old man emu

That plan is moving at glacial speed. Nothing is coming from it yet.

I'm waiting to hear what he is going to try to do about trade with Australia. In 2023, the United States was our third-largest two-way trading partner in goods and services, worth $98.7 billion. Australia's goods and services exports to the United States were $33.6 billion. Australia's total imports from the United States were $65.1 billion. The problem in trying to work out just what we import is made difficult because we can't readily find out how much military equipment we import. There would be many other things imported that we don't realise. As well, I wonder if the profits from US investments is included in that export total. How much does Maccas, Hungry Jacks, Pizza Hut, Amatil etc, etc send to the USA? The United States is the largest and most significant investor in Australia, with investment in Australia standing at $1.17 trillion in 2023. The United States is also by far Australia's largest foreign investment destination, with investment in the US standing at $1.20 trillion in 2023. Two-way investment has more than tripled since the Free Trade Agreement came into force. I suppose most of that $1.2T is our superannuation funds.

I'm getting a headache from the noise of all the sabre rattling going on between Trump and the rest of the world.

Let's not kick a man when he's down. The poor bugger is only 53 years old. That's too young for anyone to go.

That's the type of lesson from the US election that I was suggesting. On the other hand, will Labor learn from the Dem's mistakes?

That would mean I'd also have to change from Ford to Holden.

While most attention is being focused on the US political scene, I thought I might kick off a thread to discuss how our next Federal election might run. From what I read in the pro-conservative Sydney Telegraph, Peter Dutton might propose taking actions similar to the Trump Administration should he be the one to form government. The article I read intimated that he would go after waste in government operations. I applaud that approach. However, I would like to see the first targets being the money spent by parliamentarians as they gallivant around the country or overseas with s mob of hangers-on. There are so many areas of spending associated with parliamentarians that need to be examined and justified. I'm OK with things that can be justified, but let's get rid of what cannot be. I was going to attack Peter Dutton as a Trumpian Mini-Me, but I think I'll sit back for a while until something worthwhile comes up. At the same time, all politicians' behaviour needs to be examined under a magnifying glass.

FFS! Where do you think that the products of Asia are designed? They are designed and the specifications for the materials used in them are set in Europe or the USA or Japan. In many cases manufacturing plants are in Asia. They simply are given the design package and told to make whatever the package describes. I agree that there are levels of quality in the products bearing a company's logo. This is because those levels are based on who the expected user will be. Take a power drill from a company like Makita. You can pick up two drills that from the outside look identical, but which are priced differently. It is most likely correct that the cheaper drill will use polymer material for its gears, while the dearer one will use metal for the same gears. The cheaper one is aimed at the DYI-er who would use the drill infrequently. The dearer one is for the tradesman using it daily. If you want built-obsolescence, just look to your computer's operating system. I'm told that I should move to Windows 11 because Windows 10 won't be supported after the end of this year, However, my computer, which chugs along happily with WIN 10 might not be able to handle the built-in complexities of WIN 11. I might have to throw out a functioning computer just to do the simple things it does now.

If you understand what I wrote today about tariffs, you will come to the conclusion that Trudeau has missed the point. IF Canada imposes tariffs on US goods, then it will be the Canadian people who will put up the money which the government collects from Canadian businesses that do the importing. Unless I'm wrong, Trudeau should set zero tariffs on US goods for the benefit of Canadians. There would be no change in prices for them. Canada has a problem due to its involvement in the vehicle manufacturing business. It sells components to the USA to be used in USA brands of vehicles. If the US manufacturers fail, then Canada loses its sales. I also said that tariffs are a good thing for a country trying to develop its own manufacturing industry, first to supply it own people, then to develop export markets. The major Western countries have gone beyond that stage and should be able to compete on equal footing with other countries. Therefore, tariffs should not be needed when these countries trade with each other.

Trump and his mates might be billionaires because their involvement in global corporations, but that does not mean they have any real knowledge of Economics. Trump sure doesn't. He goes on and on about tariffs affecting the countries to which the USA owes squillions. A tariff or duty (the words are used interchangeably) is a tax levied by governments on the value including freight and insurance of imported products. Tariffs have long been a part of the economic structure of countries. One could say that "tariff" is the politically correct term for "import duty". Import duties have existed for centuries, but became more important during the Industrial Revolution as a means of shielding local manufacturers from foreign manufacturers whose production costs may have been lower. Thus a country's manufacturing base could be shielded from the effect of cheaper imports. That worked before the global economy developed into what it is today. It should be kept in mind that it was the manufacturing corporations of the USA which moved the manufacture of their product out of the USA to countries where production costs were lower. Now it may be too expensive to re-establish that manufacturing in the USA. To Trump's way of thinking, it is the other country that pays the tariff. However, it is the importer who pays. The result is that the importer has to decide if a consumer is more likely to pay for the imported item instead of buying a locally produced item. The only effect on the exporting country is on volume of purchases the importer is prepared to make. If an importer reduces purchases, then the exporter either suffers financial loss, or looks elsewhere for sales. In the end, it is the consumer who loses. Either the object the consumer wants becomes unavailable, or becomes too expensive. The only winner in the process is the government which collects more tax money.

My post is badly written. I should have made my intention clear, which was that the media has been shooting from the hip with its reporting. The media from both sides hasn't bothered to concentrate on the operational reason for the Washington incident. To my mind, it was caused by human error. Unfortunately I have to accuse the helicopter pilot of making the error, based on what seemingly factual information I've seen. The ATC operator did broadcast a warning to the helicopter pilot, and I can only assume that the commuter aircraft was established on a standard final approach. I haven't heard if the commuter plane's crew made any broadcasts. Happily, all the radio traffic at the time of the incident will have been recorded, so that will aid the investigation. Trump's attack on the FAA heads is completely irrelevant to the cause of the incident. Actually it's not because he sacked them a few days before, and the FAA's DEI policy was introduced by Trump during his first term. A consequence of Trump's DEI rant is that the family of one of the military personnel has refused to disclose the victim's name. Why? Because the victim was female and the family fears being attacked by MAGA types. By the way, both pilots were White.

Over the past two weeks the US media, Left, Right and Centre, has done a great job of raising the hysteria surrounding Trump's Executive Orders through bad reporting. Not that the media hasn't been quick to broadcast events. The problem is that commentary on those events doesn't provide the background that good journalism requires. Let me give an example. Let's look at the two recent aviation incidents. For those of us with in interest and knowledge of aviation, we have most likely decided that the cause of the Washington DC is most likely to be pilot error. The other one could be simply a mechanical failure, since it occured on takeoff. However, the media has homed in on Trump's political attacks on the FAA management. Sure Trump sacked several heads of air safety organisation in the days prior to the incident, but those people were not sitting in the control tower. Instead the media has focused on the effects of DEI policies, which were in fact introduced by Trump during his first term. What reporting has there been of the short-staffing of the control tower arising from lack of adequate funding? Trump implies that air traffic controllers can be plucked from the lines of the unemployed and immediately be seated at a console to handle air traffic. Don't forget that a few days earlier he had caused emails to be sent out offering a chance for Federal employees to leave their jobs with a bit of a golden handshake, so he could fill their places with loyalists to his agenda. If I were an FAA air traffic controller, I would be grossly offended by Trump's inference that I was unintelligent and incompetent at carrying out a job I had been trained for. What Trumps said must be seen as defamatory. Sounds a bit like Hitler's approach to placing Party members in government jobs.

Sorry to not have expanded on that phrasing. "Public places" - anywhere everyone can be in, like a shopping centre, sports ground, public house, toilet block. Think of the old "Ladies' Lounge' in a pub. Change rooms for men and women at swimming pools. Obviously toilets. The Ladies' Stand at Sydney Cricket Ground. A lot of these places are now open to all, but the separation in toilets is still supported in most places. For some reason, women continue to prefer to eliminate away from the presence of men. Probably it is a carry-over of Victorian era ideas of modesty.

The fault in the argument is that it deals with the right of an individual in contrast to the rights of a group. Is it wise to walk into a mosque and unfurl an Israeli flag, or to do the opposite in a synagogue? In either place the action would cause upset to varying degrees. Probably since the beginning of the Industrial Age, our British-based society (and I include the USA here) has developed a societal practice of separating men and women in public places. Sometimes that separation provided a safe refuge for women and that aura of safety remains. That aura is broken if a man enters without reasonable excuse, eg a tradesman coming in to fix something. However, if the man enters without such a task in mind, then is it any wonder that women there would feel threatened? In trying to deal with this matter, I find that I lack an important bit of knowledge. I don't know how a woman's upbringing has shaped her thinking. Don't forget that women have been subjected to the propaganda that unknown males are a safety threat. How a woman deals with that propaganda is the crux of the discussion.

Chief Justice Andrew Bell has imposed partial bans on the use of generative AI by lawyers, unrepresented litigants and judges, describing the approach of the state's highest court as "hard and conservative". "The task of judging in our society is a human one," the chief justice told the ABC. "We know AI can be used to produce what looks like a person's evidence. But of course, if it's not the person's actual evidence, that undermines the whole process," Chief Justice Bell said. Sydney barrister Victor Kline said, "Just like the student missed things, the AI has missed things; just like the student has got certain things slightly wrong, the AI has got things slightly wrong,"

But it has made the intent of the sign much clearer.

That's because cats introduced DEI.

Hey, GON! Want one of these?

Did you know that there is a Gaza Province in Mozambique? Now that I've told you, just look how Trump has used that fact to create what must be one of his greatest lies ever. The lie claims that $60.8M worth of condoms and contraceptives were sent to Gaza in the previous year. The implication relies on people not knowing of the Mozambique Province and immediately thinking of the more famous one. Then the lie was boosted by saying that the condoms were used for the productions of explosive devices. Talk about a blow job with protection! I should have posted this video in the funny videos section.

Can anyone honestly tell me what's the difference between Fundamentalist Islamism and Trumpism?

Does anyone know if Trump did make an oath, or did he make an affirmation when he was sworn in? Since he did not place his hand on a bible, one might assume it was an affirmation.

I thought that until 2016 there was an equilibrium in the USA. The equilibrium was upset by Trump. During Trump's present stint I think that the MAGA people will see that Trump's ideology is not doing them any good, and they may drift towards a more central position. However, most MAGA people come from an established culture of white supremacy, and we know that cultures take several generations to change. Perhaps the Generation Alpha and the younger amongst the Gen Zs might reflect on the suffering Trumps is causing and have second thoughts about maintaining their parents' culture.

Gentlemen! Please! Let's' not forget to play the ball, not the man. GON, I disagree with what you have been saying, but I must defend your Right to say it. That's the way we run this forum. However, recently we have begun to demand supporting evidence when a controversial statement is made. A claim such as, The radical lefties are/were a security threat, cannot be plucked from the air and dropped into a post. I agree that some left-leaning people have threatened the security of activities the rest of us consider to be OK. Look at the motto of the French Revolution, Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité. If you were a French aristocrat, you'd consider that a radical leftist motto.

When the oil refinery was in operation at Kurnell, on the shore of Botany Bay, there was a hot water outlet into the bay. Best fishing spot evvvah.

I think that you have to look at the reactions to all those Executive Orders. A lot of them have been stopped by legal action. Even the military is saying that it won't comply with the Order to remove DEI from its policies. Trump has been blowing off about introducing tariffs. Has anyone heard that they have been introduced? His deportation policy has resulted in a lot of harassment of true US citizens, based on physical appearance Someone commented that you don't see many Asian or Europeans amongst the deportees.