Political discussion

[Swift]

America’s Clive Palmer will be the most likely result, walking out of interviews as the drop of a hat.

[rtt_rules]

America’s Clive Palmer will be the most likely result, walking out of interviews as the drop of a hat.

He cannot run for Pres and he needs to understand he has no people skills so should he start a new party he needs to not be the face of it.

People like Trump can only get so far on popularist policies before they come back to haunt them and people grow tied of their BS, Elon needs to find some geniune people without skeltons, who can hold a conversation, likeable, can talk straight without having to lie.

[rtt_rules]

Saw this in Quora

Iran’s Foreign Minister is in Moscow to be told what others have already learned. That a Defence Alliance with Russia means one of two things will happen:

1. Russia will attack you anyway.
2. Russia will do nothing to assist you while someone else attacks you.

I don't think they are wrong.

[rtt_rules]

Raise your hand (if brave enough) that you didn't see this coming, maybe time for Australia to walk away from AUKUS.

https://www.news.com.au/national/politi ... 501e61d1e9

Donald Trump’s review into AUKUS deal could send price of submarines soaring with a worrying new China clause
Australia could be forced to agree to a worrying new China clause and pay extra for its nuclear submarines as Trump’s review into the AUKUS deal gets messy.

Australia could face demands for a public declaration or private guarantee that US-made nuclear submarines would be used in concert with the United States in any future conflict with China.

As the Prime Minister prepares for a six-day tour of China on Saturday there are fresh reports that the Trump administration could demand new conditions for providing nuclear submarines to Australia including even more cash.

It follows the Prime Minister’s speech over the weekend affirming support for the US alliance but cautioning that Australia will always pursue its own interests first.

The move comes as both Australia and the UK face pressure from the White House to lift military spending, demands that the Albanese government has resisted to date.

But Australia is now facing the prospect of a Trump administration review demanding it pay more for submarines under the $368 billion AUKUS pact and a guarantee the boats support the US in a conflict over Taiwan.

‘Pissing everyone off’

The man US President Donald Trump deputised to call an investigation into Australia’s nuclear submarine deal is also “pissing everyone off”, according to a fresh report in the United States.

The Pentagon’s Deputy Under Secretary of Defence for Policy, Elbridge Colby is one of the biggest AUKUS sceptics who has raised concerns about the $363 billion deal.

[rtt_rules]

Hi
It would seem Trump has finally caught up with the rest of the world and publically acklnowledged is best mate Putin is a bigger BS artist than he is and back to supplying weapons such as Patriot self defence anti-missle system, with finacial support from the EU to fund the purchases.

So the war he said he would stop within 1 day of taking office, now approaching 6mth and all that has happened is acknowledging everyone else was right. Maybe next step is appoligising to Zelenskyy and we can back to business of looking for diplomatic, economic and military solutions to end this conflict.

Personal view is that its about time the west provides a "iron dome" / "no fly zone" over Ukraine territory currently under Ukrainian govt control to put an end to Putin's gutless approach of targetting civilans in return Ukraine will no longer attack or invade the Federation of Russia, which is not the occupied territories of Ukraine which includes Crimea unless missles are fired from Russian soil.

We all know (and now Trump) this war is going to be difficult to end as Putin needs to save face and appear to come out of top and its simply become yet another war of attrition. So fine, but stops the attacks against blantantly obvious civilian targets which is against the 4th Geneva convention for which Russia is a signitory, well was until it Putin pulled out of Protocol 1, the section referring to civilan targets in 2019 on the basis

Exceptional circumstances affect the interests of the Russian Federation and require urgent action. ... In the current international environment, the risks of abuse of the commission's powers for political purposes by unscrupulous states who act in bad faith have increased significantly.

So basically after 70 years, they suddenly decided this was under circumstances for which they determine maybe against their interests and reserve the right to withdraw. Many open minded Russians will tell you that if not for CV, Putin was planning to move against Ukraine sooner to provide a distraction against the issue of Putin's ongoing retention of President.

[MiCCROwavE_OVEN]

The US has never really shown much regard for international treaties.

An iron dome over Ukraine has been proposed before, if I'm not mistaken, but Russia has threatened that doing so would amount to an act of aggression and lead to all-out war. We don't have anyone like Winston Churchill at the helm at the moment, so the taking of any risks, even if just to protect Ukraine, is way out of reach.

I wonder whether Mutually Assured Destruction has simply become a reason to justify inaction regarding the violation of international human rights law.

[rtt_rules]

The US has never really shown much regard for international treaties.

An iron dome over Ukraine has been proposed before, if I'm not mistaken, but Russia has threatened that doing so would amount to an act of aggression and lead to all-out war. We don't have anyone like Winston Churchill at the helm at the moment, so the taking of any risks, even if just to protect Ukraine, is way out of reach.

I wonder whether Mutually Assured Destruction has simply become a reason to justify inaction regarding the violation of international human rights law.

Putin says alot of things, most of it BS. He opposed Israel going into Gaza, while quite happy to do the same thing without the same justification.

An iron dome is not an agressive move, its defensive and not one Russian consript solider would did as a result, he only says that because again, he speaks BS.

Agree, we need someone with a big pair to take charge. Trump certainly isn't it, UK and EU have nothing to offer and for now the one person with the biggest pair is Zelinskyy who has not asked for troops but asked for the weapons to do the job he needs to do.

Yup.

[Campbelltown busboy]

Why don't 2 term vice presidents get the auto nomination for the party in power when it comes to the US president. We would of got Biden v Trump in 2016 as Joe was the sitting vice president going into 2016 and Cheney wouldn't of had anyway of getting out of going against Obama in 2008 under the sitting 2 term VP auto pick for president system

[rtt_rules]

After the Berlin wall literally popped up over night, USA soliders were instructed to drive their jeeps and tanks up to and put their headlights against the wall and hold their positions with weapons drawn and on safety to demonstrate control and freedom of movement of West Germany and West Berlin but would not attempt to cross the wall. The East Germans/Russians military were told that the USA soliders will only shoot if fired upon, so its up to them, the East Germans / Russian choose not to die we had the temporay blockade of West Berlin that failed miserably and the stalemate continued for another 32 years.

[rtt_rules]

Why don't 2 term vice presidents get the auto nomination for the party in power when it comes to the US president. We would of got Biden v Trump in 2016 as Joe was the sitting vice president going into 2016 and Cheney wouldn't of had anyway of getting out of going against Obama in 2008 under the sitting 2 term VP auto pick for president system

The USA Presidential nomination electrol college process is the biggest drama queen pile of BS that was ever invented in the democratic world. The process involves public fighting amongst candidates of the same side to teh point your own party is looking at how to bad mouth you. The winner being the one with the least skeltons then is up against the other side. The convention nomination is the biggest back slapping excercise preaching to the converted.

Australia's political system has its faults, but we can change a PM with 1h notice and an election is done and dusted within 3 weeks of calling it or its schedule date.

However in short I agree with you but this would deny billions in TV coverage and TV rights, donation collection, merch sales etc.

[rtt_rules]

Fun Fact,
A number of people in Texas keeps raising their hand about succeeding from USA because "The great republic of Texas" is so good (lets not talk about how and why Texas joined the USA in the first place), should this occur the Republican movement in the USA would be dead as there wouldn't be a Republican President again.

Moral of the story, the Republicans will the ones stopping the Texas Republicans ever pushing for true independence.

[Swift]

Seceding is the word you were looking for.
WA has been talking about it for years and is also the largest state in the mainland, though most of it uninhabitable wasteland as a German backpacker experienced recently.

[Campbelltown busboy]

Why don't 2 term vice presidents get the auto nomination for the party in power when it comes to the US president. We would of got Biden v Trump in 2016 as Joe was the sitting vice president going into 2016 and Cheney wouldn't of had anyway of getting out of going against Obama in 2008 under the sitting 2 term VP auto pick for president system

The USA Presidential nomination electrol college process is the biggest drama queen pile of BS that was ever invented in the democratic world. The process involves public fighting amongst candidates of the same side to teh point your own party is looking at how to bad mouth you. The winner being the one with the least skeltons then is up against the other side. The convention nomination is the biggest back slapping excercise preaching to the converted.

Australia's political system has its faults, but we can change a PM with 1h notice and an election is done and dusted within 3 weeks of calling it or its schedule date.

However in short I agree with you but this would deny billions in TV coverage and TV rights, donation collection, merch sales etc.

I’m talking more about how the party of the sitting president selects a successor if the president does 2 terms why not skip the whole pre selection primary process and pick the sitting vice president by default this way the party of the sitting 2 term president has a booked in candidate without the party having to do the pre selection primaries

[rtt_rules]

The USA Presidential nomination electrol college process is the biggest drama queen pile of BS that was ever invented in the democratic world. The process involves public fighting amongst candidates of the same side to teh point your own party is looking at how to bad mouth you. The winner being the one with the least skeltons then is up against the other side. The convention nomination is the biggest back slapping excercise preaching to the converted.

Australia's political system has its faults, but we can change a PM with 1h notice and an election is done and dusted within 3 weeks of calling it or its schedule date.

However in short I agree with you but this would deny billions in TV coverage and TV rights, donation collection, merch sales etc.

I’m talking more about how the party of the sitting president selects a successor if the president does 2 terms why not skip the whole pre selection primary process and pick the sitting vice president by default this way the party of the sitting 2 term president has a booked in candidate without the party having to do the pre selection primaries

Yup, but see my last line in the previous post.

EDIT : I also think some would likely see this as non democratic, (despite the fact the USA isn't a consitutional democracy, but lets look past this for now). Its set up as a classic case of may the best person for the job win.

[Campbelltown busboy]

I’m talking more about how the party of the sitting president selects a successor if the president does 2 terms why not skip the whole pre selection primary process and pick the sitting vice president by default this way the party of the sitting 2 term president has a booked in candidate without the party having to do the pre selection primaries

Yup, but see my last line in the previous post.

EDIT : I also think some would likely see this as non democratic, (despite the fact the USA isn't a consitutional democracy, but lets look past this for now). Its set up as a classic case of may the best person for the job win.

And there’s no rule when it comes to what Al Gore did in 2000 while he was the sitting vice president and did Bill Clinton even know that Gore was using the 2 term limit rule to run for president before the media found out

[rtt_rules]

Yup, but see my last line in the previous post.

EDIT : I also think some would likely see this as non democratic, (despite the fact the USA isn't a consitutional democracy, but lets look past this for now). Its set up as a classic case of may the best person for the job win.

And there’s no rule when it comes to what Al Gore did in 2000 while he was the sitting vice president and did Bill Clinton even know that Gore was using the 2 term limit rule to run for president before the media found out

I think once the 2nd election is over and sworn in, the 2nd term sitting President assumes that the VP will more than likely run for President. However in most cases the opposition wins after a 2nd term sitting President so it probably matters little.

A quick check and I think George W is the only back to back same party President as the out going two termer since the rule came in shortly after WW2. George W only got in because California had yet to undergo the full switch from hard Rep to hard Demo due to a hard liner I think Governer on immigration which eventually back fired.

[rtt_rules]

Apparently we can thank Melania Trump for putting some commonsense into Donald's head with regards to Putin and we all thought they shared seperate beds because he preferred to watch videos and Stormy Daniels for some "me time".

However he gave Putin 50 days to resolve or face increased tariffs of up to 100%? I mean seriously, he cranks Chinese tariffs up with 1 days notice because Xi smiles the wrong way.

While Patriot defense missiles are being sent to Ukraine the downside and why they were not sent in great numbers before and Putin knows this, is that each Patriot missle costs up to 20 x the cost of the ultra cheap drones being sent into Ukraine by Russia. However if used to protect key infratstructure and senstive locations like power stations, subs stations and hospitals then worth it.

This is where the Star Wars type laser tech would be of great value and just burn them out of the sky.

[rtt_rules]

Trumps attacks and attempted corruption on his own supposed to be independent head of Central Bank / Fed Reserve continues.

According to Trump Powell's job is easy, "just lower interest rates".

Trump seems to forget that the head of any country's central bank is a reactive one, ie they react to how you manage the econoomy, not make poor choices to hide your poor choices. Case in point was when the Turkish President forced down interest rates at the start of this post CV inflationary cycle and the driving inflation through the roof and interest rates with it and in the process making Turkey almost unaffordable for the average income earner.

[Heihachi_73]

Victorian Government, circa 2015-2020: We're building some public housing stock.
Victorian Government, 2025: We're finally demolishing our life-expired (in 1980) Soviet-esque public housing towers and replacing them one-for-one with brand new apartment blocks containing a mix of market-rate rentals, social housing and a handful of public housing properties scattered at random across each apartment block at a fraction of the public housing stock which is to be demolished. Happy bidding JobSeekers, pensioners and multimillionaire property moguls!

[Heihachi_73]

YouTube lost its social media exemption and will now essentially be R18+ with a side of Refused Classification when the new social media law takes effect.

Hey Google, be useful for once and block Australia from your services out of protest, with any luck the Wikimedia Foundation will also follow suit along with Meta, X, Facebook, Instagram, Steam etc. Don't be evil like our government. We only get to vote for names, not policies that are hidden under the table until after the election has been won.

See also: Housing crisis, cost of living crisis, artificial scarcity of natural gas and selling off "scarce" gas reserves to their mates in America (with accompanying price hikes in Australia), child incarceration, illegal offshore detention, war crimes, extreme poverty in rural Australia (but we only hear about Africa/SE Asia/Middle East on the TV chugger ads), Centrelink benefits significantly below the poverty line, forced labour (Work for the Dole e.g. work for one sixth minimum wage but it's only illegal if you're a business, not the government), JobSeeker commitments which are rigged to fail if you are over 25 and/or have no recent job experience (e.g. 24/7 carer for a disabled person for 20 years = no job experience) or fail the numerous computerised personality/psychometric tests that weed out the bottom 95%, vetoing dental in Medicare every time it is brought up in parliament, the most expensive passports in the world, the most expensive mail/parcel service in the world, the almost entire lack of national mass transportation besides aircraft. Labor has just as much blood on its hands as the Liberals; both parties need to die a painful death by 2031 at the latest in order to righten the asre-up Titanic that Australia has become.

BTW, Labor now scores 5.5 out of 10 towards the right according to the Political Compass. That makes them officially a far-right party and no longer centre-right, which ends at 5.0. This was also the score before Albo won the election in May, long before the social media bill was announced (in 2022, Labor was a genuine centre-right party at 4.5).

https://www.politicalcompass.org/aus2025

Golf scores below. Par ±0 is centre.

Greens: 3.5/10 left; 3.5/10 libertarian; score -14
Labor: 5.5/10 right; 3/10 authoritarian; score +17
Liberals: 8/10 right; 7.5/10 authoritarian; score +31
One Nation: 7.5/10 right; 8.5/10 authoritarian; score +32
Nationals: 9/10 right; 8/10 authoritarian; score +34

Naturally, Trump's (Republican) golf score is even worse, with a +36; a double bogey on all eighteen holes.

[MiCCROwavE_OVEN]

Quite disappointing. I wonder whether this is a 'blanket ban, including on Youtube for Education' - if it is, that's plain stupid. Does this mean that we will all need to sign in to use YouTube in Australia?

I think we're beginning to see the cracks form in the democratic system (both here and overseas), but in the absence of a better alternative, having both Liberal and Labor parties collapse will only open Australia up to radicals (though I dislike both major parties, I don't see the Greens as any better, and don't get me started on One Nation) and we all know what happens when radicals are put in charge of a country...
(I am not talking about Trump by the way)

Historically I have not been a Coalition supporter, but if they do manage to rebuild by the time the next election swings round, they don't really have a high bar to set. It's a race to the bottom.

[Heihachi_73]

Yes, that is the point, the government is trying to push everyone onto MyGov to "dial up" to the internet. Conroy's Great Firewall Reef on steroids. Or North Korea, one of them. I think Albo is done for after this, his second term has been an order of magnitude worse (just like Trump, funny that), and even then he only won because Dutton and the Liberal Party in general have negative likability. We wanted Albo grease to get Australia back on track but ended up with an Albo in the stomach instead.

One Nation are just off-brand Liberals/Nationals at this point in time, their political placement is almost identical. The only one not in the picture is Palmer, but no-one in their right mind would vote for him. If Dutton is a Trump wannabe, Palmer was Trump himself.

Hopefully forums are so old-fashioned that they fall under the radar, Bus Australia/ATDB might even get more than two posts per day outside of the Lunch Room. Might even have to go back to the 1990s and join a few BBSes and IRC channels (the OG social media)! Time to drag the trusty old 486 out of storage.

[rtt_rules]

YouTube lost its social media exemption and will now essentially be R18+ with a side of Refused Classification when the new social media law takes effect.

Hey Google, be useful for once and block Australia from your services out of protest, with any luck the Wikimedia Foundation will also follow suit along with Meta, X, Facebook, Instagram, Steam etc. Don't be evil like our government. We only get to vote for names, not policies that are hidden under the table until after the election has been won.

See also: Housing crisis, cost of living crisis, artificial scarcity of natural gas and selling off "scarce" gas reserves to their mates in America (with accompanying price hikes in Australia), child incarceration, illegal offshore detention, war crimes, extreme poverty in rural Australia (but we only hear about Africa/SE Asia/Middle East on the TV chugger ads), Centrelink benefits significantly below the poverty line, forced labour (Work for the Dole e.g. work for one sixth minimum wage but it's only illegal if you're a business, not the government), JobSeeker commitments which are rigged to fail if you are over 25 and/or have no recent job experience (e.g. 24/7 carer for a disabled person for 20 years = no job experience) or fail the numerous computerised personality/psychometric tests that weed out the bottom 95%, vetoing dental in Medicare every time it is brought up in parliament, the most expensive passports in the world, the most expensive mail/parcel service in the world, the almost entire lack of national mass transportation besides aircraft. Labor has just as much blood on its hands as the Liberals; both parties need to die a painful death by 2031 at the latest in order to righten the asre-up Titanic that Australia has become.

BTW, Labor now scores 5.5 out of 10 towards the right according to the Political Compass. That makes them officially a far-right party and no longer centre-right, which ends at 5.0. This was also the score before Albo won the election in May, long before the social media bill was announced (in 2022, Labor was a genuine centre-right party at 4.5).

https://www.politicalcompass.org/aus2025

Golf scores below. Par ±0 is centre.

Greens: 3.5/10 left; 3.5/10 libertarian; score -14
Labor: 5.5/10 right; 3/10 authoritarian; score +17
Liberals: 8/10 right; 7.5/10 authoritarian; score +31
One Nation: 7.5/10 right; 8.5/10 authoritarian; score +32
Nationals: 9/10 right; 8/10 authoritarian; score +34

Naturally, Trump's (Republican) golf score is even worse, with a +36; a double bogey on all eighteen holes.

ALP is left of centre. The score calculation is rubbish however this maybe driven by the fact the LNP went to far right in the last election and many still see it as no change and some deadshiits complains after the election loss it wasn't right enough. This maybe driven by the fact the ALP is now using some former LNP policies to attract voters in the same way NSW LNP spent 12 years building and upgrading more PT than the rest of the country combined for the last 30 years, which is against the perceived sterotype and opposite of what many a state and Fed LNP govt has done over the last 50 years.

Youtube has content for all ages and in some cases you need to sign in to provide proof of age. It should be this simple.

If you are sticking your hand out for taxpayer assistance to put food on the table and a roof over your head and do not have legitimate reason not to donate up to 10 - 20h a week of your time to community improvement projects then you have two choices.
1. Get a job
2. Remove yourself from social security
Work for the dole is not about earning a wage and shouldn't be treated as such, thats what people with employment do, its about saying thankyou to those who are funding your lifestyle. Yes cost of transport to the site and other direct costs should be reimbursed, but thats it. Even thinking this is paid work is the wrong mentality. In a country basically semi-run by volunteers its actually rather selfish to think otherwise.

Agree, both parties are very much on the nose with the public and the Fed govt is looking like it will be a EU style collection of minor parties following the next election or 2030 election if things don't change soon.

Yes passport costs needs to be justified and they are not and there needs to be a means for the taxpayer to call an umpire to challenge the govt on this.

Mail costs are high because it costs the same to send from Sydney to Perth as it does Sydney to Parramatta. When we are ready to deal with this then things will change.

[rtt_rules]

Yes, that is the point, the government is trying to push everyone onto MyGov to "dial up" to the internet. Conroy's Great Firewall Reef on steroids. Or North Korea, one of them. I think Albo is done for after this, his second term has been an order of magnitude worse (just like Trump, funny that), and even then he only won because Dutton and the Liberal Party in general have negative likability. We wanted Albo grease to get Australia back on track but ended up with an Albo in the stomach instead.

One Nation are just off-brand Liberals/Nationals at this point in time, their political placement is almost identical. The only one not in the picture is Palmer, but no-one in their right mind would vote for him. If Dutton is a Trump wannabe, Palmer was Trump himself.

Hopefully forums are so old-fashioned that they fall under the radar, Bus Australia/ATDB might even get more than two posts per day outside of the Lunch Room. Might even have to go back to the 1990s and join a few BBSes and IRC channels (the OG social media)! Time to drag the trusty old 486 out of storage.

Australia is lagging in its move to online automation. There are a number of countries that no longer have govt front desks offices and the costly public servants to staff them because every govt service is on line.

I think Estonia over 6 years ago only had divorce as the one service left you need to front up in person due to the consequences of getting a divorce. Dubai / AD govts has been closing govt front offices and down sizing its formly fat public service for years now and moving everything to an app. 10 years ago it was rows and rows of workers in cubicals with long lines, now where you can find an office its one person on their phone with no one waiting.

I remember the painful days at Dubai, Brisbane and Sydney Airport going through passport control. Spending 1h in a line or more after a 14h flight, unbelievable and they wonder why passengers vet their rage at staff. Fortunately commonsense and technology has prevailed and now Dubai passport control is 30 - 60 sec and Australia similar for departures and arrivals a bit longer due to surges of passengers hitting the kiosks.

So bring it on.

[rtt_rules]

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/07/31/poli ... nstruction

Publically critises Powell over building construction going over budget using incorrect data but annouces spending $200 M on a "Grand Ball room" in a era when these high level politcal events are not as frequent as they used to be well until Trump.

in the early 20th century two Presidents, Wilson being one cancelled the whole thing as deemed them too much oppulance, but they crept back by the mid 1920's and then called "charity balls" during the 1930's depression years and 40's war years, then boomed again from the 50's.

Jimmy Carter cut the whole thing back nd charged no more than $25/ticket and stripped it back from the major glamour event it was becoming. Bill Clinton's reached peak inauguration balls at 14 events, where as GWB had 8 and 9 for each of his two terms.

Trump's balls charged millions for tickets and big companys were forced to pay and send a representative for fear of being deemed anti Trump and therefore not get support if and when they needed or rather public critism by Trump. Basically this is how the absolute monachy's of the Middle East work, the private sector covers alot of the govt and head of state costs through non-compulsory by quietly compulsory donations. Such as car dealers providing donation cars for the police force etc so they don't have to spend money buying the and if you don't, then good luck getting govt contracts and getting through govt red tape.

To help cover the cost of USA Presidential inauguration balls (not just Trump), the party gets donations from the groass roots support base, which includes Mr and Mrs Joe average. Could you imagine Australian voters donating money for a private party you are not invited to held solely to honour the incoming PM?