nigel99

In my wildest dreams I could never have imagined a first world country losing the rule of law so quickly. I would have estimated 10-20 years if you had asked me. What is scary is that we are right behind you, the leader of our opposition has been nicknamed Temu Trump.

Jan 6 rioter shot by police Not sure if this counts, but being pardoned and then shot dead by police a week later sucks. Not that I feel sorry for him.

This is incredible considering the mythology behind goats in Christianity.

Completely agree with you on the danger, and don’t agree with him. By the way, you have to vote in Australia or you get fined. Initially I hated the concept, but it does mean that voter turnout out is very high.

The White House removed the Spanish language version on the Whitehouse website and initially the link for page not found had a button that said “Go Home” , although that has since been changed. https://apnews.com/article/trump-white-house-spanish-language-website-62224890c5b05c8ce0878358ba4a5266 A friend of mine works for the CDC and has been posting a lot about the sustained and aggressive attack on the CDC and science community, undoing decades of progress. At face value itself seems that Trump 2.0 has learned a valuable lesson from their first term. Go hard and fast and take as much ground as possible, don’t negotiate. Then even if you lose some ground, you’ve moved the line. Seems like Trump and Co have been getting private tuition lessons from Putin.

Yesterday I asked about getting more involved politically. I caught up with a friend who is very politically active and we always have interesting discussions, despite him being a hardcore Trump/Elon advocate and believing Trump is uncorrupted by political power. We both agree the political system is broken (here in Australia). His view is that to enact change we must all vote for the extreme far right to break the stranglehold of the two main parties and that the extreme right ‘will never win’. I wonder if the next 4 years is going to show that the extremists are able to beat the checks and balances in the US, or if they are able to successfully overcome them? It’s good that the judge has placed a hold, I hope it stays.

Absolutely not. But a few things I have learned over the years. You can’t trust what the media/politicians say that the intelligence services said. Every time I’ve read the actual report that gets made available it’s been spun heavily (WMD in Iraq report by Dr David Kelly in the Uk). Also, Colin Powell/George Bush with WMD. The intelligence community is largely non partisan, but can have a well meaning but distorted and overly patriotic view of the world. All countries interfere or at least attempt to in other countries affairs. It’s for the good of the people when US/UK interfere in Russia or Iraq but bad when they do it to us. The vast majority of politicians are self serving and corrupt to some extent, very few are actually ‘public servants’. Many politicians families financially benefit from their family connections, it may be legal but questionable morally. When Trumps lips move he’s lying. Secondly, Trump is vindictive and motivated by hatred and self serving agenda and there is no morality or concern for ‘the people’ in any of his actions.

Early morning typing on my phone

Thanks I will look into that. The Economist if probably US centric though Unfortunately the party that I like isn’t fielding candidates in my area. It’s run by a great medical doctor and he challenges the status quo. I’ve caught up with him one on one a few times now.

Debate and disagreement is definitely a dying skill. I’m tired and grumpy from kids being up till 2am screaming at each other To bring it closer to home you only need to look at discussions in SC from 20 years ago and how there was heated debate, but still substance. It probably gradually declined rather than fell off a cliff, but the last couple of years there was not much debate as people shouting their viewpoints.

Thanks I’ll be watch it. I really don’t like religion, but honestly one of the benefits is community spirit. Covid and working from home hasn’t helped either. I mostly work from home and only recently realised how little I leave the house and socialise these days.

Thanks Keith, I appreciate your reply. I agree the US seems insanely divided by extremism on both sides.

I’ve only ever voted once and to be honest I didn’t research or engage politically. With what has happened in the US I plan on being far more proactive for the upcoming Aus elections. This may be a stupid question, but how do you get information that isn’t the standard boilerplate from your local representatives? This is a list of the issues that are pertinent to me. Trump and global politics DV and child protection Big business influence on policy Mandatory vaccines Pub bans Age of consent Politicians retirement (Mark McGowan) Mental health support for men Drug policy Traffic policy Housing and rental crisis Quick explanation of why these are important to me. Global politics, my son is in the military and the US has strategic resources here. DV and child protection because I’ve been a victim and also had to care for abused kids. I had nothing against Covid vax but objected to the mandatory nature. They introduced draconian laws with state wide bans at all places that serve alcohol for offences at the discretion of the police (friend got banned for 6 months for being drunk and getting angry she wasn’t allowed to get her purse and jacket before going home). Age of consent is mixed up, you can have sex at 16 but only sext at 18. My son is on sex offenders register for 15 years for sexting his 16 year old girlfriend at 18.

I’m curious what you think about this next phase of the US? I can’t remember if you supported Trumps policies or not (from memory you were abstaining).

https://web.archive.org/web/20250116043851/https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/our-government/the-constitution/ They have removed the constitution from the White House website. The link provided is to the archived page.

I agree with you. Did he ever reply to your DM ?

Well it seems Trump has come onboard swinging it looks like a wild ride. 1. Jan 6 ‘hostages’ pardoned including the known violent cases. 2. Security clearances pulled for the officials on the Hunter Biden laptop case who dissented. 3. Crypto currency grift couple of days before inauguration 4. Elon’s Nazi salutes at the inauguration

Seems like it.

Someone I worked with went to Uni with a Nigerian who qualified as a software engineer. Everyone else got jobs apparently, but this guy wasn’t even getting interviews. The guy changed his legal name to Bill Gates and was employed soon afterwards. Of course, I’m sure there is a novelty factor in being able to say Bill Gates is one of your software engineers, but the only thing that changed was his name.

I’m not bothered by the towers. Uk had some interesting research into high voltage powerlines and they found that for some reason Radon gas accumulates at higher than normal densities under the lines. I’ve long since lost track of the research but there were some interesting findings that at certain frequencies at extremely low power levels the ion gates in cells are influenced and normal cell functions are impacted. That’s not to say they found a direct negative health effect. The old TDMA systems were interesting, there were times I could audibly hear the TDMA pulses (not from radio interference). Could be dodgy old fillings.

It’s been good thanks

I think our resident prof has mellowed over the years. 15-20 years ago he used to be a lot more vocal if memory serves correctly.

Every night in my dreams I see you, I feel you That is how I know you go on Far across the distance And spaces between us You have come to show you go on Near, far, wherever you are I believe that the heart does go on Once more, you open the door And you're here in my heart And my heart will go on and on Love can touch us one time And last for a lifetime And never let go 'til we're gone Love was when I loved you One true time I'd hold to In my life, we'll always go on Near, far, wherever you are I believe that the heart does go on (why does the heart go on?) Once more, you open the door And you're here in my heart And my heart will go on and on You're here, there's nothing I fear And I know that my heart will go on We'll stay forever this way You are safe in my heart and My heart will go on and on Titanic - Celine Dion

Interesting, was obviously a bigger thing than I realised

I used to have a screenshot from way back I put in directions to go from North Perth to South of the River (about 30 miles away) and google maps gave directions to the nearest boat ramp, said kayak to Hawaii and back and then finished the journey. I’m guessing either I hit a bit of test code, an irate employee who was about to be fired or just an Easter egg. BTW: As the clock ticks down towards the end, every post seems to be the ultimate game of “in before the lock” from the time that was a trend here