The Pentagon is the biggest polluter on the planet

 

Listen to an interview with ABC Late Night Live here

 

Journalist Abby Martin and her husband Mike Prysner – a US war veteran - have spent years drawing attention to the wrongdoings of the US military. But when they had kids they turned their attention towards climate change, and just how much pollution the Pentagon is pumping into the planet.

 

 

The result is their latest film “Earth’s Greatest Enemy” and Abby Martin is in Australia for screenings around the country, and to take part in the national IPAN conference happening in Adelaide.

The theme of the conference is Time to Break Free From the USA - Cancel AUKUS and the Force Posture Agreement.

 

Googlemap Riverbend

 

While you're feeling depressed, you may as well watch "Why We Fight":

 

 

"Bullish BHP" or "Bullish BHP?"

 

 

Donald Horne originally wanted to publish his 1964 book, "The Lucky Country" with a question mark: "The Lucky Country?" I have felt the same about the title of this post: "Bullish BHP?"

After steadily climbing over several months to a new 52-week high of $65.98 on 17 June 2026, BHP's shares started dropping and dropping and dropping. Instead of selling at or near their 52-week high, I hung on, hoping each fall would be the last, all the way to Thursday's $56.87.

On Friday they began to recover, with two more small lifts to today's $58.71. Now, CommSec's daily market report suggests that "the stock price may rise from the close of 58.71 to the range of 67.00 - 69.00".

 

BHP Group Broker Consensus Summary 17 July 2026. Source: Market Index Broker Consensus.

 

"Bullish BHP" or "Bullish BHP?" If CommSec is right and BHP shares get back to their former 52-week high of $65.98, I won't make the same mistake and hang on for a few more cents or dollars. I will sell out!

For some machine-learning price forecasts, click here.

 

Googlemap Riverbend

 

Did CommSec's predictions come true? Here are the next 19 days:
15.7.2026 day's range $60.56-$61.27, closed at $60.56 ↑
16.7.2026 day's range $58.56-$60.65, closed at $59.14 ↓
17.7.2026 day's range $57.00-$57.77, closed at $57.54 ↓
20.7.2026 day's range $57.41-$57.99, closed at $57.54 ↔
21.7.2026 day's range $57.03-$58.29, closed at $58.29 ↑
22.7.2026 day's range $59.42-$60.33, closed at $59.76 ↑
23.7.2026 day's range $60.25-$60.80, closed at $60.63 ↑
24.7.2026 day's range $58.66-$59.80, closed at $58.85 ↓
27.7.2026 day's range $59.58-$60.27, closed at $60.10 ↑
28.7.2026 day's range $58.57-$60.04, closed at $59.37 ↓
29.7.2026 day's range $59.41-$60.77, closed at $60.18 ↑
30.7.2026 day's range $59.06-$59.93, closed at $59.15 ↓
31.7.2026 day's range $60.04-$61.12, closed at $60.31 ↑
03.8.2026 day's range $60.05-$60.72, closed at $60.72 ↑
04.8.2026 day's range $59.52-$60.76, closed at $60.52 ↓
05.8.2026 day's range $61.78-$62.59, closed at $62.54 ↑
06.8.2026 day's range $62.51-$63.41, closed at $62.82 ↑
07.8.2026 day's range $62.13-$63.10, closed at $62.97 ↑
10.8.2026 day's range $63.43-$63.90, closed at $63.52 ↑
And that's the end of the 19 days, but let's continue:
11.8.2026 day's range $63.65-$64.50, closed at $63.93 ↑
12.8.2026 day's range $63.26-$63.88, closed at $63.45 ↓
13.8.2026 day's range $63.00-$63.77, closed at $63.45 ↔
14.8.2026 day's range $60.87-$61.48, closed at $61.35 ↓
17.8.2026 day's range $61.44-$62.23, closed at $62.20 ↑
Publication of final results for the year ended 30 June 2026:
18.8.2026 day's range $63.41-$64.79, closed at $63.85 ↑
19.8.2026 day's range $62.68-$63.94, closed at $63.71 ↓
20.8.2026 day's range $64.68-$65.75, closed at $65.75 ↑
21.8.2026 day's range $64.85-$65.79, closed at $65.16 ↓
24.8.2026 day's range $67.03-$67.72, closed at $67.12 ↑
25.8.2026 day's range $67.34-$68.22, closed at $67.67 ↑
26.8.2026 day's range $67.29-$68.77, closed at $67.40 ↓
27.8.2026 day's range $66.40-$67.51, closed at $66.40 ↓
28.8.2026 day's range $66.33-$67.30, closed at $67.30 ↑
31.8.2026 day's range $65.27-$66.74, closed at $66.23 ↓

 

Ruhe in Frieden, Schrankenwärter Laumann

 

* 16.1.1942 ✟ 1.9.2023

 

Der wohl bekannteste Schrankenwärter in ganz Deutschland und der Welt, Alfred Laumann, starb am 1.9.2023. Er war 81 Jahre alt.

 

 

Er wurde berühmt durch diesen YouTube 'clip' aus dem Jahre 2006. Damals war er schon für viele Jahre Schrankenwärter in Groß Düngen gewesen, denn laut seiner facebook-Seite schrieb er von dort im Jahre 1997, "Hallo, mein Name ist Alfred Laumann ich bin 55 Jahre alt und komme aus Bad Harzburg. Seit 37 Jahren arbeite ich für die Bahn als Schrankenwärter". Also wurde er Schrankenwärter im Alter von achtzehn Jahren als andere noch von Abenteuern in fremden Ländern träumten!

 

 

Sein Schrankenwärterhaus ist jetzt als Sehenswürdigkeit auf GOOGLE Maps markiert (siehe hier) wo man ihm das obige Denkmal aufstellte.

 

 

Jetzt bewacht er wohl einen Bahnübergang irgendwo oben im Himmel. Ruhe in Frieden, Schrankenwärter Laumann.

 

Googlemap Riverbend

 

I have a confession to make

 

For more about Schrankenwärter Laumann, click here.

 

I confess that there are days when I feel like Schrankenwärter Laumann and I need to remind myself of what one of my ex-colleagues from my New Guinea days keeps telling me, "Peter, you've done enough for at least two lifetimes."

Schrankenwärter Laumann's weekly highlight is Tuesdays when he checks the readiness of his signalling horn (2:32); mine is on Thursdays when I wheel out the garbage bin for next morning's collection, which takes care of two days of the week as I wheel it back in again on Fridays.

As for the rest of the week, I read books on Sundays, and also on Wednesdays and Saturdays and Tuesdays and Mondays. Ocassionally, I break my schedule and ponder what the hell made me retire so early instead of working on challenging overseas contracts for another ten, fifteen, even twenty years - enough years for at least a third lifetime!

No more navel-gazing! Today is Thursday when I wheel out the garbage bin for Friday morning's collection, after which I wheel it back in again.

 

Googlemap Riverbend

 

It'll probably outlast me again!

 

 

Australia in the 1960s was a country of teedrinkers. If you wanted coffee, you had two choices: International Roast or none. International Roast came in a huge tin which, in Barton Hosue where I was living, was so rarely opened it outlasted the two years I lived in that boarding-house.

On the rare occasion when I feel like a cup of coffee, I still look for the old International Roast, which usually comes in a user-friendly 100g-tin for six dollars. Today I found a big 500g-tin for fifteen dollars. That's five times the contents for only two-and-a-half times the price! Given that the value of my share portfolio has been dropping like a stone ever since BHP's 52-week high of $65.98 on the 17th of June — they are trading at $57.25 as I type while enjoying my first cup of International Roast — I couldn't afford to pass up this money-saving bargain, and so I took the big 500g-tin, even though it'll probably outlast me once again!

On that happy note I shall fill a thermos with some more International Roast and go to "Melbourne" for a quiet afternoon among the gum trees.

 

Googlemap Riverbend