16 minutes ago, Grr-owl said:

No. The culture is fundamentally not western. I reckon that case could be made creditably made in relation to most of Italy and Spain and Portugal, too, even though they are Catholic. One of the major reasons that Europe will fail, but I don’t want to go into that.

I’ll take the Souvlaki, though...

Souvlaki muncher! Washed down with Retsina, no doubt. ( Retsina is proof that Greeks lost all contact with civilisation a long time ago.?????)

3 hours ago, Grr-owl said:

  

To argue that life in the USSR was better than life in the West over the equivalent period is just absurd.

I don't believe I've ever argued that; I'm pointing out that Mr.Sols saw through the bulldust of the West pretty quickly. When he 'defected' he was under the illusion he had entered Utopia. He soon saw Utopia was mainly Hollywood bullsh..t. And, have a good look at the USA: Disneyland for the rich and white and privileged, in essence, a Lunatic Asylum run by gun-bearing lunatics.

9 hours ago, dieter said:

I don't believe I've ever argued that; I'm pointing out that Mr.Sols saw through the bulldust of the West pretty quickly. When he 'defected' he was under the illusion he had entered Utopia. He soon saw Utopia was mainly Hollywood bullsh..t. And, have a good look at the USA: Disneyland for the rich and white and privileged, in essence, a Lunatic Asylum run by gun-bearing lunatics.

A bit harsh, don’t you think?

The jungle drums are beating that President Trump may be pardoning Julian Assange.   Not that he should need  a pardon since hes done nothing wrong.

It is one of the great injustices that he is rotting in a jail cell.

Edited December 16, 20204 yr by Pickett2Jackson

 Something big is brewing.

 

On 12/16/2020 at 5:08 AM, Grr-owl said:

A bit harsh, don’t you think?

Maybe, maybe not...

1 hour ago, Pickett2Jackson said:

 Something big is brewing.

 

Donald is a teetotaler. He brews nothing. If you are alluding to the possibility of brewing in the area which is meant to contain brain cells, well, he knocked and there was nobody home. That's why he always talks gibberish and everything associated with anything he's ever done is the greatest in history. 

He sure is talented, got to give you that. Why he is talented enough to have invented a US Air Force during the War of Independence.

Voter fraud now officially confirmed in US elections.

On 12/20/2020 at 4:07 PM, Pickett2Jackson said:

 Something big is brewing.

 

This one's for you and Dante:

 

Today's Crikey:

How could 71 million Americans vote for a bozo? Here’s what you need to understand… BY: PRUE CLARKE Yes nearly 71 million Americans voted for the vulgar conman, but Joe Biden nevertheless handed him an outstanding electoral rebuke. For many Australians, last week’s US election felt personal. We’re steeped in American culture. We think we understand the place. How then could nearly 71 million Americans have voted for a man who doesn’t believe in democracy? How could it have been so close? Let me comfort you. Joe Biden’s election was a resounding rejection of Trumpism. In fact this election was not very close as American elections go. Nate Silver, of FiveThirtyEight, projects Biden’s winning margin in the popular vote will be north of four percentage points and possibly as high as six. Since 1996 only Barack Obama’s 2008 win has been larger. Biden is only the fourth challenger since World War II to unseat a one-term president. Democrats also flipped two Republican strong-hold states — Georgia and Arizona — and made Texas competitive. These changes would have been unthinkable two decades ago. As electoral rebukes go, it doesn’t get much bigger. Yes, Donald Trump’s behaviour has been so monstrous, so destructive of democratic norms and institutions that it seems unthinkable any Americans would have voted for him, let alone 71 million. But Americans, especially Republican Americans, are more different from Australians than you think. In 2002 I was part of an Australian 60 Minutes team that interviewed Trump — then a failing casino-owner and buffoonish fixture on the social pages — in his offices in Trump Tower, New York. We were reporting on New York’s recovery from the 9/11 attacks six months earlier. Trump was bankrupt and eager for attention. The hair was an architectural marvel, but the man was unremarkable — until the camera turned on. Then we got the show, the charismatic conman who would go on to dupe millions. I mused that Trump exemplified the difference between Americans and Australians. He was the personification of “Big Time Barry”, the term my father uses for people who have more regard for themselves than their achievements merit. Sceptical by nature, Australians are suspicious of such braggadocio. Trump would have been laughed out of the office of every prospective lender in Australia. But in America he was not only credible, he thrived. His poor business record didn’t stop large banks lending him millions. And then — astounding those who knew the truth — he became the face of corporate America for 12 million viewers of The Apprentice. Americans are not sceptical. They believe in Hollywood stories. They are not disposed to be suspicious of a character like Trump.

Republican voters are particularly vulnerable to his con. For years, evangelical preachers in red states have taught congregants wealth equals morality. Their gospel of prosperity has convinced voters that conspicuous riches, like those of Trump, are God’s reward for creating wealth and jobs. Republican voters also live in information ecosystems that resemble those of an authoritarian state. Right-wing media disinformation campaigns have exploited the deep fear of communism instilled in Americans during the Cold War. Many Trump supporters fully believe Biden will turn America into a socialist state. Any media that says otherwise is seen as part of the conspiracy. From an Australian lens, Republican leaders have always had repugnant policies. And yet about half the American electorate always votes for them (43% of Americans did not think Nixon should be removed from office after the Watergate scandal). Trump had some way to go before he caused as much destruction to lives and personal liberties as the last Republican president, George W Bush. Bush, a C student, was deluded by neocons [censored] Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld that toppling Saddam Hussein would install a democracy that would “send forth the news, from Damascus to Teheran, that freedom can be the future of every nation”. That ludicrous notion underpinned the US-led Iraq invasion, giving birth to Islamic State and the death and displacement of millions of people across Iraq and Syria. More than a million returned servicemen and women from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan struggled with physical and mental health injuries that became burdens on families and communities. The Bush administration forced all men in the US from Muslim countries — including some of my journalist friends — to register with authorities. The unlucky ones were detained without charge or recourse. At least 136 Muslim men were snatched and transferred by “extraordinary rendition” to secret black sites where they were tortured out of reach of international law. A vast state surveillance was secretly established to monitor Americans. And Bush’s parting gift to incoming president Obama in 2008 was an economic meltdown that wiped out the wealth of large swathes of Americans and sparked a global financial crisis. Every Republican leader in three decades has opposed badly needed reforms that would provide health insurance for all Americans. They routinely lower taxes to corporations and the rich while cutting the social welfare net and defending obscenely low federal minimum wages (currently $7.25 an hour). Republicans spend 15% of the government budget on the military, deny climate change and oppose reforms to address entrenched racial and gender inequities. And yet every time, roughly half of Americans vote for them. With his vulgarity and disregard for democracy, Trump offended our sense of our selves. But Americans are different. The backlash against Trump represented by Biden’s win last week is as good as it gets. Prue Clarke is an Australian journalist who has lived in the US for most of the past 20 years.

On 12/22/2020 at 8:54 PM, dieter said:

This one's for you and Dante:

 

 

Cringe.

 

 

On 12/24/2020 at 1:02 PM, Pickett2Jackson said:

 

Cringe.

 

 

You've gone quiet, duckie. No bragging after THE BIG EVENT you were warning us about. I just saw a Youtube Interview with one of the heroes who the Police allowed to 'storm' the Capitol. Apparently one of them called for a Prayer to God when they stood in the Senate. I can just imagine God looking down and feeling proud of these lunatic yokels.

But then again, Ain't that America!!!! Land of the Free. I know, P2J, they was Antifas in disguise...And, I know, Donald T is still gonna win...

 

 

4 hours ago, dieter said:

You've gone quiet, duckie. No bragging after THE BIG EVENT you were warning us about. I just saw a Youtube Interview with one of the heroes who the Police allowed to 'storm' the Capitol. Apparently one of them called for a Prayer to God when they stood in the Senate. I can just imagine God looking down and feeling proud of these lunatic yokels.

But then again, Ain't that America!!!! Land of the Free. I know, P2J, they was Antifas in disguise...And, I know, Donald T is still gonna win...

 

I am glad you know there was no riot at the capitol. The people were walking around inside respecting the property and not damaging anything.  Sad how many people are easily gaslit by the media.

Too bad they didn't burn it to the ground.  This is the same building where congress vote to send young people into meaningless wars like lambs to the slaughter so politicians and special interests can get rich.  And now they claim the Capitol is some holy site that should be revered.  [censored] them, they are all heinous criminals (and worse) and should be treated as such.

Trump will win btw.

Edited January 8, 20214 yr by Pickett2Jackson

1 hour ago, Pickett2Jackson said:

 

I am glad you know there was no riot at the capitol. The people were walking around inside respecting the property and not damaging anything.  Sad how many people are easily gaslit by the media.

Too bad they didn't burn it to the ground.  This is the same building where congress vote to send young people into meaningless wars like lambs to the slaughter so politicians and special interests can get rich.  And now they claim the Capitol is some holy site that should be revered.  [censored] them, they are all heinous criminals (and worse) and should be treated as such.

Trump will win btw.

I agree, they were so very respectful. Smashing windows and looting offices etc is no crime, nor is stealing property. Yes, Trump is gonna win, of course he is, P2J. Now, can I suggest a good lie down, an ingestion of about 15 valiums, and wash it down with your tipples of choice and when you wake up, the world might be a different place. You'll no doubt wake up in the heaven your evangelical mentors have prescribed and you can maybe have a game of golf with St Paul, maybe even Jesus, who, I hear, is gonna play at one of Donnie's Scottish courses, provided he doesn't have top self quarantine from heaven and have to wear a mask.

33 minutes ago, dieter said:

I agree, they were so very respectful. Smashing windows and looting offices etc is no crime, nor is stealing property. Yes, Trump is gonna win, of course he is, P2J. Now, can I suggest a good lie down, an ingestion of about 15 valiums, and wash it down with your tipples of choice and when you wake up, the world might be a different place. You'll no doubt wake up in the heaven your evangelical mentors have prescribed and you can maybe have a game of golf with St Paul, maybe even Jesus, who, I hear, is gonna play at one of Donnie's Scottish courses, provided he doesn't have top self quarantine from heaven and have to wear a mask.

Ok so i was wrong, you are easily manipulated by the media.   And you must really hate Trump if you are defending the US congress.  Thought you were against wars? 

 I am not religious.

Edited January 8, 20214 yr by Pickett2Jackson

12 hours ago, Pickett2Jackson said:

 

I am glad you know there was no riot at the capitol. The people were walking around inside respecting the property and not damaging anything.  Sad how many people are easily gaslit by the media.

Too bad they didn't burn it to the ground.  This is the same building where congress vote to send young people into meaningless wars like lambs to the slaughter so politicians and special interests can get rich.  And now they claim the Capitol is some holy site that should be revered.  [censored] them, they are all heinous criminals (and worse) and should be treated as such.

Trump will win btw.

I really thought you couldn’t get more insane. I was wrong. 
Your dangerous disgusting piece of [censored] cult leader will be gone in two weeks, and the world will be a far better place for it. 
Let’s hope he ends up in jail where he belongs. 

The one good thing to come out of this crazy episode is that Trump has alienated a lot of his enablers and poisoned any chance of winning the 2024 republican nomination. Lyndsay Graham, William Barr and Mitch McConnell have all turned against him. His treatment of Pence has been disgraceful. When the pressure came on, Pence acted constitutionally. He’s the early front runner for the 2024 nomination.

And another good thing is that Ted Cruz has tarnished his credentials irredeemably with his shenanigans in the senate. That guy is as dangerous as Trump!

Trump cost Republicans the Presidency, the Senate and the House.

The orange narcissist actually did it.  He made America great again.

For something that was not a riot 4 people died.

2 hours ago, loges said:

For something that was not a riot 4 people died.

Five, actually...

On 12/9/2020 at 5:35 PM, mauriesy said:

Never trust a billionaire who says they can make things better for you.

To paraphrase one of the candidates from earlier in the election process - who was the billionaire in this election?

I have found Trumps behaviour since the election to be disgraceful. He has done more damage to the republicans in a couple of months than imaginable.  And yes I am a conservative.

42 minutes ago, dl4e said:

I have found Trumps behaviour since the election to be disgraceful. He has done more damage to the republicans in a couple of months than imaginable.  And yes I am a conservative.

He started spruiking FRAUD long before the election. Just about every time he has opened his mouth before and since becoming POTUS, he has told one hyperbolic lie after the other_ you may recall how he invoked the US Air Force for fighting the Brits during the War on Independence, he is a mental midget who knows only how to get his way by threat, cheque books, bullying and manipulation. He is an indictment of the US of America that they elected such a narcissistic, racist sexual predator to become their President.

And, yes, I would never vote for any of the snivelling evil charlatans the Democrats have spewed out. The US is a very sick place.

And just you watch, we ain't seen nothing yet. Trump has unleashed total mayhem. It couldn't come to e better place, a country which has fooled the world from day one, most of all itself.

By being impeached for a second time, Trump has set another ignominious record in USA history.