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Well, at least we know how Trump sees South America - simply as the southern part of North America with the Gulf of America in the middle.

It's generally accepted that Maduro was every bit as bad as his reputation suggested and his demise is welcomed by most of the population. However, Trump is far more interested in getting his hands on Venezuela's oil than in restoring democracy. He will prop up whoever he thinks will facilitate access for American companies to get their hands on the oil reserves. Like Canada, Venezuela has the heavy crude that US refineries are set up to process. The US produces a lighter grade that doesn't suit their refineries and most of Venezuela's current limited output goes to China which is another reason he wants the oil. His biggest problem will be that US companies will be very wary of pouring a lot of infrastructure development money into a country that is politically unstable. Even if they did, it would take years to get a significant increase in production because the existing infrastructure is in such bad shape.

They are, but a lot are celebrating very quietly because Maduro's regime is still in control and nobody knows what's coming next, least of all Trump.

His prospects for a Nobel Peace prize are starting to look a bit bleak, but on the positive side his prospects for a referral to the International Criminal Court are looking much better.

Very few people would be sorry to see Maduro go, but what happens now? Trump said the US is going to ‘run the country’ until they get a suitable government installed. They are also going to manage the oil production. Sounds like a recipe for chaos, especially if fighting breaks out between rival political factions.

I'm not sure this will go down all that well with the MAGA crowd, even if the only aim was to get Maduro (oh.. and all that oil of course). They thought they'd voted for a Nobel prize-winning Peace President.

No real surprise. He's been talking about it for weeks. Apparently they've captured Maduro and his wife and flown them out of the country. I wonder if that's legal?

Why should they take any notice of that unless he props them up with cash handouts?

I hope he did. He signed off the drawings so he may be taking a risk if he didn’t. On the other hand most modified/re-purposed buildings don’t fail mainly because they never see their full design loads. You could say they rely more on a factor of ignorance than a factor of safety. I bought a hangar built from recycled materials that falls into that category.

Sounds like he did a good job. Did he reverse engineer the existing frames to check their capacity or just draw up the plans?

Same here. Haven’t seen my tax accountant for about 25 years since he moved out of the city. Everything is done by email. I just send him all the details once a year and he has it done the next day.

That’s obvious dramatic nonsense. I’d be the last person to defend MAGA or Rubio but Crimea was invaded when the Democrats were in power and the US did practically nothing. Trump has made things a lot worse for Ukraine than they probably would have been under Kamala Harris but the problems pre-date both Rubio and MAGA.

It's not a horse Nev. Please stick to the facts. 😊

Well, 41 here in the Hills east of Perth this afternoon with a bit of a thunderstorm on the way by the look of it.

Same to you Nev, and I hope you last a fair bit longer than the next 10 days. I'm a bit younger than you, but I'd say everyone here has lost friends and relatives along the way. That's life, unfortunately, but much better to still be here among the living than listed with the missing.

Seemed quite logical to me when you explained it, although it didn't sound as though what the Spirit did was very Holy. That was a bit disappointing.

People say they will be the best looking battleships ever built. Like nothing ever seen before. Not even close.

Does that mean he's going to learn how to weld too?

He said he’s going to be personally involved in designing them because he’a a ‘very aesthetic person’ and he doesn’t like the current flat sided shapes used for stealth reasons. That tells you all you need to know. There are a few other problems - there’s no money allocated for their design and construction, the shipyards don’t have the capacity, and the two and a half years he says it will take to build each ship is totally unrealistic. Every warship they are currently building is at least a year behind schedule.

Someone should remind him that battleships are obsolete. Doesn’t look good for our submarines if the shipyards are now going to be busy building battleships.

I hope the American taxpayers are happy with their new plaques.

An optimist would probably have thought he meant Natural Intelligence. Apparently, I'm not an optimist.

I've had two big gum trees fall on the house in a severe storm earlier this year. They were not even our trees. They were on the road verge but were tall enough to reach the house and cause a lot of damage. Not a nice experience.

When someone was asked how they were coping with all the stress and anxiety and uncertainty caused by the constantly changing Covid medical advice and lockdowns, they said " No problem, I'm used to all that. I shop at Aldi."

IGA and ALDI are the main ones.