herfiehandbag

Oh for crying out loud, I have explained the phenomenon of "crack and thump" as clearly and cogently as I can! If you are determined to advance ever more obtuse and argumentative statements then, as they say, "fill yer boots!" Alternatively, reread my explanations and apply them to the questions you have posed. Somehow I doubt you will though!

What a remarkable explosion of incomprehension! Do yourself a favour @Jingthing, go back, read my posts on this topic, then read your last post, and ask yourself who is being moronic! Yes I am straight. Yes I am a Catholic. Yes I was offended by the bizarre tableaux presented, which was very obviously intended to offend. I am not blaming all LGBTQ people for that, nor am I blaming "drag queens" as a group, a group which quite frankly, this tableaux aside, I have no interaction with, no interest in or appreciation of. I am not indulging in mindless bigotry, simply because I don't agree with you. You don't know me, and I assure you that I attempt to treat all people, straight or gay on their merits. If anyone is displaying bigotry it is you. You are certainly verging on the hysterical!

Again, I don't think my attitude is ugly. They set out to mock and offend, they succeeded with me, so I don't want anything more to do with it. It is as simple as that. I am actually really quite tolerant of the LGBTQ Community; but this went far beyond any accepted demonstration of "pride" or art. It was designed to mock and hurt, and succeeded. They knew very well what they were doing, they must have known from when the idea was first mooted. I really don't think that not liking it, being offended by it and deciding to ignore the whole business as a consequence is either "insufferable priggishness" or an "ugly attitude"!

Don't be silly. The "crack" is when the bullet, still traveling at over the speed of sound, passes adjacent to whoever hears it. .

I am not sure that being offended, by something deliberately designed and planned to offend, is insufferable priggishness!

Yes, as long as the velocity of the bullet has not dropped below the speed of sound then there is a "crack" as it passes adjacent. I don't know about 5.56 rounds, but there is still a crack at 400 metres. The Soviet 7.62 round as used in that AK series of 7.62 rifles (Iraq) certainly has a crack out to about 500 metres, although not really accurate, especially in the hands of your average Iraqi! NATO 7.62, as used still for marksmen weapons, and with which I learnt to shoot ( Self Loading Rifle) certainly is still supersonic ("crack") out to over 600 metres. As I said, you hear the crack, it is the first indicator that you are under effective enemy fire ( you take cover, locate the enemy, and win the firefight, moving if necessary using fire and manoeuvre). These are basic skills for all soldiers, not Rangers or Special Forces. ( I was neither, very ordinary forces me)! Everybody in the British Army is trained to use a rifle, qualifies on the ranges every year, which includes knowing and understanding the "crack and thump phenomenon. Pretty well all ranks carry a rifle as their personal weapon. I should imagine that the US service is the same.

They knew exactly what they were doing, set out deliberately to do so and now mutter contrived denials and obviously insincere apologies for any offence caused. They deliberately presented a tableaux which set out to mock the "last supper", a central tenet of the Christian (and particularly the Catholic faith); a faith which is strongly represented in France. This tableaux had at best a very tenuous connection with olympic sporting tradition. I personally, as a Catholic, found it deeply offensive. I usually follow the Olympic Games, recognising and enthusing about the achievements of the participants. Not this time, having seen that, which obviously carries the blessing of the organisers, I couldn't care less!

I am neither SIS nor MI6, and have never pretended, suggested or claimed to be. The "crack and thump" to which you allude; the "crack" is the noise made by the supersonic bullet as it passes close to you, the "thump" which follows is the sound of the weapon being discharged. The crack is nothing to do with the bullet leaving the muzzle of the weapon. Experienced soldiers can estimate the range at which the round is being fired by the time difference between the crack and thump. Experienced soldiers also recognise that hearing the crack is an indication that you are "under effective enemy fire". If you had ever been in the butts on a gallery range, or, heaven forbid, been under fire on a "two way range" you would know that. You very obviously don't. Your whole post, characterised by your, to be frank, stupid suggestion that I am claiming to be "SIS" or MI6", is utter nonsense. Perhaps you should either talk about matters you understand, or hold your peace. You are just making yourself look stupid!

A round hitting a flat cardboard target, at right angles, and the associated damage it causes. is an entirely different matter to a round grazing a human head. Whilst you have, no doubt, great experience with paper targets, my experience, gained over 28 years as a soldier, encompasses seeing the effects of both 5.56 and 7.62 bullets on both paper targets and human beings. So I reiterate, a high velocity 5.56 bullet, passing alongside a human head, close enough to hit the ear, would have done far more damage. If nothing else, that close to his ear, he would be deafened in that ear, probably permanently, certainly ruptured eardrums.

Make America Great Again is a slogan. It is a cover for two things. A group who provides cover for, who wish to impose their notion of an authoritarian government, driven by racism and a Christian Nationalists agenda upon the USA. For Donald Trump himself it is his chance to avoid going to jail.

An AR15 round is a high velocity 5.56mm round. If it had hit his ear, the kinetic energy alone would have scalped him. A fragment from the bullet, or a splinter from whatever it hit ( the teleprompter?) nicked his ear.

Perhaps we can wait untill Monday 20th January 2025, when she is inaugurated as President. Mind you I don't suppose he will attend that one either, instead we will see him waddling off into the distance, guzzling cheeseburgers, and whinging and moaning about being robbed, heading to his destiny in various courtrooms!

My thoughts: as a conservative (note the small "c") Englishman, who loves La France, likes it's people, knows something of it's literature and culture, and speaks it's language (albeit with an appalling accent); I thought they had completely lost the plot!

If one is to believe Ms Daniels, the "dic" part is nothing to write home about either...

Condoms and dry cleaning vouchers perhaps? More robust times!

Possibly, perhaps probably, but we will have to put up with months of whining, moaning, claims that he was robbed, cheated etc etc before he finally waddles of to his meeting with destiny in a variety of courtrooms.

"Hatched, matched and despatched"! Still, at least they don't take the teachings of Jesus Christ, and twist them in stunning hypocrisy to fit their political manifesto...

His username rather suggests that he is Australian - and therefore a native English Speaker.

My suspicion is that her confirmation as Democratic Presidential Candidate will be met with a set of preconditions being submitted, moving the venue to Fox News, abandoning the control of microphones so he can shout her down continuously being two of the most likely. In addition of course, allegations that she has staged a coup, rigged the result, financial irregularities and demands to reimburse the money spent on rubbishing Joe Biden. The debate is unlikely to happen.

Well given that he is a convicted fraudster, an adjudicated sexual predator and rapist, and has just gone on record in a campaign speech as declaring that the next election is the last one you will need to vote in as " in four years he will fix it" then perhaps that is rather a good starting point!

Nice little racist meme. Well done you, you will definitely be allowed to keep your natural gas range and clothes dryer if you keep it up! 😉

1) I am not an American, but I am a keen observer, not least since America has taken on the role of "leader of the free world, and with it's immense military capability is projecting its power globally; therefore I have an opinion on who ends up running the country, if no vote or formal say. 2) I admit to being liberal, in the British political sense, which is perhaps, no, definitely, not the pejorative phrase so beloved of those currently holding sway in the American Republican party. I am certainly not left wing. There are several with whom I have clashed swords on this forum who will attest to that - @Chomper Higgot perhaps? 3) I am not in favour of "lynching the orange man", but I think that he should stand trial for the various serious charges brought, after due process, against him, and not use his status, wealth, political activities and legions of frankly comic opera lawyers to dodge them. Face the courts exactly as any other American Citizen would. I consider Trump an amoral lying cheating loathsome man. I consider many of his pronouncements as to his intentions if he gains power undemocratic and probably unconstitutional, racially driven and restrictive of basic liberties; but I also suspect that Trump hasn't thought it through, he is just bellowing from a bully pulpit without understanding or caring about the consequences of his policies - he is not intelligent enough to realise that. That perhaps is where your comments about Harris, oral sex and vacuums fit the pattern. However, I do regard many of those behind his campaign as more cogent, dangerous and ruthless than him, and I think that if they end up in power ( through him) it will be disastrous for freedom, both of action and expression within the USA, and in some cases globally. I am not a hypocrite, the hypocrisy is very evident within Trump's camp, one only has to look at Johnson and his ilk, who manage to combine Christian fundamentalism with endorsing and in some cases actively practicing sleaze! I appreciate this is a fairly wide ranging response to your little accusation, but it is after all a big topic, and they are views I think worth putting forward.

You mean the bloke who paints the white lines in the underground car park?

Yes, this is exactly what is happening.

Trump became a felon on conviction (on 34 counts) by a jury. Not by a judge, by a jury. A jury which his defence team participated fully in selecting. He was tried in New York, and convicted in New York, because his crimes were committed in New York. During that trial he was treated with remarkable leniency by the judge - a leniency which it is inconceivable would have been applied to any other citizen. Should his appeal eventually prevail, and it will likely have to go all the way up to the Supreme Court to do so, then he will cease to be a felon.