Jerry_Atrick

Too far away for Chump to concetrate on for more than a few minutes. OK.. So.. where are we? I didn't see the last debate, but I heard it was as lacklustre as the first. Anyway, this is a worrying development and shows that educated people that are well off also fall for the MAGA hype. A surgeon was caught red-handed being rather vile with respect to independent candidate, Monique Ryan, herself a paediatric specialist. If the report is accurate, it makes you wonder why a surgeon, who has benefited from a progressive society and done well for himself is off on a MAGA crusade. It isn't just t have nots. https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/chilling-video-captures-surgeon-tearing-down-monique-ryan-corflute-before-stomping-on-it-and-burying-it-20250418-p5lst4.html He later cast it off as a joke and made a donation, which was later refunded... Trying to cover ones tracks, I would say.. Rather ironic since one of the things he says in the video is to hide/dispose of the evidence. This sort of behaviour should not be tolerated, because even if it were a joke, which I doubt, it is the sort of thing that other nutjobs will use to justify doing it and worse. (you can disable javascript to read it)

Reflective of the people who voted him in, me thinks

Oi! As the typo king; the one with the most bewtiful typos, I have to way in on this one!

Somewhat related in terms of exposing the perniciousness of these industries, which helps fuel the fake media we get now, though better posted in a Corruption is Australia thread:

They are also going to bre representative of their big sponsors, too. The reality is we don't have a press regulator, so unless they produce something defamatory, the worst is a "please correct the record"., which they don't, and in the case of some press organisations, openly gloat that they won't. You'd be surprised at how many people I know are anti EV.. And when I engage on the debate about them, they refuse to accept the basic facts that are intuitive, they still reject them. It's like their on some sort of self-destruct mode.

So where does WD 40 fit in all of this? 😉

I guess Dave Allen's take on dog albitey is such that he was always guaranteed mere mortality. Shame, as one of the best comedians about. My kids watch him and keel over (laughing) every time...

Hmm.. control of the press.. more 1930s, or curren day Russian and Chinese beheaviour... Is this the beginning of the end of the "free" world? Ironic he isn't going after Fox, which has been successfully sued for promoting fake news in relation to Chump.

Chump is now extorting Harvard, by witholding funding unless it curbs political discourse. Columbia University already relented, but Harvard is standing firm at the moment. Chump is also curtailing the first amendment by trying to cut out publoc consutlation on laws. 1930s coming back now.

I traveled to Pittsburgh about a week after 9/11. When I was leaving, I presented my boaridng pass to the check in, which was the return leg to London. The check in clerk asked me for my onward ticket home. I was a little perlexed so I asked her if I needed to show a pre-booking for a taxi, or a train ticket or something.. She said, "No, sir. You have an Australian passport. We would like to see your ticket home." Dumbfounded, I responded, "I live in London.. Doesn't America allow temporary work visas?" She had to call her supervisor to validate it was OK to let me get on the plane. A couple of weeks later I had to go to San Francsisco (head office of the company I was working for). On the way out, as one passed through security, there were a bunch of home guard fellas dressed in their fatigues and wielding M-16s. Obviosuly, if someone was found to have a fork in their carry-omn, they were to have it confisgated, and I guess they were there to make it known if you try a runner, you aren't going to get very far without being shot. After I collected my laptop bag, I walked past them to the gift shops, many of which were selling pocket knives amongst other implements. The US has always been nuts when it comes to travel.

I have to admit, there are parts of London that do seem like a foreign country.. Especially in the South East. Muy niece's grandfather (from my sis lin law's side) is an English diplomat that has a hankering for foreign women.. seems apropo, I guess. So my sis in law's mum was, I think Lebanese, from the time he was based there. His second wife is African and up until recently, they lived in a suburb of SE London. I gave my niece a lift and when we got there, it was like crossing a border and driving into a different country. It really was an eye opened, and I know Melbourne had its enclaves, but this was something else. Having said that, like our cities, it is localised. Like many large cities in progressive countries, there is immigration. When I'm on the train from SW London to Walterloo, and on the tube, there sppears to be a decent mix of locals and immigrants. Same in the office. My team is a little heavier on immigrants, but two of those are Aussies...

When people allege the Brits are bigoted racists for voting Brexit, I point to this. If you look at all the electorates that voted Brexit, they were downtrodden. I was in a pub shortly after the vote talking to a small business owner that imports car parts from Germany and how he apologised for Britain being racist. I challenged him on it, and his response was, as per the press, that they were more worried about voting to boot out EU immigrants than to vote for their economic prosperity.. I explained that if he looked at where those votes cam from, they are already not enjoying the benefits of economic prosperity. All they see are the South East fat cats and European bureaucrats taking the prosperity while sending Eastern Europeans in to take their jobs. So, when they were sending their protest vote, they couldnt care about the economic outcomes, because it would affect them. Chumpism is the same thing. The red belt are poor states and poor people. Typically the least likely to be represented by the Republicans, but they see no hope from those that wold normally represent them. Yet, Biden presided over the best performing economy in relative terms - its just it wasn't shared. Reform (Farages party) are on track to becoming the main opposition ahead of the conservatives to the point the latter are starting to entertain talks with them merging. If Starmer and his team are not careful (and the article is framed in the savings his treasurer, Rachel Reeves has framed her Spring economic statement), Reform will probably assume power of the country one or two elections sooner than they planned. I thought it was ironic, after formally exiting the EU, the Home Office awarded a French company the contract to print British Passports, taking it away from a British company and sending them broke and their employees out of work.

Very Aston Martin-y, but I asked Chapt GPT to do concept sketches, and models of a sporty tourer with European lines but Aussie ruggedness. Heres what it did: And then the model: And, of course, right hand drive: And I like the two tone of the right hand drive much better... Not exactly what I was wanting, but not a bad effort for 1/2 hour... It even suggested a model name of Australis GT..

Here are some things you shoudl think about when voting: #

Youre both right.. To them, the number on their consolidated investments in whats important. Any primary concern of covering costs was long forgotten for them.

It's a state of mind. I was a project analyst on a what was then the worlds largest corporate bond issue at £76bn, to observe potential conduct risk scenarios to put in system to prevent it.. I got to know our deal lead very well and I was talking to him and asking what sort of comission he woudl earn. It was a tidy sum, and I said I oonly need to do that once and I would be happy. His response was that is why I will never make it as a deal originator - not greedy enough.

Actually, with the notable exception of Victoria, the conservative parties in the the US, Canada, NZ, Australia, and the UK are the ones who usually incur heaviest debt on a marginal basis. And even Dan Andrews is not that big on the scale of things but the problem is, Victoria has little head room for tax receipts beyond where they are now. What I can guarantee is that a nutcase party like Trumpets of Patriots would do far worse for the economy than any of the majors. Like Chump, they see tax breaks for the super rich as key to their plank, and of course, Clive will have uber low borrowing costs (AAA rating of the Aussie government) that would be funneled to his own private interests. If you for a minute think you will be better off under them, then you would really have to question your definition of being better off, which I would guess involves seeing others becoming worse off. If it were me today, assuming there is no stellar independent in my electorate and I wanted the best for the economy and social cohesion (including getting to a consumer bureau), ALP seems to be the more sane party, though I will admit that they are reducing themselves to cheap vote buying tactics as well.. Feeding the chooks is a time tried and tested method, it seems. Dutton just plays populist and the government he was part of previously has a horrid track record of economic mismanagement as well as open corruption, even before COVID struck. I would have put Greens up there, but they seem to have governance problems (as do the Libs).

He s one of my favourite musicians... This is may favourite song of his, but to be honest, most are so good, it is splitting hairs. Though, I can relate to this a bit from my consulting days where I travelled for months on end...

I find this fella usually has a balanced take on things:

Yeah.. but he is talking the chooks into thinking they will get ore feed than they actually will... From my perspective, most people are probably thinking too little too late for alleviating the cost of living increase; aka inflation.

I read that Albo is offering to increase the receipt free tax deduction from $300 to $1,000. Of course, unless it takes you below the tax free personal allowance, it is not a full $1,000 tax refund; it is proportional to the tax you pay. So, you will get back between c. $800 to $650 depending on your tax rate. Nothing to sneeze at. But, I cant help bet think Duttons petrol relief will mean more to more families.

There is a worldwide conservative movement: https://europeanconservative.com/articles/commentary/pan-conservativi-a-new-global-conservative-reality/ And of course, JP had attended their international conferences. At the moment, the movement seems to be centering around Chump. Hopefully, any wannabe MAGAmaniac in Australia (and the UK) sees beyond the hollow promises. Dutton has been distancing himself from JPs shenanigans, presumably because he sees it as a vote loser.

As my daughter says: KIA: killed in action

Canada also targeted imports from red states, albeit tariff based rather than banning them. But individual provinces removed US products from booze shops where the government controlled sales