Discussion Random Discussion

[gringo2011]

ok. Seems people are fair game.

No only you. You're just pissed that George took you down in the tackle.

 

[Hubnester]

Just having a laugh mate, it's not a personal attack

 

[George]

ok. Seems people are fair game.

Get over yourself, I laughed at the effort he put into making it. I can still see deleted posts too you know. Jesus.

 

[plugger66]

Get over yourself, I laughed at the effort he put into making it. I can still see deleted posts too you know. Jesus.

Well I stand by that deleted post but I didn’t want an argument. If it came from someone who has had a laugh with me then completely different. Get over yourself. Great.

 

[George]

Well I stand by that deleted post but I didn’t want an argument. If it came from someone who has had a laugh with me then completely different. Get over yourself. Great.

Ok

 

[sunny3193]

Didn’t he get on your plane?

Thank heavens, no.
Heading west somewhere.
The guy was nuts.
Like a lot of them are.

 

[sunny3193]

Yes I know. I was more worried the moron would try to get on with a gun. Nothing shocks me about guns and Americans

It was 94.
Don’t know the rules then but pre 9/11 so who knows?

 

[Drake Huggins]

Cardboard box ?

Aye .

You were lucky .

We lived for three months in a brown paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six o'clock in the morning, clean the bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down mill for fourteen hours a day week in-week out. When we got home, our Dad would thrash us to sleep with his belt!

You were looky. We used to get up at ten o'clock at night, two hours before we went to bed. We'd then work 26 hours a day down Mill, and when we got home our dad would coot us in arf Wi' bread knife and dance halleluhjah on our grave. And you tell the yoong folk o' that today and they won't believe you.
Don’t Panic !!

 

[StFly]

It was 94.
Don’t know the rules then but pre 9/11 so who knows?

LAX

Poignant and topical.

 

[CanadianSaint]

Canada is, and always will be, the designated driver for North America.
I was in Detroit one time, waiting for my connection to Toronto.
Bar, lonely travellers.
This guy hears my accent and starts ups conversation.
During which he:
Produces his copy of the Constitution and Amendments, with the Second highlighted.
Shakes with zealous fervour when talking about that Amendment.
Praises the NRA
And tells me he’s also heading to Canada to revitalise one of your lakes for the bird life.
So he can shoot the shit out of them.
Never so happy to get on a plane in my life!!

I know the feeling Sunny. I was teaching a sculpture course in the USA, Seattle, a beautiful location on the side of a mountain. Had a chat one night with three of my students, two of which were hunters, but it was the third that was interesting. A lady in her late sixties who insisted that she had a 45 magnum under her bed. When I asked why, she said "self defence". Further inquiry made me realize that the reason she had the gun was because she wanted the biggest stick. I asked "what if the criminals only had access to a baseball bat, would you still want a gun. "yeap. the biggest one I can have"...

Theres no arguing with that! Oh and guess were she lived... Orange County, on the beach. Crazy!!!!!

 

[sunny3193]

I know the feeling Sunny. I was teaching a sculpture course in the USA, Seattle, a beautiful location on the side of a mountain. Had a chat one night with three of my students, two of which were hunters, but it was the third that was interesting. A lady in her late sixties who insisted that she had a 45 magnum under her bed. When I asked why, she said "self defence". Further inquiry made me realize that the reason she had the gun was because she wanted the biggest stick. I asked "what if the criminals only had access to a baseball bat, would you still want a gun. "yeap. the biggest one I can have"...

Theres no arguing with that! Oh and guess were she lived... Orange County, on the beach. Crazy!!!!!

Yep: as we don’t understand them, they don’t understand us.
Great article by Peter Hartcher in the Fairfax press a year or so ago.
The statement I remember was something along the lines of the two countries being 80% identical and 20% different.
But that 20% (universal healthcare, gun restrictions, compulsory voting, acceptance of a government role in society, greater egalitarianism) is incredibly different.
To the extent that the two countries are bound, and separated, by the language.

 

[gringo2011]

Yep: as we don’t understand them, they don’t understand us.
Great article by Peter Hartcher in the Fairfax press a year or so ago.
The statement I remember was something along the lines of the two countries being 80% identical and 20% different.
But that 20% (universal healthcare, gun restrictions, compulsory voting, acceptance of a government role in society, greater egalitarianism) is incredibly different.
To the extent that the two countries are bound, and separated, by the language.

I think one of the really interesting things is how far the US has wobbled from it's axis since the end of communism. The yin and yang seem to have broken with out the other. The US was a land of freedoms once, they would hold their freedom up as a beacon of fairness and show how commies spied on their people, they would tut tut at the press being limited and the peoples rights to protest being taken away. Now they have all the same afflictions and have stopped worrying about lower social divide as a way to convince people of their superior morality. They need to find a way to make the system fairer or they will end up with more and more issues.

 

[sunny3193]

I think one of the really interesting things is how far the US has wobbled from it's axis since the end of communism. The yin and yang seem to have broken with out the other. The US was a land of freedoms once, they would hold their freedom up as a beacon of fairness and show how commies spied on their people, they would tut tut at the press being limited and the peoples rights to protest being taken away. Now they have all the same afflictions and have stopped worrying about lower social divide as a way to convince people of their superior morality. They need to find a way to make the system fairer or they will end up with more and more issues.

I’ve just had over ten days with two Trump acolytes.
Good luck trying to break that bubble.
Their country is far*ked.
Wait until they all start shooting at each other.
Popcorn and Soda will be available at the counter beforehand.

Cohen never said a truer word when he expressed his worry about what would happen if Trump ever loses an election.....

PS: you gonna thank me for all the likes I got you with the suggestion about cars and clubs? Just put you in to Super Poster Category “Club GOP”.

 

[StFly]

There's a thing to be said about enshrining something as fact and true, if someone wholeheartedly agrees and holds onto that truth, you have literally no recourse to say "you are wrong" or "it's changed" without the backing of force to actually enforce it.

When there is a buy in, as there is considering the USA is less states under a nation then they are states in agreement with each other and a central branch.

Because you will always have people seeking the truth, you will always have people hiding the truth, you will always have extreme on either end with the majority being in the middle. If this involves having the right to defend oneself and allowing one to bear arms; you will have individuals who rely on the self, individuals who use martial weaponry, individuals who use just enough force to end a threat all the way to people who want a tank to feel secure and inflict as much localised damage as possible.

Subsequently when you then run into the unhinged, or instances where lines are blurred and action is required, you end with escalation 9 times out of 10.

I said it before but Trump becoming president was fear rising to the front. Keep out, build walls, degrade others, sure up the self, spout what you need to, to appear great even if the majority of it is simply confident bullshit. It is confident so it will become truth and your fear will be justified.

 

[Mowman]

Watching AFL 360 I love Eddie Betts

 

[Yawkey way]

You

I’ve just had over ten days with two Trump acolytes.
Good luck trying to break that bubble.
Their country is far*ked.
Wait until they all start shooting at each other.
Popcorn and Soda will be available at the counter beforehand.

Cohen never said a truer word when he expressed his worry about what would happen if Trump ever loses an election.....

PS: you gonna thank me for all the likes I got you with the suggestion about cars and clubs? Just put you in to Super Poster Category “Club GOP”.

I don’t believe that for one second, if trump looses and it’s a massive if at this stage I expect it will be business as usual.

I keep seeing and hearing people trying to paint trump supporters as violent extremists when in fact it was Smollett trying to incite racial violence with his bizarre behaviour in Chicago. I also saw the lunatic punching the conservative in the face at UC Berkeley. Stacey Abrams refusing to concede in Georgia with Gillum muttering similar nonsense down in Florida. I would say on the weight of evidence it’s the left who have behaved in an appalling manner since trumps election and continue to do so.

Michael Cohen, would that be the convicted tax fraud and liar who faces possible perjury charges for his latest testimony. The same guy who would say and do just about anything including to offer up more dirt if the Democrats will help keep him out of jail. What’s next Michael Avenatti for president, oh that’s right we’ve already seen him fawned over with how many appearances on CNN etc.

The US has plenty of people who are passionate about their beliefs but predicting some kind of armed uprising is a stretch to far IMO. You’re absolutely spot on though in your view that we don’t understand them and they don’t understand us. My daughter who is a liberal voter has been blocked on Facebook and re- added on more than one occasion by one of my right wing cousins. We just laugh but what makes it really funny is he fires up over things that are fairly universally accepted here by both sides of politics.

I can’t say anyone currently in the race for the democratic nomination excites me at all, if their not careful I think trump will win convincingly.

 

[SaintsSeptember]

I know the feeling Sunny. I was teaching a sculpture course in the USA, Seattle, a beautiful location on the side of a mountain. Had a chat one night with three of my students, two of which were hunters, but it was the third that was interesting. A lady in her late sixties who insisted that she had a 45 magnum under her bed. When I asked why, she said "self defence". Further inquiry made me realize that the reason she had the gun was because she wanted the biggest stick. I asked "what if the criminals only had access to a baseball bat, would you still want a gun. "yeap. the biggest one I can have"...

Theres no arguing with that! Oh and guess were she lived... Orange County, on the beach. Crazy!!!!!

Unfortunately there is very little argument with it.
There were never a lot of guns in Australia, and its very unlikely a gun amnesty/buy back in the USA would have an affect.
If you tried it in the USA only the most law abiding citizens would hand their guns in.
Not sure they would even be able to pay to buy them all back.

 

[SaintsSeptember]

People are pretty quick to paint black and white pictures when its all shades of grey.
Trump has a suspect personality, but some of the things he's doing wash well with the citizens.
People who make action movies probably don't give a rats about whether there are cars built in the USA or not ( they'll probably go for the Porsche anyway ).
People who work in car assembly plants like the idea.

 

[sunny3193]

You


I don’t believe that for one second, if trump looses and it’s a massive if at this stage I expect it will be business as usual.

I keep seeing and hearing people trying to paint trump supporters as violent extremists when in fact it was Smollett trying to incite racial violence with his bizarre behaviour in Chicago. I also saw the lunatic punching the conservative in the face at UC Berkeley. Stacey Abrams refusing to concede in Georgia with Gillum muttering similar nonsense down in Florida. I would say on the weight of evidence it’s the left who have behaved in an appalling manner since trumps election and continue to do so.

Michael Cohen, would that be the convicted tax fraud and liar who faces possible perjury charges for his latest testimony. The same guy who would say and do just about anything including to offer up more dirt if the Democrats will help keep him out of jail. What’s next Michael Avenatti for president, oh that’s right we’ve already seen him fawned over with how many appearances on CNN etc.

The US has plenty of people who are passionate about their beliefs but predicting some kind of armed uprising is a stretch to far IMO. You’re absolutely spot on though in your view that we don’t understand them and they don’t understand us. My daughter who is a liberal voter has been blocked on Facebook and re- added on more than one occasion by one of my right wing cousins. We just laugh but what makes it really funny is he fires up over things that are fairly universally accepted here by both sides of politics.

I can’t say anyone currently in the race for the democratic nomination excites me at all, if their not careful I think trump will win convincingly.

Trump is an outlier.
I have been listening to people for the better part of four years telling me he will change.
I have been telling people for the better part of four years that he won’t and what you see is what you get.
So far, I’m right.
And not likely to be wrong anytime soon.
He will respect the will of the people, just as he promised to respect the will of the people in 2016: as long as he won....
You, like everyone else I’ve had this discussion with, do not appear prepared to accept that Trump has stretched conventions and norms continually since being appointed.
And will continue to do so.
This is simply the mark of the man.
You cannot discount Cohen’s testimony on the basis of his criminal convictions. Given that Individual #1 is also an unindicted co-conspirator.
Nor can you do so on the basis of his conviction for lying to Congress.
The testimony provided in February was subject to the same criteria upon which his first testimony was found to be criminal. No one has charged him with lying during his second effort. Perhaps difficult with his documentary evidence.
Nor can you discount Cohen’s commentary on the basis of his general shady behaviour, given he had a decade relationship as Trump’s attorney.
And taped Trump discussing said behaviour.
($150k hush money to a pr0n star).

If Cohen is a liar and a convicted criminal, and if that is your criticism of him, then the criticism equally applies to Trump. Just that Trump is unindicted.

The politics of Trump is not the issue.
Rather it is the trampling of norms and conventions, and the damage that inflicts on the body politic, and the nation as a whole.
That simply provides the excuse for similar behaviour from the other side.
(We saw that behaviour with the Liberal sham pairing in the Legislative Council and the Labor document dump payback in the last State election).

So: when Trump pays hush money to pr0n stars, and lies about it, or claims to have the best words, or know the most about (almost) any topic, or that he is a very stable genius and that he went to the best schools (but will litigate to prevent publication of his grades), or had four deferments from conscription (three due to college and one due to bone spurs in his ankles) but can criticise an opponent for not being a hero because they were a POW for five years, or who lies about his address to the Boy Scout Association of America, or claims the biggest electoral college win ever, or that 3 million votes were illegal, or won’t release his tax returns, or claims a crisis at the southern border that demands executive action under Emergency Powers yet takes two and a bit years to act on the crisis, or who ignores the Article 1 power of Congress, or who shuts down the government for 35 days, or who calls women “dog” or “horseface”, or his opponents “rats” and “traitors”, or has spent two years debasing the national legal institutions yet those institutions still eventually issue a report apparently in his favour, or I could go on and on and on because there is just so much of this stuff.

That’s not even touching Russia or all the criminal investigations into his businesses, his inauguration committee, his family trust.

My point being: all that behaviour simply provides an excuse for successors to behave in the same way. The precedent has been set they will argue.

And none of it, the behaviour of either Trump or his successors, will be in the best interests of the country.

But with respect to your specific observations:

Maureen Dowd from the NYT also didn’t believe he would lose when she was here last year. Given she has known Trump for thirty years, I’d take that observation keenly. She may have changed her mind.
Given the vagaries of the US electoral system (electoral college x non compulsory voting x 50 state systems x quality of opponent x voter suppression), who would know?
But given the Dems choose someone at least better than Clinton, the odds would not be in his favour.

I don’t know if Trump supporters are more violent than Trump opponents, or vice versa.
You well know it is a much more violent society than Australia.
But for each of the examples you’ve offered, I am sure there would be examples I could find that demonstrate the opposite.

With respect to both Abrams and Gillum; they were both exercising their legal rights. Not unexpectedly, given both the closeness of the contests. And particularly so in the case of Abrams given the demonstrated, and subsequently judged illegal, voter suppression activities of the Georgia Secretary of State. Who just happened to be her gubernatorial opponent.
Nor it must be said unexpected, given the vote rigging undertaken by the Republican candidate in NC9 last November.

Avenatti is a dick.
Just so happens he is a dick who exposed Trump and led him to being named as Individual #1 and as an unindicted co-conspirator with Cohen.

With respect to the current Democratic contenders: too early to say.
Sanders/Biden; no thanks.
Warren/Gillibrand/Harris/Globuchar/Gardner; not really.
Others; no.
O’Rourke: lightweight.

I’d keep an eye on Buttigieg.
He is intelligent, ex-military, Christian, moral and from the Midwest.
A candidate well placed to heal the country, and perhaps reverse the trampling of norms and conventions. Which is what the country desperately needs.
Just don’t know if the country is ready for an openly gay President just yet.

As you can tell from the above, I’m quite familiar with the States.
I’ve had the pleasure of living there twice.
A great country.
Love it.
But all too aware of it’s faults.
My observations above are driven by a cynicism born from being an old fart who has seen too much malpractice and spin over his journey.

But back to Trump: over the last four years I have seen his behaviour become ever more extreme. There is nothing there that tells me he will modify that trend going forward. And that’s why I don’t discount Cohen.

PS: wrt to my friends. They do live in a Trump bubble. If I had pierced that, the friendship would be over. Not something I am prepared to do after 25 years and great times. After all, it is their country, not mine.

 

[BigPowerForward]

Crusty old bastard rant # 2

-Disabled car spots are for disabled people. Unless you have a permit don't park there or you are just proving to the world that you self entitled prick.
-If you go to the canteen at a local football game don't get annoyed when they don't have soy milk for your latte. Save all your anger for your local barista. They probably dislike you anyway, so tee off on them.
-If you are paying for petrol, and your car is still parked at the petrol bowser, don't be suprised by the verbal barrage you receive because you spent 10 minutes inside the store looking at the specials.
And finally..... No, I don't want any ****en 1/2 price chocolates with my petrol purchase!

 

[StFly]

I will also add to mine.

I. Hate.Motorcyclists.

I can do SFA when 2 lanes of traffic are doing anywhere between stopping, accelerating to 80 in the space of a metre then shitting themselves at people doing the exact same and slamming breaks. You being a right twat sitting in my blind spot for 20km revving your pissant little moped does nothing if one of those bastards screw the pooch and evasive actions need to be had. All it does is screw you over for being the right twat sitting in my blind spot on your pissant moped.

I would congratulate you for the eventual ditching of the practice, but then going 120 in an 80 zone is not cricket, so I sincerely hope a roo took a liking to you co0nsidering the zone we were in you right twat.

 

[SaintsSeptember]

I will also add to mine.

I. Hate.Motorcyclists.

I can do SFA when 2 lanes of traffic are doing anywhere between stopping, accelerating to 80 in the space of a metre then shitting themselves at people doing the exact same and slamming breaks. You being a right twat sitting in my blind spot for 20km revving your pissant little moped does nothing if one of those bastards screw the pooch and evasive actions need to be had. All it does is screw you over for being the right twat sitting in my blind spot on your pissant moped.

I would congratulate you for the eventual ditching of the practice, but then going 120 in an 80 zone is not cricket, so I sincerely hope a roo took a liking to you co0nsidering the zone we were in you right twat.

The slow ones get to drive past you now and wobble in front of you when the lights change. Did the dumbass politicians in all their overseas trips really think that the peakhour traffic in Kuala Lumpur was better than what we had, and try to make us more like them. Now they are advertising scooter taxi's. That's right if the new gogomobile only gets 3 stars because it doesn't bing at you when the passenger seat belt is off or steer itself round corners its a major issue and you should never ever buy one. But its OK to ride around completely unprotected.
And are the traffic cops really too chicken to slap a noise infringement on EVERY Harley?

 

[CursingFijian]

You


I don’t believe that for one second, if trump looses and it’s a massive if at this stage I expect it will be business as usual.

I keep seeing and hearing people trying to paint trump supporters as violent extremists when in fact it was Smollett trying to incite racial violence with his bizarre behaviour in Chicago. I also saw the lunatic punching the conservative in the face at UC Berkeley. Stacey Abrams refusing to concede in Georgia with Gillum muttering similar nonsense down in Florida. I would say on the weight of evidence it’s the left who have behaved in an appalling manner since trumps election and continue to do so.

Michael Cohen, would that be the convicted tax fraud and liar who faces possible perjury charges for his latest testimony. The same guy who would say and do just about anything including to offer up more dirt if the Democrats will help keep him out of jail. What’s next Michael Avenatti for president, oh that’s right we’ve already seen him fawned over with how many appearances on CNN etc.

The US has plenty of people who are passionate about their beliefs but predicting some kind of armed uprising is a stretch to far IMO. You’re absolutely spot on though in your view that we don’t understand them and they don’t understand us. My daughter who is a liberal voter has been blocked on Facebook and re- added on more than one occasion by one of my right wing cousins. We just laugh but what makes it really funny is he fires up over things that are fairly universally accepted here by both sides of politics.

I can’t say anyone currently in the race for the democratic nomination excites me at all, if their not careful I think trump will win convincingly.

Bernie?

 

[gringo2011]

Bernie?

Ocasio-Cortez looks like a moderate in Australia but looks like Mao to Americans. She's a good politician and would get a heap of youth vote.


Beto O'Rourke seems to have lost some gloss but both are good at the media show which is half the battle there.

 

[Yawkey way]

Ocasio-Cortez looks like a moderate in Australia but looks like Mao to Americans. She's a good politician and would get a heap of youth vote.


Beto O'Rourke seems to have lost some gloss but both are good at the media show which is half the battle there.

Look a bit deeper, she’s an idiot who would make a good green candidate here or perhaps a local councillor.