God help America

[spacesailor]

BUT ,.

Now Australia's nurses are going on strike,

Better pay & conditions, 

Has been on the agenda for quite a long time?.

Low pay with long hours, ten to twelve hours a day !.

A litte less than a forklift operator.

A lot less than a mechanic.

With more years at university. 

spacesailor

[Yenn]

Ah Cuba and Russia. Both hated by the USA. Cuba because they threw the yanky landowner out and stopped their abuse of Cuban labour. Russia, because well it is Russia.

Now Russia is going to invade the Ukraine, at least that is what the Yanks and Scottt Morrison say. This story has been going on for a couple of weeks or so and all that they have to go on is Russia conducting military exercises close to the Ukraine border. The USA would never do that sort of thing, nor would they mass troops near an enemy's border. Except for N Korea and no doubt others as well.

I would have thought that if Russia wanted to invade Ukraine they should have done it a couple of weeks ago. The ground would have been frozen more than it will be next week, so their tanks and wheeled vehicles would travel easier. They would also have had an advantage in nobody beeing ready for them.

Even some part of the USA thinks that the invasion is unlikely, but the government has made the prediction and has to hold on until it can say it was their action which stopped Putin.

What really is happening is that Putin is pulling their chain. He has said many times that there will be no invasion and he can be proven correct quite easily by just taking all his toys and going home. Do the same next year and again make the yanks look stupid. Do it again and everyone will say the yanks are calling wolf again.

Putin has to look good in the eyes of the Russian population and by making the West look stupid he is doing just that.

I wonder how it would have played out if Trump had been elected for a second term?

[facthunter]

Putin would be smiling like a Cheshire Cat as he did with TRUMP last time. All you have to do with Trump is 

(a) Be an absolute Dictator.

(b) Make out you think He's clever

(c) don't let your GRIN be too obvious.

(d) subtly let him know he can build a golf Course one day in your country.

(e) Bribes are perfectly ok.

(f) He can feel up your wife.

(h) you won't make him go on camera on a windy day.   Nev

[willedoo]

2 hours ago, Yenn said:

Ah Cuba and Russia. Both hated by the USA. Cuba because they threw the yanky landowner out and stopped their abuse of Cuban labour. Russia, because well it is Russia.

Now Russia is going to invade the Ukraine, at least that is what the Yanks and Scottt Morrison say. This story has been going on for a couple of weeks or so and all that they have to go on is Russia conducting military exercises close to the Ukraine border. The USA would never do that sort of thing, nor would they mass troops near an enemy's border. Except for N Korea and no doubt others as well.

I would have thought that if Russia wanted to invade Ukraine they should have done it a couple of weeks ago. The ground would have been frozen more than it will be next week, so their tanks and wheeled vehicles would travel easier. They would also have had an advantage in nobody beeing ready for them.

Even some part of the USA thinks that the invasion is unlikely, but the government has made the prediction and has to hold on until it can say it was their action which stopped Putin.

What really is happening is that Putin is pulling their chain. He has said many times that there will be no invasion and he can be proven correct quite easily by just taking all his toys and going home. Do the same next year and again make the yanks look stupid. Do it again and everyone will say the yanks are calling wolf again.

Putin has to look good in the eyes of the Russian population and by making the West look stupid he is doing just that.

I wonder how it would have played out if Trump had been elected for a second term?

More fact free hysteria from the U.S.. A lot of analysts have said the Russians don't have the critical equipment and units in place to sustain any sort of military cross border adventure, even if they thought it was in their interest to invade. Massing 100,000+ troops at the border. Most of them are 200klm from the border for a start. In all their wisdom and so called intelligence reports, the yanks fail to mention how many troops are normally based at those bases and what % of the 100,000 are new to the area.

 

Even our king peanut has ordered the evacuation of our embassy in Kiev (all three of them), saying the situation is deteriorating. The hysteria is certainly deteriorating to the point of farce and scummo can smell votes by turning the focus to national security issues. Pathetic bleatings of economy and national security are the only shots in the locker of that sad and dismal bunch of no-hopers.

 

Putin usually plays a smart game. He knows well that the U.S. strongly desires a Russian invasion of Ukraine. That way the yanks can wash their hands of the Donbass problem and put their wayward client state back in the box, while having the excuse to levy the last of their economic sanctions on Russia permanently. They can't go to war against the world's biggest nuclear power, so the petro dollar is their only viable weapon. They've been trying to break Russia for years and have very little ammunition and time left to do so. To introduce the last of the sanctions (the harshest so far), they need an exceptional excuse and Russia invading Ukraine is about the only viable one they can push.

 

The equation is simple: a prosperous Russia = a well armed Russia. That's all that interests the Americans. They are quite prepared to throw Ukraine under the bus to achieve U.S. goals of crippling Russia economically. Things haven't changed since the 2014 coup when leaks caught the Americans out describing the Ukraine government as useful idiots.

 

Putin could do one of two things. One is do nothing, but leave the troops in place long enough to make total fools of the U.S. and their little buddies when it becomes obvious to the world that the Russians weren't coming. The other is to invade the Donbass and hold it and try to weather the economic fallout. The problem with that theory is that the cost wouldn't equal the gain. That's why he didn't do it in 2014 after the coup in Kiev, and why Russia doesn't recognise the Donbass region's claims of independence to this day. He would love to have the Donbass for sure, but it's all cost vs benefit.

 

 

[willedoo]

I think another thing on Putin's plate is that making a move for the Donbass would incur the harshest cost yet without delivering his best case scenario. Gaining the Donbass would be like being given only one shoe instead of a pair that you can use. For sure, the Donbass is prosperous with it's coal and other resources like agriculture. It's the bread basket of Ukraine. But from a strategic point of view, his best case scenario would be Russian control of the Donbass, and south to Mariupol then right across the Azov Sea and Black Sea coastlines to Odessa and the Moldovan border.

 

That way he has a secure buffer around the jewel in the strategic crown which is Crimea. The mouth of the Dnieper River is cut off, leaving Ukraine with no Black sea coastline or harbours for their navy. Russia would control the entire northern Black Sea and also have a compatible ethnic Russian population who would support the annexation of their land. It would also link Russian territory to the ethnic Russian Transnitria region of Moldova. Putin would be able to place strategic missile bases much closer to NATO land to counter the American ones in Romania.  If Putin was really smart, he would keep his aces for that one. That's an outcome that he would possibly think was worth the cost.

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

Just in case anyone missed this gem, which reassures us that not all our American cousins are ignorant:

 

 

[onetrack]

The bloke rattles off a swag of figures, but a lot of them are not accurate. America is No 2 in world exports value, not No 4 - but perhaps he should've mentioned armaments and aircraft make up a huge percentage of that figure.

As to infant mortality, America is not 179th in the world, but it is No 33 out of the 36 OECD countries.

 

https://ustr.gov/countries-regions#:~:text=The United States is the 2nd largest goods exporter in,of total U.S. goods exports.

 

https://www.americashealthrankings.org/learn/reports/2019-annual-report/international-comparison

 

I could counter a lot more of the blokes inaccurate figures, but he's certainly not missing the mark, as regards the difference between how Americans view themselves, and how the rest of the world views America. They are warmongers and weapons-worshippers, and that goes directly against their so-called God-driven national Christianity, which is supposed to spread Peace.

 

I'm presuming this video is a movie trailer or snapshot? - not a genuine Q&A session?

[Jerry_Atrick]

He is a semi-famous actor, so it is no doubt a movie trailer.. and just they way it is shot makes it more movie-like than an episode of Q&A.

 

I have no idea what the movie is... but sadly, it provides enough ammo for any detractors of the debate to decry it as a gross exagerration and therefore the US is still the best in the world.

 

A country as wealthy as the US and being ranked 33 out of 36th in OECD countries of infant mortaility, does not change the gravity of the message (depending on how tight the OECD countries are in that rate.. )

[onetrack]

Yeah, I did some research, and I find this is a scene from "The Newsroom". It's a TV drama series, it aired in 2012. I believe Jeff Daniels character Will McAvoy, is probably spouting (director) Aaron Sorkins views.

 

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2289479/

 

I believe the greatest single thing that Americans have to face up to, is that they are a bitterly-divided society - not the United States as they claim - but a nation full of permanently-angry people, many of whom reject any form of authority over them as illegal, and who are divided straight down racial and political lines - more so than at any time since the Civil War.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Newsroom_(American_TV_series)

 

Edited February 19, 2022 by onetrack

[Old Koreelah]

12 hours ago, onetrack said:

…the greatest single thing that Americans have to face up to, is that they are a bitterly-divided society - not the United States as they claim - but a nation full of permanently-angry people, many of whom reject any form of authority over them as illegal, and who are divided straight down racial and political lines - more so than at any time since the Civil War.

Why? Perhaps a major reason is the business model of American media, perticularly the Murdoch empire: Truth is secondary. To sell papers, increase viewer statistics and therefore attract advertising dollars you have to give people what they want. You have to pander to their prejudices. You have to out-do the other channels in pushing the outrage of viewers. 

 

 

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

I have a lot o respect for Bill Maher, who has a Friday night show on HBO (I subscribe to the yootoob snippets). He eventually gave up a job asd a news reader (he is a history graduate or masters or something), when they stopped reporting the news and started reporting stories. When he remonstrated to management, their response is they need more eyeballs to sell more advertising. His response to them was if they want the most eyeballs, just put on porn. He left..

 

That is according to him, of course.. but there are other things he have said that at least seem logical..

[onetrack]

I have practically stopped reading any commercial news sites because they're basically full of utter garbage, and the "news" items are so unworthy of reading, it's a disgrace to call them news sites.

 

The advertising that constantly smacks you in the face with pop-ups, lengthy commercials inserted into the start of "news" videos, "news" stories about idiots in the entertainment industry, "news" stories about road idiots, and "news" stories about political idiots, leaves me stone-cold turned off.

 

I even made the mistake of subscribing to the local newspaper website for a "trial period" at a lower cost (I think it was $13 for a month) - and after the trial period, I realised it was the biggest waste of $13 I'd ever spent in my life.

So then I tried to cancel my subscription - but the subscription cancellation setup was so deeply hidden, and so deviously laid out, it was mind-boggling. I had to contact them through the "contact us" webpage - then wait for a reply.

 

When I got a reply, I got a barrage of questioning as to why I wanted to cancel my subscription. I had to keep insisting in my replies, that I wanted to cancel, and they tried every trick in the book to get me to give up on my attempt to cancel.

I finally got my cancellation through after about a week of back-and-forth messaging. I will never subscribe for any news site, ever again.

[Marty_d]

I stick mainly to ABC as they actually still have real reporters and real analysis.  However occasionally I have a look at news.com.au for a laugh (at the way they present "news").  The other day, they had TWO separate articles about gorgeous looking young women who had been charged with a variety of nasty offences involving kidnapping and torture.  Plenty of instagram-type photos of said wenches, of course.

Now I'm no expert in criminology, but I'd almost be willing to bet my left nut that the vast majority of kidnappers and torturers are rough looking blokes, not page 3 girls.

 

But, as they say, sex sells - have a look at news.com.au, or the Daily Mail, on any day and count the number of scantily clad women in the "news" articles. 

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

Sex sure does sell.. Remember the first of the Big M Ads, featuring no less than Jana Vendt (I think that's how her surname was spelled)... Not much flavoured milk sold in Aus before that ad campaign.. Afterwards... We all had to drink Big M...

[old man emu]

Without denigrating the women involved, but of late there is not a night does by that a news program doesn't run a story about some woman being done wrong by some bloke. Since I wouldn't do what these women claim the bloke was doing, I'm beginning to wonder if I'm not abnormal.

[pmccarthy]

2 hours ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

Sex sure does sell.. Remember the first of the Big M Ads, featuring no less than Jana Vendt (I think that's how her surname was spelled)... Not much flavoured milk sold in Aus before that ad campaign.. Afterwards... We all had to drink Big M...

You had to avoid her grandma, Nonna Vendt.

[onetrack]

It is spelt Jana Wendt and pronounced Yana Vent. Her family are Czech, and we'd all like to know how big the Czech was for doing the ads, and where it Wendt.

[Jerry_Atrick]

6 hours ago, old man emu said:

Without denigrating the women involved, but of late there is not a night does by that a news program doesn't run a story about some woman being done wrong by some bloke. Since I wouldn't do what these women claim the bloke was doing, I'm beginning to wonder if I'm not abnormal.

I have purchased a Sunday Times today.. first time I have purchased a newspaper for at least 3 months. It is a Murdoch masthead (I will post about it separately). In there, I have just read that some bloke in France died (killed himself) in prison in France on charges related to procuring up to 1,000 girls to traffic to the US on the promise of modelling work, but it was for sex.. In the same paper, I read about an undercover sting they did on a French (coincidental - they are not Francophobes) social media site that is the "Tinder for 15 - 17 year olds" or some such age., Firtstly, it is alleged that there was virtually no age verification and what there was could be turned off by the user, and the amount of sexual, racial, and personal abuse was amazing. Maybe google Sunday Times Yubo and you may beat the paywall (they are smarter than the FDairfax paywall and I haven't worked out how to beat it yet - but admittedly haven't tried hard).

 

3 hours ago, onetrack said:

It is spelt Jana Wendt and pronounced Yana Vent. Her family are Czech, and we'd all like to know how big the Czech was for doing the ads, and where it Wendt.

Ahh.. Yes.. the Czech Republic... When I first came out here, after 9 months on the land of Uncle Sam, I spend 2 weeks in the Czech Republic every other two weeks for about 6 months on a client project. My dumb ass Aussie ignorant views of the world, were changed very quickly. What a country. I could easily move there (although they are very racist). And the women are - ahem - very liberal in their attitudes. Unfortunately (or maybe not), yours truly was too pig ignorant to notice..

 

A few years after I left the company, as I keep in touch with most I worked with, one of them regaled the fun times he had and asked why I decided not to enjoy the consultant's motto.. what happens on the road, stays on the road... 

 

There is a downside though, if you are looking for a life-long partner.. My very first interaction up close with a Czech woman was on my trip from Prague airport to Ledvice - a small town with a coal-fired power station... It was a hot summer's day.. and we stopped on the way for dome water. Sitting outside the convenience store (cannot remember what they are called), as an old Czech lady.. all deep-wrinkled with very pronounced facial features, greying hair and a couple fo moles with grey strands of hair a couple of inches long protruding horizontally and flapping in the wind... That sight still sits vivid in my memoory.. though not in a haunting way.

[nomadpete]

If the allegations are true, then issues such as that French 'modelling agent' should be treated as 'organised crime'.

 

On a related issue. Whilst I have empathy for mistreated women, I strongly object to the sexist anti-male media and political treatement of victims of domestic violence.

 

Every comment about seems to assert that men are horrid untrustworthy violent pigs. And that women are always the innocent victims.

 

I heve experienced violent female behaviour. My biggest surprise was the total lack of support. And although a workmate loudly said something about me being a wimp "Why didn't you just deck her?", about half a dozen others later revealed that they had been injured by wife/girlfriend but were too ashamed to admit it in public. It is vastly under reported.

 

I'm against ALL violence.

[nomadpete]

[facthunter]

I remember in the days of the cold war, a headline.."Russia Bounces BAD Czechs". These days people wouldn't know what a cheque was. Nev

[old man emu]

13 hours ago, nomadpete said:

He provided the wrong sort of "rubber" 

[old man emu]

13 hours ago, nomadpete said:

It is vastly under reported.

From my professional experience dealing with Domestic Violence, I have learned that while women rarely use physical force, they employ psychological abuse almost constantly. And psychological abuse keeps hurting long after the event for which it was used.

 

There's jokes about men forgetting birthdays and anniversaries in which the male is berated and belittled. Too bad that his mind was involved in putting food on the table and a roof overhead.

 

Then there are the women who refuse separated fathers visits with their children. That's an Oh so common tactic of abuse.

13 hours ago, nomadpete said:

I strongly object to the sexist anti-male media and political treatment of victims of domestic violence. Every comment about seems to assert that men are horrid untrustworthy violent pigs. And that women are always the innocent victims.

I'm with you on that.  This is what female Baby Boomer's thought about relationships

 

[red750]

[old man emu]

I was watching a video today which was today's upload by an American firearms historian. A bloke who doesn't go beyond explaining the development of the gun that is subject of the day's video. Sometimes he will take the gun he has spoken about to a range and explore how it handles. Non of the 2nd Amendment stuff ad all well researched facts. 

 

Today's video was about the new US Army infantry rifle. I've got no problem with the military upgrading their equipment, but this gun is now available on the civilian market. During the video he explains that the rifle can take rounds with two different loadings - one less powerful to be used for training, and another super-powerful one for the real thing. The super-powerful one was developed to overcome the new body armour of the Russians and Chinese. Again, that's all well and good. However the same rounds have come onto the civilian market as a "hunting" round. What are those Grizzly bears wearing under their fur coats?

 

Here's the video