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That is why we have a democracy. Most people are middle of the road and vote that way. That’s why someone like Pauline Hansen is not running the country even though she has a seat in Parliament. That’s also why we currently have so many independents. The gap between extremists will never be narrow because if it was they wouldn’t be extremists.

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Where is the evidence that this equilibrium and balance that you talk about actually exists to either produce some kind of middle ground or cancel each other out? It seems to me to be just an abstract, meaningless concept.

Trump just wants to end the war as quickly as possible and will do whatever it takes so that he can brag that he did it when no one else could. He doesn’t care whether the terms pave the way for Putin to re-start the war in the future or invade some other country, as long as it doesn’t happen on his watch. He doesn’t like Zelenskyy and doesn’t care about Europe. He sees the Ukraine war as just some remote conflict that he doesn’t want to be involved in. His only interest in Ukraine is their minerals.

He’s now called Zelensky a dictator who should ‘move fast’ or he won’t have a country left. Putin is saying that he has now given Trump the correct information about Ukraine. This is not going to end well for Ukraine.

The takeover of the Justice Department by the convicted felon continues:

Not forgetting that the FAA fined Musk over $600,000 for launch safety violations.

Keith Dunstan started it in 1967

He is bringing chaos, not sanity or stability to the economy and immigration, and weakening the US from within at all levels, and internationally as well, to the delight of Russia and China. Putin and Xi can't believe their good luck. Putin will probably give him the Order of Lenin or some such medal when they meet up as a token of his appreciation.

Agreed, and many worked for him in his last administration - something like 30-40 people I recall reading somewhere. They will still be around after Trump has gone, and in the meantime have orchestrated the infiltration at all levels of government of like-minded people. Trump is just their ignorant and self-interested facilitator.

The thing about Project 2025’s manifesto is that it’s not Trump’s work. The long term threat is from those sitting quietly behind Trump who are intent on cementing an undemocratic future for America. Although Trump is an enthusiastic advocate, he is only there for the short term and mainly interested in boosting his own importance and wealth. He’s not a deep thinker.

With Musk and Trump firing several hundred thousand one to two year probationary staff across a lot of different agencies, there will be a staffing, experience and expertise gap that is going to roll through these organisations in coming years. That corporate knowledge and expertise that older staff have will not be transferred to younger people. It’s a very short-sighted policy. It happened in our industry years ago when university entrants flocked to IT and Law, and engineering intake dropped off very significantly. It eventually picked up again but there was a long period when we could not find engineers with 5-10 years experience. That gap took years to resolve.

One person's poetic licence is another person's misinformation these days.

... or slowly either.

I think that pretty much sums it up, especially with Trump calling the shots.

Most Americans seem to think the world stops at the US coastline.

That's simply not true. https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/buying-products-and-services/consumer-rights-and-guarantees

Exactly - the bank robbers are now running the banks: About a week before Elon Musk helped take over the nation’s leading consumer financial watchdog, his social media site, X, unfurled the details of a new payment system that may have drawn federal scrutiny — underscoring the complicated web of personal interests at stake as the world’s richest person advises President Donald Trump on a reconfiguration of the U.S. government. The system is called X Money, and in the vision sketched out by executives, it would allow millions of users on X to instantly send money to friends, family members and others. Heralding it as a breakthrough in finance, the company said in late January it would launch this year with the support of Visa, which processes billions of transactions globally. Because of its direct ties to bank accounts and debit cards, X Money normally would fall under the remit of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency with vast powers to crack down on unfair, deceptive and predatory corporate practices. Formed in the wake of the 2008 financial collapse, the CFPB has policed traditional banks and lenders as well as Apple, Google and other tech giants that seek to offer digital versions of those services. But that was before last week, when Musk’s team of young agents — acting at Trump’s behest — began targeting the CFPB as part of their disruptive campaign to slash spending and regulation across government. As they burrowed into the bureau’s computers, Musk made clear his goal is to dismantle the agency, which soon ordered a full stoppage to all of its work to investigate companies and protect consumers.

You could always ask them.

Of course - wild animals. I didn't think of that one. Seems to me you got a fair and reasonable response, and hardly `mind your own business'. Why would you even care about how many outages are caused by what anyway? Why is that important to you? And what do you realistically expect them to do about preventing natural events, accidents and wild animal attacks. Surely it must be obvious that they have no more control over those things than you do.

Power outages typically happen due to natural events like fires, falling tree branches, storms and lightning strikes, or accidents like a car running into a power pole. Some may be due to equipment failures that may or may not be due to inadequate maintenance/replacement. Nearly all are random events that the power company can't predict and is not responsible for. Their obligation in an outage is to restore power as quickly as possible. Also to notify residents of planned outages. If the outage goes on for long enough, here in the West at least you can put in a claim for compensation for spoiled food etc. We were without power for a week once after a severe storm and got compensation. I'm not sure what you could say in another letter that would change the fact that outages happen, or what you would expect the power company to do about them. Did they literally tell you to mind your own business? What did you write in your previous letter to get that kind of response?

Trump won't be at all happy when he notices that Musk's increasing unpopularity starts rubbing off on his own approval ratings. He already won't be happy about Musk appearing on the cover of Time sitting behind his desk. The cozy relationship may start to develop a few cracks.

It's pretty clear after just these first few weeks that the post-war world order largely established by the US has now been rescinded by the US, and is well and truly dead. Trump's view is that domination and intimidation are far more effective ways to make America great again than traditional diplomacy, free trade and shared values with other nations. The US no longer has allies or enemies, only competitors that Trump is determined to beat. Only quid pro quo deals matter now, corruption is legal, and he sees himself like Putin, only a bigger and better version. Ukraine is now Europe's problem except that Zelensky owes the US for all the munitions it was given for free by Biden. America is now being run for the benefit of the the occupant of the White House and his pliant GOP entourage. Court orders and the rule of law are largely irrelevant, former insurrectionists are now patriotic heroes, and the national accounts are being managed by the swindlers and thieves. It's a pretty sorry state of affairs. I wonder what the world will look like in 12 months from now.

So corruption is now an approved business practice for US companies doing business in foreign countries. That also conveniently removes any ethical constraint on Trump from accepting foreign bribes for favours as part of his official duties, not that he could be prosecuted anyway because he's immune. What else would you expect from a crook.

Their website says they are happy to respond to complaints so why not try it? Besides, aren’t you just looking for an explanation? That’s different to making a complaint.