Marty_d

Supported by billionaires, Russia, conspiracy theorists and the religious, in a land where most people are at least nominally religious, in a time where attention spans have decreased and more people trust news from social media (which is owned by said billionaires, heavily trolled by foreign actors and has weighted algorithms skewed to support Trump) than fact-checked reporting. The Democrats face an uphill battle, I just hope that enough sane people in the US can be bothered to get off their arses in November and do the right thing.

Quote was right, just expand it and the question is at the bottom.

Orange

Smoking rates have massively decreased. Yes some people are still buying them but VERY few compared to previous decades. Putting a price signal on harmful products does actually work. If a slab of Coke cost $100 instead of $25, a lot of people would look at alternatives.

I'm halfway through reading "QANON and on (A short and shocking history of internet conspiracy cults)" by Van Badham. (A good find at our street library!) It's absolutely shocking reading the history of QANON and what their followers believe. There are literally hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people in the US who actually believe that celebrities and Democrats rape, slaughter and eat children, and that Trump is a god-like figure who is cunningly fighting to bring those people down. Their view of him is that he's playing 3D chess against opponents playing 2D chess. They think every lie he says is absolute truth, when he's proven to be wrong then it's fake news (or a cunning ploy of the Donald). They see it as their duty to harass, threaten and in some cases even kill members of this evil cabal (ie normal people). Yes most are just sad and lonely keyboard warriors wasting their lives and gullibly falling for anything the Russians dangle in front of them, but if even 1% were motivated to actually take up weapons then it'd be an ugly situation. What's worse is that this cult has gone worldwide, and there's true believers in pretty much every country - we're not exempt. Kamala HAS to win this election - the alternative is terrifying.

Yeah I was reading about the Trump/Musk fiasco. The Guardian has a good opinion piece on it - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/aug/13/donald-trump-elon-musk-x-twitter-politician-tech I like the description they have of the event... "...a tech boss being unable to organise a tech event on a tech platform feels like a new industry standard: the brewery’s head of piss-ups being unable to launch a piss-up in his brewery."

Couldn't you just let her sit in the passenger seat like anyone else?

Needless

Trapped rats can lash out.

Circle of trust

She must be, to marry him. There's not much to love.

Most houses are roofed before the wall frames are clad

I make 18...

Not...?

It's 2024 Peter. The question should be "You don't have a phone and speaker/headphones?" Spotify (even the free version) will get you all the country music you can handle and even create playlists based on your favourite song or performer.

T&E Expand the ampersand to "AND"

I think we had a fair bit of discussion about this when it happened. For me the take-home message was, don't build a vehicle that's going down to depths where the pressure is 6,000psi, out of a carbon fibre shell mated to a steel hemisphere.

Pure gold. Love it.

Maybe Macca's doesn't taste as good to him these days. I don't care if he's haggard - I just want him defeated.

Not really a surprise. Trump will be squealing like a thwarted tanty-throwing baby if it doesn't go his way in November. I really hope Kamala and her VP pick can keep the momentum going and thrash the arrogant prick.

Noughts

Depends. If you get no pleasure from pain, then god is happy. However if the flagellation is increasing your pleasure, you're on the express elevator to hell. 😄

No wonder. It's a very cool name.

I had to reverse image google it as I thought I recognised the facial features - but I would never have got it in a million years.

They all contain body parts.