Growing up in the country guns were everywhere including in my own family. I also knew & knew of plenty of dangerous nutters who would shoot at anything that moved. The main use of firearms in my family was for putting down injured animals.

It took a number of incidents like Hoddle St, Queen St, Strathfield & Port Arthur for the Government to act. While the gun buy-back wasn't necessarily a bad thing - my cynical mind also thought it was a ploy for the Government to disarm the public for the wrong reasons.

About 18 months ago I was visiting a mate across the ditch. I was most surprised to see over there tabloid newspapers with full page advertisements for all kinds of firearms. Some of you may have seen the TV show Hunting Aotearoa which often shows a bunch of blokes armed to the teeth hunting poaka (pigs).

It is a bit disappointing that it was an Australian responsible for the Christchurch massacre. There are plenty of crazy Kiwi nutters who would of been capable of doing it themselves.

It's not just the guns it's the fear mentality. That clip is an interesting take on where it comes from and how far back it goes...

The American Revolution taught the British a valuable lesson.

That is the reason why their future settler colonies like in Australia were granted self government - to prevent potential revolt.

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Trump doesn't have the support of all Americans. He appeals to the dumb-as-dogshit masses who are easy to manipulate.

You just have to see Trump playing the "lets get back to work" protesters.

Twitter facilitates/empowers lunatics at all levels of society. It's the modern version of the dog whistle, with global reach.

Guys don't forget we have a few Americans on this forum and we don't want to alienate them.

I agree with the comments regarding Twitter. The first four letters of the company's name speaks for itself. One thing that grates me no end is the repetitive quoting from Twitter blurbs by the mainstream media. Websites like The Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald and News Ltd (news.com.au) are supposed to be the apex predators when it comes to reporting news and they constantly include this Twitter garbage within their news reporting.

Yes Brad I must say that in my travels in the States I've always been pleasantly surprised at just how friendly and helpful everyone was.

We need to be very careful with stereotypes. And a lot of Americans hate Michael Moore!

when it comes to reporting news and they constantly include this Twitter garbage within their news reporting.

Some years ago someone came up with the term 'churnalism' to describe what was once known as journalism, and that was mainly a reaction to the lazy practice of reproducing wire stories, press releases and various forms of propaganda verbatim without any critical consideration or assessment of the material beforehand.

Reporting Twitter feeds is beyond lazy. It signals the demise of the Fourth Estate.

Well I can say one thing for them , great work ethics .I ve worked with yanks and their work ethics are excellent. Put most people to shame.
They get the job done no mucking about or sitting about.


Pete

They get the job done no mucking about or sitting about.

Many (most?) countries have plenty of people with that work ethic. Nobody who ever worked for me lasted without it, that's for sure.

Americans talk -- or at least they did when I was growing up -- about having a Can Do attitude. I like that.

Found it: https://www.abc.net.au/news/image/12166464-3x2-700x467.jpg

The ones I have work with were a little like that , but their work was exceptional

Whilst things are improving in the supermarkets, the dunny roll shelves are still only half full and what is there is generally only 8-packs. I almost missed a chance to get tomato paste again too.

I read where the supermarkets, sick of having to deal with hordes of shelf-strippers, asked the toilet paper manufacturers to just deliver two-packs. They responded that two-packs are uneconomical -- they prefer to supply the bigger packs. I guess they have compromised at 8-packs.