The Serious Discussion Thread.

Now the US and EU have given UKRAINE permission to strike inside Russia will they now target weapons factories?
There aren't any within that targeted range around Kharkiv. With some luck they might be able to hit an ammo depot before it will also be relocated farther away from the border area.
 
The AFR pay wall used to be easy to get around by just pressing stop on the browser before it fully loaded but alas no more.

It's my favourite publication but paying nearly $30 a month for it for me is too much.
 
Same here. Unfortunately all these media barons now put everything behind a paywall. Other than being a cricket tragic I am also a life long St George Dragons League supporter , but if I want to watch their junior sides play I come up against a News Corp paywall. Greedy Murdochs.
I actually dont mind paying for sports coverage that's superior or care it's Murdoch but Kayo has crept up a lot in pricing, $35 for 2 streams a month now. 1 for $25.
 
I see Trump has been judged by his peers to be a CRIMINAL.
I knew that already. 😂

If he does become the potty POTUS again (from a prison cell?), I fear he will withdraw US support for Ukraine. That would be an unmitigated disaster on so many levels.

Robert De Niro gave him a right royal verbal trashing outside the court house saying he'd be a danger to the US and the world. I agree.
 
It's worse than that Craig, I've heard several times from ABC Radio (Aunty) that the American Constitution is so archaic it says nothing about a felon NOT being President. Hence, according to their dumb laws, like their bare arms crap, technically Trump could govern the World's most powerful (but declining) nation from a prison cell. With an installed Mackers' machine.
In defense of Archaic practices our Oz is no exception like cold cases revealing recently 2 female teachers seduced boys in their charge decades ago but were released as the law then only pertained to male teachers... That's a bit sexist as we see now in hindsight.

That'd be a ridiculous scenario with Trumpt governing the US from a prison cell and would make the US a global laughing stock. Seriously! A dumb narcissistic clown in a cell ordering about his ever changing minions sounds like a black comedy.
Still, since his Stormy conviction as a felon, I heard Aunty report, he'd most likely not have to serve jail time but be on some sort of parole. A big fine too I hope so he's already put out the call to his illiterate minions for cash to help them save themselves and The United States of America to make it Grate again....
Polls say he's dropped about 5% with his faithful over this scandal. More to come of course. "All witch hunts" he cries, "I never did no nothing wrong, no never ever, I'm like a Saint.... blah, blah, blah, ... " 🤮

Still, old Biden's red line in Gaza went from red, to a thin red line, then a thin pink line, then a thin beige line, then now a whiter shade of pale?
Who's pulling Biden's strings, and ours too, on the horrific, calculated and contrived Genocide in Gaza of 36,000+ innocents dismissed as collateral damage, not to mention the deliberate causation of famine, disease, destruction of basic infrastructures, schools, hospitals, places of worship, ...deaths of UN aid workers and Journalists, ... ? "Opps, so terribly sorry."

So what makes the US still give strong support to Israel?
Are they complicit in Israel's war crimes?
Does a powerful and wealthy Jewish Lobby in the US tug those strings?
Could it be US Bible Belt fundamentalists sniffing "End Days"? Demographic leanings...
... not joking ... 🤪 ... according to my East German born Octogenarian mate...
 
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The verdict will be announced in July and it is expected that he won't get a prison sentence but a sentence that will be suspended and include a fine. The question really is whether the American people or at least too large a part of it will be voting an ex-convict into office. Technically, he won't even be an ex-convict if he's on probation, will he?
 
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That'd be a ridiculous scenario with Trumpt governing the US from a prison cell and would make the US a global laughing stock. Seriously! A dumb narcissistic clown in a cell ordering about his ever changing minions sounds like a black comedy.
Totally bizzare.
Does a powerful and wealthy Jewish Lobby in the US tug those strings?
That is the likely reason as half of Americans are Jews arent they. Australian pollie Josh Freidenberg comparing current anti semitism pervading the world to the evolution of Nazi Germany. Not even close to then. Hitler hated the power Jews wielded in post war Germany, is as simple as that. JF like many of his faith are turning A BLIND EYE to the decades long oppression and murder of innocent and peaceful Palestinians that created October 7 and the subsequent genocide of thousands of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
 
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Australian pollie Josh Freidenberg comparing current anti semitism pervading the world to the evolution of Nazi Germany. Not even close to then. Hitler hated the power Jews wielded in post war Germany, is as simple as that.
JF is not the only one. Certain things need to be nipped in the bud. That was the crucial lesson to be learnt. Undisguised antisemitism that manifests itself in Jews being beaten up in schools and in the street when wearing a kippah and restaurants being smashed let alone killing people in and around synagogues hadn't been seen for decades. As Brigitte Hamann worked out in Hitler's Vienna, it's questionable to what extent he had interiorised antisemitism in view of the fact that he had Jewish friends while living in Vienna and, later on, on several occasions held a protecting hand over people he'd known. What's doubtlessly the case is that he utilised antisemitism as an integral part of his ideology.
 
My wise eldest brother in Sydney advised me not to put a bumper sticker on my car giving support to the the besieged people of Gaza. He said my car might get trashed despite my supposed freedom of speech in Australia. It's possible I could even be arrested with all the weeping, howling and gnashing of teeth about antisemitism in Australia.
Still, I know what I think about the obvious and deliberate genocide of Palestinians.
 
My wise eldest brother in Sydney advised me not to put a bumper sticker on my car giving support to the the besieged people of Gaza. He said my car might get trashed despite my supposed freedom of speech in Australia. It's possible I could even be arrested with all the weeping, howling and gnashing of teeth about antisemitism in Australia.
Still, I know what I think about the obvious and deliberate genocide of Palestinians.
So do all people who believe in freedom Terry.
 
I'm wouldn't pick any 'side' in this conflict, seems like it's a pretty complex situation that I don't overly understand even after reading up on it.
 
I'm wouldn't pick any 'side' in this conflict, seems like it's a pretty complex situation that I don't overly understand even after reading up on it.
Agreed it's very complex Kram. Its origins go back to 1948, the Six day war, and even thousands of years.

In the book of Genesis in the 'Old' Testament God tells Moses "Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them: When ye pass over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their figured stones, and destroy all their molten images, and demolish all their high places.
 
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No doubt, it's a complex issue but it boils down to one fundamental set of questions: Do the Jews have a right to exist as a state after six million were industrially slaughtered? If yes, why not there? If no, why not and where else, respectively?
 
Agreed the Jews have a right to exist Thomas and were offered a homeland in the once British Mandate of Palestine in 1948 after WWII to help them escape the centuries old antipathy they experienced in Europe. Many had fled to the UK by then. Prior to that the Brits offered them the NW of Australia on behalf of us obsequious Aussies, then. There were issues on that from the Jews and Australia so it fell through.
Nevertheless the Jews, with Britain's blessings, moved to land partitioned out for them in the lands of Palestine. The Jewish state of Israel was born with the UN's approval. Fine, but the troubles with the resident Arabs began from the get go, then the six day war etc... What resulted from that and other conflicts was Israel grabbing more and more Palestinian land, continuing still to the present day. Pity Britain didn't anticipate that.
I don't decry a homeland for the Jewish people but they have become incessant land grabbers since partition.
Lately I heard shouts of "This is "all" our land!"
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If yes, why not there? If no, why not and where else, respectively?
Yes, as even some Arab states have now acquiesced and accepted them in their present location. The crux of the problem tho, which you seem to have missed Thomas, is DO THE PALESTINIANS ALSO HAVE THE RIGHT TO EXIST, not only exist but in PEACE IN THEIR OWN HOMELAND. It was Israel that created these so called 'terrorist' groups Hamas, Hezbolah. They are freedom fighters, perhaps militants but not terrorists. Yet the Jewish state and the US turn a blind eye to this , so the repression and oppression continues for decade after decade.
 
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Agreed the Jews have a right to exist Thomas and were offered a homeland in the once British Mandate of Palestine in 1948 after WWII to help them escape the centuries old antipathy they experienced in Europe. Many had fled to the UK by then. Prior to that the Brits offered them the NW of Australia on behalf of us obsequious Aussies, then. There were issues on that from the Jews and Australia so it fell through.
Nevertheless the Jews, with Britain's blessings, moved to land partitioned out for them in the lands of Palestine. The Jewish state of Israel was born with the UN's approval. Fine, but the troubles with the resident Arabs began from the get go, then the six day war etc... What resulted from that and other conflicts was Israel grabbing more and more Palestinian land, continuing still to the present day. Pity Britain didn't anticipate that.
I don't decry a homeland for the Jewish people but they have become incessant land grabbers since partition.
Lately I heard shouts of "This is "all" our land!"
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I largely agree, Terry. It's a Gordian Knot that would have to be cut and, as I may have said earlier, it's the extremists on either side who prevent it. In recent times even the fundamental agreement on Israel's right to exist has been abandoned. But once there is this agreement, a two-state-solution could be worked on. There is no other feasible solution.
The West, as you point out, has made severe mistakes as it has in other conflicts, the most recent one being the one between Russia and Ukraine. The underlying reason is the non-synchronism as described by Ernst Bloch and the power concentrated in the hands of a few people no matter how capable and up to the job they are.
 
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