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Rudd was duty-bound to attend that meeting since he is Australia's ambassador to the USA, and he went as advisor to his "boss", the Prime Minister. Trump's comments were an insult to the Australian people, but one could not expect any better from that person.

Well done to the happy couple. Note how low key, private and billionaire free it was. Special wedding beer cans and a local honeymoon. Also a civil servant and all paid by himself not a conga line of donor suckholes ala LNP style. A genuine down to earth couple, we are lucky to have them. Completely unaffected by his status. Naturally DJ Albo did the music selection. Notable celebrity was the ring holder- his 🐕.

BREAKING: Mary Trump exposes her Uncle Donald after his "quiet, piggy" moment by revealing exactly where his "despicable" misogyny comes from — and it explains so much. Nobody spills the beans quite like family does... "Donald's misogyny runs deep and is actually honestly come by because his entire family was a bunch of misogynists," Mary Trump said on her Youtube channel. "I want to remind you just how in character all this is by showing you a montage of clips from MSNBC. And I also, also while watching it, I want you to pay particular attention to the reactions Donald gets." She then played a montage that included Trump being confronted about calling women "fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals," a recording of him implying that Megyn Kelly mistreated him because she was menstruating, and him stating that he "never liked horse face." In one segment, he talked about a woman gaining a "massive amount of weight," in another he insulted a woman who accused him of sexual assault by saying "Believe me, she would not be my first choice." Mary Trump's video was prompted by Trump snapping "quiet, piggy" at a female reporter on Air Force One after she dared to ask him about Jeffrey Epstein. "Aside from the grotesque reactions of the people in those crowds," Mary Trump said, referring to the MAGA supporters at his rallies, "which quite frankly explains a lot about how we got here, Donald is admitting something very openly there as he has at other times." "He actually is admitting that he would totally rape a woman, just not somebody who looks like that. Essentially, he's saying he would only rape women he finds attractive," she continued. "I grew up with him. I grew up with these people so again, none of this is surprising," she went on. "What remains surprising to me, even though I shouldn't be surprised by this either I suppose, is that the American people are still willing to put up with his dehumanization of women, his treating them like second class citizens, and the contempt he so obviously has for half of the population." "In the Trump family, girls had no value. Donald's oldest sibling Maryanne was a girl," she said. "My grandfather never once considered her a viable option for taking over the family business that would have been my dad, his oldest son friend. That didn't work out but the next oldest Elizabeth would never have been considered either. So therefore, it fell to Donald who is not only incompetent and unskilled, he was just a terrible, terrible businessman. And my grandfather knew it but what mattered more was that he wasn't a woman. Clearly, Trump inherited his hatred of women from his corrupt, detestable father. This president sees women as sexual objects to be insulted, abused, and discarded. The fact that so many s-called "Christians" support him despite his complete lack of morals tells you everything that you need to know about the religious right in this country. Please like

Well he has achieved one of his biggest life goals..... Lasting word fame. People will be talking about him for many years to come.

Excessive nationalism puts me off. When you think about it clear-headedly we're a reasonably young (apart from the original inhabitants) immigrant country. We don't have a thousand years of culture, our own language, a national dish, etc etc. Our population is based on waves of English, Chinese, Dutch, German, Greek, Vietnamese, Italian, African, Islander and a whole bunch of other people, plus of course Indigenous Australians. The keynote songs and poetry we hold up as Australian were written by men that probably considered themselves English. Our system of laws is heavily based on England's and in name we're still subjects of England's king. Even our flag contains the UK's flag in the corner. When it comes to Americanism, even our first "local" car, the Holden FX, was heavily based on US cars. Clothing styles, music, popular culture and fast food have been based on US trends since at least post WWII. That's not to say we haven't got runs on the board, with vibrant Australian music, sport, theatre and literature. We have one of the world's best democracies, social services, and health care. Our education system is still excellent although unfortunately (in the case of universities) more focused on revenue than research. But to wave some mythical "uniqueness" around and try to block outside influences is pointless. Like those idiots that go around wearing Australian flags and protesting about immigration, not seeing the irony that we're all immigrants and those flags were made in China. Instead of closing off and looking inwards, like a backwards Trumpist country, we should be eagerly looking at everything that everyone else does, and taking the best ideas and using them ourselves. Someone actually makes billionaires pay tax? Let's use that. Someone's public hospital system has lower wait times? Let's see what they're doing differently and use it. Someone's school attendance and retention scores are higher than ours? What are they doing differently? Someone's prison recidivism rates are lower? Let's have a look at their justice system and see what we can steal. I don't mind bringing in best practice, no matter where it comes from. Good American movies and TV shows? Bring them on. What I do object to is bringing in the worst of other cultures. Privatisation of health care? F**k right off. Multinationals that pay no tax in Australia? No thanks. American gun culture? Jam it up your arse and pull the trigger.

Two feet is enough for a tiger shark, they happily chase large fish through the waves to grab a bite. The most common way to catch a big shark is from the beach, because thats where the fish are. Thats a big hint for survival, change of tide plus dawn and dusk are the big beach fishing times, also prime shark times. But rgmwa, your on point , if your not in the water you are normally safe. The more people in a area increases the risk. Surfers are particularly at risk as from below the look like a large Tuna, Mulloway etc or dolphin alone or a seal. Been killed fishing from a boat is also a nasty surprise- recently a game fisherman hunting Marlin in the big Port Stephens competition caught a large Bull shark? On his line and was dragged into the water never to be seen again. I assume the beast turned the tables and lunched on him. I expect that this may be the cause of many a lost fisherman out solo, boat found perfect and sometimes trolling along, no one on board. A freak accident? No, surprised it doesn't happen more. I have seen guys in a 12' tinny come in with a 2.5 metre shark onboard and they videoed getting it aboard still alive and thrashing- life may be short for those young fools. Instagram fame can have a very short life. We call sharks the taxman, they deserve their fair share and essential for a well run ecosystem. Many a big fish comes up from the deep just a head on the line minus 20 kg of body. Mother nature does not care how big your game boat is, nor your harbour address. Doesn't give a shit about YouTubers, holiday heroes or even salties like me. Once you enter the salt water, you are at her total mercy. Beware of entering the liquid jungle, there's Tigers below.

Facthunter - Arsenic is not used in gold mining, perhaps you were thinking of cyanide. Arsenic can be a by-product of gold extraction. Cyanide is safe enough when used correctly, the important thing is to keep alkalinity of the aqueous gold/cyanide solution high, at least a pH of 10 or more, by using lime thoroughly blended with the ore or tailings. I personally used a lot of cyanide for gold mining in the 1980's, our family mining and mining contracting business carried out a lot of vat leaching for gold recovery - and the interesting part is, we re-treated huge tonnages of tailings, that had all been treated with cyanide, from the 1890's up to the 1980's. We had no problems with any cyanide residues or handling, and the mining and leaching operations were all subject to environmental regulations.

I was thinking about joining a dating site for people my age. It's called Carbon Dating.

For the CORRUPT ULTRA RICH MAYBE. It won't be CLEAN for anybody and IF you don't LIKE what the KING does you won't go far. Your Golden Wonder is 100% FAKE. Nev

This thread is supposed to be about celebrating positives. We did not just decide one day to go on a strenuous bush walk. Since retiring 4 years ago we have done about 3 bush walks a week. There are many walks we would not do. Known bush walks are very easy to research in terms of difficulties. As far as age goes one of the greatest threats to health is inactivity. This is a threat both physical health and mental health. Depression is not uncommon amongst the aging. Whilst bush walking we do cross paths with older bush walkers who are older than us and obviously very fit. I do in fact have a cardiac condition. I do yearly stress echocardiograms. The last one whilst noting my abnormalities pronounced me to be much fitter than the average for my age (63). If we're not fit I would be having symptoms, I do not. My cardiologist advises me to keep up the exercise It is important that as we age we don't give up.

If you don't know the relative costs, why are you arguing that renewables are not cheaper? Anyway this thread is about politics. Happy to have a discussion about the relative costs and merits of various types of generation over on the climate change thread. But getting back to politics, these are the facts: The Libs had their arses handed to them by people voting for the Teals, and did not get those seats back when they went to the last election with their uncosted and unrealistic nuclear plans. Compulsory voting in Australia means that overall, people go for the centre. 65+% of people in Australia rate action on climate change as one of the top 2 issues. Older voters are dying off and a massive proportion of younger voters want action on climate change (because guess what, they have to live on this earth a lot longer with the effects). Apart from the few thousand idiots who watch Sky News, voters are not particularly interested in culture wars, DEI, wokeness (whatever that is), the colour of their neighbour's skin or other non-issues. With those political facts, it seems clear that the Libs have decided to commit political suicide. I don't actually want them to. I'm not an LNP voter but I want a strong opposition with sensible, costed policies - backed up by science - to hold the government to account. They can't do that when the conservatives, desperate to keep suckling at the teat of the fossil fuel industry, throw out ridiculous ideas like government funded nuclear power plants, government funded propping up of elderly coal plants, inefficient and expensive carbon capture and storage. The LNP is supposed to be the party of the free market. There are plenty of players looking to provide wind farms, big batteries, solar farms, household solar & batteries. There are zero players looking to build new coal and nuclear without it being funded by YOU the taxpayer. Ask yourself why?

I used to work in a lab with an incredibly ambitious bloke who was obsessed with collecting skulls. Just obsessed!! Like, he would do anything to get ahead.

Trump said the "No Kings protests" were too small and ineffective. The last person to say that was Stormy Daniels.

A controversial figure and hard-line right-winger for many decades, who eventually turned against the Republican Party and denounced Trump as a cowardly liar, and the worst thing to happen to America in many decades. He voted for Kamala Harris in the last election, such was his abhorrence of Trump and his policies. He suffered from heart problems all his life, and suffered from his first heart attack at 37. He went on to have 5 more, and eventually had a heart transplant in 2012. He was the main promoter of the "War on Terror", the ill-fated campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan that cost America dearly in lives and monetary cost, for not a lot of gain. The terrorist groups are still with us, and democracy has failed in both Iraq and Afghanistan, mainly because it was never able to get a foothold due to cultural and tribal hatreds that go back thousands of years. https://edition.cnn.com/2025/11/04/politics/dick-cheney-death-obit

They are always on about how fit and healthy he is. It's his mental acuity that's the problem. He may be able to swing a golf club, (I don't see him walking the fairway), but he can barely string two coherent words together. And he can't understand or recall facts.

Rudd had to sit there and take it and Albo had to deflect what could have an even worse situation for Australia's interests, but Rudd was right about Trump the first time.

I think they are way classier than that. Bali has never been a go to place for inner city types. Somewhere local and chilled, bogan free is more their style. He certainly won't be getting Gina's jet to fly around in like Barnaby or Scummo did.

It has been said that most shark attacks occur in waist deep water in places like Sydney Harbour, until someone pointed out that that's where most of the people are.

Yep, but most folks esp tourists think the sign is just being over cautious or part of the " Aussies scaring tourists lark". Sadly most signs get ignored. People on holidays seem to ignore the risk of all the dangerous stuff they would normally never do, but do, to fit in the holiday experience and get the footage for Instagram etc. Most tourists seem to leave their brain at home and dose up on ego pills. It's not just foreign tourists but Sydney people that cause a lot of grief. Fuckwits on jetskis are a particular problem.

South Australia isn’t expensive because it has lots of renewables — it’s expensive because it still relies on gas for backup, and gas is extremely costly. As storage grows and gas dependence falls, SA’s prices fall too (as they already do during sunny/windy periods). The idea that the old coal-based system was inherently cheap or stable isn’t accurate — it was just oversized and inflexible, and we paid the cost whether we needed the power or not. South Australia's prices are predicted to fall by 15% during the next 10 years, according to AEMC. Wholesale prices are already dropping 27%. Only 38% of your power bill is for power. The rest is for maintenance, poles and wires etc. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/nov/02/energy-prices-falling-electricity-cheaper-households#:~:text=As households electrify – switching to,bills could halve by 2050. Fossil-fuel power is yesterday’s technology. Coal and gas were vital in the past, but they’re now expensive, unreliable, and being outcompeted everywhere. The cost of new wind and solar is lower than even the running cost of old coal, and investors are abandoning fossil projects because they no longer stack up financially. Our coal fleet is ageing, breaking down more often, and too costly to maintain. Every coal station in Australia has a closure date because the private sector can’t justify keeping them open. Meanwhile, renewables and storage are now the dominant new sources of generation globally because they’re fast to build, low-cost, and flexible. This isn’t ideology—it’s economics. Fossil fuel power is in long-term decline because it no longer fits a modern electricity system. The future grid will be cheaper, cleaner and more reliable without it. The business world is already voting with its wallet. If coal and gas were truly cheaper and more efficient, investors would be lining up to fund them. Instead, banks, super funds and insurers have walked away because fossil fuels are high-risk, high-cost and increasingly unprofitable. Meanwhile, almost all new investment is going into renewables and storage. Even the big mining companies — some of the most conservative, profit-driven businesses around — are choosing renewables because they’re cheaper and more reliable on remote sites. BHP, Rio Tinto, Fortescue, South32, and Gold Fields are all building large solar, wind and battery systems because they cut fuel costs and improve energy security. This isn’t ideology — it’s economics. While people argue online about whether the transition “should” happen, the market has already decided. The shift away from fossil fuels is happening, accelerating, and financially unstoppable.

Sharks only attack when you are wet. Stay dry. As well, that spot was signed with Shark and No Swimming signs.

Sadly , it appears my mate 'Boris' the bull shark has been greedy feeding and eaten a Swiss tourist and mauled her boyfriend on a local beach just up the coast a little bit. Tragic but completely avoidable, they were swimming at sunrise to film dolphins feeding. This is absolute maximum danger time to be eaten as that's when the bait fish accumulate. Anything in the water in the low light conditions can be mistaken for a big fish or seal and will be bitten. Most sharks will spit a human out, but a Bull shark will just eat regardless. Hopefully it will not lead to the senseless killing of more sharks locally- they are just doing their normal thing. It's us humans that need to be careful. My condolences for the tragic death of the women and I hope he recovers quickly. We have had many deaths along the coast recently and all involved extremely poor decision making from night swimming , surfing in extreme weather, rock fishing with no safety gear etc. Mostly tourists or newer immigrants but us locals sure can be stupid as well. We must remember enter the water at your own risk, it never forgives mistakes. You also risk the lives of anyone trying to help you either by been attacked themselves or drowning trying to help you. Sadly the local coast will see many avoidable deaths over the summer esp with tourists doing things way outside their skill base and experience. Stay safe people. Boris does not need humans for food.

The European theatre in WWII was won by the incredible manufacturing and agricultural production possible in the USA due to the USA being out of range of effective attack by the European Axis powers. That's not to deny the contribution of the British. The Axis powers (really only Germany) suffered the direct opposite and so lost. I reckon it was a bit different in the war against Japan since the problem there was to dig out the Japanese from their defensive positions. You could say that the Yanks in their land operatoins were working in spaces where there was not room to swing a cat. I think that one of the greatest manufactured item leading to the Allied victory in the Pacific was the very humble Marston matting which enable the Allies to establish air superiority very rapidly, and to be able to repair any bomb damage to runways very quickly. Have you ever given thought to who started the war in the Asia/Pacific? Most people who don't know the histrory of the first 40 years of the 20th Century will blame Japan, but American corporate interests were very much involved in preventing Japanese economic development. The Asian/Pacific war was a trade war, not an ideological one like the Europena war.

You forgot the "because". "Because Jerry is our most qualified and trusted IT/coder/computing expert, he is not an Apple adopter." Makes sense that way! 😜

Had a great ride today, over to Richmond, through to Sorell, then up the Tasman Highway to Orford on the East Coast. Interesting names along that road. I went over the Bust-me-gall and Break-me-neck passes, fortunately doing neither, then up Black Charlie's Opening without even buying him dinner first. On the way back I came via Midway Point and while passing the end of the runway at Hobart Airport, saw a C-17 parked on the tarmac so rode in for a closer look. Very enjoyable!

Just snapped this in Hobart in front of a sweets shop. Not sure why Esmeralda has balls, and the Tassie Map is usually a short distance away from the freckle...

I guess this was way too subtle for you blokes. The positive I celebrated was that my Mother reached the age of 100 years and is still mentally acute. I have been so lucky to have had the past three years since I came up here to reunite with her after sparse contact for forty or so years. She received greetings from everyone in government from King Charles to the local Shire mayor.

Me too, although we do often go on a bush walk that does have a narrow path with a canyon on one side that whilst we don't find it scary we do take great care. Many activities take care and planning and have the potential for bad outcomes. Many of us here have flown little aeroplanes that many would describe as dangerous. By the way in the picture of me near the cliff edge, I am about 2 metres away from the edge. The greater danger on this walk were the steep rocky areas we had to scramble up. Mrs Octave did have her feet slide from under her and landed on her arse and grazing an elbow slightly. You have to live your life though, can't stay at home wrapped in cotton wool.

Agreed, sharks are complaining about the poor quality of tourists.

I wonder if different factions within the one party would become a sort of opposition. This might be similar when party's meet now to determine policy

I suspect that he's mainly trying to protect some of his wealthy mates and supporters who would prefer that the files stay hidden. Trump's ballroom may suddenly be short of some funds if he gives in and releases the files.

A boy and his date were parked on a back road some distance from town, doing what boys and girls do on back roads some distance from town. Things were getting hot and heavy when the girl stopped the boy. “I really should have mentioned this earlier. Actually, I'm a hooker and charge $20.00 for sex." she said. The boy just looked at her for a couple of seconds, but then reluctantly paid her, and they did their thing and they did their thing. After the cigarette, the boy just sat in the driver’s seat looking out the window. “Why aren’t we going anywhere?” asked the girl. “Well, I should have mentioned this before, but I’m actually a taxi driver, and the fare back to town is $25.”

'Tis better to end a sentence with a proposition than a preposition.

A proper funeral would have been better than swept under the carpet.

John Laws has bit the dust. Albo released a statement stating "Generations of Australians trusted and respected him for telling it straight..." which I thought a bit strange given the cash for comment saga.

As a lifetime renter, I offer this: if the tenant has been satisfactory; paid rent on time and looked after the property, then renew the lease. A good tenant is a bird in hand. If you sell the house, you will only end up with a wad of money that is decreasing in value due to inflation. If you have already paid off any mortgage on the house, then the $400 per week is mostly yours, after allowing for maintenance and agent's fees. And don't let the agent con you into upping the rent. Agent's only do that to increase their cut. If your tenant has been good to you, why not give a reward by not increasing the rent. You can always let the tenant know that it might go up later if costs rise too much.

James Watson, co-discoverer of the double helical structure of DNA passed away on 6 November at the age of 97.

The problem with the housing market is that it's been taken over by investors. There needs to be a fundamental shift in how houses are viewed. They should be a home rather than an investment or part of a superannuation portfolio. I know supply is the big thing but I do think removing capital gains discounts and negative gearing would do a lot to make it less attractive to investors.

Tesla shareholders have approved a $1 trillion pay package for Musk as CEO. I listened to some idiot American justifying this. "But one of the conditions is that he raise the share cap to $7 trillion. So if he increases the value to that and only wants $1 trillion in return, I think it's worth it!" I have real problems with this for a number of reasons. Firstly, no person, however brilliant, is worth $1 billion let alone 1000 times that. This spanker was talking about Musk like he was some kind of genius. "He didn't improve things. He made things out of thin air!" What, like rockets? Yeah I think Werner was doing that in WW2. Electric cars? Not a new thing. Yes he did some good in pushing them into public consciousness but now his product is done better and cheaper by the Chinese. Robotaxis? Well, his don't work very well, whereas Waymo or whoever they are do. So not sure how that's a world leading step by him. Cybertrucks? Please. Pile of shit that he has to sell to his own companies because no one else wants them. Humanoid robots? Again, done much better by the Chinese. Secondly - it's grotesque. He's already a half-trillionaire. He cannot physically spend all his money in the rest of his life. So why? The American idiot was saying it's "recognition". You can recognise someone's achievements without giving them the GDP of an average sized country to do it. Imagine what a trillion US dollars could do in fighting disease, spreading education, health, vaccines in poor countries, improved sanitation, etc etc. Instead it's given to one man who will probably spend vast amounts destroying democracy. Thirdly - what is the message this gives to other CEO's? "Hey, how come he gets that much? My company is bigger than Tesla. I deserve that too!" So now the already bloated CEO class will be crying poor and agitating for bigger salaries. And we already know that they don't just get bonuses when their companies do well. They can make absolutely stupid mistakes, drive the share price down and still walk away with their massive bonuses. Billie Eilish had it right the other day. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/05/billie-eilish-billionaires-super-rich To summarise, she gave away $11m of her own money to help fight hunger and said "Love you all, but there’s a few people in here that have a lot more money than me. If you’re a billionaire, why are you a billionaire? No hate, but yeah, give your money away, shorties." It's a good question. Why are there billionaires? They didn't earn it, they don't need it, they can't spend it all, and it would be far better for everyone if it was given to the poorest people on Earth. And if billionaires shouldn't exist, that goes a thousand times more for trillionaires.

Spacey, if everyone stopped at a roundabout until there was no traffic on the roundabout, there would be gridlock. That's not what they're designed for.

They should have edited out 90% and even then it would have been too long. It’s almost inconceivable that this incoherent clown is the US president.

Spacey, you're missing the roundabout laws understanding, same as about 50% of the drivers out there. The law states that vehicles entering a roundabout must give way to vehicles already ON the roundabout - and that "give way" is only if a collision is likely to occur, if you don't give way. You do not have to stop turning left in a roundabout, if any vehicle is entering a roundabout from your left, because there's no likelihood of a collision, due to vehicle paths that are not conflicting. The important part of roundabouts is to merge when you judge a suitable gap. Many people think they have to stop and look both ways at roundabouts and wait for someone on their right to stop, this is a lack of understanding as to how roundabouts work. Roundabouts are to keep traffic moving, you enter a roundabout anytime you judge you can fit into the traffic flow, without making someone on your right, brake.

This shows Trump's character perfectly. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11-03/trump-says-uk-royals-suffered-with-pressure-over-epstein-scandal/105966134 In short he says Andrew's loss of royal titles is a "terrible thing for the (royal) family" and he feels sorry for them. Notice he doesn't feel sorry for the woman who was forced to have sex with Andrew when she was 17 and he was 40, and has since taken her own life. Probably because he himself has things to fear from the Epstein files. After all, when you're famous like him you can just grab women on the pussy, can't you! So it's a terrible thing when another rich entitled prick actually faces some consequences for his behaviour, even if they are too little and far too late. And this is the man you admire GON? "Trump good"?

And that is what a competent diplomat would do. He took a bullet for Australia's interests.

Experts analysed K.RUDDS water sipping and facial expressions . HE was in a bad way as in "scared $#!tless". ALBO laughed to try to reduce the damage of Trumps Gross lack of Decorum which unchecked Could have stuffed the whole thing UP. Your TAKE on IT, GON is aligned with your Bias. Nev

Yep, just tried off someone else's plate. Mainly tasted of the garlic it was cooked in. I wasn't moved enough ever to order them myself.

Whilst I am sure there are people on the fringe who want to remove humans from the equation, this is not common, and these people are inconsequential in the debate. Advocating for clean and renewable energy is about ensuring our future while allowing us to enjoy the benefits of modern technology. Advocating for EVs is not about restricting people's freedom to personal transport; in fact, it is quite the opposite. Wanting clean and renewable energy is about ensuring energy without some of the downsides.

We're whingers? You've done nothing but whinge since you joined the forum.

Simply put, the planet is 4.5 billion years old. Life began about 3.8 billion years ago and from that point till now sediments and material from live organisms that died have been producing fossil fuels. So in the last 2-300 years & more so in the last 100 years humans have been burning it and emitting all the waste in to the atmosphere. The jury is out as to how much we have left but estimates are that we have burned our way through about 50% of the energy stored in fossil fuels in the last 200 years that took 3.8 billion years to create & what is left is getting harder to extract. Still we have people who deny that chucking the waste from burning fossil fuels in to our atmosphere is helping to change our climate, now very rapidly.