Thirty days in jail for catching rainwater?

The freedoms and priveledges of Australian folk actually have nothing to do with the US constitution and Bill of Rights. Our history is British not American. No one had to bear arms to fight for our freedom in this country (we just killed a lot of the indigenous population - mostly with measles, but many with guns - which is nothing to be proud of). We have our own constitution. We have no Bill of Rights and that has worked out well for us so far. Sure the USA sent troops here in WW2 to help us keep the Japanese away, but I think we've MORE than repaid the favour over the years since by sacrificing our young men to support US troops in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan etc.

Australia has very strict gun laws (and that's why no one gets shot going to watch Batman) and we haven't turned into a totalitarian state (yet anyway).

Don't worry Ben - most Aussies look across at the US and thank our lucky stars that we don't live there. Apart from the 12 year olds who think the place is one giant Disney theme park.

 

Really? Then you and i have differnt definition of hate Threats to shoot, calling people niggers and faggots is not divisive hate speech?

So you are being supported by a Socialist Government? Here we have the same system The government puts aside taxes to pay for illness misadventure etc we call it insurance or security too.

Then why are so many in jail?

Yes many trillions in offshore accounts It seems only the poor and middle class pay tax in USA

Always amazed me that same US states have no social security. It was the case if you lost your job in Texas you would need to move to NY to get unemployment benefit for 3-6 months. Would't it be better not to feed people; then they can die of exposure quicker?

Isn't the policy work or die? Stay in a lousy $6 PH job because you are afraid of dying like vermin on the streets?
I was appalled by the level of poverty and the ghettos in the US. People living in boxes; selling their bodies for shelter

No one? Seems to me a renegade Australian owns most media, along with his Arab partner, and is pushing a conservative agenda, as he is doing here.

This I don't understand How come companies like GE pay no tax?
How come Obama let criminal banks put people out of their homes; so now you have more empty homes than you have homeless people? I guess giving people the money to buy out their mortgage would have been seen as "socialism" whereas propping up the criminal, amoral actions of banks was "Economically Responsible".
It always amazed me that your Federal/reserve Bank was not independent of anybody and was/is run by a cabal of Wall street bankers

I don't and do not pretend to understand how you guys think.
The US is a very foreign county to me. Seems to me you guys can keep two logically inconsistent ideas in your head at once eg.,
When I visited the south i ran into a Baptist convention who told me (towards end of Cold War when Russians not Arabs were the enemy/bad guys then) that they wanted to "nuke" Russia and Russian cities because they were "unGodly"

Given all this I was asked by someone to summerise what i thought of the US after my one vist. I said this was impossible because of the US's great diversity but when pushed said" the US has some of the best and some of the worst things in the world."

 

I guess the same could be said about politics?

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-candace-chellewhodge/why-gays-and-lesbians-sho_b_801399.html

 

The U.S.A can be truly alarming.

 

I agree, but it is my home. For a long time I was depressed because I know there is nothing I can do on a national level for change at this time besides talking about food health & safety since it is what I grow.

However, the musician "KRS-1" brought the US into perspective recently for me that made me a lot happier. I may not be able to change things on a Federal, or World Wide level like the 2% of the US (which the masses are not happy with), but I can change things on a local level.

More importantly, I can educate people about things on a local level, and that change will eventually "trickle up"... ..I hope.

 

I am a liberal in that I want people to have safe housing, healthy food, and a bright future for children for more then 7 generations. Your "label" of me has nothing to do with my beliefs. Also, the Tea Party is made by, and backed by the 2% that want to have run away monopolies that were busted by a great Republican president. To quote...

I guess he was a liberal as well.

Your views of America are not those of a lot of Americans.

 

Article about real conservatives: https://transitionvoice.com/2012/12/ecology-is-turning-me-into-a-conservative/

 

Makes some good points but if I “Don’t eat anything your grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food,” I would have a very limited bog-Irish diet