willedoo

I made it two numbers. Four and Five.

Presidents and presidential candidates are subject to a lot of social media criticism but also false smear campaigns. One of the more benign things is video clips edited to remove important original context. On the other end of the scale is outright BS. John McCain was subject to a lot of BS regarding his prior military service when he was running for president. One was that he was a collaborator during his stay in the Hanoi Hilton. Another was that it was him who caused the 1967 Forrestal fire. That's been debunked by people who were there and saw the rocket launch from one of the Phantoms on deck. McCain and his Skyhawk were on deck but had nothing to do with causing the fire. Another slur was that he was a reverse ace. He did lose five aircraft during his Navy career, but not all were his fault. Certainly the last one where he was shot down had nothing to do with pilot error and no way can go toward reverse ace status. I'd have to check but I seem to remember another loss or two were due to mechanical failure and not the pilot's fault. Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden both copped a lot of the same sort of treatment during their presidential campaigns.

Recently I had a bloke approach me in a car park asking for money. He said he lost his job and needed cash for some groceries. About 40 metres away from where we were standing, Coles has a food donation bin where shoppers can donate food to the needy. The food in the bin doesn't go off to a charity; it's there for needy people and the homeless to take straight out of the bin. The way he was talking gave me the impression he was full of BS and was trying to scrounge money for drugs. He seemed too agitated to be an alcoholic looking for grog money. I told him I was a pensioner and didn't have spare cash to give away (all true) and then he went away.

North Korea and Iran stick with Russia because they need what Russia can supply them, and it also gives those isolated states a powerful friend. China is increasing support to countries like that and the day could come when Chinese support means that they don't need Russia anymore. If that happens, putin will be irrelevant to those two countries. China gets oil and gas from Russia but only because it's cheap.

He wont use them, He knows if he did it would be the end of himself and Russia. putin is a lot of things but he's not crazy. Twisted yes, but not crazy. He likes to use them as a big stick to threaten and intimidate. For the last two years he's done nothing when multiples of his red lines have been crossed. His reaction has always been to address the public with more BS to shore up his domestic image, then make more threats so the gullible Russian citizens think he's a tough guy. The reality is he's a scared coward. The only thing that gives him fuel is Western weakness. Like any bully, he'll seek out opponent's weaknesses and try to take advantage of it. ICBMs are the big, long range missiles that go into space and then rain down on cities on the other side of the world. The awareness on both sides of MAD is the deterrent from using them, for as we all know an attack is met with an immediate response leading to world destruction. The concern has been if he ever uses small, short range tactical nukes in the theater of conflict. Even doing that would be highly unlikely due to the consequences for putin and Russia. The use of one battlefield nuke would probably lose him most of the very few friends he has. He would lose Chinese support for a start and probably end up with only Iran and North Korea on his side. Xi is in the position where China needs to sell it's products to the Western world to survive economically. There's no way China would risk economic ruin from severe Western sanctions just to support his dickhead vassal using tactical nukes.

It sounds like putins propaganda machine and his army of paid on-line trolls are starting to get a foothold in the US. That's his plan, to subvert US politics and get his orange mate reinstalled as president. Trump has said he will cease all aid to Ukraine if elected, meaning putin wins. It's the only real ace putin has left up his sleeve.

Nev, you are forgetting the other side of it, the presidential draw down authority. With that, Biden has the authority to order supplies from existing military stocks to be sent to Ukraine and then replaced by US manufacturers and suppliers. It's a separate thing from the aid package that was held up by the Republicans. Biden has always had the ability and authority to supply much needed long range missiles without being constrained by the Republicans blocking aid packages in Congress. Until now the decision not to supply them was wholly due to the administration's dithering based on their fear of putler escalating the conflict. It's an over simplification of the issues to blame only the Republicans as that aid package held up in Congress is only part of the equation. The blame is two fold. Firstly the Republicans blocking much needed aid in Congress and secondly, the Biden administration's indecision and fear of putin in the authorisation of specific use of US weapons against Russia, as well as their shortcomings in managing the draw down process . Those faults are with the administration, and not the Democrat party as a whole. https://www.state.gov/use-of-presidential-drawdown-authority-for-military-assistance-for-ukraine/

The US approval is not for long range missile strikes into Russia. It's only for artillery and short range HIMARS rounds to be fired over the border at Russian troops massing near the Kharkiv border. At least it's something that will help.

Slow Joe finally made a decision. His dithering has cost a lot of Ukrainian lives over the past two years. American aid is crucial to Ukraine but the US has not shown the leadership and understanding of the situation that Britain and the Europeans have. It's a sad situation where Biden is the best the US has. Many more Ukrainians would die if the orange clown was in charge.

It looks like the US has followed the lead of their European allies and approved the use of American supplied weapons inside Russia. It's been reported by some outlets that Biden had secretly approved it, but now Blinken has come out and announced it publicly.

Another lot of 75 Ukrainian POWs have returned home. It's good to see the Russians have returned to the prisoner exchange process after pulling out of it for a while. The Ukrainians have been in captivity for two years, mostly from Avostal as far as I know. It's a mixed bag seeing them returning; happy that they are home but sad to see their emaciated state compared to the healthy, well fed Russian POWs being released in the exchanges.

I don't think it bothers MAGA supporters that Donald's best buddies are putler and putler's Hungarian butt plug. On Youtube there's a lot of street interviews of Trump supporters and like good little cult members, they love whatever their orange god loves. Support for putler is high among Donald's devotees.

Sweden is also giving Ukraine all their Pansarbandvagn 302 infantry fighting vehicles, about 170 of them. Other supplies from Sweden are AMRAAM air to air missiles.

The ASC-890 AWACS aircraft Sweden is supplying to Ukraine is based on the turboprop Saab 340, noticeably smaller than the US and Russian Boeing and Ilyushin AWACS.

I would guess most other states are similar to Queensland where handcuffs are restricted items under the weapons act. But in the good old USA where in most states you can arm yourself to the teeth, handcuffs would be a non issue.

Yes and no. The Trump organisation manages the tower and owns the retail and commercial part. Trump owns an apartment as well. The hotel units are owned by General Electric Pension Trust and Galbreath & Company. I read where community service is another option.

It's the little ones that go off half cocked.

We had the same user pays system in Queensland many years ago. These days the ambulance service is free for everybody. Sort of, that is. It's funded by ratepayers who pay a levy attached to their rate bill. So in reality, rate payers contribute toward the funding but for non rate payers the ambulance service costs them nothing.

I worked on a rare earth exploration job in the Kimberleys in the 1980's. It was a hard job to do as the environmental destruction was total. On a small, steep conical shaped hill, we had to build 64 drill pads with enough room for a water truck to turn around on each of them plus the corresponding access tracks. With the spill from the pads cascading down to the next pads below them, not one speck of the original hill was left visible. It looked like one big quarry. To make matters worse it was right beside the old Hall's Creek road and plainly visible to the tourist traffic passing by. The only consolation was talking to the geologist. He said the tests had shown it to be viable to mine, in which case the whole hill would be gone and it would then go open cut below ground level. On completion of mining, all the overburden and non rare earth matter would fill the hole and the surface restored with topsoil and vegetation planting. The hill would be gone forever but at least the eyesore would eventually go away. I remember when Bob Hawke as PM wanted to establish facilities to turn our raw rare earth into the finished product instead of exporting the low price ore to France and buying back the finished products at great cost. If my memory is correct, his idea was to set up facilities in South Australia. It was an admirable goal but failed due to the realities of market domination and control by existing world players.

I saw both those situations when I was in ER almost two weeks ago. Lots of ambos in the reception area and the odd one wandering through the emergency ward. And same here, in the reception area I was babysat by the ambos for a short time until an emergency doctor saw me. My condition was worsening and serious enough to be wheeled into the ward after only a short wait as the ward had the gear to stabilise things. I also saw a police officer sitting on a chair and being responsible for keeping an eye on a patient. I don't think it was a mental illness case; I got the impression the patient was under arrest for something.

Putler is getting desperate but as always is trying to hide the fact and put on a fake veneer of confidence. They are currently trying extensive meat assaults in the Kharkiv region to draw Ukrainian troops away from southern areas. The only problem is the Russians don't have the ability to fight effectively on multiple fronts. Despite small losses of territory further south and in the Kharkiv region, the Ukrainians are holding the line and continuing to deplete the Russian assets. My guess is that putler can see the writing on the wall as more needed Western supplied equipment is coming on line. Things don't happen right now but things like the F-16s, now totaling 85 when delivered and operational, will make a big difference. Another example is Sweden pledging two ASC-890 Early Warning Aircraft to Ukraine. This will give Ukraine eyes in the sky for 200 to 300 klm into Russia as well as the battle zone. For context, Ukraine will have one third the number of AWACS as Russia due to recent losses of Russian AWACS. Another important milestone is Ukraine getting the green light from France and Britain to use long range missiles to strike military targets within Russia. And good on French president Macron for facing up to reality and getting with the programme. He's even badgered Germany's weak, dithering, Kremlin fearing Scholz into agreeing. Scholz has had to be dragged kicking and screaming into support for Ukraine, but he's finally got on the bus with the others and that's a good thing. Another issue for putler is that much needed artillery shells have arrived and Ukraine now has adequate ammunition to match the Russians. It will still take time, but Ukraine's ducks are slowly starting to line up in a row. For putler, he probably has two chances. One is a breakthrough of the lines and gaining a significant amount of new territory before negotiating a settlement that lets him keep it. The other is to negotiate to keep what he has now as the first scenario is not likely. He knows his only chance of keeping some of his lollies is a negotiated settlement which Ukraine would only agree to if they were desperate. putin thinks he can outlast Ukraine and their Western backers, but if the West continues what they've done recently, then maybe total or near total victory will be possible for Ukraine. Even if putler is eventually forced into a settlement that gives them only a similar amount of territory to that which they started the war with, he would be in trouble at home. Even with all the state propaganda and a brainwashed general population, surely he would start to be seen as a failure who almost destroyed his country for little net gain.

Belgium is supplying 30 F-16s to Ukraine by the end of the year. Added to the F-16s from the Netherlands, Denmark and Norway, the total fleet number will rise to 85. President Zelensky's plane was escorted in Belgium by Ukrainian pilots flying F-16s so some of them are at the stage of flying missions.

I think the more professional ones in the cities do. The buskers around my area seem to be still on coins. For context, they don't make a low enough denomination to match the talents of 80% of them, but the other 20% are good. Buskers seem to range from the great to the woeful.

And let's not forget that Goebbels had nobbels at all.