While We Wait: Part 6

[Thlayli]

Yeah, we spam like fools.

Also, our first haphazard attempt to invite every NESer we know into one giant MSN convo was a somewhat chaotic success, so we should do something like that again, though a little more standardized. Anyone up for it?

 

[Dachs]

Also, our first haphazard attempt to invite every NESer we know into one giant MSN convo was a somewhat chaotic success, so we should do something like that again, though a little more standardized. Anyone up for it?

Nobody's online except me, Kal, Chand, and a dude who doesn't want in. Hell, not even you are logged in right now.

 

[Thlayli]

Standardized implies we set a time for later.

 

[Dachs]

Standardized implies we set a time for later.

Well, I'm almost always on. So I'm okay with basically any time.

 

[Amon Savag]

I'm on MSN... Let's beat it up.

 

[Sheep]

I always thought the worst state in the USA was South Carolina, at least that what all my RL American friends say.... (shock horror, yes I actually AM friends with some Americans in RL). Thats why I was very upset and really wanted to punch the ex-premier of Queensland in the face when he said South Carolina reminded him of home.

For the record most of the inbreds in Australia reside in Tasmania (which has a population of about four hundred thousand) and according to the Australian version of 60 minutes now South Australia...

I just took it as proof that inbred people could swim....

(Disclaimer: This is ACTUALLY meant for a joke, I hold nothing against people from Tasmania, South Australia or South Carolina for that matter either, its just what is being said by pretty much everyone I know so I am sharing with you all).

 

[Masada]

Bah Australian state politics, not quite to Illinois levels yet.

Western Australia:
Labor, a senior Minister was done for influence peddling, he also later bought down half of the Cabinet for corruption/complicity/dealings with him. Another Minister was done for dirty dancing with a female staffer in an end of budget party.
Liberal a Minister sniffed a female staffers chair... and yeah apparently had relations with a small marsupial [that was later revealed to be made up.

New South Wales:
Labor managed to win new points for fiscal incompetence, general featherbedding and horrible management courtesy of the financial crisis. The former leader of the party was booted out for trying to ignore the party constitution by his own caucus. It also has the dubious honor of having a few of it's MP removed for selling planning permissions...
Liberal, there's an opposition?

Queensland:
Labor has had accusations of corrupting and perverting the public service, by toning down critical reports, and appointing party faithful.
Liberal what there's an opposition?

Tasmania:
Labor the former premier resigned/retired over alleged influence peddling and a general disregard for environmental legislation and regulation to help get a proposed pulp mill built.

Victoria:
Labor under whose watch they have systematically ignored police corruption which culminated in sacking the whole elite drugs squad, and saw the removal of the Deputy Commissioner, and a fair wack of senior management for leaking murder details to wait... alleged mob figures. All the while the government was ignoring this as studiously as they could, heck they even denied there were problems for what 2 years?

The Northern Territory:
The Country Liberal Party managed to miss the fact that an ex-MP of the party was a kiddy fiddler with a fondness for underage boys for 20 odd years. Despite the fact that accusations were bought against him while he was still in Parliament. Questions still remain over if some of his party members actually were aware of the whole thing [fairly old news now].


The other two haven't had anything explode into view for a while.

 

[Ekolite]

Does anyone else think the EU would be better off with just the UK, France, the Low countries and Germany? Why do we even bother with those East Europeans? The only place in the UK that receives any funding from the EU is Cornwall, how much do you wanna bet they give Hungary or Slovakia? If we ditched the East then we Europeans might actually be able to compete with America and the other upoming super-powers. Then maybe we could expand the union, but slowly, one country at a time, and help them develop up to the level of the original members.

 

[Symphony D.]

If we ditched the East then we Europeans might actually be able to compete with America and the other upoming super-powers.

GDP (Nominal) 2050 PREDICTION (millions USD):
People's Republic of China: 70,710,000
United States of America: 38,514,000
India: 37,668,000
[United Kingdom, Germany, France]: 5,133,000+5,024,000+4,592,000=14,749,000
Brazil: 11,366,000
Mexico 9,340,000

In a word: no. As a hint it's related in large part to this, more easily visualized here.

 

[Masada]

How about Britain leaves, repents her sins for joining the edifice in the first place, sides with her children in the Commonwealth and forgets Europe full stop? I personally smirk every time I've heard Brown or Blair talking about the Commonwealth. All its members [worth anything] should sit down and politely say "Imperial Preference" and refuse to meet them in Parliament but somewhere in the wilderness where a certain "Mother country" left us. That's the cynical view, you choose the wrong self perpetuating mass in Brussels to deal with sonny. You won't ever leave now .

Masada's opinion is that courtesy of Brussels regulations and the whole "its a treaty not a Constitution" cripe we the former colonies, dominions, and members of the Commonwealth are more British than you are now. Parliamentary supremacy? Bah! Welcome to the continent.

 

[Symphony D.]

you choose the wrong self perpetuating mass in Brussels to deal with sonny. You won't ever leave now .

Not that you'll get out of the other one either, but that's a different matter entirely.

 

[Masada]

At least its an American dominated entity. All you need to do is to adopt the Westminister system and drop this whole Imperial Presidency job and we'll be set. We might even avoid the encroaching wave of stupidity that some seem to want to adopt from Europe... honestly enshrining the "right to work" in a bill of rights? Whut.

 

[Sheep]

Hahaha..... Go Westminister Democracy!!!! We can watch the politicans decide when the elections are and the Prime Minister or Oppostion Leader be turfed out of office without a vote held by the populace....

Yeah even Westminister democracy has its downsides.

 

[Masada]

Ah, but we don't have as much of a creeping executive, or the election of a man with what 30% of the population voting who apparently can go to war on his own? Or for that matter who can circumvent Parliament.

I will credit the Greens with being fairly consistent on social platforms, even if they are economically bonkers. The Liberals and Labour have a ban first ask questions later approach whenever they are in government, funny how it changes in opposition.

ANZUS is also to cool for NATO.

 

[Sheep]

Yes I am not saying American democracy is better than Westminister style democracy, I am just saying that Westminister has its failings.

 

[Masada]

Heresy and Blasphemy

 

[Angst]

Like I said you people have a ridiculous obsession with collecting and collating useless data. I think its a mental disorder.

I think NWAG3 quit NESing permanently
I bet you $10 he will be back though

True. That's what happened with me.

Oh, and I don't think that Abaddon has quit? It's simply difficult to participate with a 3 months ban

Oh... Well, some people just don't got no constitution, I guess. I can think of another NESer like that who's still with us, but I won't publicly befoul him.

Everyone is talking about me.

Does anyone else think the EU would be better off with just the UK, France, the Low countries and Germany? Why do we even bother with those East Europeans? The only place in the UK that receives any funding from the EU is Cornwall, how much do you wanna bet they give Hungary or Slovakia? If we ditched the East then we Europeans might actually be able to compete with America and the other upoming super-powers. Then maybe we could expand the union, but slowly, one country at a time, and help them develop up to the level of the original members.

UK should also be out, they don't like EU. And I'd appreciate if Danes generally were more cooperative and reasonable so that it would be benefitable for the Union to have us in as well.

 

[TaylorFlame]

Ah, but we don't have as much of a creeping executive, or the election of a man with what 30% of the population voting who apparently can go to war on his own? Or for that matter who can circumvent Parliament.

I will credit the Greens with being fairly consistent on social platforms, even if they are economically bonkers. The Liberals and Labour have a ban first ask questions later approach whenever they are in government, funny how it changes in opposition.

ANZUS is also to cool for NATO.

I have no love for both the Liberal and the Labor party. When they get into power, they both act almost like dictators, and make horrible, horrible decisions. And when they aren't in power. They complain about EVERYTHING.

And yeah, ANZUS is awesome.

 

[Masada]

Bah even you Danes don't really profit from the Union all that much, a simple deal with Germany [50% of the volume of your trade] and your Scandinavian "friends" [10%] would probably be almost as beneficial

Those figures are from memory.


Us poor Kiwis, Aussies, and combination of the two [me] should do what any sane person would do when faced with a world full of basket cases... studiously ignore the basket cases

 

[Disenfrancised]

How about Britain leaves, repents her sins for joining the edifice in the first place, sides with her children in the Commonwealth and forgets Europe full stop? I personally smirk every time I've heard Brown or Blair talking about the Commonwealth. All its members [worth anything] should sit down and politely say "Imperial Preference" and refuse to meet them in Parliament but somewhere in the wilderness where a certain "Mother country" left us. That's the cynical view, you choose the wrong self perpetuating mass in Brussels to deal with sonny. You won't ever leave now .

Masada's opinion is that courtesy of Brussels regulations and the whole "its a treaty not a Constitution" cripe we the former colonies, dominions, and members of the Commonwealth are more British than you are now. Parliamentary supremacy? Bah! Welcome to the continent.

Because a) the Commonwealth members have very different economic set up and are pretty far away, b) even if we did that we'd still need some sort of relationship with europe as they are right next door and account for over 50% of our trade and unlike Oz we don't have the advantage of sitting on a big pile of metals to provide economic security and c) You ditched us (justifiably so as Britain no longer had the military resources to protect the Commonwealth and had been forced into vassalage to the US anyway).

@Ekolite: the east joined quickly in order to stake the Wests claim and create a 'buffer space', and take advantage of the resources and cheaper labour whilst bringing them up to code ala ireland.