- luv-talk - luv.asn.au

A side effect of migration politics (Nothing ever works as planned; -)
by Peter Ross 22 May '18

22 May '18

Hi all, When I arrived here, I had to wait for 2 years to get any social benefits. After 1.5 years, when the "IT bubble" popped, I had to look for another job, and it took, with Christmas and summer coming up, nearly half a year (I got three offers in one week early March then.) Having no social benefits did not make it the best of times. The last budget was increasing it from 3 to 4 now. Well, just migrants, who cares? Today I read an article about the sluggish growth of Darwin's population. Many arrive, but many leave as well. One of the cited problems: "No matter how qualified an individual may be, they still do need a leg-up in the first few months of coming to an entirely new place," he said. "They're not eligible for any form of government support or welfare in order to establish themselves, and that seriously needs to be looked at." http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-04/darwins-multiculturalism-could-counte… I understand that. I had my first interview in Adelaide, and I liked to live there then, but nothing came up quickly so I moved to Melbourne instead. If you wonder why everybody comes to Sydney or Melbourne, the lack of initial support may be one reason. Regards Peter

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An interesting article - and an interesting oversight
by Peter Ross 08 May '18

08 May '18

"The fundamental operating model of Australian politics is breaking down" https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/the-fundamental-operating-model-of-… It claims that things get harder - because we are more polarised. Interesting is the graphic under "Australian voters are polarising", and how it is interpreted. According to that, the middle disappears, and we become more lefties or right-wingers. However, I see the right over 20 years being constant by ca.25 %. Just the 'left" side is constantly growing, from 19.5% in 1996 to 31.4% in 2016. Furthermore interesting, the numbers show a clear correlation to the Greens which came from less than 2% primary votes to ca.10% over the last years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Greens The question is: Why is doing Labor so badly while the 'left" side is growing. My short answer: The "lefties" do not feel represented by Labor. Regards Peter

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lineageos_vs_copperheados_vs_replicant/
by Rohan McLeod 05 May '18

05 May '18

Assembled cogniscenti; I'm interested in opinions and experiences with mobile-phone OS's alturnative to Android; eg https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/7jdr9m/lineageos_vs_copperheados_… I have been 'deleting' away at an old Galaxy SII (GT-19100T), with the help of Kingroot for a couple of years, in the hope of turning it into a useful device, mostly I use a very simple Telsta ZTE-165 mobile and do all my browsing , on desktops and laptops "(this is unlikely to change much, as browsing on a phone just seems like looking through a key-hole); but I have finally lost patience with Android (and Google)....Craig's comment regarding "spyware for Google"; seems very much to the point! I also am considering OS replacement or just buying a phone with such pre-installed.! https://tehnoetic.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=59 given the many hidden 'gotcha's' in the myriad replacement 'recipes' regards Rohan McLeod

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Mobile phone
by Lindsay W 30 Apr '18

30 Apr '18

I am considering getting a mobile phone and I am after some sugestions and I know little about such things. I have so a avoided them like the plague as it seems a large percentage of users of such things become slaves to the device, something I have absolutely no intention of happenning to me. The problem for me (I am recovering from a long illness) is It is becoming clear it would be nice to have some kind of communication for emergency use. I live in a remote rural area and I cannot at the moment walk any distance so if I am stranded, say my Greenspeed Magnum (Note 1) gets a flat rear tyre (thats happended 3 times this year) I have to wait till someone comes along and can give me assistance, this is NOT real satisfactory. Something like the Librem 5, mentioned in a previous post, would be ideal as I really believe in Linux having been using it now from very early on (kernel 0.96d, early 1994), but supply being something like a year away may be an issue. So some thing else may be needed in the interim, any sugestions will be most apreciated. Note 1: I have fitted my Magnum with a rear hub electric motor (a Golden Motor Magic Pie 4), this has made the rear wheel VERY difficult to remove its a real bench job, The front wheels are NOT an issue one can remove the wheel, change a tube and refit the wheel in less than 2 minutes, with the CO2 cartridges one can be one ones way in no time. Lindsay

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old PCs
by Russell Coker 29 Apr '18

29 Apr '18

Does anyone have a spare SFF name-brand desktop PC they don't need? Even an older CPU like a E2140 will be fine as long as it uses the AMD64 architecture. Contact me off-list if you might have something suitable. Thanks. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/

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Our Minister's for communication's website - Funny observation
by Peter Ross 13 Apr '18

13 Apr '18

http://www.mitchfifield.com -> Server does not exist ( coming from Google results or link on Liberals website). http://mitchfifield.com -> , okay, that works. https://mitchfifield.com -> The page you are trying to view cannot be shown because the authenticity of the received data could not be verified. Okay, encryption is too hard for a minister. Why, Australians, do you elect these people? I would not trust them with a cleaning job and you make them run a country? Cheers Peter

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Re: [luv-talk] Does Australia Need a Donald Trump?
by Mark Trickett 24 Mar '18

24 Mar '18

Hello Rick, Trent and Russell I would not call Abbot an Arsehole, that is assigning him purpose and function, and I think he has no valid purpose or function. Tom Switzer has a program on Radio national, "Between The Lines", where he tries to think, but fails to think things through. He is one of John Howard's "Right Wing Phillip Adams", a delusion as Phillip Adams is a thoughtful intellectual who happens to sound "Left Wing". It is good to hear someone from the nominal "Right" trying to think, but I wish they would actually think things through. They accuse the "Left" of being ideological, when they are actually so ideological as to make the "Left" look pragmatic. On 3/23/18, Trent W. Buck via luv-talk <luv-talk(a)luv.asn.au> wrote: > Rick Moen via luv-talk wrote: >> [Terry] also forwards Forteana. > > For lurkers unfamiliar with this Americanism, > > | Charles Fort (1874 – 1932) was an American writer and researcher who > specialized in anomalous phenomena. > | The terms Fortean and Forteana are sometimes used to characterize various > such phenomena. As to what is anomalous in this day and age, there is so much out there that it is becoming a moot point. > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortean#Fortean_phenomena > > cf. http://www.weeklyworldnews.com > (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weekly_World_News) Regards, Mark Trickett

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(forw) Re: [skeptic] Fw: [New post] Does Australia Need a Donald Trump?
by Rick Moen 24 Mar '18

24 Mar '18

'Catallaxy Files' is an Australian supposed right-libertarian blog site. Terry Colvin, a retired US military chap living in Thailand, sometimes sees fit to forward its blog postings to the Skeptic mailing list. ----- Forwarded message from "Terry W. Colvin" <fortean1(a)mindspring.com> ----- Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2018 17:27:09 +0700 (GMT+07:00) From: "Terry W. Colvin" <fortean1(a)mindspring.com> To: Skeptic <skeptic(a)linuxmafia.com> Subject: [skeptic] Fw: [New post] Does Australia Need a Donald Trump? X-Mailer: EarthLink Zoo Mail 1.0 Reply-To: "Terry W. Colvin" <fortean1(a)mindspring.com> -----Forwarded Message----- From: Catallaxy Files Sent: Mar 22, 2018 3:01 PM To: fortean1(a)mindspring.com Subject: [New post] Does Australia Need a Donald Trump? Sinclair Davidson posted: "DOES AUSTRALIA NEED A DONALD TRUMP? With Tom Switzer, Parnell McGuinness, James Morrow and Miranda Devine Join us after work for drinks and canapes in Sydney on April 3 as we debate whether Australia needs a disruptive leader like Donald Trump. " New post on Catallaxy Files [bla] Does Australia Need a Donald Trump? [2e8639] by Sinclair Davidson DOES AUSTRALIA NEED A DONALD TRUMP? With Tom Switzer, Parnell McGuinness, James Morrow and Miranda Devine Join us after work for drinks and canapes in Sydney on April 3 as we debate whether Australia needs a disruptive leader like Donald Trump. He has turned US politics upside-down by mocking the media, provoking critics, cutting bureaucracies, setting ambitious targets and pursuing them with the unpredictability of a world-class negotiator. By doing so, Donald Trump has revived investment, employment, share prices, consumer confidence and US global power, not to mention grass-roots patriotism. Australian politicians, meanwhile, are constrained by Canberran conventions. Could we use a maverick? Could a shrewd outsider with a showbiz streak do to Australia what Trump has done for the US? Join us as our two panels - Miranda Devine and James Morrow (for) and Tom Switzer and Parnell McGuinness (against) - imagine the consequences. DATE: Tuesday, 3 April 2018, 6pm-8pm VENUE: Hudson House, Level 15, 131 Macquarie Street, Sydney COST: $30 pp/ $15 members. Click here to book ENQUIRIES: Please contact James Mathias at events(a)menziesrc.org or (02) 6273 5608. Sinclair Davidson | March 22, 2018 at 7:01 pm | URL: https://wp.me/ pScng-kSX Comment See all comments Unsubscribe to no longer receive posts from Catallaxy Files. Change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://catallaxyfiles.com/2018/03/22/does-australia-need-a-donald-trump/ * _______________________________________________ skeptic mailing list skeptic(a)linuxmafia.com http://linuxmafia.com/mailman/listinfo/skeptic To reach the listadmin, mail rick(a)linuxmafia.com ----- End forwarded message ----- ----- Forwarded message from Kevin France <kevinfrance0a(a)gmail.com> ----- Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2018 11:11:31 +0000 From: Kevin France <kevinfrance0a(a)gmail.com> To: Skeptic <skeptic(a)linuxmafia.com> Subject: Re: [skeptic] Fw: [New post] Does Australia Need a Donald Trump? No one fucking needs Donald Trump. _______________________________________________ skeptic mailing list skeptic(a)linuxmafia.com http://linuxmafia.com/mailman/listinfo/skeptic To reach the listadmin, mail rick(a)linuxmafia.com ----- End forwarded message ----- ----- Forwarded message from Rick Moen <rick(a)linuxmafia.com> ----- Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2018 05:59:40 -0700 From: Rick Moen <rick(a)linuxmafia.com> To: skeptic(a)linuxmafia.com Subject: Re: [skeptic] Fw: [New post] Does Australia Need a Donald Trump? Organization: If you lived here, you'd be $HOME already. I note with appreciation my learned colleague Kevin France's comment. ;-> Further: Quoting Terry W. Colvin (fortean1(a)mindspring.com) citing Sinclair Davidson at Catallaxy Files: > Sinclair Davidson posted: "DOES AUSTRALIA NEED A DONALD TRUMP? With Tom > Switzer, Parnell McGuinness, James Morrow and Miranda Devine Join us after > work for drinks and canapes in Sydney on April 3 as we debate whether > Australia needs a disruptive leader like Donald Trump. " There are multiple errors in the question. First, the Toddler-in-Chief is nothing like a leader. He is merely a talentless hereditary mafia don (pun not entirely intended), an infantile third-rater. Second, the correct word is not 'disruptive' but rather chaotic. He doesn't even serve his _own_ agenda, because he doesn't have one. > He has turned US politics upside-down by mocking the media, provoking > critics, cutting bureaucracies, setting ambitious targets and pursuing them > with the unpredictability of a world-class negotiator. Third, that's not turning US politics upside-down, but rather introducing a great deal of noise and debasing (his portion of) public discourse, along with emboldening Neo-Nazis and misogynists. Fourth, it's turned out he's an absolutely abysmal negotiator, who merely lied about that along with just about literally everything else. > By doing so, Donald Trump has revived investment, employment, share > prices, consumer confidence and US global power, not to mention > grass-roots patriotism. He's done none of those things, actually. Economic indicators are declining, US global power is in tatters and the nation an international laughing-stock, and the only patriotism he's inspired is among those inspired to put an early end to his incompetent misrule. > Australian politicians, meanwhile, are constrained by Canberran > conventions. It's called a functional parliamentary democracy. Fscking it up by inviting a small-handed banana-republic strongman to seize power would be an epic own goal, and if I didnt't already know from repeated forwards that Catallaxy Files is the redoubt of morons, this suggestion would have proved it. _______________________________________________ skeptic mailing list skeptic(a)linuxmafia.com http://linuxmafia.com/mailman/listinfo/skeptic To reach the listadmin, mail rick(a)linuxmafia.com ----- End forwarded message -----

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Re: [luv-talk] Reading the Bible
by Trent W. Buck 20 Mar '18

20 Mar '18

Russell Coker wrote: > On Saturday, 17 March 2018 4:08:46 PM AEDT Trent W. Buck via luv-talk wrote: > > Russell Coker wrote: > > > So 72.7% of Australians can't follow politics in non-English countries > > > easily. > > That's like saying most Mexicans can't follow US politics because USA > > is an English-speaking country, and they only speak Spanish. > > Mexicans who don't speak English will find it difficult to follow US politics. Even though there's a huge Spanish-speaking minority in USA? :-) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_language_in_the_United_States "United States [is] the third-largest Hispanophone country in the world, after Mexico and Colombia." I think it's easier for a Mexican to follow the politics of USA than the politics of Spain. My point was to poke holes in your (apparent) implication that because Australia is an English-majority country, we can only understand and hang out with other English-majority countries, and (therefore) that Mexico and USA can't understand one another because USA is English-majority and Mexico is Spanish-majority. > Of course there will be significant interest in US politics given how much US > politics matters to them, compared to Spain for example where they can easily > follow the news but it won't matter much to them. > > Why do you think it's at all controversial that the US has a major > influence on Australia? That was not my intention. You initially started talking about the US, and when I asked why, you said (paraphrasing) they're a shit anglophone country, and when I asked why you focused on anglos, you said (paraphrasing) they're the only ones we have a relationship with. So I was like: "hang on, yes, we interact with the US, but not ONLY them. China drives our economic policies and Indonesia drives our military policies". > Having a PM elected by parliament instead of an elected president > makes a significant difference to politics. Er, if you mean here in Australia, AFAIK the way it works is this: 1. party X elects a leader Y (i.e. only party X members vote) 2. party X gets a majority of seats 3. party X goes to the Queen (via GG) and says Dear Queenie, We'd like to form a government, with Y as your PM, is that OK? 4. The Queen (via GG) rubber-stamps it (unless she's REALLY REALLY REALLY angry). In this system, if the ALP has a majority, other elected MPs (e.g. from the Greens or Nationals) have no say in who the PM is.

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Re: [luv-talk] Reading the Bible
by Rick Moen 20 Mar '18

20 Mar '18

Quoting Russell Coker (russell(a)coker.com.au) > I watched Yes Minister when it was first on air. I haven't watched House of > Cards, I'll watch the British original (thanks Rick). Yr. very welcome. The best part is Ian Richardson's performance. His Uruquart has had enough of being taken for granted, used as a reliable enforcer but never allowed his just reward by (Tory) party leaders, and he decides to get revenge by systematically conniving his way to the top seat no matter how many lives must be destroyed, getting there. Uruquart frequently breaks the fourth wall and confides to us, the unseen audience as he does this. Also, the black humour of how the Tories, now in power, blithely ignore societal problems they find inconvenient, is done wittily. But, at the time of its release, the first run of episodes benefited from insanely lucky timing (through dumb luck): Episode one aired the very day that The Iron Lady, Ms. Thatcher, was suddenly ousted, ending the UK's longest Prime Ministership, from within her own party -- and, hours later, the character Uruquart is opening his first scene with an ironic comment on the 10 Downing Street upheaval that put his faction into power: 'Nothing lasts forever.' With arched eyebrow. The plotline seemed almost ripped from headlines. It'd reported that all activity around Whitehall stopped when BBC1 aired each new episode. > Having a PM elected by parliament instead of an elected president > makes a significant difference to politics. Mark Latham showed > himself to be mentally incapable of properly fulfilling the duties of > a PM shortly after losing the election. One can only speculate as to > how long he might have lasted if Labor had won, but the fact that > Labor only needed a no-confidence vote to remove him (as opposed to > impeachment which among other things requires admitting culpability at > a party level) would have made it much different than the issues with > Trump. Perhaps you can clarify that reference to 'at a party level', as I'm not sure what you mean. Strictly speaking, the process of impeachment (indictment) of government officials in and by the House of Representatives, followed if indictments ensue by trial where all 100 Senators form a jury, is done entirely without reference to political parties, as the latter have no official recognition anywhere in the US Federal framework.. More figuratively speaking, it is of course awkward and unpalatable for leaders of a party in the House to indict fellow party members, particularly the heads of the Executive Branch (Pres. and VP). You might have meant that. The current severely (historically) gerrymandered House is artificially dominated by the GOP, which in turn continue to (apparently) fear Trumplandia voters punishing any failure to cover for The Toddler's transgressions, and so are in effect held hostage to his takeover. It is inconceivable for said lot to charge either The Toddler or his scary mediaeval-minded henchman, Vice-President Mike Pence. However, strong winds of change may blow in from the November mid-term elections. There are multiple signs the House GOP expect a massive Democratic Party wave to throw the out of power and decisively overturn their control despite the gerrymandering advantage. What a House with a strong Democratic majority would do is a wholly different question.

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