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Everything posted by rgmwa
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I think that pretty much sums it up, especially with Trump calling the shots.
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Most Americans seem to think the world stops at the US coastline.
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That's simply not true. https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/buying-products-and-services/consumer-rights-and-guarantees
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Exactly - the bank robbers are now running the banks: About a week before Elon Musk helped take over the nation’s leading consumer financial watchdog, his social media site, X, unfurled the details of a new payment system that may have drawn federal scrutiny — underscoring the complicated web of personal interests at stake as the world’s richest person advises President Donald Trump on a reconfiguration of the U.S. government. The system is called X Money, and in the vision sketched out by executives, it would allow millions of users on X to instantly send money to friends, family members and others. Heralding it as a breakthrough in finance, the company said in late January it would launch this year with the support of Visa, which processes billions of transactions globally. Because of its direct ties to bank accounts and debit cards, X Money normally would fall under the remit of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency with vast powers to crack down on unfair, deceptive and predatory corporate practices. Formed in the wake of the 2008 financial collapse, the CFPB has policed traditional banks and lenders as well as Apple, Google and other tech giants that seek to offer digital versions of those services. But that was before last week, when Musk’s team of young agents — acting at Trump’s behest — began targeting the CFPB as part of their disruptive campaign to slash spending and regulation across government. As they burrowed into the bureau’s computers, Musk made clear his goal is to dismantle the agency, which soon ordered a full stoppage to all of its work to investigate companies and protect consumers.
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You could always ask them.
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Of course - wild animals. I didn't think of that one. Seems to me you got a fair and reasonable response, and hardly `mind your own business'. Why would you even care about how many outages are caused by what anyway? Why is that important to you? And what do you realistically expect them to do about preventing natural events, accidents and wild animal attacks. Surely it must be obvious that they have no more control over those things than you do.
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Power outages typically happen due to natural events like fires, falling tree branches, storms and lightning strikes, or accidents like a car running into a power pole. Some may be due to equipment failures that may or may not be due to inadequate maintenance/replacement. Nearly all are random events that the power company can't predict and is not responsible for. Their obligation in an outage is to restore power as quickly as possible. Also to notify residents of planned outages. If the outage goes on for long enough, here in the West at least you can put in a claim for compensation for spoiled food etc. We were without power for a week once after a severe storm and got compensation. I'm not sure what you could say in another letter that would change the fact that outages happen, or what you would expect the power company to do about them. Did they literally tell you to mind your own business? What did you write in your previous letter to get that kind of response?
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Trump won't be at all happy when he notices that Musk's increasing unpopularity starts rubbing off on his own approval ratings. He already won't be happy about Musk appearing on the cover of Time sitting behind his desk. The cozy relationship may start to develop a few cracks.
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It's pretty clear after just these first few weeks that the post-war world order largely established by the US has now been rescinded by the US, and is well and truly dead. Trump's view is that domination and intimidation are far more effective ways to make America great again than traditional diplomacy, free trade and shared values with other nations. The US no longer has allies or enemies, only competitors that Trump is determined to beat. Only quid pro quo deals matter now, corruption is legal, and he sees himself like Putin, only a bigger and better version. Ukraine is now Europe's problem except that Zelensky owes the US for all the munitions it was given for free by Biden. America is now being run for the benefit of the the occupant of the White House and his pliant GOP entourage. Court orders and the rule of law are largely irrelevant, former insurrectionists are now patriotic heroes, and the national accounts are being managed by the swindlers and thieves. It's a pretty sorry state of affairs. I wonder what the world will look like in 12 months from now.
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So corruption is now an approved business practice for US companies doing business in foreign countries. That also conveniently removes any ethical constraint on Trump from accepting foreign bribes for favours as part of his official duties, not that he could be prosecuted anyway because he's immune. What else would you expect from a crook.
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Their website says they are happy to respond to complaints so why not try it? Besides, aren’t you just looking for an explanation? That’s different to making a complaint.
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Let's talk about Artificial Intelligence
rgmwa replied to old man emu's topic in Science and Technology
Chat GPT5 should be interesting. -
Let's talk about Artificial Intelligence
rgmwa replied to old man emu's topic in Science and Technology
So you’re saying you’re now redundant? -
They are just gathering statistics, but why don’t you ask them? They have an on-line enquiry form. Let us know how you go.
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I’ve just had a look at their website. Maybe you can show me where all this favouritism is happening because I can’t find it.
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Fair enough, but what do you mean by ‘giving preference’? They count the votes for all the individual candidates in the election so where does the preference come in?
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The AEC does not give preferences. The voters do. It’s pretty simple.
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The AEC is not pre-empting anything. it is simply recording the election results, not corrupting them. You are boxing at shadows and seeing things that are not there. I assume when you say `we are too dumb and gullible to be aware of it', you are not including yourself among the deluded masses?
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I don't think it's special treatment. They're just recognising the reality that with two major parties taking most of the votes, a minority party or an independent is not going to have the numbers to form government. It's also just a prediction tool, not some kind of award to the major parties.
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Or not flush and preserve the documents.
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Let's talk about Artificial Intelligence
rgmwa replied to old man emu's topic in Science and Technology
It also only works if the computer is plugged in. -
It may not take that long. The mid-terms might see the Democrats back in charge of the House of Representatives and the Senate which would help, although by then most of the damage will have been done and Trump will probably still be the ruling monarch with Musk as his lead inquisitor.
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Exactly right, but Trump is incapable of understanding that. On top of that, the cost of providing that support via USAID is small change in terms of the US budget, so it's good value. No doubt there are parts of the USAID budget that could and should be reviewed and ditched, but feeding the whole organisation `into the woodchipper' as Musk is intent of doing is not in America's interest. The Chinese will be happy to pick up the slack and sideline the US.
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And at the same time raking in millions from his conflict of interest investments, truth(joke) social deal, flogging dodgy sneakers, bitcoin tokens, cheap bibles, and other scams. If he had any decency, the least he could do is donate his dollar to USAID.
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Because whatever `good' they may be doing, which is a matter of opinion anyway, is far outweighed by the chaos they are creating by their slash and burn approach to destroying every institution they can get their hands on. Besides which a lot of what they are doing is blatantly illegal, which is why the courts are stepping in.