old man emu

This video explains how the big US banks set up a system whereby they were the ones who produced the money that the Government needs for its functions, and how the banks worked it so the Government was forever in debt to the banks, despite the Government always paying the interest on the loans. It also explains what would happen if the Government paid off the national Debt. It is frightening information.

More like a Ponzi Scheme. A Ponzi scheme is a type of fraudulent investment scam that uses funds from new investors to pay returns to earlier investors, rather than generating profits from legitimate business activities. The scheme's collapse is inevitable because it relies on a continuous, unsustainable flow of new money, eventually leading to the system running out of funds.

I was just Yank bashing.

Reagan says in that speeech that the USA is unique in the world in that it accepts people from all over the world. Another example of the effects of American parochialism. At the very time he was saying this, in 1989, Australia accepted refugees from eastern bloc countries, Vietnam, Chile, Lebanon, Afghanistan, the Balkans, Somalia and Rwanda as well as Europe and North America.

Getting back to the original theme of this thread, we are facing a total collapse of our global civilisation simply due to the imminent collapse of the financial system. At the moment the global financial system is backed by a sort of promisory note called a Derivative. Jerry will correct me if I am misunderstanding what a derivative is used for. Basically money is loaned on a promise to repay it. The lender holds the record of the promise, but can use it to borrow money from a third party. The third party can then use the second party's promise to borrow from a fourth party. The problem arises if the first borrower fails to pay back the original loan. Then the original lender, who has become a borrower, cannot pay back what was borrowed from the third party, who can't pay back the fourth. The arrangement collapses. It has been estimated that currently the amount of money involved in these promises amounts to 600 trillion dollars - more money than actually exists in the global economy. And who thought up this wonderful financial scheme? Pretty sure you would fing the brilliant minds if you walked along Wall Street.

They ai't trash. They are good words of English heritage. Ain't: Originally a contraction of am not, and considered proper as such until in early 19c. it began to be also a generic contraction of are not, is not, has not, etc. This was popularized in representations of London cockney dialect in Dickens, etc., which led to the word being banished entirely from correct English. Trash: c. 1400, "fallen leaves, brush, and twigs used as kindling;" also "things of little use or value" collectively; "waste, refuse, dross; something broken or torn to bits, tattered garment;"

I see you've picked the eyes out of it.

What gets me is that anyone who has experienced getting a building built will have an idea of how long it takes. Trump doesn't even have the plans drawn up to submit for approval. Even if he charged ahead without approval, the building he wants probably couldn't be built in the time remaining of his presidency. He'll quit the White House leaving behind a building site, not a monument. And what will his succesor do? Tear down what has been built so far and replace it with a building more attuned to the architecture of the White House and West Wing? It is almost unthinkable that the next elected President might be a Republican.

Trump has just scored what is probably his greatest own goal of his political career. Speaking to the Press claiming to have the Economy under control, he said that he was tired of hearing the word "affordability". Then he followed it with the gaffe that will have to become the Democrats' campaign slogan for the next couple of years. He said, "I don't care about affordability." Go to the 3:00 timestamp to hear the words straight from the horse's mouth. Not that trump is ever going to take advice, but maybe he should note the words of an earlier Republican President

Oh my stars! Jerry has picked up a viral Americanism. Someone administer an OED, quickly!

Those billions and trillions aren't really money, like Scrooge McDuck's None of it could buy a 5 cent glass of lemonade from a kid's lemonade stand. This billions and trillions are fictitious. Just promisary illusions, like all money nowadays. There is nothing tangible backing up even a zac.

In someone's garage becasue it is a photo of a scale railroad layout.

Not so much cherry picking, but perhaps we who live outside Isreal are not getting all the facts. That's pretty typical of this day and age. Half truths served up with a dollop of bias.

The rules for traffic lights say that if it's amber, you must stop unless doing so would cause a collision to your rear. If you notice, when the light goes red to you, all traffic stops for about 3 seconds before any other light goes green. The way to escape Spacey's "one second in the red" is to always consider that a green light is 'stale' and could change to amber while you are within stopping distance. By the way, on a level road, typical of urban street, a stop with fully locked wheels from 60 kph takes about 16 metres, plus about 24 metres reaction time. I'll ignore ABS and call the 16 metres the worst case scenario. Thererefore, if you are within 40 metres of the stop line when the light changes to amber, you can continue on. Further than that, start stopping.

Yep. Have a look at the two hooks on the ends of the chains on the right hand side of the picture. You can see white if you look through them. The image is covering the background

Let's face it. The uptake of solar power generation has raced ahead of the upgrade of the transmission system. As we become more and more a 24/7, electricity-based society, we have to find a way to provide electricity overnight.

Are they associated with the routes trams take? Are they a means of making a righthand turn across tram line which are located in the centre of a roadway? In Sydney and Canberra there are right turn lanes beside the light rail tracks in the centre of the road. I suppose the hook turn had to be introduced after motor vehicles became more common and shared the road where existing tram tracks were.

Do you reckon that also applies to teh situation in Israel?

Isn't the "hook turn" only done in one intersection in Melbourne? I didn't think that it was done at any other intersection in Victoria.

I beleive teh interim measure is to smooth the peak. They haven't got to the stage of storing enought to feed the grid right now. (?)

My interpretation of is the free power is being given simply because teh Grid cannot handle the amount of electricity being generated by solar panels- YET. Given time, I think that the grid will be upgraded to handle what is produced, probably by the use of storage batteries.

Rudd was duty-bound to attend that meeting since he is Australia's ambassador to the USA, and he went as advisor to his "boss", the Prime Minister. Trump's comments were an insult to the Australian people, but one could not expect any better from that person.

I never understood the roundabout rules, and I was supposed to police them.

I'm stunned by the ferocity of the storms that have hit S E Queensland, Northeast NSW and around Sydney, the Hunter and Illawarra. And so early in the storm season as well.

The cuisine of a Region is the product of locally available ingredients experimented with over centuries. That is why the food of Europe and Asia is so varied. We in Australia initially inhierited the cuisine of Britain. After WWII we got an injection from Europe, but it was not a big dose. Then in the 1970s we copped American fast food, created with more to an eye on profitability than edibility. Then we got the Asian and Indian influx. So far none of these influences have melded to produce a distinctive Australian cuisine. We have even failed to develop food sources native to the country, except for macadamias.