nomadpete

I admit that at first I thought that Donold was just using theatrical BS to wind up the dumb redneck voters. It was all just an act, to get the top job. How wrong I was. I didn't believe that anybody could be that dumb, foolish, shallow, narcisstic and sociopathic, and yet survive to such an age without somebody topping him. And I mean, before he ran for president the first time. But here we are. Not only that, but he gathered together so many like minded people to protect and enable his corruption without any thought or consideration for the wellbeing of the people.

Well in spite of all the depressing stuff that Donold is doing and saying, He still has a big following. Recent polls (grain of salt required), suggest that Republicans are losing ground from Latinos and less white voters. Then the detail emerges.....support ('I'll vote for Trump again'), has dropped from 72% to only 60%. For that demographic. What? If they still have 60% support, after all the damage done so far, next year will be even worse than this year! I realise it is only one segment of their public, but it still indicates an amazing level of support for continuing the rolling disaster of USofA.

Where is Freud when you need him? I went yhrough a falling nightmare phase, later on I grew out of it - I'd dream of falling, then i dreamt that I could swoop out of the fall and fly over the houses.

Finally got to see the rest of your clip. How long did you have to lie there on your back, waiting for the train?

Thanks for sharing, Octave. Unfortunately I could only play the first bit, we do have slow internet in the remote south! Good perspective. Keep up the exercise - once you lose fitness, it's almost impossible to get it back.

I guess that's better than the original promise - of probably no subs at all

US vs Iran. So much winning!

As for the oppressive law prohibiting smoking near other people, well I can speak as an ex smoker. I gave up smoking just before such laws were made. I gave up because I realised it was harmful, also I noticed it sometimes bothered some people. Creating a law was not what changed my behaviour. However, human nature has a habit of creating strong herd acceptance of social behaviour, and that prevented many people from behaving responsibly. The law was necessary to change the mob. But smoking itself has not been banned. I am free to smoke, so long as I basically don't bother other people by doing it.

I don't think Onetrack was calling it 'opressive'. He pointed out that there was no need to create a law, for instance, to prevent free availability to purchase explosives. I cannot recall any reports of neighbours blowing up anything in their backyard, can you? Do you fear that your neighbour would do that if he/she could? Our society has become less social as it becomes more crowded. The old social norms that encouraged individuals to be more considerate, have faded. But our basic freedoms are not, in my opinion, being oppressed.

Tread carefully, OME. Thar be rabbit 'oles all about you.

Wille, what you are saying is that we must continue to get involved in the US conflicts as we have done in the past, in the hope that they MIGHT come to our aid in the highly unlikely event of us being invaded. The US has not historically behaved in the way that NATO (for instance) has a binding defense agreement to come to the aid of invaded members. Meanwhile we have repeatedly rushed to the aid of US involvrment in other wars. But none of those were cases of US being invaded. Do they owe us anything? I wouldn't count on it. I do not believe the US would do a great deal to help us if we really needed help. The US once said they would help Ukraine if Russia threatened it. Look how that turned out.

And we don't need to pretend to buy non existent submarines, for that.

Vassal? No, I think Australia has never shaken itself free from colonialism. Used to be a colony of the 'old country', now we are a colony of USA.

We are fortunate in our relativly isolated geographical location. However, we collectively accept law being used to suppress whistleblowers, and accept subservience to powers such as the USofA. We should be outraged but unfortunataly our collective apathy dilutes our ethics. My own apathy has diluted my own anger to the point that I couldn't be bothered writing a nastygram to a polly any more.

Just when I think the US can't get any worse, someone manages to show me another example of how networking works....

Birds of a feather?

Have they asked Gina or Clive?

There are 3 lows coming at us (in the south). Unusual, they are close together and bode for some active weather.

Hey Marty, I'm bringing by kayak for a bit of whitewater fun!

That's just your algorithm working for you.

That's not the fault of the constitution. Every system can be hijacked if a leader plants compliant assistants who only answer to their benefactor, and ignore ethically obeying the rules. In the US case, removing trump from the equation fixes nothing. I only permits the unethical rabble to run amok.

PS, contrary to the current voices in Washington, the United States was NOT founded as a christian nation.

Rather than rewriting the constitution, if they just follow it...... Founding fathers tried to separate state from all religion. The US really began it's slide when the christian lobby got control - about the same time their (&our) government implemented prayer sessions into government processes. The only thing needed to reclaim some semblance of respect is to get the whole lot to obey the rule of law, ditch religious fundamentalism, and drop the Electoral College.

Now you might understand why Terrump is urgently needing a billion dollar bunker.