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A lot of people can't see the woods for the trees. Some who are unhappy with the rise in popularity of One Nation delude themselves that the problem is all One Nation and it's supporters who their critics perceive as a bunch of ignorant, redneck idiots. Fact one: One Nation wouldn't be having this rise in popularity if the major parties were doing a half decent job. Fact two: The major parties have been complacent for too long, and as long as they have their comfortable two party system of your turn/my turn without any major threat to their voter base, they will never get any better. For sure, a lot of the rise in One Nation is a protest vote against that laziness, complacency, and disregard for ordinary Australians that a lot of people see in the major parties. The voter erosion to One Nation is the kick in the pants that the status quo needed and still needs. They won't voluntarily get any better, so they need a boot up the rear end like this to to make them get off their backsides and start performing better to provide Australians with what they want and need from a government. If the threat of losing voters in possible election losing numbers keeps the major parties on their toes, in my opinion that has to be a good thing and an incentive to provide good government. I'm not defending One Nation or any other party, but just trying to point out the small minded nature of just blaming One Nation and their supporters and dismissing them as fools. Throwing rocks at them is not going to make them go away. You need to ask yourself why. Why are so many people abandoning parties they have supported for years. The problem the major parties have is not One Nation. The problem is within themselves. They need to ask themselves why do so many people not want to vote for them any more. To be honest, nothing much in politics surprises me, but I have been surprised lately by the sheer numbers of people I run into who say they are changing their vote to One Nation at the next federal election. A lot of these people are the last people in the world where I would have expected to see that. There's a problem for the One nation critics who are stuck in that rut of name-calling, ridicule and stone throwing in their stereotyping of supporters. While they're so distracted doing that, they're not seeing what's really happening. There's a big groundswell of a protest vote building, and I think it will keep rolling. I don't personally think what's happening now is just a flash in the pan. The way I see it, the Greens are immune from it. The Coalition has already taken significant hits and a lot of it by their own hand. And Labor, well I wouldn't be too complacent about if I was one of their supporters. At the moment, they are almost guaranteed to win the next election, and that's about as far ahead as most pollies can think, but they are already starting to bleed blue collar votes and that loss will continue to grow. For anyone who doesn't want to see One Nation grow in size, the challenge is how to create an environment where those lost voters will return. That's where they need to spend their energy. Ridiculing and blaming those lost voters for leaving in the first place is unproductive, and as I said earlier, small minded.

Absolute shite. Trump couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery.

Did his lips move?

For sure that is what he says. But the easily found facts do not show any signs of USA improving the lives of ordinary people. However, the (minority) wealthiest are doing just fine, and Trumpy's family are achieving great wealth. So I choose to see him as a liar, motivated solely by self interest. No, I have neither rage nor agression. Only disappointment. Ours is a similar path to that which has led USA to it's present situation. One which Trump seems to be accelerating. We should take that as a warning. But then along came synthetics (oil based) and we fell off the sheep's back. Then failed to monetise our mining industry, which only benefits a minority. I hold both major political parties for this, as do a lot of USAnians for their situation. Thank you. I am not trying to convince you. I am only trying to explain why I feel the way I do, about current politics. My only proviso is that I believe if someone important tells lies or bullies others, it should be called out. Anyone, whatever race, gender, political party. It seems to me that Trump consistently makes himself an easy target, and I see no proof of him "Making America Great".

The problem with Trump is that beyond quoting a slogan, he has no vision that he can articulate as to how to achieve what he allegedly wants for the country. On the other hand, it's very clear what he wants for himself - power, respect or fear (doesn't matter which), and money. His personality is that of a liar and cheat, and the energy and drive he has is all aimed at his own political survival and personal enrichment. As for Australia, if we had an outstanding and far-sighted politician who had a clear vision for improving the country and making it more self-sufficient that made sense to the voting population, he/she would likely be given a chance to implement their agenda.

Well all I see is people losing their minds over a guy who only wants for his country to be the best. How you get there of course is the methods you use. Why dont you point all your agression and comments and pontifications to the dickheads who lead our country down into the shi#t chute we are heading into. We are a Island..we dont have nutjobs on any of our borders than can just walk in. We have done our best over the past 30 plus years ( thanks to keatings globalization push) to defang and deindustrialize to a point now where we are a joke. We used to be self sufficient in power and oil and manufacturing pretty much anything we wanted. Exported all around the world and had a balance of trade far in excess of the situation we have in this country currently. Now we are a weak pissy shadow of our former selves. Both political parties are responsible for this terrible decline the problem is they are still in that mindset. We need someone to come in and reshape us. I am not saying thats Trump but we need someone with a big set of khunas or boobies..I dont care who it is just someone with the conviction that Trump seems to have. Not his runaway mouth but his drive and vision for a better country. If that makes me a racist or a woke hater in your eyes then so be it.Thats your opinion !...I have a thick skin and sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me. Oh and I am aloowed to still have a opinion dont I...I mean if I offend you with what I have said..then good...its not illegal to offend anyone...yet. well the current govt seems to want to try to even take that away from us. What ever happened to common sense and critical thinking to run your country. We have the resources here to be one of the wealthies countrys in the world and give the population here a lifestyle that could rival anywhere in the world. Wether you are born here or immigrated here I dont care. If you have immigrated here dont bring your shit here or try to convert what we are or the way we want to live. We are Australians..well we used to be...sometimes I really wonder who or what we will become in the future as I can not currently see any path forward to a better country under our current and ever former numbskulls Now you have a opinion in my view and I ont or probably wont be offended by whatyou say. I will listen and make up my own mind of what I keep on board what you say or discard it into the rubbish bin of ideas..be they sane or insane

Starter motor for wills Merlin powered bike

Pure right wing American, MAGA-land, unadulterated BS. This part is especially untrue - "The contradiction being that Europe’s energy systems, industrial bases, and geopolitical sermons 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧 𝐀𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐝-𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐧𝐞𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐫 𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭." Europes energy systems don't ALL depend on America. They get energy from Russia, from Norway, Azerbaijan, and Algeria for pipeline natural gas. They ship in millions of tonnes of Australian canola and turn it into transportation fuel. They ship in Uranium for nuclear power plants from Canada, Kazhakstan and Australia. They have huge hydro, windpower and solar energy projects. They have diversified their energy suppliers since the start of the Ukraine War. And at the end of the day, European consumers of energy use around one-quarter of the average American energy user. They drive fuel-efficient vehicles and EV's, not gigantic V8 fuel guzzling urban assault vehicles, and even their homes only use modest levels of energy because they're well insulated. It is pure American propaganda. The Europeans are primarily seeking a ceasefire, as they see massive global upheaval, a huge global recession, high interest rates, and vastly increased levels of unemployment, if this idiocy of Trump and his sycophants is left unchecked.

Remember.... Never interrupt your enemy whilst they are shooting themselves in the foot. (Or summat like that)

Jeezus Jerry, I'm almost afraid to say anything now in case it brings forth another 50,000 words of reply! 😄 Look. If you want to ignore the almost daily reports of civilian killings, starvation, refusing to allow food and medical delivery by truck or ship, lack of any legal consequence for extrajudicial killings, targeting of noncombatants, etc - that's up to you. And no one is trying to hold Israel to any higher standard than anyone else. Is Hamas a terrorist organisation that should be disarmed? Of course it is. Do you keep killing a country's civilians until that terrorist organisation is disarmed? No you bloody don't. And as for throwing around the anti-semitic label at anyone who dares to speak out against Israel's invasions - Lebanon too now, as well as Iran - that's just lazy. I'm totally against Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Trump's invasions of Venezuela and Iran, Hamas's October 7th invasion of Israel, and anyone else who takes uninvited military action in a country that isn't theirs. But because I'm also against Netanyahu's invasions of Gaza, Lebanon and Iran, I'm somehow anti semitic?

I wouldn't go quite that far but I do agree they often let the perfect be the enemy of the good. The prime example is when they knocked back Labor on the emissions trading scheme. We could have had a working ETS for almost 20 years now if they'd given a little ground.

Actually, the swing to One Nation is probbly the best thing that could happen to the traditional governing Parties. They only have to ask Why?, and do a bit of soul-searching. Why is the electorate doing this? Why have we lost their support? Answering those questions should lead to a reassessment of their platforms and with reformed platforms they can hope to win back lost support. We would end up with our traditional parliamentary system - Labor -v- Conservatives.

Couldn't disagree more, Nev. It takes a special kind of skill to consistently and thoroughly screw up a country. Didn't someone recently say that:- "If, hypothetically, D J Trump was a Russian operative sent to destroy USA, is there anything he would do differently? I think not."

Yeah - I have to restart drinking... 😉

Well it was on the tele at the Shed, but I couldn't hear it. Others talking over the top of him, making jokes, and someone in the workshop using the belt sander. But I knew he was lying, his lips were moving.

That's right. The nation originated from the migration of Indo-Iranian tribes (Medes, Persians, Parthians) from Central Asia to the Iranian Plateau around the 2nd millennium BC. They established some of the first civilisations in the region of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Their religion was Zoroastrianism. It is one of the world's oldest monotheistic faiths, founded in ancient Persia (modern-day Iran) by Prophet Zoroaster. Its influence was reduced by Islamisation during the 7th Century CE. A lot escaped to India where they mainly live in Mumbai. Persian (Fārsi) is the official language of Iran, spoken natively by roughly 50-70% of the population and understood by most others. As an Indo-European language, it is unrelated to Arabic, though it uses a modified Arabic script.

I'm just upset that the conflict between Isreal and the Arab world has caused to deterioration of how ethnic relations in Australia have been hurt.

It's not anti-Semitic to criticise the government of Israel for human rights abuses and war crimes, when they have done this. Or do you think Israel should get a free pass for anything they do, no matter how abhorrent?

It probably depends what you mean by `terrorist attacks'. I don't think the Israelis are terrorists but their relentless killing of the ordinary civilian population in Gaza and the property destruction they have carried out to make the place virtually uninhabitable borders on genocide. Netanyahu would certainly like to get rid of all the Palestinians, both in Gaza and the West Bank. Of course, most of Israel's neighbours would like to get rid of the Israelis too. Nevertheless, as far as Gaza is concerned, Israel's reprisals against the Palestinians for Hamas's October 7 attack have gone well beyond what Hamas did to them. Also, when it comes to carrying out targeted assassinations, the Israeli intelligence services are pretty ruthless and efficient.

Jerry, I agree with you most of the time, but it really looks like you have a bit of a blind spot when it comes to Israel. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_journalists_in_the_Gaza_war If they killed almost 300 journalists "by accident" then they must be the most inept military ever. So which is it?

My daughter is looking for a big Yank ute. I told her to wait a couple of months and people will be giving them away.

Even if the Yanks pull out by the and of April, it is going to take years and years to get things back to where they were at the beginning of March. The Iranian threat of nuclear capability might have been squashed, but the damage done in doing so will take years to recover. Even if the oil started to flow today, the World is still missing the deliveries it expected over the past six weeks. While we have concentrated on the fuel component of crude oil, do not forget that we have develped so many othe products from that stuff that we seem to find essential for modern life.

When the war finished they had a lot of Japanese held in pow type camps awaiting repatriation back to Japan. In a lot of them they didn't have allied soldiers guarding them, they were doing it themselves. One night my dad and his mate were returning back to camp from a local watering hole and walked past one of the camps. All hell broke loose, the sentry called the alarm and the camp commandant roused the whole camp of Japanese out of bed to form up on the parade ground. He got my dad and his mate who were full as a boot to inspect the troops. The old man said it was one of the craziest experiences he had over there, two private ranked Australians with the wobbly boot on walking up and down the Japanese ranks inspecting them. He told me they hammed it up a bit and did a fairly dodgy officer impersonation to give the commandant a bit of face.

The Greens never knew about the tailings dam at Mary Kathleen Uranium until I told them. That dam was on bare ground and was covered with a yellow foam, leaching into the ground and exposed to the atmosphere. The Qld State govt minister told the Greens it was monitored. Nothing happened after that, that I know of. I felt disappointed the Greens didn't fight to get it cleaned up. I walked in it as part of my job to fetch a pump, had gum boots on of course. The foreman stayed well back on the bank.

It's been hanging over him for years. Kerry Stokes tried to assist him and I don't blame Kerry for that. We Train soldiers to Be effective killing Machines and expect them to still Be NORMAL. I see that as a quandary. What HE did was awful but WAR is not a Normal situation, A lot of returned Soldiers are Ruined by what they have seen and done. It used to be called Shellshock. The People who start the Wars are the REAL criminals. Nev

Trump complains no-one wants to help him when he said he didn't need help. Nato is a defence alliance. An attack on one is an attack on all. It has nothing to do with helping a member especially a malignant narcissist nutcase who attacks another sovereign state with no consultation with anyone except Israel. Now he is complaining that Japan, South Korea & Australia won't help either. Not our war Donny boy. Piss off & lie about something else. Oh and the 48 hours is almost up so tomorrow Iran will not exist. Yeah right.

The ‘technical malfunctions’ probably refer to the Iranians having blown the wings off.

Agree, except..... it's ok as long as the wake-up call actually wakes up the slumbering major party policy makers. In the USA extreme, twice now, the rebel voters created a One Party situation which permitted a political leadership disaster. Now they are stuck with a shadow of an opposition party that is unable to provide any balance to the excesses of the incumbents. We seem to agree that our two major parties need to get back in touch with the electorate, and prioitise the masses. But I fear our two parties are both too conservative to move forward.

Actually I support centre left.

Did they really get a C130 so bogged they couldn’t take off again and then had to fly in other aircraft to get everyone out? Sounds a bit chaotic. Surely the pilots would have seen and avoided soft sand and picked a better place to pull up. I assume they didn’t shut down the engines while they were there. I don’t think we’re necessarily getting the full story. Maybe the Iranians damaged them? No mention of any casualties either except for the rescued weapons officer.

Facts won't help Here OME. . Nev

Get value then, Crash away. Insurance is to avoid risk of being exposed to a cost liability you can't cover. You are buying Peace of Mind. You CAN'T HAVE that and then say "I want a refund". Insurance Companies DO have No Claim Bonuses. You should be able to work this out for yourself if you weren't so determined to be the "Greatest Whinger on the Planet" Nev

Have you thought about running yourself, GON?

What rock are you living under GON? We have NO idea what he will try Next and Neither does HE. He's FAKE. To Him the whole thing is a Game. He spends 1/2 his time Playing Golf . The other 1/2 playing GAMES with the World and feeding his insatiable EGO.. Nev

But it is not compulsory to drive. The fact is that people get injured in traffic accidents sometimes catastrophically. How, as a society, do we handle this? Do we deny people the means to live, perhaps as a paraplegic? If this insurance were not compulsory, would you not have it? If you were to cause an accident, would you be happy to be sued for every cent you have in order to provide for the person you may injure? If you yourself had life-changing injuries, would you want to be provided the financial means to help you live? You say you get nothing from this insurance, but what you get is protection from losing your house if you injure someone, and protection for yourself should the worst happen. In life, there are rights and responsibilities. To want the rights without the responsibilities is childish. Operating a car does involve responsibilities and expenses. I am compelled to have tyres on my car that are roadworthy, the brakes must be serviceable, etc. (oohhh it's so unfair sob sob). I have not had a significant accident in 46 years of driving; however, obviously, it could happen. I am not willing to lose my house if I injure someone. I also am not willing to be injured by another motorist, which could cause me to have to sell my house for my medical treatment. Sorry, but this is just another one of your endless list of "whinges"

Picked up this little air cooled 7.75 hp Lister SR1 today for bugger all. Most of it is there except for the fuel tank, air cleaner, fuel filter and some missing fuel lines. It's the clockwise running version. The 7.75 hp is the rating at full revs, 2,500rpm. At 1,000rpm I think they make 4 or 5. Hopefully it won't take too much to make it a runner. There's a place about 100 klm away that sells unaffordable genuine parts and reasonably priced non genuine parts. Everything is still available for them.

In God's name any crime against Humanity can be justified. It's happening all the time. Where are All the God given Rights listed.? Made up as required I Would suggest. How terribly convenient. Nev

Now that I agree with whole heartedly. A strong opposition is essential to keep the government performing. However the LNP has lost their way and forgotten that if they ever want to be in government again, they need to recapture the centre, not the lunatic fringe. But yes ON are who I'm hoping will implode quickly. Given the quality of their candidates, it shouldn't be long.

Now you fellas have got me on a rant 🙂 Not because I am some blind supporter of Israel - I hope the post above where I agree, there probably has been part motiviation to punish and agree that israel should be accountable to that extent. But. let's go. OK.. what war has not seen civilian casualties - especially where military assets being targeted are purposely hidden behind civilians? I'll get to proprotionality later. I absolutely agree that any government should be criticsied and held accountable for war crimes. What I am not seeing is anywhere near the eleve of criticism heing directed to other regimes for the same thing and worse. Stats given in other threads. Nor the level of criticism for Hamas inviting and wanting this conflict to kill their own civilians. Yet, everyone seems willing for the free pass to Hamas, or the Iranian government, or teh then Syrian giovernment, Saudi, Afghans, Oman, Libya, etc. Only appears to be the Israeli government that gets the criticism for far less. It doesn't excuse the justified criticism, but isf Israel does something, it is as if almost whetever that was done to provoke them into it is not even taken into account. DO you havbe inside information of why a normal enemy's intelligence was a) provided; b) the accuracy of that intelligence, and c) why Israel decided to ignore it. Are you insinuiating it was willing to let 1500 people die so it could invade Gaza and colonise it. I see no evidence there is a plan to colonise it even now (Chump;s plan doesn't give Israel control of Gaza). Before October 7, there were no attacks or plans for attack; Israel privided Gazans work in Israel, medical services to Gazans not available in Gaza, etc. All while Hamas was attacking it.. That doesn't sopund like a regime that wants to take it over by force. The question of proportionality is an interesting one. If you are saying is the cost of 70,000 lives a propritionate response to the loss of 1,500 lives? Clearly not. But is that the measure for proprotionality? Or is the pursuit of destruction of military capability poropritionalte to the ongoing attacks that well preceded October 7 and those that would continue after this war? Well, that is a different question? Of course, the cost of civilians lives has to be taken into account relative to the objective and imprtantly the ongoing threat to life. But why should Israel live under constant threat by those not willing to negotiate nor seek peace and have to constantly disproprtionately invest in defences to protect their people ? And should Hamas not be held at least equally, if not more responsible for the deaths of their civilians in a war they perpetrated and which they use their civilians as defences? Do I think the nuetralisaton of Hamas military capability is proprotionate? Yes, I do. Do I think it should be pursued at all costs? As a non-Israeli and not under the threats they live in, no I don't, but in the absence of anything coming to the peace table, I understand why those who live under threat may have a different opinion. I don't think it was all about that. Israel is more of a democracy than most; not the highest in the world, but top quartile or third by this index: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/democracy-index-eiu And, so I would expect that while that is certainly part of his motivation, if that was all of it, but didn't accord with the rest of his government, it wouldn't be happening. I'm really sorry; these two situations are so far apart, it isn't comparing apples with oranges, but IMHO, apples with the moon. You are comparing a lone murderer who commits an act of terrorism on his own behalf or the behalf of some obtuse and random right wing nut job group, whee there is no state sponsored terrorism and there is no historical or continuous threat that Australia itself is not actively working to thwart to the response of an attack from a coordinated government and military of a region, that is part of a wider regional state backed military with the sole intention of not only eradicating your country (NZ in this case) but the total genocide of your people (that Hamas, Hezboll, Houtis and Iranian regine have openly stated many times and is part of their documented charter - as close to a constitution as they can be), where they, and their predecessors, often with other states involvement have consistently attacked, killed, and threatened you and will continue to do so unabated given the first opportunity. Well, if Australia, or an Australian backed milita did that to NZ and of course, that milita or Australias defence assets were hidden under Australian hospitals, schools, and other civilian areas, would I be surprised if NZ attacked after this milita broke though NZ's defences and many Aussies civilians were killed as a result? Probably not; and I would siggest there would be few who would be surprised nor think it was unfair. Another Pauline moment - can you please explain to me a) the similarity of your analogy to Hamas and b) how you're not holding Israel to a totally different standard to others?

Yes. I think he just read out the last four weeks of his midnight Truth Social rants.

They have two farm properties about 100km apart and need to move machinery and trailer rams etc between them. They spend a lot of time on the road.

Too much antisemitic nonsense here. Why accept the propaganda of inherently evil regimes?

There have been as many white people in Aus, and nore in the US committing terrorism as Muslim. Sadly, any anti-solcial behaviour is not the preserve of one or a subset of nationalities or religions.

GON. Nazis and Ultra right wing nutjobs don't bother you? The Level of Guns in the society? Violence against Women? News is fear and Hate. Good things don't get reported.. Doesn't sell Papers or get your attention.. Hey look at this ANOTHER Muslim.. Nev

Response to changing Power demand it the Name of the Game today. Prices for Nuclear and Coal NEW are out there in the Market and build time and costs are high. When you ask for People willing to build such expensive things you Offer a figure which is realistic or you Have to doit with Gov't Money Which Dutton wanted to do and is the Main reason why He is not around as a Politician today. (Thank Dog). Nev

I don't think many people will care.

And the stupidity and legal jeopardy of getting involved in an undeclared war that Trump is totally responsible for.

They make all that bs wayyyyy over kill in Aus. All a house needs here is it's own independent roof top solar, that's all mine is. Yeah l could juice it up a touch more for wintery days , sometimes l need a bit more but l only put a very small system on mine. l don't care though people are spoilt rotten babies these days. lt does you good to think about your power sometimes and balance out your usage if you have to. They could be running every school most offices, a lot of small industry and businesses and many many other things on roof top solar we've got plenty of sun even through winter mostly. The way mine works is it'll get me by with 3 or 4 days of solid cloud and if it's sunny of the 4th or 5th day boom- she'll be full power again by 2 or 3 in the arvo. But it's only gone 3 or 4 days with zero sun once or twice anyway.