Bullion Bother

The is scary, especially for US citizens. The gold was removed by secret flights in unrecorded and unidentified planes. Only a small amount was removed from Ottawa, it being collateral damage. What on Earth has that Orange McNugget done to the world?

This comes from a Substack called I ***king Love Australia. Please do not ask me what a Substack is, nor Discord. I do not know. The former requires and age check here, and Discord confuses me. I am just getting to understanding Reddit, quite a useful site but also one that should have age restrictions. Actually, I think it does.  

Experts also say the recent spike in bond yields reflects rising concerns about the immense levels of debt across the developed world and, especially, in the United States.

The American government is spending more money on servicing its US$40tn debt pile than it is on defence. In fact, net interest payments of US$1.2tn a year make it the second biggest spending item in the US budget.

Nobody thinks the Americans are about to default on their debt, but the developed world’s borrowing burden is chipping away at trust in governments’ capacity to manage their budgets, and bond investors are demanding a higher interest rate to account for that.

the Dutch Central Bank (De Nederlandsche Bank) recently finished moving 86 tonnes of gold out of North America (the US and Canada) to the Bank of England in London. [1, 2]

The operation concluded in August 2026 after several months of coordination. [1]

Why the Gold Was Relocated

Crisis Preparedness: The Dutch central bank explicitly stated the move was made to handle "increasing geopolitical unrest" and ensure the country is better prepared for severe global crises. [1, 2]
Market Liquidity: London hosts the world's largest over-the-counter gold market. Keeping the gold in the Bank of England vaults allows the Netherlands to buy, sell, or trade the bullion much faster if an economic shock happens. [1, 2]
Strategic Shift: This matches a broader trend of European nations pulling assets out of the US; France similarly removed its gold reserves from US soil earlier in the

Just Sayin' 'Bout Climate Change

A decade or so ago we stayed in a Fairmont Hotel next to Lake Louise. Feeding down to the lake was the impressive Victoria Glacier. Within the hotel were some historical photos from the 1920s. Back then the glacier was wider and came much further down the its carved valley to the lake than what I could now see for ourselves.

Nothing had really hit me so personally about climate change until seeing that photo as my eyes alternated between the photo and what I could see. I knew about climate change, I believed in the science but here seemed to be living proof of a much reduced glacier.

It is early days in terrible raging river destruction in Nepal and Tibet, with a horrendous loss of life, include dual figures of Australians killed. It is also early days to call the cause of the flood being a result of climate change, but I'd put pretty good money on it being warming glacial ice breaking away and causing the flood.

Most of the world is making good noises and some even taking lots of action to stem climate change, but Fuckwit #47 has pulled back on clear climate science in his country. Just one more reason to despair about the future of the US.

Rising sea levels are already shrinking the shores of low lying South Pacific islands. It's gonna be us, Australia and New Zealand, who will have to pick up the pieces of no long inhabitable islands. We can call them Climate Change Refugees. We can't let them drown. Well, it won't be slowly rising seas that does them in. It will be events of nature, cyclones, sea storms, high tides etc, all making island living more dangerous.

High Seas

This is an interesting video from our ABC. Note the mention of tide height. I've never seen the presenter before but he does a well enough job.

At 12 metres/49' I thought we had the highest tides in the world but no. For that you must visit the east coast of Canada, to the Bay of Fundy (thanks Jackie) with its shores being in both Nova Scotia and New Brunswick provinces where tides can be up to 17 metres/56'.

Check out this video with commentary and time lapse video.

Or this purely visual and luscious video. 

I don't know if I should continue to occasionally publish posts like this. They take time to get things right, and find the right clips, let alone that I am using the work others.  

Quiz answers

I've visited the Canadian provinces British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario. 

Ray had cousins in Saskatchewan.

Surely we all know Quebec, province and city. 

I also knew Newfoundland and Labrador. 

I missed Manitoba, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

So you've been edjicated about Canadian provinces, but probably not remember most.

We won't go down the road of Canadian territories.

Quiz

My couple of efforts at a quiz were ok, but not nearly as sophisticated as YP's.

This quiz is simple and without hints, eh.

Canada doesn't have counties like England, nor states like many counties have, including my country, Australia. Canada has provinces, I expect related back to its strong French connection, eh.

So please name Canada's provinces. There are ten. I knew six of them without checking, and then it was a matter of, how did I forget that, eh. 

If you knew one of the less known ones, or all of them, speak up. Naturally Canadian and US citizens will know them all, eh.

If you don't know, Canada is in the process of ditching its formerly strong connection with the US, and building trade relationships all over the rest of the world. Canadians have stopped visiting the US in large numbers. This is all down to #47 the US Republican Party that's treated the country in the most appalling manner. Guard the Leaf, if you care to. 

The beautiful game

It is World Cup time, football, or soccer as we, NZ and north American know it. The World Cup is this time spread over three countries, the US, Canada and Mexico. I suppose it was the US who bid to host the Cup. Our male team is known as the Socceroos. 

The last World Cup was held in Qatar, and was criticised for its exploitation of migrant workers and anti gay laws, with this Socceroo bloke Jackson Irvine who I just found out about today, being very critical at the time, and stood up and said so. Note his rainbow armband. 

Because of #47's antics, tourism to the US has dropped significantly. Canadians were the main tourists to visit the US and the numbers of them have dropped anywhere between 20% and 50%, depending on your biased source. The so called Snow Birders, that during the Canadian winter fly to Florida and other warm states, has tumbled, and they are selling their US properties. The threat from #47 to make Canada a state of the US rather upset Canadians, as it would. Imposing and increasing tariffs upset them further. 

I could go on, but I'll hand it over to Jackie in Toronto, where some games will be played. Some will played in Vancouver too. Montreal wisely said no to the games, and won't incur the huge cost of hosting games. 

Jackie posted this. 

Astonishingly, people who have been granted ESTAS, an agreement to be able to enter the US, somewhat like a visa, have subsequently been denied entry, either when arriving or a day or two before they were due travel, having paid for tickets to the game, accommodation and of course flights. I hope they have good travel insurance.

 

Over to this post by Jackie in Toronto. https://junkboattravels.blogspot.com/2026/06/fifa-world-cup.html

Media Lies

About a week ago I came across this video. I immediately wondered why I had not heard of this? How come there weren't alerts on my phone? How come it is not a news flash interrupting our normal tv? 

I watched on and my disbelief heightened. I checked online and I couldn't see anything about the matter.

I reported it to YouTube for being false report pretending to be genuine news. I phrased my report with great care, but there wasn't a response. I tried again and the second time I did receive a pro forma response.

I noted others had already done so, yet it still is online a week later. While YouTube gives me much pleasure, it is clearly not a responsible media organisation, or tech company if you like. 

Could Canada close its airspace to US airlines? I don't know, but I do think the repercussions would be as huge as described.

YouTube leaves lies like this report online for a week, and clearly longer, what a disgrace. Just the headline of Canada closing air space to the US should have triggered something at YouTube to verify the report. 

Update: According to YouTube, the video has now been removed. I am sure it wasn't just me alone who protested. Better still, the account has been suspended. While I didn't look at them, there were other videos at the same site, no doubt in a similar vein. 

Guard the Leaf

It is not an official kind of boycott, but Canadians are boycotting the United States. Most provinces have cleared US liquor from their outlets. Buy local Canadian products is huge.

The numbers of Canadians visiting the US has dropped dramatically. They are avoiding flights to anywhere that travels via a US airport.

So called Snowbirders, Canadians who travel to Florida and other warm locations during the Canadian winter for a month or three are not doing so this year. Some of those who own holiday property in Florida are selling for what they can get.

Instead the Canadian Snowbirders are travelling to warm countries where they feel welcome, such as Mexico, Spain, Portugal and Asian countries. They don't have to deal with the grumpy US border force, and from my experience they are very grumpy and unfriendly. They don't want to risk having their phones and social media examined by Border Force to see if they made negative comments about #47.

Why do Canadians have a hate on the US? It began with #47 saying Canada should become the 51st state of the US. Then there were increased tariffs on goods imported from Canada. Canada and the US were the closest of friends and allies but #47 has ruined the relationship. 

The Canadian dollars that normally bleed into the US just aren't happening, especially affecting the northern US states, and as I mentioned, Florida, along with Las Vegas too. 

While I don't intend visiting the US, I can confidently say, in the present climate, I would not. The very thought of someone going through my phone is horrendous. It can happen in Australia, but there would have to be very good suspicions for our Border Force to access our phones. The idea of being rounded up by ICE, Immigration and Custom Enforcement, as a visitor is remote, but it's happened. People who were born in the US and are US citizens have been rounded up. But I don't have black or brown skin, so maybe I would be safe from ICE. 

The loss of millions of Canadian dollars into the US is hard to conceive. It will be felt for a very long time. Meanwhile, Canadians are holidaying locally or in other countries. They are not crossing the border to the US for cheap shopping, quite the reverse now. 

But like my attitude, people in other countries are not visiting the US. Visitors to the US from Europe and Scandinavia have dropped too. 

At times I watch the YouTuber, Guard the Leaf, that is the maple leaf, a symbol of Canada. He documents statistics, interviews of people talking about the matter and is very pro Canada and anti US following the actions of #47. His trigger was #47 saying Canada should become the 51st state of the US. He seems to find enough to post daily about what is happening between the two countries, and it is certainly not good for the US. If you care to watch this clip, you can observe his passion and anger. 

In a country of 350 million, 154 million voted in the 2024 election, 77+ million for #47. He feels bad for those who did not vote for #47 but they are collateral damage. It is all about Canada, its sovereignty, the insults by #47 and his sycophants and the MAGA movement.

A wee rant

There are a number of YouTube clips showing Trump voting Americans in great distress as his policies come into force. Once clip I saw showed a Trump voting woman in tears and praying, and asking for prayers, because the father of children and his mother were being deported to Venezuela by ICE. 

Another farmer of a large agricultural property said her farming staff had all disappeared and were not coming to work in fear of ICE, and deportation. She thinks her farm will go into bankruptcy, yet she voted for Trump.

There are clips of an almost empty Las Vegas. Canadians are not visiting Florida, and are selling their properties there, getting rid of US timeshares, as one blogmate has done.

There are clips about Canada withholding super phosphate from the US, that is its farmers. While I disapprove of Canada PM's backing down over payments for digital technology, apparently Canada has been working hard to diversify its economy, reaching out and into the rest of the world. What ever the **** rare earth magnets are, they are essential in this modern world and China, being the major supplier,  has stopped exporting them to the US.

Some of these clips show a sense of glee about how the US is seemingly collapsing. 

Very reputable news sites, including conservative organisations, are calling out #47's ridiculous claims of how well the US economy is travelling. 

Whatever the truth, I too feel glee about Trump supporters suffering, and those who may have voted Democrat, if they got off their arses and actually voted.

But for all of you who voted Democrat, and as is said after school gun shootings, you are in my thoughts and prayers. 

Seriously, you decent US citizens have my empathy and sympathy, and I'm not judging you by what #47 and his henchfolk are doing.   

A laugh

At least the 10% tax on the penguins of Heard and McDonald Islands has given us a laugh in the extraordinary world within we live.

Jackie in the threatened country Canada's city of Toronto posted a great collection of memes about Australia's territory islands. The more stupid the US administration is made to look, the better, and to use American words, boy is it looking pretty damn stupid. 

https://junkboattravels.blogspot.com/2025/04/penguins-rule.html

Friday, kind of Funnies

What can I find on information super highway to amuse you. Sorry about the brief watermarks. I need to find a better downloader.

I was looking for some cockatoos being very funny, but I couldn't find very much, however I did come across this vaguely related piece, that certainly made me laugh. While he may have it ready to say, I don't think she knew it was coming.

This is not funny, but ever so clever at changing the lyrics to the famous Gloria Gaynor song, with thanks to Jackie of Toronto where I saw it first. Nice work.

Saturday Satire

The Australian ABC TV programme Planet America is a mix of satire, news and commentary. Naturally it is about America and I thought this short clip I recorded from the screen was quite amusing. Pssst, don't tell the ABC. The show is presented by comedian Charles Licciardello and straight man John Barron. It is a very enjoyable watch and for Australians, it can seen on ABC's iview but is probably geoblocked elsewhere. Maybe not if you sign up to the ABC. But wait, there are clips on the programme's FB site. 

He is my own promo recording. The sound is poor, let alone my filming, but it's enough to see and hear. 

Chin Chin darling

I remember chin chin as being a toast, like cheers or prost. 

The most excellent photographer Roentare correctly guessed the restaurant Fire Fighting Nephew and his wife visited as being Chin Chin in Flinders Lane. 

Household Management indicated a serious unwillingness to cook Friday evening and put his foot down with a firm hand, so at a reasonably early hour we set off to dine at Chin Chin. It was very busy even just after six. My preference was to order a la carte but R wanted the banquet for two. It was not cheap but we don't dine out nearly as often as we used and so could justify the cost. As soon as we ordered, R began to have misgivings and thought we should have not have chosen the banquet. I said do not worry. The food will be great and we leave what we don't want (though we both hate wasting food). I don't eat sashimi, but it seems I enjoy it very much in the right sauce. I eat brussels sprouts under sufferance, but they are delicious cooked Asian style. It was a really nice meal and ended with a dessert of junket panna cotta.

We were seated downstairs as that was where tables available. As an Asian fusion restaurant it had a great atmosphere and black, white and Asian were all mixed up in a human kind of fusion. The staff were fantastic in the highly organised chaos and the music was too loud but not conversation killing. We had already worked out the bill in advance but for a first in Australia for us, the eftpos machine had a tipping facility. Like what happens when we give money as gifts, I suggest half of what R suggests. I said $5, R said $10. There are more important battles for me to win. 

As we trammed home, R asked me what 10% of our bill was. I told him, as if he could not work it out himself. He then stated we should have tipped 10%. I replied, that is a ridiculous tip in Australia where waiters are paid lowly but reasonably, at least $22 an hour before penalty rates.

We enjoyed Chin Chin but next time we will book a table outside and order a la carte.

Once home I pondered the first time we came across an eftpos machine with tipping facilities and it was in Vancouver in about 2016. The waiter thrust her half clad breasts towards us as she pointed out the tipping buttons on the machine. I pondered further. Aren't waiters in Canada properly paid? Well, at just over $15 an hour, it is on the low side in British Columbia. What about Ontario? Much the same.

During the milder extremes of Covid, Chin Chin as did many businesses dropped their booking facility which led to queues at restaurants. But even as we left this evening at 8pm there was a short queue. Picture from Google Maps.

Stable Leadership

Italy was renown for changing leaders but other countries haven't done very well so what about 'more stable' western countries.

Let's look at home first since 2010. Australia has not done well with so many Prime Ministers. 

2010, Kevin Rudd/Julia Gillard (Labor)

2013 Kevin Rudd (Labor)

2013 Tony Abbott (Conservative)

2015 Malcolm Turnbull (Conservative)

2018 Scott Morrison (Conservative)

2022 Anthony Albanese (Labor)

Six in twelve years.

Canada. They're a bit like us but eat poutine.

Some many years ago Pierre Trudeau. Oh, then was there some other bloke or two? I can't remember since then until Justin (drool) Trudeau became PM in 2015. Wow, that is a long time stable government and leadership.

Ok, I will do it properly.

2010 Stephen Harper (Conservative)

2015 Justin Trudeau (Liberal)

The US leaders? 

2010 Barak Obama (Democrat)

2017 Donald Trump (Republican)

2021 Jo Biden (Democrat)

Why start at 2010? 

That is because that was the year England's Prime Minister David Cameron was Prime Minister.

2010 Gordon Brown/David Cameron (Labour/Conservative)

2016 Theresa May (Conservative)

2019 Boris Johnston (Conservative) 

2022 Liz Truss (Conservative)

Well, I thought there were more English PMs since 2010 but it seems not. Australia has the dubious honour of having the most leaders since 2010.