[thepossum]

 benellis58, on 2025-May-02, 14:35, said:

Trump and GIB deserve each other: both are hopelessly incompetent.

Come on the greatest first 100 days of an administration in US history - loud cheers
I'm impressed anyway

[thepossum]

Australian democracy does not appear to have been Trumped. Certainly influenced though

[pilowsky]

The outcome of the Australian election was certainly influenced by voters here not wanting to risk becoming the 52nd or 53rd state of the USA - assuming there's a bit of a logjam with Canada and Greenland getting there first.
Our penguins are safe for another 3 years

[benellis58]

Luckily, Canadian voters and Australian voters are infinitely more intelligent than many American ones. Consequently, Donnie Dumbo is currently ruining only the USA, not Canada and Australia. The morons who voted for Agent Orange deserve whatever they get, but I am truly sorry for all the innocent, intelligent Americans who were wise enough not to vote for that idiot T-Rump.

[pilowsky]

The Australian electoral system strongly favours centrist parties.
The current Australian Labor Party is radically progressive compared to the average Democrat in the USA.
Here, Bernie Saunders would be considered a moderate-left candidate within the ALP.
We also have an independent Electoral Commission that ensures fair boundary distributions.
On top of that we have compulsory voting and exhaustive preferential voting.
"Informal votes" - votes not properly completed - account for only 5% of votes.

In the USA OTOH, 33% of eligible voters don't cast a vote, voting isn't compulsory and electoral distributions are determined by politicians.

[WasWinM]

Congratulations to Australia for thoroughly rejecting its Trump Lite candidate. If only we ….

[Zelandakh]

pilowsky, on 2025-May-03, 22:13, said:

The current Australian Labor Party is radically progressive compared to the average Democrat in the USA.

Even as a teen in the 80s, it was common in Europe to describe the US political system as "a choice between right and further right" and that was before there was a genuine Authoritarian running the White House. I don't think too many Americans understand just how truly warped their politics is, particularly given how such a large portion of the electorate actually take seriously claims that centre-right politicians are Communists.

[johnu]

Zelandakh, on 2025-May-05, 13:49, said:

I don't think too many Americans understand just how truly warped their politics is, particularly given how such a large portion of the electorate actually take seriously claims that centre-right politicians are Communists.

Actually, this has less to do with actual politics than you may think. Convicted Felon Trump and his ultra right fringe cult members call anybody who disagrees with them communists, or socialists as kind of a general insult. Since Trump loves the uneducated, of course his cult members have no idea what the politics of communism and socialism actually are.

It's especially egregious when they rail against the "socialist" programs of the Democrats, when MAGA are most dependent on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

[WasWinM]

Most have no idea the real president is Stephen Neider-Miller-Meyer and the White House is Delta. It’s a real shame about his horse.

[kenberg]

WasWinM, on 2025-May-07, 06:17, said:

Most have no idea the real president is Stephen Neider-Miller-Meyer and the White House is Delta. It's a real shame about his horse.

I'll take this opportunity to confirm, as has often been said, how really stupid we in this country are. I do not understand the above post at all. Whose horse? What happened? What or who is Delta? Etc.

[mycroft]

Animal House (link is to "Where are they now" ending scene. Note: made in 1978, many of the jokes are maybe "no longer acceptable". Unless, of course, you're an "anti-woke" Repub who wonders "why can't we be funny anymore?")

In context, the uneducable but party-loving and "for the lolz" White House occupant is being run from behind the scenes by the military version of the Secretary Bird (who is also so competent and well-loved that he is "fragged by his own troops" in a few years).

Having said all that, anything that gets Niedermeyer (who is also the Twisted Sister "Whaddaya want ta do with your LIFE" Dad / Teacher, because of course he is) on the same side as the Deltas would pretty much have to be the textbook definition of FUBAR. Which, well, you know...

[kenberg]

mycroft, on 2025-May-07, 11:19, said:

Animal House (link is to "Where are they now" ending scene. Note: made in 1978, many of the jokes are maybe "no longer acceptable". Unless, of course, you're an "anti-woke" Repub who wonders "why can't we be funny anymore?")

In context, the uneducable but party-loving and "for the lolz" White House occupant is being run from behind the scenes by the military version of the Secretary Bird (who is also so competent and well-loved that he is "fragged by his own troops" in a few years).

Having said all that, anything that gets Niedermeyer (who is also the Twisted Sister "Whaddaya want ta do with your LIFE" Dad / Teacher, because of course he is) on the same side as the Deltas would pretty much have to be the textbook definition of FUBAR. Which, well, you know...

Thanks. As you mention, Animal House was in 1978 and the only things I remember about is that I didn't like it and couldn't stand John Belushi. I cannot say if the jokes are "no longer acceptable" because I thought that they were "at the time stupid". In college (1956-60) I joined a fraternity in the spring of my freshman year and withdrew in the fall of my junior year, wondering what took me so long to withdraw. Animal House reminded me that my withdrawl was a good choice. I could easily have also withdrawn from the movie theater halfway through.

Anyway, now I understand about the dead horse. And maybe a bit about the rest. Thanks.

Oh. I am not really feeling stupid for not catching the reference, I sort of enjoy being confused. Call me weird.

[WasWinM]

The main comparison is the character Neidermeyer with Stephen Miller

[kenberg]

WasWinM, on 2025-May-07, 13:22, said:

The main comparison is the character Neidermeyer with Stephen Miller

But who is the horse?

Again I am joking but I have found that it is best to say so when chatting online.

[WasWinM]

kenberg, on 2025-May-07, 13:30, said:

But who is the horse?

Again I am joking but I have found that it is best to say so when chatting online.

I just learned that /s is a snark tag placed at thd end.
Bridge players are old. Surely they know Animal House and Airplane references I thought.
Proven wrong.

[WasWinM]

kenberg, on 2025-May-07, 13:30, said:

But who is the horse?

Again I am joking but I have found that it is best to say so when chatting online.

I just learned that /s is a snark tag placed at the end.
Bridge players are old. Surely they know Animal House and Airplane references I thought.
Proven wrong.

PS: I didn’t refer to Airplane in that post. I guess I picked the wrong day to stop sniffing glue. /s

[kenberg]

WasWinM, on 2025-May-07, 15:30, said:

I just learned that /s is a snark tag placed at the end.
Bridge players are old. Surely they know Animal House and Airplane references I thought.
Proven wrong.

PS: I didn't refer to Airplane in that post. I guess I picked the wrong day to stop sniffing glue. /s

Yes, I am certainly old enough to have seen Animal House and I did. I was 39 in 1978. But I have little or no memory of it so I simply didn't get the references you made or even understand where they were from.

We all have memories, sometimes only half-right, from old movies and novels. A very early one for me is Bambi's father coming around to tell him "Your mother can't be with you anymore". I was maybe 5 or 6 when I saw that. When I was 13 I saw the 1952 version of Moulin Rouge and I recall a streetwalker explaining to Toulouse-Lautrec that she was 12 (or perhaps it was 13) before she learned that the whole world didn't smell the way it does where she grew up. But nothing from Animal House. We mostly retain scenes from movies we liked. I should have left Animal House after 15 minutes. I cannot recall a single scene. I know it was liked by many. Not by me. I later saw The Blues Brothers (1980) but only because my 12-year-old daughter wanted to see it and they wouln't let her in on her own. She liked it. I was pleased to have taken her to a movie she liked. With some movies that she wanted to see I took her but after it started I snuck out and met her outside afterward. But I made it all the way through The Blues Brothers.

[WasWinM]

kenberg, on 2025-May-07, 19:27, said:

Yes, I am certainly old enough to have seen Animal House and I did. I was 39 in 1978. But I have little or no memory of it so I simply didn't get the references you made or even understand where they were from.

We all have memories, sometimes only half-right, from old movies and novels. A very early one for me is Bambi's father coming around to tell him "Your mother can't be with you anymore". I was maybe 5 or 6 when I saw that. When I was 13 I saw the 1952 version of Moulin Rouge and I recall a streetwalker explaining to Toulouse-Lautrec that she was 12 (or perhaps it was 13) before she learned that the whole world didn't smell the way it does where she grew up. But nothing from Animal House. We mostly retain scenes from movies we liked. I should have left Animal House after 15 minutes. I cannot recall a single scene. I know it was liked by many. Not by me. I later saw The Blues Brothers (1980) but only because my 12-year-old daughter wanted to see it and they wouln't let her in on her own. She liked it. I was pleased to have taken her to a movie she liked. With some movies that she wanted to see I took her but after it started I snuck out and met her outside afterward. But I made it all the way through The Blues Brothers.

I still watch Casablanca when it’s on. But not Animal House.

[kenberg]

WasWinM, on 2025-May-07, 21:12, said:

I still watch Casablanca when it's on. But not Animal House.

There are several movies I waych, re-watch-re-re-watch etc. Casablanca is one of them. I think many, for example Becky, re-watch Casablanc. Another that I like to re-watch, that others, including Becky, don't is Sleepless in Seattle. A lot of the scenery is great and I like the soundtrack. OK, the story is sort of a fairy tale, but good music. "When the sun is high in the afternoon sky...". I also enjoy multiple watches of The Third Man. It took Becky a while but now she likes it too. I was planning to see it when it came out in 1949 but I let it slip by so I bought the novel I am pretty sure it was the first adult novel I ever read, and that is probably part of the appeal of the movie. If you have never seen it, I recommend it. The closing scene is great. OOH, I recommended it to a couple we know and they could not fathom why on Earth I liked it.

I have come to think that the movies I like to rewatch are movies that I think are good but not great. Great movies require your full attention.Good movies, like Casablanca, I just relax and enjoy, no heavy thought required. Ingrid Berman is great, in Casablanva and elsewhere, and I always get a kick, again in Casablanca and elswhere, about how romantic censorship was handled during the days of the Code. Ilsa comes to see Rick, hoping to get the letters of transit. When he won't give them to her she pulls a gun threatening to shoot him. But she can't do it and falls iinto his arms. Next scene, clearly later, the two of them are chatting. We are left to fill in the blanks. Honestly, I like that approach. I do not really need to see the details.Another scene that I like is when Victor Laszlo, after their first encouner with Rick, wants to know about Ilsa's reationship with him.

Victor: When you were in Paris, did you get lonely?
Ilsa: Yes Victor, I did get lonely.
Victor: I know something about lonliness. Is there anything you wish to tell me, Ilsa?
Ilsa: No Victor, ther is othing I want to tell you.

Translation: Yes, Victor, what happened is just what you think happended and no Victor, I don't want to talk about it.

Ilsa then asks Victor if he will still trust her and he replies "You don't even have to ask". Very good. A good man realizes that he is married to a very good woman.

Well, we have strayed off topic. Good. I tire of talking about Trump. It has reached a point where there is little left to say. Are there really people out there who think it is a good idea to talk about making Canada our 51st state? To say that it is a bad idea seriously understates the matter. I have no idea how to hold a conversation with those, if they exist, who think it is a good idea.

[WasWinM]

Movies are a great distraction, not exactly opium of the masses — that’s football — but close. Trump appeal will most likely follow the path of least resistance so active resistance is necessary to keep the damage to a minimum.