The Wine Point

We most definitely are in a battle with religious fundamentalism.

@MikeCarlton01 now that would be a Good Friday!

Might be worth nailing Trump to a cross for the weekend, see what happens by Monday…

A hilarious April fools video made by the police

@symeew13 Beds too big without you

What’s YOUR favorite Police song?

And I will never forget or forgive.

@beastieboy07 25 years ago this week since one of the greatest ever Chennai test matches. I was there for all five days. What an experience. Result Australia vs India, 3rd Test Australia tour of India Click here to view more @espncricinfo :espncricinfo.com/series/austral…

Happy to see a Chennai Test on the schedule but the wait for an Australia men’s team return to Mumbai & Kolkata for a Test will continue. Quite disappointing that

I really want to know who writes these post. Absolutely nails it every bloody time.

NRL Round 3 review. youtube.com/watch?v=QsW-MB…

oh look, little baby Donald Trump's.

@Peter_Fitz The Twat in the Hat.

This, from a former leader of the Nats. Gobsmacking.

Is he dead yet?

How do you ‘sane’ wash this? Seriously? How? There is nothing Joe Biden ever said - literally nothing - as dishonest, deluded, ridiculous, embarrassing, as this.

Got the wife evacuated, so have time to drink a tea and think about the Strait of Hormuz. I've sailed through the it a few times years ago and done antipiracy operations in the Strait of Malacca. Maps can be deceiving. The best way to think about the Strait of Hormuz is a four lane highway, with two lanes per direction for the largest ships like crude carriers, cargo vessels, and warships in the center of the channel where it is deepest and free of obstacles. Then on the outside of those lanes, you have medium sized ships, going Jebel Ali to other regional ports like Sohar, since a lot of international cargo goes direct to Jebel Ali then is cross loaded across the region. On the outside of those lanes, along both coasts, are dhow fishing boats and all manner of local, smaller craft. Maritime trade crisscrossing this region goes back hundreds of years. The Portugese wrote how disappointing it was to find a tight network of trade already established in the region when they arrived in the 15th century. It is hard to describe how crowded these waters are. You sometimes wonder if you could walk to Iran across the decks of ships and not get your feet wet. The amount of traffic makes distinguishing between normal traffic and a threat incredibly difficult. Is that dhow fishing, transiting between coasts, laying mines, gathering intelligence, or a tender for surface drones? Hard to discern while sailing ducks in a row escorting a lumbering tanker or cargo ship. Operation Prosperity Guardian in the Red Sea proved to be a Houthi victory when a land power with no navy to speak of fought the most powerful navy on earth to an agreement. The Hormuz problem is harder now the Iranians have proved they have the will to fight, no matter how much pain is leveled at them from afar. The shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz go around the Musandam penninsula. This turn exposes ships to 270 degree of fire control in layered systems from Qeshm, the surrounding high ground, to further inland, with surface drones now added to the mix. Iran doesn't need to mine the entire strait. Iran just needs to turn that main shipping lanes around Musandam into a kill box and divert approved ships past Qeshm, out of the main shipping lanes like a watery weigh station. It has started doing this. The U.S. has created a hard problem for itself. NATO understandably wants nothing to do with this. If the most powerful navy in the world can't solve this, what difference does European navies make. With the watery weigh station past Qeshm, Iran isn't closing the strait to global commerce. It is simply doing what the U.S. does with the dollar, exerting power over the chokepoint it controls. Understandably the U.S. doesn't like this, so why can't the U.S. just send warships to escort ships through? Well, when you escort a ship through a strait, you tend to stay ducks in a row. So if warships are sent to escort tankers, they are now just another target in the strait. Even if the warships could maneuver through local traffic to screen ships, lets go back to the 270 degree turn around the penninsula. The warships would be receiving layered waves of fire likely worse than they faced off with in the Red Sea against the Houthis from essentially three directions while having the longer route to run to protect the tankers around the peninsula. As the Hormuz Crisis drags on, anything less than breaking Iran's control of the strait will be seen as a loss for the U.S., much like the Battle of the Red Sea was against the Houthis.

This is absolutely fucking brilliant.

@JohnFugelsang @maura_resister Still a classic …..

I write in @FT that Iran is playing the long game. In war, geography matters as much as technology. Iran commands the entire northern shore of the Gulf, looming large over energy fields on its southern shore and all that passes through its waters. Its Houthi allies are perched at the entrance to the Red Sea and along the passage to the Suez Canal; Iran is thus perfectly positioned to squeeze the global economy from both sides of the Arabian Peninsula. Those in command of Iran today are veterans of asymmetric wars in Iraq and Syria. They are now applying the same strategy to fighting the US on the battlefield of the global economy. Drones, short-range missiles and mines setting tankers and ports on fire can have the same effect IEDs had in Iraq, only with greater impact — disrupting global supply chains and sending oil prices higher. Iran could sustain its counteroffensive more easily and for far longer. Furthermore, a ceasefire alone will not lift the shadow of risk that Iran has imposed over the Gulf, which is now experiencing its nightmare scenario. That is why Iranian leaders are saying they will not accept a ceasefire until Washington fully grasps the global economic cost of waging this war. Businesses, investors and tourists may not return to the Gulf states if they assume that war could resume again. Unless the US is prepared to invade Iran to remove the Islamic republic’s leaders and then stay there to ensure stability and security, confidence in the Gulf will only return if the US and Iran arrive at a durable ceasefire. Iran says it will only accept a ceasefire with international guarantees for its sovereignty, which would probably mean a direct role for Russia and China. It may also demand compensation for war damages and a verifiable ceasefire in Lebanon. The US would then have to agree to some form of the nuclear deal it left on the table in Geneva in February and commit to lifting sanctions. Iran’s leaders entered this war with the goal of ensuring it will be the last one. Either it breaks them or radically changes the country’s circumstances. They are betting on surviving long enough and squeezing the global economy hard enough to realise that goal. Read full article ft.com/content/93b7b6…

@john_hayne53151 better add racist to your profile John.

@AlboMP Young Australians?

Education opens the doors of opportunity. That’s why we’re upgrading schools across the country, including here in Dulwich Hill with the new Rosalie Learning Centre at St Maroun’s. Because no matter where you live, every young Australian deserves the best start in life.

@IggyLama @goodfoodgal @MarcusFergus6 Prime Hunter Valley vineyards now a sea of coal dust. Santos fracking the Liverpool plain and poisoning aquifers on our best farming land. And you worry about hailstorms (made worse by burning coal) breaking solar panels? You need to take a deep dive in a reality pond my friend.

@thewinepoint @goodfoodgal @MarcusFergus6 Are open cut coalmines built on prime farmland?🤔 And as for blending these monstrosities into the environment, that's exactly what will happen when they hit their shelf (or sooner in the event of a hailstorm) and their toxins will leech into the water supply and the food chain.

Disgusting Horrific Monetised Grift Oh… and it won’t change the climate

@IggyLama @goodfoodgal @MarcusFergus6 Ever seen an open cut coal mine? Looks worse than that. And you can blend solar panels into the environment. Like on the roofs of houses. I reckon you've seen that.

@goodfoodgal @MarcusFergus6 @thewinepoint - is this the answer???