Random News Stories

[Pies4shaw]

So, apart, perhaps, from the US favouring the establishment of a nice, soft target between them and China, why do we think Australia suddenly qualifies?

[stui magpie]

^

Pretty much because of China, how they have more subs in the Indo pacific than everyone else combined and how helping a trusted ally in the region to ramp up their presence is easier and cheaper than doing it themselves.

Not to forget that "that fella down under" apparently negotiated the arrangement directly with Bojo and SloJoe.

[pietillidie]

^That makes this all the more interesting (or vice-versa):

Beijing applies to join Asia-Pacific trade pact

Beijing has applied to join an Asia-Pacific trade pact once pushed by the US as a way to isolate China and solidify American dominance in the region.

China submitted the formal application letter to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership to New Zealand, according to a statement late Thursday in Beijing.

Commerce minister Wang Wentao had a follow-up call with his counterpart Damien O’Connor, as New Zealand is the depositary nation for the agreement.

The application is certain to spark a reaction from Washington, where a number of lawmakers had already expressed concern about China’s efforts to join. However, there’s no sign the administration of president Joe Biden is interested in rejoining the deal.

The original deal was envisioned by the US as an economic bloc to counterbalance China’s growing power, with then-president Barack Obama saying in 2016 that the US, not China, should write the regional rules of trade.

His successor Donald Trump pulled out of the deal in 2017, with Japan leading the revised and renamed pact to a successful conclusion the following year.

The application is the result of months of behind-the-scenes discussions after president Xi Jinping said in 2020 the nation was interested in joining. China is the second country to apply to join the 11-nation deal, after the UK asked to become a member earlier this year.

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/eco ... -1.4676690

[ronrat]

^

Pretty much because of China, how they have more subs in the Indo pacific than everyone else combined and how helping a trusted ally in the region to ramp up their presence is easier and cheaper than doing it themselves.

Not to forget that "that fella down under" apparently negotiated the arrangement directly with Bojo and SloJoe.

This is going to cause a torsion of the testes for the poor bastards in the Defence Department.

Negotiating a cancelled contract.
Huge effort to convice the states and local governments to have nuclear power during construction and access to ports.

Reconfiguration of the shipyard and slip.

Complete rejigging of financial targets .

Admirals and senior staff flying to USA and and UK in business class and staying at 5 star hotels.

Completely new skill sets for submariners and maintainers that probably will require extensive overseas courses.

Scrapping of any partially completed hulls.

Potentially idle ship builders doing nothing or laid off.

Once again the politicians will mess it up and the Department will get the blame.


Thailand is buying 6 subs off China and it crippling the Thai economy for a capability they do not need. Just to get some kickbacks for Military heads. Their is no threat in the area and the sea it will patrol is not deep. They have an aircraft carrier with no planes.

[stui magpie]

From what I've read, the nuclear powerplant comes as a sealed unit, just plug it in (massive oversimplification I know) but any old hulls will need to be scrapped as the nuke ones are bigger.

Also, the diesel or electric ones are better for shallow coastal waters but the nukes have advantages in stealth, speed and time underwater. They don't need refueling, ever.

[ronrat]

But the sailors need refuelling and sullage needs to be done.

[pietillidie]

Some good news:

A small furry marsupial that roamed plains in Australia has been brought back from the brink of extinction on the country's mainland, officials say.

Numbers of the Eastern Barred Bandicoot plummeted on the mainland because of foxes and habitat destruction.

Now, after 30 years of conservation efforts, the number has jumped from just 150 animals to an estimated 1,500.

It is the first time Australia has changed the status of an animal from "extinct in the wild" to "endangered".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-58564835

[Jezza]

Anyone else feel a tremor just now?

[pietillidie]

Here's a local one I just spotted on Bloomberg:

Australia shelled out A$27 billion ($20 billion) under the government’s signature JobKeeper wage subsidy to firms whose revenue didn’t fall sufficiently to qualify for the program or actually increased during the period, according to a Treasury analysis.

At the height of the pandemic lockdown, about A$11.4 billion was paid in the second quarter of 2020 and A$15.6 billion in the third quarter to businesses that didn’t have a 30% -- or 50% -- decline in sales compared with a year earlier, Treasury said Monday in a report.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... -t-qualify

[think positive]

They must have cheated on their paperwork, wether or not you got it depended on your quarterly BAS

[David]

[pietillidie]

I just want to register the fact that the horror show of that drooling halfwit Boris Johnson and his troupe of Brexiting fools is really starting to hit here.

Initially, they hid behind a Covid situation they worsened with delusions of herd immunity and idiotic half measures that let the ill-disciplined run free to spread the virus, but that veil is wearing very thin as the implications of Brexit, including the billions lost in the run up thereto, crash land on top of their pandemic mismanagement.

Like the repulsive Trump, Boris Johnson is the last person all but the most gruesome cult members and social climbers desire to see naked. But suffer the rest of us will for the blindness of fools.

[think positive]

welll ok then how do you really feel!

and exactly what brought that on! im not arguing, just curious!

[Bruce Gonsalves]

They must have cheated on their paperwork, wether or not you got it depended on your quarterly BAS

Not at all, I qualified for JK 1st time around as it went a bit quiet for a month and the idea was if you expected a 30% downturn in the quarter, you qualified.

Lo and behold work went gangbusters after the first month and yes my revenue went up and once qualified for JK you got it for 6 no matter what. Best financial year I've had.

[pietillidie]

welll ok then how do you really feel!

and exactly what brought that on! im not arguing, just curious!

Haha. No problem. I actually couldn't even be bothered arguing myself, which is rare, I know! That's why I simply wanted to 'register' the point.

There really are things like fuel shortages, bust energy retailers and worker shortages (surprise, surprise - locals really don't want to pick fruit, slaughter pigs or sleep on the road driving trucks after all), and there really are major supply chain problems made far worse by the Brexit customs debacle.

Then, the Tories go and hold their national conference in complete avoidance of reality, imagining they somehow did well with their horror Covid death toll and crippling of the NHS on top of their Brexit chaos. And now they're going to kick away what's left of the ladder because there's no money to spend, even as the NHS is backlogged to eternity because they wouldn't tell people to wear masks and behave sanely.

Meanwhile, big-mouthed Brexit sociopaths continue to have an undue influence on politics even as they hide their billions in tax havens, waving the St. George's cross with the angry mob while hoodwinking them into thinking that grocery and utility inflation are really a pay rise.

All that, of course, on top of the billions in lost FDI before Covid due to Brexit, and the decade of pointless Tory austerity before Brexit.

Now take all that into a long, dark British winter with no end of these horrid creeps, and no electable opposition, in sight.

I wish I didn't give a toss. I really do.