rgmwa

As if Trump wasn't bad enough, there is an army of enthusiastic backroom misfits and plotters busily developing policies and selecting potential MAGA appointees to fill influential administrative positions in a Trump government, specifically in order to facilitate his anti-democratic and dictatorial ambitions and further their own careers.  As things currently stand, Biden is a lost cause despite being basically competent and decent. Even many who voted for him last time are no longer supporting him because they blame him for the economy and other problems around the world. So much for American Democracy.  The best result would be for Trump to end up in jail or be kicked off the ballot in some states.  If he gets back in again, it will be a disaster that the Americans have brought on themselves and the world by being thoroughly conned by a vindictive crook.

12 minutes ago, red750 said:

What film ran for 10 hours and 7 minutes?

War and Peace was about 7 hrs

And then lots of people with aboriginal heritage are highly educated doctors, lawyers, parliamentarians and the like, so there is a huge disparity in lifestyle and living conditions across the population. 

We hear a lot of talk from aboriginal representatives about how the current systems have failed because they have been imposed by governments or badly managed by those in charge who don't understand the real problems, particularly in the remote communities.  That may be true, but I  have yet to hear any of these critics explain what they believe the real problems are, what they would do to fix them that hasn't been tried before, and what responsibility the aboriginals themselves are prepared to take on to improve their conditions.  The kartiya article, Bruce Tuncks' blocked toilet example, Onetrack's Landcruiser story and even the anecdote I posted highlight the fundamental mindset changes that would be needed.

4 hours ago, onetrack said:

Everyone needs to read the article below to understand how dysfunctional the Indigenous welfare/grant/support system is.

https://www.griffithreview.com/articles/kartiya-are-like-toyotas/

 

Reading that article makes you wonder how anything could be done to make a positive long-term difference in many of these remote communities. 

I think the biggest reason it failed was because the aboriginal population itself was so clearly and loudly divided on the issue. Had they all been for it there's a good chance it would have got across the line despite Dutton's scare campaign.  But even if it had succeeded, I doubt that much would have changed because half the aboriginal population would have ignored it as a waste of time and the other half would be squabbling over who was going to represent them. Even having a Voice in the Constitution would not be a guarantee of permanent representation, because the government of the day could just choose to reduce their funding to make them ineffective. I was on the `yes' side on the basis that it was worth a try, but now the onus is on `no' side to figure where they go from here to solve all the problems. If they can come up with a better solution then maybe something will change.  

I can’t see how this brutal attack by Hamas on civilians furthers their cause. They must have known full well that Israel would attack Gaza in response and make the lives of their own people even worse. Stopping the Saudis from normalising relations with Israel may have been a reason but probably a bigger concern for Iran than Hamas. If Iran was  pushing Hamas to attack, the Palestinian people are paying a heavy price for Hamas’s hatred of Israel.

Trump has already been found guilty of fraud by the judge who has cancelled his licences to operate businesses in New York State. The civil trial now is just about how much money he has to pay as restitution for the fraud. 

He's probably stressed about the weight his wallet keeps losing.

I thought Jones had retired. I'm surprised this twit is still around. He forgot to mention Trump's criminal credentials. 

5 hours ago, old man emu said:

 He simply needs to hold shares in companies doing business there. The bloke with 49% of the stock can usually have the greatest say in a business, and he only needs his kids to have another 2% of the stock to be in control.

The way I read this judgement, `any other entity controlled or beneficially owned' would mean that neither he nor his kids could own shares in any company that owned or controlled the assets. As shareholders they would be part-owners and beneficiaries. If this ruling stands whatever he can throw at it, I think he's done in New York.

When you’re a very stable genius you never make mistakes. Haven’t you ever heard of alternative facts?

Who would have guessed.  Reminds me of me at 21 compared to the person I see in the mirror these days. Big difference and not for the better.

Colonisation is probably a more accurate description of what actually happened. Governor Phillip made a pretty good effort to get along with the aboriginals in the first few years, even getting speared for his trouble once the locals realised their visitors weren't intending to leave. The whites at the time also clearly recognised that the aboriginals were people and not fauna.

1 hour ago, facthunter said:

Did you have ALL the answers when you said YES to a marriage. ?  Nev

I thought I did.

1 hour ago, old man emu said:

He made sure to book his flight from Scrutiny.

Let's hope it gets cancelled.

Could be a scam.

That'll be $12 for the part and $300 for knowing where to put it.

Or alternatively his body double is alive and well in the undisclosed country.  Who knows what to believe.

I did one year of a post graduate course in computing years ago as I had thoughts of a career writing engineering software as there was virtually nothing available for desktop computers in those days.  Unfortunately I couldn't finish the course due to pressure of work and family. The peak of my achievement was adding some language extensions to a compiler and learning the difference between my self taught programming and how real programmers did things. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it and spent some three thousand hours programming over the years. Even sold some software as well developing applications that our company used. Eventually, professionally developed applications outpaced what I could do on my own and the world moved on, but it was fun while it lasted.

Doesn't Excel have Visual Basic embedded in it?  How will that work if they bring in another language?

I’m sure it was well rehearsed before he went in. It’s all about sending a message to his followers that despite his persecution he is still defiant and will get his revenge. To the rest of us it just confirms his scheming nastiness 

Dmitry Utkin was apparently on board as well, plus another senior Wagner member. Wouldn't surprise me if Putin decided to get rid of the lot of them.