Republican Lawmaker Blames California Drought on Abortion

[c.d.]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/gop-rep-blames-california-drought-on-abortion/ar-BBl4ccP

c.d.

[c.d.]

What an idiot. Everybody knows Same Sex Marriage is the cause.

c.d.

[GUT]

What an idiot. Everybody knows Same Sex Marriage is the cause.

c.d.

Well that was what I heard anyway.

[Wickerman]

I love it how these Republicans embarrass themselves and their party.

[GUT]

I love it how these Republicans embarrass themselves and their party.

Both sides seem capable of doing that from time to time.

[Mayerling]

I love it how these Republicans embarrass themselves and their party.

Unfortunately they do so and laugh all the way to the ballot box and undeserved political majorities.

[Mayerling]

Both sides seem capable of doing that from time to time.

You're right GUT, but the Republicans turn it into a remarkably effective art form - and seem to get away with it.

[GUT]

You're right GUT, but the Republicans turn it into a remarkably effective art form - and seem to get away with it.

You should see some of the things the idiots down here do and say.

I guess you don't hear about them as much as we hear about your President etc.

[Mayerling]

You should see some of the things the idiots down here do and say.

I guess you don't hear about them as much as we hear about your President etc.

G'day GUT,

We do hear some news of Australian politics. The other day there was some possible scandal that the current government in Canberra was making some sweetheart deal with smugglers for some purpose. Recently I noted the obituary of some one time tycoon who ended up in prison (the one who bankrolled Australia winning the America's cup in the mid 1980s). I do try to keep an eye out for these items. I can't speak for the other 300,000,000 Americans, but I make an effort to do so.

Jeff

[GUT]

G'day GUT,

We do hear some news of Australian politics. The other day there was some possible scandal that the current government in Canberra was making some sweetheart deal with smugglers for some purpose. Recently I noted the obituary of some one time tycoon who ended up in prison (the one who bankrolled Australia winning the America's cup in the mid 1980s). I do try to keep an eye out for these items. I can't speak for the other 300,000,000 Americans, but I make an effort to do so.

Jeff

G'day Jeff

I wasn't being critical of people not keeping up just I imagine reporting of what goes on down here isn't, it seems, real common in the USA.

Yes big carry on over people smugglers being paid to turn back, funny thing is that yet again it looks like both parties were dong it.

And poor old Bondy from a sign painter to Billionaire to Bankrupt and Prison and back to multi-millionaire.

Kerry Packer [a media tycoon] sold his TV station to Bond for a Billion Dollars and bought it back again for 50 million a few years later quipped "You only get one Alan Bond in your lifetime, you need to be ready".

[Wickerman]

I love it how these Republicans embarrass themselves and their party.

Speaking of which, Donald Trump is running for President!!



Should be good for the Late Night funnies.

[GUT]

Speaking of which, Donald Trump is running for President!!



Should be good for the Late Night funnies.

That even made the news here.

Hope he gets a new rug first.

[GUT]

What a showdown Trump v Bush.

[Mayerling]

G'day Jeff

I wasn't being critical of people not keeping up just I imagine reporting of what goes on down here isn't, it seems, real common in the USA.

Yes big carry on over people smugglers being paid to turn back, funny thing is that yet again it looks like both parties were dong it.

And poor old Bondy from a sign painter to Billionaire to Bankrupt and Prison and back to multi-millionaire.

Kerry Packer [a media tycoon] sold his TV station to Bond for a Billion Dollars and bought it back again for 50 million a few years later quipped "You only get one Alan Bond in your lifetime, you need to be ready".

I didn't think you critical at all. If anything, I'm a little critical. There is a kind of "blinders" on approach by Americans regarding what is important and what isn't necessary to make a cursory job at noting, in the field of foreign affairs. Basically most of us center on U.S. relations with Europe (actually with the best known European states: Germany, Britain, France, Italy, possibly Spain, and recently Greece - I don't know the last time any fellow citizen said something like "Did you follow that crisis in Sofia last week?" After Europe we'd concentrate on the big three or five in Asia (China, Japan, India, and the two Koreas). Then we concentrate on the Middle East, specifically Israel/Palestine and ISIS and Iraq/Iran. I did not mention Afghanistan as most of us feel it is just a losing proposition (Afghanistan has had the effect on major powers - none win there. Years ago the Hapsburg monarchy supposedly had a statement, "Other nations conquer territories, while you, "Happy Austria" marry them. It referred to how the Hapsburgs acquired so many pieces of land and titles by well planned marriages. With Afghanistan it could be, "Others countries are invaded and changed - you , "Happy Afghanistan" so bloody the interlopers they yearn to flee your borders!!"). Russia and Ukraine are well noted by Americans. And Africa (especially with the ebola epidemic last year).

But ask us to name ten major historical figures connected with Canada or Mexico. If they name five for each I congratulate them, and these countries are our neighbors. It becomes dismal the further away you go south. We know the Perons in Argentina, but who was the dictator of Argentina in the 1830s - 1850s who Charles Darwin mentioned in "The Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle"? (It was Rosas, who retired to become an English country gentleman - probably a model for Conan Doyle's "Henderson/Don Murillo" or "The Tiger of San Pedro" in "The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge"). Brazilian figures of importance are even less obvious to us. Getulio Vargas was their main ruler in the 1930s and 1940s, and eventually committed suicide (we think). The current one is a woman, and I am sorry to have to say I don't know her name - and she is in the middle of a somewhat unfair scandal right now). Aside from Vargas the only ones I recall are the two Brazillian Emperors, Pedro I and Pedro II, the aviation pioneer Albertos Santos-Dumont (who made most of his flying contributions in France), and the composer Heitor Villa-Lobos. Not really much there.

You can guess that it is even harder for Americans with Australia and New Zealand and Polynesia. Much we get from sensationalism or movies: Captain William Bligh (later Governor Bligh of New South Wales, who supposedly hid under his bed during MacArthur's revolution in 1807), Fletcher Christian, the crew of the "Bounty" (because of at least four films, not to mention Bligh's interesting account - but how many of the crewmen do we recall? The sole surviving one in 1826 on Pitcairn was Mr. John Adams (that wasn't his real name). I recall that because his name is the same as our second President - who died in Massachusetts in 1826!), Ned Kelly, maybe Daniel Morgan, and a few other bushrangers, Harold Lassiter, the old prospector who may have died because of his trying to locate the world's richest gold reef in Australia's hinterlands, and maybe Field Marshall Blamey, who fought so hard in New Guinea, and won General MacArthur's respect - so that he was on the U.S.S. Missouri when Japan formally surrendered. Except for memories of the Prime Minister who drowned in the 1960s, few Americans know who Alfred Deakin or Philip Curtain or Robert Menzies were. However, there are now plenty of movie stars like Gibson, Rush, Flynn, who we can think of. But how many have heard of your only Nobel Literary Prize winner? Or how many have heard of the tragedy of "DIG" in 1862 involving Burke and Wills?

And all of this is just the Australian world - we haven't gone into New Zealand. I know that the man who pushed middle class settlement in Australia was Edward Gibbon Wakefield (a distant relative of the historian) who served time for abducting an heiress in the 1820s, and put it to good use considering immigration. But I happen to be into historical crime and characters. Aside from him the only major figures in New Zealand I recall are Kini Te Kenawa the opera/concert diva (who is technically not actually a New Zealander though she resides there - she is Maori), Ngaio Marsh the mystery novelist, Sir Edmund Hillary, and that seems to be it.

I am hardly an expert on most countries, but in some senses I am more aware of things than most Americans. And if my standards are the best - that's scary!

Jeff

[GUT]

Jeff
You seem to know more than me.

t is to me scary that most Aussie can tell you the first President of the USA but not the first Prime Minister of Australia.

The missing PM BTW was Harold Holt, went for a little swim [in some pretty dangerous waters] and was never seen again, more conspiracy theories than you can jump over there.

I'm not sure I can name many more K1W1s than you have unless they were cricketers or Rugby players, but NZ doesn't count anyway, should have been another State (a bit of sibling rivalry there).