N.B. If you’re commenting here for the first time it goes into automoderation. Once I approve it it should appear immediately and without delay from then on.
Also, can people let me know if they like or dislike the nested comment format. I think it saves having to quote replies to existing comments as you can reply directly (there are also other benefits to this) or do you prefer the old format?
Any other suggestions are welcomed too.
Today being a Sunday, I have time to peruse most of my internet feeds and came across this, “Since Korea…
watched a coupla movies over the weekend .. IN THE LAND OF SAINTS & SINNERS .. Liam Neeson’s latest ..…
I’ll probably let my preferences flow to the SFLs next HoR election- senate probably UAP and/or PHON. I still want…
Nothing government spends is stimulatory, it is always added to the cost. I’ve never needed the government to help me…
If you get a decent job HECS looks after itself. It’s an issue because banks look at it in determining…
Afghanistan.
I don’t even want to look any more.
The main reason I’m no longer there is not the trolls, but that it is still so primitive. It’s like a HTML coding project by a bunch of 15-year-olds who think it’s fun forcing people to do it all themselves manually.
Until the site can remember my details so I don’t have to enter them each time I post something, we’re talking Taliban-level technical backwardness.
So Adam D is now cracking down on trolls. Who cares when the site is so user-unfriendly, suitable only for 15-year-old boys showing how clever they are with HTML coding?
Almost everyone here already understands what is being discussed in this video but what is interesting is at the end of it, where they talk about Václav Havel and his concept of parallel structures as a way of fighting back against mass hysteria and totalitarianism.
Some parts of it had me shaking my head based on the idiot DickDan and his latest crackdown on.
https://youtu.be/09maaUaRT4M
Tom,
I am a sadistic ** who makes my 15 yo students code html by hand.
Mwahahahah
…his voters. Not sure where that but disappeared to when I pressed post.
bern.
I am, in fact, a fully fledged Biden-school professor.
I’ve just been reading a piece in last week’s Speccie by the ever thoughtful Douglas Murray, on the loss of enchantment as a feature of human life and of how little we discuss that. The take-out line, about the simple enchantments of youth, highlighted in the piece, is that “Much of life is disenchantment. You learn that you cannot fly; that the dinosaurs will not come back”. And, of course, in adult life comes the fact that “politicians will always let you down”. He then asks how to reverse disenchantments and regain enchantments in adult life. He covers music, religion, wine, communing with nature, and the plentiful paths of “false starts and fruitless byways”. He concludes by saying we should learn our own locations of the places where we might avoid life’s tediums, for tedium is indeed a big part of disenchantment, and get on over there. Something to think about in troubled times.
Where do we all go when we go nowhere? What places of the mind? We all have the things we like, that calm and settle us, that amuse us, that make us think. Old tried and true recipes for enchantments of a sort.
The government/cathedral response to COVID has accelerated the death of the west.
There is no coming back from this.
The sooner it’s accepted, it means one can live out ones days observing the end without getting emotional about it.
I’ve preferred this site right off the bat – less distracting, easier for my monkey brain to navigate and no disgusting messes to scroll past. That said, I am grateful to Adam’s site. He got it up quickly, kept most of us connected and tried hard to hold it together. The problem with the disgusting Bird has been ongoing, even for the Doomlord, and would test the patience of St Gabriel himself. So thanks Adam, for the best attempt in the shortest possible time. It stopped me sinking into a complete depression at the loss of the one place I felt there was a majority of sane people. (Hmmm, questionable at best)
Hey! Teacher!
Leave those kids alone!
And in other Resistance News, the SP was stopped by a girly cop in local Colesworths this afternoon and asked where his mask was. He simply said that he didn’t need to wear one. Little Miss Stasi informed him he most certainly was, IT WAS THE LAW!
He pulled out his mask exemption form which his GP had given him without any of the nonsense mentioned up thread. “What’s that?” SP’s response: “I’m sure you still need to be able to read these days in order to actually be a policewoman. Am I wrong?” Pretty Polly grabs and scans it and then tells him to move on.
So we have police patrols in the supermarket now.
I feel far more comfortable here too. As for getting worse, last week’s Speccie had an article by Kevin Andrews – “The People vs the Privileged: Covid is tearing the nation apart”. So true, it is going to get worse soon enough, and we have to just survive while trying to work politically to make it get better. It will happen if the groundswell of opposition grows louder, which I think it will. Riots in the streets may occur, but they are not the answer. Reasoned voices need to come forth and be heard about what in Victorian times Disraeli identified as ‘Two Nations’. (I’ve actually read Disraeli’s book of that name, years ago, when sick for a year, a time spent immersing myself into the Great Victorian novels).
Andrews concludes:
“In addition to securing our economic and national security, reclaiming the notion that we are ‘one nation with one destiny’ is the great challenge facing us’. He is not wrong. Reclaiming our pioneering and military past is the start of it. There is a distinctly Australian heritage which must once again taught in schools, not just as aboriginal ‘displacement’ but as the building of a nation from scratch.
Not a law.
A regulation made under a law, but not itself a law.
Still, most people these days seem to think anything is a law if it is ‘official’.
Science, the Transgender Phenomenon, and the Young | Abigail Shrier
Test, nice place here. How urbane.
The Avian one is back at Adam D’s place. Wow as a more recent arrival to the Cat I only ever got a short glimpse of him before the hand of Doomlord dispatched into the nether regions but wow o wow. Talk about the T1000…
I am not a Professor of Roman Engineering.
My understanding is that they didn’t use a lot of “desk-top” calculations.
They used lots of mechanical devices (plumb-bobs, tripods, measuring sticks) on the fly in the field.
This is only what I seen on the telly, but.
Outstanding. Steve Hilton eviscerates the dead zombie biden for the current morass in afghanistan; also kicks the rest of the neocons and RINOs. I thought he was going to blow up!
https://www.facebook.com/NextRevFNC/videos/374442757562302
9 minute listen; goes quick. In a just world biden would be left to rot in his adult diapers.
I hear they used slaves for calculations – addition, subtraction, etc.
Of course, fractions were very messy.
Wallaby Kefu attacked in home invasion
3 youths involved with one in custody have made a poor life-style decision. The Tongans will get them after the police have finished.
More here
Relax everyone, it’s going to be sunshine, lollypops and rainbows in Afghanistan.
Jacinda asked them nicely.
Well, she has personally brought as much gnashing of teeth as could be asked. Leave it to all the ‘late Afghan women’ to do the weeping.
I think we can say late. They are just not dead yet. But why quibble over mere days.
Kirralie Smith’s latest petition:
Petition Reason
Many Australians are alarmed at the sports policies implemented by Sport Australia, AHRC and Australian sporting organisations allowing men and boys to compete in the female sports category. We call on the Australian parliament to protect the female sports for biological females. Fair competition, player safety and welfare, and inclusion are the foundational principles of sports competition, but when men and boys are allowed to compete in the female category, women and girls lose out. Males have an observable performance advantage in strength, stamina, size and speed that puts females at a disadvantage and results in elevated risk of injury in contact, collision and combat sports. Bodies play sports, not identities, girls and women are being excluded when men and boys are included in their category. Save Women’s Sport Australasia.
Sign it.
https://www.aph.gov.au/e-petitions/petition/EN2874
Science, the Transgender Phenomenon, and the Young Abigail Shrier
Sorry, link didn’t work. That sometimes happens when the actual text contains a certain character.
The speaker has a nuanced approach to the subject which is far more substantive than so much nonsense that is pronounced on the issue.
Anyone interested in Cuba
Excellent sports documentary on Disney channel called Brothers in Exile.
They did indeed.
But when Imperator Claudius demands to know exactly how much the new bath-house cum regugitorium is going to cost – “to the nearest denarii will do, Octavius Fluvius Higgins” – and will it be orgy-ready for next Saturnalia, the wise Roman engineer would reach for his pocket abacus before his plumb-bob.
there is still a mosh pit element of snappers and snarlers.
I loved the mosh pit element of the Original Cat: splendid stoushes, imaginative abuse and memorable flounces.
At first, Adam’s Cat promised the same: a refuge for traumatised Cats and Kittehs. Kudos, and thanks to him for setting up the site so quickly. But sadly, Bird moved in and took over with his vile and persistent hate. It is no longer an enjoyable place to loiter.
Struth (and others) condemned C.L. for announcing his decision to leave that version of the Cat. I have much respect for Struth. He is a doer as well as an urger. His Convoy of No Confidence made headlines throughout the country, and he espouses ideals close to many hearts.
But he was wrong to deride C.L. for disassociating himself from Adam’s site. Yes, we need to fight the loss of our freedoms, but there (on Adam’s Cat) we are preaching to the converted. We’re not making any inroads into educating our opponents. And on top of that, we have to endure foul Bird droppings.
I, too, am leaving that site. I do not want to be associated in any way with Bird’s vitriol. And I thank Dover for setting up this haven. But I am not surrendering. I shall continue to bombard my reps – state, federal and Senate – with complaints, articles and videos that support my rage about our oppression, and I shall continue to keep my family informed of the latest everything – even recipes – courtesy of The Cat.
Jamie Newburrie was spot on
But sadly, Bird moved in and took over with his vile and persistent hate. It is no longer an enjoyable place to loiter.
Adam is on top of the avian menace now.
Feelthebern”
Fuck that, FTB – getting stroppy about government overreach is just about all I’ve got these days.
‘Dillo!:
This seems to be an ongoing issue – batteries that aren’t up to the job!
?
firmware issues
Ha ha, yes.
I am sure they used some sort of abacus for financial calcs (and a wise Roman quantity surveyor would flick a couple of contingency beads across as well).
I was more thinking of the practical field engineering.
Amazing to think that the roof of the Pantheon is something like 40 metres in diameter, made of a form of concrete with no reo.
Nearly 1900 years old.
Yet we have reinforced concrete apartment buildings which fall to bits after 30 years.
The malevolence of Dan Andrews. Two more weeks of house detention and a curfew. Just wow.
“Adam is on top of the avian menace now.”
Hmm, we’ll see, it isn’t just the bird droppings….Bird isn’t the only one who’s a menace…..it’s also lured back some other nasty pests and after what happened to me last week, I don’t have the energy for it. I hope Adam’s Cat succeeds, I’ll still lurk and comment occasionally but I’m quite happy here…there’s an intellectual air here that I also like.
Delta’s comment above is superb…..and she’s right about Struth….I didn’t mind Struth yesterday roaring about C.L. departing the shores of Atlantis as the waves are lapping his feet, Struth is passionate about things….and that’s why we love him. My anger was towards another person who unfairly sprayed C.L. C.L. is such a decent person…and I’ve long enjoyed his wisdom. I now understand why Sinc had to guard the site 24/7….because Bird’s modus operandi is to flood the place with his putrid comments. I’m also over nastiness……I just want to comment, critique and debate with people….nicely.
We all must continue to meet here…to talk, kvetch and critique…we can’t fall away, like leaves, we need this place to discuss what’s happening in the world.
I also like Discord…but that’s only useful for a quick chat with people.
“We call on the Australian parliament to protect the female sports for biological females.”
..
Yeah?
I’ll back that if you back protecting infantry for blokes.
Can’t have it both ways love. Either chicks are weak and need protection, and therefore don’t belong in infantry and deserve protection from transexuals in sports, or the aren’t and don’t. So why does the one issue exercise your concern gland and the other doesn’t?
Not convinced.
I am in the jury room for now.
arguments over whether the Vik Upper House can sit?
tell me this isn’t the Reichstag Virus
“We call on the Australian parliament to protect the female sports for biological females.”
..
Apparently the prospect of her fellow females getting humiliated by blokes in pink runners concerns this bint, but her fellow chicks getting blown to smithereens on the battlefield because someone convinced them they were up to playing infantry soldiers doesn’t.
cool shuriken logo
hope I can keep it
“In addition to securing our economic and national security, reclaiming the notion that we are ‘one nation with one destiny’ is the great challenge facing us’. He is not wrong. Reclaiming our pioneering and military past is the start of it. There is a distinctly Australian heritage which must once again taught in schools
Kevin Andrews needs to re-read Australia’s true history.
A history of compliance and submission to authority, derived from a convict past and the laws which accrued because of it.
The only event of true rebellion to the pigs of the time, the Eureka Stockade, was an atypical blip, its temporary gains diluted by the inevitably evil, mendacious elected politicians and their police hunting dogs.
Other mythologies like “mateship” and that old favourite: “larrikinism” are now being comprehensively shown to be the convenient fantasies they always were.
Just look around you, and see the way authority is being accomodated by the overwhelming majority of the cowardly population.
Look at the polls and the popularity of the government’s message about safety, community, vaccination and the demonisation of the thinking recalcitrants.
Look at the lack of any real resistance to the illegal usurpation of State power.
Look at the readiness for Aussies Oi Oi Oi! to inform on each other.
The Stasi, Gestapo, Cheka, NKVD etc.. would have been proud of this level of “heroic” compliance.
Etc.. etc.. etc…
No need for a wall of words, in Struth-like fashion.
It’s all there, if you care to honestly look.
Cassie at 7:05.
Agree.
No point trying to badger people to stay or go.
It will be like water running down hill.
It will find it’s own level.
And, yes, discord is good, more as an “open forum” medium – quick, short exchanges.
Dash-cat is sort of on probation for me, and it is almost solely about Dodo management for me.
The other one also deserved a smack for the usual temper-tantrum threats.
Everyone else?
No problems.
I go into the office every day…..I’m part of a skeletal office crew….there aren’t many of us. Anyway, this morning I caught the bus and sat down….my mask had dropped to under my nose because my glasses get foggy and I can’t read.. Anyway this young tarty woman got up, dressed in an uber short dress, stared at me so I stared back….she then said in an accent “pull your mark up”….I said “excuse me”…and then said “you’re not a police officer” and she said “you don’t know that” and I then laughed and said “given how your dressed tart, no you’re not so mind your own business and f-ck off”. That shut her up.
What percentage of Australians even have family links to the pre world war era?
Cardinal Pell made much the the same comments about the mythical Australian larrikin.
He noted Italians are far more defiant of government.
Only have to be in Rome on New Year’s Eve, where apparently, fireworks are banned.
Re females in sport, I am gradually winning the argument I’ve been having for some years with a stalwart campaigner for women. My stance is they don’t belong in the infantry, and hers is that sheilas can do anything.
Where I can win, I think, is that no-one in their right mind says the ladies should mix it in contact sports. Primarily footy of the Aussie code and rugby x 2.
If that is the case – and she sort of agrees – then how can the gentler sex go one on one in the nastiest contact sport of all – full on infantry combat?
Game, set, and match, I think.
Just look around you, and see the way authority is being accomodated by the overwhelming majority of the cowardly population.
And what are you doing to oppose the assault on liberty and small business apart from snarking on an anonymous blog?
I’ll back that if you back protecting infantry for blokes.
Can’t have it both ways love. Either chicks are weak and need protection, and therefore don’t belong in infantry and deserve protection from transexuals in sports, or the aren’t and don’t. So why does the one issue exercise your concern gland and the other doesn’t?
Yeah, fair enough; I wasn’t thinking it through. I blame Kirralie; she always distracts me. But in the scheme of things what Kirralie is advocating against is just not women being athletes while 2-facing about other aspects of equality; what she is against is the slippery, lube splattered slope leading to big beefy weirdos in Flamingo outfits with dildos hanging out their arse reading porn to kids; and those same kids having their genitals mangled because gender.
At some stage you have to draw a line in the sexual deviant Rubicon the woke weirdos are ejaculating over us. And if that means giving some female hypocrites underserved latitude then so be it.
If only the Afghans had read the bible.
“Don’t wait for the bread to rise”.
Gallows humour obviously.
Afghanistan wants to wallow in its own shit for another 1000 years.
“Afghanistan wants to wallow in its own shit for another 1000 years.”
Yep…….although I have often wondered whether twenty years ago the US should have reinstalled the monarchy. The monarchy might have kept things a little more civilised.
the heroic NHS
The problem the yanks had from the get go was their go to warlord was assassinated prior to the invasion by the Taliban.
So for some reason Cheney & Rummy decided on Karzai was their guy.
That reason was Karzai was grub hanging around US neo-cons for decades.
rosie says:
August 16, 2021 at 7:32 pm
What percentage of Australians even have family links to the pre world war era?
No more, no less than most other nations, hardly any of which have been as compliant to totalitarian-like overreach as good ol’ Oz.
Cardinal Pell made much the the same comments about the mythical Australian larrikin.
He noted Italians are far more defiant of government.
Always have been, as have most European, South American, Asian/subcontinental countries and, until recently, the US.
Native English-speaking countries DO seem to have a particularly subservient attitude to their governments.
Only have to be in Rome on New Year’s Eve, where apparently, fireworks are banned.
Is that supposed to be a balanced counter-argument?
In any case, they were banned for some 12 months 4 years ago, by Rome’s leftard mayor at the time. No longer the case.
I have no doubt Sydneysiders will enjoy the bread, circuses and fireworks this year also, while getting reamed by you-know-who.
The NHS has killed more Brits than the Nazis did.
Dover’s blog is so classy, the like button has French cuffs.
Test 2.
Afghanistan is a place best left well alone. Let them sort out their problems themselves. Same with the ME. Just make-work for the military-industrial complex. Trump proved self sufficiency in oil was possible for the US. Interesting how the ‘rats are now trying to make the US dependent on imported oil again. Same with Jimmy Carter- the ‘energy crisis’ was political.
Yay, that worked. Even got what looks like my old motif back.
My my noice, how urbane.
Look, I can’t stand Biden, but the cock-up is not really his fault any more than it is Trump’s fault.
Yeah, you can argue about scale and timing and the velocity of the slide, but it was always going to descend to shithole status.
To think the West spent 15-20 years before 2001 laughing at how the Ruskies got bogged down in an unwinnable Afghan war.
Oi, Oi … Oi !!!
mate, where’s yr mask?
Well that was the year I was there Gilas. I read the next day’s Roman newspapers too
And it was meant to be a little joke.
As for the rest, a huge proportion of post war immigration was is non Anglo and here we are.
tablespoon of Frangelico on your ice-cream, sir?
Cuarenta y Tres, perhaps?
Re: The heroic NHS article…
I am amazed that the poor kid is still in ICU, after 2 years of nothing-that-can-be-regarded-as-life by any but the most deluded, irrational, inflexible and dogmatic definition possible.
Even if the parents were willing to pay for the $5-10,000 daily cost of care for this unfortunate child, I would still think they were being unreasonable and selfish towards the poor kid.
Though the reality might well be different, the legal and medical decisions, as described in the article were deeply ethical and above reproach.
MatrixTransform says:
August 16, 2021 at 8:08 pm
Look at the readiness for Aussies …
Oi, Oi … Oi !!!
mate, where’s yr mask?
LOL
I commented on this upthread, I am to the right of Struth.
Look, I can’t stand Biden, but the cock-up is not really his fault any more than it is Trump’s fault.
It’s entirely the dead zombie’s fault. 8 months of capitulation witnessed by every stinking anti-West nation on Earth. They all know biden is not just weak but effectively non-existent so they can do what they want. Trump made an agreement with the talibam scum and they knew if they tried him out they would have ended up like this:
In Pictures: US kills Iran’s Qassem Soleimani in air strike
If Trump was still POTUS the goat rooters would be still in the hills.
Cohenite at 8:25.
Yeah Biden did fuck up, shuffling withdrawal dates and numbers and projecting indecision.
But can you see a way the US could extricate itself from that shithole without it reverting to shithole status in short order?
(Perennial occupation is not an option available to you).
I know, right?
Triple decker sandwiches with the crusts cut off and proper leaf tea in a china teapot.
Your welcome.
But can you see a way the US could extricate itself from that shithole without it reverting to shithole status in short order?
No. But that would not have been the point for Trump. First order would have been to stop the talifucks sponsoring terrorism as they did before. Secondly, stopping the scumbags going full throttle on the populace.
Trump was concerned to get the US out of virtue signalling, ostensibly building Western clone civilisations in the ME; an impossible task without eradicating islam. All that activity did was impower the neo-cons and the military complex and focus the muslims.
Trump would have handled this withdrawal. Under the zombie the US and the West will be back up to their ears in the ME and afghanistan in less than a year.
Not sure if this is Bagram or Kabul airport. No words.
Why not?
Perennial lockdowns seem to be the cure for Covid.
fify
dover are you going to add a comment preview like the old cat?
I no mate 🙂
actually, was riffing on your comment, Old Fella
Yeah, you can argue about scale and timing and the velocity of the slide, but it was always going to descend to shithole status.
Depends how you want to fight, if you blow every mosque off the face of the joint, give helicopter rides to imams and nuke Pakistan and Iran it would probably work out ok.
Test
No words.
Looks like Kabul.
Why not just gun the thing and get the hell out?
Dover’s Tweet link above (8.56) is reminiscent of the last helicopter out of Saigon in 1975.
Okay, okay. I confess. I pinched the cucumber sandwiches and distributed them over at Tradie Cat. They were looking hungry.
Birdie is still there. Quiescent at present, but give him time.
Nice place you’ve got here at New Cat. Alluring buttons too. ?
Oh my! It remembered me!
That’s not Kabul.
That’s the next Mission Impossible movie.
As a wise man once said:
This stupid, stupid, stupid stupid country.
Professor H, apropos of the dash-Cat:
Huh.
I meant to add that I’m in the same boat.
Not brushing it, but this is impressive.
Is Higgins a former poster with a new name?
I wasn’t around the old Cat for a month so don’t know where he came from.
Another classy thing about Dover’s blog is the black border.
It’s like a velvet rope keeping the riff raff out.
I reckon Kerry Chant is a bloke. She had a moustache in her telecast today.
Bother. I put on the unpatched trackies too! I’ll go get the tiara to make a better impression.
It’s civilised here, it’s intellectual here, it’s just nice here.
Indeed.
I bet you won’t see this blog with a penis banner, like the last one had for months.
Which speaks volumes.
When he suspects he is under scrutiny he dials it back.
It is not Neo-Nazi tourettes driven by uncontrolled mental illness.
It is deliberate and calculated race-baiting.
Appealing to most Victorians:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgAAv4qQTDs
“I bet you won’t see this blog with a penis banner, like the last one had for months.”
LOL……Indeed KD.
How dare you!
I have always been Higgins!
What a day. Hopefully tomorrow sucks less.
He then asks how to reverse disenchantments and regain enchantments in adult life. He covers music, religion, wine, communing with nature, and the plentiful paths of “false starts and fruitless byways”.
How dare the man not mention anything powered by steam?!
If you can fond me anyone who honestly says ‘meh’ when confronted by the mesmerising whirly bits, hisses, smells and sounds of a steam locomotive, traction engine, lorry, paddleboat or even a stationary steam engine just going through its motions at idle, you earn all the cookies.
Because nobody with breath in their lungs fails to be enchanted (if not at least merely intrigued) by steam power…
Is that like a Kenworth?
Is that like a Kenworth?
OK. The correct terminology, for pedantry’s sake is steam waggon.
Sentinel and Foden are two classic examples that spring immediately to mind.
Believe it or not, Sentinel were still producing steam lorries into the early 1950s…
If I can find the plug-in, yes.
Gentlemen, please.
No truck talk.
This is the Dover Club.
The Poms, having been set a target of 272 on the final day at a tick over four an over, and also having lost their retarded (left-handed) opener after three balls, have a new No.3 who is batting like a No.11.
I’d watch this disaster fully unfold, but I need to be up and about early.
This is true. They have no honour.
The Poms, having been set a target of 272 on the final day of the Test at a tick over four an over, and having lost both their openers – for ducks – inside two overs, now have a new No. 3 who is currently batting like a No. 11.
I would watch this disaster unfold fully, but I have to be up and about early.
I though you said only a little while back that Your Man Dan had it all sorted out?
what went wrong?
The answer I get when using that argument is “well they can avoid the field combat and fight with remote drones, fire rockets, guide missiles, and operate computer warfare devices”.
I try to use the “yes but can they kill, even remotely?” comeback.
Then we have 2 arguments going simultaneously!
Biden was right.
There will be no images of people climbing to the roof of the Embassy like 1974.
Instead, we will have seared in our minds the sight of people trying to break into a USAF plane while it was still in motion.
Another image from tonight’s news: people standing on top of one of the planes, like we used to see on Indian trains.
Biden will forever be known as a cowardly ditherer whose incompetence led to the deaths of many Afghanis.
Think I posted this in the wrong thread, so here goes again:
long = wrong!
Gentlemen, please.
No truck talk.
This is the Dover Club.
My dear fellow, we were not talking of such uncouth things as mere Infernal Combustion Lorries
We were talking Waggons.
A much more gentlemanly pursuit…
Bruce in WA
my son gets anxious about stuff outta his control
the other day I counseled him to give less fucks and I think finally he is starting to get it
you can care deeply about things and be powerless to change them, and still let the consequences flow, and be ok
as in, I would give a fuck but I’m down to my last one.
try it.
If you feel bad then stop thinking and go fishing
ZFG
John Spooner.
1
Mark Knight.
Mark Knight #2.
Warren Brown.
Warren Brown #2.
David Rowe.
Steve Bright.
Andy Davey.
Michael Ramirez.
A.F. Branco.
Matt Margolis.
Gary Varvel.
Ben Garrison.
Bruce,
I feel your pain.
I felt like I had been gut-punched when I was informed that McGowan had instituted a ‘at least one jab to enter the state’ policy. It was a threshold I never thought I’d see crossed in this country.
I was once proud of my country, so proud and grateful that I spent a good portion of my life dedicated to it’s defence. I’ve only just realised that it wasn’t my country I was proud of, it was what it provided it’s citizens, what I thought it stood for. That has all been removed in less than 18 months. The country has literally been divided into parts, segments of our citizens have been de-humanised, and the very essence of our personal property, the sovereignty of our bodies, are being bandied about as a political football, all by a government sworn to protect the integrity of the Commonwealth, and our rights.
I once sourced great pride and motivation from my fellow countrymen and women. I’m left now with an overwhelming sense of disgust. How quickly our society and culture disintegrated into that morass of human filth that fills our history books. I just don’t wish to be here any longer. However, I remain focused on my wife and children. Nothing else matters anymore.
My duty is to see them through this, or at least soften their landing into whatever dystopian nightmare finds equilibrium. Nothing else now matters, certainly not some illusion of a ‘united’ country, filled with tough, fair minded people who believe in a fair go. That Australia, if it even existed in the new century, was crushed under the feet of the panicked crowd in March last year. I’ll continue to help and support those who are struggling against this insanity, but I’ll not be doing so based on the fact that they label themselves ‘Australian’. They’ll now need better bonafides than that. It’s a meaningless label.
Whatever the eventual outcome, a return to my ‘normality’ or, indeed, a ‘new normal’, things can never be remotely the same. Some things, once seen, cannot be unseen. Once rung, Bells cannot be unrung. I’ve seen what a large portion of my fellow citizens are capable of, and I fear I may not have seen the worst of it yet. I’ve seen the indifference they have to what I thought were traditional Australian values. I’ve also seen what our politicians, of both persuasions, are capable of. More importantly for the future, they’ve seen what they can get away with…and how.
NBC is undertaking the biggest make good in US history to advertisers who forked out during the Olympics.
Simply amazing that stupid business model is still around.
The IOC keeps every penny they received.
What a great spiel. Straight to the point, and right over target.
Hits every issue on the head.
Highly recommended.
Neil Oliver: Scotland’s government should keep its nose out our business
Chin up, Bruce. You aren’t alone. I’m in the same boat, so I say nothing to family and friends any more.
Easier by the day to identify with this guy.
Tom,
I accidentally reported you for Spooner. It’s early in the morning.
No accident about it.
That photo of the aeroplane…
I’m off to look after the child of an essential worker shortly. Playground is verboten. Hopefully we can still chase seagulls.
Only Dan can save us.
Just saw the vision of thousands of Afghanis playing the chancer card and hanging off USAF craft, both moving and stationary.
If only they’d put the same amount of effort into killing the Talis, instead of relying on everyone else and then hoping for free stuff at the end.
A substantial concrete pour in NSW got screwed due to a miscommunication from NSW Health & the plod.
In a nut shell, they were told it was right to go ahead, but on the day it was meant to start the plod had the site shut down.
Low-mid 6 figure loss was estimated.
NSW government has already told the company it was their balls up & will cover the loss.
Will take months to see the dosh, but it helps if you’re a contributor to the LNP.
I can not believe how expensive concrete is.
Cement trucks will be getting jacked before you know it.
I’m not sure how the CNN camera crew do it.
You never see the private security contractors that are with her in any shot.
PS Her husband is a hedge fund billionaire.
Imagine how things would be if politicians had to kick in, say 10%, of that cost. Rather than just having their screw ups underwritten by taxpayers with no more consequence that Louise Milligan defaming someone with the ABC at her back.
In politics it seems responsibility is just a word. There are no corresponding consequences. A minister publicly ‘takes responsibility’ for something and then…nothing.
And this of course is why we find ourselves still pinioned by lockdowns and the government still resorting to the same responses that did not work last time.
We were the invaders, the Taliban are the kin. We were foolish to think that a few years under our administration and leadership would turn illiterate tribalists into democratic freedom loving peoples. The Taliban knew we would leave and quietly went about planning a takeover and probably with the support of many in Afghanistan.
That’s better.
Cricket talk is far more in keeping with the genteel atmosphere in the lounge at Club Dover.
Poms rolled for 120.
I used to think Gladys was an OK politician. That is still far below ‘good human’ standard, but as that particular class of purveyors of flim-flam went, OK.
But Covid has shone a more searing light on the current crop of premiers than usual. And it shows just how mediocre they are even on their own bailiwick as politicians. Gladys may feel that she is secure in NSW with her terrified electorates scurrying behind her skirts. But eventually the narrative will shift. Probably due to changes overseas.
When the voters emerge from their coal cellars where they huddled for near 2 years into the blinding light of day, when the fear loosens its grip and people start to turn their minds to getting on with things and trying to re-build, in their frustration they are going to be looking at who to blame.
When people are calmer they will be open to hearing how much bad policy there was and how much damage it wrought. And they will be looking for somewhere to vent their anger.
I suppose this is why she wants Covid to last until the next election.
Just posted something about Glad on the Tradie Cat, M.L.
From the ABC:
Unbelievable.
We don’t need elections any more. The CHOs can determine our “appropriate levels of freedom” depending upon our good behaviour.
“Mother Lodesays:
August 17, 2021 at 8:10 am”
Agree entirely ML. Also Gladbag is now saying “that nothing will ever completely return to normal”…..WTF is she talking about? I’m not into conspiracies but this all looking like the first scene from Klaus’ “Great Reset”. Nothing will change until people wake up from their comas and hit the streets in hundreds of thousands….as they have in the UK and Europe.
Everything about Covid lockdowns reeks of future “climate lockdowns”.
“Unbelievable.
We don’t need elections any more. The CHOs can determine our “appropriate levels of freedom” depending upon our good behaviour.”
Yep, we’re being ruled around by bureaucrats….and if we thought tyranny by politicians was bad…..it’s nothing compared to the tyranny of being ruled by health bureaucrats. But remember, this tyranny has been sanctioned by Liberals, federally and statewide.
Some detailed coverage of the Afghanistan debacle on michaelsmithnews.com
excoriating Dementia Joe.
Of course its Trump’s fault according to the idiot.
In When 80% Is Never Enough news:
NSW Premier reveals some COVID-19 restrictions to remain after vaccination hits 80 per cent
Great messaging.
Here’s a list of the stuff the Taliban got left by the Yanks.
https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2021/08/verified-list-of-mainly-us-military-equipment-captured-or-destroyed-by-taliban-since-june-2021.html
Sure, the Afghans might not have the skills to operate/maintain it. However, they can certainly sell it to those countries wanting to understand how it works (China, Russia, Iran and Pakistan). Understanding your enemies technology is a goldmine. You can use it to improve your own military hardware, or to find weaknesses you can exploit.
Alan Jones……
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/08/biden-utterly-unfit-president-united-states-blows-mind-world-leaders-suckup-intellectually-bereft-individual-alan-jones-sky-news-austra/
In Yeah, Yeah, Sure Buddy news:
Why would the Taliban interrupt the most excruciating and heavily publicised display of their absolute victory over their domestic and international enemies?
Gladys will have to stop listening to Chant if she wants to survive. She has been heavily pressured in the last two weeks to give in to Chant’s demands, which are based on modelling not reality. I hope a dose of reality can be swallowed by Gladys soon. Gladys expressions and faint double-messaging protests until very recently and her extremely stressed appearance and behaviour now remind me of a dog being dragged woefully out of a walk when they don’t want to go to the place they are being pulled.
I will lose my limited sympathy for her soon though if she doesn’t change tack.
Well said, Mater, Bruce, others. Look after you and yours. What was once done can be done again.
And remember, you’ve faced danger many a time if you’re a real bloke.
Well done, Dover, much appreciated.
Brendan O’Neill in Spiked:
America’s humiliation in Afghanistan confirms that the woke West is utterly incapable of standing up for itself.
…the comparison with Saigon is an illegitimate one. Back then, the US was forced into retreat by powerful external forces – the Vietnamese, of course, and also the anti-war movement in the US, in which vast swathes of the youth and significant sections of the elite turned against the war.
The Afghan humiliation, in contrast, is a product almost entirely of internal disarray – of the exhaustion of American politics, of Western geopolitical nous, and of the West’s belief in its own project and its own values.
There is nothing positive whatsoever in how the Afghan War has ended. It is a disaster for the Afghan people, a devastating blow to the confidence of the United States, and another backward step for those of us who believe that the values of democracy and freedom are superior and are worth fighting for. The Afghan calamity will cast a long shadow, for a long time.
The military in WW1 was often characterised as lions lead by donkeys. At least those donkeys cared about winning.
In the US it seems they are lions lead by jackals.
And ours? Lions lead by social workers who do not want to be there.
World Heritage Area around Gnaraloo Station could house massive green hydrogen project
Environmental activists were unavailable for comment.
Test
Question for the public health people.
Does public health extend to things like suicide, depression, anxiety, missed diagnoses, inability to attend crucial treatment, etc. Does it consider loneliness, emotional stress, grief or things like the impact of bankruptcy, family breakdown, domestic violence, domestic sexual abuse, loss social contact, etc etc.
If so, where are these considerations in the ‘health advice’ that is running the country now.
RazorFist on Afghanistan: Fiery but mostly peaceful
The Oz has a photo of 2 bodies falling from an airborne USAF flight.
I guess that means the vision of people clinging to the plane that was moving along the tarmac showed a flight taking off, not arriving as I had thought.
The 1974 climb to the roof of the American embassy pales into insignificance.
Lockdown in Sydney for the past seven weeks has been less stringent than in Melbourne although the pressures-that-be are mounting on Glad to emulate Herr Dan. In Sydney for instance even under the new orders we can still take children to play in playgrounds and sit on seats which, instead of bearing a no-no sign, actually say ‘Welcome but be Covid Safe’. This has been the tone till last weekend; it has been light and helpful, people have gathered in small groups for small picnics, exercised in distancing groups, and have eaten lunch outside from shops still open and providing it. General ‘compliance’ has been good. No-one is being ‘unsafe’ in any way as they are outdoors in the sunshine. Most people outdoors are maskless.
Now, suddenly, the surveillance rises and people are being harassed and given extortionate fines. And They Do Not Like It. Watch out, Glad. You did well at first with an LGA approach, without going full retard, till vax levels ramp up. Lock down areas of real concern (aboriginal communities) for a two-week period (ending soon as most are in lockdown already) and let everyone else, and the virus, get on with it. Those who want it will take the readily-available vax and look out for themselves re self-isolation till their immunity improves. Those who don’t want it have a right to their own decision and no ‘passport’ nonsense. Free people have a free choice.
Greetings and thank you for doing this.
The scenes in Afghanistan are entirely due to the past eight months of Presidential failure by one Joe Biden, who is a weak puppet for unseen forces who ‘swayed’ the last Presidential election.
Bring on the Midterms, monitored for fraud, to ensure those propping up this man and his inept VP can do no more harm.
WTF!
How is Kerry Lysenko qualified to make such decisions? She doesn’t even have to face voters and at least pretend to be giving them what they want.
Galdys, it is bad enough that you look like a wax figure that has been placed too close to the fire, but seriously? You are the Premier. It is up to you to listen to advice, balance up the many competing priorities of the citizens. Running the whole state as if it is a medical protocol is as stupid as repairing a car with a toaster manual.
There is the economy – which is not a luxury but the thing that puts food on the table, keeps the lights on, and gives people the financial means to enjoy freedoms. There is freedom itself, social interactions, education, faith, families etc etc. You have subject all of these to just health – and they aren’t working now.
Seeing that senior citizens are far and away the ones most susceptible to Da Couf means you should have decided on tailored restrictions to protect them while letting other people get on with their lives – and just as importantly in a society, for them to get on with helping other people’s lives. When new information comes to hand, change strategy. When you are wrong, admit it.
Oh, and your fixation on the new experimental vaccines and your hammy overacted revulsion to Ivermectin etc is just diabolical.
What a horrible woman.
Not enough swearing and too many Iampeter types on this blog.
Lift your game before it becomes a club for Malcolm Turnbull supporters.
Well fuckity fuck fuck Arky! 🙂
Ahaha!
Smoko … at last! ?
Couldn’t agree more.
What we need is a rabid anti-semite, a lecherous geriatric and a sprinkling of PHON conspiracy theorists to spice it up.
To the victor go the spoils….
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/08/victor-go-spoils-taliban-helicopter-filled-weapons-take-ride-herat-afghanistan-video/
Miranda Devine interviewed Trump about his exit strategy. It was planned that every last piece of military equipment was to come out, and every military base exploded. He wasn’t leaving them anything.
Well that stopped the party in its tracks.
Is this thing on?
This answer your question?
Lockdown Created 1 Million New Alcoholics In England (16 Aug)
When you turn every country into the USSR you get the same outcome as in the USSR.
a lecherous geriatric and a sprinkling of PHON conspiracy theorists to spice it up.
You called?
Suddenly the new Cat leaps into life. It had been showing me that there had been no new comments since around 9am.
A grease-stained Dover Beach is now on his back underneath, peering up at the mystery he has created.
“What we need is a rabid anti-semite, a lecherous geriatric and a sprinkling of PHON conspiracy theorists to spice it up.”
Apparently so….and so those of us here who object to such people we’re labelled as “TheirABC-ish”!
It’s not the size of the man in the fight it’s the size of the fight in the man.
Tom – Don’t be hard on Dover. It’s very likely WordPress.
Commenting Broken (Tony Heller, 16 Aug)
I suspect WP is trying to increasingly monetize their business model. I’ve seen several signs of this. The havoc caused on the old Cat whenever you deleted cookies is an example. They want to collect the data and sell it on.
It’s possible they’re also smarting because of bandwidth consumption. The same people who delete cookies also tend to delete caching. So any graphics on a WP blog have to be reloaded over and over from the WP servers. Which they have to pay for. Doesn’t much hurt us users given the size of plans these days but it’d add up for WP hosting.
I’m just surmising all of this. The other Occam’s Razor possibility is incompetence. There’s plenty of that going around right now also.
Thanks for the toons Tom
A good job Dover…
+++
Joanne Nova’s WordPress site https://joannenova.com.au/ has some interesting WordPress add-ons.
When you turn every country into the USSR you get the same outcome as in the USSR.
The extent of alcoholism in the USSR due to its complete shitness is unknown to most people.
I mentioned on discord I went for coffee this morning. Sat with gs for 20 minutes so he could have a toddle around outside . Mask under chin. Total of four pairs of cops came to get morning coffees.
Not a word about us sitting maskless.
Good.
The power of positive (or perhaps it was negative) feedback.
Went out for our permitted exercise. Near the start of our walk, two council workers were erecting orange plastic barriers around a popular playground. By the time we got back, around 45 minutes later, they were taking it down.
Possibly the workers were asked for the phone number of their boss, who received some free character readings?
Could be blog-wreckers.
Apparently there is at least one assigned to each conservative blog by [Redacted. Jeez Prof. What are you trying to do to me? … dover]
testing comment
The scenes in Afghanistan are entirely due to the past eight months of Presidential failure by one Joe Biden, who is a weak puppet for unseen forces who ‘swayed’ the last Presidential election.
The term used in the infamous Time article boasting of the achievement was “fortified”.
Test
I highly recommend the following blog post – even more especially for fellow Tolkien lovers. I understand that our situation in Australia may make us feel that too many Aussie ‘hobbits’ have truly gone over to the dark side, but for all that, I think you’ll find it encouraging and certainly worth 16 mins. of your life. The link takes you to both the written and audible versions.
https://dougwils.com/books-and-culture/s7-engaging-the-culture/the-scouring-of-the-american-shire.html
“In The Lord of the Rings, the hobbits of the Shire, protected as they were by the Rangers, took all their peace and security for granted. All that peace and security was somehow their birthright. It was just how things were, of necessity. It would just continue, right? All by itself, isn’t that correct? Well, no.
In other words, they forgot the basis of their security and safety long before they actually lost their security and safety. And this meant that once they were in trouble, and knew they were in trouble, they were leaderless and didn’t know the way out. When despotic and irrational rule takes over any people, the corruption is centralized and organized, while the unhappiness with the corruption is decentralized and not organized at all. The corrupt ones are organized and have a plan, and those who suffer under their ministrations haven’t even thought about a plan. …
If you are a sentient being, walking around in this fin-de-siècle travesty of ours, and doing so with your eyes open, it should be obvious to you that nothing about this is normal. Look at the presidential election again. Look at the collapse of Afghanistan. Look at all the scary COVID variants designed to keep you in your basement. Look at your beloved America, and ask yourself how on earth we let it turn into this outhouse fire.
So something has to give, and if it doesn’t give now it will have to give later. But if it gives later, there will be more debris to clean up. So it really ought to be now.”
rickwsays:
August 17, 2021 at 10:57 am
When you turn every country into the USSR you get the same outcome as in the USSR.
The extent of alcoholism in the USSR due to its complete shitness is unknown to most people.
One of the customs among the poorer workers was called a Troika. Three people who could net each afford a bottle of vodka would pool the cash, then each drink their third before going to their workplace.
Lovely system the commos put in place. Perhaps we should copy it? //sarc//
Just droppping to get approved.
Steve Trickler posted this wonderful clip on The Site That Cannot Be named. It is of a 13 year old pianist who can play boogie woogie and Mozart.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-_42doziRU
Professor Higgins
Are you the official blog wrecker for this site?
I was hoping I could get the gig.
Could do with the money.
PS how much are you getting?
Might be time to negotiate a payrise.
Also this site needs more links from truth telling sites like the Children’s Defence Fund.
Test
rickw:
I realise you’re kidding, but too much FOD.
If you are a sentient being, walking around in this fin-de-siècle travesty of ours, and doing so with your eyes open, it should be obvious to you that nothing about this is normal
Head on a swivel.
Always.
And sovereign citizens exchanging DIY explosives recipes.
On Mark A’s lame pics page, if you go to the bottom, you can see a whole lot gifs and memes.
One of them is talking about how unfair it is for Biden to be copping flack for his pulling out of Afghanistan. Claims like how the last guy talked about it, but this guy is doing it. Or how it is not Joe’s fault as it was Trump’s plan. And so on.
Who are these people?
Is Imgur usually like that?
a truly great post and thank you Ellen
The woke American ruling class has spent 30 years invading other countries, but – surprise, surprise – the end game was always to have the Third World’s human trash invade and destroy America. That’s just what people who hate themselves do.
The opener for today’s Tucker Carlson Tonight on the fall of Afghanistan is some of Tucker’s best writing.
Make sure you stay on for the second segment with Daniel Andrews starring (from 27m30s) as the de facto Australian prime minister implementing the Fourth Reich’s fascist counter-revolution Down Under.
Oh look who’s dropped by to get “approved”…yet earlier this same person was making snide remarks about this site….such as
“Plus, it feels TheirABC-ish in that almost everyone agrees with everyone else.”
LOL.
Lol. That was even more reprehensible than the avian wanting to elope with me*.
* putting that as genteelly as I can so as not to upset the tea and scones
Bob Dylan has denied sexually abusing a 12-year-old girl at his home more than 50 years ago.
According to papers filed at the Manhattan supreme court, which identify the plaintiff only as “JC”, the musician, 80, allegedly gave the girl drugs and alcohol at his apartment in New York in 1965. He is accused of grooming the girl “as part of his plan to sexually molest and abuse” her. The case was first reported by the New York Post.
“Bob Dylan, over a six-week period between April and May of 1965, befriended and established an emotional connection with the plaintiff,” the documents say. The suit alleges that Dylan — who was born Robert Allen Zimmerman — established the “connection” to “lower [JC’s] inhibitions with the object of sexually abusing her, which he did, coupled with the provision of drugs, alcohol and threats of physical violence, leaving her emotionally scarred and psychologically damaged to this day”.
Dylan’s spokesman told USA Today that the “the 56-year-old claim is untrue and will be vigorously defended”.
The papers were filed on Friday on behalf of JC, now 65, who lives in Greenwich, Connecticut.
It is claimed that some of the incidents took place at Dylan’s residence at the Chelsea Hotel in New York. The suit claims that the impact of the alleged abuse has affected JC over several decades. It also says that she has sought treatment for depression and anxiety.
The symptoms “are of a permanent and lasting nature and have incapacitated plaintiff from attending her regular activities”, the suit alleges. It adds that JC claims she was assaulted, and was also the victim of battery, false imprisonment and suffered emotional abuse at the hands of the singer. It includes a claim for unspecified damages.
“The complaint speaks for itself,” Daniel Issacs, JC’s lawyer, said when contacted by the New York Post on Monday. Dylan’s representatives did not respond to the newspaper’s request for comment.
“Dylan exploited his status as a musician by grooming JC to gain her trust and obtain control over her as part of his plan to sexually molest and abuse JC,” the suit continues.
At the time that the alleged abuse was taking place, Bringing it All Back Home, his fifth album, was released. It topped the UK chart later that year.
It was also the year that Dylan married his first wife, Sara. The couple, who went on to have four children, divorced in 1977. He married Carolyn Dennis in 1986. However, their marriage, the birth of their child, and their 1992 divorce were kept secret until 2001 when it was revealed in a biography by Howard Sounes.
JC’s suit was filed under New York’s Child Victims Act, which temporarily scrapped the statute of limitations for people to file lawsuits alleging sexual abuse when they were minors.
In recent years, Dylan has reduced the time he spends touring. In 2016, he was awarded the Nobel prize for literature, “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”.
The award drew criticism from literary circles, with anger only growing when Dylan declined to travel to Stockholm to pick it up in person, having waited two weeks before even acknowledging it.
He was due to tour Japan in April, but the concerts were cancelled because of the pandemic.
On his website last night (Monday), his new album, Springtime in New York, which is due out next month, was for sale.
The Times
rickw:
Per your list – a lot of that equipment apart from the trucks appear to be Soviet made – the artillery for example, and a lot of the helicopters.
So Dan Andrew singles out Melbourne’s Jooooish community and this of course empowers anti-Semites…from The Oz….
“Royal Melbourne Hospital staffer stood down over anti-Semitic comment
A staffer at the Royal Melbourne Hospital has been stood down over an anti-Semitic comment posted on social media.
The Royal Melbourne Hospital has stood down a clinical assistant after she made an anti-Semitic comment referencing the Holocaust in response to news of an engagement party attended by 69 members of the Orthodox Jooooish community in breach of coronavirus restrictions last week.
In a statement released on social media on Tuesday morning, the hospital said: “We are aware of a hospital support staff member who made an abhorrent and disgraceful anti-Semitic comment on Facebook. The comment does not reflect @TheRMH and our values. We do not tolerate racial or religious hatred, contempt or ridicule.”
“The staff member is no longer an employee of the hospital and we apologise for the hurt and anger this has caused. We stand with and support our Jooooish staff members, patients and community.”
Victoria Police probe alleged lockdown engagement bash as footage emerges of fiance joking about ‘breach’.
Clinical assistant Doreen Bonello had commented “put them in a gas chamber” in response to news of the illegal gathering.
Her comment was brought to public attention by accountant, human rights advocate and Orthodox Jewish community member Menachem Vorchheimer, who tweeted screenshots of the comment and Ms Bonello’s LinkedIn profile to Premier Daniel Andrews and Opposition Leader Michael O’Brien.
“I understand the anger – but there is a line we must never cross,” Mr Vorchheimer tweeted.
“This member of Victorian public health (staff) has gone too far @DanielAndrewsMP @michaelobrienmp & ALL MPs to Step Up & draw (a) line between anger & outright #racism #hate & #Antisemitism.
Mr Vorchheimer was the victim of a violent physical attack in 2006, when a group of Ocean Grove Football Club players visiting Melbourne assaulted him on the street in front of his children, removing his hat and skullcap before punching him in the eye while shouting anti-Semitic abuse.””
Good on Menachem Vorchheimer.
You are so luck Calli
Just about the *hot* catboys are after you.
Birdie called me a Judas Goat on discord.
Twice.
Sob
Yes, just noticed some weirdness on the OT. I have no idea why it was getting stuck around 9ish as comments were appearing on the dashboard as usual whenever I looked. I did increase the number of comments to be viewed each page around that time so it might just need to propagate through the interwebs incl. your caches (speculating here).
Or I’ve been hacked by Prof. Higgins.
Andrews knew what he was doing. There was zero need to identify the religious beliefs on the engagement party attendees.
I wonder how many Eid parties went ahead after lockdown this year?