FEBRUARY 2017


TRUMP V TURNBULL.

What part of "Lame Duck" does Malcolm not understand?

"Lame" as in "not funny", "dumb", "crippled".

"Duck" as in "out for zero", "won't see after Christmas", "finished".

In the last few months of Presiding, US Presidents are called "Lame Duck" Presidents.  And people who have any sense keep well away from making any deals with them (unless it is for a pardon).

So Malcolm, not smart to do that deal with Obama when he is a lame duck.  Obama did a lot of vengeful things during his lame duck period, (Cuban refugees in Florida, resolution 2334 etc) and this was probably his most vicious.

Malcolm.  You should offer to release Trump from his bind.  The American people have been taken for a ride by Obama, and it ill behoves Australians to take the blame.

THAAD.  (Terminal High Altitude Area Defence.)

Back in July 2000 I recommended upgrading development of Anti Ballistic Missiles. I made several other pleas on the matter. January 2003.  November 2006.

So it is good to hear that the US has been working on the matter.  I think we can safely assume that neither N. Korea nor Iran can land a missile on any location protected by THAAD.

It is my theory that even as little as five years is sufficient technology advantage to have a 99% stoppage rate,

RUSSIANS

Back in the middle sixties I was putting myself through Engineering and paying my way by tutoring math.  One of my students was Ivan, a Russian, aged in his 30's.

At that time there was the spying scandal of the Petrovs and the cold war.  Having a personal contact with a Russian my perceptions of the USSR were less apprehensive than that of most of my fellow Australians.

So I am quite prepared to see the average Russian in a more friendly light than the average German or Japanese (against whom my Father and Uncle went to war.)  Do not get me wrong, I had a German BFF called Manfred, and I quite like all of the Japanese I have met.  It is just that Australia was allied with the Russians and the French in both WWI and WWII.

So when the hidden elite in the US disparage Putin as a war criminal in an effort to denigrate Trump, I tend to look closely at their reasoning.

Mostly his war crimes seem to be about Ukraine.  There are two issues I would like to comment on regarding Ukraine.
  • Crimea.  According to Russia, Crimea was always part of Russia,  60% of Crimeans are ethnic Russians. Apparently Khrushchev allocated administrative power over Crimea to the Ukraine back before the 1991 schism.  The large Russian minority in SE Ukraine (13% of all Ukrainians are ethnic Russians) started a revolution as objection to joining the EU in 2013.  The Crimeans held a plebiscite which indicated that Crimeans wanted to merge with Russia.  Surely Russian interference by allowing volunteers to cross into the Ukraine is no more heinous than US interference in Iraq over imaginary WMD.
  • MH17.  There is speculation that the Russians were responsible for this incident.  Currently the jury is still out.  Some people say it was ethnic Russian Ukrainians using rockets supplied by the Russians to shoot down Ukrainian warplanes.  The alternate narrative is that it was the Ukrainian army shooting at what they thought was a Russian warplane.  Regardless, it was not a smart move for Malaysia to send a commercial aircraft over an active warzone.
So far as I am concerned, neither of those incidents makes Putin a war criminal.  Of course his sheltering of Manning probably makes him a criminal in the eyes of Democrats.  I do not like governments keeping secrets. That is why I am anti TPP.

Well some of them, anyhow,

FEDERAL EMAIL & BANKING

Back in September 2005 PM Malcolm suggested a government supplied email address for every citizen.  Now that he is PM and has the power, could I remind him of that suggestion?  As PM he could probably provide such an a At that time I also suggested a government provided personal bank account for each Australian.

Once each person has free, government secured, government provided email and savings bank accounts, we could all vote by email.  In fact, maybe we could instruct our elected representatives, without the possibility of fraudulent polling, on just how we think s/he should vote on any legislation that comes before parliament.  Something along the lines of the online opinion polls operated by the communications (TV, radio, newspaper) websites.


Eventually, we might not even need representatives to govern us.  Whoopee.


GREEN ELECTRICITY COSTS YOU MORE THAN $80 per Quarter

According to a BAEconomics report on renewable energy subsidies in Australia
, Australians are paying $3 billion p/a (2015-2016FY) subsidies for wind and solar electricity.

There are around 9 million households in Australia.  So it costs each household $3,000,000,000/9,000,000 = $333 pa or slightly more than $80 on each electricity bill.
That is about equal to the pensioner electricity subsidy.

Apologists will explain that wind (@ $80/MWH) actually costs less than coal (@ $90/MWH).  They say we just have to keep renewable energy available for emergencies.

Coal costs $40/MWH in fuel, $50/MWH in standby mode.

So actually, (if you do not want blackouts) wind costs $80 + $50 = $130/MWH

WTF. I expect that the power companies would rather pay $80/MWH and give you blackouts when it's dark & no wind. (I have a 3KVA petrol generator in my back yard:)


FOURTH ESTATE TERMINAL DECLINE?

The 
US and Australian journalists are having conniptions over Trump.  Recycled rumour and invented narratives are having multiple airings on the ABC and newspapers.  To me, this behaviour reminds me of the terminal throes of a landed fish.

Assuming that it is near terminal, we can theorize on the beginnings of the extinction.  The Fourth Estate was first identified by Bourke in 1787.  I suggest that it's extinction began with texting & blogs & email.  Those media and the more recent technologies Facebook and Twitter allowed individuals to communicate directly with others, to propagate facts and ideas that had previously been the exclusive domain of the mass media that was dominated by the fourth estate.

Obama used 
a website My.BarackObama.com to organize help to get elected. Trump used Twitter to circumvent the narrative of the fourth estate.  

Now that he is president, the Fourth Estate is waging all out war.  For instance his one hour press conference on 16th February was reported by different branches of the liberal press as "surreal", "dodging", "untruths and evasions", "wild and unhinged", "a rant and rave".  The typical tactic was to show a short 20 second cut & quote it out of context.  Here is the full talk.  If you want proof of the attacks then I suggest that you listen to Trump's Press conference, then listen to some of his detractors.  (To find his detractors I suggest you Google "Trump February 2017 press conference").  You will then see how the press operates.

The fourth estate is responding with visceral attacks using gossip rather than facts.  It is fast losing credibility.

Still and all. It probably wont matter when the SINGULARITY happens sometime between 2021 and 2030.

MUSLIM ISSUES

Muslims who come to 
Australia continue worshipping God as specified in their religious books, "The Koran" and the "Sunnah".

"So what?" you might say.  "That is not against the law. In Australia we have freedom of religion".

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution.  In an article in "The Australian" of 18th February 2017 she has summarised parts of Sharia law as derived from the Muslim religion.  Below are paraphrases of Sharia Laws derived from the Koran.  You can verify the quotes online by googling for instance "Koran 2:282".
  1. Allah (God) orders that a woman's evidence has half the weight of a Man's evidence. (Koran 2:282)
  2. Allah orders that women must have and be obedient to a male guardian, and Allah states that men can beat women under their guardianship. (Koran 4:34)
  3. Allah has stated that women must submit to rape by their husband. (Koran 2:223)
  4. Allah has stated that women should inherit half as much as men. (Koran 4:11, 4:12)
  5. Allah orders that fornicators be flogged. (Koran 24:2)

Mohammed, who founded the Muslim religion and is known to Muslims as Allah's (God's) last prophet, acknowledged that the Jews and Christians worshipped the same god.  Jesus is classified by Muslims as a "minor Prophet".

In Christianity the only words that come directly from God are the Ten Commandments, which Moses brought down from the mountain.  The four books of the Apostles are descriptions by some of Jesus' disciples of his words and acts.

The word "Koran" when translated into English means "recitals".  When Mohammed lived in Mecca and Medina he would go out into the desert, and Allah would speak to him.  When Mohammed returned he would recite what Allah had said to him and it would be written down by associates.  So literally, the Koran has the same weight in the Muslim religion as the Ten commandments.  The Koran is the spoken word of Allah as reported by Mohammed

Mohammed's own words and actions were collected and written down after his death and are known as the Sunnah.  The Sunnah is comparable to the first four books of the "New Testament" which were written down by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John after Jesus ascended to Heave

 Changing what is written in the Koran is akin to rewriting the ten commandments.

For instance, imagine a pope attempting to make the following revision..

"7. Thou shalt not kill, (except if you really hate the person)"

To a Christian, it just can't be done.  By definition, God can not be mistaken.  He can't change his mind.  So unless Muslims are different, and think God can change his mind, then those five constraints on women must stand.  Or can a Muslim say "I am a devout Muslim, and I say that ~1,400 years after those statements God has changed his mind about women.   Now their word is as good as a man's and they do not need a male guardian and they don't have to obey their guardian and their husband can't beat them or demand sex and they inherit the same sized share as their brothers and fornication won't be a floggable offence."

When I see those changes to the Koran accepted by the immigrating Muslim community, I will be happy to have them as neighbours.




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