Hi BELLY ol' friend...

It's not my intention to cast aspersions on the Labour Party, far from it. However there are some from the 'far left' of that Party, who've done considerable disservice to your Party and that's a great shame.

It's no better in the LNP either. Malcolm TURNBULL represents everything I totally abhor in an individual; a treacherous individual; a backstabber; and one given to uttering mendacious statements to the Electorate, whenever it suits him.

If I consider Ms GILLARD and Mr RUDD to be among the worst PM's in our history, well you can include Malcolm TURNBULL to head that small list! No politician is worth the money they're paid. In fact their Salary packages should be structured upon what they've achieved; as opposed to what they've irrevocably lost through stupidity and incompetence, thus costing the taxpayer millions.

Dear Foxy,

«Julia Gillard's NBN roll-out differed greatly from that
of what the Coalition had planned for our country.
I don't think you can blame her for what went wrong.»

What do I care for the politics? It was her initiative and as a result, 18 months after this cursed thing arrives in my suburb, I will lose all contact with the world. I will not be able call my family and friends, they will not be able to call me, I will not be able to call emergency 000, or a doctor or the plumber if a pipe bursts, never mind the internet (I could still go to the library to use it, unless of course I am too old or sick to get there) - it's all thanks to her and her grandiose dream to put gamers above ordinary people!

But I tell you, this thing will crash eventually because everything will depend on the internet and you too will end up with no communications. Did you know that the CISCO routers that direct the internet traffic, converting IP addresses into physical routes, are made and programmed in America? Did you know that whenever the Americans want, those routers re-download their software from America, so if the Americans decide, or if China hacks CISCO, then the routers can be infected with malware and all internet traffic in Australia, now including also phones (now all being VOIP - "voice over IP"), will cease?

Perhaps you know of some place in the country where they will still be able to retain their copper phone-lines, so I can move there?

O Sung Woo,

Beyond all the hype and accusations about Rudd & Co and the economic performance of the coalition, here are some comparative economic statistics-

1983 – The Coalition under Malcolm Fraser with John Howard as Treasurer hand over to Labor an economy ranked 20th in the world

1984 – Paul Keating wins Euromoney’s Finance Minister of the Year
1996 – Paul Keating and Labor hand over to the Coalition an economy now ranked 6th in the world

2007 – John Howard and the Coalition hand back an economy to Labor that had slipped down to 9th place in the world

2011 – Wayne Swan wins Euromoney’s Finance Minister of the Year
2013 – Labor under Rudd/Gillard hand over to the Coalition the best performing economy in the world, boasting AAA credit ratings after navigating Australia through the GFC (The worst financial crisis since the Great Depression)

2017 – The Coalition under Turnbull/Abbott have presided over an economy that has now slipped back down to 21st in the world.

Yuyutsu,

As a former Telstra employee I can assure you that Cisco do not "download their software from America" - it's loaded locally as is all routing data and Cisco are certainly not the only provider they use.
For added network diversity, there are even two separate phone networks - one by Ericsson and the other by Alcatel, although both will eventually be phased out, just as the electro-mechanical Step-by-Step and Crossbar were replaced decades ago.

Copper phone lines are no longer relevant. All exchanges have been digital since the "Future Mode of Operation" came into effect about 20 years ago and most services now work via Remote Integrated Multiplexers (those cabinets on the street) which connect back to their Node Exchange via Optical Fibre. Migrating to FTTN NBN is just a matter of swinging that RIM connection over onto an NBN cabinet and modifying the Telstra (or other) customer data.

We aren't lkely to return to leaded petrol, Betamax/VHS video or rotary dial phones any time soon either.

Perhaps you should be more concerned about OPTUS and their presence in Parliament House, considering they are owned by the Singapore Government.

Dear Hasbeen,

Thanks for the correction, I will put it to him again.

Dear mhaze,

I'm not sure how you do it but combining childishness with pig ignorance, along with your stupidity & arrogance, is not a good look.

Dear belly,

Yes insults have been a bit of a feature for a while now. There were a group on the forum who felt they gained a bit of swagger through the Abbott period and started flinging the mud around with gay abandon. Most of the others put up with it to some extent but now if someone like mhaze reacts to a post with something like 'clueless' he might in turn be called clueless and ignorant in a reply, and on it goes. Hardly edifying I agree but beyond not taking the first swipe I'm happy to go toe to toe, if I can be bothered reading their posts.

Some of the bluster is dissipating though so there is hope for the future.

Anyway, back to topic.

On Korea, Trump seems to have combined a "I'll roll over and you can tickle my belly" approach with a' "all or nothing" - "complete denuclearisation" - approach. Weird. So Kim can delay, prevaricate, obfuscate, and Trump/Pompeo just have to wait, probably promising even more abandonment of the south Koreans if only Kim would start to do something, anything. Maybe pull all US troops out of South Korea as "a gesture of goodwill". Good luck with that.

What else could they be doing ?

A host of small steps: in return for Kim pulling back his 1400 heavy artillery pieces trained on Seoul, the US suspends any 'war games'.

In return for Kim pulling his navy back, say, fifty km from there 38th parallel on both sides, the US removes nuclear-capable ships from its Japanese bases, maybe move them down to Taiwan where they may be needed soon enough to protect that newly-exposed nation.

n return for Kim getting rid of his missiles and/or missile sites one by one, Trump could slowly relax economic sanctions.

In return for international supervisors permanently stationed in North Korea, the US pulls its armed forces in South Korea back, say, 100 km.

Many steps.

But no. All or nothing. Given Trump is essentially not much more than piss and wind, like all bullies and frauds, it will probably be bits and pieces from the Yanks and nothing substantial from the North Koreans. In fact, Trump will soon lose patience and abandon South Korea altogether.

Joe