took the opportunity to have a go at one of the most contemptible political figures to ever disgrace an Australian parliament. He rubbishes his own party; he rubbishes his own country; he rubbishes our US allies. But, he apologises for and sucks up to Communist China.

No more needs to be said about the creature.

The Opposition, right for once, called his performance an "unhinged display". The idiot won't say a word against his Communist mates, even blurting that the CCP's treatment of Yyghurs is 'in dispute'.

Of course, Keating is just one of the has-been PM's who should take a running jump and enjoy the obscene pensions that they really don't deserve. They are all past their use-by date, and not one of them actually covered himself in glory when they had the opportunity. I say 'himself', because our one and only female PM has had the good sense or good manners to keep any thoughts she might have on her replacements and contemporary politics to herself.

The subs will only be of any use if equipped with nuclear headed missiles, & then more use to contain China than defend us. Still better that than the nothing we have right now.

A host of nuclear headed cruise & ICBM missiles lining our coast, & a heavy presence of missile interception batteries would be a better investment for us for our defense, but wouldn't do much to deter China. Unless we include the China deterrent we would not get access to the technology. It would take even longer to develop our own.

A better defense would be to develop our extensive oil deposits, & build an adequate oil refinery industry, so we actually had fuel in any future hostilities. Subs missiles & all the rest are not much use if we can't get food to the population. Perhaps we would be better off building steam trains than importing trucks.

I wonder if we could actually build steam locomotives today?

Yes ttbn, you would think the bloke who gave us 17% interest rates would shut up & slink away quietly, rather than tell us what to do.

Australia doesn't really need a Navy, just coastal defence stations with missile launching facilities.

A US nuclear submarine docked at the Sterling naval base in Perth today. It will be here for some time for training etc. This is reported as the start of a rotation of US and UK subs in Australian waters.

Hi Indy,

Good to see you talking sense.

"Australia doesn't really need a Navy, just coastal defence stations with missile launching facilities."

Although I am opposed to war in all its forms, I agree, in a practical sense, Australia must have a DEFENCE capability, and I emphasise DEFENCE, and not present others with a hostile ATTACK capability. Its my belief that short of purchasing a "battleship" these submarines represent a hostile act on Americas part, sorry Australia's part, if indeed they do eventually arrive in the year 2040 or 50 could be 60, maybe never, at a cost of one trillion dollars, maybe more, we should write the Yanks a blank cheque.

I know Admiral Brassbottom down there at Navy HQ loves those big boys toys. The Admiral would also love a battleship even more, flag ship and all that pomp. With a battleship he could stand on the bridge and give the victory salute as he sails triumphantly up the Yangtze River with Chairman Xi hanging from the yardarm, do battle ships actually have a yardarm, Hassy? anybody know? never mind, we'll install one just for the occasion.

Off course our battleship will be nuclear powered, that is if President Joe wants to sell us the technology!

p/s Is there any truth to the rumour that Australia's nuk subs are going to be built in that great US state of Wyoming, how I love the deep south, and will be sailing directly to Aussie via, Alaska, from that great US state? The fleet will be under the command of US Admiral J.P "Dipsh!t" Jones, with our own Admiral Brassbottom, second in command!

Indyvidual

How embarrassing for you to get an endorsement like that piece of dog's vomit. I can't see why you would say that we don’t need a navy, but getting the approval of the site lunatic is definitely not a good look.

ttbn,

You can call me a 'lunatic" but I'm not the silly mug who joined a way out far right political party, that scored zero percent at the election. During the "campaign" the parties "fuhrer" was jet setting around the country side first class, staying in five star digs, and eating at the poshest of restaurants, all at the party mugs expense. The party then promptly shut up shop, leaving the mugs out of pocket, and nothing to do than cry in their beer!

I'm not the one still supporting a far Left political party as probably the oldest member in that naive and juvenile group. I never joined any party. I merely gave a couple of donations. Nor do I have beer to cry into; whereas you appear to be swimming in the stuff, which could be the cause of you mental ineptitude and inability to come up with new material for your tedious sprays against everyone.

ttbn,

You called me the "site lunatic", I had made no reference to you before that. You are nothing but a silly old fool who wouldn't know his arse from his elbow. End of story.

I have just been reminded that Keating spent 13 years on the international advisory board of the China Development Bank, including 10 years as its chairman. The same bank that financed the Belt and Road scheme that put developing countries into debt, and would have done the same to Victoria if Andrews had got his way.

Ever since Whitlam the ALP has had a soft spot for the CCP.

Keating is only 12 months younger than I am. I'll bet the site lunatic won't call him a "silly old fool who wouldn't know his arse from his elbow". The lunatic himself has to be over 70 now.

When did the US ever build anything for anyone?
It got a lot of countries in debt with its own western banking system and blew up a lot of other peoples stuff.
It armed and trained many paramilitary groups, then it blew up heaps more people and created heaps more terrorists.

http://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/china-forgives-debt-for-17-african-nations/news-story/28ab7f45440142634ff8efd0360b2fec

I haven't watched the 1 hour Keating Press club video, maybe he has pro-China bias, or maybe he knows they don't have hostile intentions
- Who knows, might be worth a watch.

IN FULL: Former PM Paul Keating criticises AUKUS pact and discusses relations with China | ABC News
http://www.youtube.com/live/VmgxAoa1n-8?feature=share

America though, there's definitely a big war coming by them soon either way and plenty of Americans know it, and China's it.
- Good luck with that.

I doubt the woke liberal LGBTQI+ army will stand up 10 minutes to China.
But I guess we'll soon see.

China will probably wipe americas naval forces fairly quickly so far from home, with overwhelming numbers and technology.
Kim Jong Un will probably nuke someone.
It's not going to end well.

OK, tbbn, you have $368 billion dollars to put into the defense of Australia. How would you use that money most effectively?

Save the 368bln, make peace with China and support a neutral position.
- Maybe buy just two subs, armed to the teeth with nukes for insurance, and always keep one at sea.

AC

Why are you asking me such a question?

Sorry ttbn,
I was quoting Cossomby's question to you.
I probably should've taken your name out of it and added quotation marks.

ttbn,

Wrong on both counts, I am not 70.

As for Paul Keating, I rate him highly in the intellect department. That's self evident by the fact Keating served a stretch as Prime Minister, and since has been called upon frequently for his opinions, and is in demand for public and private engagements.

As Keating is 79 and born in January, and you say you are 12 months older, I take it you are an octogenarian. As for being the forums "silly old fool", that's just my humble opinion, but you have demonstrated that fact to me on numerous occasions.

as for insults, I can give as good as I get, and you are certainly not backward in coming forward in that department as well.

I wouldn't ask you how you would spend $368 billion of public money, I wouldn't trust you to spend $3.68 of it wisely.

Get a life.

BTW. If you are not 70, how old are you? Older than 70? Why are you reluctant to reveal your age? Is it because it would wreck your constant disrespect towards 'silly old farts'? Your are keen to talk about yourself in other areas; why not your age?

All we know is that you are an oldie who likes to play in the same sandpit as juvenile Greens. And you pay them membership dues to be able to do it.

Excelling in jargon is vastly different from having sense & speaking sensibly. However, I could only agree with Keatinge about the subs.
Ever since the Goaf outlawed common sense & legislated jargon, the Lefties have been on a high but this high has already plateaued !

I'll leave the subs to people who know what they are doing. When Keating lost government, the internet had just arrived. Same goes for me of course. Desk computers arrived just before I retired. And like Keating rudely told a reporter that he feels he can comment on things he has had no experience with, because 'he has a brain, and reads', so do I; but that doesn't give me any reason to sound off on what defence money should be spent on what, anyone more than it does Keating.

Three out of six of our most recent ex-PMs are constantly making horses arses of themselves: Keating, Rudd and Turnbull. Of the other three, Howard and Turnbull speak only when they are spoken too, and Gillard keeps right out of it, to her great credit.

A couple of odd bods have recently asked little old me how I would spend the $300 and something billion. How silly can they be. I wouldn't have any more clue than they would. It's not my job. We have senior military officers and elected politicians to sort it out.

At the moment, and as much as I loathe the Albanese government for just about everything I think that they are doing a reasonable job of defence (certainly better than the last windbags); but they need to do more, faster. The only problem with the submarines is the time factor. We should be buying - better still manufacturing - other weapons.

Yes the subs will be a long time coming, a bit of a worry. However it is also going to be a long time before the Chinese, & even together with Russia, will be able to challenge the US, with the little assistance Europe can add.

Sure China has a huge mass of ground troupes, but they don't have the capacity of delivering them anywhere other than China & the immediate environment. Even if they decided to use container ships they have nothing like the capacity to defend them while transporting a land army.

Fortunately it will take them as long to develop such capacity as it is for us to acquire subs.

It is possible that the internal situation in China may require a foreign adventure to assure the leadership survives, in which case they could go off half cocked about Taiwan. That is the real danger for us right now, & our lack of a home grown capacity in liquid fuels leaves us totally defenseless if that eventuated.

It really is time to sit on the ratbag greens to assure our safety.

One doesn't require a military background to think on defence strategies, just a bit of common sense. Because the latter has been outlawed for so long military sense is mere theory these days.
I mean, 6 submarines defending a 40,000km coast line =6700km per sub $50 Billion !
How many Land-coastal-based missile launching facilities could be installed for that amount ?
And, the operators won't need life jackets & in a mishap there won't be any costly & time-consuming searches & rescues. I think the major drawback for that would be that some egotists won't be able to prance around in Christmas tree-like uniforms. The money saved could house tens of thousands of personnel families & normal families living around such facilities in which many would find employment.
I think modern military is all about ego & exploitation of incompetent bureaucrats at working peoples' expense. Oh yeah and, those lucky enough to get to pay with the ultra modern toys don't want to forfeit their cruisey lifestyle either.

I heard the subs won't even be ours, we'll be sharing them with the UK.
The whole thing is THE WORST DEAL EVER, that we can't possibly afford.
If the government is borrowing money, there's going to be a huge increase in inflation.
Everyone will have to pay for it you know.

All to firstly buy second hand nuclear subs that we wont see for 10 years, and upgrade US naval facilities, and the subs we actually will build in the 2040's - 20 years away - we'll be sharing with the UK.
- They wont even be all ours.

Albo is the most useless and reckless INCOMPETENT IDIOT OF A PM EVER.

He's got the brains of Mr Magoo.

Not to mention that we are now in an arms race against our largest trading partner, when we had good relations just a few years ago.

You think Xi isn't going to be talking to Putin about sharing Russian submarine technology?
They'll be signing all sorts of deals now that the west has issued an arrest warrant against him.

"Not to mention that we are now in an arms race against our largest trading partner, when we had good relations just a few years ago."

Now ain't that the bloody truth! Thanks AC.

All said and done, other than having the hide to threaten Americas authority, particularly at an economic level, what have the Chinese actually done to us to warrant the "strong arm" approach. Australia would be safer from conflict if we adopted a neutral policy. Given our post WWII posture with our sycophantic "all the way with LBJ" behaviour its probably too late.

I'm sure Morrison was ordered by Washington to; "ditch the French" at a cost of 5 billion bucks! Australia's military and foreign policy is now totally dictated to us by Washington. Love him or hate him, Whitlam was the only serious attempt at Australia plotting a semi independent course, and look what happen to him.

AC

Who are you quoting this time? Who said that we are in an arms race? Or, is this just your opinion? If it is, why are you using quotation marks?

You are the sites greatest 'quoter', with most of your posts being the popinions of somebody else. What's the difference this time?

You've got 1405 all excited, but he hasn't asked for references as he does with non-Leftists; and now the idiot is accusing Morrison of acting on US instructions to dump the ridiculous French submarine deal foisted on Australia by the Leftist Turnbull. He is "sure of it".

You and 1405 are well suited to each other, with your drip-feed drivel.

Hi AC,

Stop it with the "POPINIONS", which as everyone knows is onion flavoured popcorn!

ttbn, this is an OPINION site, so offering opinions is the name of the game!

BTW, are you addicted to "POPINION"?

What goes around comes around, boar, bore. Boer, or just BO!

There's a difference between a typo and your ignorance of just about everything except beer.

Hay Mr History

"Desk computers arrived just before I retired." The first PC was the Kenbak-1 marketed and sold to the general public in 1971. Since it arrived just before you retired, and now you are 80, glad you was able to retire before your 30th birthday!

Oh Christ! Have we taxpayers been looking after you for the last 50 years!

Is that really 'hay' or is it meant to be 'hey'. Or, possibly 'chaff', the stuff bulls eat to produce the stuff you are always talking.

Hey ttbn,
"You are the sites greatest 'quoter', with most of your posts being the popinions of somebody else. What's the difference this time?"
- Why thank you, should I take a bow?

"You've got 1405 all excited, but he hasn't asked for references as he does with non-Leftists"
- Didn't think I needed quotes and links when stating the bleeding obvious.
Of course China is going to act to counter the new situation on the ground.
What do you think his 'Great wall of steel' speech was all about?

"Is that really 'hay' or is it meant to be 'hey'. Or, possibly 'chaff', the stuff bulls eat to produce the stuff you are always talking."
- That was a good one, I'll pay that. Lol