The ACT Liberals' Senate candidate selection and power-playing 18 months before the election, and local connections to Advance Australia's rubbishy campaign tactics on billboards and in our letterboxes were not forgotten either, even when Scott Morrison and the Coalition Right were busy digging much deeper holes for themselves across an already threadbare "just vote for us" platform.

Having Scott Morrison on the backbench or off working privately in marketing or from the pulpit won't remove the stumbling blocks surrounding the ACT Liberal Party's focus and operations.

It's not often one comes across a letter that is so egregiously wrong in its mishmash of baseless opinion as that penned by Christopher Smith (Letters, August 10).

Whatever John Menadue is, he was not a Soviet apparatchik who "lost" the Cold War. The great tragedy of the collapse of the Soviet Union was the lost opportunity to actually remake the world on agreed international rules, in a peaceful, demilitarised world, without the ever-present threat of nuclear obliteration.

The United States has always acted in its own perceived self interest. It has been at war for most of its history. It has subverted democratically elected governments, sponsored military coups and ignored the sovereignty of countries when it suits. It is an empire in all but name.

It's kleptocratic corporate classes have stymied meaningful action for 30 years to head off global heating, and always prioritised profit taking in the private interests of owners and shareholders.

It's post New Deal neoliberalism has gutted it's homeland industry, middle classes, and impoverished hundreds of millions within it's world-wide economic domain.

If we are to have a future it is through international cooperation, compromise and cohesion. We really do need the experience and policy nous of men like John Menadue, not poison pen letters from pipsqueak intellects.

The argument (Letters, August 10) between Christopher Smith and Vince Patulny about John Menadue's criticism of USA's behaviour internationally in the past and potentially in the future needs to be resolved. Patulny shows that America is not "essentially ... a benevolent force for good" as Smith claims. But Patulny's problem, as Smith shows, is that Australia is not, either.

Nor is China. Nor, probably, is any nation state. We humans, in my view, are just too intelligent for our own good. "We" imagine, despite "some semblance of international democracy and rule of law" that we can "win" against 'them", no matter who "we" are or who "they" are.

It's not much of a resolution, unless all of us use our intelligence and our common sense, refuse to fight and seek compromise among ourselves and between our groups, even at a national level.

I fear it will not be easy, though. On the same day CT reported "Brawling youths 'a problem in this city'. "One of the teenager's friends became involved in a Snapchat argument, and the offender was invited to a physical fight that was to occur in response", resulting in stabbings, one a murder. All boys and young men.

Will women help us, please, and take political power out of violent men's hands?

It was refreshing to see an alternative viewpoint on our powerful ally expressed by John Menadue in the opinion pages. Generally speaking, we are stuck in a US and UK Anglophone media cul de sac.

Our mainstream media ignores the inconvenient fact that in 1979 the US recognised Taiwan as part of China. It prefers not to detail the US's illegal occupation of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean where the US has gone against its own rules-based order to build an enormous air force and naval base from which it is able to attack a wide arc of countries including Southern China. Of course, the US invasion of Iraq blatantly violated any rules based order.

The US assumes a moral superiority it denies to others. It is blinded by its own exceptionalism: it obviously wants other nations to do what it says, not what it does. Moreover, the constant claims of Chinese military aggression in the Pacific have precious little to back them up.

Pine Gap's signals interception ability makes it a prime target in the event of war. And the Morrison government recently allowed Darwin to become a de facto American military base.

Australia needs to seek a degree of foreign policy independence or we will risk being drawn into a war against China which could have catastrophic consequences.

The new Labor federal government is apparently prepared to subsidise Light Rail Stage 2 to the tune of $181.2 million plus $132.5 million, supposedly already committed by the federal government, for a total of $313.7 million, so far (August 9).

While this is a significant sum, it is still only about 10 per cent of the expected $3 billion or more cost of Stage 2 (construction and 20 years of operations) that the ACT taxpayer's will be stuck with, all from debt. However, as Mr Barr has said "We are all Keynesians now", ie debt is good.

Given that Minister for Finance Katy Gallagher is boasting that she started the tram, even though she was reported in June as saying that "cabinet will not support a cost substantially beyond $614 million, even more of taxpayers' good money can be expected to be thrown after bad. But Dracula is in the bloodbank.

The other day I had some trouble at the petrol bowser. The thing refused to take my credit card. I called over the assistant, and after some considerable trouble and failed acceptance, it finally worked. From the adjacent bowser a lady peeped round, and saw an old guy with not much hair, and what there was, was unkempt, whose credit card was not working, very probably because he didn't have funds.

"Would you like some money? My aunt has given me money," she said, as to make it easier for me to accept.

"You are a lovely, very kind lady," I said. "If there were more like you, the world would be a better place, and much easier to manage."

Or rather, that's what I should have said. I mumbled something further, got into the car and drove off. I hope she reads The Canberra Times.

Why doesn't Australia just adopt the European emission standards and save a whole lot of money in discussions and vehicle development expenses. If the higher standards are adopted it will be better for us all (health and pocket wise) and vehicle manufacturers (none in Australia anymore so not protecting Australian production) will be able to sell the same vehicles (right hand drive of course) that Europeans all have access to including a greater range of electric vehicles.

It is very hard to understand why the federal government is supporting Canberra's light rail before any meaningful business case for the project has been made out by the ACT government ("Feds back wire-free trams", August 9). With the additional costs of raising London Circuit, expanding the Mitchell depot, enlarging the fleet, and now having to retrofit and upgrade all existing vehicles to battery operation; the original costings for the project must now be astronomical.

It is time Minister Steel came clean and provided Canberrans with the true cost and business case for this project. It is unfortunate that Katy Gallagher, who is largely responsible for this appalling project, should be involved with this project at all at a federal level.

When the ACT has a disgraceful hospital system, appalling homeless and housing problems, surely now is the time, before it is too late, to stop this totally uneconomic and socially irresponsible project in its tracks.

Judy Aulich seems to advocate government powers to billet homeless in vacant granny flats (Letters, August 11). As an owner of such a flat it is not worth my effort to lease it, if for no other reason than I would then have to pay land tax on the whole block including my family home, in addition to other taxes. If she is seriously concerned she is at liberty to build her own flat and let the government allocate it.

The Canberra Times could have broken the news more gently that Upper Kambah Heights is not one of Canberra's richest suburbs ("Canberra richest postcodes", p15, August 10). Having ensconced myself in what I had heretofore regarded as the Hamptons of the ACT, I now find that I have to move to 2603.

In his letter, Christopher Smith (Letters, August 10), amongst other things, says: "...America, the only stable power that can and is willing to enforce some semblance of international democracy and rule of law."

Christopher, please read the history of the political/military events of the past 75 years with particular emphasis on the military behaviour of the USA. Then, get back to the CT, hopefully with a renewed understanding of the USA's real behaviour.

Margaret Beavis (Opinion, August 10) is right to question the wisdom of the decision to purchase nuclear submarines. One thing that is rarely mentioned is the pain the Pacific nations experienced from nuclear tests and waste dumping over many years, and their commitment to maintain the nuclear-free zone in the region. Given the new Australian government's greater willingness to listen to Pacific voices, I hope the strong concern about threats to that zone will be taken into account.

Kenneth Griffiths (Letters, August 10), really nails it when he calculates through primogeniture that, "Charlie will be King of Australia for 21 years, even if he is a tit" (my italics). It sounds like the slogan the republican movement has been looking for.

Christopher Smith's letter (August 10) reminded me of advice from my old football coach "If you have never played the game before and you don't know anything about it or its history and rules then attack the player". Incidentally, Chris, I doubt whether you could call the US "the only stable" team given the activities of its former coach and the violent nature of his team.

The political process in Australia moves very slowly. The recognition of the Indigenous voice in the Australian Parliament is moving even slower. I support Kalyana Rodrigo's suggestion (Letters, August 10) to appoint an Indigenous person as our next governor-general.

A Broadway theatre has introduced mask wearing at certain performances so that those with health vulnerabilities or who prefer to wear a mask in public can feel safer going to the theatre. This seems to me to be an excellent idea that Australian theatres should follow.

Pelosi visits Taiwan, so what? China behaves like a petulant child, throwing its toys around. China needs to learn that as free democracies who don't (largely) oppress their own people, we are free to criticise the aggressive machinations of China, Russia, North Korea, et al.