rgmwa

No it doesn't. A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. I don't think Mel Gibson is a member of a well regulated militia and I'm not so sure that the security of whatever State he currently lives in is under threat.

The Chinese have just whacked another 50% tariff on the US, matching Trump’s escalation. Given that Trump is already at 104% which is probably enough to effectively stop imports from China it will be interesting to see what Trump does next.

That should probably be in the `Celebrating Positives' thread.

Reminds me of the `Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow' story, except that this looks more like the `Headless Horse of Sleepy Hollow'.

I’ve always wondered what your shed looks like.

That uninhabited island explanation is rubbish. They are saying the islands are countries which they’re not and even if they were, they are uninhabited so how do you tranship goods. They are just trying to spin an embarrassing blunder.

Putin is giving Trump the run around on a ceasefire deal, has pushed Ukraine out of the Kursk area and continued indiscriminate rocket and drone attacks. Business as usual. He’s got Trump on his side and in his pocket.

Musk’s days are numbered now given his disloyal comments about Trump’s tariffs.

Drop a towel in the bottom of the bath and stand on that.

I once read that most shark attacks occur in waist deep water, because that's where most of the people are.

I don’t think Vance would be able to win an election after four years of Trump. MAGA only has one leader. If something happened to Trump then Vance would get the top job but he doesn’t have Trump’s hold over the GOP and MAGA so he probably wouldn’t be very effective. It wouldn’t matter much anyway because Trump has already set the US on path to self destruction with the rest of the world forging new alliances for better or for worse. The Democrats may get the Senate or House back at the midterms but they won’t be able to do much before the next election and nobody knows what the results of that might be.

When things really go pear shaped Trump will always try to blame others but apart from the ignorant diehards left in his MAGA cohort the rest of America will blame him. Of course, it will be too late and the damage will have been done.

Some interesting observations on Trump's tariffs and the future of America by Professor Richard Wolff:

Good old Bernie Sanders telling it how is is with a glimmer of optimism for the mid-terms: Bernie for President! At least he's a decent person, unlike the destructive clown in the White House.

I saw a few prawn ponds in China that didn't give me a lot of confidence in the product.

My wife was cremated and that's my choice too. The thought of being buried gives me claustrophobia but as you say, it's a personal choice.

No. They have just been a victim of their own success at shipping lots of stuff to the US and not buying much in return. Check out Trump’s nonsensical tariff calculations which have nothing to do with reciprocal tariffs as he claims.

I'm just off to Bunnings now for some cheap timber.

I think the main concerns most people have about globalisation is the quality of the imported goods and the potential exploitation of the people making them. There are plenty of reports on programs like 4 Corners about how workers in many developing countries are used almost as slave labour, working very long hours for pittance wages and often for big Western corporations either directly or through local companies. But it's a two-edged sword, because if it wasn't for the work the country would not be able to develop, however exploitative and corrupt its progress might be. Japan and South Korea have been very successful over time. Other places like Vietnam probably have a long way to go, but have benefitted significantly from Trumps first round of tariffs on China, when factories moved there to dodge the tariffs.

I looked it up. The main reason is that globalization exacerbates income inequality, both within and between countries, as wealth tends to concentrate in the hands of a few. Industries and jobs move to countries with lower labour costs leading to job losses and economic hardship in more developed countries, and potential exploitation of workers and resources in developing countries by multinational corporations. In other words, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. America is a pretty good example of income disparity in a wealthy country and loss of manufacturing jobs. However, their export of services exceeds the value of the disparity in goods that Trump is solely focused on with his tariffs. He's only looking at the numbers that suit his narrative of the US as an exploited and failed nation.

Even if we continue to sell directly to the US, sales are assured because our lean beef is almost all used for hamburgers. There's no way the population over there will give up their Big Macs, including Trump.

I don't see how not voting is much of a protest because it has no effect on anything, apart from you having to pay a fine to the government for the privilege. If you don't like the major parties or the system, then voting for an independent would be more effective and would avoid the fine. At least your protest against the major parties would be recorded. Your call, of course.

... and Norfolk Island, but he forgot about Tasmania.

Too costly, too unwieldy and too utopian to work, GON.

We got that thunderstorm too and it was quite impressive. Another one that came through about 3-4 weeks ago knocked over two 30m gum trees on the verge that hit the house, ripped off 30m of barge, guttering and eaves lining, demolished several battens and a few rafters plus at least a dozen roof sheets, punched a hole in the roof and ceiling in one room and knocked 40m of fence down. The roofers will be here most of the week. We had 20mm of rain in 10 minutes. The storm passed in about 25 mins but we were without power for three days and the NBN was only reconnected a week ago. The Bureau said it was a microburst. It sure caused a lot of damage in our area.