woberto
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Date: March 19, 2026 08:12AM
Great ideas usually have no details. No real thought put into them other than
the thought bubble, the catch phrase, the sound bite.
I am a big fan of nationalism, the strong survive and the weak can just fuck off
and die. I know, I know, nazi right? Wrong.
Of the 195 recognised countries, only a handful have all the natural resources
required to build cities and the infrastructure required. Russia, USA, Australia
& Brazil are the only ones fit to go it alone. But each have their own
unique problems preventing them from doing so. The current oil threat is a good
example.
We simply must embrace global trade and therefore prevent wars. But where do you
draw the line? Going it alone is no fun.
woberto
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Date: March 19, 2026 08:13AM
P.S, the IPA is crap, I just screenshot that to irritate someone in particular.
pulse
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Date: March 20, 2026 01:56AM
I don't mind a nice IPA/XPA .. refreshing on a nice summers day.
pulse
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Date: March 20, 2026 02:00AM
By the way, on the whole I agree with both sides of the sentiment. We
absolutely need global trade, but we ALSO should be trying to go it alone where
we can.
It's fucking ridiculous with the resources we have how dependant we are on other
countries every time shit hits the fan. Can't get medication because India won't
sell it to us in a pandemic? Why not? We used to make it here. Can't get petrol?
Why aren't we refining it ourselves? We almost entirely import ready made fuels.
Australia would be so easy to blockade in a war.
Why aren't we selling steel instead of ore? The finished product is 1000x more
expensive than the source ingredients.
We genuinely should be manufacturing what we can here. Over the past 30 years
we've gone from a manufacturing powerhouse far beyond our size, to a white
collar / service based country which is going to be decimated when the AI
overlords really do come through at scale. The only thing we will have left is
some dirt in the outback and that can't feed the whole population.
woberto
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Date: March 20, 2026 09:08AM
Australia is a good example I guess.
The ideal situation is to sell your excess minerals and broadacre cropping.
But people are greedy and governments are too weak to plan for the future.
For mining, it's pure greed. They tap the resource and go full bore until it is
depleted (even if that takes decades).
Australia only needs a small percentage of that but there is just too much money
to be made exporting those minerals that rather than leave it in the ground for
future generations they simply must get paid for it now.
For agriculture, it's partly greed. They need to go big so as to mitigate
disasters both man made and natural.
The surplus in most cases cannot be stored so exporting it makes sense and that
money again mitigates for disasters.
Problem in Australia and USA is that the export is so lucrative that that's the
main priority now.
woberto
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Date: March 26, 2026 02:42AM
And now it's "Goodbye Exmouth WA" as this cyclone tries do do a
lap.
[
www.abc.net.au]
Probably should have commented that against this post, oh well.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 26/03/2026 02:47AM by woberto.
DarkKlown
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Date: March 26, 2026 04:41AM
We don't manufacture here because other countries normally do it cheaper. When
shit goes wrong they aren't cheap anymore and we miss out. You can't compete in
a market where your only cheaper when a global crisis occurs without major
government subsidies. So either we're a socialist country or a capitalist
country. Australia keeps thinking it's a socialist capitalist society, which
only works during times peace and harmony and lately that's not a common state
for the world to be.
If we're so keen to use supply chains overseas we need to sure up contracts that
have major punishments when the supplier decides to sell elsewhere rather than
meeting their requirements to Australia. It's pretty common in contract law but
for some reason it's not possible with global deals that we make. If certain
companies want exclusivity rights to certain sectors they need to be held
accountable when they fail the sector. We give these contracts to companies and
then just shrug and are understanding when they can't deliver.
woberto
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Date: March 26, 2026 07:42AM
Or like pulse's "boss" who got mad at mean tweets and didn't want to
buy tech made in USA. But probably had to anyway 'cause it's the best.
woberto
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Date: March 26, 2026 09:43AM
DK it's only cheaper because shipping and import duties are cheap and that's a
(federal Gov) choice.
Back in the day my old man wanted a 5 series beemer but had to settle for a 5
litre Calais because of the luxury car tax. You must remember those days...
But that's not fair trade.
So what?
pulse
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Date: March 26, 2026 09:53AM
Who's my boss that got mad at tweets?!
woberto
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Date: March 26, 2026 09:55AM
Some Malaysian guy who was offended on behalf of muslims.
pulse
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Date: March 26, 2026 10:01AM
Hrm. Nope?
woberto
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Date: March 26, 2026 10:02AM
Or Singaporean, I don't want to doxx you again.
pulse
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Date: March 26, 2026 10:05AM
Still nope.
what's the first letter of the company you
think I work for?
woberto
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Date: March 26, 2026 10:10AM
Swapt us to...
pulse
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Date: March 26, 2026 10:11AM
Nyet
Edit: 20 years ago I worked for Telstra.. but no
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 26/03/2026 10:14AM by pulse.
woberto
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Date: March 26, 2026 10:22AM
Yeah well you know I'm full of shit BUT you commented after a trump tweet that
Sing Tel or whoever were about to purchase a lot of hardware but were looking
elsewhere due to buthurt on behalf of Moozies or whatever.
If DK built a better forum I could search for it...
pulse
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Date: March 26, 2026 10:43AM
DK is whinging, after having been dead for 10 years, about starting a new
codebase and new site.
Tbh I don't see the point.
I do know people who work for singtel but yeah not me.
woberto
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Date: March 26, 2026 12:44PM
I should have just said "O" and hedged my bets.
I love Wheel of Fortune.
