Comparing the Liberals with Labor: Dutton with Albanese; listening to what one politician says about an opposing politician, is all a waste of time.

Both major parties are rubbish. What they are thought of was evident from their low first preference votes at the last election.

Globally, traditional parties seem to have had the stick. Minority government looms for Australia, too.

Only main-party politicians tell us how bad minority government is for the obvious reason that they want as much control over us as they can get.

People on the right fear a Green-Labor minority government. There small party options that are not Green. If we do have a minority government this year, it can be a Dutton minority government rather than a Albanese minority government. We just have to vote for the lesser of two evils these days.

For an insight as to what's really happening with DOGE and how the entire deep state apparatus is being upended, this article is fascinating ....

http://tiny.cc/omb9001

One of the things I find interesting is that its always been assumed that innovations like AI would become tools for the bureaucracy to control even more of our life. Few saw it as a way to tear the bureaucratic state down.

Every day the claims that Trump is authoritarian become more laughable.

Not everyone is laughing.

One time Liberal politician Richard Alston says that the biggest loser of the Trump election was not Kamala Harris, but Xi Jinping. The US Navy Is still the biggest in the world, and Trump is not going to tolerate the CCP's shenanigans in the South China Sea and the threats to Taiwan.

Economically, China is lumbering on,while the US goes “from strength to strength”.

As leaders, Trump has had many years experience in private enterprise in the building and construction sector, making billions, while Xi is just a “machine politician” who has worked his way up the greasy pole, “never having to earn a living in private enterprise”.

We have one like that here.

And while the Leftists think Trump is no good because of personal flaws, they forget one of their own, Bob Hawke who was flawed to hell, but nevertheless, a helluva of a good Prime Minister.

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Dear mhaze,

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You wrote :

« Banjo … defines 'corruption' in a very narrow sense .. »
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I did not do that, mhaze, you did. You wrote “corruption on a grand scale … including Treasury”, not just someone doing something for someone else in the hope that the latter would return the compliment.

“You scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours” is a social practice we inherited from our common ancestors with the chimpanzees. Most of us continue to exhibit that instinct. It is a cooperative way of living together harmoniously in society. It has nothing to do with corruption on a grand scale … including Treasury”.

Elon Musk also claimed that The New York Times had received "tens of millions" from the U.S. government over the past five years.

Newsweek's Fact Check team found that the claim is based on faulty research. It quoted a search of U.S. government spending that included unrelated organizations. An accurate search reveals that U.S. government agencies spent about $1.6 million over the past five years on The New York Times services, almost entirely on subscriptions.

The New York Times confirmed that it has received no federal grants and that subscriptions have been bought for decades under Democratic and Republican administrations, including the first Trump administration. That revenue earned from federal subscriptions amounts to "less than 1/1000th of what we take in annually."

Perhaps the next media outlet to come under Musk’s team of brilliant young geeks will be Fox News.

I’d be interested to hear what you think of that possibility, mhaze – but take your time – when you’ve stopped laughing will be fine.

Here is the Newsweek Fact Check article :

http://www.newsweek.com/fact-check-us-government-did-not-give-new-york-times-tens-millions-2027981

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Trump needs to sack more bureaucrats.

Anti-Trump bureaucrats are working to sabotage the Trump Administration’s efforts to rid America of criminal aliens. They have been giving advanced warnings to illegals in Los Angeles, which is one of the first places targeted.

This is not the first time stackable scumbags on the public purse have warned illegal criminals of coming raids. They are warning actual members of criminal gangs.

Some devotion to their country and employer!

Trump will have to get even tougher, with public servants and judges working against him. It is highly likely that people supposed to be serving America are in the pay of criminal gangs who came across the border illegally. Why else would they want to protect foreign criminals? The border force itself needs a good look at.