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There's zero chance of him being awarded a Nobel prize of any sort.

Did you not see the bit in the video - and these stats apply to Australia too - that immigrants are statistically more law abiding, more likely to start small businesses that employ locals, and do the jobs that the locals don't want to?

Agree - Labour here are haivng exactly the same problem. What it takes for them to overcome it is not in their war chest. They don't have a strong, charismatic leader than can show the press up for what they are; and of course, social media is incredibly toxic as well, and it breeds. Well, of course. We all pay for our political leaders' follies regardless of who that political leader is. The bigger the folly, the bigger the price. You can argue Australians enjoy high cost of living, unaffordability of rental or owneed housing, reduced qualioty of public services than we could have had or successive pollies not kept up a lot of the folly imposed on us. But, if you look at history, generally, this is what happens (yes, there are plenty of times where it hasn't):L Conservative parties runt he country for a longer period of time, thanks to a not well earned reputation of being the safe pair of hands with the economy. They screw it up. Less conservative parties come in and fix it up - but it takes time They get booted out as they are not the safe pair of hands; it gets handed back tot he conservatives and they stuff it up again.. And the cycle continues. Remeber, Scott Morrison was ELECTED by the Australian population because they were scared Shrorten's changes, that would have benefited most Aussies, would crumble the economy. It wasn't until Morrison really stuiffed things up that Labor was handed back the reins. Despite my misgivings of Albo as a leader, given the cycle, he has done extraordinary well. He learned a very quick and sobering lesson with the Voice, but politically, and economically has been a steadier hand than expected. He is certainly better than anything on offer from the other side - which except for the very wealthiest, will even kill off small and medium sized business poste haste. You will get some very short term gain, but very loing term pain. Over here, Labour is in exactly the same position. But, unlike Albo, they are hated. There are different circumstances. The conservatives here left an amazing black hole - over £40bn, in the end of undeclared but committed spending. These are the ones with the safe pair of hands, alledgedly. There really is little choice for Labour to do anything but raise taxes for a while. Their problkem is that they are politically inept. They only proffered up problems, but no clear path out of the ness. Most people will accept some pain for the probable gain to come out of it. All they pedalled was the pain. They were somewhat hamstrung by their manifesto of no new direct taxes and no increase in VAT. But they had a goden opportunity - £40billion of them - to say, hey, even the OBR has said there may be criminal charges to face because of what amounted to fraudulent national accounts, so we do have to - for a period - break our manifesto to put the country back on its feet (with the plan to do so).. Most people wouldn't have been happy, but they would have accepted it, especially if it more or less hit the target. But instead, they went down a similar path as Albo's pre-election approach - small target. As a government, you can't do that, as there is no message. And if there is no message and massive increases to stealth taxes (as these aren't direct), and they decide to cut welfare for those who really needed it (something they rolled back on), they were (IMHO rightly) accused of not having a vision and just reacting. What it will take from the democrats is to overcome: If you can offer a majority of people a plausible path to a better life, you will probably get the votes. Chump didn't so much as win the election, as the Democrats lost it. Albo learned that lesson early that he didn't win the election as much as Morrison lost it. Starmer and the Democrats don't seem to have learned that lesson yet. All three have small segments of the press that give them a fair shot, but the majority only able not to falsely or misleadingly criticise them in the face of abject evidence that criticism is not warranted. Sadly, democracy is the vast majority of people making the decision that do not have the time/inclination to dive into the details; the politicians have toi presnet it to them in easily digestible ways.

Our politicians should take note of that

The problem the Democrats have is that they aren't organised and don't have an obvious plan for what they want, apart from getting rid of Trump's mob. They need to work out their version of a Project 2025 type manifesto that makes sense for the country and that they can sell to the public before the 2028 elections. I think Project 2025 was a disaster for democracy in the USA, but it unfortunately showed what can be done if you get organised.

Musk could probably pay the dollar bit from his pocket change, but doubt he could fix the international respect bit.

The USA people will pay for Trumps folies Big time in the future. Not Just democrats who shouldn't have to at all by rights ,as they didn't Vote for him. Nev

Pity the Democrats, whether you like them or not. They are going to be stuck with the cost of repairing all the damage the Republicans have done, as trying to restore sone semblance of respect for the country and the rest of the world. And there will be some expectation for them to contribute to rebuilding some of the infrastructure destroyed in Gaza and Iran by Trumps indiscriminate bombing.

Restricted, how? I clicked on it. It played. Perhaps restricted fron usa? They didn't say.

Why bother developing anthropomorphic weapons when we have seen how effective simpler machines like drones have been in carrying the battle? Am I being over-cynical in thinking that by releasing a story such as the one above, the releasers are creating a diversion from what is really being developed?

Even more sobering.... There are only 7k likes, and only 1k comments on this vid. I would have hoped for lots lots more concerned people watching & reacting. Unless the restriction mentioned (censorship) is so widespread that nobody is seeing it.

This is very chilling:

Those kinds of scripts - short sentences, lots of padding, trying to build up drama are common in many internet videos. Unless I've missed something in the link, if all he said was "Let's call it what it is", then I've just wasted a few minutes.

Trumps mental capacity is now openly being discussed at high levels after the profane midnight rant to open the Effin strait, to then declaring it closed, and having a go at the Pope. Albos meeting with the Malaysian PM to shore up fuel supply was notable for Anwars direct jab at Trumps sanity. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-18/fallout-iran-war-spreads-focus-donald-trump-mind/106576096 Meanwhile American Troops in the middle east are running out of food & morale has sunk to a major low point. Hegseth spent all of the food budget on lobsters and steak before the conflict began & now they are being served rubbish & not much of it either. This is simple logistics and supply that the incompetent US political system and military don't seem to be able to comprehend. https://www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/360966583/trumps-troops-served-grey-meat-and-few-boiled-carrots-n

That's another evil Minion, Pete Hegseth

I have heard that jdv has many tattoos. I'm not sure but one on his arm might be seen as evangelist crusader-ish. Which might explain a few things. From wiki;- "Deus vult is a Christian motto historically tied to ideas of divine providence and individual interpretation of God's will. It was first chanted by Catholics during the First Crusade in 1096 as a rallying cry, " Note these pics are a bit dated.... before he started using eye shadow.

Be careful what you wish for. If Trump carcks it, or they invoke the 25th Amendment, Vance will be Acting President until January 2029. It will be a case of the puppetiers stringing up a new puppet.

When I was a kid collecting stamps, Magyar Posta was the Hungarian post office. Magyar meant Hungarian. So how come their new guy has that name? Did he change his name to win votes?

Well the Iran war seems to have gone quiet. Has the news cycle got this short? Or has Iran actually been bombed back into the stone age? Maybe donold has finally shredded the last of the Epstein files?

I'd better read back through the thread and see where it went from the Hungarian prime Minister to pubs and beer.

Crikey it's wet. Anybody been looking at the synoptic maps lately? The southern lows are coming through close together, and the highs are sort of centering on Tassie.

My grandpa had an electric mower in the 1950s, I have a photo of him mowing with it and I know where it is today. He ran over the cord a few times and gave it up.

IRAN has a Lot of Damaged Infrastructure to repair. Little Water and galloping inflation due to sanctions. Nev

It would be a BIG Mistake to think that Those running IRAN are stupid.. It's clear where the Bulk of the stupidity resides. Nev

And He has a really Dumb Dog. I have a Mate who actually Lives where that series is done. Nev

Sell it in a Place where it rains, before electric takes over. It's a stranded asset with a diminishing Market value. I have Lawnmowers that belong in Museums. Nev

Midsomer.

I thought those small vilalges with high murder rates were only in Midsummer.

Don't worry ome, there's a reason the presenter asks the question at 0:47 in the video. They've been wrong about El Nino for the last couple of years. They told us El Nino would produce a drier than normal summer and we had one of the wettest on record, so there's hope at your place yet.

Haven't you know a bloke named English, or his mate French?

Is it all about nulear capability, or is that the magician's diversion from the real reason - profiting from the oil that the USA has under its own land? This video raises that question. The presenter is pretty level-headed and fair. I suggest that you hear what he says and then form your opinion one way or the other. The idea presented heremakes more sense, based on what we know of the economic behaviour of the USA for over 100 years, than political or military security reasons.

Vance should be known as Kiss of Death Vance. This week, JD Vance had two jobs: get an Iran deal and keep Hungary's Viktor Orban in power. Neither happened for the US vice president. Then there was his visit with Pope Francis, who died a few days later. And he's the default President if Chump carks it?

I didn't realise Kharg Island (red pin) was almost 850 km from the Strait of Hormuz.

Well he didn't impress the Hungarians neither did Just Dumb Vance. The UK & the EU have a collectively larger economy by some margin than the US & Trump has alienated the rest of Nato and pretty much everyone else. The only thing the US has is a bigger military with the biggest most sophisticated weapons and some excellent technology though no better than Europe, China or even Australia. The problem is the country is run by the billionaires with Trump as their figurehead. The US has never been invaded but they are always at war with someone as well as themselves. They haven't invented many things on their own but have exploited most of the inventions from elsewhere, mostly the UK & Europe. The UK & Europe have some very large armament companies but have been happy to play second fiddle while the US has provided most of the defence hardware. Not any more. The invasion of Ukraine and Trumps re election has changed everything, The US is an empire in decline, it is already technically bankrupt and Trump is costing the county dearly. I don't know when it will eventually implode but I am sure it will eventually. There are companies that have been deemed to big to fail like GM but there is nothing that will save a country when it all turns to custard/

I don't think trump gives a flying fark about the damage he does to Japan, Australia, Malaysia, etc. Nor about the wellbeing of American citizens.

Perhaps donold's spineless yess men didn't tell him that China now has a pretty big stick too.

Do you think that poking a tiger ever works out well?

Yes the US has been in the Middle East for decades ‘helping’ the Arabs extract their oil and gas reserves. I’m sure they would like to get their hands on the Iranian oil too but the regime there doesn’t want their help, Iran is a disruptor in the region, and a threat to Israel and US interests, especially if they get nuclear weapons. I don’t think the oil is a reason for this war starting. It is about the threat to Israel generally with or without nuclear weapons but especially with them. That’s Trump’s stated aim for getting involved but he’ll grab anything else he can get.

Maybe I am giving Chump too much credit - but I seriously doubt if there was enough internal opposition, he would have pursued. He as chickened out well before it got to implementation (of tariffs) before. Maybe Net gave him the oil idea; maybe there was some other US internal people driving it. I juyst don't think Chump would have gone in purely with Israel's interests at heart.

You're giving him far too much credit for forward planning. Trump is an opportunist, not a thinker. He's had it in for Iran for years and Netanyahu gave him the hard sell a couple of weeks before the war. Hegseth was for it, Vance was against it, and Rubio was on-board but only for getting rid of their missiles, while John Ratcliffe told him straight out that Netanyahu was pulling the wool over his eyes. Trump went for it anyway. Now that he's created this mess, he's latched onto the idea of going into partnership with the Iranians to charge a toll on ships using the strait. I don't think the Iranians will be very interested in that, nor in handing over their oil. If Trump did somehow try to grab the oil, Xi would be on the phone to the White House.

I disagree. I think he is using Netanyahu and the Israel conflict as a means to an end. The way I see it is that he wants to be able to control the oil from Iran in the same way as Venzuela.. and control the supply to China.. Israel, to me, is a smokescreen to his objectives.

Trump's aims are all over the place so at best, he might have a concept of achievement, but no idea of how to get there. However, he will drop Netanyahu like a hot coal if he sees some face-saving way out of the mess that he's created.

It's clear to see that Netanyahu went out of his way to not Join the Peace talks. Nev

I think Netanyahu sees Trump as the useful pawn.

Given both you and I are not privy to the communications between the main players, I respect, but don't necessarily agree with your opinion. I will accept they don't want the war to stop - unitl there is realregime change in Iran that will help bring peace to the region. But I am not sure Chump really cares what Israel think beyind them being a useful pawn in whatever game he is playing at. Why would he treat Net any different to anyone else?

Israel has been the driving force. It's clear they don't want the war to stop. Nev

But ..... The circus needs a better script writer. "I'm going to solve the blockade and reopen the strait by imposing a blockade and closing the strait." And then what? "My blockade is bigger than yours!" The strait didn't need to Re open until.... Donny blocked it.

Not only but Vance also has no damn clue either. He couldn't even understand why Zelensky wore wartime clothes in respect for his countrymen fighting Russia . There's Vance's depth for you , as disgusting as Chumps. Wasn't it him that didn't even know the population of Iran. At any rate, the man's an absolute tool.

I think he sent Vance as punishment because Vance was against the war. That puts him neatly in the hot seat. Trump has already said publicly in a meeting that if Vance pulls a deal off, Trump will take all the credit, but if he fails Vance will own it.