old man emu

His administration carried out human rights abuses, including mass killings, and collapsed the economy. Copied from the Wikipedia entry for Idi Amin. I could not help but think that it applies to Trump.

Ian doesn't drive on country highways very much. Long stretches of no overtaking on straight roads are common.

Derr! Too easy. The centrelines are not white.

Let's be fair about the ABC. It is the only broadcasting organisation that actually produces Australian worthwhile (actual theatrically worthwhile) content for television. In fact, it only seems to be the news and current affairs department that shows bias.

There has been a great number of these videos on YouTube. You can tell that they are created using AI. As I read Red's original post, I could hear that same AI-generated voice saying the commentary. Those videos are mass-produced simply as clickbait. Each click earns the creator a cent or two, and as they say, pennies make pounds. I suppose the saving grace of these videos is that they hold Australian troops in high esteem. As factual documentaries, I doubt that they are more good yarns than facts.

Listen you petrol heads! In relation to Economics, the term fiat derives from Latin for "let [it] be done", used in the sense of an order, decree or resolution. Looking at the history of this type of currency, the "order, decree or resolution" came from the rulers of the society.

As mentioned elswhere, Trump's World Liberty Financial issued a stablecoin designated as $USD1. Stablecoins are digital assets pegged to a fiat currency, in this case, the U.S. Dollar. So what are a 'fiat currency' and its operating device, 'fiat money'. Fiat money is a type of government-issued currency, authorized by government regulation to be legal tender. Typically, fiat currency is not backed by a precious metal, such as gold or silver, nor by any other tangible asset or commodity. In days of yore, kings, emperors and other governing bodies facilitated trade across distance by producing tokens (coins) to which they assigned a nominal value, usually based on a set amount of the valuable physical item. Evenutally the valuable physical item came to be a metal. The metal could be gold, silver, copper or an alloy such as bronze. The common feature of the item was that it could be used to produce other things such as jewellery in the case of gold and silver, or simpler objects in the case of copper and bronze. The value of the item was related to a predetermined value of the metal, and that value was set by the producer of the item. As the populations of the regions using coins increased, and the amount of trade carried on over large distances increased, the amount of valuable physical material available to produce coins lessened. Also as the value of transaction increased, it became difficult to carry large weights of coins over long distances. So 'paper money' was invented. Paper money was first used in China in the 7th century A.D. Like modern banking, individuals would deposit coins with a trustworthy party and receive a note indicating the amount. The note could then be redeemed for currency at a later date. In other words, the note was backed by actual physical items. Eventually global trade grew to such levels that governments could not continue to meet the promise of exchanging note for valuable physical items made of "precious" metals. This lead to the adoption of fiat currencies and fiat money. In monetary economics, fiat money is an intrinsically valueless object or record that is accepted widely as a means of payment. Accordingly, the value of fiat money is greater than the value of its metal or paper content. Fiat money generally does not have intrinsic value nor a use value. It has value only because the individuals who use it (as a unit of account or, in the case of currency, a medium of exchange) agree on its value. They trust that it will be accepted by merchants and other people as a means of payment for liabilities. From 1944 to 1971, the Bretton Woods agreement fixed the value of 35 United States dollars to one troy ounce of gold. The Bretton Woods system required countries to guarantee convertibility of their currencies into U.S. dollars with the dollar convertible to gold bullion for foreign governments and central banks. Other currencies were calibrated with the U.S. dollar at fixed rates: for example the pound sterling traded for many years within a narrow band centred on US$2.80. The Bretton Woods system was ended by what became known as the Nixon shock, a series of economic changes by United States President Richard Nixon in 1971. These changes included unilaterally canceling the direct convertibility of the United States dollar to gold. Since then, a system of national fiat monies has been used globally, with variable exchange rates between the major currencies. In modern economies, relatively little of the supply of money is physical currency. For example, in December 2010 in the U.S., of the $8,853.4 billion of money supply in all forms , only $915.7 billion (about 10%) consisted of physical coins and paper money So now, all those trillions of dollars spoken of in relation to international and domestic debt are simply numbers in ledgers. Their actual worth relies solely on the promises of the buyer to pay the seller what is owed. Global debt reached a record high of nearly $346 trillion by the third quarter of 2025, driven by surging government borrowing in both developed and emerging markets. This figure represents over 300% of global GDP. That means that roughly only $115 trillion in debt could be met through productivity. The remaining $230 trillion is Scotch mist.

Mentioned in this article when speaking of Trump's Stablecoin, is this little gem: World Liberty Financial issued a stablecoin designated as $USD1. Stablecoins are digital assets pegged to a fiat currency, in this case, the U.S. Dollar. It is that thing 'fiat currency' that can be the downfall of the Global economy if the puppetmasters working Trump's strings continue on theri current path. I'm going to talk about fiat currencies in a separate thread in the Politics forum, if you would like to learn more.

Yesterday it got to 46C inside my place. All I could do was sit on the lounge and read a book with the evaporative cooler blowing cold air in my direction. I went to the kitchen to rinse a glass and nearly burned my hand on the tap. In the afternoon cloud started to build up. Later that evening I watched the lightning in the clouds downwind. When I woke up this morning, my bedsheets and pillow were drenched with sweat. I looked outside and the sky was clouded over, but the clouds were too high to suggest rain coming soon. So I threw my bedding into the washing machine, figuring that in the heat and low humidity it would dry before any rain came. Now it's midday and the cloud has moved downwind. At least my bedding is dry so I can remake my bed for another sweaty night. All week the temperature has been in the high 30s, rising to 40+ by late afternoon. I woke up this morning with no energy. I don't know if that's because it has been too hot to make me feel like eating, or if I've lost electrolytes. It's getting close to midday and the temperature is 36C. After what I have endured this week, 36C feel cool. Luckily I'll be going into see Mum this afternoon. She's got air conditioning.

Congratulations. Whether it makes the Best Seller lists or not, you must be pround of your achievement. At least you have created something that will last into the future. You nver know. Maybe at some time in the future your work will be included in the bibliography of a doctorial paper on the history of mineral exploitation in Australia.

And you can get anything you want At Alice's Restuarant, Exceptin' Alice.

I looked it up. The name is thought to derive from Troyes, France, a major trading hub in the Middle Ages, with usage dating back to Roman times. A Troy ounce is 31.1034768 grams. There are 12 Troy ounces in a Troy pound, or 373.24 gms. 373.24 grams is approximately 0.823 lbs or 13.17 oz (avoirdupois). .

The Rat Bike style is merely another manifestation of the owner's self expression in the same way that choppers or cafe racers were. They are an art form, and it is up to the viewer to like or dislike them, in just the same way the viewer likes or dislikes other other styles of artistic expression. Being an art form, one can dismiss the idea of riding them safely because they are not meant for that function.

I meant Troy or avoirdupois. I couldn't see which scale of units was used. I never ate my carats.

From the dark recesses of my dark and twisted mind. Therefore, in the current climate of teh information highway, it must be true. If the oil in USA fields is good for everything, what is produced from Venezualean oil?

The problem for the USA is that the oil on their own lands is not suitable for modern vehicles.

Wouldn't you like to still be in the game with gold at $5000/oz? What sort of ounce is that?

They had him down on the ground and under control, and his gun removed. There was no need to put 10 bullets into him after that. I can't go back into my viewing history to pull up a source video, but I did see one that mentioned what had happened previously. However, since I didn't watch the video I can't confirm for which side of the argument it was produced. But what is said to have happened back then did not happen on the day he died. Further, were those ICE agents involved in his death the same ones who were involved in the earlier incident? I would suggest that those associated with the events of his death are not likely to have positively identified him since over that period they no doubt swa and interacted with very many other persons. This back and forth can only be stopped by a full and impartial investigation of the incident. Unfortunately, in present day USA finding an impartial examiner seems like finding a unicorn horn in a pile of rocking horse manure.

It's true that a First World society is in a position to use more energy than othr societies, but I get a bit sick, as a membr of a 27 million strong society, of being accused of being an environmental vandal when in fact most of the energy used in this world is being used by the billions living north of the Equator.

I want to make the distnction between governments making trade arrangements - government to government - and the actions of corporate giants like Nestle, the motor industries, the oil companies. Those entities have no respect for what governments do. They just go on their machiavellian way enhancing their bottom lines.

The problem is that the US debt is owed to the rest of the global economy. If the US goes bust, then the global economy goes bust. While corporate America is a major player in the global economy, don't forget the corporate giants of the EU and Asia.

I think that I have found an indication that Trump's policies are starting to effect the strength of the US dollar. For quite some time, the Australian dollar was buying about 65 to 66 US cents. Over the past month or so, I have noticed that the AUD has been buying more US cents. Today, 29/1/26, I heard the AUD quoted at 70 US cents. The increase in value of the AUD is not likely to be the result of a strengthening Australian economy. Is it a sign of a weakening US economy? I throw the discussion over to Jerry.

COVID also produced measurable decreases in atomospheric pollutants.

Maybe they are "the worst of them" at teh present time, but go back through history and there are any number of human groups that have done the same things to others in their own eras. Humans are a nasty bit of work.

Random thought: The BOM is warning that this heatwave might lead to thunderstorms, but because it is so hot, any rain might evaporate before reaching the ground. This could lead to fires developing due to dry lightning. Here's my thought. I've watched some videos of trees being struck by lightning. Those trees appeared to be live, healthy trees, obviously full of sap, making them good conductors of electricity. I can see a few dead, dried out trees along the road beside my place. I wonder if those dried out trees would not be conductors of lightning. Another thing that I thought of in relation to this heatwave is that eucalyptus trees emit oil into the atmosphere. I wonder if that combustable oil in the air would ignite in the presence of a ligntning bolt and set off a bushfire.