Politics is a dirty word

Without a fundamental change in Government policy, Australia is rushing headlong into financial chaos. Government debt is currently more than $500 billion and there are no signs of firm Government plans to reign in spending. The country would be in better shape now if politicians had been prudent and put aside billions of dollars during the mining boom into a national capital fund or into the Reserve Bank. As it is, we are a basket case and things will only get worse with current policy settings.

President Donald Trump and the Pentagon Generals should face charges, if personnel aboard vessels in the Carl Vinson carrier strike group are killed in action.The United States has been aware for some years that North Korea has the technology to deploy electromagnetic pulse weapons. which disable weapons,guidance and navigational systems. Here's the website of one international think-tank that has published information about it. gatestoneinstitute Many other reports have been circulating for at least three years.The Carl Vinson and its crew will be sitting ducks in a shooting war if EMP weaponry is used.

North Korea has developed electronic warfare capabilities that can disable missile guidance systems, navigation equipment and jam satellite Global Positioning Systems.It is reported to have developed a highly effective non-kinetic electromagnetic pulse system to use as a weapon, very similar to the way the Russians disabled the destroyer USS Donald Cook in the Black Sea. The country appears to be ready to take on the USS Carl Vinson Strike Group.

With technical advice from China, North Korea's arms manufacturers are well down the path of perfecting ramjet engines which will propel rockets and aircraft at more than five times the speed of sound. Engine tests were conducted in March and development has proceeded. Missiles travelling at hypersonic speed are almost impossible to intercept and destroy.

If North Korea starts chucking missiles around in response to US aggression, a few may be heading for Australia, but there are still some doubts that the country has enough long range missiles to pose a major threat. It's likely that the targets will be in the north of Australia. As US bases, Darwin and Cairns are likely to be first in line. Darwin regularly hosts US troops and ships. Trinity Inlet, Cairns is home for US nuclear submarines.The country has two types of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) the KN-08 and KN-14. Designed to be transported and fired from mobile rocket launchers the three-stage KN-08 is believed to have a range of about 11,500km with the two-stage KN-14 having a shorter range. It is believed that at least one of the missiles has been adapted for submarine launch.The issue of North Korea will almost certainly be on the agenda when US Vice President, Mike Pence visits Australia on April 22. It will be interesting to see how the F-35B Joint Strike Fi...

China is About to launch its second sircraft carrier The Shandong is the first carrier designed and built in China.The new Type 001A aircraft carrier is an improved version of China's only operational aircraft carrier, the 60,000-ton Type 001 Liaoning, which is a refurbished Soviet carrier. With a displacement of around 65,000 tons, the Shandong will be slightly larger than the Liaoning. Once launched, the ship is expected to be in service within two years. Powered by oil-fired boilers and steam turbines, the ship will have an estimated operational range of 3,850 nautical miles (7,130kilometers) at about 32 knots. It will carry 24 multi role fighter jets. Ten helicopters and a range of missiles. The new carrier features a so-called ski-jump assisted Short Take-Off But Arrested Recovery (STOBAR) launch system which limits the range of aircraft but future carriers are expected to use more advanced catapult technology used by U.S. aircraft carriers. The Chinese navy's Equipmen...

Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott is right when he says that Australians are sick of politicians. But his proposed solution won’t change anything. We need some fundamental change to our constitution. There's little doubt that Australian is over-governed with vast armies of politicians and fat cat bureaucrats. Australians do not elect Prime Ministers, they elect local politicians who get together and appoint a party leader who is automatic ally Prime Minister if that party has a majority of seats in Parliament. A large part of the problem will be solved by getting rid of political parties. Currently, politicians owe more allegiance to their parties than to the people who elected them. A next step will be to abolish the extravagance of a Federal Parliament with all the costs associated with duplicating Ministers and Departments when each State already has working bureaucracies in place. Let COAG run the country.

North Korea is forging ahead with its development of weapons, including intercontinental ballistic missiles, nuclear warheads and nuclear submarines despite sanctions imposed by the United Nations and the United States. A report for the UN reveals that the sanctions have failed to hinder the development of weapons systems. The report found that the country had developed an international smuggling network to foil the sanctions and outmanoeuvre enforcement measures. There is a network of North Korean companies with bogus identities used to accrue cash, technologies and materials for the government’s weapons development. It's yet another example of the failure of sanctions to work effectively.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has made it clear that The US is considering a preemptive military strike on North Korea. After the missile attack on Syria, Korea, China and Russia have been on notice that they are next on the hit list. Hard to understand why the Generals in the Pentagon think they can win an all-out war on three fronts. The combined military strength of China and Russia easily matches US power and North Korea has enough fire power to be a nuisance.China and North Korea have more than 20,000 missiles on the Korean peninsula. The end result is likely to be the Mutually Assured Destruction feared during the Cold War. The US military appears to dismiss North Korea's missile technology, assuming the Koreans don't have long range missiles to attack the US. But they forget that North Korea has at least 70 submarines, some carrying medium range missiles. So all they have to do is cruise towards the US coast and launch their attack. In the meantime they can atta...

America's feigned outrage at the use of Sarin gas in Syria was the excuse for launching Cruise missiles (it wasn't just because the US President had a tantrum, it was more of a long term plan by the Pentagon ). It is hard to understand how the US expects to claim the moral high ground with its dismal track record of stamping around the world killing people. In various Middle East wars the US has used such weapons as depleted uranium, thermobaric bombs and white phosphorous which have lasting impacts on people. Depleted uranium weapons are manufactured in many countries, included the UK, US, France and Russia. It is a significant component of armour piercing anti tank shells. Depleted uranium munitions have been widely used in the Middle East. On the battlefield, some of the uranium is vapourised on impact, producing a radioactive heavy-metal smoke that is easily ingested or inhaled and causes long term and terminal health impacts. On top of that, the US shot down an Iranian ...

The United States seems determined to embroil the world in yet more terrorist attacks by further violence in the Middle East. Sean Spicer was right when he said that President Trump was doing his best to destablise the Middle East Chemical weapons are back in the news, with the US announcing moves to try to unseat the Syrian President Assad for allegedly authorising the use of Sarin gas, a potent organophosphate which is part of the US weapons arsenal. Many thousands of tonnes of Sarin are held in US stockpiles so it is hardly credible for the US to claim to be upset that the weapons have been used.The US is the only major power which has not ratified a clause in the Hague convention prohibiting the use of poison gasses in war. This is an other example of the US and its allies not thinking things through. Removing President Assad would likely strengthen terrorism in the Middle East and around the world – as did removing Saddam Hussein from Iraq and Colonel Gaddafi from Libya. Any m...

It you've ever wondered why so many people have allergic reactions or sensitivities to food containing such products as wheat, here's the answer. It's common practice for wheat harvested in Australia and the United States to be drenched with the herbicide Roundup, or other products containing glyphosate or 24D several days before the combine harvesters move through the paddocks because they are said to increase grain yields and make the withered plants easier to harvest Pre-harvest applications of herbicides has been commonplace for 20 years. So the community has been systematically poisoned by a build-up of these chemicals. Politicians, farmers and business leaders know about it but don't care even though their own families are at risk. Details: The pharmacy