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My eldest son is 18 today. Couldn't be prouder of the fine young man he's become. 😊

He's back! I especially liked the last one. It's what's in the mind of many young blokes (and women) in the nightclub...

A law means nothing to Trump even if he knew about it, which is unlikely. His performance at the G7 was pathetic. He's so transparently out of his depth, inarticulate and now floundering to defend his bad Iran deal, that it's hard to believe this is an American president. I don't hate Trump, but I don't understand how anyone could have any respect or admiration for him.

A Moderator has issued a warning to Brendan, mainly for abusive posts. As a Moderator myself, I was wondering to myself if, due to the deterioration of the standard of debate we have come to expect, that this thread should be closed. The question has lead to inflammatory remarks, which are actually well off topic since the remarks have been personal attacks. However, closing a thread, no matter what the topic, could be seen as censorous, a denial of a freedom to express an opinion ON THE SENTIMENT OF THE TOPIC. Therefore, I have reached the conclusion that the thread should remain open. The point is, let's get back on topic. Perhaps we should move on to discussing the question, "Is a two-party system the most efficient way to provide governance to a Nation?" We have good examples of governments comprised of representatives of all political philosopies coming together to work for the good of a Nation. Consider teh British governmetn in WWII, and even the Australian Government in the same period. Let's have no more personal attacks. Let's raise ourselves out of the ralm of gutter politics. Say your piece on the topic, and back your statements on sources that can be examined.

Trump continues to dig even deeper holes for himself. His pathological lying used to just raise eyebrows among world leaders. Now they are giving him back some of his own medicine. He is still insisting Meloni begged him for a photo but she has shot him to pieces with her latest comments. Mary Trump apparently said that his father told him to never accept defeat ever. He still insists he won the 2020 election & just last week walked out of an interview when a Journo stated the evidence was there & he insisted he had evidence to the contrary but has never ever produced anything (because he can't). The US has always exploited its position in every place it has set up a base or even just an embassy. The Yanks were widely despised during WW2 here, the UK & in NZ. Remember the catch phrase " over paid over sexed and over here". There were riots in Brisbane & in Wellington all due to the attitudes of US servicemen & their pompous boss MacArthur. They have rewritten history so many times. For example there were 75,000 British & Canadian troops that landed on D-Day & 57,000 Americans, all the navy ships & most of the landing craft were British & the Yanks stuffed up their landings, refused to use most of Hobarts inventions, took out half the bolts of the mulberry floating harbours so they got destroyed in a storm & had huge casualties & in the battle of the Bulge, Montgomery's 30 Corps stopped the Germans getting to Antwerp after they had over-run the yanks & Patton was too far away . The list goes on. The USA is an empire in decline and it has been for some time. The only thing Trump has been good at is hastening that decline. The sooner the leaders of rest of the World act in a positive way like Meloni & The US leaves or gets kicked out of countries it has bases in the better.

I agree, but the thing is that to some people not automatically believing he is innocent equates to "not supporting the troops" My point is that BRS is not the only soldier in this story. Those who beleive BRS is innocent surely must believe that the 20 soldiers who brought this to light must be lying. It will be tested in court.

Who did you go to war with? Trump: “IRAN” And how did it end? Trump: “ I RAN”.

Trump ripped up Obama's nuclear treaty with Iran, then started a pointless war that cost thousands of lives, hundreds of billions of dollars, half of the US missiles and tens of aircraft, disrupted shipping to most of the world and caused fuel crises in many countries. Now he's desperate to end the war before the midterms, so is doing a "deal" that leaves the Iranian regime better off than before the war. Tell me again how he's "righting the ship"?

And how is that looking so far? As I understand it, the memorandum of understanding which lasts for 60 days, does not include handing over nuclear materials. It does seemingly involve unfreezing billions dollars of assets for the Iranians. I also understand that the Iranians have not ruled out charging tolls for ships using the Strait of Hormuz. Then there is regime change. This has not occurred, but several leaders have been killed, and it is believed their replacements are even harder line. The US has squandered its arsenal of weapons such as the Tomahawk Missile, which will take years to replenish. https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/us-indefinitely-suspends-tomahawk-japan#:~:text=The United States has indefinitely,day U.S. assault on Iran. "The United States has indefinitely suspended the delivery of Japan’s first 400 RGM-109 Tomahawk cruise missiles, due to serious shortages of the missiles in the U.S. Navy that have resulted from the 39 day U.S. assault on Iran. " It would be a great time for China to take Taiwan. But I guess if Americans are feeling down because of increasing healthcare costs, high petrol prices, etc. I am sure they are massively cheered up by the bulldozing of the East Wing to build that big, Beautiful Ballroom to be used by the ultra-rich. MMmmmm you've got to love all that gold leaf. I bet they they cant wait for the Arch De Trump or to get their first $250 bill with the dear leader's face on. I am sure they are so proud of the immense intelligence of the leader. So smart that he aces tests that are used to detect dementia. But of course, the doctor administering the test has never seen such a perfect score.

Whoa.. There were a few spicy pages I just caught up on. 🙂 I think it is fair to say the two party system is in transition. To what - who knows? I will leave the performance of Albo and his crew to the appropriate thread. However, it is clear that there is a perception that neither of the two majors are truly representing the majority of Aussies at the moment. And, from the polls, it is clear the libs at least (and possibly the Nats) aren't thought to be at all representing their traditional base. Labor, at least federally, seem to be not too far off their normal primary vote; I read it was somewhere around the 28% mark; not too much lower than the last federal election of, from memory, about 32%. At the same time, there is a perception (real or otherwise) that the gap is ever widening between the haves and have nots and that blame is being successfully laid at the feet immigration, which plays into both fear and bigotry. This is because more and more of what was the middle class is being squeezed more and more. For various reasons, which would take a book to go through, blame has successfully been laid at the feet of immigration. This results in a perception the immigrants are taking away previous little resources that the majority of the population have to fight for, and along comes Pauline with her silver bullet fixes to everyone's problems. The Libs had their time and between Morrison and Dutton (with a little Littleproud thrown in), screwed things up so royally, they were booted out (Albo technically won, but in the famous words of Bill Hayden - a drover's dog would have won that election). To his credit, he took an early lump in the form of the Voice, licked his wounds, and then did a reasonable job. But hubris seems to be setting in (early) as it inevitably does, and he is no longer looking like he is really looking after the majority of the people he purports to represent. Having said that, the loss of primary vote is probably not much more than a protest vote - yet. The Libs seem to be so far removed from reality, that all but their most ardent supporters seem to have jumped ship. It's hard to understand precisely what they stand for. If I was a betting person, I would suggest in 5 - 10 years, without a complete about-face, they will fade into oblivion. Which may leave a two party system - Labor and Phon.. Or more likely, some other party will spring up as the Greens seem to be marginalising themselves (or at least no one is covering them much anymore). Or there may be more parties, in which case it is likely to become lie some European countries where coalitions are formed and broken. Whilst I support the key budget changes on economic grounds, there is a lot more that can be done. And, people like David Pocock are using social media effectively to get a message across of what is wrong with Labor and the LNP. Just google or youtube him and you will see what I mean.

It seems like most of the political journos are writing and saying that the rise of One Nation has meant the end of the two party system as we've known it. It might come to that, where we have three main parties for a period of time. Or One Nation could flame out, the coalition eventually rebuilds, and we're back to the old two party system. I don't follow European politics much, but some of those countries seem to have multi parties and they try to cobble together a coalition of parties after the election to get a governing majority. It makes me wonder if that's the direction we're heading here in Australia.

It will be more than just a price rise in prices of premium chips. The world cannot afford to give up Taiwan. At Davos, the US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said: "I would say that the single biggest threat to the world economy, the single biggest point of single failure, is that 97 percent of the high-end chips are made in Taiwan," Bessent told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He described a potential blockade or destruction of the island's manufacturing capacity as an "economic apocalypse," emphasizing Washington's efforts to relocate semiconductor production to American soil." A blockade of these chips would send the world into the tech dark ages and we would certainly lose the AI arms race against China. As I understand it, it would take decades to build the ecosystem required to produce these high end chips.

I was watching a video of a bloke touring the Simpson Desert, and he came across a similar sign advising the earliest drill hole in the Simpson, Beachcomber #1. Someone had a sense of humour. The sign had no name on it, so one has to presume the name on the Willowie No 1 sign, is the welders name. The welded letters accuracy and eveness is something to be proud of, and to put your name to, because I've never been able to weld letters and numbers that straight!

I was giving DT some slack to see what outcomes he achieved, but I have to concede that he is completely deranged.

Asia is eye-opening when it comes to vehicle misuse. As Army engineers working on road construction in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War, we were constantly amazed at what the Vietnamese considered a normal load for any vehicle or motorcycle. The Lambro 3 wheelers ("Tuk-tuks", or "xe lam" as the Vietnamese called them) were universal transport, and they were used to regularly transport workers to and from the rice paddies. As we often had construction road works they would have to traverse, they would often have to unload passengers to get through the road works. One day, a Lambro full of rice paddy workers (all girls and women, I might add), unloaded its passengers so it could get past us at the road works. We counted THIRTY SEVEN women and girls getting out of that Lambro! Admittedly, the Vietnamese women and girls are only tiny, but even at that, thirty seven people in a Lambro would have to be some kind of record.

As the 4th July 2026 approaches, I feel sorry for the average American. That will be the day they celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, which they hold as being the date of the creation of their nation. Actually, independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain was gained on 3rd September, 1783 with the signing of the Treaty of Paris, whereby the British monarchy acknowledged the independence of the Thirteen Colonies, leading to the establishment of the United States as an independent and sovereign nation. Be that as it may, sometime in 2026 the American people get to celebrate the creation of their nation. From 1775 to 1781 battles were fought by the residents of the Thirteen Colonies to gain independence from Great Britain. From 1783 those residents and millions of migrants who arrived as free persons or slaves built a nation that by the 20th Century became the most powerful amongst nations, held in awe by all others. That was until the begining of 2025 when a freely elected government set about destroying it through avarice which led to the engaging in all sorts of activities considered to be corrupt and/or authoritarian. As a result of those activities, the shining light that was American Democracy has been dulled. I well remember how in 1976 the American people celebrated the 200th anniversary of their Nation's founding. It was a time of great happiness. I am so sad that in 2026, the American people cannot celebrate this further milestone with the same degree of happiness, all due the the actions of a narcissist who never possessed the abilities required of the leader of a Nation. One can only hope that by the 275th anniversary, the American nation has recovered from its present situation.

I have a yard full of "collectibles". Most others view my "collectibles" as "junk". I just have to convince the ATO when I make a killing selling one of my "collectibles", that it's not taxable! 😄

Approximately 209 million people were registered to vote in the 2020 presidential election and 158,427,986 ballots were submitted for president (75.8% of registered voters).

To clarify, the word average was quoted in the thread title "Sympathy for the AVERAGE American." This is why I included the word average, not as a mathematical statement. Some have suggested that Americans (average or otherwise) are not worried about Trump, so my point is that come the midterms, we will know what they do think or at least what those who vote think.

As there is a thread about Chump already, how about we make this about the "average American". Firstly, what is the "average American"? Or do we mean the stereotypical middle class American - and even this is hard to define as their preferences and attitudes can vary differently between states. But how does this correlate to their rise in economic and political power? And concentration of that economic and political power. Don't forget, the US economy was originally built on some of the most oppressive largesse compared to its peers - slavery, suppression of workers rights, etc. Even today, not a rise since 2009 of the minimum wage.. very little leave entitlements, virtually no redundancy rights, etc. at least compared to its peers. And let's not forget, the leader in a democracy, of which it still was in 2025 when Chump was elected, is the result of a majority of votes or seats or states or whatever, in accordance with the electoral laws and systems. In this case, in 2025, Chump was able to attract the popular majority of voters as well as states. Yep, I feel sorry for the Democrat voters, and for America not having what it considered a better option. But ultimately, they knew what he was going to do, knew he would do it and some cited that is why they voted for him. As a result, I don't feel so sorry for the Americans.. they made theiur bed (if not all of them - but that is how it works). In fact, I could argue the current administration doesn't break with their historical past, particularly with respect to avarice. I do feel sorry for the rest of the world (or at least the US allies) that bought into the US, had no say, and now have to deal with the fallout.

On the basis that current aged voters would die out, yes. But it ignores two other things. First, and less likely, the new found popularity of one nation will result in those offspring and impressionable of those new found voters being conditioned into following... Of course, most of the new found voters probably have adult kds where it is too late (hence, less likely). But, as we age, our ideology tends to change - usually moderate more than flip.. But there are enough people on the boundaries that may keep PHON in popularity or even increase it (assuming every other factor stays the same). I just mentioned it as a possible outcome, but if UK experience is anything to go by - and indeed US experience - the electorate may well have had enough that something really bad has to happen before they change their tune. On any other electoral system, Farage and UK Reform would possibly be the second or likely third party in the UK House of Commons today - straight past the post averted that. Chump is in because of the protest vote - the die-hard MAGA base is not enough to give them more than a few states (yes, Chump is Republican, but lets face it, their national elections are usually based on the presidential candidates). Pauline#s rise is not dissimilar to Farage's.. disenfranchised population, structural unfairness, immigration concerns, etc. And now, a rise in the polls; the difference is Reform are now polling ahead of anyone else. Both parties have the same issues - candidate vetting is terrible, controlled by billionaires and open about it, offering cheap solutions to difficult problems, etc. It is likely, unless Labour in the UK turn things around quickly, Reform will be the next government (Conservatives are in the same position as the Libs). Then the shit will hit the fan and as the British are less rusted on, Reform will hopefully implode before they can do too much damage, or will at least be booted out and we will never hear of them or their people again. Although Albo is far less unpopular than Starmer, it is plausible that without Labor turning it around, Pauline could make a decent go of it at the next election.. definitely not a majority, but with preferential voting, you may well see quite a few One Nation taken seats in the House of Reps. That would give her enough to make a dent, but not enough to extend them the rope to hang themselves (metaphorically to those sensitive to Pauline). If Labor continue, then as long as ON don't royally screw up, they could be in for a treat in 2031. It is not that far away (and assuming no early elections called). At the polls stand today, they look to be the majority party on a "two-party" preferred basis, where if one substituted them for the Libs/Nats in that race. As it is, they are polling well ahead of the Lib/Nats. Once they are in, if they are, like Reform, they would likely screw everything up and we will never hear of them again. So, while I agree, they are a fringe riding a wave of discontent, there is a more than tight probability they will become a major at the next election and the libs will pay for it. Agreed. this is the major reason for voter discontent; it's just the billionaires are great at getting a manipulated message out to the population it is identity politics (pick whatever you like) that is the problem. She had so many "I don't do policy on the run" responses to basic policy questions - I would put her more like Joe BP - "Don't you worry about that!"

It had entered for the Pullet's Surprise award.. Nev

The ABC has a very good and highly relevant article on the current death of democracy, brought about by a common failure to tax billionaires, which leads to autocracy, and therefore excessive concentration of important decision-making power, into a small number of unelected super-rich people. What the article fails to include, is the point that concentration of wealth in just a few peoples hands, leads to a constant cost squeeze on the middle class and working class, who end up bearing the brunt of the taxation payments. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-17/democracy-cannot-survive-trillionaires-gabriel-zucman-elon-musk/106798842

If they interview the bird, maybe it can answer that age-old question of why it was crossing the road...

Just announced on the news - Starmer has announced he is stepping down and planning the handover.

One thing I love about my place is when showers sweep in from the ocean side at night. If they're slow moving and you are out on the verandah, you can hear the noise as they move in across the valley raining down on the canefields. Sometimes you can hear it coming for a full five minutes before it hits the tin roof.

When I was doing my two years conscription, a corporal fired his sub-machine gun in front of us while we were lined up out in the training field getting a lecture about being aggressive towards the enemy. He swung the weapon around in an arc firing as he went trying to get us to pay attention to what war can be like. The bullets hit the ground of course, but an officer standing beside him said nothing. I'm sure this was an illegal act as a basic training method. Many of the training corporal were just back from Vietnam and they were crazed, their minds shot and heading for PTS, if they didn't already suffer from it. What we learned from the lecture was that we didn't want to end up crazy either, and that Vietnam has the potential to make you that way.

Have a good trip Pete, a good time of year to be heading out there. It's been over 14 years since I retired from working in the back country and haven't been there since. If I got my vehicle up to scratch I'd like to do another trip out there as I've never been there on a tourist basis, always working. From the east coast of S.E. Queensland it's bitumen all the way to Innamincka now. Last time I was out there the bitumen had extended from Jackson to past Ballera, but fell short of the border. It had been a good season with a good body of Mitchell grass as far as the eye could see. In that same batch of photos, I fund this one of an abandoned well name plate at that field where we worked for a short time. Top line is Willowie No.1, the well name - ie: first well in the Willowie field. Second line, the well owner, Innamincka Petroleum. Third line the drilling contractor - Oil Drilling and Exploration Rig 30. Fourth line, the date drilling commenced. Spud is short for spudded, the term for when the bit first bites into the ground. Fifth line, the date it was plugged and abandoned. Last line, the total depth reached.

Hookers will have to find new clients 😉 In the same vain, Chump has probably cost the US arms manufacturers and other military suppliers many more billions. Most of the big spending ex property leases will be on US companies.. Even construction of their bases, etc, will likely be US suppliers vetted by the military (I am guessing). I know someone who worked at RAF Lakenheath, and and I think it was RAAF Tindal (can't remember). He worked for an American company, ironically at the time, supplying the ADF and MoD, and not the USDF. At Lakenheath, there is a permanent USAF facility separated and at I think it was Tindal, there was a temporary command centre set up of the USAF. On both occasions, as a friendly American he went to introduce himself to the yanks at each base (probably trying to sell them something) and he was met with a very terse response equivalent to eff off. When he spoke to the UK/Aus personnel, on both occasions he was told they operate entirely separately and barely a word is spoken between them; a lot lived on the base and they had US supplies of their favourite home treats shipped in. Certainly, his antics will have his allies relying less on US manufacturers and after sales provisions as a result. For example, Spain and Portugal have cancelled or stop going ahead with procurement of the F35s, Europe is looking at shifting much of their military supply from US to their own suppliers; the UK is accelerating its Tempest fighter development; I don't think anyone in Europe is even looking at US drone manufacturers at the moment. If Chump unilaterally withdraws troops because of his childish antics, you can bet the long term damage to the US will be much more than a few landlords, supermarkets, and hookers. Yeah, there would be stuff that won't make sense to buy anything other than locally - normal food, civvie clothes, etc. And yeah, the sudden withdrawal of a large number of troops from the country will make a dent, but they rarely have a vast number at a single location, so the loss is probably minimal in the grand scheme of things, except where business are set up solely or mainly to service a local posting.

A funny story... Whilst in the RAAF in the 70's, I did an interview for TAA and one of the questions was, "was I related to Arthur Lovell?" Very naively and innocently I answered, No! Wrong. I should have answered "Uncle Arthur, how the hell is he?" I never met him but aware of his fame for bringing Ansett's first B727 to Oz.

She wouldn't be happy about his spat with the Pope either. I don't think she ever mistook Trump for who he was, but she was willing to play the game. Not any more, it seems.

When I worked in Timor, I saw a family of 5 on a stepthru. No tank for junior, and mum sitting modestly riding sidesaddle on the rack at the back. They show us how underutilised our road transport is.

I miss working in this sort of country. It's the type of scenery where you almost expect Clint Eastwood to roll up with his poncho and mule. This was the last job I worked on out there. It was a small prospect for Innamincka Petroleum around the field they had north of Innamincka. The camera was a little Panasonic Lumix compact. It took reasonable photos and was around that time period when digital cameras were starting to produce reasonable quality images. I've still got the camera but rarely use it. If I want to take a non phone photo these days I use the old Canon 700D.

I've never understood sidecars. To me it destroys the whole purpose of a motorbike, which is to have fun leaning through corners.

To balance my whinge about hospitals, I must add that in spite of frequent past experiences of looong wait times, our health system is generally good. I attribute this to the exceptional diligence of nursing staff, and doctors. The admin, financing, etc..... well that needs work.

The only recent time I've walked into emergency entailed a five hour wait before being triaged, but I wasn't a critical case. It was more a formality; the stroke clinic phoned me and wanted me to do it. As I know now, that's what I should have done in the first place instead of going through the GP and then getting a referral to the hospital. A couple of years ago when I was stretchered in after running low on the red stuff, it wasn't too long to wait. Maybe ten minutes ramped in the ambulance, then another ten in the hallway. The paramedics stayed with me and kept an eye on blood pressure so it was all good. Our local public hospitals are good in my opinion. Not the case everywhere from what you hear.

Don't take it so badly. Soon HE will drop out of the picture and a new face can earn that title. There is quite a queue of similar types waiting in the wings.

Their triage is usually good. Head injury or chest pain, straight in. Something that's not going to kill you, you'll be waiting.

A lot of people Have died who needn't have. Lives don't matter where the Privileged Money is at stake and Egos drive events more than Facts and logic. Nev

To paraphrase an old saying, He who lives by the Law, dies by the Law. There is a law in the USA which says that if a terrorist organisation attacks US interests with drones, that organisation cannot be removed from the list of terrorist organisations for four years. In April 2026, the US Administration informed the Congress that an Iranian organisation ws hitting US interests with drones. The nett result is that the US cannot lift sanctions against Iran as promised in the current peace agreement. This video explains it.

Two television celebrities put themselves up as candidates in elections to find a leader for their countries. One did it as a joke, and became a respected leader. The other did it to become the leader, and became a joke.

Trump beat Kamala Harris by only 1.5% of the popular vote. The electoral college system is the reason he got in easily with 312 votes compared to Harris's 226. Only a few thousand votes in a couple of swing states could have seen Harris the winner. Their system is corrupt and skewed by vested political interests. The US was considered a flawed democracy before the 2024 election & sits at No 34 on the World democracy index well below the threshold to be considered a full democracy. Now it is almost an autocracy under Trump. The average American seems to accept this as OK but the real test will be the Mid term elections later this year.

It must be a case of the squeaky wheel getting the oil. My energy retailer has been giving me a run around for a week or more regarding an estimated bill. They've gone the way of a lot of companies with team leaders, working groups and all sorts of titles and jargon. The end result is that to fit all this stuff into their operation, something had to go, and that something is common sense. Emails have been bouncing back and forth for a while now, thanking me for my patience and promising that the working group will look into it. I emailed them last night and told them that patience was running out and I would start looking at changing retailers if their billing department couldn't resolve the issue. This morning I received a revised bill of $0, so they've waived the bill by crediting my account with the bill amount.

The only CGT I have first-hand experience of was on the sale of my house on 44 acres. As has been discussed on this forum in the past, there is a rule that you are liable for CGT on everything over 5 acres (2 Hectares). Unlike CGT on collectables, you are legally allowed to do the valuation yourself (but you may need to show your workings out). The exempt 5 acres need not be one parcel of land, so you choose all the most valuable bits to exempt. In my case, the house and infrastructure (water tanks, septic tanks, etc. and a strip of river frontage. I then was able to deduct the cost of ownership (rates etc maitanance of fences and other things). I was able to aggressively (but legally - I think) whittle the CGT bill down to $1500. I did half expect a please explain letter; however, it never came, and 9 years later, it is too late for them, unless they detect out-and-out fraud. I did plenty of research, and I actually found in an obscure place a tax department internal document that listed the conditions that trigger an audit with regard to land sales, so I felt on safe ground. The thing is, compared to some people selling land, my case was pretty trivial. It does not really make sense for ATO to spend vast sums of money detecting the sale 1 watch or piece of jewellery in a private sale. This is not tax advice!

In practice, for the ordinary person, I suspect it will be difficult to enforce. A CGT already exists; it is just the method of calculation and valuation that has changed (as far as I can see). If Onetrack sells me some of his lovely junk, how would the ATO even know? Since I have been downsizing, I have sold many possessions, mostly they have lost value, but some musical instruments have gained in value and are probably subject to CGT. Pretty hard to detect, though.

The proposed capital gains tax changes on collectibles will affect many ordinary people. Most of us have something collectible, and if it is over $500 we will be caught. This year I donated a collection to a museum. I paid around $1000 for it forty years ago and I think it is now worth around $20,000. I thought I could get it valued for a tax deduction and approached two valuers. They both told me that their fees would be higher than the deduction. A collection would need to be worth $50,000 to make it worthwhile. I should have sold it, but I had already donated it.the museum was very happy to get it. That is an unusual story, but the government will drag household jewellery, watches and so on into needing a start valuation on 30 June next year.

No. I feel sorry for all Americans whose ability to celebrate an milestone in their country's history has been diminished by the effects of Trump's policies. I reckon that the ability for celebration belongs to every one of them.

I guess we might get a feel for how the average American (voter) feels in November.

In my opinion although many people go on about federal or state government corruption, it is local government (councils) that are by far the most corrupt level of government

Well the two party system has seen better days. What we should do now is change from voting for candidates, to voting on issues, because it's the issues that are dividing our nation so much. The Governor General can appoint administrators to manage the issues that the voting public have given priority to by majority vote. Old habits die hard, so this proposal will be viewed as radical, but only until it's not. The present system of parties with their own stalwart conflicting opinions is not achieving real harmony or contentment. They're only producing division, nationally incongruent protests and murders in the streets. We need to finish up with the bitter verbal chundering and get on with finding a better way.