General Political Views: Australia: Australia is fortunate in having stuff to dig up and sell and this won't change really for many decades. But, in preparation, a good bit of each budget should be spent on making Australians somewhat smarter, brighter. I'd be happy with a moderately leftist or centralist government interested in the wellbeing and continuity of its people based upon very easily know factors, as could easily be done, with long range planning. I think a 3 year term for the Federal Government is absurdly short, and it should be 5 years, every 5 years, Government kicks off on January 1, and ends 5 years later on December 31. This enables planning and certainty, and enables a reasonable period for judgment of the Government's progress. I don't like the current Australian government simply because the Right is always trying to create more wealth for the rich here and overseas, and see the poor as disreputable and unworthy. Thats what they do. Its an ideology. Why is the Right an ideology? Because its just so Easy and yet improves nothing. This doesn't serve Australian folk at all. I think that ideology is very flawed. I don't think the Free Market Notion looks after anyone except itself...and the government should be a rock of serious responsible certainty- they certainly get paid enough to do that serious job, and there's ample money to do that, and be very proactive in protecting the population. How can one be living in 2019 when the education of children and the quality of health services etc are dictated by international players every month on the stock exchange? This is absurd. This is not responsible government. This is the failure of government. As for Alliances, we can be allied to any great power where the future, rather than the past, is seriously considered and planned, and brings real benefit to Australians. As for: America, Europe, China, Russia, etc well I wish them well in working out what is best to do within their borders. It is their business, their people.I doubt that democracy matters at all, as long as government is mostly concerned with the wellbeing of its people. As for Ireland, well: one island, One Ireland, I think is best. To bring this about, the UK's attachment to Northern Ireland needs to be destroyed by whatever means are available.

Oh, a mass-shooting in California. Kind of normal these days. I guess if Americans are happy enough to be killing each other, they're less likely to wage war on poor bastards overseas in places no one cares about, as has been the norm for 60 years. That's a good thing. Well done, America. Well done Donald. Build that beautiful wall. Keep the Mad Americans in America...and do what you like there.

Now, let us see...the US broke their treaty with Iran, even though it was working, so then Iran shot down a US drone, then the US/UK impounded an Iranian tanker, then the US shot down an Iranian drone, and now Iran has impounded a UK tanker. Nothing unusual at all. Boys being boys.

I see an Australian swimmer has refused to share a podium with a Chinese swimmer who beat him. Boys being precious boys.

HONKERS HAS GONE BONKERS. The civil unrest in Hong Kong bears similarities, in a way, to the Bangkok/Thailand rebellions around 2012. A highly organised democratic movement supported by equally some very good folk and some very dodgy criminal groups against a kind of governing elite. In the Thai situation the Government just let the protestors win, the protestors took over parliament, ruled the streets, dug up the roads, burnt down about 20 skyscrapers etc for about a year, and then the Government, housed in offices near the airport, just had some military interventions of an 'urban pacification' kind...and lots of Psychological Ops and just sniper-ed off the leaders of the protest, and thus nothing changed in terms of the rulers of the city...the Government won, the rebellion was over...and people just got tired of protesting and not getting work or pay.

What is the general view on drug-pill-testing at pop festivals? If at pop festivals, why not have a small office in every town that tests tablets for people who wander in whether there's a festival or not? Would an increase in taxation be a good thing to cover the costs of this?

China does a lot of social experiments, including the current Social Credits scheme in Beijing and Shanghai. China experiments with democracy in some cities, with neo-Maoism-collectivism in others, like Chongqing, and with a variety of forms of new social engineering, including rampant capitalism in Hong Kong and here and there. It's a big culture/society and so does massive billion people trials over many years. Of all the people in the world, China studies the Chinese most. At the same time, it has more higher educated and well informed economic analysts of, say, Australian and UK economics than either the UK or Australia have, or could ever have. China studies urban pacification as well. I recall during the 2012 riots in Bangkok, the first-on-the-group foreigners were plane-loads of Chinese tactical analysts, studying the impact of the rebellion, and analysing everything the combatants did. The Chinese invest in Knowledge of other people, as well as themselves. They are a new and old and remarkable and unique human civilisation. One would find most Chinese to be a bit dubious about social experiments like Western democracy when the last really big 'social experiment' most recall and remain damaged by, is the horror of the Cultural Revolution. I guess the Chinese Nation could fall apart, and this is about as likely as Hawaii gaining independence from the USA...or Tibet gaining independence from China, or Canberra in Australia becoming the property of the local indigenous folk...all these things could happen, yeah, but none of them ever will happen.