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Many years ago I use to follow F1 quit heavily however having nearly all races in the middle of the night whilst also going to work I lost interest as I became sleep deprived however last year I renewed my interest in F1 being able to watch all races, through Kayo, and not being able to work. The other thing is having a great Australian kid in Oscar Piastri representing Australia to the world driving a Mclaren has been great to watch, becoming an Australian hero to all of us that are into F1. Anyway I imagined what it would be like to Australia if Oscar's car in the Melbourne Grand Prix was painted in the iconic Australian Green and Gold. What a marketing success it would be. So I created a mock up of one:

This sad event is proof of the new faschist usa. Those ICE 'agents' are heavily armed, are masked (unidentifiable), uncontrolled, and know that they are above the law. Sounds like the infamous brownshirts. Each step that usa takes destabilises the world destroys trust in their country.

Meanwhile, an ICE agent shot and killed an unarmed woman in a car who was just trying to get away from the situation (she wasn't an immigrant as far as I know). The FBI, whose head Kash Patel is another unqualified Trump appointee, have taken over the investigation and not allowed local law enforcement anywhere near it. Meanwhile the administration are saying shit like "she was a domestic terrorist trying to kill the ICE agent with her car" despite plenty of mobile phone coverage clearly showing differently. ICE are the new Brown shirts. And the shit in the oval Office is Hitler.

Oh that we should do the same.

Great news! Norway has a solution to the present international jitters. But it might not be welcomed by the major media industry. (Due to stealing a lot of media hysteria.)

Oops. Ahh.. OK.. this is not the militarisation of the police like the US.. The police here do not use brutal tactics as they do in the USA. They are trained to first de-escalate and they don't usually send in fire-armed police as a first option unless the threat assessment is very serious. Whether you think it is right, PA is a proscribed terroirist organisations and there are laws against showing support to proscribed terrorist organisations. And the police have to uphold the law irrespective of their own political beliefs. Frankly, anything coming out og the UN Human Rights agency, council or whatever they call themselves has to be treated initially with some degree of scepticism. Apparently up to 10% UNRWA, a body within the UNHROC were affiliated with islamist militant groups including HAMAS. Yes, they are supposed to have all gone now, but does that remove the bias that allowed them there in the first place? Secondly, look at the members of the UN Human Rights Council: https://www.ohchr.org/en/hr-bodies/hrc/membership I would suggest that those who have an honest repect the basic freedoms and rights of people ar probably in the minority. It is strange that they have sent delegations to Australia report on violence against women, yet have not sent delegations to Saudi, Pakistan and the like - other member nations. You can guess, I don't hold them in high esteem. The article purposts that PA has been a proscribed terrorist organisation becausde they damaged a few planes. Unfortunately, their website notifies they are proscribed, requests a donation in some obscure crytocurrency, so I cannot go to the source for their actual policies, agenda, etc. On the internet, it mainly talsk about them targetting Israeli firms in protest and limits it to property. However, the UK government has documented the following in https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2025/803/pdfs/uksiem_20250803_en_001.pdf "Palestine Action 5.2 Palestine Action is a pro-Palestinian group with the stated aim to support Palestinian sovereignty by using direct criminal action tactics to halt the sale and export of military equipment to Israel. Since its inception in 2020, Palestine Action has orchestrated a nationwide campaign of direct criminal action against businesses and institutions, including key national infrastructure and defence firms that provide services and supplies to support Ukraine, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), “Five Eyes” allies and the UK defence enterprise. Palestine Action has also broadened its targets from the defence industry to include financial firms, charities, universities and government buildings. Its activity has increased in frequency and severity since the start of 2024 and its methods have become more aggressive, with its members demonstrating a willingness to use violence. Its activities meet the threshold of being concerned in terrorism as set out in the Terrorism Act 2000. There are varying defnitions of terrorism, but this is what Google spat out: Terrorism is the calculated use or threat of serious violence against people or property, intended to intimidate the public or coerce a government for political, religious, or ideological goals, often by creating widespread fear . Key elements include violent acts (murder, damage, endangering life) and specific intent (influencing government/public, advancing a cause). Definitions vary, but generally focus on these core components. So, it would seem the general definition is not limited to violence, despite being played down by the artiucle you present. Now, the UK may be unfairly acting against Palestinians and Muslims/Islam in general, but I don't think so on the evidence and definitions. After all, the UK, to its moneatry costs in exports of education, are not sanctioning the Muslim Bortherhood, where others do: https://www.ft.com/content/f256cc27-b80f-4fce-88cf-e80cb2451ef5 Also, as a display of how police tactics try (possibly too much) to de-escalate, here is a video documenting a policewoman receiving potentially life changing injuries at the hands of a PA protestor: Unf, I couldn't find the video my son dug up, which was far more graphic. And this was before they were proscribed? Peaceful prtest, eh? Just like Sydney jews were actively encouraged not to walk near the Palestinaian protests in Sydney and Melbourne because they were in danger.. because of the possibility ov violence purely because they were Jewish. But I gues it is OK for some Palestinian supporter to taunt the Jews at Bondi after the attack? Actually, it is a free world so yes, but I recall the Jews getting heated but no violence emanating from it. Wake up and put your prejudices aside for a change. I am happy to say there are times where the UK police go too far, but seriously, peaceful protest! FFS! Israel also have stuff to answer for. But to paint the Palestinian protests in the UK as peaceful is generally a joke.. Yes there have been few - very few of them. Shall we mention intimidation and threats of violence on the campuses etc.. where Jes had to be protected or refused entry to the campus. The lsit goes on. UK police are generally very good.

So many points tocomment upon. I believe that the American influence has not been introduced by police. In my opinion the generations which have come after the Boomers have had their attitudes towards Society molded by what American entertainment media has poured onto them. There is definitely a failure to acknowledge that the exercise of one's Rights as granted by Society has to be balanced by the acceptance of one's Responsibilities towards Society. It is that abandonment of Responsibilities that has lead to Society reducing many previously granted Rights. Should our police regularly carry long arms? Definitely not, for the simple reason that using high powered firearms requires a lot of skill to avoid 'collateral damage'. Gaining those skills takes long and frequent training to do which would markedly reduce the number of police available for the day-to-day duties involved in keeping the Peace. Competency with firearms cannot be obtained through a one day per year revision session on a range under virtually stress-free conditions. I agree that a small police unit of police regularly trained and disciplined in the use of these more powerful firearms is required for those operations aimed at the arrest of person reasonably expected to be prepared to use firearms to avoid arrest. These are planned operations in which each participant has a defined role within the team. Arrest by persons other than Police. I've explained before that anyone can arrest an offender in the act of, or immediately following the commission of an offence. Obviously a security guard would not want to do it because such an action is likely to result in loss of time by the employer if the security guard is required to attend Court as a witness. From my expereince, security guards are mostly just full of piss and wind. The Media. Once again the Media make matters worse by publicising situations when specialist armed police are in action, even if that action is simply patrolling on foot at New Years Eve events. One heavily armed police constable wearing body armour gives a false image when the majority of police are getting atound in cargo pants and shirts. When you see those bulky vests that regular police wear, they are not wearing body armour. The vests were introduced becasue police were carrying too much equipment on their waists and this was causing lower back injury. The introduction of vests was a Work, Health and Safety measure.

Venezuela's current production is only about one million barrels per day, which is a drop in the bucket and certainly won't bother China very much. Estimates are that to get it up to even 1.5m bpd would cost about $7 billion and take 2 years. Chevron is the only major US producer with a significant footprint in the country, and Trump can't simply order other US producers to move into a politically unstable country and spend billions of dollars ramping up production as he claims, even if they are led by his cronies. At the end of the day they have turn a profit for their shareholders, and even if Venezuela is sitting on 303 billion barrels of oil, which the US doesn't own anyway, time is not on Donald's side in getting his hands on it in his political lifetime. At the end of the day, they may have Maduro in jail but not much else to show for their efforts.

I've done a fair Bit of Shark Spotting/Patrolling and Shark Numbers fluctuate a Lot and some types of shark are More worrisome than Others. Bull sharks have emerged as a risk. Grey Nurse used to be Blamed Unfairly for attacks. Many times Sharks do not attack surfers. Shark Nets catch a lot of other things we don't want to Lose. It's THEIR territory. I've always Been wary of them They are NOT Predictable. My diving was Never alone Usually 3 people who could observe what was About. On the surface you have No way of Knowing and splashing attracts them as a Hooked fish does. Bronze Whalers. Hammer Heads,(not so much in FIJI) Great whites, Mako .I used to sell dum dums to Ben Crop. (He made them from what I sold him. Originally they Were shotgun Cartridges at the end of a rod I made a study of Sharks and fish Generally.

I think that Netanyahu's actions have acted as a focal point for attacks against Jews in Australia. We have to remember that we of European descent have lived in an anti-Jewish culture since about 79AD when the Romans got heavy-handed with a rebellious provincial group. After Christianity became the common religion for Western Europe, the story that the Jews murdered Christ was fed to the unsophisticated populous. That created the anti-Jewish culture which became ingrained in Western societies. Now, when government of a Jewish country is going overboard in dealing with dissent within its borders, one method of protesting at that government's actions is to attack people who might practise a certain religion, bnut are not citizen's of the Jewish county. Are anti-Islamist attacks any different? Why aren't young Jewish people attacking mosques in our cities? Probably because they live by the standards of Western European societies and attacking places of worship is just not the done thing in those societies. If Netanyahu's government was not in power, and a moderate Party was, would the government initiated attacks on non-Jewish citizens still go on?

He will never say anything bad about Putin because that would mean admitting that he was wrong about Putin before, and of course Trump is never wrong.

Well , aside from all this stuff separately , l can not believe Trump still can't bring himself to say anything bad about Putin. Not enough he has his US soldiers on their knees rolling out red carpet for him, while Trump himself waits clasping hands smile from ear to ear bursting like a little school girl as Putin approaches - he still , 12mths after all his Ukr bs, insists in every presser, every time, that it's mostly soldiers being killed , innnnn, Putins defense. You watch any clip over 12mths of Trump talking about the lives lost in the Ukr war and he goes out of his way to add that, in every one. Andddd, to this day he's still adding it. Bloody gobsmacked . Still won't acknowledge, even still defending that his man crush doesn't go after civilians. Why are they all so silent with his bs and lies, over and over and over again. lt amazes me. Although he'll shutem down l know , if they mention or argue or ask something he doesn't like and it'll be no more questions from them but still. As for all this latest crap , notice they're all microscopic tiny countries or else countries he knows damn well couldn't even fight them back. He's actually doing, exactly what Putins been doing for decades. Just wrapping it up in different dressing. l reckon this idiot will be chaos start to finish, just like he's first term, he's even worse this time so far.

Do You Really Mean your LAST LINE.? I DID NOT say Jews in ISRAEL either. Australia is Not a Suburb of TEL AVIV. Lives are Lives. BIBI's Behaviour is the Prime cause of a Lot of lost Sympathy for the Jews. Stating this DOES NOT IMPLY that I support attacks on Anyone. There's enough HATE to go around already. Nev

Banks are withdrawing ATM's due to the cost of servicing them. With the reduction of branches and tellers, and people requiring access to cash, this has left it up to privately owned ATMs. They also have to be serviced by companies like Brambles to top up the cash dispensers, which costs money, hence the charges. Private ATM owners also have to pay rent to shopkeepers for the space the ATM occupies.

It has to be BS. The only way a walkout would have happened is if he said "Let's break for lunch".

An interesting perspective.... https://www.upworthy.com/american-in-europe-realization

TO Restrict using of information is OBSTRUCTION of Justice. The Perpetrators have already made their Position VERY clear. The Victim was Unarmed and attempting to drive away when she was Executed. Where is the evidence of Police Injury? Nev

There are more than enough recordings of the incident made by independent witnesses that any body-cam video would be redundant. The problem is that a Federal Authority is ignoring the sovereignty of a State, something that is unconstitutional. But we are talking about the Trump Federal Government.

This is partially the same bike a year later. I bought it back from the insurance company and rebuilt it into this. It has the original tank, side panels, engine and gearbox, but everything else was replaced.

There is no doubt that Australains who have not been directly impacted by the recent fire and flood situations are sympathetic to those who have. Merely say that the impacted are in our thoughts and prayers doesn't seem enough. What can we do? Many victims only have the clothes they stand up in. Should we send clothing? Nice thought, but impractical. I volunteer at a charity shop where we receive bags and bags of donated clothing. It is a daily battle to sort through these donations to classify them and prepare them for display for sale. Even when that is done, we have difficulty in storing them. If we wanted to dontate them, where would we send them, and how? Clothing is not the only thing that these victims need. Where's the bog rolls; the baby nappies, the female hygeine products, the incontinence pads? Did you ever think that these might be more important to some victims than a selection of clothing? The National Emergency Management Agency https://www.nema.gov.au/ is a Commonwealth agency whose goal is to lead and coordinate national action and assistance across the emergency management continuum. To do this the agency works with State and Federl entities, Charitable organisations and leaders of the Public Sector to get aid to victims of disasters in the immediate aftermath and later in the recovery period. The best way for individuals to give help is by donating money to funds properly set up through charitable organisations and the like where monetary donations can be lodge into accounts managed by the major banks. The warning that must be given about donating is to never donate following a request made via a communication medium. If you want to donate, it is best to walk into a bank yourself.

VERY SAD to Hear. I know the Area well. Great stress for Many in such times. Keep safe. Nev

How many Aussies still want to ditch our King? Looking at the failing democracy in usa, I sure don't like going down the path of having a president! It's not working out too well for them!

The sooner he succumbs to a massive heart attack the better,

There's plenty of masked ICE thugs being videoed, beating the crap out of anyone who they select as "the enemy". Talk about 1934 Germany all over again. The ICE operatives are judge, jury and executioner all rolled into one - and J.D. Vance claims they have "absolute immunity" (from prosecution). At least some people are identifying the ICE murderers and calling for them to face punishment.

Nah. It doesn't bear thinking about.

Back in my (working) day, I had great data security....

I hate cheap thongs, and only wear Slappas thongs during Summer. Cheap thongs nearly killed me once, I went sprawling over a rock embankment of the Ashburton River bridge, when I lost my footing as I started to climb down the rocks, taking a shortcut back to the caravan park. I was just lucky I landed on my side on a huge flat rock, not a big sharp-edged one, like all the rest were. I would have incurred very major injury, maybe even killed myself, if I'd landed anywhere else. I still did a lot of damage to my outer thigh muscle, I couldn't walk for a week afterwards, and I was in agony for most of that week. Dirt-cheap footwear is a mistake when you get older. Spend the money to get good foot support, it not only assists with balance, but you walk better in them. A lot of Chinese footwear puts you off-balance from the word go, because the soles are rubbishy design and they consist of crappy materials.

I think there is a misspelling in that sentence. 'Own mortality' looks more like it.

"The price of liberty is eternal vigilance." It pays all free peoples to be vigilant to the possible loss of liberties. That means careful monitoring of our system of leadership. Fortunately our Australian system has the means to remove leaders who remove liberties. However that often simply results in placing a similar type in the role.

The latest executive order is commanding the US secretary of defence to build up the national guard. The purpose is to have a larger readily available force for rapid deployment anywhere within the country. Why? Recently the national guard has been used to suppress political dissent. Some are comparing this to the SS.

What the USA is doing is proving that the US style of democracy is a failure. In other countries with true democracies, Trump would have been ousted from power by now.

I would try to keep a stiff upper lip.

His reason for pardoning Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández? "He reminded me of myself."

You lusty Lethario!

The Chairman of the NRMA was quoted today saying that we can expect petrol prices to drop to about 2020 levels simply because there is a it of a glut in the market. He did not atach the cause of that glut to Trump's latest actions. Perhaps EVs are causing a drop in demand, or maybe Trump's tariff attacks on oil producers are causing the producers to sell in other markets. If the USA cannot meet its own domestic demand for sour crude, then we might see lots of Yank tanks abandoned on the side of the road. Look out for the Amish to take over long haul transport!!

We're still getting blamed for the Stolen Generation.

So not keen on helicopters either then, Nev?

The situation in US seems to cast the ICE staff as paramilitary. Neither real police nor military but more empowered than either. Not everyone is pleased. But I don't see that changing things.

Concerning the US border control agents, I am disgusted to see the 'agents' wearing large 'POLICE' labels on their uniform. As far as I can tell, they are NOT actually police, do not have police training, do not have the legal authority of police. Yet they are armed, and can use lethal force. Another instance of over reach by a government 'authority'.

I refer not to militarism but the use of terrorism powers to do wholesale arrests of peaceful protesters for daring to support action in Palestine. This is a gross abuse of powers.

I have read that ICE agents do have bodycams but the images are not released so they cannot compromise their use as evidence in a trial. The video of the Minnesota murder were shot on the agent's phone camera.

You don't find it a bit cool in winter? Not to mention people yelling "go get some clothes on, you weirdo!"?

Police should be called a service not force, they are here to serve society. The use of black uniforms in some states is silly, its hot and sends the wrong image. The use of body cams in all interactions should be mandatory and a offense of office not to use it. Most critical incidents magically fail to get camera vision, this leads to a lack of trust in policing. Police should never be in charge of investigating police, its a massive conflict of interest. Police should never be allowed to hide their identity , they quite often do when policing protests, public order etc, this allows thuggish behaviour and zero accountability. Only speacial ops police should have such needs and then must wear clearly visible badge numbers. We are not like the usa or uk yet but its a slippery slope some right wing pollies would love to follow.

There CAN BE BAD KINGS as well. Being a Republic is NOT having a Dictator. It JUST means you don't have Power by Birth. You don't get to VOTE for a King. IF you get a Dictator you don't get a Free and Fair Vote ever again. The FREE vote is the Key. Nev

And they are working hard to subvert the election: Heather Honey is an outspoken election denier and the deputy assistant secretary for election integrity in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The Republican National Committee (RNC) has created a new "election integrity" division, with Trump ally and attorney Christina Bobb serving as senior counsel for election integrity. Harmeet Dhillon, a lawyer involved in challenging the 2020 election results, who now leads the civil rights division of the Justice Department. Kurt Olsen, an attorney involved in the "Stop the Steal" movement, is a special government employee involved in investigating the 2020 election. Cleta Mitchell, a prominent conservative lawyer, founded the Election Integrity Network, an activist group that coordinates with individuals like Honey and supports these appointments. Hans von Spakovsky and J. Christian Adams, who were part of Trump's 2017 Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, continue to promote strict voting regulations through conservative foundations Some judges have so far stopped other attempts to swing the election in Trump's favour: https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/09/election-trump-order-ruling-00721151

Just remember GON, you're a pawn in their game. Certainly won't make life better for you, and you are very, very dispensible. I have firends and ex-colleagues in the US emailing me to see what opportunities are over here.. But, they are the travelled ones. But don't take my word for it. Move their like you say you have been invited to. Find out for yourself. Just don't forget to rescind your Aussie citizenship on the way.

That’s true but Trump’s focus is now on the Western hemisphere and he’s pretty short sighted when it comes to strategic thinking. Hopefully his more level headed military advisors would stop him walking away completely. Even so, his instinct is to reduce his overseas forces and get the NATO countries to make up the shortfall.

Firsty, I don't think The Bloody Fool Has Started a War. He has caused some damage and some deaths, and abducted their president. He has not actually changed the government - under their constitution, the VP steps into the president's shoes. And the administration carries on. I have not yet heard about a plan to restructure government, hold a fair election, or set up a new oil oligarcy. Ad if donold thinks it will hurt china by interrupting one of their oil sources, he's too late. China has done a lot of homework in south america. They are smart enough to diversify their trading options.