A couple of images just for Bert

smhardesty

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Bert, I thought these might make you smile for the day. I saw the first one and was really rattled. Note that it specifically states that the casinos won more than $60 billion. It doesn't say they took that much in. They PROFITED that much after payouts. Sad.

The second image just tickled me. I have to ask if the headlines and news stories from down under are as bogus as they are here. I see article after article talking about what a fantastic show it was, but then read all the comments and it's about 4 to 1 against it being a good show. Most are upset over the whole crotch rubbing/finger sniffing display. If you didn't see that, here is a link to a video of it and then an article from the UK about it.


https://nypost.com/2023/02/13/rihanna-grabs-crotch-smells-fingers-during-super-bowl-halftime-show/

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...l-Singer-grabs-crotch-butt-smelling-hand.html



Screenshot_2023-02-16_10-51-44.png


Screenshot_2023-02-16_10-54-25.png
 

bertsmobile1

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Firstly like a lot of others I ignored the super bowl as it has ZERO relevance to Australia in general & me in particular .
Eventually as we get more & more US culture rammed down our throats it will be a national holiday
Right now there is a push for a national holiday for Halloween, something that is again meaningless in OZ but now has been forced upon us .
However if you think of it , just a publicity stunt like that other trollope who had an "accidential " breast flop .
Even worse is her voice is not all that good & her act is at least 80% hype , but that applies to just about all celebrity super stars .

As for the casinos, a very soft way of saying Americans lost 80 billion
The 60 that the casinos declaired as profit ( after costs ) and the 20 of costs .
Now add sports betting , lotteries , animal racing and the other gambling schemes and you have a figure larger than the governments tax take .
And the bulk of it comes from the bottom 20% of the population and all of the profits go to the top 10%
So they are an income distribution from the poor to the rich .
 

smhardesty

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Firstly like a lot of others I ignored the super bowl as it has ZERO relevance to Australia in general & me in particular .
Eventually as we get more & more US culture rammed down our throats it will be a national holiday
Right now there is a push for a national holiday for Halloween, something that is again meaningless in OZ but now has been forced upon us .
However if you think of it , just a publicity stunt like that other trollope who had an "accidential " breast flop .
Even worse is her voice is not all that good & her act is at least 80% hype , but that applies to just about all celebrity super stars .

As for the casinos, a very soft way of saying Americans lost 80 billion
The 60 that the casinos declaired as profit ( after costs ) and the 20 of costs .
Now add sports betting , lotteries , animal racing and the other gambling schemes and you have a figure larger than the governments tax take .
And the bulk of it comes from the bottom 20% of the population and all of the profits go to the top 10%
So they are an income distribution from the poor to the rich .
I didn't watch it either, Bert. My wife and I have made an annual event out of the Super Bowl for 39 years. We used to have a whole day of fun for the game. Not this year. I refused to view the game OR the halftime show and my wife said she had ZERO interest in the halftime show, which she usually really liked to see.

Yes, I agree. A lot of what happens during the halftime show is no more than an attempt to garner more attention from the masses. It's truly sad that disgusting displays like this year's show seem to really please a lot of people. When I first saw the video of her rubbing her crotch and smelling her fingers, my mind first thought that I misunderstood what happened. It was kind of like I was trying to make myself believe something like that couldn't have happened on live TV at an event the size of the Super Bowl. When I watched it the second and third times, I came to the realization that she actually did what I was afraid she had done. I just have to wonder what parents had to tell their kids when they asked what she was doing. LOL!

And you just absolutely NAILED the gambling thing, especially your statement about the bulk of it coming from the bottom 20% of the population and all of the profits going to the top 10%. Couldn't be truer. All that money is taken out of the hands of those that really can't afford to lose it. We hear stories of different people we know that have gambled themselves into a tight spot. What is kind of upsetting about that is that we hear stories about people we THOUGHT had a little more common sense. I think the part that disturbs me the most is that all the gambling is not only approved by the state and federal governments, they participate in it. Just like you mentioned, there are dozens and dozens of lotteries and scratch off lotteries run by pretty much every state in the country now. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but it seems like our elected officials are deliberately trying to push the bottom 20% down even further. They run all sorts of commercials on TV encouraging people to buy more lottery tickets. Sad state of affairs.

Sorry you that are down under are being pressed to accept any of our culture. I guess I'd have to ask why your government would want to push something like Halloween on you if it was never an official holiday for you. I guess the powers that be down there think it's another way to strip your citizens of more of their money. All holidays here in the states are now nothing more than state sanctioned, commercial, spending sprees. It's all about getting the masses to spend even MORE money on ridiculous holiday items.

In fact, the female part of a young couple we know just asked if we thought she was a terrible mother for NOT buying a bunch of Valentine's Day candy and other such nonsense for their kids. We were quick to commend her for not doing it. We told her that if she REALLY wanted to do something for the kids for Valentine's Day she should get them all in the kitchen and have them help make up some heart shaped sugar cookies. My wife told her to have 2 or 3 different colored icings and a few different colored sprinkles and then let each of the kids decorate the cookies however they wanted, within reason of course. LOL! She said she had never thought about doing something like that, but thought it was a great idea. I told her that her kids will remember spending time with the rest of the family a hell of a lot longer than they'll remember eating another chocolate heart.
 

bertsmobile1

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yep,
Being pushed by the retailers
Sell lots of decorations & candy
Remember over consumption of throw away items that are the prime cause of global warming .
Banning Halloween & (if you like ) Valentines day would do more to combat global pollution than banning petrol powered gardening equipment .

As for gambleing , it is a lot easier to get $ 100 from every poor person than $ 1 from a single rich one
 

smhardesty

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Banning Halloween & (if you like ) Valentines day would do more to combat global pollution than banning petrol powered gardening equipment .

As for gambleing , it is a lot easier to get $ 100 from every poor person than $ 1 from a single rich one
Well said. Absolutely true, on both accounts. My wife and I decided a LOT of years ago to stop buying flowers and candy for Valentine's, our anniversary, her birthday, etc, etc.

I'd hate to think how long it has been since I bought a lottery ticket of any kind. It's been a LONG time. I'd say it was probably about the second year the State of Illinois started their lottery. Nope, I stadn corrected. I just did a quick search and found that Illinois started their lottery in 1974. So, I'd now say that it has been since about 1984 or so since I bought one. Tells you how much attention I pay to that crap. LOL!

It's funny the way you made the statement about how much easier it is to get money from a poor person as compared to a rich one. A very long time ago, there were ads running in the backs of a whole lot of magazines. The ad was the same in every magazine. It said something like, "Make A Million Dollars - GUARANTEED. Proof provided with info packet." If you sent the $2 asking price, they sent you two sheets of paper. The first explained how to do what they were doing. The second was the "proof" they promised. The deal was that all you had to do to make a million dollars was to find 500,000 people that would send you $2. The proof was that you had sent the $2 yourself so it HAD to work. I thought it was hilarious. LOL!
 

bertsmobile1

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Now days all you need to do is find some natural disaster , pretend you were there then set up a go fund me page
To date ASIC have prosecuted over 300 aussies who pretended they were either burned out during the 2019 bushfires and all their animals were badly burned thus needed urgent medical treatment or were washed away in the 2022 floods .

The one that really floored me was one of those "social influencers " ( whatever they are ) ran an appeal during the 2019 bushfires and raised over $ 30,000,000 from her idiot followers .
Now because she had absolutely no idea about what she was doing ( like most SI's apparently ) when it came time to distribute the money she was obliged to give it all to the Rural Bushfire Service and they could only spend it on equipment or buildings .
She was guilty of a fraud and for $ 30 million that is a 10 year goal sentence minimum.
Thus there was a legal challenge to the laws that she never bothered to check, because the first appeal to be launched always raises the most cash .
All of the media blamed the government for not changing the laws not the ego maniac who broke it in order to elevate her own social status
 

smhardesty

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Now days all you need to do is find some natural disaster , pretend you were there then set up a go fund me page
To date ASIC have prosecuted over 300 aussies who pretended they were either burned out during the 2019 bushfires and all their animals were badly burned thus needed urgent medical treatment or were washed away in the 2022 floods .

The one that really floored me was one of those "social influencers " ( whatever they are ) ran an appeal during the 2019 bushfires and raised over $ 30,000,000 from her idiot followers .
Now because she had absolutely no idea about what she was doing ( like most SI's apparently ) when it came time to distribute the money she was obliged to give it all to the Rural Bushfire Service and they could only spend it on equipment or buildings .
She was guilty of a fraud and for $ 30 million that is a 10 year goal sentence minimum.
Thus there was a legal challenge to the laws that she never bothered to check, because the first appeal to be launched always raises the most cash .
All of the media blamed the government for not changing the laws not the ego maniac who broke it in order to elevate her own social status
We have heard some really twisted tales of people in the general area that have setup one of those Go Fund Me accounts, or pages, or whatever they are for nothing more than a means of stealing from friends, family, and then all the dingbats on Facebook. The most recent bogus Go Fund Me ripoffs were related to Covid. Several people in southeastern Illinois got caught telling bare faced lies about having terrible Covid symptoms and then not having any health insurance to pay for it all. There should be ZERO compassion for twits like them. Each and every one should receive the stiffest penalty the law permits.

Yep, another of the things that are making the current society a sad place and time to live.
 
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