JC Political Thread - For all things political Part 2

Remember this chart? Look for World Vision and the other NGOs. I say this pertain to Oz too; you guys pitch in some millions cash to finance these people amongst another nations.

The Palestinian Charity Trap - WSJ

 

I never open my wallet to a beggar.

 

Here in the states the Clinton campaign is taking hits from all angles. The Clinton Foundation is so corrupted from selling weapons, drugs, financing terror, etc... just one exception; they have not done any good with it.

Bill and Melinda Gates foundation does not fall too far from the tree...

 

Here is some the main stream media obmit most of the time. A nice compilation of clips on the USA Deamon-cratic nominee.




That video is based on the Iran Deal going bad

 

Here is an interesting story...

DEA regularly mines Americans' travel records to seize millions in cash

 

Skydrol

That video is an eye opener for sure. It amazes me that the election has narrowed down to two candidates of the "quality" of Clinton and Trump. Are they really the best the US people can choose? Would any of the deposed candidates have been more acceptable? Or more competent?

 

The best that we can come up? Nope, that is what is offered or let us say, forced feed by the Media and the 2 political monopolistic parties. Trump is a wild card. He used the Republicont party to his advantage; if he runs as independent he will be sidelined by the media, no exposure at all. The Republiconts saw him as someone that can bring the crowd; a political sideshow for the circus. Well, he was the Heath Ledger of the Batman movie; the Joker (Wild Card) stole the show. Now they have to eat him because if they get rid of him, will show to the most dimwit people how corrupted is the political system. We all know the Hillary nomination was sheer manipulation from the party itself. Bernie Sanders really won the nomination if they used the people's votes. The delagates picked Hillary and did whatever the party wanted. Proved that our electoral system is rigged and voting means nothing. Both parties never had a decent candidate, strange enough, Trump seems to be best choice. He does not play the political game and that is what people want. Reminded me of the Wrestler/Ex Navy SEAL Jesse Ventura; he was a great Governor but was as abrasive or worse than Trump (in that aspect), did not pussyfooted around, the media and the 2 political parties hated him.

As far competency.... to qualify you need 2 things. Older than 42 years of age and Borned US Citizen (current one is questionable). The president's job is not what people think. In lame terms, he is the people's lawyer; part of the balance of power. Congress write laws, presie sees if serves the best interest of the prople. Just find the oath of office, it tells you what are the duties. They are qualified, as far meeting the requirements by law? Yes they are. Our current presie spend more time playing golf and taking vacations at tax payer expenses than any previous presidents, that tells anybody the administration is running the show.

Our system is rigged for 2 parties and push to the sidelines any other parties/candidates that want to run. I am very aware that you guys live in AU, but I like to share the inside knowledge, so you guys can bounce it on what you see in the telly and papers. It does sound like some crap from a book but we (US) have a highly corrupted and dangerous Gov. and people wonder what is the big deal with the 2nd Amendment; the founding fathers saw it coming.

Will like to share this video clip from Ronald Reagan; the Hollywood Actor. His opinion about the Gov. This was before his presidency.

 

Here is an interesting character called George Soros (aka György Schwartz). He has dibs on the voting machine business.


This came from the Bernie Sanders side. The one running for the Deamon-cratic party presidential nomination.

 

This just cropped in the news here in the US.

Australia Rejects Bids From Chinese Investors for Electricity Provider

There is anything else on the matter that is not covered on our side of the pond?

 

It may have just been a flash of recognition by our Govt (but I doubt it) that the average Aussie is bloody sick and tired of our assets being sold off to overseas interests in the name of 'investment in our country.'
We should be the richest country in the world, but we are heading to be the 'poor white trash of Asia', we don't manufacture anything, we don't own anything, and if we invent something it is given away, or disappears into history until it is 'invented' again by some foreign genius.
Even our Olympic Games athletes seem to have caught the problem, we have record holders and current world champions in a heap of sports, but in the last few weeks their have come away empty handed with sub-par personal bests.

 

I will like to see their method to the madness. What is the benefit of selling that utility company? At least someone came to their senses and stopped it. But honestly, why even consider it puting up for sale?

A friend of mine told me... "A business is like a tree, you eat the fruits, plant their seeds, do not eat the leaves, do not chop it for firewood".

 

Apart from assets being sold off to to overseas our manufacturing has been as well. I love how our various state & federal govts keep cheering for local manufacturing etc but they themselves, just to save a few pennies allow foreign companies to build & run required assets. Having worked on the railways in Sydney for 10 years I've seen a number of changes & reviews that claimed to have saved money but all that's been done is that they've spent more.

Back in '77 my mother started work for the railways and was always on the night shift. The Eveleigh workshops there built and maintained trains. As a young 8 year old kid, it was a fantastic sight to see trains built, rebuilt & maintained. They had a specialised workforce that built engines & carriages. Most of the work was handmade. Even if you were a non train person it was always fascinating. Over the years the workshops were shut down & were left empty as trains were being built/maintained elsewhere in Sydney, Newcastle & Wollongong. The degree of workmanship meant that there were less faults & built to a high standard that most are still being run on the network today. Over the years in order to keep up with passenger usage, new technologies were employed. The state govt always did tenders for this & for those who know the tender process, know it to be very political. The technology used to keep everything moving comes from all over the world but the main problem has been that some of these systems wont talk to other systems due to compatibility issues. Some of the tenders that were won & technology built knew this but of course they got passed anyway. I remember in my time that a group of signaler technicians got together & designed a new signalling system that was compatible with other hardware & software that was being used. The tender went up for this & they were far cheaper & reliable than overseas tech. They didn't get the tender & the new system put into place experienced a number of problems. In the end after a few years the signaler techs got their system up & running & saved the state govt more money than they realised. A number of politicians also own/part own companies that supply equipment, clothing etc to the railways that get the tenders. As far as I see that, it's double dipping.

Those who know, know that the railways in Sydney have been in decline since the early 90's. Technology hasn't changed that much & over the years it really does need serious upgrading. In the late 90's the state govt of the time decided to sell off Freightrail which was the most profitable arm of the railways as the govt needed the money to fund other projects. Short sightedness proved that selling that asset off proved to be a killing point for the railways in NSW with lines being shut down, stations & tracks go into decay & that passenger trains weren't making any money for the consecutive state govts. All that was done was staff review upon staff review to cut corners etc while upper management still kept their positions. A large number of upper management took redundancies & were re-hired virtually the next day for the same job that they just left. Those of you that might remember, the T-Card system that the state govt wanted to introduce to passengers that proved to be a multi million dollar failure. I went to where the T-Card systems were being made & was told by the manufacturers that they wouldn't work. In the end & after many years later they adopted the Opal Card which is proving to be a headache. Your average railway worker was taking the brunt of govt & upper management blunders and paid the price for it.

At the turn of the 21st Century, the Millennium trains (M-sets) were introduced along with OSCAR (H-sets). M-sets were to service the city & the H-sets to replace the Intercity V-sets (which had been in service since 1970). The M & H-sets were plagued with problems. Some of the problems were caused by insufficient power supply on the overhead to cope with the power demands of the more technologically advanced trains causing them to shut down. Software bugs also contributed to the trains' poor reliability. Both these sets took a lot of power & can only be run at certain times. Again due to not upgrading other systems being used the M & H-sets could not cope. The V-sets had to soldier on but they themselves were being run into the ground due to rust & metal fatigue. With staff reviews, the people in charge of maintaining them, most were made redundant with only a skeleton maintenance crew left to maintain the V-sets. Politically the new M-sets were run in western & south western Sydney so that commuters thought that the old no aircon no heat S-sets were being replaced. The H-sets as they were intercity trains suffered the same problems but also had customer backlash as they were highly uncomfortable during the 90min-2hr trip. V-sets still had to soldier on in service & in most cases replacing H-sets altogether. As far as we saw it, they were a waste of time & money. Had they been built in Australia instead of China, they would have got their values worth. I remember when they were re-upholstering the seats, they sent them back to China, instead of doing it here. The work that was done was still substandard. Both sets were extensively tested but problems still remained. The defects included; 'Milky' effect windscreens – apparent when under direct sunlight blinding drivers, no padding in the carriage ceilings, cables obstructing the driver's view, poor-quality steel welding as evident in the indents seen on some areas of the carriage exterior, gaps in the plastic moulding, handrails not lining up with stairs and software problems which still persist today.

Just recently a new tender went out to replace the intercity H-sets & the older V-sets (V-sets still more predominant). Now you would think that with the lessons learnt from the past 16 years, you'd think that the new un-named sets would be built here & thereby save/create jobs in the rail industry. Wrong! The Hyundai Rotem/UGL/Mitsubishi Electric consortium was announced as the the successful bidder in August 2016. The companies formed a joint venture called RailConnect to manage the project. They will be built in South Korea by Hyundai & maintained for 15 years by the consortium. The State govt claims there will be up to 200 jobs for this but considering that railway jobs have been getting cut for years, it'll mean nothing. Transport Minister Andrew Constance says the winning tender offered a 25 per cent saving by having it built in South Korea. I can guarantee you right here & now that there will be a ton of problems before they even go into service like the previous M,H & A-sets and costs will blow out. It'll also give the transport minister an excuse to go to South Korea wasting taxpayers money instead of sending qualified tech staff to ensure that these trains will be network compatible.

It would be far easier to build them here regardless of what state it would have been built in. Proper jobs would have been created which would filter down into the economy. At this stage there have been staff reviews going since 2014 at ground level. My old depot & my crew have gone. The work is done by contractors. The same ones that claimed that they removed the asbestos at my old depot. There are hardly any station staff due to the Opal card which took over the paper tickets. The owners of the Opal are separate to the NSW govt run railways so if you have a problem with your card, you have to contact Opal not station staff. Only some stations have security, most suburban stations have no staff, maintenance is contracted by inexperienced workers and there is no safety. Yes there are CCTV cameras but they have replaced staff. So anyone living in Sydney take my advice, do not travel the rail network at night. It's highly unsafe & barely any police transport officers about.

The railways in NSW have been ruined by successive govts over the past 3 decades. It goes deeper to what I have said here. I feel sorry for communters that now have a substandard system. The workers are attacked by the public, upper management & the public on a daily basis saying that it's their fault that the network has run into the ground. Worst of all is that it's being set up by the govt now for privatisation. As we've seen in other states, it hasn't worked. Railways are a public asset owned by the taxpayers. We are the poor white trash of Asia.

If I've bored anyone, I apologise. On this alone I could write pages on what I've seen & what politicians & senior management have done.

Locals lose out as $2.3b NSW intercity train fleet to be built in South Korea

NSW intercity trains to be built in Korea

 

I do not mind; write away...! News now days are rubbish to high level. These kind of stories are the things that I like to read.

The Wikipedia has this entry.

What you guys think of the TPP?

 

The FTA & TPP don't work. Those who pushed for these things kept saying that overseas products that we buy will be cheaper. I've not seen prices go down but in the opposite direction. Car prices here are absolutely stupid compared to Europe & North America. We have a Jeep dealership here in Port & they also sell the Dodge Ram pick-ups. The sticker price on the RAM Big Horn 4x4 in the USA is USD$45,225 (AUD$59,302). In Australia the same vehicle is AUD$149,000 (USD$113,628). Tell me where the FTA & TPP are working?

In regards to my last post I forgot to add about social media comments about the NSW trains being built in South Korea. About 90% of those who commented blamed the unions, high wages just like the same comments people made about Holden & Ford workers here. Railway workers are specialised workers & they are paid at award rates at base pay. When you take into account overtime, shift allowances, annual leave etc, the pay goes up. Everyone on the railways work on a rotating roster except for the office workers. Those that made these comments about unions, high wages etc should think about their own situation. Are you going to work for $10 per hour building a train, even though you've gone to university, TAFE and undergone in-house railway training? I cannot see anyone putting up their hands & say "I want a pay cut". $10 an hour barely buys you a loaf of bread & 2 litres of milk (2.11US qts) these days.

 

You are discribing our situation in the USA. What we have that you guys does not really have is the Military Industrial Complex. They are the ones with the good paying jobs (Boeing, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, United Technologies, General Electric, Lockheed Martin, ect...) ; the rest is ****. Railways in the US they operate on their own little world. They have an outstanding retirement plan compared to the rest of the industry.

The TPP is another EU in disguise and we saw the Brexit.

 

We have the aircraft companies here but they're just outposts. I know a few of the guys i worked with are working for rail companies in the US & they're looked after. I remember watching Alaskan Railroad where a bloke used an M3 105mm Howitzer to clear potential avalanches. I would love that job any day of the week!

 

Skydrol

Further to Risky's posts. Our problems also stem from being a very small domestic market, making any manufacturing venture very uncertain unless there is a strong export potential. Obviously, to have any advantage that would foster exports, we need our manufacturing costs to be low and the exchange rate for the Australian dollar to be favourable. At present, as I write, it's just over 76 cents US, which is actually higher than local manufacturers would like. When our dollar reached US$1.05 or so a few years back, it killed our exports. In addition, to be competitive overseas, local manufacture has to be of higher standards or extremely unique or specialised. Pretty difficult to achieve on limited R and D budgets and restricted Government assistance.

You asked why anybody would sell off essential infrastructure assets like power networks. The New South Wales Government wasn 't actually selling the asset - it was a long term lease for about half the value of the grid. A little bit of explanation about our infrastructure in Australia for you to explain how things operate here.

Because of our enormous distances between major centres (Oz is about the same area as mainland USA), but tiny population, Australia's infrastructure was initially built and owned by the various State Governments. No private companies could, or would, outlay the vast sums necessary to establish railways, power grids, telephone networks, roads, ports, airports, hospitals, gaols (jails to you) etc. In the US, you would call this socialism as most of your infrastructure is privately owned but here, it isn't seen that way as it was the only way we were ever going to get those things established.

In recent times, the various state governments have realised that these assets are very valuable and have been selling or leasing them to gain large injections of capital to facilitate services and other infrastructure. Some items have found ready markets with little or no public objection but as Risky mentioned, Aussies are getting pissed off with this country being flogged off bit by bit to Chinese interests (and some Korean ones too), because we feel that those countries don't give a hoot about the future of Australia - they only see how they can benefit themselves. Some Korean mining companies want to mine coal via huge open cut mines and destroy valuable farming land and major acquifers. Many of us feel that this has gone on for too long and this government is now starting to put the brakes on the big sales.

 

A Ram is possibly the stupidest measure of FTA effectiveness anybody could think of.

 

At $149,000 who would be mad enough to buy it when there's other better cars on the market.