old man emu

The overt interference in the US Presidential election has begun. Police say they have identified a "suspect vehicle” connected to incendiary devices that set fires in ballot drop boxes in Oregon and Washington states early Monday. Washington and Oregon are both vote-by-mail states. Registered voters receive their ballots in the mail a few weeks before elections and then return them by mail or by placing them in ballot drop boxes. There is a tracking system to show that a person who received a ballot has voted and the ballot paper was received (after the drop box is emptied at a counting house. All I can say is that I am so glad that the system of compulsory voting, and the means by which deliver our vote that we have in Australia is the best example of practical democracy there is. Sure, it can be a pain to have to go to a polling station and go through the process, but you can be assured that your contribution to the election, whether it be a clear vote for a particular candidate, or simply an informal vote, is included in the count.

Just an explanation: I accept that the three facts are true. However, the suggested conclusion is what is called a a non sequitur in logic. Non sequitur means, "It does not follow." In the context of logical arguments, this type of fallacy occurs when no logical connection can be drawn between the premises of an argument and the conclusion.

Getting back to the origin of this thread - scams - this is not actually a scam, but people should be warned of the misdirection. Here is a picture showing two vernier calipers. The letters ‘CE’ appear on many products traded on the extended Single Market in the European Economic Area (EEA). They signify that products sold in the EEA have been assessed to meet high safety, health, and environmental protection requirements. Basically it means that the caliper carrying those numbers has a degree of proven quality. Enlarge the image and look at the letters C E on each. You can easily see that the marking on the caliper to the right is different from those on the one on the left. When you compare the two in a scale grid, this is what you see: Note the difference in spacing between the letters on the left and those on the right. The marking on the left is the official symbol indicating that the caliper meets European quality standards. The marking on the right merely means that the item was made in China for export. Is the European one any better than the Chinese one? Unless you were using the caliper in a situation where tolerances were critical, both are probably equally as accurate as a means of measuring something. However, I have no doubt that the European-made calipers would cost a lot more than the Chinese ones. It's just another example of the Chinese pulling the wool over the eyes of the gullible. Many years ago, the Chinese built a manufacturing city from scratch and called it USA. Products made there were clearly marked "Made in USA".

Bugger! Couldn't get it in puce?

In what must be metaphorically "giving the bird" to Harris, Trump held a rally at Madison Square Garden in New York on the weekend. Trump is unlikely to win New York State. Also, a comment in the news this morning suggested that Wall Street is getting twitchy about the election results. While the market looked becalmed, there was volatility beneath the surface in the lead-up to a nail-bitingly close presidential election and the release of pivotal jobs data this week. The measure of volatility, the so-called "fear index" the Vix Index, jumped almost 7% to 20 points — not an alarming level, but certainly not sanguine either.

I think that the result of the election can be explained by the old saying, "bullshit baffles brains".

The last I heard about the subs was that the Yanks were not going to sell them to us, but they wanted us to provide them with a base for maintenance and to operate from. A few days ago this video came up on YouTube dealing with the US military's restoration of the major airfield on the island of Tinian in the South Pacific. Why this sudden interest by the military in its history? One could say that it was the base for the atomic bombing of Japan. But 80 years later its strategic importance is obvious from its location close to China. Here's the video:

Eleven days (Australian time) until we know the results of probably the most crucial election so far this century - the US Presidential.

That's only an adjustment of ten years.

He's outside getting on with Life. Not like the rest of us, sitting peering at a computer screen, watching near forgotten snippets of television's light entertainment.

Good grief!

When it comes to Trump's actual presidential record, as much as he would have the public believe his administration was the most accomplished, most successful of its kind in American history, the Trump White House was notoriously beset by disfunction and infighting. The result was a tenure akin to a political reality show in which "results" seemed less important than the optics thereof. During his first term, or at least early on in it, there were three factions within the White House administration who were constantly at war with each other to gain control over Trump, who spent most of his time watching the news channels and monitoring his ratings. Sorry to drift away from the original theme of this thread, but someone brought up Mr Tangerine Man.

It's 6:45 pm and I can hear those chicks still begging for food. Obviously, as ugly as I am, I am no scarecrow. I'm no Worzel Gummidge.

This is a rant by an angry, tired old bugger. I had a bad night's sleep last night because a catch on my CPAP mask broke and I had to sleep without its helping my breathing. Then at sunrise those bloody crows turned up outside and the chicks started their cawing. I got so mad that I went outside, yelling and waving my arms about. The damned things simply flew up into a tree and after a while started up. I have absolutely no idea why these parent crows have decided to claim my place as their own.

Researchers have recently found a gene that is common to humans and chimpanzees, except for one single difference in one of the millions of Base pairs that make up the gene. They don't know how this difference creates its effects, but they have found that it is the gene that allows humans to use music and rhythm as a means to learn and remember information without writing. It is the way that for eons humans passed learning from generation to generation. Just think of Aboriginal songmen, and women using song to remember survival facts, mythology and history. The researchers have found that humans who don't carry that mutated gene are tone deaf and suffer other inabilities. It has been estimated that this gene mutated as long ago as 900,000 years ago and as a result was heavily involved in the social development of humans which has put us in our high position amongst animals.

So true. Politics in Australia is hamstrung due to the lack of balance in the news media. The Conservatives control the presses. Back between the Wars the Communist Party in Australia published the Worker's Weekly to put forward its ideas. In the same period, the Labor Party's paper was the Labor Daily. Nowadays, newspapers (or their on-line equivalents) published by non-conservatives seem non-existent. I've just started reading George Orwell's 1984. I see that some of what he prophesied in that work of fiction has become fact. This is especially the manipulation of fact into propaganda.

The Constitution says that it has to be in the Chamber to be wrong. This is how she ended up in the Senate: Parliamentary service State: Elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly for Northcote at by-election 2017, vice the Hon. F Richardson (deceased). Defeated 2018. Federal: Chosen by the Parliament of Victoria on 4.9.2020 under section 15 of the Constitution to represent that State in the Senate, vice R Di Natale (resigned). Elected to the Senate for Victoria, 2022. That replacement of Di Natale (Greens) in 2020 simply followed normal protocol for replacing a deceased or resigning Senator. So, she gets into the Senate as a Green, and is elected normally in 2022 as a Green. Then she quits the Greens, saying, “This country has a strong grassroots black sovereign movement, full of staunch and committed warriors, and I want to represent that movement fully in this parliament. It has become clear to me that I can’t do that from within the Greens." Seems that she was anti-Voice. She had previously said she would oppose the body unless she is satisfied that it “guarantees First Nations sovereignty is not ceded”.

As explained in the video, there were no parliamentary rules broken. The words were uttered outside the House, so simply have the status of personal expression. Did words used to express the sentiments amount to "offensive language"? I'd sat, "No". Were the actions and circumstances - time and place - such that they constituted "offensive behaviour"? To the "reasonable person", they probably did. Would what happened be offensive to the person, King Charles? No doubt they raised an emotion, but having such things shouted to him was probably water off a duck's back. I think that the real victim of the incident is Thorpe herself. Now she's going to be labelled as just another nutter, and come the time when her Senate seat is up for election, I can see her perusing the Positions Vacant, or its internet equivalent.

I just wanted to post the video to provide some information. If I had posted it in the thread that contained the comments, it would have been buried. This way people can quickly be informed of what action might be taken against Thorpe - which appears to be no action at all, according t out Constitution and Laws. I don't expect this thread to attract hundreds of posts.

More likely infection coming during factory processing than anything on farm.

Elsewhere many of us have expressed our ire at the behaviour of Senator Lidia Thorpe towards King Charles III. Calls have been made to have her expelled from the Senate. Here is a non-biased explanation of what can and cannot be done as a result of what she did.

Given the small size of the ACT, travel distances are not that great, so EVs are a sensible choice for work-related commuting. As onetrack said, average income is high, so purchase price might be a lesser consideration than elsewhere.

Amid growing anger over the Victorian independent’s protest against King Charles in parliament this week, Labor and the Coalition will discuss a plan to formally sanction her in the chamber next month. Constitutional lawyer Anne Twomey told ABC TV she believed the oath had been made correctly in writing. Twomey said, “And even to the extent that she might have mispronounced the word ‘heirs’, by pronouncing the ‘h’, and mispronunciation itself is not legally invalidating, she also referred to the Queen’s successors. So she has made an oath to the Queen and to the Queen’s successors. King Charles is the Queen’s successor; therefore she has made an oath to him, both orally and in writing.” So if the oath was made, she has repudiated it. Therefore one of the criteria for taking a seat in the Senate is missing. She no longer has the right to sit.

It is also the home to many more average Joes. The rich and powerful aren't tradies or retail workers. I was in Canberra last weekend and what I saw was a city just like Sydney. The suburbs looked the same. The people I saw at the shopping centre and petrol station looked the same and were doing similar things to those in other capitals. The only thing that I noticed was that I saw two TESLAs. There's only one in Gilgandra, and I'm told that the Toyota dealers in the region have only sold two EVs, and they were sold to residents living in Dubbo and Parkes.

That means 66% do not have degrees. Having a degree doesn't necessarily direct one's political opinion. It should make the holder a better analyst of the policies of a politician, and a better critic of past performance. Of that 64%, I would say that if you took out the Public Servants in office jobs, you are still left with a majority of electors who would conform to the suburban stereotypes found in any major metropolitan area of Australia. And the lower level Public Servants would add to that majority.