Somewhat of a surprise this; Prince Andrew has lost his titles and will henceforth be called Andrew Mountbatten Windsor. He will also lose his residence, Royal Lodge.
However, this does bring with it the risk that Andrew could now put out a tell-all book, dropping the firm in it. Charles must be of the view that Andrew won't do that, or that Andrew doesn't have any dirt.
Hmm.
I wasn't going to say anything, but what the heck: Bill Gates has peddled his doom and gloom for years. Remember his very stupid idea to block out the sun? Yeah, and what qualifications does he have to claim expert status, I mean, he's a university dropout software salesman. Why do people listen to the fool?
I skimmed his latest piece, which amounts to a backdown, but what concerned me was that throughout, he never mentioned education. He seems to want a healthy population that is illiterate slaves. That's what I infer from his diatribe.
It's about time he retired from view. Just go away, Mr Gates, you're not helping, you're actually hindering.
I have drawn a logarithmic curve illustrating the link between the rate of income tax businesses may face and the rate at which start-ups fail within the first six years of existence.
At 0% tax, 10% of start-ups fail, while at 10% income tax, 40% of start-ups fail within six years. The argument here is that start-ups should not be subject to income tax within their first six years, the time when they are most vulnerable to failure.
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| Horlor Curve Logarithmic |
It is good to see the New Zealand government and the Opposition coming up with ideas that reflect totally different perspectives.
Labour are NZs Opposition party and they've recently announced a capital gains tax (CGT) as a central policy leading into the General Election in 2026. This is good because it makes them unelectable. CGT's are political kryptonite in NZ.
NZ doesn't need a CGT. You cannot tax your way to prosperity. Think like Texas.
Australia is often compared to NZ. Oz has CGT, stamp duty, and a means tested retirement at age 67. Meanwhile, NZ has no CGT, no stamp duty, no inheritance taxes, no gift duty, and retirement at age 65 is not means tested. These are key points of difference between the two and what makes NZ superior to Australia.
What NZ could do is lower taxes. Thinking like Texas means no tax and backing business. Businesses create employment and drive the economy forward.
Don't think like Labour. Once a CGT gets hold, it'll expand and morph into a wealth tax. NZ will end up like the UK, and no-one wants to be like that hellhole.
Then, this week the Minister of Education, Erica Stanford made her stand by introducing a new school curriculum for years 0-10. It is a knowledge-based curriculum, you know, students will have to know stuff. No more rainbow hugs and unicorn kisses. This is long overdue, and of course it's being panned by all the vested interests who want to avoid doing any work.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/577108/govt-releases-full-draft-of-curriculum-for-years-0-10
Prunella Scales has died aged 93. She was brilliant as Sybil, the wife of Basil in Fawlty Towers. The TV comedy is a timeless classic and instantly addictive. I remember recommending watching it to my children, and initially they doubted me, but they were hooked after just a few minutes.
About fifteen years ago, China unofficially stopped selling rare earths to Japan, heavily impacting their car manufacturing. America took note and started developing permanent magnets that did not require rare earths, the result, Niron Magnetics.
Niron Magnetics make permanent magnets 50% stronger, using the most magnetic material yet known, iron nitride. They have a factory being built in Sartell, Minnesota.
I always advise, best to not piss-off America too much as they do find a workaround.
Current so-called renewable energy is now economically viable due to the current oil price. But that oil price is held up by Venezuela's lack of output. They only pump about 900,000 barrels of oil a day, when they should be pumping about nine million barrels. Even at that higher rate, they'd have about 100 years of production left based on existing reserves.
The renewables sector is living in a false economy. The price of oil can only come down. That's because Venezuela won't continue to live in the Dark Ages much longer, plus new oil fields are coming on soon in Africa. As well, there is much oil yet to be discovered.
Study the graph which shows how oil reserves amongst the top five countries have increased. The graph starts in 1980; the year before I studied the oil crisis of the 1970s. I had a lecturer, a colossal fool this person was, an intellectual minnow who opined that oil was finished, nothing new was to be found, and it would all be gone by the year 2000. Back then, in 1979, people actually believed that kind of nonsense. There was also the big ice age about to happen, and it was in all the newspapers and magazines; we were preparing to freeze because oil was running out.
Well, how did that work out?
You know - science!
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| Top 5 Oil Reserves 1980-2015 |
I've been thinking of a reason the US may be about to take Venezuela, and the only explanation I can think of is that they want its oil. Venezuela has the world's largest oil reserves by far, yet it only pumps daily about 10% of what it should be pumping. That's because, after decades of economic failure, their oil equipment is broken.
Right then, so what I think the US could do is take control of Venezuelan oil. To do this, they wouldn't need to occupy the whole country. All they'd do is control those areas where the oil fields are located, and also control pipelines and port facilities. Study the map to see where those assets are located.
Venezuela is surrounded by adversaries. Guyana is part of the Commonwealth and a former British colony, and likewise, so is Trinidad and Tobago. Then, to the west is Colombia, which is now fully developed and a member of the OECD. Only Brazil may be an ally of Venezuela, but it's through a jungle and undeveloped areas too far south.
The scenario would be to first crush all of Venezuela's oil exports, then occupy the oil fields. They'd need to take out Venezuela's military assets as well, and leadership in Caracas. But they'd just destroy the government and military assets, not take them on head-to-head.
Why is this a brilliant strategic move? If the US does this, then China is cooked. What has this got to do with China?
China controls the so-called renewables sector, wind and solar energy generation, and it controls EV battery production. If the US starts pumping Venezuelan oil at ten times its daily rate right now, the price of gasoline will halve and wipe out the renewables sector overnight. Why would anyone buy an EV, or install solar panels, or a wind turbine when oil is cheap and limitless?
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| Venezuela's Oil Assets |
The US is moving significant assets into the Caribbean, apparently with the intent of tackling Venezuela. There's a lot of speculation going around about what the US has planned; it could just be sabre rattling, or they could be about to bring about regime change. Who knows?
Those who have been around a while will remember that Venezuela used to win Miss Universe titles. I looked it up, and they won seven times. Venezuela was the Riviera of South America. They have the world's largest oil reserves, and at current rates of extraction, almost 900 years left in the ground. And that's proven reserves; there is still much to be discovered.
Basically, Venezuela should be richer than Saudi Arabia. So, what went wrong? They became communist, that's what went wrong. As a result, they slipped into the abyss.
If the US does go into Venezuela, so be it. I'm not going to get bent out of shape over it. Call me consistent, Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine was wrong, but I don't think anyone should get involved in a war within Russia. I know, Ukraine is separate, but it's really part of Russia, depending on how you read the history of the region. With Venezuela, it's in the USA's backyard, they probably think it's about time to free up that oil.
Porsche treated their customers with contempt by producing cars not based on the internal combustion engine. Porsche makes fast cars, not sewing machines.
The future is not EVs. EVs are a cult. They're junk, and anyone who buys a battery electric vehicle is throwing their money away. In a few years', if you own one, not only will your EV be worthless, but you'll have to pay to have it removed from your property and disposed of. I can see the day coming when EV owners abandon their cars by the side of the road.
A fool and his money are easily parted - remember that.
Wow, Justin Trudeau really was as bad as he appeared to be. He's worse than New Zealand's Jacinda Ardern.
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| Justin Trudeau 2015-2025 Worst Canadian Ever |
This is what the new White House ballroom will look like. What do you think, is it too big?
(The ballroom about to be built following current demolition work is marked with a blue arrow)
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| Proposed White House Ballroom |
Have the Democrats in the US found hope for the future in the form of Maine's Graham Platner? Krystal Ball seems to think so.
This is consistent with my claim that no matter what happens, Europe will wriggle around and convince themselves that everything is China's fault.
You've got to laugh, the Obama Library in Chicago is one very ugly building. Now, it's out of money, incomplete and a complete eyesore. Demolish it, move on.
In the US, food stamps may be cut from November. I hope I misunderstand something here, because this is not good news.
It does feel like we're in a bubble at the moment. The stock market is a casino, and money seems to be easy money.
Please study the video below, scrolling through the population of New Zealand forecast. I started the video in 2020, and you can see that looking ahead in time, at no point does the age of those over the age of 65 exceed the total of those below that age. This means that the taxpayer can at all times look after those who have retired.
The NZ government always raises the issue of retirement when they've mismanaged the economy. What they want to do is keep people working longer to bring in more money. Bear this in mind over the coming months. As NZ slips into debt, it'll use the ageing population as an excuse to make everyone work longer.
I call it the cabal, but he's right here; no part of what is going on right now can be considered normal ebb and flow of life on Earth.
New Zealand has rare earths, just no-one knows about it. The whole country is rich in this stuff.
RangeDayBro has some interesting information covering the days leading up to Charlie Kirk's assassination.
How long can UK Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, hang on? The Greens have now passed the UK Labour Party, and the Conservatives have risen to second behind Reform UK. The Government, Labour, are now in fourth place.
I said this would happen and here we are; Australia is running out of fuel and only has 24 days of diesel in the tanks. Australia's refinery capacity has atrophied over time and right now, it has only two operational refineries.
New Zealand will be similar as it lacks a refinery altogether and must import all of its finished fuels.
New Zealand is heading downhill fast. Its leaders are inept, dishonest, or worse. But I've written a useful book that lays out a plan for putting the country back on track.
Manifesto for New Zealand can be bought from Amazon as a Kindle read. Check it out: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0FVWF7352
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| Manifesto for New Zealand - Ken Horlor |
It seems to be taking the US forever to realise that China holds the better hand. America expended its stockpiles of rare earth elements by supplying Ukraine, and others, and now that it needs to replace its ordnance, China says, No, we're not going to help you do that.
The US has painted itself into a corner.
Once again the New Zealand government announce something that is not yet set in stone. This time they've announced the builder of the new Cook Strait RORO ferries, except there is no signed contract and the actual ships and what they'll look like are as yet unknown.
Wake me up when something definite happens.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/575895/shipbuilder-for-new-interislander-ferries-announced
Peters said Ferry Holdings Limited and GSI were still in negotiations, which meant details would not be disclosed until they were completed, alongside port agreements with CentrePort and Port Marlborough.
"We intend to make an announcement before the end of this year detailing our agreements and how we have saved the taxpayer billions by cancelling project iReX and returning to the no-nonsense solution we started in May 2020."
I found this amusing; if you could look through Earth, or put a pin through the planet from one side to the other, in a straight line, where would you come out?
From Wellington, you come out in Spain. This must explain why New Zealand adopted the Merino sheep!
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| Wellington to Spain |
China controls the supply of rare earth elements. The US doesn't seem to have a solid grasp of this and it has also been using its ordnance by supplying Ukraine and Israel, meaning that without China resupplying these critical elements, US production will have to be scaled back.
The world is in a strange place at the moment.
I drew the following map of New Zealand to illustrate the areas worth exploring for oil and gas. The area marked in orange is a producing area, while the pink areas are highly likely to be producing. You may notice that offshore two of these pink areas overlap the productive zone.
Get your drilling rigs ready, there is oil and gas, natural shows where up from the ground came a bubbling crude, oil that is, black gold, Texas tea.
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| New Zealand Oil and Gas Strikes Likely |
It's nice to see New Zealand's remote and very beautiful locations being promoted. Apparently, Wharariki Beach is a Windows 10 screensaver and a very popular image. The beach is at the top of the South Island, on the West Coast, and accessible only from Golden Bay, which is part of the Tasman District.
The video below saw the visitor drive there from the South Island east coast. Maybe they were unaware that you can fly into Golden Bay via Golden Bay Air. From their aerodrome in Takaka, it is possible to rent a car to drive to Wharariki Beach via Puponga, which is right next to Farewell Spit (Puponga used to have a coal mine, for those interested in that sort of thing). Flights to Takaka are operated from Nelson and Wellington.
New Zealand has many scenes like these, views that are so beautiful they take your breath away. Your eyes well up, and you stand there glad to be alive.
I'm starting to think the White House is caught in some kind doom loop, where they're agreeing with one another, but everything they're thinking is complete nonsense.
The following video is a classic example; Donald Trump suggests suspending all imports from China, and then some woman pipes up talking about a pending golden age for farmers, or something.
Firstly, the USA cannot afford to suspend imports from China, and farmers are going bust under current trade policies.
The North Korea weightlifter had her clean and jerk ruled out by the judges, after she got all lights up from the referees. She made a perfect lift, textbook. This is flat out political, nothing else explains it.
The new international rugby series, R360, is set to kick off in 2026. One of the founders is former England Captain and 2003 World Cup winner, Mike Tindall. Someone else involved was behind LIV Golf.
The promotion is based in Dubai, so it sounds like oil money is behind things. A key factor is that the contracted players will be able to base themselves anywhere. Many may choose to domicile in Dubai or other zero-tax territories. It is speculated that salaries will be around the million-dollar mark, so no tax on that would be a big pull, I would imagine.
The thing is, players only have a few years to make the money before injury and old age slow them down. It is all very well dangling World Cup glory in front of them, but few will win one, and the players must earn a living.
Next year, the Southern Hemisphere Rugby Championship is being put on hold, with New Zealand touring South Africa instead. This will be an old school tour, taking weeks. I wonder if this is a reply to the R360 they saw coming?
R360 could work; they have to attract quality players and play an attractive brand of rugby. It will be a circus format, with mini-tournaments being played in key cities. Rugby worldwide is in the doldrums at the moment, and I read somewhere that every Premiership club in England is effectively bankrupt, and in the Southern Hemisphere, crowds are staying away. Games are stale, boring, and the modern rules have killed things. R360 going after Rugby League players suggests they're intending to play a better style of rugby, one that involves a high level of skill and toughness.
If the competition ends up like LIV Golf, though, it will fail. The LIV Golf format is uninteresting, and the player talent is not good enough. I appreciate the effort being made, but I'm not interested in that. I wonder what you all think?
According to this video, without Africa, France is nothing. I did not realise just how much France had rigged its trade with Africa. But, Africa has awakened.
China has stopped buying soybeans from the US. They now mostly buy from Brazil and Argentina. Then peculiarly, for some reason, the US has just bailed out Argentina after its economy collapsed yet again. Yeah, it doesn't make sense.
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| Source: NY Times |
Sir Iain Duncan Smith points out just how weak the UK has become. It buckles under pressure from China. Is the UK now just China's branch office?
Reform UK is a relatively new party in Britain, led by the mercurial figure, Nigel Farage. They have five members in the House of Commons, with one of those members being a defector from the Conservative Party. They are polling well, consistently above 30% these days, leaving the much larger Labour and Conservatives scrapping over the crumbs.
I've seen many pundits simply assuming Nigel Farage will be the UK's next prime minister. But, that's unlikely, surely, as current Prime Minister Keir Starmer is deeply unpopular. More likely is that the next prime minister will come from within the ranks of the Labour government caucus.
Four years remain until the next general election, we'll have to see if Reform UK has the stamina. Many may remember the UK's Social Democratic Party of the 1980s. They were a breakaway from the Labour Party and held 32 seats at one point. They rose to as much as 25% of the popular vote. However, by the end of the 1980s they were effectively defunct and merged into the Liberals to form the Liberal Democrats, currently Britain's third largest party by seats in the House. The LibDems did form a government with David Cameron's Conservatives back in 2010, but to all intents and purposes, they've not been a major player.
Reform UK does not have the defections they need, not yet anyway, and they appear to be a party centred around one man, Nigel Farage. They did have someone else, Rupert Lowe, who now sits alone in Parliament, but he appears to have been jettisoned as he was too much of a threat to Farage. That may tell you something about Reform UK; it is a one-man band. Such organisations rely too much on one man, and they often fail. I'm going to stick my neck out and say, Reform UK is likely to fall away, and will probably merge into the Conservatives by the time of the next election. Remember, you heard it here first.
I'm going to say it, the current New Zealand rugby union team, the All Blacks, are very average. Their latest performance against Australia in Perth, Western Australia, displayed both a lack of skill, and tactical nous.
The skill deficit meant they could not make simple kicks, often missing a kick to touch off their own penalty; and then missing routine kicks for goal. They beat Australia 28-14 but it should have been a victory by a lot more.
Toward the end of the game they passed up easy kicks for goal and one has to wonder whether they did this as they weren't confident of making the kick, or whether they're just a bunch of amateurs.
The blame for this poor performance must lie with the coaching staff and the captain. It is simply not good enough. And what is it with Sky TV commentators? They refuse to criticise obviously poor play. If a kick to touch off a penalty was missed, they'd say nothing at all about it. It was a case with them of, oh well, play on. Err...no, that is a big error and needs to be pointed out. For those who don't know what I'm talking about: a kick directly to touch off a penalty means you get the ball back from where the ball went out. If you don't get that ball out, the other side runs it back at you, meaning losing possession and field position. Do this often, and it is a sackable offense, but the Sky commentators were silent. Is this some kind of corporate thing now? Sky TV are such twits.
I got this right. Many were saying 1-2 years but that sounded too light. I predicted 4-5 years and that's what he got.
Remember earlier this year when Donald Trump and Elon Musk were going to check out the gold in Fort Knox? It never happened, and the story was buried. This raises many questions. My guess is that there is a serious discrepancy between the amount meant to be stored there and the real amount.
Here's an interesting company out of New Zealand, manufacturing drones for air, land and sea.
The company can be found here: https://syos-aerospace.com They've recently signed a $66m contract with the UK Ministry of Defence.
The complete sale of McLaren Racing is being touted as a boon for the car racing sector. I'm not so convinced; I have noticed sports teams selling for huge sums recently, I just don't see how these sums can be justified. Many team owners seem to be cashing up and getting out. Is a crash imminent (excuse the pun)?
https://www.newsweek.com/sports/mclaren-valuation-skyrockets-after-confirmed-sale-10801376
I thought this animation was pretty good. I note that New Zealand stays separate but all others merge together to form a supercontinent. Shame there won't be any of us around when that happens, unless of course, some humans leave now, do some tripping around the galaxy and then come back later.
Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair is back as a proposed leader of Gaza. How does Tony Blair manage to get himself inserted into things?
I don't even like Katie Hopkins, but this is absurd; she's been arrested after calling herself a spaz. The UK has fallen:
