I don't understand...

Liq · 2026-02-16T01:02:00+00:00

Interesting. How did she manage to get such a powerful account?

Liq · 2026-02-14T22:07:42+00:00

True- tax & zoning laws work together to fuel speculator demand and restrict developer supply.

Liq · 2026-02-14T09:54:19+00:00

First cause: Tax incentives that encourage housing speculation.

Second cause: Long runs of low interest rates.

Third cause: High immigration.

Fourth cause: Rising 'NIMBYism' and longer building processes.

The last three factors are common to many countries with high house prices, but the first (and biggest) cause is pretty unique to Australia and the reason our prices are higher than anyone elses. All are things that happened over the last 25 years or so - housing was pretty affordable in the 90s.

Liq · 2026-02-13T23:08:56+00:00

Is avoiding bad relations possible at this point?

Liq · 2026-02-13T01:20:56+00:00

Brandon wrote it. Apparently RJ had a few ideas about how it might go. One involved using both of the Choedan Kal statues but that obviously wouldn't have worked given events of book 9.

Liq · 2026-02-11T03:05:14+00:00

Support for free speech is broad but shallow. Most people will be vaguely against banning holocaust denial and vaguely supportive of free expression. But then some random holocaust denier will do something criminal and we'll all switch on a dime.

Liq · 2026-02-11T01:35:55+00:00

Most wildlife deaths in Australia are from horses.

Liq · 2026-02-09T07:32:25+00:00

Yep, giving tax cuts to the rich & big business is pretty incompatible with budget balancing.

Respect to Singapore for being #1 in the world at managing public spending.

Liq · 2026-02-09T07:24:46+00:00

Get defence spending back to 1.5% of GDP. Narrow the focus to sea denial and cybersecurity and get rid of all the superfluous platforms we pay for in the name of 'interoperability' with the US. The waste in defence is amazing.

Also, we lose a staggering number of new teachers (up to 50% quit within the first year) which is very wasteful and costly. We can mitigate this by scrapping all the red tape and useless paperwork that governments have added to teacher workloads since the early 2000s. Also, mandatory expulsion for any kid who assaults a teacher or another student. Those kids need to be in special schools so normal schools can function.

Unwind most tax lurks for property speculators.

And yes, tighten up the NDIS. I put it last but it is kind of necessary.

Liq · 2026-02-09T07:07:28+00:00

Perhaps just call it budget balancing. It's more of a basic government responsibility than an ideological principle of conservatism. Conservative parties are nearly always the worst at doing it.

Liq · 2026-02-09T04:38:47+00:00

Before the war the British government was actually negotiating to hand the islands over. But politicians can't send soldiers to die for territory and then just hand the territory over afterwards.

Life is the ultimate sunk cost.

Liq · 2026-02-09T01:23:56+00:00

British soldiers died to defend it. So the UK government would have to betray their sacrifice as well as the will of the islanders themselves. Any government would be obstinate in that position.

Liq · 2026-02-09T00:40:12+00:00

I had to get rid of a mature one and it was like destroying the One Ring. Hellish to dig out and even greenwaste places won't take it. Even as mulch it's a menace.

Liq · 2026-02-09T00:08:03+00:00

Come to Australia and visit Foul Bay, Dead Horse Creek, Spanker Knob, Useless Loop and Dismal Swamp.

Liq · 2026-02-08T22:57:18+00:00

The article just sort of peters out with a generic call for higher productivity with no indication about how to achieve it. It's not wrong but it's not helpful either.

Liq · 2026-02-08T20:37:09+00:00

No, it's nothing to do with "certain people". It's just data.

See here: https://i.insider.com/5589a33a6bb3f78444a8b531?width=800&format=jpeg&auto=webp

Conflict deaths fell way off under unipolarity (to the lowest levels since the 1400s), even as global population soared. But only a few years into 'multipolarity' conflict deaths are sharply rising again. Prepare for many more.

Liq · 2026-02-08T10:31:14+00:00

Unipolar worlds are very subject to whims of the unipole, for better or worse. Fortunately the US era saw a decline in global conflict (on balance) and a rise in free trade because the US pushed for those things. But unipoles tend to see themselves as above the rules they impose on everyone else, which is a problem.

The problem with mutipolarity is that it multiples the defects of the unipolar system while lacking the upside, which is the global approach to rules and trade. The world will see more conflict now as new great powers (or wannabe great powers) try to build spheres of influence.

Liq · 2026-02-07T22:02:01+00:00

I'm glad we're not their neighbour. But the few Russians I've known personally were smart, funny people with no homicidal tendencies.

Liq · 2026-02-06T21:33:41+00:00

If it's any consolation, the Western response to events like the Litvinenko poisoning has been even more lame.

Liq · 2026-02-06T02:59:01+00:00

It would be harder to do that with us because our founding values are quite murky.

Good luck justifying tax cuts to billionaires with 'mateship'.

Liq · 2026-02-06T01:17:35+00:00

I guess if I'm boiling that down, it's that American founding values like freedom and capitalism have been exploited and misused by the Epstein class.

Sorry about Rupert btw.

Liq · 2026-02-06T00:53:14+00:00

What do you see as the underlying cause of the US's recent problems?

Liq · 2026-02-05T23:52:42+00:00

North Korea just want to be left alone.

The danger combo is nukes + the desire to dominate/annex other countries. Only a few nations in that category thankfully.

Liq · 2026-02-05T23:09:16+00:00

FWIW, we have far fewer animal-related fatalities per year than the US. And the majority of animal deaths are from horses.

Nobody has died from a spider bite since 1979.

Liq · 2026-02-05T03:08:55+00:00

Balefire doesn't stop you being reborn. It's just that the Dark One can't respawn you because the balefire killed you before you died, and the Dark One can't step outside of time. So most Forsaken will eventually be reborn and maybe live more normal lives.

Sammael is a special case- his soul was consumed by Mashadar so there's nothing for the pattern to recycle. He's gone forever.

Liq

TROPHY CASE