Marty_d

The federal government already brought in gun control. What do you want them to do about this? And how would PHONey do it better?

Jerry, you're spending a lot of time defending the indefensible. Saying that it's better to have a massive amount of corrupt behaviour because it's transparently visible rather than a small amount of hidden corruption (which usually comes out anyway) doesn't seem logical to me.

The difference is that Wikipedia can be corrected by anyone. AI can't. If you don't want to get the AI guff, just put -AI after your search. For example: Antonov AN2 -AI

This is what I'm interested in. If people think the country is "going in the wrong direction", what does that even mean? What specific areas are people upset about? Is it economic? Social? Is it a conservative vs progressive thing? Then drilling down into that, is the aggravating factor something that the federal government has control over? All I'm hearing is a very non specific grumble.

Which I don't really understand. I'd be interested to know which policies in particular people are having a problem with. From my perspective they could do better in a few areas, but overall they're doing a good job.

I seem to remember that's why Trump (and brexit) happened. The risk being, of course, that your protest vote leads to an incompetent government, and / or one that doesn't make decisions in the best interest of the people.

That was great. I went past New Norfolk as far as Gretna, fantastic road. Almost tempted to keep going. I was going to go through to Elderslie then back to the highway, but the cross road was gravel so I turned around and came back the same way. Very enjoyable.

It's a beautiful day. I'm going for a ride shortly. Thinking Bothwell way.

Isn't that where your wife writes it for you?

Faaaark. I was born in 1972. If I lived backwards I'd be about to hit the end of WW1.

Did that include the $57.45 worth of stock in the stores?

Is that so Chump can escape to Russia when the American public actually get a clue?

Nuclear subs have an hour limit on the reactor. When that limit is reached, the sub is decommissioned. If we get old Block 3 Virginians that the yanks have been thrashing for 10 years or more, half their useful life may already be gone. Can't run these buggers "on condition".

And it goes on. I think he deliberately just does the opposite of whatever is the right thing to do. https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/trump-announces-981-million-support-package-for-highly-polluting-energy-source/s7d44jvnp

LA confidential

I think that may be a better outcome than sticking with it. Short term cost to save a lot more in the long term.

Obama and Biden weren't openly and transparently corrupt. They didn't put morons in charge of the armed forces, the FBI, the education system, the health system, etc. They didn't do everything they could to wreck the world's longest lived modern democracy for personal gain and to satisfy a bloated ego. They didn't do everything they could to stop the fight against climate change. They didn't rip up international agreements like the Iran deal just because they had a petty dislike of the previous president. They didn't shut down news organisations and use stand over tactics like thugs when facts were aired that they didn't like. But hey, if all that means absolutely nothing to your friends, I guess they have the president they deserve.

If your US friends don't think it would be better under literally anyone else, they're not thinking full stop.

Most of his appointees are pretty short on intelligence. And morals, ethics and character

There's a financial component too I believe. Labor made changes around electoral funding which benefits parties over independents. One commentator said they could form a party called "the Independents" and allow conscience votes on every issue.

Given up? Does that mean at some point you did believe anything he said - about anything?

Do they use a lot of finger gel? 😄

From 1997 - 2022 there have been almost 1500 school shootings in the USA. (Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38433681/) To my knowledge there have been 2 in Australia since 1991 which resulted in death. There's a damn good reason some freedoms are restricted.

After the longest apprenticeship in history, Charlie probably doesn't have much left in the tank. After Andrew's behaviour it makes sense to skip that generation and stick Will on the throne.

Teals are still discussing whether to form a party too. If they did I could picture a few moderate Libs jumping ship. And Teals would poll a lot better than PHONey in urban electorates.