Marty_d

Bs

Not voting at all doesn't send any signal. And these days any winning party claims a mandate. They don't care that you disengage from the process, as long as you don't vote for their opposition. Voting for minor parties or independents definitely gets their attention, because then they have to negotiate with the cross bench to get anything done.

It's pretty simple. Regardless of where you sit on the political spectrum, you just start from the back, giving the last vote to the person/party you find most objectionable, working upwards til you give your first choice to the person or party you find least objectionable. Even if you can't find anyone who aligns fully with your views, if you vote that way you're ensuring those you like least are put last.

I disagree. If we don't participate in the process then we're as bad as all those idiots in the US who didn't vote to stop Trump.

New Zealanders are basically Australians. Deporting them is kind of like sending a Victorian back home from Tassie.

That stretch of road between Huonville and Geeveston is lovely for a bike. Even better (on a fine day) is continuing on to Dover. As long as there's no caravans in front of you.

I don't know, 1100 Virago is pretty classic too!

It's seriously scary what he's doing to the US democracy. Several people here have described his behaviour as "Mafia-like" and it's not a bad description, although, also as previously mentioned, even the Mafia have their own twisted code of honour where he has none at all. I don't think that the leaders of countries like ours truly understand what's going on here. I think Trump has plans for there to be 3 spheres of influence in the future - USA, Russia and China. Europe isn't part of his calculation and neither are middle countries like ours. He wants to basically carve up the world like the old time empires (think England, Portugal and Spain) did. Some countries to be taken over directly by this trio - he's already made quite clear he wants Greenland and Canada, for a start - Russia would like not only Ukraine but then the other ex-soviet countries, and then, who knows - parts of Western Europe? And China of course will start with Taiwan and then maybe proceed southward in the Pacific. Any countries not directly taken over will be treated as lesser partners, always on the worse end of any trade deal and subject to any whim of Emperor Trump. We cannot treat the USA as a "special ally" any more. We are not under their protection, if someone invaded us they are under no obligation whatsoever to protect us and wouldn't unless it suited their interests. And watching what he's doing with Ukraine, he'd probably want all our uranium or rare earth minerals in return for "stopping" the war by giving the aggressor whatever they wanted.

Maybe there's hope for the US... https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/22/boycott-companies-tesla-trump-musk

DR. Interesting with the previous one, I didn't do the multiplication method, I thought it was the sum of the previous numbers. (10+15+25 =50, 15+50+20=85, so 20+85+25=130)

You rode a cruiser around the paddock? Brave man!!

If Musk is the answer, I can't imagine the question

130?

My humble attempt attempt at political commentary (Paint is not my forte)

With wheels that small, why couldn't they afford 4?

Liberty is dead. Or if not, she's been grabbed on the pussy.

If it were Jacquie there'd be more swearwords.

https://greens.org.au/campaigns/get-out-aukus

He really is a moron. Unfortunately that seems to be a prerequisite for being in Trump's administration.

Good opinion piece on how America is viewed now. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/19/the-impact-of-trump-20-on-australia-is-evidence-of-how-american-we-suddenly-arent And another! https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/18/donald-trump-president-america-great-nation-builder

I had flashbacks to that scene in "There's something about Mary".

You've made some mind-blowingly stupid comments but this one takes the cake. If your definition of an "alpha male" is those two whiny little arseholes in the white house, Trump and Vance, who tried to browbeat the wartime LEADER of another country, then who would want to be one. Leaving aside your total disregard of women in this statement. I think you're like a cult member who's been brainwashed to believe that their leader can do no wrong. When you made your statement about us not being hit with tariffs, then we were, you say "these are turbulent times." When you're faced with the fact that Trump is wrecking the US economy, you say "he's repairing a smashed car". You seem to be unable to grasp his true ineptitude and stupidity. So tell me Nasho - what is someone who blindly follows a destructive leader? Is he an alpha male, or a "rainbow beta male"?

Hmmm. By that logic Jerry, for the good of the world we should agree with everything that GON says? I just can't do it....

Which is something I've never understood. Yes I get that if you're in the North Sea the cold will probably get you in a few minutes anyway, and if you have heavy woolen clothes on you'll tend to sink. But if you fall off a boat, being able to swim at least 50m may be the difference between life and death.

Just knowing how to swim won't always save you. I've almost drowned in a river and I can swim quite well.