old man emu

I don't like what she does. I just admire how well she does it. She has the political nous of someone who has spent years operating in this area. It is too bad that she has hitched her wagon to the wrong animal.

The Ukrainians ARE fighting to restore and maintain their autonomy after Russia launched an unprovoked invasion the intention of which was to wrest the autonomy of Ukrainian lands from the people. There are no ifs or buts or maybes. Russia attacked and Ukraine defends until it can repel. Hey Fellas! GON has just given us carte blanche to enter his home and take whatever we want from it. He'll even let us throw him out on the street.

Didn't want to put this in the Trump thread, but I just had to express my admiration for Karoline Leavitt. I really admire her ability, at only 27 years-old, to navigate the minefield the the position of White House Press Secretary is. Her performances in those press briefings show an incredibly quick mind and complete grasp of the material she has to deal with. I haven't seen her stumble once at any time in the videos I've seen her in. Now, don't think I've gone over to the Dark Side. What she says is absolute crap, but one must be fair. She craps on exquisitely. I think she's the genius in the White House.

We are only interested in what your belief is, not the beliefs of politicians. As a great man said only a few days ago, "don't try to dictate what others feel".

Let's try to find some escape route for the USA. In Australia, if a government acted in the way that Trump has acted in the USA, our Constitution has a means of putting that government out of office. Our Constitution allows for the Monarch to end the reign of a government and then throw the formation of a new government back to the electorate - The Dismissal. Then it's up to the electorate to return the dismissed government, or to install another one. Impeachment is the only way to remove a President, but the steps to do that are complex. The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors. So the first step is to convict these people of the described offences. "High crimes and misdemeanors" is a term that was commonly used when the Constitution was written. It was used to describe crimes committed by people in positions of authority who abuse their power to avoid justice. The recent ruling of the US Supreme Court giving the President indemnity could make that difficult. But if Trump, Vance and their administration were impeached, what would replace them? It is clear that the framers of the Constitution never envisaged the current situation. Not doubt they thought that there would only be the need to deal with one person at a time, eg Nixon. Such a massive impeachment would be akin to a political revolution. The impeachments would be the means of restoring the Ship of State to an even keel. I do believe that the Americans would continue to have themselves governed by an unchanged Constitution. The First American Civil War mainly arose out of the economics of slavery. We know that tentacles of economics wrap themselves around many things affecting the lives of the people, but it is common to assign the cause of that civil war to different attitudes to slavery as a blanket reason. It is possible that there could be a Second American Civil War? I think not, because those who previously supported Trump are the ones who seem to be suffering the most as a result of his manifesto. There does not seem to be as much anger directed towards those who did not support Trump. Perhaps the civil war might not be fought amongst the common people, but would be like the French Revolution where the common people rose up against the ruling class.

I disagree that Albo is bumbling. As I said earlier, Albo did declare Australia to be standing by Ukraine's side. Although I didn't hear Dutton say anything, I firmly hope that I am correct in thinking that he supported Albo's declaration. I said that Australia is still concerned about the uncertainty of Trump's tariffs, which are due to come into effect next Wednesday, our time. Better to keep one's mouth shut until one knows if there is anything to say. At the moment Albo has to deal with political point scoring arising from the movements of the Chinese navy. Where's the hullaballoo over the US nuclear sub arriving in Perth? Oh! There can't be any of that since SkyNews and the Conservative media are all for it.

I'm just a simple commoner, but I'd love a Mark 2 Jaguar. I'll never have one. Morse's the pity.

A secondary advantage of the disappearing bonnet ornament might be the prevention of it theft, but I would say that the primary reason is to prevent injury to a pedestrians when you "run over the bastards".

I love a pun that uses of the meaning of 'homonym'.

I watched several videos of this meeting. Most of them were short clips from news services. However the last one I watched was a long one, in which the creator broke the whole meeting into short pieces. Knowing what was being said in each of these pieces, I didn't pay much attention to what was being said (mostly by Trump), but watched Zelenskyy's body language, mainly his facial expressions. You could almost hear him thinking, "What' this f-wit going on about?". In fact at least twice towards the end he inhaled through his nose very forcibly, as one would if one had a runny nose. Different cultures have different non-verbal communications. I don't know it what Z did was a Ukrainian thing, but I'm willing to bet that it is a sign of disgust. Trump has put US/Australian relations on eggshells. Those who don't read history believe that the Yanks are the altruistic defenders of democracy and the weak. Bullshit. The Yanks will do just enough to push back the attackers of democracy and the weak, but as soon as that is achieved, they will abandon those it "helped" and go hell for leather to gain as much as it can. Look back at the way Macarthur denigrated the victories of Australian forces in New Guinea and the subsequent push towards Japan. To the US, Australia is simply a safe place from which to support its goals in the Asia-Pacific region. Would Trump come at Australia, saying, 'Let's make a deal, dope'? I've watched two comments from our Prime Minister. The first was a response to Trump's asking what AUKUS was. Mr. Prime Minister simply said that there are lots of acronyms in politics and it is easy to forget what each one means. I think that response was, in the current political climate, a well-thought-out one. It was the Goldilocks response, not too hot, not too cold, just right. It was made at a time when the US has not announced the level of tariff it intends to apply to imports from Australia. It is clear that the Right Wing media has sensationalised the incident, which in reality doesn't upset the condition of the contents of a teacup. The second video was our Prime Minister's response to a question about the Trump/Zelenskyy meeting. Once again Mr. Prime Minister was diplomatic, only reiterating the Australia stands with Ukraine. He dodged the trap in the question, as any one practiced in diplomacy would. Best to keep out of the ring and save one's country from being hurt in the aftermath.

Holy Shit! Trump and Vance have just taken a major step towards alienating their Administration from the rest of the Free World. They got into a yelling match in which insults were hurled at Zelenskyy. Trump doesn't know the difference between diplomacy and Reality TV. Can you imaging any other World leader holding diplomatic talks in a room filled with the Media? Honestly, I am so astounded by what Trump and Vance said to Zelenskyy that I have to urge you to log in to YouTube and pick a video from the many to see what went on. Here's a link to a short video, but also take the time to look at some of the longer ones which show more detail. Even in that yelling match, Trump lied when he claimed that Zelenskyy campaigned for the Democrats. That was fact checked in this video. Zelenskyy went to a munitions plant to personally thank the workers for making the munitions provided to Ukraine.

Well, now we know how much Trump has his finger on the pulse of US/Australian relations. In the press conference with British Prime Minster, he was asked if they would later discuss the AUKUS deal. Trump did not know what AUKUS was, and when it was explained to him, he immediately tried to salvage the situation by uttering platitudes about US/Australian relations. He didn't say anything solid, just all huff and puff. AUKUS is going to turn out to be a waste of our money. Why does will it take a decade or more to deliver the submarines? Will the US find some reason to back out of the deal, claiming it has a prior need for the subs?

The Mark III Cortina was produced during the era of the Second Edition ADRs. The First Edition ADRs were only distributed for discussion and were not adopted as a legally binding set of Standards under either National or State/Territory law. The Second Edition ADRs came into effect on 1 January 1969 and were selectively applied under State/Territory law. They only applied to vehicles manufactured from 1 January 1969 onwards. The Third Edition ADRs became effective from 1 July 1988. In a transition period between 1 July 1988 and July 1989, the Second Edition ADRs were increasingly superseded by the Third Edition ADRs. They were made National Standards by 1 September 1989. The application of ADRs for vehicles manufactured up until July 1989 is the responsibility of the State and Territory governments. You would have to go back to the content of the Second Edition to see what was required and what was not. A motor vehicle built to the earlier editions of the ADRs would not meet today's ADRs. You have to remember, too, that the content of the ADRs is an evolving thing as automotive technology advances.

Caveat emptor

If a tickle in the nose causes a sneeze, why does the sneeze expel stuff out of the mouth?

Onya, Voldemort! 36,000 added to the ranks of the unemployed! There's the scent of Musk in the air.

Have you ever considered what the ratio of CentreLink staff to Centrelink clients might be? Is it any wonder that now you should make an appointment if you want quicker service? Admittedly, last time I needed to get some help, I was without an appointment, but was prepared to rock up and wait to be seen, which, fortunately wasn't overly long. Mind you, when I went it was not on a Monday or Friday and the office was in a rural city, factors which reduce the demand compared to an urban office.

That sounds like a billionaire's slur on Commoners. The public servants who keep governments running are suffering the same financial problems that their equals in the private sector suffer, so why say such despicable things about them? How do you measure the productivity (value for money) of an office worker? There is no physical product to display, but if the office worker does not complete tasks, then any organisation will grind to a halt. Any organisation is like a living organism. If one of the organs of a living organism begins to fail, the whole organism can fail.

That's what Australia did. We grew food to feed the US military, provided logistical support repair base localities and so much of that "ten men at the rear to support one man at the Front. At war's end, the UA did want us to pay for machinery left behind, but it only took until about 1948 for a deal to be made and we bought heaps of stuff at pennies in the pound. That's why rural fire brigades were running around in Blitz wagons well into the 1980s.

As we have seen over the past month, a newly-sworn President can change almost anything with the stroke of a pen, or a Sharpie. Any arrangement Trump makes with any other country can be rescinded in a moment by the next President. Do you think that the Republican candidate in the 2028 election has a snowflakes chance of being elected?

The question is, "Is a continent of Australia's size defendable by such a small population?". As of June 2024, Australia's population aged 18 and over was 21,357,108 people. To what is the best cost/benefit application of finance for defence tools? We could go "lo-tech" and manufacture thousands of the drones we have sent to the Ukraine, or do we go "hi-tech" and invest in a few large naval vessels and anti-shipping aircraft? Do we rely on Nature to provide defensive barriers to invading forces, drawing a scratch line across the land across which they shall not pass?

How do you define "waste in government"? Is it paying for pie-in-the-sky events? Is it spending big advertising government programmes that most of us have no dire need for? Is it jet-setting around to world to conferences dealing with niche topics? Is it ignoring the expertise amongst the Public Service people you have hired for their expertise and out-sourcing to private companies, who will develop a plan for you, but tip off their friends before tabling the plan? I would say that a great way for government waste to be minimised is to recruit a large number of people and train them up as financial auditors, then let them loose on the financial records of all government departments. Let the auditors identify suspicious payments, and then, if fraud has occurred, do what it takes to recoup money. The auditors should also scrutinise all contracts to determine if costings haven't been puffed up. When the payouts for fraud and inflationary quotation have been eliminated, then governments can start funding health, education, defence, and other areas of basic need. One is likely to propose that the manipulation of tax indebtedness is also another area of fraud that needs to be addressed.

To paraphrase a Gun Lobby slogan, Nukes don't kill people. People who use nukes kill people. You've got to congratulate Trump for upholding the one truth of the American culture: In God we trust ..... ... all others pay cash. For a country that trumpets its Christianity, its approval of the current Administration's actions towards its own citizens, and citizens of the World brings these holy words to mind: Matthew 22:37-39 Jesus declared, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. Thiis is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself." And love of neighbour is expressed as charity “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal” (1 Corinthians 13:1).

Of course the EU States are giving massive support to Ukraine. Ukraine is their buffer zone against Russian expansionism. The other countries of Eastern Europe and Finland know well what it is like to live under Russian rule. They are starting to build up their defence capabilities. There are two main generators of worry about global peace - Trump and Putin. One wonders what sort of regimes would replace them if they dropped dead tomorrow.