Marty_d

Well according to the news today, the Trump administration has said that Musk is only an "advisor" and is not in charge of DOGE. So who IS in charge of DOGE, and why has DOGE hired Musk's 19yo gophers? Apparently the head of the US Social Security department, which makes payments to millions of people, has resigned after resisting DOGE efforts to access sensitive data.

"Confusion of internationalism and wokism"... What are you smoking?

Simple people like simple solutions. But simple solutions don't work for complex problems. We've been dumbed down.

The problem is that the people have even less idea of what the money is needed for than the parliament. So if you give the population at large the ability to block spending you'll get the same awful outcomes currently happening in the US where idiots without a clue are mindlessly breaking stuff in the mantra of "save money". (For who? Billionaires)

Even with compulsory voting it's hard enough to get people to vote properly (ie not make a donkey vote either deliberately or accidentally). Without political parties and people not spending the time to understand the candidates, how the hell are they going to make their vote go even vaguely in the direction they want? At the risk of opening a huge can of worms, maybe we need a better way of voting. Candidates clearly mark where they stand on a range of current and likely future issues (and are held publicly to account if they then vote differently without sufficient reason). The vote is also simply a questionnaire about where the voter stands on the same range of issues. Then your vote is assigned to the candidate whose profile most accurately reflects your choices.

Vance is a rabble-rousing dickhead. He's been courting the AfD in Germany which is widely regarded as a dangerous far right party. Obviously a man of consistent principles, he used to say Trump was America's Hitler, but now he's a full on supporter.

I'm finding the cool spell refreshing. However my wife still wants us to go snorkeling this morning so I'm not particularly looking forward to that...

Careful, if the weather's too cold his plums might drop off too.

Yeah I think she was the main "parent" to both her 16yo and the 16yo's baby. Besides working full time. Wouldn't have been fun.

Cars are left hand drive in the US and France. I just assumed they picked that when cockpits became wide enough for side by side seating for that reason.

I know. Sounds funnier this way though.

Hen's vaginas, Nev.

It would be about the only balanced thing in his life.

You are starting to talk like him. Are you actually a very intelligent lefty who is playing a long ironic joke?

True, I worked with one who was 32.

I now have a mental image of little old ladies in police uniform.

You literally just described Trump.

Would I kill Trump? No. Would I in any way seek to achieve or encourage that goal? No. But would I be sad if he died from any cause including that? Only if there were other casualties. I don't "believe" in violent assassinations. Or even non violent ones. Let me ask you a question though. Knowing what you know now, would you be upset if someone managed to kill Hitler before Kristallnacht, Stalin in 1945, Bin Ladin before 2001?

It was obvious what a useless turd he was the first time around. Anyone who voted for him this time - or didn't bother voting - has no right to complain now.

The more this stuff comes out, the more I think "If only that bullet was 2 inches to the right".

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. It is a no brainer to remove small coins, in fact I'd argue that unless you can show commonly purchased items that cost less than 50 cents, that should be the minimum currency. In terms of shopping it wouldn't make a massive difference to stores if they discounted up to 49 cents in a transaction. It'd certainly stop them advertising stuff for "$19.99" because they want you to mentally assume something is under $20.

I think it's a stretch to indicate an 80 year cycle for something as complex as weather in Australia, where written records only go back a maximum of 3 cycles.

Are you serious, the Yanks don't have EFTPOS?

2 of our hens, with exquisite timing, have chosen to go broody on about a dozen eggs each. You're sitting on a fortune ladies!!

One pint does not a wobble make!