Jerry_Atrick

And thanks to the hordes of brainless US voters that voted and continue to support them

I was a bit young to know what was going on, but when I later heard, I could not understand why people threw paint (and other abuse) at vets not not the pollies who sent them there. To me, it is the real issue with humanity. A purported gravy train rolls past and people just jump on it and join in without thinkking about it. It is the same thing with Chump... the right wing media are whipping things up, and people just jump in. Some people are now learning about the negative consequences to them, but they still support Chump. I read in an article on the FT that in the burbs, people still supported him as what he has sone hasn't impacted them (yet).. they even conceded it was selfish; but it was an "I'm alright, jack" mentality without caring for their fellow human beings (https://www.ft.com/content/cea4cb0c-95b0-48b7-bcc3-e219f3714196); quoting from it: However, this is not unexpected in the US. The culture is "me.. me.. me.." and of course, it has to be im-me-diate gratification; Chump is actively reducing oil prices and reached a deal with OPEC to flood the markets; I am guessing there was a threat of flooding the market with US Oil, or, in his trade war with Canada, he has to seek supplies from elsewhere that he won't tarrif (oh how ironic would that be if it were from Saudi or another Arab state, yet he wants to slap immigration bans on there). Noticed that Russia and Ukraine meet US envoys in Saudi? Neither country are a threat to Chump. Bugger the fact that a few cents a gallon will cost them huge in the future when their country goes up in smoke or floods or dries out. They obviously don't love their children enough.

Ther eis NOTHING WRONG with Wolfie. He is the sale of the earth blue collar of the wine industry - basic, but reliable and dependable. Well, there have been the occasiona, I will admit. I am not sure about Spacey's tipple.. It is definitely not wine.. I was initially thinking a cocktail of meths and kero, but worked out.. is it Brandivino 😉 (Don't laugh.. My stepfather was hooked on that stuff). Nah.. it is a fine wine for Spacey.. His mate has a fancy name.. Grange H.

I am aghast at this: (From the Financial Times). Trump was quoted by the CIA honcho as saying Kyiv is not committed to the peace process and they are pausing. FFS., If this is not a clarion call to walk away from very long term strategic military partnerships with the US, then I don't know what is!

What's your definition of political mileage? If they (regardless of who was in) competently assessed the needs of the victims and delivered the necessary aid , then, as a voter and taxpayer I wouldwant to know as much as if the stuffed it up because it helps me assess ithe competency of the government in dealing with things. The oppo can also criticise and if they had a credible plan that was say 1/2 the price and delivered twice as fast, or pointed out any pork barelling then I would be also gauging that as a voter, too. Everything the government do is an opportunity for "political mileage", as does the opposition and other MPs. I wish they all realised it and did the best

So, are you saying the government shouldn't help any victims of the cyclone?

Your arguments or position doesn't make sense.. Wars of the Putin type are, let's face it, forced immigration. Yet you are dead against immigration (way back you mentione about needing a far right minister to quash immigration). So, on the one hand you don't want legal immigration, or as is often incorrectly assertted illegal immigration of refugees, but on the other hand you will roll over for forced immigration. Work that out, because I can't And then, the liogic would be if those Chinese ships that ammassed in the Tasman sea decided to invade, you would just hand your land over without a fight.. And then you say OME's assertion that you are OK to do away with democracy [and the rule of law] meaning you are happy for people to take whatthey want from you is wrong? I am totally confused.. what do you actually stand for?

When are you moving to the US now your orange saviour will be delivering milk and honey to the land of what apparently was the dark ages?

Yep.. truly one who has beaten it.. Congrats to you

Chump acts like this funny AI vid:

The question is what? Chump has suspended military aid to Ukraine: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/trump-halts-all-us-military-aid-ukraine-white-house-official-says-2025-03-04/ Folks, if pollies aren't seriously questioning their alliance to the USA, then we are in for very disturbing times

It has words.. orangutans won't get it with words

Nah.. turmeric is supposed to be good for you

Given AP and Reuters are barred, yes, it was organised.. not anyone can walk into the Oval Oraface.. or maybe they can

Let's not forget, a TASS news crew, normally banned from press conferences and the oval office managed to attend and live stream the whole thing to Russia. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2025/02/28/media/tass-russian-state-media-oval-office

She is very articulate and keps to script well. She also performs in coordinated press sessions where there is a lot of control over what can be asked. FOX is hardly going to really challenge her, and it would be interesting to see how she fairs in a golves off CNN or similar segment. If course, to get access, CNN have to abide by the rules stated by the press office, so often they are not able to go hell for leather. The 2016 - 2020 press secretary was equally blonde, equally young, equally eloquent, and equally on script. However, even FOX, during the attempted election steal, cut her off for babbling too much BS and keeping to script.

I've had both cats and dogs - but much prefer the latter.. They are, after all, man's best friend.

It is more the west's tepid initial response to the situation that was the issue. However, the is domestic politics, fuelling a continent, and no doubt there was a dimension of Chinese and to a lesser extent, diplomacy to deal with. Are you saying cosying up to Putin would have saved lives - someone who has consistently broken their own ceasefires? One of the issues for Ukraine, and the world now, is that the same type of tyrant is now in the Whitehouse - what security guarantees provided by Chump while he is still in power would it be worth? The bloke is a pathalogical liar, hates Zelensky with a passion as he knows Zelensky is viewed as a real president and with bravery, and of course, Zelensky wouldn't doshonestly dig up dirt on Hunter or Joe Biden from Hunter Biden's business dealings in Ukraine. Frankly, as soon as Trump was elected, the whole game changed for Zelensky and Ukraine. There are only really three options now (apart from the removal of Chump). First, Europe step in, but they are so dependent on the USA, it is a big risk for them. in terms of munitions and weapons; 2, Zelensky finds a successor that can work with Chump, but Chump's word is no bond; 4th, Ukraine keel over.. that would be more harmful for world peace than people realise. For one, with NATO in disarray, Europe will have a touigh time against any Russian offensive; secondly, with the west cowering, other actors may be more emboldened - Nt Korea, China v Taiwan/India/Japan/Phillipines, or indeed, Australia, anyone?

Here is an interesting, passionate, and detailed reaction to voters saying when they voted for Chump, they didn't vote for Chump:

Without tariffs, pls ;-)

Yeah - I do remember someone saying somthing like "just wait - good things will come from Trump".. or words to that effect. Not meaning to rub your nose in it, but I still struggle to fathom why intelligent people were so sucked in by him. Is it just bias against the others, or is it something more? So, you would rather have the new world order of Trump than a parade celebrating al alternate, but largely harmless segment of the population? Yeah - like every segment of the population, they have their evil bastards.. but are they more likely than others to commit? For the record, I was molested by a "straight" bloke who was an assistant coach of the footy team, and continuously beaten to a pulp by another (not any of my blood relations). It happens with all walks of life, unfortunately. I can't post a direct link to the vid, so here it is: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-01/albanese-reiterates-support-for-ukraine-without-mentioning-trump/104998818 Hardly convincing, and a bit of waffle, to be honest. I did say he was unequivocal, but if I were in trenches and heard that, I may be hoisting the white flag. I didn't say Dutton was any better, but equally unequivocal. I never thought I would quote Sky News, but here ya go: https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/politics/dutton-commends-ukraines-bravery-in-fight-against-murderous-dictator/video/0e5f7754467694c1b5b3d8990572eafa Although small fry compared to Canada and the EU, Australia imports a touch north of twice as much in value than we export to the USA: https://ustr.gov/countries-regions/southeast-asia-pacific/australia Although this would not be huge in terms of the US economy, we can do a Canada and tell the to FO.. Here is a map of the products we import from and export to the US: https://oec.world/en/profile/bilateral-country/usa/partner/aus Let's look at some of those items that we import that we can slap tariffs on (https://oec.world/en/profile/bilateral-country/usa/partner/aus😞 Gold (5% of the imports from the US). Surely we can make or process our own? Cars (4.5%): According to the RACV, the only segment in which US brands, let alone US made cars was in the top sellers, was in the EV market, where Tesla reigned supreme. However, beofre Musk took a torch to the Tesla brand with his antics, sales were already tanking (pardon the pun) with the Chinese catching up. Chucking retaliatory tariffs on the already taxed to the hilt car consumers isn't going to make that muck of a difference to the average Aussie car buyer. Delivery Trucks - 4.2%.. I imagine these are the bigger trucks like Kenworth, Mac, Ford, Western Star. These could be replaced wit Volvo, Scania, and DAF (although there would be no long nosed trucks in that list). Volvo Trucks is now Chinese owned. Again, there are alternatives, and very good ones at that if YT is to be believed. Planes, Helicopters and Spacecraft: Not sure what spacecraft we import, but from Boeing down to Vans, there are more than capable European substitutes. I am guessing it is the same with many other of the things we import - we can either make them ourselves or we can import from Europe. OK.. the question then becomes, is Europe a strong enough ally to piss the USA off? I don't know, to be honest.. But if they are, or we feel that the USA is no longer a strong enough security ally, then should Chump put tariffs on us, we should retaliate back.. they have more to lose than us, and he has so far shown himself to back down from a fight. Although, in our case, we may not be big enough to worry him, in which case, fine.. let's look elsewhere, and maybe putting tariffs on will spur us to be more self sufficeint econcomically. I would suggest the "political point scoring" by the Chinese navy was much more. They were testing our responses, and well, they were found pretty well wanting. I haven't read or seem too much about it, bui the fact the ADF didn't know they were there is quite alarming. They are not that hard to find and track. I see a real urgency to shake the ADF up quite a bit, from procurement to delivery to operational readiness. It should be a clarion call to bolster our defence efficiently. We should dump AUKUS immediately.. we have shown with Collins class subs we can beat the yanks with their nule submarines at war games (I have posted a RAN released vid on these forums some time ago). We need to invest in modern warefare and surveillance; where were our signals guys? This means aircraft, ships, subs, land vehicles, the weapons (including drones of and unamanned delivery of wapeons of varuous types), advanced use of AI, etc. Dare I say, we need to also have deterrents? We can't rely on the US and we can't rely on Europe. We can only rely on ourselves. We have the resources; we have the know how of all of the above; we need the political will.

As it turns out the Starmer/Trump meeting was playing on the radio as I was driving home. There was only so much of it I could stomach. Starmer was fawming over trump as if starmer was a new recruit to the mafia lslurping every picometre of runny shit that emanates from Trumps arse. And then he handed him a letter from the King, which was a historic, never done before, second invitation of a state visit to the monarch (first time was the Queen). I guess this is what Brexit does - we can't sell as much to the EU anymore, so we are so fearful of tariffs, that we grovel to whom is clear, is a criminal - that was evident in listening to him in the interview. He now has his seat at the oval office so doesn't have to hold back; in fact he knows unless he can pull off a dictatorship, this is his last 4 years at it.. and it was very evident. I haven't read all the news, but what I have read is that he "played a blinder".. yeah.. blindfoldedly sucking the presidential clock. But despite all of that, he, too had to correct the repeated like that was apouted again that the US gave Ukraine all their money, and Europe (and UK) only lent it. I have to give credit to Starmer in that he was able to correct the record without pissing off Trump, but I guess he was still slurping down the ship at the same time. There is going to be four years of turmoil and there are two real options - western democracies will be severly battered and limping along, or it will be much stronger for having weaned itself off the teat of the USA - something it should have done long ago. Albanese is being his usual bumbling self, but unequivocally rebuking Trump's position; even Dutton has, too.

I don't normally watch BTC videos - not because I am opposed to them - in fact I mainly agree with his view points, but because there is something about his style that irritates me. Bu there are a few things to take heart. First, almost unequivocally, Europe is standing hehind Ukraine. No doubt the likes of Orban are quietly smug at the moment. But the other, is that despite the fact the yanks voted in Trump, there is a good number that didn't.. although, as I said before, in the end, the yanks did hand power to him. Anyway, as they (used to) say in cinemas, roll the tape:

I would leaveit in there.. looks better.

I think it is deeper than just Trump. He is, at the end of he day, there because the American people put him there. All over the world, there appears to be this desire to elect in fqavour of rabble rousers and against the elector's intersts. We simply can't rely on any of our allies anymore. GON ios correct in that people are p!55ed off; Everything is being blamed from immigration to vegans to trans to dog knows what else. Regardles, the world is chainging in a bi way and the old way of relying on a few strong allies isn't going to suffice.. Autarky and military self sufficiency may well be where countries have to go.