Lacessit

Latest news - Trump claims he is entitled to attack Harris personally. I assume the corollary is - Harris is not entitled to attack him for his lies, or being a sexual predator, felon, racist, misogynist and whining @sshole.

Correct. It's about costs, and unpaid bills as well. Trump has an unpaid bill of over half a million dollars with the city of El Paso, from when he held a large rally there. Other cities are dunning him for smaller amounts. Trump is notorious for not paying his bills. He boasts it is good business. I suspect, like his lawyers, cities are starting to demand money up front for the permits etc. And he doesn't have the upfront money to run large events.

Perhaps this is why Trump is getting torched.....

Freezing does not kill bacteria and viruses. It just puts them into suspended animation. Granted it might kill parasites, being larger organisms. Size matters. Smaller parasites are more resistant to freezing. I've never had a problem in more than ten years here, with two rules: # Unless a street stall cooks the food in my presence, I won't eat it. # Any protein I cook myself gets tested with a meat thermometer. 70 C minimum, using an air fryer.

There are the ones who deliberately head for trouble spots. There are the ones who take on hazardous ocean travel. They all expect their embassies and the taxpayer to bail them out if they get into trouble. Many years ago, I remember an engineer where I was working who attempted to cross Bass Strait in a kayak. Bass Strait is known for rough conditions, the weather there can change in ten minutes. His body was never found. He left a wife and two kids. Idiot. Selfish.

Apparently Donald Duck is still around, it's a Trump alias. Vance fits Goofy to a T.

Agreed. Probably the only supporter would be North Korea. Even Iran would blench.

The Chinese are not idiots. They have seen how tough it has been for Russia to make headway with an opponent that is right on their border. How much tougher will it be across 100 miles of water? Taiwan has little by way of natural resources. Its main value is in being the world leader in manufacturing advanced chips. OTOH, eastern Siberia has gold, diamonds, oil and gas. It's a treasure house. Given Russia's logistical incompetence, almost impossible to defend. The Chinese are renowned for thinking in terms of decades, if not centuries. In this respect, the Kremlin planners are being as dumb as a can of soup.

This map shows where China is putting its money when it invests in projects in Russia. It is very clear where the bulk of that money is going, and it is nowhere near Moscow. As I have said before, the Kremlin is looking in the wrong direction. China is the real problem, but Russia has made Ukraine their goal. How many soldiers can Russia send east? How long would it take them to get there? IMO Russia has left the door wide open for Chinese expansion.

Polls that fit a person's cognitive bias are always the most accurate........

If Russia uses nukes in Ukraine, Putin becomes the target. A Global Predator or similar takes him out. The Americans have that kind of surveillance capability. They can probably tell you when you last farted, if they could be bothered. IMO it's probably why Putin has gone very quiet on the topic in the last 6 months or so. Previously, he was brandishing nukes daily.

Are you for real? Whoever takes over from Putin will be trying to disengage Russia from Ukraine, just as Gorbachev did with Afghanistan. Once Putin goes or dies, the oligarchs that owe him their lives will come to the fore. The war is killing them financially.

Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Audrey Hepburn, Gary Cooper, Peter Sellers.

Ukraine was clamoring to be part of the EU, not NATO. You are posting Kremlin lies. Invading the Donbas was a bridge too far for Europe. One only has to look at the energy security they sacrificed when uniting to sanction Russia. Those sanctions will make Russia a failed state, or a Chinese vassal. Keep posting the propaganda, tovarisch. I've got you marked down as a Russian troll. Goodbye.

You mean good at not paying bills? https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/news/world/us-news/us-election/2024/08/15/trump-events?

Talking of the same old thing, Trump has left a trail of unpaid bills for his rallies. The city of El Paso is the most notable, over half a million dollars. https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/news/world/us-news/us-election/2024/08/15/trump-events?

Faux News.

You can say America provoked Russia all you want. It's still a fact Russia invaded Crimea in 2014, and the Donbas in 2022. No one was invading Russia. If Putin had not miscalculated in about half a dozen ways, by being told only what he wanted to hear, he probably would have got away with Crimea. The Donbas was a bridge too far for Europe and America. Disagree, Russia created its own problems.

Non sequitur rides again.

I'd be concerned if they had nukes. Tell me who in Eastern Europe did, after the Soviet Union fell. Only Ukraine, who gave them up in 1994. From the viewpoint of countries such as Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria. Romania etc. they did not want to be under the Russian jackboot again, with everything siphoned off to Moscow. The NATO pact was quite moribund, until Putin invaded the Donbas. Another of his miscalculations. Russia can bitch to sympathetic ears like yours, cuts no ice with me. A self-inflicted wound.

There are huge gaps in the Russia defenses against invasion. 9 of them. When the Soviet Union existed, they were all plugged. Now only Belarus remains. Finland made it worse by about 1500 km of added front, joining NATO. Putin may well wax lyrical about the shared roots of Ukrainians and Russians, deporting children from captured regions in Ukraine gives the lie to that statement. But then, everyone who is not delusional knows Putin lies like a pig in sh!t. Simple fact - Ukrainians hate Russians. Given what the Tsars and Stalin, now Putin have done to them, who can blame them? IMO the Russian leadership is focused in entirely the wrong direction. NATO is a defensive pact, although of course the Kremlin does not see it that way. History shows the invasions that inflicted the most damage on the Russian psyche were by the Mongols and Tartars, from the east. Comparatively speaking, Russia gave as good as it got with Napoleon and Hitler. I am predicting when China thinks Russia is sufficiently weakened, it will be annexing eastern Siberia. It has had every opportunity to observe the incompetence of Russian logistics over a mere 50 kilometres. The Xi-Putin friendship pact has as much value as the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact did.

Ukraine is constitutionally a democracy. Obviously, it's a bit difficult to hold elections when fighting for survival.

Oh yes, I saw this policy speech by Trump........... You're on about Kamala cackling? Look in the mirror.......

I don't know you can equate the two. Noriega was a drug trafficker and dictator, Ukraine is a democracy. Russian "interests" are in getting the Soviet Union back, Putin has repeatedly said so. That ship sailed long ago.

You are not much of a history student. Russia probably would have collapsed if not for the Atlantic supply convoys, and the opening of other fronts by the Allies. Stalin had purged the entire officer corps in 1936. He was planning to retreat behind the Urals. After the war was over, Russian soldiers captured by the Germans committed suicide rather than be sent back to Russia. They knew what was awaiting them. This time, it's corruption. It's estimated Shoigu has pocketed a lot of the military budget. Trucks with rotting tires, soldiers with flak jackets made out of cardboard. Morale is terrible. The excursion is smart, not silly. It gives Putin a propaganda black eye, diverts troops needed on the front lines, and the Ukrainians can play merry hell with logistical hubs.