Not Trampis: May 2024

I watched it on Saturday because of the rain with my oldest son. You can only watch it on Binge in Australia. (My son has the free period to watch before you have to pay.)

The movie is about how the nazis came to the final solution for the Jews. What is jaw dropping is just how well educated this group were. There were plenty of Phds around the table yet they spewed and believed in the most ignorant things about the jews. The other thing to cogitate on is how any person could hate a race so much when they had nothing to embitter such men. Why did the nazis hate the jews so much???

Why did they wish to kill all jews in any country they ruled?

This is an english production and we have wonderful english actors and scriptwriters to ensure the quality of the movie.

If you have not seen it do yourself a favour and watch it. Be sure to listen for the story told to Hey right near the end of the film!

Sunday 12 May 2024

About time

For far tool ong Ukraine have attempted to battle russia with one arm tied behind their back. biden has been too timid in not allowing Ukraine to do anything in russia with US arms.

People are now changing their minds,

The West must influence Ukraine not to imitate Russia and commit war crimes. There will be undoubtedly be Ukrainians who feel that they should do to russia what russia has done to them. As Israel is showing revenge is a poor substitute.

Thursday 9 May 2024

Around the Traps 10/5/24

It is time again for Around the Traps.

Aussie,Aussie,Aussie,Oy,Oy,Oy

Andrew Norton on the-good-news-is-the-government-plans-to-cancel-3-billion-in-student-debt-the-bad-news-is-indexation-will-still-be-high
David Waller et al on how-effective-are-domestic-violence-advertising-campaigns-for-preventing-violence-against-women
Joshua Black and Frank Bongiorno on holy-moly-scott-morrison-has-plans-for-your-and-his-own-good
Ross Gittins on productivity-isnt-working-so-why-not-try-something-more-ethical , when-politicians-talk-of-security-be-on-your-guard
Peter Martin on if-the-rbas-right-interest-rates-may-not-fall-for-another-year-heres-why-and-what-it-means-for-next-weeks-budget
Sam Roggeveen on helicopter-flare-should-highlight-china-s-base-instincts
Greg Jericho on those-calling-for-higher-interest-rates-in-australia-should-be-careful-of-what-they-wish-for
Dave Hurst et al on yes-australias-big-supermarkets-have-been-price-gouging-but-fixing-the-problem-wont-be-easy
croaking cassandra on the-treasury-and-productivity

OZ Climate

Northern America

Menzie Chinn on employment-situation-slower-employment-wage-aggregate-hours-growth
Abdullah Fayhad on columbia-gaza-encampment-campus-protests-police-crackdown-pro-palestinian-students
noahopinion on the-positive-case-for-joe-biden , americas-semiconductor-policy-is-missing-a-key-point
Robert Jackson on us-student-gaza-protests-five-things-that-have-been-missed
Justin Fox on america-wasn-t-made-for-walking-and-it-s-killing-us Thanks Brad
Norman Eisen et al on trump-trial-judge-merchan-testimony-gag-order
Charlie Sykes on nancy-frenchs-ghosted-recounts-damage-trump-wrought-gop
Judith Shulevitz on pro-palestinian-protests-columbia-chants
Nicole Narea on weapons-shipment-bombs-israel-pause-gaza-rafah
Tyler Cowen on did-world-war-ii-pull-america-out-of-the-great-depression

Europe

Allen Ioannes on rwanda-uk-tories-sunak-labour-braverman-patel-migrants-asylum
Timothy Ash on big-germany-what-now
Menzie Chinn on russia-slows-struggles-to-supply-the-war-effort
Gordon Weiss on all-wars-end-how-will-one-ukraine

Asia

Alexandra Wake on india-s-crackdown-journalists-sour-note-festival-democracy
Shantanu Roy-Chaudury on japan-insulating-itself-america-s-turbulent-politics
Shahram Akbahzadah on iran-is-gaining-credibility-in-the-muslim-world-and-feeling-emboldened-this-doesnt-bode-well-for-the-region
Nicole Narea on israel-gaza-al-jazeera-ban-press-freedom-security
noahopinion on japan-is-not-a-xenophobic-country
Sarah Schiffling and Foteini Stavropoulus on gaza-war-as-ceasefire-talks-break-down-the-humanitarian-crisis-continues-to-escalate
Richard Heydarian on squad-goals-consolidating-new-quadrilateral-partnership
Joshua Keating on israel-hamas-ceasefire-rafah
Daniel Flitton on story-assassination-plot-india-decides-shoot-messenger

Wonk

Tim Harford on why-deep-down-were-all-ultramarathoners
the conversable economist on spring-2024-journal-of-economic-perspectives-free-online , a-downside-of-the-15-minute-city
Mainly Macro on when-are-large-and-persistent-increases-in-debt-to-GDP-justified
noahopinion on the-macro-arsonists
Christopher Featherstone on what-a-second-trump-presidency-might-mean-for-the-rest-of-the-world
Menzie Chinn on brad-setser-power-and-financial-interdependence
Michael Heard on astrazenecas-covid-vaccine-withdrawn-right-to-the-end-it-was-the-victim-of-misinformation

General

Jodi Rowley and Damian Letfoof on we-found-pesticides-in-a-third-of-australian-frogs-we-tested-did-these-cause-mass-deaths

Climate

skeptical science on india-key-climate-catastrophe , at-a-glance-diverge
Cynthia Mehboob on cable-shortage-plugging-offshore-wind-farms
Damian Carrington on world-scientists-climate-failure-survey-global-temperature
moyhu on april-global-surface-templs-down-0004-from-march
Dani Rodrik on green-subsidies-justified-on-economic-environmental-and-moral-grounds Thanks Brad
Umair Irfan on g7-coal-phaseout-end-japan-power-climate-energy-emissions

Andrew Gelman ( mainly stats)

Dianne Coyle ( quirky + book reviews)

the big picture on fragile-by-design thanks Brad

Vox Wonk

Wednesday 8 May 2024

I'm with Ross Gittins and Saul Eslake

I totally agree with Ross Gittins.

To me it is merely another form of protectionism which always fail. Be afraid!

Tuesday 7 May 2024

No rate rise

I was not surprised there was no rate rise. Inflation is not on the rise and we do not even know if the last quarter CPI was an outlier or not.

As the retail figures are showing the economy is slowing quite a lot. Unless you believe the economy must go into recession to get inflation down to proper levels talk of increasing rates is hairy chestness at its worst.

The budget is up next tuesday. As i have said previously the government is in a bind. The previous did not do any budget repair at all. To pursue this when the RBA is aggressively increasing interest rates is absurd. Modest improvements yes because anything else would bring on a recession.

Might I say it is hypocritical in the extreme for the Opposition to do this given they di not pursue budget repair at all. In examining fiscal policy you look at spending but also taxation. This is why the current government's fiscal policy is modestly restrictive. It could change at the margin next tuesday because of the tax cuts. This will only have a very modest effect on the economy perhaps allowing the economy to avoid a recession.

The government cannot aggressively pursue budget repair because of this and because it is following monetary policy as the previous government did nothing about the ballooning budget deficits.

The times are tricky!

Monday 6 May 2024

What is happening in US Universities

It appears most US students appear sympathetic to the cause of Palestine. This is unquestionably because of the Israeli government's reaction to the October 7 massacre. They believe, as I do but probably doe different reasons, Revenge is not a just solution.

It seems that those people who claim to be conservative but are not smear the uni students with the claim they are prio-Hamas. I have read most articles where this is allege on Hotair but none have provided a scintilla of proof. Some appear confused between the Palestinian flag and the Hamas flag! The other thing which is usually asserted is the protesters are anti-semitic. Again no proof but it could be these writers confuse criticism of Israel with anti-semitism.

I am at a loss as to why Unis in the USA want the demonstrations to close. Demonstrating is a rite of passage for a uni student.

THIS is useful for an understanding.

Unis need to both keep villence out of demonstrations and have the demonstrations on land but not in buildings.

Both things tend to happen when opposing sides get too close to each other. Sending in police almost always exacerbates the situation. Asking the demonstrators for student identification would also help. No identification then your outa here.

Just contrast what is occurring in the US to what is occurring here!

I am not sure if administrators understand the role of Universities in some parts of the USA

Sunday 5 May 2024

There will never be a two state solution and neither peace in the Middle East

I have no new ideas here but what is the problem going on.

In essence it is about Land.

Arabs did not want Jews coming to the land they lived in taking some of it. That is part of history. I live in Australia and we took land from those who could not fight back. It is so on every continent, The State of Israel became a national state in 1948 and nothing is going to change that.

Part of the problem of 1948 was Israelis taking Arab's property when they fled from Jewish terrorist groups. Arabs came back to their homes to find out they were no longer allowed to live in their property. This has never been resolved. Part of the reason is Israel does not recognise this occurred!

If we go across to the West Bank this regularly occurs. Israelis use the law to take over Arab property. This continues to occur. This shows modern day Jews do not read the books of Amos or Micah for example.

In Gaza where Hamas regularly gained recruits by going to families where they have lost loved ones. Imagine what will occur when whatever organisation succeeds Hamas. Revenge is the food everyone eats. Israelis have gorged themselves on it. Palestinian muslims will want to take revenge on the slaughter that is happening now.

We now have Israeli ministers making the nonsensical argument that most of the 34,000 killed are Hamas operatives. This would mean Hamas consists mainly of women and children! They have deliberately kept aid to low levels and targeted hospitals some of which are not operating.

A two state solution needs a Mandela on both sides. I cannot see one. It needs two nations to live side by side in peace. It also needs one side, the Palestinians, to have enough territory to have a state.

Gaza needs a humongous amount of money to create enough housing for Gazans to live in. Israel has destroyed around 80% of it. I cannot see them donating money to build any housing there whilst in the West bank Palestinians are losing more and more housing to Israelis.

Overall the outlook is very bleak