After this's all over, I hope the U.S. gov't bills Trump for the damage he's done to our reputation

[snipelfritz]

I actually prefer the peanut butter sandwich cookies.

[Chankgeez]

I don't think any of 'em are as good as they used to be. *sigh*

[gnomethrone]

MAKE GIRLSCOUT COOKIES GREAT AG...

oh man I realized that joke is not funny anymore as I was typing. fuck.

[Disarm D'arcy]

Make that joke great again.

[goroth]

Hey ours weren't either before the elections.

Boom!

[Iommic Pope]

He's insulting Australians now: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/na ... 99f87dd752

Here's my question though. Why were these refugees in detainment camps?

Ok so this is actually quite complicated and not likely to get explained properly on your end of the media.
Its barely reported correctly down here.

Immigration became a hot topic during the late 90s down here when waves of illegal immigrants trying to claim refugee status (the legitimacy of which is STILL a conversation that you dont want to have with the average person) and as a result of being intercepted in the water by our navy and coastguard, as they generally travel from indonesia on unseaworthy vessels, there have been several cases where people have died/drowned under Australian supervision, but not jurisdiction.
No thats all very messy but heres where it gets really complicated. Aside from many of these vessels being packed full to the brim with people and not having the adequate amenities to deal with the sheer volume of humanity as well as being mostly in states of dire disrepair resulting in the loss of lives at sea, it would seem there has sprung a burgeoning industry overseas where so called "people smugglers" are naking a packet by takig these poor folks money and packing them off to a fate unknown, promising that theyll make it to Australia and everything will be apples.
The Australian immigration policy has always been incredibly strict and it cannot be ignored that there is a huge component of that ledt over from our incredibly racist colonial history, but at some point we adopted a policy of either attempting to turn these boats back mid voyage or by interceptig them, getting the people to shore and then detaining them for processing. Its unclear whether or not this policy was adopted out of sheer pandering to a racist and paranoid australian electorate by conservative governments, or if there was a genuine intention to disuade people from travelling this way and risking their lives, and in the process shut down a very shady black market, but either way, our politicians couldnt carve a policy that seemed to allow for a process that safely ended this practice without violating basic human rights.
So, a few years back they had the bright idea of intercepting these people and then packing them off to detention centers in neighbouring regions so that any violations of human rights didnt occur in our own backyard and we were technically still above board with everything. Dodgey as.
Its something that a lot of Australians are really unhappy about but our dumb bogan, vocal majority seems to think we're going to be overrun with, as DoS said, scary beown people akd there'll be Sharia Law tomorrow if we dont do this sort of shit now.
So the ONLY good out come of this situation with your Idiot in Chief is that our Prime Idiot may actually have to get off his arse and draft a solution that actually improves our dealing with this situation and isnt an international embarrassment.
TLDR, we suck, you suck, poor people are dying while rich white people still cant figure out what to do with them.

[D.o.S.]

Yeah human smugglers are a thing on our continent as well, unfortunately.

The most high profile cases are usually regarding Cuban baseball players, because professional baseball is illegal in Cuba, which is all sorts of weird and really interesting (beyond the obviously horrible bits):
http://www.lamag.com/longform/escape-fr ... e-dodgers/

[Iommic Pope]

Yeah human smugglers are a thing on our continent as well, unfortunately.

The most high profile cases are usually regarding Cuban baseball players, because professional baseball is illegal in Cuba, which is all sorts of weird and really interesting (beyond the obviously horrible bits):
http://www.lamag.com/longform/escape-fr ... e-dodgers/

Yeah, that's pretty interesting.
The problem we have is mostly because we are an island and it just makes it so much more dangerous.
We're in a difficult position politically as well because our economy isn't big enough to take everyone, but at the same time we could probably not be such dicks about the whole thing.

Trump's stating that Australia has "abused" its relationship with America is pretty fucking absurd and insulting to be honest, though.
If his plan is to implode America into a closed state then he is certainly going about it the right way.

[Chankgeez]

Well, I don't think Trump actually has any real friends. So, he's selfish. Welcome to our new foreign policy.

[tremolo3]

If his plan is to implode America into a closed state then he is certainly going about it the right way.

Isn't that why most people wanted him to "win" anyways?

[comesect2.0]

whats the difference between a full bore politician and a full on business man? so far ...one tells you ''all will become suited to your needs '' while others pull the strings for them and make way ....the other makes drastic changes without consulting anyone because its their empire ...

always seemed to me the president is just a fallout boy/poster boy ''see this president, if anything is wrong..its his fault" while the others who really run the show are never heard of or seen because they run the real show....obviously they have achieved what they set out to do for us, which is put us all in our place..now we can have some entertainment.. blacks/browns/blues/pinks, women, robots, magic rabbits...its the ''everyone needs a cult club'' choose your side and whine, while nothing happens except All the benefits of war.

[D.o.S.]

If his plan is to implode America into a closed state then he is certainly going about it the right way.

Isn't that why most people wanted him to "win" anyways?

20% of the population =/= most.

[tremolo3]

Yeah, was talking about the RoW.

[D.o.S.]

I mean also I think there's a very good litmus test that if the current president can't stand you you're probably in the right.

I would also like to present a pair of old white dudes commentaries on Black History month (which is Feb in the US). One of them is Trump. The other is Gregg Popovich, who is an NBA coach (and an Air Force veteran, but basically he has always been a basketball coach, professionally speaking.

“Well, it’s a remembrance, and a bit of a celebration in some ways. It sounds odd because we’re not there yet, but it’s always important to remember what has passed and what is being experienced now by the black population. It’s a celebration of some of the good things that have happened, and a reminder that there’s a lot more work to do. But more than anything, I think if people take the time to think about it, I think it is our national sin. It always intrigues me when people come out with, ‘I’m tired of talking about that or do we have to talk about race again?’ And the answer is you’re damned right we do. Because it’s always there, and it’s systemic in the sense that when you talk about opportunity it’s not about ‘Well, if you lace up your shoes and you work hard, then you can have the American dream.’ That’s a bunch of hogwash. If you were born white, you automatically have a monstrous advantage educationally, economically, culturally in this society and all the systemic roadblocks that exist, whether it’s in a judicial sense, a neighborhood sense with laws, zoning, education, we have huge problems in that regard that are very complicated, but take leadership, time, and real concern to try to solve.

It’s a tough one because people don’t really want to face it. And it’s in our national discourse. We have a president of the United States who spent four or five years disparaging and trying to illegitimatize our president. And we know that was a big fake. But still, [he] felt for some reason it had to be done. I can still remember a paraphrase close to a quote “investigators were sent to Hawaii and you cannot believe what they found.” Well, that was a lie. So if it’s being discussed and perpetrated at that level, you’ve got a national problem. I think that’s enough.”

Well, the election, it came out really well. Next time we’ll triple the number or quadruple it. We want to get it over 51, right? At least 51.

Well this is Black History Month, so this is our little breakfast, our little get-together. Hi Lynn, how are you? Just a few notes. During this month, we honor the tremendous history of African-Americans throughout our country. Throughout the world, if you really think about it, right? And their story is one of unimaginable sacrifice, hard work, and faith in America. I’ve gotten a real glimpse—during the campaign, I’d go around with Ben to a lot of different places I wasn’t so familiar with. They’re incredible people. And I want to thank Ben Carson, who’s gonna be heading up HUD. That’s a big job. That’s a job that’s not only housing, but it’s mind and spirit. Right, Ben? And you understand, nobody’s gonna be better than Ben.

Last month, we celebrated the life of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., whose incredible example is unique in American history. You read all about Dr. Martin Luther King a week ago when somebody said I took the statue out of my office. It turned out that that was fake news. Fake news. The statue is cherished, it’s one of the favorite things in the—and we have some good ones. We have Lincoln, and we have Jefferson, and we have Dr. Martin Luther King. But they said the statue, the bust of Martin Luther King, was taken out of the office. And it was never even touched. So I think it was a disgrace, but that’s the way the press is. Very unfortunate.

I am very proud now that we have a museum on the National Mall where people can learn about Reverend King, so many other things. Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more, I noticed. Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, and millions more black Americans who made America what it is today. Big impact.

I’m proud to honor this heritage and will be honoring it more and more. The folks at the table in almost all cases have been great friends and supporters. Darrell—I met Darrell when he was defending me on television. And the people that were on the other side of the argument didn’t have a chance, right? And Paris has done an amazing job in a very hostile CNN community. He’s all by himself. You’ll have seven people, and Paris. And I’ll take Paris over the seven. But I don’t watch CNN, so I don’t get to see you as much as I used to. I don’t like watching fake news. But Fox has treated me very nice. Wherever Fox is, thank you.

We’re gonna need better schools and we need them soon. We need more jobs, we need better wages, a lot better wages. We’re gonna work very hard on the inner city. Ben is gonna be doing that, big league. That’s one of the big things that you’re gonna be looking at. We need safer communities and we’re going to do that with law enforcement. We’re gonna make it safe. We’re gonna make it much better than it is right now. Right now it’s terrible, and I saw you talking about it the other night, Paris, on something else that was really—you did a fantastic job the other night on a very unrelated show.

I’m ready to do my part, and I will say this: We’re gonna work together. This is a great group, this is a group that’s been so special to me. You really helped me a lot. If you remember I wasn’t going to do well with the African-American community, and after they heard me speaking and talking about the inner city and lots of other things, we ended up getting—and I won’t go into details—but we ended up getting substantially more than other candidates who had run in the past years. And now we’re gonna take that to new levels. I want to thank my television star over here—Omarosa’s actually a very nice person, nobody knows that. I don’t want to destroy her reputation but she’s a very good person, and she’s been helpful right from the beginning of the campaign, and I appreciate it. I really do. Very special.

So I want to thank everybody for being here.

One of these guys tells grown men in gym shorts where and when to run in a glorified gymnasium while they play a children's game for general social entertainment. The other has the big red button. Fuck everything.

[Blackened Soul]

THEWORDSTHENEVERENDINGWORDS