Politics is a dirty word

REPORTS of mass evacuation drills in North Korean towns followed fears of a US attack. Another ballistic missile test is expected to greet US President Donald Trump when he starts his Asian visit in a few days. He plans to visit Japan,the Philippines, China,South Korea, and Vietnam. There are expected o be many anti-Trump demonstrations during the visit.Trump has been critical of Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and China. Protests in South Korea are likely to be particularly vocal as many blame Trump for the current crisis on the Korean peninsula. The US has deployed three carrier strike groups in the region, the USS Nimitz, Reagan and Roosvelt, in preparation for all-out war. The US has also flown B1B bombers over Korea in an attempt at intimidation. There is doubt about the effectiveness of B1B bombers with at least three crashing this year. Several cities on the east coast of North Korea undertook war-preparation drills last week. It will be interesting to see if Trump and ...

Barnaby Joyce has been an embarassment as Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister and he’s been the worst Minister for Agriculture since Ken Wriedt in the Whitlam Government. Joyce bears some responsibility for overseeing the theft of billions of litres of water in the Murray-Darling scandal. Thankfully the High Court ruling on his dual citizenship status gives voters in the seat of New England a chance to consign this political hack to the scrapheap. Tony Windsor has said he won’t be standing, so it will be a matter of picking any candidate whose name is not Barnaby Joyce.

Australia’s politicians have totally bungled the introduction of high speed broadband internet connections. A fundamental mistake was establishing a government business -NBN Co - to roll out the system. A more cost-effective and simple approach would have been to allow Telstra to install the fibre cables. Now the NBN recognises that it is unlikely to ever make a profit unless it receives a subsidy and protection from competition. It is also likely that a full roll-out of the NBN network will not be completed for decades, if ever. Consumers will carry the additional costs which are likely to total $ billions.

There's no need for Australian politicians to squander billions of taxpayer dollars buying costly missile defence systems - which may not work. Australia can save heaps on defence spending by developing electronic warfare systems as an alternative to supporting US arms dealers which may leave this country exposed to attack. Electromagnetic Pulse Generators are relatively simple defensive tools which can disrupt communications, guidance and navigation systems. A low powered electromagnetic pulse can be made by discharging an ultra low inductance high voltage capacitor into a low inductance antenna. Russia and China have both perfected EMP weapons – as demonstrated in the Black Sea, when in 2014, the systems of the Destroyer, USS Donald Cook were disabled. This year, USS Fitzgerald was unable to manoeuvre to avoid colliding with a commercial freighter off Japan – despite having what the US regarded as the best defence and navigation systems. With an effective EMP system or Dir...

US Generals have finally been forced to admit that they can’t guarantee victory in a war with North Korea which is presumably why President Donald Trump has done nothing but talk (and shout) about Kim Jong Un. Generals in the Pentagon have acknowledged that an electromagnetic pulse device disabled the USS Fitzgerald, causing a collision with a freighter off Japan. China and Russia have been perfecting electronic warfare systems, and the technology has been available to North Korea, which destroys US belief in the invincibility of its military machine. Surface ships, submarines and aircraft can be rendered useless by electromagnetic pulse weapons. Some EMP generatora are relatively simple to make and offer a low cost method of countering high-tech military equipment.