old man emu

I can just see it now. Former President Trump's funeral cortege rolls past cheering crowds. The irony would be lost on Americans.

Although I'm not getting any rain, I'm getting strong winds. It is strange. The wind seems to start about 10:30 pm and blows strongly until about 9:00 am the next morning. Then it weakens and goes calm for most of the day. When it is blowing, the wind speed is high enough to break limbs from trees.

Haven't you worked out the 'democracy' is another word for 'monarchy in other clothes'? It has always been this way, and will always be that way. Those in the society who do not have power or influence can never hope to direct the direction in which a society moves.

Fagin is a fictional character and the secondary antagonist in Charles Dickens's 1838 novel Oliver Twist. Originally depicted by Dickens as explicitly Jewish, in the preface to the novel, he is alleged to be a "crafty old Jew" and a fence. Fagin's character might be based on the criminal Ikey Solomon. His well-publicised crimes, escape from arrest, recapture and trial led to his transportation to the Australian penal colony of Van Diemen's Land. Solomon's life has been the subject of several works, including The Potato Factory by Bryce Courtenay, a historical novel that was made into a four-part miniseries that aired in Australia. Solomon died on 3 September 1850 and was buried the next day in the Jewish cemetery in Harrington Street, Hobart. Possibly the oldest Jewish cemetery in Australia, it was bulldozed in 2002

Don't forget Fagin.

Don't you think that saying all Muslims are bad is simply saying that one has been radicalised by anti-Muslim propaganda? What percentage of Muslims in this country are radicalised? Would the percentage be similar to the number of Whites who have been radicalised by White Supremist propaganda? I wonder what percentage of Australian-born Jews are ardent supported of what the Isreali government is doing. How about we start orrganising Christians to start in on Jews because their ancient leaders killed Christ, and also restart the war against the Moors like the Spaniards did until they expelled them in 1609. Those Moors were a bad lot. Just look at that bloke, Othello.

We should not abandon Gays.

It's still dry here. The other day I watched cloud move in and for a few minutes copped very strong winds and a downpour. At the end of those few minutes everything calmed down and the sky cleared.

I still think that the ambasador should NOT be a former politician. The ambassador should be a person who has the training, skills and experience in diplomacy that are required by an ambassador, especially considering the present climate in the USA.

This video is the sort of thing that we should fear from Generative AI. It purports to be a report by a well-known political broadcaster in the USA about immediate impeachment of Trump. Here's what is wrong with it: The video was posted on 15/1/2026. I says that things happened on Friday 9/1/2026 which would result in action being taken in the US House of Representatives in the week beginning 12/1/2026. What is published in this video if true would be earth-shattering and would be dominating news broadcasts. Since nothing like that has happened, then it is clear that the video is made up. Also the person who is allegedly presenting the material normally appears in person in any video. In other words, when you see her in a video, you can tell that you are looking at a real person.

Don't forget that the bridge is concrete structure, probably with steel reinforcing, and it is within a short distance from the sea. It could hace 'concrete cancer' which would reduce its load capacity. However, the loads on it only come from pedestrians, so they would be pretty insignificant. These bridges form part of the historic architecture of the beach precinct. They go along with the equally historic Bondi Pavillion.

I'm totally fed up with the carry-on in the aftermath of that horrible event. I'm sick of hearing how the circumstances of the event have been used to advance the agendas of interest groups. It's worse than the thread drift in some of th threads here. However, the thought of pulling down the bridges might be circumstantial to the shooting event. The article GON refers to contains this: The meeting’s agenda notes a structural report of the two footbridges at Bondi Beach which found them to be “nearing the end of their useful life and require replacement in the next few years”. That's a reference to material placed before the Council for its consideration for normal maintenance work. If a report had been prepared, it was most likely done earlier in the year, well befoe the shooting incident, and not related to it. What seems to be clear is that if the report found that the bridges were at the end of their useful life, then they need to be replaced so that pedestrians can safely cross the busy Campbell Parade to get to teh park and beach.

The problem here is that onetrack posted something from an American site without editing it to use Australian terms. Australia didn't have "military surplus stores". We called our "disposal stores". Thses stores seem to have gone the way of the Dodo. Any that exist seem to sell stuff "Made in China".

That seems to be correct. My info was from an early release. It appears that the organisation has offices in the USA.

This is the organisation Rudd is going to lead: https://asiasociety.org/australia

Like I said: I think that our next ambassador should be a career diplomat to see out the Trump years. Maybe the Dems will get the Presidency in 2028, but I don't see them developing a suitable candidate right now. At least in Australi we have some Party leaders who are beating drums and attracting attention to themselves (good or bad). The outlook for in the US for the next couple of years might see Vance take the 25th and stand in for Trump, but being operated by Trump's current puppet masters after Trump is set aside.

I didn't think that it would fit neatly into the several other thrads that have a political theme. I thought that if I made a new thread, the information would not get lost in one of the others. If this thread doesn't attract interest, it will soon die off, no sweat.

Prime Minister Albanese announced today that Kevin Rudd, Australia's Ambassador to the USA intends to stand down from that position. He is standing down twelve months before the end of an ambasador's normal term. Rudd has done a lot of very good work in Australia's relationship with the United States, but one cannot help but think that President Trump's personal attitude to Mr Rudd has been an inhibiting factor in Rudd's ability to carry out his duties on behalf of Australia. Mr Albanese has praised Mr Rudd for his efforts. There has not, at this stage, been any indication that Rudd's decision was in response to pressure from the Australian Government. I suppose one can only act with diplomacy for so long when eduring the personal attacks of a deranged person. Better to withdraw and keep one's respect than to advance on a fool. It is implied in the attached news report that the position of Ambassador will not be a 'job for the boys'. It might be filled by a career Pu8blic Servant who has the wide ranging skills needed to deal with international relations.

Christ's death was a organised by the religious leaders who saw him as a radical undermining their power over the people. The fact that his philosophy was taken up by the masses shows that the general public was in favour of him. I think it does one well to compare the process where Christ was disposed of with similar figures since that time. The usual flow is that those in power get upset by someone calling them out. Then the powerful start spreading untruth and instiling fear in the general populous. Eventually the populous becomes party to the destruction of the person.

A bloke on Sydney's Northern Beaches had an encounter with a shark over the weekend. He got off with a scatch to his hand. As I read the story in the newspaper, I learned that the attack had happened about 5:30 am. As soon as I read that I lost all empathy for the bloke. How bloody stupid to go surfing just before sunrise in waters he clearly knew were inhabited by sharks, and since he was an experienced surfer should have known that sharks most often feed around sunrise and sunset. Still, I suppose "Man escapes from shark attack" is a headline that sells more newsppaers than a headline saying " Man ignores knowledge of shark behaviour and survives".

I think that Netanyahu's actions have acted as a focal point for attacks against Jews in Australia. We have to remember that we of European descent have lived in an anti-Jewish culture since about 79AD when the Romans got heavy-handed with a rebellious provincial group. After Christianity became the common religion for Western Europe, the story that the Jews murdered Christ was fed to the unsophisticated populous. That created the anti-Jewish culture which became ingrained in Western societies. Now, when government of a Jewish country is going overboard in dealing with dissent within its borders, one method of protesting at that government's actions is to attack people who might practise a certain religion, bnut are not citizen's of the Jewish county. Are anti-Islamist attacks any different? Why aren't young Jewish people attacking mosques in our cities? Probably because they live by the standards of Western European societies and attacking places of worship is just not the done thing in those societies. If Netanyahu's government was not in power, and a moderate Party was, would the government initiated attacks on non-Jewish citizens still go on?

His videos are good to watch.

Add to those losses the losses from reduced number of tourists coming from everywhere else. Why would you risk being detained at an entry point because you posted something that was critical of Trump and his government?

There are more than enough recordings of the incident made by independent witnesses that any body-cam video would be redundant. The problem is that a Federal Authority is ignoring the sovereignty of a State, something that is unconstitutional. But we are talking about the Trump Federal Government.

There is no doubt that Australains who have not been directly impacted by the recent fire and flood situations are sympathetic to those who have. Merely say that the impacted are in our thoughts and prayers doesn't seem enough. What can we do? Many victims only have the clothes they stand up in. Should we send clothing? Nice thought, but impractical. I volunteer at a charity shop where we receive bags and bags of donated clothing. It is a daily battle to sort through these donations to classify them and prepare them for display for sale. Even when that is done, we have difficulty in storing them. If we wanted to dontate them, where would we send them, and how? Clothing is not the only thing that these victims need. Where's the bog rolls; the baby nappies, the female hygeine products, the incontinence pads? Did you ever think that these might be more important to some victims than a selection of clothing? The National Emergency Management Agency https://www.nema.gov.au/ is a Commonwealth agency whose goal is to lead and coordinate national action and assistance across the emergency management continuum. To do this the agency works with State and Federl entities, Charitable organisations and leaders of the Public Sector to get aid to victims of disasters in the immediate aftermath and later in the recovery period. The best way for individuals to give help is by donating money to funds properly set up through charitable organisations and the like where monetary donations can be lodge into accounts managed by the major banks. The warning that must be given about donating is to never donate following a request made via a communication medium. If you want to donate, it is best to walk into a bank yourself.