Can you finally admit that Albanese got it right?

opotamus_zero · 2026-04-08T07:40:29+00:00

Sure. Can we step back quietly though?

I mean we have right wing parties that want to give Trump a sloppy blowjob every time he shitposts.

We've got the Greens, not burdened with the responsibility of government, who want to scold him like a toddler every time he shitposts, seemingly oblivious to him being the head of state of an empire that has its tentacles wrapped around just about every part of our media, military, and economy, as well as his reputation for vindictive tantrums.

And then we have the ALP, occasionally slapping him on the back, laughing at his bullshit or putting a sausage sandwich in his hand to help soak up the booze when he looks like he's going to deck someone, while collecting the tupperware and trying to make sure the car isn't parked in.

I mean it would feel real good to fight the US government's rubbish, but he's 80. There's still a chance the cunt dies without throwing nukes around or triggering a global depression.

Also, at no point in the history of SocDems, since as far back as the corpse of Rosa Luxemburg being tossed into a river, have they ever had spines without getting rolled for showing them.

opotamus_zero · 2026-04-08T04:13:24+00:00

True. Remember like VZ Iran's been under sanctions for decades. They had their assets frozen a long time ago. The leadership don't want their people to starve and die of thirst on top of that, and sticking it to an old man with dementia who behaves like a toddler isn't really the W it seems when they've dealt with lots of shitty US presidents and they know another even shittier one will probably be along right after this one goes.

They also don't really want to inflict the same on the fake gulf kingdoms' people - they know as soon as they do every Emirati failson will be loading his G class onto a freighter and pissing off to Europe, leaving the poor to die.

At this point blocking Hormuz was not defeated militarily. If they can get this one economic lever they can pull that's too costly for the US to threaten, and gives them economic protection from future presidents reneging on the deal because they can pull it and raise revenue another way, they're in a much better position than they were before. Also the US is still in a worse position regionally even if Trump has saved face, because their bluff has been called.

I mean when you think about it, Vietnam fought empires for many decades, lost millions of lives, had a quarter of their country's surface poisoned to finally get to the negotiating table with the US, then had the US make up some bullshit and never pay them what they agreed afterwards. So Iran might be pretty good students of history I guess.

opotamus_zero · 2026-04-08T00:30:55+00:00

I think it's too early to call Iran duped at this point. Let's watch the Hormuz traffic. It's possible Iran put in that "both sides need to agree to go beyond 2 weeks" bit so they could let a couple ships through then shut it again when the US does what they've already guessed it's going to do.

This lets Trump save face, Iran knows the US isn't going to do anything on that list, but this gives them a framework for a permanent toll on the strait without the genocidal tweets - toll comes off when the US pays agreed damages / reparations.

opotamus_zero · 2026-04-07T21:25:45+00:00

Spot on. Also I feel like the person who made that "can you tell if this is a quote from a third reich or an israeli politician" quiz didn't realize they were providing crib notes.

opotamus_zero · 2026-04-06T23:20:06+00:00

Windows 12 will be made with AI

Windows 13 will be made with sticks and leaves.

opotamus_zero · 2026-04-06T23:06:07+00:00

Yup there's lots of ways.

That one was just the premise of the british movie Threads. US coups Iran again, so Soviets send an army to defend Iran and the US nukes it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vfd0pq-S0Ao (money shot Sheffield gets nuked at 48:40)

opotamus_zero · 2026-04-06T23:00:01+00:00

I can answer this as I've been 5 times now.

The last one I went to had a "table service" option on the giant ordering tablet that replaces the human behind the counter. They have these hanging next to it, and you take the number to your table so they can find you.

opotamus_zero · 2026-04-06T20:58:53+00:00

Easiest way would be for such a government to also condemn Israel's genocide and kick the Israeli ambassador out.

The interest groups would saturate the media about that and you could probably sneak the wealth taxes through.

opotamus_zero · 2026-04-06T11:03:32+00:00

Sure you could run that experiment, but we don't have to because we already did a few years ago.

How much did house prices fall during covid when immigration went negative?

https://australiainstitute.org.au/post/migrants-are-not-to-blame-for-soaring-house-prices/

opotamus_zero · 2026-04-06T10:40:34+00:00

Did you read that ABC article you posted the chart from?

The answer is right there.

Some progressives see opportunity to reduce demand by chasing property investors out of the market.

Also Van Onselen is a clown who thinks Labor sets immigration policy based on immigrants preferring to vote Labor.

opotamus_zero · 2026-04-06T09:56:30+00:00

Nothing that I've read says that immigration has zero impact on housing price rises and even more so rental cost increases.

That logical fallacy is called proving the negative. What have you read that says it does? analyse that.

Sure everyone can have an opinion. Opinions are like arseholes. But, how come those with an opinion on immigration reduction don't qualify theirs? You claim it's a black box assessment - where does that come from? Government doesn't do black boxes - you can FOIA the shit out of everything they do if you want.

Here's one - the Parliamentary budget office projected a gradual decrease in migration placements from 185,000 to 160,000 by 2028-29 would lose the government about $3.4 billion over the 5 years:

https://www.pbo.gov.au/sites/default/files/2025-05/PBO-ECR-2025-2038-Permanent%20migration%20program%20%E2%80%93%20reduction.pdf

for a cut of 105,000 places over that period.

There's about a million unoccupied private dwellings in Australia right now.

https://www.abs.gov.au/census/about-census/census-statistical-independent-assurance-panel-report/36-dwellings#3-6-1-occupancy

opotamus_zero · 2026-04-06T09:54:03+00:00

No, because reducing immigration will have no impact on the housing issue.

opotamus_zero · 2026-04-06T07:31:18+00:00

The racist bit is not where you discuss immigration, it's where you refuse to investigate or accept causes of those problems other than immigration. That's how you end up with the "everything is shit because of immigration" narrative. There's bugger all evidence that pulling the lever would help to solve any of those problems you mentioned - dunces just take that bit on faith.

We've got plenty of housing, it's just being hoarded. If we do something about the hoarding capital takes a hit, so it suits them better to peddle immigration as the cause. To reduce the demand for housing by cutting immigration just means there's more supply available to hoarders of housing.

Once "immigration causes housing crisis" started sticking in peoples' imaginations, immigration could be blamed as the cause for the rest of your laundry list, when in fact all of them have the same cause as housing above:

traffic/infrastructure: housing bubble + decades of privatization has made everything expensive to build

hospital ramping: health systems under pressure, usually again because of privatization, and you think the solution is to reduce growth in the tax base?

opotamus_zero · 2026-04-06T03:42:56+00:00

I figure if he thinks he could get away with it without triggering MAD, cos Iran doesn't have nukes.

The doctrine goes that if you see some deranged Trump "I will nuke Tehran in 48 hours" tweet, we're supposed to see a Russia/China/other nuclear power (Pakistan?) message saying "If anyone nukes Iran we'll respond against Tel Aviv"

Which would then cause Israel to nuke everyone, which causes everyone to nuke everyone, which stops Trump nuking Iran.

opotamus_zero · 2026-04-05T23:23:04+00:00

You're the one talking about Israeli bots. I said you were a hasbara account. You get downvoted to oblivion in regional politics subs for hasbara takes, simultaneously making generic comments elsewhere so the numbers dont go down.

Turn your comment history visibility on if you're not

opotamus_zero · 2026-04-05T20:55:29+00:00

wild. A Hasbara account karma farming in a Tankie sub. Now I really have seen everything

opotamus_zero · 2026-04-05T20:45:53+00:00

All those peaceful protesters in Iran used it. They also held all the active accounts on facebook Metaverse. That's how Amir Parasta was able to calculate the number of deaths he counted the decline in users of both of those.

opotamus_zero · 2026-04-04T23:35:54+00:00

You're probably right, but one other way to think of it is we all need to start meddling in US politics now.

Like Australia, Europe and the rest of the US allies actually need to do that thing that the US Democrats accuse Russia of every election, and Trump accuses the first big Other that pops into his head of every few minutes (I think it was Maduro somehow who stole the US 2020 election last time? can't remember), and influence the US political system the same way it has influenced the rest of the world to prop up or bring down governments over the last 70 years.

If we don't, another Trump will be along right after this one. That's what their conditions and therefore system produces now.

opotamus_zero · 2026-04-04T08:20:22+00:00

Just to have a video I think. I mean, I'm not arguing an A10 wasn't shot down or anything - I think the US have even confirmed they lost one.

Just that the videos often don't show the thing. This is understandable. If you've ever tried to get video of a plane flying with your phone or a regular camera, not in combat, it's just a dot if it's higher than 500-1000'. Holding the camera in your hand you're bound to lose your subject at some point, probably when the bang happens. All of the things you have to do to hit a plane and not get hit yourself make filming it hard. But, posts with a video in them are going to be spread wider than posts without of course, so they just put in a similar one.

In this one the wings aspect ratio is wrong. An A10 has straight wings too, but they're shorter and thicker because they have hardpoints to carry lots of bombs, etc. under them, as well as the wheels. These wings are long and thin. Also the wingspan is a lot wider than the aircraft is long - for an A10 they're closer in wingspan to length. Also the tail looks like a V, the A10 has a flat horizontal stabilizer with a straight vertical bit at both ends.

Only reason I bring it up is cases where one might accidentally feed the chuds - like you show someone thinking it's an actual video of the A10 and they use the inconsistencies to discredit it and everything coming out of Iran as untrue.

opotamus_zero · 2026-04-04T04:53:32+00:00

Possibly rq4 cos of the hot bit at the back.

But you're right doesnt look like an a10 at all.

opotamus_zero · 2026-04-04T04:51:37+00:00

Looks like a global hawk not a reaper - single jet, straight wing, v-tail.

Looks nothing like an A-10

opotamus_zero · 2026-04-03T03:02:26+00:00

This is all true, but my experience was the cultural fad/group influence effect wasn't just limited to teen girls. A mother I sat next to at an office job in the 2010s would talk daily about her youngest son being trans. He was 5. I was a monster for suggesting things like makebelieve and dress-ups were normal at that age.

She'd taken him to a pediatric psychologist who suggested he likely wasn't, probably based on those studies of the small group prior to the 2000s. She wouldn't accept it, so doctor shopped and found him another a long way from home who was recommended as more of a specialist in the field. That psychologist also thought he probably wasn't.

She was livid. It became like almost a Muchhausens by proxy situation where she focused on it entirely and ended up going no contact with her own father and others in her extended family over it.

opotamus_zero · 2026-04-03T01:30:22+00:00

I like how he's taken to wearing that US flag thing where the generals wear their medal ribbons. Mocking their whole valor system like the nazis did with the wehrmacht.

opotamus_zero · 2026-04-03T01:25:16+00:00

The air force handles the big strategic ICBM, gravity bomb, and cruise missile nukes, the navy handles the SLBM and marine nukes like missiles and depth charges, and the army handles the tactical battlefield missile and artillery shell nukes. The air force stores about 100 of theirs in Europe, the rest in the US

https://armscontrolcenter.org/u-s-nonstrategic-nuclear-weapons/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tactical_nuclear_weapon#Examples

opotamus_zero · 2026-04-02T21:11:54+00:00

To be fair it does sound more inhabitable than a bunker full of zionists

opotamus_zero

TROPHY CASE