Why do people insist on saying “The American experiment”??

I know what the point was, but Biden is included as if he is part of some political dynasty. He was VP. A very normal situation, 19 out of 49 have run for president. It’s like being promoted through the ranks until you get to the top. Isn’t that kinda normal in most careers?

So why is it “insanely improbable” for Biden, someone who qualified for the job over decades, to be “chosen” as opposed to anyone else.

We aren’t talking here about how much cash it requires to become president which raises the bar above most people’s head.we are taking about political dynasties.

So I say again, including Biden as if it is some statistical anomaly or stranglehold on politics is disingenuous, especially if you exclude Harris.

Her situation of running for president after serving as vice president is EXACTLY the same as Biden unless you want to split hairs and say he served 2 terms and her only 1. So if you want to say Biden was given a silver spoon, so was she.

Biden is not a dynasty. But if you insist he is, so is Harris, and that makes the original premise flawed.

I don’t think it’s really fair to include “Biden” alongside “Bush” and “Clinton” and NOT include “Harris”, just to make a point. The point is the Bush and Clinton represent two people each, a dynasty as it were. Biden is just one person. You might as well add then Harris since she has served as VP just like Biden, or Trump but I get the feeling this is intended to somehow make the statement that Harris represents a new breed of politics, a break from the old. That may or may not be true, but it doesn’t hinge on this meaningless metric.

“since 1981 there has never been an election without a Bush, Clinton, Biden, Trump or Harris.”

I don’t know if I’m a millennial or generation x

And maybe this answer is kinda what I was thinking of. The justification your are supplying about the diminished influence of record labels makes sense and logically I can see that probably means the sound of the decades I listed was less organic and more manufactured. I also feel that there is probably less air for experimental genres to establish and become dominant like in the past.

Thank you but if the discussion does start going toxic, please do take it down.

P.s. I updated the title to make it clearer that I do not wish to conflate the two

I did not mean to imply that supporting Israel’s right to exist as a state means you must support their actions or vice versa. It is not intended to be a loaded question.

Does one side disregarding the Geneva convention mean the other is free to do so?

I would argue that the Geneva convention is as much about protecting the humanity of adherants as it is about protecting the lives of the innocent.

If you sign up to it, you should not be considering the actions of your enemy in deciding whether to adhere to it or not. Yes the realities of war blur the lines, but as someone else said, if you become a monster to defeat the monster, you still lost.

This is the kind of response I was looking for.

I’m not seeking to pile on the anti Israel sentiment but to genuinely understand what the basis for the Israeli position and supporters of it might be.

No I’m genuinely interested in how people rationalise the actions of Israel against the articles of the Geneva convention. There have been some thoughtful answers already which I appreciate.

I always found the journal model to be one of the best scams there is. Buy our journal. Written by you. Edited by you. Referreed by you. Based on research paid for with public money. The journal contribution is to sell the paper back to the people who provide their content.

Because you are a kid and you don’t know but are pretending to be an adult. Nice try!

I guess it’s “I don’t want to use fossil fuels but I don’t have an alternative. Give me an alternative! Don’t have one? Then I’ll keep using fossil fuels”

In fairness though not using fossil fuels it’s something of a luxury at present. EVs are more expensive that non EVs. Maybe this will change but slowly. Home solar is very expensive and still doesn’t get you self sufficient in most cases. Power companies need to make the grid renewable to make it accessible to the average person for home power.

Even then you can still have someone read the source and write a spec for a second programmer to write a library. The programmer never saw the source code but it was still useful. Still legal to do this. If someone dumped original source into the projector could be similarly checked for duplication without breaking the law.

Ask yourself what winning the game gains for you and what losing costs you. Then ask yourself what behaving like an ass when you win or lose might gain you or cost you. No one will remember you won that particular game in a month except maybe you. It is not going to be something that other people findly remember about you when you aren’t around. However if you act like a ass, they definitely will remember and what you will gain if you repeatedly behave like that is a reputation, and not a good one. Nobody else really cares if you win or lose. It says literally nothing useful about you in day to day life.

What do you prefer to win, a board game or a lasting relationship.

Now that’s said, when you are in the midst of losing and you can feel the tension. Remind yourself what is really at stake as above.

If you start losing and winning graciously you will hopefully come to realise the above naturally.

First No elected official is allowed to take money or goods in excess of 50% of the median salary for all workers in the country in total for the entirety of their time in office from any organization or unrelated individual nor sit on the board of any company following office. Any payments to said official totalling over 50% median salary in the 5 years prior to their election and 20 years after leaving office from a single entity must be declared. The state will provide a generous pension to ensure future employment is not a financial necessity.

These measures are intended to allow elected officials to be free from influence.

Second Any change in leadership of a political party immediately triggers a general election. Change in leadership generally means a failure of the manifesto and/or a change in the policies which were presented to the public when the leadership was elected.

Third No advisory referendum shall be conducted without the intention to act upon the outcome and therefore any referenda should only be acted upon with a super majority of 66%. Prior to action following a referendum, the winning side must demonstrate how the result will be acted upon and where negotiation with outside interests is necessary, since the outcome cannot be known at the time of the first referendum the public should be offered a second referendum to decide whether to accept the outcome.

Fourth Politicians shall be held to account for any lies or dishonesty. Burden of proof lies with the politician accused of misconduct to provide evidence for their claims which are in dispute. Therefore evidence provision at the time of any claims is encouraged and can be published to a publicly accessible repository. Punishments can range from fines to removal from office depending on the severity and frequency of misinformation.

Fifth Proportional representation she’ll be enacted to eliminate tactical voting. In addition any changes to the electoral district are subject to scrutiny by a randomly selected jury of 1000 residents in each of the affected areas. Voting by, and identity if the jurors shall be anonymous. The public may request redistricting at any time with a 2 year cool off via a petition meeting a minimum number of 100,000 signatures.

Here it would be “wurk”

Bear in mind that there are very old properties out there maintained by people who don’t care or can’t afford to rewire their house. The fuse remains to protect them not because of trust. Antsy part of my point was that taking one aspect in isolation doesn’t tell the whole story. The Australian plug on its own is not as safe. It is made safe by upstream components.

Thanks I’ll enjoy my garbage plugs.

What exactly do you think it’s wrong with our wiring ??

Sensing a lot of hostility or Aussie patriotism just because Britain did something well and you don’t want to admit it.

No other plug had the safety features the UK plug when it was designed or now AND the plug is just one part of a whole system. You act like our plug is the only line of defence - newsflash it isn’t.

Any new property has built in RCD and breakers at entry to the property. That means it’s hard to shock yourself regardless of the plug design.

The fuse in the plug is arguably not needed anymore but it’s still a safety feature that could be used in some circumstances, so why take it out? The fuse existed before RCDs and as technology improved so did our electrical safety standards. The fact the fuse is still there doesn’t mean it is the only way. The fact the gate is there doesn’t mean it is the only way. You might guess by the number of safety features in the plug design that electrical safety is taken seriously in this country.

I’d also argue that screwdrivers are unlikely to be the thing that gets jammed in there anyway. Paperclips, toys, letter opener, etc more likely to be in kids hands I’d have thought, the gate makes it not matter what the implement is. Plenty of things are metal and will fit in any electrical socket - except the UK one unless the gate is held open with a second object.

The dexterity and understanding needed to open the gate with one hand and shove a metal object in the live in with the other is high enough that you are probably dealing with old enough children that they will know what happens if you do it. Even if they do, our “damn wiring” requires an RCD at the consumer unit so they’d still be safe.

There are older houses of course which have less safe electrics like a fuse box, but if you are going to judge by decades older standards, then I can do the same and then you still come out worse, because you don’t have RCDs way back when and your wall sockets are unprotected.

P.s. A quick Google tells me Electrocution statistics in both countries are exactly the same when taking population into account. 20 deaths per year in Oz, 70 in UK. Most caused by faulty appliances. 1 in a million chance, in both countries.